Zero! Your story is already finished! You shouldn't even be alive!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I have a PE Proposal that has been long overdue. So let us give our thanks to this PE Proposal finally coming to fruition.
What's the work?[]
Code Geass is a franchise that began with the 2006 anime Lelouch of the Rebellion, which is about an exiled prince named Lelouch vi Britannia who makes a contract with C.C. for the power of the Geass. This geass allows him to dictate and control the actions of others. He forms a resistance movement known as the Black Knights to overthrow and drive out the Holy Britannian Empire's brutal and racist occupation of Japan, coming into odds with his own royal family such as Charles zi Britannia and Schneizel el Britannia.
Who is Diethard Ried? What has he done?[]
Diethard Ried is a supporting protagonist turned antagonist of the Lelouch of the Rebellion story of Code Geass. He initially joins the Black Knights as the head of information, espionage, and public relations and following the restructure becomes Secretary of Media and Intelligence before finally defecting to Schneizel el Britannia’s faction.
In the first season (Lelouch of the Rebellion R1), Diethard makes his first appearance after Clovis la Britannia’s "heartbreaking" memorial speech. Said speech was nothing more than to stroke his ego, as Clovis boasts to the other nobles gathered where he transmitted from. Diethard is shown having a conversation with Bartley Asprius about the "poison gas" that was stolen by the terrorists.
In his next appearance, he’s given the assignment of publicizing an “Honorary Britannian” Japanese known as Suzaku Kururugi until Zero comes to rescue him from getting killed. Following that moment, he became infatuated with Zero and his Black Knight’s faction’s actions, applying for an ultimately landing a position in the group as a propagandist, out of a desire to escape the boredom of the Holy Britannian Empire’s current state of affairs, one that would set him on a path of taking increasingly depraved actions in the name of entertaining himself.
From the get-go we are subject to a character arc’s worth of dramatic irony as he reveals more and more of his true depraved self over time, starting with suggesting assassinating Suzaku when he’s made Princess Euphemia’s knight and taking advantage of the fallout from a geassed Euphemia massacring innocent Japanese civilians by broadcasting the footage of the massacre to the masses to rile them up, even gleefully smiling at the “exciting” footage that he will use for his documentary. This instigation leads to well-meaning supporters of Euphemia’s Special Administrative Zone clashing with angry Black Knights, with innocent Britannians getting killed in the crossfire. Amidst this, he’s commenting he's enjoying editing the footage to rile up Britannia.
In the second season (Lelouch of the Rebellion R2), he starts off with not too much involvement. That all changes when Lelouch announces the establishment of the United Federation of Nations which causes Diethard to immediately jump to claiming they have a “Just cause to launch war”, something that Kyoshiro smirks at in disgust. He also expresses support in the plot to kidnap Cornelia and urges his men to keep her alive but torture and mutilate her by shooting up her legs.
When Schneizel arrives, Diethard initially was hesitant on betraying Lelouch, even going as far as to defend him and refute whatever Schneizel was saying, if only to keep his Geass power on their side... and then he betrays Lelouch anyway, telling him he would have rather watched him topple Britannia but then states that that show has been permanently cancelled. As angry Black Knights try to kill him, he films their attempt on him and gleefully announces that he died like a martyr before escaping. After seeing Rolo rescue Lelouch with the Shinkirou, he informs the Black Knights that it has been stolen and orders them to destroy it.
After Lelouch confronts and kills his father Emperor Charles, Diethard defects to Schneizel, deciding that his plan of what amounts to a nuclear holocaust to force the whole world into submission is more interesting than Lelouch’s. He even goes as far as to brag how right he was to join Schneizel’s side and that he now gets to document the real man changing history (just as this history-changing event is gonna result in the deaths of billions). Expecting Lelouch to kill Schneizel after defeating him, he instead Geasses him into his slave. This drives Diethart into a rage, shooting a Geassed officer dead and holding Lelouch at gunpoint, only for him to be fatally shot by Schneizel. As he bleeds to death he begs Lelouch to use his Geass on him, wanting to feel the "Power of the Kings" he's so obsessed with. However, disgusted by his actions, Lelouch denies said request and leaves him to die and he is quickly forgotten despite the fame he sought, showing how ultimately a weaselly and insignificant excuse of a man he really is.
Heinous Standard[]
Code Geass has a rather high ceiling, given that mass murderers are a dime-a-dozen in the series. You have the protagonist Lelouch, who has a bodycount in the millions from the wars he's started; Luciano Bradley, a war criminal and sadist who tries to restart the Special Zone massacre that Euphemia did and has a bodycount of his own; and several villains like Cornelia who try to commit genocide on the Elevens. Diethard manages to pass the standard not just simply for his high bodycount but for how he got it. It's similar to that of Nobliss Gordon: despite having virtually no military authority, he manages to weasel his way into the system and uses any-and-all means like his business and media connections to exacerbate already bad situations and make them worse just to amuse himself.
Even compared to Brittanian Imperial Family, the main antagonists of the series, they have at least a mitigating factor (Lelouch is a well-intentioned extremist who tries to free the world from the Holy Britannian Empire's tyrannical control, Charles is also Tragic, Cornelia has a sister that she loves, etc) and they have huge amounts of resources at their disposal. Diethard has neither of those. He's just a slimy businessman and news reporter who manages to punch well above and beyond his weight thanks to his business and media connections with some really important people who are far higher on the food chain than he is.
There's also his own personal villainy, such as his sole motivation on joining the Black Knights being to be entertained by the carnage; always being on board for the Lelouch's cruelest and shadiest actions, keeping the war going for well over a year; always vouching for the most extreme options, including a world war; and to cap it off, gleefully dumping Lelouch for Schneizel after hearing that what he's gonna do is gonna cause far more death and carnage than Lelouch has ever done, even gloating how he was right to join his side.
Freudian Excuse/Mitigating Factors[]
Absolutely nothing. His so-called loyalty only amounts to the amount of death and carnage his current leader can cause because he thinks that’s more entertaining to him and once he finds someone who can outdo his current leader in that department he will happily jump ship to that side. This is best showcased when he felt ecstatic that Schneizel's plan for “peace” amounts to a nuclear holocaust that would result in the deaths of billions, which is way more than the amount of wars Lelouch has ever waged. He even goes as far as to brag that he was right in joining Schneizel's side.
He may talk about justice and all that but that means nothing when it's proven that his entire M.O. is to glorify himself and is willing to use any and all dirty, underhanded tricks to do so, such as goading Lelouch into doing the cruelest and most violent choices like suggesting that the Black Knights throw Kallen under the bus. He starts off already with a bunch of red flags but then just reveals more and more of his true colors over time, that of a sociopath who'll do anything, no matter how low and depraved (well actually the lower and more depraved the better), in the name of entertaining himself.
Yeah he's willing to die asking to be Geassed but that's not redeeming at all in the slightest. If anything it showcases him being a loony fanboy of what he sees as a cool superpower and nothing more than that.
Final Verdict[]
Sure why not? But I'll let you decide.