Knights or Justice?
Notes and Annotations
by AstroCitizen
Okay, you've just finished reading the eight and, at the moment, *only* chapters of "Knights or Justice", a crossover fan fiction between the anime drama CODE GEASS: LELOUCH OF THE REBELLION and the latest DC animated series YOUNG JUSTICE. I've a number of fanfics running around in my head, but this was the first time I completely wrote one down to any degree. Until now, it had all been patches of dialogue or an outline for a particular scene in one segment of a chapter half-evolved in my mind.
Such is a nice way of me saying that I'm an amateur writer. While I'm sure there's bits here and there that could have been fine-tuned, I don't think I was embarrassingly sloppy. Criticism is welcome, *if* constructive.
Anyway, that's what you've just read, if you were wondering what the hell all that was. Below, you'll find a little index section that should explain some of the more esoteric bits, especially for someone not so familiar with either series, or the source material.
-AstroCitizen
/ * KoJ? * /
KNIGHTS OR JUSTICE (a crossover fan fiction)
- The title itself is a reference to when Lelouch as Zero called upon Ohgi's group to become "knights for justice". Also, it's symbolic of the battle of ideologies that will occur between the Justice League and the knights of Earth-CG, whether they're BK's or KOR's.
- That is an actual World War II-era quote by Allied Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower. It applies easily towards the work by the Justice League, but one can imagine the Britannians co-opting it for their own actions, which they see as legitimate spreading of Social Darwinism.
/ * KoJ? * /
PROLOGUE - The Worth of a Word
- I always wanted the first scene to be in a book store, but I'm not aware of any bookstore chains a la Books-a-Million in the DC Universe, so I just invented Word's Worth for the prologue. It started off as LexText, a chain owned by Lex Luthor, but that would reveal the crossover right off the bat. That being said, the aprons as described are inspired by the costume Roddy McDowell wore as The Bookworm on the live-action BATMAN TV show.
- Tham is an OC - not based on myself - whose purpose is an everyman whose POV we start with, as well as to spotlight to the mystery customer here the differences between her world (Earth-CODE GEASS) and this one (Earth-16).
- The woman here, in case you haven't guessed, is Monika Kruszewski, the Knight of Twelve.
- Philadelphia was an early contender for the United States' capital, so I'm going with the idea that the Britannians assume that it is, making it a primary target area.
- Geno's and Pat's are a pair of Philly cheese steak outlets that have an infamous rivalry going on between them, like the innumerable Ray's Pizzas in New York but more intense. Personally, I prefer Firehouse Subs.
- "Giant Mars Warrior Jade" is a manga series inspired by the Martian Manhunter. When MM had his own series in the late Nineties, one story set in Japan had an MM-inspired magical-boy series, "The Jade Warrior". I changed the title to something a little more manga-sounding.
- Bernice is based on a character from Greg Evans' comic strip LUANN who's worked in a bookstore during one arc.
- Story elements from the first season of YOUNG JUSTICE are all referenced in the USA TODAY article. This particularly holds true for Belle Reve, which is precisely as described in both the cartoon and original source material.
- Re: the article on recovery in Japan - I'm not sure if USA TODAY had an actual front page story of this nature at this time, but for story purposes, let's just say on Earth-16 it did.
/ * KoJ? * /
CHAPTER 1 - Court of Equity, part 1
- The Britannian Empire's entry on the CG Wiki site names Schneizel as Prime Minister rather than Chancellor. But PM also appears as the head of government for democracies like Japan and the E.U., so I'm going with Chancellor here. Also, "chancellor" was Adolf Hitler's technical title while dictator of Germany, so... yeah.
- Dr. Dorado has a counterpart, a scientist responsible for the Justice League's Zeta-Beam system. Specifically his name is Eduardo Dorado, *Sr.*, which may mean a teenaged version of El Dorado from the old SUPERFRIENDS cartoon may appear some day. Thus, I gave him the middle name Luis here ("E.L. Dorado").
- The origin I give Dorado is based upon Matt Damon's character in GOOD WILL HUNTING.
- Osterman, Lizardo, and Brown are all references to WATCHMEN, THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI, and BACK TO THE FUTURE, which all had scientists breaking the 4th dimension with varying results.
- Tarnhelm is the name of a magic helmet in Richard Wagner's GöTTERDäMMERUNG which allows one to travel long distances instantly. An appropriate name for a teleportation experiment.
Similarly, the "seven-league booth" is a reference to seven-league boots, an element in European folklore which allows the wearer to take great strides, seven leagues each step.
- It was never quite explained why Clovis was afraid he'd be disinherited if C.C.'s existence came to light. He didn't seem to know about Ragnarok or the Geass Cult. Because of this, I decided to give the Emperor a supposed quirk that, while he could care less about any personal drama or tragedy that may occur, he still wants his children to report anything unusual they find, hinting there would be consequences if they didn't in a timely fashion. Perhaps this is his way of keeping up on whether they find a Providence site, a Code-bearer, someone with Geass, or anything else World of C-related that could help or hinder Ragnarok.
-To differentiate things, I made Cornelia a marshal rather than a general, just as I made Schneizel a chancellor.
- As you can tell by Lelouch's presence, I'm not going by events of the TV series for this crossover. Rather I made an AU wherein he's a prince again and became Area 11's viceroy. It's a popular idea, and I admit my version is based upon several popular fanfics that utilize it - "Dauntless" by Allora Gale, "Lelouch of Britannia" by Cal Reflector, "Lelouch of the Revolution" by Lilyflower1987, etc. It's not my intention to plagiarize those storylines; this is all just a setup for the conflict that will rise out of the crossover rather than an unauthorized copy or continuation of these series and their particular storylines. Your mileage may vary, of course.
I used Lelouch-as-prince as that seemed to me more likely to put him on the front lines, whereas the canon Lelouch-as-Zero would make a spectator out of him or a sideline character a la NIGHTMARE OF NUNNALLY. Not that "Zero/Justice League" couldn't be a source of material, but the Justice League would view the Black Knights for much the same reasons as given later on regarding resistance movements with a level of political authenticity vs. outright terrorists, which would effectively marginalize them if not outright paint them as bad guys. Again, YMMV.
