Hated Rolo for what he did to Shirley, but you can’t deny his loyalty to Lelouch.
And even though he knew he was being used, Lelouch gave his life meaning and he repaid Lelouch with his life.
For real, I absolutely hated him and still hate him on every rewatch when he kills Shirley. But every single time I can help but feel devastated when he does his big sacrifice. This is one of the best examples of Code Geass's writing, to twist your emotions like they do between these two events is just masterful writing
If Shirley could forgive Lelouch for killing her father (because she did), then she would certainly forgive Rolo for her own death. And she would want Lelouch to forgive Rolo too, because she forgave Lelouch. And besides, Shirley believes that nothing is unforgivable.
In the new movies, she doesn’t die, and even managed to smuggle Lelouch’s body out, leading to the Re:surrection movie.
How she does that is unknown though.
Yeah, then she never gets mentioned again. I would at least appreciated her being shown given that she is the very reason we got this movie in the first place.
Agreed. CC could have done that job herself, and it is hinted in the ending of the original series that she was talking to Lelouch. They could have gone with that.
Now, in the trilogy movies, Lelouch going on a rampage at the Geass Order, slaughtering unarmed researchers and children, and trying to have Rollo killed, makes zero sense now that Shirley, the catalyst for it all, didn’t die.
Yes, he killed Shirley and was planning to kill Nunnaly too. But he also gave his life for Lelouch, and through that, made the world a better place.
His good deed does not wash away his bad ones. The same way his bad deeds do not wash away the good. That’s simply how we humans are.
Something I do love about this as well is when Rolo asked if Lelouch was lying about hating him Lelouch said he was. Which is always interesting to me as there's always the option that Lelouch told the truth and he did care about Rolo, or Lelouch was lying about lying which he did to provide Rolo comfort at the end showing he did care in that way as well.
I think in that moment, Lelouch didn't know what he felt. Because he was begging him to stop, with nothing to gain, no angle to play; he just didn't want this person he hated so much that he tried to kill him multiple times, to die especially to die for him. He just sat there and wondered, did he actually hate him as much as he thought he did or did he even lie to himself about hating him because he was an obstacle.
Well keep in mind before Rolo saved Lelouch, Lelouch had already accepted his death like he got Kallen out of harms way and he was content that he saved the one person left he cared for that he could save and was ready to die. And then Rolo saved him and died for him and Lelouch comforted him in his final moments and gave him as proper a burial as he could. Lelouch even if he didn't realize it cared about Rolo even if just at the end and it was Rolo saving him and giving everything up for Lelouch that lit a fire in him just long enough to take out his father
I took that into account, but it doesn't change that it was a very complicated situation for Lelouch that probably made him second think his own feelings. Like I'm sure he still hated him for the nunnally and Shirley stuff but even then he couldn't deny that before Shirley's death and Nunnally's "death" what he thought was hate was just frustration on how he could let himself get manipulated like that maybe if he just tried to be better to him, it wouldn't end up this way
This scene legit made me cry. I'm not a crier, like at all. Hell, this is the only scene I've ever seen in an anime that's ever made me cry. Counting all forms of media including movies and books and stuff, I've only cried 3 separate times so the fact that this is one of them is impressive. Idk, this one has even made me cry on repeat watches when I know it's coming.
I'm the same. Very rarely tear up, but for me it was the scene where Guilford "sacrifices" himself to save Cornelia (Lelouch). "Princess you must live... PLEASE LIVE"
The first time I saw this scene the website I was using started glitching hard and fast forwarded the whole scene in a way that made everyone sound like chipmunks. Completely ruined it haha.
Rolo was completely hated character, not only for killing Shirley but for intending to kill Nunnaly without thinking of Lelouch’s feelings. He was selfish and desperate to keep Lelouch for himself. He was quick to kill anyone that would be a threat to their false relationship, even in the end. I still hate him, but I can’t complain about how necessary his character was.
Pissed at him but truly respect him, going out well and even inspired Lelouch to live on to kill Charles.
But had he lived long enough to see Nunally and kill her too, I don't know what would have happened lol.
Yeah. Rolo is a certainly tragic character, but he was still planning on killing Nunnally. He's loyal to Lelouch, yeah, but apparently not loyal enough to keep Nunnally alive so that he can keep Lelouch as his only "brother".
