[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 36 - “I’M THE ARK KAMEN RIDER”

Fuwa’s interest in his own normalcy isn’t hugely relevant to the battle against Ark, beyond his new-found appreciation for AIs, but even that’s both weird and sort of irrelevant. Weird in that, like, shouldn’t Naki’s journey have been more convincing to Fuwa than some $60 hunk of plastic that doesn’t even know him? Why does Fuwa spending an afternoon with a chatbot engender a fighting belief in Humagear destiny? (Which… this episode treats An AI Without A Body as some sort of breakthrough that Bot comes up with, but isn’t it exactly what Aruto did for the dad of the voice actor back in Episode 6?) And it’s irrelevant in that he was already going to kick Ark’s newly-constituted ass for multiple previously-established reasons, starting with Attempted Genocide and ending with Just Hospitalized Yua. Having him shoe-horn in some high-minded empathy is kind of distracting, and not totally earned.

(That said, the stuff with his family is very cute. Some Dads Are Alive, and they are the source of Fuwa’s dopey sense of humor.)

Fuwa has been established as someone with a boring average life, but perhaps that's also required to give him a real closure, even if he didn't really care about his past before. Fuwa's rampage against Humagears came iirc because of his killed family in his false memories. With Fuwa finding out that his past is fake, he still got an inherent concern about his family, which can be different from that false memories, even if he'd not care about the past. Now, here, seeing his family live in peace, sharing his terrible sense of humor that can still brought them happiness, which makes him feel easy and lifted his burdens on his shoulders to worry about them less with them being safe and keep fighting. He no longer hated Humagears since ep. 29, but this strengthened his belief in Humagears too. And as Enchilada645 said, it's good for a series to try giving a proper solution to broken individuals (both Fuwa and Yua), by giving them a therapy, which obviously the emotionless Naki can't do the job.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The Ark stuff is a little dull to start, but I like where it ends up. The beginning fights, where the Big Boss has to show off its unstoppablosity – fine, whatever, I get it. Not my favorite mode of storytelling, but it’s how these shows have always worked. (I like it better when the villain has a strategy to negate the hero's abilities, or creates a trap that keeps the hero unsteady and ineffective. I don’t like the basic He’s Just Unbeatable approach.) And, gosh, I do not love that Jin and Yua’s strategy is the Metal Cluster Hopper -slash- Swartz strategy of empowering your adversary to ludicrous levels, and then just assuming you can stop them. Why in the world did the two of them think this plan would work?! I thought Yua was the smart one!!! But Yua immediately and correctly castigates herself for this boneheaded scheme, so I’m not super angry about it. Characters and plans can be dumb, so long as it’s acknowledged very quickly that they’re dumb.

I can't talk about this due to spoilers for much later part of series ofc, but it really is who Yua is, she's a failure. She had good intentions for joining AIMS (actually ZAIA), but she ended up becoming Gai's tool for quite some time, not in literal sense, but as a pawn that is used and discarded. Then to make it up for what she had done at ZAIA, it backfired as she and Jin gave it a physical body to rampage instead.

Perhaps by this, someone shouldn't be judged by their outer demeanor/impression? Sure, Yua from the outside (especially at debut), would feel like the typical competent person that they're usually portrayed as cold, aloof, stoic, ruthless, etc. portrayed as professionalism which Yua had, but yeah she's not the hypercompetent everyone-carrier (like to Fuwa, even if him playing by his own rules can cause problems, but not for him breaking open Progrise Keys, if he can, just let him) expected from her demeanor. Competency isn't about having cold demeanor, and for the opposite, coldness isn't inherent competency too.

It's a sudden idiotic moment for Jin though to think Ark-Zero can be destroyed with physical body. And as said before yeah, Jin had turned good now to foil Ark and ZAIA's palns, and getting Yua (another human) to hospital. Jin was still anti-villainous in his revival to take care of Humagears, but invade humanity, while having soft spot for Aruto. It's unknown when he had planned to be a double-agent against Ark, but the time he began that was the part he became good (probably the part he suddenly supported MetsubouJinrai.net again after ep. 35). Unfortunately though, Jin becomes the primary target for Ark to possess with, due to him being immune to Azu taking his Singularity (good explanation from you btw about why Jin may've been immune unlike others).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE SO-DO AI 09: KAMEN RIDER ARK-ZERO

Pretty great suit? Beyond the kind of Body Horror feel to its unfinished state, there’s a ton of fun details to this physical manifestation of hatred towards humanity. The one red eye, to signal that this is The Ark who’s addressing you; the wires snaking out, like the cables in the MetsubouJinrai hideout/clubhouse; the creepy half-grin; and all the Zero-One But Painted Black notes under the surface, to show you what the Ark is trying to combat. Smart suit, creepy as hell, definitely like looking at it.

Good that despite your previous grievances with Ark, you'd still appreciate the suit, because I do too. I do like Ark's fight debut here that though obviously Yua and Jin wouldn't be killed off, Ark is devastating enough. The power is battle-based (seems like evil version of Metal Cluster) and Ark makes good use of his powers at debut instead of merely knocking people down with fists while forgetting the power. Like telekinesis, laser beams, and spheres of dark energy. You have the impression that Ark's only about being unbeatable here...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

Being completely honest... probably a step up from a lot of Kamen Riders. Aruto might be the smartest Rider in terms of like, mental needs so far. In that, you've got him trying to help a fellow Rider get therapy before the series ends. I feel like Fuwa's got it good compared to the many Riders both before AND after him!

Therapy seems to be, often ignored concept in fiction, due to keep the drama and conflict going or perpetuate character's quirks for entertainment, keeping the characters broken for the story. And even if they're working to put the character on better state, the team's probably primarily about inserting fighting and special effects (+ ideal screaming) as tokusatsu show... which can dillute that.