Quote:
Originally Posted by bladeofdarkness
the two things are not connected
kallen's motivation and lelouch's motivation are NOT the same at all
they are simply allies in the same struggle because their enemy is the same
lelouch does not care all that much about japan, while kallen does not care about his vendetta (and is unaware of it during season 1)
saying "kallen's on the wrong side" because lelouch's motivation is flawed (to an extent) is completely missing the point
the japanese liberation movement (kallen's motivation) is by default the RIGHT SIDE because britannia is by default the WRONG side as an occupying oppressive racist regime that rivals NAZI Germany in sheer horrible meanness
and hence, anyone who fights for them is by default on the wrong side
suzaku's goal, while admirable sounding, is consistently shown to be misguided idealism at best
and later revealed to be outright self deluded (his REAL aim is to get himself killed, and he's just fooling himself in claiming otherwise)
lelouch high jacks the japanese liberation movement under the pretext of fighting for japan
and kallen follows him in season one because she (like everyone else) BELIEVES in that pretext
and in season 2 she follows him because she accepts that freeing japan might be a result of his actions (she tells him she follows "zero", and not him)
arguing that she's wrong because she follows a man who has ulterior motives of his own in addition to accomplishing her own goal is hardly convincing
especially in light of the fact that his own goals are not all that wrong either
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I disagree on the Suzaku issue, but Kallen's unrelatedness to Lelouch's motivations is exactly why she is 'approximately neutral'. Although Kallen represents a 'legitimate' motivation for Lelouch's resistance movement, the fact that she mostly just follows him prevents me from percieving her as an actor in the revolution-reform conflict on the level of Lelouch and Suzaku. Or take the fact that that there was no clear winner for that conflict anyway--this ultimately means that my basis for judging her lies in her relationship with Lelouch personally.
To clarify further: in terms of 'good' realized on all levels within the show Code Geass, to me Kallen is approximately neutral (more minus than plus honestly). Seeing as I'm not compelled by her personality, this leaves her on the 'wrong side' for me to like her. The 'sides' I'm talking about are not limited to political affiliations, as that is a grey area issue, but rather the positions/roles of the characters within the show as a whole.