code_geass | Code Geass Episode 2: Discussion

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Code Geass Episode 2: Discussion

Stage 2: 覚醒の白き騎士
The Awakening of the White Knight

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Lelouch seems a little confused as to why he was granted such a power—which he even calls weird. He's still confused as to what the strange girl who seems to be lying dead before him wanted him to do exactly. But you know, we never get much time to sit and think before something else happens. Before Lelouch knows it Villetta shows up and threatens him to tell her what happened. Even though it was a dangerous moment Lelouch at least learns that he cannot use his new power without having direct eye contact with the person.

I'm happy to see that Suzaku survived his ordeal with the bullet and that his father's watched ended up saving his life. I don't know whether to say it's ironic or if it's just coincidence that his father's watch saved him. As we all know, Suzaku puts his life on the line due to his past but when he came to Llyod told him that he missed his chance to get to heaven. I wonder if that was just a coincidence of if Llyod somehow knows, through all his smarts, what Suzaku subconscious little desire is.

Also, even though Shirley almost had Lelouch killed by her calling his cell, Lelouch quickly forgives her and even calls her up for some information to see if there's any talk of the little war happening on television. Shirley, who has a thing for Lelouch, rightfully feels used by the boy. I guess we'd all have a hard time saying no to Lelouch if he asked us to do something for him, eh?

So Lelouch decides he's going to get involved and help out the terrorists since he doesn't exactly like Britannia. But I gotta be honest, his whole thing with Kallen about trusting him made me think of Aladdin and Jasmine. I know I'm probably out of place but all I saw when he told Kallen that if she trusted him they'd win was Aladdin outstretching his hand to Jasmine asking, "Do you trust me?"

The whole mental battle between Lelouch and Clovis was rather cute. Lelouch has always been able to beat Clovis at chess and so he was pretty confident of himself in those regards. But poor Clovis had no idea what he was up against until the very end. You know, they painted Clovis as such a bad guy in the first two episodes but I always wondered throughout the rest of the series if he really was the bad guy they made him out to be? Or was he really just trying desperately to please his father and get some sort of recognition? In that regard, he seems a little more like Lelouch, doesn't he? Well, aside from trying to please his father... Lelouch is pretty intent on destroying him, but he is trying to get some sort of recognition from his father whether it be positive or negative I feel.

Does anyone else feel that Lelouch got extremely lucky? He said that seeing the enemy's positions was a double edged sword but if the terrorists followed his commands they would win. I assumed that he meant it was double edged because the enemy could technically see his position since he was one of their Kightmares. Also, the Knightmares he gave the terrorists should be able to see all the positions too, right? Or did I miss something completely? Clovis and his army also changed the transmission code a few times but Lelouch was still able to see their positions, I'm assuming, since he was in the Knightmare. And if the terrorists are using the army's Knightmares, shouldn't the army be able to see their location, too? Or did they change the frequency of theirs all together? As far as the terrorist's singles, they are not showing up on Clovis' screen at all.

At any rate, Clovis fell right into Lelouch's plan and it all fell apart at that point for him. Lelouch is very skilled at playing the game and playing it well. He acknowledged at the beginning that he had to be careful since the difference in this game was that he was playing with human lives, but at the same time we know that sort of mentality has to change if he really wants to do what he aims to do. I don't think that the fact he's killing people has really hit him just yet. At this point Lelouch realizes that he can defeat Britannia—that it is possible—and Clovis really begins to wonder who the heck he's fighting against because whoever it is is good. Really good. Because of that fear that he really will lose everything he gives into Lloyd's request to use his Lancelot, but only under the pretence that the fight will end in his favor. Ohh, Clovis.

Suzaku still feels the need to find Lelouch and save him along with the girl. The ironic part is that he doesn't realize that Lelouch is in front of him; and Lelouch, who still believes Suzaku is dead, doesn't realize that Suzaku is right in front of him. The ironic part is that Suzaku attempts to destroy the Knightmare Lelouch is in without realizing who is really inside! But we do get a sense of who Suzaku is and what he prioritizes when he saves the falling Eleven citizen no one would have thought that of a Britannian soldier.

Last minute Clovis calls off his troops in the nick of time. Kallen and her gang got very lucky, if Lelouch had been a few moments later she might have died along with her comrades. But with the cat out of the bag for Lelouch with Clovis, he's always down to business. So Lelouch tells Clovis that he has returned to change everything. It looks like we'll have to wait to see what exactly he plans to change.

