SubscribeEdited: Added a section about things the Geass staff has explained off screen.
In the event you haven’t been paying attention to Code Geass now because there are definitely better things to do with your time, it has been confirmed by the staff that Lelouch is dead.
Lelouch is dead. This is fact. I’ve known that Lelouch is dead, and I didn’t need the creative staff interview crap to tell me this either. This is because I’m not a retard. Those who think he’s alive, honestly think he’s alive, are in fact fucking idiots. Because I am not-a-retard and also a total bitch, I am also aware of why those idiots are idiots, and how they came to the conclusion that Lelouch is alive. (This probably isn’t even going to sound like that by the end, buuut.)
Detroit Metal City and unintentional hilarity
I’ve been watching Detroit Metal City. It’s about a metal band and I find it quite funny. The main character, Negishi, is a wannabe pop star at heart, who performs on stage as the metal demon Krauser II in a named that shares the same name as the anime title. As Krauser, Negishi does unintentionally hilarious stuff, and the fans react to it and make up legends about it. When Krauser trips and swings his guitar a cop’s head, was it an accident? Yeah, but to the fans? Naw. To the fans, this is some monumental moment in history because motherfuckin’ Johannes Krauser the 2nd is hitting a cop with his guitar. He obviously meant to do this. It is keikaku doori. And the hardcore fans of DMC love this shit. DMC’s comedy is reliant on the unintentional actions of Negishi. Even though it’s unintentional to the characters, it is intentional of the authors of DMC.
Unintentional hilarity and Code Geass
The relationship of the fans reacting to the unintentional and making up bullshit about it is largely representative of how the fandom as a group was about Geass R2. The things that we focused on as a fandom was the unintentional comedy of Code Geass. Gunna be honest, Code Geass is not an intentionally comedic anime. Things we found funny, like Suzaku’s spinkick and Lelouch’s fabulous theatrics, while they are not mundane, were made a large deal of by the fandom simply because you feel the bathos. Bathos is that moment in which the unintentional lulz clashes with the srsbsns, and then it’s downhill into Photoshop land. Other things we found funny, like Kannon’s fucking hat and penguins in example, are in reality extremely mundane and normal things that mean nothing, but they get emphasized because of their setting. This is Code Geass, a show in which Suzaku can apparently seriously run up walls and spinkick, thus they become un-mundane.
This is something that you can’t refute because it’s true. It’s how the fandom behaved during R2. In order to refute it, you would have to go back in time and change the fandom. Good luck.
Taking it seriously
In DMC, no fan questions the bullshit. They all accept it and think to themselves, “FUCK YEAH KRAUSER!!11″ Would the fans in DMC be able to accept that their God Krauser is really a soft voiced wannabe pop guy on the inside? That all of his “legendary acts” were random and unintentional? No one would take Negishi seriously if he came as himself and said, “Hey I’m Krauser.”
Similarly, Code Geass’s unintentional hilarity basically does the same thing to its fans. How are you supposed to take this series seriously, and for what it is, when you find a lot of things about it just fucking hilarious and/or outright stupid? This sets up a mindset.
The unseen and Code Geass
Code Geass story arcs are seemingly written as a list of bullet points of things that Lelouch has to accomplish by the end of the arc, and a list of ways to make this happen, but no explanations given for those ways to work. The result is that people want to know what the fuck is going on behind the scenes. I think a strong example of this is the China Arc, which of all of the shitty arcs that R2 is comprised of, I think is the shittiest. I have also conveniently already written a meta explanation about it, so I can save myself time by just linking it, then picking apart a specific part of it.
Now to go over a specific example, and give some explanation for it. Please note that this post is not to pick apart every thing that I find fucking dumb about Code Geass because I could fill a book with that, it’s merely to give an example of what I mean when I talk about things that people wonder about and aren’t directly explained in the anime.
The people rise up all at once
Viewers want to know how you can, say, time a mass revolt at major locations in the whole country of China to occur all at once. Of course people are going to question that. If it seriously just happened on its own, then this falls back into the unintentional hilarity category which would be getting off topic when I’m trying to talk about explaining stuff.
