On The Art Of Repairing Clouds

_{This is what I'd originally written at the end of my previous post. It's an open letter of sorts to Ryuu. I doubt he's ever going to see this unless someone shows him directly. However, I'd already written it, so I figured I'd just go ahead and post it.}

Ryuu, the short version is that you've created is a character that's too perfect to be believable.

No one except you is going to be able to identify with him. I'm not sure how much of that matters to you because he's your wish fulfillment self-insert and on top of that, you've repeatedly shown you don't care much (if at all) about opinions beyond yours. But it makes for really boring reading, so it is worth mentioning as you like to write fanfics.

It'd also make you a horrible person to RP with, honestly, because if he can't be hurt or killed, what's the point?

He can't be harmed seriously by any antagonists, he can't be killed, he could save the entire world on his own, and your partners will sit there feeling superfluous. I'd go so far as to say that that's probably part of the reason your forum had no RP activity at the time of its closing: No one wants to RP with someone who saves everything forever without even trying.

Also, since this is your self-insert, seeing him portrayed with absolutely no flaws or weaknesses when you're no better than the rest of us makes you look extremely egotistical.

I know that's probably hard to hear since you're so emotionally invested in this character, and because you are (let's be honest) extremely inflexible and will probably refuse to do anything we suggest out of stubborn arrogance.

And to a degree, I understand being that attached to this character. Really, I do. But you can't keep living in the past. Everything changes, and you've claimed you want to start on a new path, right? Out with the old, in with the new.

So yes. Your best option is to outright kill him off and start over from scratch. Kill him dead and leave him in the past where everyone else's (because we've all made at least one, and anyone who says otherwise is a big fat liar) horrible Sues are.

However, if you've no intention of doing that, there's ways to fix this.

(Incidentally, I am not talking about making him become a god and fly off before switching to Raphael. That makes the problem worse.)

Some (strongly recommended) suggestions:

• Change his name. This is the easiest possible thing to fix. He is 100% white and as convoluted as his backstory is, he is a citizen of a country similar to medieval Europe. He should not have a Japanese name and title. You are writing for OoT-era Hyrule, so your character's name should suit the conventions of OoT-era Hyrule. If you need name ideas, there's loads of resources out there (such as Behind the Name, Behind the Surname, and babynames.com).
  
  • I should note that while there are characters who show up in Majora's Mask with Asian names (Guru-Guru, Sakon, Anju), in Ocarina of Time they don't have names (Guru-Guru is Windmill Man, Anju is Cucco Lady, and Sakon doesn't even get that much). You are not writing for Majora's Mask (incidentally, Hyrule and Termina are NOT connected), so this is not a valid reason not to change his name.

• Nuke his political power. Have him set firmly as prince consort/king consort. He's essentially needed to father heirs, make social appearances and do some philanthropic work. That's about all he'd logically be allowed to do. He'd also have more free time to spend with the children. Zelda would hold all the power, but I wouldn't think this would be an issue considering Ryo seems to dislike the workload that comes with being a ruler anyway. He even seems to be proud of it.
  
  • Do keep in mind the queen and more importantly, her council would have to approve the the title of king consort, though. If that is not approved, the default title would be prince consort.

• He shouldn't be the son of the goddesses. There's things that cannot be believed, no matter how hard you try to convince people. This is one of them. I say that because outside of you and the other characters in your fanon, nobody believes it anyway. So it needs to be taken away, as it serves no purpose other than to make him unkillable, unbelievable, and honestly rather unlikable. Also, the powers it grants him (the immortality in a universe where people do die, among other things) are responsible for the VAST majority of the points on the Sue test.
  
  • He shouldn't even be the goddesses' chosen one, because Link already is. If you fix all this, a lot of the work is already done.

