For the love of...? The one-sided ship war!

[sincere]

Why do people have to be so quick to knock other people's warmfuzzies?

Pictures like this and this keep coming out -- pictures where Kallen and Gino are interacting in a way that makes my dorky little fangirl heart happy, the same way that their positions in this picture do. Did they have to have that significant camaraderie moment before the final battle? No. Do they need to snark at each other, or stand angled into each other like a couple? Does Gino have to be playing with her hair? No.

This pairing has the power to make me flail in stupid fangirl ways that I'm not used to. Usually my ships are logical, and I approach them logically. "Oh, look at this, Suzaku is hanging all over Lelouch in this picture. Awesome. Lelouch's tiny happy smile and his blush are so adorable."

But something about Gino/Kallen makes me go "OH MY GOD GINO AND KALLEN ARE STANDING NEXT TO EACH OTHER" and "OMFG GINO AND KALLEN ARE LOOKING AT EACH OTHER SDFKS:GKJL" and "HE'S PLAYING WITH HER HAIR OMG EVERYONE HE'S PLAYING WITH HER HAIR!!!1"

So I keep getting these slightly shippy pictures and being happy about them, but then I keep looking at the comments, and stupid people say things like, "Well this officially sinks Gino/Kallen lolol" and I'm like. What's your problem? Why do you need to say that? Is this tiny inoffensive unpopular pairing really grinding your gears? Could it be because you're in desperate denial that Kallen could ever move on and like a man who actually does like her, as opposed to Lelouch?

Gino/Kallen doesn't even interfere with Lelouch/Kallen. Spoiler alert: Lelouch dies. Kallen's eighteen. Stop ruining the next seventy years of her life!

And stop making icons like this one. Hey, it's funny how the same picture that sinks my pairing is a pairing picture for you, provided you Photoshop Kallen to be anywhere near Lelouch and then change the expression on her face! I'm sure he looks that happy because he's thinking of her.

Comments

[kalorii.livejournal.com]

I know how it feels. [points to Lavi/Allen] I get those kinds of feelings all the time and it irks me when I see comments in that same vein. Don't see it much anymore because I got really tired of seeing pairing fights but I remember seeing them before. I always chalk it up to having an OTP and thinking that one character is more suited for another.

[avertuneiro.livejournal.com]

Hah, GinoKallen, I couldn't help but like them when they started interacting together. People, unfortunately, will always be spiteful towards any other pairing that breaks up their OTP (ie. some Rukia and IchiRuki fans, though there are some fans of the pairing that can be quite fun but the loud ones just seem to ruin it, towards Orihime and any time she appears in a panel).

Fans will always be at each other when there are other fans who like things differently. Just gotta learn to turn a blind eye and ear to it all but it can get annoying at times XDD;

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

Belated, since someone was just now doing this right to my face: I think there's a pretty solid amount of evidence for the pairing, despite my constant feeling that it's a crack ship. Their interaction in canon is repeated and significant (their brief meeting after he defects; their fighting together against Suzaku; the fact that they single each other out in this last picture drama for banter, the fact that he's playing with her hair, and the fact that in the wedding pic they almost look like they came there together) and Gino made it clear from word one he was attracted to her. And I think it would work from an emotional standpoint as well.

I just wish I didn't always have to be the only fan turning a blind eye. ;_; Why is it always me who has to pretend not to notice? I don't think Lelouch/Kallen was ever going to happen, but I don't need to go around knocking it every time I see it mentioned in public.

[furato.livejournal.com]

Eh, I have the second pic but I never realize Gino is playing with Kallen's hair. So cute!

[saave.livejournal.com]

gf dhgnkf the edited icon made me laugh so hard.

[himehikari.livejournal.com]

I really adore Kallen and Gino too actually and I flail at the slightest indication of them being together or even talking together just so you know that you're not alone.

However, I am also pissed of that some people are so quick in killing my happy KallenGino fangirl with comments like look KallenGino sunk etc.

Gino/Kallen doesn't even interfere with Lelouch/Kallen. Spoiler alert: Lelouch dies. Kallen's eighteen. Stop ruining the next seventy years of her life!

Definitely have to agree with your point. And if I have to point out, KallenLelouch is not canon too, compared to my precious LelouchC.C (but let's not be nasty)

*sigh* why can't people respect other people's shipping regardless canon or not. Is there ever one thing that is canon in Code Geass for goodness sake..

e-em sorry for randomly ranting here. T.T P-please don't kill me

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

Belated, since someone was just now doing this right to my face: I don't mind your ranting at all. I think you're completely right -- Lelouch was never interested in Kallen, and she was okay with that until he gave her reason to think that maybe... and then she kissed him and there was nothing there so she walked away. Lulu/CC is way more canon, from the completely unbiased viewpoint of someone who ships neither pairing. At least he does love her.

The only canon pairing in Code Geass is Viletta/Ougi. ...and Lelouch/Euphy, to be fair. Everything else is one-sided crushes that we never see canon for the other side of. Gino/Kallen is no less canon than Lelouch/Kallen. Gino is canonically interested in her; Kallen is canonically interested in him. The end, lol.

