Code Geass shippings by SilverBuller on DeviantArt
I'd like to share an interesting shipping ranking of Code Geass by SilverBuller, especially the arguments presented. Rankings divided into Top Shippings (who he ships with the character), Ok Shippings (not people he ships with the character, but who he wouldn’t mind), and Low Shippings (people he do not ships with the character). Please note that the rankings and comments you'll read below are his, not mine.
TOP SHIPPINGS
1) Kallen Kōzuki/Stadtfeld – >!The relationship between Lelouch and Kallen is not only one of the most complex, but also one of the best. As a romantic relationship, it’s equally as complex, and also the best one. Not only do we get several humorous romantic moments between them, including cliché misunderstandings, but their relationship is also the most developed. Of all Lelouch’s romantic relationships, he’s most compatible with Kallen, the one he has the most chemistry with, and really the only one who can stand by his side as an equal. They have similar backgrounds, goals, personalities, and natures. Initially, Kallen dislikes the false, uncaring, playboy persona Lelouch puts on at the student council, but is very devoted to him as Zero, and later the real him when she learns more about him and discovers his identity, both from him and from Nunnally. She becomes his closest, most loyal, and most trusted ally. Even after finding out about his double life, once she works a few things out, she remains completely devoted to him, forgiving him for his deception, and becoming even closer to him than ever, trusting him completely, even when she’s taken prisoner. Over the course of the series, we see how her respect and admiration begins to shift to love. Even after he paints himself as the enemy of mankind, once Suzaku appears in the Zero costume, she immediately realizes what Lelouch has done. And when Lelouch falls into a depression and asks for her to comfort him as a woman, even though there’s clear mutual attraction, she turns him down, not just because he was being a jerk, but because she didn’t want him to kiss her purely out of lust and desperation. Her poem about him, titled Yuukyou Seishunka, reveals her true feelings for him, and just how deep her love, loyalty, and devotion to him goes, claiming that she had felt dead and useless inside before he gave her the will to go on, and he became her reason to go on, and not just as Zero or because of what he was doing for Japan, but for him as a person, and she shows clear signs of jealousy towards C.C. She even goes as far as to saying that she loved him so much that if he told her he loved her, even if it was a lie, that she would have literally followed him to Hell. She even tries to confess to him a few times, but is always interrupted. By the end of the series, she knows and understands him better than anyone, including C.C., who got in his head, and I’d even go as far as to say better than Nunnally. Lelouch, while not as open with his emotions of how he feels about others, clearly develops feelings for her as well, and shows more and the most legit and genuine romantic interest in her than anyone else, even asking her to go back with him when everything is over. She becomes his right hand and most trusted soldier, and knows he can count on her for anything. After Nunnally, he’s shown more care and concern for her than anyone else, at one point even attempting to risk losing a battle to save her when she gets captured, stating several times how he refuses to let anything else of “his” be taken away again in reference to her. He even puts his life on the line more than once for her, and even sells himself out when he feels there’s no escape after he’s boxed into a corner just to save her rather than risk her life by trying to talk his way out or escape. Even when he makes himself into the enemy of the world, he speaks with regret when he pretends to feel nothing for her after she kisses him when he silently tells her goodbye, knowing she would stand by him until the end if he let her in on his plan, and even try to save him. You could even say that he was taking his father’s advice; if you care about something, you need to keep it away from you to save it. Out of all of his romantic relationships, he seemed to be closest to Kallen, even the closest to her in general after Nunnally, and have the most romantic interest in her, not to mention he showed the most attraction to her, has the most chemistry with her, and is the most compatible with her, making their relationship the most likely one to bear fruit had he not died. Had he not been planning to die, it’s plausible, even likely, that he would have confessed his feelings to her, as he nearly did earlier in the series.!<
2) Shirley Fenette – >!For some reason, a lot of people don’t seem to like Shirley, but I’m not one of them. I liked her character, and found her death to be heartbreaking. You also really have to admire how deep her feelings for Lelouch go, and how loyal she is to him. At first she falls for his student persona, even affectionately calling him Lulu, and showing very obvious jealousy towards Kallen, but is too shy to confess. When he becomes responsible for her father’s death, she even loves him enough to not only forgive him and overlook his secret identity as Zero, but to even shoot a fellow Brittanin government official for him, essentially committing treason. After Lelouch erases her memory, she falls for him a second time. And after Charles alters her memory after that, she falls for him a third time, even having to go through the emotional turmoil a second time when her original memories are restored. She still forgives him and seeks to become an ally and help him save Nunnally, even though that means going against her own country and aiding what is essentially terrorism against it. Lelouch’s feelings for her are rather complicated as well. He tries to keep his distance from her, but still has feelings for her, even though he doesn’t completely understand them, even admitting that he doesn’t know if he loves her or not. After he erases her memories, he confesses that he hadn’t realized how much she meant to him until after she was gone, and later even risks his life to save her when she falls off a building. And his reaction to her dying is heartbreaking in the way he desperately tries to save her with his Geass and she tearfully confesses that she keeps falling in love with him and will continue to do so no matter what happens. Her death impacts him a lot, and changes him a bit as a person, making him more determine to protect those he cares about. In any case, while he may not have loved her, he definitely had feelings for her that may have turned into love one day, if they hadn’t started to already.!<
OK SHIPPINGS
