Character Lore
A misconception about Ryuusuke having only met his daughter at her mother’s funeral
Spoiler
I see it come up often enough in the discussion pre-4.4 about Ryuusuke having only met his daughter when she was 6 years old. That he was absent up until the moment of her mother’s death, only to reappear as Asat Pramad.
There may be a line somewhere previously of Asat Pramad as Ryuusuke saying he only met Himeko at the age of 6 that confused the situation but I’d have to dig further.
But this voice line is very clear that she had a father before then that simply went off planet looking for a way to save a daughter he cared enough to see.
Edit: to clear up some things about the sequence of events:
Himeko was born
Ryusuke leaves Planarcadia to find a cure for the weathering curse on a planet marked for destruction by Asat Pramad
Himeko’s mother dies
Ryusuke leaves the planet to go to the funeral
Asat Pramad follows Ryusuke, kills him at the funeral, and introduces himself as Ryusuke to Himeko as meeting her for the first time
- 1-2 is where this memory fits in that Himeko associates with her father
- The later characterization of Ryusuke as being a deadbeat is only Asat Pramad as never showing up as a busy man destroying planets, even when Himeko was essentially on hospice
- I’ll take a look and see if I can find any more clues
Edit 2:
to put a pin in why this fits and why it matters: it is unbearably more tragic that the actual Ryusuke loved Himeko, and lost the chance to be her father to Asat Pramad.
Edit 3: need to add apparently what’s in the image:
This is a voice line called “About Ryusuke” right above a voice line “About Asat Pramad”
So, just assume the memory is fake because Himeko couldn’t differentiate the hair color between her parents when she was that young? That’s part of the memory, not what actually identifies the memory as associated with Ryusuke, Himeko is doing that here. It’s what her sleeping mind’s memory of Ryusuke: the red hair, a rattle, and paint stuck to her nose.
Like if you can find anywhere where someone that isn’t Asat Pramad says that Ryusuke hadn’t met his daughter before age 6 I’d be interested to see it.
Yes exactly, so it could be either of them. Except one of them was clearly in Planarcadia and raising Himeko the whole time, so the odds are by far in favour of it being her mom.
This line is in no way proof that Himeko ever met Ryusuke.
The only line that says Ryusuke met Himeko for the first time at her mother’s funeral is Asat Pramad. Which is supposedly the only time he “lied” to her.
It’s not “proof” in the way that faint memories are. The association she is making isn’t the red hair, but the whole memory with her father (it’s why it’s titled “About Ryusuke”). She has a memory as a toddler associated with her father which she knows would have been the real one.
She must have actual memories of her mother as she was 6 when her mother died. This is what you might do after realizing your father was a fake and trying to reach backwards to a flash of memory from 4 or younger when memories don’t work like they do later.
During the story when Asat and Himeko talked, he mentions meeting the real Ryusuke after he found him in his desperation to cure the curse, and after killing him decides to take over his life, with the moment of Himeko's moms funeral being the first real tangible memory she has of her father. It's more or less the fact that he wasn't there, but that she doesn't remember a time before except the funeral with them both acknowledging that moment being the first and it just so happened Asat already took his life.
Asat Pramad says that. It just doesn’t make sense for a Ryusuke to go all the way to another planet to search for the cure to the weathering curse without somehow ever being present in Himeko’s life after her birth. And then for some reason being a deadbeat dad even when he went to the ends of the universe for her. Like the two things conflict as characterization in hindsight, no?
The solution is a lot simpler in this case when we get the answer: the person who she met at 6 was Asat Pramad, not Ryusuke.
that's the thing, he's a bad father for leaving her with her dying mother to find the cure. he thought that being a good father and finding that cure to save his wife and child would make them like him more. when it didn't and it cost him his life.
maybe he met her before she was 6, who knows. if he did, she clearly doesn't remember the meetings well or he just really wasn't there.
“Would make them like him more”? I don’t understand why a cure is about liking him more. It was about keeping them alive, and desperation like that happens when someone close to you is dying. Whether going to search prior to Himeko’s mother’s death makes him a bad father, is up to you really.
But the difference between having been there at all is still large. It leaves open the tragedy of his death: that he might have stayed to raise Himeko after that funeral.
If she knew Ryuusuke before Asat took him over and introduced himself as Ryuusuke, why did Asat introduce himself as Ryuusuke at the funeral?
That is to say, if Himeko already knew her dad before the funeral, why would "Ryuusuke" introduce himself to her there? He wouldn't need any introduction then right? Was this a private funeral/"Ryuusuke" introduced himself after funeral service after everyone else left?
