#tokiwa sougo | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

descendant-of-truth · 1 year

Text

The amount of unexplored concepts in Zi-o is driving me insane but I can only tackle one thing per post so let's talk about Sougo for a minute

As someone who immediately clocked Sougo as having something off about him (to the point where I wrote day-one fanfiction about it), I was really expecting there to be a few episodes where we just. sat down and unpacked all of it. We didn't get that, but the crumbs we did get only solidify my opinion that Sougo is a really compelling character when you take the time to think about him.

On a surface level, Sougo is… very normal, I think. He's a cheerful guy, he's polite, he has a definite silly streak to him. He's kinda awkward, he fumbles around with Sento's catchphrase and struggles with his schoolwork. Like any good-natured protagonist, he has a drive to protect others and has no problem inconveniencing himself a bit to help someone out. These are all true things about him.

Sougo is also very good at manipulating people. And he does it by using his usual mannerisms to his advantage.

Take the episodes with Kuroto for instance. Sougo gets on Kuroto's side effortlessly by looking bright-eyed and enthusiastic about working with him, and this is completely believable to us as viewers because Sougo is always this enthusiastic. It's even relevant to his goal to become king - of course he would want to study under an actual king to get experience!

What makes this interesting is that it's only half true. Sougo isn't faking his enthusiasm, but he is faking his motivation. He doesn't want to work with Kuroto because he thinks he's cool, he wants to work with him because he wants to confirm if he's terrible first, and then take notes on how to not be terrible in the future.

And this is what makes him so good at manipulation: he knows how to channel his behaviors in such a way that he always seems genuine. Of course, it probably helps that he's often only half-faking anyway, which makes it even more convincing.

He's also usually using this skill for a good cause, but when armed with the knowledge that he became evil in the original timeline, it suddenly puts him in a different light; one where you can go "oh, so that's where he's keeping all his supervillain potential."

He displays this cunning side to him in a lot of smaller instances - using Woz's dedication to him as a means to summon him at any time, getting Geiz and Tsukuyomi to hang out with him under the pretense of their mission to keep him from turning evil, so on and so forth.

They sneak this part of him into the script all the time, and the only person to really bring it up is, interestingly enough, his mirror world self.

This scene makes me go nuts because it perfectly displays Sougo's inner conflict that he's usually really good at keeping under wraps. Though admittedly, they also make it a little unclear as to whether he was actually trying to manipulate anyone or just feels like he did anyway... but I think I've got it mostly figured out.

What's happening here, as I understand it, is that Sougo does genuinely want to save Geiz, but there is a small part of him that wants the power that comes with the Ryuga watch, too. And he does not like that part.

He knows that he's manipulated people before, and so when he notices having a second motivation here beyond his more idealistic one, he feels like he's manipulating people again. Making Tsukuyomi think that he's actually a good person when he just prompted Geiz to go sacrifice himself - he harbors a surprising amount of guilt.

And that's another key thing about Sougo that I haven't talked about yet: he hides things constantly.

Like, for example, why he wants to become king in the first place.

This is a lie. Sougo wants to become king because of a recurring dream depicting the most traumatic event of his life, where his only solace is someone telling him that he can save the world if he becomes a king.

But he insists in multiple episodes that it's just "something he's always known." He treats it very casually, despite it dramatically affecting his life plans.

Sougo treats most things with the same smiley nonchalance, honestly, in a way that can make him feel sort of detached from reality at times. But he takes things more seriously than it seems, and it's clear that he harbors a very deep sense of loneliness in him as well. Geiz and Tsukuyomi being his first real friends is one of the driving forces of the narrative, after all.

He also just drops lines like this sometimes that make me go crazy like hey has anyone checked on this guy emotionally during the entire show, I am Concerned

Like!! he says this about the possibility of him being the only person to not survive the final battle, and I know this isn't the first time he's expressed a similar sentiment and it's kind of a tradition for the protagonists of these shows to be like this but. god. and he says it while smiling

(You might be noticing a theme with Sougo and smiling through pain and you would be absolutely correct to do so)

I guess what I'm getting at with this whole post is that the appeal of Sougo's character, to me, is that he's just as much a silly, awkward guy with loads of enthusiasm as he is a cunning, clever person who knows how to lie to get the outcome he wants. He's both very cheerful and very sad on the inside, and none of these things are treated like they're in conflict with each other.

Sougo himself said it best:

And I dunno, I just think that's a really cool way to write your main hero who's working against his destiny to become evil. Or just any character in general. I both completely believe him as a hero and also never quite got rid of that "off" feeling that made me compelled to write about him when the show first started.

