how did you come up with Taro's friend group?
HAI ANON!! I assume by friend group you're talking about toga, chojo, himari and uekiya based on the few posts ive had on taro's dynamic chart for control soooo
I find it hard to believe that taro hasn't interacted with anyone inside of his grade so uekiya was an easy person to see as his friend from the start. That being said uekiya is also someone he can canonically get close to, though in a romantic context.
After uekiya, came himari since the gardening club was a club taro thought about actually joining, and also cause I like to believe uekiya and himari are close friends because why not? It also helps that taro and himari have 5 things in common
After himari and uekiya, another thing I find hard to believe is that taro talks to absolutely no guys whatsoever. If I wanted to make the seating plan to play a major part in taro's friends, he would've been stuck being friends with itachi. Luckily for taro, itachi seems to have a harsh personality that I believe would've made taro just dislike itachi rather than want to befriend him, so thats out of the question. kaga is also near taro (somewhat), however, he also has an insufferable personality, and I headcanon taro to dislike kaga due to this. (Ironically, in Control! itachi and kaga are almost friends. "almost" being that neither of them consider themselves of having any friends, yet, can work well together and find the other person's personality tolerable.) So, thinking of all the least insufferable people in taro's class left toga, geiju, shin, shoku and budo. shoku, shin, and geiju were all in the first row so i took them out ad options. that leaves budo and toga
Now, there are many depictions of budo and taro being friends. It's understandable considering budo was implemented and voiced as a significant club leader, then popularized as a hypothetical love interest for ayano in the early days. But in Control! I wanted it to expand on a couple more dyanmics within year 3 to year 1. toga is a character that is similar to taro having 6 things in common with him. Both of them have troubles with the future whereas toga worries he's wasting his youth by not knowing what he wants to be, and taro's future changes based on who he dates (someone get this man a personality.) I believe that toga and taro would bond over not fully deciding their future and their common likes/dislikes. It also helps that toga was in the gardening club before as well, so he's already familiar with himari and uekiya
So where does chojo come in?? for starters, I headcanon that taro and chojo went to the same middleschool together so they've been friends since then. ignoring my headcanons tho, taro likes oka for her personality despite being the leader of the occult AND despite hating drama he still helps kizana during it all as he finds her determined, so i believe that him being friends with chojo, despite liking occult, won't deter their friendship. chojo has 5 things in common with toga, and while not having a lot in common with uekiya, their personalities wouldnt clash as uekiya id considered "a big sister" to a lot of people so i think they'd be fine too. himari has even less in common with chojo, however, she's socialable and i believe that they sit close enough that theyre cool with each other. (In the same sense, I believe himari, chojo and borupen are friends too so it helps having a connected friend)
All that being said I think their personalities do more of a job than any of their likes/dislikes do. for example: kaga canonically has a bad personality, yet, he has 3 commons with taro. this is equal to the same amount uekiya has to toga/chojo or as sumire, her club member
