Code Geass The Prepared Rebellion / Tropes Q to Z

Tropes Q to Z for Code Geass: The Prepared Rebellion.

Q-S

• Quality over Quantity: C.C.'s contractors — such as Lelouch and Mao — have a marked tendency to be superior Geass Users than those who contract with V.V. with the sole exception of Charles. V.V.'s other contractors very often gain Geass powers with serious drawbacks, when they aren't outright liabilities from the start, whereas C.C.'s contractors only suffer the logical consequences of their powers becoming stronger with time — which is something that also happens to the very few of V.V.'s contractors (un)lucky enough to survive that long. Being The Sociopath that he is, V.V. sees this as a numbers game and contracts as many as 70-80 people per year and recruits the few with useful Geass powers into his service. Marianne is convinced that his lack of concern for his contractees is why this happens with Charles being the exception that proves the rule.
• Quirky Mini Boss Squad: "The Hand", a team of five Geass Directorate agents tasked by V.V. with apprehending the rogue agent Valefar, as well as the focal characters for Chapter 40: "The Demon's Hand". The group would be a Dysfunction Junction were it not for Vassago keeping them in line and efficient. They are comprised of:
  • Agent #3: Vassago, the de-facto leader of the team. A stern leader with no tolerance for screw-ups without being an outright Bad Boss, and one of the only known agents able to get away with breaking orders, such as her not caring for the gag order V.V. put on Naberius about his last mission. Has hints of the Team Mom as well due to chastising Glasya-Labolas for his cursing with a "Language" comment, and ultimately pitying Naberius even if frustrated with him for his Murder Is the Best Solution mindset. Possesses the Geass Ward of Absolute Feminine Captivation, which lets her charm anyone who identifies as male into being her love slave, but has destroyed her libido.
  • Agent #11: Gusion, the Lazy Bum. The Non Descript in appearance and prefers napping to anything else, nearly emotionally dead as a side-effect of his Geass. Possesses the Geass Ward of Absolute Terror, which inflicts nightmarish hallucinations on the target, but leaves him increasingly emotionally dead with each use.
  • Agent #15: Eligos, the oldest member of the team. Largely jaded and laid back. Possesses the Geass Ward of Absolute Intoxication, which allows him to induce different levels of alcohol intoxication on the target, but leaves him with the effects of a hangover proportionate to the effect used.
  • Agent #24: Naberius, aka Rolo. A Tyke Bomb trained to believe Murder Is the Best Solution leaving him with Blue-and-Orange Morality, and somewhat of a liability to the group due to his specialty being more in assassination than espionage. Possesses the Geass Ward of Absolute Suspension, which allows him to stop the subjective passing of time in a given area, but subjects his heart to cardiac arrest while doing so, prolonged or repeated usage risking permanent damage to his heart.
  • Agent #25: Glasya-Labolas, the youngest member of the team. A former Eleven and Category Traitor with a temper, being an overall Bratty Half-Pint. Possesses the Geass Ward of Absolute Stimulation, which allows him to induce Sensory Overload on a target's pain or pleasure receptors, but leaves his own body completely numb while in use.
• Rage Breaking Point:
  • Euphemia's anger at Cornelia had been building for some time, but she was able to suppress it. However, even she has her limits, and she finally lets her big sister have it after the Viceroy tries to re-enact the Shinjuku massacre in an attempt to lure Zero into a trap.
  • C.C. finds her patience worn thin with three of the Four Holy Swords when they go out of their way to Be as Unhelpful as Possible once the JLF merges with the Black Knights. Asahina outright refusing to work and calling Zero a "circus performer" causes her to finally snap.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Yamato Alliance is highly unorganized and poorly supplied before Zero takes over.
• Raised by Grandparents: Milly was raised mostly by her grandfather, and rather dislikes her parents — Melisande a snobbish Social Climber, and Roderick her Henpecked Husband.
• Rank Up:
  • Cornelia promotes Suzaku from Private to Warrant Officer, Second Class, — which is six entire ranks, which is something that should have taken him decades of distinguished and loyal service to achieve even in a best-case scenario — as a reward for his loyalty to Britannia for returning after Zero rescued him from the Kangaroo Court that Kewell set up for him and for providing her with evidence that Lelouch and Nunnally may have survived the Invasion of Japan.
  • After Todoh is promoted to General, he promotes his Four Holy Swords to Colonels.
  • Viletta eventually becomes Euphemia's Knight.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Subverted. Sexual abuse was one the very, very few mistreatments C.C. didn't suffer as a slave 700 years ago, and that's only because the feudal lord who bought her was homosexual and liked to surround himself with like-minded guests and servants.
• Reading Lips: Lelouch suspects that Milly can lip-read, so he makes sure of covering his mouth if she has him within her line of sight and he's saying something he doesn't want her to know.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: The computers aboard G-1 Mobile Base displayed error messages during the Battle of Narita. The system simply wasn't designed to report so many units lost nigh-simultaneously.
• Read the Freaking Manual:
  • Rakshata won't let a Knightmare pilot even touch one of her babies if they don't RTFM first.
  • Desmond really should have taken or read the Mission Briefing in its entirety before trying to assassinate Lelouch and kidnap Nunnally in Rolo's place, but their long, long string of successful deployments led to Suicidal Overconfidence.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Urabe of the Four Holy Swords takes Zero's refusal to join the JLF rather well and was in fact chosen to recruit him because he'd be the most reasonable about it.
• Reason Before Honor: As part of the story being a Rational Fic, this trope applies heavily.
  • A downplayed example in that she will hem and haw about it, but Cornelia promotes Suzaku for his loyalty to Warrant Officer status, a rank that any Honorary Britannian getting is nearly unheard of, and later promotes a 2nd lieutenant who was at the Battle of Shinjuku to full Captain for keeping a cool head and trying to be proactive rather than just reactive against Zero's tactics.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: C.C. as Augur gives one to Senba, Chiba, and especially Asahina for their deliberate incompetence and antagonism after the JLF merges with the Black Knights.
• Rebel Leader: Lelouch, as per canon. Later upgraded to the leader of all Japanese forces after absorbing the most of the JLF into the Black Knights and gaining the full backing of Kyoto. Several of the heads of the Six Houses were very uncomfortable about making the exiled Britannian prince into a modern-day equivalent of a shogun.
• Reckless Gun Usage: When we first meet Tetsuya, Kallen notes that his pistol is so caked with grease and dirt, she doubts it would do anything more than blow his hand off. This turns out to be a Subversion because the gun discharged flawlessly, albeit uselessly, when Tetsuya fired at Zero's Sutherland in a last-ditch effort to escape capture. He later used it to shoot at and successfully wound Zero and it's only his terrible aim that spares Zero's life.
• Red Baron:
  • Euphemia becomes known as the "Archenemy of Avarice" for her success in cleaning up Area 11's corruption.
  • Zero's best Knightmare pilot is known as the "Red Queen". Kallen's Nom de Guerre becomes infamous among the Britannian military after proving herself instrumental in Cornelia's only two defeats in battle and for counteracting the Lancelot at every deployment.
  • Mamoru is known as the "Sleeping Dragon of Kanto" among La Résistance. He was also known as the "Shadow Dragon" to the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Intelligence Service.
  • Rolo's self-proclaimed rival Tyke-Bomb in the Geass Order gets called the "Lethe Killer."
  • Jeremiah Gottwald is known in Britannia as the "Emperor's Bulldog" for his loyalty and tenacity.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Knightmare fight between the old and calm Mamoru Takagahara for the Black Knights and young and aggressive Dorothea Ernst for Britannia had this interpersonal dynamics during the Battle of Port Yokosuka.
• Red Shirt: Lampshaded by Incognito, who quipped to Augur that Code-R's guards had no chance against them because they wore red shirts. Augur basically rolls her eyes and points out that only one of the four was actually wearing one.
• Refuge in Audacity: If love is a battlefield, then C.C.'s seduction of Milly Ashford was the courtship equivalent blitzkrieg. Her complete lack of subtlety paid off well by catching her off-guard and keeping her from suspecting some nonexistent ploy in what was actually a very simple, very direct question: Does she want to become Lelouch's third lover or not? It took Milly perhaps two seconds to answer with The Big Damn Kiss in lieu of a Big "YES!".
  • The Black King has gotten away with using his criminal alias in public (he likes to gamble on chess matches and play black) because no one would have thought that he would dare do that kind of thing.
• Relationship-Salvaging Disaster: Inverted. The Hostage Situation at Lake Kawaguchi drives a wedge between Milly and Nina they don't recover from.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: All of the Demons, V.V.'s top enforcers in the Geass Order, are given codenames the demons from the Ars Goetia.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Lelouch quotes the Trope Namer when telling Villetta Nu about his real identity as Lelouch vi Britannia.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: Lelouch admits to his inner circle that if Todoh is unable to get Asahina to shape up and fall in line he will get reassigned to a remote outpost on the northernmost tip of Hokkaido.
• Revealing Cover-Up:
  • Milly's attempt to get rid of the footage of Sayoko entering Theta Base in a stolen Sutherland only served to alert Reuben that she knew about Lelouch's forays into the complex and that she was taking steps to help him.
  • Lampshaded by Vassago in regards to how Rolo's Murder Is the Best Solution tactics will just make things more difficult for them in the long run.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Once it is brought to their attention that Yoshino, Munakata, and Osakabe have been aiding the Neo Shinsengumi and betrayed them, the remaining members of the Six Houses of Kyoto have the three brought before them, stripped of their titles as head of house, and offered their choice in death, the honorable seppuku, or the dishonorable death by firing squad. Munakata decides to die with some semblance of honor and chooses seppuku, while Yoshino and Osakabe are dragged away cursing Kirihara and Kaguya for choosing to support Zero. Kubouin and Yoshino's own grandson Akira offer them no sympathy as they are soon after shot.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: This exchange in Chapter 31:
  Milly: [notices the look C.C. is giving her] Oh my, what would Lulu think to you seducing me?
