i dont interpret hakuba as being a huge sweetie? more like… very charming. he can be very nice and he can also very adversarial and even manipulative. he thinks a lot of himself and he wants others to think a lot of him too.

This is a perfectly valid interpretation, and one of the reasons why I like him as a character so much. I think he makes a fantastic antagonist and foil (more on this later) for this reason. I think he’s both, honestly. Certainly not without flaw, and there are good reasons why people like Heiji don’t like him. I try to play him from the mindset of “sympathetic villain.” I think his heart is in the right place, but he’s… often a bit too persnickety to be truly effective. 😀

And these Sweetieba posts are written to be persuasive and, yes, intentionally manipulative. I write from this angle as a stylistic choice (since this is a Hakuba blog it only seems fair that I would let his brand of influence set the pace) – and because it’s genuinely fun to challenge people to consider alternative perspectives on things, such as characters that may have been previously dismissed as just a jerk, etc.

So yes, a bit over-the-top, but that’s on purpose. 🙂 

…I do think that he’s sweet. But also a jerk. Both. A walking contradiction with vast potential for character development. A writer’s dream in a lot of ways because he’s so complex and SO different from the other Gosho boys. <3 <3 <3 

((PS I was supposed to reply to you regarding Spider’s inclusion in the anime like, forever ago? But am still figuring out how I feel about it. I haven’t forgotten, though!))