i posted these write-ups i wrote about some of my thoughts on ratio's character on another platform a short while ago, but i want to post them here too in case someone would be interested in reading them:
You know, I think it's interesting how there's kind of an emphasis on how people don't understand him in Ratio's character
I mean, there are multiple times where Trailblazer has said something along the lines of "Wow I didn't expect that from you" to him
And then his character stories are literally all excerpts from a book titled "Wisdom as a Privilege: Decoding Dr. Ratio" that tries to decipher Ratio as a person, and in said book, it's noted that Ratio is "as contentious as his research" as well as that "despite the plethora of commentaries [about Ratio in his homeworld], none of them seems to provide a compelling perspective." There is also this quote from his character stories: "At that time, Ratio was already a prominent figure in society, but there were varying opinions about him among his teachers and peers."
Although, despite him (Iirc) being canonically described as "the epitome of a disliked person", when you read the social media section in his character stories and the Hoyolab Dr. Ratio's Notes post, it seems like Ratio is pretty respected in the academic world... I suppose it's his personality which is highly contentious
Anyway, to give another example, there is Sunday in 2.1 who in his conversation with Ratio says "I understand you're an avid learner who seeks the pursuit of knowledge above all." and offers up The Family's research findings on Stellarons in exchange for Ratio helping him. Of course, you can say that the perceived friction between Aventurine and Ratio was part of their plan to fool Sunday, but it is nonetheless another instance of someone just fundamentally misunderstanding Ratio.
There are a few other interesting things my mind draws connections to, such as how in the Hoyolab post I mentioned earlier, Ratio is talked about like this: "He is still the insurmountable legend in our school. We all call him the Scholar King! And see? It's exam season again, and it's time to pray to the Scholar King..."
Someone exceptional to "pray" to. Something "divine" you could say, which is interesting because in 1.6, Geniuses are compared to the divine and the mundane to humanity, and Ratio readily calls himself an ordinary person yet it seems a lot of people don't quite perceive him that way.
(And that in itself is intriguing because Ratio is actually named after a Goddess, namely the Goddess of Truth in Roman Mythology, Veritas. Not to mention how his design is seemingly specifically made to represent both geniuses and the mundane, and which one he is changes depending on which angle you're looking at him from, but both angles are ultimately from the same body which could mean, from a certain perspective, he's both an ordinary person and a genius. If you're interested in what I mean by that:)
Which you can relate to Ratio's technique name, "the mold of idolatry". And actually, is it not interesting that Ratio's technique is essentially him creating statues of himself that taunt the enemies around him, making them to pay attention to it while he, the real version, can walk around unseen by anyone?
On that note, in some ways it feels like Ratio being a not very understood/widely debated person is partly... well, his fault. Whether that's something he does intentionally or unintentionally.
There is this EN dialogue of Ratio's in 2.3 that I've always found interesting, one you get when you ask him to rate Aventurine (lol): "[...] From my perspective, I am invariably the teacher, and [Aventurine], along with you and every other individual, is the student."... This line very much makes it seem like putting himself in the role of the "professor" is something Ratio purposefully does, which seems to be supported by his Penacony sticker's description, "I'm just doing what a supporting character should do." Arguably, you can see him doing this in both 1.6 and 2.1.
Seeing/treating yourself as the teacher and everyone else as students, intentionally making yourself a "supporting character" so other people can improve their own lives, putting yourself in that role which is different from everyone else's... If you look at it a certain way, isn't that sort of... lonely? Isolating? And that's what this whole post is supposed to be about, really
I think most people would agree that of the characters we know, the one closest to Ratio is Aventurine. You can argue that he knows Ratio better than most people as he has this dialogue in 2.1 where he asks Ratio "I thought you'd already given up on [joining the Genius Society]?" while it's said in Ratio's character stories that he has never spoken about wanting to join the GS publicly. But then if you look at Aventurine's voiceline about Ratio, you can see that he suspects Ratio doesn't care for him much, which to us is pretty clearly wrong... Of course, that's partly due to Aventurine's own insecurities, however you could probably say it's because of Ratio's "tsundereisms" (which are partly him just being a tsundere, but also connected to his self esteem issues) too, and you can also still count it as another instance of someone not fully understanding Ratio, with that someone being a person who knows him better than most
Having mentioned Ratio's "tsundereisms", I want to talk about how in the DU Human Comedy quest, Screwllum talks very highly of Ratio, clearly likes and respects him a lot, even asks TB for advice on what gift to give him, but then when TB asks if Ratio is the "partner" Screwllum mentioned, Ratio's like "Oh, calling me his 'partner' is just him overstating my contributions"... Just accept that he values you and your insights man
In general, Ratio is just that kind of person. I feel like a lot of people in this fandom think he is very arrogant and has a superiority complex or something, but when TB congratulates him on his research paper being a significant breakthrough in its field in the 3.5 drinkmixing event, Ratio replies with "Thanks... But these kinds of praise are unnecessary."