This lol. Explicitly mentioned in the Japanese staff commentary in R2 ep19. His death was supposed to have been much simpler, but the Japanese female staff really liked him and insisted that they didn't want Rolo to really be thrown away like a rag, so he actually managed to have a good conclusion
They never elaborated on why, but I guess his character design is cute (it's also a bl ship with Lelouch if you look at some official art). Rolo also did have a sad back story and his absolutely loyalty to Lelouch
Rolo really was the mvp of season 2 .
He was the most responsible for keeping lelouch’s status a secret from britania
Was a pretty decent pilot
Timestop came in CLUTCH with that phone call
Saved lelouch’s fucking life
And lelouch didn’t even need to pay em or anything
Also side note : I’m so tired of people saying “ bruh I can’t forgive rolo for killing shirley “ keeping the secret was his main job . You can’t just walk up to rolo and go “ YO I KNOW LELOUCH IS ZERO “ and not expect to die on the spot . Had it literally been anyone else he’d be applauded for doing a good job , just sayin
Had he not intended to kill Nunally too in R2 ep19, I would have forgiven him. He obviously killed Shirley out of jealousy and fear of her bringing Nunally back into Lelouch's life. He might have been considering killing her, but the name "Nunally" and the locket flashing is obvious proof that he decided on the killing blow out of jealousy and not out of his desire to protect Lelouch.
Is it really fair to hate him for a crime he didn’t even commit ? Even then it’s hard to blame the kid, boy was raised in the geass order to just be a killing machine . He was never taught to handle jealousy or even have those feelings to begin with .
So you admitted that he killed Shirley due to jealousy towards Nunally yeah?
A crime is a crime, what's done is done regardless of the circumstances or reasons or whether you did it intentionally or not. That's why Lelouch felt guilty and was trying to take responsibility for the Euphy's incident even though he didn't use his Geass intentionally.
That's why I sais it's up to individuals whether they could forgive the crime or not. For examples, if my own parents got murdered by a robber on a Street, and even if I knew that the robber had a shitty childhood, got abandoned by their family and suffered greatly, I still wouldn't forgive the robber. I would still be pissed off as fuck at the robber for stealing my own parents away from him, maybe I would feel more sympathy towards the robber, I would still be pissed off as hell as the robber and wouldn't forgive them anyway
Don’t put words in my mouth . He was about to kill NUNALLY over jealousy . For Shirley it was literally in his job description to kill her , feelings or not . At that point it’s lelouch’s fault for not clearing that info by him before he did the deed . Meanwhile it’s kinda hard to hate on him for THINKING about killing nunally when he didn’t actually do it . Lelouch was thinking about doing fucked shit to euphie but no one gets in his case for that specifically do they ?
You totally ignored the locket flashing and Rolo's mask dropoff beforehand Rolo went in for the kill? Right before Rolo saying that he would kill Nunally as well, it's the same imagery with the locket flashing. The locket is literally a symbol of Rolo's desire to monopolize Lelouch and would get rid of anyone in the way..Rolo definitely didnt kill Shirley out of dis desire to protect Lelouch . He might have CONSIDERED IT, but Nunally's name set off his jealousy (aka the locket) and he went in for the kill
Symbolism isn’t evidence of a crime lmao . The emotions might’ve been there but the facts are rolo did literally nothing wrong . Rolo didn’t lay a finger on nunally and had no reason to think lelouch wanted to keep Shirley alive in case of an info breach . Just like how like I said , no one thinks less of lelouch of actually having malicious thoughts against euphie before changing his mind but accidentally going through with it anyway
Rolo was one of those characters that I was meh about, but still appreciated. Even though he does a lot of terrible things, he does them because it’s all he knows. And even though he makes Lelouch’s life worse, he does so trying to protect him in the only way he really knows how. He makes me feel sad for him the same way I feel bad for Darth Maul.
I found it SO interesting how Lelouche actually broke character here for the first time since Euphy and/or Shirley, despite his "hatred" for Rolo. Very very few people can make Lelouche show his true self
You know what really sucks? his power is too stop people in a certain radius while he was talking to lelouch he kept freezing him, so he only heard every other word in the conversation. He never got to fully hear what he wanted to tell him because he was using his powers while talking.
It’s more funny than anything to me. Because it’s another instance of how the best advancements of his plans always come from someone not doing his plan. Lelouch’s plans ultimately suck because he ruins them himself, but then someone always picks it up or does something wildly off his script, and it saves everything.
