Zyxx said:
It was his idea... to impress his peers. He didn't do it in order to check out girls; he went through with it in order to project the image he wanted in his social circle, because he's still not comfortable just being himself. What is that, if not peer pressure?
Naoto is boyish-looking enough that he's attracted to her at first glance. The discovery that she's a girl gives him some hope that he might really be straight: you can see this in his dialogue for the swimsuit competition. "Make me a man;" he says: he's hoping that if he still finds her attractive in a swimsuit, like a man's "supposed" to, it'll mean he isn't gay. Unfortunately we don't get to see if this would be the case.
I think the whole "that other me is me" at the end of his S.Link sort of clinches it, because "that other me" wasn't anything but a giant gay stereotype. It was concentrated, distorted reflection of everything he's trying to deny he feels and the fear of what he'll be if he accepts that part of himself.
OT: I saw a Cracked.com article recently, "Top 5 baffling Christmas-themed Fanfics." The winner was an mpreg (male pregnancy) ship between Snape and Harry. Because that's completely possible, not even slightly creepy, and having your male characters knock each other up with no explanation of how the hell that works is totally acceptable and doesn't make me want to gargle bleach.
That is EXACTLY what peer pressure isn't, peer pressure is when your peers pressure you into doing something, nobody pressured him into doing what he did, they did the opposite and tried to convince him not to do what he was going to do.
I guess we read that bit at the end differently, I could have sworn he said "that other me is also me", referring to the fact that he was hiding behind a self imposed image, he's as gay as Yukiko is a lesbian, but nobody seems to remember that part where she waits for her "prince" and informs you that her "prince" is Chie, and what about Rise? Are we to assume she's a stripping show off when they clearly show she isn't? The shadows are NOT representations of the characters, they are repressed thoughts, Kanji thought he might be gay (because girls laughed at his hobbies and guys accepted the tough image of him) and couldn't accept that, that's why his shadow was gay, Yusuke cared about that liqueur store girl, but also wanted something interesting to happen, and the murders were certainly interesting, but he tried to ignore that over finding what happened to her, that's why his shadow didn't care for the girl at all, they are only repressed thoughts a person might have that they cannot accept, nothing more.
That Cracked article was fucked up though, how did they find these and why were they looking?
