Contains spoilers for the full Haruhi series, season, season 2 and the movie. Though I guess if you are browsing a Haruhi community in the year 2023, you have seen it all already.
Spoilers begin below:
Haruhi has godlike powers and manifests her wishes into reality
Or does she?
I forget which LN it was in. Tanigawa briefly teased the concept that Haruhi wasn't the one with godlike powers, but it was actually Kyon. It wasn't a big tease. It was mentioned in an offhanded way in part of a paragraph and then never brought up again. However, it was a thought I had had before reading that, and seeing that Tanigawa even thought of it too (although maybe he only considered it as a throwaway line) sort of makes me feel like there is some substance there.
My understanding of this theory is that Kyon's desires manifest everything in the world, though because he is in such heavy denial that aliens, espers and time travelers exist, he can only envisage this sort of thing happening if someone else is manifesting it, that someone else of course being Ms Suzumiya.
As a semi-related side note: have any of you read the Michael Crichton novel The Sphere? Or seen the late 90s movie based on it? The idea of people wielding Haruhi-esque godlike powers and manifesting subconscious desires into reality is a major part of the plot in that story. Crichton (at least in the book version) also does a good job of writing about the psychology of how and why such a thing could happen. Actually, the first time I watched Haruhi and Koizumi explained her godlike powers, my thoughts immediately went to this book first.
For sure, caterpillar sleeping bag Haruhi is prime Haruhi.
In Melancholy, there is an episode where Haruhi drags the SOS Brigade into town to go searching on foot for any paranormal activity. The group meets in a local cafe and draws straws to see who gets paired together. This scene happens twice in the episode and Haruhi keeps getting more and more visually annoyed that she doesn't get paired with Kyon. By the end of the day, she's so irritated she calls off their discovery expedition and stomps away with her arms pointed out at right angles. I don't know why but that was the moment I felt like I understood the appeal of her character. She's bossy and she throws tantrums. But I think those just make her good moments even more poignant.
Also, I'm not trying to throw shade at S;G here (I love both of these shows and have them rated as 10s), but Okabe also has the benefit of having a complete story told in his show. We get to see his character fully transform from the beginning to the end. The viewers get to 'live inside his head' more fully, so to speak, since S;G is told from his perspective whereas Haruhi is told from Kyon's, and as a result, we never get that direct closeness with her thoughts.
You're better off not reading them until Tanigawa actually finishes the series. We're gonna hit 20 years since Haruhi's debut pretty soon and it's still not technically finished. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I thought the anime was far superior to the source anyway. KyoAni pretty much just took all of Tanigawa's ideas, adapted them as precisely as he wrote them, but took the time and care to make them all much deeper. Not to mention that supposedly Haruhi's band performance was written in the book as "some R&B" song instead of the glorious rock goodness we got in the show.
That sleeping bag is what made me mellow a bit NGL. I understand why people like her so much, but also, not really... 😂
I wouldn't be a true fan if I got offended by actual criticism. S;G isn't perfect. So many things could probably be changed, but it's these "imperfections" and "unnecessary" elements that make these shows so likeable in the first place. Otherwise, the whole story of S;G wouldn't ever happen 🤷🏻♂️
Oh God. I'll still read it... I love reading. 🥹