Current mood:	grumpy
Entry tags:	meta: code geass

Fuck it, I'm gonna be petty
You know what? Since I just lost my precious mp3 player, is horribly behind on my work due to having a string of bad days and bad luck, and just in general being not motivated, having dealt with stupid interlaboratory politics and the weather being stupidly hot, I'm just going to let loose and rant about stuff you don't care about. And fuck if I'm being internet stupid, I just do give a crap.

In tune to the rant entry (and whoever said it was well put together is either brain dead or has never been forced to write academic papers), this is motivated by this very public post attempting to defend a fictional character.

The complete pointlessness of such a post in a public community that was supposed to be about sharing information, selling doujin, posting pretty pictures, and generic squeeing is just... Why would anyone think this is something that will interest the community members anyway? That it did is not the point; the point being that it should have been posted elsewhere. But since it is in a very public place, I'm going to be the mean one.

A good chunk of what motivates Suzaku is the fact that he’s so guilt-ridden over the death of his father.

Yes, a father that Suzaku killed. He is solely and completely responsibly for his own guilt with no one else to blame. It wasn't even an accident in most angsty anti-heroes' cases, so he has to bear the with the blood on his hands. Just because he's driven by this guilt doesn't mean it absolves him of the sin. He is still committed patricide with - as far as canon is concerned - no reason whatsoever. And guess what, dear ranter? That's precisely one of the reasons for which people hate Suzaku.

And you, in your ten year old naiveté, can’t help but think that if only your father, the prime minister of Japan, would just swallow his pride and surrender, there wouldn’t be so much pain, and suffering and hardship.

And picture this: You're a 10-year-old who saw the destruction of your people, suffering in the hands of the enemy for no good reason, watching them die in horrible, horrible ways and you don't even know why the fuck this is happening. I don't know about your response, but my 10-year-old self certainly would be thinking more along the lines of "kill them, kill them all the fuck off". A normal person's response to being bullied (and this is essentially what was happening, an international bullying, yes, but still bullying) is not to just curl up and take it. Most people fight back, and when they can't, go crying for help.

After all, what would’ve happened to Japan if they kept on fighting in WWII, even after Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Fucker! Japan was the one who did the fucking invading in WWII. This is no fucking bearing on what happened in Code Geass. If anything, Japan was the fucking Britannia during WWII, being the one to invade and take over all of its neighboring countries. Oh, and guess what? Every fucking country fought back. So you can take your fucked up analogy and shove it. *breathes*

Okay, that was a bit of an ad hominem. But the point still stands: invoking WWII in attempt to justify the invading countries is not okay. This is as bad as invoking Hitler and Nazis, especially when you've flipped the roles and seemed to fail to understand that Japan is the country that ran around killing civilians.

You get angrier because if adults were so great, why were there so many wars in the first place?

Funnily enough, children don't think adults are the cause of their problems. Yes, they sometimes dislike teachers for making things difficult or giving them punishment when they did something wrong. And yes, sometimes there are just bad, bad parents that make kids hate older people and being cynical and scared of them. But most sane children do not assume that everything wrong in the world is the result of adult machinations. Most children think adults can fix things and when they can't, kids are usually shocked and surprised that "parents cannot make everything better, honest". The fact that Suzaku actively raised his hand against his father (and killing him, of course) is not fucking normal. This revelation shows us that Suzaku is a) not any better than Lelouch, b) is suffering serious moral dissonance and c) the reason he is so insanely rigid about following orders, irrespective of whether it's actually the right thing to do. And yes, this is precisely another reason people hate him, and his drive to do so does not lessen the crime of killing innocent people.

But your father, too scared of losing face, is willing to resist to the bitter end, even if it meant letting more deaths occur.

Again, knowing what we do about Britannia's military policies, knowing that Britannian armies do not stop killing unarmed civilians regardless of whether they've surrendered (are we forgetting the Shinjuku massacre?), it's probably safe to say that Genbu's resisting is not the cause of the Japanese people dying, since they are being killed unprovoked. Further more, we know for a certainty that one of Suzaku's motivations to kill his father was in fact trying to prevent him from marrying Nunnally in a political marriage. So, no, your reasoning for Suzaku's killing of Genbu is not at all correct, shut the fuck up and read the material over again, gah!

To alleviate the guilt, you join the Britannian army when you‘re older, and start unconsciously putting yourself in fatal situations in the hopes that if you can die in the process of preserving as many lives possible, then you'll feel you’ve paid your penance for killing your father.

And how the fuck is this supposed to make the rest of us any more sympathetic to his plight? Instead of trying to fix things, all Suzaku is doing is being a martyr. And guess what? Martyr complexes annoy some people. So yes, some of us do in fact hate Suzaku for trying to achieve penance through the cheapest, most irresponsible way possible.