Zi-o as a show missed a lot of opportunities to explore things deeper, and Sougo is definitely included in that, but it never failed to keep me interested in him as a character because something about his specific combination of personality traits makes him very compelling to watch.

(He also makes the other writing flaws that much more frustrating because he's way too good of a character for these scripts)

#kamen rider #kamen rider zi o #tokiwa sougo #analysis #meta #Long story short he's Kinda Weird and I love him for it

151 notes · View notes

lumidark166 · 3 months

Text

Alpas AU

Warning: This AU contains depression, suicid3 themes, and torture?????? (it’s only once)

If this AU in Ao3, the tags probs: It's Get Worse Before Get Better, Depressed Sougo, Tokiwa Sougo Need Therapy, Sougo Pull a Mei from Honkai Impact but worse, Theater Kid Sougo, Angst with A Happy Ending, the ending is not too happy though but at least it’s a good ending, Unreliable Author, I am so sorry Sougo but it is my duty as the President of Angst to make you suffer, Time Travel. Time Loop

Very Inspired by the HSHTNEP verse by @narashikari, Kagerou Daze song, My R song, Project Sekai, Honkai Impact 3rd, Honkai Star Rail, and Bungou Stray Dogs.

Alpas mean is to break free

In this AU basically, Sougo has to force himself to use his time powers to fix the villain mess, become a Homura but less bad (he is still sane but still needs therapy), also pull a Mei

Sorry if this not making sense at all, I forgot most Zi-O lore cause I hate it with my every being, just not the main characters but that hypocritical of me cause most of my AUs tend to not make sense. Also, i kinda rewrote the whole Evil Sougo here cause he so lacking in canon that i changed him a bit too cryptic but still a bad guy nonetheless. Also this AU kinda made it in my dream and I just had to continue it cause its ruined my concentration in class lol. (also the angst probably from my projection to my comfort charas so i am so sorry about that too)

If you want to know more about this AU, you can ask me like with the ask blog features lol.

Before we start how the AU happened, I need to explain that this AU is kind of different than canon or just the basic HCs of this AU

Basic Hcs: 1. The Main Riders have found a family joke but turn real (Mom and Dad are Emu and Shinnosuke, the kids are Takeru, Sougo, Ikki, and Houtaro, and the uncles and the aunts are the rest of the riders), Sougo is a theater kid beside he can do ballet, Sougo is a history nerd, Sougo in the past being bullied before because he wants to be a king in middle school before high school so he never talks about it openly again. And how do they meet together? Let's say because of the crossover movies, sometimes they meet for a reunion or fight for a world-ending fate again or beat up Tsukasa lol.

The summary of AU: some new villains want Sougo back to being an evil king to destroy other riders, and they do it by changing the past or rather trying to kill the main riders in the past, Sougo knows this by someone trying to warn him and use his time powers despite he trying not to use his time powers other than time-stopping, that someone also said to never said this anyone even Geiz and Tsukuyomi or he get the biggest regret of his life. Sougo has to force himself to use his time powers to the past to stop the villain while making the past riders not know what he is so he makes a somewhat villain persona for it. He also changes his style for this he even changes his hairstyle and clothes so no one knows it's him. Also, that someone is Hiden Atsuya, a future adopted kid of Fuwa x Aruto who secretly helps break Sougo's fate since these villains are from his timeline and other future kids.

This timeline is in 2024, meaning Houtaro is here too and Sougo is 24 years old.

His villain persona: not too talkative unless he wants to talk cause he doesn't want to give hints from the future, very quiet, very stoic, he is a good person but his persona feels like a quiet jerk, this persona is inspired by his mentor and dad figure, Tsukasa Kadoya.

For example :

Past!Shoutaro: Hey, who are you?

A!Sougo: ….

Shoutaro: Answer me!

A! Sougo, quietly said:…Protect your loved ones to your heart, Hidari-san…

His appearance disguised is his hair braided on his left side, has a lot of bandages on his right eye, and sometimes wears a hat sometimes not, his clothes are black/blue pants overall with a double layer of white/grey shirt. Sougo wears a pair of worn-out black combat boots as part of his disguised persona.

Sougo starts this journey is very optimistic but also wary cause he doing this alone this time, after several loops where he fails a lot of times and has to use his time to rewind the past to normal but he has to make the past riders forget his existence in the past and kinda losing it so when in 23rd loop, he tells to Geiz and Tsukuyomi but unfortunately, like the kid tell him.. It did make something bad happen like a world-ending scenario. He hates to see the dead body of his mentor lying on the ground, he hates to see his older brother's dead body near a river, he hates to see his parental figures' bodies lying on the streets, and he blanks out when he sees his lover's dead bodies. After that loop, his eyes start to dull but anyone in the present doesn't notice Sougo's weirdness until the 50th loop.

