Was Lelouch the person driving the cart in the last scene of Code Geass R2?


At the ending of Code Geass R2, the last scene showed someone whose face
wasn't showed riding a horse-pulling-cart with CC. I believe that it is indeed
Lelouch (who was previously stabbed by Suzaku wearing Zero's uniform as part
of their Code Zero plan to free Elevens), and that he had gained immortality
because of his frequent usage of his Geass.

Lelouch's Geass first leveled-up the episode when he accidentally ordered his
sister Euphemia to kill all Elevens. Then, his father King Charles was beaten
by him and I'm thinking that King Charles' immortality was transferred to him.

If that person was really Lelouch, then, has he already gained immortality by
that time?




This seems to be a religious issue, judging by the amount of arguing I found
while I was searching for the information contained in this answer. At the
very least, xjshiya's answer is not universally accepted, and there are a lot
of people who flat out reject that theory. In my opinion the evidence against
the other theory is more compelling. I'm going to try to present said evidence
as impartially as I can.

* * *

First, no official source has ever claimed that Lelouch survives at the end of
R2. That alone doesn't answer the question, because it could be deliberately
ambiguous. Of course, Lelouch would need to be alive to be driving the cart.

Second, several official sources list Lelouch as dead at the end of R2.
[Here](http://forums.animesuki.com/group.php?do=discuss&gmid=38473) is an
interview with writer Ichiro Okouchi, taken from the Japanese magazine
Continue (vol 42, Oct 2008, translated into English (I have not yet found the
original so I can not confirm the accuracy of the translation). I've copied
the relevant part below:

> " \-----Still, isn't it possible that defeating the wise ruler Schneizel,
> the person who was supposed to have brought order to the world, might lead
> to some [viewers] interpreting it as a Bad End?
>
> **Okouchi** : That's true. There are probably a lot of people who think of
> it as a Bad End, a tragedy, considering the protagonist's, Lelouch's end as
> well. However, Lelouch says in the first episode: "Only those prepared to be
> shot are allowed to pull the trigger themselves." If you were to think of
> that as his pride, then I think his getting shot (killed) in the end was a
> logical end. Of course, I understand that not all of the viewers will accept
> this ending. There were people who wanted a happier ending, after all.
>
> \-----Was there a dispute among the staff members regarding the ending?
>
> **Okouchi** : No. It was decided fairly naturally. During the "Code Geass"
> script meetings, there are many cases in which there were a number of
> disputes, but there were barely any when it came to the scripts for (the
> previous series's) episode 25 and the final episode. I think everyone felt
> the same when it came to the end of the character that is Lelouch.
>
> \-----Why were you so bold as to choose this ending when the viewers might
> see it as a Bad End?
>
> **Okouchi** : Bold... yes, we were so bold as to chose this ending. Perhaps
> the show that is "Code Geass" ending up this way was decided the moment
> Director Taniguchi and I teamed up. I suppose you can call it our sense of
> aesthetics, or perhaps a part of our psychological makeup.
>
> ...
>
> \------I see. So Lelouch's decision was also your, Mr. Okouchi's, and
> Director Taniguchi's decision.
>
> **Okouchi** : Which is why I think of both our and Lelouch's decision as
> Happy Ends. I believe that there will be better things in the tomorrow
> awaiting Nunnally, Kallen and the rest who have been left behind. And surely
> Lelouch, who was able to make this into a reality, can only be happy [about
> this].
>
> ...
>
> \-----Some unresolved mysteries still remain.
>
> **Okouchi** : From the very beginning, [I/we] never planned on explaining
> everything. In fact, if you ask me, I think we might have overdone the
> explanations. While it's undeniable that Lelouch's story has ended with a
> full stop, the other characters' stories are still on-going, and it's not
> like the world [of Code Geass] itself has come to an end either. [I/we]
> didn't want to end it by closing it up for good."

That seems to pretty strongly confirm that at least Okouchi believes Lelouch
dies in the end. Of course, Okouchi, being a writer, doesn't have the final
say. The director is the one whose word we should ultimately be looking for,
but director Gorō Taniguchi has not said anything definitive either way. He
did say something ambiguous, to the effect that he "prefers to see the end as
a happy one," but Okouchi also claims it's a happy ending despite Lelouch
dying. Okouchi also didn't seem to have any difficulty speaking for the whole
team, and no one came out to correct him, so this seems reasonable.

The link above has a couple other relevant quotes which I will not repeat
here. I believe that this establishes that there's a pretty strong opinion
that Lelouch is, in some form or another, dead.

Here's a further confirmation of this. This image lists people who died in R2.
I've boxed the relevant entry for Lelouch.

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/N9MkX.jpg)

The above was taken from the same issue of the magazine. This is an official
image. I don't think this really adds anything to the above except removing
some ambiguity.

