Lelouch Lamperouge

Lelouch Lamperouge
Code Geass character
File:Codegeass2516LG-1-.jpg Lelouch with his Geass permanently active
In-universe information
Alias	Black Prince Zero Lulu
Gender	Male
Occupation	Ashford Academy Student, Order of the Black Knights Leader
Relatives	The Emperor of Britannia (Father) Marianne Vi Britannia (Mother)(deceased) Nunnally Lamperouge (Sister) Schneizel El Britannia (Half-brother) Cornelia Li Britannia (Half-sister) Clovis La Britannia (Half-brother) (deceased) Euphemia Li Britannia (Half-sister)(deceased)
Nationality	Britannian

Lelouch Lamperouge (ルルーシュ・ランペルージ, Rurūshu Ranperūji) is a fictional character and protagonist of the Sunrise anime series, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. In the Japanese dub he is voiced by Jun Fukuyama, while his child self is voiced by Sayaka Ohara. He is also voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch in the English dub. Fukuyama won "Best Actor in a leading role" for this portrayal at the first Seiyu Awards in 2007.

Character planning history

While first designing the concept art design for Lelouch, the series's original character designers CLAMP had initially conceived of his hair color as being white. Ageha Ohkawa, head writer at CLAMP, said she had visualized him as being a character to which "everyone" could relate to as being "cool", literally, a "beauty". During the early planning stages for Lelouch's alter ego, Zero, CLAMP had wanted to create a mask never witnessed prior in any Sunrise series.

Character Outline

Lelouch is introduced in the first episode of the series to be a student of the Ashford Academy high school, where he is a member of its student council. A brilliant thinker who is quite talented at chess, he lives with his younger sister, Nunnally, at a house situated within the compounds of Ashford Academy, where they are looked after by the Ashford family.

When Lelouch is seventeen years old, he is swept within the conflict between the Britannia Empire and the pockets of resistance which oppose it, when he accidentally boards a truck being used by Japanese resistance operatives to transport a Britannian military secret contained within a capsule, thought to be poison gas, after being attracted by a mysterious silhouette which had formed over its surface. In the subsequent chaos, during which Lelouch reunites with Suzaku Kururugi and the capsule bursts to reveal a mysterious green-haired girl (later revealed to be C.C), Lelouch is accosted by Britannian soldiers, who attempt to shoot him, but is stopped from doing so by C.C, who comes between them and is subsequently shot in the head. Shocked by the chaos and death surrounding him, Lelouch is helpless and at a loss at what to do. However, C.C suddenly touches his hand and subsequently transports him into a mysterious plane, within which she proposes to him a contract, offering him an ability she calls the "Power of the King", the mythical power of Geass, which allows him to make people completely obey his orders, which he accepts and binds himself to. He later uses this power to order the Britannian soldiers to kill themselves in the name of Lelouch Vi Britannia (his real name), after which he begins his rebellion against the Empire and killed his half-brother, Clovis, after extracting information of his mother, Marianne's murder.

Lelouch believes the world to have been thrown within a vicious circle of violence and oppression, which can only be broken if someone dared to step forth, work against it, and win. The true purposes of his rebellion against the Britannia Empire are to obtain revenge for his mother and construct an ideal world in which his sister Nunnally can live in peace.

After Euphemia Li Britannia declared the region under Mount Fuji the Special Administrative Zone of Japan and threatened the very existence and popular support towards the Black Knights, Lelouch confronts her at the opening ceremony. Lelouch gives her an undetectable gun and tells her to shoot him to incite a riot, but when she says she planned to give her title, he surrenders and agrees to work with the SAC. However he accidentally orders her to kill all the Japanese when his Geass permanently activates without him knowing it, and he cracked a joke about killing all the Japanese. As Britannian soldiers begin to massacre the Japanese, Lelouch is forced to shoot and kill Euphemia, thus devastating Suzaku. Using the anti-Britannian sentiments fueled by the massacre, Lelouch is able to lead an attack on the Tokyo Settlement and against Governor-General Cornelia Li Britannia. The attack is initially successful as Britannian forces became outnumbered and disorientated. After managing to disable Cornelia's Knightmare, Lelouch uses the Geass on her and forces her to tell him who killed Marianne. However, Cornelia revealed to a perplexed Lelouch that not only did she not kill Marianne, but she was ordered to withdraw the security detail by Marianne on the day she was killed. Lelouch intended to use Cornelia as hostage, but he was interrupted by the arrival of Jeremiah Gottwalt, who attacked Lelouch using a massive aerial weapon.

