[Locke]

That is why I love Xaviax. Most toku villains sit in the background and send down monsters one at a time, granted, but it never feels like it's part of some master plan, it never feels like they're actually achieving anything.

It's also really clever that the show is smart enough to sidestep a lot of the common pitfalls of these kinds of things. For example, the Decks are DNA locked meaning the mirror double is the ONLY person other than the original Venteran who can use the decks. This allows Dragon Knight the freedom to have a huge variation of characters because just because they were a knight on Ventera doesn't mean their mirror double is, they could literally be ANYTHING.

I'm often watching toku and wondering what a skinny market stall salesman or whatever has over a trained military professional in being chosen but here Xaviax has no choice, he has to go with whoever the Deck is DNA is locked to, whether it be conman, dirtbike racer or frat boy douchebag. He has to work with what he is given.

Keeping this in mind also, it means that any times Xaviax's plans go wrong...it isn't really his fault. He has such a flavour of people under him, pretty much ALL of which you'd never actually pick for an evil army that a lot of them are so unpredictable he can't physically predict all of the outcomes. Which means Xaviax can fail, but when he does it doesn't feel like it's out of utter incompetence like the majority of toku villains.

[KyoryuGreen]

Super-1 Episode 19: Dogma creates an evil school to enslave kids for some unknown reason because the subs cut out during that moment. Besides that good use of Choro (Normally the dumb side character) actually being smart and sneaking into the school. The Monster of the week this Cassette Bat monster that's powered by VHS's was definitely funny to see because of how technology has advanced. Excellent use of skills and great job saving people by Kazuya, the monsters really have a hard time even scratching Super-1 in this. They use abilities to cause a distraction and run away but when they fight again Super-1 brings out more abilities and kicks their fucking ass. Super-1 is awesome.

[Kamen Rider Lucha]

Welp, just had the one of the big twists in Ryuki ruined for me on another forum. I don't really want to talk about it for fear of spoiling even more, but I'll throw this out there: The Rider War is an inescapable time loop, eh? No wonder everyone calls **ANIME TITLE REDACTED FOR FEAR OF SPOILING THAT SHOW** a Ryuki rip off.

I'd love to know that this spoiler won't hinder my enjoyment of the show.

Originally posted this in the Batton-Line thread! Doh! Silly, Lucha.

[Locke]

Given the baffling approach to discussion threads here I'm amazed anyone can avoid spoilers.

[SPLIT LIP]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Locke

That is why I love Xaviax. Most toku villains sit in the background and send down monsters one at a time, granted, but it never feels like it's part of some master plan, it never feels like they're actually achieving anything.

It's also really clever that the show is smart enough to sidestep a lot of the common pitfalls of these kinds of things. For example, the Decks are DNA locked meaning the mirror double is the ONLY person other than the original Venteran who can use the decks. This allows Dragon Knight the freedom to have a huge variation of characters because just because they were a knight on Ventera doesn't mean their mirror double is, they could literally be ANYTHING.

I'm often watching toku and wondering what a skinny market stall salesman or whatever has over a trained military professional in being chosen but here Xaviax has no choice, he has to go with whoever the Deck is DNA is locked to, whether it be conman, dirtbike racer or frat boy douchebag. He has to work with what he is given.

Keeping this in mind also, it means that any times Xaviax's plans go wrong...it isn't really his fault. He has such a flavour of people under him, pretty much ALL of which you'd never actually pick for an evil army that a lot of them are so unpredictable he can't physically predict all of the outcomes. Which means Xaviax can fail, but when he does it doesn't feel like it's out of utter incompetence like the majority of toku villains.

That reminds me of Beast Wars Megatron.

The best villains are ones that have to work under restrictions, because it also makes them better characters. Megatron was a great villain, but he's pretty limited with his options. He has artifacts he hasn't yet discovered the meaning of, a crew of random riff-raff hastily flung together, and he's stuck on a primitive prehistoric planet. He's got a lot of restrictions out of his control, so seeing him succeed under these circumstances makes him endearing. He's not all-powerful, all-seeing or all-knowing. He's just smarter than everyone and does a lot with what he has.

If he didn't have evil intentions, he'd be an awesome protagonist.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Lucha

Welp, just had the one of the big twists in Ryuki ruined for me on another forum. I don't really want to talk about it for fear of spoiling even more, but I'll throw this out there: The Rider War is an inescapable time loop, eh? No wonder everyone calls **ANIME TITLE REDACTED FOR FEAR OF SPOILING THAT SHOW** a Ryuki rip off.

I'd love to know that this spoiler won't hinder my enjoyment of the show.

Originally posted this in the Batton-Line thread! Doh! Silly, Lucha.

Ryuki is like five hundred years old. Unless someone's actively watching it, I don't think avoiding spoilers is super necesary in conversation.

But holy shit, Ryuki is NOT STUCK IN A TIME LOOP. Time does reset at the end, but it's only once. There are only TWO instance of time reset in the entire show. The show takes place in regular time.

