#but yknow past that the concept of changing stuff like that never crossed my mind again because i was a child and didnt know better

[thegamingcatmom]

A thing that hasn't left my mind for a bit. Hear me out.. MC Is a witch.

Now not Like some scarlet witch type witch, but a person who like sacrifices things 😅

I truly don't know I just have the idea of kate being all smug asking about what MC can do and MC just looks at her like "bring me a *something dead*" Kate believes it's bullshit untill MC does her thing and next thing you know they get a lot of money randomly. (Omg add to MC actually being like Salem witch trials old😭😭)

BUUUT if we wanna go the way of her actually having powers I was thinking of Morgana Pendragon! Katie Mcgrath my love, did an amazing job as Morgana. (Sorry had to show some love)

Excuse my rambling yet again! I honestly just was thinking of MC with the Feral sisters but she's a witch. Perhaps she's actually a lot stronger than the sisters and she thinks it's amusing?

-💙

Hellaw frosty!

Actually-

That has crossed my mind as well. Like, before I started on the first chapter I was contemplating having MC not be human because I was like "What makes her special? Why would the Denalis fall head over heels for her? How does one manage to charm an entire family of vampires?"

It was certainly tempting because I´m absolutely digging that concept of the Denalis being all smug and cocky, believing MC to be yet another mouse they can play with before going in for the final blow. Only for MC to...play along. Play the part of the innocent, because her appearance wouldn´t lead anyone to believe otherwise. To the public eye, she´s just an ordinary woman. A mortal.

The Denalis entertain her, so she´s willing to see where this goes.

...For now.

On the inside, however?

ANYWAY-

I ultimately decided against it because it just didn´t fit with what I had in mind. I´m a sucker for Beauty & The Beast type of stuff. Yknow, being held somewhere against your will by something that could snuff out your existence in the blink of an eye, but it decides not to because, for some strange reason, it seems to have a soft spot for you. Everyone else can f off though, no mercy.

It also helps that the place is actually quite nice to look at. Despite its rather...peculiar inhabitants.

Sooo yeah, I needed MC to be your ordinary human girl, facing off against forces that could wipe out entire armies in a matter of seconds. Because, in my books, there´s nothing sexier than having those forces at your beck and call, absolutely smitten with you, willing to kill for you, while you´re just there like-

(The last one is so MC & Kate yall. Kitty Kat, you hopeless case. 😭)

ANYWAY-

I gotta admit, the money thing has me a bit confused. Is that a thing? Like, making a sacrifice and getting a shit ton of money in return? Does that happen in any tv show or movie? Honestly curious cause I very rarely watch anything anymore. I´ve become more of a gamer and writer over the past couple of years. 😅

I do know Morgana Pendragon, but I haven´t actually seen her in anything cause *points to the aforementioned*. But I know a lot of ppl got the hots for her. I don´t blame them, lmao.

Okay so, I had to google Salem Witch Trials (don´t judge me) and-

LISTEN-

I love love love history so ofc we gotta make a quick lil smt, yes? Yes:

.

Imagine MC (a witch) living in Salem Village, the place where the accusations of witchcraft began. Those accusations were false, obviously, but it made blending in much more difficult for her kind. People have become wary, paranoid, forcing MC to a life in the shadows. She watched from afar as men and women alike - some of them close friends - were brought to trial. Some of them never returned home.

To this day, MC is plagued by feelings of guilt for merely watching as good men and women were executed in the name of "justice". She should have done something, could have done something. She has that power. But her heart had been gripped by a power mightier than her own: fear.

She can´t change the past, but she can ensure a future.

Multiple.

She now works from the shadows to preserve the light. A light that draws in creatures far more dangerous than herself. How she despises them.

Vampires.

.

OKAY LISTEN-

Witch!MC claps eyes on the sisters, dragging some poor fella away. Fella´s already dead, so there isn´t much she can do. However, that doesn´t mean others can´t be saved. So she follows them, cloaking spell firmly in place, in the hopes they´re gonna lead her to their hideout. Because she couldn´t live with herself if she didn´t at least check, yknow?

Well, nobody´s there. Nobody with a heartbeat, that is.

Good.