There's some further evidence
[here](http://animeotaku.animeblogger.net/2008/10/code-geass-r2-another-nail-
in-lelouchs-coffin/) (I haven't really checked this translation but by a
cursory skim it seems to be accurate).

> C.C.’s profile has also been updated, and the final part of it now says:
> “Knowing that Lelouch does not hate her for giving him the Geass, she is now
> able to show her true feelings. With the realization of “Zero Requiem”, her
> time with Lelouch, who was able to forgive and accept her, came to an end,
> but the memories created with him has, without doubt, saved her from eternal
> loneliness.”

Given that the "Lelouch = Cart Driver" theory requires that Lelouch and C.C.
aren't separated at the end, this piece of information just doesn't make sense
unless we reject that theory.

So we've confirmed that Lelouch is pretty dead at the end of R2, and that the
fan theory that he is the cart driver really isn't supported by the official
statements. There are a couple of ways to get around all of these facts. I
don't really regard them as anything but conspiracy theories and other ways
fans are trying to deal with the ending that isn't quite as happy as they were
hoping for.

  * Lelouch has at least two identities. Perhaps Lelouch vi Britannia died, but Lelouch Lamperouge lived on? Or maybe Lelouch abandoned his name, but he's still alive, and the sources list him as dead because his identity as Lelouch vi Britannia is dead? I can't really argue against the _possibility_ of this, but there is no evidence supporting it at all. It doesn't really make sense in light of the C.C. bio either.
  * While several people have confirmed that they believe Lelouch dies, director Taniguchi has been notably silent. Perhaps there was some disagreement among those in charge, and Taniguchi actually thinks Lelouch is alive? We can't ever know for certain what happened when they were writing the ending, but it seems reasonable to expect that if there were disagreements, Okouchi wouldn't have claimed that there were none, and if the disagreements were major someone else probably would have spoken up.

Again, I regard those as little more than conspiracy theories by disgruntled
fans who think the ending is somehow "unfair". There is no evidence supporting
either of them.

While the theories proposed in the other answer are good speculation, they
just don't fit with facts released later. The consensus of the production team
is that Lelouch is dead and not driving a cart at the end of Code Geass R2.
The cart driver is probably just some random guy. If this seems unfair to you,
then it's worth remembering that many other characters with far fewer crimes
died in the series, so in some sense it's poetic justice for Lelouch to also
die. And the interviews with everyone including the director do confirm that
in dying, he was successful at his goal of starting the world down a better
path.

Again, this seems to be something people view religiously. I'm not claiming
that the speculations that Lelouch survives are bad in-universe, but there's
simply no evidence for them either from the producers and a lot of evidence to
the contrary, so the better answer in this case is that **Lelouch is dead.**




This seems to be a religious issue, judging by the amount of arguing I found
while I was searching for the information contained in this answer. At the
very least, xjshiya's answer is not universally accepted, and there are a lot
of people who flat out reject that theory. In my opinion the evidence against
the other theory is more compelling. I'm going to try to present said evidence
as impartially as I can.

* * *

First, no official source has ever claimed that Lelouch survives at the end of
R2. That alone doesn't answer the question, because it could be deliberately
ambiguous. Of course, Lelouch would need to be alive to be driving the cart.

Second, several official sources list Lelouch as dead at the end of R2.
[Here](http://forums.animesuki.com/group.php?do=discuss&gmid=38473) is an
interview with writer Ichiro Okouchi, taken from the Japanese magazine
Continue (vol 42, Oct 2008, translated into English (I have not yet found the
original so I can not confirm the accuracy of the translation). I've copied
the relevant part below:

> " \-----Still, isn't it possible that defeating the wise ruler Schneizel,
> the person who was supposed to have brought order to the world, might lead
> to some [viewers] interpreting it as a Bad End?
>
> **Okouchi** : That's true. There are probably a lot of people who think of
> it as a Bad End, a tragedy, considering the protagonist's, Lelouch's end as
> well. However, Lelouch says in the first episode: "Only those prepared to be
> shot are allowed to pull the trigger themselves." If you were to think of
> that as his pride, then I think his getting shot (killed) in the end was a
> logical end. Of course, I understand that not all of the viewers will accept
> this ending. There were people who wanted a happier ending, after all.
>
> \-----Was there a dispute among the staff members regarding the ending?
>
> **Okouchi** : No. It was decided fairly naturally. During the "Code Geass"
> script meetings, there are many cases in which there were a number of
> disputes, but there were barely any when it came to the scripts for (the
> previous series's) episode 25 and the final episode. I think everyone felt
> the same when it came to the end of the character that is Lelouch.
>
> \-----Why were you so bold as to choose this ending when the viewers might
> see it as a Bad End?
>
> **Okouchi** : Bold... yes, we were so bold as to chose this ending. Perhaps
> the show that is "Code Geass" ending up this way was decided the moment
> Director Taniguchi and I teamed up. I suppose you can call it our sense of
> aesthetics, or perhaps a part of our psychological makeup.
>
> ...
>
> \------I see. So Lelouch's decision was also your, Mr. Okouchi's, and
> Director Taniguchi's decision.
>
> **Okouchi** : Which is why I think of both our and Lelouch's decision as
> Happy Ends. I believe that there will be better things in the tomorrow
> awaiting Nunnally, Kallen and the rest who have been left behind. And surely
> Lelouch, who was able to make this into a reality, can only be happy [about
> this].
>
> ...
>
> \-----Some unresolved mysteries still remain.
>
> **Okouchi** : From the very beginning, [I/we] never planned on explaining
> everything. In fact, if you ask me, I think we might have overdone the
> explanations. While it's undeniable that Lelouch's story has ended with a
> full stop, the other characters' stories are still on-going, and it's not
> like the world [of Code Geass] itself has come to an end either. [I/we]
> didn't want to end it by closing it up for good."

