Kamen Rider Zero-One thinky things, mostly about Horobi and Humagears’ place in that universe’s society, with spoilers up to and including Episode 42 under the cut:
Ok. So. The thing about Horobi declaring that “Ore no ishi” (”my will” — with the exact same phrasing he used to use for “Aaku no ishi”/”By the will of The Ark”) is humanity’s destruction and Izu and Aruto saying, "You don't really believe that in your soul/heart" is…I'm pretty dang sure he DOES believe that.
He DOES believe in his heart of hearts that getting rid of humanity is for the best, probably mostly because, as pointed out in the new episode, he's working with a very biased set of data (i.e. being basically stewed in the Ark's view that's based on all the worst of humanity for at least 12 years—thanks, Gai, btw for that). And there’s also whatever it was that caused him to turn against humanity in the first place (I would love to find out more about pre-Daybreak Metsuboujinrai).
And…he's not entirely wrong. As it currently is, whatever freedom Humagears have is at the whim of humans. I keep thinking back to a scene from the ReiGen movie where Will basically asks “So if we Humagears are here to assist humanity, what sort of compensation do we get for that?” and Korenosuke is like, “Hahaha, compensation, that’s funny, Will. You’re such a joker.” The movie presents this as a sign that Will is a Bad Guy, but in this one matter he abso-freaking-lutely has a point. He and all Humagears are sentient beings performing labor for the benefit of others. Why should they not be compensated in some manner?
Even Aruto’s relatively liberal view of Humangears and humans living side-by-side, working together and helping Humagears live their lives as they wish, doesn’t seem to include this. If Hiden Intelligence resumes Humagear production, they are likely to still be sold as a product, and we saw in the manga artist arc that not all Humagear owners are likely to care for these — again — sentient beings that they own.
In a lot of ways, it ties into the “I am not a tool” theme of the pre-hiatus arc. Until Humagears are not seen as tools, they are not truly free. And I don’t know if the show’s gonna get there.
(there’s also a whole ‘nother meta I’ve been mulling over re: Jin’s plan to use Horobi to destroy the Ark, Horobi using Jin to reactivate the Ark, and the whole idea of using people as tools, but this is getting kinda long as it is)
