Code Geass

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The cast of Code Geass R2--Lelouch in the center; clockwise from bottom left: Kallen, C.C., Xing-ke, Nunnally, Gino, Suzaku, Anya, Rolo.

"What do you do when there is an evil you cannot defeat by just means? Do you stain your hands with evil to destroy evil, or do you remain steadfastly just and righteous even if it means surrendering to evil?[...] In my case, I commit evil in order to destroy the greater evil!"

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion is a two-season anime series that aired from 2006 to 2008. The story is notable for playing with a lot of common tropes in interesting or entertaining ways and for having one of the most extreme examples of a Broken Base in recent memory.

The series takes place in an Alternate History where Britain won the American Revolution but lost a later war against Napoleon, who went on to conquer the British Isles. Many years later, this nation evolved into Britannia, a Social Darwinist empire which controls over a third of the world. Several years before the start of the main story, Britannia invaded Japan to secure a rare mineral that will make a new power source possible. Thanks to their Humongous Mecha, the conflict is ended in short order, with Japan only winning a single minor battle. The Japanese nation was stripped of everything—including its name—for almost a decade and is now referred to only by a numerical designation based on when the territory was conquered ("Area 11").

The story begins seven years after the invasion. Two friends who had met as children in the days before the war have bumped into each other again, now as young adults. One is Suzaku Kururugi, a career soldier of Japanese origin who hates bloodshed and has been rapidly rising through the ranks of the occupation forces; success represents his dream of earning a noble title in order to use the rights and privileges that come with such an honor to change the Britannian system from within. The other is Lelouch Lamperouge, an exiled Britannian prince who sympathizes with a revolutionary faction yet has become disillusioned by his inability to act; the success of this insurgency represents the opportunity to finally have revenge for the murder of his mother.

Lelouch encounters a group of rebels fleeing from a secret research project, and this chance encounter introduces him to C.C. (pronounced as "C Two"; in the Japanese, "Shi-Tsu"). C.C. offers Lelouch a faustian deal which will give him "the power of a king" (a supernatural power called a "Geass"). Lelouch's Geass manifests as an Evil Eye which allows him to give any order to a person, which must be obeyed. With this power and his incredible intelligence, Lelouch decides to overthrow the Britannian Empire. He then hides his identity behind the masked persona of "Zero," becoming the leader of Japan's resistance movement.

Meanwhile, Lelouch's friend Suzaku -who was the son of Japan's last free Prime Minister- has joined the Britannian military as part of his effort to change Britannia from within. After an encounter with the terrorists, Suzaku becomes the test pilot of the Super Prototype mecha "Lancelot" and is quickly placed against Zero and Lelouch in terms of both loyalty and ideals, which sets up one of the major conflicts of the series.

Geass began airing in October 2006 and soon became a runaway success, spawning a merchandising juggernaut and winning numerous industry awards. The brainchild of Planetes creators Goro Taniguchi and Ichiro Okouchi, Geass brought their usual style and flair for the dramatic to the Real Robot Genre. The series also received a good bit of early word-of-mouth thanks to the decision to hire CLAMP as character designers.

A sequel series, Code Geass R2, aired on Japanese television from April to September 2008; all that can be said from a neutral standpoint is that it generated what is possibly the most extreme example of a Broken Base in recent history. Both series and the first three manga are licensed in America by Bandai Entertainment; The two seasons ran (more or less) concurrently on Adult Swim. In late December 2008, Sunrise indicated its intention of continuing the franchise in the future, although no specifics were described.

Code Geass is noteworthy for producing an incredible amount of All There in the Manual, including Radio Drama-like Sound Episodes, Picture Dramas and DVD-exclusive short stories that help flesh out the show's universe or expand on its characters. In addition, there are also four Alternate Continuity manga:

• Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion—the most faithful adaptation of the anime, but removes the Humongous Mecha and most of the military action in favor of more comedy and Shojou elements.
• Suzaku of the Counterattack—skews more Shonen, focusing on Suzaku rather than Lelouch and turning the Lancelot into a powersuit so he can act like a Kamen Rider.
• Code Geass Nightmare of Nunnally—a vast departure from the normal Code Geass. It focuses on Lelouch's Ill Girl sister Nunnally, who becomes a Little Miss Badass in an Evangelionesque mecha and battles similarly-powered girls (oh, and Lelouch returns later on, channeling Master Asia).
• Strange Tales of the Bakamatsu/ Code Geass: Tales of an Alternate Shogunate—a Universal Adaptor Cast story, placing the characters in the Bakamatsu era of Japanese history; Lelouch becomes the head of The Shinsengumi while secretly opposing the Meiji reforms brought on by Britannia (here standing in for Admiral Perry). It is more light-hearted than the other adaptations/spin-offs, with a semi-chibified art style and less melodramatic story elements (Zero and Black Knights, here renamed the Black Restoration Order, are transformed from their Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters in the original canon to something more closely resembling a 'Robin Hood and his Merry Men' idea). It also plays faster and looser with realism; one example is the existence of a pizza delivery service despite the setting being well before pizza was popularised in America, let alone the rest of the world.
• Code Geass: Renya of Darkness—a Distant Prologue set in the main timeline (around the equivalent of the late Edo period) and featuring CC and an ancestor of Lelouch.

The Code Geass property has produced three video games to date: a self-titled RPG for the Nintendo DS (mostly following the first season), a Visual Novel called Lost Colors and a board/party game (also for the DS) which focuses on the second season. The show has also been prominently featured in the two-part Super Robot Wars Z2 strategy game.

In December 2009, it was announced that there would be a new manga titled Code Geass: Renya of the Dark (script by Goro Taniguchi, art by Tomomasa Takuma), wherein the eponymous protagonist encounters C.C. and a man bearing an incredible resemblance to Lelouch in Edo-period (or at least its equivalent) Japan. In April 2010, plans for a new OVA -- Code Geass Gaiden: Akito the Exiled—were revealed; this new production will be a sidestory set around the same timeframe as the first season, but will focus on a different group of Japanese pilots fighting on the European front. Further details on this Spin-Off project were confirmed by the producers in August 2011 and January 2012. Separate plans for a film adaptation of the original Lelouch of the Rebellion story have also been announced.

In July 2012, yet another spinoff appeared: Code Geass: Nunnally in Wonderland, a Storybook Episode OAV featuring the characters as the cast of Alice in Wonderland.

The first season is available for viewing on YouTube. (Be aware that it will not work for viewers in the EU, who might want to try anime freak instead).

Compare and contrast with Production I.G's Guilty Crown, initially considered to be at least a partial Spiritual Successor to Code Geass, where Ichiro Okouchi worked as the assistant writer to Hiroyuki Yoshino under director Tetsuro Araki, using a completely different protagonist instead of Lelouch.

Tropes used in Code Geass include:

A

• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Milly twice mobilizes the entire student body to a specific task with nothing but a PA announcement. Milly being part of the (former) noble family Ashford (as in Ashford Academy) does give at least some reasoning behind it. And the fact that she promised a kiss from a student council member, and all the student council members are bishonen and bishoujo. Then again, her last act as student council president was to organize an event where a person snatching another's hat would designate those two as an official couple...and not, apparently, just for the duration of the game.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: So spacious that Mao manages to use it to hide, not just himself, but Nunnally and a bomb... which is suspended about 30 feet above Nunnally from a long rope.
• Adaptation Distillation: The Lelouch Of The Rebellion manga covers the first half of R2 in the course of about a single volume, and several less-than-well accepted points of the story have been changed.
• Aerith and Bob: In this anime, characters with names like Jeremiah and Shirley play alongside characters with names like Lelouch and Villetta. Counts doubly for Schneizel, which is not only not a name but manages to sound like a German foodstuff. Note that if the name sounds really weird, there's a strong chance the character is a child of Emperor Charles.
• Aggressive Negotiations: Suzaku and Lelouch to the UFN.
  • Also C.C. when searching for Mao. She has a guy pinned to a wall by his throat. With one foot.
• Airborne Aircraft Carrier: The Avalon, the Emperor's Great Britannia, the Ikaruga (which is submersible as well), and several other flying airships which are either passenger transports or cargo ships.
• Airstrip One: All the conquered territories of the Holy Britannian Empire. Japan is now "Area 11".
• All Nations Are Superpowers: The world of Code Geass is divided between the Holy Britannian Empire, the Euro Universe and the Chinese Federation. Neutral nations like Japan tends to be conquered by the Britannians.
• The Alliance: The United Federation of Nations, the group that forms from the remnants of the EU and the Chinese Federation to oppose the Britannian Empire.
• Alternate History: And it can get pretty out there. For example, The American Revolution failed because Ben Franklin sided with Great Britain. Then Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Europe, including England, so Britannia rebuilt its empire on the other side of the Atlantic. It is indicated that such changes are due specifically to the presence of Geass. In addition, the existance of Sakuradite can be used to Hand Wave some of the technology and history changes.
  • The series is even taking place in an alternate history; if you look up the information about the timeline of Code Geass, you'll see that it takes place in what would be the 1960s by real-world reckoning. That's right, they got flip-phones about half a century earlier.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: "Geass" isn't some crazy word a Japanese person made up: In Irish mythology and folklore, a "geis" (plural "geasa") is a magical obligation or prohibition caused by a vow or spell. Sound familiar?
• Ambiguously Gay: Kanon makes a joke about being Schneizel's assistant "Public and Private".
  • Lelouch can be very fabulous at times. Gino leans towards Keet. Rolo's devotion can seem ... different ... from what you'd expect from an admiring younger brother.
• Amnesiac Lover
• Amnesiacs Are Innocent: C. C.
• And I Must Scream: Not in the way you would think. While in a particularly bad mood Lelouch Geasses one man to bark like a dog and another to dance like an idiot. It sounds funny but then you realize they'll be doing exactly that until they die, unless they get un-geassed or have a geass canceller hit them which removes it.
• Anime First
• Anime Hair: Not every last character, but a fair few. Sometimes taken to such an extreme it even gets lampshaded in the DVD Commentary.
• Anti-Hero: Various characters. Some characters count as more than one type.
  • Type II: Kallen.
  • Type III: Lelouch, The Black Knights.
  • Type IV: Lelouch, Suzaku, C.C., Jeremiah, Ohgi, Guilford.
  • Type V: Lelouch, Suzaku, Rolo, Diethard.
• Anti-Villain: Various characters. Some characters count for more than one type.
  • Type I: Bismarck.
  • Type II: Lelouch, Mao, Suzaku.
  • Type III: Lelouch, Schneizel, Bismarck.
  • Type IV: Suzaku, Guilford.
• Anyone Can Die: Perhaps less so than in other series, but several important characters still experience this throughout both seasons.
• Arc Words: Subverted; Zero says something about "orange" during the Suzaku rescue, the implication being that it's the code name for a collaboration between himself and Jeremiah. When C.C. asks Lelouch what "orange" means later, he admits there IS no deeper meaning; he simply chose an arbitrary word and allowed everyone's innate curiosity to assign meaning to it.
• Artificial Limbs: We say Edo-period Japan, but that Renya kid has some sort of robot arm. Then again, this is all Alternate History.
• Artistic License: The way chess is portrayed makes nearly no sense according to the rules, but serves as a metaphor for how Lelouch and his opponents think.
  • You can't remove and replace contact lenses that easily. But it looks awesome, and besides, Lelouch is the type who would practice that until he got it right.
  • Artistic License Geology: When the F.L.E.I.J.A. bomb is deployed, leaving at least a 1300 meter-deep crater, the now exposed terrain is completely uniform. No geological layers at all. Though considering the forces involved, it can be imagined that an uniform crust would have melted on the sides of the crater, consisting of all the matter vapourized in the explosion.
    • Hmmm... it seems to cause a disintegration/black hole effect. If it worked through heat, the surroundings would still be white-hot after the explosion instead of clean-cut.
• Assimilation Plot: What the Ragnarok Connection, the Emperor's and Marianne's ultimate plan, aimed to achieve. It's pretty similar to Neon Genesis Evangelion's Instrumentality, but with a different set of symbols.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Several examples --
  • Played straight with the Britannian Emperor, Cornelia, Guilford, and the Knights of the Round. Marianne, Lelouch and Nunnally's mother, is also implied to be one, as she was highly respected amongst many of the Britannians.
  • On the Black Knights side, Kallen, Tohdoh, the Four Holy Swords, Xingke, Gottwald/Orange after his Heel Face Turn and joins Lelouch, and CC when she isn't fighting one of the main Britannian leaders/Knights.
  • Refreshingly averted with Zero himself. He is a skilled strategist and can turn the tide of battles, but does poorly when he's facing the enemy head-on, or trying to get away from them without some kind of help.
• Awesome McCoolname: Several. Relates to Aerith and Bob.

