Shirley was the best character in Code Geass.

[doctorcasey.livejournal.com]

Anyone agree?

Comments

[apapazukamori.livejournal.com]

Shirley definitely doesn't deserve the amount of ire she receives. (Though, I don't think any of the characters do; the series is deliberately too complex for "heroes" and "villains".)

However, Shirley always seemed to toe the line between being a character and a plot device. And ultimately, she was just a plot device (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Refrigerators).

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

(Though, I don't think any of the characters do; the series is deliberately too complex for "heroes" and "villains".)

Oh hell yes. It was so not fun to try and find Code Geass discussion outside LJ when I had just finished watching, and discovered most of it seemed to be ZOMG I HATE ____.

[apapazukamori.livejournal.com]

Definitely. Or that weird idea some people had that if you loved Lelouch, you had to hate Suzaku, which never made sense to me. I love them both and loved their relationship in R2. Especially when Suzaku pwned Lelouch with Nunnally, and then Lelouch turned around and beat Suzaku with bubbles.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Or that weird idea some people had that if you loved Lelouch, you had to hate Suzakuanyone who opposed him

Fixed that for you! Though yes, I agree on the initial premise, being as they are my two favourite characters and all. I could never quite get how people came the conclusion that you were supposed to like one and hate the other since the whole duality between the two struck me as being, you know, kind of central to the series. And then you get really dumb criticisms like "Suzaku is evil because he killed his father!" which makes me want go "Um, guys, about Lelouch..."

[snoozy.livejournal.com]

and discovered most of it seemed to be ZOMG I HATE

geass fandom for you.

[schneizel.livejournal.com]

A person doesn't have to be a villain to be hated, and there are definitely some characters that I think deserve it, like VV and Marianne.

[apapazukamori.livejournal.com]

In the series itself, sure. But in terms of the audience, it seems sort of lazy to me. Marianne had reasons for what she did. They were incredibly misguided and the disappointment comes at the end when she doesn't understand that. But, she clearly loved Charles, and was a role model for Cornelia, and was admirable enough to command Jeremiah's loyalty so long after her "death". And as a commoner who attained nobility, she was probably an inspiration for a lot of people. She also didn't seem to be half bad as a parent, though that was cut short by V.V. She's not irredeemable, just deeply, deeply flawed.

Sadly, we don't get enough about V.V. to really know what was going on with him. Certainly in the beginning, he had noble goals. It seems he fell victim to jealousy when Marianne entered the picture. Again, it's more fun for me to explore possible motivations than to just hate a character.

[schneizel.livejournal.com]

I think you give Marianne way too much credit. I think Charles had reasons for what he did, and they ended up being misguided, but it only showed Marianne to be an incredibly self centered person. I don't doubt she loved Charles, but I also think she probably considered herself and her own feelings more important. You also can't say she didn't seem that bad as a parent because we really know very little about what she was like, except from Lelouch who was just a kid and idolized her, particularly after what happened with the Emperor.

I don't know about noble goals, maybe naive (at least in the beginning). Charles grew up and he didn't.

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's lazy to think that there are certain actions and/or motivations that lie beyond a moral event horizon, beyond which you can no longer feel sympathy or affection for the character (or at least beyond which a character must go through sacrifice and hardship and redemption before earning sympathy and affection).
I don't consider jealousy to be a reasonable excuse for selfishness. I don't like V.V. and I don't like Rolo (but at least Rolo has some redeeming moments that made me feel some sympathy for him).

[snowdevil-crow.livejournal.com]

Man, she deserved so much better than that stupid fridging she got. I mean, yes, I loved the romance aspect of it, and it was nice and tragic, but it would have been so cool to see them actually do something with that plot of her figuring out who Lelouch was after he erased her memories in the first season, or joining the Black Knights after she remembered everything in the second season, and, and, they just fridged her. :/