Legend of the Galactic Heroes - The New Thesis (S1E4): “The Unbeatable Magician”

This title mirrors the previous episode's so neatly that it pretty much has to be about Wen-Li's backstory. In we go!


Preteen Yang Wen-Li is sitting on the deck at the back of a cargo ship bridge, while his officer parents prepare to dock at El Facil for unloading. El Facil was mentioned before; it's the site of a battle in which Commodore (if he was even a commodore at that point) Wen-Li first distinguished himself. That'll have to be at least a decade in the future from this point, obviously, but apparently his parents also flew cargo runs to there when he was a kid.

He's reading a history book about the origins of the Galactic Empire. At a certain point, he looks up from the text with an incredulous expression and asks his father how so many people could have possibly failed to see through such an obviously insane and evil man as Rudolf Goldenbaum. Daddy Wen-Li tries to give a simple answer, but Yang isn't satisfied with it, so he ends up having to give him a full length lecture on the psychology of authoritarianism as best he can. as he speaks, his voice fades out to a narrator explaining that this unassuming, studious, spaceborne life was Yang's for his first sixteen years. Then, it's battleship mating dance time.

So far, Wen-Li's backstory is a hell of a lot less dramatic than Reinhard's. But then, that's kind of the point I guess. Reinhard is a warrior-aristocrat from a culture that runs on the theater of intimidation and awe. Wen-Li rose through the ranks in a republican navy manned and commanded by mostly sane-ish people.

After the OP, we see a teenaged Wen-Li in uniform at a university library, where people are laughing at him for being "a soldier who likes to read." Um, rood. You'd think a society that's been at war for as long as the Alliance would have a more openminded view of what kind of people soldiers are; a war of such size and duration would have to recruit all sorts.

Yang ignores the whisperers and just finds a quiet forner for himself to study in. He doesn't study for long, though, before some haunting violin music draws his attention to the deck on the library roof. He ascends, and finds a woman playing the violin by herself while looking out over the horizon. I think I remember this character from the OVA? Maybe? I'm not sure, it's hard to remember anything from the OVA. When he approaches her, she is surprised (though not mocking like those others) to see a cadet here at the city library. Ah, it's a city library apparently; it looked like it was on a college campus, but I guess it's just a particularly green part of the city. When asked what's so wrong with that, she clarifies that it's just a bit odd for cadets (or actual officers) to come here in uniform.

Wen-Li looks self conscious, as if he didn't realize he was still wearing it until now. He then repeats the sentence "this is embarrassing" in response to every further comment of hers until she starts getting mildly creeped out, which gets him to finally snap our of it. Damn, he might be smart, but late teenaged Wen-Li was one hell of a spaghetti chef. His behavior is distinctive enough that she is now able to put a face to a reputation she's encountered.

Strange nickname to have acquired.

Apparently he's called that because he arrived at the academy with absolutely no luggage whatsoever, just the clothes on his back. Huh. Maybe that's why he wears his uniform everywhere? He just has no other clothes? Keeping it washed must be a challenge, then, but I guess that's the kind of problem one can hone one's tactical genius on.

Wen-Li asks how she knew who he was, and she tells him to wait with her here and the answer will arrive shortly. Hmm, odd phrasing. Well, he waits with her, and starts telling her about all the books you can find here at the big library that you can't at the navy academy library. Books about things like the history of tea, the making of violins like the one she was just playing, or even about something as obscure as Rudolf I's personal chef.

Wen-Li has something of a fascination with Emperor Rudolf, doesn't he? It could just be a "know your enemy" thing directed at the Empire's origins. But, it could also be that that cuddly, socially awkward exterior might hide something a little darker.

When asked about his extracurricular history reading, Wen-Li explains that he wanted to be a history professor, but the death of his father meant that he couldn't afford the kind of education that required on his own. So, he joined the military in order to get the education benefits, and is hoping to finish his service as quickly as possible. Hmm. The two are soon joined by a hulking mutual acquaintance of theirs named Jean, who is her source about him.

I think this was the guy whose death I didn't care about in the OVA? Maybe? I'm not sure.

Wen-Li, Jean, and the girl named as Jessica wander to a café together, and soon Wen-Li is talking about Rudolf I again. I'm starting to suspect that his other nickname is "Space Godwin" for how often he brings this up. Wen-Li talks about how when people feel confused, uncertain, or powerless, they'll yield their agency to anyone who presents themself as a problem solver with a plan, no matter how obviously insane, stupid, and evil that plan is. And that if that's all it takes for them to support a monster, well, maybe they were all a bunch of monsters this whole time, and Rudolf and individuals like him are no worse than most; just more charismatic.