So let me make it fucking clear right now: Suzaku is not taking responsibility, but he still wants to be forgiven and it is that mentality that pisses some of the audience off. Because you see, protecting people from immediate harm does not make up for killing your father and dooming an entire nation to hell. Suzaku is not going to get forgiveness (at least not from this and few other viewers) until he fixed his mistake. And fixing means not dying until things are right again.

It can be argued that Suzaku’s desire for peaceful, non-violent solutions allows for injustice against the Japanese to continue but it's easy to condemn his actions when you're an uninvolved spectator in all this.

Oh, way to judge your readers, asshole. As someone who lived through the fucking Tiananmen incident, shut the fuck up before you assume. And no, some of us do not fucking believe appeasing the government is the only way to make things right. (Admittedly, Tiananmen has a lot of other crap and problems and complications, but the point is that the ranter's assumptions are incorrect and is being an asshole to assume s/he is correct.)

Choosing to live without rebelling isn’t a bad thing.

When the government is willing to kill you when you've done nothing, and I mean nothing, then yes, it is goddamn time to fight back.

Quite frankly, I hate how people tend to "glamorize" the idea of a resistance group.

Lemme guess, you've never watched your friends being gunned down in front of you and then told you're up next. Yeah, and I hate people who don't understand what it means to live as a second class citizen and being deprived of the most basic of human rights. Shut the fuck up you overly privileged shithead.

And they may be perfectly willing to slaughter the innocent ones, but it‘s not like they go into the ghettos and routinely shoot at the Japanese for kicks. It’s because they are hunting for terrorists that there are innocent casualties.

Two things: first, no, they were not hunting terrorists when they killed the innocents, Clovis was trying to save his ass from a political mess up; and second, that doesn't justify anything. Massacring civilians because you as a government fucked up is not okay period. There is a reason why Tiananmen was a bad thing okay? Because they killed civilians, and that's bad, no justifications accepted.

FACT: Japan has lost the war.
FACT: Terrorists like the Black Knights are only prolonging the fighting and causing more deaths.

FACT: Japanese are being treated as second class citizens, deprived of basic human rights, and that is the reason why there are terrorists in the first place.

And this is why Zero remains a sore topic for Suzaku.

No. Zero is with the "wrong" side, as far as Suzaku was concerned, therefore he is just another criminal. It wasn't until Zero shot Euphemia, the love of his life, did Suzaku bother to get truly fucking angry with Zero. Before the Euphinator, Zero is just merely the leader of the resistance group and Suzaku disliked him on principle (he says as much when discussing why he hates the Black Knights). Euphie is the reason Suzaku is infuriated at Zero.

Furthermore, any death in the Britannian Army adds to a worse attitude towards the Japanese.

Maybe you haven't been paying attention to the series before the Euphinator incident, but the Britannian's really didn't need a reason to display a worse attitude. They treat the Japanese as subhuman, you don't get worse than that.

You may not agree with it, but Suzaku is prioritizing the life of the Japanese versus the Japanese retaining their pride. And really - can you blame him?

Actually, yes, I can. Because Suzaku's "priorities" are killing Japanese. He was ordered to kill unarmed civilians in Shinjuku, civilians that the superiors admit have nothing to do with the terrorist activities other than being a hinderance, and Suzaku was going to carry out said order. So yes, I can damn well blame him.

What I’m saying is that it's so easy to criticize Suzaku’s position, but if you want to compare, think about the situation in Iraq today or what happened with the Vietnam war several years ago.

Uh, in the Iraq war, it's going to war against a nation that wasn't involved in the terrorist activies, thus we hate the government. Notice that this is the exact same reason people hate the Britannian government. And in the case of Vietnam, it was a matter of sticking the US Military's nose where it don't fucking belong and people were getting sick of having US sons and daughters dying for a war that didn't even matter to the US. I can totally see how the Vietnam war is applicable to the Code Geass story. Not.

Telling her that they had to press on so that the blood of those killed to their cause were not wasted? Sounds eerily similar to President Bush’s September 11th speech

Funnily enough, for Lelouch, he was emotionally crushed at the time and has to sit back and rethink why he was doing what he did in the first place. When he came to that decision (and by telling Kallen allowed us viewers realize what decision he came to), he was questioning his own morals. He was actively reasoning and thinking and wondering if what he did was worth it. Since we the viewers actually get to see into his thought process, you, dear ranter, should have realized that it wasn't rhetoric, Lelouch honestly believed in what he said and he came to it after a silent but very much present moral debate. That is more than I can say for Suzaku's thought process (and if he even has any).

I’m not saying that Suzaku is necessarily any better but why are so many people licking Lelouch’s boots and wanting to kick Suzaku in the face?