She turns around, about to leave (because she might despise them but she doesn´t start fights without good reason), when-

"...Who´s there?"

...

Impossible.

.

Cue MC revealing herself. Cue MC acting all naive and innocent. Cue MC pretending to be human so she can infiltrate The Lair and find out what´s so special about that weird ass family that causes her powers to malfunction.

LISTEN-

I dunno, lmao.

I just know it´s gonna be a mess à la The Sisters from there on out. The Denalis obsessed with the fake!human, while said fake!human is just there like-

Not even realizing she´s bewitching (hehe) an entire family of vampires - her sworn enemies - because she´s rather busy being a confused gremlin.

(Do you sense a pattern here?)

Hm.

She might have to annihilate them after all.

We´ll see.

.

.

.

Apparently, I can´t write an MC who´s not completely dense when it comes to just about anything.

I apologize.

(Never.)

Thanks a lot for your ask! 💋

[transgaysex]

love looking thru artfight for people to attack. i saw someone begging for gnderbends of their characters and going on abt how much they love those

[shihoran]

hi I love your work! you have such a pretty art style and I love your riko. I like the ciel/sebastian vibe for riko/kevin even if I don't like the pairing. your stuff is making me question tho. also I wanted to know why you like riko so much? not judging, I just am curious. your art about him is beautiful and I love it but not him, yknow what I mean?

Hello, and thank you for stopping by :D

Yes, I know what you mean. I don’t know if I really like Riko either, or perhaps I don’t want to admit it, because I know he’s … terrible, hahaha.

Though, there is a difference between liking a character for their actions, and liking the concept of that character. I’ll try to explain it as best as I can, and,.. well, I took 4hrs for this, so there is a TL;DR at the end, hah.

I hate what he did to his victims; I don’t have to reiterate his crimes, because everyone knows what he did. Given, that he had autonomy over his actions(no one forced him to commit those crimes), he still chose to do it. He still chose to hurt another person. Chose to be, what we know is, a Bad Person.

That’s what I do like, though. The concept - the idea that someone grows up in such a vile environment with his life narrowed down to one set path, but opposing to that, believes that he has all the freedom in his actions; because all he does is free from fault by the standard of the Raven Nest.

His judgement of what is right or wrong is based on the morality of that space, that is quasi-closed off from the rest of the world.

A similiar concept can be found in the book “The Lord Of The Flies”, written 1954 by William Golding. It’s a book about stranded Boys on an uninhabited island and their attempt to govern themselves. It doesn’t end well.

“Themes include the tension between groupthink and individuality, between rational and emotional reactions, and between morality and immorality.” [wikipedia: Lord of the Flies]

Now take that theme and narrow it down to Riko and the Nest. While the rest of the Ravens that joined as teens, having lived their life outside the Nest and being able to found a moral standard, Riko had none of that time to actually develop any standard aside from what he’s been given to from Tetsuji and the Ravens, that were already integrated into that hivemind.

And even if Riko had the chance to know that for ex. violence against someone else was wrong, even the victims inside that hivemind would soon transform into attackers themselves - or they’d drop out and become out of reach/ uninteresting for Riko.

A thought play cue is the uninhibited island / the quasi-closed off Nest, in which the people follow their own rules:

If Person A hits Person B, and they both agree that “hitting someone is justified”, then who is there to judge this? And why would the voice of an “outsider” count, if A & B’s moral standards are already established?

If Riko hurts Jean, and even if Jean does not agree with being hurt(because I do believe his moral code from pre-Raven time is still very strong; and that he’s an overall mentally strong character), who in the Raven Nest would actually step up against Riko? Jean has been dehumanized to Riko’s property; Riko was King, and violence was normalized.

Another thing that I like about his character is that he is very… basic. His need for approval, affection - Love - is a very basic human need, that he hungers for like nothing else.

He has been denied all that from the moment he was born, as he was being passed off to Tetsuji, which formed part of why he became so obsessed with Exy.

“[…]Riko and Kevin would gurgle at each other in the locker room while their parents worked. These were the only times in those first years that Tetsuji interacted with Riko. Tetsuji wanted nothing to do with Riko until Riko was old enough to shape into a star. Riko was too young to understand any of it, but he could connect the dots on at least some level that Kevin being at the Nest = Tetsuji would actually look at him instead of just walk past him without slowing.” [from Nora’s extra content: Who is Riko Moriyama?]

