My Conquest is the Sea of Stars *slightly updated*
Dec 8, 2013 20:45:17 GMT -5
Douay-Rheims-Challoner likes this
Post by sharculese on Dec 8, 2013 20:45:17 GMT -5
Legend of the Galactic Heroes
My Conquest is the Sea of Stars
In its scant one hour running time My Conquest is the Sea of Stars is tasked with drawing us into two conflicts that will define the series- the larger battle between the Empire and the Alliance, a war that’s lasted longer than living memory and has become almost a mundane facet of life in the 36th century, and the more personal battle of wills between Reinhard von Musel and Yang Wen-li. It makes sense, then, that for a show that delights in subtlety and ambivalence, this is a remarkably blunt hour, but one that succeeds in establishing the stakes.
In the 150th year of a war that has divided humanity, Allied forces advancing on Iserlohn Fortress prepare to engage with Imperial defenders in the Tiamat system. This is the fourth Battle of Tiamat since the war began. Nobody believes it means much of anything. Which it won’t. As a standalone story, that means it’s a fairly disappointing encounter- after all the resolution is that the status between Empire and Alliance goes basically unchanged. But that stalemate is a necessary disappointment, in that it drives Yang and Reinhard to the rivalry that will consume most of the series.
The parallel paths of Yang and Reinhard are established through a good deal of people talking exposition to each other. Both have a certain amount of fame within their society, Yang as the hero of El Facil and Reinhard as the upstart who got his command because of his sister’s relationship with the Emperor. Both are resented by their superiors, and both are confident in their own brilliance. The first encounter finds Yang wearily explaining Reinhard’s plan to Dusty while assuming nobody on the Imperial could see what he’s seeing. The revelation that the ‘commander of the white ship’ is a tactical mind equal to Yang sets everything else in motion.
What makes Yang and Reinhard’s personal war inevitable is that the two of them are both romantics, but of a very different sort. Yang is perpetually unambitious, shrugging off his service as just a job he does for a salary, but his passion for the lives of his men and his people is genuine. Reinhard, though frequently unable to see farther than the people in the same room as him, is committed to proving his honor through success on the battlefield. Their opposed romanticisms are what brings them together. It’s Yang’s devotion to fallen troops that leads him to run a suicide gambit against Reinhard’s vessel. And it’s Reinhard’s sense honor that nearly leads him to destroy both ships before clearer heads can prevail. In that single moment, the course of a war that seemed endless shifts toward conclusion.
Despite that, the series is already very clear in its characterization of the two heroes. We see Yang slumping over, sipping coffee out of paper cups and generally getting about the business of being a low-ranking officer in a massive force. Meanwhile Reinhard, although still relatively undistinguished, appears already like a figure out of myth. We first see him at his command, surrounded by massive pillars, blond and ringleted. For the first half of the movie, his name goes unspoken, just references to 'he,' 'him,' 'that blond brat'. The same reverence seems to exist within his staff and crew, even as his talents go unnoticed in the rest of the Empire.
What Conquest lacks in plot, it more than makes up for in lush visuals. The standalone movies tend to have more visual flair than the episodes, and Conquest starts us off big, with a long, slow sequence that gives us a sense of the sheer size of Reinhard's expeditionary force. When the Imperial fleet breaches the liquid metal skin of the Iserlohn, the slow ripple where ship meets steel is breathtaking. The designs of both Imperial and Alliance vessels, are a bit over the top, but they do a good job of illustrating the wildly divergent cultures of the two nations, something Conquest doesn't really have enough time to explain.
I've been struggling with why I seem to have so little to say about Conquest (I have more than this already written about next week's two-parter), but what I think it comes down to is that it's hard to come back to this movie knowing the weight that will develop out of this chance meeting. Again, I think ignoring the depth of LoGH's story and focusing on setting up the stage is a smart move, but that depth is part of what makes the show special, and without it, this is just the story of two young officers engaging in a pair of not particularly consequential battles.
Other shit:
• I’ve opted not to start “Wait, who the fuck is that?” yet, mostly because although a ton of the central cast shows up in this episode, they’re not really that important and key figures like Reuental and Dusty go completely unnamed.
• If you’re the sort of person who cares about that thing- yes of course the uniform insignia track. Here’s the complete list of Imperial and Alliance ranks.
• If you’re still looking for a place to watch the show, I found this youtube channel: hxxp://www.youtube.com/user/TheMostCuriousThing/videos, which has considerately uploaded the entire series.
Next week:
So… I know I said I’d do two episodes a week, but now that I’m thinking about it, that seems like not the best idea. LoGH tends to run in multi-episode arcs, so it’s probably smarter to do one arc at a time rather than put an artificial divide on it. I’m starting on next week’s now, so I’ll let you know how many to watch for then.
