YMMV Tropes with Their Own Pages
- Complete Monster
- Harsher In Hindsight
- Hilarious In Hindsight
- Magnificent Bastard
- Memetic Mutation
- Narm
- The Woobie
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Tropes A-C
- Alas, Poor Scrappy:
- As Lampshaded by Nina, until R2 Episode 13 Shirley was generally disliked for her naiveté and canon love for Lelouch getting in the way of him hooking up with other love interests. The sheer outrage towards her death (and corresponding hatred towards her murderer) was truly incredible to behold. Is it any wonder why she was spared in the Compilation Movie?
- For that matter, the death of Rolo himself was quite the Tear Jerker, even for many who'd previously despised him.
- Allegedly Optimistic Ending: The Zero Requiem can come off as this due to the many questions one might have about the overall efficacy of the final plannote and the amount of bloodshed caused in order to pull it off. The damage to the world dealt by Britannia under Lelouch's reign isn’t really elaborated on and it’s unknown how many people he killed for his gambit to work.note Between the actions of his regime and its predecessor, the world might find itself in a much more grave state in the immediate future, as was the case after both Real Life World Wars. We also never find out what happened to the soldiers whom Lelouch brainwashed into obeying him, who are either stuck as slaves to a dead man or, assuming Jeremiah freed them with his Geass Canceller, would likely be severely traumatized by the fact that they were brainwashed into unquestionably serving the most oppressive and brutal tyrant in history. Unless the public at large somehow learned about the Geass (which is unlikely, given how much of the evidence for it existing has been erased by the end of the series, up to and including God itself), it's likely these people will spend the rest of their lives scorned as spineless sell-outs and collaborators. This is certain to be even worse than it might seem, since it will seem to all onlookers that they simply decided to go along with Lelouch's sudden power grab for, essentially, no reason whatsoever. There’s also the fact that a number of other villains get off completely scot free despite showing no remorse for their crimes, including Villetta, a former member of the Britannian equivalent of The Klan, and Cornelia, an unrepentant mass murderer who played a key role in Britannia’s various conquests and the subjugation of the Japanese. The Black Knights (especially Ohgi) go pretty much unpunished for their betrayal of Lelouch and while they might have realised Lelouch’s true intentions, they never even learn that they inadvertently helped Schneizel to nearly kill untold billions and rule the world with his FLEIJAs.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: As the series operates on a lot of Grey-and-Grey Morality (with some unambiguously good and bad characters thrown into the mix), this is all but inevitable.
- Lelouch and Suzaku get this quite a bit. What are their real motives? To what extent are they lying to themselves, or to other people? Are their efforts for the good of others, or merely for their own satisfaction? And will their plans even work? These questions are present for both, albeit in different ways.
- Prince Schneizel. A genuinely kind (albeit ambitionless and easily influenced) man whose methods mostly try to preserve human life, who was tragically inspired to believe that what he was doing in the end was the best way to achieve peace, an amoral shell of a human being who has no goals, objectives or ideology, who just does whatever sounds interesting at the time, a truly evil Manipulative Bastard who used Dissonant Serenity and False Reassurance as a smokescreen to hide his true evilness, whose plan in the end was just a massive grasp at achieving godhood, or all of the above where he's willing to do anything to bring what he considers peace, and that his villainy really does stem from his lack of ambition and interest? The Compilation Movie doesn't mention his god complex, implying he was just rolling with it to make sure the part of his plan involving said peace actually works.
- Did Ohgi become so obsessed with Villetta that he became blinded by the truth to pursue revenge on those who apparently wronged them by any means? If this were true, would he and Lelouch be not so different because the person they love the most is their main motivation for their actions? Did he or the Black Knights ever end up realizing (presumably offscreen) what they actually caused after witnessing the Zero Requiem? Is becoming Prime Minister of Japan actually his way of making up for his mistakes along with the rest of the Black Knights? None of this has been outright confirmed, but the implications are still there. The sequel film at least cleared up the latter for those who already doubted by the end of the original series that it didn't happen.
- There is a theory regarding Nunnally's Living Lie Detector abilities that appears in certain fanfics, and which is possibly supported in canon by her seeing the whole Zero Requiem plan after touching Lelouch as he's dying, which says that she has some sort of unexplained psychic abilities that work via touch. This theory does require a radical reinterpretation of her character and most of her actions in order to make it work, but it does address certain other inconsistencies.
- Did Lelouch care at all for Rolo before his Heroic Sacrifice or did he only come to appreciate his false younger brother after it. Was he sincere when admitting that he lied about hating him or was he just comforting him in his final moments out of pity? Either interpretation accepts the idea that he did indeed care about him at the end.
- Anvilicious:
- Racism is bad, m'kay?
- Suicide and sacrificing yourself in combat for people is not honorable! Why won't you get it, Suzaku?!
- Art-Style Dissonance: The lanky builds and big eyes of the main characters wouldn't be out of place in Ouran High School Host Club.
- Ass Pull: Episode 16 reveals that Mao is Not Quite Dead, despite being riddled with bullets the previous episode. He was also somehow able to get medical treatment from Britannia, a nation known for being extremely racist against non-Britannians.
- Awesome Ego: Lelouch, Kallen, and Jeremiah. It sometimes feels like half their dialogue consists of them boasting about how awesome they are. No one's complaining, though.
- Base-Breaking Character:
- Suzaku. Some consider him a complex and sympathetic character and a great foil to Lelouch. While others view him as an annoying idiotic hypocrite who gets in the way and in R2, found him to be increasingly immoral. There is rarely any in-between on these opinions. It is also notably a difference in opinion between the producers of the series (who express a lot more sympathy for Suzaku than Lelouch) and the western fanbase (who tend to favor Lelouch's side over Suzaku's).
- Shirley. Part of the fanbase despises her for being a civilian Naïve Everygirl type of character (which starkly contrasts with the setting), and her romantic feeling towards Lelouch easily evokes Clingy Jealous Girl imagery which fuels Die for Our Ship reaction. Others meanwhile, adores her good looks, exceptional kindness, unconditional love for Lelouch, and for being the central focus in some of the series' most heartwrenching moments.
- While Rolo was a widely hated character during the time the show was airing, particularly after he murdered Shirley, there is a split as to whether sacrifice to save Lelouch redeemed him somewhat and made him sympathetic, or if it was a far too lenient death given what he did. There’s also the 3rd camp who refused to forgive him but still admit he’s a genuinely tragic character that they felt bad for at the end. However, this only applies to his tv counterpart; in the recap movies, he never kills Shirley or massacres children in the Geass Order and is far more widely sympathized as a result.
- Better on DVD: Not surprising, given the complexities of the plot and the huge cast.
- Also, the animation from some of the TV episodes could get sloppy at times. Facial expressions didn't look the way they were supposed to or characters were off-model. In particular, Episode 20 of R2 was one of the worse offenders. The DVD release cleaned up most of it.
- Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The infamous Table-kun scene. In Episode 12 of the first season, Nina is shown in silhouette masturbating against the edge of the table in the Student Council room while looking at pictures of Euphemia, only for Nunnally to roll in (since she lives in the clubhouse) thinking Nina sounds sick, with Nina quickly cleaning herself up reassuring Nunnally everything is fine. The scene is less than 30 seconds long, and is never referenced again. It's still one of the first things most people associate Nina with.
