Schuldig (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
volksdaemon) wrote2013-11-08 01:49 am
volksdaemon) wrote2013-11-08 01:49 am
Entry tags:
Background/History of Weiss Kreuz for Schuldig
- Child :: Retrospective of Dramatic Image Album III + Dramatic Collection 1 ~Holy Children~
- Core :: Kapitel
- Chains :: OVAs
- Changes :: Dramatic Image Album III & IV
- Ceasefire :: Glühen
Unfortunately the series is so old that no one has devoted a fleshed-out wiki to it. The short version is that the Weiss vigilante group's 4 men are the protagonists of the series: Omi, Aya, Yohji, and Ken. Their principal rivals are the Takatori family members and the psychic/mercenary group Schwarz. Schuldig is the unofficial 2nd in command of Schwarz, which also includes Brad Crawford, Farfarello, and Nagi Naoe. Schuldig is often the face of the group due to his charisma, silver tongue, and his empathic + telepathic powers. Their world is closer to early Power Rangers than Supernatural - where most people are unaware that supernatural elements exist, even though they do, but it's really only one kind of supernatural element - in this case psychics and a bit of Lovecraftian mythos on the outer reaches of the plot. Monsters are all new genetic creations, not ancient beings that have somehow survived to modern day.
:: Child ::
Little is known of Schuldig's backstory, but most of it is told as retrospective in (Dramatic Image Album III). He is German by birth, probably from the Bavarian region, and was discovered by an Illuminati-like group called Eszett, which is literally the character "ß" and "SS" on computer systems in Glühen, several years before the start of the series. Eventually, he was brought to the Rosenkrüs facility in the Austrian Alps - by force or by subterfuge with regards to his former guardians - so that they could cultivate Schuldig's psychic powers; there they gave him the code name Mastermind. He arrived around the same time as Schwarz's leader, the American Brad Crawford, probably before Irishman Farfarello, and definitely before the youngest member Nagi Naoe. Soon enough Eszett had enough psychics to start forming groups out of them. The three known groups are Farblos, Schwarz, and the trio nicknamed Rosen. Schwarz - Schuldig's group - would become the primary antagonists of Weiss Kreuz's early canon and reluctant allies to Weiss by the end. There was a little competition between the groups at first, but it only got worse as time wore on, to the point that even though they were all supposed to be working for the same bosses they were rivals. Rosen was the last group formed as a kind of supergroup based on earlier research with Schwarz and Farblos, but the three members are not wholly unique - they make remarks about fellow Rosenkrüs psychics, so Rosen is mainly a name given to them by an Eszett scientist. They may or may not have been present at the facility by the time Schwarz was dispatched to the field, but Crawford and Schuldig knew enough about the trio specifically for Crawford to derisively call them "clones" of Schwarz. The supervision at Rosenkrüs was also fairly minimal considering that we know Schuldig hooked up with Farblos member Sylvia at least once. Then the events of Dramatic Collection 1 ~Holy Children~ happened, in which Nagi's powers returned and he became a proper member of Schwarz through Crawford's intervention.
:: Core ::
During Kapitel (Season 1), Weiss's primary focus was eliminating the Takatori's family's corrupt influence in Japan, one target at a time. Schwarz was Reiji Takatori's personal bodyguards, which he sometimes sent to protect his sons as well as influential accomplices. One of his sons was Masafumi, a mad scientist specializing in genetic alteration and using unwitting civilians as test subjects, which eventually drew the attention of Weiss and more importantly the media. So, Schwarz went with Reiji Takatori to confront Masafumi about the disgrace in Schuldig's first appearance (ep 08). Masafumi had created his own bodyguard team instead of hiring them, called Schreient, and Reiji wanted Schwarz to watch all of them very closely. If any of Masafumi's shenanigans should come back on Reiji, "you take care of it, Crawford." Thus, Weiss's first major confrontation was with Schreient and not Schwarz as Weiss investigated Masafumi's misdeeds. Nagi tried to help them out, but by then Masafumi had screwed up so bad Reiji insisted Crawford make plans. So, while Weiss and Schreient fought, Schwarz swung by just to make sure Weiss cleaned up Masafumi's mess for them and, sure enough, Masafumi's manor burned to the ground at the end of episode 9.
