Haruhi Suzumiya/WMG/Kyon Is God

It isn't really Haruhi who is unconsciously a god, but Kyon.

Haruhi is either an aspect of his personality, or a convenient person to work his power through. Note his dialogue at the beginning of the series; he once wanted to believe in time travel, aliens, and espers, but has learned to suppress it. Having someone else have god-like powers to create these things allows him denial. Plus, what better way to throw someone off of their own powers to destroy everything then by telling them to keep someone else in check.

• This is actually supported by the introduction of eccentric yet sane Genki Girl Sasaki -- Kyon's middle-school friend and the reason for Kunikida's "Kyon has a history of liking strange girls" -- in volume 9, who the anti-SOS brigade insist is the real and original god before her powers were somehow shifted to Haruhi. Suspicious.
  • Even more suspicious once you realize that despite being Evil Counterparts to the SOS Brigade, there is no Counterpart for Kyon and that their main goal is to make Kyon join them. I think they know something we don't.
• Why would Kyon do this? Because Haruhi is unpredictable. That quality is gold to an omniscient being; being able to control everything is boring. Sure, giving her the power means constantly having to run around keeping her from destroying reality; but Kyon will never, ever be bored.
  • This is lampshaded throughout the series from the very start. Kyon introduces himself as the overly rational person and Haruhi as the crazy girl and then Itsuki points out again and again how the rational universe does not match to Haruhi's nature while at the same time Kyon curses himself for being so straitlaced.
• In this light, Itsuki the Esper is the Skeptic. Note the capital S; he is either trying to get Kyon to admit his role, or at least deconstruct the "rules" of Kyon's creation. Kyon's counter to this is Haruhi; the Unpredictable One. In the novels, Kyon commented that Itsuki's playing a role in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was "very appropriate, even though he had never seen the play that was a deconstruction of that British playwright's, whoever he was." Blocking Itsuki's attempts to deconstruct his reality is a game to him.
• Nagato the Alien, on the other hand, believes in Kyon's given reality and in Kyon the Character so much that Kyon the god feels really, really guilty about it. In the fourth novel, upon Nagato getting the power to rewrite reality, she does so in accordance to what Kyon the Character has stated he wants it to be; that is, "normal." He had to "break his own personal moral code" and gently tell her the truth; he wants things to be crazy. Realizing that being an alien to humanity makes Nagato unhappy, it seems the plot, AKA Kyon, is taking steps for her To Become Human. Itsuki has directly commented on this.
  • Keep in mind, Kyon or Haruhi, the god involved is not aware of having the powers...
    • Not necessarily. Maybe Kyon is God, he knows that and is even more of an Unreliable Narrator than we thought.
• This troper had the exact same idea, and is really glad someone else did, too. Having read most of the light novel translations, I honestly believe this is where the story is going. Keep in mind that Kyon wanted to believe in aliens, espers, and time travel back in high school, but gave it up to turn "normal" -- which would be placed at around... 3 years before the series started. Think about it. He wants to meet Espers, Aliens, and Time Travelers, and, subconsciously, wants to meet other people who are interested in the same things. 3 years ago, this comes to a head -- he creates Espers, Aliens, Time Travelers, and a person just as interested in them as he is, Haruhi. Suddenly he's interacting with EA&TT every single day, he's going on crazy adventures, and he's got a cute assertive girl driving said adventures that embodies his own drive for fantastic adventures -- as well as his own childish innocence. The fact that she's extremely attractive and falling in love with him doesn't hurt, either.
  • In addition, his life now contains three very attractive girls, two of whom have some very interesting interactions with each other, almost all of which he gets to observe. He even says when Yuki loses her glasses "I never had a glasses fetish anyway". Kyon as subconscious Yuri Fanboy/Covert Pervert makes a lot more sense than Haruhi as Yaoi Fangirl, considering she's hardly ever around when Itsuki is being a little more ambiguous. (Itsuki coming onto Kyon only when Haruhi isn't around is also far better explained by "Kyon subconsciously likes guys but doesn't want Haruhi to find out" than "Haruhi wants an Ambiguously Gay character".)
• The thing that really proves this one for me is that in the Rampage of Haruhi of Suzumiya, when the SOS brigade is trapped in an endless summer it only ends when Kyon does his homework. Sure they explain it as Haruhi wanting to have a perfect summer vacation which includes the group homework cram but it seemed to me that Itsuki was really clutching at straws to explain it. If you look at it from the point of view that the reason the summer loops is because God does not want to go back to school with homework not done makes far more sense.
  • This troper feels that it was simply Haruhi trying to give Kyon more time to do his homework.
