#its 6 am i havent slept. im just thinking abt ryuji

[phantom-thieves-official]

look i know I talk abt pegoryu all the time BUT there's so much to love about Ryuji outside the context of ships. Like, there's plenty of good characters in p5 but Ryuji steals the show, no contest. He's so kind and selfless. He's the first to give joker a chance. He's not even on particularly good terms with Ann and is pissed off at Kamoshida's creepy behavior on her behalf. When they enter the palace and get attacked, he tries telling to joker to run even though Ryuji himself is being attacked by the guards - he wanted joker to leave him there and was okay with putting himself in harm's way to allow joker an escape. He's not moved to take down kamoshida by his own potential expulsion, or his own anger about their history, but is moved by seeing what kamoshida is doing to other students, particularly shiho. After the kamoshida arc, he doesn't say anything about his own trauma or history with kamoshida, he's just happy that things will be better for Ann. He's the first to forgive makoto after she gets kidnapped by kaneshiro and has generally been a thorn in the phantom thieves' side for weeks. In fact he jumps in front of a moving vehicle to get a taxi to follow the people who took her. He fights with mona and gives a half-hearted apology, but all that animosity is out the window when the group finds mona and haru being harassed by haru's fiance. His entire confidant is about him trying to help the track team, which benefits him in absolutely no way, even after they turned on him for standing up to his abuser. even after the track team themselves physically assault him in an early social link rank. he wanted to get a track scholarship for his mom's sake, not his own. He puts himself in danger to get the lifeboat when shido's palace is sinking. he puts himself in danger and takes an attack from possessed cendrillon in maruki's palace. he gets angry when hearing about joker's past, but doesn't actually seem to have much anger in regards to his own - in fact, consistently through the game he gets angry and moved to defend others while not mustering that same righteous sort of anger for his own sake. Everyone else is his priority. he's the only character who has mistakes in the plot of the game that he owns up to and apologizes for - for getting mad and scaring futaba, and for being preccupied by their fame. he's a momma's boy. he's joker's best friend and right hand man, and more than anyone else he opens up to and confides in joker, to the degree that he has moments like that which occur outside of his confidant whereas nobody else really does (he calls joker through the story several times and confides in him about things like his apprehension abt the current events or how he is sorry he got mad and yelled earlier or even just that he's worried about the kamoshida plan.) the world has been so cruel to him and he still finds so much compassion and selflessness within himself. he's similar to his drunk, abusive dad, with a temper and a reputation for outbursts. but he's a twisted, funhouse mirror representation of that. his anger is justified and sparked by seeing others mistreated. his outbursts were just him standing up for himself and his whole team. and for it he got abandoned and shunned. he's a deconstruction of the people who've hurt him; he's similar to them while also standing for the exact opposite of everything they stand for. he's selfless and kind and driven to protect others even at the cost of his own safety, social standing, or well being. he makes mistakes and owns up to them, then tries to be better. he trusts joker so much. he's been hurt and abused and kicked while he was down and he still wants so badly to help others. as cruel as the world has been to him he doesn't let it embitter him or make him cynical and mean.

tldr; your honor, I love him