[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I definitely don't think that, and I don't think that's what I was saying? I'm not trying to judge Daiji, I'm trying to point out that categorizing Kagerou as somehow outside of Daiji -- rendering him a villain that can and should be defeated -- is sort of exactly the trap that Daiji himself falls into. Daiji's negative emotions, expressed through the manifestation of Kagerou, are inherent to Daiji; he needs to confront and accept them, not refuse to take responsibility for them by "defeating" Kagerou. Hope that makes more sense.

Being a villain isn't necessarily about them needing to be defeated though, it's merely about how they act and behave, their end doesn't matter. And there can be more than one villains, saying Kagerou is one doesn't mean not considering Daiji one (though he has a heel turn) - both pairs are now villainous at this point, just that they're different types.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER REVICE EPISODE 39 - “HOPE AND DESPAIR, A SIBLING CONFLICT”

It’s a tricky part of any Fall From Grace-style arc, where a hero consistently makes terrible decisions in the name of selflessness. It’s almost always about a mix of self-loathing and lack of faith in their friends, and it’s a version of the character that asks a lot of the audience. It’s asking you to watch someone you enjoyed as a hero consistently and flagrantly do villainous shit, while grimly excoriating the other heroes that are begging him to, like, stop drowning so many puppies. We just watched Kento go through an incredibly similar story last season – The Only Way To Save The World Is To Destroy The Heroes That Are Stupidly Resisting My Violent And Grim Altruism – and Daiji’s third act descent into sweaty mania does not improve by comparison. It’s a tough version of the character to spend even an episode with, and an entire arc starts to get to be a grind to watch. It’s… I don’t know that I’d recommend shows go back to the well as often as the producers of these two shows attempted with this type of storyline. It’s a little too frustrating to watch.

The people here surprisingly had steadfast belief on Kamen Rider, to drive Daiji away when he tried to influence people into giving up on despair, despite the edited footages that made Weekend looked actually villainous. Still if they're using actual footages in their schemes, I'd like if footages are used in Weekend's plan, though Genta stated Ultimate Revi/Vice's fights are uploaded.

Regarding the fights in this episode, I'm relieved that Ultimate Revi/Vice still walks through Hell Giftarians easily, despite a bit struggle against the mooks before. And after all the jokes about Jeanne performing better than Holy Live, now Holy Live is the 'unstoppable' berserker here, swatting away the girl Riders and holding his own with Ultimate Revi/Vice. As said above, Ultimate Revi/Vice is still consistent against Hell Giftarians, and at the end, Ultimate Vice defeats Holy Live by reflecting the attack back to him. So perhaps it's about Ultimate Revi/Vice holding back, for obvious reasons. Again like before, I kinda wish that the Rider and fighting part would be addressed more like explaining how Ultimate Revi/Vice can hold back Giff beam, for example.

Ikki losing his memory about his family, the onsen moment, is a throwaway here just to show how dire the current situation now that they need to fight harder. Though appreciate Vice's method of trying to get to know if his memory loss is getting worse. Unrelated is about Vice's solution to co-exist with Giff peacefully, that's ironically Vice following Daiji's footsteps, though Vice may be proposing about befriending him instead of letting Giff rule over them. I have to say I kinda like that Genta's more active father of his family now, after stop acting like Junpei, other than just doing some (in-universe) asinine gags before, including at Vail Legacy part 5 before.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I mean, I hate the Weekend Vs Fenix stuff; that stuff can get dropped into the same portal Giff is in, and then I can forget about all three of them. Asking me to care about Akaishi or Weekend Dad is a place I can’t get to, and I feel like I’ve given the benefit of the doubt to a lot on this show. As always, any shift away from family dynamics (even the weird-o family dynamic of Akaishi as the Igarashis’ weird uncle) inevitably disappoints, and squanders the special chemistry of this show’s take on Family. Neither Weekend nor Fenix have suitably articulated their appeal to the citizenry of Japan beyond survival, and that’s a theme that this show doesn’t do a lot to support. The way societies trade safety for freedom is a very cool concept for a show to explore… like in Build. Revice isn’t that show! It needs to stop trying to be!

George meets up again with Hiromi and the mass production Demons is teased... a̶n̶d̶ ̶D̶e̶m̶o̶n̶s̶'̶ ̶p̶o̶t̶e̶n̶t̶i̶a̶l̶ ̶n̶e̶r̶f̶. I like that George's atrocities before isn't forgotten with Hiromi being suspicious of him at first. Like if Hiromi finally had the higher ground on his bullies (and George was). Though as George stated before, he'd try to help him if he can, and apologizing to him though not expecting to earn it. R̶e̶g̶a̶r̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶S̶p̶i̶d̶e̶r̶-̶M̶a̶n̶ ̶s̶t̶u̶f̶f̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶e̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶'̶d̶ ̶r̶e̶m̶i̶n̶d̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶b̶i̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶S̶a̶n̶d̶m̶a̶n̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶e̶c̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶g̶i̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶S̶p̶i̶d̶e̶r̶-̶M̶a̶n̶ ̶T̶r̶i̶l̶o̶g̶y̶,̶ ̶m̶i̶n̶u̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶l̶o̶o̶m̶y̶ ̶d̶e̶l̶i̶v̶e̶r̶y̶. Hiromi at the end almost punched George, but later fist bumps his chest instead, signifying that George had both committed despicable actions in the past, but now has been redeemed. George wasn't a case of turns out he's good though (also in his apology), he probably was evil in the past before changing.

