Monday, August 1, 2016

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 Part 4 Episodes 11-13


Zero leads the Black Knights on a successful counterattack against the High Eunuchs, crippling their regime and placing the Chinese Federation in the hands of Xinghe.  With his new allies secured, Lelouch returns home to Ashford.  But what awaits him even he could not forsee.  Not only have more Knights of the Round joined Ashford Academy, but an old enemy returns…with the power to cancel Lelouch’s Geass powers.  Lelouch may have won a great victory with the Chinese Federation, but he is about to experience his worst and most heartbreaking defeat.

Rolo is a dead man.  He just has to be at this point.  He just did the one thing Lelouch much less anyone could never forgive him for…again getting ahead of myself.

Well good news, the Chinese Federation Arc is finally over and done with.  For all the time wasted here, I’m pleased to say that it actually had some good moments to close it out.  Lelouch turning the tables on the High Eunuchs was just the punishment those arrogant A-holes had coming to them, followed by getting cut down by Xinghe…cause he at least earned that by this point.  The fact that Lelouch only did all of this just to get closer to the Order that supposedly controls Geass makes this whole affair more unnerving.  Couldn’t they have found at least a better story to progress this all?  Seriously, once we got back to the Student Council stuff, it didn’t feel like much had been accomplished.  No that came for the rest of this set.

You all know that I don’t think the school scenes have provided great humor.  Here though, I was actually a little amused.  Seeing Lelouch actually find his double life back fire on him a little bit was pretty fun and it’s something I don’t think you see characters like him go through often enough.  It also allowed some of the best material for Shirley, even if we were about to do some more retreading on Season One story beats.  She may not seem like the best choice of love interest for Lelouch (between her, C.C. and Kallen…Kaguya doesn’t count nor does she count as an important or relevant character in my eyes), but once Shirley got her memories back and decided she loved Lelouch no matter what…I was impressed and pretty heartbroken over what came next.

Well heartbroken in a couple of respects.  Giving Jeremiah a Geass Canceller was a huge game changer.  Unraveling most of the control that Lelouch had set up could have been a great way to shake things up…and then we find out Jeremiah once served Lelouch’s mom and he came over to Lelouch’s side almost instantly.  It makes the build up to his long awaited return feel wasted and lame.  Jeremiah was one of the most stand out characters from Season One, if only because his failures kept affecting his sanity.  Now that’s all been pretty much undone in a matter of one two minute revelation.  Now he’s a good guy…Season Two just loves to irk the hell out of me.  It’s just like how Cornelia finally made her return, but was only around for a couple of short scenes (even if one included her putting a knife in V.V.’s forehead. Yeah he’s immortal but damn, by leading lady of Geass still kick so much ass).  Everything that was good about Season One just seems to matter less and less continuing at this rate.

Ok, I’ve stalled enough.  Onto poor Shirley.  Yes, the season even retreaded her finding out Lelouch’s identity.  But again, her decision to forgive Lelouch was a strong one.  She wanted to stand by his side and if she had lasted a bit longer, it’s likely Lelouch would have really fallen for her like she had for him.  But then Rolo had to screw it all up.  Watching Lelouch try to Geass Shirley into staying alive was rough.  We’ve never really seen Lelouch this shaken up by a loss.  Whether or not he loved Shirley is a mystery.  But she mattered a lot to him.  I cant see Lelouch having this same kind of reaction to losing Revel, Milly, most definitely not Nina.  Perhaps it was because Shirley wanted to stand by Lelouch despite what he’s become.  There’s no other way to put it.  This was a sad moment and probably one of the best Code Geass has had.  I’ll even dare to say this is a Season One retread that Season Two might’ve done better.  Oh Lelouch…

But yeah, Rolo’s gonna die right?  I mean there’s no way Lelouch is going to keep him around after this just went down right?....right?

We’re halfway through Season Two and I think it’s long past due this series gets it’s act together and starts to make a lot of rights from a ton of wrongs.

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