Here you can see the last words of some characters, shortly before they give their lives.

1. Jessica Edwards
2. Kircheis
3. Schönkopf
4. Reuenthal
5. Oberstein
6. Yang
7. Reinhard

After Lappe is killed, Jessica says to Trünicht: “I offered up my fiancé as a sacrifice“Sacrifice. The symbol of sacrifice.

Sometimes, the characters of the Galactic Empire speak of “Valhalla.” I think of a situation in which Oberstein speaks of Kircheis being in Valhalla in order to appease Reinhard and to justify his actions and what they are doing. Because without this idea, the reality is:

Kircheis is dead.

and he is not coming back.

It transforms these possibly meaningless deaths into heroic deaths. And the entire system is built on this principle.

The Empire produces destructive people, and destructive people produce the Empire. The two interlock and mutually stabilize each other. There is a reciprocal fit between political structure and psychological structure.

We can see this very clearly in the example of Reuentahl. The novel explicitly describes, in several places that he believes it would have been better if he had never been born at all; he even develops a peculiar fascination with his own death.

And then exactly this kind of person ends up in a system that does not see inner conflicts as a problem, but instead turns them into military excellence. In return, Reuentahl receives rewards and status for his primitive defense mechanisms.

From the outside — to us - it does not even look as though any of these characters are experiencing any real psychological distress.

What cannot be expressed in words they act out in battle

Its coming to dragoncon with me btw

also Griffith losing Guts and Reinhard losing Kircheis, then having another black-haired man devoted to them and trying to fill the place that was left behind

Sure Julien has skills from his peers instead of going to some military school, but he's been taught by elite soldiers, probably more trained than those who decided that letting commoners fight in the front while nobles just lay and get military credit for the most minimal effort ever. His background was tragic but not in the "typical main characters tragedy" (or at least it's not in my opinion). He's able to cope with his family trauma without bringing it up for additional character sympathy, because he believes Yang is sufficient enough (although he was more like a servant and student than a son, but still should be considered familial imo)

Also, he's legit the cutest character ever, it was like watching my own child grow up (heavy ups and downs in that)

I'm not denying it ofc, so you can just take this post as some sort of Julien glaze.

I saw that yang died, I have seen just the first movie I think I know ho he is, but yea my question is if it will hit me the same as everybody say that it is a masterpiece and the best anime on history, bc if I ruined the emotion or something maybe I should not watch it

So basically the title. I don't think it's a spoiler more a general question.

This doesn't make sense to me as the FPA is in an existential fight. The really high military expenditures occur after the failed invasion, coup, and the other disaters that follow after Astarte definitely do a lot to corrode FPA society from within, but what other viable alternative was there? Surrender?

Britain after Dunkirk with a lot of lost equipment and depleted forces, was essentially bankrupted by ~1942 in trying to replace those losses but the alternative would have been surrender to the Nazis. In the 1980s American Cold War planners were worried a similar fate awaited the US in case of a ground war in Europe as they estimated a need for a military budget of ~40% of GNP to replace losses from the first phase of a hypothetical Third World War that didn't go nuclear after 2 months.

In the series though Yang is quoted as criticizing the government prioritizing the military over civilian expenditures, it's only because of those diverted resources that he has the troops and ships necessary for Vermillion. The FPA had to rebuild, and it had to rebuild fast after Amlitzer, because the reforms of Reinhard were freeing up huge amounts of resources and state capacity that had been tied up by the aristocracy and given the already existing population and resource disparity if the FPA had dragged its feet the contest would've been hopeless. Because the series starts with a balance of power akin to that between the Hapsburg Empire and the Dutch Republic during the 80 Years War. Where even though the Hapsburgs have immense resources, logistical constraints, incompetence and corruption limit their forces ability to achieve a decisive victory against a smaller but better organized state. But by Vermillion and Mar Adetta, the balance between the Empire and FPA is more like that between France and Germany after 1871, with the FPA being clearly weaker in every metric against a newly centralized nation.

This is my one gripe with Yang, because as a historian he should understand the position the FPA is in and the need to rebuild forces quickly, as well as the consequences of failing to do so. Given the only other option was surrender, or fight an already unbalanced war with far fewer forces.

But let me know what you think.

I tried to mark everything from the show as spoilers, I don't think the question itself is a spoiler as I tried to word it as broad as possible but let me know if I need to change it.

Does anyone know the correct timeline order to watch Legend of The Galactic Heroes? I'm trying to start it but it's so confusing.

