Symbolism of wings in ED2

[rebmastu.livejournal.com]

I'll bet my ass this has been posted about before (and if somebody points the post out to me I'll delete this one), but there's an interesting kind of symbolic motif going on in this most recent ending. LJ cut because, duh, it's spoilery.

Everyone who has died so far in this season has wings in the ending. Nunnally (Let's face it guys, that was a NUKE), Shirley (;_;), and.... granted, that's it. It's still interesting to note, though. I guess we'll see how it pans out in the end, right?

Other wings of note:
-Ougi, for instance, is holding feathers falling from the air. I take this to mean that either someone close to him will die or has already died, and it'll impact him later/or is impacting him currently. (Kallen's brother? HEY, WHATEVER HAPPENED WITH THAT GUY!?) Or he could die, but we'll see.
-Lelouche is either holding a wing or grasping his own, I can't tell. Either way, there are feathers.
-There's a feather in Ninja!Maid's shadow.
-Schniezel holds a feather with stone wings in the background. Are these his wings, or are they the wings of crumbled statues? Iiiinteresting.
-Le-douche and Suzaku share a wing at the end. Could by symbolic of Nunnally (Or even Shirley or Euphie, way back when) or a mutual death, but we'll see how that ends up.

It's interesting to note that not everyone has a feather. If they did, I wouldn't bother making this post. =P

Comments

[kyoy.livejournal.com]

REBBY WATCHES R2 OH JOY. \O/

....I live under a rock, I know.

[kyoy.livejournal.com]

Just properly read your post.

Interesting insights. :3

[rebmastu.livejournal.com]

HAY KYOY WTF R U DOIN HERE

[kyoy.livejournal.com]

I'VE BEEN HERE ALL MY LIFE.

CODE GEASS. THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE.

[rebmastu.livejournal.com]

HOOOOLY CRAP. KYO-CHAN, ARE YOU AN ANDROID!? 'CAUSE THAT'S A PRETTY SHORT LIFE Y'KNOW!

[brokensocks.livejournal.com]

Uh oh. I think you may be right. =0

But what about Cornelia? I think she had wings too... or perhaps that's the point. She's gonna die. x_X

[miribai.livejournal.com]

For sake of my sanity, I hope you are wrong. I always get shit on when I pick my pairings and since Guilford/Cornelia is now dead, I'm latching onto Villeta/Ohgi for dear fucking life. Neither one of them better not die...*sniff* please...we've lost so much already. ;__;

[breepants.livejournal.com]

The updated character chart says that Guilford is "Whereabouts Unknown."

Hopefully that means that he's injured, but alive.

I ship Villetta/Ohgi so hard. I will cry if it does not happen.

hey...

[chinatsunekoi.livejournal.com]

Dosen't C.C have wings (sorta) covering her 0.0...;__;<----emo,emo

[hayato.livejournal.com]

Um.

Really?
I wouldn't read much into it.

The ending pictures are done by CLAMP.

There are three things CLAMP loves; canon gay, long long limbs, and wings.

[lavaliere]

You forget ribbons, eyeball eating, and chains.

[hayato.livejournal.com]

oh yes. Especially chains.

[hyper-airis.livejournal.com]

Eyeballs! I forgot about that!

I should probably use the proper icon.

[rebmastu.livejournal.com]

OM NOM NOM.

But seriously, the only thing I find striking about the wings is the fact that they're used so selectively, not to mention specifically.

[scuba-dooba.livejournal.com]

*points to icon*

[scuba-dooba.livejournal.com]

CLAMP has a lot of fetishes.

[scuba-dooba.livejournal.com]

and Tokyo Babylon.

[hyper-airis.livejournal.com]

This is what I was about to say in my comment but hee~ You've pointed it out already.

I've seen too much of CLAMP art and yes, they have a strange fascination with pretty and delicate designs, swords, and wings. Oh and yes, canon gay. XD vampires too

(Long limbs aren't always CLAMP's thing but since one of their members decided to go solo, they've stuck to the pasta bodies. :|)

But yes, the insights ARE interesting.

[gdmcrjunkie.livejournal.com]

There was an entry like this for the first ending around the beginning of R2 and as far as I remember most of the guesses turned out to be true.

[klingon-jedi.livejournal.com]

I remember reading that they were given certain things that had to be done. Wings and chains on some characters were requested by the director. In fact, the Shirley image of her being winged and unchained was deemed too much a spoiler and moved to ending 2.

So there is significance.

Oh, and it wasn't a nuke. Nuke's don't convert matter or swap space, something FLEIIA does. look at how the office gets broken into neat particles.

So they might not be dead. Especially since Sunrise says they might not be.

[fujiappletan.livejournal.com]

I like how the first picture we see is of C.C. who now has white wings and Lelouch who is just enshrouded in dark (are they wings... though). The fact C.C. has white wings could mean she's going to die if we're going with what you're saying; I think it could just represent her "purer" state from reverting back to the young slave girl she was with no knowledge of the geass.

