[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by LeviathanBlossom

It is possible that Tachibana's motivation involves more of a Do As I Say Not As I Do type of mentality; just because he's finally doing his job as a Rider well and not about to implode in a ball of anxiety doesn't mean he wants it for someone else. Leave the innocents alone, they don't need to suffer, no one else needs to be miserable (and as you noted, he doesn't exactly seem entirely happy).

There is also a possibility that he doesn't want to share being a Rider with someone new, or that the prospect of another Rider under Isaka's control is something dangerous, and some remnant of a conscience thinks this is a Bad Idea. Isaka, for all that he is surprisingly humane, is still shady AF.

None of this is really textually supported.

I feel like a lot of Tachibana's story has been a Your Mileage May Vary type of situation.

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Originally Posted by AkibaSilver

I think the way I read it is that Tachibana finally realised that, with his last bit of normal human-mind that BOARD didn't beat out of him during basic training, maybe dousing himself in seaweed drugs is messing with his mind, and that might not be a good thing, especially when the only person who he might have let close is willing to go full domestic bliss just to convince him to change. As much as Tachibana is a selfish semi-coward who wants to be strong, there's still some part of him that cares for other people, and while he might have made some mistakes that make him scared to listen, his moral core is in there somwhere.

Of course, being Tachibana, he does it at the worst possible time, but hey, he's trying!

Thanks for the insights! I'm glad other folks were able to pull out some details that make the story work. While I normally love when stories have additional layers you can read into them, I sort-of hated how this one needed the viewer to add those additional layers in order to make the story work at all.

I guess, for me, the problem is that the things Tachibana is saying aren't really motivations drawn from the character over the last dozen episodes, they're motivations that allow for a face turn at that point in the story.

Like, Tachibana's thing about how being a Rider is a weight no one should have to bear... that's a very Kamen Rider thing to say! It's just, it's a Kamen Rider Ryuki thing to say, and this is Blade. There really hasn't been any time spent on this show dramatizing the weight of service inherent in being a Kamen Rider. Kenzaki doesn't seem especially burdened (I mean, he's only been doing this for about five months, counting his two months of training, but still), and Hajime's story is so far outside of Tachibana's concerns that... I mean, there's been not really anything in this story that lays the groundwork for that motivation. Mostly because all of Tachibana's problems are brought on by Tachibana, not by being a Rider!

Him saying that he has to stop Trenchcoat to prevent other people from carrying the weight of being a Rider... it's like if he'd said he had to stop Trenchcoat to protect people's smiles. It's a very Kamen Rider motivation, but it's never been shown to be a Tachibana motivation.

The other weird thing about all of this, if Tachibana's doing any of this to protect future Riders... what? Tachibana has spent the majority of this series kicking the shit out of Blade, and last episode he Burning Divided Chalice right into a goddamn ravine. I'm not sure being a Rider is really the greatest threat to Riders, Tachibana! Pretty sure it's Garren!

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

And also, the show being literally all about the main protagonist can lead to them getting irk from the audience actually, for hogging the spotlight from the other "potentially more interesting" characters.

Sure! That's why I specifically said that it didn't literally need to be all about the protagonist, but that the other characters' journeys need to be saying something about the protagonist. Hajime's story (for example) has a value if it's reflecting something about Kenzaki, or showing us something that affects Kenzaki. It doesn't need to feature Kenzaki prominently in order to do that.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

So what you're talking about Tachibana's instability coming from CBD oil here, is that, this is quite a shortcut to send Tachibana into that position instead of doing it the more natural way?

Yeah, but the next episode (I think?) fills it in more, makes it more of a conscious decision by Tachibana. That made it work better for me.

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Originally Posted by Androzani84

And we’re back with the Undead Information Kiosk.

Float Dragonfly.

An undead who can release Dragonflies and flies. It possesses incredible flying abilities.

* Suit: Heart
* Category: 4
* Effect Name: FLOAT
* Card Name: Float Dragonfly (フロート・ドラゴンフライ Furōto Doragonfurai)
* Consumption Points: FP 1000

Next time, there’s no new Undead, but we get to see how Sakuya is taking his girlfriend’s death. And I’ll be spending my time guessing what names Bandai comes up with for Saber’s legend rider items (Zero-One’s is called “Hiden’s Hidden Story”, Vulcan and Valkyrie have one called “The A.I.M.S Animal File” and the show’s villains have published “Metsuboujinrai Monsters”).

Thanks, as always! Good luck on Saber speculation!