Legend of the Galactic Heroes

Well on the 40ish mark, time's really flying by.

Episode 35 - 41
I think I really adore the relationship that's been building up between Hildegard and Reinhard. It has the certain air of chemistry about it when the two converse so casually. Reinhard's taking Hildegard's opinions pretty seriously and he always seems to consult her quite a bit actually. From my perspective it feels like Reinhard is treating her with a good deal of respect and a person he trusts to boot, that's a good sign that she's had a positive impact so far since the death of his friend. Yang as usual brings up some nice discussion on what he thinks philosophically. At times I can definitely see why he would defend the alliance based on his ideals and his opinion on society as it is now it'll be tough for sure to defend though.The act of the kidnapping was so random that I thought for sure the poet would have just screwed up somewhere along the line he's seriously a weird fellow. :/

The history backdrop in episode 40 was actually fairly interesting to me to get to know more about the Alliance and Empire.

I still love Reinhard his actions though have gotten much shrewder especially considering his plan and agreement with Phezzan caused the suicide of one his soldiers and if he gets caught this might cause problems hopefully it doesn't happen though as I just like him too much and want to see him get away with everything. >_>;

Ah man though Reinhard approved of secret police? That's getting down to dirty business there and I thought he wouldn't approve of such underhanded methods, it's gotta be Oberstein's influence on him. >_<

Still pretty solid thus far.
 
GenericUser said:
I think I really adore the relationship that's been building up between Hildegard and Reinhard. It has the certain air of chemistry about it when the two converse so casually. Reinhard's taking Hildegard's opinions pretty seriously and he always seems to consult her quite a bit actually. From my perspective it feels like Reinhard is treating her with a good deal of respect and a person he trusts to boot, that's a good sign that she's had a positive impact so far since the death of his friend.
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Although this is never explicitly asserted in the show, it's pretty obvious that Reinhard would have mentally crashed after the death of Kircheis without Hildegard to at least partially replace him as a confidante. I mean, he hardly sails through the grieving process, but then he essentially develops a rapport with someone else rather than going totally mental. Also, I say partially because it's nowhere near the perfect emotional and psychological synchronisation he achieved with Kircheis, but better than nothing, right?

Also: Kircheis :crying:
 
^
Hildegard definitely appeals to the better angels of Reinhard's nature - essentially the opposite role of good old ruthlessly pragmatic Oberstein - so in that respect she mirrors Kircheis.

Episode 40 was a milestone episode for me that I can still remember my reaction all these years later. The simple fact that the series was able to build an entire episode around Julian Minci brushing up on his history and it was still so bloody interesting It's not that it's a standout episode by itself, but it's just an example of LOGH's seemingly endless ability to make lengthy digressions completely engrossing.
 
Episodes 42-47:

Oh god I was sweating buckets when Schenkopp was having that knife fight with Reuental. I could really feel the intensity of that fight blow for blow and was so relieved when Reuental had survived cause I was afraid another character I liked was going to die on me. >_<

Things have really been escalating ever since the Ragnarok plan's been launched. Rubinsky's gone into hiding and I feel what he's really after is the downfall of the Earth church's cult at least from what I can guess anyway. Surprised that Phezzan got taken over so easily with no bloodshed and barely any resistance although at the same time it's probably because Reinhard's such a charismatic guy the citizens didn't mind all too much. Julian's escaped Phezzan and headed to Heinessen but that was all maybe a bit too easy for him?

Reinhard and Yang Wenli's climactic battle is coming up which I'm really looking forward too. Although I'm really feeling nervous and anxious with anticipation because I love the both of them and don't want either to die. :crying:

On that note I'm actually hoping Reinhard wins though because from Wenli's point of view they basically have to kill Reinhard to have a chance of winning for the Alliance while on the Empire side they don't necessarily have to kill Yang.

Should be really interesting to see the banter between these two because they really are so different individually from each other on their own philosophies.
 
