Fanfic / My Mirror, Sword and Shield

My Mirror, Sword and Shield is a Code Geass Fusion Fic combined with elements of Back to the Future.

It has been 18 years after the reign of infamous Demon Emperor and the 17-year old Suzaku Kururugi would often assist his eccentric adoptive father, Lloyd with his inventions. But he never thought that Lloyd would go so far to invent a time machine. Let alone one that worked. As Lloyd combines a car and the cannibalized parts of the unused Lancelot prototype.

When Suzaku's parents are attacked on the anniversary of Emperor Lelouch's assassination due to anti-Britannian sentiment, Suzaku uses the time machine in hopes of saving his parents. Unfortunately he ends up traveling farther than planned and ends up in the middle of the Battle of Shinjuku.

From there, Suzaku makes choices that alter history despite his intentions.

There's also oneshots such as:

• Back to the Start which shows how Cecile met Suzaku and the circumstances of his adoption.
• Never Meant You Harm: Nunnally's life in altered future.
• Closing Walls and Ticking Clocks: Schneizel and Kanon's life while in hiding.

Also available on FanFiction.Net

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My Mirror, Sword and Tropes:

• Abusive Parents: Suzaku’s unnamed mother was verbally abusive towards him, calling him a mistake and was neglectful of him, spending all their money on her drug habit.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Both Lelouch and Suzaku are homosexual.
• Aggressive Negotiations: The initially peaceful conference for the opening of the SAZ with the JLF falls apart when Sir Raleigh orders the troops to attack behind Euphemia and Suzaku's backs, turning into a massacre. It ends in further tears when Euphemia calls Raleigh out on his actions and refuses to back down from her ideals.
• Alas, Poor Villain: In-Universe Suzaku hated Lelouch for oppressing his people but still believes the way he died was horrific and notes that Lelouch was a scared teenager in the end.
• All the Good Men Are Gay: When Euphemia’s relationship with Sir Albert Raleigh grew rocky, she finds a great guy in Suzaku. He’s loyal, kind, professional, resilient, determined….and gay. And has a thing for her brother, Lelouch.
• Altar Diplomacy: Cornelia worries that Lelouch would sell Euphemia’s or Nunnally’s hand in marriage to the highest bidder for political or economic alliances.
• And I'm the Queen of Sheba: A Britannian Royal Guard has this reaction when Suzaku tries to avoid a confrontation to prepare for the Battle of Narita.
  Suzaku: I’m on important business from the emperor.
  Guard: Of course you are, Eleven. And I’m the emperor’s cousin.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: Lelouch's death is celebrated as a national holiday.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: With the exceptions of Euphemia, Nunnally, Gino and Anya, there's nothing nice to say about the Britannian aristocracy. In the case of Lelouch's first Royal Guard, made of aristocratic second sons, they are actively incompetent. In the case of the Knights of Round and the conspirators who had Marianne assassinated, are actively malicious. Despite Emperor Lelouch's selfish reasons for it, everyone agrees that dissolving the aristocracy helped in the long run.
• Asshole Victim: Sir Raleigh is a racist, bigoted classist jerk that deserved his death in punishment for Euphemia’s murder.
• Authority in Name Only: As Emperor Lelouch’s personal Royal Guard and knight, Suzaku is second to the Emperor in authority. In practice Suzaku has no power whatsoever as everyone that’s not Lelouch, his sisters, Jeremiah and his future parents hate him for being Japanese and don’t listen to him. Suzaku’s not even sure that he gets paid.
• Bad Samaritan: Schniezel takes in Clara Einstein and her young daughter to shield them from Lelouch, but he does so he can have Clara make him nuclear weapons and would kill either of them if they become inconvenient.
• Batman Gambit: Suzaku tries uses his knowledge of the future to predict their enemies, but it doesn’t always work since he isn’t that much of a tactician and he only knows what was shown to him in the history books.
  • Despite this, Suzaku pulls a masterful one on the day of Lelouch’s assassination. He disguises himself as one of the assassins so he fake kills Lelouch by drugging him and fake stabbing him. Suzaku then throws a corpse wearing Lelouch’s robes (the assassin Suzaku was replacing) to the frenzied mob so everyone would think that Lelouch died and not think of DNA testing the remains.
• Becoming the Mask:
  • Lelouch wears the mask of being cruel, ruthless, not caring what people think of him. Lelouch becomes very concerned that it’s not as much as a mask as he think it is.
  • Suzaku puts on the facade of being a loyal obedient knight to Lelouch in order to keep track of him and make sure that Lelouch dies at the right time. Suzaku realizes that he has become genuinely loyal to Lelouch and willingly fights for him when he refuses to give up Lelouch to the JLF despite being unarmed and surrounded in the Battle of Narita.
• Beneath the Mask: Lelouch is a fearsome, self-assure ruthless dictator and Chessmaster, but under his mask he acts like a regular teenager in that he wants his crush to like him, spend time with him and can find his sisters lovable but annoying.
• Best Served Cold: Lelouch spent years planning revenge on his father for letting his mother die and abandoning him and Nunnally. Years later, he kills his father and becomes Emperor to crush his father’s empire. He also gets revenge on the aristocracy who ordered his mother’s assassination by dissolving the aristocracy and taking away their money and titles.
• Big Brother Instinct: Deconstructed as Euphemia is happy to be away from Cornelia because her protectiveness is stifling and demeaning considering that Cornelia treats her like a child.
• Birthday Episode: Suzaku feels strangely about his birthday since it's the day that his alter timeline self is born. While Suzaku wanted to treat it like another day, Lelouch ends up giving themselves the day off to celebrate.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Sir Raleigh is described as a sweet and honorable man who’s a stickler for protocol. All of this flies out the window as his bigoted and jealous side comes out when he meets Suzaku.
