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

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Reinhard and Braunschweig take actions that will quickly bring this civil war careening over the edge.

Our Take

The civil war within the Empire beings to chart a much more aggressive course.

Kircheis goes to battle with one of the many glory-seeking nobles within the Nobles Coalition, this time with Littenheim, the second-in-command of the Coalition. Like many before him, Littenheim is easily outmaneuvered and is routed. In his escape, Littenheim has zero qualms about sacrificing the lives of his men. He swiftly receives his justice, as those who remain turn on him and he is killed in a suicide bombing. 

This sequence presents a perfect microcosm of the Coalition; a convenient band of vainglorious men, all of whom are too eager to step on one another for the smallest measure of gain. To the surprise of nobody, Littenheim’s death does not go without a small celebration amongst the nobles. 

Meanwhile, Braunschweig and the remainder of his forces are made to contend with Reinhard’s. Reinhard pulls off another one of his infamous hardcore provocations, this time through a volley of words. Predictably, this sends the nobles into a sharp frenzy. Throughout the subsequent encounters, Merkatz is found repeatedly trying to rectify the nobles’ behavior, so that they don’t destroy themselves. 

Flegel responds to one of Merkatz’s suggestions by threatening suicide, that he die to uphold the honor of the nobility. The rest of the nobles extol Flegel’s actions, also offering their own lives. The more of these incompetent nobles gather in proximity to each other, the more their minds seem to lose cogency, and the more fanatical and cult-like they become. The Coalition is an allegory of fascism in the extreme.  

Additionally, Merkatz’s tale in all of this is truly tragic. He is the only capable man in the Coalition and was only sent there due to the mercy of Reinhard. Like many others who have fallen in vain before him, perhaps he would’ve been better imprisoned or dead. 

After a brief scuffle designed to lure them into a false sense of security, Braunschweig and Flegel go to battle with Reinhard. They are quickly dispatched and nearly killed, if not for Merkatz’s intervention. 

His defeat sending him into a blinding fervor, Braunschweig responds by threatening to imprison everybody who disagrees with him. He responds similarly when he learns of a successful revolution on one of his planets. Overwhelmed and enraged, he issues an order to nuke the planet. 

When Reinhard is informed of the nuke, he is quick to try to stop it. Oberstein, however, posits a different tactic; allow the nuke to happen to show the world the full extent of the Coalition’s cruelty. Reinhard immediately and harshly objects this proposal but is eventually talked into it when Oberstein mentions this would also end the war much sooner. 

This decision is a rigorous test of Reinhard’s character. He has much to gain from letting the nuke carry out. The complete loss of face the Coalition experiences will turn the tides in his favor, indeed winning him the war he already had well in hand. There would be no easier way to crush his opponents and secure his path to conquest. 

What he stands to lose, in addition to the entirety of his morals, is a complete loss of face himself if the truth ever comes out.

Such a thing is very much a possibility, as Kircheis learns from others of this very truth. After some deep thought, he issues a gag order on this information and seeks to confront Reinhard himself about it. 

This incredibly decisive moment also proves to be an examination of Kircheis. His loyalty to Reinhard runs very deep, as he has an abundance of history and pleasant memories with him. But he is also possessed of a much more even and measured character than Reinhard, not one to immediately turn emotional thought into action. He takes these rumors seriously and looks like he may not falter when he goes to question Reinhard about this. 

It seems that in ensuring the fall of the Nobles Coalition, Reinhard may have also accelerated his own demise. Both deserve to be thoroughly deposed, and perhaps they both will be. Once again, this anime further establishes the Empire as a shining example of the folly of entitlement and greed.