Code Geass/Wall Banger

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Wall Bangers in Code Geass include:

• In episode 19 of the second season, Prince Schneizel goes to the Black Knights and tells them that Zero is a Britannian prince who is rotten to the core and may have used mind control on them. The Black Knights believe him sight unseen and instantly turn on Zero/Lelouch. That's right, the Knights choose to believe a bitter enemy over the commander who's fought alongside them for the past two years. They instantly attempt to kill Lelouch without even giving him a chance to explain himself! Almost every member of the Knights' leadership turns against him; by the time the conversation ends, no one dissents. This episode caused many Black Knights, most notably sub-commander Kaname Ohgi, to earn Scrappy points with the fanbase.
  • There's the theory that Ohgi did this so he could stay with Villetta.
  • Zero/Lelouch is a former Britannian prince, and Schneizel pretty much admits it. Thus, Lelouch probably has reasons for fighting Britannia. But the Knights choose to believe a current prince who was known to be shady and who just nuked Tokyo. DOES. NOT. COMPUTE.
  • Even if the series had given proper foreshadowing of the Black Knight's distrust, it wouldn't explain how Schneizel knew that the Black Knights would betray Zero. It would have made more sense for Schneizel to blast them to bits with his missiles.
  • What's worse is that the only thing - the only thing - that does make sense is Lelouch choosing to play along. After all, he knew that Schneizel had them cornered and if he tried to hard to convince them his brother was lying, they were all dead, so he lied to save them (especially Kallen). What doesn't make sense is that they turned to the proven Evil Prince over their long-time leader. While there are good reasons to not fully trust Zero (the abandonment for no apparent reason during the Black Rebellion, for one), siding with the man who nuked Tokyo is idiotic beyond words. At least Diethard, Tamaki and Kallen were reluctant to believe it at first, but Ohgi? EPIC - FAIL!!
    • Ohgi's fail goes beyond trusting Schneizel. He also trusted Villetta, the woman responsible for incapacitating him during the Black Rebellion, keeping Lelouch under close surveillance while they were imprisoned and thus being partly responsible for their year in jail and near-execution, and also going AWOL for her when she wanted to kill him, and he has the nerve to implicate him for all of this while defending the woman responsible. And somehow, the rest of the B Ks agree Lelouch is at fault instead. For obvious reasons, the ending is even worse. Can you say Never My Fault and Ungrateful Bastard?
    • This whole situation is made much worse by the fact that none of Schneizel's claims can come anywhere close to being proven. He tells them of Geass, which actually exists, but none of the Black Knights had ever heard of this or any other of the supernatural elements in the show before this and therefore had no reason to believe it. Even when we know that Schneizel was telling part of the truth about Geass, the Black Knights come off as massively gullible and honestly stupid for not laughing in his face about how insane his story is. It comes off as awkward when Schneizel's only "proof" is that a bunch of bad stuff happened that Lelouch might have been involved in and claiming that he has mind control powers with nothing to back that up, but the Black Knights, except for Tamaki, who at least didn't want to believe it at first, almost instantly accept this as fact.
• The hypocrisy here centered around Ohgi is another Wall Banger. Even though Lelouch is accused of abandoning the Black Knights during the Black Rebellion and harboring secrets, Ohgi is just as guilty of these with his season 1 tryst and unrequited love for Villetta Nu, which compelled him to sneak away from his duties and allowed him to be nearly killed by her in Turn 15 when she wanted to sever her ties with Zero and the Black Knights. Most of all, despite his own objections to people being used as pawns, which he voices repeatedly, he uses Kallen, the one person who trusts Zero/Lelouch and knows him well enough to defend him, to bait him into the warehouse to be executed; Ohgi almost shoots her down as well, but is stopped when Lelouch tells Kallen that she was nothing more than a pawn, pushing her away to have her spared. Afterwards, Ohgi doesn't apologize. Not to mention that he asked for Japan in exchange for Zero, which is tantamount to if not downright worse than Zero going AWOL during the Black Rebellion, as it would have constituted a mutiny on the Black Knights' role as military protection force of the UFN. At least when Suzaku was about to inject Kallen with Refrain, he not only stopped himself, but also attempted to apologize. For all his issues during season 2, at least Suzaku had a sense of decency, even if it was still a vain attempt to distance himself from Zero.
  • Kallen was trying to get them to see reason when they asked her to move. They just accused her of being under the sway of Geass. Ohgi used her as bait because he thought that if she tried to defend her commander like any rational military officer would do in the presence of such a mutiny, then she must be under his control. Complete idiocy. As for giving back Japan, Schneizel never made good on that deal (after all, those idiots never delivered their end), as that flash-forward two episode later shows. Milly is still in Japan doing her job and only even starts thinking of Area 11 as Japan after Lelouch gives them the country for nothing in return.
