animehead:

Makoto is my second favorite character in Free! I love him a lot, so I might be a little bias, so the most I could come up with has to do with the fact that Makoto can often be an enabler for Haru. He does and says (or doesn’t) a lot of things that he probably shouldn’t (or should) to keep Haru happy. This is obviously because he cares about Haru and wants to please him. I think many people are guilty of this whether the person be their friend, lover, family member, or whatever. The problem is that because Makoto holds back on saying things that need to be said to Haru, when he finally does say them, it ends up involving a lot of heightened emotions (like this past episode). 

So if you consider enabling as abusive, then maybe that’s why people are saying that Makoto is abusive to Haru . In that aspect, I can see why someone would say it. However, their argument from the past episode clearly shows that Makoto truly cares about Haru and wants him to have a purpose in life (whether it’s swimming or something else). To me, Makoto seems like one of those people who won’t really say anything because he believes people have to be themselves and learn from their own experiences. So when he does actually speak up, it’s probably something that someone should actually take the time to consider (I’m like that, too). 

Makoto is not without flaws, and he could stand for a few behavioral changes when it comes to Haru, but he’s not a bad guy. I’m not excusing his enabling behavior, but there are other characters (whom I also love) who could be considered abusive toward Haru as well.

But yeah, I don’t know what the people on your dash are saying, so this is just my opinion. 

To add, I thought it was interesting when Haru was like, “You’re always worried about other people, what about yourself?”  Because that is something Mako does, a lot.  You can see it throughout the series. When they were kids they both reached for the dolphin toy, Mako let Haru have it.  Mako suggested going to the swim club, when Haru said no, Mako wasn’t going to go at all.  In first season everyone wanted to train in the ocean, and even if Mako was terrified, he brushed it off and went along with it (and Haru even asked if he’d be o.k., he said it was fine).  Even when he raced against Haru this season and cried, he brushed it off with a smile, and told Nagisa (not Haru) that maybe he was jealous of Rin. Rin, who goes after what he wants, and just flat out says what he wants. He has a problem with Haru stopping in the middle of his race?  He’ll tell him.  He wants Haru to get out of this slump?  Let’s go to Australia.      

Mako is too nice.  He’s that friend who agrees with everything, and as great as that may seem, it’s not. You start to wonder what your friend actually likes.  If you have a friend who says yes to everything because you like it, you wonder… well, what do you want?  "Whatever you want.“  

And you can tell Mako was trying to speak up.  "Why were you here?”  "I spoke with Ama-chan about-“ "Oh.” “Y-yeah.”  And, “Haru, I want to talk about graduation plans.” “Not interested.” “No wait-”  So finally, it turned into, “Listen to me!”   

Here’s the thing, though.  Haru’s not a bad guy and neither is Mako. They’re just friends, really really good friends, since childhood.  And this is the first instance where they really have conflict (from what we’ve seen).  This conflict has been building up since the first episode.  "What are your plans for the future?“  This has been stewing in the background and they’ve said nothing to each other.  Honestly, this is something that friends do sometimes.  They don’t want to touch the heavy stuff, so it builds and builds until it finally explodes.  Sometimes, with the people you’ve had in your life forever, that’s what happens.  You don’t want to bring up things that may damage the relationship, so you keep it to yourself.  But, eventually, it needs to be said.  

Unfortunately, since it’s been brewing for so long, it came out as yelling. If you look at what they said to each other, it’s needed to be said between them, for a long time. Mako is an enabler, he does worry about others before himself. But since it’s been brewing it came out as, "Stop putting your nose in other people’s business!”  And Haru is bothered by things and does need to focus, which came out as, “We love you can’t you see that?!”  

Honestly, the episode was a pretty real depiction of friendship (and love, if you see MakoHaru that way).  When heavy subjects are pushed aside in favor of keeping the person you love happy, when those subjects come up they explode.