[azul120]

Originally Posted by Xander

Ultimately, I'd say that sounds like a matter of personal preference rather than an objective obligation of the show.

Most of the survivors are misguided at best but still good people at the end of the day. Other than Schneizel, who was forcefully redeemed in practice, I don't sincerely think anyone else is truly irredeemable. No, not even the two surviving characters I really happen to dislike (guess who!) are necessarily forever irredeemable despite their selfishness.

Plus I find the idea that the bad guys "won" quite preposterous, and not applicable, on multiple levels.

If they aren't irredeemable, then neither is Lelouch.

Yes, but it's precisely his willingness to act that pushes Lelouch from just being a good man to...a good man who cannot claim to have a clean conscience anymore. All for the sake of results, but no matter how admirable they are...he knows very well his miracles and his contributions to society were partially built on a castle of lies with a moat of blood. There's no arguing that much.

That's the black and white way of looking at it. You're forgetting about the show's Black and Grey Morality. As for the path of blood and lies part, he had few to no options at the time. (The obvious exception being the Zero Requiem.)

Now granted, he was no saint, but at the very least he was looking out for the long term, which is more than can be said for most other characters.

Of course, but Lelouch shares at least part of the blame too for not taking Suzaku's warning seriously, especially when the Knight of Seven isn't usually the kind to bluff.

Lelouch suspected he was full of crap after the sabotaged meeting that made it appear that Suzaku intentionally set him up.

The other examples -and others I've left unsaid- still continue to apply.

Not sure what other examples you refer to.

Probably, though technically that's uncertain given the lack of figures for Mt. Fuji, but you can definitely count it as a form of escalation from his Narita operation.

Indeed. My point exactly.

I suppose a cynical viewer could apply the Stalin quote here: one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.

In the end Lelouch wasn't quite that far gone, since that's more Schneizel's logic in truth, but it seems he did see himself as already too tainted by blood to suddenly turn back to the light. Instead, he adds more blood and more hate to his list of sins. What you propose is more reasonable, sure, but for Lelouch living on to enjoy the world would be running away from his own twisted sense of ethics. He wouldn't say "I did a lot of horrible things, but if I clean my name and help rebuild the world it'll all be fine!"

He wouldn't be solely be enjoying it. As I said, he'd be too busy with the day-to-day of the world rebuilding for that. Plus, judging by his inner dialogue post-betrayal ruminating over his losses, he lost his will over those, not the blood on his hands. The suicide by proxy method was the easy way out.

Less but not insignificant by any means when you take everything into account, especially not for Lelouch.

That depends. Consider whatever it is he did during ZR that made him the most despicable person in existence in such a short time. (Considering what Charles, etc. were responsible for, that's a TALL order.)

Also, during his rebellion, he achieved a lot of good results, such as create an international union to counter Britannia legitimately.

I know you don't see things this way, but even if that hypothetical refugee killed her, she probably wouldn't suffer as much as living on without Euphemia and knowing that her beloved sister will be remembered as a yet another murderous Britannian nutcase.

That really depends. Cornelia looked reasonably content in the couple post-canon shots, meaning she's moved on in her sister's memory.