[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

He stops wearing that hat, I stop calling him Hat Woz. Until then, the name stands!

He's uncomfortable being celebrated as a hero, but defeating Oma Zi-O and saving the future is 100% his dream. It's basically his main character trait, outside of remembering to buy chicken for dinner. Geiz doesn't see himself as a hero, so a dude he has some unexplained beef with, showing up and IWAEing him in the middle of fight? Yeah, probably going to make him uncomfortable!

It's Sougo himself giving the term Black Woz and White Woz :|, though in fanbase for the former, he's usually refered as just Woz with the latter (with hat) still refered as White Woz.

Ironically no offense, but you saying that Geiz still had his dream of defeating Ohma Zi-O is quite overlooking the Sougo/Geiz friendship now and their changes. Geiz wants to save the future, originially yeah by killing Sougo due to him still viewing him as the tyrannical dictator regardless of current Sougo self, but now with him having a faith in Sougo he'd want to save the future without defeating Ohma Zi-O, he'd want to prevent Ohma Zi-O from being born without killing Sougo. For the not seeing himself as a hero, Geiz actually is self-righteous, with him having the mentality of seeing others as 'doing what's right' or 'an evil that must be destroyed'. Probably not seeing himself as hero, but he sees himself as someone who'd never be in the wrong.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 18 - ?AMAZING! TIME! FUTURE! 2022?

Shinobi?s a guy who can?t wait to be a better version of himself, so he risks becoming a monster today. He doesn?t have faith in his ability to reach his potential, so he resigns himself to someone else?s strategy. He?s too focused on his present, and what that lacks: power, mostly, but also a sense of purpose. He could work hard to become the best version of himself, but what if that never happens? What if this is as good as he gets? Why not take the Time Jackers up on their offer to make him so unbeatable that it doesn?t matter if he?s terrifying the very people he hoped to inspire?

It?s a problem that Sougo can empathize with. Sougo?s someone who looked at his future as too bleak to move towards. But Geiz helped him realize that the future is what we make of it. If you surrender to fear and anger, yeah, future?s gonna be a pretty dark place. But if you work to achieve your goals, and stay a good person, maybe the future can be what you?d dreamed. Sougo?s fighting as Kamen Rider Zi-O to give people like Shinobi the chance to meet better versions of themselves in the future. He wants them to see that their choices are theirs to make, and that nothing?s set in stone.

Ironic, now it's the Shinobi part that is praised instead compared to before. As it's already known, Rentarou is an upstanding guy that has Kamen Rider sensibility, that he wanted to fight as Kamen Rider Shinobi to protect those who needs it. He's an example of a most of main Rider archetype that is played up as a non-major character. Of which, like I said before (yeah for Decade one), power is much needed to act upon his sense of justice, you can still help as normal human but the impact would be far less.

Though it's easier here to pick on Rentaro risking to become a monster or resigns himself here as the consequence of Another Shinobi had happened, but is it technically similar for some other heroes? Especially the ones who are normal humans without their power source, they are given powers through other sources either by others giving them the belt or finding the belt itself for Kamen Riders. Rentaro doesn't surrender to fear and anger (well probably there's a bit of fear), he's actually similar to Makimura from Ghost 2 parter before of actually the Another Rider who refuses the temptation from Time Jackers (the very thing that made White Woz get his Shinobi Ridewatch), only that their resistance is still futile. For this case, Rentaro is given power by an irredeemable villain in Swartz, thus it'd be playing into his schemes, but as Kamen Rider are commonly about heroes using powers from evil for good, it had happened to main characters too like Kenzaki getting his belt from BOARD (who is orchestrated by Tennoji), or for my previous mentions, Kouta being "helped" by Sagara but it's him manipulating Kouta for his own ends. Of which those can be seen as fools for letting themselves being pawns for the villains (albeit they're are aware and accepted the pawn status to make use of their power to fight for justice).

Only difference is that Another Rider doesn't only gave them the Rider strength, but they also transform the subject into a destructive, evil creature obsessed with a twisted version of their original desires. So it's like them being brainwashed, not acting out of free will, albeit so far the only Another Riders which are good people are Rentarou and Makimura (others would gladly comply to doing the destructive things the Another Rider turned them out be). Personally between Rentaro and other heroes (though he does need Sougo's pep talk), the mere difference here is the devices the manipulators use on the heroes. Devices like what belt BOARD gave to its members or Woz gave to Sougo doesn't change their self, they act fully on their own as the Riders. But Rentaro acted against his will, the Another Rider corrupting the users (like OOO PuToTyra's side effect).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

So it makes sense to have Hat Woz as the villain of the piece. He?s like Woz, naturally. He?s someone who sees people as completed stories; their arcs a single-sentence description. Shinobi?s trying to make his own mind up, while Hat Woz is waiting for the inevitable to finally occur, so he can move on from this chapter. It?s Shinobi?s moral conflict running up against someone who knows how every struggle will resolve.

White Woz is even more evil than Heure too. Though Woz is technically villainous, he's genuinely courteous, while White Woz is outwardly charming, it's to hide his cruel and sociopathic demeanor. It's an opposite of Black and White Woz. Other than that, he's the big winner too here, being the mastermind in the events here, despite Rentaro being more of the focus here and Swartz having an effective method. He used everyone as pawns to achieve his goal, he goads Sougo into fighting Another Shinobi, while giving Rentaro the pep-talk, with Swartz continuously activating the Another Shinobi watch each time the latter is defeated, and with the pep-talk, Rentaro will refuse the Watch, thus it confirms that Rentaro will become Kamen Rider Shinobi in the future and White Woz can get the Shinobi Watch from that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Nah, I wouldn't call them actual friends yet. Maybe Sougo would, but Geiz sure as hell ain't going to admit that. As far as he's concerned, there's a possibility he still needs to murder Sougo at some point. What they have is an understanding. Geiz accepts that Sougo is going to try and become king no matter what and Sougo accepts that Geiz is going to try and kill him if he follows the path of the evil Oma Zi-O.

There's a possibility of him murdering Sougo, but though murder isn't an admirable scenario, it's now different. Previously Geiz wanted to murder Sougo out of hatred and vengeance, and it's the first and only option he'd use, constantly looking for an opportunity for that. But now Geiz would also try to look for ways to prevent Ohma Zi-O's birth that doesn't involve killing Sougo, like Tsukuyomi (up until this point), and would kill at last resort. And there's characterization for the murder, he'd now kill Sougo out of making sure Sougo doesn't live long enough to see himself as a villain, so there's a concern for Sougo himself too, not out of hatred. Geiz even now shows his trust on Sougo by giving him his belt and acknowledging his desire to try becoming good despot (where previously Geiz would constantly ignore that out of hatred). Dunno if those'd be actual friends but for sure Geiz now is much closer to Sougo than before.