Post by sharculese on Dec 16, 2013 18:15:51 GMT -5
Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Episode 1
“Into the Eternal Night”
Episode 2
“The Battle of Astarte”
In a sense, the first two proper episodes of Legend of Galactic Heroes rehash the action of My Conquest is the Sea of Stars. We get another encounter between Yang and Reinhard, another exhibition of bold gambits that other commanders would never think of, and another situation that leaves the balance of the war essentially unchanged.
Following his successful rout at Tiamat, the assembled officers of Iserlohn Fortress conspire again to undermine Reinhard. Having turned the tables at Tiamat, there is no thought of pressing the advantage. In the eyes of these men, the war will never end, and the best that can be hoped for is to undermine the young upstart. Reinhard is stripped of his support staff, although Mittermeyer and Reuental continue to watch his career avidly. In their place, he gets a cadre of seasoned veterans who don’t respect him and think little of his bold tactics. With these handicaps, Reinhard is tasked with pressing forward into Alliance space to the Astarte system, taking on 3 fleets with a much smaller force.
At Astarte, Yang awaits, still an operations officer with the Alliance’s 6th fleet. Although he commands more respect, his bosses still reject Yang’s overly aggressive plan in favor of a strategy that relies on their overwhelming numerical superiority. This proves ineffective when Reinhard uses their caution to pick off the isolated 4th fleet before turning to the 6th, leaving Admiral Paeta indisposed and Yang acting in his stead.
The thing that consistently sets Yang and Reinhard apart from their contemporaries is a willingness to make bold choices in a war that’s been a stalemate for all of living memory. Yang stated this explicitly in Conquest, when he said that the enemy commander certainly wouldn’t come up with the idea of sending a missile into the planet’s atmosphere, right before Reinhard goes ahead and does just that. But that boldness also leads to costly mistakes. Had Reinhard not been driven by his desire for a rematch with Yang, the victory at Astate could have been far more complete, a rout that might have changed the momentum of the war and allowed the Empire to push into Free Planets territory.
Of course, that’s a missed opportunity that goes unnoticed because, at this point in the war, an end is inconceivable to both sides, probably to everyone except Reinhard. Even Yang is thinking no farther than the end of the next battle, the next reprieve from death, and the next paycheck. It’s that lack of ambition that allows him to shrug off Paeta’s dismissal of his plan, but it’s a problem that almost certainly would have ended fatally and it been allowed to continue. As much as it gives him a worthy opponent, what his rivalry with Reinhard will end up doing is give him a reason to see the war as a job he goes to.
But really, the war is the least interesting thing about LoGH (I’ll have more on that next week). What matters are the people caught up in it, and these episodes start to introduce us to the major players. That means a lot of table setting, with scenes that are almost literally just people telling us how they feel about Reinhard and Yang. Some of it makes sense; it’s not particularly shocking that Reinhard’s sister and his best friend have some sort of history together, and both are already tied into Reinhard’s story. Why Reuental and Mittermeyer, on the other, two characters who at best have been tertiary so far, are sitting around talking about Reinhard even though they’re no longer under his command, is less immediately apparent. For two people who will go on to be so important it’s weird to see them essentially as exposition delivery vehicles. LoGH is a huge fucking world, and building that up piece by miniscule piece leaves some of the early work feeling unfortunately trivial.
Other shit:
• All we get of Phezzan right now is some scenes of Adrian Rubinsky keeping an eye on the war. Obviously, he will matter more later.
• Title cards will show up occasionally to remind you who the main players are. Although, obviously, not everyone who gets a title card is going to end up being important long term. Erlache and Lap both got title cards, and they’re dead now.
• The change in Paeta’s attitude towards Yang between Conquest and here is remarkable. In the first outing, he has no problem making it clear he thinks Yang is an upstart brat. Here, he shows a ton of respect, despite rejecting his plan. It would be jarring on a show less relentless cynical about powerful people.
• We also get our first glimpse of Kaiser Friedrich, who seems dismissive of Reinhard even as he allows him to continue his advances.
Next week: This was kind of a tough call but we're doing 3 episodes. "Birth of the 13th Fleet"/"Empire's Afterglow" pair up with each other really well, detailing the respective homecomings of Yang and Reinhard. "The Castrop Rebellion" fits less obviously, but it's too slight to do by itself and I want to treat the siege of Iserlohn in episodes six and seven by itself.
