[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

Honestly, I don?t think the show ever figured out what it wanted to do with Escape. She was introduced as the brawn to Enter?s brains, but then Enter went and proved he could be both at once after Messiah?s death. And as I pointed out in my episode 36 review, he did it better. And given her one defining character trait is ?devoted to Messiah?, this episode feels like a send off to a far more complex and sympathetic character than the end result.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

I think what hurts for Ryuji is that Escape had her choice, regardless of how poorly misplaced, taken away from her, when it was Ryuji declaring his own choice to fight his way in Episode 25 that earned Escape's respect for him as a worthy rival. Even if Escape didn't have a lot of different sides to her, she was always a proud and honorable fighter with a purpose she believed in, but Enter reduced her with each iteration until she was too berserk to even get to enjoy the fight. Ryuji understands the pain of loving something and being unable to pursue it, but at least he still has his dream of becoming an engineer ahead of him, while Escape has been denied the only thing she had left. Sadly, the last gesture Ryuji could do for her was put her to rest and that's the tragedy of Escape, that she knew exactly what she wanted to do but was never allowed to die on her own terms. Ryuji's and Escape's rivalry is a story about two people struggling to follow their purpose when the world gets in the way and that's why I appreciate it.

Sure, I mean... this is a story beat that's about Ryuji's empathy and humanity, and that's why it works even a little. I got nothing bad to say about Ryuji being horrified that even an enemy is reduced to a plaything for Enter.

I just... Escape, you know? If she'd had an arc that showed the potential for change, or had made a genuine connection with a single non-Messiah character (because Messiah is barely a character to begin with), or had a moment across a few dozen episodes that even approached the complexity of a throwaway Humagear story from Zero-One, I'd feel something more about Escape's dying desperation to make a Papa (any Papa!) happy. But we sort of never had that here, at least to my tastes, and so Ryuji's anger and horror feels like it's being applied to a treasured playlist on Spotify or something.