Like I have said before in previous posts on this series, I’m growing rather tired of Tanya’s lack of real opposition and non-stop victories. Given the events of this episode, I should be annoyed as this episode was yet another victory for Tanya and her battalion but a little change of perspective can make all the difference as she essentially commits a war crime. Let me tangent for a moment and talk about World War 1. You see it’s not often you hear about WWI in comparison to how often WWII comes up. It’s no surprise as WWII was the more appealing one with the Nazi’s acting as the perfect supervillains for the world to fight off. World War 2 was about triumphing over adversity, odds and great injustice. World War one of the other hand was about something else entirely. You see before WW1 there was still belief in the glory of war, in distinguishing yourself in battle. War is where heroes are born and boys are made men. At least that was the sentiment. but WWI changed that. There was no glory in WWI, only people dying pointlessly in trenches, misery, disease, chemical warfare and in the end nothing was truly accomplished other than a severe loss of life. It taught the world a simple truth, that war is hell. Now in Tanya’s world these people are learning that lesson for this is their first World War.
What I find most amusing is that this is very much the same situation as the attack on the Dakia Capital. The tactic is essentially the same, announce an evacuation and use that as grounds to justify attack. Seeing as this plan was conceived from a report that Tanya drew up I wouldn’t be surprised it the Dakia attack served as inspiration for it. In purely practical terms the plan makes sense as with the empire fighting a war on two fronts, they cannot spare the resources to quell internal conflict. Rather than spend weeks negotiating and fighting off republic mages, just shelling the town with artillery is a faster solution. This is likely the logic Tanya is using to justify this attack and I appreciate that she doesn’t quite take joy in the act itself. She did seem gleeful on the plans introduction to her but I take that as her being satisfied that command tooking her report into heart. In purely logical terms this plan makes sense, but morally it’s absolutely monstrous. Tanya may be able to rationalise it but members of her battalion are showing hesitation. Weiss followed orders but he was so distracted that he didn’t notice that he got shot. But the one to take it the hardest was a solider by the name of Grantz who really didn’t take kindly to firing on civilians. But as Tanya so aptly put it, a soldier does what they are ordered and today’s survivor is tomorrow’s enemy. I half expected Grantz to fire on Tanya but perhaps he is so terrified of her that opposition isn’t even an option. Tanya’s Battlian has been shown so far to be an invincible force so it’s nice to see so cracks forming in their ranks. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder now.
The after credits scene shows something I didn’t quite expect. The return of Anson Sue. I find the reveal to be rather cheap and from what I hear this isn’t what happens in the light novels. Apparently Anson’s death went like the previous episode in that Tanya just killed him offhand and that was that. So it seems that he’s being brought back to give the series an antagonist for Tanya to face in the season finale. While I have misgiving about this I do see it as a good choice. Anson is the closest thing this series has to a human antagonist and with some god power he could prove to make the finale more exciting. However I am worried the series may attempt to make an anime original ending which in my experience rarely turn out well. I still believe that Mary Sue is coming into this story and I would like to see a second season where that could happen. So far all anime original aspects that Studio Nut have added have worked out great for the series. in particular the portrayal of God is leagues better than the source material. So in that regard I hope they manage to pull off Anson as a good antagonist, or perhaps as this episode has shown, maybe he’s the protagonist?
To the topic of WWI, it remains fascinating to know that the world war was triggered by the mere conflicts (the assassination of Franz Ferdinand) between Serbia and Austria-Hungary, then all the big countries tried to get involve in that madness (forgive me if I stated ant facts wrong because all my memories from learning WWI at school had been blurred).
And we Aussie did participate in that war (it’s WORLD war after all), right after the British Empire announced their involvement, in the name of supporting and defending the “Mother Country”. As someone who isn’t British descendant, I actually found there was little to no reason why we would send millions of people into halfway around the world to fight.
And that look from the kid who lost his home at the end is exactly like the look of Eren when he vowed to destroy the Titans. See how Eren become at the end I can really see Tanya’s point of view to kill him NOW.
I am having a hard time getting into this anime for the same reasons as you. Like can she suffer a little bit please? I need attachment! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. And wow! I can’t believe you are so thorough with your commentaries. I also have a blog that I just started and I would love to know if you do collaborations. Thanks!
Let’s give it maybe half a year and if you stick with blogging I will think about a collaboration. This is a pretty thankless job and I have seen many who were fired up to start but lost that as they continued. It takes significantly more time than you would think. I wouldn’t blame you for giving it up.
I liked this episode. I understand what you mean about the series missing the internal dialogues. But I felt this episode gave a bit more build for the battalion, as well as the ruthless thinking of the general staff officers. One think I do not like is how it does name tags. I am Legend of Galactic Hero fan. I like name, tags. But the letters are so small that I cannot hold the names. That said, with some searching I remembered his name. Hans von Zettour (Deputy Chief of Logistics of Imperial GSHQ). I mean we say Tanya is Evil, and she is. But this episode nicely pointed out that the people in charge can give her a run for her money. Which puts her evil in context. Will be interesting to see more development of these guys (Kurt von Rudersdorf, Chief of Operation Imperial GSHQ, i.e the head honcho, and a bit more on Erich von Rerugen, the guy who does not like Tanya. I mean why? She is psycopath? Dude so are your superior officers)
On the theme. There were atrocities committed in WW1. In the western front the Germans were quite terrible in Belgium. For years there was the thinking that a lot of the stories were Allied propaganda , and many of the more lurid ones are. But recent historical research has supported a lot of the more “mundane” ones. The execution of civilians, the torching of villages, taking hostages, executing them for the acts of Belgian resistance fighters etc. Of course things like this were more common in the East, the Balkans, and things were much much worse in the Caucasus front (Not just the Ottoman acts that are well known, but also Russian and Caucasian Armenian ones-Anatolian Armenian ones-Anatolian Armenians tended to only be victims rather than perpetrators).
It’s a pity Tanya doesn’t have a Yang Wen-li to face off against. I honestly wonder what the war hating Yang would think of someone like her. Maybe compare her to dictators of old. In regards to Rerugen I think he sees the danger that Tanya possesses. His superiors see her as a useful pawn but Rerugen sees her as a genuine threat that could usurp the country.plus in a way she is “poisoning” the morality of the empire with her ideas.
With your final sentence, I think you should read about this
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-protagonist-and-hero
Well. You learn something new every day.