Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

Code Geass is a Japanese anime series which I watched in this summer. It has a total of 50 episodes with 20-minute watch time across 2 seasons, which is easy to watch and understand, but carries a lot of retrospection and also introspection (if you can connect to the characters or the story). The plot is set across the alternate timeline with three superpowers i.e. Chinese Federation, European Union and the Holy Britannian Empire. The story is about ‘Lelouch’, a former prince and heir to the throne of Britannaian Empire who fights against the Emperor and the empire for the freedom of Japan. Quite an interesting plot which revolves around 3 main characters, and many important side characters.

Geass could be described as a power which would allow the Geass holder to manipulate and control others to one’s own wishes. It could be of different types. For example, Lelouch has the power of ‘absolute obedience’ which is to plant commands in a person’s mind. Rolo has the power to pause the world for everyone except him. One character has the power to foresee the actions of others, while another has the ability to read the thoughts of people. The power also has a catch. Lelouch can use the geass just once on a person, while Rolo’s heart stops beating whenever he pauses time. And, with increasing usage of geass, the person will also get immersed and lose control of it.

                             

Themes

Identity – Zero is the masked identity of Lelouch. He creates the persona Zero as he is a prince of Britannia but had to take the help of Japanese to fight against Britannia. With very few people aware of his identity (none until the last scene of 1^st season), he effectively uses the identity to his interests. While it was hard for the Japanese to trust a masked unknown leader, they still follow him as he got the necessary results for the Japanese through his intelligence and skills. Lelouch develops the character Zero with more focus on the identity of a common person being ‘Zero’ and wouldn’t let him immerse in the dual personality. In the end when Zero (Suzaku takes the identity) kills Lelouch, people were confused as Lelouch and Zero were the same person (the dual identity is known to most people in the 2nd season). With Zero (just an identity) killing Lelouch, it made people to regain hope for the future.

Morality – Lelouch starts the war against Britannian empire for the desire of his disabled sister Nunnally who wanted a peaceful gentle world. Although while the plot thickens, it is more connected to his own interests while also considering his sister’s intentions. In the end, Lelouch encounters the situation where he had to use geass on his own sister Nunnally. With Nunnally being aware of Zero (the masked identity of Lelouch), she despises him. The disabled nature of Nunnaly is psychosomatic (as geass was used on her by Emperor to make a fake witness to the murder of her mother). Nunnally with her will power goes against the emperor’s geass and opens her eyes. Until then, Lelouch did not have the opportunity to use on Nunnally as her eyes were closed, and he’s confused when he had to use it on her.

Justice – the Japanese fight against the empire of Britannia but not their people. Suzaku and Lelouch are best friends since childhood and they fight for justice in their own ways. Lelouch takes the masked identity of Zero, while Suzaku becomes a Knight of the Britannian Empire to fight Zero. Suzaku believes to solve the problem by being within the empire, while Lelouch believes to fight being outside the empire. When Lelouch finds that Suzaku in the Knight is fighting Zero, he stumbles and leaves the battle rather than killing the Knight which was his intention till then.

                                     

Power – Other than Geass, Lelouch just possesses his genius level intellect. Being a poor warrior in war (improves at the end), he often gets caught in the battle and had to take help from C.C or Kallen. C.C. being the person who gave geass power to Lelouch had to protect him because he shouldn’t die and fulfil her wishes of the empire.

War – The war has divided people and even united them in the plot. Forming alliances and taking down enemies for the greater part make up the side story and the battle in the series. Feign movements, plots, deceptions, schemes and predicting the actions of another party while advancing yours in battle is eye-catching, but might even look stretched to some extent. It could be described as a game of chess (which Lelouch is extremely good). But, on this analogy, it should be noted that unlike the Chess game where everyone is controlled by the King, in this series, the warriors are motivated by King, but not guaranteed to always follow the instructions in the war. And, that should also be accounted to the intelligence of Lelouch where he lets people act on their own, but they are unconsciously motivated by him (either by geass or his convincing words).

                              

Conflict - Lelouch uses geass on Suzaku by asking him ‘to live’. This makes Suzaku not to die, although he wishes quite a few times for his own guiltiness in different aspects. He also considers this as a curse given to him by Lelouch to live for the rest of his life. While Lelouch tries to explain the power of geass to Euphy (his step-sister), he loses the control of geass and mistakenly gives the order to ‘kill the Japanese’ which Euphy orders when her actual intention was to create a common ground for both Japanese and Britannians. This creates a negative image of Euphy although she had no idea she did that and dies in the battle. Lelouch regrets that, but he didn’t have any other course of action and he lost the power to control his geass.

Rationale

The story could be brought down to these 3 people who would have the power to rule the world. From my perspective, I’ve compiled their rationale as follows.

Emperor – Past – Create a world without lies. Go back to the starting point of the human nature and start to live in an Utopian society.

Schnizel – Present – Be a dictator and rule the power while suppressing and forcing his interests on them.

Lelouch – Future – A world without lies would be a secluded world, while forcing your interests on others is equally evil. So, he wanted to present the world with the freedom to live in the hope of a better future.

End – Lelouch becomes an aristocratic dictator at the end of the season 2. The Japanese people who worked with him feel betrayed as Lelouch used them for his own reasons. The time has come when Lelouch becomes the most powerful person in the world where the leaders of different nations bow to him. While this wasn’t the scenario which Lelouch had planned to accomplish, he still gets it due to the consequences of dealing with his father, his brother Schnizel and C.C. Keeping in mind the original intentions of the war and best interest of the people, Lelouch and Suzaku plan coup d’état of Zero (Suzaku) killing Lelouch.

                          

For me???

In the end, I can say each person gets his or her own view and perspective by watching this show. I don’t know if I had presented the info about this show in a better way, but this is my perspective and I hope I hadn’t spoiled the efficacy of the show although it looks a bit complicated in the way I presented about it. 

An interesting story to introspect. Quite a few things which I could connect to the present world which we live in. This show has surely presented a new perspective on the decisions which people take on an individual level, and also the decisions taken by leaders for the whole as a nation. It also presents the dilemma and choices which we encounter to fight for the causes which we believe to achieve our desires.