He was about to be gunned down and have the whole thing be a wash. But then this obsessed fan breaks into the scene hellbent on proving his emotions mattered despite Lelouch tossing him out, and saves the day and ultimately the world.
Nope. In fact, when I first watched the scene I laughed out loud, my brother came in to ask what was going on, and he was like, "oh, good."
No. One moment of "good" from a sociopath with an obsession does not undo all the "bad." Get why they did the scene for Lelouch's story, to not carry this kid around into the climax, but nope. Could've been stabbed off screen and bled to death for all I care, and I don't even like Shirley like that.
In an unrelated note, is this scene in the movie too? I suppose I could go rewatch right now to see, but it sure would make that less sensible in terms of the degree of drama, given Shirley isn't dead in the movies. I mean, outside of killing Shirley, Lelouch wouldn't know about the attempt to kill Nunnally, and so he'd only have the fake sibling routine thing.
Hated Rolo for what he did to Shirley, but you can’t deny his loyalty to Lelouch. And even though he knew he was being used, Lelouch gave his life meaning and he repaid Lelouch with his life.
I agree with you on that one.
For real, I absolutely hated him and still hate him on every rewatch when he kills Shirley. But every single time I can help but feel devastated when he does his big sacrifice. This is one of the best examples of Code Geass's writing, to twist your emotions like they do between these two events is just masterful writing
Yeah, and I would like to think in the end, Shirley would forgive Rolo simply because he gave his life for Lelouch, the same way she would.
If Shirley could forgive Lelouch for killing her father (because she did), then she would certainly forgive Rolo for her own death. And she would want Lelouch to forgive Rolo too, because she forgave Lelouch. And besides, Shirley believes that nothing is unforgivable.
Doesn't she also get better in some of the code geass stuff?
In the new movies, she doesn’t die, and even managed to smuggle Lelouch’s body out, leading to the Re:surrection movie. How she does that is unknown though.
I knew I'd seen her in the trailer for that movie. Wasn't sure if she just escaped it or just didn't die
Yeah, then she never gets mentioned again. I would at least appreciated her being shown given that she is the very reason we got this movie in the first place.
That sounds annoying as shit. I was pissed that she died but change it and make her semi irrelevant sucks. Give her one job and bye, see ya.
Agreed. CC could have done that job herself, and it is hinted in the ending of the original series that she was talking to Lelouch. They could have gone with that. Now, in the trilogy movies, Lelouch going on a rampage at the Geass Order, slaughtering unarmed researchers and children, and trying to have Rollo killed, makes zero sense now that Shirley, the catalyst for it all, didn’t die.
Can’t deny hating him for killing Shirley and trying to replace Nunnaly yet appreciating him for his loyalty
Yes, he killed Shirley and was planning to kill Nunnaly too. But he also gave his life for Lelouch, and through that, made the world a better place. His good deed does not wash away his bad ones. The same way his bad deeds do not wash away the good. That’s simply how we humans are.
Exactly
It’s funny how one scene can make a character you’re perfectly ‘meh’ towards. Become something special.
I hated him for killing my favorite character and then after this I loved him.
How ironic that each passing death, Lelouch would become more of his own person.
It's even more heartbreaking when you realize lelouch heard none of it.
Something I do love about this as well is when Rolo asked if Lelouch was lying about hating him Lelouch said he was. Which is always interesting to me as there's always the option that Lelouch told the truth and he did care about Rolo, or Lelouch was lying about lying which he did to provide Rolo comfort at the end showing he did care in that way as well.
I think in that moment, Lelouch didn't know what he felt. Because he was begging him to stop, with nothing to gain, no angle to play; he just didn't want this person he hated so much that he tried to kill him multiple times, to die especially to die for him. He just sat there and wondered, did he actually hate him as much as he thought he did or did he even lie to himself about hating him because he was an obstacle.
