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#Post#: 152--------------------------------------------------
Rikiga- what are you doing, man?
By: secretagentfan Date: May 14, 2014, 2:12 pm
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Sorry guys, I've been doing a lot of thinking on Rikiga lately
and I'm still having great difficulty with placing his
character. I was wondering if you guys could help me out? Maybe
share some of your thoughts on the fellow? He's a fascinating
character, and plays a substantial role in No. 6-- so why is
there so little stuff on him? Trying to worm my way into his
head I came to a few conclusions--
1. Rikiga has lived a full life outside of the immediate story
of No. 6.
I mean wow. I'll try and summarize, but since it's kind of
piecemeal thing I'm probably leaving stuff out or am
inadequately explaining something-- please correct me!
His character has a major arc that occurred outside of what we,
as readers see. He was a pretty decent reporter before the Latch
Bill newspaper went bankrupt. He used to visit the city before
the wall was built, had a crush on Karan, but never really
pursued it. He turned to selling porno mags to make ends meet
sometime after that. And then somehow after that he starts
selling girls to higher, horny, No. 6 officials in order to pay
off his booze. As for how he's made these contacts it's kind of
unclear. He was probably well-knownish being a reporter but it's
a tough call as to how he was able to be trustworthy enough to
get this big city men wrapped around his finger. He also sleeps
around. I don't know if payment's involved. His relationship
with most women certainly isn't that loving. It seems pretty
deceitful especially considering his character introduction with
a woman screaming at him and threatening to kill him. Yeah,
Rikiga and the ladies seem to have kind of a nasty relationship.
2. Rikiga seems to have a pretty different internal life that
contrasts with his external appearance.
He's a drunk, kind of goofy, definitely greedy and a complete
coward. Those are the sorts of things you notice when first
meeting him. Even Shion is kind of disgusted by him at first
meeting. But he's a info-gatherer and he's pretty darn good at
what he does. He's sketchy as hell and pretty easy to manipulate
if you get to him through someone he trusts. He's nice to Shion
though, frequently worrying about him, acting kind of weirdly
paternal in that he takes him out shopping and even offers Shion
a place to stay in his WAY nicer house in West Block. (Dude has
cake. Cake. Rikiga's not slumming it up, he's doing pretty darn
well for himself. Yet he's drunk all the time and is a total
loser in every sense of the word- so at what cost?) And yet for
all his paternal-ness, he doesn't actively fight Shion in his
staying with Nezumi. Which is weird, because Nezumi's sketch as
hell too.
Another weird thing.
Rikiga only seems to know Nezumi as Eve-- weird considering the
fact he's an info-gatherer but I guess Nezumi was pretty good at
staying off his radar. But that means Rikiga visits the theatre
fairly regularly. Not much of a surprise, Rikiga's the type to
go for a whole bread-and-circus vibe in order to cope with the
depressing reality of his existence. He's a real escapist.
3. Rikiga's love for Karan's pretty darn odd.
It's downright worshipful, and an odd little layer on his
character. Internally he seems kind of guilty and dark and he
covers that up with copious amounts of alcohol and women. But
then when he talks about Karan he's goofy and kind of a total
romantic which is weird. I get the vibe that it's not even about
Karan but about how he thinks Karan is. He's the same with
Shion. He writes them off as being total angels, but what does
that make him? Maybe it's a way of expressing his internal guilt
and basking in the rays of something that he knows he's not?
I really don't know.
Which is why I'm posing this question to you guys. What do you
guys thing Shion and Rikiga's relationship is? How does it
relate to Karan?
Because I am driving the struggle bus on this one.
#Post#: 153--------------------------------------------------
Re: Rikiga- what are you doing, man?
By: Vox Date: May 14, 2014, 2:41 pm
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Oooh I can tell this is going to be an interesting discussion.
I was just thinking about Rikiga the other day, actually. It's
interesting to see how he fits in with the other protagonists in
the novel (Nezumi, Shion, Inukashi, Karan, and Safu), or with
Nezumi's little troupe of allies (Shion and Inukashi). Rikiga is
old and he's not scrounging for money like the rest of them.
