I just finished Code Geass.

It was intense, and I think I blanked out for the rest of its twenty-four-minute length. The kiss between C.C. and Lelouch was beautifully done. I thought having been shown her memories, Lelouch has a deeper connection with C.C. now.

 

At Kamenijima. 

 
 

C.C. being burned at the stake, as shown in the flashbacks.

  

C.C.'s past.  

 

"You're not alone." 

(Lelouch to C.C.) 

  

C.C. surprised by Lelouch's words.

 
 

"If you're a witch, then I am a magic king."

Oh gosh, that is such a lovely conversation. 

 

"You must win, Lelouch. You have to conquer your past." 

 

Lelouch♥C.C.

 

 

"C.C. Don't die." 

 

The only traitor I can see in the episode is Suzaku.  

 

Lelouch finally revealed to Suzaku and Kallen.

 

Lelouch stunned by Suzaku's words.  

Just for the record, I hate Suzaku to the very end. Haaaaate him to tiny little bits. I often use dislike, but not this time, because I really hate Suzaku.

 

There are still so many questions laid out in the open, and they had to end it at that! What happened to Nunnally? Did Suzaku die, or did Suzaku die? (I'm sure Lelouch couldn't have died, since there's no point in extending the series to a second season without the main character.) What about the Japanese? I'm pretty sure they fell to Britain... ugh.

"Humans... exist to chase happiness. What Lelouch was looking for is just that bit of happiness. It's not something special, the root of his actions. They are very tiny wishes, which are obvious in anyone. These dreams, these words - who can renounce them? Who has that right?"

C.C.

"However. No matter who, no matter what the wish is. One cannot bind others and the world to himself. If one allows the thoughts of others to go beyond that of the world, his existence is merely one which is drifting by the waves."

"It is a fact that people exist to pursue happiness. All the wishes - they are born from despair."

Seriously, what a cliffhanger!

I better get started on the second season soon.

There's not much to say aside from the fact that this episode is genius! Lelouch reminds me so much of great military tacticians, like Julius Caesar and Alexandre the Great. Awesome people.

There's no turning back now, for Lelouch Lamperouge.

Lelouch annihilates Cornelia's forces with the help of his Geass, and the Order of the Black Knights take over the Ashford Academy. Kallen reveals her identity to her classmates so they would trust them, and somehow this seems to assure Milly and the rest that they would be safe.

 

Lelouch while talking to Cornelia.

Cornelia is battling to avenge her sister, of course, and I somehow pity her; she does love her sister very much.

Suzaku, meanwhile, grabs hold of his Lancelot and goes out to avenge Euphemia's death.

 

 

Suzaku on his way to exact his revenge.

We all know that emotions wreck rational thoughts, and when Suzaku confronts the Gawain, he once again falls into the trap set by Lelouch and Rakshata: the Gefjun Disturber, which disables his Lancelot completely. Oh he never learns. 

Villeta, who has regained her memories, shoots Ohgi and renders him useless. Cornelia, in her confrontation with the Gawain, is attacked from behind by Darlton, whom we learn to be under the Geass. She falls to Lelouch's feet, while Darlton is annihilated by the Gawain itself.

Back in the school, when everyone leaves Nunnally, we see V.V opening the door to where she is, and says he is there to fetch her.

'Can't talk right now; gotta watch episode 25 pronto!

Let me just say I didn't cry over Euphemia's death. I found it surprising, actually, since I cried when Shirley lost her memories. I guess I really don't like Euphemia. Huh.

 

Euphemia in a Knightmare.

 

So Euphemia was in some Knightmare when Kallen found her. Of course Kallen wanted to kill her, since she's supposed to be a traitor. Upon the destruction of her Knightmare, Euphemia, still under the control of the Geass, jumps off and arms herself with a gun she found lying around somewhere and fired at Kallen.

 

Lelouch from his own Knightmare, looking down at Euphemia.

Lelouch, having made up his mind, jumps down and decides to finish everything.

 

Zero firing at Euphemia.

Euphemia doesn't die just yet, because Suzaku arrives and actually saves her. I didn't like it, but I guess it had to be dramatic and all. Suzaku also wanted to kill Zero, but C.C. comes to Zero/Lelouch's rescue.

 

C.C. to Lelouch's rescue. Yay.

Anyway Suzaku backs off because he has to take Euphemia to the doctors. He manages to bring her there alive, and they somehow get to talk despite her weakness. He is confused when it appears like Euphemia doesn't remember anything.

 

Euphemia still under the Geass.

So, well, let's just cut to the chase. Euphemia dies, and Suzaku looks ridiculous.

