code_geass | Code Geass Episode 6: Discussion!

gods_debris is sick this week, so I'm doing the weekly post instead. I'll try to keep it fairly similar to our regularly scheduled programming (and I'll post the Weekly Points as a comment).

Episode 6: 奪われた仮面
The Stolen Mask

So we start with the Emperor, and whatever shady, mysterious "Project" thing he's up to. At this point we have no idea what it is, but I think most of us expect it to be *something.* It turns out he can talk to the dead, and strange cloaked men answer to him. I've always wondered if he and Clovis were speaking of C.C.? (spoiler in white: from what we know later, this would make a lot of sense, considering that Chuck doesn't know where C.C. is at this point)

Then at Ashford we see that Suzaku is having a bit of trouble fitting in. Some students are racist against elevens, some are suspicious that he murdered Prince Clovis, and I imagine that many are both. Nina seems very frightened of him because he's Japanese, while Shirley and Rivalz don't seem to share the same trepidation (Shirley doesn't seem to care, and Rivalz acknowledges Suzaku as an Honorary Britannian). I love Kallen's subtle reaction when a student says something along the lines of, "The school would know if a student was a terrorist!"

Lelouch gets up and as he goes out of the room he tugs on his collar. Suzaku comes to meet him on the roof and we find out that they grew up together and that that was their signal to meet on the roof/in the attic (depending on your translation). They speak of the past, and we find out that Prince Lelouch is officially dead. We also find out that Suzaku was transferred to the school - and acquitted - all thanks to Princess Euphemia's intervention.

Shortly after this we have an adorable scene where Suzaku and Nunnally are reunited after seven years. Suzaku is clearly nervous to see Nunnally again, but Lelouch assures him that it's fine. Nunnally is relieved that Suzaku escaped his ordeals alive, and everything just seems peachy-keen. C.C. is not so impressed.
We then go to Guilford telling Jeremiah that he has been demoted and that he must choose the punishment of either going to the front lines as a lower-level soldier again, or that he must run an orange farm. (Does the Britannian Military have a sense of humor?)

At the end of the evening Lelouch shows Suzaku to the door and invites him to come again. Suzaku says that he and Lelouch shouldn't be seen together at school, for the sake of protecting Lelouch and Nunnally. Lelouch gets frustrated with Suzaku's constant martyr complex and calls him out on it, finishing with the word "again." He almost slipped; I assume this is a reference to their frustrating encounter after he saved Suzaku?

The next scene is interesting, because we see that Lelouch seriously considers cutting ties with Ohgi's group, thinking they're getting too familiar. Wonder how things would have gone in that case, eh? We also see some students spray graffiti on Suzaku's gym shirt ("Go Back to your Ghetto"). Lelouch sees the latter right after the former...maybe that's why he decides to stay with the future Black Knights, at least for a bit longer?

The rest has become fairly infamous. Arthur sneaks in while C.C. is accepting a pizza, and ends up running off with Lelouch's mask, causing him to shriek girlishly. Lelouch runs off and essentially becomes Failouch for the rest of the episode.
Nunnally tells Milly and Rivalz that a cat appears to have run off with something important to Lelouch, and Milly decides to start some mischief. Milly says that whichever club catches the cat will get a higher budget, and whoever personally does it will get a kiss from a member of the student council, as long as they bring whatever the cat has to her. This causes the school to go utterly nuts, and pandemonium breaks out. The girls want to kiss Lelouch (except for the one girl who wants to kiss Milly) and the boys want to kiss Kallen. Kallen and Shirley decide to catch the cat themselves to protect their lips from perverts (and we know Kallen hasn't even had her first kiss yet) but Shirley ends up blowing it because she's scared that Kallen will want to kiss Lelouch. Rivalz is hoping this will be his chance to get a kiss from Milly. Ultimately Lelouch and Suzaku are the final ones on the cat's trail.

Lelouch knows that Suzaku would be the absolute worst person in the world to see the Zero mask, but Suzaku is far more athletic than Lelouch, so he speeds up the stairs much faster. Lelouch pursues him as fast as he can, and ends up almost falling off the roof. Luckily Suzaku catches him, and at the same time Arthur sheds the mask. Everybody returns to the ground safely, Lelouch having managed to somehow hide the mask during his return from the roof to the ground floor. Nunnally gives them both a kiss as a reward, and Suzaku is welcomed onto the student council to everybody's delight but Nina's.

At the end, we have a broadcast of the Emperor's speech at Prince Clovis' funeral, which everybody is required to watch while standing. The Emperor proceeds to a long tirade about his views on ethics, inequality, and evolution. He says that the death of his son is part of Britannia's tireless march toward progress. So, you know, the typical eulogy of a loving father, right?
I also like the reaction shots of the students. Rivalz seems to be rather skeptical, while Milly has a face of reserved seriousness. Kallen's reaction is surprisingly subtle, but she has a persona to maintain, after all. Suzaku seems to be steeling himself, while Lelouch just glares with hatred.

