#But hey it's finally Emu's focused mixed event | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sailor-cresselia · 6 years ago

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Here! Have some Ex-Aid notes!

So, I started rewatching the last three episodes of Ex-Aid because @aquabluejay and I have gotten to talking about a whole lot of assorted Ex-Aid meta and ideas lately. One of the things we talked about last night was trying to figure out how some of the final battle went down. SO I DID THAT. And went on a WHOLE LOT of tangents!

Summaries, thoughts, speculation, and theorizing for episodes 43, 44, and 45 of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid under the cut. Also includes mentions of the Mighty Action X novel, and some of the backstory involved.

Episode 43

Oh SHIT the bars on Kuroto’s cell can, in fact, zap him if he tries to reach between them! He was very carefully not touching them when begging to be let out. More fuel for “Parad should NOT be in a good enough state to use his level 99 form after being tied up”!

SO! Seeing everyone who had been hit by the Gemdeus virus before writhing in agony! IS REALLY PAINFUL TO WATCH GUYS! The first person we see this happen to is Kiriya – because here’s the thing.

Bugsters aren’t immune to Gamedeus naturally. … Can… like, could one regular bugster somehow infect another one? Is it just Gamedeus being super OP? Or, like, could there be a mixed strain that fucks up both Bugsters that result from it? Because the only cases we saw where someone had multiple strains were with the Collabos Bugsters, and with Chronicle. So… could two Bugsters get… sort of tangled up in each other’s code?

OH NO THAT WOULD BE MESSED UP. SAMMI WHY WOULD YOU COME UP WITH THIS YOU MONSTER.

! I should go back through at some point – it might not just be Emu and Parad who insist on calling him Cronus – Taiga just referred to him that way, too.

(skipped back a bit – Kuroto used his father’s full name to refer to him.)

And now I want to know… if you scan a Bugster normally, would their strain show up on the screen – wait, yes! It would! Because they scanned GRAPHITE in his human form, back early on!

Yup, Emu calls him Cronus, too.

FUCK YOU KUROTO “they haven’t earned the right” as if you didn’t make an action replay of your own after Emu made his.

Oh… huh. When Taiga – back on his self-sacrificing bullshit again – mentions ‘if only I had stopped the Bugsters in their tracks five years ago, this would never have happened’… Poppy is wringing her hands. And Parad – it’s subtle, and very blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, but he looks down, away from everyone else. Just a slight turn of the head, and diverting his gaze, but. That’s guilt right there.

(You feel the weight of your sins crawling down your back)

Nico – in the Cronus game area – boots up her Chronicle Gashat, and is immediately hit with the pain and static. But she’s still standing. She’s been hit time and time again by the virus, by all the strains, including Gamedeus, and she doesn’t go down.

I still wonder how this fight would have played out if Taiga hadn’t stopped her before she could suit up. She’d have lost, definitely… but I kind of want to see how she would have played it.

She doesn’t drop to her knees until taiga takes her gashat.

Hiiro explains what he’s finally realized – that Taiga has been fighting so that nobody else has to lose anything. Because he doesn’t have anything left to lose – until Nico. NOW he has something he absolutely has to protect.

Hiiro: “But now, he’s realized… his fate of putting his life on the line to protect something he doesn’t want to lose.”

We see Parad’s reaction to this.

Parad (mid-ground, Hiiro out-of-focus in the foreground): “His life…”

(cut to close up, Parad looking slightly down) “on the line…”

I’ve actually got something related to this in my current draft for ch. 3 of Press Start to Continue. Here, have a look:

“You know...” Parad begins, idly wrapping one of the cords on his jacket around his finger, “I didn’t get it, before – why you went to the lengths you did back then, as Proto-Snipe. Even as you were realizing that it was probably killing you. I still don’t really get how you were able to keep going, really. But now? Having seen you dealing with everyone, with having actually met you?” He smirks, meeting Taiga’s gaze. “You aren’t nearly as much of an asshole as you make yourself out to be, are you?”

