Fanservice and wish fulfillment operate independently of a character's personality or intentions. It has to do with what situations the writing puts a character in. A lot of the group interactions in this game are structured in this way: something is brought up, a series of reactions to show their differences. In this case, Yosuke brought up measurements, Chie was uncomfortable, Rise readily says them, Naoto takes the paper away in embarrassment. Rise being put at the forefront of this particular situation is what I'm talking about.
You have the wrong idea of how the scene went down:
Yosuke: Look... If you're gonna blab it all... You might as well tell us girls' measurements!
Rise: Sure, go right ahead. My profile's been public knowledge for ages.
All she did was react to Yosuke's absurd suggestion. That's it. She did not give out her measurements, and she certainly did not bring them up as a "joke." She kept a cool head and simply stated an objective truth. Your previous allegation was nothing but fiction.
I mentioned the animation at the beginning of the game because it exactly embodies what I speak of. Rise, the character, has nothing to do with you seeing the Calorie drink commercial. But you as a player, with no prior knowledge of Rise, is given this movie of her in a bikini at the beginning of the game.
hiimdaisy's persona 4 comic can showcase how ridiculous this is better than me:
Again, I'll have to challenge your logic here. What you're arguing isn't even a matter of interpretation - the game is crystal clear on the fact that Rise's commercial is a shallow (and inaccurate) look into her character. You keep trying to attribute that scene to Rise's character, in attempt to paint her as shameless celebrity caricature, when it's purpose is to tie back to one of the major themes of Persona 4 (false impressions and what not). Persona can be obtuse at times, but this is the one matter it was very clear on. I have no idea why you brought up Hiimdaisy, her comic's are incredibly facetious.
Why, because it contains romance? The character among the Investigative Team, after Rise, that panders to you the most isn't even a girl.
If Yosuke is the BFF of the story and Rise is the most pushed love interest, then it makes sense that they would adhere to P4MC's gary stuness the most. The key here is idealized situations that make you feel awesome. Shitty food doesn't make you feel awesome. Yukiko being an uncomfortable ditz doesn't make you feel awesome. Yukiko saying you need to change your name to Amagi if you seriously plan on continuing their relationship, isn't awesome. When Yukiko is pushed as a love interest in that social link, she isn't idealized as Rise.
No, because her s.link is structured around romance from the get go. The most beautiful/popular girl in school who has the distinction being "an impregnable fortress", suddenly falls in love with you? Oh and did I mention she's incredibly smart and an heiress to a semi-famous inn as well? How is that not idealized? Her poor cooking and spacey behavior does not detract from that at all. In fact, you shouldn't judge a character based on your own values; Yukiko being an uncomfortable ditz/bad cook might be endearing to other people. Yukiko is (for all intents and purposes) the ‘pure’ girlfriend for all your waifu needs (it's important to consider that Persona 4 is a japanese game first, and the nadeshiko trope is
extremely appealing there).
I never intended to get in a pissing competition with you in regards to who's more shameless, but it is what it is.
Finally, Yukiko embodying the yamato nadeshiko trope has less to do with the P4MC and more to do with Yukiko being contrasted to Chie, who is everything but that trope. They are associated with each other for the entirety of the game.
Regardless of the intention, she embodies the trope to a T. Hence why she's the ideal wife.
I forgot about that time Chie intervened. You may be right.
I can give my opinion about the Yosuke homophobia thing but it's another topic in itself.
I wouldn't mind reading it someday.
I know that scene you refer to. Was Rise paring up Yosuke and Chie also helping them out, or was it just teasing/banter?
Once again: You have the wrong idea of what happened.
Rise asks why Yosuke and Chie don't date. She's not doing them a favor, she was asking a simple question.
I think the problem is that I take what she says at face value and don't think much of it. I could see us both being right, in that she's egocentric but caring at the same time.
I have a lot of respect for Rise Kujikawa. Idol characters are almost universal unappealing for me, but something about Rise just clicked for me. She isn’t a perfect character, and there's definitely some wish fulfillment to her character, but she's ultimate a good one in a game filled with good characters. She’s worth appreciating, and a character that I wouldn't consider to be shameless.
Given the game's theme, a celebrity character is VERY appropriate. Their career is a commoditized public image. They are subject to rumors, misrepresentation...things that the game commonly slams. But the celebrity representation in the game has to be a widely adored kouhai who has insatiable hots for you. Like, I don't think it's a coincidence that they gave Rise a flirty personality compared to the rest of the girls.
Rise fawning over the protagonist does not feed into her being a shameless celebrity caricature. Attempting to tie that behavior to being a result celebrity caricature is not only contradicted by canon but it's essentially saying that developers screwed up with her character concept- which was very much ,"a cute but complex idol." Rise's a character with depth.
As an aside she's certainly not the only character who has the hots for the protagonist. (Pretty much everyone has some degree of attraction towards the protagonist)
The idea behind her character development isn't bad at all. It's just executed poorly, which makes it disappointing. I think if Rise weren't the Lovers arcana of this game, it would have gotten better direction.
The fact that the Lovers is an arcana indicates a major, life changing decision between 2 choices. To that end, it's the
perfect fit for Rise.
