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dear-mrs-otome · 2 years

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Why Is He Like This - Silvio Ricci Edition - Part One

Let me preface this by saying I’m no expert on content, psychology, or translating. Just a gal behind a keyboard who spent a lot of her college life analyzing literature and nowadays enjoys picking apart otome boys to see if we can figure out what makes them tick.

That said, let’s begin this Silvio breakdown with the obvious part - the facts we know, some of which may be treading old ground but let’s lay them out again properly. And needless to say, this is going to be full of spoilers and conjecture, so READER BEWARE:

Silvio Ricci is the first/eldest prince of Benitoite, a seaside land based on strong ocean trade and a mercantile economy that values commerce above all else and is based on Italy (the particular region, if any, is perhaps up for debate). He has one full brother, the second prince Emidio, and one half-brother, the third prince Valerio (Rio).

He and Emidio share a mother, Adria, who was previously the queen and married to the king of Benitoite before her death. The king’s current wife and queen is Rio’s mother, who was his mistress prior to his first wife’s death. Adria was a wicked woman who was involved in the black market trading of illegal drugs, resented Rio and his mother intensely, and used both her own means and her own children to make Rio and Rio’s mother’s lives hellish. When her misdeeds were finally exposed by Rio she took her own life five years ago.

Random Benitoite fact: Apparently drinking is a big part of their culture as well, a prelude to most social events, and to refuse a drink offered by someone is considered an insult.

So, base facts aside, let’s look at his personality. Boy howdy. It’s by now quite obvious that this man isn’t winning any congeniality contests any time soon. Silvio is loud (both literally and figuratively), brash, rude, blunt, arrogant, domineering, and frankly a bit of a bully. Just about everything he says and does is calculated to draw a maximum amount of attention to himself and to make himself appear superior, from the flashy expensive clothes and the ostentatious jewelry he wears to the way he refuses to use a goddamned doorknob like a civilized person and instead kicks every door in, down to the way he uses dismissive and insulting language with just about everyone.

(Yes, this is our cue to put a bingo marker on the ‘Low Self-Esteem’ square - we'll get to that later.)

Rio in particular bears the brunt of this but Silvio’s vitriol isn’t reserved for him alone - Gilbert, Notko, Emidio in particular, and others have been on the receiving end of Silvio insults before, while most everyone gets a general level of rudeness in attitude as well. I will note, however, that outside of referring to her as ‘woman’ and ‘rabbit’ (which is a term a number of the suitors use for Emma) and the occasional rude way of saying ‘you’ to her…I have yet to see Silvio directly insult Emma. Which is like scraping the barest bottom of the barrel here I know but, let’s hold tight to that.

How do we balance this? Does this man have a single good trait to counteract this rap sheet of offenses? I have a feeling we’ll get better answers to this in his own route, because Silvio’s a tough egg to crack, but we’ve gotten some glimpses of his better aspects and strengths so far at least.

He’s a shrewd and observant man with an excellent business mind and keen eye for details - it’s stated many times how adept his negotiating is and how he’s a mercantile genius. In the amnesia event, Emma finds him nearly penniless and in the span of only a short while he’s turned over massive profits and become a successful businessman. He’s more than capable of keeping up with and perhaps even surpassing Nokto during their Bunny Stealing VS event, when they both fed off each other in negotiations with the rose farm. And in Rio’s route, he‘s quick to pick up when things about Emidio’s behavior don’t add up and moves swiftly, intercepting his brother’s insidious plans to minimize their impact.

He has a sense of honor and a code of ethics that he can be counted on to adhere to, even as he may try to initially finagle his way into a better position (as any seasoned merchant should). Rio provides Emma with the ultimate trump card for handling Silvio when he lets her in on some valuable business intel and give her a tip - that Silvio can basically always be counted on to negotiate. Offer him something and you’ll get something in return, quid pro quo. In this particular case she uses it to ‘talk’ him out of kidnapping her, offering him the trade knowledge passed on by Rio and her willingness to comply in exchange for concessions and information. And once he’s agreed upon terms, he can be relied on to uphold them. All of which makes sense when you come from a culture of mercantile and trade, where a man’s word and agreements is his bond and the damage of reneging on deals can be catastrophic to one’s standing in society.

