[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER REVICE EPISODE 14 - “THE COMMANDER IS A DEADMAN…!?”

As the Giffamilia either expands its ranks or evaporates three chumps, we get three short stories of the final days of a few returning villains: the Planaria multi-level-monstering guy from the Jeanne debut; Kudo, the scheming attorney; and Commander Chameleon, Fenix’s most recent traitor. They all get one last day to work some evil magic, before they’re forced to get upgraded/obliterated.

Oh, probably this episode's the real turnabout for Revice, instead of George collecting 10 ViStamps. Things really changing much for . 2 of the major human villains Kudo and Amahiko settle their grudges respectively to Ikki and Sakura. And despite being billed as Deadman savior before, this episode actually displays Amahiko as someone only big talk, revealed to be a coward that prefers to save his skin by any means possible (including manipulating which doesn't work on Sakura) like letting Deadmans fight for him, and this elevates Julio in charge to force him becoming Level 2 Deadman himself. As for Kudo, doubling as reply..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Hard to say there’s a main story for this one? We’ll start off with the Kudo/Ikki/Vice one, since it features our title Riders. There’s not a lot to this one (expect to hear that criticism again), but I appreciate how what looks to be a dark story of unhinged revenge turns into a confusing demand for a marauding psychopath to remove his shoes, and then sort of lightly critiques Ikki’s (relative to Riders) lack of empathy. It’s an emotional attack by Kudo that sort of lands on Ikki, since Ikki isn’t super keen on hearing people out when he gets up on his high horse, but it’s not really a fair read of Kamen Rider Revi. It’s Kudo deflecting the blame for his situation onto someone else, because it’s always someone else’s fault with that guy. He took a shortcut that landed him in hock to a cult that worships a yonic sculpture as their dad, and now he’s going to try and shift the blame to the guy who most recently kicked his ass. There’s really nothing in Kudo’s argument to respect or rebut, which is how Vice is able to get Ikki back on side. It’s a cute little story, but it’s not really trying too hard to interrogate Ikki’s nosiness or pushiness.

I don't know why some people can take any villains' words as gospel. A villain making a 'good point' can be one of the reasons for people to even justify them as "did nothing wrong". This one's isn't even an anti-villain that has a noble cause (doesn't mean that the solution is to follow the villains' philosophies and/or course of action), but just someone who is only doing bad things, assaulting civilians, put lives in danger, siding with an organization that regularly hurts others for their own gain. And all only to satisfy his ego of winning streak.

Kudo may made a point, but if it comes from someone without any redeeming qualities, and regularly doing something far worse than just Ikki being clueless at times to the surroundings, it'd be only an example of gaslighting Ikki's actions to make his own actions justifiable. Other than how what someone says make a point, the person who uttered those words should be taken into account too. If it's Kudo talking about that, it's just an example of someone hypocrite, so entitled, would never take responsibility, lacking empathy to comprehend why an action can wrong but instead feels unfairly persecuted, and constantly deflecting blames into others. He's the last one to be lecturing it for.

Kudo's words really get into Ikki, almost breaking him, but this time it's Vice that snaps him back to reality, and it's done in devil-ish way by convincing Ikki to keep his flaw, so Vice being helpful stays loyal to his character of being a demon. But it's also more valid if the one lecturing that is Kudo, basically telling him to ignore someone who has no right lecturing others, and that it's not even about constructive criticism to improve oneself either. The part of Kudo walking with his shoes on, that moment's probably only meant to be a comedy in the surface... but I too see the scene as more than that; as an Asian I approve of a reminder to not wear shoes on certain places (KR also mostly have characters not wearing shoes in bed, though there are a few exceptions), and yeah if it's someone like Kudo, it should show his lack of regard for others.

Doesn't mean Ikki should stay that way, even if you're imperfect gotta still learn from mistakes and strive to be better. But I guess currently the appeal to Ikki for me is that even if he's nice, well-meaning, and not doing anything morally questionable, he can still cause disastrous consequences, and in a way other than a character being made impossibly idiotic. Also shows that flaws aren't only toxic traits, making flawed characters doesn't mean they have to be made as completely immoral jerk, awful, completely messed-up, which is a misguided take some has.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The Sakura/Multi-Level-Monstering one is very cute, as you might expect. It’s focused on Sakura trying to hide her new superhero identity from her friends at school… for about one scene, before MLM rolls up and challenges her to a duel. There’s not a lot to this one (*gif of Vice saying “Two”*), but it’s agreeably goofy in how quickly MLM tries to get out of doing any fighting himself, and how thoroughly Sakura beats the holy hell out of him. We don’t know anything about Sakura’s friends (at least, the ones who didn’t kidnap themselves for attention), and we’ve never been to her school before, so a story that at least briefly hinges on Sakura attempting to conceal her identity and maintain her status quo… sort of doesn’t work? It’s a story that might’ve worked better if we’d had even one school scene before this episode, or if it ever felt like there was a reason for Sakura to conceal her Rider powers. The cast of high school girls makes it funny, and I will never say no to an excuse to see Lovekov heckle a creep, but this one coasts pretty hard on comedy and charm.

Sakura's full schoolgirl outfit finally shows up.. took this long that it was her first look at the scans. I wonder why Sakura's friends stick to her like glue even before she becomes Jeanne. Hiromi is at his limits now, beneath his straight-laced persona, he's always a really emotional guy, the betrayal reduces him into nothing more than a sobbing wreck with all of his bottled up emotions surfacing. The Chameleon Deadman didn't address Hiromi's emotional self enough... as someone who lashes out at Daiji for being emotional to want to become a Rider to catch up to Ikki.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Finally, we’ve got Commander Chameleon versus I Guess The Only Three People Who Work At Fenix, and I liked this one more than I thought I would? It gets weird, in its melodrama, which I super wasn’t expecting. When Commander Chameleon bugs out his eyes and wags his tongue (like a… hmm, I’ll get it, hold on), it’s almost exactly the answer to my criticism of Kagerou’s performance. It’s gleefully unhinged, and it’s a brilliant counterpoint to Hiromi’s WHYHAVEYOUBETRAYEDUS meltdown. This whole sequence is just George and Daiji stunned into silence as the two most buttoned-up Fenix guys completely lose it, at different ends of the Losing It spectrum. The Giff Stamp gets stolen, Fenix is maybe done for good (who can tell with that part of the show), and Hiromi is screaming into carpet squares that the world no longer makes sense. Maybe my favorite part of the episode!

The Deadmans gain an upper hand due to something that is just so recent including to the characters, about the current Wakabayashi being Chameleon Deadman, due to Wakabayashi being already killed since 1st episode, with the scene giving heavy Evolt vibes of him killing someone in a flashback and switching faces, and using that to induce paranoia and posing as someone's hero to traumatize them... Hiromi. His laugh from the usually super strict demeanor he copied from Wakabayashi is also really upsettling, which means good job on that scene. Apparently George would just hand over the Gifu ViStamp without much thought, wonder what's in his mind for that. Not yet shown for Aguilera's backstory, but it's shown here that humans can be turned into Giftex, which happened to both Kudo and Amahiko. I guess Deadmans aren't inherent that way, and Amahiko will continue despite his newfound joke status. And another cliffhanger for Aguilera that she's revealed to be the sacrifice for Giff.