Imagine knowing from birth that your whole happy life is a lie. Imagine finding out at a super young age that your mother, who you thought loved and cared for you, is actually preparing you to be killed and eaten. While The Promised Neverland's Ray didn't watch his whole clan get massacred in front of him, he still has a thoroughly messed up origin for a protagonist, especially for a literal child.
The anime's first arc places his story and development in the spotlight, but in October of this year, the creators returned to give a prologue that further explains the root of Ray's trauma, deepening our understanding of this tragic hero.
Ray kept his memories from the womb, avoiding "childhood amnesia," and thus remembers the demons from when he saw them as an infant. Recognizing the inconsistencies between his own memories and his life at Grace Field House allowed him to discover the House's true purpose, realizing that the happiness of the orphanage was fake.
The truth haunted him and, as the only child to know the true stakes of their situation but unable to tell anyone, Ray became isolated in the nightmare. He grew up scared, not just for his own sake, but for his family's as well. Knowing the power that the demons and Isabella hold, limited his options when all he wanted to do was prevent his family from dying. He does his own research to fill in the blanks, but eventually, Ray comes to the terrifying conclusion that, in his position, he is helpless to save everyone.
Not wanting to completely give in to the system, Ray resolves to at least save Emma and Norman. To do so, he becomes Isabella's spy, betraying his siblings by helping their mother all so that he could one day save two of them. Ray made these discoveries and came to this conclusion when he was only six years old.
By the time we get to the start of the series, Ray is stoic and closed off from most of his siblings, having created an emotional divide between him and his family because he knows most won't make it past six years old. After he leads Emma and Norman to also discover the truth of the orphanage, Emma becomes determined to save everyone. The reason Ray fights her so hard on this issue is that he, too, wanted to save everyone, but had to come to terms with the harsh reality that not everyone can be saved.
But years spent watching his siblings wave goodbye happily as they are unknowingly sent to their dooms almost completely break him. Carrying such a heavy burden is not easy and holding onto his goal was the only thing to keep him sane. However, when Norman is shipped off, what kept Ray fighting for so many years falters as he realizes that he failed one of the two people he vowed to protect and that his 6 years of preparation wasn't enough.
Even though Ray always planned on saving Emma and Norman, he never included himself in the equation. Instead, to repent for silently sending so many of his siblings to their deaths, Ray decided to use himself as their final trump card, not only to allow them to escape but with the thought that he deserved to burn with Grace Field House. In addition to preparing for the escape, he spent years preparing for his suicide. He didn't think he deserved to leave the House and came to terms with that a long time ago. Even at the time of his attempted suicide, Ray was only 12 years old.
Despite starting off as an aloof character with a hardened heart, Ray has always deeply cared for his siblings as everything he's sacrificed has been for their sake. The years seeing through the façade of the orphanage tore him apart and sacrificing siblings for the chance to save two left him mentally exhausted and broken. He's faced the fear of possibly getting eaten by demons and watching his siblings die for years. For most of his life, he has faced these hardships alone. He's lived a life of fear and frustration as a victim to their cruel system, convinced he could only do the bare minimum against it, and only wished to save his two best friends, the only bright spot of a thoroughly horrifying life.
