Originally Posted by Yamiken
Adding to the idea of Shirley averting the Zero Requiem: it does of course rest on the assumption that the Zero Requiem was a bad thing, or at least that equally good alternatives existed. A lot of people say that Lelouch should've just ruled Britannia well, as he seemed to start doing, but I'm not so sure about this. Whilst Lelouch is undoubtedly brilliant, see, he's at his heart a rebel, a revolutionary, not an establishment figure. He operates by far at his best when he's outside the system, not within it. History itself tells us that such character archetypes often do badly if they are placed in charge of the system, even a new system of their own making - even if they don't fall into outright tyranny, which Lelouch, had he not been pulling a Zero Popularity Gambit, hopefully wouldn't have, they often lack the skills to transform their vision into a reality without a tangible enemy to agitate against - or, if they do manage to successfully transform what they're now in charge of, they just prove to be somewhat incompetent about managing it afterwards, or at least not as suited to doing so as others. Would Lelouch have been able to avoid this? Perhaps, but I'm not convinced. So that's one facet of the objections to the Zero Requiem that I disagree with.
... buuuuuut, that was more about Lelouch than Shirley. ^^; Sorry. Shirley, Shirley, Shirley, what to say about Shirley... okay, here's an idea: what exactly do you think would have happened if Shirley had survived, apart from what's already been discussed? Would she have joined the Black Knights? It seems likely if she was intending to be at Lelouch's side, but one would have thought that might make her uncomfortable... the Black Knights being the organisation that were, directly or indirectly, responsible for her father's death. Admittedly, she's already gone through a similar inner conflict concerning Lelouch himself, of course, and Lelouch came out on top in that, but the difference, naturally, is that she loves Lelouch, whereas the Black Knights...? She is a Britannian, after all, and even if the Black Knights do make a point - when it suits Lelouch, at least - of being against the Britannian state, not the Britannian people, they're still trying to destroy her home nation. That, I'd have thought, would surely make her a little uncomfortable at least, even if she doesn't share the racist nationalism that pervades the thinking and feeling of a lot of her fellow citizens and their government.
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