Code Geass and the Great Man Theory 

You mean waifu.

"Magnificent Bastard" You nailed it.

I’m happy with the ending and Lelouch of the resurrection

the only better moniker i could think of is glorious devil

The movie was good tho.

@@X3_lelouch1970 movies*

Adabie I mean Lelouch of the Resurrection, not any of the recap movies.

@@X3_lelouch1970 oh ayt, its good but not canon tho

@@X3_lelouch1970 meh, i mean i was expecting better. Like the theory that he became a code after his death. Though it is unlikely, a reimagining for possible futures from the ending is an endearing draw.

Nailed it

i fuckign hate zusaku this dick is a idiot prick kissing the evil people ass

All Hail Lelouch! T^T ♡

Was this quotation in Code Geass?

All Hail Lelouch

All hail lelouch!

husbando*

**waifu

lulu is best waifu.

Lelouch isn't a girl, lady, woman, female, chick, gal, mrs , miss, or base.

**Kaleen

The interesting thing is, even considering Lelouch's good intentions, you could still call him a villain. Think of how many villains there have been who were trying to save the world in their own way. I also agree with you. Nunnally is very important to Lelouch's motivations, and as you implied, his nobleness. -Zero

Micheal Drake whether or not he would just destroy brittania and walk away is something that has yet to be seen. A nation isn’t tangible. There’s no real way to “destroy” brittania. All lelouch would be able to do is change brittania for the better. Changing brittania’s rotten core to something good for everyone is the only way to destroy brittania’s current existence. As lelouch stated, know your enemy, because it is not the people. The only way for him to ensure that the country would not go back to its rotten ways after lelouch did his part, would be to ensure that someone like schneizel never ended up on the throne, and that someone like euphemia and nunnally did. That’s the only true way to destroy a nation.

he is an antihero by all means

Another hero or maybe villain would be taylor from worm. She did rise above her situation but she committed atrocities in her mind that was right. Though like lechouch she did sacrife herself personality and humanity to save the world. Though she would always be viewed has a villian afterwards.

I totally disagree. Lulush was also in the effect of geas. Geas was causing him to kill people for his goals. But his goal was always to build a fairer world. To do this he was killing innocent people. When his killings were revealed he lost the trust of everyone including Black Knights. Then he set up a plan with Suzaku where he would deliberately play the role of a villian. His plan was to attract all the hatred of the world on himself. Therefore his killing would mean the fairer world. When he was asked "What makes a good leader?", he answered "Destruction". As a result he destroyed all the source of evil including himself (at least the world was seeing him as the evil) to build a fairer world. He sacrificed his life to build a fairer world! But Britania had to be destroyed to achieve this goal. And this wouldn't be possible by making some compromises within the Imperialist Britannia.

Well said.

Replying 2 years later lul Regardless, I wholeheartedly agree, but rather than a great King or and Emperor of Britannia, I see Lelouch as the Emperor of Humanity itself. His goals were never for any country, and although he fought from the countries of Japan and Britannia, his existence is something that far surpassed any national boundary. The very fact that he was able to use his strength, his Geass, to connect to the Ragnarok Connection, the collective subconscious of human beings, is the greatest testament to Lelouch's role as the hero of humanity, even as the villain of his world.

@@rsking6120 replying after 1 year lol. I comletely agree with you. btw very well sail

@@rsking6120I’m doom scrolling 4 years later but imma reply anyways. When lelouch connects to the connection he also has his arms spread wide like Christ on the cross in front of god. During the moment his 2nd eye awakens he also realizes his true goals and who he truly is inside his heart and as said. Know thyself know thy enemy. He knew his true heart and what he desired and would burn the world to make it happen. A Geass can be described as an an idiosyncratic taboo, whether of obligation or prohibition, similar to being under a vow or curse, yet the observance of which can also bring power and blessings. And Lelouch was the only one who overcame this power for the future of all humanity.

Not by the people who know like suzaku nunally kallen and probably Jeremiah

He meant for everyone to view him as a demon

@@360bandman Jeremiah absolutely knew, as he said "onward, masked knight" after purposely allowing suzaku to pass him (because orange-boy season 2 would rofl suzaku outside of a knightmare). Sayako, Cecile, and Lloyd all knew, as they were told to betray Lelouche before he won to insure they'd be seen in a positive light after the zero requiem. I also believe some others figured it out. Cornelia and Todoh both knew lelouche and his persona zero personally. Also Xingke likely put it together as seemingly the 3rd smartest strategist (after Lelouche and Sneizel). Kaguya might also of figured it out from the hint CC gave her right before Lelouche claimed victory over the world.

yeah... but it wouldnt be like this his plan wouldnt work and the world woud still be in war...

