MY THOUGHTS

The novel presents things in a more detailed manner. In the novel it was very clearer Oreki's sister who suggested to Irisu that Oreki could "be made to run errands for her and could even be made to dance". Which did not improve my opinion of his older sister at all. No wonder Oreki is like he is!

OTOH Oreki's sister outright confronts Irisu in the novel and calls her on trying to manipulate her as well and that the bottom line was Irisu's concern to look good in accomplishing her tasks.

It was an odd thing to read - b/c Oreki's sister was the instigator in the whole thing, and yet she confronted and called out Irisu. And in the sense of odd I mean a little creepy and surreal. Kinda wish Oreki would slap his sister a good one too. -_-

REPLY


Your comments about Oreki's sister are interesting. I think, based on what you've said, some of it is still subject to interpretation. Perhaps she is inherently conflicted because she wants her brother to get out in the world and become more world-wise (and she knows that he's inherently lazy and needs to be pushed around a bit), but at the same time, as a sister, she doesn't like to see him get hurt (though she knows it's inevitable). So here, though she set the wheels in motion to get him involved, it probably didn't work out the way she had imagined it would. Ultimately, I assume we're supposed to believe that she cares about Houtarou a lot... but her way of showing it is a bit abstract and unclear. In a sense, she is also manipulating him (you might call it "meddling"), but in her mind she's trying to do good for him, whereas our "villain" this round wasn't looking out for anyone but herself. It's a tricky thing.