When Emu says he doesn’t want to lose anyone… Parad buries his face in his collar, while Poppy looks… not scared, but sad. I think… I think she’d already realized what she and Parad might have to do.

I think she had already come up with the way to cure the patients with Gamedeus’s strain.

…

Oh. She definitely had.

I’d forgotten, I wrote this bit months ago, back in Event Flag XX, but I was so laser focused on Parad for that watch through, I wasn’t paying nearly enough attention to Poppy.

“Taiga goes to help. Hiiro goes to help. Emu goes to help. Parad and Poppy can only watch.”

Parad’s beating himself up, because he can’t help, because he doesn’t know what to do. Poppy hasn’t had The Line yet, but… she knows what the two of them can do to end Chronicle.

Oooo. I need to have Taiga give Emu the same speech Emu just gave him at some point down the line in ReUnited. (Emu… is going to have some difficulty coping in the time span after my adaptation of Another Ending and Kiriya’s revival.)

Emu: “You shouldn’t neglect your own health. Doctors have to take care of so many patients lives, after all. You can’t forget that. To save our patients, we doctors have the responsibility to live on.” He holds out Taiga’s coat to him. “Taiga. You’re a doctor, aren’t you?”

(beat)

Taiga: “That’s right.”

The sound effects and framing that Rider usually has signify someone finally taking the hand held out to them, accepting partnership?

Is used here for Taiga taking his white coat.

When they get the final blow on Cronus, it’s really nice.

The fireball from Hiiro’s ‘Taddle Critical Finish’ hits at the same time as Emu’s ‘Hyper Critical Sparking’ kick. The lag from Emu’s attack, of course, doesn’t set in until a bit after he lands, and it knocks Cronus backward – right into the cannons of ‘Taiga’s Bang Bang Critical Fire’.

TAIGA’S finisher is the one to shut down the Game Area.

Ohhhh man, the way Cronus moves after being knocked down is super unsettling. He’s flat on his back, a-posing on the ground, and when he sits up… he’s sort of just dragging his upper body up. His arms are still limp. Ick.

(Also, I kind of think Emu and Nico will never, ever admit it, but they were super pissed that they forgot about Bosses usually going all One Winged Angel.)

The design of the bugster mooks kills about half of the drama of them taking over people, but… I’m not okay with seeing all of these people just… almost removed like this. What’s worse is that I think Kiriya could tell what was happening before he went down.

FUCK.

Episode 44

:chuckles: I’m in danger.

Parad goes to try to fight, to help save the people infected. But Poppy… she grips her hands together.

“Wait!”

“There’s something only us Bugsters can do.”

When we get to Genm…

“Stop it.” a blue-gloved hand grabs him.

“You’re one bad Rider, aren’t you?” a red boot glows, propelling the two into the air.

“I’ve come to collect a sample from you, Ex-Aid! Now, let’s start the experiment, shall we?”

(ahahaha Katsuragi’s hard-on for Gorillamond)

(wAIT SHIT NO)

“I have three lives left.”

“Wait, are you... not Ex-Aid?”

“No! I’m NOT! People NEED to stop saying that! I am a G-”

“Sorry! My mistake! Bye!”

(Thanks, Katsuragi.)

Emu’s exhausted, and realizes he has the Doctor Mighty X Gashat. Poppy stops him before he can trigger it, though. It’s not possible to do this one at a time.

OH. Parad meets them on the roof – Emu was following Poppy, but Parad was already there. “Hey. What are you going to do?”

Poppy didn’t tell Parad her plan.

The thing is… while she’s saying that she’ll insert the gashat into herself, to disperse the cure to all the patients… Poppy doesn’t use the word die. She says she’ll disappear. She says that bugsters are a threat to patient’s lives, that they will need to be completely erased some day. The screen shows both her and Parad at that line. He looks away, as she says that that’s their fate. She hasn’t looked at anyone.

Emu’s breaking down – he doesn’t want to accept a fate where she has to die.

She still doesn’t say she’s going to die.