He's really a bit of an outlier. It's interesting to me that
Rikiga is considered their friend instead of just their resource
or contact. At least, I think he must be their friend, because
if he were just helping Nezumi and Shion for money he wouldn't
have stuck around in the Correctional Facility for so long with
Inukashi.
Something interesting to me is the way that prostitutes and
Rikiga's women are treated in this novel. They're just sort of a
fact of life. The only time anyone gets mad about Rikiga's
sources of income is when Shion takes offense on Nezumi's behalf
when Rikiga invites him to be a prostitute. Everyone pokes fun
at Rikiga for his job, but nobody really condemns him for it.
I agree that Rikiga only really likes Shion because he thinks
that Shion is a pure angel (a delusion that Nezumi is also
under, I might add). I don't know exactly how he feels about
Karan, though. I think that because she's a link to his more
innocent past, he's able to be less of a greedy old coward
around her - kinda like she brings out the best in him, which is
what a healthy relationship is supposed to do anyway. I got some
quotes from the epilogue, where they actually interact:
[quote]"Shut up!" Rikiga snapped. "Why don't you go off and gnaw
on a chicken bone or something? Karan, listen to me," he
implored. "I never dared use children or babies. I never used
little ones to make my daily bread. That's the truth. Please,
believe me."
"Of course I believe you," Karan said. "I can't imagine you
looking at the young as a target for profits."
"Karan." Rikiga flushed and stepped closer to Karan. "Thank you.
I feel like your trust in me is all the support I'll ever need."
"My, Rikiga." Karan retreated half a step before smiling
serenely. "I never remember you as someone who could recite such
a theatrical line. You spoke frankly and straightforwardly, and
you were careful with your words."[/quote]
In the distant past, Rikiga was not the same as he is now.
Something else interesting I just remembered is that Karan
actually married an alcoholic. Rikiga knows this. I think it
must make him hopeful to know that.
I almost wonder if he hasn't started seeing winning her as a
game? But that's quite a bit cynical.
It doesn't really matter anyway, because I don't think Karan
wants to get married again.
[quote]"Yeah, you're right," Rikiga said angrily. "I am a
monkey. Just the sight of a dog maddens me to no end. Every time
I see one, I feel like tearing it apart with my teeth. Roar!"
Rikiga raised his arms and lunged at Inukashi. Inukashi laughed
mockingly while he nimbly danced out of reach.[/quote]
Look, he's playful. He might be a greedy old man, but he's not
totally boring, at least.
[quote]He hoarded artwork and handiwork, electronics, paintings,
jewellery, furniture, medical machines, cars, clothes, office
supplies, and even toys; when things began to settle, he sold
them at high prices and made a handsome profit. Now he directed
and managed a publishing company and printing company, issuing a
weekly informational magazine and a daily paper.[/quote]
He's also got a wicked business sense. He's not an idiot.
I don't know, Rikiga is a pretty big puzzle. *shrugs*
#Post#: 159--------------------------------------------------
Re: Rikiga- what are you doing, man?
By: Weisel Date: May 14, 2014, 4:19 pm
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I'm always interested in why people have certain vices, so I'm
going to talk about Rikiga's alcoholism.
I think I can understand why he's constantly drunk. I mean, how
many times is he actually sober compared to being drunk in the
novels? Anyway, it's definitely an escape. He's clearly not
happy with his life, but I can imagine he's not willing to
change his ways based on the thought "but what else is going to
reliably bring me enough income?" He's good with business,
that's for sure, and the most profitable businesses in the West
Block are generally the least savory. So with his business
mindset, he'd of course keep doing that kind of work as long as
it's profitable. He doesn't want to give up that stability of
knowing he'll be living comfortably the next day, week, month,
year... But he knows what he's doing is incredibly immoral. And
I think he knows he should stop, but he also knows he's too much
of a coward to give up his own stability for the sake of
following ideals, especially when no one else around him is
doing that. So he keeps playing the game he hates so much
despite himself. He's intelligent enough to look at his own life
and see exactly that this is all happening, but doesn't have the
courage to change it. And so he drinks to cope.
