Shirley bros... Time has not treated us very kindly. I like Shirley because she's a real one. She literally shoots a woman to protect her crush's secret identity. Then she loses her memory, falls in love with him again, remembers he killed her father, forgives him, and then tries to mend his relationship with his best friend. In a show loaded with hot girls, Shirley stands out with her actions.
For those that say that only CC knew the real Lelouch, Shirley would have gotten there in no time. Her dialogue with Rolo before she got offed is literally her explaining to Rolo that she doesn't want Lelouch to be lonely anymore. Lelouch wasn't just a crush anymore, she was about to join a terrorist group that fights against her interests just to support him. Too bad she had to say the N-word.
Maybe it's my own headcanon, but I don't see Lelouch going forward with the Zero Requiem had Shirley survived. Sure maybe I'm trying to give more weight to my ship than it had, but a big part of Lelouch's character is that he's not only Zero or the emperor, but also just a young man. Shirley's death symbolises the death of the latter. And that's part of why I don't really like anything that came after R2. You can't write a story about a character who keeps losing everything, end it on self-sacrificial cathartic moment, then try to turn it into a franchise.
In an ideal world, Lelouch goes the mushoku tensei road and he gets a red wife, orange wife, and green wife.
>>283272502
Kallen is great but I wish she rebounded on Gino. The guy actually deserves it.
