Britannia's Religion

[vicks111.livejournal.com]

Religion has been mentioned offhand many times in Geass, but never actually stated. I started thinking about this from a review and Clovis' few chosen words. I would really like to hear everyone's opinion on this, maybe we can figure it out XD

SPOILERS FOR GEASS HISTORY AND EP 21

Ok, is the Empire christian or not? I think it was pretty much given by its name "Holy Empire of Britannia", but apparently since Julius Cesar did not conquer England, then they did not became christians. However, if you think about it, Catholicism still became big, even if England was not part of the empire. It is logical to think, that even if they were not officially christian, the Church was pretty big back in the medieval ages and renaissance and they must have had an impact.

It's interesting that the Geass history mentions Elizabeth I, which set the foundation for the Church of England. But then Elizabeth III abdicated the throne of England. She was no longer Queen and Napoleon invaded. She came to the Americas, and it's given that the rest of the Empire came under her rule.

Now, if she abdicated and there was no (mentioned) war in the Americas, she must have pulled something big to scare the Spaniards away. By the time she arrived in US, the South American colonies were starting the process of Independence. They would not have relinquished their land so easily, since they even fought war with Spain. The Central American colonies would have annexed easily, but not South America.
She was no longer Queen of England, and had no other power but loyalty from those that came with her. To be able to create such an empire as Britannia (just the continent) without turmoil, she must have had help from the Catholic church. And the Americas would have not accepted a queen that was not crowned by the Pope.

...Now I want to see if Lulu gets crowned by a priest XD
......and yes, I am a wee bit obsessive with the most random things. You can clearly see I have given this much a thought.

Comments

[powercorrupts.livejournal.com]

I've wondered about that myself, actually. I tend to just assume that they're actually, for once, not bothering to try and step on Christianity. Sunrise isn't one of the bigger offenders in terms of western religion bashing as far as studios go, but all the same, I might be giving an anime too much credit in assuming that it's actually not trying to offend Christians. xD

As far as the "Holy Britannian Empire," I figured it was simply not too unlike the historical Holy Roman Empire, which was neither holy, roman, nor truly an empire, but second guessing Sunrise's intentions doesn't always lead to accuracy.

Given the nun we see with C.C., I'm not sure whether that should imply Christianity or the opposite. There's no obvious trappings of Christianity in that church, though the layout of the church itself and the nun's habit would imply it.

And to be perfectly honest, I've always associated the Arthurian legends as being tied up with the coming of Christianity to the isles, as well. I've got no idea how accurate that is, though some of my favourite of the retellings feature it, and I just assumed. So to isolate the two seems really foreign to me.

I'm halfway hoping, to be honest, that we won't actually get religion in Geass. While I'd really like some clarification on the religion issue, I'm glad that at least they haven't played some sort of horrible, cheap religion-bashing card as far as it goes. I'm all for questioning organized faiths through fiction, but these days sometimes I think anime does it just for the lulz.

[vicks111.livejournal.com]

I'm halfway hoping, to be honest, that we won't actually get religion in Geass
with the way they are going I also hope not. But it would be nice to know the country's official religion XD

As for the Arthurian legends, I am not good with them. Just know the basic story, and even then I don't get it that much.

[mikoto-chan13.livejournal.com]

I've always associated the Arthurian legends as being tied up with the coming of Christianity to the isles, as well.

That is definitely true, see the legend about the Holy Grail etc. Arthur and his knights were knights of faith and they were associated with the best Christian virtues.

[tensa-chan.livejournal.com]

You do realize that most of the tales are bastardized forms of ancient oral history adapted so that the Romans would let the natives tell them? King Arthur is actually the fictional amalgamation of several real Welsh kings.