Literature / Legend of the Galactic Heroes

aka: Legend Of Galactic Heroes

"In every time, in every place, the deeds of men remain the same..."

"There are few wars between good and evil; most are between one good and another good."

— Yang Wen-li

Legend of the Galactic Heroes (Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu) is a series of science fiction novels written by Yoshiki Tanaka, which were originally published from 1982 to 1989 (the main story is compiled into 10 volumes, accompanied by five volumes of side stories). It's also well-known as an enormous, sprawling 110-episode (plus side stories) Space Opera anime originally released on home video, preceded by the film My Conquest is the Sea of Stars. (It is, therefore, the longest-running OVA of all time, although it was later shown on TV.)

The meat of the story is this: sometime in the 36th century (the narrative of the main series takes place between January 3596 and July 3601), humanity has spread out amongst the stars and has split off into two great superpowers which are now sadly engaged in a decades-long knock-down, drag-out war with each other. Fighting in the forces of the Galactic Empire (whose government and society are based on 19th century Prussia) is the ambitious young noble named Reinhard von Müsel, better known by the name granted to him later, Reinhard von Lohengramm. Fighting for the opposing Free Planets Alliance (a government that resembles a crumbling, bloated 20th-century democracy) is Yang Wen-li, an easygoing historian who only reluctantly joined the military because he was broke. Together, these two men, both tactical geniuses, are destined for greatness. They become the series' titular Galactic Heroes.

The story is crammed with detail. It's also crammed with characters, from the big players at the top of the government to the lowly farmers and grunt soldiers at the bottom who get everything done. There are so many, in fact, that each episode always shows a character's name when they first show up on screen in case you forgot who they were. The series is also filled with Character Development and dissertations on themes like authoritarianism versus democracy and takes inspiration from many real-life historical empires to form the basis of its background.

For a long time, no part of the franchise was released in America until Anime Expo 2015, when Viz Media licensed the original novels and Sentai Filmworks licensed the OVA which is now available on Hidive. (A noble yet feeble attempt at licensing a dub version of the anime was made many years earlier, but no one bit, and thus the only way the series was accessible in English until then was via Fan Sub.)

In 2015 a new manga adaptation of the novels began in Weekly Young Jump, by Ryu Fujisaki of Hoshin Engi and Shiki fame.

A new anime adaptation by Production I.G, subtitled Die Neue These, began releasing in April 2018. It is being billed as a new adaptation of the novels, rather than a remake of the OVA series.

Compare and contrast the Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov for a different take on the challenges of moving humanity forward on a galactic scale.

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Legend of the Galactic Heroes provides examples of:

A-C

• Absent Aliens: There not even alien flora or fauna on any of the planets, save for the greenery on Heinessen before the first settlers of the FPA arrived there or the ancient ruins seen in the very first episode.
• Adaptation Distillation:
  • The original anime adaptation, while closely following the main plotline of the original novels, re-ordered a couple of sub-plots (e.g. "The Klopstock Incident" and "The Actress Exits") and character chronological appearances as well as fixing a number of awkward dialogues and filling in details which were absent in the novels (such as the names of some warships). Most notably, the anime introduced the concept of Iserlohn Fortress having liquid metal armor, which is arguably much more memorable than the Death Star-esque solid metal fortress in the novels.
  • Die Neue These, meanwhile, similarly tries to follow the original novels, but distills various elements in the original OVAs, both to cover as much of the story within fewer episodes, and to come across as more fluid plot-wise.
• Adaptation Expansion: At the same time some situations are given much more attention in the anime adaption than in the books. The entire situation of the Alliance invading Imperial space and trying to liberate and supply the population lasts a few pages at most. In the anime an episode was created focusing on an Alliance officer helping to grow crops and bonding with a town's mayor and his daughter. Once the supply lines are destroyed and the Alliance need to seize back their supplies the situation becomes far more harrowing.
• The Aggressive Drug Dealer:
  • The Earth Church will spike the food and beverages of pilgrims to their headquarters with the highly addictive Thyoxin to transform them into mindless slaves. And if they catch up, the Church will just bring them to the infirmary and forcefully addict them there.
  • Some of the side stories reveal that Thyoxin dealing was also a problem within the Imperial Fleet, with some officers pushing it on their soldiers to keep them compliant.
• Alternative Calendar: The Empire uses a calendar that began with Rudolf von Goldenbaum's coronation, the "Imperial Calendar" or in gratuitous German, "Reich Calendar" (RC) With Reinhard's coronation they take the opportunity to reset the calendar and begin a new era. The Alliance resurrected the calendar used by the old Galactic Federation, the Universal Calendar (UC).
• Almighty Janitor: A downplayed, but accurate trope for Yang's fleet later on in the story. Due to certain circumstances, many notable soldiers who should be of much higher rank are unable to get promoted.
• Ambition Is Evil: Played both ways. Reinhard is directly compared to Rudolf von Goldenbaum. Both are/were brilliant yet frustrated with current conditions, but Rudolf's ambition drove him to declare himself Emperor. As an inversion, Reinhard's ambition that stems from his desire to reform The Empire and protect his big sister is shown as a positive trait. He doesn't live long enough to succumb to Motive Decay, though.
  • Yang lacks ambition for power, money, and things like that and he is shown to be more humane and moral than Reinhard. Reinhard is a virtuous guy but sometimes his ambitions make him do some more questionable things.
  • On the other hand, Yang's complete lack of personal ambition mixed with his reluctance to set himself up as any sort of dictator, even a benevolent one, leaves him constantly hamstrung by the Alliance's politicians, which ultimately results in the Alliance's destruction. It's left up to the viewer to decide whether Yang's principled stance or Reinhard's pragmatism made for the greater man.
• Ancient Conspiracy: The Earth Church has apparently been using Fezzan to manipulate both the Empire and the Alliance for generations.
• Animal Motifs: One of the games has two little omake parodies of the Momotarou story, one for the Empire's side and one for the Alliance's side, in which the characters are wearing animal costumes (with the exception of Reinhard and Julian who play the role of Momotarou). In the Empire version, Kircheis is a dog (and can't say anything other than "Yes, Annerose-sama/Reinhard-sama"), Reuenthal is an eagle, Mittermeyer is a wolf, Bittenfeld is a tiger and Oberstein is a bat. In the Alliance version, which sticks a little closer to the Momotarou story, Attenborough is a dog, Schönkopf is a monkey and Poplin is a pheasant... and Karin is the Queen of the demons.
  • In the series proper there are quite a few, too. Mittermeyer's title of Gale Wolf, the Lohengramm Dynasty's winged lion and Bittenfeld's flagship Königstiger, just to name three.
• Animation Bump:
  • Episode 7, the first capture of Iserlohn Fortress, is noticeably better produced and animated than all preceding and many later episodes.
  • For the OVAs, the DVD editions onward feature redone animated scenes spliced with original, albeit sharpened footage, which while consistent can be jarring at times.
• Anyone Can Die: Characters die, often unexpectedly, regardless of their minor or main status. Of the speaking roles in the first episode only a few characters live to see the finale. (A number don't make it past the second episode.)
• The Apocalypse Brings Out the Best in People: Walter Islands starts out as a sleazy low life buying the Secretary of Defense position to enrich himself. When Reinhard invades he realizes that if he doesn't step up and do his job the FPA will fall, prompting him to shape up and ultimately become a much more honorable politician, actively helping Yang.
• Armchair Military: Many of the Alliance army's top brass who got there by smooching posterior. In the Empire under the Goldenbaum dynasty, many nobles got command positions because they were from the right families.
• Artificial Limbs: Cybernetic replacement limbs for amputees are apparently quite common in the setting, but offer no obvious advantage over natural ones. Wahlen gets one of these when his left arm had to be amputated due to an assassination attempt.
• Artistic License – Physics: The liquid metal shell of Iserlohn fortress somehow clings to the surface of the space station. However, unlike the Death Star, this underlying structure isn't a solid sphere but a spherical frame. The battle station does not rotate so there is not indication of how the liquid metal holds its shape and adheres to all of the empty space between the structural components.
• Ascended Fangirl: Frederica Greenhill joined the Alliance military in part due to Yang's exploits in El Facil. To work alongside and eventually marry him must have been a dream come true for her.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: During the Third Battle of Tiamat, this was Vice-Admiral Holland's main battle plan, which he called "revolutionary tactics". While it worked for sometime, when he refused to withdraw and his fleet reached a breaking point for overextending themselves, Reinhard and his fleet obliterated him with a single barrage.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Played straight AND subverted. In both sides of the conflict, there's people who use their authority for heavy loads of badassery and people whose authority is actually a detriment to their society. Reinhard von Lohengramm, Yang Wen-li and their subordinates are examples of the former. Job Trunicht, the former Imperial nobility and some particularly incompetent military officers on both sides are examples of the later.

• Axe-Crazy: Ovlesser. Reuenthal remarks that "he's a man who was born to beat people to death." Bonus points for wielding an actual battle-axe.