Then, as eldest son Hirofumi's political acquaintances - also Reiji's supporters - died by Weiss's hands on Hirofumi's watch, Reiji started to lose patience with Hirofumi too. Unfortunately, a girl named Ouka got romantically interested in the youngest Weiss member Omi just as Weiss got closer to Hirofumi and thus Reiji as well. While Hirofumi was ecstatic about the prospect of a long-lost brother returning to the family, Reiji was not, and Schuldig eventually found out. The problem was that they soon found out that Omi was a long lost Takatori child and then Ouka invited Omi to a party to meet her father - Reiji Takatori of all people, though Omi didn't find out that night. After Hirofumi confronted Omi, Schuldig took it upon himself to "help" Hirofumi out by kidnapping Omi in front of Ouka. Weiss showed up to rescue Omi, allowing Schuldig to see all 4 of their faces up close - which was his plan all along - then quickly skidaddled before Weiss could gang up on him. However, he caught up with Omi soon after to continue wearing him down - confronting him with his moral duplicity of going on dates with Ouka after killing his own brothers. Then, he went to break the news to Ouka that she was dating her own half-brother, encouraging her to look into the matter herself; people riled up by emotion are easier to lead astray, of course. To further the dissent in Weiss over Omi being born Mamoru Takatori, Schuldig even convinced Nagi to photoshop an image together of Omi meeting with Reiji, then sent it off to the rest of Weiss. Before Ouka went on her movie date, Schuldig appeared to deliver more "evidence" that Omi was out to get her father - which was actually truth. That's usually Schuldig's most powerful weapon - the harsh truth that most "decent" people conceal from their loved ones. The lie he told that night was to Omi - he insisted that the rest of Weiss was trying to assassinate Ouka. In the midst of Weiss's internal fighting, Schuldig continued to prey on Omi's fear for Ouka's life and concern that Weiss was lying to Omi. Farfarello was on hand to help Schudig fend off Weiss while Ouka told Omi herself that they were half-siblings and Reiji was her father. Just as the 2 Schwarz members were retreating, Farfarello tried to take a snipe at Omi, but ended up killing Ouka instead.
Reiji's mistake was that he thought he could order Schwarz around, when in fact they still reported to Eszett - their organization provided Reiji with access to Schwarz in the first place, after all. So when Reiji took a golf club to Schuldig (and Farfarello) at the start of episode 13 in retaliation for Ouka's death, that didn't endear Schuldig to his temporary master at all. Crawford interceded to direct Reiji's anger at Weiss instead, so now Schwarz's full-time job was taking out Weiss, and they started with causing terrorist mayhem and leaving spray-paint tags giving credit to Weiss. Things came to a head in episode 14 when Reiji's ground forces attacked Weiss as Schwarz's Crawford and Farfarello attacked Aya when he tried to kill Reiji. Unfortunately for Reiji Takatori, just as he had ascended to Prime Ministership, by Mission 15 he had stopped being useful to Eszett's grander schemes, and so Schwarz left Reiji to his death at the hands of Weiss after he turned on them.
The rest of the season was devoted to Schwarz more directly carrying out Eszett's experiments and instructions, in addition to conflicts with Schreient. The women attempted to revive Masafumi, but were defeated in a plan that Schwarz concocted to get Weiss to do it. Eszett had been putting pressure on Schwarz to deliver Aya-chan (Aya of Weiss's younger sister) to them for a certain ritual they were planning to perform - bringing a Lovecraftian "Master" in from the outer reaches, for which Ayay-chan would be the new vessel. Schwarz left with the upper hand and with Aya-chan, whom Schreient had first kidnapped from her hospital room to draw out Aya and the rest of Weiss. Through a conflict among all 3 groups, Farfarello killed Töt, and Nagi brought down Schreient's warehouse hideout in rage. (Mission 22) Weiss confronted Schwarz and their 3 leaders of Eszett, who were trying to create a new world where only psychics would live - mankind's next evolution - with that Master revived. In the end Eszett was stopped, largely through an internal conflict between Schwarz and the 3 leaders. For their own self-interest, Schwarz ended up leaving Eszett in the same state they had Reiji, believing the Eszett members to be looking too much at the past and too desperate for tight control, while Schwarz was content to create a world of chaos where the strong survived - "strong" being defined as their own psychic power level. Schwarz was thought dead when the headquarters collapsed. Weiss considered it a victory, especially since they were no longer public targets of the police under Takatori rule.
