#which leans into ryuji doing delinquent speak which

[obstinaterixatrix]

I was talking to pita about the good old foxskull days and I gotta say. I hate atlus. apparently there was a mass exodus of jp yusuke fans after royal because some of yusuke’s stuff was given to sumire AND there was more emphasis on comedy relief AND the 3rd semester dream palace whatever did some weird characterization stuff (though it could be kind of explained away by the teacher’s misinterpretation of yusuke) AND apparently with the retranslation of p5 yusuke’s voice (diction not va) is different. I hate atlus and its 50 billion iterations of the same character, the goddamn base game vs manga vs anime (especially egregious) vs royal bullshit pisses me off so much

[mana2348]

Ok so like, hear me out for a sec, or don’t that’s fine too. 

Persona 5 was a good game, fun game play, good plot, a few twists here and there. But here’s something that bugged me, Ryuji’s social link. 

Overall it’s an ok social link, all buddy buddy with him helping the track team and he and the protagonist becoming super bff’s. But it felt really lack luster compared to the rest of the routes, almost kinda like the generic best friend route, where the best friend overcomes his personal issues and accepts himself for himself. 

Which is fine, except when he spouts a certain line near the end of the game, (Spoilers, from here on out) 

“It’s not like anyone expects much out of me.” 

And that literally ruined his development for me. Ryuji -after everything he’s been though- still has problems  he doesn’t address, he doesn’t speak out about how he feels, or what’s really bothering him. 

For example, Kamo-shit-a broke Ryuji’s leg, got his track coach fired, and made him an outcast among his peers. 

Something that bothered me was that no one ever brought up that Ryuji’s leg was broken, they just said that he either left the track team or assaulted a teacher. He still walks with a slight limp, and his leg still hurts him at certain points, (which may be why he’s sometimes seen leaning on furniture or bending his knees) so did he even receive actual medial treatment for his leg? Because every friend that I’ve had that broke their leg’s don’t walk with a limp. So to speak, Ryuji joined the track team to try an earn a scholarship to help his mother, joined a club that he loved, Kamo-shit-a rears his ugly mug and starts threatening them, it goes too far and Ryuji attacks him and in response Kamo-shit-a breaks his leg on purpose, get’s their coach fired and disbands the track club, Ryuji then has to deal with the his former team blaming him for the disbandment of their club, and thus quickly gains a reputation for being a delinquent thus isolating him for everyone in the school. But what gets me is that no one brings up how he was also injured, how he couldn’t run anymore, and no one cared enough to make sure he was ok when he would’ve been going through a whirlwind of emotions. 

And then, when Akira comes, when he gains a persona he now has a chance to fight back against his abuser and make him confess his crimes. Ann comes and basically makes Kamo-shit-a her boss to deal with. Let me be clear here, I have no problem with Ann’s part in this, she’s amazing and I love her, but what I’m getting at here is that with her now in the picture all focus is taken away from Ryuji’s revenge. And what makes it worse is that during Kamo-shit-a’s confession scene he only openly speaks about what he did to the volleyball team mainly. Nothing about the track team and destroying them, nothing about actually breaking the bones of a student, it just end with people going up to Ann and apologizing about the rumors that have been said about her. The only person who acknowledges Ryuji is Mishima, and it takes a social link starting and going through to take someone else even thinking about apologizing for their actions involving him.

But Ryuji doesn’t complain at all, instead, the most we get out of this boy is that all he wants is to gain popularity for the Phantom Thieves, out of everyone (besides Morgana) he’s the one that wants attention, he’s the one that wants everyone the know about them. Why? Because no one paid attention to him when he needed it the most. No one cared enough about him to actually defend him, but now in this new persona, he gets attention. He’s happy when the Phantom Thieves rise in popularity because in that persona he’s accepted, which is all he really wanted, just to be accepted by his peers. 

But throughout the game he gets reduced to comic relief and is used as a scapegoat when it comes to Morgana leaving because he was “Insensitive” yet no one call out Morgana when it comes to ragging on Ryuji. He get’s harassed by men and left alone because probable kidnapping/assault is funny when it comes to men. And he’s even left on the street after almost dying because he made his teammates mad. No one’s visually glad to see he’s okay, no one asks if he has any wounds, they just leave him behind because it’s funny (not like he saved their lives or anything amirite?

