[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 43 - “A VULTURE, A CONFRONTATION, AND ANKH’S RETURN”

It’s very fun, after a string of episodes that both confirm Ankh’s defining tragedy – his fear of abandonment – and illustrate the lengths to which Hina, Eiji, and even Shingo (his goddamn hostage) will go to save him, to have Ankh immediately remind everyone that he is an 800-year-old desire monster that is biologically motivated to fulfill his own needs at the cost of literally everyone else. We are barely half a scene removed from his triumphant return before he hijacks a now-conscious Shingo, tells his friends that he couldn’t care less about how cruel it is because it’s what he needs, steals his remaining Medals from Eiji, and then runs off to do a straight-up Q1 Yummy rampage scheme to revive Uva. Eiji and Hina have replaced Lost Ankh with regular Ankh, and it turns out to be a lateral move at best.

Eiji is at his angriest here after the confrontation with Maki back in ep. 10, shown in the overwhelming power the Purple Medals he unleashed to Ankh, of which turns out it's directed against Ankh betraying them and harming Shingo, not against Lost Ankh seemingly absorbing Ankh before. Ankh still has not mellowed out yet, despite the tease of him reciprocating his friends' gestures to him. He'd still commit crimes like harming Shingo for him to possess, and actually spawn a Yummy like he said back then, clearly harming innocents, as he can do it now. The show doesn't absolve him too, where Eiji outright states that his desire is no excuse for his cruelty. He also expresses contempt to the main cast like Eiji's lectures, and he does this because he no longer needs Eiji, he can now function like the other Greeeds, after becoming full again due to Lost Ankh's defeat. Shingo just seems to be simply a nice guy that cares about others, as an ideal cop, of which it was said/teased by Yasu, the criminal who looks up to him in ep. 19-20, where here he's shown to not really hold it against Ankh for his possession before and now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Like, we’re back to Hina Wants Shingo Saved, and that super sucks for Eiji, because it really means he has to save Shingo in order for Hina to be happy. It means he has to continue to fight, and that’s accelerating his transformation into being a Greeed. Additionally, he’s now powerful enough to challenge 6-Core Ankh, and the Purple Medals give him the ability to permanently end Ankh’s existence, to keep Shingo safe for good. (I really like how the Purple Medals’ established power as Anti-Desire allow them to destroy Core Medals, the embodiment of desire. Smart plotting!) This is exactly what Hina was afraid of last time, and now she’s doing it all over again to Eiji. Her desire to protect Shingo is forcing Eiji to push himself into danger and contemplate destroying his friend.

Maki's goals to eliminate everything in the world while he himself still lives to enjoy the remains, reminds me of Glion's goal in Gotchard. Both of them aim to preserve the world's current beauty and not let any following events ruin them, but Maki does that in ending everything before they got further ruined like Hitomi in his eyes, while Glion wants that by turning everything into gold so nothing will move forward and ruin it. The Purple Medals is the biggest threat, and it's not only about Eiji going berserk, but also about Maki, who IS the main antagonist of the show and is the most depraved villain of them all, so it's indeed about the biggest natural enemy to the world. Guess at least Satonaka seems to be at least more concerned about Eiji's situation to show more reaction to it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The incredibly clever thing this episode does is postulate Acceptance as Desire’s antidote. It’s not about eliminating desire – Hina very much wants Shingo safe from Greeed possession, and just generally not a meat puppet – but more about how we temper that emotion with an ability to accept the reality and limitations of the present. Hina can try to solve this problem, and she probably will with Eiji’s help, but endlessly focusing on it as an absence in her life just makes it worse for everyone around her, without really solving the problem to begin with. Taking a breath, supporting a friend, and keeping perspective are the best ways to keep our desires from overwhelming us.

I don't know if Hina is really culpable as she feels, where previously she tried to stop Eiji and begging for people to not pray to him. It's Shingo who stopped her and get her to realize what she truly wants. Otherwise, the show having Hina do this feel like the show indeed blames others for having a selfish desires that forces Eiji to do favors for them, or have them being able to be used to spawn Yummies. You said here it's not about eliminating desire, but it likely wouldn't be seen this way by some people, due to how Eiji, the role model and the example of the series (most main Riders are) is someone without desire and which is why he's so kind, he has nothing he wants for himself to prevent himself doing favor for others, thus it's others that need to become more like Eiji, and here, it's Hina who's shown to change to focus on supporting Eiji, without Eiji needing to do anything. Eiji obviously will always said that others' desires aren't bad, but it'd be likely viewed as just him being overly positive and seeing the best in everyone.