Legend of the Galactic Heroes - The New Thesis (S1E5): “Birth of the 13th Fleet”

Last LotGH episode in this set. I'm guessing the 13th fleet is the Alliance fleet that Wen-Li will be putting together with his new station after salvaging Astarte. It doesn't sound Imperial. Let's see.


Wen-Li is woken up in the early morning by his new...adopted son? Maybe? We seem to have skipped over the introductions and explanation...and told that he'd better hurry up before he misses the memorial service. This would be the service for the large number of Alliance personnel lost in the Battle of Astarte before Wen-Li pulled their asses out of the fire, I suppose. Jean having been one of them. One week from retirement, engaged, etc.

Is the kid not his now? Just someone's son or whatever who was sent to summon Wen-Li to the event? No, I was right the first time. Wen-Li asks the boy, Julian, where the stuff he helped unpack last night is, and apologizes for not being more moved in before he arrived. He promises that he'll be a better guardian for him after this.

So, yeah. Apparently they sent Wen-Li a teenaged war orphan at like four AM without telling him to be ready for it. Alliance, you really need to be more efficient with your human resources before you invest so much financial and moral costs into getting more of them.

As Wen-Li puts on his dress uniform's hat and steps out the door to bid Julian goodbye for now, he is suddenly struck by a powerful jet of water from offscreen.

Defective fire hydrant? Imperial hydro-troopers? This planet's indigenous giant archerfish learning to hunt on land? Hopefully we'll find out after the battlecruiser courtship flight!

After the battlecruiser courtship flight, Wen-Li arrives at the strategic ops center where the ceremony is to be held. Erm...are we just going to ignore the random firehose attack? I hope it'll still get back to that. For now, Wen-Li is being greeted by the other officers there as the Hero of Astarte. Wen-Li expresses discomfort with being called that when the Alliance suffered such a painful attritional defeat in that battle, and is told that that's why it needs a hero. They wouldn't need a hero for this battle if they'd considered it a victory. I guess this is the Alliance navy's approach to public morale. Okay then. Also, the capital world of the Alliance is named as Heinessen. Why is everyone German in this future? Not just the Empire, apparently the Alliance too.

The officer also, after putting his hand on Wen-Li's shoulder, asks him why he's all wet. The title card interrupts Wen-Li's answer, so my imagination is filling in the alarming report Wen-Li makes about the new terrestrial evolution of the giant Heinessian archerfish.

Next up! The Alliance government's cabinet member in charge of fighty stuff gives his big speech televised to half the galaxy. It looks like he's broadcasting from the same building Wen-Li is at, which makes sense if it's basically the space Pentagon.

Chairman Trunicht reminds the audience that these million and a half servicepeople gave their lives because they knew that freedom from tyranny was more important. Wen-Li darkly murmurs to himself that no, the reason those 1,500,000 soldiers gave their lives is because they were being commanded by a total idiot. He gets some dirty looks from the others seated near him, even though anyone who was there should have little trouble agreeing with him.

Maybe these guys weren't there.

Trunicht then uses the occasion as an excuse to trash talk the pacifist movement that is pushing for reconciliation with the Empire. Given what we've been shown about the Empire, I don't fault him for that sentiment, but I'm not sure if this is really the time to be bringing out that particular hobby-horse unless he thinks the pacifists were somehow responsible for the losses at Astarte. Wen-Li, on the other hand, is silently malding at how this guy has the audacity to praise the sacrifices of so many other lives while he sits safe and secure in his office in the heart of Alliance space. Combine this with Wen-Li's demonstrated fascination with the Empire's strongman politics, and...yeah, I think this scene is making Wen-Li look worse than Trunicht, and I'm not sure if that was the writers' intent. Like, what, does Wen-Li not see the benefit of having the upper echelons of command insulated from the front lines so that there aren't constant leadership upheavals when their top brass gets killed every couple of weeks?

...

There is a much better argument Wen-Li's mental voice could be making here. As the SecDef or CoS equivalent, Trunicht would have a lot of administrative power over fleet assignments and doctrine. Which means that Wen-Li could reasonably hold him responsible for letting incompetent gloryhounds like the ones at fault for Astarte command such important front-line fleets. Within THAT framing, he could then have a foundation on which to be indignant at Trunicht praising others' sacrifices while keeping himself safe. But, Wen-Li isn't doing that.

...

When Wen-Li refuses to stand at attention at the end of the ceremony, he starts getting shit for it from the others. He just tells them that he's exercising his rights within that free society that Trunicht just reminded them they were defending to not stand. I don't think soldiers (even officers) have those freedoms in the armies of modern democracies while they're in uniform, but the Alliance might be different. When asked why he's choosing to not stand up, he just uses the same reply.

