Okay. The "cranky" thread has been silent for a few days now, so it looks like it's time to bring back preliminary findings.
Rob Kelk suggested the following.
If anyone has a strong objection to this position, now would be the time to go discuss it in that little thread over in Politics. If not, it would seem that Haruhi is no longer God, no longer a canon character of any kind, and therefore no longer a protected character in quite the same way. We don't have to keep dancing around her like we were before. We can, but we don't have to.
There were a variety of suggestions for adjustment - that Haruhi have picked up some sort of subtle beneficial effects from her handwave (luck, insight, or the like), that the other members of the SOS-Dan have various reasons to act like they did (love, handwavium-driven susceptibility to the charisma, and the like) and so on. Various permutations of these could be used to explain the story thus far reasonably easily. Under the theory that retconning is a Bad Thing, and with no clear objections that I could see from the thread, I would hold that we run with this, and that perhaps someone (perhaps Bob? If you have the time and want to, she *is* about to be a resident of your happy little township in the sky.) could write up a more complete character description. For whoever it is that writes the description up, I would suggest reading through the last part of the appropriate thread for ideas on how to fit everything together, if you've not done so already.
If there is anyone who has a serious objection to anything I've written here, by all means note the existence of your objection below, but please put any actual arguments in the "cranky" thread in Politics. If anyone feels that I have not accurately described the contents of that thread, then I do apologise. By all means, likewise note that below and put arguments on the Politics thread, and I will be happy to discuss them with you there (and edit here, as appropriate).
Rob Kelk suggested the following.
Quote:This position received a fair amount of general support. The only actual dissent was not particularly strong, and largely on the idea that CADU was aesthetically pleasing in this case. therefore I hold that the consensus position thus far is that this be the form of the Haruhi-nature, by and large.
Somebody - Hanako Sonoda, Harriet Summers, maybe Howard Smith; it doesn't matter anymore what the person's name was - really, really liked Haruhi Suzumiya. This isn't unusual for Fenspace - look at A.C. (who looks just like Attim M-Zak from Seraphic Feather), the Jason (who's turned himself into a Dragon Ball saiyan), the Warsies' General Solo, the Trekkies' Harcort Mudd... even Noah Scott (with his Stellvia fixation) fits into this group. However, this particular fan's "love" for Haruhi was a bit stronger than anyone else's obsession.
Whoever this fan was, she got her hands on some handwavium and used it on herself and four of her friends during an all-night Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu marathon at the local anime club. (Never eat the guacamole-green Pocky sticks, folks - especially if the packages are already unwrapped. When they regained consciousness, they decided to forgive her for turning them into the SOS-dan. Not that she knows she did so, anymore - something happened during the biomod and Hanako/Harriet/Harold/whoever now really believes she's Haruhi, and has incorporated the story's background into her delusionary memories. She also got her template's persuasiveness, but that's all she got in the way of "superpowers".
The other SOS-dan may or may not still have their original memories, but the ones who do are very careful to stay in character when they're around Haruhi and the ones who don't. (The other two girls probably would have their old memories. Believing otherwise would slowly drive them mad as they repeatedly couldn't do what they'd know they should be able to do as an alien and a time-traveller.)
If anyone has a strong objection to this position, now would be the time to go discuss it in that little thread over in Politics. If not, it would seem that Haruhi is no longer God, no longer a canon character of any kind, and therefore no longer a protected character in quite the same way. We don't have to keep dancing around her like we were before. We can, but we don't have to.
There were a variety of suggestions for adjustment - that Haruhi have picked up some sort of subtle beneficial effects from her handwave (luck, insight, or the like), that the other members of the SOS-Dan have various reasons to act like they did (love, handwavium-driven susceptibility to the charisma, and the like) and so on. Various permutations of these could be used to explain the story thus far reasonably easily. Under the theory that retconning is a Bad Thing, and with no clear objections that I could see from the thread, I would hold that we run with this, and that perhaps someone (perhaps Bob? If you have the time and want to, she *is* about to be a resident of your happy little township in the sky.) could write up a more complete character description. For whoever it is that writes the description up, I would suggest reading through the last part of the appropriate thread for ideas on how to fit everything together, if you've not done so already.
If there is anyone who has a serious objection to anything I've written here, by all means note the existence of your objection below, but please put any actual arguments in the "cranky" thread in Politics. If anyone feels that I have not accurately described the contents of that thread, then I do apologise. By all means, likewise note that below and put arguments on the Politics thread, and I will be happy to discuss them with you there (and edit here, as appropriate).