[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It's one of my favorite things about Sougo? He wants people to follow their dreams and work to make a better future for themselves, even if he's an obstacle to that future. I think that's weirdly heroic, his refusal to put himself above anyone else?

Oh you're talking about Woz here, to steer Sougo becoming something he didn't want to. Otherwise, obviously this is heroic and not in a weird sense, I'd rather if the heroic definition isn't only mistakenly relegated into beating up bad guys/saving people from death or sacrificing oneself's life, it should be about any regular good deeds in any form.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O: OVER QUARTZER

It?s all over the place, this thing. We start with a Mach guest-appearance, then spend some time in the Sengoku Period for some slapstick comedy, then find out that Everything We?ve Ever Known About Sougo Is Wrong (in a development that looks at the stupidity of Swartz?z plot from Episode 43 and says ?hold my beer?), then have a battle over Heisei?s sloppiness (???), then look at the aftereffects of the film?s plot and go Ha Ha WHO CARES. Tonally, it?s disorienting and unpleasant. It?s swinging wildly between insane extremes, never letting the audience get a handle on if the movie should be taken seriously or not. The only way to make it work would be to either ground it in character, or have a theme so transcendent that any plot defects are irrelevant.

Actually, this is the reality of Zi-O, Sougo's alternate self throughout the multiverse isn't only his older Ohma Zi-O form, but there are multiples of them. Barlckxs (whose name is based on Black RX, like other Quartzer members like Zamanos to Amazons) is another alternate self to Sougo too, so our Sougo is dealing with at least 2 evil versions of him in the alternate timeline, Ohma Zi-O and Barlckxs. Actually Barlckxs is purposely taking advantage of his similar identity to Sougo for his plans, like secretly saving Sougo as a child using his time powers so that Swartz would chose our Sougo to become the demon king (and is used as Barlckxs' secret body double) and gather all of the Heisei Riders' powers into one, and to unify the worlds of the Heisei Riders so Barlckxs could destroy and remake them. Then to ensure Ohma Zi-O's rise in that timeline, Barlckxs gave Woz the Ohma Advent Calendar which details how Oma Zi-O comes to be and have him sabotage any threat to those events. And most importantly, he takes advantage of Sougo's multiple selves to have the main cast is focused on the Sougo we see, so Barlckxs can reset the world without the main cast interfering.

The Sengoku Period part, is also an ironic part that is caused by Barlckxs, due to his schemes, Geiz became seen as Nobunaga (as the real one is crybaby and incompetent) and thus, Geiz is Sougo's inspiration as demon king, while Geiz at first wants to murder Sougo, and later wants to prevent him becoming one. Obviously though, his schemes would actually create someone who is far stronger than Barlckxs could ever be which leads to our Sougo gaining the power needed to defeat Barlckxs. Actually Barlckxs had a comparison to actual Sougo, being the foil to Ohma Zi-O as the evil future versions of our Sougo; Ohma Zi-O has metal watch band motif, lets Sougo act on his own including telling him a way to change his past, with minimal influence (Woz and Kasshin), and has powers based on Heisei Riders. Barlckxs has leather watch band motif, directly tries to get rid of Sougo, and has powers based on Showa/Lost-Heisei Riders.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The villains are brand-new, their organization is brand-new, and the main dude?s claim to being the Real Tokiwa Sougo makes absolutely zero sense, given the 43 episodes of TV we?ve already watched. There?s no real character to speak of, for any of them. They?re riffs on Showa Riders and pre-Kuuga Heisei Riders, which is cute but insubstantial. Barclkxs (I am never looking that up) is all unbelievable claims and Thematically-Relevant Platitudes. He never ever ever feels like anything other than the writer?s weird Anti-Heisei strawman, a character dedicated to destroying a thing we love to replace it with I don?t even know what. At least the dude in HeiGen Forever wanted to be the only one to smile! This guy?s just remaking history because he doesn?t like 21st-century Kamen Rider shows?

