THREAD:
I’ll be breaking down the ideologies of Lelouch and Suzaku in code geass. I’m about to squadW this shit bois.

So in code geass, there is a conflict of interest between two characters who want to change the imperialist state they both live in, Lelouch Lamperouge and Suzaku Kurorugi.

Lelouch is an interesting case because I think his character is used to embody a broader sociopolitical and philosophical ideology which ive deduced to be either hard line utilitarianism or consequentialism. The belief that an action can be justified based on its consequences.

For example, if you are advocating for an X society as long as you take measures that ensure X society exists can be justified if the consequences of the decisions you made to get to that society were worth it.

A much more simple way to put it would be “the ends justify the means”. This would explain a great deal of the odious decisions that lelouch takes in order to secure his utopia

I think it’s especially enthralling when you consider the great deal of subtlety added into lelouch’s transition from student to a rag tag delinquent to establishing and leading a group of decentralists to being the demon empower, to ultimately being a shadowy hero so to speak.

I bring this up for 2 different reasons. Lelouch is a prince of Britannia meaning that Britannia would be a technocratic, absolute monarchistic government which is functionally similar time a dictatorship in its top-down structure

lelouch seeks to abandon such a society and establish a new one regardless of nationality gender race religion a place where even the weak have bargaining power in his paradise

however in pursuing this goal lelouch becomes massively corrupt eventually becoming no different than a dictator becoming the very thing he despised and imo is a commentary on lelouch’s royal roots

not being able to escape from the idea of ruling in a top down structure due to it being ingrained in him as a child whether directly or indirectly.

So unbeknownst to him being born in a position of great nobility subconsciously changes his psyche and conditions him into that of an elitist, although not directly shown it is pushed back to the fringes of his mind while simultaneously being shown in his despotic actions

which provides a greater commentary of having any culture with great inequality, those born in significantly higher positions of social status are more likely to have a predilection or anti democratic rule that placates to their interests

but in essence this is what he has to do, in order to secure his ideological utopia

he needs to do this, it’s his duty to do so, and the most effective way to completely free the civilians of its shackles. This is another aspect of his consequentialist ideas, the fact he must become what he loathes more than anything for the sake of its people and his comrades

is more noble in my opinion than any other human trait. In a sense lelouch displays great selfishness (although it is superficial) to enact great selflessness. Or another way of putting it, to create worlds, you must destroy them.

This is where the character of “zero” comes in, zero imo represents multiple themes in code geass, the broader vigilante movement that opposes brittania, lelouch’s ideas, and a cover of lelouch’s inhibitions and insecurity.

The aforementioned traits of lelouch are obfuscated by hiding behind zero, if he could hide behind zero the character, he can excuse his actions, if he can hide behind zero, the consequences do not matter, if he can hide behind zero, he can be a revolutionary.

Even if he’s gone, zero will continues to live and carry out his legacy. This is lelouch’s true ideology, this is zero’s requiem. This is done insanely well.

In many ways lelouch’s geass is symbolic of his nobility, revolutionary nature, and his desire to change the seemingly impossible, destiny. Lelouch wants to overthrow a Britannia which has a massive iron fist over society and he wants to stray from Charles zi Britannia’s (who

Acts as the velvet glove) vision of a world order. and his path which he practically laid out for him from the beginning. In part the evolution of his geass, is him finally coming to terms with everything he’s done up until that point

strengthening his resolve and allowing him to become the de facto dictator of Britannia. He’s done it, lelouch has conquered fate...but has he? Lelouch’s motto is “the only one’s who should kill, are those who are prepared to be killed”...

this statement encapsulates his fate, lelouch in a sick twist of irony, doomed himself to be killed from the start.

Now that lelouch’s consequentialist ideas have been fleshed our...how does this affect his character? Well, despite lelouch’s cool calm and calculated temperament, he finds himself often times dabbling in self doubt

is his ideology what’s best? How will this affect others around him? Does he have the fortitude to use them if the situation calls for it? The answer is...nuanced. Lelouch’s ideology hits him square in the face a multitude of times in the series

where he has an adhesion to situations that inconvenience his personal life; his family and friends. This is seemingly contradictory to the methods he endorses.....

As a consequentialist it is incumbent upon him to use ANY means necessary no matter who is killed in the process, he’s lelouch of the rebellion, he shouldn’t care what happens to them, he shouldn’t pester himself with such trivial matters right? Wrong.

That’s who zero is, that’s not lelouch. This duality causes situations very often to spiral out of his control, such as the massacre of the area 11 civilians, and many other events that eventually boil over that in turn causes him to sink into insanity.

