[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 49 - ?2019 - APOCALYPSE?

The ideal future is the one we all get to live in together.

That's it, really. It's not about defeating foes, or ensuring Oma Zi-O never exists. It's creating a world where people are safe to dream of the future they want to see, and given the support necessary to realize those dreams. The fact that it all looks like the Webtoon spin-off of Kamen Rider Zi-O is just a bonus, maybe. It's cute. It's a very cute ending, for a very cute show.

For now, actually Ohma Zi-O is finally defeated, for now, likely for good if Sougo can keep Ohma Zi-O power later and still be good. But Ohma Zi-O surprisingly accepts his defeat well to appreciate his younger self's decision, that current Sougo still had much of his kindness and would utilize Ohma Zi-O's power that way, thus ending the loop, creating different timeline and erasing Ohma Zi-O from existence for good. This shows that power itself isn't good or evil, the wielder determines. Sougo using Ohma Zi-O's power for good and breaking the loop has a Kuuga reference, that the ending had the main character implied to be corrupted after gaining ultimate power (and it had happened for Sougo in his future self), but turns out that they aren't. Both cases had them managing to not lose control of themselves to darkness (and after Sougo's being really vengeful too), which means Daguva and Ohma Zi-O failed in their goal to corrupt Yusuke and Sougo.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Geiz'z death scene, for example. The emotion in the scene is touching, and the long-awaited moment of Geiz calling Zi-O ?Sougo? ? with his dying breaths ? was exactly as devastating as you'd imagine. (Are we all crying right now?) But it comes on the heels of a somewhat random Geiz sacrifice, and directly before Tsukuyomi decides that she?d rather wait until after Geiz has been murdered to turn on Swartz, so it all feels a bit tainted. The entire final battle has that same taint to it, with Swartz'z goal of stealing Oma Zi-O's power being thwarted by, like, him not actually being able to do that? It retroactively confirms Swartz'z plot to be even dumber than you could've feared, which is not the ideal note for the climax of a year-long series. It makes the events of the middle of this episode feel arbitrary and irrelevant, an action-packed distraction from anything that makes sense or is worth investing in.

Here, Geiz's belief in Sougo has further increased (and likely Tsukuyomi's too, if taking into account of her plotline with White Woz, to entrust both worlds into an already Ohma Zi-O Sougo), to directly tell Sougo to become Ohma Zi-O, the very thing he had tried to prevent. So for this timeline, not only that Geiz became Sougo's comrade, but Geiz was the driving factor of the rise of Ohma Zi-O himself, Geiz's friendship with Sougo caused the biggest irony of the series has, or that the situation has become so dire that Geiz can only rely on the very demon king (+newfound trust).

Tsukuyomi's chance to strike Swartz was when he tried to flee, of which happened after Geiz's death. But otherwise, it's a karmic fate for Swartz, as Swartz had been manipulating others constantly, yet he ended up getting manipulated by his younger sister, the person he hated the most, by playing on his universe-sized ego, so she has to suck up to Swartz and thus Swartz would think those who praise him are on his side, as they're pleasing him. But of course, her Rider showing is the definitive female Rider curse, to never properly fight as for now (like Ghost, the female Rider was only sent against the biggest threat), even though she successfully fooled and (literally) backstabbed him, unlike Ora before, the stab probably can be done without being a Rider.

You've talked about personal preference before, but yeah they wrote Swartz's downfall to be his ego and pride, other than Tsukuyomi exploiting it above, he had to learn the hardest way that, evil artifacts are not a toy. In this case, Ohma Zi-O's power cannot be stolen or controlled by anyone but Sougo. And their ensuing fight is a good reason that Another Decade cannot do anything to Ohma Zi-O, as Ohma Zi-O cements himself as the strongest Rider on the entire franchise by far and everyone fear him for a good reason, even the endgame villains of the series, including Daguva and Evolt, die only in 1 attack. Though Daguva only used its fire ability and likely didn't go full potential, likely to keep Sougo alive so he becomes Ohma Zi-O, but though the spectacle is good enough, I kinda wish that Sougo takes both himself and Swartz to another world (like Fourze Cosmic's portal, Gaim's Helheim crack, or Ex-Aid's Stage Select) where Sougo (or Daguva and likely Swartz) can go all out using planet-busting levels of powers or something, even if the outcome would be still Ohma Zi-O curbstomping. It's a karmic death for Swartz to be killed by the very powerful creation he created to steal from, and after Swartz killed both his close friends.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

That little breakfast scene with Sougo and Uncle! It could be maudlin and funereal, but it?s warm and goofy and bittersweet and resolute in its humanity. (The bit where Uncle tells Sougo this can't be his last supper, because it?s breakfast!) Just when everything in this show should be preparing Sougo for a death march, the wacky uncle delivers the key to victory, and makes sure that Sougo knows to bring everyone home.

Other than the little breakfast scene, it's shown here as expected, Junichiro can... repair Ridewatches, because it's a clock-like device which is Junichiro's speciality. So... even among the people closest to him, Junichiro's potential is also wasted, as Sougo and everyone opted to keep his Rider identity a secret. As turns out here, Junichiro can practically help out in combat too by taking care of Ridewatches (he previously did that in DenLiner too).

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And then the aftermath, as we?ve wound things back to the beginning, to September of 2018. But it's a better version of the beginning, a future version, where the lessons of the last year are built into the foundation of the world. Where the battles and rivalries of this show get recast as supportive friendships and second chances. Where Oma Zi-O still might exist at some point in the future, but Sougo's support network has never made him feel farther away. Where everyone gets to see what future awaits them.

