[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

Like, as this thread has gone into good detail with... Kento is not in a healthy mental space during the initial run of Q1 Saber. He is literally teetering on the edge and him getting swallowed up and left to wallow inside darkness... pretty much tips him over that edge. We see Kento look at every possible variation, every potential plan, every differing scenario... and none of it works. There's only one way to completely win and to him that involves a lonely path he must walk against everyone.

A lot of what's interesting to me about Kento is that he's really a focal point of the view this series has on (if you'll forgive the description) The Power Of Positive Thinking. If you put Touma through the same hell that Kento survived, I honestly don't think you'd have the same result. Touma would look at all of those unaverted apocalypses as proof that you just need to keep trying. He could look at an infinity of failures and go Maybe The Next One. He'd arguably come out more convinced that you need to keep hope in your heart, even if the universe is telling you you're wrong.

With Kento... I mean, that's a dude looking to be told by the universe that he's made to suffer. It's selection bias, where he's only ever going to see the data that best conforms with his worldview. He sees his own culpability in every tragedy, so he's inevitably going to see a series of apocalypses as his sole responsibility to resolve; a bunch of prophesized earth-shattering catastrophes is just gilding the lily.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

It's such a random scene, but I really love how your story frames her mindset and how she got to that point. Really nicely done.

Thanks! I like Mei a lot, and I think she's got a really humane (but slightly frustrated) view on this current dumpster fire. She's a go-getter! And funny! And gorgeous! Hard not to want to focus on her when everything else is in ruins.