History YMMV / CodeGeass

* HarsherInHindsight:
'''By RealLife Events'''
** Polish fans were throwing a lot of jokes about the words "Kaczyński unit" from the first episode, because of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lech_Kaczy%C5%84ski Polish president at the time]]. This stopped being funny after said president and several members of parliament [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Polish_Air_Force_Tu-154_crash perished in a plane crash]].
** Britannia not being part of the EU has become this ever since the 2016 referendum in Britain that resulted in its secession from the real-life EU. This is one origin of the "Nigel Farage makes anime real" meme.
*** Look closely enough in episode 22, and you can see a map where it is clearly shown that Great Britain is a neutral nation and not affiliated with neither the EU nor Britannia.
** [[VideoGame/SpiderManPS4 This wouldn't be the last time]] a character voiced by Creator/YuriLowenthal would have to [[spoiler:tragically spend the last moments together with a loved one while she was on her death bed. Worse, in both cases the death was caused in some way by someone Lowenthal's character once trusted. Worse still, unlike here where he does eventually patch things up with the person he once trusted, in the other case he permanently remains enemies with the other character.]]
** [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans This also wouldn't be the last time]] a character played by Creator/JohnnyYongBosch would [[spoiler: be the leader of a resistance group who tragically dies in the end, or in this case, a few episodes before it.]]
** At one point, Luciano Bradley implies he wants to rape Kallen. Bradley's English voice actor, Creator/VicMignogna, would later be accused of sexual misconduct.
'''By {{Canon}} Events'''
** Villetta said she would [[spoiler:kill Shirley a thousand times]] after she forced Villetta to wear a seriously skimpy bikini for the swim club. [[spoiler:In episode 13 of R2 the advice she gives Rolo accidentally helps cause Shirley's death.]] Doubles as HarsherInHindsight considering Villetta using Shirley a season earlier really helped get the ball rolling there.
** Lelouch's extremely fake-looking sword, which [[spoiler:Suzaku as Zero uses to ''impale'' him in the finale.]]
** After causing an avalanche at Narita, Lelouch jokes that he should have consulted Nina about this. This has a relatively apparent and obvious FAM a few episodes later, when [[spoiler:Shirley's father died in the avalanche as an unintended victim of Lelouch's plan]], and a more subtle one later when Nina's scientific expertise [[spoiler:creates a bomb that kills millions of people]].
** When explaining their history together, C.C. says she left Mao because he was unable to complete their contract when the time came. Once we learn midway through the second season that [[spoiler: [[WhoWantsToLiveForever her wish is to die]]]], the fact that Mao was abandoned after having his life ruined by Geass simply because he loved her too much to [[spoiler: either kill her or let her die]] becomes this.

** The belief that Lelouch is a [[pragmatist PragmaticHero]] who is fighting in a BlackandGreyMorality conflict against the evil Empire of Britannia. He is actually the NominalHero fighting for revenge against his father and his (misguided) goal of creating a better world to live in (without actually understanding the consequenses of his actions and what that 'better world' entails) and Britannia is never portayed as evil; just morally ambiguous, dark grey at worst.

** Lelouch is a pragmatist who keeps his head and makes the best use of any situation, even if it involves killing bystanders/foolish allies or disgracing those that he loves, but he's obviously not happy when his subordinates or friends die, and his end goal is to replace the current system with one that's kinder and not as exclusive. On the one hand, many fans tend to forget this and [[RonTheDeathEater paint him as]] a monster who cares for no one but himself, overlooking his more noble qualities [[spoiler: which includes becoming the object of the ''world's hatred'' and dying [[ThanatosGambit in order to create world peace]]...[[KnightTemplarBigBrother all for the sake of his baby sister]]]]. On the other hand, there are fans who refuse to admit that [[DracoInLeatherPants their baby Lulu]] isn't above lying, manipulating[[note]]with or without his [[CompellingVoice geass]][[/note]], or even expending people around him to achieve his goals, and his carelessness has resulted in some pretty nasty consequences for himself '''''and''''' for the people he wants to help ('''including''' [[spoiler: said baby sister]]). In truth, Lelouch is meant to come across as somewhere in the middle, someone with [[WellIntentionedExtremist noble goals]] but whose mental instability causes him to both overlook possibilities and unintentionally cause others pain.
** The belief that Schneizel is an honest man of peace. [[TruthInTelevision Where have I heard that one before?]] Schneizel is presented as Lelouch's greatest enemy as well as his {{Foil}}, someone with just as much manipulation skill appearing charismatic rather than Lelouch's ruthless, and is more a pessimest than Lelouch's optimism. His charisma and some of his [[StrawmanHasAPoint valid opinions]] regarding the nature of humanity however easily paint him as someone truly desiring peace and leads some to [[RootingForTheEmpire root for him rather than Lelouch]].