^ I want to say something, but I won't because it's too early, but I read what you said and hope I remember to say what I wanted to say later when it comes up.

That make sense? :seriously:
 
I'm not really saying anything about any particular event, just that there is a point I'd like to make but can't until you have the facts yourself. Carry on without being nervous! Haha.
 
Episode 48-54:

Holy jesus I think I just got mentally worn out after all those revelations, so many crazy things just happened. :sweat:.

First there was the whole bit where Yang made that awkward confession with Greenhill that was rather sweet and didn't really expect that from him. But my god though that space battle with all the tactics and strategy being flung around I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Reinhard vs Yang was superb there were just so many mind games going on between the two. In my heart I wanted Reinhard to win but deep down my gut feeling was telling me Yang had the upper hand the whole time. Reinhard's a genius for sure but it seriously felt like Yang just magically had the answer to everything. When Reinhard got saved that was a really big twist to me because I kept thinking that Yang was eventually going to have him bite the dust, glad I was wrong. :sweat:
For Hildegard to come up with such a plan to come up with such a plan and ignore his orders about it just is further telling me she cares a lot about his welfare. I'm sure though Reinhard feels like this is the biggest defeat of his life now after getting saved and it'll probably hurt his pride a bit in the long run.

When Reinhard and Yang came face to face it was every bit as deep as I expected from two geniuses. The discussion between their thoughts on dictatorship and democracy was really thought provoking and interesting,they are pretty much on complete opposite ends of the spectrum.

The great Yang retires I can't help but think though, is Yang planning to be a part of a rebel resistance to overthrow the dictatorship sometime? I knew he told Merkatz to start up a movement but wasn't entirely sure or not whether he was going be part of that.

Hmmm Reuental though I can't help but shake this feeling he might backstab Reinhard at some point but he's seemed pretty loyal so far so I'm not sure...

Anyway phew! Just amazing and pretty happy about how Reinhard's lived and taken over the Alliance. :laugh:

Two seasons through now and this has been pretty suspenseful, expecting a lot more great moments here on out at this point of the story.
 
^
So, okay, you got to the bit that I wanted. What surprised me was how brief and anticlimactic their meeting felt to me. I wanted thunder and lightning. I wanted jazz hands. And in the end, all they did was sit and talk. Which is so fitting, of course. They respect each other so deeply and of course they'd be interested in each others' ideas. But goddamn, I'd hoped their interaction would be longer. I could have done with a full 20 episodes on just them discussing their philosophies.
 
^
Ah I know that would be a wish come true if they just had kept talking between each other like that I don't think I could ever get bored listening to their conversations. The two themselves are the stars of the show and I don't think I've ever been quite this interested in just a simple conversation between two characters. I agree it was a really short lived moment and I'm going to be so sad if they don't have more interactions like this in the future. :/

Than again this is the first time they've ever conversed in like 50ish episodes way less than I expected. >_>;

Ah well I can always hope Yang changes his mind and decides to work for Reinhard as a fleet admiral. :pokerface:
 
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Oh, Yang and Reinhard have had very long conversations.

It's just through fleet formations, strike and counterstrike, plan and counterplan. In a sense they've been talking throughout the show.
 
^Ah that is true never quite thought about it in that sense.

Episode 55-62:
Well I certainly didn't expect all of those events to have transpired like they had. We got a little more Reuental and Mittenmyer screen time which is always good. That was pretty low of the Earth church to use someone as sickly as Baron Von Kunmel for an assassination although I somewhat expected that. The Earth cultists come off as extreme fanatics of their allegiance to the monarchy there under, I mean seriously that suppression at Odin was some unsettling stuff and how many of them just willingly committed suicide like that. I really wanted more Reinhard but that didn't happen. :/

