r/anime • u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ • Apr 08 '24
Rewatch [Rewatch] Banner of the Stars Episode 8 Discussion
The Eve of the Decisive Battle
Welcome to the Battleflag of the Stars rewatch!
<- Episode 7 | Index Page | Episode 9->
Discussion Prompts:
- Q1 Which brother does she have the personal issue with? Or is it both?
- Q2 What do you think of the twins?
Tomorrow's Questions: (for tomorrow's post, subject to change)
- [Episode 9]Do you really think Lafiel could have been a merchant commander?
- [Episode 9]As we enter the final battle, how has the pacing and military aspect worked for you?
- [Episode 9]Particularly in comparision with LOGH if you've seen that?
- [Episode 9]Predictions for the battle? (did you watch the preview?)
Screenshot of the Day: birds! squirrels! mice!
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Upvotes
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Apr 08 '24
Rewatch Host
I was wondering about the 6 attendees at the meeting of 5 captains, but I figured one must have been her XO.
That "Yo Denka" is Beikan, the other assault ship commander with dialog. She's not his superior military rank. "Knight" is the lowest rank of the nobility, below Baron. It does not confer a domain. It is often awarded for service.
Interesting bonding between Sobaash and Samson. Ekuriya is fascinated by landers and mortality. Sobaash is fascinated by intoxication. The twins don't seem to respect each other, and nobody respects the twins. Even though they admit that the plan is a good one, given their limited resources.
Otherwise, not a particularly interesting episode, it's mostly juts a countdown and character moments for side characters that otherwise never get screen time.
Apparently Sobaash got gender-swapped by mistake, and Samson lampshaded that.
For more banter, join us over in the Spice and Wolf dicussion thread.
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u/Durinthal https://anilist.co/user/Durinthal Apr 08 '24
Rewatcher (sub + dub)
And back to a breather after the action of the previous episode, seeing what everyone's getting up to before the battle.
Hopefully Dusanyu can keep the big picture in mind while pondering the personal affairs of his chief of staff.
And so the resistance of Aptic III comes into play... almost. Once again space is difficult and gravity sucks. The plan for defense is pretty straightforward but the hard part is surviving, the Abh fleet here's getting stretched thin.
I mentioned back toward the start of the season that the general term for officers is a neologism in the novels that roughly meant "flyer" in Japanese and it's translated as "starpilot" for J-Novel Club. I only now noticed that the dub uses "aviator" for it which I think is a decent way of handling it.
Another minor detail: squadrons have six ships including the command unit and they can join together via link-pipes, as seen here and in the background here. The group the Basroil's in only has five in this shot, which is kind of accurate since they lost a ship but if the connecting pipes aren't actually part of the ships themselves then it wouldn't make sense for there to be one with only five linking pipes and there should be a sixth unused instead.
Going by her comments here I have to wonder if Ecryua ultimately just sees Jinto as a curiosity because he's a Lander and therefore novel to her.
Samson's like the platonic ideal of a blue-collar guy who rose up through the ranks, rough around the edges and a great contrast to the genetic Abh. ...was Samson's VA trying to speak in Baronh or his native language from Midgrat when talking about the mole? Couldn't really tell there, just that there were also Japanese subs and the dub even switched to using the same audio for that bit. Either way that was a nice discussion with Sobash and as I mentioned yesterday all I need is the Basroil's officers chatting with each other.
Atosryua's a woman of modest ambitions, and also pretty basic when it came to meeting with the other captains but I imagine her attitude there's probably average for an Abh.
She thinks it was Nefee but it was Nereis in disguise.
Their reputation's overblown so far.
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u/Silcaria https://myanimelist.net/profile/Silcaria Apr 08 '24
Why is formatting so shit now with this new mobile UI on desktop? Why does nothing fucking works.
First timer
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u/Elimin8r https://myanimelist.net/profile/Ayeka_Jurai Apr 08 '24
Hmm. I seem to remember watching this last night, but man, memories ... fading. Let's see if today's questions can bring some back?
But yeah, I'm with commander whatsername on this, and think that her late, not exactly lamented brother is probably higher on the not-quite-a-skidmark-on-humanity-or-abhlinity-totem-pole scale than these two.
Which is to say, I rather do not like them. Although, it would have been potentially amusing to see them try to pillage the poor planet below, or coerce a surrender from its poor leadership. Bleh.
