Hi!

first, i want to talk about the babyfication of ranpoe *in canon*. yes i know authors can't mischaracterise their own characters, but that doesn't mean they can't choose to portray them through a warped view. in ranpoe's case, it's also the authors themselves who choose to portray ranpoe as a comic relief duo. like, the way poe commits (attempted) murder is so unserious? and ranpo (as usual) just... doesn't seem to care that poe tried to kill him? and encourages him to try again?

compared to skk for example, who when they try to kill each other it's actually portrayed with some kind of intense hatred and/or murderous intent.

of course i'll never know what the authors were thinking, but they probably chose to portray ranpoe as such with the intention of ranpoe being a fluffy crack ship. which is fine, because they're the authors obviously and they can do what they want, and this also gives ranpoe their own unique dynamic. however, the issue with this is that it causes people to be completely blinded towards what's actually happening between ranpoe, and only see them through the rose-tinted glasses which the authors have handed to us. hence, i'm going to objectively recount everything that happened with ranpoe.

around six years ago, ranpo beat poe in a battle of wits.

poe went into this reclusive state where he refused to interact with other people, and is implied to have been suicidal/depressed.

eventually, poe decides to plot his revenge by writing a novel in order to kill ranpo and obtain the praise and glory that ranpo has.

six years pass.

poe meets ranpo again, and tries to kill him. he fails.

they end up establishing a mutual relationship where poe writes novels, and ranpo gives him feedback. poe no longer seems to want revenge.

fast forward to chapter 80, by this time ranpo has asked poe for help regarding a lot of things, all agency-related.

one, ranpo said he wanted a showdown to trick poe into writing a novel for him, which he then used against chuuya.

he asked poe to write a novel in about ~30 mins to corner mushitaro.

in the volume 20 omake, ranpo also asked poe to write a novel to house 3 people by the next day.

ranpo asked poe to help him rescue the agency members in chapter 80. poe helped to snipe the lock on kunikida's cell, and prepare a vehicle to save yosano.

in the recent chapters, it was also mentioned that ranpo had poe write a novel to trap fukuchi.

based on this brief (??) summary, you can probably see a bunch of things which are not very right. first of all, poe experienced severe withdrawal after losing his match with ranpo, and for six years his only goal was to defeat him. secondly, poe is doing a LOT of things for ranpo, which aren't really reciprocated. there might also be other things, but i will just focus on these two.

1. poe is heavily reliant on ranpo.

as you can see, poe is a pretty fragile person. he lost one match to ranpo and basically gave up on life. he became overly reliant on ranpo's existence to affirm his own, and even now he dreads the possibility of ranpo dying and leaving him without a rival. and while poe who has almost no friends is entirely dependent on ranpo, ranpo always has the agency to support him, so he isn't all that emotionally dependent on poe. he still needs poe for his novels and such, but it's not often that he shows/says that poe is really important to him as a person. however, ranpo does clearly appreciate poe's intellect and abilities and praised him before. ranpo never praises people, so this is a pretty big occurrence.

in this sense, poe really needs ranpo but ranpo doesn't realllly need poe (or at least he doesn't show it).

2. poe does a lot for ranpo but not the other way round. i think this kind of speaks for itself tbh. poe helps ranpo with a whole lot of things, and ranpo doesn't give him much in return. obviously there is something wrong with this, but because poe is so eager to impress/help ranpo, he seems to have no issues with this.

as you may (unfortunately) know, because of the above reasons some people say that ranpoe's relationship is "toxic" or "abusive", but i believe this is inaccurate. based on a few dictionaries, the word "toxic" carries the meaning of unpleasant, extremely harsh, malicious or harmful. however, ranpo asking poe for help with a lot of things isn't done with the intention to harm or assert control over poe. he just really needs poe's help and poe is willing as well as capable. also, he probably isn't aware that he's overworking poe because he's not sensitive to other people's emotional needs or wants. and poe doesn't do all this because ranpo is threatening him, he's just very (overly) eager to do it.

despite everything, ranpoe isn't completely horrible. they're not the best, but they certainly aren't the worst. none of them seem to visibly hold grudges or have issues with the other, and are generally happy with their current arrangement. they share each other's interests and provide the other with the intellectual stimulus that they need.

also, the authors' "sugar-coating" of their relationship isn't completely off. due to the nature of their personalities, it still makes sense that they can get along. after all, ranpo was once held at gunpoint when he was 14 and didn't give a flip so i doubt he'd really care about poe attempting to murder him. and on poe's side, i think he's always been fragile and a little pathetic so this is pretty normal for him.

and even though their relationship is kinda unbalanced, they do hold each other in equally high regard (including ranpo, although he doesn't show it. he doesn't really show anything) this is also why i think ranpoe isn't an idol-fan relationship. parasocial relationships are one-sided relationships, where one person extends emotional energy, interest and time, and the other party, the persona, is completely unaware of the other’s existence. poe definitely extends a lot of energy in helping ranpo, i don't deny. but the baseline for a parasocial relationship is that one person is almost unaware of the other. before guild arc this was true, but right now ranpo is very much aware of poe's existence, and admires poe just as much as poe does him. hence, i don't think ranpoe is a parasocial relationship.

overall, ranpoe is still heavily sugar-coated by the fandom and authors who don't really acknowledge the issues within their relationship. however the rose-tinted glasses don't completely warp everything, and their dynamic, both canon and fanon, isn't totally off from how it should be, based on my knowledge of their personalities. they're just a silly little couple doing their silly gay things. everything is fine (half lying)