As Sougo makes good use of the enormous power of Ohma Zi-O to instead repair the damages caused by everyone, he seems to also take advantage of its power to make a decision based on his own happiness as well, to grant himself friends based on the reincarnation of his past friends... and enemies (Heure for most of the series, but especially Ora). But I don't feel that it's the Geiz, Tsukuyomi, Heure, and Ora we know at the school, for now, though they have some glimpse of their previous personalities. And as said there, Woz is the only one that still remembers previous events as he didn't die, for the other consequences like Takumi or such, will save that talk for later. Note that this episode shows that, if Woz goes IWAE and hypes out a Rider's entrance, it actually means it's only ordinary. What's exceptional is when Woz is so stunned that he goes completely silent and forgetting his IWAE, so that means Ohma Zi-O's entrance is the actual 'awesome' one. Oh btw, like Ankh from OOO, the original plan of the series was actually Woz betraying the team to be the final antagonist, but his popularity had it being canceled, but dunno if Woz becoming the final antagonist can make the final conflict more interesting than the more generic showdown between Sougo and Swartz.

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Originally Posted by Enchilada645

Man, Tsukuyomi continues to not be good at decision making and planning, like I get what she was going for here but it did not work out in the long run if I'm being honest. I don't mind this appearance of the Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi suit too much because we are going to be seeing a lot more of it. And compared to say something like Kivala who also shows up last minute, they really make as much use as possible of Tsukuyomi's Rider Suit in future project.

Technically she had succeed in her objective, she successfully fooled Swartz and (literally) backstabbed him. Only thing that prevents it working is the power Another Decade has (it'd be anticlimatic if he died by simple stab from ordinary Rider, Ohma Zi-O is the strongest in entire franchise though). Actually Tsukuyomi accomplished greater than the ruthless Ora here in their conspiracy against Swartz. Ora got nowhere, while Tsukuyomi did give the manipulator who has spent the entire series playing the cast like a violin, a taste of his medicine, being the one who got manipulated by the person he hates the most.

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Originally Posted by Enchilada645

Speaking of Oma Zi-O, let's start talking about him or rather Sougo 2068 who during these final episodes has made me appreciate him a lot more than usual. And it's also why I really dislike when people boil him down to like a plain Saturday morning cartoon villain in their depictions of him. He's an excellent antagonist though, a well intentioned kid who wanted to save the world, become a King. Shit went wrong, the memory of the Heisei Riders was erased, and all that was left was a large monument that depicted him the person who seemingly destroyed the world alongside 19 other armored random people.

No offense, but that's very much whitewashing of Ohma Zi-O/Sougo 2068. Note that this doesn't dumb Ohma Zi-O down as Saturday morning cartoon villain (and I disagree with that too), but Ohma Zi-O is still very much evil.

Firstly, while it's true that the Dai Mazines and Kasshin were made by Swartz, doesn't mean Ohma Zi-O did nothing wrong, attacks aren't only Dai Mazines/Kasshin assault, like they're only flies to the strongest Rider in entire franchise so far, Ohma Zi-O did use his newfound powers to establish a so-called military rule by causing worldwide destruction, killing billions and turning earth into a desolate wasteland for him to control what remained of humanity, forcing the survivors to live in ghettos, and he personally annihilates the resistance that was formed to combat him.

And it's true that, including for Over Quartzer, Ohma Zi-O does let Sougo act on his own for most part, though he did send minimal influence, like Woz, who Ohma Zi-O recruited to serve as a corrupting mentor to the younger Sougo. Ohma Zi-O does meet his younger self, but it's to motivate him following the same path as him, becoming another genocidal tyrant, what Ohma Zi-O wants is to see which timeline his younger self would destroy and how he would go on about it. Actually Sougo not choosing the path of destruction which leads to Ohma Zi-O fading out from his existence is his defeat, not some noble risking his existence for younger self's sake. Ohma Zi-O's defeated (for now) by having him fade out of existence instead of monster's explosion, just that Ohma Zi-O accepts his defeat well. Ohma Zi-O failed to corrupt Sougo, like how Daguva failed to corrupt Yusuke in Kuuga, with how he planned to let the Ultimate Form's power corrupt him (as black eyed) if he's defeated. E̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶S̶w̶a̶r̶t̶z̶ ̶d̶i̶d̶ ̶t̶r̶e̶a̶t̶ ̶T̶s̶u̶k̶u̶y̶o̶m̶i̶ ̶r̶e̶s̶p̶e̶c̶t̶f̶u̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶'̶s̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶s̶i̶d̶e̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶a̶s̶s̶k̶i̶s̶s̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶.̶

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

It's not like our Sougo ever knew the Myokoin family, so does Geiz like have totally unrelated parents now? Tsukuyomi's name was never Alpina? Everybody's suddenly calling each other with honorifics? Honestly, these questions aren't even important, since the most shocking part about all this is that Geiz doesn't have his collar anymore! Someone call Tsukasa to destroy this broken world!

I do tolerate this ending better than Ryuki's though, since at least it's not a return to status quo. Another way of thinking about it is that our Sougo is like Amazing Sougo and he just created the Ultimate Sougo universe or something. Maybe the best way to approach this new universe is to try and dissociate it from the one that created it. However, I still think Build creating World C is the best reset ending I've seen in KR.

Actually for Tsukuyomi it's both, she's later would be refered as "Alpina Tsukuyomi". Though other than status quo or not (Ryuki's like that as there were no time travel), even Sougo also didn't really relinquish his evil powers here though either like Shiro in Ryuki ending (making use of his power to revert the damages done by his war). Sougo makes use of his power to revert the damages done too and even granting him some personal benefit in giving himself friends on school based on previous friends (and enemies) by that. Sougo here didn't let the damages occur, by relinquishing his Ohma Zi-O power and didn't do anything or such.