    • But Haruhi did not know that Kyon had not done his homework. If we accept that the reason for the loop was Kyon's homework as opposed to Haruhi's complete summer experience, then we must also accept that Kyon caused it because he's the only person who knew his homework was not done
      • Unless the reason for the loop was because Haruhi had wanted to visit Kyon's house during the summer vacation and used Kyon's declaration of his unfinished homework as an excuse to have a 'study group' at his place.
    • Or that she wanted a definitive finishing task. Otherwise they're just playing around and not getting to anything, leaving an incomplete feeling leading Haruhi to want to continue. If they finish up Kyon's homework, the games have been set aside and Haruhi no longer feels that everything should continue like that.
    • It doesn't even need to be a definite finishing task. It plainly sucks doing nothing on your last day of vacation.
  • Note Kyon's phrasing during the climactic moment: "My summer can't be over until I finish it!" It is not Haruhi's summer that is the subject of discussion here, not Haruhi's summer that is being described as not being finished. It is Kyon's summer that can't be finished and completing the matter relevant to Kyon that is the catalyst.
• This troper thinks that rather than being God himself and bestowing powers on others, Kyon is the ultimate quantum observer, and Haruhi's powers only work because he is there to observe them. That's why when everyone was suspiciously appropriately cast in the amateur movie, he was the cameraman.
  • This would also explain how the weird piece of metal that Kyon found (that the Time Travelers asked him to hide from Haruhi) has been foreshadowed to be somehow able to bind Data Entities after Kyon hears Tsuruya speculate that it may be a piece of technology from an ancient civilization....even though the physical affecting data entities makes no sense with what we've heard so far. He heard her say it and "charged" the statement by Observing it.
    • Not only that, but Kyon has also Observed the Founder of Time Travel have his "Apple Falling Off The Tree" moment.
  • "Suspiciously appropriate"? It's not very suspicious when Kyon outright told Haruhi who was what after they got back from being Trapped in Another World. She had a bad attack of Wrong Genre Savvy, claiming that there was no way she'd just stumble upon what she was looking for that easily. Too bad she didn't know that was the premise and not the plot.
  • You just blew my mind.
  • So, Haruhi is the actual Schrödinger's cat?
  • You know with all the other Genius Bonus stuff in there this might make actual sense, however in this case it might be more along the lines of Schrödinger's Schoolgirl.
• This troper has a specific spin on it. The god's powers are manifestations of the subconscious expectations or desires of the god, therefore if Kyon, as a god, traveled back in time with the subconscious expectation that Haruhi had godlike powers, that would cause Haruhi to become god upon his arrival 'three years ago', thus creating a situation where Haruhi has godlike powers so Itsuki can tell Kyon that she is god, thus giving him his subconscious expectation that causes her to gain the powers in the first place and oh dear I've gone cross-eyed...
• Alternatively, you could say that Kyon was always the God, but when he learned to suppress his desire for a world filled with aliens, ghosts, psychics and time travelers, he managed to find a girl who just happened to openly wish for the same thing. Thus, he endowed Haruhi with divine powers. Thus, Haruhi's influence allows for a world where supernatural stuff does exist, while Kyon's influence prevents the world from becoming too weirdo.
• Or, to get Gnostic, Kyon is God, and Haruhi is the Demiurge... Wait, that doesn't work. Kyon is Jesus to Haruhi's Demiurge.
  • Haruhi is Sophia, Kyon is the Demiurge and Itsuki is Jesus.
    • Kyon is Sophia (real source of knowledge/power), Haruhi is the Demiurge (born out of Sophia power, becomes the malevolent creator of the material world) and everyone else is Jesus (in Gnosticism, Sophia is also Jesus). Gender flipped, but makes sense.
• Questions: If Kyon is the real god, what is it with that event 3 or 4 years ago when Haruhi (supposedly) recreated the universe? That Haruhi couldn't have had powers back then - Then it would basically have to be Kyon from the "present" timeline who visited her and helped her with that sign thingy. But wouldn't that create a paradox if he transferred his powers to her? And even if he had kept the powers to himself all the time, that would be even weirder because then the whole time-loop problem and the solution of it wouldn't make sense (Oh and the climax of the first chapter wouldn't either ^^). So he obviously must have transferred it to her. But that can't be because of said paradox. Besides, the Data Entity or rather Yuki said they found that godlike power in Haruhi! (And apparently they know of all timelines or something like that) Now of course they could lie to him, but why would they do that.. I don't think Kyon is the true god (although it would be a sick and awesome twist) unless someone of you could explain the arising plotholes of the theory ^^ But Its still possible that he has some kind of power.. I just say "slider".. And the 9th novel.. that mindscrewing thing..