/ * KoJ? * /
CHAPTER 2 - Coffee Clash
- Sir Bismarck's religious fervor is something I made up to give him a real motivation - other than "Charles is the emperor so I have to obey him" - for his allegiance to the Ragnarok program. Similar things occur with the back stories for Guinevere, Carine, Luciano, etc. being made up off the top of my head. (It's stuff like this where you can tell I'm forgetting this is supposed to be just a plot bunny that anyone can adapt and make their own. Sorry.)
- The allied nations of Europe have been given numerous names in CG and CG-related materials - European Union, Euro Universe, Euro Ultra-union, European Ultra-union. I decided on Euro Ultra-union as the Universe one sounded too ostentatious, and European Union would cause confusion with the IRL (and Earth-16) organization. Granted, "Euro Ultra-union" sounds like an organization in a Gundam series, but anyway...
- "Rascal", according to the CG wiki site, *is* the English translation for Burai. This version, the Drill Type Burai, appears in one of the CG video games, so I gave it a reason for existing here based on info in its CG wiki entry. Incidentally, I'm not sure if it was ever explained what the initials N.A.C. stood for, so I made up a title that seemed likely to have been invented by Britannia.
- Once during the series, the Galahad's sword not only by itself stopped a Hadron-energy blast but also reflected it at enemy KMF's, so I'm putting in that it has vague weird properties that, in a straight up fight against the Justice League, would give Waldstein some wiggle room to win. One of a few things I'm giving the series' more prolific Knightmares so a battle against super-heroes won't be a curb stomp. In fact, while the Percival is shown as having been turned into scrap metal, even without flight capability it was a Superman-vs.-Metallo level fight: short with a foreseen conclusion but intense.
- The heroes here are Wonder Woman, John Stewart, and Captain Atom.
- Sir Bismarck describes Stewart as "of African descent like himself". Not entirely sure if CG's production team meant to or not, but based on skin tones it seems that he, Dorothea Ernst, and a few others were supposed to be black, so I'm going with that here. I'm incorporating ideas from Juubi-K's "The Sum of Our Choices", whose version of Britannia apparently was a bit more liberal in its early days for absorbing non-whites and non-Anglos into their society before they had a system of conquering other nations and imposing ideas such as Number or Honorary Britannian on them.
- You'll notice a lack of incredulity to the appearance of Wonder Woman and her teammates, such as one would find in "super-heroes in the real world" movies like KICK-ASS or BLANKMAN. This is because I assume there to be no real cultural or fictional precedent for them on Earth-CG. As a result, while they do look eccentric (much as Lelouch did while dressed as Zero), nobody gives them crap about running around in their underwear. Granted, I think they should have retconned out Superman's briefs a long time ago, but I'm not going to have anyone comment on it here.
For various reasons - mostly the socio-political climate in America at the time when the likes of Superman were created - I imagine that the concept of the super-hero never evolved in Britannian society. Now, the comic book as a form of print media does exist, having started out as collections of reproduced comic strips just as IRL. However, the standard genres are romance stories, Wild West tales, crime drama, sci-fi, humor, horror, historical fiction, educational, medieval fantasy, myth/folklore, and (of course) porn. Super-heroes, however, are out; nobody would know what you were talking about if you asked.
This isn't to say there are not larger-than-life heroes and villains in fiction, nor that there are no super-normal beings either. It's just that they don't take on the style of the costumed adventurer or super-villain. Supernatural figures like Dr. Frankenstein and his monster might exist, as could Count Dracula and the Headless Horseman. Larger-than-life heroes and villains like the Phantom of the Opera, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond and Goldfinger, all could exist. Characters like the Hulk or the Invisible Woman don't exist, but equivalent super-normal beings from classic literature like Jekyll & Hyde or Griffin might. Incidentally, WAR OF THE WORLDS and ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU may exist, but are likely considered anti-Britannian for their subtext and are censured.
There are also socio-political issues at play, such as Britannia's racial and nationalistic prejudices, and lip service to eugenics. As a result, a hero born of good-breeding like Doc Savage could exist, but a student of obscure foreign arts like The Shadow would not. Foreign villains like Captain Nemo and Dr. Fu Manchu would be allowed, as well as Bulldog Drummond's rogues' gallery of not-so-thinly-veiled racist caricatures. On the other hand, the Green Hornet - feigning a criminal lifestyle to catch criminals that the police cannot - would intrinsically defy too many Britannian mores of their society and government's innate superiority to be permitted.
The lack of this segment of American pop culture reverberates throughout foreign fiction. For example, in Japan, kaiju exists but super-sentai/power ranger-type shows and most other tokusatsu don't exist (so GODZILLA could theoretically exist but the likes of GATCHAMAN wouldn't). Additionally, what mecha series exist are of the Real Robot variety, rather than Super Robots like Astro Boy, Gigantor, or Mazinger Z. Ironically, this would mean within the world of Earth-CG, the series CODE GEASS could exist, but devoid of Lelouch's masked identity and the Code/Geass aspects.
- I originally had Captain Atom tell Darlton to say hi to his brothers Dinky and Dastardly for him, a reference to Hanna-Barbera's outlaw gang the Dalton Brothers. Eventually, I decided this was more "Green Arrow" behavior, plus they wouldn't have necessarily encountered the Glaston Knights just yet. So Atom acts as one professional military man to another instead.
- Themyscira is the official name of Amazon or Paradise Island.
- Chim-Chim is the name of the pet chimp in the anime classic SPEED RACER.
- Operation Wild Hunt is named after a European folk story about a pack of spectral huntsman whose appearance foretells death or disaster. It's most likely it would become Britannia's codename for an attack using teleportation or dimension-hopping.
- I should mention that I don't envision every KMF vs. JL battle being a curb-stomp, as most Knightmares better than a Glasgow would require a team effort for some of the less-powered heroes. The Percival sent to Philadelphia was a 6th or borderline 7th generation Knightmare - as opposed to the flight-capable 8th gen. which the Guren tore apart - and furthermore had Superman and a couple other Leaguers dog pile on it. As the KMF's become more powerful, the balance of power levels out. And that's before you toss in someone given an advantage by Geass like Bismarck or live command-Suzaku.
