“Legend of the Galactic Heroes” Week 3

I’m currently coming off of a late-night video game high; this year I took the opportunity to attend Summer Games Done Quick, since it was held at a hotel very close to where I live. It was loads of fun, but staying up late, playing physically-demanding arcade games, and screaming, clapping, and cheering as the event raised $3 million for charity has taken its toll. I don’t think I’ve ever longed for my bed as much as I did at about 2am Sunday morning when we stumbled back into our apartment. Now I’m ready to sit back in my chair and return to my “stories.”

Note: This post contains spoilers for episode 8-10 of the series.

Following the takeover of Iserlohn by Alliance forces, the Imperial leadership is in shock. Many top-level military personnel offer their resignations after this upset, and Reinhard is offered his pick of the vacated positions. Having been approached by Captain Oberstein, one of the few survivors of the takeover and one whose long-term ideals feel very familiar, Reinhard chooses to ask the Emperor to show mercy on his superiors and allow them to keep their jobs. Oberstein escapes punishment for deserting and Reinhard gains a new staff officer out of the deal. Still, this has people chattering up and down the military hierarchy. Could Reinhard’s apparent humility be a play for something greater? Even the Kaiser himself seems resigned to that suspected truth.

Kaiser Friedrich von Goldenbaum, latest leader of the 600 year Goldenbaum Dynasty, is a man ill-fitting of his post. Originally third in line for the throne, it became his responsibility after his two older brothers were killed or jailed for scheming against one-another. As someone uninterested in the responsibilities of holding leadership power, Friedrich leaves most of the decision-making to his support staff. This hasn’t allowed him to escape criticism however; Marquis Wilhelm von Klopstock, a disgraced former member of the Imperial court, blames the Kaiser for the death of his son and heir. Klopstock plots an assassination of the Kaiser coinciding with a party, but after the plot goes awry in various ways, he commits suicide rather than face arrest.

Back in Alliance territory, Yang returns to a hero’s welcome for his role in taking Iserlohn, but fame does not really suit him. He becomes an unwilling tool in an election after pro-military (and pro-war) candidate Raymond Togliatti ambushes him at the airport for a photo-op. This draws the ire of the primary anti-war group in which Jessica has since taken up residence. Jessica has been working to help elect James Thorndike of the Peace Party, and Yang’s unwitting interference has swung the electoral pendulum in the opposite direction. Yang has the opportunity to reminisce about his Command Academy days and the reasons why he joined, as well as his history with Jessica and her late fiance, Jean Robert Lapp. His quiet musings with Jessica are interrupted by an explosion at the Peace Party electoral headquarters; when they return to the site, it’s been turned to rubble and Thorndike passes away. Yang later learns that Jessica took over his candidacy and won the election by a landslide.

Thoughts: On Twitter this past weekend, I discovered (via someone else’s conflict with some homophobic internet trolls) that there’s a small but vocal contingent of fans of this series who are strongly right-wing. While I believe anyone can be a fan of anything, assuming they can rationalize and accept any ideological conflicts they might have with it, I found that really surprising. Though I’m only 10 episodes into the series, what I’ve watched thus far seems to espouse a strongly anti-fascist, anti-war sentiment that I’d think would be difficult to ignore as a viewer. To be honest, I’m a little surprised at the content of the series myself, as my expectations of the story beforehand mostly revolved around large-scale space battles rather than smaller and more meaningful human interactions. But my take-away so far is that the characters and their stories are strongly against consolidated power and the corruption that always accompanies it.

Episodes 8 and 9 are focused mostly on the Empire point-of-view characters. Previously I’d been having a more difficult time connecting with this half of the story, just because the Imperial government runs so contrary to what I consider to be ethically “correct” that there’s a desire to see the entire thing collapse under the weight of its own ill-gotten riches. Even though episode 9 is more what I’d deem an episodic story (maybe even a “filler” episode, though that doesn’t feel quite right to say), it does a good job portraying the downside of governing systems that are based around lineages, nepotism, assassinations and power-grabs, without a say from the individuals who are actually being ruled-over. People are constantly plotting to gain themselves favor, utilizing mechanisms that keep all but the richest individuals from participating. Considering that this story takes places hundreds of years in the future, it’s interesting (though not that surprising) that humanity in this universe was unwilling to learn from the mistaken authoritarian systems of the past. I suppose absolute power always attracts people who are hungry to have it, and who somehow manage to convince themselves that “things will be different this time” without their heads ending up on the wrong end of the guillotine.

