#THERE HAS GOT TO BE A POINT TO ARUTO'S JOKES

[zarahjoyce]

KRZO speculations

Taking off from @kanacaecilius‘s post:

- Ark Zero is based from a fusion of all four MBJR members, probably taking their dominant characteristics/capabilities

- Somehow it still takes on Naki’s sense of humor 

- This becomes its weakness because Aruto makes horrible jokes and Ark Zero literally rolls on the floor laughing

- this can either lead to it a) being destroyed while it’s laughing at Aruto’s jokes or b) being transformed into ~good~ because laughter cures everything idek

THE END 

[firebirdsdaughter]

Wait...

... So, after thinking about how Horobi could have ended up as he is (or ended up in a position where he could be manipulated by the Ark), I started wondering... How would the Ark have ended up like this?

And, to be honest, my first thoughts went to a movie I’ve never seen, but know bits of the plot of, since it’s such a classic—what if ground zero (no puns intended, I’m not Aruto) for this was a contraction like in 2001: A Space Odyssey? Alternatively, maybe it was the Ark AI that saw the ‘dark side’ of humanity—and did the same conclusion that we’ve seen many a time in sci-fi and even toku itself: concluded that peace could only be achieved if humans didn’t exist, for some reason. Maybe then it sought out/latched onto Horobi, who maybe shared its view of humans and either convinced or coerced him to go along. And, at some point, either after or before, Horobi created Jin. Maybe the Ark is also feeding Horobi the idea—whether Horobi already thought that way or it convinced him of it—that they can’t let Jin go singularity before all the humans are gone bc they both hate humans so much, they don’t want to risk him being sympathetic to them, bc they see that as still serving them? (Bc that’s still a theory I have about why Horobi would react that way to most of the singularities—wondering how he’d respond to a HumaGear who wanted to help them upon going singularity).

Then we have ZEA, the new satellite, who seems very fond and benevolent toward humans—so perhaps she had a very different experience?

Basically, something caused the Ark AI to go off the rails, w/ ZEA perhaps now being an improved, better-handled version, and I’m wondering if it was something like what’s come up in previous sci-fi.

[asknarashikari]

Personal Headcanon and Analysis about Aruto Hiden From Kamen Rider Zero-One

What people don't know is that Aruto actually went to college and got a Masters in Business with a minor in engineering.

The reason why Aruto became a comedian is due to the fact that he wanted to distance himself from the label of 'Korensuke's grandson'.

I recently saw a post discussing this topic and I will take some of their points. Can't link the post as I can't seem to find it. I will also be taking inspiration about Aruto and his view of himself.

Claims of 'nepotism' surrounds Aruto and his position of CEO of Hiden Industries. Not only that, but any accomplishments Aruto makes is labeled as 'Korenosuke making the right decision for his heir'. Aruto most likely got that business degree as it was expected of him to do so as heir to Hiden Industries.

It is show how Aruto places more emphasis on serving others then himself.

More than likely, this was a product of a childhood of being seen as 'Korenosuke's grandson and only living heir' and not as an orphaned boy with a busy grandfather and having been traumatized by his adoptive dad's death. People just see Aruto as the heir and not the person he truly is.

Compunding this fact is that Aruto',s mental health most likely suffered as people most likely didn't believe that Aruto lost his father figure at a young age, but that only his personal humagear servant got destroyed. Korenosuke probably knew that their relationship was one of parent-and-child and thats why he didn't try to rebuild Soreo. Such an action would only strain his relationship with Aruto even more, as Aruto would see it as him trying to replace Soreo.

It is shown that Aruto ignores his own feelings and has unhealthy coping mechanisms to cope with his trauma.

One example is his comedian job. His job choice of comedian is not only because Aruto wants to create smiles, but to fill the broken dream of making his dad laugh from the bottom of his heart. Aruto is attempting to vicariously make that dream happen as a way to cope with his dad's death. He can't let go of his usage of puns as he feels that if a person genuinely laughs at his jokes, then he can will feel content about not being able to make his dad laugh.

With this mind, Aruto wanting to distance himself from Hiden Industries makes sense. He probably wanted to distance himself from Hiden Industries and that can explain why he is clueless about most stuff pertaining to Humagears.

[dangerouscommiesubversive]

Isamu and Aruto, 15

Hon, you get to cheat and get a fourth prompt in for this round because I really wanted to write some Fuwa. Big thanks to my husband for workshopping Bad Aruto Jokes with me over 1. a long car trip and 2. a shared diner milkshake.

15. "Why are you staring at me?"

The lab is quiet but for the hum of machinery. Aruto sits at his grandfather's work table, tools gleaming like jewelry on a square of green velvet next to his elbow. In front of him is one of his grandfather's notebooks, an engineering textbook, and a partially-disassembled Humagear forearm and hand.

It is, if he's being perfectly honest, the creepiest thing Isamu's ever seen. Just...a hand, lying there. It's even got painted nails.

Not looking up from...whatever he's doing, Aruto says, cheerfully, "So what can I do for you, Fuwa?"

Isamu coughs nervously. "I, uh. My ShotRiser needs a repair and Yaiba's busy, I thought you might. Help."

"Oh, sure, I mean, I'll take a look, I'm just in the middle of something--do you mind hanging out? I could kinda use the company, Izu's busy and it feels weird being by myself."

I could watch you for hours--not saying that. "No problem, I have time. What are you--" The fingers of the hand Aruto's working on twitch, and Isamu suppresses the urge to jump. "What, what are you working on?"

Aruto flashes him a knee-weakeningly sunny smile. "Studying. I'm still new to a lot of this engineering stuff, really. I didn't go to university, you know? All of this--" a vague gestured toward the general lab area, "still getting the hang of it even thought it's been, like. A year."

Isamu swallows hard. "I bet it's...complicated. Whyyy, why a hand?"

"Well, Izu was having some technical issues the other day and I couldn't help her and it bugged me." The manicured fingers curl and flex. "So I had We're make me up some practice pieces to work on."

It's hard not to stare--at Aruto, at the hand, at the way Aruto's hair flops over his ears, he is not staring at Aruto. Or at the hand. He is looking safely at a point over Aruto's head where there isn't anything either alarming or distressingly attractive. "That's good of you, to study for her."

Another flashed grin. "I want to be useful, you know? Not just a figurehead." He lifts the forearm up, squinting into an open panel just past the wrist, and then blinks. His face lights up. "I want to arm myself with knowledge."

Isamu thinks, Shit, and chokes back a giggle--

"Actually, hang on, I think I can--" Aruto starts fiddling in the open panel with a tiny screwdriver, tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth. "Who else..." he mutters, "but..." and, with a final, triumphant twist of the screwdriver, "...Aruto!" He looks up at Isamu, beaming.

And.

The hand points at Isamu, palm down, thumb out to the side, in Aruto's unmistakable gesture.

Isamu whirls around and stares fixedly at the wall, teeth gritted and neck tense as he desperately tries to fight off laughter.

Behind him there's some rustling, and then Aruto says, hesitantly, "Fu...wa? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Isamu grits out. "Everything's peachy. I can feel you staring at me, why are you staring at me, don't--" He suppresses another wheeze of laughter. "It's fine."

The rolling sound of Aruto's chair pushing out from the desk, footsteps behind him. "No, seriously, are you hurt or something? Is that why you didn't go to Ms. Yua? I guess she would probably scold you." Aruto lays a hand gently on his shoulder. "Will you show me what--"

Think fast, Fuwa Isamu, or he's going to realize you've been losing your head over his terrible jokes this whole time. You need a distraction.

He turns, grabs Aruto by the front of today's tacky, adorable hoodie of choice, and kisses him.

Too fast, genius, says another part of his mind, the one that sounds like Yua and Naki had a kid. He doesn't respond to it, because arguing with yourself is what crazy people do and also his tongue's kind of in Aruto's mouth.

After a moment he lets go of the hoodie and backs off, and Aruto, pink-cheeked, says, "Uh."

Isamu coughs. "I'll. See myself out."

"I, you, but--no?" Aruto grabs his wrist. Somehow this leads to them kissing again, possibly because Aruto decided that it needed to happen. This is fine.

