#I didn’t know whether to call him villain or anithero since his arc just started

[distinguished-slacker]

My opinion on Yuu becoming a villain

(NOTE: This is just my opinion and I am not writing this to fight the opinions of those who like the writing or Yuu’s character but rather to simply express my thoughts.)

Sooo…am I the only one who simply does not like villain Yuu? It’s not because he is a villain, but rather the way he is written as one and how he came to be one is what bugs me.

I feel like more scenes were needed during his transition to a villain, showing Yuu feeling broken to separate from everyone than what just the manga has shown us. For example, Yuu and Ashera’s friendship is one which the manga has focused on developing a lot, from the standard demon-human one to actual friends who will support each other. Ashera calling him a monster and Yuu simply eating him and going “Boy, winning is kinda empty :/” and “Didja eat? :D” is a bit of a disrespectful way to end things from a narrative standpoint. Maybe we could also have had some insight on what Yuu thinks of Guren now? He is(was?) like a father figure to Yuu and yet we had no scenes of them. Or what about Yuu’s head going through memories that he and his squad actually experienced (and that have been previously shown in the manga) instead of the usual one panel flashback with the one pixel faceless squad looking at him from afar with a smiles on their faces. What about when they were in Yuu’s hospital room or when they were eating breakfast together or on top of the car or simply any scene when they were laughing and fooling around? Yuu is basically leaving almost everything that has been a part of his life since the manga started…

Also, Yuu was always shown to have his own mental and emotional issues but still from the beginning until Shibuya arc he was always portrayed as the typical positive mc who simply wants to live a happy life with his family. That’s the kind of character he was. These scenes where he jumps to a cold, indifferent and somewhat manipulative persona with either the smiling face with a shadow on his eyes or a simple monotonous expression feel a bit rushed to me because they only started out in this arc, which at most is one day long in universe. Yuu never acted like this before (never to this extent or a hint of it) and so his character displaying this side of his in some scenes within a couple of hours window before his big massive villain arc makes it come off as forced in my opinion. I don’t know whether he wasn’t like this before and an event that happened in this arc made his personality twist more or he simply was like that all this time and just hid it, but it just leaves me with the question about what is that ‘something’ that happened that lead to Yuu showing this side of his. Why now and not before in his 16 years of life? Is it the trauma of Mika’s death or perhaps Guren’s betrayal? Is it just all the drugs he took during these months finally taking a toll on his mental health? Without the elaboration on this aspect of his character, it just feels like these kind of scenes came out just because, to make Yuu look cool, and consequently I’m left with the impression that Yuu’s villain arc doesn’t feel natural, and rather it happened because it had to happen, because villain arcs are badass and the fans will love it. Now, this at least has the advantage of mystery and we will probably get the elaboration of Yuu’s character in the future (similar to how when Eren became the villain and we didn’t know his reasons until later in the manga) but the rest of my points are still standing.

But it’s not only the lack of emotional scenes during this transition and the lack of scenes expanding on Yuu’s personality transformation, the build up before this arc is also insufficient and the chapters feel like they were written as if Kagami just had to go quick and cover all the points before making Yuu the villain: Yuu finally makes Mika his demon, then quick win against the one who was supposed to be the most important villain so far (Shikama) to move him to the sidelines of the plot (basically so the title of villain is available for Yuu to take it), then we get a chapter where Yuu sparks conflict by asking Guren if he killed his family, then the next one we have Yuu forgiving Guren because of family uwu, then we have Guren cornering Yuu again so the betrayal hits harder, then we have an emotional Tepes siblings flashback so Yuu can then go and get rid of Ashera, and now we end with villain Yuu arc, all these chapters being placed next to each other, occurring in the span of less than one year. It’s like Kagami’s main goal was to make Yuu the villain and so he had to tick all the boxes, even though some of these boxes were events that actually needed their own focus, time and writing dedication.

Now, the biggest reason why it’s hard for me to root for Yuu is how the narrative treats him. Basically, it’s no different from before, just that now he finally has the complete freedom of doing what he wants, which is the worst thing. None of what he did makes Mika happy, and yet instead of finally creating some conflict it’s played off as a joke, again. He was lead 15 floors underground so that he could not escape, yet he just shooting star-ed all those 15 roofs into the ground floor and got outside. He defeated Ashera like nothing despite his own demon, his source of power, refusing to give him power, and escaped this easily despite being drugged and surrounded by nobles, who apparently did not react quick enough to his escape. He is never on the losing side for more than one chapter. He just gets one power up after another, basically like always, and now because he is the villain his power ups can get even more ridiculous. It’s like giving a child a weapon, a very big, dangerous weapon no one can fight against. Plus apparently now he thinks he is capable of coming up with his own strategy against people who are smarter than him, have more information than him and know the facts, and had years or even centuries of planning. Some people say Yuu is smart, but I really don’t think so. Whatever thing Yuu did in the story that people considered smart, in the end it’s just your plain everyday common sense, which since Yuu most of the time does not seem not have, whenever he actually shows it it can be confused as smartness. He displays some manipulation capacity, but he is definitely not at the same level as someone like Shikama or Mahiru. The candle riddle was one time he showed to be smart, but overall all the brain he has shown so far in the manga is not enough for him to suddenly be an intelligent villain and make it feel natural. Besides, he does not have any knowledge of spellcraft or Latin; even if he gets some books for research he won’t understand them. The only possibility for him to get actual info is if he allies with someone who has it, but apparently he doesn’t want anything to do with Shikama or Guren. Even if he allies with someone else, he would automatically be working under them, so it really wouldn’t feel as Yuu following his own path as he would just simply change bosses. Honestly, the only way Yuu can achieve his goal is if Kagami pulls a Deus Ex Machina, and we all know what that entails.

So my conclusion is that the story wasn’t ready for Yuu to become a villain and that neither Yuu is ready to live up to being a villain, as he needs more than just power.