Episode 1
“Into the Eternal Night”
Episode 2
“The Battle of Astarte”
In a sense, the first two proper episodes of Legend of Galactic Heroes rehash the action of My Conquest is the Sea of Stars. We get another encounter between Yang and Reinhard, another exhibition of bold gambits that other commanders would never think of, and another situation that leaves the balance of the war essentially unchanged.
Following his successful rout at Tiamat, the assembled officers of Iserlohn Fortress conspire again to undermine Reinhard. Having turned the tables at Tiamat, there is no thought of pressing the advantage. In the eyes of these men, the war will never end, and the best that can be hoped for is to undermine the young upstart. Reinhard is stripped of his support staff, although Mittermeyer and Reuental continue to watch his career avidly. In their place, he gets a cadre of seasoned veterans who don’t respect him and think little of his bold tactics. With these handicaps, Reinhard is tasked with pressing forward into Alliance space to the Astarte system, taking on 3 fleets with a much smaller force.
At Astarte, Yang awaits, still an operations officer with the Alliance’s 6th fleet. Although he commands more respect, his bosses still reject Yang’s overly aggressive plan in favor of a strategy that relies on their overwhelming numerical superiority. This proves ineffective when Reinhard uses their caution to pick off the isolated 4th fleet before turning to the 6th, leaving Admiral Paeta indisposed and Yang acting in his stead.
The thing that consistently sets Yang and Reinhard apart from their contemporaries is a willingness to make bold choices in a war that’s been a stalemate for all of living memory. Yang stated this explicitly in Conquest, when he said that the enemy commander certainly wouldn’t come up with the idea of sending a missile into the planet’s atmosphere, right before Reinhard goes ahead and does just that. But that boldness also leads to costly mistakes. Had Reinhard not been driven by his desire for a rematch with Yang, the victory at Astate could have been far more complete, a rout that might have changed the momentum of the war and allowed the Empire to push into Free Planets territory.
Of course, that’s a missed opportunity that goes unnoticed because, at this point in the war, an end is inconceivable to both sides, probably to everyone except Reinhard. Even Yang is thinking no farther than the end of the next battle, the next reprieve from death, and the next paycheck. It’s that lack of ambition that allows him to shrug off Paeta’s dismissal of his plan, but it’s a problem that almost certainly would have ended fatally and it been allowed to continue. As much as it gives him a worthy opponent, what his rivalry with Reinhard will end up doing is give him a reason to see the war as a job he goes to.
But really, the war is the least interesting thing about LoGH (I’ll have more on that next week). What matters are the people caught up in it, and these episodes start to introduce us to the major players. That means a lot of table setting, with scenes that are almost literally just people telling us how they feel about Reinhard and Yang. Some of it makes sense; it’s not particularly shocking that Reinhard’s sister and his best friend have some sort of history together, and both are already tied into Reinhard’s story. Why Reuental and Mittermeyer, on the other, two characters who at best have been tertiary so far, are sitting around talking about Reinhard even though they’re no longer under his command, is less immediately apparent. For two people who will go on to be so important it’s weird to see them essentially as exposition delivery vehicles. LoGH is a huge fucking world, and building that up piece by miniscule piece leaves some of the early work feeling unfortunately trivial.
Other shit:
• All we get of Phezzan right now is some scenes of Adrian Rubinsky keeping an eye on the war. Obviously, he will matter more later.
• Title cards will show up occasionally to remind you who the main players are. Although, obviously, not everyone who gets a title card is going to end up being important long term. Erlache and Lap both got title cards, and they’re dead now.
• The change in Paeta’s attitude towards Yang between Conquest and here is remarkable. In the first outing, he has no problem making it clear he thinks Yang is an upstart brat. Here, he shows a ton of respect, despite rejecting his plan. It would be jarring on a show less relentless cynical about powerful people.
• We also get our first glimpse of Kaiser Friedrich, who seems dismissive of Reinhard even as he allows him to continue his advances.
Next week: This was kind of a tough call but we're doing 3 episodes. "Birth of the 13th Fleet"/"Empire's Afterglow" pair up with each other really well, detailing the respective homecomings of Yang and Reinhard. "The Castrop Rebellion" fits less obviously, but it's too slight to do by itself and I want to treat the siege of Iserlohn in episodes six and seven by itself.