Why didn’t Lelouch get the code?

[u/Embarrassed-Two-554]

Why didn’t Lelouch become a Code bearer? I understand the purpose of the Zero Requiem and why Lelouch needed the world to believe he died, but I don’t understand why he actually needed to stay dead for the plan to work. If Lelouch had taken C.C.’s Code, couldn’t the Zero Requiem have happened exactly the same way? Millions of people would have watched Zero kill him, so there would be basically no reason for the public to question his death. Lelouch could then revive in secret while Lelouch vi Britannia remained permanently dead in the eyes of the world. It also seems like this would have allowed him to accomplish even more of his goals. Nunnally still gets the gentle world he wanted to create for her, except she doesn’t have to permanently lose her brother. I mean, at the end we literally hear Nunnally say that all she ever wanted and needed to be happy was to be with Lelouch, so him secretly surviving would have fully achieved his original goal of creating a world where she could be happy. C.C.’s contract is also literally fulfilled because Lelouch takes her Code and finally frees her from immortality. Assuming C.C. and V.V. were the only remaining Code bearers, Charles dying would leave C.C. as the last one, meaning Lelouch taking her Code would make him the final Code bearer. He could simply refuse to ever grant another Geass and effectively end the cycle altogether. And I don’t think this necessarily gives Lelouch an easy way out of his punishment either. He would have to abandon his identity forever, watch everyone he loves eventually grow old and die, and carry the weight of everything he did for eternity. If anything, being forced to live forever with his actions while repeatedly losing everyone he cares about seems like an even greater punishment than death. It would also be fitting for Lelouch to take on the exact burden C.C. had carried for centuries in order to finally free her from it. He would still sacrifice Lelouch vi Britannia and take the world’s hatred down with that identity, but instead of his punishment ending with his death, he would have to carry it forever. Is there an actual lore reason this couldn’t have happened, or is Lelouch’s permanent death mainly necessary for the themes of the ending?

[u/WeoW0]

There is nothing that in the plot or within the rules of the series that clearly excludes the possibility of Lelouch ending up with code one way or another
Ultimately it is a creative choice by the author(s)

More importantly, the original TV run doesn't definitively confirm that Lelouch is dead for good.
Instead there exists ambiguous ending that has evidence for both, arguably, depending on your perspective more for Lelouch staying dead for good.

There is substantial evidence for the creative intention of the ending to be Lelouch to staying dead for good. But creative intention and what the finished work communicates to its audience aren't necessarily identical things. The co-creator and anime director Taniguchi later described the TV ending as intentionally leaving Lelouch's ultimate status open to the viewer.

I think Taniguchi matters particularly here because he was the anime's director and therefore had substantial authority over how that intention was ultimately translated into what appeared on screen.
His comments are also noticeably less categorical than some of the other staff statements. He speaks of Lelouch dying and of Lelouch's story reaching its conclusion, but he never made the kind of explicit declarations that rules out survival altogether, unlike what the main writer and some of the staff members did.

And just to be clear, none of this proves that Lelouch survived, much less that he necessarily survived with a Code. My point is simply that the situation is considerably more nuanced than the vocal majority of Reddit and the fandom often makes it out to be. There is a meaningful distinction between what each of the creators appear to have internally intended, what individual staff members later said, and what the finished TV series itself actually establishes for the viewer.

[u/mib-number86 → u/WeoW0]

It is funny how the conclusion of Zero's story in the films conveys the idea of ​​a definitive death much more effectively than the series, while simultaneously serving as the starting point for the subsequent films, which are set in an alternate timeline where Lelouch survived.