The Character Discussion Thread of SOS団 Member: Haruhi Suzumiya

[Ithekro]

White Day should be interesting.

[CrowKenobi]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

White Day should be interesting.

Exactly! How would Kyon top Valentine's Day??

Should he?

[worldruined]

Hosts?

[Kogetsu Shirogane]

Make Haruhi a nervous wreck until the end of the day?

[Jonbob0008]

I'm expecting White day to be covered in Novel 11, should that one ever see the light of day.

[Full Metal Coast]

oh my lord that would be so good for novel 11 it would be hilarious.

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Of course, there is an outside possibility that Haruhi would simply RAGE over how her SOS Brigade has been deceiving her for so long; that might trump her interest in what they actually are.

Well it's not like the 3 of them ever said they "weren't" time travelers/aliens/espers.


And Kyon quite honestly does come clean to her about this fact. It's just that Haruhi consciously chose to ignore it.

[Sho-tan]

Personally, I'm expecting Haruhi to do something huge and outlandish for April Fools.

[OkamiNoKaze]

I'm remembering the White Day episode of Haruhi-Chan, poor Mikuru

[Kogetsu Shirogane]

... Haruhi-chan covered White Day?

[Nukerjsr]

Originally Posted by Kogetsu Shirogane

... Haruhi-chan covered White Day?

I remember the Valentine's Day one where Haruhi, Yuki, Mikuru and Tsuruya made chocolates.

[Kogetsu Shirogane]

I'm aware of that one, as well as the host thing in the following episode. I just don't remember a White Day one.

[orangejuicetang]

... now you guys have really got me wanting to read a white day haruhi scenario.

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

... I find it rather odd, then, for why Haruhi hasn't confessed much of anything towards Kyon. I'm not even sure if she's called him "friend", has she?

I misremembered the scene, clearly, but I misremembered it because, frankly, I find the handling of Haruhi and Kyon's relationship so hard to swallow at times. If Haruhi felt that it was the guy's job to make romantic confessions, then at least that would provide a believable reason for why she hasn't confessed anything to Kyon yet. I also personally prefer the idea of Kyon making the first move... because the general thrust of the novels and the anime is that Kyon's the one that has to change the status quo and get things happening.

I just have such a hard time imagining how a very strong-willed, always-makes-her-wishes-known girl like Haruhi could refrain for so long from making her romantic feelings clearly known to Kyon if...

1) She, in fact, has them.

2) She feels that it's Ok for her to make the first move.


Haruhi being a coward when it comes to romance just doesn't sit well with me; it's just so out-of-character for her given what she's like in every other area of life.

Originally Posted by worldruined

Spoiler for Novel 7 - Epilogue:

When the first bell rang, Haruhi stretched her neck from behind and whispered to my ear,

"Kyon, I'm warning you, don't go around talking about what happened yesterday. Especially not to Taniguchi. This has got be kept a secret at all costs, or else it'll be so embarra... ahem, anyway just don't go around announcing it. Gifts are best cherished."

Haruhi has always hidden her embarrassment (regarding Kyon) with over-the-top theatrics. Post-"dream" in Melancholy, ending of Disappearance, the entire Valentine's Day scene... they're all about Haruhi acting more angry or annoyed or dismissive or forceful precisely because she doesn't want anyone to notice how embarrassed she really is.

Spoiler for Even Kyon knows this:

Haruhi sure is something, so she was bothered by how she could give chocolates to me all this time, but she just wouldn't admit it. She could've just gave them to me in the classroom, but instead she had to come up with treasure hunting as an excuse, just so we could dig a hole for her to bury the chocolates inside, that's how indirect she is.

It's discussion like this that is why I'm amazed when people get so upset and combative when it is suggested that Haruhi is a tsundere. Of course she's tsundere. Both of the examples given above are textbook examples of tsundere behavior. Yes, she may be more complex than just a simple tsundere, but only when it has nothing to do with her relationship with Kyon. That part of her easily approaches 100% tsundere, as the above examples are hardly uncommon...

[OkamiNoKaze]

Oh it wasn't white day, I remember now, it was a Valentines episode, they had to dress like that to earn their chocolates from the girls.

[Nukerjsr]

Originally Posted by OkamiNoKaze

Oh it wasn't white day, I remember now, it was a Valentines episode, they had to dress like that to earn their chocolates from the girls.

Oh yeah, when they give the chocolate and that makes Mikuru cry?

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by quigonkenny

It's discussion like this that is why I'm amazed when people get so upset and combative when it is suggested that Haruhi is a tsundere. Of course she's tsundere. Both of the examples given above are textbook examples of tsundere behavior. Yes, she may be more complex than just a simple tsundere, but only when it has nothing to do with her relationship with Kyon. That part of her easily approaches 100% tsundere, as the above examples are hardly uncommon...

Where you see tsundere, I see genki girl. A genki girl probably wouldn't want to simply hand chocolates over to guys that she's friendly with either; she'd want to set up an elaborate game instead.

Haruhi's dialogue during the Valentine's Day chocolate giving doesn't strike me as tsundere at all. Tsunderes' typically verbalize their feelings much less than Haruhi did there. Haruhi's openness there, in fact, is much more like a genki girl, imo.


The fact that we see two entirely different tropes in the same story indicates that Haruhi is far more complex than either trope alone. It does a disservice to her character to simply call her a tsundere, or a genki girl, imo.


Anyway, part of the reason why I am, yes, pretty combative against the idea of Haruhi being labeled a tsundere is that I feel that the tsundere label itself is grossly overused through out anime as whole, and/or genuinely tsundere characters have become very overly common. To be brutally frank, tsunderes (or characters labeled that way) have become a dime a dozen. Haruhi's not a dime a dozen character.

[typhonsentra]

How aware do you think she is of her feelings towards him? Is it that she likes him or simply that she's annoyed seeing him flirting at this point? If she does knowingly like him, when do you think the switch came?

[Kogetsu Shirogane]

Originally Posted by typhonsentra

How aware do you think she is of her feelings towards him? Is it that she likes him or simply that she's annoyed seeing him flirting at this point? If she does knowingly like him, when do you think the switch came?

Some time during Melancholy. Or perhaps a little bit after it. At any rate, she definitely realized she liked him as more than just a friend before Boredom.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by typhonsentra

How aware do you think she is of her feelings towards him? Is it that she likes him or simply that she's annoyed seeing him flirting at this point? If she does knowingly like him, when do you think the switch came?

Kyon is Haruhi's best friend... and has been almost from the beginning. Now, that's somewhat of a default condition (i.e. Haruhi doesn't have many friends, so it's not like Kyon got loads of competition), but it's still very important to Haruhi.

To what degree Haruhi has romantic feelings for Kyon... I don't know. She probably has some.

But the key for me, really, is that Kyon is her best friend. Romance or not, that's pretty important in and of itself. There's no girls that Haruhi is close to - Yuki and her barely talk, and Mikuru is, frankly, frequently just a plaything to Haruhi.

Kyon is the only person that Haruhi really, truly talks with.

That's why, like yourself, I liked Haruhi's very well-done reaction to Kyon trying to punch her in the latest Haruhi episode. Even for Haruhi, it has to really sting for your best friend (and very close to your only friend) to get really angry with you like that.