Your Mileage May Vary. I don't consider Kallen particularly interesting to watch even though I recognize intellectually that as a character she has layers and a sad backstory. When she got her own Kallen-centric episode in the first season I basically spent the whole thing rolling my eyes and wondering when it was going to be over. Why? Because the writers didn't write her character in a way that was interesting and endearing to me personally. That's not a flaw, or anything. I'm not saying the writers did a bad job because they didn't cater to me personally. But there are definitely personal differences in what speaks to whom in the audience. With Shirley it was the opposite of Kallen. Even though her character description - naive everygirl with a typical, happy family - sounds boring, the way the Geass staff wrote Shirley's journey of loss - and later, of forgiveness - made me really feel for her. Even though it was a tiny part of the show. I got choked up when she died and I still can't watch that "I'll just keep falling in love with you over and over" speech without getting misty-eyed. If you find Shirley boring, I don't care (I consider that falling under the part where I said "I don't care if you're sort of meh about Shirley or didn't really care about her death or whatever"). What bothers me is the active hate, because I honestly don't think it's in any way warranted and because every time somebody has listed reasons for it, they have been one or more of the following: - she needs to die so Lelouch can be with (character)*especially Rolo - I'm a Rolo fan and thus have to hate Shirley - she caused his phone to ring in front of Britannian soldiers which would have gotten him killed - seriously, how dare she think she deserves Lelouch, he's going to be with (character) - she didn't immediately and passively accept Lelouch being Zero/killing her father
I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree. I don't really think some boredom is reason enough to actively hate a character. I don't hate Kallen. But then I don't actively hate most characters; really Nina is the only one I simply despise. I also really loved the Ashford stuff and wish they took some time out of the boring-ass Chinese Federation/Xing Sue/Tianzi storyline to focus on Ashford. Again, YMMV. Also, even if you consider anything not Rebellion-related to be a waste, Shirley's screen time is not entirely wasted, considering that if it wasn't for Shirley Lelouch would never have gone to the Geass cult, and thus never would have fought VV and entered the World of C as his soldiers reluctantly killed child soldiers. CC would never have lost her memories, Charles wouldn't have killed VV and started on his Ragnarok Junction plan...seriously, Lelouch had no motivation to utterly destroy the Geass cult until he blamed them for Shirley's death.
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That's not a flaw, or anything. I'm not saying the writers did a bad job because they didn't cater to me personally. But there are definitely personal differences in what speaks to whom in the audience. With Shirley it was the opposite of Kallen. Even though her character description - naive everygirl with a typical, happy family - sounds boring, the way the Geass staff wrote Shirley's journey of loss - and later, of forgiveness - made me really feel for her. Even though it was a tiny part of the show. I got choked up when she died and I still can't watch that "I'll just keep falling in love with you over and over" speech without getting misty-eyed.
If you find Shirley boring, I don't care (I consider that falling under the part where I said "I don't care if you're sort of meh about Shirley or didn't really care about her death or whatever"). What bothers me is the active hate, because I honestly don't think it's in any way warranted and because every time somebody has listed reasons for it, they have been one or more of the following:
- she needs to die so Lelouch can be with (character)*especially Rolo
- I'm a Rolo fan and thus have to hate Shirley
- she caused his phone to ring in front of Britannian soldiers which would have gotten him killed
- seriously, how dare she think she deserves Lelouch, he's going to be with (character)
- she didn't immediately and passively accept Lelouch being Zero/killing her father
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Also, even if you consider anything not Rebellion-related to be a waste, Shirley's screen time is not entirely wasted, considering that if it wasn't for Shirley Lelouch would never have gone to the Geass cult, and thus never would have fought VV and entered the World of C as his soldiers reluctantly killed child soldiers. CC would never have lost her memories, Charles wouldn't have killed VV and started on his Ragnarok Junction plan...seriously, Lelouch had no motivation to utterly destroy the Geass cult until he blamed them for Shirley's death.