For the timed revolt to work, it means that the Chinese people all collectively love the Tianzi, and someone has been setting up this timed revolt in advance. In reality, both of those concepts are fine by themselves, but in execution, the problem is that we’re never been given any hints about this so it all seems like it came out of fucking nowhere. People say this about Lelouch using the water in the episode beforehand too. It’s not that people don’t want things to be a surprise. Surprises and twists are fine, its just when the whole fucking scenario is going over people’s heads, then you’re doing something wrong.
We can make up a meta text explanation to explain how these things happened, such as saying that Diethard has been in China and setting this up somehow. This would explain his computer panel and his reaction when the revolts start. But the revolts being part of Lelouch’s master plan to make Britannia fuck off causes a problem by itself. See, Lelouch’s success in episode 11 depended entirely on Schneizel being in charge on the Britannian side. Did Lelouch know that Schneizel was in charge from the start of the China Arc? No. So we’re supposed to think that either 1) That Lelouch made up the revolt plan hoping that the Britannian commander would go, “Well fuck this” after the people revolt, and it conveniently happened to be one who actually did this, or 2) That Lelouch went home the night after the reception banquet and put it all together before the wedding the next day. Let’s just go with 1 and be done with it for the sake of our sanity.
“Shut up, it’s an anime”
Some people in the fandom will say, “Shut up, it’s an anime, it’s not supposed to be realistic, just enjoy it” etc. Well, no shit, but if you don’t want “dis not realistic” reactions, don’t pick an alternate history of the real world as your setting, simple as that. Furthermore, many comments made about this are story related, not setting related. “It’s an anime” is an extremely setting related comment, usually only used when people question the premise. Don’t use it when people question the story and writing or you will sound like a fucking moron.
I would now specifically like to pick on, oh you know who, Kaioshin! Kaioshin is one of the people who I have seen take the, “shut up, it’s an anime, just watch it” response to those who ask “what’s going on?” Kaioshin is also one who thinks that people “should think for themselves”, yet written some meta explanations of his own about what goes on and publicly for others to see, the most famous one being his Nunnally and 2nd shuttle explanation. He thinks that people who don’t think the story flows on its own (a.k.a. doesn’t make sense) aren’t thinking for themselves. He has also raged against people who watched Code Geass purely for entertainment, such as myself. I really hope I don’t have to explain why this is hilariously flawed reasoning. It also has nothing to do with anything, I just felt like picking on him for old times sake because this is about Code Geass.
The reason why fan-created explanations are a big deal
A constant need in the fandom for explanations on the story that aren’t given on-screen means that the writer doesn’t how to prioritize information that is fed to the viewers. See, the type of stuff that doesn’t need to be explained on-screen is stuff that doesn’t really contribute or [whatever]. Extra info, no? Tell me, is the flow and set up of the China Arc “extra info”? So extra that it can’t be shown on-screen so that we can get out of China by episode 11 and get onto the really important episode where everyone runs around with asshats on their heads? 
The problem with taking a break in the middle
Something that adds to Code Geass’s need for explanations is just the long break it took after season 1. People on IRC asked questions like, “Who the fuck is Mao?” a lot. If people who barely remember anything just pick it up back at R2, yes they’re going to ask questions to refresh their memory. This means that people will start R2 off naturally feeling like they need to ask questions, and this sets a precedence of constantly asking questions about stuff for the viewing the rest of the show.
Participating in an anime community
If you participated in some community, like a forum, or IRC, or whatever, then people are going to share their thoughts and ideas. This is just what happens when you watch something with a group of people. Within those conversations, someone is going to go, “Well what happened [xxx]?” and someone will offer an explanation. If something sounds good to you and it wasn’t explained on-screen, why not just pick it up and go tell other people about it? And remember, again, we’re talking about Code Geass where a lot was obscured from the viewer for no apparent reason, so scenarios like those are inevitable.
So did people even want stuff explained or what?
A.k.a., proof that stuff in Geass was being explained, and proof that people wanted it, and that I’m not just making shit up?
