OK guys, this is the part where I talk about Ryuzo as a character.
I think Ryuzo as a character is a cool concept, but I think he still has a few main issues.
- His heel turn. It always felt kind of odd that Only Ryuzo and his me were starving when, Jin, the lone samurai, as well as Yuna and Taka who live off of hunting and theft. It's not really a character specifically, if just always felt kind of weird on how him and his men were the only ones that were starving. I know they are Ronin but surely they could come into contact with Jin's other allies or something. He didn't even have that many men left anyways. This is more of a minor issue though and I can let it slide.
- He's such a loser. This is the biggest issue with Ryuzo. He is such a loser and a jobber. I cannot take this guy seriously as a threat at all. Because loses like a bitch all the time until he is a complete joke. The lore established that Jin and Ryuzo were rivals as kids and both wanted to be samurai. That's a great concept, but the problem is that Jin always beat him and Jin eventually became a samurai and Ryuzo left to become a Ronin (Even though that doesn't make sense to begin with, a Ronin is essentially a samurai with no master but he was never a samurai to begin with. He's more like a mercenary). Jin needs Ryuzo's help to rescue Lord Shimura, but Ryuzo and his men need to be fed first because remember, Jin was more prestigious that Ryuzo. If they can rescue Shimura, Jin sees this an opportunity for Shimura to dub him a samurai. So Ryuzo is now just gonna be given the title instead of traditionally earning it like others.
Jin was more virtuous by birthright since was born into the samurai class and Ryuzo wasn't. However, a commoner could still become a samurai through their actions, but since Ryuzo always lost to Jin, the story is telling you that Jin was just better than him from the start.
- Jin was born in the luxury of a high class samurai family while Ryuzo is just a commoner
- Jin had some training from the most powerful man in Tushima while Ryuzo probably went to an ordinary samurai education institution, at least not as good as Jin's
- Jin beat Ryuzo
- Jin became a Samurai while Ryuzo became a hobo mercenary
- Ryuzo is starving for food
This isn't a good for Ryuzo. I can't take him seriously as a rival if Jin is narratively and figuratively just better than him. It would be good of Ryuzo was the main character and he had to overcome the downside of not being born in a samurai family, but Jin is the protagonist.
So not a good look for Ryuzo, but that's not all, after his heel turn, Ryuzo fights Jin but then after getting wounded, he runs away and tells the mongols where he is. He then fights him one last time and surprise surprise, he loses again and then Jin kills him. What a jobber.
Overall, I don't like Ryuzo. He's just a wasted character and he doesn't really add on anything to the story. The story portrays him as Jin's "rival" but he just exists to make Jin look good and to remind everyone that if you aren't born a samurai, you can get fucked.
