Concerning Code Geass’ themes (a couple of them, anyway)

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After finishing Code Geass, I had this nagging feeling that many of the show’s themes and plot points seemed awfully familiar. After thinking about it a bunch, I’ve assembled my thoughts into, well, this post.

Code Geass presents a number of questions asked of main characters intellectually mature fiction: What means are or are not allowable to achieve the greater good? How far is “too far” to achieve this goal? How much am I willing to sacrifice? How does one weigh some human lives against others? What exactly is this “greater good” thing, anyway?

Whether or not you believe Lelouch is alive at the end of Code Geass, the idea of sacrifice is present in the ending as it has throughout the series. He makes sacrifices both intentional and unintended during his journey to create a better world, and at the end, makes the biggest one yet. If you believe he’s dead, then he give the ultimate sacrifice of his life; otherwise, he still gives up a life being the uncontested single ruler of the entire world, in both cases for the sake of bringing all of humanity’s negative feelings upon himself and then arranging for his death (real or otherwise; the perception of the public is what really counts).

In retrospect, this should quickly have drawn a biblical parallel, but the first similar instance that occurred to me was Leto Atreides II in God Emperor of Dune. In the event that you somehow haven’t read the Dune series (there’s no way that can be true… maybe you just haven’t gotten this far along in the franchise yet, or something, right?), here’s a quick rundown: Leto, inheriting his father’s prescience, sees what is necessary to ensure humanity an endless future, reversing the trend towards insular stagnation that humanity had been experiencing. Unlike his father, who had seen the same, Leto is willing to make the terrible sacrifice: his very humanity, in every possible way that one can be considered “human.” He becomes a human-sandworm hybrid, cursed to live peerless and lonely for millenia as he executed his plan for humanity’s preservation (the “Golden Path”), hated by all as a tyrant and monster all the while. In the end, he is killed JUST AS PLANNED, as part of ensuring that humanity’s continued existence could never be threatened by anything ever, himself included.

Sound familiar?

 
No witty comment to hide the fact that this image is just to break up the visual monotony of what would otherwise be a giant block of text. Sorry.

The similarities don’t end there. Both Lelouch and Leto are guilty of lots of nasty things while aiming for their goals, becoming the destructive despot they so feared, but insuring that he would be the first, last, and only such absolute ruler. Leto has an interesting take on this, claiming that part of his role was that of the ultimate predator - through his cruel oppression, humanity would be forced to evolve into something greater lest it face extinction. Lelouch’s approach is a bit different - he essentially ends up throwing the world into so much chaos for so long that everyone just gets sick of it. Then, he reveals to all that all of the conflict and death was his doing and offs himself, ridding the world of all hostility. (Of course that doesn’t nearly make as much sense, but we have to be a little more forgiving when comparing a television show to a novel series.)

Code Geass also makes use of the idea of the importance of the legendary persona. Consider the importance of Lelouch’s masquerade as Zero throughout the series, to the point of his being able to use the mere image of Zero to ultimately fulfill his goal. In between, the persona of Zero is utilized numerous times to positive effect, whether to intimidate or inspire hope. This is a concept familiar to anyone familiar with the Batman franchise - a large part of Batman’s success in fighting crime comes from taking advantage of the Batman mystique. Lelouch was certainly not the singular force behind his accomplishments, but similarly to Batman, the success of his plans largely hinged behind the shroud of mystery surrounding Zero.

Batman, at the end of The Dark Knight, in a single line sums up the driving force behind Lelouch, Leto II, and himself:

“I will be whatever Nunnally humanity Gotham needs me to be.”

tl;dr translation: Lelouch = Leto II = Batman.

P.S. Just for fun. What would prevail, the absolute Power of Kings or Batman’s infinite willpower?

P.P.S. Moogy and I were discussing his… “expository analysis” concerning Code Geass and FFT, and this came out:

[22:49] <[Roxas]> OH MAN
[22:49] <[Roxas]> WHAT IF WE’VE MISUNDERSTOOD HITLER ALL ALONG
[22:50] <[Roxas]> HE NOBLY SACRIFICED HIMSELF IN AN EFFORT TO RID THE WORLD OF HATE

While I said it in jest at the time, whether or not the idea has any kind of merit concerning Hitler or any other of history’s legendary despots is an interesting question.

Anyway, enough rambling out of me for now.

Filed by jroxas at October 1st, 2008 under Code Geass, Anime