Characters / Code Geass - Suzaku Kururugi

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Main Characters (Lelouch Lamperouge, Suzaku Kururugi) | Black Knights | Ashford Academy | Britannians (Britannian Imperial Family | Euro-Britannia) | Chinese Federation | European Union | Others

Suzaku Kururugi

Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai as an adult and Akeno Watanabe as a child (Japanese), Yuri Lowenthal as an adult and Laura Bailey as a child (English)

"A victory gained through dishonest means is worthless."

The rival and best friend of Lelouch, a soldier serving the empire. While Lelouch rebels against Britannia and seeks to destroy it entirely to liberate Japan, Suzaku seeks to change it from within, even if it means having to stand against his own countrymen to do so, and even despite the fact that said empire actively discriminates against him and his people. He's an idealist, with his prevailing belief being that the ends do not justify the means, and he continually crosses paths with and opposes the Black Knights because of this. He usually overwhelms them with the powerful Lancelot, often going up against Kallen and her Guren, who serves as Suzaku's main rival on the battlefield.

That his best friend Lelouch is also his greatest opponent in Zero is the main driving conflict between the two throughout the whole show, and at the end of the first season, he discovers the truth, but he still maintains his ideals. After the first season, he joins the Knights of the Round as the Knight of Seven, hoping to advance to the rank of Knight of One, which would grant him honorary rule of any area, with his goal being to rule over Area 11 (Japan) and use his position to help the Japanese people.

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• Ace Pilot: His natural talent and superior physical capabilities allow him to pilot the Lancelot, which no one had been able to pilot before. Along with Kallen, he's arguably the best in the series.
• All for Nothing: When his father planned to encourage the Japanese people to fight to the bitter end during Britannia's original assault on the country, he killed him in order to force a surrender before what he saw to be a massive amount of unnecessary death could occur. However, as he himself admits in the opening narration of R2 Episode 20, his plan failed. Japan's immediately surrendering didn't stop constant warfare, and ironically his letting Japan be given over to Britannia before the other world powers could potentially get involved likely only resulted in a greater net total of lost lives. This is made especially clear after he obliterates the Tokyo Settlement and around thirty million people as a result of his "Live" command.
• Almighty Janitor: For the first half of the first season, Suzaku is treated like dirt because of his race, even though he's one of the best pilots in the series and pilots a nigh-unstoppable Super Prototype.
• Animals Hate Him: Cats do, anyway. Although eventually, he seems to make his peace with Team Pet Arthur.
• Anti-Villain: Type IV -> Type II. Suzaku is one for most of the series.
• Arranged Marriage: He was engaged to his cousin Kaguya when they were children, but that was broken once Genbu died. Later, Lelouch toys with the idea of asking him to marry Nunnally so he could protect her.
• The Atoner: Puts up with all the terrible treatment thrown his way due to him seeing it as atonement for his sins. Him taking up the mantle of Zero is also his way of atoning for all the wrong he has done.
• Badass Cape: As Knight of Seven. Gets an even more badass one as Knight of Zero.
• Badass in Distress: He's captured halfway into Akito The Exiled after Shaing took Lelouch hostage. He spent the rest of the OVA in a prison cell to be used as a bargaining chip against the Emperor, at best.
• Barefoot Captives: After Shaing captures him by holding Lelouch hostage in Akito The Exiled, Suzaku has his shoes taken away while in the cell. Interestingly, Lelouch is still allowed to keep his, though given his dazed catatonia at the time he was pretty much no threat to anyone.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: Arguably one of the best examples of this trope, Suzaku starts out as the archnemesis of Zero, an identity used by Lelouch as he tries to take down the empire that Suzaku fights for. After Lelouch becomes the emperor, Suzaku dons the mask and agrees to permanently take on the mantle of Zero.
• Becoming the Genie: In the manga Suzaku of the Counterattack he obtains a code and becomes immortal.
• Becoming the Mask: By becoming Zero and killing Lelouch for Zero Requiem. Even involves a literal mask.
• Best Friend: Despite everything, he is and ultimately remains Lelouch's best friend.
• Beware the Honest Ones: Part of the reason for his Chronic Backstabbing Disorder. Verges on Hypocritical Humor since he lies almost as much as Lelouch in spite of it.
• Big Damn Heroes: Suzaku just loves having these, but not just for the glory.
• Big Eyes, Little Eyes: He has big eyes, to indicate his seeming innocence — but not truly enormous eyes like Euphemia or Shirley. In fact, both Suzaku and Lelouch sometimes seem to act as subversions of this trope, as both have large, expressive eyes despite both of them being lying, hypocritical anti-heroes/anti-villains with extremely high body counts. Since Code Geass plays this trope straight with most other characters, however, we can assume that their eyes are meant to imply both of their largely noble intentions and capacity for great good despite all the evil things they end up doing.
• Bigger Stick: The Lancelot; skill wise he ranks a little behind Bismark and Kallen when it comes to piloting, but the Lancelot's Super Prototype status tends to lean combat in his favour.
• Birds of a Feather: With Euphemia — Their goals are the same, they have a very similar sense of humor, and they get serious about the same things. Not to mention a moment in the anime, where they're shown to say the same thing at the same time, only to both burst out chuckling.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Played with. Suzaku isn't a flat out horrible person, but he's not as nice or selflesss as he acts like in the first season. He plays it more straight in R2 at Ashford, acting pretty much like he did in the first season despite his much harsher outlook and hatred for Lelouch due to being Zero.
• Black Sheep: Suzaku was disowned when he became an Honorary Brittanian.
• Blessed with Suck: Being hit by Lelouch's "Live!" command means that he will try to survive by any means necessary. That doesn't bode quite well for a Death Seeker like him, and it causes him to fire the FLEIJA warhead during the Black Rebellion, wiping out most of Tokyo. However, he does try to use it to his advantage, because when combined with his seemingly superhuman abilities and top notch piloting skills, you have a soldier who simply cannot and will not die. It even becomes his Super Mode in Super Robot Wars Z2: Saisei-Hen.