• If you keep the fire affinity (and I see nothing wrong with that in and of itself), having an ice weakness is silly. To be fair, I know that's how it works in some games (as far as I know the most common example of this is when a couple different elements are lumped together as one) but you're not making a game, you're writing a fanfic. Reality applies in fanfics, and even where reality as we know it wouldn't apply, common sense and logic still do. What puts out fire?
  
  • Right, water. And to that extent his weaknesses should be related to water. He should be unable to swim and unable to learn to do so. It's also completely within the realm of plausibility that he'd be hydrophobic.
    
    • Also, he shouldn't be completely immune to fire. An above average resistance to heat and fire is one thing, but being completely immune is absolutely ridiculous. Even Link, the actual chosen one, isn't immune to fire in the Goron Tunic. Just highly resistant. 

• Speaking of the fire, in Child of the Triforce's sixth and seventh chapters, he was spitting fire everywhere. It was getting carried on the powder, on the wind, he was shooting fire in enclosed wooden spaces, etc., etc. He is in a forest. You know, with wood and leaves and all sorts of other highly flammable substances. Logically, he should have burned half the forest down, at least.
  •  If he ends up spraying fire all over the place something will burn, and he needs to suffer consequences for it. If someone sneezed and injured or killed your family in the process because they were shooting fire out their nose, you'd be furious at them, right? Maybe you'd even be angry enough to attack them.
    
    • The point is that the fire thing could get very messy very quickly, especially as he admits he's not able to control it. That means if he sneezes in a populated area and he catches someone's home on fire, he's screwing with peoples' livelihoods. He could disfigure, disable, and kill people, and frankly he probably would have killed several Kokiri in CotT. Also, I would expect he would be attacked for this sooner or later. People can get very angry when grieving.
      • These are all very serious crimes, and will lead to heavy fines and jail time, if not execution.
        

• Related to the above, he needs to not be forgiven for some of the stuff he pulls, and he needs to get away with less. The least unrealistic aspect of this is that he has no concept of personal boundaries, and no one seems to mind. For example, in chapter four of CotT he constantly badgers Leon about what's bothering him until the poor guy caves and blabs to him, then does the same to Darunia later in the same chapter for no reason other than "I don't like seeing people upset".
  •  He comes across as pushy, nosy, and kind of creepy. I don't know anybody who'd be okay with some dude they've never even seen before sticking his nose into their business.
    
    • The normal response to Ryo's harassment is is to complain to the innkeeper about the twat in the room next door who won't leave them alone and/or direct a very long string of invectives at them, not to just give in and tell them everything.
      
      • And in a story where the logic applied, he would have torched an entire forest and killed quite a few people. This is not something that could be forgiven by the vast majority of people. That means, assuming he escapes the furious mob alive, that there's going to be places he's no longer welcome.

• The superpowered physical strength needs to go, too. I know this is part of his supposed blessing by Din, but not all power is physical. All this really serves to do is make him more unbeatable and unrealistic, when the fire is already more than enough. The fire can also be countered with a logical weakness, which means it's probably okay for RPs, as other players can exploit that through drenching themselves or whatnot. There's not a whole lot you can do in regards to counterbalancing the super strength, though, which adds a whole bunch of Sue points.

I'm sure it seems like there's a load of work that would be wasted (I've had to completely gut characters several times, believe it or not, so I do understand) but it helps (well, as much as anything does) if you think of it as practice in character development. You've now learned what not to do. That's half the battle.

Also, I dare you to try and create a normal, average person. No god stuff, no sexism, no racism, no ripping off anything for clothes or appearance. Imagine a normal person, do the research for any aspects of their past, powers or personality that need research, and make them exist. If you can do that, then there's hope.

I honestly want to see you prove me wrong, because I think you won't scrap Ryo. Still, if you can successfully tone him down then you've at least made steps in the right direction.

And why am I writing this? Because I told you once that we won't just take your word that you've changed, but you've been talking about changing quite a bit recently. So go on, Mr. "I'm On A New Path". It's time to put your money where your mouth is.

Prove me wrong.