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No. 87482
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>>87461
>>87460
I think him being the figurehead is a humongous plot point. He's really the first "Flamenco" actualized into reality and from his debut do numerous other Flamencos come into being, both good and bad. His unshakeable moral compass and stubborn will form a good contrast to his naiveté and incompetence. Most of the cast are in some shape or form, superior to Masayoshi, but at the start of the story all of them have settled for the ordinary, and none of them have the sincere eagerness or drive that motivates him. They tell him that he's a joke and a fool, but they slowly come around once they realize that this normal guy really does want to be a hero and that he's absolutely serious about facing off against evildoers and righting wrongs. These people are presented with this spark of (seemingly) genuine heroism and each of them decides to nurture it in preference to cynically snuffing it out. Thus, Masayoshi grows and becomes stronger due to his interactions with them, steadily becoming more capable and mature. Adding to that, many of his greatest victories were achieved not solely through his efforts as he believed they would (as his dream in the first OP hinted), but through the aid of his comrades like Goto, the Flamengers, Kaname, Konno, and more. Even when his true role in the series is revealed, that doesn't change the fact that he galvanized a number of individuals into doing something extraordinary outside of the lives they had settled for.
Speaking of moral dilemmas concerning Masayoshi, everything leading up to this recent episode has been about that albeit shown in an unusual fashion. It ties into the age old question that everyone who fantasizes about being a superhero must face at some point; "Do you want to be a hero to beat people up and have awesome adventures or because you really want to do good?" Masayoshi, for all of his apparent morality is revealed to have held the previous conceit in higher regard for a good deal of the series. As the death toll, bedlam, and general absurdity rise, he slowly comes to the realization that more people are being harmed and helped; his preconceived notions as to how tokusatsu tropes should play are found wanting, even as he gets stronger and the world begins to resemble his beloved television serials with each passing escalation.
After a desperate struggle leaves him too exhausted to think, it is explained to him exactly why everything played out as it did: Hungry for justice, but too callow to know how to achieve it, he clung to the conceits of something he was all too familiar with, that of the superhero narrative. This in turn became the blueprint his miracle would build itself around and expand upon. His moral dilemma is more akin to moral dissonance; to whit, he is unable to reconcile his ideals and beliefs with the world around him. The bizarre turn things take spares him from, or at least delays, the harsh awakening he is ill-equipped for at that moment. As he and the viewers soon find out, this paradigm shift is not without cost.
Something to take note of, is that in an age of petty or outright malevolent cosmic forces, the Will of the Universe that Hazama meets is hardly judgmental and is almost affable as it explains the stakes. On his part, the man in question is mostly tranquil in this exchange and takes a lot of the outrageous answers to the questions that have plagued him for more than half of the show in stride. There is no agonizing over what occurred and what could have been, because that's not the point of this encounter.
Placed on neutral ground, the choice presented to Hazama is made to look innocuous despite its cosmic ramifications. Consequently, the decision becomes all the more genuine as the Will's tone indicates that neither option is preferable to the other, it is purely up to Samurai Flamenco's judgment. He ultimately chooses to cease the madness, much to entity's shock. The Will of the Universe warns him that it will mean an end to the circumstances that validated his unorthodox decisions and asks if this is the end to his heroic ambitions. Hazama replies that he will continue to try and be a hero, having been shown what that really means through interacting with his much more mature, if flawed, companions.
He could have had his way for over 6 trillion years, but instead realized that it would come at too great a cost for everyone else. The show finally reveals its hand; it was about him trying to find a compromise between his desire for justice and the rules of the reality he inhabited. Reality refused to yield to his mindset, and when it did, the alternative proved to be just as hazardously complicated if not more so. He just needed to grow up a little to prepare himself for that fateful ultimatum.
Something to think about that may be explored in the remaining episodes: Was the revelation of the "true" circumstances of his parents' death the catalyst or the first alteration of his wish?
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