In the second volume, we take a break from the conflict between the Empire and the Democrats of the Free Planets Alliance. Both factions clean "their backyard", each of them does it for a different reason and in a different way. Before I describe it, however, I will go back to the previous book, because I had to skip some threads so that the text would not be too long.
So, after winning the battle and conquering the fortress of Iserlohn (and thus taking control of a corridor allowing safe passage to the rest of the universe, an unhindered supply chain), democratic politicians grew eggs, and the idea came to their crazy heads to invade the rest of the universe. Kaiser Empire. When I read the rationale of their government, I laughed derisively. Well, as if I saw the politicians of the western (or Polish) world and their weak perspective from the beginning to the end of their term of office. No less fun is Job Trunicht, the gentleman I forgot to mention in the review of Volume 1. This is the essence of a slimy, cynical opportunist, a man who will do any meanness, just to stay at the stool. A simple whore, but clever, cunning, devoid of morality and dignity. A whore who accepted activities that degrade human dignity that she couldn't look in the mirror without drinking half a liter of strong vodka. In other words, a professional politician. He knows when he can bask in the glare of the headlights and when he should hide behind the curtain so that others can do the dirty work for him. In the first volume, he took some credit for Yang Wen-Lie's victory, and in the second, when his colleagues talked about the benefits of a successful invasion of the Empire, he sat silently and watched their movements. "If we win in a few months, we will gain a few% advantage in the election. If we massacre the Empire with one precise attack, our ratings will increase even more!". Then it was more or less like in Poland before Adolf's invasion in 1939 (don't take this comparison literally, because these situations are not the same 1: 1, it is just a few similarities) - the preparation of the invasion plan was commissioned to a hysterical man who owes his high position in the army probably due to family connotations or similar factors. This plan did not include alternative methods of action in case something went wrong with its author. It did contain a lot of generalities, without specific directions of action, goals to be achieved, it gave too much room for interpretation. It can be summed up like this - "Go fight, and when you hit the front, it will be somehow."
Seasoned Alliance commanders knew this would end in disaster, as did Reinhard, who had prepared a simple yet effective counter-attack plan. It was a plan as old as the world, willingly used by, for example, the Russians. The Empire, like the land of Tsars, has a huge surface, and thus - you can easily drag your opponent deeper into your territory, and when this loses morale, they will lower their guard, generally become lazy or weaken, attack with all their strength. Adolf, Napoleon, and hundreds of thousands of years later, the commander of the Free Planets Alliance found it out. If it weren't for Yang Wen-Li and a few commanders, they would have suffered a total defeat. The result was as predicted by the young historian - the economy fell into a deep crisis, they lost many young and talented specialists, soldiers and a lot of resources. As if that were not enough, Reinhard and Oberstein prepared a surprise for them. They came up with the idea to exchange prisoners. Everything looked fine at first, but soon after Yang realized why his rival had done it and made precise predictions. Namely, it was about preparing a coup d'etat so that the Free Planets Alliance could not stab them in the back. The Empire's planners were more meticulous and made a detailed plan to organize and carry out a successful seizure of power step by step. Military concrete was used for this, which damaged the Alliance's economy even more, not to mention the brutal treatment of protesters. One of the characters we met in the first volume died during the riots. It's hard for me to get through my fingers, but despite the cruelty of the soldiers, it was a "beautiful" scene. Written briefly, specifically, showing a truly strong female character, and not an empty puppet, as is the case in many Hollywood movies nowadays (eg Rey from "Star Wars"). Too briefly, the anime expanded on this plot, as did Ovlesser's duel against Mittermeyer and Reuenthal. However, I will come back to it in another paragraph.