 

Even if I liked Suzaku, I'd still say he looks ridiculous here. Because he does.

Meanwhile, Lelouch is fully aware that he has to say goodbye to everyone soon, since he can't control his power any longer. Oh, sigh. What's to be of Nunnally and his friends now? Only C.C. can stay with him, since the Geass doesn't work on her.

 

C.C. embracing Lelouch.

I'm all for this pair, but somehow C.C. words crept me out.  I remember Mao and how he had turned out, and I kind of realize that C.C.'s words aren't exactly to be trusted. She promised Mao, too, that she'd stay by his side, didn't she?

Anyway, it appears like she knew Lelouch's mother, the late Queen (?) Marianne. This is all so puzzling for me; isn't it episode 23 already? Two more and it's over! Why are they still posing a ton of questions and introducing new characters?

 

V.V. It seems he knows about the Geass, too.

V.V. tells Suzaku of the Geass, and Suzaku is furious upon knowing this. He then gets to talk to Lelouch, with a coldness fitting for the best friend who killed uh, his love interest. He asks Lelouch if he had ever been so furious at someone he could kill him. Lelouch says yes. (By which he is referring to his mother Marianne and her death.) It's obvious that Suzaku has an intent to kill his best friend, whom he now knows as Zero.

This just strengthens my argument: That Suzaku is a big hypocrite. Heck, I thought he said that changing the system through means like Zero does it leads nowhere? But now he himself wants to kill Lelouch for killing Euphemia? How does that make him any different from Zero? Unlike him, at least Zero has always been very straightforward about his intentions. Hah.

 

Lelouch is amused after he and Suzaku finish talking.

In the subbed that I watched, Lelouch said, "If you wish to fight me, then I shall entertain you. Because we're best friends." And then he laughed evilly, which was a fabulous ending to a good episode.

I swear, I will never side with anyone but Lelouch. ♥

I watched this twice; I think it didn’t sink in the first time. Because it was mad, and I had to pause and just breath. I'm still pretty speechless, so, uh. (Pictures in this post aren't mine, [except the last one] as I didn't really feel like taking screenshots myself. I found them here.)

It begins with Suzaku thanking Euphemia for what she's done.

They are holding a sort of ceremony to make the Special Administrative Zone of Japan official. Everyone is waiting for Zero to show up, since he and the Order of the Black Knights aim for this as well. He shows up in his Knightmare, together with C.C. who controls it for him.

 

"I won't. You will shoot me."

When he gets down he and Euphemia have a talk alone, where he tells her she's a big idiot for being so reckless. He initially plans to use the Geass on her and make him shoot her, so that when she does she will be deemed a traitor and therefore all the Japanese will once again turn against her and Britannia.

Outside, Suzaku sees C.C. and recognizes her. Walking up to her, he asks why she is with Zero. C.C. trails off while saying that, "Does this mean he is...?" (Gracious, he is what? What? The suspense is killing me.)

 

C.C. in the Knightmare, before Suzaku sees her.

In the course of this conversation, C.C. suffers from a sudden headache. Where he is, Lelouch also suffers from the same thing and he wards off Euphemia when she tries to help him.

 

Lelouch and Euphemia finally agree.

In the end Euphemia convinces Lelouch to cooperate with her anyway, and all is supposed to be well until Lelouch suddenly jokes about how she or anyone else won't be able to turn his command down if he's really serious about it. As if to prove his point, he tells her something along the lines of, "...Or I can even ask you to kill all the Japanese..."

And then all hell breaks loose.

His Geass has been activated without his knowing it, and Euphemia, acting upon the command, runs to the stage and asks all the Japanese to die - to commit suicide. But then she realizes it's impossible, so she tells all of the Britannian army close by to kill them. When they don't do as she orders, she shoots (with the ceramic gun that Lelouch was waving around while they were talking) at a random man in front of the audience and shows she means business.

 

Euphemia herself killing a Japanese.

(I found it creepy, actually.)

Of course the army at her command are very obedient, and they do as she says and kills every Japanese around.

Suzaku is incredulous that Euphemia could have ordered the murder of all the Japanese. Cornelia and Schneizer are equally shocked by the turned of events, and Cornelia decides to go to the battlefield herself.

Lelouch is horrified by what happened. He goes back to where C.C. is, and when she tells him he didn't expect for him to go so far, he tells her he didn't mean to do it. She seems surprised, carefully studying his expression and explanation.

 

C.C. looking at Lelouch.

Lelouch realizing the magnitude of holding the Geass at his command... 

or being held by the Geass at its command.

 

Lelouch giving the command to the Order of the Black Knights.

