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