When presented the chance to reunite with his best friend suzaku and save nunally in exchange he end the war he almost takes that offer, showing lelouch’s conviction isn’t as unrelenting as he wanted.

He eventually discards this and moved forward deciding for the greater good what has to be done HAS to be done...however even in ragnarok, he could not bring himself to detach his personal feelings from his goal

and as a testament to his will was able to compromise for that by saving both Britannia AND his loved ones, he sacrificed not only his life, but his legacy, and image.

No one will know that lelouch sacrificed himself to liberate the world, no one will know lelouch is the reason for this, no one will know that lelouch saved literally everyone by sacrificing himself...and lelouch is fine with that as long as everyone is happy.

Lelouch is a true consequentialist, seeing himself as merely a pawn to further a utopian goal. Although lelouch is by no means “perfect” and is 100% flawed and plays the role of antagonist

Lelouch is also legitimately one of the kindest and most selfless heroes in anime. And I would challenge you to find me a more selfless character.

Which brings me to Suzaku, lelouch’s ideological opponent. Just like lelouch, suzaku’s character is used to exemplify a comprehensive philosophical school of thought, that being Kantism also known as Deontologism.

Which is the idea that an action that is taken should not be judged by its consequences or lack thereof, it should be judged by the morality of its methods. Do you see the confliction here?

Suzaku, and lelouch both share a commmon goal and have an intense hatred for the Britannian government, however the steps they are willing to take to get to that society they are advocating for are diametrically in opposition to each-other.

Fundamentally Suzaku does not approve of lelouch’s principles. A critique of consequentialism from a deontologistic perspective would be that it does not delineate enough between an action and its consequences

and does not respect rights that deontologists believe that are bestowed upon us. And lelouch uses deontologism to further his ideology via incrementalist methods a supposed to lelouch’s insurrectionary methods.

Suzaku would much rather work within the system and improve it from the inside out, rather than outside in. Now what lelouch would argue is that in doing this, you are complicit with a tyrannical institution using its monopoly of violence to supplant it onto the lives...

of millions of people

and by not taking direct action using the most extreme of ways, you’re net losing more live than you are saving. Or to put it in layman’s terms, extreme cases require extreme solutions

Which ties into suzaku’s character, his self projecting morality and condemnation of self projection. Another duality in a character that is opposed to lelouch but in many ways hinders his ideology due to his flaws.

Suzaku takes this duality to the extreme however, he shuns and disavows nefarious methods to achieve what he wants, yet there are numerous times in the show where suzaku used manipulative tactics to get results

such as lying to Nunnally and emotionally trapping lelouch to get him to expose whether lelouch regained his memory or not. Disavowing violating the rights of civilians, yet he himself works for the britannian forces, which constantly does exactly that

Disavows betraying orders yet he regularly does so. Disavows killing yet works in the military is willing and has killed political opponents and even killed his own father. Disavows of idealism and accosts those who are self projectionistic

but is self projectionistic himself by virtue of disavowing of others methods so often, and the most dark of them, due to the aforementioned killing of his father, this gave suzaku an extreme case of survivor’s guilt,

so much so, that he believes he does not deserve to live and would be content in his death, but is forced to live at every turn in the most stochastic of cases where it’s seemingly impossible for him to.

Which ultimately ended up being his punishment from lelouch and also his fate due to him being told to “live” by lelouch’s geass, and at also becoming the very thing he hates, a revolutionary that assassinates. He killed his father something he loathed himself for and kills

His best friend lelouch

and can never be relieved of his endlessly suffering pain, what suzaku wants more than anything is death, but will never taste it because lelouch ordered him to live. Suzaku is arguably MORE tragic than lelouch.

As lelouch’s punishment and fate was death. And what ties these two characters together would be their fate, their ideology and their similarly duplicitous nature inconveniencing them whenever they don’t fully commit to their guns(this is much more evident in Suzaku than lelouch)

Lelouch can die happy while suzaku lives in regret. These characters are the definition of literary foil.

Which brings me to what the theme of code geass is pushing. I don’t believe there’s an inherent theme to the series as a whole

but what code geass does is show the pros and cons of 2 ideals condensed into 2 characters and allowing the viewers to decide which is the most effectual way to conquer an imperialist entity and liberate its people.

TL;DR: code geass is one of the most pristine shows I’ve ever watched, lelouch is better than light, no contest.

AYO I DROPPED 3 WHOLE ASS THREADS IN 3 DAYS DAWG, also if it’s not too much trouble could you follow me please?