 

Back in the Knightmare, Lelouch once again assumes the role of Zero and orders the Order of the Black Knights to attact, as it turned out that Euphemia was an enemy.

I like the episode, despite the carnage in it. Although I knew something had to be done to turn everything to Lelouch's favor in the end, I didn't expect something like the Geass being permanent. I'm not too fond of the plot twist (Lelouch was just joking, c'mon), but I guess it worked, since they also showed a scene where Lelouch's father (where he exactly is, I have no idea) laughs as he watches the events unfold, commenting, "This kid has finally done it."

It seems like there's more to the Geass and C.C. than meets the eye. I wonder how everything will be wrapped up in three more episodes.

"Situations change without regard for men's expectations. Time flows, paying no heed to human concerns."

For an episode that's titled The School Festival is Open!, this was pretty intense. It didn't just highlight the NunnallySuzakuEuphemia perspective, which I find very interesting, but also built up the tension between Lelouch and his, well, sister Euphemia. It kind of irks me that SuzakuEuphemia is so canon, while SuzakuNunnally, despite obvious attempts at making it work, isn't getting as much love as it should. (Oh well who needs Suzaku anyway. Not Nunnally.)

Euphemia goes to the Ashford Academy to talk to Suzaku. Can't she wait until he comes to the base and talk to him there?

 

You call this a disguise?

 

 

Aw, Nunnally is so adorable.

 

Euphemia can't answer if she loves Lelouch, because she's into Suzaku now. Uh.

As if proving my point that she is an idiot, Euphemia manages to take her place in front of the whole Ashford Academy and have her speech transmitted live. She then declares the establishment of The Special Administrative Zone of Japan around Mount Fuji. With this, the Elevens would be free to call themselves Japanese and will have equal rights and equal everything with Britannians. 

  

Euphemia being noble... or just stupid.

How very noble of Euphemia!

Not.

She basically screws everything up for Lelouch, who is furious at this astounding display of retardation and naivete on Euphemia's part. With this declaration, it's obvious that the Order of the Black Knights will no longer have the reason to exist, as going against this... decree will shatter their credibility, since it's supposed to be what they want from the very beginning anyway. There's just no point to continue anymore.

 

Lelouch and I agree that Euphemia is an idiot. 

I do realize that Euphemia only wishes for peace and all that glitz, but she's not seeing the bigger picture. For one, she fails to remember that Zero killed her brother Clovis, and she should have sensed in her talk with Lelouch that he felt no remorse in doing so. Shouldn't she have been angered by this? Wait, I forget she's too naive to hate anyone. 

For two, she doesn't understand what Lelouch and Nunnally have been through. I don't think anyone who's been protected all her live has the right to claim she knows of her sibling's sufferings, no matter how close they are. To begin with, they're not that close anyway. So she knows practically nothing about Lelouch's intentions, and then she takes steps that she thinks will make things better when all they do is make things a whole lot worse

For three, I just really can't find it in myself to like her.

 

"Euphie said she likes Suzaku."

I can't really say if Nunnally is interested interested in Suzaku. So, she likes him, but does she like like him?  Sometimes she's quite unnerving; her calmness is faultless and I can't exactly figure her out or something. I don't even know if she's supposed to sound jealous when she said the words, because she doesn't sound jealous at all. Hm.

In any case, I'm pretty certain Lelouch didn't appreciate Euphemia's declaration. Oh he's furious.

"Euphemia, your very existence is a crime against Nunally and me."

He couldn't have said it any better.

Good grief, I hate this episode. It mainly featured Suzaku, who isn’t even remotely interesting to begin with, and Euphemia, who just had to get all pooey and proclaimed her painfully evident love for him while he was in the battlefield and almost dying. Seriously, I want to throw up.

“I order you to love me!”

Aw, isn’t that just sickeningly sweet? Someone kill Euphemia and Suzaku already. The anime is mecha; not frikkin’ romance. Tell them to get a room or something. And please, tell Euphemia not to confess in the middle of a battle! What, she wants to get Suzaku killed? Not that I won’t like him dead, but it’s just wrong to proclaim one's, err, love like that and at such inappropriate moment!

I’m not even happy that she acknowledged her being deadweight to her siblings, since she doesn’t even try to do something about this. Honey, you’re a princess, and you’re supposed to have some spine. If you don’t get to work and fight, that same people whose smile you love to see will end up dying. This is war; not some stupid fairytale, you idiot.