** The series goes out of its way to humanize both sides of the conflicts. A series that wanted to say that TheEmpire is always evil wouldn't have characters like Shirley. And yet, there are always people saying Lelouch should just kill all of the Britannians, because they must all be evil. That he should have blown up the school and killed all of his friends, ''and Nunnally'', in the very beginning. Where would that have gotten him? In any case, the people who say that must have skipped the scene where Lelouch introduces the Black Knights and saves the hostages.

* CharacterPerceptionEvolution: In R1, Cornelia was for the most part well liked by fans for being an antagonist who [[ANaziByAnyOtherName embodied some of the worst aspects of Britannia]]'s brutality, but was also intelligent, competent, [[EvilIsSexy beautiful]] and made for an imposing foe for Lelouch. Come R2 however, where [[spoiler:she's presented sympathetically and gets off scot free for her war crimes even though she never even shows an ounce of remorse for the horrific massacres she committed, she's now one of the most reviled {{Karma Houdini}}s in the show.]]

** Following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II Great Britain now has a monarch titled King '''[[NamesTheSame Charles]]''' III.

*** [[TreacherousAdvisor Alicia Lohmeyer]] is a cruel Britannian [[CorruptBureaucrat bureaucrat]] assigned to be Nunnally's aide and advisor, who uses her position to constantly make things worse for the Japanese living in Sector Eleven. Always trying to subvert Nunnally's compassionate ways, [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Lohmeyer]] reacts to one million Japanese trying to secede from Britannia with Zero's help by ordering them all be massacred in a sadistic, xenophobic fury, willing to fire the first shot herself and insulting loyal [[Characters/CodeGeassSuzakuKururugi Suzaku]]'s racial heritage for defying her. Lohmeyer later goes behind Nunnally's back and orders the prisoner of war Kallen be executed, purely out of spite for Nunnally befriending her.

* IdiotPlot: Some argue that Schneizel's plan in the last few episodes of R2 degenerated to BondVillainStupidity. That, and the handling of the Black Knights' betrayal. Naturally, it's a BrokenBase.

** Because of the [[Myth/KingArthur Arthurian]] themes in the show, Suzaku has a pet cat named Arthur and pilots the Knightmare Frame, Lancelot. It becomes hilarious that his Japanese voice actor, Creator/TakahiroSakurai, ends up voicing with two actual Arthurian Servants in the ''[[Franchise/FateSeries Fate]]'' franchise: the original King Arthur of ''Anime/FatePrototype'' and Merlin of ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder''.

** The series' attempt to give Nina a FreudianExcuse for being so racist against Japanese (it's vaguely implied she was assaulted once while visiting the ghetto) falls mostly on deaf ears due to her DisproportionateRetribution of building a freaking nuke out of some insanely misplaced sense of vengeance after [[spoiler:Lelouch kills Euphemia due to her ordering all the Japanese be exterminated. Doubly so due to her clearly not caring one iota about all the Japanese that Euphemia's order massacred, instead solely focused on "her" princess' death. The show tries to push some of the blame on Schneizel for feeding her delusions and her having a HeelRealization post Suzaku nuking the Tokyo Settle, but the fact remains that she still planned on destroying the entire school just to kill Zero long before she ever met Schneizel.]]

** Nina Einstein is this UpToEleven. She is meant to be seen as someone mentally ill in desperate need of actual help[[labelnote:*]]She was nearly raped by Japanese citizens in the Ghetto when she was younger, leading to her xenophobic tendencies, and Euphemia's kindness being her LivingEmotionalCrutch up until her death causing SanitySlippage[[/labelnote]], whose fragile mental state was taken advantage of by Schneizel and caused her to suffer further SanitySlippage, before returning to her senses after witnessing the effects her FLEIJA bomb had and travelling the [[TheAtoner path of redemption]] by helping Lelouch construct a counter measure to it and [[spoiler:aiding in the Zero Requiem]], giving her a good deal of CharacterDevelopment in the process and furthering the homage to her namesake, UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein. However, her original xenophobic tendencies, StalkerWithACrush behavior towards Euphemia, and the fact she is responsible for creating a nuclear warhead more destructive than the infamous [[UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki atom bombs]] lead many fans to turn their back on her as their most [[TheScrappy hated]] character, refusing to see her change despite the contrary.

** In a case of HilariousInHindsight, Villetta attempting to kill Ohgi after regaining her memory is apparently this to the point where both WebVideo/WatchMojo and Website/ScrewAttack's [[TopTenList Top 10]] [[MemeticMutation Anime Betrayals]] [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer coincidentally happened to feature it]] ''[[UpToEleven over the above one]]'', [[UpToEleven most likely due to the usual rule of one entry per franchise]]. [[AndThatsTerrible That has to say something]].

* FriendlyFandoms: With other [[RealRobotGenre real robot]] and mecha fandoms, natch. Out of the so called "normalfag trio" of popular mecha anime (as defined by Website/FourChan), which consists of this, Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion and Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann, ''Code Geass'' fans are the most open to the concept of mecha in general and the most likely to branch out into the genre. It's helped a lot by the fact a majority of the early fandom mostly consisted of Franchise/{{Gundam}} veterans who came in precisely because of the mecha aspect and stayed for the amusingly "trainwreck-ish" plot. That core also helped propagate the anime through many early internet memes, which slowly caused a second, less mecha and more-keikaku focused stratum to form, mostly from Manga/DeathNote fans... which also brought in the shipping wars and rabid fangirls.