For the riffs on Showa Riders and pre-Kuuga Heisei Riders though, I gotta praise some of the spectacles that is delivered by those Riders, like some folks here do. I do think that the fight scenes make use of the Rider powers quite well, though not 100% of it, but it gave similar vibes to the Decade's War sequence that existed at the beginning and late of the series. Zi-O Ohma Form, not actually Ohma Zi-O, but an extra final form based on it. And obviously, though the Rider Kicks combined for all the Riders are the simplistic ones, which'd make for a bland finishing move individually, there's a flavor added on it with the kicks forming the Heisei Riders logo. And for said Barlckxs, I don't know if this should be something you like too as he used Kamen Rider J's power to turn himself giant and the power of Black RX's Bio Rider form to be near-invincible, which are Showa's power, but fell to the Heisei Riders.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Our heroes don?t fare a whole lot better. The only members of Team Zi-O who get any real arcs are Woz and Sougo, and neither of them make a ton of sense. Woz?z plot depends heavily on his devotion to a character we?ve never seen before, fulfilling a nonsensical scheme that contradicts vast swaths of a show we?ve spent a year watching, before rejecting those dumb things to once again be the guy we?ve spent a year watching. It?s all ridiculous.

I'd say here that, Woz's portrayal seems to be the most vulnerable version of him with him losing his cool in his first battle with Geiz to tell about how he's different, and that he here seems to be the closest to the other main cast despite that he's in Quartzer's side at first, like he actually discussed plans normally with Tsukuyomi here. And after betraying Barlckxs, Woz also spouted actually uplifting ideals related to the Heisei Riders instead of only hyping up Riders' debuts or wanting for Ohma Zi-O's rise too here. I guess for Sougo, it's about how he came up to terms in how he was only a pawn for someone else's plans, though this is something that had been done in multiple Rider series like the reveal of how the main Riders are only pawns to someone else, but Sougo got pep talk from another case of false parody Rider, Takeshi Kinashi (to Takeshi Hongo), but even a silly parody like Kinashi can still fight evil with none of the recognition as an official Rider, there's absolutely no reason Sougo, who was still chosen to become Zi-O, shouldn't be able to as well. Though somehow this was the one that gave Sougo breakdown for the revelation of how he's a pawn.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

As a theme, it?s not bad. The problem is that Barcklsx and the Quartzers won?t stop talking about Heisei?s disorder as though it?s a commonly-held opinion, rather than something pretty random that the movie never tries to provide any context for. He?s just like Your World Doesn?t Make Sense and starts hoovering people up into the sky; his argument is nowhere. If you?re going to make your entire film subservient to a particular thesis, it needs to be more than just some disconnected Sougo speeches. It needs to feel like a point-of-view, and it never does here.

Yeah, this one's really the poor executed part in my opinion, it's how the "inspiring speech" part of a plot can be really done hollow (but doesn't mean preaching is meaningless and that only action matters). Barlckxs only talked about Heisei being messy and that Sougo counters that it's ok being messy. I guess this is purposely done like this so the messy talk can be broadly applied to anything like this discussion, though how would rewriting flaws as nobility and selfishness as sacrifice, make a better world? It'd normalize problematic behaviors and desensitize current issues. No need fiction too to glamorize those, there's already media that glorifies negative actions, including uninentionally, as it sells more. But for overall plot, it may be is related to how inconsistent Heisei Riders from one another to coexist as a single time period, and so want to replace it with single cohesive narrative under their control (I too would prefer the Heisei Riders following their own continuity, would prefer crossovers to be not canon too). Barlckxs is just another self-righteous bastard... or has gigantic OCD, wait probably the former one relates to Sougo too about how he's oblivious, including Ohma Zi-O thinking he saved the world, about how he can't stand a world that doesn't suit his own image, thus he wants to retcon whole Heisei era so it fits his image, and then rule over it as King of Time.