There’s one problem here with these kind of thematic studies; it’s how we methodology go about aniblogging, go about analyzing. Since some wordpress dashboards can be so fickle, posting embedded youtube videos proves to be quite the hassle at times, and so we’re forced to resort to representing one medium – video – for a single image. This kind of paradigm shift really limits the breadth of information just a few seconds of video has over a single image. Of course you’re allowed to call me lazy, but if I were to post 25 videos in a visual study instead of 25 images, would you really watch every single one? I obviously wouldn’t want to extract 25 clips; that would be a pain in the ass. It’s an incredibly difficult effort to signify that breadth of time with an inert frame, there’s not enough room for meaning in that 3^rd dimension, it needs the fourth.

But there are two problems at hand here. Concerning the last post, specifically the brief study of glasses as visual, cultural artifacts, we isolate the sign from its larger sign. Essentially, the representation of a character as a whole, in its entirety, is a syntagm, a structure of signs of which we are able to isolate, remove, speculate upon, analyze, deconstruct various paradigms within that structural syntagm. Paradigms are choices: hair, is it short, long or medium? Color, is it white, grey, silver, black, blue etc.? Skin hue, dark, brown, as pale as paper? Eyes, huge, a little less than huge? Glasses, no glasses? What is the ratio¹ of her zettai ryouiki, the grade? A+, C, S-class Rin? All these kinds of choices (there are infinite more) constitute the paradigms that are inherently part the larger character structure. Luckily we are able to perform this very isolation.

There are a plethora of paradigmatic signs here, the syntagmatic sign-structure being the Kallen we are so familiar with. In the left picture² there’s the glasses, an object of primary concern, the finger pattern³, the smile, the hair style which is nicely juxtaposed to the image on the right, the curvature of the eyebrows, once again juxtaposed to pizza-Kallen, the attire, seemingly attempting to emulate the school teacher, and so forth and so on. In the right image⁴, there’s the pizza, the facial expression that consists of the eye brow curvature, mouth, wide eyes, the school uniform, the hair style, the juice box, the finger position, once again contrasting the fingers on the left. We can then isolate these signs…

Even semiotic isolation proves to be difficult since the “invisible” Kallen behind the faceless hair styles pervades into the very essence of these stylizations. Nevertheless, the left, being messy, connotes, well, messyness, unrulyness, perhaps lazyness, rebellion, etc. The straight hair connotes self-order, discipline, hygiene, etc. The odd thing is that, as poignant a series Code Geass was, Kallen simply was a number of things. She was the cold-hearted killer, the indifferent school girl, the moe school girl (clad in thigh highs), the naked girl in an awkward situation, the valiant pilot, the helpless imouto, the Japanese, the Britannian, the rebel, and so forth. Kallen is, at one point or another, represented as all these archetypes. The narrow position of her self cannot, simultaneously, represent all these characteristic structures, so her representation is situational, dependant upon context.

Obviously the methodological problem here is attempting to depict a signifier with a complete sign (since I don’t intend to evoke the signified via the contextually incoherent signifier). Nevertheless, it does help to visualize if you have a floating signifier image at hand. So we’re left to equivocate one sign with another; obviously the hand in the left Kallen is not the same as the Nayuki hand here.

You can, if you wish, further divide these signs (syntagms in their own right) into more or less empirical paradigms. These more basic paradigms are things like color, height, length, width, “mass” (if that’s at all quantifiable in two dimensions).

The “first level” is the greater syntagm of Kallen, the entire representation. We can isolate the sign or cultural artifact, the hand, the kind of, so to speak, “semiotic clothing”, then further isolate its constitutive paradigms, one of them being color. Of course this is not to limit the adjustments of color to the effect of only the hand. Obviously if her skin color were different, say she were a greenish tint, that change would affect her entire representation, it would not have to pass through the sign of the hand like a car through a toll booth. The hierarchy of the syntagm does not operate in such a fashion; nevertheless, color is more basic than a portion of a character structure which is, in turn, more basic than the entire character representation, since we cannot signify voice and, generally speaking, personality within the two-dimensional image.

And, of course, pale skin is usually a sign of ambiguous things like grace, elegance, refinement, dare I say “purity“. I am dutifully obliged to note exceptions, this Kallen juxtaposition being one in itself: the pizza-eating school girl is slightly more tanned than our, what I would be inclined to call, seductive teacher model. Within the Geassverse there are exceptions plentiful: orange-kun is dark, and our lovely brown Britannian aren’t depicted as culturally “lower” than the light skinned ones, and this goes to contradict any absolute essentialist position which would posit that since Lelouch is light skinned, all Britannians must therefore be fair. You can, however, notice that a good chunk of the Japanese males are slightly more brown that the counterpart Britannians.

Suzaku seems to be mid hued compared to the darker Tamaki, while Kaguya is pretty pale. Of course it’s not hyperbolized to the point of, say, Honey & Clover (since god forbid a supposed Japanese girl look Japanese, but maybe she’s a foreigner or enjoys colored contacts?).

Take this doujin, for instance.⁵ There are a whole bunch of things going on here: the crying, the jump suite, the boobs, the protective hand, etc. These things I’ve listed are corroborated by the lack of headband and Domon-esque hair, two defining traits of Kallen’s battle-ready image. She does have, however, that jump suit, which might be more a fetishization of anything skin-tight (similar to thigh highs). The fighting girl concept, perhaps, paradoxically, contributes to this by negating itself. If Kallen is, primarily, a fighter, her position here nullifies those historically masculine things – since it was kinda weird seeing Kallen cry in various episodes, noticeably the one where Lelouch came on to her – with the emphasis on femininity. Here, feminine counter hegemony, the fact that she’s usurped the masculine position of ace pilot (juxtaposed by the GAR Knight of One, Suzaku, attested to by Cornelia) is refuted and appropriated by the dominating and traditional hedonistic (doujinshi itself is rather hedonistic) practice of patriarchal ideology. Contrast this to super-awesome, fist-pumping, Suzaku-owning, huge boob-growing-per-episode Kallen in the first image of this post. Totally in ideological contradistinction.

Essentially, since I’m past the 1000 word limit, it’s crucial to, in trying to understand how characters are constructed, analyze the character as structured, as pieced together with various elements – signs – which contribute to the entire image. This could have been developed more, buttressed with more examples, but the gist was sent. In the next post I’ll hopefully be able to expound upon that notion of “reverse closure” a little more, that is to say the relationships between signs which form the glue that holds the syntagm together. On that note, in summary, this post was briefly looking at key components of structures, not necessarily how they are architected and soldered into place.

References

1 http://burogublog.wordpress.com/2008/06/08/the-art-and-science-of-zettai-ryouiki/
2 http://www.animetake.com/
3 http://that.animeblogger.net/2008/08/21/lwc-61-visual-study-in-feminine-finger-positions/
4 http://www.darkmirage.com/
5 http://www.deranged-minds.com/blog/2007/02/16/code-geass/

As promised, here is our final review of Code Geass as a whole. Anything goes here comment wise, and I hope you’ve enjoyed our coverage of Geass this past 6 months. I know I’ve enjoyed writing about it and engaging in conversations with my readers. I’d like to thank all of you that read my entries (and I was really surprised how many of you there were). I’d especially like to thank those commenters who contributed each week and gave me a lot to think about. Finally, thanks to Crusader for putting his spin on things and serve as a counterweight to my fanboyisms.

Characters

I’m starting with characters first because I think that characters are the primary reason in which I thought this show was great. You know that you really care about the characters in a show when you get gravely pissed off when they get trashed in their development later on.

Lelouch is probably the only character that really had a full character development over the entire series. They pretty much had no choice in that matter because he was the main character, and without him changing over the course of the show it would have been a flop. He slowly transitioned from pure rage (death of his mother), to a careful planner (OotBK), to being held back by his emotions (Shirley/Euphemia/Nunally), to sacrificing his morals for success (Euphemia, OotBK, geass cult), to throwing away his past (his parents, Nunally), to dedication to the end result (taking over Brittania), and finally, to self-sacrifice (death). None of the other characters had anywhere near the same level of development. I hugely enjoyed his various theatrics and over-the-top speeches throughout the series, second only to the awesomeness that was Emperor Wakamoto. Those speeches were just amazing to watch. And who could forget the fabulousness…

The rest of the cast was way over inflated. During the first season it didn’t seem so large, and I fell for Kallen, C.C., and Kaguya, in that order. More than just because I thought they were hot, I found especially C.C. to be a deeply intriguing character to follow. I really found it unfortunate how they destroyed many of the great characters from season one over the course of R2, people like Cornelia, Toudou, and Kallen. The cast is so huge that I really can’t discuss them individually here, you’ll have to look through all my posts to see my views on all of them. But in the end, do you think you will ever forget all of the characters? Think of all the memorable side cast (Shirley, Rivalz, Milly, Nina, Lloyd, Cecile, Ougi, Villetta, Anya, Gino, Orange, Cornelia, etc.), something for everyone and a cast that will stay with me.

Character Ratings: 8/10 due to R2 character destruction (Lelouch 10/10)

Crusader’s Take:

I have made it no secret my utter loathing for poncy effete ivory tower eggheads with a  pretension to military genius, I am very much a follower of advocates of total war when is comes to the philosophy of war and the hard science of conflict. Suffice to say the titular lead of Code Geass deviated and tried unsuccessfully to challenge the legacy of Clausewitz in a rather sloppy manner. Clausewitz was right Goro is wrong. Were it so easy Lulu, were it so easy. Milage varies with regard to lead charcters and suffice to say mine was worse than a H2.

Still other than that the cast was bursting at the seams and since death was only for the most part temporary much of the drama was killed off once the reality of the revolving door for the office of death was discovered. At least in R1 the cast was at least manageable if barely in R2 it just got ridiculous to the point remebering people’s names had become a chore. In the end it seems every one from the first season who survived suffered greatly in the development department to make way for new guys who never amounted to much of anything. Li in particular seemed little better than an expendable Todou clone, and given how he was trumpeted as an equal of Lulu and Suzaku it was sad to see that it was certainly not the case give how Li had very little action to speak of and how the Kallen vs. Suzaku rivalry, and Schniezel vs. Lulu rivalry made Li a secondary actor at best. We don’t get much to work with in regards to the rest of the cast and it just highlights the pitfalls of having such a large cast without enough death to cull off people who no longer have a real purpose. In hindsight R2 could have benefited more from an Ali al Sarshes that could have eliminated some of the fat. As it stands I still feel that the Knight of Rounds were misused since they could have been so much more.

Character Rating: (R1) B+, (R2) C-, (Final Grade) C

Music

I think a lot of people would have ignored this or even put it at the end but not me. The music in geass was absolutely superb, one of the top 5 all-time for sure. Starting with the OPs, “Colors” (aka Jibun Woooooooo) by Flow remains near the top of my playlist even today, a perfect rocking pace to the start of the series. “Kaidoku Funou” by Jinn wasn’t particularly exciting, but it was tolerable, but “Hitomi no Tsubasa” from Access was a rock solid closing song for the first season. As for R2, initially I found that “O2” from Orange Range wasn’t particularly fitting, but it grew on me over the course of the season and once that single came out and has become one of my favorites. Plus, nothing beats how pumped you get when they show Orange-kun while singing “I continue to fight!” They went back to Flow for “World End” to finish off R2, and while I found that it was decent, it wasn’t all that memorable. The various EDs served their purpose quite well, even though I don’t particularly care for Ali Project. They slowed things down a bit at the end of each episode, doing what EDs are supposed to do.

The OST was even better than the collection of OPs end EDs. If you have not listened to all four sets of them, do yourself a favor and get your hands on them. The bgm throughout was top notch, with upbeat action tracks for combat (“In Justice,” “Nightmare,” “All-out Attacks,” and “Guren”), wistful tunes for the various bouts of comedy (“School Festival!” “Stray Cat”), and the lulz for the theatrics (“The Master,” “All Hail Brittania!”). They did a wonderful job with the serious moments as well, with the many inserts by Hitomi creating a believable mood of seriousness and emotion. Highlights of her music include “Stories,” “Masquerade,” and “If I Were A Bird.” It definitely ranks right up there with Kure-nai among recent OSTs I can’t stop listening to.

Music Rating: 10/10

Crusader’s Take:

I can’t say much about the music since I was by and large still recovering from the positively sublime musical overload from Macross Frontier, still Ali-Project did not over awe me in the slightest. In that light I canot give a fair assessment for the music of CG even if I felt that Rolo’s death song was horribly out of place for that ingrate.

Music Rating: No Grade

Mecha

Well this is a mecha show, so I had to say something on Geass’ mecha. The concept behind the original mecha in Geass was excellent. I mean it borrowed a bit from Votoms, but otherwise the concepts they put out were fairly unique. They put in a lot of thought and detail into it, I’ve been reading a good amount of the side materials that came with my R1 DVDs. Ground-based mecha were a refreshingly different type these days, and the weaponry (especially the slash harkens) kept it that way. However, they went away from this in R2 significantly with the advent of floaters and lasers. Eventually they didn’t even need floatpacks, they just had wings =/

The fights were pretty lively first season, which focused on tactics rather than who had the super duper mecha for the most part. However, the second season saw a tech wars explosion, as we went from the 6th generation KMFs (Sutherland) to the 9th (Lancelot Albion) over just what, 2 years? There was always a new mecha that just went around and kicked everyone’s ass, including the Shinkirou, Shen Hu, Guren, etc.

Mecha Rating: 9/10 (R1) and 7/10 (R2) average out to 8/10.

Crusader’s Take:

The mecha combat in R2 was not very fulfilling in my opinion because once the float packs started showing up it became very Gundam and lost it’s R1 charm. To be fair they did kind of bring the old R1 land roller system and harken slashes back into prominence with the last duel, but I had hoped that it would have forgone the float pack entirely and differentiated itself from Gundam as it stands it lies somewhere between VOTOMS and Gundam and not excelling as a result. The mecha designs were not terribly original given how the Tristan/Kyrios and Mordred/Virtue comparison was inevitable given how uninspired they were from the outset.

Even when new Knight of Rounds KMFs were introduced they did not last nearly as long and in some cases many of them were out righted cheated of mecha screen time. Perhaps as a political drama CG succeeds but from a mecha stand point I think that it was fairly mediocre given how the comparisons to Gundam were being openly invited in the case of Lancelot Albion and its glaring similarity to Wing Zero. R1 at least had many grunty suits with minimal custom frames, that ethos was dragged out and shot once they started skipping Knightmare generations to get to Lancelot Albion. Even if they were loaded with Strike Freedom levels of fire power I cannot over look the uninspired designs of the lead mecha. I did like the Vincents and Wards but given how they were rapidly reduced to cannon fodder status it was much less enjoyable when their life expectancies post Rolo were dismally short.

Overall from a mecha stand point Code Geass is passable and offers nothing new to the genre other than to emulate Gundam. It could have done better things had they stayed on the ground and used that land roller system in new ways but in the end it was easier for them to go for a more Gundam feel. When I first saw the Knightmare frames I was excited these things had ejection systems and were purely land based, but in the end the ejection system was little used unless the plot called for it (like giving Asahina gazongas) or if Tamaki needed to get away. It was by no means terrible, but after being a veteran of G Gundam, VOTOMS, and most Tomino Gundams I cannot honestly say that Code Geass does anything new or terribly memorable. The mecha element of R2 was in many ways a quaternary aspect to the series as it could have easily been replaced by Suzaku going Super Saiyan instead. It lacked the homages to justify most of the R2 mecha designs that bore too much of resemblance to other mecha design concepts from Gundam 00, and as a result feels very derivative and safe. It was a lost opportunity in my opinion to bring land combat into the mainstream, and as a result it is just a sign of stagnation in the Sunrise mecha department if they cannot figure out how to better differentiate their mecha series. As it stands with the float pack, the land roller system became superfluous and looked out of place like a telescopic sight on a paintball gun.

While R1 had it’s unique combat R2 sputtered out with a Knightmare obsolescence scheme worthy of Microsoft. It just did not feel right to go from R1 showing some thought going into the battles to “Oh new KMF. stand aside very one, new guy is going to kick every one’s ass until the next new model.”

