Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These - Intrigue

Episode 45

One of Die Neue These - Intrigue's overarching storytelling stylization that I like is its dedication to regularly showing the common people of the galaxy reacting to all these upheavals in the news. It was present to a degree in the old OVA, of course, but it feels just a bit more pronounced here in Die Neue These's presentation. Coming off the previous Alliance-side focus having a huge chunk of an episode filtering its story through that civilian viewpoint, this one heads back to the Empire and starts with its people and their reactions to the newly opened-up war between the nations. Much of it is to show that Reinhard's plan to focus his authority by painting an Emperor-shaped target on the Alliance's back is working, as we get to watch the people of his Empire ironically declare the 'Free Planets Alliance' as unilateral enemies to the freedoms and rights they were granted under their Prime Minister. Approval ratings and enlistment numbers go up, all on account of, as Hilde observes, those commoners simply being scared.

The engagements of the Lohengramm Order, and the speed with which he's shoring his reforms up into a war-waging space-wide revolution, is the focus of this one. It's lightly framed across some of Reuenthal's preoccupations, his previous mention of uncertainty about supporting Reinhard's rule coming out more as things move so quickly. And props to him for actually opening up about it to the likes of Mittermeyer and Müller. It keeps us aware that the Empire is not the single-minded rule such a leadership system might present itself as, and gives these other characters opportunities to question (and foreshadow) the logistics of this massive operation Reinhard is planning. Granted, Reinhard also shows how much he's embraced his own dedication by effectively responding to all his commanders' concerns with "Thank you for the advisement but I already decided to go ahead with this plan anyway before I even called this meeting." That is but one quirk of the 'Brisk Dictatorship' system that LOGH's narrative seemed to be tacitly endorsing just a couple episodes ago.

Really, the comparisons that can be made with what was covered in those Alliance episodes are what make this one even more interesting, in my opinion. The asynchronous nature of the information on either side has always been a feature of the show, so it's not a pending 'plot twist' that the Alliance isn't counting on Reinhard going through the Fezzan Corridor, because we've known he was planning on doing that for weeks now. Instead, Reinhard uses the opportunity to communicate that he knows the Alliance isn't counting on it because of their complacency towards current affairs— the exact affliction Yang cautioned Julian against last episode. That's there to remind us just how on the same wavelength these two leaders are, as we know Yang not being beholden to that same complacency is why he fully expects Reinhard to go the Fezzan route, and Reinhard knowing that Yang thinks that way is why he's figuring his rival will guess what he's up to. It's like the ever-flowing mind games of Death Note, but with major military movements at their disposal, and written over twenty years earlier.

Reinhard's whole 'thinking several steps ahead' thing even extends to an interesting little embellishment in this episode, as the Prime Minister seems to consider letting Yang have a place of leadership in the Alliance territory once he's inevitably conquered it. The moment passes quickly, particularly with regards to Reinhard not wanting to even think about anyone potentially replacing Kircheis at his side, but the suggestion remains a compelling one, especially as Intrigue in its stretch here has made clear that Yang might not be all that opposed to such an idea. It's the constantly-rebuked concept of cooperation that's lingered tragically in this story's background, Reinhard laying it out for Hilde in this episode that the Alliance (mostly Trunicht) immediately jumping to accepting the Emperor signed their death warrant, and implying that this was what he planned for all along, naturally. Still, that idea remains: Had Yang been given a say before the announcement, would he have opted to send the Emperor back and effectively buy the Alliance's coexistence with the Empire?

History, in all its relatively-brief states of affairs that too many people become complacent in, is built on what-might-have-beens, and this stretch of LOGH is all about laying out those critical turning points. So we also get Oberstein bringing in someone like Heydrich Lang to restart the Secret Police for the New Empire, all in the interest of stability and Law and Order, of course. Even Reinhard's closest commanders can recognize that things can't be going 100% great when a 'reformist' government must make a move like that. But as with making the Alliance out to be the enemy and going to war with them, it's all about appearances. That philosophy is apparent even in smaller ways, as Mittermeyer muses that he'd find being looked down upon as a looter to be much more unpleasant than just being despised as a conqueror.

These are characters who have already lived through a few revisions of history and understand how the winners write it, and that they might never stop living in interesting times. This episode, though technically only focused on showing the Empire side of this conflict, does an excellent job of weaving that story on from the major ideas we just got in the Alliance episodes, and actually makes good following up on Yang's point that even the highest in a growingly-fascist government aren't a unified mass of malice; at least in this fictionalized context, minor misgivings are already mobilizing.

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Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These - Intrigue is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris is a freewheeling Fresno-based freelancer with a love for anime and a shelf full of too many Transformers. He can be found spending way too much time on his Twitter, and irregularly updating his blog.