Code Geass Explained — How To Change the World
I’ve already made a few essays and I‘ve realized that I am analyzing these shows from a different perspective than most, so let me point out what I am doing and not doing. I am not trying to recap, i am not trying to find trivial inconsistencies, i am not trying to create a satyr, nor a shallow analyses. What I am trying to do is rip away all of the surface level events in order to see the underlying mythological and metaphysical ideas explored in these shows. So if your interested in ideas that underlie the very reality we live in then, this is for you.
In Code Geass we’re presented with a world dominated by the Holy Britannian Empire, an empire ruled by an absolute monarch Charles zi Britannia. Funnily enough Britannia — the UK, isn’t a part of the Britannian Empire. That’s not the most problematic contradiction in the nation of Britannia. Charlie made a speech in which he outlined the nature of Britannia. At the basis of Britannia we have a postulate that people are fundamentally different, we have different appearance, mental abilities, birth right, etc. Charlie then reasons that different people deserve different opportunities due to our differences meaning that equality is wrong and inequality is right. If inequality is right then discrimination is good. Cornelia backs this up by saying that the national policy of Britannia is discrimination. If discrimination is right then power is a necessity. It’s the only way to get in a position where you can’t be discriminated against and instead you’re the one who can impose your will upon others. Therefor the Britannian emperor brings forth an ideal — reach for power by competing against others in any way you can.
Britannia creates a dog eats dog, might makes right sort of world, where everyone should strive for power. Charlie states that competing and fighting leads to the fittest and most competent people to be in power which in turn leads to progress and “the forward march of time”. Absolute monarchy and competence are two worlds that don’t go together. If your political system put’s birth right on a pedestal then your leaving plethora of people with merit undiscovered, unempowered and unable to give their share of progress and greatness Charlie preaches so nicely. Britannian empire is a tyrannical and dysfunctional state, it’s distorted discrimination morality causes great suffering, lost progress and lives — it is an evil state. Nobody knows this better then our main protagonists — Leloush Le Britannia and Suzaku Kururugi. Both of them are sick of the Britannian Empire and they want to change it.
The goal of Suzaku and Leloush is the same: they want to change the world that they live in. The road to that goal is anything but similar. Leloush introduces change from the outside, he’s willing to destroy in order to enable something else to take place, he plays the role of the dark knight. Suzaku is the opposite, he introduces change from within and he’s willing to sacrifice himself for the betterment of the world, he plays the role of the white knight. How should you change the world, as the black knight or as the white knight or maybe a combination of both? That’s exactly the question Code Geass is trying to explore and we will as well.
The Story of Suzaku Kururugi
The idea of changing the world is explored trough Suzaku and Leloush. In order to understand the underlying idea we need to understand the characters themselves. Suzaku Kururugi killed his father when he was 9 years old. We’re presented with a story which makes it seam as if this act is the main motivating force in Suzaku. Indeed it would be strange if as extreme of an act didn’t play any role in changing Suzaku but I’d argue that the reason which led him to kill his father in the first place is more motivating than anything else. Suzaku has an extremely strong sense of justice. His strong sense of justice doesn’t stem from the event of killing his father, it’s something he’s born with. Suzaku as a kid said:
“I don’t need a reason to save who I want to save or do what I want to do.”
He doesn’t need a reason because he himself is the reason — Suzaku is self-righteous. Suzaku thought that killing his father was the right thing to do and so, he did it. Whenever Suzaku states that results gained trough contemptible means are worthless, he inherently makes a claim that there is better criterion for determining the rightness of your actions than results. He points to rules and logic of systems but those are just ideas somebody or somebodies thought up. People that believe reality is best represented in ideas are idealists, Suzaku is an idealist. His self-righteousness doesn’t appear in a negative light because unlike the way he determined right from wrong in his childhood, in his later years his right was determined by moral standards. His self-righteousness and idealism is bound up in a desire to pay for the sin of killing his father by sacrificing himself for the creation of a better world.
