Legend of the Galactic Heroes - The New Thesis (S1E3): “An Indomitable Prodigy”

I've been watching LotGH at the weirdest pace, haven't I? The OVA and the remake intermittently, with gaps between installments ranging from a few days to over a year.

I'd like to say my lack of enthusiasm to continue this story was largely down to that, but I don't think it's just that. So far, while Die Neue These is inarguably the better of the two shows, they still have a hell of a lot of flaws in common that seem like they must have come from the source material. Even at its best so far, no piece of either LotGH anime series has gotten more than an "eh, it's okay I guess" from me. That might change going forward, but I doubt it'll change by very much. Still, I could be wrong, either for better or for worse!

The previous Die Neue These episode resolved the battle of Astarte, with the two generals returning home to their respective home sectors both defeated and victorious in different ways. I guess we'll now be getting into some of the drama with Reinhart's sister at the imperial court and the regrouping at that death star-ish space station that the OVA already started on. So, let's see how it goes this time, and which (if either) of the two generals this episode's title is referring to.

We start with a history lesson! In the twenty-ninth century, the center of human civilization shifted from Earth to a planet in the Aldebaran system, where a central government was established for the whole of humanity's growing domain. They named it the Galactic Federation, because that's what every other twentieth century scifi work called such governments and they figured that all those authors couldn't have been wrong.

I dig the look of the 2800's era ships that it shows during this voiceover. They definitely look like more experimental/inelegant versions of the "modern" techbase.

The Federation oversaw three centuries of prosperous expansion, development, and relative peace. By the end of that time though, institutional decay and ossification had stretched Federation society to the breaking point. This was the political environment that allowed a fellow named Rudolf Goldenbaum to seize power. Goldenbaum was Prime Minister during the fragmenting of the Federation, and he crowned himself emperor over the chunk of it that the remnant government retained control over. This sounds Palpatine-ish to be sure.

Emperor Rudolf I was a charismatic statesman, a brilliant military leader, and a skilled administrator, and he managed to regain control over at least many of the lost territories. However, he was also - by any reasonable definition - a lunatic. Obsessed with some kind of bizarre paleo-Germanic nostalgia, he facelifted his rump empire into a giant Prussia cosplay and progressively replaced democratic institutions with neofeudal aristocrats. His inane reforms quickly burned through his "empire's" initial popularity, and his death was followed by massive riots and rebellions all across the empire's core worlds.

Rudolf I's successors managed to keep the Empire in power, but weren't able to hang onto the newly reclaimed peripheries. Additionally, a big group of dissidents - including a chunk of the imperial military - fled in disgust and established a new colony on the planet Heinessen. Committed to restoring the republican ideals of the Federation, this colony rallied the other independent systems and became the center of a new Free Planets Alliance. It wasn't long before the Empire, still considering itself the legitimate continuation of the Galactic Federation, declared the Alliance to be Imperial citizens in a state of rebellion. The two galactic powers have been at war for a century and a half since then.

Roll OP. That was a more succinct and informative history overview than all of the many such from the OVA combined, and without a single line of purple prose in sight. This version also has the common sense to let the audience get to know some of the characters and develop an investment in the small picture before filling in the backstory. It hasn't explained the strategic importance of the Astarte Corridor yet, but when it does the audience will have both better context for understanding it and more reason to care about the people fighting there than when the OVA did.

Once the battleship mating dance has concluded, we open on Reinhard getting his promotion from Emperor Friedrich IV. His majesty continues to be less charismatic and intimidating than his OVA counterpart, whether or not that's intentional on the creators' part.

The voice actor manages to give the character some power and menace, but the character design, body language, and facial expressions don't back it up.

Reinhard accepts his new position with a solemn, perhaps even shamefaced, humility. Part of that might be expected court etiquette, but I get the vibe that he also isn't sure if he really deserves this considering that his task force technically failed in what it set out to do. Among the onlookers meanwhile, some unimpressed looking nobles grumble about the absurdity of a twenty year old warmaster. Damn, he's twenty? I knew Reinhard was supposed to be unusually young for a general, but I didn't realize he was that young.