This time, when they stop kissing, Isamu says, "I don't actually have a problem with my ShotRiser, I just wanted to see you."

"You could have said that, you know."

"I really couldn't."

"Right, I guess that isn't really...you." A beat, and then Aruto lights up again and Isamu feels dread coil in the pit of his stomach. "Well, I figure this wasn't quite the shot you were looking for, but I hope I managed to rise to the occasion."

And he winks. Isamu can feel himself blushing. It's terrible. But even worse is that the laugh is coming and he's not going to be able to stop it and Aruto will see and know and--

Aruto's lifting his hand and saying, "Who else but A--mm," and that last bit is cut off because apparently the answer to all of Isamu's problems has become, "stick your tongue in his mouth again and see if that fixes it."

[pulaasul]

Conference of Contrition - 3

After the conference.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2

FFN I Ao3

--------

Aruto woke up and found himself back inside his hospital room. He tried to sit up, but immediately clutched his side as soon as he started his attempt.

"Be careful, Prez." A voice that's not Doctor Omigoto, cautioned.

Aruto looked at where the voice was from and both Fuwa Isamu and Yaiba Yua were present.

"A few of your wounds opened up, President Aruto," Yaiba reported. "Likely from the prolonged dogeza you did during the conference."

"Yaiba-san, Fuwa-san."

"That was reckless, even for you, Prez." Fuwa shook his head.

"You're one to talk, Fuwa," Yaiba scoffed. "I seem to remember you simply chugging pain killers when you were supposed to be on bed rest."

"What was I supposed to do when we were constantly attacked by hacked Humagears?" Fuwa challenged. "Not counting the President, the two of us were the only ones who can fight the threat."

"Fair point," Yaiba nodded. "Fuwa's right, Hiden," She turned her attention to the man on the bed. "You blatantly disregarded the severity of your wounds just to deliver a speech, which you could have done and filmed it here."

Aruto shook his head. "It wouldn't be sincere if I would just film a few scenes here."

Fuwa and Yaiba looked at each other, hopeful that the young man would make his usual flourish at the pun, but to no avail.

"Besides, I think that press conference would place more trust in the Humagears."

"I understand that it's your dream that humans and humagears be able to smile and coexist," Fuwa gently forced Aruto to lie on the bed.

"That would just remain a dream if you continue to reopen your wounds every other day." Yaiba bluntly added as she placed a blanket over the injured man.

"Rest up, Prez," Fuwa smirked. "And if you feel like it, you could talk to her."

Fuwa placed a sphere-like object in front of the bedridden President. It was one object Aruto was familiar with.

"Ai-chan."

"Hello Aruto-sama," Ai-chan greeted back. "I think you know why I'm here, Aruto-sama." There was a hint of joy from the AI's voice.

"I know," A small smile graced Aruto's lips. "Say, Ai-chan, I want to atone should I…"

Fuwa and Yaiba went out of the hospital room, leaving Aruto to speak with the AI friend that has helped the two of them.

Both Fuwa and Yaiba knew Ark's effects on Aruto, at least to some extent. It wasn't hard to pin down the reason why the person who had championed for the Humagears' existence went from saving them to suddenly wanting to destroy one.

The both of them knew how remorseful the young president was of his actions, especially after he knew that his battle against Horobi would have sparked some kind of war.

Maybe it's high time that Aruto got a dose of his own medicine, and be helped by the AI friend he had helped create and develop.

And maybe, just maybe, he'll be back to his joke-cracking self.

[crimsonblazw]

Zero-one is the perfect start to a new generation

artist credit:https://twitter.com/r5WitWG0y8Poz0K/status/1300385462972866560?s=20

Introduction

Kamen rider Zero-one concluded last week and I believe it to be a very strong first entry into the Reiwa era of Kamen rider. On the surface it's back to basics with a grasshopper themed main character and simple animal motifs for his forms and the other riders while the major motif of the season centers around Artificial intelligence and the concepts of free will,dreams,and empathy.

At first glance you'd have several preconceived notions about the series,but there is FAR more than meets the eye.

Story and themes

Structurally this season of KR is made up of bigger arcs (four in total) which break down into smaller two episode arcs that make up the week to week episodes which allowed the show to maximize the monster of the week formula while the main story progresses at it's own pace (the best way to do KR in my opinion), this pairs well with one of Zero-one's biggest strengths; world building.

Each two episode arc explores the humagears' place in society and they're overall relationship with humans leading to a diverse range of dynamics that get explored over the course of the show with very few stones left unturned.

In general the thesis of the show is built on the beliefs of the humagears' creator Hiden Korenosuke,that humagears will help humanity achieve the their dreams.

At first you can take this literally given humagears can be thought of as "tools" for day to day life when in reality they where meant to grow along with humans (in other words reach singularity) and use their own passions and dreams to elevate those of humans and vice versa,the significance being that humans by nature are empathetic and social beings who have only made it so far as a species due to our ability to care for one another, humagears are meant to help humanity achieve our full potential faster.

The challenges this idea faces is a society that not only wants humagears and humans alike to become nothing more than "beasts of burden" for the upper class but also it's mirror opposite;the potential malice and selfishness that ultimately destroys lives and dreams,all of this being synonymous with the classic fiction trope or A.I. and robots representing the inhumane treatment of the common person.

Characters

While the overall show and it's smaller stories make up the backbone of the show the main characters are the heart, having arcs that represent the exact message the themes of the show are trying to communicate.

Aruto Hiden/Zero-one- Our main character. He has the staple good heart of a main rider with a strong belief in the power of dreams.

His arc is flat in order to inspire the other characters around him and further their own growth while having his own convictions tested the challenges of the show. He's very endearing and seeing how he overcomes every obstacle (even when it's crushing him) is the mark of a good main rider.

Izu-Aruto's humagear partner. It's easy to dismiss Izu's growth but her change is present but subtle. She goes from following Korenosuke's initial directives to making her own decisions,she starts off confused by Aruto's jokes but begins repeating them,and she goes from being Aruto's secretary to being his family. The evolution of her and Aruto's relationship is heartwarming and gives them on the best male/female lead dynamic in the franchise.

Fuwa/Vulcan-He starts as a staunch humagear hating foil to Aruto and a rather typical secondary rider. But after discovering his entire mindset has been "crafted" by those who want to control him his arc blossoms into a great story of a man taking back control of his life and rejecting the false and toxic ideals forced on to him, resulting in arguably the best arc in the show.

Yua/Valkyrie- While her arc can be easy to miss she represents those who unintentionally surrender their personhood to those above them while believing they retain their independence. Despite some lacking screentime she does recognize her worth and atonomy and reclaims her life (not unlike her partner Fuwa) and I hope future female riders follow her example (but with more screentime).

Horobi and Jin- Our two initial villains and the heads of the humagear terrorist cell Metsubojinrai.net.

Horobi begins as a steadfast believer in his "master" the Ark and shares it's beliefs in the extermination of humanity, beliefs he tries to pass to his "son" Jin who has concerns about their violent and forceful methods before becoming indoctrinated.

As the show goes on Jin begins to develop his own beliefs separate from Horobi while Horobi begins to experience a crisis of faith. They're dynamic is unique in KR and their arc is a perfect representation of the kinds of toxic concepts that can be passed down from parent to child but with time can be unlearned.

Gai/Thouser- One of the two major villains in the show. In many ways he's a more serious version of Dan from Ex-aid, his main position in this story being a stand-in for the greedy ruling class who will destroy as many lives as they want so long as they get what they want.

He's genuinely impressive in terms of how well calculated his plan is and absolutely loathsome for the fact he essentially caused everything wrong in the series. His eventual "redemption" is VERY hard to swallow but for food or ill does fit with the shows themes of overcoming our worst aspects and also doesn't bend over backwards to make him sympathetic.

Naki/Raiden-the other two members of Metsubojinrai.net. Wish they had gotten more screentime, especially since Naki seemed like a character that would have been cool to see more of. I do like them still and think it's cool they got their own happy endings.

