[Renegade334]

Originally Posted by Sonhex

I don't like the guy at all but perhaps now he's been 'meddled with' by C.C he'll change and perhaps turn into the death-bringer hinted at in the new OP? Would be funny if he ends up being a greater threat to peace that Zero...

Well, escalations of violence and changes of mind aren't exactly things we should not expect - if you've read the spoilers from Pash! and Newtype Winter Romance, then you'd know that

Spoiler:

a certain event also awaits Lelouch and compels his latent radicalism to rear its ugly head. So from there on, things might go downhill and I expect Lelouch to bring more than a few people in his spiral of violence - if that's the path he'll resolve to take.

Minor observation; but I noticed the Lancelot's power plant starts off as a chrome Rubick's cube before it turns pink when under stress. Perhaps this is a property of Sakuradite?

According to recent information, Sakuradite is supposed to be a very precious mineral used in supraconductor technology (to a point that it's used in 90% of the world's power source fleet and governments from all around the world gather on a yearly basis to determine their annual share from Britannia) - possibly used to decrease energy loss between the Yggdrasil Drive (the official name of a Knightmare Frame's power plant) and the other components. At any rate, one of my theories is that the Sakuradite cube inside the power plant might be able to create an energy field by rotating at full speed (I know certain scientists were trying to create a miniature magnetic field by rotating a significant metallic mass inside a centrifuge) - or it's a replacement for thorium, uranium or plutonium using a miniature PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor) system.

It looked like Cornelia was about to do selfsuicide by ramming her towards Kallen's knightmare

At that time, she still had her torso-mounted Slash Harkens so she still could go down with a bang. If not, then she could pull an Athrun () on Kallen - I mean, grapple your enemy and push the self-destruct button. A princess is better off dying with honor rather than spending the rest of her life in a cell, her dignity torn to pieces and her honor a forlorn memory. At least she'd be remembered as a strongwilled person, not someone lacking courage to deny Britannia's enemies some sort of leverage against the Empire.

Thing is, Lelouch makes great Plan A's, but never seem to have a Plan B.

Probably because if things go amok - they simply do and there is no contingency to wave around. With the Black Knights widely spread apart, their hands busy and their being there for only a few hours, it's not like Lelouch had much time to improvise, especially against unexpected factors like Lancelot. The ideal would have been trigger another avalanche towards Euphemia and Co. but the only mech capable of pulling that feat is CL Mk II and Kallen was busy right then. Moreover, I don't think there was enough water left to try anything else. He'd already dealt his one-time trick.

Granted, Lelouch had enough time to think about the whole underground water vein and collect those drills but I'm not sure he had the means to pull off a perfect, rotating deathtrap on the premises to ward off any unwanted attempts at interfering with the proceedings. He didn't have leisure to prepare the surroundings with traps and ambush points either, since he only got there when Britannia launched the onslaught. For all we know, he might have wanted it to be a blitz operation - shake the chessboard instead of playing cool and whatnot. He probably didn't have much time on his hands and wanted Cornelia as a guarantee for his retreat and safety later on. Suzaku just shanghaied her back to safety, leaving Lelouch unprotected. Nobody's free from Murphy's Law.

The preview implies that the priestess with the same forehead mark as C2 is affiliated with Kyoto.

Same forehead mark? She's got a small jewel affixed there - there's no sign of the large, bird-like sigil at all. And the said gem is too small to conceal anything. But hey, who knows who she might be -

Spoiler:

Spoilers say she's related to Suzaku

but she might very well be a member of the Japanese Imperial Family. We still don't know whatever happened to them or if monarchy was abolished before the Britannian invasion. At any rate, I believe that Taniguchi eluded that question so as to not offend the actual Imperial family. I hear they're beloved by the Japanese so there's no reason to 'besmirch' them by inserting a scene with captive Japanese royals and whatnot, reduced to mere vassals (or even less than that, political hostages or bargain chips).