Mistakes Lelouch Made

Lelouch made many mistakes, and some might have killed him if not for CC. That just shows how good CC is. Of course, all of them is a stretch to greater or lesser extent. Lelouch never does anything that is completely stupid and pointless.

1. Left Viletta alive. Villetta retained some of her memories and managed to get to the bottom of whole thing. 

In Lelouch defense however, he could not know in detail how geass works so he could not know if Villetta will retain any memories. Later in episode 4 or so he tested in various people on campus to better understand limitations. Before geassing Kallen, he was not even aware that it does not work on the same person twice. 

That geassing Kallen can also be considered a mistake that took so long to fix.

2. He saved Suzaku. He might have just left him as it is. He could not know however that Suzaku will refuse to join him. So, this one is on the power of hindsight.

3. He went unprepared to face Cornelia in Saitama ghetto incident. Here he clearly could not know it will turn out this way, so it is even a bigger stretch to call it a mistake than the rest. 

Unlike Clovis Cornelia figured out that if enemy has access to all their movements and communications, them one of their knightmares must be stolen. She recalled all units back to base and then made the pilots to show they faces to find the hijacker. 

That would have been an end for Lelouch, but then CC dressed as Zero showed up and they all went after disguised CC instead as Zero was a priority target.

4. Ordered 'to shoot' Mao instead of 'to kill'. Also, a power of hindsight, no one would have guessed in his place that the former wording of the order will only leave Mao heavily wounded.

5. He should have only made Shirley forget all about Mao and not also about himself.

6. He should have let Sawasaki and Chinese to weaken Britannians as much as they could.

7. Should have been more careful not to geass Euphy by accident.

8. Should not have left the battlefield for Kaminejima for Nunnally.

8.5. Theoretically he could have tried to reach an agreement with Xing Ke and topple the Eunuchs together, but Xing Ke does not look like the type to negotiate easily. Besides China would unlikely simply join UFN as Lelouch wanted. Only events of that battle in Mausoleum could convince someone like Xing Ke to side with Lelouch.

9. He should have picked people he took to Geass Order mission more carefully. Ideally, he should have done it with just CC, Rolo, Jeremiah and Sayako. Taking them over would be an interesting idea, but it is far from certain they will agree to join him.

10. he should not have gone to Japan and met Suzaku just before the second battle for Tokyo. That is the most obviously idiotic thing he has done.

11. Finally, he should not have let Schneizel board Ikaruga and talk to personnel. Nunnally or not, getting the business out of hand so much is risky.

Couple of extra responses on why he should not have sided for real with JLF or Sawasaki as well as Zero Requiem.

Liberation Front would not have allowed him to rule if they won together. They would have just sidelined him and restored the old government.

Sawasaki was Chinese puppet, who would also not allowed him to rule. Besides he probably had made many unequal treaties concessions to the Chinese to get their support so his rule would probably be no better than HBE, just with a different Imperial Overlord.

However Lelouch should have use Sawasaki and his forces to weaken Britannian Military before jumping against the winner, who will be weakened after the prolonged fight and would not be able to fight at full strength.

Now the trickiest part: Zero Requiem. Sure there are benefits in ruling directly. However because of the actions he took in the past, Lelouch was hated by too many people around the world. Lelouch would had to deal with a lot of insurgencies as well as assassination attempts against him. One of these might have killed him for real.

In contrast going Zero Requiem and becoming as immortal as CC allowed him to dodge all these problems. He sure made other arrangements to make sure the people who will rule will do as he actually wants. UNF is not a one person dictatorship but a parliamentary democracy. Lelouch created that one himself and dealed with representatives of all nations of UNF so he could be sure it will more or less work as intended. Schneizel would be handling more complex problems while Nunnally and Zero-Suzaku will be more of mascots of the new system.

Plus Lelouch could retire early and live out eternal retirement with CC. Not even fastest FIRO schemes will allow you that.

Plus Lelouch could retire early and live out eternal retirement with CC. Not even fastest FIRO schemes will allow you that.

Still, I would want to have my sex slave harem of infinite sexy maids as Emperor of the World.