Code Geass/Headscratchers/Code and Geass Mechanics

• What happens when you give a paradoxical order with Lelouch's Geass? For example, Alice has Lelouch's Geass, and Bob makes a promise to never keep another promise after the one he has just made. Alice Geasses him into always following his promises. What happens?
  • Any paradoxical Geassing will not work. That's not just my opinion. Remember R2 episode 13? Lelouch tries to Geass Shirley into living, but her wounds were too great for Geass to save her. Proof that Geass cannot cause physical impossibilities to happen.
• Why exactly did Geassing the Human Consciousness cause Charles and Marianne to die?
  • I always took that as they were sacrificed to make the world have a tomorrow.
  • They had just tried to kill said thing. I imagine it was none to pleased about that when it was given the chance to express its opinion.
  • Eyes are the windows to the soul. Technically speaking, the human consciousness was man's collective soul (hooray for cheap band references!). So when Lelouch geasses a person through their vision, he's actually geassing their soul. So by the transitive property, if there is a soul by itself it can be geassed without eye contact.
    • That doesn't really address the question, though. Lelouch just asked them to not let time stop, and through whatever reasoning the World of C decided Charles and Marianne had to go.
    • The question had already been answered, I just explained how it could be geassed before anyone tries to ask that question.
    • And you completely ignored Charles and Marianne.
    • From what I can tell, the two had thrown their will into the sword of Akashic. Once the sword was destroyed, so was Lelouch's parents.
  • Maybe it was just the only way to could actually stop the process they started?
  • Is this good enough for a physical explanation? Charles and marianne's counsciousness are wiped out and their physical body have a stroke or something(leaving them brain-dead), then Lelouch dumped them out of some window or into the sea off-screen.
  • The way I took it was this: the Collective Consciousness was merely an inactive force, and Charles and Marianne's plan was to build a "bridge" to it then use the power of the Codes to force humanity to be totally honest. Lelouch argued that such a plan would destroy any future for humanity and Geassed the Collective Consciousness to not let that happen. This results in the Collective Consciousness absorbing Charles and Marianne (since C's World seems to be a spiritual realm rather than a physical one), preventing them from completing their plan. Note that Marianne seems shocked that C.C. isn't being absorbed, but she explains this by saying that she rejected their plan a long time ago, meaning the Collective Consciousness doesn't see her as a threat.
  • I thought this was fairly clear, actually. Charles even wonders aloud why C.C. isn't disappearing despite having been in on the plan to begin with; she answers that she finally realizes (what they're doing is wrong). Implicit: Charles and Marianne are erased because they believe unshakably that the Ragnarok Connection was the right thing to do, and would therefore never have stopped pursuing it unless they died. (The collective unconscious of humanity can be reasonably expected to know this, because, immortal Code or Geass-sustained body-less consciousness notwithstanding, they're still both human and therefore it has access to their minds.)
• If a contact lens is enough to contain the Geass's power while it's unable to be turned off, then would contact lenses also be sufficient protection against it for a target? If not, what makes Lelouch's special?
  • It's not a normal contact lens. CC had it made specially. We don't know the details, and she pretty much says outright that eventually it won't be capable of stopping it.
    • Actually, yes. Lelouch says so in the fifth or so episode of the first season that his Geass seems to be based on light (which is why he could Geass himself with a mirror). He was confused when CC handed him the contact lens because he knew that a normal colored one would be enough to stop his Geass. What CC's special lens do? We do not yet know.
    • Unless this troper is mistaken, colored contact lenses only color the irises. Since the light enters through the pupil, you would have to get specially made lenses. On top of that, the only color that they would be (if any; they might be clear) would be Lelouch's eye color.
    • I assume at least one of its special functions is to hide the glowing red shooting bird light in his freaking eye! It's obviously visible as Lelouch sees other users' geass in their eyes. XD This question does make me wonder how he hides the OTHER eye when they both light up...?
    • A second contact lens.
    • Actually, Lelouch has already gained control of his Geass at that time.
    • He has fully awakened it, but it's still stuck. He just uses two lenses now - see his gesture before using it, that's when he removes them.
    • I always understood that the other characters can't SEE the way the eye changes when somebody uses Geass. Nobody ever says, "What the heck is wrong with your eye?!" or anything to that effect. I assumed it was just an effect the animators chose to show so we knew when a character was using Geass.
    • No, the characters notice Geass eyes. See Lelouch's reaction to Mao when Mao removes his visor for a second.
    • Maybe only Geass users are able to notice Geass in others? In most conversations, Lelouch wears his contact lenses anyhow, to prevent any accidental Geass'ing. Those he actually uses it on can't remember it.
• What would have happened if Lelouch had ordered Mao to "pay no attention to the voices you hear from your Geass"?
  • Best guess? He'd still be aware of the voices but they would be like white noise in the back of his head. Kind of like when you are reading something while the television is on. You can still hear it, and at times it is distracting depending on how loud it is, but for the most part you don't really notice it because your attention is focused elsewhere.
    • Mao's visor probably does negate Lelouch's Geass as shown in episode 14. Lelouch tries to Geass Mao the moment Mao shows him the Geass eyes but Mao lifts the visor again before the command can be given.
    • Really, what I'm trying to get at is: would it essentially have solved Mao's problem and rendered Lelouch's worst enemy harmless (aside from the residual crazy)? We've seen in R2 that the effect of one Geass can "seal" another if used in the correct way.
    • Geass has a limited duration. It would only delay the confrontation, and when Mao returned, even more crazy than ever, the Geass wouldn't work again. As it was he kinda blew it and used it on a trivial command, but silencing Mao at least meant he wouldn't be able to manipulate anyone, and he could be hunted down.
