[IXRollOutIX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

indirectly explained by him having an EVEN MORE NUTS dad (with little motivation or backstory)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

A lot of this is thanks to "M", who it's important to note was never literally Parad, outside of episode 19. All he did was make parts of Emu that are always there more pronounced.

I'd like to suggest that there's actually a connection here. Because I think it's equally important to note that Emu's loneliness and fascination with games as a child shaped Parado's personally just as much as Parado influences his own. Remember that Masamune infected himself with the same stuff Parado came from, only his complete strain of the virus was never extracted. All the same though, there is something inside of him influencing and exaggerating his own personality traits. Parado manifested within a child who got really good at brainstorming and playing games because he was alone and it shows through in his personality, which then comes back around and influences Emu. Masamune's virus developed within the body of a CEO for a popular game corporation. While he was definitely crazy enough to infect himself in the first place, I believe the character as we've come to know him is entirely a caricature of who he was beforehand. His view of the world as a product for him to exploit, his fascination with judgment, his hunger for power, his wish to return as the CEO of GENM, and his desire to control all things - it's all influenced by the Bugster virus he's fostered inside him for much longer than even Emu had carried Parado.

This is why I think Ex-Aid and Para-DX vs. Cronus was the pinnacle of the show thematically. It was two parts of the same exact virus sample converging paths. One took a trail corrupted by profit, cynicism, power, and objectivity; the other went the way of hard work, innocence, compassion, fun. All of which draws an apt parallel in the context of the gaming industry as well.