*The Demons of Razgriz have entered the chat airspace*

there was no power vacuum because the UFN was still an organization, note its shown that emperor lelouch browbeat them into accepting the Brittanian empire into admission. while lelouch was emperor he was creating the institutions to last after he died.

royal families are a symbol. But you can't be sure that the symbol will remain uncorrupted. Besides, there's always people who like to rebel to authorities. idk people like to complain and blame authorities whether there's real corruption or not. If it's real, it's justified of course. I've just begun having an interest with the Romanov family after watching Anastasia, so far I find the early ones awesome.

I wish. -Zero

Umm do you mean war ?

LITERALLY YOUR FAULT IT WASN'T!

Hello clone.

You'll be revived this year, why are you here? ALL HAIL LELOUCH!

Thanks! I think the criticism offered by Herbert Spencer of the Great Man Theory is rather heavily influenced by his sociological work, but he seemed to be the most notable critic of the theory that I could find. I wanted to address the issues I had with his critique, but ultimately I wanted this video to stay about Lelouch.

+yatagarasuable A better approach is saying change cannot be affected without a fugrehead. 'Great Men' provide the spark for the barrel gunpowder that is social tension.

Amin Rosli Nina was the best most smartest character ever

@@volition142 ...

Hi Johan

Bari bari gusha gusha baki baki gokun

You have good taste.

I wouldn't quite agree that light was a great man, he was a fool. But other than that I agree.

Cestarian Inhabitant he wasn't a fool. His plans almost succeeded. Plus geniuses like him aren't generally subject to foolish behavior.

His plans did succeed. He won. But as the rules of power state; no empire lasts forever.

He was just a kid with a book on a killing spree, thinking he would be free from the consequences of his own actions, and that it couldn't be traced to him. He was a fucking moron and a psychopath, but genius he most certainly was not. Clearly he was stupid enough to get caught, he didn't plan things through at all, and his plans would have failed the moment they realized that he was killing them through the news, because no matter how far from there he could have gotten, all they'd have to do to stop him was stop reporting criminals as news material! His 'plan' was doomed to fail from the first second.

Everyone is taller than 6' in Code Geass lmao.

Lalousch lmaooo

Zero, Did you just roast all those generalized lesser men?

Source Symbiosis Metamorphisis As the smartest race on earth, we are dumber than every other living thing on Earth. Because we overthink things too much. We crave to better than the other. Thus we all want to be great. But sometimes you just​ have to accept your place in the world. That you are the lesser man.

Those who argue against great men, are simple scared of admitting they are lesser men.

Without arguing one would never know that he is the lesser man. Perhaps the outcome of the argument would be that you're the great man.

It's been two years. Not sure exactly what I mean by this last comment. Arguments even though determine who is a dumbass most often than not lead to both parties quitting the debate because of their own arrogance. Dunning Kruger effect I think it's called. As all the problems in the world come down to one simple issue. Idiots always think that they're right and the wise are always doubtful.

Lelouch might argue that, to be a great man, you can't be a good one. I don't know if I would agree, lol.

@@KatoBeyond "There is not people great and good at the same time" CoD 4 quote

I actually completely agree. -Zero

such discoveries are no coincidence. they often require great men to make them possible. certain social paradigms promote such discoveries and it takes great men to bring them about. To claim that one historical force has primacy over another is simply unnuanced, especially so when out of context.

@@misatrnka177 History and progress are not shaped by the actions of great individuals. Rather, they are shaped by the incremental progress caused by the actions of millions of people working on the same thing, in various places of the world at various points in time. Most progress can be attributed to changes in technology and/or social systems. And neither world-changing technology nor social institutions are formed by a single person. Democracy, as well as the light bulb, were invented, implemented, and perfected over a number of decades and centuries, with many people building on each other’s work. The contributions of certain individuals in this journey may have been greater than those of others, but no single person was responsible for any great social, political, or technological change. Darwin built on the works of other scientists to come up with his theory of evolution. Gandhi built on the ideas of other social reformers and philosophers to come up with his 'ahimsa' model. Some people become more popular than others, but that doesn't make them pioneers, much less the sole creators of change and progress.

