How would you write Code Geass R2?

Often times when I watch a show where I feel like They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot, I think of how I would have written it and what I would have done differently. Is anyone else like that?

If you had the chance to rewrite the story from the end of R1 (starting with episode 22) and R2, how would you do it? What would you keep, what would you do differently?

It's been three years since I've seen both but I'll try to state important points:

• No Time Skip at the start. Show the whole brainwashing scene so that the season kicks off on a high note. Give 2 episodes of Amnesiac Lulu and then get him his memory back.
• No retarded "Black Knights turn on Lulu because of Schneizel's mere words."
• Keep Rolo's Heroic Sacrifice - that wasn't so bad.
• There has to be a plot wherein Lulu is forced to Geass a member of the Black Knights. This is why they turn on him, not because of Schneizel's words.
• Scrap the Viletta Nu subplot - I didn't find that to be a good use of their time.

That's all I've got for now. Keep Zero Requiem as is, though - that was good.

Lots of people think the same, I believe.

Well, the most obvious change would be just take out the stupid Reset Button of the start. This alone would give a few more episodes to develop latter arcs, as there wouldn't be need to reintroduce everything again. The school segments are not important for the plot anymore, anyway, so no much is lost. Light paced filler could come from inside the Black Knights, with the two princess, if needed.

edited 4th Aug '11 6:34:57 AM by Heatth

Honestly if I were to setup R2 it'd been pretty Off the Rails from how it turned out. Like I wouldn't have the Reset Button at all. I don't know if the rebellion would succeed or not, but having an independent Japan trying to deal with the Britannian Empire and having to gather China and the remnants of the EU to fight them would be more interesting than a rehash of R1.

The school segments were never really about plot, they were about characterisation - most significantly, they represent both Suzaku and Lelouch's happiest moments and ideal future.

You can mess around with things so that they are less fillery and more plot-relevant, but I wouldn't cut them entirely.

But I'm interested to see what this thread comes up with, at least in part because I've never seen an R2 fix that I've found at all satisfying. I'm sure it could be done, but I've never actually seen anyone do it.

Here's how I'd do things.

• Starting from episode 22, I would re-do the Diabolus ex Machina so that the SAZ fails for other reasons either besides or in addition to Lelouch geassing Euphemia, and change the command he gave her.

Now for R2.

• No Reset Button. Lelouch blackmails Suzaku that he would tell Japan that Suzaku killed the Prime Minister if Suzaku tells Japan that Zero is a Britannian prince, thus allowing Zero's identity to be kept secret.*
  ^{I doubt Cornelia, The Emperor, or V.V. would have done something like that.}
• The Black Rebellion is successful due to China's inteference, either resulting in a ceasefire or Britannia's defeat.
• Suzaku still makes Knight of Rounds and puts together a team of Elevens and Numbered soldiers.
• When Lelouch tries to capture Nunally, he is stopped by Jeremiah and Viletta. Lelouch turns Jeremiah to his side and blackmails Viletta with her relationship with Ohgi; they both become Nunally's bodyguards along with Shinozaki. This frees Nunally from being a hostage.

All of the above would happen in the first five episodes.

• Mecha flight systems would be used for transportation only. No aerial battles.
• Don't kill off Kirihara. He is the only Japanese to be on his side, know Zero's identity, and know Lelouch's Back Story. Executing him offscreen was a waste.
• Suzaku's mom has a Code, which is the reason for his Charles Atlas Superpower and reaction to C.C.*
  ^{The only other reason I can think of is that he is also destined to have a Geass, but that would destroy the warrior vs. Squishy Wizard dynamic he and Lelouch have.}
• Lelouch and the Black Knights do part ways, but the Black Knights do not join Schneizel but rather make Nunally their new leader. And they actually do learn about Lelouch's motives.
• The series ends in a Mêlée à Trois between Schneizel, Cornelia, and Damocles; Charles, V.V., and Ragnarok; and Emperor Lelouch, Suzaku, Back from the Dead Marianne*
  ^{Yes, there would totally be a Kallen vs. Marianne KMF fight.}
  , and Geassed Britannia; with the Black Knights strung along for good measure.
• The Sorting Algorithm of Evil exists for a reason. Lelouch defeats Schneizel first, then The Emperor, with V.V. as the final Big Bad.
• Lelouch takes V.V.'s code and becomes immortal.

edited 4th Aug '11 7:58:15 AM by shiro_okami

I'd keep the Time Skip, but do it very differently.

Firstly, in Tokyo, the stalemate with Nina's homemade nuke would be broken when Tamaki (recklessly rushing forward) disarms her. He then threatens to detonate the bomb himself unless Lloyd uses the Avalon to transport the Black Knights out of what is clearly a losing battle. The second season would begin with the Black Knights having taken refuge in the Polynesian Confederacy (yes, there was no such nation mentioned in the show, but it would have a low enough population (though spread across many Pacific islands) that it could believably have gone unmentioned during the first season). They're constantly on the move, evading Brittanian scouts through their superior underwater craft (courtesy of Rakshata) and help from the Polynesian Confederacy who are resisting Brittania in a less ostentatious way.