When Yang was arrested that development happened a lot sooner than I expected. I'm not surprised Oberstein at all was endorsing this and the whole political conspiracy of making Yang essentially the scapegoat for the country. At first I thought Yang just would have meekly accepted his death judging from his personality but I'm glad he's going to keep fighting to the bitter end. I'm really wondering though in the end what Yang's true motivations are is he planning to fight to become a dictator, attempt to restore democracy or just be content on resisting the empire and have no actual intent on overthrowing it? That part where they're exchanging Len's dead body for the prime minister, found it surprising it worked considering that might be difficult to do in reality. Also it was a bit strange how they simply left the rope in that room considering many of the imperials seem to have this attitude of committing suicide and dying for their country whenever they feel their reputations at stake. I'm assuming once they've found out the Empire's going to get outraged that and go on a head hunt for Yang but at the same time I'm wondering what Reinhard's reaction to all this would be? Because I'm sure he would have done something about that arrest order on him as that was more of Oberstein's doing and if Reinhard had found out he would've been furious considering the respect he has for Yang.
 
valondar said:
Oh, Yang and Reinhard have had very long conversations.

It's just through fleet formations, strike and counterstrike, plan and counterplan. In a sense they've been talking throughout the show.
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As poetic as that is, you and I both know that this is not nearly enough. It's the difference between a long-distance relationship largely conducted via telephone, and a full-on physical romance of waking-up-next-to-yous and picnics in the park.

I would have loved the picnics! :crying:
 
Episode 63-68:
Well the earth church guys went down pretty easily there, I'm honestly quite happy with that because they pretty much seemed not to be all too important to the plot atm.

There's some obvious differences of opinion and tension I can see between Oberstein against Reuental and Mittenmyer. That outburst was great I'm really glad to see Reuental be so vocal about his support for Reinhard hopefully the two will continue to be loyal supporters and oppose any malicious intentions Oberstein might have. Hildegard continues to be a a great contrast to Reinhard's character, also hoping that their relationship stay relatively the same because to be honest I wouldn't want to see any kind of romantic developments because that might just further complicate things down the road for Reinhard and I'm not liking the idea of that all too much.

Yang's bit with his speech at El Facil was awesome and loved how it shocked the politicians. Although I'm getting more and more disappointed how Yang's treading his way to be a military leader of resistance against the empire. One event after another I'm just getting more and more anxious whenever he builds up his forces. I like both Reinhard and Yang for sure but sometimes I think things work out for Yang all too well. I mean in terms of overall success on the battlefield Reinhard's suffered more losses and hardships while Yang just seems to win most of the time in heavily stacked odds. If Yang manages somehow to force Reinhard into battle and ends up winning with a small force resulting in democracy being restored I'm going to get so mad about that. :pokerface:

I'm hoping its not going to go for the most predictable outcome and Reinhard easily gets defeated. It'd be great if it doesn't follow the pattern I'm expecting where Reinhard becomes a corrupted dictator and his people and soldiers end up despising him causing a revolution because I'm afraid of that happening. This time around I want him to not get screwed over because time and time again he's had so many things go wrong in the past and has been such a compelling character it would just suck so hard to see another downfall for him. :/
 
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^ I swear to God, reading your opinions is like reading the opinions I had at the time. One line in particular, I swear I said the exact same thing.

This is how I've come to read the characters in the mean time (there is nothing in the show that says this explicitly, this is just purely my own opinion).

Yang is a died in the wool genius. The kind that comes along once every 100 years and their brain is some kind of magical black box that churns out awesomeness. What it means is the victories he brings, while almost impossible, will certainly look effortless in retrospect, especially to a lay person.

Reinhard is not a genius in the same way. I might even argue that the real genius strategist in the Imperial outfit was Kircheis. But he's gone now (and maybe Kircheis being gone is what evened the playing field for Yang?). Reinhard is certainly cleverer than most, and nobody can match him for charisma and raw ambition, but he still relies on having great thinkers like himself in his team in order for his plans to work. And this is fine: let's not forget he holds ideals of meritocracy, so it's not at all surprising that he'd weed out the best of the best to join him at the top. I've always found the Imperial characters more fascinating than the Alliance set, and maybe this is why. The Alliance has Yang; the Empire has Reinhard +3 or 4 others that kick arse. But maybe this is also why Reinhard can have more problems - when there is a weak link, shit gets painful.

