Code Geass Roze

[Seto Kaiba]

Yeah I could see the parallels of speedrunning R1 and R2 since the Damocles came out of nowhere and they've also been doing that with the Lost Stories Gacha [...]

It's a gacha game... they do that to farm microtransactions from people with undiagnosed gambling addictions.

It's way less excusable when it's a sequel TV series that's supposed to be telling an all-new original story.

Charles did show his hypocrisy in R2 around stacking bodies to "prevent" more tragedies like what caused him to form a pact with VV in the first place. I dont recall it being spelled out that Norland was a clone of Charles beyond that one brief scene in the 11th episode where they overlay his ghost over Norland and the OP ubermech was just boring overkill. The thing could essentially launch fireballs from its eyes and shoot lighting out of its ass at that point and consumed all its enemies with an endless number of giant blender roombas with the insane amount of point defense hardpoints it had. Was definitely a GUNDAM and not a knightmare frame. Since even the lancelot suffered battle damage several times.

The whole ending feels like an arsepull in that sense... ripping off the whole cloning blues schtick from Rey za Burrel and the "kill all humans using a giant mecha-blender" schtick from Carazzo Ronah was one thing, but the giant winged humanoid mecha covered in eyes that are also beam guns is another one that really felt like a ripoff. Especially since the only way to fight it was to dodge dodge dodge. Kind of just rehashing the ending of the Macross Zero OVA there for a bit.

[Rubybro]

Yeah I could see the parallels of speedrunning R1 and R2 since the Damocles came out of nowhere and they've also been doing that with the Lost Stories Gacha [...]

It's a gacha game... they do that to farm microtransactions from people with undiagnosed gambling addictions.

It's way less excusable when it's a sequel TV series that's supposed to be telling an all-new original story.


The whole ending feels like an arsepull in that sense... ripping off the whole cloning blues schtick from Rey za Burrel and the "kill all humans using a giant mecha-blender" schtick from Carazzo Ronah was one thing, but the giant winged humanoid mecha covered in eyes that are also beam guns is another one that really felt like a ripoff. Especially since the only way to fight it was to dodge dodge dodge. Kind of just rehashing the ending of the Macross Zero OVA there for a bit.

I only bring up the gacha because GEASS PROJECT apparently is treating it like their new flagship canon of the series and are retconning R1 and R2 to add in their OC's.
It somehow did a better job at telling its own original story intertwined with the events of R1 and R2 than any spinoff so far and also includes collabs with the spinoffs. Roze just had its collab events for it too but Ruby wasn't in it. Its a fairly lame tower defense game. Which is a shame since they've made some okay 3D models of most of the knightmares from the series and a few new ones, and faithfully recreated some setpieces from the episodes, yet waste it all as usual on half assed forgettable gameplay that has no long term replay value.

The ending of Roze was funny and was such a tonal whiplash it basically just mocks itself. Ash just decides they don't want to live anymore and instead of Sakuya zipping over in the fastest KMF ever made to catch him, she just watches and shrieks like in horror, acting like nothing could be done as they fall to their death. Its not like they shot their own brains out or anything. They just collapsed from exhaustion. Then the story timeskips to her basically telling a story of how she became a crazy cat lady to her girlfriends in a cafe and used her geass on herself for no reason instead of simply not using her power like Lelouch was generally more careful about.

I also don't understand most of the miraculous technology introduced in the anime with a geass ability suppressing necklace that also doubles as an espionage device that changes her eye colors and provides advanced voice modulation so she can pretend to be Ash's younger brother. As well as the mosquito assassin robot that would be far more cost effective building a swarm than a single roomba droid. Why doesn't anyone else have stuff like that? The shield wall was also interesting, but It makes no sense that there were no contingency plans in place for this very scenario where it would be used against the people of Japan by a hostile occupying force. Especially after the zero requiem. Other fans also pointed out how asinine that it was how submarines could easily bypass it too . The anti-fleja spear was also stupid and should have been reworked into a limited amount of experimental missiles in vein of anti-ICBM missiles developed IRL via nuclear deterrent programs that lock into the signature of nuclear isotopes much like how the same could be done for fleja radiation signatures. It just comes off as a racist spearchucker joke in hindsight.

