**One of the things that I enjoy about Code Geass is the fact that the relationship among
its characters are important to the story.**
I especially like the many romantic relationships and how they develop.
One of those is how Kallen feels about Lelouch.
In the Poem from Code Geass - Complete Best CD called "Yuukyou Seishunka", we learn that
Kallen loved Lelouch and would have sacrificed her life for him.
I want to quote one line from the poem "I fell in love with you not just because of
that kindness."
After this quote, I decided to look into how Kallen's relationship with Lelouch develops
throughout Code Geass.
So in this video, I am going to discuss how Kallen went from Zero's loyal soldier to Lelouch's
lover.
The best way to do this is to start at the beginning so I will start from how Kallen
feels about Lelouch and Zero separately, then how she feels after she learns Zero's identity,
and finally discuss why she changes while in captivity and how she demonstrates this
towards the end.
Before I start there will be spoilers in this video.
So without that out of the way let's begin.
So Kallen and Lelouch relationship does not exactly start off on a good note. Lelouch's
first major interaction with Kallen, almost resulted in revealing that he was the one
who was helping them at Shinjiku.
This is because he tried to use his Geass on the same person twice, that person being
Kallen before learning that this was not possible.
Kallen at this point suspects Lelouch of being the voice on the commutator.
But things escalate when Lelouch walks in on Kallen while she is taking a shower to
deliver her clothes since her older ones were wet from the champagne bottle
Lelouch used this opportunity to remove suspicion of him by having Sayako call the room and
replay the voice recording.
Kallen hears the message on the phone and believes that Lelouch is not the one who helped
them out at Shinjuku.
Lelouch acting a little immature at the time also humiliates Kallen by mentioning that
he can see her naked.
Granted she seems okay afterward and the two walk down the hallway as if nothing happened.
So maybe the two are becoming friends.
However this would change in stage 9 where Lelouch demonstrates that while his intelligence
he has no ambition which pisses off Kallen.
From my observation, Kallen seems to be attracted to people who have ambition and goals and
is the exact opposite of those who do not.
We see this in how she treats Lelouch in this scene and what she tells C.C. in turn 23.
Kallen's relationship with Lelouch continues to be just classmates and nothing more. There
is a scene where Shirley asks Kallen if she likes Lelouch.
This all started because of a misunderstanding where Lelouch grabbed Kallen which looked
like he was going to kiss her but in reality, it was so she would not see C.C.
**But now let's move on to how Kallen feels about Zero before the events of the Black
Rebellion.**
Kallen immediately has loyalty to Zero even before Lelouch becomes Zero. After Lelouch
saved Kallen from Jeremiah in stage 2, she returned the favor and protected him from
Suzaku in the Lancelot.
Even though Zero refused to remove his mask, Kallen still trusted him. She was willing
to help in the plan to save Suzaku despite the fact that she could die.
There are even other times in the story where Kallen could have seen Zero's face but refuse
to do so out of respect for him.
As the events go on and Zero's miracles continue and Kallen becomes enamored with him. to the
point where Kallen becomes excited when she is able to help him out in anyway.
One of my favorite examples is when Zero promotes her to be in charge of the Zero squad. You
can just tell from her voice how happy she is to be given this title.
Kallen was even willing to stay with Zero even after the events of Narita which killed
Shirley's father.
What is important here is that Zero told her she could leave at any time but Kallen decided
to stay anwyways.
All of this would come to a screeching halt during the events of Kamine Island where Suzaku
shoots Zero in the head revealing that he was Lelouch this whole time.
Kallen felt betrayed at this moment as she learned that the man who was running the Black
Knights was Lelouch.
She felt used by Lelouch for his own gain.
Everyone was aware that Lelouch was not Japanese but Zero revealed that his main goal was to
create a new nation for Japan.
He obviously wanted to destroy Britannia but helping the Japanese came first. Kallen felt
at this moment it was the opposite.
At this point in the story, Kallen feels betrayed by Lelouch and is still loyal to Zero.
**Despite the betrayal, Kallen works with C.C. and the Black Knights to rescue Lelouch.**
**After Lelouch gets his memories back from C.C., he takes control of the situation and
goes back to leading the Black Knights.**
Kallen confronts him alone which leads to a very important meeting between the two.
Kallen asks Lelouch did he use his Geass on her to control her mind?
Lelouch lies and tells the truth at the same time. Because he stated that he never used
his Geass on her which is false but since the command was not to make her loyal her
mind was her own.
Lelouch then proceeded to tease that he can see Kallen's cleavage in her outfit. This
is now the second time he has humiliated her for the same reason.
Kallen makes it perfectly clear that she serves Zero and not Lelouch. I get the impression
that she is trying to forget who Zero's true identity is.
She clearly cannot stand Lelouch at this point.
After the hostage rescue, Lelouch jokes with Kallen about their relationship, since Kallen
has shown that she cannot handle these topics she pivots and asks about the Zero squad.
This is another example of Kallen demonstrating that she only cares about helping Zero and
not Lelouch.
All of this comes full circle in stage 7 where Kallen prevents Lelouch from taking refrain.
In this scene, Kallen tells Lelouch that he needs to be Zero. He has obligations to keep
and at the very least just pretend.
What's important here is that Kallen does not mention Nunnally at all.
As we know Lelouch did all of this to help Nunnally. she is after all his reason for
living.
So Kallen completely ignoring her shows she only cares about Zero's goals, and not Lelouch's
throughout Code Geass, we learn that when any of the three love interests show any interest
in helping Nunnally that is the moment that they show their love for Lelouch vi Britannia
and not with one of his other identities.
