Morality in Code Geass - spoilers

[zaldar]

Ok lets talk about Code Geass, so granted the Britannia empire is a dictatorship and a dictatorship of the worst kind in that people are not equal under the law in it and it is trying to take over the entire world and impose their system on it. But is what Lelouch does to depose it moral? At first he really doesn't even care about the immorality of the empire just about what it did to him. Though even by the time he cares about the morality of the empire he still does some things that are pretty immoral. Leaving the country and tricking them so that they allow other people to go with him was fine (even if the idea was stolen from V) but what about all the times he used his power to override other peoples will? Is stealing someone else's free will ever justified? What about all the people he ended up killing when the flaya's were being launched? They certainly were not going to certain death of their own free will...

As well how long will what he did work? Yes all the hate at that time may have been directed on him so now with him gone it may not have a target but really how long does it take humans to find a target? I expect even without September 11th America would have found another target to hate after the communists were destroyed...

(Yes I know I'm looking for an intellectual discussion about a show that really isn't all that intellectual but ah well ;)

[Kusaja]

No, it's not an intellectual nor profound show per se, very few anime titles are, but it's still relatively interesting (for some of us, anyway) to discuss these issues, even if that requires either reading a little too much into them or just doing so for the heck of it.

Lelouch was sincere enough though, at least in the sense that he was willingly becoming evil in order to defeat what he considered the greater evil, as he himself mentioned at some point, which naturally remains morally questionable at the end of the day.

The answer would therefore be that no, he certainly wasn't above subverting other people's will but, ultimately, Lelouch did not escape from the consequences of the actions that he recognized as being part of his own responsibility, even if (and/or precisely because) he also arranged for his own punishment in the process.

As for what will happen later...while the show was at least tacitly aware of the fact that it wouldn't last forever, as shown by Schneizel's criticism of Lelouch's intentions and the brief discussion the imprisoned scientists had during the last episode about the existence of "progress" / "evolution" in spite of the same mistakes being repeated, the concept remains inherently idealistic: trusting that people will, no matter how long it takes, continue moving forward towards a better tomorrow.

It doesn't matter too much if the plan's new status quo begins to gradually break down in the following years or decades. As long as there are people who will do their best to follow that principle, the world will, regardless of any setbacks, improve.

[zaldar]

interesting take still thinking about my answers to these questions. I do disagree that few animes are philisophical though, or maybe I am just spoiled based on what I choose to watch. One of the things that attracts me to anime is the higher content of what I would call philisophical shows (evea, Lain, Ghost in the shell)

But yes this one definitly doesn't fit that mold. Still fun to think about though ;).