RANT: Code Geas R2

Oct 6, 2008 12:44 PM

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Jun 2007

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"A rant (also called harangue or declamation) is a monologue that does not present a well-researched and calm argument; rather, it is typically an attack on an idea, a person or an institution, and very often lacks proven claims." (Wikipedia)

aka: I just wanna bitch and maybe start a new tradition...

Naturally, there are spoilers (as well as mild profanity and not-so-mild sarcasm) ahead.

Anyway...

***Start rant.

Just finished CG:R2 yesterday and most of the time it had me like "what?" and "oh please!".

I'd quickly watched of ep1 and was unimpressed, so I patiently waited until it was all out and subbed. Glad I waited, not so sure I'm glad I watched.

The first season was ok. Toward the en the plot twist got a little incredulous, but sure, for dramatic effect, why not. Still, the cliffhanger was pretty much textbook braindead. Main character, while on the verge of a huge discovery, gets killed... or not. But heck, why not, they announced R2 immediately after, right?

WRONG. They start R2 with several plot devices so worn out it's no wonder they thought it necessary to combine them:
-the world has changed drastically
-new character shows up unexplained
-main character has memory loss
-timejump: a year has passed
Really, talk about cliche overkill.

Now at this point I'm still thinking there's a cool and inventive solution to this like maybe Lelouche had to use the geas on himself, which explains the memory loss but not much else, but I'm sure it'll all fit somehow and if I drop my IQ to below 50 maybe I can just enjoy it instead of be annoyed, right?

WRONG. They pretty much kill all the mystery quickly with the deus-ex-machina solution of another "geas power", one that can change memories. And one that's appearantly easily countered with the right kiss. Really now. That's a little convenient, and oh-so-sleeping-beauty isn't it?

GET a fragging English dictionary. The term "geas" is pretty specific with reference to sending people on quests or giving them missions or orders so to call everything else that's plain weird andworks through the eyes a "geas power" is very silly. How hard is it to spend 2 minutes on research to figure out a decent name? It's also very out-of-character for Lelouche, who's supposed to be some kind of genius, and has english as his native language to boot, to use something so specific as a generic term when so obviously, it doesn't apply.

And another thing. in "R1", his power was so much of a mystery that friend nor foe had a clue what was going on. I mean, if you know there's special powers out and about in the world, you'd soon have become suspicious of what was going on, right? So by the mere fact that no-one did, that means it's very very rare. But now, it's like the special powers got handed out over lunch and everyone seems to have one: timestop-geasdude, puppeteer-geasboy, possesion-geaswoman, futuresee-geasguy, Geaserase-geazer, ...

This would not be so bad if there had been a little consistency. Lelouche can use his powers once on each individual. An important limitation that carried much of the plot. The one other individual with a power he encountered (mind reader dude) had the same limitation. Also, after a while he lost control of his powers (again something the mind reader dude had a problem with). We got the impression that he would eventually be destroyed by his powers or at least turn into something less than human. Again, an extremely important and quite good plot element of R1.

HOWEVER. None of the other "geas users" (keeping the dumb term since it proves the point) seem to have any of these problems. They don't go haywire, even though they've been using their powers far longer and they don't seem worried or hindered by the "one use per person" rule either. And off course, to drive home the insult to our intelligence, this is not explained in any way.

And they don't come up with an explaination on why Lelouche is still breathing and why he is still in the same school with different memories. Sure, they put him back into a controlled environment and the memories of those that mattered had been altered to blend it all together. But, he can still go outside, so it's NOT a controlled environment. What if he runs into his favorite stripper at the local nudiebar (he does seem the type to indulge) and she asks him about his qute crippled sister, which he must have mentioned while getting a hard-on in the champagne-room since he mentions her just about every other scene to remember himself and the audience of his Raison de Vie.

As plans of evil masterminds go, it's a really stupid setup. Also, the sheer number of memories that must have been changes is quite astounding. The "geas user" that can change memories isn't exactly the industrious type, now is he? Am I to believe he went through all that trouble to personally take care of such mundane matters? He must have, as there's no-one else, but sense, it makes not.

But never mind. Lelouche is quickly back to his old self, fooling friend and foe while costantly being watched and thus continuing the dual role of schoolboy-by-day and vigillante-by-day-also that worked so well during R1. Except that it didn't and that now, it doesn't. Even though he's behaving very suspicious and even though they already know he's guilty they go like "no, it can't be him he doesn't have his memories" . Really. Isn't he supposed to be watched by espionage special forces types and aren't they suspicious as hell? I guess not.