[Rubybro]

I really hope they retcon this plot and rework it into something more coherent and in line with the Code Geass world Post-R2.

[Rubybro]

I dont know why this fanbase has their heads up their own ass and are some of the most unimaginative hostile buzzkills I have ever had the displeasure of encountering on the internet.

Even going so far as to 3D model original Knightmare Frames just gets you banned while they act like they're above everyone while contributing nothing to the fanbase except actually spamming either retarded nonsense like on Spacebattles or fujoshi garbage on sites like Twitter. r/codegeass is just teenagers on discord who aren't even fans of the anime, not even talking about code geass, and just trying to convince random newcomers to shoot them as they run their mouth hiding behind a banhammer. As if a discord banhammer ever stopped feds.

Then some guy just claims im "spamming on multiple sites" with no proof and demands everyone socially ostracizes and bans me despite not breaking any rules nor actually offending anybody. When I make maybe 1-2 posts a day. Even volunteering to write Ruby's code geass wiki page. Only to find Im permabanned from the wiki for "spamming" despite doing nothing but making an account on the wiki and being granted permissions to work on the wiki one day and then the next being banned from it the next with zero communication from anyone else. Its not like I vandalized the wiki. I just asked for editing permissions, got them, and did nothing for a week and still got banned for it.

The Japanese side are just unimaginative fujoshi art spammers and people going "that's the anime with lelouch in it right?". Who have not even bothered to watch Roze. Suffice to say, the only thing doing remotely well in Japan that is Code Geass related is the Lost Stories Gacha.

I'm glad I haven't had that issue here and can freely agree or disagree with other people's opinions and vice versa without some random janny kill team ready to swoop in and spam random bans on your account so they can push their narrative that discussion on the internet is a lost cause and try to discourage you from sharing your thoughts that aren't some random discordtard's 3AM shitpost on a given anime. As much as I might not like Gundam, that fanbase has at least been generally civil with me and it helped me keep an open mind to that franchise.

[Seto Kaiba]

I dont know why this fanbase has their heads up their own ass and are some of the most unimaginative hostile buzzkills I have ever had the displeasure of encountering on the internet.

Every fandom that gets big enough eventually has a group like that. Best to let them have their echo chamber and move on with life.

That said, disparaging other fan groups is likely to get you in trouble most anywhere.

Even going so far as to 3D model original Knightmare Frames [...]

I'm sure the art loving community on MAHQ's Facebook group would love to see.

Or the forum community here as well.

The Japanese side are just unimaginative fujoshi art spammers and people going "that's the anime with lelouch in it right?". Who have not even bothered to watch Roze. Suffice to say, the only thing doing remotely well in Japan that is Code Geass related is the Lost Stories Gacha.

In fairness, that's actually pretty on-brand for fans of a series that sourced its character designs from CLAMP.

Before they went pro in '87, CLAMP was an all-female doujinshi circle that made yaoi doujinshi based on titles like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and Saint Seiya. Their work after going pro was still influenced by their yaoi doujinshi roots. They seem to like their boys tall and very slender, as is often customary in yaoi written for a female audience. I remember seeing a promo for CLAMP's version of Alice in Wonderland in one of those Tokyopop promo booklets "Tokyopop Sneaks". It was yuri fantasy and the Queen of Hearts was a dominatrix with nipple spikes. Just to set the basic expectation.

Code Geass didn't exactly play it down or ignore it either, if we're being honest. Sunrise RAN with that. Not only is Lelouch's bromance with his bestie Suzaku basically the centerpiece of the series next to his revenge quest against his dad, in R2 he picks up Rolo who ends up jealous of both Lelouch's sister Nunnally AND his kinda-sorta girlfriend Shirley as a not-blood-related sibling. Suzaku alone is pretty well in Himbo territory even in Sunrise's official material, but CLAMP's art for the series REALLY turns the Lelouch ship up to 11. Then there's Schneizel's aide-de-camp Kanon Maldini, who all but directly says in the series itself he's Schneizel's boytoy. The official art of them together is clearly not them being "just good friends".