Lelouch later learns that Nunnally was kidnapped by V.V., and abandons the rebellion in Tokyo to search for his sister, thereby effectively dooming the rebellion to superior Britannian forces, who fell into disarray and desperation without Lelouch's superior leadership. He and C.C takes the Gawain Knightmare Frame to Kaminejima to search for the kidnapped Nunnally, but falls into a trap that reveals part of C.C's memories to Lelouch. Lelouch then affirms to C.C that they are still accomplices, but are immediately attacked by Jeremiah, who followed them to Kaminejima. C.C tells Lelouch to go look for Nunnally while she deals with Jeremiah with a weakened Gawain and gave him a kiss. While Lelouch sneaks onto the island, he fails to realize that Suzaku and Karen also followed him onto the island. As a Mexican standoff is triggered, Suzaku unmasks Lelouch by shooting and cracking his helmet. Lelouch offers a truce to Suzaku, telling him that Nunnally has been kidnapped. However, Suzaku refuses the truce, saying that Lelouch continued to deceive everyone. Lelouch then slaps an explosive onto his chest, declaring that if his heart stops beating, the bomb will explode and kill them all. Lelouch declares that Euphemia's death is the past, that Suzaku had killed his own father as well, and that they could always regret it later, but Suzaku becomes enraged and rebukes that Lelouch will betray the world until the very end, and that his very existence is a mistake. An angered Lelouch draws his pistol and both Lelouch and Suzaku begin to pull the triggers on their pistols. A gunshot is heard as the screen fades to black at the end of season one, but the fates of Lelouch, Suzaku, or Karen are unknown.

At the end of the season, C.C narrates that the spark of Lelouch's actions was the core of human motivation, the desire for just a small amount of happiness.

Character history

File:Prince Lelouch.JPG

Lelouch's young self, when he was a prince of Britannia

It is later revealed that he is in fact the son of the Emperor of Britannia and the late Empress Marianne, thus being a member of the Britannia Imperial Family. His real name is Lelouch Vi Britannia (ルルーシュ・ヴィ・ブリタニア) and he was the eleventh prince and seventeenth in line for the throne prior to his mother's assassination and his sister's crippling in the same incident. A 10-year-old Lelouch confronted the Emperor afterwards and accused him of leaving his mother defenseless, even going as far as saying he does not need to be a successor of the throne. In response, his father declared him stripped of his status as prince and banished him to Japan, where he was used as a political hostage over the mineral sakuradite conflict.

It was during his stay at the Kururugi household that he first met Suzaku Kururugi, with whom the young Lelouch did not interact initially in a friendly manner, before later becoming friends. However, when Britannia finally developed its Knightmare Frames fleet and decided to invade Japan to seize control of the Sakuradite mines, consequently discarding Lelouch's use as a diplomatic tool, Lelouch, fearing for his and his sister's safety, hid their true identities and sought the help of the Ashford family, who were his mother's allies.

His mother's death is a huge blow to him and the ignorance of the death from his father, the Emperor of Britannia, is another huge blow to Lelouch. He always felt that it was unfair for both his mother and sister, therefore his goal is to pursue a better world for Nunnally, also a quest to find out about the true reason for his mother's death because she was murdered in the Royal Aries Palace, not a place where the terrorist could enter easily.

