[dreamcastegirl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

there is maybe something to be said for these characters having a moral code that keeps Otoya from interacting with the plot.

My only true calling in life is complaining about Inoue, and I feel a bit hesitant about venturing my opinion here, because I don't want to be seen as trampling on anyone's feelings, or being in Inoue's corner, nor do I want to be seen as defending Otoya, who is an obnoxious caricature—and yet, unintentional as it may have been, his behaviour is pretty consistent with the show's 1980s setting.

I'm conflicted because I feel that zero consideration was afforded to the idea of how Otoya would appear to anyone not involved in trying to make a weekly TV show out of a toy-line in 2008, and part of why we are having this conversation is because things have changed so very much in the last 10 years or so in the way we are talking about the issues that Otoya is a lightning rod for, but also because... I think I prefer the idea of a main character who is demonstratively awful to the idea of a character who is a blank space, the kind of stock character that producers hope children will imprint on, and draw a connexion between their own fantasies and the power fantasy that the toys embody.

I guess I'm thinking about this too much, but also this is the week where I came dangerously close to being cancelled for suggesting that it was possible to read a villain from Sailor Moon as a tragic character in contrast to her archetype in Greek mythology, rather than as just The Source of All Evil, so this is a very 2021 sort of vibe for me. There seems to be an increased need/demand for purity of motive in fiction from audiences lately, and an increasing level of vitriol in regards to characters who don't meet those standards, and, even worse people who like these characters, and it's a very weird time we're having culturally in the west right now, I feel.

tl;dr Inoue is awful, Otoya is awful, but the work is very much the product of its context. It is impossible not to engage with that to some degree, but adjacent to all this, there is this theme of motherhood that I keep coming back to, and it stays my hand hand each time I consider going to Inoue's house and burning it down.

Why is this reply so long? Guys, I don't even really like this show.