English Dub Review: Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, “Demise of the Emperor”

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

As the kaiser’s death opens up a great power vacuum for the imperial throne, schemes within and outside of the empire begin to come together. 

Our Take

As one might expect, the emperor/kaiser’s death opens up a big can of worms over who gets to sit on the throne next.

Also as expected, Reinhard has machinations to position himself as close as to the throne as possible. What is unexpected is that he doesn’t have to do anything at all, as he is immediately appointed Commander-in-Chief. Reinhard’s success is great in this episode and with little effort. Not only is he moving much closer to his greatest goal, one of his other goals is achieved entirely. 

Now that the kaiser is dead, Reinhard’s sister Annerose is free from her servitude as his mistress. This provides a moment of reflection for Reinhard’s character arc. Freeing Annerose was his initial reason for joining the imperial army. Though he has achieved this goal, in the interim he has grown much more ambitious and now freeing his sister seems like a slightly lesser accomplishment. Annerose’s pertinence to the plot seems it will be much lesser, though perhaps someone will get wise and use her as a tool to control Reinhard.

The battle for the throne has introduced a bevy of new characters who wish to obtain it. Going through all of them would take forever and would probably not be worth it. I’ll just point out one though that seems like he’ll come back; Flegel. His reactions to Reinhard rising the ranks are over-the-top and cartoonish, unbefitting of the elegant and proper style of the show. I’m guessing he’ll come back with a vengeance for Reinhard later on, becoming an inconvenience to him, much in the same way Falk was for Yang in the first season. 

While Reinhard has schemes for a new empire, Oberstien has schemes of his own. Thus far their plans have conveniently aligned, but as Reinhard’s subordinates ponder, perhaps they might not always. The first real signs we may be seeing of this are when Oberstein opposes Reinhard promoting Kircheis along with him. The resulting conflict is not a surprise as we know Oberstien is prudish and critical towards Kircheis, while Reinhard loves him like a brother. But this brief scene may be the first small schism between them, as Reinhard ascends the ranks and more and more becomes possible for both. 

The Dominion of Fezzan appears again and in a brand new capacity. This mysterious Grand Bishop character directing Rubinsky adds several new fascinating facets not only to Fezzan but to the lore of the universe at large. We’ve received very little information about why humanity fled from Earth in the first place. And evidently, there are some people who feel humanity should go back to Earth. 

Fezzan has always been the conniving neutral party in the galactic conflict. They graciously profit from the war and secretly facilitate it from the shadows. Thus far, we believed their motivation to merely be greed.  But this other plan, to enable the war to progress to a point where the citizens of the galaxy are forced to flee back to Earth, is much more fascinating. It may be a noble end, but the means are anything but. 

The other component in Fezzan is Rubinsky, its leader who has led the Dominion to its comfortable and profitable position. Though he appears subservient to this Grand Bishop, he also clearly harbors his own goals. He seems like he’s more likely to go along with the Bishop’s orders for a while rather than try to subvert them. But more than likely, he will be saving himself in the end.

Just like the capture of Iserlohn, this imperial civil war provides the Alliance with a convenient opportunity to attack. As the episode ends, Yang thinks upon this and feels tempted to attack the empire now while they’re occupied. A notable break in character that even he himself notes. War seems to be on the horizon again.