#this is very much a ‘the lady doth protest too much’ situation imo…..

[ravenkings]

[doritofalls]

DRV3 spoilers again because kiyo brainrot but (tw for discussion of inc/st and ab/se) 

i’ve seen someone point it out before but let me repeat that his sister not being kiyo’s ideal in the love suite event is SO important to understanding his character and his attachment to her. because the lady doth protest too much and despite kiyo’s constant insistance he’s not in love with sister and he is conscious of that, to some level. for the love suite event, he must invent an exceedingly complex backstory for a VERY simple sceneiro (he is approached by someone who wants him, and he begrudgingly agrees while making sure to make it explicitly clear he is unavaiable romantically and keeping all the control in the situation), for something that is essentially an one night stand. kiyo wants to be wanted, and pursued, he wants to prove he would never betray his sister’s memory, and wants to keep being pursued in spite of that. his ideal is, i think, someone with a lot of patience who is willing to invest enough time and care into the relationship that it may become something more, along the line. someone who keeps him in high regard and trusts him and isn’t intent on controlling him. what i’m saying is his ideal is the very opposite of the presence his sister was (is?) in his life and that makes me very sad coming from kiyo with the outrageous amount of emotional and sexual trauma his character is implied to have gone through. under a lot of weird fetishy layers the writing throws at you he is yearning for something very normal, that is so out of his reach he has to bend over backwards to create a make-believe sceneiro about.  like, if the writing wanted to, it could have easily portrayed his sister as his ideal - even though shuichi’s a guy, it coulda been worked around various ways - reincarnation, possession, what have you -, but it isn’t. and it’s not like having a specific person in mind was so weird - it seems ryoma and a couple of others had specific people in mind while constructing the fantasy. the fact that kiyo doesn’t is more telling than anything imo.