• Blue Blood: In a sense. His father was the Prime Minister of Japan, and there are those who want the family to retain power. In the audio drama Nunnally Vanished, Genbu says that arranging a marriage between a Britannian royal and a member of the Kururugi or Sumeragi families could prevent the war (implying that those two families are equally the highest in the land), and Kaguya Sumeragi is often shown and treated as a noble or royal, and referred to as "princess" more than once, so it does make sense to see Suzaku this way.
• Blue Is Heroic: Inverted. His colour scheme in R2 involves a lot more blue, yet it is then that he starts commiting a lot more morally reprehensible acts.
• Bodyguard Crush: Towards Euphemia. Reciprocated.
• Born Lucky: Downplayed. In contrast to Lelouch being a Cosmic Plaything, the amount of instances where things just fall into place for Suzaku, at least in the first season, is amazing. He gets shot in the very first episode only for a conveniently placed pocket watch to stop the bullet. He is then thrown into a the cockpit of a Super Prototype, despite being an Eleven and thus normally not being allowed, by dent of no one else qualified being around. He just so happens to meet the one genuinely good Britannian princess, who happens to share his beliefs, and makes him her personal knight despite being pressured to do otherwise. Every time he’s faced with the dilemma of sacrificing his morality or following Britannian’s cruel orders as a test of his loyalty, the Black Knights show up to give him an enemy he has much less qualms about. And even when becoming a Knight of the Rounds after capturing Lelouch, he’s fortunate that the Emperor who has been publicly espousing racism and Social Darwinism, doesn’t actually believe his own rhetoric, and has no problem with Suzaku’s ethnicity. Despite Suzaku being a genuine Ace Pilot, one can legitimately say his ascension in the show, is more a product of the world bending over backwards for him, than any merit of his skills or beliefs.
  • Gets downplayed by the fact Suzaku is not only a Death Seeker whose constant string of luck prevents him from atoning for killing his father, but also has his princess killed by his best friend after she was accidentally mind controlled to cause a massacre.
• Brains Evil, Brawn Good: Played with in that he is a Charles Atlas Superpower Anti-Villain working for the Big Bad, whereas Squishy Wizard Lelouch who is more like a stereotypical use of this trope is actually the Well-Intentioned Extremist Byronic Hero.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Think he was a nice boy? Think again. Although it must be noted that most of his nastiness was focused exclusively on Lelouch, whose entire being rubbed Suzaku in all the wrong ways. Much of it came from imitation as the grown-ups at the Kururugi Shrine showed obvious disdain towards the exiled prince, and the ten-year-old boy's childish need to prove himself superior to his equivalent from the Britannian side and the resulting self-consciousness of coming short in every aspect other than straight-out brawl. In the end it was Nunnally who gave Suzaku one hell of a Heel Realization when the wheelchair-bound girl asked him if he came to hit her just like he hit her brother before and soon after the three of them became genuinely good friends once Lelouch realized that Suzaku was kind to Nunnally for real and without any ulterior motives whatsoever.
• Broken Ace: Possibly the best fighter in the series, weighed down by all the tragedy he encounters in his life.
• Byronic Hero: As time passes and events scratch away at his Knight in Shining Armor facade, it becomes clear he's actually a brooding, uncompromising, and self-destructive Death Seeker who seeks atonement for killing his father. He tries sacrificing himself under the guise of chivalry to both Britannia and supposedly Japan as an excuse to fulfill his death wish, but mostly serves to derail Lelouch's plans before they would otherwise bear maximum results. R2 has him become an outright Knight Templar before he finally fully hits the Despair Event Horizon resulting in his final and tragic team up with Lelouch to try to make up for all they have done.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Like Lelouch, he tried doing that to his father. When that didn't work, he killed him, resulting in a failure even worse than Lelouch.
• Cartwright Curse: Every single person who has him as knight dies a horrible death.
• Cats Are Mean: Cats are mean to Suzaku. Arthur seems to hold no ill will toward any other members of the cast.
• Character Development: Suzaku arguably changes more than any other character in the series. Interestingly enough, his slide from Black-and-White Morality to Black-and-Gray Morality puts him in the position to accomplish the change he was never able to as an Internal Reformist.
• Charles Atlas Superpower:
  • For reasons pointed out but not fully explained in the anime besides the fact that it's implied to be what got him cleared to pilot the Lancelot in the first place, Suzaku is capable of performing athletic feats far beyond what normal humans are able to (like running along a wall and kicking off a machine gun with a 0.05 seconds time delay). The anime does indicate Suzaku benefits from using his nigh-supernatural physical abilities under the influence of the Geass Lelouch cast on him, which forces him to preserve his own life at all costs. This makes Suzaku take full advantage of his own skills for pulling off the impressive feats of physical prowess necessary for his survival. Towards the end of the series, Suzaku has gotten quite good at making use of the Geass in this way. This was apparently going to be explained sometime in the second season. But that thread got lost in the mad scramble to keep the show going strong.
  • In a presumably non-canon CD extra , Cecile remembers a time when she accidentally drops a chip under the Lancelot's foot. Much to her shock, Suzaku is able to lift the mecha's foot with his bare hands to allow her to grab the chip. The Lancelot, without equipment, weighs 6.89 tonnes, and the man just casually lifted probably half of that given there were no supports attached.
• Chess Motifs: The knight piece: Suzaku is the white knight and his strange movements let him take Lelouch by surprise. During Zero Requiem, he takes on the mask of Zero and becomes the new Black King.
• Chick Magnet: Very much so. Perhaps less so than Lelouch. Certainly less oblivious about it.