- Naturally, Luciano Bradley is confined to Gotham City's Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane. The man with the moustache is of course Police Commissioner James Gordon of BATMAN fame. Originally, it was DC's resident intelligence agent, "King" Faraday, but later I decided it would be Gordon checking in on Arkham's new V.I.P. The other two are just ciphers: A stock psychiatrist on the asylum's staff and a representative from the D.O.D., as Luciano *is* a prisoner of war, albeit a crazy one.
- The soldiers taking custody of the Geass Cult are Knights, field agents of Checkmate, DC's belated answer to S.H.I.E.L.D. Ten points to one of my reviewers for recognizing them off the bat!
- Sir Bismarck is correct: The children with Geass powers are wearing super-power-cancelling inhibitor collars, a YJ feature.
- Did you notice that Wonder Woman nearly said "human religions" instead?
- The trans-dimensional travel FX is inspired by those in the DVD movie, JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRISIS ON TWO EARTHS.
- A map seen during CG didn't place a set of Thought Elevator ruins on location with Pendragon, but there were indicators there was something World of C-related beneath the castle, hence the Emperor's conversing with Clovis *after* his death and his surprise appearance in the Geass Directorate when the Black Knights attacked. I'm splitting the difference by declaring there is a "juncture" there, an archway that can take one to a fully-operational Thought Elevator site.
/ * KoJ? * /
CHAPTER 3 - The Fraud Prince
- Lelouch's memories here are an indefinite rundown of his past in this world, again an amalgamation of Lelouch-as-prince fanfic timelines. As usual, his knight is Jeremiah Gottwald, while his supposed romantic misadventures are inspired by the works of Lilyflower1987 and Cal Reflector. The idea that Clovis simply walks in on one of his chess games is my idea... perfunctory, but it works.
- An early review I read of CG wondered if the FLEIJA weapon may turn out to be zapping stuff into another dimension, an idea I've utilized in some other CG story ideas. Here, Nina's nuclear theories have just been straight up used in a government project to develop teleportation. Or that's what everyone thinks they're for.
- During one of the audio dramas, Nina suggests "Schrödinger" when the Student Council was picking out names for Suzaku's cat, a reference to the overly-popular example of Erwin Schrödinger's thought experiment where a cat locked in a box with some poison is both dead *and* alive until someone checks and sees. It all falls into discussion of quantum superpositioning, including the decoherence factor, and the possibility of a multiverse. Hence, Nina and her contribution to Schneizel's project is the apparent reason a teleportation experiment accidentally becomes a trans-dimensional travel experiment.
- Lelouch's worries of a possible Chinese invasion at Kyushu refers to "Battle for Kyushu", while Calares was the functioning Viceroy of Area 11 at the very beginning of R2.
- Ms. Minnie is an OC inspired by Una O'Conner in her comedic role as Minnie the panicky housekeeper in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. I forget why I created her.
- I've never been quite clear as to what kind of eyewear shields against Geass or not. I've decided the all-white Spider-Man lenses of the Batman Family and others won't cut it, but Kid Flash's teched-up goggles will. Plastic Man's too, probably.
- In lieu of the Guren, Lelouch had developed a device using early theoretical papers by Rakshata Chawla as described. And yes, it's based on the microwave emitter from BATMAN BEGINS.
- The super-heroes mentioned are Captain Marvel and Icon, while Red Tornado demolishes the Camelot hanger.
- The idea of Lelouch falsifying reports of Nunnally's death is, of course, inspired by Allora Gale's "Dauntless"; I just moved her hidey-hole. I always wondered how O.S.I. was able to put up a secret HQ underneath Ashford Academy prior to CG R2, so I decided it was already there and was co-opted by them.
- The girl who kidnaps Nunnally is Zatanna. She used her magic backwards language to order Shirley and Sayoko to fall asleep, as well as casting a glamour over herself to impersonate Shirley.
- You'll notice Shirley says "Britannian" instead of "English" when referring to the language they speak. This is to differentiate themselves from the citizens of England, a monarch-less elected democracy that's part of the E.U.
/ * KoJ? * /
CHAPTER 4 - The Princess and the Purpose:
- Had you going there for a moment, right? Anyway, Nunnally's "inquisitors" are Kid Flash and Artemis. They, along with the super-dog Wolf, are joined out on the beach by Aqualad, Robin, Zatanna, and Rocket, Icon's sidekick. Superboy and Miss Martian are mentioned but absent.
- The text switches to screenplay-style to represent the Team's meeting as interpreted by Nunnally. Their conversation refers to several YJ season 1 stories, including a teenaged psychopath (Harm) who murdered his sister (Greta) and secretly buried her body, infiltrating a circus as a family acrobatic team called the Daring Dangers, etc.
- Incidentally, I hope no one has a problem with my comparing Nunnally's bolthole to the Frank family's annex; it's reflective of the Team's unease with Lelouch's manner of safeguarding Nunnally.
- Rocket references a common phrase about Italiann dictator Benito Mussolini - "at least he made the trains run on time". This is coupled with the pre-Civil Rights bus conditions which mandated non-whites give up their seats and stand at the back of the bus.
- Another YJ story element: Artemis is the estranged daughter of the masked criminal Sportsmaster (who strikes me as the sarcastic clapping-type), who abandoned his wife the Huntress after she was crippled, and raised his daughters to be criminals, too.
- The J.S.A. that Zatanna mentions is the Justice Society of America, the Justice League's predecessor and the first team in comic book-dom. As a reflection of the SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT-sparked comic book crackdown of the 1950s, DC history made it so they were harassed and shut down by the Congressional House Un-American Activities Committee, which led to all super-heroes retiring until the Silver Age heroes started appearing. Some retcons and alternate history stories had the former Societors hunted by government agents afterwards. I was going to mention some fictional agencies that were supposed to exist during this time but dropped it.
