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Rolo’s look is hard to describe. Loving or seductive? Or just sincere?!

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How Rolo Rolls Special 3: How Rolo Smiles!

Of course, “How Rolo Laughs” would have been a much nicer title for this special; unfortunately, Rolo never does in the whole show, except in flashbacks, but these are only stills. He laughs in The Miraculous Birthday, and even as the Mock Turtle in Nunnally in Wonderland, but never in Code Geass R2, and if that isn’t sad, I don’t know what is. And even the occasional smiles that he musters make one feel uneasy way too often.

There is his cynical smile when Lelouch tells him that Rolo needs him for the sake of his own life, the slightly obsessive smile when Lelouch returns from the Chinese Federation and the stalkerish smile when Rolo keeps watch at Lelouch’s bedside. Worst of all is Rolo’s maniacal or deceitful smile before he kills the children that are still members of the Geass Order. What can we say?! That kid does have a lot of problems.

It is clearly not Rolo’s fault that he sometimes looks so strange when he smiles or even laughs in official Code Geass artwork. Sometimes he looks like a total Shota, in other instances his smile appears completely moronic; pardon me for saying so. This may have to do with the fact that some artists deliberately try to give him a Shota-esque appearance, sometimes they simply seem to be unable to give him a decent look. (One could probably pinpoint this down to individual names if one tried.)

There are decent scenes with smiling Rolo, too, though. He looks very nice when he smiles about his Big Brother’s eccentricities when they are both riding Rivalz’ motorbike. The scene where Rolo looks most happy is unfortunately when he thinks the Britannian Army has arrived at Babel Tower to rescue them. He couldn’t have been more wrong. He has that grim and determined smile both when he fights V.V. and when he saves Lelouch from the Black Knights. He smiles widely when he admires Lelouch for his ability to calculate the Shinkirô’s Absolute Defence Field. His smile when he’s dying is just bittersweet. Rolo seems to smile more in the afterlife, given The Miraculous Birthday. Fortunately, there is also some good fanart that shows him with a happy smile.

So we can conclude that even though he is a troubled boy and other emotions may come to him more naturally, Rolo is not cut off from happiness after all.

What are your thoughts?