#riko moriyama headcanon

[stick-ball]

Hi! I'm about to end my whole career!

Here goes the Riko rant that dear @capcavan asked, demanded and begged for.

You know, I get it.

So here's the thing. I get it, Riko sucks. He is the bad guy we all got hung upon. Why? Because he is a rival for our protagonist. He is an angsty, young guy, born into wealth that came from money laundering and human trafficking. It's despicable, the Ravens are bullies and he himself makes lots of bad things happen. Yeah sure, I get that, whatever.

Being raised as a superstar must've been really, really difficult for you.

But I want to really dig deeper right now, this is a Riko rant after all, and you need to really know your fighters. So, to start: a huge trap in toxic families is that the children, even when grown up, will refuse to identify their parents and guardians as negative and toxic people. Not even outside influence can really sway them, usually. Kids that get away from a sinister situation can later tell they were abused, that it wasn't right, but still, they don't get the specifics of what and why, and they are doomed to repeat the same abuse and call it good. Call it right. And sometimes that's substance abuse, sometimes thats domestic abuse, sometimes that's racism and sexism and xenophobia they will grow into believing as the way the world works. Sometimes, thats nepotism and sadism. Only thing that can help is therapy and an environment removed from the control of the original abuse, lots of therapy, lots of space, years of it. A perfect case of a typical toxic family is Aaron.

A perfect case of that could also be Riko.

And here you can call bullshit because Neil had such a fucked up, abusive father and he *knew* it was wrong. Yes, he knew it was wrong for his father to hurt him to the measure he went. Why? Because his mother protected him, because his mother feared his father, not adored him. Because his mother took him away and kept running. A mother, a role model a child feels very strongly about, subconsciously.

Riko was taken from his mother. He was pushed aside by his father and left in the care of a family member, who was easy to glorify for an impressionable child. Because he was a legend. In fanon I often see Tetsuji's character taking a very background role in everything, and sure, he seems pretty background to Neil, because every bad guy seems background to Neil in comparison to his Father - besides Riko, who is the one dangling that threat in front of him. Tetsuji just wants his property back, Riko is playing with fire though. So yeah to us, reading the story, Tetsuji is a total asshole among many such men in the book.

But to Riko he must've meant almost everything for a long time. A crucial thing about Tetsuji is, he is a sadist. Oh sure, sorry, it's only called sadism when done against his team, right? Against Jean or Kevin or Neil? When it comes to Riko, who was in his care for all of his formative years, it was just strict childbearing right? He is a Moriyama after all, so he is evil from birth.

Yeah, I must've mixed something up about Riko being beaten to unconsciousness several times being mentioned in extra content. You think that was a one, two, third times the charm occurance?

Always a commodity, never a human being, not a single person in your family thinking you’re worth a damn off the court— yeah, sounds rough.

I always wondered how sarcastic Neil was saying this. I mean, he definitely meant to land a punch where it would hurt. And he actually knew Riko as a little kid, so he knew more than most.

Stockholm syndrome is very common among victims of childhood abuse. I would know, anyway. It's like the most logical option - the survivior is living in a dual reality. These people are my family, the care for me. They provide for me. They want me to be the best. They also abuse me. They hurt me, but it's for the best. Hurting me is a expression of love. I am grateful to them.

I often wonder how many people who read the books know what a commodity is. A commodity, in the most basic terms, is a basic good that can be used in ccommerce to interchange with goods of the same type. A commodity is not a king, or a queen, or a bishop or a knight, or even a rook. It's a fucking pawn. It's cannon fodder.

Riko is worthless to his family. Riko is just a tool to Tetsuji to generate profit. Riko wants to be worthy to his family. Riko most likely loves his uncle and is ready to do the most insane thing if only it gives him the one thing he desires, which is being seen as worthy by his family.

Kevin and I talk about your intricate and endless daddy issues all the time.

Then there's grooming. Grooming is more obvious when it's done by a stranger who sees the child randomly or in some intervals of time. It's much harder to resist when it's constant. To Riko, Tetsuji is a good person, he is a hero, he is his family, he cares for him, they have a common goal. Riko wants to be what Tetsuji wants him to be. There is a price to pay for it, of course. There is a price for everything. But the price doesn't matter. Riko wants to pay the price he has to pay, to be what Tetsuji wants him to be.

And the thing is, do you think Riko learned how to use his money and crime connections to control others? How to gain power through fear and pain? You think spending his whole life locked in a fucking stadium he taught it to himself how to break people in body and spirit? That torturing them was his special interest? Or maybe are you forgetting that amongst valid responces to trauma, besides fight, flight and freeze there is also fawn? Don't you think it's much more likely, being groomed and enamoured with his captor (bcs thats what Tetsuji is to me, their captor) he impersonated him to the best of his ability? That he learned every leaf in the book from him, because he was his only connection to the family, to his father, to his brother. He was a legend, the creator of exy. Wasn't he always trying to be worthy of him? To be good enough to be loved and wanted? To be great full enough?

