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Originally Posted by Triple_R
The CCP is a pretty sucky character, imo. He's good to use as a jobber (to borrow a pro wrestling term), but that's about it.
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The CCP is awesome, simply because he's so hapless. Maybe you just don't get him. ^_^
Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple_R
Kyon and Haruhi are both indispensible characters, imo. The story revolves around each of them, albeit in different ways.
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Agreed, but not quite what we were talking about. As I've stated multiple times, there is no getting away from Haruhi's influence on the plot. What we were talking about is getting away from her
physical presence in the plot, which is most thoroughly done in Volumes 4 and 7, but often occurs any time something needs to happen without her knowledge. In that sense, only Kyon's presence (as the audience POV and narrator) is truly indispensable, to the point where when something
does occur without his involvement (certain parts of Someday in the Rain, Yuki and Itsuki's initial "curing" of the Mikuru Beam), it's jarring.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple_R
Quote:
Originally Posted by quigonkenny
I've never understood the "x character must be involved in every story" mentality. It seems incredibly self-centered (regarding the "x character" fans) and/or short-sighted (regarding the "x character sells the most swag" part of the argument) to me. The work should speak for itself, no matter who is in it.
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We're talking about entertainment here. There's nothing "self-centered" about wanting to see your favorite characters in your favorite entertainment shows.
Haruhi is a character-driven anime/novel. The characters are the story... so much so that one of them is the narrator.
"The work" is indivisible from its characters. |
You misunderstand me. Maybe I should have italicized the "must" in "x character must be involved..." to better accentuate my point. I'm not talking about preferring certain characters and wanting to see them portrayed. I'm talking about those who would dismiss an entire story or novel because they don't think there's enough of "x character" in it. I don't think we get nearly enough Tsuruya-san for example, and would love to see more of her (knowing that
is a bit self-centered, considering any time spent focusing on her is time that can't be spent focusing on someone else's favorite character), but I'm content to let Tanigawa make that decision, and I'm certainly not going to brand a good story as deficient simply because there's not enough green-haired senpai in it.
Similarly I have a problem with overpromotion of a character, even if they're supposedly the centerpiece of the series, because all characters eventually wear thin with people, and overpromotion exacerbates that. All the characters are important to the story, and undue focus on any one character causes problems, especially if the creator starts reading his own press and changing plot decisions based upon it.