- Audrey Hepburn was the actress who played Princess Ann in ROMAN HOLIDAY. I've been asked if mentioning her was a reference to WAIT UNTIL DARK where she plays a blind woman, but no; interesting idea though
BTW, I don't really imagine Rocket as regularly making quips that reference movies, but she hasn't gotten a lot of screen time or character development on YJ yet, and I had to give her something to say.
- The talk about programming is more YJ back story. Conner and Roy (Superboy and the Red Arrow) are both clones whose education and/or memory graft included subliminal messages to infiltrate the Justice League. At the end of season 1, Megan (Miss Martian) telepathically erased this conditioning, which the Team is comparing to Geass commands.
- Still giving the Britannians some advantages, so I'm having that Sakuradite affects Kryptonians to some degree... maybe just like poison ivy, maybe something akin to Red Kryptonite. The specifics and why this happens I left up in the air.
- Chemo (pron., "Kim-oh") is a living humanoid-shaped beaker full of toxic chemicals, one of the trippy but no less popular giant monsters from DC's Silver Age.
- Superboy's "Slapper-depression" is something I invented. During season 1, Lex Luthor developed "shields", skin patches shaped like Superman's emblem that gave Superboy the full range of Kryptonian powers, which SB eventually abandoned rather than be bribed with them. I'm inferring that he did develop an at least psychological dependence upon them and occasionally has bouts of withdrawal when his standard powers aren't up to snuff. Also, out of respect to Superman, they're now called "slappers", a name I borrowed from addictive steroid patches from BATMAN BEYOND.
- Static is a teenaged electromagnetic super-hero from the defunct Milestone Media comics group that Icon and Rocket originally came from. Daisy is the name of his would-be girlfriend throughout the series, so I'm assuming he dropped her name and, for Daring Danger-i.d. purposes, Rocket is picking it up.
(EDIT: After a long hiatus, YJ has returned to the air, and promos are showing that Static is being introduced in the near-future as a new character, rather as a preexisting, off-panel one. Oh well... I'll probably re-edit this later so Rocket goes by the name Delta, after American space program's rocket design system.)
- Robin is comparing Artemis' overuse of alliterative D-names to the similar plethora of B-names used by the Beagle Boys, the consummate arch-enemies of Scrooge McDuck.
- "Zoo-manity" (or rather "Zumanity") is the Cirque du Soleil's, shall we say, not-for-the-underage show.
While I'm on the topic, Kid Flash's reference to being called Minus instead of Dash had the names been M-alliterative is a reference to Menos (Spanish, "minus"), one-half of a Mexican super-speed team from the previous teenaged DC hero cartoon, TEEN TITANS.
- K.F. is snickering because he knows Robin also goes to Gotham Academy in his secret i.d., which Artemis doesn't know.
- "Sibling 'valry'" references Robin's tendency to invent neologisms by removing real or supposed prefixes from words. He did something similar when he turned "hostage" into "host" by cutting out "-age".
- I'm opening the opportunity for Nunnally to develop as a stronger character, which we only see haltingly throughout R2, and even then mostly as a pawn of Suzaku or Schneizel. I'm leaving it up in the air if she's beginning to regain her suppressed memory or if this image of her father is just her imagination. Granted, she was able to overthrow her father's Geass which made her blind, although it's been discussed ad nauseam over whether him being dead wasn't a big help. YMMV is what I say.
Additionally, her hormones are starting to percolate in my view of events as you can tell. On a related note, I kinda felt the YJ animators made Robin vaguely resemble Tenchi Muyo with the ears and such. With that, and given the current YJ season insinuates that Robin/Nightwing's followed his comic book source material as being something of a lady-killer, I'm setting things up so Lelouch has a rival in the "spontaneously attracting a harem" department.
/ * KoJ? * /
CHAPTER 5 - Court of Equity, part 2:
(I know, I know... this chapter's overlong with a lot of exposition. If I ever decide to continue this, I'll cut this up into halves or move parts to other chapters, possibly.)
- Cornelia's left arm in a sling is a reference to the condition the same arm was in throughout most of CG R2.
- I imagine Lelouch's actions against the Middle Eastern Federation are not too different from the North African League in Cal Reflector's "Lelouch of Britannia". Cornelia's reaction, however, is more akin to her mindset in "Dauntless" by Allora Gale, where she feels both that Lelouch was disobedient if not mutinous, as well as disrespectful of her command.
- Notice that I don't specifically say Clovis was killed by Lelouch at Shinjuku as in canon. It may have occurred during Saitama, the fall of the Purebloods, the battle at Narita, somewhere. Leaving things open, not that it's necessarily relevant to the story.
- Prince William is an OC I invented for this scene, and like Clovis is a pretentious snob, albeit centered on theatre rather than art. His numeration as 15th prince is a reference to the Ides of March from JULIUS CAESAR.
- "Wave function collapse" is a term that appears in articles I've read on quantum superposition, the many-worlds interpretation. "Wave function shift" is a term I made-up from it as fancy terminology used by scientists to call it when people are sent to another universe.
- Perhaps I should mention that I don't visualize Guilford as being made a paraplegic. He just got himself beaten badly like Cornelia, and the neck brace and follow-up treatment was taken as a precaution.
- I was trying to think of something specific Cornelia had done as part of Operation: Wild Hunt, then saw where GOLDFINGER was going to be on TV. The rest wrote itself.
- The specifics of the downfall of the Purist Faction was also something I left undefined, both because it wasn't all that relevant, and also open for someone else to determine the timeline of events.
- I won't dither about the scientific ideas being brought up here - the chapter does this enough - and will try to concentrate on the story elements and real-world history involved.
- IRL, Einstein couldn't get a job teaching physics as he wanted and wound up a patent clerk. A good thing too, as it gave him time and privacy to think. The result was his so-called "wonder year" where he wrote a bunch of papers that catapulted him into scientific history and the public spotlight. On Earth-CG, however, he *did* get a job at a university, but unfortunately this had the effect of stalling his private work, so his papers came out sporadically over several years, and he remained fairly anonymous.
- Here you will find my version of the Lake Kawaguchi hotel incident, without Euphemia's presence. As a result, the soldier Nina had accidentally insulted got some payback in before Lelouch and Suzaku arrived.
