Jeremiah Gottwald

Jeremiah Gottwald (ジェレミア・ゴットバルト) is a fictional character in the Sunrise anime series, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. His seiyū is Ken Narita, and his English voice actor is Crispin Freeman.

According to the writing staff of Code Geass, it was originally planned for Jeremiah to die in episode 10 from injuries sustained while fighting Kallen. However, the character's unexpected popularity with the fanbase inspired them to rewrite his story, making Jeremiah eject during the confrontation and allowing him to return at the end of the first season.

Character outline
Jeremiah Gottwald is an elite Knightmare Frame pilot and a member of the Purebloods. He is somewhat overconfident and passionate about furthering his goals, facts which tend to make him rash and impulsive in battle. He is deeply concerned with their supremacy, jumping on the chance to use Suzaku Kururugi, an Eleven (Japanese citizen) made an Honorary Britannian, as a scapegoat for both avenging Prince Clovis' death and reinforcing the Purebloods' superiority in Area 11. He hopes to limit military service to Purebloods alone. Jeremiah also has a fanatic loyalty towards Empress Marianne, being a guard at the Aries Palace until her death, considering the incident his first failure, dreaming of becoming the Knight Of One to make up for it. Afterwards, he transferred to Japan, the land that had apparently taken the lives of the Empress' two children Lelouch and Nunnally, in an attempt to redeem himself.

Initially, he held the rank of Margrave in Area 11's military hierarchy. After Clovis's murder, Jeremiah takes upon the role of Area 11's Acting-Consul, but upon losing Suzaku Kururugi to Zero in a very public fiasco, Jeremiah fell into disgrace, and soon into mental instability when denied the opportunity to regain his former status.

First season
At the start of the season, Jeremiah leads the Sutherland unit in Shinjuku Ghetto. Lelouch Lamperouge, directing the resistance forces, constructs a trap to easily defeat his unit and manages to assassinate Prince Clovis. Having used his Geass to make Clovis' guard leave, their subsequent memory loss leads Jeremiah to suspect them of treachery. He takes control of Area 11 personally, ordering for most of them, including General Bartley, to be arrested and tries to scapegoat Suzaku for Clovis' murder into a trial leading to a sentence public execution.

Lelouch, in the guise of Zero, interrupts the execution and hints that Jeremiah has been bribed by calling him "Orange". (It is usually pronounced "Orange-kun" in the original Japanese version. The honorific -kun shows a level of familiarity that hints of a prior relationship between the two, to make it appear as if Jeremiah had been conspiring with terrorists. The English dub alters this into "Orange-boy".) Lelouch uses his Geass to force Jeremiah to help him escape with Suzaku, resulting in Jeremiah's disgrace when they ultimately succeed with his aid. Following this incident Jeremiah's standing with both the Army and Britannia is severely dropped, he is reduced in rank to pilot and his superiors and fellow Knightmare pilots refer to him as "Orange" as a way of mocking him, though Villetta Nu remains loyal to him. His fellow pilots even try to assassinate him, though he managed to hold them off until which he is rescued from by none other than Villetta and, surprisingly, Suzaku, the man he had framed.

Seeking to regain his status, Jeremiah seeks out any opportunity to capture or kill Zero, even disobeying orders to do so. He gets his chance during the battle against the Japan Liberation Front at the Narita Mountains. His impatient and impulsive action leads to his quick defeat at the hands of Kallen Stadtfeld, who has recently acquired the Guren Mk-II. Its speed prevents his hits from making contact and its radiation arm quickly disables his Knightmare; but he refuses to eject. The system eventually ejects on his behalf, but by this point he is badly injured and his escape pod nigh-inoperable. Delusional and barely able to walk, he stumbles upon the team of scientists formerly sponsored by Prince Clovis, who pick him up. He is officially listed as killed in action at the battle of Narita because everything suggesting otherwise was lost along with his Knightmare's signal.