Mecha Rating: (R1) B+, (R2) C-, (Final Grade) B-

Story

Ah the story, much maligned and much discussed. From a purely artistic standpoint it was pretty pathetic, with huge and gaping plotholes as well as jarring shifts and a massive lack of pacing. The plotholes especially made analysis often difficult, using the current dispute over Lelouch’s survival as an example. I find it hard to make a serious and in-depth analysis over clues they have given because most of it is probably wildly unintentional. There are so many abandoned plotlines and gaps in the story that create problems. As for the pacing, I didn’t have a problem with it in R1 when there were many episodes left, but looking back the Mao arc was fairly useless. In R2 we saw obvious pacing problems as the latter half of the series was extremely rushed at times and lacked proper buildup and explanation. I think the most egregious example was Marianne, who showed up suddenly in episode 20 with a cursory explanation and then was promptly killed off the next episode. The entire series up to that point was so focused on Lelouch finding out what happened to his mother, and they shoved it at us in two episodes.

However, despite the problems above in an artistic sense, the story was entertaining in ways I wouldn’t have thought possible. Some may say it’s a trainwreck, some say it was for the lulz, and others a big trolling by Sunrise. Any way you describe it, those that watched it every week were unquestionably drawn to it if only to watch what crazy shit was going to happen next. Anything from Euphemia killing all the Elevens to Nunally showing up on the phone looking for her onii-sama. While the series often went off and lost focus on an individual episode basis, there was an overriding drive to it that was knocked around by whatever batshit insane plot twist the writers could come up with.

Story Rating: 5/10 (artistically), 10/10 (lulz/entertainment)

Crusader’s Take:

In terms of story CG was all over the place which really made it hard to discern if there really was a consistent narrative to begin with. Maybe it is a more modern anime in plot has been killed for the sake of inter-contextual bullshit. I call it BS because I am not a believer in throwing around big words with a pretension to philosophy as really a constructive exercise. That said maybe there was something very deep about CG but it was covered in a fog of lulz, fabulousness, fanservice, and yaoi bait. Perhaps there was a psychology dissertation buried within some of the more artsy episodes, but if there was my attention was diverted away to Millay’s funny hats and her Ashford antics. The thing that still stands out in my mind about rushed pacing with no build up was Marianne, for someone whose presence was an integral part of Lulu’s motivations, it was disappointing to see her come back and die within a scant few episodes of returning from the dead. Plot twists were to be expected but eventually the narrative became a whole string of plot twists some of which are not very satisfyingly explained and seemed geared towards shocking the viewer. In many ways I would have been able to put up with more of the “fuck with the ground” bullshit tactic they had been using if this was a fantasy setting. Alas it was not so and within a science fiction setting it doesn’t work nearly as well when my years of science class scream out in anguish over the instant swamp from an inch of water, and the bubble bath of doom from a scant amount of methane.

However I have to admit some of the moments like Rocket Emperor Wakamoto were genuinely funny. In that regard I did have a good laugh here and there, despite my greivances with its attempts at coherence. I still very much like how Cornelia was able to build up an artillery unit “from scraps in a cave” along with her glorious knifing of V2.

Story Rating: (Overall pacing/narrative) D+, (Lulz) A+

Overall Satisfaction and Conclusions

The numbers I gave for this rating were completely arbitrary and are totally subject to final modification. In the end when you try to give a series a final number or letter rating, I believe you have to consider everything as a whole. Is this a 10/10 show when you look at it from an artistic perspective? No, but then again I don’t possess a visual arts degree. When I rate shows like this I rate them based on my enjoyment, how much fun I had each week watching it. Now I really enjoyed R1, with all the keikkaku doori, the David against Goliath revolution, the twists, the combat, etc. After I watched it I gave it a definite 10/10. But when I try to rate the series as a whole I look at it a bit differently.

R2 took the emerging level of lulz and fabulousness from the first season and took it into the next gear at every possible moment. Yes there was cast inflation and a rushed plot, but I just couldn’t help each week writing a long blog entry, trolling around on /a/, building my .jpg collection, and going back and forth with all of you commenters. I spent many many hours on this show doing various things, and while it may slow down now that the series is over, I still have my LE R1 DVDs being released as well as all of the official English novel releases. Bandai and Sunrise are guaranteed to collect a couple of hundred dollars of my hard earned money. But you know what, they earned it. At the end of nearly every episode, I could look back and say “hey, that was entertaining.”

Overall Rating: 10/10

Crusader’s Take:

In the end I don’t think that Geass was a critical success mostly because in the end the Ashford antics demolished what credibility it really had as a serious musing on philosophy/psychology or whatever deep thing they were trying to go for. I highly doubt that CG has much re-watch value simply because much of the plot twists seem to lose their impact if you know what is going to happen. More over the huge cast was hard to keep track of and coupled with the revolving door of death it’s hard to care about some of the characters. As I have stated before as a mecha series it did not rock my world so to speak a lot of it has been done before and the introduction of the float pack really cut down my enjoyment of the series along with the post Rolo mistreatment of such great mecha like the Vincent and the Ward.

Nevertheless while my first experience with this franchise leads me to conclude that it is not my kind of mecha series, as it is dominated by other aspects that I am rather indifferent (harem elements) and hostile to (teenage emotional turmoil for the sake of teenage emotional turmoil), that does not mean it is therefore out and out bad. I don’t like much of it but it is very much a mainstream mecha series in that is tries to introduce other demographics into the mecha camp: your yaoi enthusiasts, your harem audience, and to a degree perhaps even your hard core lit majors who just love seeing some intercontextual allusions to famous works (being treated in a very light manner of course) that a science major like me could not give any less of a damn about. I think of CG as gateway series into the mecha genre for a lot of people, and while I probably will never revisit the franchise, unless I have a bottle of Jack, it has in the end made me more appreciative of Gundam 00 for remaining a bit more true to the older standards of mecha. It is my hope that now that Sunrise has in it possession a mecha cash cow that can cater exclusively to the casual mecha fan that likes having yaoi elements, harem elements, and for the younger folks that all of their future bishie pilots and pilots under the voting age can be inducted as Knightmare pilots instead of tossing them into a Gundam.

Maybe now even if the mecha combat between CG and Gundam are more or less the same perhaps what will define one from the other is that Gundam will finally see the return of old husky pilots like Ramaba Ral and Norris Packard. In the end CG has left a fine legacy for /a/ with a veritable tanker load of memes that will be with us for sometime. It should not be forgotten how much CG has contributed to meme culture and hopefully that will be a more lasting and positive legacy than being decried in later years as that blasted series that introduced BL and harem into mecha.

Overall Rating: (Critically) B- (Contribution to Memes and lulz) A+

Well ladies and gentlemen, it’s finally over. It’s been quite the journey and I’m kind of glad it’s over because at times it was exhausting to spend so much time on it each week. Anyways, this post is limited to discussion of the episode itself, not the entire series. I’ll make a separate post reviewing the series as a whole, so please do your best to focus your comments on the contents of this episode. There’s plenty to talk about with just the final scene so I think it will be alright~

Her eyes look much less creepy this time around, and she looks much more moe. Not sure whether it just took them an episode to find the right proportions or they were just going for shock value last episode. He initially opposes using geass on her to bend her will, but as we find out in a few minutes, using the geass in the end wouldn’t be bending her will very much.

11…lol

I am satisfied with the final battle here between Kallen and Suzaku, there was a good amount of solid action one on one. No tech gimmicks, no keikkau doori, just mano-a-womano fighting. Looks like they saved some budget for the final fight too, it didn’t disappoint.

These lines show that Nunally was thinking of the same thing as Lelouch, to focus the world’s hate on one thing. Lelouch saw that she was now strong enough to think on her own and could entrust her with helping to shape the world. It also allowed him to be able to geass her, because in the end their objectives were the same. Lelouch wanted to focus the world’s hate on himself, and Nunally on Damocles and presumably, herself.

Mmmm…geass moe

That’s it guys, there is officially nobody more badass than Orange-kun. The guy ejects a knightmare out of the Siegfried to go after her, blows it up on top of Mordred, and then he himself leaps out and lands on top of it. This guy is my fucking hero. As for Anya’s memories though, I thought they said she already got them back? I guess they weren’t all the way unlocked? Side materials please.

Some shots of badassery for the road.

You know you’re ass is lame when the cat is the only one at your grave.

Interesting juxtaposition

I find it rather amusing that the first person to figure it out was Kallen, whom they’ve billed this season as a complete and total idiot. Apparently she can’t see through his plans for the past 10 episodes, but hey she gets it now before everyone else. Whee! You still destroyed her character Sunrise! I’m not bitter, really!

It’s good to see that Suzaku can still dodge bullets, as he’s been doing since season one. He is definitely the reincarnation of Kira “Jesus” Yamato, because not only does he dodge bullets but he comes back from supposed death.

Some serious homolust vibes in these scenes, but that’s to be expected. Overall I think they did the setup for Lelouch’s death scene pretty well, I wasn’t blown away but I wasn’t disappointed either. They could have made it extremely lame, but instead opted for something a bit more traditional.

Nunally’s geass of mind reading or convenient plot device for Lelouch’s redemption is his sister’s eyes? You decide!

I actually will admit I got choked up here for Nunally. I know I’ve railed on her a lot lately, mostly because of the writing of her character, but I still have an emotional attachment. Nunally’s wailing wasn’t all that bad either, it didn’t make me cringe or anything like that. I also enjoyed how once again Taniguchi was reaching back to previous episodes to parallel current ones. Lelouch dying in Nunally’s arms while the world shouts “Zero!” draws from Euphemia’s death in episode 23 of season one, which is one of the top 5 anime episodes of all time.

Prime Minister? Are you fucking kidding me? Prime Minister? The guy is a complete idiot how could he lead anything effectively? For Christ’s sake. And Tamaki running a bar…that’s fucking lol.

Man, half of these people should be dead, including the bride and the groom. Conspicuously absent is Xing Ke, who presumably died from his blood coughing illness. I’m also lolling at “nani mai hanni?” being included at the wedding.

Wait for it…

YES FUCK YES, fanart comes to life! Orange-kun as an orange farmer with Anya of all people. I really fell out of my chair here, for obvious reasons. It’s really unfortunate though that it wasn’t a Orange x Meido end, I didn’t see her anywhere in the epilogue. I do see some Orange x Anya doujins incoming though, they could be strangely arousing. Hey, maybe Sayoko and Orange adopted Anya, that would be the best ending of all imo.

Alright, well here’s my main problem with this episode. Before we get to my rant, let’s lay out the issues here regarding whether or not Lelouch is dead. One can think about C.C.’s intonation and inflection and try to compare it with how she spoke with Marianne in the past. You can also consider whether she tilted her head back to look up to the sky (which is where you look when you talk to dead people it seems) or to the unknown guy driving the cart. As for the origami, it would be pretty strange for C.C. to keep it as a memento to Nunally since she’s not dead and she’s not her sister, it’s more likely that it’s something Lelouch would have kept as a memento. You also should consider the many many ways in which people have survived certain death in this show- Sayoko, Guilford (lol, in Lelouch’s death scene they even gave the guy a gun, isn’t he blind?), Nunally, Cornelia, etc. Plus there are plenty of options available, most prominently the code method, whether it was transferred before he went up to get himself “killed” or they did it after. They give lots of hints, and it’s something that I’m sure will be discussed a lot.

On to my rant. Basically, I hate this ending. I hate all such ambiguous endings, which is why I don’t like Eva. Eva would have been a good show were it not for the lame endings of the TV series and EoE. I don’t like ambiguous endings, I like solid endings that tell me what happens, I don’t want to interpret anything. Maybe Taniguchi was like, “hey I want to be like Anno so let’s make this B.S. ending so people will talk about it a lot and buy Geass DVDs!” Hey Taniguchi, I hate Anno, but I can say that you are no Anno. So fuck you Taniguchi, fuck you.

Other than that I was generally satisfied with the way it ended. There were plenty of opportunities for stupid plot twist endings, but they didn’t go that path and went for a more traditional and somewhat obvious one. It was frankly refreshing for it to end on a generally positive and clear end (with the obvious exception of Lelouch’s survival). Stay tuned over the next couple of days for a full series review which will take up an entirely new post.

Next Episode
One can only hope for some OVAs and side materials! Lot’s of loose ends are still around (C.C.’s name, the Knight of Nine, etc.) that can be talked about. As for the next season, I’m going to be co-blogging Gundam 00 with Crusader in a similar fashion to how he has contributed to my Geass posts. Aside from that I have no idea, I don’t think I can do 6 months of Clannad and I don’t have much spare time these days so I’ll probably pick up one of the lighter comedies. As for Nogizaka Haruka, expect an episode 12 and final review post this week.

Because it’s fun.

Thus did Nunnally hand over her favorite vibrator to her dear onii-chan. Suzaku did like…

Nothing can come between their love…

Fuck yeah! Toast!

Wow well that was a lot of bullshit served along with the mecha fights though Todou pussied out in the end. I am very much glad that this is over Cornelia is still alive and still full of fight, Villeta is still carrying Ougi’s wehrbietrag, Lulu is dead, and all is for the most part well. Much homolust as Suzaku thrusted his swords of +69 penetration into Lulu, but at this point it can’t be helped. SuzakuxLulu ending confirmed…

Such a pity that Kallen didn’t run into any one with toast in her mouth I was giddy when I saw it as it would have finally resolved the debate of striped or strawberries. I can’t believe that Nani mai Hunni and Rivalz are so heavily hinted at being a couple but I guess air heads have an affinity for one another. I’d be lying if I said I cared any more but it over after watching this schlock I now have a much greater appreciation for Gundam 00, finally we can back to a series with an actual kill count going. Still my Cornelia-hime was just delicious.

You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know Cornelia-hime had no hand in making this war, and I know Cornelia-hime will make more sacrifices today than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our country. If Cornelian-Britannia submits to a division now, it will not stop, but will go on until we reap the fate of Africa, which is eternal war. Cornelian-Britannia does and must assert its authority, wherever it once had power; for, if it relaxes one bit to pressure, it is gone, and I believe that such is the national feeling.

The only people with a brain, how few yet remain…

…

What is it?

Look I know things between us didn’t work out…and about last night…

I just wanted to say that it’s alright and that I will always love you. I will never forget the time we had together, be safe beloved.

Ten years ago, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men and women promptly escaped from a maximum-security stockade to the Tokyo underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem…if no one else can help…and if you can find them…maybe you can hire…The A-Team.

Best shot-gun wedding ever!

Make way for Prince Ali!
Say hey! It’s Prince Ali!

Hey! Clear the way of his taxi cab!
Hey you!
Let him through!
Or it’s you he’ll stab!
You don’t wanna be the first one to earn his ire!

Make way!
Here he comes!
Sound the bells! Load the guns!
‘Cause you’re gonna hate this guy!

Prince Ali! Murderous He!
Ali al-Sarshes
Kills for fun
Give him a gun
Then watch the spree!
Now Gundam pilots are dead.
And Saji’s sister’s vent-ed
‘Cause Ali’s sick in the head–Undoubtedly!

Prince Ali! Mighty is he!
Ali al-Sarshes!
Strong as ten regular men
Take it from me!
He faced the Thrones Trinity
Who’d make a saner man flee
But whos Gundam kill-count’s now three?
Why, Prince Ali!

He’s got so many shadowy backers
Private armies
But they’d work for free
When it comes to expensive mobile suits
Yeah he’s had a few,
I’m telling you,
It’s a world-wide conspiracy!

Prince Ali! Handsome is he!
Ali al-Sarshes!
That goatee! I wish it could be!
Closer to me!
Well, get on out in that square
Come steel your nerves and prepare!
To gawk and grovel and stare at Prince Ali!

He’s got ninety-five brown Kurdish jihad-kuns!
(He’s called the jihad, let’s fight the jihad)
And to join him he charges no fee!
(’Cept your parents! Kill your parents!)
He bends nations to his will for fun!
(Proud to work for him)
They bow to his whim!
It’s best for them!
They’re just scared into loyalty to Ali!
Prince Ali!