• Bodyguard Crush:
  • Invoked by Euphemia who recommends to Lelouch that he finds a good-looking guard for himself. Euphemia herself has a romantic relationship with her personal guard, Knight of Five Albert Raleigh.
  • Suzaku and Lelouch are a same-sex example. Suzaku’s pity-based fascination and Lelouch’s physical attraction evolves into love the more they came to rely and respect each other as bodyguard and charge.
• Bodyguard Betrayal: The Knights of Round attempt to backstab Lelouch.
• Book Ends: The first and last chapters take place in 2036 in Ashford Academy.
• Boom, Headshot!: Clovis is killed with a straight shot to the head by Lelouch.
• Boomerang Bigot: Suzaku reluctantly realizes when he's defending himself to Kallen that he hates Japanese people. Which is due to his Japanese neglectful and abusive drug addict of a mother and the Japanese thugs that threatened and killed his loving adoptive Britannian parents.
• Brutal Honesty: Anya doesn’t sugarcoat anything. When Nunnally asks for an explanation on why Anya was avoiding the bedrooms, Anya bluntly tells her its because Suzaku and Lelouch are having sex. When the latter two were trying to be discrete about it and hiding it from Nunnally.
• Bulletproof Vest: Lloyd survives getting shot in the altered timeline due to Suzaku warning him in his letter.
• Butterfly of Doom: Suzaku sets one off despite his intentions by piloting the Lancelot when it was never used in his timeline which sets him to become one of Lelouch's knights. It takes Suzaku a lot to preserve the timeline even with his involvement.
• Career-Ending Injury: The first doctor that sees Suzaku recommends that he retires otherwise he will have pain for the rest of his life.
• Cassandra Truth: Absolutely no one believes Lelouch and Suzaku when they announce that Sir Raleigh murdered Euphemia despite it being the truth due to Lelouch being a vicious dictator and Suzaku’s sketchy rise to power.
• Category Traitor: Kallen, the JLF and the Black Knights consider Suzaku one for serving as the personal Knight to their oppressor, Emperor Lelouch out of his own volition.
• Chekhov's Gun: Suzaku's disconnect with his Japanese heritage is hinted from the beginning when he is only the Japanese student to show up to school on the Emperor’s death day.
  • The Damocles air fortress and F.L.E.I.J..A. bomb are being prepared for the majority of the story.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Nina is mentioned to have a mother that had committed suicide when she was young as part of her backstory. Her mother, Clara Einstein worked with Schneizel for Nina’s protection and created the atomic bomb.
• Chilly Reception: Suzaku gets this reaction twice when he first joins the Royal Guard and later the Knights of Round. This is mostly due to racism and the assumption that he slept with Emperor Lelouch to get his position. They never warm up to him and both groups end up getting dissolved.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Nunnally has a huge jealous streak and doesn't appreciate having Lelouch's attention divided between herself and Suzaku and takes pleasure knowing that Lelouch would ultimately pick her over Suzaku.
• Close-Enough Timeline: When Suzaku and Lelouch get back to 2036, it is the altered timeline where Suzaku was a knight rather than the original timeline where Lelouch actually died. In the altered timeline, Cecile and Lloyd got better reparations when Nunnally lets them go and Suzaku as the Knight goes down in history as an insanely loyal knight.
• Crazy Jealous Guy
  • Lelouch is a harmless variant of this. Lelouch would get irrationally jealous when Suzaku was required as a Royal Guard to spend time with Euphemia and fear that she would steal Suzaku from him. He would tell himself that Euphemia already has a boyfriend, he shouldn't feel threatened, Euphemia exploits this by threatening to poach Suzaku from him if he doesn’t promote Suzaku to Knight of Round for her plans.
  • Sir Albert Raleigh is very possessive of Euphemia and desires to kill Suzaku for the crime of being near her. He starts believing that Suzaku’s tainting her with treasonous ideas such as giving the Japanese rights and murders her over it.
• Convicted by Public Opinion: Due to the circumstances of his rise to power, everyone believes Suzaku slept his way through power and that Suzaku killed Euphemia even though he was not responsible for it. He even goes down in history as Euphemia’s killer, with her actual murderer going down as a martyr.
• Damsel in Distress: Cornelia and Schneizel believe that Lelouch is holding their sisters Euphemia and Nunnally hostage. Unbeknowst to them, they went with Lelouch willingly and in fear that they would be used as pawns.
• Damned by Faint Praise: Suzaku’s words about Lelouch’s bedroom couch.
  ‘’The couch wasn’t the most comfortable thing that Suzaku had ever slept on but it was better than some of the streets that he had slept on when he had been homeless.’’
• Death by Irony: Invoked, believing that Suzaku was Euphemia’s killer, Schneizel intended to have Suzaku ripped limb by limb and crushed like how Euphemia died.
• Death Faked for You:
  • Suzaku fakes Lelouch’s assassination to keep the timeline in tact while sparing Lelouch’s life.
  • Nunnally fakes Suzaku’s suicide when he requests that she cover up his exile so no one looks for him.
• Decapitated Army: Clovis’ forces fall apart when Clovis is killed by Lelouch.
• Decomposite Character: Suzaku’s role in Code Geass is split between two characters: Suzaku retains his role as The Quisling knight to Britannian royalty, but is an Ordinary High-School Student born 17 years after Lelouch’s reign. Daiki Sumeragi is given Suzaku’s role as Lelouch’s childhood friend who helps Lelouch and Nunnally survive the war
• Decoy Getaway: Lelouch decided to use a Sunderland during the Battle of Narita instead of the fancier Gawain or his preferred Shinkiro and used the Gawain as a decoy. When the JLF attack the Gawain, he flees without their notice.
• Dented Iron: Suzaku is the strongest knight and pilot in the series but ends up having chronic pain for the rest of his life and has horrible scars on his chest.

