Code Geass R2 EXPLAINED | Charles’ TRUE Motivations and Why Lelouch Had to Stop Him
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
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Our second look at the anime Code Geass here on the channel, this time tackling a sliver of it's second season: Code Geass R2. A step up from the already great original, R2 is a near (or maybe even a) 10/10 anime. Specifically though, we'll be looking at one of the anime's most abstract moments, where Lelouch confronts his father Charles, the Emperor of the Britannian Empire. A somewhat confusing scene for the anime, that shows off Lelouch and his father's true motivations, powers, and even the influences behind the anime!
#Anime #CodeGeass #Lelouch
Not too many people mention this but Mao, the guy with the mind reading Geass ability, pretty much lived in his own little world completely and utterly devoid of lies and it brought him nothing but absolute misery and insanity.
Thats true, I didn't think about Mao. No one could lie to him since he would always know, and he was eternally tortured. A great point!
The difference is that everybody should have it so no one would be isolated like Mao which helped greatly in driving him nuts. I'm sure humanity would be trained and learn how to hone their connected thoughts
@@xp6ehv2gdi Yeah it still is a very dystopian nightmare if people no longer had any individuality
Wasn't the thing that drove him made just the amount of voices, both thoughts and their real ones combined (and maybe the dissonance between their thoughts and what they said) that made him insane rather than the truth of their thoughts. I mean to hear every thought, thought by everyone within a 500m radius, well, that's a few hundred thoughts every second, and that's if you're not in a very populated area of Japan, if you're in E.G: central Tokyo, well, that's at least a few thousand- all the time.
And if I'm not mistaken, didn't his power continue to grow? So if he lived long enough he might've been able to hear every thought on earth in real time.
My point is, I don't think it has much to do with truth or lies in the end.
@@J10005 it'd be the end of the world and beginning of a perfect world. Even the Dead's consciousness would be shared.
I've watched code geass in its entirety twice and never once did I understand charles ture goal.
yh its pretty confusing fr
Bruh i barely understand what laluch goal is half the time. Or suzaku. Shit now that I think on it nobody's goals make sense
@@hamburglr1 All of them essentially have the same goal, its the method of achieving it that differs
1. Lelouch's goal is peace, but he knows BRITs especially Royals, namely Charles and the whole system is against him so he wants to demolish it first
2. Suzaku's goal is peace, but he wants to change the system from within. Slowly, but not surely.
3. Charles and Marianne's goal is peace, but they want to remove everyone's individuality, they believed that before we become individuals, we are one and if we become one again, there will be no misunderstanding, hence peace
@@nickkotejares2755 well said
Charles is the most hypocritical and self-contradictory villain I have ever seen. He eventually turns into a self-parody. "war is for fools" as he invaded Japan.
The Zero Requiem isn't thought of until the final scene of Turn 20 where Lelouch, C.C., and Suzaku are all left directionless and in need of a solution that would satisfy both Lelouch and Suzaku. The reason why Lelouch believes lies are necessary for time to move forward and for the future to be built is based partly on his experience as Zero, but more innately in his attachment to Nunally. Nunally's smile to Lelouch is a "mask" of sorts - a lie but also a part of who she is. And that, more than anything, represents what's beautiful about the world to him. The fact that Charles and Marianne don't know what he's talking about is proof to him that they never really loved their children, for they couldn't even recognize the best parts about them.
So Charles wanted to unite every conscious as a singular being to keep everyone away from pain and war
But don't you think that thinking kinda sounds familiar?
Its the same ideology behind evangelion, the whole concept of third impact. To make everyone happy, to unify all but if thay was the case as you said... no one would be happy because we only feel emotion, we only "feel" when we stand against and with something but where we are all together, where there is nothing to be against there's no progress
Its interesting to see how same kind of thinking can be expressed in such different manners, if we look at code geass and evangelion they don't look anything alike but I guess they are similar after all
I mentioned it in the discord, but for context here for other readers, I actually haven't seen Evangelion yet. But, it makes sense that they could share something so similar; it's an interesting way to write a villain with technically "good intensions." Especially with 2 anime that are considered near the top for a good few. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Yeah a lot of anime villains have the same goal: Charles and Ragnarok, NERV and the Human Instrumentality Project, and Shirou Amakusa (Fate Apocrypha) and Third Magic, im sure there’s more examples. It’s interesting to see how the idea of a collective consciousness is prevalent in Japanese media.
YES Code Geass is by nature a response to Evangelion in so many ways. But Code Geass also does so many other things too.