• Badass Adorable: Julian starts the series as a cute boy, ends it as a blond-haired pretty boy. You would never suspect the things he can do with an axe, ESPECIALLY if you push his Berserk Button. Some of his achievements include:
  • Joining the army while still in his teens.
  • Taking down myriad enemy fighters and a battle cruiser on his first actual space flight, which was during a training exercise.
  • Serving as Yang's liaison in Fezzan and managing to escape the planet during an imperial invasion and capturing an enemy ship while doing it.
  • Being commissioned as a lieutenant while still in his teens.
  • Going to Earth and not only assisting in the taking down of the Earth Church’s headquarters and revealing many of their conspiracies, but also doing it while suffering from drug withdrawal.
  • Participating with the Rosenritter in taking Iserlohn a second time, and distinguishing himself in said battle.
  • Becoming Yang Wen-li's successor after his death.
  • Avenging Yang Wen-li's death with his own hands.
• Badass Army: The Rosenritter, General Schönkopf's motley crew of infantry badasses. They're so infamous, they've actually gotten out of ambushes by saying "We're the Rosenritters" and the enemy turning tail.
• Badass Bookworm:
  • Yang Wen-li. He had dreadful grades in the military academy, but that's mostly because he never wanted to be a soldier, he wanted to be a HISTORIAN. And in practice, he's formidable on BOTH accounts: he's a strategic genius without equal and his knowledge of history allows him to second-guess the enemy's motivations and strategies easily.
  • Julian takes after his father figure. He is quite the bookworm, frequently studying up on historyand tactics, but you do not want to face his fury, as he is quite capable as both a fleet commander and in close combat.
• Badass Cape: In the OVA, the Imperial Fleet Admirals wear these.
• Badass Normal: When the Rosenritters board his flagship, Oskar von Reuenthal comes face to face with Walter von Schönkopf. The former is a career naval officer wearing only his regular uniform and carrying a service pistol, the latter is the battle-hardened commander of an elite unit of infantry with a fearsome reputation wearing armour and wielding an axe. Reuenthal still manages to dodge or parry all his attacks and cleave the axe in half with a shot from his pistol, helped by having saw a lot of close physical combat before his promotion to higher ranks.
• Balance of Power:
  • At the beginning of the series the Empire and the Free Planets Alliance are relatively equally matched, with the semi-independent domain of Fezzan serving as the fulcrum for the balance — militarily it's weak compared to the other two, but its strategic and economic importance guarantee that if one of the bigger powers moves against it, the other will come to its aid and gain the upper hand.
  • In the novel, it is stated that the Empire can overwhelm the Alliance through gradual attrition, but would have excessive difficulties if Fezzan was to side with the Alliance. On the other hand, both Fezzan and the Alliance cannot hope to conquer the Empire even if they were on the same side.
• Batman Gambit: Almost everything Yang and Reinhard do is based on their ability to predict what the other side will do. Example In order to take Iserlohn again (taking advantage of the trap he left the first time) Yang proceeds to send contradictory fake orders to the commander, on the assumption that the commander will believe that the real orders are the ones to stay in the base (they aren't, but even Yang doesn't know that). He further assumes that the commander will assume it's a trap to get him to leave the fortress (it is; he does), and that he will leave anyway in an attempt to trap Yang's fleet (which he assumes Yang will send to the fortress as soon as he leaves; he does) between the fortress and its defense fleet. This all happens. The only thing the commander failed to realize, is that Yang planted a code in the fortress the last time he abandoned it, which allows him to disable the fortress, and capture it.
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: In one of the historical documentary episodes, the naked bodies of fallen soldiers have conspicuous shadows obscuring their crotches. At least people have nipples, even though they are rarely seen.
• Beam Spam: Alliance ships are particularly prone to this tactic, having up to eighty beam cannons mounted at the bow.
  • The theory among fans is that the beam cannons on Imperial ships are more powerful where the Alliance relies on multiple, but less powerful, beam cannons, which would explain the 6 cannons on Imperial battleships in comparison to the 32 cannons on Alliance battleships.
  • In fact, this is due to the Alliance's preference for large numbers of medium-range cruiser-caliber guns on their flagships, whereas their battleships prefer eight large-caliber, long-range cannons, putting them on par with Imperial battleships. Some long-range flagships are built, with range rivaling that of their Imperial counterparts.
• Bearer of Bad News:
  • During the Admirals meeting in the wake of Kircheis's death and Reinhard's Heroic BSoD, one of the admirals asks about delivering the news to Annerose. Cue the awkward silence. Thankfully for them, Oberstein already did it.
  • When delivering the news of Yang Wen-li's death to Frederica. Julian and Schönkopf first ask Ms. Cazelnes to do it for them, but she insists that Julian will have to do it himself. Julian's reluctance to spitting the matter out is what tips off Frederica to what news he brings: it is the only thing she can think of that would be that difficult for Julian to speak up about.
• Been There, Shaped History: It's mentioned in the backstory that Alexander Bewcock served under the nigh-legendary Bruce Ashbey back in his youth.
• Berserk Button: Never insult Annerose in Reinhard's presence.
• Better to Die than Be Killed:
  • Alliance Vice Admiral Borodin, during the Battle of Amritsar, upon finding out that his fleet has been reduced to eight ships, pauses only momentarily before using his service pistol to blow his own brains out.
  • Merkatz was going to shoot himself Schneider talked him into defecting to the Alliance instead.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • Yang is a nice guy and a great drinking buddy, who does not like war and does not even enjoy being good at it. No matter what you do to him, his worst reaction will be a snarky remark. It takes no less than 73 episodes (four years in story), to finally make him snap: the result is bloody. Yang's foster child Julian is also guilty of this: he starts as a cute boy, but he knows kung-fu and heaven take pity of you if you push his berserk button. Also, the ladylike Annerose smashes a would-be assassin's face with a thrown statuette when he threatens her and Hildegard.
  • Mittermeyer, who is pretty laid-back most of the time, snaps spectacularly when he realizes who set Reuenthal up for betrayal.
• Big Damn Heroes: In such a series, this trope is inevitable. One notable example happened in episode 22 during the later stages of the Imperial Civil War, when Willibald Joachim von Merkatz sets off with the last of the Lippstadt League’s forces from Geiersberg Fortress to rescue his Miles Gloriosus superior (and leader of the Lippstadt League) just before his ship was destroyed by Reinhard’s forces.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • Not THE ending to the series, but A ending: during Reinhard von Lohengramm's coronation as Kaiser of the Empire, he was heartbroken that the two people he most wanted to be there with him, Siegfried Kircheis and his sister, were not present.
  • The actual ending is rather bittersweet, with Reinhard dying, and Mittermeyer's "You too, Felix?" This is also present with a peace treaty signed, but the question of whether the Empire will begin incorporating constitutionalism into its political structure left open. On the other hand, Julian managed to negotiate an autonomous democracy from the Empire, but its status still remains ambiguous at the end of the story.
• Bland-Name Product: A short introduction to Iserlohn Fortress in Episode 17 features a movie poster for "Gone With the Sun"
• Bling of War:
  • Apparently the guiding principle of the Empire in Legend of the Galactic Heroes; its highest-ranking admirals sport full capes (in unique colors) and field marshals' batons. Their insignia are embroidered on the uniforms. In real silver thread. It goes from rather simple patterns for junior officers to the ornate tapestries just short of the flak vest for admirals. You see, the Empire really dug that ceremony thing.
  • Defied by the Alliance, which goes instead for Boring Yet Practical. Its officers and staff generally wear more-or-less the same utilitarian service uniform. At least on paper, this is meant to reflect the FPA's egalitarianism and meritocracy, with the most noticeable difference being the number of ribbons or medals on their jackets. It's suggested as well that the general design hasn't changed in generations.
• Blood Knight: It's subtle but Fahrenheit himself is a self-admitted one. In the Overture to a New War movie, as his fleet is moving to attack, he declares that he doesn't care who gets the glory for this victory as long as he gets to fight and lead men into battle. Some have considered him to be a more quiet and reserved Bittenfeld.
• Boarding Party: Occurs several times, from taking Iserlohn Fortress by a ruse, to several more direct approaches. Combat can be assumed as vicious, and the boarding party's success is variable, since due to the usage of Seffle particles (an explosive gas-like particle that prohibits the use of ranged weapons in its presence) the favored weapon for most infantry engagements are two-handed battle axes. Except when Walter von Schönkopf Or his favorite student, protégé, and eventual son-in-law Julian Mintz is commanding. His success as a boarder can be only compared to his fame as a ladies' man.
• Boisterous Bruiser:
  • Bittenfeld has elements of this, being the aggressive leader of the Black Lancers and of muscular build. But his attitude and habit of attacking without orders does earn him the dislike of some admirals, namely Wahlen and Oberstein.
  • Schönkopf also loves taunting his enemies right before sending them to their grave.
• Booby Trap: How Reuenthal and Mittermeyer catch Ovlesser.
  Reuenthal: The best way to capture a beast is to use a trap. And such a clichéd trap was enough to catch a simpleton like you.
• The Bore: The fourth kaiser of the empire, Otfried I, nicknamed "the Ashen Man", was known for his serious and austere personality as well as having very few interests besides his schedules, giving him the capability of "boring both the people of the present and the future".
• Boring, but Practical: The designs of the Alliance ships are more blocky and utilitarian than Imperial ships, but they are formidable and you underestimate them at your peril.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Ashbey for the Alliance is revealed to be a subversion. Yang's investigation into his backstory as well as the use of history in vilifying/vindicating figures becomes a major plot point.
  • Dwight Greenhill becomes one especially for Frederica over his role in a military coup against the Alliance government.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer:
  • You would never guess how deadly Yang, this social misfit, borderline alcoholic, unable-to-keep-his-own-house-in-order-without-the-help-of-his-foster-child slob, can be when he is not commanding his army.
  • On the Imperial side, Eisenach is a mild example of this. He speaks so rarely that some of the other admirals assume he is mute, and commands through gestures that his adjutant translates into spoken orders.
  • Chung Wu-Cheng is a bit of one as well, supporting sound military advice with examples of popping stale bread in the oven to freshen it up.
• Call-Forward: Crossing with Tempting Fate, but in episode 6 of Die Neue These, Yang tells Schonkopf that if they capture Iserlohn, everything will be fine for the Alliance as long as they don't do something stupid like ordering a counter-invasion, which is exactly what they did in the original series.
• Camp Gay: The sales assistant in the clothing store Julian visits on Fezzan.
• The Casanova:
  • Olivier Poplin and Walter von Schönkopf turn this into an outright contest. Walter's been at this long enough to have an illegitimate daughter, Katerose von Kreutzer, in the same fleet.
  • Reuenthal is also infamous for this, though less so in the anime than in the novel.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: A large majority of the characters are male and while their designs vary, the most important ones(Yang, Reinhard and their closest allies) are notably the most young and good looking.
• Casual Interstellar Travel: Partially averted; though large fleets move through space with seeming ease, it does take quite a bit of time. Reinhard's flight from Urvashi to Fezzan is stated to take three weeks. It is also stated that the logistical cost of building and maintaining such fleets is enormous: The Empire has several gigantic fleets and artificial worlds/fortresses that would make Emperor Palpatine nod approvingly, but at the price of leaving many of its planet underdeveloped; the Free Planet Alliance does not fare much better: the constant state of war is taking the best engineers and the most apt workers away from civilian life, not counting the huge amount of resources spent on maintaining the Alliance's fleets: Fezzan is the most prosperous planet in The 'Verse precisely because it does not have to spend so much of its resources to build and maintain huge starfleets.
• Central Theme: Responsibility. The series makes it clear that part of the reason monsters like Rudolf, The High Nobility and Job Trunicht managed to get power, is because the people wanted somebody else to fix their problems.
  • It extends to other aspects of life too. A commander simply focuses on doing his job? He will most likely be rewarded and promoted. He chooses ambition? He will pay with his life.
  • If you don't like the world as it is, it is your job to contribute to changing it. Standing on the sidelines complaining is always the wrong move.
  • Which is better? A democracy that, despite its failings, gives average people the chance to perform real change? Or an authoritarian dictatorship that accomplishes great deeds at the cost of destroying individual freedoms and liberties within the common citizen? The answer is actually somewhere in the middle- the series ends with the Empire securing a near-complete victory, but the actions of many InternalReformists will likely transform the government from an authoritarian monarchy to a constitutional monarchy, ultimately giving the best of both worlds.
• The Chains of Commanding: Whether in the military or politics, many of the major characters feel the burdens that come with leading armies and whole nations to costly battles.
• Chaste Hero: Both Reinhard and Yang remain this until fairly late in the series, even though they should have had plenty of opportunity to engage in romance earlier.
  • With Yang it's strongly implied that he loved Jessica Edwards, but didn't pursue her after she chose Lapp.
  • It is also implied that Yang was attracted to Frederica Greenhill early in the series but doesn't return her feelings because he felt that with all of the blood he's shed and all the orphans and widows he's made, he didn't deserve familial happiness.
• Cheerful Child: The daughters of the Cazelnes.
• The Chessmaster: Oberstein, Rubinsky, Trunicht...
• Chessmaster Sidekick:
  • Reinhard has Kircheis, extremely talented and utterly loyal to his Reinhard-sama. Reinhard trusts him so much that he goes as far as saying that talking to Kircheis is the same as talking to him. Later, Hilda becomes Reinhard's Chessmaster Sidekick and she manages to beat Yang at his own game, saving Reinhard in the nick of time, and demonstrating that she is the smartest Chess Master in a series full of them, way to go, Fräulein.
  • Yang is also at heart a Chessmaster Sidekick: he could become the Alliance chairman: his popularity is so high that he would probably be elected in a landslide, and he would make a better leader for the Alliance, (simply because, he actually listens to those beneath him), but nope, he chooses to not be in charge.
• Childhood Friends: Reinhard von Lohengramm and Siegfried Kircheis had a bromance as epic as the title of the show. Their shared childhood memories were commonly shown in flashbacks.
• A Child Shall Lead Them:
  • Erwin Josef II, who ascends the Galactic Throne at the age of five after the death of Friedrich IV. Also, his successor, Kaiserin Catherine, who is only 8 months old at the time of her ascension. Neither of them stay in power for long, however.
  • Technically, Reinhard's son Alexander Siegfried. But the real power lies in the hand of Kaiserin-Regent Hildegard, and Reinhard explicitly asks her to remove their son's right to rule or to move to democracy if she finds it necessary.
• Chokepoint Geography: (Well, "geography" isn't strictly accurate, but...) The Iserlohn and Fezzan Corridors are effectively the only "safe" routes of contact between the Alliance and the Empire, making them incredibly important strategically to both powers. Fezzan in particular is able to exert incredible amounts of influence by acting as a neutral middleman, relying on the balance of power to protect itself.
• Cincinnatus: Yang Wen-li has no political ambitions whatsoever. Despite the opportunity being practically offered to him on a silver platter on multiple occasions, he consciously and strenuously refuses to take advantage of his status as one of the Alliance's most able and best loved commanders to make himself a dictator.
• City of Spies: As the ostensibly neutral third party between two major superpowers, Fezzan essentially serves as a Planet of Spies. Fezzan's government plays into the role by subtly exerting its influence within both the Alliance and the Empire to keep them both at one another's throats.
• Civil War: On both sides, practically at the same time. The Empire's resulted in a change of regime that invigorated its stagnant society. The Alliance's resulted in needlessly lost human life and a weakening of the morale of its populace and military. Reinhard actually engineered the Alliance coup by means of a patsy so that he could concentrate on suppressing the Empire's rebellion without needing to worry about securing the border.
• Close on Title: Standard for the series, since many episode titles risk being Spoiler Titles otherwise.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: In the Imperial military, medical personnel can be recognized by their white uniforms, and the rarely seen female staff wear blue, possibly indicating that they are considered auxiliaries rather than full-blown soldiers. Oddly enough, both naval personnel and ground forces wear the same black uniforms.^note Explained in the original books; in the LOGH universe, both naval and ground forces have been subsumed within a unified command structure rather than existing as separate branches.
  • Also, Bittenfeld's fleet are referred to as "The Black Lancers" and the hulls of their starships and ground vehicles are painted black rather than the standard dark grey. No other Imperial fleet does anything similar (though custom colored ships exist, such as Reinhard's Brünhild and Müller's Parcivale, both shiny white, and Kircheis' Barbarossa which is red).
  • When Kircheis and Yang are signing the exchange of POWs, Kircheis uses a red pen while Yang uses a blue pen — as per their hair colour.
  • In the Die Neue These remaster, Imperial ships fire red lasers, while Alliance ships fire blue lasers, to make the space battles easier to follow.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Episode 31 is dedicated to this trope; after successfully putting down a coup, Yang gets put through the wringer by civilian government for trashing the orbital defenses in doing so. He has to explain that he did it because he was worried the coup would execute the civilian government unless he broke through as fast as possible.
• Conscription: Both sides resort to drafting soldiers to keep their numbers up, but in an interesting subversion, the Empire actually has a much easier time getting volunteers to join after Reinhard von Lohengramm assumes control of the Imperial military.
• Cool Old Guy: Merkatz, Bewcock.
• Cool Ship:
  • Main characters (particularly in the Empire side) get their own custom Shiny-Looking Spaceships, the most obvious ones being Reinhard's bright white flagship, the Brunhilde, and Siegfried Kircheis's bright red flagship, the Barbarossa. On the Alliance side, the most unique example in Nguyen Van Thieu's flagship, the Maurya, which is seen painted with tiger stripes. Now consider that these ships are about 800 to 1000 meters long...
  • The Ulysses (Pennant number 913-D) is a standard Alliance battleship with no bells attached. What makes it special is that its career surpasses that of most flagships appearing in the series, and it eventually becomes a flagship itself near the end. In-Universe it is regarded as a lucky ship for surviving all of its encounters with the enemy virtually undamaged.
• Cool Versus Awesome: The Battle of Vermilion. It's the first battle where Yang and Reinhard face off directly as top-level commanders of their respective fleets, and the only battle where they're both on relatively equal terms. Watching two of the most brilliant leaders in the entire series having to play at the absolute top of their game simply to stay alive against the other is one of the highlights of the series.
• Corralled Cosmos: Regions of space that are "untraversable" for one reason or other restrict fleet movements, which in turn affects both strategy and tactical maneuvering.
• Covert Group with Mundane Front:
  • Fezzan is intended to be this for the Earth Church, though only a handful know of its true masters. In practice however, Fezzan under Adrian Rubinsky is a Renegade Splinter Faction that serves his interests, as much as he feigns neutrality to every faction.
  • While less "Mundane" and more "Militia," the Patriotic Knights Corps, aka Trunicht's private paramilitary group are also this to the Terraists.
• Creepy Monotone: Does Paul von Oberstein ever sound anything BUT sinister?
• Curtains Match the Window: Played straight with most of the characters. Subverted with Oberstein, whose clear blue artificial eyes top the sundae of his creepiness, though in the books he has light brown eyes.

