Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, eps 5-8

[laceblade]

In the beginning of episode 5, Britannian forces are fighting in the desert with some Middle Eastern forces. Britannia wins, with Princess Cornelia leading the charge in a knightmare frame mecha. The Middle East is now referred to as Area 18.

Back in Area 11, Lelouch goes to his house, and finds the green-haired girl who made the Geass contract with him folding origami with his sister, Nanali. "Do you like it?" the green-haired girl asks, "The power I gave you?" Lelouch tries to use the Geass on C.C., but finds it to be ineffective. Taking the green-haired girl (who calls herself C.C.) away from Nanali, Lelouch exchanges some heated words with her. He tells her that he was planning to destroy Britannia even before he gained the power of the Geass (his power to control people's minds). C.C. refuses to answer his questions about the Geass power.





The entire world is trying to figure out the true identify of the mysterious, masked "Zero."



Suzaku is released from custody. He had been under suspicion of killing Prince Clovis, but at the end of episode 4, Zero rightfully claimed responsibility for having committed the murder. While walking outside, Suzaku is literally knocked over by a pink-haired girl who calls himself Yuffie. They get along just swell, and she asks Suzaku if she can see the Shinuku ghetto, which is the ghetto that was attacked in the previous episodes, that Lelouch and the rebels were trying to defend.



At the same time as Suzaku and Yuffie are walking around, C.C. is taking a walk with Lelouch, and asking him why he wants to bring down the Brittanian Empire if he himself is Britannian.

The scene cuts back and forth between Suzaku's and Lelouch's speeches, and Yuffie's and C.C.'s reactions. Despite being on opposite sides of the war, Suzaku's and Lelouch's reasons for fighting are very similar. Perhaps this is not surprising, as they were childhood friends.

Yuffie reveals to Suzaku that her real name is Princess Euphenia (Yuffie is pronounced "YOU-FEE"), and the now-deceased Clovis's sister (I think this makes her Lelouch's half-sister as well!).



Suzaku enrolls at the Ashford Academy, making him the classmate of Lelouch, Karen, and their friends.



Episode 6 was a bit of a filler episode, but I didn't really mind it.
Britannia is busy fighting Hezbollah. Lelouch brings his new classmate, Suzaku, to see his sister Nanali. She recognizes Suzaku's hands. Neither Suzaku nor Lelouch know that they have fought one another on the battlefield, as Suzaku is always inside of his Knightmare Frame, and Lelouch is hidden behind his masked helmet.



Suzaku asks Lelouch to pretend that they don't know one another. Others might figure out that Lelouch was a prince, and Nanali would also be in danger. Lelouch and his sister Nanali are in hiding: Nobody knows that they are related to the family of the crown.

A cat somehow finds Lelouch's masked helmet that he wears while being Zero. The cat takes it all over Ashford Academy. Lelouch's friends on the student council know that the cat has stolen something important from Lelouch, and are delighted by the scandal. Through the PA system, they try to get the entire student body to find this "important item" of Lelouch's by promising a kiss from a member of the student council. Lelouch is obviously horrified, and the list of people who almost find the mask grows more and more horrifying: Shirley, the girl who has a romantic interest in him; Karen, who is also a hidden rebel; Suzaku, Lelouch's secret childhood friend AND enemy on the battlefield! Thus, most of the episode is quite silly, but there would obviously be very serious consequences if anyone were to learn of Lelouch's secret identity.



At the end of the episode, we see the state funeral of Prince Clovis. Familiar faces from the Britannian Army, including Princess/Warrior Cornelia look quite and angry, while Princess Euphenia looks reflective. Suzaku tightens a fist, while Karen and Lelouch look angry as the Emperor of Britannia (and Lelouch's father) launches into a speech about people not being equal. He says that some are beautiful, some are poor, and some have weak bodies (a not-so-subtle flash to Lelouch's sister Nanali is made). His view of the world is Darwinian: inequality is not bad, but equality is. People must evolve through competition. He thinks that Britannia must always be fighting others, while the equal distribution that takes place in the EU and China Federation are deplorable. Both Suzaku and Lelouch are angry by the end of this speech.







Episode 8 begins with a flashback to a tiny child!Lelouch. Despite his young age, he still looks very cute in a cape, and has no qualms about verbally attacking his father in front of the court. This scene takes place soon after the murder of Lelouch's mother. Even as a child, Lelouch displays some tell-tale qualities of his current personality. He is bitter, angry, and forthright. He marches up the steps to his father's throne, and tells him that his mother is dead. The Emperor wonders why Lelouch is bothering him with this information. Lelouch is enraged, and asks his father why he did nothing to protect his mother. The Emperor tells his son that "weak" people should not be there. Lelouch tells his father fine, and that he doesn't want to be in line for the throne any more, not wanting to deal with any more of the suffering that comes with being connected to it. The Emperor tells Lelouch that he has been dead since his birth, and entirely dependent upon him, the Emperor. He sends Lelouch and Nanali to the yet-unconquered Japan, to use in future bargaining.



