Legend of the Galactic Heroes - Die Neue These S1E9: "Each Person's Star"

Alright, this episode comes BEFORE the last one I reviewed. In fairness to me, episode 10 really does seem to pick up right where 8 left off, so it was an easy mistake for me to miss until near the end. I wonder what "Each Person's Star" is even about? Maybe just Wen-Li being congratulated for his victory and/or Oberstein having a little subplot as Reinhard integrates him into his inner circle. Maybe some Fezzan stuff too? Well, only one way to find out.


Open on a sunny day in a peaceful-looking city on...it looks like the planet Heinessen. A schoolteacher named Ms. Edwards is quitting her job, and her students are begging her not to leave. She doesn't look happy about it herself. Cut to that evening, with her crying over a floral bouquet. Oh, right, she's the wife of that Alliance officer who died in the Battle of Astarte or whatever. And yeah, they lived on Heinessen.

She pulls out a photo of herself, her husband, and her husband's BFF Yang Wen-Li taken right after the latter two graduated from officer school.

After shedding a tear or two, she puts the picture away again and decides to pay a visit to Wen-Li's house.

The battleship mating dance begins. It's not what I'd call a dramatic cliffhanger of a teaser, but they can't all be. After the (man, it really is a pretty one) intro, we settle into the Alliance capital building elsewhere on the same planet. I think this is the first time we've seen the Alliance government up close and personal, aside from that one press conference that Wen-Li and Edwards ruffled feathers at a few episodes back. Which makes sense, to be clear. The Galactic Empire has no real distinction between government and military, with the king hand-picking the top generals and all major offices being filled from the same small clique of noble families. The Alliance isn't like that. So, Reinhard's story naturally gives us a better look at the Imperial government than Wen-Li's does at the Alliance's. Anyway, the current topic of discussion is war funding.

The repeated flare-ups and cooldowns of this extremely long war have always been caused by the Alliance and Empire's respective economies. Right now, both of them are having an economic low, with the Alliance is particular being in a bad way financially. Just paying the damned pensions they're paying to the families of soldiers who got stupidly killed at Astarte before Wen-Li saved the day is making the government grit its teeth, and now they have to figure out how to maintain and resupply this stupidly large space station that they barely understand the workings of and accommodate the approximately one bazillion prisoners of war that came with it as well. There's no telling if they'll be able to build their wealth back up before the Empire does (the Castrop rebellion honestly did the Alliance a big favor with this, but it might not be enough), and their economic disadvantage might be more than possession of Iserlohn can make up for. Especially when you consider that the Empire knows that station much better than they do, and so it's far from impossible that they'll be able to take it back again using a sneaky trick of their own.

So, with that in mind, one cabinet member proposes that they try and see if the Empire will let them quit while they're ahead. Tell the Kaiser they'll recognize his claim to his currently held territory if he does the same in return, and rescind their official commitment to liberating the galaxy from their state charter if he agrees to reclassify them from "rebels" to "foreign nation." The Empire is prideful, so they might need the Alliance to give them a bit of diplomatic prodding first instead of just making an offer themselves.

It's a nice idea. But others point out that if they stop fighting, they'll be betraying half of the galaxy - the half that houses the greater part of the human population, it just so happens - to hopeless lives under tyranny and exploitation. Can they really hang all those people out to dry?

Hmm. I think there's a much better argument that the hawks could be making here. Specifically, that the nobles are never going to stop holding the Alliance in contempt no matter what treaties get signed, and in all likelihood the Empire will just start another war again as soon as it feels it's regained enough of a military advantage.

A good counter to that, in turn, would be that without the war the Empire might find itself ungovernable, with more noblemen doing what Castrop did (and which they must have at least a little bit of intel about) and going rogue with their now-idle fleets. A balkanized Empire would be much less of a threat, and also much easier to eventually liberate piecemeal over the coming decades or centuries.

Unfortunately, the conversation never goes that far into theory. Instead ending with ideological opposition to the monarchy outweighing practical considerations like "can we actually win?" They may or may not have made the wrong decision here, but in either case they made it for stupid reasons.

Although, once again, we still really don't know if the Empire would have ever been receptive to a peace offer if the Alliance made one, so it might all be academic anyway.

Jump over to Wen-Li. He tells his adoptive son Julian (right, Julian, that was his name. Julian Herman Moishe Yang) that they're going out for dinner this evening - a very rare occurrence for them. He implies that things are going to be changing for their lives after he comes back from the office today, and that he'll tell him how and why over dinner. Ah, this is him planning to hand in his resignation. Oh well, hope they end up having fun at the restaurant regardless.

Man, I love how goofy-futurist the Alliance military headquarters looks. It's like Gunmetal Jetsons.