That seems to pretty strongly confirm that at least Okouchi believes Lelouch
dies in the end. Of course, Okouchi, being a writer, doesn't have the final
say. The director is the one whose word we should ultimately be looking for,
but director Gorō Taniguchi has not said anything definitive either way. He
did say something ambiguous, to the effect that he "prefers to see the end as
a happy one," but Okouchi also claims it's a happy ending despite Lelouch
dying. Okouchi also didn't seem to have any difficulty speaking for the whole
team, and no one came out to correct him, so this seems reasonable.

The link above has a couple other relevant quotes which I will not repeat
here. I believe that this establishes that there's a pretty strong opinion
that Lelouch is, in some form or another, dead.

Here's a further confirmation of this. This image lists people who died in R2.
I've boxed the relevant entry for Lelouch.

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/N9MkX.jpg)

The above was taken from the same issue of the magazine. This is an official
image. I don't think this really adds anything to the above except removing
some ambiguity.

There's some further evidence
[here](http://animeotaku.animeblogger.net/2008/10/code-geass-r2-another-nail-
in-lelouchs-coffin/) (I haven't really checked this translation but by a
cursory skim it seems to be accurate).

> C.C.’s profile has also been updated, and the final part of it now says:
> “Knowing that Lelouch does not hate her for giving him the Geass, she is now
> able to show her true feelings. With the realization of “Zero Requiem”, her
> time with Lelouch, who was able to forgive and accept her, came to an end,
> but the memories created with him has, without doubt, saved her from eternal
> loneliness.”

Given that the "Lelouch = Cart Driver" theory requires that Lelouch and C.C.
aren't separated at the end, this piece of information just doesn't make sense
unless we reject that theory.

So we've confirmed that Lelouch is pretty dead at the end of R2, and that the
fan theory that he is the cart driver really isn't supported by the official
statements. There are a couple of ways to get around all of these facts. I
don't really regard them as anything but conspiracy theories and other ways
fans are trying to deal with the ending that isn't quite as happy as they were
hoping for.

  * Lelouch has at least two identities. Perhaps Lelouch vi Britannia died, but Lelouch Lamperouge lived on? Or maybe Lelouch abandoned his name, but he's still alive, and the sources list him as dead because his identity as Lelouch vi Britannia is dead? I can't really argue against the _possibility_ of this, but there is no evidence supporting it at all. It doesn't really make sense in light of the C.C. bio either.
  * While several people have confirmed that they believe Lelouch dies, director Taniguchi has been notably silent. Perhaps there was some disagreement among those in charge, and Taniguchi actually thinks Lelouch is alive? We can't ever know for certain what happened when they were writing the ending, but it seems reasonable to expect that if there were disagreements, Okouchi wouldn't have claimed that there were none, and if the disagreements were major someone else probably would have spoken up.

Again, I regard those as little more than conspiracy theories by disgruntled
fans who think the ending is somehow "unfair". There is no evidence supporting
either of them.

While the theories proposed in the other answer are good speculation, they
just don't fit with facts released later. The consensus of the production team
is that Lelouch is dead and not driving a cart at the end of Code Geass R2.
The cart driver is probably just some random guy. If this seems unfair to you,
then it's worth remembering that many other characters with far fewer crimes
died in the series, so in some sense it's poetic justice for Lelouch to also
die. And the interviews with everyone including the director do confirm that
in dying, he was successful at his goal of starting the world down a better
path.

Again, this seems to be something people view religiously. I'm not claiming
that the speculations that Lelouch survives are bad in-universe, but there's
simply no evidence for them either from the producers and a lot of evidence to
the contrary, so the better answer in this case is that **Lelouch is dead.**

