Hyouka

[Kraco]

While I do feel sorry for Oreki this time (it'll make it quite hard for him to believe he can really make a difference again), I sympathise with the Empress more after the final scene. Like a true empress, she has to keep her little empire from failing - and if it requires her to step on people, so be it. People expect her to do her job, but she gets bad press for it.

Is that what you tell yourself (since you reckoned you'd be like her in a similar position)? This all was more due to her personality than the needs of the job. Why exactly did she calculate Oreki would create a better plot this way rather than after having sufficiently details not to feel betrayed and used after it all? Besides, this way is no way to use people in an organization, unless it really is an empire and you are a despot. You figure Oreki would ever want to deal with her again (he even seems to lazy for a revenge)? She knew well she's using him as a disposable tool. It was all the worse with the manipulation, even if it was necessary to get the energy saver moving at all.

Still, that seems to be her personality, just like Oreki's is energy saving plus problem solving and Chitanda's is curiosity.