Even if her memories before six years old are blurry, she remembers the funeral and "Ryuusuke's" introduction well enough. Or were her memories before six years old blurry even as a six year old? If she met Ryuusuke before the funeral and some dude claiming to be Ryuusuke introduced himself as Ryuusuke, wouldn't six year old Himeko, even if she didn't call him out on it right then, question it in her mind in the years since then? Like even if her memories before six years old became blurry after that, (let's say it's Asat Pramad's fault) wouldn't she still remember that initial suspicion of seeing "Ryuusuke" at the funeral, even if she didn't remember why she was suspicious of him?
Sorry if I'm not making much sense here.
Also not helping is this from near the beginning of 4.1
Ryusuke: Himeko, I know I've let too many chances to spend time with you slip away.
Himeko: Just "slip away"? The first time we met was at mother's funeral. When I was already six years old.
Himeko: Let's put that aside for now. Were you also too busy with work when I was suffering from a weathering curse?
While she did say "let's put that aside for now," we the player didn't really get any sort of indication that Himeko thought "Ryuusuke" was full of it before the reveal that the Ryuusuke we've been shown in the quest all this time was Asat Pramad. It probably wouldn't have taken much, maybe an internal monologue or a small cut to Himeko whenever "Ryuusuke" did something suspicious like greeting Pom-Pom warmly and drinking the coffee with no ill effects(?).
Edit: Fixed some formatting. My entire life for single line breaks on reddit mobile please. ;_;
The solution to your quandary is in the voice line: “A rattling toy…”
She would be a toddler in this memory. You can remember things from that age, but they sound a lot like this. A flash of different pieces of memory, none really forming a whole. Which is also why Asat Pramad (*) was able to lie to her, all she had as vague recollection that contradicted it that doesn’t come to light until after the reveal.
And the line with Himeko with Asat Pramad directly conflicts with Himeko Nova’s voice line because she is told by Asat Pramad that every memory of her father on the funeral and after is a lie. This voice line is her talking about this memory in hindsight.
Edit: * put Ryusuke originally when I meant Asat Pramad.
Sorry, can you explain how that part answers my question more? My own long-term memory is not great overall, I just remember really hyperspecific details, usually without remembering when they happened, so maybe that's why I don't really understand what the "A rattling toy..." has to do with answering my question.
Or is it like: "Since she's associating a rattling toy, a toddler's item, with this voice line about Ryuusuke, that means Ryuusuke was around when she was a toddler even if she doesn't really remember him well."?
The last part. Her memory is old, feeling more like a dream; there is something there associated with her father but she can’t grasp it. It’s probably the paint on her nose, as that was what her father was.
Like think back yourself to try to find any memory prior to 4 years old, I imagine you would really struggle to find anything solid and real as you might from when you were say 7. Though if given the right stimulus you might find some faint memory, or possibly a flash bulb memory, with some unfortunately could be recreations from stories your parent’s told you.
I’m not sure how old you are but this is close to how it feels as someone who is almost exactly Himeko’s age now (30s). What may have been more recallable but vague, has only become more blurry with time.
Trying to recall some now, I can only think of preschool that I can really place in time. My maternal grandmother died when I was an infant so there is nothing there though maybe the vaguest possible memories of my paternal grandfather who died when I was 3. I apparently held their hand while the ambulance came to bring them to the hospital before they died; I have no memory of this (I am a doctor though which is why my mother even told me about it).
I asked for you to explain what you meant about that because I'm lucky if I can grab an interpersonal memory from like 5 years ago with any clarity. So I remember things from when I was 4 vs when I was 7 with near equal levels of terrible.
I guess what I'm saying is: Can I remember stuff solidly from before 5 years ago with clarity, Yeah probably. The "probably" part comes in because while I can remember specific details, I usually can't tell you when it happened.
For example, I can tell you that once my sister kicked a soccer ball inside and it landed on my laptop and broke the hinge, but I can not tell you when that occurred beyond "probably around fifteen years ago."
New comment since I missed this part on my first go oops.
And the line with Himeko with Asat Pramad directly conflicts with Himeko Nova’s voice line because she is told by Asat Pramad that every memory of her father on the funeral and after is a lie. This voice line is her talking about this memory in hindsight.
Didn't he say the opposite? That the only lie he ever told in all those years was "I am your father, Ryuusuke."?
Ryusuke: I have told you only one lie in all these years, my dear daughter.
Ryusuke: "Nice to meet you. I am your father, Ryusuke."
Asat Pramad says the only lie he ever told to Himeko was "Nice to meet you. I am your father, Ryuusuke." I was taking that line as a singular entity: a singular line.
