An hour before I got home I was energized with fresh purpose. I'd do this-and-that-and-some-of-this writing. It was a mighty good feeling. But then I got home and my energy evaporated;(semi-colon, I've been avoiding you lately. I've grown trepidatious about your usage*) I had a "health choice" microwaveable dinner, a glass of water, and a can of pears, then promptly fell asleep for three hours before DINNER dinner was served. Or waiting for me, whichever. I spent a good deal of time whilst sleeping moaning at various pains in my legs. Suffice it to say, I will be sore tomorrow.
*I have, however, spelled "trepidatious" right, apparently.
Better luck in the near future, as far as writing projects go.
I've stepped up my game as far as watching this latest Kamen Rider goes though ("oh good", you're thinking, "at least he isn't wasting his time.") I usually watch an episode over breakfast, but I managed to throw one on while eating that bit of pre-dinner supper. Both were actually quite interesting pieces of fiction/television for reasons that I'm about to get into. Obviously.
The first one, episode 26 of Kamen Rider Ryuki, is about this young boy that gets targeted by the monsters of the mirror world, and so when one of the Riders saves the kid, the kid gets to see the Rider transform and chase after the monster back into the mirror world. The kid can't actually SEE the fight, as only those people that are Riders/have the transformation trinket or are otherwise specially powered can see the goings on of mirror world... wait, I think that's true... I may have just spotted a continuity error on that one, because in a previous episode... you know what? It doesn't matter. For the purposes of THIS episode, what I've stated above is the truth.
So the monster gets away, and the Rider pops out of mirror world, only for that kid to be standing there, all excited and talking about how that was the coolest thing ever. A pretty understandable response. The kid blackmails the Rider (his name is Ren) through use of screaming in public about the guy being a pervert (stay classy, kid) to get taken back to the cafe that mostly serves as the home base for this series, where he meets the titled Rider Ryuki, whose name is Shinji. (Boy, I'm cutting myself off at the knees if I want to do a post about this series later. Whatever, it'll just be a series overview anyways)
The boy is still being targeted by the mirror world monster, by the way. That was the other reason that Ren kept the kid close, I forgot that part.
So the kid steals the transformation trinket belonging to Ryuki and runs off with it, because he wants to be a Rider too. The two Riders chase after the kid and catch him just as the mirror world monster makes its reappearance. Ren lets the kid hold onto Ryuki/Shinji's transformation trinket so that he could see the actual fight in mirror world, so the kid can see what being a Rider is really about. It's a brutal fight, with Ren taking a lot of hits. Shinji, realizing that Ren is playing it up a bit, allowing himself to get hit more than he would have been for the sake of showing the results of violence to this kid, goes along with it, saying to the kid "This is what it is to be a Rider." The kid even tries to hand back the trinket so he can stop watching (unless I'm adding that in my own mind) but Shinji doesn't take it back at first. Two other Riders appear in mirror world and start blasting away at Ren (yeah, the Riders aren't really friends in this series, it's sort of a Hunger Games situation) and that's about when the kid says he doesn't want to be a Rider anymore. Shinji lets him go, transforms, and goes off to join the battle.
This seems like a pretty daring thing for a Kamen Rider episode to do. They make their bread and butter selling toys of these characters to kids, and selling wearable paraphernalia so the kids can pretend to actually BE these characters, but this episode is all about why that's a bad idea, and about the serious effects of violence, that it isn't something to be taken lightly. A pretty great lesson for kids all over the place.
Episode 28 was about a new, mysterious Rider showing up (technically he shows up at the tail end of the previous episode), completely overpowering the other Riders, and then using a time card power thing to throw Shinji into the past, to back before he became a Rider. He has all of his memories, but no one else knows him yet, which is in itself a nightmare I've had. His memories then fade in and out, preventing him from effecting any real positive change on the events of his life, all he can really do is relive the events of the series thus far.
That's right! It's basically a clip show!
Shinji only keeps enough of his memories to be hurt even more when his comrades fall in battle AGAIN. (well, the one guy was his friend and was awesome. I was really hoping he'd get saved this time...) it all leads up to the moment when they've caught back up to the present, and the only thing that changes is that Shinji is able to land a punch on the guy that did the time card business to start everything off. The scene cuts to the newspaper/magazine Shinji works for and the cafe he lives at, and we see both locations are littered with post-it notes that all say "when you see gold feathers- punch behind you!"
It's sort of a Memento moment, and it is awesome!
The punch doesn't really do anything, and the time guy Rider says what's needed to change has changed, and you other Riders don't need to know what that is, then Shinji says one other thing has changed... "I'm now twice as determined to protect people and my fellow Riders!"
A very cool sentiment, and a very tough job too. Again, these guys are in a Hunger Games scenario.
We then cut to Kanzaki Shiro, who is the guy that gave everyone their powers and, as far as I know, is the bad guy of the show, and we see that the whole reason he had time turned back was so that this time around this picture his little sister drew him didn't get accidentally destroyed when a vase of water spilled on it.
Truly, that was indeed the darkest timeline.
Coolest clip show ever.
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