Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple_R
How can someone be "self-serving" if their actions are based on "feeling moved to help someone in trouble"? You're right about what "moved" Irisu. And that's precisely why she isn't self-serving. [...] Irisu clearly wanted to avoid hurting the feelings of others. She clearly felt guilty over Oreki getting upset with her. She clearly wanted to avoid Hongou getting hurt.
And I frankly think that it does a real disservice to her character for the final note of the arc to act like this wasn't the case when it was the case. A person doesn't have to be self-serving in order to think that questionable methods are worth it for a desired end result.
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"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions"?
Even a seemingly-selfless act can be tinted in many shades of selfishness. In a way she might have meant well, but at the same time she was furthering her own agenda to accomplish those ends. A lot of this is revealed by your actions. When your actions are underhanded and reek of deceit, it's hard to come out looking like an angel. She may feel that she did what she had to do, but that doesn't mean it was right. I think the objective of that scene was precisely to clarify that what you thought you saw in terms of her motivations to that point were not actually the full story after all. I'm not sure that this revelation does a disservice to her character; if anything, it puts it into further perspective. Maybe some people can do questionable things out of necessity and pure motives, but I think the story is simply suggesting that Irisu's motives were not actually that pure.
Edit: For what it's worth, in looking back at the previous episodes in light of the chat comments, I think we can get a pretty good sense of what her real motivation might have been: to take control of the project and make it succeed (by her own definition). As Satoshi said in Episode 8, she uses everyone as pawns in her own game. Irisu said back then that she wasn't there when the project was conceived, and if she had been there she wouldn't have agreed to it. But then she had to live with it, and the script wasn't to her satisfaction (per the chat comments), so she had to come up with a way of taking control of the project again without stomping all over the person who was asked to write it (by class vote). So, to do that, she took advantage of Hongou's timidity and discomfort for having "disobeyed the class's will" (even though Hongou's own opinion was disqualified), and -- in a sense -- got her out of the way. Then, as Houtarou proposed, when the rest of the class couldn't come up with a good ending that satisfied her, and neither could she, she had to come up with a different plan, and started asking around until the right circumstances presented itself. So, did she really feel bad for Hongou's feelings, or did she just not want to see the class she ran associated with something sub-par and took advantage of the opportunity when it presented itself? Did she really feel guilty over Oreki getting upset, or was she just realizing that it was something she probably should feel sorry for (and that's why she admitted she was just talking big)? That closing scene brings that all into perspective. I can see how you might say that they could have omitted that scene, and someone could have believed that she was well-intentioned but prone to using less than honest means. I just don't think that's what they were trying to say here. And the reason why that's important is because she also deceived "A~ta~shi" -- who we presume with near-certainty to be Houtarou's sister -- with a false pretence for asking for help. If not for the revelation, we'd potentially believe that she was in on the trickery, but it seems that she only agreed to get them involved because she really thought the situation was desperate. As it turns out, the situation wasn't that desperate after all, except from the point of view of Irisu's pride. "I wasn't in a position to allow the project to fail", typed at a frenzied, nervous pace. She really has no other excuse.