I know I’m overly optimistic, but I believe that everyone can change if they have the drive and resources to do so.
He was a traumatized and flawed human being just like the protagonists, but unlike them, he never had an opportunity to grow. Not some special evil gene that made him incapable of humanity. That’s the difference between him and our protagonists. Because Riko was born a Moriyama, he never had an escape or a second chance, and his life was never going to end in anything but a bullet to the head when he became a nuisance. He never had someone who believed in him, which is what made all the difference in the lives of the Foxes. Riko never had a Wymack (an “Uncle Iroh” so to speak). And the great tragedy of Riko, and what makes him such a compelling character to me, is that all of that cruelty he used as a shield and a plea couldn’t protect him or garner him love in the end. But because his family are cruel mob bosses, the only means to gaining love he sees are through enacting that same cruelty.
Not to say Andrew’s actions are on par with Riko’s, or to discount all the work Andrew did to grow, but there is hypocrisy there.įolks will designate Riko as evil from birth rather than circumstance, saying a lot of shit that sounds very “mentally ill people are inhuman monsters” and “sinners can never be forgiven and will burn in hell for eternity.” This whole idea of “good person vs bad person” instead of “good actions vs bad actions” is just unhelpfully reductive.Īlso, the very force driving Riko is the desire of a traumatized kid to be loved by his family. There is a meaning to Andrew’s cruelty as well, and fandom is totally fine with you sympathizing with that meaning and still loving Andrew despite his violence… but that same fandom will discourage you from having any sympathy for Riko’s meaning and treat him as some special case of Inexcusable. When he abuses people, it’s an attempt to keep his delicate social standing and illusion of power–which is all he has–by discouraging his peers from acting against him. Riko isn’t a sadist for just for the fuck of it. He holds a terrifying level of power over the protagonists, which masks how little power he has over his own life. Riko is a villain, but he’s also an abuse victim whose only outlet is abusing others (and he is encouraged to do so by his environment). BUT! There’s this weird puritanical pathologizing of Riko and Riko fans that our protagonists don’t receive, which I think points to modern fandom’s whole “evangelical conservative beliefs with a gay coat of paint” thing. He’s literally there specifically for you to hate, so if you hate him, he’s fulfilled his narrative purpose. Calling it The Azula Effect cuz it’s just like how a lot of Zuko fans treated Azula. I find the treatment of Riko by the fandom fascinating. Okay okay jumping off this great post from about Nicky hate to also talk about my Riko thoughts.
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