rolotouto:rolorules:rolotouto:rolorules:How Rolo Rolls Part 9: The Promise You Made At the end of th

rolotouto:rolorules:rolotouto:rolorules:How Rolo Rolls Part 9: The Promise You Made At the end of the previous episode, we saw Lelouch as Zero being carried to his negotiations with the Knights of the Round by the Vincent. In other words, he allowed Rolo to carry him through the air on the arms of a machine, which I would call an immense sign of trust, not only in his piloting skills, but also in his loyalty. It is weird to see how Lelouch always claims to despise Rolo, but keeps relying on him as his right-hand man. When Rolo puts Lelouch down at the beginning of Code Geass R2 Turn 8: One Million Miracles, he reminds him: “Big Brother, the promise you made!“ It seems that this does not just refer to Lelouch’s promising Rolo a future by his side, but specifically to the two of them living toghether as brothers in Ashford. Later on in Lelouch’s room, Rolo mentions that he is helping Lelouch because he has something to protect now, and apparently this does not only refer to Lelouch, but to the entire school, for which he will act as a guardian in the future. For someone like Rolo, who seems to be a natural-born loner, literally a lone gunman, this is a big deal, and he reminds Lelouch of the risk he is taking by aiding him. For the first time, he mentions V.V., and that he would kill Rolo without hesitation if he found out that he changed sides. Lelouch reminds him that they are in this together now by assuring him that he would be next. This certainly has the intended effect on Rolo, who now states that they share the same destiny. We can be fairly certain that Rolo is actually pleased about that fact. One has to wonder whether Lelouch’s moving some chess figures in front of Rolo’s eyes is actually symbolic for the way he uses and manipulates people, like Rolo, for example, or Villetta, who arrives shortly after. Of course Lelouch has a rather haughty air, but Villetta still seems to be able to cope with the situation pretty well. The casual way in which Lelouch, Rolo and Villetta manage to get along with each other in spite of erverything is surprising. Maybe the prospect of getting to see Oghi again helps a little. Prior to that, there is a scene in what is to become Ashford’s new roof garden. It seems that there is nobody in that huge school who is able to do the hard work, except for the members of the Student Council. Rolo simply tags along, obviously, when Lelouch is involved in any Student Council activity, which makes him something like an unofficial member. While they are doing the gardening, Shirley, Rivalz and the others try to persuade Suzaku to put in a good word for Kallen. Lelouch chimes in and casually mentions his talk with Nunnally from the other day. Suzaku keeps up his smile but secretly wonders whether Lelouch has really not regained his memories yet. Rolo gives him a suspicious sideways look which shows that he does not trust him at all. That aside, Rolo must be fairly happy at this point, even though he certainly dislikes the fact that his Big Brother has to leave for the Chinese Federation, along with a million Black Knights, by means of one of his ploys, disguising all of them as Zero. For this plan to succeed, it’s Suzaku’s turn to keep a promise and to make sure that the Britannians do not simply gun them down. Since Suzaku is a noble character, unlike a certain childhood friend of his, they can all leave unharmed. At any rate, Rolo has to accept Lelouch’s departure; he even sees him off. There is nothing left for him to do at the moment, but to wait and follow the events in the Chinese Federation on the screen. Up next: Welcome Back, Big Brother! I always found Rolo’s “Because I have something I want to protect, I’ll help you. After all, if they discover your secret, this academy will be gone as well” to be something really odd for him to say. The way he phrases it, it can only mean “it’s not you that I care about, it’s the school”, but I think we can be pretty sure by now that Rolo would not mind setting fire to the entirety of Ashford if that made Lelouch praise him. So then why would he say that? And why does he even show a bit of a defiant look when talking to Lelouch, almost like he wants Lelouch to not get too relaxed yet?Well, I think at this point in time Rolo himself wasn’t sure how he felt about Lelouch. Rolo has demonstrated that he has a pretty strong sense of dignity (especially for someone who was taught to consider himself a tool!) during moments such as when he complains that “Lelouch, so you were lying to me from the very beginning…!” and “Even though you said you’d give me a future…” in Turn 4. When lied to, he is not just hurt but also offended. And from his point of view, by Turn 8 Lelouch was quite openly taking advantage of and gaslighting him: Rolo had told Lelouch about his Geass’s weakness, betrayed the OSI, betrayed the Cult, helped Lelouch talk to Nunnally, and assured Lelouch that he’d never leave his side. He even had to act as the “mature brother” for a moment when he took the time to explain to the depressed Lelouch that it’s okay to choose happiness and live as a normal student. And how was Lelouch repaying all those gestures that Rolo was making to prove his loyalty? By getting depressed about Nunnally, calling Nunnally in his dreams, wanting to kidnap Nunnally, turning to drugs because bawl nobody needs me now that Nunnally has taken her own decision, and when he’s finally cheered up again (thanks to the Student Council, not because he appreciates Rolo’s efforts…), his next idea is to travel to another country. And he is still counting on Rolo to use his Geass, point a gun at Villetta and pilot the Vincent for his sake, despite having promised him a peaceful future with “none of those things”.Remember, Rolo has left behind everything he had because he wants to believe in Lelouch’s promise to him, but by the potato scene in Turn 5 Lelouch is already in the “this pawn is loyal to me, no need to spend more time on him” phase. He only repeats that he will protect “our daily lives and the place where you belong” to Rolo after Rolo sits in front of him and not-too-happilly reminds him about the promise. So I think that when Rolo makes it sound like he’s mainly helping Lelouch because he wants to protect the school, he is trying to tell Lelouch “if you don’t give me the normal student life that you promised, I might not be loyal to you, because I’m here for the student life, okay?” as a result of feeling betrayed, and frightened, by how it seems that Lelouch might be planning to abandon him after all. Following this theory, I’d say he adds that “We share the same destiny, don’t we?” in his attempt to convince Lelouch that he shouldn’t abandon him.But then, when Lelouch was away in the Chinese Federation, Rolo must have missed him so much that he could no longer pretend otherwise. He must have realized that the time he spent as Lelouch’s brother was just something he could not forget, and he was so desperate that he had to cling to the hope that those days would return, no matter how suspicious Lelouch acted. That’s why, after Lelouch returns to Japan, Rolo never antagonizes him again and is fully on his side, yet on the inside he feels extremely anxious and paranoid and threatened by the possibility of Nunnally coming back to Lelouch’s life. I know there isn’t that much evidence in the series that these were Rolo’s emotions during Turn 8, but it’s my take based on how I interpret Rolo’s personality and the phases that people often go through when they are a victim of emotional abuse. Luckily for Rolo, Lelouch does have empathy and guilt underneath all that pride, but don’t try this at home: in real life, people who manipulate you with fake promises and then proceed to disregard your needs will most assuredly never admit their mistakes and will actually feel like winners if they get you to sacrifice yourself for them… I have to admit I never noticed Rolo’s strange wording, which is indeed mainly about Ashford and not Lelouch. (By the way: why does Rolo assume Ashford would be destroyed if Lelouch’s secret was discovered? Does he expect a devastating fight or its demolition as an act of retaliation?) But if Rolo’s intention here really was to convince Lelouch that he cares about the school, not him, that would hardly be convincing, and a little too late, given the fact that he near-smooched Lelouch in the previous episode and told him that he would stay by his side as his, erm, brother forever. Therefore I would assume that he makes those remarks about protecting Ashford for some other reason (even though his words kind of imply that his help and loyalty may not be unconditional).Somehow Rolo seems to have this firm conviction, despite all his fears and worries, that Lelouch likes him, otherwise his promise to stay with Lelouch would be absurd. His main problem is that he wants to be not only the number one, but ‘the one and only’ in Lelouch’s life, so being pushed aside by someone else (Nunnally, Shirley) would probably be just as bad for him as if Lelouch discarded him completely. (I would