I am not saying this absolves him of any of the things he did, but people do insane things under lesser influence, things they would never do otherwise. And I am not talking of people groomed from early childhood, I'm talking of sane adults, being dragged into dangerous and destructive ideologies.

I know it’s not entirely your fault that you are mentally unbalanced and infected with these delusions of grandeur, and I know you’re physically incapable of holding a decent conversation with anyone like every other normal human being can, but I don’t think any of us should have to put up with this much of your bullshit.

Because it isn't, is it? The things HE does ARE his fault, definately. But the reason why? That is not that easy to pinpoint. And Riko is so unstable it hurts. He is so far removed from real life he is completely incapable of conversation. He is a child brought up in a grave, but...

Pity only gets you so many concessions, and you used yours up about six insults ago.

To me Riko is besides all other things, wasted potential. All the things he dreamed of? He could have had them. He was talented, he was determined and had a lot of courage, but all of that was utterly wasted in the violence and malice he was soaked in. In all the violence and malice he created in return.

So please, please, just shut the fuck up and leave us alone.

The most interesting thing about All for the game though is, that in every other book Riko dying would've been the big bad wolf being defeated. But here, that's just a bleep on the radar. Because Riko was a product, not the producer. What I love about All for the game is it shows none of the madness and evil in life started or ended with me or you, with Riko or Neil. Not even with Keylight or Tetsuji. Fuck it did not even end with Nathan dying. It all ends how it begun. With a deal with the devil made in the back of a car, bought with blood money.

[eheavenlyy]

i know for a fact that andrew minyard sleeps terrifically every night knowing that he absolutely demolished riko’s arm on live television before his death.

[currently-evil]

Riko: I'll kill everybody you love!

Neil without missing a beat: I love my dad.

Riko stuttering: Wha-what?

Neil with intense eye contact: I love my dad so much. He is the best. I dont know what i would do without him in my life. I love him the most in the world. If there was somebody I wouldnt want to be killed it would be for sure my dad. I just love him so much.

Riko: Neil: Riko: You know maybe I'll just stick to the emotional and physical torture.

Neil: Coward.

[crystalmethsthings]

Neil: *roasts Riko*

Riko: isn’t ur dad a literal axe murderer

Neil: what? are you upset that my dad spent eight years looking for me while urs doesn’t even know you exist?

Riko:

Jean:

Literally everyone else sitting at the table:

[out-of-the-forest-i-come]

I hate Riko as much as any aftg fan, and none of what I'm about to say changes that, but how much more difficult would he have been to hate if we knew what his childhood was like? we make fun of Neil's rant at the winter banquet because he verbally destroyed Riko, but do you ever stop and wonder how much of it rang true? Neil doesn't just insult people, he picks them apart because he can see exactly where the fractures are. 'always a commodity, never a human being'? that shit must have hurt so badly because it's true, isn't it? Riko is praised, has been since he was a child, but not for who he is. the love he's always received, the admiration and the fame, it's all conditional. and I'm sure that despite being the Raven King, the Nest wasn't easy on him either. we just didn't see that because Neil is an unreliable narrator. does that excuse what he did? the torture, and asking others to rape Jean, and breaking Kevin's hands? no, it doesn't. but it does make me wonder if he, too, was broken as a child. was he always this psychopathic or was it caused by trauma? was there once a child begging for someone to save him where Riko now stands?

[palmettoshitposts]

you ever think jean and neil get to a point where they can freely joke about riko dying and it just disturbs everyone around them like

neil: christ jean if ichirou had your aim riko would still be up and about

jean: if ichirou had my aim he would've shot you too

kevin: NO-

[martyrframing]

do you think that kevin day thinks about the kid he did scrimmages with once. that he sees the three on jeans face and wonders abt nathaneil who would've been marked that way. do you think he he felt even a bit of relief at the thought that nathaneil got away and do you think that it worsened the horror when he realizes who neil is. do you think he trained neil so desperately partly because he wanted to protect that kid that got away and do you think when neil returned from christmas a part of him died because he failed anyway? do you think he feels like he had a hand in four tattooed on neils face and do you think a part of him felt some kind of sick happiness that he pushes away when neil comes back from his father's house, the tattoo burned away, because in a sense, that kid survived. that kid escaped the nightmare of riko's ambitions...

[qixjone]

i have a hc that riko makes all his liscenses plates smth stupid like “k1ngno1” or some shit bc he thinks its cool

[itslenactually]

.... trans Riko rights I guess?

[lalalaets]

OMG i discovered that there are r*ko stans out in the wild, its like ppl forgetting that being abusive its not okay

lile yeah i get that you can hc any character w anything and fandom/canon its not the same but you cant just forget ab all the shit that a character did just bcs you find it justified in your head with your little silly hc, yeah, its your hc but your hc its also erasing important shit and romantisicing the idea of abuse and the idea that everyone has their own problems.

riko had daddy issues and family issues? i really dont fucking care bcs in fact, he was an abusive asshole and that cant be excused.

ppl having headcannons ab certain things and then treating it like a excuse to like certain characters its disgustingg

it also happens in other fandoms like hp. yes im watching at you barty, evan, bellatrix, tom riddle, draco stans, im talking to you too

anyways r*ko hater, he deserved to die, i hope he really burns in hell

[exy-shmexy]

So we all know the Ravens are all paired up and Neil was supposed to be number 3 until Nathaniel disappeared and Jean got the number. Now the thing is, when Neil went to the Nest, he was branded number 4, so that means there was never a number 4 before Neil spent those weeks there, right?