• Don't Call Me "Sir":
  • After Suzaku protects Lelouch despite overwhelming odds and the offer of escape if he gives Lelouch up, Lelouch decides that Suzaku can drop the formalities with him and call him by name.
  • Euphemia can’t get her lover, Sir Raleigh to stop calling her by her titles which exasperates her as its distances them more than she would like.
• Don't Celebrate Just Yet: Suzaku manages to take down the rebellious Knights of Round with ease, only to get speared for his trouble when he misses Luciano.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Almost everyone in his high command has backstabbed Lelouch. The one person who is genuinely loyal is the guy that has to make that he dies at the right time..
  • Despite Cornelia and Schneizel’s fretting over Euphemia and Nunnally and fearing their safety from Lelouch, Euphemia and Nunnally doesn't want their "rescue."
  • Nunnally makes Suzaku promise to protect Lelouch when he knows that he has to let Lelouch die to ensure the timeline. Then Suzaku lets Nunnally think that he failed despite saving Lelouch's life so the timeline would remain in tact.
• The Dreaded: People are scared shitless of Lelouch for good reason as he's pretty ruthless to hostages and a fiercesome dictator.
• Driven to Suicide: Nina’s mother committed suicide in her backstory and Suzaku gradually finds out why.
• Dr. Jerk: Suzaku’s first doctor is racist, bluntly tells Lelouch that he should retire Suzaku and send him on his pension. Suzaku admits to hearing him saying racist comments when he thinks Suzaku is too drugged to listen, but admits to his skill. Since he’s back talking the Emperor, he gets dismissed.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: History states that Suzaku is second only to Emperor Lelouch in power during the War of Ascension and was the best knight in Britannian history. During his tenure, Suzaku had little to no power due to everyone’s distrust of him.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Emperor Lelouch gets rather distracted when he sees Suzaku in the rather form-fitting pilot uniform. Lelouch deliberately gives Suzaku a too small uniform to show off his body.
• End of an Era: Lelouch ends the aristocracy, having taken away everything save hereditary lands and properties for those nobles given their titles before his grandfather's time and the titles themselves, and even the lands had been reduced. All of the monopolies granted by the emperor have been taken away. He disbands the Houses entirely, what once was the aristocracy now no longer has a say in the empire. The aristocracy and the Knights of Round are horrified, since a lot of them are new nobility.
• Everyone Has Standards: Despite despising Suzaku, Kallen doesn’t make a crack against Suzaku’s adoption by Britannian parents because she’s not crass enough to believe that Suzaku’s parents deserved death for their heritage.
• The Exile: Nunnally exiles Suzaku when he fails to protect Lelouch from assassination. Since Lelouch is actually alive and Suzaku is returning to his original timeline, Suzaku ignores it.
• Falling into the Cockpit: Suzaku becomes the Lancelot’s pilot while trying to escape the Battle of Shinjuku due to the death of the original test pilot. While he was given a choice to leave, he decides to fight for Lelouch by returning to the Britannian army. Along with his natural talent, Suzaku had two things on his side: years of playing Knightmare simulators and being the adoptive son of the Lancelot’s creator.
• Fee Fi Faux Pas: Suzaku is trying to establish that he’s loyal to Britannia despite his ancestry but accidentally introduces himself in reverse order.
• Fictional Document: Several of them are shown after Nunally's ascension to Empress. One is about Suzaku's stellar service record with the Lancelot, one is on the scandal of Lelouch and Suzaku's Secret Relationship, a popular theory of Suzaku's origin being Lelouch's childhood friend Daiki Sumeragi, the assassins involved in the fateful assassination and happened to everyone else after Suzaku left.
• Fix Fic: Suzaku is on Lelouch's side to begin with and Lelouch doesn't have his canonical fate.
• For Want Of A Nail:
  • After the invasion of Japan, the Ashfords sent Lelouch and Nunnally back to Britannia where Lelouch spent years getting in his father's good graces.
  • There is no Geass in this fic so no C.C., Mao or Geass order and Marianne is actually dead.
  • In the original timeline the Knights of Round were loyal to Lelouch and stayed with him to the end. Due to Suzaku's controversial presence and Lelouch's refusal to bow to their racist demands to remove Suzaku from power, the Knights of Rounds (excluding Gino and Anya) rebel and attempt a coup.
• Forced into Evil: Suzaku fights for The Caligula that is Lelouch and the Britannians out of self-perservation. He’s stranded due to his time machine getting wrecked in the crossfire of battle. He has nothing and relies on Lelouch’s patronage to not get killed by the Britannians or the Japanese.
• Foregone Conclusion: Lelouch is going to die. Only for it to be defied.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Suzaku shows up at school on the anniversary of Lelouch’s assassination and is the only Japanese student there as the rest of Japanese student body treats it as a day off.
  • Nunnally mentions that any deceptive lovers of Britannian royalty would often be executed or banished.
• Form-Fitting Wardrobe: All of Suzaku's clothes are extremely flattering since he's supposed to be Lelouch's eye candy.
• Freudian Excuse: In-Universe. Cornelia believes that Lelouch snapped from watching his mother die and his sister crippled. Lelouch grew up knowing the aristocracy was responsible but left in Japan to rot. At first, Cornelia pitied him. Now, she wants him dead.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Suzaku goes from a civilian volunteer to the scourge of the Resistance, the White Death who took down the Black Knights and the Knights of Round single-handedly.
• Future Me Scares Me: Lloyd believes that his future self is a maniac for cannibalizing the Lancelot to build a time machine.
• Gray-and-Grey Morality: The Japanese resistance and Cornelia and Schniezel are working to overthrow a cruel tyrant that has degraded their countries and killed their loved ones, but Cornelia and Schneizel are planning to backstab their allies to keep Japan’s resources. The Japanese resistance are bloodthristy after constant losses and despise anyone who works with Britannia to save themselves and have factionalism tearing themselves from the inside. Emperor Lelouch is working to dissolve the corrupt nobility, allow for social mobility and have plans for the conquered colonies to reestablish their governments. Lelouch’s knight, Suzaku is trying to protect his future by working to ensure it and protect his future adoptive parents from their deaths. But Lelouch earned his bad reputation by charming and murdering way to the top, brutally oppressed everyone and had people taken hostage or killed. Suzaku willingly assists a cruel dictator to ensure a peaceful future by cheating his way to power, turns his back on his people and chooses not to save his friends’ loved ones or his biological parents. Both sides have valid reasons to fight, but neither are exactly pure.
• Happily Adopted: Suzaku was adopted at age ten by Cecile and Lloyd. Despite his unorthodox upbringing, he loves them and is very grateful to Cecile. Suzaku decides not to find his biological parents while in the past, preferring to stay with his adoptive parents.
• Hated by All: Invoked by Lelouch who’s trying to make sure that he’s hated by everyone to ensure world peace. He actually smiles when his popularity dropped so low that even the apathetic nobility hates him.
• Head-in-the-Sand Management: The Britannian nobles hope by continuing on as normal, Emperor Lelouch will calm down and continue the status quo. They continue to act this way even after Lelouch abolishes the aristocracy.
• Hired for Their Looks: Lelouch’s mostly hired Suzaku as eye candy and out of desire to have sex with him. The fact that Suzaku was genuinely skilled as a Knightmare pilot and as a bodyguard was a bonus.
• Hourglass Plot: When Ordinary High-School Student Suzaku joins Emperor Lelouch in the past, he's surrounded by Lelouch's friends and family and finds shelter and a new identity as a royal knight and mecha pilot. When Lelouch is taken by Suzaku to the future, he's surrounded by Suzaku's friends and family and finds shelter and a new identity as a normal college student.
