White Knighting for Fun and Profit
is an ongoing Code Geass self-insert fanfic written by Eva Unit 01 in part as a commentary of and Take That! against Codes And Geass: Embracing Your Inner Megalomania.
The story is mainly hosted on Questionable Questing, but also on Fanfiction.net and on Spacebattles. The principle concept is a Perspective Flip with Suzaku as the main protagonist and Lelouch as The Rival, while a self-insert stuck in Suzaku's mind all but forces the former to at least attempt being a more proactive character than is usually the case. Functioning as a team, the pair of minds together have collectively been designated "Onezaku" by the author, though the story's narration when told from outside perspectives frequently uses Suzaku's name regardless of which personality is active.
The story is also on spacebattles and FFN.
Examples of tropes in White Knighting include but are not limited to...
- Actor Allusion: “And if I become a demon, so be it. I’ll endure the exile…! Anything… to protect them all.”"
- Alternate Universe: one containing elements of and nods to not only the original Code Geass series, but also to to the AU movie trilogy and sequel, as well as the AU spinoff manga Nightmare of Nunnally and Suzaku of the Counterattack.
- Ambiguously Evil: Schneizel el Britannia. Cornelia clearly resents him for delaying her travel to Japan, and on realizing how he's used her just prior to the story's beginning, Euphemia bitterly wonders if he's no better than their father Charles. However, the brief peeks into Schneizel's perspective suggest that he may have nobler intentions than she realizes.
- Ambiguous Situation: the true identity of Zero. Is it Sayoko, under Geass to think she's Lelouch? Or is it Lelouch himself with The Zero? More recent chapters have suggested the former as more likely than the latter, but enough questions remain unanswered that the mystery is equally unresolved.
- Ascended Extra: while Suzaku becoming the main protagonist is an example of the trope in itself, an even better example is Princess Euphemia; after her introduction, she's effectively promoted to co-protagonist for a few chapters before the focus starts sliding back off of her; however, even when not actively onscreen, her presence continues to affect the political landscape in Area Eleven. At least one user has commented that Euphemia and Suzaku have had more interaction in the first few chapters after her appearance in this story than they did in the entire anime.
- Cecile Croomy is another example, having been given some new backstory in a recent chapter and being treated more as a more actively significant character here than in most other media.
- The Atoner: While Suzaku's massive guilt would qualify him in itself... a more unique example to the fic itself is with Cecile, who's trying to help Suzaku work through his massive self-hate and self-destructive impulses after having failed to do so for an old fiancee who died during Britannia's invasion of Japan eight years earlier.Cecile: "He... he confided in me just before shipping out that he’d been depressed for a long time, and that he didn’t even know why he was living anymore. I had a chance to try and support him, to help him through it – and in my naivete, I didn’t understand how to use it. I let it slip by."
- Bash Brothers: some readers have commented that the relationship between Suzaku and the self-insert feels like they're brothers, in light of their unconditional support for each other being juxtaposed with periods of intense mutual aggravation.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Kewell Soresi, during his attempts to assassinate Euphemia.
- Broken Ace: Suzaku is an Instant Expert of an Ace Pilot with clear superhuman athleticism and a Chick Magnet... with a Dark and Troubled Past that's led him to struggle with suicidal thoughts for years, and over the course of the story thus far is apparently beginning to struggle with ongoing Sanity Slippage.
- Interestingly, Cornelia appears to be one as well in this story, hailed by her country as the Goddess of Victory... but struggling with some sort of panic attack just from the mere thought of potentially losing Euphemia after what happened to the vi Britannias. In her interactions with Euphemia, Cornelia's shown to have Knight Templar Big Sister tendencies because of it.
