Characters / Kamen Rider Zi-O (Sougo Tokiwa)

Main Character Index | Protagonists (Sougo Tokiwa/Kamen Rider Zi-O | Woz) | Time Jackers | Another Riders | Future Riders | Past Riders | Rider Time Shinobi | Rider Time Ryuki | Movie-Exclusive Characters

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This is a partial character sheet for Kamen Rider Zi-O. Visit here for the main character index. Subjective trope and audience reactions should go on the YMMV page.

This page details tropes for Sougo Tokiwa for Kamen Rider Zi-O.

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Sougo Tokiwa/Kamen Rider Zi-O

Portrayed by: So Okuno (live); Seiji Takaiwa [main series], Takuma Komori [Geiz, Majesty], Kazuya Okada [Superhero Senki] (suit)
Young Sougo Portrayed by: Rui Takahashi
Future Sougo Portrayed by: Seiji Takaiwa (live), Rikiya Koyama (voice), Yasuhiko Imai (suit)

The Young Demon King of Time and Space

^{Click here to see his future self}  The Future Demon King of Time and Space

"The ruler of time, traveling beyond time and space to reign over past and future..."

— The Arc Words used to describe Sougo and his journey

I think I can do this!

— Present Sougo's catchphrase

An average high school student, Sougo has wanted to become a king since he was a little boy. His fate is forever changed one day when time travelers from fifty years into the future appear, one of whom tells him that he accomplishes his dream... only to tell him that he becomes Oma Zi-O, the Demon King of Time, and a tyrant that rules with an iron fist. The time traveler pleads for him to meet the Kamen Riders that came before him and to become a hero instead, which he agrees to.

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Tropes that apply to present day Sougo