  • Well, if Kyon is the true god, then he can make whatever the hell he wants happen. So basically, an explanation for all that you just put forth is "Because he is god, he can make it happen"
  • No. Haruhi's powers aren't ultimate either. It still wouldn't explain how he can be god when another person created the world (and him) 3 years ago.
  • Who says the world was created three years ago, much less by Haruhi? That is just a "theory" by someone who has been called untrustworthy by the other two members of the cast. But it is noteworthy that none can be trusted - we cannot assume that any of their words are true. Indeed, Nagato even points this out to Kyon - the only reason he "knows" what he knows is because he believed what they had told him but, as she herself points out, none of them have proven anything. Heck, this whole section is predicated on the idea that they are actually deific beings, something only one of them claims.
    • And even he claims later he's not entirely sure of that, but that is the official party line.
• All this troper has to say on the matter is this: The Unreliable Author has been screwing around with us from the beginning Chris Carter style. Chances are pretty good he's making things up as he goes along (tough to find a JMS who has actually thought things through). Authors are infamous for Ass Pulls. Hell, for all we know, Kyon and the rest of the gang are actually the real final five. Bottom line, most of the theories on this page are equally supportable until the Author decides to make one of them canon.
• Well... maybe they're both gods? Equal and opposite beings, with Haruhi representing Chaos and Kyon representing Order. When the series just began, he was giving up on his dreams of encountering aliens, espers and such, and if he is a real god, then the act of giving up on these things would probably make them disappear, but Haruhi intervened and changed things. And while Haruhi would erase reality over spilled milk if left to her own devices, Kyon keeps her from doing so. So Haruhi keeps Kyon from making the world stagnant and dull, while Kyon keeps Haruhi from randomly reshaping it to suit her whims every other week. It's a balance thing.
  • I think Kyon is already Balance, it's Sasaki who is Order to the point of stifling. Or possibly the two of them are making worse a war in Kyon's own mind over the subject.
    • Or maybe Kyon gave Haruhi power to overcome the effect Sasaki had on Kyon.
• So, he was using Sasaki as a sort of Author Avatar throughout the time he knew her, but once he lost touch with her and found Haruhi, not only did he subconsciously transfer the powers (or at least the Avatar status, since he still kept the actual powers to himself) to Haruhi, he also unleashed a sort of cosmic Retcon to make it look like she'd always had them. This actually presents a much more logical explanation for many things...
• Some evidence I came up with to support this theory after reading it: the mole on Mikuru's breast. She didn't even notice it until Kyon pointed it out. The reason? It wasn't there until Kyon put it there to give himself a reason to see more of her cleavage.
  • This is also why he made Haruhi the comedic version of a Depraved Bisexual. He really enjoys watching Haruhi molest Mikuru but the gentlemanly side of him can't admit that (that's obvious just from his Internal Monologues), so he subconsciously wills Haruhi to do it against his token protests. This way, he is free to enjoy the sights while convincing himself he's not responsible for her getting treated this way.
• The A and B stories in Volume 9 could be due to Kyon himself being momentarily unable to decide how that story should end, so he leaves his options open.
  • That makes just as much sense as any other explanation for Volume 9...
    • To really take things to the WMG extreme, perhaps the apparent lack of a volume 10 (and the fact that volume 9 ends abruptly in the middle of the story) is because he decided the entire story was stupid and therefore stopped writing it.
• An interesting idea this troper does not really believe, Kyon was the god, until he unintentionally and unknowingly passed on them some years back. This possibly happened at the time he decided the strange things he wanted would not happen. His powers would no longer be utilized. At that point, it transferred to Sasaki, who didn't like the idea and passed the ability on rather quickly to Haruhi, who was less easily satisfied/despairing than Kyon and more willing to actually subconsciously have the ability than Sasaki. And now Haruhi seems to be calming down as well...
• This troper demands a satisfactory explanation for book #7 within this context; because honestly, I can't see how it could possibly measure up to the awesomeness of inadvertently thwarting evil schemes and causing the invention of time travel as a mere side effect of keeping Kyon too busy to realize that Valentine's Day is coming up.
