A large point of conflict it seems comes from Roma's characterization in ep7, and while a lot of people dislike it, I actually think this is a decently good thing
In the bouquet formation arc, Roma’s character is not explored much past his VERY brief outburst all the way back in ep2. Past that? He feels perfect, too perfect, in a way it's not exactly boring, but it’s definitely not the most interesting.
In LKA ep7, Roma is written in a very.. Different light. But it’s not like it came out of nowhere.
Let’s go back to ep3, where he appears toward the end
“Oh for goodness' sake, isnt that why we're here?”
GRANTED it’s not the clearest thing, but the passive aggression here is very palpable. This whole arc he’s been notably more on edge, and I do NOT blame him. (Another example is from ep5 but I think we’ve all seen the “we are going to KILL Cielomort” part.) PLUS it's already been established time and time again there is MORE to him than meets the eye.
As for his conversation with Rimicha, I admit, he’s.. Harsh. A little too harsh given the situation but.. Is he WRONG? Rimicha can not be coddled forever, he has to learn, he has to grow, he has to gain the Confidence needed to stay true to his code of Chivalry, to be a Knight. If he keeps on like this, he’s only going to hurt himself, and hurt others, and that’s NOT ideal at ALL.
You have to understand Romarriche can NOT keep sitting around comforting everyone, especially not in a time of crisis. He’s one of the strongest knights on the Red Continent, he has to do SOMETHING to contribute to solving this mess. Because?? Who else can?? Merold is overworking himself to the bone, Rimicha can’t do much unless he actively seeks to develop himself, Sanah has forgotten the entirety of who he IS, Puruth is sticking to his kingdom to protect his lord, and Hallritt is going through a major depressive episode. NO ONE else is in the right state to go out and DO something.
We cannot expect Roma to stick to the near-1-dimensional personality trait of being kind and gentle, not when I’m Stitch Dot has already proven to us there is SO much more underneath his calm demeanor. We've already known he has a lot of passion underneath what he outwardly presents, look at Ch1 ep2 for instance, it's a toned down variation of how he acts in LKA ep7.
However, I do understand that it feels incredibly contradictory for Roma to suddenly switch up on Rimicha like that. Even I think it was a little iffy of him, but I do think that overall it's better than him having NOT have.
In bouquet formation arc ep3, The Gang tries to get Rimicha to live up to his code of chivalry, courage. And while momentarily it works, you notice as time goes on, he retreats back into his pre-ep3 self. Rimicha was only able to have courage because others were fighting alongside him. But on his own? It's not like he's entirely functionally useless, but he's endangering a LOT of people. Especially in a time of crisis where, if he DOESN'T help himself, he's going to risk suffering the same fate as Sanah.
My personal interpretation here is that Roma knows Rimicha clings to others for his courage, and he has very little of it himself. While he's been coddling Rimicha a lot himself, he knows now more than ever he has to get Rimi to be able to stand on his own two feet. But he's pressed for time, the world is being thrown into chaos, and he can't sit around and do nothing… But who can he leave the continent to?
Yes, he's throwing Rimicha into the metaphorical deep end here. It's harsh, it's so different to what we're used to for him but is it necessarily as out of character as we’re all claiming?
Romarriche has always been a man with a deep love for his Lord, and for his friends. That's a large part of what I'm Stitch Dot is about after all. To have someone or something threaten the people he holds so dearly is possibly the one thing he hates most. Even putting obligations as a knight aside, his dislikes literally list people who hurt his friends. It makes sense he'd have such an… extreme? Reaction to this all. His closest friend is working himself to the bone to the point it's killing him, his Lord is in immediate danger from his point of view, and all his other friends are going through the motions… then add Cielomort to the mix, and well? He's appropriately pissed and stressed.
I also wonder if his want to not coddle Rimicha comes from how Kurode left Merold from Merold doing essentially the same thing. Roma knew Kurode after all, it wouldn't be surprising if he wants to avoid (a likely non-existent) possibility of Rimicha growing bored of being coddled too.
Overall? I think it could have been set up a smidgen better, but I don't think what he did was necessarily bad, nor do I believe it's a bad direction for his character to take. Perhaps it's a little too sudden, but LKA has some strange pacing issues in general (likely stemming from us only having 10 minute episodes while trying to balance pacing and viewer satisfaction with how much content is being given) so I'm not exactly surprised. I do think it's a good thing he's deciding to try get Rimicha on his feet, but gods he's so harsh about it.
And as for him going to #kill Cielomort? I think he has a plan that involves a little more than a lecture and perhaps some fighting. I'm pretty sure he and Merold have a plan to get the information they need from him. They're the Legendary Generation after all, and redbou ep2 already told us the two are good at strategy… So let's just pray..!
