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cachu302 · 5 months ago

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Kamen Rider Legend is the antithesis to Kamen Rider Decade

Say what you will about Kamen Rider Decade, be it the mess of writing that made the show or every subsequent appearance that Tsukasa Kadoya has made since the show ran its course, but one thing that has remained constant is the character of Tsukasa himself. No matter which series or movies that he appears in, Tsukasa's character has remained consistent, which, in my opinion, makes him much more likeable and understandable. Even if every other Rider might disagree.

His surprise appearance in The Future Daybreak has him interacting with the gold-plated knock-off, Legend, which just made me want to see more of Tsukasa and less of Kaguya. Looking at them side-by-side makes the differences all the more apparent, and baffles me as to why tokutwitter thinks that Legend "saved Gotchard" when everything about Legend contrasts Tsukasa's character.

One thing that we are constantly told by the show is that Decade as an entity is a destroyer, and that he is a threat to the Rider multiverse. Tsukasa has no idea what any of that means, and frankly, none of the other AR Riders do, despite believing in Narutaki's claims that Decade is dangerous. So they fight, and Tsukasa is dragged into whatever plot the AR World of the two-week set piece happens to be. And there's the catch: Decade is inserted into the story of the AR Rider World to destroy whatever plot device is obstructing the progression of the plot that would likely be derailed otherwise without his intervention. Yeah, he's still a smarmy asshole the entire time, but that's part of the appeal of his character. As LittleKuriboh stated, Decade has basically "weaponized being a Gary Stu." Without that intervention, the conflict of each mini-arc would still be going on. Metaphorically, Decade is the intervening force that eliminates writer's block.

In universe, however, the reason that Decade/Tsukasa is considered a threat is due to his past/forgotten ambitions as the former leader of Dai Shocker. Prior to the series, Tsukasa had planned to conquest and subjugate all of the other AR Worlds using the Aurora Curtains that his sister, Sayo, could control. Then he was stranded in Natsumi's world with amnesia, and no idea why his pictures all turned out bogus. At this point, all he wants to do is exist, yet every world he comes across denies his existence due to his moniker as the destroyer of worlds. When he recovers his memories in All Riders VS Dai Shocker, Tsukasa is abandoned by everyone: his allies, his friends, his sister, and is basically at his lowest. And in comes AR Joji Yuki, who's there to take revenge against Tsukasa for the former betraying Dai Shocker. Tsukasa's response?

All the lessons and meetings that Tsukasa’s had since beginning his journey are at odds with his former ambitions of conquest. What else can he do at this point? Seeing him in this pathetic state convinces AR Yuki that taking his life is meaningless, as he can see that Tsukasa has been going through a lot of development of his own.

“You’ve wronged your world, so make it right. Don’t just accept your title as destroyer, make it mean something!” AR Yuki rips off his arm in preparation for battle, sparking something in Tsukasa, who then sets off to eliminate Dai Shocker, save his friends and sister, and maybe figure out who he’s supposed to be.

By this point, Tsukasa’s been traveling through enough worlds to understand how each AR Rider is defined. AR Kabuto is defined by his bond with his family, AR Faiz bridges the gap between human and Orphenoch, AR Blade proves that rank doesn’t matter much in the long run, etc. So now he’s searching for what defines Kamen Rider Decade. As the rest of the Riders arrive to back him and DiEnd up, Ichigou and Nigou state:

And these two statements are things that Tsukasa really seems to take to heart in every subsequent appearance. Who is Decade? The one who will be there to back up other Riders in crisis.

Moving onto Movie War 2010, Tsukasa, having accepted his role as the destroyer of worlds, fights, defeats, and seals the memories of each Rider into his cards. What’s the purpose? To ensure the survival of each AR Rider World upon his death, which is why he goads Natsumi into killing him. Each world has been destroyed and created anew with his death, ensuring that the memory of each world, the story of each world, is preserved.

But then, what about Decade?

After some collective reminiscing and revival-through-memories, Tsukasa and crew set off to stop the new conquest of Super Shocker, led by Narutaki, who for some reason, decided the best way to celebrate the death of his one-sided arch-nemesis would be to continue the conquest of the worlds. (Massive YOU WOT MATE)

That is what defines Decade, what defines Tsukasa. He’s someone who will step in if the world’s resident hero can’t step up in time. And every time someone asks, the answer will always be the same.

Whenever large crises that are beyond the scope of the current Rider occur, Decade is often one of the front-liners that will show up. In Super Hero Taisen, he knew that tricking all the Sentai and Riders into fighting each other would absolutely result in uncontrollable chaos, so he and Marvelous took the reins to prevent such from happening. In Kamen Rider Taisen, for as badly written as that movie makes Hongo out to be, as well as his appearances in the cluttered mess that was Zi-O, and especially Zi-O VS Decade/Decade VS Zi-O; no matter where he appears, Decade is one of the forces that is going to right the course of the story. He finds trouble, helps out, and then leaves, like a Tuxedo Mask that actually does his job. And again, yeah, he’s going to be a smarmy asshole about it the whole time, but at this point, that’s all he knows how to really act around others. The destroyer of worlds would look bad if everyone knew he was soft. And if he’s ever defeated, like how he was when he and Sougo A fought against Oma Zi-O in Zi-O VS Decade, he’s just going to come back. After all, as long as Decade is needed, he will truly never die, never rest, at least until he decides that enough is enough and Decade’s story is complete.

