Has anyone else seen this show? I loved it as a kid, but... Man, is it hard to go back to because of Suzaku. I used to get into lengthy debates as a kid online over Sonic the Hedgehog, Code Geass, all sorts of media. Looking back, it doesn't feel like there's much discussion to be had about Suzaku. He murdered his own father for wanting to prolong the Britannian war for as long as possible (by fighting back instead of giving up once the situation became hopeless). He became a dog of the military, a cog in the machine, a tool of oppression, and it's only through sheer dumb luck that he meets Euphemia after Zero saved him, and it's only through Zero's actions that he gets to rise up the ranks. Did he really expect to become a Knight Of One just by being a low-ranking grunt his whole life? The events of episodes one and two should have shook him to his core, not convinced him to double down on serving Britannia even after he learns what it did to Lelouch and why he wants to overthrow it.

In episode 5 Suzaku is going to be executed for Clovis's death, which Lelouch did as "Zero". "Zero" saves him and tells him to rebel. But Suzaku decides he wants to go back and hope Britannia treats Japan and the Japanese better, and fears not coming back might make Britannia hate the Japanese more. Just... hope. He has no plan. No goal and no hope of achieving it. He just tells himself he's the protagonist of his own story even though he's by definition an antagonist, an enemy of positive change. The whole "The Knight of One and the country of his choice he is gifted" thing isn't introduced until much later to try and justify Suzaku's choices. Suzaku saw much of what happened in the first two episodes. He has no reason to be loyal to Britannia besides stubbornnness. Suzaku feels like a hypocrite for taking issue with the blood on Lelouch's hands when he has so much of it on his, and his Britannian masters have so much more of it on theirs. Would it have really been any better for the world if Lelouch died in episode one, and the Britannians went on to eventually crush Japan's spirits and force it into obedience? Yes, "The fighting would finally stop", but only because there would be a clear victor. But the war would still go on. The war to enforce oppression upon those who wish to resist it would still go on even if the victims stopped fighting back. Complaining about the innocents caught in the crossfire during rebellions spits on all of those who die without rebelling. I can't imagine any of the starving people living in the Area 11 Ghettoes have access to good food, affordable healthcare, real education, gainful employment, or meaningful upward socioeconomic mobility. Man, it's so hard to imagine why they'd be willing to risk death trying to overthrow oppressors who'd massacre them without a second thought, not.

As a kid this character Suzaku and his plot armor and idiotic inexplicable superhuman abilities really got under my skin. As an adult I'm not emotionally connected to the struggles of fictional heroes, but I have to ask, why is he written like this? Is there a single moment in this show where Suzaku wants to accomplish something good in a hard moral way that's morally superior to the easy route Lelouch wants to take, validating the character and his viewpoints? Not one character in this show is ever allowed to call Suzaku the hypocritical moron he is with the force he deserves and the coherent deconstruction his mindset deserves. He isn't fighting for peace, he's fighting for an enemy of peace. It's like the writers want Lelouch to have a contrast, an equal and opposite, but this doesn't work because the characters are too different to be real rivals or equal opposites. Suzaku is nothing without superhuman physical capabilities he logically shouldn't have and superhuman luck he logically shouldn't have. Suzaku is a strong idiot and Lelouch is a weak smart idealistic realist. Suzaku can't make a valid moral argument against Lelouch's justified desire to destroy Britannia even if it took Britannia personally hurting him and what he cared about to make him hate it enough. If there are good Britannians, why do they fight for evil instead of justice, or worse, and if they do not fight, why do they sit on the sidelines instead of fighting for justice? What is their excuse? Suzaku has no right to act like Lelouch is wrong for "ruining their friendship and putting an end to the innocent days at school" when Lelouch is only at that particular school because he's being hidden from Britannia by the blond girl's family. The ending of season one really tested my will to continue watching this show almost as much as the Euphinator Incident. Yes, spoiler alert, it's set up that some characters can lose control of their Geass, but for him to lose control of it right then and there at the worst possible moment right when he's saying something idiotic he would normally never say just screams "The writers want this to go a certain way and don't know how to get it there organically". Hell, even if Lelouch's Geass triggered while saying something he would normally say like "I want to destroy Britannia" and his Geass accidentally activated and made Euphemia interpret this as a command to destroy Britannia, causing problems later (or causing problems right now, causing her to kill random innocent Britannian civilians, causing Britannia to crush the assembled Japanese people) this would have been less of a stretch. Her resisting Geass commands was also BS, if she can do it other characters should be able to do it, and if Suzaku reflexively killed her to save himself despite also wanting to die that would have made for a better tragic moment. Honestly, if Suzaku wants to be dominated, good for him, but trying to drag his whole country down with him is selfish.

I watched seasons one and two. Is it worth continuing with this series? I heard they made some more Code Geass content after this.