D-F

• Dangerous Deserter: Yang Wen-li is seen as this after he escapes from prison and reunites with the Merkatz fleet. This is another testament to the Alliance government's utter stupidity.
• Days of Future Past:
  • High technology abounds, but The Galactic Empire looks more like Versailles than The Future. The people running it also tend to dress like 18th century aristocracy. You'll also see people dressing in togas and in 20th century fashions —which you'd think would have become quite passe by the 35th century. It's Prussian fashion sense has a distinct cause - its founder was a German FanBoy.
  • Both Reinhard and Hildegard, possibly other characters as well, are seen to write with quill pens. Retro fashion is one thing, but that particular choice seems rather impractical. The relatively broad strokes of the letters seem to rule out this being normal pens that look like quills, and in any case normal fountain pens are seen elsewhere.
• Decadent Court: The irony is that it self-destructs via the Lippstadt Rebellion.
• Dead Partner:
  • When Yang's old friend and mentor figure of sorts Alexander Bewcock gets killed during a desperate battle he has started to give Yang enough time to organize his own troops, Yang reacts by crushing a plastic goblet and by stopping being lazy, and when a character that has remained undefeated against the local galactic empire despite overwhelming odds while being drunk half of the time and sleeping the other half stops being lazy, going after him is not recommended.
  • Also, Kircheis whose death sends Reinhard into his first Heroic BSoD.
  • And there's Mittermeyer who does his best to take Reuenthal's death in stride, but he still cries on the way home, to the shock of his officers.
• Death Is Dramatic: Played very straight. If a character that's not very important dies, it's only barely acknowledged. When a MAJOR character dies, the character's death can be felt throughout the entire series, i.e. Siegfried Kircheis.
• Death of a Child: When the Terraist base is invaded in episode 106, many of them commit suicide by poisoning and several children can be seen dead on the floor.
• Defensive Feint Trap: A favorite tactic of the Alliance. Yang Wen-li's so great at using them that Imperial admirals facing him actually consider RETREATING when he goes on the defensive.
• Deflector Shields: The shields on ships are effective at longer range, but once ships start getting closer their use is greatly diminished.
• Delaying Action: Another favorite tactic of the Alliance. In fact, the Empire much prefers starting with the advantage and keeping it than using lesser numbers in any situation, although they will use it if needed.
• Democracy Is Flawed: The show spends a lot of time showing that democracy at its best is nowhere near as good as the best that can be done with an iron fist, but it also is unlikely to sink quite as low. The Free Planets Alliance is corrupt to the core, but people still can talk about it without being sent to GULAG. The Empire is becoming a great place to live, but this follows a period of despotism. The chief takeaway point seems to be that neither government form is necessarily better or worse than the other, but the quality of both is ultimately dependent on the virtue and wisdom of those who ultimately hold the reins — and that if a "government of the people" allows itself to be seduced and deluded by the corrupt and venal, then it's the electorate's own fault for allowing it by not holding their leadership accountable.
• Depopulation Bomb: Mankind was hit hard by one between the birth of the Empire, when the total population was 300 billion, and the series, when Empire, Alliance and Fezzan together have a measly 40 billion.
• Depraved Homosexual: A Goldenbaum emperor kept a choir of teenage castratos. He eloped with his favourite singer and was never heard from again. However, this emperor might actually have been the most sympathetic member of this wretched family: he did not like his role as a supposedly ruthless emperor, refused to go along his chancellor plans for an arranged political marriage and eventually abdicated from the throne to be with his boyfriend.
• Despair Event Horizon: The would-be assassin who tries to kill Reinhard for failing to save the population of Westerland suffers this when Oberstein takes responsibility for the affair and informs him that NOT letting it happen would mean that the Lippstadt War would have dragged on for longer and at least five times as many people would have been killed. The assassin kills himself in his cell the very next day.
• Deuteragonist: Yang Wen-li is the second viewpoint character and thus fits the role of deuteragonist.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Used by many characters with varying justifications. Whether it's Reinhard allowing Westerland to be nuked or Dwight Greenhill choosing to lead the coup that triggers the Alliance Civil War.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight:
  • Happens a few times, but the most straight playing of the trope is Siegfried Kircheis dying in Reinhard von Lohengramm's arms.
  • There's a painful subversion as well: mortally wounded and resigned to die, Reuenthal keeps clinging to life to see his dearest friend Mittermeyer one last time. Finally he dies only an hour or so before Mittermeyer arrives.
• Doomed Moral Victor: Jessica Edwards succeeds in becoming a symbol of hope within the Alliance even after being beaten to death in a protest. Eventually, Yang Wenli becomes one as well for the resistance following his death.
• Dress-Coded for Your Convenience: Alliance=20th century Western-style civilian wear and beret-borne military uniforms. Empire=19th century Prussian-based military uniforms and noble wear. Fezzan=20th century European-style evening wear.
• Driven to Suicide: It's not rare for officials to kill themselves in shame or in defeat.
  • Helmut Lennenkampf, Admiral Borodin, Oskar von Reuenthal (and his mother), Hans Eduard Bergengrün... This series drives many people to off themselves.
  • Merkatz got about ''this'' close.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Jessica Edwards, who gets her head bashed in by the footsoldiers of the coup d'etat at a political rally. She effectively becomes a martyr for the cause and later we see a statue of her in Heinessenpolis.
• Drugs Are Bad: Thyoxin imparts to its user an incredible sense of euphoria, but is also an extremely potent hallucinogen (with one confirmed case of addicted soldiers firing prematurely and ruining an ambush, getting an Imperial Fleet defeated with over 60% losses) and teratogen (meaning that not only it will harm the user, but their offspring will have severe birth deformities).
• Drunk with Power: Rudolf von Goldenbaum could be interpreted to be this; he originally ran for public office in order to reform the old Galactic Federation, and it is certainly possible that his despotic and eugenistic tendencies developed later.
• During the War: When the series started, the war was already going on for over 150 years.
• Dying Alone: The last person one would expect.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Denied for most characters, but there are a few exceptions...
• Earth That Used to Be Better: Though it straggles into Earth That Was territory. By the time the series takes place, Earth had long since become a derelict backwater, most people in fact not paying much attention outside of it being humanity's homeworld. The backstory explains why things got that way. To wit, after a few centuries under an increasingly decadent and authoritarian One World Order, the off-world colonies rebelled against Earth. The ensuing conflict would culminate in the Black Flag fleet bombarding the planet and wiping out Earth's leadership once and for all. Though it's mentioned as well that further infighting and the breakdown of order across the planet afterwards sealed Earth's fate as a barely habitable backwater, from which the Terraists would emerge.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After all the hardships they have endured and losing many comrades along the way (including their leader, Yang Wen-li), the remaining republicans managed to negotiate with the Empire and get the best outcome they could have aimed for: an autonomous starzone where democracy can survive. Heavily implied that they even influenced the Empire to turn it into a constitutional monarchy in the future.
• Easy Logistics:
  • Generally averted: the starfleets are dependent on regular resupply and both sides are adversely affected when the opposition shoots down their supply fleets during the invasions of enemy territory.
  Reinhard: "People tend to take supply lines lightly. But do not forget that cutting supply lines is the most effective method to make the enemy retreat."
  • After the first fall of Iserlohn the Alliance's economy is on the verge of falling apart from the strain of supporting the war.
  • A few influential Alliance military planners assume this is the case, or at least that any difficulties will be easily rectified by foraging supplies from Imperial worlds, when drawing up plans for an ambitious invasion of Imperial space. Unfortunately for them, Reinhard employs scorched-earth tactics specifically to deny them that option.
• Egopolis: Subverted by Free Planets Alliance capital planet Heinessen and the capital city Heinessenpolis: while they are named after Arle Heinessen (leader of the colonists that founded the Alliance) and Heinessen's giant statue dominates Heinessenpolis' skyline, the names were chosen by his successor Nguyen Kim Hua, as Heinessen had died during the journey.
• Elite Mooks: The Alliance's Rosenritters are a group of these, formed from exiled, disgruntled Imperials. Though in general, this trope applies to those wearing armor.
• End of an Age: At the end of the series a peace treaty is concluded and the galaxy apparently enters an era of peace and stability under the Lohengramm dynasty. Characters even talk about how there will be little need for heroics and derring-do in the years to come.
• Entertainingly Wrong: High ranking officials in both the Alliance and Imperial government are absolutely convinced that Yang Wen-li is the second coming of Rudolf von Goldenbaum, in that just like Rudolf, he is a talented military commander that got rapidly promoted due to his skill in battle, command a lot of respect and support amongst both the troops under his command and the common people, and has openly express his frustration at the current government leadership. They believe that even if he has no intention of overthrowing the government, eventually popular pressure from both the people and those around him will make him into an such inspiration figure that he will have no choice other then to seize control and become a dictator. While in reality, he was shown to be the least likely person to become a political leader due to his devotion to the ideals of democracy, and just a total lack of ambition or even work ethic in general. Although he is shown begrudgingly considering the notion of taking power shortly before his death.
• Entitled Bastard: The defining trait of the pre-Lohengramm Dynasty Imperial nobility (with few exceptions).
• Eternal English:
  • Though Translation Convention renders speech as Japanese, the written languages of the Empire and Alliance appear to be badly spelled German and English respectively. It is not terribly likely that any language used by an interstellar civilisation around AD 3500 will resemble any language familiar to contemporary audiences.
  • French is used comically out of place during episode 93 (3:48). Reuenthal is fuming, but the text he is watching has absolutely no link to the situation: it is the beginning of a book about the NSUAP (the infamous Nazis).
