Short answer: Lelouch Vi Britannia, the exiled prince of the Holy Britannian Empire, is a genius in the flesh as he has an IQ level of 210. His IQ is nothing short of amazing because even the average IQ level of genius people fall around 140-150. Since the start of the series, we have seen Lelouch using his overwhelming intelligence to fight fleets of the Britannia Empire and despite having minimal resources, he changed the course of battles numerous times with just a few strategic moves.
Lelouch’s first battle against Britannian forces
Lelouch first displayed his skills as a tactician in the second episode of season two of Code Geass when he helped the Elevens push back the Britannian forces, something that they rarely achieve on their own. The Britannians however, didn’t take it lightly that their forces were getting defeated by the Elevens and decides to with the plan where they surround the Eleven forces. Lelouch has already predicted this plan of theirs though and has made preparations for it. He orders all Elevens to board onto a train and hide in a Subway while Brtiannian forces surround them all according to his plan. At Lelouch’s command, Kallen uses the Slash Harken to destroy the ground beneath the enemy forces, destroying all enemy units in an instant.
Lelouch had the Britannian forces at his grip but much to his surprise, the Lancelot, piloted by his friend Suzaku Kururugi, enters the fight and makes things difficult for Lelouch. With his more advanced Knightmare Frame, Suzaku was able to easily defeat all of the eleven forces that stood in his way. Not did Suzaku’s interference make Lelouch lose a number of his forces, he was now also in danger of being killed by his friend. Fortunately, Suzaku stopped pursuing the Eleven forces in order to save a woman falling from a building. Lelouch uses this opportunity to infiltrate the base of Brtiannian forces and forces Prince Clovis, commander of this unit, to cease fire that saves all Elevens on the verge of being killed.
Tough Opponents Lelouch defeated using his IQ
1. Mao
Among the geass opponents Lelouch has faced, Mao was supposed to be the hardest one because his geass power was the perfect counter for someone like Lelouch. Mao’s geass allows him to read the thoughts of his opponent which allowed him to always be a step ahead of his opponents. During his chess game with Lelouch, Mao was always able to read his thoughts. As skilled as Lelouch was at chess, he couldn’t beat him. Their chess game didn’t end but it was clear that Lelouch couldn’t win. Lelouch did gain something from their chess game though. He quickly learned what Mao’s power was. C.C. also gave Lelouch additional information about Mao’s geass when they returned to their home.
Thinking Mao is too dangerous for Lelouch, C.C. decided to deal with him herself but ends up getting captured instead. Lelouch was then faced with the challenge of rescuing C.C. from someone who could read his every step.
Although it’s his first time to go up against another Geass user, using the information his gathered about Mao’s power, Lelouch sets up a plan to rescue C.C.. He made Mao converse with a prerecorded video of himself, predicting what Mao would say and also figured that it would be too dangerous to go to the recue by himself so he used his geass on a few policemen. While Mao was busy talking to the video, Lelouch was able to get C.C. to safety as well as have the policemen surround Mao. Mao was completely outplayed here and when he refused to surrender, Lelouch had the policemen shoot him as a additional protection for him and C.C.
Mao didn’t die though, thanks to advanced Britannian heathcare, and kidnapped Nunnally as his revenge on Lelouch. Not only did he kidnap Nunnally but he placed a bomb above her and the only to safely defuse the bomb is for Lelouch to beat Mao in a game of chess but if Lelouch loses, the bomb explodes. Knowing Mao would read his mind to figure out his plan, Lelouch made a plan with Suzaku but used his geass on himself to forget his plan before he went to face Mao. This way, Mao was outplayed. He couldn’t read Lelouch’s plan at all and that allowed Lelouch to win against him.
2. Schneizel el Britannia
After defeating Charles, the emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire, the next powerful enemy that surfaced before Lelouch was Schneizel, the second prince of the empire. Since childhood, Lelouch was undefeatable at chess except for when he was playing against his brother, Schneizel. In the second season of Code Geass, Schneizel has the backing of Black Knights and Nunnally, who is Lelouch’s only weakness, but Lelouch still aimed for victory. During the final battle of these brothers, before they attacked each other’s forces, they continued to move their forces back and forth like in a chess game, indicating a virtual fight before starting a real one. Schneizel deploys Kallen while Lelouch orders Suzaku to fight her. Lelouch uses Sakuradite (Power Resource) explosives to blow up Mountain Fuji; the bombardment destroys a fair force of Black Knights along with their aircraft called Ikaruga.
On the other hand, Schneizel compels Nunnally to fire FLEIJA, which proves to be more destructive than the earlier blast causing Lelouch to worry about his next move. Next, Lelouch aims to infiltrate Damocles with Suzaku and C.C. However, Schneizel orders another FLEIJA towards Lelouch’s Shinkiro, but he uses the FLEIJA Eliminator made by Nina to counter it. He successfully infiltrates Damocles as Suzaku and C.C. make a path for him. Schneizel resorts to his last strategy to trap Lelouch in Damocles while blowing it off with FLEIJA. He moves a shuttle to escape with his attendants while Lelouch makes a broadcast to Schneizel’s control room. During their talk, Schneizel suddenly notices Lelouch behind him, indicating that the broadcast was a recording and guards outside had been geassed. He uses Geass on Schneizel as a checkmate and orders him to serve Zero for all his life as a part of Zero Requiem.
3. Shamna
Shamna is the queen of Zilkhstan and a major villainess in Code Geass: Lelouch of the Resurrection. She kidnaps Nunnally to execute her plan of making an alternate reality where her Kingdom dominates all other nations. C.C. brings Lelouch back to life so that he can help them. Lelouch makes a master plan and invades the Kingdom of Zilkhstan together with Suzaku, Kallen, C.C., and other imperial forces. Lelouch efficiently manages to corner her and kills her, but she uses her Geass to go back in time to prepare for Lelouch’s attacks. This time Lelouch had a hard time, but he still beat her, but the outcome was the same as Shamna again used her Geass.
Discovering something is odd, Lelouch decides to assume that his enemy possesses a Geass, but he has to figure out her Geass Power to beat her. He carefully thought of a plan to pinpoint the exact power of her Geass. C.C. (who is immune to Geass) was the only one who knew what plan they were utilizing at first; therefore, he ruled out mind-reading. After that, he continued to pick and choose his moves so that he could narrow down the potential Geass powers based on the enemy’s reaction. Out of moves, Lelouch decided to go for a gamble. After infiltrating the base, he geassed the guards around Shamna, who was still in her sleeping pod. He baits her by saying that she should use her Geass on him, but she can’t as her Geass activates by dying. Lelouch orders the earlier Geased guards to capture her upon discovering her real power. He commands Shamna to sleep eternally by using his Geass this way; she won’t be able to use her Geass. Like always, Lelouch’s overwhelming intelligence and strategic mindset enabled him to win this battle.
Our Final Thoughts
In the end, We can’t help but acknowledge that Lelouch used his high IQ level to crush down the evil plan of his father. At first, we may have called him foolish for initiating a war with the Holy Britannian Empire that conquered half of the world, but after witnessing his plan in action, we ended up following him and admiring his intelligence.
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