#<- part of the epic roomies arc is shuichi coming to terms with this

[bpd-shuichi-togo]

ONE SEC anyways i remembered the thing i was going to say ha ha ha ha. maybe it's because of how much less openly he expresses it, esp side-by-side with shuichi, but it really is staggering how much duo loves his brother. like i think i said before that the way duo chose to go about Doing All That in chapters 7/8/9 could have been due to resentment towards shuichi, and i stand by there being some resentment between the two of them on some level bc there are just is going to be some complicated feelings what with the EVERYTHING, but like. looking back at how despite no doubt already having planned out his 'betrayal' he tries to get shuichi to play along with the whole Emotionless Genius thing at what is relatively the last second, how he refuses when *se (IN A MAJOR FUCKING CREEP MOVE) offers to tell him exactly how shuichi reacted to what he told him, how he reflects on how he values shuichi's opinion of him over literally everyone elses (STILL SOBBING OVER THIS BTW LIKE........) and how he seems to count shuichi among the 'genius children' despite him not being a Genius and so on...... like he genuinely had no ill will towards his brother in Doing All That... which makes it WORSE. like the amount of faith and admiration for shuichi evident in how much of his plans relied on shuichi being both able and willing to follow through despite the events of chapters 7/8 and generally like how clear it is he loves his big brother... if lw were more competent theyd juxtapose that with shuichi's own faith in duo wavering after being used as a tool

like fr the whole 'my big brother thinks i'm a genius and i don't care what anyone else has to say on the matter' would hit WAY DIFFERENT if we saw shuichi realizing 'Hey I'm Upset About My Brother's Actions. Maybe My View Of My Nine-Year-Old Brother Have Been Unrealistic And Idealized And We Should Discard The Whole Notion Of "Geniushood" Because It's Harmful To Us Actually.'

or even better 'Holy Shit What The Fuck Is He DOING This Is So Dangerous Geniushood Is A Eugenicist Myth Actually, My Baby Brother Is An Idiot And He Is So Grounded'