[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FreshToku

You don't need to apologise for seeing something differently! Otherwise, I would have demanded an apology when you dissed Burning Form.

I basically had the same reaction myself though. The way the scenes are presented read to me like the emotional crux and focus was mainly on Sawada, since its only seconds after he dies when Takumi leaps back into action. For me personally, all it would take to make it work better is if right between Sawada's death and Takumi joining the fight was just a brief exchange where Mari goes 'i dont want that to happen to you too' and Takumi being like 'i wont', or even just Takumi giving a line in that spirit in response to Sawada's death. Yeah some subtlety would have been lost, but it would have put the focus in the right place right before moving to the final scene, I think.

Some of it is also about how heroic it is to have sympathy for Sawada. Not that he deserves it, or has earned it, but that Mari and Takumi (Takumi specifically) trying to redeem him shows their character.

And, I get it if people think that that's brave of them, generous of them, but I just have a tough time applying it to someone like Sawada. Some people are suffering, and they need someone to try and help them. Sometimes, it's after they've done something horrible, something regrettable. But sometimes people show you who they are, and you need to believe them. Sawada spent a ton of time being absolutely merciless. I know that we're supposed to view his activities as the result of trauma, as the result of horrible events, but he still did them. And, man, he never really tried to atone for them. At the end, there's a kind of negation he attempts, ridding the world of Sawada, a monster. I do lament his outcome, the path his life ended up taking. But, man, he killed a ton of people.

I don't know. I think the construction of Sawada's character, and the use of him as the example of If Even He Can Find Some Good Within Himself... I just couldn't get to where the show need me to be in order to see Mari's and Takumi's decisions as reasonable.