Also, along with his promotion to a cabinet position, Reinhard's noble status has been raised from count to marquis. I'm not sure if that means he's actually being given more land to personally rule a la historical feudalism, but either way it's an awfully big honor to bestow on someone just for fighting the enemy to a mutual retreat. The grumblers in the peanut gallery all seem to agree that this has more to do with the emperor wanting to bone Reinhard's sister than Reinhard's actual accomplishments.

Siegfried Kircheis, Reinhard's redheaded boy toy, is also getting a big promotion. Two ranks, in fact, from commander to commodore. Siegfried is a little insecure about this too, given that he feels like he's being rewarded for Reinhard's accomplishments, however praiseworthy those even are to begin with.

As he muses, Siegfried is approached by another uniformed officer who introduces himself as a Captain Paul von Oberstein. Whatever Oberstein is about to say next is interrupted by a weird flash of light in his eyes, which he hastily apologizes for and covers with his hands until the system reset. His cybernetic eyes have been acting up recently, and he'll need to get them looked at soon. When Siegfried asks for the story behind his cybereyes, Oberstein says that it was a congenital defect, and ruefully comments that if he'd been born in Emperor Rudolf's time he'd have been euthanized as a baby.

Assuming that he's talking about Rudolf I and not a particularly deranged successor of that name, that guy was even worse than the history lesson made him sound. Less Habsburg wannabe, and more Nazi. The fact that Oberstein is still seemingly very ashamed of his congenital defect suggests that while Rudolf's eugenics policies are no longer in effect, there's still a very strong ableist sentiment in the Galactic Empire on top of the more general authoritarianism. DNT is catching up to the OVA in illustrating that whatever flaws the Alliance might have, the Empire is almost certainly the worse regime to live under.

Oberstein tells Siegfried he's lucky to be serving under an officer who seems to appreciate and utilize his underlings' skills, and mutters that he wishes Reinhard wasn't such a lone exception to the Imperial Navy's prioritizing of lineage over aptitude when it comes to flag officer appointments. Just as he's about to tell Siegfried about his own upcoming reassignment to the deathstaresque Iserlohn Fortress and presumably get to the reason he approached him, he's cut off by Reinhard's approach.

Reinhard stares at him coldly. Oberstein introduces himself. Reinhard continues staring coldly. Oberstein excuses himself and leaves.

I guess whatever hairbrained political scheme that was about to lead into, Reinhard nipped it in the bud. Or else there was no scheme, and Reinhard is just being understandably paranoid. Probably the first one.

As they leave the building, Reinhard tells Siegfried that he didn't know who that was, but that from what he overheard it sounded like he might have been fishing for criticism of Rudolf I that could then be spun into seditious politics and used to discredit Reinhard's circle. Ah, that does seem likely, assuming that criticism of the first emperor is seen as disloyalty to the state as a whole. I wasn't sure if that was the case, given that they've apparently walked back at least some of Rudolf I's most odious policies since his death, but apparently so. From there, the conversation segues into a discussion about Reinhard's sister, and how her position makes every political conversation known to the court or the public extra sensitive.

Then, a flashback! Babby Siegfried's family was wealthy, but not members of the aristocracy. They still lived in a ritzy enough neighborhood for the Lohengramms (or Musels, as they were known at that time) to move in next door to them though, and thus Babby Siegfried came to be acquainted with Babby Reinhard. He was, shall we say, taken with his new neighbor.

When the two of them first exchange words, Babby Reinhard does not cover himself in glory. His first reaction to hearing Siegfried's name is being dismissive of how commoner-y it sounds, to the point where he feels better calling him by his last name instead. That said, there doesn't seem to be any malice behind this; just a kid who's been told "commoners are bad" his whole life trying to reconcile that with his desire to make a new friend. Still the conversation proceeds (albeit awkwardly) until Reinhard's older sister Annarose intervenes and smooths things over.

I'm not sure if she's actually more progressive on class issues than the rest of her family, or just knows how to be diplomatic about it to people's faces. Either way, the framing here suggests that Babby Siegfried is developing an even bigger crush on her than he is on her brother.

When Reinhard starts going to the same school as Siegfried, some older boys decide to beat the former up for the crime of being too girly-looking to be a noble boy. Siegfried finds out and tries to run over and warn Reinhard, but he gets there to find Reinhard, uninjured, covered in other people's blood, standing in front of their dropped bookbacks and tattered bits of coat.