Up on the stage, Trunicht notices this going on, and - presumably recognizing Wen-Li as someone important to the event he's here to talk about - starts getting nervous. His day gets worse when Jessica comes up to him (how did she even get here...? Is she from this planet at all?) and he somehow feels obligated to actually acknowledge this random person who comes walking up the aisle.

She tells him that she was the fiance of one of the officers killed at Astarte. He gives her his condolences, and thanks her showing strength in the face of that tragedy. She then tells him that she agrees with every word he's just said, and that it was a great speech, but that she would like to know if his own family is living up to the same standards that he's promoting for everyone else.

Hmm. This COULD be a much better criticism than the one Wen-Li was silently making. The problem is that we, the audience, don't know jack shit about this guy's family situation. I guess the implication is that his own family are being sheltered from the war and kept away from the front lines for political/nepotistic reasons, but we haven't been SHOWN that. The show seems to be assuming that the audience will have a negative predisposition concerning Trunicht, and I'm not sure why the audience would unless they actually know so little about military necessity that they took Wen-Li's insane "put the SecDef on the front lines" suggestion seriously.

I guess that she's supposed to be right though, because if Trunicht wasn't shielding his own loved ones from the attrition he'd be able to shut this down really easily while making himself look like an angel. Instead of doing that though, he just changes his demeanor entirely and tells security to throw this hysterical woman out.

Holy fuck dude. Even just inventing some fictional soldier nephews of yours who everyone will know are fake as soon as they open up space wikipedia after the ceremony wouldn't make you look THIS bad.

Wen-Li decides that since he's in uniform and all, he can be the security that escorts the woman out. He takes Jessica by the arm, and when she recognizes him she cooperates quickly enough. The chairman and officers give them dirty looks as they retreat.

...

I don't like how it feels like this episode is trying to draw moral equivalence between Alliance and Empire. If someone - especially a non-noble someone - tried this shit at an Imperial ceremony, they'd be dead in a heartbeat and their families would be lucky to not die too.

...

Then again, maybe they're at risk of being killed for this too, if not as officially. As Wen-Li drives Jessica home, a big truck pushes its way up through traffic behind them and tries to push them off the road. Either someone really, really didn't like their conduct at the memorial, or those giant Heinessian archerfish have learned to drive too. The epic space battle music starts playing (LOL!) as Wen-Li takes the car off of self-driving mode and tries to ditch the attacker in a tunnel. It doesn't work.

Soon they're being ground against the tunnel wall and seemingly about to be crushed. Fortunately, Wen-Li slams on the break and spends a genius point to make the breaks somehow exert more friction on the car than being dragged against the fucking wall, causing it to slip out of the truck's grasp and let the former zoom on ahead.

Later, at the...spaceport? airport? some sort of transit hub...Wen-Li is seeing Jessica off. She apologizes for running her mouth back there and possibly inciting an assassination attempt on both of them. She just had a hard time articulating her rage at the people who didn't care enough about proper military practice to prevent over a million pointless deaths. Wen-Li's response is...something.

Well...um...then you'd have won the battle?

Or is Wen-Li saying that there's no difference in the moral calculus between killing people to empower a genocidal regime and killing people to impede one?

And yeah, "genocidal" is appropriate. Given how kill crazy all the Imperial officers besides Reinhard seemed to be, and how frantic all the El Facil civilians were to not be conquered, and how well regarded the actual factual nazi eugenicist first emperor still seems to be, I don't think I'm reading too much between the lines here.

The most charitable reading of this is that Wen-Li is just pessimistic about this war ever ended, and sees all the deaths inflicted on either side at this point as being equally pointless, since neither side will ever get to make their vision for the galaxy come true. After one hundred and fifty years of conflict that could be pretty understandable. But in light of all the previous stuff with Wen-Li's ideas and politics I can't really be charitable.

Wen-Li says that losing those men and ships was tactically suboptimal, but that's it. Granted, we KNOW he cares more than that about the lives of his fleetmates and is just putting on a dispassionate persona, but...his motivations are still uncertain and pretty sketchy. Anyway, Jessica catches her shuttle and leaves, and Yang goes home to his freshly adopted son. Julian has prepared some stew for Wen-Li, and, with a wink, tells him that he was informed by another officer that Wen-Li left the place hand in hand with a pretty girl. Did he not hear about the attempted double homicide? That might not have had Wen-Li's name attached to it in the news just yet, so perhaps not. Over dinner, Julian tells Wen-Li that he's thinking about trying to graduate high school early so he can get into the academy young. When asked how he's so sure he knows he wants to be a soldier, Julian just tells him that it's because that's what his father was.