Lest we assume that the Alliance, with its “by the people, for the people” form of democratic government is any better, episode 10 does a good job of dismantling that illusion. The Alliance’s problems are somewhat less overt, but in that way it’s easy to see them festering beneath the surface of what otherwise appears to be a more egalitarian system. Several people in power pay lip service to the ideal of being able to speak out against official policy and members of the government, while in the shadows the Patriotic Knights Corps lashes-out against anyone seeking anything different than what the government is currently doing. There’s clearly corruption brewing on this side of the conflict, and it’s difficult not to acknowledge the real-life equivalencies, especially with the things occurring in our world lately.

The aspect of the episode that really resonated with me the most was its look at what I like to call “performative patriotism.” Wherever Yang goes, he’s exposed to this sort of overt declaration of love for government and the military. Togliatti uses this framework to manipulate himself into a lead in the polls, even using a war orphan as an election prop, while a group of restaurant patrons busts out the national anthem in his honor while Yang is just trying to have a quiet dinner with Julian. This idea that “true” patriotism equates to blind love for and acceptance of a country and its government has always made me uneasy, and this episode does a great job of demonstrating just why that is through Yang’s experience.

This isn’t to say that I think love for one’s country is wrong, I just disagree about the best ways in which to demonstrate it. For example, while personally I appreciate how many sacrifices members of the military make in service of bigger goals, I’ve always taken issue with many of those goals – I despise war and use of force in general, and the type of military worship that glorifies violence and assumes that the military as a whole is somehow incapable of foul acts is damaging and frightening. These attitudes are what allow abuses of power in the first place by assuming the military can do no wrong. People who desire this kind of power – the power to kill, the power to dominate and rule by force – are attracted to situations where they face no consequences for exercising it. It’s because I have some affection for my country that I feel I have a duty to point out where I think it’s going astray.

This episode also has time for a quick dig at wealth inequality. We learn that Yang, who has always seemed ill-suited (at least in temperament) to his military position, joined the military Command Academy because of its promise of free tuition; the trade-off of course being that his debt would be repaid through a sort of indentured servitude to the military machine. It made me recall a (mandatory!) presentation I attended while in high school, put on by a branch of the military. It was all about language-learning and developing translation skills through the military’s program, a high-intensity language immersion that would ensure fluency within a year. All for the low, low price of joining the armed forces and putting one’s life on the line as collateral. Looking back, I can definitely see the appeal; college was expensive then and it’s even more expensive now, so gaining an excellent skill without having to go into debt could really be a stepping stone for someone. But it also shines a light on the terrible choices that individuals without wealth have to deal with when leaving public school and trying to make it in a capitalist world. Rich kids have the money to buy their way out of potentially losing their lives, while those without financial means are sometimes left to fight wars in order to maintain this unequal system. Definitely food for thought. I’m honestly still reeling at how timely many of the plot points are in this series seem to be, though perhaps that’s yet another reminder that human society may be fated to make the same errors again and again.

Part of me is happy that Jessica stepped in to win the election featured in this episode (it’s nice to see women taking charge, especially in such a classic series), but the other part of me feels like this can’t possibly end well. We’ve already gotten a few tastes of what the Patriotic Knights Corps is capable of; they have already cornered Jessica once for speaking out at the military funeral and it’s clear that leadership within the government at the very least just turns a blind eye to their activities. I think a lot about how those we put into power can influence the rules of propriety in a society. When a leader is willing to call-out injustice, those who are prone to commit those injustices tend to hide like cockroaches confronted with a bright light. But when a leader turns a blind eye to injustice, or actively works to undermine how we perceive its severity, perpetrators feel emboldened and bring their terrible beliefs and actions out into the daylight. When there are no social consequences for professing racism, sexism, or blind, extreme nationalism (among many other things), those things grow like insidious weeds. The people who hold those beliefs feel as though they have permission to act on them, the technicality of country’s laws be damned.

Next week’s post may be a little bit late as well; I’m attending and presenting at a convention this weekend which will limit my time to write. Thanks for reading!