[DreamSword]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

We?ve gone from Shotaro Will Have To Face His Fears all the way to Shotaro Needs To Be Committed Forever with absolutely zero progression.

You're right. Getting a full on blast of Terror's' ooze which is what causes the fear in the first place? Zero weight or progression in that. If only we'd had previous instances of seeing Dopant powers work that way. Like with with Old, then maybe it'd have some weight to it.

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Like it didn?t really cost our heroes anything

Other than Philip being able to rescue anyone in his family, much less Wakana whom he genuinely cared about.

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Ryuube?s plan was the usual Power For The Sake Of Power thing

His ultimate plan was to kill everyone. Not sure how you missed that given the speech he gives about extinct species.

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-Shroud would not miss a dinner where could walk out on her family all over again.

It's pretty clear that she showed up both for Philip's' sake as well as to see what would ultimately become of the family she walked out on.

Anyway, I overall liked this two-parter. The overarching theme of it all is, fittingly enough, Terror, and how many times the idea of something is stronger than the actuality of it.

Philip fears learning his past, but decides to do so and comes out handling it well enough thanks to the people he's grown bonds with. Kyoko fears what Terror Dad might do to her, but by sneaking into the compound she's what ultimately saves the day. And of course there's Shotaro, who despite being full of fear toxin is able to pull through, showcasing that, outside of his fear powers, Terror is ultimately just an old man who can't fight worth anything. And it's double great because, throughout the whole show, we've never actually seen Terror fight anyone directly. He's always just hit them with the ooze and teleported around. It's all a very fitting way to showcase what exactly courage is and how it can pay off, and I dug it alot.

The atmosphere does alot of heavy lifting here too, which the constant ambience of dread and the blue filter creating a sense of unease throughout almost the entirety of the two episodes. The music also went incredibly hard, especially during that Church scene.

Side note: There's a minor plot hole within the overall narrative. These episodes reveal Philip's' nature as a data human to everyone for the first time, yet in A-to-Z, Kaido talks about Philip's' true nature rather casually, to Philip no less, yet no one bats an eye.

To end this off, I just wanted to point out a play on words I thought was rather fun.

Cyclone -> Cyc lone -> Psyche Loan

Cyclone -> Cy clone -> Psi Clone