#pita.txt
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Theory: Ryuji was popular, before.
I'm not entirely sure if anyone has really talked about this but I maintain my interpretation that, in the canon of Persona 5, Ryuji used to be very (or at least moderately) popular prior to the events of the story.
This is something I've gotten into before when talking to friends who like the game and the character, but I haven't really considered writing it down until now. The main argument I have is based on three things:
Things Ryuji alluded to in canon (but no one believed him on)
The deliberate choice of making him a track athlete
Typecasting for voice actors
1: "There were girls all over me!"
I don't really have the time to go on a deep dive through all the instances in which he hints at his reputation before the Kamoshida incident, but I think the most clear-cut representation of this was during the scene where he and Ann spend the day with Futaba during her post-palace social rehabilitation:
So here's the thing...I don't think he's lying about this. Nobody in the room would be that impressed to find out whether Ryuji was popular since they are already friends (or in Mona's case, he really just doesn't care), so it wouldn't make sense for him to lie.
Regarding everyone's reactions though, here's my impression: Ann was simply not aware of what was going on with the track team, being predominantly focused on dealing with rumors, her friendship with Shiho, and her modeling career (and eventually Kamoshida's advances once he started doing that shit) and she mentions a few times that she and Ryuji weren't actually close before joining the PT; they were just in the same class in middle school. Futaba hasn't interacted with anyone her age in years and isn't the most reliable source when it comes to what people generally find attractive; just because she doesn't have any interest in Ryuji doesn't mean that nobody her age would. And Morgana is a cat that brags constantly about how cool he is, so he shouldn't be throwing rocks.
There are many other times in the game when you get little glimpses of his social savvy, and from my understanding of Royal (I'm an OG vanilla P5 player and haven't done 3rd-semester yet, so don't kill me) when the track team returns to "how it was", he is getting along extremely well with everyone. Not only was he the team's ace: this kid was also expected to become the captain by his senior year (as briefly mentioned when he bumps into his former senpai at the gym, iirc). That's huge! If his team held him in such high regard, then the general student body of Shujin surely had a similar opinion. This brings me to my next point:
2: Girls like boys that run fast(???)
This is honestly something that baffles me. It's also really difficult for me to substantiate; any source material on this is obviously in Japanese and if I could find any of it, I sure as hell can't read it. The only English-language source I know of I cannot find anymore; I think it was an old Tofugu article? However. If you've watched any romance anime set in a high school during the last 20 years, you might have seen this trope at some point: the school sports festival is happening, and the relay race is kind of a huge deal (it's the final event! a make-or-break moment for the class!). The boy thinks to himself "If I win this race, I'll be able to win her heart/ask her out/etc." Low-stakes drama ensues. Maybe a confession happens.
This is (from what I've been told) based on a long-standing trend of girls and women self-reporting in surveys about how, oftentimes, their crushes in junior or senior high school were simply "the boy who ran the fastest in the races". I have no idea what this means in a broader cultural context. It makes no goddamn sense to me at all. Do not cite me on this. But I think it's worth keeping in mind, even if it's almost entirely speculative (and possibly outdated) information. And even if it's just based on rumors, don't you think it's pretty in-character for Ryuji to go for a track scholarship—despite being adept at other sports like baseball and football/soccer, as mentioned in P5 and P5D—because he was aware of the potential of being more popular with girls? Of course, his priority would be getting the scholarship and paying his way through school to lighten his mother's burden, but hey, getting a girlfriend on the way up wouldn't be half bad!
I think this could also inform us as to why Kamoshida (as a predator who wanted attention from high school girls) felt so threatened by the track team in particular, and why he felt a need to specifically knock Ryuji down a peg and sought out a weakness to do so (as opposed to targeting any of the probably just-as-popular boys on the many other athletic teams and clubs in the school). Just some food for thought on this one! Also, if anyone can find a source or has any insight on the relay race thing, please share. I am so confused about it.
3: Typecasting
So this is something that you really only notice if you are very into keeping up with seiyuu in Japan. I am not one of those people. But I do have some favorite voice actors! One of these being Mamoru Miyano.
So I freakin' love this dude. He's voiced a lot of my favorite characters, sings incredibly well, and has an unreal sense of comedy. He's stated in interviews that his acting inspiration is Jim Carrey, and let me tell you: it shows. He is also quite consistently typecast into certain roles, predominantly as princely pretty-boy types, Coolguys, or complete fucking nutcases. Sometimes all three at the same time (shoutout to my boy Ling FMA!)
