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.
RSS | iTunes | GooglePlay | Spotify | Podbean | Youtube
Opening Song: Sea of Stars
Interlude Song: Fourth Battle of Tiamat (Bolero composed by Maurice Ravel)
Ending Song: Crossing the Bridge of Light (Orchestral Version)
Show Notes
This installment covers episodes:
- 79. The Battle of the Corridor (Part 1): The Invincible and the Undefeated
- 80. The Battle of the Corridor (Part 2): Kaleidoscope
- 81. The Battle of the Corridor (Part 3): End of the Imperial Expedition
04:10 – Anniversary!
08:10 – Episode 79
10:20 – I know that you know that I know that you know
14:40 – What is Dusty here for again?
16:57 – The Iserlohn Corridor and Space Topography
20:00 – Dusty vs Bittenfeld
21:40 – Elite Soldiers and Morale
25:15 – Karin’s first sortie?
26:50 – Fahrenheit vs Merkatz, as prophesied (RIP Fahrenheit)
29:35 – Episode 80
31:15 – Casualties
35:01 – Imperial High Admirals and Micromanagement
37:10 – That’s So Bittenfeld!
40:45 – The next offensive
43:00 – Numerical Advantage
44:48 – Minesweeping
46:18 – Historical Tangent (Ulysses S. Grant)
50:50 – Organizing a huge fleet
52:33 – Dusty is finally a major character
54:00 – Marino VS Steinmetz
57:45 – Back to square one
1:00:00 – Episode 81
1:02:39 – Loyalty to a person or to an ideal
1:04:15 – Mittermeyer’s False Alarm
1:06:11 – Hilda still trying
1:08:00 – Battles and Rotation
1:13:51 – RIP Fischer
1:18:16 – How sick is Reinhard exactly?
1:20:15 – Cease-fire and time to sleep
1:23:35 – Is the call for negotiation legitimate?
1:32:00 – Speculation
1:36:13 – Housekeeping
And don’t forget that Legend of the Galactic Heroes is available for streaming on HIDIVE!
The Glorio Blog 
Rewatching these episodes Reinhard made some questionable decisions aside from throwing millions of men at Yang to die.
He had all the time in the world and didn’t just send more fleets to the imperial side of the corridor even his admirals were worried about the fleet imbalance. He sent Bittenfield and Fahrenheit first which is a poor choice given that their orders were to sit and wait and both are noted to like offense, worse he didn’t appoint a clear commander which would have helped immensely with either reigning in the black lancers or Bittenfield could just command Fahrenheit to wait in the back to give him space before switching which is what happened but only after getting bloodied.
As for the battle itself, it took Reinhard way to long to switch to his human wave attacks. Back during the Battle of Vermillion Reinhard from the get go used his superior numbers but here we see multiple attempts at out commanding Yang as a general by almost every admiral like Mittermeyer and Ruenthal.
From what I can remember Kircheis during the lead up to the Battle of Amlitzer actually used the same tactic but in true Kircheis fashion aimed at using up their supplies and force a surrender. I think from these examples we could say that apart from Kircheis they all tried to prove that they were the better admiral instead of acknowledging that Yang was better.
I know I stan Bittenfield a lot but in the last episode he actually manages to command in a way that increases the effectiveness of his charge at the front plan. First is that he actually had command of the remaining Fahrenheit fleet and there was no way he was going to be able to organize them to perform well with his fleet and he didn’t even try he just left them and charged with his own. Second is that after getting trounced in the corridor he learned his lesson and reduced his numbers further so the spacing problem would not happen. As of now in the imperial side he probably took the most casualties but killing Fischer sort of does make him the MVP for the imperial side.
Marino and Steinmetz are interesting in that both served as flagship captains of their admirals first then got command of their own fleets. Steinmetz was the captain at the pilot episode that told Reinhard his suicide plan was dumb and you can see Marino in the background of the Yang flagship in the early seasons.
I also subscribe to the Dusty is the vanguard of the Yang fleet theory. His cowardly run away tactics perfectly embody the Yang fleet just as Bittenfield’s all out attack resonates so well with who Reinhard is.
Muller’s ship is actually noted to be made from special materials that can deflect beam shots. It was based on Reinhard’s ship which was itself an experimental ship with all sorts of stuff one of which was the beam deflection. It’s one of those little things that demonstrate not just the relative tech superiority of the empire like the fact that their ships can land on planets but that they have the resources to pour into research.
Lastly, when Eisenach’s wave attacked and he was getting beaten back you can see him actually whisper to his subordinate who helpfully yells to retreat. It just fits so well with the Empire theatrics that the admiral that has trained his subordinates to understand his hand gestures never taught them the gesture for retreat because retreat is for cowards.