When Wen-Li tells him to consider alternatives, Julian points out that if he doesn't join the military Wen-Li will have to pay back the adoption loan. Wen-Li's reply is, essentially "dude. Flag officer's salary. You really think that's going to hurt me?" Well, however fucked up Wen-Li's politics are, at least he's trying to be a good parent surrogate. This tender scene is interrupted by a warning from the household computer about a large group of people approaching the door. The security cam reveals them to be masked and armored figures clutching a variety of improvised weapons. Presumably, one of them drives a truck.

Unlike Yang, who reads questionable history books instead of watching the news, Julian recognizes these outfits as those of the Patriotic Knights. An anti-antiwar movement that's been trying to intimidate the pacifists into silence. I guess the Alliance contains more than one kind of proto-fascist on its own. But, why would they be bothering someone like Wen-Li?

Wen-Li's answer is just to exhale slowly and do this:

The Knights get out an amplifier and accuse Wen-Li of having grown arrogant in his recent success, and of badly damaging the military and popular morale with his actions today. They demand that he come outside and say something for himself. Wen-Li does have something of a history of talking down angry mobs, but he's never faced one quite this angry at himself personally, so going out to talk to them face to face may not be the best idea in the world.

Julian asks him what the fuck, why would he cause this kind of disruption at the memorial? Even if he was mad, he should have known better than to make a public spectacle of it. Wen-Li doesn't have a good answer for him. Meanwhile, the Knights are getting impatient, and start threatening to break in if Wen-Li doesn't come out soon. Then, before he can react, someone throws a grenade in the window.

...

So, why aren't these well-armed, able-bodied patriots out on the front lines themselves? I'd assume its because the Alliance is currently ship-limited rather than manpower-limited, but the adoption policy makes it seem like manpower IS a concern in general.

I guess the local Knights chapter might be industrial or homeworld garrison servicemen who are chomping at the bit for some combat. That would make sense. I guess they could be chickenhawks, but that wouldn't fit with their apparent boldness and militarization.

...

No injuries from the blast, due to Wen-Li and Julian not being especially close to it. Not even as much property damage as you might expect; seems like a pretty shitty grenade, ngl. Still, that escalation prompts Wen-Li to start fighting back for real. He turns on the sprinklers at full power.

Oh. Apparently that water jet that knocked him off his feet earlier was just the automatic sprinkler cycle. Because powerwash-intensity streams are good for your lawn and will water it without tearing all the grass out by the roots or just overshooting the fence and drenching the neighbors across the street.

I guess it's possible this is actually a security system disguised as sprinklers, and Wen-Li somehow tripped it accidentally in that first scene. Makes more sense than anything else at least.

The Patriotic Knights beat a panicked retreat, limping back into their truck and speeding off. Wen-Li and Julian start gingerly trying to clear up the rubble. The former bemoaning the loss of family heirlooms.

I feel like there's a mistranslation here? Maybe it should be "tangible" instead of "genuine," or something like that? We didn't see anything to imply that Yang's dad was a loveless or miserly person, though granted we didn't see too much of him at all. Or maybe he just left him a bunch of other heirlooms that turned out to be worthless or something.

Wen-Li moves to help Julian clean up, but Julian insists on doing it himself while Wen-Li stands on a piece of broken furniture to keep his feet away from the broken glass and ceramic. Did Wen-Li take off his shoes before the grenade blast or something? Maybe he did and I missed it. Anyway, as Julian sweeps, Wen-Li gets a phone call. He's being summoned back to the space pentagon right this minute, come back here ASAP.

That's ominous in a way that doesn't seem coincidental.

Before Wen-Li goes, he tells Julian that while he doesn't expect tonight's attack to be reprised in the near future, the political climate in general is getting more and more toxic. Julian tells Wen-Li that that shouldn't matter as far as the latter's political expression goes.

Um...he's right above all others about what?

That it's stupid that a fleet commander was able to be that incompetent and that critically placed? That pretending that those who died pointlessly due to that incompetence are some kind of martyrs is stupid?

What IS Wen-Li taking a stand about in his arc? It's really not that clear.

Also, where did Julian's faith in Wen-Li come from? How long has he been living with him at this point? A few days? Wait, no, the weather has changed, there's no snow anymore. I guess we had a timeskip at some point.

...

......

.........

Which means that Wen-Li and Julian's relationship developed completely offscreen and was skipped over in the literal blink of an eye.

And the creators expect me to care about this kid and his bond with Wen-Li? When they themselves don't even care enough to put the latter in the damned show?

...

