Honestly, i've been quietly watching you guys talk about the serious consequences that will come if Akira doesn't take what he has no right to or whatever it was but for me i feel like Hope is just fucking desperate and is lashing out with threats he can't follow up, all bluff, all bark and no bite, Akira has survived almost 3 chapters now with Hope trying shit and he's gotten no where of consequence... if you imagine that threat made out of fear, out of panic with Pareidolia's season coming and Hope's power/influence waning, it does kind of turn into a bit of soggy lettuce.
I'm not at all saying my hunch is right, it's just a hunch, but i've just never felt that threat had any weight behind it. I've spent more time just thinking about what it is he's suppose to be taking than whatever the 'consequences' would be if he didn't do it.
I dunno, i often find myself looking at this game/story from a meta perspective, what's the point of Hope's threat in the story? What can he really do if the only real consequences are Akira just gets fully reset, that'd make for a pretty game. Maybe he get's locked in a box and tortured... boring. Maybe he gets tormented by having his girls taken away somehow... ok... then what? Like, from a narrative perspective, Hope is pretty limited in what he can actually threaten Akira with given the game is already forced to remain somewhat consistently the same if Selly doesn't want to risk his income, if shit goes far too weird far too fast then a lot of people are going to either lose interest or feel ripped off for all the time they put in.
I'm kinda rambling here, i enjoy reading the theories but i ultimately have little energy for any that deviate too far from 'shit will pretty much stay the same with some measure of progression' and so i don't put any weight on Hope's threats.
(I feel like that sentence comes from someone who believed in feng shui too much).