@@zetaforever4953 great or small, sometimes all it takes is one man to be removed from the pages of history and what we know is forever changed, it's not like their are leonardo davinci's everywhere

@@ravenwhiteduck3158 sure there are. What do you think created Shakespeare? He became popular through a combination of talent, timing, and luck in a small country that later went on to colonize large sections of the world and spread it's language and culture around the globe. This colonization in turn allowed this country to kickstart the industrial revolution which made them rich and further helped to propagate their culture around the world. And that's how a talented regional playwright became a global icon. The same can be said for all "great men" in history. You really think there weren't any women with Da Vinci's talent or Shakespeare's? No black men writing in Swahili or painting in Zinbabwe? No transexual Indians? Why do we not know about them? People are removed from history all the time. If we had to read about every person ever born with Da Vinci's talent, we'd never read about anything else. It is a confluence of talent circumstances society history and future events (which they had no control over) that make "great men" what they are.

I'd say Batman's philosophy borrows from both doctrines, but Lelouch is certainly more utilitarian and Machiavellian than Bruce is.

Why would schneizel be an antagonist? I thought both him and Lelouch fough for peace, just had different ways of achieving it. Now that peace is, there is no reason for him to try anything.

Schneizel wanted peace, sure, but he wanted it through fear and control (a typically antagonistic viewpoint). Even when Lelouch had made himself into the enemy of the world, and Schneizel was helping the Black Knights, Schneizel still wasn't a "good guy" because he was still trying to get his base into orbit to control the world with. Hell, he attempts to kill Cornelia when she figures out his plan. I'm not saying that's necessarily the direction they'll take his character in R3, was just suggesting a way to get him to break free of the geass command. Whether or not he'll be an antagonist we'll just have to wait and find out.

spoilers ahead their are two easy solutions to the problem of the geass used on schneziel lelouch said he was loyal to zero and in the end we know the zero requiem was meant to make suzaku the new zero and that orange already knew of the plan so with the geass already cast on schneziel why not tell him of the plan and that zero would be suzake then he truly would be loyal to suzaku is the first and more obvious of the two solutions the second and in my opinion more fitting one is that in the same way that lelouch made all of the Japanese who fallowed zero in to zero early on in season two he made schneziel a servant of the people more accurately the people he always looked down on a fitting punishment just like the punishments of suzaku orange cc and lelouch himself

He didn't want peace through fear and control, he saw it as the means to the end. And he saw himself as the right candidate to be Ruler of the World. Remember that Schneizel didn't do what he did because he hungered for power, he did it because of how the world was at the time, and he saw himself as one who could save it. So when Zero Requiem succeeded, even a Schneizel with free will wouldn't oppose it, rather he would still support it because that's the type of person he is. Schneizel is what Lelouch would be if he didn't have a sister he loves, and friends he cared about. This is a classic story trope - The difference between the villain and the hero is that the villain was alone, and the hero wasn't. That is, Schneizel became a cold-hearted lonely person due to his peerless intelligence, while being raised in a ruthless, vain, aristocratic society. He saw the state of the world, acknowledges his own capabilities, and enact his plan with pure objectivity in mind in order to better it. But because he was a loner, he failed to see the effect of his actions on others, because he couldn't perceive the feelings and perspectives of others. Which ironically meant he could only see things from his own perspective, and even with his intellect, he couldn't see what he was doing was no better than Charles. So with a mind like that, it made sense he would think WMDs was the way to enforce world peace through unchallenged rulership and control. However, once Zero Requiem succeeded, his goal of fixing the world was also achieved, he no longer has any reason to strive for power. The world is a much better place, one he also wanted, he just didn't know what it should be prior to Zero Requiem. Also, he didn't try to murder Cornelia, he just needed her out of his way - he didn't care about her at all, didn't matter to him if she was dead or alive, so he didn't bother finishing her. Cornelia said so herself to Guilford. But all of that is moot because he wouldn't be able to break free of Geass by himself. No one has ever done it, Nunually only managed to resist it for a few seconds. Orange would have to cancel it for him, which wouldn't happen because he is fully loyal to Marianne's children.

Hey, thanks for watching.

Oh, stop it, you're making me blush.

Unless lelouch kept his geass, as he took code from Charles but didn’t kill CC so he could become an immortal with geass, therefore the command over schneizel would remain

actually I dont think it was ever confirmed that a geas user dying will restore someone. In the case of C.C I think that her being loved Geas is a active effect that she would keep active rather than something you cast on someone like lelouche. and in the case of Charles and his geas It took Jeremiahs geas canceler to actually help Anya who had her memories altered for years.

The opposite is true. Marianne died years earlier and was able to maintain her geass in Anya.

Caleb Britannia Lelouch states in the anime it was just against her nature but she was still taking over

What about all the other things that are against nature? All those people he told to kill themselves atleast one of them must have had an incredible strong will to live. Also look at the hatred Orange Boy possessed for Zero, he still obeyed without question.

