I think it's interesting that it's (somewhat) common for people to ascribe some kind of malice to or put all of the blame on Ryou for continuing to wear the Millennium Ring. Personally I've never read Ryou as being sympathetic towards the spirit of the Ring in cannon nor do I see him holding any kind of ill will towards his friends. In fact, he cares a lot about them and they also care a lot about him!
Is he to blame for continuing to wear that evil thing? Yes, he is part of the problem. However, the spirit is manipulative and seems to know how to manipulate Ryou very well.
In Duelist Kingdom we are shown that the spirit is able to communicate directly with him even when he is not wearing it and we can assume that most likely between Monster World and Duelist Kingdom the spirit has been actively communicating with him, trying to break him down. Whittling him down until he's carrying the Ring around in his bag, bringing it everywhere with him again.
The spirit has know Ryou for a very long time, he's seen all of the things that have happened to him and knows how to chip away at his resolve.
It's one of the only instances that we get to see how the spirit communicates to Ryou but he's pulling every trick he has until he hits something that Ryou just can't say no to.
"Please take me back, I'm different now I promise!" "It'll never happen again, trust me!" "I'm just trying to help!"
When that doesn't work he goes for what Ryou cares about, his friends.
"Well if you don't listen to me, you and your friends will be trapped here forever."
And while Ryou knows he shouldn't, that the spirit is a liar, it too big of a risk not to accept his help. Or else it'll be HIS fault that his friends are hurt. They'll be trapped, left to starve and die.
I like to think that throughout the series Ryou is struggling between trying to break the hold the Ring has on him. There are probably times when he's managed to go without the Ring and the cycle starts all over again, breaking him down until he feels like he must put it back on because it's the only way to help his friends or prevent some horrible event from happening.
Beyond the spirit's manipulation the Ring probably holds some kind of sentimental value to him. He lives away from his only other family member, his dad, and has lost both his mother and sister. It may be one of the few things he has that still connects him to his family so he can't bring himself to lock it up or otherwise hide it away. Perhaps the ring feels like some kind of surrogate family member in a way.
Maybe if he just tries a little harder he can make the spirit change and they can have the kind of relationship that Yugi has with the puzzle (he can't). He wants to believe that the spirit has changed for the better, for real this time (he hasn't).
There is most certainly some amount of shame he harbors for allowing himself to be manipulated again. He blames himself for everything the spirit has used his body for.
titsay
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jacobvanloon
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