Beyond that, I responded to him claiming that Yuu hurt Yami, AKA acted maliciously towards her
That's not acting maliciously towards Yami. Yuu unconsciously hurt Yami with his -apparent- lack of reaction to her offer to live together, even if again, it's not his fault and it's a human error that anyone could make, and it was up to Ayami to clarify that she was serious, but her tsundere pride won out.
"Yuu acted poorly towards Yami," and "Yami took him seriously," directly contradicting her actions towards him and making her seem like a victim rather than the abuser
He didn't say that. He said that Yuu didn't quite manage to convey to Yami that he took the relationship as seriously as she did, just as she didn't quite manage to convey to him that she truly loved him (as we can see in Yuu's omake 4). In her case, it's much worse, but he also didn't quite manage to express the seriousness of his feelings to Yami or realize when she was serious —like in the scene where they move in together.
Before all of this side-railing, this boiled down to a very simple discussion: I claimed that Yuu was the only person here who has any genuine right to claim that he was harmed
I mean, I don't think even Genn would be against this. That doesn't change the fact that Hikari and Yami might feel hurt by Yuu even if they don't have the moral and genuine right to be. Even in the worse cases, they are still been literally teenager girls in a complicated love situationship and without any guide or counsel from an adult.
That's my opinion that I based on the fact that he was the only person who was maliciously harmed (knowingly and deliberately)
Yes, that's the point. Knowingly and deliberately, Yami was malicious in some instances, like in chapter 33 and perhaps during her mental breakdown in chapter 40. The point is to highlight that harm can be done even without being malicious or deliberately intending to hurt anyone. Yuu AND Hikari's cowardice—because this forum loves to deny that Hikari is just as cowardly, or even more so, than Yuu, but of course, she's a girl, she can be cowardly—also caused real harm, even though neither of them ever intended to hurt anyone—except when Hikari attacks Yuu in chapter 38.
mainly by Yami but also by Hikari, who pushed him and refused to hear him out while knowing what he went through
The idea is to explain that Hikari and Yami can feel hurt by Yuu, and that it's obviously unfair and disingenuous, as Yami herself says in chapter 40. She knows she's demanding unfair and abusive things from Yuu, but still, a part of her hopes he'll be a fairytale prince who slays dragons for her.
which in many ways align with the sentiment of those I was arguing against, which of course makes sense.
Well, I guarantee you that's not the case with Genn, but he can tell you if he wants. But you shouldn't lump him in with the anti-Yuu crowd.
So yeah, without adding more to this discussion:
I think that Yami acted maliciously towards Yuu and I dont think that he did so towards her.
That's the worst part. Yami didn't act deliberately maliciously toward Yuu, with the sole exception, perhaps, of the slap and kiss in chapters 21/40, and even then it's quite obvious that it was an impulsive outburst of anger that she regretted just after —because that's what the novel says— when she saw Yuu crying and she started to cry too. All of which still doesn't remotely justify her actions.
Regarding the ghosting, the fact that she wasn't even able to send him a message to say "we're breaking up" proves that it was her mother's whole situation that caused the breakup with Yuu and that Yami did want to stay with him.
The point is that right now, Yami is something even worse than someone acting maliciously. Yami is really unstable but sincerely loves Yuu, which makes her even more toxic, abusive, and harmful to him —and to Hikari— than if she were maliciously and deliberately manipulating them both.
That's why she lost her temper and mentally collapsed in such a horrible way.
Nor do I think he did so towards Hikari
Yuu didn't act maliciously toward Hikari. That doesn't change the fact that he messed up by not telling her anything about Yami during his confession, not just about the kiss hours earlier, but about his entire past with Yami, knowing that Yami and Hikari were friends at that point. His complete silence and the ambiguity that led him to not even clarify whether or not he had a girlfriend in the past was a serious mistake (knowing that ex girlfriend is now the best friend of Hikari). Human, of course, but a mistake nonetheless.
To say something like that, Yuu shouldn't have confessed in the first place— and that's why I want to be benevolent with him and think that his original "dead phone" little lie was to convince Hikari to go home and that the idea of confessing only came to him during the dance on the court.
There are human reasons that explain why he did it and that he didn't act with bad intentions, but that doesn't change the fact that Yuu was wrong here, that he was a coward when it came down to it, and with that cowardice, he unintentionally hurt Hikari, which, again, doesn't justify Hikari physically assaulting him and pushing him to the floor, and that Hikari could and should have been more comprehensive with her supposed best friend and crush, or at least ask him directly about Yami and what happened and see how he would have responded.
I also think it's absurd to claim that Yami wasn't malicious when she deliberately lied to him about their relationsip, ghosted him and later assaulted him.
Lying to Yuu about their relationship doesn't make her malicious, if anything, it makes her manipulative and unwilling to fully open up to him. Is not healthy and is very toxic from her part, but is not still deliberately malicious yet. But to assume Yami always planned to abandon Yuu is unfair to her, even if, again, it reflects poorly on her that she let go of Yuu's hand and abandoned him at the first serious external obstacle, which was Yami's mother's suicide attempt that provoked the ghosting, as it was already mentioned.
This is my interpretation, based on facts that I've already detailed extensively, with screenshots of the manga and with a passage from the novel. If anyone wants to claim that "they were all equally to blame and no one was worse to the other" I think that this is patently false when looking at the facts.
I mean, I think everyone blames Yami as the worst and most culpable of the three involved, and as the only one who actually had all the pieces of the puzzle and still kept both Yuu and Hikari in the darkness. Part of Hikari's anger stems from how Yuu unwittingly acted as an accomplice to Yami's efforts during her confession in chapters 37-38, even though it's obvious she did it because she was a victim of Yami.
The discussion is about whether Yuu is more guilty than Hikari or Hikari is more guilty than Yuu, but everyone agrees that Aya is primarily responsible for the events who happened.
It's easier for people who like these characters to pin the blame on the non-descript male character
If you've noticed, many commenters here are women, and as women, in many cases they border on or fall into misandry in order to deny her own female responsibility in this kind of mess. All this while claiming to be feminists; at least a more "traditional" and "conservative" girl would be more consistent in blaming Yuu for not being an alpha male who fulfills gender roles and is able to read Hikari and Ayami's minds.
Anyway, I can still understand why people can't sympathize with a declared submissive male protagonist who practically said he wants to be pegged (and it's possible Yami actually pegged Yuu) and who openly stated that he likes androgynous, almost male-looking girls, because that already happened with Yuu Izumi in Shikimori-san.
Because Taa-kun is an Expy of Izumi while Yami is an Expy of Ai Kamiya, the blue-haired 2nd FMC in that series.
