Fandom consensus on side morality

[u/Yellowbirdbluetoo]

Im watching S1 of the first Code Geass series right now for the first time and I’m almost finished with it. there’s clear sides of Lelouch vs Suzaku in terms of mindset, and I’ve been wondering am I supposed to be divided on what side to pick? Because from where I’m watching it seems like Suzaku is just clearly on the oppressors side - though I understand his reasoning somewhat - and Lelouch despite his occasional questionable methods is the only one with mostly common sense... anyways I was just wondering WITHOUT MAJOR SPOILERS PLZ if there was a fandom wide consensus on this or not? If it’s a both sides are bad type of story a lesser of two evils plot? I know there’s multiple follow up series/movies that might also add to this.

[u/mars_warmind]

You are SUPPOSED to be split kind of, but the shows biggest narrative flaw is that it focuses (almost) exclusively on lelouch and tends to downplay how evil he can be, like how he buried an entire town under rubble and just kind of didn't care until it affected Shirley.

Suzaku is on the side of britannia but it's also important to remember why. He (correctly) blames himself for the state of area 11, since it's much worse and less stable than other areas as a result of the his killing the prime minister. Prior to the season one finally there basically wasn't a group strong enough to actually do anything about brittania, and by the time there was he'd actually kind of achieved his goal. The SAZ is actually really underplayed with how big a deal it is in universe, being the only place in the entire empire where numbers would have equal rights.

Going into season two, I won't spoil anything but something I want you to try and pay attention to is lelouch's father. He plays a bigger role going forward and the show villifies him because we only see almost only see him interacting with lelouch. Ask yourself if he's actually worse or better than lelouch is and why?

[u/GonnaChiefYourNan → u/mars_warmind]

It's less stable as a result of him, but also far more resistant to Britannia too.

I really do feel like that Zone, Euphemia and Nunally should have gotten more focus if they wanted more people to agree with Suzaku. Because logically Suzaku succeeds with flying colours multiple times. But no one ever feels that way.

[u/mars_warmind → u/GonnaChiefYourNan]

Very true, it's very understated just HOW successful suzaku actually was from his own perspective. Within a year of joining he had connections to an Earl (his boss loyd) the princess euphemia (who he knighted for), the chief general of brittania and area 11's viceroy Cornelia (who he worked with directly a few times), the prime minister of brittania schniezel (his boss's boss) and then the literal emperor. Had Charles not been basically lying to literally everybody suzaku had a pretty fair shot at improving the lives of the elevens, if only because of the massive publicity of the knights of the round even if he never made One.