@@saltrxn Madara Uchiha as well
I think that this whole sub plot kinda took away from the story considering it was so similar. But I also think of it as a response to evangelion like thematically and as a callback.
I'd say, this is a pretty good take on Charles' plan. Especially your explanation for why it would bring humanity to a standstill. When you think about it, it's somewhat similar to Mao's situation. For him, there was no separation between him and others. Which is the what Lelouch says ( after the recorded conversation to save CC) has stunted Mao's development. 'Your thoughts are simple'. Meaning, Mao could never progress. Which is similar to what you said - no one will progress. And no one will become grow.
Come on guys who else cried at the end
I was super close to, when Nunally learns what her brother's plan really was and starts to cry I was as close as I've ever been
I don’t under stand this anime because how was lalush father killed if he had code and why didn’t any one inherit his code because no one can kill a code user if they do not inherit the code but the creator of this anime said lulash is dead but according to this anime lalush should have code because a person who has his geass on full power can kill a code user a take his code even force fully because lalush father took geass from v2
Nah i felt the same as wen Thanos won in avenger. It's time to rest. Satisfaction was the feeling i had.
Nah not really… according to the show staff Nunally found out about the Zero Requiem through the sweat and calm feeling in Lelouch’s hand… seemed like a kind of forced way to push the unsung hero narrative
Damn I just finished this show (i know i’m like hella late but I’m glad that I finally watched it) and this really helped me understand. I thought Charles was more like attempting to make one singular race. Just by him connecting everyone’s consciousness he is now making everyone one being, one Britannia. But this helped me understand more of the past, present, future argument (especially with Lelouch claiming the emperor yearned for the past, Schneizel yearns for the present, and Lelouch aims for the future) and the lying thing. This video was definitely necessary thank you!
Glad I was able to provide some perspective on things! I love to see these videos actually helping people out : D
Perfect analysis and of course, obligatory RURUSHUH comment.
Thank you! : D I'm glad the video was a good one!
Another incredible video. Keep it up man, your work is amazing and you deserve and one day will go viral. Xoxo
Thank you, I'm just happy to see people are liking the videos I make honestly! : D
Articulate and well said. Good work all round, this really helped me to clarify what I thought and finally explain this in conversation. Cheers.
Just started watching the series again, and was looking for viewpoints on Charles/C.C./Lelouch/etc. with regard to their thoughts on reality, and human nature, and God, and all the rest.
This was an excellent video. Specifically, very important understandings of quotes from the episodes concerned
For example, "rejection" as needing something to reject and therefore causing change. I didn't realize the significance of that line. Charles sees perfection as possible, and, with his plan in mind, immanent, and so rejection isn't only unnecessary, but perhaps impossible (since a perfect thing, in this case the union he is planning for, would not need to change, precisely because it is perfect). I think Lelouch, if you pressed him, probably does not believe in the possibility of such a perfection.
Charles' view on human minds (episode 15 I'm thinking of here), paraphrasing, 'we are all of one mind, you are me and I am you' sounds an awful lot like the Eleatics of Parmenides' time, rejecting any real movement/change, and viewing sense experience as an illusion, since we all are, after all, just one thing (the Monad). I recall Benedict Spinoza thinking a similar thing about God and the concept of His infinitude.
This is perhaps the most interesting part of Code Geass, the metaphysical questions about God etc.
That's the video I have always desired, without even being conscious of it. Magnificent, well done job. ❤️ All hail Lelouch!
But Charles lied too so...they're all hypocrites but Lelouch was trying to save Japan and Take down the Britannia empire so....All Hail Lelouch!!
Yeah, Charles kind of lied/avoided the truth at minimum, which is essentially the same thing, and his Geass is basically one big lie as well...
@@ProfessorViral I realized Charles whole survival of the fittest speech was bullshit too now that I think about
@@xblade149 That's what makes that great. He was literally just spitting facts about how the world is, and everyone just assumed he didn't fucking hate it.
Something I hadn't considered before: if Charles had gotten his way then everyone would have been like Mao. In that context, life would've been a living hell
Funnily enough, I think in the Code Geass novel Mao actually used his powers to air everyone's secrets in a small village in China and the villagers ended up killing each other. So if you were to unveil everyone's secrets and lies on a worldwide scale like what's Charles tried to do and it'd probably be total anarchy.
That's true, I didn't think about that comparison. Everyone may have just become overwhelmed with all the thoughts, and like the other comment said, knowing everyone's secrets would cause of few problems for sure
Mao only felt that way because he was separated from others, with no way to connect or understand his world, but he chould see everything within them, one sided glass, this problem gos away without his ability but also if everyone else had it to
And living heaven at the same time.
