April 797/488. Since Yang saw right through Reinhard’s plan and warned Bucock in advance about the impending coup d’etat, Bucock is able to st—haha no just kidding, Bucock does literally nothing and Reinhard’s plan goes off without a hitch. Whoops. What Yang somehow failed to predict is that the leader of the newly established National Salvation Military Council is none other than Admiral Dwight Greenhill, aka Frederica’s dad. (Hey, we told you LoGH dads suck…) The one useful thing Bucock managed to do was sneak some paperwork through that gives Yang legal authority to quell any hypothetical military coups, so with that in place to ease his conscience Yang mobilizes his fleet toward Heinessen. Meanwhile, Reinhard and Kircheis stand on the bridge of the Brunhilde holding hands for long enough that the other admirals must have felt they were intruding.
The Yang Fleet
“I can’t imagine the Yang fleet without Lt Greenhill. Just like I can’t imagine the Yang fleet without Rear Admiral Cazellnu or Commodore Schenkopp. Lt Cdr Poplan. Admiral Attenborough. Lt Cdr Konev. Rear Admiral Murai. And so on, many many people. If anyone were missing, it wouldn’t work. Admiral Yang must understand that as well as I do. I know this could be called sentimental, but for me the Yang fleet isn’t simply an organization. Iserlohn is home, and I think a home should hold a family.”
—Julian’s Iserlohn Diary, p. 284
In the animation of the season one ED (which incidentally is one of my personal absolute favorite things in the show) we see Yang and Julian moving through the stars as though on some cosmic conveyor belt while other members of the fleet pass by and greet them. We’ve watched this scene over a dozen times by now, playing out behind the closing credits of almost every episode, a whimsical vision of the group that would come to live together on Iserlohn.
...Or is it so whimsical?
Near the beginning of this episode, set to an instrumental arrangement of the opening theme (the ED itself would have been too on-the-nose, I guess?), the ED animation comes to life on the walkways of Iserlohn: Julian and Yang moving not through the stars but through the fortress, as first Dusty and then Poplan and Konev chat with Julian, under the smile of Frederica and the disapproving glare of Murai. The sequence culminates with the arrival of the Cazellnus, and we have all the clues to know why this is so important: Finally, for the first time, the entire cast of the ED is united on Iserlohn. The family of the Yang fleet is complete.
The Cazellnus
As heralded by this walkway sequence, the focus of this episode is the personalities and relationships that make up the fleet on Iserlohn. So let’s delve a bit into this ragtag cast of characters that Yang’s chosen to assemble, starting with the Cazellnu family.
Total screentime for Hortence ticks up from one second to two! This is for our own protection: If you stare at Hortence Cazellnu for more than an instant at a time, you fall under her thrall and your mental faculties are forever compromised. That’s canon* and explains a lot about Cazellnu.
*See diary quote below...
Aww so cute, Julian playing with Charlotte and her little sister the unfathomable hell-demon whose quest to enslave humanity can only be thwarted by discovering and uttering her true name.....
“Yang kindly calls me a ‘master of cleaning and tidying.’ From his level it might seem that way, but from my point of view Mrs. Cazellnu seems like a ‘white witch.’ [...] When I said this in the morning, Yang nodded emphatically. ‘That must be true. She’s a white witch, and her husband is a dark wizard. After he lost a magical duel, he became her servant forever.’”
—Julian’s Iserlohn Diary, p. 107
I’ll talk more about Hortence and the dynamics of the Cazellnu family when we do finally get to see her for more than one second at a time; for now let’s focus on Alex Cazellnu himself, whose only real role in this episode is to insult Yang at every opportunity. Ahh the bonds of friendship.
Yang claims to be excited that Cazellnu’s there mainly because he can push mountains of paperwork off onto him—Cazellnu’s official post is as some sort of manager of supplies and personnel; but I imagine that for Yang, who’s been thrust into this position of authority that he never really sought, there’s something comforting about filling his inner circle with people who don’t treat him with reverence. Cazellnu is an old friend who, in some ways, sees Yang more clearly than most people do.
Isn’t there a proverb, “children and fools tell the truth”...?
Schenkopp
Hey, isn’t that what I said about Yang when I first introduced him? Schenkopp must be reading Icebergs!
Like Cazellnu, Schenkopp has no qualms speaking his mind to Yang; unlike Cazellnu, who sees Yang as more or less an open book, Schenkopp sees him as a puzzle to be solved. He’s appointed himself Yang’s amateur psychoanalyst, and prods him on issues ranging from Frederica’s feelings to his political aspirations (or lack thereof) to his wishes for Julian’s future.
True to form, Yang responds to this implication that Frederica has feelings for him beyond her role as his adjutant by completely ignoring it and deflecting the conversation to how Schenkopp sees him.
While later on it will be mainly Cazellnu's role to question Yang's decisions about his personal life, it's Schenkopp who questions his political and strategic decisions. Yang's discomfort with the direction of the conversation is very clear on his face.