• Mashing it all together... Kyon is the actual God, but being massively Genre Savvy he restricted his own access to his powers and imposed a subconscious mind lock on himself in order to avoid A God Am I moment and all that closed space stuff. Remember when he said that he found out that aliens, Santa Claus, etc. weren't real ? He actually just banned his powers and so they disappeared. However, omnipotence is a fickle thing, and so it leaked out, a little like magic radiation in Discworld - and found baseball-traumatized little Haruhi. It used her as a sort of secondary host, as an outlet for Kyon's suppressed desires - so she wishes for aliens, time travellers and ESPers as a proxy to have wacky adventures. Kyon himself states that he actually likes the stuff happening with Haruhi. Also, note that the SOS girls appeal to him, and that generally it all actually fits. Summary: Kyon suppressed his own powers, is therefore unaware, but his subconscious created / amplified Haruhi in order to please him. may have been said already, but it fits. Oh, and the hand Haruhi takes in the opening ? It's Subconscious!Kyon offering her ascension in a dream.
  • And Koizumi represents his repressed bisexuality. Note that in one episode of Endless Eight (number 7 I believe), both times he is awakened from slumber, he's got his hands on his butt.
• Although I don't have absolute proof, it seems as though Haruhi rarely acts normally unless Kyon feels some strong emotion. Also, Haruhi has almost no character development in the series and has almost no empathy. This could be because she is Kyon's subconscious desires (e.g. sexually molesting Mikuru, going on adventures and generally doing whatever she wants). Kyon can stop her because he can suppress these desires, although not for long.
  • Actually Haruhi gets her deal of character development in the series too. It certainly is more subtle than what Yuki gets, for example, but this troper was amazed to realize that Haruhi in Snow Mountain Syndrome is in fact quite different girl than Haruhi in The Melancholy.
• Itsuki seems to tease/hint several times in the anime about the nature of Kyon and Haruhi's godhood. In "The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina" he implies that Kyon, while unable to affect anything, is the key to bring about change. And in "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody" he points out that in chess, the queen has all the power and incorrectly states the king has no value, where Kyon is the seemingly valueless king. Haruhi may have the God's magical powers, but Kyon has either the far-reaching knowledge or the will of God. He even subconsciously knows he's done something wrong to Yuki and wants to make it up to her, before she tells him what she's been doing for 600 years.
  • Indeed, "The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina" 's plot itself could be seen as a proxy for the story of the series, but Kyon and Haruhi seem to be merged, though Itsuki's reaction to Nagato's words imply that he is Kyon in the story, not Haruhi. It is worth noting that, at the end, Itsuki's character's "hidden powers" awaken, and given how suspiciously accurate the plot is otherwise in some ways (the cast are all of the correct type, for example)...
• Another point for Kyon: When Haruhi gets angry at Kyon when he refuses to tell her what is on his mind after her stand-in performance for ENOZ, she throws grass at him, but it is blown back into her face rather than hitting Kyon. Indeed, things always seem to work out for the better for Kyon.
• I'd like to point out something interesting from the first light novel: in the very beginning of the book, Kyon speculates on what kind of character he would be in plots that sound like generic shounen. What makes this interesting, however, is the fact that Kyon repeatedly casts himself as 'out of the limelight', so to speak. In his fantasies, he is never the hero, just a sidekick. Kyon truly believes he would be better off Out of Focus and off to the sidelines, storywise. In the books, this is what happens - Kyon is the everyman character interacting with all the other fantastic elements of the 'verse. He has a personality, but little to no backstory, which would befit his 'position' in the story. Meanwhile, Haruhi, the 'hero', has a well-established personality and backstory. TL;DR: Kyon is the actual reality warper, Kyon is Genre Savvy, and is forming the world around him in the guise of what he considers the perfect story for him.
• This troper has an ungodly long essay arguing just this, and will steal any arguments presented here he didn't already think of.
• A variation I didn't see: Haruhi is God or whatever, but at the end of the series, for some reason, gives up her powers to Kyon and becomes a normal human being. What happens? God!Kyon travels to the past (perhaps to prevent a destructive paradox) at that day when everything began (Espers were created, time-quake, data explosion) and gives his powers to Haruhi again. Haruhi's powers were a predetermined event all along. That's why the Kyon of this timeline is a normal human being but the story seems to fit his childhood dreams and he has such an important role - Kyon choosing an "interesting world" over a normal one where he could still have ordinary adventures with the SOS brigade isn't new.
• This Troper's theory is that Sasaki, Haruhi, and Kyon are all gods, forming a trinity not unlike the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in Hinduism. Haruhi, whose Closed Space has blue energy giants, represents Shiva, whose role in creation is Destruction. Sasaki, whose Closed Space has absolutely nothing special, represents Vishnu, whose role in creation is Preservation. So according to that logic, represents Brahma, whose role is Creation. This also follows the theory that it's not Haruhi who created ESPers, time-travelers, and aliens, but Kyon.

