[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 25 - ?ANOTHER ZI-O 2019?

It?s another neat episode for Sougo?s crushing isolation and his At All Costs friendship with the Time Orphans, though. For him to be like Maybe If I Fight A Monster I?ll Get To See My Buds Again? sad! Real sad! But touching, since it just reinforces how much Sougo wants to get his life back to the happy state it used to be: going on Time Missions and only occasionally finding out he?s destined to destroy humanity.

As previously Sougo has acknowledged his capacity of evil, as well as him still being genuinely good in his stint with Kikai, it comes into play here, of Sougo wanting to use a tragedy for personal reasons by visiting his friends again via Another Riders' rampage, but actually Sougo isn't in denial about it but snaps out of it as he acknowledges it's twisted and terrible. It's ironic, because as shown again here, Black Woz, although not as bad as White Woz, is still villainous, who happens to help a sweet boy due to Zi-O's premise. But for here, previously probably Black Woz may tolerate Sougo as long as he becomes Ohma Zi-O, whenever good or bad, but here, it's shown that Black Woz would rather have Sougo succumb into his dark impulses, so Black Woz wants to corrupt Sougo in process of helping him becoming more powerful. But that instead makes Sougo realize his creepy mindset here. Sougo merging with his mirror self is probably the key to prevent his rule as Ohma Zi-O, he'd recognize if he had dark impulses and his inherent moral compass will put a stop on it, unlike Ohma Zi-O who was constantly in denial and thus end up having his dark side take over him entirely.... and still think he saved the world as the king. Don't know if Sougo meeting his mirror self is caused by the time travels though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The Time Orphans, meanwhile, are just sort of vaguely existing, running through the same routines as the last couple episodes. Tsukuyomi would like to see Zi-O defeated by Geiz. Geiz would like for Tsukuyomi to get off his back. Hat Woz is? around. It?s missing even the frustrating nonsense of Tsukuyomi?s terror, subsisting entirely on Geiz?z cornered unease with this whole conflict. There?s separation, but no one can really explain why, or how long it?s supposed to last for, so we get everyone being slightly bummed out.

For your prediction before of you speculating Team Zi-O should be reunited at ep. 28 at most, actually Junichiro's story about Sougo and Hiryu's history together, as well as it being further researched could be something that can advance the story. Considering how Zi-O is centered around time travel. And Geiz has some new stuff here that, now his resolve to kill Sougo is gone thus he can't use Geiz Revive, as the power needs Geiz's original resolve to kill Sougo. No destroying belts either, because Black Woz would always replace it with a new one, so I appreciate that the series does show about how a Rider solution of dealing with belts as ineffective before btw.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

That just leaves the introduction of Another Zi-O, and, again: fine. I like where this story seems to be going, how it looks to be about how Sougo's never let his suffering or loss turn him into a bad person, even though Hiryuu is maybe Exhibit A in how Sougo could?ve gone bad. Sougo and Hiryuu had the same background trauma (with, I?m sure, more details to come), but Sougo kept himself optimistic, while Hiryuu probably didn?t.

IWAE! He has arrived!



But otherwise, for now Hiryu has just debuted, his purpose here is to show off his power first, not only that he can make use of other Rider powers like Sougo and Geiz (and those kind of Riders are usually OP, among all franchise, like Tsukasa before, anniversary Riders), but he also has Zi-O II's future sight ability. Though otherwise, the people who are infuriated with him above has good reason for that. Swartz is also a speculation, Heure and Ora is now suspicious of him, so Ora is relatively better person compared to Swartz, of course not saying much though, they're still speculating about Swartz being the one behind Zi-O II.