Quote:
Originally Posted by Sol Falling
Uh, romantic development for Milly? She got it. If you guys remember, Milly's romantic plot thread concluded with quite some finality with the failure of her butthat plan in Turn 12.
That's all Milly's feelings ever were. She gave up before she even started. She hid behind pranks and lies and the illusions of friendship to avoid ever having to express her feelings, or pursue them. In the end she gave up. It might even have been a good thing. Milly as a character embodied the same 'wounded bird in a cage' archetype as C.C., insofar as her limited development actually extended. She felt trapped by her heritage and circumstances like they were some kind of fate in the same way that C.C. percieved herself as bound by the curse of Geass. Her attraction to Lelouch would have been nothing more than the projection that he could somehow save her from it. Milly's feelings for Lelouch were never about Lelouch himself. They only reflected a possibility of freedom that she thought he represented--a dream that she wished would just magically come true. However, in the end what Milly did was grasp freedom herself. She broke off her political marriage with Lloyd and became a newscaster of her own accord, via her own power. She never needed Lelouch; she had it all along, and that is why her complete lack of romance with Lelouch is the correct answer: Milly had never loved Lelouch for himself, so it was only proper that she gave him up for someone who actually did. Given this actual development, I can hardly see why such a minor relationship for this series actually has shippers. Milly's romantic development within the show had more to do with a contrast with her 'this was set up by her parents' marriage with Lloyd than any actual feelings for Lelouch, and that obviously constitutes as complete a story as the creators ever intended for her. As far as romance goes, C.C. covers the same damn archetype (except there might have been some actual truth to the idea that Lelouch was the only one who could save her for that one), whereas Shirley's significance to the Ashford plot elements was obviously far more meaningful, so anybody complaining about the way Lelouch's Ashford connections finished up with Shirley just gets a complete blank from me.
|
This is just an opinion of mine. In Code Geass R2, Lelouch's focus was his relationship with Shirley as far as the Ashford scenes were concerned. I agree that his interactions with Milly was almost non-existant. Why was that? It might have been the result of a creative descision restricting the use of Milly's interactions with Lelouch because she might have taken too much attention away from Shirley. This is why there is rarely anything related to Milly Ashford, as far as figurines and fan services are concerned. The focus was geared towards Shirley because the producers were trying to recreate the Suzaku x Euphemia tragedy of Season One by building up the characters for a very big fall over the cliff.
For example, in Turn 12: Love Attack, why did Lelouch asked Villetta to take his hat instead of Milly if he wanted to avoid Shirley? That did not make any sense to me at all. In addition, why did Lelouch agreed to go on those scheduled dates with the 108 girls at Ashford Academy that Sayoko arranged(as Lelouch's double in disquise) when he should have cancelled all of them? Why was it clearly obvious that Milly never interacted with Lelouch directly in a private setting? And why didn't we see a plot twist involving Milly x Lelouch? It seemed that the entire episode was about getting Shirley x Lelouch together.
The separation of Milly x Lelouch was intentional to give Shirley the opportunity to be with Lelouch. At the end of the episode, Shirley's memories were suddenly restored to where it was before Lelouch geassed her in Season One. And those emotions foretold an unhappy ending, as well as the beginning of the end for Lelouch's stay at Ashford Academy.