• Et Tu, Brute?: The effect of Reuenthal's rebellion on Mittermeyer and Reinhard.
• Everyone Is Single: Seems to apply to most of Reinhard's admiralty: Mittermeyer is the only one to bring along a spouse to Reinhard's wedding. This is odd given that Eisenach is stated to be the father of a small child, and the rest of them except possibly Oberstein should be highly desirable as husbands considering their positions and ages. Steinmetz mentioned that he wouldn't marry his girlfriend until Reinhard did. Streit points out that some of the admirals might not feel it would be appropriate to marry until Reinhard does.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: You can only kill'em once, Julian.
• Eye Scream: An Imperial soldier dies to a particularly brutal one of these during the assault on the Terraist HQ in episode 63, when a fanatic stabs him in the eye after he removes his helmet.
• Fallen Hero: Oskar von Reuenthal. Particularly tragic, since he did not rebel against Reinhard out of genuine malice or ambition, but because he was framed and was too proud to accept punishment for a crime he did not commit. His death is arguably the most senseless and undeserved in the entire series.
• Fan Disservice: Episode 40 largely consists of Julian reading up on galactic history during a long flight. At one point, the material he studies has a number of pictures showing the slide of the old Federation into decadence. They have quite a bit of nudity. And it is not the good kind.
• Fanservice: The sexual kind is almost completely absent, though episode 89 shows quite a lot of Fräulein Mariendorf.
• Fantastic Drug: Thyoxin. A highly addictive hallucinogenic euphoriant used by the Terraists (among others) to keep their followers compliant.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: On the surface, the Empire is most obviously based on the German Empire and Prussia, but looking at its culture and history reveals a parallel to Imperial China as well.
• Faster-Than-Light Travel: necessary, considering that this takes place between two arms of the Milky Way Galaxy.
• A Father to His Men: Any officer worthy of the role in the series exhibits this, but it's much more evident on the Alliance side, where protocol doesn't get as much in the way of the relationship between officers and the soldiers under their command. Yang Wen-li is this trope.
  • He had some good role-models: Sidney Sithole, Alexander Bewcock, Dwight Greenhill....
  • It's taken to a whole new literal level after Julian formally enlists, making Yang both his superior officer and legal guardian.
• The Federation:
  • The old Galactic Federation was this at first, which turned into a bloated, decaying mess by the time Rudolf von Goldenbaum came into the picture. The Free Planets Alliance further down the line plays this straight for the most part, at least in theory anyway.
  • The original One World Order that emerged on Earth in the backstory was this as well, though it gradually devolved into an decadent, complacent society that held the myriad off-world colonies on an authoritarian leash. This would result in said colonies rebelling, the downfall of Earth and ultimately, the old Galactic Federation.
• Feudal Future:
  • The Empire. Justified, since its founder specifically modelled it on Prussia (with a dash of the the Third Reich). At least on the surface. Word of God confirms that culturally it was based on Imperial China. Reinhard's reforms means that it ceases to be this, however, and more resembles 19th Century Austria crossed with World War I Germany.
  • The nature of FTL travel makes for some difficulties in managing interstellar territories. This has led to federal autonomy in the Alliance and the justification for feudal nobility in the Empire.
• Fiery Redhead: Bittenfeld and Katerose. Averted with Kircheis, Wahlen, Eisenach and Saint-Pierré.
• Final Speech: Many characters got the opportunity to speak in an extended length before their demise.
• Flaunting Your Fleets: The first actual scene of the main OVA series after the opening narration depicts the 20,000-strong Galactic Empire fleet under the command of Reinhard von Lohengramm. This was later matched by a similar close-up on the fleets of his opponent, the Free Planets Alliance.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: Lutz gets engaged to a nurse who treats him after he was injured in a bomb attack.
• Flower Motifs:
  • Orchids tend to show up around Kircheis and Annerose.
  • In a case of the Japanese writers having done the research, there are a few instances of the language of flowers being employed (or intentionally misemployed) in the Empire. For example: after having made a callous remark on a sensitive topic the night before, Reuenthal brings to the Mittermeyers yellow roses, which are a symbol of friendship and apology.
  • Yellow roses appear earlier in the story as well: Mittermeier proposed to Evangeline with yellow roses. He was so nervous that he didn't realize he should've picked the her red ones.
• For Want Of A Nail:
  • One of the recurring themes in the series, where seemingly minor events cause a huge impact on history. What if Kircheis had been armed during Ansbach's assassination attempt and survived instead of died? What if Julian had his gun with him when he had a chance of killing Reinhard? What if the supply depot Muller attacked had fought back instead of surrendering, so that he couldn't rescue Reinhard? What if Hildegard hadn't persuaded Mittermeyer to attack Heinessen in order to force a ceasefire, or if Yang ignored said ceasefire and killed Reinhard? What if Yang hadn't allowed the "Imperial escorts" on his ship so that they couldn't assassinate him?
  • Besides In-Universe events, sometimes the narrator or one of the characters will comment on how some tiny insignificant detail had changed history.
• Foreign Language Theme: All opening themes in this series (including the Gaiden prequels) are sung in English.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Yang eventually passing his mantle on to Julian was foreshadowed from the very first episode. Just watch the closing credits. In retrospect, there looks to be plenty more - Yang and Julian are prominently seen walking towards Iserlohn, foreshadowing its importance throughout the series. The last scene of the credits shows Julian and Reinhard looking at each other briefly before Reinhard looks away, foreshadowing Reinhard's meeting with Julian in episode 108, one of the last episodes of the last season.
  • In a later episode with a Mockumentary going over the War Of Earthly Aggression, one of the four key members of La Résistance for colony independence was a Brilliant, but Lazy man with possibly Asian origins who wanted nothing to do with the revolution and focused on music. He was dragged into the rebellion out of circumstance, working in intelligence and sabotage to overwhelm the Earth forces. Eventually, he retired but was later murdered for his reputation. Guess who also has an Asian name with a similar background who shares the same fate?
  • Before the start of the story, Reuenthal goes to Reinhard for help in rescuing Mittermeyer, claiming that beside being his best friend, the universe would lose it's vitality without him. Reinhard, Kircheis and Reuenthal end up joining forces to free Mittermeyer. Mittermeyer ends up being the only one of the four to survive the series.
  • It's mentioned early on in the series that Müller doesn't have the experience or résumé of Reinhard's other admirals, but that he shows great promise. Later on after a disastrous Iserlohn operation, Reinhard decides not to punish Müller, reasoning that men like him are hard to find. Good lord, was he right, as Müller ends up saving Reinhard's ass from Yang at Vermillion.
  • Ivan Konev talking about how a funeral is something that everyone experiences. He dies later on in the episode.
  • The 82nd episode of the series mixes its blatant Spoiler Title with loads of ominous foreshadowing that Yang Wenli and those on his ship will die, from the discussion about whether or not the Leda II is a lucky ship, to Yang apparently picking the people whom he could beat at cards, to Patrichev picking up the Ace of Spades (symbolic of death).
  • Reinhard announces the plans for 2 fortresses. One of these is named Drei Großadmiralsburg Fortress, named so in honor of to the 3 fallen high admirals (Kircheis, Fahrenheit and Steinmetz) who were promoted to Fleet Admiral after their deaths. Bittenfeld jokes that if another high admiral were to die, they would have to change the name. He is walking with Lutz next to him. Lutz heroically dies the very next episode and is fittingly promoted to Fleet Admiral.
  • While instructing Reuenthal on how to deal with Lichtenlade's family, Reinhard tells him that anyone is free to attack him, including his admirals. At the time Reuenthal is clearly very uncomfortable hearing this.
  • Early on during Kircheis' suppression of the Kastrop rebellion, we find Fräulein Mariendorf's father begrudgingly serving as the rebelling noble as an advisor for the sake of his family - and subsequently accepting his soon-deceased "liege's" surrender. This goes a long way into the survival of the Mariendorfs and other sympathetic nobles in Reinhard's reformed Empire.
• Forever War: At the beginning of the series, the war between the Empire and Alliance (also called the Long War in-universe) has been waged on and off for over 140 years, with no party able to gain a decisive advantage until the first capture of Iserlohn. Most of that time the Empire was trying to push into Alliance territory, but the Alliance did escalate the war after Yang managed to occupy the Iserlohn Fortress. The full duration is 158 years, nine months and 21 days, and it could have continued had Hildegarde not acted on her own or Müller had not arrived in time.
• Four Is Death: The very first fleet that is defeated in the original OVA (and Die Neue These) is the Alliance's 4th fleet. Most of its soldiers are killed off.
• Four-Star Badass: Many. This series' most distinguished characters tend to be high-ranking officers in their respective army, at least Admiral or above. There's a REASON they got that far.
  • The most literal example of the trope, however, would be General Schönkopf, commanding officer of the Rosenritter, an elite assault infantry regiment recruited from exiled Imperials. Facing him in battle is a DEATH SENTENCE.
  • Oskar von Reuenthal, one of only two men to fight Schönkopf head to head and live to tell the tale (and without armour to boot). No wonder he's one of Reinhard von Lohengramm's elite admirals.
  • The other, of course, being Siegfried Kircheis, who was able to face Schönkopf for an EVEN LONGER period of time. He was using armour, though.
• Freudian Excuse: Reuenthal is a textbook case of Oedipus Complex. Most of his issues stem from the fact that his mother hated him. Later he becomes sexually involved with a woman who wants to kill him, and remarks how similar she is to his mother.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Numerous examples abound of seemingly ordinary or otherwise unexpected figures making a large impact on history. And both Reinhard and Yang fit this to a tee, the former hailing from a low-ranking noble family and the latter never even intending to be a famed commander.
• Frontline General: Many competent, high-ranking officers on both sides tend to lead from the front, or at least as close to the front as is reasonable. General Schönkopf in particular is fond of leading into battle personally.
• Future Imperfect: Averted. History is well-documented enough that people are generally aware of what happened in the past. To the point that Reinhard can cite Machiavelli and look up Japanese martial arts or Yang can research on Napoleon's tactics with little problem.