But, ignoring all of this, this game didn’t do justice to Ryuji’s character because there’s no one who acknowledges what Ryuji went through, and it’s almost as if his past, and his pain is not relevant in comparison with the others. You see almost all of the team talking about their past experiences with their abusers and trauma’s yet Ryuji doesn’t ever speak up about his own. And what’s sad is that Ryuji does try his best, he does try to make an effort in school but doesn’t see a point when he always fails. He still feels ashamed about his mother having to deal with a “delinquent son”. 

 His social Link shouldn’t have just been about him moving on from the track team, it should’ve been about him learning that what happened to him wasn’t his fault. He was a victim, and what happened to his coach and his team was on Kamo-shit-a’s head. What they should’ve done was to let him see his old Coach again, to have someone whom he respected give him the apology that he so desperately deserves, because he’s a damn kid. He’s a kid who had a world a pain on his shoulders and had to go through it alone, and even now, he still does because he thinks so little of himself, because there was no one to tell him that it was going to be okay, and that fact will probably never change. 

[set--suna]

Not All Bad

Support! Ryuji! Sakamoto! -- Ryuji was pouting as the Phantom Thieves made their way through Mementos. He had had a particularly bad day. His classmates seemed to pick on him more than usual. The teachers still ignored it and him altogether. And his mom was stuck at work and wouldn't be home in time for dinner, which left him all by himself. Ryuji wasn't about to let his friends know about all that, though. They didn't need to carry the pain of his life. He could handle it all by himself. His hands dashed for the bottom of his seat as Morgana ran over a Shadow in his car form. The bump was significantly less painful than when you didn't hold on. He watched as Akira, Haru, Yusuke, and Ann jumped into battle. Ryuji sighed, he wanted to fight. He wanted to get his mind off of his bad day. "Skull, what's with the sour expression?" Makoto leaned across the seat back to get his attention. "You've looked down ever since we got here." Ryuji frowned at the fact that he sucked at hiding his feelings. Also that Makoto had acknowledged his mood. He sighed and waved a hand at her. "It's nothin'. Just a bad day." "How bad?" Makoto asked softly. How come she could see right through him? In truth, kids in his class had made fun of him and Akira. Pretty bad. They joked about them being a couple. How delinquents went together. One even bothered to say how'd they go to jail together. Ryuji didn't want to say all this to Makoto. Yet her gaze was hard and caring. Ryuji frowned. He looked down at his gloves to avoid her eyes. Makoto reached out to place a hand on his shoulder. Ryuji didn't lift his chin, but made himself look at her. "You can tell me -- well, us. Mona, care to keep this private?" Makoto took the cat car into consideration. "Go ahead, I won't tell," Morgana replied, care leaking into his voice. "I-It's just that..." Ryuji twiddled his fingers and Makoto's grip on his shoulder tightened encouragingly. He sighed and let himself relax, preparing to let it out. "The kids in my class were makin' fun of Joker and me. And it was... kind of brutal. All this delinquent shit still hasn't gone away." Makoto mirrored his frowned. She opened her mouth to speak but Ryuji cut her off by raising a hand and fumbling for words. "Y-You don't need to worry about it, though. I'm past all that. It doesn't bother me anymore. Just when they do it all day... it's tiring," Ryuji shrugs. He looks at Makoto to see her frown had softened into a small smile. She leaned back and crossed her arms across her abdomen. "I know, you are. Just let me worry about you a bit, Skull. It's unusual to see you like that." Ryuji smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess so, huh? Well, I think I'm out of that mood now. I'm ready for anything the world wants to throw at me." "That's good to hear," Makoto smiled, shutting her eyes. When the rest of the team returned to the car, they were hyped from their last battle. As Akira drove, they told Ryuji and Makoto about the whole thing. Ryuji was glad to add enthusiasm to Haru's skill in leading an all-out attack against the enemy. He was ready to join them on the front line and let Yusuke take a break. His body was light and any worries he had were gone. The past was behind him, all he needed was the present.