Thinking a lot about the characterization of Ryuji, since I want to write fic about him and Daigo and would like to flesh out some headcanons about how he approaches relationships. I endeavored to extrapolate as much as I could from canon, but I also made some shit up. If I ever wrote a ship manifesto, this would be the foundation, probably.

Goda Ryuji

• Personality: Confident and ambitious. Ruthless. Can go from calm and even-tempered to hot-blooded quickly. Normally on his guard and distrustful. Not quick to praise. Demonstrably violent, especially to underlings. Terse and tetchy when too drunk since he doesn't feel in control. Not against obliging himself with a little treat (read: ONS) when he feels things are going well. Separates sex and emotions/intimacy very cleanly.
• Motivations: Ashamed of origins and put all his energy into proving himself and establishing his power. Feels alone in the world, intimacy starved, no personal connections, in part due to circumstance and in part self-inflicted. In order to prove he deserves to live, needs to be the best. Currently pretty at peace with that state of affairs. Hates being put in a box.
• Strengths: Can be subtle or tactful when he needs to be. Perceptive. Charismatic. Disciplined. Is principled about giving respect when he feels it's deserved, even if he personally dislikes someone.
• Weaknesses: Arrogant. Stubborn. Brutish. Has blinders on and is a bit one-track-minded about the way he does things and his goals. Not so brilliant at things outside of crime and internal politics/plotting (and he's not the best at the latter either). General baseline toxic masculinity.
• Conflict/Development: To continue on his path, he needs to separate how he might feel personally, from his understanding of how the world is supposed to be. Once he actually connects to someone and feels less alone, he does get unmoored. He has to claw himself back to that single-mindedness and detachment.

Relatedly, I am obsessed with this RyuDai fanart.

Having successfully reacquired video editing software through skullduggerous means—I will be getting back on the horse for my Barrissoka (Barriss Offee/Ahsoka Tano) fanvid!

Which is already about 80% done!

And which I've dreamed about making for literal years!

I first thought it up back in like...2017, I want to say, and did not at the time know how to go about vidding. I just reeeally wanted something angsty about how their close relationship got corrupted into betrayal, in part because of galaxy-wide political fuckiness beyond their control.

I did start learning to vid in 2022-2023 and I got most of the project done, actually! The main task I had left was to figure out which clips to put into a handful of empty spaces.

Luckily, us Barriss fans finally got some new food via Tales of the Empire. I will 100% be incorporating those clips. And then the tragic lesbian vid will finally be complete!

Once I do have a complete version, I'll probably ask around for someone to "beta" the vid: i.e., give it a once-over and note anything that feels awkward. Maybe through some Dreamwidth comms as well as Tumblr. Timeline is a bit tricky to estimate, since I also still need to play around with filters and effects, but I'll try to post updates here as I go. Vidding takes a long time, y'all.