[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

This gets into one of my biggest problems with the show and one of the things that really put me off about it initially. I like the idea of the Another Riders stealing the originals? powers and subsequently erasing their established history. It?s a good gimmick for an anniversary season that has a time travel element as it gives the hero a purpose behind all of these crossovers. The part that never sat right with me, though, is that the show doesn?t go with the logical extension of this idea, which would be having Sougo get the Ridewatches and restore the original timeline. Instead he just keeps the powers for himself, leaving us with stuff like Sento and Banjou: Ordinary Dorks.

It's... not great!

There's a bit from the (very awful) Man of Steel movie that I'll never forget. It's near the end, after Superman has defeated the villains and their apocalyptic machinery. Metropolis is in ruins, but Superman is slowly descending towards a group of survivors, carrying Lois Lane. One of the survivors looks up at him and, voice trembling with awe, says, "He saved us."

She's saying this in the rubble of the blasted hellscape that was once Metropolis. Untold thousands have died. Possibly hundreds of thousands, as buildings were demolished in Superman's brawl with General Zod.

"He saved us."

It's a hilariously misapplied sentiment, the filmmakers missing the devastated forest for the character arc trees. Superman is now seen as a hero by the people of Metropolis! ...it just took most of them dying for him to get this reward.

It's like that with Zi-O's end to this Build story, where Sougo and Geiz have overcome this monster, gained new powers, saved the day... and it only cost us one of my favorite Kamen Rider shows. Hooray for our new heroes?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Having that guaranteed place to start writing from without having to think about it too much. Just find a screenshot I like enough, and go from there. I have to imagine it's a similar deal for Die?

Here's some Behind The Curtain info: the screencaps come last for me, not first. I'll pull a whole bunch as I watch something -- good lines, funny gags, cool shots -- and then write up the post. When the post is done, I'll try to find a couple images that help explain/support the tone of the post. Like, Episode 1's post was intensely critical of Sougo's debut, so I needed to use these two:





I wish I had a good jumping-off point for these posts! I basically just start writing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

So then, Zi-O comes along, and you've got Sougo's whole speech about making time move for yourself in this episode. Looking at it in the broad strokes, it's another example of exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about -- Sougo defining what his beliefs are and how that becomes his driving motivation as a hero -- except, for the life of me, I just couldn't really get a grasp on it at the time. Saying it felt "hollow" wouldn't exactly be right, but like, when you see Kuuga in that church, you are rooting for that dude to save people 150%, you know? I wasn't feeling that for Zi-O in that moment. It was one of the things that made me genuinely worried, if only a little, that this show was going to end up being underwhelming and messy in the long run.

Yeah, it's a weakness in the episode, that it doesn't really try for that Decade-style Tsukasa Explains It All moment, to loop in Build's themes to the current conflict that Team Zi-O is trying to overcome. We get Sougo's whole Subjugation Doesn't Need To Be Mean speech from the first episode, which... wasn't exactly what I was looking for, and then the speech in this one about needing to motivate yourself.

Neither speech has that early punch that helps define a Rider's process or journey or whatever. They're each problematic in different ways. The first one is horrifying if you think about it for even three seconds (which would be two seconds longer than Sougo thought about it), and the second one... I just don't really get it? I think I do -- I read it as Sougo valuing personal motivation over outside instruction -- but it's hardly the sort of crystal-clear But Why Heroism that you'd hope for.

I think this show will get there, though. I also have faith.