:: Chains ::
Verbrechen & Strafe (OVA 1 & 2) do little to advance Schwarz's story except to prove that they are not dead, just scattered. The sum total of their involvement is this exchange:
Now, chances are good they're talking about Weiss. Weiss spent the OVAs investigating a fake mission and pretending to fight amongst themselves to throw off the enemy who sent them on the fake mission; the OVAs focused on Weiss suffering together as a group to achieve their goals - instead of the mission, it was rescuing Manx. So saying that 'they' have chains called sin and an eternal future of punishment is very much thematically in sync if 'they' is Weiss. Another point is that just before this exchange begins, a couple of girls are talking about flower shop boys - which is Weiss's cover. Lastly, Schuldig referred to Weiss during Kapitel as his prey in the way a hunter gets fixated, so 'anymore' does fit with being an ongoing effort on Schu's part to get whoever is 'running' from them since Weiss's flower-shop cover had transformed into a roving shop/house in a trailer.
:: Changes ::
All that being said... Schu and Crawford never actually follow up on that. Before they could, the events of Dramatic Image Album III & IV took place. Basically they were hiding out in Germany when a girl named Sally got them re-involved with Eszett, through the Austrian facility Rosenkrüs where Schuldig and the others had once trained. Schwarz chose to fight Sally's pursuers, the Farblos whom they were formerly acquainted with, and eventually Farfarello left with her - leaving Schwarz in the same moment - to pursue a normal life.
As much as can be gleaned from the OVAs and the Drama CDs, it seems that Crawford and Schuldig stuck together after that, but soon Nagi separated from the group, setting up Schwarz's fractured status in Glühen (Season 2). Somehow Omi (the new Persia, director of Weiss missions) convinced Nagi to form an alliance. It seems like much in the way that Crashers has no allegiance to Weiss, Nagi became an independent agent that has no direct loyalty to Weiss or any of the other teams, but doesn't have any other "clients" outside of Omi. Glühen shows that Nagi for his part was ambivalent to the change, like his new position wasn't much different than how he served Schwarz. This is pertinent because when Schuldig and Crawford came back into the picture during Glühen, Schuldig didn't bear a grudge towards Nagi - more like an older brother who was happy that his kid brother got a better shot at life than he did. Crawford and Schuldig, meanwhile, apparently took a renewed interest in everything that had come out of Rosenkrüs since they did: enter the Glühen TV Series, aka Season 2.
:: Ceasefire ::
Weiss Kreuz Glühen was all about Eszett's efforts to regroup after the loss of their leader trio at the end of Kapitel, so they dug into research on a global scale. They opened several schools across Europe and Japan in search of students to cultivate as shock troops and psychics alike. Through whatever networks remained to them - or perhaps Crawford's clairvoyant powers - Schuldig and Crawford found out that Rosenkrüs alumni were in Japan and showed up to the site of the plot action on a whim, basically, for a "reunion" with the three Rosen - not really considering until they got there that they'd get to reunite with Nagi too. They entered the scene just as the combined might of Eszett and the Rosen started to fight with Weiss. They interceded, with Schuldig in particular taking on the pyrokinetic Rosen member, Geisel, allowing the younger trio of Weiss to move deeper in. While Nagi, Schuldig, and Crawford occupied the Rosen, Weiss was able to stop the Z Class leaders: some female scientists and Eszett's leader - apparently a computer system called Epitaph. Most notably, while Schuldig was able to get the upper hand through his telepathic confusion methods, he actually snapped Geisel's neck on raw physical strength alone. Ironically, as Crawford realized, in the end it was Schwarz's bonds as comrades that allowed them to beat Rosenkreuz; Nagi provided insight for both Schuldig and Crawford to beat Geisel and Berger respectively. Schuldig and Crawford disappeared into the shadows once again as Eszett's research facility crumbled - they've survived worse, but who knows if they survived this time - leaving Nagi to continue working alongside Omi, who'd reclaimed the public mantle of Mamoru Takatori. (Last Mission 13)
- Core :: Kapitel
- Chains :: OVAs
- Changes :: Dramatic Image Album III & IV
- Ceasefire :: Glühen
Unfortunately the series is so old that no one has devoted a fleshed-out wiki to it. The short version is that the Weiss vigilante group's 4 men are the protagonists of the series: Omi, Aya, Yohji, and Ken. Their principal rivals are the Takatori family members and the psychic/mercenary group Schwarz. Schuldig is the unofficial 2nd in command of Schwarz, which also includes Brad Crawford, Farfarello, and Nagi Naoe. Schuldig is often the face of the group due to his charisma, silver tongue, and his empathic + telepathic powers. Their world is closer to early Power Rangers than Supernatural - where most people are unaware that supernatural elements exist, even though they do, but it's really only one kind of supernatural element - in this case psychics and a bit of Lovecraftian mythos on the outer reaches of the plot. Monsters are all new genetic creations, not ancient beings that have somehow survived to modern day.