My Conquest is the Sea of Stars
In its scant one hour running time My Conquest is the Sea of Stars is tasked with drawing us into two conflicts that will define the series- the larger battle between the Empire and the Alliance, a war that’s lasted longer than living memory and has become almost a mundane facet of life in the 36th century, and the more personal battle of wills between Reinhard von Musel and Yang Wen-li. It makes sense, then, that for a show that delights in subtlety and ambivalence, this is a remarkably blunt hour, but one that succeeds in establishing the stakes.
In the 150th year of a war that has divided humanity, Allied forces advancing on Iserlohn Fortress prepare to engage with Imperial defenders in the Tiamat system. This is the fourth Battle of Tiamat since the war began. Nobody believes it means much of anything. Which it won’t. As a standalone story, that means it’s a fairly disappointing encounter- after all the resolution is that the status between Empire and Alliance goes basically unchanged. But that stalemate is a necessary disappointment, in that it drives Yang and Reinhard to the rivalry that will consume most of the series.
The parallel paths of Yang and Reinhard are established through a good deal of people talking exposition to each other. Both have a certain amount of fame within their society, Yang as the hero of El Facil and Reinhard as the upstart who got his command because of his sister’s relationship with the Emperor. Both are resented by their superiors, and both are confident in their own brilliance. The first encounter finds Yang wearily explaining Reinhard’s plan to Dusty while assuming nobody on the Imperial could see what he’s seeing. The revelation that the ‘commander of the white ship’ is a tactical mind equal to Yang sets everything else in motion.
What makes Yang and Reinhard’s personal war inevitable is that the two of them are both romantics, but of a very different sort. Yang is perpetually unambitious, shrugging off his service as just a job he does for a salary, but his passion for the lives of his men and his people is genuine. Reinhard, though frequently unable to see farther than the people in the same room as him, is committed to proving his honor through success on the battlefield. Their opposed romanticisms are what brings them together. It’s Yang’s devotion to fallen troops that leads him to run a suicide gambit against Reinhard’s vessel. And it’s Reinhard’s sense honor that nearly leads him to destroy both ships before clearer heads can prevail. In that single moment, the course of a war that seemed endless shifts toward conclusion.
Despite that, the series is already very clear in its characterization of the two heroes. We see Yang slumping over, sipping coffee out of paper cups and generally getting about the business of being a low-ranking officer in a massive force. Meanwhile Reinhard, although still relatively undistinguished, appears already like a figure out of myth. We first see him at his command, surrounded by massive pillars, blond and ringleted. For the first half of the movie, his name goes unspoken, just references to 'he,' 'him,' 'that blond brat'. The same reverence seems to exist within his staff and crew, even as his talents go unnoticed in the rest of the Empire.
What Conquest lacks in plot, it more than makes up for in lush visuals. The standalone movies tend to have more visual flair than the episodes, and Conquest starts us off big, with a long, slow sequence that gives us a sense of the sheer size of Reinhard's expeditionary force. When the Imperial fleet breaches the liquid metal skin of the Iserlohn, the slow ripple where ship meets steel is breathtaking. The designs of both Imperial and Alliance vessels, are a bit over the top, but they do a good job of illustrating the wildly divergent cultures of the two nations, something Conquest doesn't really have enough time to explain.
I've been struggling with why I seem to have so little to say about Conquest (I have more than this already written about next week's two-parter), but what I think it comes down to is that it's hard to come back to this movie knowing the weight that will develop out of this chance meeting. Again, I think ignoring the depth of LoGH's story and focusing on setting up the stage is a smart move, but that depth is part of what makes the show special, and without it, this is just the story of two young officers engaging in a pair of not particularly consequential battles.
Other shit:
• I’ve opted not to start “Wait, who the fuck is that?” yet, mostly because although a ton of the central cast shows up in this episode, they’re not really that important and key figures like Reuental and Dusty go completely unnamed.
• If you’re the sort of person who cares about that thing- yes of course the uniform insignia track. Here’s the complete list of Imperial and Alliance ranks.
• If you’re still looking for a place to watch the show, I found this youtube channel: hxxp://www.youtube.com/user/TheMostCuriousThing/videos, which has considerately uploaded the entire series.
Next week:
So… I know I said I’d do two episodes a week, but now that I’m thinking about it, that seems like not the best idea. LoGH tends to run in multi-episode arcs, so it’s probably smarter to do one arc at a time rather than put an artificial divide on it. I’m starting on next week’s now, so I’ll let you know how many to watch for then.