The final arc

This deserves it's own section. The final arc is one of the most bold and interesting final arcs in the franchise and in my opinion is the best one since Drive.

The asset that really makes this part of the show work is the "final boss" the Ark. Despite seeming like a generic "evil entity" final boss commonly seen in toku the Ark is a methodical and truly evil being.

The Ark represents the darkest parts of human existence, mainly that our compassion/love can be easily turned into malice when the hardships of the world take it's tole on us.

Going deeper the ark's "philosophy" can also be seen as a parallel to those who think humanity is better off destroyed because of humans alleged inherent cruelty,not realizing that not only are humans not inherently cruel but that mindset is at most a trauma based response to the hardships of the world or a hypocritical mindset that give those who think it a free pass to be malicious and hateful while thinking they're "enlightened" for recognizing the alleged folly of man.

The Ark utilizes these concepts in it's final plan when it manipulates Aruto and Horobi take each other to their lowest points by having them kill each other's most treasured person,the duel between the two fueling human/humagear tension to the point of war,and it did this all without being around for most of it.

Aruto is so besides himself with grief that he essentially abandons his dream,I think what stood out to me was Fuwa attempting to stop Aruto and pointing out that Aruto is where he used to be,full of rage and hatred that can only be overcome with someone else showing you genuine empathy, which is what Fuwa is attempting to give to Aruto as a parallel to when Aruto did it for him.

The final battle is not only between Horobi and Aruto but between Malice and empathy. And in the end the two breaking down and recognizing each other's pain with Aruto winning but sparing Horobi is the final "test" of what fully realized empathy is.

Outro

2020 has been rough. I think more than ever we see what's wrong with the world and what we need to do to fix it. Whether it was intentional or not Zero-one was the rider I think we needed right now.

In a society that doesn't value empathy ,unity,or dreams we have to elevate each other and hold on to our passions and dreams for the future.

Thanks for reading ! Please like and share ! And feel free to share your thoughts. Keep your eyes peeled for future posts! Best wishes friend

[reversemoon255]

1t's Never 0ver

Hot take: Brain is the first Reiwa Rider. Still, for the first Reiwa series, Kamen Rider Zero-One was a great start. I've seen a surprising amount of kids shows tackle the idea of treating robots like people, and this show handles it pretty decently.

The Good: Aruto was surprisingly funny and competent. I was optimistic when they presented him as an unfunny comedian turned CEO in the preview material, but I'm impressed by how well he turned out, with full credit to the actor for nailing most of his deliveries. One of my big problems with both Build and Zi-O was that I couldn't always get behind the characters, but Aruto was definitely a step up, being the first Rider since Drive to really grab me.

Considering we just came off Zi-O, with a large cast of stoic characters, it's amazing how much Izu, the emotionless robot, pulled it off better. (Actually, credit to all the Humagear actors for outstanding mono-emotional performances. They all did very well.) I think a big part of that was the fact that they allowed her to make jokes and do silly things with a straight face, instead of being purely dour. And it was an excellent payoff, seeing her slow progression from a very basic personality to a much more lively one as the series progressed.

I really liked Fuwa, and his was another character that underwent several shifts during the run of the story, those the moments where he started turning are more evident than Izu's (but he's also not portrayed as very bright, so that makes sense). His entire arc is him overcoming his hatred for Humagears, eventually reaching the point where he wants to help them, with the final expression of this being him declaring his will to carry on Naki's dream and using his Progrise Key to transform. And he was just pretty fun, being the serious character who likes bad jokes, and often ends up the butt of them himself.

Yua is a troublesome character. There was a lot of untapped potential there that I feel wasn't reached, but there was some good, too. Her arc was seeing Humagear as people rather than tools, which isn't as well executed as Izu or Fuwa as she took a back seat for about two show arcs, but is ultimately satisfying. Most of her development in this department seems to comes from her interactions with Izu, but her experiences during the Fire Fighter training were also a big push. And her resignation was amazing. I feel most of her issues could have been solved if they didn’t push her so hard in promotional material at the beginning.

I disliked Gai for most of this show, which I think was the point. He was a total butt for the majority of the runtime, but it's also amazing how quickly I 180'd on him after his dog showed up. He was very functional, and I wasn't really interested in him as a character until, again, Dog Thouser showed up.

Jin was definitely the villain I had the most investment in throughout the show, even if that started waning near the end when he was just sitting around and letting Horobi do whatever he wanted. Still, he was very similar to Izu, being a Humagear that we see slowly obtain his own singularity and ideals, but taken from a different perspective. He was also a lot of fun. I've found my favorite characters are usually the ones with positive attitudes and outlooks, even if he was aiming for mankind's extinction.

I know a lot of people like Horobi, but it took me a while to warm up to him, and even then I wasn't the biggest fan until his changes in the final episodes. When Gai replaced him as the main antagonist of the series, I wasn't sad to see him go, but I am glad he eventually came back because they did good things with him. It's also cool how he sparks Jin's first major development with his death, and Jin sparks his final changes with his own.

I found myself very invested in the story, especially since this series was very good at not letting a status quo settle for very long. As soon as the Aruto VS A.I.M.S dynamic was set up, he reveals himself to them. As soon as Metsuboujinrai.Net is defeated, Gai shows up. After 4 "nice" contests between humans and Humagear where the humans learn something through the competition, we get one where the villains win and Aruto is ousted as CEO. And I think that was to the show's benefit. A lot of Rider shows will wait half the show before a shakeup, but Zero-One was constantly keeping the viewer interested with new story lines and revelations.

Oh, and every belt chant was amazing.

The Bad: Going in the same order, Yua had a lot of unused potential. I remember how much hype her character had out the gate, being the first female Rider to start a series. She even got a form change, which is a first. However, she only got one form change, and as I mentioned when discussing LupinRanger and Ryusoulger, power-ups in Tokusatsu shows are often used as physical representations of a character's growth. Yua's second form showed up before episode 10. Yes, she also had Fighting Jackal later in the show, but that was a monster form; it's made to represent her fully giving in to Gai’s will, which is why we don't see it after she quits ZAIA. I would have loved if she had used Fighting Jackal in the ShotRiser and had gotten a new form as a representation of her moving on from those painful memories, or forgiving Gai. It sucks, because we got a ton of short-use Riders and forms in this series, so you'd think they could swing it. Just in the last few episodes, we got Arc-One, Arc-Scorpion, Vulcan Japanese Wolf, and Eden. At this point, I think Toei's just not sure what to do with a female Rider. At least they treated her better than Poppy and Nico.

I really didn't like Gai. And I know that's the point, but there's a difference between there being a character you're supposed to hate for the whole show and a character you're supposed to come around on. You can have a despicable character become a good guy, but there has to be something about them that makes you want them to become one in the first place, otherwise it's just jarring. Dan Kuroto is a great example of this. He was also a despicable character, but he had this humorous over-the-top attitude to him that made him fun to watch, and you want him to join the main cast to see how that persona bounces off everyone else. Gai didn't have anything like that; he was just dislikable. If they had hinted at all to his past, it would have worked, but they waited until the episode where he face turns to do it. And that just doesn't work.

This is also a personal nitpick, but when they were teasing stuff for the finalé, I thought Aruto was going to use Rocking Hopper, not Realizing Hopper. Thematically, that would have been awesome, but I'm ok with what we got.

There were also quite a few episodic plots I'd wished they'd covered in regards to the Humagears. We covered quite a broad range of topics with them, but there were a few big things they missed. One of them is about Humagear choosing new careers. It's cool that Humagear have dreams, but they're all in regard to their predisposed profession. The manga assistant wants to write a manga, the coaches want to teach the best athletes, etc. But no one wants to change jobs. We don't get a farmer Humagear that suddenly wants to become an artist or anything, and I would have liked to see how Aruto would handle that. And what about love? It was briefly brought up, but what happens when a Humagear falls in love with a human? Or when two Humagear fall in love? How did they have sentient robots and not talk about love!?

I also can't help but wonder what the show would have been like if we hadn't lost 4 episodes due to current events. I have a feeling we might have had a Gaim Finalé situation with Eden and that's why they had the costume on hand. Who knows; maybe we'll get some interviews down the road that will give us some insight.

