Character Analysis: Lelouch vi Britannia and Power Fantasies

Spoilers for the entirety of Code Geass.

Lelouch vi Britannia (or Lamperouge) is loved by many. For good reason. For one thing, what’s not to love? He’s ambitious, charismatic, audacious, philosophical, intelligent – plenty of good qualities to have in a protagonist. There’s something about his character the fans and creators alike adored – after all, Code Geass is invariably written around him, written around his actions. His actions drive the plot, move it in different directions. If he was some unbearable, stuck-up, megalomaniac teenager with his head up his ass, then the show would not have gotten very far with him as a protagonist. Certainly not fifty episodes’ worth.

But here’s the odd thing. He is unbearable, and stuck-up, and a megalomaniac kid with his head up his ass. As Zero, he has a killstreak a mile long, and a list of sins a mile longer. He can be ruthless when it comes to the pursuit of his goals. He is sadistic, emotionally so (look at his smirks and body language whenever he takes out his enemies, especially in the first season). He claims to stand up for the concepts of righteousness and justice, but has very few (or at least deeply-buried) qualms about committing considerably unrighteous, criminal actions. He claims to have the mindset of “A Million Is A Statistic”, but the moment the collateral damage hits close to home, it upsets him, demonstrating his hypocrisy.

Here’s the thing. Suzaku Kururugi, the deuteragonist of Code Geass, has these flaws as well. Suzaku and Lelouch spend as much time opposing one another as they do complementing. Suzaku is a hypocritical, haughty, stuck-up, megalomaniac teenager with a killstreak a mile long and a list of sins a mile longer. And yet, he is largely despised by the fandom. Mind, not everybody hates him (just like how not everybody likes Lelouch), but there’s a whole lot of Suzaku hate, a far cry from the amount of love Lelouch receives.

But the show itself takes pains to demonstrate how similar Lelouch and Suzaku are. They both want the same goal (even if their reasons for doing so differ), and even though their methods are different, at the end of the day they both commit some seriously atrocious crimes for the sake of said goal. So why does Lelouch get off scot-free in the eyes of the fandom? Why is he loved where Suzaku is despised?

Well, he really doesn’t get off scot-free, does he? To look at why Lelouch is so well-loved, you have to look at audience psychology, and the way people react to fiction. People like to live vicariously through others, like when somebody else’s life feels like your own when it really isn’t. Vicarious living often takes place when Person A sees Person B living a life Person A wishes they had. You see it all the time, like with parents who send their kids to beauty pageants, or people who try to take advantage of celebrities – people like to delude themselves into believing their lives are glamorous, or exciting, or whatever fits their ideal of being “the perfect life” by associating themselves with others they deem to be “above” them. Why? Perhaps to validate their existence, perhaps to get out of the funk of an identity crisis, perhaps to satiate their fragile ego.

In addition, a lot of people want to change the world, or make an impact on the world, for largely the same reasons (existence validation, identity confirmation, ego satiation). Everyone’s had an anarchist wet dream at some point, whether it be something as major as rebelling against the entire world, or as minor as rebelling against their parents (which, in Lelouch's case, happened to be both. Two birds with one stone!).

Lelouch, on the surface, is pure escapism, pure wish-fulfillment. He lives a life of excitement, of purpose, of constant action and moving-around. His “Geass” power (which allows him to compel anyone to do anything he wants, seemingly no strings attached) resonates with people, because who hasn’t wanted to be respected, and followed without question? Who hasn’t wanted to be the one giving orders? Lelouch experienced those same kinds of power fantasies on a day-to-day basis, and that’s why his Geass took the form that it did – it allowed him to achieve those revolutionary wet dreams of his. His Geass allowed him to transcend other human beings (as was prophesized in C.C’s monologue in the first episode), to become Emperor of the entire fucking world, all because of his inner desire to lash out and stick it to “The Man”.

Of course, however, there’s so much more to Lelouch than just that. Lelouch is tremendously flawed. In addition to the vast array of flaws I listed above (pride, hypocrisy, greed, hatred), he’s destructive, self-absorbed (at first), physically weak, and something of a savant, unable to see the good that was right in front of him until it got ripped away. Lelouch had a safe home, a curriculum for his education, friends who loved and cared about him, especially his sister, and an incredibly intelligent mind. He could have gone anywhere he wanted, done anything he wanted (maybe not bodybuilder, but still) – he could have lived a meaningful life. Hell, he could have even inherited the throne if he played it safe.

Well, he did, but I meant... legally.

But Lelouch isn’t the type who’s easily satisfied. He threw all of that away to pursue a life of war, violence, deception, and power. In his normal life, as a student, he was depressed and apathetic (at least, I believe he was depressed – he shows subtle signs of it), who looked at life with a grand, triumphant “Meh”. It’s why he has a thing for gambling – not because he’s a bad boy, but because it gives him purpose, allows him to do something exciting (of course, gambling is also a metaphor for strategy and risk-taking in Code Geass, but still). Even when interacting with his friends, whom he clearly adores, there’s a certain kind of emptiness inside of him that’s impossible to deny. Perhaps it is the emptiness of a fallen Prince, finding difficulty adjusting to life as a civilian. Perhaps it is the emptiness of an orphan, the emptiness one feels when their mother passes away. Perhaps it’s the emptiness of someone who feels trapped by fate. Perhaps it’s all of the above. He would have thrown that all away in a heartbeat… and he did. He never had to do anything with his Geass, but he did. And only once he began pursuing his goals did he show signs of genuine levity and confidence.