- It was a solar eclipse in 1919 that helped prove one of Einstein's theories, which as described involved photographs being taken of stars beside the sun during a solar eclipse. On Earth-CG, for the above-stated reasons, this theory didn't come out until later, and so was tested using the solar eclipse that occurred in 1955, or 2010 on the Britannian calendar. The same year Lelouch and Nunnally lost their mother and were exiled was a red letter year for the Einstein family.
- My apologies if Lelouch seems a bit OOC taking Schneizel to task, but I feel having Nunnally kidnapped along with a ton of other matters that have been boiling under the surface, and Cornelia's little blame-game is enough to make him snap a little bit.
- I hope you enjoyed this sequence with Euphie. I wanted to show her as being made of sterner stuff and, while this is one of those things that makes this chapter over-long, I couldn't cut it out.
- Hugh Everett III was a real-life physicist who seriously considered the possibilities of alternate realities in the mid-1950s.
- Quantum signature, on the other hand, is just something I lifted from STAR TREK.
- The bits here about Benjamin Franklin, other than his alternative actions within CG's timeline, are true. The bit about he and his brother falling out are part of his Silence Dogood phase in life.
- Yes, this is a reference to the SAZ and, no, Lelouch did not accidentally give Euphie a time-delayed order.
- From here onwards for awhile we have another overlong section, where the United States, the other nations of the world, and current socio-political issues are analyzed from an outsider with only a smattering of the facts. Won't say there's not a dab of my own opinions on matters, though.
- Prince Oscar is not an OC, but he might as well be. He and Emil are mentioned in passing in an audio drama, so I'm dropping him in for I want someone to speak other than Guinevere and the rest.
As implied, Oscar is a boozer. I intended him to play a part in the conversation where it's addressed how over powerful and difficult to use Lloyd's prototypes are, where Lelouch would have compared trying to pilot one to memories of driving a drunk-simulation vehicle during Ashford Academy's alcohol awareness festival.
- Euphie gives us a READER'S DIGEST version on how Britannia views the history of the American Revolution. Nothing that hasn't been seen elsewhere, but thought it still relevant.
- More on how the existence of Britannia has changed history and historical figures. Most everything mentioned here about Grant and the rest is based on real-life events in their lives.
IRL, Jackson enforced the Indian Removal Act, with repercussions on Native Americans/First Nationals that continue to this day. I use him as an explanation for why CG shows Britannians who I'm guessing are not Caucasians, by having them integrate - better than was done so IRL, admittedly - other ethnicities into their society... for awhile anyway.
- The Five Civilized Nations were a real-life organization. The Hekawi, on the other hand, are the Indian tribe from F-TROOP.
- Another thing in CG anachronistic against its history is the presence of a Star of David worn by Ohgi when he first appears. As a result, I invented a pseudo-Nazi party that secretly overturns a segment of Europe in much the same way as in real life. Who Adolf von Braunau is should be obvious; I mutated his surname, using the town he was born in, Braunau-am-Inn.
I decided that the Aryan ubermensch belief also evolved within the world of CG, which IRL history reports as being more or less the same time as Social Darwinism. As a result, Jewish communities flee to Britannia, and so we have Albert Einstein - and thus Nina - existing on Earth-CG.
- Lelouch is referencing a quote - "how sharper than a serpent's tooth" - from KING LEAR, not RICHARD THE THIRD, but whatever.
- More on China and Schneizel's plans for it using Lelouch (rather than Odysseus).
- More cut scenes - I wanted to infer Schneizel was assembling a new team to give surveillance fresh eyes, its members including Gino and Anya, who aren't KOR's just yet. Lelouch's second team member, btw, isn't C.C. as Euphie suspects, but Sayoko in disguise, as this mission is partially a Nunnally rescue attempt in Lelouch's mind.
- Lelouch recognizes the sign of Geass on the ruins beneath Pendragon, he's just trying to gauge whether or not Schneizel knows that he has one from the Ragnarok files.
/ * KoJ? * /
CHAPTER 6 - Watch and Learn:
- The fake PSA is based off Captain Atom's OOC appearance in BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD.
- "Showcase" is an OC sketch and variety show, Earth-16's version of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE if you will, named after the DC anthology title that introduced the Silver Age Flash among others. Similarly, the titles THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD and FORBIDDEN TALES OF DARK MANSION appear as soap operas, the latter being a kind of DARK SHADOWS show in my head.
- Green Arrow reviews further events from the season 1 finale of YJ, explaining the situation with his sidekick Speedy and Red Arrow. As explained, the Light is a conspiracy of major super-villains - corrupt business moguls, dictators, and heads of secret societies - who are the lead villains of YJ.
- Because he's a kid who magically turns into an adult, Captain Marvel tends to be treated as BIG-with-superpowers by DC these days, a joke really. As such, in YJ his presence is somewhat derided by the other Leaguers, particularly Wonder Woman as shown. I'm a fan so I'm doing a little here to correct this: When he was originally published (by a rival comic company, btw), he was Superman-meets-Captain-America but more approachable (and without the "super-dickery" stories of the '60s).
- Green Arrow's nickname for Cap is derived from an episode of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000, where a series of over-the-top macho names are hung on the movie's lead "actor". Given how Cap is artistically rendered on YJ, especially with that Rob Liefeld-style neck, a comparison was inevitable.
- Abby Cadabby is a Muppet fairy-in-training that's part of the modern SESAME STREET cast. I guess Herry Monster isn't considered kid-friendly these days.
- "You can't cheat an honest man" is part of a W.C. Fields quote (and the title of the movie in which it is said). The full line is "You can't cheat an honest man... never give a sucker an even break or smarten up a chump". They were the final words of Fields' grandfather ("just before they sprung the trap").
- "Majel" is a reference to Majel Roddenberry, the voice of the computer on STAR TREK.
- I just give a barebones description of how the JL members look, mostly from the basic intention standpoint. I don't want to go into overkill as to the minutia of their costumes anymore than describing in detail the clothes of the CG characters or the color schemes of their KMF's.