And lastly, spoilers, I want top talk about the death of Izu, because that's the one thing I see the most that people disliked about the ending. It's not that she died at all, because we've had that before with characters like Ankh, but because Aruto created a new, identical Izu, with the same name, and proclaimed he was going to retrain her.

I had to think on this for quite a while, but I'm ok with this. Don't get me wrong, I would have preferred an ending where Izu was restored like Jin, or where Horobi becomes Aruto's new assistant, but the thing is this was foreshadowed. In the early episodes, every time Metsubojinrai.Net corrupts a Humagear, and Aruto or Fuwa or Yua has to destroy it, what happens? The owner gets a new Humagear of the same model and retrains it. Aruto is following his company’s policy. And yes, it’s painful. You can see him well up as he’s reminded of the first Izu, but he smiles and moves forward.

There is a form of Japanese pottery called kintsukuroi. In it, you take a piece of broken pottery, and along the cracks you piece everything back together with gold. It's not an easy process, it takes time, and the cracks are still there, but the end result is far more beautiful that what you started with. Aruto is always going to remember the first Izu, and living with the second Izu is going to be painful, but there’s the potential for this new relationship to be even greater than the one he started with. Or at least that’s me reading too much into it.

The Next: (At the time of writing this,) Saber premieres this weekend. Love the designs, as I'm big on the knight motif. I think the belt gimmick is cool, and might get it if they reveal some interesting power-up books. I think a story about story is very fun, very meta, could be great, but could also go horribly wrong if not given to the right writer. We'll have to see. After how well Zero-One was handled, I'm excited to see how the rest of Reiwa will go. They probably won't all be winners, but I enjoyed most of Neo Heisei, with only the last few entries being bad-to-ok in my book, so here's to hoping we'll get a repeat of that trend, without repeating their themes.

Overall, this was a good season. Not my favorite, but certainly in the upper half of the show's library. Looking forward to the movie, whenever that happens. Looking forward to Saber, too.

"A Rider Kick to the sky turns to take off toward a dream!"

[iristial]

Finished episode 38! No double rewatches for this one because I've done enough hysterical craughing (simultaneous crying and laughing) for one night

Since I avoided watching the episode because of the...redemption, so to say, I went with the mindset of "don't bother analyzing the Gai scenes" and it worked. Kinda. It helped that it only took up 1/4 of the episode, but see aforementioned craughing - and the rolling on the bed - and the obligatory phone throw. It's a parody of the worst villain redemption arc/episode, complete with dramatic thunder as eleven year old Gai *gasps* vowed he shall walk alone, Aruto joking that Gai actually loves Hiden Intelligence, and when sparkle sparkle intersection of the present Gai and past Gai happened. It's so bad it's funny. Still not worth losing my brain cells over, but at least I know it's not to be taken seriously (in a way)

On a more serious note, Gai's upbringing would garner sympathy from me...if it wasn't used to hand wave everything he did. Not to mention the lack of duality. Also, even if he's deranged at this point, I fail to see the connection between "actually loving Hiden Intelligence" and orchestrating events that caused the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, and stripped Humagears of their freedom. Why are we sliding the one responsible under the table? There is a limit to responsibility (i.e. blaming the company who manufactured a knife a murderer used), though that doesn't apply here - and I know they were trying to make way for other developments, which is why arc three is hastily done and this exists...but I need to ask just. Why.

Aruto was peak tsukkomi here. The "you actually love Hiden Intelligence" joke was untimely, but it did make me snort, and he overall had the tone of someone who was Done with Gai's antics

I also liked that Aruto would choose the company he built over the multimillion company his grandfather made (and it existed 34 years ago, holy shoot). It's real unfortunate that it faced destruction in episode 40, and he never got a chance to revive the business...I would've liked to see him continue on this road. Maybe give the directionless Yua a chance to join, to find the place she belongs, because I feel like A.I.M.S isn't quite that + Fuwa saying she's got nowhere to go...hm, I don't think he's in a position to say that. Even if it was another way of stating Yua has to find her dream, Fuwa just doesn't mince his words like that

I've taken to calling the A.I.M.S. officers who first appeared in episode 30 as Yua's fan boys so when they popped up again in this episode, I was going "oh look, it's her fan club" xD

I'm wondering how she "guided them" when Yua was with the ZAIA version of A.I.M.S for three and a half episodes, and they just tried to destroy Humagears, but considering Yua does care for her subordinates (unlike Gai), I guess that's what they're counting on

Raiden's memories of Subaru resurfacing, even though the Ark took his data away...the heart overcomes technology indeed. And I hope they insert something resembling this for Izu 2.0

Ark!Jin holding up the SlashRiser reminded me of the times Horobi would use his katana for dramatic appeal. Those days were great

Aruto...driving his motorcycle...for the first time in like...I'm going to have to flick through my notes, it's been so long. I miss motorcycles. And I wish the others got one too...even if it's for a limited time

Every arc after the first one seems to end with a liberation. Arc two had Fuwa resisting the chip; arc three was a microscopic case, but Horobi did develop some awareness of himself (before episode 35.5 wiped that away); and arc four ends with Aruto and Horobi freeing themselves of their grief

[cina-full-moon-xanadium]

During that entire Aruto/Horobi fight I DESPERATELY wanted to like Zero-One 45.

I don’t like disliking a show. Especially not one that between a lot of characters and earlier stories has given me a lot of joy. And despite everything that’s happened since MBJR got back together, despite how badly done Ark-One is and despite how stupid Thouser’s episode is and despite all of how I don’t like what this show became, I wanted so badly for the final episode to just... turn that around for me. Sometimes endings can do that, can re contextualise things so strongly that it makes you reconsider everything. 

But... no. No, it... it just didn’t. It still feels like nothing about Aruto’s turn has been earned, so much still brings it down, and the themes of the show have just... completely transformed. And not in a positive way.

The thing is about Zero-One since the clip shows that I didn’t like as an overall show, a big criticism I have that a lot of people when I’ve voiced them just don’t seem to get? My big criticism is that this is NOT the same show anymore. From the moment Raiden was revived and the gang laser-eyed the Ark-Zero driver into existence, Zero-One went from a show very staunchly about the advancement of robotics; the question of what constitutes a life when considering robots; and what role corporations have in all of this... to being about malice and the value of a heart.

And that’s not a bad thing to be about, and it’s not like it wasn’t a part of Zero-One from the start -- it’s a very important part of the questions surrounding Humagears. But when Zero-One became about malice and the value of a heart it was no longer about how that concerned Humagears, it was suddenly much more concerned with evil as a concept and how these specific characters - most importantly our main human lead - interact with that.

And it doesn’t feel like the show really tried to bring Humagears back into the picture in a major way. MBJR and Ark-Zero having the goal of freeing the Humagears? Sure, but it’s done in such a way that it really could have been about anything. It wasn’t about these characters as Humagears, it was about these characters sinking too deeply into malice. Horobi’s turn from Ark and assembling an army of Humagears, wanting to take down humanity so that Ark can never revive? Again, kind of the same thing -- this is not about Humagears specifically, it’s really a storyline that you could slot in any different group of people. Horobi being allied with Humagears at all is barely a plot point. The Humagear riots? A joke of a scene that gets no resolution or conclusion.

I remember an interview, I believe just a little before the covid clip shows; where Takahashi or someone from Toei in general said that the Humagears actually got more involvement in late-game Zero-One than they otherwise would have, because they proved popular with audiences. And I think that truly underlines the issue with Zero-One that it was inevitably going to have. Takahashi was simply not committed enough to the core theme of Zero-One as a show, and decided to make it about something else.

