Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These - Intrigue

Episode 41

There was plenty of preamble discussion leading up to the plan to kidnap the Emperor, and now that Landsberg and Shumacher have actually pulled it off, we can at last get right into…plenty of post-occurrence discussion of the kidnapping of the Emperor. Intrigue is just gonna keep on Intrigue-ing, it seems, and you're either along for that ride or you aren't. To its credit, this is a story that has always known how to wield its particular brand of slow-burn execution. Even as Die Neue These drives up the palpable tension of the higher-commanding elements of the Empire learning about the situation, it still makes time for bits of deliciously dry humor, like Reinhard breaking the news simply as a minor incident wherein "Someone kidnapped a seven-year-old boy". The audible gasps from all of his commanders as they immediately realize the implications therein lends the right kind of amusement even as the dense setup of this incoming international (interspational?) incident hurtles forward with heavy inevitability.

It's an aspect of this kind of long-form politicking that Legend of the Galactic Heroes is uniquely suited to cover, exploring the sheer amount of background processes that must go on unseen before a civilian public can even learn of some sort of major upheaval. Reinhard and Oberstein were negotiating the details of new Emperor succession before the plan to abduct the first kid had even kicked off, and in this week's episode we get to watch Kesserling sitting down to review cabinet picks with Count Remscheid ahead of His Majesty arriving in Alliance territory. It's an interesting, and sobering, look into how much paperwork goes into something like a spontaneous royalty relocation.

Focusing on the direct aftermath like this, ahead of the wider galaxy's reaction to the news, also lets us keep honing in on this incident as an expression of Reinhard's necessarily evolving leadership style. Semi-peaceful cohabitation with the Alliance had been loosely alluded to previously, but here the Duke seems assured that taking large-scale military action against the 'insurgents' was always some level of inevitable. Between the declarations he broadly makes to his commanders, and his private remarks with Hildegard when she confronts him about it, the exercise comes off as Reinhard working to manufacture consent for such an invasion not just with his people, but with himself to some degree. Sliding into something of a less-benevolent dictator like he was initially known as would move up the schedule on that whole 'seizing the universe' thing, after all.

It's that slight boil-over of aspects of Reinhard's personality that make following this plot, to this point, in this way, worth it in my mind regarding this adaptation. Intrigue has been more laser-focused on the Empire's interactions with this kidnapping plot so far compared to those old OVAs, which jumped around a little more in the run-up at this stage. It not only sells the idea that the 'news' of the situation hasn't escaped the Empire's closest circles yet—it concentrates on how much everything that needs to be done in the interim has to weigh like a crown on the heavy head of Reinhard. Sending a subordinate to death for failing him, something he previously could be talked out of by Hildegard, now occurs almost incidentally as Reinhard drives Molt to suicide. And that was a failure that Reinhard had allowed to happen for that broader political stake. Is this yet the behavior of a fully-fascist dictator, or simply Reinhard further learning how much he will need to interface with the bigger picture, damn any other pawns like Molt and Kempff he must sacrifice along the way? For a series so dedicated to depicting such broader plots, Die Neue These comes off like it also wants to highlight individual sacrifices and those who order them to be made. Hilde's resigned "Understood, Duke Lohengramm" says it all, in terms of how far this has already taken him.

That's not to say there aren't other interesting little asides to this otherwise focused step on this journey. We do still get to cut to the absconded-with Emperor being covertly transported on a merchant ship. The show affords a surprising amount of cute little character animation for its crew, highlighting the scrappy ironic energy of them griping about carrying a child who, unknownst to them, is the Emperor. And while the kid is acting like a spoiled terror, I will confess to feeling a little bad for him, given how stacked against him the deck that dealt his hand has been. Everyone, even a royal incapable of enacting anything on his own, ends up a pawn in Reinhard's game eventually, it seems. The tension precludes how complicated things will get in establishing a whole new outside government around this kid.

That's overall the name of the waiting game we're exploring in this episode. Kesserling's own later portents are full of foreshadowing for future machinations, though anyone who's this deep into the series will hear his insistence on not being used by anyone else and respond with "Good luck with that". He's mostly here right now to provide a vector looking even further forward, highlighting how Rubinsky isn't all the way up on how badly Boltik screwed the pooch on negotiating with Reinhard, discussing the implications of Merkatz's integration into Remscheid's new cabinet, and plotting to utilize the bishop of the Earth Cult in his schemes. Of course, we don't get to see any of this yet, merely the implications of all the intrigue going on. Keep it all in the back of your mind moving forward, and for now accept the primary interest points of how diving headfirst into manipulating this level of cynical political pragmatism is fast affecting someone like Reinhard. There will be time for the rest of the galaxy later.

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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.