It would’nt matter what power she had, there’s no way in hell she would survive a headshot!

“Now, personally, I don’t think spiking a friend’s drink with a little bit of alcohol is much worse than say, spiking a friend’s drink with a bottle of laxatives.”

This would be why I don’t go to parties with people like you… Of course I would smell the alcohol and probably either A) leave the party or B) Throw the drink in the face of the persons inolved and then leave the party.

But anyways, yes the recent episodes have been unusualy “Anti-Kyon”. What’s the deal? Why is KyoAni hating on their lead character?

I do like how you pointed out how Kyon’s internal complaints and frustrations are not things that Haruhi could reasonably be expected to be aware of.

I just don’t think that Kyon was a monster for taking that swing, and I do think that Haruhi went a bit too far. She probably didn’t deserve to be on the receiving end of a punch, though.
.-= Triple_R´s last blog ..My Take on Kyon X Haruhi. =-.

I definitely took it easy on Haruhi, but what I’ve noticed in this season is that Kyon blames Haruhi for everything. As fed up as Kyon was with Haruhi, I was fed up with his constant negativity and resentment towards Haruhi, a lot of which I felt was either unjustified, or unfair for him to keep to his internal monologue. But it seems like Taniguchi may have accidentally snapped Kyon out of that phase. Hopefully.

Re: #1: good point, the cultural difference is something I hadn’t considered
Re: #2: the tequila I remember, the open palm smack, I don’t. If it was animated that way, it might’ve made Kyon’s reaction a little more justified

While I think that you do a pretty good job of explaining things from Haruhi’s perspective, I think that it’s important to realize that from Kyon’s perspective he’s witnessing one of his friends Mikuru go through almost constant abuse and mistreatment, as he sees it. Now, I think that the throw-Mikuru-into-water scene may have been blown out of proportion a bit… but Mikuru IS terrified there. The look that she gives Kyon in this episode, just before she agrees to be thrown in, is just heart-wrenching. We may not care much about the spineless moe girl, but Kyon does. If somebody you liked a lot gave you a look like Mikuru’s to Kyon’s, your heart might find it wrenching as well.

Yes, Mikuru goes along with being thrown in the water… but only because of Haruhi’s reality altering powers, and Kyon knows that. Mikuru’s hating this with a passion, and it shows.

Spiking somebody’s drink… well, for some people that’s no big deal, but for more conservative folks (like Mikuru clearly is) it is a big deal. And, again, Kyon probably knows that Mikuru wouldn’t want to be tricked into being drunk like this.

Haruhi’s line about Mikuru being her toy… that’s an absolutely awful thing to say at face value. It’s possible that Haruhi just got caught up in the heat of the moment and said something that she wouldn’t have otherwise said,… but by the same token, I don’t think that you can blame Kyon for getting so upset with it since he’s in the heat of the moment too.

So, all of this adds up to Kyon finally losing his patience with Haruhi, and finally getting incensed over Mikuru being constantly mistreated, and then Kyon snaps a bit.

Basically, I can see where Haruhi is coming from, but I can also see where Kyon is coming from. Haruhi went a bit too far… but, yeah, Kyon needs to learn to let some of the smaller stuff roll.

I do agree with you, though, that the other characters don’t get involved/take blame enough. Tsuruya is just as guilty as Haruhi is over the spiked drink, and it would be nice to see someone other than Kyon try to reason with Haruhi for change.

A couple things to keep in mind, though.

1. Japanese society is different than ours. It’s a much more lawful and formal society, from what I’ve read. Trespassing like Haruhi’s may seem like no big deal to us, but to the average Japanese person, it might seem really bad.

2. In the Sigh novel, Haruhi was presented as hitting Mikuru really hard on the back of the head with her palm as opposed to just bopping her on the head with her megaphone. The anime evidently chose to downplay Haruhi’s physical violence. So in the novel, at least, you could argue that Kyon’s physical violence is roughly on par with Haruhi’s.

Also, in the Sigh novel, the alcoholic beverage given to Mikuru was a lot stronger than what they altered it into for the anime. It was tequila, IIRC.
.-= Triple_R´s last blog ..My Take on Kyon X Haruhi. =-.

Or perhaps because the watching audience is far less forgiving this time round after the E8 fiasco. I know it has tinted my view of the show this season. Maybe everyone will claim down a bit if/when season 3 comes round, willing to give it another chance if it were

Great point. It’s definitely tinted my view of the show too. I blame the SOS brigade and especially Kyon for a lot of E8, which is probably why I have a lot less patience with them in this arc.

Did Mikuru and Kyon get together in a different timeline? I remember she tells him not to get too close during the baseball game in the Boredom of, but I thought that was just in response to the events in The Melancholy of. Is there another reference that I’m forgetting?