Next week is Stage 3: 偽りのクラスメイト
The Deceitful Classmate

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And now for more random observations:

- It's kind of scary the Villetta just shot a huge Knightmare gun at a student, but wow that's some impressive aim, considering how big those bullets must be. 0_o
- I also like the nice play on hierarchy we have here with Villetta's reaction to Lelouch saying he is a duke. It's good foreshadowing to his revelations later in the episode.
- I always enjoy Lelouch learning how his power works step by step. It's kind of adorable.
- I'm still a bit confused on why Lloyd decided to use Suzaku for Lancelot. Is it because he's expendable since the military probably expects him to be dead at this point? Cecile mentions Suzaku excelling at the simulations, but Suzaku himself says an Eleven can't be a knight so how could he have been tested prior to meeting with Lloyd and Cecile. On this note, I do love how Suzaku is referred to as a devicer since he is not allowed to be called a knight like the rest of the pilots. I guess pilot is also out of the picture since the Lancelot is an experimental model. Just a lot of interesting wordplay going on here.
- Also interesting is Suzaku's main reason for fighting in this episode: To save Lelouch and C.C. We very much get the feeling from his conversation with Cecile that this is the only reason he agreed to take Lancelot. A bit ironic considering how much he will soon despise the both of them. Also Suzaku's desire to end the fight as soon as possible, regardless of what it takes, so he can increase his chances of finding Lelouch and C.C. alive. Which makes it especially interesting to watch him devastate his enemies left and right, with little to no reaction, but his moral sense of justice kicks in immediately when it comes to saving someone, as Cecile quickly notes.
- I also love the classic dynamic as its inverted in this episode, where it's obvious that Lelouch (leading the terrorists) is supposed to be the villain, while Suzaku (championing the flagging Britannians) is supposed to be the hero. This is shown in Suzaku's mecha-hero godmode fighting style versus Lelouch's snide quips about his success and his class villain OH NOES moment when he realizes he's being defeated by ONE machine, along with his griping about the uselessness of the terrorists.
- But this is also further inverted, as we see Lelouch react to Kallen's rescuing him. I love the "the most important element in battle is the human element," something that Lelouch does learn to consider fully. And more so with his ordering Clovis to see to the casualties on both sides. A very clever way of showing how gray the series truly is when it presents the well-known models and then shows them to be the facades they are, and we all know how Geass LOVES its facades.

- It's something to watch Lelouch change from somewhat nervous to be trapped with the terrorists in the first episode to being fairly unfazed in a battlefield in this one. Though he does still express his anxiety from time to time, it's more of a clinical self-assessment, another trait of his that I adore. But another important element of this scene is his simplifying the entire chaos to a chess game. While this looks just plain snazzy and awesome, it also shows how Lelouch doesn't yet truly understand what real battle is and is still very much a very damaged child, especially shown in his Lancelot tantrums and his annoyance at things like reinforcements. LOL.
- On this note, I enjoy the quick scene of him tapping into all the Britannian intelligence so he can relay it to the terrorists.
- I always wonder if the scene where Clovis is so horrified upon realizing how he's losing if he's not subconsciously thinking of his brother and that's what it hits him especially hard. Though he's also an arrogant floof who is used to things being taken care of for him since he became governor general so there's that too. He really is an AWFUL military commander.
- First time Lelouch took out the ground on someone. The creators eventually ended up loving how easy this move was to prepare and execute that they made it his signature to the point where he uses it at times that it's completely arbitrary (R2).
- I love Lelouch calling the terrorists pawns, especially Tamaki's reaction. Oh Tamaki.
- Still get chills at the entire last scene of this episode, especially the closing line. So good.

- I also like the nice play on hierarchy we have here with Villetta's reaction to Lelouch saying he is a duke. It's good foreshadowing to his revelations later in the episode.

Ah, man, I keep forgetting that we don't know Lelouch's background right off the bat. Heck, we don't know anything about his past or motivation until episode 7 or so, do we?

Well no, he does ask Clovis about Marianne in the next episode so we know he's vengeful about his mother, but we don't know the entirety of what happened until the Stage 7 flashback. But this episode was the first time we understood why he called himself Lelouch vi Britannia at the end of Stage 1.

Oh, right. But. Yeah, we still don't know much about it until several episodes in.

Well, in the first episode he used his last name when he commanded the soldiers to kill themselves so we know his last name is Britannia and we know the leading power in charge is Britannians... so we put 2 and 2 together, I believe. We just really don't know much about him.

We knows he's a prince by the end of episode 2, too!

In addition to agreeing about the hero/villain thing:

I love the "the most important element in battle is the human element," something that Lelouch does learn to consider fully.

That line also struck me! It's how he always seems to get tripped up.

Every time. Though he also learns how to use it against people, like he does with Cornelia and Euphie and later with Suzaku and Ashford.

his moral sense of justice kicks in immediately when it comes to saving someone, as Cecile quickly notes.

So much of Suzaku's issues make more sense when you know his fixation is really on saving people, or not letting them die. So many people get caught up in what he says about morality that they miss that that isn't what Suzaku is about, that's his means of getting it.

I love the "the most important element in battle is the human element," something that Lelouch does learn to consider fully.

Hmmm, though it takes him some time - like you said, he sticks with the chess game comparison for a while, and then throws tantrums when people don't play by the rules he is. (And even longer to realise that even when people are involved, not all people think and react in the same way - Suzaku is so devastating an enemy of his simply because he just doesn't get Suzaku's trains of thought)

Incidentally, this made me recall that Lelouch initially reminded me of, of all things, a quote from an Animorphs book. About how a character can see the most direct ruthless path - and then just adds the morality in afterward.