It seems like a ridiculous thing to do from an outside
perspective, but it's not something a person just immediately
decides to do. It's not a matter of "I think I'm going to get
completely plastered every single day," but rather a habit that
starts out small. "I'll have a drink after I get this awful task
done." "Today's been rough, so I'll have a drink." "I'm stressed
out, but a drink should help me relax." "I'm unhappy right now
so I'll just have a few drinks to cheer up a little." So those
little thoughts apply themselves more and more until it goes
from being an occasional activity to a daily habit.
Writing this out, I can just imagine Rikiga falling into this
cycle. He probably drank socially when he was a lot younger,
like a fair amount of people do. And then as things started
changing in No.6 in worrying ways, he probably had some tricky
and even risky reports to make while getting around the city's
new policies. I can see Rikiga treating himself to a few drinks
once he's gotten through some of those jobs. And with the
newspaper he worked for going out of business, that probably
brought on more drinking. It likely took some time to decline
into failure and I imagine Rikiga tried his best not to let it
happen considering that his job was at stake. Fighting to keep
your job in a hopeless fight is pretty stressful, but a few
drinks would take the edge off of it, right?
...I think you all can see where this is going. By the time he
started doing business on his own, alcohol was maybe even a part
of his daily life. He probably continued using it as a crutch
while he got himself established, and once he was making a sound
living for himself, he definitely had to be drinking every day.
Not only did he have the means to support the habit, but he had
the reason to keep the habit. He's not an evil person. He could
see how wrong it was to be making a profit the way he was. But
drinking helps with the unhappiness, so... Yeah. He's gotten to
the point of having a glass of booze to wash down his breakfast
every morning.
And the whole deal with Karan? My theory on it is that he sees
Karan as the epitome of a "good" person. It likely started as a
sort of crush when they were younger, but grew into something
more when everything else around Rikiga got uglier and uglier.
Karan remained in his memories as a good person, and that stood
out from the horrible things and people around him. So to him,
this woman he had a thing for before has become the last good
thing in his life, even if he hasn't seen her for years and
years, and he probably doesn't want to think of her as any less
than that. So with everything said before about the alcoholism
and the realization of his own wrongdoings, I think Rikiga hates
himself to some level. But if Karan would accept him, if someone
purely good could love him, it'd mean he wasn't actually a bad
person, right? Having Karan love him would be his delusional
salvation.
As for Shion, it's definitely all because of Karan at first. But
I think over time, Shion has just sort of made his way into
Rikiga's heart a little just like he has for Inukashi (and a lot
for Nezumi) simply because of his nature.
Well, that's my thoughts on it all for now. Maybe I'll think of
more later.
#Post#: 234--------------------------------------------------
Re: Rikiga- what are you doing, man?
By: secretagentfan Date: May 19, 2014, 6:13 pm
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I keep writing more junk in my head but not typing it out and
forgetting it like a doof. Apologies.
Vox: Ooh, it's really interesting that Rikiga came into his
wealth by hoarding items and selling them at high prices. I had
missed that part of him. He's definitely got a business sense.
Dude's got a good nose. And Rikiga is really funny, maybe not
intentionally all the time, but I see him as a comedic character
which is weird because he's such a dark fellow.
Weisel: All good points-- Rikiga probably eased into alcoholism,
everyone treats him like a drunk but he's still in a highish
position of power and maintaining it barely sober. Which is
weird, and interesting, and kind of follows the idea that Rikiga
wasn't always this bad and just sort of eased into alcoholism.
Though I'm not really sure about Shion. I mean, Shion does have
a way of worming into people's hearts, but I'm just not picking
up on as much development in that department. I really think
Rikiga only starts viewing Shion as actually not an angel but a
person would be post correctional facility.
I need to find evidence for that though-- which I will. At a
later hour.
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