Wow. This one's pretty embarrassing, not going to lie.
Perhaps I really had forgotten to take off the Rozé-tinted shades after all, because it turns out that a lot of assumptions I made about the new Code Geass were, flat out, wrong. For instance, I had not been aware that the first 3 episodes were already previewed, to a select group of people in Japan. For the benefit of anyone that didn't get to watch this compilation, I'm going to go ahead and point out exactly which points I was absolutely wrong on.
Rozé and Ash are not twins. This one is way more clear in episode 2, where they reveal the two are not related, at all. Rozé is Sakuya's alter-ego that she's playing for the benefit of Ash, who she has brainwashed with her Geass, after he had murdered her father. She intends to wield Ash as a weapon against her enemies, then murder him herself. Still pretty cool, I must admit this premise is intriguing, but not what I was hoping for. It seems this show is really committed to re-creating that Lelouch/Suzaku frenemies dynamic. I teased in my first article that NOT ALL GOOD IDEAS HAVE TO BE NEW, but in this case, they really went with the old idea and pressed send.
"But wait! Sakuya still has a twin sister. named Sakura, you were still sort of right!" Nope. Even that, which I failed to point out in my first post, is directly contradicted by the second episode. Sakura is only masquerading because she's Sakuya's royal body-double. No magic, no illusions. Sakura seems to imply that they're not even related, and that Sakuya shouldn't even be going to great lengths to save her. We'll see how this one plays out, but I'm disappointed to say the least.
Speaking of "no magic, no illusions," they seem to have already abandoned the magic and illusions motif. Sakuya is shown taking off her Rozé hair, very plainly, several times throughout this episode. When Sakuya did this in front of Greede in the first episode, I thought it was still fairly ambiguous which of her personalities was the main one in control. The magic has been stripped away, and what's left is someone just using a magical voice-changer, of unknown origin, to play Superhero. Again, this is pretty cool, but completely opposite of how I read it initially.
I thought, for sure, the one thing that I nailed was that Sakuya's Geass forces her victim to make an immediate, uncomfortable choice. Even in this, I was wrong. In the second episode, Sakuya uses her Geass on multiple people, and to (probably only) my surprise, it's exactly the same as Lelouch's from the first series. No choice necessary, that was just some extra flair Sakuya threw at the camera in front of Greede. but it had nothing to do with the mechanics of the power itself. This one I really should have seen coming, but only hindsight is perfect.
I don't think Code Geass: Rozé of the Recapture is a terrible show, but I was clearly wrong about a lot of things. For me, it's still a new entry in a classic franchise, with really great action scenes, and some intriguing plot elements. I mentioned that I had been reading a lot of Joe Abercrombie lately, and maybe for that reason I was immediately sold on the bloody scene of Gran and Greede firing relentlessly at innocent Elevens. I began to read the rest of the episode more generously. It's a cool show you might be interested to check out, but hardly the artful masterpiece I thought it was. But what do I know? Just remember guys, I'm no expert. I'm just An Orc.
No comments:
Post a Comment