C.C.

'C.C.', pronounced "C2", is the tritagonist of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. Her Japanese voice actress is Yukana while she is voiced by Kate Higgins in the English dub. C.C. is not her real name; she involuntarily reveals her real name to Lelouch in her sleep, but it is muted so the viewers cannot hear it. In the 29th Anime Grand Prix, she was awarded 3rd place. She was chosen as the most popular female character of 2007 and 2008 at Animage magazine's annual Anime Grand Prix. C.C. is a girl with long, almost waist-length light green hair and golden eyes. She is of average height, being slightly shorter than Kallen. She has a scar under her left breast that resembles a Geass sigil. C.C.'s outfits are both plentiful and varied. She is seen wearing a wide assortment of different clothes, often dependent on the situation or the time period. She often wears Lelouch's own clothes, including his Zero costume whenever Lelouch required a decoy. In the first season, C.C. primarily wears the outfit she initially appears in - a white straitjacket used to restrain her during her time as a test subject for the Britannian Empire, prior to the beginning of the series. These suits contain many means of restraint, including various straps and zippers, and a high collar capable of gagging the wearer. Not set to fully bind the wearer, the suits have rather long sleeves that flare outwards closer to the cuffs. A number of these straitjackets are seen in the Geass research laboratories. According to the Audio Drama, the reason for C.C.'s common use of the suit is because she feels she is not free. She is seen wearing it through most of the first season and the end of the second season. C.C.'s predominant outfit in the second season is her Black Knights uniform, which is wildly different from those of the other Black Knights. Rather than the usual Black Knights jacket, C.C. wears a sleeveless black uniform with a high collar, gold trim, and a silver Black Knights symbol on the chest. The lower end of the uniform splits off into four long pieces that nearly extend to the floor. A long, adorned red sash is also worn around the waist. C.C. also wears long black gloves with gold trim kept on with red bands on the upper arms as well as long white and gold high-heeled boots. Underneath her uniform C.C. wears a cropped sleeveless white turtle-neck and white boyshorts. She is often seen wearing only these undergarments. She has on some episodes worn the Ashford Academy uniform and has her hair tied in twin-tails. This is done to slightly blend in with the student body so she can move around more freely, to pass messages to Lelouch or just to simply find more pizza. Throughout most of the series, C.C. expresses little in the way of emotion or affection, behaving apathetically towards most. She's quickly shown to be stubborn, selfish, and headstrong, as well as possessing high standards, which Lelouch takes note of and teases her about from time to time. Ironically, she claims to hate stubbornness, despite being quite stubborn herself. Though, it appears she notes these qualities to be essential to her sense of self, saying "That is what makes me C.C." in reference to them. She's shown to be pragmatic, focused on fulfilling her "contract" with Lelouch, which also serves to show her selfish side. Early on, she was willing to shoot Lelouch to hold him back from meeting Cornelia's challenge to him. In the second season, she suggested that Lelouch use Geass on Nunnally to bring her over to his side. She's also shown to be isolated, preferring to act alone to solve personal matters and being quite snarky and dismissive towards most people. C.C. can also be very secretive, to the point of being on par with Lelouch, albeit much less coordinated than the latter. Although, despite her icy demeanor, C.C. appears to be something of a philosopher. In multiple conversations with Lelouch, she muses about human nature and conflict, seeing human history as a long line of struggle, this belief being deepened by her life experiences. C.C., despite not living by it, sees the idea of "survival of the fittest", which Britannia lives by, as a simple enough way of life to follow. Over time, she's revealed to hold a strong belief in the idea that life requires purpose and focus in order to be called life. She comes to understand Lelouch's desire to find purpose in life and his connection to Nunnally as his reason for living. In the Japanese version, she calls Nunnally her brother's "raison d'etre", French for "reason for existence". However, at the same time, due to her tumultuous life, C.C. has grown highly cynical about the nature of life itself. She came to see death as the definitive proof of life itself, as it shows that life can come to an end. She believes that without death, life cannot be called "life", but rather, it is merely experience, an accumulation of memories and actions. Additionally, she sees the events of accumulation to be "worthless illusions". Nonetheless, C.C. also possesses some positive thoughts on life as well. One recurring topic she comes to discuss with Lelouch is the nature of love. In her childhood, her greatest desire was to find genuine love and kindness from others, which served to produced her original Geass power. Though, she has grown cautious about the idea of love due to her experiences. She sees love without limit to not be love at all, and distances herself from others in order to avoid feeling pain as all those who had genuinely loved her in the past had faded from her life. When Mao appears in the first season, just before she executes him, C.C. confesses to him how, even though she was using him, she'd genuinely developed love for him. Concurrently, C.C. is also shown to, in rare cases, show sympathy towards others she relates to. She sympathizes with Lelouch's insistence on pursuing purpose in life, Mao's desire for love and acceptance, and Suzaku's desire for death, as all of these are traits she shares. More notably, C.C. does express genuine kindness towards others, in rare cases. She mostly does so when in the presence of Lelouch. She allows Lelouch to confide in her and actively listens to his thoughts and concerns. She shows something of a more playful side towards him, teasing him multiple times about his flaws with Lelouch responding in kind. She's also shown to be somewhat more positive around Nunnally and Kaguya, seeing both girls as being genuinely kind individuals. She was also openly shocked upon learning Nunnally survived the first F.L.E.I.J.A. attack. On a more serious level, she shows open respect to those who meet her high standards, namely Kallen, acknowledging her strength and her convictions, and Suzaku, after the two of them choose to join forces with Lelouch. In Suzaku's case, she appears to show some deference to him after they form an alliance, telling him in private "We do things as you like", and accepting when he calls himself and her respectively Lelouch's "sword" and "shield". C.C. also demonstrates a potentially strong sense of loyalty as well, being one of the few people to remain by Lelouch's side throughout the entire series. This loyalty appears to stem not just out of their contract, but also genuine respect towards him. When she locks her memories away, she regresses to how she was hundreds of years ago, fearful and open. During this time, C.C. is shown to be, in a sort of twisted sense, comforting and kind. She actively tries to comfort Lelouch, whom she saw as her "master", when he's feeling distressed, and shows no kind of anger of disdain towards others. She also seems to understand the idea of pain and heartache, revealing that, when she was young and ever felt sad or cold, she would deliberately injure herself as a coping mechanism, in order to distract herself from the pain she feels inside. She feels that external pain is always better than internal pain. However, when she regains her memories, her personality reverts back. When this occurs, while in C’s World, C.C. seems to reveal a growing sense of morality as well. She comes to see the Ragnarök Connection as a presumptuous plan, and rejects Charles and Marianne along with Lelouch after realizing that the two royals were ultimately selfish and only loved themselves. Even more importantly, deep in her heart, C.C. is shown to be capable of remorse and regret for her actions. She admits to Lelouch about feeling conflicted with using Mao, a very young and disadvantaged child, as a pawn. When Suzaku called Lelouch C.C.'s "accomplice", C.C. seemed to briefly question this for the first time, showing that her feelings were changing. Before the series' final battle, she also asked Lelouch if he hated her, due to how her giving him Geass affected his life, showing how she had developed remorse for involving him in her tangled life. Additionally, it is implied that by the series' end C.C. had fallen in love with Lelouch. Kallen suspected this to be the case and questioned her on it, which made C.C. unusually flustered. Backing this up is that C.C. never made Lelouch take her immortality per their contract and she was worried that she altered his fate. By the end of the series, due to her experiences with Lelouch and those around him, C.C.'s outlook on life significantly improved. She appears to have grown more positive and hopeful about the state of humanity and the world, supporting Lelouch in completing the Zero Requiem and his attempts to improve the world. Most importantly, it seems that C.C. has regained her desire to live, overcoming her death wish and endeavoring to find happiness once more in the new, gentler world that emerged from the Zero Requiem.