[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deepsea

Liner form is a favorite form of mine from a design perspective. While I don't remember a lot about den-o but I remember someone (maybe Fish?) saying something along the lines of why Liner form is great from thematic perspective. It's that it represents Ryotaro going into battle on his own but with his friends still there with him. I think another thing about it that might be more inline with Die's analysis of Ryotaro is that liner form is Ryotaro accepting every part of himself while still being a himself. Climax is a bunch of friends working together, but Liner might pull more on the metaphor of the imagin as aspects of Ryotaro. He's pulling on the different aspects he's hidden away to be strong. or something like that. I don't know I haven't watched den-o in years, and also have very little ability to analyze tv.

Yeah, Liner Form and Ryotaro's development into a more fully-formed hero... it's definitely something that needs to happen as the series nears its completion. Ryotaro Gets Better As A Person is, like, the bare minimum expectation for a year-long Den-O series. The best way to illustrate that is him not needing the training wheels of being possessed by an Imagin. Him being his own Kamen Rider is the show's proof of concept.

It's just, it's weird how sort of out of nowhere it happens? The more the show leans into the Imagin trying to prepare Ryotaro for their absence, the smarter Liner Form looks and feels. The problem is, all of that emotional content occurs after Liner Form debuts. Climax is the show having a problem, and then creating a tool to solve it. Liner is the show introducing a tool, and then searching for a problem for it to solve.