#drew tanaka ig shes evil

[catquenn]

Okay, but like the evil characters

[blueiight]

I rmbr bootlegging some cn interviews where he was like. rein & kir’s split on ideological differences was inevitable. n kir woulda died for that regardless bc rein wouldve done something even worse. n it is a major turning pt in kir’s chara arc : his first assertion of a true ‘boundary’ is opposing rein’s most objectionable act, a war crime of untold proportions. its why the westerland incident must be indubitably reinhard’s decision & not an act of oberstein’s ~trickery~ as the ova made it. one oberstein wouldnt even follow reinhard if he was that easily deceived. anyways its the moral breaking point for kircheis, where kircheis cant lie to himself about what his friend has become, and where reinhard shows his true capacity for brutal imperialist power. its interesting 2 me how early on reinhard stopped being a boy aspiring to free his sister & became the transition from feudal space empire on its last legs to a colonialist expansionist space empire, but the end of book2/s1 rly hammers tht in. his childhood friend dies, his sister leaves him, and he does some of his most evil acts. when overthrowing the feudalists creates an even worse system. he embraces being the Great Man. no love. only puppet show generals who have a homoerotic f*scist adjacent obsession w him (while rein is like. i believe in Meritocracy™️) & the gayest woman ever being strongarmed into marriage w her gay overlord boss cuz shes the only woman in proximity to him. which makes reinhard’s slow demise from a degenerative autoimmune disease such a strong narrative decision. the other half in his tale dead, dynasty in the dirt/transitioning to another mode of governance. the great man must confront his humanity. wish it actually went anywhere. whereas yang who is a vaguely ~left~ historian& aware of meta perception/how a Legend is created yet is a reluctant member of the system becomes a Great Man inthe eyes of others. yang’s passivity in the face of blatant encroachment on his authority he never wanted in the first place.. it makes him an amazing character dont get me wrong im not hating lol. but its several key moments where yang’s merits end up holding him back from actually being able to act in the moment or hes forced to act and by then, his actions serve very little purpose bc the government has effectively exiled him. bc he was too busy thinking of the implications& underplaying his own role to where he is ultimately killed haplessly roaming in the face of an enemy invasion. when the general on a peace missive shouldve been protected. his willful ignorance in fear of the power he holds in a failing democracy is to the wider detriment of his camp bc of reinhard’s willful awareness of what he can+will force u to do with his own power. heinessen is kinda silly too tbh cuz its america or some analogue to a 80s first world country w/ very little of the actual failings entailed in the neoliberal model of that era in mind that yang has to face, outside of yang becoming a martyr for revolutionary foppery& whim. v lil true ideological differentation outside of be my dictator (or dick taker? lolz) schonkopf is offered to most of yang’s inner network the way reinhard’s network of admiralty has. ig both rein+ yang’s in universe camps enable the worst traits of their respective hero. n ig bc the audience would be 80s first worlders tanaka felt like that had to go unsaid, or b completely flanderized in the alliance to the point of near parody but um sir. we need some food in alliance town. some complexity. also the ova & dnt goin tf to hell for how they drew sitole & machungo. i think its interesting both of these name indicate some south/ern african space analogue’s lineage n it could b on how south africa was also ingratiated into neoliberalism esp in the case of gen. sitole but alas. the story ends w the whole the legend ends. history began [but history was always in motion my dear author]

Tanaka’s politics in Talking White Boys: The Novel [that inspired the anime] is rly fascinating [not in a good or bad way just a lot 2 unpack dere] and. one day i will take a reread of the novels lol