Despite his volatility over some things, he’s capable of being objective and looking at the bigger picture without letting his emotions get in the way. When Silvio explains the story of his mother and her conflicts with Rio’s mother, he makes no excuses for his mother’s terrible behavior and in fact does not blame Rio or Rio’s mother for retaliating. If anything, he seems to agree that his mother most likely reaped what she sowed and deserved the end she met - unlike Emidio who is unable to let go of his anger towards Rio and blames him for their mother’s death.

While it’s easy to be cynical and say he’s only motivated by a desire to maintain relations between the two countries, I think Silvio genuinely shows concern for the general public and for others. He involves himself in the conflict between Rio and Emidio (ostensibly because the drama could be a wedge driven between Rhodolite and Benitoite), makes moves to save Emma’s life (again, he claims because more of the same) and when her house is set on fire he worries over the possibility of harm to the city and citizens as well. He expends money and manpower to clean up and contain the messes Emidio is responsible for, and agrees with little more than a vague promise of a favor to help Rio and Emma cover for a little girl’s mother who was the unwilling accomplice to Emidio’s crimes.

Even if this were merely fulfilling a duty, this ties back to his code of honor and ethics and feeling a sense of responsibility for what his family and country has done.

He expresses concern, albeit couched in terms of ‘what value she provides to Rio’, over Emma being involved with his family and its devious machinations - repeatedly trying to dissuade her from being involved with Rio because of how dangerous it is. At one point, when her house is set on fire by Emidio, he even tries to impress upon her how he can replace things with money but if Emidio takes his vendetta any further, his money can’t replace people - asking her once again to give up on Rio.

Again, you could argue he simply does all this to avoid rocking the boat and to maintain the status quo between their countries - but I believe there’s more to it than that, despite what the man himself says. Probably even more so, because we all know a tsun tells no truths unless they’re dragged out of them at damn near knife point.

SO.

We’ve got some negatives laid out, some positives (?), but how about the big elephant in the room so far, of course, which hasn’t been addressed yet - his achilles heel, if you will. Women.

As I have mused on elsewhere, the difficulty behind knowing why Silvio acts as flustered as he does whenever Emma instigates any contact is that we don’t know if it applies merely to her, to all women, or to anyone in general. Althought without evidence to the contrary, and with Emma specifically calling it out as being ‘bad with women’, I’m going to make the assumption that Silvio’s hangup is with regards to the ‘fairer sex’ as a whole.

To know why he is this way isn’t possible yet, clearly this will be a SEKRIT kept for his own route, but there’s probably some theories we can suggest.

I think the simplest is that he’s just generally terrible with interpersonal relationships. This is evidenced by his rude behavior as is, but Gilbert makes a point to refer to Silvio as having a shy side and it seems easy to imagine how that might be - under the aggressive shell of swagger and pomp is a very fragile uncertain underbelly. Most people who act that much ‘larger than life’ are often trying desperately to overcompensate for perceived faults and weaknesses, hoping that people will look no deeper than the confident abrasive exterior they project.

Not to mention that when Silvio speaks praise of himself, the things he notes are externally rooted factors that he has little control over. His wealth, his status, and his good looks are generally the only things he points out repeatedly as reasons why Emma (or anyone else) should be falling at his feet. Things that seem to tick off boxes on a checklist of ‘Good Things’ that are superficial and broad and ultimately meaningless.

The question then is, does Silvio truly judge himself by these shallow standards or is that merely what he believes society wants of him? And if so, where would he get that idea?

Benitoite, with its high emphasis on wealth and trade and a court that sounds as if it is full of more intrigue than Rhodolite’s, certainly factors into this. Silvio asks Emma point blank what she brings to the table as Rio’s woman - claiming that Benitoite would never accept someone without some sort of value as a royal. Silvio having a generally transactional approach to even dealings between people (‘indebting’ Emma into playing the part of his fake lover, lording what Rio owes him over him and trying to always put a monetary value to favors, claiming that all hurts can be fixed with money) seems rooted in this.

But I also wonder if he wasn’t taught that love itself is transactional and must be bought or earned.