Prince Ali!
The adversary! Ali al-Sarshes!
Mike Trinity, wishes that he, was half as crazy
Well he saw the Zwei and thought “Why,–I think I’ll give it a try.”
Next thing you know, Johan’s hit the floor,
He’s got beams, GN drives
And fang-oos galore!
Takes an alias, heads up to space,
And shows Sexy Lockon what for!
Can’t flee from Prince Ali!

Well, I’m really not sure what I think about this episode, it left me more scratching my head then anything. I think we all got trolled again by Sunrise. So, the final boss was the badass villain because…he’s apathetic? I mean, have you ever heard of the primary villain being a lazy guy who doesn’t care all that much and only plays the game he’s sure to win without much effort? Strange, and almost as strange as Nunally’s eyes.

The OotBK without Lelouch gets played by Schneizel until the very end. How sad it is. I find it amusing they advertised Xing Ke as some guy who is as strong as Suzaku and as smart as Lelouch, yet he gets out played by Schneizel constantly and completely. Ougi I understand because he’s portrayed as a moron, but Xing Ke is just a lolicon now.

Who cares, save it for the epilogue

I always thought Toudou was smarter than all of this too, but I was wrong again there. Just goes to show you how ridiculously charismatic and cunning Schneizel is. It appears Toudou will at least survive this though, and hook up with that blushing woman who’s name I don’t know.

Tamaki actually manages to delay Suzaku for like 5 seconds, but unfortunately it looks like he is going to live through it all too. Once again, quite a shame that the writers missed a chance to kill off more characters. Tamaki is just a waste of airtime.

Supameido, we salute you!

Nina is somewhat redeemed, or at least the writers attempted to redeem her. In the end, instead of being a crazed tablehumper she became much more rational and realized that she was responsible for FLEIA and thus had a responsibility to stop it the best she could. Thinking rationally is actually a rare trait for characters in this show and thus I was pleasantly surprised.

As much as we all would have liked to see a final makeout scene here it was not to be. This isn’t Macross so this is about as romantic as the show is going to get for the lead characters. It’s ok though, I’m sure they’ll make out in the end, and live happily ever after on Jupiter or something.

Really, I generally stopped caring about Kallen. This season they have raped her character so bad that I say fuck it, go ahead and kill her off. Seriously, she has turned into a complete and utter retard who all of a sudden hates Lelouch. She stood by him through all the betrayals and lies of the first season and a half, knowing about everything. But now, she decides she has to side with Schneizel and kill Lelouch? What kind of stupid character development is that?

This is certainly a first, Schneizel’s angry face.

I really have no idea why Gino is fighting against Lelouch at all. Is it because he killed the Emperor? He seemed to be adamantly against Schneizel’s coup d’etat and was under house arrest as a result. But hey, now he’s cool with Schneizel and just rages at Lelouch. And he knows of Damocles and what it’s intended to do, yet still…More retarded character development, or lack thereof.

Just so you guys know, I’m now totally cool with her dying by the end of this too. She’s become worse than Euphemia, because her idealism and morality have been so corrupted by her ignorance of Schneizel that she desperately wants to kill Lelouch. Lelouch, the brother that actually stayed with her and took care of her for all those years despite her disability and their circumstances. How’s that for family loyalty, eh?

Orange-kun, fighting with his storm of loyalty and pimptasticness until the very end. Man, you are one of the few characters who have drastically improved in likeability over the course of this series. In the beginning you were kind of pitiful in a really humorous way, and at the end of season one it was laugh out loud humorous. But now you are just completely awesome, and your storm of loyalty will be remembered for all time, and will be passed down to your future children with Sayoko.

This fight was nowhere near as delicious as I had hoped it would be last week. I think part of that has to do with the destruction of Kallen’s character, because a fight over Lelouch’s affections would have been hot. Instead Kallen just rages around and beats her soundly through a better machine and more experience, acting rather cold throughout. I did enjoy C.C.’s reactions though, I missed that kind of C.C. during the moe moe phase we had for awhile there. She’s got a reason to survive now, for that promise Lelouch made that made her change her mind about giving her code to Charles. She looks mighty sexy in that screenshot, mmmmmmm.

Sayoko, you are one awesome liar. It is highly unlikely that she would go through the effort of escaping from Schneizel and Nunally and risking death to serve Lelouch again only to go around and betray him. He never threatened her, she came back of her own will, so I’m curious as to what exactly their plan is. Lelouch told Lloyd, Cecile, and Sayoko to make plans for Apate Aretia, whatever that is. A quick google revealed some guy’s site that indicated Apate was Greek for “’Deception,’ daughter of Nux,” and Aretia was a Phoenician Earth goddess. Probably an apt title for what they are trying to do.

Well, Sunrise must have heard Crusader’s cries for vengeance, so they brought her back this week. Aside from that, Sunrise, for the love of God please let characters stay dead. On the other hand, I found it really amusing that Schneizel is so apathetic that he wont even kill his own sister who betrayed him. What a wacky final villain.

Just…no…just no, Sunrise

They laid it out really clear for us here, Charles wanted the past, Schneizel wants today, and Lelouch wants the future. Schneizel is generally just apathetic and prefers to not indulge in things like hope or happiness and just wants to assert peace. Lelouch is in the end, a dreamer, who hopes for a better tomorrow, albeit one forged through blood.

This was quite satisfying to see Schneizel finally beaten by Lelouch. However, I will say that the way he was beaten was supremely lame. There’s just no way he could accurately predict Schneizel’s responses in that way, the lines were too perfectly matched. Against Mao I can buy, because Mao was an idiot, but Schneizel would be too smart for that. Oh well, I’ll just ignore it for now and laugh at the fact that Schneizel is now motivated to do something. Through the geass he is no longer apathetic and instead greatly desires to serve Lelouch. That’s kind of a scary thought.

BL ALERT, BL ALERT. Avert your eyes! If that was my first time seeing this character I’d swear he was a girl with that look. It’s also really, really disgusting, and I’m sure all the yaoi fangirls screamed out in orgasmic pleasure.

Good riddance, worthless.

Mmmm, probably not because I don’t think he can go that far. We’ll probably get some sort of long talk about the past and feelings, and maybe they’ll all blow up. Or not, there could aslo be a twist of some sort. Once again, those eyes are really freaking creepy, maybe they just look big because she’s had them closed the whole series.

Next Episode:
Low quality extended preview of episode 25.

Not going to bother posting shots because it’s all frames from episode one of the first season. Taniguchi likes to have parallels between the beginning and end of his seasons, as I pointed out in the first episode of R2. The words spoken in the extended preview are also very much like the end of the first episode of season one. Credit goes to Koshimizu on the following translation:

R2 Turn 25 Preview:
I might have been a wonderer long since that day.
Sick of this world that couldn’t be changed, but even in my lies, I refuse to give up in despair.
Yes. My name, my experience, and the power I’ve obtained…
All of these might be paving the path to finding the “truth”.
Therefore…

R1 Turn 1:
This corresponds to the climax of Stage 1:
I’ve been lying to myself long since that day.
Lying about being alive.
My name is a lie. My experience is a lie. Nothing but lies.
Sick of this world that couldn’t be changed, but even in my lies, I refuse to give up in despair.
But I’ve obtained this power.
Therefore…

I don’t think this is going to be a recap episode really, but I’d guess Lelouch and Nunally are going to have a conversation about what happened. They also probably just didn’t want to give anything away about the ending.

My Cornelia-hime lives! Clearly my round the clock buzzing of Sunrise by fighter bombers has brought them to heel. I forgive them to the outrages they have committed against my Cornelia-hime. Now I must call back those B-52s…

Also best of luck to Villetta who carries Ougi wehrbeitrag.

A much better episode than last week, primarily because I was expecting a long emo-fest but that didn’t materialize. Plus we get lots of stuff blowing up, a higher level of animation quality, and the start of the final boss fight. One bad part though, and I’m sure Crusader will have plenty of rage over it…

I’m rather tired of seeing Nunally being constantly thrown around as a plot device, she just keeps coming back and back and back throughout this season especially. Thus, I was initially afraid that this was going to turn into some mushfest like episode 7 was. Nunally has just become uninteresting, and I would have preferred that she stayed dead because Lelouch was no longer held back from accomplishing his goals. At least he brought back his primo acting skills and said some nasty stuff to her.

This also didn’t make much sense, I really don’t understand Nunally’s character. She has had such little character development in this series that this just comes out of nowhere. Alright, she wants everyone to be happy and have peace and be in the Nippon-whatever zone, but now she’s cool with nuking millions? To be honest I really want her to die by the end of this, as horrible as that may sound.

Much less suggestive BL themes this week thankfully, and I’m also glad that Suzaku doesn’t really give a shit about Lelouch’s feelings anymore. If he was all BFF with him again after all they have been through it would be even less believable that they are working together than it already is.

Continuing from last week’s super villainization of Schneizel he is now an official loli manipulator. It should shock me, but it really doesn’t considering the direction that they have taken with his character and the naiveté of Nunally. At least Cornelia is pretty disgusted over it, although really, she should have seen this coming from a long way away. Ani’ue rabu rabu tended to blind her it seems.

Now this was hilarious, basically Schneizel says well, we can’t stop people from fighting no matter what so fuck it, let’s kill them all and threaten the survivors. About as purely an evil plan as the writers could cook up, and quite humorous. Not to burst your bubble too much Schneizel, but autocratic regimes based on rule by fear tend to be short-lived, often involving the execution of said autocrat.

Getting a little Gundam 00 up in here

I really don’t see how Diethard gets elevated into Schneizel’s inner circle so easily, as he never seemed to really do anything amazing to warrant that kind of treatment. He’s still nuts, but no longer such a lulz worthy character. Instead, only a headshake of pity is warranted. This fellow is definitely marked for death before this show is over.

Oh lordy, definitely the most FABULOUS moment of the episode. The man snaps his fingers and machine gun turrets come out in his CIC. I mean seriously, did he specifically ask for something like that to be designed in? And does it respond to finger snaps like the clapper or something?

What a rather lame way for such a character to go out. She just ends up suffering the “Season 1 Primary Character Syndrome” where the important characters back then get little screen time or development now. I was expecting her to go out in a battle at least, and instead I found this to be rather anti-climactic. Now I tease Crusader all the time about Cornelia, and I’m a fan of cutting out cast members, but I don’t like how this was done.

Yes! Supameido has returned! I loved this scene between Sayoko and Orange-kun, affirming their storms of loyalty and paths of the knight. It’s good to see at least some people retain their loyalties in all of this seeing as how everyone else has switched sides at least once. A Sayoko x Orange-kun end would be so ridiculously awesome.

I’ll engage in a bit of serious business mode here and recognize the importance of this scene. Suzaku may have been a dick about things, but I really think Lelouch just needed some time to gather his thoughts and firm up his resolve. No longer is this just for Nunally’s sake, he has a goal in mind to re-work the world into a better place. In order to crush Schneizel’s world he needs to do what needs to be done and not be held back.

I liked the Hitomi insert for mood music here, and the scene brings back the events of season one to me. They seem to be coming back to the theme that in the end, C.C. will be the only one standing with Lelouch. I can’t really say that it’s a romantic scene necessarily, since they’ve been close like this before, but it was actually a bit touching and served as a nice slowdown and breath before the final battle starts.

Hey guys we kind of ran out of time, so have a fast forward montage instead.

This was rather ho hum for a battle of wits, a bunch of pieces moving and feinting around. Personally, I’m more of the George S. Patton school of thought:

“We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy’s balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose; like shit through a tin horn!”

Now this is more like it, super cannons from one side and exploding mountains from the other. I prefer this type of action back and forth than pussyfooting around with formations. Good to see lots of explosions and mooks kicking it, although none of the named players die.

Sigh, unfortunately not even an exploding mountain can kill off this retard. And he even went around and impregnated Villetta. From my experience that’s a massive death flag if there ever was one. And what the hell happened to her character? She was supposed to be this tough woman who was going to rise up the ranks and kick some ass, but now she gets knocked up by an incompetent moron and actually goes and stays home while he is off fighting. Such a letdown.

I’m trembling at the thought of a C.C. vs. Kallen KMF fight next week, oh my how delicious that would be. I was expecting a cheese-kun marking somewhere on there at least, pink just doesn’t really suit her.

I may have missed a step here, but when did anyone actually find out that he was really Zero? I mean last episode they said that the only people in the OotBK that were told of it was the top echelon, and on Schneizel’s side only the inner circle. So, I would assume she has no idea he was Zero, and just thinks he’s Lelouch. However, the way this show has thrown out past circumstances and events I wouldn’t be surprised if that didn’t even matter. Nina is concentrating her entire will on redeeming herself, horrified at her ignorance and how Schneizel used her for such destruction. Not sure what they are cooking up in there with that pink, rectangular object, but I’m sure we’ll find out next week.

Evil smile sendoff woo!

Well as I said before I enjoyed this episode a lot more than last week’s, which I thought was generally beyond redemption. There were no real plot twists here, so that probably helped, and it was more of a setup for how it all goes down in the final two episodes. Cornelia’s death was pretty lame, but since she was more background noise this season her death didn’t have a particularly deep impact with me. Hopefully Sunrise can pull one out here and provide us with a satisfying ending, there doesn’t really need to be any huge plot twists to finish this one off. Just make sure you kill off a bunch of people and end it with finality.

Next Episode:

Low quality extended preview of episode 24.

Schneizel and Lelouch in a fabulous showoff, KMF battles, the Gurren coming down on Lelouch, and a million dollar smile from C.C. From the extended preview, Xing Ke coughing up blood (the writers finally remember that plot string eh?) and more fighting. Looks to be an action-packed episode.

As you can see Lulu doesn’t have the balls to say “I’ll kill you.” the bloody coward.

Damn right my God would kill you and cast you up Satan’s ass.

FABULOUS, right?

They did, they really did it. They didn’t even give her a new Knightmare Frame! Curse you Sunrise and your BL ways! One day I will turn your homes into a smoldering ruin I will slay all of your bastard children along with your entire families before I poke out your eyes and cut out your tongues you ball-less miscreants!

We will make love and you will speak my language!

Report to Suzaku’s room every thirty minutes from here until the last ep…

Seeing as how all the great mecha pilots sans one is dead, I am here to deliver the eulogy for a great mecha pilot.

My Captain, my Princess is dead and with her this series has jumped shark for the second time. First it was the float packs and now they have made clear that every woman is about to be killed by effete boys who love each other too damn much. A thousand curses upon Sunrise, words cannot convey my hatred of them. May Goro die a virgin and childless in hovel for killing my captain and above all may the fate of Sunrise be “interesting” until the last of them dies for their collective insolence and woman hating ways. May they all get GN-AIDS from their buttsechs orgies! My Captain, my Princess how could they do this to you?! Is there no limit to their hatred of strong women who refuse to sleep with them? I know that they feared all women who were mighty and intelligent, fear leads to hatred, hatred leads to emo, and emo leads to the BL side. Damn you Sunrise. Damn you all to BL hell!

Cornelia-hime loved all of her sisters it is such a shame that she did not give Nunnally one last kiss.

This series is crap with the passing of this great and noble woman, now there will be no yuri to compensate for the OH GEASS NO moments that this travesty is now famous for. Cornelia-hime was a brave soldier who served her nation and siblings faithfully. She had no intention to take over the world for silly emo schemes, but fought only to protect those siblings who could not protect themselves. She respected people based on merit and was repaid with treachery from that damned Suzaku. On the field of combat she shone brilliantly with her grunt suit and was denied a new Knightmare by the bastards Goro and the Geass team (I spit on their series). Lulu and his lover Suzaku killed Cornelia’s beloved Euphie and stained her memory. Now Nunnally is left in the clutches of another insane male of the Britannian royal line. She defended the fatherland until death! Honor and blood for the Iron Cross. With her death, so goes the last of the great female Knightmare pilots who were untainted by men and remained maidens who blessed the field of hellish combat giving hope to the poor grunts. Cornelia was an officer who cared about the poor grunts under her command, never would she use them as pawns or throw them away in some pitiful strategy. Now her grunt friendly way of war is now dead replaced with a boring power point that makes Hannibal roll in his grave. The world is diminished with her passing.