ATLUS definitely cast him for P5 because of his comedic chops. But I think they also cast him because having him voice someone like Ryuji is a great way to subvert expectations for the player. I think it's supposed to give you whiplash—"what do you mean the voice of LIGHT FUCKING YAGAMI is coming out of this guy's mouth?" "why does the delinquent character sound like king of the host club Tamaki Suou?" "isn't that Rin Matsuoka's voice?" etc. etc. etc.
(here's a quick list, just to really get the idea across. maybe you recognize a few.)
This is obviously a non-comprehensive list, but something that a lot of the characters he's voiced over the years have in common is that they were considered cool, handsome, or popular. Not just for fans, but within the canon of their stories! So...what does that mean? What does that say about how we should see Ryuji?
I think players are supposed to expect that he will fall into one of those categories too, and then be surprised to find that it's not the case—that he's been isolated and made bitter and resigned by what happened to him the year before.
Speaking of his tone, I think it's very telling that Ryuji actually forgets to keep up the delinquent act a lot in the original JP audio, which unfortunately doesn't really carry over in the ENG translation. The delivery of his JP lines sounds a bit more subdued in comparison too—yeah he's got a lot of energy and is very hotheaded, but when he gets to talking about serious shit, he sounds a lot more regretful and melancholy as opposed to the EN delivery which depicts him as more resentful and outwardly angry. I think before Shit Went Down, he probably had the Coolguy vibe. Still a bit of a rowdy idiot and a showoff, but I think he probably came across to most people as a very friendly, sincere, and popular guy.
So yeah, the girls probably were all over him, at least for a short while.
#persona 5#ryuji sakamoto#character analysis#LONGASS POST SORRY#I JUST REALLY LIKE HIM AND WANTED TO THINK MY THOUGHTS FOR A WHILE#pita.txt
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im so fucking stupid and awkward im going to hide in the bushes for like a week now LMFAO
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hey bro what FUCKING instrument do you play
so i was talking to Stella yesterday and i can't stop thinking about Ryuji's inexplicable TS cable, it has been HAUNTING me for weeks. months even
so. a TS cable, for those who don't know:
"A TS cable has two contact points: the Tip (T) and the Sleeve (S).[...]TS cables are often used for instruments like electric guitars, guitar effects patch cables, keyboards, and single-switch amp A/B boxes. They are called mono cables because they can only send one signal." (Source: ProducerHive)
and here is what we see on Ryuji's shelf:
thats definitely a TS cable. wh. what instrument is that for. ATLUS please i need ANSWERS
also if we are speculating on what instruments Ryuji might play, we should consider: Hells Rodeo
personally, with this info i would be inclined to assume that this is to connect a guitar to an amp, considering that it's pretty long (implication being that the person playing the instrument will need the extra length to move around a bit, which is more likely for a guitar or microphone than something like, say, a keyboard). a microphone is also a very real possibility but i am gonna dig my heels in and say guitar because of mememi promotional art drawn by Rokuro Saito which i love very very much for multiple reasons
(Source: Rokuro Saito's Pixiv account) (nice ACDC reference, Ryuji)
anyway all this to say i think Ryuji's got a guitar hiding somewhere in his room and this is the evidence supporting my theory. that boy really does just have every hobby under the sun huh
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someone who actually knows stats: help me
Rare pair week got me mad re: "what qualifies as a rare pair?" in the P5 fandom and while I'm not inclined to really open that can of worms and start arguing with people, I really got to thinking: just what ARE the numbers like?
So here's what I've done with the past two hours of my life:
Everything listed on the left side of this chart is a rare pair, if you ask me. And if you'd like to apply more general logic to other fandoms: Any pairing with less than 1/10 of the works that the fandom's Mothership has can be safely assumed to be a rare pair. For instance, Ake/Shu takes up about 33% of the fandom tag, so any ships with less than 3.3% of the fandom tag are probably rare pairs.
Below the cut you can see the numbers I used to get this result; just so we are clear here, it is a list of every instance that the pairing is tagged, whether or not they are there to be more than set dressing. this means that there is some overlap, and the percentages indicating works in which the ship is the main focus are likely lower in reality (and definitely much lower for the femslash pairings). LMK if I'm missing any other big ships but I think I got 'em all.