[Kamen Rider Lucha]

^^ Totally agree with you, RE: avoiding spoilers. That was completely my bad for treading into a Ryuki-related thread. I thought I'd be able to disengage before reading anything too spoilery, but alas, I flew a little too close to the sun. Curse my hubris!

I didn't mouse over your spoiler space because I don't want to know any more than I already do about Ryuki. I just hope that knowing about the time loop thing doesn't kill my enjoyment of the show.

With as little detail as possible: Anyone know around what episode that reveal happens? I'm on Ep 23. I'd love it if the reveal happened in Ep 24 -- just so I can get ahead of the spoilage again.

I'm disappointed. It's such an unexpected twist. Provided they handled it well, I would have been floored.

[KyoryuGreen]

Super-1 Episode 20: Kind of a dark, crazy episode this time around. The monster was a tree/phone monster who is also outdated lol. Wanted to send it's killing wave throughout the phone lines and make people go crazy. Kazuya was brilliant this episode from fighting, using the environment to his advantage and disguising himself. The Showa Riders are highly more intelligent than the bad guys so far. I think from the episode guide from the Wiki that Dogma is defeated soon so I hope the new enemies are actually a challenge for Super-1. Also great to see the Monster actually defeat Super-1, I mean he didn't kill him but he dropped him off a building into the water so I'd call that a win. Super-1's Freeze hand is extremely powerful it froze the monster's fire blast, I don't think that's possible but still cool to see. Some fun moments too, I'm really enjoying this series more now.

[Locke]

DK17.

"How do I look?"
"...evil."
"That is what I was going for!"



I fucking love this show man.

I actually don't remember how Strike went out, so I'm hoping it isn't as poorly handled as how Lansing went down as I'm really enjoying him. not as much as I did during Lansing's original appearances, admittedly, but with so many Rider's reduced to utterly forgettable beats in the story, it's nice to have such a fun and constant villain.

At least for now, anyway, with the amount of stuff that can happen in just one episode who knows what might come next. I mean it kinda throws off any predictability, which is nice, but less so if they do something really crappy or really dumb out of nowhere.

The whole Power of Three aspect of the episode, as to which it was named for...was actually a really weird moment for the series. When Chris points out that he's basically an easy target because of his asthma, everyone agrees by saying nothing. Logically if they're all on the same page, you'd assume Len and Kit would let him sit it out, place him under production and try and ride this until the end. Yet instead...they force him to fight? Purely for the sake of protecting their own arses? That is really selfish... Also what is with Kit's "banter" has he realised he was an utter failure as a character just a few episodes ago?

[SPLIT LIP]

Honestly, even though Dragon Knight doesn't sound, like, super good, it certainly sounds interesting. Without spoiling much, Ryuki didn't feel like a show with a particularly satisfying end goal in mind. The riders were all fighting eachother, but the reasons were often unengaging and never changing. The conflict felt boring. I don't know how to put it into words, but the show just felt like it was missing conflict, despite being ENTIRELY ABOUT CONFLICT. I guess when the show's main focus is fighting, it feels like it needs an even bigger driving conflict, which there was none.

Like from the outset, Kido wants to stop the fighting. That in itself is conflict against Shiro, who wants to fighting to go on. But there's NO conflict there. Neither character gives much thought to the other, and they never REALLY clash on the issue.

[Locke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPLIT LIP

Honestly, even though Dragon Knight doesn't sound, like, super good, it certainly sounds interesting. Without spoiling much, Ryuki didn't feel like a show with a particularly satisfying end goal in mind. The riders were all fighting eachother, but the reasons were often unengaging and never changing. The conflict felt boring. I don't know how to put it into words, but the show just felt like it was missing conflict, despite being ENTIRELY ABOUT CONFLICT. I guess when the show's main focus is fighting, it feels like it needs an even bigger driving conflict, which there was none.

Like from the outset, Kido wants to stop the fighting. That in itself is conflict against Shiro, who wants to fighting to go on. But there's NO conflict there. Neither character gives much thought to the other, and they neer REALLY clash on the issue.

I don't wanna be "that guy" but it does often feel like DK's problems stem from Ryuki itself. Even without a single shred of plot, there is a LOT going on in the Ryuki action footage, and so the show does its best to make use of the footage and when it can't use it it makes its own. But there is also a reality that you can only push against the direction of the original series so far, and eventually the show has to try and catch up. Especially with a show like Ryuki which apparently has a pretty much revolving door of characters entering and exiting in the way it comes across in the adapted footage.

I mean think about it, twelve Riders? Sure that is awesome, twelve Rider's woo! (Well really its like twenty with all the Riders who are unofficial or from other universes or whatever the fuck is going on) but then imagine trying to tell a story where you've got Riders constantly going out, constantly coming in and where with each new character pretty much the entire dynamics of the show shift and change.

I mean it's unprofessional of the writers to struggle I guess but I don't really blame them either as how do you physically connect a character to the audience and make anything they do seem worthwhile if they only have brief appearances in under five episodes?

Footage limitations mean adaptations can only do so much, especially when they aren't given much money to play with. I honestly am surprised DK has as much original footage as it does because apparently no one behind the scenes in the suits had any faith in this and didn't want to put any money behind it.