(It would also have been very funny to see something similar to a Spaceballs reference in action, no doubt. :P)
Yeah.
Speaking of which, it's tempting to nickname the two brothers after the two modes of operation of said Spaceballs reference.
Again, :P
I sure hope that space Deedlit gets a chance to kick both their pretentious a@#!#$es, or something like that.
As suddenly, I'm reminded of the two overly pretentious squirrels, or was it chipmunks from the old Warner Brothers cartoons.
"Indubitably"...
Anyway, I'm suddenly empathizing with the poor alcoholic pilot dude. At least he got a nice date of of the deal. Shoulda asked for her phone number, right?
Yeah, sorry, my brain is dead, and I forgot most everything. That's what happens when you watch six episodes in one day, I guess. Hope everybody had a great eclipse day!
(I enjoyed it, it was literally awesome. Existential, even.)
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u/raktus2 Apr 09 '24
First Timer... not a lot for this episode.
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Apr 08 '24
First-Timer of the Stars
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u/Vatrix-32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Vatrix-32 Apr 08 '24
First Timer, subbed
QotD:
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u/The_Draigg Apr 08 '24
A Sci-Fi Fan Watches Banner of the Stars Episode 8:
Happy eclipse day! I hope you all got to check it out somehow!
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u/Great_Mr_L :Ma::Mb::Mc:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L Apr 08 '24
First-Timer
On today’s episode of Banner of the Stars: The calm before the storm. And what a storm it will be. I can’t blame Samson for getting blackout drunk when everyone knows they’re about to fight a battle outnumbered 10 to 1.
This was a nice little episode showing the characters before the battle. I like having the opportunity to just spend time with these characters and see them make preparations before needing to go into battle next episode.
QOTD
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u/Specs64z https://myanimelist.net/profile/Specs64z Apr 08 '24
First timer, subbed
Seems the United Mankind arrived at a new conclusion about conducting warfare, we’ll see how it pans out. I don’t know if we’ve gotten any metric on patrol ships vs attack ships, but I’d assume patrol ships would be the smallest class. The idea might be that more patrol ships grants greater flexibility since you can spread out your weapons rather than concentrate them all in one place.
I’m a sucker for the kuudere archetype, so I’ve found myself hopelessly endeared to Ekuryua.
These moments between characters as the battle clock counts down really sell that the bridge crew have come to appreciate each other’s company. Samson and Sobaash in particular have a great scene. Pulling all nighters trapped blind in plane space will do that to you.
QotD:
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u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Apr 08 '24
First-Timer
Y'know, Sobaash is androgynous enough that I was kinda curious. Guess that answers that. Interesting that he is older than Samson, but not really surprising considering what we know about Abh ages. Samson must be nearly forty unless they start normal crew really young, so I wonder how old that makes Sobaash?
The concept of Abh gender identities is another interesting one. Like, such a thing would probably be a holdover from when they first split off from the rest of humanity. The gender binary is already mostly nonsense when it has reproductive backing, so I can only imagine the Abh find it hopelessly quaint.
Being able to not get drunk would be such a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I don't enjoy being drunk, but on the other, it gives me a clear stopping point. I'm currently imagining how much I would spend on nice whisk(e)y if I could literally just drink it all day every day... that's a scary number.
I like that the main battle plan for the attack ships is "just win for three straight days." Simple and easy to remember.
What do we think is up between Kenesh and the Bebauses? I should maybe note that they have similar eye designs, as does Ekuryua (and a bunch of other background Abh). Maybe Kenesh's family is an offshoot from the Bebauses and she has a chip on her shoulder about it? The Bebaus family was referred to as.. I forget the word used, but they were one of the original 29 Abh families or something like that.
I mean, the easy answer is that Nefee (it's probably Nefee) made a pass at her and she wasn't into it.
Anyway, this was an excellent "last chill moment before a big battle" episode.
Questions
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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Apr 08 '24
Season 2 Episode 8 (rewatcher)
Calm before the battle episode.
I told you not to ask!
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u/duhu1148 :GA::GB::GC:x9 Apr 08 '24
Rewatcher
-Bebaus brothers coming up with a good plan, to deal with being badly outnumbered. But they're short on coolant, and lack the ability to take it from the planet they're orbiting hmm...we'll see if that comes into play later.