As I mentioned, Reinhard had his problems. With the death of Kaiser, a civil war began between a group of many noble families and the part of the Empire ruled by the Chancellor and Reinhard. Both had their armies, commanders, but the Lohengramma side had experience and people skilled in combat (apart from Merkatz and Ovlesser, who were the only ones to show competence in the party of his opponents). But what if the aristocrats have a large army, as their commanders are either lecturers from military academies or total idiots? By the way, Mr. Tanaka has shown how great distance separates even an outstanding theorist of the art of war from someone who has fought many real battles in his life. The former may have even more knowledge than Reinhard and Yang, but what's after it, since he does not know what to do on the battlefield and how to effectively manage the army? Not to mention the stressful conditions and the ability to adapt to the changing conditions of the battlefield. This is no longer taught in a military academy, it is learned in practice. Although the message of this scene was unambiguous, i.e. it referred only to this example, it can also be extended to all issues concerning our life. People should not deal with matters they do not know about, just as it does not apply to them practically (because they have read something there, but they do not deal with it on a daily basis) or they are lecturers (because they are also needed, even if they are not much better than their students in practice). It would be nice if they did not comment on this as well, if they have any group of listeners, viewers, fans, because they spread their nonsense. You have to take responsibility for your words. I know it's hard because it happens to me (luckily, much less often than before), but it's not impossible. I will develop it in more detail in another text that is being created - about Youtubers that I recommend and do not recommend.
Since I mentioned Jessica and Ovlesser, I will use this opportunity to write about characters that I missed in the previous post or those that appeared in Volume 2. In the past, I did not like and understand this character, or rather its activities. Or otherwise, I was able to understand her attitude and motivations, but due to the inexperience and excessive fascination with the views of Janusz Korwin-Mikke at that time (for readers from outside Poland - an extreme libertarian who displays some of the idiotic views of radical conservatives), they were silly to me. My view has changed over the years as I grow up gaining practical knowledge about life and gaining humility towards it. It is true that stupid and harmful decisions of politicians should be opposed, but it should not be done by force - no matter if with rebellion or aggressive protests. Because it can lead to a similar situation as in LOTGH - the slaughter of ordinary people and growing social divisions. It should be done like Jessica - publicly pointing out short-sighted politicians, trying to change the system from within (or setting a good example for the rest yourself) by asking them publicly uncomfortable questions or creating peaceful demonstrations, relatively without overt aggression, at most with passive resistance . It is also worth having a real injured or substantive person behind it, and not like one of the leaders of the BLM movement in the USA (who is not a poor one and bought a flat for herself in a safe, sheltered district), or their counterparts in the event of a Polish women's strike, people who seized the opportunity and led the group to achieve their own goals. Jessica lost her husband in the first battle, which started the book "Legend of the Galactic Heroes", as well as rose to her position herself, without the help of outsiders. Although it was hindered by other politicians, as well as nationalist militias, which were led by Trunicht (as well as various organizations in our world - eg Hamas, which was created thanks to the Israeli government, or some militias formerly supported by the US government).
Ovlesser is one of my favorite characters and I am very sad that we said goodbye to her as quickly and suddenly as we met. I like meeting fighters who are melee or melee masters, and Ovlesser is such a giant caveman, kind of like Thorkell from "Vinland Saga". Like him, it literally carries out mass genocide with its gigantic dimensions. In the book we said goodbye to him even faster, because "Die Neue These" expanded his plot a bit .. In the book it was like this - he called Reinhard and his sister Annerose, we got a detailed description of his person, strength, list of his achievements, explained why he is able to fight so long (from what I can remember, in the anime they didn't say he got a lot of stimulants into fuck like amphetamines). In the anime, however, he exchanged with Reinhard more "courtesies" that were not in the original, he fought Mittermeyer and Reuenthal for a while before they caught him into a trap (in the book they simply stopped, provoked him, and he himself entered it like a mindless animal). Fortunately, his final in both versions was equally good. Even though this is a man who was mentally stuck in the Stone Age, he was not stupid. He quickly realized that Reinhard and Oberstein had fucked him and he had died in a nasty way. He tried to convince his leader that Reinhard did it on purpose, but the aristocrat's pride and arrogance was stronger than the remnants of his common sense, which was one of the factors that led to the fall of the rebellion.
Although Merkatz knew from the beginning how it would end and that there was no chance of winning with such people, he decided to support the toxic aristocrats, convinced of their own superiority. I don't understand his attitude, but I liked his wise rationale and especially his approach to privileges. Namely, he believes that unjustified privileges (apart from such as, for example, state aid for the disabled and other groups that cannot cope with their own problems) are slow poison, the worst of all.
