Code Geass R2 EXPLAINED | Charles’ TRUE Motivations and Why Lelouch Had to Stop Him 

Not too many people mention this but Mao, the guy with the mind reading Geass ability, pretty much lived in his own little world completely and utterly devoid of lies and it brought him nothing but absolute misery and insanity.

I've watched code geass in its entirety twice and never once did I understand charles ture goal.

The Zero Requiem isn't thought of until the final scene of Turn 20 where Lelouch, C.C., and Suzaku are all left directionless and in need of a solution that would satisfy both Lelouch and Suzaku. The reason why Lelouch believes lies are necessary for time to move forward and for the future to be built is based partly on his experience as Zero, but more innately in his attachment to Nunally. Nunally's smile to Lelouch is a "mask" of sorts - a lie but also a part of who she is. And that, more than anything, represents what's beautiful about the world to him. The fact that Charles and Marianne don't know what he's talking about is proof to him that they never really loved their children, for they couldn't even recognize the best parts about them.

So Charles wanted to unite every conscious as a singular being to keep everyone away from pain and war But don't you think that thinking kinda sounds familiar? Its the same ideology behind evangelion, the whole concept of third impact. To make everyone happy, to unify all but if thay was the case as you said... no one would be happy because we only feel emotion, we only "feel" when we stand against and with something but where we are all together, where there is nothing to be against there's no progress Its interesting to see how same kind of thinking can be expressed in such different manners, if we look at code geass and evangelion they don't look anything alike but I guess they are similar after all

I'd say, this is a pretty good take on Charles' plan. Especially your explanation for why it would bring humanity to a standstill. When you think about it, it's somewhat similar to Mao's situation. For him, there was no separation between him and others. Which is the what Lelouch says ( after the recorded conversation to save CC) has stunted Mao's development. 'Your thoughts are simple'. Meaning, Mao could never progress. Which is similar to what you said - no one will progress. And no one will become grow.

Come on guys who else cried at the end

Damn I just finished this show (i know i’m like hella late but I’m glad that I finally watched it) and this really helped me understand. I thought Charles was more like attempting to make one singular race. Just by him connecting everyone’s consciousness he is now making everyone one being, one Britannia. But this helped me understand more of the past, present, future argument (especially with Lelouch claiming the emperor yearned for the past, Schneizel yearns for the present, and Lelouch aims for the future) and the lying thing. This video was definitely necessary thank you!

Perfect analysis and of course, obligatory RURUSHUH comment.

Another incredible video. Keep it up man, your work is amazing and you deserve and one day will go viral. Xoxo

But Charles lied too so...they're all hypocrites but Lelouch was trying to save Japan and Take down the Britannia empire so....All Hail Lelouch!!

That's the video I have always desired, without even being conscious of it. Magnificent, well done job. ❤️ All hail Lelouch!

Just started watching the series again, and was looking for viewpoints on Charles/C.C./Lelouch/etc. with regard to their thoughts on reality, and human nature, and God, and all the rest. This was an excellent video. Specifically, very important understandings of quotes from the episodes concerned For example, "rejection" as needing something to reject and therefore causing change. I didn't realize the significance of that line. Charles sees perfection as possible, and, with his plan in mind, immanent, and so rejection isn't only unnecessary, but perhaps impossible (since a perfect thing, in this case the union he is planning for, would not need to change, precisely because it is perfect). I think Lelouch, if you pressed him, probably does not believe in the possibility of such a perfection. Charles' view on human minds (episode 15 I'm thinking of here), paraphrasing, 'we are all of one mind, you are me and I am you' sounds an awful lot like the Eleatics of Parmenides' time, rejecting any real movement/change, and viewing sense experience as an illusion, since we all are, after all, just one thing (the Monad). I recall Benedict Spinoza thinking a similar thing about God and the concept of His infinitude. This is perhaps the most interesting part of Code Geass, the metaphysical questions about God etc.

Articulate and well said. Good work all round, this really helped me to clarify what I thought and finally explain this in conversation. Cheers.

Something I hadn't considered before: if Charles had gotten his way then everyone would have been like Mao. In that context, life would've been a living hell

Japan anime loves the concept of collective or shared consciousness like Evangelion, Naruto, Code Geass, Darling in Franxxx, Attack on Titan, and so many more.

