REMI IS BEST GIRL! (BUT TECHNICALLY NOT REALLY TBH AND HERE’S WHY)
Let me be clear, Remi is my number one favorite character in unO. Almost leaning to a comfort character. However, I do have some thoughts on her writing that I want to lay out. PLEASE take this as more of a ramble from an emotionally driven brain than a critique tho. I’m not shaming Uru for her writing, just vomiting my thoughts. I may get some stuff in canon wrong so I deeply apologize for it in advance!
As far as we are concerned, her and Blyke are the most morally good out of the characters in this webtoon. However, she’s not perfect. In fact, she makes a lot of mistakes in unO. I hate how fans only brush her aside as the “nice but naive one” or the “stock badass cute female charcter” when there are so much more potential to her. But sadly, there are times where I believe the webtoon itself thinks the same way as them. Remi is not as well-written as characters like Arlo and even *gags* John. She does seem like that at first but there are cracks in her that make her feel… kinda off.
(sorry btw to the unOblr discord members. I know I’ve been annoying with these takes but i want to compile them in a post DX)
I do agree that she hasn’t been compelling since the Volcan arc. While she has her moments like her putting up the Safe House, it’s already predictable since she has been constantly shoved into the box of the “nice girl on the sidelines”, especially in the Rowden arc. I understand the need for spotlight to the other characters but it kind of hurts because I love Remi’s flawed side. My favorite scenes with her is when we see her vulnerable and reckless. When she prioritized her revenge over Volcan when Alana died over the danger of getting harmed herself or when she lost her cool and burst into tears over the idea of Arlo getting hurt like Rei. I love seeing this side of her because as much as she tries to be the active hero, she’s just a teenager with a hero complex who tries to do everything for everyone but ends up hurting the same people in the process.
With what we have in canon, I don’t buy that Remi “easily forgives” her friends, no matter how attached to them she is. Yes, she can be in denial for a while but I don’t think she would let them off completely. Arlo’s been trying to undo Rei’s hard work on the hierarchy for two years. Considering Remi’s persistent and active attitude and the influence Rei and her family has on her, I hardly believe she would tolerate what he did, let alone still be friends with him. It annoys me how every time he does her dirty or admits to doing something wrong, she just reacts with “>:( hmph, fine!”. And that extends too for Isen but it’s worse bc we don’t even see her get pissed at Isen. I like Remi and Arlo’s friendship in canon but since they are such good foils, it would be interesting to see them clash at first (not as intensely as John and Arlo tho) before having these small moments of friendship to have more of an impact.
I am okay with Remi being ignorant. I’m fine with seeing her on the wrong side. I just think it was handled poorly. I can see Remi being naive but not to the point of complete inactivity. The only pre-Safe House Arc onscreen moments where I can see her fit into this “naive royal who does nothing and is ignorant of her actions” is when she does not apologize to John for Blyke shooting a beam at him (probably because jOHN SLAPPED HER AND CALLED HER A BITCH) or that funny haha scene in the webtoon’s first chapter where she playfights with Arlo for cake without the thought of accidentally harming others in the crossfire.
Even though there’s not that much screentime of her being inactive, the same could be said for her work as Queen. Where was she for the past two years? Why was she so passive? She mentioned that she “tried to help others” during that time but that’s all we hear from her. We don’t see what she does or if she really does help low tiers before the Safe House arc. To me, it seems less that she’s naive and more that her existence was completely retconned for certain chapters just so John could have an excuse to absolutely roast her in that one episode (haha get rekt dumb bitch!1!1!1!1).
Remi is constantly overshadowed by other characters and honestly, I think it needs to be addressed. Yes, she has her own agenda but nowadays, it’s mostly swept away for Blyke or Arlo’s development or given a couple of moments to grow (X-Rei arc) only to suddenly be cut off so she could get beaten up by John.
On a related note, her giving up being X-Rei after a couple of scoldings by her friends just sounds so OOC, especially since most of her scenes are dedicated to the weight of Rei’s death in her and how far she went in order to. Thanks, I hate it.
So that’s all of my concerns at the moment so here are the things I would love to see more from her:
Why was she a mostly absent Queen before Rei’s death? What happened to her in the past two years? Did she really do her part but Arlo’s efforts to dismantle Rei’s hierarchy were too much for her?
More platonic moments with her and Isen! I understand that she and Blyke are more close to each other because they are canon love interests but I would love to see more of her friendship with Isen with genuine concerned or tender moments since most of their interactions are just haha funny moments and scolding Isen for being a dum dum. I love the scenes where Isen puts himself out of the line to save Remi when she was fighting Volcan as well as Isen getting beat up driving Remi to confront John. I know that this is a Remi post but Isen feels like a third wheel comic relief most of the time and he deserves better—
Her thoughts on being coddled by Arlo and Blyke. I noticed they baby her a lot and while they have good intentions, it does come off as condescending at times.
Remi being a workaholic. I explained this in a post before but I really feel like this is a good main flaw for her. It also makes her a foil to Seraphina where even with Remi’s selfless intentions, she makes mistakes and it still drains her like how Sera was when she’s Queen. I’d love her to contemplate how she’s not good enough for anyone or always end up making things worse with her help or smth like that.
For a time before Sera’s Spectre arc, she was the only character who was literally breaking her back to uncover the Authorities and the one responsible for most of the improvement on Wellston since the Safe House. I want to see her tired and stressed out of her mind!
The first thing that caught my attention from her is how different she sees the hierarchy. Despite coming from an implied high tier family, it’s fascinating how we see her and Rei being raised with a more community-based mindset from their parents. I really like that and I love to see more of how it influenced her.
The influence Rei had on her besides his death. We get the idea that she had inherited a lot of values for him but I would love to see how much Remi tries to be him as a Royal and probably lead to an identity crisis on how much is the real her or her brother’s legacy—
Bring the X-Rei arc back. Please.
Just her going apeshit in general. Make her scrunkly. Embrace her flaws. She deserves better.
I understand that we can’t explore this currently because of all the current events and having all the screentime be on the actual main characters. I don’t want a Remi-centered unO or anything but I still wish we had room for at least a few of these to explore.
To address the title though, I would consider Arlo best girl okay bye—
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