Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple_R
You know, you honestly might have a point there.
While going straight from "friendship" to "Will you marry me?" would seem like utter insanity to most people, there could be some rationale to it from Oreki's standpoint.
I don't think that Oreki would have much interest in dating for its own sake. And if it's just a means to an end, why not just skip straight to the end (this I think would be Oreki's rationale)? I recall Oreki once briefly talking about his love for the word "shortcut". 
Oreki is now much more willing to take part in activities that require time and effort, but he's still a very practical person, I think. In other words, he won't spend time doing something unless he sees a clear and practical purpose in it. |
One of the wonderful things about this series is how it shows that emotions like love (and I'm willing to use it in this case) may have a fundamental common core among different personality types, but that it will express itself in different ways, depending on the individual person involved.
In ep. 21, Oreki says frankly he doesn't feel things the same way as Chitanda does--and he doesn't. Final scene notwithstanding, he'll always be rather gray, usually with that indifferent scowl on his face. I think the lesson he took from the fate of Chitanda's uncle was that while the rose colored lifestyle might have its good points, his gray colored world had its strengths--namely his ability to see the truth at the core of every situation, no matter how ugly it was. And that's borne out later. For Hyouka's upbeat tone, a lot of the mystery plots had sad endings--Chitanda's uncle's secret resentment; his sad but wise advice to her; the deception of Oreki himself during the film arc; the failed attempt to communicate during the festival arc; even the deaths of the mountaineers, despite that english teacher's brief moment of hope when he saw the helicopters.
Who better to deal with the truth than gray colored Oreki, who seems so difficult to move emotionally? And who better to make the best of sad situation, whether it be restoring Chitanda's memories of her uncle, no matter how tinged with sadness they are, or selling anthologies via blackmail, or finding the white lie to calm Chitanda down at the end of ep. 21, without completely shattering Satoshi's fragile illusion?
But Oreki *does* care about Chitanda--and it goes beyond his obvious physical attraction her (which, btw, he seems to feel for no other girl). The imagined confession was so Oreki--deeply pragmatic, and bluntly honest--taking into account Chitanda's honest and accurate self-criticism of her own failings, but also offering a solution to those problems. And a willingness to over-ride his own cherished philosophy of energy conversation for her sake. Coming from him, it was pragmatism turned into poetry, but they only had that meaning coming from him. And I think Chitanda would have recognized it for what they meant, which is why they're a good match--and I believe she had more than an inkling that he thought something along those lines, even though the words proved too powerful to be uttered at that moment.
) were as great as ever, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to take the extreme minority position and say no, I didn't care for this episode... What can I say? As I get older, I'm less and less tolerant of male lead roles in most anime. 
By ep. 22, Houtarou knows he's attracted to Chitanda and has feelings for her; he just doesn't know if he's willing to be her husband and chief-executive for life. If he never gets to that point, dating would just be a waste of energy and effort.
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