Monday, July 25, 2016

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 Part 1 Episodes 1-4


The Black Rebellion has failed.  The Black Knights have fallen…and Zero is dead.  That was one year ago.  The chaos of that Rebellion is now a faded memory in the mind of Lelouch Lamperouge.  He’s just a student again, skipping class and getting into trouble gambling.  That life is a lie…put into place by the man he sought to destroy, his father the Emperor.  But contrary to popular belief, the Black Knights are far from finished.  If the revolution is to begin again, Zero must return.  All hope lies with an immortal witch who owes Lelouch her life.  If she can find him, Zero will live…that time is now.
 
Well…here we go again.

I really want to sound enthused by the start of this second half of Code Geass, especially coming off that legendary season one finale.  But really, I cant help but feel disappointed.  The excitement kind of died when I realized that in their efforts to start things up again, the staff went and did almost a beat for beat retooling of the series premiere: Lelouch getting his powers back, making a dramatic reveal and escape following his power returning, a prisoner rescue.  It just felt like the reset button had been pushed in a literal sense and it was just time to do something familiar only better…only it wasn’t better.

Jumping ahead a year will always have drawbacks.  Mostly leaps of logic like: why didn’t the Emperor just kill Lelouch and his comrades and get it over with.  Hell why did he keep Oghi, Todo and, especially, Tamaki, alive?  Now if the real punishment was meant for not just Lelouch, but for us viewers as well, to see everything reset, slightly altered and not in the least bit right…then damn that is a cruel joke.

But it’s not all the same.  No, for all the cool potential of having Violetta as a gym teacher (the sexiest dressed one ever), there’s the biggest flaw the season introduced right out of the gate: ROLO.  Yes, this little complicated douche is supposed to be Lelouch’s younger brother.  I call him a douche because he is the most see saw teetering character ive seen so far on this show.  One second, he’s a cold, time pausing bad ass who could easily be a threat to Lelouch.  The next, he’s a wimpy kid so lost in his own lie.  For the life of me, I get why Lelouch will want to keep him around…cause Lelouch is a sadistic brat like that.  But…for the life of me…I cant understand why Lelouch would keep Rolo around.  This just screams bad things bound to happen.  It’s sad when you can identify weak links in a seasons chain right away and sadder when you get the feeling a lot of time is going to be dedicated to Rolo.

But come on, there’s gotta be some good right?  Well the small bits of backstory we get involving the aftermath of the finale was great.  The Emperor wiping Lelouch’s memory was a chilling scene, easily reminding us why Charles is such a huge threat.  Taking Nunally out of the equation will definitely get Lelouch’s blood flowing again (so why didn’t he kill Rolo just for this?)  And even though it was a grander rehash of Season One’s Suzaku prison rescue, Zero’s mission to free Oghi, Todo and the other Black Knights was a lot of fun.  What the Chinese Federation is going to serve in the long run besides a temporary haven to run to, im not sure…but im already bored with that story as is.

And did I mention Suzaku yet?  No and that’s because all he does in every scene he’s in is stand around and scowl, barely saying a word.  It’s like he’s saying, “oh im a big bad ass now.” In the most annoying way.  Granted I’ll take that over his other Knights of the Round comrades who just feel like additions we don’t need, the cast is large enough as is.

Man, I wish I could be hyped for the second half of this season.  Season One ended so great and in a couple of episodes, Season Two’s already undone a lot of it without much consequence.  Code Geass needs that spark that made it great again and it needs it fast.  I want to love this season, I really do.  But I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

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