Code Geass Episode 1: Discussion!

[gods-debris.livejournal.com]

Sorry for posting this so early. I just know I will not have time all day on Thursday (well, technically where I am it is Thursday...). This isn't the normal for me--I'm your standard stay-at-home girlfriend at the moment--so this won't happen frequently. I'm so excited for this! I hope a lot of people participate. I'll check the comments Thursday night if I can talk my mother into letting me borrow her computer. :)

For those of you who haven't gotten the episode yet, check out the information I posted here. Anyways, onward!



Code Geass Episode 1: The Day The Evil God Was Born
We are reminded once again what happened to Japan and the power of Britannia—how they were able to invade and take over Japan with their new weapons called Knightmares, and how Japan was stripped of its culture and name; and renamed Area 11.



Once again we're thrown into the world of Code Geass with a melancholy Suzaku and a vengeful Lelouch!


How can you say no to that face?! (Lelouch's)

Lelouch always seems to carry himself in a different way from others. He's confident, charismatic and seems to know exactly what to say as far as speeches go. I feel we really get a taste for his character when Rival asks him why he moved his King first in the game of chess he had between the noble: "If the king doesn't move then his subjects won't follow."

While Rival and Lelouch are on their way back to school they're almost run over by Kallen who is part of the terrorist group against Britannia. I always somewhat felt that for a terrorist group they were awfully generous to swerve so they didn't hit them. I always imagined that a terrorist group on a mission would have no time to be merciful to those who got in the way of their plan, but it left a nice opening for Lelouch to run to the rescue and get caught up in the action.



You know, did Rival not see Lelouch climb onto the truck? Did he not see him fall into the opening on the top? Did he not see the truck drive away? If he saw all that, why does he stand around shortly after yelling for him and reminding him that they have to get back to school? C'mon, Rival. I know you're not that stupid!


There is so much win in these pictures... Anyone else happy for Spinzaku?

It's nice to see Lloyd doing what he does best which is sticking his nose into everybody's business while looking for data. I imagine him doing crazy silly things while yelling, "FOR SCIENCE!" In the end they didn't have a pilot for Lancelot... so what happened to the previous pilot they had lined up? Did I miss something?

Suzaku and Lelouch meet up again, but under interesting terms. Suzaku is now part of the Britannian army! It's nice to see that Suzaku is still putting others before him (covering Lelouch's face with his air mask when C.C.'s capsule opens up). Suzaku even ends up taking a bullet for Lelouch because he refuses to shoot him.



Also, you know, I love Shirley but there are times she can be pretty annoying. Could she have picked a better time to call? I guess it can't be expected to silence your phone when you are trying to dodge being caught. I like it because it's the human error. It makes Lelouch seem more human.



When Lelouch receives his power and uses it for the first time he seems surprised by his own actions. One of the many themes throughout this series is lies and the lies people tell. Lelouch tells us from that day on he's been lying to himself. I wonder what Lelouch is telling us this.



Lelouch, it's good to have you back.

Comments

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

It just bothers me because you'll see characters get continually demonized for things they did once, while Jeremiah... doesn't. There's this weird contrast between, say, Nina - who is a racist, but until FLEIJA, one who did no actual damage - and Jeremiah who actually went around killing people because of their race.

But yes, he makes for an entertaining bastard. Geass has a lot of those, really.

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

I suppose, although Nina faced basically no consequences for FLEIJA, or for trying to blow up Ashford with a nuke, or anything else.

[jjblue1.livejournal.com]

I think the whole idea is that Jeremiah killed people because he obeyed to Clovis' orders as every other soldier that day and therefore can't feel that guilty for obeying to an order. I'm not sure he would have been killed like they tried to do with Suzaku had he disobeyed but surely they wouldn't have praised him.
I take in the Britannia army isn't considered wrong to commit a massacre of Eleven/Japanese and I guess Britannians are educated to be racistics.
Some people with major sensibility realize it's wrong (Lelouch, Euphy, Milly, Lloyd just to name a few) but the rest doesn't. Even Villetta, despite falling in love with Ougi, has a hard time accepting the thing once she regains her memory.
Sure, Jeremiah obeyed to his orders with gusto. I figure in the beginning the series wanted him to be a villain and that was it but later Code Geass gave him two plausible reasons to hate Japanese.
First, he was hunting terrorists, ad terrorists killed Marianne, whom he adoured. Second, he likely assumed Marianne's children were also killed by Japanese people.
If you add this to the background of a person who had been already raised to be naturally racistic you get the fact he's a lot more enthuiast in killing people than any other normal soldier obeying to orders.
Jeremiah is the product of a rotten world, in the same way Nina is.
Nina's way to be racistic is rather interesting in the beginning because, more than feeling superior, she's terrorized by Japanese. I wonder which kind of stories she heard about them to be so scared by them. Actually for a long while I thought we would learn some Japanese had hurt her but, unless she too had been shocked by 'Marianne's children supposed death' (her grandfather worked for the Ashford who were close to Marianne and might have told her something about the '2 poor kids who died during the war' which might have scared her) there's no reason for her to be so afraid of them.
(and although possible it seems a bit hard to believe that 'Marianne's children supposed death' might have scared her so much...)

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I get the Watsonian reasoning for it all. I'm meant more in terms of how fandom reacts to Jeremiah in comparison to others.

I agree that Nina always gave the impression that there was some specific story behind her racism. Don't know if that was a dropped plot point or just not a priority of the writers.

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Jeremiah is definitely a Draco in Leather Pants. Rule of cool and all. (I suppose the unexpected fan reaction was the only reason why he was brought back in the first place.)
Some supplemental material - one I haven't seen myself but I've heard referenced multiple times - said Nina was left behind alone in a ghetto when she was young (depending on who you ask, it allegedly implies she was raped or harmed or something.) and that's the reason she's so racist.

[jjblue1.livejournal.com]

Well, it's all rather simple because it depend on how you get to relate to a character, which impression he does to you. Jeremiah started with a bastard, but he was soon turned into kind of a comical relief even though his situation could also be defined dramatic (after being Geassed he ended up in prison suspected of betrayal, with no memory of his actions, lost his grades, his mates kept him far, etc, etc,) so likely people forgot his 'I'm a racistic bastard' side which was, after all, the same of many others and that, during the series, got toned down until he had that chat with Sayoko telling her he believed she too lived according to a code of honour.
The purist thing becomes something you push in the back of your mind and in the end forget.
Other characters doesn't get off so easily.
People might have forgotten Rolo also killed people for a living hadn't he killed off Shirley. Had Nina's reasons for fearing Eleven be explained she wouldn't have looked like a girl who was insanely obsessed with Euphemia and prone to hysteric crisis even toward her friends. It's easier to think her mad instead than feeling sympathetic (if megalomaniagekk's info are right and she was raped/harmed when very young it would be easier to justify her behaviour).

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

I think one of the supplemental materials says that Nina got left behind alone in a ghetto when she was young and that's why she hates Japanese people. I haven't seen it myself so I don't know the details; some people interpreted it as implying that Nina was probably raped/harmed and it mentally scarred her.

[jjblue1.livejournal.com]

Oh, okay, this would make more sense and help put in a better light Nina, who, honestly, in some points of the story, seemed insane without a reason.