• 10-Minute Retirement: After meeting his future self, Sougo decides to destroy his Driver in order to prevent himself from becoming Oma Zi-O. Thanks to the Time Jackers, who want him dead, and Woz having a backup Driver in the event his old one should be destroyed, Sougo's decision to give up being a Rider lasts only for a day. Of course, this also means Oma Zi-O is restored to existence.
• All-Loving Hero: Zigzagged at first, played straight eventually. Sougo hates the idea of anyone getting hurt even willing to take a hit while unpowered to protect a child and he even reveals his dream of being a king is to protect everyone around him. But as the show goes on, Sougo is shown to not be as kind as he appears being an excellent manipulator and having moments of selfishness underneath it all. His mirror self even lampshades that he's not as nice or optimistic as he appears to be. In the last episode however, this trope became played straight, as even after becoming Ohma Zi-O and defeating Swartz, he used its abilities to destroy and recreate time and space, reviving both his comrades and the Time Jackers in the process in the rewritten timeline.
• Alternate Self:
  • He's this to Oma Zi-O, his older and tyrannical self as Sougo's history starts diverging from Oma Zi-O's. Over Quartzer reveals Sougo himself, and by extension Oma Zi-O, is an alternate self of SOUGO, the leader of Quartzer and the original Sougo Tokiwa. The Rider Time: Kamen Rider Zi-O VS Decade spin-off exaggerates this trope by introducing no less than seven more different versions of Sougo running around.
  • He's this to SOUGO Tokiwa, the original Sougo and the Leader of Quartzer. He also has seven different versions of himself running around in the Rider Time: Kamen Rider Zi-O VS Decade spin-off.
• Ambiguous Innocence: Sougo's optimistic innocence is sometimes played to a disturbing degree as he waves off the bad stuff going off to concentrate on what he wants, starting out when he claims it's a bummer his future self is evil. Then there are his interactions with Kuroto Dan, whom he takes for a kingly role model. That involves just waltzing over the latter's obvious evil and insanity. It's not as much that Sougo wouldn't notice those things, they just don't bother him because he believes they can't hurt him and it takes time, effort, and the occasional reminder to get him to think about the other people affected.
• Ambition Is Evil: When he first hears that he will be a fearsome and unstoppable tyrant in the future, he is initially and disturbingly ecstatic as it means that his fantasies of becoming a king come true while only being mildly miffed that he's an evil one. It isn't until he sees one of his friends in peril that he remembers that he wanted to be a king to protect those around them and to ensure their happiness, giving him the mindset to unlock his Transformation Trinket.
• Anti Anti Christ: He's destined to become an unstoppable Evil Overlord and take over the world as a Demon King. He desires to change that outcome and become The Good King. He does succeed in averting his fate, and when he obtains the power of Oma Zi-O he uses to exclusively to defeat Swartz and set everything right.
• Ascended Fan Boy: Sougo happens to be a very big fan of Nobunaga Oda, perhaps even more so when he discovers that Sougo becomes a demon king himself in the future and sees Nobunaga as a sort of role model to use. Then Over Quartzer reveals that Geiz is actually the man himself.
• Badass Bookworm: Is revealed to be quite the history nerd, the subject being his favorite in school.
• Batman Gambit: Sougo is very good at manipulating people into doing what he wants by anticipating how they'll react to the things he says and does. He's so good at it, in fact, that he sometimes does it without even realizing what he's doing.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He dreams of being a king. Sure enough, he finds out that unless he changes his ways, his future self is an omnipotent tyrant who rules the world with an iron fist. Happens again in the Another Zi-O II arc since meeting Oma Zi-O, Sougo has done his best to avert that future and it finally happens in #41 when he is Ret-Gone from history. But this allows Hiryu to take his place as an even worse Oma Zi-O.
• Because Destiny Says So: When asked why he chose the path of the demon king, Sougo at first answers that it's the path he chose. But then he adds that him becoming king was the path set for him from the moment he was born, essentially saying he was born to become a king. At the end of the first quarter, he admits he had a vision when he was a child of a great calamity and the need to become a king to prevent it. This was later revealed to have been entirely orchestrated by Swartz, who manipulated the events surrounding the vision, along with playing the man in black.
• Befriending the Enemy: Geiz is not a villain per se, but still counts as an antagonist and tries to keep it that way despite Sougo's efforts. This actually happens with Heure, after he and Ora flee from Swartz, Sougo lets them stay and even has a heart to heart with him.
• Berserk Button:
  • Though he is reminded to be destined as an Evil Overlord who rules the world, what sets him off is an abusive and insane ruler who would willingly declare war against the world. Kuroto Dan found this out the hard way.
  • Any meeting with Oma Zi-O in person puts Sougo in Unstoppable Rage.
  • Do not mock someone's dream in front of him.
  • Killing the people that are close to him. Good luck dealing with his Oma Zi-O form.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Sougo might be a nice guy compared to his future counterpart, but he's both a scarily cunning manipulator and a brutally effective fighter. Geiz can testify to both.
  • And just like Yusuke, it's a really bad idea to make him mad. Another Drive learns that the hard way after Sougo finally snaps and lays down a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown for mocking Heure's death.
• Big Damn Heroes: Comes with being a Kamen Rider. Especially when Sougo uses the Zi-O II Ridewatch to travel back in time and save Geiz's life when he attempts to finish off Another Ryuga with a suicide attack and then delivers a Curb-Stomp Battle with his newfound power as Zi-O II.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: Another Hibiki rampages on his 19th birthday in #33 but he's perfectly fine with it. It's Woz that's the problem.
• Blinded by Rage:
  • His reaction to seeing the destruction caused by Oma Zi-O, then meeting Oma Zi-O in person and being confronted with the harsh reality that this truly is Sougo himself, is to try and defeat Oma Zi-O right there and then. Not that he ever stood a chance of that.
  • Happens again when Another Drive mocks Heure after the latter's death for trusting Ora, and being betrayed and killed as a result. Sougo doesn't take this well, only this time, Another Drive is the one who doesn't last.
• Break the Cutie: Back to 2068 has Sougo see just for himself what becomes of the future and realizes that he had been grossly underestimating Oma Zi-O's damage to the world. Adding insult to injury, when he meets his future self in person, Oma Zi-O echoes what Sougo swore he would be, a benevolent and beloved demon king...and he thinks he succeeded. This leads him to throw away his Ziku Driver and quit his dream of becoming a King. However that lasts about a day as the Time Jackers want him dead anyway, and Geiz promises to keep him on the right path.
  • World, Reset is even worse because Sougo is erased from history and loses everything he had. No one recognizes him anymore aside from his status as overlord and Zi-O, so they naturally try to murder him. The world is in ruins, his self-proclaimed Arch-Enemy rules as the actual king and there doesn't seem to be anything he can do about it. He just lets Geiz maul him so everything would be over.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Within the first dozen episodes, it's shown that his grades aren't bad due to a lack of intellect, but rather a lack of direction, and whenever it comes to his goal of kingship, or protecting people, he can be dangerously cunning, so much so that it's hard to see where Oma Zi-O ends and Sougo begins.
• Brought Down to Badass: After using up all of his power as Oma Zi-O to restore the timelines and reviving his friends, plus the other Time Jackers, Sougo has effectively lost much of the power he accumulated during his journey.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: When first introduced, he's a moron who's failing school and gets knocked around by his classmates for his weird dream, but it doesn't change that he still is destined to become the Demon King who kills and steal the power of all Riders and then rules the world with an iron fist.
• Butt-Monkey: In the first episode alone, he's knocked down by a martial artist, attacked by a robot (and Rider) from the future, chased by a T-Rex, and tossed into a river. He must have inherited his luck from Ryotaro Nogami.
  • And that doesn't even cover all the weird stuff that hits him through the crossover episodes, like being a ghost or having a self-aware evil reflection.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Somewhat. After Geiz and Tsukuyomi left Kujigojido, Sougo felt particularly lonely, and these feelings got worse as he bumped into the two on multiple occasions, which often resulted in him being left alone. Despite all this, he merely says he's fine. It isn't until Junichiro builds up the courage to actually scold him for hiding these feelings and insist he simply just say so, and advises that if he cannot admit he is lonely when he is, he will become a king oblivious to the pain of others.
• Catchphrase:
  • His "I think I/we can do this!" is his normal one.
  • Played with in how he occasionally combines this with a previous Rider's catchphrase in their Armor. For instance, as Ex-Aid he'll say "I think I can clear this!"
  • He regularly says "I can see your future!" after using his Combat Clairvoyance.
• Cloud Cuckoolander:
  • There's something a bit... off about Sougo. Even ignoring his goal of becoming a king, his response to hearing that he becomes the most evil overlord in history is just that it kind of bums him out.
  • Then there are the finishers and some of the other armor gimmicks that copy the original Rider's ones in spirit but are always way off on what they should be. He even fails at copying Ex-Aid's Hit indicators by making them in Japanese.
  • He is a Nightmare Fetishist when it comes to weird stuff going on or meeting other Riders in the middle of chaos caused by their evil copies.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character:
  • The previous Kamen Rider, Sento Kiryu, was both an Insufferable Genius and a Genius Bruiser, while Sougo is an Ordinary High-School Student who happens to be an Evil Overlord in the future, but is a Brilliant, but Lazy Nice Guy in the present. While Sento designed his team's equipment on his own based on an alien Driver, Sougo is provided his own driver by Woz that happens to be the predecessor of his future self's Driver.
