Gorgom's Lack Of Standard Half-Brained Footsoldiers Examined

Watching Kamen Rider BLACK as a kid made me think of the darker side of life. My first exposure to a Kamen Rider villain group was Gorgom. Now, having gathered some knowledge about the older Showa era Kamen Riders - I feel the need to revisit one of the scariest groups. Yes, Gorgom. Gorgom seems to be a play on the word Gorgon. I tend to do some BLACK rewatching if I decide to miss some Kamen Rider villains and the typical screwed-up, convoluted plot that was done since the birth of Shocker (in the First Kamen Rider) and up to Gorgom. The Heisei era Kamen Rider series up to the present are usually more focused on villains doing a less typical scheme (such as how the Grongi in Kamen Rider Kuuga were all too focused on their blood games). 

How did Gorgom fare as a villain group? Gorgom had a very convoluted structure. It's like reimagining Shocker, albeit a darker version of Shocker. Though, the mysterious leader, the Creation King isn't heard until late in the series. For some reason, the Creation King merely sent messages that the audience couldb't understand BUT the three Gorgom priests could. Gorgom has members from across Japan from celebrities to politicians. 

What really made Gorgom somewhat weird was... where are the FOOTSOLDIERS? In the first episode - a group of Spider Mutants was easily defeated by BLACK. Why did the producers and crew not give Gorgom visible footsoldiers? Sure, they have members across the world but I felt the lack of footsoldiers was rather weird. Shocker had their Shocker troops that went "Eeeee!" a lot. We had all sorts of footsoldiers. Again, Gorgom's got so many human followers that I think they probably didn't need visible footsoldiers. They had politicians, they have many followers, and I guess even the three high priests wanted to be as secret as possible. They've got an army of mutants but why didn't they decide to send more Spider Mutants to do their dirty work? That' kinda boggles me no matter how BLACK is widely praised as a masterpiece. 

Seeing High Priest Baraom sitting next to General Jark in a Kamen Rider OOO crossover movie years later is something. I felt that it's weird (until now) why Gorgom never showed us they had half-brained footsoldiers serving three villains who came up with usually typical idiotic plans that keep the show going. I felt that Crisis Empire, as stupid as they are, probably had an advantage with having some visible footsoldiers. Why did the producers even deprive Gorgom of the privilege of having three idiotic (but scary) villains of having half-brained troops? I guess they wanted to keep an air of mystery and secrecy. An episode involving Rat Mutant shows how they still have an army of brainwashed human followers. Then again, maybe Gorgom is practically under a clothing budget that they just simply refuse to stitch uniforms for members of Gorgom serving as brute force. The design of the Gorgom priests are rather simplistic robes for a good portion. I guess those guys are somewhat miserly in the clothing department. As mutants, they're practically not wearing clothes either. 

Episode 38 featured the EP Party by Gorgom. It was founded by the Rat Mutant. I felt it was something when the Rat Mutant also had his own minions. I guess Gorgom felt they didn't need to stitch uniforms of their footsoldiers for that reason - they could summon duplicate mutants if they wanted to! One real nightmare fuel was when there were rat mutants in that episode. Effectively, they were Gorgom footsoldiers but why didn't Gorgom give them uniforms? I feel that's funny. Later episode, Gorgom seems to lack footsoldiers again - that's unless you count any lower-rank members stupid enough to join them!

Just rewatching BLACK RX after BLACK made me think this - was the Chaps and the Skull Demons actually and supposedly to be part of BLACK itself? I guess the producers wanted Gorgom to appear more mysterious by NOT having standard footsoldiers. Instead, Gorgom had an army of humans who did their bidding, they could hire gangsters, etc. to do their bidding. I guess the Gorgom priests figured out that it'd be less obvious if their low-tier human followers weren't given uniforms. My speculation is that maybe, just maybe, the battles in BLACK wanted to focus more on fighting the monster of the week than anything. 

Then came the 11-year hiatus after 1989. Kamen Rider had three movies such as the VERY ADULT Kamen Rider Shin, and the two short films Kamen Rider ZO and Kamen Rider J. I guess Yuuta Mochizuki will forever be associated with Geki more than his Kamen Rider movie character. Speaking of which, I wonder how Mochizuki is feeling after being a Kamen Rider and that Jason Laurence Geiger known by his screen name, Austin St. John, was allegedly involved in a scam. I even feel that Shunsuke Takasugi is hiding somewhere in America and masterminded that scam. If so, I guess Geiger might really face jail time if that's true. Hopefully, Takasugi if ever he's in hiding will finally face jail time for his multiple scam reports.

Later, we had Kamen Rider Kuuga. We would have another sinister organization without footsoldiers namely the Grongi. Instead, we have what starts off as a small group that slowly grows larger with more warriors involved. I guess Kuuga not having footsoldiers was trying to redo the Gorgom concept except in another way. The Grongi never had human followers as their aim was the extinction of humanity. The Grongi played blood games to bring the ultimate darkness. I think Grongi not having footsoldiers was also done on purpose so Kuuga's battles with the monsters can be more focused. It's also because the Grongi monster sent to do the game were to ACCOMPLISH IT THEMSELVES. I guess the plot of not having typical half-brained footsoldiers worked better for GRONGI than it did for Gorgom. I was pretty fine with Grongi not having footsoldiers at all in contrast to Gorgom. 

My personal opinion goes like this - BLACK in itself was a brave experiment. Just think that we have Shadow Moon as the first evil Kamen Rider. Bilgenia himself appeared as a menace but didn't last long in favor of Shadow Moon. I felt that Dasmader in BLACK RX could've been cooler but bad writing (such as making him Grand Lord Crisis' willing vessel) killed that potential. Years later, Bilgenia got an expy in the person of Takeshi Asakura/Kamen Rider Ouja in Kamen Rider Ryuki. Ouja appears to be a viciously evil Kamen Rider - he's basically Bilgenia with the Kingstone. I guess Gorgom should be viewed a daring direction. I still think of it as a more evil, cruel version of Shocker with a huge air of mystery. They move in the shadows so much that it's scary. I guess that's why they never had visible typical stupid footsoldiers - to give an air of mystery.