Legend of the Galactic Heroes 024
Where Yang Wen-Li destroys all of an orbiting defense mechanism by running massive blocks of ice into them at high speed because he dislikes what the mechanism stands for and the fallacy of believing one to be safe because of some untested new technological trump card.
Interesting arc with the coup de'tat inside both the Empire and the Alliance, one that shows the deep seeded troubles within the Dictatorship and the Democracy. With the Nobles of the Empire you have the truly disgusting and completely self-serving nobles that the respectable Admiral Merkatz can't reign in and hardly wants to protect up against the vastly superior forces of Reinhard who simply wishes to replace the current brand of tyranny with his own. But looking at Braunschweig and his nobles with an outdated worldview who would destroy their own allies to escape, nuke their own civilians to prove a point and are deeply in love with the idea of honorable deaths in battle (for the sole purpose of honor and being remembered. They are terrible soldiers.) even at the cost of their crews lives and Reinhard's brand of tyranny looks a lot less amoral. Sure you're just replacing the aristocracy and rule by Divine Right with a kinder one with a pretty face, but it is better. Reinhard doesn't really have
pure intentions but his utter hatred for the current ruling class is an easy rallying point for the citizens of the Empire. As history will show, people will easily behead the current tyrant and applaud the next one at any convenience, thinking that this time for sure things will change for the better. What will be interesting is to see if Reinhard can remain as noble as he is now once absolute power over billions of people falls into his hands.
Speaking of that, on the side of the Alliance you have the well intentioned but naive Greenhill heading up the Alliance coup. Unbeknownst to them, they are playing right into Reinhard's hand by occupying themselves with their own coup so they cannot have a unified strike on an Empire with it's back turned. Why result to a coup? Well lets face it...the Alliance is falling apart. What the Alliance wants to present itself as is the righteous opposition to the cold-hearted Empire. A free democracy that will stand against tyranny without stooping to its level. Turns out, that's actually really, really hard. When you are up against an absolutely massive militaristic society with required military service, intense nationalism, a populace stripped of power akin to serfdom, the tactical genius of people like Reinhard, Kircheis, Oberstein and Mittermeier, and waging a war for centuries for voidless space - trying to fight on equal terms becomes extremely difficult. The problems of the Alliance run deep. A crumbling infrastructure due to an over-need on the military leads to a distinct lack of expertise in nearly every field - engineers, scientists, architects and even historians, which Yang wanted to be. A society that is slowly decaying because it cannot keep up with its own budget in fighting this never ending war. Politicians that take under the table money and are more concerned with their positions then the goodwill of the Alliance. Heightening pressure between hardcore right-wing war hawks and anti-war liberals (gee this sounds familiar.) At the center of all this you have Yang Wen-Li, a genius tactician no doubt, but someone who would be more fit to be a philosopher then an Admiral. He quips at the leaders of the coup de'tat that while the idea of getting rid of political corruption on paper is certainly nice, its also incredibly short-sighted. Within weeks of declaring control over the capital, the coup begins to heavily militarize the police, crack down on free speech and ends up in an unfortunate massacre involving police and anti-war protestors leading to the death of a popular anti-war speaker and Yang's friend. Their solution is to fight despotism with despotism, like Reinhard. They will be quick to claim that it shall only be until the Empire is defeated and its a noble cause, but that is an even greater level of naivety. When you claim to be the moral high ground for humanity and you start to slip into despotism to beat despots, you've already lost. A war that has been going on for centuries will suddenly be crushed by a new leadership, and after that the government will willingly decide to loosen the grip it has had on its people. Its painfully obvious to Yang where this road leads to. After the defeat of the coup, the head of the government Job Trunicht who went into hiding finally emerges. Trunicht is everything Yang despises. A smoothtalking politician with a fake smile who knows exactly how to manipulate public perception. Knowing a military juncture would fail, Trunicht once uncharacteristically was opposed to a deployment. When it turned out to be a bad idea, Trunicht was able to reap the successes of his opposition despite being a well known war hawk. While Trunicht isn't a big fan of Yang, he can at least hide it. Yang can't. While Yang is incredibly intelligent about historical subject matters and very opinionated about the military, he struggles at speaking or saying the right thing. He greatly dislikes speeches and most politicians. When trying to cheer up Greenhill's daughter the best he can do is "Don't lose heart." I'm going to guess that like Reinhard attempting to keep his morals and nobility high with absolute power, Yang will have to struggle with his growing alcoholism. Yang loves to drink as a way to relieve his stress, and the man has a lot of stress. He likes tea mixed with brandy, but slowly his drink is becoming less tea and more brandy. Yang had to take down a friend to preserve the image of a man he despises. Despite the victory, Yang has gained nothing, save for the arrival of Admiral Merkatz and his crew after their defection at the loss of the Nobles.
Again, LoGH is no War and Peace but hell if it isn't an interesting treatise on a number of complicated issues. I can't think of another anime that even attempts it. One thing I don't get is the specifics of how Ale Heinessen escaped the Galactic Empire's internment planet on ships of ice. How does that make sense scientifically? What did they do?