Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2

[ChaosK]

Watching Suzaku get bitched by Bismarck was great. Apparently Bismarck is hiding a geass under his stitched eye? Marianne becoming Anya was pretty random but it has something to do with the geass she mentioned when talking to C.C. When Marianne talks through Anya, you see Anya's eyes have the red rim surrounding them that indicate she's under the effects of geass.

Now to address Ryllharu's rant.

Ugh, this episode left me unsatisfied for so many reasons. All of it was "Oh, and by the way...."

The whole mystery about Anya, and the lingering presence of Marianne the entire season? I wonder how the storyboarding meeting behind this one went. How about we just clean all of the extraneous side plots all at once by making them the same thing! There was no lead up of any kind. It's just..."Oh, and btw, Anya is Marianne."

Sure, several of us suspected Anya had a connection to Marianne, but this one is just a bit too abrupt. All that lead up with Anya the whole damn season, and with Marianne ever since Euphie went berserker, and it boils down to an "Oh, by the way...." moment?!?

It wasn't as much as an "Oh by the way..." moment as it's the anime coming to a conclusion and it was about time Marianne revealed herself.

Then for another one, we have Cornelia going, "You know what Viletta, things have been a bit hectic, and ya know, I think we'll just decided to cut off your storyline here. Absolved of guilt, don't even bother with Hail Mary's, just go do whatever with that loser Ogi, we don't care. Oh, and by the way...rank doesn't mean as much as you are putting on it."

Schneizel delivers another one. "I'm glad we have been making peace with the OBK, and good for you Suzaku, you seem to know what you want to do. Oh, and by the way, maybe I am not really motivated to do so, but I might as well become the emperor."

Wasn't it obvious to everyone that Schneizel had intentions of seizing the throne? He plays the part of the idealistic man who hates war and reaches out to everybody's good side and tells them what they want to hear, however, the entire time, Schneizel has been researching what Charles is up to in order to be able to challenge him on a level ground, that was Schneizel's story for the past 2 seasons. He may have expressed to the audience (IE Gino, Llyod, Cecil and etc.) that he is going to take the throne in order to strip an unworthy man of power and bring justice to the world, but in actuality, it's been his ambition all along.

The only thing that partially saved this episode was C.C. returning for Cheese-kun before taking off with Anya/Marianne and the development of Suzaku...with one caveat.

Yes that was awesome.

Suzaku's little speech in the crater and the nasty lines he gave to Nina (shocking her once again with how stupid she was to NOT KNOW this it would work that way). At least Suzaku finally realized what a monster he has become, and is better off just carrying the whole thing to completion.

The anime needed a strong villain for a final battle. The battle of wits is going on between Lelouch and Charles, meanwhile, Kallen and everybody else will fight Suzaku in a battle of power (knightmares) or else this show wouldn't have a flashy conclusion. There needs to be a giant wtf-tastic Knightmare battle, especially with them hyping Lancelot Alberon. Also, Lloyd refusing to give Suzaku the Lancelot was great. Lloyd is a very underplayed character, he is aware of everything and just plays the idiot. For example, him telling Nina she'd either have to give up science or give up her conscience (although that's pretty obvious when you're fucking developing a nuclear warhead) and him knowing Suzaku's not right in the head at the moment and giving him Lancelot Alberon would be insane.

But...why in God's name did he bring a sword? He chased after Lelouch with a gun. He's shot people in the face with guns, destroyed turrets with kicks and done all sorts of other nifty things. But we have never seen him use a sword. It's pretty obvious he sucks with them, because with his natural athleticism we've seen two seasons of, he can't compare to the Knight of One. Bring a gun you moron! Knight of One pops out, does a little sword flourish....shoot him in the head. Just like Raiders of the Lost Ark, how hard is that?

Sword fights > Gun fights. Also anybody else find it funny Bismarck carries a miniature version of the sword his Knightmare has?

I guess there is a reason a lot of this seems chopped together.
Not Quite as Planned [link found via RandomC]

That was certainly interesting...yet not very surprising. Geass is still entertaining to me and definitely worth watching but a lot of it seems to be a crapshoot and the writers just going with "What will make our readers have the biggest shock/surprised reaction?" and then going with it. I'm interested in who's working with Marianne...(she asks C.C. "Are you still on our side?")

[Ryllharu]

It wasn't as much as an "Oh by the way..." moment as it's the anime coming to a conclusion and it was about time Marianne revealed herself.

I can concede a few of my other rant points, but this one was by far the biggest problem.

Yes, I agree that it was well beyond time Marianne's role in all this was finally addressed, but the way they went about it was beyond poor.

Do they address whether Anya coming into contact was Marianne attempting to assert her personality? Nope. They really do come across as an, "Oh by the way," moment by showing Marianne declaring herself and then immediately going off to do whatever she and C.C. are up to.

It's called poor pacing.

Anya has had very little screen time overall, and very little development. While that would normally be fine if, like C.C., Marianne was Anya from the very beginning and hiding her true personality. But from what C.C. explained about the possession of Anya being Marianne's Geass, and moreover violating that contract, it changes who Anya is. Anya becomes a victim, forcably possessed by Marianne. The proof of course being all of Anya's aforementioned memory gaps, and her confused gravitation towards Lelouch.

But we can't really be sympathetic towards Anya like we could say, Shirley. Anya had only that development. We know nothing else about her other than the no-longer-mysterious seizures she was getting.

So, I think it very much is an "Oh by the way" as a result of poor pacing. There was never any time to develop Anya's character, or slowly work in seizures and gaps she was having. Maybe show her acting a little different around people when Marianne's personality asserts itself. Marianne is after all, "a great actress," according to our favorite witch. It might have been a little obvious what was going on if we caught sight of Anya's red-limned, geass-ensorced eyes, but then we'd be able to speculate like crazy if it was Lelouch who did it to her, the Emperor, or someone else we didn't know. Instead, we just got two seizures that no other characters mentioned or noticed. No inquries, no questions, and when she does it a third time..."Oh by the way, I'm Marianne now."

They just skip over everything to cover up for all the time wasted on worthless filler added to make every episode end on a cliffhanger.