Kyon fears strong independent women.

Kyon is an insecure god. He fears the hold that women may have on him, so he undermines all the women in his life.

• His mom is written out as practically a non-entity.
• His sister is kept too youthful and ditsy to challenge him.
• When Yuki made a play for emotional independence, he locked her down again.
• Ryoko started out as the Ace, top of the class, class president, lusted after by his buddy, etc. So she didn't last long.
• Mikuru is in a mental lockdown where she can't even talk about her job.
• Sasaki has been left emotionally crippled.
• And Haruhi is placed under a mental block that keeps her from putting simple facts together that are happening before her very eyes.

Kyon is an abbreviation for KYOto aNimation.

And is therefore God.

Kyon's power does not overlap with the goddesses.

What if it is Kyon who is creating the celestials in response to Haruhi's closed spaces?

Both Kyon and Haruhi are God.

Haruhi was a God first, but she fell in love with Kyon. She realized that they were nothing alike and wished for some common ground, and now Kyon is a God too.

Kyon isn't God, he's Jesus.

• The Paragon Always Rebels: Adverted, as he doesn't even have an Achilles in His Tent moment.

Kyon and Haruhi are not only god, but the same god.

Sort of like the Holy Trinity in Christianity, but with only two persons. When Kyon's subconscious desires and Haruhi's conscious desires are in sync, they are made reality, but only visibly to Kyon. Haruhi is the Father, and Kyon is the son.

Kyon and Haruhi are both Reality Warpers and both aware of it; but neither is God. They're feigning ignorance to pull some sort of a scam on the real God - the audience

All of the supernatural things that happen are all just part of Kyon's fantasy.

Nobody is god, Haruhi is just a eccentric girl who created the SOS brigade, Nagato is just an autistic girl who loves reading, Mikuru is just a wimp, and Koizumi is just an Ambiguously Gay guy. In reality, none of these characters ever even claimed that were aliens, time travellers, or espers, Kyon just imagined those scenes along with all the closed spaces, camel crickets, and all the other weird stuff. The SOS brigade is real, and all those club activities that Haruhi sets up are too. Kyon's fantasies that he was discussing at the very beggining weren't clues of him being god, they were clues that alot of the story is just made up by him. To take this even further, it's actually possible that the Haruhi Suzumiya series is just a Show Within a Show written by Kyon.

• This actually fits quite well with the theory of Kyon being Nagaru Tanigawa himself (And, him being the author, is the actual God of the story in a completely different way) then in the end, the "real" Kyon (a being at some point in the middle) writes a series of novels about Haruhi and all the others, in a similar fashion as the way that at the end of Dawson's Creek Dawson creates a series based on his life (Being Dawson's Creek itself supposedly based in the Author's Life) but in a much more roundabout fashion, being always a real author (Nagaru Tanigawa) a middle author (Real! Kyon, who had a totally normal SOS brigade) and a fictional narrator (Novel" Kyon, with the supernatural SOS Brigade).

Kyon was God

He wished to be the normal sidekick so his powers where granted to Haruhi and Sasaki leaving him a normal human.