• Hypocrite: Emperor Lelouch seems like a massive one preaching the superiority of Britannians to everyone else, but he has a Japanese man as his personal knight.
• Hypocritical Humor: Suzaku mentally calls Lloyd oblivious only for Suzaku to find out that he himself was oblivious to the rumors surrounding him and Lelouch.
• I Did What I Had to Do:
  • Suzaku knows that by working for Lelouch that he’s supporting a cruel regime that oppressed his people and is genuinely remorseful for his actions but does it anyways to ensure the future.
  • Lelouch feels that he has to be a cruel tyrant in order to make the world so afraid of him that the world works together to prevent someone like him from rising into power.
• I Have Your Wife: Lelouch has the habit of taking the loved ones of any dissenters hostage. And the more unfortunate habit of killing the hostages and leaving their loved ones in the dark or paranoid that their loved ones are alive. Which is what Lelouch did to Schneizel with his lover Kanon and what Clara Einstein fears will happen to her baby girl, Nina.
• Imaginary Love Triangle: Knight of Five, Albert Raleigh believes that his girlfriend, Euphemia is being seduced away from him by Suzaku. Euphemia and Suzaku barely know each other and Suzaku is more interested in Lelouch than her. This brings dire consequences as this inflames Raleigh’s racist hatred of Suzaku and ends in Euphemia’s murder.
• I Know Mortal Kombat: Suzaku played Knightmare simulator games for years which help him when he actually needs to pilot a Knightmare.
• In Love with the Mark: Suzaku only made himself close to Lelouch to ensure that his timeline isn’t wiped out by Lelouch dying too early or too late with plans to assassinate him himself as insurance. Suzaku ends up falling in love with him and begins to lose his nerve. He ends up faking Lelouch’s assassination and saves him by taking him to Suzaku’s future.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Despite being much more politically active than in the original timeline, Euphemia still dies due misinterpreted orders.
  • While it occurs much later, the Lancelot’s parts still get used to built the time machine.
• Informed Flaw: Suzaku has an irrational fear of Knightmares. Outside his first time piloting the Lancelot, this never shows up again.
• Innocently Insensitive: Gino thinks that he can make the rest of the Knights of Round warm up to Suzaku and invites to Suzaku to hang out with them. He doesn’t realize that Suzaku rightly suspects the rest of the Knights would kill him if they ever get him alone and that the Knights of Round despise Suzaku for his quick rise to power and believe him to be Euphemia’s murderer.
• Irony: In the end, neither Lelouch, Cornelia or Schneizel get to keep the power they sought.
• Ironic Nickname: Suzaku goes down in history as the Traitor Knight despite being acknowledged as the most loyal and skilled knight in Britannia’s history.
• It Has Been an Honor: Nonette assures Gino that there's no hard feelings about him not participating in their failed rebellion but otherwise refuse to back down on her beliefs that Lelouch should be forced to restore the status quo. Gino tells her that it was an honor serving with her.
• It's Personal:
  • Lelouch had already held a grudge against the Knights of Round due to their Sir Raleigh killing Euphemia. Then the Knights of Round try to overthrow him and maim his favorite knight, Suzaku. For that, he had them executed.
  • The Knights of Round tolerated Lelouch’s rule, hoping that he would grow out of his Caligula tendencies once the rebellions were put down. Then Lelouch commits the dire insult of letting a Japanese man join their ranks. They seethe quietly until Lelouch disbanded the aristocracy which prove to be their breaking point, causing them to rebel.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • While Suzaku’s first doctor is racist and was a Resistance plant hoping to get the Emperor’s best knight dismissed, he was right about the severity of Suzaku’s injuries would put him out of commission, leave Suzaku in pain for the rest of his life and it would have been better for Suzaku to be retired. A year after Suzaku’s injuries heal, he’s still dealing with pain.
  • While the Knights of Round despise Suzaku out of ingrained racism, they do have a point that Suzaku's rise to power is really suspicious and they only have Suzaku and Lelouch's word to what happened to Euphemia and Sir Raleigh.
• Jerkass: Discussed as Lelouch acknowledges that his mask of being a vicious dictator is bit closer to his actual personality than he would like to be.
• Karma Houdini: While Sir Albert Raleigh was killed for murdering Euphemia, his reputation as an honorable knight stays intact and he becomes a martyr as everyone else believes that Suzaku killed Euphemia on Lelouch’s orders.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: When Lelouch finally captures Schneizel, he's purposely affectionate with Suzaku knowing that Schneizel is jealous that Lelouch's lover is still alive.
• Kid from the Future: Suzaku is Cecile's adoptive son from the future. This is lampshaded by Lloyd who wonders how Suzaku could be her kid when he doesn't look like her. Suzaku deconstructs this as he decides not to help his biological parents. He acknowledges that he could meet his father and make sure he doesn't die and prevent his mother from becoming a neglectful drug addict. But he much rather help his adoptive family.
• King Incognito: Lelouch would go out in a common Sunderland instead of the fancier Gawain.
• Knighting: Suzaku's knighting goes pretty much the same as canon accept Gino's applause is what triggers the nobility to clap and Lelouch (who's doing the knighting) is seething when Euphemia forces Suzaku into the spotlight.
• Lady and Knight: Lelouch and Suzaku are a rare male-male example with Lelouch being Dark Lord to Suzaku’s Dark Knight.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: The SAZ conference turns out to be a disaster with Sir Raleigh backstabbing them and murdering Euphemia and the JLF high command getting slaughter with the survivors retaliating. Lelouch salvages it by crushing the survivors and taking back Area 11.
• Limited Wardrobe: Suzaku has only three outfits, his school uniform, his pilot uniform and his Royal Guard uniform, the last one getting exchanged with clean ones every night. He never gets the chance to go shopping despite offers.
• The Lost Lenore: Several examples due to the civil war.
  • Cornelia loses her personal knight, Guilford and all of her Glaston Knights when they help her escape the Knights of Round during their failed attempt to take Area 18. She tries to bottle up her grief and fights with Schneizel and the JLF.
  • Despite his denial that he could find another aide, Schneizel deeply misses his lover Kanon. After getting together, Kanon was taken hostage by Lelouch to keep Schneizel in line. Kanon was killed and Schneizel didn’t find out until a year later.
  • Euphemia is this to Lelouch, Cornelia and Schneizel after she is literally torn apart by her lover, Sir Albert Raleigh. After her death, Lelouch is so shaken that he loses his trust in the Knights of Round. As Lelouch is blamed for Euphemia’s death, Cornelia and Schneizel believe Lelouch to be beyond redemption and deserving of death.
• Loving a Shadow: Sir Raleigh’s love for Euphemia is not as deep as Euphemia believed it to be. Sir Raleigh loves Euphemia as an extension for his patriotism and not for herself.
• Lowered Recruiting Standards: The reason Suzaku was able to become Emperor Lelouch’s bodyguard despite having no records, not being part of the military and is from the country Lelouch is invading. Lelouch admits that soldiers are thin on the ground and competent ones are nonexistent. He overlooks Suzaku’s sketchiness because he is far more competent than the entirety of the Royal Guards.
• Machiavelli Was Wrong: Invoked by Lelouch when he becomes Emperor, he wants to be feared and loathed so he could convincingly fake his own assassination, clean house on his way and covertly organize the people standing up to him.
• Make Wrong What Once Went Right: After accidentally helping Lelouch by piloting the Lancelot, Suzaku decides to stay with him to ensure that Lelouch dies at the right time to ensure Suzaku’s present/future.
