My take on the Lelouch as emperor thing is pretty much thus:
I think Charles liked the fact that the kid had balls enough to stand up to him at such an early age, and went about seeing if Lelouch was ruthless enough to be the next leader. Charles believes in survival of the fittest, so he's not going to give up his throne to someone who doesn't fit his ideal. Therefore, we have the situation with the death of Marianne, and Lelouch's subsequent exile. Once it was revealed that Lelouch was alive (I think the Emperor's spy network could've handled at least that much, right? A person with daddy's eyes, and a blind girl in a wheelchair shows up, matching the tales of Lelouch and Nunnally from years ago, and no one notices? Come on now.), Charles watched him to see what he would do. Leading a rebellion gets the emperor stamp of approval--it's what daddy always wanted for his children. And his other children are being set up to die if they're too weak to face Lelouch--starting with Clovis. Getting caught, though, was a bad idea. But seriously--all Lelouch gets is a little memory-modding and sent back to school? Seriously? If I were Charles, I'd've set the leader of the rebellion up for a televised execution by my most trusted bodyguards as an example for what happens when someone dares resist absolute authority. It's another test. And Charles is holding Nunnally as bait, in a sense--Lelouch would kill for Nunnally (but not for many other people), and he's trying to engineer that Lelouch would have reason to off his siblings. ::shrugs:: That wasn't laid out properly, but the gist is there.
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I think Charles liked the fact that the kid had balls enough to stand up to him at such an early age, and went about seeing if Lelouch was ruthless enough to be the next leader. Charles believes in survival of the fittest, so he's not going to give up his throne to someone who doesn't fit his ideal. Therefore, we have the situation with the death of Marianne, and Lelouch's subsequent exile. Once it was revealed that Lelouch was alive (I think the Emperor's spy network could've handled at least that much, right? A person with daddy's eyes, and a blind girl in a wheelchair shows up, matching the tales of Lelouch and Nunnally from years ago, and no one notices? Come on now.), Charles watched him to see what he would do. Leading a rebellion gets the emperor stamp of approval--it's what daddy always wanted for his children. And his other children are being set up to die if they're too weak to face Lelouch--starting with Clovis. Getting caught, though, was a bad idea. But seriously--all Lelouch gets is a little memory-modding and sent back to school? Seriously? If I were Charles, I'd've set the leader of the rebellion up for a televised execution by my most trusted bodyguards as an example for what happens when someone dares resist absolute authority. It's another test. And Charles is holding Nunnally as bait, in a sense--Lelouch would kill for Nunnally (but not for many other people), and he's trying to engineer that Lelouch would have reason to off his siblings. ::shrugs:: That wasn't laid out properly, but the gist is there.