I really don't understand why fans need to make wars out of whose pairing is better/more canon/slightly more plausible whatever.

[anaakin.livejournal.com]

And no Lulu doesn't love C.C. he saw her as an equal never as a lover. Pairing officially shut down, unlike Shirlulu and kalulu.

Sorry, it couldn't be helped.
And for the rest of your posts...wellllll...I don't feel like summarizing all of the staff release.

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

Oh, I almost forgot this comment, since it is so very sad.

Love doesn't have to be romantic.

I feel sorry for your friends.

[himehikari.livejournal.com]

The only canon pairing in Code Geass is Viletta/Ougi. ...and Lelouch/Euphy, to be fair. Everything else is one-sided crushes that we never see canon for the other side of. Gino/Kallen is no less canon than Lelouch/Kallen. Gino is canonically interested in her; Kallen is canonically interested in him. The end, lol.

That paragraph is made of WIN!

I really don't understand why fans need to make wars out of whose pairing is better/more canon/slightly more plausible whatever.
I completely agree with this.

p/s: I am a tiny bit happy that you mention LxC is more canon. Sorry but my inner fangirl made a bit of a squeal there XD

But..did he really love her as you mentioned? There is mutual respect and I personally do hope he did but m-maybe I miss that during the anime? XD

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about her; I know I'm not. I'm at work atm, so I'm trying to give your question the thoughtful response it deserves in between doing my job!

OKAY LONG RAMBLE IS LONG?

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

Whether or not Lelouch was in love with her is up for debate, but he certainly loved her. Thematically speaking, it's necessary! C.C.'s desire in life was to be loved, but she was bored with the infatuation of the people who loved her for her geass; and even now, centuries later, she thinks that she wants to die but in all honesty, C.C. is tired of life because it's never been anything but boredom and disappointment for her. Love didn't make her happy, and eternal youth didn't make her happy, and she couldn't even get someone to kill her right.

But Lelouch was different from all those people. She didn't try to please him or make his life easier; she was just herself, and he loved her anyway. The reason why C.C. was content with living and never passing on the Code was because she had finally experienced happiness and love, her true wish granted. And it wasn't because she raised him (Mao) or had sex with him (Mao), or because she was useful to him (Marianne, Charles) -- it was just because that someone cared about her and valued her companionship, no strings attached.

That's just the kind of guy Lelouch is. In the Newtype surveys he says twice that he believes love is something you give freely, and that he would rather give love than be loved. He loves C.C. the same way he loves Suzaku and Nunnally: completely, totally, and unconditionally.

So -- she didn't want to die anymore. She'd gotten what she really wanted, and she was happy. Lelouch may be dead, but he's not erased; she'll always have that love. Hell, maybe she still talks to him, why not, the Code connection to the World of C is weird, whatever.

Now, I don't ship Lelouch/C.C.; I'll like it, if it's well-written and well-characterized, but I think it's sweeter if the pairing is platonic, and C.C. realized that love doesn't have to be sexual, unlike the above commenter. Although I do like Suzaku/C.C./Lelouch. But I think it's definitely canon that he loved her.

[anaakin.livejournal.com]

Oh lol, isn't this my icon ? Niiice.
Anyway since someone show me your entry here I shall reply, since i'm certainly one of the one pointed out by your post;

Yes I'm a Kalulu fan, and no, this pairing wasn't one sided while CCLulu was deep love, blabla and so on (Though i'll not enter in this debate, since official release already said everything. And from what I see in some comments there, official releases were kinda ignored lately. Whatever.)
and when it comes to Kagino, yeah, i'm totally happy to see no romantic implications there cause Gino would have been like Meyrin to Athrun zala at the end of GSD. Nonsense.

Kallen's devellopment was a laser beam directed to Lelouch, and I don't wanna see her devellopment being throw away this easily because Gino is there and he doesn't have any purpose in the plot (And I love Gino, mind you.); Kallen is a character definitely tied to her pst, and to her lost loved ones; we saw that with her brother, it was even worse with Lelouch, thus, why I can hardly see her moving on easily, and with Gino, of all people.

I don't mind people fangirling about them cause they look good together and so on, for me, it's just like RoloLulu and so on; I don't mind crack pairing, but I think i've every right to be happy to see that's all they are. Crack pairings.

People can imagine things and so on, but those are and will be, fanfictions, cause at this point, the show is over, and I didn't see any love sparkle between Kallen and Gino. Thanks God. I don't need an other GSD disaster.

have a nice day :')

[apapazukamori.livejournal.com]

Spell check, plzkthnxbai.

Proofread, plzkthnxbai.

I think i've every right to be happy to see that's all they are. Crack pairings.

Sure. But what gives you the right to rain on someone else's parade? You do realize spending time cutting down someone else's ship is possibly the biggest waste of time ever, right?