G-I

• Gallows Humor: Poplin's conviction that he'll never reach the age of 30 is one of the series' running gags.
• Gambit Pileup: Yang, Reinhard, Oberstein, Reuenthal, Rubinsky, Trunicht, De Villiers... most of the time the chain ultimately leads back to Yang, Oberstein or Rubinsky.
• Gambit Roulette: Subverted. The Terraists are an ancient cult that has been secretly manipulating the universe. When they try to put their plan (which involves predicting the action of every major player in the universe) into action however, it fails as often as not and They end up being controlled by a member who doesn't care about their religion. Then they all die.
• Gender Flip: Rubinsky is a black woman in the manga adaptation, named Adriana Rubinskaya. Her personality is the same, though, and she's just as bald as his male counterpart. (She's a lot prettier, though. The mangaka, Michihara Katsumi turned him into a woman because she was fed up with drawing men all the time.)
• Gender Is No Object: The Alliance has quite a good deal of females in its ranks and in positions of influence. Though even in the comparatively more patriarchal Empire where women are auxiliaries in the military, females are shown having political and bureaucratic acumen, as Hildegard demonstrates.
• General Failure: Distressingly common in the Alliance's officer corps; in fact, aside from Yang's allies and subordinates, this trope would seem to fit most of the Alliance's brass. The same applies to most of the Old Guard nobles in the Empire as well; those who are not either ally themselves with Reinhard eventually or flee the country.
  • Somewhat subverted with the Alliance. A good example is Vice Admiral Paetta, Yang's commanding officer at the start of the series. While he looses the few battles he appears in, according to several characters he was by all means a competent officer. The issue, rather, seems to be that he was going up against Reinhard von Lohengramm.
• Generican Empire: The two opposing factions are known simply as the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance.
• Genki Girl: Marika von Feuerbach, during most of her appearances.
• Give Him a Normal Life: Reuenthal leaves his son in the care of Wolfgang and Eva Mittermeyer after his death because he wants his son to be cared for in a loving environment, knowing his biological mother is in no fit state to raise a child. Also, it's implied that he wants to make sure his son never goes through the same experience he did of being an unwanted and unloved son.
• Geodesic Cast: At the outset of the show, you have Reinhard von Lohengramm in the Empire, a highly principled strategic genius of an admiral with strong ethics, who has a close right-hand man, a close right (left?) hand woman who later becomes his wife, and a group of admirals who are loyal to him and question the prevailing social order since they are trying to serve better ethical principles (honor, loyalty, transparency and relative equality) than the ruling aristocrats. Over in the Free Planets Alliance you have Yang Wen-li, a highly principled strategic genius of an admiral with strong ethics, a close right (left?) hand woman who later becomes his wife and a group of officers who are loyal to him and question the prevailing social order, since they are trying to serve better ethical principles (honor, loyalty, transparency and democratic equality) than the ruling bureaucrats.
  • However, while Reinhard & Company are specifically out to change the prevailing social order, Yang himself doesn't hold such ambitions and he serves the government no matter how obviously rotten it is, and how often they screw him over.
• Glory Hound: SUPERFICIALLY the motivation behind many politicians' and officers' support of the war. The politicians, however, have less idealistic reasons, and the officers don't last long...
  • Most participants of the Lippstadt Rebellion are glory-seeking dilettants, starting with Braunschweig, Littenheim and Flegel.
  • Vice-Admiral William Holland of the Alliance saw himself as the new Bruce Ashbey, and believed he could annihilate the Imperial Fleet and sail to Odin by his lonesome. Reinhard, someone who has actual tactical foresight, dissipated those megalomaniacal ambitions by blowing him to little pieces during the Third Battle of Tiamat when he overextended his fleet.
• Godwin's Law: Except that instead of being compared to Hitler, people are compared to Rudolf von Goldenbaum, who is essentially Hitler IN SPACE.
• Good Republic, Evil Empire: Subverted... and how! Sure, it takes a regime change to fully subvert this trope since the Galactic Empire isn't precisely a bowl of peaches at the start of the series, but the Alliance starts out as mostly rotten and stays that way.
  • It is actually played straight, but in a very subtle way: The Alliance is at the lowest point of its decadence at the beginning, while the empire gets a new, competent, charismatic, popular leader who crush the former rotten imperial nobility and put better, more honest people in charge of his administration and reach its apex. Even so, the Alliance at its lowest, with less people, a smaller territory and less resources is more prosperous than the empire at its peak and manage to fight its militaristic enemy to a standstill and it takes dozens of plans and the Alliance leaders screwing up with their best admiral at every turn to finally allow the empire to have the upper hand
  • In reality, the show doesn't take a true stance on which form of better. Really, it shows the positives and negatives to both sides, but doesn't single one out. Like Yang said himself, there is nothing inherently wrong with a dictatorship, it just matters who the dictator is.
    • Yang Wen-li even goes so far as to say that if the Alliance was formed to oppose a ruthless dictatorship, and that it is now a BENEVOLENT dictatorship, that there's no real reason for there to be an Alliance anymore. Considering the dreadful state of the Alliance government and his position within it, those are words DANGEROUSLY similar to treason. But then again, it's Yang Wen-li we're talking about.
    • And on the other side, during the third season, Reinhard states that he would never have won if the idealistic people who still believed in the founding principles of the Alliance had been allowed to lead. What is interesting here is that it is stated that the empire was decadent because it was ruled by aristocrats who believed to be the embodiment of value and greatness, and became better once Reinhard, who was a lot more cynical even about himself, but also way more competent took over, while the Alliance which still had some efficient politicians and intellectuals among its leaders (Trunicht was a full fledged Smug Snake, but was way smarter that the Empire's nobility) but their lack of idealism was what caused the Alliance downfall. In other words, the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism is actually the most important plot point of the whole series, as it resumes the ideological differences between Yang (for whom idealism comes first, even if it means serving worthless elected officials) and Reinhard (who values efficiency above all else even at the risk of crossing the Moral Event Horizon): Brilliant
  • While it never really comes out explicitly in favor of either form of government as being inherently better than the other, the series does make the point that a republic is less prone to tend towards either extreme of the scale than an empire. The character of a republic, even a corrupt one largely controlled by an oligarchy, is generally going to be determined by the nature of its citizens, and people on the whole trend towards the average in both abilities and morals. A despotism, on the other hand, is much more sensitive to the whims and abilities of the individual despot.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Horribly, horribly averted. In the Battle of Vermilion, a great number of gory mook deaths are shown, including soldiers' guts exploding out of their bodies and them trying to hold them in, and legless soldiers dragging their bloody torsos across the ground, trailing their guts, all while whimpering for their mothers. This only further cements the opinion that this show is not for the faint-hearted.
• Government in Exile:
  • Some defeated Imperial nobles attempt this. Reinhard von Lohengramm does not approve and uses its existence as a casus belli to finish off the Alliance once and for all.
  • The Iserlohn Republican Government is a good example of this trope. Given that it's a provisional government and resistance group seeking to keep some vestige of the Alliance alive.
• Graceful Loser: It's strongly implied that Friederich IV knew all along that the Goldenbaum Dynasty's days are numbered and that he would rather have Reinhard end it and reinvigorate the Empire than allow his line to decay further.
  Friederich IV: If we must fall let it be as splendid as possible.
• Gratuitous English: Plenty of examples in the Alliance, but special mention goes to their National Anthem, with lyrics entirely in Engrish.
  My friends, let us sing a song
  Sing along, ring a bell, liberty!
  Oh hail! Liberty bell!
  True freedom for all men.
• Gratuitous German: on the Empire's side, German being the language spoken there. "Feuer!" "Neue Land," "Kaiser," and "Sieg Kaiser! Sieg Heil!" complete with what looks suspiciously like the Hitler salute. As mentioned before, the Galactic Empire was founded by a German (or, more specifically, Prussian) Fanboy. The title screen for this series isn't even initially in Japanese, but (horrible) German: Heldensagen vom Kosmosinsel, which translates roughly into "Hero myths from the cosmic island" — the additional "Blind Idiot" Translation-ness of using the wrong grammatical case is sadly untranslatable.
• The Greatest Story Never Told:
  • It's strongly hinted at that Oberstein's aware of a lot more than what he lets on in his machinations to keep the Empire safe from various threats and the Terraists. But whatever secrets and plots he's uncovered, kept away or otherwise purged are known only to him.
  • The mystery surrounding Bruce Ashbey, the 730 Mafia and his tragic demise is this. Despite Yang's research, he realized that either Ashbey took the truth with him to the grave or that there are still those keen on making sure it's never told.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: By the time the series starts, neither The Empire nor the Alliance are inherently better or worse than the other as both sides have valid points and often suffer from problems of similar severity.
  • While the Empire has mellowed down considerably from the days of Rudolf von Goldenbaum, it's still rife with faults:
    • The head of state is able to force young women to be their concubines and steal them away from their families, as most notably happened with Reinhard's sister Annerose.
    • People are jailed for "thought crimes" which can be something as simple as expressing anti-war sentiment or playfully mocking the Nobles and are then sent to labor camps as punishment. The Gaiden series revealed that one of Kircheis' friends was jailed for being in an anti-war group and would later die in a labor camp.
    • Rich individuals are afforded the ability to command millions of soldiers simply because of their noble birth with their skill in combat having nothing to do with it, as was the case with Duke Braunschweig and Marquis Littenheim.
    • Commoners and low nobles are widely despised in the Empire before Reinhard's reforms. The noble who killed Reinhard's mother in a car crash got off with no punishment due to this. This isn't a problem in the FPA as it is a democracy with no such caste system of nobles and commoners.
    • The head of state is able to execute someone without affording them a trial as the Kaiser did to one of his concubines by making her drink a poisoned glass, as punishment for trying to kill Annerose out of jealousy. She was guilty, of course, but a trial where the defendant is afforded legal representation is a cornerstone of a free society. This was similarly invoked by Reuenthal upon apprehending Lichtenlade on Reinhard's orders, using the very Goldenbaum status quo the noble had proudly upheld, including said lack of trial or evidence, against him.
    • Even though Reinhard proves himself to be a better ruler, he still saw nothing wrong with having Marquis Lichtenlade, one of his political opponents, arrested on false charges of trying have him killed, though the actual truth is left ambiguous. Reinhard also has all of Lichtenlade's male relatives aged ten and above executed for treason.
  • The FPA, despite ostensibly being a democracy with all the rights and freedoms that entails, has fallen well below what its erstwhile founder, Arle Heinessen, envisioned for it:
    • While there's no caste system in place like the Goldenbaum-era Empire, those with either money, connections, or both often get far ahead in both the political arena and military hierarchy, regardless of actual talent. This has fostered a culture of corruption and nepotism that emboldens people like Job Trunicht and incompetent armchair officers like Lassalle Lobos and Andrew Falk.
    • Despite being formally classified as terrorists, vigilantes and militia like the Patriotic Knights Corps are in practice being used by warhawk politicians (and especially Trunicht) to threaten, if not kill, not only political opponents like Jessica Edwards but even average voters with dissenting views. It's also suggested that the authorities aren't above jailing protesters for expressing anti-war views in the name of bolstering patriotism, in an Ironic Echo of the Empire.
    • The Alliance's High Council is mostly dominated by vainglorious career politicians more concerned with what would make them look good for the next election than what's actually best for the nation. Even after being put to task by Alexandre Bewcock and Yang Wen-li, the majority continue to remain willfully oblivious to the consequences until it's far too late.
    • Although the rule of law is nominally respected within the Alliance, both the civilian and military justice system are shown as being prone to the same corruption that has gripped the government. In addition to having dissenting voices jailed, it's not unheard of for prisoners and witnesses to die under strange coincidences, as had been the case in the mysteries surrounding Bruce Ashbey's death. In another Ironic Echo to the Empire, the Council could also get away with dragging Yang Wen-li into an Inquiry committee without any legal basis other than fear of his perceived political threat.
    • The neglect of the Alliance's leadership and wealthy even in the face of simmering socio-economic crises is indicative of both public apathy and systemic failure. Not only is this ironically a similar situation to the malaise Rudolf von Goldenbaum stepped into in the first place, but it also highlights the pitfalls of a failing democracy when compared to Reinhard's rule as Kaiser.
    • The Alliance's leaders, at least by the time the series begins, aren't afraid to exploit Patriotic Fervor and appeals to the FPA's democratic values, to the point of diluting them of much meaning. All in order to entice countless soldiers to their deaths in a war that's increasingly undermining the very fabric of society.
• Guile Hero: Yang Wen-li is a textbook example: Smarter than any Chessmaster or Magnificent Bastard in the series, managed to control a personal Badass Army of one million soldiers, overthrew a junta with insulting ease, fought Reinhard to a standstill while being hopelessly outmanned and outgunned, raised his foster child to become able to keep working for his cause after his death, and yet, still obviously a good guy.
  • Yang is so good at this that every foe he faces in the series fights him extremely cautiously, expecting him to pull off some incredible tactical stunt out of nowhere. Half of the time, their hesitance is exactly what he's expecting, giving him enough time to pull off one of his brilliant gambits in the first place. Which means he uses his reputation to make his reputation work, so his reputation grows, so it can continue to work. He usually does this against forces over twice his size, and fully half of his victories are stated to be "impossible" ones by enemies and allies alike. It's remarkable that he never lets it go to his head.
  • In the novels Müller has sandy-blond hair, presumably the anime changed the color to avoid getting him confused with all the other blondes in the cast (most notably Mittermeier who has a similar hair color). Interestingly he received novel Attenborough's hair color: dark steel gray.
• Happily Adopted: Oskar and Elfriede's son out of wedlock. Oskar specifically puts him in the Mittermeyer family's care so that they can have the child they always wanted, and so that Oskar can ensure that he gets the stable and loving family environment that Oskar himself never had. Mittermeyer's wife names him Felix.
• Happily Married: Wolfgang and Evangeline Mittermeyer are like an oasis of peace and love.
  • Also, Alex and Hortense Caselnes/Cazenellu/however you spell it Cazelnes. And both Yang/Frederica and Reinhard/Hildegard, for as long as it lasts...
• Hauled Before A Senate Subcommittee: Yang is dragged into an Inquiry committee without any legal basis, ostensibly over his actions during the civil war and his supposedly "treasonous" personality. In practice, it's an excuse by the Council to discredit him, fearing his growing influence at the expense of doing their own jobs. Yang, however, sees through the pretensions and grills them in turn, even threatening to resign if not for the Empire's invasion.
• Heroic BSoD: when Kircheis dies protecting Reinhard (Heroic Sacrifice much?)
  • In the fourth season, Reinhard is confronted by a soldier over his inaction that allowed Westerland to be destroyed by a nuclear attack and the confrontation shakes him to his very core.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Machungo takes several laser blasts for Julian.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Reinhard and Kircheis, Poplin and Konev, Reuenthal and Mittermeyer (despite the latter being happily married). Bordering on Ho Yay.
