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

[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 Revolution, he was not exactly in favor of unfettered democracy -- promotion for merit, sure, but promotion to a sort of faux-aristocracy). So even if manifestation led to a less egalitarian view of the world, I think that would mesh fairly well with the alternate history we are already given.

...Annoyingly, the more you make me think about this, the more I actually kind of want to find a plot and write it. *headdesk*

[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 accused of acting on behalf of 'good'. That at the very least, equality before the law was important because it gave the illusion of consent, and it was spiritually important because the Force really was in all things and all beings. It was good, interesting theory, but spread out over more than 30 chapters and I've never been able to make sense of the whole thing in summary.