The Questions of Suzumiya Haruhi!
Okay, so this is something I've been planning to do for a while but haven't got a chance to. For those of you in the know, Haruhi has found out about the premise of her show: that she's something like a god. Now, it's never stated in the anime what her powers are or her background. Was the world created three years ago? Did she make history up overnight? Anyways, for those of you who have watched the anime, read the light novels or manga (or any of the above) please read on! Also, this will be backdated in a couple of days.
@ Skyla: This is all your fault. :\ ...♥
@ Joh: This is the REAL reason that I've been having trouble tagging Peorth.
@ Bryan: OMGHELPMEPLEASE! You're my only castmate right now, so...
@ Seven: You were thinking about apping Kyon, right? So~
First, I'm going from the outside perspective. I'll probably go into the "Haruhi feels this and this and is reacting like this" later and for my own benefit. Right now, it doesn't really matter... partly because she doesn't have much to react to. So, first things first:
When did the world begin?
The fact that Bryan and I have to sit down and decide when the earth began in our fandom... (OMG, Asch, please think from now on!). There are several possible answers for this. In both the anime and the first light novel, Itsuki says that it's a possibility that the world they exist in was only created three years ago.
I think all of us react the same as Kyon in this regard: "So what the hell happened to the rest of history?! Did Haruhi just make that up!?"
It's something that we can't rule out... But it's something I feel is kind of unlikely. What a short lived world! And Haruhi would have had to construct the thoughts and memories of billions of people over thousands of years! And what about the Data Integration Thought Entity? ...but that is an entirely different question.
So: 3 years or 3+ years?
If 3+ years: How has Haruhi existed through the years?
Is it sad that I've considered LUNAR as an answer to this question? So, there are several possibilities here. Of course, this is all on the basis that the world has existed for more than 3 years.
1. Haruhi just... appeared three years ago. Exciting, isn't it? But that leaves the question, "WTH? Why? And why now?"
2. She's been reincarnated. This leads... to several other possibilities. Like, who was before her? How long does she live? How long does she take in between reincarnations? What does she do in between? Was she notable "Holy Men & Women" during these times of reincarnation?
3. She's existed as a "regular type of God" up until three years ago and then decided, "I want to exist with humans!" and became the Haruhi we see now.
There are different arguments for each case, obviously. Let's consider the first option:
1. There's a bit of a loophole here in that we don't know why Haruhi would have suddenly come into being all of a sudden. I mean, there's the same problem with all of them in that we don't know how a god or a being close to one comes into existence... but this one seems especially flimsy. It's not ruled out, though. It can also go a long with the idea that the world has only existed for three years.
2. In the LUNAR fandom (YES I'M GOING THERE), the Goddess Althena exists as a Goddess most of the time. However, on occasion, she'll descend from her Tower and become a mortal. She'll live that lifespan, die, and go back to being Althena. She's done it a bunch of times and likes it a lot, seeing as she keeps going back to it and eventually-- dude, no need. Anyway. This is a possibility for Haruhi. Just saying.
3. This kind of ties into the Althena one? Except, this would be the first time she's done it. I wouldn't put this one out of the running, and it gets rid of the whole, "So who was she before Haruhi?" question.
How has Haruhi affected the world?
This more or less deals with the whole, "Did she actively participate in history or just watch?" and the "Did she write history?" The answer to this one obviously depends on your answer to the first question (see: How long has the world existed?)
If she actively participated in the world... it would be in the form of "miracles" and "disasters", I think. This also depends on what kind of form she took before she was Haruhi and might also depend on what kind of powers she was able to use after "becoming" Haruhi.
What kind of powers does she have? How do they function? What kind of constraints do they have? What laws do they operate under?
The question I really didn't want to think about... First of all, I may have dug my own grave, but... I've established that Haruhi uses data in the same way that Yuki does. My reason for doing so? Yuki first explained to Kyon that Haruhi has "control over large amounts of data". The other two explanations (Mikuru's and Itsuki's) don't really go into any depth in regards to power, so Yuki's was the only one I could go off of. Because of this, her powers have become invariably linked with Yuki's, something I apologize to Bryan for. We now have to think of these powers not only in terms of Haruhi but with the knowledge that the decision could impact Yuki's own powers to some small degree.