Later in the show, a cyborg shows up, so as the high-tech background suggested, they are quite capable of technology that can operate inside the human body. I guess an implanted listening/tracking device wasn't in the budget.

Oh sure, he does a "takesover" on his surveillance team. That would work except that such people get replaced and rotated all the time and they DO have some outside contact and supervision which is sure to find out. In any world resembling a real one anyway.

But OK. We get our regular treat of plot twists and mecha battles and well-prepared geas-triggered "miracles". Do we? Not really. When something illogical needs to happen it turns out the right people have been geased ahead of time to produce just the right effect. This was slightly unbelievable in R1, when you sometimes wondered when Lelouche found the time to prepare it all, but this time, we're pretty sure he did not have the time for it. After all, he has a rather full schedule, with commuting between china and japan, following classes and leading a government in exile, and let's not forget the constant surveillance. Again: really!

BUT, I digress. As the series continues, the resistance is ressurected from its ashes and while the Black Knights battle the equally unimaginatively named Knights of Rounds they quickly grow into army able to challenge Britania. Basically, everything escalates. The Mecha get bigger and badder and not soon after a doomsday weapon appears. Never mind that it's destructiveness isn't all that impressive compared to an old-fashioned fission bomb, so that as a doomsday weapon, it's really not all that impressive. Oh, and again, GET A DICTIONARY. Since you're referencing Norse mythology left and right "FLEIA" is a downright emberassing way to spell.

Naturally, we need our dose of drama as well and we're not dissapointed. Since subtlety is overrated, lets just kill off or otherwise rip from Lelouche's life everyone and pherhaps everything he cares about. And let's do it snappy and not spend too much time on it, otherwise Lelouche might come up with a plan to counter it. After all, he had it all comming and never mind the innocents that die without their deaths having much functionality to the story except that there's less of the ever-increasing cast to keep track of and if this doesn't STICK IT to the fans that were screaming for more screentime for the red-head nothing will. It seems completely uncessary and and pointless, until it dawns on us that there might be a plan to it all.

Now, all we need is for Lelouche, now to be pitied, to get rehabilitated. Well, a little anyway. Again, they go for the classics. A disfunctional family! Blame it on the parents! Since dad and a cascade of siblings dead and alive aren't an impressive enough recipy for trouble, dead mom is ressurected for the exclusive purpose of blaming the woes of the world on her as well.

And it works. Lelouche goes apeshit on everything. Personally, I didn't see this as a particularly impressive twist, or a twist at all, since he'd pretty much crossed the line between in and sanity somewhere during the first half of R1, but let's pretend this signifies a change and move on.

Everyone seems to change sides. That Lelouche, chased away rather effectively, does this is not very surprising. That the dominant militairy power in the world which has lost it's only drawback: the decadent nobility is unable to instantly defeat the formerly rag-tag forces of its opponent who, in fact, have lost their main unifying force and strategic commander (Zero), is. Anyway, eter a few unbelievably convenient plot devices, ressurect a few people from the dead and we're set for the endgame. Lelouche wins, then kills himself in a rather elaborate way to leave the world a better place. Like we didn't see *that* coming. The end.

Now the end, even though predictable in a very traditional way and about as spottable as the future of an unknown castmember in a red shirt stating how exiting it is to be going on his first away-mission, was rather nice. However, it makes no sense that Lelouche would rather die than fake his own death and retire peacefully with one of the broads that has been swarming around him for 2 seasons.

BUT, lets count our blessings. This probably eliminates the chances of an R3.

***End rant.

Aaahhhh. that was much more fun than writing the 40th CG:R2 review and seeing it get tanked by the fanboys. :-)

rkrempelOct 6, 2008 12:47 PM

Oct 6, 2008 1:16 PM

Splitter

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Jul 2007

4445

This looks fun. I'll read it after my next class.

My first novel, Kardia has been published! Click here to read!

Oct 6, 2008 1:17 PM

Splitter

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Jul 2007

4445

This looks fun. I'll read it after my next class.

My first novel, Kardia has been published! Click here to read!

Oct 6, 2008 2:11 PM

8GaugeBrett

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Jan 2008

1274

Haha nice rant, but actually it's been argued pretty well that Lelouch is indeed alive in the final scene as the cart driver and is now living with CC as an immortal.

Anyway I do agree with you for the most part, R2 was a complete and utter train wreck from start to finish. However the difference between you and me is that I stopped taking this show seriously about halfway through season 1 and have been watching it ever since pretending it was just another bad soap opera that you watch for the lulz and in that regard it does deliver.

