Code Geass

Not really, it's the most democratic of the world powers but its about as equally complacent as any of the other states. And you don't hear Utopia at all in Europia. It just sounds weird for no reason.

....No, Europa is Greco-Latin, and the French Revolutionaries loved to harken back to that era of Republicanism and Democracy.

There seems to be at least a couple of lost or obscure works titled "Europia" attributed to Greek authors, including one Eumelus of Corinth, so at least it's not a completely made-up term. It's difficult to tell whether they got it from there or some other source though.

It's a very minor thing of course, but I just would've rather have it as Europe or Europa both because they're historical and just because they sound better.

More related to worldbuilding, though idk if they'll tie that deeply into it, but it'd be nice if they portrayed the current regimes of the EU as the lineage of the Thermidor reactionaries in the Directory who just pragmatically used public opinion to stay in power. While Napoleon's 18th of Brumeire Coup meant the rolling back of some of the more radical elements of the Revolution (such as a reproachment with the Catholic Church), his efforts helped preserve the more basic enlightened elements of the revolution, and he was pretty popular in Germany and Poland, which had been oppressed by Prussia and Russia respectively.

edited 6th May '13 2:48:21 PM by Scherzo09

I agree, but I also think "United Republic of Europia" is an improvement over "Euro Universe" (the former name for the E.U. though it was never used in the anime itself).

edited 6th May '13 2:46:43 PM by Madonis

The only thing I'd change is make it the "United Republics ", to make its Federal structure more clear. (I'd actually fannoned "Euro-Universe" to mean Europa Universalis, The Singular/All-Encompassing Europe)

Anyways, Madonis, you have any thoughts on what I said a page ago?

edited 6th May '13 2:54:29 PM by Scherzo09

Let me go back to address the previous posts in question then.

Your theory about how Euro-Britannia might have gained a foothold in Russia sounds plausible enough by me. By the way, I also wonder if we'll see any Britannian nobles of Slavic origin, since a couple of characters with related names did show up during the main series (and, in a roundabout way, the whole Euro-Britannia concept gives the presence of those and other European names a bit more sense in context).

Yes, it would be good to see the military's concerns about using Alexander come up in the show proper. I assume the reorganization of the W-0 unit and the introduction of the Type-02 models for the new recruits might provide an opportunity to bring that up at least in passing.

I hadn't thought of comparing Smilas to Coriolanus, but now that you've mentioned it I can see a possible parallel there. It wouldn't be out of the question if General Smilas went as far as attempting a coup towards the second half of the OVA, perhaps without ultimately achieving much since such moves are usually made in desperation, though in that case the balance would be better if we either saw other E.U. political figures who do sincerely believe in the ideals of the French Revolution, in spite of the looming crisis, or at least got to know additional sides of Smilas -positive or negative- beyond his witty cynicism. In any case, I more or less expect that we will get to see a little of the ruling government body at some point, especially if things end up heading in that sort of direction. I agree with your views that the E.U. is sick but it shouldn't necessarily be presented as being rotten to the core, or at least not without any other voices of reason, even if they're not lucky enough to be heard.

And sure, it's very nice to know that we do have Leila as the co-protagonist in order to provide an European perspetive. Of course, she is of Britannian blood but seems genuinely on the side of the land of her birth and its Republicanism as far as we can tell. She's apparently going to be coordinating things from an Alexander Type-02 on the battlefield itself next time, probably fulfilling a variation of the sort of tactical leadership role that Lelouch himself carried out when he wasn't pulling off more flashy or complicated stunts. I think the squad dynamics will end up being pretty interesting here, especially since the use of 3DCG has made for more impressive action sequences.

edited 6th May '13 8:14:53 PM by Madonis

Well, my theory about all the European sounding families in Britannia is that as the French Revolution spread across the continent, Britannia had a sort of open door policy for aristocratic families seeking to flee their embattled countries. I think the Romanov Dynasty was the last to fall, but the Russians never took kindly to what amounted to European subjugation (The EU probably already having turned to forging colonial possessions in Africa and South-East Asia); and so the Russians began to idolize Romanov rule the same way many Russians idolize Stalin's rule as a Golden Era.

