[Fish Sandwich]

Well, even though it's an obvious choice since Die liked that scene so much, I've already used the heartfelt track from Yuri's conversation with Wataru that helps inspire him to move forward, so instead, here's the heartfelt track from Otoya's conversation with Wataru that helps inspire him to move forward. Lots of people trying to help Wataru out in this one!

I think that I think this is a better episode for Otoya than Die did? I mean, yeah, I get that there's an unflattering interpretation to be made for it, but while the huge ego involved highlights how much is still the same about him, I can appreciate what the episode is doing by shining a spotlight on how far Otoya has come as a character here at the end. There's a line in that initial discussion about him becoming Dark Kiva that flies by for how important I think it is. His immediate response to being informed that King is planning to kill Taiga is to flatly declare that a child of Maya's is a child of his, and like, do I even need to bother stressing how crazy it is to hear that sentiment coming from Mr. Fear of Commitment?

It's not about a simple whim, like usual, which is where I think the fatalism comes in. If Otoya was trying to treat it like his latest grand heroic stunt, something he expects to come back from to smiles and praise, it's not really illustrating the shift in his values that's happened over time, and for the exact same reason, he obviously isn't going to politely sit back and watch when he knows there's something he could be doing for the sake of the people he loves, no matter how reckless it is. I mean, you've already acknowledged that this is all in-character, so I know this isn't really the part that's in question here, but I guess what I'm saying is that this is another case where I feel those rails the plot is apparently on are maybe a good track to be heading down?

(Also, this is only barely related, but I don't know where else to fit it in this post – that Rider Punch Otoya does as Dark Kiva is totally awesome. Great to finally see some early Kiva-styled stock footage special attacks again.)

Anyway, something I really want to note about this episode is that there was quite a bit of it banished to the realm of deleted scenes, denied a true claim to being "canon", and in this case, there are some neat moments that were cut out. There's a little bonding moment between Kivat II and Otoya where the former expresses an appreciation for the latter's music, which kinda adds a tiny little bit of weight to them working as a duo later, even if it's admittedly largely irrelevant to the overall tone of the story.

More critically, there's a whole plot thread where Wataru ties up Otoya to keep him from going after King that's excised, which is a darn shame, because Otoya throws some words at his son in there that really nail what I love so much about this plotting choice for Wataru's character so much. In response to Wataru trying to talk about how what he's doing will change the future, Otoya says:

"You're wrong, Wataru. You just want to escape from the suffering you're feeling. It's wrong that you're even in this time to begin with. Do you plan on coming to the past every time you make a mistake?"

...And then Wataru of course brushes this off and it would presumably lead in to the scene of him and King fighting shortly thereafter. Considering Wataru didn't make the choice to come to the past, and the exact nature of his plan means he'll only have to the one time, it's maybe not the most accurate dialogue to his situation in-universe, but it's a perfect summation of what the viewer is meant to be taking away from Wataru's current struggle. He's filled with all this regret he doesn't know to live with, how to make it a part of him and move on, but because it's a toku show, when he wishes he could change history, he gets that chance literally, and it's kind of great? It's a story about Wataru deciding his life holds so little value the universe would be better without him in it, and it really tears into that entire line of thinking at every turn to make a point about how misguided it is.