#i fucking love yusuke. like. LOVE HIMMMM

[martritzvonmercie]

AU where Yusuke stays with the Sakura family?

OMG STARS MY FRIEND STARS THANK YOU FOR THIS ASK BECAUSE i feel like everyone else just forgot about the time that yusuke just almost ended up moving in with akira BUT I WILL REMEMBER IT FOREVER BC PERSONALLY I SCREAMED CRIED FREW UP OVER IT anyways squishy rant incoming so. (also sorry in advance i kinda got off topic and psychoanalyzed him. sorry)

(also MAIN SCENE I AM REFERENCING HERE i kinda forgor the exact dialogue and had to spend forever looking for it so here's the link for anyone else who also wants to see)

ok so i wanna preface this by saying that sojiro had no way of knowing the exact details of yusuke's personal trauma and situation at the time of the scene i am referecing, and none of his situation is sojiro's fault or responsibility. i say none of this with the intention of blaming.

but man do i wish he had insisted more when yusuke rejected his offer bc. URHGURHUGRUGHUGHHH

i wish sojiro could have seen yusuke in that moment. i wish he could have realized that maybe he isn't as fine as he seems to always insist he is. i wish he looked at him and saw a teenage boy that needs to be taken care of and have a real home just like any other teenager his age.

generally speaking, i think yusuke has this habit of isolating himself from others and having an "i'll be fine, i'll figure it out" attitude when he is, in actuality, extremely lonely and not actually as fine as he says he is at all. and the problem is that everyone else around him kinda shrugs it off as "well, that's yusuke for you" instead of treating it like an actual problem. and this scene is a PRIME EXAMPLE OF THAT (although once again i truly think sojiro didn't really know better at this time)

people look at yusuke who can't even accept someone's time without apologizing for being a burden, yusuke who doesn't have a reliable source of money or the ability to budget responsibly when he can access some (which!!! btw!!!! makes total sense bc once again he is a teenager, and a lot of teenagers cannot do that!!!!!!), yusuke who regularly ends up starving himself, yusuke who's admitted that nobody has ever so much as cared enough to listen to his feelings, yusuke who's lost so much and who's been abandoned and neglected and who's never had a safe place to call home (gonna come back to this) and they go. "oh he's fine that's just yusuke for you!"

and it's like. he is a LITERAL teenager. he has the phantom thieves, and yes, that helps, but he needs someone to specifically be there for him, and while all of the other phantom thieves have at least one (good) parent or guardian or best friend, yusuke doesn't have that at all.

AND SOJIRO HAD THE CHANCE TO FIX THAT ALL WITH ONE SCENE BUT MY HOPES AND DREAMS WERE TORN UP RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY EYES

to be clear, i think yusuke rejecting sojiro's offer was very in-character for him. the reason he cited checks out for him, but i also think there's more going on there. i think... yusuke's never really had much. abandonment and neglect aren't new feelings for him, and anything he's ever had has been ripped away from him. it makes me think he'd have complicated feelings about putting himself in a situation where he'd get too comfortable out of fear that he'd once again just lose it bc that's all he knows. i don't think he really is used to having a space he considers safe, either. i'm reblogging another post that talks about this that i think is really good SO IF YOU TOOK THE TIME TO READ THIS ALSO READ THAT

i understand his hesitance, but i also just wish sojiro had insisted. bc i am NOW GETTING TO THE ACTUAL POINT

i think sojiro could have taken such good care of yusuke and been such a positive influence on him. first of all, just him having access to shelter that actually feels like home and food is something he needs so desperately. this is something that sojiro would definitely be able and willing to provide. and additionally, i think sojiro's somewhat strict no-nonsense attitude could be a really good influence on him with of some of his reckless behaviors that need to be reeled in a bit.

yusuke and futaba are also already basically siblings and their dynamic might just be my favorite in the game. they are SO silly and their autism-to-autism communication is just perfect!!!!!!! they always fight as if they're siblings, and it's in such a way that you can tell that despite their constant arguments, they also love each other very much and they'd both be totally down to beat someone up for the other.

and finally, akira and yusuke is a dynamic that i would have loved to see developed much better, and this would have been the perfect opening for it. bc it feels like... even by the end of yusuke's confidant and by the end of the game, akira never quite gets him. there's a lot of times when speaking to yusuke where i didn't like any of the dialogue options and i've felt like akira is still treating him standoffisjh. i would have liked them to become closer and have less of a "yeah okay whatever you say weird boy" attitude coming from akira when it comes to him. and i think being around him all the time and including him in the family dynamic would have given us this chance

in my heart. sojiro adopted yusuke that day. and it was wonderful. bc i love yusuke to pieces and it's what he deserves. thanks for coming to my ted talk