[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 10 - ?HAWK, TIGER, AND GRASSHOPPER 2010?

I wouldn?t say it squanders the intriguing character work of the previous episode, because Sougo?s explanations have such specificity and flavor to them that it?s hard to call this chapter a failure. His definition of Good Despot as someone who?s, like, an elected king (ridiculous!) is a little bit more reasonable than some warlord who everyone likes. He?s talking about the Magna Carta, but for Kamen Riders who control time and space. The idea that he?ll know he?s being a good person as long as he can take criticism and guidance is a pretty neat one. It?s a way of talking about history as something that doesn?t have a static value, but becomes good or bad based on people?s insights. That?s a nicely thematic way of framing things for Sougo.

The answer Sougo got from this one seems to be rooted on Sougo's moral compass to decide what makes a Good Despot, as a king position is a king position regardless of their alignment. That he'd view someone being worthy of king or not based on other people's evaulation of them compared to Kuroto forcing everyone to bow after him, and at ep. 9 people were protesting against Kuroto anyway. Ergo.... actually sometimes you have to.. care about what other people think of you, contrary to popular belief of insisting someone to not care about those.

Sougo and Junichiro didn't directly discuss about this but, I guess Junichiro's explanations of Nobunaga explains where Sougo had that view come from, as well as Junichiro teaching Tsukuyomi that as well. The direction below aside, despite that he only knew the main trio as normal teenagers, Junichiro can act as an unintended guide/key against the main trio's problems here. Though personally I don't believe in the perspective evaluation of someone, like, that can be easily abused to elevate people as horrible as Kuroto here (not used for Kuroto here, but another villains as bad as him or worse).... and that is quite dodged by how there's always some exceptions from perspective view here (for justified reasons, but it questions the validity of that view) like how Kuroto isn't subjected to that, like how Kuroto may be good in someone's eyes or such, other than Sougo thinking others evaluate him as bad king without knowing he's actually one.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Sougo commits a whole bunch of terrible acts in the past two episodes ? injuring Geiz, assisting a man who is turning innocents into monsters, imprisoning dissenters ? and yet he keeps assuring his friends that he hasn?t done anything wrong yet. HE HAS! HE COMPLETELY HAS! We?re well past some hypothetical moment where Sougo could possibly maybe do horrible things in pursuit of his goals. He did them! Last episode! And he doesn?t really seem to think they?re worth more than a Mea Culpa! We don?t get some huge realization that he?s in over his head, or a stern rebuke from any of the other/actual good guys in the story. He?s just like Changed My Mind, and smiles his way through everyone?s incredulity.

For injuring Geiz... that seems to be just the standard rivalry between primary and secondary Riders, like Ryuki fighting Knight. And I don't hear often that either the primary or secondary Riders are seen as bad for said feud, though frequently the secondary Riders can harm the primary ones due to their anti-heroic traits clashing. And for the "assisting a man who is turning innocents into monsters", this is quite a common generalization against someone who is a member of a bad group/organization/etc., association fallacy, of which the opposite examples are assuming anyone who had a job that is seen as noble (like being cop, soldier, doctor, teacher, etc.) as inherently heroic and noble, when there can be wolf in sheep's clothing. By this I think someone shouldn't be judged by occupation alone of them being good or bad, merely joining them doesn't mean they'd assist the group overall, I mean just by existing and standing around him? Existing around him won't turn people into monsters. For the imprisoning dissenters part, I guess that's done to keep the masquerade going, it's something like what Kiriya did in Ex-Aid after his revival (he whispered to Emu albeit before returning, while Sougo did apologize later).

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And that incredulity is frustratingly short-lived, especially in Tsukuyomi and Geiz. They?re both acutely aware of Sougo?s possibly villainous future, but they seem to think this brief moment of adjacent villainy was some weird bump in the road? while we?ve been told from Episode 1 that it?s the path they?re most afraid he?ll take. I don?t ? for a single second ? understand why this wouldn?t be the breaking point for the two of them. I get why Sougo would behave the way he does, mostly, but I don?t understand why Tsukuyomi and Geiz would think he?s worthy of another chance.

Actually I'd assure that Tsukuyomi's faith in Sougo isn't limitless. But regarding Geiz, where did you get the fact that he gave Sougo a second chance? Well Geiz unawaringly becoming softer with Sougo, but that caused him to take a step to distance himself from others that he's leaving Junichiro's house as well as vowing to hate Sougo and deny his softer feelings inside.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It makes for an episode that has a few really fantastic scenes (Sougo?s speech at the end to Kuroto; Sougo excitedly running to meet Geiz so Geiz can kill him; Hina using her super-strength multiple times, just for me), but makes its characters view really big moments as small, insignificant blips. I liked the way it expanded Sougo?s character, but I wish it didn?t come at the expense of the Time Orphans? believability.

Still not enough utilized, Hina's super-strength. Like the attacks from actual monsters (the time when Sougo bind Eiji) or Kuroto's abuse towards her before.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O COMPLEMENTATION PROJECT EPISODE 10.5 - ?MOURI VS SHIMOYAMA?

This one basically goes It Was A Guest-Writer, and just throws that dude under the bus. I was, weirdly, kinder to the last two episodes than the cast and crew of this .5 episode? I thought it had some interesting moves for Sougo?s character, with a troubling lack of repercussions, but this short starts with Sougo going Why Did I Do Any Of That. That is? man! Cold blooded!

Still this explains about how a different writer would screw up things, and personally if there's a guest writer that got a characterization wrong, I'd blame those writers more instead of bashing the characters due to acting that way. And for this explanations, I don't know if they deliberately made the show worse for comedy material here or that this outtake is made independently from the show? B̶u̶t̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶m̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶r̶i̶o̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶l̶u̶n̶a̶t̶i̶c̶ ̶t̶e̶e̶n̶a̶g̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶w̶h̶i̶c̶h̶'̶d̶ ̶m̶e̶a̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶n̶o̶ ̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶l̶i̶n̶e̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶d̶e̶c̶i̶s̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶b̶e̶f̶o̶r̶e̶,̶ ̶i̶n̶t̶e̶r̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶w̶a̶r̶l̶o̶r̶d̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶s̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶ ̶s̶u̶g̶g̶e̶s̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶o̶m̶b̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶T̶o̶e̶i̶ ̶H̶Q̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶d̶e̶c̶i̶s̶i̶o̶n̶s̶.̶

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Originally Posted by DreamSword

While I agree that Nobunaga probably isn't the best example to use, I feel like they got the core message across decently enough: The hero of one story is the villain of another and vise versa. That said, similar arguments have been made for alot of other big figures both before and since(just look at leadership positions in general). Heck, I feel like "matters of perspective" is one of the major themes that the show is going for in general, so if nothing else it was nice to see it be brought to the forefront.

It may be going against the flow, but I never considered "matters of perspective" a reliable source to judge someone's morality. It can be heavily skewed for varying reasons; There are many villainous beings that got glorified using "matters of perspective" argument to treat them as completely innocent and shifting the blame to anyone else. The thing is, the concept of (and a serious one) self-righteousness is outright forgotten here, those rule out the possibility that they are what has gone wrong, yet those words coming from the likes of those are treated as gospel.

There's also how the villains (or the relatively worse ones) can be easily those who judge others instead of said "hero of one story/villain of another", when they are so biased; either them being helped by them (even inadvertently, or worse being influenced into thinking they're good) and deliberately ignoring the bad things they do to others, or just being petty af and demonize others just for being more successful or more happy or such, or doing that out of a slander. Otherwise KR likely glorifies Nobunaga too much, as he had been treated like this on Ghost too before.