From the incident in turn 7 Kallen clearly only likes Zero and their relationship is
not romantic.
It's more like Kallen does not know what to do with her life so she needs Zero to give
her direction and purpose without him she would be lost.
There are two more moments I want to discuss before moving on to when Kallen speaks to
Nunnally while in captivity.
Kallen falls on Lelouch while daydreaming how she is happy that he is acting like his
normal self.
The conversation between them is a bit cryptic but what it shows is that Kallen maybe likes
Lelouch as a friend.
But Kallen only seems to feel this way as long as Lelouch continues to be Zero.
The other moment is after Kallen is captured by Xingke.
Kallen apologizes to Lelouch on the Knightmare Frame's communicator.
Lelouch then responds with it does not matter and he will save her no matter what.
Kallen then says "I am waiting Lelouch".
Notice how she says Lelouch and not Zero.
This is very interesting since Kallen has shown earlier to only like Zero and not Lelouch.
So why did she not say Zero instead?
**Let's continue on to find out.**
While Kallen is in captivity she often is visited by Nunnally Lelouch's sister.
It's through these conversations that Kallen learns about the real Lelouch.
Keep in mind Kallen has only gotten to know Lelouch Lamperouge and Zero which are both
just false alias.
Kallen loves her brother and his death was one of the motivators for her to keep going
and to fight Britania.
So to get Nunnally's perspective on Lelouch as a brother clearly change her view on him.
There is even a scene in turn 17 where Kallen is trying to figure out who the real Lelouch
is.
It becomes obvious how she feels after her rescue in turn 18.
After Ohgi decides to give up Lelouch for Japan, Kallen goes to retrieve Lelouch.
while they are in the elevator Lelouch apologizes for taking a long time to rescue her.
Kallen then brings up Nunnally and how she saved her life.
While they walk out of the elevator Kallen tries to comfort Lelouch on his loss by talking
about her brother died and how she dealt with that situation.
What's important here is that Kallen has never been this friendly to either Zero or Lelouch
before.
She was talking to him as a friend and possibly more.
And since she was talking about Nunnally, Kallen is showing an interest in the real
Lelouch and his real problem.
In this famous scene where the Black Knights are about to kill Lelouch, he says out loud
that Kallen was his greatest pawn but whispers quietly that Kallen needs to live so only
Kallen can hear it.
After Lelouch escapes with the help of Rolo, Kallen is determined to figure out what Lelouch
meant by you have to live.
She evens charges to the pladce where Lelouch went to enter C's world to fight his father.
Kallen gets her chance when she meets up with Lelouch at Ashford Academy.
As they walk through the club room Kallen asks Lelouch what he meant by you have to
live.
Lelouch does not respond.
I believe he did this for the same reason he ignored Rivalz, which was to not break
character and acts as the evil emperor Lelouch.
After Lelouch does not answer Kallen's question she then kisses him.
this is important since this was her first kiss and we learned early on in the series
she wanted to save it for someone important and special.
This the moment where I originally thought Kallen declared her love for Zero but after
my reevaluating everything that I know, and that we learn in the series, she confessed
her love for Lelouch in this scene.
Lelouch after the kiss still ignores Kallen again for the same reasons as I said before
and she says goodbye to Lelouch.
She would also do the same thing again after breaking into the Avalon to kill Lelouch.
Kallen also interrupted a tender moment between C.C. and Lelouch.
I have always speculated if they put this scene in the show, to mirror the one earlier
in the series where C.C. interrupted Kallen and Lelouch's tender moment.
It's also important to point out that Kallen is crying as she confronts Lelouch which demonstrates
that she is heartbroken after being rejected.
C.C. then proceeds to fight Kallen and we get this interesting conversation where Kallen
asks C.C. if she loves Lelouch.
This makes sense as throughout the series Kallen has always been jealous of C.C.
She was angry that C.C. knew Lelouch's identity and how she was always with him.
This fight between the two was a perfect climax to this conflict.
**But let's now fast forward to the end of R2 where everything is made perfectly clear.**
If there was any doubt if Kallen loved Lelouch and not Zero this scene will change your mind.
When Suzaku as Zero approaches Lelouch Kallen speculates that it could have been Suzaku.
As Suzaku pulls out his sword and prepares to kill Lelouch, Kallen moves rapidly as if
she wants to help him.
which is impossible at the moment since she is locked up and being prepared to be executed
with the rest of Lelouch's prisoners.
As Suzaku stabs Lelouch Kallen starts to cry for him.
What I love here is that for the first time Kallen is seeing both Lelouch and Zero.
This is the point where she makes the choice that she loves Lelouch and not Zero.
She even says it's Zero it's him implying that anyone could be Zero.
It's just a role that anyone can play.
For some reason, I have missed this point on the many times that I have re-watched this
series.
Kallen is shown at the epilogue staring at a photo of Lelouch notice she does not have
individual photos of Zero on the same pegboard.
All of her love for Lelouch is then confirmed in her poem that she wrote for him.
And now we have come full circle in demonstrating how Kallen went from a Zero Admirer to someone
who loves Lelouch vi Britannia.
This video is based on the article that I wrote on this topic months back.
I will leave that in the description below.
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Now I want to hear from you what moments for you demonstrated how Kallen felt for Lelouch?
Do you still think Kallen only loved Zero?
Let me know in the comments below thanks for watching and I will talk to you next time.