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Xander · 2009-05-15, 19:11

R2 was certainly a mess, everyone knows that, I can understand very well many of the criticisms that have been born out of this fact, sharing several of them myself, but even so...some reactions were still overkill in my humble opinion and can't just be attributed to the quality of the show itself. Partially, yes, but not fully.

I never got the impression that Kallen was being disloyal or worse during the final arc, even before a single post-season material had been revealed.

I thought her actions made enough sense even as initially presented, given her emotional distress, and the whole point was the inherent tragedy of it all. If anything, she was the one Black Knight who was the most loyal to Lelouch, out of all of them, and she only turned against him because he pushed her away intentionally in Turn 22 and put on the mask of the Evil Emperor.

I don't think Lelouch himself would have considered Kallen to be "disloyal" during ZR so I never got why the fanbase would reach that conclusion so easily, other than just as a knee-jerk reaction.

That's not to say that people can't criticize or dislike Kallen, for good reasons. I'm on pretty good terms with some individuals who never liked the character, but they don't bash her for how the final arc played out either.

I do think that some of the Kallen / Kalulu fans are too aggressive, way too much for my own tastes in fact, which is why I try to keep my distance despite sympathizing with them in some respects...but in some ways it's a backlash against the opposite trend.

Many people started treating Kallen like crap just because "she didn't stay at Lelouch's side" (which is missing the point IMHO) even while they elevated Suzaku to the heavens of absolute purity. For the record, I never bashed Suzaku. I found his character to be annoying at times but I understood his point of view and didn't hate him for his actions...yet he wasn't cleaned of all sins when he joined Lelouch. Much of the same goes for Kallen in R2, the other way around.

EDIT: @Frostfire: LOL at that LJ link.

2009-05-15, 19:11	Link #19226
Xander Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2008	R2 was certainly a mess, everyone knows that, I can understand very well many of the criticisms that have been born out of this fact, sharing several of them myself, but even so...some reactions were still overkill in my humble opinion and can't just be attributed to the quality of the show itself. Partially, yes, but not fully. I never got the impression that Kallen was being disloyal or worse during the final arc, even before a single post-season material had been revealed. I thought her actions made enough sense even as initially presented, given her emotional distress, and the whole point was the inherent tragedy of it all. If anything, she was the one Black Knight who was the most loyal to Lelouch, out of all of them, and she only turned against him because he pushed her away intentionally in Turn 22 and put on the mask of the Evil Emperor. I don't think Lelouch himself would have considered Kallen to be "disloyal" during ZR so I never got why the fanbase would reach that conclusion so easily, other than just as a knee-jerk reaction. That's not to say that people can't criticize or dislike Kallen, for good reasons. I'm on pretty good terms with some individuals who never liked the character, but they don't bash her for how the final arc played out either. I do think that some of the Kallen / Kalulu fans are too aggressive, way too much for my own tastes in fact, which is why I try to keep my distance despite sympathizing with them in some respects...but in some ways it's a backlash against the opposite trend. Many people started treating Kallen like crap just because "she didn't stay at Lelouch's side" (which is missing the point IMHO) even while they elevated Suzaku to the heavens of absolute purity. For the record, I never bashed Suzaku. I found his character to be annoying at times but I understood his point of view and didn't hate him for his actions...yet he wasn't cleaned of all sins when he joined Lelouch. Much of the same goes for Kallen in R2, the other way around. EDIT: @Frostfire: LOL at that LJ link. Last edited by Xander; 2009-05-15 at 19:21.