[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 41 - “TAKE THY NEIGHBOR’S HAND!”

This opening scene with Team Zero-One does a smart job of keeping Aruto and Izu in the frame whenever Aruto’s talking about his plans and dreams, because they’re not just his plans and dreams anymore, they’re theirs. Him and Izu are one cohesive unit now, and this framing never lets you forget it.

Perfect visual gag. Perfect. The long hold on Fuwa’s face, and then the background explosion just as he breaks. Five stars.

REALxEYEZing is a nice pun, even I didn't have that cross my mind. Also, are you implying that Aruto and Izu are not cohesive unit before?!!

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The whole sequence of Jin’s return to MetsubouJinrai’s “No Humans Allowed” Clubhouse is full of evocative, fascinating shots. This one’s the first of several long-takes for the episode, with the group being shot through a set of blinds. It crushes down the image, creating a claustrophobia to Jin’s pleas for understanding. He’s in a familiar space, but now it’s hostile territory. By both limiting the image and extending the take, we get a lot of anxiety injected into this shot.

It's ironic here that, despite their initial portrayal, it seems as if Jin is the worse one between the 2 (YMMV). While Horobi is already certainly terrible in his ruthlessness to carry out his missions without budging a bit, Jin's the one who is utterly psychotic, did more despicable actions to carry out their missions, and absolutely revels on it. Though there was an implication when he tried to help Seine before being re-hacked. But now, while Jin didn't immediately turn good on his revival at ep. 25, he's the one who changed quicker for the better than Horobi, properly taking care of Humagears (if still imposing some misantrophy beliefs that time), and later, turning good when he starts aiming for Ark (ep. 36) and helping a non-Aruto human (Yua). But overall, this scene is also another Aruto weaponizing friendship scene, with Jin (of all people, for early series context) supporting and advocating him against Horobi.

Otherwise, regarding Ikazuchi, his Raiden persona is completely separate, Raiden was always good, but Ark just intervened. Zea returning Raiden allows him to be the proper big brother to Subaru and Hiden's ally as he always is. Even Ark knew this, in ep. 39, it knew Raiden would turn on them and encourage Zero-One to antagonize them, so Ark returned Ikazuchi's singularity, as a deliberate way to get Aruto alone so Ark could take his Driver. And Raiden was the one who finished off Ark for good here, instead of the main protagonist. Raiden's just one of the Humagears that helping out (though he had the biggest contribution), there are others like Oyakata, 119nosuke, doctors, and nanny-types, which is a reminder that helping out isn't only about beating up bad guys.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

This gag killed me, but I still hate the development. For one thing, Fukuzoe should be President of Hiden Industries. He’s a guy that never stopped fighting for that company, not just its principles. It’s totally his time to be in charge. For another thing, though: I really hate the idea of Aruto coming back to his family’s company. He specifically turned down returning to Hiden Intelligence a few episodes ago because he had his own destiny, his own dream. He could (and should) rebuild Hiden Manufacturing with Izu, honoring their dream. He could (and should) license the Humagear patents to ZAIA/HI – collaborating with Gai, which is something this show is 1000% built on – to save the day. But Gai just being like You’re The Better Man? And Aruto being like It’s Good To Be Back? No thanks! Super-duper no thanks!

I do think that this was quite a regression too for Aruto. Him being shackled back into the destiny as someone who just continues his family's company. There's some Horobi-stuff for Aruto even before, previously, he agreed to become the president only out of necessity to take care of Humagears, when what he wanted before was to become a comedian. But with Hiden Manufacturing, he now is committed into doing what it takes to help Humagears like making a company himself for that. Though if Fukuzoe's in charge, there's something he needs to learn to (or already had), like fighting as Kamen Rider, not focusing on Hiden Intelligence's bottom line (e.g. covering up Magia's attacks, Daybreak Incident).

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

This is the part of the episode where the members of MetsubouJinrai are cut off from the Ark and need to make a decision as to whether they’ll continue to serve, or if they'll rebel against their master. The camera work on all of them are great, but I was especially fond of how trapped Ikazuchi looks in this shot.

When we saw Horobi earlier as the Ark’s emissary, he was shrouded in darkness. Here, as he chooses to defend Jin and the rest of the Humagears against the Ark’s malevolence, he’s backlit and bathed in light. Great visual cue that this is a Horobi that’s fighting for his own convictions, rather than at the whim of some orbiting tyrant.

