[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Ryutaros is one messed up kid! ...Which is exactly why I honestly think this was a really smart character trait to give him! Ryuta's basically a bundle of every possible extremely unhealthy personality quirk a child can have, so an obsessive parasocial relationship with someone who he sees as sort of filling the void where a parental figure is supposed to be fits right in with that perfectly.

It's also pretty creepy, admittedly! But there's a specificity to how Ryutaros' character is constructed that's key to why I like him as much as I do. He might've been a simple novelty that quickly grew old for me without stuff like this.

v-cinema where ryutaros teams up with grease when tho

Yeah, I'm not really mad at how Ryutaros is portrayed, honestly? (I wonder if talking about this instead of writing up the episode I just watched is going to make me forget everything from 17? We'll see!) Currently, he's shown to be somewhere between A Little Stinker and An Amoral Psychopath... much like all children. He's unpredictable, even for a show full of self-involved imagination monsters from the end of time. There's a feeling of him running wild when he possesses Ryotaro that eclipses some of the monster threats.

And yet!

There're these undeniable empathy points for him, with Airi and with animals. A thing where he's not aware of relationships being two-way things, with mutual respect. Caring for Airi is like caring for an animal, or wanting to keep that animal safe. Ryutaros doesn't think about what the animal wants, he creates a story about the animal that flatters him, and then acts to keep that story going. Airi's just another thing he can care for, another thing that can help him define himself. The idea of what Airi wants as a person isn't really important. Making Airi Happy as a concept is valuable to Ryutaros, because of how he can use that to feel better about himself. Actually engaging with Airi is almost beside the point.

So, yeah, leveraging that childlike My Friend From YouTube or whatever, I don't dislike that!