If they're here for the characters, I'm not surprised they're not interested in Roze of the Recapture. Its characters are mainly just expies of ones from R1 and R2 with no real development. The writers clearly expect us to like Sakuya because she's Girlelouch and because she's got great big... tracts of land... which the series goes out of its way to shove in the audience's face a few times.

[Mafty]

Plus Yaoi Fans and Mecha go back awhile , Look at Shinji and Kaworu in EVA, or a portion of the fanbase of Gundam Wing, as well as Legend of the Blue Wolves , and it likely started long before that.

[Rubybro]

Yeah, i wasn't that surprised with the Japanese side of the fanbase and I do like other CLAMP anime like Chobits.

Most of the Code Geass merch and collabs are Suzaku and Lelouch front in center with CC there sometimes. It was just the overseas echo chamber of unimaginative idiots who were just using it as some off topic hangout to shitpost in that I was sick of and that was my general experience of the overseas fanbase. That phenomenon is not unique to code geass unfortunately. Some folks were decent, but it was mostly negative. Looks like the trash removed itself from my life this time. That "Lost stories" tower defense gacha has definitely not done the franchise any service either.

Apparently we can't just post images on here according to the forum rules and need to link to image hosting sites or art portfolios. Which was the only reason I didn't already make an art thread. Kind of defeats the whole point of sharing original mecha artwork when you're just going to link to other websites.

[Seto Kaiba]

That "Lost stories" tower defense gacha has definitely not done the franchise any service either.

IMO, the real problem with Code Geass is Bandai Namco's inability to leave it alone and insistence that it has to become a franchise.

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion was a solid, well-structured narrative with engaging characters, an interesting world, a profound conflict to drive the story forward, and a solid conclusion that gave closure to all of those things. It neither needed nor wanted for sequels or spinoffs. Its story ends with what is essentially a Happily Ever After. Lelouch made himself into the focus for all the world's hatreds and then died, so the nations of the world (including the newly reformed Britannia) could make a fresh start with peaceful cooperation under the UFN.

A handful of What Ifs, Alterniverse stories, and video game side stories were OK... but every attempt Sunrise/Bandai Namco Filmworks has made to build on the story of the TV anime has only served to diminish it instead. Lelouch of the Re;surrection and Roze of the Recapture just undo what Lelouch achieved in the series. The world's not really at peace, the Geass order's not really gone, and he has to become Zero again to save Nunnally again because Suzaku just can't hack it (again). Akito the Exiled is a totally unnecessary side story with an inconsequential plot. You could take it out of the timeline entirely and nothing would change, because its only real relevance to the greater story of Code Geass is to retcon the explanation of what Lelouch did during the R1-R2 timeskip.

It works far better as a standalone title than it ever will as a franchise.

Apparently we can't just post images on here according to the forum rules and need to link to image hosting sites or art portfolios. Which was the only reason I didn't already make an art thread. Kind of defeats the whole point of sharing original mecha artwork when you're just going to link to other websites.

That's pretty normal for forums, mind you.

Few of them allow direct uploading of large images due to storage and bandwidth concerns... not to mention certain liability issues should someone upload something illegal.

[Rubybro]

That "Lost stories" tower defense gacha has definitely not done the franchise any service either.

IMO, the real problem with Code Geass is Bandai Namco's inability to leave it alone and insistence that it has to become a franchise.

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion was a solid, well-structured narrative with engaging characters, an interesting world, a profound conflict to drive the story forward, and a solid conclusion that gave closure to all of those things. It neither needed nor wanted for sequels or spinoffs. Its story ends with what is essentially a Happily Ever After. Lelouch made himself into the focus for all the world's hatreds and then died, so the nations of the world (including the newly reformed Britannia) could make a fresh start with peaceful cooperation under the UFN.

