[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 4 - “GET OUT, DEMON! I’M SERIOUS.”

It’s cute! It’s a very cute story.

I mean, there’s still a bummer of a final note about the indifference of the universe and the idea of failure and success being largely meaningless terms, alongside an episode-length look at the ways we conflate material wealth with happiness at the risk of our ability to deal with setbacks, but, y’know… a cute story about partnerships!

Yeah, this is a turning point for Momotaros, where he started improving a bit, to reduce his visceral behavior. Momotaros does try to make it up for Ryotaro in previous episode after spending all his money, but of course, Momotaros only regards Ryotaro that time, which means, him doing something similar to typical Imagin, although not as bad as them like passively agreeing with the crime (instead of actively doing the crime like Yamagoshi's Imagin). Momotaros is the type who, while probably bonded better with Ryotaro now, still Ryotaro centric, supporting him with little regard for others. Which is still not much improvement if you're only focused on 1 person without thinking of the others (and it can be worse at times with actual villains dooming everything else for someone precious to them). Which of course, people like Ryotaro are mindful about the others. He puts others above himself. If the supportive move will doom others, he won't accept. He'd prefer not getting that if it's about making others miserable. Ryotaro also now had Momotaros on his leash, forcing Momotaros to act more moral.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

THE BAGGAGE CAR

-And then there’s the resolution to the whole story, where… it’s bleak? It’s a little bleak, and I liked it. Yamagoshi’s past has been altered, so he makes it to his big audition, but it doesn’t matter. His band fails the audition, they break up, and Yamagoshi is still hawking his CDs for 500 yen. He doesn’t have the regret of If I Only Had The Money, so he’s a little more content, but he’s not much better off than he was before he ran into Team Den-O. It’s a humbling moment for Ryotaro and Hana, that they couldn’t really save Yamagoshi, but it’s viewed as an encouraging outcome by Owner. See, if time can’t be altered, that means Den-O will always win. The Imagins’ mission to destroy the past will always fail. It’s not great for Yamagoshi, but it’s okay for the universe, and maybe that’s enough?

Well, Yamagoshi isn't much better yeah, the outcome is still similar even if Yamagoshi got his chance. But, while the outcome is probably bleak and not much better off, the act redeems Yamagoshi. In this time, he'd focused on developing his skills, instead of gaining money (through any means), so Yamagoshi isn't a criminal anymore. They didn't save Yamagoshi, but they redeemed Yamagoshi from becoming a criminal. That shouldn't be overlooked, Yamagoshi is still underachieving, but he's not a scumbag anymore, and probably, the act can save him from being hunted by police for doing crimes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

-Another weird tangent of a trip to Milk Dipper, which covers for its vaguely inessential feeling by giving Airi a non-Airimirer to play off of for a change. (Zero Airimirers this episode! WE DID IT!) Her scene with Hana was pleasant enough, even if the best part was the cutaway to Naomi’s mad scientist barista skills. It’s just, everything about these little Airinterludes feels so inconsequential, and they’re the first thing I’d cut if it meant more time with our core trio. Not a single one of these scenes has felt additive to what’s going on, even ones like this that are actually nicely poetic! Just, man, they feel like diversions.

I thought this scene should be the wholesome slice-of-life interaction that you'd normally praise for other Rider series, for just someone coming to a place for a coffee, and talk about them being both related to a certain person. But well yeah. Now I wanna ask though, as Ryotaro was injured in previous episode, do you think that doctor or hospital treatment for Ryotaro would be a better replacement than Airi treating him? It'd be the same for me, just Ryotaro getting treatment for his body pains.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

One of the things that annoys me with Den-O is when people write Ryotaro off as a wimpy loser. This episode is one example of why I think that argument is bunkum. Ryotaro can't fight, that's true. He's never going to be taking on waves of mooks with his martial arts skills. It's not fair to call him weak, though. Where Ryotaro really shines is in the strength of his resolve.

It takes a lot of guts to go into a fight like this episode's without a real chance of winning. But Ryotaro does it just to prove a point. He does it because he's willing to take a beating in order to convince Momotaros that he was wrong and that this partnership isn't going to be just a case of Momo taking his body for joyrides whenever he wants. It's a good way to earn the respect of someone who values strength.

Sadly, one of the reasons people come to fiction is for wish-fulfillment. They want an escapism, and by that they want to experience badass by proxy, by seeing characters they identify with do things that are cool and spectacular, which is about badass main protagonists fulfilling that (and the 'badass' term to those audience being limited to Wolverine definition of going nuts in battle and taking out hundreds of people). If they don't get their wish fulfillment, they'd dislike it and displace it to the character. People generally want to avoid perfect characters (though some can get away from this like Tendou), but giving those flaws and they instead bash the flaw for making them a wuss? Although, you did take a piss at Mihara in Faiz though? (which is like people bashing Ryotaro as loser) He's the character that likely resembles the audience the most, that he doesn't want to fight and wants to stay away from the bizzare Rider stuff surrounding him and live normally.