Code Geass Episode 6: Discussion!

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

So 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.

Comments

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

I wrote this before the above post, when I originally watched the episode on Thursday.

Oh man, I adore this episode. I expect some folks to earn POINTS.

Code Geass Points
R1 Episode 6

+1 Charles, you can talk to the dead? Oh right, yeah, makes sense.
-2 Guilty until proven innocent, right kids?
-2 Dammit, Nina.
+5 Thank you, Shirley, for being one of the few non-racist Britannians
+1 Super-secret code time!
+1 I guess you could call him… *sunglasses* Roof-zaku!
-5 Sunrise, what did Suzaku mean by repaying the favor from seven years ago? Did Lelouch save Suzaku's life? ANSWER ME!
-20 Dammit, Lelouch, keeping your same first name and your mother's maiden name is hardly gonna cut it in the Witness Protection Program
+5 Euphemia, actually working the system!
+1 D'aww, adorable little Lelouch
+2 WHO NEEDS TANKS WHEN YOU HAVE MECHS
-1 hahaha they think bullets can hurt her
+5 This reunion scene is just adorable
-1 Wait, Suzaku? An engineer? I thought he was supposed to be a dumb jock. (I know it's a lie, but it's not really believable…for a seventeen-year-old to be in the engineering corps, wouldn't they have to be a genius?)
+2 hahahahaha orange farm, delicious
+10 Knowing Sayoko overhears this parting scene and thinks Suzaku and Lelouch are gay for each other
+2 Ceiling C.C. is watching you
-1 Wait, since when is Lelouch supposed to be a diligent studier?
-10 These fucking racist kids, boooo
-2 Dammit, Nina, suck it the hell up
-5 I CAN'T LIE TO NUNNALLY suuuuuuuure
-10 OH MY GOD, THE DIALOGUE D:
+5 Arthur, you are the best
+10 Infamous girly shriek
+5 C.C.'s version of the aforementioned dialogue makes it 100 times funnier
+2 Oh Milly (and Rivalz)
-2 Can't catch the cat, eh, Lelouch?
+5 FAILOUCH XD
+2 Hahaha, Lelouch's' fanclub (not that I blame them)
-2 Oh, and they're biased against gay people too?
+5 Go for it, Rivalz!
-2 Shirley, you made Kallen and you miss the cat!
+4 I love it when they make fun of Lelouch being bad at physical endeavors…it really never gets old
+1 I know Nina meant to end the sentence with "friends" but it could be interpreted otherwise (wait shit did NINA of all people just get a point?)
+2 Shirley, thank you for not being a racist dick like most of your school mates (and to a lesser extent Rivalz, and Milly)
-3 WHERE DID HE PUT THE MASK? WHERE?!
-5 Aaaaawwkwaaard (thank you Nina -_- )
-10 My son's funeral speech? Ooh, an excuse for propaganda! RAAAAACIIIIIIST TIIIIIRAAAADE!
+2 Watching Suzaku's reaction to the video is *fascinating*

[snoozy.livejournal.com]

but it's not really believable…for a seventeen-year-old to be in the engineering corps, wouldn't they have to be a genius?
But Suzu /is/ a genius.

[shanejayell.livejournal.com]

I liked this episode, it's a nice change from the serious plots.

Your icon is the greatest thing

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

Is he? I mean, he's not dim, but he's not unusually bright either.
Unless you mean because he can make robots spin-kick. He is most definitely a spin-kicking genius. :D

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

I liked it a lot too. It introduced Lelouch being faily, not to mention giving some nice background about Lelouch (a picture of him as a prince that matches the one from the credits, talking about his name change, his past with Suzaku...).

vague, vague spoilers

[snowdevil-crow.livejournal.com]

I know Rivalz's fan nickname is Air (according to TVTropes anyway), but I actually think he's kind of interesting. Not as much as the main characters, of course, but his whole estrangement from his father (for what reason, again? Did we ever find out? I can't remember), the way he's like "Well, he's an honorary Britannian" but doesn't seem all that concerned about the racism and unacceptance of the other students (something that's very similar to how he acts at the beginning of ep 23)... IDK. I like him. He reminds me a bit of Gino, somehow.

Also ARTHURRR. The greatest to wear the mask of Zero!!

[snowdevil-crow.livejournal.com]

-5 Sunrise, what did Suzaku mean by repaying the favor from seven years ago? Did Lelouch save Suzaku's life? ANSWER ME! I keep thinking that maybe they had something planned for this originally, but had to scrap it for some reason. Like they were going to reveal something that happened during the war on Japan or something. IDK.

