[DreadBringer]

So finally, it's shown what's the drawback of Hiromi being able to fight as a Rider all this time, despite that he was unable to henshin as Revice.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER REVICE EPISODE 19 - ?DEMONS ON WARNING, HIROMI SURROUNDED!??

Chigusa?s our traitor, which is only mostly obvious. I think the actor did a fairly good job of making her Devoted Friend cover story feel natural and trustworthy. It?s never cloying or helpless, it?s just her being a good soldier who?s trying to support her friend? because her friend is Hiromi, a guy who would give his life to protect an ice cube in summer. He?s especially hopeless at maintaining his ability to stand upright and move blood through his body in the episode, so her concern comes across as attentive and critical. She?s a good friend ?and, naturally, she?s the traitor, for reasons that have yet to be fully established. The switch is from Worried Comrade to Pro-Ice Killer, and it?s a swing that?s a little farther than I?d?ve liked. It definitely feels like she wishes she?d put a bullet in Hiromi?s head years ago, so I?m curious what Terrible Secret that Fenix is hiding that?d validate her full-on disdain of her former comrades.

With her 'tomboy' approach of having short hair as well as head-on combatant (also being better than Hiromi in flashback), I thought her subversion at first was that she had gentler and more docile demeanor than what's expected of her exterior, in her interactions to Hiromi, Tatsuhiko, and also Ikki and Daiji, urging to prevent Hiromi pushing too far. But the subversion is actually about her being a twist villain so far, with her actually being on Deadman's side instead of playing double agent. So she's someone good at faking a personality too. And she utilizes actual handguns... that'd be something that can be censored on more kid-friendly programs (while those doesn't censor more fantasy guns). Now she reminded me a bit of W's Aya Kujo. A short-haired member of an authority force, established as a companion of a major Rider, with a flashback of them sparring, which turns out to be scheming villainesses.

Ikki's the one that showed his competency again with him deducing Chigusa's plot, knowing that her sentences can have different meanings or contexts. But, there goes about "believing in others" then in this part, here Ikki shows the opposite approach of that to solve the problem, being appropriately suspicious of the real traitor and interpreting her words negatively (actual). Though his faith on Vice was repaid before when he finally agreed to let Vice taste the Igarashis' foods, of which Yukimi still held some grudge for him for understandable reasons. So Yukimi did learn about what did Vice try to do, and it explains of Yukimi cheering him less enthusiastically in ep. 16 before (the one where Yukimi accidentally kicked Lovekov). Other than the comedic bits, I wonder if Genta is actually stupid to focus on his cavity, or that he purposely hid the truth of him literally having no heart.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Comrades like Tatsuhiko, who isn?t a traitor, but is somehow a worse friend than the woman who is trying to kill both him and Hiromi. He?s worried about Hiromi?s health ? the absolute worst-kept secret in all of Fenix; did George post on TikTok that Hiromi has the body of an 80-year old man for laughs? ? and he?s aware that the Demons Driver is the culprit. (Not sure how much this is supposed to come across as a surprise? Tatsuhiko treats it like something that isn?t common knowledge, but there was never any other reasonable explanation for Hiromi?s rapidly deteriorating health than You Used Mysterious Technology To Simulate Demonic Power You Numbskull.) So far, so good. But he opts to show his concern by first humiliating Hiromi, then disrespecting him, and finally almost getting both of them killed. It?s? not a great way to show your friend that you care about him? Sort of bad, actually!

It's actually bad, and honestly I don't want for this to be glorified only because they're well-meaning, which often happens to these kind of jerks (that got depicted as being honest). Tatsuhiko Tabuchi further shows that to care for other people you shouldn't resort into standoffish and hostile methods, it still makes him a jerk and his behavior here made things worse, in usual miscommunication way. Of course, Tatsuhiko acting as if he looked down on Hiromi (to prevent him using Demons Driver) would just make Hiromi view him as rowdy underling and assert his Commander position to him instead of learning what Tatsuhiko means, or Hiromi suspecting Tatsuhiko as traitor later. The better way is to be actually straightforward in their approach to others, it's not that being rude is the only way, of which that approach can be too glorified honestly. Which is done by Tatsuhiko simply explaining that Hiromi had side effects from using Demons Driver, of which there'd be no suspicion anymore that way. Hiromi does refer to Tatsuhiko as awkward though. I too thought that Tatsuhiko was going to become Giftarian, another one of ruined (sorta with Tatsuhiko's behavior) but potentially mended friendship lost by Olteca after Yosuke.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

But all three of these deranged soldiers were trained by Wakabayashi in his pre-Commander Chameleon days, so it sort of tracks that they?re all hilariously broken and incapable of functioning in ways you or I might recognize as emotionally coherent. Their training was all Push Past Your Weakness And Be A Hero, to a degree that even Daiji (who was so catastrophically ruined by feelings of inadequacy that he manifested those feelings as a heavily made-up duplicate whose main fandoms were My Chemical Romance and Fratricide) recognizes this manly dedication to heroism as troubling, if not full-on suicidal. None of these three Fenix troops managed to survive their own training with their heads in a good place, and they?re probably considered the successes!

