ANOTHER GEASS?! | Code Geass Newlyweds Reaction | Ep 14, “Stage 14: Geass vs Geass” 

Episodes 14, 15, 16, & 17 of Code Geass are all posted to Patreon now in their full length forms! patreon.com/lettsreact also ep 2x1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7 of My Hero Academia and up to 2x11 of Demon Slayer, as well as 2-6 of our newest series, Gravity Falls!

Lelouch making Shirley forget about him is absolutely devastating to watch, but what's even more interesting is the fact that this *greatly* impacts Lelouch. He feels so genuinely sad about the fact that his relationship with Shirley is now gone, but he does it not only to protect his identity and cause, but to protect her as well. Considering we just watched him blow up the JLF in the last episode with absolutely no emotion, to see something move him so strongly shows just how much Shirley means to him, whether it's romantic or platonic.

i always love seeing these humanizing moments for lelouch; we rarely see him *so* affected by his actions. he *does* care about other people, and we've seen that it's been that way since he was much younger, when he gave up his claim to the throne. he had a big heart but was in the wrong place to have a big heart

The things about Mao is he’s legitimately the greatest gas lighter in all of anime

This episode shows something that's worth continuing to watch for through the show: Lelouch is too emotional to use geass responsibly. There are a hundred different commands he could've gave Shirley to help her deal with her life, and he picked the most suspicious one because it's what he felt would benefit her the most. When it comes to people he loves, his brain goes "HELP. PROTECT. SAVE" with very little room for anything else. People compare him to Light, and I think that's the difference. Lelouch _earnestly_ loves his people, and that comes up in tense situations. And on that note: What do you think he'll do when he learns Suzaku, his brother from another, is in the white knight?

Lelouch's Geass is called the Power of Absolute Obedience while Mao has the Seal of Absolute sound... It's quite fascinating to see the difference in their geass abilities and how each one has a specific kind probably related to their inner desires or personality.

It does seem strange that Lelouch erased all her memories instead of just the ones about him being zero, but thinking about it, if he had done that, Shirley would still have feelings for him and he for her. If they ended up in a relationship, it would be one that only happened because of his mind control, which is distinctly creepy. I think by erasing all her memories Lelouch was doing what he thought was moral and kind, at least according to his own somewhat warped sense of morality.

This episode clearly shows what is the difference between Lelouch and Light from Death Note. If earlier we could speculate that they're similar here we see how Lelouch is not a maniac with God complex who will obliterate everybody who stays in his way even his own loving father. Here we can see how Lelouch is getting really hurt what happened to Shirley and try everything to save her from his dangerous path of Blood, which was mentioned earlier by chief of Kyoto group. Shirley is great character and she adds so much in development of Lelouch as main character. This show has the greatest main protagonist in anime and Shirley is one of the most important characters to show that to us, viewers. This episode also gives us another important quote which will be mentioned later: 9:45 "If you have somebody you don't want to lose, you have to keep them in the distance" - remember this quote, it's very important in what will happen in Season 2. 4:34 If you already liked cat Arthur I can assure you that this cat is also a character that won't be forgotten even at the great final of this show. :) 9:30 If you like outfits in this show you can be sure that it'll be even better later. This show is considered to put their characters into one of the best drips in anime. :) Thank you for your reaction. Can't wait to see them further. Best wishes!

I've heard Code Ment Mao so much that his actual Dub voice sounds so alien to me 😂

"Are they robots?" Thats the wildest theory ive heard about this show lol

The fact that Mao can't read Shirley when she starts having a panic attack is extremely fascinating, and even more fascinating as a potential weakness. Imagine taking a bunch of stimulants (caffiene, adhd meds, etc) to induce a panic attack so that your mind is so scrambled that he can't read it. Or even taking Refrain after putting your plan into action so that your mind goes back before you even made your plan.

Okay it's hilarious that Montana mentioned H2O because my boyfriend just discovered it's on Netflix and has started rewatching it for nostalgia.

OH OHGI Also I loved CC's outfits. It's always refreshing to see characters actually change clothes every so often.

Ok so I’m not much further along than this but my read on CC saying she never thought Mao would come out among people is this: Mao is always hearing everybody’s thoughts. Being in public is probably overwhelming so he wears the headphones to cancel out as much noise as possible. The fact that he chose “Your Anime Waifu Delivers Positive Affirmation[F4M][wholesome][ASMR]” playing on a loop is just him being obsessed.

There should be a "Kenny went to chess camp" counter lol

WHY ARE YOU BUYING CLOTHES AT THE SOUP STORE?!

When Shirley cries, I cry 😭

It's not important at all but it is very funny to think about where CC got that motorcycle from.

