"Any card—so long as it exists—has a power that is needed."

amarantines:

soft-goth-deactivated20151224:

Admittedly, Ryou doesn’t hold all that much importance in the overall works of the show. In the anime, his character is often reduced and it’s a shame.

Ryou is, as you know, the bearer of the Millennium Ring. There’s a lot the fandom misinterprets about his character, though. All of the creepy occult decks that Yami Bakura plays? Those are Ryou’s deck - reflective of his love of the occult and general creepiness.

In general, Ryou is an extremely strong character - not physically, but rather mentally and morally. He lost his mother and sister at a young age, and has an estranged father that hardly ever contacts him. His isolation only becomes more profound when Bakura begins to turn all of his friends into little dolls (seen in the final volume of the original Yugioh! manga). Despite that he has lost virtually everyone and is having to deal with an extremely possessive and not so sane spirit in his head, Ryou continues to be a kind and gentle soul. Not because he hasn’t suffered - but because he has the strength to still be able to do so.

In addition, he is not a pushover. Many times during the manga, he purposefully defies Bakura in order to save his plans. Later this happens less as Bakura grows to understand that he has to work with Ryou; the last time that Ryou actively defied him, it resulted in both of their deaths (and consequently resurrection: Also in the final volume of the original Yugioh! manga.) Though he lacks self preservation, an empowered Ryou is an extremely strong Ryou and he is not to be messed with.

He also shows wisdom throughout the series, that allows him to see the bigger picture that the other characters can’t – hence why he is willing to work with Bakura rather than constantly keeping the mindset that Bakura is solely an evil entity.

Another thing – Ryou is probably, next to Malik, the character with the most mental fortitude. Think about it for a moment – on top of him having an ancient thief hell bent on revenge in his head, it is later revealed that he also had a dark god living in there too. Despite that, Ryou remains a significantly unbroken functioning person.

That’s really the tip of the iceberg with his character - there’s a lot more you can get into, especially with his relationship to Bakura and consequently Zorc (good god I hate that name.)

I hope that helps, dear anon~! Thank you for asking and for hearing me out. 

Ryou’s mental fortitude and inner strength is one of the greatest things about him! Being so firmly rooted, he is able to keep hold of himself for what might even be YEARS of possession by a malevolent spirit, when such a thing might have stunted or even killed a weaker person. Indeed, if he WERE weak, he could never have been the pre-destined host of such a powerful being like Yami Bakura. c:

What an incredible young man. <3