Zero

File:Black knight.JPG

Lelouch as Zero in the middle with the Order of Black Knights

File:Codegeass0405LG-1-.jpg

Lelouch as Zero

To further pursue his quest against Britannia, he dons a black helmet and cloak and assumes the secret identity of a mysterious, masked activist he christens as Zero (ゼロ). He is assisted in this quest by C.C, who later appears at his house and begins living with him, forming an alliance. He later creates The Black Knights by allying himself with Karen's resistance group, starting a vigilante campaign against powerful individuals who oppress the helpless. He is willing to do whatever it takes to collapse the Empire, even if it means lying to his followers, using people as bait for the outcome he desires. However, it is difficult for him to execute his meticulous plans when he knows or discovers those close to him may suffer from the results, which is a weakness as a commander but a remnant of his humanity and sanity. Gradually, however, he had came to embrace the fact that he has to destroy before reconstruction can occur, and if his feelings become a hindrance he will have to eliminate them.

The true purposes of Lelouch's rebellion are to obtain revenge for his mother, Marianne and construct an ideal world where his sister Nunnally can live in peace.

Skills and abilities

Geass

Lelouch's power of Geass, "the power of absolute obedience", allows him to momentarily control a mind, in a fashion similar to hypnotism, and is situated in his left eye. When activated, a red bird-shaped sigil, similar to the mark on C.C's forehead, lights up in the eye and reaches out to its target(s). Lelouch's Geass later evolves and becomes permanently activated. According to the English version of the Newtype magazine, the Power of Geass has something to do with the very existence of humankind and can be used to destroy or transform just about anything. Currently, his power evolved over time and became permanently activated, with the sigil lit in his left eye all the time. It's been revealed that his Geass have other psychic powers, including hypnosis.

Lelouch performs some experiments with his power of Geass and discovers the following:

• The user can only use it once on a given individual. Any following attempts will be ineffective.
• The victim is bound by his or her physical and mental capabilities. Asking the victim about or to do something that he or she doesn't know or cannot do will produce no effect.
• Indirect eye contact via a reflective surface, i.e. mirror, will be enough for the power to work.
• The power will work within a 270 meter radius of the user.
• The user may give as many commands as he or she wishes while direct eye contact is maintained.
• The user must give the commands verbally. However, the power of Geass will control the victim for the duration of what the user's command indicates, so the victim may still act under the power's influence even when direct eye contact is broken.
• The user may use the power on as many people as he or she wishes simultaneously, provided that they meet the above rules first.
• The user can also use the power on him or herself, as long as the above limitations and conditions are met.
• The victim will not retain any memories from the time during which he or she is under the influence of the power of Geass due to the rewiring and damage to the brain.

Intellect

Even without his Geass, Lelouch is a formidable opponent. He is highly intelligent, possessing a genius-level intellect, and is capable of devising and executing strategies with incredible speed and precision. The series repeatedly demonstrates Lelouch's mental acuity; in Stage 14, when Mao says C.C.'s name, Lelouch instantly comes up with fourteen different possibilities for Mao's identity - including the correct one. In the audio dramas, Suzaku says that, when they were children, Lelouch devised a secret sign language containing over 500 words. In Stage 17, Lelouch proves his tactical ability by predicting the Lancelot's actions exactly thanks to his study of past battles, allowing Karen and the Four Holy Swords to almost defeat the Lancelot (only Suzaku's reflexes saved his life). His intelligence is also parodied in one humorous Sound Episode, which has the Student Council members acting suspicious, and Lelouch racing through possible explanations and cover-ups with increasing speed (though in the end, it turns out that they were acting strange because he had some rice on his cheek from his lunch).

Physical

Physically, however, Lelouch is underwhelming. He possesses the physical prowess of a teenager who engages in little to no strenuous physical activity. Within the series, this is usually played for comedic effect. In Stage 16, he fails to land a punch on Mao, despite the fact that the latter is badly injured and disoriented. In Stage 20, he attempts to dig a pit trap to catch a wild animal, but quickly tires after producing a hole no deeper than two feet. The manga adaptation of the series similarly features Lelouch attempting an acrobatic feat in an attempt to show up Suzaku, only to cause both of them to land face-first in the dirt.

See also

• List of Code Geass characters