[DreadBringer]

The (half) recap episode.

Though for the in-universe audiences, this'd be just simply a full-recap episode with all its lows, poor them. But actually for us, at least Geats also tries to make this more than just a recap episode, in revealing how the core trio got selected as Riders. I guess the hugely influental audiences, like the supporters that has a Rider more powerful than the players, would suggest the people they want as Riders, but with the Game Master giving final approval and enlist them to game. In this recap, somehow the Riders they see as the most prevalent one outside of Geats is Tycoon and Na-Go, and not Buffa. I guess it's not me alone who can notice that those 2 can outshine Buffa at times despite him dismissing them as extras, lol.

The DGP's story is told to have spanned through various history, and that there are actually many more winners than just Ace. I wonder if there can be multiple DGPs running at once just in different history period. And the wishes are stated to be mostly about authority positions. I wonder if there can be a wish that doom said world like Kanato's.

Someone can be entertained in various way but Ziin picks Ace due to his sheer competence, even pre-DGP, where flashbacks show that as a high school student he's already able to fight off Jamatos as a human. Safe to say, Ace would be a Rider who is an instant expert type, like those who already started off as capable fighter before turning into Riders such as Banjou or Sakura, which'd make him one of top contenders for the DGP from his very start, only getting better due to his accumulated knowledge of the DGP. Some real life audiences often get entertainments from the suspense and stakes of the show, finding Ace's type predictable, but Ziin's the type who'd like invincible fighters, seeing how they'd win even if he knows already.

Other than that, the Ace flashback further displays completely modern times, just like Ace's photo with his "real" parents when little. This raises more question regarding his claim of him starting to fight since 1 A.D. I know he can be a lying bastard, but there can be some screwy memory shenanigans regarding him and Mitsume, as Niram teased in ep. 17, including said year, but dunno. But the modern time can explain why Ace only has 4 wishes granted which'd mean he's not fighting for 2000 years. It's also unknown how Ace can get that good in at least fighting in the first place, of which it seems to be unnoticed by a student who tells him to run away.

Keiwa's origin is the "good ones being deemed worthy for great power" type, as expected, with Kekera noticing that he makes for an ideal Kamen Rider material with him trying to save a woman he recently met, shaken by the deaths caused by the DGP, and world peace/reviving those dead as main goal. If Kyuun has actually watched Neon's life in her house, and is actually the reason for him to support her, then I wonder why he claims she's an ungrateful brat who tries to run away from her parents. Or that he's just pointing out her fanbase, in a very hostile manner due to his own way of communicating or such. In an all-digital era (even for something ancient to DGP), they make Kyuun use magic letter of all things, to communicate with her, instead of well, chats or something.

When Beroba hijacked the DGP's broadcast, I guess now the official reveal of what the Jamatos are happened here, that they really are only enemies created for the DGP. Which proves that the DGP "saving the world" is a fake advertisement. There are new reveals that the dead Rider's bodies are used as fertilizers because it's what evolves the Jamato into turning them more human-like, until now where it's the time for them to take over human civilization by having their wishes granted via the Jamato Grand Prix by beating Niram and taking his Driver. This is Ex-Aid stuff of Kamen Rider Chronicle meant for Bugsters to defeat humans. I wonder if it's yet another Gaim reference when Beroba calls Michinaga, "Michi". As if they named him like that on purpose. Michinaga's current status of being infected with Jamato also makes him technically a JGP participant.

Expected that Keiwa talking to Neon about them becoming proper Kamen Riders in previous episode was a tease for them defending civilians outside of DGP rounds here, as the DGP is suspended, which as Ace points out, offers no reward to them, which is what 'proper' Kamen Riders do by defending civilians from monsters, likely meant to be against the DGP's fake premise. Except that they don't henshin when they're saving the civilians. Are the pawn Jamatos evolving to be stronger here when Neon, and possibly Keiwa (who got Ace kick the Jamato away from him), gets more overwhelmed by them here? As seemingly the higher-ranked Jamatos are weaker lately, to have Riders handle them more easily - Buffa, Tycoon, and Nadge-Sparrow in their entry forms.

Neon never won Michinaga's soft spot and now he likely would hate her more for DezaStar stuff, but this part further shows that Neon's another one who defies Michinaga's assumptions of every Riders only doing good for their own gain. Ace is actually established as mindful of civilians too in ep. 2, or more in his amnesiac phase for ep. 15, but at the same time untrustworthy due to his lying nature. So it's explained here that he can occassionally play up as a 'tsundere' and put an ulterior motive facade, like claiming to only hunt infected Neon for points in ep. 4, simply to live up to his liar fox persona. Yeah Keiwa asked if he's lying at the end of ep. 8 for a good reason. With the DGP changing, dunno if the DezaStar stuff will be touched upon again in the future.

In contrast to that, the supporters, or at least Ziin, only cares about getting entertained and doesn't really care about the gravity of the situation, with him openly declaring to be entertained in an actual Jamato attack without reset that Geats participated in. That adds more suspicions on Ziin, who also only fights Beroba to get the DGP to continue. Ziin's personality is also that he's quite lazy to dislike putting efforts, but he seems to tolerate other supporters that he understands how it feels to root for the Riders they really root for. Kekera in human form and Kyuun also joins Ziin, and their Rider form is actually non-humanoid ones, with Kekera having frog-like abilities and Kyuun being a flying one, which makes Ziin the least odd one among all of them. As a main threat, Beroba seems to be on her own league to take on 3 supporter Riders at once.

I guess actually the game premise continues, instead of being stopped, in the war to gain Goddess of Creation, but with the JGP fighting the DGP. Samas actually cracks at this situation, and also Tsumuri only can hope that the Riders win, though Niram stays calm despite the trouble Beroba caused him, to prepare themselves fighting the JGP. I wonder if by this, Niram would be a full-time ally to the main casts, at least the core trio. About the Jamatos turning more and more human, now I left to guess if the personalities of the returning Riders as Jamatos, shown in Toru in next episode, have their personality altered (and how much) or stay the same.