It was the dream of every grunt in the Britannian military to have a moment with Cornelia-hime.

We have lost a hero to our glorious and noble cause, but does this foreshadow our defeat? No. It is a new beginning. Compared to the Code Geass Team the national resources of VOTOMS are less than one thirtieth of theirs. Despite this major difference, how is it that we have been able to fight the fight for so long? It is because our goal in this war is a righteous one. It’s been over fifty years since the elite of Code Geass, consumed by greed took control of Sunrise. We want our freedom. Never forget the times when the Code Geass Team has trampled us! We, the Gilgamesh Confederacy, have had a hard and arduous struggle to achieve freedom for all citizens of our great nation. Our fight is sacred, our cause divine. My beloved captain, Cornelia, was sacrificed. Why? The war is at a stalemate. Perhaps many of you have become complacent. Such a lack of compassion is gei.

The Code Geass Team has polluted our most cherished mecha genre for their own greed. We must send them a message, but not a message composed of words. We have wasted too much time with words. We need action now. The Code Geass elite must be taught a strong lesson for their evil corruption. This is only the beginning of our war. We have been putting more and more money into our efforts towards making our military stronger than ever. The Code Geass Team has done the same.

Many of your fathers, brothers, and lovely female mecha pilots have perished valiantly in the face of a contemptible enemy. We must never forget what the Code Geass Team has done to our mecha! My Princess Cornelia li Britannia has shown us these virtues through her own valiant sacrifice. By focusing our anger and sorrow, we are finally in a position where victory is within our grasp, and once again, our most cherished genre will flourish. Victory is the greatest tribute we can pay those who sacrifice their lives for us! Rise, our people! Rise! Take your sorrow, and turn it into anger! Gilgamesh thirsts for the strength of its people! SIEG VOTOMS!!!

Unlike her brothers Cornelia-hime cared about the little people.

As you can see the Code Geass Team liked to beat up women.

Even when Cornelia was mad she was still beautiful.

She always said that by denying her a new Knightmare that this series was going to turn to a BL-fest.

When she read the script that took five years to write she was one of the first to say “you’re shitting me right?”

Along with Treize she had often asked “WTF is this shit?”

In the end she opted out of her contract once Cecile started to enjoy being Grace in another universe.

She never ceased fighting the forces of evil despite only having recently healed her broken arm.

Cornelia died with her sword in hand in one last bid to save this series.

Cornelia-hime is gone, and she will be sorely missed. So say we all!

Well, if last week was a drop into the silly bucket, this week was a rainstorm. At least last week I laughed through most of it. Unfortunately, I spent most of this episode rolling my eyes or finding minor amusement in quick character death. Maybe the cliffhanger would have gotten me if it hadn’t really been spoiled or if this wasn’t a Sunrise show, but alas my previous adage holds true.

I did find this part extremely amusing. I’m always up for the addition of meido to the cast, especially when it’s irritating and completely useless royal characters who get knocked down a few pegs. However, this does not make them good meido, just ones that are great to laugh at.

Most likely absolutely nothing for awhile, just like you’ve done for the past several episodes. The OotBK has been reduced to side characters in this show unfortunately. And although it was kind of neat that Lelouch is “freeing” Brittania, it’s not exactly for the most charitable of purposes.

Interesting to see these two working under Lelouch now, but I guess they like working with Suzaku, or really like the Lancelot. However, I don’t really see Lloyd and Cecile as just blind scientists following them around for kicks. Both of them (even Lloyd) display some pretty amazing insight and awareness of what’s going on around them and in the world.

So let me get this straight, the scientist who created the weapon is being chased all over, but everyone is cool with the guy who actually ordered its usage? Yeah that makes a lot of sense, everyone just loves Schniezel! I’m sure right after Hiroshima and Nagasaki the world chased after Oppenheimer right?! Ok maybe not, because this is Code Geass, where logic doesn’t matter.

What’s with this romantic music while these two guys are talking about their feelings after a nice horse ride? I’m headed more and more for Crusader’s camp, I’m really tired of all the blatant BL crap they put in this show. Add that to those really fruity looking uniforms they wear, who the hell designed this junk, a blind guy? And I suppose this “Requiem of Zero” is their final project to make the world a better place, but we really aren’t given much in the details.

The Knight of Four has been on the official website for a couple of weeks, but hadn’t really done anything in show. Amusingly enough she gets a couple of lines and is immediately annihilated by the Strike Freedom Lancelot Albion. I guess the black Rounds had to be the one who got the lowest amount of screen time and was first to die this week right?!

At least she had more speaking lines in more than one episode. In fact she’s garnered her own small following of fans as I’ve seen a bit of fanart pop up for her on 4chan and AS. As a parting gift to us viewers she gives us one emo facial contortion for the road. Sorry to see you go, but this cast is way too big.

I’m really not sure how to speculate on this one, some sort of relationship or rivalry between Bismarck and Marianne had been hinted at in episode 20 when Anya/Marianne was talking with C.C., but there isn’t much explanation. And with the death of both of the characters I doubt it will be discussed in the show, we’ll have to look for side materials. That being said, I’m going to ask a question here. How does sealing your eye shut prevent you from seeing the future? Can’t you just see it on the back of your eyelid? Oops, I shouldn’t be discussing plot holes in Geass…

Well, at least that’s three more members of the named cast who got eliminated this week. Cast inflation has been a huge problem during R2 so I’m glad it’s being reduced somewhat. I always thought the Rounds were somewhat superfluous anyways. It had been awhile since we had a real 1 on 1 KMF fight that was worth much of anything though, was happy for that at least.

A mecha pilot in a Sunrise show questioning his loyalties in a fit of emotional anguish?! Say it ain’t so! Ahhh Gino you are still a completely useless character. Be thankful Kira Suzaku decided to let you live because you were BFF before and to leave more openings for yaoi doujins.

Well, I’m going to hazard a guess that the person who departed was Anya. In the meeting watching Lelouch’s announcement there was Schniezel, Cornelia, Kanon, Diethard, and Anya. In the group shot at the end of the episode, Anya is no longer present among them. Not that this was the way in which I predicted Anya would defect over to Lelouch’s side, but it’s been a long time coming if it indeed works out that way.

Dear Viewers,

We at Sunrise don’t really intend to do any real character relationship development for anyone aside from Lelouch and Suzaku, and perhaps Lelouch and C.C. Thus, we decided to throw Kallen fans a bone and inserted this scene which we wrote in about 2 minutes just so you will leave us alone. Have a nice day, lulz.

-Sunrise Writing Staff

I found myself laughing more at the TL joke than the scene

He..he…he…MADE THE LOLI CRY?! That’s second degree loli abuse! Execute! Execute! The writers are definitely making an effort to make Lelouch look like an asshole who has thrown away all his morality, but I’m not buying it. They’ve pulled this kind of stuff before, and by the conversation he had with Suzaku, C.C., and Lloyd with the horses, he’s probably got some grand plan to make the world a better place. In one episode he wouldn’t just abandon his principles for no reason, he made them abundantly clear in his confrontation with mommy and daddy last episode.

Nina x Rivalz end?!?! I’m going to guess Lelouch wants her for some FLEIA of his own, or to combat Schniezel. I was quite amused at the fact he told his subordinates to basically throw Rivalz away. Lulz indeed.

They are also definitely doing their best to make Schniezel out to be an asshole here too, nuking the imperial capital and building some huge fortress stuffed with nukes. Yeah, and the whole Nunally thing doesn’t help his case either. Like I said last week, it seems like a very rushed final villain, I would have preferred the end to be Lelouch against Charles.

Sigh, now it’s just getting worse. I’ll once again reiterate that nobody is dead in a Sunrise show until you see the body. If it wasn’t so damn predictable even without the spoilers maybe I wouldn’t be so disappointed. It just seems like yet another episode cliffhanger involving Nunally, and this is what, the third one this season? It’s getting a bit stale. And really, it’s obvious she’s going to be manipulated by Schniezel and that he has no real intention of letting her rule over the world. Of course he’s going to be the puppet master pulling the strings, because he’s portrayed as an ambitious and power hungry guy.

Yeah, so this entry is a bit shorter than it has been in the past, but I just didn’t have much to fanboy about or bask in the entertainment. This show has always had plot holes and silliness, but usually there was so much entertainment in unintended humor or fabulousness or whatever to make that stuff not matter. However, this week I found that the entertainment was lacking, so I started to notice all of the stupidity. I mean I guess Sunrise has a slim chance of redeeming themselves in the end, and I don’t really want to judge the series as a whole before it’s done, but frankly, I’m not amused.

Next Episode:

Low quality extended preview of episode 23.

Schniezel looking evil, a blurry Gino (?) and Kallen hanging out near Mordred, Lelouch having a bout of emo and Suzaku slapping some sense into him, and Sayoko lives! From the extended preview, a large battle, C.C. approaching a very pink KMF and Nunally holding a…detonation device? Lordy, if she starts blowing people up with FREIA I’m going to flip.

The Knight of Zero will kill all the women for a Pure and Yaoi world…

Victim #1 We hardly knew ye…

Victim #2, Twelve-san you will be missed…

Nina’s punishment will be to spend the rest of her life with Rivalz, it is a fate I think that is worse than death…

Such tragedy to have a lovely “Knight of the Rounds” killed off mere seconds after her introduction. Well Lulu and Suzaku have made it their mission to piss off every woman they ever knew, I guess that any heterosexual pairings will have to now exclude Suzaku and Lulu. Their new outfits certainly were fabulous, though in Suzaku’s case the pantyhose on his arms out fit really make me cringe. So yes not content to jumps shark once with the float packs they have now jumped shark on the shipping department with Lulu and Suzaku being much more than friends now. Such a pity that Cecile and Lloyd are going along with this, poor Kaguya now lost her husband for good. Lulu is now officially unforgivable for using Strike Freedom to threaten Tianzi.

Up in the morning to the rising sun. Gonna run all day ’til the running’s done. Suzaku is a son of bitch! Got the blue balls, crabs, and the seven year itch. I love working for Uncle Sam, let’s me know just who I am. Lulu and Suzaku were laying in bed. Lulu rolled over this what she said: a gimme some, PT, mmm good, mighty good. Good for you. Good for me. – excerpt from Britannian cadences

Strike Freedom is a GOOOOOOO!

Cornelia-sama :3

I love Cornelia-sama, she wants to put poor Nunnally on the throne.

Nina made a 180 and might suffer from pair the spares with Rivalz. As such I think we can forgive table humper Nina now, for the rest of her life she will have to live with Rivalz and that is certainly a fate worse than death. So ironic to see that now Schniezel is the good guy for trying to promote Empress Nunnally. I love how my Cornelia-hime wa willing to give the throne to Nunnaly for the sake of the people, Cornelia is just about the only reason I have left to soldier on through this ordeal of BL and mediocre mecha. I delighted in how both Suzaku and trembled at the sight of mecha Nunnally who will be opening a can of whup ass on both their BL hides. Do I care how Nunnally got out, not really considering how much bullshit this episode was. It was as if the yaoi clique made this one especially to troll the hetero people by killing off two lovely women, and destroying Lulu’s harem. Well mission accomplished. All HAIL BRITTANIA?

Next time the wheelchair of DOOM!

We have the technology…

Rolo lied, Lulu cried?

There is one more woman ypu must kill for LuluxSuzaku…

You can’t leave me for her, what about us?

]]> http://that.animeblogger.net/2008/09/07/code-geass-r2-episode-22-emperor-lelouch/feed/ 54 http://that.animeblogger.net/2008/08/31/code-geass-r2-episode-21-the-ragnarok-connection/ http://that.animeblogger.net/2008/08/31/code-geass-r2-episode-21-the-ragnarok-connection/#comments Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:41:37 +0000 Calawain http://that.animeblogger.net/?p=11366
One for the road Charlie, we loved you.

Wow, now I’ve seen some really great trolls on 4chan and the like but I’m not sure anyone has trolled me as much as Sunrise just did. This is seriously epic-level trolling of everyone who watches this show. That being said this episode had so much awesomeness and hilarity to it that I’m going to have to try really hard to seriously discuss the srs business parts of the show.

She was going to draw on his face, I think that pretty much explains a lot about Marianne’s personality when you consider what’s going on around everyone.

Kallen! I’m really not too sure what’s going to happen with her, she’s been relegated to a middling side character for most of this season. After she was captured in episode 10 she rarely appeared, and when she did it had little impact on the plot. This is kind of one of the problems of R2, important characters from season 1 seem much less important. At least she shows up hanging out with Lelouch in the preview for the next episode.

I take the Fifth

Hi mom! Been awhile!

Ahaha, as a man I love this quote, no matter how batty V.V. is. And as a student of history this has been true quite a few number of times. So the truth finally comes out, that V.V. got jealous of Marianne taking his little brother away so he brought out a machine gun and pumped her full of lead.

Poor Anya had nothing to do with any of this and was just unlucky to be in that spot. So Marianne decides to use her first victim to accomplish her goals with Charles. I suppose that means that from this point on Charles was hiding things from his brother, living constantly in lies of his own to get to the end. By the way, the explanation for her ability to talk with C.C. was a bit on the side of bullshit. Letting her consciousness surface? The hell does that have to do with her transferring your soul geass?

Well, they certainly aren’t going to win any “Parent of the Year” awards that’s for sure. In order to accomplish their goals they forcefully blinded Nunally and sent them both off to some other country as political hostages. I guess in their mind the anguish and hell their two children had to go through wasn’t sufficiently important to force them to accomplish their goals in some other way.

The most fucked up part here is that she was working with Charles all along, but unfortunately their plan was borked because they needed C.C.’s code. At this point it’s a bit hard to tell what’s going on with C.C., she seems to be in considerable torment with multiple forces and emotions pulling on her despite the fact that she claims to have thrown away her humanity.

Mmmmm, too easy.

It’s getting a little Eva in here folks, and I’m not really liking it. To be honest the competing philosophies here were both pretty much horseshit. I don’t watch this show for philosophy because frankly, the writers can’t deliver. So I generally laughed at what they were trying to say and came away with the fact that Charles and Marianne want the world of LCL Ragnarok goop where everyone is united together. On the other side Lelouch wants people to live like they are now, but a world based on equality of treatment rather than equality of minds…I think. So Shinji Lelouch rejects Instrumentality the Ragnarok Connection and says “hey, I think some patricide is in order.”

If there’s one gaping hole in their parenting skill argument it’s that. If they really wanted to protect their children, why did they send them off to a country they were about to invade? Don’t you think there’s a good chance they would die as a result of the invasion they already knew they had to do? I understand why Lelouch would be pissed at his parent’s reasoning, because he Nunally got royally fucked (pun intended).

So…he gets a super geass and uses it on all of mankind? Or Juptiter? I really don’t know what the hell is going on but it’s freaking awesome. This was the beginning of where I started laughing uncontrollably at the super levels of AWESOME and it didn’t stop until the episode was long over.

I love emo facial distortions of surprise.

Even C.C. rejected their plan, and sided with Lelouch. That also let her not disappear into nothingness, but she has always wanted to die so I don’t think it’s planned like that. She’s definitely a lot more meek now, even after getting her memories back, losing a lot of the flare and force of will that she had before. But it’s to be expected considering that she had just seen the folly of the goals she had worked for so long to achieve and abandoned them, along with an easy way to die.

He still clings desperately to Nunally as a basis for what he’s doing even as he is about to kill off his parents. Whether you buy that as an explanation or not, he’s clearly distraught over the crap they put him through as well as believing that the world they want is wrong.

Wow, way too awesome to handle, Charles is Superman.

Peace out mom and dad, have fun in hell

We’re meeeelllltttttiiiinnnnnggggg!

This episode has broken the record for emo facial distortions of surprise.