- Breather Boss: Viceroy Calares, who's about as incompetent as Clovis, is Lelouch's first enemy in R2, and decidedly less difficult to defeat than most others before or since. This was done due to Executive Meddling, which insisted that the first few episodes of R2 echo the start of R1 to acquaint new viewers to the show.
- Broken Base:
- The three episodes involving Mao are very contested. Fans of the arc find Mao an interesting and sympathetic character, and like the mini-arc for the insight it gives into C.C.'s character and the way it furthers the plot. Detractors however find Mao irritating as a character and believe the arc distracted too much from the main plot and went on for far too long.
- The initial time skip in R2 and return to Ashford academy were quite controversial when the show was airing.
- The whole matter of the Zero Requiem remains contentious to this day. Many viewers appreciate the way it reflects Lelouch's whole belief that those who would kill in order to attain their goals must also be prepared to die, and find the tone the ending sets to be appropriately bittersweet, given how much pain our leads are in, even while the world is clearly shown to be doing much better thanks to Lelouch's sacrifice. Others see it as an Allegedly Optimistic Ending, and unrealistic enough to shatter their Willing Suspension of Disbelief. Thanks to the rather abstract way the plan is presented to the audience, there is little in the way of logical explanation for how the shown outcome of a peaceful and united world flows from Lelouch's actions. This isn't helped by the abrupt way in which the final episode presents us with the plan in its closing scenes. The light novel adaptation also saw fit to add millions of random casualties to the plan, which only makes Lelouch's already-intentionally-grey actions seem even more morally suspect to such fans. On a more Watsonian note, many fans also believe that Lelouch ought to have simply used his power as absolute world ruler to oversee a transition into a time of peace, under the belief that this was a superior method of attaining his goals than his Heroic Sacrifice, and accuse him of selfishly committing Suicide by Cop when the world and the people he loved desperately needed him alive. What both fans generally agree on is that the Black Knights' betrayal was a rather contrived way to bring us to this ending, in either case.
- The notion of having a sequel to the movie trilogy where Lelouch is somehow brought back from the dead.. Some fans feel that this could make the entire ending of R2 completely meaningless or at least less effective. Other fans who are not satisfied with the ending are of the belief that this might potentially give a better conclusion to the story.
- Compounding the issue is that the sequel takes place in an Alternate Universe established by the continuation movies. For some, this is good as it means the original ending is left untouched, and if the this movie fails, the original anime will still remain. For others, this is a missed opportunity as they wanted to see the original cast again, not an alternate version. Alternatively, the missed opportunity could have been leaving things vague enough so that it could have happened in ether version of the series.
- Then there are the changes to the story. The Compilation Movies changed the fates of a few characters and included cameo appearances by several individuals from canon Spin Off works. Those in favor of these changes are overjoyed, while those who dislike it feel the changes are unnecessary to the story and shouldn't have been added.note
- The anouncement of a third season of the show and futher material set in this alternate canon has only raised futher debate over the choices of this canon from those who would have prefered a continution of the original anime universe or feel the series is sliding into Franchise Zombie territory.
- Cargo Ship: The 'Table-kun' incident, via Memetic Mutation. To elaborate, the incident involved Nina Einstein masturbating to pictures of Princess Euphemia as she humps the student council table.
- Catharsis Factor:
- After seeing how vile and cruel the High Eunuchs are during their appearances along with their callous treatment of their own people, including Xingke and the Empress, its extremely pleasing to watch Xingke cut them down in rapid succession.
- After Suzaku’s constant hypocrisy throughout the series, as well having Took a Level in Jerkass after the end of R1, l seeing Kallen kick the ever-loving crap out of him after he almost used refrain on her is very satisfying to watch. Even he knows he had it coming.
- The death’s of Diethard, Loyhemer and Bradley considering how irredeemably evil all 3 of them are. Special mention to Lelouch not even using his Geass on Diethard because he isn’t “worthy of it”.
- Any time Cornelia gets defeated or humiliated throughout R1 is immensely satisfying given how much of a vile, mass murdering racist she is. The same goes for her being shot by Schniezel at the end of R2.
- Lelouch finally making a Hidden Disdain Reveal towards Rolo after the latter killed Shirley and planned to kill Nunnally. Although it certainly becomes less of this on a rewatch due to the knowledge he’d still do a Heroic Sacrifice and save Lelouch afterwards.
- Lelouch defeating Charles and later Schniezel, finally taking over the world. All hail Lelouch.l! The same goes for him capturing all the Black Knights, especially Oghi, considering their foolish betrayal of him earlier.
- Character Perception Evolution:
- For most of the show's initial run, Cornelia was for the most part well liked by fans for being an antagonist who embodied some of the worst aspects of Britannia's brutality, but was also intelligent, competent, beautiful and made for an imposing foe for Lelouch. Come R2 however, where she's presented sympathetically and gets off scot free for her more heinous acts even though she never even shows an ounce of remorse for the horrific massacres she committed, she's now one of the most controversial Karma Houdinis in the show and is reviled by a significant portion of the fanbase.
- Nina was (and still is) widely hated and considered a Karma Houdini after the show ended, but some fans
re-evaluated her
and found her a more sympathetic and three-dimensional character who is disproportionately hated compared to other characters who are racist or committed similar crimes with less remorse but were whitewashed by the fandom, which suggests the level of hate she got had more to do with fans finding her personality or crush on Euphemia annoying than with what she actually did wrong. It also helps that later installments such as the compilation movies, Lelouch of the Re;surrection, and Rozé of the Recapture have portrayed her in a more positive light with none of her more hated aspects of her character being present. While she still has plenty of detractors, there are fans willing to talk about the positive aspects of her character compared to back when the original anime was airing.
- Common Knowledge:
- Suzaku doesn’t try to buy clothes at the soup store, that’s from Code MENT.
- The anime is a response to Death Note. Except it isn't. This is a misconception chiefly propagated by people who watch the show purely for the supposed "trainwreck" aspect and the memes it spawned, many of them being casual anime watchers who only follow Shounen Jump adaptations and not much else. With Death Note being one of those adaptations, it's really easy to make the mistake, and both shows airing around the same time certainly didn't help things. Geass actually has way more in common with the traditional Sunrise mecha formula than it is first apparent, with most Death Note comparisons seeming to focus on the fact Lelouch and Light are both intelligent protagonists.
- A relatively minor one is that CLAMP did all the character design work. They didn't - CLAMP only did the preliminary work on the costuming and some of the basic character design while the rest was done by one of the Sunrise regulars in the character design field, Takahiro Kimura. Kimura's design is really easily confusable for CLAMP's because he also makes heavy use of the Noodle People aestethic, but only for the men. The women are much more likely to have prominent bubble butts (like for example CC and Kallen) and large breasts (Kallen, Viletta), with the limbs looking nowhere as disproportionate whenever on-model.
- Creator's Pet: Ohgi was well-liked at first, but went from a Voice of Reason to an ever-increasing liability, with his relationship with Villetta causing numerous problems and getting too much focus, and his controversial actions towards the end of the second season didn't help at all, with his betrayal of Lelouch and selling him out to his evil brother of all people. Unlike Rolo, the now more clearsighted Suzaku, and the remorseful, suicidal Lelouch, who was largely led to this point because of said betrayal, Ohgi changed for the worse and received a happy ending with the equally if not more culpable Villetta that many fans felt was neither earned nor justified.
