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.
Opening Song: Sea of Stars
Ending Song: Crossing the Bridge of Light (Orchestral Version)
Show Notes
This installment covers episodes:
- 30. Lost Things
- 31. Inquiry
- 32. War without Weapons
00:28 – Smash on the brain
02:41 – Episode 30
03:06 – “Artistic Admiral” Mecklinger
04:56 – Fictional points of reference
08:29 – The Vulture has spread its wings
09:30 – Reinhard’s true enemy
11:45 – Reinhard’s mask
13:00 – TOO LATE REINHARD
14:14 – Yang called in for an “Inquiry”
17:01 – Oh… OHHHHHHH….
18:22 – Admiral Gustav Kempf loves his family
21:07 – Meanwhile on Phezzan, YET MORE plans are afoot
22:30 – Tonal Contrast
24:08 – If only Kircheis were here…
27:40 – Episode 31
28:00 – Yang lays it all out
32:41 – Off to the Inquiry (Fuck Negroponty)
35:30 – This Inquiry is bullshit
36:50 – Nations
39:49 – The quest of Frederica Greenhill and Louis Mashengo
41:00 – Needless Misunderstandings
41:50 – Louis Mashengo is a badass
43:22 – Exactly how related to Phezzan is the PKC?
45:07 – Geiersburg arrives at the “perfect” time
47:13 – Episode 32
47:43 – The Yang Squad is freaking out
49:07 – Yang is out of fucks
51:30 – The FPA is more relevant in 2018 than it should be
55:37 – These were the Needless Misunderstandings btw
56:03 – The toll of war and nationalism on the common man (Fortunate Son)
1:02:34 – OOPS WE’RE UNDER ATTACK
1:04:00 – Stickin’ it to the man
1:05:47 – Hwang Louis spittin’ fire
1:07:10 – If Yang did take power…
1:09:00 – Job Truniht caressing a vase
1:09:48 – The Plan at Iserlohn
1:13:36 – Kempf seems a decent fellow
1:14:58 – Cliffhanger! Ahh!!
1:16:11 – What do we think will happen in this battle?
1:22:27 – Housekeeping (Check out our Year End content!)
And don’t forget that Legend of the Galactic Heroes is available for streaming on HIDIVE!
Wait. Hold everything. I paused right after I heard you say “Lazare Carnot is not a real person”. I will not have you dissing a renowned physicist, mathematician and revolutionary, the very definition of a renaissance man. Unacceptable. Shame on you!
In all seriousness, he was a pretty cool dude and its a shame more people aren’t aware of him and his legacy.
We stand corrected! Since the show didn’t include a portrait with his name like it did with Leonardo da Vinci or Cao Cao, I instantly assumed it wasn’t a real name.
The next battle is probably one of my favorites in the series. Probably because Yang and Reinhard are not participating.
I’ve always loved the moving fortress plan. Nothing fancy just strap rockets to the fortress.
I do like Lebello point blank telling Yang he is on the road to becoming a dictator even if he struggles against it with all his might. I think Yang not playing the political game and asking for concessions is a bad move. Last time his passive nature was discussed and its brought up again by not asking for anything he is in effect preserving the status quo and he can expect another inquiry like attempt in the future. I do sympathize with him growing up learning about Rudolf more or less made him wary of using his influence at all but that does beg the question when the destination is death or siezing power what will Yang pick. A scenario can happen where Yang chooses to die but it enrages his fleet enough that they sieze power to avenge their commander.
Also lol at Reinhard’s admirals liking Yang more than his own side. Something to add with the rebels to fpa terms the empire is using. The author is a three kingdoms fan and it shows not just with the yang plans but also on legitimacy. The three kingdoms at first did not recognize each other as legitimate but the next generation that led their kingdoms now did because they were born and raised with these states de facto existing. I think it sort of applies. The new Reinhard admirals don’t have massive blinders on and there is no institutional push back that would pressure them to keep their mouths shut.
Also Bittenfield is consistently that one commander every one mocks but he actually has a nice track record even with just season one being taken into account. He killed admirals Ulanfu and Appleton and their fleets at Amlitzer and Ulanfu in the novel was the guy leading the vanguard in the invasion so he must have been particularly good. Of the eight alliance fleets in the invasion getting two of them is pretty good. He’s one of those guy that low key rack up achievements but the story doesn’t focus much on that cause that’s not the story it wants to tell.
Getting creamed by Yang is a pass because Yang is literally the greatest fpa admiral ever. The fact that he is still alive after fighting Yang speaks well of him. Really his biggest drawback is being too aggressive that allowed Yang to beat him.
As always, these podcasts could go on for three hours if we wanted to talk about everything but alas we have to make cuts where we can. The Yang stuff constantly interests us and we’ve spoken about his dangerous passivity in the past. We’ll likely bring it up again next time it becomes a prominent plot point.
We dunk on Bittenfield but that’s basically because up to this point, he’s the only Reinhard admiral to screw up, which maybe speaks to how seemingly invincible the rest of them seem from our perspective. I think if we began to see some more of the personal flaws of the others, we wouldn’t be focusing on poor Bittenfield all the time.
Don’t get me wrong despite liking Bittenfield the most among the minor empire admiral cast. He is fun to dunk on.
The wiki for the series also seems to say that one of the reasons his fleet is good at offense is that it has a load of really big ships compared to a normal imperial fleet. You can even see them sometimes on screen they are much bulkier than normal empire ships.
And I do like how you guys are keeping track of how many times people wish Kircheis was still alive or how much alcohol Yang and Reinhard are drinking.
Happy holidays!