• May–December Romance: Discussed. Suzaku asks the young version of his adoptive mother if she would be OK with Suzaku continuing his relationship with Lelouch when Suzaku gets back to his own time. Suzaku notes that he will still be 18 while Lelouch would be 37 by then.
• Military Coup: The Knights of Round, the Praetorian Guard of Emperor Lelouch were growing dissatisfied with his decisions: making Japanese-born Suzaku Kururugi a knight, his statement that popular knight Sir Raleigh murdered Princess Euphemia and the final straw being dissolving of the power and titles of nobility. They stage a coup to attempt to force Lelouch to restore the status quo or to force him out of power if he refuses.
• Missing Mom: Suzaku’s biological mother died of a drug overdose when he was nine.
• Mistaken for Cheating: When Raleigh sees Suzaku start spending a lot of time with Euphemia even coming out of her room, he begins to believe that Euphemia is cheating on him. She isn’t, she’s secretly plotting with JLF and needs Suzaku as a show of her sincerity. This ends in tears.
• Moral Myopia: Lelouch is horrified at the idea of people taking Nunnally or Suzaku as hostages or killing them in revenge. This despite that he has taken many hostages (and killed them) to ensure people's loyalty.
• Must Make Amends: Nunnally finally gets the strength to take the throne after she finds out how much Lelouch and Suzaku sacrificed for her.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Lelouch is horrified when Sir Raleigh misconstrues his orders to mean that he ambushed the peaceful Special Administration Zone conference and killed Euphemia.
  • Clara Einstein is horrified after seeing the destruction and death the F.L.E.J.A. caused. Which she never recovers from.
  • Suzaku fakes one in front of Nunnally to make her believe that Lelouch died, although her reaction did make him feel genuine remorse.
  • When Nunnally finds Lelouch’s secret plans and Suzaku’s apology letter in Lelouch’s desk, she’s horrified with herself that she did nothing while they gambled everything to give her a better life.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Suzaku defends and protects Lelouch despite fully knowing what atrocities Lelouch has committed and fighting against his own people.
• Near-Villain Victory: The Black Rebellion and Schneizel's force lost badly in Battle of Tokyo that everyone was captured. Lelouch was having everyone executed, saving the prominent and high-ranking ones last. Only for an assassin to kill Lelouch just when Cornelia, Schneizel, Kaname and Kallen were about to be executed.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Lelouch decides to secretly come back to Japan to check up on Euphemia and to be with Suzaku, bringing Sir Raleigh with him as protection making him indirectly responsible for Sir Raleigh's betrayal, the troops massacring the JLF and Euphemia's murder.
• Noble Fugitive: Schneizel hides in the European Union with European royals while hiding from Lelouch.
• No Equal-Opportunity Time Travel: Suzaku from the year 2036, accidentally time-travels to a decade into the past when the racist Britannian Empire was active and is constantly discriminated, distrusted and degraded until he earns the trust of the young Emperor Lelouch elevating his status. Even then, no one gives him any respect and viewed with suspicion.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:
  • Lelouch nearly strangles Suzaku to death when Suzaku gives him intelligence on the JLF’s base in Narita at great risk to himself as Lelouch suspected Suzaku to be a spy and contemplated having him executed.
  • All Euphemia wanted to do was put an end to the Japanese rebellion, give the Japanese people their rights back which she got to do with Emperor Lelouch’s permission. She ends up murdered by her jealous lover believing that she committed treason.
• Not Me This Time: Cornelia and Kallen believe Euphemia was murdered on Lelouch's orders. Lelouch had nothing to do with it. Schneizel especially doesn't believe it because Lelouch had before taken hostages of his enemies’ loved ones and executed them if they stepped out of line. Which he did to him with his lover Kanon.
• Not with Them for the Money: Despite the power and prestige being Emperor Lelouch's favorite gives Suzaku, he never shows an interest in using it and is very uncomfortable with the grandness of royal life. Which is lost on everyone else as they think Suzaku is a power hungry Quisling who is Sleeping Their Way to the Top.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging:
  • Nunnally tells Lelouch that he should explain to Cornelia and Clovis his plans to bring them to his side. This is after Lelouch had just killed their brother Clovis.
  • Suzaku feels horrible after Lelouch tells him that he trusts him and Nunnally asks him to protect Lelouch considering he has to let Lelouch die to secure the future.
• Oblivious to Love: Suzaku notices that Lelouch would stare at him without speaking to him. Suzaku comes to the conclusion that Lelouch hated him.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Normally during his broadcasts, Lelouch is very bombastic and always has self control. During his announcement after Euphemia’s death, Lelouch is extremely distraught and muted.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Suzaku is ordinary high school student making average grades who ends up time-travelling in his adoptive father’s time machine and ends up as an Ace Pilot for the Evil Empire warring with his native people. Despite the hints of Suzaku having his canonical relations and backstory, he decides to go back to being a normal person.
• Parental Neglect: Suzaku’s biological mother was a Refrain addict who spent all her money getting her next fix instead of feeding or clothing her son. Suzaku noted that after he was five that he had to run the house and take care of her until she died.
• Past Experience Nightmare: Lelouch would get frequent nightmares of seeing his mother and best friend Daiki die.
• Platonic Co-Parenting: Lloyd and Cecile raise their adoptive son Suzaku together.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Lloyd and Cecile share a home and raise a child but their relationship is platonic. Cecile thinks Lloyd as her annoying friend while Lloyd sees her as his assistant.
• Plot Coupon: Suzaku needs 1.21 gigawatts of power from a Yggdrasil drive and a ground speed of 88 miles per hour.
• Praetorian Guard: The Royal Guards and the Knights of Round are supposed to be this for Emperor Lelouch. The Royal Guards is filled with spoiled noble second sons and end up being wiped out in their first battle. The Knights of Round backstabbed Lelouch twice on separate occasions due to their own agendas. The only loyal and competent Praetorian Guard is Suzaku.
• Properly Paranoid: Kallen refuses to trust Cornelia, believing that Cornelia and the other Britannians would backstab them and reconquer Japan the moment they defeat Lelouch. Which is exactly what they intend to do.
• Pyrrhic Victory:
  • Lelouch manages to put down the JLF, but Euphemia is dead.
  • Suzaku manages to put down the Round rebellion and to spare a few of the Knights of Round, but gets horrible injuries that put him out of commission for months and give chronic pain for the rest of his life.
  • Cornelia and Schneizel win by the skin of their teeth with Lelouch's assassination but their power gets taken away from them when Nunally ascends to Empress.
• Rape as Drama: Invoked, Suzaku rightly fears getting sexually assaulted at the hands of the Britannian soldiers he’s supposed to work with as he heard stories growing up about the sexual abuse of Honorary Britannians in the Britannian army. He makes a point to never sleep in the army barracks.
• Real Men Hate Affection: Lelouch is an ambitious, driven tyrant not afraid to get his hands dirty nor care how people think of him and is very uncomfortable with his lover, Suzaku’s physical affection. While he’s very tender to his sisters, Euphemia and Nunnally, he’s very uncomfortable with Suzaku hugging him in private. He gradually grows more comfortable with it, but still draws the line at PDA.
• Questionable Consent: While Suzaku returns Lelouch's feelings, but as his future adoptive father points out Suzaku is in no position to refuse. As Emperor, Lelouch could execute him if he felt like it and is Suzaku's boss. And Suzaku depends on Lelouch's patronage for protection and shelter while his time machine is fixed.