Tropes D-G
- Designated Hero:
- Ohgi and Villetta, among other characters responsible for the betrayal of and later fighting Lelouch as Emperor. They demonize Lelouch for his use of Geass and wholeheartedly consider their betrayal of him to be a good thing, and they are presented among the heroes in the final episodes, even getting unearned happy endings. The problem is, neither have any moral high ground to stand on.
- Ohgi had already betrayed Zero multiple times prior to learning his identity, starting with his rescue of Villetta, who was then the amnesiac "Chigusa". Even after being shot by her during the Black Rebellion, he remained devoted to her beyond rationality, putting himself in the line of fire to protect her after she attempted to kill him again. And despite being aware she was a Britannian Noble, he openly believed the circumstantial evidence she gave him regarding Geass, and sided with her and Schneizel over the man who gave them a leg to stand on against Britannia. Making issues even worse is that he adds a caveat to the Black Knights betraying Zero, that Schneizel return Japan to its people. This in itself is tantamount to treason due to willingly going behind the backs of the UFN, who at that point were technically the bosses of the Black Knights, and negotiating a deal with an enemy nation, setting aside the fact Schneizel doesn't even have the power to give them Japan. He goes even further by proceeding to lie to Jeremiah, Xingke, and Kaguya by saying Zero perished in battle, and would have let them believe it had it not been for Lelouch staging an attack on Kamine Island.
- As for Villetta, like Jeremiah she was a member of the purist faction. Whereas Jeremiah's racist tendencies are somewhat more understandable (if not at all justifiable) due to him blaming the Japanese for the alleged deaths of Lelouch and Nunnally, Villetta has no reason for her virulent racism. Only focused on power for the most part, once she recovers from her amnesia she attempts to kill the man who saved her, then goes after Lelouch for the chance to rise in nobility. While Lelouch does turn her into an unwilling accomplice, she gets no sympathy after she had been leading the operation of trying to bait C.C. with him. She betrays Lelouch to Jeremiah in the hopes he'll kill Lelouch, then tries to kill Ohgi again just so she won't be associated with a Number, only hesitating once he confesses his love to her. So while she lets up on him, she still convinces Ohgi to lead the betrayal, setting into motion the cluster fuck that is the Zero Requiem.
- Cornelia as well during R2. All the death she caused, including deliberately recreating the Shinjuku Massacre in Saitama so as to draw out Zero, are swept under the rug as the narrative attempts to rehabilitate her image, as she copes with the loss of Euphemia, and undergoes supposed Character Development. Except of course the fact that she never reckons for past crimes.
- Ohgi and Villetta, among other characters responsible for the betrayal of and later fighting Lelouch as Emperor. They demonize Lelouch for his use of Geass and wholeheartedly consider their betrayal of him to be a good thing, and they are presented among the heroes in the final episodes, even getting unearned happy endings. The problem is, neither have any moral high ground to stand on.
- Die for Our Ship: A good part of the fandom hate Rolo got came specifically from people who thought he killed Shirley only out of romantic jealousy, believing him to be a Depraved Homosexual.
- Draco in Leather Pants:
- A lot of fans view Lelouch as a more-or-less unconstested hero of the work, ignoring the repeated emphasis the show places on the immorality of many (If not ``most``) of the actions he undertakes in pursuit of his goals. It's helped by the fact that most of his enemies are significantly worse than he is, but he's still a Manipulative Bastard who repeatedly puts his own personal goals before the greater good and who becomes a full-on Knight Templar by the finale.
- Several fans (and even the JP cast) consider Cornelia to be better than Lelouch, ignoring that she massacred a whole ghetto of civilians just to draw out Zero.
- Ending Fatigue: So Emperor Charles and Marianne's plan to create their perfect world were foiled. Normally that would mark the end of the story. Except that Schneizel's still around to execute his plan for world conquest and that the United Federation of Nations isn't bound to let Britannia off the hook so easily.
- Ensemble Dark Horse:
- The Britannians as a faction had plenty of characters that are popular:
- Jeremiah Gottwald, aka Orange-kun. His popularity was great enough that the writers scrapped the idea of simply killing him off and brought him back with a much larger role.
- Given the fandom’s reaction to her death, Third Princess Euphemia li Britannia also counts. Her genuinely adorable Lady and Knight romance with Suzaku helps, as does the fact that, Nunnally aside, she was the only unambiguously good person among the Britannian royalty in the show until the appearance of her sister Marrybell. It’s telling that even many official pieces of media opt to go the Fix Fic route and either don’t have the SAZ massacre happen at all or at least don’t have it end with her dying as a result of it (as is the case with Super Robot Wars Z2 if the right conditions are met), with Nightmare of Nunnally going as far as to have her crowned as the 99th Empress of Britannia by the end.
- Monica Kruszewski, Knight of Twelve. While she didn't really do anything of importance, her popularity proved to be enough that fans were irritated with the manner she died. The Oz Manga did give her a bit more time to shine and she has also been featured in the Super Robot Wars X-Omega mobile game.
- Milly Ashford, the Student Council President. Many a fan is quite fond of her, and wished she had more plot relevance in series, especially with the knowledge she was not only aware of Lelouch's heritage (meaning she could be more involved in his plot against Britannia), but also had an unreciprocated crush on him that she gave up for the sake of Shirley.
- Earl Lloyd Asplund, mostly due to his charmingly quirky personality, endeared himself to many fans, even more so when he took Lelouch's ascension in stride, and became one of Lelouch's supporters in the Zero Requiem.
- His assistant, Cecile Croomy, may be a bit less so, but her Adorkable personality and attempts to act as a Morality Chain for Suzaku were well received.
- After the betrayal of the Black Knights late into R2, a few members remained popular enough either due to being likeable, or not actually participating in the betrayal.
- Tamaki Shinchiro, the only Black Knight who participated in the betrayal of Lelouch to remain popular after the fact. His general idiocy and the fact he was the most vocal against betraying Lelouch for the longest time makes him both an entertaining and likeable character amidst the other Black Knights apart of the betrayal.
- Kosetsu Urabe. His pre-Heroic Sacrifice declaration of solidarity to Lelouch, which helped restore Kallen's faith in Zero, as well as his ability to look past nationality or status, did not go unappreciated by the fans, especially following the betrayal by the remaining Black Knights.
- Li Xingke, having remained unaware of the Black Knights betraying Zero, and unwilling to simply listen to their claim Zero had died, remained one. Helps he is the one of the most badass characters in the series, with intelligence capable of rivaling Lelouch, and skills with a Knightmare rivaling Suzaku.
- Kaguya Sumeragi, while not an official member, still remained popular in part to her not believing the idea Zero died, her quirky personality yet remaining one of the few smart people in the room and only siding against Lelouch when he became the Demon Emperor.
- Sayoko Shinozaki, AKA the Ninja Maid. Her Undying Loyalty to not just Lelouch but Nunnally too, along with her moments of badass quickly endeared her to fans.
- The Britannians as a faction had plenty of characters that are popular:
- Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Shirley is really an angel and Lelouch is a demon! That's why they're Star-Crossed Lovers.
