Bakemonogatari

[Yukimura]

Nice </pseudo-sarcasm> to see Senjogahara back to her initial self. While part of me enjoys witnessing the confrontational and derogatory behavior Senjogahara exudes another part of me can't help but feel like Araragi-kun doesn't deserve that sort of treatment. It kind of annoys me that he has to sit there and take it and if he tries to do anything to shut her up he'll just get trash talked more. While he did bring it on himself for bothering to help her out it still rubs me wrong that she tends to act like she has the moral high-ground in most of her trash talking.

I had especially bad feelings about her 'I want to repay you by doing anything you ask so pick something' set up. As Kraco mentioned, when someone does something like that, it puts a lot of pressure on the person receiving the offer to ask for something. When you combine that with Senjougahara's love of making fun of Araragi it seems like her 'repayment ' is just a way to force Araragi into a trap so she can rub his face in even more dirt. He can't not accept or else she might act hurt that he's rejecting her appreciation. At the same time, no matter what he asks he for she can and probably would make fun of him for it it, act hurt by the idea of him asking for it, or make some snide comment about what his request says about him. I really dislike when stories set up 'choose how you want to be tortured' scenarios for people who haven't done anything wrong and are just being fucked with by a jerk.

Finally, if all the chatter in this ep was a just ploy for Senjougahara to get Araragi to say he wanted to date her because she wants to date him but doesn't want to ask then I'd be pretty ticked off with her character. If she wants to play games she should go find someone who will play games back but Araragi seems unwilling to play the insult game at her level. I would much rather she screw with him for her own lulz then she screw with him because she's too weak and emotionally messed up to be forthright about her feelings.