Hi everyone, I just finished Code Geass R2. After watching the whole thing I felt rather uneasy because I noticed a lot of similarities between Lelouch and Hitler. I know that considering this is my first forum post and it's immediately such a provocative topic, I am likely to be taken for a troll. But as someone who has lost ancestors in the second world war, I am really just hoping that someone can make me feel less uneasy about all this.
The more I watched the story, the more I felt that Code Geass is really a show that tries to paint Hitler in a positive light by using Lelouch to represent him, and by doing so try to justify the atrocities of the Second World War. Here are the direct similarities between Lelouch and Hitler.
The similarities are not listed in order of importance.
1) Hitler: Honestly wanted to create a better world through Aryan supremacy. Believed that he needs world domination to do it.
Lelouch: Honestly wanted to create a better world in line with Nunally and Euphemia's vision. Believed that he needs world domination to do it.
2)Hitler: Extremely prejudiced against Jews. Wanted the destruction of Jews.
Lelouch: Extremely prejudiced against Britannia. Vowed to destroy Britannia at all costs.
3) Hitler: Military genius and diplomatic/public relations mastermind.
Lelouch: Military genius and diplomatic/public relations mastermind.
4) Hitler: Betrayed, lied, and used everyone as pawns, including his allies. Attacked allied nation (Russia)
Lelouch: Betrayed, lied, and used everyone as pawns, including his allies. Attacked allied nation (Chinese Federation)
5) Hitler: Created a separate, elite military organization under his personal command to carry out his dreams (Nazi stormtroopers)
Lelouch: Created a separate elite military organization under his personal command to carry out his dreams (black knights at first, and Geassed the Britannian military to total obedience near the end).
6) Hitler: Started a world war which resulted in the deaths of millions of people.
Lelouch: Started a world war that resulted in the deaths of millions.
7) Hitler: Hates his abusive dad. Mother died while Hitler was young and Hitler was traumatized by her death.
Lelouch: Hates his abusive dad. Mother died while he was young and Lelouch was traumatized by her death.
8) Hitler: Commits suicide. The world's united hatred of Hitler's actions is directly responsible for the creation of the United Nations, an organization which tries to foster international peace and co-operation. ------- "With the end of that war, and the creation of the United Nations, the international community vowed never again to allow atrocities like those of that conflict happen again" (source: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/history.shtml)------
Lelouch: Planned his own assassination. The world's hatred of Lelouch's Britannia is directly responsible for the success of the United Federation of Nations, an organization that fosters international peace and co-operation
9) Hitler: Uses scapegoat to rally the people behind him - the Jews, the communists, etc.
Lelouch: Uses scapegoat to rally the people behind him - uses Euphemia's rampage to rally the Japanese to hate the Britannians. This happens twice, the first was in season 1, and the second in season 2 when he uses memories of Euphemia's massacre to gather a million followers into being exiled with him.
10) Hitler: Had legitimate grievances towards his enemies (Versailles treaty) but couldn't give a flying f*** about how many must die to get payback.
Lelouch: Had legitimate grievances against his enemies, but couldn't give a flying f*** about how many must die to get his own revenge.
11) Hitler: Hatred of Hitler made Germany a better place. Germany has since then renounced all violence, and is one of the wealthiest and most advanced countries in the world with a lot of human rights and equality.
Lelouch: Hatred of Lelouch most likely made Britannia itself a better place in the end. Nothing specific about reforms is given but we know that Nunally became Empress and that's gotta be good for human rights.
12) Hitler: Personal involvement with the occult - obviously being real life, there wasn't any Geass, but Hitler was obsessed with occult stuff. Just google it if you don't believe me.
Lelouch: Personal involvement with occult stuff (heavily experimented with Geass to try to understand it better outside of normal usage,massacred a city of unarmed Geass order researchers so that he can be the only one to possess the power). His constant use of Geass isn't a fair comparison here because that's a plot device, but that other stuff was definitely not essential to the story.
13) Hitler: Talented orator that makes liberal use of highly exaggerated hand gestures.
Lelouch: Talented orator that makes liberal use of highly exaggerated hand gestures. Now, I know that anime needs a dramatic flair but this guy makes Yugi's speeches look tame. The massive amount of arm flourishing goes wayyy beyond what is necessary to simply add a sense of drama.
14)Hitler: Incest and betrayal - Geli Raubal, Hitler's half-sister's daughter, declared by Hitler to be the only woman he ever loved. She ended up having a relationship with Emil Maurice, Hitler's long time friend. Hitler then became extremely controlling towards his niece. Then, officially, Geli committed suicide with a single gunshot to the lung (which would not cause immediate death). The suicide weapon was Hitler's own pistol (which personally leads me to think that Hitler may have killed her himself). After her death Hitler was very sad but rapidly recovered and renewed his focus on his plans. Emil Maurice later became an SS-Oberfuher, roughly equivalent to a Brigadier General.
Lelouch: Incest and betrayal - Euphemia li Britannia, Lelouch's half sister, declared by Lelouch to be the first woman that he ever loved. She ended up having a relationship with Suzaku Kururugi, Lelouch's long time friend. Lelouch then used Geass to control Euphemia. He then shot her (single shot towards somewhere that would not cause immediate death) with his own pistol. After her death Lelouch was very sad but rapidly recovered and renewed his focus on his plans. Suzaku Kururugi later became Lelouch's Knight of Zero.
15) Hitler: Goes into insane super rage mode when things don't go according to plan.
Lelouch: Goes into insane super rage mode when things don't go according to plan.
I know that people are going to say I'm looking too deep into it but truth be told I have only watched each episode once. What I have done however is taken a genocide course in high school where I learned a lot about Hitler. After watching this anime the similarities just jumped out at me.
Anyway, what do you all think? Am I just being a freak or is there something going on here? |