Every single gun on the planet is pointed right at
Emperor Lelouch. Has the former freedom
fighter truly gone the road of the tyrant and betrayed everything he once stood
for? Will he really be able to win one
final battle between his older brother, Schneizel, and beloved younger sister,
Nunally? What state will the world be in
once the final battle has ended and what becomes of the Black Knights and the
Legend of Zero? The Zero Requiem is
revealed and so is Lelouch’s greatest wish in the unforgettable series finale
of Code Geass.
Applause…nothing but applause. After a season almost complete full of screw
ups, it did it. It really, really did
it. Code Geass didn’t just manage to
come back with a strong final set of episodes, it gave us one of the best damn
finales to any Anime EVER!!!!
Under a cloud of ash and Flea rounds, the final battle
between Lelouch, his brother Schneizel and his former allies raged on. This had all of the punch and effectiveness
that was missing from the second battle of the Tokyo Settlement. Even if I didn’t really care about a lot of
the cast outside of Lelouch, Suzaku and a few others, you could tell from the
grim scenery that everyones card was up.
Todo, Oghi, Tamaki, a bunch of characters ive either enjoyed or thought
very little of suddenly seemed in danger.
And that’s the kind of feel you want from any finale, the feeling of
three little words: This…is…it. It also
gave everyone a moment to shine in some, small way. For a show with a cast so large it had a ton
of trouble balancing them all, Code Geass allowed every character to have one
line or one moment to signal their final shining moments on screen, whether
they died or not. And wow, even Nina got
a moment to reconcile with Lelouch…granted she had a lot to atone for so I
guess this is as close to giving her a good moment as this show is going to
get. And the action, my God they really
were saving the best for last. The six
way battles between Suzaku, Kallen, Gino, C.C., Anya and Jeremiah were some of
the most stellar mecha fights this show has ever done.
Of course this was all helped along by Lelouch and
Schneizel’s chess game of a battle to kick things off. Moving their forces around like a chess board
before the battle even began was just what I’d expect from these two. For a long time we’d heard about how intense
Schneizel and Lelouch’s chess games were in the past. Their brief encounter earlier had nothing on
this with the stakes raised high.
Schneizel stepped up big time and became what I always hoped he
would. Finally showing his true colors,
all he wanted was to rule via fear. He
didn’t care about cost just as much as Lelouch.
It was hard to know who to root for sometimes, since I love Lelouch and
Schneizel. But Lelouch didn’t shoot
Cornelia and leave her for dead, so my vote stuck with him.
It was pretty shocking to see Nunally open her eyes and
defy her brother as long as she could.
Making her the final boss, more or less alongside Schneizel, made me
wonder if Lelouch could really pull this off, whatever the heck it was. Would he be able to really stand up to
Nunally, to sink that low to achieve his goal?
The answer is yes and it’s easily one of the most despicable acts of
Lelouch’s time on screen. Not only did
he Geass his sister into giving him control of the Damocles super weapon, but
he refused to help her when she fell from her chair trying to chase him down
and stop him. If you never hated Lelouch
until now, this was one scene you couldn’t forgive him for.
This was Code Geass again, with the twists, turns,
excitement and overall great quality ive missed…and now it was time to bring it
to a close.
And what a close it was.
A wise man once said, “As a man of flesh and blood, I can be ignored I
can be destroyed. But as a symbol…as a
symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting.” It felt only right that Zero would be the one
to bring Lelouch’s reign of terror to a close.
But who would’ve guessed that it was all part of the plan? The truth of the Zero Requiem was revealed:
Lelouch conquers the world, makes everyone hate him, then has Suzaku becomes
Zero to kill him and unite the world.
WOW. That is the right amount of
genius Id expect from my man Lelouch.
Such a bold sacrifice, to not be able to see the world he secured and
made for Nunally after all he’d been through.
You have to wonder if he planned this from the start or did so after he
killed his dad. Probably after he killed
his dad since he was able to get Suzaku to agree to it. And you felt this one, as bad as the sword
piercing Lelouch. You heard every silent
scream, felt every tear shed by Kallen, Suzaku and Nunally. Really, you couldn’t have asked for a more
perfect ending than this scene. Cap it
all off with a fun little montage of peace in full effect and you can write
this series off as done and well done.
And that was the end of Code Geass. Was Season 2 as good as Season 1? Frak
no. Until the last act of the series,
Season 2 was a pale imitator (in so many ways) of it’s predecessor. It’s almost as if it tried to retell Season
One in it’s own way and failed to recapture the magic or take things in logical
and exciting directions. There were too
many familiar beats, even more additions to an overly crowded cast (some way
overstayed their welcome) and it just felt lazy and cringe worthy at times. It wasn’t until we sadly got to the death of
Shirley that things picked up. And even
then, it wasn’t until Lelouch was ousted from the Black Knights that the series
found its way back to its amazing roots and managed to finish so strongly,
despite the odds stacked against it.
Still, overall this was a huge disappointment after such a strong
start. That finale though, it saved it
big time. Code Geass: Lelouch of the
Rebellion R2 gets a…
6/10
And for my final thoughts on Code Geass? If you could have cut out a good 3/4 of
Season Two and just made it a shortened sequel season, this series could have
been damn near prefect. Some of the
characters were annoying and the politics are always hard for me to
follow. But a very charismatic and
entertaining lead character, a strong host of kick ass female characters
(Cornelia is my Geass Waifu), some fun mecha designs and the best storytelling
twists ive seen in a while, Code Geass has the makings of a classic despite
it’s flaws…and there are a lot of them (mostly in Season 2 like Rolo). The story of Zero will remain a legend and a
fun series in my books for a long time to come…rants and ravings at times aside. Once it grabs you, it never lets go, just
like the purple eyed gaze of Lelouch vi Britannia. And he commands me to give this series a
final score. Overall, im going to give
it a very strong (if only slightly just earned)
7/10
Whew, what a summer endeavor that was. Off to Otakon tomorrow, so expect an Otakon
themed T5W next week but no new reviews until after next week (need a
liiiiiitle bit of a break). But check
back in a couple of weeks when I dive into my next series, my biggest change of
pace since Miyazaki Month. Love Hina
starts in two weeks, see ya then.
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