Blogging Legend of the Galactic Heroes Episode 21

Jessica Edwards pays the ultimate price for her colleagues expensing food, toilet seats and duck ponds while flipping property at the same time.

The 21st episode of Legend of the Galactic Heroes returns to Alliance matters. It is divided into two sections, the start of formal hostilities between Yang and the National Salvation Military Council which seized control of Heinessen in episode 19; and the peaceful rally that ends rather un-peacefully.

The episode begins with Schenkopp leading a force to occupy Shampool as it has strategic importance because of its location. It takes him three days, a bunch of deaths and surprisingly no showers to get the result he wants.

Schenkopp remembers why he became a soldier.

When he gets back to the fleet, he is told that they have picked up a person who escaped from Heinessen. That man is Commander Bagdashu from the 11th fleet. The timing seems too convenient for both Yang and Schenkopp. Bagdashu tells Yang that the 11th fleet is preparing to attack Yang’s fleet, and that no one has been purged on Heinessen to this point.

When Bagdashu asks about Frederica’s location, Yang tells him she stayed back at Iserlohn. After hearing the response Schenkopp spills coffee on himself and leaves to go talk to Frederica herself. She remembers him holding views opposing the government several years before. The answer confirms Schenkopp’s thoughts and tells Julian that Bagdashu will probably try to assassinate Yang if he has a chance. He also says that the coup is bound to fail and if Yang dies at this point, history will be boring from then.

Meanwhile, Admiral Luglanju prepares to attack Yang’s fleet, but is frustrated that there is no signal from Bagdashu. The reason for that being Schenkopp changing the time on Bagdashu’s sleep tank. While Yang tells Schenkopp that the location of the fleet is different from what Bagdashu told them, Luglanju tells his men that the fate of the homeland rests on this one single battle.

Yang, on the other hand, tells his men that the battle is pointless, but they shouldn’t try to lose. He has a plan, so the soldiers should be able to take it easy and win anyway. He also says the fate of the nation is at stake, but it isn’t as important as the rights and freedoms of the people.

The battle begins, and Yang’s fleet immediately has the advantage. They are on the enemy’s flank, and have caught them off guard. Yang has Nguyen Van Hugh lead his unit through the middle of the enemy fleet, and succeeds in splitting them in half. Dusty Attenborough leads another group against one half of the fleet while the main fleet attacks the rest. Fighters are then launched by Yang’s fleet, which rout the enemy’s fighters.

Meanwhile, Attenborough is merely distracting his opponent by retreating then attacking in response to his enemy’s moves. He realizes this is turning into a rather one-sided battle of attrition. The main fleet is realizing the same thing. They refuse to surrender despite numerous opportunities to do so. With 10 percent of his fleet left, Luglanju decides to surrender in his own way. He contacts Yang to say it was an honor to have Yang as his opponent in his last battle. He then shoots himself.

In the end, the 11th fleet chose to be annihalated rather than surrender to Yang. The National Salvation Military Council had lost almost all of its military power.

Bagdashu sees what has happened and offers to join as a subordinate to Yang. His opinions on the situation are pretty much the same as Schenkopp’s, and as a result he has pragmatically decided to change sides. Schenkopp takes him away to the brig.

In Heinessenpolis, the news hits hard for the leaders of the coup. The criticize the Information Bureau and believe there may be a traitor amongst them based on some of the rumors floating around. Dwight Greenhill insists on unity from the rest of the council, though it seems like an impossible task. He says their first priority should be on fixing the collapsing economy, more than punishing those creating rumors. However, the meeting is interrupted by news of a mass rally at the Heinessen Stadium.

Jessica Edwards had escaped capture and organized a rally with over 220,000 people in attendance. Christian tells the council that he stop the rally, which prompts Greenhill to tell him to do so peacefully.

Council troops arrive at the stadium and begin to take control of the crowd. Christian looks for Jessica. She wonders why they have to come in waving guns at a peaceful rally. He tells her it’s for the purpose of maintaining order. He tells his men to line up ten civilians, so he can make sure they really are advocating pacifism. He begins lecturing the civilians on their beliefs and punches one when he speaks against him. He then holds a gun to another man’s face, who then begs for his life. The Christian punches him and knees him in the stomach. He tries to threaten the rest of the group into admitting their beliefs are wrong before Jessica yells for him to stop.

She asks him if he thinks anything someone does is right merely because they have conviction. She then asks him if he thinks it’s right that he forces his own views on people through violence. She says that’s how Rudolf built the Galactic Empire, and as a result there is no difference between he and Rudolf. She tells him to get out of the stadium, and he responds by attacking her.

A riot then breaks out, the soldiers fire on the civilians and civilians responding with violence of their own. The stadium ends up in flames with Jessica Edwards still inside. The Council realizes they’ve made enemies out of the citizenry and the tide is turning against them. They lack the strength to put down an uprising let alone fight off the approaching Yang.

Back in Yang’s fleet, Bagdashu asks for work, any work to do from Yang. Yang tells him there is a job that he must do eventually, though he doesn’t tell him what it is. Yang does give Bagdashu his gun as Yang doesn’t see himself ever needing to use it. As Bagdashu points the gun at Yang’s head, Yang tells him it’s a secret that he has his gun, but he should return it when he has one issued for him.

Julian sees this happening and points his gun at Bagdashu. Julian tells Bagdashu that his name would go down in history if he killed Yang. That might be too tempting a thought for someone like Bagdashu. Julian tells Yang that there is a high likelihood Bagdashu would betray Yang, but Yang says that isn’t reason enough to kill him. Eventually, Yang convinces Julian to put his gun down. Bagdashu says he gets the message that Julian will always be watching him.

Then, news of the rally reaches Yang. Frederica tells Yang the rally leader and 20,000 civilians were killed. Then she tells Yang that Jessica Edwards was the leader.Yang is left to mourn, and is unable to bring himself to say anything.

Thoughts: The sound effects for the stadium scene were rather weak in my opinion. Sudden bursts of noise mixed with absolute silence for the most part. It’s possibly the first complaint I’ve had about the sound since episode 1…About the stadium, a dome with a running/athletics track inside seems like such an anachronism…I was kind of sad to see Jessica killed off, though I think she has been involved in every over-the-top political theatre scene I can think of.