Iām kinda weirded out by people assuming that when Poe says heās not Ranpoās fanboy and is his rival they take it as him being in denial about their friendship.
Like, no, heās not saying heās not Ranpoās friend heās saying heās not Ranpoās fanboy. The appropriate response when someone assumes you are a fanboy of the man whoās both your rival and friend is that you are his rival, because rival is more contradictory to fanboy. You can be someoneās fanboy and friend very easily, but not fanboy and rival. Of course itās possible but being a fanboy also implies a particular power dynamic(? Not sure if thatās the right word) where you are somewhat lesser in that specific field, which Poe refuses to imply because the man has an ego either the same size or somewhat lesser than Ranpo himself.
Poe himself has an ego the size of the moon, itās just not as evident because he despises social interaction, not because heās shy but because everyone is utterly insufferable and refuses to be on their level. Thatās also the reason why he was so insulted by Ranpo winning in the battle of wits, itās because he was just humiliated in front of a bunch of people he viewed as lesser than himself.
He gets along so well with Ranpo because Ranpo doesnāt crush those beliefs, if anything he endorses them with his own belief that he is better than everyone making Poe feel special by being special to Ranpo.
Ranpo and Poe are in a perpetual state of constantly making each others ego bigger, because with the better Ranpo is, the better Poe is, and Poe is constantly trying to challenge Ranpo making Ranpo better.
Donāt take this as me saying the irl Edgar Allan Poe was egotistical, he just tended to mainly write through the lens of an incredibly egocentric and hypocritical person.
The entire perfect crime trio has got to be some of the most outspokenly egotistical people in the series.














