What am I to say when the majority of the episode is detailing a military operation? I admit that content has become spare in this series as of late and the Tanya vs God battle has more or less been pushed to the sideline. Tanya had one moment here where it looked like her mission could be a bust but thankfully, her subordinates hits gold. There is a certain joy in seeing a plan come together and this plan had echoes of Hannibal’s tactics during the famous battle of Cannae where he managed to surround a far larger army on all sides and rendered their numbers meaningless. We get a small glimpse of the politics of the empire and it’s clear that the army holds significant sway in decisions. They tried to use the retreat as a means of criticising the army’s leadership, only to have the military succeed and render them all silenced. In a way, Zetter’s genius is scary as the man not only won a war but used that victory as a means of retaining political dominance and shut down criticism of the military. As it is now, I would say that the Empire is only a mere facade of democracy and has become a full blown dictatorship.
Anson returns with a bang as he shoots down Grandz. I have my doubts that he’s actually dead as I didn’t see any blood but this does confirm that Anson is the endboss of this series and I more than welcome someone who could make Tanya try for once. The end credits scene shows why Grandz looked rather awkward when Tanya commented if anyone did anything to Viktoriya. If you wanted to look deeper into it you could theorise a level of indoctrination with Tanya’s men as Viktoriya follows her orders to kill even within her dreams. There are rumors that this show will actually be two cours which I find dubious considering that this episode was delayed as well as the clear production troubles the studio has been having. I would most certainly welcome two cours but if it was going to be the case, I would prefer it to be a split cour so the studio can lick it’s wounds. Former madhouse staff or not, this is still their first production as Studio Nut and the last thing we need is them burning themselves out.
I miss the Tanya vs. God part. Without it something is missing. That said this was a fine episode, that does a great job at showing how massive a blow is the loss of GHQs for even massive armies.
The Hans von Zettour and Kurt von Rudersdorf characters are stand-ins for the Hindenburg-Ludendorff pair in our history. As you guessed by 1917 these guys were the de-facto autocratic rulers of the German Empire. Ludendorff was a highly capable officer (With some disgusting social and political ideas imho) but in the end he doomed his country (and did not have the bloody decency to take the blame. From him does the stabbed in the back theme starts). I wonder how this will play out for von Zettour.
Historical references
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sedan_(1940)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mines_in_the_Battle_of_Messines_(1917)