• Hidden Depths: Aside from the usual hidden depths that appear in such a large work, the narrator occasionally makes remarks on characters that wouldn't otherwise be shown such as Oberstein having low self confidence or Lang giving money to charity anonymously for years.
• History Repeats: While not everything repeats, the series does make a point to emphasize how some things remain constant despite the changes. "In every time, in every place, the deeds of men remain the same" become significant words over the course of the series.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The backstabbing, manipulative and conniving environment cultivated in Fezzan allows it to prosper as a neutral hub. But it's also this same environment that damns them when Reinhard finally has had enough and invades.
• Honor Before Reason: Yang is a democrat: he serves the democratically elected alliance government, period. Even if he did not vote for the people in charge, even if they are a bunch of Smug snakes, even if their orders are stupid: they've been chosen by the people, they are in charge even if this means to capitulate after winning a battle and having his nemesis at gun point.
  • Reuenthal also follows this principle when he decides to rebel against Reinhard, even though he knows perfectly well that he's been set up.
  • That being said Yang has his limits to such principles. When he was asked "what if the people choose to give up their choice and rights to a dictator, of their own will?", his answer was merely "then I don't know what to think anymore."
  • In addition to the implied threats to his daughter, this is Merkatz's reason for joining the Lippstadt rebellion in the first place, though reluctantly. On the other hand, he doesn't think too highly of what passes for "honor" among the rebel nobles.
  • Reinhard von Lohengramm has his moments as well, due to his desire to live out his Asskicking Leads to Leadership philosophy to the fullest. This is, in fact, the reason that Yang manages to get him at gunpoint in the first place, as instead of taking advantage of his present overwhelming advantage to end the war once and for all Reinhard instead decides to set a trap for Yang using himself as bait so that he can settle once and for all who's the better commander in a head-to-head confrontation on relatively equal terms.
• Hopeless War: See also the Forever War entry above. The war between the Alliance and the Empire has already killed off a substantial amount of the human population as a whole, and the Alliance is specifically mentioned as having been bled dry to the point that continuing the war will eventually cause their society to collapse. This happens sooner than later, in part due to the Alliance's high command gambling on a massive offensive after taking Iserlohn and losing spectacularly. Fezzan and the Terraists had been hoping to keep it going for their own reasons and were likewise caught flat-footed by the Empire's sudden success.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: The Goldenbaum Dynasty, and the status quo it lorded over, had reigned nigh-uncontested for centuries by the time the series starts. After Reinhard seizes power and triumphs over the Lippstadt rebellion, all that's left is a pitiful Government in Exile comprised of only a handful of exiles, propping up a young child as its monarch before even that is finally snuffed out.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The historical document that Yang listens to while researching Bruce Ashbey's 730 Mafia specifically refers to this. Vittorio di Bertini (9th Fleet admiral) is described as a huge intimidating (but gentle) scarred man. The document directly calls this out, referring to his wife being half his height.
• Humans Are White: The Empire seems to be all light-skinned European folk with German and Nordic names - for a reason. The Alliance is dominated by the same light-skinned people, though with a number of dark-skinned and black people and some East Asian types (including Yang himself), which is justified as they're the descendants of both the original Heinessen settlers and Imperial dissidents. Their names suggest a wide variety of ethnic origins but the culture seems to be quite uniform, although there are traces of the original nationalities as seen by the presence of Italian cuisine and Chinese trinkets.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Subverted.
  • While Siegfried Kircheis is this to Reinhard, Reinhard is nowhere near ineffectual (he's the most formidable character in the series, in fact). The first time Kircheis's fleet of 2000 is sent out, it's completely on its own against a ring of satellites that decimated a fleet twice their size in seconds. The second time, he has a force of 40,000 against 50,000 enemy ships. He wins both times with minimal effort and almost never losing the soft smile on his face.
  • And what about Hilda? having the only person able to outsmart Yang has his lover/wife/right-hand-man/heir was what allowed Reinhard to emerge victorious and alive during the second season. In fact, having Hyper Competent Sidekicks is Reinhard's MO and what differentiates him from the rest of the petty nobility of the Empire: they want servile underlings, he wants efficient officers. Reinhard even goes as far as forgiving blunders from his officers and merely requesting they do a better job next time to prove themselves. His officers are more than happy to oblige.
    • "Outsmart" is perhaps too strong a term since Yang, being who he is, is most likely already aware of this option but it is one of the many disadvantages that Yang cannot or will not do anything about. Reinhard is also aware that that is the most efficient path to victory but his pride and his worthy opponent complex wants a direct victory against Yang. He felt he had lost, in terms of tactics, to Yang in all of their previous encounters and wanted to prove to everyone and to himself that he could beat Yang. If he wasn't confident he could win then he wouldn't had faced Yang but Hilda realized that the chances of Reinhard losing to Yang was high and took the appropriate actions.
• Hypocrite:
  • Many High noble admirals complain that Reinhard only got his promotions because the Emperor like his sister, but most High noble admirals got their promotions largely because of their family names, not their actual merits.
  • Many within the Alliance's military and civilian leadership talk a good game about winning the war, yet either refuse to fight in battles they're sending countless lives to die in, or actively shirk away from responsibility.
• Idealist vs. Pragmatist:
  • Yang Wenli is an Idealist who hates fighting and would rather win without casualties but prefers obeying his superiors and doing things through the democratic system, even when the people in charge and their decisions state otherwise. Yang makes notable successes such as the capture of Iserlohn Fortress without a single loss, but his inactivity also causes millions to die, the Alliance to surrender, and himself getting killed before he could take power and practice his beliefs. While Reinhard von Lohengramm does have a code (i.e. preferring to gain power through merit over blackmail), he is mainly a Pragmatist who prefers doing things efficiently, even if it means jumping the chain of command and angering his superiors. Reinhard has notable failings such as the nuking of Westerland, yet he ends up being more effective in war and accomplishes far more such as reforming the Galactic Empire, persecuting the corrupt politicians of the conquered Free Planets Alliance, and defeating the Ancient Conspiracy behind the scenes.
  • Reinhard's aides are Oberstein and Kircheis and later Hildegard. Kircheis acts as a voice of reason to prevent Reinhard to avoid the same abuses as many officers and nobles of the Goldenbaum Dynasty. Oberstein does anything to solidify the rule of the new dynasty, such as allowing Westerland's destruction to destroy the nobles' hope to bring back the status quo, manipulating events that leads to Ruenthal's rebellion and eventual death, and a massive crackdown on former Free Planets Alliance worlds to solidify the rule of the Goldenlowe Dynasty.
• I'll Kill You!: Lang learns the hard way that Mittermeyer is not as laid-back as he usually seems like.
  • Even the cultured Mecklinger briefly acts like this towards one of the doctors tending to Reinhard.
• Impoverished Patrician: Reinhard's family were low-ranking nobles who barely counted as among the nobility. A number of the Imperial exiles in the Alliance likewise are described as coming from disgraced or impoverished noble houses. Examples include those in the Rosenritter regiment.
• Improbable Age: Played straight and subverted. Reinhard and Siegfried not only made it to the admiralty at age twenty, they also had their first commands at fifteen or so and were apparently able to make the decision to enter the military academy at age ten without having to get approval from their parents (it's kind of justified in that their country is in the middle of a war). There is also the Alliance practice of letting 15-year olds like Julian and later Katerose pilot starfighters and participate in combat, although this too is consistent with several historical aristocratic societies. However, in the story Reinhard and Kircheis' military career is treated as extraordinary, and the Alliance tends to be strapped for soldiers (in fact, it's an in-story problem that most of their youth die at the battlefield).
  • The Imperial admirals seem rather young to hold such high rank: Mittermeyer is 32 or 33 at the end of the series, Oberstein 40, and none of the others seem to be older than them (Lennenkampf is older, but he dies during the series). This is however explained in-series: Reinhard handpicked his officers based on their competence and lower background. The older (and more hidebound) officers were often promoted due to their noble background, rather than their actual merits, making them both utterly useless and contemptuous for Reinhard due to his lower background. Reinhard instead chose younger, talented officers from lower noble (just Reuenthal at first, Oberstein, Fahrenheit and Eisenach later) and commoner backgrounds(everybody else). This did several things: It gave Reinhard the support of quality admirals, the officers would be highly motivated to fight against the corrupt high nobility and fight tooth and nail to make sure it would never come back. Reinhard promotes officers based on their distinguished service, seniority be damned.
• Insignificant Little Blue Planet: By this point Earth has a population of ten million and is home to a fanatic cult that wants everyone to either return to Earth or die in a fire.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Yang and Bewcock, Schneider and Merkatz, Julian and everyone else after he gets a little older (but always with Yang).
• Internal Reformist:
  • Reinhard, who serves in the Imperial forces with the intent of reforming the system, saving his older sister and one day overthrowing the Goldenbaum Dynasty. Not only does he succeed, but he goes on to become Emperor himself.
  • Deconstructed however with Yang and his friends, who try to do whatever they could to steer the Alliance in a more preferable direction. Only to meet disappointment either because they're not in a position to fundamentally change the system or that other players ignore, if not thwart them.
• Interservice Rivalry: Fleet commanders in the Empire tend to develop strong personal attachments with their subordinates. As such, private feuds between different commanders run the risk of turning into ugly brawls or even escalating to open firefights as their followers feel motivated to back them up against their rivals. While the Goldenbaum-era division of command at Iserlohn and the Lippstadt Rebellion are the most obvious examples early in the series, not even Reinhard's best and brightest admirals are fully immune.
• Irony: The story is teeming with all kinds of it.
  • Iserlohn, an Imperial fortress cutting off the Alliance from the Empire and a symbol of Imperial might, ends up becoming a bastion of Republicanism.
  • Yang is a subdued and peaceful man who despises war. He figures that the more often he wins, the sooner the tide of war will change and he will be able to quietly retire. He is also one of if not the deadliest of military commanders alive, and his superiors soon find him indispensable on the warfront. In other words, his sheer talent prevents him from retiring early.
  • Reinhard, whose military career was fast tracked because of the Kaiser's love for Annerose, is despised by all sorts of nobles and high ranking military officers who take every opportunity to send him on suicide missions as an attempt to be rid of him. However, through his tactical genius, emerges victorious from every assignment and earns even more influence. Those who are smart recognize Reinhard's talent and get out of his way. Those who are not... well.
  • Further compounded by the fact that without Reinhard at the helm, even the unintelligent and outdated tactics used by the Alliance before Yang Wen-li had any real authority would have given the Empire a run for its money. This is possibly the one thing that kept the Empire from being outright conquered by the Alliance's crusade. Thus, by attempting to kill Reinhard, those imperial officers were inadvertently saving their nation.
  • Reinhard originally joined the military and aimed for power to free his sister Annerose from the emperor. Friedrich IV knows and approves of his ambitions, including to become emperor - and died before Reinhard had gained enough power to move against him.
  • Yang is a tactical genius who recognizes the value of strategy. Reinhard is a brilliant strategist who places greatest value in military conquest. As a result, both men envy and admire each other. If circumstances allowed them to combine, they would be the most powerful force in the universe.
  • The Imperial Civil War places emphasis on 3 High Nobles. A Duke, a Marquis and a Count. The Duke and Marquis are the most powerful and ambitious Nobles in the entire Empire and want to place their daughters on the Imperial throne come hell or high water. The Count is a simple man who just wants his family to survive and live well, while having absolutely no ambitions for grand imperial power. Guess who's daughter ends up as Kaiserin.
  • Wolfgang and Eva Mittermeyer are unable to have children, to their sorrow. Reuenthal and Elfriede? Plenty able.
  • Rebelo grimly warns Yang that he may have to take military action opposite the Free Planets Alliance in order to protect himself, and that he wishes the time may never come. Eventually, it is Rebelo himself who puts Yang into this very predicament.
  • Lennenkampf's flagship is the Garga Falmul, a mistransliteration of Farmr Galga, a name of the God Odin. The name means "Burden of the Gallows". Guess how Lennenkampf commits suicide?
  • Merkatz is an elderly admiral who has spent the greater part of his life fighting against the Free Planets Alliance. He ends up becoming the leader of an independent military force fighting for the restoration of democracy.
  • When a new space fortress is named "Drei Grossadmiralsburg" ("Fortress of the Three Grand Admirals") to honor the three posthumously promoted Fleet Admirals, Bittenfeld half-jokes to High Admiral Lutz that if another High Admiral were to die soon, they'd have to rename the fortress "Vier Grossadmiralsburg". Lutz lets out a little chuckle at this. Lutz dies the very next episode and is posthumously promoted to Fleet Admiral.
  • In episode 103, Bittenfeld says that since Oberstein lived all his life at the desk of the Ministry of Military Affairs, he should die at his desk as well. In the end?.. Ahem. Bittenfeld might be the author's favorite Ironic Echo.
  • Time and time again, Mittermeyer, the "Gale Wolf," demonstrates the remarkable swiftness of his fleet. However, he arrives too late to speak with Reuenthal one last time before the latter's death, a fact Reuenthal bitterly but amusedly lampshades.
  • The Goldenbaum Dynasty's Gene Exclusion act forbade homosexuals. Well, it turned out one of Rudolf von Goldenbaum's descendants was homosexual, who ran away with his male lover while abandoning his duties as a Kaiser.
  • Reinhard wants to die in battle, while Yang would be happy to just die of old age. Yang is assassinated while on a military vessel, whereas Reinhard dies from natural causes.
  • The Inferior Genes Elimination Act that was instigated by Rudolf was promptly abolished after his death. The history of the Goldenbaum Dynasty, starting with Rudolf's own offspring^note According to LOGH's resident historian. D. Sinclar, Rudolf's newborn son was quickly hidden and possibly killed (along with the child's unidentified mother) due to showing signs of what may have been Downs' Syndrome showed that nobles can also be born with deformities. Due to the typical nobility concern with bloodline purity, this would only worsen with time.
• Ironic Name: Chairman Job Trunicht, who shares his first name after the Biblical figure of Job who was known for keeping his faith despite the suffering God put upon him as a test.^note According to some interpretations, God placed a bet with Satan that Job would keep his faith. Naturally, he won.. The fourth episode of the OVA has Trunicht directly called out by a grieving widow who lost her husband in battle while Trunicht rallied for war, sacrifice, and patriotism from the comforts of his home planet.
• ISO Standard Human Spaceship: The Alliance ships follow roughly this aesthetic, while the Empire ones are more streamlined and sleek looking. Completely averted by the individual Imperial flagships, especially the beautifully streamlined Brunnhilde and Parzival.
• It's Raining Men: The fleet under Grillparzer drops airborne forces onto the base at Urvashi.

