Somehow, hearing that familial legacy has so much to do with it doesn't surprise him. With the circles he's run in, discovering she's royalty doesn't surprise him much either. It complicates matters, however. He knows how much of an impact family - or especially, the loss of family - can make. If his mother or father had pleaded with him to keep peace before they passed away, how much it have changed him?
She's still a girl, but he knows people her age can pull their weight when they have to. If she's in a position of political power back home, he can see how it might hang heavy around her shoulders. As for the practicality of it? He has significant doubt.
"To dream of peace and to dream of pacifism... they are not one and the same."
Her words are more touching to him than she might expect. In fact, something about it causes his gut to twist, the feeling so painful, even now.
"I knew a woman with dreams like yours. She was no princess, but she became one among her people, followed in no small part due to her passionate quest for peace. She embodied the Saint Shiva - a woman who found love in a dragon, the mortal enemy of our people, and created an era of peace in so doing... but that was just as swiftly undone by the treachery of her homeland."
"All the Lady Iceheart wished for was a world in which no child need suffer and die for the sins of their fathers... but even her path could not be bloodless. She died saving my and Himeka's lives. Not in an act of pacifism, but in sacrificing herself to excise the roots of the conflict so that could not be stopped with mere words. If she had not... the war would not have ended, and peace could not have been had. Our deaths would have been in vain."
He exhales, having to pause for a moment.
"...There is no end to history, Relena. Peace is not something that can only be preserved, it must be fought for. And even when it is attained... if one loses the will to fight for it, it may slip away just as easily. Passionate gestures may change the people's minds, but it will not save them from those that would prey upon them out of cruelty and greed."
no subject
She's still a girl, but he knows people her age can pull their weight when they have to. If she's in a position of political power back home, he can see how it might hang heavy around her shoulders. As for the practicality of it? He has significant doubt.
"To dream of peace and to dream of pacifism... they are not one and the same."
Her words are more touching to him than she might expect. In fact, something about it causes his gut to twist, the feeling so painful, even now.
"I knew a woman with dreams like yours. She was no princess, but she became one among her people, followed in no small part due to her passionate quest for peace. She embodied the Saint Shiva - a woman who found love in a dragon, the mortal enemy of our people, and created an era of peace in so doing... but that was just as swiftly undone by the treachery of her homeland."
"All the Lady Iceheart wished for was a world in which no child need suffer and die for the sins of their fathers... but even her path could not be bloodless. She died saving my and Himeka's lives. Not in an act of pacifism, but in sacrificing herself to excise the roots of the conflict so that could not be stopped with mere words. If she had not... the war would not have ended, and peace could not have been had. Our deaths would have been in vain."
He exhales, having to pause for a moment.
"...There is no end to history, Relena. Peace is not something that can only be preserved, it must be fought for. And even when it is attained... if one loses the will to fight for it, it may slip away just as easily. Passionate gestures may change the people's minds, but it will not save them from those that would prey upon them out of cruelty and greed."