Notes on Schwarz's powers (complete!)
Episode 2, Human Chess. Crawford appears briefly as Takatori Reiji's bodyguard. He does not seem to have predicted Aya's attack on the club, although he's able to respond immediately to direct attacks. This episode seems to establish that Crawford's powers at this time only allow him to see a short ways into the future, and/or that he needs to be focused on one person or event in order to predict what will happen next.
Episode 8, Mutant Wolfman. Schwarz and Schreient are both introduced as the bodyguard teams for their respective Takatoris. Crawford's ability to see the future and Schuldig's ability to read minds are established here -- Crawford's verbally, and Schuldig's through example. We also see the first instance of Radio Schwarz.
Episode 9. Takatori Masafumi turns into a tentacle monster.
Episode 10. Takatori Hirofumi hunts the most dangerous game.
Episode 11, Party at Reiji's. Ouka's father is shown to be Takatori Reiji. Crawford and Schuldig do not initially notice Weiss. Only when Aya becomes visible does Schuldig seem to register that Weiss is present. "Buzz buzz buzz". Schuldig kidnaps Omi for Takatori Hirofumi, and seems to leap tall buildings at a single bound as he does so. It's not clear whether he's really that spry, or if he's using his telepathy to make Ouka think he's Tigger. Schuldig protects Hirofumi when Weiss come screaming to the rescue (does not seem to use his powers), and states "I've seen your faces, next I'll have your lives." Hirofumi dies.
Episode 12, Jurassic Love. Schuldig immediately goes after Weiss, taunting Omi verbally and telepathically, then he turns on Ouka. It's interesting that Schuldig seems to know exactly where Weiss are, but rather than killing them immediately he chooses to toy with their (seemingly) weakest link. Or maybe he just really likes hurting teenaged girls. Schuldig sets a very clumsy trap for Weiss, which ends with Ouka's death. This is the episode where Schuldig says that minds taste like honey.
Episode 13, Domestic Terrorism. Schuldig and Farfarello are savagely beaten by Takatori Reiji for this failure, and Crawford eventually intercedes to direct Reiji's anger at Weiss, not Schwarz. Reiji uses government troops to frame Weiss for a series of domestic terror events. Schwarz are seen watching the news in their pretty pink apartment as reports of the terrorism (now linked to Weiss) are displayed. Nagi asks why Schuldig (or Schwarz, it's unclear which) are not revealing Weiss's true identities to the authorities, and Schuldig replies "They're my prey... and the Mister [Takatori] owes me, too." Then Farfarello breaks the TV and growls "Weiss. This will be fun." Weiss are lured to a trash heap, which Aya heads off to find Reiji's car. Weiss is always on the verge of disbanding. While Reiji's troops shoot at Yohji, Ken, and Omi, Aya intercepts Reiji's car, which actually contains Crawford and Farfarello. Crawford taunts Aya, about how pathetic it must be to not be able to see the future. The episode ends with Farfarello about to stab Aya in his face.
Episode 14, Beyond Thunderdome. Crawford taunts Aya more about why he fights, and Farfarello kicks his ass into pudding. Aya is saved at the last minute by a car that Crawford may or may not have seem coming -- it appears like Crawford is about to slit Aya's throat and that he's disappointed that Aya gets away, but then he immediately tells Farfarello that their job there is done, implying that he only meant to delay Aya from joining the rest of Weiss in the dump. This is the first time Crawford is shown to have difficulty predicting events that involve Manx.
Meanwhile, Nagi is disgusted by Takatori Reiji's all-out battle against Weiss. "We didn't come here for this," he says. Schwarz are serving double duty as Reiji's bodyguards and as Esset spies, reporting back on his actions. Chaos seems to be what Esset wants, but Reiji takes it too far (or possibly just escalates things too soon).
Episode 15, Takatori 死ぬ. Reiji kills Persia, Aya kills Reiji. Nagi is shown concentrating rather hard to flip a lightswitch across the room. Crawford predicts the arrival of Weiss into the building, an event he seems to have been waiting some time for. Farfarello has a bunch of needles stuck in his teeth (because he totally couldn't kill two guards barehanded).
Episode 16, Meet the Elders. Establishes that Reiji was killed because his greed for power became too much. Even though Schwarz didn't raise a hand against him, the Elders talk of Reiji's death as though Schwarz were responsible. Schreient kidnaps Aya-chan with no reason given (it is later implied that Schwarz encouraged this action, and that Schreient want Aya-chan to lure in Weiss to avenge Masafumi).