A handful of What Ifs, Alterniverse stories, and video game side stories were OK... but every attempt Sunrise/Bandai Namco Filmworks has made to build on the story of the TV anime has only served to diminish it instead. Lelouch of the Re;surrection and Roze of the Recapture just undo what Lelouch achieved in the series. The world's not really at peace, the Geass order's not really gone, and he has to become Zero again to save Nunnally again because Suzaku just can't hack it (again). Akito the Exiled is a totally unnecessary side story with an inconsequential plot. You could take it out of the timeline entirely and nothing would change, because its only real relevance to the greater story of Code Geass is to retcon the explanation of what Lelouch did during the R1-R2 timeskip.

It works far better as a standalone title than it ever will as a franchise.

Apparently we can't just post images on here according to the forum rules and need to link to image hosting sites or art portfolios. Which was the only reason I didn't already make an art thread. Kind of defeats the whole point of sharing original mecha artwork when you're just going to link to other websites.

That's pretty normal for forums, mind you.

Few of them allow direct uploading of large images due to storage and bandwidth concerns... not to mention certain liability issues should someone upload something illegal.

I think its fine to reuse fictional settings since the majority of characters in fiction are not omnipotent. Its just that eastern cultures, especially around anime IP's, entirely don't give a shit about adhering to source material in general when it comes to other stories in the same setting. Standalone titles are what I'm talking about with maybe a loose connection or cameo related to the main plot at worst. Like Republic Commando with delta squad and the main plot of that game not conflicting with Episode 2 or 3 at all. Delta squad blowing up a separatist cruiser over Kachiro with AA guns doesn't diminish Luke blowing up the Death Star in A New Hope. It provides a different lived-in perspective from characters who aren't the embodiment of a jedi power fantasy. Its just absurd that you imply that this kind of storytelling diminishes the main overall arc of the fictional universe its a part of. Especially given that marvel does that shit all the time.

Its just that instead of code geass continuing to go forward with the crazy and bizarre Geass culture stuff introduced in R2, they just fell back on fujoshi stuff and fanservice at the cost of everything else. The consoomers who are into that crap are often just the more vocal tourists who never had a leg in the race to begin with and will move onto the next big thing, and alienating your core audience with mediocre storytelling just makes for a lose-lose situation. It was an interesting and overlooked aspect of R2 where geass essentially became CC herself as she lost all her memories after the initial confrontation with Charles in C's world. She reverted to who she was before making a geass contract. Its just a phenomenon that would not be noticed as it copies the personality of the user in the moment and overwrites it as to be imperceptible to the user and those around them as some kind of metaphysical mind parasite.

I don't make any sketchy or illegal stuff if that's what you're implying.
Mechatalk is the exception in my experience since most forums that are still around and have a more active userbase, still host images and jannies are more than capable of dealing with any bad actors that you're talking about.

[Rubybro]

Having just played through STALKER 2, I definitely think Geass could have done something similar with the barrier zone or that global thought elevator network shown in R2, Except with knightmare frames added to the mix and instead of psi facilities, its all secretive around weaponized Geass technology. It definitely scratched that itch that roze and anime in general lately had left me with: A decent enough grounded story without any gary stu/mary sue bullshit that takes itself seriously and doesn't compromise itself for fanservice.

The badass moments are featuring characters who literally earned it as they were either protagonists from the previous games that ended in changing the balance of power of the Zone or the player character skif dozens of hours/in game days in as they adapt to life in the Zone. It respectfully added onto what was already there and didn't try to ruin the characters that were from the previous entries. The new characters didn't have to compete for the spotlight like they do with Geass for some reason. It was awesome to see skif and strelok work together to dismantle the STALKER program. Which I'd assume that there was also some kind of Geass Order equivalent because of Rolo.