B

• Badass: Several characters. Lelouch, C.C., Kallen, Toudou, Jeremiah, Suzaku, and Cornelia being foremost examples.
• Badass Family: Played straight and subverted by the royal family of Britannia, the subversion being that they're fighting each other.
  • Emperor Charles, Large and In Charge
  • Empress Marianne, nicknamed 'The Flash'
  • The Chessmaster Lelouch and Schneizel
  • Lady of War Cornelia
  • Rebellious Princess Euphemia
• Badass Longcoat: Subverted with Ohgi in his Deputy Commander uniform, since throughout the series he's for the most part uninspiring. Played straight with Tohdoh and possibly Lelouch and Suzaku in their civilian disguises
• Bad Guys Play Pool: Played with. Gino, Lloyd and Cecile play pool shortly after Suzaku nukes Tokyo. They are the bad guys, but Cecile and Lloyd clearly disapprove of Suzaku's behavior at this point and let it show. Gino is more apathetic, but he didn't approve, either.
• Bait and Switch Credits
• Batman Gambit: Most of Lelouch's moves are this more than anything, and he screws up just as often as succeeding.
• Battle of Wits
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Nina about Euphemia. She takes this to an Absurd Length. Also Rolo about Lelouch.
• Becoming the Mask: Happens to Lelouch while disguised as Zero, and later Suzaku, who takes up the role for Lelouch at the end of the anime series.
• Beehive Barrier: The Blaze Luminous shield system.
• Berserk Button: If you want to live another day, do not mention Orange in front of Jeremiah Gottwald.
• Better on DVD/Enhanced on DVD:
  • Given what happens by later episodes, it makes a lot more sense if you watch all of R2 at once.
  • The anime in general was considerably reworked for DVD/Blu-Ray. The animation in particular was improved such that the English dub version made use of it.
• Big Bad: Charles zi Britannia.
  • Schneizel takes over the role later in R2.
  • Then Lelouch becomes this after he defeats Schneizel.
• Big Damn Heroes: When Lelouch finally reaches the end of his rope, runs out of cards, put into checkmate, is completely, totally, and utterly screwed... this happens.
  • Lloyd did this once during the Black Rebellion when he saved the student council.
  • Lelouch does this to Suzaku in R2 when he was about to be killed by the Knight of One. Some fans consider this a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
• Big No: Several times. In a show full of hams, it's to be expected.
• Big Screwed-Up Family: Look no further than the Britannian Royalty.
• Bishoujo / Bishounen: It's CLAMP; what do you expect? according to them, Lelouch himself was originally planned to be a White-Haired Pretty Boy. Who knows if they ditched it to avoid a poisoning of FABULOUS.
• Bittersweet Ending: In the end, Lelouch achieves his ultimate goal, making the world a better place for all his friends and loved ones...at the cost of his good name and apparently his life. There is some fan speculation about his possible survival but, either way, both Lelouch and Suzaku sacrificed their personal identities and distanced themselves from most of their acquaintances for the sake of the plan.
• Black and Gray Morality: On the one hand, we have a violent Social Darwinist empire which horrifically oppresses its people and, in the opening episode, massacres an entire ghetto. On the heroes' side, we've got a Byronic Hero with many, many personality flaws and who will Shoot the Dog if necessary.
  • Evil Versus Evil: If you consider to Lelouch as a Villain Protagonist who manipulates everyone around.
• Black Knight: What the group calls themselves.
• Black Screen of Death: The sadistic Cliff Hanger end of season one.
• Blatant Lies: The Tokyo Tower museum dedicated to furthering Britannian/Eleven cooperation.
• Blessed with Suck: All Geass users, but especially Mao.
  • CC's own abilities as an immortal can count for this too, given she just wants to die.
• Bodyguard Crush: Reciprocated, blossoming into a real relationship, between Princess Euphemia and her knight Suzaku. Later, another between Kallen and Zero.
  • It's rife within the royal family. First Charles & Marianne then with Cornelia & Guilford.
• Book Ends: "One should not kill unless they are ready to be killed themselves!"
  • Also the first episode of R2 shares many parallels with that of the first season. Lelouch goes through his daily life and beats a Britannian in chess before getting involved in a terrorist act. He then meets C2 and, right before he's about to be gunned down, he gains the power of the Geass and orders the firing squad to kill themselves.
  • Additionally, the first and last openings were performed by FLOW, while the first and last endings were performed by ALI PROJECT.
• Bound and Gagged: Happens regularly in R2, though more the former than the latter.
• Brains Evil, Brawn Good: Played with, in that stereotypical heroic character with Charles Atlas Superpower Suzaku is actually an Anti-Villain working for the Big Bad, while Squishy Wizard Lelouch who behaves like a stereotypical villain is actually the show's Well-Intentioned Extremist Byronic Hero.
• Breather Episode:
  • Episodes 5 and 12 of R2 are filled with Fan Service and contain almost no main plot advancement whatsoever, except for the mandatory cliffhangers at the end.
  • Episode 21 of the first season is full of light-hearted fluff, and is sandwiched between the high-powered action sequences of episode 20 and episode 22.
  • Episode 6 of the first season, where a cat accidentally steals Lelouch's Zero helmet, and due to some misinterpretations by Nunnally, causes the entire school to go looking for it. It's really lighthearted compared to the next episode, in which Lelouch suffers his first major defeat and is nearly captured/killed in the process.
• Break the Cutie: Played horrifyingly straight with a good portion of the cast.
• Brick Joke: Lelouch tests his Geass by telling a girl to once a day make a new mark on an unmarked brick of the building. Several times in the series, you see her walking to and marking the building, and during episode 5 of R2, you see the marks on the wall with the last mark being only half done.
• Broken Aesop: although Villetta, Ohgi, and Cornelia were already ready to be killed, it wasn't because they were killing people; in fact, if anything, they had even less problem killing people than Lelouch (at least initially) did, and all 3 are still Karma Houdinis after what they did.
• Broken Faceplate: Very dramatically in the season 1 finale. Suzaku shoots a bullet straight at Zero's forehead; the mask slowly cracks, falling into two pieces on the floor and finally revealing Lelouch's identity to both him and Kallen. Then his forehead starts bleeding...
• Brother-Sister Incest: So many examples, it has its own page.
• Bulletproof Human Shield: Cornelia has no qualms about using one of her own subordinates as a Knightmare-flavoured shield should the need arise.

