Talk:Suzaku Kururugi/@comment-44997843-20200302162144/@comment-27492705-20200515153727

Akito wasn't a spinoff, it was in-between, like OZ of the Reflection and is considered canon by the creators (along with Renya of Darkness which was waaaaaay before) unlike Nightmare of Nunnally or Suzaku of the Counterattack or most of the Sound Dramas for example which are not canon. Actually, a short manga that came with one of the DVDs I believe, "I am the Garden of Reminiscience", is C.C. thinking about her past as she drowns in season 1, and it shows Renya, Anji, and Alto Weinberg from Darkness, Orpheus and Oldrin Zevon from Reflection, and Leila Malcal/Breisgau, Akito Hyuga, and Shin Hyuga Shaing from Exiled.

You need to remember Julius is really fucked up, the Lelouch in him trying to reject his false memories because Julius' character so conflicted with his own, on top of Lelouch already being super messed up and traumatized and having very recently been re-traumatized.

And in a meager defense of Suzaku, strangling Lelouch seemed to be a spur of the moment thing which he seems to regret as soon as he realizes what he's doing. Have you never accidentally hit someone or said something you didn't mean when you were angry? Same principal. Plus, his mission with "Julius" was very soon after he turned Lelouch in, which was immediately after Lelouch killed Euphy and Suzaku has no idea he didn't plan it due to V.V.'s manipulation and his own despair. So Suzaku thinks Lelouch intentionally had Euphy slaughter people and then killed her, and yet he can't strangle Lelouch even when he says "kill me", and even comforts him by saying they'll get Nunnally together and then letting Lelouch sleep against his shoulder.

The thing about Suzaku is he wants to kill Zero, but he never really wants to kill Lelouch and has trouble connecting the two, which is why despite Lelouch practically begging him twice before R2 Lelouch is still alive. Suzaku can't bring himself to do it. Lelouch is still his most important person despite the fact that Lelouch killed his other most important person in front of him.

Also, Lelouch isn't a physical person. Milly can outrun him in a big dress and heels. We only see him physically attack someone once (and he misses) and it's Mao when he breaks Suzaku by bringing up his dad. Suzaku on the other hand, his first act as a character is kicking and tackling Lelouch and his first meeting Lelouch and Nunnally included beating Lelouch up. Suzaku, despite his protests, is just a much more violent character than Lelouch. You can't really compare Suzaku's manhandling of him to how Lelouch treats him because Lelouch is like literally incapable of it, especially with superhumanly strong Suzaku.What Lelouch did was lie to him repeatedly, manipulate him, force him to live when he wanted to die, kill the father of one of their friends, kill his beloved after destroying her image, and throwing Japan back into war. Lelouch is not innocent. I don't know that I'd say Suzaku had or didn't have a right to hurt Lelouch, but he had a right to feel like he'd been hurt because he had been hurt.

And to go with one of your other comments, it's actually implied that Lelouch did tell Suzaku what happened with Euphy in the months leading up to the Requiem and they forgave each other for everything. It's a conversation hidden in one of the little "in the next episode" monologues at the end, where they also talk about Shirley and her teaching Suzaku about forgiveness.

For the record, Lelouch is my favorite character by far. I love Suzaku but he does greatly piss me off, but I can also understand where he's coming from and honestly, he has been more unreasonable than these situations (with less catastrophic results but still). I don't want you to think this is Suzaku favoritism because it certainly isn't, but narrowing him down to just being an asshole who causes nothing but pain for Lelouch ignores 1. how much Lelouch loves and trusts him despite it all, and 2. that Suzaku is a complex character. It's kind of like narrowing Lelouch down to a maniacal sociopathic sis-con. It misses a lot of complexity and context for the sake of making him look bad. And without Suzaku, Lelouch would have nothing. In all possibility if Suzaku wasn't around, Lelouch would have been dead before he turned 11. Suzaku is the only person Lelouch loves (and knows he loves because he has the emotional intelligence of a peanut) anywhere near as much as Nunnally and his love for Nunnally is his entire life. Suzaku is his best friend, his first and would-have-been last friend, and always will be.