Code Geass R2 — Episode 11
“Where’s my pizza?”
It’s cool now guys. Code Geass is back from the dead. As Pierce Brosnan would say if he were an anime otaku blogging about Code Geass: It lives to die another day. Okay, so it’s not perfect, but at least we are free of this particular uninspired story arc and on to greener pastures, hopefully.
Summary
Zero’s plan is to force the eunuchs to attempt to kill the Empress, so that he can save the day and record it with his low quality camcorder for street cred. (We all know that rebels can’t afford proper camera equipment.) He puts up an act to protect the empress, and in doing so position himself to gain the trust and goodwill of the people of the Chinese Federation and Xingke.
Of course, in order to achieve this, he needs to be actually capable of protecting the Empress in the first place. We all saw how hard he got owned in the last episode, and it certainly wasn’t an act considering poor Kallen was made POW because of it. :( So how exactly does he intend to put weight behind his words? Perhaps some kind of brilliant master plan involving the reanimation of China’s past emperors as invulnerable zombies of terror?
“I have cooties!”
But of course, this is Sunrise. The First Law of Gundamian Robotics: all sticky situations can be resolved by introducing a new mecha.
Hey, how did Sunrise get this picture of me?
Its name is Shinkirou (蜃気楼), which is Japanese for Mirage. It’s also painted mostly black, so I’d say that it can fairly be described as “dark”, no racism intended. Therefore, I shall christen it Dark Mirage because Sunrise was clearly inspired by my blog.
Any resemblance to Tiananmen is purely coincidental
The Chinese people revolt after seeing Zero’s propaganda YouTube video, the eunuchs get owned, Britannia withdraws, Zero and the Black Knights are the heroes, and all’s well that ends well.
That girl on the right needs to get more airtime
Diethard thinks that a political marriage between the Empress and a Japanese will be necessary to cement the relationship. Lelouch is stupid enough to agree. As any one with half a point of EQ can tell, that is a stupid idea that will only serve to destroy any current goodwill. The plan is promptly aborted in face of overwhelming oppositions from the “true love” camp, i.e. the girls, which surprisingly includes C.C.
Shirley—she’s still a character in Code Geass
Lelouch then heads back to Area 11 in Dark Mirage, which also happens to be a submarine, and takes over from Sayako, who has been filling his role since he left for China. (In various ways.) School life hilarity intertwined with counter-intelligence operations await us in the next episode.
Thoughts
Real men have holes in their shields
So, Dark Mirage, or DM, is a Knightmare Frame which apparently specializes in defence. But the designers probably forgot to send DM that memo, because after defending Xingke and the Empress from a barrage of artillery fire, it calmly proceeds to shoot the crap out of everyone with its overpowered phase transition cannon prism thingizmo. This is very unfair because as anyone who has played World of Warcraft would know, speccing stamina means that you don’t have enough points for agility and strength.
Apparently, DM also stands for deus ex machina.
The Chinese girl gets like one entire line in this episode
Nitpick of the week: In one scene, some peon is informing the eunuchs that cities all over the Chinese Federation are revolting after watching Zero’s masterpiece and he mentions Jakarta and Islamabad. This is something that wouldn’t happen in real-life (if they were part of China), because the official names of those cities would have been in transliterated Chinese. Moreover, the name “Jakarta” is a recent rendition of the city’s name and it would make more sense to use more historical names, depending on the time it was assimilated into the Federation.
The Geneva Convention never happened
This episode is also noticeably strong on the fanservice front. Not that I am complaining. But I do wish Kallen’s Britannian captors treated her better. She’s all bound up and stuff. T_T That sick bastard Suzaku and his BDSM fetish.
Also, isn’t it interesting how Lelouch immediately thinks of Nunnally after Shirley explains to him the meaning of true love? Oh Lelouch, your harem is wasted on you, you siscon rascal.
Screencaps
I don’t understand Toudou’s role in the story
Rakshata is a bloody genius
The garage couldn’t fit
“Who needs tactics when you have technology?”
“Sir, Zero is drinking our milkshake”
Do not adjust your monitor
When characters do this, what are they actually staring at?
