#corner comments

so this started bc i was thinking abt how Nathan and Riko died in very similar fashions. Shot by ex-brothers, ones which were most likely never considered as family(Nathan by his brother in law, who was only married into the family for to strengthen connections in the states. Riko by a brother once removed, who maybe in another world could’ve loved him like a brother but not in this one.)

then i started thinking about other ways that riko and nathan paralleled each other and over all it boiled down to: they are both monsters you have to look over your shoulder for. yet they gain a lot of their power from attempting(or succeeding) to seem like they are the top of the food chain and that they can get away with whatever they want. they will also go to extreme lengths to ensure your compliance and or suffering(torture, “hunting” neil ((riko back tracing his finger print, nathan actually chasing him)) willing to wait to get what they want because in their minds they will get it (this ones a little bit of a stretch but for Riko he was sure Neil would become a raven. Nathan and his countdown) so on and so forth. they had pretty similar playbooks when it came to getting neil to do what they wanted (threaten the foxes or andrew) and im sure theres more stuff i had in my head that im not thinking of now.

now why would Nathan want Riko as a son (hypothetically) I dont think Nathan would necessarily want the exact form of Riko we get in the books but i think if Riko had been raised by Nathan instead of Tetsuji or if Riko had apprenticed under Nathan I feel like it would’ve been a deadly combo. this is largely due to riko’s Intricate and Endless Daddy Issues™️. in my mind Riko would take every command and order Nathan would give him and he’d do it with pride. now at the end of the day this still probably would’ve ended up with Riko in the nest, but i think if Riko had bern groomed by Nathan to take over the Butcher’s business and made being a second son a staple of pride and a way to still be involved/help out the family while still being subservient to the first son i think he could’ve been a real menace and maybe even an asset to the main family.

idk this really comes down to is i think riko is very much a product of his environment (and his lack of ability to cope with the fact that not matter what he did he’d never be enough and he has to live with it) but i think had he been given a chance like this to prove himself useful? well he probably still would’ve gotten over eager and fucked it for himself but i think for a solid little bit he would’ve been the perfect butcher prodigy