This is about as skeptical as my icons get

[akinoame]

Ryuki novel spoilers.

Now, despite my feelings on shipping and how I really don't think they'd work, I can understand the Ren/Yui. Kitaoka's diagnosis here is depressing. Goro is wtf-inducing. And I am actually impressed with how dedicated they are to continuing the running gag of killing off Scissors fast.

But seriously. Shinji as a jack of all trades? Inoue, did you even watch the show you co-wrote? Did you get the part where he was supposed to be the opposite of Yusuke and Shoichi and couldn't do anything right? That it was part of why he was the force to stop the Rider War?

Yes, this is the part that breaks me. But still, better than some of the other summaries I've read Kuuga is the best thusfar and I SO want it translated.

Comments

[gourdcaptain]

...I feel dumber for having read that list of spoilers.

DEEP HURTING! DEEEEEP HURTING.

[akinoame]

It is awful on so many levels. And yet kind of enjoyable for that reason? Because these are whole new levels of wtf. It's like Kanzaki was high on every drug he could find during that timeline.

[gourdcaptain]

Shirou Kanzaki never struck me as that mentally stable to begin with - I've made fun of the fact with friends that he seems incapable of actually gathering thirteen Riders in one Rider War on his own to complete the numbers. He got lucky in canon with the Alternatives and Gorou!Zolda, but that is in no way to his credit.

Honestly, my personal theory was that Shirou's been through the Rider War, watching Yui die over and over again and performing despicable deeds to the point where it's kind of broken him even more than he already was. The Rider War, for all of his inability for him to actually LOSE it permenently against his will.. he can't win. It's gotten to the point where he's no longer quite capable of giving it his all and is wallowing in depression. It's why he's to the point where all it took was the end of the TV series timeline to shove him over into being downright suicidal-ish. I have to figure an early loop of the Rider War would have a much more active and manipulative Kanzaki on the ball more than the TV series.

Also, if he screws up too badly, you end up with a timeline where they're all lawyers or suddenly all the Riders are from a place called Ventara or something. And yet all those seem more likely to me than Ren cheating on Eri with Yui. (Also, why can I just see Shirou sending Mirror Monsters and such after Ren as the overprotective older brother?)

[akinoame]

It's less sanity and more humanity. The way I see it, he's warped himself so much from grief, from time travel, and from basically killing himself in the real world so he can move freely through the Mirror World that humanity isn't even a thing with him anymore. Is there something to sympathize with? Yes, his backstory. But he's long past the point where he could be redeemed.

And this is causing himself to fuck himself over because he fails to see what's right in front of him. He fails to understand that someone he doesn't choose as a Rider will constantly involve himself simply because it's the right thing to do and will always convince at least Ren to stop. Why? Because they're both human, and the idea of fighting to the death is so anathema to humanity. He fails to see that Yui will never accept him saving her through killing so many people, and he's blown away every time when she kills herself rather than put up with that. Still doesn't explain this, though.

The real question is why is Ren even alive in that timeline? I mean, unless Kanzaki sent Odin to kill him--dude's got a horrible track record against Rens.

[gourdcaptain]

Yeah, he uttelry fails to understand most people in the conflict, but I figure he always did to a certain extent. It's definatly getting worse as his looping continues, though.

Still, I wouldn't see him as having become fundamentally inhuman... but that's mostly because I tend to be a bit of a misanthrope. Humans do plenty of terrible things.

Amusingly, one of the characters in Wizard, the White Wizard, seems to have been designed around the concept of "how can we make someone even more broken than Odin?" Dude has most of Odin's powers bar Time Vent... and then some truly insane stuff like duplication and the Explosion Ring. Which simply just blows someone up with the gaming equivelent of an auto-hit as the space they're in suddenly explodes. The White Wizard likes to chain it... into itself. Repeatedly. Until someone dies.