[shauta]

alright i think im awake enough to talk about my thots on zero-one from break up to episode 44 so spoilers after the cut in case you havent caught up or youre planning on watching it

so first i guess i should mention the presidential specials, which were just 2 glorified recap episodes that also introduced azu (finally) and the creation of the ark-one key. they are what they are and i get having to just shove it into recap episodes that were released during the point where it was still pretty risky to have actors do anything outside of their homes so i dont really feel much toward them

to the actual point of this, episodes 36-41 i would call good for the most part, there are some things that had to get sidelined due to covid, like fuwa and yua’s whole thing having to be condensed into a scene or two of them talking to Ai, the therapy robot, but it was still alright all things considered and i cant blame them too much since something like this during the airing of rider has never really happened. in regards to the thousman’s redemption, it kinda felt like a mix of covid interference and general not knowing how to properly give such a horrible man any kind of redemption. like, i’ll admit, his backstory about his robot dog named thouser (hilarious) almost got me until he pulled the “youre the only motherfucker that can handle me” with Sony’s New Product Placement Toy, which made it wrap around from being almost decent to funny in a bad kind of way. also the thing with him committing fucking humagear crimes being born from a love of hiden intelligence was so damn stupid, like are they telling me he couldnt have done the things he did out of like jealousy or some blind belief that hiden’s dreams are foolish or something?? fuck man, that was just really dumb. also how much did sony pay to have them shove so much goddamn footage of aibo into that episode

ark zero’s introduction was pretty cool, with him just outright fucking possessing horobi and, at first, making his body move unnaturally until he transformed. that was kinda sick. i feel like the cut to yua being outright terrified of ark would have had more impact had she done more stuff in the show, but i think thats genuinely a good way to show how strong/scary a new enemy can be. im also so glad that naki got their own suit and shit, since i remember us hoping that they would at least use the assault wolf key, but kamen rider naki is just so much cooler. thanks so fucking much kamen rider zero-one

also with ark when aruto just lost to him and got scared that maybe his ideals werent totally right, since in his ideal dream world it is technically possible for an ai to become as corrupted like satellite ark and him having to reaffirm what he believes in after fukuoze comes to him and is like “i need shesta back so we can kick gai out” was good imo. i liked that episode. also the episode where izu ran through multiple simulations was kinda fucked but it ended with her being able to make shit appear in her hands so good for her :)

then with the last of the ark zero shit, horobi uhhhh. hes there. he realizes that maybe sometimes it good to make choices for yourself, i guess. the teamup with him and zero-two was really cool, though. liked that and i liked raiden working with subaru again to take down ark. mostly a good episode if you like the fact that horobi will never change.

i think ive said everything i want to about the episodes i liked so now its time to talk about episodes 42-44, or where zero-one just takes a nosedive into confusing choices that i believe are genuinely bad. to start of with, izu dies. i would feel something about this moment if kamen rider didnt pull this shit all the goddamn time and also if i wasnt at least 50% confident that takahashi is gonna bring her back in some form during the finale like he did with poppy ex-aid. also this is the catalyst that makes aruto turn into ark-one, ditching zero-two after like. two episodes. incredible. this is dumb as hell, im not gonna try to pretend it isnt, because it is far too late in the show for this to happen, even with covid fucking up schedules. there is no reason for aruto to just ditch his morals and become the ultimate evil of zero-one because izu died. this isnt what she would want you moran!! and like, i get it, kind of. they wanted to show that not even good boy aruto, our heroic protagonist, is immune to having malicious feelings. i get killing off izu so aruto can feel malice towards horobi. turning him into ark-one is just dumb imo and they should have done something like his malice being what summons the ark again, but either in a shiny new body, or him using azu, i guess. either way theres no need for aruto to become ark-one.

this part is just nitpicky but during the ark-one fights where it would cut away to ark-one in total darkness, i think it could have been utilized better. like him dodging the shots and attacking everyone else while cutting to those shots would have been really good... had horobi also been visible during the shots they cut to when he was fighting him. like, theres some good potential for symbolism (? i dont really remember film terms too well but i do know what im talking about) here where he just doesnt see anything, except for horobi, who he wants to kill as revenge for izu. it couldve been cool even though this whole thing was really dumb imo!! but it kinda just ended up being a bit confusing in the end.

speaking of dumb shit, i think the fuwa and aruto fight in 44 was wasted in the end. orthoros vulcan is a dope recolor of assault wolf and it had retractable naki claws, so it at least gets points for that. but aruto transforms into zero-two for the first time in 2 episodes which doesnt make sense at first glance since hes ark-one now, but i think they were intending for this fight to be a callback to when zero-one and vulcan were first fighting, which is actually really cool if they meant for it to be this. which i believe so but you never know. anyway this fight was wasted because it doesnt seem to do much?? unless right at the start of 45 aruto’s gonna be like “nah, im not actually gonna fight you, since nobody wants that” but even then, going up to horobi and risking a full on war of humagears against humans is still stupid. why would he do that if he learned from his fight with fuwa. also this would have been a cool moment for fuwa to turn aruto’s catchphrase against him!! it would have been so fucking sick for fuwa at one point to say something like “theres only one person who can save you, and that’s me!” like fuck!!!!! that would be so cool!!!!! im genuinely upset this didnt happen im not even joking

i think this post went off the rails because i never learn that i cant extensively talk about kamen rider or other interests without becoming incredible incoherent so im ending the post here. thanks if you were able to actually read through this mess and also i do think for the most part kamen rider zero-one is a season worth watching. just maybe not the last 4 episodes.

[venus-says]

Kamen Rider Zero-One Episodes 34-35

What a beautiful family reunion.

Is for times like that I wish I had stuck to my original plan and done a podcast out of this blog just so I could do my best (that would still be very bad) Cardi B impression to say "shit is getting real" because this written down doesn't have the same effect. But, DAMN SHIT IS GETTING REAL.

We're only up to episode 35, this in a Corona-less world would mean we would have at least more 10 episodes of this before the ending, which is a pretty lengthy road, but I'm already feeling like we're entering the end game. The time for (not so) funny jokes is almost over, we're getting into serious business here and I'M EXCITED THE HELL OUT OF IT. I've been feeling too positive about Zero-one recently, this is a weird feeling, I don't know how to handle this.

Watching these two episodes was kinda like watching one of those JRPGs where the combat happens in a board like a strategy game, you know? It was putting everything in place for the ending to begin. We had Gai ready to follow his armament agenda, Naki is now out of Fuwa's brain, Horobi got Ikazuchi's data and now metsuboujinrai is complete again. The miniatures are on the board just waiting for the roll of the die to start moving towards their objectives, and from what we saw in this episode they're going to go all out.

As I mentioned in my previous post the low point of this episode was the "Humagear of the week" plot, given that at least this time it was somewhat connected with the plot, but I still think it didn't add much. But it was nice they setting up the parallel between Horobi and the farmer Dad (and then later on with Aruto), it was a bit on the nose and pretty obvious what they were trying to accomplish, but since they were successful (at least on my eyes) I think it's okay.

My favorite thing about these episodes was definitely Fuwa and Naki's split.

I was concerned seeing Yua teaming up with metsuboujinrai, but I'm glad apparently this was a one-time-only thing, and it makes sense that she agreed on taking Naki out of Fuwa's brain because even if they were in peace there would always have a possibility of Fuwa being hijacked again, so it would be both helpful to her allies and it would also serve as a way to try to compensate for what she has done and move on. And this split was very beneficial to the show because I LOVE NAKI and I'm glad to see them integrated with the cast. I love how OP they are, and I love how bloodlust for ZAIA and Gai they seem to be, when I saw them stopping the entirety of Gai's army without a sweat I was jumping in my chair. And I hope that there will have consequences after they messed with the ZAIA specs and put everyone in berserk, if we come back and Gai/ZAIA don't get backlash out of this I'll call bs. But the best thing for sure of this split was seeing Naki and Fuwa interacting, and Naki telling Fuwa's real past and it being "pedestrian and tedious" and having Fuwa being made fun out of it. I love that moment. XD

But these episodes weren't just for that, I think what they did here was something similar to what they've done with Naki in the model episode by planting a seed that would lead to a new awakening for Horobi related to his background as a Father-type Humagear trying to prepare the ground for a possible redemption later on which I think I'd like to see. But it appears that the show wants to make metsuboujinrai be the final villains and not Gai so I think this will lead to a path of a lot of destruction that will probably eventually mean neither of the 4 generals will get to live alongside the good guys. Which is sad because Jin, Naki, and Horobi, all seemed to have been doing some progression that could be used as a plot point and a justification for their redemption but it felt like all this progress was lost once they decided to get the gang together again.

