I'm a gay baby ;w;

tarashima:

I was tempted not to answer this but I looked into it and while I’m not surprised that the thought exists on a greater scale, I am very concerned about how well-spread it still is. And I do not agree, one bit.

Foremostly because of the most obvious reason that I hate how it has to be brought up constantly just because too many seem to either forget, ignore or overlook it: 

Ryouken was 8 years old during the Lost Incident. 

If you don’t remember how it was like being 8 years old, then that’s fine and more than understandable. But if you try and apply mindsets of a grownup on a kid that by no means should have those, something is very wrong, even more so when putting such heavy blame on a child. 

I like for you, anon, to imagine this: an 8-year-old boy, who loves and respects his father immensely, growing up in a household where science is everything, and the dream of helping humanity escape death is a topic brought up often.

To say Ryouken had no clue what was going on is both right and wrong. He knew why Kougami created the Lost Incident and he knew the goals and he wanted to believe in that. 

What he didn’t know nor understood, was why the nature of the Lost Incident was a part of reaching the goals and how it could be justified. And as much as he loved and respected Kougami, he was also too scared to ask about it. If he was scared of Kougami or the answer he might’ve gotten is up in the air (most likely a combination of both), but it doesn’t change the fact that he simply couldn’t ask. 

And even if he wasn’t scared about answers or Kougami himself, he was scared enough to make the phone call anonymously. And until he told Yuusaku and Kusanagi about it, no one else knew the truth. 

Ryouken clearly wanted to believe in Kougami’s goals and he respects and loves his father more than enough to be his loyal soldier in the cause, even after his death. But he did not approve of Kougami’s methods, and until Kougami died, Ryouken never revealed it to anyone. 

I cannot stress this enough; 8-year-old Ryouken isn’t the same person as 18-year-old Ryouken and how that gets overlooked, ignored or forgotten makes me sad. Not because I love Ryouken, but because a child shouldn’t be expected to have the same mindset and/or understanding as an adult. 

Ryouken luring Yuusaku away is included in that. Because what I get from it, is that yes, Ryouken most likely knew Yuusaku was going to help in experiments of creating humanity’s successor and reaching Kougami’s goals, but he didn’t know the nature of those experiments and how they would go down, or else the guilt he showed later wouldn’t have been as prominent as it was. 

Which brings me to the second point that I get surprised over being treated as canon: Ryouken’s involvement with the other victims, or that he and Kougami would’ve put deeper thoughts and planning together to pick out the victims. It’s surprising how well-spread this is because nowhere in canon do we get to see if Ryouken was involved or not, in the kidnappings or any form of planning. 

When it comes to the kidnappings, neither Takeru nor Spectre ever hints at Ryouken having a part of theirs. Yes, it has been brought up that Spectre knew Ryouken was coming for him as Spectre returned to the facility to be brought back to the “fun times”, but for me, it’s not enough to say if Ryouken had a hand in his kidnapping or not. It’s safe to say that he had a connection to the place, and we the audience as well as Spectre, know that, but that’s it. 

Takeru on the other hand never mentions details at all. The closest we get when focusing on Ryouken is that Takeru lashes out at Ryouken since he believes that he played a huge part in the incident and was one of the people responsible for it. And when he learns the truth from Yuusaku, he deflates remarkably. 

While we don’t get to hear a lot about Jin, we can make the assumption Ryouken had nothing to do with that either, or else Kusanagi or Ryouken himself would’ve hinted at it (would Kusanagi even have accepted to cooperate with Ryouken had he been responsible? who knows). Miyu and Windy’s origin is definitely up to debate but I see no reason to blame on Ryouken and call it canon since we have nothing to back it up with. 

So since we’re in the dark about how all the kidnappings happened, is it really fair to put the blame solely on Ryouken and call him responsible since he lured away Yuusaku? No, it isn’t. Especially since it’s stated several times how Ryouken isn’t the one responsible for the incident.

Which brings me to the second part of that statement, how Ryouken and Kougami together “chose” the victims. 

Honestly? I don’t think there was much thought behind it at all, other than picking kids that for a moment was alone and could be lured away without anyone stopping it. Which, mind you, happens out in the real world, as horrible as it is. Kougami needed subjects that could duel, but if they needed to be skilled is never told. And given that all the victims were young children, we can assume they didn’t needed to be. 

Would it then be too far-fetched to assume that any kid would do? Not for me, Kougami has shown enough signs to be uncaring enough to do so. 

The only one we get to know about it Yuusaku, and as a 6-year-old, he loved duelling. But he wasn’t picked, Ryouken accidentally bumped into him, and took the opportunity to take Yuusaku with him. 

And while Yuusaku tells us of Ryouken being his voice of hope, he’s also said that he believed for ten years how Ryouken was trapped as well, which is also something people tend to forget or ignore when discussing this. 

Heck, Kougami himself did admit guilt over even dragging Ryouken into the mix to begin with, implying even further that he wasn’t involved more than the show suggests.

Tl,dr; Canon does little to nothing to prove Dr Kougami and Ryouken was actively working together with both picking out the victims and doing the kidnappings themselves so to say that it is, in fact, canon is a huge misunderstanding of both the plot as well as Ryouken’s character. This is also my own thoughts, I can’t speak for others nor my friends. 

Just say you don’t like Ryouken, anon, and move on. It’s okay. 

I have to repost this because oh my lord this is literally how I think about Ryoken. 

Thank you so much ;w;