[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

See, this is the thing about the "miscommunication" in Faiz, for the most part anyway, that I'm really happy to see Die finding in it too: it's legitimately, dramatically, interesting. Even incidents as big as Takumi making zero attempt to explain why he protected Yuka from Kaixa, they say things about the characters, and the things they say are most definitely not merely "we needed a plot to happen to these people". There's some real juicy meat on the bones of this stuff if you just read into it even a little bit, I swear!

Yeah, for pretty much all the miscommunication that's driving this story, it's really just Takumi not knowing how to fight for friendship. He's a dude that opened the series having run from a job where other people made him the fall guy. And when his boss was like I Know You Were Innocent, we don't get Takumi feeling happy about that. He's was totally fine with everyone hating him, and trying to get back what was taken from him probably seems way too daunting. It's easier for him to be the bad guy, to be a shunned outcast. That's a reasonable outcome for him. It's the same thing in this past episode. In much the same way he'll fight for others' dreams but doesn't have one of his own, he'll defend other people's feelings without being able to defend his own. Having to struggle to be heard, having to argue for the right to be treated fairly, to ask to be liked, that's too enormous an ask for him.

That said, while I'd argue that frustrations with Takumi's attitude and choices are basically the show Working As Intended (you should want to Takumi to get better at friendships!), I don't blame anyone who doesn't find that emotional throughline something they want to spend 50 episodes with. It's... I mean, you need to feel like Takumi's growth has value, and if you don't, this show is not going to work. If he's not a compelling protagonist, I can see this show being a rough watch.

(Also, hey everybody, the AEW PPV ran a little later than I thought, so no new Faiz episode today. Sorry! Maybe two on Sunday? No promises, but I'll give it a shot!)