Because it irreversibly poisons the whole person, and worst of all - his soul. He criticized the nobility, but did not blame them 100%. It is not their fault that they were born in such an environment and were pampered by their family. Sure, they cultivate these bad traditions themselves, but they don't know any other role models. The nobility live in different conditions than us, the plebs without any privileges. I am also pleased that Merkatz is a strong persona and an outstanding commander throughout the story, and does not become a beating bag for younger, equally talented commanders with time. Taking the opportunity, it is worth mentioning Otto von Braunschweig, the leader of the noblemen's uprising, and at the same time the most influential and richest figure from this milieu. While writing this excerpt, I remembered what he looked like in the old anime version and the Die Neue These version is closer to the book creation. The design from the old series looked too serious, it contradicts my idea that I had in my head while reading. In DNT, he looks more like a spoiled aristocrat - his appearance suggests that we are not dealing with a very intelligent person, he fits in with a slimy type driven by greed, greed and pride. This is also evident in his visible carcass, the old version was thinner, which did not fit the dissolved nature of this group. Reading passages in which he devised strategies, he criticized Merkatz for his supposedly stupid and cowardly ideas (which were the only loud manifestation of logical thinking in their faction) and he and his colleagues were intoxicated, which they would do when they won, I couldn't get the new design out of my head. anime version.
Lest I only criticize the old version of the anime, I will say about one of the few things that I think it has done better. This is the appearance of Hildegard von Mariendorf. I will not compare personalities, because as I said, I do not want to refresh the adaptation from 1988. The one from 2018 does not have any outstanding deviations from the original book (or at least I have not noticed any of them so far), but I still cannot convince myself of it. It sure looks younger, or better? It is difficult for me to judge, I consider both of them pretty, but they are slightly different types of beauty. I prefer the one from 1988 - it's closer to how I imagine Hilda when she appears in the book. Her outfit and face fit better with the description of her appearance and character. The new version is too childish and not serious enough. The book Hilda is pretty, full of female sex appeal, but she's definitely not just a cute girl. He uses his attributes and grace wisely, achieving what he wants with the help of diplomacy and persuasion. In other words, it is conscious, wise, and able to adapt to the current conditions or possibilities. Most guys are no match for women in this respect, not even Reinhard.
There will be no summary, instead I would like to admire for a moment how great the I.G studio filmed the final of the Civil War. As in the first volume, the animators developed some threads, and some they ignored or showed a bit differently, but looking at the so-called "bigger picture", there are practically no differences - at most some things are more complex depending on which medium we are talking about. In my opinion, the author of the books showed better what happens in the ranks of the soldiers who lose the most important battle - there is panic, chaos, and the top is taken over by primal instincts and emotions, which increase the more the closer the enemy is. Even though it is only a book, I felt all the emotions - the joy of the winners and the growing panic or fear of the losers. Just like reading "The Witcher" when Geralt and his colleagues stormed Stygga's castle or when Goku fought to the death with Freezer on the planet Namek. Certainly this is indirectly due to the fact that I got involved in each of these stories, but it is also important that the authors wrote it really well. As I wrote in the previous review, I.G studio organized the book very well. I can easily say that over 90% of the 1st and 2nd seasons are dot to dot the same. There are slight differences, because the book and anime are different media. Theoretically, it is possible to transfer a book in a 1: 1 scale to the language of a movie or series, but it is not always successful. Not because it is impossible, just some threads may be too boring, not suited to the nature of the movie or animation, an idea may look good on paper when seen through the eyes of the imagination, but terrible when we see it in motion. In the case of "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" there are few such differences, similar to the directorial version of "Lord of the Rings" - it is almost a complete transfer of the book to the screen. Word to word, dot to dot, words and sentences to animation frames. And the most important event from the last chapter, which I read twice, because it made an impression on me so much ... I will not spoil, I will just say that the chills went down my body, both when reading and watching, because as I returned to home, I refreshed this fragment on YouTube.
That's it for me. As you read this text, I am already on the 3rd volume and I will try to write another review soon. Studio I.G is just working on the 3rd season, which will probably re-film one volume, and we have 7 left. I will probably watch the latter with my little kid on my lap, saying to him: "Young, how Reinhard is massacring these democratic leftists!" xD.