What is with the shit-eating grin? And Knight of Zero? Oh lordy at this point I nearly fell out of my freaking chair, no joke. And yeah, incoming OVER 9000 yaoi doujins of makeup mansechs. Suzaku and Lelouch were supposed to be enemies until the end, so while it was awesomely hilarious, it was ludicrous from a story standpoint.

Since these ladies have been judged to die, it made this scene all the more awesome. Basically with one geass Lelouch has just taken over Brittania by forcing all the royalty and nobles except for Schniezel and Cornelia to acknowledge him as emperor.

Which shit-eating grin will be victorious in the end? I can hazard a guess that it will be Lelouch, but we’ve got three more episodes to find out. Upcoming episode titles include “Schniezel’s Mask,” “Sky of Damocles,” and “Re:.” If you will remember, Damocles was referenced in episode 15 so it’s some sort of plan/weapon/supernatural business Schniezel has planned one would assume.

Despite how hilarious and AWESOME this episode was, I’m really kind of disappointed in the turn the series took. The entire buildup so far was for a final confrontation of Lelouch vs. Charles, and Schniezel was just an obstacle in their way or a possible spoiler. Now, the final boss is Schniezel and I’m just not digging it, it messes with the story continuity. Add that to the fact that Suzaku is now on Lelouch’s side and I’m just kind of meh about it. However, the episode from start to finish was supremely entertaining, whether that be in a bad sense or a good sense, it was entertaining.

Next Episode:

Low quality extended preview of episode 22.

I’m going to start with those uniforms, what the hell is that crap, white versions of the geass cult stuff? Lelouch’s emperor getup is retarded looking as well, what the hell is up with this show’s obsession with retarded hats. Remember the asshats of episode 12? Kallen finally gets to meet with Lelouch again, that should be good. Looks like we will get some fighting though, perhaps Suzaku vs. Bismark.

So they did see Goatse…(LinkNSFW and not safe for sanity, all ye who click abandon hope)

Wow that was an epic hit. Carriaging under the influence is dangerous…

Wow we made it to pedo heaven, but where’s Rolo?

Well there was a lot of talking this time about some sort of philosophical bull shit, can’t say I care much for it, since my God is better than theirs and can beat up their God which is a collection of puny emo humans. Well it turns out that Marianne and Charles did sort of care for their kids but Lulu being the weeaboo that he is rejected them and killed them in a fit of rage to steal the throne, for Nunnally of course. Well for all the bullshit that was used to build up Lulu’s bawwwwing over Suzaku’s betrayal, they are not only friends, but lovers too. I guess the first pairing was just too strong so the yaoi clique was able to get their fanfics into canon, given how Sunrise is made of cowards I can see why they caved into to make LuluxSuzaku more viable once more. All hail Britannia…?

I see who was the the Euphinator’s teacher…

What is this guro?

What, no teabag?

So the only thing that was of concern to me was that my hime, Cornelia-sama now has a functional left arm. I hope she uses it to grab Villetta’s hawt ass and carry Villetta to her chambers for some much needed yuri lurvin. I expect Kaguya to rage once she realizes that Zero dumped her for Suzaku. I thnkk Kaguya deserves it for still not having loli-raped Tian-zi.

Obligatory cry some more shot…

Damn it Lulu why are these two bitches still alive?

All Hail the Empress Lulu, he is indeed fabulous. And lo his lover Suzaku whose spin-fu can break steel!

Indeed amount of LuluxSuzaku disturbs me…

I am the waifu!

Shit…

Fuck…

Oh Joy! Cornelia-sama has use of her left hand again…time to massage both of Villetta’s melonpan to use a Claymore…

This episode left me with many more questions than I have answers once again. While last week was a “shit hits the fan” episode, this week we are back to setting up the next confrontation. The writers manage to reveal some supernatural tidbits along with a surprising character appearance, but only give us part of the truth. And unsurprisingly, Schniezel continues to forward his scheme for world domination.

Suzaku has gone from total moralfag to total anti-moralfag. It’s a progression that started when Euphie died last season, but it was kicked completely into place by the firing of FREIA and asserted powerfully during the coup scene later on. Nina, on the other hand, is just continuing to be irritating in her denial. It’s hard to believe that she was that blind to the effects of her weapon, and even if she really was I really don’t care about her at this point. Do us all a favor and kill yourself, reduce the cast numbers please.

Is it bad that while watching this scene I was thinking of what a great doujin it would make? I mean, I can’t be the only one thinking of Anya/Marianne x C.C. master/slave doujins right? Please tell me I’m right -_-

Edit: Lulz apparently I wasn’t the only one.

Uh, wtf? They gave us lots of hints that Anya had some connection to all this, but aside from some disputed spoiler magazine stuff that came out this week, the Anya is Marianne thing was a bit surprising. What I find amusing the most is Marianne’s personality. Despite the fact that one of her children is dead and her other child is on the run and being pursued by half the world she seems giddy and playful. It shouldn’t be too surprising considering the past, because if you think about it (even in this scene), it seems every time she talked to C.C., instead of worrying about her children and the state of the world she just kept trying to ship C.C. and Lelouch like a giggling fangirl.

The note about her personality, along with this statement, lead to some interesting speculations about Marianne. She asks C.C. is she’s still our ally, suggesting yet another faction that exists that perhaps is more important to Marianne then her children. You could go to the complete worst case scenario in thinking she’s only trying to use Lelouch to accomplish whatever goals this faction has.

Sealed her own code? From spoilers and what’s been shown in the episodes I thought Charles had taken it, so color me confused. Why would she seal her own code and memories if Lelouch was going to rescue her? Was this just an excuse for the writers to include moe moe C.C. for a couple of episodes? Your guess is as good as mine.

Hard to figure out exactly what her geass is at the moment, because we don’t know what exact state she is in. Did her geass transfer her soul/mind/essence/etc. into Anya? What happens to the real Anya? I’d also like to know what violation of the contract C.C. was complaining about. From what I gather this stuff should be explained next episode to some degree, and I hope they are thorough about it because this felt pretty rushed. Maybe they saw that they were running out of time to do everything they wanted so they are skimping out on some of the details to hurry things along. Wouldn’t be the first time anime production didn’t go just as planned.

O RLY?! If you tell the world Zero has MAGIX HAX they will laugh at you?!

O mighty penguin army, ye shall serve me!

I don’t think Orange-kun is going to buy that line of BS Ogui, he’s gonna come for you with his STORM OF LOYALTY. And Kallen once again affirms that she’s the #1 candidate to bail on the Black Knights to go back to Lelouch.

First thought? They skimped on the animation budget a bit this episode in several spots. It’s alright though for this type of episode, they will save it for the flashy action episodes and the final one I hope. Second, Lelouch now apparently does not care about the moral implications he’s just going to form up an army of mooks to take on daddy.

I love the happy music playing here, perhaps it’s called “Prelude to a Coup d’Etat?” Lloyd here is my hero, telling Suzaku to kiss his ass and calm down before he gets his new upgrade mech.

Oh dear, Suzaku is saying nasty things about her Guilford because he wants to become Knight of One. This scene was pretty hilarious, seeing Suzaku flex his “results man” muscles. A coup d’etat is a wonderful idea, and obviously it was something that Schniezel had been planning to do anyways. His reasoning and justifications for overthrowing the Emperor are pretty much a pile of bullshit, but that doesn’t matter to Suzaku. However, to those of us who have studied politics and history, many a government have been toppled by plans hatched in a small room by a few men.

Kaguyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Don’t cry, I’ll comfort you!

Gino, the next candidate to bail on Brittania and join up with Lelouch.

A sword Suzaku? Really? A sword? Leaving the matter that a sword wouldn’t kill the Emperor (seems neither Suzaku nor Schniezel know he’s immortal yet), we’ve seemingly added yet another geass this episode. This one was a bit more obvious, in a show about geass powers in your eyes, having a powerful character with his eye sewn shut radiates signs that he has a geass as well. Although we are left without knowing what his geass is.

Diethard got his ass kicked by someone, and made a really easy observation: Ogui is a complete idiot who can’t lead anyone and only thinks with his dick. Stuttering about and being useless, man this guy needs to be dead soon.

The Knight of One is so badass that merely crossing swords with him triggers Suzaku’s “live” geass.

The waifu is pissed OotBK, and she knows who is going after the Emperor, or so she thinks. She’s got some business to settle with Ougi, her husband is dead and she’s none too happy. Frankly, this little alliance between the OotBK, China, and Schniezel is unlikely to continue. Too much bad blood on all sides in addition to all of the manipulations and falsehoods being thrown around.

Not sure I like where this is going, when Marianne playfully asks if they should help Lelouch. Not sure that C.C. quite likes where it’s going either, perhaps she’s having second thoughts on where she stands regarding Marianne’s faction. Considering her attachment to Lelouch I hope she sides with him in the end.

CG goop with arms and legs sticking out looks really tacky.

The Emperor does not look pleased at the interruption

A lot of people have been saying, “omg Lulu is stupid why didn’t he just blow up the exit outside and not trap himself in there,” but that’s not the point. To Lelouch the only reason he has left to exist is to take out the Emperor, and doing so remotely and then living on would not be desireable. By his statements to Rivalz and to himself earlier in the episode he was not planning on coming out of this alive. Also, this allows him to find out the truth about things, because one figures if they are sealed in there for eternity he may learn what’s up. It does sound like the line for a corny episode of a sitcom though, a father and son who hate each other get locked in a room.

Next Episode:

Low quality extended preview of episode 21.

Next episode, a father and son trip to the library to find out all about Marianne and geass, it looks to be a truth revealing episode. “Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate,” (“abandon all hope, ye who enter here”) is a quote from Dante’s Inferno, in which that quote was inscribed on the gate to hell. Uplifting stuff eh? Also, the Knight of One kneels before Schniezel.

Crusader’s Angry Drunken Rant

I was going to do an Anya image dump to cover this space here, but looking through my pictures I found that I had very few SFW images of her. Kind of disturbing isn’t it?

Crusader’s saving the country this week, so I’m all by my lonesome, but we have plenty to talk about this episode. The inevitable betrayal of the OotBK comes to full fruition along with all of the consequences that surround that, including the death of another main character. And once again the writers re-align us for the final showdown between Lelouch and the Emperor.

Monica Kruszewski, the Knight of Twelve, finally makes her speaking appearance, voiced by Anya’s seiyuu, Yuko Goto. Not sure what role she’s going to play, but whatever it is it probably won’t be for awhile since she is stationed onboard the Emperor’s flying ship rather than with Schniezel. One more Round has yet to speak or make more than a momentary appearance, the Knight of Nine, Nonette Enneagram.

Not quite as good as the often-posted emo facial contortion from the first season, but amusing nonetheless. Yeah Nina, for a brilliant scientist you are pretty fucking retarded. Hey, I built this huge strategic weapon that vaporizes a huge area, if I detonate it in Tokyo it won’t hurt anyone right? Certainly not 35 million people who live in one of the most densely packed metropolises in the world…

Of course it is, because where would we have our school hijinks fillers?

Lelouch really started to lose himself here, forgetting all about protecting his identity (not like it matters for this episode) and yelling at Toudou. This scene provides another Lelouch emo facial contortion (not shown here) to add to the collection.

Awesome operational awareness by the Ikagura. Hey, I have huge radar coverage but I won’t announce a Brittanian ship wandering on in that could easily attack us! It’s ok though, it’s for plot, and so Cornelia can rabu rabu over her ani’ue.

Man, he’s just firing out more for the collection. His reaction is understandable though, he’s apparently (remember once again that nobody is dead in a Sunrise show until you see the body) lost his sole reason to live and no longer has the need for the mask he’s put on. One suspects (and is confirmed at the end) that Rolo already knew he was just being used as a tool, but he’s still visibly hurt by the outburst.

I really enjoyed this scene, where Lloyd puts Nina to the choice some scientists have to make, either your soul or the pursuit of science. It’s the same type of moral crossroads that those who created the atomic bomb had to make, or any scientist who designs weapons for that matter. Do you indulge yourself and pursue knowledge to the very end knowing that what you create will be used to end life? A rare truly profound philosophical question posed in this show.

No, no, NO!

Schniezel: Hey guys, Zero has magical powers
OotBK: O RLY?! PROVE IT
Schiezel: Ok here’s some voice recording that could easily be doctored
OotBK: OH NOZ ZERO HAZ MAGIK HAX, BETRAY!

Ahem, anways, Schiezel has the keikaku doori folded hands position going on. He is playing these guys so hard it’s not even funny, what a bunch of idiots. I was amused when he referred to Lelouch as the one he “loved and feared the most.” I don’t think Schniezel is afraid of anyone, and as for love, let’s just chock that one up to more yaoi bait for the fangirls. He even bullshits about FREIA saying that they warned him in advance. Sure, if you consider having Suzaku inform him, whom Schniezel knew Lelouch would never believe considering recent events, informing him. Played like a flute OotBK.

I’m sure Schniezel saw this coming as well, because he seems to know everything. What’s sad is that Ougi and the OotBK are stupid enough to believe that Schniezel would actually give them Japan back. Without Zero the whole international coalition against Brittania collapses for lack of unified leadership, and Schniezel can take the entire world. Ougi should spend less time thinking with his dick and more with his other head. Now he definitely needs to die.

With all the rageworthy and depressing shit that went on during this episode it’s hard to get excited over moe C.C. serving her master. It’s unfortunate but that’s the direction the show has taken. I just hope they change this situation by the end of the series because yeah she’s moe, but this totally kills her character for the ending. I preferred the devious and crafty C.C. to this moe one, Lelouch needs a strong support to help him through the end.

Realizing that at this point there is no way out of this, Lelouch puts on his acting mask and saves Kallen’s life. It may have hurt her, because she sympathizes with him due to the fact that she also lost a precious sibling, but there wasn’t any other choice. If he truly was a cold and heartless man who would use everyone else as his pawns he would have used her to save himself, resulting in her death. It makes a much better story that he doesn’t. With this, he also cuts off the OotBK for good, because there’s little chance they’d go back to him after he said such things.

Hmmmm, opening the door for the future eh? He seemingly had resigned himself to death so he figured that he’d at least let out some of his true feelings about her, which serves as a great tag for the future since he is saved by Rolo. Kallen, next time you are up in the Guren make sure you go and save Lelouch, k?

I loved the music during Rolo’s rescue of Lelouch, a great dramatic piece of classical along with what I think is another Hitomi insert. The music in this show has always been top-notch, but this really stood out to me. I can’t wait to pick up the second season OSTs, the first season’s are great.

They really made an effort to make Rolo a sympathetic character in the end, which I don’t fully buy. He was ready to kill Nunally, a complete and total innocent who was the most important person in Lelouch’s life for his own selfish reasons. He also gutted Shirley at the mere mention of Nunally’s name. It seems pretty unbelievable that his times with Lelouch allowed him to become “human” if last episode he was dead set on killing Nunally.

The Council’s will has been done, although not death by Shirley’s cell phone strap he at least died to save nii-san. Lelouch showed some heart here by at least giving him some pleasant parting words, and he truly was concerned for his well being during the rescue. Even though much of their relationship was a lie, Rolo can at least die with something to remember, a bright spot on an otherwise dark life.

Oh dear, Suzaku has gone off the deep end, that can’t be good.

Well, now Lelouch is all by his lonesome somewhat. The loss of Nunally, Rolo, and the OotBK is pretty massive, but it allows him to refocus on a single goal. Rather than trying to do many things at once (like fight Schniezel, lead the Japanese, take over the world, protect Nunally, etc.) he can dedicate himself to taking on the Emperor as redemption for his many sins.

Sounds like pretty standard villain faire, I was a bit disappointed that it was coming from Emperor Wakamoto. Destroying this world to make a new one is way overused, especially in mecha. Oh well, as long as they can give us something satisfying in the end I’ll take it.

Now that’s brilliant way to end the episode, I’m ready for something awesome now. Overall, I found the episode to be quite powerful, finally showing the consequences of Lelouch’s choices up until now. He decided to fake his identity and frequently use his geass, and those choices bore the fruit of betrayal that we saw this week. It was unfortunate they were only able to cull one member of the cast this week, but there was very little combat and it was a major character so I’ll take it. I still won’t view Rolo as a sympathetic character, but I don’t bear the same vitriol toward him that I once did.