And what is it with this Nina Einstein person? What is that girl on? I get that she’s dying over Euphie-sama and that her talk with the pretty spineless princess is supposed to develop Euphemia (or at least I think so), but so what? Is that really necessary? Does it have any pertinence to the plot? If anyone’s gonna argue that it’s for changing the system from inside and it’s all thanks to Suzaku that it's happening, well that’s just lame. It’s not as if Euphemia had some guts to begin with, and Suzaku underwent major trials before finally winning her over through his chivalry or something - because if that were the case then perhaps I'd give it more credit. But no, Euphemia is basically no more than a lovesick, idealistic idiot, and so this... thing, whatever it's called, is of absolutely no merit.

The only saving grace of this episode is that it showed Lelouch and C.C. in a Knightmare together. It made me smile more than I’m sincerely willing to admit, especially because Kallen wasn’t there (mwahahahaha!).

 

Lelouch and C.C. inside the Knightmare.

And I loved the faintest jealousy from Milly because Lloyd sent a sort of present to that creepy Nina girl.

The saddest part about this whole thing is that Lelouch saved Suzaku from his death. Seriously, Lelouch shouldn't have done that. It's wrong to interfere with people's death. Death is like, a serious business.

 

C.C. controlling the Knightmare.

Chawata’s moment of self-gratification was pure win as well. Haha, Lloyd sure as hell didn’t see that one coming. I love this sort of mind games between the two of them; it's pretty interesting when you challenge another person to... a battle of intelligence. Awesome.

There's too much Euphemia in this episode.

Lelouch wakes up finding himself in some unknown island, and unfortunately stumbles upon Euphemia. He points his gun at her and plans to shoot, but she asks him to, well, reveal himself to her first before doing so. 

 Euphemia sees Zero.

See I told you she's stupid. She isn't even the slightest scared of having a gun pointed at her; instead she stupidly smiles and does nothing. Either she's brave or she's stupid, and I'm really believing the latter argument.

 Lelouch looks adorable here. ♥

Lelouch and Euphemia spend time with each other and I have to say, it doesn't really seem like Clovis or Cornelia hate Lelouch or anything along that line. All that's to blame is their father, that greedy monarch who hardly seems to care about his children to begin with. Ah, hatred is indeed a powerful curse.

Lelouch tries to find food for both himself and Euphemia, and, well, failing at it. Poor bastard.

On the other side of the island Suzaku finds Kallen and well, captures her naked. Like, yeah. Suzaku you pervert. I learned Suzaku wishes to change the Empire from within, while Kallen wants to do so by force. For the record, I'm siding with Kallen, because Suzaku is just painfully annoying with his idealism.(Or is it me and my growing interest on Machiavelli's The Prince? Squee.

 Kallen upon being found by Suzaku.

The two pairs found each other and had to make a trade, since Lelouch, again assuming the persona of Zero, pretends to take Euphemia hostage.

 

C.C. talking to herself. I think.

Another point: I don't really know who C.C. talks to when she's alone. Who or what is that? It's strange and somewhat, well, puzzling.

Overall I didn't like it a lot, but I guess it somewhat pushed the plot forward.

Can I just say that I don’t like Suzaku too much either? His loyalty to the Britannian Empire somewhat annoys me. And besides, he’s an obstruction to Lelouch. I’m all for Lelouch Lamperouge; someone kill Suzaku already. (If you ask me, Kallen should have gone for the kill during the party.)

Rakshata Chawla is very interesting. Another evil genius in the series. Fabulous.

Rakshata Chawla, in charge of the Black Knight’s research and development.

Kallen looks very pleased to be in control of Unit Zero, Zero’s Honor Guard.

I actually like her when she supports Lelouch like this.

Suzaku Kururugi.

No position for C.C., but that doesn’t change the fact that she’s indispensable to Lelouch.

Suzaku being heralded as Euphemia’s knight.

The Brits don’t look too happy, and neither am I.

But of course Lloys puts his hands together for Suzaku.

LloydMilly moment. ♥

Milly doesn’t look very pleased about this, though.

Rakshata Chawla is a friggin’ genius. Apparently she used a sort of, err, Gefjun Disturber that would impede on the Sakuradite that the Lancelot uses as a source of its power. Great! So apparently someone can crack Lloyd’s unperturbed smile!

Kallen jumps out of her own Knightmare to save Zero.

Euphemia being heroic. Or simply put, an idiot.

The end of the episode left me hanging. Something called Float System ship arrived in the scene and even Rakshata had to say they were done for. Who is in there? A new character? Euphemia mutters something about her brother’s Avalon. So… what is an Avalon? And who is that person who looks like Clovis? Couldn’t they have drawn him differently?

I checked out some non-spoiling Code Geass forums and I’m not the only one who’s starting to dislike Suzaku immensely. ‘Told you he’s annoying.