I've touched briefly before on the fact that Yang is projecting his own feeling of being trapped into the military onto Julian, and that's what Schenkopp is accusing him of here.
Poplan and Konev
“Their personalities seem to be really different, but every time I catch sight of them they’re together, so I guess they’re close.”
—Julian’s Iserlohn Diary, p. 20
We only get a brief glimpse of Poplan and Konev in this episode, but there’s a ton of character in this short exchange: from their synchronized body language, to Konev’s affectionate smirk as he watches Poplan talk to Julian, to Konev’s roasting Poplan using syntactical terms that Poplan doesn’t seem to totally understand. (Konev’s wordplay and love of language is a recurring theme of his character and I totally love it.) We’ve observed their closeness already when Konev calms Poplan down during a stressful battle; here we learn that Konev also does not hesitate to teasingly call Poplan out on his bullshit—in this case, attributing to Julian his own desire for action.
Julian
I agree Julian, that is a really great assessment of the strategic situation.
We’ve seen Julian in the role of caretaker, shadow, and aspiring protector; but this is the first time we really see him in the role of protégé. When Julian points out how difficult it will be to quell four rebellions on different planets at once, Yang responds by asking him for his ideas, then taking his suggestion and filling in the holes.
While Yang is obviously acting as the teacher here (and equally obviously enjoying it), he talks to Julian without condescension; even pointing out the flaws of his original suggestion feels like a sign of respect for him as a serious student of tactics.
The transition from wide-eyed adulation to a much more serious “why yes indeed that does appear strategically sound” face is amazing.
Of course, despite including Julian as a real participant in a conversation about the upcoming campaign, Yang simultaneously still treats him like a kid, ruffling his hair at the end of this conversation just like he did when Julian promised to protect him two episodes ago.
Like a kid or possibly like a puppy, one or the other.
Also mental note: Do not suggest to Julian that Yang might not actually win an impending battle…
“It pisses me off. Despite flattering him with names like ‘Miracle Yang’ and ‘Yang the Magician,’ when push comes to shove they don’t show faith in him. I was so angry, I almost forgot my crucial errand of buying teabags.”
—Julian’s Iserlohn Diary, p. 289
Frederica
TFW you’ve just learned your dad has forcibly overthrown a democratic government.
It’s a rough episode for Frederica. From what we know she seems pretty close to her dad, and perhaps partly because of that she assumes that his role as leader of the coup will throw suspicion on her loyalty.
Lost in translation is the fact that she changes her first-person pronoun, correcting her initial watashi to the more formal/humble shoukan (小官), which emphasizes her formal role here as a military subordinate.
Of course, Yang is way too practical to punish someone for something her father is doing (especially someone whose job saves him a hell of a lot of work), and as both Julian and Schenkopp predict he has no intention of firing her.
We don’t get to see much inside Frederica’s mind about her reaction to her father’s role in the coup, beyond her initial shock; what we do see is overwhelming relief and happiness when she isn’t fired. Between her father and Yang, it’s clear where her current loyalties lie.
Interestingly, Admiral Greenhill himself gets this wrong: He assumes that Yang will have fired Frederica and confined her on Iserlohn, which is part of his rationalization to himself for sending the 11th fleet to fight Yang—they won’t be attacking Frederica because she won’t be there.
...Whoops.
It seems like a minor detail, but Admiral Greenhill failing to predict Yang’s reaction is actually a really nice touch to emphasize the theme—as expressed by Julian’s diary passage that I opened this post with—that there’s something a bit different and more personal about how Yang runs his fleet.
Stray Tidbits
I hope you’ve enjoyed the exclusive Icebergs sneak peek at Julian’s Iserlohn Diary! As I mentioned, the diary, like the novels, is not officially relevant to our analysis, but I really love that the anime team used it to flesh out the dialogue and characterizations in both episode 17 and this episode—it’s more evidence of just how well they did their homework. (And hey, if you want to read the whole diary in English, write to Haikasoru and tell them you know someone who’d love to translate it for them.....)
I never found Admiral Greenhill especially interesting through the whole season so far, but I really love the closing scene of this episode—somehow it gives me chills every time. Acting to minimize harm in a situation with no good options is a pervasive theme of the show; and as Greenhill tries to explain to his wife’s grave, he believes that if someone more hotheaded and extremist were leading this coup, even more damage would be done. It’s an interesting parallel with Yang’s own motives for staying in the military despite opposing the war.
I love how totally useless Bucock was. LoGH is often quite subversive in its plotting, as we’ve discussed, and the anticlimax of Yang going to great lengths to warn Bucock about the coup in advance only to have that be irrelevant is both hilarious and realistic.
This guy makes a valid point.
Might that “someone” be...an octopus?? Come on Hidive subbers, why the censoring?
Next time you shake hands in farewell with someone, try just not letting go for exactly seven seconds. And also look at them with exactly Reinhard’s expression here. Do it. Report back.
You have been blessed with Beautiful Smirking Schenkopp. He will bring you luck in all of your endeavors today.
