Hakuromatsu said: When I finished this episode, my impression was, "That was quite an impactful Wham Episode, but it was poorly scripted in its overreliance on the convenient malfunctioning of Lelouch's Geas and his offhand remark that he could order Euphemia to kill the Japanese. It set the stage for the season's climax at the expense of its own credibility."
But then I bounced that scene around in my mind awhile, and connected a couple of other scenes from the past:
- In episode 9, Lelouch stops a group of Britannians from beating a Japanese hot dog vendor by commanding them, "You guys are bored with beating up Elevens, aren't you?"
- Then, earlier in episode 22, Lelouch stops a Britannian noble from beating a Japanese boy by commanding his hired hand, "You should be getting home, don't you think?" Same command in structure, same command in tone.
- But this is where the scenes diverge. After the scene in episode 9, Kallen rushes to the hot dog vendor as Lelouch stands by indifferently; that is, Lelouch does nothing.
- Now, after the scene in episode 22, as the noble is hurrying after his hired hand, Lelouch proactively calls him back with the taunt, "What's the matter, Mr. Nobleman? You mistake a hired hand's strength for your own." Without any response from the noble, Lelouch commands, "You should just go off and die--" And then, before he can finish, he covers his eye. For the first time in the series, Lelouch stops a command mid-command.
In the space between episodes 9 and 22, something happened. Faced with nearly-identical situations, Lelouch acted in a fundamentally different way. The incident with the noble wasn't about his Geas acting defectively -- it was about his own mind acting defectively. With the continued use of his power, the escalation of the Black Knights' rebellion, and the growing strain of his non-Zero relationships, he simply became a different person.
And when he was forced to reach an accord with Euphemia -- who he called "his most worthy opponent" -- a hint of megalomania touched him. How could someone be on higher footing, or even equal footing, with Zero? And so, he made it clear to Euphemia what he could've done. Kill Suzaku -- something that both Lelouch and Euphemia knew would be unthinkable for her to do. But perhaps even more unthinkable would be for her to "kill all Japanese." The words coming from Lelouch's mouth weren't random. But were they calculated? Probably not -- for a moment, Lelouch lost hold of his analytical powers. And that was his downfall.
Now how does that explain the behavior of the Geas? That question may look silly to someone who's gone through the rest of R1 and R2, and I'll obviously find out over the course of 28 episodes whether or not that question is answered. Maybe it was Suzaku's contact with CC. Or maybe it was just a simple result of Lelouch's mental state, culminating at that moment. But I'm confident that, thematically, this episode had more to do with Lelouch's psyche than his Geas.
I really wish I had watched this episode back in 2007... V_V
I think people should read this post when saying Lelouch was just conventiently spouting nonsense, the plot twist may not be to your liking but it isn't only out of convenience that Lelouch said those things.
As stated above, Lelouch changes through the course of the first season. While he is fine with just getting the Brittanian to leave the Eleven/Japanese alone in episode 9, he can't stand the arrogance of the Britannians in episode 22 anymore and decides to truly go against them. His way of thinking is gradually but steadily changing, as espected from the main character of an anime.
As I see it, Lelouch is taking things more serious now regarding the situatiion and treatment of the Elevens but this is also paired with a form of arrogance, I mean things have been going very much to his idead since his rebellion, I don't think it's strange he feels a bit conceited to some extent.
As for the events of this episode; Euphie herself started this all by asking if he really thought she would shoot him if he threatened her to do so, causing him to reply that he indeed could do that. When she doesn't believe it he feels the need [being pride as he is] to at least explain the fact he indeed is capable of such things and thus giving examples like "Shoot me", "Release Suzaku from duty" and eventually "Killing the Japanese".
Though it might be unlikely for him to "joke" about such matters one should take in account that since Lelouch is very confident in his Geass powers, seeing the results he got from them in earlier episodes. When Euhpie questions his ability to make get her to shoot him I guess a mix of pride and slgiht arrogance made him slip up like that.
As for why the Geass "conventiently" starts to act up at that moment, it begun earlier than just that moment and excuse me but this is anime, if everything would be as "in the real world" or "without convenience" no anime would be able to keep interesting. It's just to what extent a writer is "allowed" to let events happen in a certain circumstance and I think this isn't pushing the limits. But that's just my opinion. |