  • Because of their similarities as The Chosen One, he is this to Haruto Soma. While Haruto, who is an Experienced Protagonist, wants to be a Hope Bringer to everyone he knows; Sougo, who only got his powers, wants to Screw Destiny because he knows his future self is an Evil Overlord who's powers are so strong that he destroys anybody's hopes of overthrowing him.
  • Sougo as Zi-O is the inverse of Tsukasa Kadoya in many aspects: both are anniversary Riders who deal with threats to all of the Kamen Rider multiverse - threats stemming from their own actions from their time as nearly all-powerful villains. Both are Guile Heroes who cause tension with their allies as a result of their manipulations. Tsukasa's villainy was in the past, with him becoming a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, whereas Sougo's is in the future while he is currently a Cloudcuckoolander. Tsukasa met Alternate Universe versions of the other Riders, while Sougo meets the genuine articles but unintentionally corrupts them into alternate versions of themselves through his actions. Tsukasa was portrayed in his show as the most powerful Kamen Rider of all, and acted as a mentor who imparts lessons to the AR Riders that he meets, while Sougo is outclassed as a fighter and a hero by most of the other Riders that he encounters, and spends the show learning and growing from what they have to teach him.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Sougo most of the time acts like a clumsy and dumb Nice Guy but when he gets serious... well, Sougo becoming Oma Zi-O in the future looks a lot more plausible.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Both the deliverer and on the receiving end of them:
  • His second bout with Geiz demonstrates that the only reason he lost wasn't because he was inexperienced, but rather because he wasn't motivated. Thus, while acting as Kuroto's guard, and therefore totally serious, he effortlessly trounces his fellow Rider with little trouble whatsoever.
  • When he meets Oma Zi-O, the fight is so totally one-sided it can't even be called a fight. It's just a one-sided slaughter, with Oma countering Sougo at every turn.
  • His "fight" against Another Den-O II using Grand Zi-O in #40 is so one-sided, it would be generous to even call it a curb stomp.
  • We've seen Sougo's future self fight, however short-lived they were, but we get to see just how powerful Sougo can be when he decides to go postal by donning the golden Ziku-Driver. He easily takes down the likes of Evolto and N-Daguva-Zeba, two of the most vicious enemies the Kamen Riders have ever faced (one being a Planet Eater and the other matching the likes of Kuuga Ultimate, the World's Strongest Man), with one blow.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Not that he would remember it, but the same event that gave Sougo his powers and would later turn him into a Doom Magnet, killed everyone (that included his parents) in the bus he was in with the exception of him and Hiryu.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Zi-O II gives him the power to defeat Another Riders without the correct Ridewatch, even if obtaining that Ridewatch would be impossible.
• The Determinator: Ever since learning about his future self being a tyrant, Sougo's been doing his damndest to make sure he doesn't go down that path. That being said, if he has to protect his friends, he's more than willing to embark on the road to becoming Oma Zi-O. Just ask Another Ryuga, who Sougo demolished with the Zi-O II Ridewatch - the very same Ridewatch that triggered his transformation into Oma Zi-O in the first place.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: How much strength you may ask? He's accidentally creating new timelines from the dreams he sees.
• Doom Magnet: Part of what Swartz was building him up to become. By giving him time-space manipulation powers and then introducing the Another Riders, he subconsciously acts as an anchor that converges all the other Kamen Rider worlds into his world in order to obtain their powers, which in turn erases the Kamen Riders from existence, allowing Swartz to pull out their enemies from his Another Worlds to freely cause the mass destruction of the combined world he wanted.
  • It eventually gets so bad that Tsukasa Kadoya has to intervene so as to ascertain whether he should destroy the World of Zi-O or not to save the other ones. He has to.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: One of his powers as king is the ability to not only see the future in his dreams but create the future by dreaming about it. While Sougo doesn't consciously control the dreams, they're based on his subconscious memories, fears, and desires. It's implied that the entire Geiz Revive arc is the product of Sougo's newfound terror at the thought of becoming Oma Zi-O and wanting to create someone who could kill him. This gift is used to hide that his so-called "dream" of the man in black was actually a memory of Swartz abducting him as a child.
• Everyone Hates Mathematics: Sougo is really bad at math, even needing to take a makeup of a makeup exam in #23 and falling asleep whenever he tries to study. He even falls asleep during the exam in #24!
• Fan Boy: #10 reveals that Sougo is one for Oda Nobunaga, the first of the three unifiers of Japan, despite the fact that he was known as a Demon King for his brutal suppression tactics during the Sengoku Era, since the unification of Japan would have been impossible without him. This is also why Sougo doesn't have a problem about being called a Demon King as well, if Oda could unify Japan despite being a Demon King, then he would just have to be a benevolent Demon King.
• Freaky Is Cool: His reaction to the Zi-O Trinity transformation, which is a Fusion Dance between him, Geiz, and Black Woz. Geiz and Woz are turned into wristwatches that merge with Zi-O before his face just falls down to his chest before a new face appears. And all three of them are sharing Sougo's body. His reaction to all this?
  Something amazing has just happened!
• Friendless Background: Deconstructed. Due to Sougo's crazy dream, he never had any friends before Tsukuyomi and Geiz appeared. The only thing he could call a friend was a toy robot. It was also partially the cause for his ascension to an Evil Overlord.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Present-day Sougo Tokiwa is little more than a lazy dreamer. Fast-forward to his future self, Oma Zi-O, and he's feared by all.
• Future Me Scares Me: Played with: while he’s bummed out to find out he’ll turn evil, Sougo’s future self doesn't scare him enough at first to change his ways. It’s not until Sougo is sent to 2068 and comes face-to-face with the monster he’ll become that he finally becomes frightened and starts taking the threat of becoming Oma Zi-O seriously.
• Goal in Life: As mentioned above, he wants to be a king. The fact that he still has this goal even at 18 years old is seen as a mark of childishness, and his schoolmates and great-uncle are trying to get him to find a more reasonable goal.
• Godzilla Threshold: Is practically forced into one due to Swartz's Xanatos Gambit and overwhelming power. Nothing at Sougo's disposal is remotely capable of matching Another Decade, but his future self informs him that there is something that can defeat Swartz: Oma Zi-O. Despite Sougo having spent the entire series trying to prevent this outcome, he has no choice but to become his future self if he wants any chance at defeating Swartz.
• Gone Horribly Right: Sougo always wanted to be a king when he was a kid. He gets his wish… except his future self becomes a "Demon King" who rules the world with an iron fist. He thinks that all he has to do to avert this is to swear to become a good king, only to discover that his future self made that exact same promise.
• The Good King: What he wants to become. Upon seeing what his future self becomes, he decides to do everything in his power to stop this from happening.
• Good Is Not Dumb: He may look unassuming, naive, and just as far from his future self as he could be. He does have some fairly stupid moments, but otherwise is a scarily good strategist, manipulator, and fighter.
• Gratuitous English: He's fond of sprinkling his speech with random English words like "excellent" and "yes".
• Guile Hero: One of his defining traits. Don't let his Obfuscating Stupidity fool you, as he is also a cunning and clever manipulator.
• Hidden Depths: A less-than-positive version happens as the series progresses and it’s demonstrated that Sougo has all the traits of Oma Zi-O lurking beneath the "well-meaning but flaky teenager" exterior we saw at the start. He turns the Wizard arc into one gigantic Batman Gambit by manipulating Geiz and Woz to get what he wants while they're convinced it's in their best interests, in #9 he casually curb-stomps Geiz, with the implication that he's always been that strong but held back because he doesn't like fighting. Manipulating people comes so naturally to Sougo that he does it subconsciously: it takes being confronted by his Mirror World self to even realize it when he cons Geiz into committing suicide because it's just that instinctive to use people for his own ends.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Sougo’s loopy attitude caused the people around him — aside from his uncle — to treat him as an outcast, so he didn't have any friends until Tsukuyomi and Geiz arrived. Even though he readily thinks of them as his friends, they are still the same people who argue over whether to murder him now or later.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Played With. Despite the best efforts of Tsukuyomi and Geiz, the final episode sees Sougo donning a dreadfully familiar golden Ziku-Driver, but that's only because Another Decade is too much for his forms and Sougo has to undo every single damage in the Kamen Rider multiverse.
  • Played straight later when it is revealed that he still wants to become a king even after Swartz — the one who gave him the idea in the first place — is gone.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": In the summer movie Over Quartzer, Sougo gets to meet the original Demon King himself: Oda Nobunaga. And if you recall, Sougo himself is a fan of the feudal warlord. It doesn't take a genius to guess what will happen. It's ultimately subverted in that, while Sougo is excited to finally meet the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven, he ultimately becomes dismayed by the fact that not only is Oda Nobunaga a manchild, he is really incompetent. Hilariously, the Oda Nobunaga known and feared in Japan was actually Geiz, who temporarily took over Oda's army to combat the Quartzers.