C

• Call Back: A somewhat chilling one occurs in R2. In episode 10, Lelouch inspires his command staff to battle by declaring he will demonstrate to the Chinese Federation the difference between strategy and tactics. Six episodes later, Nina is discussing mounting the F.L.E.I.J.A. on the Lancelot, and Lloyd cautions her not to confuse a strategic weapon with a tactical one.
• Call to Agriculture: Lord Jeremiah ends the series in, of all things, an orange grove. Possibly also a reference to when he had to face demotion or a dishonorable discharge. The Euphemism they used for the discharge was "start an orange farm." It shows not only that he wanted new growth after the war, but also reminded him daily of his choice to join Lelouch.
• Canon Foreigner: Castor and Pollux from the DS game; Rai from Lost Colors; Elle and her father from Suzaku of the Counterattack.
• Caped Mecha: Cornelia and her honor guard.
• Catch Phrase
  • "Yes, my Lord / your Highness / your Majesty." (spoken in English by the Japanese cast)
  • "Lelouch vi Britannia commands you ..."
  • "With all your strength!"
  • "All tasks at hand have been cleared."
  • "Congratulations!" or "Too bad, but ..."
  • "LOYALTY!"
  • "Now then..."
• Cast from Hit Points: Most Geass users have some kind of drawback, such as Lelouch's where he can only use his Geass on a person once. In Rolo's case, stopping time causes a lot of physical stress to his body, so he can usually only use it for a short amount of time. He then does a Heroic Sacrifice in order to save Lelouch from getting killed after the Black Knights find out what he did using his Geass ability, and how he apparently played them all for fools.
• Chainsaw Good: Mao comes up with a hilariously disturbing solution on how to "ship C.C. to Australia". ("I'll make you compact!") Also, the Four Holy Swords' Knightmares have chainsaw katanas.
• Char Clone: Lelouch. He's an estranged son of an important political figure, he has a grudge towards a whole family of nobility, he has a fake name, he wears a mask, he has a younger sister, he's handsome, he's charismatic, he has no loyalty to anyone except himself, he has no qualms about killing people who are nice to him in the past. In fact, if you take this perspective, Code Geass literally becomes Mobile Suit Gundam with the perspectives skewed, instead of following Amuro (Suzaku), you're following Char.
  • Kallen has Char's piloting ability and his penchant for red mecha.
• Characterization Marches On: Nearly all of the Britannian Empire were purely evil, racist, and ruthless in the first season, but the second season gave it more shades of gray, with the main ones in charge (Emperor Charles, V.V, etc.) being the only truly evil ones, and even they have understandable motivations. In the end, Luciano Bradley is the only Britannian left with absolutely no redeeming qualities.
• Celibate Hero: Lelouch honestly doesn't seem that interested in women or sex. Possibly a Freud Was Right given his fixation on avenging his mother and creating a better world for his sister. It is implied that, aside from these two, he does love C.C., Shirley and Kallen, refusing to let Kallen throw away her life for him and choosing to avenge Shirley's death. But, though each of those three have surprise-kissed him at least once, the only time Lelouch tries making a romantic or sexual advance of his own is when he's in the middle of a Heroic BSOD and is looking for anything that might comfort him. He makes this advance on Kallen, no less.
• Chess Motifs: Let's start with Zero's uniform—which could almost literally be a human-sized classic Staunton chess set king stuffed into a superhero cape. This was done intentionally - designer Kenji Teraoka revealed in an interview that the King and Queen from the show's eponymous chess set are modeled on Zero and C.C.. And the list goes on and on and on.
• Childhood Friends: Suzaku and Lelouch. It's one of the major early driving factors for the show since Lelouch is so reluctant to see him as an enemy or use his geass on him..
• A Child Shall Lead Them: Jiang Luhua, the Tianzi, is only thirteen years old.
  • Kaguya Sumeragi—head of the influential Sumeragi House; High Chairman of the UFN; Japan's representative on said council—is only about fourteen by the events of R2.
  • Nunnally begins her rule of Britannia, the world's last remaining superpower, when she has just turned fifteen.
  • Lelouch himself is only seventeen (presumably he turned eighteen during the time skip). While not exactly a 'child' per se, he is very young to be leading a full-scale rebellion. And later ruling most of the world.
• CLAMP: Did the character designs. Yes, it shows. Everywhere.
• Cliff Hanger: Almost every episode, albeit with widely varying levels of intensity. The first season finale ends with a cliffhanger that makes you want to blow something up with a bomb. If anything, the second season still further upped the ante, concluding with a The End - or Is It? in the series finale's epilogue.
• Close-Call Haircut: Lelouch receives one in episode 14 of Season 1 by Shirley.
• Coincidental Broadcast: In episode eight of the first season, the Black Knights catching the hoteljacking incident on the news.
• Color Coded for Your Convenience: Excluding the first few episodes, on maps the nations have been colored blue for Britannia, yellow for the Euro Universe, and red for the Chinese Federation/UFN.
• Conspicuous CG: No, not the mecha—during Kallen and Suzaku's final battle, there's a 30 second clip in which the surrounding scenery seems to be made up of cel-shaded 3D graphics. Also, flags in the wind and trains.
  • Nunnally's garden during Operation Pacific Ambush
  • During the big showdown with Emperor Wakamoto there is a massive tower of shimmering CGI. Of course, this makes sense when you think about the circumstances and who's involved.
• Cool Bike: Rivalz' bike.
• Cool vs. Awesome: The second battle for Japan in R2 between the United Federation of Nations vs the Holy Britannian Empire. Both sides get moments where they shine, and most of the major characters play some role in it.
  • Their second battle at the end of R2. Major characters take a beating, and it shows as they can't fight or fly nearly as well after having taken extensive damage.
  • Kallen and Suzaku's final battle, where they finally get to beat the snot out of each other's Knightmares without holding back.
• Crapsack World: The Britannian Emperor invades nations because of his "survival of the fittest" philosophy even if he doesn't believe in it. If he wins, you and others like you, will be relegated to ghettos where you will live in poverty. The ghetto is subject to army raids. If you want a better life, swallow your pride and head to the government building where you can sign a document that says you are now an honorary Britannian. You are now eligible for employment (the really demeaning ones). Life in the settlement is marked by racism. Britannians can beat you up in the street and no one, not even police, will help you. Being a Britannian in Area 11 is especially dangerous because of clashes between the army and the Black Knights. The Chinese Federation is no improvement. The only bastion of freedom and democracy in the world is the EU, and they're losing their war to Britannia. Even then, the EU is implied to have its own share of corruption and decadence.
  • It's also shown that Australia is a completely neutral territory (think Switzerland during the Second World War, but it doesn't play a role in the story, so its status inside is unknown.
  • Crap Saccharine World: If you're in the the Britannian homelands (or a Britannian in the Areas), life is shown to be rather pleasant or at the very least comfortable. Whether as a commoner or noble, there's a generally high standard of living, with racism virtually nonexistent. Unfortunately, those same standards are not extended to the locals of the Areas.
• Crash Into Hello: How Princess Euphemia first meets Suzaku. Except it's a vertical crash: Euphie falls / jumps onto Suzaku from a window.
• Crazy People Play Chess: Lelouch vs. Mao. Lelouch may (or may not) be mad depending on your point of view, but Mao is nutty enough that he rigs a bomb to detonate if Lelouch loses.
• Cruel Twist Ending/Diabolus Ex Machina: The death of Euphemia and the events leading up to it, since the whole tragedy happens due to a series of Million-to-One Chance plot contrivances caused by several characters saying/doing the worst possible thing at the worst possible time.
• Crushing the Populace: Nations conquered by Britannia are called Areas. All cultural identity is extinguished and citizens are completely at the mercy of the soldiers who can kill them for sport without anyone batting an eye.

D

• Dangerously Genre Savvy: Not just Lelouch, but his opponents within the Britannian Empire aren't stupid either most of the time. They will often have some form of counter to either fight his strategies, such as Cornelia during their first encounter, and later using Nunnally as the Viceroy for Area 11 after Zero makes his reappearance in R2.
• Dangerously-Short Skirt: The female Ashford Academy uniforms, but none of the female characters (even the established Action Girl) have ever fought in it.
• The Danza: Kento Sugiyama is voiced by Noriaki Sugiyama, Inoue is voiced by Kikuko Inoue and Nagisa Chiba is voiced by Saeko Chiba.
• Date Crepe: Euphie and Suzaku after their Meet Cute.
• Date Peepers: In episode 3 of the second season, Milly, Rolo, and Rivalz all spy on Shirley and Lelouch's "date" to find a present for Villeta, their Physical Education teacher. However, Lelouch spots them peeking from a nearby bush when he glances at a mirror in a wine shop. He also uses this opportunity to blackmail the Britannian spy ring observing him as well.
• Death Is Dramatic: At least with sufficiently major characters. Minor characters, especially those with no real ties to the main characters, tend to suffer fates offscreen with little to-do.
• Decoy Getaway: C.C. sometimes dresses as Zero to aid Lelouch in his plans and/or to lend him plausible deniability. In the second season, Sayoko does the opposite (of sorts) by disguising herself as Lelouch (the Rich Idiot With No Day Job version).. As if to top them both, at the end of R2, Suzaku kills Lelouch at Lelouch's own request and takes up the Zero identity.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Applies to many characters who fight Lelouch, or those on his side who wonder if he's really as good as he claims to be (and they find out he is).
• Deflector Shields: First introduced on the Lancelot's arm gauntlets. Later shown on a large scale with the Avalon.
• Delayed Explosion: FLEIJA.
• Den of Iniquity: Babel Tower.
• Despair Event Horizon: A couple of the characters have been warped by their misfortunes.
• Despair Speech: Lelouch near the end of Turn 20: "My name is Lelouch vi Britannia, I am the eldest son of Empress Marianne, the prince who was abandoned by his empire. If anyone wishes to stop me, let them try, if there is anyone who can go beyond my despair."
• Deliberately Triggering the Trap: In episode 7, Cornelia tries to lure out Zero by attacking the Saitama Ghetto; Lelouch immediately recognizes it's a trap since it's an almost perfect recreation of Clovis' attack on Shinjuku Ghetto in the first couple of episodes. He still goes anyway because of his overconfidence.
• Did Not Do the Research: Minor example: Cornelia (and Euphemia), a viceroy, should technically be called a vicerene, the female equivalent
• Disproportionate Retribution: Lelouch plots revenge against most of his family members for the Britannian invasion of Japan. It doesn't stop there. His response to Rolo murdering Shirley is to wipe out the entire Geass Order. While there were undoubtedly some monsters in that number, he still has his minions slaughter kids. Tykebombs, yes, but kids. Rolo had killed an SIA man for touching the locket Lelouch gave him.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Poles living in the north Germanised sections of Poland during World War II will find the "Honorary Britannian" system familiar to the "Germanisation list" that many signes.
  • Lelouch calling out Charles on his refusal to end the global violence is reminiscent of how people still believe Emperor Hirohito could have averted Japan's involvement in World War Two.
• Do Not Adjust Your Set: Zero is fond of this. Charles pulls this off once as well.
• Don't Tell Mama: Variation: Lelouch tries to keep his alter ego secret from his sister.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Nina says this to Milly in R2 when Milly tries to comfort her.
• DVD Commentary: With the Japanese producers and cast. (Includes subtitles.)
• Dying as Yourself: Euphemia.
• Dying Declaration of Love: Shirley to Lelouch in episode 13 of R2.
• Dysfunction Junction: You better believe it!

E

• The Empire: Britannia.
• The Ending Changes Everything: Not as much of an example as most others, as it doesn't cover the whole series, but The Reveal of what the Zero Requiem is entirely changes the context of the final arc and several key conversations.
  • Unfortunately, not only does it not encompass more than a few episodes, it fails to give us strong insight into the participating characters motivations. Or, exactly, how it's supposed to work.
• Enemy Mine: Lelouch occasionally sides with the Britannians, such as when the hotel jacking takes place, or stopping the invasion by some of the former Japanese government officials.
• Engineered Public Confession: The Chinese Eunuchs should REALLY have considered the possibility that their conversation with Zero could be recorded before they gleefully mouthed off about how "the people are ants" and that the much-beloved child empress is "just a puppet who can easily be replaced." Hilarity Ensues as the entire Chinese Federation simultaneously revolts in anger.
• Enthusiasm Versus Stoicism
• Episode Title Card
• Eunuchs Are Evil (the High Eunuchs)
• Everything's Better with Spinning: Spinzaku and the LULUCOPTER. Not to mention half the rest of the cast as well, plus it seems to be fairly common for knightmare frames to spin and twirl as they fight.
• Evil Britannian: Aside from a few sympathetic named characters, most Britannians are portrayed as evil or at least uncaring. Note that Britannia is an alternate-history country where the American Revolution failed and Napoleon conquered the British Isles. Britain and the United States have no equivalent country in this series.
• Evolving Credits
• Executive Meddling: The original plans for R2 were changed when it was announced that the series would be moved to an earlier, primetime slot. Fans believe that this mainly affected the first half of R2, for the purposes of re-introducing the show to a new audience instead of picking up right after the first season's cliffhanger like the staff had intended. As a general rule, how much a fan thinks was changed is inversely proportionate to said fan's opinion of R2's quality. Those who see R2 as "Code Trainwreck" tend to think everything from the original plans got scrapped.
  • It's known that the Time Skip itself was a result of Executive Meddling. Other elements that are commonly suspected or assumed to fall under this include introducing the character of Rolo and removing aspects of C.C.'s and Suzaku's backgrounds without a full explanation.
  • The series using mecha at all is a case of executive meddling, but the show's staff was obviously able to run with it well enough. Of course the level of mecha use seen in R2 is definitely a product of the aforementioned round of meddling, with the show becoming even more of a Gundam clone as a result.
• Exotic Eye Designs: All Geass users have their pupils change into a bird-shaped sigil. Those that fall into the command of a Geass have their sclearas highlighted with the color of the Geass itself.
• Expy: Pretty much every major character looks like or has a personality similar to a character from Evangelion or the Gundam meta series. Sometimes, these overlap.
  • Suzaku looks and fights like Syaoran from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. Considering CLAMP did the character designs for both, it's not surprising.
  • Lelouch resembles TRC Kamui, especially in the CLAMP artwork.
  • The CLAMP lineart design for Nunnally is a direct recycle of ×××HOLiC's Kohane Tsuyuri.
  • Kallen has many similarities to Domon Kasshu. It doesn't help that Kallen's mother is voiced by Yuri Amano (who voiced Rain Mikamura in G-Gundam).
  • Euphemia and Suzaku also look almost exactly like Lacus and Kira. Very similar plot wise too.
  • Lelouch and Kallen are, as previously mentioned, aspects of Char Aznable
  • The Britannian Royal family are the Zabi family, with Charles being both Degwin and Gihren (passionate speeches), Schniezel being Gihren (hands-on leadership, want his dad's place in the hierarchy) and Clovis being Garma. Nunnally certainly shares personality traits with Mineva (used as a pawn).
• Exposition of Immortality: C.C is shown to have known Benjamin Franklin personally and various flashbacks have shown her being executed in different ways through the ages.