Episode 17, VHS doesn't work that way. A group of former schoolteachers (seriously?) are setting delinquent kids on fire. Schuldig is shown to be one of the group's advisors, presenting himself (based on the hat) to be a military commander of some kind. Crawford praises his actions, stating that with this technique 5k or 55k people can be killed by just a handful of folks. Schuldig states that he's not making anyone do anything. He's just offering suggestions. While Crawford seems to be getting off on the violence and Nagi is dubious as to the result, Schuldig seems to just enjoy fucking with people. Again it's stated that the goal here is to stir up chaos, not to forward any particular group's agenda.
Episode 18, Farfarello. Schuldig doesn't understand Farfarello. Is this because Farfarello's logic is too convoluted, or because he doesn't read Farfarello's mind? As the date for the resurrection (which has not yet been mentioned) draws closer, Farfarello seems to have a harder and harder time controlling himself. He's been killing religious figures in the neighborhood for several weeks by the time Ken meets Sister Ruth, and he's been spending a lot of time in his punishment cell hanging upside-down. However, he does not kill Omi and Ken, claiming that it's a special day.
Farfarello is shown to not feel pain. He even states that he would like to feel pain, even just once. He is also extremely sturdy, surviving three inch long darts in his lungs, among other things. He holds off both Omi and Ken with relative ease, and they are only able to fight back once he's distracted by Ruth.
Meanwhile, Crawford arrives at the church. He could have removed Farfarello at any point, but he instead stays outside and holds off Yohji and Aya, apparently so that Farfarello can finish talking with his mom. Only when Farfarello is too badly hurt to keep fighting does Schuldig arrive in a Jeep, making jokes about resurrection.
Episode 19, That Terrible Techno. Crawford at first appears to be serving as Kawaji's bodyguard, but then Schreient show up. Did Schwarz contract out?
Episode 20, Evil Lawyer. He reports directly to the Elders, which is surprising. Is he that important? For them to verify with him that he can keep Schwarz out of jail (if it comes to that) makes it clear that Schwarz are really important too.
Episode 21, Kundalini. Here it's confirmed that Schwarz hired Schreient to kidnap Aya-chan. It is not clear why. It's probably because investigation into Weiss brought Aya-chan to their attention, and they noticed her failure to age, but it's never explicitly stated how long they're known about her ability.
Episode 22, Bye-bye Tot. Esset orders Schwarz to retrieve Aya-chan from Schreient. Nagi follows Tot into the garden, and Schuldig is surprised by this (by his behavior or by his thoughts as he leaves, it's unclear). At this point, Nagi can easily generate a small windstorm, of a scale that would take several dozen home fans to reproduce. Nagi essentially betrays Crawford to Tot here, telling her that Schwarz is just using Schreient and that she needs to get away. As he leaves the garden, Crawford confronts him, slapping his face and telling him to get his head in the game. Crawford also reminds Nagi of how miserable his childhood was, and how he's dedicated himself to his current path. I suspect that Crawford sees what is about to happen to Nagi, and his reaction here is calculated to stir Nagi up enough that he'll be able to survive Tot's resurrection. Also, there are a lot of resurrections in this show.
It is confirmed that Schwarz were using Schreient to collect data (probably "kundalini" data and/or data relating to Aya-chan's condition, and oh thank god I don't have to type Schreient anymore). Neither Schuldig nor Crawford seem surprised or upset when Farfarello kills Tot. Nagi's powers level up. Schuldig appears shocked at the damage, both while in the house and then while in the helicopter. Crawford does not.
Episode 23, Arrival of the Elders. Esset agents begin flooding the city, and Schwarz is kept busy killing the Kritiker agents who are reporting this. Schuldig and Farfarello drive past the Koneko, and Farfarello seems surprised to see Omi. He suggests, with excitement, that they go fight, but Schuldig tells him no, he has a plan. This seems to imply that the idea to kidnap Sakura was Schuldig's, not Crawford's. This is where the second "tastes of honey" conversation happens, where Schuldig says that sometimes he can't tell which thoughts are his.