Jeremiah is subjected to a number of experiments by the scientists, now under Prince Schneizel's patronage, who enhance his body with various cybernetic devices, such as a neural interface and a cybernetic left eye. The implants run up his spine and cover the entire left side of his body. His mind has also been tampered with, as the scientists make mention to tearing down and rebuilding his emotions. Before the process is complete, he goes insane when he hears Zero's broadcast regarding the impending siege of Tokyo. He overpowers the guards and breaks out of the research facility, stealing the experimental Knightmare Frame Siegfried as he leaves. Proving a match for the Gawain in Tokyo, he chases C.C. and Lelouch to Kaminejima to engage in battle; but Jeremiah and the Siegfried are dragged to the bottom of the ocean by C.C. in a kamikaze attack, Lelouch having already disembarked onto the island.

Second season
Despite the fact that C.C. was eventually crushed by the pressure of the deep sea (though her immortality allowed her to recover once she surfaced), Jeremiah somehow escaped that fate, ending up as an ally of V.V and made into an assassin for the Geass Order. He wears an orange mask with an opaque eyepiece over the eye, which is outfitted with a Geass Canceler, and similar clothing to a Knight of the Round. He appears to be aware of Lelouch's identity as Zero and mentions that with adjustments to himself neither Lelouch nor C.C. will be a match for him, which General Bartley and his research team reluctantly help him to complete.

As the Black Knights take over China is nearly complete, Jeremiah is sent to Japan by V.V. to eliminate Lelouch. However, while confronting Lelouch in a train station and resisting the Gefjun Disturber trap laid out for him, Jeremiah reveals he had a hidden motive for coming, demanding to know the reason why Lelouch became Zero and betrayed their people. When Lelouch reveals his true name and intent to avenge his mother's death, Jeremiah swears his loyalty to Lelouch in order to redeem his failure to protect Marianne by revealing the location of the Geass Order and aiding in its destruction. He now takes the nickname "Orange" as a compliment, seeing it as the name of his loyalty.

In the Second Battle for Tokyo, he uses the new Sutherland Sieg to protect Lelouch by taking on Suzaku and Gino with the assistance of Guilford (at the time under the influence of Lelouch's Geass). In the aftermath of the F.L.E.I.J.A.'s detonation, Jeremiah restrains an enraged Lelouch as the Black Knights retreat to reform their battle line. He then leaves to search for Nunnally, and comes across Suzaku in the crater left behind by the explosion. He considers their relationship a peculiar one, in that Suzaku rescued him once despite Jeremiah having framed him, and muses that they are destined to be enemies before leaving to continue his search. After the Black Knights betray Zero, they report him as dead to the world, Jeremiah included. Jeremiah does not seem convinced and asks to see Zero's face, but Ohgi dodges the request. He leaves the Black Knights, taking his Sutherland Seig to rejoin Lelouch after he takes the throne, and helps to lead the Britannian army as commander against nobles who rebel against Lelouch's new reign.

He accompanies the main invasion forces to retake Japan, causing the Black Knights to retreat without a battle. During a conversation with Sayoko, he tells her that she has an odd choice of loyalties (following a Britannian despite being Japanese), and remarks that she, like himself, seems to follow the path of chivalry. He later is one of the better pilots on Lelouch's side in his battle against Schneizel and the Black Knights, leading to him eventually facing off against Anya Alstreim. With his Knightmare critically damaged, he manages to break open the Mordred by self-destructing his own Knightmare and leaping onboard. Recognizing that her memory loss is due to Geass, Jeremiah uses his Geass Canceler to restore Anya's memories.

During the planned execution of the senior members of the Black Knights, Jeremiah orders the soldiers not to fire and feigns an intercept upon Suzaku, masquerading as Zero. At the last moment he lets Suzaku through, and in the aftermath orders a full retreat of the Britannian forces. At the end of the series, he is shown cultivating an orange farm with Anya, smiling contently (ironically, Guilford suggested this very fate to him as a punishment in the first season after releasing him from prison).

