Hopefully we'll see Mecklinger get the attention he deserves in the second half, maybe becoming tied with Mittermeyer and Muller as the top admirals in the inevitable fight against Reunthal.
Still waiting for the silent admiral who snaps his fingers to summon coffee to show up.
I'm disappointed we didn't see memorial services held for the millions who died over the course of the war, make the reality of these hug galactic wars feel real.
I find it frustrating that we haven't seen Annerose in thirty episodes. I feel Reinhard's personal stake in the story becomes and more muddled the longer we go without the two meeting again. I also found that the general lack of civilians to follow means that both factions are rather underdeveloped and the galactic impact of the choices being made aren't fully realized, as we don't have a ground level view of what's happening. The series briefly toyed with it when during the FPA's initial expedition into Empire territory and when we spent an episode on a planet that had its supplies being taken and Valleymont developing argricultural infrastructure and helping the locals, but then nothing like that ever happens again and Valleymont and the girl are forgotten.
Relocating the capital to Fezzan, the center of the Empire, is both good and bad. On the plus side, moving the capital to the galactic center of trade is obviously good, as well as minimizing the time it takes for fleets to reach each part of the galaxy. Odin and Heinesen should still remain local capitals with fleets stationed there. On the other hand, the capital being located within a corridor with only two entrances/exits makes Reinhard strategically vulnerable. If Reinhard's enemies wanted to take him out, they'd need only block off the two exits and then squeeze in towards the capital. Interestingly, Fezzan is opposite Iserlohn, which means that instead of the next war being west vs east astronomically, it might be north vs south.
On a related note, I don't see how Reutenthal could amass enough forces to defeat Reinhard. None of the other admirals would be willing to join him in a rebellion.
I was under the impression that with the FPA's navy annihlated and incapable of fighting back, and the signing of the treaty/surrender, the Empire had assumed control over all of the FPA planets, not just the systems they took on the path to Heinesen. I don't see why Reinhard couldn't have just sent the rest of his fleets to occupy the other worlds unimpeded.
I don't believe for a second that that girl is fifteen years old. She looks like she's in her mid twenties. Don't forsake Charlotte Julian! You have a lovely young lady ready and waiting for you in a few years!
1800 ships to be sent to destruction... Merkatz might only be able to steal a 100 at the very most without arousing suspicion. No way they can just take the 1800 ships without inciting a battle and alerting Reinhard to their presence, sending a 10k+ fleet out to crush them. Still don't see how Yang/Merkatz's little fleet will change anything. Iserlohn as a castle is useless without cavalry to harbor, otherwise it's just going to be a single station-state at best that will be besieged and eventually overrun.
Shipping food across interstellar distances is rather stupid. This isn't like shipping excess corn from America to a European harbor over the course of a couple weeks; this is expending an incredible amount of resources shipping food into orbit via SSTOs (or rockets, in which case the cost exponetially rises) to a spacecraft (which is ludicrously expensive to maintain, far more so than a water based cargo ship), spending weeks to months warping to the other planet (the millitary is going to have the best warp drives available and if it takes weeks for them to travel, it's going to take months for a cargo ship), and then more money shipping that food down to the planet's surface. In the amount of time it'd have taken to have shipped the food, the people on the planet could've grown several times that number for a fraction of the cost.
The documentary once again reminds me of how on the nose the political ramblings of the narrative can be. Some of the declarations in the documentary about militaries "inevitably taking over and becoming warmongers" are rather unfounded, given that it is usually the military that knows the cost of war and thus lobbies for peace. To make Earth out to be the 100% evil bad guy and the Black Legion to be the definitive good guys is reminiscent of the Allies whitewashing what they did after WW2, conveniently using the defeated Axis to distract attention away from their own henious crimes against humanity.
Given how the Church of Terra has been portrayed thus far, I don't see how they can be a threat to Reinhard. There has been no indication over the past 56 episodes that the Church holds enough influence to field fleets or blackmail/convince Reinhard's forces to rebel.
Reinhard's stuck in a real bind here. His work will be all for nothing if his successors reverse course and begin to corrupt the Empire or are to negligent to take proper care of it. He can raise a son and put his foot down and raise him with intensive care to become the perfect ruler, to become just like Reinhard, but there is no guarantee that his successor will do the same. Thus, the flaw in autocratic leadership: it's utterly dependent on each and every ruler being great. On the other hand, if he instates a senate or a council of elected representatives, than that opens a can of worms where the Empire lives or dies based on the attitude of the people. Cultures with individualistic values such as Western nations are inclined to act in the self interest of the individual, rather than caring about the collective whole. Not only will the elected representatives pander to the selfish desires of the individuals at the expense of morality, the collective good, or long term stability, but they themelves will be inclined to act according to their own self interest. Thus, corruption and the downfall of the Empire is inevitable. Reinhard's best chance is to change the cultural values of the Empire itself, imbuing the people with a duty towards the group as a whole above their own wants and a strong sense of morality. That said, the show hasn't tackled the cultural problems of the galaxy yet, and doesn't look like the show is going to dive deep. He'll probably either just have a son and/or instate a senate and that'll be that.