- Fandom Rivalry: Many Humongous Mecha fans tend to have a dim view of a certain subsection of the Code Geass fandom due to the latter holding a position that Code Geass is much more focused on the characters and their development while considering everything that came prior as little more than a badly-written toy commercial - a position not too dissimilar to the one that caused Neon Genesis Evangelion fans to be viewed unfavorably to this day.
- Fandom-Specific Plot: Due to the nature of the series' Black-and-Grey Morality and where Lelouch and Suzaku belong on its scale, crossovers involving settings with Black-and-White Morality usually have the Black Knights allied with the heroic faction and Britannia partnered with the villains both to allow Lelouch to take a few levels in kindness and force Suzaku to recognize the flaws in his worldview.
- Fan Nickname:
- Many. For example we have Spinzaku, Pizza Butt, and Emperor Wakamoto.
- Also, fans have a tendency to nickname a character done by Jun Fukuyama or Johnny Yong Bosch into something related to Lelouch or Zero.
- Nina Einstein: the psycholesbo or tableraper. Then there's Table-kun.
- Who can forgot ORENJI-KUN, the bringer of LOYALTY?
- The claw used by Kallen's mech, the Guren Mk II, might as well be the SHIIIIIIIIIINING! FINGEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRR!
- Knight of Four, Dorothea Ernst, is being called the "Knight of Fail" for dying so quickly.
- Ohgi gets "Jewgi", for having curly hair as well as a prominent Star of David on his outfit.
- Fanon: A significant portion of fans assume that Shirley's father was a member of Code R, and that this was why he was accidentally killed during the Narita landslide. While this is true in the Light Novel, there's no evidence for it in the anime.
- Fan-Preferred Couple:
- Despite Word of God saying their relationship was merely one of mutual respect or perhaps surrogate mother and son, Lelouch and C.C. still get an incredible amount of shipping. It probably doesn't help matters that they were shown being awfully close in the series and official art as she knows all his secrets and is the only female character he views as an equal. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection makes them an Official Couple.
- Lelouch/Kallen is also rather popular.
- On Fan Fiction.net, Lelouch/Suzaku is even more popular than Lelouch/C.C.
- Here's a fun fact for you: Over on LiveJournal, the Lelouch/Suzaku community has almost twice as many members as the Lelouch/C.C., Lelouch/Kallen and Lelouch/Shirley communities combined.
- Fanon Discontinuity:
- Some fans consider the original anime to be the only canonical work, with all of the side works considered Non-Canon. This is in direct contradiction to the fact that the Spin-Off works Code Geass: Oz the Reflection and Code Geass: Akito the Exiled are considered to be canon to both the original Anime and the compilation movies, with characters briefly appearing in said movies.
- Even though Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection falls in an Alternate Continuity, some fans prefer the original TV series ending where Lelouch stays dead because resurrecting him makes his Heroic Sacrifice pointless. It doesn't help that the producers confirmed their reason for resurrecting Lelouch was to expand the franchise.
- Fashion-Victim Villain:
- Charles zi Britannia's massively oversized powder wig doesn't exactly look intimidating.
- Lelouch's Emperor outfit is awesome, but his "Pope hat" just makes him look weird, leading to much snickering from the fanbase. One has to wonder if this was meant as another atrocity to add to the Zero Requiem. The actual outfits are actually pretty snazzy. They're just... really detailed. With eyes all over them. Suzaku's outfit has skin-tight bare shoulders, for instance.
- Fetish Retardant: At least the first half of the second season had a considerable amount of Fanservice that had the opposite of the intended effect for some viewers.
- Friendly Fandoms:
- With other real robot and mecha fandoms, natch. The fact it has 1) cool battles and 2) VOTOMS-esque Mini-Mecha made it gain a deserved place in many a mecha fan's hearts after it originally flew under the radar in 2006. But one of the most significant examples is Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. Not only are both common starting shows for mecha fans, both shows share similar themes about war with a flair for being overdramatic. In Super Robot Wars, games like Z2, X and Y actually merge the narratives together, with DD outright giving fans a version of Wing Zero specifically made for Lelouch.
- Code Geass is also considered to be one of the first big meme animes, as during the time of R2 's airing in 2008 /a/ regularly kept spamming meme after meme after meme as the episodes went by, with most of those impacting the wider anime community in a way that was unprecedented.
- Fountain of Memes: Thanks to 4chan, this show has tons of memes that are usually related to several characters such as Lelouch, Suzaku, Jeremiah, and Emperor Charles.
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
- Polish fans view Monica as one of them (mostly because her surname is Polish sounding). Though her biggest fanbase is made up by Spanish-speaking people apparently (the only stories on fanfiction.net about her are written in Spanish), for reasons unknown.
- Apparently, some in the Japanese fandom thought Johnny Yong Bosch gave a more "natural" performance as Lelouch than Jun Fukuyama.
- On the topic of Lelouch, while Lelouch is far from unpopular in Japan, many of the staff of Japanese Code Geass see him as far more immoral than Suzaku, especially earlier in the series before Suzaku's descent into moral grayness in the second season. Western fans tend to be much less critical of Lelouch in general, generally seeing him more sympathetically than Suzaku, who alternates between 'sympathetic but less than Lelouch' and 'unsympathetic' depending on the fan.
- Growing the Beard: The show started off decent enough, but it wasn't until mid-season 1 that the series had truly hit its stride.
Tropes H-R
- He's Just Hiding:
- Many fans refused to accept Lelouch's death in season 2, even though Word of God has repeatedly stated that they were truly dead (database with official statements
). - Some fans even apply this trope to Euphemia. It doesn't help that Super Robot Wars actually made it so that she WAS indeed just hiding.
- Many fans refused to accept Lelouch's death in season 2, even though Word of God has repeatedly stated that they were truly dead (database with official statements
- Hype Backlash: One of the first famous examples of this is at least in the western anime community. While the show became an unbeatable hit and earned so much popularity that Lelouch became an unattainable leader in character's popularity at MAL, many viewers decried the series, believing it to be driven by Idiot Ball moments and held together by Lelouch and Suzaku's status as Estrogen Brigade bait. Many also see the ending as advocacy for despotism brought on by violent revolution.
- Inferred Holocaust: The Zero Requiem is indicated to have required a staggering amount of bloodshed caused by Lelouch in order to work, as it saw him waging wars of aggression on the entire world and sacrificing the soldiers he brainwashed into being his Cannon Fodder en masse up until he got the Damocles. The light novel is more explicit about the number of casualties and states that the death toll went up to 80 million people. With that many deaths, whatever world peace that could be carved out would likely take years if not decades to recover from before getting to that state.
- Informed Wrongness: Diethard is portrayed as a slimy, untrustworthy ally who no one really likes despite appearing for most of the series to be a genuine believer in Zero’s cause, and while he’s overly pragmatic he often gives sound advice, with even his more ruthless suggestions, such as assassinating Suzaku due to the threat he poses or advising the UFN to launch a war to liberate Japan, seem fairly justified under the circumstances. It appears the creators realized too many people sympathized with him, as they attempted to turn him into a pure Hate Sink late in R2 by joining the Black Knights’ betrayal and defecting to Schneizel, but many fans saw these actions as severely out-of-character, especially since he initially tried to argue against the betrayal but inexplicably goes along with it anyway.
- Iron Woobie: Lelouch, considering how much he puts up with, even if he does give in.
