[Yamiken]

Originally Posted by azul120

With that in mind, it's a big waste, given the loss of a strategic mind in Lelouch and the Mt. Fuji explosion likely causing an energy crisis.

With the gain of the first lasting peace the world has had in centuries, if not ever.

Originally Posted by azul120

Whether or not he'd be a good peacetime leader, he'd be useful for something or other, considering that we see Cornelia and Guilford helping out during the post-series picture drama.

Irrelevant. Whether or not he'd be good for something, anything is not the issue here. The issue is whether he'd have had the skill to take the 'good leader' path you're suggesting in place of Zero Requiem. He might have been good for something, sure - but good for fixing the entire world? With the method you're suggesting, I'm arguing not.

Originally Posted by azul120

He doesn't necessarily have to be under the beck and call of the geass every single moment.

Excuse me? Yes he does. That's how Lelouch's Geass works. The Geass binds them until the order is completed. For an order like Schneizel's, which is never completed, that means until the day they die.

Originally Posted by azul120

I'm not saying I necessarily condone it, but I understand. Objectively speaking, suicide is something that should be overcome. Lelouch was ultimately being selfish in his reasons. Ideally he would have realized that since it wasn't only about Nunnally, he would have carried on without her, and for added effect, eventually taken C. C.'s code. I mean, he basically punished Suzaku into living on, partly for the latter's suicide attempts. Why couldn't he hold himself to that? The only answer is that There Are No Therapists.

I repeat: if it were just about suicide, he could quite easily have followed through on his plan of locking himself in the World of C - or, indeed, simply have let Suzaku kill him after they'd defeated Charles and Marianne and Suzaku was about to. The whole point of the Zero Requiem was that whilst, yes, Lelouch was feeling suicidal, he accepted that he couldn't just bow out of the world and duck his responsibilities. So he created a plan which allowed him to do both. And I don't think he was merely delusional in believing that it was a fulfilment of his responsibilities, for the reasons I've explained.

Originally Posted by azul120

Let's not forget that at the end, the BKs were worfing down on the Britannian mooks.

The Britannians had far more elite Knightmare Frames, though. Also, whilst in Japan the Black Knights had the entirety of their force against, necessarily, but a fraction of the Britannian forces, that would have changed had the war continued and Britannia been pushed into more of a corner. It's wishful thinking to believe that that war would have been anything but difficult and bloody.

Originally Posted by azul120

I was talking about using the lie detector on Schneizel. This was why she declared Lelouch her enemy in the first place. Please read more carefully.

Now I really don't understand what you're talking about. Please explain in greater detail.

Originally Posted by azul120

And that is part of why I don't see the ending as a particularly ideal one. Lelouch dead and Ohgi as Prime Minister = massive leadership/brain trust net loss.

Ohgi's the one I was implicating in the betrayal, since he fell for Schneizel first. (Not to mention the counts of hypocrisy and idiocy he never answered for.)

This I'll concede to you, actually. Ohgi got off scot free, and worse profited greatly out of the entire affair. That was a notable flaw in the ending. I don't feel it discredited the entire thing, though.

Originally Posted by azul120

He had other options. He had a clean slate. He could have declared Charles as an anti-example if he wanted.

It wouldn't have accomplished the same thing. The Britannian people thought well enough of Charles, even those outside the aristocracy. That was why a more egalitarian demon had to be created - the Demon Emperor Lelouch.

Originally Posted by azul120

Unfortunately, it "not being all sunshine and rainbows" hurts the case made for ZR, as there was already a huge price to be paid.

Of course it would be nice if ZR could have accomplished the Second Coming realistically. But I don't think the problems which do remain fatally discredit it, compared with other paths which could have been taken.

Originally Posted by azul120

Please reread. I'm not arguing against that. I'm saying that him finding her and the development of the anti-FLEIJA device all happened AFTER Lelouch emerged as Emperor, and the device was being worked on while the FLEIJAs were being fired. He could have conceivably found her and asked her to begin work during the interim month prior to his reappearance. Then the playing field would be evened out a bit more against Schneizel, and he would be better equipped to deal with him however he wanted.

Well, okay, that's a bit more fair. It wasn't clear from what you originally said, though. If I had to raise a defence of Lelouch, it would be this: with what resources? When he was Emperor, he had an army and a whole bunch of other personnel to go look for Nina. Before that, he had just himself, C.C. and Suzaku. Given that she was actively trying not to be found, that does seem a tall task, even if he does have a headstart or two on where to look. That said, it begs the question a little of what exactly he was doing in the month before he declared himself emperor. I won't pretend to have the answer to that.

At any rate, though, I'll say this: you can certainly poke the odd hole in Code Geass' ending. You can poke more than the odd hole in Code Geass in general. It's never been the sort of series to go for a 100% consistent plot. It sacrifices, where a choice has to be made, coherence for style. That can indeed be seen as a bad thing, and if it bothers you then you probably shouldn't be watching the series in the first place. But if you take that as read, then I believe that the Zero Requiem doesn't have such logical problems as to existentially endanger it, and moreover that thematically it provides a near-perfect (though not entirely perfect) conclusion to the series. Which, as I've said in the past, is why I defend it.