The Britannian Eunuch
Only in anime, folks
One day, Shirley will reveal herself to be the true evil mastermind and do something
What every world leader needs: a loli and a 20-feet mecha
It’s amazing how Lelouch manages to stay focused on Nunnally
I mean jeez, even the camera is distracted
Nice boat.
The new love interests in Lelouch’s ever-expanding love comedy harem
And the yaoi fangirls go wild!
My midyear exams are next week. Or rather, this week. Or more precisely, today. I should get some sleep. Japanese paper in a few hours… T.T
June 25th, 2008 at 7:00 am
“What the heck..? “Yo, I’m the dude that tried to kill some of you guys yesterday, just pretend that didn’t happen so we can have this tea party, ok?””
Are you talking about the chinese federation or the Knights of Round at his school? Xingke is all gaga for Zero since he saved the Tianzi from the bastard Eunuchs, and the Knights of Rounds don’t know that Lelouch=Zero. Lelouch has hung out with people after his blood for ages. He was fighting his best friend for all of R1, was he not?
June 25th, 2008 at 7:02 am
What about V.V?
June 25th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Hmm… I’m just twisted with the story… It has so many mystery… There still unclear V.V. and the Emperor….What do you think??
June 25th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
“What about V.V?”
What about him? From what I understand, he’s leader of the cult (succeeding C.C.) which researches and makes Geass users, he’s protecting (I’m assuming) the entranceway to their underground city with Orange-kun which is why he remarked to him that “It would be trouble if Lelouch found this place.” I’ve no idea what he plans to do with the Emperor, “killing the God(s)” is something fairly vague. Killing the idea of God (so, religion?) Killing an actual being?
The idea that his crazy temple in the sky is a ‘weapon’ could be misconstrued. On the one hand it could be something like a giant laser cannon of doom, on the other hand it could be something closer to a Geass amplifier. Multiple times when the Emperor’s been up there he’s shown knowledge beyond normal boundaries, such as “I was just talking with Clovis” and then (iirc) laughing crazily after Lelouch accidentally geass’ Euphemia. It basically seems to give the Emperor the same kind of stuff C.C. has, ie. talking with the dead, knowledge of goings on elsewhere (Nunally getting kidnapped by V.V.) At the moment, whatever V.V. and the Emperor are up to, it seems Lelouch is finally going to be pushing to start to impact negatively on their plans, implied with the foreshadowing offered in the last few episodes.
June 26th, 2008 at 2:26 am
The fact that Lelouch won has nothing to do with the fact that his plans are uninspired and pretty much run-of-the-mill now, ergo he is suffering from an apparent drop in IQ. He won because the rest of the show got stupider along with him.
A real intelligent person in Xingke’s place would’ve noticed the glaring fact that this whole incident wouldn’t even have taken place if Zero had not messed up his coup. So why is he grateful for Zero’s help again, help that he wouldn’t have needed if Zero hadn’t screwed things up in the first place?
A real intelligent person in Lelouch’s place would’ve realized what a silly idea it was to have the Empress marry a Japanese for political reason, especially since stopping a political marriage was the entire reason why Xingke launched his coup in the first place! “Yes, let’s have another farce so that Xingke can turn against me too, I am an evil genius muahaha”?
Such inconsistencies make the characters unbelievable and hard to empathize with. The series keeps telling you how brilliant Xingke and Zero are, but the actual plot constantly suggests otherwise.
June 26th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Not to mention that Zero and Xingke could have become allies on day 1, had Zero not interfered with the marriage. Especially since they had this alliance thing going on since Japan…
Bad writing on the part of Sunrise to get Kallen captured and not defeated by an enemy and to show off new mechas.
June 26th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
well some how i got to disagree with you D.M on the lelouch part thought the xingke part may be a bit true. first of all zero did said in the episode that he would have use his geass on them so that a political marriage with a jap while xing ke and gang are under the influence of the geass would not oppose and turn against him
anyway the maid is super influential xd i wonder what major role she would playxd
June 26th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Lelouch which flies through the next sky is expected!
June 26th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Louise:
Actually, what you described is a manifestation of Lelouch’s recent drop in IQ: He is now dumbed down enough to contemplate wasting his one-shot Geass on a trivial political marriage.
