English Dub Review: Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, “Victory for Whose Sake?”

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Yang enacts an incredibly bold plan to disperse the military regime in the Alliance. 

Our Take

Orbiting the Alliance capitol planet of Heinessen are twelve satellites equipped with laser cannons, collectively called Artemis’ Necklace. There’s nothing particularly special about these satellites themselves; I just brought it up because I think this is legitimately cool. But it also does become relevant to the plot later. 

Yang summons the oddly intrepid Commander Baghdash and has him carry out a mission. He transmits a message over Heinessen’s emergency broadcast channel, stating that he has witnessed proof that the military coup was orchestrated by Marquis Lohengramm of the Empire. Yang does not have the definitive proof to back up this statement; all he has is a good hunch and a guy to bluff it for him. Making this claim out of nowhere seems dangerously bold, but it quickly bears fruit. 

The military regime’s leadership immediately refutes this claim, stating that they came up with the idea along with Rear Admiral Lynch. Lynch is surprisingly quick to break up this party by presenting proof that Yang’s claim is completely on the nose. He proceeds to chide them, obnoxiously laying it on thick, his true colors revealed. At one point he might have seemed the admirable soldier, but all of that has given way to a revenge-fueled pragmatist. 

Despite this, the military regime continues with business as usual. At least until Yang pulls off what is inarguably his craziest stunt yet.

Yang goes to an ice planet and digs out twelve gargantuan floes of ice each weighing one billion metric tons. He then attaches rocket engines to them and launches them at all twelve defensive satellites that make up Artemis’ Necklace. The laser cannons on the satellites do little against the monolithic chunks of ice and are easily destroyed in one of the most impressive displays of raw power we’ve seen yet. The entire scene plays out in dramatic silence, the hopes of the military regime crumbling with their defenses. When asked why he doesn’t leave some of the satellites alone, Yang replies by stating that the satellites themselves helped engender the thought of starting a coup.

Left defensively and morally demolished, the leadership of the military regime relents and decides to surrender. The leader of the regime, Admiral Greenhill, plans to kill himself, but before that he orders the regime to conceal all evidence that the coup was the product of the Empire. Lynch, fed up with Greenhill’s incompetence, decides to put him out of his misery himself, after which Lynch is also shot. This is a morbidly familiar scene; a man forced to finally confront his own incompetence is put out to pasture by another instead of having to face the consequences of their actions. 

In this case, Greenhill is further shielded from having to face the consequences as his men defend his honor posthumously. A leader of the regime contacts Yang to formally surrender while at the same time trying to justify the regime’s cause. Yang uses all his wisdom to tear him a new one, but the leader does not budge. He claims they were on the moral high ground and the only reason they failed was mismanagement and bad luck. Even when on their last leg, the members of this regime continue to stubbornly refute all inflammatory claims against them.

With the military regime ejected and business en route to return to normal, Yang receives some untimely news. Julian was spotted picking up Job Trunicht, a former High Council Chairman for the Alliance, who was accompanied by several members of the Church of Terra. A force long thought put on the back burner decides to rear its ugly head in the wake of this disaster. 

Far away, within the Dominion of Fezzan, one Captain Konev meets with Rubinsky. Konev had been transporting members of the Church of Terra to Earth before, presumably on behalf of the Dominion. This meeting with Rubinsky serves to firmly establish Konev’s character. He’s an incredibly pragmatic man whose goal is to get the most value out of a job with the least amount of effort and involvement with any government. He also does not partake in any form of faith or religion, believing it all to be a scam. 

Konev goes on to explain that he learned this fact, along with all of his conventional wisdom, from one Yang Wen-li, a childhood friend. Unfortunately for him, all of his bluster and self-importance backfires on him as Rubinsky orders him to infiltrate the Alliance as a spy for the Dominion, using his connection with Yang as leverage. Konev is quick to complain about this, lamenting that he was to work with a shady government against his will. His character seeps out in full, as he openly ponders revealing that he is a spy to Yang instead, to which he is promptly reminded who is in charge.

The true breadth of power that the Church of Terra holds is as of yet unknown. We do know that its mysterious leader has Rubinsky, and effectively the Dominion, in his thrall. We’ve seen a handful of pilgrims thus far but no real demonstration of their numbers or what influence they wield. 

Rubinsky’s ultimate motives, as well as those of his shadowy cohort Dominique, are unclear as well. He’s shown that he’s in it for the money, but to what end is unknown. Additionally, we’ve also yet to see just how much he truly obeys the leader of the Church of Terra. 

The regime in the Alliance is deftly silenced with a minimal amount of further casualties, per the capabilities and motivation of Yang. But while the Alliance is getting back on its feet, it will have to soon make sure they’re firmly planted as another foreign threat makes its way towards them.