Code Geass is a Japanese anime series which ran from 2007-2009, with a total of two seasons totaling 50 episodes.
Lelouch is alive (debunked by the anime itself and by the show staff)[]
At the end of Code Geass, Lelouch vi Britannia is killed by Suzaku Kururgi, pretending to be Zero, so Lelouch could act as a martyr and save the world. There is a fan theory which suggests that Lelouch is, in fact, still alive and has the code. This theory, however, has been fully debunked as it violates the rules the anime itself has established and even by the very people who have made the show. This page is kept for archival purposes.
At the end of the final episode, before the credits roll, C.C. is seen riding on a carriage in the countryside, and she's quoted by saying, "I said that Geass was the power of the King which would condemn you to a life of solitude. I think, maybe, that's not quite correct. Right, Lelouch?" Upon saying that, she gives up, and the camera angle makes it seem like she's talking to the person driving the carriage, which could very well be Lelouch. This, however, is a misinterpretation, as she is looking up to the sky and not to the driver. It also should also be noted that on the Zero Requiem dvd/blu-ray this entire hay cart scene was dropped and replaced by a new epilogue where C.C. explicitly narrates to the audience that Lelouch is truly dead.
Another thing code theorists point out is that Lelouch's father, Charles zi Britannia, was immortal because of his code; Lelouch, however, did manage to kill his immortal father, and that should supposedly meant he is immortal as well. But this too is incorrect because not only did Lelouch not kill his father, it was "God" who responded to a request, but it has also been shown that the death of the former code bearer is in no way related to code transfer since V.V. was still alive for a while after Charles had already received his code, and in the end V.V. simply succumbed to the injuries from his battle with Lelouch and Cornelia.
Some code theorists point to Lelouch's half brother, Schneizel le Britannia, is still under his Geass' control for eternity; and assume that if Lelouch was truly dead, then his Geass' power should dissipate along with him, but this too has been refuted since Nunnally was still under the emperor's Geass long after his demise.
All in all this theory is contradicted by the anime itself. The anime introduced the rule that everyone who gets the code loses the geass. Not only do ALL precedents in the anime show us this, but Charles even explicitly confirms this. Since Lelouch never lost his geass, he cannot have the code. Code theorists tried to salvage their theory by introducing extra assumptions to bypass this hole, but those assumptions were even more problematic. The assumption that codes need to activate dby death was contradicted by the anime when it showed that Charles was already immortal before he shot himself. this was evidenced by the fact that he was already immune to geass which was established by the fact that Charles had no red rings around his eyes, not did we see the blue nerves realigning scene. Even the show staff have officially confirmed in a live commentary that Charles was merely faking it to mess with his son (the link below contains their exact words as wall as links to the sources). The other assumption, that Lelouch was a special case and thus the anime's rules didn't apply to him, is false too. Code theorists claim that Lelouch was allowed to keep his geass but the anime never even hinted that such a thing was even a possibility. Without any basis in the anime, this is just fanfic fantasies and not actual canon.
On top of all that there have been a large amount of official statements which all say that Lelouch is truly dead, which makes this fan theory officially contradicted by both the anime itself as by Word of God.
As an example, here are the tweets from the show staff:
- "Before I started writing the story of a person called Lelouch, I confirmed with Taniguchi-director something. That thing was that THE END OF LELOUCH WILL BE DEATH."
- "At least he is aware of his sins and pays for them with HIS DEATH."
- "This man called Lelouch will pay for his sins by HIS DEATH. The story follows him till he finally make this decision."
- "Probably this Lelouch we see in the first episode of the series wouldn't CHOOSE DEATH. He would try something to avoid it. He couldn't DIE, for Nunnally as well. But we see him changed in the last episode."