Lelouch’s philosophy about justice and heroism and the notion of doing “good” was really just him trying to justify the political and war crimes he committed on a moment-to-moment basis, him trying to justify his Oedipal rage against his father, Emperor Charles. He was trying to justify his actions to the world, but also largely to himself. His Geass – the power of oppression, of subverting someone’s will – was his strongest weapon in fighting against an Empire notorious for oppression and subverting the will of others. Sad, futile, beautiful irony, and he’s fully aware of that. To rub salt in the wound, this is pointed out to him by a number of characters – Kallen, Mao, Charles, Suzaku (though he has no right to talk), but especially C.C. – she saw right through him, and that’s why she was the ideal mentor for him. She made him face the facts, made him face the enormity of what he was doing. But only once Lelouch was deep in the thick of war, of terrorism, of Zero, did he realize what a fine line he was treading. The moment he killed Clovis was the point of no return.

It’s why he named his alter ego Zero. Zero – nothing. Without value. A being of nothing. To Lelouch, Zero was the ideal, the vessel with which he would achieve his goals. Zero. “Without”. It’s something he wishes to be, subconsciously or otherwise. He wants to be what Zero looks like to the public – unflinching, without fear, someone who never wavers when making choices, when giving orders. Cool, collected, unstoppable. It’s what he wants to be… but he’s not. He hesitates, often. His conscience and his heart drive every single one of his actions whether he’s aware of it or not… for better or for worse. And his conscience and instincts can lead him to make some seriously poor decisions.

So, he really isn’t wish-fulfillment, is he? If he was a wish-fulfillment hero, he’d answer to all of the audience’s unconscious hopes and dreams and expectations of what a hero should be. He’d defeat the bad guys, win the girl, save the world, and look tremendously cool while doing it, and he wouldn’t have a flaw to speak of. But Lelouch’s life is full of constant ups and downs – and because Code Geass is a tragedy, the downs are emphasized to humongous degrees. The cosmos love fucking with this kid. For every plan that goes off without a hitch, there’s ten other plans that blow up spectacularly in his face. He has been persecuted and hunted his entire life all because of choices he made. By the end of the series, he’s practically on his own. He dies, abandoned by almost everyone, save for a select few.

In spite of all this, people are compelled by Lelouch anyway. It’s his flaws that make him relatable, and human. Thus: he is compelling. Seeing him overcome his flaws and achieve his goals, against all odds, is inspiring, especially when he has to face against the wrath of the world. Overcoming adversity is inspiring – overcoming adversity in the face of certain failure is doubly inspiring. He’s a cast-down, fallen prince fighting against the Empire that betrayed him. Powerless vs. the powerful. It’s why siding with the Japanese is pure, poetic justice. The Japanese people were betrayed by Britannia, just like Lelouch.

There are a multitude of other reasons why people love Lelouch. He’s intelligent, clever. He’s handsome. He matures over the course of the series, changing from a stuck-up, ridiculously ambitious teenager to a young man who understands human nature, who understands the consequences of choice. His goals change, to benefit others rather than himself. He drops his stoic façade, becoming more emotional and open with others (trust has always been an issue with Lelouch, for good reason). He loves his sister, and shows signs of similar love and devotion to Kallen, C.C., his friends at school.

Some people are compelled, and even relaxed, by his death. His death, though tragic, was logical – it made sense. His death brought completion to not only his goals and the story (without Lelouch, there is no Code Geass), but to his character arc. After two years of bloodshed, and sabotage, and power struggles, enough was enough. He’d achieved almost everything he wanted, but he realized that eventually he’d have to pay up for his many crimes. Thus, he decided to make the best of it by doing what he believed was best for the world. It might not have been, but the important fact was that it was what he believed in. It was Lelouch’s choice. He died, convinced that what he was doing was the right thing. Even after everything he’d done, his loved ones (and even his followers that abandoned him) mourned his loss. And the fans did too.

Whether Lelouch is alive or not is a hot point of debate inside the Code Geass fandom. Personally, I believe he is dead. There’s solid evidence that proves he could be alive, but I feel like it’s far more poetic and logical to have him dead. Having him alive would render his decision to die (and the point) useless, and it would also invalidate all the buildup to his death.

Ultimately, people like Lelouch because he answers to all of the audience’s expectations, and yet he manages to defy them as well. He is heroic, but he is also villainous; he is intelligent, but impulsive and opportunistic; he is charismatic, but he distances himself from others; frequent moments of levity are joined by frequent moments of tragedy. He does everything you’d expect of a hero, and yet he doesn’t do a single thing a hero should do. He gets what he always wanted, but only after immense suffering.

And that’s largely why I like Lelouch. He’s the quintessential tragic hero, but also something of a deconstruction of a tragic hero. He’s a fascinating look into the mind of a commander, of a royal, of a gambler, and of a troubled teenager who’s far too young and inexperienced to handle the enormity of his choices. He is powerful, and he is inspiring, but he is human, and that is why he is loved.