After getting little focus, albeit she gets more lately, Kimiko is finally killed, and this weighs on Hikaru despite that the family is fake. This does show more about the remaining 2's characters, that Hikaru seems to have no one else than the Ushijimas and thus is lonely, which probably would mean Hikaru got hit by tragic circumstances regarding his real family, and that Tasuke is someone rather cold and ruthless in his cause as well, the type to degrade emotions and feelings as 'naivety' (albeit Hikaru really got slowed down by his feelings there). Previously, he's surprised at Masumi's unethical practices, but now, Masumi's the one that called him harsh. But the Ushijima family being fake was also only a throwaway line when the cast joined Weekend, and it was never elaborated on how a fake family live together, compared to real family like the Igarashis (harmonic) and Karizakis (dysfunctional), just like the missed chance to flesh out the Hell Bros in Build as child soldiers, even if Sakura had dope words for Hikaru that fake or real doesn't matter in a family.... like adopted kids, and ironically, most KR series use the 'fake' family type in the main cast's circle. If only the previous KR reference (perhaps with George) is still there as a potential 4th wall breaking material too.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It’s a show about families, and that’s where it can redeem a whole lot of content that otherwise actively grates. Daiji’s victimhood and self-righteousness are repellant character traits, but contrasting them with Ikki and Sakura’s aggravation and desperation instead make them pitiable. Daiji’s so sure he’s right that he can’t hear any other arguments – mostly because he killed the part of himself that’s able to question his choices when it comes to Ikki. As much as Daiji tries to frame his activities as For The Greater Good, he goes to the Weekend bunker to either steal away Ikki’s supporters, or just to murder Ikki. He’s couching everything in humility and necessity, but that’s only to absolve him of the responsibility for his actions. He’s not fighting Ikki because Ikki’s defending people’s right to choose, Ikki’s forcing Daiji to stop him from meddling. Giff isn’t a threat to humanity, Ikki is. This is all, like, Daiji 101 – nothing’s Daiji’s fault, everything is something Ikki has ruined for Daiji, but no one else sees it. It’s like when Sakura screams that Daiji’s changed, and Daiji replies that he hasn't, Ikki and Sakura have. I mean, he’s half right!

As expected, Daiji's the one that is blinded, instead of the others, because he'd still be fixated to ARARAT's cause and vehemently rejecting any other solutions or views. Though to be fair to him, Akaishi still acted smug after Ultimate Revi/Vice's appearence. Previously Daiji's still acting like edgy secondary Riders, but now he had started to commit actual villainy, like what you listed here (and props to you actually using "self-righteousness" instead of "too righteous"), using brutal methods to get rid of any obstacles in his cause, like beating up Tasuke (he's a shithead here, but the reason is unrelated to that), siccing Giff Juniors on the humans (that's some Baron level crime), and of course what he did to his siblings, even more that he tried to pull a gun on unmorphed Ikki or Sakura. While Daiji wants to prevent bodycounts, he ironically would potentially cause more of it.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

That sort of dedication to making Daiji as confused and oblivious as possible… I really like it as a story move, but I don’t think I’d ever recommend this storyline to anyone, or fight super hard to defend it. Even when it feels like a natural development, grounded in established motivations and actions – it’s still not super fun to watch. It’s repetitive, because it has to be. This isn’t one bad day for Daiji, it’s a systematic embrace of a lifestyle that lets him feel like the martyr that his brother always was. It’s Daiji being a radioactive piece of shit (he straight-up pulls a gun on his family at the cliffhanger!) for multiple episodes, with the faint hope of a redemption arc to make this all feel cathartic at some point. That asks a lot of the audience! Arguably too much!

Early on Daiji's someone who's characterized as being insecure, and after his persuasion is denied by the citizens, he blames everyone else but himself, and I wonder if this is also more about Daiji trying to Prove Himself Right instead, which'd be actually selfish. Which if it is, this is one of the most disastrous consequences of middle child syndrome. A sliver of hope would be that Daiji still being disgusted at Vail, someone purely malicious. To add up from some discussions, I thought this comes from the side effect of losing Kagerou (getting purified from his demon, but actually half his emotions just disappeared) that made Daiji change - Daiji gets disturbed or interrupted by his inner side less often (like normal humans' level, his "chaos" part makes him question if a lawful path is wrong and not good that time), making him more unhinged, less hesitant, less conflicted, inability to question his actions.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Same here. It kind of undermines the whole message of individuality this show's going for when that dysfunctional family is always depicted as being right in the end, even when they're wrong. Maybe Daiji would actually be able to understand the value in Franklin's philosophy of preserving freedom over safety, if the people preaching to him weren't so incredulous and imposing with their ideals (or if the Weekenders weren't so unnecessarily shady with their aesthetic). Like watching a mirror with those siblings.

I know that you properly considered Daiji an anti-villain, and you've acknowledged before that Ikki shouldn't let Olteca have his way, but still, not exclusively the sentence here, but regarding how that people can think that the heroes can be really incredulous and imposing with their ideals (and this happens in many of these kind of stories), and by this... pins all the blame on the heroes instead and somehow absolve any of these bad guys from blame (them, not you). I wonder what'd be the proper way to convince them that they're wrong and try to change them... urgently... to prevent people being hurt by them. I know you usually think of becoming an example to others via action, but I thought it also can be ineffective due to their differing values on processing that actions (e.g. also like viewers only deeming all heroes' triumph as plot armor).