Episode 18 Discussion?

[nayami.livejournal.com]

You know, I reached the point of my Geass watching where I crave discussion. Sadly I cannot convince any of my buddies to watch the series with me so I was hoping we could establish a regular episode commentary here. I'm most interested in 18 for now since a lot happened in a short span of time, and I thought it would fun to gather some opinions on the matter. I also think it might be fun to evaluate the paths of Lelouch and Suzaku. Surfing the Japanese fanart sites the other night, I encountered many pics comparing the boys' young and then older selves (Yay, my Geass fanart count is almost 700 now). So yeah let's toss up theories for anything and everything regarding the story so far.

Also, is this more of something I should try for after the subtitled versions are released?



My love for Suzaku grows as he continues his bull-headed drive to change Britannia from within. Watching him pursue his fight with Zero, even when he knew Britannia was firing missiles at their location, was so tragic. And Lelouch, who knows what an obstacle Suzaku is but can't bring himself to take the quickest route to dealing with him. I read on the anime blogs that Lelouch was going to geass Suzaku to save himself before the missiles hit. While this is probably true, I prefer the more optimistic view that Lelouch was also trying to save Suzaku in the process. Lelouch has still yet to show which is more important: his revenge or the only people who've ever represented family to him. I say this because he hasn't really been put to the test. This would be the first time, but the fact that both were in a life or death situation tilts the scale a bit. Then we have Suzaku, who doesn't know who Zero is. Someone said Zero was set on eliminating on the Lancelot pilot but was forced back to Lelouch when he learned it was Suzaku. So it remains to be seen whether Suzaku's steadfast devotion to his peace will override his loyalty to his friend once he learns who Zero is. The first picture drama has Lelouch calling Suzaku his worst enemy. While I fear this eventuality because I enjoy the relationship between the boys, I'm curious to see how it will come about. I would hope that the eventually end up working together, but it does not seem to be in Geass' nature.

On that note, I have this feeling either Suzaku or Lelouch might "die" in the break between the series. I foresee a vicious confrontation between the two over something akin to the typical rival/best friend battles.

Diethard scares the shit out of me, and I see him as causing a major problem for Lelouch in the near future. I think he might make another attempt to off Suzaku. I think if anyone takes him out of the picture, it will be Kallen. The two seem to have the greatest respect for Zero, but both have entirely different views of what Zero is. While Kallen wants the leader, Diethard wants the bloodthirsty revolutionist. Now that I've seen Kallen willing to risk everything for Zero, I wonder how she and Suzaku will fair during the island arc. Will she try to win over Suzaku as Zero tried?

I am really tired of any storyline with Nina. I already know it's going to be crappy so I don't care. Shirley, on the other hand, I'm interested in since she knows who Zero is and has knowledge he killed her father. I also fear they're going to butcher any potential Jeremiah had with his new form.

I've read mixed reviews about how Nunnally feels about Suzaku's new position so I'd like a consensus.

Comments

[verity-isle.livejournal.com]

........I reread my reply again and it certainly didn't sound like Lulu is my favourite character. Lol.

No, it's the moment Zero appeared on the screen. Love at first sight. Poor Diethard, though. His love is a man who didn't notice a girl's romantic advances for 11 episodes plus however many years she'd been crushing on him. I'm not sure Zero registered that as a confession.I am kidding.

Part of me wants her to take it to Millay for some Millay/Lulu, part of me wants it to be Rivalz because he pwns and deserves some great screentime. But the largest part wants the whole matter to blow up in Lelouch's face, since that'd be interesting. Love for a character does manifest in strange forms.

I do have pet theories about Mao ranging from the descendant of the Last Emperor to relative of Chairman Mao. If you mean to ask that Mao was meant to do something with CF that would influence the current Rebellion, I don't think so. But I do think it's possible that C.C. chooses her targets base on their latent ability to be movers and shakers, and it might not be a coincidence that way.

Speaking of which. Considering the Geass simply magnifies the latent ability inside the Geass user, which is 'the power to command/leadership' for Lelouch, what do you think was Mao's inherent talent? His ability is to read minds....was he skilled at reading faces, gestures, and motives? Could tell a lie apart?

[thomasvye.livejournal.com]

That's OK! I don't like Lelouch. I don't *dislike* him, but I certainly don't like him either. I am looking forward to it all going off in his face too. >:) He might have experienced terrible misfortune at the start of his life, but through the Ashfords and the school, he and Nunally were given the chance to have some peace and some real friends with a degree of safety and anonimity and without pressure. But Lelouch just had to meddle. Any future misery will have been of his own making; he might have felt naturally vengeful but if he'd been able to leave that behind, his life would be in fact a lot better.

I think that maybe even as a tiny child, Mao was very intuitive about people. But it's hard to say why CC chose him as we don't know what her goal is when she chooses her pawns. My wonderings about Mao were more along the lines of, since he was Chinese, was he a little Chinese boy in Japan, or was CC in China. I was just wondering if there was any backstory there. Perhaps there isn't.

Whatever Shirley decides to do it will be interesting, esp since even when she loved Lelouch, she held a gun to him; one wonders what she might do without that affection.