(Some random Alt History musings: I mentioned this before but there is a sort of historical precedent for Britannia. During the Peninsular War, when Napoleon invaded the Iberian Peninsula, the Portugese Imperial Court fled Lisbon for Brasil, where they stayed for the duration of the war, eventually leading Brasil to be spun off as the Empire of Brasil. I was thinking it'd be cool to have Britannia and Brasil/Gran Colombia be early regional rivals.

Also, another worldbuilding fact, and one of the few concrete facts about Britannia's history, is that the Tudor line did not end with Elizabeth I. At first I thought "So what? What difference does that make," and dismissed it as pointless Inspite Of A Nail changes. But then I thought about it, after some lessons in class about Locke, and then I realized why its so important. Since the Tudor line is continued, House Stuart never comes to the throne, which means no ineffective monarchs that lead to the English Civil War, which means no Glorious Revolution 1688. That means that Constitutionalism and Parliamentarism never take hold in the British Empire, meaning it'd be just as Absolutist as the Ancien Regime in France (Ironically, it'd also probably mean that Rule Britannia is never written, because it was done mainly in commemoration of the Glorious Revolution).)

I think another one of my problems with the EU's portrayal so far is its just too similar to Britannia in its culture. The scene of the Gala in Tuluiries, for example, could've easily been a gathering of Britannian nobles with only changes to the dialogue (Also the bunny girl waitresses were really weirdly out of place but maybe it was just a wink to R2's opening episode). They need to really tone done the aristocratic elements and play up the political, bureaucratic, and populist elements. See more average Europeans and sort of you know; honestly Ralph Fiennes' rendition of Coriolanus (Minus the food riots and with more prosperity) would be a good kind of base for the world: A few good principled politicians, a few bad politicians, and a huge media obsessed public that feels dependent upon its government.

But yeah, just want a more nuanced view of it. Also I'm really hoping this next episode is more like 90 minutes than 50.

You a big fan of the Bard btw? To me that's sorta when I feel Geass is at its best, when it has that serious, bombastic tone and things feel larger than life.

Where'd you hear that thing about Leila becoming a pilot?

Oh, completely unrelated, but I'd love an anime version of Nightmare of Nunnally. It'd have to be tightened up a bit though. (And cut out the loli fan-service)

edited 7th May '13 12:36:33 PM by Scherzo09

To elaborate more on the EU culture thing; I really hope at some point they explore the utter insanity of the French Revolution. I want to see Temples for the Cult of Reason and the Cult of the Supreme Being; statues of Robespierre dressed like a Roman God; and all the associated populist madness that entails. Just making it "Britannia except it has a rubber stamp democracy" sells it waaaay short; and seeing all the background details they've done so far, I think they'd be missing out.

Also good god, flipped through No N again a bit. The fanservice in this is insane. Nunnally flashes her panties practically every other page. What kind of sociopath wants fanservice of a crippled, 14 year old girl?

edited 7th May '13 4:26:16 PM by Scherzo09

Alright, it better be at least 90-100 minutes now. Yamato 2199 releases its 90 minute chapters every three months.

Hey, does anyone else remember back when the series was supposed to be 3/4 over by this point? I miss those innocent days of youth.

Seriously though, at this point we're on track to reach Rebuild of Evangelion levels of schedule slip.

I think that's almost making a mountain out of a molehill. They effectively just pushed it back a few months, and it's not like one entry a year is somehow unheard of in the world of animated films or direct-to-video Japanese anime. Yamato 2199 is an exception, not the rule.

But enough talk...there's a new trailer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Des7ZdzWiUw

edited 21st Jun '13 9:02:28 AM by Souther

It is a problem though that they keep missing production deadlines. That simply isn't a good sign.