  C.C.: [in her "Celesta" cover identity] Oh, he'd probably ask that I be nice enough to record some footage of us in flagrante delicto. I know for a fact that Lelouch likes it when Sayoko and I put on a show for him.
  Milly: [mind shortcuts]
• Right for the Wrong Reasons:
  • Cornelia planned on drawing Zero out of hiding by reenacting the Shinjuku Massacre in Saitama, counting on him being either arrogant enough to use the same strategy he used to kill Clovis on her, or enough of an opportunist to show up in order to boost his good rep among the Japanese. As Reuben Ashford points on, it's in fact neither. Lelouch simply can't abide such a senseless loss of life since the time he had to walk through the even bloodier Gunma Massacre while carrying Nunnally on his back seven years ago, and he moved to prevent it because there was a good chance Cornelia would try again in a different ghetto if he didn't.
  • When Euphemia and Milly discuss Suzaku going to a psychiatrist, they hit upon the idea that Suzaku saw his father die, which is why he has a Martyr Complex. Unknowingly, they were pretty close to the truth, while not knowing that Suzaku didn't just see his father kill himself, but rather killed his father.
  • A Geass Order assassin didn't know where to find Lelouch in Ashford Academy, but guessed that someone with "the ego of a Prince" would pick the "largest, most obvious" inhabitable building in campus, and correctly decided to check the Student Council Clubhouse first. The actual reason for Nunnally and Lelouch's unusual lodging arrangements is because the former's disability makes it hard for her to live in the dorms and Lelouch and their maid Sayoko stay with her to take care of her.
• Right Through the Wall: C.C. is many things, but quiet in bed isn't one of them. Thankfully Nunnally's regular medicine incidentally makes her a heavy sleeper, meaning that she and her lovers only have to adjust themselves to that schedule to make this a Defied Trope.
• The Rival: Desmond considers himself this to Rolo. As of now, it's unknown what Rolo thinks of Desmond in turn.
• Rival Science Teams: The Ashford and the Bradford Groups, although mostly a one-sided affair. When Britannian military made the request for proposal for the third generation Knightmare Frame in the backstory, several Noble Families' dev teams submitted their prototypes, two of them the Ashfords who put forward the Ganymede, and the Bradford family who nominated their Deimos. The Ganymede won hands down thanks to its versatile anthropomorphic design and their test pilot Marianne "the Flash" Lamperouge. The unit never saw mass production, probably due to its association to the late "Commoner Queen" and the now disgraced Ashford family, but Britannia still purchased the design and used it as the basis for the fourth generation and the spearhead of the invasion of Japan: the Glasgow. The Bradfords never let that one go and have been doing whatever they could to screw the Ashfords over since. Embittering them further is the fact that, despite remaining a defense contractor unlike their former competition, their Liverpool and York models are widely considered inferior to everything in the Ganymede's family tree — even the outdated Glasgow can run literal circles around Bradford Group's Spider Tank drones unopposed, never mind the standard Sutherland or the improved Gloucester.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: The narration/characters will, without exception, use the term perquisite, when they instead mean prerequisite; notable because the writing is otherwise quite eloquent
• Royal Harem: The Britannian Emperor is required by law to take, at the very least, two wives with an upper limit of 108. Similarly, Princes of the Realm must take at least two wives if they are to marry at all, and they are encouraged by tradition to take at least the same amount of mistresses.
• Royal Inbreeding: While rare, marriages between half-siblings did happen in the history of the Imperial Family. Cornelia guessed that, were not for Marianne's death, Lelouch's wife would have been chosen between Millicent Ashford and his half-sister Euphemia (or both, see Royal Harem above).
• Running Gag:
  • Everybody, from Royalty to La Résistance and from military to high school students, hate paperwork. It doubles as a mild case of Author Tract.
  • At least three different people have wondered what Nina's parents were thinking when they decided to have their xenophobic daughter attend high school in Area 11.
  • Kallen's narration is peppered with snarky commentaries in parenthesis. Like remarking when Tamaki finally manages close his mouth (temporarily).
  • Kallen also has the habit of visualizing intrusive thoughts as martial arts opponent she mentally roughs up to temporary reprieve. Usually unwanted thoughts about her attraction to Zero, Lelouch, and "Celesta".
  • Whenever a new and more powerful Knightmare Frame is introduced, its pilot is forced to go through the boring but necessary task of reading the lengthy operator manual.
  • C.C. is fond of giving Too Much Information about Lelouch's love life. If you go for what she says, it sounds like she's bragging in his place, but her timing and delivery tend to make everybody within hearing embarrassed and uncomfortable, especially the guy himself.
    C.C.: [in her "Augur" persona] Not that you have any need to force someone into bed in the first place, what with us ladies practically throwing ourselves at you, Zero.
    Lelouch: I doubt that Miss Silver had any need to hear about that, Augur.
• Safe, Sane, and Consensual: The Slavery Contract for BDSM partners basically makes this into law, with the dom/domme being held liable in criminal court for any breach in contract. In fact, just like most alternative lifestyle partnerships, most of the power is actually in the hands of the sub.
• Samus Is a Girl: In-Universe. The fact that the Ace Pilot of the red Knightmare fighting for La Résistance is a woman keeps on tripping people up. This becomes something of a Not Me This Time moment during the Battle of Port Yokosuka when the Knight of Four is surprised that the pilot of the attacking Guren unit is not the Red Queen.
• Sanity Has Advantages: V.V. is The Sociopath who couldn't care less about all the people he grants Geass to with the sole exception of Charles. That means that when one of his old contractors goes rogue, he can barely remember a thing about them in order to track them down. Marianne hypothesizes that this is also the reason why his contractors tend to get Geass powers with serious drawbacks, if not outright liabilities, unlike C.C. who almost never contracts more than one person at a time and they tend to develop into really powerful Geass Users such as Lelouch, Mao, and Leila Malcal in the Code Geass: Akito the Exiled movies.
• Sarcastic Clapping: C.C. does this in Chapter 17 after Lelouch figures out that Sayoko has a crush on him.
• School Newspaper News Hound: The one in Ashford Academy was bugging Milly a lot because of her Take Me Instead moment during the Lake Kawaguchi Incident. When asking them to leave her alone failed, the Student Council President threatened to cut their budget. When Newspaper Club complained about abuse of power and oppressing the free press, she simply let them know she had dirt on almost all of them and they folded like a cheap suit. In hindsight Lelouch found the whole thing amusing because he considered it an accurate reflection of how things are run in Britannia.
  Lelouch: [thinking] Free press, in Britannia? What a contradiction in terms.
• Science Is Bad:
  • Heavily played with. Its demonstrated numerous times through Lloyd, Rakshata, and Lelouch that science has the capacity for good, Rakshata even being noted as having been a potential big name in the medical field before she was forced to focus on KMF development. However, its equally shown to have the capacity for evil, namely through the Code-R project. Aside from their experiments on C.C., they also frequently kidnap people for experimentation, only to kill them with their extreme methods without remorse, justifying it by the idea they can just kidnap more people.
  • This is best exemplified through the Original Character Cheryl Silver, a Code-R researcher. While she finds the restrictions and guidelines amidst the scientific community are too strict, she also finds Code-R to be too far in the opposite direction, and that they personify the worst aspects of science, even noting that two thirds of the experiments would be completely unnecessary if they took basic care of the test subjects. To this end, she attempted to flee the project the night Zero and the Void Order attacked the Fukuoka base, but when she is apprehended by Zero before she can, she is offered a choice unlike the other scientists thanks to her morals. She can either die right there, be used like the other scientists and then disposed of when she's no longer needed, or she can pledge her loyalty to Zero and join the Void Order. Seeking to atone for her actions and desiring to live, she pledges herself to Zero and joins the Void Order.
• Scoundrel Code: Lelouch tells Kallen that rules and orders are more like guidelines for C.C.; one such is that she will not flirt with a true heterosexual female, or anybody who's already taken. If they're bi-curious and single, on the other hand...
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Lelouch takes full advantage of the fact that, in Britannia, placing the right amount of money on the right hands can get you a long, long way. For example, he got his hands on the designs of a Flawed Prototype of a Powered Armor by bribing a greedy network administrator to send him the files, and once he deemed them viable by replacing the power source with a Sakuradite-based equivalent, he then used some "borrowed" money from Nobles to buy the developers' lab and have the machinery shipped to Japan for its reassembly at his Theta Base.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Almost a hundred men left the Japan Liberation Front in protest of Kusakabe's actions in Lake Kawaguchi, which they and most of the Japanese population saw as an In-Universe Moral Event Horizon.
• Second Love: Nina to Milly, if you count the latter's childish crush on Lelouch as her First Love. And you should, because Milly never really got over him and her feelings for him remained the big Elephant in the Living Room of their relationship.
• Secret Chaser: Lelouch is Properly Paranoid enough to recognize he's got potentially three of them within the Black Knights who are likely to see through his disguise given enough time: Kallen, because she regularly interacts with both Zero and Lelouch Lamperouge. General Todoh, who he knew Lelouch when he was still the discarded young Prince of Britannia living with the Kururugi, and is likely to throughly research his new CO as soon as he's got the time. And Omnidisciplinary Scientist Rakshata, whose observant and analytical nature plus her gift to make brilliant leaps of logic makes her likely to figure out Zero's Secret Identity without even meaning to.
• Secret Identity: Lelouch isn't the only one with one here.
  • Like in canon, Lelouch has two in the form of the civilian identity "Lelouch Lamperouge", and the regicide leader of the Black Knights "Zero".
  • C.C. has two of her own, the Ashford Academy student "Celesta Crossfield", and Zero's retainer "Augur". For her case, she needs to take on these identities as the actions of Code R are made public and as such her face is known as the unfortunate victim of the group.
  • Sayoko takes on the identity of "Aegis", Zero's bodyguard and spy.
  • Kallen has her initial Ashford Academy student identity as "Kallen Stadtfeld", but after her Clark Kenting is pointed out to her, she takes on the identity of the "Red Queen", the Knight of Zero and ace of the Black Knights. Lelouch also has Diethard concocting an additional identity in the event her civilian identity is discovered.