• Childhood Friends: With Lelouch. Suzaku met and befriended Lelouch and Nunnally when they moved to the Kururugi residence as a diplomatic peace trade and they soon became best friends.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: So much so that other characters draw attention to it repeatedly. Before the series starts, he betrayed Japan to Britannia by killing his father and joining up with the Britannia army. In the first season, he betrays Lelouch at the end of the season to the Emperor in order to become a Knight of the Round. (This is arguably a case of It's Personal, since Lelouch had just killed Suzaku's girlfriend and never explained why). In season 2, he first betrayed Nunnally's trust by using her to bait Lelouch (she found out and called him on it), then inadvertently betrays Lelouch to the Britannians again (though it's not his fault this time, he was followed because they suspected him of having ties to Zero), then betrayed the Emperor himself and sided with Schneizel to quickly rise in rank. (Knight of One Bismark Waldstein lampshades this very well in their first battle against each other.) In episode 21, he betrayed Schneizel by becoming Emperor Lelouch's Knight of Zero (this can be considered his Heel–Face Turn). In the end, he finally completed this by becoming Zero to kill his Emperor, making him a hero in the eyes of the world and the UFN. This is a subversion, though, as it was all part of his and Lelouch's plans.
• Les Collaborateurs: A more sympathetic example than most, in that he genuinely wants to improve the lot of the average Eleven.
• Conflicting Loyalty: A big reason for the above. During the course of the show, Suzaku tries to balance his loyalties to Japan and its people, the Britannian military he has sworn to serve, the people he cares about and wants to protect, and his personal moral code. At almost any given time in the series, at least two of these will be in conflict with each other. Lampshaded by Lloyd, who points out that it will get him killed someday. That might have been the point.
• Contempt Crossfire: Being an Eleven who serves in the Britannian military, Suzaku gets a lot of this. The Japanese despise him as a sellout and traitor, while the Britannians look down on him for being an Eleven. Best shown when he tries to put a stop to a fight between Tamaki and two Ashford school boys, and gets insulted by both sides.
• Cool Shades: He only wears them on his days off.
• Crash-Into Hello: How he meets Princess Euphemia. An unusual example, in that it's vertical rather than horizontal: Euphie falls (or possibly jumps) on top of him while climbing out her window. This begins a pseudo-Rescue Romance that blossoms into a Bodyguard Crush that might — in a world without Geass — have led to a real relationship and possibly even marriage.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: To ludicrous levels all throughout the first season - when Suzaku fought the Black Knights lost, simple as that. It turned into Lelouch's most personal annoyance. Most egregiously though was in Akito The Exiled when in the base Lancelot model he took on ALL of the Knights of St. Michael and squarely handed them their asses - INSIDE AN ENCLOSED CASTLE. It wasn't until R2 really when this was dropped in favor of giving him challenging opponents more frequently, like Kallen and Tohdoh.
• Cursed with Awesome: Thanks to Lelouch's "Live!" command, Suzaku cannot die, even if he wants to. However, he eventually uses the command as a Super Mode of sorts, as when paired with his near-superhuman abilities, he's capable of performing feats such as being able to stop a FLEIJA with a window of less than a second to work with.
• Cynicism Catalyst: Euphemia's death is what makes him stop being a Wide-Eyed Idealist. Before that, there's his father's death that jumps start his Death Seeker tendency.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He killed his own father.
• Death Seeker: His recklessness and willingness to jump into action is a result of him wanting to take his own life. He wants to die to atone for murdering Genbu Kururugi, but Lelouch commands him to "live", so every subsequent attempt at getting himself killed ends in failure, with one such attempt nearly wiping out all of Tokyo in the process. By the end of the series, he kind of gets his wish. The world at large believes he died aboard the Damocles, and his supposed grave regards him as the greatest hero in the war. However, Suzaku is still alive and well, and he becomes Zero, having slain the demon king Lelouch. In other words, Suzaku "dies", and is reborn as Zero, the world's saviour.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the Hot-Blooded Honor Before Reason Ace Pilot who typically serves as The Hero for this genre. In most shows, such a character would normally be cast him as the good guy by conveniently being placed a scenario where his actions benefit people. Suzaku is what such a character would be when allied with an organization that doesn't have the people's best interests at heart. It's hard to take his presentation as an Ideal Hero seriously when he's working for The Empire whose policies include open discrimination and genocide. As a result, his borderline suicidal behavior on the battlefield seems less like that of a brave hero who's concerned for the welfare of others and more like that of a Death Seeker whose apathy is allowing the situation to worsen. Furthermore his self-righteous preaching seems less like a moralist trying to sway others to reason and more like the ravings of a delusional hypocrite. In short, he exemplifies how destructive and dangerous such a character would really be in the right circumstances.
• Defeat Means Friendship: 'Friendship' may be a strong word unless you take Word of God that Suzaku and Lelouch became friends again as canon, but Suzaku and Lelouch are forced to become allies because they are both so broken and desperate they have nowhere else to turn.
• Determinator: Deconstructed. Suzaku's borderline-suicidal levels of willpower and reckless disregard for his own safety turn out to be the result of him being a Death Seeker with a martyr complex. It's not just that he's indomitably courageous, he is legitimately hoping that the danger he puts himself in will eventually kill him.
• Deuteragonist: The show focuses on his story of rising up within the system as much as it does on Lelouch's rebellion.
• Disappeared Dad: The aforementioned Genbu Kururugi, ex-Prime Minister of Japan who was heavily opposed to Britannia. Suzaku killed him at the tender age of ten, after completely losing his shit because his old man was willing to sacrifice himself and Japan to resist Britannia until the bitter end. When Premier Kururugi was out of the picture, Japan promptly surrendered.
• The Dragon:
  • In season 2, he serves as Co-Dragons with Bismarck to Emperor Charles, as the highest-ranking knights involved in the Emperor's plans for the Ragnarok Connection. And later, continues to serve as Emperor Lelouch's Knight of Zero .
  • In Akito The Exiled, he is this as a Knight of Seven to Julius Kingsley who is actually a brainwashed Lelouch and is one of the Big Bads of Akito The Exiled.
