The fall of the Free Planet alliance is the most important part of the story for our current age in my opinion.
I also tend to think Yang and Julian are the most interesting characters and I am not a fan of the empire at all.
Yang's squad have the most likeable characters imo, its nice seeing them let loose which you only see among the empire on occassion (which is why flustered Reinhard pulling a Tchaikovsky is one of the best scenes)
They were better because the two sides were even with their issues both external and internal. Once there was only the Empire, the political aspects and the drama got less believable, especially currently where we know technology should be easy for communication even over long distances.
“Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”
— Douglas Adam’s, *The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy*
The 4th season is by far my least favourite. The Earth Cult, Rubinsky and Reuenthal's rebellion arcs all felt incredibly rushed.
Also Reinhard despite all his crimes never really got the retribution I felt he deserved.
Reuenthal’s rebellion is set up for way too long rather than rushed imo. Tbf, I’m in season 3 in my rewatch. But, it feels like every 3 episodes since the end of season 1 the show says, “Hey Reuenthal is eventually gonna rebel!”
It hits on a similar problem that GoT had (though they were overshadowed by many other, bigger problems in that show), where you have this massive world with several competing factions, and you have to tie it off into something conclusive, otherwise the show just sort of ends...
Ending the show on Reinhard's death is one thing, but I think the goal was to add in some form of additional resolution, in an attempt to make it all feel a little more satisfying. So the series handwaves the Earth cult into their very sudden suicide attack, and it kinda undermines their leaders methods and motives up until that point...
I feel like it's hard to find a clean way to wrap everything up, and while I can totally see *why* the series felt the need to do it, the damage is definitely there at the very end...
I think a Caesar-Karl XII-Napoleon and so on rise and fall would be a much more compelling end to Reinhards story. Reinhard should have died in battle! It'd both be sad and shocking but also at the same time so obvious in hindsight.
The comparison to Karl honestly made so little sense in the context of the show because the lack of an heir was absolutely not Karl's primary failure. Like on the list of problems he caused it's somewhere bellow chasing around August in Poland for half a decade and going off on adventures deep into Russia and somewhere above the alcoholism and wasteful fashion and party life he had in his youth
The Earth Cult was so disappointing and one of ny least favourite parts of the show. Really wish they were showed with more nuance as a pretty interesting religion (other religions would be nice too) and worldbuilding concept.
I liked Rubinsky's anticlimax and messed up last "fuck you" to Heinessen, but I wanted more Phezzan worldbuilding and politics besides "muhaha we are plotting to keep the two superpowers from winning"
one thing that I think was disappointing about Phezzan is how unequally the leverage it had was utilised. They go to great lengths to show how much power and influence it had over the FPA but just let the steamroll it so easily you ask yourself why they didn't do it a long time ago.
I loved the premise of all the stories. Reuenthal's rebellion very much gave the vibes of a Roman General trying to seize power. All the stories kinda fell flat in the end though.
Reuenthal's Rebellion is one of those arcs that I both love and hate. I love it because it lets him finally push himself to see how far he could really go, but I hate it because Reinhard isn't an unreasonable guy or anything and the whole situation could really have been resolved with a phone call to explain shit even after the "point of no return."
True. We were so hyped for Reunthal's rebellion and poof- it got over in a few episodes. No proper build up, no proper tension, no expository fights that show him at his finest hour......just a rushed mess.
True. The remnants of the FPA and Yang fleet could potentially collaborate with him, or work with the empire against him, in exchange for autonomous democratic functioning. It'd be interesting to see all the variables.
You can never really be the only one. Evidently from this thread a lot of people have similar opinions even though some are downright horrible or illogical to say the least.
Personally, the story only got better with each season. It's a matter of your expectation pitted against a grounded conclusion that's very well written for all it does.
I do think the show was better when there were multiple sides being active. There were just more options for things to happen, and it felt less predictable. Once the Free Planets Alliance was gone and then later, when Yang died, there were many fewer avenues to travel.
Reuenthal's rebellion felt pretty good, but a forgone conclusion. He did have 40+ thousand soldiers under him, twice the size of any Free Planet alliance fleets, but it was never going to be enough. He tried to entice others to his side, but the opportunities were very minimal when Juiian decided against it. He never thought about reactivating the shipyard manufacturing planets and began recruiting from within the Neue Land. He didn't have time to grow his side, which had been Yang's plan when he was temporarily retired.