    • The thing with Kallen is even more of a wallbanger once you remember that the Black Knights never TOLD her about Geass, Lelouch being Zero, or all the crimes he committed. They just send her to bring him to the hanger. When she tries to defend him, which she was bound to do since he just broke her out of prison hours before, they accuse her of being under the effect of Geass -- without telling her what Geass is. Kallen may have known about all that stuff, but the Black Knights don't know that. Way to treat your ace pilot who was just broken out of imprisonment on the verge of execution. Naoto must be rolling in his grave right now.
  • Schneizel doesn't give them Japan because he then sends Suzaku to kill the Emperor. Gino overhears and then tells his boss, Bismarck. Trying to do anything using his official power would result in him being hunted down and killed by an angry, Super Elite, Geass-Using soldier. This doesn't seem to clue any of the Black Knights in on his nature.
• Kallen goes up against Xing-ke while low on energy. That's not the Wallbanger. It's unwise; but Kallen, as the Ace Pilot of the group, is supposed to take on the strongest opponents (Xing-ke had just effortlessly mopped the floor with Chiba). On the other hand, the entire Order of the Black Knights standing around and watching her fight Xing-ke one-on-one without helping her when they know she's low on energy and when most of their army (including Chiba and Asahina) is deployed and ready to act - that's headdesk inducing.
  • Part of the problem was that both units were flight capable. We see later that they probably have a hell of a time attaching those things on the hangar floor. It's done in advance. Simply put, there wasn't anyone there to help. But it does raise the question of what the hell Asahina was doing the whole time, even if he would have gotten his ass kicked. Chiba was hardly beaten soundly, either -- she only lost a sword. Both of them were in a position to assist but didn't.
  • Lelouch's shiny new toy is at most a couple hours from being ready. Indestructible defense and a giant cannon is not useful? Especially considering how conflicted Lelouch is about it.
  • What makes this even more of a Wallbanger is it essentially amounted to nothing. Kallen stays captured for seven (Halfway through Turn 10 to Halfway through Turn 18) episodes, and the only real reason for this is an excuse for an end-of-season upgrade and to make Suzaku see how much of an ass he's being, either of which did not need to see Kallen captured for seven episodes to do. What should have been the main point, namely learning more about Lelouch, is utterly thrown away not one episode after she comes back when the Black Knights betray Lelouch. It's not even brought up beyond a passing mention just prior to said event, and Kallen's just as easily manipulated before as she was after.
• Code Geass hit the wall during episodes 21, 22, and 23 of Season 1, where it turns out that Lelouch's fatal flaw was not his pride, his inability to put aside his personal issues for the greater good, nor even his growing Messiah Complex. No, it's his carelessness. Euphie's fairly competent if naive plan to restore autonomy to Japan with Lelouch's aid is undone because Lelouch accidentally Geasses her with an evil command while trying to warn her that he could Geass her with an evil command. Now we'll never know if Euphie would have, without that Geass, gone forward with her plan once she realized she was being used as a pawn.
  • The Brittanian soldiers restrained Lulu when he was trying to stop Euphie from starting the genocide. This makes The Mutiny even more of a wall banger. Get out a security camera of what happened that day; Lelouch was close enough to what happened that his being grabbed by the soldiers would have been caught on tape--and surely it wasn't taped over, not with what happened right afterward. Granted, Lelouch is smart and could have been passed off as acting, but that would have warranted an investigation just to determine any damage he's responsible for, which would no doubt have led to somebody stumbling upon concrete proof of his decent, if not fully innocent, character. Especially when his way of pushing away Kallen makes it seem like geassing the Black Knights on foot into in-fighting and creating a third massacre makes too much sense for the sociopath he was already believed to be.
• What happened to the battleship Great Britannia? A bunch of Knightmares suddenly appear but never had a battleship to transport them? And if it was there... then why does Lelouch take the Avalon, a flying yacht in every way inferior as his flagship in a battle with better-equipped battleships on BOTH sides, including other "Great Britannia"-class battleships?
• Question: What happens to every city, town and village within a hundred miles of Mount Fuji after Lelouch sets it off? There are no government disaster management teams to help the civilians evacuate -- they are too busy fighting. A big deal was made about what happened in Narita in season 1. This would be like Narita times a hundred, but no one mentions it.
  • The same thing happens with Tokyo. The center of Tokyo is destroyed, pretty much leaving only the poor people and crippling Japan's economy. This is ignored; the implication is that they just rebuilt and the economy magically got better. Considering the destruction that the war has caused, the world economy should probably be crippled.
• To this tropette, Nina's Freak-Out and Heel Face Turn qualify as Character Derailment of the worst kind. One moment she wanted nothing more than to drop FLEIJA on Tokyo to kill Zero and avenge her beloved Euphemia... and one second later she gets all My God, What Have I Done?? As if she couldn't even suspect that the weapon she built herself was capable of such destruction! You know, Nina, for a supposed Teen Genius, you are pretty damn retarded. I know that the destruction of Tokyo was mainly Schneizel's fault, but... really, it looked like the producers were saying: "Yes, we know Nina is an absolute bitch with no redeeming qualities at all, but can you viewers just pretend she's actually a tragic character?". Well, for what concerns this tropette, it utterly failed. She will never stop hating Nina or considering her a Karma Houdini.