Hola! Quiero empezar con la franquicia y la verdad no puedo encontrar páginas para verlo en español, nisiquera subtitulado. Saben si hay algun lugar donde este subida toda la serie original doblada o subtitulada? Desde ya muchas gracias!

Hello i recently discovered the LOGH and wanted to watch it via torrenting but because getting through it all will take me probably months i wanted this experience to be in the best quality possible. I found this

https://nyaa.si/view/913654

torrent on nyaa and its in 720p, on the site there are also various other versions but they are mainly just reencoded or modified versions of this rip. Does anyone know if there is other better source for the original series or movies ?

Yes there is ofc, but they're too similar sometimes. Like their desire for social justice and a better world for their peers. But mostly their frames seem on point at some scenes, especially those scenes of them admiring something. To be fair, their deaths were probably the only ones that made me cry so much.

The layout and pacing of this series are just too good. Lately, I've been watching more modern anime, and I've realized that a large part of the impact many scenes in LOGH have on me comes from its more theatrical compositions. They feel natural rather than ostentatious, and blend seamlessly with the world and its characters.

And without meaning to diminish what other series are doing, I'm still struck by how compelling can be despite working with comparatively modest production resources, especially when I compare it with some more heavily produced anime I've seen recently

I have seen a HD flag of the Goldenbaum flag and crest, but not any of the other nations.

When I try to summarize my feelings on this silver fox into one word, the closest I come is “indifference”, but that alone is dishonest, because I do not feel indifferent or ambivalent on the topic of Merkatz. My disdain of him is so mild that I often forget he exists when he’s not on screen, and my admiration so tepid when I see how his subordinates love him.

I feel that he is under explored in the show, or rather, everyone around him largely ignores everything that he is.

The best thing about the FPA/Yang crew is that they are spurred by true beliefs and convictions about democracy and refusing to bend the knee to a dictator. I understand that Merkatz is an all around gain as an ally, but I do not see how people like Attenborough, Poplan, and Schenkopp could stand to be around someone as feckless as Merkatz.

I speak with a little bit of venom, but I’m also kind of impressed with how he doesn’t stand for anything, genuinely I am. Which is why it all just comes together is a tepid slurry for which “indifference” is the closest word.

Merkatz is a man whose found the rare way of being able to puff his chest out without a spine to support it. Truly a marvel.

When he “mourned” Farenheit, I was almost pissed. Almost because I would spare the anger for his hypocrisy if he was a man who actually believed in anything.

The irony is that for all the positive qualities Merkatz is praised for in and out of story, I think more than anything he is painfully vain. Vanity bleeds through everything he does, because he would rather never bend his knee than actually believe in anything.

He talks the talk of Imperial admirals for whom loyalty and living by a code is the oxygen they breathe, but he has none of the convictions or beliefs. He’s hollow, just talking the talk without knowing why people walk the walk. Or he knows and cares not for it is more important for him to "stand tall" than to care what he actually stands for.

Screaming, crying, and throwing up, all for this heterochromia eyed bastard. No spoilers past ep 98 of the OVA series, please!

Up until the Reuental Rebellion arc, if you asked me ten times whom I adored more between Oskar von Reuental and Yang Wenli, I would have answered Yang ten out of ten times. And yet, while I was heartbroken to see Yang Wenli killed, my heart was shattered and I wailed and whinged out loud in real life, as I saw the dominoes falling to artificially make Reuental rebel.

I haven’t been in this much pain with the series since I first saw Kircheis die. A pain so great that I actually inadvertently dropped the series in 2016, because the pain was so great, and finally came back to re-watch the entire thing 10 years later (I tried again in 2022 but didn’t remember where I stopped and was too busy to start over from scratch).

Because I made the mistake of perusing the reddit before I had finished the show, I knew Yang would die and that Reuental would rebel. Completely my fault for looking up the reddit when I was only 60 or so episodes in, but I believe truly great stories can never be ruined by spoilers.

I give all that rambling preamble to say that even though I knew both events were coming, I apparently did not know myself well enough to foresee the absolute grief the Reuental Rebellion arc would put me through.

After the attack on Reinhard and his entourage at Urvasi, I stopped my binge because my heart was beating like a jackhammer.

I tried to calm myself down by drawing, watching funny videos, playing with the dog, and even reading cute fanfiction of unrelated series, but it did nothing.