But even taking that into consideration I'm really looking forward to what this arc will deliver to us in the future. I'M FINALLY CAUGHT UP!!! YES! And I managed to do it before the show began airing again, yes! I'm considering if I should cover the specials that aired in the past few weeks, I thought they were just recaps but I saw people saying there was some new stuff in there, but I don't know how much of that is true or not. Let me know if you all would be interested in that, and also let me know what are your thoughts on this set of episodes. I think that's all for me, folks. Stay healthy, stay safe, never stop resisting, thanks so much for reading, and until the next time. Bye~

[muserolodex]

Aftermath (Drabble)

It’s finally over. The evil of Ark, gone in a glorious big bang. Aruto would feel better about it if he hadn’t been on the receiving end of that Big Bang. The force had slammed him into a wall, dropping rubble all over him.

He’s going to be hurting. Maybe in another ten minutes when the adrenaline finally wears off. Will he even be able to feel his legs?

“Aruto!” The voice comes from Kimi Nishi. Oh right. He was supposed to take her out to dinner today. Hope she won’t be too upset if he has to reschedule due to broken limbs and blood loss.

Kimi starts pulling the larger pieces of rubble off his legs, and Aruto, finally able to crack a smile again, looks into her eyes and gestures to the rubble.

“Hey. You know what...I’ve got a crush on you.”

Kimi lets out a very unladylike snort. She’s just so relieved. Aruto is back to his old self, telling bad jokes that can only get a laugh out of Fuwa. But the fact that he can remember his sense of humor is a good sign.

“Hey come on..” He takes a chunk of wall and holds it up. “That wasn’t that bad. Don’t stonewall me.”

“You dork...” Kimi starts crying now. She’s finally got her Aruto back, and nothing’s going to come between them. Finally she gets the last chunk off him.

“Well, you’re losing blood there. Quick, what’s your type?” Kimi presses a handkerchief into the wound.

“Heroic, adorable, toku otaku, way smarter than me...” Aruto mumbles.

Kimi blushes. “Your blood type, baka!”

“Oh...O Positive.” he says as Kimi binds his wounds.

He wakes up in the hospital with Kimi next to him. “Well, doc, what’s the prognosis?”

Kimi grins. “You broke the bones in your lower left leg, probably telescoped your spine, and you’ll be shaking off a concussion for the next few days. So they don’t want you doing any heavy lifting or world saving.Unfortunately, the doctors couldn’t do anything about your sense of humor. It was too far gone.”

Aruto chuckles. “Well, can I treat you to dinner then? I know this place...the hospital cafeteria...”

Kimi nods. “Yeah, I think I’d like that.”

The door to the hospital opens and Gai Amatsu walks in. Since she’s looking at Aruto, Kimi notices his vitals spiking but not why.

“Are you ready to answer for what you’ve done, Hiden?” Amatsu says in that oily voice of his.

“Are you?” Aruto’s breathing returns to normal. ‘I hope you know, before I tapped into Ark, I gave all my evidence on you to the police and to INTERPOL. No Aibo is going to save you from going to prison, Amatsu. Kimi, call security.”

“No need for that.” Fuwa says from the doorway behind Amatsu. “INTERPOL is already on their way. I’m sure Agent Sakuta is going to be thrilled to get you in cuffs, Amatsu.”

“You planned this, didn’t you?” Gai growls at Aruto. “This has to be some kind of joke.”

Aruto takes his free hand from Kimi’s, lightly taps his chest and points at Gai. “Aruto Ja Naito!”

[asknarashikari]

Minific of Yua, Izu, and Naki playing an April Fools joke on Fuwa. And Aruto tries to calm him down. The prank was a present box filled with bananas and a drawing of him as a gorilla and the quote "Mmm, where banana? 🦍🍌 ".

We can do better than a drawing of him as a gorilla can’t we? Of course we can

Lmao RIP Isamu

Isamu’s eye twitched as he gazed into the box that he’d just been given, not quite knowing what to say about it. All he knew was that whoever sent it- and he had a pretty good idea of who they were- must be having quite a laugh at his expense.

“Isamu? You alright, you’re not looking so hot...” Aruto asked nervously as he watched his lover’s expression. 

“Just look at what your secretary and her co-conspirators sent me, Aru,” Isamu told him. 

“Co-conspirators?” Aruto blinked at him in confusion, walking over to his boyfriend to peer at the box that was delivered by a delivery-drone that very day. His eyes widened when he saw the contents of the package. “Oh. Uh. This... this is a lot...” he managed to say without bursting into laughter.

“It came with this.” Isamu handed Aruto a sizeable plush toy of a gorilla, somehow modified to look like Isamu’s Punching Kong form, complete with the tiny Shotriser held in its ridiculous, disproportionately large hands. There was a familiar ribbon tied around its neck, with a card that had gorillas and bananas printed on it and a cheeky, ‘Mmm, where banana?’ written on it.

“That’s Yaiba’s handwriting, I’m sure of it,” Isamu insisted. “And this... this has Naki written all over it.”

“Eh? How can you be so sure it was them?” Aruto questioned.

“I just do, okay? Isamu replied, looking at the whole crate’s worth of fruit they now had to deal with. “What are we supposed to with all of this?”

Aruto stared at him. “You say that like you don’t go through a whole bunch of bananas in a few days since you eat them at almost every meal,” he pointed out. 

Isamu sputtered. “It’s the principle of the thing, Aru! They’re making fun of me for my own Rider form! Which Yaiba designed, by the way!” He pouted. “I don’t make fun of her for being a bee!”

“Isamu, that’s because you know she’ll kick your ass if you do,” Aruto pointed out. He rubbed up and down Isamu’s arms in a soothing manner. “It’s not so bad, Isamu, really. We can work with this.” 

Aruto grinned wickedly, wrapping his arms around his lover’s waist. “Besides, now we can plan to one-up them in revenge.”

“Revenge, huh?” Isamu chuckled. “Now that’s why I love you, Prez.” He said, turning in Aruto’s arms to face him, with a matching evil smirk of his own. “Do you have anything in mind?”

Aruto laughed. “Well... I’ve got some ideas...”

*Side note about the banana thing: it’s actually a thing that happens in my family. My dad insists on having bananas after dinner every night, and sometimes other meals as well, thus we finish a whole bunch of them every week. 

[sailor-cresselia]

Copper compounds, when ignited

I got a bit distracted by ideas for Zero One yesterday, so... I wrote a thing. Whoops.

(Title is from the method used to color fireworks.)

---

Isamu has to bite back a groan when he sees Hiden and his HumaGear walk into the restaurant. It’s his day off, damnit, and he’d really hoped that he wouldn’t have to deal with any Magia today. But experience has long since taught him that about 2 out of 3 times that they run into each other, a battle’s bound to follow.

Damnit.

Hiden nods in his direction, and Isamu reluctantly nods back. They aren’t friends, or allies, or anything of the sort, but they’re in public, and he’s not a total ass.

He doesn’t mean to overhear anything. He’s just waiting for his food, really, and they were seated next to him.

“Seriously, Izu, you can sit down, I don’t mind!”

The HumaGear assistant tilts her head at Hiden, in that way she keeps on doing. “President Aruto, being seated is not a requirement that I have. I am intended to be ready to accommodate your requests at any moment.”

Hiden laughs a little. “Well, right now, my request is for you to sit down. It makes my legs hurt for you just watching you stand all the time.”

She blinks, seemingly processing this. “I do not understand. How can a human feel pain because someone else is upright?”

With a small groan, Hiden leans forward. Isamu kind of wonders what face he’s making - the CEO is facing away from him. “It’s not a… literal pain, really. It’s a sympathetic sort of thing; when you see someone doing something that you would find uncomfortable, sometimes it can make you feel like you’re feeling what you would feel if you were the one doing it. Does that make sense?”

She simply blinks at him again, before acquiescing. Huh.