    • Geass has a limited duration? Since when? None of the commands Lelouch has given have ever worn off unless they were specifically limited. For example, his 'Live!' command to Suzaku is still working fine.
    • Since always. Remember way back in the early days of the series he uses the Geass on a student to tell her to make a mark on a wall every day so he can figure out how long it lasts. In episode 5 of R2 you see him walk past that wall, and the last mark is half complete. Which means it has run out. At most, a Geass lasts about a year.
    • The problem here is that student is no longer at the school. She might have been interrupted by the Black Rebellion in the application of the mark. By bullets. Or she just might have left.
    • Actually, I'm almost positive that the anime hinted at that being the reason the marks even stopped, as the whole point of the student's existence is to show the viewer that Geass DOESN'T have a limited duration.
    • Also, Lelouch's order for Suzaku to continue living is still in effect, as seen in episode 7 of R2, and it has been more than a year since it has been issued.
    • According to an official newsletter, the girl returned to Britannia along with the rest of the school, but at a certain time each day attempts to return to Ashford to mark the wall. Her parents and doctors believe she is sleepwalking, presumably because the Geass comes into effect during the night in Britannia.
    • As well, and this troper may very well be mistaken, but I think that her pattern was to alternate one vertical and one horizontal line, that half-mark being between an odd (or maybe even) day since the start.
• Outside of the moral concerns, I have some problems with Lelouch being able to use his geass to make people slaves and to a lesser extent what he did to Schneizel. Given that the power is one use only for him, to give a command like that is almost like the proverbial "wishing for unlimited wishes" concept- you would think it is not an option. I'd expect, that for the command to work, it would render whoever he does that to incapable of anyting, even using the bathroom or breathing without Lelouch's command. Ordering Schneizel to obey Zero makes a bit more sense, since the phrasing implies that the command makes the person have enormous good will towards Lelouch and thus they can still think independently while being ultra-loyal. At best, maybe this is what is supposed to have happened with the command for people to be Lelouch's slaves.
  • Actually, it looks like ordering Schneizel to obey Zero was all part of the plan. That way, he ensures that Schneizel will continue to serve the new order after his Heroic Sacrifice.
  • In any case, despite it being an obvious thing to try, the first time we see Le Louch successfully Geassing people to "Become my slave!" is after his Geass reaches its full, binocular potential in R2 episode 21, at which point it may have transcended any or all of its former limitations.
    • Before that, in episode 20, he geassed Britannian soldiers to "do as I please", and that was with a one-eye Geass.
    • I always assumed Lelouch could always have done the "obey my orders" command but chose not to for ethical reasons.
  • Well, the other way it backfires is what if he needs them in capacities other than mindless servants? This is probably why he didn't do that before episode 20; it would be a lot harder to keep the secret of Geass if a bunch of important people just started, say, always turning to Lelouch before answering a question.
• A stupid question but oh, well... If an individual possessing the Code has his or her name written in a Death Note, will they die? What happens to their Code, then?
  • We all found out that Charles was still "killed" by God even though he stole V.V.'s code, so I wouldn't call it a TRUE immortality.
    • That's rather flawed logic. It is immortality in every conventional sense of the word. God, being omnipotent, can remove the Code because it is the one who, presumably, created the Code. Plus, Charles wasn't just killed, he was erased from existence.
  • Unstoppable Force, Immovable Object and all that.
    • My guess is that they would have the heart attack, or whatever, then regenerate from the damage.
  • Alternately, Nightmare Fuel, the code prevents their dying but the note commands them to die, as a result they spend the rest of eternity in a constant half living half dead state, dying over and over again without sufficient time to do anything to free themselves from said state.
    • That is interesting. They'd die every 40 seconds from painful heart attacks...
    • Death Notes have a maximum age limit, so eventually the Code bearer wouldn't be affected anymore.
    • Regardless, the Death Note dismisses impossible commands, such as telling a prisoner in Japan to jump off the Eiffel Tower in the next 40 seconds. The prisoner is physically unable to die that way by any stretch of the imagination. While the prisoner defaults to a heart attack, since a heart attack won't kill a Code user, the default will be treated as impossible. The Death Note will only work if it details a plausible situation in which they would lose the Code.
    • If Light ever heard about a "code" and "immortality," he'd probably figure out a way to make himself immortal.
    • So basically put all he would have to do would be to write "X dies after giving me the immortality code"?
  • The person who has the code would die. Rember, Shinigami are gods, and gods have been shown to be able to kill people with codes.
    • The person would die only if their name was written by a Shinigami then. If a regular person wrote down the name it wouldn't pan out quite as well.
    • Shinigami couldnt kill a Code user, it will "make them stop living" but then they would come back to life, the only reason Charles and Marianne died is because they were written out of existence.
    • Which brings up the question of how many years a Shinigami would get for death noting a code user.
    • However many years that person had before trasnferring their code and dying. That or they'd get the Abbadon treatment a la Torchwood and die of and overdose.
• Didn't Lelouch ever think of trying to get around the 'one Geass per person' restriction by giving a command like "obey all future orders given to you by Lelouch Lamperouge or Zero"?
  • Yes. The reason he didn't do at first is most likely that he thought that would have been just a bit too evil.
    • Seems very unlikely for Lelouch. It is more plausible that he was not able to do this until his Geass fully activated
    • It only seems unlikely later in the series. Early on, Lelouch is a hero and he only uses the Geass on evil people and if the order won't harm the person (make a mark on this wall everyday). Later he starts to become more evil and dishes out plenty of "Become My Slave!" Geasses.
    • Keep in mind that Lelouch has respect for free will. He explicitly makes a point of not geassing people into becoming his allies, but rather trying to convince them by conventional means. So he uses Geass either to get a one-time favor or get rid of someone. As for full potential, see above about R2 episode 20, which was before that.
