So you want to know my thoughts on Ryo?

How I Learned to Stop Hating and Love All That is Ryo

Well it's obvious that I adore his character, though that wasn't always the case. At first I pretty much had a Ruki-like animosity towards the poor guy. When I first heard about Ryo's appearance in the Wonderswan games I nearly had an stroke. It sounded like the classic Mary-Sue fic setup: Tai and the gang are captured by evil digimon and now only < self-insert > can save them! What was wrong with having Tai as the playable character? (This is also why I can't bring myself to finish the Gold/Silver/Crystal versions of Pokemon -- I don't want to beat Ash, I want to be Ash!) I then proceeded to try to forget I ever read that.

Flashforward to sometime during 02. After initially despising the fact that there were new Chosen Children I fell in love with the series (though Kari and 02 TK are a whole different story and rant). My favorite character would be one former Digimon Kaizer (though his self-pity episodes did test me at times). When I learned that it was Ryo in the desert with Ken during his flashback in 'Genesis of Evil' my anti-Ryo thoughts came flooding back. He now had to invade my show as well?! But curiosity got the best of me and I had to learn more about how Ken met Ryo. I proceeded to search through the AFD archives.

Sometime between 'Genesis of Evil' and 'A Million Points of Light' I went from "I-Hate-Ryo" to "Hey-He's-Not-Half-Bad".

Then I went through another period of denial when I learned that my favorite Digidestined were not returning for another season (though my least favorite character, Kari, seems to have made the crossover). With great trepidation I watched the first episode and when I heard Davis doing the "previously/next time" voice overs I felt better. Slowly I came to adore the new Tamers (with the possible exception of Henry during the early eps).

Sometime later I found out Ryo was going to appear in Tamers as well. Now, before this it had been confirmed that Jeri was going be a Tamer (who didn't see that one coming?) and that just reminded me too much of the 02 'Everyone's-A-Digidestined' ending and well, to say I wasn't happy was putting it mildly. Surprisingly though I liked the idea of Ryo making an appearance. After his initial appearance in 'Blame it on Ryo' and departure in 'Goliath' I realized I wanted to see more of him. Argh! I was a Ryo fan!

And like that cheezy wizard from the premiere of AoS, my adoration grew. At first it was just the need for screenshots, then after listening to MP3s I just had to own the Best Tamer CD (finally found and ordered it from CD Japan). That grew into the need to import the Wonderswan and his games ( I'm just missing Anode Tamer and then my collection will be complete! As of July 2004 my collection is complete!) Then the need for a Ryo domain and site popped up, I had wanted to work with frames again so a Ryo site seemed like a good excuse. I even have the digivolving Cyberdramon figure (which will stay as it is because Justimon creeps me out a bit) watching over my computer right next to my Pikachu clock.. it's a bizzare sight.

Thoughts on Why Ryo Doesn't Irk Me Like Kari, Jeri or Dawn

I normally hate mid-season uber-characters who kick off new arcs (think Kari and Jeri -- and you don't want to get me started on Dawn of the Buffy-verse), however I love Ryo (as well as Kazu, Kenta and Suzie) because even as they are introduced as Tamers they stay in their supporting roles. They're not the keys to anything and they don't go and have moments of self-pity that extend over several episodes. And most importantly, they have not wasted an episode like Kari has (I would've gladly done without 'His Master's Voice'). Sure they have brief moments in the spotlight, but that's what they are, brief. You're left wanting more of them, not fighting the urge to poke your eyes out at the very sight of them.

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