J-M

• Jerkass Has a Point: The Alliance politicians mistrust Yang and are prone to give him more trouble than the Empire (in fact in one occasion the Imperial Fleet got Yang out of one of the politicians' schemes)... Yet Rudolf von Goldenbaum was pretty much the same as Yang until he started reforming the Galactic Federation in the Galactic Empire, so the politicians do have a reason to fear him.
• Kansas City Shuffle: The tactic used by the Yang Fleet to successfully re-capture Iserlohn Fortress. The commander knew that being sent conflicting orders must have been an enemy stratagem, and hesitates over which set to follow. That hesitation is exactly what Yang was counting on, to buy him time to get the Rosenritter in place.
• Karma Houdini: Aside from losing their respective positions on the government, we never see Cornelia Windsor and Negroponte suffer any sort of punishment for their actions. Windsor for supporting the Alliance's invasion that ended with death of millions of soldiers and Negroponte, whose attempts of delaying Yang's arrival to Iserlohn to stop Geiesburg Fortress probably caused a lot of losses. Played with. Since Reuenthal ordered the arrest of the corrupt Alliance politicians, it's very likely that they ended in jail for their crimes or even executed.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: For most of the series, Job Trunicht gets away with acts of corruption and political machinations. Untill episode 98, when Reuenthal finally gives him what he has coming - a laser bolt to the heart. Well aware of both his hypocrisy and his tendency to dodge responsibility for his crimes.... and feels not one whit of remorse for any of it.
• Kill It with Water: Occurred in the backstory during the Sirius War when the Black Flag fleet decapitated Earth's leadership by flooding their Himalayan command bunker. Also occurs when the very same bunker, now headquarters of the Earth Church, is invaded by Imperial troops.
• Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: Averted to a degree. The Empire is shown still using solid ordinance and miniguns in ground campaigns (though mainly attached to armored vehicles), while the Alliance is also seen utilizing conventional-looking firearms in some scenes. But for the most part, both sides make gratuitous use of lasers, missiles and even axes in their arsenals.
• King Bob the Nth: Most of the Galactic Kaisers. The highest ordinal mentioned in the series is Kaiser Otfried V, the father of Friedrich IV.
• Kissing Discretion Shot: When Frederica and Yang lock lips for the first time.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: In addition to Friedrich IV acknowledging how even his own dynasty had to be pruned, there's High Admiral Mückenberger, Reinhard's initial commanding officer. Although a noble himself and something of a stubborn old man, not only does he come to respect Reinhard, but opts for a peaceful retirement rather than join the other rebelling High Nobles, who he knows Reinhard would destroy anyway.
• Lady and Knight: Siegfried Kircheis and Annerose von Grünewald seem to have a subtle version of this relationship going, with Kircheis serving Reinhard at least partly due to a childhood promise he made to look after her little brother in her absence.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Rudolph von Goldenbaum launched a campaign to eradicate all humans with birth defects, while enslaving those who weren't white or Germanic. In his death, his only son had congenital birth defects, which led to his grandson through one of his daughters becoming emperor.
  • The corrupt nobles constantly used underhanded methods and ploys to off Reinhard. When they start wanting glory, almost all of them meet a miserable end at the hands of their own men.
  • The modus operandi for Reinhard during the early stages of the series. All the people he and his best friend save end up becoming his highest admirals. His more honorable tactics not only result in more victories but also Undying Loyalty from (most of) his subjects.
  • The Earth suffered this tenfold from their colony worlds. Most notably from a graphic even based on the Rape of Nanjing called the "Bloody Night". When the Earth lost its military power, the Black Fleet did a pillaging a hundred times worse, followed by a bombardment that turning the Earth into a desert rock in space. Furthermore, the Earth that was so concerned about making itself the focal point of humanity has now become a forgotten existence.
  • After selling out their country to the Empire in the first half of the series, the Alliance politicians get what's coming to them. To bring stability to the Neue Land, Reuenthal persecutes, incarcerates and executes those same sleazy politicians to gain popularity from the populace.
• Last-Name Basis: Most characters, especially in the Empire. Even close friends such as Reuenthal and Mittermeyer never call each other by first name. Kircheis calling Reinhard and Annerose by first name is a rare exception.
  • A well-earned exception, natch.
  • Also, when Hildegard pays a visit to Annerose the latter quickly suggests they switch to First-Name Basis. Hildegard happily obliges. Reinhard and Hilda attempt to do this, but find it much too awkward.
  • Also, with the exception of his father (in a flashback scene in the side stories) nobody ever refers to Yang by his first name (Wen-li), not even Jessica and Lapp, his friends from military academy.
    • This one's a cultural thing - in Chinese culture (from where Yang obviously takes his name and presumably heritage), referring to someone by their given name only is simply never done outside of one's family. Familiarity is demonstrated by addressing someone by their name without their given name (note that those not close to Yang always call him 'Yang Wen-li') or any sort of honorific (Mr, Mrs etc.), or sometimes with some sort of nickname.
  • Averted with Julian - even after becoming military commander-in-chief of the Iserlohn Republic, he is still often addressed only by his first name by his older acquaintances.
• Last Stand: More common on the Alliance side, but seen on both sides.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: Mittermeyer has no child and wants one, while Reuenthal has one and didn't want it. Reuenthal lampshades this every chance he gets. Not to mention that by the time it's revealed that Elfriede is carrying Reuenthal's child, she had already been pregnant for seven months — meaning that, if you do the math, Reuenthal impregnated her very shortly after their relationship began. Also, Hildegard gets pregnant the very first time Reinhard beds her, something they certainly hadn't planned on.
• Legacy Seeker: Baron Heinrich von Kümmel is obsessed with great artistic figures of the past, such as Leonardo da Vinci, as well as being an admirer of the "Artistic Admiral" Mecklinger. However, being bedridden with a terminal illness, his disability troubles him relentlessly, and as time passes and his mental wellbeing deteriorates, his obsession with "great men" grows to unhealthy levels, culminating in a last-ditch grab for infamy before his death by way of an assassination attempt on the newly-crowned Kaiser Reinhard.
• The Legend of X
• Libation for the Dead: Reinhard poured a glass of white wine onto the glass windows in the Alliance National Museum of Art which he appropriated as his headquarters after he conquered the Alliance against the setting sun as a sign of respect to those who have died due to the war.
• Limited Wardrobe: Reinhard apparently has only two types of outfits: Military outfits with fancy white capes and, when bedridden, pajamas. He never wears anything like the formal civilian wear used by his ministers while in public, even when functioning as the Prime Minister prior to his coronation or as the head of state afterwards - he seemingly always emphasizes his role as a military leader. The only exceptions to this rule are flashbacks, a scene where he goes horseback riding and another during his honeymoon with Hildegard.
  • Same with Reuenthal whom we never see in anything else than his military uniform, even when he serves as the governor of the old FPA territories.
  • Merkatz and Schneider keep wearing their old Imperial uniforms even after throwing their lot in with the Alliance and later the Iserlohn Republic. This is almost lampshaded in one of the later end credits, showing a hypothetical picnic between the Alliance-side cast. Everyone is dressed casually except Merkatz and Schneider, who are still in uniform.
• Long-Lived: The sixth kaiser of the empire Julius, ascended to the throne in his seventies, and by his mid-nineties he was still going strong, having outlived two of his heirs. And he only really died after being poisoned.
• Lord Error-Prone:
  • Count Alfred von Lansberg, an incompetent poet who thinks he could be the savior of the Empire. He's not what he thinks he is.
  • More generally, the majority of the Imperial high nobility as a whole, and the Lippstadt League as a subset thereof. They regard Reinhard as a callow upstart who will be easy prey for their Decadent Court scheming; this turns out to be their downfall when Reinhard's genius and pragmatism (and Oberstein's ruthlessness in sacrificing Westerland) allow him to outmaneuver and discredit them and clear the way for his own revitalized Imperial administration.
• Luke, You Are My Father: Rubinsky and his councilor, Rupert Kesselring. Slightly subverted in that Rubinsky knew all along Kesselring was his son, but acknowledged it as a sign of respect to Kesselring on the anniversary of his mother's death. Rubinsky also acknowledges that he appointed Kesselring his councilor not out of nepotism, but out of genuine respect towards his abilities.
• Luminescent Blush: Hilariously, Reinhard and Hilda in episode 89. Reinhard also does this in a side story where an older man offers him a drink and he must turn it down because Reinhard and Kircheis are still underage. Also, in the fourth season, Julian and Karin.
• Macross Missile Massacre: The Alliance tries this against Iserlohn during their sixth attempt to capture it. It actually does considerable damage and leaves a hole in the station's defenses, but Reinhard's counterattack ensured that they couldn't exploit it.
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Invoked by Poplin when they go to Earth. Boris Konev promptly shoots him down by saying that he "should write for children's TV anime".
• The Main Characters Do Everything: Averted for the most part. One of the reasons the show has such a large cast is because the more highly-placed characters are often effectively tied to their posts and have to delegate some of the more hands-on tasks to others who would be more inconspicuous.
• Malignant Plot Tumor: Both Fezzan and the Earth Cult are introduced early on as relatively insignificant and powerless factions seeking to exploit the conflict between the two competing galactic governments to their own advantage. It eventually becomes clear, however, that while neither has much in the way of overt power, both are exceptionally adept at working from the shadows. This quickly turns the conflict, which at first appears rather straightforward, into a web of overlapping conspiracies and plots.
• Manly Tears: While mourning Reuenthal, Mittermeyer shocks his subordinates by weeping openly on the bridge of his flagship.
• The Masochism Tango: Reuenthal and Elfriede, although it's doubtful whether they even love each other or not. (She is a vengeful member of a noble family that was part exiled, part massacred at Reuenthal's order. He is a misogynist with self-destructive tendencies who sees his own mother in her. They meet when she tries to kill him.)
• Master Race: Emperor Rudolf's selection of only those who were white and of Germanic descent, or at least those who could pass for such, to be Nobles caused all non-white humans such as Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans and Indians, etc. to be relegated to the commoner class and serfdom with no hope of advancing into the echelons of high society. This racial discrimination persisted for so many centuries that by the time the Empire is seen at the beginning of the series, there are no non-white citizens ever seen in the Empire, with virtually all of them having fled to the Free Planets Alliance.
• Meaningful Name: So many of them: Reinhard means brave and cunning, Hildegard means "battle stronghold", Julian means youthful, etc. Many Imperial characters are named after German cities/towns/regions.

  • Wen-Li is transliterated as 威利 (Wei Li) in the Chinese edition of the series. (In the Japanese original his name is written in katakana.) "Wei" can mean "power", and "Li" can mean "sharp".

  • Just the most obvious ones on the Imperial side:
    • Reinhard von Lohengramm: aside of the meaning of "Reinhard", Lohengramm is derived from Lohengrin, just one of the Richard Wagner references in the story.
    • Siegfried Kircheis: Siegfried is another Richard Wagner reference, this time of The Ring of the Nibelung. (Note that Reinhard's flagship is named Brünhild, after Brünnhilde, Siegfried's love in the opera.)
    • Wolfgang Mittermeier: in addition to a common given name, the name Mittermeier further emphasizes the character's middle-class origins. Wolfgang also hints at his Animal Motif (a wolf, unsurprisingly).
    • Oskar von Reuenthal: "Reuenthal" could be translated as "Valley of remorse." On a lighter note, his son ends up being named Felix.
  • Even some Imperial flagships have meaningful names/Theme Naming: Reinhard von Lohengramm has "Brünhild," red-haired Kircheis has "Barbarossa" ("Red-beard"), Wolfgang Mittermeyer, paragon of male virtues, has "Beowulf", Tall, Dark, and Handsome Tragic Hero Reuenthal has "Tristan", orange-haired, yellow-eyed, short-tempered Bittenfeld has "Königstiger" (the German name for the Bengal tiger, but often translated directly as "King tiger"), artistic and wise Mecklinger has "Kvasir" (in Norse Mythology Kvasir was the wisest man in the world and the mead of poetry was created from his blood), and Eisenach, the Silent Admiral who is famous for communicating through hand gestures, has "Vissar" (misspelling of "Vithar", son of Odin who was famous for being always silent).
  • Ironically subverted with Posthumous Character John Drinker Cope: while he had a name apt to an alcoholic, he was allergic to alcohol, and the one time someone swapped his apple juice with champagne as a prank he instantly developed hives.
• The Men First: The best officers on both sides of the conflict ALWAYS make their soldiers' lives their first priority. Many of the greatest military victories in the series happen with almost no loss of human life, Siegfried Kircheis being the best example (as in winning a battle with NOT A SINGLE LIFE LOST on his side).
• Mildly Military: A nice subversion: The Alliance, and especially the Yang Fleet are very casual: you will see them throwing parties, drinking alcohol during strategic meetings, going after every girl they meet, and making fun of their leader's (lack of) sex life in front of him. Do not take this for a lack of competence or discipline: they know the horrors of war, and have chosen to enjoy life as much as they can between battles. When the battle starts, you're quick to remember why they were handpicked by Yang.
• Miles Gloriosus: Duke Braunschwieg and the other corrupt elements of the nobility fancy themselves as knightly heroes to the Empire. In practice, their competence and moral backbone are far less impressive than their presumed importance and valor. Which would cost the Lippstadt rebellion dearly.
• Military Coup: Attempted by hardliners within the Alliance military, ostensibly to sweep away the corruption within its government. Except the whole thing was masterminded by Reinhard von Lohengramm, operating through a mole planted under the guise of a prisoner exchange, to distract the Alliance from taking advantage of the Empire's own civil war.
• Military Maverick: Yang Wen-li, though never reckless, almost never adheres to Alliance convention. Which is good, because those who do are invariably shown to be incompetent, inflexible morons. The entirety of the Rosenritter regiment are also mavericks, of the more reckless sort. Bittenfeld is also rather reckless, both as fleet commander and in personal interactions.
• A Million Is a Statistic: Subverted, the series tries its damn best to make you see how awful and tragic the death of the average soldier is. The officers in the army also constantly show that the deaths of their subordinates weight on them heavily.
  Narrator: After the encounter called the Battle of Astarte, the survivors of the Imperial Fleet numbered 2,450,000 and the Alliance, 4,060,000. However, compared to the Imperial Fleet's 150,000 casualties, the Alliance's numbered ten times as many, 1,500,000.
• Minovsky Physics: This series goes one better with Seffle particles, which are invisible, directional, and extremely flammable even in vacuum.
• Modern Stasis: Civilian life in the Alliance seems to be rather like this. Aside from wall- or desk-mounted picture phones and personal vehicles with optional autopilot, their material culture seems to be very similar to what you would find in first-world countries during the 1980s, down to the hairstyles and fashions. The Empire meanwhile, despite its more archaic aesthetics being reminiscent of the 18th and 19th centuries, is in a similar situation. The main series takes place in the 3590s.
  • Hammered home in the opening of Die Neue These which juxtaposes horse-drawn carriage with an interstellar warship.
  • The flashbacks detailing the backstory suggest that humanity in general somehow reached a socio-cultural plateau at some point in the future history, which would explain why fashions and to a degree technology seem stagnant.
• Monumental Damage: After conquering Heinessen, Reinhard order the massive statue of Arle Heinessen that dominated the entire skyline of Heinessenpolis to be demolished. He leaves other, significantly less garish monuments for Heinessen untouched, though.
• Mood Whiplash: The beginning of the third season is VERY mellow compared to all that happened before: Reinhard is emperor, and has to deal with the duties of a ruler and administrator instead of soldiering, and Yang is married and retired, but constantly living under imperial surveillance. This is only temporary, as the war eventually flares up again and places both men into the environment they are most suited for.
• Mook–Face Turn: Happens a few times, especially in the Empire during the last stages of the Goldenbaum Dynasty.
  • The first notable is where men led by Maximillian von Castrop kill their leader after he proves to be that cruel of a boss and Kircheis confronts them without killing a single soldier.
  • Happens en masse upon the Westerland Massacre, where soldiers and nobles of the Lippstadt League defect or surrender to Reinhard over the incident, if they have not been Driven to Suicide already.
    • It continued even during the final battle at Geirsberg where soldiers eventually gave in and shot their noble commanders. The most notable one is Leopold Schumacher and his crew on the Wilhelmina, having enough of Flegel that they tell him off on his Entitled Bastard behavior before shooting him to death before fleeing the war.
• Morning Sickness: Hildegard has a scene where she experiences this.
• The Mothership: Both sides have ships specifically built to act as flagships. The Alliance mostly mass-produces them in at least three classes depending on the era (with Yang's Hyperion being different simply because the Alliance was short on the standard Ajax-class and had to pull out of mothballs a ship of the previous type), with the two different models being a test ship put on the frontlines due a shortage of ships and a prototype that hadn't entered mass production yet due economic constraints, while the Empire's are normally custom models (with only the Audhumla, Wilhelmina, Forseti and Jotunheim classes having a limited production of three or two mostly identical ships per type).
  • Super Prototype: The Alliance Triglav was to be the prototype of a new class of flagships, and had superior warp range and a larger number of longer-ranged guns than the Ajax-class. On the opposing side, many Imperial flagships carry new technologies to test before being (sometimes) implemented in mass-produced vessels, the most evident examples being Reinhard's Brunhild (with an experimental arrangement of guns and a new armour technology capable of deflecting enemy attacks, both only seen implemented in only another flagship) and the Asgrimm (the only ship to mount a Wave-Motion Gun).
• Mummies at the Dinner Table: Count Landsberg acts like this towards the remains of deposed boy-emperor Erwin Josef II.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Played around with, though tending more towards the "if wrong to be set right" kind. Yang Wen-li in particular, while quietly disdainful of the current Alliance leadership is a staunch believer in democracy and his country's ideals as laid down by Heinessen himself. Still, when the nation he serves ceases to be his benefactor, he's quick to abandon it. He also admits that given different circumstances he would have happily served the Empire and that the Alliance may have reached the end of its very purpose in light of Reinhard's reforms.
• Mythology Gag: Die Neue These has a number to the original OVAs.
  • The DNT version of Reuenthal's father looks exactly like OVA Reuenthal, minus the heterochromia.
  • The overall aesthetics of the Alliance and Empire's vessels are fairly similar to their OVA counterparts.