F

• Face Death with Dignity
• Fake Memories: The Emperor gives these to Lelouch -- and the whole damn school as well -- with his geass, during the Time Skip. Long before this, he did it to Nunnally as well, which caused her blindness.
• Faking Amnesia: In the second series of Code Geass, Lelouch adds this to part of his masquerade early on in order to throw off suspicion that he has regained his memories.
• Fan Service: Every female character is subjected to this. Especially Kallen.
  • Several of the male characters have their moments too: Suzaku's and Gino's Knightmare Frame-pilot outfits are really tight. Lelouch has at least one shower and shirtless scene.
• Fantastic Drug: Refrain
• Fate Worse Than Death: Quite a few. One example is Schneizel falling under Lelouch's geass, forcing him to obey "Zero" for the rest of his life.
• The Federation: The United Federation of Nations, created to rival Britannia.
• Fight Off the Kryptonite
• Five-Man Band: The five top ranked members of the Black Knights.
  • The Hero: Zero. He's also the Big Good.
  • The Lancer - Ohgi.
  • The Smart Guy - Rakshata.
  • The Big Guy - Toudou.
  • The Chick - Kallen.
  • The Sixth Ranger - Diethard.
  • Or, for the Zero Requiem planners:
    • The Hero - Lelouch
    • The Lancer - Suzaku as the Knight of Zero
    • The Smart Guy - Llyod, or even Nina
    • The Big Guy - Jeremiah
    • The Chick - CC
    • The Sixth Ranger - Nina, upon inventing the FLEIJA canceler or Schneizel, Geass-ed into following Zero. or even Kallen, when she realized the plan and played along.
• Five-Bad Band: The Holy Britannian Empire has a few.
  • The Holy Britannian Empire Imperial Family:
    • Big Bad: Charles zi Britannia.
    • The Dragon: Marianne vi Britannia.
    • The Evil Genius: Schneizel el Britannia. Is also The Starscream.
    • The Brute: Cornelia li Britannia.
    • The Dark Chick: Clovis la Britannia.
    • Token Good Teammate: Euphemia li Britannia.
  • The Holy Britannian Empire under Lelouch's reign, towards the very end of the series.
    • Big Bad: Lelouch vi Britannia.
    • The Dragon: Suzaku Kururugi, as Lelouch's Knight of Zero.
    • The Evil Genius: Nina Einstein, although Lelouch himself also counts.
    • The Brute: Jeremiah Gottwald, who is also The Renfield.
    • The Dark Chick: C.C..
    • Sixth Ranger Traitor: Lloyd Asplund, Cecile Croomy, Sayoko Shinozaki and Nina Einstein, who also count as The Quisling.
    • Team Pet: Arthur.
• The Fog of Ages: CC complains of this, until Lelouch has a journey to the center of her mind and then Marianne returns all her memories.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: An Averted Trope because, while some of the reactions to fallen people are overly short, none of them are really forgotten.
  • Possibly the most notable aversion is Euphemia.
• Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Skirts cling more closely to contours than should be possible, particularly at the rear. Displayed by too many characters to count.
• For Science!: Lloyd Asplund lives by this trope, and doesn't care for much anything else. He even tells Nina in R2 that if she wants to perform science experiments, she must destroy her heart, or it'll just get in her way (which it does when the FLEIJA goes off).
  • Rakshata largely lives by this trope, but usually to build stuff to counter what Lloyd's created. Both of them are often shocked by a new item created by the other
• For Your Own Good: Charles and Marianne justify their actions throughout the series as being this, but Lelouch (correctly) doesn't buy it for a second.
• Fun with Acronyms: F.L.E.I.J.A. The "J" doesn't appear to stand for anything, and is just there to make the pronunciation approximate the mythological name "Freya".
  • The other possibility is that the "J" is there to make it sound like "flayer". It does rather effectively to the outer skin of Knightmares that are destroyed when Schneizel is trying to get to the heart of the opposing force. That, of course, is Lelouch.
• Future Spandex: The Black Knight pilots get to wear some form-fitting spandex-like suits, but many Britannians wear their dress uniforms when inside Knightmare Frames.

G

• Gainaxing: Less than what you'd usually expect, for a series with plenty of fanservice, but it still happens a couple of times in both seasons.
• Gambit Pileup: Episode 20 of R2, what with the Emperor activating the Sword of Akasha, Schneizel starting his bid for the throne, and Lelouch gunning to take down the Emperor. It actually gets simpler after that.
• Gambit Roulette: Guessing the exact replies of an upcoming conversation, and recording your half of it in advance is quite insane.
• Geas: What is traditionally referred to as a geas is not what the series calls a geass. However, Lelouch's ability essentially allows him to put others under one.
• Generican Empire: The United Federation of Nations.
• Giant Robot Hands Save Lives: Suzaku catching a falling woman in his Knightmare Frame. Kallen catching Zero. Rolo holding Lelouch.
  • Played with a bit: the woman hadn't been falling for too long, and Suzaku boosted up to her height, then began to fall to catch her without much injury. She and her child would have probably been bruised though. Same with Kallen, since Zero was blown out of a ship, not falling.
• Gratuitous English: "Yes, my lord", "homeland", "fottage", "perpetrator", not to mention "ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!!".
  • Never heard any better than in the Britannian anthem.
  • Lelouch is reading Hamret in the first episode.
• Green Rocks: Sakuradite, a power source which makes much of the technology work, and prompted Britannia's invasion of Japan.
• Gretzky Has the Ball: Chess does not work that way.
• Grey and Grey Morality: Suzaku and Kallen have some discussion about their beliefs and why they're fighting for their perspective factions. Neither side is entirely good nor evil, and they debate this for a while.

H

• Harmful to Minors: Lelouch and Nunnally witnessed their mother's murder at ages nine and six, respectively.
• Hated Hometown: Lelouch to the Britannian Empire.
• Heroic BSOD / Villainous Breakdown: Happens almost Once an Episode. Lelouch in particular is prone to these.
• Heroic RROD: Rolo Lamperouge. It ends up causing his death.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Rolo "I am not a tool" Lamperouge manages this as a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
  • Also, Lelouch himself in the last episode.
• Hero-Tracking Failure: Suzaku has the ability to outrun automatic machine guns.
• Hidden Depths: No one in this series is quite who they seem to be at first.
  • With the possible exception of Rivalz, but then, considering he was Lelouch's 'best friend' before starting with the Black Knights, he has all the characterization of a flea.
• Highly-Conspicuous Uniform: Higher ranking Britannian soldiers wear bright colors decorated by Creepy Cool Crosses.
• Hollywood Tactics: The larger the battles in Code Geass, the more this trope rears its head. The smaller and earlier battles (such as the massacre of Shinjuku Ghetto) appear sensible for both Lelouch and the Britannian forces (at least when Clovis isn't giving orders), but by the time of Code Geass R2, everyone's armies end up using Napoleonic massed-infantry tactics (or "line of battle" tactics from the Age of Sail in the case of naval/air-naval forces). Vehicles that would be better suited to a support fire role are lumped into tight formations with the rest of the Cannon Fodder.
  • Lelouch also enters the battlefield multiple times, even though he's not a skilled fighter. However, he does this because he believes that no commander can expect his men to follow if he doesn't risk himself.
    • Also justified when Rolo uses Lelouch's mech. He makes a comment akin to: "I didn't know the absolute defense field was so hard to calculate! My brother must be a genius!" And honestly, most of Lelouch's time on the battlefield is using that thing.
• Hufflepuff House: The EU, as well as most members of the UFN, much to the annoyance of some fans.
• Humongous Mecha: Worth mentioning again because of how barely this trope applies. At 4m tall, the Knightmare Frames are some of the smallest mecha in fiction, tying Armored Trooper VOTOMS's machines. Even though the mecha is only incidental to the plot, with just a few adjustments, Code Geass could become something like this.

