#but yknow. people trying to be 'woke' abt souda means they hate him for shit thats completely exaggerated in canon

[zeravmeta]

man ok since im fully back on my bullshit something that really gets my goat about people reducing souda to a cowardly simp is that he's actually so brave about interacting with the rest of the cast? By which i mean that in the first chapter of the game after trying to hide away because he's justifiably afraid that any of these people he's just met may murder him, we constantly see him in all following chapters try to not only interact with the cast at large but also be very proactive in trying to stop the killings. In ch2 he takes a stand against komaeda and post trial tries to save kuzuryuu despite everything he'd done, in ch3 he's at the forefront in their efforts to stop the despair disease, hell in ch4 it's his freakout about them waiting to simply die and refusal to accept it that actually drives both gundam and nidai to commit to their fight and free the rest, and in ch5 souda was inspired by both of them which is what makes him rally the group against komaeda. Even komaeda who doesn't actually see the ultimates as people but as "hope" actually does genuinely praise souda a few times throughout the game because even though he's kind of an idiot, souda is actually proactive about confronting the motives, something that komaeda criticizes hinata about multiple times through the game. EVEN in ch5 when komaeda was full on asshole, he calls out the rest of the ultimates for simply trying to ignore him and that they should listen to souda because he's actually trying to do something about their situation.

And all of this is from a character that we know is constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. Souda in his FTE's freely admits that he thinks the trust between people is fake and that he's basically waiting for when his friends will betray him, but at the same time he's a naturally trusting person, which is why he overhauled his own look. Souda thinks its better to be distrusted and keep others at arms length by keeping others thinking he's untrustworthy because it's his only defense against being betrayed, he'd rather be seen as an untrustworthy thug because he's afraid of connection and intimacy, which is why his final FTE (which canonically is story progression locked and can only be done in ch5 after they escape the funhouse and he suspected hinata may have been the traitor) he's completely honest and genuine with hinata about himself. Even though he was constantly afraid for his life, he was never truly vengeful against the murderers in each chapter and he openly mourns them just the same, including komaeda who had at multiple points been directly responsible for setting up events as they were.

Souda is honestly such a good character and to this day I dont get how people ignore all of it to make him a joke.