[DISCUSSION] Kamen Rider Zi-O, Episode 22

[SamuraiEchidna]

You can never have enough time on your hands.

Welcome to the discussion thread for Kamen Rider Zi-O, episode 22; "Zi-O Strongest! 2019".
(Episode title's translation may vary depending on your fansub group of choice.)
This week: Sougo confronts a mirror version of himself, while Geiz looks for a way to destroy Another Ryuga and rescue him.

This thread was made with Toku Prime's permission. And remember, this is a SPOILER ZONE! If you are trying to avoid spoilers, this is not the place for you.​

 

[raden238]

This was a great two parter!!! First time in the series where the writers use the lore of a Legend Rider, in this case, the mirror world and Dark Sougo, for character development of our Main Rider and earn him his Mid-season form change. Before we would just a get a form change power up to just defeat the MOTW. But here we have more substance to it.

I like the idea of bringing back Dark Shinji as being Another Ryuga (quite literally just another form of Ryuga in this timeline). It seems like the writers are now stepping up with the ridewatch mc guffin and being more creative with each two-parter arc.

 

[SamuraiEchidna]

What an episode! I'm still shaking!

Looks like they abandoned the idea of using White Woz as the narrator, for now. I didn't want to say anything in the previous episode discussion, but this episode confirmed it so far. A two-parter with only Black Woz at the beginning of both. Also, I don't normally care, but just this once I was a little irked by how Zi-O II appeared in the opening. I think it would have been better if they saved that for the next episode. But at least it didn't diminish the epic reveal.

And it seems my understanding of Oma Zi-O was kind of off. I thought Sougo's dark mirror reflection was the one that became Oma. Turns out, these reflection versions are just that. A reflection. The positive half of your personality leaves, but the negative half of your personality stays behind. It's only after you accept it and make peace with it can you become a full and complete person.

But the awesome thing is how the show uses this literal set up, and translates it as a metaphor, giving the kids at home a lesson to learn from. And what a lesson! Sure, we've all heard it before. "No one is perfect, everyone has their good and bad traits, etc." But here, it really connected with me. Felt like the lesson had some nuance. Sougo didn't want to admit to his friends that he had less than pure thoughts, probably because he didn't want them to think less of him (and with Geiz, that's been an uphill struggle since the beginning). But there's nothing healthy about maintaining a facade. If you keep pretending to be a person who doesn't make mistakes, doesn't have negative thoughts, etc.; then you're just setting yourself up for failure and a huge fall from grace. (Seriously, this is one of the bravest things to teach kids! Not just the lesson, but the nuance to go with it. Way to go, Zi-O!!)

But now I am on pins and needles! Tsukuyomi and Geiz have taken Sougo's big speech out of context (not that he did a good job of putting it in context, but I digress). Now it looks like they are regressing back to their "defeat Sougo/Zi-O at all costs" mentality. The next episode cannot get fansubbed fast enough! (P.S. Do not harass the fansubbers on the next episode. It'll come out when it comes out.)

 

[Shogun_Master]

I echo everyone else here concerning the episode itself, but am I the only one who kind of wishes that Zi-O II's insert theme had been the main theme for the series?

 

[Toku Prime]

Mirror Sougo is probably the actor's best performance in this series by a long way. It felt like whoever wrote this actually gave a damn about Ryuki, which has not been the case for most of the Rider "tribute" stories. I must admit the future Rider stories before this really felt like a downturn after the Decade episodes, so it was good that this pulled the show up again.

So, if Sougo didn't originally become Zi-O II until the Day Of Ohma, does that mean he was always destined to meet his mirror counterpart? I can't help but think that so far he only seems destined to take over the world because of the Time Jackers' efforts to replace him. If they'd never shown up he wouldn't have gained all these Watches.

I guess that end part works to put us on the path to Geiz's own power-up to Revive form. Given what the next big power-up after that will be though, they're really going to have to turn it around again somehow.