Lloyd and Cecile, as well as all the Ashford Academy students, are with them as hostages, though a lot of the students are starting to turn pro-Black Knights, and Lloyd doesn't seem to mind being a prisoner of war so long as he can keep designing weapons. Milly's actually fully joined the Black Knights and works under Diethard in their PR department. Tamaki is lauded as a hero for his role in the Battle of Tokyo, which naturally goes to his head big time. Nina is kept under tight lock and key and constantly interrogated for information on her bomb, which has driven her even nuttier than before.

Lelouch is still missing, so the higher ups have begun taking turns dressing up as Zero and issuing orders on his behalf, though how un-proactive they're being has got some people wondering if it's the same Zero or not. However, Shirley, Milly, and Rivalz know it's a different Zero because Shirley's told the others about her "Lelouch is Zero" suspicions, and Milly (knowing Lelouch's hidden backstory) is able to confirm that destroying Brittania is the sort of thing that would interest him. Their goal through the early episodes of the season would be to contact Lelouch without letting the Black Knights know what they know.

And where is Lelouch in all this? Well, back on Kamine Island, during the end of season cliffhanger Suzaku's Geass command to live stops him from shooting Lelouch (which would have activated the failsafe bomb). Instead his bullet hits a hidden panel on that big mystical door that causes it to open. There's a living psychodelic trip on the other side, but Nunally and V.V. are clearly visible there. Just as Lelouch is letting out a cry of "NUNALLY!", Suzaku is absorded into the other side of the door, which then closes. Lelouch can't figure out how to get it back open, and he sees that Brittanian reinforcements are approaching the island.

Thinking quickly, he manages to convince Kallen that she needs to trust him for now. When Brittanian soldiers arrive, Lelouch outs himself to them as a missing prince of Brittania, and says that, while she originally meant to take him captive, Kallen has actually repented of her renegade ways and surrendered to his authority. Geass helps him smooth over the soldiers' initial skepticism.

Long story short, when R2 begins Lelouch is the new Viceroy of Area 11, and while he's a more humane governor than Clovis or Cornelia, he still plays up the evil Brittanian overlord thing when he feels he has to (that he wears an eyepatch to cover his Geass eye helps with this image). He's trying to use his position to bring down Brittania from the inside, setting up conditions in Area 11 to make it ripe for an overthrow, but his main goal is finding Nunally. He's trying to use the research and resources Clovis left behind to research the Kamine Island gate in hopes of opening it and finding his sister.

Kallen, meanwhile, has been sent to a re-education camp (her young age, half-Brittanian heritage, and the fact that she surrendered voluntarily spare her from regular prison and/or execution). The camp's a weird mixture of brutal conditions designed to break down a person's psyche and lessons in how to look and act like a proper noble lady. Naturally, it's all Kallen can do to keep from attacking everyone there, but occasional contact with Lelouch urges her to be patient, because he has a plan for her: once she's convinced the Brittanians that she's reformed, Lelouch is going to have her made his knight, allowing them to work together for Brittania's downfall.

And . . . well, I have more, but this post is getting pretty long already. Suffice it to say there would be a lot of court intrigue between Lelouch and the relatives he's reunited with, Suzaku putting on a white Zero costume and calling himself "The Ghost of Zero", Lelouch being haunted by Euphemia's ghost, and C.C. going through a weird metamorphosis on the ocean floor: her Healing Factor causes her body to merge with Jeremiah's (which had been modified to resemble hers), who in turn merges more fully with his cyborg parts, which in turn merge with the Siegfried and Gawain, turning them all into an incredibly bizarre and far from sane monster.

Yeah, but even this was barely played in R2. In fact, after a few episodes Lulu spend most of his time outside school, anyway. They just feel out of place during R2 (which I don't think it happened n the first season). I wouldn't be against the school moments if they were better used, but they were more or less ignored after a certain point, so they might as well not be there from the start. Like everything in R2, it was sub-used.

edited 4th Aug '11 8:44:07 AM by Heatth

Interesting idea on how the cliffhanger could be resolved, although I doubt Lelouch would join Britannia. Even if it's to take down Britannia from within, Lelouch was pretty determined to take down Britannia from the outside before. And I doubt it would work considering that Viletta, Cornelia, Suzaku, and V.V. already know Zero is Lelouch.

On the other hand, it could work and would actually make sense if the SAZ was a success, and set up Viletta as a Spanner in the Works.

edited 4th Aug '11 8:57:45 AM by shiro_okami

And again, the HS stuff really was just Slice of Life fluff. Most characterization happened elsewhere.

