Siegfried von Schroeder

Name: Siegfried von Schroeder (alias: Siegfried Lloyd)

Age: 20

Nationality: German

Special Skills: Computer programming and hacking, gaming

Likes: Computers, Norse mythology, gaming, Leonhard von Schroeder

Best Friend: Leonhard von Schroeder

Image Songs: Unwell by Matchbox 20

Destroyed by Within Temptation (Siegfried to his father)

Background: Siegfried grew up in a rigid environment similar to what Seto experienced after being adopted by Gozaburo. Siegfried's parents were avid believers in the philosophy of "winning means first place and nothing else" and groomed Siegfried relentlessly to take over SchroederCorp. While Mrs. von Schroeder wanted Siegfried to also be a social butterfly, Mr. von Schroeder was obsessed with besting KaibaCorp to the point that he went insane. When Siegfried was forced to take over and converted SchroederCorp to gaming from weaponry only to learn that Seto Kaiba had done the same thing with KaibaCorp, Mr. von Schroeder shot himself. Though Siegfried is unaware of it, this tragedy is what really molded him into the desperate, pathetic man determined to beat Seto at all costs. The suicide hangs heavy over his heart and he blames himself for it, albeit he refuses to look into his heart long enough to see this fact.

Siegfried worked for months on the idea of holographic Duel Monsters projection to revolutionize the game, only to arrive too late to close a deal with Maximillion Pegasus and discover Seto debuting his own Duel Monsters holograms. That was the final straw and Siegfried became bent on believing that Seto had stolen his idea. It wasn't true, but Siegfried refused to be convinced. Eventually this fueled his hatred to the point that he joined Seto's Grand Championship tournament under an assumed name, with an elaborate plot to destroy his nemesis by infecting the computer system with a virus unknowingly planted by his trusting brother Leonhard.

Siegfried's trickery and betrayal only led to his downfall and his being exposed as a poor loser. SchroederCorp stocks dropped drastically as a result of his twisted plans. Leonhard forgave him despite having been used and Siegfried clung to his brother's goodness to come back from the brink. He would not go insane, as his father had done and as Leonhard feared Siegfried had.

His board of directors was far less forgiving. When the brothers returned to Germany, Alphonse, one of his board of directors, broke into the family castle and repeatedly shot Siegfried. The madness had spread; Alphonse thought nothing of how his actions would make company stock drop even further. To him, he was getting rid of the problem. Siegfried managed to recover, largely because Leonhard never gave up on him, and at last they were able to pull SchroederCorp out of the pit it was in and close the highly coveted deal with Pegasus.

Personality: Siegfried comes across as obnoxious, arrogant, and shallow. He can also be very needlessly rude to people he doesn't like, such as Joey. It's only once he drops the facades that he reveals he is a deeply tortured man. He loves his younger brother Leonhard and has become very protective of him, not wanting anyone else to hurt him as he thoughtlessly did in the past.

Despite the facades, Siegfried does genuinely enjoy all the perks of being wealthy and milks it for all it's worth. He has maids waiting on him hand and foot at his castle home. But for all that, Siegfried is hardly lazy. He works hard at what he does and is constantly trying to improve SchroederCorp.

Differences between the timelines: Not much, personality-wise. Judging from the fact that I'm keeping his backstory as revealed in Lost Souls Live Not Forever, that venture is basically still part of my new timeline, aside from issues about ages once again. I already altered the age once in that story, changing it from whatever it was originally to 22 or 23. I think he's older than Seto, and he looks it in the flashback, but that's probably too much. Hence, I've changed it again here.

His name is one of the most confusing things I've ever encountered. First I thought it was Schraider, which apparently it really is in Japan, judging by a screenshot of a computer screen. Then I thought it was Schroider in Japan and used that. Meanwhile, in America it became Schroeder. I later switched to using that, but Dragons at Dawn was started when I was still using Schroider, so I kept that spelling to finish out that story when I received new inspiration for it. Subsequent stories have used Schroeder.

I have also always used the Japanese Grand Prix name of Seto's tournament, but it occurs to me that since that's the name of a car race, it's highly unlikely Seto would really call his tournament the same thing! He could get sued, if nothing else, and that's a pretty good reason not to use it! Grand Championship does make more sense. Chalk one up for the dub..