[Sh Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I feel like a lot of that, the extinction stuff... I think you can read it as just Orphnochs living a human life going forward. No eternal life, none of the things that put them above humanity. Just a bunch of mortal creatures trying to find happiness.

It's something Inoue tries and fails to bring up in this episode, where Misaki wonders what the difference even is between Worms and humanity. Tadokoro basically says he doesn't know, and that grey area is where Inoue usually operates with his sympathetic monsters. I'm not sure I'm onboard with a read where Tsurugi deserved to die? He was capable of heroism, of sacrifice, of humor, of grace, of friendship, of love. He wasn't some irredeemable monster who was only a shadow of memory. He didn't deserve to die.

Yeah, I think that's why Takumi's philosophy that humans only stop being humans when they throw away their humanity is the best way to show how his heroism works. I don't think I can explain it any better than I already did in my essay on The Unstable Mutation of Orphenochs in your Faiz thread. You could call it a genocide or an extinction but that isn't so much a "moral" but rather a consequence of the conflict. Takumi values people based on how they choose to live, not their species, not living for the sake of living. Takumi lives to protect dreams and that's why he can call himself a human.

Tsurugi didn't deserve to die when he was killed by a Worm. But as a Worm, Tsurugi still lived and died honorably, as himself. It's tragic but I think Tsurugi found what he was looking for at the end. But I can see that you really didn't like this episode so, to each their own, I guess.