• Lack of Empathy: An odd example. He is a compassionate kid, but he just doesn't seem to notice what people around him feel; for instance, he had no idea that Geiz was angry until the other rider grabbed his collar and screamed in his face. The other option may be that he is well aware of everything, but he doesn't care unless those feelings are directed at him or have to be accounted for in a plan (his or someone else's).
• Love Hurts: The entire Kiva arc shows this. Sougo finally gets reunited by chance with Yuko Kitajima, his first love, who gets him to believe she was wrongfully convicted of murder. Turns out she lied; not only did she actually do what she was convicted of, but she's not even the woman Sougo believed she was. However, Sougo is so smitten that she is easily able to trick him. On top of that, she was killed by Ora after her defeat as Another Kiva, right in front of him. Poor dude just needs a hug now.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Sougo is very intelligent and a master manipulator but he's so head over heels for Yuko that he shuts off his brain and believes every word she says, making it unbelievably easy to trick him into believing she's his first love.
• Meaningful Name:
  • He is named after the apartment complex Shotaro Ishinomori stayed in during his mangaka days, Tokiwa-sou.
  • "Tokiwa" also carries the word (とき Toki), which can be translated into 'time' when it is written in kanji "時".
• Nerves of Steel: As a kid, he actually stared down and screamed at Swartz. The very same Swartz who is the leader of the Time Jackers and who is perfectly capable of killing him without a second thought.
• Nice Guy: He is polite and friendly to just about everyone, even Geiz (who wants to kill him) and Black Woz (who wants him to become Oma Zi-O). He is actually so polite and optimistic it's scary sometimes. That being said though, making him mad is one of the dumbest mistakes anyone can make.
  • Deconstructed in the movie, where it’s revealed that the fact he was so likeable made it easy for the other Riders to pass their powers to him, thus advancing Quartzer’s plans.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His battle against Oma Zi-O causes a massive paradox that alters the entire timeline to one where Hiryu has come to power, and the world is now under the rule of a tyrant even worse than Oma Zi-O.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Much like a previous king, Sougo's kind and dopey nature belies the fact that he can be shockingly cunning and manipulative when he wants to be. Geiz realizes by the end of #8 that he spent the entire two-parter as a puppet on Sougo's strings, a two-parter where Sougo even manipulates Woz into giving him the information that he wants. Not long after, Sougo also reveals that he's a much better fighter than he's been letting on.
• Our Founder: The first episode shows that in 2068, there's a statue commemorating his first transformation, which shows Sougo in his henshin pose with statues of the other Heisei Riders standing in a ring around him.
• Phrase Catcher: It seems "That doesn't seem right" is one when the past Riders see him botch their finishing moves.
• Power Incontinence: As Sougo's power escalates, he finds himself having increasing difficulty with controlling it. This applies to both his time-manipulating superpowers, which begin to manifest without needing Ridewatches, and his skills at manipulating and deceiving others, a way of behaving that comes so naturally to Sougo that he sometimes doesn't even realize it when he's duping other people into harming themselves for his gain.
• Precocious Crush: As a child, Sougo’s first crush was a high school girl he refers to as Miss Sailor. He thinks Yuko Kitajima is Miss Sailor when they meet.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: What Sougo's adventures, as detailed in the series, would have ended in, were it not for Tsukuyomi and Geiz. Even so, the fact remains that his future self is a tyrannical despot.
• Poor Communication Kills: Sougo's really bad with this, and in #22 it causes even Tsukuyomi to turn against him. His mirror self, however, implies that it's not so much as his communication skills being subpar, but actually intentional without him even realizing it.
• Rapid Aging: #28 shows that this is an application of Sougo's powers that he's been able to use since he was 10. He can rapidly age something to dust as shown when he used this power on a Dai Mazine.
• Red Baron: Aside from being called by his Rider name Zi-O, Sougo is known as (and in the future becomes) the Demon King and the King of Time. In Kamen Rider Build: Be The One, Sougo also claims that he's been called the Demon King of Time.
• Reality Warper: He's subconsciously creating futures from the dreams he has. The final episode has him channel Ohma Zi-O's power to destroy and recreate all the Rider Worlds, saving them from Swartz's apocalypse.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Played straight and implied in different instances. During the Another Zi-O II arc, he's the person other than Woz and the Time Jackers that remembers the original timeline before Hiryu alters it. In the series finale, after Sougo defeats Swartz and undid all the damage he caused, including restoring the timelines of the other Kamen Riders, Sougo still wishes to become king in spite of the reset he caused as Oma Zi-O.
• Rookie Red Ranger: Despite only being recently given his Driver, in his first fight against Geiz who has much more experience as a Kamen Rider which includes fighting in a war against his future self and also having more Ridewatches, he still managed to fight evenly against him and even outwit him during their battle and escaped. Later subverted in their second fight, which shows that Sougo didn't so much as get his ass handed to him as he wasn't motivated to fight Geiz at the time.
• Self-Serving Memory: Throughout the series, he is stated to have first got the dream of becoming king from a dream he had when he was 9. Over Quartzer throws this notion out, revealing he’s wanted to be a King since he was a toddler. All the dream did was change his motivation.
• The Slacker: He does have a Goal in Life, but it’s not a terribly realistic one and he doesn’t even seem to know how to achieve it. At one point Tsukuyomi remarks that his grades are all poor (except for History), which is accompanied by a shot of him sleeping in class.
• Stepford Smiler: Sougo maintains his optimistic cheer even when he's hurting inside, or even after the heartbreak of losing his only friends. Sougo's uncle eventually works up the nerve to call him out on it, telling him that a leader who can't admit when they feel bad will come to lack empathy for the feelings of others.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: Finds himself in this situation during the Another Zi-O II arc, due to being Ret-Gone from history during that time.
• Superpowers For A Day: In the final episode, Sougo utilizes the power of Oma Zi-O and demonstrates just how powerful the Demon King of Time can be. However, rather than fulfill the Stable Time Loop that Swartz has been imposing, Sougo chooses to end his reign 50 years early by restoring the damaged timelines and reviving his friends, plus Heure and Ora, at the cost of his own powers.
• Take a Third Option: In the final episode Sougo does become Oma Zi-O after the deaths of Geiz and Tsukuyomi. But he decides that instead of using his new power to rule over the world like his future self did, he instead uses it to undo the damage that Swartz did at cost of his powers.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Book dumb as he may be, he finally passed a test for graduation in #24 with a score of 82%.
• Time Master: At first it seemed that his time manipulation powers were the result of Ridewatches, it turns out that Sougo has had these powers at least since he was 10. If anything, the Ridewatches are merely tools to unlock more of his power rather than bestow anything on him. The powers he has shown are rewinding time, stopping time, rapidly aging something till it turns to dust, predicting a person's future actions, seeing the future in his dreams, even manipulating future timelines, and seeing the past. Over Quartzer reveals that it was actually Swartz who gave him his powers, and SOUGO was the one who stopped the falling debris in #27.
• Too Powerful to Live: Tsukuyomi believes this by #23. Her seeing Sougo’s ability to reset the timeline reminds her too much of Oma Zi-O that she teams up reluctantly with White Woz. But the realization that Sougo can subconsciously manipulate the future to fit his dreams, deeply terrifies her so that she's even more determined to stop him.
• Trap Is the Only Option: Being a Chessmaster sometimes means Sougo goes for this. Most notably, the reason he makes the seemingly insane decision of following Oma Zi-O's advice to gather all the Ridewatches is because he knows he'll need that level of raw power to take down his future self.
• Troll: With the appearance of White Woz, Sougo has taken to yanking Black Woz's chain by asking him if he's really him or his counterpart... despite the glaring differences between the two.
• Unskilled, but Strong: There is a reason that one of Sougo's potential futures is called the Ruler of Time. Since getting the Zi-O II Ridewatch, Sougo keeps discovering more and more of his hidden and honestly ludicrously powerful time powers. The only thing stopping him from essentially stopping the villains with a single thought is he doesn't have any fine control over his powers and that he doesn't even know about all of them. Once he did, though...
• Unstoppable Rage: In the final episode after Geiz dies protecting Sougo from Swartz, Sougo in his rage and despair unlocks Oma Zi-O's powers. And then it gets worse when Swartz kills Tsukuyomi as well, Sougo screams her name in anguish before he goes on the ultimate Roaring Rampage of Revenge by quickly and brutally killing Swartz with a rider kick.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Tsukuyomi theorizes that Another Kikai was a time anomaly created as a result of Sougo's growing powers making his dreams the future reality, instead of foreshadowing it. This was further evidenced by how much Kamen Rider Kikai and his Another counterpart were heavily connected to a toy robot that he had called his "best friend" in his childhood.
• Unwitting Pawn: To two different people no less!
  • Swartz gave Sougo his dream of being a king to gather the Heisei Riders' powers to both strengthen Sougo and cause enough time-space distortions that every world except Swartz's is fused into one. Swartz then plans to steal Sougo's power for himself and then destroy Sougo's world to save his world and rule over it as king.
  • SOUGO, his original self, gave Woz the Ōma Kōrin Reki to create Oma Zi-O to steal the Heisei Riders' powers. He then plans to recreate the Heisei era and rule it as the King of Time.
• Verbal Tic: Due to his idealistic nature, he often says "Feels like it"^note 気がする Kigasuru at the end of most of his sentences.