Anyway, it turns out this isn't related to today's fiasco. At least, not in a way that's immediately obvious. Wen-Li is being promoted to rear admiral, and - unusually for someone at that rank - being given command of his own fleet. The surviving ships from the battle of Astarte are being repaired and somewhat replenished into the newborn 13th fleet; a small, nimble force, about half the size of a standard one, with Wen-Li in command. The promotion is partly because of the Alliance military's policy of creating heroes to distract from disasters, and partly because Wen-Li actually did a good job of salvaging that clusterfuck (the big admiral guy is a bit chagrined by how blunt Wen-Li is about acknowledging this, but he roles with it pretty well). He also explains that with Reinhard now being the Empire's main man for fleet operations, they need someone who's defeated him before to be in a position to do so again. It sure seems like if Wen-Li had been commanding the defensive force from the beginning, they could have repelled that attack with much, much lower losses, and possibly inflicted some serious ones of their own.

Wen-Li cautions that Reinhard doesn't seem like the sort of commander who will make the same mistake twice. He also points out that with the Alliance losses at Astarte, the Empire has some degree of numerical advantage at present, and that he fully expects Reinhard to exploit that by sending another, much bigger, fleet down the Astarte corridor soon; this would be the perfect time for the Empire to apply brute force.

Then the bossman changes his tune entirely, and tells Wen-Li what the 13th fleet's first mission will be. And it's, um...

They want him to take a half-sized fleet and seize that quicksilver death star that's completely stymied all their attempts at offensive pushes through Astarte so far.

And which they have no reason to think Reinhard will be personally commanding, defeating the stated purpose of giving Wen-Li his own fleet to begin with.

...I'd think they were just trying to get Wen-Li killed, were it not for the fact that they're already hurting for ships.

Well, Wen-Li says he'll attempt it. For whatever reason. The admiral tells him that doing this might also redeem him in the eyes of the SecDef and his stochastic terrorism buddies, if nothing else.

After the credits, we see Wen-Li driving home and conferring with another guy about the politics going on here. Apparently, the four star who gave Wen-Li this insane mission has 70 days left in his term in his current position (I guess that's how it works for the Alliance military?) and wants the SecDef guy to renew his command/admin role. Taking Iserlohn would do that.

O...kay. This seems like way too daunting of a mission to be attempted for such low-key careerist ambitions. Iserlohn is a game-changing superweapon that's held the Alliance back on that front for decades, according to the other adaptation, and I doubt DNT is changing that detail. Sending a half-strength fleet to try to take it is not going to help anyone's career. There'd be a million better ways to try and get some last minute brownie points from the government.

This feels like a really bad parody of a military thriller, or else just a military thriller written by a moron. It's probably the worst case of cartoonish incompetence - of the other military brass characters acting stupid just to be stupid and prop up the protagonists, rather than for believable in-character reasons - so far.

Also, why did he call Wen-Li in in the middle of the night for this?

Wen-Li gets home, tells Julian he'll be away for a while, and bemoans the fact that he won't get to have that amazing tea Julian makes in the meantime. Oh yeah, that tea that Julian made for him. That was a really tender bonding moment that built pathos for him and Wen-Li. Remember that? No? Oh, right, it was never in the fucking show. End episode.


I hate Wen-Li. Not as a person (though his likeability on that level is also sketchy), but as an object of narrative focus. Everything that happens around him is fucking boring. There's no sense of a character arc being set up. I don't know what he cares about, or why he's doing any of the things he's doing, except when that reason is "someone told me to" or "I'm under attack right now."

I thought things would get more engaging when Julian showed up, but the story practically turns up its nose at the idea of having to develop that relationship even while seeming to expect me to be invested in it. I still don't know why Julian showed up without warning in the predawn. I don't know how long he's been living with Wen-Li at this point. We jumped straight from him arriving to him worshipping the ground Wen-Li walks on and Wen-Li feeling at least somewhat paternal about him in return. This feels like it's PROBABLY an adaptation issue, but I can't be sure. If so, it was an absolutely idiotic thing to cut.

Like, compare all this with the Reinhard-centric episodes. We have idealism being crushed by social realities, friendship, unrequited love, revenge, quests to save family members, you name it. The closest thing to any of that we get with Wen-Li is the comparatively banal relationship between Jean and Jessica, which Wen-Li seems to have little to do with and most of which happens offscreen.

Then there's the political bad takes. Maybe this changes as the series goes on, but the show seems to be pretty heavily bothsides-ing this conflict. Seemingly heedless of the fact that the Alliance's biggest problems all seem to either exist in the Empire (and usually even more strongly so), or basically amount to "the Alliance is at risk of becoming more like the Empire." That whole thing about the stochastic terrorism? A society like the Galactic Empire is what happens when those types of violent ultranationalists win. Honestly, this portrayal of the democratic faction's failings feels like some right wing internet crypto trying to concern troll.


That's all for now. This cluster of episodes had higher highs than the first couple, but also lower lows. I'll be getting back to this show after doing some more Fate Zero, so we'll find out if the rebel alliance manages to destroy the empire's death star soon enough.