Zero Requiem was emotionally fulfilling because Lelouch intended everything, and it was one last great identity-switching flamboyant gambit from a character who had been all about flamboyant gambits and identity-switching from the start. I haven't seen Geass in a long time, but Lelouch's ending was kind of karmic.
This Slaine bullshit came out of nowhere. Slaine did things wrong, like continuing the war after Asseylum asked him to stop, putting Asseylum and Lemrina under house arrest, shooting Inaho, killing Saazbaum, and using Lemrina to warmonger. He plausibly deserves some karmic retribution for that. But being blamed for starting the war isn't related to that. Unlike Lelouch, the moral stigma Slaine got is qualitatively and quantitatively unrelated to his wrongdoing.
tl;dr Zero Requiem was an emotionally fulfilling ending because it was flowed logically from what Lelouch had done; Aldnoah Zero isn't emotionally fulfilling because blaming Slaine for everything came out of nowhere.
There are in-universe problems that make this stupid, too. First, are there really people who believe a sixteen-year-old boy orchestrated a royal assassination and interplanetary war? Second, by pinning the Slaine (who Martians can think of as a Terran, and Terrans can think of as a Martian), aren't they just exacerbating the racism/xenophobia that provoked war between Earth and Mars in the first place?
In the original drafts, Slaine was apparently a much more ambitious character, who actively resented the Orbital Knights for treating him like trash and who never met Asseylum before she came to him for tutoring a few months before her peace visit. Blaming a character like that might be more logically and emotionally palatable. "This character tried to advance himself and fell on his face." But Slaine wasn't ambitious, he was a fluffball. So the end was a nonsensical "This character tried to make someone he loved happy, and she told everyone he was literally worse than Hitler."
how can anyone tolerate this bullshit ending and buy "it's happy because slaine smiled and saw some birds" like that justifies the suffering he was put through since the beginning, only to increase the bullying planetary scale with a stigma against him. it's tasteless and feels they blame him because they can't tolerate to owe up their own shortcomings and mistakes, because they don't want to be punished.
Also, Lelouch deserved it. He had done so much awful shit by the end of Geass (both intentionally as part of Zero Requiem and before that when he was just doing his thing) that there was no way he could possibly get a karma houdini ending. He had it coming, and knew he had it coming.
Slaine fucked up a bunch, but he didn't deserve it nearly as badly as Lelouch did.
my theory is that everyone who cares to put 2 and 2 together can see that saazbaum was involved. not that they can prove he planned it but he was a driving force behind the conflict. however blaming saazbaum is politically bad while the peace is still shaky. by not accusing him or his allies publically and letting people blame slaine who was already the big bad as far as both sides were concerned they focus on peace instead of who still alive is responsible for what. what ue/asseylum are telling vers/the remaining orbital knights is "yeah we know what you did but we want to get along so as long as you don't do that shit again we're cool" while keeping it as blackmail material over them. years later when earth and vers are all friendly people may come around to saying "c'mon that saazbaum dude probably did it and slaine was just a follower who took over" but at that point no one's really going to care which dead bad guy did what.
personally i'm not a fan, i wanted everyone to get blamed for the exact things they actually did. but there's also how the actual truth wouldn't even make sense to anyone because slaine's actions are so all over the place. season 1 slaine isn't season 2 slaine, and season 2 slaine was on record doing or supporting things that would make him a hated enemy to both earth and vers. in the end he got his identity tangled up in all this crazy and there was no way to save his reputation. he can still get a new life under a new identity and live happily, unlike lelouch unless you're a fan of the cart driver theory.
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wankgate2015-03-23 07:32 pm
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(Anonymous) 2015-03-30 06:08 pm (UTC)(link)This Slaine bullshit came out of nowhere. Slaine did things wrong, like continuing the war after Asseylum asked him to stop, putting Asseylum and Lemrina under house arrest, shooting Inaho, killing Saazbaum, and using Lemrina to warmonger. He plausibly deserves some karmic retribution for that. But being blamed for starting the war isn't related to that. Unlike Lelouch, the moral stigma Slaine got is qualitatively and quantitatively unrelated to his wrongdoing.
tl;dr Zero Requiem was an emotionally fulfilling ending because it was flowed logically from what Lelouch had done; Aldnoah Zero isn't emotionally fulfilling because blaming Slaine for everything came out of nowhere.
There are in-universe problems that make this stupid, too. First, are there really people who believe a sixteen-year-old boy orchestrated a royal assassination and interplanetary war? Second, by pinning the Slaine (who Martians can think of as a Terran, and Terrans can think of as a Martian), aren't they just exacerbating the racism/xenophobia that provoked war between Earth and Mars in the first place?
In the original drafts, Slaine was apparently a much more ambitious character, who actively resented the Orbital Knights for treating him like trash and who never met Asseylum before she came to him for tutoring a few months before her peace visit. Blaming a character like that might be more logically and emotionally palatable. "This character tried to advance himself and fell on his face." But Slaine wasn't ambitious, he was a fluffball. So the end was a nonsensical "This character tried to make someone he loved happy, and she told everyone he was literally worse than Hitler."
+1
(Anonymous) 2015-03-30 06:25 pm (UTC)(link)+5
(Anonymous) 2015-03-31 07:17 am (UTC)(link)Also, the Zero Requiem was legit simply a better fucking scene. Music and composition and all.
sa
(Anonymous) 2015-03-31 07:21 am (UTC)(link)Slaine fucked up a bunch, but he didn't deserve it nearly as badly as Lelouch did.
da
(Anonymous) 2015-03-31 08:48 am (UTC)(link)personally i'm not a fan, i wanted everyone to get blamed for the exact things they actually did. but there's also how the actual truth wouldn't even make sense to anyone because slaine's actions are so all over the place. season 1 slaine isn't season 2 slaine, and season 2 slaine was on record doing or supporting things that would make him a hated enemy to both earth and vers. in the end he got his identity tangled up in all this crazy and there was no way to save his reputation. he can still get a new life under a new identity and live happily, unlike lelouch unless you're a fan of the cart driver theory.