Tropes that apply to 2068 Sougo

• 0% Approval Rating: With the exception of Woz, everybody, including his younger self, is trying to dethrone him in one way or another.
• Affably Evil: For a ruthless tyrant who completely devastated the future, you'd be hard-pressed to a situation where Oma Zi-O isn't being genuinely well-spoken and polite.
• All Your Powers Combined: Oma Zi-O is the unification of not just the main 20, but every Heisei Kamen Rider's power.
• Alternate Self: Over Quartzer reveals that he's essentially this to the Leader of Quartzer. Oma Zi-O didn't even originally exist until SOUGO gave Woz the Oma Advent Calendar, which would allow him to take the necessary steps to lead another alternate Sougo into becoming Oma Zi-O so as to draw eyes away from Quartzer and SOUGO as they went about their own plans to rewrite the Heisei era.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: As noted by the man himself, he has power worthy of having the title "Demon King". Each and every appearance of his displays overwhelming might on a level no one in the series can even dream of matching.
• Badass Boast: His very first line no less!
  "You fools could never hope to defeat me. Do you know why? Because I was born to be king."
• Badass Cape: He has a pair of watch hands hanging down the back of his suit, which give off the vibe of either a cape or a really long scarf.
• Bad Future: Saying the future Oma Zi-O rules isn't very pretty is an Understatement. Half of humanity has been completely wiped out, the remaining half have been forced into refugee camps and most of the world has been devastated by the Dai Mazines.
• The Bad Guy Wins: By the time the series proper begins, Oma Zi-O already succeeded in ruling the entire world with an iron fist for fifty years with no one powerful enough to stop him. The story of Kamen Rider Zi-O all revolves around preventing this trope in the first place.
• Benevolent Boss: For all the faults he shows, he is never seen treating his servant Woz with any disdain in their shared screen time.
• Beware the Superman: He is the Overlord of Time who not only has Time Master powers but also wields the power of all 20 Heisei Riders at his disposal (this now extends to Showa and Reiwa Riders) and has brought the entire world to its knees as he rules over the Bad Future with an iron fist. Even to this day, Ohma Zi-O stands out as one of, if not, the most powerful Rider and Kamen Rider villain overall in existence.
• Bling of War: Unlike Sougo in the present, this Zi-O is decked out in golden armor, has a watchband sash not unlike Drive's Tires, and clock hands on his back like a segmented cape. His Oma Zi-O Driver is also gold-colored with two eagle-like engravings where the Ridewatch slots should be.
• Brought Down to Badass: The Ohma Zi-O that appears in Zi-O Vs. Decade is much weaker than either the one seen previously or Sougo when he gained the form. This is because he's burnt through vast amounts of power by attempting to create and recreate too many worlds. He's still MUCH stronger than everyone else, including Tsukasa's upgraded final form and only loses because he allows himself to be defeated.
• The Caligula: When he finally gets more screen time, it becomes incredibly clear that Oma Zi-O is completely and utterly out of his gourd, genuinely believing that he is "the greatest and most beloved Demon King". He's reduced the world of 2068 to a Mad Max lookalike, has an army of evil monsters at his side that terrorize the populace and slaughters those who resist wholesale. He's clearly a man of the people.
• Cessation of Existence: If Sougo destroys his Ziku Driver, Oma Zi-O is effectively erased from existence. He comes right back if the young Sougo puts on another. In the final episode after Sougo uses his powers to destroy the damage that Swartz caused at the price of his powers, this happens to Oma Zi-O for good.
• The Chessmaster: Seems to be this at the end of Forever King 2018. He knew Sougo would destroy his Driver after seeing how he turned out and Face Death with Dignity. When Sougo gains a backup Driver and reaffirms his desire to not become the Demon King, Oma Zi-O can only laugh as he is ushered back into existence, knowing full well his present-day self would do so. After all, he was born to be king.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Oma Zi-O is, in many ways, the opposite of Evolto.
  • Evolto controls space, Oma Zi-O controls time.
  • Evolto wants to destroy Earth for fun, Oma Zi-O wants to rule it as the Demon King.
  • Evolto is an alien Ancient Evil, Oma Zi-O is a human from a Bad Future.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Every single fight this man is shown to participate ends in a one-sided slaughter. His introduction has him single-handedly wipe out the Resistance. When Sougo attacks his older self, Oma Zi-O doesn't put any effort and simply counters whatever Sougo throws at him by using the same Rider powers he uses. Even when Sougo obtains the Grand Zi-O Ridewatch, he still mops the floor with his younger self (though compared to their previous bout, Sougo manages to land a few hits on him). Their third and final rematch subverts this, in that while Oma Zi-O is still superior in terms of power and experiences, he's hurt by Zi-O Trinity on account of Trinity being a form he never obtained in his timeline. And then it's revealed even that isn't enough to hurt him.
• Dark Is Evil: With him, it most certainly is. The color black is just as prominent as the gold on his suit and this version of our protagonist is a ruthless tyrant who rules over the Bad Future he himself has created.
• Dark Reprise: His Leitmotif is an instrumental, minor-key version of "Zi-O, King of Time", Sougo's image song.
• Department of Redundancy Department: In Japanese, his full name parses as something presumably meant to mean "Demon King Calamity Zi-O", but parses as "Maoh Oma Zi-O", and, taking into account the fact that "Zi-O" could potentially mean "time king", sounds effectively like "Demon King King Demon Time King". #1.5 has Sougo point out the redundancy in the name and express dismay that his naming sense has gotten so cheap.
• Deity of Human Origin: He doesn't come out right out and say it, but in his time, he's become this. Oma Zi-O is functionally omnipotent, unkillable, appeals to the Divine Right of Kings, and has the power of twenty generations of heroes or villains in his body. Some of those Riders were never human or were aliens, gods, or monsters of staggering power. He can do all that they can and more.
• Didn't See That Coming: Because he never obtained his own version of Zi-O Trinity (seeing as how he never met Geiz in the present), it's the only form present-day Sougo has that he has no counter to. That said, it's able to catch him off guard, not ACTUALLY do any damage.
• Divine Right of Kings: He appeals to a version of this (albeit one that invokes a generic "destiny" rather than any gods) to justify his rule, saying that he became king because he was born to be one.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: Rider Time: Zi-O vs Decade has a scared child found in the middle of the woods by Tsukuyomi. And then he switches a dep per octave, before he pulls out the Ohma Driver.
• The Dreaded: Oh, most definitely. When you've managed to kill HALF OF HUMANITY ITSELF before ruling over the rest with a tyrannic iron fist for the next fifty years with no one able to stop you, how can one not qualify as this? It has reached the point that any and all of his most prominent foes who wish to dethrone and/or have him killed had to travel back to before he even became Zi-O in the first place because his power is that damn terrifying and overwhelming to directly confront in any capacity. It's quite telling that the Leader of Quartzer, otherwise known as the original Sougo Tokiwa, also decided on using his younger self, knowing that his plans would most definitely fail if he tried using Oma Zi-O himself to reset the Heisei era.
• Evil Old Folks: Given that he is supposed to be Sougo fifty years into the future, he more than qualifies, as being in his late sixties. While his face is obscured when his human form is shown, he has white hair and what few details can be made out do imply he's an old man.
  • Averted by Zi-O vs Decade, which makes him a Creepy Child.
• Evil Overlord: Rules the future of 2068 with an iron fist, as his title of Demon King would suggest.
• Evil Sounds Deep: When Sougo becomes Oma Zi-O, his voice deepens and he starts growling whenever he speaks. This is nothing compared to his future self, whose voice rivals Swartz when it comes to deepness. And unlike Sougo, Oma Zi-O is far from good in his timeline.
• The Faceless: Out of suit, his face is always obscured. Parts of it have been shown, but his full face was never revealed. In fact, it wasn't even revealed that Seiji Takaiwa was the one playing "Old Sougo" until after the final episode aired.
• Fallen Hero: This Sougo has definitely attained his wish to become a king. The greatest in history.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Considering that his younger self was a humble, friendless slacker, the difference between Sougo and Oma Zi-O is utterly terrifying.
• Godzilla Threshold: On two accounts.
  • In The Movie Over Quartzer, Oma Zi-O willingly intervenes in the present day to give his younger self a fighting chance against the Leader of Quartzer, namely because if SOUGO destroys the Heisei Era, he goes out with it.
  • Informs Sougo in the penultimate episode that, as it stands, there is not a snowball's chance in hell that he can defeat Swartz as Another Decade...unless he becomes Oma Zi-O himself. In other words, if Sougo wants to beat Swartz, he has no choice but to don the golden Ziku-Driver.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: He uses a gold-colored variant of the Ziku-Driver and his Rider form's main color motif is also gold, as befitting of a King. He's also far more powerful than the current Zi-O.
• Good Powers, Bad People: He wields the power of twenty heroes, and he uses them to rule the world with an iron fist.
• Gone Horribly Right: SOUGO's goal was to create an alternate version of himself to distract the multiverse from his own machinations. To say this worked too well is something of an understatement, as he created a version of himself whose power VASTLY eclipses his own, to the point when a portion of it (in the form of modern Sougo's Oma Form) can completely curbstomp him.
• Graceful Loser: In the final episode as Sougo decides to reverse the damage that Swartz did at the cost of his powers, all Oma Zi-O does is laugh and say that he was glad he got to meet his younger self before he disappears.
• Heel–Face Turn: In the final stageplay (which takes place in the Over Quartzer timeline), he temporarily gets brought back and joins Sougo for one last battle against Hiryu, who became Another Oma Zi-O. They completely mop the floor with him.
• Hero Killer: Implied. It was stated that Oma Zi-O went on a path of conquest, and heavily implied that he claimed the powers of other Riders through battle rather than being gifted them. In several of Woz's flashbacks in the early episodes, images of Zi-O fighting other Riders are shown. And since Oma Zi-O is still around and the Riders aren't...
• High Collar of Doom: Well, not incredibly high, but still counts compared to Zi-O's base form.
• Identity Denial: An unusual case in that every other character already knows Sougo will grow up to become this tyrant, but Sougo disbelieves that he could ever become such a monster so fervently that he makes Geiz, Tsukuyomi, and even parts of the audience start to doubt it's true until Sougo's faced with the man himself and can no longer deny reality.