• Rebellious Princess: Gino is a male version as he hates his noble heritage, finds his family overbearing, the noble social circles stifling and doesn’t want to marry some dull noblewoman in an Arranged Marriage. Even Emperor Lelouch dissolves the nobility, Gino’s ecstatic and refuses to go home despite his family’s demands to remain a knight.
• Red Baron: Suzaku is called “The White Death” by the Japanese rebellion due to his White Knightmare and single-handedly defending the Emperor while fending them off. He also earns the nickname “Traitor Knight” when he fights for the Emperor but is not an Internal Reformist.
• Red Herring: Euphemia is being groomed by Lelouch to be his heir in secret and her body was never found in the original timeline, hinting to her survival. Does she become Empress or go into hiding? Nope. Euphemia is killed rather horrifically.

• Reluctant Fanservice Guy: Suzaku is embarrassed that he's forced to wear unnecessarily form-fitting clothes as his Royal Guard uniform but he can't do anything about it since Lelouch hired him as eye candy and Lelouch is the Emperor. Lelouch gets better about this as he learns to respect Suzaku.
• Rescue Romance: Lelouch mostly thought of Suzaku of eye candy and feared that he was a spy for the JLF but starts to grow feelings for Suzaku when Suzaku protects him in the Battle of Narita and refuses to give him up to the JLF despite being offered forgiveness and them being unarmed.
• Revenge by Proxy: Schneizel has plans if he gets his hands on Suzaku.
• Revenge Myopia: Cornelia and Schneizel acknowledge that they would be no better than Lelouch if they sought out their revenge. They decide to do so anyway.
• Rules of Orphan Economics: When Suzaku’s mother died, he loses his home and ended up homeless on the streets.
• Selective Obliviousness: Kallen states that no Japanese person would side with the Britannians, willfully ignoring the existence of Honorary Britannians.
• Self-Made Orphan: After years of getting himself in his father’s good graces, Lelouch murders him and several of his half-siblings to take the throne.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Suzaku traveled to the past in hopes of preventing his adoptive father Lloyd from getting shot and rescue his adoptive mother Cecile from thugs.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Euphemia and Lelouch work behind the scenes to establish Euphemia’s credentials as Lelouch’s opponent and she works on her own trying to make a ceasefire with the Japanese resistance and restore their rights, only for it to all for naught when she is murdered by her lover due to his misinterpretation of Lelouch’s orders.
• A Simple Plan: Suzaku’s plan was to use the time machine to escape getting killed, find the past Lloyd and Cecile to refuel the machine and go back to the present to prevent Lloyd from getting killed and Cecile from getting jumped. It falls apart immediately.
• Skeptic No Longer:
  • Cecile doubts Suzaku’s story of him being a time traveller and him being her future adoptive son but helps him regardless. She finally believes when he uses his time machine to escape back to the future and later meets the child version of Suzaku.
  • Lelouch refuses to believe that Suzaku took him to the future at first and believed it to be an elaborate ruse at first until he does his own research. With so many secrets documents part of the public, the war being part of the history books and the detailed media focus on his remaining siblings, he concludes that there is too much evidence supporting Suzaku’s claim.
• Sleeping Their Way to the Top: People assume that Suzaku slept with Lelouch in order to get into the Royal Guards and later become a Knight of Round. He didn’t, but they refuse to believe that.
• Social Services Does Not Exist: Suzaku lived with a neglectful mother with a serious drug addiction and ended up homeless when she died for a year. The only time Social Services got involved was when he was being adopted.
• Starting a New Life: Once Lelouch makes peace that he's better off in Suzaku's time, he makes a new life for himself as an normal but brilliant college student and amateur historian.
• Sure, Let's Go with That:
  • Suzaku is asked by Jeremiah if he joined the Britannian army to prove to his fellow Japanese what can be accomplished by working with the Britannians. Suzaku goes along with it because he doesn’t want to explain that he’s a time-traveler.
  • There’s a ton of rumors that Suzaku slept his way to becoming Lelouch’s personal knight. Lelouch and Suzaku reluctantly go along with it because they want to make sure that the people hate them.
• Survivor's Guilt: Nunnally feels horrible guilt that she outlived Lelouch.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Suzaku admits that Lelouch was a horrible person who oppressed his people and deserved to face the consequences but thinks his death was needlessly horrific and in the end believes that Lelouch was a teenager that had no one in the world.
• Talking in Your Sleep: After the Battle of Narita Lelouch would talk in his sleep due to nightmares.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Averted, Lelouch is nearly ambushed when Lelouch and Suzaku snark to each other in the middle of battle.
• Take the Third Option: Suzaku has the choice of letting Lelouch, who he grows to love, die a horrible death or allow him to live which could completely alter history. In the end, Suzaku saves Lelouch by faking his assassination and taking him back to the future with him.
• Take That!: Jeremiah guesses that Suzaku joined the army in hopes of reforming Britannia from within and showing his fellow Japanese what one can do by working with Britannia. Suzaku publically agrees with him, but internally cringes at thought of having such a stupid motive.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Cornelia and the JLF are working to overthrow Lelouch. But they despise each other as their end goals conflict with each other: the JLF wants Japan’s freedom while Cornelia wants to restore Britannia’s status quo and retake the Areas.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: No one actually knows what went on behind the scenes in the War of Ascension especially what happened with Emperor Lelouch and Suzaku.
• The Reliable One: Despite being a Token Enemy Minority, Suzaku is Lelouch’s best fighter and bodyguard. Even in the midst of battle, he’s cool-headed and focused on protecting Lelouch.
• There Is Only One Bed: Lelouch has Suzaku share his room so he could protect Lelouch from assassins. Lelouch has only one bed. Suzaku has no choice but to take the couch despite how horrible it is. After they have sex for the first time, Lelouch shares his bed with him.
