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Character Analysis go!
I didn't care for Suguha much when I first read the novels, but watching the anime has really changed my perspective, especially when I realized something about her, that at least I find interesting.
Namely, the idea that she basically thinks she's the protagonist of a different story. Not consciously genre savvy mind you, just subconsciously through her actions.
As she's coming to terms with the fact that her forbidden love for her brother will never be requited, she stumbles into such a typical love story. She meets a mysterious, badass stranger with a good heart but a dark secret hidden in his past.
As a more typical story would go, they fight together, and grow close, but something is holding the strange boy back, driving him forward but keeping a wall between them. Until finally when he's at his lowest point, she's there to comfort him and keep him going, and he finally feels safe again and can open up his heart and share whats bothering him.
Or something like that. Suguha even follows this basic idea, trying to confess to Kirito and get him to rely on her instead. He notices though, and shoots her down, which brings everything to a horrible crashing halt, and it turns out Suguha is just a side character in someone else's story.
The other thing I find interesting about her is that her love for Kazuto (And later by proxy Kirito) was really all just based on a fantasy. At some point during the two years of SAO after she found out the cousin thing, the stray thought of "Maybe I'm in love with him", and that idea took root, slowly growing as daydreams and ideas often do when left unchecked.
But when Kazuto returned, she never really tried to get close to him or to understand him. His time in SAO had changed him immensely as a person, but Suguha, perhaps somewhat selfishly, didn't try to see this at all, and was too busy wrapped up in her idea of "forbidden romance" to consider how he might actually feel.
(Incidentally, Kazuto does the same thing, his heart still being stuck in SAO. While he's kind to Suguha, he never really gives her much consideration. This is the realization both of them reach during their Fairy Dance, I believe, and they promise to do better. )
So ultimately, when her romance fantasy was broken, she turned to her other romance fantasy, and that was broken too. Kirito never did a thing to break her heart. Suguha broke it all on her own. It's a heartbreak born of raising ones expectations too high, and the embarrassment at letting yourself be so stupid when it all comes crashing down.
.... Man I should really just got to bed. >_<
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