To summarize, Decade/Tsukasa is defined by the following:

He just wants to exist without his role as destroyer getting in the way.

He doesn’t go looking for trouble, trouble finds him.

His fights with the other Riders are all caused by interventions out of his control (Narutaki).

He destroys whatever obstacle that is freezing the plot progression, not the world itself.

He will be there to resolve anything that obstructs his journey/purpose.

Now then… contrasting ALL of this is the existence of Kamen Rider Legend, a boy who was saved by Decade in Zi-O Over Quartzer and decided that the best career choice would be to follow in his footsteps. How does he do this? By basically subjugating the entire world to his whim using the powers of all the Riders that “begged him” to do so. Uh… Run that fucking by me again?? You mean to tell me that this twink somehow convinced several Primary and Secondary Riders to willingly give up their powers? Like… Souji “No one can beat me because I am the best” Tendou? Eiji “Willing to reach out my hand to anyone in need” Hino? Sento “I hate war and I hate myself for allowing my Rider System to become a weapon” Kiryu? Haruto “I will be the hope for others who don’t have any” Soma? Takumi “Leave me the fuck alone” Inui? Takeshi Hongo and Hayato Ichimonji, the original Double Riders, who fought against Shocker to ensure that what happened to them would never happen to anyone else? And especially Riders like Kouta, Touma, and Ace, who are all essentially GODS?! All of them decided it would be a good idea to hand over their powers to a sparkly man child?

Not only that, when he’s first introduced, he basically states that Houtaro isn’t very gorgeous as a Rider, when, chronologically, only TWO EPISODES have gone by. Houtaro is at the start of his Rider journey! He’s only befriended Hopper1, Steamliner, Odoripa, Kamantis, and Skebows at this point! Of course he’s not “gorgeous,” HE’S LITERALLY STILL AT THE STARTING LINE!

The Gotchardriver malfunctions, and Houtaro is basically stranded in this wack dimension. Then Hundred appears and because Kaguya isn’t initially willing to step up, Houtaro goes out to fight them as himself, not as Gotchard, and only just before the fighting begins, Kaguya appears, with the Gotchardriver miraculously fixed. IF YOU COULD HAVE FIXED IT EARLIER, WHY DIDN’T YOU DO IT, YOU EGG?!

Then several months go by, and suddenly Kamen Rider Legend’s secret weapon goes missing and lands in Gotchard’s world, causing several Hundred officers, who ALL have Dark Rider powers, to arrive, planning on destroying everything that gets in their way, because evil. Which leads to THREE WHOLE WEEKS of the plot being hijacked by Legend, during which, Kaguya demonstrates that he’s an even worse offender of the “Chemies are tools” philosophy when he steals Hopper1 to do a finisher, gets butthurt because Houtaro has friends other than him, and then attacks Houtaro because “gorgeous time is over”, AKA “I work alone, stay out of it.”

So basically, Kaguya

Wants to exist and also wants to let every single world know about it.

Dragged the Gotchard cast into his problem because his super weapon has the worst security protocol.

Instigated the fight with Houtaro because “gorgeous time is over.”

Hijacked the plot, causing nothing of note to happen in the episodes he took over, save for revealing that Tamagon/Nijigon was inside the Gotchardriver (also Hijacked Majade, Valvarad, and Lachesis Valvarad screen time).

Showed up at the last minute to make an entrance when Saigetsu/Dark Kiva is about to use the never-before-seen Wake Up Three, when he could have been involved from the start instead of just sending Butler to find Houtaro.

All of this would at least be palatable if we were shown how Kaguya came to claim all of this, like how we were shown Tsukasa’s journey of becoming the destroyer of worlds, but instead, we are constantly told, by Kaguya himself, how great he is. Remind me how this knob “saved Gotchard”?

Now with the spoilers for The Future Daybreak, somehow he loses the Legend Chemy Card(?) and Tsukasa shows up to encourage him. Uh… okay. The actual conversation between the two better be “Do better, kid” and not “You’re doing good, keep it up”.

TLDR; Decade is better than Legend.

#kamen rider decade #kamen rider legend #kamen rider gotchard #character study #cachu is fed up #How do people like this character #hell sougo is more likable and he wants to conquer the world #I’m so glad he gets his ass beat in the movie #and people think Ace is a bad character #and people also think Tsukasa is a bad character #both Tsukasa and Ace earned the right to be a smarmy asshole #to be fair I’ve never liked characters who exist to proclaim that they’re the best unless they can back up their words #because they don’t always win immediately #and we regularly see Riders like Tendou and Tsukasa proving that they are indeed the best #sometimes they struggle #even ace fucking struggled #I’ve never seen legend struggle and it pisses me off #or the fact that he’s the most static character in the show #yes including spanner #and him turning into grand zi-o was wholly unnecessary #let rinne and spanner in on that quadruple rider kick #and the excuse they use is he was lonely #absolutely not #Houtaro has a life outside of being a rider #he didn’t let it consume him #it’s like toei was all #fifth Reiwa series uses cards we gotta make a spiritual successor to decade #legendary legend is ugly #uglier than complete 21 #yes I’m deadass serious

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