Next Time: コーネリアを撃て
Attack Cornelia!

Speaking of the next episode, should we do the discussion post next Thursday (since December 23 is not a holiday) or should we wait another week (since lots of people are traveling/away from fandom for a while)? Or should we skip the 30th? Both, or neither? I'm putting this to a vote. I can do one or both if

gods_debris can't.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Another interesting point worth noting: In this single episode Suzaku manages to successfully change one small part of Britannian society (Ashford) from within, as he goes from outsider to (mostly) accepted.

I like this!

One of the things I was surprised to see never really comes up in fandom, is what Suzaku and Lelouch's methods of changing the world actually show: namely, that while Lelouch is after legal change (Get rid of Britannian rulers and laws, instate others), Suzaku is after ideological change (Encouraging the Britannians to see the Japanese as people, too.)

The thing is, genuine social change requires both aspects or it's ineffective.

_{Yes, this is mostly paraphrased from my sociology notes.}

That idea probably never comes up because most people think Suzaku is dead wrong, even a lot of people who find him sympathetic.

(Personally, I think he had the right sort of idea, but barring the freak accidents that actually happened - getting picked to pilot the Lancelot, meeting Euphemia - he never would have had enough power to achieve anything. But I tend to think he knew that he was tilting at windmills - unlike what some of his haters would have one believe - but kept at it on principle/because of his death wish.)

And there's the fact that ideological change is less quantifiable than a change in legal status. It's much harder to measure how people think differently than it is differing laws.

(The problem with that argument is that people ignore that Lelouch was also completely useless in terms of major change until he stumbled across C.C. and Geass. People shouldn't ignore the parallel between the two of them.)

Yes, I realized that precise fact just after I posted. However, in the conversation at the end of episode 4 Lelouch already has Geass but Suzaku is a powerless about-to-be-scapegoat, so at that point in time Lelouch has the stronger position. In the middle of the season it gets complicated because Lelouch thinks Suzaku is a lowly engineering grunt but Suzaku knows he's actually an ace pilot and friends-maybe-more with an imperial princess.

The problem with that argument is that people ignore that Lelouch was also completely useless in terms of major change until he stumbled across C.C. and Geass

Well, he says he did have plans for the future and that Geass just sped them up radically. But we have no idea whether this is reliable or not; after all, his plans get screwed up all the time (usually by Suzaku, no less). Still, he is at least Britannian and wealthy (technically he is a member of royalty, and I don't think he intended to use that...but it reminds me of an argument I heard somewhere that had Lelouch remained a Prince, he could've changed things through Suzaku's ideal methods and Suzaku could've changed things through Lelouch's methods).

I won't deny that the parallel is there, though. By giving up his royal authority, Lelouch had little more power than any other individual citizen, and don't think that would've been enough. All the above is simply conjecture.

That's a good way to describe the prescriptive difference. Now, is the ending they come up with a merge of the two aspects or not? They do change the system but at the same time the final plan requires for the world, as a whole, to unite against Lelouch and work together to rebuild after his carnage.

I think it is, because as mentioned it invokes change in how the people of the world see one another, as well as the system itself: He ends the whole Britannia vs Every One Else thing by oppressing everyone else equally, so it's no loner a power struggle between the two. Plus there's the more systematic change in destroying the Britannians who benefited most from it's power hierachy, and thus leaving those left behind less inclined to rebuild in the same way.

I think you're right, but I think what frustrates me (and many other fans, and Lelouch) about Suzaku is that he talks a lot more than he does. It's definitely great if Suzaku actually works toward encouraging Britannians to see the Japanese as people...but his actual m.o. seems to be I'M GONNA PILOT THIS ROBOT REALLY HARD AND HOPE EVERYTHING'S GONNA WORK OUT OK. I don't recall him initiating social change through his own actions (in R1); he doesn't fight against his court martial, he doesn't stand up to any Britannian kids who are racist at school or try to talk to anybody. I know this is just because he thinks he's the scum of the earth, but as a result he's therefore not fighting for the Japanese either. His attitude often even seems like "just stay in your place and everything will work out fine." (Which, shockingly, actually works in his case, but that's because he is lucky.)
Euphemia is the person who successfully works within the system to promote both legal change and ideological change, and it is her doing. And she even ends up hating herself because she feels like she's not doing enough, and that's when she starts the SAZ.

Well yes, but that's Suzaku's particular fatal flaw, excessive passivity. It's a demonstration of how deeply fucked up the guy is, and his development through the series is all about overcoming the fear he has of being proactive again.

People seem to have trouble with the idea that flawed implementation of an idea doesn't mean the idea itself is flawed. Neither Lelouch or Suzaku demonstrates the perfect application of their ideals: Lelouch is overly aggressive, which means he causes an unnecessarily amount of damage and often has to frantically get his plans on track because he didn't think the consequences through fully, and Suzaku is excessively passive.

Code Geass Episode 6: Discussion!

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