He says most of this with a disturbingly dreamy look on his face as he gazes up at the sky. Putting this together with his weirdly egotistical troop-rallying speech in the pilot and...yeah, big warning signs hanging all over this guy. Even if he's just admiring and imitating the methods rather than the motives, the fact that he's choosing this particular inspirational figure as the big role model is troubling.

Next scene is at the academy, where Wen-Li is commanding a simulated fleet against a more experienced cadet's. A more laid back version of the battle theme plays as Wen-Li says a bunch of tactical sounding nonsense and the cadets playing his junior officers relay it to the simulated ships. Wen-Li says better tactical nonsense than the other guy does, and his pretend fleet defeats the other guy's pretend fleet. Next thing we know, he's being transferred to the Strategic Studies Department; a track that will pretty much force him into an actual, real life fleet command position. Should have thrown the match, Yang. He objects to this, but is told that if he can't follow orders, even as a cadet, the military has no use for him; he can quit and pay back all his student debts incurred so far if he feels so strongly.

Strongarming people into command positions? Not a good idea. Especially if those people have would could charitably be described as an interest in the enemy you want them to fight against. Then again, we've already seen this level of foolishness from the Alliance's fleet officers, so maybe their whole military is this kind of incompetent and pigheaded.

The commandant does offer to play chess with Wen-Li whenever he wants though, and Wen-Li seems actually mollified by this. So, maybe his reluctance was more about false modesty than his stated desire to ditch the military and become a professor ASAP. Not sure.

Skip ahead to just before graduation. Wen-Li blows off a meeting with Jean to hit the library, and once there he finds that Jessica has done the same thing. Sucks to be you I guess, Jean. They talk about plans, the past, and the future, with her wondering why Wen-Li is so obsessed with the past and seemingly avoids thinking too much about the future. Wen-Li doesn't answer. Either being swayed by her words, or just not wanting to engage. Cut to Wen-Li having another private meeting with Jean after the graduation ceremony. Apparently, Jean confessed his feelings to Jessica today, and she turned him down.

Jean is the Bad Luck Brian of LotGH, I guess. Guy can't seem to catch a break.

There's a silent moment as the three of them, now all on the rooftop again together, have photos taken. Wen-Li and Jean in uniform, Jessica (who is still a year from finishing her music degree) in festive plainclothes. Then it's a year later, and we're at an Alliance fleet base near the El Facil system.

So that's what military construction/repair yard looks like in the setting. Looks like they'd have trouble maneuvering large components into those berths, so I guess ships are assembled from pretty small pieces.

Wen-Li is alarmed that he's receiving a post so close to the front lines so soon. He's definitely not getting an early retirement as a history professor now, unless they teach history in the space afterlife. Speaking of being dead, an Alliance fleet just lost a battle to the Empire nearby and the dumbass in command is having it retreat here to El Facil, leading the superior imperial force after it to the poorly defended world and its civilian population. Signal intercepts reveal that the Empire believes that it will have liberated the citizens of El Facil from the oppression of the rebel forces within 24 hours. Way to go, Admiral Dipshit.

El Facil is apparently a pretty lightly inhabited world, with a population in just the low millions concentrated in a few urban centers. But a few million is still a lot, and based on the reaction none of them particularly want to be left on the planet's surface when the Empire seizes it.

As the crowd mobs the spaceport, demanding to be evacuated before the meager garrison fleet withdraws, order breaks down. When they aren't let into the spaceport, they seem like they're about to riot. They are calmed somewhat when the officer in charge of the garrison, a Lieutenant Yang Wen-Li, steps out of the spaceport to speak to the crowd in person. He tells them that he's got an escape plan, just sit tight. For now, he starts letting people into the space port in a controlled fashion.

Jump ahead to him holding down the fort in a spacefort packed with sleeping refugees. As he oversees the shuttle preparations, Wen-Li starts coughing on a sandwich he was eating, and a teenaged volunteer brings him some coffee to wash it down. He does so, and then complains that it's not tea.

Tactful as always, Yang.

Then Yang gets a call that the garrison ships have just left without them. He's unsurprised, and tells his underlings to carry on with the evacuation. Erm...with what ships? I'm confused. He then has the evacuation take place while the imperial fleet is changing course to go chase after said fleeing garrison.