Suzaku chose to try to change Britannia from within. He followed the system by becoming an honorary citizen and joining the military. It didn’t take long for him to face problems due to his choice. In the first episode where Suzaku was ordered to execute Leloush for simply being at the wrong time and place. Kururugi didn’t let himself be corrupted and he refused the order and as a reward he got a bullet in his back. In real life that would be the end of him, but anime magic put a watch which caught the bullet and allowed him to live. The first season is filled with Suzaku being caught between his morals and climbing the ranks. Every single time Suzaku froze and was rescued by luck. If you’re relying on luck to reach your goals then your doing something wrong, Suzaku is doing something wrong.
Suzaku is slowly discovering that whenever you try to change the system from the inside you have to become a part of the system, you have to climb the ranks of it, in order to get to a high position from which you could make significant changes, you have to enact the very values your trying to change. What if the values you have to enact are cold bloodlessness, the ability to kill the innocent, to lie and betray? The risk is that instead of you changing the world the world could change you into something you despise.
The Story of Leloush vi Britannia
If you really tried to see the world from Leloushes point of view then you could see that he won the lottery twice. First, he was born as a prince in the biggest empire in the world with a loving mother and seemingly happy family. The second lottery, was losing it all. He lost it all when his mother was murdered and his sister crippled. If changing the world is Suzakus way of repenting for killing his father then changing the world is Leloushes way of acting out his revenge. It’s not just revenge against his father, murderer of his mother or Britannian empire at large. No, he blames the whole world for let this happen to him. As Suzaku said:
“In the end you would betray entire world the same way it has betrayed you.”
Leloush has a conflicting set of goals. First of all in order to avenge his mother Leloush wants to destroy the Britannian Empire. Second he wants to create a better world for Nunnally. If he had only one of these goals then there would be hardly any struggle. If revenge was his only aim then he could have simply used his Geass power to make everyone his slave, which is sort of what he started to do at the end when he taught that Nunnally was dead. If it was only about Nunnally then, well he already was in a good position in that regard.
Revenge is a purely a destructive emotion but Leloush want’s to create just as much as he wants to destroy and I can’t see how events in his childhood could motivate a desire to create a better world. Leloush just as Suzaku has an extremely strong sense of justice but it’s manifested quite differently. It isn’t based on moral ideals, god forbid rules. Leloushes sense of justice is down to earth and local to the situation. He created black knights a.k.a. knights of justice and he used them to oppress the oppressors. If police is corrupt and helps out drug dealers then Black Knights do the work of police. If a terrorist group takes hostages then Black Knights destroy the terrorists and rescue the hostages. Leloushes justice is what you would perceive to be justice if you had few seconds to judge whether or not something was just. In other worlds Leloush is a pragmatist. He determines the rightness of his actions by results that are achieved by those actions.
The way in which Leloush went about achieving his aims was by trying to make changes from the outside. When you’re changing things from the inside you have the power of authority helping you achieve change. An outside force has no authority and therefore the only means for change are trough force or threat of force and that’s the Achilles heel of changing a system from the outside. People don’t like to be forced to do anything and so you’re bound to meet that much more resistance. Leloush got his hands bloody already in the first episode and from there on the killing only escalated.
Final solution to the problem
Even though their goal is the same, their natures make cooperation difficult. Suzaku believes that goals reached trough contemptible mans are meaningless. From Leloushes point of view Suazkus morals just get in the way of achieving results. In one sense Leloush and Suzaku are enemies since they’re making each other’s goals harder to reach. Just look at how many times Suzaku saved the day for the Britannian side. And jet there’s also an interaction between their ways of achieving their goals in which they intrinsically need each other. Whenever Leloush pressures Britannia, to the point of collapse, at least a of part of it, there’s an opportunity for Suzaku to shine and in turn increase his rank and power. If Zero didn’t exist then Suzaku would have remained as a low ranking soldier.