• Invincible Villain: From Geiz and the Resistance's perspective, their best efforts were completely crushed by him without doing anything meaningful to him. The only thing that has been shown to be capable of challenging, let alone beating him, is Geiz Revive in White Woz's timeline who battled and defeated Sougo in his Zi-O II form. This ultimately never happens because it is averted thanks to Geiz and Sougo burying the hatchet.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Despite the Bad Future Oma Zi-O rules, he is correct that he did save the world; he just didn't make it a pleasant place to live in. #48 reveals that Oma Zi-O knows about Swartz and his plan. Thus the fact Oma Zi-O even exists means that Swartz, at least temporarily, failed to destroy the world. There's also the events of the Over Quartzer movie...
• Knight of Cerebus: He's already an unstoppable force to begin with. The first thing he does in the Cold Opening is to singlehandedly wipe out every member of the La Résistance and go as far as to reduce their army to dust. #16 takes it to a more terrifying level when he beats the Present Sougo using Kuuga, Kiva, and Ryuki's powers with little to no effort.
• Kryptonite Factor: Zi-O Trinity is the only form of Zi-O capable of hurting him, as it's an anomaly that never existed in his own timeline, combined with Geiz, who the original never met, and Woz, whose powers only existed in an alternate timeline.
  • The only thing that could destroy him for good would be Sougo willingly giving up his driver permanently. During the events of the series, this happens, and the second time sticks.
• Love Redeems: In Rider Time: Zi-O Vs Decade, his relationship with Tsukuyomi causes him to allow regular Sougo to kill him.
• Maou the Demon King: He definitely invokes this archetype; it's even explained that the "Oma" part of his name is just a rearranged version of the stock "maou" title. He doesn't lead armies of monsters like most Demon King characters, but that just means he concentrates all that power in himself.
• Meaningful Echo: When Sougo meets him for the first time, he reaffirms his desire to become the world's greatest and most beloved demon king...only for Oma Zi-O to throw those words back at him, stating he is the greatest and most beloved demon king. That his older self genuinely believes this while ruling over a dystopian future is what makes Sougo realize how utterly warped he's become and actually makes him go through a 10-Minute Retirement.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Oma is an anagram for maoh, which is Japanese for "demon king".
  • The Oma itself is derived from Omagatoki, a somewhat poetic Japanese term for dusk. More specifically, it refers to the time of day when the world falls into darkness and invites demons and calamity. Guess what happens to the world once he takes his reign?
• Mind over Matter: Has access to every other Riders' powers, including the kind of telekinesis demonstrated which the likes of Kouta would be capable of.
• Names to Run From Really Fast: Does Demon King sound like a friendly title to you?
• Not Quite Dead: When Sougo reset the world, Ohma Zi-O, the true Sougo, was trapped between dimensions.
• Obliviously Evil: Oma Zi-O genuinely thinks he's fulfilled his lifelong dream of becoming a benevolent and beloved king—despite having killed off all the past Kamen Riders, wiped out half of humanity, and is currently ruling the rest with an oppressive iron fist.
• One-Man Army: More like One Man Apocalypse. The Cold Opening shows Oma Zi-O positively and literally destroying and eviscerating the La Résistance, Humongous Mechas and all. Given the timeline, it can be safely said that he's been doing this kind of slaughter for 50 YEARS. There's also the fact that he cemented his rule in the first place by single-handedly killing half of humanity.
• Pet the Dog: Oma Zi-O empowers the blank Ridewatch his younger self slipped to Tsukuyomi in #48 despite feeling that it's pointless.
• Physical God: By the time he rules the world, he has fully mastered his power which includes willful manipulation of time and space combined with the entire powerset of the Heisei riders. He demonstrates some of Kuuga's and Kiva's abilities combined with enough raw power to one-shot some of the strongest rider villains. Word of God confirms he had powers he hasn't openly demonstrated: like Kouta's reality warping, Evol's planetary destruction and galactic warping, Cronus' Pause, Genm's resurrection immortality, various riders' super speed, etc., etc. and he is literally all-powerful. The finale and supplementary information go even further, revealing the power to sense people in other dimensions, fight with infinite energy coursing through his body, teleport through space and time, age objects to death, manipulate fate, and destroy all of space and time within the Kamen Rider multiverse.
• Planet Destroyer: #48 reveals that Oma Zi-O has the power to destroy space and time.
• Pragmatic Villainy: It's a bit of Godzilla Threshold, but he isn't fond of his Alternate Self and, for the first time, interferes with the events of the present timeline by helping Sougo obtain the Zi-O Oma Ridewatch.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: Sougo swore to avoid ever becoming Oma Zi-O by declaring he would instead become the greatest and most beloved overlord in history. Oma Zi-O swore the same thing, and honestly believes he succeeded.
• Puppet King: Shortly after he is ushered back into existence and begins to laugh, believing that everything is going as he has expected, a shadow is sitting behind Oma Zi-O's throne, hinting that for all his power Oma Zi-O may be subservient to someone else. This is downplayed as #27 and #28 reveal that Sougo is Swartz's candidate for Oma Zi-O, but later episodes show that the existence of Oma Zi-O means that Swartz's plan failed. And Over Quartzer reveals that he's also this to his own alternate self before he helped his younger self defeat his alternative self.
• Rapid Aging: Combined with One-Hit Kill, one of the powers he shows in #1 when he was able to turn an entire army to dust.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His visor has a prominently crimson color to it, signifying his status as a major villain.
• Scarf of Asskicking: He has a pair of watch hands hanging down the back of his suit, which either gives off this or Badass Cape.
• Shadow Archetype:
  • Being the future self of our protagonist, Oma Zi-O is very obviously this to present Sougo - representing all of the worst traits, habits, and tendencies he's been displaying throughout the series and exaggerating them all. His ambition, manipulations, and lack of regard for others feelings made manifest and brought to the forefront without any of his redeeming traits to temper them and his morality.
  • As befitting for an evil version of the anniversary Kamen Rider, he's this to every main Heisei series Rider that came before Zi-O. In Kuuga, Blade, Gaim, and among others, one big concern and theme running throughout each story was what amassing enough power to reach their full potential would do to their minds and turn them into the very thing they were fighting against. Kuuga feared becoming a Living Weapon who lived only for fighting, Blade was worried he'd turn into a monster like the Undead he was trying to defeat, and Gaim was afraid of giving up his humanity the stronger he got. This version of Sougo is what happens when all of that power goes to one's head and he becomes a tyrant worse than any villain in the Heisei era.
• Spanner in the Works: Over Quartzer's plan was actually going quite well and was close to succeeding...until Oma Zi-O decided enough was enough and proceeded to endow his younger self with enough of his power to defeat SOUGO and lead Woz into pulling a Heel–Face Turn.
• Strong and Skilled: Oma Zi-O combines the unified powers of a hundred Riders with fifty years of practice and experience in using every single one of those abilities.
• Summon Magic: Like Grand Zi-O, Oma Zi-O can summon any past Rider to fight for him.
• Super-Strength: During the battle in #1's Cold Open, he drags a Time Mazine into his hands with his Mind over Matter powers and then hurls it.
• Superpower Lottery: With the combined powers of every single Heisei Rider and absolute control over time itself, Oma Zi-O is a leading contender for the king of this trope.
• Talented, but Trained: #28 reveals that Sougo received his time powers as a little boy, long before he ever had obtained his first Ridewatch. Oma Zi-O simply had over fifty years to master those same powers to the point that calling him invincible is quite frankly the most accurate thing you can say about his strength.
• Tautological Templar: The man somehow believes that he honestly is "the greatest and most beloved Demon King". Despite the fact that he killed half of the population of Earth, put the other half in ghetto camps, and periodically terrorized said survivors with his army. The most twisted thing about him is the fact that from a certain point of view he is. After all, he's the only Demon King the world's ever had, and from his warped perspective he's simply putting down insurrections against his "benevolent" rule.
• Tempting Fate: At the end of their first meeting, he tells Sougo that the only way to prevent his rise is to destroy his belt. Sougo follows this advice, and this actually does get rid of Oma Zi-O. Pity about the Time Jackers.
• Time Master: His title is the King of Time for a damn good reason. He and his younger self have demonstrated Time Stands Still, Dreaming of Things to Come (complete with creating new timelines from said dreams), Combat Clairvoyance, Time Rewind Mechanic, and Rapid Aging. By the end of the show, it's unclear if his control over time even has any limits, beyond his past self's lack of fine tuning.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: The Sougo we're following is an All-Loving Hero who wants to become king to protect the people around him. This Sougo is no longer anything like that.
• Villain of Another Story: His rise to power, Protagonist Journey to Villain, and fifty-year rule as an oppressive dictator takes place in a completely different timeline.
• Villain Protagonist: He is what Sougo will become if nothing changes, and changing the future turns out to be a very difficult task indeed.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Has white hair, presumably due to being in his late 60s, and is a tyrannical and monstrous Evil Overlord.
• Willfully Weak: The final episode reveals this Oma Zi-O has been severely holding back each time he appears.
• World's Strongest Man: Possessing the combined powers of not just Heisei Riders, but ALL riders (Including Showa and Reiwa), Oma Zi-O is bar none THE most powerful being in Kamen Rider lore. The one and only time he's seen truly fighting seriously, he obliterates the likes of Evolto, Gamedeus, and N-Daguva-Zeba in a single blow each. In the Zi-O Vs. Decade finale, during a state in which an incarnation of him is at his weakest, he still manages to overpower Decade Complete 21, the upgraded version of Decade Complete form.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Sougo thought his vow to become "The Greatest and Most Beloved Overlord" would be enough to keep him from becoming this guy, only to discover that Oma Zi-O is the end product of making that vow. The only thing that works to actually prevent his rise is for Sougo to destroy his Driver, and even that only lasts until the Time Jackers force him to become Zi-O once more. In the end, Sougo does indeed become Oma Zi-O, but escapes becoming his future self by sacrificing his powers once again to give them back to the Riders.
• You Cannot Kill An Idea: Zi-O Vs. Decade reveals he is essentially a one-man version of this trope. While the "Prime" Sougo the audience had been following was eventually able to overcome the temptation of Oma Zi-O's power and use it without becoming corrupted, an infinite number of parallel Sougo's exist in alternate timelines, any one of whom can easily become another Oma Zi-O themself. In other words, Oma Zi-O continues to exist as long as even the possibility that he could remains.