Bathed in light? It's true that now Horobi fights for his own convictions, but if light also meant good, then it's far from the case here (though it may be a bait to think Horobi has received enlightenment, but actually NO. Jin did win in their debate though). As I said before, just because Horobi is fighting against the bad guys, doesn't mean he's redeemed at that time, bad guys can fight another bad guys. And Horobi is very much that. After fighting Gai due to his hatred of humanity making use of Ark, now he's someone who is against Ark, thus he fights them along with the cast. But, because he's against Ark, he STILL performs exactly the same actions as Ark's pawn before, killing all humans, because he holds them accountable in the rise of Ark, in their corrupt traits (and lumping all humans together). No humans means no corrupt traits (in his eyes) and no Ark. So.. what's good of working with people you don't like in this case? Though of course this is working with another villain, this is quite a natural outcome of what'd happen after the common threat is beaten, there are no reasons to ally anymore.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Because the real threat hasn’t been Hate as a concept, it’s been the people who act on hate. In one of my favorite developments, Horobi has followed Phoenix from Wizard’s example and let a hero give him a pep talk that convinces him of the righteousness of his crusade against humanity. Aruto’s no longer dealing with a Horobi that’s just a vessel for mindless hatred against humanity. He’s facing a Horobi that has seen how humanity’s capacity for hatred has lead to multiple near-extinction events for Humagears, and could potentially lead to more in the future. Horobi’s war against humanity is now personal and logical, grounded in hope for his people and a desire to protect his family. He’s fighting for something now, and that makes him more dangerous than the Ark ever could be.

Yes, Horobi's turn of character's journey, starts, now. It's really late yeah for him, even more than Jin (at ep. 25), and Ark (at ep. 36). This is also a reminder that, even if the actions (and outcomes) of 2/more different people is exactly the same, it doesn't mean that they're the same people. For heroic examples, there are those who fight because it's the right thing to do, but there's also those who fight only to get paid (emphasis on "only"). The outcome may be similar, but the latter isn't the same character, they're more selfish and potentially anti-heroic. For Horobi here, and he's a case where his morality doesn't change, this doesn't improve him to even anti-villain levels or such (so much for the 'enlightenment'), if he succeeded, at least the humans would be extinct, but previously, it was to serve Ark, and now, it's his way (and worldview, tbh) to disable Ark, totally opposite aim. And him being more dangerous than Ark? Eh, being dangerous or not isn't decided by someone's character, it's by their powers. You can have genocidal mindset, but you can't carry through that if you're not powerful (or not powerful enough). Horobi isn't likely to surpass Ark in fighting as Kamen Rider, who destroys everyone and only Zero-Two can match.

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Originally Posted by Nokination

Though I guess it's fine to have an anticlimax since apparently the Ark isn't the final villain, but rather Horobi, who wants to extinguish humanity so they can't make another Ark (acting as if he hadn't been the main reason that Ark had such a negative effect on humans and HumaGears), it's felt like since episode 1 that the show has intended to have Horobi be the final villain, but (just like the rest of these Covid episodes) they did it in a rather rushed way.

Wasn't it Gai? And it wasn't a named character that was the reason behind Ark having negative effect. It was random human malice info Gai shared on him, which'd mean random unnamed people were the reason. Horobi is one of the negative effects Ark gave on Humagears, though the experience in this episode still didn't change his genocidal mindset.

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Originally Posted by Enchilada645

"So long as human's have evil in their hearts, the Ark can return" and like, that's not a false statement in the slightest! It was thanks to Gai's animosity towards what Hiden was becoming that he filled a satellite full with malicious data. Who's to say someone else won't do something like that or worse again.

Horobi does have a point here, but while Horobi or other villains can make good points, it can be invalidated depending on who makes the point, like, if they're so horrible person.

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Originally Posted by TheRaizin

Horobi's combo fight with Zero-Two was great, always a fan of how they handle Horobi the rider in terms of how they display his stunts. But from this point on, my view on Horobi starts to crumble. He didn't have quite much development to actually form this realization he has at the end of the episode and it just falls apart when I recall that he looked at Aruto a few episodes ago and thought: "He must be the one that'll change the fate of Humagears". I know, I know, rewrites and Covid and all, but my thoughts remain as they are.

The thing is, development isn't necessarily about someone turning to be a better person. Someone can get development while keeping their morality the same (like Horobi here, or some MCs), or someone can get development to turn even worse, like Micchy in Gaim. For Horobi thinking changing the fate of Humagears.... remember that the keyword is, "fate of Humagears", ONLY Humagears. Not any other species. Humans won't be included in that thought (and Aruto's only 1 person), thus they're not safe if Horobi thinks to keep Humagears safe, he still thinks he needs to exterminate humanity.

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Originally Posted by DreamSword

Gai stepping down and handing the company off to Aruto really does feel like a studio note/mandate. Not only does it go against Aruto claiming his own destiny, but it also makes it look as though Gai is dodging responsibility. Definitely one of the aspects of the show I didn't like.

Apparently, it's probably the "karma" for Gai for all his atrocities before, now he had to lose his CEO position he liked and reveled so much, and is deemed as undeserving to be one and that the man he terrorized so much was truly the better one. Of course, someone can lose CEO position not by doing what Gai had done.