[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

I think all the nuance of their friendship is still there and the new revelations about Hiyori are just as important to Hiyori's own story as Tendo's. You wanted to see more progress for Hiyori's arc following their adventure in Area X and that's what's happening here. With this new information, she has gone back to that place in search of answers that should hopefully be more clear to her now. The other Souji is important to her destiny.

I guess I still don't see their friendship the same? I can't reconcile the previous version, where Tendou chose to dedicate himself to this person because of her innate qualities, with the current version where he made a vow as a child to protect her no matter what. Like, he was invested in her before he even knew her, and that colors every interaction they ever had on the show for me.

For her getting a psychic Find My Friend ping and discovering Another Tendou... it's a lot for one episode. They are hitting Hiyori with being a Worm, finding out her terrible origins, discovering Tendou is her brother, and then still having her wander off to Area X (a hard right after Area Sundown) to meet Another Tendou. That's a lot! I think all of that stuff needed more room to breathe.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Also to make it clear, it means that Juka is the half-sister of Tendou, Juka isn't Tendou's sister by blood, only adopted sister.

Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and file A Worm Copy Of His Unborn Sister as a half-sister. I'm sorry if that's speciesist!

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

I'd like to talk about how Tendou responds to Kagami in this episode. If Tendou proclaims to kill any beings to protect Hiyori, because of Kagami knowing that she's alive (Tendou faking her death so that she won't be targeted by others), so that means Tendou won't allow anyone to know or interact with Hiyori other than him? How would Hiyori be able to live properly this way, with Tendou wanting Hiyori to live as Hiyori (I know what that means, he wants for Hiyori to live as Hiyori, not as a monstrous Worm)? This is overprotective taken to the extremes.

It is, and it's something the episode doesn't really have a ton of space to explore. (They have a lot of ground to cover in this one!) While I didn't love Tendou threatening Kagami to protect Hiyori, I really did like the scene of Tendou telling Hiyori how her life was going to be now. It's incredibly Tendou to take a chaotic situation and unilaterally decide how to proceed. What he's offering Hiyori is a gilded cage, and it's sort of cruel. He's valuing his needs (Hiyori Must Be Protected) over her autonomy, her independence. It's treating her as an object to be defended, rather than a person who is living a life. It's my favorite Tendou thing in the episode?

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Uhh... didn't Hiyori tell Rena to stop, and that at the end, she goes to the Shibuya by herself and confronting any ZECTroopers with a chilling look on her face, and disposed them using her Worm form? Isn't that being active, being able to go into that place without Tendou or Kagami accompanying her, and her making a good use of her Worm form?

Not to me? Her wandering off is something that happens because of a psychic phenomenon, so I'm not feeling generous enough to say that it makes Hiyori a story driver. She's not even recognizably Hiyori at that point in the story.

And her running off because Worm Widow is telling her They're All Going To Laugh At You... I mean, if we're going to refer to that as Hiyori being in control of her story, we have lowered the bar pretty low.

The problem for me with both of those examples are that it becomes more about other people's agendas, other plots. Worm Widow's scene is about her manipulating Hiyori, not Hiyori responding to manipulation. (It's also under a minute long, so let's keep that in mind.) Hiyori going to see Another Tendou at the end isn't some huge decision, it's a weird plot thing that happens because of a psychic phenomenon.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Well, no offense sorry, but I don't feel that you're being fair here. For this part which don't work to you, you throw in various questions to show more of its disapproval here (well, tbf, you did question about what the Worms are actually doing), like the Worms existing before asteroid, targeting Tendou's parents, what they're doing for next years. I'm probably not defending these parts, but my point is that, there are also various things that probably doesn't make sense (dunno if you or others think plausible explanations for this) in the story, like for Tsurugi, him being the only case of a Worm that had the human personality completely overpowers him by impossible odds, only due to Tsurugi's arrogant nature and personality. Also for why the Worms that impersonated his parents existed before the asteroid, sorry, I can't explain that too! Because spoilers.

My point (which I guess I made badly) wasn't that there aren't potential answers for all of these questions. There definitely are! They are probably going to be resolved somewhere in the next seventeen episodes! My frustration was that Tendou's explanation introduced so many new questions that it became an obstacle for me. I've probably made an analogy like this before, but it'd be like if you saw a friend on the street, and that friend was dressed like a clown. If that friend responded to the question Why Are You Dressed Like A Clown with I Agreed To Do It When I Lost A Volleyball Match To Paul Rudd, it replaces my one previous question with at least two new questions. It's an answer, but it's an answer I will need so much more context for.