Then I will catch you, if you should fall
May. 13th, 2018 02:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameOkay, so I saw the raw of Heisei Final and because I'm working late on the weekends and have no one to talk to, I am about to burst with my thoughts on Eiji.
Honestly, I can't wait until it gets subbed, so I can understand the dialogue and of course have my own copy to obsessively comb through, but honestly, so much of it was pretty much geared toward me. There were callbacks, with subtle things like Eiji's wardrobe (the shawl specifically--it's the one he wore both in the finale and in the first battle with the pteranodon Yummies; both are significant to this) and blatant things like the near moment-for-moment re-enactment of Eiji's fall in the finale, redone to give him more power and one last chance to reach out for Ankh and save him.
It was also the queerest movie I've ever seen, with the writers clearly throwing back a few drinks and deciding to ship Eiji/Ankh, Sento/Ryuga, Emu/Parad, Gentaro/Everyone (and what I think is a little Gen/JK too, which I think may be my new thing for the future), and Onari/Kuroto (...which works. I didn't make it through either of their series, but somehow, I think they are good for each other. And for everyone else who doesn't want to deal with Kuroto).
The research showed. Hyperforce level, which is basically my highest standard (if only because Malika would sit down and marathon important episodes of whatever Power Rangers season she was covering during the session, and sometimes the other players [like Andre] would join her). The characters I knew felt right. And sure, some things were slip-ups like forgetting that Gentaro destroyed the Fourze driver in Ultimatum, but even that left the door open to it somehow returning. Plus, let's face it, Kengo probably started building a second one the moment Gentaro first took the driver from him, on the reasonable assumption that he would break it.
But the fight between Eiji and Clone-Ankh was a heartbreaking example of greatness. We've seen Eiji fight in the movies directed by Koichi Sakamoto. When Koichi directs, Eiji favors kicks and sometimes his underwear-staff, and he's an extremely capable fighter (Megamax,Ultimatum). Here, however, as soon as Clone-Ankh is specifically sicced on him, all he can do is dodge. He even seems scared to touch him, hesitant (if I remember correctly) when touching the clone's arm.
And then comes the strangulation attempt.
It's a well-documented fanon that Eiji has PTSD. And while nothing is outright stated in canon, yeah. All of the evidence supports it. With trauma, memories are sensory, encoded in the limbic system of the brain, where emotion and sensation are processed, rather than language. So it's difficult to verbalize. But the moment Clone-Ankh grabs his throat, Eiji begins flashing back to everything he remembers about his Ankh.savethelilin and I joked that Ankh's habit of grabbing Eiji's face to get his attention is so frequent that it's probably a sign of affection between them. Well...here's a grab, but it's being used to hurt Eiji. He's seen Ankh grab people by the throat before--Hina in episode 40 and Shingo in episode 43. The first time, Hina didn't try to stop him, trusting him not to hurt her. The second time, Shingo was hurt badly enough that Ankh could take over him again. Eiji's experience was more like the second. Ankh doesn't hurt him when he grabs him. His clone did. And maybe it was the danger or maybe just the strength of Eiji's emotions and memories, but Ankh's broken Medal responded and entered the clone's body, trying to take control and throwing him out of the building to keep him away from Eiji.
And Eiji jumped after him.
The scene is meant to give Eiji some closure after the finale, where Ankh disappeared before he could reach him. Where he can be the one who catches someone, rather than being the one who gets caught. But it also supports a really painful pattern that reminds me all the more that I want to see an actual resolution--no more of this jerking the fans and Eiji around by having future Ankhs or clones who fall apart after one adventure. Eiji fixates on things. When he wants to save someone, absolutely nothing will get through to him. In Megamax, he fixates on trying to get through to Kamen Rider Poseidon, and Ankh can't get him to listen to reason. The result is that he's blasted back from an explosion, lands on his head (...um, very obviously breaking his neck, by the way the stuntman fell, holy shit), and is incapacitated enough that Poseidon comes up to him and nearly runs him through, if not for Miharu overcoming him at the last moment.
Here, Eiji forgets that the only reason he survived in the finale is because Goto had wings and caught him. He doesn't transform. He doesn't do anything to save himself--he's focused entirely on reaching Ankh, and once again, his own life doesn't matter. This is what's horrible about it. For all the progression we've seen from him throughout the series and movies, he still making the same mistake. He's still stuck, and unfortunately, there's not enough room here to have the rest of his supporting cast get through to him.
I really hope we get an actual resolution to this--a canon one, and not all the ones we fans have been writing. Mind you, we come up with some great stuff (one of my favorites is Ankh waking up in an airport bathroom extremely confused, and then there's CiCi Nota's amazing Elevated to the Point of Static, which everyone should read), but it's not the same as getting something written by Yasuko Kobayashi herself. And this has kind of been a problem with her--other than Den-O, her Rider series haven't had full resolution. Ryuki has the reset ending, and two AUs written by Inoue, this movie was written by the heads of Ex-Aid and Build, and Amazons' movie is also being written by the Ex-Aid writer. I don't know what she has against happy endings, but I hope she gets over it and brings some to us soon, particularly for the older stuff.