Now, having said that, I'm actually wondering if this is in fact my own opinion or if someone told me theirs and I adopted it unconsciously. Somehow, my words sound familiar. In any case, this is what I've come to think.
 
^
When you put it that way I guess individually it makes sense that Reinhard in terms of genius isn't quite the same as Yang. It's true Reinhard relies and puts a lot of faith in his highest ranked men which setups up all the emotional conflict between him and his subordinates. Where as Yang does everything himself without any real need or help from others with his plans. Reinhard's the big team player while Yang's the opposite of that. Maybe I get a little jaded because of Yang's pure genius at times and capacity as an individual to be so talented. All of Yang's idealism and virtues in believing in democratic government come off to me as saintly and his conviction seems like it's just never going to bend or waver. When he joined El Facil I couldn't help but feel some frustration with his righteousness and sense of justice. I'm just in some ways really against the good guy easily winning scenarios by rallying the resisting forces.

Really in retrospect its as if he's using the nation as a political tool and driving factor to help achieve his ideal goal of having democracy back which makes me think that he would never attempt independent action himself in gathering resisting forces considering his lack of ambition. Yang certainly is not as ambitious as Reinhard and I feel like he'd just rather shift off the responsibility of control of political power into someone else's hands rather than his own so in a circumstance where he has nowhere to go what would he exactly do in that situation, accept the dictatorship? because he seems dead set on defending his beliefs till the end so I'm not sure about that. In hindsight Yang never tries to shoulder too much burden usually listening to orders he's just gotten to be laid back in most situations where he doesn't come off as nearly ever struggling as much. Reinhard on the other hand has to make several heavy and moral decisions but at the same time stay as a compassionate and kind leader to his people you just see a lot more emotion pouring out from him. It's the first time I've seen in such a political story where you actually have a benevolent dictator portrayed as the guy trying to better society for once instead of being overcome with greed and power. It just makes Reinhard's story all that more fascinating to see all the personal conflict and struggles so I'm pretty much thinking along the same lines of liking the Empire's story much more.

Anyway that was just a little rant I don't hate the alliance at all it's just in terms of overall depth and showing a wider range of emotions in the Empire's part of the plot it's been doing a superb job.
 
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GenericUser said:
^
When you put it that way I guess individually it makes sense that Reinhard in terms of genius isn't quite the same as Yang. It's true Reinhard relies and puts a lot of faith in his highest ranked men which setups up all the emotional conflict between him and his subordinates. Where as Yang does everything himself without any real need or help from others with his plans. Reinhard's the a big team player while Yang's the opposite of that. Maybe I get a little jaded because of Yang's pure genius at time and capacity as an individual to be so talented. All of Yang's idealism and virtues in believing in democratic government come off to me as saintly and his conviction seems like it's just never going to bend or waver. When he joined El Facil I couldn't help but feel some frustration with his righteousness and sense of justice. I'm just in some ways really against the good guy easily winning scenarios by rallying the resisting forces.

Really in retrospect its as if he's using the nation as a political tool and driving factor to help achieve his ideal goal of having democracy back which makes me think that he would never attempt independent action himself in gathering resisting forces considering his lack of ambition. Yang certainly is not as ambitious as Reinhard and I feel like he'd just rather shift off the responsibility of control of political power into someone else's hands rather than his own so in a circumstance where he has nowhere to go what would he exactly do in that situation, accept the dictatorship? because he seems dead set on defending his beliefs till the end so I'm not sure about that. In hindsight Yang never tries to shoulder too much burden usually listening to orders he's just gotten to be laid back in most situations where he doesn't come off as nearly ever struggling as much. Reinhard on the other hand has to make several heavy and moral decisions but at the same time stay as a compassionate and kind leader to his people you just see a lot more emotion pouring out from him. It's the first time I've seen in such a political story where you actually have a benevolent dictator portrayed as the guy trying to better society for once instead of being overcome with greed and power. It just makes Reinhard's story all that more fascinating to see all the personal conflict and struggles so I'm pretty much thinking along the same lines of liking the Empire's story much more.