Meanwhile, Tokyo is being overrun by kids from Rosenkreuz, tagging German all over the place. Schuldig follows Sakura until he can get her alone, and convinces her to take a ride with him. First they get coffee, and then he takes her to see Aya-chan on the worst date ever. Why doesn't he just control her mind? Why does he take so much time out of his very busy Nazi-resurrecting schedule to woo a 16 year old girl? The Elders will arrive that evening, and Schwarz picks them up at the airport. Weiss is there, ready in ambush. Crawford and Farfarello immediately leap out to confront Weiss as the car tries to pull away. But a second explosion holds them back, and then Aya attacks. Sakura and Schuldig both get out of the car, and Sakura draws a gun on Aya. Schuldig is standing right next to her, but he doesn't seem to have very good control over her. At the same time, he clearly wants Aya to see that Sakura is being controlled. Why are the Elders just sitting back and letting this happen? Are they assessing Schwarz's performance? Yohji finally intervenes (took him long enough), and Schuldig is visibly annoyed when Crawford tells him to get back in the car. He wanted to continue what he was doing.
Episode 24, Finale part 1. The riots in Tokyo have been so bad that the Elders are surprised that the Ani Museum wasn't damaged. It's stated that "this ritual was the reason Esset was created". Esset apparently have the ability to mutant a living being's DNA (hell, if Masafumi can make monsters, I'll believe anything). Schuldig does not know why (or the entirely of why) Crawford wants Aya-chan. Was this to keep the rest of the team safe, or is Crawford just a close-to-the-chest playing bastard?
How the hell did Sakura manage to get Aya-chan out of all that machinery without being detected?
This episode marks the first appearance of Nagi since Tot's death. He is shown being presented to the Elders along with the rest of Schwarz. During this presentation, Crawford keeps a hand to his chest. It was previously established that at least one of the Elders can cause heart pain, so it's implied here that the Elder(s) are doing this to Crawford. Very next scene, Schuldig is slapping Sakura around. He demands to know where Weiss are, and Nagi reminds him that he's a telepath and he can find out for himself. Schuldig seems to have genuinely forgotten that he can read minds here. When he does read her mind, he doesn't seem to be looking for Weiss. Rather, he laughs that Sakura "released" Aya-chan so that she could see her brother.
Nagi contacts Weiss and arranges to swap the girls. Aya goes alone to the totally obvious trap site, and Crawford sics a couple local thugs on him rather than getting his own hands dirty. Aya was only lured out to keep him away from the Koneko while Schuldig and Farfarello broke in and kidnapped Aya-chan back. Schuldig is fast enough to fight both Ken and Yohji at the same time, although he clearly didn't read their minds before entering or he would have known that the shape on the bed was just pillows and that Aya-chan was downstairs. Neither Farfarello nor Schuldig kill any of Weiss here, which seems like a huge oversight.
Episode 25, Finale part 2. Japan is in full-blown riot mode, and the ritual begins. The possession seems to be working (somebody please tell me there's fic out there for Hitler-possessed Sakura!) until Weiss break in and mess everything up. This is supposed to be a gathering of hundreds of Esset members, and yet Weiss defeats everyone they encounter easily. Are Schwarz some of the only powered members of Esset? If Talents are rare, that would explain why a team with such inconsistent control would be considered so important.
Weiss fights the Elders, and manages to kill two of them. The third escapes and goes running to Schwarz, where he's shocked to see the real Aya-chan. Crawford mocks him, saying that Schwarz has no interest in serving another leader, and Naig's powers prove adequate to blocking the Elder's attack. "We are not who you think we are." Somehow, Farfarello is able to approach him and slowly stab him without being heart-attacked. Crawford gives the order to take Aya-chan and retreat, but then Weiss appears. Schwarz taunt them into fighting, even though the place is falling down around their ears. Crawford goes to shoot Sakura, but he's prevented by a well-aimed shot from Manx, whom he clearly did not predict. Manx gets Sakura and Aya-chan out of the building while Weiss and Schwarz fight.
This is a strange fight. Farfarello easily handles both Omi and Ken by himself, with Nagi only interfering when Ken gets in a shot to Farfarello's chin. Crawford and Aya seem well matched. Schuldig is being throttled by Yohji's wire and seems to be having difficulty with his end of the fight. A big change from the previous episode.
Then rocks fall and everybody dies.
I just watched through all of Kapital three times to get all these Weiss Kreuzmas notes, so I figured I'd share them and spare everyone else the need to marathon this ridiculous shit.