The biggest problem with the show is the plot and characters aren't given nearly enough time to be flushed out so it really feels like the whole thing is in fast forward which is very unfortunate because there was massive potential there

What I never got was how did Charles know that the Ragnarok connection would do as he thought it would? It’s an ancient device that they spent decades trying to make work. What if it did something else? What if it was like a hard reset on mankind where everybody dies and a new animal evolves to take our place? It was such a stupid thing to rely on something that they had no idea how it worked.

When charles couldn't persuade c2 to pursue their plan they could've gotten themselves Mao Well they didn't know anything about him

Can you explain if the emperor ever truly believed in his "might makes right" philosophy throughout the show? If yes, does that not contradict his desire for a gentle world? If no, WHY did he preach it? And if he truly wanted a gentle world then why did he start the war in the first place?

I would also point out that Lulu playing chess was the creator subtly screaming at the viewer/reader THINK THIS WAY OR YOU WONT GET IT UNTIL THE END!!!!!

Hey Great Video. When I watched the whole Ragnarok Connection substory I had to rewatch those two episodes 3 or 4 Times to fully inderstand. CG introduces some good philosophy concepts although I feel kinda sad some people give this season a 10 without even understanding what those mean. Keep up the good work 👍

C.c. is an embodiment of Collective. Consciousness.

The way I really see it. Ragnarok would be a slow built up nightmare waiting to exploded and come true in the "right" way possible in their face and bring devastation upon the world. There is this fic in fanfic archive where it pretty much detail and capture Ragnarok nature and its aftermath very perfectly. For Charles, he viewed Ragnarok as perfection like the dreamer that he is expecting everything to be okay afterward. The road to hell is paved with the best intentions. Even one of the Divine Comedy quotes came up after Ragnarok activation which signify that Charles planned for the world is literally hell itself. While I do agree with the point he made, has he ever tried to fixed his own problem in his country and nation before? No, he just whined and throw temper tantrum. He is just a product of his time trying to buy sympathy. Because of his planned, humanity will not grow, there is no need for progress anymore, no mystery to unravel, and no need for deep connection. So yeah, no I am not okay with Charles. And Lelouch have my thumb up for doing what he needs to do.

Thanks for putting another great anime Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood on the list. I'm curious how do you actually seen that anime before or you're just using it for this video.

Wow! Amazing analysis!

Love it! Keep up the good work! 😉

Charles was trying to make humanity into something like the Incubators from Madoka Magica.

I initially thought Charles plan was to compel everyone to only speak the truth, that in itself would have a lot of problems. Combining everyone into one consciousness is much worse actually, it will remove all sense of individualism and change and growth, and I am happy that he stopped that plan.

What I find fascinating about his character is that his ultimate goal is the polar opposite of how he displays himself And I find it frankly bizarre He openly preaches social Darwinism basically stating hey if you have the power to steal someone it's okay and just for you to steal because you have the strength to steal but his ultimate goal was to bring absolute and total equality to everyone everywhere He would be no more influential or powerful Then a slave He also preaches about progress but his ultimate plan is eternal stagnation No forward momentum no new souls being born only those who already existed with mainly a focus on the past And then a bit of a side note I find it interesting that a bit of his story seems to have been dropped where a few times early in the story it is heavily implied that the imperial heirs are all at each other's throats and highly competing to Acquire the throne In fact at one point Charles is informed that is his second son is doing something that we the audience don't hear but Charles remarks that if he wants the throne he's free to challenge him but nothing happens And the members of the Imperial family actually really seemed to get along with each other none of them seem to be backstabbing each other in fact they come off as quite their close knit family when it comes to sibling And ultimately I find his attitude interesting because he believes that all of humanity will be united in that basically death and suffering are irrelevant because of the coming fusing of human souls he puts absolutely no effort into not being a douchebag At every turn because to him it doesn't matter everything is going to be forgiven in the end so there's in his mind zero reason to put even a mild amount of energy into not being a douche bag and honestly I have to question other than vv and the now Dead empress It doesn't seem like the emperor really connected with other human beings in meaningful way No one to trust no one to confide in just royal whores and children who disdain him For his cruelty so he's very likely a very lonely soul

