Kamen Rider Ex-Aid - Episode 12: "Christmas Special - White Xmas Under Attack!"

[Toku Prime]

It's the Christmas Day episode, which means it's just fun and dancing and music and nothing bad can possibly happen!

See?! They're even giving out bouquets to thank the actors for all their hard work!

This week: LAAAZAAAHHH!!! 8(

 

[Wing Saber]

To kill off a Rider during a Christmas episode, I admit that was hardcore. Because that never happened before for both KR & Sentai.

 

[lazycoconut]

To kill off a Rider during a Christmas episode, I admit that was hardcore. Because that never happened before for both KR & Sentai.

Sasword died at Christmas, although it was in the show's final arc ...

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

Definitely feel like this was two episodes crammed into one. You could have stretched out the first half and had a fun little Christmas episode before starting off the year with all that sadness. I'll admit, I wasn't expecting the death, even based on the preview. There was no extra focus on Kiriya in the last few episodes since his battle against Dan and it sorta has shades of Hase's death in that regard - it's a sudden and tragic death that portrays the weight of the situation they're in. The key difference between these two deaths is that Kiriya's death might impact more than just the main character. (potentially being the catalyst to finally have the others working together)

 

[raden238]

This was one messed up episode. The first half was that typical cheesy Christmas stuff that you see every year and then the second half, **** got real. No wonder the title of the episode was called "White Xmas Under Attack". It was a White Xmas for Genm LVL 10. (Badass form change btw, reminds me of W Fang Joker). It took some serious balls to kill off a Rider on the Christmas episode, its even worse since the episode started off so cheerfully.

I hope the writers stand by their script and they don't bring back Lazer down the line because of viewer complains. We've already seen enough Riders return from the dead, because of fan favoritism (Birth). Its not often we have a Rider die and they stay dead nowadays. The show is keeping me hooked, I've been enjoying it so far. Hopefully Kiriya's death will impact the story and everything comes together. Emu's mysterious past reminds me of the older Heisei shows like Agito. I also find it interesting that when a Rider dies in a EX-Aid, you hear that "game over" sound, maybe more deaths to come..........

 

[lazycoconut]

This was one messed up episode. The first half was that typical cheesy Christmas stuff that you see every year and then the second half, **** got real. No wonder the title of the episode was called "White Xmas Under Attack". It was a White Xmas for Genm LVL 10. (Badass form change btw, reminds me of W Fang Joker). It took some serious balls to kill off a Rider on the Christmas episode, its even worse since the episode started off so cheerfully.

I hope the writers stand by their script and they don't bring back Lazer down the line because of viewer complains. We've already seen enough Riders return from the dead, because of fan favoritism (Birth). Its not often we have a Rider die and they stay dead nowadays. The show is keeping me hooked, I've been enjoying it so far. Hopefully Kiriya's death will impact the story and everything comes together. Emu's mysterious past reminds me of the older Heisei shows like Agito. I also find it interesting that when a Rider dies in a EX-Aid, you hear that "game over" sound, maybe more deaths to come..........

Birth didn't return from the dead - Akira Date was supposed to die, but they decided to keep him on the show because fans liked him, which was part of major rewrites to the originally planned plot (including Maki dying in the second arc, Ankh being the final villain, and Eiji not becoming a Greed.) Also the whole idea of Date's death was for Gotou to replace him as Birth, which happened anyway; they weren't eliminating one of the main Rider suits completely. Whereas by the time Ex-Aid debuted on screen, the toyline was already planned around the early departure of Lazer. Keeping Kiriya alive would make the character a drag on the story: he either couldn't be Lazer any more (thus giving him not much purpose) or he'd be stuck with no more upgrades (making him useless as the others continue to "Level Up.") I don't think it's comparable to the OOO situation.

Anyway, I can't think of any occasion where a dead Rider has been revived in quite a while - Philip was the last one iirc, and that's understandable since he was half of the main Rider. Without him, Shotaro could never transform as W again. All the Gaim Riders are still dead as are Chase and Heart ...