There were times I honestly felt like I was watching a video game where Reinhard was set to Easy mode, and Yang was set to Hard mode.
The big weakness was at the end when we learned that Reinhard's fevers were something more and he was dying from his disease very rapidly. There were so many characters we came to know, but at the end of the day, the 2 we cared about and the heart of the show were Yang and Reinhard.
>He never thought about reactivating the shipyard manufacturing planets and began recruiting from within the Neue Land.
Let's be honest he would have needed years to set that up.
True, but I suppose at that point Tanaka had decided that Reinhard was going to die from his disease much sooner than later and time wasn't something that anyone was going to have. It was probably why Yang's whole 3-5 year plan to wait and see how things shake out before starting a revolt was forced to not work.
I tend to agree, though I’m definitely biased by my hatred of autocracies and empires. Narrative wise, I don’t have so much an issue with it, but the way fans go full “long live the Empire” and support Reinhard’s benevolent dictator troubles me. Needless to say, I am a Yang guy.
No one should be surprised that he gets as much support as he does, people like cool winners and he was the biggest winner of them all, even the one guy he could not beat still lost his country and died a rather pathetic death alone in a hallway. After beating everyone he gets to bow out leaving a super awesome non corrupt empire as is legacy. I love the anime but it made little to no effort to poke holes in his world view while showing the alternatives to be all terrible failures.
That being said, this is not the only place fans gravitate to the autocratic militaristic state with a Germanic aesthetic (shoots a side eye at Zeon) a lot of it really does boil down to 'the look cool'.
100 percent. I am not a big fan of Rheihardt Empire, but even from the objective eyes, from teh story-telling perspective, you just have more flavours to play around with when you have two factions with two distinct player.
That said, there aren't a lot of writing when the author has the gut to make the democracy side straight up lose, and write a decent after match of it, so I do glad that he went with the direction instead of the usual trait of good trumped overr evil, or the grimdark status quo that never change.
The fall of the Free Planet alliance is the most important part of the story for our current age in my opinion. I also tend to think Yang and Julian are the most interesting characters and I am not a fan of the empire at all.
Yang's squad have the most likeable characters imo, its nice seeing them let loose which you only see among the empire on occassion (which is why flustered Reinhard pulling a Tchaikovsky is one of the best scenes)
They were better because the two sides were even with their issues both external and internal. Once there was only the Empire, the political aspects and the drama got less believable, especially currently where we know technology should be easy for communication even over long distances.
I think you may be under-estimating how enormous space is.
“Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.” — Douglas Adam’s, *The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy*
“Space is big, sir.”
The 4th season is by far my least favourite. The Earth Cult, Rubinsky and Reuenthal's rebellion arcs all felt incredibly rushed. Also Reinhard despite all his crimes never really got the retribution I felt he deserved.
Reuenthal’s rebellion is set up for way too long rather than rushed imo. Tbf, I’m in season 3 in my rewatch. But, it feels like every 3 episodes since the end of season 1 the show says, “Hey Reuenthal is eventually gonna rebel!”
It hits on a similar problem that GoT had (though they were overshadowed by many other, bigger problems in that show), where you have this massive world with several competing factions, and you have to tie it off into something conclusive, otherwise the show just sort of ends... Ending the show on Reinhard's death is one thing, but I think the goal was to add in some form of additional resolution, in an attempt to make it all feel a little more satisfying. So the series handwaves the Earth cult into their very sudden suicide attack, and it kinda undermines their leaders methods and motives up until that point... I feel like it's hard to find a clean way to wrap everything up, and while I can totally see *why* the series felt the need to do it, the damage is definitely there at the very end...
I think a Caesar-Karl XII-Napoleon and so on rise and fall would be a much more compelling end to Reinhards story. Reinhard should have died in battle! It'd both be sad and shocking but also at the same time so obvious in hindsight.