• Dual Wielding: Suzaku's Humongous Mecha Lancelot would frequently use two swords, but when it was upgraded into its Albion form, it started carrying around a rifle in each hand.
• Dynamic Entry: He does his Spinzaku Kick on his first appearance.
• El Cid Ploy: Conspired with Lelouch as part of Zero Requiem.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Even before he was commanded to "Live!", he was already quick enough to dodge a machinegun on full auto and parkour up the walls to take it down, with no expressly superhuman abilities.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Suzaku is an example of both this trope and its inverse. In this case, he genuinely doesn't realize that part of the reason that people oppose Britannia and his attempts to reform it is that Britannia has committed multiple crimes that cannot be forgiven. His desire to see the empire reformed fails to take into consideration that many of its hireups will need to be punished in some way for people to be willing to accomodate his ideals.
• Failure Knight: Even when he does become Euphie's knight, since she dies horribly. By the time his friend Nunnally is believed to be dead due to a nuke that Suzaku fired under influence of Geass, the guy hits rock bottom.
• Falling into the Cockpit: In the beginning, he became the pilot of the Lancelot because he was the only soldier around. Everyone else was kicking lots of puppies in the Japanese Ghetto, so Lloyd and Cecile make him go out in the mecha.
• Fate Worse than Death: While his tombstone praises him as a loyal defender of Emperor Lelouch, given that Lelouch will be remembered as the worst dictator ever, it is likely that Suzaku will go down in history as The Quisling where Japanese people (except for Kallen, and maybe Tohdoh) are concerned, and as The Dragon to a deeply evil ruler for everyone else. And to make matters worse, he will never be able to be anything but Zero for the rest of his life, as only a small handful of people know who's under the mask, and they aren't stupid enough to spill the beans and ruin the plan. On the other hand, he always wanted to be punished for his sins and to become a knight of justice. Technically, he got what he wanted in a particularly tragic way.
• The Fettered: Deconstructed as all his initial morality is just a way to deal with his own guilt. And once he moves past it, his only remaining fetter is his "live" geass, which instead often forces him to cross any and all Moral Event Horizons to survive.
• Foil: Many, many of the characters Suzaku meets are foils that draw attention to Suzaku's personality and differing views on life.
  • Lelouch is someone who is willing to do absolutely everything to succeed, privileging success above all else. Suzaku firmly believes that victory "achieved through dishonest means" simply isn't right. And also, during his time at Ashford Academy, Suzaku is a happy, soft-spoken individual, in contrast to the cynical, uninterested Lelouch. Their means of changing Britannia differ as well, as Lelouch intends to change the system of Britannia by bloodshed and revolution, whereas Suzaku wants to change the system from the inside as he rises in the ranks of the Britannian military.
  • Kallen fights on the "side of the resistance" because of her distaste towards the Britannian system and seeing absolutely no future whatsoever in submitting to a society she hates; Suzaku believes in achieving his own ideals by using the societal system. Though Kallen is far more hotheaded and treats Suzaku unfairly during the last moments of R1, she isn't a hypocritical traitor.
  • Gino. He's an upbeat, albeit somewhat airheaded pilot who fights for Britannia though when Lelouch becomes Emperor and Gino joins Schneizel and the Black Knights, he questions his own loyalty to Britannia. By the time he and Gino meet, Suzaku is more of a gloomy, serious individual who fights for Britannia only because he wants to fix it.
  • His true one is to Akito as both are soldiers geassed to enhance their fighting skills developing a romantic relationship with a Britannian female hailed from famous aristocracy who has no discrimination towards Elevens. Take it up to the point where Suzaku kills Lelouch to become a hero who is forced to live the rest of his life as the masked knight defender of justice without his lover but to guard his best friend's sister to Akito killing Shin, his brother to end the coup leading the mainland to take over live the rest of his life with his newfound friend to fall in love with happily ever after for the majority of his life making the two polar opposites. Additionally they pilot a supermodel prototype mecha said to have enhanced advanced capabilities that go beyond normal Knightmare Frame aspects while Lancelot dealt with supernatural aspects on some occasions, Alexander on the other hand had advanced technology influenced by Geass via brain to maximize it's output. Both Knightmares get upgraded with a float system and Suzaku advanced his via energy wing while Akito did not.
• The Fool: Lampshaded several times. Most notably when Suzaku announces that he now believes that the end justify the means and declares "I've been naive until now." Lloyd drawls "Nooooooo, you?". But also a bit of a subversion. He tends to have incredible Plot Armor, which he would rather not have for particular reasons. Which also becomes a major liability for Lelouch.
• Foreshadowing: His interactions with Shin in Akito the Exiled proved to be this in R2 that after the death of Euphie, he hates the world and wants to destroy it with the White Reaper inside him. It was shown when he laughed maniacally and realized that such means cannot justify the ends leading him to join Lelouch in Zero Requiem. Most of his involvement with Lelouch in E.U. mostly dealt with him watching him suffer based on the lies and the death of his loved one he caused in the previous Black Rebellion. His attempt to kill Lelouch as POW and bargaining chip against Charles did spotlight a hint after showing tears upon stabbing Lelouch that he dearly cared for him as his friend in the end just as how Lelouch showed little tears while being strangled. That shows that Suzaku did not entirely hate him throughout R2 and questions Lelouch's actions against Euphie leading Shirley to convince him via death the two would then be friends once more to save the world.
• Freak Out:
  • After nuking Tokyo under the effect of Geass, Suzaku snaps and goes through one, Evil Laugh included. It radically changes his character throughout the rest of the anime.
  • Also has one about one season earlier when Mao exposes his deepest, darkest secret.