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I played stardew valley for 12 hours on my day off (this post has nothing to do with stardew though)
and idk about you guys but whenever i get absorbed in something to the point of not reaching for my Devices to go on the Internet (mainly twitter if im being honest) its always so disorienting to go back to my app of choice and just see everyone Complaining. i also realize that i am complaining in this very post but hear me out. the whiplash of it all was unreal. it also isnt the first time ive experienced this feeling
it really gives me perspective (especially after i draw for a day straight, go out with friends, binge a show, or do anything worthwhile and enjoyable) when i finally come online to see art and shitposts only to find that everyone is just fucking miserable about everything all the time, even about the things they enjoy. it makes me wonder about what im gaining and—more importantly—what im losing by spending so much time (up to 3 hours a day sometimes!) on elon’s hellhole. and tumblr is skating on thin ice too with the recent events re: the CEO and AI and the lackluster everything about this site
in a way i regret not having tried to join fandom earlier, mainly because i feel like i missed the golden era of it, but also because being in fandom seems extremely un-fun these days as a direct result of how social media operates. but maybe im better off for it. maybe im better off for not having my enjoyment of something tied to looking up latest episode reactions, meme-y fanart, reading theories or fic to be able to “enjoy myself” when engaging with the things i like. i don’t have to sift through people moaning and groaning and discoursing about every little thing when we got Real World Problems to worry about. ive hit a point where i could probably just go back to being completely offline, because who else but me is going to make the things that i want to see anyway?
all this to say that if i ask you for some alternate contact in the near future, you’ll know its because SNS is fucking radioactive and im not trying to become the hulk
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I don't really know how to articulate this in a way that won't make someone somewhere very upset so I'm just going to go about this in the way I normally would: as Directly as possible.
I have to set some boundaries when it comes to my art.
For everyone with busy lives, here's the short version:
If you believe, in any capacity, that you literally are any of the characters I frequently draw, and/or if you know yourself to be prone to taking fanworks a little too personally (meaning: to the point of causing considerable distress when a work is not compliant with your perceptions), please either keep it to yourself or block me. I mean that.
...Everybody else, strap in for the long version:
I don't know what any of you mean anymore when you say you "kin" a character. Not long ago, if you used the word "kinning" on the internet (ie. elfinkin(d), otherkin, fictionkin, etc.) you were most likely (with a few exceptions) talking about a very specific experience. I'm talking "compulsively eating your mother's jewelry because you're a dragonkin, and dragons hoard and eat rare gems, obviously" type stuff. Not "closet-cosplaying to school as your favorite anime character because you really really relate to/admire them". Those are fundamentally two different things. So why are we using the same term for them?
(...It was a huge mistake to come up with the word "kinnie" as a cutesy nickname, in my honest opinion.)
Now, the definition is too broad, too diluted. Now, if I see that word in a bio or a tag...I legitimately don't know what to expect. Someone could mean that they relate to the characters' plights and stories, or that they aspire to be like them and want to emulate them in their day-to-day life. Maybe they RP the character and (for some reason) don't know of any other terms to use.
...They could also mean that it is their firmly held belief that they are THE Yusuke Kitagawa in the flesh, or that Ryuji himself is beaming his consciousness into their brain from an alternate plane, or that Futaba periodically hacks into their body to speak through them, and so on.
And if the latter examples sound similar to your experience, then buddy, I don't wanna know about it. I have no goddamn business being privy to anyone's mental landscape on this big beautiful internet.
(I do want you to find a licensed clinician if you have the resources to safely do so, though. Sincerely.)
I don't want to be told that I'm not depicting "you" accurately (a thing that has happened!). I also don't want to be held responsible for accidentally hitting upon triggers that I could never anticipate, because of a stranger internalizing a character (voluntarily or not) so deeply into their personhood that a comic/fic/drawing exploring that character's canon in ways that make them uncomfortable can prompt a panic attack or a fit of rage or similar distress responses (a thing that I've been scolded by strangers over! Multiple times, even!). I also ABSOLUTELY don't want anyone to message me as a fictional character to tell me what they think of my art, or to tell me that they look to my art for things to build their personality around (which is also a thing that has happened. Are you seeing a trend?)
In all these scenarios, each person neglected to consider that I'm not a source of new "kin material"! I'm just some fucking guy, screwing around on the internet just like everyone else!
I'm not going to presume the legitimacy of any strangers' mental health status (access to mental healthcare can be next to impossible, I know), nor am I one to criticize how anyone engages with the things they like. However. Please remember that every interaction you have is a two-way street. Artists aren't content farms; they are your fellow fans.
When someone comments or tags my art to say "this is me", or "you drew me wrong", or "I would never do/say that", or that the material made them miserable or angry and that they "hate OP for making it"...I have to see that. It's only happened a handful of times. But that was enough to make me wonder with every kin-adjacent tag I see:
Is this another person that feels entitlement or ownership over what I make?
Is this another person I should expect comments of disappointment or aggression from if I make something that they disagree with?
