Are you serious, everyone acknowledges that Deryl was being an aggressive shit back then, even Deryl himself, that he fought back doesn't mean it wasn't Deryl clearly in the wrong. Also when you make odd deflection of harem lens, make a point, I could say that you're being defensive of Liz because you see her as a girl in your harem.
More stoic than average, but compared with Liz he's very expressive, I find his surprised reaction amusing, because it looks funny and yes, emotional and driven, we read his inner monologue, we know how often he gets angry, scarred, turned on, and absolutely driven, even in the early game the problem with the MC was that he only had a drive for things he was interested in and he wasn't interested in school, he has a reputation for being tenacious which was not only made clear in the flashback.
Liz has been upfront about being numb and passionless about almost anything with the sole exception being Amber, which has been great for the Twin arc, but made for a poor love interest.