• The Stations of the Canon: Despite being from the future and having no desire to pilot a Knightmare, Suzaku falls into the cockpit and pilots the Lancelot with ease. He had two things on his side: his habit of playing Knightmare simulators and the Lancelot’s creator will be his adoptive father.
• The Talk:
  • Nunnally notes that she really needs her brother to give her the talk as her knowledge is limited to what she sees in romantic novels and what Euphemia shows her with her relationship. But Lelouch refuses thinking that she's too young to know.
  • Suzaku laments that "The Talk" his adoptive mother gave him turned out to be completely useless. His adoptive mother only focused on heterosexual sex but Suzaku's gay.
• This Explains So Much: When Suzaku realizes his feelings for Lelouch, he comments that he finally knows why he was so uncomfortable talking about girls with Rivalz.
• Time Travel: Suzaku uses his adoptive father's car/time machine to escape from thugs and to attempt to save his adoptive parents, only to end up going too far a decade in the past.
• Token Enemy Minority: Suzaku is the only minority and first person from a conquered Area to be in the Britannian high command while Cornelia is the only Britannian in the mostly Japanese Black Knights.
• Trapped in the Past: Suzaku is stuck in the past in the middle of the Britannian occupation of Japan until his time machine is fixed.
• Treachery Cover Up: Despite Emperor Lelouch telling the truth that Sir Raleigh murdered Princess Euphemia, no one believes him due to Lelouch's previous execution of noble hostages. Sir Raleigh goes down in history as martyr while Suzaku, the one who avenged her, goes down as her murderer.
• Tricked Out Time: This is how Suzaku ultimately saves Lelouch. He even lampshades it when he justifies to Cecile and Lloyd, pointing that Lelouch doesn't have to be dead as long the world thinks he's dead.
• Unequal Pairing: Suzaku and Lelouch grow to love each other but not only is Suzaku is not only supposed to protect Lelouch, but Lelouch is his boss and the Emperor of Britannia. Suzaku needs Lelouch’s favor because he's completely dependent on Lelouch providing him shelter and protection while Suzaku’s time machine is fixed. This is lampshaded by Lloyd who points out that Lelouch could Suzaku executed for refusing him.
• Undying Loyalty: People are astounded by Suzaku's almost insane loyalty to Lelouch despite the fact Lelouch is invading his country and offers by the JLF and Black Knights to pardon him. Despite his Ironic Nickname of Traitor Knight, Suzaku is infamous for his insane devotion.
• Unishment:
  • The Knights of Round are stripped of their noble title regardless whether they participated in the Round Rebellion. Gino’s happy because he hated being a noble. Anya’s ok with it because her family was poor and not being nobility helps them.
  • Nunnally has Suzaku exiled for failing to protect Lelouch. Which Suzaku's perfectly ok with as it gives him an excuse to why Nunnally will never see again when he returns to the future.
• Unnamed Parent: Suzaku's mother is only referred as "Mother" in Suzaku's narration.
• Upper Class Twits: To Lelouch’s misfortune, the Royal Guard mostly consists of incompetent, glory-seeking noble second sons.
• Vicariously Ambitious: Emperor Lelouch and Princess Euphemia are more concerned about raising Suzaku's social status than Suzaku is. Lelouch wants Suzaku to the status necessary to be accepted as the Emperor's favorite. Princess Euphemia wants to win the trust of the Japanese people by promoting Suzaku in hopes that they realize she has their interests in mind.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Despite knowing that his actions hurt a lot of people, Suzaku fights for Lelouch to ensure that the timeline will ensure the peaceful future he comes from.
• Who Needs Enemies?: A huge problems on both sides of the conflict. The resistance has the Black Knights and Cornelia and Schneizel at each throats as one side wants freedom and the other side wants to restore imperialism. The Emperor’s side has his knights turning against him for allowing a minority into their ranks and refusing to dismiss him.
• Worthy Opponent: Despite their animosity towards each other, Suzaku and Kallen acknowledge the other’s strength and skill. Suzaku choses not to capture her during the Battle of Tokyo and Kallen respected Suzaku enough to not reveal he told her of his past.
• Written by the Winners: The history that gets written down is very different from what happened. Cornelia, Schneizel and the Black Knights were the heroic resistance fighters who put aside their differences to fight a tyrant. Euphemia and her murderer go down as martyrs. Emperor Lelouch is remembered as a horrible tyrant and Suzaku is remembered as his insanely devoted and skilled Dragon.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: When Emperor Lelouch and Sir Raleigh return to Japan in secret despite his promise to leave Euphemia alone with Suzaku to establish the Special Administrative Zone, Sir Raleigh believes its all Lelouch’s ploy. Sir Raleigh believes that it was Lelouch's plan so he could lay a trap for the rebel groups and kill them in one fell swoop. So Raleigh tries to show initiative by ordering the troops to shoot the arriving JLF delegates and loyalty by killing Euphemia when she refused to back down. This was not what Lelouch wanted at all and has him executed for killing his favorite sister.
• Yandere: While Suzaku isn't one, the historians believe him to be one since they don't know about him being a Time traveler. History remembers Sir Suzaku Kururugi as a man psychotically devoted to Lelouch, willing to do anything and kill anyone to prove his loyalty and love.
• Yes-Man: Suzaku becomes one to Emperor Lelouch out of self-preservation. This works for him because he’s the only competent Royal Guard and loyal Knight. So when Suzaku grows more secure in his position his rare refusal has more weight to it.
• You Are a Credit to Your Race: Jeremiah thinks that it's a shame that Suzaku's Japanese because he believes that Suzaku could have gone that he has.
• You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!: A lot of people in Japanese side are extremely disappointed by Suzaku, who is the first Japanese person to become a Knight of Round and is part of the Emperor’s inner circle. A lot of people were hoping that Suzaku would be an Internal Reformist and advocate for Japanese rights or be The Mole for the Japanese resistance. To their disappointment, Suzaku is genuinely is loyal to the Emperor and doesn’t do anything because as a time traveler, he knows that they will work it out on their own.
• You Need to Get Laid: Euphemia suggests that Lelouch find a good looking guard that he can relieve the stress of being a tyrant on since it worked for her.