What’s left for Lelouch? Well he’s going to take on the Emperor, but he’s not completely alone. Orange-kun is still with him until the end, and there’s a good chance Kallen will come back to him given the chance. Other than that you can hope that Sayoko survived the blast but that’s about it. Hopefully he can get Anya on his side with some geass canceling, but he’s starting over from nearly scratch again.

Next Episode:

Low quality extended preview of episode 20.

Investigations of Kamine Island, Kaguya in tears (probably over Zero/Lelouch) and Gino being detained for god knows what. From the extended preview, Anya with red-rimmed geass’d eyes (please get her story out!), Suzaku in his old uniform (flashbacks probably), Kaguya and the OotBK having some serious issues, penguins, and a dartboard. Penguins are actually relevant, because in the Ragnarok map, there is a site in Antarctica (note the center of it all is the site at Kamine Island). Maybe Lelouch is going to visit some adorable little penguins!

Crusader’s Angry Drunken Rant

In substitution of Crusader’s rant, I present to you this week’s ending eyecatch.

SO MOE I DIED

Only the good die young

Here ye, hear ye, the Council of Death of the glorious nation of Tomino is now in session. Let those who have business before this Council step forward and be heard. Today the Council passes judgment on the characters of Code Geass regarding their worthiness to be standing at the very end of it all. Let the guilty be promptly executed and the innocent be “cast in the name of God, ye not guilty!”

Author’s Note- Readers should feel free to comment on our decisions and make lists of their own. If this works out well we plan on holding additional “sessions” of the Council as often as needed when there are significant deaths or plot advancement worthy of changing our decisions.

Councilman Calawain

GUILTY

	Suzaku- for committing genocide against his own people, for constantly being beaten mentally by everyone including lolis, and for being a Kira “Jesus” Yamato clone that Elevens just love.
	Ougi- for being a wet noodle, for misbehaving before the enemy, for dereliction of duty, and for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
	Rolo- for excessive bro-con and yaoi bait, for conspiring to murder a blind and crippled loli, and for insubordinate conduct.
	Nina- for stalking, for disrespect toward a superior commissioned officer by insulting a Rounds, and for being a psychotic, table-humping racist.
	Carline- for conduct unbecoming a member of the nobility and the royal family, for hating a blind, crippled loli who just wants us to all be friends, for existing in a show with too many characters and being a useless member of said cast.

NOT GUILTY

	Kallen- of all people she deserves to be able to live in peace and take care of her mother. Plus, I’ve been a fanboy of Kallen since day one, and someone has to carry Lelouch’s love child if he kicks the bucket at the end.
	C.C.- if this was done before episode 15 I would have put her on the death list, not for crimes but for story purposes. But now she lost her immortality and I think she deserves to live out a normal life and die peacefully of old age.
	Odysseus- someone in the royal family has to survive and lead Brittania, and out of all of the princes and princesses remaining I trust Odysseus to run the country the most fairly and repair all of the mental and physical damage done to Brittania and the world.
	Orange-kun- a guy with such tenacity and unshakeable loyalty and righteousness deserves to live. And, you can’t help but root for the guy, he’s Orange-kun.
	Kaguya- she is required for proper Kaguya x Tianzi yuri doujins…oh and someone has to run Japan for the transition. Also, she’s unbelievably adorable.

Councilman Crusader

GUILTY

	Tamaki- Has long out lived his usefulness to any one. Guilty of attempted rape against Lulu, and guilty of vagrancy and chronic unemployment. Also guilty of misbehaving before the enemy, drunk on duty, unlawful detention of Ashford students, solicitation, malingering, and dereliction of duty.
	Diethard-Failed to prevent Emperor Wakamoto from humiliating Zero. Guilty of dereliction of duty, unlawful detention of Villetta, subordinate compelling surrender of Kallen, disrespect towards a superior officer, and conspiracy.
	Rolo-Guilty of being yaoi bait, dereliction of duty, disrespect towards a superior officer, stalking, failure to obey a lawful order, conspiracy to kill a non-combatant, sedition, and false official statements.
	Guinevere-Guilty of being old tits, having an ugly tattoo, conduct unbecoming of a member of the Royal Family. Needs to be killed off before she shows up in a Britannian dress. Guilty of being a new member of an already excessively large cast.
	Carline-Guilty of disrespect towards a superior member of the Royal Family, having the voice of a harpy, terrible fashion sense, and conduct unbecoming a member of the Royal Family. Guilty of being a useless extra in a already huge cast.

NOT GUILTY

	Cornelia- Only hope to raise the criminally low levels of yuri. Has not aided or abetted boys love. Built a working Knightmare from spare parts in a cave! Must live to succeed the directorship of the soon to be all girls Ashford Academy. Must live to deliver eulogy for her knights.
	Lloyd-More suit hax needed. Must remain alive to belittle Nina. If he doesn’t live then who will eat Cecile’s cooking? His name is Pudding!
	Odysseus-Most even tempered and mild mannered member of the Royal Family, which is renowned for lunatics and the like. Must live so that he can married the soon to be widowed Tianzi to legalize man and loli marriage for the rest of mankind. The only man who can build a kinder gentler Britnannia. All hail Prince Milquetoast!
	Cecile-Must live on to squeeze herself into a pilot suit again. If she dies who will then keep Lloyd in check? The only person who is qualified to make the last meals of all who are pronounced guilty. Required to reform Britannina Military to a kinder gentler standard.
	Villetta-Must live on to coach the Ashford Girl’s Academy swim team, and accompany Princess Cornelia at night for hawt yuri lurvin to teach other aspiring Britannian ladies the joys of yuri to counteract two seasons of BL. She shot Ougi!

Conclusions of the Council

The Council of Death hereby declares the following:

1) Rolo Lamperouge, cast in the name of bro-con, ye guilty. By resolution of this Council you are hereby sentenced to execution by strangulation with Shirley’s cell phone strap. Right of appeal, denied. Possibility of parole, denied. Last meal is authorized to be onigiri made by Duchess Cecile Croomy of Lancaster.

2) Carline le Britannia, cast in the name of insignificance, ye guilty. By resolution of this Council you are hereby sentenced to execution by being run over by one of Nunnally’s wheelchairs. Right of appeal, denied. Possibility of parole, denied. Last meal is authorized to be sandwiches made by Duchess Cecile Croomy of Lancaster.

3) Odysseus u Britannia, cast in the name of Pedobear, ye not guilty. By resolution of this Council you are hereby ordered to survive until the very end and take over Brittania, ushering in an unprecedented era of peace and loli loving on our world.

While the last couple of episodes were mostly setup, this week was uh, definitely the punch line. It was also the punch out line for several characters, who are presumed dead (note nobody is ever dead in a Sunrise show until you see the body). This week we get combat, mayhem, prison breaks, and a nasty WMD for super duper cheesy and obvious ironic effect.

Table-tan thinks she can actually pilot Lancelot and drop FREIA (Field Limitary Effective Implosion Armament, what a horrible acronym) on Zero, how silly. Throughout most of the battle she is seriously off her rocker raging at Suzaku telling him to use it and nuke Zero along with the evil Elevens. It’s never really explained why she is a racist, but it’s not like I particularly care. I hope she dies.

I’m glad they saved the Siegfried, so Orange-kun could say a line dripping in awesome like “my storm of loyalty!” You are awesome Orange-kun, the only character in anime history brought back from the dead by 2ch. I can’t wait until you get your new space mecha that’s shown in the OP.

Looking so pimp there Orange-kun

Run Millay!

As I said last week, bad idea to send batty fake brother to save Nunally! Crazy for nii-san! Bonkers! He’ll probably die before this is all over too. As an aside, Sayoko looks awesome in her Mai Otome supameido ninja gear.

Wow! Fucking useless Ougi. He may bring people together by being a total wet noodle but he is useless in a real fight. He should know the battle plans and he’s experienced in fighting, he’s just nearly as useless as Tamaki.

My princess is free, free like a bird!

Aaaaand another geass mindfuck that we have no explanation for -_- I want to know already dammit! Anya needs some serious geass canceling!

I like the credits with the cute animals, definitely Cecile’s doing. Also, what the hell is up with that acronym? Superlative Extruder? Are they just making this shit up?

Oh yes, super hax Guren launch

The Emperor arrives, but Schniezel makes a sugguestion that the Emperor doesn’t really care about this battle, doesn’t care about today or reality. That means he cares about the supernatural stuff, like the World of C, so perhaps he’s going to Kaminejima in his new super flying fortress thingy.

Useless, but in a somewhat amusing way. Didn’t last long either…

Haha, it was hugely telegraphed that she was about to appear to save him, but it was still cool to see anyways. Welcome back my princess, Lelouch and me both dearly missed you.

Oh that felt good too, we all know Kallen is a “badass mother!” (dubs are hilarious) but the new Gurren is pretty damn hax. Sorry Crusader, but your favorite crazy guy became the first Rounds to kick the bucket in this series. Note that we haven’t even seen more than like 5 seconds of 3 of the Rounds, not sure how they are going to fit them into the story, if at all.

Ugh, this doesn’t exactly bode well, although I don’t really know what some grunt whose name I didn’t even remember would have. Asahina has bee stupidly trying to rebel against Zero for a long time, and for what purpose? Does he think anyone else can lead the Japanese to independence? Toudou failed, Ougi failed, who else can do it? Asahina himself? Hah, fat chance. Fellow’s probably dead now though…

The Princess has left the building

I guess it’s Kallen’s turn to have the super duper hax KMF that’s better than everyone else for a couple of episode. It was pretty nice to see the Lancelot finally get it’s ass kicked, it’s been such a spoiler through like 30-40 episodes. However, as we all know KMF top dog status only lasts for a short time and I’m sure the new version of Lancelot will be as strong or stronger than the current Gurren.

Saw this coming from a million miles away too, even if I hadn’t read some of the rampant spoilers out there. They wouldn’t have kept referring to that geass if it wasn’t going to play some important part later on in the story this season. They wanted to load as much cheesy irony onto its use as possible. The guy who said he was going to protect the Japanese just nuked 10 million+ Japanese. The guy who said he was going to protect Nunally just presumably nuked her too. A bit too predictable for my tastes, I prefer the crazy tweeeeeeests.

“Bring Out Yer Dead” Nagasaki Death Counter
1) Nunally
2) Sayoko
3) Millay
4) Guilford
5) Asahina
6) Miss Rohmeier

It would really be irritating if this was the way Nunally died. People were predicting death by Suzaku’s geass for Nunally since the episode Lelouch put it on him, it’s way too obvious and forced irony. However, as I said before nobody in a Sunrise show is dead until you see the body, and even then there are exceptions. Nunally could have very well been ported off to the World of C or some supernatural crap, or a huge list of other plot twists that could save her and the others. Out of that list, those that looked the most dead and have the least reason to come back are Guilford and Asahina. Miss Rohmeier? Nobody really cares about her so dead is good. Sayoko and Millay have a bit more plot armor then those two, and of course Nunally is a hugely central character to the show. To me it seems kind of like a weak attempt to get an enraged/emo/shit-faced killer Lelouch to come out and cause problems.

Crazy mutterings of wanting to talk to dead people are never good. Plenty of material for emo facial expressions on Lelouch, I’m sure Crusader will post them gleefully.

Overall, a pretty powerful episode and one that will serve as a definite turning point in the series. The cast is inordinately large and was in desperate need of a culling, and this episode provided the perfect opportunity to do so. Aside from the aforementioned nuke deaths, combat claimed Luciano and some Black Knights grunt that was Asahina’s buddy. Tamaki lives though, he appears in the previews for the next episode unfortunately.

Next Episode:

Low quality extended preview of episode 19.

No talky from Lelouch in this preview means serious business. Next week, Ashford survives as Lelouch rages on Rolo for failing to save Nunally. Schniezel shows up on the Ikagura with Cornelia and Ougi looks raged (Looks like Lelouch’s cover is blown! Shit will hit the fan!). Orange-kun shields Lelocuh and Suzaku alternates between looking emo and creepily laughing out loud looking over the hole that used to be the Tokyo settlement.

The Nagasaki explosion before and after.

Britannia 1 America 0. ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!

Hello Infinite Justice Guren!

So yes much weeping and complaints about a fictional WMD in lieu of the real tragedy that was Nagasaki. Ah well I bet most of you forget the significance of having that Freja, or whatever they’re calling it these days, bomb go off the day Bockscar buzzed over Nagasaki with a single bomb. Man that was so deliciously snarky of Sunrise, to prove that their bomb is better because it creates a crater! In any case just thought you folk would like to know that maybe the Sunrise team has something to say about WMDs, like that they need Japanese delivery systems for instance.

I liked the Cecile touch…

Hey Louise how’s Saji? Need a hand?

Clearly Lulu has not interest in women…

So it seems that Guren has become Infinite Justice and soon Lancelot will become Strike Freedom at this rate…So sad to see that all these float packs have turned this series into a Gundam series of sorts. Even the Slash harkens have been relegated to tow cables with the introduction of beam weapons out the ass. Well in any case they have started to kill off some characters, Asahina, Ten-san and his comely team (such a waste), Shirin Romeyer, Nunnally, Millay, Sayako, and Guilford. Still given that Sunrise has proved most insipid about resurrecting characters I believe that Sayako and Nunnally will make it out some how given the lack of dramatic death scene. Guilford might pull off a Patrick but since Cornelia sensed a disturbance in the force I doubt it.

Tamaki is a buddy fucker in more ways than one…

Oh shi- he just said waifu…I distinctly heard waifu.

Sorry Zero but Tamaki already got the paper work done, and Nunnally did not speak now so will forever hold her peace… I now pronounce you Lulu and Tamaki. Were you hoping for Rolo or perhaps Orange-kun your emo-ness?

All in all a good day and it seems that Asahina discovered something, and Kallen’s rescue was priority no. 3. Glad to see the dumb bitch doesn’t mind to be no. 3 on the Zero priority list no doubt priority no. 2 was to find some pizza for C2. The bomb goes off because of Lulu’s Geass, and right when Suzaku was willing to die, how deliciously ironic. Man this operation was botched not only is Ougi useless but they had to call upon Tamaki to save Zero…Oh yeas much cries of being Zero’s buddy were heard. Sad to see that Tamaki was not caught in the blast, but I guess the Sunrise team just loves the fella. Suffice to say Rolo wins, just as planned…

So that’s why my Cornelia-hime has been keeping her arm like that…

Guilford was right in two ways one Cornelia must live. Second Lulu is a princess, albeit a very ugly and emo one, but a princess nonetheless given how Lulu always needs saving…

My princess is lovely as ever for no prison can hold her!

It was good to see Lulu rage about Nunnally’s “death” and it seems that Lloyd and Ceclie were not keen on installing some sort of lock out on their super Guren, but I suppose they were too busy making a jab at that opium smoking bint. Cornelia-hime escapes with her new gadgets and hopefully will make her way back to friendly lines now that Schniezel has the perfect opportunity to announce that Lulu was behind it all and lie about how Lulu had Geassed Suzaku into detonating the bomb. I expect Lulu to get ronrey real soon with only Orange-kun, Rolo, C2, possibly Kallen, and most important of all Tamaki at his side once the announcement is made.  I expect much Lulu crying and raging as he can’t actually strike Rolo out of fear, so I guess C2 will serve as punching bag for Lulu’s mistake. I still can’t believe Lulu sent Rolo to rescue Nunnally and expected him to succeed.

What another gift for Rolo?

Oh man C2 is going to get it…

Cry some more!

Because one of you asked: What do I think of Nina, best mad Scientist EVAR she can hump my tables any day.

This was a triumph!
I’m making a note here:
“BOOM SUCCESS!!”

It’s hard to overstate
my satisfaction.

Nina Science:
We do what we must
because we can.

For the good of all of us.
Except the ones who are dead.

But there’s no sense crying
over Lulu’s mistakes.
You just keep on trying
till you run out of cake.
And my science gets done.
And you make a neat bomb
for the people who are
still alive.

