Schneizel el Britannia

"What is it that people truly want? Starvation and poverty? Discrimination and corruption? War and terrorism? They want the problems that are flooding the world to go away forever. People can't understand each other under these situations at all."

- Schneizel el Britannia

Schneizel el Britannia (シュナイゼル・エル・ブリタニア, Shunaizeru eru Buritania) is 27 years old (28 at R2) and the Second Prince of the Britannian Imperial Family, as well as the Prime Minister of the Holy Britannian Empire. He is a strategist on par with Lelouch, and the only person Lelouch was unable to beat in chess as a child. Charismatic and manipulative, cunning and ruthless, Schneizel is widely regarded as Lelouch's greatest adversary, including Lelouch himself, and the Prime Minister serves as one of the primary antagonists of the series, particularly in Season 2, where he becomes the series' final antagonist.

Appearance
Schneizel is considered to be a very handsome man with fair skin, corn-silk blonde hair that falls across the back of his neck, and cold, violet eyes. He is extremely tall, towering over nearly all other characters in the series and is slightly taller than even his father, Charles zi Britannia. He is typically seen wearing a long, royal purple tunic that is bordered with black and gold accents, and across his mid-section is a loosely fitting white belt, ending right at his kneecaps, that covers a portion of white slacks. Over top of this is a white over-coat that possess a stiff, black high-backed collar that shows a crimson silk inside, with golden epaulettes at the shoulders.

Personality
Schneizel is charismatic and calculating, able to form complex strategies that can match even Lelouch's. Despite this, he shows a caring side to his subordinates, earning their respect and loyalty. His hierarchy in the Britannian family gives him great power and influence; though he does have ambitions for the throne, a fact the Emperor seems aware of but not concerned by. He also shows a deal of concern for his half-siblings, aiding them in their ventures as well offering them protection in times of adversity (even in the case of Lelouch), however this seems to be nothing more than a ruse as he quickly gunned down his younger half-sister Cornelia (who has been one of his closest siblings) without remorse or hesitation, and attempted to use Suzaku as a sacrifice to kill Zero, despite his recent appointment as Euphemia's personal knight; as well as the potential loss of the expensive and highly reliable Lancelot prototype, destroying much of Tokyo (including 35,000,000 people, most of which would certainly be Britannian), and the entirety of Pendragon, possibly including all of his family other than Cornelia, Nunnally, and Lelouch, as well as thinking nothing of the deaths of one or two billion people. On the other hand, Cornelia received only minor wounds (perhaps indicating the use of non-lethal ammunition, or that Cornelia was wearing clothes with a similar bulletproof nature to kevlar) and was sent to a hospital for treatment. It is hard to determine if Schneizel is kind or cruel, or simply doesn't feel strong emotion either way. It is noted by Cornelia that Schneizel has no desires, and in a peaceful world he would be the perfect king.

Schneizel is also strangely honorable; granting conquered people peace treaties instead of merely initiating an all-out invasion. Interestingly, he also seems to oppose the racist policies of his father, and was visibly appalled when Euphemia (under Lelouch's Geass) began slaughtering the Japanese. He seems to show disdain for force when it is unnecessary, such as negotiating a peace treaty with the Europia United despite dominating them militarily in every engagement. Though it is likely that Schneizel sees the non-violent approach as a more efficient and effective means of control, brutal subjugation serves only to galvanize resistance instead of subduing them into compliance thus necessitating timely and costly armed pacification.

He also claims that those whose followers do not agree with them do not deserve to be called leaders. When playing a game of chess with Zero, after both he and Zero determine that their match would end in a threefold repetition should they both choose options that wouldn't result in their defeat, he chooses to expose his King to Zero's, despite this being generally an illegal - or rather, suicidal - move, simply to see what Zero would choose. Similarly, his plan to utilize Damocles would have been far better served by avoiding the battle between Lelouch and the UFN, but he chooses to lead the UFN army into battle against Lelouch's forces, causing his downfall, perhaps implying that he prefers interesting choices to those that are wisest. At the same time, he isn't immune to disdain, becoming frustrated when Lelouch and Suzaku manage to infiltrate the Damocles, though he quickly regains his composure.