- It Was His Sled: Saying that Lelouch dies is like saying Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's Father.
- Just Here for Godzilla: Some folks only watch Code Geass for the memes. Others however, watch it for the political intrigue.
- Karmic Overkill: Ok, neither are saints, but the crap that Lelouch and Suzaku go through and their eventual ends can seem incredibly disproportionate when compared to, say, Villetta or Cornelia.
- Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Lelouch of course. In addition to his various female love interests Lulu's been shipped with his friends, his enemies, his siblings and even the occasional Crack Ship thrown in the mix.
- Like You Would Really Do It: For as epic a spectacle as Suzaku firing the F.L.E.I.J.A. at the Tokyo Settlement is, the idea that the series would actually kill off Nunnally, Lelouch's entire driving force throughout the whole show, drew significant skepticism from viewers on its original airing. They were proven right several episodes later it's revealed that the ship the characters believed she was on that was destroyed in the blast was in fact a decoy, and she was saved by Sayoko and Schneizel.
- Misaimed Fandom: Due to the Black-and-Grey Morality nature of the series, many characters actions are easily condemned or justified depending on the viewer, though there are cases were this occurs.
- Lelouch is a pragmatist who keeps his head and makes the best use of any situation, even if it involves killing bystanders/foolish allies or disgracing those that he loves, but he's obviously not happy when his subordinates or friends die, and his end goal is to replace the current system with one that's kinder and not as exclusive. On the one hand, many fans tend to forget this and paint him as a monster who cares for no one but himself. On the other hand, there are fans who refuse to admit that their baby Lulu isn't above lying, manipulatingnote , or even sacrificing people around him to achieve his goals, and his carelessness has resulted in some pretty nasty consequences for himself and for the people he wants to help (including said baby sister). In truth, Lelouch is meant to come across as somewhere in the middle, someone with noble goals but whose mental instability causes him to both overlook possibilities and unintentionally cause others pain.
- The belief that Schneizel is an honest man of peace, and nothing more, rather than a driven schemer with goals of his own. Schneizel is presented as Lelouch's greatest enemy as well as his Foil, someone with just as much manipulation skill, who presents himself as a compassionate man devoid of Lelouch's ruthlessness. His charisma and the way his view of humanity resonates with many more cynical audience members (who are disinclined to be sympathetic to Lelouch's idealistic humanism) has led some to root for him rather than Lelouch. The fact that Schneizel is motivated by a belief in Britannia as an institution is seen as a positive, despite the point of this being to showcase the empty ideals (in this case, nationalism) that people will commit horrible atrocities for, which in no way actually better humanity. The Holy Britannian Empire he fights to preserve is repeatedly presented as a corrupt and oppressive regime, and his plan is to effectively begin a Reign of Terror using the Damocles to force an eternal peace upon the world under threat of horrific violence. The various potential logical problems with this plan (such as the matter of finding a similarly well-intentioned successor when he inevitably dies, what he'll do if the machine is somehow sabotaged or suffers mechanical failure, what to do if a mass rebellion breaks out and he's forced to choose between destroying the planet and allowing others to call his bluff) are typically ignored by his supporters.
- Moe: Some of the female cast tend to be these, in particular Nunnally, Kaguya, Shirley, Euphemia, Tianzi and amnesiac C.C. As well as Anya, especially when we found out the truth about her. Even Lelouch is moe at times.
- Moral Event Horizon: While the series is known for many morally ambigious characters (particularly with Lelouch) but there are those who stand out:
- Clovis la Britannia crosses it over gladly when he orders the massacre in the Shinjuku Ghetto, willing to kill hundreds of innocent Japanese people to cover up a classified military experiment.
- While Mao is most certainly a Jerkass Woobie, he goes too far when he shoots C.C., then tries to cut her to pieces with a chainsaw so he can take her away from society and live in peace with just her. While C.C. is immortal and is able to regenerate, Mao only cares about having C.C. all to himself, and cares nothing for the horrible pain he'll put her through to achieve that end. The fact that C.C. once cared for him when he was a child emphasizes how fucked up Mao has become.
- But arguably even worse a deed was when Mao kidnapped Nunnally, Lelouch's little sister, and challenged Lelouch to a game of chess that — if Lelouch lost — would result in Nunnally being blown up by a bomb.
- Alicia Lohmeyer cements herself as an irredeemable piece of work during the "One Million Zeros" incident. Out of a xenophobic fit of rage, her plan to keep the "Zeros" from seceding from Britannia is to order them all killed; she even grabs a gun and tries to fire the first shot. When Suzaku stops her, all she does is insult his Japanese heritage and state that all the Japanese can go to hell for all she cares.
- The Chinese High Eunuchs are a bunch of degenerate jerkasses, and it shows when they not only sell out China to Britannia for their own personal gain, but also attempt to kill their own monarch, Empress Tianzi, with the intent to replace her. They even betray their best warrior, Xingke, for petty reasons.
- Luciano Bradley of the Knights of the Round is way past it when we first meet him, as he states his love for killing people merely because he likes to kill people, and threatens to rape Kallen Kozuki, who is a prisoner of war. Oh, and he'll kill the men under his command if they get in his way while he pilots his Knightmare Frame, Percival. In-universe, his earliest crossing of the M.E.H. is when he murdered his own father.
- V.V. crossed it years ago when he killed Marianne, his brother Charles' wife, out of pure jealousy. Nothing other than envy of how close Charles had become to his wife motivated V.V. into gunning her down, and then he framed the scene to look like assassins had shot her and her guards through the window. For extra heinousness, V.V. placed Marianne's daughter Nunnally in the middle of the crossfire to make it look like Marianne died protecting Nunnally. And Nunnally was crippled for life as a result of getting shot in the legs. And then V.V. lied about it to his brother. While Charles is no doubt a piece of work himself, he would later deduce what happened and plot to kill him. Even more, Marianne's death would ultimately be what began Lelouch's motivation to destroy the Britannian Empire.
- Diethard Ried, while already a morally ambigious member of the Black Knights, ultimately veers into pure evil territory after the Black Knights betray Zero; he leaves the group and joins up with Schneizel, then expresses a rather bloodthirsty excitement when Schneizel reveals his plan to scare the world into a state of peace with his superweapon, the Damocles. Diethard outright tells Schneizel that he was right to defect to his side.
- While Schneizel el Britannia is a seeming Well-Intentioned Extremist, he takes a flying leap over this with the F.L.E.I.J.A. bombing of Pendragon. This results in the death of millions, some being Schneizel's royal half-siblings. Then he reveals his intent to nuke all the major cities in the world to enact a rule through fear. Even Cornelia, Schneizel's sister who is quite bad herself, is disgusted by his actions and tries to stop him, only for Schneizel to turn a hidden turret on her and gun her down.
- Even worse, Schneizel entrusts Lelouch's little sister — Schneizel's own half-sister — Nunnally, with the Damocles Key, ordering her to fire the Damocles' F.L.E.I.J.A.s on Lelouch's army, not caring that she doesn't want to use the Weapon of Mass Destruction he has handed her control of.
- Narm Charm: Best exemplified by Zero himself, but the entire series is so over-the-top that it often produces this effect among the fans, many of which like it that way.
- In the English dub, Kallen calls herself as a "badass mother". It sounds silly, and yet the delivery and the fact that Kallen is a badass makes it work.
