[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

Now, I actually really liked Asumu in the first part. But man did they put effort towards making me dislike him in the second! I've seen some claim that he's the only character who remains consistent between the two halves, but I Heavily disagree on that front, and it's all due to one simple factor, really. His backbone.

Yes, Asumu starts the show off lost, depressed, and to be frank, a total wimp. But over that first half he found self confidence. He found courage. He found a job. Once the second half hits, all of that is entirely gone. He degrades into a complete weakling who needs his hand constantly held by others, to the point that he won't defend himself in anything at all. Remember at the end of the first half when he actually tried to fight back against the kid who jumped him? Well nevermind that I guess!

I don't take it well if a character's development gets regressed for more plot or drama (while Inoue probably isn't 100% at fault for the second half, I've seen that he can do this stuff to characters, to ignore developments), but I guess I want to say here that Asumu's writing is the one that did him dirty in the second half, like I don't want for weakness traits like being wimpy, not being confident, weakling, etc. to be rag on. But of course like you said in first half Asumu had developed by finding self-confidence, and the plot sucks for taking it away from him; it's forced OOC to make way for a drama/conflict. For people thinking he's consistent in the two halves, that's something I noticed in some people that they sometimes rely on status quo for characters, especially if a character isn't a jerk who changes to be nicer. If a character is a softie, they can feel the same for some people from their start and their end, due to having same demeanor, despite other changes like confidence, maturity, etc. This can make some people think development can only happen in jerk characters turning nicer, because the change seems more simple and noteworthy, and think that nice characters (including many Rider leads) don't develop.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

Because see, Kiriya isn't just some douchebag, oh no, he's also a blatant mouthpiece for Inoue. He constantly makes negative accusations of everyone in the cast, with absolutely zero basis or evidence and yet is 99% of the time treated as being completely in the right. Characters and plot actively bend over backwards to justify Kiriya's' awfulness to the point of insanity. Asumu desperately wants to be his friend for... no real reason given, and hangs around him despite Kiriya outright calling him worthless, boring, stupid, amongst many other things multiple times. Hibiki embraces their "friendship" by claiming "don't dislike him just because he's different" which, by the way, is a horrible moral in this context. Pro tip: Cut toxic people out of your life, do not embrace them. Heck, remember when Ichiro threatened to beat the crap out of the shoplifter who attacked Asumu? Where was that when Kiriya was on any of his bullshit? It's so dumb!

The only one who ever denounced Kiriya for his crap was Akira... only for her to have a complete 180 a couple episodes later with no reason given, no moment of respect, nothing. She just suddenly likes the guy and is totally fine with him being a dickhead.

This is for sure, can be frustrating part and for Kiriya to rub the audience the wrong way, it's plausible, he got the infamy for good reason. But, for douchebags who some part of the cast desperately wants to be their friend... isn't that a common part in KR seasons? Like for example, the primary Rider and some member of the cast with the secondary Rider (Kiriya's actor will later play.. Yuuto/Zeronos in Den-O, this time his character is well received though) or sometimes the tertiary Rider too, as usually secondary Riders and a good number of tertiary Riders are made as morally grey frustrating jerks. The execution is probably not done right, but probably Asumu trying to interact with Kiriya and get through him is Rider's common morally upstanding characters (Asumu isn't a fighter, but would be one) trying to soften the hardass hostile jerk. And that... these kind of characters like primary Riders won't cut those toxic people like secondary Riders in their life just because of the hostility they receive. While yeah it's a horrible moral that is employed by Hibiki, I feel like this is common stuff in many Rider series... I also hate it if characters like this gets free pass albeit it's expected for people like Takeshi cast (or that you knew that when Akira lashes out at Asumu, she gets a mild reprimand from the Takeshi and it's what you want to happen for people like Kiriya?), but Kiriya did get bad luck in moments like the video chat with his mother to cleaning toilets as punishment and being forced by Hibiki to re-enroll back to school when he initially dropped out.