Deep down, however, Schneizel seems to possess a very negative outlook on humanity in general. He sees man as being driven by its own desires and lusts, to the point where they naturally cannot be denied, even if it results in mankind's detriment. Thus, Schneizel sees any attempts to unite people by positive means or inciting change as being intrinsically ineffective, as humanity will naturally continue to pursue its own selfish lusts. He even sees hopes and dreams as being mere fantasy or even harmful, reasoning that such thoughts result in people developing greed and causing even further suffering in the world. Thus, rather than change people themselves, Schneizel wants to change the world as a whole, to use fear to discourage violence and wrongdoing regardless of whether or not those he controls actually change themselves. As Diethard later puts it, Schneizel is, in truth, a nihilistic individual. When Lelouch corners him at the end of the series, he wholeheartedly admits that he is prepared to die if it means peace will be achieved.

Schneizel sees change in the world as nearly impossible, and that granting people the opportunity to seek change themselves will ultimately have negative results. As Lelouch described it, Schneizel essentially planned to set the world "in a perpetual state of "now"". He claims that lasting change, or at least, lasting results, can only occur via instilling discipline, and so he seeks to impose discipline on the world himself. As he tells Cornelia, if it is what is necessary for his goals, he will even become a god. Ironically, despite his claims of acting on the world's behalf, and taking pragmatic steps to do so, Schneizel is ultimately quite selfish and self-centered. In speaking with Gino Weinberg, he reveals that, in his view, what human beings desire, in truth, is to be controlled, by their nation, religion, or higher authority, any sort of higher authority. This indicates that Schneizel lacks understanding of people at a basic level. As Lelouch surmises, this would have been most likely due to Schneizel having grown up in the lap of luxury and royalty, particularly as a Britannian Prince, and thus having been raised to see the world and its people as beneath him.

Character Outline
Schneizel is a ruthless and cold strategist, willing to sacrifice lives without a second thought to achieve his ends, but is extremely charismatic and caring toward his subordinates. He seems to show disdain for force when it's unnecessary, such as negotiating a peace treaty with the Europia United despite dominating them militarily in every engagement. Schneizel has ambitions for the throne, a fact which the Emperor is aware of but does not seem concerned by. Schneizel seems somewhat resentful of his father, remarking that he is not concerned with the present reality. He is also quite caring to his siblings and he refers that Lelouch is the man he loved and feared the most, however he is more than willing to kill them if they get in his way. Cornelia notes that Schneizel has no desires, and in a peaceful world he would be the perfect king.

In the Drama CD, Schneizel is shown to dislike Japan after the supposed deaths of Lelouch and Nunnally, a sentiment shared by Cornelia and Clovis. He seems to have been involved in the murder of Marianne vi Britannia. When questioned by Lelouch, Clovis suggests that Schneizel knows the truth behind Marianne's murder, and Cornelia likewise notes that it was Schneizel who carried the body out under the Emperor's orders.

Schneizel sponsors a number of experimental projects throughout the series. He is the patron of Lloyd Asplund (developer of the Lancelot), funded the construction of the Gawain, along with developing Avalon, and takes possession of one of the Thought Elevators in Japan to study it. His investments in new technologies result in the development of the F.L.E.I.J.A. warhead, and eventually, the floating fortress Damocles, both of which are integral to his plans for bringing the world "eternal peace."

It was hinted jocularly that Schneizel might be homosexual when Milly was introduced to Earl Kanon Maldini, who made an enigmatic remark that he was Schneizel's secretary "both personal and private". He immediately claims it to have been meant jestingly, but then goes on to mention that the prince has a taste for unusual things, himself included. Schneizel's older brother, Odysseus, makes a comment in the next scene that he is surprised to find his brother with only one woman. Schneizel's sexuality is thereby left obscure.

First Season
Schneizel el Britannia makes his first but brief appearance in attending Prince Clovis' funeral while the Emperor of Britannia, his father, makes a speech on the virtues of inequality and the social battle for evolution and betterment.