• Freudian Excuse: During the Britannian invasion of Japan, Suzaku killed his father, the Prime Minister, in a desperate bid to get the fighting to stop. The guilt and shame of doing so, combined with the trauma of having his father's blood on his hands, is what drives his "ends don't justify the means" philosophy.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Not exactly a nobody since he's the son of the former Prime Minister, but his standing in Britannian society is quite low at the start of the series, as a minor soldier and only an honorary citizen. But thanks to the support of Euphemia and later a very lucrative deal with the Emperor once he relaxes his moral standards, he's able to rise up and eventually become one of the most powerful knights in the empire.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: As one of the Token Good Teammates of Britannia, Suzaku fails to realize that many of his colleagues won't help with his reforms because they either benefit from the corrupt system he wants fixed or genuinely believe that system should be used to govern the world. In fact, this is part of the reason Suzaku falls under Evil Cannot Comprehend Good in addition to this trope - his inability to recognize that the majority of Britannia enjoys oppressing others prevents him from understanding why others would want to see it destroyed.
• Hairstyle Inertia: His hair is in the same style as it was in his youth.
• Heartbroken Badass: After Euphemia's death. Previously The Fettered, Suzaku is on a rampage from then on, and never truly gets over it.
• The Heavy: For most of the series (although he spends much of it as Hero Antagonist), as the most prominent and one of the most dangerous opponents the Black Knights face in actual combat. Becomes this even moreso in season 2, when he graduates from being just a field soldier and becomes one of the highest ranking and easily the most persistent of the Emperor's followers to hunt down Lelouch and CC.
• Heel Realization: A variation. He stops himself before he forces Kallen to use Refrain, realising that if he goes through with it that he will be just like how he sees Lelouch. He also has one combined with Laughing Mad at the end of R2 Episode 19.
• Heroic BSoD: After Mao reveals that Suzaku was the one to kill Genbu Kururugi. And an even bigger one after he fires the FLEIJA.
• Heroic Wannabe: Suzaku has the goals and mindset of a hero, actively trying to be an Internal Reformist for Britannia who can achieve peace for his people without having to resort to bloodshed while avoiding killing others if possible. The problem is that he is serving a corrupt empire that doesn't give two cents to his beliefs because he is a member of an oppressed underclass and who will gladly crush anyone who opposes them while fighting tooth and nail to avoid being reformed. The result is him appearing to others as little more than an enforcer for colonization, and an enormous Hypocrite as a consequence.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Started out as a person who just wanted to fix things from the inside of the system, and eventually reached the top and dominated others with his power. At least that's how other people see him.
• Honor Before Reason: At times he acts this way, though sometimes he ends up with the exact opposite mentality and goes full on pragmatic.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Hates violence and discrimination. So why does he trust the very people who occupied his country? Zigzagged with Lelouch. Suzaku is the one character particularly able to catch Lelouch lying, perhaps because of their shared history.
• Hypocrite:
  • Preaches non-violence and working within the system, yet supports one that invaded and colonized his country, downgrading him along with all other natives to second-class status, and has no problems with violently oppressing them. Cranked up to 11 in R2 when he becomes a Knight of the Round, and becomes part of Schneizel's anti-EU campaign among other things, including the opposition to UFN's legitimate fight of liberation for Japan itself. All of this of course is in hopes of Japan's well-being, but it turns out to be more self-contradictory and counterproductive than anything.
  • He condemns Zero for killing Prince Clovis as part of his plan to liberate Japan, saying it was a dirty and cowardly act. He killed his own father before the story began to stop a war with Britannia.
  • Also believes the end doesn't justify the means yet works for Britannia to one day change it and is little more their enforcer for the majority of the series.
  • Calls out Lelouch as a coward for his Geass power, and only refrains from drugging Kallen because he views it as a similar underhanded tactic, but had no objections to the Emperor rewriting Lelouch's memories while playing along in the false life, and even used Nunnally as a tool to see if Lelouch had broken out of it.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: Unfortunate for him being a Death Seeker, this happens to Suzaku when Lelouch geasses him to "Live!"
• Idiot Hero: Played for drama (if not deconstructed) as he painfully pays the consequences for his questionable decisions. He's not an idiot as much as oblivious; often invokes being oblivious and an idiot to avoid really coming to terms with what he's really doing.
• Idiot Houdini: On the other hand, and ironically enough, he survives against all rights, and his own wishes.
• I Know Mortal Kombat:
  • According to STAGE 0.543: End of the Blissful Summer, Suzaku learned the basics of driving a car from a video game when he was ten and figured the rest when he and Lelouch "borrowed" one from the Kururugi Shrine. Lelouch only learned of this at that very moment and at the same time Suzaku took a corner at 70 km/h (~ 43.5 miles per hour). Needless to say, he wasn't amused.
  • Honorary Britannians are forbidden from ever piloting a Knightmare Frame, meaning that Suzaku didn't have any official training before Falling into the Cockpit of the Lancelot. The Novelization states that all his prior experience came from a time Britannian military put a bunch of fresh recruits into the Knightmare equivalent of a Cockpit Procedures Trainer in other to gather some unspecified raw data for reference. Ironically, his lack of knowledge and preconceptions actually helped him to get the best performance out of the Super Prototype, unlike regular pilots who were too used to less powerful and maneuverable Frames.
• Inspector Javert: Constantly hounds Zero, and wants him to account for his crimes.
• Internal Reformist: Suzaku is viewed as a traitor to his people due to his belief that he can make life for the Japanese people better by working within the systems the Britannian Empire has put into place. As a soldier, this frequently means he also has to clash violently with the Japanese Resistance movement. This changes when he accidentally nukes Tokyo, and he's forced to reflect on his failure to effect any meaningful change in Britannia.
• Invincible Hero: He's actually quite a good Deconstruction of the archetype, with the first season gradually exposing the huge psychological issues and painful backstory that would go into making someone like that, and R2 showing the gradual disintegration of this status until the end of the season when he is reborn as Zero, an entirely different kind of hero.
• It Gets Easier: Used to be reluctant to kill, but due as things progressed in the series killing people becomes less of a problem for him.
• It's All My Fault: Believes himself to be responsible for the current state of things in Area 11.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: What he acquires throughout the series. By the time of the second half of R2, his optimism and idealism have been almost completely beaten out of him, to the point that he's arguably even more cynical than Lelouch.
