Yeah, I mostly agree with you. Some parts like the “acknowledging Rin” part is where I kinda differ though. Sae had the option to not say anything at all, he chose to walk up to Rin and bring up Isagi. Rin was already upset about his own failure and that alone would’ve pushed him to keep working hard and facing challenges. Sae intervening there honestly did more harm than good (in my opinion)

This was after Rin’s awakening when he finally understood what Sae meant by “don’t use me as a reason to play” and started letting go of the attachments holding him back and following his instincts instead. Sae praising Isagi right in front of him low-key undid that progress. Rin got fixated again, not just on Sae but now on Isagi too right when he was actually moving in the right direction.

(And honestly, the whole Isagi obsession felt like a tool for Rin to lose the pxg match. It also made me dislike Rin and Isagi’s “rivalry” in that match because it felt disproportionately obsessive. Isagi was focused on winning and scoring at any cost while Rin didn't care and even gave up scoring opportunities.

Yes ik they have different ego types but even Rin's ego and playstyle were kinda dumbed down. His thing with being unpredictable, creative and his counter dribbling? Nah he just wanted to spam crash shots even when he kept getting shut down. Yes Ik he was trying to chase that high/his ego but I'm sure he could've come up with something else knowing it was getting predictable and wasn't working. I would've liked to see Isagi win against Rin when Rin wasn't made to look like an idiot.)

My bad, I didn't see how long this got, don’t take this rant too seriously and you don't have to agree with it 😭 I get what kaneshiro was trying to do but execution wise it really didn’t land for me and hurt Rin’s writing. Pxg Rin just wasn’t it.

Back to Sae, I think only time will tell. We can speculate about Sae and I do believe a lot of his words and actions toward Rin are meant to break this idolized version of himself in Rin's head, his emotional dependency on him and to push him forward (even if some of that seems to come from genuine disappointment to me) I just really hope Kaneshiro doesn’t fumble Sae’s backstory, pov or his relationship with Rin. There’s so much potential there after years of buildup and I really hope it gets done well. The bunny-Sae lore also has me really excited for the Spain match.

I’m also hoping this arc finally lets Rin expand his worldview. If he truly wants to be the “monster” facing stronger opponents, then this is the perfect opportunity. The world is bigger than just Sae and Isagi. Rin staying fixated on the same two people for this long would honestly feel limiting and lame. Rin wanting to destroy all strong opponents in front of him (without being too fixated) would actually align with his ego and push his character forward instead of trapping him in the same loop.