  • Reuben Ashford has several as part of his The Man Behind the Curtain routine, using various pseudonyms and proxies to deal with any illicit business.
  • Milly Ashford takes on the identity of "Incognito" after joining Lelouch, their cover story being she were serving as Zero's undercover agent before rejoining him.
• Secret-Keeper: Milly and Reuben know Lelouch is Zero but have no intention of selling him out to the empire.
• Secret Relationship:
  • Milly and Nina. They do a pretty good job at keeping it hidden, and the only reason Lelouch noticed is because Nina's jealous streak acts up the most when he interacts with Milly.
  • C.C. opted for keeping her relationship with Lelouch to herself when in her "Celesta" persona because she predicted that his numerous Fangirls at Ashford Academy would be a hassle to deal with otherwise.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Mamoru Takagahara seems to have figured out that Zero is Britannian. Nevertheless, he's approving of him and even advised Kallen to not judge people because of their nationality just in case she will ever learn about it.
• Servile Snarker: Discussed Subversion. The first thing that caught Kallen's attention about Lelouch Lamperouge was the Japanese maid Sayoko referring to the Britannian teenager with the "-sama" honorific without any trace of resentment or sarcasm whatsoever. In private, Sayoko can be quite snarky with Lelouch, but that's because she doubles as his Honest Advisor.
• Sex Equals Love: C.C. and Lelouch start their relationship as Friends with Benefits, and for seemingly very un-romantic reasons — he was the first man she was sexually attracted to in literal centuries and C.C. mostly wanted to explore the novelty, and Lelouch thought he could ill afford to refuse her proposition and damage their partnership given how much support the Code Bearer was giving to him and his revolution. As the ensuing Porn with Plot (and later on redacted-out) sex scene shows, said reasons were abandoned and forgotten pretty much that very same night when Lelouch discovered that there was more to C.C. than her confident persona of an immortal with a Blue-and-Orange Morality, and C.C. realized that her feelings for him couldn't possibly be just physical attraction. Afterwards, it's not long before they're deeply in love with each other.
• Sexposition:
  • Lelouch and Sayoko discuss the aftermath of the Battle of Narita while she's basking in the afterglow of their lovemaking session and a bit into the foreplay for the next one, right before the scene ends with a Sexy Discretion Shot.
  • Lelouch explained his predictions and deductions about the Six Houses' actions and the likely fallout after allying themselves with Zero to Sayoko and C.C., at the same time he undressed and... er, prepared the latter for their night together. Again, the scene ended with a Sexy Discretion Shot.
  • In Chapter 31, Lelouch went over several of his side projects in his computer while C.C. and Sayoko "put on a show" for him on his bed.
• Sexy Jester: Incognito's identity-concealing costume is a gold-trimmed white Spy Catsuit with a harlequin theme, particularly the helmet.
• Sexy Shirt Switch: C.C. took for wearing Lelouch's shirts and little else around his place. This was soon revealed to be an Invoked Trope and part of a Batman Gambit to get Sayoko jealous enough to admit her feelings for him. It remains her preferred sleepwear afterwards, though.
• Shameless Fanservice Guy: Lelouch assumed that C.C. would think nothing of holding a conversation with a guy while he was dressed in nothing but a Modesty Towel — and he would've been right except because it was him doing it. Unbeknownst to him at the time, Lelouch is pretty much the first and only man she's been sexually attracted to, and the sight of his half-naked body gave C.C. an enemy even her long life didn't prepare her for: puberty.
• Share the Male Pain: While it didn't happen within his line of sight, Ohgi winced in sympathy when Tamaki let out an "agonised, girlish shriek" after Zero allowed Kallen to chastise him in her own terms for sleeping while on guard duty and negligently letting Tetsuya's accomplice escape after he shot at their leader.
• Sherlock Scan: C.C.'s long life has made her an expert at reading people. Lelouch also has more than a knack at it, but he relies more in deduction and predicting how a rational person will act based on the information available, which makes him miss purely emotional motivations if well-hidden enough, like Sayoko's feelings for him.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Reuben Ashford is a big Lelouch/Milly shipper despite knowing about his Polyamorous relationship with "Celesta" and Sayoko — although, he's not wrong by saying such an arrangement is more of an enticement than a determent for an equal-opportunity flirt like her — and about his activities as Zero. Part of it is due to the fact that Reuben is genuinely fond and approving of him, but a bigger one seems to be that he's keenly aware of just how badly his granddaughter has it for Lelouch and how likely it is for her to get stuck wondering what could have been if she doesn't at least try for it. There's also the worst-case scenario of Zero's capture and likely execution as a terrorist, making the window of opportunity for Milly to act on her feelings an unpredictably short one.
  • Nunnally entertains herself wondering which one of her brother's friends could end up becoming her sister-in-law. Or "which ones", because a Marry Them All scenario doesn't really bother her.
• Shout-Out:
  • Lelouch paraphrases Lucifer in Paradise Lost when he said "It is better to be a king in your own court than a noble in someone else's." Evidently he forgot that Lu lost his grand rebellion...and is fated to lose the second one, too.
  • The ruins of the school where Ohgi used to teach, currently a secure location for the Kozuki Cell to gather, houses the skeleton of an alligator with a collar engraved with "Miss Turtle." They have no idea where it came from. The fact that it is blatantly called Furinkan High School is not surprising.
  • C.C. "loved it when a plan came together".
  • Zero paraphrases V's "Who is but a form following the function of what" line twice. Once when Tamaki asks who he is and again when Euphemia asks.
  • Zero in general likes quoting V, such as stating that while the cudgel can be used in lieu of words, words shall always retain their power.
  • Lelouch references Animal Farm to explain how the High Eunuchs ended up amassing so much power in the Chinese Federation.
  • Nonette quoted the Epigraph of RWBY's "White" Trailer almost word-by-word to Cornelia when she reminded the princess she's like her enemies, especially the "Red Queen" who also lost a brother to the other side.
  • In Chapter 32, a young woman named Che(ry)l tries to sneak out unnoticed from a poorly designed underground research facility built by someone named "C. Johnson". And she gets captured just when she thinks she got to the exit.
  • Incognito goes Guns Akimbo with a pair long-barrelled custom pistols, "one shinning silver, the other pitch-black", and she draws them from her back. It looks like she (or her gunsmith) took notes from fellow blonde Trish.
  • V.V. refers to Directorate agents with Geass as members of the Ars Goetia. #11 and on are numbered based on the order they're recruited, while #'s 1-10 consist of the strongest agents, in a manner similar to Aizen's arrangement of the Arrancar and Espada.
• Sibling Team: The li Britannia sisters make an excellent Viceroy/Sub-Viceroy team in this story, with Cornelia as the Four-Star Badass and Euphemia the Badass Bureaucrat. They would have been a lot more successful at it in Area 11 were not for an Outside-Context Problem like Zero.
• Sick Episode: Milly and Rivalz mention the only time they remember Lelouch falling ill prior to the start of the series, notable because Sayoko went into a "hyper protective state" where she only reluctantly allowed Nunnally and Milly to go anywhere near him.
• Silk Hiding Steel:
  • Kaguya Sumeragi, especially when she advocated for the execution of the group of Japanese Refrain manufacturers that the Black Knights captured and handed over to them. While the rest of the leaders of the Six Houses knew this was the right decision given the circumstances, hearing a 15-year-old girl all but sentencing said criminals to death without any hesitation whatsoever was something else entirely.
  • Also something of a cultural trait among Britannian nobility. For example, Princess Euphemia can pilot a Knightmare, and Reuben Ashford had Milly learn how to use a gun proficiently and attend hostage training courses.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: "Celesta", and to a lesser extent Lelouch, have made it clear to Suzaku that the world simply doesn't run on Black-and-White Morality like he thinks it does/should. Lelouch even points out that lies are a lesser evil and one which he commits every day to protect himself and Nunnally from being discovered.
• Simple, yet Opulent: Only a Four-Star Badass like Cornelia gets to take the edge off a bad day in the battlefield with a 100-year-old bottle of whisky.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Invoked one-sided version. The cynical and acerbic "Celesta" irritates Suzaku like nobody short of Zero himself by being dismissive of his ideals and consistently and succinctly criticizing them in a way he can't easily fend off. It doesn't take Lloyd ten seconds to figure out that Suzaku's fellow student council member is most likely playing Socrates on him in an annoying-to-be-kind effort to force him to really think about his ideals.
• Situational Sexuality: Sayoko falls under the "harem effect" clause of this trope as stated in The Other Wiki, as it's been noted that Sayoko isn't bisexual by natural inclination but rather does so as a bonding experience and to entertain Lelouch.
• Skewed Priorities: Lloyd Asplund thinks nothing of getting Schneizel to cancel Suzaku's mandatory medical leave because the Lancelot is "missing prime opportunities to gather combat data", ignoring that Suzaku's Death Seeker status means he takes unnecessary risks which could see the Lancelot destroyed or stolen.
• Skinship Grope: C.C. has taken this trope to an art form to Kallen's great chagrin. Hard not to with her literal centuries' worth of experience with the female body.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: In the backstory, Britannia got very damn close to outright legalizing slavery right before Charles' reign. As in the bill got only two votes short from passing in the House of Parliament. This is a source of great shame for Princess Euphemia.
• Small Name, Big Ego:
  • Tetsuya Ichigyomon thinks he's the biggest badass in Japan but really, he's just a low level grunt who's incredibly incompetent.
  • Melisande Ashford née DeAmbury is a savvy and ruthless player in the Social Darwinist world of Britannian Nobility, but she's too full of herself to accept that her attempts to wrestle control from her father-in-law are doomed to fail because he's a lot more skilled and experienced at it than her. She even believes she's got a chance of manipulating Lelouch despite her daughter's constant warnings to never mess with him for her own good. Her inability to recognize when she's beaten ends up proving fatal.