  • Using his geass in this way would draw attention. Imagine what would happen if he had to interact with the person incognito (through chance of course). If he asked them to get him a coffee it would go off and they would zombie-fetch it for him.
• How much intelligence does Schneizel retain? Is he still a full-fledged Chessmaster who just think his priority is to serve anyone he recognizes as Zero, or just a mindless puppet waiting to obey whatever commands he is give? If he is still intelligent, then wouldn't he at some point question why he is so loyal? Would he still have his memories and be able to put two and two together? "Hmm...I know Zero has this geass thing that can brainwash people. I once was against him. Now I feel compelled to obey Zero. Hmmmm..."
  • Think about Suzaku. He also had a permanent Geass on him, but retained his free will in every situation he was not facing death. I assume it works the same with Schneizel. He is still as intelligent as before, but it's impossible for him to even think about going against Zero.
  • Even if he were to figure out that he's under Geass, what difference would it make? Knowing that he's under Geass would not cancel the Geass, so he'd still be compelled to obey Zero.
    • How would he even find out he's been Geassed? Lelouch can't tell him due to lacking a body, same goes for Diethard, Suzaku won't tell him because if he does he risks getting Schneizel as an enemy and he can't fight Schneizel now the Lelouch is gone. The only person left to tell him is Kanon and we don't know what happened to him.
  • Would it be possible for him to defeat the command with rational arguments? "I knew Lelouch was Zero. Now Lelouch is dead, killed by this Zero. Ergo, he's not the real Zero and I don't have to obey him." Or more simply yet, he can put on a Zero costume himself...
    • But it's obviously Lelouch's intention for him to serve Zero. If he rationalized Lelouch as being the only Zero, he'd still have to serve Lelouch, no? And "serving" Lelouch would mean doing what he wants, which would, rationally, be serving the new Zero.
    • I'd assume that the Geass would prevent him from even thinking about thinking along those lines.
    • Why should it? If a random person, without a costume and without any indication of being Zero at all came up to him and said "I am Zero, obey me" would he have to obey them? If so, that's a pretty major flaw that wasn't really stated in the Geass command (so no Literal Genie nonsense) and if not, then the Geass allows him the freedom to question claims to Zerohood, so why would he not be permitted to question a costumed Zero?
    • Who would be able to get close to Schneizel, while impersonating a figure that high up in the system? What idea did the person have that it would work? This is an improbable scenario in any case, so it shouldn't happen. Even if it did, Lelouch had time to offer more commands (Something like "Only support Zero's ideals", or "Check the identity and ensure the previous Zero is dead before accepting the order of another"... etc, etc)
  • For that matter, whom does Schneizel recognize as Zero? First it was Lelouch even though he wasn't wearing the costume (because Schneizel knew he was Zero), now it's Suzaku. (Does Schneizel know his identity?) Is he compelled to obey anyone who dons a Zero costume?
    • It's probably not that simple. Zero isn't just the costume. He's also a resistance leader, an ideal, so on.
    • The simplest explanation is that some point between then and Lelouch's death, Lelouch told Schneizel that Suzaku would be Zero upon his death, and as such should be treated as Zero in his absence.
    • Lelouch had already set up a work-around when he had Zero exiled from Japan/Area 11. He declared that Zero was an idea, not a person and therefore who ever represents the idea of Zero, a masked man who fights for justice, is infact Zero.
  • There was an episode where millions of people dressed up as Zero and were recognized by the government as such. This was because Zero had become more than a person, he was a symbol of the Japanese people's collective strive for justice. It could be that Schneizel will feel obligated to obey that vague idea of justice.
  • The simplest answer is probably, "No, he would never follow that train of thought". They show repeatedly that Lelouche's Geass commands affect a person's memory of their actions when carrying out his orders. They even describe Suzaku's attempts a preserving his own life as "black outs" with no memory of his actions, just the apparent results. It's probably safest to say that the Geass completely re-wrote Schniezel's personality. He's still a devious, ruthless, calculating, person, just one that obeys someone else's explicit instructions. He simply wouldn't recognize his loyalty to Zero as being wrong
• It has been clearly stated that Rolo's Geass has nothing to do with time manipulation, but just with stopping the victims perception of time. Then how is it possible that sometimes people are frozen while moving, or even just leaning to one side? Their own momentum should make them fall over.
  • Maybe they tense up and stay in one position, like they're all playing Statue? They never shown us what happens to people who are straight out running in the series.
  • Presumably they are mind controlled into standing still since all Geass seem to be based on some form of mind control, so they try to stay in one position as much as they are able.
  • May I remind you of Rolo's Heroic Sacrifice where he used his Geass until he dies? Well, there were helicopters...the pilots were frozen...and the helicopters fell into the Ocean.
  • They are not at all consistent with how Rolo's Geass works. Rolo should have clearly died in episode 2 of R2. When Urabe stabs Rolo's mech and explodes, Rolo survives thanks to his Geass by "warping" out of the way. However, as his Geass doesn't actually stop time, he shouldn't have been able to get away from that explosion. While everyone else's perception may have been stopped, the explosion wouldn't have been. However, at other times, his Geass has worked exactly like it's supposed to. For instance, when he Geassed Suzaku in episode 6 of R2 so that Lelouch could speak with Nunnally and when he helped Lelouch escape in episode 19. Sometimes Rolo's Geass works as advertised and sometimes it's more like he's warping around. If anything, I'd say that what is generally the case is that Rolo's Geass works as advertised when we see it from his point of view but it's frequently done improperly (i.e. it looks like he's warping and nothing else moves) when shown from anyone else's point of view. Of course, even that's not always the case (e.g. when he Geasses girls at the school in episode 12 of R2, they stopped moving completely instead of falling due to their momentum). The definitely explained how Rolo's Geass works, so that's quite clear, but they don't always follow those rules when showing him use it.
