miscellaneous CG R2 thoughts (and a poll!)

[susure.livejournal.com]

Since Geass is set to wrap up in six episodes, I decided I'd piece together an entry of my impressions up to this point, plus some nagging thoughts that may never be addressed.

Code Geass is the first series I've followed as it aired, so I hate having to wait a week after each episode. First off, I want to express my ♥ for this community because a lot of people here seem to like Rolo, whereas the blogs I read have been player hating for reals. Rolo is my second favourite CG character, after C.C. and just before Lloyd.

Ever notice people who are completely unsympathetic to Rolo even after his death ALWAYS bring up Shirley? "HOW COULD LELOUCH BE SO NICE TO ROLO AFTER HE KILLLLED SHIRLEY" Stop that crap. Shirley was FILLER (my test: how much Lulu x Shirley fanart is there, vs Lulu x Kallen, Lulu x C.C., Lulu x Suzaku/Xingke/Rolo/Shinkiro/etc) and I believe she should have died in the Mao arc. The fact that Rolo planned on killing Nunnally was way more important, but Lelouch didn't know (had he known, I'm sure he'd have strangled Rolo with his fabulous bare hands but that's neither here nor there since she's 'dead' anyway as of Turn 19). Given that he had earlier told Rolo he hated him, tried to kill him, and the latter STILL saved Lelouch's life at the cost of his own.. How could he not have developed some sort of appreciation by the end? What I don't get is why, the whole time Rolo was spamming his Geass, Lelouch kept telling him to stop, "Do you want to die?!" It doesn't make sense for him to CARE necessarily if Rolo gives up his life; even if he's lost his own will to live. Right?

Enough about Rolo, I guess. Here comes the random.

1. You guys remember Li Xingke? That whole cliche coughing up blood thing was early foreshadowing that he'd have some untimely death. Then there's Xianglin's quote about how he just wasn't given enough time. But here we are, Turn 19 going on 20, and he's still alive. I mean, he could still die, but I think his time was ripe back in the Chinese Federation arc (maybe when he was protecting Tianzi). At this point, he's probably already lost his chance at a poignant death.

2. Does anybody else think Jeremiah switching sides was really sudden? Not just that, but he's undergone a whole personality shift. I know fanfic writers will have SOME way of justifying it, maybe it has to do with having a reason to live again, a method of redemption.. But even though season one is but a distant memory to me, I recall him being way smarmier and underhanded. Now he's like, all about teh loyalty and chivalry. Parking his Knightmare to tell Suzaku thanks. Lame. Personally I don't even know how loyal he is to Lelouch because he does seem to be hesitant to take out members of the royal family (ie, Cornelia) and won't even attack Suzaku unless he's commanded to.

3. Not saying there should be any more Knights of Rounds but I don't get their numbering system. There doesn't seem to be anyone filling spots 11, 8, 5, 4, and 2. Are there just no promotions? Does Nonette Enneagram permanently occupy the Ko9 position because her name is so stupid appropriate? She hasn't even been introduced yet and I'm already so disinterested because if Suzaku is the "benchmark," I don't really care about anyone statistically weaker than him. Nevermind. I fail at wikiing.

4. Knightmares. Does anyone here care about mechs? R2 went insane when it came to upgrade wars, with varying degrees of awesomeness. Guren Aerial was weak, too deus ex machina of an introduction. Guren SEITEN is a bit better (but I might just be glad she killed Luciano). Really dumb question here, but was I the only one who thought Tristan's beam thing was a hasty add-on? OH YA WHEN I RUB MUH HARKENS 2GETHER THEY SHOOT PEWPEWLAZERS. I guess when Tristan was introduced, his selling point was the transformationz while his only weapon was the pole. Then the designers realized they gave everyone else a massive beam weapon, so Tristan had to have one too in order to be taken srsly. Whatever right? NO. Things were chill back when Gawain owned the skies and was virtually unbeatable (..except by Cornelia in her level one frame).