  • Made worse because she tested the weapon in a non-inhabited area before it was ever used in battle and was happy with the result. She should not have been surprised by how powerful the one in Tokyo was.
    • One could almost be impressed with how the writers managed to make Nina even more hated, if it wasn't for the fact they were clearly trying for the opposite effect. These are the same people who managed to turn Jeremiah into such a badass?
  • At the very least, they tried something in order to redeem her. Seriously, so many other characters got off absolutely scot free for their actions it's not even funny.
• In R2, Lelouch goes Heroic BSOD after he learns Nunally has been made viceroy of Area 11. He's unable to think of a military plan that would free Area 11 without harming Nunally. He gets over his Heroic BSOD and perform the "one million miracle" and exiles the Black Knights to the Chinese Federation. Here, he rebuilds his power base, gathers weapons, and forges alliances; this leads to the birth of U.F.N., which is capable of challenging Britannia. The U.F.N.'s first resolution is to free Area 11 from occupation, which means Lelouch has to confront Nunally IN AN ARMED MILITARY INTERVENTION!!! Lelouch goes mad because he can't figure out a plan to free Area 11 without harming his sister. Why didn't he try to formulate one between Turn 07 and Turn 16?! He knew it would have come to that eventually!
  • Short Answer: He got over it. He had a problem with it at first, then he sucked it up.
  • Also, his main obstacle to a plan was not so much armed conflict against Nunnally so much as it was armed resistance from within the Area against Nunnally. He was terrified of her getting caught up in a guerrilla war. Worse, he didn't want her to restart the SAZ, which would either destroy the Black Knights or result in another massacre - not something he wanted for Nunnally. Furthermore, if she failed as Viceroy, she would have been eaten alive by Britannia - Lelouch couldn't defeat her without making sure he could get her to safety - hence his "capture Nunnally" orders during the Second Battle of Tokyo.
• Schneizel putting his king in check, and then declaring a victory by announcing "checkmate." The shallow justification of Chess being nothing more than a metaphor doesn't help. Sure, it's not his victory he's announcing, but someone should have called him on it.
• The scene where Lelouch defeats his Instrumentality-happy parents is dripping with hypocrisy, not only on his part, but also on the part of the writers. Lelouch objects to their plan because, among other things, it would remove free will from humanity. So, to stop them he uses his Geass on the collective consciousness of humankind -- you know, the one that forces you to obey his command... Then, when Marianne claims that they did what they had to do because they cared about their children, Lelouch counters with them not understanding "the meaning in Nunally's smile". Most of what Lelouch does in the story has been to create a better world for Nunally, which as she later points out, SHE NEVER ASKED HIM TO DO IN THE FIRST PLACE! He just decided what would be best for her on his own, just his own parents did for the human race. Clearly, Lelouch's domineering love is better than theirs. What makes it painful is that you get the feeling that the writers wanted to make all these points about life and love and hope, but forgot what had happened already and who they were having say what!
  • Note: the wallbanger is not "Lelouch stops Instrumentality" (we're all for that), it's "Lelouch stops Instrumentality in a manner so agonizingly hypocritical that the ends DO NOT justify the means despite it being Instrumentality."
    • The argument for this being a Wall Banger seems to be that Lelouch used mind-control to save free will, but that's a case of end justifying the means. Lelouch controlled free will for a moment so that it wouldn't be lost forever. That the guy whose superpower is controlling minds chooses to save free will is ironic, but it could be on purpose. Besides, Lelouch was never a saint.
    • It also seems to imply that by having their actions be similar to his, it's a possibly intentional case of Not So Different that not so much the characters, but the viewers are meant to cue in on. This is a theme in the latter part of the series. A theme of whose morality, if anyone's, is better than that of others.
• It's Euphemia's death that is the BIGGEST Wall Banger. In a previous episode, Mao gets miraculously healed despite getting shot several times in fatal areas because of "advanced Britannian medicine", Euphie gets shot once, once, yet somehow no treatment could save her!!!
• C.C. clearly knew from the start that Lelouch's Geass would become so powerful it would require a special contact lens for him to maintain control of it. Why in the fuck would she withhold that kind of information from him? As a result, Princess Euphemia's blood is as much on her hands as it is Lelouch's.
  • C.C. did tell Lelouch, after his battle with Mao she told him that sooner or later that his geass would get out of control. The Wall Banger for this troper is when there are signs of this happening, when he tried to geass a britannia he started to feel pain in his EYE!! So instead of talking to C.C. about it never even occur to him that geass power is acting strange. His ultimate secret weapon is acting weird and he never acknowledge it, him the Chessmaster.

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