3) Reifū C.C. – >!When it comes to C.C.’s relationship with Lelouch, its gets a little complicated, particularly with the way it was changed in the movie series retelling from the series as a whole. I have to admit, for the most part, I didn’t care for C.C. too much throughout most of the series. She was always so nonchalant about everything and was just content to sit on the sidelines, not caring about anyone or anything as long as it didn’t interfere with her contract with Lelouch for him to eventually kill her and end her immortality. And aside from the few times Lelouch uses her in his plans, she doesn’t really do anything besides uncaringly lay around and stoically make comments. In fact, for pretty much all of the first Season, and even a good portion of the second, she only sees and treats Lelouch as a tool to achieve her goal, and though he does the same to her, they still view each other as partners and confidants, if only by default. Towards the end though, we actually learn that she was secretly working with his enemies for her own goals, not caring if he achieves his, and even withholding valuable information he desperately wanted to know, and was even for the emperor’s plan and everything that went with it, only changing her mind at the very end. Basically, throughout the entire series, she cares about nothing and no one, and betrays everyone just for the sake of her own desire. Over the course of the series though, their relationship changes, and they come to care for one another. C.C. begins to develop feelings for him, and become more emotional. At the end of the series though, while she admits that she has feelings for Lelouch, she also states that she doesn’t know if she actually loves him, but does admit that she hadn’t been aware that she was still capable of having such feelings inside her anymore, and is even seen praying and crying for Lelouch when the time comes for him to die. Lelouch’s own feelings for her are pretty ambiguous too. He cares for her for sure, and as the series progresses, he comes to see her as someone more than a person he’s just using for his goals and has a contract with. He comes to want to save her, both from her tragic past and from her desire to die. There are indications that he has feelings for her, but they could just be viewed as platonic, though he still cares for her a lot, even stating that if she is a witch, then he’ll become a demon. And while you could argue that he was closer and more open with her than the others, you can also say that that was by default since she already knew everything about him, having seen into his mind, but with the others, like Kallen and Shirley, they had to find out about him on their own and still have enough love to overlook everything and remain devoted to him, while C.C. simply had her connection to Lelouch handed to her due to their contract and basically invading his mind while the others’ naturally developed their relationship with him, making theirs feel more pure and real as opposed to C.C. And, honestly, I felt that a lot of the whole thing with C’s World felt almost like a side plot that could have been cut. I know it was part of the whole thing with Geass, but the series itself was basically about the war with Britannia, and this just felt almost like filler. Still good, but not essential, which also impacted how I felt about C.C. and Lelouch’s relationship as well. And then when you take the movie series into consideration, things get tricky, because since they’re a retelling of the series, they change the relationship between the two to being more romantic, particularly in the Re;surrection movie. However, that’s not canon with the actual series, nor are the other movies, as many things are changed, from relationships to people's fates. Even Lelouch and C.C.’s personalities are different, especially C.C.’s, where she’s made much more caring, outgoing, emotional, and friendly. Apparently, they’re married at the end of the movie according to their profiles in that version. It’s not consider canon though because of all the changes, and, personally, I didn’t really care for the movie itself, as I feel like it drastically underwhelms the impact, message, and sacrifice Lelouch made in the series. Then there’s also the additional non-canon audio drama, where C.C. tells everyone that she’s Lelouch’s fiancée, though this, and almost everything that took place in the audio drama, is just an illusion that Lelouch created with his Geass from the afterlife. Canonically though, C.C’s feelings for him are strongly hinted to be romantic while Lelouch, while he does care about her a lot, may only hold platonic feelings for her, but may also have some romantic feelings for her as well, though this is ambiguos and left to interpretation. Towards the end during the final battle, it’s possible that he was going to admit that he had feelings for her, but given the scenario and their relationship up until then, it could have just been an expression of gratitude and/or simply letting her know how much he cared about her.!<
LOW SHIPPINGS
4) Euphemia li Britannia – >!Ok, lets get this out of the way right away. Yes, Euphie and Lelouch are half-siblings. They care about each other a lot though, and apparently had romantic feelings for each other, at least when they were young, where Euphie got into an argument with Nannully over which of them was going to marry Lelouch when they grew up. This is apparently just childhood crush stuff they grew out of, especially when the reality of their relationships became apparent as they grew up. Still, Euphie does hold a deep affection for Lelouch, and an understanding of him, even managing to figure out that he’s Zero. Her feelings for him are no longer romantic and seem to be strictly family-based, and she apparently fell for Suzaku at this point, whom I do ship her with, even though I absolutely despise his character. Lelouch cares about her a lot as well, even admitting that she may have been the first girl he ever loved. There’s no telling when this love for her was established, as like with her, it may have just been something from when they were little kids that they didn’t understand that was simply carried along over the years. In any case, she’s stated to be the sibling he cares about the most after Nunnally. He becomes utterly torn up over having to kill her when he loses his control over his Geass and accidentally commands her to commit complete and utter genocide, but knows he has to put her down for her own sake as well as everyone else’s. Her death hits him hard, especially since he had to kill her, and he becomes very cold-hearted for a time after that. He clearly cares for her a lot, and it’s possible that he did still harbor some romantic feelings for her.!<
5) Kaguya Sumeragi – >!I can’t really say that I ship these two at all. Excluding the fact that Kaguya is only 14 when they first met, she is and acts like nothing more than a little girl with a crush. That’s really all she is too. She develops a crush on him as Zero and declares them to be engaged, even husband and wife, despite knowing little to nothing about him, or even who he really is. She even deludes herself into thinking that the two of them were actually married “in their hearts” after she thinks he died. We actually see very little of her throughout the series, which makes it hard to even look at her as a romantic interest as an actual possibility. Though her crush is real, her feelings really aren’t anything to be taken seriously, and Lelouch certainly doesn’t take them seriously. He only seems to view her as an ally and friend at most, but doesn’t correct her on her “claim” to him, likely because he needed her resources and support.!<