… I don’t think Poppy thought of herself as truly alive. She’s always acted like she did, but now…

Now I’m not so certain that she wasn’t faking that sureness.

Parad hasn’t said a word since he asked what she was going to do, even when Emu collapses.

“Sorry, Emu. … Thank you.”

… huh. She only physically appears to Kuroto. And it looks like… like she knew what she was doing when she did that. That maybe… just maybe, Poppy thought she might be able to ‘back herself up’ in him.

But only maybe.

On the roof.

Emu… he’s sitting, almost defeated, talking to Parad about Poppy.

“Bugsters also exist to let us have fun and make us smile, don’t they...?”

EMU is saying this to PARAD. To the Bugster he practically created, however subconsciously. To the Bugster who is the most direct threat to his own, personal, health.

To the Bugster who KNOWS what Poppy just did. And what he, himself, is about to do.

Who knows exactly what that means to Emu.

Once you have the novel backstory, you can never really ‘un’ have it.

So. With Mighty Novel X in mind, and Emu having, at eight years old, considered and attempted suicide…

That’s something Poppy doesn’t know about. The only people who could are Emu… and Parad.

Parad, who is high-key tied to Emu’s memories. Who is about to do the same thing Poppy did.

Who is about to make Emu witness two people committing suicide in one afternoon.

That’s what they did, after all.

!!! OOOO!!!

When he’s snapped for the final time, when Cronus is standing in front of the Riders, saying that he will ‘realize his dreams for all to see’, his eyes glow with that tell-tale Bugster light – but differently than usual. One eye is green, the other is white.

Not unlike the green-and-grey tinged veins that appeared on both him and Graphite when they directly infected themselves with Gamedeus’s strain.

The roof.

Parad takes the Doctor Mighty X gashat, saying that Poppy fought to the end to save everyone. After he picks it up…

“I am you, and you are me. You know what I’m trying to say, don’t you?”

Parad can’t bring himself to say it – that they both know full well what just happened, and what’s going to happen next.

(Also, y’know, there’s almost no way they could say… well, that ‘he was going to have to kill himself’ on-air, not in so many words. Not in this season, at least, but that didn’t exactly stop them from getting closer in Build, now did it?)

That was just the Excite translation, though. I’m using the OZC-Live encodes, so I have the RTA translation too… so let’s see how they phrased it.

“I’m you, and you’re me. You know already what I’m going to say, right?”

OH NO.

Oh, and INTERESTING.

Excite has Emu’s next few lines in the singular. “I won’t waste Poppy’s sacrifice. I’ll put an end to Rider Chronicle.”

RTA has them as a plural. “We can’t let her sacrifice go to waste. Let’s end Rider Chronicle.”

Either way… Emu leaves the roof first, with Parad still standing, the wind blowing his hair, and a serious expression on his face.

Emu goes to face off against Cronus Gamedeus, and transforms with the Mighty Action X gashat.

Into Level One.

Taiga: “You’ll die challenging him at that level!”

Nah, he won’t. He’s just doing what Poppy taught him to do. First phase of the operation: separate the bugster from the patient.

Technically speaking, there’s a person inside there. They just have to defeat the Bugster Union, first.

Kuroto’s the one to catch on and actually explain.

okay, the Chibi fight is effectively done…

and looks like @aquabluejay was right, Parad does run in while using Perfect Knockout to grab the sword before it can hit Emu.

Yelling in pain, from the white gashat in his driver, as both he and Cronus-Gamedeus start to glow blue. The same blue as Poppy did.

The thing is, after the 5 Chibi Rider Kicks… when the smoke starts to clear, and everyone lands, detransformed.

When Gamedeus – now a manageable size – is being grappled by Para-DX… and then by Parad, as his transformation breaks, the both of them grunting in pain.

That is when Emu realizes. Parad had had his back to Emu before. But now Emu can see Parad’s driver. And the Doctor Mighty X gashat that’s in it.

Excite translation: “Come die quietly with your fellow Bugster, Gamedeus.”

RTA translation: “We’re both Bugsters, so let’s end this together, Gamedeus.”