• Karma Houdini: A case where the character thinks he is, and is arguably right. He gets away with killing his father, defies royal orders several times, yet is never really punished for it except for self-imposed ones. For much of the series, Suzaku's compulsion to atone for being a Karma Houdini — along with his consequent self-hated — is his driving motivation. All this is Lampshaded very melodramatically by Mao in episode 16.
• Katanas Are Just Better: In Code Geass: Tales of an Alternate Shogunate, wields one with great skill.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: He is said to love cats upon his first meeting with Euphie (whom is playing with a cat he later takes in, named Arthur), but this also said to be a one-sided love which becomes something of a Running Gag for the show. Arthur is shown later watching over his "gravestone", though. According to Word of God and the official website Arthur does like Suzaku and bites him to show affection, which is Truth in Television. Arthur even saves Suzaku's life by biting a Black Knight who's about to kill him when they take over Ashford. Heck, even the cats are Tsundere in this series.
• The Kingslayer: Twice over. He killed his father, the Prime Minister of Japan, because he didn't want the Japanese to fight to the last. Later on, he killed Emperor Lelouch as part of a plan to end war and hatred.
• Kissing Cousins: With Kaguya. See Arranged Marriage, above.
• Knighting: Is knighted twice in the series. First, he becomes Euphemia's knight (as in his job description), then later the apparently-dying Cornelia dubs him Knight of Honor of Britannia in the field.
• Knight in Shining Armor: He fits the bill better than most of the actual knights he fights alongside, despite the fact that he's Japanese and therefore unable to become a knight for real. At least, until Lloyd is able to give him the Lancelot and he's knighted by Princess Euphemia. Ironically, it's after he becomes a knight that this becomes a subversion; a series of tragic events eradicate his sense of chivalry and idealism.
• Knight Templar: His intentions are noble in theory, but in practice they require ruthlessness to carry out. It also doesn't pan out so well for any country that isn't Japan or Britannia.
• Lady and Knight: He is the Knight and Euphemia is the Lady.
• Laughing Mad: He becomes this temporarily after his "Live" command forces him to destroy the Tokyo Settlement. After spending literally an entire day standing in the massive crater left behind by the explosion, he finally bursts into a fit of insane laughter upon accepting that all of his attempts at being at a hero for justice have only resulted in more death than if he had simply joined Lelouch from the start.
• Lawful Stupid: Believes that he will be able to change the system from within, even though he has no chance. Ends up working against what he wants to do.
• Leeroy Jenkins: At times his rashness can get in the way of the carefully set plans of others.
• Love Makes You Evil: His descends into Knight Templar status after the death of Princess Euphemia.

M-Z

• Manly Tears:
  • While he cries multiple times throughout the series, the most obvious example is when he's talking to Euphemia, who only has minutes left to live after Zero shot her. He's bawling his eyes out by the time she passes away.
  • He is shedding tears while killing Lelouch.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Suzaku and his late father, Genbu are named after two of The Four Gods. There's also a bit of Fridge Brilliance with the former — The Phoenix rises from its ashes (or lays egg before it burns), so it's, kind of, immortal. Lelouch geassed Suzaku to live on, with the same 'rise from the ashes' effect. Not literally, of course. Also, Suzaku killing Lelouch allowed the Zero persona to be reborn, like a phoenix, in him. The violent method would fit the fiery rebirth of a phoenix.
  • He pilots the Lancelot, named after a knight who had a tragic affair with a noblewoman. In many tales, Lancelot is also a traitor to the Knights of the Round Table, which is what happens once he becomes The Knight Of Zero.
• Meet Cute: With Princess Euphemia. Not just their vertical Crash-Into Hello (when she falls on top of him while "escaping" imaginary villains), but the whole sequence that follows, which is arguably the happiest and most unambiguously romantic sequence in the series. So you just know things are going to go well from then on.
• Memento MacGuffin: His Disappeared Dad's old pocket watch, which once saves him from death, as he's shot at very close range but the watch stops the bullet. When he leaves it with Euphie's body, it's a symbol of him finally letting go of the past and his Wide Eyed Idealism.
• Meta Guy: In the Picture and Audio Dramas (especially those from the R2 timeframe), he's allowed to break the fourth wall (lampshading how he gets more focus in side-materials) and act out-of-character (refusing to follow Milly's orders, which he never does in-series) as long as it fits the Rule of Funny.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: He uses the equivalent of a nuclear warhead on the Tokyo settlement, killing millions of people and destroying the city, on complete accident. Had he had any other weapon on hand or hadn't forced by Geass to try to save his own life, this would not have happened.
• Moral Myopia: Toward the second season (really, anytime after Euphemia's death), he ultimately committed many of the same violent acts he decried earlier on. Arguably even before that, where he really has no problem with the massacre of every citizen in the Shinjuku ghetto, and even aids in it by removing the only thing keeping it at bay (the terrorists). In general, Suzaku seems to hold the belief that it's OK for Britannia to act this way because they're in charge, but no one else can no matter how justified it may be.
  Rather, he tries his best to help and protect as many people as possible with his limited freedom as a Britannian soldier, and desperately (often delusionally) clings to the hope that it's for the greater good whenever he's ordered to partake in, execute or overlook needless violence. At no point does he believe it to be "OK" for anyone. He also seemed completely unaware and ignorant of the wanton killing of Japanese civilians in Shinjuku. It should be noted that he was knocked out for a considerable period of time as he nearly lost his life because he refused to follow his superior's order of murdering Lelouch.
  • One less debatable area is where he calls out Lelouch over his Geass power once he learns about it, but participates in the Emperor rewriting Lelouch's memories with his own Geass power and later continues to play along with the facade without any sign of criticism or objections.
  • On a more personal level, he outright mimics tactics that Lelouch would use by using an unquestionably innocent Nunnally as a test of whether her brother has regained his memories. In a best-case scenario for Suzaku, this plan would have involved traumatizing Nunnally with the sound of Lelouch denying that he knows her.
