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| “ | With this, I shall become an infinite being! For I am Zein! | „ |
| ~ Ecole's proclamation before transforming into Kamen Rider Zein, and at the same time reveals his true colors to Gai Amatsu and Yuto Sakurai. |
| “ | Humanity is the root of all evil! And therefore deserve to face judgment! | „ |
| ~ Ecole's last words before his downfall. |
Ecole is a researcher of Foundation X. He is one of the two co-executives of Project Outsiders alongside Joseph Rando, and the overarching antagonist of Kamen Rider Outsiders. Ecole is in charge of Project Outsiders' research and development, overseeing the recruitment of active past villains in the franchise to their cause in their war against the AI Zein, including resurrecting deceased villains using Humagear bodies. Behind the scenes, Ecole is actually playing both sides by manipulating the Outsiders and Zein's Faction as guinea pigs into gathering data needed to empower the AI to awaken its full power so that he can use Zein's power over dimensions to reset the world into his own image. He is the arch-enemy of Gai Amatsu and the future Yuto Sakurai.
Ecole is portrayed by Yamato Furuya (who also portrayed Macbeth/Midnight in Stage Show adaption of Fairy Tail).
History[]
Ecole cooperated with Joseph Rando in Project Outsiders during the fight against Zein. However, unbeknownst to the rest of Foundation X, Ecole secretly obtained the data of the Mirror World from the Ejima Laboratory at Seimeiin University. With this data, he made a deal with Daiki Kaito to obtain Kamen Rider Odin's Advent Deck and used the Deck to revive Desast.
Ecole and Joseph discussed about the importance of Project Outsiders, which relies evil Kamen Riders to stop Zein's birth. However, during this time, Desast would go rogue from the Outsiders, a revived Horobi would defect to Zein, and Joseph would fear that Desast might join Zein's cause at some point. Ecole assured Joseph that the Ark would be all too eager to stop the birth of Zein.
Since Nico Saiba also helped in the creation Zein, Foundation X started recruiting more members for Project Outsiders. Ecole would take advantage of Kamen Rider Chronicle being reopened to resurrect Tenjuro Banno and Brain, but were easily defeated by Zein, with Ecole exclaiming Zein's strength.
Ecole would then copy the DNA of Evolt to create Kamen Rider Evol-X, and eventually revealed his true purpose: Use Zein's powers to eliminate population control resources. He would then use the cloned Evolt to possess Joseph and used Yuto Sakurai's Zein Driver to become the second Kamen Rider Zein to successfully start the dimension reset process using the stolen Dimension Zein Card. But just as Ecole was about to execute Yuto for serving no further use for his plans, Yuto retreated with the ZeroLiner, with Ecole and Evolt following suit.
Officially announcing that Project Outsiders had ended, Ecole and Evolt destroyed the university building after finding no further use for it.
Personality[]
Compared to his colleague Joseph, Ecole has a calm demeanor. Even if one of the Outsiders agrees with Zein's idea, he acts indifferent and confidently says that there would always be someone to stop Zein. Upon finding a strong opponent, he acknowledges the opponent's strength.
Ecole's smirk unveils the nihilism and God complex within, as he prepares for the final phase of his plan to acquire Zein's powers.
Behind closed doors, Ecole is likened to an omnicidal maniac, his overall motivation being the complete extinction of all sentient life mainly because he views humanity itself as a whole being the problem for all the major issues around the world. He went so far to use Project Outsiders, which gathers evil Kamen Riders to fight against the powerful Zein, was just a front to achieve his goal, which is to solve the various problems on the Earth by eliminating a large number of people. In order to achieve his goal, he uses any methods, even using Zein's power, to reset the dimension. He also has no remorse for his colleagues, as he ruthlessly offers Evolto to possess Joseph's body to eliminate Joseph's mind.
After gaining Zein's power, he develops a God complex and proclaims himself as the savior of all dimensions. Since the reset of the dimension is nearly successful, Ecole no longer took the Outsiders and other humans seriously, believing that they were useless. He also wants to execute Zein's original host, Yuto Sakurai, once he had outlived his usefulness.
Overall, Ecole is nothing but a heartless monster and a delusional hypocrite who sees no value in human life, and therefore he is unable to comprehend the good in people despite their capacity for both good and evil. He believes humanity as a whole to be the root of all evil, even though he is also human and has committed immoral and inexcusable acts of villainy. Like Zein, Ecole has a distorted understanding of right and wrong, and deliberately chooses to do what is wrong while justifying his monstrous actions to be morally correct.
Quotes[]
| “ | Ecole: This world is built on evil. Evolt-X: The Outsiders are but a representation of that. Ecole: Thus... we will mete out judgment. Ziin: The God we believe in would never allow that! Tsumuri: Mr. Ziin... He's right. Ziin: A world where everyone can be happy means a world where you hate the sin, not the sinner. If you're executing people because of their capacity for evil, you will only make them suffer. |
„ |
| ~ Ziin and Tsumuri condemning Ecole's inexcusable atrocities and exposing his self-serving and hypocritical nature. |
Trivia[]
- Ecole is the, if not (unless counting Ark), only Kamen Rider main antagonists in Yuya Takahashi's works to be an omnicidal maniac, as he is purely motivated by his utter contempt for human life. He also used some of the Outsiders like Banno as cannon fodder to empower Zein, under the pretense of opposing Zein as he plans to turn the AI into a weapon of mass destruction on a global scale to remake the world to his liking.
