[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

So, no, I don't think Ryotaro ends up being right in this story. The idea that Yuuto's variable existence is worth everyone else's misery, I don't agree with that. (Especially since Yuuto's purging the universe of himself anyway!)

But, first, the show is making a point about the steadfastness of Ryotaro's beliefs, not whether he's always right or wrong. Second, this isn't a situation where the truth is being kept from Airi. This is a situation where Ryotaro would be (theoretically) rewriting time to depress Airi. Not a great choice for him to make!

Well there ya go, of course I won't talk about this much yet before, but this is the main reason for Ryotaro acting that way, he would rewrite the time doing that way. And Airi herself also had her part on this, not only others like Ryotaro, as a part of her traditional Japanese feminine aspects.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 40 - “CHANGE IMAGIN WORLD”

A serious villain could never work on Den-O, but a Kamen Rider finale needs a serious villain. The contradiction of that, finding a resolution to it… maybe the best idea Kobayashi has ever had.

Kai is a hilarious villain who thinks he’s serious, doing horrible things in the most lackadaisical way. He’s ruthless in pursuing his goals, but willing to have a conversation about why he’s pursuing them. He’s cunning in his strategies but generous in allowing opposition. (That look on his face when Deneb scans him for a ticket! And Kai just lets him!) He’s a villain that, on a long enough timeline, you could absolutely see joining the cast as a hero. He’s got the same limitless charisma that Ryotaro’s actor has, but calibrated differently.

It’s his weird sense of camaraderie. Kai, Ryotaro, Yuuto, they’re just a group of guys caught up in this weird scenario, no different than someone you’d sit next to on a long train ride, or a co-worker. In fact, Kai totally treats Ryotaro like a co-worker in this episode. Their scenes together, the energy in them, you’ll recognize it if you’ve ever hung out after work with folks, gotten a drink or something to eat. The shittalking, the shared boredom, the gossiping. Kai’s whole pitch to Ryotaro is what every late-night after-work bitch session revolves around: Let’s Laugh At How Stupid Our Job Is. He’s a villain that thinks this is all pointless, all subjective, all irrelevant. The idea of caring about what happened to Yuuto is baffling to him, hilarious. He’s trying to prove a point to Ryotaro that caring about any of this, trying to save people or mourn them or prevent Kai’s plan, it’s stupid. It’s a villain who is attacking self-determination and empathy with moral relativism and apathy. Kai is the absolute best villain this show could have.

Wait, before you talk about how Kai's strength point is about him only working to finish the job, not monologuing or expositioning, and he shrugs off everything others need to know, but this talk seems the opposite about him having a conversation about his goals. Also, here, about how Kai has total apathy and moral relativism, and treating everything as subjective and pointless, this kind of villain is commonly seen and those trait Kai have is their glaring flaw that also can lead to their downfall; they cannot understand the concept of goodness or generosity because there is no guaranteed return on that investment, as in general, evil always assumes that virtue makes you weak, and also assuming ulterior motive in the heroes' "so-called" heroic acts. And by that, those villains fail to anticipate the heroes' selfless actions that makes them lose. And for Kai having apathy and pointless view of mindset, this seems like a nihilist trait, though he acts childishly upbeat instead of being cynical, but this trait is one of the common people who has the inability to comprehend good altruistic behavior.

For him baffling at Ryotaro mourning Yuuto, self-centeredness makes it nearly impossible for a villain to understand or embrace the necessary demands of friendship and love, as they find such concepts, like you said here, laughable and/or distractions. They tend to believe in self-preservation and individualism above all things, act in their own self-interest, believe competition makes them more successful, and assume heroes "enslave" people to an arbitrary system of rules and dogma. Pride is by nature competitive, pitting the arrogant villain against everyone, they simply can't understand cooperation advantages, which is a form of love, placing it beyond the realm of their understanding. Plus, while the villain may be surrounded by countless lackeys whom he keeps them in line via threats or outright violence, and can lead into infightings that can put them into disadvantage, the hero has numerous companions who are willing to help them even in dire situations and enable them to defeat the baddies.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And Ryotaro rises to the challenge in this incredibly weird episode.

Jokes aside (if this one is it), like from before, the "better" timeline here is only a lead-up to killing Yuuto and trying to trick Ryotaro into not interfering to Kai's plans by showing him that it made for a better present. Better outcome aside, this isn't actually a genuine working towards a better time, this is like, for example, someone telling others half-truth to benefit him and cause strife towards the subjects. By that this isn't about Kamen Riders Should Not Do This To Achieve Greater Good, because this by itself isn't an actual greater good except Kai's trick to Ryotaro, which doesn't work for someone who still wants to try giving every party good outcome (like in Blade, Kenzaki trying to please both Hajime and whole humanity). I guess this is also a testament of Ryotaro's development from the beginning of him being shy and timid, to someone who holds his belief strongly? W̶h̶i̶l̶e̶ ̶O̶z̶a̶k̶i̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶s̶t̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶s̶l̶i̶m̶y̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶n̶e̶w̶ ̶t̶i̶m̶e̶l̶i̶n̶e̶,̶ ̶M̶i̶u̶r̶a̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶u̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶g̶o̶t̶ ̶t̶r̶u̶e̶ ̶l̶o̶v̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶c̶a̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶f̶a̶n̶t̶ ̶d̶a̶u̶g̶h̶t̶e̶r̶.̶

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

THE BAGGAGE CAR

-Hey, you’re right, I didn’t talk about Zeronos’s new Cosmic Rust Form! Beautifully designed sequence, and probably a crucial piece of this story’s puzzle… except, AS PER GODDAMN USUAL, I’m not sure exactly what happened in this Yuuto development. He’s burning up a new memory to power up Zeronos, but I can’t tell from this montage if he’s burning up his memory of Airi, Airi’s memory of him, or both of their memories of each other. That matters! It matters a whole lot! I wish this episode nailed it down more, but I feel like it’ll get elaborated on next time. (That is basically how every major Yuuto storyline works.) Meanwhile, I thought it was really pretty? I just don’t know what it means yet.

Zero Form is Zeronos' final form yeah, and it was seemingly obtained by regaining memories, seemingly about Airi here. I guess about the memories, this has happened in some others like Yuuto coming back to life from others' memories here like Yuuto gaining Airi's memories again to him. Zero Form goes from Altair Form's short range into the long range with outright gatling gun.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

-I cannot even begin to tell you how much I hated this episode’s theme song. I guess it’s the DenLiner Imagin singing parts of it now? It’s horrible. It’s menacing and brash in a way that is antithetical to this show’s vibe, and I hope it was just some one-off goof for this alternate reality. Listening to the theme song was always a delight, and this was like nails on a chalkboard to me.

Not sounding appealing to me either, but I guess the theme sound change is to show the change of Den-O's situation from more lighthearted and goofy before to be more disastrous and distressing right now, with the threat of Kai or something.