[Triple_R]

Rikka's problem is that she didn't have an "off" switch. Of course there's certain social situations (especially in the adult world) where you have to talk normally and can't go on about "The Tyrant's Eye". But there are also social situations were you can safely act out and embrace your "inner chuunibyou" (and this is true for adults to - just go to a comic book, Star Trek, or anime convention ). Rikka's club was ideal for providing a safe social situation for acting out.

Yuuta shouldn't have told Rikka that she needs to scrap the eye-patch, period. Or that she needed to scrap chuunibyou, period (if he did tell her that). What Rikka needs to do isn't lose the eccentricity, but rather compliment it with some normalcy for certain situations.

Maybe he should have put it as "Rikka, in order to avoid detection by the Administration, you have to learn how to hide your inner powers from the general populace. That means acting normal in-class, and in crowds. Here's how you act normal..."

It's actually not that hard to do, and just about everybody does it to some extent. Most adults are more open and laidback at home than they are at work, for example.

Originally Posted by Elestia

I'm going to take a guess and predict that even if Rikka wasn't a chuuninbyou she would still have problems dealing with math.

Agreed. Dekomori demonstrates that you can be a hardcore chuunibyou and still great at school. Rikka's math problems are inherent to her weaknesses with math. They're not because of her chuunibyou.

I don't see why she couldn't have fun and at the same time being a form of escapism as well. She seems to be having a lot of fun when she is playing with Dekomori and Yuuta with her behavior. But I think you are projecting a little too deeply to go as far as to say that Rikka's chuuninbyou is as destructive as severe alcoholism. It would probably be more akin to a being more eccentric, immature, or childish than anything else. Rikka just simply needs to control herself a bit without having to resort to an serious intervention at her age. It could be simply be a step down to Dekomori's level where she can interact with other's normally, which is not a huge transition to make in my opinion.

Agreed. Very well-said.

Originally Posted by Aquifina

This is a great point. I'd just add that Yuuta is also ignoring his *own* happiness in his quest to try to fix things between Rikka and her family. It's clear he's unhappy through much of this ep., and Rikka's state is eating at him. He stops himself at multiple points from doing the *correct* thing in human terms, because he thinks it doesn't correspond with the harsh reality he thinks Rikka needs to recognize. It's self discipline transformed from a virtue into a vice. However, he's so focused on having to deal the *reality* of the facts at hand that he forgets that life isn't just about facts. Or if it was, it'd be truly miserable, and there are emotional truths that need to be respected. He hasn't learned that whatever the facts on the ground, sometimes we need to follow our instincts.

Emotional comfort is there precisely for handling unpleasant facts on the ground. It's not a sign of weakness, it's a sign of humanity.

There's times in life where keeping a "stiff upper lip" is important, but if that's your only coping mechanism for facing hard facts, you're going to either eventually break down in a huge way or you're going to turn as numb as a zombie. And the latter is precisely what has happened to Rikka. The girl needs emotional comfort just to make her feel something other than numb melancholy again.