romance in geass

[rosangela.livejournal.com]

Do you think that Lelouch loved someone romantically in the end?There have been hints with C.C., Shirley and Kallen.Personally i think that the staff was going with C.C. and Lelouch in the first season and in the second they took the route for Lelouch and Kallen.Shirley was in school and it was hard in the first place.
What is your opinion?

Comments

[darksage29.livejournal.com]

Okay, asexual and homosexual comments aside, here's my trying-my-best-to-be-objective-even-if-I'm-a-LuluCC-shipper commentary.

Euphemia: can't say Lulu cared for her THAT deeply. Sure he may have loved her, but given the fact that she was killing everyone on plain sight, he had to do something. I don't see killing her as the ONLY way to resolve the crap that went on... But Lelouch had to do something. I don't think he was too much scarred with her death. So, scrap that.
Shirley: killed, goes on a rampage. Lelouch didn't want her to die, and was in a total wreck when she did. I, however, don't see this as love. When Nunna got FLEIJA'd, Lulu was pretty much had the same reaction. I reckon Lelouch's "guilt" over getting-a-friend-involved-in-all-this-crap pushed him off the brink.
Kallen: Fanservice girl. Pretty much a quarter of R2 was sexual tension between the two. And yeah, you have all that material going on offscreen. So yeah. Basically a good candidate (at least, better than shirley). But I don't see Lelouch caring for her (heck, even shirley trumps kallen in that department). What was Lelouch's reaction towards Kallen's kidnapping? There wasn't much response in the part of Lulu, even to "oh hey, they got our ace pilot. Now what?"... My view is, that kallen loved Lulu very, very deeply. It's just that lelouch was too confused to reciprocate it.
C.C.: my bias. But I'll try my best to be objective. Initially, there was little to no "love" between them. I think they became fond of each other up until the end of S1. Kinda like getting relationship points in a VN, LuluCC had moments that made them grow closer together. And I think C.C. did have feelings for Lelouch, but showed too little of it. Lelouch might have reciprocated, but it's a little too iffy to say how much he did.

...but you all know what happened in Canon, right? RIVALZ.

[kiraya.livejournal.com]

Euphemia: can't say Lulu cared for her THAT deeply

...despite him calling her 初恋 (first love) and breaking down crying in C.C.'s arms after he killed her?

[darksage29.livejournal.com]

well, my gauge is Lulu's reaction compared to Suzaku's reaction. Suzaku went "OH SHIT F U ZERO! RAWRGH!", Lelouch broke down, yes... but acted pretty much "I'm okay now" afterwards.

The first love thing... I see it more as a joke or a "LOL-I-had-a-crush-on-you-once" moment. Plus, Lelouch didn't seem to have a clear-cut concept of love in S1, let alone when he used to hang out with euphie.

[kiraya.livejournal.com]

Suzaku had that extreme reaction because Euphemia had been his best ticket to redemption for the sin of killing his father (as well as someone he was starting to fall for), and Zero took that away from him in the worst possible way -- by making it seem like he was going along with her ideals of peace and then brutally sabotaging them.

And yeah, Lelouch picked himself up and moved on afterwards -- because after something like the SAZ massacre it would've been suicide for the Black Knights for them to not take advantage of the situation (and you can make a similar case in the situation of Kallen's kidnapping) -- but the whole "I'm pretty much okay now" thing was almost certainly a facade. You could see how fond he was of Euphie in the way he admitted his defeat, in how she's the first person he actually explains his Geass to -- at that point he's never trusted anyone with that information, and for someone who holds his cards close to his chest as Lelouch does, that's huge. (That degree of trust is some of the biggest support for the Lelouch/C.C. 'ship, imo.)

We see over and over again how, despite the fact that he tries to act all dispassionate and logical (very Schneizel-like, quite honestly), Lelouch is a person of very intense emotions; he just buries them deeply as much as possible (quite understandable, considering his strong emotions were what got him kicked out of home in the first place). Of course, being so self-repressed, he seems to lack a clear-cut concept of love. One thing's for sure, though: he certainly isn't the type to joke about it.

I really feel that in many cases Lelouch doesn't realize the depth of his attachments to the people he cares for until they're in "oh shit" situations -- Shirley and Rolo in particular are perfect examples of this. And again, because strong emotions caused such difficulties for him in the past, because he's so used to relying on himself now, it's easier for him to push people away than to confide in them and grow dependent on them and thus allow himself to be hurt again (a large factor in why he deliberately acted unresponsive to Kallen's kiss, imo, and why he said those hurtful things to her when the Black Knights turned on him).

(Nunnally's something of a different story, since he seems to view her almost more as representative of the ideal he's working towards than an individual -- the rock he's built everything on, the reason he's fighting this fight. That's why, in contrast to Euphie (where he had to keep going or blow it all) or Shirley (finally losing it because he'd been trying not to get innocents involved and now this, for the SECOND time no less), he can't just pick himself up and keep going after she's FLEIA'd, because without Nunnally what is he doing this for? His inaction costs him dearly, but in the end -- once again, despite the obvious heartache he's suffering -- he picks up and keeps going, because he's got to fix the mess he made. He's got to -- as Suzaku says -- keep the lie going till the very end.)

