[FreshToku]

I'm.... really sad to say that this episode actually just in total comes together to being painful for me, and its specifically because it comes so close to being everything that I ever wanted from this show.

Just on paper, everything to do with the confrontation with Oma Zi-O is just absolute perfection. Sougo has already challenged his future self before, but lost even when wielding the same all-encompassing power of all Kamen Riders ("actually he lost because drive-" shut up). In the end, Sougo goes up against Oma Zi-O not with any of those spectacular powers, but with the support of his friends, something Oma Zi-O never had. And after a fierce battle where we see Oma Zi-O get hurt for the first time ever, the overlord finally acknowledges that his younger self isn't destined only to become like him, but has his own different, brighter future after all, and so concedes.

That's so good. It's sooooo good. It's like, the perfect way to end this conflict with its all-powerful villain. It's not only perfect for Zi-O, but I honestly think it'd be the most wonderful, poignant, epic and subversive ending to these shows since Kuuga's final clash with Daguva! Had this episode landed all the necessary beats for me, I'm not kidding when I say this would be my favouirte final boss fight across all of Kamen Rider, and I would have been so quick to brush aside just about every problem I had with the show on the way here.

......But. There's several things, of varying importance, that keep it from being that for me.

1. THE CONTEXT FOR THIS FIGHT TO HAPPEN Honestly not a big deal because I would have even accepted a 'flimsy' reason for this fight to happen like, Sougo just decides he wants to prove a point to his future self here and now. Ideally this whole last stretch of episodes would have actually been about building up to this confrontation with Oma Zi-O being a menace to the past or sending threats to test/challenge Sougo, but that's getting into fanfic theory.

What is here though, I don't get what or why Sougo was doing there in 2068. I know its beating a long, looong dead horse to say the plot doesn't make sense, but the ''''''plan'''''' that Sougo and Tsukasa come up with to save the multiverse and might end with Sougo's life being sacrificed is to go to the future to see Tsukiyomi's past self, slip a Ridewatch into her pocket, so that she becomes a Rider in the present? And that'll save the world??? Sougo didn't even actually ask Oma Zi-O to do that, the latter just threw it in as a bonus?????

2. THE FIGHT ITSELF IS UNDERWHELMING I'll just throw in real quick that when Zi-O first charged in after Oma Zi-O, I sorta immediately assumed we're going to get that classic kind of thing where he would cycle through a bunch of his forms/upgrades. We don't get that but that's fine, the big moment here is Zi-O Trinity vs Oma Zi-O.

And it kinda sucks? I mean, the entire idea behind this fight is that instead of Sougo relying on his amazing Legend Rider powers, he bests his future self with the powers of friendship that the latter never has. Wouldn't the easiest, most logical ways to showcase that be for Zi-O Trinity to bust out any of Geiz'z and Woz'z weapons and abilities? And Trinity's finishing attack, the Time Break Burst Explosion literally summons the imagery of all three riders combining their efforts into one concentrated attack!

The idea of what's actually on screen is probably that having Geiz and Woz by his side is what allows Sougo to push through to land that hit, and that's neat and all, but you know what would have been a very easy way to translate that idea like ten times better? Doing anything with Trinity's actual power, like summoning the axe, the spear, the claw, the super speed, the sunbeams, the actual proper finisher, something. Instead he just uses Zi-O II's big sword. "I've never seen a power like that" Literally not true???

3, and this one's kind of critical. GEIZ AND WOZ ARE JUST PROPS HERE Geiz is finally face to face with the overlord that ruined his life and the lives of everyone he's ever cared about, and is now standing up to him alongside the friend he's forged an unbeatable connection, whom he believes in and trusts more than the overlord's overwhelming power. And Woz is directly challenging the overlord he has devoted himself to, by taking the side of his younger self, whom Woz sees a greater potential in and fervently supports.

And neither of them have anything to say!!! This fight should mean everything to all three of them, but both have nothing to say. Nothing to say to Oma Zi-O, nothing to say to Sougo, nothing to even comment about regarding this situation other than 'oh hey its oma zi-o guess we are fighting him now'. Like what!

I might be willing to cut at least Geiz a little slack. This show overall has no shortage of heroic and heartwarming declarations between him and Sougo, so maaaaybe I can accept that there simply doesn't need to be anything said there at this point (but they should still say it anyway!). But Woz? This episode was the last and only chance for the show to offer any kind of insight or elaboration as to why he does the things he do, why he's devoted to either Oma Zi-O or Sougo, anything to make him more than just the guy who says Iwae. I've been waiting ever since the show first teased hints about the guy's backstory and motivation back in Episode 29. I'm still waiting, in fact.

(I'll also throw in that I wish I could say Tsukiyomi should also have like, an opinion about what's going on with Oma Zi-O, because she's been on the team since day 1 but... Everything the show has done with her with the reveals of being some princess with time powers from another timeline yadda yadda, has sorta alienated her from the show's initial premise. I'm sad to say that as she is now, it feels like she wouldn't have a place in this conflict.)

4. THAT THIS ISN'T EVEN THE FINAL BATTLE I admit this could just be me, but everything about the very fibre of this show from the beginning, and everything in my gut as a person who has consumed at least one piece of fiction in my life, is screaming out that the last conflict in this show ought to be, should have been, needs to be this final confrontation between Sougo and Oma Zi-O.

But no. This whole fight feels more like ticking off something on a checklist rather than a conclusion to a long, series arc. We still have to deal with some nobody in his SIC Decade cosplay! God, I wish Geiz Revive would have just cut this stupid guy's head off with his buzzsaw! Why can't Decade and Diend just handle him like they imply they will?! The only thing that could smooth any of this over for me is if next episode has Tsukiyomi getting rid of Swatczhzs within five minutes and the rest of the finale is just an extended epilogue.

So all in all, this didn't work for me! I know its probably not fair, but had the episodes before this point actually been building up to this point and dealing with Oma Zi-O to culiminate in this battle, I wouldn't have pinned all my hopes for the series as a whole into this one episode. As the show is though, I needed this episode, for this confrontation, to be maybe not perfect, but really really really good! And it could have been if maybe two or maybe even one the points I listed above didn't apply! With just a few tweaks, Zi-O's endgame could have been one of my favourite things in the world.

I know the whole moral of this show is about learning from the past, working towards a brighter future, yadda yadda, but I can't help but fixated on the past and a future that can never be. So, that's on me for perhaps not willing to take the episode and the show as it is in the present.... But it really could have been so, so, so much better!!!