These comments, incidentally, are one of the things that pinged me to the fact that Lelouch and Suzaku aren't just playing with the villain/hero thing, but are essentially counterpoints (which is why I can't understand loving one and hating the other; they make so much more sense if you consider both). Suzaku gets so caught up on trying to save lives in the here-and-now that it screws up his long term goals of doing so; Lelouch gets such tunnel vision about his long term goals that he misses how much people get stomped on at the moment. And these both backfire on them spectacularly and they have to develop out of it.

Oh yes, it takes him a long long time.

Suzaku gets so caught up on trying to save lives in the here-and-now that it screws up his long term goals of doing so; Lelouch gets such tunnel vision about his long term goals that he misses how much people get stomped on at the moment. And these both backfire on them spectacularly and they have to develop out of it.

I do love this so, especially that's what their union at the end ended up being about, learning to see the situation through each other's side.

Yeah, they have their brief moment of "I was wrong, he was right!" and then meet up and go for Zero Requiem which is a sort of meet in-between strategy. The ends may be more important than the means, but there should still be consequences for the means.

Cecile mentions Suzaku excelling at the simulations, but Suzaku himself says an Eleven can't be a knight so how could he have been tested prior to meeting with Lloyd and Cecile.

It was mentioned in the novels ~~not the best source, I know~~ that Suzaku was indeed 'tested' ("military collecting experimental data using the Honorary Britannian troops" he calls it in the Shadow) and found the Knightmare given to him frustratingly slow. And that was hilarious, but daaamn, I can't find that page.
Lloyd used Suzaku for the same purposes, I guess. He needs data and he can't choose.

A bit ironic considering how much he will soon despise the both of them.
You mean Lelouch and C.C.? I thought he was mostly focused on Lelouch D:

Ah yes, I remember that part in the novels now. I don't remember much about "Shadow" since it was the dullest of the novels for me.

Suzaku holds no love for C.C. either. The problem is that there is so little interaction between them that this rarely comes up. It might also be touched upon in the novels, although I don't remember. But the generalization might be a bit intense because of that, I admit. I just wanted to push the irony, I suppose, and it sounded better complete.

Ah, I thought maybe I've missed something *g* I don't think the novels have anything on Suzaku/C.C. relationship since he is mostly confused about her in the first season :(
Come to think of it, C.C. asked Lelouch if he hated her for giving him the Geass, but I wonder if she asked Suzaku the same question, heh. ~~OT3 fan here~~

I also loves me some OT3 action. I would have loved more C.C./Suzaku interaction in R2, and I think it was sorely lacking, given the great setup they had in S1. But I guess it died along with the plans for Suzaku's Geass connection. Pity.

I also love the classic dynamic as its inverted in this episode, where it's obvious that Lelouch (leading the terrorists) is supposed to be the villain, while Suzaku (championing the flagging Britannians) is supposed to be the hero. This is shown in Suzaku's mecha-hero godmode fighting style versus Lelouch's snide quips about his success and his class villain OH NOES moment when he realizes he's being defeated by ONE machine, along with his griping about the uselessness of the terrorists.

This is one of my favorite things about Geass. It's like a Saturday Morning Cartoon from the villain's POV. It's so great.

It's kind of scary the Villetta just shot a huge Knightmare gun at a student

I thought so too!

Btw, about the testing thing, I'm guessing Knightmare simulations are a part of basic training regardless of whether you'll use it.

Taniguchi goes on about watching from the villain's point of view all the time. I think it's also what he loves best about Geass, getting a chance to show people that there really are two sides to everything, even the one you consider the worst of the worst. Because in any other anime, Lelouch would be a TERRIBLE monster of a character, without knowing his context.

That's one reason the way some people seem determined to reduce the Code Geass characters into black and white good versus evil makes me facepalm so hard. I can't help but think of it as epic point missing.

It is indeed epic point missing. :( I'm just glad that the majority of fandom that has remained is no longer interested in that debate.

It depends what part of fandom you hang out in. TV Tropes has some really dumb shit on occasion.

I admit to reading TV Tropes for the tropes and rarely reading the discussions because of my inclination toward RAEG.

I will confess have accidentally gotten into a couple of Code Geass related edit wars there. (Ironically, I find the forums are pretty good for talking about fandom, if only because people will actually back up their arguments)

Oh edit wars, they always fascinate me. And I don't mind reading people backing their claims, but, yes, certain claims frustrate me more than others. I have gotten to the point now where I do my best to avoid discussions going in the black/white vein because my rationality in them becomes a knee-jerk "YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND," and that's not exactly fair because everyone is entitled to see things as they wish. I have fought more Geass battles than I should have. |D;;

Oh, yes, don't I know it. There's a few topics I just know I should walk away from, since if I don't it's just going to end up as another WRONG ON THE INTERNET fight.

And sometimes I do actually manage to avoid engaging. ~~I just privately decide they are wrong inside my head~~.

~~Sometimes that's the best way to go about it.~~ And lol, I always love that icon. ♥

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drakyndra.livejournal.com - 2010-11-13 06:37 (UTC) - Expand

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Code Geass Episode 2: Discussion

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