I

• I Am Spartacus: Episode 8 of R2 has a Batman Gambit that involves a crowd of one million people dressing like Zero. Including a dog!
• Icon of Rebellion: The corrupt Geass Symbol of the Black Knights.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The majority of the series are titled Code Geass: [Protagonist] of the [...something].
• Idiot Ball: Lelouch joking to Euphemia about being able to make her murder all the Japanese. Given the way the sequence is Dude, Not Funny, awkwardly drawn out, and begging the question "why are you saying all this?", it was rather obviously just a setup for an incoming plot twist.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: So very, very much. Just look at the gravity-defying Zero outfit.
• Improbable Age: Almost, but not quite, to the point of Competence Zone / Adults Are Useless.
• Incoming Ham: Jeremiah Gottwald devours the scenery when he shows up in the first season's finale.
• Informed Ability: Lelouch's skill at playing chess—the game, as opposed to his The Chessmaster status. We see him playing chess about five times, twice he wins, and the only time he loses his opponent cheats (Schnizel by somehow checkmating by placing his own king into check, and Mao by reading his mind.)
  • Also Tohdoh's military skill. Battles led directly by him do not go so well. However, he does justify the apparent disparity by saying that his reputation is largely hype (it is also possible that he was a master of pre-Knightmare era tactics, but failed to adapt to the realities of Lensman Arms Race). Xingke at least makes good on the hype surrounding him.
• Insistent Terminology: Done both ways. When called Elevens, characters of Japanese origin will angrily say "We're not Elevens, we're Japanese!" and during the scene that Nina makes at a ball in the Chinese Federation, Kallen tells her that she isn't Britannian, she's Japanese. Nina then rather hysterically says "No you're not! You're an Eleven!"
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite the fact that Word of God has an extensive explanation for how the the universe of the series diverged from our own, this isn't too apparent when watching it, as so many features (like shopping malls, news stations, etc.) match the real world, not to mention the fact that the Japanese resistance group uses the "red sun" flag, giving the obvious impression that it is a remnant of this world's Japan. And of course, outside of Britannia, pretty much every country has its usual name. Although it's hinted that the "official" history of Britannia is mostly or entirely made up.
  • To clarify on this; according to official records, the first divergence is a celtic superking uniting all clans and stopping the romans from conquering england, the discovery of sakuradite near stonehenge and Japan, Elizabeth I having a son, the american revolution failing through the bribing of Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon founding the EU and conquering england, the remaining english establishing themselves in America and elizabeth the third marrying the duke of Britannia, giving name to the nation of Britannia. Due to hints, many fans assume however that most of the early events were made up to make Britannia seem more legitimate (like linking the royal family to the celtic superking). Some other fans place the point of divergence even further down the line, due to the incredible similarities with the real world.
• Instant Death Bullet: Common with mooks; usually averted with major characters. But not always....
• Instant Win Condition: The Final Battle of R2 - Lelouch's forces get obliterated, Suzaku gets beaten by Kallen, but once Lelouch seizes control of Damocles, his enemies have no choice but to surrender.
• Inverted Trope: It's a predictably Troperiffic Humongous Mecha anime - except that the protagonist is The Chessmaster with the Evil Magic powers and his opposite is the Hot-Blooded Honor Before Reason Ace Pilot.
• Invisible Advertising: On Adult Swim, the show began with very little promotion: Being so continuity driven, it was hard to pick up new viewers.
• Ironic Echo: Not an exact echo of a quote, but it was certainly ironic that the long-blind but now sighted Nunnally should end up begging Lelouch to open his eyes.
  • That whole scene where Nunnally is screaming in despair for the dead Lelouch while the world chants "all hail Zero" is incredibly poetic in its irony.
  • "We're friends, aren't we?". First said by Lelouch to Suzaku during the start of the Black Rebellion then said by Suzaku when he took Lelouch to the Emperor to be mind scrubbed.
  • Lelouch and Suzaku's shared monologue in episode 5 about why they want to solve the world's problems (war, terrorism, discrimination). Schneizel says something similar when he revealed he will use Damocles to subjugate the world.
• Irony: Three-quarters through season 1 of Code Geass when Suzaku is going to sacrifice himself to hold Lelouch/Zero in place for a massive missile strike, Lelouch whips out his Geass and commands Suzaku to 'live' thereby making a Heroic Sacrifice impossible. Exactly one season later in R2, while fighting (and losing to) Kallen the Geass activates causing Suzaku to fire the FLEIJA warhead, destroying most of Tokyo and supposedly killing Nunnally.
  • A case of Cosmic Irony occurs early on in Code Geass when nobody can figure out who Zero is, but Lelouch almost gets unmasked by a cat.
  • Two episodes after her declaration of The Power of Love and just one right after she finally requites her own love for Lelouch, Wrong Genre Savvy Shirley is killed by Rolo. Especially ironic in that she could have saved Lelouch from the path he would go down in the subsequent arc, and that her death was a catalyst for much of it.
  • Also Ironic that after the "Orange Incident" Jeremiah was told by Guilford that his options were to continue working as a grunt, or go work on an orange farm. His profession after Lelouch's death? He works on an Orange farm with Anya
  • On a smaller scale, the main antagonist of the story is the world's most powerful superpower, the Holy Britannian Empire, which, despite controlling over a third of the world at the start of the series...doesn't actually control Britain.
  • Lelouch's entire plan to save the world was based on an attempt to make it 'gentler' for his sister Nunnally. He cares about this plan so much he sacrifices his own life for it, but as he lies dying in front of her, she tells him that the only kind of world she ever wanted was one where they could live together.
  • Also, Suzaku killed his father to stop a war, but it really just started one.
  • Also ironic is that at the beginning of the series, Lelouch took on the title of Zero, to become a symbol of Justice against he Britannian emperors tyranny, while Suzaku had joined the military hoping to change Britannia from within. At the end of the series, Suzaku and Lelouch had their roles switched. Suzaku became Zero, as a symbol of Justice, never to live again as Suzaku Kururugi, while Lelouch became the Britannian Emperor, and gave his life in the process of changing the system from within.
• Legacy Character: Zero.
• It Gets Easier: Lelouch and Suzaku
• It Got Worse: Code Geass operates on a continuum in which everything is slightly worse than what came before it.

J

• Just One Man: The Lancelot knightmare frame and its pilot Suzaku, multiple times.

K

• Kangaroo Court: For Suzaku after he's scapegoated for Clovis' murder. The Black Knights' mutiny against Lelouch could also count.
• Kiss of Distraction: Lelouch uses it once or twice.

L

• Lady and Knight: Euphemia vi Britannia and Suzaku Kururugi are a very literal example: she is a literal princess and he is soon knighted by her.
• Lampshade Hanging: For example, on the Mood Whiplash.
• Large Ham: Lelouch, Charles, and Jeremiah (after being possibly brain damaged and cyborg'd, at which point he runs with it and never stops).
  • It's even Lampshaded in the anime. One of the soon to be Black Knights says about Zero, "I didn't know the genius strategist was such a ham."
  • Sayoko is this through her actions in R2, especially on Cupid Day. Lelouch points it out, even saying that trying to convince her not to overdo everything is more trouble than it's worth.
• Laughing Mad: When Lelouch found out Suzaku is the pilot of Lancelot. And of course, LOLZaku.
• Lensman Arms Race: After the end of the first season, the main Humongous Mecha of the series start to steadily shift from Real Robots to Supers in terms of their weaponry or equipment upgrades, as new technologies have been introduced and distributed among the warring factions.
  • Subverted however in that most of said upgrades and tech tends to be reserved for certain individuals and select groups while most others on all sides still use more "conventional" equipment well into the end of R2. It's also implied that many of those technologies were already present by the start of the series but had yet to really be put into action.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: Lelouch accidentally orders Euphemia to commit genocide, and mere minutes later grabs the opportunity to use the incident to start a war.
• Let's See You Do Better: When one of the rebels complains to Lelouch about being cut off in episode 10 of Season 1, the rebel claims he should be the leader. Lelouch then pulls a gun on the rebel, then immediately offers it to him, and says that if anyone can do better than him, then they should shoot him right there and now and take charge. No one dares to do it.
• Let Them Die Happy: Before she died, Euphemia asked Suzaku if the people were happy with her creation of the SAZ. Needless to say, he didn't tell her that she killed them all while under the Geass's control.
  • One of the most jarring examples in any series is when Rolo perishes in Episode 19 right after the Black Knights expel Lelouch. Even though Lelouch has been spending the entire season up to that point trying to punish the imposter by getting Rolo "accidentally" killed this impostor "brother" narrowly saves Lelouch's life then proves he'd rather die protecting the only family he's ever known - even if that family started out as just another group he was supposed to infiltrate. To his credit Lelouch actually shows some compassion by begging Rolo not to sacrifice himself. As Rolo's illness finally takes the toll Lelouch reassures the totally unaware Rolo that he sees them as true brothers now. Since he was just expelled by the Black Knights Lelouch is left completely alone now, burying the impostor, who was the only person he had left. This all happens in the wilderness, where he has to mark the lone grave all by himself, after burying Rolo with Lelouch's own bare blood-stained hands. This entire plot twist feels like the writers were trying to deliberately give the most sympathetic and gut-twisting send-off to the single character that was most despised by the fans. If you had to do this to your brother, be they real or not, you'd probably wind up going insane, too.
• Lightning Bruiser: The signature role of (almost) every Knightmare Frame depicted in Code Geass; even the early model Glasgows tore through slower and more conventional armored vehicles during the invasion of Japan (as is seen in many early Cold Openings of the first season). New models--especially the Lancelot and Gurren in all their forms—trump older Knightmares by being even more of a Lightning Bruiser than they were.
• Like Father, Like Son: Though their reasons are different, both Lelouch and Charles have the same goal: Destroy the world, and create a new one.
• Living with the Villain: In Season 1, Suzaku goes to school with Lelouch and Kallen. In Season 2, Lelouch is under watch by Villetta and Rolo, who are posing as a teacher and his younger brother, respectively.
• Loads and Loads of Characters
• Loophole Abuse: In episode 8 of R2, Zero accepts Nunnally's plans to restart the SAZ, and privately makes a deal with the Knights of the Round that he would be exiled instead of executed for his most recent terrorist actions. Suzaku agrees to the plan, and then after they announce Zero's exile, the Black Knights create a smokescreen in the area with 1 million Japanese, during which they all don Zero costumes. Since they were all Zero, Suzaku would either have to let them all go, or else order another massacre which would no doubt caused more rioting and rebellion in Area 11.
• Love Hungry: In the character CC's back-story.

M

• Manly Tears: Suzaku during the Grand Finale. Jeremiah does it, too.
• The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Appears in Another Century's Episode: R. A strange case in that it came to ACE first rather than initially being in a Super Robot Wars game.
• Matron Chaperone: Alicia Lohmeyer's role seems to be less to protect Nunnally's virginity (Nunnally is blind and in a wheelchair and hasn't started dating yet) than to keep her from getting too far out of line politically. She appears to be a Shout-Out to Miss Rottenmeier from Heidi, Girl of the Alps.
• May–December Romance: Directly implied between Tianzi & Xingke.
• Mayfly-December Romance: C.C. the ageless, deathless witch is romanced by seventeen/eighteen-year-old boys.
• Meaningful Name: Almost every Britannian Knightmare Frame has a name that references Arthurian legend (though Arthur himself is ... a stray cat that Suzaku adopted).
  • For specific names, please see Code Geass Character Sheet.
• Meet Cute: A bunch, but perhaps the most obvious is the Crash Into Hello / Rescue Romance when Princess Euphemia falls from her window onto Suzaku.
• Melodrama
• Memory Gambit: Lelouch, in episode 16.
• Mercy Kill: C.C. to Mao.
• Midair Repair: Plus upgrade. Using missiles.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: Kallen gets the Guren Mk. II, while Suzaku gets some wings for his Lancelot.
• Mildly Military
• Million-to-One Chance: In R2 episode 24, Nina creates an anti-FLEIJA device that has an extremely slim margin of success, requiring key data to be input 19 seconds before detonation and only having a 0.04-second window of opportunity even if everything goes right. Lelouch and Suzaku manage to pull it off - mostly through strategy. Lelouch is a genius and so can input within 19 seconds, and Suzaku uses his "live" Geass, which forces him to fire the FLEIJA Eliminator with perfect timing.
• Mind Rape: Mao's treatment of Shirley and C.C.'s distraction of Suzaku. The first was unforgivable, the second accidental: C.C. didn't control what he saw. Then there's the Emperor implanting Lelouch's fake memories, which bears a very uncomfortable resemblance to an actual rape scene, since Lelouch is literally being held to the floor by Suzaku while he screams, thrashes, and begs his father to stop. By episode 21 of R2, it is revealed that Charles had also done the same by using his Geass on Nunnally to cover-up Marianne's murder.
• Mood Whiplash: To such a bizarre extreme that sometimes it seems almost as if the producers, writers, and characters have forgotten what horrors transpired in the previous episode. Occasionally gets a Lampshade Hanging.
• Mooks: Almost a given in an action series.
• Moral Myopia: One of the key points of tension behind the plot is the treatment of underprivileged "numbers" as second-class citizens by native Britannians, as well as the very exceptionalist and Social Darwinian worldview of Britannian society in general.
• More Than Mind Control: Schneizel to Nina. Schneizel to Nunnally. Pretty much Schneizel to everyone. Lelouch manages some moments of his own, too.
  • Mao's treatment of Shirley counts as this as well. It doesn't work completely, though.
• The Morality-Mortality Equation: Causes bad things to happen whenever Lelouch lowers his morals.
• Multilayer Facade: Lelouch has three or four identities: Lelouch Vi Britannia, Lelouch Lamperouge, Zero, and the king of geass. The second series adds another identity, since there are two different Lelouch Lamperouge identities depending on who he says his real sibling is. People who are close to him, like Nunnally, Suzaku, and Milly might know two of the identities, but C.C. is the only other person who knows all of them. In the last five episodes, he complicates it further by pretending that Lelouch Vi Britannia is a Complete Monster.
• Mundane Utility: The Absurdly Powerful Student Council in Ashford pulls out an old Humongous Mecha to... make a giant pizza. Though on second thought, that could very well have been an intended feature in the original design.
• Mukokuseki: The only real difference between Asians and Caucasians in this series is whether your hair color is black/brown/white or preposterous; however, with racism as one of the main themes, some have noted that this may be part of the point. Lelouch and Suzaku in particular are, to the viewer anyway, able to easily pass off as the other's race.
  • Taken to its extreme in Kallen, who is half-Britannian, half-Japanese, yet she can pass both as a full Britannian and full Japanese.
• Must Make Amends: What Nina Einstein tries to do in Code Geass R2, after the bomb she built under Schneizel's orders completely obliterates a good part of Tokyo.
• The Mutiny: R2, episode 19. The Black Knights mutiny against Zero/Lelouch.
• My Dear Idiot: Lelouch's "Orange" nickname for Jeremiah becomes the latter's symbol of loyalty.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Several characters display this trope, but most notably Nina in R2 after her F.L.E.I.J.A. destroys a good portion of the Tokyo Settlement, as well as millions of lives.
• Myth Arc

