Code Geass 22 and the path to hell

I think most of you should have watched the subs for episode 22 of Code Geass by now. If not, go watch it now! It will totally blow your mind apart. (Something that CLAMP stories never hope to achieve, so we can all thank Sunrise for that.)

Code Geass

Spoilers and thoughts after the break.

I still can’t decide if episode 22 was the greatest plot development ever since episode 1 or whether it’s the most blatant and out-of-place plot twist ever in the history of mecha anime.

Code Geass

Zero has finally descended to Mao’s level and can no longer turn off his Geass power at will. Oblivious to this terrible turn of events, he has a private meeting with Euphemia during the official inauguration of the Japan Special Administrative Region in an attempt to regain the support of public sentiments by forcing her to shoot him and using this act as a proof of Britannia’s intention to backstab the people of Japan. But Euphie’s charms are too great for him and he gives in to her request to help build a new Japan together. HAPPILY EVER AFTER…

Code Geass
YAY!

Or for 5 seconds at least. In a completely unexpected plot twist, Zero accidentally suggests to Euphemia to kill all Japanese, unaware of the fact that his Geass power is now constantly activated. And we bear witness to a rapid descend into hell for the remaining one third of the episode.

Code Geass
Yay..?

While it seems somewhat contrived for such a convenient plot twist to happen and it feels out-of-placed and totally unexpected, I think it just rekindled my love for the series.

It’s a perfect example of proverb made famous by and often wrongly attributed to Samuel Johnson: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

Lelouch believed he could plan out the world like a game of chess and destroy a system of social injustice. Euphemia believed everyone could get along in peace if she tried her best. But no one can predict the results of his/her actions and the butterfly effect will ultimately complete one full circle and kick up a tornado in your yard. No one is at fault for trying to achieve happiness, but fate can often turn our good intentions against us.

Newton has it right, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. So it seems that the only way for nothing bad to happen is for one to do nothing at all. But alas, few of us can accept that. We desire happiness and it comes at a price, the price of uncertainty. An action can produce a good or bad reaction and we can never tell what the results will be until it’s too late to turn back.

It is human to believe that things will turn out well until the evidence overwhelmingly says otherwise. Often, we end up getting hurt. It takes time to recover and try again, and some people will never recover.

The whole process seems like a futile struggle. We will all die one day anyway, so why bother chasing after fleeting illusions of happiness at the risk of getting hurt? Why not just give up and do nothing?

I think it’s because that’s what makes us human. If we give up on trying, we will be no different from a piece of rock.

But I guess sometimes, like Lelouch and Euphie, we have to suffer for just being human. It’s better than committing spiritual suicide, or so I choose to believe.

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26 Responses to Code Geass 22 and the path to hell

  1. Seth says:

    Normally I’d say it was a contrived plot twist, but it plays on Lulu’s hubris, which is his primary character flaw, so it works.

  2. LianYL says:

    The twist is so tangential and bad that I love it.

    Now if I were to order you to eat Japanese shit, you’d do it.

  3. Zer0 says:

    I still can’t bring myself to watch a mecha anime with character designs that looked like those from Gundam Seed…

    Bring back the 燃え!

  4. JS says:

    What the…!

  5. Rakugakid says:

    I have always wanted to watch code geass ever since you mentioned it last year but i dun have any sources to start looking from…

  6. DarkMirage says:

    Uh… it’s right there on AnimeSuki.

  7. Yyi says:

    Not to mention the sheer amount of fanart parodies that have spawned within the same day of which it was aired.

    I’m sure most would’ve seen those if they visited the animesuki forums.

  8. exalt dragon says:

    Actually, I found it rather refreshing…the plot had started to smell stale for some time now(actually only a few episodes..XD)

  9. exalt dragon says:

    “Newton has it right, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. So it seems that the only way for nothing bad to happen is for one to do nothing at all. But alas, few of us can accept that. We desire happiness and it comes at a price, the price of uncertainty. An action can produce a good or bad reaction and we can never tell what the results will be until it’s too late to turn back.”

    Were you inspired by the opening line by C2 where she goes something like “行動の果てには結果と言う答えが待っている。例外はない。”(did I get the kanji right)?

    About your philosophical musings, you should the meaning of “life through aesthetics”…living through the beauty of an object, the subliminal equality that sublates and anithesises normal reasoning. It is to live for beauty, to live to strive for that beauty, or the experience of that beauty. Or any other aesthetic notion for that matter.