Japan anime loves the concept of collective or shared consciousness like Evangelion, Naruto, Code Geass, Darling in Franxxx, Attack on Titan, and so many more.
When charles couldn't persuade c2 to pursue their plan they could've gotten themselves Mao
Well they didn't know anything about him
Would Mao have agreed either though? They probably could have told him it would get him C2 back, but then their Geass interacting would be something as well
@@ProfessorViral they didn't know that Mao even existed and especially he had geass power
They didn't just need a geass user. They had plenty of geass users in the geass order (although maybe none of them had ascended their geass to the 2nd level). They needed a second person with a code. C2 was the only other known person with a code. They could get a person with a full powered geass to take C2'd code, but they never could have gotten Mao to do that for obvious reasons.
What I never got was how did Charles know that the Ragnarok connection would do as he thought it would? It’s an ancient device that they spent decades trying to make work. What if it did something else? What if it was like a hard reset on mankind where everybody dies and a new animal evolves to take our place? It was such a stupid thing to rely on something that they had no idea how it worked.
Can you explain if the emperor ever truly believed in his "might makes right" philosophy throughout the show? If yes, does that not contradict his desire for a gentle world? If no, WHY did he preach it? And if he truly wanted a gentle world then why did he start the war in the first place?
I think that was all just utility for his end goal. As in, it would all be worth it if he's able to achieve the end goal. I think thats why he scoff off grand battles as "not worth his time" or some wording quite similar, because it's simple stepping stones for him
@@ProfessorViral Tbh and to put it very simply Charles and Obito are very similar with their motivations' and goals. They both saw their realities as fake and without value because if they could just achieve their goal then that means creating a whole new reality which would undo all bad things it took to get their... Doesn't matter if you kill billions of people if doing so helps you achieve your goal of making the world a better place and being able to undo it afterwards. Remember Charles plan would bring the dead and the living back together so why care about killing? Why not send Lelouch and Nunally to Japan during a war? If they die we'll bring them back with the Ragnarok Connection...
The biggest problem with the show is the plot and characters aren't given nearly enough time to be flushed out so it really feels like the whole thing is in fast forward which is very unfortunate because there was massive potential there
C.c. is an embodiment of Collective. Consciousness.
Thanks for putting another great anime Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood on the list. I'm curious how do you actually seen that anime before or you're just using it for this video.
I've seen it, but it was long before I started watching anime in the thoughtful capacity I do now. So, I'm comfortable referencing it, but not addressing it on its own until I rewatch it
I would also point out that Lulu playing chess was the creator subtly screaming at the viewer/reader THINK THIS WAY OR YOU WONT GET IT UNTIL THE END!!!!!
Wow! Amazing analysis!
Thanks! : )
Hey Great Video. When I watched the whole Ragnarok Connection substory I had to rewatch those two episodes 3 or 4 Times to fully inderstand. CG introduces some good philosophy concepts although I feel kinda sad some people give this season a 10 without even understanding what those mean. Keep up the good work 👍
Thank you! : D It's certainly one of the murkier aspects, so I'm glad I was able to provide an easier way to clear it up for some. But, I'll try to keep it up, and thanks for watching!
The way I really see it. Ragnarok would be a slow built up nightmare waiting to exploded and come true in the "right" way possible in their face and bring devastation upon the world. There is this fic in fanfic archive where it pretty much detail and capture Ragnarok nature and its aftermath very perfectly.
For Charles, he viewed Ragnarok as perfection like the dreamer that he is expecting everything to be okay afterward. The road to hell is paved with the best intentions. Even one of the Divine Comedy quotes came up after Ragnarok activation which signify that Charles planned for the world is literally hell itself. While I do agree with the point he made, has he ever tried to fixed his own problem in his country and nation before? No, he just whined and throw temper tantrum. He is just a product of his time trying to buy sympathy. Because of his planned, humanity will not grow, there is no need for progress anymore, no mystery to unravel, and no need for deep connection.
So yeah, no I am not okay with Charles. And Lelouch have my thumb up for doing what he needs to do.
Love it! Keep up the good work! 😉
Thanks, will do! : D
This video is kinda old but question to you is do you not like the rest of the cast of code geass besides lelouch?
I initially thought Charles plan was to compel everyone to only speak the truth, that in itself would have a lot of problems. Combining everyone into one consciousness is much worse actually, it will remove all sense of individualism and change and growth, and I am happy that he stopped that plan.
