Spite

i am not a frerard or petekey shipper. more like a historian and expert on the topic.

It’s not called projecting it’s called Being Right About This Character

Aquatar Water Park, Qatar

Tom

Gerard way is the girls who are boys who like boys to be girls who do boys like they're girls who do girls like they're boys.

Gerard

a goth girl, a dilf, a twink, and an evil little rat man. what problems will they cause

Yatora’s confusion and dislike of Yuka’s gender expression makes a lot of sense if you think about his character. He’s a people pleaser who’s spent his whole life conforming to society’s ideas, so him being right off the bat understanding of a cross dresser/trans person would not make sense for his character, especially since stuff like that is seen as a social stigma in Japanese society.

Art is what makes him realize that there’s more to life than what society deems as normal, but even in art, he’s always trying to conform to what those around him think is best. He doesn’t really ignite his own fire, his own ideas and mindsets, he just follows what the rest do, hence why he has such a hard time drawing things from his mind and understanding people different than what he (society) deems normal.

His whole time in art schools he’s getting viewpoints from other people who aren’t “normal” and gets caught off guard

- Yuka’s gender expression and sexuality (he starts to understand them a bit better after their trip to the sea)

- Yotasuke’s incredible ability (he doesn’t see him as normal or low, he sees him as a god from another dimension until later)

- Hashida (he still doesn’t get him)

- Murai (who unlike him or Yuka, doesn’t give a fuck at ALL)

And plenty of others! The entire story is literally him meeting people who help him understand himself and the world outside society’’s norms.

Hashida Haruka is an incredible observer. He has a good eye for art, lends an ear to those who need it, and is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to art history. He pays very close attention to things, to people, to the art that surrounds him.

Interestingly enough, though the teaching arc showed us more of Hashida than ever, I was left with more questions than answers. In spite of us seeing him so often in these few chapters, much like Yatora, we realise how elusive he is. He is, if anything, a master at evasion.

Hashida has a mask on, 90% of the time - as nonchalant as he may seem, he is acutely aware of it. One of the few times when he opens up about his insecurities is when he talks to his student - Sae-chan.

"Sae-chan, the truth is I'm bad at painting. I like paintings and I like people who paint. I even paint myself. But the more I learn about other people who do it, I end up thinking of how I can't be like them."

He sees the difference between his art, and the art of others.

Take Yotasuke - someone with incredible skill who seemingly is always steps ahead of everyone else. Someone who is a different league altogether.

And Yatora, who is motivated, passionate and hard working, who made dessins in cram school as if it were nobody's business.

And when he looks into himself... how can he compare? He has incredible knowledge about art, and he enjoys seeing others' art very much. But what about his own? Why does his art have such little worth in his eyes?

That's why, when Sae-chan begins beating up her own work, he reacts so strongly.

This kid, whose works he has observed and appreciated, is beating herself up, yet continues holding her brush. She is jealous of the other kids' art, and finds herself disliking her own art.

Hashida is surrounded by people who he has deemed to be better than him, in some way or another. He doesn't seem averse to others knowing him, but he brushes off others' attempts to understand him. We've seen him invite others out to eat several times but never seen him being invited out.

He confuses yet intrigues me. He seems so lonely and yet we have hardly seen him alone (with him having three sisters and hanging out with Yatora and Yotasuke). It might be a lot to ask for but I hope Hashida gets a backstory as well. I wonder where his journey with art will take him to.