Honestly, I can't wait until it gets subbed, so I can understand the dialogue and of course have my own copy to obsessively comb through, but honestly, so much of it was pretty much geared toward me. There were callbacks, with subtle things like Eiji's wardrobe (the shawl specifically--it's the one he wore both in the finale and in the first battle with the pteranodon Yummies; both are significant to this) and blatant things like the near moment-for-moment re-enactment of Eiji's fall in the finale, redone to give him more power and one last chance to reach out for Ankh and save him.
It was also the queerest movie I've ever seen, with the writers clearly throwing back a few drinks and deciding to ship Eiji/Ankh, Sento/Ryuga, Emu/Parad, Gentaro/Everyone (and what I think is a little Gen/JK too, which I think may be my new thing for the future), and Onari/Kuroto (...which works. I didn't make it through either of their series, but somehow, I think they are good for each other. And for everyone else who doesn't want to deal with Kuroto).
The research showed. Hyperforce level, which is basically my highest standard (if only because Malika would sit down and marathon important episodes of whatever Power Rangers season she was covering during the session, and sometimes the other players [like Andre] would join her). The characters I knew felt right. And sure, some things were slip-ups like forgetting that Gentaro destroyed the Fourze driver in Ultimatum, but even that left the door open to it somehow returning. Plus, let's face it, Kengo probably started building a second one the moment Gentaro first took the driver from him, on the reasonable assumption that he would break it.
But the fight between Eiji and Clone-Ankh was a heartbreaking example of greatness. We've seen Eiji fight in the movies directed by Koichi Sakamoto. When Koichi directs, Eiji favors kicks and sometimes his underwear-staff, and he's an extremely capable fighter (Megamax,Ultimatum). Here, however, as soon as Clone-Ankh is specifically sicced on him, all he can do is dodge. He even seems scared to touch him, hesitant (if I remember correctly) when touching the clone's arm.
And then comes the strangulation attempt.
It's a well-documented fanon that Eiji has PTSD. And while nothing is outright stated in canon, yeah. All of the evidence supports it. With trauma, memories are sensory, encoded in the limbic system of the brain, where emotion and sensation are processed, rather than language. So it's difficult to verbalize. But the moment Clone-Ankh grabs his throat, Eiji begins flashing back to everything he remembers about his Ankh.
savethelilin and I joked that Ankh's habit of grabbing Eiji's face to get his attention is so frequent that it's probably a sign of affection between them. Well...here's a grab, but it's being used to hurt Eiji. He's seen Ankh grab people by the throat before--Hina in episode 40 and Shingo in episode 43. The first time, Hina didn't try to stop him, trusting him not to hurt her. The second time, Shingo was hurt badly enough that Ankh could take over him again. Eiji's experience was more like the second. Ankh doesn't hurt him when he grabs him. His clone did. And maybe it was the danger or maybe just the strength of Eiji's emotions and memories, but Ankh's broken Medal responded and entered the clone's body, trying to take control and throwing him out of the building to keep him away from Eiji.And Eiji jumped after him.
The scene is meant to give Eiji some closure after the finale, where Ankh disappeared before he could reach him. Where he can be the one who catches someone, rather than being the one who gets caught. But it also supports a really painful pattern that reminds me all the more that I want to see an actual resolution--no more of this jerking the fans and Eiji around by having future Ankhs or clones who fall apart after one adventure. Eiji fixates on things. When he wants to save someone, absolutely nothing will get through to him. In Megamax, he fixates on trying to get through to Kamen Rider Poseidon, and Ankh can't get him to listen to reason. The result is that he's blasted back from an explosion, lands on his head (...um, very obviously breaking his neck, by the way the stuntman fell, holy shit), and is incapacitated enough that Poseidon comes up to him and nearly runs him through, if not for Miharu overcoming him at the last moment.
Here, Eiji forgets that the only reason he survived in the finale is because Goto had wings and caught him. He doesn't transform. He doesn't do anything to save himself--he's focused entirely on reaching Ankh, and once again, his own life doesn't matter. This is what's horrible about it. For all the progression we've seen from him throughout the series and movies, he still making the same mistake. He's still stuck, and unfortunately, there's not enough room here to have the rest of his supporting cast get through to him.
I really hope we get an actual resolution to this--a canon one, and not all the ones we fans have been writing. Mind you, we come up with some great stuff (one of my favorites is Ankh waking up in an airport bathroom extremely confused, and then there's CiCi Nota's amazing Elevated to the Point of Static, which everyone should read), but it's not the same as getting something written by Yasuko Kobayashi herself. And this has kind of been a problem with her--other than Den-O, her Rider series haven't had full resolution. Ryuki has the reset ending, and two AUs written by Inoue, this movie was written by the heads of Ex-Aid and Build, and Amazons' movie is also being written by the Ex-Aid writer. I don't know what she has against happy endings, but I hope she gets over it and brings some to us soon, particularly for the older stuff.