i know you don’t like kiis but what are your thoughts on iski? as someone who also doesn’t really like the fanon version of kiis, iski is quite interesting to me as it doesn’t make kaiser and isagi really lovey dovey and focuses more on the psychological aspect of their relationship and the impact that has on kaiser
ok ill be so fr i don't fw t/b dynamics and discourse as a concept because i am 1. generally sex-averse and 2. not comfortable considering characters considerably younger than myself in that regard. i hope you don't mind me stripping the question of that context and just answering wrt the isagi-kaiser relationship dynamic.
i do agree with the sentiment that a lovey-dovey relationship between kaiser and isagi sucks all the fun out of their dynamic. i like it when kaiser is pushy and brutish and getting under isagi's skin and isagi is vitriolic and scathing and vile in response. i think in kaiser's dynamic with ness, kaiser knows that ness will take what he's given, which is why he tacitly gives himself permission to be physically agressive with ness. however, somehow or the other, he knows that he cannot cross that line with isagi, because isagi will not take shit from him. in some way, kaiser instinctively has some sort of survival instinct flare up in there. isagi scares him, almost. it's cool.
i think it's also fun to consider kaiser's fixation with isagi, because it's so, so, so detrimental to kaiser as a whole. it's lopsided! kaiser is obsessed with isagi as a whole. this is where isagi is from, this is who he is, what he does, and so on and so forth. and yet, isagi only acknowledges the part of kaiser that plays football. off-field kaiser—human kaiser, if you will—does not exist in isagi's world. isn't that beautiful? isn't it so fundamentally detrimental to that desire that sleeps inside kaiser's heart, that yearning to be human, to be loved, to be seen, to be anything more than this writhing, miserable ouroboros of misery he's twisted himself into? it's fun to me. i like that kind of relationship better.
i think domestic fantasies in isagi ships only work with his earlier rivals because he was invested in them as people. he's inspired by bachira, he's fascinated by barou, he's enthralled by rin. he's invested in their habits as people, constantly seeking them out and asking them questions and offering them little acts of kindness and friendship. isagi's relationship with kaiser has none of these things and it's fun because it stands at odds with how isagi has interacted with significant rivals in his past.
isagi offers none of these to kaiser and i think that's precisely why kaiser is so obsessed with him. the only other major player in kaiser's life is ness—dogish, reverent, loving ness—and kaiser cannot stomach love. kaiser has never been able to tolerate even the polite kindnesses of others, and so ness (of his own creation, no less) having grown so adoring of him, kaiser must feel as though he has to run. to maintain the 'kaiser' that he is, he needs to feed off this idea that he isn't human, that he isn't worthy, that he only exists in hating and being hated. that's how he lived as a child. he knows no other way.
like, no wonder kaiser's favourite historical figure is freud. everything really does go back to childhood with him. i like it i like his dysfunction. he's so mentally ill girl at times. he's also so mentally ill guy. it works awesome.