There's no word on HOW Babby Reinhard is supposed to have done this, as we've seen no indication of his tactical genius including superhuman personal combat ability. Until we get a better explanation, I'm just going to assume that ten year old Reinhard von Musel was packing heat. His galaxybrain tactical genius told him that older boys would come at him in a fight he couldn't win, so he got ready for this and just pulled out a fucking laser gun and started blasting toes off. Is this correct? Probably not, but it's funny, so I'm keeping it.

Reinhard doesn't want his sister to know he's been shooting his schoolmates' toes off, but the blood all over his clothes is pretty incriminating. Fortunately, Siegfried has an idea. Reinhard gets himself all covered in water and mud to disguise the blood splatters, and gets home to tell his family that he fell in a fountain. His clothes get washed before anyone can scrutinize the nature of their soiling, and he just gets a mild scolding for not being careful. Friendship!

Also, from the way Annarose seems to be the one making sure that her brother's clothes get washed and also providing refreshments for him and Siegfried, I get the impression that she and Reinhard are orphans. Or at least, that their parents are currently not anywhere close to them. Annalise is also older than she looks, I guess; I wouldn't have thought she was older than 15 or so from the character design, but she seems to be basically an adult. Big age difference between her and her brother, and no sign of middle siblings; I wonder what the story behind that is?

Not long after this, the imperial house requisitions Annarose. The von Musels' father apparently IS around, but just extremely inattentive and distant to his children except when the Kaiser wants to buy one of them. Reinhard is displeased by this, but Daddy von Musel will hear no dissent.

So, that's how Annarose ended up becoming a royal consort. She just got sold into sex slavery to the emperor as a teenager. That's how it works apparently.

...

People have been telling me that both sides in this series' conflict are bad guys, but...it's going to take a lot of work to convince me that the Alliance is anywhere near as bad to live under as the Empire. The latter seems to be the kind of dystopia that makes absolutely EVERYONE in it miserable, regardless of social status. Hell, being a noble in the Empire might even be worse than being a commoner in a lot of ways, given how much harder it is for them to keep their heads low.

...

Annarose puts on a brave face for her brother and tells him that this is better for her as well as the family as a whole, but she can't quite hide the tears. Siegfried also comes over to see her off, and she bids him goodbye and tells him to take care of her little brother for her.

Siegfried doesn't see Reinhard for a long time afterward. When he does though, it's when Reinhard approaches him in a military cadet uniform and asks if he'd like to join the military with him.

That's going to be the fastest route to freeing Annarose, he says. Whether he means that advancing as an officer will let him build political bargaining power, or that he intends to stage a military coup, is unclear. At any rate, Siegfried remembers his promise to Annarose to watch over her brother for her, and resolves to follow him into the academy.

...

Anyone else getting Char Aznable vibes?

Some of it is down to the similar character design, but now there's also the whole arc of slipping into the ranks in the hopes of accruing enough military power to avenge his family against the decadent tyrants who ostensibly command him.

The original Mobile Suit Gundam came out just slightly before the first LotGH novel did. On the other hand, the anime adaptation(s) of LotGH might have made Reinhard more Char-like than he was in the books (in appearance if nothing else) to leech off of the latter's popularity. It could also just be a coincidence.

...

There's an academy montage of them spending their teens in training. Many of their classmates are nobility of various tiers who are just here so that they can say they're officers, with no intent of actually getting anywhere near the front lines. The academy tolerates these frat bro cadets because it has no choice in the matter. Reinhard and Siegfried just grit their teeth and hold steady, attacking their studies and training with killing intent and eventually graduating vale and salutatorian.

I kinda feel bad for Siegfried here. He only gets to be salutatorian, on top of letting his nobleman friend drag him into the army to hopefully rescue his own sister? Nothing in Sig's life is his own, at this point. Then again, that may just fall within the social conditioning he received as part of the Imperial upper middle class, in which case he probably never hoped for anything better than being attached to a high-achieving noble.

...actually, I wonder if perhaps Sigfried technically outperformed Reinhard, but the latter got a small nobleman bonus to his final scores. It would be perfectly in keeping with everything else we've seen so far.

Shortly after graduation, the two young men are able to visit Annarose at the imperial palace. It's the first time either of them have seen her since she was carted off the better part of a decade ago.