    • Rolo's escape in episode 2 of R2 makes a bit more sense when you take a closer look at what was going on, Urabe pinned Rolo in a non critical area and stuck himself in a way that, when he moves his sword downwards, his Knightmare will blow up. Rolo realised this and froze Urabe just as he was about to move his sword, then Rolo broke free, careful not to move Urabe sword downwards. Urabe then unfroze and, unaware that Rolo had freed himself, struck the critical part of his Knightmare blowing himself up.
  • On the subject of Rolo's Geass, how exactly was Lelouch able to deduce it anyway? I mean, yeah, the whole "I was counting time in my head and now I'm off" thing, but if I'm not mistaken he didn't even suspect Rolo of having a Geass power, let alone have any idea what that power might be. He was shocked when Rolo first used it on him in Turn 3 -- and not just as an act to throw Rolo off balance. The verbal reaction we hear is in his head, as evidenced by the pronoun used ("He stopped time," not "You stopped time.") So why was he counting time in the first place? Talk about Crazy Prepared...
    • Actually, he just noticed the time display in the corner of his eye jump forwards ~thirty seconds instantly.
• So, Lelouch is under a Geass-- something to the effect of "forget about telling Suzaku which wire to cut". Everyone else we see acting under the Geass's effects has a weird rim around their irises-- and if the effect is permanent (like the Geass Lelouch placed on himself), the rim around their irises is apparently also permanent. So why don't Lelouch's eyes show this?
  • We don't see Lelouch acting under the effects of the Geass instruction he gave himself. By the time he's left the room with Suzaku he's already carried out the instruction, and then forgotten about doing it. Everyone under a Geass command forgets what they do under it completely, so he doesn't have to include that in the instruction, he can use a highly specific one time instruction which won't trigger again.
    • For him to even come up with the idea would give it away to Mao even if he didn't remember doing it-- so the memory loss can't (all) be because he was already Geassed; that would leave an odd dead-end "aha! I'll erase my own memory!" for Mao to see (and, unless he's even stupider that he seems, deduce the meaning of). So the order itself is to forget-- or to believe something (but it can't have been to believe something false or he wouldn't have realized at the end because he'd've been Geassed to still believe it even if he saw undeniable proof, right?)-- so any time he so much as thinks about that, he should have the rims around his irises. Right? (Then again, I don't recall Shirley's eyes doing that either, which makes even less sense than this.)
    • The outline may be simply a visual cue for the viewers and not a visible effect, since the characters never comment on the Mind Control Eyes and don't even seem to notice them. In that case, Lelouch not having them is a matter of convenience; he's still under the effect of the Geass (at least until he gets Jeremiah, at which point he could have removed the effect offscreen). And the self-Geassing could have been phrased like, for example, "forget I gave the order, and forget I ever thought of coming up with the idea for this Geass, until Mao is defeated". Although Lelouch never engages in such lengthy, anti-Literal Genie wording, at least onscreen.
    • On an unrelated note: it's consistent throughout the series that people Geassed to forget something don't get the eye glow, even though it counts as a permanent Geass effect and can be removed by Jeremiah's Geass canceller (resulting in them getting the memories back). Case in point: Shirley.
    • Exactly. The red rim around the eyes only appears when the Geass is directly affecting the person. For instance, the "Live" Geass command that Suzaku is under only appears when his life is in danger and the Geass is necessary to keep him alive. When affected by a command to forget, they forget more or less instantly, so the command is no longer necessary. They've already forgotten, so they're not really under the effect of the Geass anymore and the rims around the eyes don't appear. No one who is affected by the Emperor's Geass ever has red rims around their eyes. Their memories are altered immediately when they're Geassed, so there's no need for the Geass effect to continue, so there's no red rim around their eyes. The red rims appear only when being directly affected by a Geass.
    • The red rims issue has obviously been addressed: it doesn't apply to commands that deal strictly with memory. As for why Mao didn't figure out Lelouch's plot, this is most because one of the conditions of Mao's Geass is that he needs to focus to use it. Yes, he always picks up surface thoughts due to Power Incontinence, but we know that even this is reduced if Mao focuses intently enough on one thing. In order to pick up on the gaps in Lelouch's memory, Mao would need to, first off, suspect such a ploy in the first place, and then to dig far below the surface of Lelouch's conscious thought. This would require taking attention away from Lelouch's current strategizing...which, given Lelouch's brilliance, is probably not a wise thing to do. It may have been a bit of a gamble on Lelouch's part, but the odds were definitely in his favor and it's not at all unreasonable that it paid off.
  • I had always assumed the red-rimmed irises were simply a visual cue for the audience, since they are never once pointed out by anyone within the show. In this case, showing them on Lelouche's eyes at any point in those scenes would have given away the ending. Assuming this is not the case, well... It's pure speculation to even try to guess why he didn't have the irises since we are never given any details of Lelouch's plan, nor his exact command to himself. Suzaku tells him, "After you showed me which wire to cut, you said to burst in when I heard you scream" (indicating at the very least that Lelouch executed a successful Batman Gambit on himself). For the sake of speculation, Lelouch could have gotten back in the elevator and given himself something as simple as, "Forget everything you just told Suzaku, and go confront Mao at the church face to face." Given what has already been established about how his Geass commands affect a person's memory, that would empty his mind of not only the master stroke, but also absolutely everything except whatever challenge Mao posed him (the chess game) and account for Mao's taunt of Lelouch showing up with absolutely no plan at all, as well as Lelouch's response to that taunt (not feeling wierded out by going there without a plan), whilst simultaneously allow the red rims to vanish while Lelouch was still off-camera (Reached church and am now confronting Mao: Done. Red eyes go away). It's pretty apparent by his actions that he never got those memories back, and that it was Suzaku's responses as well as knowing his own tendencies that allow him to deduce what he had done so that he could then mentally taunt Mao.