Well,then it kinda isn't a big deal right? Here's my conjecture though Geass is the power of the King right?So for you to not obey orders you need to be someone worthy of being a King and also you need the have the will.You might say okay but what about Schneizel?? Well,he never got his hands dirty himself ,he also wasn't as strong willed as her. Another thing is that we have been shown that the geass gives a command to the enemies brain directly. You might say but everyone is the same right?sure someone he was killing had the will to oppose him. Well ,those guy's where always taking orders from someone so they can't oppose a King being mere underlings of another King. Those guys that will sacrifice everything for a dream or ideal are the kind of guys that can oppose the power of the king.I imagine it as being like an addiction ,your entire being is telling you to execute the command so by disobeying the order your are essentially going against yourself.There are few people that can overcome an addiction after all...

Orange was Geassed right at the moment zero emerged, and it is the consequences of him being Geassed that spurred his hatred for Zero. As for the suicide theory, while someone may have an extremely strong will to live at the moment, I believe the term "within their nature" means that if someone is at the lowest point in their life, everyone is capable of suicide. Since Nunally was geassed to hand over the Damacles' key, which to Nunally would be giving up on her dream of a gentler world ("how could the world be gentle when Zero has the FLEIJA's and command of all the armed forces?") she was able to resist it momentarily.

Schniezel showed zero resistance to it despite that the command was extremely against his will. Also Clovis and Cornelia didn’t resist at all.

I'm not a huge supporter of the Great Man Theory as a model of the real world myself, but I do think it's a worthwhile tool in writing a story with consequences on a global scale. Lelouch's exploits make for a great example of that, which led me to make this video.

I had admittedly forgotten the rest of the family was nuked to death when I had written this, but there's also room to imagine other children of Charles existed out in the world.

I think it was made before he thought nunally was dead

Nunnally did end up becoming empress of Britannia in Fukkatsu no Lelouch, but I see your point.

Dash is part of the manga, which is an entirely different story from the anime

He would be considered a great man under this theory.

Schneizel is really more like Light than Lelouch is, lol. Great comment.

Lelouch has always questioned Diethard's legitimacy as a journalist, ever since their first meeting. He accused Diethard of not reporting stories as they are, but instead fabricating them. In the end, Diethard abandons any cause and simply sides with whom he perceives as the "greater man". History is written by the victor, after all. To sum, if Diethard does represent the Great Man Theory view of history, the idea is treated with a good deal of contempt

@@KatoBeyond Exactly, and I wonder if he had been more pragmatically oriented in his fundamental motivations, as in, if he was simply siding with whoever he perceived to be more likely to be the victor in order to be able to see some higher goal fulfilled, maybe Lelouch would have treated him differently. In this regard I guess he could just aa well be a critique of that sort of societal Darwinism, or not striving towards any particular good to begin with.

@@sofielundsskolan Great comments!

Not true, Lelouch mentioned in Episode 5 that CC giving him Geass only "sped up" his plans. Basically he would have destroyed Brittania anyways it just would have taken alot longer. The 1-2 years it took for Lelouch to fully enact his plan wouldve taken about 10 without Geass.

There's some truth to what both of you are saying. Lelouch was talking about his plan to obliterate Britannia when he said that, but he may have undergone the same path either way. Really, it's impossible to know one way or the other for sure, but no one can say C.C. didn't play a huge role in Code Geass.

Really, I just want to encourage the discussion.

C.C was of great help, but Lelouch could have done without it. give that kind of power to any other character like Kallen or Suzaku, and Brittania would have still been up and running. Lelouch didn't NEED Geass. Actually when you think about it, Geass simply gave him the motivation to enact his plans. And Geass made things worse for him and turned him into the tragic hero. Geass led him to finding out what happened to his mother, thus releasing him from that obsession which held him back for so long. But honestly, w/o it he just would have been more creative. And things probably wouldn't have ended up as tragic for him in the end. The Most brilliant things Lelouch did he did without his geass.

I agree that its not just the power, but what you choose to do with it that makes you great, however that statement of Lelouch is akin to boasting of a frog in a well. He was outmatched and defeated various times by people who didnt have Geass and he needed a miraculous power to save him then. You can argue that if it werent for Geass he would've got some other power, but in the end the point holds true that things would be out of his control and he shall need something from the world. While I do think that he would be defeated in a straight up battle by people like Charles, Schneizel, Li Xingke or even other Geass users, but even if we argue on that, the whole world was sitting on a giant time bomb called Charles Vi Brittania. Lelouch's timeline didnt make room for Charles plan with world of C, without geass and its knowledge, it was a checkmate

You're right, I forgot about that moment.

one such supporter is C.C because she gave him the power and triggered his motions