• Mr. Fanservice: His Knightmare Frame-piloting uniform is really tight. He's pretty muscular, and he's got a really cute butt! He also resembles Syaoran from Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- a little bit. Considering the designs were done by CLAMP, this shouldn't come as a surprise.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He has three of these. First, when C.C accidentally undoes his Trauma-Induced Amnesia and he remembers that he murdered his father. Second, when he attempts to drug Kallen to get information out of her but stops himself from doing so at the last moment, realizing it's the kind of underhanded tactic he despises Zero for using. Third, when he fires the FLEIJA nuke while under the effect of his "Live" Geass, kills thirty million people (mostly on his side) and spends an entire episode brooding at the epicenter of the disaster.
• My Greatest Failure: He has never forgiven himself for murdering his own father and actively seeks to die as an atonement for this crime.
• My Hero, Zero: After Lelouch becomes The Emperor, he became the Knight of Zero. Later in the story, as part of the Zero Requiem, he's required to drop "Knight of" from his title and wear a mask.
• Never My Fault: Zigzagged with It's All My Fault. On one hand, he rejects any and all implications that his serving Britannia is allowing them to continue their brutal occupation of his country and is more comfortable with passing off blame to those who rebel against them. On the other hand, his act of patricide is what allowed said occupation to take place and so he feels a responsibility towards protecting his people in his own way, even if the results are less than stellar.
• Nice Guy: In the first season, Suzaku is one of the nicest characters in the series, perpetually acting to protect those around him, always polite even to people who hate him, and even protecting Kallen's identity as a freedom fighter from his Britannian superiors. Averted in the second season, where he starts acting more unscrupulously.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Due to his "Live!" Geass, which he knew about at the time, he inadvertently nukes the epicenter of the Tokyo Settlement, killing 30 million civilians, because he tried to let Kallen kill him. Whoops.
• Nominal Villain: Suzaku starts out this way. He joins up with Britannia because he incorrectly thinks that the system can be changed from within, and that Lelouch's/Zero's methods are too extreme and ultimately harmful toward the people of Japan.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy:
  • One of the "Welcome to Ashford Academy" Slice of Life stories from Newtype sees Milly, in a bikini and lounging in a kiddie pool, trying to put the moves on him, but all it does is make him feel awkward. Then Milly says "Alright Rivalz, stop the camera, he's not gonna fall for it."
  • In the main series, he encounters Kallen naked taking a Waterfall Shower on Kamine Island... and completely ignores it in favor of pinning her down. She was (likely) trying to kill him since he just found out she's a Black Knight.
• The Paladin: For most of the series, Suzaku is a knight that refuses to break the rules, and at least at the start, Would Not Shoot a Civilian.
• Patricide: Murdered his own father in order to prevent what he saw as unnecessary bloodshed.
  • In Suzaku of the Counterattack, Suzaku killed him because he overheard his conversation on his willingness to collaborate with Britannian troops and get rid of anti-occupation Japanese officials.
• Perpetual Frowner: Come R2, Suzaku smiles less and less; eventually, by the last couple of episodes, we don't see him smile at all. Gino lampshades this when he's looking through a packet of photographs from the good old days at Ashford Academy; he comes across Suzaku in several of the pictures and comments, "I've never seen Suzaku smile like that. He's so... happy!"
• Pet the Dog: Late in R2, the Knights of the Round descend upon Pendragon to try and stop Emperor Lelouch. Suzaku mercilessly kills the first two Knights and fights to kill Bismarck, but he just disarms and disables Gino's Tristan, leaving him alive.
• Pinocchio Nose: Like Lelouch, is familiar with looking away when lying. Also caught by Nunnally on another tic when he avoids contact with her hand in the second season.
• Principles Zealot: Started off like this and then as events got worse, he moved away from it.
• Prophetic Name: His name can mean "phoenix". Guess who "dies" at the end of the series and is "reborn" as an entirely new person.
• The Quisling: Ingratiates himself quite thoroughly into Britannian culture, particularly after he becomes the Knight of Seven.
• Rags to Riches: Suzaku becomes one of the most respected men in Japan through his martial prowess, in contrast to Lelouch who is ex-royalty.
• Red Baron:
  • "The White Grim Reaper".
  • "Knight of Zero"; it symbolizes both his standing above the other Knights, and his new status as The Dragon to Zero.
• Riches to Rags: Suzaku's father was the prime minister of Japan and was a blue blood along with Kaguya. His family lost most of their social standing when Brittania invaded and occupied their country and he fell further out of favor when he decided to associate himself with the Britannians.
• The Rival:
  • He is Lelouch's greatest rival throughout the show. Their ideologies are in direct opposition: where Lelouch wants to destroy Britannia in its entirely, willing to do whatever it takes as long as he gets results, Suzaku does his best to change it from within, believing that any ends gained through contemptible means are worthless.
  • On the battlefield, Kallen is the only person who can match Suzaku's piloting skills, and both serve as the strongest soldiers for their sides.
• The Scapegoat: Set up as the fall guy for the murder of Clovis by Jeremiah in hopes of having the Honorary Britannian system eradicated.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Up for debate. Suzaku, the pilot of a Humongous Mecha, punched the mech's designer in the face when he didn't let him go out and fight, as they weren't given orders to deploy. This is a big shift for pro-rules Suzaku. Now whether you consider his actions following this justice-driven or revenge-driven decides whether this belongs here.
  Due to the heavy Gray-and-Gray Morality of the series, it's a matter of personal opinion whether Suzaku is doing the "right" thing or not at any given time, whether he's following the rules or not.
• Secretly Selfish: Which Mao brings up during his Breaking Speech all his heroic acts and moral grandstanding all stem from his Death Seeker status, with Suzaku only truly starting to shake out of this after he crosses the Despair Event Horizon with the FLEIJA and joins up with Lelouch to create the Zero Requiem.