However, he makes his first major appearance in episode 18, where he orders his floating battleship, the Avalon, to use the onboard Gawain to bombard the island, intending to sacrifice Suzaku in order to kill Zero,while betting on Gawain's weaponry flaw may help his victims escape from this ordeal. During the search for Euphemia, Schneizel, Lloyd and Cécile Croomy survey the island's ancient ruins. When Lelouch, Kallen, Suzaku and Euphemia meet, a symbol of Geass appears in the ground and they suddenly fall into the ruins. Lelouch and Kallen steal the prototype Knightmare Frame Gawain and escape. Suzaku is detained for insubordination, as it is revealed that Lelouch used Geass on Suzaku, giving him the command to "live." He supports Euphemia's idea of creating the Special Administrative Zone of Japan for the Elevens, but fails to mention it to Cornelia when he told Euphemia he would. This is because he believes that the plan would weaken the support for the terrorists' groups in Area 11, thus helping to pacify the region and restore public order, possibly even eliminating the Black Knights in the process. He is shocked and horrified when he sees her acting uncharacteristically and killing the Japanese people, and suspects something is responsible for Euphemia's change.

In episode 24, when his older brother, Prince Odysseus, is too indecisive to act during Zero's attack on the Tokyo Settlement, especially after Euphemia's death, Schneizel steps up and volunteers to go to Cornelia's aid, taking the Pacific fleet to Area 11 to relieve her battered forces and restore order. Before that, Schneizel assumed that Charles is at the ruins again.

Second Season
In the second season, Schneizel commands all of the Britannian forces attempting to conquer E.U.-controlled Europe. His most brilliant accomplishment was conquering various E.U. controlled territories, and ending the war with a peace treaty despite repeated victories. As he explains to Nina, he did this because nothing but conquest invites defeat since it destroys hope. The Chinese Empress Tianzi was being forced into a political marriage to First Prince Odysseus eu Britannia. The wedding was orchestrated by the High Eunuchs, who would become nobles of Britannia, in exchange for turning over half their land to Schneizel el Britannia. As the wedding begins, Li Xingke initiates a coup-d'état to overthrow the Eunuchs, but before he can free the Empress, Zero appears and takes her hostage. He decides to give up on his plan, noting that leaders who do not have the support of their people cannot be called leaders at all. Faced with open rebellion, Schneizel orders a Britannian retreat, and Xingke eliminates the Eunuchs and rescues his comrades. After the fall of the Eunuchs, Schneizel begins efforts to annex the Federation's fragmented territories.

He is present in Tokyo during the invasion of Japan by the Black Knights and learns the true identity of Zero which is that of his brother Lelouch. During the meeting between Lelouch and Suzaku at the Kururugi family shrine, Schneizel sends troops to follow Suzaku in order to identify and arrest Zero and also make it appear that Suzaku has betrayed Lelouch again and obtains the recorded conversation of the confession of Lelouch and states, "Now, I'm the one controlling the game," confident of his victory. During the second battle of Tokyo, Schneizel is aboard the Avalon along with Lloyd and Nina, watching the battle of Tokyo unfold before his eyes. He retreats when Suzaku, under the geass, fires F.L.E.I.J.A. at Zero which misses and obliterates the entire government complex and surrounding area, wiping out units from both sides that were not able to escape the blast. He selectively uses the information he acquired regarding Zero, in tandem with the devastation caused by F.L.E.I.J.A., to convince the Black Knights to abandon Zero. He begins his plot to usurp the throne after Suzaku volunteers to assassinate the Emperor in exchange for Knight of One status, noting that the Emperor's dismissal of the war as a "trifling matter" as well as his research into Geass makes him unfit to rule. While talking to Kaguya and the rest of the UFN and assuming that Anya is reporting to the emperor while Suzaku is trying to assassinate him, he decides to go to Kamine Island to deal with the rebellion noting how events started to turn out. After reaching Kamine Island, Bismarck Waldstein comes to report to Schneizel about the rebellion as they are suppressing it and is later questioned of how much he knows and replies by asking what he is referring to. While events begin to unfold throughout the world, Bismarck informs Schneizel that once the Emperor's plan succeeds, he will be left to govern what's left of the world until when the plan ceases, Bismarck senses something is wrong with the emperor. When Lelouch ends up killing the Emperor and taking the throne, Schneizel is content to let his brother have it, placing more concern on a bigger confrontation between Lelouch's Geass and his floating fortress, the Damocles. He uses a F.L.E.I.J.A warhead to annihilate the Britannian capital, then reveals to Lelouch that he plans to have Nunnally, thought to be dead, become the new Empress.