[lulu-quality.livejournal.com]

Honestly, from the information we've been given, CLAMP's contributions to the series have been purely stylistic, not content-oriented. In one of the more recent e-magazines, it was mentioned that CLAMP did the illustrations for both endings at the same time. They also mentioned the theme for the images was "chains and wings." Actually, the illustration of Shirley was originally meant for the first ending, but Taniguchi and co. relegated it to the second because they deemed it too spoilery. Based on the same column, it sounds like CLAMP was not familiar with the future plot progressions, just drawing the characters the staff told them to using their stylistic theme.

[melfra.livejournal.com]

Even so, what about the stuff from the first series? One of the endings depicted a bloody CC in the church, and the exact same thing showed up in R2. I'm not saying Sunrise couldn't have been influenced in some way by the picture, but the way the scene was animated so specifically and featured as a major point would, I think, account for something.

Also, even if CLAMP was given "chains and wings" as themes, it's up to them how they utilize it, and I seriously doubt a group that does not only character design but ending animation as well would be filled in on at least the basics, and not let to roam wild. I mean, think about it, they'd have to have some sort of familiarization with the characters, plot points, and relationships so they wouldn't cause some sort of faux pas with the stuff depicted.

[lulu-quality.livejournal.com]

The first series' illustrations were by Takahiro Kimura, the character designer and head animation director. He does know the plot. He's in charge of animating it. And for the record, CLAMP didn't even know that Clovis was going to die and he died in the third episode! Mokona of CLAMP was completely heartbroken at the development ~_~;; Personally, I want to analyze the drawings, too, but the most we can draw from them is what's taken at face value. The most Taniguchi gave them was probably "I would like to see an angelic Shirley" or "I would like to a dark Schneizel," but nothing deeper than that.

[gatekeepers-21.livejournal.com]

Weeeellll said!

[klingon-jedi.livejournal.com]

Well, that just nullified my post. Thanks though!

[lulu-quality.livejournal.com]

Oh, I forgot to add, since I was writing this on a cell phone I have the best phone ever!, but your icon rocks my soul :D

[darksage29.livejournal.com]

iphone hax XD

[angel-dunnant.livejournal.com]

This has actually caught my interest too! The theme has been there since the first ED sequence, where there's Euphie with wings.. and then at the second ED they made it clear with Shirley ;__;

Nunally's one actually not real wings. If you look closely, it's wings sculpture behind her and I had been wondering whether that will also like a death announcement on characters since Schneizel has it too. >__>;

[yedijoda.livejournal.com]

I really love the last pic from the ED--Suzaku has feathery white wings spreading out behind him, but Lelouch has shredded, stretched red fabric wings that extend way beyond the frame of the picture. Oh, the implications of Lelouch's bloody wings!

[e-eleniel.livejournal.com]

But Suzaku's wings are made of stone which were real feathers in the ED1. Interesting...

[e-eleniel.livejournal.com]

Symbolism-wise the first ED is just as striking.
Lulu's panel shows just a tiny bit of bat-wings.
Nunally has none, Rollo has one feather and one bat wing (duality - reminding me of X)
Cornelia has none but Euphie has feather wings.
Gino has none and Anya has a white pair.
Sharuru has none -since he is devil incarnate XD- but V.V. has two floating white pair.
Kallen is a bat-girl whilst Suzaku is an 'angel'.
C.C. has a single bat-wing.

And 'All hail Brittania' wear white and 'bat' boys and girls wear black.

This color-wing-sword symbolism kills me.

[leitao.livejournal.com]

When I saw Nunnally's ED pic, the first thing I thought was, 'It looks like she's in that place the Emperor always goes to -- the one with the pillars and what-not.'

. . . What? I can hope! Don't be dead, Nunnally~

[brisent.livejournal.com]

ROCKS FALL (or wing pillars) and everyone dies.
That's just what I think will happen :| I also think there will be resurected people running around the place at SOME POINT in the show.

[cloudcataurelia.livejournal.com]

You haven't play NWN2 haven't you?

[seikita.livejournal.com]

... ehr... what's a nuke?

^^U

-Sei.

[darkniwa02.livejournal.com]

A big bomb.

[seikita.livejournal.com]

Thank you ^___^

Although it's kinda late now, now I get the post. xD

-Seika.

[leitao.livejournal.com]

It's short for "nuclear," as in a nuclear bomb. To "nuke" someone is to bomb them to smithereens, basically. ^^;;

[seikita.livejournal.com]

Kinda late, but thanks ^___^

That explains a lot.

[red-assasin.livejournal.com]

but what about nunally, the wings on her back are not hers, are from an statue, the same happens with suzaku (and schnaizel) , that means, that maybe in a moment they are gonna fake their deaths???

[darksage29.livejournal.com]

It's just CLAMP being CLAMP. Nothing more, nothing less.

[rebmastu.livejournal.com]

And this is a speculative discussion post. Where's the fun in Geass if we can't think up wild theories based on symbolism?

[cloudcataurelia.livejournal.com]

OMG, about reading the obvious. So i'm not the only one who thought of this.
If Shirley's share of pictures would be put into the first ED....