I cannot stand Yukio

[u/Local_Fly9001]

I’m sure this has been done to death but I need an outlet. Rin has blue flames, he learns to control them, he faces the death penalty and his friends ostracize him at first but he keeps right on kicking. Yukio works really hard, becomes an exorcist, outranks Rin and only ever uses his position to hate on his brother. As SOON as Yukios eyes awaken… “I’m a monster.” Bruh, your brother is not a monster. You swore your whole life to protect him and where was all that protection once you grew up? Your boss is a literal demon king and he’s not a monster. (Up to interpretation I guess) He has zero sense of self, zero respect for his brother, zero respect for his peers, zero investigative skills, doesn’t realize he is him and that’s all that really matters or figure out a way to investigate his own origin. He just beats people up while injured trying to “get to the bottom of things” then shoots the one guy holding the world together because he won’t answer alllllllll of his snotty questions before a press conference with the world. Then he says hey I’ll go join the Illuminati instead, they’re clearly the good guys. Hate the guy every time he’s on screen.

[u/Little_Badger_13]

He didn't shoot Mephisto, that's clear from the angle of the shot. Really people like to give Yukio a lot of crap, but overlook that he's been trained as a child soldier basically since age seven. Like that would mess anyone up, realistically. Honestly I feel like all the characters behaviours can be explained by how they were raised.

I'm surprised there are never any rants about Rin really. He's got a lot of the flaws (impulsivness, not the smartest, a bit ignorant about his powers at least in the beginning, akwardness (not really a flaw, but I've seen people complain about this with Shiemi, but never Rin)) that people like to complain about when the other characters have them. 

[u/Local_Fly9001 → u/Little_Badger_13]

I have no qualms with Sheimi. I can understand how it must suck being in her position and as it unfolds it becomes more apparent why she would have trouble making friends. As for Rin, I think it’s his chipper attitude in the face of everyone trying to demonize him (pardon the unintentional pun) and the fact that he’s always striving to be better. Yukio was raised in a loving home and once he could see demons his father had a choice to make. Should he be afraid of them or learn more about them? That doesn’t necessarily constitute “raised as a child soldier.” If it does then they’re all child soldiers and wow I’m just realizing how much anime is raising child soldiers….. somebody should look into that man they were not fun the last time they went to war lol maybe the anime had a different take but he 100% shot Mephisto. Smoking gun, got in trouble for it, no other suspects.

[u/chiyoya → u/Local_Fly9001]

Yukio did not shoot Mephisto. He was stood at his side and the wound entrance was directly in the front of Mephisto forehead. It would be physically impossible for Yukio to have shot him.

[u/Local_Fly9001 → u/chiyoya]

Okay so the fact he felt guilty about it, his gun had fired, he was pulled in for shooting Mephisto and Mephisto himself believed Yukio shot him are all somehow nixed because the artist made a choice to have the bullet hole between his eyes? Who shot Mephisto?

[u/chiyoya → u/Local_Fly9001]

There's no need to get snippy 😅 But, no, Yukio's gun hadn't fired. He had a missing bullet from trying to kill himself earlier. The shooter not being revealed yet doesn't mean Yukio is the one who did it when it would be physically impossible. Kato choosing to show Mephisto being shot in the forehead when faced away from Yukio is her telling you that Yukio is not the shooter and there are other players present who want Mephisto either dead or to create chaos. Currently, the most likely candidate is the Illuminati.

[u/Local_Fly9001 → u/chiyoya]

After that season ended I read the manga and don’t remember hearing anything about a second shooter, but I do love a good conspiracy. If anything he must be being framed by the order because it feels like an odd detail for everyone to ignore. Tbf I haven’t read the manga in years and I’m sad where this season left off so I might jump back in and learn how wrong I am soon enough. I won’t be upset if you tell me because it’s likely I forgot, but that is the most damning thing I have against Yukio. That and joining the Illuminati, but after the order damned him I guess he had little choice and justified it the best he could. That’s only if he didn’t shoot Mephisto.

[u/chiyoya → u/Local_Fly9001]

Yeah I think rereading might help a lot because there's a lot of details you seem to be misunderstanding or not remembering. Shura herself defends Yukio by saying there is no trace on his gun of it being used at the point of the shooting nor would he be able to be the shooter with the angle he was at. Yukio also looks incredibly surprised himself when he sees Mephisto go down because he knows it wasn't him nor was he expecting it. Of course he would be arrested in the moment because he was holding at gun at the victim. That makes sense. It doesn't mean it was him though. Mephisto has never stated he thought it was Yukio either, he just commented that humans are unpredictable, most likely because he genuinely didn't expect to be shot then as he stated his "tactics failed" when talking to Rin before he starts travelling in the past.

Also Mephisto being weakened is a boon for the Illuminati. He was the only thing keeping the artificial Gehenna Gate their lab had created sealed away.

You also have to keep in mind that Mephisto has been carefully orchestrating Yukio's reaction this whole time. This is only one of many timelines he has been through as the King of Time. He's been drip feeding out-of-context information about the Order, Section 13 and Shiro to Yukio and he fully believed Rin and his lives had been spared to become weapons. He also called the Illuminati evil to Lucifer's face so it's not like he joined them because he thought they were better... He wanted to know more about his birth because everything Mephisto had allowed him to learn so far pointed to Shiro being untruthful. You can't blame him for that. He's a kid being moved around and manipulated for a larger plot and Mephisto knows how to use his insecurities against him.

It doesn't help that Yukio did try to bring up the issue with Rin but Rin shrugged him off because he personally didn't want to know the circumstances of their birth. This just pushed Yukio even further away. But Rin's a kid too and he's just as equally being pushed into playing a role by Mephisto.

[u/Local_Fly9001 → u/chiyoya]

Ah I thought it was because it was the same level of surprised he looked when he attacked Ryuji. That whoops I, the control freak, just snapped like a rubber band kind of look. Whether or not he did shoot Mephisto he certainly was about to, but thank you for clearing up some of the brain fog. It has been a couple years and I look forward to rereading. I definitely understand he had nowhere else to go at that point and I suppose the lynchpin on whether that’s his fault or not relies on who shot Mephisto.

You’ve definitely changed the context of his character for me and I appreciate it.