Code Geass: Is Lelouch Alive or Dead?

Code Geass is one of the most talked about anime since its release in 2008. It has been over ten years and many still like to debate about its main character Lelouch and even more so about the ending of the series. Everyone had their own interpretation of how the events unfolded. The ending gave enough mystery for fans to start wondering what would happen next. Is the second season where the story ends, and we are here to look into all of these questions. One of the most burning questions is about Lelouch’s status after the second season series. So let’s take a look, is Lelouch alive or dead in Code Geass?
Is Lelouch alive or dead?
Going back to the beginning Lelouch was always known for his intelligence, and even though he would skip school all the time, he would pass all of his tests. His classmates would always wonder about that, and the truth is that Lelouch would rather spend his time doing other things than being tied down to a chair the whole day.
He would go out with his friend Rivalz Cardemonde and was always hanging out with Lelouch until one day after being late for school they almost got run off the road by an approaching truck. They managed to get to safety but the truck crashed into a building site. Lelouch wanted to make sure that everyone was alright so he went to the crashing site. He did find the injured driver, but while trying to help him he fell into the truck and couldn’t get out.
Looking around him, he realized that the driver was carrying some kind of weird machine, it all started to seem more suspicious. This moment was when Lelouche’s life completely changed. After that, he was chased by the police alongside the group of vigilantes who were trying to rebel against the unfair laws against Japanese people, now called Elevens.
This pushed Lelouch directly into the conflict of the story and since he is very smart, we saw him adapt really quickly to his circumstances. He had his own personal issues with the government and so this was just the perfect way to show the actors involved in killing his mother what he was capable of doing. This is also where his internal conflicts started, whether or not he should lead the rebels who were in desperate need of help.
He then decided that this was the path he was going to take, whatever the cost. Along the way, he met new friends and enemies but his goal was always the same. Try to create a better world for his sister Nunnally and get revenge for his mother’s death. This was a path only a certain person would take, and Lelouch took it.
After succeeding in a lot of his missions and goals he set out for himself to do. When he finally got revenge for his mother’s death, something changed in him. When everyone recognized him and what he did for the Japanese people. When they embraced him, even appointed him the new leader, he somewhat got lost in this achievement but this is also where the conversation about his death begins.
When he got to the throne, and sometime before that Lelouch started to lose the trust of his companions. He would hide his plans more than usual, and they felt like he was playing another game the whole time. He also became more aggressive and asserted certain rules where essentially he would be doing the same thing as Britannians, his enemies. This is where his friend Suzaku also noticed the change in his behavior and tried to stop him from going down the same path.
Lelouch wouldn’t listen to Suzaku, and this left him with no other choice than to try and take him down. Suzaku knew what kind of a ruler Lelouch or his alter-ego Zero would become. They couldn’t have another dictatorship, they wouldn’t survive it. He believed that Lelouch had lost himself completely, overcome with revenge he couldn’t make any rational decisions.
This is when Suzaku planned out the assassination of Zero. This would happen in front of the whole nation, and he would make sure that there were no mistakes in his plan. He was cautious because he knew that he was going up against a very calculated individual. Nevertheless, he managed to get to Zero and carry out his plan of assassination.
Suzaku stabbed Lelouch, he died in Nunnaly’s arms, this was one of the hardest things he had to do but, he also knew that he was the only one who could do it. Kallen, Lelouche’s love interest realized that Lelouch planned his death to happen the way it did. After some time, Lelouch realized that the only way to fully stop the conflict between all the people living in Japan, Britannians, and Japanese people was to become the ultimate villain.
This way the fighting, between the different nationalities that were divided because of the British Empire, would stop once and for all. He sacrificed himself for the greater good, and to certain people, he would be known as a hero and not as the villain he portrayed himself to be.
Does Lelouch come back to life?
Lelouch does in fact come back to life, he gets resurrected by his friend C.C., and like we’ve mentioned the story picks up right where we left off at the end of the second season of Code Geass. Some fans were convinced that Lelouch was live because everyone thought that C.C. transferred her code to him.
In the movie, the authors take a completely different turn. Which had some of the fans disappointed but the approach for the movie was an alternate reality that changed some of the events. Others enjoyed what the movie did and how it explained the mysterious circumstances of Lelouche’s death, not to mention the post-credits scene that implied that he might still be alive.
What happens after Lelouch dies?
After Lelouch’s death in season two of the Code Geass series, Suzaku took over the role of Zero instead of him. Lelouch knew that he was leaving the role in good hands, and we could gather this from his expression after Suzaku killed him, he was smiling. This might’ve been just an overwhelming sensation of him finally achieving what he intended to do, all of it finally coming together. Even though he was leaving a lot of his closest people he knew that this was what he had to do.
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