the deeply stupid Code Geass idea I am not writing

[edenfalling]

I want this out of my head, so I am going to write up the scenario so as to (hopefully) lay it to rest.

The basic idea is to add one extra fantasy element to Code Geass (well, one element with subsections, as it were) and see what it does to the plot. Logically the plot should diverge from canon at some point, because otherwise there is no point

Comments

[vehrec]

The problem with this-as is the problem with most 'change one background thing and set up the AU with the same characters and the same world' is the disbelief issues. As an example, S. M. Stirling wrote a series of books about his distopia slavocratic south-africans who took over the entire world. The main problem with these books, is that despite the point of divergence being around 1780, by 1940, Hitler, Stalin and FDR are all in charge of their respective nations for the second world war, and planning to fight each other while ignoring the hypermilitaristic continent spanning slave state that has eaten up all of Africa and south east-central Asia up to Afghanistan.

I guess my point is-if the universe is so very, very different, why are the people and the events of it the same? It doesn't make much sense, even considering the show you're talking about.

[edenfalling]

I think this particular change would be less hard to justify than something like the one you mention, since it affects the whole world equally rather than affecting a single country with knock-on effects. So the backdrop would shift, but the characters and the broad outline of history would not need to change much. (For example, it does not make a huge amount of difference if Britannia wins with Knightmares alone, or with Knightmares plus dragons, so long as the basic effect of Britannia conquering Japan remains.) But yes, in anything more than a brief scenario-sketch vignette, the idea would need a hell of a lot of careful world-building and exposition to pull off convincingly.

Which is, of course, one of the reasons I am not writing it. :-)

[vehrec]

Mmm, I understand what you're saying, but in my opinion, global changes to the rules are more likely to cause the characters and the history to change. This one, especially because it has a change in the way people think, identifying with their other self more than humanity. That's got to have repercussions. For one thing, manifestation itself makes 'all men created equal' and other principles of the enlightenment openly false. That could mean no American or French revolution, no Napoleon, and who knows how many other things down the line as a result of that.

So it's good you won't have to do all that world-building. Because I think it would be more extensive than you think.

[edenfalling]

Um, going by your argument, different body sizes and IQs and genders make Enlightenment ideals openly false. And yet, clearly we had an Enlightenment. *wry* The idea, as I understand it, is not that everyone is created with the same abilities and interests and so on. The idea is that everyone should have a fair chance to do what they can with what they have, that everyone has dignity and is worthy of respect as a human being, and that if someone needs help to keep up, then you help them.

Also, remember that Code Geass is an alternate history to start with, and it seems to have a much more authoritarian bent over more than one society. China is still ruled by an imperial family, the American Revolution clearly did not win and Britannia is a sort of constitutional oligarchy at best and a complete autocracy at worst, Japan seems to have noble houses or some equivalent (though oddly not an emperor?), the EU may be more oligarchic than we see (since apparently Napoleon founded it, and while he came to power because of the French

[vehrec]

Well, maybe I can distract you by talking about a different plot.

The 'invalidation' idea was one that was proposed and rejected in a Star Wars fic I read. Two people were having a discussion about the nature of the Force and the political consequences of that mystical energy field. Interestingly, one of them was a Sith Acolyte, and the other was an Imperial Navy officer, so nobody was exactly promoting the Jedi as the guardians of truth and Justice. :P They did have very deep division of opinion on subjects like free will, political theory and ultimately, the best ways to kill each other.

They did say that it wasn't any sort of news that all people are unequal, that as long as one could succeed where another could fail, it would be true. The officer claimed that that had never been the point, but that the will of the force was the will of the people, that the republic had been hopelessly corrupt, and accordingly, its destruction and overthrow an act of long term good. A statement that incidentally, gave the Sith fits for being