- In YJ, the Watchtower is as described here. Personally, I prefer the Watchtower as either a moon base or a futuristic satellite.
- Mount Justice, incidentally, is the original "not-Batcave" used by the Justice League during the Silver Age. Eventually, it was abandoned for their first satellite headquarters when the Joker found out about the place. The town of Happy Harbor is also based on those early J.L.A. locales.
- I structured the Britannian attacks as simply an experimental raid with a short time table thanks to the Tarnhelms' ability to zap them in and out quickly. This also gives the excuse as to why super-heroes weren't able to respond better.
- The British science symposium is a vague reference to DOCTOR WHO, the Prof. Quatermass serials, and other scifi/adventure fiction in Great Britain that's oft in the foreground over costumed super-heroes. This part was originally longer, making them an official OC group, but decided not to, as they were a vehicle to introduce an early version of the Gefjun Disturber anyway.
- The Justice League refers to the Earth of CODE GEASS as Earth-B, which stands for "Britannia". The Britannians, however, call the Justice League's world Earth-2 as they haughtily think of their world as the "real" Earth while the Americans' world is just a copy.
- The Justice League just doing reconnaissance at first was inspired by Kurt Busiek's J.L.A./AVENGERS miniseries from a few years ago, where the J.L.A. invisibly gives the Avengers' world a looky-loo, and are not impressed by what they see.
- The bit about Batman's voice is just my little opinion over the most recent live-action movies.
- The number 16 pops up a lot of YJ for some reason, so that's the amount of damage the Justice League has done to the military-industrial complex of Britannia.
- Hawkman and the Atom shared a title for awhile, so at some point they were retroactively made buddies a la the Silver Age Flash and Green Lantern. I'm making it so they at least teamed-up sometime in YJ's past.
- My apologies if I offend anyone with Wonder Woman's talk about the differences if any between freedom fighters, resistance movements, terrorists, etc. I don't make any conclusions here, I'm just acknowledging the argument, as well as the "gray vs. black" morality of the situation as did CG to a degree. The Justice League, who are nominally the only real white hats in this scenario, are having to recognize the realpolitik nature themselves. Incidentally, I may be simplifying the origins and nature of anti-occupation groups during World War II.
- As indicated, the YJ timeline makes it so Wonder Woman did first appear during the J.S.A.'s days, so she could have fought in Europe during WW2.
- Kinda sorta making up what's the deal with the Blood of the Samurai from what little is canon and what I've seen in fanfics, along with some stuff I've gleaned read about Japanese militant political groups in fiction and IRL.
- Again, regurgitating commentary I've heard elsewhere. While not getting all "prime directive" and scared they'll muck up somebody's culture (however screwed up it is), the Justice League intend to respect the status quo of Earth-B aside from Britannia, assuming matters with Europe or the High Eunuchs don't get out of hand. It's another reason for conflict with Lelouch, who stated his intent to create a new world order following the SAZ massacre.
- The Injustice League is the traditional name for any team of DC super-villains that opposes the Justice League; within YJ, they were specifically a group of patsies for the Light.
- I blast Ohgi's group here but, seen from the outside, this is how the massacre in Shinjuku happened. While they're not directly responsible for the murders committed by Clovis' troops, they did knowingly stumblebum into a civilian populace they had to have known the Empire wouldn't - and didn't - consider worth squat. Also, there never was any clear indication of what they planned to do with what they thought was poison gas. As I said, it's one of the reasons the JL would look upon the Black Knights dubiously.
- The Flash is paraphrasing one of Sean Connery's lines from THE UNTOUCHABLES.
- Apparently, the Japanese are a lot more skittish about mentioning their imperial family in their fiction than, say, the British are, with only a fleeting mention of the emperor once in a month of blue moons that I know of. There's no mention as to what happened to them in CG canon, so I'm just guessing that's part of the Kyoto Houses' influence.
- Batman's mention of how easy it was to figure out who the heads of Kyoto are is a commentary on how obvious it is who he himself really is if you think about; not as obvious as Superman wearing glasses, but still, he's lucky all his bad guys are crazy.
(Re: "Res ipsa loquitur" - I'll admit I'm not too confident about this. I tried to look up Latin phrases which essentially meant the truth is inherent or obvious from what's been stated, and that's the best I could find.)
- Again, my variation of how and what the E.U. and the Chinese Federation are based on their wiki entries and my own observations. Also included is reference to plot elements of the new AKITO spin-off of CG.
- The mention of Cambodia and Korea is based on the listing of Areas in the CG wiki site, which calls them areas but adds that it's a disputed claim, so I made them partially occupied regions here.
- "Heller-esque" is a reference to Joseph Heller, the author of CATCH-22. Speaking of literary references, I meant for Green Arrow to use the names of the superpowers from George Orwell's NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR as nicknames for Earth-B, but I never found a place I was confident sticking it in.
- Is the reference to the Tianzi possibly having a missing cousin, who would presumably be a semi-albino too, a reference to Mao? You decide!
- Prypiat is the Ukrainian city that was abandoned after the Chernobyl disaster. It's a good example of what a modern city would come to look like if it became a ghost town. Wonder Woman's comparing the ghettoes the Japanese must live in to Prypiat if it were reopened to the public after so long in disuse. I mean to include that this is a condition shared by Numbers in all recently-added Areas, while in the older Areas they congregate in shantytowns like Brazilian favelas or the Hoovervilles of the Great Depression.
- Rather than human speech, I describe Dr. Fate as "burbling" when he talks, a reference to "The Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll.
- As we get into how the Emperor wound up a prisoner of the Justice League, I use the word "noosphere," an actual term for theoretical nonphysical strata of the world - not unlike the Dreamtime if you will - in addition to the geosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.
- Moria is the dwarf-city, overrun by goblins and orcs, from THE LORD OF THE RINGS. The proper name is Khazad-Dum or something like that, but the movie popularized Moria, plus there's the alliteration factor.
