Code Geass Episode 4: Discussion

[gods-debris.livejournal.com]

So... I thought yesterday was Wednesday and today was Thursday until my boyfriend came home and was totally psyched about it being Friday... to which I replied, "It's Thursday." And he rebuttaled with, "No, it's not. Don't even try." At that point I picked up my phone and turned it on so that I could see the date... sure enough, today is Friday. Talk about being completely out of it. I'm sorry, guys. :( That's my failure icon for myself.

Episode 4: その名はゼロ
"The Name is Zero"


　　
　　
　　　
　　
　　
　　
　　
　

So Suzaku is being framed and despite how much he denies the fact he had anything do with it, Britannia is making sure to make him look as guilty as possible—even offering him to be an Honorable Brittanian up until his death if he admits to the murder. Suzaku is surprisingly mellow and doesn't seem worried at all.

In this episode we have Lelouch getting his Zero outfit made and establishing his identity with Kallen's terrorist group. Obviously they aren't sure whether or not they can trust him since he isn't even willing to show them his face—but given the circumstances of who he is it's obvious as to why he cannot. Lelouch also realizes that if they want to make a difference they cannot just be terrorists, they have to have an agenda. Oogi just doesn't seem strong enough to have that agenda, so this is probably the best thing that can happen to their band of merry men.

I forgot that Suzaku still thought that Lelouch and the strange green-haired girl were dead, but wonderful Llyod came and told him the good news. I guess Suzaku might have blamed himself for their deaths if that were the case. Suzaku is also always grasping onto that hope that people will open their eyes and listen past what "big brother" tells them. Even when Lloyd tells him that no one will be on his side he says that the courtroom is the place where the truth is revealed... yeah, but if everyone is already against you going in, and if Brittania has gone out of their way to make sure your finger prints were on that gun and that the entire murder of Clovis looks like you did it, the truth revealed will evidently be the lie Brittania conjured up.

You know, for someone being in a terrorist group I'm surprised that she's still wearing her uniform. You think she'd put on civilian clothing. Not that she really went any place conspicuous, but you can never be too safe about keeping things about your identity secret. I'm also surprised that Oogi ended up going as well. Not surprised about Kallen, but Oogi was a little bit of a surprise. He seemed to question Zero the most.

Anyways, Lelouch—er, Zero—doesn't disappoint. Always dramatic with his entrances and I gotta say the whole thing about using the "gas bomb" as bait to get them to hand over Suzaku was great. Jeremiah has never seen what was on the inside—the only two people who saw were Lelouch and Suzaku, and when Suzaku tried to speak out to tell them it was a fake he was electrocuted into silence. So Zero does a wonderful job of using his power to confuse the Brittanian army with the whole "Orange" incident before using Geass on Jeremiah into letting them go without a scratch.

Lelouch's ultimate plan was to get Suzaku to join him because he remembered Suzaku's words that day when they were children, but Suzaku has decided to follow a different path. He wants to change Brittania from within and doesn't like how Zero handles things. You know, earlier Zero said not to involve the citizens, but he hypocritically involved the citizens with his little charade.

Comments

Re: only a little spoilery

[spleener.livejournal.com]

That brief cut to Kaguya -- interesting, but why do so?

I feel like they planned on doing a lot more with her than they wound up doing. Which is a shame, because when she's not in ZERO-SAMA IS MY HUSBANDO mode she comes off as being smarter than the majority of the people in the Knights and would probably have a lot of sway in the organization if she wasn't both 14 and a girl.

It intrigues me that Lelouch judged the human element perfectly with Jeremiah (the type of arrogance he knows well in nobility), but he completely missed his mark with Suzaku, who's changed so much...

Lelouch's most significant weakness is that he tends to go full fucking retard when someone he cares about is involved in any way, and this is a half-decent example of that. If Suzaku was a stranger then he'd probably have been able to read him like an open book and know exactly what to say to get him to defect.

You'll note that this scenario parallels decently well to R2 episode 6 when he tries to extract Nunnaly- he assumes that she'll go along with him because the possibility that she's going back to become Viceroy of Japan because she wants do doesn't even enter his mind.

On some level he's probably aware of this, which is why he keeps his distance from the Black Knights and does the "LOLOL YOU ARE ALL MY CHESS PIECES" thing- because if he actually allows them to become his friends he wouldn't be able to think objectively about how to use them. So the only people in there who he's ever close to are Kallen (who he's okay with putting in danger because she's their best pilot and has the best robot making her pretty hard to kill) and C.C. (who can't die.) Which, of course, wind up screwing him over pretty hard when Schneizel comes around and drops all of his horrible secrets on a bunch of people who still don't entirely trust him due to the distance he keeps.

Re: only a little spoilery

[nayami.livejournal.com]

You'll note that this scenario parallels decently well to R2 episode 6 when he tries to extract Nunnaly- he assumes that she'll go along with him because the possibility that she's going back to become Viceroy of Japan because she wants do doesn't even enter his mind.

This is such a good point! It is a nice parallel.

On some level he's probably aware of this, which is why he keeps his distance from the Black Knights and does the "LOLOL YOU ARE ALL MY CHESS PIECES" thing- because if he actually allows them to become his friends he wouldn't be able to think objectively about how to use them. So the only people in there who he's ever close to are Kallen (who he's okay with putting in danger because she's their best pilot and has the best robot making her pretty hard to kill) and C.C. (who can't die.) Which, of course, wind up screwing him over pretty hard when Schneizel comes around and drops all of his horrible secrets on a bunch of people who still don't entirely trust him due to the distance he keeps.

I really like this interpretation of him purposely handling the Knights the way he does because he understands his personal flaw when it comes to those important to him. It sheds a whole new light on the whole "pawns" thing that so many people judged Lelouch so cruelly for in the original run of the series, saying he didn't care. He makes himself not care and tries to make them not care for the purpose of his objectives. This is really nice!

This comment gets more spoilery

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

Lelouch's most significant weakness is that he tends to go full fucking retard when someone he cares about is involved in any way

Am I a terrible person for laughing out loud at this for like a whole minute? He totally, totally does. In fact...

the only people in there who he's ever close to are Kallen (who he's okay with putting in danger because she's their best pilot and has the best robot making her pretty hard to kill)

Aaaand then she gets captured by the Chinese federation and even though he's told explicitly that he can't let his feelings get in the way and charge into a doomed rescue, he does it anyway. Because Kallen.

Agreed with nayami that it brings a whole new interesting element of him using his subordinates as chess pieces.

Re: only a little spoilery

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

You'll note that this scenario parallels decently well to R2 episode 6 when he tries to extract Nunnaly- he assumes that she'll go along with him because the possibility that she's going back to become Viceroy of Japan because she wants do doesn't even enter his mind.

One of those things that got brought up in a discussion here a while back - it's one of Lelouch's weird selfless/selfish moments, in which Lelouch will do anything to make his loved ones happy, but never really realises that they might actually want different things to him. And he takes it so personally, even though as far as they are aware, he's just a weirdo in a mask.