We’re told that the ring which belonged to his mother, Adria, is ostentatious and incredibly gaudy. That small detail alone tells us that she was probably the sort of person who valued wielding money and status as a weapon, but I think we could go further and suggest that if so, perhaps she withheld her love from her sons as a form of transaction as well. Hearing that she used them to bully Rio, bidding her sons to take from Rio the things he cared about, makes me wonder if she didn’t make a payment of sorts out of it. If they wanted her love and approval, they had to do as she asked or provide the things she asked of them.

This has been reinforced his entire life, as Silvio states that women tend to be gold diggers - even going so far as to delude himself into believing women who genuinely seem to like him are only after his money as well. Any point and time at which Emma does things for him without expecting compensation, or without strings attached, seems to leave him at a genuine loss. Utterly shocked and off-balance.

It all comes back to the age-old sentiment that all the money in the world can’t buy you love. And the cruelest irony of Silvio is that he doesn’t believe something that’s free can be of any value…even when I think it’s the one thing he deep-down truly wants the most.

I was going to go on, I have a bunch more notes about his relationship specifically as it pertains to Emma and what he values about her and more conjectures on the conflicts and issues that might arise in their route, but this is so long already I think I’ll save that for a part two! If you made it this far through this mess , you’re my new favorite person - thank you for reading. <3

#ikemen prince #ikepri #ikepri silvio #mrs o rambles #character analysis #or an attempt was made at least #this was mostly laying the foundation for me to extrapolate on later

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caffedrine · 2 years

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Rio Ortiz Chapter 13 Summary

This is mostly a summary for me - I make no promises on the accuracy of what’s happening. I’m not nearly fluent enough to get half the jokes/innuendo much less accurate plot points.

*Flashback Time*

Three years ago, Emma had come down with a severe fever and was on bed rest. The doctor had prescribed her some medicine and assured her that if she took it and rested, she would recover quickly.

Rio, who’s fake smile had slowly begun to show hints of genuine fondness, took care of her. At this point in time, he had already moved out of Emma’s house and had his own residence, but he sat next to her bed as if he had no intention of going home. Emma reminded him that he has his first day of work the following day and couldn’t afford to baby her. Besides, she would be fine with a little rest and medicine.

Rio admits that he cant do anything for Emma, even when he’s right here with her. In fact, he might be a detriment to her recovery, since she can’t rest with him by her side. But still, he doesn’t want to leave her alone. This might be his way of repaying her for protecting him while he was weak. And now that she’s the weak one, he doesn’t want her to have to do anything. It strange, he doesn’t care what happens to him as long as he can stay by her side.

*Flashback End*

Nokto reassures Emma that they’ve successfully administered the antidote to, and Rio won’t die. She notices Licht lingering at the entrance to Rio’s house.

(Hey, we get to see Rio’s home!)

After Rio collapsed, Emma had the carriage driver take her and Rio to the town doctor, and sent the carriage driver with a message to Sariel briefly explaining the situation. Nokto and Licht somehow heard the report and immediately came to them. Nokto, part of the foreign policy faction, wanted to hear the report directly. Licht, who was an accomplished swordsman, came to play the part of the bodyguard to Emma and Rio.

It is actually a pretty big deal to for a Rhodolite noblewoman to be served poisoned tea at the Benitoite Embassy. This could cause a giant diplomatic rift in the friendship between Rhodolite and Benitoite, so they need to move forward cautiously.

At least, that’s the part of the conversation that Emma remembers. She’s been focused on Rio’s recovery, which is very slow in her opinion. The doctor seemed to be certain that Rio would make a full recovery, but she wonders if it is true.

Licht offers to stay behind if Emma wants to return to the castle and personally guard Rio. Emma thanks him but insists on staying. Nokto teases her, but Licht accepts Emma’s decision.

Nokto has some new news for Emma. Sariel was able to lodge an inquiry against the Benitoite Embassy for attempted poisoning, and unexpectedly, the Benitoite Embassy took responsibility for it. Emidio was concerned about Rio after he left, and had the tea tested for poison. He even found the staff member who had served them and turned him over to Rhodolite. The person admitted to poisoning them under Silvio’s orders.