In the present, Cornelia and Britannian forces prepare to attack another "Eleven" ghetto. It is clear that the attack is designed to draw out Zero. C.C. asks Lelouch if he will fall for this lame trap, asking if he'd rather destroy Britannia or find out who killed his mother. Lelouch tells C.C. that by doing one, he would do the other. C.C. and Lelouch discuss the nature of succession of the throne, and the fact that the weak people are the ones who die, while the manipulative and "strong" people are the ones who rule. C.C. thinks this makes the nation stronger, and Lelouch gets angry, wondering what will happen to Nanali. C.C. pulls a gun on Lelouch, telling him that he cannot die until he fulfills his contract with her. Lelouch points out that he doesn't need to fear her gun, then, as she needs him alive. C.C. assures him that she will shoot his kneecap. In response, Lelouch pulls out a gun of his own. "Do you think I'm afraid of a gun?" asks C.C. (who was shot in the first episode, and at all effected by it). "Of course you are," says Lelouch, pointing the gun at his own head. DID I MENTION HOW AWESOME THIS SHOW IS? C.C. has no choice but to let Lelouch go fight the Britannians in the ghetto.




PS: I think it's awesome that in battle, Lelouch refers to the rebels as chess pieces, as though everything is a huge game for him. Lelouch and his buddies have somehow captured some Britannian Knightmare frames, and do some fancy strategy stuff. Eventually, though, Lelouch realizes that Cornelia has out-thought him. Cornelia knows that one of her own Knightmare frames contains Zero, and begins to order each Knightmare frame to open, so that Zero might be revealed. Just as it is Lelouch's turn, and he's about to be found out, someone in a Zero costume appears on the battlefield. Lelouch is then able to escape, and inside the sewer, it's revealed that C.C. was inside the Zero outfit. She tells him that he absolutely can't die yet.





Thus, there was a lot of action in these episodes. I really liked the Emperor's speech at Prince Clovis's state funeral, and the flashback to Lelouch as a child. Motivations for the actions of both the Britannian Empire and Lelouch are revealed. Unlike Light from Death Note, Lelouch's reason for killing people to bring a new world order is a very human one, represented by his sister Nanali. Although she is disabled and therefore "weak" in the eyes of the Britannian Empire, Lelouch still loves her, and despises a world in which people are not treated equally. It is clear that Lelouch does not care about how he achieves bringing down Britannia. His mind is all strategy and rationality. It is an outcome that he must achieve, and he must be ruthless in order to do it.

That said, Lelouch's strategical fights with Cornelia really do remind me of Death Note. Who can out think the other the fastest?!

In episode 8, some of Lelouch's friends from Ashford Academy get captured, and it's at this point that I begin to match names to faces. Millay is the blonde president of the Student Council. She is an Ashford, and in previous episodes, has been speaking on the phone with her mother about making a strategic marriage. Nina is the girl with black hair, in braids. I already knew Shirley, the girl with long, red hair who has a crush on Lelouch. The three girls are leaving the Britannian area of Area 11 for a day-trip.



At the same time, Zero is lounging with Karen and the other rebels in their new headquarters. They turn on the TV to find that a terrorist organization known as the Japanese Liberation Front has taken some Britannian tourists hostage. You guessed it - Karen and Lelouch are shocked to see their friends from the Ashford Academy student council looking terrified. Euphenia is also one of the hostages, although she is disguised, and it doesn't seem like the JLF has any inclination about her true identity.




The Britannian Army starts to put plans in place to rescue the hostages. Suzaku wonders if he can help, by piloting the Lancelot Knightmare frame, but Lloyd (one of the Britannian techie guys who helps Suzaku, and is a bit of an airhead) tells Suzaku that Princess Cornelia doesn't want Suzaku to help. Suzaku is the son of the former Japanese Prime Minister, and due to the nature of the situation, they don't want to jeopardize the plan by leaving it in the hands of an Eleven like him.

Shirley's father appears on TV, pleading with the terrorists to let his daughter and the rest of the hostages go. Zero goes to the Britannian Army, and some of the rebels wonder to Karen why Zero is so interested in helping Britannian hostages. Face to face with Zero, Cornelia points a gun at him. Lelouch, disguised as Zero, asks Cornelia what is more important to her: avenging her brother Clovis's death, or saving her sister, Euphenia. Lelouch's memories of Cornelia being a doting sister work, and she lets him pass.




She calls Lloyd, and orders Suzaku to attack the hotel where the hostages are being kept in Lancelot. Nina makes an idiot of herself at the hotel by calling one of her captors an "Eleven." He screams, telling her that he is Japanese. Eventually, Euphenia stands up to defend her, and reveals her identity as a princess (WHAT AN IDIOT!).



Euphenia and Zero have a confrontation as Suzaku fights through the Japanese Liberation Front. Zero blows up the hotel, but it's then revealed that the hostages have been evacuated on boats.



Zero takes this opportunity to address the media. He calls his group of rebels the Order of the Black Knights (Karen, etc. are wearing similar Zero-helmets). He says that they are the allies of all "weak" and unarmed people, be they Elevens or Britannians. He says that the JLF had no reason to take the defenseless Britannians hostage, just as Clovis had no reason to massacre the Elevens in the Shinjuku ghetto. He says that the Order of the Black Knights will defend anyone without power who is attacked. Of course, this gives Lelouch, etc. a lot of authority. He will decide who is worthy of a savior, and who has "too much power." Still, it's an interesting way to give himself an excuse to save Britannians who happen to be his friends, even if it's not the truth. It might be, though - it certainly falls in line with the disagreement with his father, and his protective nature over Nanali.





In conclusion: These were some great episodes! I love how the plot keeps moving and moving, as does characterization. This series is a lot better than I expected it to be; for some reason, I feel like I hadn't heard many great things about it. I am loving it (as of writing this post, I've seen through episode 16), and I can't wait to watch more!

Screenshots are thanks to the anime blog Memento.