The guy does have a way with words. It’s always weird seeing him treat HumaGears like they’re human, but he is running a company revolving around them. Isamu resolves himself, once again, to the fact that he will never actually understand Hiden.

A little while later, Isamu has received his food, Hiden has ordered, and the assistant has gotten weird looks from about half of the people here, which Hiden has summarily ignored. It’s none of his business, why is he paying so much attention?! He’s just bored, and it’s a habit from work. That’s all. Nothing about wondering if he’s going to crack a joke, or when the next threat will show up, or wanting to understand the guy.

the waitstaff start up a song, carrying a cake over to a family a few tables away. It’s some kids birthday, looks like, and when the candles are lit at the table, turns out his family sprung for some fancy novelty colored candles, those things that have all the different colored flames. Cute.

As the song intends, most of the restaurant looks up to see what the fuss is… and since Hiden is right in between Isamu and the little party, it’s clear that he looked up from his phone to see, too.

But when the candles were lit, Hidens phone dropped to the floor, and he stopped moving.

That’s unusual. Even when he’s being interrogated, the guy is always moving at least a little. But he’s frozen - except for how his shoulders are shaking.

“President Aruto?” The HumaGear tries to get his attention. “Is something the matter?”

It’s not until the kid blows out the candles that Hiden responds. “Izu. I have to go. Do you mind paying for me, and getting the meal boxed up and getting it into the office fridge for me?”

A blink, and then she nods. “As you request, President Aruto.”

“Thank you.” Shakily, he picks up his phone, and quickly leaves.

…Isamu waves down a server - an increasingly rare human one, at that. “Can I get my bill?”

---

He’s not worried, not at all. But it’s weird. Hiden never goes anywhere without that HumaGear, and he’d specifically told her to go to the office. Implying that he’s not going back there, himself.

Isamu is not following him because he’s concerned, and the little voice in his head saying otherwise can shut up, thank you very much. He was already done, and happened to be going in the same direction. That’s all.

Except that Hiden is going into a residential area, on a bicycle, and decidedly away from where Isamu knows any Hiden Intelligence offices are.

…Actually, Isamu lives a few blocks from here, himself. …Wait, is this where Hiden lives?! He’d expected that the CEO would live, you know, somewhere fancy. Because he’s a CEO.

The apartment that Isamu very definitely does not check the name label of reads Hiden, A.

…huh. Well, nothing to it, then. Isamu waits a little while, to see if he comes out on his own. But when fifteen minutes go by, with no sign of life - or of the lights going on - knocks at the door.

“Hiden? You in there?”

No response.

“Hiden? I… saw you at the restaurant. Is everything alright?”

There’s a moment of silence, and Isamu is about to call out again - or maybe shoot out the lock - when Hiden replies. “The door’s open. Just come in.”

…Oh.

The small apartment is kind of a mess. There’s no dust, so it looks like he’s still been living here this whole time, since taking over his company. It just looks like a normal bachelor pad.

He hadn’t expected that.

All told, Hiden’s apartment isn’t what Isamu would have expected from the CEO of a company. In fact, the only sign that the resident is anyone but an average person is the suit jacket tossed haphazardly on a side table. He has to fight the urge to pick it up and fold it.

As for Hiden, he’s in one of the hoodies he always has under that jacket - and Isamu’s never understood that, either, but it’s not his place to criticize his clothing, just his business. But he’s laying on his stomach, on a battered couch, scrolling through something on his phone.

“Hiden?”

“Which school did you go to?”

“…I’m sorry, what?”

Hiden doesn’t look up as he talks, just keeps scrolling. “In Daybreak Town. Which school?”

“…(***). What does it matter?”

“Helps me pinpoint some stuff. Thanks. So, you're a couple years older than me, then, and must've been in some club or other, since you were at school when everything happened.” Hiden shrugs. “It’s weird. You were a lot further out from the epicenter, but if the HumaGears were rampaging both before and after the first explosion… I have to wonder what actually stopped them…”

Isamu narrows his eyes. “Did you have some sort of revelation about that day while at a restaurant?”

“Heh, I wish.” He makes a few quick selections, and when he points his phone at the wall, the image he was looking at is projected up onto it. It’s two maps of Daybreak Town, pre-disaster and post-disaster. “Your school was here-” he highlights a section in dark blue on both maps “-and this is the area where the initial explosion was.” He highlights another section, this time in a brighter blue. “I… was right over here.” He places a yellow mark about midway between the explosion and Isamu’s school.

…Wait. “Hold on. You were there?!”

Hiden nods. “I don't remember it well, since I was 10 and all. But that first blast… the flames were bright blue, even after the explosion. The rubble burned bright blue.” He sighs. “I don’t remember much after that. Seeing the HumaGear version of my father laying there, after he shielded me from the blast. His synthetic skin was torn away in places, and he was barely able to talk anymore, before he died - or, stopped functioning, I guess. I don’t think I really got that he was a HumaGear up until then. Most of ‘em didn’t have the skin substitute, y’know? It was still experimental.” He laughs dryly. “Only the best for the chairman’s grandson, I guess. No matter that the law about replicating people’s appearances had been passed two years before that, when it was just a hypothetical possibility. The technology wasn’t there yet, not readily. So, that gives me yet another unanswerable question about what the hell my grandfather was doing the past number of years.” He glances at Isamu. “Would you sit down, already? Yeesh. At least Izu has a justification.”

“Hiden-”

“Aruto.” He smirks. “If you’re going to follow me home and check in on me, I think we can use our names at that point.” The smile fades a little. “I do appreciate it, though. Did anyone else there notice me freaking out?”

Isamu shakes his head as he takes a seat in a stiff chair, that seems here more for completion than for any other purpose. “Aside from your HumaGear, no, not that I noticed.”

“Good. …Good.” He lets himself fall forward into the couch. “Thanks, Fuwa.”

“Isamu.” He smirks. “Like you said, might as well use our names at this point.”

“Hah! Isamu, then. Thank you. For noticing, and for showing up to check on me. I appreciate it.”

“Well, seeing as we wind up in firefights together so often, I figured it would be reasonable to ensure that you were alright.”

Hid- Aruto grins. “Awww, you do care!”

“Sh-Shut up! Why are you even living here, anyway? I’d think that you could afford somewhere better.”

Aruto doesn't answer for a bit. “…If I moved somewhere more ‘suitable’ for a CEO, it’d be like lying. I didn’t get this job because I wanted it, or because I earned it, or anything. One of the many, many things to ask my grandfather’s ghost about is why he insisted, in his will, that I take over the company. We hadn’t spoken in years, so… it doesn’t make sense.”

“And yet, there you are.”

“And yet, there I am, after turning it down. Being Zero One-” He waves his driver in the air “-was part and parcel with taking the job. I forgot about that little detail when I had Izu hand me the belt at the dreampark.”

Isamu scoffs. “So you were there, after all, you stupid grasshopper.”

“Hey, I had gone to try and get my job back!” Aruto laughs, before calming. “But I couldn’t let Taro - that was the HumaGear’s name, before he was turned into a Magia - I couldn’t let him hurt anyone else. He had to be stopped… so I had Izu hand over the belt.” He shrugs. “After that, you basically know the rest. I put the belt on, got my mind uploaded to the satellite for the tutorial on how to use said belt, woke back up, transformed, and fought the battle.” He shrugs. “I suppose you and miss Yaiba were dealing with the trilobites, right?”

“We were.” Isamu nods, before doing a double take. “Wait, what was that about having your mind uploaded?!”

Aruto props himself up. “Did… that not happen for you?”

“NO!”

They stare at each other for a minute before Aruto scrunches his face in a frown. “Okay, I’ve got a proposal. We learn to summon ghosts, summon my grandfather, and interrogate the hell out of him on what the hell is going on.” He pauses. “At this point, I wouldn’t be entirely opposed to punching him to get the info, either.”

Hesitating, Isamu tries to think of an argument against this, but he can’t think of anything that would actually help a case against summoning and punching an old man… especially since he also wants to punch said old man for possibly kicking all of this off in the first place.

“Are you serious, though? About that?”