Montana saying Shirley has nothing in there makes it sound like she called Shirley an airhead after she spoke lol.

one interesting detail that I always loved in this ep. At one point we see CC talking to a guy on a dirtbike and getting frustrated with him (I think that comes off a bit more in the sub, tho its been a while since my last rewatch) then several scenes later we see her riding up a hill... on his dirtbike! She stole it from him xD and it's up to us to catch that cause the show never points it out. Makes me wonder how many moments I've missed in this show

“Nobody move until I figure out what I’m doing!”

This is one of my favorite Code Geass episodes. It's so powerful and emotional.

Short memory loss is part of being controled thing problem. But he told her to forget about him. So she is reseted completly.

3:49 Yes, she just wants to thank her. And possibly..."thank her." *wink wink*

Listen, I understand it's about the journey. Not just reaching the end goal. But I just CANT HELP but anticipate and imagine their FACES on the last episode of R2. That's gonna be one amazing thing to see.

Leluche probably felt Shirley would be better off without him truly. That he'd cause her pain if anything was left of him inside her mind.

I can't separate CodeMENT Mao from real Mao anymore

Fun fact: today is my birthday so I'll take this reaction as a belated present. Thanks for making my Thursdays fun. Now yes. A more interesting fun fact that some might want to read: Originally, at the moment when Lelouch looks Shirley straight in her eyes before using the Geass on her, he was going to say: "in another life, you and me would be lovers", but it was cut in editing.

Although there are other more interesting villains, Mao is the best-written villain in Code Geass (and that's a bit disappointing considering he's not a villain involved in the main plot of the rebellion and won't last too long in the story). To begin with, Mao is just as manipulative, cruel and arrogant as Lelouch since he judges and reproaches other people from a moral superiority. This is somewhat reminiscent of the self-righteous Suzaku, the difference being that Suzaku has good intentions and Mao just wants to cause harm. To some degree, Mao is a dark mirror of Lelouch (and I emphasize "to some degree" because another character serves the purpose of being a dark mirror of Lelouch; nevertheless, I'll talk about that later, as well why I think Mao relatively a dark mirror of the protagonist). Mao has two of the six characteristics that a good antagonist must have: 1. Knows how to nullify the strength of the hero. In this case, it is Lelouch's mind. Lelouch's real weapon isn't his Geass, but his brilliant mind with which he can create powerful strategies, cunning tactics and grand plans, but Mao can read Lelouch's mind and anticipate him. It's particularly frustrating for Lelouch since he doesn't know how to adapt to situations or improvise on the fly (we checked with Cornelia in the Saitama ghetto: if his plan fails, Lelouch loses). Here Mao won. If it wasn't for CC activating the cable car, he would have shot Lelouch and Shirley. 2. Is exceptionally good at attacking the hero's weakness. Lelouch's weakness should have been made clear to us last episode, when we saw Lelouch's determination waver for the first time after learning that he accidentally hurt Shirley and then saw her in the middle of "the battle of Yokosuka port" and he didn't shoot his target (Cornelia), even though she was right in front of him. His weakness is his loved ones and Mao used Shirley against him, injured CC, kidnapped Nunnally and exposed and taunted Suzaku, causing him to collapse (no problem saying as Kenny and Montana have already reacted up to the episode 17). There are people that Lelouch is not willing to lose. Hence, Lelouch easily accepted CC's second advice: "If you have someone you don't want to lose, you should keep them at a distance." This is a very important phrase that is directly related to CC's philosophy of life and, therefore, to her words in the first episode: "the power of kings (Geass) will isolate you." It would have been a better solution to have killed Shirley to protect his identity and avoid further complications. Even Lelouch himself acknowledges this in the preview for this episode (previews are usually interesting because even though we're looking at footage from the next episode, we're hearing Lelouch's thoughts on the episode just finished). However, Lelouch lets her live because he is aware that he is responsible for her misfortune and he deeply regrets it, because Lelouch cares about Shirley and wants her to be happy (Shirley's smile is a detail that most fans overlook). I agree with the fandom's reading of Shirley as she represents the innocent civilians who are drawn into the war and that her story shows that revenge is a cycle of hate and violence. After all, Shirley was willing to kill Zero to avenge her father until she found out that the killer was the man she loved. It's thanks to the genuine love that Shirley feels towards Lelouch that she abandons revenge, overcomes her rancor and forgives him. It's an admirable decision in a cruel world like Code Geass. As a side note, I can only point out that Ohgi did not find it credible that the Japan Liberation Front committed suicide and is suspecting shady things... There's still a lot more to say about Shirley and Mao, even Ohgi, but it will have to wait. In the next episode we will find out more information about Mao, CC and Geass and it will not be good for our hero.

