#p4 is eveyone is actually freinds with each other

[rose-void-789]

There was something really bothersome about Ryuji's dynamic with the Phantom thieves and how they all treat him that I think I finally figured out. (This one's really long sorry about that)

So Persona 4 and 3 both have the main character's first friend be this lovable dumbass everyone picks on (Youske and Junpie respectfully) Ryuji is supposedly the same. He has the best friend dynamic he bikers with Ann and she bickers back. Just like Yosuke and Chie or Junpei and Yukari. Except Ann and Ryuji's dynamic is a lot less in your face. It's there from time to time in certain scenes but it's Ryuji and Morgana who are the bickering pair. And this is where the major problem lies.

In the beginning, it's actually not that big of a deal. Ryuji, Morgana, Akiren, and Ann those four teases and play off each other but it's all reciprocated. Ann bickers with Ryuji, Ryuji bickers back, Morgan bickers with Ryuji, and he bickers back. Morgan flirts with Anna she laughs and ignores him but she's still friendly with him. Then Yusuke joins and he easily fits into this group of lovable dumbasses. Makoto being the smartest character is where this starts falling apart. She's the mom friend but the thing about her being portrayed as the mom friend is that it doesn't work when the only person she truly is always after is Ryuji. This is weird considering Ann is only slightly better with her grades than Ryuji. Of course, the game doesn't acknowledge that because Morgana is always simping after her.

But that's when the group really starts to feel cracks of disconnection. Makoto isn't teased back in any way. Morgana doesn't when he's feeling insecure, and neither does Ryuji do so after she joins. Then Futaba joins and while Ryuji does say a comment here and there about her being a hermit so does everyone else, yet she also picks on the teasing and turns it on solely Ryuji. Yet the game distracts from this one-sidedness that's slowly being formed by increasing the bickering between Morgana and him.

That distraction right there is what fundamentally makes this worse than the bickering of the last game. See Junpei and Yosuke always teased the new members of the team and they were teased back the same or were shut down. Furthermore, Junpei and Youske's teasing of their respective bickering buddies was played for comedy and in P3's case serves as one of the best Junpei moments. But that's the thing they sort of deserved the teasing back, Ryuji from Makoto forward is more or less just teased relentlessly without him really initiating anything. Actually in the dynamic that Junpei and Yosuke occupied Morgana fills in better than Ryuji does. He does tease everyone in one way or another and for it is always reminded of his kitty status. Ryuji is a lot more like Kanji in this friend group constantly being bullied by one character unprompted sometimes. The problem is no one really stops Mona and instead joins in and, unlike Kanji, never changes what Ryuji is being teased about.