Well, let’s see. Common reactions during R2 included, “I don’t understand what’s going on” and “This doesn’t make any sense”, so yes actually I believe that people genuinely wanted stuff explained to them. As for actual explanations, yes those really exist too. The most popular explanations I have seen are mike’s about Lelouch being alive, and Kaioshin’s about Nunnally’s shuttle. If you’re some lost, confused person who is confused by the majority of Code Geass and you’re looking for an answer, anything will do, and you find some wall of text. Why not just accept it, rather than trying to understand something you don’t really understand to begin with?
The strongest statement I have ever seen about why someone thought that Lelouch lived had nothing to do with theories, transferring codes, Nunnally’s palm reading, it was a single sentence. “I thought Lelouch lived because this is fucking Code Geass.”
See, when people who believe that Lelouch is alive, when confronted with a question like, “Lelouch died on-screen, why don’t you think he’s dead?”, they reply about the FLEIA incident and how Nunnally and Guilford didn’t die, or refer back to S1 and how Mao didn’t die to a hail of bullets on a technicality and “Britannian Medicine” being super awesome. “It’s Code Geass, no one dies”, etc. It’s the mindset that’s set by the unintentional hilarity of Code Geass causes people to just not take much about it seriously, even when someone is literally dead on-screen bleeding to death with the black rings around their eyes and nothing regenerating.
So yes, people do want shit explained. You would be pretty dumb to think that people don’t want anything explained. Do they want the whole story spoon fed to them? No, they want stuff that isn’t explicitly stated yet seemingly extremely important to be given appropriate attention. Why should seemingly important story details be left out of… uh… the story?
Reactions
So what happens when we have a fandom that isn’t completely taking the series seriously, and has their head filled with meta text because a lot of shit happens off screen? Lelouch dies in 25, then right after airing, people see the screenshots spread, and a blog entry pops up that goes over a theory that Lelouch is alive. Based on how much meta explanations Geass has had, people are naturally going to believe the blog theory over what has happened blatantly on screen and take it as their own idea too. Yet, ironically, that same blog is the one that copypasted Celiss Galvea’s explanation about the creators saying he’s dead, and the author himself came to terms with Lelouch really being dead.
Oh, and mike, I think you did something bad…
Okay, as an aside… mike, buddy, we talk in IRC sometimes, and I’m not gunna lie: I think you did some bad when you posted that Lelouch is alive theory. The number of times I’ve seen it linked, referenced, etc, is seriously impressive, but… well… We know how it turned out in the end, soooo.
An interesting observation
On a forum, someone who watched R2 and only spoke to one person about it during the airing thought that Lelouch died. He also thought it was odd that Nunnally came back and he never noticed the 2nd shuttle on his own until we showed him the screenshot just yesterday night. On that same forum, a person who participated in the community during the airing seriously think he’s alive.
While they are not representative of the whole, I thought it was worth mentioning because the situation presented by those 2 posters is basically what my post is describing.
About Nunnally: In reality and disbelief
Due to an overanalyzing theory which states that Nunnally “saw” Lelouch’s memories directly when she touched his hand, it’s a common belief of Lelouch lives theorists to say that Lelouch has a code, and Nunnally touching his hand is like the scenes where Lelouch and Suzaku touch C.C. and see her memories. They disregard the fact that this scene looks nothing like when Lelouch and Suzaku touch C.C. for the sake of their argument. They also argue that rather than being a visual for the viewer, that it is seriously a flashback that she’s seeing, and disregard that she doesn’t directly reference the flashback itself, nor is there anyway to prove she was actually seeing it.
The creative staff has actually explained that when Nunnally picks up Lelouch’s hand, she “understands” his intent because she can read people through their hands, an ability she picked up. This isn’t really new: Nunnally has shown before that she can figure people out through touch, it’s the only way she has due to her blindness. Edit: “The creative staff explained” means that whether or not you think this is total bullshit doesn’t really matter, because this is the canonical explanation.
From a logical PoV, the whole sound of “Nunnally can understand people by touching their hands” sounds completely retarded, was not properly developed, and I lump it under the unintentional retarded bullshit of Code Geass, but I acknowledge that it has footing just because creative staff said so, so whatever.
Lelouch pro-life people think it’s bullshit too, so much bullshit that they deny it entirely.
