From Russia with love :-)

[zinik-alexander.livejournal.com]

Hello everybody.
I'm a CG-fan from Russia, and it's my first post to this community - just because I'm not sure in my English-writing skills. But, anyway, last two series were so awesome, that I can't be silent anymore.

We have a joke in russian internets, which can be translated to English as "WWWAtP" - "When We Will Achieve the Power". It is used when you speak about becoming a fearsome dictator or a revolutionary leader, in sarcastic manner usually. And "WWWAtP" was my ultimate reason to watch CG. I wanted to see how Lelouch will become an Emperor - and finally, after more than a year of waiting, he did it! I just can't say how awesome is this. I was really happy.

But my happiness isn't the main reason for me to write this post - I understand one thing while watching 22 Ep.
Nobody from main characters of this anime isn't a good guy. No. They aren't anti-heroes, they are really bad villains. Even if they think that they have good intentions, like Lelouch, Suzaku or Charles, they are villains and evil guys. They are traitors, murderers and liars, they are ruthless power-hungry bastards, they commited patricide and fratricide, or something like that.
Charles, Marianne, V.V., C.C., Schneizel, Lelouch, Suzaku, Toudou, Ohgi, Viletta, Diethard, Kanon, Nina... Even Lloyd, that cowardly sociopathic freak. Even Kaguya, who betrayed her husband and started to act as a real politician.
Of course, there are some really noble or innocent characters - like Cornelia, Kallen or Milly.
But main heroes are really, really, really vile, vicious and evil, and Lelouch isn't any better than Schneizel.

And this is that makes CG so awesome. Hide away moral essays and just behold this great clash of iron wills, that battle without honour and humanity, where winner takes it all, and losers will be punished by death. So brutal. So cynical. So cool.

Well... If anybody is disagree, you're welcome to argue. I'll be glad to hear you.

PS: Sorry if my English isn't very good or my thoughts are old. I just wasn't able to hold it inside me :-)

Comments

[pinkified.livejournal.com]

I don't think that Cornelia is innocent. And Kallen too. A good example of innocence is Rollo and Shirley, not some bitchy girls who can kill everyone who's not on their side :/

[god-diva.livejournal.com]

Really. I was under the impression that Code Geass was rather awesome because its characters are ambiguous in their morality. You can't tell whether they are good or bad. Nearly all the characters you list as traitors, murderers, and liars have a bad and good side that we have been shown or hinted to at least once. So, while I agree they may seem more like pure villains, I can't agree that it's truly the case. I also can't agree since R2 does a bigger job at showing the more human/emotional side of Lelouch and it would seem rather horrible not to see what the difference between Lelouch R1 and Lelouch R2 is when it has been clearly shown many times. Even in R1 this issue is discussed and I won't go into details because it would get rather long and it's pretty obvious. Actually, the whole basis's of Suzaku being Lelouchs foil comes from morality, really.

[fujiappletan.livejournal.com]

...best russian joke I've ever heard. xD
the thing about Code Geass is everyone is just either really human or really psycho. &those cliffhangers, oh baby I love those. ♥

[levy.livejournal.com]

I was too positively impressed by the moral questionability of the majority of Code Geass characters, and the climax of the recent episodes, to me, bring to the surface all the conflict of all these different and subjective assesment of what is good and what is not. The short talk between Gino and Suzaku in the last episode was quite emblematic in this sense.

Lelouch, Suzaku & Schneizel have now lost any shade of coherency and are quite umpredictable because of a poorly written show (same goes for Charles and Marianne, in a way, I haven't understand what was their real goal so far, even if I'm quite comfortable in saying they are shitty parents).
But where Geass fails - or at least sounds quite exaggerate - in the rendition of the protagonists, the chorality works out pretty nicely.

Minor characters are surprisingly coherent with themselves: a lot of them, beside being fighters, and so guilty, or at least responsible for what they did, are really noble and act accordingly with their values and moral code (Kaguya, Guilford, Tohdoh and his comrades, Li, Jeremiah, Gino in a way...); others might be biased by their emotions or by convenience, being aware of it or no ( Karen, Ohgi, Villetta, Cornelia, Diethard, Lloyd and Cécile, Kanon..?). Others, like Rollo and Nina, though being understandable in their emotions, push their lack of..humanity too far to fall inside his definition, and became unforgivable. (I don't care if Rollo redeemes himself in the eyes of the fans by sacrificing himself for Lelouch, he was still a psyco murderer that shot and killed Shirley just because she mentioned Nunnally. And Nina, too, I don't like at all the redemption path they opened for her in the last episode)
Others, again, could be considere quite innocent: Shirley, Milly, Rivalz, Tianzi, Nunnally ... maybe Odisseus and his sisters, but they are actually quite powerless.

Maybe Euphemia was the only one innocent but powerfull character of the series, and maybe her death also meant that the age of innocence and redemption through love, for the both Suzaku and the world, was lost forever.

[vicks111.livejournal.com]

Odysseus, anyone?
The poor guy was a nice older brother, kind and NOT a sociopath/crazy ax murderer/with mom issues. I love you Schneizel, but I'll be damn pissed if you didn't save him from the Pendragon explosion. All your other siblings can die, except Odysseus. He had even joined the military gladly (he was geassed, but at least happy!)

Characters that I think are good: Kaguya, Milly, Odysseus, and Kanon. Pretty much everyone else has done something horrible to someone else (Kanon's bordering the line here)