I like how they handled a lot of player agency and the game didn't insult my intelligence as if I couldn't comprehend how to press the interact key to open doors every few seconds pausing to forcefeed me a tutorial like japanese "games" and gachaslop do. It let me git gud and succeed or fail on my own. Sure it played like a watered down skyrim with minimal fast travel, but the real adventure was stumbling across random legendary artifacts, encountering new hidden areas and side quests along the way, and having intense skirmishes with progressively better gear over the course of the game. Veteran difficulty was definitely the right call for a first playthrough. Though it was a bit arcadey when you end up with 20-100 health kits in your bag in between trips to the stash.

On top of that also having a decent enough fanbase that will at least be reasonable with you at first instead of immediately leaping to whatever kind of hellish moshpit anime fandoms are like these days.

[Seto Kaiba]

I think its fine to reuse fictional settings since the majority of characters in fiction are not omnipotent. Its just that eastern cultures, especially around anime IP's, entirely don't give a shit about adhering to source material in general when it comes to other stories in the same setting. Standalone titles are what I'm talking about with maybe a loose connection or cameo related to the main plot at worst.

This assertion is pretty inaccurate...

If we're looking a difference in creative philosophy between East and West, I would say that one of the bigger differences is that Eastern creators and publishers are willing to let stories end while Western creators and publishers aren't. Long-running manga titles are almost invariably serials, while a long-running comic is almost always episodic. The manga will be a single, unbroken narrative in serial installments that has a well-defined beginning, middle, and end. If it's a multi-part work, each part is its own unbroken serial narrative with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Western comics, on the other hand, tend to be heavily episodic storytelling with a clear beginning but the intention to run forever with a neverending string of loosely related episodic stories. That only end when the series isn't making enough money and gets cancelled or rebooted.

Its just absurd that you imply that this kind of storytelling diminishes the main overall arc of the fictional universe its a part of. Especially given that marvel does that shit all the time.

Attempting to continue a story that already ended, especially in a way that undermines the meaning and impact of the original ending, is inherently a damaging thing for the story as a whole.

Star Wars is a great example. Star Wars's original trilogy had a solid happy ending with the destruction of the Death Star II, the death of the Emperor, the redemption of Darth Vader, and peace returning to the galaxy with the fall of the Empire and restoration of the Republic. The decisions necessary to keep the story going ultimately meant that the heroes never got to enjoy much in the way of peace. The Empire wasn't really gone and thus the heroes spent decades futilely fighting the same battles until they were worn down into bitter, miserable husks of their former selves before dying with peace still an unattainable dream.

Better-run franchises tend to have creative teams who recognize that the smartest thing you can do if you're trying to continue a story after an end which wraps up the story so definitively is to put as much distance between yourself and that setting as you reasonably can. Depending on how big the setting is, you go to a completely different place and tell a totally unrelated story that just happens to be in the same setting (e.g. Macross's sequels) or you put a generation or two's worth of time between your old story and new one so the setting itself can develop in new ways. Milking the same setting over and over with direct sequels just leads to an inevitable crash at the end of diminshing returns like what happened to Gundam after Victory or Star Trek after Voyager. If you don't put in the effort to keep it fresh, it gets stale. That effort is what you're mistaking for disrespect for the original setting.

Its just that instead of code geass continuing to go forward with the crazy and bizarre Geass culture stuff introduced in R2, they just fell back on fujoshi stuff and fanservice at the cost of everything else.

Bandai Namco are trying to make Code Geass into a commercially successful franchise like Gundam... they're aiming for mainstream appeal by trying to build on what made the original work successful like any sensible studio would.

I don't make any sketchy or illegal stuff if that's what you're implying.
Mechatalk is the exception in my experience since most forums that are still around and have a more active userbase, still host images and jannies are more than capable of dealing with any bad actors that you're talking about.

I'm not implying you do, I'm just saying there are people out there who do... and that's why most forums prefer not to let users upload images directly to the site. Some site owners just don't want to deal with the hassle or the risk, and I can respect that.

[Rubybro]

Adult Ruby was my favorite part of this anime.