I’m not even angry…
I’m being so sincere right now-
Even though Lulu broke my heart,
and failed to kill me.

I tore Nunally to pieces.
I threw every piece into a fire.
As Nunnally burned it hurt because
I was so happy for Lulu!

Now, these points of data
make a beautiful line.
And we’re out of beta.
We’re releasing on time!
So I’m GLaD I wasn’t burned-

Think of all the things we learned-

for the people who are

still alive.

Go ahead and leave me…
I think I’d prefer to stay inside…
Maybe you’ll find someone else
to help you?
Maybe Black Knight Asahina?
That was a joke! HAHA!! FAT CHANCE!!

Anyway this revenge is great!
It’s so delicious and moist!

Look at me: still talking
when there’s science to do!
When I look out there,
it makes me GLaD I’m not you.

I’ve experiments to run.
There is research to be done.
On the people who are
still alive.
And believe me I am
still alive.
I’m doing science and I’m
still alive.
I feel fantastic and I’m
still alive.
While you’re dying I’ll be
still alive.
And when you’re dead I will be
still alive.

Still alive.

Still alive.

This week was not as combat-oriented as the previews may have led us to believe, but theoretically next week will be. The episode mostly focused on Suzaku and Lelouch’s meeting and the consequences that followed. In the end it feels more like another setup episode for how it’s going to all play out in the final showdown.

As Kaguya and the Knight of One explain to us, the basic setup is that whomever wins in Japan (OotBK or Brittania) takes all the marbles. I wonder how Kaguya’s storyline is going to play out. I mean, judging by how Lelouch’s identity has become much less secure now, it’s only a matter of time before the rest of the world and the Black Knights figure it out too. Will she stay with him despite knowing what he’s done and knowing of geass? She knew him when she was much younger when they met at the shrine, and she seems so dedicated to Zero. But on the other hand she really wants to free Japan, so I’m not sure who she will stand with in the end.

As I said last week, Bradley is a pretty weak stereotypical character who has close to little chance of living to see the end of the series. His KMF is pretty neat though, I’m digging those rapid-fire Hadron cannons.

This episode really showed me how underhanded Schniezel is. He’s the type of person who smiles a lot and is able to convince people that he’s a nice guy who cares about them, all while plotting in the background to take advantage of everyone for his own goals. He’s shaping up to be quite the villain, although he has nowhere near the awesomeness factor of batty Charles and his facial expressions. I have little doubt he’s willing to use Nunally to beat Lelouch by threatening her or anything else.

Rifts continue to open in the Black Knights, many of whom are only in this to liberate Japan and not to beat Brittania for good. I don’t think a lot of them are willing to go beyond that, no matter how much it may be in their best interests for the future. Toudou probably understands that the best out of all of them though.

Ougi is useful because he’s relatively useless? Ok I guess I can buy that for know Diethard.

Random moe shot of C.C., me likey

This conversation was pretty powerful and had a lot of underlying subtext. Suzaku is trying to outsource his anger onto Lelouch so he can blame him for everything that has gone wrong. He even steps on a begging Lelouch in his rage, trying to blame Lelouch rather than accept that he failed to protect people. Suzaku has done little in the way of accomplishing his own goals, failing at multiple points along the way. Lelouch is letting Suzaku blame him, even lying or pushing the truth to its limits in order to allow Suzaku to truly hate him. I can understand the motivations on each side for doing this, but it does make for a frustrating watch because you just want to see everything get worked out.

The Galahad was pretty pimp, but it has to be if it’s the Knight of One’s KMF. What happened to Xing Ke’s KMF, isn’t it supposed to be the almighty badass machine that kills everything? I guess that title only lasts for a few episodes per mech it’s assigned to~

Suzaku continues to impose impossible and unreasonable requests and demands on Lelouch. Asking him to bring back dead people, stop a war, and join him to do god knows what. And again, it’s all stemming from his own guilt and anger over being geass’d to live rather then just die and escape his sins. He’s enraged that he has to continue to bear them.

Wonderful emo facial contortion as usual Lelouch. Suzaku is such a moron sometimes, getting followed by a huge amount of soldiers and even KMFs. Poor Lelouch put his body, pride, and everything he had on the line and to him, Suzaku crushed it with his betrayal. It doesn’t really matter that we all know Suzaku didn’t mean it, because he’s too stupid and somewhat honest to arrange something like that.

Please step away from my woman Gino, and do not come back again!

I had always imagined Lelouch revealing himself to Schniezel and seeing a surprised look on his face, so I kinda raged a bit at how this worked out. Makes me dislike Schniezel even more, as he feeds Lelouch falsely comforting words that Lelouch tosses aside knowing how hollow they are.

It’s kind of sad when he goes in expecting to be betrayed somehow and it still happens. Guilford sure got suckered though, not sure how his storyline with Cornelia is going to play out from now on.

The Emperor is certainly making his moves, and despite what that useless Suzaku revealed to Schniezel about geass, the Emperor is still way ahead of the game. Suzaku didn’t know the whole truth, that’s for sure. Schniezel is definitely going to plot against his father, but it won’t be so easy. Uniting all of those geass-related sites in the world and something about the Ragnarok (which was mentioned as far back as episode 1) means some shit is going to go down on the supernatural front.

Looking badass as usual

Reference episode 13 for the first hints of this plan to shut Tokyo down. It’s pretty much guaranteed that this plan will not go keikaku doori because Schniezel is on the ball about it. I’m predicting heavy character deaths in the upcoming battle episode over Tokyo.

Orange-kun gets a new badass mech that uses those nervous system connection thingies. It’s widely speculated that this one or maybe his next mech is the space-borne one in the OP, but either way I want to see Orange-kun kick some Brittanian ass. At least we know he won’t betray Lelouch even if his identity gets out into the public.

BAD IDEA HOLY SHIT. Sending the guy that killed Shirley because she dropped Nunally’s name in to rescue Nunally? Not your finest tactical decision Lelouch.

Suzaku’s betrayal deeply hurts Lelouch and appears to send him on a much darker path than he was in episode 7 when he wanted to make Ashford a super happy place for everyone. I don’t think it will be dark Lelouch in the end, but he will be a “demon king” for the time being it seems.

This is really creepy, especially the way his voice sounds so excited.

Um, more like you should be worried about using a strategic weapon on Tokyo and killing millions of your own people rather than being worried about using it on just Lelouch. He seems to forget more and more about his original purpose in saving the Japanese and instead obsesses over Lelouch.

As I mentioned before this episode become more setup for the upcoming showdown in episode 18, and was heavy in foreshadowing future developments. Next week we finally get some sustained combat scenes as the showdown over Tokyo gets underway. It’s nice to have setup, but I can’t help but continue to wish we’d just get along with the good stuff by now.

Next Episode:

Really low quality extended preview of episode 18.

Massive KMF battles over Tokyo, Suzaku in Lancelot facing down Lelouch in Shinkirou, an ambiguous shot of Nunally. From the extended preview it appears that Luciano ensnares the Shinkirou, a new orange-looking mech that’s probably Orange-kun’s appears, Rolo and Sayoko infiltrate Tokyo, and Lelouch says he will save Kallen.

Alright decisive battle bullshit! One Guadalcanal, Midway, Marianas Turkey Shoot, Phillipine Sea, Leyte Gulf, Sibuyan Sea, Surigao Straight, and Samar to go! So Eleven Loli would you like a Iwo Jima and Okinawa with that or do you wish to upgrade to a Nagasaki and Hiroshima? August Storm is now 60% off…This is literally a fire sale! All Freyas must go…

There can be no forgiveness only WAR!

May your drill pierce the heavens!

Well that sure was pretty even if military sensibilities fell to the way side as Area 11 became the center of the universe again. In any case at least Britannia showed some skill in attacking the Federation everywhere knowing that the Federation had to be weak somewhere. Knight of Ten is fucking awesome may his drill pierce the heavens! I look forward to the Knight of Ten getting a King Kittan ending by stealing a kiss from Kallen. Oh and it looks like Gino is about to steal Calawain’s waifu, serves him right for being a traitor. Thankfully all of the new Knight of Rounds acquitted themselves nicely, and hopefully soon we shall have a big boom in Area 11!

Did you say Excalibur?

Ladies and Gentlemen we have a winner.

Bradley is Borg

Given that it’s an Eleven I am assuming its a dakimakura…

Things look grim as Lulu confessed to everything and was caught on tape. Looks like the way things are going the Black Knights might finally get sick of being tools for an emo prince. Diethard isn’t helping matters by bullying Ougi though I really don’t care about either of them and think that they had some hot yaoi s3x while Villeta was forced to watch, I trust she fapped duriously. Poor Cornelia remains tied up and her men are being abused by the bastardly Lulu. Not even Todou seems keen on keeping Lulu after the war though he is quickly become big dumb barbarian who can’t think for himself. I have to say its kind of sad to see Li being little more that Toudo Mk II, he didn’t even have a just as planned moment…

Okay hold still you won’t feel a thing…

That tooth is coming out buddy…

Now open your mouth all the way…

Sorry but your dental plan did not cover anesthesia… now for the filling.

Not much to say about the confirmation of a SuzakuxLulu ending though it was good to see Lulu face plant like that. The yaoi was just searing my eyes…though it was good to see Lulu cry some more. I hope he cries even more when Rollo kills Nunnally.

Cry some more…

Fake Tears.

Prince Bradley al Sarshes Feyd “Sting” Rautha at your service. Oh I am thinking of starting a taxi service, need a lift? I also deal in train parts…

One last thing, a speech from the Immortal Emperor Charles Wakamoto:

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in Area 11, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend “our” Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the Britannian Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Old. ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!

Most satisfying screenshot of all time

This episode has the single best 20 seconds of Geass ever aired, bar none. Watching Kallen pull off a punch combo against Suzaku was so damn satisfying that everyone should watch it on loop like I did. There was like 20 minutes of some other stuff, but it was mostly setup for the shit hitting the fan starting next week.

Whodunit?! As if the guy would really get stuck in that world, he’s Emperor freakin Wakamoto, he won’t be taken out that easily. That annoying Miss Rohmeirer lady once again tries to start some shit with Nunally, but good ole Gino saves her. He’s such a gentleman.

It’s sad seeing C.C. in this state, but she now possesses a level of moe that’s really hard to ignore. It’s good to see Lelouch being nice to her, this episode showed even more of his softer side with his interactions with C.C. and conversation with Suzaku at the end.

She looks pretty hot all tied up like that, Orange-kun sure has some good taste, mmmmm. Errr anyways, she still doesn’t rage at Lelouch or start blaming him for Euphie’s death as one may expect upon seeing him for the first time. She has gotten some perspective on matters since last year, softening her stance on Lelouch somewhat.

This scene was THE BEST SCENE IN GEASS EVER. No joke man, I was so pumped watching Kallen beat the shit out of Suzaku here. Omni even found an animated gif of part of the scene. I watched this about 15 times before I moved on with the rest of the episode, it was just that awesome. Teeheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Super United States, United Federation of Nations, whatever you want to call it the world is now officially divided in two, Zero on one side the Emperor on the other. This is what we were all looking forward to for season 2. The first season was focused on Lelouch growing his power base in Japan and solidifying his support. Now with that support he took his fight to the world stage, involving everyone. I found Toudou’s reaction to this “war for justice” interesting, he seems at odds with many of his subordinates such as Asahina. Serious cracks have formed in the Black Knights, making it troublesome when all of these countries appoint the Order to control the united military.

That was one nasty looking pizza, but if C.C. likes it then that’s ok. I think this entry is going to end up way too heavy on Kallen kicking ass and C.C. moe screenshots. Oh well, I can’t help myself.

As suspected, Anya has a significant part to play here, likely geass’d by the emperor to forget her connections to Lelouch and Marianne. Her memories don’t match, so she feels compelled to record everything in her diary and in photos. It’s kind of sad really, to see someone struggling so hard against the corruption of her memories. We still don’t know whether she’s some long lost half sister of Lelouch, or a clone of Marianne, or what, but something is amiss. She just needs some quality time with Orange-kun to clear up all of those misunderstandings and join the Black Knights, right? Kukuku.

Bradley is an awefully clichéd character type but I guess they can’t all be winners. An evil bastard at his heart, without any of the charming insanity of Gundam 00’s Ali, I predict eventual death for this fellow. This is the first time we’ve seen serious quarreling within the Rounds as well, with Bradley having a great dislike for both Suzaku and Gino. Also another instance of double casting a seiyuu, as he shares one with Asahina.

The Knight of One has a freaking huge KMF, Galahad, and according to side materials it’s double the size of normal KMF. He also brings along an armada to join up with Schniezel, showing us that the shit will indeed be hitting the fan very soon.

Oh this certainly can’t end well. Batshit crazy Nina wants to stick a nuke on Suzaku’s Lancelot, meaning that it’s 99% guaranteed he’s going to use it (accidentally or on purpose in a rage) on the Japanese people for maximum mindfuck. Also fun to note that Lloyd and Cecile couldn’t help themselves but upgrade the Gurren into some crazy shit. That just means when Kallen eventually escapes and takes her machine back it will kick some serious ass. I can’t wait =)

Me neither Toudou, but it looks like you have some other problems. If the apples and the double bed weren’t enough, she’s got some blushing going on in a half confession. The man has a war to fight woman, don’t trouble him with this nonsense! Also appearing is the traitor Ougi who now shows no physical signs of having knives stuck in him. He’s either Sayoko in disguise or Diethard is blackmailing him over Villetta or something, he doesn’t look himself.

Every other time this guy is on screen he has a surprised look on his face. You can bet Orange-kun was calling about Cornelia, as Guilford looks pretty nervous about it later. I’d like to know what the substance of the conversation was though.

Domestic Support Officer Tamaki, glorious title for the most worthless job in the Order, great stuff. The rest of the staff is a no brainer, but I’m sure a Ougi being so high will cause some problems later on.

Weekly speech of GAR by Emperor Wakamoto, this time challenging Zero to a fight with all the marbles. Just what we’ve always been looking for in this series, a massive showdown setting the entire world at war.

Moe

IT’S A TRAP! Oh this won’t end well either my friends. You know that him coming to meet Suzaku all alone will end very badly for Lelouch. He looked kinda pathetic here, begging Suzaku to save Nunally rather than finding a way to do it himself like he has been doing the entire time. Overall, aside from Kallen vs. Suzaku the episode was not particularly exciting, serving mostly as a setup for the final stretch of episodes.

Next Episode:

Once again, I will post the extended preview when I find one.

Next week looks to have lots of knightmare fighting from named characters with unique KMFs as well as the aforementioned meeting between Suzaku and Lelouch.

I see that Lulu likes Red States I christen thy nation Dumbfuckistan.

The places have changed the color has not.

Milady we shall rescue you from the clutches of that woman hating Lulu. Nunnaly needs you now more than ever.

Hey Feyd can you invoke some Kanly now?

Ah well Lulu makes more military blunders that would have gotten him killed if CG had a hint of realism but such is life I suppose. In any case it seems that Sunrise Is very keen on keeping Iran a pariah, so I hope that someday the Islamic Republic can declare Area 11 as the Great Satan and take a bunch of hostages for 444 days. In true dictatorial fashion Lulu has manufactured consent and put all the military forces under the control of a military junta, Freedom is on the march and in perfect unison! They would be goose-stepping but the filthy Elevens and collaborator Chinese did not have enough balls to do it. Even Todou has been emasculated by putting on make up. Congratulations to Lulu on creating the equivalent of the Janjaweed Militia and FARC, like the ass-hat paramilitary man that he is.

No matter what you do on the stage
Keep it light, keep it bright, keep it gay!
Whether it’s murder, mayhem or rage
Don’t complain, it’s a pain
Keep it gay!

People want yaoi when they see a show
The last thing they’re after’s a litany of hetero
A WTF ending will pep up your play…
Code Geass won’t bomb…
If Lulu winds up with Mom!
Keep it gay!
Keep it gay…
Keep it gay!

Invading your broadcast…

Raping your Goebbels.