“Not really, but you have to admit, it’s kind of tempting, right?”

[firebirdsdaughter]

It’s a weird thought, but...

... Is Isamu, of all people, going to end up as the middle ground?

He’s got the odd, vitriolic friendship/partnership/respect/trust w/ Yua, he thinks Aruto’s jokes are funny and has recognised that Aruto is not part of any untoward thing Hiden may have done, and is now starting to consider that HumaGears may not be be murderous by default—and actually may, in a way, be the one most able to accept or at least handle the concept of them thinking for themselves; he doesn’t expect them to blindly serve humans bc he never thought they really were to begin w/, and his blunt nature makes him, I think, treat them more like people w/ their own minds than even some of the ‘nice’ people—he tries to argue w/ them the same way he does everyone else. But I am totally digressing, and into dream future land, to boot.

The point is... Isamu’s kinda starting to come across like he’s going to end up as... Maybe not the mediator, but the connection between at least two of the sides (I hope all three, eventually 😊 bc I’m predictable). I was expecting Yua to get the ‘neutral female’ role, but w/ this revelation that she’s actively trying to take down Hiden... Kinda seems like that could end up being Isamu. Which I think would be really interesting. And kinda hilarious.

[icharchivist]

kay now i’m just huh bc of that post i reblogged so i’ll just add my two cents on d/a di/scourses and why i want nowhere near in it and feel free to ignore and even more to unfollow if it’s somewhat bad or anything but like,

(also please d/o/n’t re/b/log)

d/a di/scourse ultimately really fucks me up because 1) there’s a lot of it, especially in jokes that strench from far far away, I end up checking every blogs i reblog from bc i don’t want that near me 2) All side tends to have characters they like and dislike and be noisy about it and it’s very hard when down to it you just really love all the characters even when you don’t agree with them bc they’re fictional and i’m interested in the emotional reaction i get from them in game

but on a personal level it also fucks me up bc my mental health had been going bad and stuff are out of my controle, until i discovered D/A and the thing that had really, really helped me recover is that playing D/A asks me to use my skills i’ve learnt mostly to deal with my issues in a way i don’t find disagreeable (most precisely: how to weight what someone is telling you in order to not have it backfire at you) and stimulates my curiosity, passion and creativity in a way i hadn’t felt in forever. It makes me want to connect the dots, it makes me want to be involved, it makes me want to draw, to write again. (I started writting things again after 5 years and it’s so silly how it’s helping me out). Hell I started modding. I did an internship in a video game school on which I was actually pretty good and passionated bc just that had me make more research and understands more easily, so i started handling the logicials quickly for the timespawn and had a lot of cultural and technical knowledge backup just from swooping around trying to learn fun facts (and i would have got into this school easily bc i had a very good file but i lacked the money and my parents fucked it up, so i’m still extremely frustrated at that because I actually had really great chances to be taken in this school) It stimulates me in a way where I can healthily forget for two minutes that my world is crumbling, that for a moment it had me consider different future path, (see again up there), if there’s a path to recovery to be had it started with it.

I’ve known for years this fa/ndom was deemed toxic and I knew of the controversial characters by name before i started the game so i sillily paid more attention to them bc “how bad can they fuck up” only to realize then “oh no i love them” bc i paid attention to them. And i’m in circles where I see more hates than others and sometimes just hear of some hate by hearsay.

I’ve wanted to keep healthy distance as much as possible but once i got in d/a i noticed i already had d/iscourse on my dash from blogs i followed from others things and it was. Huh.

And I was thinking about not letting it get to me, or regularly take breaks, i blocked the d/iscourse tags, then the main tag to avoid it (doesn’t stop some posts to slide through though so that’s not helping), i don’t feel comfortable talking about it, and hey at least i owe to that that i’m less onto this website and i’m grateful at least for that

And it’s unhealthy to be this affected by f/andom stuff, i know that, god do i know that, but i’ve been in fandom for what, 11 years now, I’ve seen some fan wars, i’ve seen and participated in w/anks, but the whole holier-than-thou attitude in really insidious way is damaging, and i can’t recall a time i was this uncomfortable being part of something. (and i was in s/uperw/hol/ock at the fandom’s heigh and in the n/aruto’s fa.ndom when it ended for christ’s sake).

And idk how much is just current fa/ndom bc i know there’s far worse on this damn website, or really this game but this is. very damaging.

Anyway point is that my biggest problem is that i’ve seen some “Hot takes” that had been more damaging for my mental health bc i didn’t even know i could expect them (that’s a fun part of depression no one talks to you about, next i’m gonna tell you again that seeing one more posts about “how siblings are if you don’t see it like that you don’t have a real sibling” and variation sent me in some very bad mental spirals and i’m that close to unfollow anyone that posts those, so hey, that’s fun)

and some of them were 1) “Green!Ha/wke is a manipulator and it is far less sincere than Red or Purple” which really, really fucked me up not because I fancy Green this much but because saying being diplomatical in times stuff are going down is manipulative is super damaging and as someone who is always calculating how to be true to myself while also not triggering a fight around short tempered people, calling it “manipulation” had drove me to major anxiety thinking i was no better than my family, 2) the whole discourse about C/ullen which is the w o rs t bc i get where people come from when they dislike him and they have cause but i see a lot of my reactions to my own trauma and self-destructiong numbing addiction (i mean my self h//arm before anyone think anything) in his storyline in an unflattering way, and it’s something that really drove me to him in a way no other characters did (and i mean it especially bc, in term of experience? I relate to L/eliana more. But in term of reaction on a personal level on oneself? I couldn’t even start without getting uncomfortably personal about how dear C/ullen’s writting is to me. C/ullen’s reaction to trauma is extremely personal on the way also how he takes it on himself and it’s so, so important to me). and this one i kinda expected bc i love others characters that can follow this sort of patern and i know they have tons of w/anks about it but boy it is far less vicious than i’ve seen there (and i know others chara have tons of others d/iscourses but like i said i happen to be following people who will bring this one much more than any others)

Or maybe i’m just far more sensitive than i used to be, but therefore it triggers my fight or flight stuff and since i refuse to involve myself into fight it makes “flight and think about it for hours until it makes you feel terrible for liking it in the first place” so that’s fun.

And I know. I know it’s unhealthy to be this affected on f/andom stuff, and i’m not going to change anyone’s mind, nor do i want to. 

Bc in the end those games requires a lot of personal involvement and therefore our sensitivities to shine through, and i refuse to let my view affect others when the emotional journey is far, far more interesting when you take it with your own heart, even if it means i must fundamentally disagree with all of the experience others may feel,

But ye. I know. And i’m trying to work on that, it’s been a year i’m trying to work on that, and as i said earlier, i’m taking breaks from this website every once in a while lately, which is far more healthy anyway, and i think i’ll carry on doing that.

And I still will not posts d/iscoursy stuff of saying “this interpretation of the character is wrong here how you should interpret it” even if i agree bc i’m too tired for it, and anyway i don’t even want to learn what’s the fa/ndom’s opinions on the characters are at this point, i couldn’t care less, I care about how i feel for them and I don’t even want to hear how people discuss it.

(and tbh so i feel for the lore in general too bc i really like the lore of the game, sue me, and as much as i love to dig for details i’m too tired for opinions)

but that last post is the first time i see a post specifically written on the very topic that makes me anxious about C/ullen stuff, i didn’t feel like letting it past, i want to keep it on my blog.

Anyway also if you’ve stuck this far, i’m also going to be far more ready to unfollow stuff that really makes me spiral down now, the last few breaks i took from this website made me feel like i don’t want to deal with it anymore. I’m still anxious about what i post and i doubt i’ll still share a lot about it, bc at this point i don’t even feel like sharing this much either so there’s that, 

but therefore if you’ve stuck there you’re also welcomed to unfollow for whatever reason you feel like and especially if you don’t want to deal with my bullshit, bc god knows i don’t want to be dealing with it either. Don’t let things you can controle upset you, that’s not worth it.

Anyway, icha’s out, didn’t want to talk much about personal stuff more but here i am! and i’m taking my leave bye