• Self-Made Orphan: At the age of nine, he stabbed his own father to death, the prime minister of Japan, in order to put an end to the war. See also Disappeared Dad, above.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: He seems like the former this for part of the series in contrast to Lelouch, but it's a facade. It's actually the reverse underneath their facades.
• Shipper on Deck: After finding out about Shirley's affection for Lelouch, Suzaku actively tries to help her a few times to ask out Lelouch. This naturally disappears when he finds out about Lelouch's Secret Identity and Took a Level in Jerkass between the first season and R2.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!:
  Lelouch: [still in Zero persona] Euphemia randomly murdered throngs of innocent Japanese people. You fight for a woman like —
  Suzaku: [interrupts] Your Geass power is quite convenient, isn't it? You get to hide in the shadows while others take all the blame for doing your dirty work. You're just an arrogant coward. That's your true nature, the real you.
• Social Climber: A more idealistic version; he seeks to rise in Britannian society to change it for the better.
• Spanner in the Works: Aside from the fact that he is usually the one to spoil Lelouch's plans (including his "Live" Geass), Suzaku wouldn't have appeared inside the Sword of Akasha if it weren't for the Batman Gambit of Marianne, who was probably counting on either his love for her stepdaughter Euphie or his friendship with her Soul Jar Anya... which backfired when Suzaku sided with Lelouch regardless. If he hadn't been there, Charles and Marianne could have had a better chance of succeeding.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Euphemia. At first, their differing status seems an insurmountable obstacle, in spite of both of them being too bullheaded to let it stop them for long. Unfortunately, Euphemia's tragic death at Zero's hands puts an end to their romance flat-out.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He's 5'9" (175 cms) which is just above average, but the rest checks out.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: After firing the FLEIJA warhead he gives up on reforming Britannia or ending the war and declares that he will use whatever methods to achieve his ends. It doesn't stick though.
• To Be Lawful or Good: A constant conflict of his, he wants to do good in the system but it conflicts at times with his sense of justice.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Between the first season and the second, any sense of idealism or kindness he once had has vanished, and is even willing to stoop to lows such as potentially drugging Kallen to get some answers out of her.
• Tragic Hero: Just like Lelouch, depends on perspective. Possibly both at the same time.
• Tranquil Fury: This becomes his default mode for the majority of the second season. He finally gets over it after agreeing to join the Zero Requiem.
• Unequal Pairing: Princess Euphemia is in an extreme position of power and authority over her Knight of Honor Suzaku. He's been ostracized from his family, has fallen into low social status and after leaving the military is unemployed. She is the wealthy third princess of the superpower Empire occupying at least two-thirds of the world including his home country. Despite the power difference between them, she does not assert any dominance over him and when ordering him it's something he was planning to already do.
• The Unfettered: For a majority of the series, he strives to be idealistic and values decent means in accomplishing his goals. However, once his "Live" command forces him to nuke the Tokyo Settlement, he undergoes a Heel Realization and accepts that Lelouch was right in his pragmatic methods. From then on, he believes that the only thing that matters is the end result, even admitting that had he only joined with Lelouch from the start then a majority of bloodshed could have been avoided.
  Suzaku: If I'm predestined to be a killer, then so be it. Gino, I know what I am and what I must do. What matters... are results.
• Unwitting Pawn: Suzaku is an earnest, well-meaning lad with a healthy respect for authority stuck in a show filled to the brim with Magnificent Bastards and Chess Masters. As a result, he ends up being everyone's pawn... and often ends up derailing as many gambits as he helps build.
• Villain Protagonist: Is this one in Episode 3 of Akito the Exiled as lamp shaded by Episode 2 trailer and most of his development dealt him throwing his grief and hate towards Lelouch after Euphie's death with the screen time of him in the Lancelot massacring Shin's goons talking foreshadowing R2 particularly the destruction of the Tokyo Settlement and his descent into commencing Zero Requiem with Lelouch with the title 'White Death of Britannia' something that would carry on and be told to the E.U. as the worst enemy in history upon the second invasion with Schneizel starting Lancelot & Guren towards R2.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He is. This, in turn, subverts the trope where mandatorily one and only one of the two arch-rivals is the Well-Intentioned Extremist, since BOTH of them fit the trope.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Initially, though this brutally changes over the course of the series.
• Would Not Shoot a Civilian: To the core. At least at first. He fights the Japanese resistance — or any attempt (legitimate or otherwise) to free Japan — precisely because it endangers civilians. Even in the heat of battle, Suzaku goes out of his way not to harm civilians, even if it means disobeying direct orders. (For example, in the very first episode, he refuses to shoot Lelouch — although in that instance he also has personal reasons, as he and Lelouch are long-time friends. His superior, on the other hand, reacts to this insubordination by trying to kill him.) Of course, the tragic irony is that Britannia is just as likely to harm Japanese civilians as the terrorists are, sometimes more so, and Suzaku participates (albeit very indirectly) in the first episode's massacre. At any rate, his previously iron-clad Would Not Shoot a Civilian position starts to crack after the first season, and it dissolves completely after the F.L.E.I.J.A. incident.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Suzaku acts for a majority of the series as if the world of Code Geass is a standard mecha shounen where holding strong to idealist principles and avoiding unsavory methods to achieve one's goals is rewarded. However, all he succeeds in doing is getting in Lelouch's way every time he's on the verge of actually making significant progress in overcoming Britannia, so blinded by his guilt over killing his father that he believes aiding a fascist and genocidal empire will ever actually earn him enough respect to change it from within. Only after his "Live" command forces him to destroy the Tokyo Settlement does it finally sink in how impossible his non-pragmatic lifestyle is.
• You Are Number 6: Is by definition, as a Japanese native, a Number. Ironically enough in R2, he refers to Kallen by her prisoner number when he requests Nunnally, who is conversing with her, to allow him to interrogate her. A signal of his further descent, especially in that he, the nation and the fellow countrymen he fights for are Numbers.

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