1. Sexual harassment is NOT OKAY. Somebody really needs to teach her that.
2. Her attraction to Kyon baffles me. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Kyon/Haruhi pairing. But the problem is, although I can totally see why Kyon is attracted to Haruhi, I really can't see how or why Haruhi is interested in Kyon.
3. Numero Uno rule of writing sci-fi/fantasy: It is really, really, really difficult to write a character with omnipotent, god-like powers well. Omnipotent characters can gum up the plot of any piece of fiction faster than you can say "deus ex machina." I once read a really good online essay about how much omnipotent characters suck, but for the life of me I can't find it again. Anyway, the essay was specifically written about The Beyonder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyonder), but I think it could apply to Haruhi as well. Now, the reason that the Haruhi novels *work* is that there's a twist in Haruhi's story: She does not, and cannot ever, know that she has omnipotent god-like powers. SHE thinks that she's just a normal person. But even with that twist, the novels still run into plot-problems caused by Haruhi's omnipotence. And the end of the first novel still freaks me out, especially when Koizumi tells Kyon that they may be living in a different world, and that he may even be an entirely different Koizumi. So in short: Omnipotent characters almost universally suck. Haruhi is a notable exception... most of the time. I still think there are parts where the novels write themselves into plot corners specifically caused by Haruhi's powers, though.
Barbossa
This one's a toughie because, honestly, I didn't really like Barbossa until PoC III. It's not that I didn't like Barbossa before, it's just that... Well, I never really noticed how AWESOME he was until PoC III. I think that's largely due to the fact that in the first movie, Jack Sparrow's shtick was still completely new and fascinating, and so (to me at least) he totally overshadowed Barbossa. But in the third movie they just cut Barbossa loose and let him shine.
But anyway, Barbossa sucks because:
1. I always thought that the apple thing was kind of stupid. As a character quirk, it's just lame, not to mention incredibly clichéd. I'm glad that they got rid of it in PoC III.
2. All of his grand schemes end in miserable failure. Aztec gold? Cursed. Try to drum up support from Feng and double-cross him at the same time? Didn't work out so well. Unbinding Calypso? Oh shit, she doesn't like us after all. Fountain of Youth? OH SHI--
And that's not something that annoys me about Barbossa as a character, really; rather, it's something that annoys me about his writers. Jack Sparrow also has all of these crazy/stupid/insane schemes, but they always work out brilliantly for him. Why can't Barbossa get a little bit of that idiot-savant-brand success thrown his way? I mean, he's way smarter (and perhaps a bit crazier) than Jack, anyway. You'd think that he'd be the more successful pirate, then. But strangely, no.
3. What kind of self-respecting Pirate Lord is the Lord of the Caspian freakin' Sea?!?!
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Suzumiya Haruhi
1. Sexual harassment is NOT OKAY. Somebody really needs to teach her that.
2. Her attraction to Kyon baffles me. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Kyon/Haruhi pairing. But the problem is, although I can totally see why Kyon is attracted to Haruhi, I really can't see how or why Haruhi is interested in Kyon.
3. Numero Uno rule of writing sci-fi/fantasy: It is really, really, really difficult to write a character with omnipotent, god-like powers well. Omnipotent characters can gum up the plot of any piece of fiction faster than you can say "deus ex machina." I once read a really good online essay about how much omnipotent characters suck, but for the life of me I can't find it again. Anyway, the essay was specifically written about The Beyonder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyonder), but I think it could apply to Haruhi as well. Now, the reason that the Haruhi novels *work* is that there's a twist in Haruhi's story: She does not, and cannot ever, know that she has omnipotent god-like powers. SHE thinks that she's just a normal person. But even with that twist, the novels still run into plot-problems caused by Haruhi's omnipotence. And the end of the first novel still freaks me out, especially when Koizumi tells Kyon that they may be living in a different world, and that he may even be an entirely different Koizumi. So in short: Omnipotent characters almost universally suck. Haruhi is a notable exception... most of the time. I still think there are parts where the novels write themselves into plot corners specifically caused by Haruhi's powers, though.
Barbossa
This one's a toughie because, honestly, I didn't really like Barbossa until PoC III. It's not that I didn't like Barbossa before, it's just that... Well, I never really noticed how AWESOME he was until PoC III. I think that's largely due to the fact that in the first movie, Jack Sparrow's shtick was still completely new and fascinating, and so (to me at least) he totally overshadowed Barbossa. But in the third movie they just cut Barbossa loose and let him shine.
But anyway, Barbossa sucks because:
1. I always thought that the apple thing was kind of stupid. As a character quirk, it's just lame, not to mention incredibly clichéd. I'm glad that they got rid of it in PoC III.
2. All of his grand schemes end in miserable failure. Aztec gold? Cursed. Try to drum up support from Feng and double-cross him at the same time? Didn't work out so well. Unbinding Calypso? Oh shit, she doesn't like us after all. Fountain of Youth? OH SHI--
And that's not something that annoys me about Barbossa as a character, really; rather, it's something that annoys me about his writers. Jack Sparrow also has all of these crazy/stupid/insane schemes, but they always work out brilliantly for him. Why can't Barbossa get a little bit of that idiot-savant-brand success thrown his way? I mean, he's way smarter (and perhaps a bit crazier) than Jack, anyway. You'd think that he'd be the more successful pirate, then. But strangely, no.
3. What kind of self-respecting Pirate Lord is the Lord of the Caspian freakin' Sea?!?!