It's been an absolute joy reading Ryv's story of going from a barely recovered spice addict to a paragon of the Light as the Sword of the Jedi. Starting out on Peace as the unofficial administrative assistant to Wyatt who went around taking care of all manner of tasks while simultaneously putting out any and all fires to shouldering the entirety of the Jedi's war effort against not just the Bryn'adul but now also the Sith. Ryv has always been a character who was defined by his intense sense of empathy and compassion to me, always willing to do what others were too afraid or perhaps too prideful to do, no matter his own reservations on the matter, perpetually accented by the incredibly human touch you bring to the character. From the abundantly casual way he speaks to his willingness to always crack a joke and approach anyone as a person, no matter their station or rank, make him feel like a very fresh take on a Jedi, who tend to be too obsessed with attaining or preaching their moral high ground or too aloof to become relatable characters.
Watching him develop has been really great, as already mentioned. His journey from a spice addicted kid s too angry at his late father who died fulfilling his duty as a Jedi to a man who comes to admire his dad for precisely that reason and eventually ends up surpassing all expectations by becoming the Sword of the Jedi makes for a very compelling arc. The first signs of how well he fits that role can be seen quite early on in his development, I feel. He started becoming the emotional centre, the heart, of the Jedi immediately surrounding him very early on. A rubber band that always pulled the group back together and returned their focus on the most important tasks at hand. The early period is the part where I got the opportunity to interact with the character the most and it was always fun to do so. The intense empathy he shows towards other characters makes him a very engaging character to interact with and makes for great posts to build off of. The brief descriptions you always put into Ryv posts about his emotional reactions to other characters, beyond the most basic logical action responses, always lends the reader a good gauge of how much he cares for other people. An example that comes to mind of this is the specific instance of him just sitting back and enjoying the company of his fellow padawan aboard Peace when they assembled to take care of some basic chores for the first time. Moments like these make me want to read his story over that of other Jedi who are too busy expositing their righteousness and moral high ground.
The character's strengths also come almost entirely from his weaknesses, of which there are so many. Rather than stacking excellence in all manner of Lightsabre fields, an incredible intellect, and all manner of Force Powers, you weren't afraid of writing a kid who was almost powerless in many of the situations he found himself in, with only his street smarts and his wit to protect him from ancient Sith Lords who butchered billions if not trillions. The opportunity for growth this presented the character made him stand out above many others and has come to persuade quite a few writers to take a similar approach with their characters. Writing power fantasies is satisfying, but only for their writers. They leave so little room for the reader to connect with that it makes them a chore to read. Ryv, however, has many flaws. He fails, he takes hits, both physical and emotional, but he never lets those failures define him. He grows beyond them and becomes a better person for it. That's what makes him such an absolute joy to read and his story so compelling to follow for people other than you. I'd take a single Ryv over a thousand power fantasies any day.
This text is getting way too long and I'm starting to feel guilty about throwing all my thoughts at the wall, so to conclude I'd like to appropriate a wise savant of our age's words: "its weird how some people sleep differently, I sleep on my back, my mom sleeps on her side, and y'all sleep on Ryv"