  • Desmond might claim he's an even better assassin than Rolo but he falls apart quickly the moment things go wrong.
• Sneeze Cut: Used frequently.
• Social Climber:
  • Suzaku is seen as this after becoming an Honorary Britannian. Most people who know he's the son of the last Prime Minister of Japan consider him an out-and-out traitor.
  • Villetta, who sides with Lelouch when he promises to reward her with a high nobility title when/if his rebellion succeeds.
  • Milly's mother married herself into the Ashford family at the height of its power, and deeply resents their fall from grace after Empress Marianne's death. Since then, Melisande has tried to wrestle control from the current family head (only to get outmanoeuvred by Reuben at every turn), gain the Emperor's favor by convincing a thirteen-year-old Lelouch to reveal himself (only desisting from approaching him or Nunnally after Sayoko "accidentally" almost made her lose an ear) and then push Milly into either seducing Lelouch so she will accomplish what she couldn't or marrying her off to Earl Lloyd Asplund.
  • Reuben Ashford pretends to be one to fool Cornelia when he offers to help fund a Knightmare production factory run by himself. Cornelia remarks that such actions would not only tie his family to her and fill their coffers, but also almost guarantee a return to nobility within a decade.
• The Sociopath:
  • Agent Desmond is a textbook example and a Smug Super. Doctor Silver realizing that he sees "those around him as cardboard cut-outs, not people," is the thing that makes her finally decide to pull a Screw This, I'm Outta Here on her employers.
  • Lloyd Asplund is a sociopath in canon but it's more pronounced here, such as demanding Suzaku be taken off mandatory medical leave and treating him as though he were on vacation the entire time. Cecile confesses that Lloyd doesn't really care about Suzaku's mental issues and is focused on the fact his rival Rakshata might overtake him since she has eight Seventh Generation frames to draw combat data from.
  • Melisande only cares about her wealth and social status, nothing more. She married her husband just to further her goals, and has no qualms with killing her father-in-law, or even her own daughter, if she feels that she needs to do so. She also has poor impulse control and trouble with thinking ahead, as well as an inflated sense of her own abilities.
  • Schniezel, as per canon. We get a glimpse of his point of view in chapter 54, and he notes that his lack of any sort of reaction to the deaths of any of is siblings is a sign that he has a mental problem.
• Something Only They Would Say: When Zero reveals his identity to the Heads of the Six Houses of Kyoto, Kaguya is so overcome with hopeful disbelief that she demands Lelouch to tell her what she did to him a week before the invasion. After he answers correctly (see Unprovoked Pervert Payback below) and thus proving he wasn't some sort of impersonator, she forgoes propriety, breaking into tears and glomping him.
• So Proud of You: Charles observed that Marianne celebrates her children's accomplishments regardless the right-or-wrong of the matter. For example, she was pretty proud of her son for the creative way he took revenge on his half-sister Carine for slapping Nunnally when they were kids (see My Hair Came Out Green entry), and Lelouch proving to have inherited his father's superior strategizing skills and some her own Knightmare piloting instincts got her outright giddy despite the potential setbacks for her and Charles' plans in Japan.
• Sore Loser:
  • Suzaku can't stand losing against his philosophical antithesis, Zero. Especially true the one time he got the chance to fight directly against Zero's personal Knightmare and the masked man still managed to escape capture despite being outclassed both in skill and hardware.
  • Kallen is a more typical competitiveness-motivated example. For instance, she didn't like losing in chess against Lelouch during the Student Council's Initiation Ceremony, even though she lasted the longest among the new members.
• Southern-Fried Genius: Cheryl Silver is a Texas-born busty bombshell with a PhD in biological sciences.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • Milly's mother's insistence on pushing Milly into an Arranged Marriage with a certain Pudding Earl is this to C.C., and only Lelouch's insistence that he has a plan in the works for her is keeping her from acting.
  • C.C. is both this and an Inverted example for Sayoko. The immortal's meddling made Lelouch aware of Sayoko's feelings for him, ruining the Ninja Maid's plans to wait until he was older before approaching him that way. However, C.C. measured her words just so she actually ended up kick-starting their relationship years ahead Sayoko ever dared to hope, something she's deeply grateful for.
  • Desmond's plan to kill Lelouch and kidnap Nunnally fell apart very fast because he didn't know that there was a Code Bearer in Ashford Academy. Had he Read The Freaking Mission Briefing, or just let his rival Rolo do his job as intended, the mission would have either gone without a hitch, gone as smoothly as circumstances could have allowed it, or partially succeed.
  • The latter was also one for Lelouch, forcing him to scrap his plans to slowly give Milly an Internal Reveal about everything about him and his projects after the failed assassination attempt abruptly dragged her into the deep-end of it all.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • The Yamato Alliance survive Saitama after they join Zero.
  • Shirley's father survives Narita.
  • Carve-tan is a non-lethal example. Lelouch used his Geass on an unnamed Ashford student to make her make a mark on certain wall at the academy once a day as an experiment to test its duration. In canon he didn't add any other condition to his instructions, and later on Word of God revealed that his Geass' effects simply don't go away on their own, meaning that the girl tried to comply with the Geass command even after she was safely evacuated from Japan in the wake of the Black Rebellion and every night (due to the time difference) she would escape home to try to get back to Tokyo, which eventually pushed her into a nervous breakdown. In this story, however, C.C. was more forthcoming about the Geass and its dangers early on and Lelouch worded his order more carefully and instructed the girl to only act "if she was in Ashford Academy," which prevents all the above from happening.invoked
• Speak Ill of the Dead: Late Prince Clovis did such an awful job ruling Area 11 that people still talk about his incompetence months after his death. Especially his half-sister Cornelia who has to clean after him as the new Viceroy.
• Spider-Sense: Parodied. After all his time playing Cloudcuckoolander's Minder to Milly, Lelouch jokes that he's developed a keen sixth sense that alerts him when someone is about to drag him into something ridiculous, embarrassing or plain crazy that invariantly he will have to deal with. Notably, his "mischief"-sense went off the scale when C.C. was about to talk him into starting a Polyamory with Sayoko and herself.
• Spider Tank: The Liverpool and York series of Britannian 5th-gen Knightmare Frames. The self-driving drones are the butt of pilots' jokes given that not even their thick armor and large cannons can make them any useful against even outdated Glasgows that can run circles around them because of their lack of manoeuvrability and poor targeting software. Princess Cornelia was pissed when Homeland sent those models to replace her losses instead of the Sutherlands and Gloucesters she requested.
• Spin-Off: In Chapter 30 SeerKing announced a Too Hot for TV sidestory called Nina of the Submission, released on April 23, 2019, on Archive of Our Own.
• Spit Take:
  • Euphemia barely subverted this after finding a letter from Zero in her personal mail.
  • Cornelia similarly almost choked on her white wine thanks to Nonette's Brutal Honesty.
• Spotting the Thread:
  • Lelouch uncharacteristically made several mistakes when he entered to Jeremiah's office while disguised as a Britannian soldier. First, he didn't remove his headgear despite being impolite to wear it indoors, on top of being uncomfortable enough that soldiers only wear it when they have to. Second, his excuse for being there fell flat because the kind of paperwork he said he was carrying wasn't supposed to be delivered there. Third and finally, a common soldier treads as if on egg shells around a Knight, more so around a Margrave, and Lelouch can't keep up the "subservient and down-beaten" act very well. Subverted because none of the above mattered in the first place because Lelouch planned from the start on revealing himself, knowing that Jeremiah would recognize him as Marianne's son the moment he saw his face.
  • With Princess Cornelia's permission, Jeremiah tried to track down former members of Queen Marianne's royal guard and other personnel that worked for her in Aries Palace at time. The idea was to select a few trustworthy enough to assist him in finding where Lelouch and Nunnally are hiding, but he discovered instead that all of them with the exception of Princess Cornelia and Jeremiah themselves are dead. Most of them under highly suspicious circumstances, including a dozen that looks like Uriah Gambits. The only reason that the obvious pattern wasn't noticed is that the deaths occurred over a period of seven years, across several Areas, and with a wide assortment of methods.
• The Spymaster: Lelouch portrays Zero as one in front of the Black Knights to explain away all the intel he has on the Britannian side.
• The Starscream: Major Kadzuki is this to Hiroyosi Yoshida. He's willing to accept his backing until he finds out where the Six Houses are and either forces them to retire or kills them. With them out of the way, he'll take control of the Japanese resistance.
• Start My Own: The "Neo Shinsengumi" is a splinter cell of the JLF founded by Major Kadzuki and formed by its most nationalist members who neither retired nor joined the Black Knights after the merge. Their leader's real aim is to take over the Six Houses and absorb whatever is left of the Black Knights after killing Zero.
• Stating the Simple Solution: Lelouch wonders why Nina's parents don't simply send her to a boarding school in the homeland, given how xenophobic she is.
• Stealth Hi/Bye:
  • Sayoko is fond of doing this. Even an ever-inquisitive guy like Lelouch has long ago given up on figuring out how she does it. Notably, one time she even pulled it off in a Knightmare.
  • Lloyd and Zero too, just not as frequently.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Just like Lloyd wrote a section titled "Devicer Conduct and Proper Veneration Etiquette the Lancelot" in the Frame's operational manual, Rakshata refers to the Guren Nishiki as "her child" in the latter's.
• The Strategist: Discussed. Cornelia thinks Reuben Ashford would have make an excellent tactician had he developed a taste for combat rather than business and politicking. Coming from a Lady of War like her, that's very high praise.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Save for her hair and eye colors, Milly is noted to strongly resemble her mother Melisande, at least physically.
• Stunned Silence:
  • Kallen, when "K-1" (later known to her as Zero) bid her farewell by calling her by her Britannian name after they escaped from Shinjuku. Tamaki made the mistake of wisecracking about how he "never thought that anyone could shut [her] up like that," which of course snapped the Fiery Redhead out of it and the rest of their group had to pull her off Tamaki before she could throttle him.
