Riko is messy. She’s loud. She wears ugly sweaters. She throws tantrums. She tries to "win" Rita back by sabotaging his relationship, and she fails miserably. She looks pathetic.
She accepts the rejection. She apologizes for her toxicity. She picks up the pieces of her identity that weren't tied to a boy. And in a twist that feels revolutionary for the genre, she finds happiness in a direction she never looked—with a weird, grumpy guy who actually sees her for who she is, not for who she is supposed to be in a story. Heroine Disqualified
We all know the script. We’ve been rehearsing it since we watched our first Disney movie. Riko is messy
We love her because most of us have been the "Heroine Disqualified" at some point. We’ve been the one who rehearsed the witty comeback three hours too late. We’ve been the one who thought friendship was a down payment on a future relationship. We’ve been the one who confused proximity with destiny. She throws tantrums
There’s just one problem:
We are raised to believe that rejection is a failure of the plot. If he doesn't love you back, you must not have tried hard enough. You must not have run fast enough to the airport.