[Preview] Animage?

[nokiirat.livejournal.com]

Kanameclan's blog has a preview of a lovely new illustration of Lelouch. I think it's from Newtype 9, but I'm not sure From Prince Animage Summer?

Comments

Re: beware: tl;dr and overthinking follows.

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

Ah, very good point(s). It's been a while since I've seen R1 so I can't really remember a lot of little details, but I do recall thinking it odd how well he dealt with a naked opponent. Then again, I was far more occupied with face-palming over Kallen being like WHERE ARE WE OH WELL I'M GONNA GET NAKED AND TAKE A SHOWER. And then there's the fact that I thought the whole thing was just very odd and "oh hey guyz fanservice" so it didn't really activate my "let's scan this scene for clues about the characters" antennae. Also even though I have the DVDs I've never watched the commentary so I missed that explanation. As for side materials, the Suzaku from Bokura no Hibi was completely oblivious to Milly trying to seduce him until she finally just made him uncomfortable; on the other hand, one of the R1 sound episodes had him commenting on the fact that "things like this" (which either referred to dating in general or having a girl in your bedroom/bed) were "perfectly normal" for seventeen-year-olds to do.
The only romantic situation I'd seen him in was his interactions with Euphemia, so that was pretty much my only reference (although of course time constraints/time compression and their social statuses are indeed enough explanation for what I remember as a fairly chaste portrayal). What had also occurred to me was that Suzaku had been with the army since he was about ten. Of course people in the military do have sex but I've heard from a friend that it can be kind of socially difficult to have a girl at the base and I doubt the Britannian army is generous with its leave time for Numbers/Honorary Britannians.
Otherwise there is the fact that he's sort of a deconstruction of the Lawful Good (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LawfulGood) Boring Invincible Hero (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InvincibleHero?from=Main.BoringInvincibleHero) / Idiot Hero (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiotHero). Frequently - though by no means always - these characters are chaste, although I imagine this is more often because their target audiences are young.
I'm not saying you're wrong; I agree with you since you've made a good argument and the creators themselves have made the final statement regardless. I'm just explaining why it wasn't obvious to me. Also there's the fact (which I find rather indisputable) that Suzaku was indeed a wide-eyed and naive idealist throughout R1, even if he wasn't naive when it came to sex.

Re: beware: tl;dr and overthinking follows.

[libekory.livejournal.com]

WELL. Setting aside for a moment the dubiously-canon nature of the novels...

The way I've played Suzaku in RP is that his self-worth gives him a pretty big blind spot about women being interested in him, one that they have to overcome with a sledgehammer. This is especially true of Euphy, and would also be true with Milly.

As far as the Britannian military goes -- we don't really know what their regulations regarding women are. There clearly ARE women in the Britannian military, and the Knights of the Round at least would seem to indicate that they aren't segregated, but they're nowhere near an even distribution and we don't really know whether or how easy it is for a Private to find time for sexin'.

In my headcanon, one of the women Suzaku's had sex with is another Honorary from a different country, and they were "ships passing in the night" -- stationed in the same area, she was an older woman who approached him for a one-night stand. (If you happen to be familiar with Babylon 5 for some reason, I'm completely thinking of this one woman Garibaldi almost has sex with, Dodger.) I don't know if that mental image helps you any, but I do figure that he couldn't have done it with Britannians OR Japanese; they're all thinking of him as either a monkey or a traitor. (Especially as the former Prime Minister's son.) I figure he's had sex at least three times, to be as comfortable with the topic (as in his conversation in the drama track) as he is.

But I mean, Euphy? Noooo. He never touched her like that, IMHO. We would've seen their first kiss on screen, so there's no way they ever went past that. (And not saying it's "wrong" to ever write it, but as far as what literally happened in the space of the canon goes.) But just because he was chaste with Euphy doesn't mean he's chaste with all women, you know?

Re: beware: tl;dr and overthinking follows.

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

Please do set aside the novels. :D I don't mind if somebody wants to write fanfiction/RP/etc based on that interpretation of the events and characters but I don't consider them canon the way I consider the anime canon. Anime>manga and novels IMHO.
The situation you described makes sense. The creators were intentionally vague so it's all a guessing game.
I can see the other Honorary Britannian being Japanese as well, actually, considering that her joining the Britannian military would mean that she wouldn't think of him as a traitor for doing so. But regardless of country of origin, being in a desegregated army together would make sex seem far more possible.
I don't think Suzaku had sex with Euphie in canon but I've read some good fanfiction/doujinshi/RP that used the premise so I'm definitely not opposed to it. But it kind of has to be AU, yeah. And sure, I get that he won't have treated all women the same way or always have been so shy (especially considering Euphemia is a princess) but I just meant that it's our only solid frame of reference as shown in canon.

It's actually kind of an interesting dichotomy that the writers put in there, without ever making it explicit within the show. Lelouch is supposed to be jaded, cynical, and ruthless, while at least in R1 Suzaku is naive and idealistic to a fault. One would expect the more worldly of the two to be more sexually experienced as well; instead, it's just the opposite.