Little is known of Schuldig's backstory, but most of it is told as retrospective in (Dramatic Image Album III). He is German by birth, probably from the Bavarian region, and was discovered by an Illuminati-like group called Eszett, which is literally the character "ß" and "SS" on computer systems in Glühen, several years before the start of the series. Eventually, he was brought to the Rosenkrüs facility in the Austrian Alps - by force or by subterfuge with regards to his former guardians - so that they could cultivate Schuldig's psychic powers; there they gave him the code name Mastermind. He arrived around the same time as Schwarz's leader, the American Brad Crawford, probably before Irishman Farfarello, and definitely before the youngest member Nagi Naoe. Soon enough Eszett had enough psychics to start forming groups out of them. The three known groups are Farblos, Schwarz, and the trio nicknamed Rosen. Schwarz - Schuldig's group - would become the primary antagonists of Weiss Kreuz's early canon and reluctant allies to Weiss by the end. There was a little competition between the groups at first, but it only got worse as time wore on, to the point that even though they were all supposed to be working for the same bosses they were rivals. Rosen was the last group formed as a kind of supergroup based on earlier research with Schwarz and Farblos, but the three members are not wholly unique - they make remarks about fellow Rosenkrüs psychics, so Rosen is mainly a name given to them by an Eszett scientist. They may or may not have been present at the facility by the time Schwarz was dispatched to the field, but Crawford and Schuldig knew enough about the trio specifically for Crawford to derisively call them "clones" of Schwarz. The supervision at Rosenkrüs was also fairly minimal considering that we know Schuldig hooked up with Farblos member Sylvia at least once. Then the events of Dramatic Collection 1 ~Holy Children~ happened, in which Nagi's powers returned and he became a proper member of Schwarz through Crawford's intervention.
During Kapitel (Season 1), Weiss's primary focus was eliminating the Takatori's family's corrupt influence in Japan, one target at a time. Schwarz was Reiji Takatori's personal bodyguards, which he sometimes sent to protect his sons as well as influential accomplices. One of his sons was Masafumi, a mad scientist specializing in genetic alteration and using unwitting civilians as test subjects, which eventually drew the attention of Weiss and more importantly the media. So, Schwarz went with Reiji Takatori to confront Masafumi about the disgrace in Schuldig's first appearance (ep 08). Masafumi had created his own bodyguard team instead of hiring them, called Schreient, and Reiji wanted Schwarz to watch all of them very closely. If any of Masafumi's shenanigans should come back on Reiji, "you take care of it, Crawford." Thus, Weiss's first major confrontation was with Schreient and not Schwarz as Weiss investigated Masafumi's misdeeds. Nagi tried to help them out, but by then Masafumi had screwed up so bad Reiji insisted Crawford make plans. So, while Weiss and Schreient fought, Schwarz swung by just to make sure Weiss cleaned up Masafumi's mess for them and, sure enough, Masafumi's manor burned to the ground at the end of episode 9.