once again like to recommend the Crimson Moon doujinshi (part 2, part 3) , which explores Rolo’s mindset brilliantly.) This leads to another problem of his: even if Lelouch was totally sincere about his promise to give Rolo a future and a life by his side, how would that even be feasible? Ashford Academy is still under surveillance (at least in theory) by the OSI, and the authorities know about Lelouch’s true identity (the Lamperouge name is as much of an alias for Lelouch as it is for Rolo, after all). Then there are the Black knights, who expect Zero to lead them. In fact, Rolo’s best chance would probably be Nunnally’s (actually Euphy’s) plan for a Special Administrative Zone, which would mean that the Black Knights no longer have a reason to fight and therefore no longer need Zero as a leader. Lelouch/Zero would no longer have to fight in order to create a better world for Nunnally either.The additional beauty of the plan (in Rolo’s eyes) lies in the fact that Nunnally would remain at a safe distance, fulfilling her viceroy duties. Apparently Rolo has also realised that Lelouch’s self-esteem (and sense of purpose) more or less rests on his ability to care for a family member that needs him (Lelouch’s losing it after seeing Nunnally stand on her own feet, figuratively speaking, made it more than obvious), so after fuelling Lelouch’s hysteria even further (by manipulating the train’s broadcasting system) Rolo tries to persuade Lelouch to go along with his (and Nunnally’s) vision of the future. The irony here is: Rolo’s motive is completely selfish, but when he tells Lelouch that this is “For Nunnally’s sake, too.“, he is probably right.His efforts are not totally in vain, at least Lelouch comes back to Ashford with him, where he is visibly touched by the fact that Shirley says she wanted to have fireworks with Lelouch AND Rolo, but he can most likely guess that Lelouch will not do him the favour of simply accepting Nunnally’s offer.And here we are. I believe that Rolo genuinely likes Ashford Academy, even sees it as his home. His student life certainly beats his assassin life any day. His priority is to live with Big Brother, but this school is the place where he wants to do that. Lelouch, on the other hand, has this phone call with Diethard which shows that he keeps planning and scheming, including a trip to the Chinese Federation, which, in my opinion, is the reason why Rolo looks less than enthusiastic and tries to rub in the message that school life is important to him. (Has anyone told him that people do not stay in school forever?! Graduation day comes for everyone (who is not a dropout), even Milly.)Alas, since Lelouch has his own plans, Rolo’s only choice is to fight with him (he certainly does not mind proving his worth) and hope for the only remaining way to get a peaceful life by Big Brother’s side: his victory. (The holidays are over, so I won’t be able to write much from now on :( )I wish I could find an interview that talked about Rolo’s lines from Turn 8, since I find the interpretation I wrote to be too far-fetched myself. However, I still have the impression that Rolo doesn’t feel that much of an attachment towards Ashford Academy, precisely because logically speaking he should feel the attachment and yet he never seems to focus on it (outside of Turn 8). I mean, one would assume that life as a student is fascinatingly better than life as an assassin, but we don’t see him expressing thoughts such as “It’s so nice when your biggest fear is just failing a maths exam” or “I can’t believe I’m seen as a normal teenager by everyone around me, I didn’t know I had the right to live like this,” not in the anime nor side materials. And in his Regret Message, he talks about wanting to live together with Lelouch “in a quiet place”, not necessarily Ashford. I’d even argue, considering how willing he is to offer Lelouch his ability to kill enemies and pilot the Vincent, that Rolo himself doesn’t really mind going to the battlefield (he is just so used to it that he might in fact not want to fully give up that part of his identity that makes him feel useful!), and that he tried to convince Lelouch to accept Nunnally’s SAZ plan not so much so that Rolo himself could keep his life as a student, but mainly so Lelouch would stay as student!Lelouch. Because Zero!Lelouch risks his life every day, has many terrorist activities that he needs to spend his time on, and he is no longer always there for his little brother.As for him needing to be Lelouch’s one and only, maybe it’s just me wanting to paint Rolo in a better light