Charles was trying to make humanity into something like the Incubators from Madoka Magica.
what did you think of season two of code geass? I personally thought it was a mixed bag, the mech battles being more gundam like, reveals that come from nowhere, character inconsistencies and the like. with the one thing it had going for it being the ending.
I actually liked it more than season one. As I was watching it I felt like it was weaker, but how things came together in the last few episodes made it feel cohesive for me. That might just be the final scene talking, but I would put it on top
I think it was trying to do things that wouldn't have worked out in time so they were just like, "whatever lets just throw another plot twist/ mech battle" but when they really did give time to a certain element it came out excellently, which was of course the ending
a lot of it was better than season 1, like lelouch's development, the backstory of c.c, suzaku falling deeper into the darkness, rolo was cool, etc. some of it was kinda dumb tho, like guilford being alive for some reason. but overall, it was really good 10/10 best ending in anime
Code Geass has always been an interesting series for me. Everytime I watch it I find more things I enjoy and more things I don't. I'm actually one of the people who don't really considered the ending to be all that great for various reasons. Overall I do still like the series but there are way too many flaws for me to consider it great. It's a somewhat okay series for me.
As for my view of lies I do believe to an extent they are necessary at times but I see them as doing more harm than good in the long run. The bigger the lie the harder it is to maintain. Sooner or later the truth does find a way to get out and when it does depending on the lie it can lead to even greater conflict than what the lie was trying to avoid, just look that the Black Knights betrayal of Zero. When trust is lost its really hard to make any major change or progress. It's why I ultimately see both the Ragnarok Connection and the Zero Requiem failing and only leading to more conflict down the road.
I go into more detail but I tend to ramble if it wasn't apparent. Still great video and I appreciate getting more insight Charles and Lelouchs ideas. Although one things that's always bugged me is wouldnt destroying C's world prevent humanity from being able to understand each other? Seems counterproductive to Charles' plan.
It definitely has some flaws, most annoyingly to me being characters like the Knight of One would really didn't get developed at all. I'd still rate it at an 8 minimum though, Lelouch and the plot in general are pretty spot on for my tastes.
For the lies, I'd pretty much agree. In the real world, there's not many that can sustain forever and cause more progress than not. But, I'm working on that for a future topic, so I can't say too much! It's going to be quite the trip of a video haha. Also, I 100% understand the tendency to ramble 😂
And, with C's World, which CC does say is the collective unconscious, you think he wouldn't want to destroy it. It's weird how the rhetoric they use is a bit contradictory at points. I figured they were referencing it as a barrier between humanity and the unconscious, and that's what was being sought to be destroyed
@@ProfessorViral Looking forward to the next video on the topic and I felt the same way about Toudoh and other characters the way you fell about the Knight of One. I always thought Toudoh would've been one of the first to discover Lelouchs identity and become sort of a mentor to him. It's crazy that some of the students in the show got more characterization than some of the people fighting a fuckin war.
I get lelouch's point but I agree with Charles. I've always seem lies as a negative thing and given the world we live in a world with so many of them. A world where none exists seems like paradise to me but again this is just my own opinion.
I can see the argument for a world without lies, and love that there is room to make their conflict a grey area. At the end of the day, I understand his motivations, but disagree with the method he chose to pursue, and would have to side with Lelouch
Your rather be a mindless lave to a unconscious basically a blob walking around for all eternity ?but personalities don't Crete false hoods, peopel can make fake perosnas usually depending on the perosn but most people try and be truthful
Not having it possible to lie is the same thing as removing all privacy entirely. No thx. I'll take my security. People are too different, you simply cannot trust all of the depths of yourself that you keep secret with all of the other people in the world.
Gendo from Eva had the same goal as Charles, but for different reasons. However you could lie if you had autonomy even if in a collective conscience. We could observe the same scene in person like a car crash, and I could “attempt” to lie, as long as I had autonomy.
This would be a pointless lie. In this shared consciousness, everyone would have access to everyone else's thoughts and knowledge. However, the more important part of Charle's ideology isn't the inability to lie, but to remove the need to lie. Everyone would have understand eachother, so there would be no need, or benefit, to try to lie.
@@rylace I definitely agree, just stating that with autonomy the ability to lie is still there, despite it being unnecessary
Why Jupiter though?