Gamedeus dissolves, and Parad falls to his knees, gasping in pain.

Excite: “I hope I’ve made up for what I’ve done, even a little...”

RTA: “I hope this makes up for my deeds, somewhat...”

Emu: “Parad…”

Excite: “It was only for a short time, but I really had the time of my life gaming with you.”

RTA: “It may have been a short time, but playing games with you… it was the best fun I’ve ever had.”

Episode 45

After Emu tries to take on Cronus, who’s just knocked everyone else out of their transformations, bare-handed…

Well, he didn’t really stand a chance, did he?

“DoReMiFa Beat and Perfect Knockout both died noble deaths, although it was all for naught. They were both lives with no commercial value.”

“You… don’t you dare speak of Poppy and Parad’s lives...”

Oh… OH!

Okay, so. So I figure Emu’s not exactly baseline human by the time the show starts, let alone after what he did to make the Mighty Brothers XX and Maximum Mighty X gashats. But! Here’s the thing!

The only people who could move in pause were those with either the abilities of Cronus, Gamedeus, or Hyper Muteki.

Emu doesn’t have any of those in the Pause here.

But what he does have, however small it may currently be, and even though he doesn’t know it…

Is the remnants of data from a Bugster who had just pumped himself full of the Gamedeus vaccine.

Cronus is back to all green – he’s just Cronus now, not a hybrid of the two. But… well, the vaccine is made from the strain, after all. It stands to reason that enough of it could have a similar effect against Pause, however minor.

And Emu’s been building his own levels for 16 years, same as – ugh, fine, I’ll use his name this time.

Emu and Masamune have been infected for 16 years. That has to have had side effects other than the obvious ‘use the driver or bugvisor without the compatibility surgery.’

Effects like Emu’s Gashat creation abilities, and Masamune’s Reset.

And it’s only for a moment, but Emu is able to move.

He moves, his eyes flashing red, long enough to punch the bugvisor hard enough to break it – but he freezes back up once Cronus goes flying.

Punching far harder than he should be able to under normal circumstances, even. Those devices are made to take a beating.

He’s done something like this before – he essentially force-shoved Kuroto off of himself, one time, before he found out he was infected, with his eyes flashing red, and a visual effect not unlike the waves of ‘force’ that show up sometimes when attacks land in any Rider show.

It was never confirmed whether that was actually Parad at work, because he did show up right after, but… who’s to say it wasn’t Emu himself?

The punch here? Was hard enough to break the bugvisor, and to knock Cronus – who, mind you, is in full armor, while Emu is in street clothes and battered, back through the air for multiple yards, and into the clock he uses to freeze time, shattering it.

There is no way Emu is pure human.

HAHAHA and then I forgot to write anything else after this through the end of the episode. Whoops~!

Soooo.

This wound up being eight pages long.

I really did just start this to find out what the order of events was in the ‘Parad’s sacrifice’ sequence, but. Uh. It kind of got away from me.

Eight pages away.

… I don’t even know what I was doing here anymore, but I just wrote eight pages, and I’m feel like talking about how we don’t really know how Bugsters work.

Like, in the press conference, Emu refers to Bugsters as ‘mostly data’, but in Another Ending, Poppy refers to them as being viruses.

I have so much to fix when ReUnited gets to Another Ending you guys.

And! Are Kiriya and Kuroto wearing actual clothes, or are they doing something like Poppy and her costume changes? Honestly, either one has possibilities.

I… kind of want them to be wearing actual clothes. I figure that if Parad or Poppy were to take off something, and set it aside, it would eventually sort of… phase out of where they left it, and back onto them. But. Say one of the guys took off their jacket, because they do both wear them, shortly after being brought back, and it disappeared. But didn’t show back up.

(And THAT is why Kiriya got the black jacket. The one he died in is very, very gone.)

… I should stop now, I’ve probably rambled enough. Enough for eight. Freaking. Pages.

#kamen rider ex aid #sailorcressy says #in which i overthink everything yet again

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