inside my head, but I say the reason he was so desperate is not because he is a jealous person by nature, but because Lelouch himself always talked to Rolo in terms of “just the two of us”. If Lelouch’s words to him were closer to “I do in fact love Nunnally but the time I spent with you was real and I want you as my little brother too, the three of us will be so happy together <3” I think Rolo would have been okay with that. Turn 19.02 makes it clear that Rolo always knew fakememories!Lelouch’s kindness was “for Nunnally”, not for him, and his way of responding to that truth was to appear visibly sad rather than to be in denial about it. So genuine!Lelouch telling him he wanted Rolo in his family despite the lack of blood ties should have been enough to move Rolo into changing sides. And actually, with a “the three of us” promise, I’d say Rolo would have been equally motivated to help Lelouch and manage to be even more useful/obedient to him than he is in the anime, because, with Lelouch no longer contradicting himself, Rolo wouldn’t have such a strong reason to be murderously paranoid of Nunnally coming back, I believe.Perhaps I’m wrong and even a sincere “I love you and Nunnally both” would have had Rolo going “Niisan might be lying, I’ll murder her just in case” or “I don’t want a sister, it has to be Niisan and me alone, just like before” but… I don’t think Rolo is that greedy or unstable. He gave up his life to prolong Lelouch’s. If he were so possessive that he couldn’t share Lelouch with anyone, he would have murdered him so they could always be together in the afterlife or some yandere thing when Turn 19 happened. He would not have given Lelouch the chance to go on living and meet his old friends and make new ones and maybe even form a new family without Rolo.So then why didn’t Lelouch just tell Rolo he wanted Rolo to be part of the Lelouch&Nunnally&Rolo family? That would have worked even better to manipulate Rolo, as it is a more believable lie than “it’s just us two brothers” (Turn 14). Well, there’s the possibility that, at the time, Lelouch found it too offensive to even suggest the idea of letting Rolo live with Nunnally (although, later, Talkin’ Rebellion “Light” portrays Lelouch’s dream as one in which Nunnally and Rolo are both his little siblings and fight for his attention Lelouch’s the biggest sisbrocon of the three). But maybe it’s also that, when trying to analyze what it is that Rolo longs for, Lelouch’s own vision of how monopolizing (or is it “monopolistic”? I’m looking for the the adjective) siblings should be of each other and his own pride as the perfect big brother made him certain that Rolo definitely wanted him and him only!PS: That’s a good doujin. I might be sounding like I don’t, but I *love* creepy, obsessive Rolo. I just consider that his past as an assassin alone isn’t what turned him like that, and that he’d have kept his “willing to murder everyone who steals Niisan from me” side under control if Lelouch wasn’t constantly lying to him in such an obvious manner.  That’s very true. Lelouch’s constant lying must have troubled Rolo immensely. As for his sacrifice in Turn 19: I think it is the result of a lot of thinking on Rolo’s part, which must have led him to conclude thatA) the life he wanted to live with Lelouch would never come to pass,B) a world without him was still preferrable to a world without Lelouch, even if that meant Lelouch would be with Nunnally, his friends and maybe a family of his own, but not with him.That is a huge step for him, no doubt, actually the completion of his redemption arc, but it has taken him a while to reach that point. I, too, think that Rolo does not mind fighting for Lelouch, he is an excellent Knightmare pilot, after all, Geass or no. When he first shows up with the Vincent, Lelouch is stunned by his skills, implicitly comparing them to Suzaku’s. So he probably likes to put these skills to good use, even if he yearns for a peaceful life with Lelouch as well (maybe his ideal is a student’s life with some adventure in between).Moreover, Rolo is actually a pretty valiant fighter. When Cyborg Jeremiah shows up at Ashford, Rolo confronts him head on, and when Robo Orange subdues him, he is not intimidated, but outraged. (Before doing that, incidentally, he makes sure that the students are safe. To me, this is another small piece of evidence that he cares about this school.)I would like to keep these musings open for debate. So be brave like Rolo, dear readers, and share your thoughts. -- source link

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