Asakura Ryouko

...from "Meloncholy of Suzumiya Haruhi". Consequently, I was reading (and feeling quite guilty from doing so) Haruhi about up to a half an hour before my Organic Chemistry test, pretty much laughing up till the time I needed to take the test (test must be serious). And somehow I now have the 2nd highest score on the midterm in the class (well, I'm tied with one other person). IS THIS THE POWER OF HARUHIISM?!??!

Uh, I think not.

But nevertheless, I'm quite happy. So, because I have an essay due next week and I need to practice my BSing skills, I'm actually going to have a little analysis on the character of Asakura Ryouko, who I really find as a really interesting symbolic character. No, I am not obsessed with psycho emotionally-broken murderers smiling innocently and with much moe while carrying a knife ready to kill you, though I will admit this is somewhat more attractive than Nagato at the moment... >.>

HOWEVER, I'm going to be going through a lot of stuff from Volume 4, so it does spoil some things... Ah who cares, only I really make a fuss about spoilers. *ends spoiler warning*

Now, in Volume 4 Asakura comes out of nowhere to save the modified Nagato from Kyon's weird needle-gun-to-change-the-world-back, then attempts to murder Kyon without much second thought. Is this the same Asakura from Volume 1? Most likely not. This Asakura seems very different from the first Asakura in several ways. First off, the first Asakura was created by the Data-Integrated Entity dude, as backup for Nagato. At that time, she served the Data-Integrated Entity and tried to do what she thought would be best to achieve the Entity's mission.

In Volume 4, however, she could care less for what the Data-Integrated Entity wants; this Ryouko served to protect Nagato. She is in a sense the manifestation of Nagato's "Erroneous Files" which have accumulated and ultimately, when the large change occurred, taken up a form of the former Asakura Ryouko. Unfortunately, these files aren't exactly just a bunch of jarbled junk and seem to be more like a virus, or a program gone wrong in a sense. This is NOT the same Asakura as in Volume 1, even though she also is like a program gone beserk. So then, what IS Asakura and why is her form constantly used, and not say, a giant cave cricket?

One theory I recently developed was that, perhaps, if we relate a Data Integrated Entity to the body of a human being, Asakura would, literally, be the virus. Perhaps Asakura is a virus that lives on the Entity, Nagato being part of the Entity; Asakura relies on the Entity to stay alive and does harm to it. However, the Entity knows this and continually tries to purge it, but like any virus it will continue to spread itself throughout the body. Because the program is so similar, the figure of Asakura Ryouko remains the same; that's why she is constantly used as the "evil moe murderer" type of person. So, although she is not the same virus as in volume 4, she is very much a replicate of it; alas, it would not be unusual if more Asakura viruses were to appear in the future.

Oh bother, I'm starting to feel like I'd really be happy if an Asakura Virus came over to kill me with a cute smile on her face. Damn my weakness to irony! DAMMIT! I should stop now.