Otakuism

I can’t get over how tragic episode 22 of Code Geass was. As most everyone knows by now, Lelouch accidently gives the command to Euphie to kill all the japanese, which she does enthusiastically. It’s an amazing juxtaposition to go from sweet, if naive, Euphie to blood-stained Euphie mowing down Elevens in a blaze of bullets. Whats tragic is that Euphie had no control over this transformation and Lelouch didn’t either. It’s wholly accidental, which probably makes it that much sadder. I’ll admit Euphie wasn’t my favorite character, but it’s shocking to see her like this. It she became a murderer through anger or revenge I would probably like it, but that no one had any control over the fact is what really gets me. It’s the classic definition of tragedy at its finest. The only thing anyone can do know is stop her rampage from continuing.

Lelouch is just manly enough for one tear.

Looking at this whole Euphie incident, you can really see the difference between the persona’s of Zero and Lelouch. For Zero this is perfect. His greatest obstacle, Euphie and the Special Administation area, has just self-destructed, leaving him as the de facto hero of Japan. No one can question his legitimacy now or his authority. Everyone will support and accept the OotBK. The minds of the Japanese are firmly his now to use in the war with Britannia. This is a great tragedy for Lelouch however. Euphie was offering him a measure of peace which wasn’t so bad, a chance to take the less destructive path. How this would of affected his goal to find Marianne’s murderer is unclear, but it was better than being the terrorist in the shadows. Then he had to go and make that really bad joke and ruin everything. Seriously, that was the worst joke ever. He could of said ‘have sex with me’ and everything would of been fine. Now he has to kill a sister that he actually liked, his only ally in the royal family. So, in short, life sucks for Lelouch while Zero laughs like the Emporer.

The Emporer’s laugh is awesome. Its just so insane. Insanely awesome.

Episode 22 really feels like a flashpoint to me. Zero has been fighting Britannia the whole series, but he was just a single terrorist fighting an empire, and even the OotBK didn’t really change that. Now he has to confront the Britannian army to stop Euphie in a conflict that will probably escalate into a full scale battle. It really feels like an open decleration of war. The gloves are off, they can’t hide anymore, everything is going to start now. The other groups seem to support this, with Kyoto, Cornelia, Schneizel, and the Emporer all mobilizing to support one or the other. I can’t wait to see what kind of destruction episode 23 will yield. Of course episode 23 is the last episode we’ll see for a while. No date has been set for 24 and 25, and S2 isn’t until the fall. I don’t know how I’m going to get through a Geassless summer after all the shit that has gone down and will go down. And when is Orange-kun coming back? He’s been in that tank of tang forever.

1 hour, 32 minutes, 15 seconds. That’s how long it took for fanart of crazy Euphie to appear.