So what if it means that Jean never got paired with anybody during his entire time with the Ravens because the Moriyamas kept the hopes of eventually finding Nathaniel one day. That would mean Jean was constantly alone. He would see all the Ravens in pair, all of them would have someone to support one another except for him. I bet Riko loved to remind him that. In all his cruelty, he loved to remind him his pair isn’t here, that there is no one for him and there never will be.

Maybe Jean got his hopes up when Riko and Kevin started to hear about a certain goalkeeper that caught their interest. Perhaps this man would become his number 4.

Until Andrew told them both to fuck off and Jean remained completely alone in the Nest, resigned to his fate of solitude.

[yatsurinamikaze]

Ch 2. Nice to meet ya.

Summary > One > Two > Three

Aomine Daiki x Reader

‘'Ts a minor concussion”, you say while handing a water bottle to Aomine, “No need to worry.”, crouched on your hunches, you crease your lips and stand up.

While Kuroko helps Aomine up, you feel a confused chatter erupting between the men. Of course, that would be the case because no one knows who this new girl is who is talking in an American accent.

Alex puts her arm around your shoulder and pulls you towards her, “This is y/n everyone! She’s a close friend, so behave.” She goes to kiss on your lips when you put a finger on her lips, “You should get this habit checked out you know.”

Alex pouts removing her hand from your shoulders and you bow your head, “Nice to meet you everyone.” You speak in perfect Japanese, and the men smile and bow, returning the greetings with enthusiasm.

You look expectantly at Taiga, he puts his hand on your head and ruffles your hair, “I can’t believe you are actually here.”

You swat his hand away jokingly and give him a teddy bear hug, “Why won’t I? This is important to you.” Everyone’s eyes get bewildered in the shape of discs watching the caring side of Kagami.

Their fitness trainer Riko gives them the death stare, ‘’Back to practice everyone.” Her background turns dark and evil, and everyone just scurries away back to the court quickly.

“Except you Aomine.” Riko walks up to you, “Kagami told me you’re a doctor?” You nod your head and say, “He should be fine.” You turn towards him and smile reassuringly, “Just take it slow for a couple of days.” Riko nods and motions her head towards the bleachers to him.

Sitting at the bleachers, Aomine had been checking you out incessantly, takes in your appearance. You are not his usual type but you are beautiful in your own way. He likes the sound of your voice when you talked in Japanese, how your eyes crinkled when you smiled at him. He finds himself getting drawn to you and wants to know more about you. “Slow for a couple of days, huh?” He thinks to himself and rubs his neck smiling to himself.

After the practice gets over, he hears you talking to Kagami about how you will be here for the Olympics and would provide any medical support to the team while you are here. It bugs him how close you are to Kagami and wonders if you are his girl from America - which makes this pursuit even more interesting for him, he thinks devilishly to himself. “She seems nice.” Aomine jumps up in shock as Kuroko says this from nowhere. “SINCE HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HERE?!” Kuroko smiles, “I have been here ever since you sat here.” Aomine rolls his eyes, “yeah whatever.”

You settle in Kagami’s apartment and rest down on the couch after the shower, your muscles sore from the long flight. You see a Basketball Monthly kept on the table, picking it up you notice the cover. It’s that boy from the court who got hit by the ball. You look closely at his features, your eyes wandering off to his blue eyes reminding you of the deepest and darkest part of a mysterious ocean. You remember looking into his eyes on the court, and find yourself smiling at the recollection. You shake your head to break out from the reverie.

You read his name, “Aomine Daiki.”

~

Summary > One > Two > Three

Author’s Note:

- Not much. More of context setting.

- Titles are playlist songs fit for this storyboard. Will put up playlist soon.

- Interaction is my motivation juice. Taglist is open.

[takwando]

[its-parkerblake]

[little2nerdy]

when jean is first taking stock of his injuries he says he remembers the “sensation of ripping, peeling skin” regarding riko pulling his hair out and keeps wondering how long it will take to grow back and even cat noticed his hair is uneven and asking if he cut it himself. i really feel like he might avoid cutting his hair for a while. like he’s never had that freedom and now it’s not only the fact that he has the option to grow it out but also maybe there’s trauma that he associates with his hair now? like yes maybe this is just me wanting to see him with floppy french boy hair but also there’s a lot of belief that hair holds memories and i don’t think jean would be ready to let go of everything that’s happened to him.

just a thought.

[parasocialqueen]

the image of Matt tripping up Riko in the first fox vs raven game is hilarious to me. Like Matt sees him and thinks hmm yes son of the mafia let me just trip this little man up real quick I LOVE HIMMM