- Never Live It Down:
- Nina's Table-kun incident, of course.
- Ohgi for leading the Black Knights to betray Zero.
- In a case of Hilarious in Hindsight, Villetta attempting to kill Ohgi after regaining her memory is apparently this to the point where both WatchMojo and ScrewAttack's Top 10 Anime Betrayals coincidentally happened to feature it over the above one, most likely due to the usual rule of one entry per franchise. That has to say something.
- Schneizel makes a blatantly illegal chess move (that is to say, moving his own king into check) during his chess game with Zero in R2 as a Secret Test of Character. Many people mockingly point to this as example of the show's "writing problems", and laugh at it, under the assumption that the writers accidentally depicted a supposed grandmaster as someone who doesn't even know the rules of his own game. This has led many to joke about Schneizel being someone who literally doesn't know how to play chess. The truth is that the scene is decidedly absurd to any experienced chess player, but for entirely different reasons than a simple illegal move. Although the dialog in the scene does indicate it's possible the writers didn't know that making the move would be an instant disqualification note , Schneizel's goal with it wasn't to win, but to see if Zero would accept a free win note or not. The move is purposefully a losing one either way; the real display of his skills as The Chessmaster rest in how he has manipulated Lelouch's actions as a person, not as a chess player. Throughout the show, chess is depicted simply and used entirely for symbolism - namely, the recurring motif of Lelouch's (inarguably tactically suicidal, yet inexplicably successful) stratagems built around moving his king (which is symbolic of the repeated refrain of how he 'leads from the front', despite his physical weakness and the disastrous potential consequences of his death or capture). In short, the true absurdity of the scene isn't that Schneizel made an illegal move, but that Lelouch repeatedly wins by employing strategies that would never work in a Real Life game of chess, and shouldn't work according to the rules of his timeline's version (wherein the king's capture still means defeat).
- Pandering to the Base: The Compilation Movies make a bunch of changes to the story seemingly in response to fan outcry over several controversial plot points. These include having Shirley survive instead of being killed by Rolo and having the Black Knights be more reluctant to betray Zero, with Schneizel's men being the ones to open fire while the Black Knights are shown objecting. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection takes it a step further by ending on a note implying Lelouch and C.C. are an Official Couple, despite the creators having previously claimed they intended them to have a mother-son relationship.
- Paranoia Fuel: You or the guy next to you is under Lelouch's control. All he has to do is "ask for a favor". Lelouch was going for this in-universe with the Orange incident.
- Portmanteau Couple Name:
- Kalulu for Lelouch/Kallen.
- CluClu for Lelouch/C.C.
- ShirLulu for Lelouch/Shirley.
- SuzaLulu for Suzaku/Lelouch.
- SuzaEuphie for Suzaku/Euphemia.
- Replacement Scrappy: Rolo is seen as one of these for those who preferred Nunnally as Lelouch's companion. It didn't hurt that he was this to Lelouch, In-Universe.
- Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
- Many of the people who found Shirley annoying seemingly came around to how sympathetic she was after she died. Guess you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone sometimes.
- This may have helped the Compilation Movie series give her a break by having Mao Adapted Out and ultimately letting her survive, at the time foreshadowing her role in the Re;ssurection film.
- Also, Rolo. Lelouch accepted Rolo right before he died. Or at least pretended to do so, so Rolo would die in peace and as reward for his Heroic Sacrifice.
- The recap movies may give him bonus points for not even killing Shirley this time.
- While forming a sizable hatedom in season 1, many people came around to Suzaku after he drops the more annoying/hypocritical parts of his ideology in R2 and especially after he participates in the Zero Requiem.
- Possibly a more minor case, but The Black Knights in the third Compilation Movie are portrayed as more reluctant about betraying Zero and want to give him a chance to tell the truth. Schniezel's men are the ones who try gunning Lelouch down before this can happen, much to the Black Knights' objection. This could easily be seen as the behavior they should have had instead, with Ohgi and Villetta's parts being downplayed, if not Adapted Out altogether. The former possibly getting some Character Rerailment in acting more like he did at the beginning of the series.
- Many of the people who found Shirley annoying seemingly came around to how sympathetic she was after she died. Guess you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone sometimes.
- Ron the Death Eater:
- Nina is disproportionately hated by much of the fanbase and commonly portrayed as a psychotic monster with no redeeming traits, despite the show attempting to make her a complex character who cares about her friends and admired Euphemia enough to support her plan for the Special Zone despite her racism and ultimately pulls a Heel–Face Turn due to her remorse at the lives lost in the FLEIJA blast. There's a notable Double Standard considering how well-liked other racist Britannians like Cornelia or Guilford are by the fandom, while Schneizel, the one who actually misled her into building the FLEIJA to start with, gets the Draco in Leather Pants treatment.
- Fanfics regularly depict Chiba and Asahina of the Four Holy Swords as being extremely untrusting of Zero even when part of the Black Knights, and willing to constantly call into question every single order he gives until Todoh shuts them up. In canon, they only became a pair of sour supporters during R2, namely due to the belief Zero had abandoned the Black Knights during the Black Rebellion, but outside of that were largely compliant with his orders, Asahina even getting angry at Rolo for suggesting he wasn't loyal to Zero. The point things changed was when they believed Zero had crossed the line, with Asahina it being learning about the Geass Doctorate massacre, and Chiba partaking in the betrayal of Lelouch along with the other Black Knights. Outside of that, they are still portrayed as sympathetic and given likable traits, Chiba in particular being the one to stop Tohdoh from forcing himself to keep fighting despite being heavily injured, though most fics will ignore this in favor of making them sour supporters from the start.
- Rooting for the Empire: More cynical fans of the show (Who tend to be dismissive of Lelouch's ideals, and/or view him as a hypocrite for frequently showcasing a nasty cynical streak of his own) tend to root for Schneizel in the final arc note . The fact that his plan is also superficially similar to that of Lelouch's also makes him rather appealing to said fans, who tend to think that Schneizel's plan of an eternal peace enforced by threat of his flying death laser machine is superior to Lelouch's Zero-Approval Gambit.
Tropes S-T
- Salvaged Story:
- In 2009, the show staff changed the epilogue for the ZR DVD, dropping the sometimes misunderstood cart scene and instead having C.C. address the audience directly and explicitly confirming that Lelouch is truly dead and that she mourns his death. As can be seen here

- For those who were still uncertain about the ending of season 2, Lelouch being dead and not immortal as officially confirmed by repeated Word of God (database with official statements
). The sequel movie, Lelouch of the Re;surrection, which follows the movie Alternate Continuity where Lelouch's death and Zero Requiem still happens in the exact same way, dispels the erroneous fan theory about the ending by explaining to the audience that Lelouch was a corpse who was returned thanks to C.C. resurrecting him against his wishes and world of C shenanigans. This acts as the killing blow to the already debunked notion that Lelouch was immortal. - Jeremiah was originally nowhere to be seen in the flashback of Marianne being killed, despite one of the R1 audio dramas and his Heel–Face Turn in R2 being brought about because of his supposed presence there, causing the latter scene to come off as more of an Ass Pull if you hadn't known about the audio drama beforehand. This is interestingly amended in the first compilation movie, which has him make a cameo as one of the attending guards as Lelouch and Nunnally depart for Japan at the beginning of the movie, which at least affirms that he was present at the royal palace around the time.