Tropes belonging to Back to the Start

• Big Damn Heroes: Suzaku is dreadfully ill to the point that he couldn't stand nor could he eat. He thought he was done for. But then Cecile finds him and gives him food and medicine.
• Heartwarming Orphan: The ten-year old orphan Suzaku is still sweet and polite despite being homeless for almost a year.
• I'm Taking Him Home with Me!: This is Cecile's reaction when she gets to know Suzaku.
• The Maiden Name Debate: While Suzaku admits to loving Cecile and Lloyd more than his original parents, he keeps his last name out of respect to his parents' memory.
• Orphan's Ordeal: Suzaku lost his mother to her addiction and ends up homeless for a year with no relatives to take him in. He almost dies when a simple illness gets exasperated by his poor living conditions.

Tropes belonging to Never Meant You Harm

• Achey Scars: Despite it being a year for him, Suzaku's scars still give him debilitating pain.
• Contrived Coincidence: If Suzaku and Lelouch hadn't visited the park while Anya was taking photos, Nunnally would continued to think that they were dead.
• Identical Stranger: Suzaku tries to pass himself off as this. It doesn't work.
• One-Steve Limit: Suzaku and Lelouch are popular names in the new timeline due to their infamy so they try to pass their names as this.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Lelouch's only real disguise is wearing blue contact lenses. To be fair, the world thinks that he's been dead for 17 years and he's a teenager due to Time Travel.
• Right Hand Versus Left Hand: When told the news that Empress Nunnally was visiting Suzaku's school, Suzaku wanted to leave immediately as he wants her think that he's still banished while Lelouch wanted to stay to reunite with his sister. Ultimately Lelouch gets to reunite with his now adult little sister.
• Scars Are Forever: Suzaku avoids going shirtless due having gruesome scars on his chest. When Nunnally catches him she orders Suzaku to strip so she could see his battle scars which confirm that he's the same Suzaku Kururugi from 17 years ago.
• Ship Tease: Gino is implied to have a relationship with Kallen.
• Starting a New Life: Lelouch has a new life as a university student and amateur historian.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: Nunnally invites Lelouch to come to Britannia with her only for him to decline. The Britannian court would have changed to much for him to fit in, Lelouch has built a new life for himself in Japan and too many people still want him dead.
• Undead Tax Exemption: It is never stated how Lelouch got the documentation to go to university or own a car.
• Universally Beloved Leader: Nunnally is universally adored as the Empress of Britannia. Even the Japanese love her despite their fraught history with Britannia, as she established world peace and freed the colonies after her brother's death.

Tropes belonging to Closing Walls and Ticking Clocks

• Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie: Schneizel goes to China to find Kanon’s body, when he is found Kanon is put into the Royal Mausoleum.
• Doomed by Canon: Schneizel and Kanon have a sweet moment together, but as a prequel to the main story Kanon's fate is sealed.
• Killed Offscreen: Kanon's death is described in a history book.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Whatever warmth and humanity Schneizel had pretty much died with Kanon.
• Not So Stoic: Schneizel shows a raw moment of warmth and vulnerability when he bares his heart out to Kanon.
• Relationship Upgrade: Despite his reservations Schneizel makes a move on Kanon which the latter accepts resulting them in becoming lovers. Which it more painful when Kanon executed.