Tropes that apply to them as Kamen Rider Zi-O

Rider Time! Kamen Rider Zi-O!

Rider Time! Kamen Rider~! (Rider~!) Zi-O! (Zi-O!) Zi-O~! II!

Trinity Time! Mittsu no Chikara! Kamen Rider~ Zi-O! Geiz! Woz! Trinity~!

Grand Time! Kuuga, Agito, Ryuki, Faiz, Blade~! Hibiki, Kabuto, Den-O, Kiva, Decade~! W! OOO! Fourze! Wizard! Gaim, Drive~! Ghost! Ex-Aid! Build~! Iwae! Kamen Rider~! Gra~nd~ Zi-O~!

King Time! Kamen Rider Zi-O! O~ma~!

Shukufuku no Toki! Saikou! Saizen! Saidai! Saikyo-o! ^note  The hallowed hour! The greatest! Most righteous! Most prominent! Most powerful! King of all that is! Oma Zi-O!

• All Your Powers Combined: Zi-O Trinity, Grand Zi-O, Zi-O Oma Form, and Oma Zi-O are all built on this trope.
• Battle Aura: As Oma Zi-O, Sougo gains a dual-colored black and gold one after he transforms and during his finisher.
• Bling of War: Each new form of Zi-O gains an increasingly flashy amount of bling.
• Boring, but Practical: Zi-O Trinity lacks the Combat Clairvoyance of Zi-O II, the monstrous speed of Geiz Revive, or various special abilities of Woz's Miridewatches and the Rider Armors, trading it all for a substantial increase in brute strength and access to their various weapons. And it has the secret bonus of being able to hurt Oma Zi-O, as it never existed in his own timeline.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S":
  • Zi-O's default visor is "Rider" in katakana, which changes to what Rider Armor he's currently using. Takes it even further when he uses the OOOArmor, where the katakana of the animals that make up Tatoba Combo replace the images.
  • The Zikan Gilade gets in on this too, where the side of the weapon's current form has the katakana for either "sword" or "gun"
    • The Saikyo Zikan Gilade takes this theme even further by adding Zi-O's own face onto the sword and the Best Face mode spells out the katakana for "Zi-O Saikyo (Strongest)" all across Zi-O's visor.
• Canon Welding: Oma Form's summoning abilities are essentially Grand Zi-O's with this on top of them. While Grand Zi-O can summon the riders from any point in time, Oma Form can summon any rider from any form of Kamen Rider continuity, such as web series, manga adaptations, and even stage shows.
• Chekhov's Gag: One of Trinity Form's more humorous side-effects is to forcefully transport Woz and Geiz to Zi-O to transform, willingly or not. This gets weaponized by Sougo in #46 to transport himself and Eternal into the Another World where Geiz and Woz are trapped in to destroy it and set everyone free.
• Chrome Champion: To contrast with his future counterpart, the current Zi-O is accented with shining silver.
• Combat Clairvoyance: Zi-O II gives Sougo the ability to see his opponent's future moves, via the Precedence Blades atop his helmet. The ability isn't an instant-win button on its own, though, as an opponent whose reflexes are too fast can react to Sougo's predictions, while other foes are simply too strong. In both cases, while the clairvoyance helps, Sougo also needs to outwit his opponents the old-fashioned way.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Another black-colored Rider, but Sougo is deadset on ensuring that this trope is in effect. When told that he'll become a Demon King, he resolves to become "the greatest, kindest Demon King ever!" This is even true in the final episode when Sougo becomes Oma Zi-O but proves to be as benevolent as before.
• Depower: As a result of the Ridewatches breaking in #47, the Grand Zi-O Ridewatch disappears.
• Dual Wielding: As GrandZi-O, Sougo can summon multiple weapons of past Riders.
• Finishing Move:
  • Time Break: A series of magenta-colored characters that spell out "Kick" circle around Zi-O's opponent, and when he jumps up, they land on his right foot as he lands a jump kick.
  • Vortex Time Break: In BuildArmor, Zi-O creates a white energy chart similar to Kamen Rider Build's RabbitTank's Vortex Finish, but instead of a kick, Zi-O slides down on the graph and attacks with the Drill Crusher Crusher.
  • Critical Time Break: In Ex-AidArmor, Zi-O sends the prelude flying up into the air, before smashing the ground to send the enemy flying. Then, he lands a diving punch at the enemy with the prelude's words acting as a guide.
  • Limit Time Break: In FourzeArmor, Zi-O transforms into a rocket-like state to fly himself and the enemy into the Earth's upper atmosphere before delivering a corkscrew kick with his lower half covered in magenta energy. This is referred to as the Space Rocket Tailspin Kick. Alternatively, he can skip the "space" step and just perform a corkscrew kick, known as the Rocket Tailspin Kick.
  • Scanning Time Break: In OOOArmor, Zi-O jumps into the air, with three giant core medals following in front of him. Then, Zi-O delivers a rider kick, hitting each of the core medals along the way, until they merge into the TaToBa symbol (albeit in kanji formatting) as they connect with the enemy.
  • Giga Scan Time Break: When piloting the Time Mazin in TaJaDol mode, the mecha performs a copy of the Prominence Drop.
  • Squash Time Break: In GaimArmor, Zi-O charges the Daidaimaru Zs with energy before unleashing a powerful slash on the target that traps them in a badly drawn orange sphere. Alternatively, he can slash at his opponents, and break them into pieces.
  • Final Attack Time Break: In DecadeArmor, Zi-O performs the finishing move of whatever RideWatch is plugged into the third slot:
    • Build: Performs a copy of the RabbitTank Sparking's Rider Kick (the funnel version that Sento used in the form's debut fight).
    • OOO: Zi-O flies into the air and performs a Flaming Flying Drop Kick on the target, similar to OOO Tajador Combo's Prominence Drop.
    • Ryuki: Zi-O performs a flying kick engulfed in flames, similar to Ryuki's Dragonrider Kick Final Vent.
    • Saber: Zi-O coats the Ride Heisaber in flames and slashes the opponent, similar to Saber’s Flame Cross Slash.
  • Maximum Time Break: In WArmor, the Rider Armor assumes their Memory Droid forms representing Double's halves, with all three converging on the target in a rider kick similar to the Triple Extreme.
  • Twice Time Break: In Zi-O II form, Zi-O coated his left fist with pink energy before delivering a straight punch to his enemy. Alternatively, he can perform an enhanced version of his base Time Break kick.
  • Trinity Time Break Burst Explosion: In Zi-O Trinity form, a green energy cube and a series of magenta "Kick" characters appear and circle the enemy. Zi-O Trinity then leaps into the air as a series of yellow "Kick" characters line up with his foot, and the magenta characters merge into one imprint. His kick then sends the enemy flying into the energy cube which then turns into a timer that detonates the instant it hits zero.
  • All Twenty Time Break: In Grand Zi-O form, he summons as many of the main Heisei Riders and has them perform their final attacks on the opponent. He could opt to freeze them temporarily to deal some strikes to the enemy beforehand. Alternatively, he can just summon all of the main Heisei Riders and perform a combined Rider Kick.
  • Oma Zi-O Hissatsu-Geki^note Lit. Calamity Time King Deadly Strike: In Oma Zi-O form, Zi-O channels energy and then jumps high to perform a Rider Kick, while a series of black-colored "Kick" characters appear and circle the enemy. The Apocalypse of Kingdom moves into a V-shape when Zi-O performs the attack.
  • Giri Giri Slash: By placing a Ridewatch in his Zikan Girade in Ken Mode, he can channel its power into a Rider Slash. When in Zi-O II form, and wielding the Saikyo Zikan Girade (in Best Face mode), Zi-O coats the blade with yellow energy, before raising the weapon, extending the energy blade with a line of pink characters spelling Zi-O Saikyou forming along it, and strikes down the enemy with a downward slash. This is the ''King Giri Giri Slash".
  • Zure Zure Shooting: By placing a Ridewatch in his Zikan Girade in Zyu Mode, he can channel its power into a Rider Shooting.
  • Ultimate Time Break: After plugging the Decade Ridewatch into the Heisaber, and selecting all 19 of the previous 19 Heisei Riders symbols with the Hand Selector, Zi-O creates several cards-like projections, before delivering several Rainbow-energy coated slashes to the enemy. When in Decade-Ex-Aid Armor, the strike is delayed for a bit before taking effect, reminiscent of Ex-Aid's Hyper Muteki finisher Hyper Critical Sparking. When the Ryuki Ridewatch is plugged in, Zi-O coats the blade in an orange flaming vortex before launching it at the enemy.
• For Doom the Bell Tolls: Fitting his clock motif and the sheer power he has in that form, his transformation into Oma Zi-O using the Oma Zi-O Driver is punctuated by the sound of a bell.
• Fusion Dance:
  • DecadeArmor's Final Form Time combines DecadeArmor with the body of Legend Rider's Mid-Season Upgrade form.
  • Zi-O Trinity can combine the powers of Zi-O, Geiz and Woz along with their respective weapons but also fuse the minds of the three riders sharing in one body.
  • The novel later has a unique Ridewatch for him to use that combines the powers of Zi-O, Geiz and Tsukuyomi alongside fusing the mind of the three riders in one body.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: Played with a sinister bent. As Sougo progresses through his increasingly powerful forms, the silver on his costume is steadily overtaken by gold until it becomes the suit's primary color outright. One glance at his future self's attire and it should become clear why this is a worrisome direction for his color palette to be taking. #49 demonstrates just how powerful Sougo can be while in his Oma Zi-O mindset, however brief his stay as Oma Zi-O was.
• Good Counterpart: Sougo's Super Mode Grand Zi-O is this to his future self's Oma Zi-O form. They are both the result of Sougo gaining the powers of all the main Riders of the Heisei era, have a regal design, and have gold as the primary color of the form. Subverted as Grand Zi-O is less a good counterpart and more a vastly incomplete version of Oma Zi-O as it only has the powers of the main 20. This is also played straight with Sougo's Oma Form, possessing the Oma Zi-O Ridewatch from his future self that gives him the powers of Oma Zi-O that don't corrupt him.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Despite inheriting the powers of other Riders, he doesn't really know much about them or how they fight, at best being able to briefly see them in action when traveling back in time. This often leads to situations like flubbing Build's catchphrase or performing Fourze's Rider Rocket Drill Kick... By transforming into a rocket and corkscrewing through space feet-first into his opponent.
