[DreadBringer]

I'd say, one of the most unexpected decision done in Geats so far to me, the secondary Rider being eliminated this early.

There's less of the other Riders' addressing/talking about Ace's previous behavior than what I anticipated, even for Keiwa himself. Everyone's now too focused on their wishes or for Keiwa, saving Sara. No time for anything other than fighting final boss though, but Keiwa now expects Ace to accept the team up, albeit he doesn't have much choice. He's also still friendly to him at the end, albeit he thinks Ace is still lying.

The reveal of something regarding the Sakurais is something rather simple and.. basic of their parents being killed by the Jamatos, but this now reveals something more regarding DGP, both mechanics and questions, that touching an ID core makes the person regain their DGP memories, and there's something odd that the DGP didn't bring back the Sakurai parents. In this episode, Sara's the damsel in distress, but now Sara learned 2 shocking revelations in her life that her parents didn't die by accident and Keiwa's a Kamen Rider.. and amazing adult at this point. Dunno how'd she process that next or it'd be forgotten again.

Being a Yuya Takahashi series, now he made a scene reminiscent of Emu asking others to team-up at the beginning. Keiwa previously has shown to be someone who insists the DGP to be used to protect the world from Jamatos, as well as having lack of understanding to people's strong convictions, and here Keiwa's inadvertently self-righteous, but is still consistent in making use of those traits. Protecting the world is still, his personal expectation, not DGP's, and here his attempts come off as forcefully bending them to his will, with no regard to their own individuality. Even if Michinaga's a scumbag who wants to take out his anger via the wish, two wrongs don't make a right.

For that, now Ace's the one that holds the higher moral ground to Keiwa, after his darkest reveal yet previously. Doesn't erase what he did previously, but this also reaffirms that though he can be ruthless, he has standards and isn't a bad person overall by that. Usually other good jerk Riders display that by calling out others they feel are doing worse too (like Ren to Kitaoka in Ryuki). What Ace did is rather similar to his usual previous, to insist others grinding for what they want, but due to Keiwa's escalating trait to self-righteous territory, now Ace also had called Keiwa entitled here. Otherwise, Ace also now crosses into cynical territory for his realist views to not believe that kind of selflessness exists, but proven wrong later.

There's more rift between Keiwa and Neon as well, after Neon was the Rider who Keiwa never criticized before, as now Keiwa calls her out for her prioritizing her wish that, not accepting his suggestion would mean there are no world anymore. Keiwa's of course at fault for imposing his will to others, but wonder if she has her share of faults here as well to not address his or Sara's situation, the latter which is her fan (even if still to confirm that she's here to win). I also wonder if her established conflict of feeling wrong to keep fighting for her wish before is still ongoing even after Ace answered that, if her concern for Keiwa before and after the team up suggestion was genuine.

Has been shown before, but Michinaga once again displays that rude, aggressive, toxic gamer type behavior doesn't always get you ahead in how causing an infighting would have him miss a chance instead with the boss escaping, or for DGP, also penalty in points. Michinaga only cares about Ace losing, but shows that being nice (like Keiwa) isn't the only reason to finish last, but being rude too can qualify, just for different purposes (especially Kanato before, both him and Keiwa seems to care the least of winning DGP). He's obviously abrasive to Keiwa all throughout episode, and dismissing his elimination as one less Rider, but dunno if there's sliver of soft spot to him in him running after him along with Neon after his Ninja fight but stopped himself.

Though he's eliminated, Keiwa gets to be cool the first time, by making full use of the Ninja Buckle that goes to him for his self-sacrificing nature, not only to distract and last against the Knight Jamato, but also practically matching it. Seems that compared to Geats using it, in Tycoon's hand it's able to use his giant shuriken as a "hover board". And Tycoon performed a flutter jump in one of his leaps to a window?? Other than that, I also find Na-Go kicking away the can as another unexpected stuff, to have a female Rider that has infamous reputation throughout the franchise to have the closest shot to winning. Neon's previous training paid off, and as she did that on human form, she should've made use of her physical prowess against her bodyguards.

No way this is the last we see of Keiwa, but I'm interested to know how they'd bring him back to DGP, and particularly, keep his character development progress as the eliminated got their memory erased. The simple way would be him touching an ID core by pure chance, but it'd be good if his diaries would be a way to re-integrate him to DGP with his current development, making good use of what's established so far, which is one of Geats' primary strength as series.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

After finding out that his parents weren't revived like they should've been, he expresses a lack of empathy for people's motivations and even throws a tantrum when Michinaga rightfully reminds him that they're literally playing a competitive game.

Ironically, Shinji's character development in Ryuki at the end had him probably pulling something similar to Keiwa here. He spent most his time on the series being conflicted if him stopping the war is the right thing if it denies the other's wishes, and at the end he made up his mind to have his own wish in closing the Mirror World so there's no more bloodshed... regardless of other's wishes. Though I have some conflict here that, if it's actually fair for Keiwa to prevent dangerous wishes like Michinaga's (lesser version of Kanato's) or someone he knows is untrustworthy in Ace to see the light.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

So I'm glad this episode takes the time to shine a light on his flaws, teaching him that just cause he strives to be a hero who elevates others doesn't mean it's fair for him to expect that same heroism of others. True heroes lead by example, not by preaching, which is where Keiwa failed here.

What differentiates between preaching and actually true heroes chastising wrong behavior (general dialogue), for you? As, what someone do between fights is important too, like something can have same outcome but different individuals, like someone who fights off monsters to protect, or someone who takes out their vengeance at monsters who happened to threaten civilians. Though, some people were speculating that Keiwa will turn heel in similar way Daiji w/o Kagerou did in Revice... even at the series announcement.