[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 24 - “THE MOTIVATION FOR HEROISM”

The main thing that worked for me was the Tomoko/Ryuusei date stuff. (And it’s a date! I don’t care how grumpy Ryuusei is! This was their first date!) Tomoko’s whole Manic Goth Dream Girl approach instantly snapped their scenes into focus, while Ryuusei’s typically dismissive judgment became a compelling kind of grudging indulgence, and I could’ve watched another 20 minutes easy of him standing around while she kicked her legs while laying on the ground and trying to sense Cygnus Vibes or whatever. Adorable, and my preferred wavelength for this episode’s story about how heroism is more about being there for people – like Ryuusei wasn’t and Meteor was – than it is about acclaim or adulation – like Ryuusei has to take it on the chin in order to protect Meteor’s identity and effectiveness.

Too bad that Ryusei and Tomoko's relationship can be almost ruined due to Ryusei's secret identity stuff, where he has to seem like a coward that abandons Tomoko, not knowing that Meteor is Ryusei and thus he protects Tomoko. Guess Meteor is the one pitted against Cygnus as both are liars who hide something to KRC and the public respectively. Despite Cygnus seemingly overwhelming both Riders, even without hostages to be around, seems that Cygnus got easily beaten more by Meteor at the end.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The Ugly Ducklings never felt like a real anything, especially Misa, who’s mysteriously good at ballet now (JK brings this up like it’s a clue, but it never comes up again or gets explained) and is just some psychotic fan for a merciless hero. I feel like her iciness demands more spotlight than she got – there’s too much to do with unraveling Eguchi’s connection to Cygnus – and what’s left is some wild-eyed acolyte who gets betrayed by the hero she worshipped. It’s hard to get a sense of her personality or goals, beyond hero worship and dancing (???), so her comeuppance lacks any real weight. She was a two-dimensional crazy lady that believed in the wrong prophet. There’s no moves to her character, so there’s no catharsis or shock to her getting used as a hostage by Cygnus.

Misa was introduced as performing a ballet, so it should be obvious. But yeah, I don't understand her purpose as how she was seemingly just Cygnus' right-hand woman, but as Misa wasn't Cygnus as the trailer showed, she's the one really pulling the strings in her forcing Eguchi to press the Switch, making Cygnus a puppet king for her ambitions. It feels contrived to have Misa want to be worshipped and be completely dependent on a monster to do that, but she doesn't seem to get involved with the school body or Horoscopes, where Hayami only warns Kijima here, not interacting with Misa which can explain how she gets to form a cult. Guess this is the biggest letdown for Fourze to me too so far.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Eguchi didn’t really do it for me either, and I generally love stories about people finding the heroism in the mundane. I just never quite got his character enough to make sense of him. Cygnus is the part of him that wants to be a hero, but for all the times it’s stated, I don’t see any of that in the Eguchi character that’s onscreen? Eguchi admires heroes, sure – he adorably dresses up like Fourze at the end and everything, doing little good deeds like his favorite space hero. But the concept of Cygnus as his ideal self, that never tracks for me? Eguchi doesn’t ever seem to want power, or adulation, or respect, or anything we’d normally think of as the downstream effects of heroism; Eguchi is just a guy who wants to celebrate heroism, even though we’re told he wants to be a hero. But there’s no moment where it’s articulated why he wants to be a hero, or what he thinks being a hero is, or how he’s even getting it wrong. He’s just ignoring people in distress, but not doing anything besides that, or suggesting that heroes don't help people. He doesn’t ever seem to covet the fandom that Cygnus cultivates, or live vicariously through Cygnus’s heroic deeds. And if the point is that Eguchi worships heroes instead of living their ideals – which is where I think this episode’s trying to land – I don’t know that him patterning himself off of Fourze instead of Cygnus is some huge character growth.

It's stated that Cygnus embodies the dark side of Eguchi, and he's shown to be a coward who takes people hostage, and that the human Eguchi only embodies the good. But yeah, by this I rather wonder if cowardice is what Eguchi have even in his normal self like ignoring people in distress, where Cygnus just amplifies that by taking people hostage, of which Gentaro improved Eguchi by having him actually take action to retrieve a balloon for Yuki. And it makes sense why Gentaro ignored those people in distress as they're just KRC disguised as bystanders. After Eguchi stops being a coward (where I can be on similar position as this too, as I wouldn't always know what to do or having the answer put into that position), he no longer needs the Astroswitch.