- Super Robot Wars and the compilation movies have Shirley survive, with the latter hinting at giving her a potential role in the Resurrection film.
- The third Compilation Movie also depicts the Black Knights as being more reluctant with The Mutiny, and had planned to ask Lelouch some questions first, but Schneizel and his group were apparently the ones that tried to gun him down before he could actually explain. Ohgi even seems to get some Character Rerailment as the Only Sane Man he was in the first season when he doesn't believe Lelouch's claims about using them as pawns, insisting he tells the truth, and objects to Schneizel's men trying to shoot him on sight.
- The Compilation Movie's in general work to remove a lot of the behaviour that made it hard to root for certain characters, excising Viletta's viler actions so she doesn't come across as a Karma Houdini and Rolo killing Shirley means he comes across as much more sympathetic.
- In 2009, the show staff changed the epilogue for the ZR DVD, dropping the sometimes misunderstood cart scene and instead having C.C. address the audience directly and explicitly confirming that Lelouch is truly dead and that she mourns his death. As can be seen here
- The Scrappy: Nina and Villetta, plus Ohgi late in R2. Any attempt to make them more sympathetic tends to be met with blank reactions at best and downright disdain at worst due the fact that all of them do incredibly reprehensible things at various points in the plot yet all end up being Easily Forgiven.
- Ship-to-Ship Combat: The result of having various girls in a potential or active relationship with Lelouch, whether romantic and otherwise.
- C.C. vs Kallen is easily the best known shipping rivalry. The stoic Rei Ayanami Expy or the Hot-Blooded mecha pilot? More casual fans tend to prefer C.C. while the more hardline mecha otaku, especially on sites like 4chan's /m/ board mostly go for the Fiery Redhead. Kallen has even been declared to be one of the Queens of /m/
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- C.C. vs Kallen is easily the best known shipping rivalry. The stoic Rei Ayanami Expy or the Hot-Blooded mecha pilot? More casual fans tend to prefer C.C. while the more hardline mecha otaku, especially on sites like 4chan's /m/ board mostly go for the Fiery Redhead. Kallen has even been declared to be one of the Queens of /m/
- Spiritual Adaptation: The premise of an imperial entity colonizing another land for extracting special resources, a secret society of people manipulating the world from the shadows who possess special abilities strictly related to the mind, and a noble's son fighting back against the colonizer with his own special powers and by teaming up with the indigenous rebels. It could easily pass as an adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune saga...with robots and spinning kicks! Even moreso with the Zero Requiem, which is eerily similar to the Golden Path.
- Strawman Has a Point:
- While it's more used to highlight how psychotic he is, Luciano Bradley's spiel about "war" to Kallen is very accurate, especially in regards to the characters of this series. The "prime truth" is that killing someone goes from being just "murder" to being a "heroic" deed if it's on a "battlefield", and can make who is otherwise a "criminal" into a "hero". Many characters in the series end up suffering Moral Myopia, using their own pain and trauma to justify undertaking acts that would be considered heinous from an objective point of view, while justifying it by "avenging those they lost" or stating it's in the name of winning the war. Both the Britannian Empire and the Japanese, especially in R2, demonstrated a willingness to involve civilian casualties, betray their comrades, commit war crimes, etc, if it was in the name of "winning" the war, all while justifying to themselves that they were the good guys still. Bradley was a vile sac of crap, but he was able to understand the "prime truth" of war was ultimately "self interest".
- Schneizel's argument that Ambition Is Evil and that our desire for happiness ultimately leads to greed and conflict is actually well-thought out and makes a lot of sense from a cynical worldview. It's not too hard to imagine someone siding with him. Lelouch's counter-argument is more idealistic, based on Rousseau Was Right or, in other words, the concept that "People Are Good" and will always struggle to overcome sadness. At the same time, he had already jumped the Despair Event Horizon and given up most of his remaining scruples to contemplate any alternatives, though. He's also likely just saying this to keep Schneizel talking so he can pull off his plan.
- Superlative Dubbing: General consensus, although there is debate about this. Of course, the intensity of the show and a lot of the lines are such that to not completely understand everything that is said with all voice inflections may simply be short-changing yourself of the experience.
- Take That, Scrappy!:
- Kallen beating up Suzaku is easily seen as one of the most satisfying moments, for both Suzaku’s constant hypocrisy throughout the show and him having Took a Level in Jerkass since the end of R1. Even Suzaku knew he had it coming.
- Lelouch screaming at Rolo and making a Hidden Disdain Reveal is this both for those who hated Rolo for being a Replacement Scrappy for Nunnally but especially for killing Shirley and intending to do the same for Nunnally. Although this primarily only applies on a first viewing, as the scene becomes far more saddening in rewatch knowing Rolo would still perform a Heroic Sacrifice to save Lelouch afterwards in spite of this.
- Considering the fact that many people agree that Cornelia wasn’t nearly as sympathetic or redeemable as R2 intended her to be, Schneizel shooting her several times is seen as rather well-deserved.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- The Knights of the Round are considered some of the best warriors in all of Britannia, but don't really get much to do to warrant such fame. Aside from Gino, Anya, and to a degree Luciano, they all appear for a scant few scenes only to die fighting Suzaku in the Lancelot Albion simply to show off its upgraded prowess.
- Bismarck and Monica in particular suffer from this, as both of them are the token good members of the Group. Bismarck being a Noble Demon, having history with Lelouch's mother Marianne, and even a Geass of his own, and Monica holding no racism towards Numbers, and a similar belief set to Suzaku. While Monica gets A Day in the Limelight in the Oz Manga, both ultimately don't get much to show off in the series before their deaths, wasting any opportunity for them to influence Lelouch and Suzaku's stories. Monica's becomes an even bigger waste when the game Lost Stories would reveal she's actually Charles's illegitimate daughter, making her Lelouch's half-sister, and could have acted as the new Token Good Teammate of the Britannian Royal Family after Euphemia's death had this detail been revealed In-Universe.
- Milly Ashford, one of the few people who knows the whole truth about Lelouch and Nunally and also has a crush on Lelouch too. In spite of this and the Ashford family's ties to Lelouch's mother, her knowledge never comes into play in the main story and she's relegated to comedic subplots.
- Rivalz Cardemonde, he stands out as the only Student Council member who has no bearing whatsoever on the plot. Despite being Lelouch's purported best friend and having similar issues with his father, his character remains static throughout the series.
- Numerous racist/xenophobic Britannian characters (namely Villetta, Cornelia, and Nina) are never actually shown in the process of getting over their prejudice (usually just skipping to them suddenly being over it or not caring anymore), or it is quickly forgotten. As a result, a number of viewers felt that they got away with their worse actions too easily. Cornelia especially is the worst case in R2 because many point out that she barely even does anything in the season aside from briefly help against VV and her desire to clear Euphemia’s name went nowhere, with many feeling she should’ve died at the end of R1 when Lelouch defeated her. Even her being shot dead by Schniezel could’ve been a perfect way to demonstrate how ruthless her brother is but instead she’s spared and given a rather undeserved happy ending.