In private, he shows Cornelia his plan to place Damocles in a position to strike every country in the world, enforcing peace through terror and making him a god. By letting Lelouch take over as Emperor, Schneizel makes himself seem like the lesser of two evils and the only hope to ending Lelouch's reign of evil, enabling him to convince the Black Knights to work with him for the sake of stopping Lelouch so that no obstacles can stand in his way. When Cornelia attempts to stop him, Schneizel shoots her with a rack of hidden guns. However, when Lelouch and Suzaku manage to break through Damocles' defenses even as Schneizel prepares to evacuate, Lelouch manages to trap Schneizel aboard the shuttle. He then proceeds to use his Geass on him, forcing him to serve Zero and tell him the location of the Damocles' key.

Two months later, Schneizel, along with the U.F.N. delegates and the Black Knights, are being transported to their executions. Schneizel's method of transport is designed to be far more humiliating than the others as he is chained to the post and he is dressed in rags instead of the standard prison uniform. He is released after Lelouch's death.

During the epilogue, he is shown to be working with the new incarnation of the Black Knights; as his Geass command was to serve Zero and not Lelouch, he is now loyal to Suzaku who is now Zero.

Intellect and Chess
Like Lelouch, Schneizel is a formidable opponent. His greatest weapon is his prodigious mind, possessing a genius-level intellect. Schneizel is capable of devising and executing strategies with incredible speed and precision. He is also the only person that Lelouch was unable to beat at chess. Schneizel is also very charismatic. He has manipulated people and factions with well-spoken speeches and clever deceptions.

Nightmare of Nunnally
In the manga spin-off series, Schneizel heads toward Japan, and brings Lelouch's twin brother, Rolo vi Britannia, with him. When Emperor Charles zi Britannia creates the Holy Nation of Eden Vital, Schneizel confronts the Emperor (as the Prime Minister) with the Imperial Senate's decision to nullify his decision and is promptly arrested as his father dissolves the Imperial Senate and arrests all the senators. Prior to this, though, he had solicited writing from all senators endorsing Euphemia li Britannia as the new Empress. His fate at the end of Nightmare of Nunnally is unknown.

Suzaku of the Counterattack
In the manga spin-off series, Schneizel is the series' main antagonist, and has knowledge of Geass and C.C., whom he plans to use for world domination.

After Schneizel arrives at Area 11, he meets Lloyd's assistant Mariel Lubie and discusses the Knightmare combat suit and its connections with Geass. She reveals to him that it involves beings known as "Regulators", who were part of the Geass cult and gained superhuman abilities. Schneizel then meets Suzaku, and decides to appoint him as his Knight, which Suzaku accepts. When Zero and the Black Knights take control over the Britannian Art Gallery with Charles inside, Schneizel confronts Zero, who he knows is Lelouch. In the Emperor's private room lies Charles' dead body, and Schneizel reveals that he killed the Emperor, and that he was the one that killed Lelouch's mother, Marianne, for discovering his plans. Schneizel sent C.C. away, and later set Lelouch up by having him shoot the Emperor just in time for Suzaku to appear and think that Zero was the culprit. With the arrest of Zero, Schneizel manages to catch C.C. and begins his plan to take her code, thus becoming immortal.

On the same night the uprising of the Black Knights begins, led by Kallen disguised as Zero, Schneizel begins to extract C.C.'s code. However, he is interrupted by both Lelouch and Suzaku, who have discovered and plan to stop his scheme. Schneizel, who had gained a portion of C.C.'s abilities, is able to stop Lelouch from using his Geass (by means of puncturing his left eye) and damages Suzaku's combat suit. As he is about to finish the two off, Suzaku reveals his Geass code and stops Schneizel, who is surprised to find that Suzaku is a Regulator. Before Schneizel is able to fully obtain C.C.'s Geass code, Suzaku kills him.

