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Banned
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: U.S.A.
Age: 35
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Warning: Very long post ahead!
Hello fellows. I'm about to get on my soapbox here and have a little talk about Shirley. Not sure if this is the place to talk about it, but I figured it was the best place since she is one of my favorite characters.
Anyway, it's been about three weeks since that fateful day when she was taken from the show and I still haven't entirely gotten over her death. Now I hate to beat a dead horse, but today I think I reached some sort of a realization and really want to share my thoughts. You know, get this off my chest. And maybe I'm being too sensitive or biased, but I don't care. I'm still gonna say how I feel.
So as some of you may or may not know I was a supporter of LelouchxShirley as well as a general Shirley fan, and I truly thought she had a chance with Lelouch. I thought that after everything she had gone through she could find some sort of happiness and relief at the end, but no, that was one check that the show could not cash. Of course I was devastated when she died, and even to this day I think about. But now I think I realize why it's upsetting me this much. I think it's because, in addition to her being one of my favorite characters and being half of my favorite couple, she was perhaps the most tragic and tortured character on the show.
Seriously, it seems that Shirley had no other purpose than to be mentally and emotionally tortured right up until her death. Let's recap: She starts off with an unrequited love with Lelouch, her father dies, she finds out that the man she loves is responsible for her father's death, she mistakenly thinks she kills someone, she gets mindraped by a psychopath who then convinces her to kill Lelouch and herself, she gets mindraped again by Lelouch, she gets mindraped a third time by Charles, she becomes distraught by Lelouch's apparent new playboy lifestyle, and she gets mindraped one final time by Orange and almost goes insane and jumps off a building as a result. And then, she starts to see a glimmer of hope. All her memories have been restored, she's begun to make sense of it all, decided to forgive Lelouch, and wants to help him.
And then BAM! She says the wrong thing to the wrong person and she gets killed for it.
Now look, tragic characters are one thing, but come the f*ck on Sunrise. Even all this, all of Shirley's suffering and death I think I could take if it was a means to an end. But no, there really doesn't seem to be any end to it. I mean what, Lelouch seems devastated enough to begin with, but then what he decides to wipe out the Geass cult, an act that Shirley would have been horrified to know that he did. And really, what did that accomplish? Geass isn't gone entirely, and maybe it's just because Lelouch is caught up in other business now, but he's seems to have dropped that conviction to the wayside. Also, something I am seriously wondering is if Lelouch is still planning to kill Rolo at some point. I mean it's 2 or 3 episodes later and nobody even mentions Shirley (yes, I know, they do have to move on with their lives).Nope, it seems to me that the writers just made this sweet innocent girl and tortured her right up to her death.
Now lets take a look at the other major death of the series (also a kind and innocent girl) Euphemia. Now Euphemia did meet a tragic end to be sure, unknowingly killing the very people she was trying to help. But I don't think her story is quite as tragic as Shirley. First off, for the time she was alive, she wasn't living a very tortured life. She enjoyed her life as a princess trying to help the Japanese, believing she was making progress, and fell in love with Suzaku who probably returned her feelings. Even after her death she still plays a role in the series as Cornelia's primary motivation, not to mention Suzaku still probably hasn't fully gotten over her, and her spirit lives on in Nunnally's attempt to revive the SAZ. So I would say that, while Euphy did meet a tragic end, she did at least make an impact and made a big difference in the series, whereas Shirley did not.
So what's the ultimatum here? Well, if that's all there was to Shirley, to play a girl who loved Lelouch, offered some support from the sidelines, and then whenever she plays a major part she gets tortured, then I think it was a mistake to create the Shirley character. I mean when I watch a TV show or movie or any other form of entertainment, I'll watch it to be elated, angered, shocked, even saddened, but I do not want to be depressed. And that is exactly what the whole Shirley incident has done; made me depressed. I honestly think it would've been better if the writers had not created the Shirley character at all, because I still love Code Geass, but every episode now it becomes a litte difficult to watch with Shirley in the back of my mind.
Now, granted the show isn't over yet and they could still do more with Shirley I guess, but I really don't see what they could do. We do have Lelouch and Suzaku's confrontation next episode, and Shirley could very well be a topic of discussion, but really how much more is she going to affect those who survived her? And I seriously doubt this is going to be like My-Hime where the characters are brought back to life at the end. But really, with Code Geass you never know.
So, that's the end of my little speech. And by all means, please post your thoughts and opinions (need I say it?) and help me make sense of it all.
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