* FashionVictimVillain: [[spoiler:Lelouch's Emperor outfit is awesome, but his "[[FanNickname Pope]] [[NiceHat hat]]" just makes him look weird, leading to much snickering from the fanbase. One has to wonder if this was meant as [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking another atrocity to add to the Zero Requiem]]. The actual outfits ''are'' actually pretty snazzy. They're just... ''really detailed''. With eyes all over them. Suzaku's outfit has ''skin-tight bare shoulders'', for instance.]]

** A relatively minor one is that ''Creator/{{CLAMP}}'' did all the character design work. They didn't - CLAMP only did the ''preliminary'' work on the costuming and some of the basic character design while the rest was done by one of the ''Creator/{{Sunrise}}'' regulars in the character design field, Takahiro Kimura. Kimura's design is really easily confusable for CLAMP's because he also makes heavy use of the NoodleLimbs aestethic, but only for the men. The women are much more likely to have [[MaleGaze prominent bubble butts]] (like for example CC and Kallen) and large breasts (Kallen, Viletta), with the limbs looking nowhere as disproportionate whenever on-model.

* CommonKnowledge: The anime is a response to ''Manga/DeathNote''. ''Except it isn't''. This is a misconception chiefly propagated by people who watch the show purely for the trainwreck aspect [[WatchItForTheMeme and the memes it spawned]], many of them being casual anime watchers who only follow ''[[Magazine/ShonenJump Shounen Jump]]'' adaptations and not much else. With ''Death Note'' being one of those adaptations, it's really easy to make the mistake, and both shows airing around the same time certainly didn't help things. ''Geass'' actually has way more in common with the traditional ''Creator/{{Sunrise}}'' mecha formula than it is first apparent, with most ''Death Note'' comparisons seeming to focus on the fact [[GuileHero Lelouch and Light are both intelligent protagonists]]. Lelouch is actually a classic example of a CharClone, which is a manipulative character archetype Sunrise likes to use in their mecha shows. Unlike ''Death Note's'' VillainProtagonist, a CharClone in the vein of Lelouch is a far more noble and fundamentally mentally stable character that has distinct familly connections that prevent them from undergoing sanity slippage (usually a younger sister, ''which Lelouch has'') and way larger goals in scope they've been planning for way longer than Light's own obsession that actually stems from his boredom.

* CommonKnowledge: The anime is a response to ''Manga/DeathNote''. ''Except it isn't''. This is a misconception chiefly propagated by people who watch the show purely for the trainwreck aspect [[WatchItForTheMeme and the memes it spawned]], many of them being casual anime watchers who only follow ''[[Magazine/WeeklyShonenJump Shounen Jump]]'' adaptations and not much else. With ''Death Note'' being one of those adaptations, it's really easy to make the mistake, and both shows airing around the same time certainly didn't help things. ''Geass'' actually has way more in common with the traditional ''Creator/{{Sunrise}}'' mecha formula than it is first apparent, with most ''Death Note'' comparisons seeming to focus on the fact [[GuileHero Lelouch and Light are both intelligent protagonists]]. Lelouch is actually a classic example of a CharClone, which is a manipulative character archetype Sunrise likes to use in their mecha shows. Unlike ''Death Note's'' VillainProtagonist, a CharClone in the vein of Lelouch is a far more noble and fundamentally mentally stable character that has distinct familly connections that prevent them from undergoing sanity slippage (usually a younger sister, ''which Lelouch has'') and way larger goals in scope they've been planning for way longer than Light's own obsession that actually stems from his boredom.

* SoundtrackDissonance: The music for the first OP would work well if the High School subplots were the focus of the show, but the peppy, lighthearted tone does little to prepare viewers for the dark, morally ambiguous drama that comprises most of the plot.

* BetterOnDVD: Not surprising, given the complexities of the plot and the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters.

** Kallen's FantasticRacism against Britannians becomes a lot more unsettling after [[Creator/KarenStrassman her English voice actress]] was caught liking racist tweets in November 2020.

** When explaining their history together, C.C. says she left Mao because he was unable to complete their contract when the time came. Once we learn midway through the second season that [[spoiler: [[WhoWantsToLiveForever her wish is to die]] and that she [[ICannotSelfTerminate Cannot Self-Terminate]]]], the fact that Mao was abandoned after having his life ruined by Geass simply because he loved her too much to [[spoiler: kill her]] becomes this.

** When explaining their history together, C.C. says she left Mao because he was unable to complete their contract when the time came. Once we learn that her wish [[spoiler: [[WhoWantsToLiveForever is to die]] and that she [[ICannotSelfTerminate Cannot Self-Terminate]]]], the fact that Mao was abandoned after having his life ruined by Geass simply because he loved her too much to [[spoiler: kill her]] becomes this.