  • The Four Holy Swords' reaction when their leader Todoh informed them that Zero led the Yamato Alliance to victory over Cornelia.
• Stylish Protection Gear:
  • The cape and the mask of Zero's Iconic Outfit are stated to be bulletproof, which didn't help him much when Tetsuya shot him in the arm.
  • The Black Knights' uniform are designed to be striking, practical for daily use and combat, and bulletproof. The headgear is both identity-concealing and boasts several tactical features, like built-in Night-Vision Goggles and thermal imaging.
• Subordinate Excuse: Sayoko had more than sympathy for his cause and concern for his safety as reasons to swear herself as Lelouch's vassal. See the Love Confession entry.
• Sue Donym: C.C. attends Ashford Academy under the name of Celesta Crossfield and makes a point to ask everybody to call her simply "C.C." during her introduction to her class, thus making it the nickname of an alias that happens to be how everybody else knows her.
• Suicide Mission:
  • Zero remarked in disgust how Kusakabe's hostage-taking plan in Lake Kawaguchi was nothing but this. Sacrificing a unit to win the battle is one thing, but Kusakabe leading his men to their graves for no good reason nor gain, not even a moral one, made Lelouch feel pure contempt towards the Lieutenant Colonel.
  • Kadzuki sent his most expendable men and units to attack Zero and the Britannian forces to gather intel.
• Super-Empowering: C.C. empowers a few more people with Geass than in canon:
  • She grants Sayoko the Power of Emotional Reading that gives her Aura Vision, allowing her to see a person's emotional state.
  • She grants Milly Ashford the Ward of Absolute Puppetry, enabling her to turn others into People Puppets.
• Supermodel Strut: C.C. likes doing this to entice or tease people.
• Superpower Lottery: Agent Desmond's Geass has a powerful effect and very mild drawbacks, especially compared to that of others like Lelouch and Rolo. However the fact there was no good reason to not use at every given opportunity meant that its user became very bad at dealing with complications without it.
• Super Prototype: Along with the canon Lancelot and Guren Nishiki, there are a few others:
  • Nonette's Knightmare, the Bedivere, is stated as being even more advanced than the Lancelot but with an at least equal demand on it's pilot. It's also far slower than the Lancelot.
  • Mamoru gets a downplayed example in the proof of concept version Guren Isshiki or Type-1, which is exactly the same as the Guren mk. II just without the Radiant Wave Surger.
  • Zero on the other hand gets a subversion by getting the reworked Flawed Prototype Guren Reishiki or Type-0, now rechristened Kokuten or Black Heaven.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • When Euphemia notices Suzaku's lack of concern for his own life, she has Jeremiah arrange for a psychiatrist to talk to him. Also, when it comes to his status as a pilot, the Lancelot's nature along with Camelot's status as outside the normal chain of command means that he can't be discharged normally, however; Euphemia will definitely limit his seeing active combat.
  • Whenever someone gets a new Knightmare Frame, they have to read the manual before piloting, with most inventors flat-out refusing to let them even touch the machine before they do.
  • The Bedivere is an overpowered Super Prototype and test bed of many amazing new technologies that gave birth to the 7th-generation Knightmare Frames. Its first deployment in battle was less than stellar precisely because of that:
    • The Halo Luminous proved to be a truly impenetrable defense, but also an horrendous battery hog that slowed the Bedivere to a crawl whenever used, and even threatened to drain the energy reserves completely and leave the Frame and its pilot sitting ducks in the middle of battle. After this is demonstrated to him, Lloyd removes it, since it's Awesome, but Impractical for a Knightmare, with Cornelia noting that it would be better on something like a Command G-1, where it could be hooked up to its own generator rather than a Knightmare Energy Filler.
    • Furthermore, the fact an Ace Pilot can get the overly complex Super Prototype to move doesn't mean its unwieldiness is no longer a problem. Its sheer size and raw strength allowed the Bedivere to tear through the opposition, but this Unskilled, but Strong approach won't cut it against a highly skilled enemy than can force the fight into a standstill.
  • Even the mind of an immortal can only take in so much information at once. V.V. usually grants around 70 to 80 contracts a year, and since he was distracted by another project at the time, he knows almost nothing about the rogue Directorate agent Valefar except for his codename and Geass.
  • Related to the above, both Charles and Lelouch have wondered if V.V. gaining his code at such a young age has affected his mind.
  • As Suzaku privately admitted to himself therapy only works for people who want to be helped, which he doesn't want.
  • Tetsuya Ichigyomon proudly carries an old Imperial Japanese Army Type 94 Nambu 8mm pistol as a way to show his Patriotic Fervor as a resistance fighter. However, he doesn't give proper maintenance to it and it's so caked with dirt and grease that Kallen estimates that the gun is likely to blow up in his hands if the trigger is pulled, all of which is a handy visual cue of his unprofessionalism, how shallow Tetsuya's loyalty to the cause really is and how he only wants to make a name of himself.
• Sustained Misunderstanding: Lelouch knows that C.C. isn't one to ask for permission nor forgiveness, so he fully expected her to go ahead with her plans to bring Milly into their Polyamory at any time after his Childhood Friend became single again. However C.C. really didn't want to mess things up between them, nor interfere with whatever he was planning to get Milly out of her Arranged Marriage, so she kept herself from acting until Lelouch would be okay with it. End result: Milly became more and more depressed over her future in a loveless marriage as a Trophy Wife, C.C. became more and more impatient about doing something about it, and Lelouch patiently waited for C.C. to take the initiative with Milly as she obviously wanted to. The misunderstanding persisted until C.C. asked Lelouch about it again after the Battle of Port Yokosuka, and once cleared out, C.C. all but marched to Milly the first chance she got to tell her that her feelings for Lelouch are indeed mutual and to offer her a place in the Polyamory centered on him while using herself as "enticement". Milly answered with an elated kiss that nearly ended in much more, but they got interrupted.
• Swiss Bank Account: Zero tracked down the funding of Code-R, Clovis' private think-tank, to multiple offshore accounts linked to the Britannian Office of Secret Intelligence.
• Sympathetic Murderer: While she only got an Exact Words version of the real story, Kallen felt nothing but approval of Lelouch for allegedly killing the man who kidnapped and abused "Celesta".

T-V

• Take Me Instead: This happens during the Lake Kawaguchi Incident as in the series, but it's Milly who saves Nina instead of Euphemia. In a complete reversal from canon, Nina breaks up with Milly soon afterwards instead of obsessing with her as her canonical counterpart did with the princess.
• Take Our Word for It:
  • Apparently, Melisandre's night time activities with the Black King are so disgustingly lurid that Rueben Ashford warns Cornelia not to let Euphemia hear it. Cornelia treats the recording as though it where chemical waste.
  • Taking things further, of the many victims of the Black King, a considerable amount, by which the implied nature of crimes means more than zero, were so disgusting that even the jaded C.C. was nauseated by it.
• Take Up My Sword: Lelouch is fully prepared for someone else to take up the mantle of Zero should he die.
• The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Zero sent a package to Kallen via Lelouch, which she opened the first chance she got. He obviously saw this coming, because inside there was another sealed package and written instructions from "K-1" admonishing her to not unwrap the rest until a certain time and when she was truly in a safe location.
• A Taste of Defeat:
  • The Battle of Saitama for Cornelia. Later the Battle of Narita turned out to be even a worse one where she was also defeated in a one-on-one Knightmare fight against the "Red Queen".
  • The Battle of Saitama was this for Cornelia's Mobile Battalion as a whole. It was their first defeat since its formation and the first time two Royal Guardsmen are killed in action.
• The Tease: C.C. and Milly as in canon. Squared here because they get to interact with each other after the former joins Ashford's Student Council under a cover identity. Milly pretty much flirts with anyone, though she does have the standard of being monogamous if she is in a relationship her partner considers exclusive. If her thoughts are to be believed she actually has to struggle to not seduce Euphemia while meeting with her. Her grandfather even directly calls her pansexual, prompting Lelouch to quip that he thought she was "just bisexual and greedy".
• Technical Pacifist: If only in mentality and not action, both Nunnally and Euphemia are this as opposed to their Actual Pacifist canon selves. They still abhor violence but are aware that sometimes there are no other options.
• Technical Virgin: C.C. had never slept with a man before meeting Lelouch, something he and the audience certainly didn't see coming, but she does have hundreds of years' worth of sexual experience with women. The latter becomes relevant once her relationship with Lelouch helps C.C. to reconnect with her humanity
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Nonette and Dorothea do not like each other at all due to their differing philosophies. It's to the point where one will kill the other if pushed to far. Dorothea has a similar problem with Cornelia.
• The Tell: Reuben Ashford observes that Lelouch unconsciously reverts to what he calls "the walk of a Prince of Britannia" when he's under a lot of stress. That is, walking in an extremely calm and self-assured manner, "as if he was born to rule, as if all around him were his belongings."
• Tempting Fate: Nonette does this when the Black Knights apparently fail to show up at Port Yokosuka, with the Knight of the Round kicking herself later for doing this so blatantly.
• Thememobile: Clovis' luxury personal transport is referenced as an In-Universe attempt to make anyone realize just whom it belongs to at a glance. Kallen disdainfully calls it the "pimpmobile" for this very reason.
• Theme Naming:
  • Code-R's projects are named after mythological and religious references. Not really surprising considering that they were trying to duplicate C.C.'s immortality.
  • As in canon, Lloyd picks names out of Arthurian Legend for his projects, which fits nicely with the official designation for the Britannian Special Research Division he works for — Camelot. His actually non-random naming sense gets Exploited later on when Zero and Karen easily deduce that whatever the Gawain is, it has to be something at least on a par with the Lancelot given how the Knight of the Sun and Knight of the Lake were said to be the strongest knights of the Round Table.
  • Later on, before even designing the Ace Custom Frames for Cornelia, her Knights of Honour, her Royal Guard and even Euphemia, Lloyd decides to name them the Morgana (a.k.a. Morgan le Fay), the Accolon (after Morgana's lover), the Ywain (her son), and the Nimue (of the Merlin and Nimue trope), respectively.
