The Essay lol (These are not to be definitive, they are just thoughts I had after the finale)
Riri’s characterization in Bet is, to me, a masterclass in subtlety and contradiction. Riri reads like someone shaped by trauma and systemic control; but also, like someone navigating power and vulnerability through a fractured, emotionally complex lens. (Or logic? I don’t know. Or maybe neither and it's just messy because that is what being human is, even when you feel or act like more machine then human. Can't escape humanity.)
If we were in an English class, her mask is the most obvious symbol of repression. It quite literally hides half her face, creating visual and emotional distance. But her eyes and body language often seem to speak in place of her silence, through micro-expressions: the tightening of her jaw, a flicker of hesitation in her gaze, a slight shift in posture. These moments might suggest she’s suppressing reactions she’s learned are dangerous to show. There’s this feeling of restraint to how she moves, like someone who had to learn long ago that visible emotion came with consequence. Sometimes, it even looks like she’s bracing for a blow no one’s thrown yet (though that just be me).
The student representative role: imposed on her by Arkadi and by extension the school board, feels less like a promotion and more like a mechanism of containment. On the surface, she complies. But other scenes that felt like it had in choices that felt more like hers (i.e: stopping Kira from killing Yumeko or stepping in to protect Mary) seems like a suggestion that she’s navigating the system from the inside. Not in open rebellion, but in an attempt to protect others without completely destroying herself. It reads less like loyalty to power and more like a carefully curated survival strategy.
Her dynamic with Kira is one of the most emotionally fraught threads of the season. They’re not just sisters; they’re (Like many siblings though it doesn't appear to really be discussed between siblings irl. or that might just be because mine don't know how to communicate....) entangled reflections of one another, shaped by the same violence but reacting in different ways. Their relationship doesn’t easily slot into simple binaries like dominance and submission or love and resentment. It seems co-dependent, yes, but layered with complicated love, rivalry, duty, and survival. In moments like the choking scene in the finale, Riri doesn’t fight back. That might be resignation, or it might be a kind of emotional logic in which keeping her sister’s trust (or love) is worth enduring pain. The brushing-hair scene earlier in the season quietly highlights this intimacy: small, loaded gestures that say more than dialogue ever could.
Her relationship with Mary introduces a different emotional tone. With Mary, Riri’s protectiveness feels more reactive, more visceral, more well human. In moments like the kitchen scene with Gabriel, Riri acts swiftly and without calculation. That scene, where she physically steps between Mary and potential harm, might be one of the only moments she fully drops the mask. There’s no duty in it. Just instinct. Concern. Possibly even love. And when she later asks Mary if she wants to leave the party, it reads like one of her first unguarded offers of agency; one not based in command, but in care.
The romantic undercurrent between them (especially Riri’s invitation to the dance) doesn’t feel like a bold or confident move, but a fragile and hopeful action of simply taking your crush to prom. It’s one of the few moments where Riri seems to want something just for herself. A tentative claim to personal connection in a world that rarely lets her choose anything.
To me, Riri’s posture and body language across the season quietly reinforce just how much she’s holding in; through slightly hunched shoulders, hands folded behind her back or clenched at her sides, breath control that borders on restraint. It gives the impression of someone always managing herself, always calculating whether showing emotion is safe—or dangerous.
In the end, I don't think it can (but hey I could be wrong) be claimed that Riri represents resistance in the loud, defiant sense. But perhaps she embodies a quieter kind of rebellion: the kind that tries to protect what matters without breaking the system that’s kept her (and others) barely intact. From what I could gather, she's a portrait of someone caught between obedience and care, between control and humanity, and the slow, maybe even reluctant realization that she might deserve more than just survival.
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