N

• A Naked Shoulder to Cry On: Played with. It doesn't actually lead to sex, but Shirley's first kiss with Lelouch happens under these sort of circumstances; her father has just been killed, and while she's stricken with grief she semi-coherently asks him to "help" her and then kisses him. He responds, probably due to his own feelings of guilt, since (unbeknownst to her,) he's the one who (unintentionally) killed her father. A few days later, she apologises to him for jumping on him like that, saying it wasn't fair, and tearfully comments on the irony of not being able to enjoy their first kiss.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Schneizel el Britannia. Not to be confused with a smorgasboard of traditional german dishes.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: Emperor Charles's speeches before large crowds instantly call up images of Hitler or Goebbels addressing similar audiences. The fact that these speeches are mostly about Social Darwinism, and that the 'hail' in 'All hail Britannia!' is actually pronounced much closer to German heil than to English 'hail' by the Japanese voice actors, also helps.
• Nice Job Breaking It Lelouch: In episode 22, Lelouch jokingly tells Euphy about his Geass power. Then he finds out his joke about ordering her to kill all Japanese causes her to do exactly that, as he then was unable to control his Geass anymore like Mao. She orders the Britannians to slaughter all the Japanese, and seems to be doing it herself as well.
• Night of the Living Mooks: Charles uses his Geass power "The Dead" to turn skilled soldiers into the nearly unkillable undead Knights of the Round in Nightmare of Nunnally.
• Ninja Maid: Sayoko
• Noodle Incident: Whatever happened at Aomori with Kallen and C.C. Slightly un-noodled by a postcard in the Zero Requiem DVD.
  • Toudou's "Miracle at Utsushima".
  • "That one time that chick ran away..." "Don't bring up old stories now!" while chasing a cat in episode 6.
• Noodle People: Most of the characters, due to the CLAMP character designs.
  • Taken further by Takahiro Kimura, who adapted the character designs for animation.
• No Romantic Resolution: Well, Lelouch is probably dead after all. The closest he got to a resolved romance arc ended with a dead Shirley.
• Nostalgia Filter: A rare in-universe example. The drug "Refrain" causes hallucinogenic flashbacks to pleasant past experiences.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The last four episodes.
• Not Quite Dead: Used only a bit (once in the first season, 2-3 times in the latter half of the second season). But nonetheless it has become somewhat of a meme, so much that someone made a small comic about Euphemia coming back from the dead after the end of the series.
  • The count could easily be increased, depending on what definition you use. Season 1: C.C. (a bunch of times, but it was expected after the first), Suzaku (in episode 1, saved by his father's watch), Villetta (shot by Shirley) and Mao. Season 2: Villetta and Ohgi (Ohgi was wounded by kunai and then both of them jumped off a cliff into a shallow river full of rocks; neither is even scratched with no explanation provided), Nunnally and Sayoko (they survived thanks to a decoy shuttle, but the audience was still initially misled), Orange (returned after sinking into the ocean), Cornelia, Guilford (with no explanation too), Suzaku (briefly believed to be dead during the final episode of R2; never visibly shown to exit the Lancelot Albion before its final explosion, so how the hell did he get out is left unexplained). That's at least nine potential instances.
• Not What It Looks Like: Shirley keeps catching Lelouch in what look like romantic encounters with Kallen; Kallen keeps finding Zero (who of course is also Lelouch) with C.C.
  • A more convoluted example: In an incident not long after Suzaku starts school at Ashford, he's attacked by Arthur the cat and falls on top of Shirley. In closeup, it looks like a highly suggestive embrace. For a second or two, they look as if they're about to kiss, whether deliberately or not. But as soon as the camera pulls back to a medium shot, the situation looks more innocent: Suzaku's hands are not on Shirley's chest; one is on her arm and the other is in Arthur's mouth -- Arthur is biting him. And on second viewing it's clear the whole scene is a Red Herring: Shirley's eyes are shiny and romantic not because she's being embraced by Suzaku but rather because they've been talking about Lelouch, with whom she's in love.
• Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Sakuradite is explosive enough that for most of the series it stands in for any kind of uranium or plutonium-based weapons. However, it's shown early in Season 1 that Nina has a hobby doing pioneering research into nuclear fission. The writers play this off as her being a token Child Prodigy that will remain in the background, only going back to her for Fan Service from time to time. Later you find out that her research overlaps with what Lloyd is doing on the Lancelot project so she winds up mattering to the story in a more meaningful way. This is something of a reveal for the viewers who, being Genre Savvy, are going to presume that the practical harem Lelouch has set up with the student council girls means that they're just going to be The Chick for the entire story. This is a good way for a writer to take advantage of the viewer's expectations and pays off in an unexpected way when she interrupts the season-finale's climactic battle by walking into the courtyard of the school carrying a home-made atom bomb, says she's going to use the bomb to get revenge against all of the Black Knights for killing Euphemia, and announces that she's going to punish all of the disobedient Japanese for revolting instead of letting Euphemia and the Britannian master race just exterminate them. Suddenly a bunch of what seemed like pointless Fan Service turns out to have all been there to help set up important story elements.
  • When she finally pushes the button her nuke fails to detonate (she is a high school student, after all). Lloyd verifies the idea as being grounded in real science, so instead of chiding her for her behavior the Britannians give her nuke project government grant money so she can research her theoretical super-bomb. Although the fans are divided on this element of the show, you can neutrally say that this is an excellent example of the writers making sure that the character turns out to be more important to the story than just a token geeky kid who sits in the background like in most series.
  • When season two rolls around she finishes another prototype nuke which, thanks to the government backing her research, actually works this time. This helps her turn out not to have just been a token nerdy kid all along, as well as ties in the Sakuradite that Japan was conquered for in the backstory as a realistic plot point instead of just another series' Green Rocks. This lets the atom bomb fall into place as season two's MacGuffin. The show's various superpowers start trying to use Mutually Assured Destruction to finally stop Zero and his now global anti-geass anti-tyrant revolution.
    • This actually sets up one of the best literary subversions of this trope, as season two's episode 18 finally depicts an atom bomb being used against millions of innocent people. Although the viewer would have been able to see this as just another A Million Is a Statistic moment, an off-screen Nunnaly apparently gets killed, too, forcing the audience to feel like they've suffered a loss instead of witnessed a plot device. This moment also marks a major Heel Realization for both Nina and Suzaku.

O

• Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2
  • Word of God says it stands for "Reconstruction" and "Revolution", the two major phases in the show.
• Oh Crap: Loads and loads. A prime example is when when Lelouch and Suzaku took over Britannia. It's a global Oh Crap moment.
  • A more tragic one is when Lelouch finds out his Geass stays on permanently, right as he joked to Euphemia about ordering her to kill all the Japanese people, which she proceeds to do right away, ordering her troops to do the same. Being the Magnificent Bastard that he is, he utilizes the ensuing chaos to further his own agenda, albeit regretting it tremendously.
• One Degree of Separation: Just how many main characters had connections to each other before the story started?
• 108: The number of Emperor's wives and the number of dates with school girls Sayoko sets up for Lelouch.
• One Person, One Power: The Geass-bearers all have one power each. Some, like Lelouch, are more versatile than others.
• One-Way Visor: On Zero's helmet, allowing for it to serve as his mask.
• "On the Next..."
• Outside Man, Inside Man: Poor Suzaku and Lelouch.

P

• Panty Shot: C.C.'s panties are (very) briefly shown in a "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" moment. Here's the video, pause around 7 seconds in. They're light pink, in case you're curious.
• Paranoia Gambit: "Orange!"
• Pendulum War: Particularly during R2, several battles often go back and forth until the winner is determined by either whoever got the most recent Knightmare upgrades or, failing that, whether or not Zero successfully pulled off a Xanatos Gambit.
• Picture Drama
• Pimped-Out Dress
• Playing Against Type: Johnny Yong Bosch is more often known for straight-up action heroes, not chessmasters like Lelouch. Jamieson Price on the other hand, often does Badass or The Chessmaster, but Diethard's more of a Smug Snake.
  • This was the entire point of the Japanese casting of Jun Fukuyama as Lelouch and Takahiro Sakurai as Suzaku.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Rivalz Cardemonde and Shinichiro Tamaki.
  • Clip here
• Power At a Price: The whole series can be interpreted as a moral about the terrible ramifications of one man being given power above others. Almost invariably, Geass users end up having lost more than they have gained with their ability.
  • It's also Lelouch's quest to make something of his Geass despite the awful cost. He's partly successful, although even that is open to interpretation.
• Power Incontinence: Played straight down to having Applied Phlebotinum to allieviate it, or try to. Mao's headphones seem to only help a little bit, perhaps more as a placebo than anything else. Lelouch's contact lens works perfectly, but he acquires it... too late.
• The Power of Love: Episode 11 of R2. Lelouch, after consulting Shirley, delivers an epic, over the top declaration that the power of people's love will change the world. The English title is even called "Power of Passion".
  • Also very cynically employed By Lelouch on Rolo.
• Power Perversion Potential: Considering his gigantic unwanted harem and his mind control eye, Lelouch could get a lot of use out of this. And in the Visual Novel's PS2-only Blue Moon Path, the protagonist Rai DOES. On anyone from Nina and Kaguya to Suzaku, and even Lelouch himself.
• Pretty Little Headshots: When one character is shot in the head at point blank range, all you see is him falling to the ground, and it's clear that there's no exit wound. Might be explained by the fact that all or most of Code Geass' firearms (throughout its entire parallel history, no less) are actually some form of coilgun, which means that bullets are of a smaller caliber and that they travel slower than in real-life. It might make sense, since we see people getting shot multiple times with them and still getting up/recovering. This would also explain the odd, tinny pop the guns make when fired or when the bullets strike something metallic.
• Prince Charmless: Odysseus.
• Product Placement: Pizza Hut and, less memetically, the Japanese ISP BIGLOBE.
• Prop Recycling: In R2, Zero often seems to use the same detonator/trigger prop when he wants to make something cool happen.
• Psychic Radar: Mao is shown to be able to detect the presence of other minds and hear their thoughts if they're within 500 meters. It's utility is somewhat hampered by his inability to turn it off.
• Psychic Static: Attempted but failed.
• Psycho Lesbian: Nina

