Nobodyman: good post, I agree with a lot of what you said.
Well then, about the current situation on this particular subforum - sure, Kalulu is way more active than any other "group" and it's been like that for a long time now. The thing is, Kalulu was
way more active in the past, back when the show was actually airing, but we were not more active than others. I think the fact that Kalulu supporters have more reasons to stay active is why we're in the majority today. Back when the CluClu lobby
dwarfed us is size we were regularly spat upon. We were often declared "delusional" for the way we interpreted the scenes (funny how that turned out btw) and it was just as popular back then to call Kallen a slut (which truly
is a desperate and ridiculous delusion).
If we were to create a new favorite character poll today C.C. would still win by a landslide. If we were to create a new favorite pairing poll today CluClu would still put all other pairings to shame. Then why is it we pretty much never see any constructive CluClu-posts (note that I'm
only talking about the
romantic aspect)? Well, they can't argue for their pairing since (and I think it's sad that the staff did what they did) it's completely impossible to do so. It's the only pairing where personal interpretations and personal opinions won't matter since the staff officially shot the pairing down, thus confirming the way I and many others interpreted the CluClu scenes when we first saw them. That is not the case with Shirlulu and Kalulu however. They were never shot down, and Kalulu even got staff statements and post screening material that supported the interpretations the Kalulu supporters did and found obvious in the first place. It's not like any staff statements or any post screening material changed the way we interpreted the scenes, though I can of course only speak for myself. All it did was to support or confirm these interpretations. Still, arguing against these interpretations suddenly turned a lot harder once they were backed up by words from the staff. I'd say this is why most of the romantic activity on the forum happens to be Kalulu activity.
I agree with what some of you said about Kalulus sometimes being overly
aggressive. That's definitely true. When we got all this support, both from the series itself as well as the staff, we shouldn't have to be aggressive. We should be able to be pretty humble about it. The fact remains though, that Kallen is the most bashed female character in the show, and Kalulu is the most bashed pairing. The others don't even come close. This is however easily explained by one of the basic rules of shipping - as a butthurt supporter of a neglected pairing your primary strategy will be to bash that character or pairing that got so much screen time and development that you didn't care for. To call her a slut and a bitch, even though she was clearly portrayed to be the exact opposite of that, is one way. To "find" chemistry between her and any random male character she encounters is another. To use the fact the protagonist died before a canon pairing was formed and say "you can't know that for sure since neither the protagonist nor the main writer said that he loved her, and I don't see it" is a third.
Most active Kalulus have something in common. They have, probably since the first season, been supporting a pairing and a character that has been the most hated and the most bashed throughout this entire experience. When the main opposition was finally officially shot down by the staff and the way we interpreted the scenes in the first place was finally officially supported by those who created the show and its characters... well, I think a lot of Kalulus remembered all the crap we had to take on the forums during the one year break and the airing of R2.
That Kallen is the most bashed/hated character is only natural. It's simply the way fandom works. As a supporter of another pairing you will always recognize someone as being the biggest threat and Kallen always was the biggest threat to any other pairing that also included Lelouch. This is where a huge majority of the hate comes from if you ask me. I don't think much of it nowadays as I only see it as proof of the fact other groups of the fan base recognize her development with Lelouch even though they wouldn't admit it themselves, they resort to bashing instead.
So, what I'm trying to say is that I believe the reason why some Kalulus sometimes become a bit aggressive is what happened in the past within the CG fan base. I must say though that a lot of the aggressive posts are either ironically written or simply humorous in nature and that people are overreacting. If they had been active here back in the days when the show was airing they would have seen a
lot more aggression, and
a lot of it was directed at Kallen and her pairing for, among others, previously stated reasons.
I rarely post at all. I often type up posts but I end up deleting them. If I were to always say exactly what I thought about something, like certain opinions and ways of reasoning, I would definitely piss some people off. That's why I delete more than 9 out of 10 posts before even posting them, especially now since we don't even
have a romance thread. I
did however type up a long and serious post (my first in months) about the scene in Turn 7 and I tried to post it, but I was a couple of minutes too late. That scene had been bashed all night long by some people who called it "meaningless" and "completely irrelevant" and I thought I should finally join the discussion in order to point out just how biased one would have to be to claim something like that (either that or one didn't pay attention), but the romance thread had been locked while I was typing. Perhaps that was a sign or something. "Don't you go posting anything Meatrose". ^^;
Anyhow, I hope the romance thread will be back someday. Romance always was the most popular topic, even back when the show was airing. A locked romance thread will lead to two things:
1) The activity dies down.
2) The shipping will start seeping into other threads. This is already happening as we speak by the way, and those avoiding the romance thread will probably
not enjoy that fact.
I don't know if the romance thread will ever be brought back, but I'm saving that Turn 7 post in a .txt just in case.
On another note, I'd like to applaud most active Shirlulu supporters on this forum for being such good sports about these discussions. AS is the
only forum where constructive, civilized and intelligent discussions about romance in Code Geass are held in my opinion. All other boards I've seen are full of bashing, flaming, delusion and most of all - denial. Let's try to keep it civil in the future, with or without the romance thread. =)