[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by Androzani84

This was a little thing, but it's worth calling out. Yuri does the Knuckle activation the way Otoya does it, and Megumi does the activation the way Nago does it. It's specific to the IXA of its era. I really appreciated that touch.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

So yeah, this part reminds of when series with many Riders had most of the Riders gathered there for fights against each other, but for this, it applies to every fighter but not all them are Riders. But... Kiva Emperor is actually overpowered like usual final form, and Rook isn't the final boss of this story, there will be a real proof about why the final fight is made that way, due to the overpoweredness of it.

It honestly felt like a bigger fight scene than the movie, which is crazy. It felt like pretty much the entire cast was teaming-up, and that's not what I was expecting in the middle part of a three-parter that is 18 episodes away from the end of the show!

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Why shouldn't Yuri be laughing triumphantly with Jirou though? Remember, Rook is their mutual arch enemy, he killed Yuri's mother and Jirou's clan so it makes sense that they would both be happy about finally getting their revenge. It's not just Jirou who Yuri is laughing with either, there's also her bf Otoya, as well as Ramon and Riki. It was a team effort and I think Yuri appreciates that after being alone in her personal struggle for so long, they finally conceded to let her be their comrade and equal and gave her the honor of using IXA to deal the coup de grace to Rook. All she needed was that little bit of validation from them, to realize that her revenge wasn't the most important thing in her life, but the life that she can enjoy freely from now on and her friends are a part of that, cause they believed in her and rooted for her success.

Maybe you misunderstand why Yuri is so happy here? Her quest for revenge was a burden that made her feel guilty for being happy, perceiving it as a betrayal of the obligation she made to her mother. She's not sadistically laughing that Rook's dead for 22 years, she's laughing cause she can finally give herself a chance to be happy and balance her life as a soldier with her new life with Otoya. I'm honestly surprised and curious how you can see this beautifully heartwarming scene with Yuri expressing her most genuine happiness in years as she runs towards her friends in celebration as a "dodgy decision". Don't you think that she deserves to have a life outside of fighting? Doesn't she deserve to enjoy a little moment of happiness after denying herself that experience for so long?

It's not that she's happy (I like Yuri being happy with her choices!), it's that she's happy around Jiro, and that's a problem. Jiro's the guy who kidnapped her and threatened to breed her just a few weeks prior. For her to be all Forgive And Forget when that guy did nothing to redeem himself after his, frankly, irredeemable transgressions? To see her laughing with the guy who vowed to assault her? That's a massive miscalculation, and it was a decision that it feels like the show didn't think through all the way.

But, yeah, I am totally okay with Yuri celebrating her hard-fought victory with everyone else. It's a very nice moment for her, and I wish it wasn't tainted by Jiro being a part of it.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Maybe that's why it seemed so insignificant and small at the time, since the real payoff to that is here, as Nago reasons that Kiva might actually an okay guy since it's Wataru. Sure, if Wataru betrays that trust, then Nago won't hesitate to kill him, but for now they can be friends and partners in fighting Fangires. Usually, I think it would be a narrative letdown to have the conflict resolved so easily (like my minor complaint about Akira's and Mochida's 1 episode-long conflict in Hibiki), but after understanding that Nago is a changed man, I had to feel kind of a fool for expecting anything else and it made me see him in a better light.

I wonder if some of it also isn't that Kiva's way more powerful than Wataru, so molding and shaping Wataru suddenly becomes more appealing than before (or than acting as a mentor to Kengo). Like, I think Nago is in a real Not All Fangires mindset, but some of his turnaround on Kiva might be less that Wataru's a sweet boy, and more that Nago now can direct Kiva to serve Nago's purposes.