Because the best heroines aren't the ones who get chosen. They're the ones who realize they never needed to be chosen in the first place.
By the end of the film, she learns the hardest lesson in adulthood: Heroine Disqualified
We love to mock the "Not Like Other Girls" trope, but Heroine Disqualified asks a harder question: What if you’re exactly like every other girl, and you still lose? Because the best heroines aren't the ones who get chosen
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. 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 isn't sad because she lost a boy. She's sad because she realized she isn't real.
For two decades, she viewed her life as a narrative where she was the sun. Everyone else—Rita, the school, the universe—revolved around her plot. But standing in that closet, she realizes she’s just a side character in someone else’s love story.