I really, truly think Lelouch loved all of them -- C.C., Kallen, Shirley, Euphemia, Nunnally, Rolo, Suzaku. The exact expression of that love may have varied, but privileging one of those relationships over the others, saying that he loved one of them more than the others instead of simply differently, or that he didn't love one (or more) of them at all, has never made much sense to me. Even though I have my own preferences in my Lelouch 'ships, I'm fully willing to acknowledge his other relationships. Ship and let ship, you know? :)

sorry for the tl;dr there, ahaha.

[anaakin.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, ya know, subjectivity can make you say weird things :P

[akira-ks.livejournal.com]

I think that there was a lot a potential with Shirley, but the events made it impossibile.. Even if Shirley lived, at that point I think he was already developing feelings for C.C, because events made them closer, and would have made them still more closer, while he would have be way more far from Shirley, to be able to accomplish his plan. Surely C.C. felt for him way before, but in the end he reciprocated her.

Kallen has never been an option, if not in the eyes of the shippers. She did love him, but i think it's clear she wasn't more of a comrade and a friend for him.

[akira-ks.livejournal.com]

......from the staff? But not from Lelouch XDD who clearly didn't give a damn about her romantically °_° I do not want to bash anyone or any ship, everyone is free to ship what one likes, but I look at the series, not at interviews and other things. In the series, there was nothing from Lelouch part to Kallen, period. Then anyone has eyes and can see what he wants ^_^" Stuff out of the actual episode, was made not to disappoint fans and earn money = fanservice. The truth about Karen and Lelouch meant to be completely one-sided is in the fact the staff made nothing more than that in the episode, not even making Lelouch reacting in some way when she kissed me. More clearer than that.. and you know that? Lelouch/Kaller shippers are always so defensive because they know they're wrong and have no guts to admit it. anyway, the episodes are under the eyes of everyone, so.. I let the facts speak.

[anaakin.livejournal.com]

Like most poeple here, I think he loved everyone, in a different way. Now, romantically, since the staff pretty much agreed with the ideas I got during the show, I'd say Shirley and Kallen were the two options.
I never saw any romance going on between Lelouch and C.C., it always striked me as totally different and...canonically, it was the case o/
For the two red heads I think Lelouch began to devellop feelings for them, but too late. His actions towards them was screaming that to me anyway, now if we are to listen the staff...it was kinda the case. What can we say, Lelouch wasn't the best when it comes to good timing, that's it.

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

I wanna say explicitly before I start that I'm not trying to convince you that I'm right and you're wrong, just trying to enter a discussion about Lelouch's relationship with C.C. and get a different point of view from somebody who interpreted the scenes and dialogue differently.
I know the staff has jossed Lelouch/C.C. and you're not the first person I've heard say, "I never saw romance between Lelouch and C.C." but I have a hard time agreeing with the writers there. Particularly because of Lelouch's dialogue in R2-15 (e.g. "She's my...she's my...!") and the tender moment they shared in Episode...I can't remember if it was 24 or 25, but basically the one where C.C. asks Lelouch if he blames her for giving him Geass and he says that he doesn't (C.C. then says "I've never met a man like you," and then Lelouch softly says her name as he starts toward her...then Kallen crashes through the wall and we never see what could have been). Plus there's him saying, "If you are a witch then I will become a warlock" and her saying, "Say (my name) again, as a lover would." Plus there are the kisses, but some people see those as strictly utilitarian (one for unlocking memories, and perhaps the one before it was to copy those memories in the first place) so they don't have to count.

[anaakin.livejournal.com]

Ah you know, I don’t have any problem with different point of view. Actually, I tend to quote more often the staff cause my point of view fits kinda perfectly what they explained (and before those material came out, my point of view was like extra bashed <_< I think now it’s safer to back up my view with staff statements, that’s it), but I can perfectly understand different point of view, especially when it comes to Lelouch/C.C. (as long as the fan aren’t trying to bash the main rival ship, Lelouch/C.C is perfactly okay in my book J); While I’m part of those who saw the two kisses as memories back up and memories come back (with the second one unleashing Lelouch’s memories, those really came to look like business kisses for me), I can understand one doubts when it comes to the first kiss for example; I don’t know if the staff changed their mind when it comes to the first kiss use, but it sure didn’t look like a back up kiss by then. When it comes to the others moments, I guess, material put aside, those are more up to interpretation; While I think there might have been Lelouch/CC devellopment after episode 15, especially with no other girls around, she turned into Moe Chichi, kinda killing the possibility (or more like, opening a new possibility with ChiChi asking for friends); For the episode 24, I don’t know what might have come of this, but this episode break my heart in too many ways so a real romantic CC/Lelouch moment would have just been the cherry on my cake ^^’ My shipper bias is kinda glad nothing came out of it, but I can perfectly understand one wonders when it comes to their relationship. Simply, I think it’s mostly up to one’s sensibility, especially with this incredible ammount of CC/Lelouch arts which pushed some people to ship them more easily that others pairings. Since it was eye candy for me, I guess it didn’t have any affect, but really, some moments in the anime + the artworks can really make one think about them romantically, no surprise there; So don’t worry, I understand perfectly how you feel, and I’m fine with it :p /Sorry for the long rant ^^'

[lavaliere]

I'll just be over here, reading the comments, eating popcorn, and shipping my completely non-canon, obscure pairings.