Abilities
Jeremiah is an accomplished Knightmare pilot in the beginning of the series, able to hold his own against four other members of the Purebloods. After being injured by Kallen during the Battle of Narita, Jeremiah is enhanced with various cybernetics. Chief among these is a neural interface which allows him to pilot the Knight Giga Fortress Siegfried through thought, giving him reaction times well beyond what any human is capable of. In the second season, Jeremiah's cybernetic body is refined and internalized, giving him bulletproof armor, retractable blades on his wrists, and enhanced strength. He displayed his fighting skills when he first fought Sayoko at Ashford Academy. His cybernetic eye can also see beyond the visible light spectrum. Though the modifications make Jeremiah a formidable opponent, the presence of sakuradite in his artificial components allows Gefjun Disturbers to paralyze him; though he can continue to move, doing so nearly kills him since the cybernetic implants are inactive.

Geass
In the second season, Jeremiah received a special anti-Geass power with the help of Code-R personnel, known as the Geass Canceler. Situated in his cybernetic left eye, which is normally hidden by his mask, it grants him the power to negate the effect of any other Geass within his field of influence. Like Rolo's Geass, it does not require eye contact and works through physical barriers. As part of its effect, it can restore memories erased or modified through Geass. When activated, the silver cover of his left eye opens, revealing an inverted blue sigil over his green cybernetic eye. The area of effect is represented by a blue bubble similar to Rolo's red version. The canceler also grants him a sort of Geass immunity. It will automatically activate when Jeremiah becomes afflicted with a geass curse allowing no geass to affect him for more than a few seconds. Such was the case with Rolo's "time perception halting" Geass.

Lost Colors
In the video game spin-off, Jeremiah left the Britannian Army and became a teacher in Ashford Academy, but he is actually undercover to lookout for someone. Both Rai and Shirley have often seen Jeremiah meeting with Villetta and have mistaken them if they are having a relationship.

Nightmare of Nunnally
In the manga spin-off, Jeremiah in his Sutherland fought against Nunnally in her Mark Nemo unit. He attacked her from behind when Villetta Nu gave an opening, but was easily defeated by Nunnally.

After members of the Japanese Liberation Front led by Kusakabe hijacked a hotel and took everyone there hostage, Jeremiah, along with Villetta and the other Pureblood members head through the tunnels, but were easily take down by the JFL's new Raikou weapon. Although he survived with Villetta, both he and Villetta suddenly witness Alice piloting one of the Irregulars's Knightmare Frame pass by in super-speed, which has surprised them. Neither make an appearance in the story after this, and it is unclear if they perished at the hotel.

Code Geass: The Manga
Jeremiah is present in the manga and is similar to his anime counterpart. In the manga, it was clearly presented that Jeremiah was the one who used Suzaku as a scape-goat when deciding on who it was to blame for the death of Prince Clovis. Similarly, he is compelled to help Suzaku escape by Lelouch. However, instead of Viletta, Jeremiah is shot by Shirley when he realizes that Lelouch is Zero.

Suzaku of the Counterattack
Jeremiah is still the overall commander of Britannian forces in Area 11, and leads the attack on the Shinjuku Ghetto under Clovis' orders. He not only accuses Suzaku of Clovis' assassination, but also personally interrogates him during the trial. However, after Zero rescues Suzaku and takes responsibility for the crime, he does not publicly humiliate Jeremiah. He retains his rank and grudgingly accepts Suzaku as a member of the Britannian military, despite the fact that he is an Eleven.

Jeremiah later discover Suzaku freeing Zero, in disguise, right after he was captured and considers him like another Eleven, but was shocked in disbelief that Zero's identity was Lelouch.

When the Government General building is about to collapse, Jeremiah in his mental state appeared and took out his gun as he shot Lelouch and believes he has killed Zero, until the flooring collapsed and fell to his death.

The Miraculous Birthday
In a special Code Geass Picture Drama episode, Jeremiah becomes the narrator and has teased Kallen for her trying to gain the attention of Lelouch, much to her annoyance