Okay, so...Wen-Li sent those ships out to stall/distract the enemy to buy time? Okay. Sure. I guess. But he also still has enough ships to evacuate the population? And...he gambled that the imperials would take the bait despite their stated intent, and that having that many fewer ships on hand wouldn't work against him?

...wait, the people were demanding to be let on the garrison ships. The implication being that those ships WERE necessary for evacuation. How is he evacuating them without those ships?

So, they evacuate the planet, somehow. Wen-Li is called the hero of El Facil, and gets two promotions. In a subsequent meetup with academy friend Jean, Wen-Li reveals that he didn't actually do anything at all. The idiot commander who caused this fiasco in the first place ordered those ships go out to meet him and attempt to withdraw together, sacrificing the civilians to save the ships, believing falsely that he could outrun the imperials if they decided to chase him. Wen-Li just recognized that he could use this extra time to do more evacuation with the ships that they apparently had and didn't need the garrison for.

So yeah. He did literally nothing. And acknowledges this when asked about it.

Well, at least the story is self-aware about this. But it seems like it sort of undermines the intro that Wen-Li got in the Astartes battle. He got promoted for tactical genius that he didn't actually exhibit, but he coincidentally also is a tactical genius?

Also, as with Astartes, I don't understand the logistics of any of this. But, I predicted that would be the case last episode, so.

Wen-Li goes on a philosophical tangent about the importance of history in mastering military strategy, even though - as established - he literally didn't do anything this time. Then they start gossiping about Jessica, who has finished her degree and is now teaching.

Jean apparently wants to try things with her again. Okay, sure, whatever.

Next thing, Wen-Li is moving into a new house somewhere. Wait...he DID get out of the army? When is this part supposed to be happening relative to the Astarte thing? I guess he gets pulled back in not long after this or something. He's met there by his old academy commandant, who seems to have secured a promotion or two himself in the meantime. They're neighbors now, so I guess this is a military brass sort of town he just moved to.

Over drinks, Wen-Li says that this house he was given is really much too big for him. The commandant advises him to adopt a war orphan, using an Alliance military adoption program that gets an unusually clumsy "as you know" sort of description.

Basically, military officers can get extra fast, minimum headache adoption of war orphans, and are given a big government loan to help in raising them. If said orphans grow up to become soldiers themselves, the loan is forgiven and any repaid portions returned in full.

On one hand, that's pretty fucked up. On the other, the Alliance has been at war with space nazis for generations, so desperate measures like this could be justifiable. On the other other hand though, they don't exactly seem to be doing a great job using their existing human resources before stooping to such lows to increase them. So, yeah, not sure how harshly to judge the Free Planets Alliance for this.

The guy urges Wen-Li to adopt, and Wen-Li shrugs it off at first but by the end seems to be thinking about it. After the commandant leaves, Wen-Li has a holochat with Jean. Apparently, something actually did go right for the poor schlub; Jessica has become more receptive to him since his academy days, and the two just got engaged. Well, color me surprised.

That night, Wen-Li reminisces about his conversation with Jessica, about the past and the future. Okay, why does Wen-Li care about that conversation so much? Is he in love with her too? He's done pretty much nothing else to show it, even in private moments. Suddenly there's a knock on the door, and Wen-Li wonders who it could be at this hour as he goes to get it. The episode ends on a kid with a handbag standing on his doorstep in the snow.

If he'd decided to adopt a war orphan, he would have been expecting this. Did they unilaterally send him one without informing him? No idea.


A lot of this episode just confused me. Most of the rest was boring.

That last bit is the biggest issue. It's not that Wen-Li is unlikeable (you could make a pretty good case that he is, but honestly his asshole moments are his most entertaining ones). It's that he's boring. Maybe he has a rich and interesting internal world, but if so the show is doing a bad job adapting it from the prose. He's also a pretty static character in this backstory piece. Reinhard's backstory ep had him dealing with loss, a sense of betrayal by the social order he'd been invested in and priviledged by, a new resolve, and struggles against institutional bias and political status quo enforcers. Wen-Li is just...a guy who likes history, joined the army, and made a couple of friends in the academy. His fascination with authoritarian charisma could be explored and made interesting (if not exactly flattering of the character), but the episode barely did anything with it.

I commented earlier that Reinhard's story being more dramatic and opera-like was fitting for the Empire protagonist, with the Alliance's being more down-to-earth, but down to earth doesn't have to mean boring. As it is, I can describe Reinhard's character and relationships at length, but I still feel like I know next to nothing about Wen-Li.

Weak episode. Both compared to other DNT installments, and just in absolute terms.