• What would have happened if Lelouch gave an order to...
  • "Ignore this order"?
    • Why would ultimate Chessmaster Lelouch use his Geass on something that stupid? He's only interested in testing the limits and restrictions of the Geass and using the Geass on a wasteful experiment like that would reveal neither of these things and he never wastes a Geass or uses it purely to satisfy curiosity.
    • They would, as always, have a blank period of time. They wouldn't notice or care, even if it was pointed out to them. It would just be a couple of seconds and future Geass potential lost.
    • Wait... which order? Because that could make them ignore the order about ignoring the order, which would in turn keep them from ignoring it, making it just like a normal Geass. I think.
    • I'm not the original poster, but here's clarification: 'Ignore this order which I am giving you right now.' It's a logical paradox, like 'This statement is false.' If they ignore the order, then they're not ignoring the order. If they don't ignore the order, they're ignoring the order.
    • It's possible to escape this paradox if one ignores the order, and, in doing so, ignores the order or the conditions of the order. In other words, once someone ignores the order, they no longer have to wory about wether or not they are ignoreing the order. The real problem is when someone is ordered to disobey that order.
  • "Allow me to use Geass on you unlimited times"?
    • Would depend on whether the person knew what a Geass was. In which case it would be like "follow all my orders" but the person would have to see the Geass effect (assuming it's not just visual shorthand) before following it.
    • But would this effect, or a "follow all my orders" Geass for that matter, incur the memory loss like from a normal Geass order? As for the "Geass effect", if you mean the purple bird eye thing, it's an actual visible effect because characters comment on it, but colored irises seen in people under the control of Geass are probably just an out-of-universe visual cue for the viewers.
    • Nothing I imagine. The geass only works once per person, and cannot make them do something physically impossible (see Shirley in R2)
    • Would have no effect on anyone. People have no control over whether they are geassed or not. The geass has its own rules. Similar to if he told them to no longer be affected by gravity.
  • "Have a dream about X"?
    • Would probably have the dream.
  • And speaking of which, related to the "knew what a Geass was" comment above: would the target follow an order phrased in a way they don't understand, for example, using unfamiliar words?
    • Considering that only understandable phrases have ever created the "Geass effect", an ununderstandable order probably wouldn't be "transmitted", as it were.
    • Also, consider that intent doesn't seem to have much to do with the effect, just the actual words spoken (as evidenced by the Euphinator Incident)
  • Perform a bodily function that's biologically possible but can't be triggered at will, for example, "sweat" or "have an orgasm"? (No, I'm not thinking of Power Perversion Potential, I'm only interested in exploring the limitations of Lelouch's Geass).
    • I would think that if they can't trigger it at will, they would perform an action that would fulfill the command of the Geass. In the event of sweating, they'd just go someplace hot, and on having an orgasm, they'd... * cough*
    • Hmm, this make sense when I think of it. The easiest way to fulfill a "die" command would be to stop chemical activity that supports life. Since this can't be done at will, the victims have to resort to external means, that is, killing themselves.
    • On the other hand, if even a subconscious mental trigger can cause the effect, it would surely happen. I mean, you can't intentionally forget about something, because that would require you to think about it, resulting in a paradox, and yet a "forget" Geass still works just fine. Sweating can be caused by a subconscious trigger; I suppose the orgasm command would at least cause extreme sexual arousal.
    • Since Lelouch's Geass affects people who are used by it to forget that they've been Geassed, and actions they take the first time their Geass activates (I think that's how it works), it seems like manipulating memories is a specific exception to Lelouch's Geass' general rule, which seems to be that it must be something the subject is consciously capable of doing (otherwise, as has been pointed out, people would just drop dead when Lelouch tells them to die).
  • Similar to the above, what about something that is physicly possible, but not bloody likely. Like "Grow a third arm", which is hypotheticly possible, but it would involve some weird genetic mutations or a birth defect.
    • Geass can't control the body, only the mind. "Grow a third arm" might compel them to seek out cybernetic surgery, a cardboard tube to tape to their side, or a Swedish penis enhancer, or maybe it would just make them stare at Lelouch for a few seconds. But it can't randomly induce mutations or anything.
  • If telling someone to forget something works, then what about remembering something? How about "Remember everything"? This could be interpreted in several different ways:
    • Creates a compulsion to memorize as much of the subject's surroundings as possible via any mnemonics known, or at least to take lots of notes and have them handy at all times. Could induce a phobia of doing anything or going anywhere new out of the worry that there hasn't been enough time to memorize the here and now yet.
    • Gives the victim a Photographic Memory, under the pretense that every experience leaves an impression on the brain somewhere, and a psychic agent that can bend wills and hide memories should also be capable of improving recall.
    • Causes the victim's mind to continually blank out, potentially to the point of becoming a vegetable, through the logic that the Geass must also remove all memory of any act performed to fulfill the order, thus undoing every act of recalling a memory.
    • Cancels out and does nothing, since anything the victim wanted to remember anyway wouldn't be considered a compulsion of the Geass, and any memory dredged up by following the command would immediately be forgotten under the above-mentioned rule.
    • Similar to the above, except that anything the victim has trouble remembering will come back just long enough for them to report it, then immediately forget doing so.
  • You geass yourself to "Obey"?
    • Presumably it would cause you to blindly and automatically follow every order you gave to yourself in the future, even against yor own better judgement.