Also, where are the points to Diethard for completely ignoring Charles for his new Zero!fanboying??

Re: vague, vague spoilers

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

I'm very fond of all the Ashford regulars (except for Nina), including Rivalz. Rivalz and Milly seem the most like normal people, not really believing in the racism that's pervasive in their society but also not really feeling the need to rebel against it. (Lelouch pretends to be this way but ends up coming off more like a jerk, especially to Kallen.) Not that I don't think activism against racism is good, of course, but I feel like I really can't blame them considering the society they live in. It's already pretty progressive for them to just be not racist themselves, let alone to try and be activists about it like Lelouch and Euphemia. Shirley is similar to Rivalz and Milly in this way, although she's a bit more active in her personal rejection of racism (at the end of the episode, for example, she glances around with trepidation at all of her hesitant classmates, then immediately and almost defiantly jumps forward with a friendly greeting; same as earlier when she says, "Well he doesn't look so scary to me, I'm gonna go talk to him!").

I don't think we ever found out exactly why Rivalz was estranged from his father. I got the impression that it was basically general dickery. IIRC he took his mother's name (oh boy, Lelouch, a buddy in your Witness Protection Program!) and works tirelessly to support himself so that he doesn't have to rely on his parents' money (which makes it a bit more sympathetic that he tries to make money on gambling with Lelouch; Ashford has to be expensive!).
I wish Rivalz had gotten some relationship resolution with Milly. I felt kind of bad for the guy.

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

Addendum:
+3 Shutup Charles Imma watchin my Zero movies kthxbai

I imagine that they either forgot about it or decided that it wasn't really important. Maybe something leading up to that "I will destroy Britannia" scene or something. It could be an oblique reference to Lelouch being an emotional support for Suzaku after Suzaku killed his father, but I doubt he'd bring that up to Lelouch, so it's highly unlikely.

Re: vague, vague spoilers

[snowdevil-crow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I always thought that one of Code Geass's strongest point was making all the characters, even the relatively unimportant side characters, interesting and believable and complex in their own right.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

I think this is about the episode where I realised that Code Geass is actually sort of ridiculous - and that's the way I like it. (If Zero's LOL FABULOUS hadn't knocked that point home, anyway.)

I agree with what's been said here about the Student Council and what they represent of Britannian society; even if you look at the school at a whole, while there is some racism towards Suzaku, it's not universal. I really liked the moments like this that proved that Britannia was a bit more complex than the sterotypical Evil Empire; people in it do have differing attitudes and levels of consensus.

Lelouch seriously considers cutting ties with Ohgi's group, thinking they're getting too familiar.

Lelouch really has enormous issues with trust and letting people in.

minor spoilers

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

I remember being really amused by it, and finding that it really endeared me to the show. I also liked the way the first sub group I watched translated it...when Lelouch was chasing Arthur, he said, "I will not be undone by such a ridiculous series of events!" and when he was chasing Suzaku up the stairs he said, "Slow down you dumb jock!" But the subs I have on my hard drive now say something less funny, and I own the DVDs anyway so now I just watch those (I mostly keep the fansubs around in case I want to check on something from the original broadcast that was edited out of the DVD release...R2 episode 18's original animation in particular).

The Britannian higher-ups and royalty all suffer from a bit of Saturday-Morning-Cartoon-Villain-itis in R1 and very few of them really get more complex until R2, but from the beginning the regular Britannian citizens have all been treated as individuals with individual values and thoughts regarding other races and Zero. In fact, as of the hotel-jacking, Rivalz supports Zero (although it depends on which supplemental materials you look at; he calls Zero a tulip-headed jerk in the 4koma).

Lelouch does have issues, yeah (although considering his upbringing, it does make sense). It would be sensible for him to say something along the lines of, "I'm not really committed to the Japanese resistance and the heat is coming down on the resistance groups...I should cut ties to protect myself and/or Nunnally." But no, he says, "They're getting too familiar."

Re: minor spoilers

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

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.

The 2Dness of the villains always bothered me, given how good the show was at having it's other characters be complex and 3 dimensional. And I know Shirley was behind Zero until Narita; I can't recall how the rest of the council is on things.

Oh, his issues are certainly understandable. But you can also see how much they set him up to get screwed over by them.

Re: Your icon is the greatest thing

[snoozy.livejournal.com]

lol it was meant humourly; everyone knows that Lelouch is the supergenius in this show, everyone else can suck his lollipop. :DDDD

[carlenne.livejournal.com]

I remember this episode because it was the one when I finally I decided I liked Code Geass and Lelouch. He became a lot more likeable to me once we see that he's not just the heartless rebellion leader but human too.