BTW Kallen you should take a page from the master, Emperor Toss and everything.

While Kallen proved capable of hitting a man who refused to rape and beat her, the moment was tainted by the fact that she didn’t try to push Suzaku over or toss him down Darth Vader Style. Kallen is truly brainless for not even trying to escape and needed Gino to stop the Knight of Ten from raping her. Lulu however was able to make a heretical pizza using broccoli and to add insult to injury was abusing C2. Not only was he forcing her to strip for his sick pleasure but he even had the gall to beat her to the point of bleeding. No doubt many a lulu-fag will be making excuses, like Lulu was sorry that he hit her and other such nonsense. These same people are in fact wife beaters, though often they just beat women because they can’t get a wife without mail ordering one, and the sick fucks that my cop buddies drag to court. Soon Lulu will be beating up children with his high heels, and no doubt the Lulution will be supporting domestic abuse.

As you can see here Lulu wat trying for some afternoon delight.

Lulu has clearly been abusing C2…

Yes here’s you dear leader lulu fags…

Now I can already hear the cries from teh Lulution that this is not abuse…they are all liars and criminals.

Yes now the lulu fags will say that C2 was asking for it or some other bullshit.

In other words raep tyme!

All in all a pretty tepid episode that made clear Australia is only good for colony drops and that Iran always marches to the beat of its own drum. Thank God Blighty, Australia, Iran, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Ukraine, and Ireland want no part in the Lulution for emo-fags and old retards. Normally having Russia, Israel, and the US would mean that Britannia could not possibly lose given how all three produce high quality weapons compared the stuff they put out in the PRC, but not doubt emo and faggotry will carry the day for Lulu. I am appalled that they tied up my Cornelia-hime like that I hope she escapes and runs a knife through the empty space where Orange-kun’s brain would have been had God deigned to give him one. I hope Area 11 gets nuked again so they can bitch in the CG universe like they do now. Tactical nukes FTW!

More ethnic diversity than in the Black Knights.

The best part was when Emperor Charles raped Diethard at his own game and fucking hacked his system and made Lulu look like an idiot. ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!

As expected some of the truth of geass is revealed, although to a lot of us it’s probably not that much of a surprise what C.C.’s wish was. Other than that we got to see Drugzaku struggling with himself, Nunally asserting her authority, and a literal “cliffhanger.” Oh, and a naked C.C. and a loli C.C., I almost didn’t survive that.

This scene made me giggle, because it made geass look like some sort of laser beam when it’s actually invisible. I guess it’s just a way for them to allow the viewer to understand what’s going on, despite it not really being visible. Well Lelouch, it was a good plan to think up, even though we know it really wasn’t going to work.

That’s goddamn right Kallen! Slap Drugzaku silly!

It would seem Suzaku is still struggling with his morality, it is not so easily cast aside as he tried to do last episode. This episode showed both Lelouch and Suzaku in a much brighter light than last episode, and they both showed empathy and resolve here in contrast to the dark nature of their actions in episode 14.

By now we’ve seen multiple stages of Charles’ life: from shouta, to young man, to old man in a wig. V.V. looks just as shouta now as he did back then, except without the ridiculously long hair. And they made a promise to one another not to lie when they made their contract, which gives reason to some of the things Charles said last week.

Surprise! The show can’t end at episode 15 so of course he’s not dead! No, instead he has taken V.V.’s immortality in exchange for the loss of his own geass. Kind of silly that they call that taking their “code,” but made up uses of English words in this show shouldn’t be too surprising.

Oh god, not these two. Out of all of the storylines in Geass I find this one to be one of the stupidest and most uninteresting. Two generally incompetent, dull, and boring characters who are easily manipulated by Lelouch falling in love. It’s like a really bad Romeo and Juliet with the Brittanian woman and the Japanese guy. Gag me with a spoon. Thankfully supameido Sayoko is there to bring the pain.

I didn’t really understand what this “you are me, I am you” and “one person” metaphor stuff is about. I guess they couldn’t just tell us everything in one episode, and had to leave some of the mysteries up in the air.

Most people saw this one coming. From the very beginning, when I knew she was immortal, the first wish I thought she could have would be to die. It kind of flows naturally from being immortal and alone most of the time, and watching people you’ve grown close to die of old age or the frailties of human life. What I didn’t predict was that the underlying truth of geass user and geass giver was for the user to become powerful enough to kill the giver and take their place in immortality. I just thought it was unique to C.C.’s contract, because V.V. said their contract was to slay the gods.

Lelouch really stood his ideological ground here, refusing to give into C.C.’s self-pity and depreciation of life. His entire purpose in gaining the power of geass was to continue living and create a world in which Nunally could live in happiness. To him, there is meaning in just existing and driving toward your goals. In the end, he isn’t willing to kill C.C. in order to gain power equal to Charles. He isn’t the cold-blooded pragmatist that Charles is, who is willing to do anything to secure what he wants.

Respect mai authoritai! She’s much cuter than Cartman, but damn she showed some spine here. I thought we had seen the last of that Ms. Rohmeier hag, but Nunally uses her hand polygraph test to figuratively smack her up. You go girl~!

Oh man the genius finally figures it out after 15 episodes! Man, what a freaking moron this fellow is. And then he gets owned by a blind and crippled girl, who can tell he was lying without even using her hand polygraph. Just by listening to him speak. That’s two lolis that have owned Suzaku.

Itty bitty C.C.!

Sayonara! Too bad I don’t think they’ll really die =/

Again, jwq3lk4jwklfsjflksd. Ahem.
What is love? Baby don’t hurt me.
She just wanted to be loved by someooooooooooooone.

After much nosebleeds and singing of cheesy songs, I return to notice that Yukana (C.C.’s seiyuu) is using her Tessa voice, which adds even more moe to this whole scene.

That is one crazy ass nun for sure. It is interesting to note how the geass affected C.C., changing her from a desperate slave to a spoiled girl who is showered with attention. If you compare Lelouch to that, he has not had such a significant change in his personality. He has the same goals he always had even before the geass, and his attitude about them hasn’t changed. He might have gained some confidence, but that’s about it.

And her prince comes to rescue her, I half expected for him to confess to her, but I liked this way better. It is interesting to note that he asks her why he didn’t force the immortality on him, as we’ve seen her become closer and closer to him as the series went on. To her, he has become more than just an accomplice, but someone who truly thanked her and appreciated what she had given him. For the second time this episode Lelouch stands his ground and refuses to give up, telling her once again that he will stay with her and asserting that he won’t let anything else be taken away from him

God I love this guy’s facial expressions and booming exclamations. Emperor Wakamoto, you are one awesome villain, one of the best in recent memory. A truly crazy ass mofo. Not exactly as planned for him though, as he doesn’t get to take C.C.’s immortality and his place gets all blown up.

Personally, I think something bad is going to come as a result of Nina inventing what is probably the Geass universe’s version of a nuke and giving it to Schniezel. He dropped the name of Damocles, although whether that’s the name of a delivery system, KFM, ship, or what remains unseen. Feel free to read the original ancient Greek anecdote it’s from, which is a pretty amusing one.

So moe I died! In actuality this is pretty messed up, as she has apparently lost all her memories from when she got geass onward. This is potentially devastating for Lelouch, who with that has lost the one person closest to him who knows everything and whom he can confide in him. What this means is that Kallen needs to come back ASAP to comfort him ^_^. In the end though, this is perhaps a way to let C.C. live at the end of the series, because if she has really lost her powers (forehead thingy wasn’t showing?) she could live a normal life with Lelouch. Although it would be nice if he could at least restore her memories before this is over.

I’m glad we finally got to the point where we found out about C.C.’s past and the nature of geass. Although it wasn’t the whole truth, I’m glad we know what we know now. Still unresolved remains the questions about C.C. and Marianne’s relationship, how Marianne relates back to V.V. and Charles in terms of geass, how they can talk to dead people, etc. It’s going to be weird having a master-slave relationship between Lelouch and C.C. for the time being, considering the previous relationship of devious accomplises.

Next Episode:

Couldn’t find an extended preview this time, if I find one I’ll add it later.
Shazam, episode 16 extended preview! Although it doesn’t show much extra, a bit of extra Cornelia maybe

Lelouch and Orange speaking with a captured Cornelia, Lelouch holding a conference with Xing Ke, Tianzi, and Kaguya, a plan to rescue Nunally, and the orange haired Rounds looking in on Kallen. Oh, and C.C. stripping, can’t forget that ^_^

Finally we start to get to the meat of geass, as the writers give us a lot of tasty plot material of the supernatural type. Also, loyalties on all sides are tested, even ones we thought would never crack. Plus we got some shots of a younger Charles with some really long hair. Overall, shit was hitting the fan throughout this episode.

As should be pretty obvious by now, even before this scene, Marianne and C.C. were buddies back in the day. In the side materials C.C. meets Lelouch years ago (visuals provided in some really quick shots of the start of episode 1) and it is implied by C.C. that Marianne sent her to check up on Lelouch. She’s also still talking to her when she’s by herself in rooms, and it’s still kind of creepy talking to dead people.

To be honest, I think the old man wig curls look more badass then the hippy, disheveled hair. Although that’s nowhere near as bad as V.V.’s ugly-ass haircut. They also took the time to remind us of their contract to “slay the gods,” whatever that ends up meaning.

Just to quiet all of the conspiracy theorists out there who pointed out they didn’t exactly show Rollo killing Shirley, he admits it here right at the start. He’s one demented little kid, that’s for sure. And once again Lelouch wins best actor as he smiles at him and tells him what a good job he did protecting their secret. They also didn’t forget some random yaoi bait shots, it may be a last farewell…

Really, really creepy

And one could hear the million cries of the Schniezel x Canon fangirls

As I mentioned in the teaser, we have the beginnings in this episode of loyalties cracking on all sides. C.C. is somewhat apprehensive over the change in plans, but tells him that she will see this through with him until the end. Her actions later on in the episode tend to confirm it, but there is that tension there. Up until this episode, throughout the entire season, if there was only one ally in the world that Lelouch could absolutely count on it was C.C., who told him that in the end she will be the only one standing with him. It may be a bumpy ride until then, but I think that will still hold true. Plus a C.C. service shot, wee!

Surprise! Something to note, V.V. seems much more interested in C.C. than Lelouch, starting to offer him freedom in exchange for turning her over. But more importantly, Rolo has a really, really lame looking combat suit on. C.C. looks so sexy in comparison, they obviously need to coordinate tailors.

It’s been awhile Kallen service shot, how I missed you. *Sniff* This was the really obvious shot in last week’s preview that should have massively flagged to everyone that it was Kallen. Also, this scene confirms the low intelligence score she got last episode in that chart- the fact she still hadn’t realized that Nunally and Lelouch were royalty. Hell, she may not even put two and two together and surmise that Lelouch is a prince. Not everyone can have beauty and brains like C.C. I suppose

Mmmm, Toudou and his woman, eating apples in a hotel room with a double bed. Little bit of Black Knights lovin’ eh? This scene does manage to lay the foundation for episode 16, as the countries that will make up Lelouch’s anti-Brittania bloc begin to form up together.

No mecha show is complete without creepy, super-powered children. Although in CG they get blown to bits within a minute of appearing by Rolo-niichan (lol). The cult here is more than just a research facility, it is an active “breeder” I guess you could say, of geass users. The Black Knights are understandably hesitant about killing all of these kids and unarmed civilians, but they nonetheless follow orders. More signs of loyalties cracking, but I don’t see the Black Knights bailing on him anytime soon. Lelouch still has a long ways to go before he has enough forces to challenge Brittania.

They fished the Siegfried out of the sea, but not the Gawain? =(

In case you still had doubts, Orange-kun is in with Lelouch for the long haul due to his loyalty to Marianne. He doesn’t really care about what Zero did to him, he’s willing to follow him regardless. Too bad he’ll probably be relegated to useless side character for awhile, at least until they find some fun uses for a geass canceller. And V.V. sure got pissed when Orange-kun dropped Marianne’s name on him, she was likely working against V.V. and the Emperor to thwart their plans.

The aforementioned weakness mentioned in episode 5?

I knew he wouldn’t be able to get rid of Rolo that quickly, it would have been too convenient. Unfortunately the crazed otoutou lives to see another day.

That…is a big set of guns. I’d like to note that in this scene and before, Cornelia seems to blame V.V. much more than Lelouch for Euphie’s death. She had the opportunity here to blow Lelouch away, but instead focused her anger on V.V., who is the source of the geass in her mind. More and more hints of a possible alliance between Lelouch and Cornelia maybe? Kukuku.

Gah! Just tell us what your wish is and how it’s going to turn out! C.C., you sexy thing, you are way too mysterious for me. I must know! This is the first time I recall ever seeing C.C. cry, but here she really shows what path she has chosen, apparently destroying all of the research and ending the line of geass users. Now the only ones left that we know about would be Lelouch, the Emperor, and Rolo.

RAAAAAAAAAAGE! Suzaku has already earned the brand new nickname “Drugzaku” on /a/ for his dastardly actions. So much for being a moralfag eh? At this point he’s definitely no better than Lelouch, and also no longer feels the need to hide under a shield of righteousness. If he seriously messes with Kallen I’m starting my own revolution against Sunrise -_-

Alliances and loyalties continue to crack even amongst these two. For whatever reason V.V. did not tell the Emperor he was going to try and kill Lelouch, perhaps because the Emperor wanted him to live for his plans. Also, V.V. was thinking about lying to Charles about Cornelia being captured earlier in the episode. The Emperor is not pleased, despite looking pimp as usual in curls.

Ohhhhhhhh snap! I’ve missed crazy ass cliffhangers like this, and this is the first time we’ve seen Charles with such an expression of sick pleasure. The fact of Lelouch being dragged all the way to Brittania and to the Sword of Akasha (complete with Jupiter imagery) should mean a big revelation for us next week about the truth of geass. It’s been a long time coming, and frankly I can’t wait.

Next Episode:

Low quality extended preview of episode 15.

There’s just that one shot in both the regular preview and the extended preview, it looks like Lelouch is going to be taken to the “World of C.” There, he gets to hang out with C.C. in a crazy world with paintings! Wahoo~

I sense that this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

…and 10 or more kids. Sorry boys looks Like Kallen has found a new man. Lulu still has C2, sort of…

Yes except the Britannians don’t rape corpses, in fact they don’t rape period…

Well the Black Knights have really done it now killing unarmed old, men , women, and children. Was it easy? Well they didn’t lead them so much… I am sure Shirley is happy to know that Lulu killed off an entire population of unarmed people whom she never met using her death as justification while her murderers got away. Bravo Lulu not only did you snub Shirley at her funeral you failed to off the guy who pulled the trigger, just as planned right?

Yes! Yuri Sis-con 4TW!

All Cornelia needed was a rubber band and pocket knife. Cornelia you great ancestor is proud.

It’s no Koning Monster but it’ll do…

So yeah C2 is starting top play her own games and commit genocide along with Lulu. Silly Black Knights still believing that they are doing the right thing, but I guess conquering Saudi Arabia and forcing them into your Union of Unwilling States is a most just cause. Just like slaughtering women and children. While most of them are fools Suzaku used evidence to draw the conclusion that Shirley did not an hero herself on her on her own so the logical answer is that Lulu did it since all the evidence was wiped. I see that Suzaku is an advocate of bad cop and honestly using drugs to get an answer is preferable to beating it out of Kallen though I suspect every Kallen fanboy is a closet S&M guy so having Suzaku beat Kallen bloody might be a turn on…

Oh be still my heart…

Well do what we must…

Gundam 00 intervenes on your preview!

Cornelia-hime was awesome as usually breaking out of her cell hot wiring a wrecked Knightmare and modifying it into a an ad-hoc artillery unit. My Princess is shining more brilliantly with each passing ep though now I want to kill Orange-kun for touching my liege in such a rude manner. I hope my Cornelia-hime is going to slap the shit of of Orange-kun so that he can have accidental buttsechs with Lulu. Because I am sure Cornelia can punch Orange-kun hard enough to rip through dimensional barriers.