#and obviously riko shares a lot with those three. the riko-itadori similarities in particular make me rabid but thats for another post

[bandtrees]

it started just as "me projecting on a character i happen to like" but i've grown increasingly fond of interpreting riko as transmasc (or really any form of trans who's unaware at this point in time). not in a "girl is rowdy? must really be Boy!" sense but rather in a "young trans person's life cut short on the cusp of grasping a better one for themself" sense

i just think there is something very transgender about riko, her (his for this post's sake) whole life convincing himself he's happy being treated as vaguely "special/different" and then. "Assimilated" - and i don't say this to deny riko's genuine feelings he shows about merging with tengen in the second episode, as i think they're more than just "what he tells himself to make himself feel better", but rather to express that while he's never questioned his lot in life, there's still more he's missing in ways of friends, community, and experiences, being only 14 after all, having his closest friend be his caregiver, having no strong feelings about the deaths of his family - and he only realizes this when he's granted all of that for only a few days.

being shown community and support by others and realizing, only when you have unconditional support and safety, there's more to life than assimilating and filling in the role you've been told you have to fill and have convinced yourself you want to fill. realizing you can be more. realizing you can make friends and have fun outside of the people you simply exist around. realizing you can thrive rather than just survive. realizing that the loneliness you feel needing to 'assimilate' isn't going to go away until you feel safe and loved enough to reject it entirely and start living the life you want to. yeah

i also just think (similarly to how i hc junpei as transfem) it's a tragic little show of "what could have been", for riko's life and all the opportunities and the person they could have been, regardless of gender, to be cut short.

tldr: i need to get off my ass and write the riko lives au where he transitions