#and the original post seems to be getting some moderate engagement so yay <3 hopefully someone out there understands me

[its-no-biggie]

@billiuspendragon hope you dont mind me screenshotting this to reply lol the reply character limit is killing me

so im gonna preface this by saying. this comment reads to me like youre only replying to that one thing i said and fitting your own interpretation (or perhaps the larger fandom interpretation) of these two characters onto it, rather than taking it in context of the whole post. which is fine; youre entitled to your interpretation. but im gonna respond to the things youve said here as an opportunity to elaborate on my own interpretation of their relationship. because like. the reason i even made that comment in the first place was because i dont think any of what youve said is true, and some of it even directly contradicts the point of the original post. im not trying to convince you that youre wrong or anything - i just have a very different perspective on the characters that i want to share. anyway lets get into it

i dont think its true that kuusuke only obsesses over kusuo because theyre siblings - certainly, the facade he puts up is of a disgruntled older brother who is chagrined about his younger brother surpassing him, but his true feelings on the matter are more along the lines of excitement and wonder to have found someone stronger than him. hes a brilliant scientist who has found his lifes calling - i would argue that an au where kusuo was born without powers would alter their relationship far more than one where they werent siblings.

i also never really got the sense that kusuo was softer on kuusuke than he was on anyone else just because theyre family - kuusuke is just better at pushing kusuos buttons because he knows him better. the kusuos birthday episode, where kuusuke gives him a bunch of tasks in order to test him, is a good example - kuusuke pushes kusuo to the limits of both his powers and his patience, but placates him afterward with a lifetime supply of coffee jelly. hes certainly the only character who torments kusuo to this degree, but he also knows how to make it up to him, so it balances out to a comfortable back and forth.

its also worth noting that, while things like the cat tank or kusuomega seem far more extreme than anything kusuos friends would put him through, kusuo himself doesnt really see it that way. its part of the comedic premise of the show - to him, existing around someone who has a crush on him is just as much of a pain as fighting off a literal tank singlehandedly. his standards for a "disaster" arent normal because he isnt normal. the only real difference is that kuusuke torments him on purpose, but i think its inaccurate to say that saiki only puts up with that because theyre brothers. he puts up with it because he doesnt mind it as much as he says he does, just like with his friends dragging him on a trip or whatever. if he wasnt willing to humor kuusuke, he wouldnt do stuff like agree to play tag with him in london or apologize that he wont be able to play with him anymore. hes lying about how much he dislikes him.

i definitely agree that them being siblings is the reason for their current dynamic but i disagree that its /necessary/ for them to be siblings in order to have this kind of dynamic. they would certainly have to have known each other for a long time to develop the level of competition and open hostility between them, but theres no reason they couldnt be childhood friends - kuusuke would certainly be clever enough to pick up on and study kusuos powers even if he was trying to hide them, and kuusuke is demonstrably persistent enough to be harder to get rid of than akechi. its not entirely out of the question for them to remain close growing up even if they werent related.

and tbh i think the idea that theyre only Like That because they share dna is kind of a boring interpretation that doesnt actually explore their relationship very deeply - along with the idea that theyre "inexplicably drawn to each other", for that matter. theyre drawn to each other by the desire for someone, anyone, to understand them - they won't find it in each other, but its the closest either of them will ever get. that was the whole point of the original post 😭 sure, them being siblings is an important part of their dynamic, but the thing that most compels me is their shared alienation from normal people and resulting inability to connect with anyone (even each other). and that has nothing to do with them being siblings, especially since the afflictions that alienate them arent even related and dont give them any kind of shared experience to bond over.

anyway tldr youre free to think of them as "siblings who have a very fucked up relationship but love each other despite that because theyre family", but personally i read them more as "two fucked up individuals who have the same kind of issues and take them out on each other in increasingly concerning ways culminating in a literal death match. who are also siblings" so. yes, i think this would be a popular ship if they werent siblings. hope this helps 👍

in fact, shared alienation is arguably what brings the whole cast together - kusuos friends are all freaks and losers with no friends but each other. being the outcasts is the only thing they all have in common (inb4 "but teruhashi is popular!" yes, but shes still an outcast - being admired is not the same as having friends). whats different about the saiki siblings is that both of them have a complex about it - i mean, they each literally think of themselves as a completely different species from everyone else. and having something like that in common with someone and then spending a lot of time together naturally results in the kind of explosive toxicity that makes you let your brother hunt you for sport.

been thinking about the saiki siblings a lot lately....... their dynamic of "guy who experiments on you to feel something" & "guy who lets you experiment on him to feel something" is soooo compelling to me......

what if you were a genius scientist and there was only one person in the world who could compare to your talents, but he was better than you in every way and testing the limits of his superiority was the only thing that even remotely interested you. what if you were so powerful as to be considered inhuman and there was only one person in the world who understood that well enough to legitimately challenge you, and even though you know he'll never be able to beat you, maybe knowing you well enough to test your limits and take advantage of your weaknesses is close enough.

what if you were both so hyperaware of your own isolation from not only the rest of humanity but also each other that you couldnt ever leave each other alone. you reach for the person who comes closest to understanding you, and your inability to relate to each other is a constant reminder that neither of you can ever be normal. its the fucked up symbiotic relationship between a horrible monster that doesnt belong anywhere except in a lab, and the researcher who has been obsessively gathering data on it for his entire life. life was boring without you so i built a time machine and plunged the world into darkness. im sorry that being a normal person means i wont get to play with you anymore.

they can understand each other without speaking. the only time kusuo ever bleeds is at the hands of kuusuke. they have nothing in common except a shared complex about not being understood by normal people. and they hate each other. insane. im insane