[Dave pauses to think about that for a minute — rather, to think of how to explain this in a way that would make sense to someone who isn't a time player. he probably would have brushed it off and agreed, if he didn't already know about the weird time stuff already happening on this space station. and there's still something about Ryuji's situation with his friends that he finds a bit risky.]

That's not a bad way of thinking.

Because you are you — and if you were to go back and make a major change like that, you'd basically be saying that the way you are now isn't the way you're supposed to be. You'd have to accept that the past Ryuji you went back and changed things for is the "right" one now, and is the one who will go on to live in a future you're not invited to. You would just be a future Ryuji from a splintered timeline who came back and changed things, and in the process, erased your own future.

That's something that has to be done sometimes. [Davesprite had done it. if he hadn't prototyped himself, he would have died along with all the rest of the Daves out there whose futures no longer existed. it's sort of the same deal for the Dave sitting on a bunk bed eating Twizzlers in space.]

For the most part, though? It's not worth the sacrifice.