  • "Make me a second Geass"? Or, to C.C, "Upgrade my Geass so it's unlimited"?
    • C.C. and other Code bearers are immune to Geass. Even if they weren't, it wouldn't work. As stated above, Geass powers follow their own rules; I think C.C. doesn't actually have control over what kind of Geass she grants, so she'd be unable to follow the order anyway.
    • Additionally we don't have anything to suggest that someone could have two Geass powers or that a Geass can be upgraded.
  • There does seem to be a strange stop gap between commands that are impossible to carry out and the power of Geass in general. Despite Lelouch repeatedly geass-ing her to live or not die, Shirley for the most part ignored the geass completely.
    • He was too late. Shirley was too weak to help herself, and Geass can't overcome biological limitations. If she was less severely injured, the Geass would probably compel her to seek medical help.
• If C.C. could really survive being chainsawed apart by Mao, which part would she regenerate from? The one that includes the head? What would happen to immortals if they were disintegrated/atomized? (The same could be asked about Jack Harkness, but let's leave him out of this for now.)
  • She would probably regenerate from the head (well im just guessing because thats where her code is), and their is a good change that Jack probably dies after living a really long time (at one point he said that people used to call him the face of boa when he was younger and that he was continuing to age), not sure where he regenerates from though, either head or heart
  • Well, she DID survive getting beheaded with a guillotine, so one could assume she starts from the head. Although it'd be entertaining to see that go down, starfish style.
  • Probably it's more like a magnet or possibly even a liquidization thing. You know, like how Alucard regenerates?
  • Maybe her limbs would individually pull themselves back together, like Durge.
  • As for the disintegration thing, V.V. survived being stuck inside the exploding Siegfried and seemed to still be in once piece, though we can't know for sure if he actually was disintegrated or not, since it wasn't shown.
    • Code bearers are not immune to dismemberment. This troper can't recall where exactly, but he read once that after episode 25 of the first season, C.C.'s was eventually crushed by ocean pressure and she floated back up to the surface as a mess of body parts, where she eventually regenerated. The creators didn't show that because of how much Nightmare Fuel that would be.
    • Speaking of which, Jeremiah was also dragged into the ocean as well. How did he survive...?
    • Because his machine was bigger and tougher. He no doubt simply flew out when the Gawain compacted.
• In Episode 19 of season one CC said that she knew Lelouch was alive, presumably because of her connection to him with Geass. If she could 'just tell' due to that connection, why on earth did she not tell Lelouch earlier that Mao was still alive after being shot full of bullets by police?
  • Presumably, her contract with Mao was considered terminated, either before or after forging one with Lelouch. She probably left Mao and terminated their contract, severing their mind link, but couldn't remove his Geass. Either that, or she can't feel more than one Geass user empowered by her.
  • It might also be that he never asked. He's a capable fellow and at that point she was more hanging out with him than working under him.
    • It might also be that Mao was rather unconscious, then. Or, perhaps, C.C. specifically intended to deal with Mao herself, just like she did in the previous episode, but knew that if Lelouch knew that Mao was around, and deduced C.C.'s intent, then Mao would know C.C.'s intent, and her plan to confront him would fail.
  • It seemed like she was talking to whoever sent Lelouch, Kallen, Suzaku, and Euphie to the island, and she knew because they told her that all four arrived safely... (or at least that three of them did, because they tell C.C. about Kallen when she talks to them at the end of that scene.)
    • At that time she was talking to the emperor so the question is how did he know that
    • She was talking to V. V., not the Emperor.
      • Actually, I believe she was talking to Marianne, correct me if I'm wrong, though.
• If a Geass user wore an eyepatch over the Geass eye, would it block their Geass? Would closing the eye block the Geass? And if so, does it mean the voices in Mao's head stop every time he blinks?
  • For Lelouch's Geass wearing an eyepatch or closing your eyes would work. His Geass is based on Light and eye contact so anything that blocks eye contact or diverts enough of the light away from the eye would stop it from working.
    • In Suzaku of the Counterattack, after Lelouch gets captured, he has a bandage placed over his Geass eye.
  • Not all Geass work via direct eye contact. Rolo's doesn't, for instance. Those that do can be blocked by eyelids, barriers, that sort of thing.
    • Suzaku's hand, for one.
  • It would probably work for Lelouch, Charles, and anyone else who had to have eye contact. Satan knows where the Knight of One fits in to all that.
    • His Geass apparently works only when it's open because he said "I've only used this on one other person" and then opened his eye. If it worked even when it was closed then he would've used it on a lot more than one person.
    • Actually, that's a bit of a tricky one. Evidently Bismark's eye has to be open in order for his geass to work, but since he personally didn't have line-of-sight to Suzaku at any point during the final battle, it's an open question as to why. Then again, we've never seen Rolo use his with his eyes closed, and Jeremiah had to open his eye also (though his quasi-cybernetic geass may not obey the usual rules. Possibly all geases, regardless of their nature are deactivated when the wielder closes his or her eyes.
    • I just assumed that since his Geass made him see the future, closing his Geass eye would be the same as closing a normal one; you see your eyelid.
• How detailed can an order be? "Lelouch vi Britannia commands you to: rewrite copies of the provided letter by hand, sign it, mail them to all your friends, transfer all your XYZ Industries stocks to the Order of the Black Knights, donate all your personal possessions to charity, go to countryside in mainland Britannia, and live the rest of your life as a hermit."
  • Probably even more detailed than that. I think the most detailed order we saw was in R2 episode 4, to the guy who he Geassed to fire at Rolo; the flashback we got had him saying stuff like "...and if he moves in pattern sigma do this. Afterwards, stand by," which implied that he'd come up with movement patterns with code names, gone over them with this guy, and made contingencies for each, and all that had been incorporated into the order he gave him.