Somewhere along the line Riko misunderstood Tetsuji and believes that, if he just becomes the best at the sport, that his family will actually acknowledge his existence. And he throws himself into improving and doing everything he can to come out on top, always, without fail; without even being allowed to think about failure, as he was a symbol - not a human - to the Raven, Tetsuji, and his fans.

It’s a bit ironic, or maybe it’s just natural, that he would dehumanize another person in the same way he had been dehumanized all his life. And for being someone capable of his degree of violence, well, he’s rather… naive, to believe he’d ever be acknowledged by his family. Perhaps, he believed that acknowledgement - telling him that they see him, that he exists, that he is the son of someone - would grant him a sense of worth. Of real worth. Of humanity.

We all agree that he is a bad person.We all understand that what Riko did was wrong. And most of those who know him also agree in their hate for him.

It begs the question, though, would we have been better people?If all your life you’ve been restricted to one path, wouldn’t you want to cross borders? Riko crossed them in the only way he could - using people as outlet for his needs - using them as landmarks, objects, things to pass around, things to pass time with; to reclaim his freedom over the people - over their minds and bodies - he doesn’t get to have.

It’s a tragedy, really, he tries so hard to gain affection from people he can never reach, but he himself is incapable of being a decent human being to those close and around him.

Speaking of tragedy, another reason I do like to think of him is because I take stance with Aristotle’s Theory on Drama, as written down in the “Poetics” a study of Greek dramatic art (384-322 B.C.). In which he writes about the protagonist of the drama (although Riko isn’t the protagonist of The Foxhole Court, he is the main focus in this reply) and claims:

“The aim of tragedy, Aristotle writes, is to bring about a “catharsis” of the spectators — to arouse in them sensations of pity and fear, and to purge them of these emotions so that they leave the theater feeling cleansed and uplifted, with a heightened understanding of the ways of gods and men. This catharsis is brought about by witnessing some disastrous and moving change in the fortunes of the drama’s protagonist[…]“ [from a Critical Essay Aristotle on Tragedies: https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/agamemnon-the-choephori-and-the-eumenides/critical-essay/aristotle-on-tragedy]

I don’t necessary agree with all what Aristotle says, but writing my thoughts on that down here… would go beyond the scope of discussion…

On a different sidenote, because I’ve been writing a lot already anyway, so I might as well put it down now…

I don’t assume myself to be in any position to tell other people to change their mind about Riko; to stop hating him, or to start thinking of him past the kneejerk reaction. I’ve been there before, so I understand the general distaste.

However, by the end of the day, I hope that we all understand that Riko Moriyama is a fictional character, in a fictional world, thought up, somehow, somewhen, and then written down, and most importantly: Not real.

People’s feelings towards fiction are very real, and they are valid. That’s the beauty of fiction, no? It’s not real, and it still manages to make us feel some sort of way about it.

We can toy with fictional characters in our heads or on paper all we want, make them bad, make them good, destroy them, make them god - in the end, it’s all just thought plays, little mind games, to entertain and pass the time. And it’s not real. No one in real life gets hurt. And we still get to enjoy a hopefully quiet and overall white picked fence life, while our inner creators are free to be wild.

I’d rather live in a world where all fiction is unhinged and reality is peaceful, rather than in a world where only utopian literature exists, and real people hurt real people.

So, I thank you, Anon. For being plainly curious, for reaching out in good hope, for asking quietly, for opening a conversation.

We don’t have to agree on anything; maybe you thought of my answer as not what you had wanted to hear, and that’s also Ok. I do hope that my thoughts were somewhat entertaining, though, at least to some.

Thank you for reading!

[TL;DR] I don’t like Riko’s wrongdoings. I don’t even know if I like him as a character.However, I do like the concept of his character, the meta, the abstraction - I like that he’s not real. I like thinking about morality and immorality. I like thinking about What Ifs and Whys. I like entertaining and educating myself on tragedies.

Simply put, I like fiction.