- Now Plastic Man *is* a comedic take on super-heroes, and I hope you love the idea of him being pivotal to taking down a "Mr. Intimidating" anime-style Big Bad like Emperor Charles as much as I did writing it :)
- Unlike Marvel Comics, DC has formalized the vague genetic factor that allows for people getting super-powers as the Meta-gene, but it hasn't been introduced into YJ continuity at this point. Incidentally, I use this difference in human biology between their worlds to explain why people in anime - in the case of CG anyway - have green, orange, silver, gold, blue, magenta, etc. as options for eye and hair color.
- "Geis" is an actual thing in Irish and Scottish lore, a spell or a taboo depending on the circumstances, which supposedly Geass is named for.
- Revealed in season 2, a small group of J.L.A.'ers while under the Light's mental control attacked an alien planet, for reasons so far unexplained. I'm not suggesting anyone's in danger of remembering it here, but those who took part it in are feeling a slight "someone stepped on my grave" feeling at Cap's hypothetical scenario.
- S.T.A.R. Labs is another old mainstay of the DCU, starting as a supporting cast-locale in '70s Superman stories.
- Yes, the amnesiac kid is Rai from the CG: LOST COLORS video game. I've fiddled with his name, using an old DETECTIVE COMICS back-up feature - "Roy Raymond, TV Detective" - as its basis.
- Within YJ, all super-villains not crazy enough for Arkham Asylum are dumped in Belle Reve as described. The Brain Trust is an OC establishment, something I invented so Charles and V.V. aren't just rotting in jail off-screen and also to give them a potential power base on Earth-16.
- The metals used in the construction of the Brain Trust are lifted from the description of the apartment building from GHOSTBUSTERS. Another movie I stole from is the X-MEN franchise, as the dome-like structure of the building is inspired by the movie version of Cerebro.
- Brainwave, Jr. and Looker are DC characters whose histories, with minor adjustments, and attitudes are the same as here.
- The Hall of Justice was the headquarters of the Justice League in the various SUPERFRIENDS cartoon series. It exists in YJ, where the public thinks it's the League's headquarters, but it's really just a museum and their de facto embassy.
- Superman cannot see through lead with his X-ray vision. At some point after this power was formalized, however, it got misinterpreted as lead serving as a cloaking device to him, resulting in innumerable stories where lead-lining was used to hide bad guys, bombs, etc. In the late '80s, writer John Byrne pointed out the incongruity, as lead being impenetrable to X-ray vision should instead make it stand out to Superman easily. Not sure if anyone else has really handled it that way since then.
(Incidentally, I used quote marks as another thing Byrne did was make it so X-ray vision was more of a nickname, rather than Superman actually irradiating everyone around him with X-rays. Perhaps M.R.I.-vision is more accurate?)
- Superman wondering about how Lelouch got it covered that he had a sister while he was in Ashford... this was an element of "Dauntless" that was explained at some point, but I still feel it's a plot hole. It's not a factor from here on out, so I'm sort of hand waving it here by comparing it to Superman disguising himself by wearing glasses.
- Ironically, the suggestion it's all a coincidence is closer to the truth. While C.C. was a supporter of Ragnarok, she still wanted someone to take away her Code so she could die, however. She chose Lelouch to be that someone, his fight with his father immaterial to her, and only changed her opinion about Ragnarok during R2 as I remember it. To top it off, there was no way she could have caused the truck she was in to crash in front of Lelouch, or for him to come on board.
- And we have the requisite comparison of Batman and Zero here by the Caped Crusader himself.
- Early Wonder Woman mythos had the Amazonian purple-ray, a medical deus ex machina that could even restore life. The WHO'S WHO entry for Paradise Island, while explaining that men cannot stand upon the island, mentions that Hawkman was allowed to fly over it one time but gave no more explanation for his presence there. I used it as the basis for a vague back story where he was badly injured as a vehicle to mention the purple-ray.
WW and Hawkwoman's snarky conversation, btw, is inspired by their working relationship, such as it was in, in the JUSTICE LEAGUE animated series. I thought of including that it's caused here too by the Hawks having formerly been spies for their planet, but decided to drop it. Not entirely sure which origin for them YJ is going with yet anyway - alien police or reincarnated Egyptians.
- Perdita is an established character in the current DC animated universe, whose escapades have been shown on YJ. The Kingdom of Vlatava appeared in DC Comics previously as a Soviet bloc nation formerly ruled by G.A. baddie, Count Vertigo. Inter-gang is also a stock DCU organization, a creation of another king - Jack Kirby - and is basically what it's described as here.
BTW, to me Perdita looks like a Western animation version of the E.U. representative who's with Nunnally, Tianzi, and Kaguya in a screenshot of Earth-CG following the Zero Requiem. I intended to mention her here with the League wondering if they're counterparts to one another. Sadly, there's as of yet nothing known about the E.U. girl in CG or its spin-offs, so I reluctantly abandoned the idea.
- The Justice League was originally Justice League *of America*, but was eventually dropped as sounding semi-jingoistic. They became Justice League, International for a long time, then just the J.L.A. They use their original full name in the comics again, but YJ simply uses Justice League.
- Eiling and lane are U.S. military officials within the DCU that would likely prefer a more aggressive policy against Britannia. General Wade Eiling is a corrupt Air Force official who's involved in Captain Atom's origins. Major (sometimes Colonel or even General) Sam Lane is Lois Lane's father, your typical jerkass who wanted a son, and happened to be part of a Hulkbuster-esque series of black ops to create (and test) an anti-Superman strategy.
- Named are a couple of international super-heroes from England, Denmark, Israel, and Japan respectively in the DCU. They were introduced when SUPERFRIENDS had a comic book series, and later consolidated as The Global Guardians, Europe's answer to the J.L.A. The exception is the Legionary of Italy, from the famous "Club of Heroes" Batman story from the Fifties.
Incidentally, the Danish heroine's name is the Little Mermaid actually, but I figured YJ's producers would modify it to avoid a lawsuit from Disney... the fact that she's named after a public domain fairy tale older than W.D. itself be damned.
- Batman's memories are a READER'S DIGEST version of the Justice League's origins, where aliens downloaded their minds into monstrous elemental bodies to fight over who deserved to rule their world. I'm also injecting the *real* reason that Batman joined the Justice League as invented by modern day writers still following Frank Miller's model of the Dark Knight.