Which is one of the reasons the Ashford episodes are a high point of Geass in general for me, because they show a different side to Lelouch. Of course, that, and they are always utterly hilarious.

[fishytasty.livejournal.com]

for a seventeen-year-old to be in the engineering corps, wouldn't they have to be a genius?

Well, if he was a mechanic or something it would be possible; I mean, they have to have more people around to help build the stuff, right? Plus there's maintenance and fixing any post-battle damage...

[otakukeith.livejournal.com]

Assorted thoughts on this episode:

-Lelouch and Suzaku devising a secret sign language as kids seems a kinda weird thing to do until you realize that it was probably so they could discuss things/signal without Nunnally knowing. I'm not sure how I feel about that, to be honest.
-SUZAKU X NUNNALLY MOMENT D'AWWWW.
-As noted, Lelouch turns into Failouch during the comedy portion of this episode, which is an apt way to put it. I always think his physical prowess seems to fluctuate depending on the tone of a given scene; if he was as clumsy as he seems to be in some of the comedy episodes all the time, I don't see how he could make his dramatic entrances etc. work without sometimes pratfalling or the like, never mind sneak around school, the ghettos, the settlement etc. so much.
-Nunnally = King Solomon? :P

[otakukeith.livejournal.com]

-1 Wait, Suzaku? An engineer? I thought he was supposed to be a dumb jock. (I know it's a lie, but it's not really believable…for a seventeen-year-old to be in the engineering corps, wouldn't they have to be a genius?)

Engineering units presumably need someone to fetch and carry and do heavy lifting and so forth, which would actually be a logical job for a second-class, not fully trusted citizen.

-3 WHERE DID HE PUT THE MASK? WHERE?!

Captain Jack Harkness: You don't wanna know.

Also, where are the points for the fact that Shirley doesn't want to be kissed but is OK running around the school in only her swimsuit (which, frankly, is more likely to get the boys excited)? Methinks this is a Japanese thing.

Re: minor spoilers

[otakukeith.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of the 'bad' Britannians come across as 2D (before they get fleshed out/woobified/etc.) because Britannia's ethos and culture aren't really explained very well. The person who expounds and seems to embrace it the most (Charles) is actually faking it, which undermines the notion that Britannia really is bad, albeit not necessarily in a unrealistic cartoon sense. The whole racism/imperialism thing gets sort of swept away in the finale of R2. I can see why they went for the spectacular clash-of-Well-Intentioned-Extremists ending, though; it's easier to show conflict among individual personalities rather than deep-seated cultural/ideological attitudes.

[luthik.livejournal.com]

-1 Wait, Suzaku? An engineer? I thought he was supposed to be a dumb jock. (I know it's a lie, but it's not really believable…for a seventeen-year-old to be in the engineering corps, wouldn't they have to be a genius?)

Sorry, but why do you think so, hm? Yes, he's not genius, but he's not dumb at all. He's emotionally unstable and impulsive, but that doesn't make him stupid. If you're talking about trope "smart and weak + strong and stupid", no it doesn't work here at all.

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

Like I said two comments below this: He's not dim, but he's not unusually bright either.
He's average intelligence, I think, and he's had no higher education. Some others have mentioned that it might make sense for him to pretend that he's working a manual labor job, sure. Suzaku is *not* a science genius. Nina is the kind of seventeen-year-old science genius who can actually do calculations and build things.

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

Engineering units presumably need someone to fetch and carry and do heavy lifting and so forth, which would actually be a logical job for a second-class, not fully trusted citizen.

That makes sense I suppose.

Also, where are the points for the fact that Shirley doesn't want to be kissed but is OK running around the school in only her swimsuit (which, frankly, is more likely to get the boys excited)? Methinks this is a Japanese thing.

Maybe a girl thing? If I had to choose between a guy I didn't know kissing me and a guy I didn't know seeing me in a bathing suit, I'd definitely choose the latter, especially if it was a modest swimsuit. Close personal contact like a kiss is far more intimate than being seen in something that shows my legs and arms.

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

That's true. I just find it surprising that they'd trust a high school student with that job, as I don't think I could've gotten a maintenance job in high school. But maybe not, especially since the army could provide adequate training, and this is already an army that allows underaged people to enroll.

Mmm, lollipops

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

I gotcha.
Man I wish...Is there a line? A sign-up sheet? A schedule?

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

That's how I feel about it too. I like seeing Lelouch's human side in addition to his badass side.