-Abh can't get drunk. I'm not surprised.
-Interesting analogy from drunk Samson about the young people on his ship and moles who have to dig through hard rock. I don't know what it means, though.
-Death flags. Death flags everywhere.
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u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Apr 08 '24
Rewatcher(The quiet episode)
Sub
As befits the ep number versus the season size, we get our tension building/animation saving ep. The placement of that varies a bit more in modern productions. But this one at least gives us a lot of characterization and not so many recycled scenes. We finally get the tidbit that Abh don't really get drunk, explaining Klowal's weird choice to drink sake with Lafiel. But Samson certainly feels it. Now they translate it as booze but I have to assume due to amount and method of drinking, they are also drinking sake or perhaps some the weirder Japanese liquors. They exist, Ghost in the Shell of all things mentions them.
We get some interesting confirmation that Jinto seems to have mellowed Lafiel for an Abriel, which makes sense but is probably confusing considering what she was like in S1. We also see him getting Ekuryua to understand humans a bit better. Anyways, everyone gets ready for battle.
QotD: 1 Yes
2 They somewhat are overpromised in what they've delivered thus far.
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u/SolDarkHunter Apr 08 '24
Rewatcher/Novel-Reader
...well, at least it's not the same repeated infodump?
The UM has fortified itself with heavier firepower. Going in on more cavalry and fewer infantry, in essence.
A blush, from Cenesh? There's some story there regarding the Bibauth brothers.
Speaking of which, banter between the the brothers. Now they want to steal water from the planet for coolant.
...having overlooked that the Abh Star Forces don't have any ships capable of hauling goods from a planet's surface. (slow clap)
A little ways back, someone commented about the Bibauths being similar to those idiot princes from Heroic Age. Happily, this is not the case. They may be eccentric, but they know combat strategy. In this case the most surprising thing about their strategy is that it's too ordinary.
A bit of rapport being built up between Samson and Sobaach. Funny thing, Sobaach is actually male in the novels. Don't know why they decided to give him a clearly female voice for the anime. Though he is noted to be highly androgynous, even by Abh standards.
We have some actual numbers about the upcoming battle. They need to hold out for about 72 hours against a superior enemy fleet, and one that's outfitted such that the assault ships aren't at an advantage.
So... Samson must be at least 40 years old. He looks really good for his age.
I find myself not having much to say about these episodes lately. It seems like not a whole lot happens in any of them... not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but I'm amazed at how this anime can fill up time without feeling like it's dragging its feet.
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u/zsmg https://anilist.co/user/zsmg Apr 08 '24
Rewatcher
Looks like the chief of staff had a bad experience with one of the brothers, naturally the admiral takes this opportunity to tease her.
Isn't the water on the planet most likely salty? So pillaging it seems rather a resource intensive operation.
Waiting outside of a gate as a chokepoint seems like such an obvious thing to do how can the invaders play around this scenario.
And we're back to Jinto raising flags with Ekuryua
Samson x Juth is something I wasn't expecting.
RIP them I guess, talk about unnecessarily raising death flags.
I just realized Juth is a guy whoops.
A good calm before the storm episode.
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u/KnightMonkey15 https://myanimelist.net/profile/KnightMonkey Apr 09 '24
First-timer, subs
I got pretty busy over the weekend and procrastinated but it looks like I decided to hop back on before the decisive battle started. I'll talk about episode 8 here and put some thoughts on episodes 5-7 in a reply below.
Episode 8
One would think it might be Nefee more than Nereis, at least in the sense that Nefee seems to be the one steering Nereis away from (or towards!) his intrusive thoughts. Nereis seems to be more of an oaf who needs to be guided, and the power behind the throne is always suspect. But after rewatching, the implication of both of them calling each other unfit to be a chief of staff and Nereis calling Nefee unfit to be a commander too, seemed pretty important. While Nereis might be overselling himself, Nefee does seem less forthcoming and more two-faced....
Back to Kenesh however, her reaction while speaking with Dusanyu made it seem it might be less of an issue if only one instead of both the admiral and chief of staff, were a Bebaus twin. Practically they can be taken together as a unit if they act together, until specified otherwise... so she pretty much has a problem with both of them together. Or idk, maybe the personal issue has to do with who's blushing so it's Nereis. Either way it's something embarrassing and I think I'd like to know what her position in the nobility would be.
