What She Says: I'm Fine

What she says: I'm fine

What she means: it's canonical fact that ryuji sakamoto is an abuse survivor, both in personal and professional life. An alcoholic father that everyone knew about to at least talk poorly of in relation to ryuji's anger when treated unfairly, Kamoshida's verbal and physical abuse to the point that it disabled ryuji and ruined his chances at an athletic scholarship and potentially the Olympics, and the treatment of the student body who ostracized him to the point of almost quitting school before his meeting with the protagonist. And despite all that injustice and therefore, justified anger, ryuji still finds it in himself to be kind to the point of self- destruction. Every action he's undertaken in the face of literal evil has been on behalf of others: wanting to take down Kamoshida because of the man's abhorrent actions towards the student body, almost getting hit by a car in pursuit of Makoto and the mafia, picking a fight with Haru's shit fiance, and almost dying on Shido's ship to save the team. This canonically abused character still finds it in him to be compassionate, to fight for others because he believes himself too late to be saved. His greatest strength is in reaching out and lending a hand to others, regardless of their reputation or actions, i.e. him screaming for protagonist to run despite not knowing him at all beforehand in Kamoshida's palace, him agonizing and screaming for Akechi despite the latter's unjustifiable murders, and his quickness to jump to any of the teammates' aid when threatened. The fact that despite all of this information about ryuji, the game narratively continues to shit on him and overlooks his past abuse and circumstances in favor for comedic effect: him letting himself get beat by ex-track team members to alleviate their anger, the phantom thieves' treatment in ignoring his side of things, not defending him when others berate him, famously beating him right after he almost lost his life trying to save them, and leaving him alone in sketchy places because he "deserved" it, and it was "funny". It is to the point that, as if punishing ryuji isn't enough within the game, both gameplay and anime highlights his only redeeming feature in being so self- loathing that it increases his need to sacrifice himself, well-being be damned. Ryuji sakamoto is a loyal sweetheart while also being as flawed as anyone, yet is hated for those same flaws. it makes my blood boil at the unfairness, how not even in reality is he in safe hands. And by that, I cry about it all the time.