So it's been canonically established that Haruhi has power over her surroundings in that she can manipulate large amounts of data and create closed space. But are there other things she can do? I doubt she'd be omniscient in Somarium but would she be in her own world?
And, once you have some basic powers established, you have to think about things like constraints. Can she travel through time? If yes, what kind of restrictions are placed on this movement? Can she defy gravity? What about other physical laws?
Then, after the powers and the restrictions (or maybe before the restrictions?) comes how it functions. Does she take in data like a computer and then rearranges it to do what she wants? How much data can she take in at one time? In comparison, how much data can Yuki take in at one time? Does "data" have a physical form? How would you describe it?
How do these powers transfer over to Somarium?
An established power of Haruhi's in Somarium is her uncanny ability to guess close to the mark. When Natalia was abused by Volgin, Haruhi came back and asked, "Did the Soviet Union take over Somarium!?" without knowing what happened. It was close enough, really. This, of course, happened before she learned of her powers... But I don't really want to make it much stronger, one for comedic purposes and two because it goes so close to metagaming (or whatever you like to call it). Another power is her ability to bring things from other worlds into Somarium. This power might become unnecessary once the Mod Shop starts doing it themselves... but it doesn't change the fact that she can pull Pocky out of from under her bed.
But this was all before she had any conscious control over her powers. Now that she could develop them... Well, it might be a case in which the Overlord blocks all powers but it should still be established as to what's being blocked.
How conscious has she been of her powers in the past? Has she known before but chosen to forget? Or was forced to forget?
I can imagine that there might have been a time when Haruhi knew she was more than just an average human. Of course, this plays into a bunch of other questions. I think it's both probable that she made herself forget or that she was forced to forget by some outside force.
When Haruhi was told of her powers, I had a "program" initiate that was to prevent anyone from accidentally telling Haruhi about herself. This does imply that an outside force made her forget, but it could have also been an outside force that didn't know she had known at one point and didn't know what would happen if she knew again. Or, maybe she placed the program.
...that, or we can just forget that ever happened. :'D
What kind of relationship does Haruhi have with the Data Integrated Thought Entity? Or are they separate without knowledge of each other?
I don't really know what to type here... That, and I'm tired of typing. Might update this section later but you know what I'm asking.
@ Skyla: This is all your fault. :\ ...♥
@ Joh: This is the REAL reason that I've been having trouble tagging Peorth.
@ Bryan: OMGHELPMEPLEASE! You're my only castmate right now, so...
@ Seven: You were thinking about apping Kyon, right? So~
First, I'm going from the outside perspective. I'll probably go into the "Haruhi feels this and this and is reacting like this" later and for my own benefit. Right now, it doesn't really matter... partly because she doesn't have much to react to. So, first things first:
When did the world begin?
The fact that Bryan and I have to sit down and decide when the earth began in our fandom... (OMG, Asch, please think from now on!). There are several possible answers for this. In both the anime and the first light novel, Itsuki says that it's a possibility that the world they exist in was only created three years ago.
I think all of us react the same as Kyon in this regard: "So what the hell happened to the rest of history?! Did Haruhi just make that up!?"
It's something that we can't rule out... But it's something I feel is kind of unlikely. What a short lived world! And Haruhi would have had to construct the thoughts and memories of billions of people over thousands of years! And what about the Data Integration Thought Entity? ...but that is an entirely different question.
So: 3 years or 3+ years?
If 3+ years: How has Haruhi existed through the years?
Is it sad that I've considered LUNAR as an answer to this question? So, there are several possibilities here. Of course, this is all on the basis that the world has existed for more than 3 years.
1. Haruhi just... appeared three years ago. Exciting, isn't it? But that leaves the question, "WTH? Why? And why now?"
2. She's been reincarnated. This leads... to several other possibilities. Like, who was before her? How long does she live? How long does she take in between reincarnations? What does she do in between? Was she notable "Holy Men & Women" during these times of reincarnation?
3. She's existed as a "regular type of God" up until three years ago and then decided, "I want to exist with humans!" and became the Haruhi we see now.