Then, as eldest son Hirofumi's political acquaintances - also Reiji's supporters - died by Weiss's hands on Hirofumi's watch, Reiji started to lose patience with Hirofumi too. Unfortunately, a girl named Ouka got romantically interested in the youngest Weiss member Omi just as Weiss got closer to Hirofumi and thus Reiji as well. While Hirofumi was ecstatic about the prospect of a long-lost brother returning to the family, Reiji was not, and Schuldig eventually found out. The problem was that they soon found out that Omi was a long lost Takatori child and then Ouka invited Omi to a party to meet her father - Reiji Takatori of all people, though Omi didn't find out that night. After Hirofumi confronted Omi, Schuldig took it upon himself to "help" Hirofumi out by kidnapping Omi in front of Ouka. Weiss showed up to rescue Omi, allowing Schuldig to see all 4 of their faces up close - which was his plan all along - then quickly skidaddled before Weiss could gang up on him. However, he caught up with Omi soon after to continue wearing him down - confronting him with his moral duplicity of going on dates with Ouka after killing his own brothers. Then, he went to break the news to Ouka that she was dating her own half-brother, encouraging her to look into the matter herself; people riled up by emotion are easier to lead astray, of course. To further the dissent in Weiss over Omi being born Mamoru Takatori, Schuldig even convinced Nagi to photoshop an image together of Omi meeting with Reiji, then sent it off to the rest of Weiss. Before Ouka went on her movie date, Schuldig appeared to deliver more "evidence" that Omi was out to get her father - which was actually truth. That's usually Schuldig's most powerful weapon - the harsh truth that most "decent" people conceal from their loved ones. The lie he told that night was to Omi - he insisted that the rest of Weiss was trying to assassinate Ouka. In the midst of Weiss's internal fighting, Schuldig continued to prey on Omi's fear for Ouka's life and concern that Weiss was lying to Omi. Farfarello was on hand to help Schudig fend off Weiss while Ouka told Omi herself that they were half-siblings and Reiji was her father. Just as the 2 Schwarz members were retreating, Farfarello tried to take a snipe at Omi, but ended up killing Ouka instead.
Reiji's mistake was that he thought he could order Schwarz around, when in fact they still reported to Eszett - their organization provided Reiji with access to Schwarz in the first place, after all. So when Reiji took a golf club to Schuldig (and Farfarello) at the start of episode 13 in retaliation for Ouka's death, that didn't endear Schuldig to his temporary master at all. Crawford interceded to direct Reiji's anger at Weiss instead, so now Schwarz's full-time job was taking out Weiss, and they started with causing terrorist mayhem and leaving spray-paint tags giving credit to Weiss. Things came to a head in episode 14 when Reiji's ground forces attacked Weiss as Schwarz's Crawford and Farfarello attacked Aya when he tried to kill Reiji. Unfortunately for Reiji Takatori, just as he had ascended to Prime Ministership, by Mission 15 he had stopped being useful to Eszett's grander schemes, and so Schwarz left Reiji to his death at the hands of Weiss after he turned on them.
The rest of the season was devoted to Schwarz more directly carrying out Eszett's experiments and instructions, in addition to conflicts with Schreient. The women attempted to revive Masafumi, but were defeated in a plan that Schwarz concocted to get Weiss to do it. Eszett had been putting pressure on Schwarz to deliver Aya-chan (Aya of Weiss's younger sister) to them for a certain ritual they were planning to perform - bringing a Lovecraftian "Master" in from the outer reaches, for which Ayay-chan would be the new vessel. Schwarz left with the upper hand and with Aya-chan, whom Schreient had first kidnapped from her hospital room to draw out Aya and the rest of Weiss. Through a conflict among all 3 groups, Farfarello killed Töt, and Nagi brought down Schreient's warehouse hideout in rage. (Mission 22) Weiss confronted Schwarz and their 3 leaders of Eszett, who were trying to create a new world where only psychics would live - mankind's next evolution - with that Master revived. In the end Eszett was stopped, largely through an internal conflict between Schwarz and the 3 leaders. For their own self-interest, Schwarz ended up leaving Eszett in the same state they had Reiji, believing the Eszett members to be looking too much at the past and too desperate for tight control, while Schwarz was content to create a world of chaos where the strong survived - "strong" being defined as their own psychic power level. Schwarz was thought dead when the headquarters collapsed. Weiss considered it a victory, especially since they were no longer public targets of the police under Takatori rule.
