[Haak]

Originally Posted by Sackett

Sigh.

All the Kodaka hate.

Look, Kodaka's reaction was not the best way to handle it, but frankly Sena really acted inappropriately too.

You just don't propose marriage in a public setting without first knowing the answer. As a man you ought to know that, it would put the woman in an impossible position if she wants to say no. It could be considered manipulative. Not that I think Sena is being manipulative, she's just rushing forward, oblivious to social norms as usual.

...

Sena put Kodaka in a situation where there was no right answer only a least wrong answer. Which, assuming that Kodaka is not really interested in romance right now, would probably be to to say something along the lines that he's still in highschool and way to young to think about marriage, and that he really doesn't want to have a girlfriend, but that he does really enjoy Sena's company as a friend and he would like to continue being friends. Sort of leaving open the door to the possibility of something later.

Still would have hurt Sena something awful. Running away was also hurtful, but not that much worse then the best option.

It's hard to argue against this, but only because the point you're making lacks context. Are you making a third party point about the story's flaws or are you criticising the characters?

Because whilst what you said might be true in the real world, it definitely does not hold water in this story. Let's face it, what happens when confession takes place and the other party accepts it? It usually means they're in a relationship for life and they'll probably end up married with kids. That's obviously not how real life works at all but there you go: that's anime logic for you. And in any case, Sena wasn't actually asking Kodaka to marry her: She was just confessing to Kodaka. Marriage is just something she said she might like at some point or another. And the expression from Rika (an extremely obvious storyline cue) makes it very clear what the show is trying to tell us: It's Kodaka that's not doing the right thing for same reasons as last episode. Because that apparently makes him a coward.

Now you're free to criticize the show's logic (since I do it all the time) but criticising the character is another thing. It's not the character's fault if they have to abide by some pretty warped logic. For example, I get angry at Yozora's "bitchiness" to Sena all the time but I don't think that's what the show is trying to tell me (since it also makes it clear Yozora doesn't really want to hurt Sena) so it's not something I hold against Yozora because it's the story's fault if it wants their relationship to rest on some warped logic.

So what exactly is it that you're trying to say. Are you criticising the character or the show? because criticising a character based on real world logic doesn't really work.

You especially don't do something like this in front of your romantic rival- at least not if you want her to be your best friend, which Sena obviously does. This is a love triangle, not just with Sena and Yozora fighting over Kodaka, but also having a friendship as well- and this just blew a huge hole in it- and after all the progress this episode. This has to be Yozora's nightmare ever since Sena joined the club.

On a third level party, I'd have to slightly disagree. I think it's better if something like this is put out there so the rival is there to have a fair say in it. I'd think it would be far worse if Sena did it behind Yozora's back and I think that's exactly how Yozora would interpret it and I wouldn't blame her for it. Of course, the much better option would be if Sena first talked to Yozora about it and let her know she's going to do it and if she had any objections, she should raise them now, but I don't expect either Sena or Yozora to be on that level yet.

On a character is level, it's impossible to say. Sena could have a perfectly good reason, or rather, the story can easily make one for her, so that Sena confessing to Kodaka in front of Yozora might be better for their friendship in the long run. It's not like their friendship is particularly realistic to begin with, so arguing that such a thing wouldn't be realistic is kinda pointless. The important thing is whether the story could work with it. Now where the story left off, we don't know whether Sena factored in Yozora's feelings when she decided to confess in front of her. It's possible she didn't, but since Sena has clearly demonstrated tact before this (when she asked Kodaka not to tell anyone about the engagement because it might upset Yozora), I'd say a far more reasonable approach would be to wait for the next episode to clarify what kind of an effect Sena's confession might actually have on their relationship.

Compare this to the Rika situation, where she approached Kodaka alone, and thus allowed him to clumsily let her down sort of gently. Mainly because Rika did the hard work of reading between the lines, but still- Rika handled it very well which prevented it from becoming a disaster despite Kodaka's less then stellar handling. Sena is even clumsier than Kodaka.

No, not still. That's entire reason she was able to handle it better...

As for Aoi, I thought it obvious that she was really just trying to force Sena to acknowledge her, and she didn't really care about shutting down the club.

Obvious? Really? Because I didn't see that at all. You mind if I ask what makes you think it's obvious?

Too bad Sena isn't "clever" like Yozora and finally just brutalized Aoi out of the way. Although I guess she did move up from "who are you?" to "stop pissing on my flower garden you stupid dog."

Now this s a particularly curious statement because it seems to imply that you think Sena's attitude to Aoi was "stop pissing on my flower garden" before the incident. You mind if I ask where you're getting that from as well?