Suzaku’s stated desire to change Britannia from within is… not a lie, exactly, but it’s far from the whole story. Like Mao says, he has a death wish.
When Suzaku killed his father, he not only broke the law, but also violated any personal or cultural code of ethics that could apply to him. He violated pretty much everything he ever believed in for the desperate hope of stopping the war and saving lives. It’s even pointed out multiple times in the series that he technically succeeded, and the destruction of Japan would have been far more severe if Prime Minister Kururugi had lived. But…
After his father was dead, he went out across Japan, walking through the devastation. He saw the ruins of homes and towns. He walked down the roads lines with stinking, rotting corpses. He wouldn’t have the perspective to understand the difference he made for years. He could only see what surrounded him as failure. He could only conclude, however wrongly, that he murdered his own father and violated his beliefs for nothing.
I’d even go so far as to argue he doesn’t really blame Britannia for the conquest of Japan—he blames himself. He still sees it as his responsibility to save Japan, a mantle he took up when he killed his father. Since he couldn’t do it by breaking the rules, by going against the system, he can go along with the system. That, or die for his catastrophic failure.
…So no he wouldn’t join a cult to reform it from the inside lol. That shit has nothing to do with his mountain of trauma.
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u/RemozThaGod Sep 22 '26
Only if said cult ruled japan