Verbrechen & Strafe (OVA 1 & 2) do little to advance Schwarz's story except to prove that they are not dead, just scattered. The sum total of their involvement is this exchange:
- Schuldig: /picks up a flower a girl dropped/
- Crawford: They're here?
- Schuldig: Yeah. Just like you said. This will be the end. I'm not gonna let them escape anymore.
- Crawford: They don't have a place to run to. They only have chains called sin, and a future called punishment... forever.
- Schuldig: /crushes flower/
- Crawford: Japanese rose... means "a sad, but beautiful death."
Now, chances are good they're talking about Weiss. Weiss spent the OVAs investigating a fake mission and pretending to fight amongst themselves to throw off the enemy who sent them on the fake mission; the OVAs focused on Weiss suffering together as a group to achieve their goals - instead of the mission, it was rescuing Manx. So saying that 'they' have chains called sin and an eternal future of punishment is very much thematically in sync if 'they' is Weiss. Another point is that just before this exchange begins, a couple of girls are talking about flower shop boys - which is Weiss's cover. Lastly, Schuldig referred to Weiss during Kapitel as his prey in the way a hunter gets fixated, so 'anymore' does fit with being an ongoing effort on Schu's part to get whoever is 'running' from them since Weiss's flower-shop cover had transformed into a roving shop/house in a trailer.
All that being said... Schu and Crawford never actually follow up on that. Before they could, the events of Dramatic Image Album III & IV took place. Basically they were hiding out in Germany when a girl named Sally got them re-involved with Eszett, through the Austrian facility Rosenkrüs where Schuldig and the others had once trained. Schwarz chose to fight Sally's pursuers, the Farblos whom they were formerly acquainted with, and eventually Farfarello left with her - leaving Schwarz in the same moment - to pursue a normal life.
As much as can be gleaned from the OVAs and the Drama CDs, it seems that Crawford and Schuldig stuck together after that, but soon Nagi separated from the group, setting up Schwarz's fractured status in Glühen (Season 2). Somehow Omi (the new Persia, director of Weiss missions) convinced Nagi to form an alliance. It seems like much in the way that Crashers has no allegiance to Weiss, Nagi became an independent agent that has no direct loyalty to Weiss or any of the other teams, but doesn't have any other "clients" outside of Omi. Glühen shows that Nagi for his part was ambivalent to the change, like his new position wasn't much different than how he served Schwarz. This is pertinent because when Schuldig and Crawford came back into the picture during Glühen, Schuldig didn't bear a grudge towards Nagi - more like an older brother who was happy that his kid brother got a better shot at life than he did. Crawford and Schuldig, meanwhile, apparently took a renewed interest in everything that had come out of Rosenkrüs since they did: enter the Glühen TV Series, aka Season 2.
Weiss Kreuz Glühen was all about Eszett's efforts to regroup after the loss of their leader trio at the end of Kapitel, so they dug into research on a global scale. They opened several schools across Europe and Japan in search of students to cultivate as shock troops and psychics alike. Through whatever networks remained to them - or perhaps Crawford's clairvoyant powers - Schuldig and Crawford found out that Rosenkrüs alumni were in Japan and showed up to the site of the plot action on a whim, basically, for a "reunion" with the three Rosen - not really considering until they got there that they'd get to reunite with Nagi too. They entered the scene just as the combined might of Eszett and the Rosen started to fight with Weiss. They interceded, with Schuldig in particular taking on the pyrokinetic Rosen member, Geisel, allowing the younger trio of Weiss to move deeper in. While Nagi, Schuldig, and Crawford occupied the Rosen, Weiss was able to stop the Z Class leaders: some female scientists and Eszett's leader - apparently a computer system called Epitaph. Most notably, while Schuldig was able to get the upper hand through his telepathic confusion methods, he actually snapped Geisel's neck on raw physical strength alone. Ironically, as Crawford realized, in the end it was Schwarz's bonds as comrades that allowed them to beat Rosenkreuz; Nagi provided insight for both Schuldig and Crawford to beat Geisel and Berger respectively. Schuldig and Crawford disappeared into the shadows once again as Eszett's research facility crumbled - they've survived worse, but who knows if they survived this time - leaving Nagi to continue working alongside Omi, who'd reclaimed the public mantle of Mamoru Takatori. (Last Mission 13)