- The Knights of the Round are considered some of the best warriors in all of Britannia, but don't really get much to do to warrant such fame. Aside from Gino, Anya, and to a degree Luciano, they all appear for a scant few scenes only to die fighting Suzaku in the Lancelot Albion simply to show off its upgraded prowess.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- The worst is (possibly) the subplot involving Marianne's death. She's revealed to be inside Anya and is killed in the very next episode, even though her murder had been one of Lelouch's main motivations since the very beginning of the first season. What's more, Empress Marianne herself was part of an arguably "evil" plan and abandoned her children to build a new world for them, which flies in the face of how other characters previously viewed her as admirable and near-perfect. This really should have been better explained in order to properly reconcile both sides of her portrayal. Also, her portrayal as something of a gadfly is only suggested during a couple of moments, something that could have been explored with her having ruffled many, many feathers within the royalty, something that could have also given many others the motive of guilt of having murdered her.
- The "Euphinator incident" is despised by many, mainly because they feel that having Euphie's plan actually go into action and horribly collapse would have been a lot more interesting than having an absurd Diabolus ex Machina crush it before it starts and cause Euphie to be killed, as having it happen and fail with Euphie still alive would give her some interesting Character Development to go through, potentially pushing her to become someone who, while not dark and cynical, would be a lot less cheerful and optimistic, and forced to look at things more realistically.
- Remember when C.C. entered in contact with Suzaku during the first season, which caused the two to black out several times and C.C. realized something important about him? It's never brought up again within the story but, according to the staff, Suzaku was apparently meant to either have a Geass power that gave him increased physical abilities or at least the potential for acquiring one.
- The faction of Britannian nobles who wished to turn traitor and join the Black Knights. The only thing we get out of them is a conversation between Zero and Diethard. We then get a scene where Darlton arrests them and that's it, and they are never mentioned again.
- Tough Act to Follow:
- For the mecha genre as a whole, as alongside Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann which has incredibly high acclaim of its own, Code Geass is often considered one of the most popular pieces of mecha media compared to most other media that came after it.
- Lelouch as a protagonist set such a high standard that every single Code Geass work is primarily judged on how the new protagonist compares to Lelouch.
Tropes U-W
- Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Nina's Freak Out face after she learns of Euphemia's death. While it was clearly meant to portray an expression of extreme grief and mental instability, something about how damn detailed it is—what with the tiny, crossed pupils, the heavy line thickness and shadowing, as well as the open-mouthed scream—pushes it for a lot of viewers into the realm of just being straight-up unpleasant to look at.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
- Rolo in R2. He doesn't start off sympathetic at first since he had a hand in Lelouch being watched and faked being his brother, but through Lelouch's interactions with him, and the fact that Lelouch begins to use him as a tool, it pushes him into being seen as a character you’re supposed to sympathize with and find Lelouch wrong for manipulating him. However, many people didn't feel sorry for him when he died because of the fact he killed Shirley for simply saying the wrong thing to him, and that he wanted to kill Nunnally so he could be Lelouch's only sibling.
- Villetta in R2. She makes things way more complicated than they would be otherwise for Lelouch, especially given that she is partly responsible for the Black Knights' betrayal of him, not to mention that she was also partly responsible for Shirley's Freak Out and, indirectly, her death later on. In spite of all these events, which made her largely unsympathetic, near the end of the show she reunites with Ohgi, mopes about "just wanting to belong" in the final episode and becomes the bride of the Happily Married photo as well as Japan's First Lady, which is usually seen as being a better outcome than what she ever deserved.
- Cornelia is treated as a sympathetic character due to her desire to avenge Euphemia's death and gets a relatively happy ending despite having been shown to be especially racist towards the Japanese and causing a lot of death, such as staging a massacre early on just to lure out Zero. Her racism is also implied to have been prompted by Lelouch and Nunnally's disappearance in Japan (and the belief they were lynched by the Japanese at some point during Britannia's invasion), but even if that were true, it would still be wrong to generalize the entire population of Japan based on that, much less murder and oppress countless men, women, and children for it. She's also a massive hypocrite for calling Lelouch a murderer, extending him no empathy towards what might have driven him down his path, which included, namely, murderous Britannian racists like her, which given real-life human rights standards alone gave Cornelia no ground to stand on. All of that is bad enough. But of course, since Lelouch was responsible for Euphemia's death, even if by accident, he's the one not to be trusted. It truly speaks to Lelouch's comparative guilt and self-responsibility that he doesn't call her out for her own crap.
- Nina Einstein. She is meant to be seen as a mentally ill girl in desperate need of help* and whose fragile mental state was taken advantage of by Schneizel and caused her to slip further into madness before returning to her senses after witnessing the destructive effects her FLEIJA bomb had and traveling the path of redemption by helping Lelouch construct a countermeasure to it and aiding in the Zero Requiem, giving her a good deal of Character Development in the process and furthering the homage to her namesake, Albert Einstein. However, her original xenophobic tendencies, Stalker with a Crush behavior towards Euphemia, and the fact she is responsible for creating a nuclear warhead even more destructive than the real life atom bombs led many fans to feel that her development came too little, too late.
- Ohgi and most of the other high-ranking members of the Black Knights after their betrayal often receive this criticism from a number of fans, due to how the setup is handled. It involved a slimy under the table deal for Japan without the knowledge of the UFN, whose nations ceded their military to as part of their representation. While they may have reason not to trust Lelouch, they still betrayed the person who helped them get as far as they were. They never try to talk things out with him and instead trust Schneizel, whose helped enslave them. They also threaten to shoot Kallen (who has also been one of their biggest assets) for trying to give Lelouch a chance to explain himself. They never get called out for their mutiny by any other allies within their group, and only a couple of members show even small signs of regret or remorse for it, which made the rest of them come across as highly unsympathetic.
- Values Dissonance: The scene where a girl admits to wanting a kiss from Milly and is told to "get back in the closet" seems much less acceptable today.
- Viewer Gender Confusion: Many viewers mistakenly believe V.V. to be female at first, as his appearance is rather feminine, he has long, flowing hair, and he's voiced by a woman in the compilation movies and English dub.
- Wangst:
- Some of Lelouch's angst early in the second season, when he's afraid to confront his sister after she joined up with Suzaku in order to follow Euphemia's plan for the Special Zone. The underlying source of it is understandable, given the character's psychology, but his outward reaction was still comically exaggerated. In fact, Lelouch can't even see any news related to her, abuses his powers to release stress and briefly attempts to use drugs within a single day!
- When Suzaku goes through some angst as well. His grief over Euphie is also understandable, but the fact is he's been participating in global conquest yet continues to be all "She's the only one who understood me!" at the same time.
- Woolseyism: To a certain extent, the "conversation" between Schneizel and Lelouch, where he had recorded his part in advance, seems to make more sense in the dub. It's admittedly a translation quality/choice issue, in part, given that fan subtitles aren't necessarily perfect to begin with, but some viewers thought that the initial version implied Lelouch was predicting his opponent's words to the letter, at one point correctly anticipating being interrupted. In the dub, the interruption was played down considerably, and Lelouch's lines were made much more vague and believable than in the fansubs. Read the transcript here
. Beware of spoilers. - WTH, Costuming Department?: Given the designs were done by CLAMP some of this was inevitable.
- Kid!Lelouch's over-sized Vampire cape.
- Emperor Charles's "hair"
- C.C's ridiculous frilly outfit with the hat in Mao's flashback.
- Lelouch's descent into Fashion-Victim Villain with the much memed Pope!hat
