#the only difference is he bottles it up where Riko has no shut off valve and maybe even a shorter fuse

[wonkyjaw]

Okay but as horrid as Riko is… if he’d ever been met with an ounce of kindness he would have gotten a redemption arc. The whole point of the Foxes is that people deserve and should receive second, third, fourth, as many chances as they need. I mean, just look at Seth. In a story like that I think it’s a disservice to dismiss the fact that Riko deserved those chances too. He had all the privilege in the world so long as it stayed within his gilded cage. He was just as stuck as Neil and Kevin and Jean. That didn’t give him the right to do what he did, but he had his own abusers and his own neglect and Kevin was likely the only person in his life to ever even try to be nice to him and view him as a person and Kevin is Kevin (meaning if it was not exy, then it likely did not matter). I just think that if Riko was treated with kindness in the face of all his nastiness he might have found his way eventually.

I just see so much of Akito (Fruits Basket) in his character. He was told he was king, pressured to be the best or else, and ignored by the people he craved the attention and love of the most and beneath all that pressure he became cruel and reactive. The only real difference between Riko and Akito is Akito was given that unconditional acceptance and forgiveness (no matter how ‘undeserved’) and was forced to confront how wrong past actions had been. Akito got a redemption arc.

#aftg #fruits basket #this is something I’ve thought about a lot even if not a whole lot of actual writing is being done on my fic #thank you for coming to my Ted talk #and honestly he and Andrew are just two sides of the same coin as well #the only difference is that we get Neil’s unabashedly biased perspective #he likes Andrew and understands why Andrew is doing what he is #he’s protecting family #riko has no family to protect so he pushes all that violence into places that don’t deserve it #Andrew time and time again over reacts and uses excessive force to get what he wants and what HE thinks is best #the only difference is he bottles it up where Riko has no shut off valve and maybe even a shorter fuse #Neil believes in Andrew’s morality and it’s easier for the readers to accept #any other perspective and Andrew is a villian #Riko Moriyama