Do you think that I'm doing any of this for you?
#and on the topic of treating artists like fellow fans instead of CONTENT FARMS:#do NOT edit/repost my art for tiktok or RP or anything or i'll fucking GET you#pita.txt
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Since we are coming up on His Special Day, I was thinking about this thread I created in a sleep-deprived haze a little over a year ago, which you can read in its entirety on Twitter. And now I'm transcribing it here, with minor edits for readability and searchability! So here's a little Yusuke analysis, from the perspective of someone who did art therapy with children and teenagers who were survivors of domestic abuse.
Content warning for non-detailed mentions of abuse
Here's something interesting for anyone curious about art therapy; sometimes, clients give you their artwork to keep (there are a whole lot of rules around this, but that's irrelevant for this particular conversation).
Now stay with me, I'm going somewhere with this.
There can be various reasons for it, but the 3 most common "motives" I've encountered are:
1. the client is ending treatment and wants to be remembered (I usually created something small to trade with them, as a transitional object)
2. the client wants "good grades in therapy" (I usually refused in this case)
3. the client doesn't have a safe place to keep their art and trusts the therapist to keep it safe for them
The last reason was the most common one I saw because I was working with domestic violence survivors most of the time, and some of them were still living with their abusers or in shelters (and my core population was kids, so of course they couldn't take anything home if they were still living with their abuser).
…y'ever think about why Yusuke gives away his art & so many gifts?
For someone whose living arrangement has always been unsteady, the fact that he gives away so much art, despite how highly he values it, rings familiar to me. He trusts the protagonist more than himself or his circumstances. Hell, he left THE Sayuri in the café of a man he met, like, twice.
You can read him as someone "generous" and I think that's an accurate interpretation, but I start thinking "what does his generosity stem from?" and in my opinion, maybe it's like this: HE wants the things he buys & the art he gifts, but has nowhere secure to keep any of it, therefore: "it's safer in the hands of the others".
It's a lovely sentiment to think about how much he trusts the protagonist (and by extension, the Phantom Thieves as a whole) but I would love it more to think of him as being able to keep more for himself in the future.
Yusuke, I hope you build an eclectic collection of wonderful art and accouterments!
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Ok but your tags were vital
thanks for the support buddy...every time i see a 16 to 20-something say some bullshit about pixels kissing in weird and icky ways as being "morally reprehensible" i think about how the pandemic screwed them over so bad. the childhood/adolescent psych and development sectors of my brain start firing off. *puts on my tinfoil hat* and i have never stopped thinking about the animal crossing tradwives fucking pied-pipering "desperate-to-be-accepted" children to the bog of conservative rhetoric with a flute called "cottagecore" and how that has a direct connection to why we have fresh young gays being like "no kink at pride!!" in droves. incredible damage done these recent years and most of it can be traced back to the acnh aesthetic/cozy discord servers that were infiltrated by the tradwives. i shit you not its going to haunt me until i die. the kids got bamboozled by covert homophobes/transphobes via HIT NINTENDO GAME ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS (2020)!!! what a world
#im not even wearing a tinfoil hat for this one i literally saw the evolution as it happened#the tradwives had them kids full circle fucked up#this will be extremely funny and confusing with no context. lmao#good luck @ everyone that isnt kam#pita.txt#asks
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very important psa from my buddy at the Old Job:
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sometimes i wonder if i am truly as unwell about yusuke as i say i am but then i'll see a sketchpage of him drawn as a fox and start tweeting shit like this
and ill know that yeah, i do have That Sickness
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[looks at my mutuals]
whered you guys get all those hats from
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its shu//kita week on JP twitter this week which means my timeline has become a Hostile Environment so i guess it's as good a time as any to just start posting here instead
#hell even#if i were to be dramatic about it#ive said it before on twt but id literally rather see yusuke with a mob character at this point#pita.txt
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FOXSKULL KEYBOARD WITH THE RGB GAMER LIGHTING!!!
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I would say Joker w/ any of the guy party members & Makoto are like
The main popular ships
Though I guess this mostly coming from what I've seen with fanart
they are in the top 5 after all. no surprises there
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love making my "i'm overthinking this absurdly mundane detail" textposts for specifically me and like three other people. wish i had it in me to post about yusuke to the same degree that i do about ryuji but alas my brain go silly go stupid when i think about yusuke for any extended amount of time lmfao
#also my headcanons and theories may be considered Controversial to the western fandom at large so we won't get into that#at least. not for now.#pita.txt
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yaoi poll this yaoi tourney that Where's the yuri tournament
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