- Canon Foreigner/Expy Coexistence: Mariel "Elle" Lubie has only ever appeared in the Suzaku of the Counterattack spinoff manga, where she functioned in many ways as a Composite Character of Euphemia (as the Love Interest to Suzaku), Cecile (as Lloyd's assistant), and Shirley (as a sympathetic Britannian teenager whose father is killed by the Black Knights without Lelouch intending it). In this story, she appears in the same universe as all three of the others, which is one of the first major flags to One that he's in an alternate universe of some kind and that his metaknowledge will be of only questionable reliability. Her father, Leonard, also makes an appearance later and is revealed to be Lloyd's mentor.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Suzaku in this story is shown capable of fighting Knightmare Frames barehanded in a sufficiently enclosed space, though the author later clarified that his Super-Strength and agility only make this viable for machines that are years out-of-date, and it's shown immediately after that commandeering a KMF for his own use is infinitely more efficient. For Suzaku, at least, going Master Asia is at best Awesome, but Impractical.
- Chess Motifs: as is typical of Code Geass, and most commonly exemplified here with Schneizel due to Lelouch being comparatively Out of Focus. Cornelia in particular calls him out for treating Euphemia as an Unwitting Pawn, to which Schneizel happily admits it, not bothering to explain to a livid Cornelia that he sees in Euphemia the potential to promote from a Pawn to a Queen.
- Chick Magnet: Onezaku, who has/have gotten the positive attention and attraction of no less than three women and counting within a day or two of meeting them.
- Crash-Into Hello: Euphemia is introduced by literally running into Suzaku on the street as he steps out of a club, on the run from Purist forces attempting to coup d'etat.
- Deal with the Devil: while this a common trope in Code Geass in relation to C.C. bestowing Geass upon Lelouch, Euphemia relying on Schneizel to solidify and reinforce her political influence is also treated in this way. In her narration, Euphemia even compares the unspecified debt she owes Schneizel to the Sword of Damocles hanging over her head.
- Florence Nightingale Effect: both Cecile and Elle have aspects of those trope, promising and attempting to help Suzaku psychologically recover from his traumatic youth.
- Genre-Busting: while the Military Science Fiction is obvious given the source material, the story also maintains recurring elements of character study, psychological drama, and romantic comedy among others. As one of the thread tags on Questionable Questing puts it, "more than just a power harem fantasy".
- Green-Eyed Monster: on meeting Kallen's Refrain-addicted mother in "Line in the Sand", Onezaku go through a massive and unexpected bout of jealousy over her having a parent who loves her child enough to put up with perpetual abuse from all sides just to be around them, even if it's pushing her towards Refrain use and a Despair Event Horizon.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Milly Ashford, when she's not being the distaff version of a Handsome Lech, is a contender for the most unambiguously benevelent, warm, and compassionate character in the story, as well as some of the highest emotional intelligence, awareness of others, and personal integrity. Even when she's involved in darker or serious scenes, the narration isn't afraid of using adjectives that compare her to light or the sun to bring the point home.
- It's Personal: in a recent chapter, Kallen suspects that Suzaku was involved in capturing her brother Naoto, and only a lack of evidence is stopping her from going on the warpath. As this was sort of confirmed months prior in an informational post on the QQ thread, it's also a case of Dramatic Irony on multiple fronts, as Naoto was captured but subsequently escaped, and what happened to him after that remains a mystery.
- Knight in Sour Armor: One's frequent pessimism and habit of complaining, Suzaku's more prominently-focused on Dark and Troubled Past, and their shared self-destructive tendencies create this overall effect. Euphemia, however, sees them as a Knight in Shining Armor.
- Male Gaze: the self-insert frequently lapses into this, especially where Euphemia or Cecile are concerned. C.C. catches onto this habit within seconds of speaking with him, and immediately exploits it partly to test how easily she can get in his head, and partly just to fuck with him.
- Might Makes Right: Charles zi Britannia's holy empire in a nutshell.
- Ms. Fanservice: of the female cast introduced so far, Princess Euphemia is the most common target of the Male Gaze, with Cecile being a close second.
- Not Distracted by the Sexy: Suzaku, in noted contrast to One's serial Male Gaze.
- Occidental Otaku: while the author passing this trait onto his SI may not be much of a surprise, the in-universe character Elle Lubie being a massive Kamen Rider fangirl to the point of name-dropping Yumiko Ozawa as her childhood role model and inspiration for becoming an engineer helps her to stand out in the cast.