Q

• Quit Your Whining: Kallen does this to Lelouch during his Heroic BSOD brought about by the reopening of the SAZ. Played with in that she is exactly as unsure as he is.
  • Suzaku does this to Lelouch, with a mixture of Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!, when Lelouch finds out that Nunally is alive, and begins to despair. Suzaku tells him to suck it up and remember Zero Requiem.
• Quote Mine: When Schneizel secretly records the private conversation between Lelouch and Suzaku and uses Lelouch's Sarcastic Confession to deliberately giving Euphemia the order to kill the Japanese, sans of course Suzaku catching Lelouch in the lie, to turn the Black Knights to his side.

R

• Rage Against the Heavens: The ultimate aim of the Emperor and V.V. is to kill the gods, calling them a threat to humanity. That's what the Sword of Akasha is for.
• Rescue Romance: Princess Euphemia manages a real one with her vertical Crash Into Hello Meet Cute with Suzaku, but then tries to follow it up with a fake one in which she is being chased by enemies. He soon catches her in the lie, but it deepens their romance anyway. Turns into a reciprocated Bodyguard Crush when Euphie makes Suzaku her official knight.
• Red Herring: Lelouch sends Rolo, a psychopathic assassin who is extremely possessive of him, on a rescue mission to save Nunally. As might be guessed, Rolo has every intention of killing her, even thinking about it, but he never manages to reach her.
• Recycled in Space:
  • The show's premise is frequently described as "Death Note WITH GIANT ROBOTS!"
  • It's also been described by some as either The Count of Monte Cristo (or alternately, Dune) WITH MECHA or Mobile Suit Gundam WITH CHAR AS THE PROTAGONIST.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Suzaku and Lelouch. Kallen and C.C.
• Redemption Equals Death: Rolo.
• Refuge in Audacity: Lelouch's plans, reputation, and leadership of the Black Knights all seem to thrive on this ... which is why he is a Magnificent Bastard.
• Relationship Upgrade: Happens to Shirley and Lelouch in episode 12 of R2. It doesn't last very long however...
• Reincarnation Romance: Invoked by Shirley in her Last Words.
• The Remnant: How the last prime minister of Japan is treated.
• La Résistance: The Black Knights.
• Rhetorical Request Blunder: Lelouch says that with his mind control powers, he could tell Euphemia something like "Kill all the Japanese." Bit of bad timing on that one, as Lelouch lost control of said powers at that exact moment.
• Rich Boredom: Princess Euphemia
• Rival Science Teams: Lloyd & Cécile vs. Rakshata.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: At first. Lelouch's motivations change radically throughout the series and Britannia is still standing tall at the end of the show.
  • More specifically, when Suzaku briefly goes crazy after Euphemia's death and blasts through squads of Knightmares roaring a Big No at the top of his lungs.
  • Lelouch does this towards the Britannian Geass research facility after Shirley's death. He orders everyone there killed, even though they're non-combatants.
• Rollerblade Good: All Knightmares.
• Royally Screwed-Up: Britannia's Royal Family and, by extension, just about the entire plot.
• Rule of Cool: This applies whenever Lelouch uses geass to make miracles. Suzaku is often the embodiment of this.
• Rule of Funny: A lot of the antics of the Absurdly Powerful Student Council don't make much sense except for this trope combined with generous helpings of Fan Service.
• Rule of Glamorous: The character designs.
• Rule of Sexy: For example, the position the Guren forces its pilot to assume would be absolutely terrible for the lumbar. The result: this.
  • Kallen pilots it at the beginning of R2 in her bunny girl outfit.
• Rule of Symbolism: Where to begin? The show is packed with symbolism, much of it religious, political, or both.
  • For example, the yellow cloth star that resistence fighter Kaname Ohgi wears on his chest bears a striking resemblance to the Star of David "yellow badges" that Jews were forced to wear under Nazi law. Quite appropriate for someone who believes he's fighting A Nazi by Any Other Name.
• Rule 63

S

• Sad Battle Music: During the Black Knight's betrayal of Lelouch.
• Sanctuary of Solitude
• Sarcastic Confession: Lelouch to Suzaku in R2 17 at Kururugi Shrine. Backfires in more ways than one.
• Say My Name: The whole show lives off this trope, but the most iconic ones are are of Lelouch and Suzaku screaming each others name at each other through the series. The most perfect example of this trope is the very ending of the first season, where it ends on a Cliffhanger between the two holding a gun at each other, and screaming the others name before it cuts to the credits.
• School Festival: All of episode 21 is dedicated to the annual school festival; about half of R2 episode 5 is as well.
• School Uniforms Are the New Black: Lelouch wears either his school uniform or his "superheroic" Zero outfit. In R2 he dumps both after becoming the Emperor.
• Screw Destiny: Lelouch seems to be a big believer in this, after what happened to both his mother and sister, as well as his father's apparent callousness attitude towards him.
• Secret Keeper: Some characters, such as Euphy, found out who Zero really was prior to the reveal in R2. However, when the Black Knights do find out who Zero truly is, and the bad things he's done to some of them or their friends, they debate amongst themselves as to whether to keep Zero's identity a secret, or reveal it to the world and therefore lose a lot of what they suffered and fought for. They ultimately decide to keep it private, and merely claim Zero died in a battle, so it comes as a complete shock to the surviving Black Knights at the end when Zero once again shows up and kills Lelouch.
• Self-Made Orphan: Lelouch becomes one when he Geasses the collective conciousness of mankind into using its power of pantheistic godhood to remove his parents from existence.
  • Suzaku killed his father, the Prime Minister of Japan, Genbu Kururugi, during Japan's war against Britannia. He did this in order to force Japan to surrender, thus ending the bloodshed of the war and preventing Japan's total destruction, since Genbu actually preferred to have Japan destroyed rather than under Britannian rule. It worked, but the character is so horribly torn by guilt that the incident gives him Trauma-Induced Amnesia for years.
• Serious Business: There are luxurious underground gambling clubs for chess, frequented by millionaires, Mafia bosses and the like. Bring your own extremely expensive chess board and bet a fortune.
• Seventh-Episode Twist
  • Season 1 - Zero is defeated for the first time by Cornelia.
  • Season 2 - Zero agrees to the SAZ plan.
• She Is Not My Fiancée: Lelouch, regarding C.C. In Season One, episode five, when C.C. pops up unexpectedly at Lelouch's place, chatting away with Nunnally, she makes some cryptic remarks about a bond between her and Lelouch and a promise he made about their future together. Nunnally, not having any way of knowing about the Geass, makes the not altogether unreasonable assumption that C.C. is referring to secret wedding plans. When Lelouch tells Nunnally that C.C. is just joking, C.C. claims she never jokes.
• Ship Sinking: Occasionally. Can't possibly keep up with the Ship Tease.
• Ship Tease: Constantly. Nearly every conceivable pairing.
• Shout-Out: In R2 episode 5, C.C. cosplays as Chachamaru and Shirley as Mikuru.
  • Kallen's Hot-Blooded fighting style, suspiciously Shining Finger-like attack, and Black Knights hairstyle are a fairly obvious shout-out to Domon Kasshu. To the point that fans insist that she's somehow Domon's daughter.
  • The opening scene of the first season shares several similarities with the opening scene of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
  • Lloyd's Congratulations! could be a reference to that one anime with a(n) (in)famous scene featuring that same word.
  • The Geass-mark is identical to the shape of the Gundam Deathscythe's antennae, though this may just be a coincidence... but then again. Both shows are made by Sunrise, so it may be intended.
  • The Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. Eight-Elements Type bears quite close resemblance to the the Gunzan, which in its own show was repaired and named Gurren.
  • The sequence shown when Lancelot is equipped with the Float System is strangely similar to the sequence played when the X-105 Strike is equipped with its Aile Striker Pack. The overall design is more similar to that of the ZGMF-X09A Justice's back-mounted weapons platform. Similarly, the Float System mounted on the Guren Mk.2 is a mix between the Aile Striker Pack and the Force Silhouette.
  • Suzaku's lines to Lelouch about the latter betraying the world before it betrays him hearken back to one of the most famous quotes from Romance of the Three Kingdoms:

Cao Cao: Better I betray the world than the world betray me!