• What would happen if someone, say, Kamina, was wearing reflective sunglasses, and Lelouch tried to use the eye on him? Assuming Leoluch hadn't Geass'd himself beforehand?
  • Hilarity Ensues. Even more so, depending on the angle of the glasses and their curve.
  • Let's just say, reflective sunglasses play heavily into the "Lelouch vs. Artemis Fowl" crossover in this troper's head. Lucky Artemis is wearing his anti-mesmer gear.
• Do immortals like C.C. need to eat? Do they have the rest of normal human physiological needs?
  • Most likely not. CC just seems to REALLY enjoy pizza, and bugging Lelouch for more.
  • I don't think she could die of hunger, what's with the regenerative abilities and all (even if she did, she's come back to life), but I would assume her body still functions (for example she still breathes), so she could still feel hungry. So while she wouldn't need to eat (or breathe, if she'd be willing to keep suffocating and coming back to life every 10 minutes or so), she would probably want to do so anyway
• That geass Lelouch used on Suzaku - does it mean Suzaku is immortal, or just that he can't be killed?
  • It means he'll do everything in his power to continue living. Which forces him to fight as hard as he can, to defend himself if someone attacks him (sucks for his death wish), or even to choose the exact correct split-second to shoot at an oncoming nuke. But as Shirley proved, being Geassed to live won't work if there's nothing you can do to stop yourself from dying.
    • Which kind of begs the question: Would Suzaku go after C.C. (assuming he knows about her code of immortality), when he grows old and in danger of dying? Shirley being unable to not die was because she had a very limited timeframe and NO knowledge of the possibility of immortality, Suzaku however will live for at least another 50-60 years. What happens then?
    • Even if Suzaku did know how, he does not possess the means, and wouldn't be able to evolve it quickly enough to manage by the time subverting death became an overwhelming and immediate concern.
      • It could, however, compel him to seek cybernetic modifications as a means to prolong his life.
  • Not only didn't it make him immortal, it didn't make him literally unkillable either. Just extremely hard to kill as long as he's consciously aware of the danger and can somehow avert it even in very limited timeframe.
    • He lost to Kallen despite having the "Live!" Geass in effect, but that may have enabled him to find a way to survive the destruction of his Knightmare Frame.
    • He lost to Kallen because the Guren was just too damn powerful for the Lancelot to handle at the time. There was no way he could win that fight normally.
    • The Guren wasn't overwhelmingly stronger than the Lancelot, only better spec-wise, and clearly not by much. He lost to Kallen because she's a better pilot. Unless you mean the first time the SEITEN crushed him.
      • The SEITEN might not be better than the Lancelot at all. All of the SEITEN's technology got the bugs worked out of it when it got made into the Albion. However, the Guren in general is built for domination in close ranges at high speed, while the Lancelot is an all-rounder. Also, while I do like the idea of Kallen being the better pilot, there's also the possibility that Suzaku was holding back because any injury to Kallen or Nunnally would result in Suzaku facing Jeremiah and suffering a thousand deaths. Lelouch can get some other self-righteous sucker to absolve himself of his identity if he needs to - or make a new one - but constantly drops more "desirable" plans for the sake of personal preference.
        • The SEITEN was specifically said to be overspeced. Lloyd and Cecile went overboard. For the Albion, they would have built it to work just for Suzaku, so it wouldn't be overspeced. Also, Kallen is the better pilot. Suzaku says straight-up that even with his Geass boosting him, he cannot beat her. He cannot hold back when his Geass is active. That's why he nuked Toyko in the first place. In short, he can only do with help what she can do naturally. That's solid proof of a skill difference.
    • Against the SEITEN it forced him to not hold back his last option (Fliea). Once he fired that and she dodged it, he would have been helpless to resist her finishing him off Geass or not were she not distracted by the big explosions. It really only prevents him from holding back during fights.
• What would happen if Lelouch geassed Vimes to do something that goes totally against his principles?
  • Probably the same thing tha happened to Euphemia. He resists for a bit then succumbs.
  • Problem is Vimes' men are more Genre Savvy than that. By the time he started issuing genocide orders, Carrot, Aunga and Detrius would have him bound, gagged, and halfway to the Unseen University. Ponder Stibbons would take a great interest but have no insight whatsoever, Ridicully would do something funny, Colon would make a poor attempt as the bad cop in the "Good Cop Bad Cop" routine. Then Ventari would confront Lelouch (wearing a blindfold, obviously), while Lenoard of Quirm would send Nobby and Colon in his "Go Backwards In Time And Hopefully Not Kill Your Own Grandfather Device", where the two would specatualarly fail to change the past. Then some other stuff would happen and... um, never mind. Got off track there for a moment.
  • Personally, I'd rather see Lelouch and Carrot meet up, mainly for the contrast in philosophies between the long-lost heir to the throne who believes "Personal isn't the same as important", and the long-lost prince whose personal priorities have repeatedly screwed over his own rebellion.
  • The Geass is based upon light, as shown by Lelouch being able to geass himself via mirror. Light moves slower on the discworld, so it's effect would be either mitigated or lesened. Also, the power of belief is VERY strong on the disc, and Vimes is believed to be un-mind-controllable and incorruptible. So, because of these and the arguments above, I don't think Lelouch could geass Vimes to go against his principle.
• With Orange's Geass Cancel thing, what happens to commands given by Lelouch? Obviously, someone would stop acting under the order. But what about orders that were complete? I have a problem with the fact that Shirley regains memories she was told to forget, because she already forgot. They should be gone. Does the cancel "heal" the memories?