Code Geass has always been an interesting series for me. Everytime I watch it I find more things I enjoy and more things I don't. I'm actually one of the people who don't really considered the ending to be all that great for various reasons. Overall I do still like the series but there are way too many flaws for me to consider it great. It's a somewhat okay series for me. As for my view of lies I do believe to an extent they are necessary at times but I see them as doing more harm than good in the long run. The bigger the lie the harder it is to maintain. Sooner or later the truth does find a way to get out and when it does depending on the lie it can lead to even greater conflict than what the lie was trying to avoid, just look that the Black Knights betrayal of Zero. When trust is lost its really hard to make any major change or progress. It's why I ultimately see both the Ragnarok Connection and the Zero Requiem failing and only leading to more conflict down the road. I go into more detail but I tend to ramble if it wasn't apparent. Still great video and I appreciate getting more insight Charles and Lelouchs ideas. Although one things that's always bugged me is wouldnt destroying C's world prevent humanity from being able to understand each other? Seems counterproductive to Charles' plan.

what did you think of season two of code geass? I personally thought it was a mixed bag, the mech battles being more gundam like, reveals that come from nowhere, character inconsistencies and the like. with the one thing it had going for it being the ending.

I get lelouch's point but I agree with Charles. I've always seem lies as a negative thing and given the world we live in a world with so many of them. A world where none exists seems like paradise to me but again this is just my own opinion.

Gendo from Eva had the same goal as Charles, but for different reasons. However you could lie if you had autonomy even if in a collective conscience. We could observe the same scene in person like a car crash, and I could “attempt” to lie, as long as I had autonomy.

Think about the Collected Unconscious in terms of wanting Children. What do Children Symbolize? Growth, Individualism, Immortality through Succession. Progression. When the Mother and Father give their Children the Will and Knowledge to move on, they become them or become greater than them! How we see that Greatness depends from person to person. So when give the Choice to unify with the Collected Unconsciousness itself and Become Everyone and Everything... Would there be a Need for Children? You have the Power of Immortality, the Life of your Friends and Family are all with you! All of those who have lived and have died are now apart of you....Good and bad...Yet you are neither living nor dead...and yet you are both male and female... Its the Snake eating its tail, eating itself... You cannot struggle against what you are because the Other voices refuse to. You cannot set yourself goals...because you have already done them. You cannot have children....because there is no one else to have them with. You can lie...but you know yourself, the other voices and minds know your lies. What Charles and Marianne wanted was not living! Its a hollow existence built on looking at Nostalgic youth, and only the good outcome rather than looking at all the Negatives! Humanity cannot overcome itself unless it learns to try, and pass on the knowledge of what people are and Aren't meant to do.

This is an interesting analysis, but never mentioning Akito the Exiled feels like a big miss. The latter half of that story provides a lot of worldbuilding as to what the Collective Unconscious, is, how it works, and what exactly Charles was trying to accomplish. If you haven't already you should really watch it, though the relevance to the Charles stuff may not be immediately obvious.

Why Jupiter though?

Code Geass pulled an Evangelion and Charles wanted to turn everyone into mind meld orange juice.

I might need to rewatch some anime

In that episode I said sh**** here we go again human instrumentality 😝.

Call me evil too but i like the ideology of evil protagonist like Charles from this show Madara and Nagato from the Naruto series and probably light from death note hes way was extremely evil tho but to bring farword true happiness and piece for the future scarfices as to be made even if its to kill to get there ppl are just like the main character who always wants to criticize and wants things to go there way...tbh i wouldn't differ a chance like this to change this wrld we living rn a wrld with no war no racism no killing no evil intentions BUT sadly a chance like that will never be cause these way of obtaining the power to change wrld like THAT is only FICTIONAL.

I wanted a continuation after s2 ToT

I guess marianne and charles for lelouch wasnt even born or being exist in the first place.

Lelouch created more problem than needed to be

Charles is right on on thing sin is a lie 👽👻

I like the video and it's very clear that you're inquisitive and thoughtful...but I HATE how you say "homogeneous"

So it’s just like Evangelion? Cool.

Uh no, if everyone knows everyones views logic foresee the lies and truth constantly, humanity would be only interested in only the best popular likely solutions

I see... Japanese culture

ZERO.

At least lelouch didn’t bend human will to serve him and instead allowed individuality to continue

Don't tell me you still haven't seen Evangelion.

Your camera is too close and your pronunciation of unconscious is hard to listen to but otherwise great anime and jungian anything is interesting

I did not like the emperor Charles' arc

so whats the idea of this mess ("masterpiece") ?