Sougo routine most of the time now is present timeline-past-go back to the present timeline so everyone becomes suspicious that Sougo suddenly disappeared most of the day (surprisingly they noticed after the 49th loop cause Sougo can act very well) to encounter this, Sougo made to redo the first day when he starts to go to past to prevent the villains and that day be his ‘checkpoint’ so anyone not sus about it.

The villains are psychopaths, they claim that they are very loyal to Oma Zi-O than to Time Jackers. They tried to do the same thing to Sougo’s daughter but she was very stubborn and the villains came in a bad timing like literally the baddest timing ever when her dads, her mom, her Nana Emu, Grandpa Shinnosuke, and other granduncles riders out there. So they had to resort to another plan, which made Sougo's life miserable to make him guilty of the villains so he forced himself to give in to the fate he had to face years ago.

1-22nd loop!Sougo: still optimistic but after some loops, he is kinda tired about it. This whole shit made him eat less but not too less, he was just not very in the mood to eat.

23rd-80th loop!Sougo: His eyes became dull, lost his sense of taste, got tortured by the same villain via the electric chair, and had to kill the said villain, always on the run then going home, sometimes getting a mental breakdown of what he did, he feels guilty to have erased his senpai and kouhai memories too much also kill someone. In mid of the 60th loop, he has hallucinations and nightmares of his senpai.

81-99th loop! Sougo: Lost his mind but his sanity is still intact, he somewhat embraces fate but at the same time does not, he reaches out to his bad future self, Oma Zi-O to give him the true potential of his powers despite his chances of being an evil king will greatly increase and his future self surprisingly give him. He plans for his own king's ‘execution’ after this whole thing is done. Also the villains found out to break the time loops mind erasing shit at 85th loop and the Riders demand answers from Sougo sometimes leading to fighting, Sougo had to force himself wrapped by his villain persona and get up but at one time he break his persona once. He mutters that he rather save them than not do anything about it so he calls himself a sinner or a liar once he defeats Geiz and Tsukuyomi.

I don't know what to explain anymore so i write the all WIPs of minific or/and songfics that I thought of, and not in chronological order sorry and sorry i totally take some HoT convo from chapter 17, sorry for the ooc and not making sense in this goddamn AU also sorry of my bad writing:

“I think this is the first time you have reached out to me even go to this timeline as well..” Oma Zi-O said, this time, he used a younger body with his left eye bandaged. He looks at Sougo with empty, cold eyes yet his expression doesn't fit him right now

“Are you no longer afraid of these powers?…” He asked him

“I don’t know.. I feel I am not afraid anymore ever since 81st loop” (Sougo)

“If you continue to tread this path, you will find yourself falling deeper into the abyss” warned Oma Zi-O

“……I don’t care, I will take care of it all” Sougo replied

“You will lose everything, your family and friends will no longer trust you” (Oma Zi-O)

“It’s doesn’t matter to me anymore, I always alone..” Sougo replied he embraced the fact he always going to be alone.

“You will leave them forever..”

“…”

"You won't be around them anymore, see their smiles, or hold their hands."

“It’s okay, I already know what I am getting into…”

“There is no turning back once you get into this path, are you sure is this your choice? ”

“It’s doesn’t matter… Senpai will take care of them but this is something I must do.. I already made my choice”

“Then so be it..” Oma Zi-O gives Sougo the true potential of his powers.

Tsukasa looks at Sougo with deep rage. Sougo’s eyes were in horror. Shit, keep calm Sougo.. Keep your goddamn persona in check!

Mama, ooh

I don't wanna die

Sougo feels Tsukasa’s weapon at his head. Sougo’s trying not to cry. “Now, Sougo.. Tell me, why are you doing this?..” His voice is empty, cold. Clearly, He doesn’t trust Sougo right now. Sougo’s eyes become dull. Shoutaro noticed this and is now worried for Sougo.

I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all

Sougo got saved by his bike that actually can ride on its own, is his bike sentient or something??

Tsukasa, Shoutaro and Shinnosuke suddenly got summoned to future by Oma Zi-O.

“What do you want..” Shoutaro asked

“…………Make sure to watch my younger self back”

“Eh?” Shinnosuke was shocked.

“What do you mean by this?…” Tsukasa asked

“I'm just curious about his future after all, if it ends up with him being evil king again.. It will be just boring and… Every evil king always gets executed in the end” And at the right moment, a guillotine drops. The three riders jumped a bit and now realized what the evil king meant.