  • Lelouch's geass is shown to change the target's brain structure.. Orange's Geass Cancel essentially reverses any changes made to the target's brain by Geass, which would return all lost memories, and remove any existing mental compulsions put in place by the Geass, but not undo any actions already taken because of it.
  • I view this as being similar to "deleting" a file in Windows. It's not gone, just the "address" to it is. The memories aren't gone, they just can't be accessed. Orange-kun's Geass removes the block on the memories, not recreates them.
  • Expanding on the above- Lelouch's commands do not work if it's physically impossible for someone to do them. Deleting memories is impossible. In any case, his order was "Forget"... Once the facts slipped her mind there was nothing truely stopping her from remembering. (Likely Based around her definition of forgetting something)
• If Lelouch needs to look directly into someone's eyes in order to use the Geass, how on Earth could he ever use it on more than one person at the same time? You can't even look into the eyes of two people at the same time unless you're crosseyed or something.
  • It's just eye contact which is needed, and only on the part of the victim. The victim only needs to be able to see the light of the sigil in his eye for the command to take affect, and in this respect it would be very easy to catch mass numbers of people with even one eye as long as you can hold their attention.
• Just... what determines which Geass power you get, exactly? It can't be that each person who bestows Geass gives a different power; CC gave Geass to at least 3 people (Lelouch, Mao, and Marianne, right?) and none of them have the same power. So..., how do people get so many different powers? Is it up to the bestower (i.e., CC, etc.) to decide, or is it always something that could benefit you given your situation (though it's not clear to me how much use the ability to read minds would be to a six-year-old orphan boy...), or is it completely random?
  • It depends on your personality and your desires. Lelouch desires to command, CC desired love and affection, Rolo wished that time would not pass, and Charles wished to remake people's natures. I'm not sure exactly what Marianne could have wanted for her to have a "copy mind" Geass though.
  • Marianne's Geass looks a lot more like a desire to escape her own body. Maybe she hated being a commoner, or something, and it makes sense that it would activate just as she was dying.
  • Mao's reasons are just biased speculation unless we have additional background information. He was an orphan, right? It could have been wanting to understand grown-ups, or he wanted to know why no one took him in. He could have just been a curious kid... Anyone's guess.
  • What you get is basically the one thing you desire the most, that which you hid from yourself because you gave up on it. C.C. wanted to be loved, yet she got used to cruelty and knew nobody will love her, Lelouch wanted to be able to command, yet he knew that he will not be able to do it, Mao most probably wanted people to speak to him, and with him being alone nobody wanted to do it. So if you want to know what kind of geass one would've gotten, send that person to a psychiatrist for a therapy, and you'll be told by the doctor after a few weeks.
• What would happen if Mao was in a room with a bunch of people thinking in different languages? Could he understand all of them (does his Geass come with some sort of personal translator that would make them all into something he could understand)? Or would it be just like hearing someone speaking in a language you had never heard before?
  • Well, you're thinking in English right now, arn't you?
    • What's that supposed to mean? I don't see how it answers my question....
    • Mao hears surface thoughts, so they would come across in the person's native tongue.
    • I am Italian, I live in Italy, and I've been thinking in English for five years now. If Mao happened to overhear my surface thoughts, they would come across in English.
    • Common tongue, then. Either way, English is the language you default to. Someone who had no understanding of English, or wasn't good at it, would think in some other language.
  • Sometimes you think in no language, like when you know there's a word for something but can't remember the word. Also, the subconscious, which Mao can read if he concentrates, doesn't think in language, so I think he'd be able to understand thoughts of any nationality.
  • Because hecould read minds, he'd also read the part of their mind that knew how to speak in that language, and then he'd be able to speak in that language as well.
• If Jeremiah used his Geass Canceller on someone who Lelouch had previously Geass'd, would Lelouch be able to Geass them again?
  • Apparently so - in the first season, Lelouch geasses Shirley to forget about him. And then in R2, she gets hit by the Geass Canceller, all that shit goes down - and Lelouch tries to Geass her to stay alive after she gets shot. It doesn't work, since he's apparently too late to fight biology, but she's showing the red rings that indicate she's under a Geass effect.
    • I might be totally imagining this, but I'm pretty sure Kallen's eyes also showed the red rim for a moment, the second time Lelouch Geassed her. The teacher, too. Both times, the red wore off because it was the second time, and the victim threw off the command. I always assumed it was the same with Shirley.
    • There's no red on either Kallen or the teacher. It flat doesn't do anything on the rebound.
• Would Geass work on a cybernetic eye?
  • Not counting area of affect Geass, no, or at least it would be highly unlikely. Since Geass does not work through a camera, the light transmission that triggers it must have wavelengths that cameras won't capture. The same would apply to a cybernetic eye.
  • It was stated in the Miraculous Birthday picture drama that it wouldn't work on it
• Hasn't Lelouch used his geass on the same person twice (prior to the introduction of the Geass Cancellor)? There was the episode with Mao, where he implied (or maybe even directly stated, I don't recall) that he used it on Suzaku in order to defuse the bomb, but later on he gave Suzaku the "Live" command. And then there was that episode where Shirley learns who he is, and he uses it on her to get her out of her dorm while he and C.C. look through her stuff; later on, he uses it to wipe her memories. Am I simply missing something? This has been bugging me for some time now..
  • In the first case, he geasses himself, not Suzaku, and in the second, he geasses shirley's roommate, not shirley herself
• If Lelouch was a little bit away from his target, but still within range for his geass to work, yet he wanted to whisper the order, not yell it. Would he be able to phone his target via mobile, have them look into his eyes, then whisper the order so quiet that they couldn't hear him without the phone and have it still work?
  • Yes. He even does this in one episode at school where C2 was about to be discovered and radioed a student with a geassed command that resulted in a distraction.