  • V.V. assigns Code Names and numbers to his operatives based on the demons listed on the Ars Goetia. For example, Rolo and Desmond are #24 Naberius and #45 Vine, respectively.
• There Are No Coincidences: Neither Jeremiah nor Cornelia find it likely that all of Marianne's other retainers and staff dying in "unfortunate circumstances" — or, in the cases of the soldiers ambushes that occurred just days after they were transferred to a new location — is in any way coincidental.
  • Marianne notes that it's probably not a coincidence that Charles, the only contractee that V.V. actually cares for, is the recipient of literally the only Seal-type Geass said immortal has ever given out, and which doesn't have any of the drawbacks usually associated with his Geass powers.
• There Are No Therapists: Justified. The only reason why Britannian military didn't order Suzaku to attend therapy despite how much of a danger he is to himself is because they just didn't care. In their eyes, assigning a staff therapist to a non-Britannian soldier is just a waste given that they were always intended as Cannon Fodder. A Subverted Trope later on when Euphemia arranges for Suzaku to receive professional help, who quickly identifies obvious signs of a Martyr's Complex.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
  • Lelouch's chosen policy to deal with the Lancelot the moment he heard Britannia had a first-of-its-kind Seventh Generation Knightmare Frame ready to deploy in Shinjuku. First he had the Kozuki Cell ambush it with a heavy hail of Assault Rifle fire. When that failed, he ordered five Chaos Mines (think Knightmare-sized fragmentation grenade on steroids) dropped on the Frame. When that failed, Lelouch had Kallen play decoy and lead the Lancelot to a trap where he then had half of two 48-floor buildings collapse on it, something that people not in the know mistook for a minor earthquake. Suzaku only survived because he was fast-thinking enough to dive into an impromptu entrance to the subway line, but then it took him almost an hour to get out of the tunnels and by then Lelouch and the Kozuki Cell were long gone.
  • Also Defied by Lelouch regarding Knightmare Frames as a weapon, which he considers a "quite literal overkill" and thus he proposes the development of something he calls a "Demi-Knightmare" — namely a Mini-Mecha to a regular KMF in size, weight, shielding, and armament — that can be deployed in missions where a full-sized KMF would be too cumbersome, impractical, or just excessive.
  • Subverted when Zero denied Aegis' unspoken suggestion to execute Tetsuya by shooting at him with her Knightmare's Battle Rifle. Considering that it chambers anti-materiel ammo designed to kill battle tanks, VTOLs and other Knightmare Frames, the result of its usage on a human body would not have been pretty.
• They Just Dont Get It: Despite Vassago bluntly laying out to him why a Murder Is the Best Solution approach would be a long-term detriment to their mission in Japan, Rolo's Crippling Overspecialization towards short-term assassination missions means that he can't understand why his behavior could cause a Revealing Cover-Up. Vassago notes that she's going to have to contact V.V. about investigating his previous trainers and handlers about how narrow-minded he's being, and ultimately orders him to remain at the safe house because she can't trust him to follow orders and not kill people who notice him.
• Thicker Than Water:
  • As in canon, Clovis pleads with Lelouch for his life, saying that while they don't have the same mother, they're still blood. Unlike canon, Lelouch relents and confesses he's no desire to kill his siblings like their father's Social Darwinism encourages. Then he adds "the wronged party is the one who deserves to do justice" and C.C. summarily puts a bullet in Clovis' head. Interestingly, Lelouch actually played this trope as straight as Clovis' crimes allowed him to — he didn't let C.C. torture him as she sorely wanted to, his death was swift, Lelouch's impassive façade fell apart the moment Clovis was dead and C.C. had to step in and reassure him by telling him that he showed his brother far more mercy than anyone else would have after learning about what Clovis had done.
  • Despite how disappointed Shirley Fenette was on her father for his participation in the Code-R projects, she still looked for help to try and get him out of that monumental mess.
• Think Nothing of It: In Chapter 31, Oghi responds to Zero praising his ability to lead by saying he doesn't think he's doing anything particularly exceptional, just doing whatever he can for his country.
• This Cannot Be!: Desmond's reaction to learning C.C. has a Code can be summed up as this. Though in his case, it's partly because he's a diehard supporter of V.V. and believes his boss is the only one who deserves such power. It's also his reaction every time he meets someone who can resist his power.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Cornelia's realization after seeing the level of teamwork and cooperation Todoh and the Shiseiken have in battle, even describing them as "one being in five different bodies."
• A Threesome Is Hot: Double Subverted. Instead of finding it hot, Lelouch's very first reaction to C.C.'s suggestion of having a threesome for the first time was a rather worried "Are you trying to kill me?" They still went with it, though.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Mamoru disabled Dorothea's Gatling Gun by throwing his chainsword and piercing part of its inner mechanisms.
• Token Enemy Minority: Kallen is disliked by some members of the Yamato Alliance because of this trope, even post-merger into the Black Knights. Played With because much of it can be traced back to Tetsuya Ichigyomon, who had a personal beef against the Kozuki Cell after they kicked him out and passed down that antipathy to whoever would pay heed to him. Kallen's obvious Britannian heritage simply made her an easy target.
• Token Good Teammate: Cheryl Silver is the sole scientist at Code-R's tertiary site to make sure her experiments aren't needlessly cruel and ensure her test subject stays in relatively good health.
• Too Dumb to Live: Montgomery fa Britannia died because he was stupid enough to charge at armed rebels armed only with a bullwhip.
• Too Hot for TV: A few explicit scenes had to be removed from the story in order to pass FanFiction.Net's censorship. They're now compiled in the author's Archive of Our Own account.
• Too Much Information: Milly almost threw up after C.C. discusses how as a slave girl she was Forced to Watch daily for around 3-4 years her Fat Bastard master having sex with all sorts of men.
• Top Wife:
  • Britannian uncommon polygamous marriages generally have a First Wife, who is in charge of the other wives and the mistresses with the notable exception of the Emperor who has no First Wife — apparently by law. C.C. is trying to get Lelouch into a polygamous marriage for her own reasons, and believes that Milly would make an excellent First Wife.
  • Also Discussed. Charles thinks that the tradition precluding a Top Wife in the Emperor's case because he isn't supposed to have an equal even in his own household is just stupid. He guessed that if some of the Imperial Consorts were half as stubborn as Marianne, he simply would have no way to control them. It's also possible that he still resents that he wasn't able to make Marianne his Top Wife and then watch her keep his other wives in line.
• To the Pain: After capturing Desmond, C.C. threatens to inflict some horrific torture on him unless he undoes the effect of his Geass.
• Touch Telepathy:
  • Nunnally is able to tell if someone is lying through touch.
  • C.C. demonstrates that she learn how a person is really like through skin contact. After shaking Kaguya's hand, she remarks that the girl is remarkably perverted.
  • C.C. can also do the reverse and give someone she's touching a telepathic glimpse of the World of C, which usually has insanity-inducing side-effects. She's very tempted to give Milly's mother a taste of it due to her rapid ascension in her shit list (to be fair, she's kinda earned her place there), and has stayed her hand only thanks to Lelouch's reassurances that he's already got plans in place to deal with Melisande were she to become a bigger problem.
• Tranquil Fury: Mamoru slips into this in Chapter 25 after Zero reveals that Clovis was conducting experiments on humans.
• Trap Is the Only Option:
  • Lelouch knows full well that the planned Saitama Massacre is intended to draw Zero out. However, he shows up anyway because he fears she'll repeat her tactics in other ghettos if he doesn't.
  • The Hand receives actionable intelligence about the location of their target Valefar but acknowledges that it's so convenient and suspicious that it absolutely has to be a trap. However, it's also the only way they can possibly complete their mission, so they have to spring it anyway.
• Trash Talk: Kallen + Guren's built-in loudspeakers = this trope.
  Kallen: [to Cornelia] And my brother is dead because of your brother! You have no moral high ground here, you uppity Brit bitch! Get over here so I can tear you apart!
• Trophy Wife: Milly fears that marrying Earl Asplund will make her into one for him. Played With in that he sees the potential marriage for the sham that it is and told her she was free to do whatever she wanted with her life after the ceremony.
• Tsundere: Downplayed; Kallen's temper isn't as bad as canon, but is still there.
• Twin Desynch: Charles and V.V. after the latter stopped aging after the activation of his Code.
• Two-Person Love Triangle:
  • Like in canon, Kallen's falling for Zero. However, she also seems to be developing feelings for Lelouch, unaware that they're actually one and the same. Her simultaneous attraction to whom she considers two very different people makes her worry that she might be "a loose woman of some sort."
  • Lelouch also faces his own fair share of trouble because of this trope. He's attracted to Kallen, but he has to make sure of not getting too close to her with either of his personas because otherwise she could start noticing the similitudes between Zero and Lelouch Lamperouge.
  • Downplayed with Kaguya, who believed that her First Love Lelouch was most likely already dead before deciding to move on and developed a more serious crush on Zero. Discovering that man behind the mask was Lelouch himself was like winning the lottery for her.
    Kaguya: [narrating] She had her old crush and her new crush in one package. Not many girls could say that.
  • Played With in Euphemia's case. When she met Zero for the first time at Lake Kawaguchi, part of her unconsciously recognized Lelouch under the mask and she started to feel "enthralled [by his words] unlike anything she had experienced" before. Played for Drama to a point because Euphemia was well aware of the effect her half-brother's killer was having on her, which unnerved her a lot.
• Unbroken Vigil: Sayoko remained by Lelouch's bedside while he was unconscious due to Desmond's Geass.
• Uncleanliness Is Next to Ungodliness: Tetsuya and his cronies are unpleasant, both in terms of hygiene and in terms of morality.
• Undying Loyalty: Sayoko was already like this in canon, but here she managed to muster enough Heroic Willpower to resist a Geass trying to render her unconscious just because doing so would have let Lelouch and Nunnally undefended.
