Desires, Trauma, and Revisiting Media
Originally Posted on: 7-29-2023
This meta is based on Eiji, his arc, and specifically the trauma he has.
Warnings: Mentions and some talk about trauma, as well as spoilers for Kamen Rider OOO are below.
Ankh is the character I have the most brainworms for but I adore Eiji so dearly, and he is still my favorite rider for many reasons.
Watching through OOO again to show it to some friends irl has made me appreciate Eiji more than I did before. (Which was already a lot! He is still my favorite main rider for many reasons.)
I've been thinking about the scene with the unicorn yummy going after Eiji, and his dream being so big that it couldn't handle it...
Especially since Eiji talked about how he wants to nurture his dream slowly in the same episode. It's just so good at showing how Eiji simultaneously has no desire but also immense desire within him at the same time.
Eiji desires nothing, yet also he desires to help others, and to have the power to help others more than anything else. Meeting Ankh made him realize this desire of his.
But in the mix of all of this he also carelessly throws away his life because of his lack of desire inside. (It's really hard for me to articulate it so hopefully this makes sense.)
Seeing this show again I can see both the lack of desire inside of him, that his trauma locked deep into the deepest recesses of himself, making him a prime vessel for the purple medals.
But also the hints of the fact that his desires are still very much there. But they are locked away deep, deep within him. His trauma seriously severed the connection he once had with his desires.
Which I can say with some experience without getting into detail, yeah, trauma can do that to a person. It makes Eiji feel especially real as a character to me in that regard. That's something that really impresses me about how he's written, the trauma he is grappling and how it affects him feels so real.
Eiji is just SUCH a good character. Man I love him so much. He speaks to me in a way that just, hits incredibly close to home and I love his arc and how he comes to cherish his own life more by the end.
Beginning the path to healing after everything he has dealt with, and learning how it is okay for him to want things again, how he can be allowed to want and desire things once again after it being sealed away for so long.
I love revisiting a piece of media and enjoying even more things about it, and seeing new things with a new lens and my appreciation deepening further. It's good.