Ok we are definitely having two separate discussions. I need to make things clear so here's my good faith attempt to clarify:
The point of every comment I have posted here so far has been to explain why people decided specifically after this chapter to take a softer approach towards Hebikawa. I am not defending any character's actions and the only moral assertions I have made have been squarely critical of Hebikawa's character.
My belief that Hebikawa's actions are fundamentally unremarkable and mundane is not at odds with your belief that Hebikawa's actions are reprehensible. I have always maintained that her actions were cruel.
When I say that Hebikawa is an asshole but unremarkable, I am explaining why despite her cruelty, she doesn't register as a major antagonist as a character in a story. The narration has established her as a threat, someone malicious and dangerous. The revelation that she just made one off-hand remark throws a wrench into the story and how her character has been established. She's no longer Shizuki's years-long enemy, she's a classmate who hurt him once.
On the topic of them not being close, I believe that is fully supported by the text. While Shizuki narrates that he had one-sided affection for her, there is nothing to indicate that the two were anything more than acquaintances in middle school. I'm open to being proven wrong on this later, but her simply acting nice is not the same thing as friendship.
Again, I will reiterate: I am not diminishing the in-story impact this had on our characters, I am explaining why Hebikawa's actions evoked mixed responses in the readership.
Shizuki's trauma is clearly real and not imagined, but for the readers the pivotal event feels insignificant compared to how it has been previously described.
To summarize: Shizuki's narration thus far has implied that Hebikawa was far closer to him than she actually was and that she did far more to him than she actually did. That's why I think this chapter softened some peoples' impressions of her. Again. Even if what she did was reprehensible.
I'm trying to make sure I'm as clear and deliberate as possible here. I'm not saying Hebikawa is based, I'm not saying anyone is a beta, I'm not saying any of the other things that have been posted by other people here. The only one who's representing my thoughts here is me. There is no camp, if people agree with me, then that's their decision but that does not make their opinions mine.
I hope this clears things up.
On the topic of them not being close, I believe that is fully supported by the text. While Shizuki narrates that he had one-sided affection for her, there is nothing to indicate that the two were anything more than acquaintances in middle school. I'm open to being proven wrong on this later, but her simply acting nice is not the same thing as friendship.
She is clearly manipulating him here, but she very much knows that, to him, she was a much closer person than anyone else. Yes, of course, for a popular sociopath like her, he was less than a bug under her shoe, let alone an acquaintance or a friend. But she KNEW that she was the only source of appreciation that he had. That HE saw her as a friend. That's seemingly what made her approach him, at all. It made her feel important and above him.
Dont you wonder why every person here whose point of view you are trying to explain also suspiciously enough is calling her "based" and shitting on the MC? Acting like this is a "Hebikawa W"?
In your recent reply, you are addressing things that are pretty much irrelevant to what I was saying, because you are perpetuating the exact same thought that these people seem to be following: "what she did was no big deal, it's normal." What's written between the lines is "the MC has no reason to develop a trauma." You are afraid to say it outright, while the rest of the people (whose viewpoint you're trying to "explain") say it how they mean it.
Shizuki's trauma is clearly real and not imagined, but for the readers the pivotal event feels insignificant compared to how it has been previously described.
Don't you realize how contradictory that sounds? "Oh, his trauma is very real, but this event was so insignificant to us readers compared to how it was previously described." What's hidden in this comment is "is that it? what was he even complaining about?"
What absolutely boggles my mind is how yall can reach this conclusion after seeing this chapter. Because what I saw was a sociopath sadistically gloating over someone she managed to traumatize. She wasnt even aware that she had this effect on him, but she is visibly joyful about it. Going from chapter 1, this only makes her character seem worse. It only makes her betrayal all the more clear and deliberate.
Just because she isnt a moustache twirling supervillain who has spent years planning the MC's demise doesnt mean that anything has changed at all. She betrayed his trust at a very vulnerable moment in his life and he developed a trauma from it, that's what we knew from chapter 1. Now we know that she really is that same sociopath from back then, that she gloats over what she did and that she has zero concern for the person she victimized.
My conclusion from that would not be "that's it? Man, what was he even worried about lol." My conclusion from that is "wow, what a sociopath, she is actually happy about him developing a strong enough trauma to actively fear her hurting him more? And she wants to mess with him and his loved ones even more now?"
No wonder she made him feel so uneasy. His fear is irrational and it stems from his own insecurity about how he was back then: fat and bullied. It doesnt come from her. But he feared her "revealing" that in order to hurt him or in order to separate him from Kusunoki, for her own gain. He feared her doing something like that precisely because he learned that she is the type of person that would do that on a whim, with zero regard for him. Instead, he finds out that she just doesnt care about him at all. I dont blame him for being uncertain about how she will treat him, especially considering how creepily pushy she is with him in these two chapters.
That aside, I was mainly responding to what YOU said, not just what others said. Things like this:
There's no emotional bond that heightens the drama, either. They weren't close, so this doesn't feel like a betrayal so much as something completely normal: a person shittalking someone they act nice to.
In real life, would someone like Hebikawa be considered an asshole? Yes, but not of an exceptional variety. So for a lot of people, a character like her doesn't read as the kind of antagonist she's set up to be. She's just a mean kid, and there are a lot of mean kids in the world.
Things that unfairly diminish what she did to him, how it affected him, and, most importantly, how sadistically she acts about it. You saying that "they were not close" and that "she didnt betray him," that she just acted "normally." That is what I'm responding to. And I think I've already covered what I think about that quite thoroughly.
Remember, your very first reply to me was meant to counter me calling out the people who claim that Hebikawa was in the right and that the MC has no reason for his trauma. With that in mind, how exactly do any of your comments read? Especially when you come with wishy-washy statements like "oh his trauma is real, but it wasnt a betrayal or anything, she is just a normal kid doing normal kid things!"
(This is not directed at you, specifically)
It's genuinely a bit crazy to me that there needs to be such a conversation about this. But that's manga readers for you, I guess. Maybe it's a love for drama that drives these opinions? But then again, I really doubt anyone would be shitting on the MC for being "weak" and traumatized over something like this if he was a cute girl and the antagonist was male. And the fact that the antagonist here is an "evil" and attractive female character probably tickles the average manga reader's masochist bone and so they are willing to latch on to any little detail that might make her seem good and "misunderstood." I'm sure that there is some depth to her, but that will never erase how she treated the MC and likely other people, as well.