[verity-isle.livejournal.com]

Haha, I know, and I know you know I love Lulu. I was saying that because I just realized not everyone knows. XD His quality of life is debatable; I do know that years of helplessness is terrifyingly choking and Not Fun At All, and he probably saw nothing ahead of him but...well, nothing. But what he does is probably making it worse for himself, and he has no one to blame this time. (One thing I love about Lulu : He never blames himself. Hunted by soldiers? C.C.'s fault. Plans not working out? Lancelot's fault. Not enough time for Nunnally? Well, Britannia sucks. Oh wait. This might be linked to his chronic trigger problem) For the world at large, that's for history to judge, and we're not even at Season 1 Ending yet.

I think he was in China, and so was CC? She was wearing Chinese dress, so it'd be out of place if she was in Japan. She wore a kimono then... As for Mao's backstory....maybe he's just one among many that we ultimately don't need to know about....but maybe he's also like LL's mecha-piloting ability. THAT turns out to have backstory after all, of all things.

Not held a gun. She. Shot. Him. <3 His head, even. (I wonder if CC's power to dig up past traumas can cancel Lulu's Geass...I hope not, but there's a chance. That'd be better than her remembering on her own, though I hope she doesn't at all. I quite like LL/Shirley, but that kind of resets the plot, and I hate plot resets)

[thomasvye.livejournal.com]

I identified very strongly emotionally with Mao. I can't read minds, obviosuly, but I do suffer from a phobia of crowds (enochlophobia) and crown noises terrify me, so I could really understand how the geass was making him suffer. Lol, I use comforting sound to block out crown noise too (though in my case it's music. :) So I guess I am just hoping his story was more important than a mere three epsiodes designed to show what a callous bitch CC really is. I still think Lelouch should think a lot more about what happened to Mao and hope he matches up to CC's designs.

[verity-isle.livejournal.com]

He was really, really angry at her? Still, Lelouch is emotionally dependant. Once he starts trusting people, he doesn't stop unless something drastic happens. It looks like he's already started to rely on C.C. for a few things, and the Mao incident doesn't seem to be sufficiently drastic.

[thomasvye.livejournal.com]

He wasangry, which is why I haven't I haven't shifted Lelouch out of my 'I don't mind you' category into my 'I dislike you category' (where karen lives. >:)

He is kinda dependant already, and from her track record, I'd say she's a bad person to rely on.

[(Anonymous)]

Um...sorry to barge in on your conversation but I couldn´t help wondering about some things: a)CC clearly pointed out to lelouch she needs him to reach her objective, which is why she gave him the geass, so why give it to mao? b) what made CC leave mao? and c) if you look at the first episode, when lelouch and suzaku are kids, lelouch appears looking at them; why was she there, did she already know what lelouch would become?

As long as lelouch is useful, CC will be a good person to rely on I think.

[thomasvye.livejournal.com]

Not at all, barge away! ^-^ It's an open debate! :)

I assume she gave it to Mao because she decided he was the person who would fulfill her design; when it became apparent that for whatever reason he wasn't going to do that, she dropped him like a stone.

It's possible she might have given the Geass to lelouch at that young age, like she did to Mao, but then she fell into the hands of Brittania?

Yes, Lelouch should be fine as long as he's useful. Useful. That's the key.

[(Anonymous)]

Yay thank you! :)

I don´t think CC gave the geass to mao for that reason (she did say she used to love him in episode 17) since nobody entrusts big objectives into small kids (unless she was planning to stay with him until he was ready(but then why not give the geass later?)

Like I said above, she might have planned to give it. I might be seeing things but she appeared when suzaku saved lelouch(I´m probably seeing things). Yes, britania might have captured her, but remember that she knows something about a kururugi shrine? She might have been with the kururugi, britania attcaks and captures her from them

Everyone in code geass seems to be "useful" one way or another, even sayoko(sighs)

[thomasvye.livejournal.com]

If she genuinely loved Mao, then she had a really funny way of showing it! Using him, creating dependancy, abandoning him utterly and then shooting him. No wonder he tried to cut her up with a chainsaw. (I wonder if she could have survived that, having taken a bullet to the head before - perhaps Mao knew something we don't!)

[(Anonymous)]

I just told you what she said. Besides, he was a lone kid, he needed someone already and we don´t know if she abandoned him or something happened that made her leave(cause her actions are just too incosistent)

[thomasvye.livejournal.com]

*shrug* I just think CC's a heartless bitch myself. ;)

[(Anonymous)]

Yup, just wish we knew more about the heartless bitch (is it asking too much from the producers?!)

[thomasvye.livejournal.com]

Yes. ^-^ Because they should just cut her out and make the show about Orange kun instead. \^o^/

[(Anonymous)]

Yes: Code Orange; orange-kun of the rebellion (as long as they still have suzaku on it!)

[thomasvye.livejournal.com]

The Revenge of the Orange. >:) I like Suzaku! He's in!

[(Anonymous)]

Ougi could be the vilain, villteta the love interest and suzaku...no idea what he could be XD