Line #2 YMMV/DearChildren


1	* AbandonShipping: Candace rejects Aaron's romantic advances, and later explains that she thinks they're BetterAsFriends. But her rejection isn't very thorough (in part because Aaron doesn't know the right questions to ask, and it's obvious that she still loves him ''as a friend''. So is his suit hopeless? Maybe, because Aaron, Candace or ''both'' may be an ArmoredClosetGay , and if even ''one'' of the pair is, it really ''is'' hopeless.
2	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
3	** Aaron may be an ArmoredClosetGay, inin denial about an original attraction to Devin. This would explain both hias initial violent hostility, ''and'' his hostility to both Cail and Josh, two characters to whom Aaron might plausibly suppose Devin to be attracted toward.
4	** Cail may well be a DeathSeeker. She's suffering from gender dysphoria (which can make people suicidal) and at least playfully likes the idea of dying and becoming a ghost.
5	*** More mildly, Cail's over-the-top CloudcuckooLander behavior, coupled with her occasional sharp CuckooSnarker comments, could mean that she is ''thoroughly'' aware of how loony she acts, and is obsessed with ghosts to distract herself from her gender dysphoria.
6	** Devin displays a tendency to think about, and even have sex with, [[CargoShip inanimate objects]]. At first this is simply treated as a RunningGag, but we actually ''see'' him ogle the Perkovich lawn gnomes, and Cailin appears outright ''angry'' at Devin for doing this in front of Whitney. Has Devin turned to inanimate objects because -- unlike Aaron -- they can never turn on him and betray his friendship? (It's notable that the guy to whom Devin is ''really'' attracted -- [[spoiler:Josh]] -- is exceptionally sweet and kind, and would never treat him so cruelly).
7	** Is Gabe misunderstood for his [[OccidentalOtaku love of anime girls]], or is he in truth a CovertPervert?
8	** Are the misogyny and paranoia [[spoiler:Wesley]] expresses in the final pages of his [[ApocalypticLog Dream Journal]], as he starts to suffer serious SanitySlippage, ''solely'' due to the baleful influences of the BigBad? Or did he always have strong misogynistic and paranoid tendencies to begin with? Or did he merely have slight tendencies towards misogyny and paranoia which the Shadow exploited to take control of his mind? It's far from obvious which is true.
9	* AudienceAwarenessAdvantage: It's easy to forget that the Journalism Club doesn't know that they're in a horror story, let alone a CosmicHorror story set in LovecraftCountry. When any fan of Creator/HPLovecraft sees Wesley's Miskatonic University shirt or hears Isaac discuss detecting transient wormholes, coupled with the apparent ability of the [[HumanoidAbomination creatures]] to appear and disappear from areas at will, he has a good idea as to ''some'' of what's going on. This is not true of the story characters.
10	* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler: Aaron crossed this when he pushed Devin into the lake because [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain he found out Devin was gay]] and leaving him when Devin thought he was going to drown.Then he outed Devin to the whole school, causing him to get bullied.]]
11	* UnpopularPopularCharacter: Aaron is a serious {{Jerkass}}, who was committing petty crimes in his early teens, betrayed his former best friend [[spoiler:Devin Xue]] when he found out his friend was gay, and is angry at his current best friend Candace for rejecting his romantic advances. This is aside from the fact that he harasses the Journalism Club and even goads Devin to fight him, and is also a PoliticallyIncorrectVillain. No one in-story aside from his mom, and Candace and the other two members of the AV Club, really seem to like him. However, he really does care for Candace, and he's CuteButTroubled enough that he has a fandom.

Context YMMV / DearChildren