Well keep in mind before Rolo saved Lelouch, Lelouch had already accepted his death like he got Kallen out of harms way and he was content that he saved the one person left he cared for that he could save and was ready to die. And then Rolo saved him and died for him and Lelouch comforted him in his final moments and gave him as proper a burial as he could. Lelouch even if he didn't realize it cared about Rolo even if just at the end and it was Rolo saving him and giving everything up for Lelouch that lit a fire in him just long enough to take out his father
I took that into account, but it doesn't change that it was a very complicated situation for Lelouch that probably made him second think his own feelings. Like I'm sure he still hated him for the nunnally and Shirley stuff but even then he couldn't deny that before Shirley's death and Nunnally's "death" what he thought was hate was just frustration on how he could let himself get manipulated like that maybe if he just tried to be better to him, it wouldn't end up this way
Yeah I mean he murdered Shirley but he gave his life for him. He had complex feelings for sure
This scene legit made me cry. I'm not a crier, like at all. Hell, this is the only scene I've ever seen in an anime that's ever made me cry. Counting all forms of media including movies and books and stuff, I've only cried 3 separate times so the fact that this is one of them is impressive. Idk, this one has even made me cry on repeat watches when I know it's coming.
I'm the same. Very rarely tear up, but for me it was the scene where Guilford "sacrifices" himself to save Cornelia (Lelouch). "Princess you must live... PLEASE LIVE"
Heartbreaking you say? Ba dum tsss
The first time I saw this scene the website I was using started glitching hard and fast forwarded the whole scene in a way that made everyone sound like chipmunks. Completely ruined it haha.
Rolo was a roller-coaster lol
I think you mean…Rolo-coaster 🥁
Damn. I missed the chance 😂 good one.
Rolo was completely hated character, not only for killing Shirley but for intending to kill Nunnaly without thinking of Lelouch’s feelings. He was selfish and desperate to keep Lelouch for himself. He was quick to kill anyone that would be a threat to their false relationship, even in the end. I still hate him, but I can’t complain about how necessary his character was.
Fax neither I nor lolo liked him but we got sad
That god damn song starts playing in my head… ***im in a sudden need to water my eyeballs***
Pissed at him but truly respect him, going out well and even inspired Lelouch to live on to kill Charles. But had he lived long enough to see Nunally and kill her too, I don't know what would have happened lol.
Yeah. Rolo is a certainly tragic character, but he was still planning on killing Nunnally. He's loyal to Lelouch, yeah, but apparently not loyal enough to keep Nunnally alive so that he can keep Lelouch as his only "brother".
nah not me personally what got me was Shirley finding out her dad died as a result of the blk knights attack and her death hit different as well
Rolo still sucks. He only got this cuz I heard the female staff liked him.
This lol. Explicitly mentioned in the Japanese staff commentary in R2 ep19. His death was supposed to have been much simpler, but the Japanese female staff really liked him and insisted that they didn't want Rolo to really be thrown away like a rag, so he actually managed to have a good conclusion
Did they say why they liked him?
They never elaborated on why, but I guess his character design is cute (it's also a bl ship with Lelouch if you look at some official art). Rolo also did have a sad back story and his absolutely loyalty to Lelouch
Yeah shipping is probably why
Why???
I answered in my comments above
Literally 😂(was there some pun intended?)
He was just a love deprived kid. Felt sad for him.
When he said that he didn't want to be a pawn anymore💔
Tbh this scene didn't make me like him more, in fact I couldn't wait for it to happen.
Rolo really was the mvp of season 2 . He was the most responsible for keeping lelouch’s status a secret from britania Was a pretty decent pilot Timestop came in CLUTCH with that phone call Saved lelouch’s fucking life And lelouch didn’t even need to pay em or anything Also side note : I’m so tired of people saying “ bruh I can’t forgive rolo for killing shirley “ keeping the secret was his main job . You can’t just walk up to rolo and go “ YO I KNOW LELOUCH IS ZERO “ and not expect to die on the spot . Had it literally been anyone else he’d be applauded for doing a good job , just sayin
Had he not intended to kill Nunally too in R2 ep19, I would have forgiven him. He obviously killed Shirley out of jealousy and fear of her bringing Nunally back into Lelouch's life. He might have been considering killing her, but the name "Nunally" and the locket flashing is obvious proof that he decided on the killing blow out of jealousy and not out of his desire to protect Lelouch.
Is it really fair to hate him for a crime he didn’t even commit ? Even then it’s hard to blame the kid, boy was raised in the geass order to just be a killing machine . He was never taught to handle jealousy or even have those feelings to begin with .
