rpd!universe has no real message or theme to it to be honest, the best i can do is probably point out patterns i guess? at least on my side of the story there was mostly nothing to prove. c!ikari is childish, and takes things very unsympathethically (almost) because i found no message to give. but i wanted to protray ikari as just that: someone who by nearly all accounts finds it hard to take a situation seriously (that they themselves are causing at least) and if something does happen (and this is actually kinda supported in-universe considering the last time they tried to get answers themselves they ended up dead)) they do little to find out more and just stick to thier guns. They have little course on sympathy/empathy because any oppurtunity to use it would end up with them or someone else/something dead/destroyed.
its kinda sad actually, in-universe events actually justify thier behaviors pretty well. theyāre shocked that thier more outrageous comments are actually taken as advice, and that so much injury and death is happening nearby. thier usual brand of sarcasm and shitty humor is taken in stride and as much as they get invovled in a situation, they barely find out anything at all or donāt want to due to how intense it is (and they just kinda want to get away from it). the first time they try to get answers, the person they were motivated by in the first place ended up killing them in a fit of anger. ikari recoginzes that itās not normal behavior, and yes they end up not getting anything done in retaliation due to circumstances but like. it left an impact on them. it MATTERED. one of the first things they talk about when being revived is hoping that c!eleven and c!asuka are still alive so that c!ikari can fucking KILL THEM FOR WHAT THEYāVE DONE. in text, i never stated that explicitly, but that was a very clear implication. in text i chose to put more echoing ikariās response before dying. and then as time goes on, they stop trying to invovle themselves, but they still get dragged in anyways, and they try to escape and then the fcking world gets destroyed and remade. any bit of empathy/sympathy is shot more and more as ikari tries to get away but fails, and as they get hurt and thier friends get hurt. c!asuka isnāt even to blame for a decent amount of the destruction they cause, c!eleven defends her and believes in the good of her and that he can help-
because he can handle it. Heās in a good enough position to reason with her, becasue heās powerful, heās experienced, and the two are just...connected. They love each other. (kinda.)Ā
c!ikari canāt spare sympathy or empathy because they donāt HAVE a reason to. And itās not SAFE to either. They have people to lose. Theyāre not lighting fast, or have fast reflexes or superhuman. So when c!ikari stares down the barrel of c!asukaās gun, theyāre fucking scared. c!eleven has no such qualms. Because the only thing that matters to him is c!asuka, and heāll make it out! Itās all okay! because power of love, blah blah blah. and that in part plays so much into why c!ikari hates him so much--because c!eleven could willingly tie himself to a walking disaster, and when c!ikari tried to help him....well, iāve already told you bout how they died, didnāt I?
//note that this is kinda important to me cause the entirety of rpd!universe was made up as it played out, no script nearly no direction (except for perhaps tones of the story) was had. Hell, events of the story would often happen with one person litteraly hijacking someone elseās actions if they werent there and lore went on without members (which is important since we only had 4 actual members). analysis was a moot point due to anything i wrote being wiped off the map and it quickly becoming outdated from new lore. so when i look back i realize a whole lot of things about the story itself and how THAT impacted my character :p i reason i keep getting so re-hyped over my charatcer is well. 1. personal reasons 2. my fucking character ohghhghg its them 3. i never really got to look at them much before and make connections or anything so. :DĀ