small brain: i hate yosuke he's mean and homophobic
big brain: yosuke's entire character is about how insecure he is; he's afraid of rejection and alienation from the people he loves and there is plenty of subtext that suggests that he's projecting his insecurities onto kanjiâ
big brain: yosuke's entire character is about how insecure he is; he's afraid of rejection and alienation from the people he loves and there is plenty of subtext that suggests that he's projecting his insecurities onto kanjiâ
âand even by the end of the original persona 4 he's unable to fully open up and be himself. It doesn't excuse his stupidity with what he says to kanji in several scenes and the trope of homophobes being secretly gay is tired af but it makes a lot of sense for him to beâ
âstruggling with internalized homophobia, especially with the evidence of his scrapped romance route & confession lines and the way he acts in post-p4 material (ie. persona q where he admits he likes the attention he got while crossdressingâ
âhe does this thing where he says what he really feels and then goes back on it immediately afterward. It's a defense mechanism he uses to avoid being rejected.
Also speaking of the group date cafe, it's also implied that Yosuke and Kanji had some sort of conversation about love (which I suspect was brought on by Yosuke apologizing to Kanji for being homophobic â I mean c'mon, "there are many forms of love"?)
Anyways, as a dumb baby gay I was very similar to Yosuke and constantly tried to reject my real feelings by being homophobic (when my best friend came out I said "as long as you don't try to hit on me!" because I secretly had a MASSIVE crush on her) so idk. I can relate.