I don't wanna see her devellopment being throw away this easily because Gino is there

Tough noogies. Welcome to fandom, where everyone has interpretations of the series and characters, and unless it's stated canon, it's all equally valid. If you must, go play around in your tiny, insular little sand pail where you can pretend yours is the only opinion that matters. But realize, if you do that, it's incredibly bad manners to pop up and pee where everyone else plays.

[libekory.livejournal.com]

Jeez, reading comprehension.

She doesn't even ship Lelouch/C.C. All she said was that he loves her, and he does. (Not the same as "he's in love with her".)

I sympathize with you a little on what I think you're saying is the tendency for a new romantic interest to show up suddenly at the very end of a series. (If you're familiar with Ranma, I'm thinking of Akari, who popped up to be Ryouga's magical perfect girlfriend with only like ten chapters to spare.)

But Gino really isn't doing that. He showed up for the first time in R2, and he stated his interest in Kallen in Turn 9. He's not a main character and romance isn't the main point of Code Geass, so surprise surprise it doesn't get much more mention -- but it's there, in the background, motivating him the whole time.

Kallen's response? She's kind of incredulous at first, but when we check in on her in these post-R2 picture dramas, she enjoys being around him. They banter. She puts up with him doing ridiculous things to her hair. *shrug* It seems all seems pretty affectionate, whether or not you think they're dating.

It's funny to me how you're talking about Kallen's development, because I kind of think you have it all wrong -- Kallen was a girl who was tied to the past and obsessing a little bit over her dead brother; thanks in part to Lelouch's monumental sacrifice, she becomes someone who is living in the now, no longer shackled to her past.

(An early indicator? When the problem she had with her mother was resolved. At that point, Kallen stopped being a girl who was fighting only for the sake of her dead brother, something in the past, and became a girl who was fighting for the FUTURE -- she says as much. Her new motivation is to live with her mother in a Japan where they won't be discriminated against, etc.)

And this is a GOOD, POSITIVE thing, because Code Geass shows us what happens to people too fixated on the past through its drug, Refrain. In fact, when Lelouch starts to fall into that trap, Kallen smacks him out of it!

Kallen's development is not a beacon directed at Lelouch -- it's a beacon directed THROUGH him, past him, to the future. She is moving on, when we see her a year later: she is smiling. She does not have a shrine to Lelouch in her room, she has GROUP photographs on the walls, and she smiles around the Ashford kids -- she's playful with Gino.

She is not crying herself to sleep every night over what was lost; he appreciates Lelouch's sacrifice for the gift that it was, and she is living. In part, this is honoring him. If she were really so focused on his death that she would never be happy, I think Lelouch would feel that he had failed her personally.

...End rant.

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

Code Geass is not a series in which characters don't evolve or change. I feel sorry for you that you can't see that, and that you imagine that Kallen is going to be static, forever, caught in the chains of dead people. There's a difference between holding someone who changed your life in your heart, and being enslaved to their memory.

If Kallen doesn't move on with her life, it negates the whole point of the epilogue and Lelouch's sacrifice!

I like Lelouch/Kallen; but Lelouch is dead.

In addition, it was completely 100% canonically one-sided, and Kallen was okay with that -- she never, ever tried to win or encourage the love he didn't ever show signs of feeling for her -- until the Black Knights betrayed him and he gave her an indication that maybe he did care for her. Then she became obsessed with knowing, and she kissed him, and there was nothing there, so she walked away. It wasn't until after the series that she was able to acknowledge what he meant to her, and deal with it like an adult. That poem is her reminiscing on why she loved him, not her undying pledge that she will love only him forever and ever.

I also like Gino/Kallen, because unlike Lulu/Kallen, he actually is interested in her (canon!), has two significant interactions with her in a very short period of time (canon!), makes a good team fighting with her (canon!), and sticks by her side during the wedding (canon!) and in the official picture drama epilogue (canon!). "Crack pairing"? You wish.

If you assume Kallen's heart isn't dead, and she isn't a "grieving widow" lolol doomed to do nothing but sit in a rocking chair and mourn until she's eighty, Gino is plausible. And, hey! This time she'll love someone who actually likes her back. But I guess she doesn't deserve that! She deserves ONLY Lelouch, the 50% asexual dead guy who loved C.C., Nunnally, and Suzaku more than her even when he was alive, and if she can't have him then NOBODY gets to have her!

Banning you (and incorrupts and the sockpuppet journal just in case), and deleting all future comments from you, because I really don't need ship wars in my journal and I don't want your gratitude for my translations if you can't understand the very simple concept of respecting other people's opinions. People like you, following me to my journal to tell me for the third time today why your pairing (the least canon of Lelouch's harem pairings, above only Kaguya and maybe Milly) is better than mine -- people like you make me feel like Lelouch/Kallen fans are insufferable, and make me like the pairing less by association. You are taking Kallen from a strong female with a tragic love to a pitiful, weak creature chained to some fantasy romantic love she didn't even have -- which she wasn't, in canon. It's gross.

Not saying Lelouch felt nothing for her; he clearly did. Not saying Kallen didn't love him; she clearly did. Just saying that people who feel the need to attack other pairings in order to validate their own? Are pathetic.

So, yeah. Welcome to missing the point.