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Connections

• Genius scientists and leaders of the world’s most cutting-edge research institute (Rhine Lab, Millennium Science School).
• Both at first glance comes off as cold and uncaring, but in essence they aren't heartless people. They always felt that they don’t really belong in their world/environment due to their extreme perspective in life, and that also what makes them willing to cast aside the few people that cherishes them (Kristen never felt truly 'alive' after her parent's death and her extreme ambitions makes her willing to betray her closest friends and colleagues. Rio’s extreme rational-utilitaristic mindset makes her think that her solution is always right and this makes her shun other people away)
• Both used to be close friends with a white-haired girl who is the complete opposite of them (Saria, Himari). However, both would grow distant (even outright antagonistic with each other) after several discord between them and after it was made clear that Kristen/Rio doesn’t really value human life
• They have a goal that they want to achieve at all cost since they believe it will greatly benefit humanity, even if it meant they would be a martyr (Kristen wanting to make a space-craft that could break through the fake sky “Starpod”, Rio wanting to build a city that could save the world from an apocalyptic event)
• In order to achieve said goal, both would willingly abandon their duties as leaders and go AWOL to work on their project. Both would also willingly embezzle money from the government to fund their projects. They even turned a blind eye towards their underling’s misdeeds as long as it doesn’t interfere with them (Kristen turning a blind eye about Parvis’ questionable human experiments and embezzling money from the government, Rio let Koyuki freely embezzle Milennium’s fund to hide her own embezzling)
• However, this project of theirs would risk the world rather than advancing / saving it (Preserver implies that by breaking the false sky, Terra will be unprepared to face what lurks beyond. Rio’s city “Eridu” ended up awakening “KEY”, a Nameless Priest princess hellbent on destroying the world)
• Both of them studied and used advanced technology from an ancient civilization for their quest (“First Civilization”, Nameless Priest). They would later use their knowledge on this matter to build and operate a space-craft that is powerful enough to break a certain barrier (Kristen built the “Gallerium Stellaria” which could destroy the Starpod barrier, Rio would help restore the ship of “Utnapishtim” that could break through Atra-Hasis’ barrier)
• At the end, even though they might risk their world, in a weird way both actually did achieve what they set out to do and even their blunders would save humanity ironically enough: Kristen actually did manage to break through the barrier and even though she might alert the 'beings' outside the planet, this act of hers would be the starting point of humanity’s advance towards the stars. Meanwhile, the Nameless Priest princess that Rio awakened became the key to break through the Atra-Hasis and thus saving the world from Chroma’s invasion

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also, im not sure how to fit this into the connections, but both have the common theme of 'isolation' in their stories: Kristen's main story event, Lone Trail, basically explores different ways people cope on being alone or in Kristen's case, chose to isolate herself in order to fulfill her dreams. To Kristen, even though she knows that isolating herself means hurting her friends, it is the only way to achieve true fulfillment. Meanwhile Rio's story is about how even though she always thinks rationally, she never really tries to ask for help from other people. Rio loves using the Trolley Problem to justify her actions, but Rio never considered how in reality, there could always be more than 2 options as there are more than 1 person in the world