Lemme guess: the prince will be named Kircheis.
Man, Reunthal's drinking stories are W E I R D, with a capital W.
I love the SoL segments on Heinesen! If only it had lasted longer! I'd take a whole season! It endears me to the characters, and it's nice to see them breathe and relax, act outside of a life and death or politically tinged situation. It reminds me of the episode from Sword Art Online where Kirito and Asuna honeymoon at the log cabin, making for long awaited fanservice, further characterizes our heroes outside of combat, all the while heightening the tension to come because we know what the stakes are.
It's pretty disappointing that the Church of Terra just turned out to be yet another stereotypical evil church.
Yang laments the loss of Iserlohn, which he could've used as a station-state to uphold democracy... which implies that he didn't have a plan in place to retake it. What was up with all of the whispering in season 2 regarding Iserlohn then? I thought he had left the obvious bombs behind the cover for whatever his real ace was to retake Iserlohn.
It is baffling ANY GOVERMENT would effectively declare themselves as an enemy to the Empire and HOPE to host a single fleet of ten thousand ships at most... versus the Empire's near infinite resources. We know the Empire can field at least 200k ships. It doesn't matter how genius Yang is; all it takes is for those 200k ships to close in on El Facil from all directions and that's that.
ENDING SPOILERS
There's still about 20 to 25 episodes or so left until Yang is assassinated on his own ship, and yet there doesn't seem to be a character among Yang's crew who would kill him. Is he going to be shived by a rando just like Wahlen?
Glad to see Yang, Fredrica, and Attenbourgh are all rooting for Julian x Charlotte, but alas: the new girl is probably going to win. Another wholesome childhood friend romance to bite the dust.
ENDING SPOILERS
unless I am mistaken, this is the second incident foreshadowing Reinhard's terminal illness, the first being when he fell sick during the Battle of Vermillion (but that could've been passed off as a random occurence had this not happened). Not sure if Reinhard's lethargic attitude during this time is also an indicator.
Yay Bittenfeld finally gets to shine!
Reinhard going to war now isn't going to deter Reunthal's lust for a challenge later once Reinhard takes over the universe and there are no remaining factions to fight. Reunthal's just going to rebel eventually.
Welp, given that we're about to go to El Facil, it might be time for me to pause where I'm at here and watch the El Facil backstory arc in the gaiden episode so that what happens next in the main show is more impactful.
Lol Schenkopf striking Katerose from the list so Attenborough can hit on her back on El Facil
Oh wait, Attenborough went anyway? Then why strike her from the list?
I find it hilarious how we keep fighting over Iserlohn every other arc. 9 total attempts, only two of which succeeded by Yang because of his tricks, making a beeline for the fort before his ships were attacked, no loss of tonnage. I doubt Reinhard will retake Iserlohn during the war.
(Some thoughts from reading through the complaints on the MAL discussion for episode 70)
As far as justifying melee combat in space, I prefer LoGH's Seffle Particles over Dune's personal shielding. The power required to maintain shielding would be insane and unfeasible to carry on oneself. If it was possible, then weapons would have been invented to be able to overcome the shields. Filling the air was something akin to a gas that combusts when lit by a spark is straightforward and solid, though if any of those colliding axes created sparks that could set off the particles. It also begs the question as to why doesn't everyone just have shields on all the time. Furthermore, shielding has the innate problem that you know the characters aren't in any danger until the writer decides that their shields fail. RWBY in particular suffers from this problem with Aura, which reduces battles from tense, edge of your seat exchanges where anything can happen at any time to just a matter of waiting until the shields fail before anything can happen, by which point the battle is already over.
I do agree that despite Iserlohn being invaded by hundreds of ships and thousands of troops, it somewhat begins to stretch suspension of disbelief to see Julian, Poplan, and the Rosenritters be the ones to be the heroes who hack the core and then are the first to make it to the command room. Yes, the Rosenritters would've done it regardless of whether or not Julian and Poplan came and Yang would've been justified in telling Julian the plan, even ordering him to input the codes, but it's somewhat starting to feel like they're doing everything important. I suppose that's the consequences of long continuities, where the protagonists inevitably manage to experience more adventure and warfare than any other human being in history. Naruto and Luffy fought more battles than most soldiers ever saw in human history. The crew of the USS Enterprise have gone on so many incredible adventures - being flung across the galaxy, saving Earth from the Borg, saving Earth from a temporal anomaly, battling a giant alien that devours worlds, installing new members on the Klingon High Council, foiling the Romulan's plots - that at some point it begins to feel like the universe bends around them. I see LoGH is trying to avoid this, as Julian did not encounter any of our Empire characters while on Odin. Earlier in the series, new Empire admirals were introduced who headed operations, such as Kempf and Muller at Geiersberg, or Lennekempf on Heinessen. If they had done that for the infantry detachment that took the computer core and reached the command center (possibly focusing on Schenkopf's second in command who we rarely see while Schnkompf himself held the line), it'd reinforce the illusion that the world exists outside our protagonists.