Emma asks if they’re sure, and Nokto asks her why it sounds like she’s doubting Silvio’s involvement. Emma recalls the last time she spent meaningful time with Silvio, back at the market. She had the feeling Silvio was facing her head on and would not use another person to get what he wanted. Back then, he had personally tried to sus out her real identity, when he could have used one of his servants to do so instead. Besides, she has no idea what his motive for trying to kill her could be.

Nokto thinks that Emma has some interesting assumptions of Silvio given that she’s known him only for a short while. Emma thinks that the way Nokto is questioning her means that he also doesn’t think Silvio is the true culprit.

Nokto recalls that Emma and Rio were attacked at the auction house as well. The attackers were thieves after the necklace, but Silvio had to know that sending two near defenseless people to the auction house was putting them in danger. While they don’t know why Silvio did this, he couldn’t have had innocent intentions. Nokto and Emma can discuss the maybes of what Silvio is doing for ages, but until they speak to Silvio himself, they won’t make any real discoveries.

Emma wonders if they can interview Silvio, since they know he’s at the embassy. Licht quickly jumps in to say that wherever Silvio is, he is not at the embassy. Emma recalls speaking to the staff member and wondering if that was a lie. Nokto explains that when they spoke to Emidio, he had told them that Silvio has been missing for the past three days. The embassy was rebuffing their inquiries all this time because they were also looking for him. But, as soon as the situation becomes clearer, there is no doubt that Benitoite will make Rhodolite pay for their missing prince.

The instructions the Embassy has been receiving from Silvio were through letters. However, there is no guarantee that Silvio is really the one communicating. Nokto admits that this situation is very bizarre, Silvio isn’t the type of person who would just kill someone without a clear benefit. Honestly, from his point of view, Emma is more useful alive then dead.

Licht points out that Rio may have been the real target. He was well known for getting in arguments and pissing Silvio off. Nokto admits that this makes the most sense, and both he and Licht agree that this is all about Rio.

Nokto and Licht go through the reasons why they know that Rio was the true target. He is known to be Emma’s loyal dog, so if he was worried about her being poisoned, he would personally test it. It would be expected of both a butler and a bodyguard, so putting Emma in danger to get to Rio makes sense.

Emma recalls Nokto mentioning a while ago that Silvio must like Rio, that he has a habit of choosing a favorite to stay by his side when visiting places, which in this case had been Rio. Nokto muses that Silvio may have been keeping Rio near to find an opportunity to kill him. They can make guesses as to what Silvio’s motive is, but until they understand this past relationship between Silvio and Rio, its just guesses.

Emma thinks about how Rio has been rejecting his past all this time, meaning that there is something that he doesn’t want to remember. And he has a very strong aversion to Silvio and only Silvio. She hadn’t really thought about it, but Rio may have been unconsciously antagonistic towards him. If so, their relationship may have been a very bad one.

Licht brings up what Clavis had said about Silvio erasing all traces of Rio’s past existence. This may be something that you do to people you hate, to completely isolate them.

Emma and Licht spend the night at Rio’s house, having decided that its better for him to be stable in a familiar place as opposed to moving him to the castle. Rio’s condition has improved, and Emma wonders if she should think about heading back to the castle. If anyone who knew her as noblewoman were to recognize her, she would have to come up with a convoluted explanation as to why she is hanging about in town. So far Sariel has let her stay, though she thinks it’s partially due to Nokto’s influence.

Licht joins Emma by the fountain in front of Rio’s house and asks if she understands what Nokto didn’t say the last night. Emma says she did, that if Rio is being targeted, she is also in danger. The previous day, Rio had been quick-witted enough to save her from being poisoned, which given that she has no immunity to it, would have killed her.

Licht points out that even if Emma stays with Rio right now, there is going to be a time where they will have to part ways. It’s up to them on whether it happens now or later, but that ending will happen no matter what Emma does.

Emma agrees that she knows this, but she doesn’t want to part from Rio until after all these problems are solved. She made a promise long ago to protect Rio, and she will see that promise through, even if she can’t smile at their ending. Licht looks down and says that people part all the time, not just her and Rio. He hopes that Emma won’t have any regrets at her and Rio’s ending.

Suddenly they spot Rio, who has just left his house and is smiling while calling out to them. Emma thinks that while she is relieved that Rio has recovered, she won’t be able to smile at their end anymore.

#Ikemen Prince #Ikepri #rio ortiz

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