/ * KoJ? * /
CHAPTER 7 - Kings in the Corner:
- I hope you got a chuckle from Charles' internal monologue regarding his obsession with the truth while calling other people hypocrites for their use of masks and lies.
- Hank Pemberton's necktie has the same pattern as the chest logo on his Brainwave, Jr. costume.
- The sequence of illusions is inspired by the "Night on Bald Mountain" segment of FANTASIA.
- As shown, Hank and Lia are the original Brain Wave, living within his son's body, and Phobia, a fear-inducing illusion-caster. They are implicitly working for the Light.
/ * KoJ? * /
CHAPTER 8 - Requiem for a Zero:
- The Prion is the evil parallel universe-version of the Atom, named after a form of infectious microorganism. He's a borderline OC as I looked up names for established evil-Atom characters, and the best I could find was Dyna-Mite, which just sounded goofy.
- If you've seen JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRISIS ON TWO EARTHS, then you probably guessed even before I said so, Earth-CG's Dorado is actually Owlman, Batman's nihilistic counterpart, who narrowly escaped his apparent death at the end of that movie as described here. He is now Charles-ishly provoking a war for a distraction as much as anything as he tries to recreate his doomsday device and use it on the central planet of the multiverse, Earth-Prime.
- Nidhögg is the dragon in Norse mythology that gnaws on the tap root of Yggdrasil, the giant tree that supports Midgard (Earth). A fitting name for Owlman's continued plan to eliminate Earth-Prime, don't you think? Another Norse myth element brought in is FENRIR rather than FLEIJA, named for the Fenris Wolf who is prophesized to one day kill Odin, the king of the gods, and in some versions eat the sun.
- She-Bat is a name and profile that popped up during CRISIS ON TWO EARTHS when a list of the Crime Syndicate's "made men" appeared, apparently an evil(er) version of Catwoman.
- The Phase Oscillator was the name of the dimension-jumping device used by the Owlman in a two-part episode of BATMAN: THE BRAVE & THE BOLD. A similar device from CRISIS ON TWO EARTHS was never given a name, so I'm using the same name Owlman's Saturday-morning cartoon counterpart used.
- Owlman's origin and (initial) motivation is based on writer Grant Morrison's version of the character from a J.L.A. graphic novel. Granted, this origin makes him more "Bruce Wayne's evil brother" rather than a bearded Spock version of Batman himself, but that's how it was written.
I did this as one of the rules of CRISIS ON TWO EARTHS seemed to be that the Crime Syndicate consisted of people who fit the roles of the Justice League members, rather than directly their evil twins, although the good guy versions of Luthor and Deathstroke seem to counter that idea. Still, that was the general rule apparently as, for example, Superman's counterpart Ultraman was a mafioso type rather than a citified country mouse (in fact, his visual design may have been patterned after Ray Liotta and Paul Sorvino from GOODFELLAS).
Additionally, Johnny Quick was British and, based upon his flesh tones, Power Ring may have been of Middle Eastern descent. Superwoman, it's been argued, was an evil version of another DCU heroine, Mary Marvel, while Wonder Woman's twin was one of the made men, a Greco-Roman dressed girl with an extendable spear.
- As you can tell by his dialogue from earlier, I'm leaving it open for Owlman to be the "Zero" of this series, albeit an outright villain rather than an anti-hero or well-intentioned Magnificent Bastard. In fact, the animated Owlman had a cowl somewhat like Lelouch's helmet, and had as a chest emblem a somewhat "0"-looking capital "O".
Disclaimer: Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion is the property of Sunrise and Bandai Entertainment. Young Justice is the property of DC Comics, Inc. and AOL-Time-Warner.
In point of fact...
Credits and Sources:
Code Geass; Lelouch of the Rebellion, all related names, characters, and images are © Sunrise, Inc. All rights reserved.
- Directed by Gorō Taniguchi
- Written by Ichirō Ōkouchi
- Character designs by CLAMP
Young Justice, all related names, characters, and images are © DC Comics, Inc. All rights reserved.
- Young Justice by Todd DeZago and Todd Nauck; adapted for television by Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti
- Justice League by Gardner Fox
- Superman by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
- Batman by Bob Kane and Bill Finger
- Wonder Woman by William Moulton Marston
- The Flash by Robert Kanigher, John Broome, and Carmine Infantino
- Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) by John Broome and Gil Kane
- Aquaman by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger
- Martian Manhunter by Joseph Samachson and Joe Certa
- Green Arrow by Mort Weisinger and George Papp
- Hawkman and Hawkwoman by Gardner Fox, Dennis Neville, and Joe Kubert
- Zatara by Fred Guardineer
- Captain Atom by Joe Gill and Steve Ditko; Cary Bates and Pat Broderick
- Black Canary by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino
- Green Lantern (John Stewart) by Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams
- Captain Marvel / Shazam! by C.C. Beck and Bill Parker
- Red Tornado by Gardner Fox and Dick Dillin
- Doctor Fate by Gardner Fox and Howard Sherman
- The Atom by Gardner Fox and Gil Kane
- Plastic Man by Jack Cole
- Icon and Rocket by Dwayne McDuffie and M.D. Bright
- Speedy / Red Arrow by Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris
- Robin by Bob Kane, Bill Finger, and Jerry Robinson
- Aqualad by Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, Greg Weisman, Brandon Vietti, and Phil Bourassa
- Kid Flash by John Broome and Carmine Infantino
- Superboy by Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett; Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti
- Miss Martian by Geoff Johns and Tony Daniel
- Artemis by Roy Thomas and Todd McFarlane; Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti
- Zatanna by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson
- Wolf by Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti (inspired by Rex the Wonder Dog by Robert Kanigher and Alex Toth)
- The Brain Wave by Gardner Fox and Joe Gallagher
- Brainwave, Jr. by Roy Thomas and Jerry Ordway
- Looker by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo
- Phobia by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez
- Owlman by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky
- Crime Syndicate of Amerika by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky