Can we talk about Ikedaās main color being red? One of the last videos of pink was Sasakiās poem about how red means innocence. Itās a symbol for childhood in the game. Red was also Wandaās color. The kid who never got to grow up. Now, itās Ikedaās color, the age regressor stuck as a child without ever having the chance to grow up. (Especially now that we know heās probably going to die soon.) Anyways, Ikeda was born with red. He was born with wolves. The lines that made me think of Ikeda specifically are the ending:
āIt almost makes you want to be a wolf sometimes.
It almost makes you violent.
The idea that if you had claws,
and if you can run and stalk and huntā¦
ā¦youād be able to protect yourself.
It makes you want to be worse.
It makes you want to pull your hood down and run into the tree line where itāll be your turn to ruin a life,
where itāll be your turn to bite and claw and hurt people, butā
He has spent this whole killing game trying to be a wolf. To him, hurting others is a coping mechanism (the worst one; Iām speaking from experience but not on his level). Hurting others takes away from acknowledging his own weakness. Heās small, weak, and vulnerable, but if he makes himself a wolf, he wonāt be seen that way. He hates the pity. He hates the reality of his situation. If heās a wolf, he isnāt the prey. But he is. He canāt hide that he isnāt the big bad. He is literally forced out of that persona and stuck as little red. We know heās gonna die, right? My best bet is that it wonāt be as the big bad. Itāll be as little red, the child stuck in a killing game wanting to be the predator but always the prey. Unlike with Little Red though, no hunter will be able to save him.