• Humongous Mecha: Zi-O has a Time Mazine (originally Tsukuyomi's) to use for time traveling to the past, and battling against the Time Jacker's own Time Mazines. Additionally, the Time Mazine can also utilize a few of the Ridewatches powers when Zi-O plugs them into his Ziku Driver (for example: when using the OOO Ridewatch, the Time Mazine inherits OOO's Tora claws).
• Imperfect Ritual: Grand Zi-O was formed without the Drive Ridewatch from Sougo's timeline which led to Oma Zi-O taking control of Drive's powers in their duel since the one Geiz stole is still technically his. Once obtained, this is subverted as Sougo remains Grand Zi-O for the remainder of the show after the movie. But in the finale it is revealed to be a double subversion, as Oma Zi-O is NOT the unification of the powers of all 20 primary riders, but the unification of the powers of EVERY Kamen Rider, making Grand Zi-O not just an incomplete version of the form but only unified a small fraction of the potential powers.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite the best efforts of Geiz and Tsukuyomi, Sougo ends up using Oma Zi-O's Ziku-Driver. Granted, since being Oma Zi-O is his own Godzilla Threshold.
• Logical Weakness:
  • Zi-O II's Combat Clairvoyance is an extremely deadly ability, but seeing the future is useless if the opponent has the exact same power thereby negating it (e.g. Another Zi-O), if the opponent is moving so fast that he can't react (e.g. Geiz Revive), or if the opponent is so powerful they blow right through his guard (also Geiz Revive). As Sougo acquires more combat experience, he mitigates the latter two weaknesses by developing ways to dodge and parry damaging blows until he gets a chance to counter, allowing him to handle speedsters as shown with his fight with Punch Hopper.
  • Zi-O Trinity's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. While the form is very powerful due to fusing Zi-O, Geiz, and Woz into one, allowing them to steamroll pretty much everyone else if they ever face someone stronger than them, like Kamen Rider Ginga, it becomes nearly impossible to fight intelligently because Sougo, Geiz, and Woz are bickering over what to do.
  • Grand Zi-O might have the power of all 20 main Heisei Riders but Sougo needs to touch their respective relief to use their powers. Thus if he's outnumbered he can't use their powers as shown when Another Zi-O II and Another Decade can summon their respective never dying Another Riders and Another World Dark Riders to overwhelm him. Also, Sougo can only use the maximum strength of the Riders in their canon thus if they face enemies stronger than them like how Another Decade's Another World Dark Riders are, they will inevitably be destroyed and Sougo overwhelmed as well.
• Midseason Upgrade: He gets two, the Decade Ridewatch and Zi-O II. Decade provides an interesting spin since it gives him access to the other Heisei Riders' Midseason Upgrades like Build RabbitTank Sparkling or OOO Tajador Combo; for Riders without mid-season forms, he instead assumes their final forms, such as Ryuki Survive.
• Power Copying: By placing a Ridewatch in the left spot on the Ziku Driver, Zi-O can access the Rider Armor, and gain the abilities of his predecessors. These include:
  • BuildArmor: Gains access to the Drill Crusher Crusher, Build's own Drill Crusher turned into a Blade Below the Shoulder. Thanks to the FullBottle Shoulders, Zi-O has access to the Rabbit and Tank powers. When combined with a Time Mazine, it gains a giant version of the Drill Crusher Crusher.
  • Ex-AidArmor: Gains access to the Gashacon Breaker Breakers, pile driver variants of Ex-Aid's Gashacon Breaker (in Hammer mode). He can also jump higher, and create energy blocks for platforming purposes. When combined with a Time Mazine, it gains access to giant versions of the Gashacon Breaker Breakers.
  • FourzeArmor: Gains access to Fourze's powers, wields two Booster Modules on his arms and can transform into a rocket himself.
  • OOOArmor: Gains access to the TaToBa powers such as enhanced sense of direction, the Tiger Claw Z, and enhanced jumping. When combined with a Time Mazine, it gains access to the Tora Claws.
  • GaimArmor: Gains six copies of the Daidaimaru Z (two he can wield in his hands, two he can wield with two extra arms on his back, and two more on the sides of his shins), and his Lockseed Shoulders can open crack portals.
  • GhostArmor: Gains the abilities of Kamen Rider Ghost, such as invisibility, and intangibility, and is capable of levitation at will. He can also summon Parka Ghosts as reinforcements through the Eyecon Shoulders. This armor is primarily used by Geiz.
  • DecadeArmor: Gains a third slot on his Ziku Driver, allowing him to insert another Ridewatch and upgrade their form into a stronger one that Rider possesses, generally their first Midseason Upgrade (for example, Mighty Brothers for Ex-Aid and RabbitTank Sparkling for Build), though not always, as Ghost's Grateful Damashii and even Ryuki Survive is also summonable. This form wields the Ride HeiSaber. Some of the Decade forms include:
    • Build Form: Gains access to RabbitTank Sparking base powers, and wields the original Armor's Drill Crusher Crusher.
    • Ghost Form: Gains access to the Grateful Damashii powers such as summoning Parka Ghosts.
    • Ex-Aid Form: Gains access to the Mighty Brothers XX powers, which includes splitting himself into two copies, one orange and one blue.
    • OOO Form: Gains the TaJaDol combo's abilities, such as enhancing his attacks with flame.
    • Ryuki Form: Gains the Ryuki Survive form's abilities, and inherits the Dragvisor-Zwei in Sword Vent mode as a secondary weapon.
  • WArmor: Gains W's aerokinesis, and hand-to-hand fighting styles. Additionally, the Gaia Memory Shoulders can detach from his body to become the humanoid Memory Droids.
  • KuugaArmor: Gain's Kuuga's hand-to-hand combat skills, similar to the Mighty Form.
  • Zi-O II: By accepting his darker impulses and essentially copying himself, Sougo gains the power to manipulate time as he wishes.
  • Zi-O Trinity: Gains the powers of Geiz, Woz, and himself in this form with the ability to summon any weapon tied to the main forms of said Riders and to use the full force of said weapons without initiating a finisher.
  • Grand Zi-O: Gains the powers of all 20 main Heisei Kamen Riders. By tapping a statue once, he can create a time portal to summon that specific Rider from their timeline. Tapping it twice summons their weapon. Tapping his own statue can make all the Riders he summoned freeze in time, regardless of whether they're in midair or not.
  • Zi-O Oma Form: Gains the power of Oma Zi-O. His summoning abilities are enhanced, allowing him to summon the main Riders in their special forms exclusive to movies and web episodes.
  • Oma Zi-O: Combines the powers of every Heisei Rider, primary or not, into a single body. This allows him to not only summon the Riders in a similar fashion to Grand Zi-O but also manifest their abilities himself without the need to summon them.
• Power Echoes: The Oma Zi-O Driver has a noticeable echo as Sougo transforms into Oma Zi-O.
• Power Fist: A running trend, as several of his Rider Armors (most prominently Build and Ex-Aid) change the original Riders' personal weapons from handheld into arm-mounted punching weapons.
• Powers via Possession: By tapping one of the rider statues Grand Zi-O can summon a transparent version of the previous main riders then this transparent rider overlays Sougo to gain that rider's powers. He first showed this ability in #41 to gain Agito's power to defeat the Another AgitΩ summoned by Hiryu.
• Reality Warper: As Oma Zi-O, he's can destroy and remake space and time to his whims as he shows in the last episode when he destroys his world and remake the Kamen Rider multiverse to undo the damage that Swartz did while changing reality so Geiz, Tsukuyomi, Heure and Ora are now from his era as his friends while also losing his powers as Oma Zi-O.
• Star Power: Regulus, the constellation that shines to signify the Day of Oma, is used to form Zi-O Trinity.
• Story-Breaker Power: Sougo's brief time as Oma Zi-O shows exactly why every other character is so terrified by him as he completely destroys the Another Riders, monsters, and Swartz in no time at all.
• Summon Magic: As GrandZi-O, Zi-O can summon any of the past 20 main Riders in any of their forms by tapping their statue on his armor and opening portals in time to replay their actions to attack, such as Build's kick against the Strong Smash, Kuuga's kick against Zu-Zain-Da/Rhinoceros Gurongi, OOO's kick against the Neko Yummy complete with the broken pillars, and Gaim's finisher first used against the Byakko Inves.
• Super Mode: Kamen Rider GrandZi-O, his final form accessed with the GrandZi-O Ridewatch. It wields the power of all 20 Heisei Kamen Riders. He contains statues of all of the Heisei Kamen Riders adorned on his body with Zi-O's making a crown. He can summon any version of all 20 primary riders by tapping the corresponding statue.His extra final forms, Oma Form gives him powers of Oma Zi-O and then there's the actual Oma Zi-O he becomes ..
• Temporal Paradox: Trinity and Grand are two forms that do not exist in Oma Zi-O's timeline. Even if Sougo were to ultimately follow his future self's path, the timeline has been fundamentally altered.
• Time Master: While the clock element of Zi-O's powers is initially mostly symbolic, he gains increasing power over time with each progressive form.
• Time Rewind Mechanic: The Zi-O II Ridewatch is one. Sougo was able to rewind time and prevent both Geiz and Tsukuyomi's deaths on separate occasions with Zi-O II's power. In the case of Geiz, he didn't even need to transform, just using the Ridewatch normally.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Compared to his future self, Sougo is shown to possess much less control over his time-manipulating powers, which sometimes suffer from Power Incontinence as a result. By the end of the show, he's essentially conquered this flaw
• Villain Killer: When he becomes Oma Zi-O, he instantly kills some of the most powerful Big Bad and/or Final Boss characters in less than a minute, with Swartz/Another Decade barely taking that much more effort.
• World's Strongest Man: As Oma Zi-O, he combines the powers of every single Kamen Rider into one body, making him strong enough to slaughter an entire army of monsters within seconds, defeat previous final bosses with a single blow each and remake the entire Kamen Rider multiverse to suit his whims.