Short Answer: During his childhood, Lelouch was faced with challenges that would traumatize any child. His mother, Lady Marianne, was assassinated in their very home and him and his sister were cast away to another country by their father. To top it all off, his sister was so traumatized by the death of their mother that it caused her to go blind and crippled.
For all of those horrible things done to him and his sister, Lelouch planned to defeat the empire of Britannia, the empire of his Father. His original plan did not involve killing his parents but instead was the effect of his geass request on God which was to not stop the march of time.
What was the plan of Lelouch’s parents and what caused them to even think of this plan in the first place? To find the answers, let’s get to know more about them.
Charles Zi Britannia and Marianne Vi Britannia Backgrounds
Episode 21 of Code Geass R2 reveals the past of Lelouch’s parents. Charles Zi Britannia and Marianne Vi Britannia were the parents of Lelouch and Nunnally.
Charles was born in a royal family along with his twin brother (V.V.). Initially, He was a kind man who believed in peace and love but countless tragedies during childhood caused him to develop a ruthless personality.
While they were still children, Charles and V.V. witnessed their brothers killing each other for the throne as well as losing their mother to the blood shed. This caused them much grief that both of them were forced to make a plan that could change the world from its very roots.
Charles and V.V. decided to end the lies of the world by killing the Gods and combining the consciousness of all humankind. They named this plan Ragnarok, a term from Greek Mythology, which means a series of events and catastrophes that will ultimately lead to the world’s end.
At some point in his past, after forming a contract with his brother, who was already a code bearer at that point, Charles obtained a Geass capable of altering the memories of people. With his new power, he began to use everyone to his advantage, even his children and soon conquered a significant part of the world.
Later on in his life, Charles met Marianne, a gorgeous girl skilled in piloting Knightmares. She was previously a rank six member of the Knights of the Round. They fell in love because they shared the same beliefs, and Marianne vowed to follow Charles’ plan no matter what it would cost her.
Years Later, Charles proposed to Marianne, and they got married. She became the fifth wife of Charles and eventually gave birth to two children, who would subsequently be known as Lelouch and Nunnally.
On the outside, Marianne seems like a kind and caring lady, but in reality, she is selfish and cruel, just like Charles. However, among all his wives, Marianne was the one Charles was most devoted to as she was the one who shared all his beliefs. Just like Charles as well, Marianne possessed a Geass which she obtained by forging a contract with C.C. Her ability was to transfer her consciousness into the mind of another person.
On the other hand, V.V. became jealous of Marianne as Charles devoted everything to her. He decided to kill her because she might get in the way of their pact. V.V. broke into her house when Charles was away and killed her with an assault rifle.
On the verge of death, she uses her Geass to transfer her consciousness into a nearby girl named Anya Alstreim, who would later join the Knights of the Round. After using her Geass, Marianne later discovered that she is able to communicate with C.C .by using telepathy.
Upon discovering the identity of Marianne’s killer, C.C. decides to leave. On the other hand, V.V. faked her murder as an act of terrorism by terrorists after killing her. V.V. made Nunnally a witness. He even lied to Charles about it, which greatly enraged him because he could see right through his deception. Afterward, Charles saves Marianne’s body in a secret location.
Charles Zi Britannia and Marianne Vi Britannia Goals
Charles and Marianne believed that the world is full of lies, sufferings and weak people trigger these tragedies. To change the world, they planed to kill the God that allows these lies and sufferings and create a new world without lies.
To do this they needed a weapon that was powerful enough to kill God and that is what the Sword of Akasha exactly is. It’s a hovering system capable of destroying the Gods and assimilating all consciousnesses (souls) of humanity in C’s world.
Charles, Marrianne, V.V., and C.C. agreed on using the Sword of Akasha to initiate the Ragnarok plan. However when C.C. left them, they even used Lelouch to draw out C.C. as with her code, their plan could be accomplished faster. A more detailed explanation on what exactly the Ragnarok plas is that it’s the killing of the Gods as well as human physical forms in order to assimilate human souls into the new world, C’s world.
They believed that people would gradually accept this new world because they would be able to interact with their loved ones who had passed away. In short, Charles and Marianne attempted to impose their self-serving agenda on the entire world, which was nothing but evil.
Lelouch’s reason for killing his parents
Lelouch hated the way his father ruled. He saw his only as tyrant who doesn’t care for the weak and at some point that was proved by the emperor himself as he called his the war between his sons mundane.
Lelouch hated the fact that the emperor did nothing to figure out who killed his mother and that with all his power, he couldn’t protect her. What’s more, he hated the fact that his father casted them away to another country that was still engaged in war. Lelouch felt no love whatsoever from his father and swore that he’ll take his revenge on him and then change the world into a kind and peaceful place for his sister.
Lelouch didn’t really want to kill his parents. Despite his hatred for them for abandoning him and Nunnally for the sake of their scheme, he still strives to correct their erroneous beliefs.
However, after discovering his words can’t reach them anymore and that his power had no effect on his father, he was forced to use the power of Geass on God to destroy their plan. His father, believing that he has already won, says only words to try and discourage Lelouch.
“You’re a fool, Lelouch. God cannot be defeated by the power of the King!”
Charles Zi Britannia to Lelouch Vi Britannia
It’s worth noting that Lelouch literally begged the Gods to eliminate those who have such crazy goals, implying that his parents would have survived if they had abandoned their scheme. In other words, what Lelouch actually killed were his parents’ absurd beliefs.
In the entire Code Geass Series, Lelouch only gave orders and cast Geass on people without their consent, but in C’s world, he begged the Gods to resume the march of time, which shows his determination to stop their plan.
Gods fulfills the request of Lelouch and Charles and Marianne get absorbed by C’s world because they refuse to give up on their plan till the end. His parents’ death demonstrates that they were beyond help at the time, and their death was inevitable.
Our Final Thoughts
In the end, Charles and Marianne were not made of pure evil. In the beginning, they were like ordinary kind people but past tragedies made them evil. As for Lelouch, despite the fact that he was not innocent because he had slain many people for his own ambitions, he still admits his wrongdoings and accepts responsibility for all lives lost due to his actions. He became wicked to defeat a greater evil. All of humanity would have perished if Lelouch had not intervened in his parents’ plan.
Thank you for reading! If you made it this far, you are awesome!
Be sure to checkout our other articles for more Gundam and Mecha related fun!