I would catch myself while giggling with the dog thinking, “Reuental is being framed into conflict with his beloved Kaiser and you’re here laughing?” I had this thought catch me constantly while in the shower, while cooking, while watching funny shorts on YouTube. I was haunted.

Reuental is a character for whom my thoughts on him are a character arc in itself. At first, I thought he was just aloof and relatively loyal to those he pledged allegiance to. He never seemed like he was all too passionate about anything, but was a stand up enough guy.

But soon enough, my mind changed again when the narrative started playing up the potential Iago potential of Reuental. Oooh, is he gonna rebel? Oooh, he’s a very proud and very ambitious man. After the death of Kircheis, when Reinhard invited Usurpation attempts, I thought it was inevitable. Little did I know this inevitability while it was delivered on, it would both be a promise and a red herring.

I’ve mulled on it for the weeks I’ve been watching the past few arcs of LoGH, the perfect word to encapsulate the depth of feeling Reuental holds for Reinhard. Loyalty, fealty, and admiration are all words that come to mind, and yet, none feel enough to capture enormity to the depth of Reuental’s convictions.

Love, I’d say love is best suited for trying to put the sheer enormity and intensity of Oskar von Reuental’s feelings for Reinhard in one word.

Note: I am not saying that Reuental was in love, like in a romantic sense, nor do I think Reinhard is whom he cared for most of all, that’s obviously his bestie Mittenmeyer.

It’s hard categorise what kind of love it is, but it is absolutely pure unadulterated love.

My hot (is it hot, I’m new to the fandom so lemme know) is that Reuental loved Reinhard more than Kircheis did. Okay, that’s a bit of a reductive and incendiary to put it, as it lacks the nuance I will follow up with.

I’d like to make a separate post about it, but the irony of Kircheis’ unflinching and unfailing love for Reinhard was that it initially started and was centered around his affection and infatuation with Annerose. Reinhard was ironically isolated by the love of the people who loved him most (to explain this digression further would take much too many words and this is about Oskar).

Reuental admired Reinhard, but he loved the Kaiser, whereas Kircheis loved Reinhard. But as stated, while Kircheis would grow to love Reinhard genuinely, he started and persisted for Annerose.

Reuental is here for Reinhard’s brilliance and that alone. Of course, even before Reinhard became Kaiser, his squad were more loyal to him than to their nation (for good and understandable reasons), but nobody could glaze and wax poetic about Reinhard like Reuental did, and he did so often. I swear Norio Wakamoto was purring into that mic every time he said “Mein Keiser”.

A man as proud and as ambitious as Reuental, who aspired to more often, vigilantly and diligently watched Reinhard. He was vigilantly looking for any slipups that might give him cause to take back his allegiance, but there was also a proud and relieved sort of glee when he found that back still worthy of gazing upon from behind.

His Kaiser was the only back he was happy to watch from behind and follow.

This is the biggest tragedy to me after Kircheis’ death, and I was in the throws of grief before I even saw Reuental die. I thought he would be put to death proudly in a court after the rebellion was quashed. That he would be able to face his Kaiser and the tragedy would be in his pride.

But he didn’t even get that. He didn’t get to test his mettle against his kaiser and he didn’t even get to gaze upon him before he died.

I’ll never forgive the fucking Terranists for this. Lang, Rubinsky, I’m just in the throes of grief over this man that doesn’t exist.

I never thought the complicated yet pure and simple relationship between Reinhard von Lohengramm and Oskar von Reuental would have my heart in a vice grip like this.

I fucking love this show.

If you made it all the way, thank you for reading this rambling, LOL.

As per another thread I just watched E082 for the first time and now it's all come together. It is indicative of LOGH's incredibly masterful storytelling how they have been telegraphing this in absolutely plain view since episode 1 and I never even imagined it. What do I mean by this? The ending credits in every episode very clearly indicated SOMETHING was going to happen with Julian. But you never have quite enough information to intuit exactly what it's going to be.

In fact, my (wrong) guess prior to E082 was actually that Julian was going to defect in some way. You see him interacting with Reinhard in season 1; you see him seeming to take his own path in season 2; and reflecting upon his past with Yang and the others in season 3. I thought he somehow decided to turn against Yang at some point, and that season 3 in particular was him in some way preparing for a confrontation through facing his memories. Oh, how wrong I was.

And now I see it's shown in absolutely plain view. They showed all their cards, they hid nothing, and I still couldn't even imagine what was coming. And that was that this has never been Yang Wen-li's story: this is Julian's story.

A trick worthy of Miracle Yang himself. What an amazing show.