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

[valles_uf]

...My brain considers this, and produces the image of Draco-Lulu and Tiger-Kallen tussling...

...and her winning, and looking down at him with this kind of smug whiskery smirk.

And then C.C. says something about foreplay, and they both go back to being human and massively embarrassed by the truth.

[edenfalling]

Oh god, I can see it. *hides face* Stop making me want to find an actual plot for this!

[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

[askerian]

I stopped watching Code Geass about 15 episodes on, but if you wrote this I would be all over it. *__* it's AWESOME

[edenfalling]

As I actually consider the world-building this would require, I am beginning to think the opening situation is not quite the same as in canon. It's just close enough for government work, and some of the differences would need to be shown right away to lay groundwork for when things go noticeably askew from canon. Like maybe the infantry troops in Shinjuku have a least one person with a battle-useful manifestation assigned to each unit, in case the Japanese civilians also have manifestations and try to fight back. And maybe some people with avian manifestations do close-in surveillance work. Stuff like that

[Fic] "Made Manifest: Mother Wolf" -- Code Geass

[edenfalling]

Hey, so, this is pretty tangential to the actual story idea (which will not go away, argh), but it has a werewolf? Kinda?

Anyway, 825 words about Marianne vi Britannia.

---------------------------------------------
Made Manifest: Mother WolfMarianne gave birth to her first child in a tiny, bunker-like room in the basement of the hospital wing of the imperial palace. Charles did not attend. No one was notified of the event in advance. The only people present, aside from herself and the child, were a mousy young doctor, a rather bored nurse, and the soul reader

[Fic] "Made Manifest: Mother Wolf" -- Code Geass (continued)

[edenfalling]

Marianne pushed aside pain and bone-deep exhaustion and stood from the spartan bed, the loose, open-backed hospital gown barely long enough to reach her thighs. "You misunderstand me," she said. "I don't mean I'll make your life uncomfortable, or dismiss you from imperial service. I mean that I'll kill you. Painfully. With no appeal