For Leloush the same is true, having somebody within the system who has the same goals provides an opportunity for change to actually occur without applying force. As a shining example of positive symbioses between Suzaku and Leloush was the event at which Leloush dressed all of the Black Knights as Zero and tricked everyone into letting all of the Zeroes to be excommunicated. The only reason all of them weren’t shot down was Suzaku. Their dialog shows how well they can work together as enemies:
Kururgi: “Zero can you promise that you’ll lead them to salvation?
Leloush: “Of course! And You Kururugi can you promise that those who stay behind will find salvation in your hands?”
Kururugi: “That’s exactly why I became Britannian soldier.”
The first season is filled with back and forth dances between Leloush and Suzaku. While it’s true that they both increased their power, Suzaku by becoming Euphemias Knight and Leloush by enlarging Black Knights, never the less nether Leloush nor Suzaku accomplished his goal of changing Britannia. At the core of their failure was their single minded approach. Leloushes actions produced results but his methods led people to lose trust in him. On the other hand Suzakus actions were according to his morals but they weren’t effective enough to protect what he valued and achieve what he desired. Both of them are in desperate need of change themselves before they can change the world.
Suzaku experienced his turning point at the sight of Euphemia being executed. At that moment he embraced the destructive impulse within him. Finally there was something within him which he could not subordinate to his morals or rules.
Suzaku:”Is there anyone who you could hate so much that you would actually want to kill them?”
Leloush: “There is.”
Suzaku: “I used to feel that sort of thinking was unacceptable, that unless you followed the rules, killing someone was just murder. But now it’s hatred that’s guiding me.”
Suzaku goes on and tries to kill Zero and anyone who stands in his way. He changed and that change allowed him to sell out Leloush to the emperor for results:
Kururugi: “As I said it before, I was going to change things from the inside.”
Leloush: “Even if that means selling out your friends?”
Kururugi: “That’s right.”
Suzaku from the beginning of the first season would have said: “No that’s wrong, results gained trough contemptible means are worthless.” Suzaku has become more like Leloush, he has embraced pragmatism, sometimes contemptible means are worth the results.
The turning point for Leloush was when lies caught up to him and he could no longer ensure the safety of his sister. He turned to Suzaku for help. In their conversion Leloush took the blame for the death of Euphemia and Shirley even though the blame wasn’t his alone.
Kururugi: “I need to know, did you use the Geass power on Euphee? Be honest!”
Leloush: “Yes.”
Kururugi: “You caused her to massacre Japanese.”
Leloush: “I ordered her to do it.”
Kururugi: “Why would you use your Geass like that? Answer me!”
Leloush: “To motivate the Japanese people. If the specially administrated zone of Japan had been established, the Black Knights would have collapsed.”
Kururugi: “And Shirley’s death?”
Leloush: “Also my fault.”
Kururugi: “You aren’t even human, you know that? Shirley and Euphee were both of them nothing more than pawns for your ambitions.”
Leloush: “Yes, that’s right! So all the sin is my alone to shoulder. My little sister had nothing to do with it.”
The way he’s taking on blame isn’t pragmatic it’s idealistic. In the conversation with Suzaku Leloush agreed to the final plan. He agreed to play the role of the villain, make the world worse, make everyone hate him and then redeem himself and the world for the sins he has committed. He has embraced idealism.
Should you change the world pragmatically or idealistically, from the inside or the outside? Whenever there are 2 fundamentally opposite approaches to solving a problem the final solution can’t be found in ether extreme. The solution Code Geass reached was swapping the roles of Leloush and Suzaku. Leloush became the white knight and Suzaku the black one. They embraced their own natures with their whole being and eventually that led them to a point where they enacted the opposite role. Leloush became the one who was within the system and Suzaku outside it. Leloush became the one seeking redemption and Suzaku acting out revenge, not his revenge, the worlds revenge.
Their change was equivalent to the saying: “a fool who persists in his folly becomes wise.” You could apply the same sort of saying to any opposites. A pragmatist who persists in pragmatism will discover idealism and vice versa. The lesson here is that you don’t change the world by merely following some ill defined idea of justice or by just acting out your personality. The way you change it is by changing yourself — you become better and that right there makes the world better.