- Ecole's end goal is similar to that of Kiyoto Maki. As both plan to change, or in Ecole's case reset, the entire world.
- His plan also mirrors Brajira’s, as they both seek to remake the world, however, while Brajira wanted to weed the earth of corruption, Ecole wanted to downright reset the entire universe, while at the same time remaking it in his own image.
- He and the clone Evolt also draw parallels to (Future) Zamasu and Goku Black, as both seek the destruction of human civilization because of their negative perception towards humans. Ecole also comes off as a hypocrite like Zamasu and Black (both are the same person) in regards to their beliefs -- Ecole is genuinely human himself and commits more inexcusable atrocities than any Kamen Rider villain, whereas Zamasu viewed himself as infallible and saw nothing wrong with his beliefs and actions, not helped by the fact that he even stole the body of the very being he despises.
- Ecole's end goal is a repeat of Swartz's in Kamen Rider Zi-O -- Swartz has spent most of his series as the de facto leader of the Time Jackers finding a suitable person to be crowned their demon king, when in reality he's responsible for Sougo's rise as Ohma Zi-O. Ecole is using the test subjects of Project Outsiders as cannon fodder to empower Zein to awaken its potential power to destroy the entire world. They even brought in alternate versions of Kamen Rider Evol at their beck and call (Swartz via Another Decade's ability to summon past villains and the Evolt clone for Ecole, respectively).
- Ecole is also similar to Hiroshi Tennoji from Kamen Rider Blade, as they are both the orchestrators of their respective show's conflict. Tennoji instigated a second Battle Fight in the hopes of winning it and rule and remake the world in his own image. Ecole is a Foundation X operative who went rogue as soon he reveals his plans to use Zein's power over dimensions to reset the world. Both villains even had Sakuya Tachibana/Kamen Rider Garren being an unwitting pawns to their schemes.
- Ecole means "school" in French.
- The first four letters in Ecole's name is basically the word "loce" spelled backwards, which means "to give light" (or "to shine") in the old Galician-Portuguese language. As a foreshadowing to his betrayal in episode 6, this makes Ecole a fitting interpretation of Lucifer (whose name translates to "light-bringer") in Outsiders. Lucifer was the fallen angel cast down from heaven by God as punishment for his hubris, Ecole is a Foundation X agent that went rogue and took Zein's powers for himself so he can reset the world, and is accompanied by the clone Evolt, who also is closely associated with the Christian Devil, as his Rider forms have a separate the snake and dragon motif; animals that have a clear association with the Devil.
- Ecole can be seen as a foil and darker reflections to the following Outsiders:
- Kuroto Dan: Kuroto is a psychotic and pompous narcissistic game developer with a God complex while Ecole is a no-nonsense and by-the-book Foundation X agent. Both of them are capable of understanding right and wrong, and are no strangers to immoral business practices to get ahead. Kuroto is openly transparent with his goals and kept his promises to the Doctor Riders of saving people's lives, no matter how devious his methods are. Ecole is chameleon-like to everyone around him, pretending to support the Outsiders but is using them as guinea pigs for his endgoal and immediately discards them once they served their purpose. Kuroto sees the value in human life despite his past history of toying with them, whereas Ecole does not, only viewing them as a cancer to the planet. Ecole embodies what happens when Kuroto's God complex completely clouds his morality. It's also worth noting that the symbolism of Kuroto being likened to Jesus after being resurrected by Zero-Three, this makes Ecole the fitting analogue to the Devil.
- Gai Amatsu: Gai was responsible for corrupting the Ark and turning it into a doomsday device that could bring the extinction of humanity. He also looked down on Humagears of their ability to become self-aware and the threat they pose if left unchecked. Ecole seeks to turn Zein into a weapon of mass destruction on a cosmic scale capable of warping reality and reshape the world in his own image, under the justification of circumventing humanity's flaws. Gai would later go on turn a new leaf to stop the Ark, and later Zein. If Gai (and by extension, the Ark) never redeemed himself, he would turn out just like Ecole.
- Horobi: After being freed from the Ark's control, insists on destroying humanity out of the belief so long as evil persists in humans which could complicate the co-existence between humans and Humagears, until Aruto had to soundly defeat Horobi and make him see the error of his actions. Ecole sees humanity as the problem of everything wrong with the world and intends to wipe out half of the human population to mitigate crises around the world, and eventually plotting to reset the entire universe using Zein's power. Ecole represents what Horobi could've become if Aruto failed to stop him.
- Tenjuro Banno: Banno treats his own children and his creations, the Roidmudes as his personal guinea pigs. Ecole does the same to all the Project Outsiders recruits and Zein's accomplices in the hopes of awakening the AI's power to manipulate dimensions. When Banno, as Bronzedrive was beaten to near-death by Kamen Rider Zein, Ecole pretended to show signs of fear, while secretly reveling at Banno's agonizing screams. It's also worth noting that Ecole's plan to exploit Zein's powers over dimensions is similar to Banno's use of Sigma Circular, giving the prospect if Banno had the resources needed to commit omnicide, of which he's incapable of doing so.
- Like Zein, Ecole remained irredeemable to the very end when most of Zein's former allies show guilt for enabling the AI's oppressive tendencies.
 Villains
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Kamen Rider Outsiders Zein's Faction Foundation X Thouser-Intellion/Genm Musou Corp Smart Brain Others | ||