There are different arguments for each case, obviously. Let's consider the first option:
1. There's a bit of a loophole here in that we don't know why Haruhi would have suddenly come into being all of a sudden. I mean, there's the same problem with all of them in that we don't know how a god or a being close to one comes into existence... but this one seems especially flimsy. It's not ruled out, though. It can also go a long with the idea that the world has only existed for three years.
2. In the LUNAR fandom (YES I'M GOING THERE), the Goddess Althena exists as a Goddess most of the time. However, on occasion, she'll descend from her Tower and become a mortal. She'll live that lifespan, die, and go back to being Althena. She's done it a bunch of times and likes it a lot, seeing as she keeps going back to it and eventually-- dude, no need. Anyway. This is a possibility for Haruhi. Just saying.
3. This kind of ties into the Althena one? Except, this would be the first time she's done it. I wouldn't put this one out of the running, and it gets rid of the whole, "So who was she before Haruhi?" question.
How has Haruhi affected the world?
This more or less deals with the whole, "Did she actively participate in history or just watch?" and the "Did she write history?" The answer to this one obviously depends on your answer to the first question (see: How long has the world existed?)
If she actively participated in the world... it would be in the form of "miracles" and "disasters", I think. This also depends on what kind of form she took before she was Haruhi and might also depend on what kind of powers she was able to use after "becoming" Haruhi.
What kind of powers does she have? How do they function? What kind of constraints do they have? What laws do they operate under?
The question I really didn't want to think about... First of all, I may have dug my own grave, but... I've established that Haruhi uses data in the same way that Yuki does. My reason for doing so? Yuki first explained to Kyon that Haruhi has "control over large amounts of data". The other two explanations (Mikuru's and Itsuki's) don't really go into any depth in regards to power, so Yuki's was the only one I could go off of. Because of this, her powers have become invariably linked with Yuki's, something I apologize to Bryan for. We now have to think of these powers not only in terms of Haruhi but with the knowledge that the decision could impact Yuki's own powers to some small degree.
So it's been canonically established that Haruhi has power over her surroundings in that she can manipulate large amounts of data and create closed space. But are there other things she can do? I doubt she'd be omniscient in Somarium but would she be in her own world?
And, once you have some basic powers established, you have to think about things like constraints. Can she travel through time? If yes, what kind of restrictions are placed on this movement? Can she defy gravity? What about other physical laws?
Then, after the powers and the restrictions (or maybe before the restrictions?) comes how it functions. Does she take in data like a computer and then rearranges it to do what she wants? How much data can she take in at one time? In comparison, how much data can Yuki take in at one time? Does "data" have a physical form? How would you describe it?
How do these powers transfer over to Somarium?
An established power of Haruhi's in Somarium is her uncanny ability to guess close to the mark. When Natalia was abused by Volgin, Haruhi came back and asked, "Did the Soviet Union take over Somarium!?" without knowing what happened. It was close enough, really. This, of course, happened before she learned of her powers... But I don't really want to make it much stronger, one for comedic purposes and two because it goes so close to metagaming (or whatever you like to call it). Another power is her ability to bring things from other worlds into Somarium. This power might become unnecessary once the Mod Shop starts doing it themselves... but it doesn't change the fact that she can pull Pocky out of from under her bed.
But this was all before she had any conscious control over her powers. Now that she could develop them... Well, it might be a case in which the Overlord blocks all powers but it should still be established as to what's being blocked.
How conscious has she been of her powers in the past? Has she known before but chosen to forget? Or was forced to forget?
I can imagine that there might have been a time when Haruhi knew she was more than just an average human. Of course, this plays into a bunch of other questions. I think it's both probable that she made herself forget or that she was forced to forget by some outside force.
When Haruhi was told of her powers, I had a "program" initiate that was to prevent anyone from accidentally telling Haruhi about herself. This does imply that an outside force made her forget, but it could have also been an outside force that didn't know she had known at one point and didn't know what would happen if she knew again. Or, maybe she placed the program.
...that, or we can just forget that ever happened. :'D
What kind of relationship does Haruhi have with the Data Integrated Thought Entity? Or are they separate without knowledge of each other?
I don't really know what to type here... That, and I'm tired of typing. Might update this section later but you know what I'm asking.