oh yeah good question. it's of course up to each person's interpretation. i watched iland like three weeks ago and while i think you can attribute a lot of it to the editing (like for example times when they'd cut to his face and he's look unhappy while niki was doing something), they couldn't change what he was saying or the context of it. for example, it's already kinda rude to use "anata" (you) when you're talking to someone in japanese, but yudai uses "omae" (you, inf) with niki which is really rude. it's normal for varsity athletes to talk down to and be hard on their juniors (tbf this is the same in any country imo) which contextualizes things since at this point yudai has a lot of dance/singing training but not a lot of on-camera/personality training.

i think like everyone else he was a victim of the stanford-prisonesque experience of the show so i don't think he needs to be Held Accountable for how he acted under immense pressure... but i think a genuinely nasty side of him came out and that wasn't from the editing. he is a complex guy. i think it's ok to admit that he was nasty on tv when he was 22 and probably either isn't now or is better at hiding it. i don't really feel like i need to defend that part of his past since he doesn't pay my bills or massage my back. if i thought he wasn't capable of cruelty i wouldn't be writing this fic!