Ranmaru Kageyama's BPD Coding
Ranmaru's relationship with Sara is something that I'm sure many people in this fandom are aware of. It recently came to me that it mirrors that of someone with BPD and their favorite person, leading me to believe he'd BPD coded. I'd struggled to find many other reasons but after refreshing my memory on all the BPD traits I've managed to come up with a few more reasons and how many of his actions can fit into BPD traits.
Having chronic feelings of emptiness is something many people with BPD, such as myself, often find themselves struggling with and it's something I feel we can see in Ranmaru too. While we may not get much of a glimpse into his psychology and this point mainly hinges on speculation he comes across as being emotionless. He has a very laid back nature and we don't really see him getting very emotional, even in the Logic Route, beyond him discovering he's a doll, his encounter with Keiji, and a few minor instances of emotional reactions to being teased.
While this could also translate as him being un-expressive I find this more likely as we've seen him emote. It personally makes more sense to me he lives in a state of emptiness and emotional discontent, only really feeling emotion when provoked to do so via teasing or other factors.
2. Intense Romantic Relationships
This part is something I believe is pretty self-explanatory but I'll get into anyways. To say his relationship with Sara is intense would be an understatement. Within a few hours of meeting her he's already prepared to kill for her. The two also have a lot of romantic subtext and it's pretty blatant they're meant to be shippable. From holding hands outside the bathroom, to Kurumada telling Sara to kiss Ranmaru, to the options to flirt with Ranmaru.
3. Impulsive and/or Self-Destructive Behavior
Ranmaru's no stranger to dangerous behavior. For this particular point I wanna direct your attention to the emotion route. In the emotion route it's revealed his reason for luring Sara to the classroom is to obtain a Midori's key-card and upload the Joe A.I. into himself. Given the situations context it's likely a plan he thought up on impulse too as he executes it shorty after spending time exploring the second floor.
4. Suspicion of Others/Paranoia/Out of Touch with Reality
This section is something I'm actually really excited to talk about! I'll be referring to none other than his interaction with Keiji in the classroom. Often this gets dismissed as him being jealous, a theory Keiji himself mentions and points out. There's more to it than that, though. In both routes he suspects Keiji of posing a threat to Sara and being a danger, even going as far as to say he was the reason she was there. It's an outlandish accusation, something Keiji acknowledged and points out too, telling Ranmaru he was out of touch with reality. Suspicions like these are extremely common in BPD and often have little basis, if any at all, in reality.
His knowing of the traitor can also be interpreted as unrealistic suspicion of others as well. It wasn't meant to be an end-all-be-all type deal and if anything was more of a coincidence but it's here if anyone's curious.
5. Unclear/Shifting Self Image
Ranmaru's self-image isn't something I'd describe as unclear, but definitely falls into shifting. He goes from self-deprecating about lacking worth for being a doll to believing himself to be Sara's salvation in a very short amount of time, in only a few hours. That is if it even took an hour at all. I really don't know how much else to expand on this, it's pretty in your face.
These are the five traits I could definitively link to Ranmaru, meaning he meets 5 out of the 9 symptoms of BPD, enough for a person to qualify for diagnosis. There are additional other factors such as his immediate attachment to Sara and his idolization of her, but I mainly wanted to link his behaviors to specific traits to lay-out the criteria I believe he fits. There's likely more so feel free to add on and give feed-back! I'd love to hear what y'all think! It's not as much as I would have liked but I wanted to go off of canon rather than personal interpretation.
Before I wrap this post up there's one more thing I'd like to point out about Ranmaru and why I believe him to be BPD coded and that's obsessive love disorder (OLD).
OLD is a mental health condition that's frequently caused by BPD. It's characterized by an obsessive love for someone to the point of needing to obsessively protect or defend them.
There's two things I'd specifically like to mention about OLD, overwhelming attraction to a single person and the need to protect them, two things I think are very present in Ranmaru.
It's very obvious that Ranmaru has devoted himself to Sara to the point of idolization. Sara's the center of his whole world. Even outside the logic route it's clear he's willing to do anything for her. He also wants to be her Salvation. He wants to protect Sara, to save her. It's why he attacks Keiji, and in the logic route, plans to kill him.
So yeah, those are my thoughts on Ranmaru and why I believe him to be BPD coded. I really appreciate feed-back and this is a conversation I'm really looking forward to having! Feel free to reply/reblog with your own additions and thoughts!