I wonder if those weird angular plates are like, shield projectors, or something? Would make more sense than anything else.

So, Wen-Li brings his resignation letter to Admiral Whatsisname. Admiral Whatsisname isn't happy about this, first pointing out Wen-Li's young age, then his recent string of steadily-mounting brilliant successes, and then finally civic duty.

Wen-Li might see his military career as an unfortunately necessary detour from the life of a historian he'd always wanted for himself. But, unfortunately, the galaxy doesn't need a historian right now. It needs a brilliant military commander. Especially if the Alliance really is going to go with this invasion plan that's just been proposed.

Wen-Li, who hadn't heard about the invasion proposal until just now, basically bluescreens upon learning. He'd really, really, REALLY been hoping that the Iserlohn changing hands would at least calm the war down for a while even if it doesn't end it like he'd hoped. Again, I feel like these characters are being very weirdly blinkered in assuming that this is entirely the Alliance government's decision and not at least as much so the Empire's. Admiral Whatsisname tells him that hopefully the government will choose wisely.

Cut to the government choosing, wisely or otherwise. The pro-peace faction makes some pretty compelling arguments about the state of the Alliance's civilian infrastructure, the loss of expertise as educated people are overwhelmingly funnelled into military science and engineering careers, and the general sense that everyone is tired of bleeding already.

The opponents mostly just make the same noises about opposition to tyranny that they made before. Bafflingly, no one even raises the possibility that the Empire won't accept a peace proposal that doesn't involve the Alliance surrendering. Even though that seems like the obvious best argument to make, even if disingenuously.

Instead, we get "the people are being selfish and don't know what's good for them" and "we need another victory to win the next election." Accompanied by literal evil cackling.

...okay, on top of everything else, was seizing the Iserlohn really not enough of a victory to carry them through the next election cycle? You know, the enemy superweapon that's been keeping the war on the Empire's own terms and letting them attack with impunity to retaliation from behind their moon-sized murder machine? How could that not be enough to win an election on?

And, um. If they want an assured victory, why would they go for something as overambitious and prone to disaster in the case of failure as this all-out invasion plan? Wouldn't the cynical move here also be the practical one, ie aiming to bite off a small chunk of Imperial space just beyond the Ishtar string?

This is what excessive bothsidesing does to an author's brain.

Cut back to Wen-Li at the space pentagon. He's joined in the elevator by that one friend of his, whatsisname, you know the guy.

For his money, he doesn't want Wen-Li to leave because he thinks he's more likely to die under someone else's command than he is under Yang's. He knows he's not the only 13th fleet member who feels that way, too.

Given the brainlets we've seen the Alliance lean on when Wen-Li isn't in command, he's got a point.

On the topic of brainletry though, the following scene reminds us of how much of a derp Wen-Li can be at anything besides military tactics. He apparently forgot to make reservations at the high-class restaurant he planned to bring Julian to, and they're full. They're rescued at the last moment before having to go look for fast food somewhere by the daughter of a Chief of Staff who happened to be eating here with her father, who recognizes Wen-Li and invites him and Julian to sit with them.

Apparently this is the kind of place that military top-brass frequently eat at. I don't think you can *ever* eat at restaurants like that without a reservation lol.

Also, the two of them know more about Julian's school life than Wen-Li does. Including him being a star athlete as well as an honors student. Wen-Li didn't even realize Julian did sports.

On one hand, Wen-Li has a very tilted work-life balance and has been under a lot of stress. On the other hand, it seems like he should have been able to pick up on at least some of this stuff before things heated up so much. Wen-Li is definitely a strange one. Granted, part of it is probably down to him never having wanted to be a parent, and - while he feels a great obligation to Julian - he still isn't thinking of him proactively, and has to remind himself to pay attention to him. TFW too many war orphans.

Chief of Staff dude, an Admiral Greenhill - oh right, he was technically Wen-Li's overseer for the Iserlohn mission, and his adoptive daughter was the girl who he was mean to for the hot drink thing way back at El Facil. Right. Okay, been a while, sorry - tells Wen-Li that he's due for promotion from Rear Admiral to Vice Admiral before his next fleet assignment. Julian hears this, and assumes that this was the big news Wen-Li wanted to share with him this evening. That, combined with the other officers knowing more about Julian's life than Wen-Li does, really conveys a sense that the military is Julian's whole life that Wen-Li is threatening to take him away from. Giving him even more second thoughts, regardless of whether or not his resignation was even accepted to begin with.

Greenhill then tells Wen-Li that the Alliance's new control of the corridor is causing a major, major controversy to brew, both within the leadership and on the Alliance street, over whether to try and make the peace or to push harder from here. I still really, really want to know what the Empire thinks about this, because if they want to keep fighting then it doesn't matter what the Alliance wants, but at this point I'm beating a dead horse.

