Lelouch and Narcissism
I recently got one other perspective on Lelouch's character and his ultimate appeal to me.Narcissism is a Strong Fundamental Part of Human Nature
Lelouch is a huge narcissist. He is what narcissists themselves aspire to be. He is not written as a caricature from the perspective of critics of narcissism, but rather from narcissist's own point of view. Because of that every narcissist can easily relate to him. That includes me.
Lelouch does have his haters as well, as there are certain types of people, like my parents who hate narcissists. In their stupidity they think that narcissism can simply be eliminated. It cannot be eliminated.
Narcissism it the only thing that keeps narcissists going. Without their narcissism, the narcissistic people will simply end up being alcoholics, drug addicts or simply kill themselves.
Regardless of what naysayers say, world is built by narcissists.
Lelouch is a hero of Narcissists
Back to Lelouch. Britannians, who tried to analyze Zero in first season, always concluded that he has a great deal of pride. That is of course spot on. He indeed has great deal of pride as any narcissist. would.
Narrator in the beginning of each episode would say that he is doing it for Nunnally. That is not untrue per se, but it would be a mistake to simply consider him a martyr for his sister. Protecting her is but one of many things he wants to achieve.
That said Lelouch is not a villain per se as well. He is not set to do a bad thing or hurt the world. Far from it. He wants to make world a better place, eliminate wars, abuse and discrimination. Make the whole thing better.
However, his reasons for that are not concern for people or world. His reasons are his own narcissist validation. Unwilling to be content with just being a cog in a system, he aspired for greatness. He found his way by becoming a masked Hero of Justice who fights against unfair and discriminatory system and revered by the oppressed people as their savior.
He does that not because he cares for the people involved but because his own aspiration for greatness. That is why he has not hesitation in eliminating Japanese Liberation Front or breaking down an attempt to create SAZ Japan. JLF gets in the way of him being the sole hero figure for the Japanese people. SAZ too will eliminate his own revered hero and savior status.
Lelouch consistently oppose anything that will lower his status or level of reverence he gets from people. To some extend fame and infamy all the same for him. The more his is on the top of everyone's minds, the better.
Lelouch is Nietzschean Übermensch
However, he wants more that fame. He wants to rule, the country, the world. To surpass everyone and become stronger.
Nietzschean 'Will to Power' is one of the manifestations of Narcissism. Because what else can give you the feel that you are better than everyone else, then having more power than others.
Thus, Lelouch enjoyed beating Clovis in Shinjuku ghetto incident.
When he lost to Cornellia, he went on to found Black Knights to have a better fighting force that will not lose to her.
He eliminated JLF, make Tohdoh and Holy Blades join him. Monopolized resistance.
Generally, he takes on board everyone who is useful.
By useful he means those who can help him get even higher and validate his narcissism even more.
Tohodoh and Holy Swords would make good field commanders who will let his army fight better and smarter.
Rakshata can build him better knightmares and make his forces stronger.
Deithard will allow him run spy networks and steal intelligence from Britannian government and media, not to mention his propaganda value.
They give him more, so they get accepted and promoted.
In second season he went on to overthrow a Chinese government and reformed China into United Federation of Nations in order to expand it further and further. Make it bigger and stronger so that he will be on top of a bigger pyramid.
However, when Black Knights betrayed him, while at the same time he got chance to become Holy Britannian Emperor, he just took it.
Yes, Holy Britannian Empire was his enemy all this time, but desire for more power and importance was stronger.
Fundamentally he ended up taking his UFN as well as Black Knights back as well. Because why be ruler of only part of the world, when you can be a ruler of the entire world.
Then in the end he pulled this final stunt where Zero killed Emperor Leouch in front of the awed crowd.
A common sense would deem it a stupid move. Some stupid people might even see it as sacrifice or punishment for what Lelouch have done.
However, at this stage Lelouch was already beyond common sense of ordinary people.
Lelouch done it because he did not want to rule world manually, like some pedestrian ordinary person would. He made all the changes he wanted, then picked puppets who will follow his intentions. And finally, disappeared in a stunt.
Now he still rules the world from shadows, while everyone thinks he is dead. He transcended ordinary humanness and become something more of a god or an Übermensch.
Plus, he wanted people to praised him for what he has done. However, they hated Emperor Lelouch, so he staged that incident where Zero kills Lelouch. After that the world will see Zero as their savior and praise him for what he has done.
And Lelouch even found someone to play the role of Zero for him, while he can admire the work he has done in his well-earned retirement.
At every step it was always about surpassing limitation and getting bigger and higher. Lelouch surpassed ordinary human and became something much bigger that just a human.
World is built by Narcissists
However, narcissist or not, Lelouch made world a better place. Oppressive Britannian society was reformed. World was united into a single political entity. Life got better and easier.
However, I would say even more:
Lelouch only managed to achieve that because he is a narcissist.
If he was not a narcissist, then he would have just stayed in that Ashford academy, content with just being average joe. If he thought like Suzaku and believed that following rules and making sure people will not die, he would have become some sort of sacrificial pawn for someone else to use.
World would have stated the same old ugly mess.
However, he is not pawn and neither am I.
In real world
In real world it is also narcissists who advance science, technology and civilization.
Because narcissists are unwilling to put up with subpar shit and always desire best for themselves, they end up building and creating this better world for themselves, but, by extension, to those around them as well. As a coincidence. Without narcissists we would still live in caves.
I too am unwilling to put up with this cheap mess, austerity idiots got us into. I want to lead the way to end the stupid austerity and make world better.
I want to end to primitive world and make it more advanced and superior. World 2.0.
And to make that happen, all these backward old, retired boomers, who are nothing but burden, have to be eliminated.
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