• Unequal Pairing: The power dynamics between Lelouch and Sayoko are complex, to say the least. One the one hand, she's seven years his senior and romantically interested in him since he was as young as fourteen, she's been his and especially Nunnally's primary caregiver for at least the last four years, his martial arts teacher and so above his superior physically that his chances in a straight fight against her don't even need to be considered. On the other hand, he's a Noble and she's a Number, placing him two or three social classes above her (or more, considering he's secretly a Prince), she's nominally hired help working for the Ashford family (and by extension him) who doubles as his bodyguard, and things gets exponentially more one-sided after Sayoko swears her fealty to Lelouch. The latter not only made her his liege-woman and he her lord, but the specific oath she willingly swore also serves as an unequal wedding vow of sorts not too different from that of a concubine. Finally, much of the development of their relationship after getting together revolves around Lelouch coming to accept that Sayoko considers herself truly his and on how they build a working professional relationship and an as-healthy-as-possible romantic one from that fact.
• Unexpected Virgin: 700-year-old C.C. of all people, something that blew Lelouch's mind when he found out. To wit, becoming immortal did a nasty number on the way C.C.'s mind handled emotions, including her sex drive and making her effectively asexual. By the time she managed to basically relearn to feel physical pleasure by relying on female partners, she had already been a virgin for longer than most people are able to remain alive, and by then the idea of losing her virginity in a meaningless way felt just wrong to her. So, she waited until meeting a man who could make her feel a full spectrum of emotions at long last before making him her first. There's no prizes for guessing who that guy was.
• Unfazed Everyman: An attempted Invokation. Milly Ashford received such an incredibly rushed welcome to Lelouch's innermost circle that she quickly decided, for her sanity's sake, she should try and stop getting surprised by the kind of earth-shattering stuff they get up to.
• Ungrateful Bitch: Milly saved her girlfriend's life by convincing their captors to take her instead, and at most three weeks later Nina just breaks up with her. This is somewhat Justified because Nina is clinically xenophobic and that irrational fear needs something or someone to blame for ever finding herself in a Hostage Situation at the hands of "Eleven" terrorists. Namely, the person who invited her to Lake Kawaguchi in the first place.
• Unperson:
  • C.C. Invoked this on herself, even having every official record redacted, so the world would forget that Elizabeth I had a female lover.
  • Reuben Ashford made sure there's barely a reference to the "late" vi Brittania siblings on record in Area 11, so people won't recognize Lelouch and Nunnally by their real identities.
  • The emperor had every record of his twin brother's existence deleted. He even used his Geass to redact him out directly from people's memories as well.
• Unprovoked Pervert Payback: When they were kids, Kaguya once snuck into the bath with Lelouch. Suzaku walked into the scene and mistakenly blamed him for it and chased him with a wooden sword in hand. Lelouch remembers the not-so-fond memory as one of the few times he managed to outrun Suzaku. This anecdote becomes a minor plot point when Kaguya used it as an impromptu Trust Password to confirm Lelouch's identity.
• Unscrupulous Hero: Mamoru decided to make Zero his successor, not because of his charisma and rhetoric, nor his success in the battlefield, and not even in gratitude for all the Japanese lives he saved. Those certainly contributed, but instead the main reason why the Sleeping Dragon of Kanto considered Zero worthy of his mantle is because of his calculated raw manipulation of the Kozuki Cell, including Mamoru's own student Kallen, when he retrieved Naoto's body for proper burial in order to ingrain himself to them. Mamoru reasoned that the only kind of person with a chance to free Japan is someone willing to do absolutely whatever it takes to achieve victory and possessing the cold-blooded and creative intellect to discern which actions are necessary to get it done.
• Unwanted Assistance: Suzaku does not appreciate the psychological help that Euphemia got him because he feels that his crime is so severe he deserves to be punished. He even acknowledges the truism that therapy only works if people want it to work and he doesn't.
• Unwanted Harem: The Emperor isn't that fond of his Royal Harem. Or at all, really.
  V.V.: Just about the only thing you have that he doesn't is a harem of nubile and willing women to bed.
  Charles: [grimaces] Brother, most of those 108 "willing and nubile" women are gold digging societal harpies with the collective intelligence of a concussed cow.
• Uriah Gambit:
  • Once Zero's dogged tendency to target helicopters, VTOLs and even planes became well-known, getting assigned to aerial overwatch is the closest thing Britannian military has to this trope in Area 11. Naturally, this is exactly the post Cornelia gave to the Obstructive Bureaucrat of a Knight that stopped Jeremiah's convoy and exposed the APC carrying Euphemia to unnecessary danger during the Battle of Saitama.
  • V.V. has gotten people KIA this way by transferring them to yet-to-be-secured areas and then tipping off (and sometimes even arming) insurgent groups so his target — and everybody stationed with them — will get massacred.
• Vicariously Ambitious: While plenty ambitious himself, Lelouch has no desire to become the next Britannian Emperor. Instead, he's planning on placing either Nunnally or Euphemia on the throne.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Sayoko is romantically involved with Lelouch in this story and her protective streak for him has an actual body count. "Aegis" runs Tetsuya Ichigyomon through with a sword and leaves him to die after the disgruntled member of the Yamato Alliance tried to kill Zero for the second time. According to Shirley, Sayoko was this before they got together too, as she remembers one time a boy she turned down tried to take his grievances to Lelouch, only for Sayoko to literally kick him out of the door for "daring to address Lelouch-sama in such a disrespectful manner."
• Visionary Villain: La Résistance may not know for sure where Zero's loyalties truly lie, but his vision where the liberation of Japan is an eventual fact and a natural consequence of their efforts rather than a distant dream is really, really hard for them to resist.
• Vocal Dissonance: Reuben Ashford has a surprisingly deep voice for a rail thin man like himself. He's taken advantage of it to play The Man Behind the Curtain as seen in the relevant entry.

W-Z

• Warrior Prince: Lelouch is far more capable a combatant than in canon.
• Weak, but Skilled: Ward-type Geass are considered weaker than pure Absolute and Seal class Geass, as while they have fewer limitations, their effects are restricted to a specific area around the user. Three of the Wards seen though, Rolo's Ward of Absolute Suspension, Desmond's Ward of Absolute Slumber and Milly Ashford's Ward of Absolute Puppetry, are very powerful in their effects. Rolo's allows him to suspend the sensation of time for those in his range, Desmond's capable of knocking out anyone in its range from a light nap to a coma that can only be woken up via releasing or knocking out the user, and Milly Ashford's allowing them to hijack other people's motor functions and temporarily turn them into People Puppets.
• We ARE Struggling Together:
  • All over the place in La Résistance, which is part of the reason why they quickly became a credible threat to the Britannian government once Magnificent Bastard Zero started to absorb them into the Black Knights. To wit, the Kozuki Cell was well trained and effective, but maintaining said standard kept their numbers low and that limited their options of action a lot. The Yamato Alliance was plagued with infighting gunning for the leadership since the moment their Number Two betrayed their founder to the Britannians, and their tendency to accept pretty much anyone including outright criminals earned them the derision of the rest of La Résistance. The Japan Liberation Front is formed by the survivors of the Japanese Imperial Army and they retained their professionalism, organizational expertise and much of their equipment, but their members tend to have an elitist mentality and look down on the rest of La Résistance despite slowly but inexorably stagnating into obsolescence in the past seven years.
  • Sentaro Kadzuki, a former JLF major, in particular is apparently determined to screw over anyone, even the members of the Houses that came to him, in order to achieve power.
  • Even the government-in-exile gets in on the action with them planning to wrest control of Japan from Zero using Kadzuki as a distraction while attempting to have the Chinese Federation help them despite knowing that that they could very well be trading on overlord for another.
• We Have Become Complacent: Cornelia remarks that Britannia became too used to their technological superiority. They became used to fighting enemies without any real Knightmare Frames, which proved to be such an overwhelming advantage that they barely needed any real strategy. Zero utilized proper strategy along with Knightmares to repeatedly defeat the numerically superior Britannia.
• We Have Reserves: Thoroughly Defied by Zero:
  Zero: But, just to reassure you, in my personal opinion a general's job is to secure their objectives with the least amount of casualties to their own forces possible while maximizing those done to the enemy. There will be times where I will have to risk the lives of the soldiers under my command, possibly even knowing that I am sending my people to their deaths. They will be horrible decisions that I will have to make because it has to be done. I will not like to do it, I will attempt every recourse possible to not have to do so without harming our goals, but I will do so if needs must, General Todoh.
  • This is played straight by the EU however. Like in canon, they employ soldiers for Zerg Rush after Zerg Rush and have self-destruct systems built into their Knightmares, treating their forces like disposable pawns.
• We Named the Monkey "Jack": Subverted. Milly wanted to name the stray cat that the Student Council took in as "Lelouch the Second", which she said has more pizzazz than "Arthur". Lelouch (the First) wasn't amused.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…:
  • Desmond's Ward of Absolute Slumber Geass has relatively minor drawbacks compared to the usual Blessed with Suck Geasses V.V. typically gives out, especially compared to his self-proclaimed rival Rolo's. This means that his Geass alone was so useful that he let his other skills decline, so when he encounters those who can resist or are just plain immune to said Geass, like C.C., he's taken off-guard and captured.
  • While Rolo's drawback of how his Geass stops his heart while in use has kept him from relying on it like Desmond, it's made clear that he's never been on a mission that hasn't been a short-term assassination mission, so when he's sent with a group to find Valefar he seems incapable of comprehending how Pragmatic Villainy would require them to not kill people who find him suspicious so as to avoid drawing the attention of the authorities.
• Where Did We Go Wrong?: Reuben Ashford is convinced that his wife would be rolling over in her grave if she could see what became of their son Roderick after he married Melisande, and wonders how he ended up as such a Henpecked Husband.
• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: Deconstructed with Lelouch. It takes a lot of funds, lots of connections, and a generous heap of Geass-enforced secrecy to pull this trope off. He's also not above buying expensive gadgets in the black market — such as the blueprints and two working units of a camera spoofer designed as a Classy Cat-Burglar tool — and having his people produce them.