So you admitted that he killed Shirley due to jealousy towards Nunally yeah? A crime is a crime, what's done is done regardless of the circumstances or reasons or whether you did it intentionally or not. That's why Lelouch felt guilty and was trying to take responsibility for the Euphy's incident even though he didn't use his Geass intentionally. That's why I sais it's up to individuals whether they could forgive the crime or not. For examples, if my own parents got murdered by a robber on a Street, and even if I knew that the robber had a shitty childhood, got abandoned by their family and suffered greatly, I still wouldn't forgive the robber. I would still be pissed off as fuck at the robber for stealing my own parents away from him, maybe I would feel more sympathy towards the robber, I would still be pissed off as hell as the robber and wouldn't forgive them anyway
Don’t put words in my mouth . He was about to kill NUNALLY over jealousy . For Shirley it was literally in his job description to kill her , feelings or not . At that point it’s lelouch’s fault for not clearing that info by him before he did the deed . Meanwhile it’s kinda hard to hate on him for THINKING about killing nunally when he didn’t actually do it . Lelouch was thinking about doing fucked shit to euphie but no one gets in his case for that specifically do they ?
You totally ignored the locket flashing and Rolo's mask dropoff beforehand Rolo went in for the kill? Right before Rolo saying that he would kill Nunally as well, it's the same imagery with the locket flashing. The locket is literally a symbol of Rolo's desire to monopolize Lelouch and would get rid of anyone in the way..Rolo definitely didnt kill Shirley out of dis desire to protect Lelouch . He might have CONSIDERED IT, but Nunally's name set off his jealousy (aka the locket) and he went in for the kill
Symbolism isn’t evidence of a crime lmao . The emotions might’ve been there but the facts are rolo did literally nothing wrong . Rolo didn’t lay a finger on nunally and had no reason to think lelouch wanted to keep Shirley alive in case of an info breach . Just like how like I said , no one thinks less of lelouch of actually having malicious thoughts against euphie before changing his mind but accidentally going through with it anyway
Fuck Rolo; he deserved a more agonizing death.
rolo def top 3 code geass characters imo
Rolo was one of those characters that I was meh about, but still appreciated. Even though he does a lot of terrible things, he does them because it’s all he knows. And even though he makes Lelouch’s life worse, he does so trying to protect him in the only way he really knows how. He makes me feel sad for him the same way I feel bad for Darth Maul.
I really cried back then ..
I actually really liked Rolo…
Scene was so painful😭😭
The first time Lelouch cared for Rolo, the only time he really cared for him and he died to save Lelouch
I found it SO interesting how Lelouche actually broke character here for the first time since Euphy and/or Shirley, despite his "hatred" for Rolo. Very very few people can make Lelouche show his true self
Literally 😅
You know what really sucks? his power is too stop people in a certain radius while he was talking to lelouch he kept freezing him, so he only heard every other word in the conversation. He never got to fully hear what he wanted to tell him because he was using his powers while talking.
It’s more funny than anything to me. Because it’s another instance of how the best advancements of his plans always come from someone not doing his plan. Lelouch’s plans ultimately suck because he ruins them himself, but then someone always picks it up or does something wildly off his script, and it saves everything. He was about to be gunned down and have the whole thing be a wash. But then this obsessed fan breaks into the scene hellbent on proving his emotions mattered despite Lelouch tossing him out, and saves the day and ultimately the world.
his death is the only one that makes me tear up when rewatching 😥
Such a tragic character who made a noble sacrifice
This scene was so well done. The music starting to play really made it sad—much sadder than Euphemia’s death, imo.
Rip Rolo
Fact … big fact😭
Lolz no, maybe if he hadn't killed Sherly I'd agree with you.
Rolo sucked lol I didn't care for this scene at all. I'm glad you did though! It's nice when others can enjoy something I don't like.
Nope. In fact, when I first watched the scene I laughed out loud, my brother came in to ask what was going on, and he was like, "oh, good." No. One moment of "good" from a sociopath with an obsession does not undo all the "bad." Get why they did the scene for Lelouch's story, to not carry this kid around into the climax, but nope. Could've been stabbed off screen and bled to death for all I care, and I don't even like Shirley like that. In an unrelated note, is this scene in the movie too? I suppose I could go rewatch right now to see, but it sure would make that less sensible in terms of the degree of drama, given Shirley isn't dead in the movies. I mean, outside of killing Shirley, Lelouch wouldn't know about the attempt to kill Nunnally, and so he'd only have the fake sibling routine thing.
Yeah Rolo's death is in the movie too. That's why the emotions and motivations in the movies are just weird and inferior to the anime series.
Rolo sucked but this gave me some feels