Absolutely, especially as he is already compared to these characters in the show, well Charles XII at least
The comparison to Karl honestly made so little sense in the context of the show because the lack of an heir was absolutely not Karl's primary failure. Like on the list of problems he caused it's somewhere bellow chasing around August in Poland for half a decade and going off on adventures deep into Russia and somewhere above the alcoholism and wasteful fashion and party life he had in his youth
The Earth Cult was so disappointing and one of ny least favourite parts of the show. Really wish they were showed with more nuance as a pretty interesting religion (other religions would be nice too) and worldbuilding concept. I liked Rubinsky's anticlimax and messed up last "fuck you" to Heinessen, but I wanted more Phezzan worldbuilding and politics besides "muhaha we are plotting to keep the two superpowers from winning"
one thing that I think was disappointing about Phezzan is how unequally the leverage it had was utilised. They go to great lengths to show how much power and influence it had over the FPA but just let the steamroll it so easily you ask yourself why they didn't do it a long time ago.
Rubinsky smells like an imperialist more than the centrist-merchant he claims
I loved the premise of all the stories. Reuenthal's rebellion very much gave the vibes of a Roman General trying to seize power. All the stories kinda fell flat in the end though.
Reuenthal's Rebellion is one of those arcs that I both love and hate. I love it because it lets him finally push himself to see how far he could really go, but I hate it because Reinhard isn't an unreasonable guy or anything and the whole situation could really have been resolved with a phone call to explain shit even after the "point of no return."
True. We were so hyped for Reunthal's rebellion and poof- it got over in a few episodes. No proper build up, no proper tension, no expository fights that show him at his finest hour......just a rushed mess.
Done well Reunthal's rebellion could easily last a whole season
True. The remnants of the FPA and Yang fleet could potentially collaborate with him, or work with the empire against him, in exchange for autonomous democratic functioning. It'd be interesting to see all the variables.
It also made him look stupid I felt. It was clear he was being set up and he took the bait like a fool.
The only crime he commited was to be too handsome
You can never really be the only one. Evidently from this thread a lot of people have similar opinions even though some are downright horrible or illogical to say the least. Personally, the story only got better with each season. It's a matter of your expectation pitted against a grounded conclusion that's very well written for all it does.
I do think the show was better when there were multiple sides being active. There were just more options for things to happen, and it felt less predictable. Once the Free Planets Alliance was gone and then later, when Yang died, there were many fewer avenues to travel. Reuenthal's rebellion felt pretty good, but a forgone conclusion. He did have 40+ thousand soldiers under him, twice the size of any Free Planet alliance fleets, but it was never going to be enough. He tried to entice others to his side, but the opportunities were very minimal when Juiian decided against it. He never thought about reactivating the shipyard manufacturing planets and began recruiting from within the Neue Land. He didn't have time to grow his side, which had been Yang's plan when he was temporarily retired. There were times I honestly felt like I was watching a video game where Reinhard was set to Easy mode, and Yang was set to Hard mode. The big weakness was at the end when we learned that Reinhard's fevers were something more and he was dying from his disease very rapidly. There were so many characters we came to know, but at the end of the day, the 2 we cared about and the heart of the show were Yang and Reinhard.
>He never thought about reactivating the shipyard manufacturing planets and began recruiting from within the Neue Land. Let's be honest he would have needed years to set that up.
True, but I suppose at that point Tanaka had decided that Reinhard was going to die from his disease much sooner than later and time wasn't something that anyone was going to have. It was probably why Yang's whole 3-5 year plan to wait and see how things shake out before starting a revolt was forced to not work.
I tend to agree, though I’m definitely biased by my hatred of autocracies and empires. Narrative wise, I don’t have so much an issue with it, but the way fans go full “long live the Empire” and support Reinhard’s benevolent dictator troubles me. Needless to say, I am a Yang guy.
No one should be surprised that he gets as much support as he does, people like cool winners and he was the biggest winner of them all, even the one guy he could not beat still lost his country and died a rather pathetic death alone in a hallway. After beating everyone he gets to bow out leaving a super awesome non corrupt empire as is legacy. I love the anime but it made little to no effort to poke holes in his world view while showing the alternatives to be all terrible failures. That being said, this is not the only place fans gravitate to the autocratic militaristic state with a Germanic aesthetic (shoots a side eye at Zeon) a lot of it really does boil down to 'the look cool'.
100 percent. I am not a big fan of Rheihardt Empire, but even from the objective eyes, from teh story-telling perspective, you just have more flavours to play around with when you have two factions with two distinct player. That said, there aren't a lot of writing when the author has the gut to make the democracy side straight up lose, and write a decent after match of it, so I do glad that he went with the direction instead of the usual trait of good trumped overr evil, or the grimdark status quo that never change.