Re: ANOTHER BUNCH OF SPOILERS!!! (PRE-WESTERLAND)
Walter Amos (amos@sedl.org)
Wed, 20 Oct 1999 11:37:51 -0500 (CDT)
On Wed, 20 Oct 1999, Sherlyn Lim wrote:
> >Michael Mikulis wrote:
> >
> > > Westerland:
> > > Allowing Westerland to be nuked, saved lives since less people died in
> >the war.> >
>
> Erm, I haven't quite read that far (although I do follow the scripts and
> translations on the Internet) but how do you figure that allowing Westerland
> to be _nuked_ saved lives?
As he said above, Oberstein's main argument for permitting the
destruction was that it would in a moment turn the whole population of
the Empire against the High Nobles and without any support they would
crumble and be defeated quickly. By thus shortening the war so
dramatically, he argued fewerlives would be lost at Westerland than
would have been if the war had dragged on for a prolonged siege of
Fortress Geiersburg, with probably many ships being destroyed. Kind of
similar to the US argument for dropping the bomb on Japan at the end of
WW2 - by bringing the war to a rapid end many more lives, both of US
soldiers and even of Japanese civilians, would be spared. (Since it was
calculated how many US soldiers would probably be killed in a land
invasion of the Home Islands, which would also result in the death of
more Japanese soldiers and civilians on the ground both by direct
conflict as well as through the prolonging of the harsh end-of-war
conditions in which many civilians were homeless and starving).
> Good point. Talking about which, could anyone confirm why does Oberstein
> hate the nobles so much? (since the anime obviously deviates from the manga,
> and I'm not going to get the anime til X-mas...)
There are several reasons:
1) He hates the Goldenbaum dynasty as a whole because, as he put it, if
he had been born in the time of Emperor Rudolf I (founder of the
EMpire) he would probably have been executed due to the "Inferior Genes
Exclusion Law" because of his genetic eye defect.
2) He hates the stupidity and pettiness of many Noble military
commanders such as Admiral Hans Dietrich von Seeckt, his immediate
commander before Reinhard "purchased" him, who basically handed
Iserlohn to the Alliance through his stupidity and ignorance of
Oberstein's sound advice.
3) He knows that, given their druthers, and without Reinhard's
influence, the Nobles would probably have had him tried for desertion
for having the temerity to escape with his life when he saw Seeckt was
flying headlong into destruction.
4) All the other high nobles we see, save for the few who side with
Reinhard, a lot of fat greedy oppressive bastards who treat the
government of the Empire as their personal plaything. Who wouldn't
hate people like that?
> Reinhard stepped in and got him relatively scot-free. Was this the reason
> for his distaste for the nobles? And why he followed Reinhard?
Oberstein wanted to follow Reinhard long before he was "purchased" from
the Imperial military triumvirate that wanted to court-martial him.
Remember in Episode 4 he says to Kircheis "I wish I were blessed with
an excellent commander like yours." He wants to follow Reinhard (a)
because he can see Reinhard is a brilliant commander who doesn't misuse
his troops causing them to throw their lives away needlessly (like
Seeckt), and (b) he can see that underneath Reinhard hates the
Goldenbaum dynasty and the High Nobles as much as he does, and if
Reinhard rises in power will probably overthrow them completely.
Knowing that he himself doesn't have the charisma needed to gain a
following that would fight for him like Reinhard does, Oberstein knows
his best chance of overthrowing the Nobles is to aid Reinhard's rise to
ultimate power.
==============================================================================
"Zu jeder Zeit, an jeder (sic) Ort, bleibt das Tun | Walter Amos
der Menschen das gleiche..." - Galactic Heroes II | amos(at)sedl.org
