My point was just because someone has a bad home life does not justify their actions.
Okay, and? Hebikawa herself isn't justifying her actions, and I'm not exactly sure where I ever did that, either.
The only thing I've said is that
what she has done hasn't actually been terrible, beyond be mean to those who were mean to her when she was a kid, and then be rude and dismissive "with a smile" to guys who constantly hit on her. She humors her mom's boyfriend while he repeatedly comes onto her, so that he'll stick around in her mom's life; she was kind to Keisuke's face in middle school, then turned around and treated him like he was the nobody he was when asked about him from others--to the point she didn't remember him at all at first, because of how much he'd changed/"debuted" in high school.
Since then,
Keisuke has been accusing her of plotting to get involved with Kusunoki, and Hebikawa herself has declared her intent to "expose Kusunoki's dark side", but has done actual fuck-all in carrying out that plan. Keisuke was the one who started this whole "compensated dating" bullshit that
some readers like to parrot, when it was explained three chapters later.
And the "actionable portion" of her "Plan" that's been declared since the beginning of volume 5? She's gotten involved with Keisuke, who has
sought her out himself on two separate occasions when he could have just turned around and walked away. And she wants to make Keisuke fall for her, because she's clocked that Kusunoki has feelings for him back in chapter 31--something she
denied until chapter 53. Lo and behold, Hebikawa has instead witnessed Keisuke's earnest side on two major occasions (when he got her away from Koji in chapter 33, and again with her lonesome birthday three chapters later), and when he saw right through her in chapter 42, she got upset at the fact the
one action she'd taken fell through, while starting the process of falling for him at the same time.
So, again--every "bad" thing she's done, was in flashbacks in elementary and middle school. Elementary, she was lashing out against those who bullied her first. She made the "dark choice" variant of Kusunoki, which is why she's the main heroine's counterpart; they both were bullied as children due to being "too nice", and Hebikawa turned cynical and cold while Kusunoki retreated into herself and became an introvert.
Go back and look at previous chapter comment sections. Hebikawa is treated as scum of the Earth, when if you read through her actual story and
what she's done in the narrative thus far, it all feels rather blown out of proportion. You can say "well she's been mean to people", and that's fair. She'd say it first, because she believes that kindness is a mask and that everyone is selfish on the inside.
Because that is her character arc.
But point out to me where she's done something that actually warrants the hate she's gotten from those who express such contempt for her character. Because she's not as violent as Otobe, she's not as persistently annoying or aggressive as Airi, and I would argue Kusunoki has hurt Keisuke more than her, in the present timeline of high school--even if it was unintentional.
All that to say--she's a complicated character who has been set up to be the counterpart to Kusunoki, and that alone paints her in an unfavorable light. But acting like she's some irredeemable villain who's earned the amount of hate that
some people here have leveled at her is asinine. She's got a character arc that's seen her change even since middle school, and again throughout the First Year they've been covering in the series. There's a reason she's the third heroine and not just an out-and-out antagonistic figure, after all.