What I find fascinating about his character is that his ultimate goal is the polar opposite of how he displays himself And I find it frankly bizarre
He openly preaches social Darwinism basically stating hey if you have the power to steal someone it's okay and just for you to steal because you have the strength to steal
but his ultimate goal was to bring absolute and total equality to everyone everywhere He would be no more influential or powerful Then a slave
He also preaches about progress but his ultimate plan is eternal stagnation No forward momentum no new souls being born only those who already existed with mainly a focus on the past
And then a bit of a side note I find it interesting that a bit of his story seems to have been dropped where a few times early in the story it is heavily implied that the imperial heirs are all at each other's throats and highly competing to Acquire the throne
In fact at one point Charles is informed that is his second son is doing something that we the audience don't hear but Charles remarks that if he wants the throne he's free to challenge him but nothing happens
And the members of the Imperial family actually really seemed to get along with each other none of them seem to be backstabbing each other in fact they come off as quite their close knit family when it comes to sibling
And ultimately I find his attitude interesting because he believes that all of humanity will be united in that basically death and suffering are irrelevant because of the coming fusing of human souls he puts absolutely no effort into not being a douchebag At every turn because to him it doesn't matter everything is going to be forgiven in the end so there's in his mind zero reason to put even a mild amount of energy into not being a douche bag and honestly I have to question other than vv and the now Dead empress It doesn't seem like the emperor really connected with other human beings in meaningful way No one to trust no one to confide in just royal whores and children who disdain him For his cruelty so he's very likely a very lonely soul
Think about the Collected Unconscious in terms of wanting Children. What do Children Symbolize? Growth, Individualism, Immortality through Succession. Progression. When the Mother and Father give their Children the Will and Knowledge to move on, they become them or become greater than them! How we see that Greatness depends from person to person.
So when give the Choice to unify with the Collected Unconsciousness itself and Become Everyone and Everything... Would there be a Need for Children?
You have the Power of Immortality, the Life of your Friends and Family are all with you! All of those who have lived and have died are now apart of you....Good and bad...Yet you are neither living nor dead...and yet you are both male and female... Its the Snake eating its tail, eating itself... You cannot struggle against what you are because the Other voices refuse to. You cannot set yourself goals...because you have already done them. You cannot have children....because there is no one else to have them with. You can lie...but you know yourself, the other voices and minds know your lies.
What Charles and Marianne wanted was not living! Its a hollow existence built on looking at Nostalgic youth, and only the good outcome rather than looking at all the Negatives! Humanity cannot overcome itself unless it learns to try, and pass on the knowledge of what people are and Aren't meant to do.
This is an interesting analysis, but never mentioning Akito the Exiled feels like a big miss. The latter half of that story provides a lot of worldbuilding as to what the Collective Unconscious, is, how it works, and what exactly Charles was trying to accomplish. If you haven't already you should really watch it, though the relevance to the Charles stuff may not be immediately obvious.
Code Geass pulled an Evangelion and Charles wanted to turn everyone into mind meld orange juice.
I might need to rewatch some anime
This is a good one to go with!
I guess marianne and charles for lelouch wasnt even born or being exist in the first place.
Call me evil too but i like the ideology of evil protagonist like Charles from this show Madara and Nagato from the Naruto series and probably light from death note hes way was extremely evil tho but to bring farword true happiness and piece for the future scarfices as to be made even if its to kill to get there ppl are just like the main character who always wants to criticize and wants things to go there way...tbh i wouldn't differ a chance like this to change this wrld we living rn a wrld with no war no racism no killing no evil intentions BUT sadly a chance like that will never be cause these way of obtaining the power to change wrld like THAT is only FICTIONAL.
I wanted a continuation after s2 ToT
In that episode I said sh**** here we go again human instrumentality 😝.
Anime loves the collective unconscious 🤣
Lelouch created more problem than needed to be
Charles is right on on thing sin is a lie 👽👻
I like the video and it's very clear that you're inquisitive and thoughtful...but I HATE how you say "homogeneous"
So it’s just like Evangelion? Cool.
Even down to the "horrible father doing it to reunite with a dead wife part," which, well, anime and fathers is always something
Uh no, if everyone knows everyones views logic foresee the lies and truth constantly, humanity would be only interested in only the best popular likely solutions
I see... Japanese culture
ZERO.
At least lelouch didn’t bend human will to serve him and instead allowed individuality to continue
Don't tell me you still haven't seen Evangelion.
Your camera is too close and your pronunciation of unconscious is hard to listen to but otherwise great anime and jungian anything is interesting
Fair points. Honestly, Jungian ideas pop up so much in 90's to 00's anime that I've been debating doing a special on this kind of stuff and how different animes tackle it, like Code Geass, Eva, and Lain
@@ProfessorViral I'd say that sounds like a recipe you can't go wrong with.. in theory atleast 👌
I did not like the emperor Charles' arc
so whats the idea of this mess ("masterpiece") ?