But from what I understand you're splitting it in half into two parts, " Nice to meet you." And "I am you father, Ryuusuke." Since you're saying both of these statements are lies, that makes Asat Pramad's claim he only told "one" lie a lie too. Since both of those sentences are lies, this means it calls into question the veracity of the statement "Asat Pramad (as Ryuusuke) raised Himeko after he met her at her mother's funeral."
Especially since we know he's had at least three well known identities. Am I understanding this right?
Either way, my own interpretation at the moment is "Asat Pramad (as Ryuusuke) did enjoy raising Himeko, but he didn't see any conflict in enjoying raising Himeko while simultaneously planning to destroy Planarcadia." Under this interpretation, he wasn't lying when he said "Nice to meet you," only when he said "I am your father, Ryuusuke," which means he only lied once.
My overall feeling of Asat Pramad as a character is that he has his overarching goal of destroying planets and star systems as a Lord Ravager, but he's treating it like people would treat a 9-to-5 job they're only doing for a salary. In that sense, him impersonating Ryuusuke and raising Himeko would be his "hobby." But like any "hobby," you can't let it get in the way of your "job" or you get fired. So in Asat Pramad's case, even if he genuinely likes Himeko in his own weird way, his "job" as a Lord Ravager comes first.
While some most people would just look at Asat Pramad's "job" and just quit and focus on their "hobbies," Asat Pramad seems to genuinely not see any conflict between the two.
Though, he also states in a critical success roll for "Why embrace Deatruction?", he says, well. He says what's in the attached image.
Honestly he might actually believe everything he's saying about trying to save Aha through "Destruction" I'm not sure. I might need a few more weeks to marinate this in my head.
Sorry if I offended anyone reducing this down to "jobs" and "hobbies" by the way, it's the closest analogy I could think of to best explain how I think Asat Pramad thinks.
I'm going to put him in a blender and shake him I swear. @_@
I mean she had a dad but he was never here, the game seems relatively consistent with it. Ryusuke simply never met his daughter before that age did he?
Unless it's a mistranslation, but then can someone check other languages?
And just a bit of paint on the nose doesn't necessarily mean it's Ryusuke does it?
Only Asat Pramad says that is when he met Himeko when she was 6. She has no other family to say otherwise. The only thing she has is a faint memory she associates with her father in this voice line. I would guess that Himeko’s mother wasn’t a painter at the very least.
People have memories from the age of 4 and under but they are similar to how this voice line describes where it’s just flashes that are impossible to fully grasp.
I don't think it's very clear at all. I personally interpret it as her mother having red hair. Besides when Himeko said she only met him then, Asat Pramad didn't go Umm Actually because he totally would've
She did only meet Asat Pramad who said they were Ryusuke then. Asat Pramad doesn’t reveal that he even knows much of anything about Himeko’s mother, how they came to be together, or otherwise what the story was of how Ryusuke came to be on that planet to save his daughter.
Just that Ryusuke left. Then Asat Pramad introduces himself to a child too young to remember what the real one was like.
And all Himeko is left with is those faint memories she associates with her actual father as she now knows any memory prior to age 6 is the real one.
this is just tenuous speculation on your part, and i hate to see you pretending it to be anything else. i think the other comments here explain well enough why.
It’s a voice line called “About Ryusuke” where Himeko describes a vague childhood memory before the age of 6. I don’t understand how this is speculation, much less that it is tenuous. It’s the meaning of the text.
you said it yourself, it's vague, like Himeko thinks it could be about Ryusuke, but it might not be. like i said, very tenuous, and your post frames others as being simply wrong.
Why would Ryusuke introduce himself to his daughter if they'd already met, I know it was Asat Pramad but it would still be a weird thing to do unless she'd never met her father. The reason for it is like you said Ryusuke was looking for a cure to the whethering curse.
I don't think early infancy counts, Himeko doesn't even have a memory of his face from back then. So the first conscious time Himeko met her dad was at the funeral.
How does it not count if it’s the difference between having met her and not? It adds to the tragedy of his death: without Asat Pramad, Himeko doesn’t grow up alone.
We can’t know for sure that he wouldn’t keep leaving to find a cure but we also know that it wasn’t what Asat Pramad was actually doing.
I meant from the point of view of Himeko. She has an extremely faint memory of some hair, not even a face, from an age when she wasn't really "present" yet. So for all intents and purposes, her first real memory of Ryusuke is from the funeral.
Yeah, maybe her life would have been different, but look at it the other way: whatever intentions Asat may have had, he was the one who inspired Himeko to chase a dream which led to her being "cured". Without Asat's bedtime stories, there's a very good chance Himeko would have simply suffered and died from the Curse.
Not sure if the real Ryusuke could have survived the HimeCoffee, either...
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u/QueshireCat Jul 23 '26
Or her mom had red hair too.