- O.C. Stand-in: the Luciano Bradley's Valkyrie Squadron, of whom canonically only two were introduced in the anime and supplemental materials, are in this story filled out with a trio of Cosmic Era Gundam expies — specifically of Cagalli and Lacus from the first series, and of Lunamaria from the second series.
- Off the Rails: by the time the readers are given the first taste of Lelouch assuming Zero's identity, the plot of this story has already diverged significantly from most versions of canon. In particular, Euphemia has already become Viceroy, Suzaku doesn't have a Zero Approval Rating among the Britannian population, the Pureblood faction are being actively dismantled, Cornelia has apparently been banned from coming to Area Eleven to take over, and apparently there's already another, unknown individual or group interfering with Britannia behind the scenes.
- Phrase Catcher: Suzaku's habitally reckless behavior has earned him such status; "Do you have a death wish?!" Given that he actually does have one, he usually struggles not to laugh when people ask him that. Hell, the rebel forces in Shinjuku that later become the Black Knights nicknamed him Death Wish in his first battle.
- Rescue Romance: the relationship between Onezaku and Euphemia is initiated with a Crash-Into Hello, builds with a running high-speed battle through Shibuya against rogue Britannian forces attempting a coup d'etat, and cements itself with the former encouraging the latter to take control of the authority that is her birthright and flex it for the good of others.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: see Phrase Catcher.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: while this is par for the course in Code Geass with the likes of Lelouch and Cornelia, the author appears to be giving Euphemia the Adaptational Badass treatment. The very day of her introduction to the story sees her take Viceroyship of Area Eleven and pretty much immediately destroys the political legitimacy of the Pureblood faction in its government. While she doesn't yet appear to have come up with a version of the SAZ plan like in canon, she is apparently working on reform policies to abate and gradually end the deliberate systemic inequalities in Area Eleven between the Britannians and the native Japanese.
- Shout-Out: the author is a huge fan of Metal Gear as shown with multiple references to meme theory as presented in Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Rising, with one pivotal chapter even titled "Stains of Time".
- Gundam is another recurring reference; during the massacre at Shinjuku, One mocks Suzaku's idealistic attempts to convince the resistance fighters to lay down their weapons by comparing him unfavorably to Kira Yamato. More recently, they appear to have named the elite task force Euphemia created for them "Celestial Being"; see also the entry for O.C. Stand-in.
- Several readers were shocked to see Dragonheart of all things get a nod, with Onezaku invoking The Old Code while putting Luciano Bradley out of the world's misery.
- Summon Bigger Fish: as of the chapter "Holy Orders", Suzaku appears to have permanently forced the plot's story Off the Rails by acheiving successful contact with Monica Kruchevsky.
- Super Prototype: the Z-01 Lancelot, said to be the first Seventh-Generation Knightmare Frame in the world, almost entirely wipes out the entirety of Lelouch's rebel forces in Shinjuku with Suzaku in its cockpit. This would normally be the whole story, but there are implications that its creator, Lloyd Asplund, has something else going on under the hood — technology that Lloyd's mentor, Leonard Lubie, is seemingly horrified to realize is still under development...
- Wham Episode: "Stains of Time" involves a flashback to Suzaku's Dark and Troubled Past, Lelouch and Suzaku failing to come to terms with each other, and Suzaku manifesting a Geass that appears to show him The Multiverse that nearly drives him insane from the overwhelming information input until he beats his head against a brick wall enough to make it stop.
- "Line in the Sand" is another, with Euphemia announcing a set of policy initiatives that seem to pre-emptively kneecap Lelouch's canonical "hero of justice" rhetoric PR tactics by proactively tackling the corruption that Clovis allowed to fester in the Area, the first shown example of which is by officially reclassing Refrain as a chemical weapon and changing prosecutional priority to its dealers and makers instead of the Elevens who get driven into using it.
- Wargame, part 2. Suzaku successfully kills Luciano Bradley, all but guaranteeing that the other Rounds will play a larger role in the coming chapters — at a point in the story where Zero hasn't even officially formed the Black Knights yet.
