#seijesse

i blame @comicake for putting this concept in my head

ref below

what a lovely way to phrase the question 🥹 ty anon!!!

I'm kind of obsessed with the potential of Seijesse. We still know so little about them in canon... what exactly happened between them? I love a lot of the theories that have been proposed, especially @bichobolitach 's take on it as "Seiji thought they were dating and Jesse thought they were friends" 💀 so embarrassing and so painful! a lot of us have been there in our teen years!

But, I do love the idea of them actually dating too, even if it didn't work out so well in the end... who's to say they couldn't be friends again one day, or maybe something more? after they both move past their issues? (not that i expect them to get back together in canon obviously, lolol)

OK, so here’s my Fence essay (Fencessay?), entitled “Seiji and Jesse: We Still Have No Idea What the Fuck Happened.”

First off, what was their relationship? Were they mutually in love? One in love with the other unrequited? Dating? Only hooking up? Just a seriously fraught friendship? I could make a compelling, evidence-based case for any of the above. I know many readers are pointing to the two-page Jesse-narrated spread culminating in Seiji and Jesse reclining on a haystack (??) in Chapter 20 as evidence that they were mutually in love, but I could totally see Jesse saying all that stuff to lead Seiji on because Jesse needs everyone to be in love with him.

And secondly, what happened that caused Seiji to leave the country and cut off all contact with Jesse after Nationals? Presumably just the fact that Jesse beat Seiji for #1 is not enough because, like, dudes, you had to have known that one of you would win and one would lose, right? And I don’t really believe that Seiji is just a sore loser and that’s the entire explanation.

Here’s one possible interpretation, backed up with citations where possible:

They were more than friends - at least hooking up, possibly dating. Evidence: in Chapter 13, when Jesse comes to Kings Row and tells Seiji, “I’m here to ask you back,” Seiji responds, “You mean you want me back on your team?” (the implication being “instead of back with you romantically”). Also in Chapter 13, when Nicholas says to Seiji, “I didn’t realize you and Jesse were friends,” Seiji responds, “We were… something.” [though that could also mean “I thought we were friends but we weren’t even that.” In theory.] 

Seiji was really in love with Jesse and thought it was mutual, but Jesse was just casually hooking up and didn’t really care about Seiji. Evidence: In Chapter 13, when Nicholas asks Seiji, “What really happened between you and Jesse?” Seiji responds, “I had the wrong idea about something… Sometimes I… take things too seriously.” 

Something else bad (a “fight”?) happened between them beyond just Jesse beating Seiji at Nationals. Evidence: In Chapter 13, Jesse says to Seiji, “The way we left things… I hate fighting with you.”

The something else bad that happened must have happened very, very close in time to Nationals. Evidence that it could not have happened earlier: In Chapter 20, Kyle says, “They used to spend all their time together. They were inseparable. Then Seiji lost to Jesse at Nationals and just–lost it.” No reference to any period of time before Nationals when they were not inseparable. Evidence that it could not have happened later: In Chapter 20, Kyle says, “Seiji left the next day for France and wouldn’t speak to Jesse again.” 

Also in Chapter 20 Seiji says, “I must have practiced that parry a thousand times. I kept thinking that if I could just beat him, I…” Some readers are choosing to interpret this as Seiji practicing the parry before Nationals and thinking that if he could just beat him at Nationals he could [what? Get over him?]. But if that’s the case, then whatever fight they had must have happened far enough before Nationals for Seiji to practice that parry a thousand times (which I guess, given what we know of Seiji, could have only been a couple of days, LOL). Another option is that Seiji is talking about practicing the parry after Nationals and thinking about beating Jesse in the future. That would be consistent with the timeline requirements inherent in Kyle’s narration of their relationship, and with Seiji’s current obsession with beating Jesse.

My not-fully-fleshed-out theory is that the fight was about Seiji realizing that Jesse didn’t love Seiji the way Seiji loved Jesse, based on either the way Jesse beat Seiji (I originally thought “taking Seiji’s blade” was somehow a uniquely horrific thing to do, but discovered in Volume 5 that it’s just another fencing move, so it’s probably not that) or the way Jesse treated Seiji after he beat him (e.g. gloating rather than comforting him), but I have no evidence for this theory.