There was more of Hiromi and Wakabayashi's relationship with the latter encouraging him despite of Hiromi being the weakest (expected this too, with Hiromi's "loser"/underdog portrayal before being Commander here), and not in an overly harsh way. It's not only outside strength that matters but also the inside as well, and by that Hiromi would still have merits if he'd not quit despite failing and being the weakest. Though yeah, continuing to struggle through failures aren't necessarily heroic traits, because it can be also about villains who kept scheming despite multiple failures, like Masamune in Ex-Aid, or many examples in ineffectual villains list.

Hiromi's goal is to become a hero which continues from his comedic backstory telling before, and he's being a severe workaholic on that. I'd like if the show points out that heroic deeds isn't only about fighting bad guys, but it can be done via many more morally good trait and deeds in addition to ?saving people?, as a hero should be heroic not only in fighting but in daily lives as well. If Hiromi can't be a hero by fighting as Kamen Rider in his condition of his life force being devoured by the demon in Demons Driver, then the series making him doing good deeds that doesn't involve fighting. Ironically though 80-year old Hiromi resisting against Olteca would just make him even more badass.

Daiji did make good points when dealing with the workaholic Hiromi, to make a point that if Hiromi is dead, he can't save anyone. Again while you gotta be ready to throw away your life, you should try to resort into other (non-pragmatic) methods to save the day than self-sacrificing, because other than succeeding that time, you'd have a chance to do more in later parts when you survived. And Daiji's way of dealing with Hiromi is relatively more harsh (but not mean-spirited) compared to Ikki's, with Daiji raising his voice more as well as also chastising Ikki too for... not being enough busybody. It's good for Ikki to do that though, to understand what Hiromi wants to do.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Which just gets back to my original point: what if one of these organizations was good? Good as a concept, and good at their jobs. What if there was anyone in Fenix that wasn’t a traitor, or a weird creep that you assume is a traitor, or clearly just doing mad science because they’re a sociopath, or whatever is up with that probably-sadistic new boss that’s haunting the skybase. What if one of these stories wasn’t overly concerned with the least surprising twists in tokusatsu, and let these background guys just be background guys?

I'm now guessing if Fenix is actually that horrific where Chigusa would rather side with Deadmans, or that it's the actual Chigusa being hypocrite that learning something bad about Fenix made her snap and not realizing that she did something worse by working with Deadmans. The newfound feud between Hiromi and George showed George being shady again after his portrayal before, just laughing over the Demons Driver and what Hiromi wanted to know regarding it, as well as his schemes with Akaishi before and Akaishi being smug again. I guess despite of how most of Fenix' members are noble, Fenix' higher ups alone would make it actual bad organization and all the underlings are all misguided.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Sakura now acts more cordial to Julio compared to previous episode, likely due to him further mourning after losing Yosuke. With Julio now insisting for her to call her Tamaki, like when he infiltrated the dojo before, but now to genuinely interact with her and asking for her favor instead of ulterior motives. He's completely tame like before when interacting with Sakura, and also without the over-the-top expressions he did when he infiltrated the dojo. As usual he'd want to ensure Aguilera's well being, but that time I wonder if right now he redeemed with him claiming he's not Sakura's enemy anymore, or he's only like that to Sakura, or that he had to lay down due to him not having power now, considering he was a threat with his (upgraded) powers before.

Sakura's next scene with Aguilera, I guess it's expected to me that, Aguilera would react that way as she had twisted worldview. Aguilera's "care" for Sakura isn't something to be romanticized. To her, being a person she likes means you'll be used as a sacrifice for Giff. When Sakura actually provides her with an actual sensible care to try to have her live as normal human, Aguilera would just throw tantrums and cut ties with Sakura. Also Aguilera being no match for Jeanne in the fight here. Not much appearence for Olteca other than his schemes revolving Hiromi's friends, but there's another horror with him sending an unseen Giftarian to Revi and Vice, so he had claimed yet another bodycount.

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Originally Posted by Androzani84

Yeah, by the time of Geats’ airing, people were sick of the organisations in Reiwa Kamen Rider turning out evil, and hoped hat the DGP would be as genuine in their stated goal of saving the world as they presented themselves.

The subverted expectation of the organization being actually good would probably work out more if it's done in a darker series like Geats still.