Anyways, was thinking about dub V As; assuming Schniezel isn't going to be in this, I think Troy Baker should be recast as Akito.

That. This isn't the first time that this has happened with this show; not even close to it, in fact. That right there says a whole lot about what to expect in the future, which while not necessarily a death knell, is still not good to see.

If Sunrise can afford to delay the release and still make money from the Japanese Code Geass fanbase via the theatrical screenings and the discs, then the opinions of a few impatient and nonpaying foreigners aren't going to matter when the dust settles. Remember that it's already going to take Sunrise 5 calendar years to release all 7 episodes of Gundam Unicorn, which has also had a couple of significant delays and schedule changes in the middle despite being a higher priority project than Code Geass Akito.

But if you ask me to speculate then I don't think this is an internal Sunrise delay. It's probably because the external 3DCG studio contracted for Akito is still working on Majestic Prince and that other studio isn't large enough to handle the workload all at once. It looks like OVA 2 has a bunch of new robot designs and I guess the action sequences will be more complicated than OVA 1's when you add up everything involved.

edited 21st Jun '13 8:14:25 PM by Souther

I guess my fear is less about technical hiccups and more about creative hangups and such.

Anyways, anyone want to play the "Who should the dub cast be" game?

Kinda sorta necro, but this sorta makes sense I think.◊

Word of God says Lelouch is dead.I don't like it, but I can't argue it.

Lelouch wanted to live in happiness with his sister and Suzaku wanted to die. It's fitting that neither gets what they want.

Word of God also said Nunally died in the FLEIJA explosion, those guys have no credibility and I'll ignore everything they say.

The logic works. I like the theory. I don't think Lelouch is actually the cart driver though.

Nor do I think we have a have enough details to say for certain.

We have hints at how the codes work, but not exact detail.

More than one thing is ambiguous.

Well that had a reason. They lied to us to preserve a plot twist. Unless they choose to make Code Geass Season 3 I have to believe them.

What if Word of God said Suzaku x Lelouch and Cornelia x Kallen was canon?

edited 1st Jul '13 5:15:41 PM by MadSkillz

I'm aware of the reason, which does nothing in their favor. They lied about that, they can lie about anything else. Who knows, maybe there was something planned or still is? So yeah, I'll ignore Word of God in this case.

Well, I am interested in how Season 2 of Code Geass would've gone if they didn't switch air times and feel the need to reintroduce everything to us.

Only good parts of Season 2 were Lelouch's I dun fucked up face◊, Laughzaku, the Emperocket◊, the Camp Gay Eunuchs, the FAIL chess game that Schneizel and Leouch had, the no good reason that they put Cecile in this during an info meeting◊, for that matter all the unnecessary fanservice was pretty hilarious, this image of how Charles' mother died◊, Hallen's epic slap down of Suzaku in that stupid, silly yellow dress, and a couple of other hilariously melodramatic moments.

Notice how almost all these moments are Narm, fanservice and Kallen beating Suzaku up in that boobalicious dress.

This is how the whole show should've ended.◊

Rolo's death speech was awesome though.

edited 1st Jul '13 7:21:22 PM by MadSkillz

As much as I hate Zero Requiem, the events of the series more or less required him to die to have any semblance of thematic meaning. He gave up is humanity, everything that mattered to him in the world, and then finally his life in order to bring about a better world. Did he succeed, and even if he did was it worth the destruction he wrought? I don't know, but to have him live strips away any thematic levity the show has.

Besides, Word of God says he's dead, and there isn't exactly room for a sequel series either.

edited 1st Jul '13 7:21:44 PM by Scherzo09

See, I look at that picture and all I can see is a symbolic Downer Ending where Lelouch has turned into the thing he hates most: i.e. his father.

Yeah I mean, to me that works thematically even better; no Zero Requiem, he just goes all Mac Beth; turning into a horrible tyrant even with the best of intentions.