There needs to be more Lelouch/Rolo and Lelouch/Milly shippers. Just saying.

[spiralis.livejournal.com]

Can I join? 8)

[lavaliere]

Oh, bb, you know you can~ ♥

[kiraya.livejournal.com]

...oh Lelouch/Milly. ♥ He's the only person I ship her with (and it makes me feel bad because I'm often just as guilty as most of ignoring her potential with him in favor of more popular characters).

[lavaliere]

I used to roleplay Milly quite frequently, and it was a lot of fun. There definitely needs to be more Lulu/Milly shippers out there.

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

I like Lelouch/Milly a lot, I just don't think it was canon at all, and it tends to get overshadowed by my love of Lelouch/Shirley and Lelouch/C.C. But the dynamic between them is so great.

[lavaliere]

I really don't care what was canon. That's why I enjoy shipping non-canon pairings. I'm going to ship whatever the hell I want because I want to.

Because, to be frank, there are no canon ships with Lelouch. Because he died, and it's been officially stated that he died a virgin. He may have greatly cared about quite a few people, but in the end, he put his plans and his motives ahead of any desire for romance. Arguing over what is more canon is pretty damn ridiculous.

[kerina.livejournal.com]

Fuck yeah Lelouch/Milly. ♥

[lavaliere]

Bonus points if it's Milly/Lelouch with Milly forcing Lulu into another dress.

[robotlove.livejournal.com]

/ABSOLUTELY LATE but for the record, I know I took a fancy to Lelouch/Kallen first. Lelouch/Shirley was sweet and played out beautifully if I do say so myself but was a bit too simplistic for me.

I never really saw Lelouch/C.C. romantically but I will agree that it can also work if you want it to.

IMO ANY of the pairs can work in alternate universes/timelines due to the kinds of relationships Lelouch had with them/the care he showed. But if you're talking about what's "canon" then I'll simply have to say that it was left very much open-ended, so that you're free to take your own angle and interpretation on things. Smart move by the writers, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Adding a thumbsup for Lelouch/Milly and Lelouch/Rolo as well - and of course, the ship I've been the happiest on since the last episode: Suzaku/Lelouch.

You're not as late as me, hah

[snowdevil-crow.livejournal.com]

Oh, man Lelouch/Milly! I can't believe I forgot that one. Yeah, Lelouch/Milly definitely had some potential, it's a shame they didn't really do much with it. :/

I can't believe I missed this post DDD:

[snowdevil-crow.livejournal.com]

So I'm late to the party, whatever.

Euphy was totally his first crush, he even admits it in canon!

As for the others... I kind of think he had some romantic feelings toward both Shirley and Kallen... and maybe CC, and maybe Suzaku. Shirley, I think he realized he might have some feelings for after she confessed, but he was probably confused about them since he also had the whole "woops, killed your dad and fucked up your mind" guilt toward her the entire time.

For Kallen it might have been less romantic and more "friendship/comradeship/respect + lust". I don't think he really understood that she was in love with him until she kissed him in R2 22, and he may have returned her feelings or he may have just felt bad for what he was doing to her, and, and, IDK.

CC... hm. CC. I do ship them, but I'm not sure if in canon I really think of their relationship as all that romantic. A lot of the time I just think they have the boy/girl version of an epic bromance - just epic platonic accomplices. Other times... IDK.

And, okay, Suzaku. Yeah, the creators probably didn't mean it that way, but I'm 93% convinced he had just a few romantic leanings toward Suzaku.

And of course, he was totes in love with his wifey Kaguya.

[fantasygirl49.livejournal.com]

late comment here

did lelouch have any romantic feeling for anyone in the show, my first reaction is no he didn't time to develop those kind of feeling; however thinking over it he did have a few people he cared for in different way like the student council/ rolo, cc/kallen/shirley but what i'm sure of is his feeling for suzaku and nunnally top those other people in his life cause i think it's based on how much trust he felt for them...for suzaku and nunnally they basically had that trust already, while the others had to earn them, that's why his reaction toward suzaku betrayal was so bad.

not saying that he felt that way toward his sister, but he did placed her on a pedestal not many could reach; while with suzaku their friendship is hard to describe and the creator gave the impression that it's special to lelouch after all he chose suzaku over kallen i'm not sure if that has any meaning but it's just show his trust over suzaku is stronger.

[fantasygirl49.livejournal.com]

i forgot one other that's euphie, she was his first crush and his half sister, he also care for her, to place her i would say it will be over the student council and rolo.