Annarose seems to be in good health and reasonably high spirits, so either the Kaiser has been treating her better than they feared, or she's doing a good job of hiding it. Siegfried even marvels at how she barely even seems to have aged since their last meeting. She makes them the same homemade plum cake that she used to bake for the boys at home, and things feel...surprisingly normal and natural, considering how long it's been. After conversing for a bit, Annarose tells her brother to go get a thing from the pantry. Reinhard makes a snide remark about how if she wanted a word alone with Siegfried she could have just said so, and goes to slowly get the thing. Spending so much time in the royal house seems to have forced her to become more subtle and manipulative than Reinhard is used to.

While Reinhard is getting the thing, Annarose tells Siegfried that she appreciates him following her brother faithfully all this time. He tells her that really he's the one just benefitting from his relationship with tactical prodigy Reinhard, but she cuts through that before he can even finish the sentence.

Being a royal concubine hasn't curbed her more class-egalitarian tendencies, it seems. Or else she's doing something sly and psyop-y, but I don't think so.

She also tells Siegfried that her brother is like an overconfident mountain goat; able to climb higher than most, but also prone to go too far and end up tumbling off the cliff. She begs him again to please hold Reinhard back if he seems like he's about to go over the edge; Siegfried seems like someone he might actually heed a warning from. Siegfried agrees, and it looks like he's about to confess his feelings for her (he still has them after all these years? dang) when Reinhard comes back with the thing from the pantry.

He took his time as he sensed Annarose desired ("you really hid it well"), but not long enough. Very drama. Much star crossed.

After the visit, Reinhard and Siegfried stand outside staring at a ludicrously hypermasculinized statue of Rudolf I. Some well-timed flashback cuts show that this is a reprise of another, similar conversation held in front of another such statue back when they started their academy years. The way Reinhard sees it, Rudolf Goldenbaum was a madman who mostly lucked his way into power. If he did it once, someone else can do it again. If his godawful social order has persisted so long after the man's death, then someone else's potentially could as well.

It's pretty obvious where Reinhard is going with this. And yep, Char vibes intensifying. Maybe with a side order of Roy Mustang, come to think of it, given that Reinhard doesn't have the secret heir part of the backstory like Char did.

This also provides some important context for that political purity test that Oberstein tried to run on Siegfried at the start of the episode. Someone is, if not on to them, at least suspicious.

Siegfried tells him, just as he told him before when they enrolled in the academy, that he's with him all the way. WHY he's with him all the way, of course, is highly suspect. In large part because his attachment and awe toward the nobles he's latched onto id, itself, an element of the social order they want to overthrow. This could go very wrong very easily.

Speaking of which, the camera ends the episode by panning forebodingly up to the stars.

The message is clear. For all that they hate the Goldenbaum legacy, their attempts to subvert it from within ends up turning them into its defenders. By defeating the Alliance's fleets in battle, Reinhard is doing more to perpetuate the system than undermine it, regardless of what his own plans ultimately are. Perhaps he doesn't realize how much he'd be giving up as a nobleman in imperial society, if Rudolf the First's changes were to be undone. Or, perhaps, he's not actually against Goldenbaum style neofeudalism at all, but just thinks he could do a better job running it. Either way, good intentions and unchecked biases are a very dangerous combination, especially in people with a great aptitude for performing violence.


That was by far the best episode of either LotGH anime series I've seen so far. It seems to me that this story is much better at doing character work and political drama than action or military thrills. This is kind of bizarre, because Legend of the Galactic Heroes is usually described/recommended as "two brilliant space admirals developing camaraderie in their repeated battles." A description that puts way too much emphasis on the war aspects (which so far seem to be so-so at best) and not nearly enough on the characters' social contexts and relationships. I kind of suspect that the quality of a given episode will be inversely correlated with the amount of time it spends on warfare, at this point.

The central political question that the end of this episode seems to be raising - that of reform versus revolution when it comes to ending tyranny - is also an extremely relevant one. If your bread is already buttered on the revolution side, then it also poses the question of "to what degree can members of the current ruling class ever REALLY be allies?"

These aren't easy questions to answer. Well, they are if you're completely on the outside of an imperial power looking in, but if you and everyone you know and love are even just nominally protected by the status quo and a violent revolution is likely to mean losing it all, well...if the answers were easy, human history wouldn't be nearly as murky, and social philosophy not nearly as frustrating.