Dilandau Albatou

Dilandau Albatou is one of the antagonists of the anime series The Vision of Escaflowne. The official romanized spelling of his name is Dilandau Albatou. He had his debut in episode 3. Other appearances in Escaflowne fall on episodes 4–7, 9–16, and 23–26.

Personality

Dilandau could be described as fascinatingly insane. He is charismatic, arrogant, vain, smug, egocentric, maniacal, ruthless, violent, cocky, insubordinate, obsessive, impulsive, capricious, moody, prone to megalomania. "Does not handle frustration well" is an understatement. He's a tyrant, and rather sadistic. As a leader, Dilandau frequently punches or slaps his subordinates. He has severe deficiencies in the areas of self-control, compassion, and conscience. He loves battle, excessive destruction, fire, and Asturian Vino.

The more the series progresses, the more glimpses one gets onto Dilandau's manic-depressive personality. He is actually a very unhappy person, and seems to thrive on adrenaline rushes in battle as a substitute for anti-depressants. Dilandau is emotionally dependent on the Ryuugekitai, for all he that appears to treat them harshly. There seems to be more going on, because they are fanatically loyal to him and care about his well-being. They seem to know how much he needs them and that he really does care about them, although he probably would not admit it.

Appearance

Dilandau is 175 cm (~5'8") tall and weighs 61 kg (~135 lbs), giving him a very slender androgynous look. He is extremely pale, with silver-white hair and "garnet" eyes; though none of this necessarily indicates that Dilandau is albino. He is prone to a wide variety of unsettling facial expressions, including his trademark sadistic smirk. He has a sword scar on his right cheek, courtesy of one Van Fanel, king of Fanelia, after Episode 5. This infuriates Dilandau, possibly more because someone dared do it than because it mars his "beautiful face".

Zaibach

He is the leader of an elite military unit of Guymelef soldiers known as the Ryuugekitai (Dragon Slayers) of the Zaibach Red Copper Army. He is nominally affiliated with the Zaibach Empire, but more likely owes true allegiance to to himself and the Ryuugekitai. Dilandau is consistently insubordinate to his superiors, with the exception of the Emperor Dornkirk, to whom he shows some respect.

His red-tinted Guymelef is an Alseides model (with flight capability, stealth cloak, flame-thrower and liquid-metal Crima Claw), and later in the series an Oreades model (can also fly while in stealth mode).

Further details (spoilers)

In a plot twist in the anime series he is also Allen's sister. There is some foreshadowing to this such as when he gets pissed about his face being scarred rather than the pain from the time Vash slashed him. Also, Dilandau looks at a cute little insect in a nice way then suddenly just squashes it. (this is from memory so some details may be wrong)