“Sougo planned to end this once and for all, and by that… He plans his execution”

“Huh, I didn't know you could care, why do you ask us this..” (Tsukasa)

4. (More of a summary than a fanfic but yeah) also this like the end of 100th loop

Finally, Sougo did it and defeated the villains on his own at least this time didn’t kill anyone and let the future kids handle them. Now, he is on top of a building, the tallest building in the city. He can finally execute his execution. He can wipe his timeline that made him an evil king but the idea of living scared him like what if this fate gets him again, watch his loved ones suffer from his fate, he just rather disappear and never come back. Sougo takes out his braid and the bandages off then takes the final leap.

The songs that fit Sougos:

He closed his eyes until someone took his hand in that fall, it was Takeru. Sougo in shock and scared, why did Takeru follow him, he didn't want Takeru dying with him, it was supposed to be his ‘execution’ not Takeru too. He realized he made Takeru cry, he felt guilty he was the reason that he crying right now. He doesn't realize that he is being saved by Inves plant and passes out when Takeru and him back to the rooftop.

5. (totally take this from Honkai Impact)

Sougo put Geiz's unconscious body to the wall. "You and Tsuku saved me from that fate, so i return the favor. If saving you is a sin then i'ii be the sinner..." Then Sougo left.

Kamen Rider after 100th loop to Sougo be like : Deichuu ni Saku

1-22nd loop!Sougo: Nomad, Twilight Light, Non-breath Oblige

23-80th loop!Sougo : Hated by Life Itself, Samsa

81-100th loop! Sougo : Honkai World Diva, Gehenna, Phony, Self-Inflicted Achromatic

After the whole shit : Reborn

I kinda made their roles when they sing it so sorry if it doesn't fit them

Unable to filter the pieces of our broken hearts, (Shoutaro)

Our tears gently dried up,

Unable to shed another drop. (Eiji)

"That's funny, isn't it?" we laugh…(Gentaro)

A difficult life, Maze-like brambles that obstruct you. (Kouta)

The darkness of this corrupt world blocks your path. (Tsukasa)

Ah, you're someone who's more depressed than anyone else.

So, right now, We're probably on the verge of drowning, (Takeru)

Saved by breathing correctly. (Emu)

Now, we simply live for the sake of dying someday.

When we realise why we dislike rain (Philip)

Deep down, we remember

That large soap bubbles

Must be really soft and fluffy.

While looking at every color on the ground (Shinnosuke)

We make sure to walk where there are no puddles.

Surely, you too, would resort to self-defence

If you could avoid a difficult path.

Right now, I am human; (Everyone)

Today, tomorrow too, and the day after that

It's enough to admit it,

Everyone takes in different breaths.

Lalala…

But you too are human, (Emu)

You just hate being one, that's all.

But you can't hate it, because you're a kind person,

You're that someone who would pray for just about anyone.

It takes, for a single blossom to scatter, (Aruto)

Water, earth, sunlight and its own seed

Whatever lies right in front of me,

Its meaning, past and future,

If a single one of those were missing, nothing would be born:(Touma)

Not me, not you, and neither that person.

“It’s nothing�� -

I say as I burden you with my past.

Destiny getting in your way. (Tsukasa)

You reap what you sow.

But because this situation is unpleasant,

You want to run away, right? You want to live, right?

If there is a moment (Emu)

Where you feel like throwing yourself,

Cleave through the darkness of this world, (Shoutaro and Philip)

And let us search for the reason you were born.

The beginning at the end, (Takeru)

Once it begins, it will be your final life.

At the end of an endless journey (Shinnosuke)

There must be a "time" where it's now or never.

"It's impossible to drown in the rain", (Eiji)

Even so, it feels like it's hard to breathe.

“We live for the sake of dying someday”, (Emu sing this but its meant to sing it that someone said it)

If that is so, if that is so, (Everyone)

We'll never break again. Never. Never. Never (Ace)

Let the unbroken bells of our hearts resound

Everything will be covered by dark clouds (Haruto)

And smeared with mud.

Sorry if this doesnt make sense/weird-

Let us draw a line inside the maze (Kouta)

That obstructs the path of the world now. (Touma)

This line will be the overlapping map, (Geiz)

That flower that blooms for the sake of illuminating you. (Tsukuyomi)

That said, what if Daybreak!Houtaro meet this Sougo :

D!Houtaro : Sougo-san.. why you want to end yourself this way

A!Sougo : You will never understand my reason (he knows he completely losing it cause tbf, he seen a lot of loops where his family and friends died so yeah)

Tag : @maou-the-tree

#Alpas #kamen rider #Kamen rider au #Tokiwa Sougo #ngl i kinda rushed at the end lol #maybe later to include the future kids lmao #lumi rambles in the tags again #lumi rambles #kamen rider zi-o #kamen rider zi o

4 notes · View notes