 

[Inui Takumi]

I really wish I didn't have Kiriya's death spoiled for me on Twitter. Thought maybe it was a good thing because it really did come out of nowhere. I liked Kiriya and while I wouldn't say he's the best Rider we've had in years or anything, I will say that he had the potential to be a very compelling character and if he had survived to the end of the series, he would have been a definite fan favorite. But I sure am going to miss his transformation sequences. Doing a tornado kick to initiate your transformation has to be one of the coolest ones in years.

Anyway, I can't think of any occasion where a dead Rider has been revived in quite a while - Philip was the last one iirc, and that's understandable since he was half of the main Rider. Without him, Shotaro could never transform as W again. All the Gaim Riders are still dead as are Chase and Heart ...

For me, its more just characters in general that get revived by the very end. It's one of the reasons I hated the Fourze ending, since we had such an emotional penultimate episode. It's happened a few times within the past 5-6 years with various regular supporting characters, which can be tiring. Not to mention Ghost where Takeru came back to life repeatedly. So I'm hoping that Kiriya stays dead in the main show. If they wanna bring him back in an alternate reality movie or something, that's cool. We haven't had one of those in a while, anyway.

 

[lazycoconut]

For me, its more just characters in general that get revived by the very end. It's one of the reasons I hated the Fourze ending, since we had such an emotional penultimate episode. It's happened a few times within the past 5-6 years with various regular supporting characters, which can be tiring. Not to mention Ghost where Takeru came back to life repeatedly. So I'm hoping that Kiriya stays dead in the main show. If they wanna bring him back in an alternate reality movie or something, that's cool. We haven't had one of those in a while, anyway.

Not counting Takeru since the whole show was about his quest to come back to life, we've only had Philip and Kengo come back, if I recall? Ankh and Koyomi were still dead at the end of the show as were all dead characters in Gaim and Drive. (Also not counting Date, since he never died!) That's far more who weren't resurrected than were. And contrary to popular belief, character death is not a sign of narrative integrity, nor does it necessarily break that integrity if they are resurrected ...

I suspect there will eventually be a Lazer V-Cinema set before Kiriya's death, but that's a while into the future.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

And contrary to popular belief, character death is not a sign of narrative integrity, nor does it necessarily break that integrity if they are resurrected ...

I don't think he was implying that, but having the death be permanent is a great way to not only show the weight of the situation but leave the emotion felt during his final scenes intact. As beautiful as the first scene from the final episode of Fourze was and the speech everyone gave to their principal in the final battle, having Kengo return makes the entire thing fall flat when I rewatch the episode. You throw the characters (and the viewer) through these emotionally painful moments only to have the reason for those moments return with such a lazy explination? Now that feels manipulative. It's fine to bring someone back, but it's so rarely done in a truly competent manner and often feels like a "get out of jail free" card for the show.

I think it's good when show's stick to their guns regarding death because those deaths often serve as a catalyst for growth in character or escalation of a situation. When they return, especially with explinations that seem pulled out of nowhere, it almost seems as if the creative staff just couldn't think of another way to have a character grow but didn't want to actually kill someone. I'm not strictly talking about Rider here but Kamen Rider is one of those shows that I think lends itself very well to giving viewers poignant character death.

After the fuss Toei caused on Twitter, I definitely see a Lazer v-cinema coming at some point. There's five years worth of events before the show so that gives them a lot of room to explore.

 

[Toku Prime]

Not counting Takeru since the whole show was about his quest to come back to life, we've only had Philip and Kengo come back, if I recall? Ankh and Koyomi were still dead at the end of the show as were all dead characters in Gaim and Drive.

Meteor killed Fourze, only for him to be brought back the very next episode with the power of the Cosmic Switch.

But yeah, I think Lazer is out for at least the rest of the main show.