haru-toots:

maruka-tachibanase-blog:

Free! can be interpreted in any which way of course, but personally I don’t think Makoto is even capable of jealousy. Throughout the series his attitude towards anyone trying to get to know/go near Haru has been positive and welcoming, and in many instances it’s even him who makes Haru’s relationships with other people possible. Makoto isn’t selfish of Haru, it’s the other way around; he wants to let the world know how wonderful a person his best friend is. So jealous Makoto, though cute and widely accepted by the fandom, to me doesn’t really compute.

And on the subject of jealousy, let’s not forget it’s Haru who is stated by canon to be the jealous type. ;)

imo that scene reads more like makoto was giving haru an out.

gou was asking what she didn’t realize was a personal question full of tangled emotions. makoto walked up and gave haru an out if he wasn’t ready to talk about it. really it was an out for both of them. but, if gou and haru wanted to keep talking they could’ve. i guess if you isolate it out from the rest of the episode it looks like jealousy. but that would be ignoring everything that comes both before and after it, along with makoto’s canon personality shown thus far.

i don’t think it’s a case that makoto would never be jealous, because it’s a normal human emotion. but i do think it’s a bit of a misread to think he would act on his jealousy. if anything he’d be more likely to unconsciously push haru away than pull him in if he was ever jealous because he would think his feelings are a bother to haru, not worth being talked about, and so he should hide it (from haru) as best he can until he can get over it without ever telling anyone he felt that way in the first place. because makoto has a high level of control over his emotions (which for me makes his panic attacks even more upsetting as even then he is trying to control himself to hide it or apologizing thinking he is a bother to others for breaking down).

plus, it would be strange for makoto to be jealous now when he hasn’t been any other time haru and gou (or anyone since the beginning of this story in the novel) have had their chats. nor was he put out when gou showed up, looking cute as a button i should add, later that same ep at the festival.

makoto likes and actively tries to get haru to be out in the world as much as possible. which is what he has done since high speed till the finale of s1. be it together or haru by himself or haru with someone else or haru with their group of friends. makoto wants haru to have friends and the full range of things that come with human interaction. makoto is always shown as happy when haru does things on his own and by his own will (that don’t involve stripping in public or trying to swim in fish tanks).

while haru on the other hand is the one that gets miffed when makoto is cleaning his fish bowl and not right by his side. haru is the one who didn’t want makoto to make a new friend because it would mean another person in his space. haru is the one that yells and shuts down conversations from people trying to figure out what’s wrong with makoto. haru is the one that tells makoto “it’s enough” to get him to stop sharing his problems with others.