[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER - REIWA: THE FIRST GENERATION

It’s all the lowest-hanging daddy issues shit, and I can generally take or leave it. This franchise is lousy with dudes who lost one or both parents at a narratively convenient off-screen age – all the better to facilitate an endless number of kindly uncles or oblivious grandfathers or well-meaning belts. I don’t honestly know why Toei’s internal policy is that living parents are detrimental to the sales of toys to children, but I’ve never done any focus-testing in Japan. Maybe every child in Japan is actually being raised by a mysterious benefactor who found them suffering from amnesia in the rain, and is secretly training them to bring about the end of the world, and they want to see their lives reflected back at them. I don’t know! But I do know that All Dads Are Dead.

Yeah, all dads are dead so far (until Revice as said above which is fully against this), and it's not Toei exclusive thing, many characters in series are made independently without their parents in general. It's probably done solely for story's sake, and as it seems that some people tend to forget non-tragic backstories, many backstories are made by filling it with tragedy (of which some think that type is the only one qualified as backstory), and the loss of parents are easy way and thus a popular choice. Either to satisfy what they think people demand or that this type of backstory had been done so much some people forget about the more normal backstories. Or that they'd want to avoid writing parents if they can't do so, and it'd kill 2 birds with 1 stone to provide what they think are compelling backstory and a reasonable excuse to not write about parents.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

So to see this movie not only go all in Aruto Requires Closure From His Dad, but then hinge the entire climax on the film with Aruto needing to physically defeat AND KILL his own father to prove that he’s capable of being his own man… I hate that? I hate almost every word of that, and it all feels antithetical to every single smart thing this show ever did. The scene of Headphones Dad tearfully telling Aruto how proud is he of Aruto, finally, because Aruto was able to murder him – for COMPLETELY FAKE REASONS – made me so angry I almost turned it off. Aruto fighting his dad is gross. Headphones Dad faking being evil to force Aruto into a fight is disgusting. The movie deciding that Aruto executing his father is both an unavoidable and deeply noble act, that should be celebrated, is horrifying.

This is an altered time of Zero-One, the alternate timeline to have... all of this happening so it's separate from the main series, but yeah it does betray the principle of Aruto having a good, loving Humagear dad that fueled his worldview, because here, though he's not operating in malice, he seems to be a dad who gave poor upbringing to Aruto, like his view of his son being ready to be on his own is the.. outdated Spartan way of besting him in a fight? Along with the complicated setup like feigning being corrupted with Ark to make sure that the fight is done to the death so Aruto can be "independent". Why making yourself dead in the process? Kids would rather have their parents around right even if they're already an adult. Another showing of Soreo having poor grasp of being a parent here. This is an alter(ed)nate timeline, but dunno if Soreo would pull BS like this?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I mean, sort of. There’s an idea in here that I think is worth exploring, even if the movie never really wants to discuss it in a meaningful way. It’s in the scene where Will is talking to Aruto’s grandfather about the recent promotional push for the Humagear launch. Hiden is positioning the Humagears as a way to bring smiles to humanity. Will askes, simply, how will humanity bring smiles to Humagears? It’s a fair question, and a smart question. Hiden can say that Humagears are partners to humanity, but everything about them is sold as slave labor. What is humanity doing to uplift Humagears? Aruto’s grandfather basically goes You’re So Clever and immediately leaves the room, so we never even get to hear even a bullshit platitude to placate Will, and I’m starting to understand his genocidal rage. This is a question core to both this movie, and the series as a whole, and almost no one wants to address it. What we’re given is just Don’t Do A Genocide, and I’m not sure that gets at the fundamental imbalance in the human/Humagear relationship?

Korenosuke is definitely well-intentioned and sticks to his principles, and he does have preparation in the main series when the robotic war happens, like Zea to fabricate the Zero-One Driver and give Izu orders, but here yeah, he really does have a severe lack of foresight here and can unintentionally cause some problems himself. He outright deflected Will's question here. This is an example of miscommunication (TM) that plagued the conflict. I also even think that Korenosuke had a lack of foresight when announcing how humans would be free from work at the presentation, and.. so where'd humans get their incomes? Though in the series he doesn't believe in androids stealing human's jobs. Though of course, Will's genocidal rage is probably understandable but he'd target far more than just Korenosuke, but humans who don't have anything to do with him. This movie actually displayed about how Ark worked, it corrupts and brainwashes the Humagears into submitting to its... will. Will himself actually isn't brainwashed though as a twist and used Ark to accompany him.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Zi-O does not fare that much better! Team Zi-O’s incredibly charming in this, old pros showing how it’s done, and incredibly wasted in this. The movie never quite finds a way to integrate Sougo’s worldview into the narrative, leaving him and Geiz and Tsukuyomi and Woz to hover at the edges and deal with a bland I’m Here To Talk About Generations And Riders villain. (I don’t know why there are still more Timejackers???) They feel like they’re guest-starring on someone else’s show, rather than collaborating on an exciting new adventure. They’re a plot device to get Aruto moving back and forth in time, and that’s about it. You could take out the Another Ichigou stuff entirely and it wouldn’t affect either the plot or the themes.

I have to say that Finis (that Time Jacker's name, obviously, it's based on “finish”, or "end" as in Latin, as so far the last Time Jacker to appear. Also based on finis word that in Swedish, typically means "closing time" or "the end") has stunning outfit, but that's about it. They (Finis' genderless as per actress interview) only had wanting revenge for Swartz, for unknown reasons why one would be fiercely loyal to total scumbag like him.... and some misleading trailer that painted Finis as a someone who tried to alter Zero-One's history to prevent the tragedy of Daybreak Town, but the end product had Finis wiping the history of Kamen Riders instead, like Tid from Heisei Generations Forever. But perhaps, with all your complaining here, the Zi-O part is done so... none of these can be seen as canon as all of those are altered timeline? (crossovers are probably usually done for fan-service). Character wise, I'd say that here, Woz is actually being mostly helpful to others instead of his usual hidden selfish agenda schemings (other than typical hammy debutings).