• White Sheep: Doctor Cheryl Silver a is grayer shade of white than most examples. She's a low-level researcher who recently accepted a sudden position in Code-R for the promise of a high salary and less stringent procedural ethics before realizing exactly why that's the case. To her credit, Doctor Silver kept her hands as clean as possible and tried to put an escape plan together and proceeded to follow it when the Black Knight attacked the facility, hoping to slip through both organizations in the confusion. Bad news: Zero wouldn't be Zero if he didn't predict the obvious escape route and set up an ambush. Good news: C.C.'s Touch Telepathy allowed her to realize all the above and that spared Silver from her bloody vengeance.
• Wild Card: Valefar, a former Geass Directorate Agent. They have no allegiance to the Directorate anymore, and are currently allied with the Neo-Shinsengumi after they offered them sanctuary. However, their allegiance to them is solely based on them providing entertainment through their war with Britannia and the Black Knights, and is perfectly willing to reveal the nature of Geass to them to aid in creating a good show. They even suggest to Kadzuki using the existence of Geass as a means of blackmailing the Emperor from stopping the Neo-Shinsengumi, meaning they are willing to create a Broken Masquerade for the sake of aiding a relatively small resistance group, all so things will be "interesting" to them.
• With Due Respect: Any time Sayoko says "As you say, My Lord" to Lelouch, he knows she's basically shouting her disapproval of his current plan.
• Women Prefer Strong Men:
  • Downplayed. While far from the top of the list, C.C. does mention Lelouch's well trained physique as one of the reasons why she wants to be his mistress.
  • In the spirit of the trope, the first thing that drew Kaguya to Lelouch when they were kids was the ten-year-old boy defeating everybody at Shōgi during a family gathering right after he learned the rules, and thus proving himself "intellectually superior to every other male she knew."
• Worf Had the Flu: In Chapter 31, Zero makes clear to Ohgi that part of their success is due a number of factors that have thrown Cornelia off her game, such as grieving for her brother, dealing with her rebellious sister, and not understanding Japanese culture. Once those factors are no longer a problem, the Black Knights will start taking significant casualties, even when they win.
• Work Hard, Play Hard: Being in a romantic relationship certainly taught Lelouch to unwind. He is as dedicated to his rebellion as in the series, devoting huge amounts of his time and energy to it, but that doesn't stop him from having fun when he's not otherwise occupied. The fact that said fun usually involves lots of sex with his girlfriends gives credence to the fanon consensus that canon!Lelouch did really need to get laid.
• Worthy Opponent: Nonette not only acknowledges Kallen as such but insists they formally introduce themselves and challenge on another, something Zero remarks is a quirk of hers. The same applies for Kallen given how she toned down much of her customary Trash Talking this time around.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • When the invasion of Japan happened, Todoh held a gun to Lelouch's head in order to make the then 10-year-old prince confess any knowledge of Britannia's plans. To this day Lelouch remains firm in his belief that Todoh wouldn't have shot him regardless his answer and even still refers to him with the respectful "-sensei" honorific, something that completely baffles Sayoko who holds a grudge against the man for it.
  • When Lelouch basically said to his father that Charles failed to protect Marianne, the Emperor totally lost it and beat his 10-year-old son with his own hands in front of the Imperial Court. Charles then wiped the memories of everybody present except Lelouch, although his reasons for the exception remain unclear.
• Wrote the Book: According to Augur, Nonette functionally wrote the book on Knightmare Frame combat, having been one of the first ever test pilots and only ever beaten by Marianne and Bismark.
• Xanatos Gambit: Discussed. Zero warns the Six Houses that Schneizel operates like this.
  Zero: Second Prince Schneizel el Britannia is known as the Cold-Blooded Strategist for a reason; he never fights for the sake of fighting or for land, but for victory. He arranges things so that no matter what happens, he can obtain victory.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Chapter 31 throws several spanners into Lelouch's works. By the end of Chapter 32, he has turned all of them into advantages. For the former, V.V. finally makes his move and sends an assassin after Lelouch in Ashford Academy, who not only put the entire campus into Forced Sleep with his Geass, but also gets very damn close to stabbing him while unconscious. C.C. and Sayoko manage to thwart the attempt, but Milly ends up dragged into the mess and even forms a Geass contract with C.C., meaning that giving her a Laser-Guided Amnesia wasn't really an option. For the latter, C.C. makes the captured hitman spill the beans, revealing the current location of Code-R, which allows them to raid the facility. Given that the incident in Ashford Academy was too public to cover it up, Lelouch and Milly instead make it look like a failed attempt on Milly's life which fulfills several objectives as detailed in the Deliberate Injury Gambit entry, including securing Cornelia's support for the time Milly will openly act against her mother's wishes. As for Milly accidentally getting a complete Internal Reveal, Lelouch decides to simply roll with it, which reaffirms his alliance with both her and Reuben, brings a new Geass User to his cause, and most importantly, allows the Childhood Friends to finally get their Relationship Upgrade.
• Yandere: V.V. retains his canon possessive traits towards his younger brother Charles and hatred of Marianne, but takes it even further here while combining it with Evil Is Petty. After he killed Marianne, he had the Ashford family stripped of their nobility due to their ties to her, and sent a squad of O.S.I. agents to Japan during its invasion with the intent of having Lelouch and Nunnally killed. After that he systematically had all of Marianne's retainers and aids killed in ironic methods, the only exceptions being Jeremiah and Cornelia but only thanks to Pragmatic Villainy. Upon discovering Lelouch and Nunnally are still alive however, he then attempted to send Rolo to Japan to kill Lelouch, kidnap Nunnally, and retrieve C.C., his plan only failing because another of his agents, Desmond, took over the mission in order to upstage Rolo, and messed it up big time.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
  • Augur gives one of such speeches to Kallen after the Battle of Port Yokosuka. Being this C.C. in disguise, she does so by basically telling Kallen to cut the crap and stop sulking for not beating Nonette Enneagram in single combat. After all, her opponent was truly an Ace Pilot among Ace Pilots that helped to write the book about Knightmare combat and was riding a Super Prototype to boot. The fact Kallen didn't come close to lose that fight proves she's already on the level of a Knight of Round at the minimum.
  • Zero reassures Ohgi that he shouldn't feel bad about enjoying the fact he led an operation that went without a hitch. Ohgi thinks he should be ashamed of getting a kick out of putting his men in danger, but Zero explains to him that the risk heightens the rush of success, while also warning him about the other side of the coin — that is, about how every casualty under his command, especially the avoidable ones, will heavily weigh on his mind.
• You Are Number 6: V.V. grants Directorate operatives with useful Geass powers that survive their training Code Names and numbers based on the demons of the Ars Goetia. Rolo is #24 Naberius (Nebiros in the second compilation movie), Desmond #45 Vine, Valefar #6, and Vassago #3. While the numbers are primarily meaningless, the agents numbered 1-10 are considered his strongest.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: A double whammy in Chapter 30, first the remnants of the JLF command, Todou and his Four Holy Swords, react in this way when learning about the neo-Shinsengumi in the After Action Report, then Cornelia and her knights along with Nonette have this reaction when they get sent Knightmare Frames, really just remote-controlled Spider Tank drones, so outdated even Glasgows can defeat them.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: A worry Cheryl Silver had that led to her planning to flee Code-R, not wanting to be dumped in a ditch, or worse, becoming a test subject herself.
• You Monster!: While no one has yet to call him this to his face, at least in text, it's made clear that everyone, even Schneizel (a self-admitted sociopath), finds Eduardo Royale aka The Black King, to be especially monstrous. Age, gender and even nationality meant nothing to him and he used and abused everyone around him as he saw fit.
• You Need to Get Laid:
  • A less charitable meta-level interpretation of the reason why Lelouch is a lot better-adjusted and less prone to temper tantrums than in canon.
  • The same could be said about C.C., who's certainly enjoying her immortal existence more with an active sex life, but this is instead something of an Inversion/Reconstruction. Reconnecting with her human emotions is what actually helped C.C., her libido simply came along with the ride, making sex a result of her improved well-being rather than the cause.
• Younger Than They Look: Mamoru looks roughly 80 but is in fact not quite 60. Fighting for so long in La Résistance as he has would do that to anyone.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Euphemia didn't know what to make of Zero — in her own words, "a terrorist, a murderer, and a regicide" — sincerely complimenting her good work at cleaning up the rampant corruption within the Britannian government as Area 11's new Sub-Viceroy.
• You Remind Me of X: Kallen reminds Lelouch a lot of his mother, with the big difference that Marianne was a lot better at hiding her intentions. That's the reason why "Zero" is so good at reading and predicting the redhead, something that Kallen is pretty self-conscious about.
• Your Mom: A notable Aversion. "Celesta" outright calls Melisande a bitch in Milly's face and she barely notices. This should tell you everything you need to know about the relationship between mother and daughter.
• You Will Be Spared: Despite being in the middle of her Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Code-R, C.C. reluctantly spares one scientist, Cheryl Silver, because her Touch Telepathy let her know that the woman was a Reluctant Mad Scientist at worst that got way in over her head by accepting a too-well-paid job at Code-R before realizing what they actually do in there, and had in fact been looking for a way out. Of course, "sparing" for C.C. here means giving the scientist a "choice" between serving Zero, imprisonment under the Black Knights for Code-R's crimes, or swift and immediate execution. Unsurprisingly, she picks the former.
• Zeroth Law Rebellion: Sayoko may be willing to walk into her death if Lelouch ever orders her to, but she has disobeyed him in cases where she considers the alternative benefits him more. For example, she didn't destroy the footage of his Geass-assisted interrogation of Kallen as he instructed her to. The implied reason is that Sayoko saw Kallen as a potential fellow member of Lelouch's innermost circle and thought that having tangible evidence that he didn't use his Geass to make the redhead loyal to him — which was indeed an issue between them in canon — will come in handy if/when they tell her about his power.

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