On a similar note, perhaps one way to further flesh out the world would have been to establish multiple elite infantry corps in the LoGH setting. So far, the only named corps are the Rossenritters consisting of Schenkopf. Everyone else is just cannon fodder. Now, the story had two opportunities to establish elite corps to look out for: one, during Mittermeyer's and Reunthal's flashback early in the series that detailed how they met, and how they were making their last stand in the snow against FPA soldiers. The second is when Mittermeyer and Reunthal invaded Geiersberg. Perhaps we could've heard about how the two had no chance of standing against the fearsome 32nd Alliance Infantry Division, or how Mittermeyer and Reunthal used to be apart of the renowned Imperial Crusaders, etc. This would plant the seeds in the audience's mind, and when the time came to invade Iserlohn in this episode, the story could've brought those divisions back and the audience would've gone "oh crap". Would've been even more tense if it was battle between two secondary or new characters, as suggested in the above paragraph.
Eisenach is now one of my favorites. He has a chin that can rival Varian Wrynn!
Why would the government keep a stockpile of Seffle Particles in the midst of a densely populated urban area?
Chilling montage!
Rubinsky is a moron. He keeps poking at the bear's nest and when his plans don't succeed, he rationalizes them as "well AAAAAACCCTUALLY this could slightly be to my benefit anyway and it's only a matter of time before I win" while pretending to be how smart he is. He underestimates the competency of Reinhard's government and Oberstein's intellect. He'll meet an ignominious end. The woman might survive so long as she's smart and keeps as far away from him as possible.
I'm disappointed Yang's faction hasn't acknowledged that they'll never be able to exert their influence outside of Iserlohn or liberate any planets. They will, at most, only ever amount to a singular station-state democratic republic under constant siege or with both entrances to the corridor forever blockaded, either by mines or by Reinhard moving additional fortresses there. Would've appreciated if we had scenes of Yang acknowledging this and declaring his intent to protect the last bastion of democratic republicanism, as well as scenes showing the civilian democratic republic running Iserlohn. Could've incorporated the leaders who fled from El Facil.
No! Remain loyal to Charlotte, Julian! Don't go for that tsundere Karin!
Given how after nine attempts, Iserlohn has never fallen to a traditional siege and Yang isn't going to be hoodwinked out of the fortress, I am genuinely curious as to how Reinhard intends to take or destroy Iserlohn without his forces being massacred in a frontal assault. It'd be disappointing if it came down to sheer numbers in the end.
Even though I already know how the story ends, I'm not keen on the show waving around the fates of the characters in my face. In the first season, we had the blatant scene where Admiral Karl Gustav Kempff promises his wife and children he will return. The montage and the melancholic ending themes are enough to amp up suspense without being on the nose.
The narrator has spoiled more of the show than TV Tropes or r/Anime combined.
I like the music that begins playing in episode 86 at 17:05, sets a relaxing, contemplative mood.
I wish there were more dinner scenes; they really emphasize the sense of "community" surrounding the Yangs. Too bad we didn't get to see Julian's and Cazerne's man to man talk.
My favorite cast is the FPA faction. The characters have a lot of banter and it feels like there is a sense of camaraderie, and in the case of the Yang's, a sense of community; family. The Empire has a lot of "cool" characters, except that don't get to bounce off of each other like the FPA faction. It's only really Mittermeyer and Reuenthal who got to bounce off of each other. There was a cool scene at the beginning of the series in the
Overture to the New War OVA where Mittermeyer, Reuenthal, and Mecklinger and chatting around a piano, and that was it. The "cool" admirals like Mecklinger are criminally underused in general. Why come up with all of these interesting character concepts and then don't give them screentime? Doesn't help that Reinhard isn't interesting in season 3; he remains pretty stoic and occasionally taps his finger on his armrest. Kircheis carried a lot of the weight when it came to the Empire side, as he forced Reinhard to question himself and drew levity out of Reinhard. After that, it was interesting to see Reinhard slowly begin to unravel near the end of season 2 as Yang continued to outwit him, but nothing like that happens in season 3. I'm watching season 4 right now and Reinhard has been the most intriguing as a character since possibly the beginning of the series, feels like he has own fears and can enjoy himself again. On a side note: the one dimensional, evil Earth cultists really suck the life out of the story whenever they're on screen, and not in a good way. They're not the "love to hate" kinds of bad guys; their whole subplot really just drags down the series as a whole. There is no nuance to them or Rubinsky whatsoever. Ugh. Really looking forward to seeing Iserlohn as a station-state, but I'm worried the actual running of the station and its government will be glossed over just like the politics of the FPA and the Empire. I felt a little patriotic when they began to sing the FPA national anthem, but it wasn't just some propaganda song, but an ideal they truly believed in.
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