#i guess it's only appropriate i'd release this on eisuke's birth month

[flatsuke]

Thoughts on Eisuke’s Season 4

Hands down, S4 has to be my favorite of all the Main Stories. In my opinion, it revealed so much about both MC and Eisuke, moreso than it did in any other story. Though I may have complaints about his S4 plot-wise, I have only good things to say about this story character-wise.

Disclaimer:

This is, in no way, a formal analysis. Rather, this is a compilation of thoughts and ramblings I’ve had about Eisuke’s S4. I apologize in advance if the organization is a bit wonky.

This is all my personal opinion, and you are not obligated to agree with me. In fact, feel free to comment your thoughts because I’d like to hear them if you have any differing ideas.

This is a long post with a lot of pictures.

There are going to be a ton of spoilers, so proceed at your own discretion.

Without further ado, let’s begin!

Thank you so much to @yoosungshoodie for talking with me every 1am about Eisuke insights :’)

@maidofstars @bolt8826 @kiserusmoke @tsundere-eevee @snarkymc @hobo4lyfe11 this might be relevant to your interests :^)

First off, I’d like to tackle a theme that appears throughout the game, but most evidently in his S4—namely:

MC’s severely low self-esteem

Throughout the game, MC’s internal monologue teeters from modest to downright self-deprecating. Being surrounded by such powerful men in a glitzy world full pomp and luxury understandably takes a toll on a person. However, I feel as if though MC in Eisuke’s routes suffers from this the most. Eisuke is a larger-than-life character who is set up to be the best at everything—be it appearance, career, intelligence, or ability. Compared to MC, who is constantly pegged by others (and herself) as “ordinary” and “plain”, she can’t help but feel she isn’t enough for him.

His S4 is peppered with these thoughts:

The most ironic (and sad) part of it all is that a lot of her self-loathing and self-sacrificial nature comes from her sheer love and devotion to Eisuke. In this scene, MC goes to Eisuke after putting up an item for auction (in order to raise bail money for Eisuke) and failing to make any profit from it.

In this scene, MC feels guilty that she and Eisuke nearly got caught by the police because she was too nervous to keep her composure in front of them. Eisuke’s quick-thinking saved them, but she still felt terrible about it.

In short, MC doesn’t feel she’s good enough a partner for Eisuke. What makes this even more ironic is that in the route right before this story (Scattered Cards), MC also struggled to be viewed as an equal to Eisuke.

Still, how does Eisuke feel about all this?

Eisuke in regards to MC’s self-esteem

Now, Eisuke is a confident person. He’s self-assured in almost everything he does, and he’s the quintessential embodiment of a self-made man. That being said, he also wants MC to feel the same way about herself. He wants her to be happy with who she is not just because they’re a couple, but also because he’s happy with who she is.

So when she puts herself down several times, Eisuke doesn’t only upset, he gets furious.

In the scene below, MC asks Eisuke if she’s a burden and suggests that she be left behind for so that he won’t get caught by the police due to her (perceived) uselessness. He becomes utterly livid at the mere suggestion.

Simply put, Eisuke does not find her lack of self-esteem endearing or charming. He loves and admires so much that the idea of anyone putting her down immediately enrages him—even if MC herself is the culprit. Eisuke wants to MC to value herself more, to be more selfish, and to love herself just as much as he loves her. Hell, he loves her so much that he would do anything for her—be it making it snow on a clear day or funding a date in outer space all because she commented about it in passing!

He acknowledges that, objectively, MC isn’t perfect. She’s naïve, she has impulsive tendencies, she can be a horrible judge of character, and she doesn’t have too much foresight. But even then, he loves her just the way she is.

Tl;dr Eisuke needs her, flaws and all. And whenever she belittles herself, he’s hurt because why can’t she see how much she means to him?

“I will never leave your side.”

This is the promise MC utters time and time again to Eisuke in his stories.

Taking Eisuke’s past into account, he was separated from his family at a young age and grew up in a cutthroat world where people were used and thrown away. Because of that, he had no concept of permanence or attachment when it came to people—at least, until MC comes into his life.

That’s why he’s so fixated with the idea of MC staying with him. Crass and tactless as it may be, whenever he says things like “you’re mine” or “you belong to me,” he’s actually trying to reassure himself that MC won’t leave him because everything and everyone before her never stayed. Eisuke isn’t easy to love, and he knows that better than anyone. But MC stayed with him despite all that.

So when Eisuke finds out MC is kidnapped and thrown in the middle of the ocean, he genuinely, visibly panics for the first time in KBTBB history.

Even after the bidders rescue her, Eisuke’s still shaken by the whole thing. When they make love in the bathroom, MC notes that Eisuke looks more desperate than usual. He, on the other hand, is still wrestling with the fact that MC almost died in his arms just a few hours ago.

When Eisuke asks MC to make a choice between their engagement and his life, MC (true to her nature) chooses his life. Eisuke’s distraught that she picked one of them instead of choosing both. The idea of MC not being in his life scares him, and, once again, he’s devastated that MC won’t understand that if she isn’t his life, then nothing would matter to him anymore.

He constantly needs reassurance that MC will be there to stay—which is why I think the last scene of his Engagement Cruise was beautifully appropriate to end the whole story.

S4’s recurring motif

If Eisuke’s Proposal was about family and his Scattered Cards about trust, then his Engagement Cruise is all about devotion.

In this story, we get to see just how much and to what extent Eisuke and MC love each other. MC was willing to put up an item for auction despite hating the auctions in order to possibly help Eisuke be freed from house arrest and police custody. Repeatedly throughout the route, she put Eisuke before herself in every decision (including hypothetical decisions) she made, even at the cost of her life. Eisuke, on the other hand, constantly tried to keep her safe from the people that targeted him, absolutely abhorred that she belittled herself for his sake, and did everything to save her when she nearly lost her life drowning.

Tl;dr His S4 is about how these two love each other so much it almost hurts.

Eisuke and MC aren’t perfect characters by any means, but the way their relationship and character develops in the narrative amazed me so much that I just had to make a post about it. If you ever feel like trying his S4, I highly recommend it! Thank you for reading this and I hope you like it :D!