• Shower of Angst
• Shut UP, Hannibal: In R1, Suzaku does this to Lelouch. In R2, Lelouch to Emperor Charles and even more spoilery, Marianne.
  • In R1 Episode 16. Lelouch to Mao ("NEVER SPEAK AGAIN!")
• Signature Device: The Knightmare Frames
• The Sixties: Converted to the AD/CE calendar, the main bulk of the series takes place in a much more advanced version of the same time period as Mad Men.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Actually a pretty idealistic story overall, despite how utterly depressing it can be, especially if compared to the likes of Death Note.
• Slow Clap: At Suzaku's knighting. Started by Lloyd, then the rest of the Britannian audience picks it up.
  • While Lloyd was the first to start clapping, it was really only after Andreas Darlton gave applause that the remaining Britannians joined in.
• The Social Darwinist: Emperor Charles.
• Spell My Name with an "S": Ohgi/Ougi. Variations on Tohdoh. Euphie/Euphy.
• Spanner in the Works: Lelouch's love for Nunnally has crumbled his plan thrice. First during the Black Rebellion, second during Pacific Aerial Assault, third when she's apparently killed in the Second Battle of Tokyo.
  • In general, his love for his friends serves as such a trope, as it usually causes him to do irrational actions that will cost him. The aftermath of Shirley's death led to his assaulting the Geass Directorate, which led to questioning from other members of the Black Knights who are beginning to suspect his actions.
  • Suzaku coming in at the most inopportune moments and keeping Lelouch's plans from bearing maximum results also counts. Ditto Villetta, who seems to have been created with the sole purpose of sabotaging things for Lelouch.
• Sphere of Destruction: What happens when you set off F.L.E.I.J.A.
• Spoiler Opening
• Statuesque Stunner: Viletta Nu, Cornelia Li Britannia, Rakshata Chawla and Milly Ashford.
• Status Quo Is God: The blatant aversion of this trope is one of the shows biggest selling points.
• Stolen Good, Returned Better: After Kallen and her Guren are captured by Britannia, they strap a crapload of high-tech upgrades onto it only for her to break out and steal it right back.
• Suggestive Collision: Kallen falls over Leleuch in a suggestive position, lampshading their uncertain relationship.
• Super Empowering
• Super Fun Happy Thing of Doom: F.L.E.I.J.A. -- a nuclear bomb, named for the Norse goddess of love and beauty.
• Supernatural Aid
• Superpower Lottery: The Geass powers obtained by a contract vary in their usefulness. In Nightmare of Nunnally, Marianne happens to get just the right power while on the brink of death, transferring her soul into Anya's body.
• Super Prototype: Justified with the Lancelot. Cecile mentions that Lloyd spent their entire budget on the Knightmare, which is why the special unit seems to consist solely of the head scientist, his aide, and the pilot. They had to borrow the truck they haul the Lancelot around in.
  • The Shen-Hu was considered so high-spec that no one could pilot it.
• Super Reflexes: Kallen, being a combat mech pilot, has incredible reflexes, which tend to act up even when she is playing an Ill Girl in school. In one episode, when Rivalz accidentally sends a champagne bottle cork right into her face, she notices it even before he does and deflects it with her hand.
  • Suzaku Kururugi has been shown to be able to dodge bullets from machine guns.
• Super Robot Wars (Is making its debut in Super Robot Wars Z 2)
  • R2 (and only R2) appeared earlier in the series' Armored Core based spinoff, Another Century's Episode R for Play Station 3 and Portable for the PSP.
• Surprisingly Good English: The textbooks, news articles, magazines, etc. Makes sense since it takes place in a Japan under British rule.
  • Occasionally averted, such as with the Knights of the Round—the original Japanese had them as Knight of Rounds, which makes little sense. The hotel hijacking episode also had some Engrish on the news cast.
• Sword of Damocles: ...The Damocles. Inverted as Schinezel is the king and holds it over everyone else's head.

T

• Take a Third Option: Lelouch often relies on this. See also: Xanatos Gambit.
• Tame His Anger
• Tanks for Nothing: Japanese tanks are no match for Britannian Humongous Mecha. Oh, the irony.
• Tears of Remorse
• Technicolor Eyes: Violet or purple eyes seem to be a somewhat common Britannian trait as Lelouch, Rolo, Euphemia, Cornelia, and Nunnally all have one or the other; C.C. and Viletta both have Eyes of Gold, and Anti-Villain Suzaku has green eyes (which are very unusual but not impossible for a Japanese person).
• Tempting Fate: "Don't worry Nina, there are a lot of Britannians at the convention center. It's not dangerous like the ghetto."
  • Happened twice in episode 10. First, a couple of JLF soldiers are musing that no one would invade their territory then Zero walks in and geasses them both. The second time was when Cornelia and Darlton were both thinking that the rebellion in Area 11 will finally end when they defeat the JLF. It then cuts to the Black Knights preparing for battle.
• Tenchi Solution: Kaguya certainly seems to like the idea, given that she tries to initiate it with Kallen and C.C.
• Thanatos Gambit: Zero Requiem: Lelouch dies for world peace - and wins the gambit.
• Theme Naming: The Humongous Mecha used by the Knights of the Round: Lancelot, Gawain, Tristan, Mordred...
  • The code names that Zero gives the Black Knights are basically the first letter of a chess piece and a number. P-1, R-1, Q-1, etc.
• They Died Because of You: In episode 16, Mao calls out Suzaku for the death of his own father, Genbu Kururugi.
  • Lelouch gets blamed for this by Shirley when her father is killed during one of Zero's missions. To make matters even worse for him, her father was a relatively upstanding person who wasn't an Asshole Victim, which shocks him even more when he learns about it.
• They Still Belong to Us Lecture: Schneizel uses this trope against Lelouch.
• The Thing That Goes Doink
• Third-Act Misunderstanding
• The Three Faces of Eve: C.C., Kaguya and Kallen are a rather curious example. See the main entry.
• Time Skip: The first seasons and second season are separated by a gap of one year. Then it happens two more times in one-month and two-month periods.
• Token Evil Teammate: Diethard
• Totally Radical: "You fellas know full well what this badass mother can do!"
• Trademark Favorite Food: Pizza for CC; to a lesser extent, perhaps also pudding for Lloyd.
• Transforming Mecha: R2 introduces the Tristan (robot-to-fighter jet) and the Shinkirō (robot-to-submersible fighter jet).
• Trauma Conga Line: The universe of Code Geass LOVES to kick you when you are already down and crying.
• Trope Overdosed: Dear God, even the summary is convoluted as hell. Here's a little game for you: compile the content on this work page on a word processor, then compare it to all the Gundam universes and see which one has the bigger file size.
• Try Not to Die: Among other times, Lelouch to C.C. in the first season finale, after she kisses him. Her response is "Hey, remember who you're talking to".
  • During the Black Rebellion Cornelia essentially ordered Guilford to come back alive after he covered for her.
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Between Lelouch and Suzaku, in Season One, episode five. A bit of a Ho Yay / Foe Yay as they each pontificate and allow the audience to the commonality and common purpose that, ironically, will divide them.
  • It's a running feature in the show. Some of them are awesome, others (the dialogue shared by Bismarck and Kaguya when the UFN forces came to liberate Japan) is just Narm.

U

• Undying Loyalty: Jeremiah Gottwalt, who amped it Up to Eleven!
• Unexplained Recovery: Guilford, who somehow survived his mecha getting caught in the FLEIJA.
• Un Paused: Used extensively, as Rolo's Geass stops time (or close enough). Once unpaused, characters continue to fight in their mechas, monologue, or beg intermittently for Rolo to stop using his Geass.
• The Un-Reveal: While Lelouch is understandably shocked when he finds out who the White Knight is, audience members have already seen him in action many times, so it's not as surprising to most people when his identity is revealed in-universe.
• Unwanted Harem: Lelouch is insanely popular with the girls at Ashford Academy; it gets even worse in R2, when Sayoko, in the process of running around disguised as Lelouch, manages to set him up with 108 dates within the span of 24 hours.
• Unwilling Suspension
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Ohgi and Villetta. R2 19. Enough said.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Lelouch, Schneizel, Charles and Marianne all try to create their various ideas of a perfect world.

V

• Villainous Rescue: Schneizel's Avalon blocks a barrage of missiles heading toward Lelouch and Suzaku. Nearly an unintentional Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work, since his follow-up to fire the Gawain at our characters buys Lelouch enough time to figure a way out of the situation.
• Visual Innuendo: A ridiculous one with Mao and his chainsaw.

W

• Was It Really Worth It?: One of the main goals of the Zero Requiem was to make all the major players (and the entire world) realize just how pointless war and violence really are. The whole first half of the final episode involves every character going through their motivations and discussing this question.
• Wave Motion Gun: Hadron Cannons and the upgraded radiation wave in R2.
• We All Live in America: Despite the fact that Japan is under Britannian rule it still seems very Japanese in customs. Even the schools.
• Wham! Episode: Episode 22 takes the Nice Job Breaking It, Hero trope and elevates it to a whole new level when Lelouch accidentally Geasses his sister into killing all the Japanese.
  • Starting with episode 13, R2 whams pretty much every episode.
  • Episode 7 of the first season is perhaps the first instance of this trope, where Lelouch suffers his first major defeat due to fighting against a Dangerously Genre Savvy opponent who essentially uses his tactics against him.
• Wham! Line: Mao to Suzaku ("Get your hands off of me, father-killer!")
  • Although Euphy meant well by this, she delivers a speech version at the end of episode 21 when she proclaims to create a zone where 11's can go back to being Japanese and there's no distinction between them or Britannians. Lelouch does not take it well, as Euphy essentially neutered his operations as Zero and the Black Knights with that proclamation.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Lelouch delivers one to C.C. when she tells him about Mao; he's mad that she would burden a young child with Geass and then abandon him to his fate rather than trying to help him, or failing all else, putting him out of his misery.
  • Lelouch himself gets called on this from time to time by various characters or his subordinates who sometimes questions his motives for taking certain actions, especially by Suzaku.
• When It All Began: The invasion of Japan, and the attack on Lelouch's family.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: C.C.'s "one wish" that Lelouch was originally obliged to grant her by their contract was to finally die, which would make Lelouch bear the curse of immortality in her place. Implied that Mao already refused to do so because he was too attached to her, leading her to seek out another to do so..
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Happens most every time characters get excited or scared.
• World of Ham: This series is one of the reasons the trope exists. How CAN one not be a Large Ham in a world where even the SCENERY is Chewing the Scenery?. And the MUSIC. And the Humongous Mecha. And the laws of PHYSICS. It is MANDATORY to be hammy in such circumstances! Anything more subtle, given the circumtances, would be a Dull Surprise!!!
• World of Silence: The "World Without Lies" that Charles, V.V. and Marianne planned to create.
• The Wrongful Heir to the Throne: While Crown Prince Odysseus of Britannia is not as egotistical or racist as his father or some of his siblings, he is somewhat of a milquetoast Inadequate Inheritor compared the more competent usurper Lelouch.

X

• Xanatos Gambit: Lelouch and Schneizel are experts at it.
  • In episode 7 of R1, C.C. advises Lelouch to attempt to orchestrate everything into a Xanatos Gambit, and while doing so gives a succinct description of the trope.
  • Schneizel is an interesting take on this, since he takes The Chessmaster Up to Eleven: He literally will not fight if he is not guaranteed to win (note his chess match against Zero, where he basically forfeited with a florish) and his last big scene in the series, where he is fleeing from a fight he has a very good chance of winning, but is not guaranteed to win.

Y

• Yandere: Mao to C.C., Nina to Euphemia, Rolo to Lelouch, even V.V. to Charles.
  • Though Nina only becomes Yandere after Euphemia's death, so it's up to debate if she's playing the trope quite straight.
• You Cannot Kill an Idea: Zero's stance for fighting against injustice and tyranny, largely caused by the Britannian Empire, but also anyone who would manipulate people for their own gain, such as the eunuchs in the Chinese Federation. So when Lelouch finally takes over the world at the end, Zero once again shows up to fight against him, which is quite a shock to the Black Knights, as they discovered Lelouch was Zero, so wondered who this new Zero was.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: It's a pretty common trait regardless of race.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: How the various immortals are created.
  • Lelouch does this with Suzaku at the end, "cursing" him to live a life where he fights against injustice and tyranny as Zero. Suzaku gladly accepts the terms.
• Young Conqueror: Lelouch vi Britannia, though it seems it is common in the Britannian royal dynasty: while Nunnaly's reign is more A Child Shall Lead Them, Euphie is revealed to be a very gentle but determined version of this trope, Schneizel, while slightly old, is still quite young, and Charles and VV are heavily implied to have been this in their youth.

Z

• Zero-Approval Gambit: Zero Requiem.
• 0% Approval Rating: Toward the end of the series, Lelouch gets the Britannians to disapprove of Britannia, resulting in world unity when he's assassinated.