Hey, he was taking down Brittania from the inside before, even if the role he assumed was that of an ordinary Brittanian citizen. His refusal to try assuming power in Brittania as part of his plan was probably more because it would put Nunally in danger. If she's missing, that's not a concern, and if it gives him even slightly better odds of finding his sister . . . well, we all know the lengths Lelouch will go to.

As for keeping his past as Zero a secret: Suzaku's experiences on the other side of the Kamine Island door cause him to defect from Brittania to serve what he now believes to be a higher authority, Cornelia doesn't remember seeing Zero's face because of the after effects of being Geassed, and Viletta is re-captured by the Black Knights and taken with them when they leave Japan.

I really enjoyed the school episodes, but it was quite obvious in R2 that they had to do a lot of writing gymnastics in order to fit them in.

edited 4th Aug '11 9:06:08 AM by RavenWilder

Well, you've certainly proposed the most interesting new take on R2 I've seen - and you've essentially swapped over Lelouch and Suzaku. How would you end up resolving things?

And I'll say that, in the early parts of R2 I preferred the school episodes over some of the battles, just because of the lot of the early battles (aside from the one for Nunnally) didn't mean anything. They were just establishing who is good at what.

Shiro's comments on Suzaku being destined to have a Geass actually reminded me of an interesting theory I once read somewhere.*

edited 4th Aug '11 9:19:57 AM by Drakyndra

Before seeing R2, I was thinking that Suzaku would get a Geass, but that a Geass granted by V.V. would be different from one granted by C.C. Basically, we saw that people C.C. gave Geass displayed incredibly mental powers (mind control and mind reading, respectively). I thought maybe V.V. would give people Geass powers that would enhance their bodies instead. So Suzaku, whose incredibly physical skills are due to his dormant Geass potential, would be given a Geass by V.V. that would grant him strength and speed of superheroic proportions.

Of course that didn't happen, but it would have taken the whole brains vs. brawn thing to another level.

Id keep R2 as it is... I just want Lulu to be the old guy in the end.

Pretty much that.

I heard that part of the reason some of the plot developments suck in R2 is because the makers actually wanted to do two more seasons instead of just one.

So in other words, just giving 'em twice the episodes probably would have worked out most of the kinks. Might want to change the whole Zero Requiem thing though since that was kind of shit.

I actually really liked R2 (though it was quite rushed in places), which is why I figure, if you're gonna rewrite it, don't just tweak it a little; go whole hog and give us a completely different story.

The irony is Zero Requiem is apparently the part of R2 which was least affected by Executive Meddling, since it was planned from the start.

But I agree that problems with R2 aren't really the ideas, it's the execution. Give the people more time to plan, maybe cut some of the early reintroduction/China arc things so Ragnarok gets more time for proper explanations and development (and some under-used characters get a bit more screentime/character development), and I'm mostly sold.

Which is probably why a lot of fix-its don't work for me - they throw out the good with the bad. Though Raven's comment about going full on AU is interesting - or at least sounds like a fanfic I'd want to read.

I liked Zero Requiem too, actually. And while I originally hoped Lelouch was the guy on the cart at the end, in hindsight I think I prefer the idea that he really did sacrifice his life. The Death Equals Redemption theme has been pretty strong in the series, after all.

Id keep R2 as it is... I just want Lulu to be the old guy in the end.

What old guy? The guy on the cart? Keeping R2 and the whole damn series as it is and having Lelouch live in the end is an awful idea. Sorry, but he sacraficed WAY too much by that point that his life was the last logical thing to go. Even if he is the main protagonist, this is a character whose story has been clearly building towards ending in tragedy.

Exactly. I've said this before but after episode 23 of R1 (ALL of it up until the very last scene even!), I thought it was pretty clear that Lelouch wasn't going to make it out of this story alive. While he had some noble intentions, his actions were self destructive in all senses of the word even 'til the very end.

edited 5th Aug '11 10:40:05 PM by ManwiththePlan

@Drakyndra: I don't mind the whole Death Equals Redemption angle for Lelouch, and in fact I think it's a wonderful end to his character arc. But they really couldn't think of a better way to pull that off than to make him act like the biggest douchebag in the known universe for like five episodes? Come on. There's gotta be a better way to do that.

edited 5th Aug '11 11:06:45 PM by Sporkaganza

At the risk of sounding too much like part of a hive mind, I have to agree that I would hesitate before changing plot points.

Maybe changing both seasons would be necessary so that things in R2 are properly forshadowed in the first season?

Nonetheless I have to say I think that both seasons work as they are, and R2, while having a slightly different tone and some issues is a decent conclusion.

I actually like R2 too and think it's a good enough conclusion. But it's pretty deeply flawed, which bothers me because it had the potential to be totally brilliant.

One change I would have liked a whole bunch was a clearer picture of what exactly the Raganarok Connection would do to people. I've been kind of able to puzzle it out after multiple watchings, but some parts of it are still pretty unclear.

I always just figured "Instrumentality" and stopped thinking about it.