I mean, if he was going to waste his Geass anyway, he could’ve used it four episodes ago and saved all this unnecessary trouble.
“Xingke, launch a coup and give me control over the Chinese Federation and the Empress.”
The fact that he went through the trouble means he wanted to save his Geass for something more important. The fact that he then tried to waste it away right after succeeding at that task suggests that he is schizophrenic.
June 27th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Probably that not stopping the coup would be a good idea in the first place to gain Tianzi, but what of the eunuchs? Remember that Lelouch’s objective had something to do with the cult? C.C mentioned that it was somewhere in the territory of the chinese federation, and he needs the land to look for the cult.
The eunuchs were the ones having the most control over the chinese federation. If Lelouch did stop the coup, the eunuchs would still be there, and he probably would not have been able to gain the territory of the chinese federation, as the eunuchs supported Britannia and Tianzi had very little control over the federation. The eunuchs would still have control over the chinese federation, as opposed to what he did in not stopping the coup. He was able to gain the terriotory of the chinese federation, as the eunuchs were out of the way already.
His main objective was not to obtain Tianzi, so geassing Xingke to bring him Tianzi would not have helped. It was to gain the territory of the chinese federation to look for the cult. By not geassing Xingke, Lelouch probably wasn’t saving for something else. It probably was useless to geass Xingke, as it didn’t helped him reach his objective.
On the other hand, by stopping the coup, he had managed to foster better relations with Xingke and the federation, as seen in this episode.
June 27th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
My bad. Some errors.
The eunuchs were the ones having the most control over the chinese federation. If Lelouch did not stop the coup, the eunuchs would still be there, and he probably would not have been able to gain the territory of the chinese federation, as the eunuchs supported Britannia and Tianzi had very little control over the federation. The eunuchs would still have control over the chinese federation, as opposed to what he did in stopping the coup. He was able to gain the terriotory of the chinese federation, as the eunuchs were out of the way already.
June 28th, 2008 at 5:45 am
Lets face it, we all know that a certain Blacknights act pilot is going to have a date with a big guy and his magic eye of memory removal!!
June 29th, 2008 at 1:58 am
Yah know, on the picture with Suzaku staring evily, Unleass i’m confusing it with something else, I think In THIS case, he’s staring at Kallen… Sick Bastard. I mean come on!, Its bad enough Kallen gets captured, but Suzaku went overboard with the restraining method.
I mean really. I think he just wants to make her and Lulu chan suffer.
Either way, there is one statement we can ALL agree on:
SUZAKU IS A F#$%ING BASTARD AND (NOT MUST,) BUT WILL DIE SOON.
He’s gone totally evil now.
The only two questions remaining now is, When will Kallen rejoin the group. and two, when will suzaku get whats comming?
June 29th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Suzaku has been an evil SOB and a tool since the beginning, nothing much has changed.
June 30th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
i agre flame of heaven, he deserves 2 die.
July 1st, 2008 at 4:37 am
Have you seen the little tiny seen where Zangetsu’s hair blocks a kick from Lancelot.
It’s hair is like steel, now if it can be fired like a Slash Harken….
July 6th, 2008 at 8:15 am
If lelouche didn’t intervene xinge wouldn’t have been able to stop the eunuchs. Then Xinge would’ve looked like the betrayer and both china as Brittania would be against Xinge and the Black rebellion.. The only reason they got China behind them is because of lelouche recording it all because he predicted it, I think it’s you guys who’s IQ has been dropping. No offense..
July 8th, 2008 at 9:18 am
What every world leader needs: a loli and a 20-feet mecha…funiest shit ever
October 19th, 2008 at 1:33 am
Thanks for sharing this information.
December 6th, 2008 at 1:18 am
nice camera angle view !! muahahahahahah
March 24th, 2009 at 10:35 am
I love how that one guy said: “We have their empress so they won’t do anything rash” and they get bombed. The irony, oh the irony. And did the weird people compare the empress to the paper that they wipe their “buttocks” with? Because I could’ve sworn they did and quite frankly that’s disturbing. Really really disturbing..