[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

And exactly, the bolded stuff there is me. Obviously it's not something to emulate, plus, "teenage girl having inner strength" to me, seems to trace into gender's society status where females are treated as innocent and male as savage, of which females' bad behavior are excused, forgiven, or blame-shifted into males, giving them more leeway and allowing them to do as they want freely (it's... dirty social tricks they employ! As a form of... power). but bringing that up because, many people in the fandom (on relief, not those on Rider fandom so far), downplays or cuts off morally ambiguous or downright villainous character's bad traits. A common example is if they had bad backstory (which is what Umi has), everything bad they do is excused by "do you know what they're going through?", "they only had bad upbringing, they aren't evil just misunderstood", etc. as if it somehow gives excuse to behave as any way you like.

Uh, I think we are wading into some waters here, stuff that is probably outside the scope of discussing Kamen Rider Blade, so I'll just mention a couple three things in the hope of each of us having said our piece and putting a pin in this part:

-Teenage girls can say hurtful things, but I can vividly recall something a teenage boy said to me years ago that still gives me anxiety. All teenagers are capable of saying hurtful things. No gender has a monopoly on it.

-If you think teenage girls having inner strength is somehow connected to people (not just one gender!) being awful, that's a bummer.

-I don't think anyone's excusing what Umi's doing when she acts poorly, but we can all try and understand or address why she's doing that. It's not in the best interests of appreciating a story if we're going to look at troubled characters as complicit in their own flaws 100% of the time. Sometimes folks got motivations, sometimes folks only have justifications. Talking about them and trying to understand their perspective isn't an endorsement.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Who knows if it's just Yoshito and Tachibana actually being one of the audiences, watching Blade together and discussing what happens in the episode they watch!

It's nice that they can get together when a new episode airs. I've been very critical of that plot, but it's good to see them share interests.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

I do wonder what will happen if an Undead is just hit by finisher, but left out and not being sealed, would they eventually wake up like a human being KOed, or their body going limp?

Good question! I assumed that, when the belt breaks open, that puts them in Weakened state, so they can be sealed. If they don't get sealed, they can probably get up and escape, but they'll be stuck in that Weakened state until they're sealed. I don't think the belt can get fixed!

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

And well... Kenzaki at Tachibana's arc can feel relegated in story for you, and your comment regarding Yoshito is like this.... I guess, other solution can be better if Yoshito listens to Tachibana and, if Tachibana has a plan, work on that?

I just don't know what Undad wants, or, if I do know, I'm not sure why he wants it. The show seems to have decided on portraying him as Aloof And Mysterious, but it leaves me with a villain who does the same thing, every week, and nothing fun in the performance to paper over it. He's just repetitive and boring, so I would've liked it better if one of those things was different. Either give him more fun schemes, or make him a more entertaining character. Boring Guy Does Same Thing Every Week is... I don't know if that's the choice I'd make if I was writing this!

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Most audience would label Kenzaki's approach to risk helping someone perceived as a threat as a weakness unfortunately, which just make them hate and bash on traditional hero character types like Rider leads with their compassion (which they read as weakness), but it can be unfair as, actually, this choice of "kill or let the bad guys go" creates dramatic tension, which makes the story/show interesting thought-provoking to read or watch.

And, I mean, that's why I love it: it makes things harder for the heroes. Stories where dudes fight every threat they encounter leads to uninspired storytelling. Having a solution where the hero has to put themselves at risk for something that know could backfire but believe it's still worth it... Yes. Every time, yes.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

With Hirose on Kenzaki's side of not killing Joker, I wonder what Kotaro (who hates him, and also chastises Kenzaki for caring too much for him) thought to Hirose regarding that. And him trying to prove himself right in a very sad way... that by default isn't genuine, and can negate anything good about that action, as it's egocentric.

I think Kotaro has come around on Hajime. Or, at least, he's willing to defer to Kenzaki and Amane, since they want to save Hajime more than Kotaro's wary of Hajime. I think he'd be described as Agree To Disagree for the whole idea of welcoming Hajime. Like, sure, if everyone would be happier with Hajime back, that's great. But he's going to feel a little relieved if that doesn't happen, even though he might be mad at himself for feeling that way. It's complicated!

Less complicated is Tachibana's need to prove himself, which, yeah, mostly egocentric. It's always his story that everyone else is participating in, after all.