[DreamSword]

I'm now up through episode 23, and have also seen the Beast Rider and GoRider specials.

My fears of Nico and Taiga were not unfounded. The best way I think of to sum it up is that Nico is written very much like a modern MCU character; An obnoxious character who constantly undermines and ruins any sort of tone that the show goes for when she's around. I'll actually be getting into the story of Ex-Aid for once but then here comes Nico to make a derogatory comment or calls the scenario stupid and just immediately take me out of everything. And Taiga becoming a simp for her really does not help anything.

Meanwhile, it's been so interesting seeing just how different Kuroto is here compared to how he is literally every other piece of Rider media that I've seen him in. And really it's actually refreshing in a way, given that I'm pretty 50/50 on whether his antics work for me in a given bit of Rider media.

As for the specials, as infamous as the Beast Rider special is... I don't think it was that bad? Like, sure, it's not anything great, but I've seen far worse in terms of like, everything in terms of Rider. Even the graphic content really is nothing compared to early Phase 1 Heisei or Showa. It was overall just kinda there for me. Really don't get the disdain towards this one.

On the opposite end is GoRider, which from what I understand alot of people really love, and I just don't see it. It's not that it's horrible or anything, and I infact think the overall atmosphere of it is rather good, but outside of that, it just really didn't do anything for me. The logistics of how the final part play out are especially confusing to me. Because like, taking the casual spoiling of Blade's' ending aside, if Kuroto taking on Kenzaki's' form really did cause Battle Fight rules to take effect, wouldn't the game world have crumbled like, immediately, rather than waiting for Kenzaki to show up? And where the heck did Emu even get those GoRider cards?

That's about all the specific thoughts I have. Outside of those, Ex-Aid continues to just be thoroughly okay in my eyes.