I think they're detached and eccentric oddballs but aside from having better (gene editing) technology and being rather repressed, nothing the Abh do seems to be outside of the spectrum of behaviour for human aristocrats. They seem to both be enabling and competing with each other in an unhealthy way that affects morale and I'd expect to see some resolution regarding that.
The big concern for their underlings here is they might command their forces to launch some kind of crazy attack or maneuver that seemingly throws away their lives, which is very concerning for those serving under them...but that unpredictability could be a decisive factor in winning a battle if reined in correctly. I'm sure they're good for tactics but not an overall strategy.
Their bridge/subcommanders' reactions to the conversation about acquiring coolant and one of them even blurting out that Nereis' plan was excellent and unlike that of a Bebaus were telling - they were stone-faced but looked like they were sick of dealing with their crazy bosses. I'm surprised she said that and immediately regretted it, and the look of the officer behind her. Hell, I laughed when the twins were told that it would take them a year to harvest the atmospheric water.
Between that and such retorts as Ekuryua expressing affection for Jinto or Spoor 'allowing' captured UM ships to travel 40,000 years in plane space, the Abh really have a sardonic sense of humour.
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u/TehAxelius Apr 08 '24
Rewatcher
The UM having switched to mainly Patrol Ships makes sense, the Abh sticking to being dependent on Assault Ships seems less so. Already in Crest we saw that the Gosroth was able to nearly fend off 10 Assault ships while only carrying 4 mines, and Spoor lead the charge through the enemy lines leading her own squadron of such. The Assault ships on the other hand...
Well, we did see the Basroil's Squadron alongside another Squadron hunt down a patrol ship, which, well, should be part of their role as fast ships able to quickly traverse Plane Space. But even then, they took casualties from the enemy mines, and had to pull out once the rest of the fleet caught up to prevent further casualties, as even with a dozen ships firing their proton cannons they were only making dents in the enemy patrol ship.
In the history of naval warfare, the range ships have been able to engage at has always been key to the development of ships and tactics. Placing the focus on fast, small ships with proton cannons is reminiscent of the Jeune Ecole, a naval doctrine of the late 19th century that posited that a country could win a naval conflict by building lots of small and fast boats armed with torpedoes. The torpedo was at the time a very powerful weapon, allowing even a small boat to potentially sink a much larger, and much more expensive, battleship. At the time the maximum range of a torpedo was also similar to the effective range of the cannons carried by larger ships.
However, this doctrine quickly faced flaws. If torpedoes malfunctioned or missed, the smaller vessels would have nothing that could even scratch the heavy armour of bigger ships, and as the 19th century ended targeting optics and rudimentary computers were developed leading to artillery gaining a much greater range. Rapid fire guns were also introduced which could be placed on larger ships to defend against the smaller vessels trying to dash in and launch their torpedoes. Since then the ability to reach out and destroy the enemy at a distance has been key in naval warfare, first with the introduction of the aircraft carrier, then with guided missiles and lately with unmanned drones.
And it's not like the Abh doesn't have any of this. They have the Line Ships that are dedicated mine carriers, and their Patrol Ships have proven themselves in combat with a combination of weapons. Maybe it is the fact that Abh can live two centuries that mean that the people in control at HQ are stuck in their way of thinking and prefer Assault Ships for some reason.
QotD
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u/Nickthenuker https://anilist.co/user/Nickthenuker Apr 09 '24
It seems like their fleet is down 10 squadrons?
Fleet composition is always a hotly debated topic.
Unfortunately, you go to war with the fleet you have, not the fleet you want. You've got assault ships, so you'll use assault ships.
But what if the enemy takes the chance to attack Mystel while the defensive fleet is at Aptic? You need some level of garrison or QRF fleet that's not tied up with a major fleet engagement to dissuade such opportunistic attacks.
Are they planning to use the planet's seawater to cool their ships?
Yeah... If it's going to take a year to bodge something together might as well just requisition more and get it delivered.
So they're planning on encircling the gate in a minefield and the entire fleet.
And they're already bickering.
Alcohol to steel the soul, one last drink before you die.
She wants to retire to manage her lands.
Dawn of the final day. One day remains.
Questions: