I believe that Chrollo's resentment and disdain towards Kurapika is severely underestimated. However, to be fair, they only had one real interaction and barely have a dynamic, so people usually interpret them on a very surface level. Being thematic parallels doesn't equal an actual dynamic and they don't even have a traditional shounen rivalry. Kurapika's true rival is the spider as a collective entity and not just Chrollo. They are gorgeous parallels of each other but thatās it. Still, a lot can be extracted from their brief interaction and I deeply disagree with most of the popular takes out there.
I've seen countless people say Chrollo isn't actively chasing Kurapika down because he secretly understands or even forgives him on some level and I couldn't disagree more. During the course of yorknew, Chrollo never even considered Kurapika as an actual person to begin with, let alone recognised him as a mirror. The reason is simple, he just didn't care. Their interaction shows that Chrollo only viewed him as an annoying external anomaly, someone who had managed to disrupt the PT and not as some fated rival. A mutual pointed out to me that in the original JP text, Chrollo exclusively refers to Kurapika as "kusari yarou" (chain user/bastard), which totally depersonalises him. This is why I think that Kurapika is entirely insignificant in Chrollo's eyes.
During that car scene, Chrollo realises Kurapika is emotionally volatile so he deliberately weaponises his own indifference to toy with him, effectively denying Kurapika any real sense of closure regarding the massacre. Chrollo might not give a fuck about Kurapika's trauma but he is great at understanding emotions and in a way, his behaviour could be read as psychologically getting back at him. Even if he didn't show it outwardly to Kurapika, Chrollo was furious about Uvogin (his tears and the requiem prove that). His attitude in the car can be considered pure pettiness to hurt the guy who killed his friend. Which yes, is truly hypocritical considering that he and his group of friends genocided Kurapika's clan but Chrollo isn't the type to lose sleep over his crimes. He has never regretted the life he chose, so why would that change now?
While I believe that Chrollo has zero interest in Kurapika as a person, I also think he holds a massive grudge towards Kurapika for the deaths of Uvogin and Pakunoda who were his closest companions but Chrollo is a pragmatist. His philosophy dictates that the survival of the spider comes before any personal vendettas. He doesn't hunt Kurapika now for the same reason he doesn't hunt Silva, pursuing them would cause the spider more harm than good and neither of them are currently active threats to the group.
When Kurapika was an active threat though, Chrollo was way more angry and emotional. This panel is so unique because it's incredibly rare to see Chrollo look this visibly frustrated. It highlights his habit of internalising blame but it also shows the deep yet quiet resentment he carries. If an opportunity arises where he can eliminate him, Chrollo will absolutely kill him or steal his ability without a second thought.
So yeah, what I mean to convey is that while Chrollo barely cares about Kurapika as a person and has no interest in understanding his motives but he still holds hatred for what he did to the troupe. I theorise that this will become way more apparent if they cross paths again. Especially considering how Chrollo is right now, seeing Kurapika would just reopen his old wounds.