But Nunnally being able to touch-read people isn’t any less ridiculous than say, Guilford surviving FLEIA. People who believe Lelouch is alive use the Guilford surviving FLEIA thing as a reference point like this: “Oh Lelouch must be alive because no one dies in Code Geass, see Guilford”. So Lelouch is alive theorists can acknowledge that Guilford is alive, even if they don’t like it, but they can’t acknowledge Nunnally’s touch-reading, the creative staff’s explanation, as the truth? Why? Because they’re a bunch of butthurt faggots?
Other things the staff has explained off screen
In the same way that Nunnally’s touch-read was explained on the Geass NET mobile site, the creative staff has explained some things about R2 on the official Geass e-Newsletter.
Two things I remember is that they wrote about C.C. explaining to Kallen about Lelouch’s lineage in the previous year, and the staff member also being surprised that fans were asking that. The second thing is that a lot of fans asked who beat up Diethard, to which the answer was Ougi and Villetta. These questions were brought up in the English fan communities too. This just goes to show that the creative staff really doesn’t have a clue what kind of info is the kind you give on or off screen if they were surprised about the questions that people are asking.
“Code Geass is a masterpiece”
One reaction to the situation of people being arguing about Lelouch being dead or alive is that this means that Code Geass was so well done. In reality, the situation is quote the opposite. The reason why people are arguing about this is precisely because Code Geass is not well done. The basic reason why people can’t accept that he’s dead is because they have no clue what to believe and what not to believe after… well, to take their words exactly, after shit like Nunnally, Guilford, and Mao.
Now, if you’re a person who used this phrase sarcastically, I’m sorry for not picking up on your sarcasm sooner. Well played. But if you meant that seriously… Uh.
People continuing to talk about Geass after it’s airing does not mean that it is a masterpiece, it just means that things about it stuck out and made it memorable. Memorable != Masterpiece. Oh, it’s like whats-her-faces quote from FF9, about how being forgotten is being worse than death. (Gee, we could use this line to argue about Lelouch’s death, ’cause people sure didn’t forget Emperor Lelouch if they were still hatin’ on him postmortem!)
What’s great is the creators don’t even talk like Lelouch’s death was ambiguous, nor that it was meant to be, which makes the act of referring to Geass as a “masterpiece” and patting the creators on the back due to everlasting argumentation like as if this was their keikaku doori extremely fucking comedic.
“Code Geass is too intelligent”
One of the things that made me RAGE hard was when I read a completely contrived and dumb as bricks article on Random Curiosity written by Natrone (Another one of those dumb secondary writers who Omni picks up out of nowhere and lets them have their 5mins of fame on his super popular content-less screen cap and summary blog.) He said that Code Geass was a high maintenance, intelligent show and attributed R2’s lower TV ratings to this. That’s pretty much bullshit, because Sunday 5pm is just not when the majority of the Japanese people want to be home to watch anime. His reasoning for it being high maint. is that he has to devote a lot of brain power to it because there’s so much stuff to follow. Yes, I’m sure there’s a lot to follow when the writers give you nothing of particular importance. If anything, Geass relies on its viewers to be the opposite of “too intelligent” so that you can like and enjoy it without questioning the really obvious flaws that might prevent you from wanting to buy the BD’s or DVD’s and all of the other merchandise.
tl;dr
People are having a hard time accepting Lelouch’s death because they participated in a community and because the writing of Code Geass sucks.
Acceptance and moving on
There is seemingly an association that those who think he’s dead are those who didn’t like the series overall, and those who think he’s alive liked the series. Metaphorically, this means that those who think he’s alive and liked the series don’t really want him to be alive, per say, but just want more Geass. Those who have accepted he is dead and didn’t like the series are just done with Geass. And with this post, I hope I’m done writing about and bothering with Geass. There was just one last thing I had to get off my chest.
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It’s good to know I’m not the only person who dislikes Kaioshin :)
Also I REALLY want someone to explain how Nunnally survived. In the Scene we can clearly see that the front Nunnally’s face is fully lit up by the light of FLEIJA. This means that FlEIJA was expanding in front of her. There is also no other evidence that the Shuttle was moving. This means that there is no way she could have escaped because the entire building and surrounding area was taken out.