Nunnally in Wonderland
In Code Geass: Nunnally in Wonderland, Schneizel plays the role of the Red King. After the Queen of Hearts (Marianne vi Britannia) challenges Nunnally to a game of croquet, the Red King appears alongside the Red Queen (Kanon Maldini) shortly after the White King and Queen (Cornelia li Britannia and Euphemia li Britannia, respectively) arrive. He arrives in a Damocles made from items used in croquet and wishes to use croquet to take over the world.

Oz The Reflection
Schneizel is seen involved with the Glinda Knights and its members, especially Marrybell, his half-sister, before the Second Black Rebellion. Schneizel assigned Marrybell to monitor the Euro Britannians. It is unknown what his actions were during that period of time. Later in O2, during the period after Charles and Marianne's death, he was wondering about Lelouch who no longer is in control of the Black Knights and Suzaku who attempted to assassinate Charles but disappeared after were doing. Schneizel was discussing with the remaining Knights of the Round about how to deal with Lelouch, with Nunnally desperately making a request for a personal reason only to end up ending the deal between the two groups.

Quotes

 * (About Charles zi Britannia) "He considers our affairs trivial and mundane; that's how His Majesty refered to our mortal struggle with the Black Knights. You've seen it too Cornelia; how absorbed father is with his dangerous research. How he abandons the throne. It's true, he treats diplomacy and war like they were meaningless trifles, a man who has lost interest in this world, who sees his people locked in a life and death struggle, and shrugs in indifference. Such a man has no right to rule."
 * Talking with Cornelia li Britannia
 * Schneizel: "Cornelia, what is it that people truly want? Starvation and poverty? Discrimination and corruption? War and terrorism? They want the problems that are flooding the world to go away forever. People can't understand each other under these situations at all."
 * Cornelia: "Your theories don't justify butchering civilians."
 * Schneizel: "Even civilians who have rejected war depend on the police, don't they? Everyone knows, don't they ... that people are driven by their own desires. The lust that dwells within the soul of man cannot be denied. So why win hearts and minds or tout some shining ideology? Why not bring peace to the world with a system and power?"
 * "A country is not a territory, nor a political regime, it is a people."
 * (To The Order of the Black Knights)"There is no guarantee that I'm not under influence on his Geass, when you think about that,it is terrifying."
 * "I wonder, Lelouch...do you really think you can defeat me, because if you do, you're at the end of your path. A man who has not mastered the use of the mask can never prevail."
 * "Mankind's history is war. Peace is an illusion. To turn illusion into reality is an arduous task. It requires discipline."
 * Talking with Lelouch_vi_Britannia
 * The true nature of people is this they want to be controlled, by their nation, their religion, their traditions and by figures of grand authority.

Trivia

 * Schneizel possesses many similarities to the character Pain, one of the main antagonists of the "Naruto Shippuden" anime series. As follows:
 * Both share the same English voice actor, Troy Baker.
 * Both are characters concerned with achieving peace in their respective worlds.
 * Both of them come from roots shared with the respective protagonists of their series (Pain and Naruto shared the same sensei, while Schneizel and Lelouch shared the same father).
 * Both desire to seek peace via using powerful weapons to coerce ordinary people into obeying their authority (Pain with the Tailed Beasts and Schneizel with the Damocles).
 * Both possess highly negative outlooks on humanity, seeing peace as only possible through force and that, if left unchecked, mankind will devolve into war and conflict.
 * Both are willing to achieve the image of being a god to the world as a means of achieving peace (Pain actively seeks to become a god, while Schneizel would merely be seen as such to fulfill his aims.)
 * Both believe that it is impossible to change the people of the world themselves, and instead focus on changing the world as a whole. (Pain, however, in his thinking, goes one step further than Schneizel. He admits that his method of achieving peace would most likely be temporary as the fear people would have of him would be temporary. Thus, he seems himself as only capable of instilling temporary peace, rather than permanent peace as Schneizel desired.)