Just some more Takeshirou and brothers lore for those who are interested (copy-pasted from discord as usual)
On the surface the three of them seem like a decently happy sibling trio. But for as many normal days they have together there’s as much where they completely fall apart. They all have a lot of resentment towards each other that they often try to hide even if it’s very clear they’re not doing well. Tetsujin and Takeshirou a lot of anger towards Toshimune, Toshimune and Takeshirou feel so much jealously towards Tetsujin and convince themselves that he had it best out of all of them, and Tetsujin and Toshimune baby Takeshirou a lot.
Specifically with how Tetsujin and Toshimune treat Takeshirou there’s something I’ve never bought up here but is really important. Both of the two brothers mourn Takeshirou a lot, even though he’s still alive and with them. After being away from him for so long theyve built up this idealised, innocent little bother image of them in their heads. Because that’s who they remembered, the child Takeshirou viewed through rose tinted lenses. So when they finally managed to take Takeshirou back into their custody he felt like an entirely different person to them. Both with how his whole personality has changed and his appearance. They have a hard time accepting this new Takeshioru and either baby him when viewing him through this idealistic lens. Or have this sort of inner rage at him for not being the same person as he was like he was “taken away” and replaced with a much more aggressive person. They don’t want to acknowledge this thought but Tetsujin and Toshimune very often get into fights where they blame each other for how Takeshirou turned out and instead of treating him like a person, they speak about him like he’s some doppelgänger who replaced the original. The two of them try their hardest to keep their fighting away from Takeshirou but he knows that it’s happening. And he blames himself for being the person whos ruined their connection. As well as internalising some of the things he’s overheard about “not being the same person anymore”.
Tetsujin and Toshimune do not treat Takeshirou badly or say this to his face. Most of these feelings are deep inside and only come out when they feel like they have to blame each other for him. There was a moment when Takeshirou came home where Tetsujin simultaneously was so relieved and happy that Takeshirou was back hope again. While barely being able to look at him not being able to recognise him anymore. He knew why Takeshirou was like this, but he couldn’t adjust. So he ended up taking a lot of this grief and frustration out on Toshimune, who fought back with similar accusations of each other being at fault.
Things changed a ton after Takeshirou’s suicide attempt. For a moment their conflict came to a stark halt as they had to face the reality of how their attitude towards Takeshirou was not helping him at all. How they wanted to blame each other again for almost losing him, but just couldn’t anymore. From then on the three brothers tried to connect with each other more out of so much fear of Takeshirou’s mindset after that. But from what started out as grief and idealisation over Takeshirou turned to obsessive protectiveness. Things have gotten better, but a lot of the problems among these three stem from Tetsujin and Toshimune struggling to see Takeshirou as a person again after losing him for so long, even though they truly want to love him.
The Isojima brothers almost never used to fight like this as kids, but after so much chaos theyve been through in their lives and their shared traits of wanting to blame other people for the faults of themselves or the world. In a situation like this it was bound to happen.
This doesn’t mean they don’t get along at all though. They’re still trying to repair stuff through gift giving and spending more time together, even if the process is slow. They still have a lot of happy days together.
I feel as if the biggest improvement theyve made together is gifting Takeshirou his watch. It really comes to show how much they are genuinely wanting to fix things despite all the faults they have. And how Takeshirou gets to have a physical reminder that he is still cared for.