5. C.C.'s memories need to be returned somehow. I thought the new C.C. was cute for about one episode, but she has no place in R2 as it is (which is why they keep her locked in a room). I don't know what happened to her code. Can the Emperor take TWO codes? Is he that much of a pimp? She didn't lose her memory right after whatever he did to her, since she was able to free Lelouch's Knightmare. I just think it sucks that she lost her immortality AND her memories but Lelouch gets nothing out of the deal (presuming that, since he still has Geass). ETA: why did Lelouch's memories return when they kissed? Making out has Geass canceling powers now? It's worth a try.

6. I don't think Nunnally is dead (SCREW THE CHART). When FREI(J?)A went off and they showed her in the light, I just didn't think "onoez, she dead." Like not at all. They didn't show her disintegrating, duh. And it's so easy to animate. FREIA should have been a plot device to cull off minor characters (gj on Miss Romeyer, Guilford, Glaston Knights) but if Nunnally and Sayoko are gone and TAMAKI is still around, something went very wrong. ETA: I should maybe mention that if Nunnally at this point is TRULY dead, Lelouch hasn't wangsted enough. If you consider Nunnally the primary motivating factor for the series thusfar, half of one episode is NOT enough for him to get over it and be lucid again. If he's crazy for the rest of the series then I will allow Nunnally's passing. B-but.. :(

I know this is tl;dr as it is but maybe people will read if they're interested in speculating at length since this is all we can do until Sunday.

OH IN CLOSING: Your top 3 and bottom 3 characters, letting you show me them.

You know my top, so here are the bottom: Kanon, Rivalz (who no longer has any friends, yay), and Nina of course. My reasons for disliking the first two are petty, admittedly. But I got no beef with Schneizel.

There were plenty of opinionated commenters, so here are some of the results.

CHARACTER	+	–	NET
Lelouch	21	0 !!!	21
Rolo ♥	16	4	12
C.C.	13	2	11
Suzaku	12	4	8
Kallen	14	7	7
Anya	6	0	6
Cornelia, Gino	4	0	4
Lloyd	3	0	3
Kaguya, V.V., Euphemia, Xingke	2	0	2
Villetta	3	1	2
Ougi	3	3	0
Nunnally	1	3	-2
Kanon, all of the Black Knights, Miya/NANI MAI HANI	0	2	-2
Schneizel	3	6	-3
Rivalz, Eunuchs, Miss Romeyer, Carline le Britannia	0	3	-3
Diethard	0	4	-4
Luciano, Charles/The Emperor	0	5	-5
Shirley	2	10	-8
Nina	0	26	-26

As of 100 comments (most of which were from me D: ). Past this, your vote won't be part of this table though you should still express yourself for the lulz.

Okay, so maybe my polling methods were broken. People who said the char. was a fave gave them + points and those who listed the char. as a least fave gave them negative points. Net value should hopefully offer some sense of overall popularity. If you listed more than three "tops" or "bottoms" I chose the first three, hoping your hatred or love would order them as such. I didn't count characters with only one vote.

No surprise Nina is the least popular, though Shirley is second least pops, to which I raise an eyebrow. Kallen is disliked by quite a few people too. But if you take a close look, Jeremiah is NOT even on the chart. Surprising for such a meme-tastic character?

Meanwhile Lelouch has NO haters and is the clear winner of most popular. Suzaku is somehow slightly more popular than Kallen, and Nunnally is below the Ougi line (who is so average nobody really has an opinion about him one way or another). I conclude this community is on crack :D

Comments

[susure.livejournal.com]

And even though this entire entry has about run its course, I want to add that if the terms of the contract were that Mao would power up his Geass and one day kill C.C. - he did try. Sort of puts that arc in a whole new light, eh.

Since his Geass was permanently active and in both eyes, I guess I'm wondering why wasn't he able to kill her? :\

[gdmcrjunkie.livejournal.com]

Well, maybe there's a special way of killing someone with a code, we don't really know (like Koutei-chan and C.C. dancing? :D) (oh lol and it'd have made my day if he did the same thing with V.V. :D :D). And also she was shot in the legs and arm, not exactly killing material.