*takes a deep breath* Because, idiot, Lelouch acknowledges that his methods are cruel and underhanded. Suzaku does not acknowledge this, and that is what piss people off. WILL YOU STOP IGNORING THE GLARINGLY OBVIOUS PROBLEMS AND ADDRESS THEM INSTEAD OF PRETENDING THEY DON'T EXIST?!!!!!

*more deep breaths* Must...remain...calm...

It was kind of subtle but Suzaku really was making progress in his hope to change Britannia from within. As a Japanese person, he broke so many barriers in such a short amount of time. He became a pilot of the Lancelot. His friendship with Lelouch warms the entire student council into accepting him. Cornelia does grudgingly accepts his skills. A party at the school is thrown in his honor for becoming Euphie’s knight with a lot of the Britannian student body attending and celebrating. Ashford Academy also hosts an open festival where many Japanese come to see Suzaku who has become an inspiration to them.

*chokes* Will you stop ignoring reality? Okay, let's address this one by one:

Pilot of Lancelot - Because Lelouch was making the fight against the terrorists so difficult that the military absolutely needed extra help. Suzaku happened to be in the right place at the right time to pilot the Lancelot (due to it being experimental technology and the fact that Lloyd is crazy). None of this is due to Suzaku's hard work. In fact, if anything, it was Lelouch's presence that made it possible for Suzaku to advance instead of staying as a foot soldier, as he did the past seven years.

Student council acceptance - Again, because of Lelouch. Lelouch was the one who asked a personal favor from the student council president in order for this acceptance to happen. Suzaku saved Lelouch's life, sure, but it wasn't enough at the time to break the ice, which we well see when everyone shut up at the mention of Suzaku's birth. It was Lelouch who broke the ice, Lelouch who forced open the path, Lelouch who did the fucking talking. I would say that progress is due to Lelouch's effort and not Suzaku's.

Cornelia - Because he was Euphemia's knight. It was because Euphie forcibly picked him over everyone else. This is not his effort as the only thing he did was catch her when she was falling. Luck and Euphie did the work for this one, not Suzaku.

Party - Were you not listening? Nunnally organized the party. Again, it was someone else at work forcibly helping him being accepted using their position. Suzaku himself did nothing to change people's opinion of him.

Festival - It...was Milly. There was no mention of welcoming Japanese to come see Suzaku. The whole thing was for the Giant Ass Pizza and Ohgi just happened to be there with Villetta, so of course the school is going to accept them. Again, this is not because of Suzaku.

Hell, the only time Suzaku advanced due to his own merit was when he sold out his one and only friend, thus getting himself to become the Knight of Seven. And even after all that, a year later, Suzaku still made no advancement. Just how many things do we have to point out before you accept that Suzaku, he the individual, was not making progress. We're not saying that rebellion is the only way to make a societal difference, but it is Suzaku who wasn't making a difference.

There are only different paths and people fighting for what they believe in.

Which...isn't even at the heart of most people's hate for Suzaku. It isn't that his path is wrong, but that he was useless. The made no difference, at least none that could be seen that wasn't already attributed to someone else. That he persists despite the lack of results is what pisses people off. That he later doesn't even practice what he preaches...has nothing to do with being passive.

As a soldier, it’s inevitable that he take lives but it doesn’t stop him from being conflicted over it.

*headdesks* He explicitly said that he thinks it's morally okay to kill if he was given an order. He is not at all conflicted about it.

He doesn't expect to be thanked for what he does either, and he knows that there will be Japanese people who hate him for becoming an Honorary Britannian and joining the army, just as he knows that there will be Britannians who will hate him because of his Japanese blood.

And here's the ironic part, he doesn't expect to be thanked because he believes this to be his punishment. He also couldn't care much beyond "Lelouch killed Euphie", so it's not really a positive aspect of his character.

He has depth - he’s a conflicted and dynamic character constantly striving to quell the dissonance within him - which feels wholly human to me. Unfortunately, few people seem to share the same perspective.

No, unfortunately, you seem to fail to show Suzaku's depths at all. No one is saying he isn't a deep character, but when has being a multifaceted character been a get out of fandom hate card? Just because a character is multifaceted doesn't make said character likeable. And yes, unfortunately, some "wholly human" characteristics are also thoroughly despicable. Blood lust, irrational hate, pigheadedness, hypocrisy, backstabbing machinations, prejudice, they're all very human traits, but they are also extremely unlikeable.

Furthermore, just because someone hates a character doesn't mean said someone can't also appreciate the character's depth. I admit to personally disliking Suzaku's characteristics, but as a character he is well crafted and certainly absolutely necessary for the story. I also find that he's complicated enough that most writers have a difficult time grasping him, which should be testament of how very much not cookie cutter his character is. But just because his character has depth, is important, is second only to the lead, does not mean I have to like who he is. If Suzaku was a real person, I would still steer the fuck away from him. At least with Lelouch I would know he wouldn't kill me just for disagreeing with his point of view.