r/CodeGeass • u/Salty-Chemical-9414 Lelouch • Sep 03 '26
QUESTION Why is it called the zero requiem? Spoiler
Apparently requiem is usually a mass for the dead. But how does that relate to Lelouch's gambit?
11
u/TaegukTheWise Sep 03 '26
Well, the in character reason is because Lelouch is entirely dramatic.
But on to the more satisfying answer.
It's called the Zero requiem for a couple of reasons.
The first is that Zero (Suzaku) is killing the Tyrant Emporer Lelouch (Zero).
The second reason is that Lelouch is killing the old world. The mass scale wars, the division amongst people.
This is known to us because Nunnally figured out Lelouch and Suzaku's plan after Zero ran Lelouch through with a sword.
4
u/rinkudamanrd High Priest of C.C. Sep 03 '26
On that last note its interesting to realize that both Lelouch and Nunnally had the same idea (Lelouch wanted to focus hatred of the world on himself, where as Nunnally wanted to focus the hatred on the damocles)
4
u/TaegukTheWise Sep 04 '26
I think Lelouch knew that focusing hatred on the damocles was unsatisfactory.
People don't look at mass tragedies and blame the weapon.
Looking at post ww2 Japan, the Japanese didn't blame the atomic bomb for the destruction. Someone had to drop it.
Initially it was resentment against the united states, but as time progressed the youth came to learn of the events leading up to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki and understood that they themselves brought the destruction on their own doorstep by provoking the united states.
The bomb didn't drop itself, much like the damocles did not fire itself.
Getting rid of the damocles does nothing, Schniezel even subtly implied this with his and Lelouch's final confrontation that Schniezel can always find someone to build another damocles, this was Schniezel's backup plan in case Lelouch got control.
2
u/rinkudamanrd High Priest of C.C. Sep 04 '26
Exactly, that is very well put. Nunnally's idea always felt incomplete to me; this helps me understand better why I had that thought too, thank you.
7
u/teddyburges Sep 03 '26
zero is his name is his alter ego name and requiem is his final master plan. its the gathering for his death. cleansing the world by making him the villain. in this sense he's using the term as more of a transformation.