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Originally Posted by Gamer_2k4
Well, it is essentially an instant transformation, because Haruhi's huge out-of-character moment, the only time that I can think of that she ever showed empathy for anyone outside of the SOS Brigade, was at the festival that occurred a day or two after filming concluded. That's horribly abrupt.
Incidentally, the only time Mikuru actually has a problem with the cosplaying is when she has to wear the skimpy outfits. Her only gripe with the maid costume was that Haruhi wouldn't let her take off her own clothes, she had no (on-screen) issues with the frog or the nurse outfits, and of course she dressed up for the soba cafe without a problem.
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Admittedly, that might not have even been empathy so much as it was her making a spur of the moment decision to get involved in a situation. It is a little convoluted, but I think that's more of a timeline order fault than anything else.
Also, forcing Mikuru to play dressup was a bad choice of words on my part. The root of the problem was Haruhi continually treating people like objects, means to an end without any regard of how they feel about it one way or another. Now, whether she continues to do this after the fact (and she does at least a bit) does open debate over whether she learned anything, but she never went to such extremes again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gamer_2k4
If you don't know what you did wrong, then being yelled at won't change a thing. You might be upset (and Haruhi was indeed moody afterwards), but of course that'll all go away once the person who yelled at you says, "It's okay."
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I think here you might be giving Haruhi too little credit. She is quite empathetic, it's just that for the most part, she chooses not to be. And if I was arguing with someone and they went to hit me directly after something I just said, I'd probably attribute their anger to that statement, or at least the general focus of that current situation. Haruhi would have to be pretty wilfully ignorant not to see that Kyon had a huge problem with her treatment of Mikuru and her statement of ownership.
I haven't really quoted the last part, because as I mentioned earlier, I agree with you that the apology came off as completely one sided and contrived, and I think that it wouldn't have been much of a stretch if, as you say, Haruhi basically learned nothing from that incident other than that Kyon will cave given enough time. Now, she obviously did take something away from it, because she did tone down her behaviour and become more empathetic over the course of the next novels, but it could have just as easily gone the other way.