We continue across the sea of stars, where Gee and Iro watch the seminal 1988-1997 Legend of the Galactic Heroes OVA a few episodes at a time. Keep an eye out for this podcast between main installments of The GLORIO Chat as we work our way through the history books.
And don’t forget that Yang Wenli would want you to vote.
Opening Song: Sea of Stars
Ending Song: Crossing the Bridge of Light (Orchestral Version)
Show Notes
This installment covers episodes:
- 22. Courage and Loyalty
- 23. Goldenbaum is Felled
- 24. Whose Victory?
01:00 – A “Good” Trio of Episodes
02:38 – Episode 22
05:47 – Admiral Merkatz’s troubles
07:49 – Littenheim shoots his own dudes
10:57 – The Empire’s Premises of Honor and Loyalty
17:03 – Iro fails to have a relevant point
18:17 – Episode 23
20:52 – Reinhard, Oberstein, and Nuclear Weapons
25:28 – Did Oberstein Lie?
28:20 – Reinhard setting himself up
32:02 – What does Kircheis think about this?
33:56 – Braunschweig is PARTYIN HARD and making stupid decisions
37:05 – Merkatz has a very good assistant
39:50 – Braunschweig’s End
43:25 – Henry Kissinger and Realpolitik
47:06 – Applicability, not Allegory
48:52 – Episode 24
50:47 – War Propaganda
53:58 – Ice Missiles, the Artemis Necklace, and the origins of the FPA
58:11 – End of the FPA Coup
1:05:31 – Where do we go from here?
1:07:46 – Special Announcement and Housekeeping
And don’t forget that Legend of the Galactic Heroes is available for streaming on HIDIVE!
The Glorio Blog 
The Westerland incident is in my opinion the only place where I think the OVA really screwed up as an adaptation. They tried whitewash Reinhard as much as possible without entirely changing the course of events, but it just came out so messy… In the book there’s no hesitation and definitely no Oberstein lying(!) to Reinhard. Reinhard hears Oberstein’s suggestion, thinks long and hard about it, and basically says “OK, let’s do it”. And sure, he feels immense guilt and hates himself for it for the rest of his life, but there’s no excuses and “Oberstein made me/him do it.”
And sure, in a way this reflects even worse on Reinhard, but I think it’s very important here that he does it out of his own free will and in full awareness of what’s going to happen and how and why. I think what Reinhard ultimately represents is that good things don’t always come from objectively good places. History is full of people who did things that ultimately ended up changing the world for the better, but on the other hand also did things that were terrible, either by modern standards or even by the standards of their own age. And when you win a war against a truly despicable enemy maybe you triumph over what is objectively “evil” but you’re guaranteed not to get out of it with a clear conscience. (Also, this choice here is most likely a reference to Hiroshima and the arguments around it, re: was it necessary to win the war, and even if it was did that justify the sacrifice of innocent civilian lives.)
Also, Reinhard is an immensely flawed character and I guess if you tend to like characters whose morals you agree with it’s very difficult to like him. So I’m not askig you to like Reinhard or anything, but I’d just like to note that for Reinhard “change” is not what you seem to have in mind. He’s not a revolutionary. And sure, it’s easier to appreciate Yang, but Yang is the sort of genuinely good person that most of us aren’t, and he also operates on a completely different level than Reinhard, with completely different goals and burdens.
Also, completely unrelated but you might want to keep the “best husbando” poll for the end of the second season. 😀 The one who should be the unquestionable winner hasn’t had his chance to shine yet.
Kircheis and Yang already fought. It was during the prelude battles to Amlitzer it basically went Kircheis had more dudes and stuff and didn’t fall for any of Yang’s bait. Yang continued fighting until he got the call to head for Amlitzer and took some hits running away. In the novel they mentioned that the remnants of Ulanhu’s (guy that managed to get 50% of his fleet to escape before dying.) fleet was given to Yang so he reached 100% again.