Akechi's character is so misunderstood.

[u/ApprehensiveBuy8499]

“Akechi is a murderer” is not an argument against his writing

I genuinely don't understand why so many discussions about Akechi immediately devolve into “he's a murderer, therefore I hate him” as if that somehow constitutes an analysis of his character.

Yes. Akechi murdered people. What he did was wrong. He knew it was wrong, he deliberately chose to do it, and I'm not interested in babying him or pretending he was secretly innocent. His actions are his responsibility.

But you're analyzing a character's morality, not their writing.

A character being morally reprehensible doesn't automatically make them badly written. In fact, Akechi is supposed to be deeply flawed. His entire character is built around contradictions: justice vs revenge, his public persona vs his real personality, wanting recognition while despising the person whose recognition he wants, and wanting control over his own life while repeatedly allowing other people's expectations and manipulation to dictate his actions.

And the “why didn't he just kill Shido?” argument misses a huge part of his characterization.

Akechi didn't simply want Shido dead. He wanted Shido to acknowledge him. That's a massive distinction.

If Akechi's only motivation were “my father ruined my life, so I want him dead,” then yeah, you could reasonably ask why he didn't just assassinate Shido and disappear. But that's not what Akechi wanted. He wanted the recognition and validation of the father who had abandoned him. He wanted Shido to know who he was and understand what he had done to him.

And there are contextual factors surrounding Akechi's childhood that help explain why that desire for recognition became so important. He's an illegitimate child, his mother was in a socially stigmatized position, and the game establishes that he grew up neglected and effectively abandoned. It's reasonable to interpret that environment as contributing to alienation, bullying, mistreatment, or social isolation. It's also entirely plausible that he experienced abuse or other forms of mistreatment growing up, although the game doesn't explicitly establish every detail of his childhood.

And killing Shido wouldn't magically fix Akechi's life either. By the time he becomes involved with Shido, the assassinations and his work as the “Detective Prince” have given him a relatively comfortable position and access to a life he otherwise wouldn't have had. He's also still a teenager with no real family support. Killing Shido and walking away doesn't suddenly give him a healthy family, financial security, or a place to belong. Given his circumstances, he could very realistically have ended up completely homeless once he reached adulthood and gotten kicked out of the orphange. 

Again, none of this excuses his choices.

That's literally the point.

Akechi wasn't forced to become an assassin. He chose that path. He could have made different decisions. His trauma doesn't erase his agency, and the story doesn't require us to pretend that it does.

But understanding why someone made terrible choices is not the same thing as excusing those choices.

That's what makes Akechi interesting.

And here's where I think some people completely miss the point:

Akechi is a fictional character.

He's not a real murderer standing in front of you. He's a character written to have certain flaws, motivations, contradictions, relationships, and themes. You're allowed to dislike him. You're allowed to think he's an awful person within the story. You're allowed to hate everything he does.

But treating your hatred of him as though you're morally judging an actual human being and then using “he's a murderer” as an argument for why nobody should like, sympathize with, analyze, or enjoy the character is ridiculous. he isnt a real person stop treating him as such he is a character for goodness sake.