Quote:
Originally Posted by ashlay
I can't really see how you can call Lelouch a populist element Sol Falling, seeing as how he's such a break from the standard mold in this genre. (the standard mold more or less being Kallen if she was male.) Unless that was just a commentary on protagonists in general. >_>
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I think what
Sol Falling meant by that can be summarized in his sentence here:
Quote:
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Lelouch is the manifestation of an invested interest on the part of the audience for him to succeed as a flawed being.
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The audience wants to cheer for the protagonist. We want to imagine ourselves in his shoes and feel epic by association, breaking free from the restraints of our comparatively banal lives.
However, we also recognize that many protagonists are highly unrelatable. So many leading men are paladins--veritable paragons of truth and justice, goody-two-shoes, and in many respects a fairy-tale prince. As viewers, we can at least recognize that many (most) of us do not rise to that standard. We're petty, we're emotional, we let stupid, irrational things get in the way of better judgment. We break, we heal, we make mistakes, we miss our expectations of ourselves.
Lelouch is no paladin. He's very human, and so it is far easier for us to see ourselves as him. We let ourselves get carried along on his roller coaster path to his goals because we trust that, despite his failures along his chosen path, he will succeed. By corollary, despite our failings in life, we the viewers will also find a way to come out on top.