Also, you know, don't most tsunderes basically put on a certain image and try to convince others of it because they're afraid to show their true feelings (cough which if you squint, you can actually connect that to the plaster head Ratio wears that hides his expression with the head of a cold, unfeeling statue cough)? Isn't it just pushing people away? Like how intentionally putting yourself in a certain position different from others around you, causing them to often misunderstand you and/or not see you as one of them, and embodying the role of a harsh, strict teacher because you think criticism is invaluable for learning *also* pushing people away in a sense, if you ignore the matter of education and focus on what the person doing that may be feeling/experiencing on a personal level? Hmm...
Whether or not that interpretation is true, I doubt Ratio himself thinks of it that way though. I feel like I have to mention how when Ratio texts you about Human Comedy in 2.5, if you ask him "Who are you?", he responds with "It doesn't matter if you know me or not, but you should know yourself and the data I sent. That's very important." If you look at his Express visit dialogues, you can see that he's "aware that [he's] not the most endearing person" too... So if you look at all of the things mentioned in this comment, it really makes it sound like Ratio doesn't mind if you know him or understand him or like him as long as you can learn from him, right? He really is the embodiment of the role of a "professor"...
Oh, and I didn't even talk about how if there really is supposed to be a focus on the different ways people perceive him in Ratio's character, that might imply very interesting things about his past desire and efforts to join the Genius Society... Namely, perhaps he felt pressured to become a Genius because people expected that of him. In general, I've always thought that Ratio's story has a lot to do with the perceptions of ordinary people and how beings/concepts such as the Paths, Aeons and their chosen affect them and their lives
I'm really starting to just ramble at this point but what I'm trying to say is: Doesn't Ratio seem lonely? He's a contentious public figure who most seem to view as an exceptional genius (even if not a Genius) and don't fully understand, and you could argue he himself has this tendency to push others away, or perhaps push himself away from others (and I haven't even gone deeper into the possible self esteem issues Ratio has in this post, which is of course related to that!), which intensifies this. If you look at things from a more meta perspective, he's also still our only Intelligentsia Guild character and when he released, he had voicelines for 3 people, 2 of which explicitly said they did not know who tf he is in his release patch and the remaining 1 being unplayable (Screwy 💔), while nobody had voicelines for him
All that is to say, Hoyo PLEASE give us more information about Ratio's past. Specifically about his homeworld, home life and family, as well as how he grew up and whether he had friends. I genuinely think those things are very important for his characterization, especially the matter of his parents and whether he grew up with love and support (Though, Ratio's parents are never mentioned even in his character stories so it's actually fully possible Ratio is an orphan???), since the answer would likely explain a lot about his character
Connected to what I talked about yesterday with nobody really understanding Ratio in-universe, this voiceline has always been very fascinating to me for what it could mean about his identity/his own view of his identity
I feel like the other languages make it sound even more like he's talking about himself here (with the "Well, that's true for me, at least" part seemingly being translated into something more along the lines of "That applies to me too."), though among them I only speak English so I can't confirm it myself
To be honest, I think there is a really interesting conversation to be had here in relation to Ratio about the way a person is perceived by others and the way they perceive themselves, the differences between those perceptions and the biases that inevitably colour them, what someone's "true self" means and whether such a thing even exists
To elaborate on what I mean, for example, there was this Bilibili video for a collab featuring Fugue and Aventurine a while back where the punchline of the joke was that Fugue was describing certain characters and Aventurine kept thinking of the wrong people. Iirc Fugue would say something like "a fierce swordsman" and think Blade while Aventurine would think of Sushang or something lol. And in that video, when Fugue said "gentle scholar", she thought of Ruan Mei while Aventurine thought of Ratio
And even if "gentle" would likely not be the first word one thinks of when describing Ratio, I can see why Aventurine would think that way considering their bond and all the truly shitty and harsh people Aventurine has certainly met throughout his life.
But I don't really think Ratio would consider himself gentle. Does that mean Aventurine's perception is wrong and he does not understand Ratio's true self, because it does not match Ratio's own perception of himself? Not really, as like I said, the way people perceive others is inevitably coloured by their own biases, both negative and positive. And Ratio is a critical person who likely has some self esteem issues, so I'd argue his biases towards himself would skew more negative. So really, what does a person's true self really mean, and what does Ratio consider his unchanging true self that does not depend on others' perceptions to be like?
In general, there are other things related to the matter of perception in Ratio's character, such as his ult line which literally translates to "To be is to be perceived", a quote said by George Berkeley who argued matter does not exist independently, instead it has to be perceived by a mind (of a human or of God, who in his view guaranteed the continuation of existence through his perception) to exist. If we apply that to Ratio's self, can we say that Ratio's "true self" continues to exist independent of others' perceptions because he himself perceives it? And if he's the only one who perceives it and in doing so he ensures the continuation of its existence, can we maybe even consider that another God(dess) motif he has?
Anyway, I'm rambling again lol