Anyway that was just a little rant I don't hate the alliance at all it's just in terms of overall depth and showing a wider range of emotions in the Empire's part of the plot it's been doing a superb job.
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I can only agree wholeheartedly. My frustrations with Yang are exactly the same as what you state above. And it's weird: seeing you voice this now makes me want to defend him, even though, up until I read your post, that was basically my stance. You articulated it much better than I ever did, though.

I suppose the problem comes from the fact that you see Yang as perfect (which I also did/still do, so I'm playing devil's advocate here for sake of discussion). Yes, he has his ideals and yes he will stick by them no matter what, and yes he's a genius. He's also laid back and amiable and has no ambitions.

But in truth I think that's where you could say his flaws lie. He can't fit in with anyone because he's inflexible. He doesn't fit in with the people of the Alliance because they're such goddamn monkeys who'll believe anything any populist politician will say. And thanks to democracy, he can't change the whole system single-handedly. On the other hand, he wouldn't fit in with the Empire side because they stand for a system that he finds morally abhorrent. And everything he does, he ultimately does unwillingly - he is being forced to take this defender-of-democracy role when all he wants is to sit in a library and read about history. I think it might be worth trying to view Yang's role as a fish out of water one. He's misplaced everywhere. And that's maybe where his pathos comes from?

But yeah, I understand your frustration. Even attempts to make him less perfect e.g. that he's unkempt and ungainly and shy etc etc, are really still just charming traits when combined with his kind genius (watching the prequels at the moment and Yang sometimes is just too self-deprecating). Reinhard displays real character flaws like being overly ambitious and ill-tempered and humourless. He's also self-centred to a significant extent - his rise is not purely because he wants to make the world a better place. No, his motives are mixed: he wants glory and victory for himself, and it is to some extent a fortunate coincidence that glory and victory for himself can also mean a better and more meritocratic life for his people. And what we see in Reinhard is that he has to overcome these internal problems every day when he has to make complex decisions. He juggles far more emotional weight. But then, he asked for this, whereas Yang didn't.

When I watch Reinhard, I can relate. I know what it feels like to want something so bad and be selfish and think 'I could do this better' (except, I couldn't, whereas Reinhard usually is speaking the truth :sweat:). I know what it's like to have a short temper and be blinkered by your ambition, confused but idealistic. I have no fucking clue what it's like being a lazy genius, and I therefore find Yang a little alien.

Okay, I failed miserably in my defence of Yang. Valondar, you try.
 
Episode 69-78:
This season's reaching a major high point by continually getting better for me. The remaining alliance forces that were defending Heinessen have been wiped out, that last stand by Buccock was pretty intense though . All the political drama going around with Reuental and the terrorist bombings are constantly making me worry every second of something terrible happening to Reinhard. :/
It was great to see Reuental get a promotion rather than being punished he's juggling a large amount of power though now and can't really predict how well that will go.

They actually explained a little more in depth the entirety of what Yang's plan is in that last episode. I'm honestly really thankful that what he wants to do is to call a negotiation between him and the Empire. I would have expected Yang just to be really stubborn about this and attempt everything in his power to take down Reinhard. In this case I find Yang's decision highly respectable and admirable because he's just shooting for much slower change towards democracy than going out all guns blazing. I'm looking forward to the both of them settling down and talking about the matter if that ever happens hopefully.

Now I'm just clenching my teeth to ready my self for another huge battle between the two. >_>
 
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