Oct 6, 2008 2:28 PM

Tenchio

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Nov 2007

1747

And, yes, I agree. Didn't take it seriously though, so I enjoyed it a little at least.

Oct 6, 2008 2:42 PM

Baman

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Feb 2005

13572

I watched a bunch of Legend of Galactic Heroes episodes right before the final r2 episodes. If that's not a sharp contrast, I don't know what is.
Now, those of you who visited my profile some weeks and months ago might recall Lelouch and Code Geass protruding themselves in my favourite list, and I was even a member of no more than three CG-related clubs.
r2 was a trainwreck indeed, and not just any trainwreck at that, it was run off track at a speed best measured by mach, continuing speeding off the tracks and into a town, laying waste to any orphanages in the vicinity, deforesting an area the size of a county and anally penetrating a flock of sheep before finally smashing into a mountain, resulting in landslides, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions of continental proportions.

Truly a failure of epic proportions. Just because everyone hates fillers doesn't mean you should cram as many twists and Xanatos Roulettes as physically possible into 26 episodes.
It was still enjoyable though, but not because of the reasons I had hoped for...

Oct 6, 2008 3:05 PM

manasteel88

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Oct 2007

229

lots of ranting over little things with no real focus on any of the issues I had.

I believe that the Geass team worked well to form a mostly logical season 1 of Geass. They in turn hastily made R2 with a "we'll just wing it as we go" mentality. The major turning point from where this show went from just OK to just CRAP was the death of Shirley. They spend a season and a half building up Lelouch as a character that finds friends and a place to call home in Ashford Academy's student council. They then set up a love interest in Shirley and have her win a date creating some new angles of interest. Then in the spanse of I believe two episodes they removed Kallen, Milly, Shirley and Suzaku from the student council. Shirley was left in Suzaku's care where Lelouch left her and then he leaves her and she gets offed by Rolo. Instead of Lelouch seeming even the slight bit interested he just goes back to his kill daddy thing. The one thing that was interesting to come out of it was Orange had a geass nullifier and since he was then loyal to lelouch I thought of the many possibilities he could have as a pawn in the game. Then he wasn't used...at all. From there it was just a revolving spiral of one upsmanship where one episode ends with a cliff hanger thats even weirder than the next, resulting in so many unwanted moments that finally left it with a villain that was very very unsatisfying.

The only redeeming part of this story is the fact that the one thing they had planned since the beginning was how this ended. That was pulled off quite well. all in all R2 got a 5. It had alot of interesting ideas that never worked out the way it wanted to, resulting in a life of mediocrity. The show was never so awful that I didn't want to see the ending. It kept my attention even though I was flabbergasted by their writing abilities.

Also, of course Lelouch is alive...the show is R2. Lelouch if he was given immortality would become RR. Thats why the english version refers to CC as C2.

I'm hoping for a movie/ova to spin out of this retelling the story in a better manner.

manasteel88Oct 6, 2008 3:11 PM

Oct 6, 2008 3:30 PM

YoungVagabond

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Jul 2008

2344

Decent enough rant, but I'm curious to why people limit it to Season 2. I'll go ahead and write one about Season 1 now.

Oct 6, 2008 8:57 PM

KaminaKai

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Mar 2008

2324

ShaolinRibiero said:
Decent enough rant, but I'm curious to why people limit it to Season 2. I'll go ahead and write one about Season 1 now.

lol season one is honestly considered a great masterpiece by MANY... I'll am interested in what you can "rant" about it

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Oct 6, 2008 9:39 PM

#10

8GaugeBrett

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Jan 2008

1274

Ehh... I wouldn't consider the first season a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but it definitely was entertaining.

Oct 6, 2008 9:47 PM

#11

YoungVagabond

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Jul 2008

2344

kaminakun said:

lol season one is honestly considered a great masterpiece by MANY... I'll am interested in what you can "rant" about it

Well, do yourself a favor, and read my topic on the club page. Honestly, the hardest thing in writing up a rant was limiting my word output. I could honestly have gone on for dozens of pages with all the laughable flaws in each episode.

This topic about R2 piques my curiosity though; I want to see how much more ridiculous and insane the series can get, because right now, it's hard to imagine anything surpassing the madness and lack of logic in the first seven episodes.

Oct 6, 2008 10:39 PM

#12

Archaeon

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Nov 2007

2185

ShaolinRibiero said:
This topic about R2 piques my curiosity though; I want to see how much more ridiculous and insane the series can get, because right now, it's hard to imagine anything surpassing the madness and lack of logic in the first seven episodes.