  10. Tiny Red Man says:

    there goes lulu and his nice plans so far…its going down the drain..its first time to actually see code geass higurashi style….Ownage….DAMN!!

  11. anonymoose says:

    > It’s better than committing spiritual suicide, or so I choose to believe.

    Anything ‘spiritual’ in the fashion you are saying is a purely psychological construct, and letting your mind work that way is simply a cycle of self-deception.
    The very concept of ‘choosing to believe’ in something is pitiful.

    You don’t have to suffer so much at all. Life is much simpler after you throw all that away… :)

    Happiness is a process of slow and steady relaxation and enlightenment. There is no easy win, no goal you can hope to achieve that will cause you anything more than fleeting feelings of joy to which the ‘reaction’ eventually comes around and not only hurts you, but also the people around you.

    So, be a rock. It’s fun :)

    Geass 22… I can’t decide whether to be happy or sad about it, really. Like many anime plot twists, it’s not exactly ingenius, but I think it’s a case of an appropriate device at the right time.
    I root for the happy endings, but I always take pleasure in the bad ones regardless… it’ll be interesting to see how Lulu proceeds.

  12. Koji Oe says:

    I think you’re looking into things too deep, DM. It’s just a shitty mecha anime.

  13. Crest says:

    Lulu is hot, nuff said. Power uninhibited.

  14. EMO ALERT!

    anyways I still need to watch the latest few episodes…[gg] hasn’t done anything since episode 20 (DAMN YOU RED GARDEN!) so yeah…well I can’t wait to see what happens.

  15. quigonkenny says:

    “I still can’t decide if episode 22 was the greatest plot development ever since episode 1 or whether it’s the most blatant and out-of-place plot twist ever in the history of mecha anime.”

    The answer, of course, is “yes.”

  16. Gerard says:

    what a post… totally agree with you… btw Ive been reading your blog for quite sometime… keep it up !

  17. GUTB says:

    I would be more willing to buy into this unbelievably contrived ploy twist if I knew the series wasn’t just going to hand-wave it away in short order. Remember the Suzaku twist in which he was made to look like a coward? Remember how effortlessly the series got past that as if nothing happened? And this is going to be the same.

    In all, the series is not all bad. It is the reverse of drawn-out storytelling, and goes into hyeractive, like an old comic book. There is no thoughtfullness at all, but there is also little pretentioness. The the plot moves along as a quick pace, even as it is mechanical and contrived.

  18. exalt dragon says:

    Come to think of it, isn’t this supposed to be a 26 episode first season? The 26th episode ending probably won’t give A satisfying ending.

  19. Savta-tan says:

    I’m kinda sureit won’t give us any satsfying ending.
    The next season wouldprobably be called: “Code Geass: Lelouch’s DESTINY”
    And it WILL suck like GSD. :(

  20. Camario says:

    There are still far too many things missing for them to wrap this up just yet, so the season will likely end in a cliffhanger, though some characters will have to leave the chess board in any case. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, depending on how they handle it.

    Savta-tan: Considering that the creative team is rather different (despite Sunrise being the same studio), even if it fails, it probably won’t be for the same reasons Destiny did.

    If anything, Destiny suffered from a lack of ideas, for several reasons not worth looking into here, while CG suffers from an excess (too much stuff crammed in 25 episodes already). Not exactly the same diagnosis.

  21. t3h Dave says:

    Yeah this episode was nuts! Nice commentary though, good to know that you’re thinking about things on a deeper level. All I did was say, “zomgwtfbbq this is insane shit”

  22. edge says:

    I came across your blog from the post you made about Gundam 00 nyoron mistake and from what I can tell you it seems like Code Geass is highly recommended, I don’t know if it’s against policy or not but I was wondering which fansub would you recommend in terms of accuracy.

    Thank you.

  23. DarkMirage says:

    gg is the only decent option.

  24. Zero says:

    OUT OF ALL OF ANIME HISTORY> THIS IS THE DUMBEST THING SUNRISE COULD HAVE DONE.” A CRAZY PRINCESS” WHAT KIND OF PLOT TWIST IS THAT. I MEAN IN GUNDAM SEED DESTINY WHEN THEY KILLED STELLAR. NOW THAT WAS A GOOD PLOT TWIST. SHEEESH

  25. Pingback: Code Geass R2 | I love anime

  26. deidrel says:

    did you ever come back and notice how your reaction to this episode this could practically summarize R2 21? :D

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