Episode 13 is blocked in my country :( Video unavailable This video contains content from SME, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds

And so starts one of my favorite short arcs in the series. Mao is such a great opponent for Lelouch. I'm not sure how familiar either of you are with gaming terminology, but Mao is a hard counter for Lelouch. He basically negates every single advantage Lelouch has and has a few that Lelouch can't really deal with. Lelouch's greatest strengths are his intelligence and anonymity. Mao's Geass allows him to read Lelouch's every thought and react to any effort he makes. What's worse is that because Lelouch is the type to think of counters to his own moves, he basically tells Mao how to beat him. We see this in the Chess game. Mao had really never played Chess, but it didn't matter as Lelouch literally thought "If he does this, it will ruin my plan" and all Mao had to do was listen. And his ability to reads minds means he knows everything about Lelouch. All his weaknesses. Someone else said that Mao is the King of gas lighters. And this is absolutely spot on. Mao literally reads your mind and uses your own thoughts against you. Is there something you're worried about? Something you're self-conscious about? Well, Mao will know it and can use it against you. "Your kids hate you." "Your boss is out to get you." "Your nose is crooked." I like to think Mao was spending his time in the previous episodes fishing for information. He was probably just walking around looking for someone thinking about seeing C2. Let's say he stumbled across Tamaki. He probably heard Tamaki think something sort of innocuous about C2 like: "Man that C2 girl is hot, but I only see her with Zero. What does she even do? Is she his mistress or something?" After that all he would have to do is look for another link. Let's say that leads him to Kallen. He may find in her mind that she once suspected Lelouch was Zero and that Shirley is clearly in love with him. And thus how he arrived here. It really is that easy for him. It's exactly as C2 says. "Because it's you. You can never beat Mao." Poor Shirley has gone through Hell the last few episodes. Her crush kills her father, then she learns he is a terrorist, kills someone to protect him, and has Mao torment her in this episode before Lelouch erases her memories. But at least this is the end of her trauma. She no longer loves Lelouch and won't have any more troubles ever again. Right?

This is one of those episodes that completely shatters the whole misconception that Light and Lelouch are the same, character-wise. Light would never struggle with his feelings about Shirley, nor be so heavily affected by the act of making her forget all about him, essentially killing her in a way. Light is a Psychopath. Lelouch, at his worst, can only be argued to be a Sociopath, but even then you have dozens of examples that poke holes in that analysis. Lelouch is someone who has a very strong feel for the people in his life, even if he doesn't wholly understand how important they really are to him up until this point. His biggest flaw is that his obsession with taking down Britannia and his Father overshadows those feelings. So while people may misconstrue moments to say he lacks care and empathy and what not, that can't really be further from the truth. Those moments are just his obsession or his other emotions getting the better of him.

So we see one of Lelouch's core personality traits on display here, his sense of responsibility. He thinks Shirley 'reacted' because of his 'actions' thus it's on him, he is fully unwilling to have anything he does influence her. And then Mao. It's really understated but I like how he contrasts Lelouch here. He has no plan, no back up, doesn't figure people out by thinking everything through, it's debatable if he's even smart. But he can 'cheat' to understand people and uses that to just get whatever outcome happens to pop into his head. He even said when he grabbed the rifle, he literally only did the Shirley stuff because he thought it'd be "dramatic", wasn't even really sadism or anything, he just thought it'd be more fun.

15:36-15:43 shows lelouchs mind is 0.01% of the humans on earth. (Most humans mind at most can think of 4 things at once)

Jesus christ i did not expect to be reminded of h20

how did you get that lelouch erased everytihing? the logical conclusion is that he erased himself

How does it end indeed

MORE animals?! Good gods.

Where is 13 Ep? I cant find it on the channel/

4:12 That's some good meme material out of context

Lelouch knew Shirley’s love for him was somewhat obsessive so even if she was made to just forget he was Zero, it was likely she’d stumble upon the secret again so best to just reset and be friends only.

The emotion for Japanese Voice action in the end is far more better... The depression for Fikuyama, the brightness for Olikasa, are very deep.

My theory on why he, as you say, factory resets is because he doesn't actually know what Mao said or did to mess her up. He could've commanded her to forget about him being Zero, but what if Mao said something else? What if she went after him for some other reason? She could still suspect he was in the Black Knights, still be messed up from Mao's manipulation. Too many variables, too much uncertainty. In order to ensure her safety and, in his mind, happiness, he had to delete himself from her mind entirely. Anything else was too big a risk. For him, and for Shirley.

One best episode's can't wait for more

Cause I'm no ordinary girl~

I have a cat name roo as well the reason I gave him that name is because I found him at a kangaroo gas station

A second Kira...?

What is cyclops doing here😂?

Diethard sound like alright 9:22 😅

great anime

Mayo has silly geass

A chess game with actual people? I wonder when that would happen. It’s not exactly a chess game but still… 😂😂😂

CC my beloved...

is it just me, or Kenny's left eyelid is a bit delayed than his right one when he blinks? i hope everything's well and fine

This destroys me every time...

PLEASE WATCH JJK