Imagine that the wholeof R2 was written by Hunter S Thompson, very fast, and during one of his acid flashbacks. That comes fairly close to how bad it actually is.

What a day! What a lovely Day!

Oct 6, 2008 10:47 PM

#13

Dark-Evolution

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May 2008

1414

I kind of enjoy Code Geass:R2 personally but I can understand the many screw-ups and plot twists that go on in the story. Personally, I wonder if we should feel sorry for the director dealing with these problems.

After reading the rant it makes me wonder if the only character in R2 that was worth seeing is C.C., but that is just coming from myself though. XD

Dark-EvolutionOct 6, 2008 10:55 PM

Oct 6, 2008 11:19 PM

#14

YoungVagabond

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Jul 2008

2344

Archaeon said:

Imagine that the wholeof R2 was written by Hunter S Thompson, very fast, and during one of his acid flashbacks. That comes fairly close to how bad it actually is.

That actually sounds intriguing. While I'm not a huge Hunters S Thompson fan, I've read several of his works, and the potential for comedy from that description sounds incredible.

If we're going for literary references here, is it kind of like "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter" near the end, where Pedro Camacho gets his stories mixed up?

Oct 7, 2008 4:23 AM

#15

mflatischler

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Feb 2008

499

Anime-Destiny said:
After reading the rant it makes me wonder if the only character in R2 that was worth seeing is C.C., but that is just coming from myself though. XD

you are not alone ^^

mflatischler.tk - My Manga translations and transcriptions
Anime in Blu-ray
あなたの人種、年齢、宗教は問いません

Oct 7, 2008 7:24 AM

#16

Dozer

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Mar 2008

1148

I'd just like to say that, episode 20 and beyond, there is really not much of a reason to take R2 seriously.
Goro Taniguchi's vision was screwed up by the time-slot change, and by the end, he wasn't even trying. Altough it was worth watching just to see exactly how much more of the common sense in Sunrise studios can be cast off to the four winds, unless the studio pulls a Mai-Otome with the whole cast, Code Geass is best left forgotten, and as quickly as possible.

DozerOct 7, 2008 7:30 AM

Oct 7, 2008 9:29 AM

#17

Yuunagi

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Jul 2007

1420

Dozer said:
I'd just like to say that, episode 20 and beyond, there is really not much of a reason to take R2 seriously.

For me, watching R2 is similar to playing Resident Evil 4. Some things are just too difficult to enjoy if you take them too seriously.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou
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Oct 7, 2008 10:33 AM

#18

rkrempel

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Jun 2007

279

To all:

I didn't take CG or CG:R2 too seriously, really.

The Rant aside:

All things considered, Lelouche, the strategist, is at times a great character. The rare moments when he truely outthinks the enemy, are superb. Too bad they couldn't make an entire anime about that.
Shirley and Kalen aren't bad either in they ways that they're both opposites and rivals.
CC was pherhaps the only character that improved in R2, but she got too little attention so the effort was wasted.
I don't think I'll even remember the rest of the cast in a year or so.

They went overboard with the FMP! meets DN theme, but CG was very watchable. CG really didn't see enough plot development, which is why R2 could start over with essentially the same basic premise so effortlessly.

I can understand the popularity of this anime. On the surface, it looks good and is full of likeable stuff. Someone certainly did their market research. Far below the surface, at the bottom of a a deep dark trench, an interesting story about the downfall of an empire, the birth of a new world order, and how power corrupts, lurks.

With more patience and a lot more restraint, this anime could have been better, pherhaps even great. Heck, if you fail to notice the muddy water and look at just the contours of the bottom and the shiny surface, CG _is_ great.

What we need to fear most is seeing more of these kinds of half-baked productions.

Oct 7, 2008 11:51 AM

#19

mflatischler

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Feb 2008

499

well said, rkrempel

CC was pherhaps the only character that improved in R2, but she got too little attention so the effort was wasted.

It wasn't so wasted as it sounds, even if it was so the moments we experienced seeing her is quite memorable.
I can see someone in their eyes running the scenes how CC and LL got back together and so on, for example.

Well, aside from the all the facts CG having story loopholes and such, I think CG is just a kind of story which is fitting, accustomizing and adapting to the characters.
Normally, the characters should fit the story.

Story isn't that great and most of the characters aren't too but it was enjoyable when not taking it seriously.

A Monet is more enjoyable when watched from a distance than analyzing its strokes closely.

mflatischler.tk - My Manga translations and transcriptions
Anime in Blu-ray
あなたの人種、年齢、宗教は問いません

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RANT: Code Geas R2

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