knightship in question

Suzaku Kururugi defense

There has been a significant number of anti-Suzaku discussions in the community of Geass fans, even among my friends, to which I'd like to offer my own piece of opinion once and for all. Although I won't say he's the best character ever made in anime/manga industry, I would definitely ask any anti-Suzaku individual to give him a benefit of the doubt.

"Suzaku is a hypocrite."

The literal definition for the word hypocrisy is as follows:

  1. The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.
  2. An act or instance of such falseness.

Using the first point, I'd like to ask those who call Suzaku a hypocrite: can we really measure what a person is truly capable of in exact terms? A major argument from the anti-Suzaku side is that he shouldn't be talking about "wanting to change the current system from inside" because he doesn't have the matching ability. However, what Suzaku does now is simply a prelude to more power in the future. While Suzaku must spend more effort than Lelouch because re-building a corrupt system proves to be more difficult than destroying it as often told in history, he's got to start somewhere and that doesn't make him a liar in any way.

We don't like a person just because he's more successful than others at the current stage. As long as Suzaku knows what he's capable of doing now and works hard towards the future, whether he'll be able to achieve his goal or not is not a part of our question: he wouldn't be a true hypocrite either way. Interestingly enough, this view leads to our next topic.

"Suzaku is wasting his time in what he's doing."

A dream shall remain a dream forever if you don't at least try to break the shell. If Suzaku believes in what he's doing, how can we judge whether he's wasting his time or not just because his actions aren't what we think as the best? In fact, while Lelouch's plan is more planned out and seems to have a higher percentage of success, he will likely reach a similar outcome as Suzaku because his motivation deep down is not exactly for the sake of Holy. Suzaku's goal does sound too idealistic in a social setting like that of Britannia, but if his effort is considered to be in vain just because his current ideal is a mask to cover his past, Lelouch would likely suffer the same fate because his actions are based on personal motives as well - to create a world for his sister while himself would benefit from the status of King.

The key question is: if both Lelouch and Suzaku's goals are based on a personal motive, which road shall be taken? That's certainly something to be left to your own preference, though it's clear that both ideals are fulfilled based on the sacrifice of others. The only difference would be that while each of Lelouch's victory already has casualties included in his calculations, Suzaku's actions are based on the cost of his own life. I don't even want to discuss the viewpoint that Lelouch's action would "result in less casualties in the long-run": doing extra math after a day of tiring work or school sounds ridiculous.

"Suzaku is only acting like a saint."

Truth be told, I wouldn't call Suzaku a saint exactly. It frightens me to imagine a 10-year-old murdering his own father, even if it was a semi-accident and had the whole country's fate on stake. However, deep down Suzaku is no more than a boy who would rather play with little animals than fighting. Again, one's level of kindness cannot be measured in units and I'm not going to attempt the impossible. But I would defend the boy by saying that he's not acting the way he is today. It's true that he wants to save as much lives as he can because he wants to repent for his past crime, but do you really think an evil child would feel guilty over an event that even adults around him tried to cover up? Wherever his true motive lies, Suzaku is actively trying to help people around him and that makes him a nice person in the light.

People act because they want the world to see them in a certain way. Believe it or not, once they get good enough with the acting it'll become a part of them unconsciously. I've seen my handful of examples in real life, but I'll leave the details for now.

in conclusion

You don't have to like Suzaku, but there isn't enough reason for you to hate him either. With the rate Code Geass is going, I dare say it's too early for anyone to make a conclusion about any of the characters. What, we can always call Suzaku a victim of the plot whenever we want because he's not that official protagonist who even gave his name for the series title! *laugh*

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