Cut to Fezzan. Rubinsky is being updated on exactly what percentage of the Alliance and Empire's combined war bonds his regime now owns, and how many business interests around the galaxy they've essentially taken over using them. In the background, his hot evil gf changes into her showgirl outfit. She's apparently a showgirl in the present rather than just past tenses as you'd normally expect from a dictator's shoulder candy.

The update ends. Rubinsky and showgirl gf Dominique have some evil dialogue about how Rubinsky is building a new galactic empire under everyone's noses via soft power.

Okay bro. Better hope the Kaiser doesn't randomly say "actually fuck your soft power, I'm repossessing everything in the Empire that you own and also sending my gigantic doom fleet to obliterate your one little star system" or anything.

Also, Rubinsky asks Dominique why she's even still in showgirl business now that she's making thirty times as much by being the dictator's gf. She rather curtly tells him that she never sold her freedom to him. He likes that answer. Admires the mentality behind it. Well, he might be a war-profiteering ratfucker, but at least he's got the #feminism going for him.

Back to Heinessen. As the group leaves the restaurant, Greenhill seems to be trying to set Wen-Li up with his daughter, but Wen-Li isn't interested. She looks disappointed; maybe she has a fetish for being scolded for getting coffee wrong. They part ways, and on the way home Wen-Li is reminded of another old female acquaintance of his by the evening news.

Apparently she's gotten into politics since her husband's death a year or two ago. She's just been elected to a spot in the Alliance legislature, on a dovish and anti-corruption platform.

Upon seeing her on the screen, Julian exclaims that this is the woman who came by looking for Wen-Li a month or so ago when he was off on the Iserlohn mission. At the time, she'd just said she was looking for Wen-Li, but refused to give her name when Julian told her he was away; she just told him to tell Wen-Li that an old friend said hi, and Julian's description of her upon Wen-Li's return wasn't enough for Wen-Li to realize who it was.

Suddenly, the newscast freezes up, and the car stops moving. Looking out the window, Julian and Wen-Li find that the street around them has suddenly turned into a giant traffic jam, and nobody's internet is working. Turns out that it's not a cyberattack, though. Just a server error that took out this whole neighbourhood's wifi, including the vehicle's navigational systems.

Decaying infrastructure. Deficit of qualified professionals in nonmilitary roles. The traffic cop explains that it's likely to be some hours before they get it up and running again.

The Galactic Empire, meanwhile, gets around this issue by funnelling all of its qualified professionals into the military and making everyone else get by with horse-drawn carts.

The traffic cop promises to get Wen-Li a helicopter to take him and his kid home when he recognizes the former as a newly minted national hero, but Wen-Li refuses. No reason he should suffer any less from the war than the people around him. He and Julian will walk.

As Wen-Li and Julian walk the presumably long distance back home, Wen-Li asks for more details about that bizarre visit from Jessica that he apparently missed.

The way the ensuing flashback plays it, it kind of seems like Jessica was interested in Wen-Li, but decided not to go for it when she saw he'd adopted a kid. I guess she figured that between Julian and being an important general, Wen-Li had already figured out a life for himself that she didn't feel comfortable intruding on. Well, good news for the Greenhills I guess.

In an annoyingly heavy-handed piece of symbolism, Wen-Li and Julian find themselves gazing at the same bright star overhead, and Wen-Li tells him that he shouldn't look toward a star just because the people he looks up to are. Everyone should find their own star to gaze toward.

Very freeing and anti-militarization and all, Wen-Li, but consider: that star is the brightest one on that side of the sky. It's probably coincidence that you were both looking at it. Maybe YOU should find a different star to gaze at and let Julian have this one.

Kinda ruining your own intended metaphor here, Wen-Li. Think about the message you might actually be sending.

The last scene is Edwards' inauguration speech for whatever office she's now holding. And, um. It's a tirade about the military industrial complex, chickenhawk social elites, cynical warmonger politicians, and other things that would be astute criticisms of a country in the modern USA'a position but are absolutely delusional and nonsensical for a country in the Free Planets Alliance's position.

I have nothing to say about this scene that I haven't already said multiple times. End episode.


At the start of this review, I said that it felt weird that there was another episode between the last two I saw, because it didn't seem like there was anything missing.

I was right. There wasn't anything missing. This episode was a waste of space. Everything important that happened in it could have been done in just 3-4 lines of dialogue added to neighbouring episodes.

I really hope that episode 11 gets us back to Reinhard and Co. At this point I don't think the Alliance stuff is ever going to interest me.