N-P

• Narrator: Yusaku Yara narrates the OVA series, while Yoshimitsu Shimoyama provides the narration for Die Neue These.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: Even though the Empire is more modeled after the Second Reich rather then the Third, Rudolf von Goldenbaum, the man who made the galaxy-spanning republic into a galaxy-spanning empire, was very much an expy of Adolf Hitler in space: He became the head of state in a democracy and converted it into an autocracy, was a horrible tyrant and even adopted the Nazis' policy of killing the physically and mentally disabled and gays.
• Necessarily Evil: Oberstein's modus operandi. The worst thing about it is that his ideas all work.
• The Neidermeyer: Commodore Andrew Falk personifies this trope. Even more obscenely, he combines it with the worst aspects of Miles Gloriosus and Knight Templar. (For clarification, watch episodes 12-16.)
• Nepotism: A significant factor contributing to the Empire's lack of quality officers is the fact that most of them are aristocrats who got their positions through family connections, not merit.
• Never My Fault: The Alliance Council has this attitude after the Invasion of the Empire is clearly a disaster.
• Next Thing They Knew: Despairing in the aftermath of the second attempt on his life, Reinhard asks Hildegard to stay with him, telling her that he can't bear the thought of being alone that night. From the context it is clear that he is looking for emotional support, not lusting after her. The next scene takes place the following morning with Hildegard waking up in bed next to Reinhard.
• No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: One of the primary reasons why Reinhard von Lohengramm wants to battle with Yang Wen-li whenever the opportunity arises. Having climbed to the highest military rank by his early twenties (and later crowned himself emperor), all that is left for Reinhard is wanting a good challenge from the one of the most brilliant tactical geniuses in the whole galaxy. The Battle of Vermilion is a prominent example: he is so disappointed that his victory was handed to him from outside the battlefield that he could not bring himself to thank Hildegard von Mariendorf, who engineered his victory, even though her plan had saved him from the brink of defeat and possible death.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Rudolf von Goldenbaum is a clear Hitler expy.
  • Oberstein is arguably an expy of (a loyal and reined-in) Maximilian Robespierre. The aforementioned loyalty and dedication to country are what keep him from becoming just like his distant predecessor.
    • Even more so of an Irish revolutionary Theobald Wolfe Tone. Given Tanaka's massive knowledge of history, that's not improbable.
  • The aforementioned Goldenbaum emperor who suddenly abandoned his power and status in order to be with his male lover could be an expy of Lucius Cornelius Sulla.
  • Reinhard, Kircheis and the relationship between them bears many striking similarities to that of Alexander the Great with his BFF, Hephaestion. Check it.
  • Reinhard himself shares many traits with Napoléon Bonaparte. Not so much with a love for cannons, but rather on his military and political acumen which not only make him both a hero to the Empire and a threat to his superiors. But also gain enough influence to become Emperor himself.
    • Not to mention Reinhard himself has a scene much akin to Napoleons return to France, in which he lays himself before the betraying troops and tells them only one man can kill him. Feels an awful lot like "Let he who has the heart fire upon his Emperor."
  • Reinhard actually has far more in common with Frederick II of Prussia than either Napoleon and/or Alexander the Great, sometimes down to very specific circumstances. In general, though, the sheer number of people he's compared to helps support one of the show's points about history incredibly well.
  • Averted with Job Trunicht who is named after Andreis Trunicht (1921-1993) who was the founder of the pro-Apartheid Conservative Party of South Africa. You can always gauge author Yoshiki Tanaka's political sympathies by how he characterizes characters named after historical figures. Needless to say, Job Trunicht is not a sympathetic character.
  • Also averted with Sidney Sithole who was named after Ndabaningi Sithole (1920-2000), founder of the Zimbabwe African National Union, to oppose the Rhodesian government. As usual, author Yoshiki Tanaka's characterization of anyone named after historical figures is telling of how he views the historical figure. Sidney is a mentor to Yang as well as a Father to His Men.
• No Name Given: The youngest of the Cazernes daughters.
• No New Fashions in the Future: If they're not stuck in the 18th century, they've got a serious case of '80s Hair: Frederica Greenhill sports a mullet, while Adrian Rubinsky dresses and looks like Telly Savalas.
  • Admiral Willibald Joachim von Merkatz bears a stunning resemblance to Charles Bronson.
  • Admiral Ernest Mecklinger and his Porn Stache.
  • Fashion is very odd in general in the OVAs. Imperial farmers seemingly wear 18th century peasant wear, urban civilians sometimes wear the same late 20th century styles as the Alliance, other times late 19th/early 20th century styles. The late 20th styles were also in fashion circa 500 years earlier when Rudolf von Goldenbaum established the Empire and seemingly even when the first world government was established on Earth in 2129, some 1400 years prior to the events of the series. And there is also the matter of the 18th century styles remaining in fashion since Rudolf deliberately introduced them, although Reinhard's rule shakes this up somewhat with a shift into 19th century ones.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Reinhard and Yang are often compared to Rudolph von Goldenbaum. The main difference is that Reinhard, while taking him as the model for his rise, is tearing down his regime and setting up the Empire for a democracy. Meanwhile, Yang has since realized how he's capable of setting himself up as the dictator of the Alliance whenever he wants (and it's the reason the Alliance politicians fear him so much), and consciously refuses to do so.
• Not So Similar: When on the receiving end of a We Can Rule Together offer from Reinhard, Yang rebuffs him, saying that while Reinhard wants subordinates bound to him by loyalty, Yang wants friends bound by mutual trust.
• Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Averted. Nuclear warheads are still around but are otherwise limited by law and unspoken consensus to situations in space and uninhabited planets. This is due to the events of World War III, well over a thousand years before the events of the series, which nearly wiped out the entire human race in atomic fire.
• Obfuscating Stupidity:
  • Grimmelshausen in the side stories. On the surface he is a frail old man suffering from dementia who is indecisive and over-cautious when commanding his fleet. In his more lucid moments, however, he reveals that he is fully aware of his own lack of talent and that because others consider him a harmless fool they act indiscreetly around him, enabling him to gather plenty of incriminating evidence of the nefarious deeds of the High Nobility. Grimmelshausen entrusts Kesler to deliver said evidence to Reinhard in order to help him bring down the nobles. Though Reinhard appreciates the intent, he refuses to make use of it, preferring to bring them down in a more honest fashion.
  • In the main series, Friedrich IV is strongly implied to be doing this. As far as most people are aware, he's a rather mundane monarch and former hedonist who is much more interested in gardening and culture than in actually governing the Empire, a task that's largely given to Lichtenlade. It's shown however that not only is he much keener than his unassuming persona suggests but is very much aware that the Goldenbaum Dynasty's days are fast ending. And that he's always known about Reinhard's ambitions when he could have ended it all from the very beginning, believing nonetheless that Reinhard would be the one capable of bringing change to the Empire.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: The Alliance is so full of these, it's a miracle they get anything done.
  • It is a testament to his patience worthy of the Buddha that Yang Wen-li does not get medieval on his nation's leaders, considering how much they go out of their way to fuck with him and his plans.
• Odd Friendship: Tall, Dark, and Handsome, filthy rich aristocrat Oskar von Reuenthal who has a Dark and Troubled Past, all sorts of psychological issues, and is a well-known womanizer; and short, blond, commoner Wolfgang Mittermeyer who is a paragon of all male virtues (well, mostly) and is Happily Married to his teenage sweetheart. They met in a barroom brawl, clicked instantly and over the years their friendship (as well as their military prowess) has become somewhat of a legend in both the Empire and the Alliance.
  • They even have a not so subtle Red Oni, Blue Oni thing going on: Mittermeyer is associated with red, Reuenthal with blue, and their personalities follow the trope patterns.
• Of Corpse He's Alive: Played straight, but not for laughs, with Rennenkampf's body.
• Officer and a Gentleman: Reinhard von Lohengramm. For one, he orders his entire fleet to salute the slain enemy admiral Bewcock after the Battle of Marr-Adetta. Many of the other Imperial Admirals qualify for this as well, particularly Mecklinger, and Mittermeyer who went as far as executing one of his own men for rape and pillage.
  • Sadly lacking on the Alliance side. While Yang and his allies and subordinates tend to fit this trope, many of their fellow officers are careerists, opportunists, cowards, predators, or some combination of these traits. In fact, the actions of a group of officers seeking to secure high rank with the Empire are ultimately responsible for the Alliance's final dissolution. Naturally, Reinhard is uninterested in playing ball....
• Offing the Offspring: Adrian Rubinsky offs his own son Rupert Kesselring just before the Imperial invasion of Fezzan. Granted, this was actually due to Rupert's failed attempt at being a Self-Made Orphan. Also, Kaiser Friedrich IV only ended up on the Galactic throne because his father had executed his two older brothers for treason.
  • Technically, Richard, the eldest brother, was innocent the whole time, since it's Clementz, the middle brother, the one actually plotting against his father. Clementz tried to flee to the Free Planets Alliance, only to wind up dead in some accident.
• Old Friend: Kircheis runs into an old friend from school while visiting his old hometown. Said friend is studying literature in university and is worried about being conscripted into the military and used as cannon fodder. The narrator reveals that six months later Kircheis learned that this friend has been arrested for anti-war activism, and that when after two more years had passed and Kircheis had gained more power he attempted to have his friend released only to discover that he had perished from malnutrition in a forced labour camp.
• One Sided Battle: Averted. Many of the larger pitched battles are brutal stalemates with millions of casualties on each side, no matter who wins in the end. The camera frequently switches to the gory deaths of mooks from both sides to highlight the horrific human suffering caused by war. These scenes tend to be filler for the narrator's author tracts bemoaning the futility of it all. The taking of Iserlohn and Siegfried Kircheis's supression of the Kastrop Rebellion certainly qualify, though.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted in episode 22: after Marquis Littenheim blasts through his own men to cover a retreat, the only two survivors left on the bridge on one of the ships - a cabin boy and severely wounded officer - find out that they are both named Konrad.
• One World Order: Played straight, though subverted in the bigger picture. There's only one governing body per planet, but humanity is by no means truly united in the future of the 36th Century. As the backstory reveals, there was an attempt in the distant past following the chaos of World War III, which worked until the space colonies got riled up. The Empire and Alliance themselves are an evolution of Earth's old nation-states and federations, albeit on a much larger scale.
  • It doesn't even apply to the Alliance and the Empire individually, it's shown that both have frontier/backwater territories which are mostly left alone and are self-governing, due to the immense distance to their central governments.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Utterly subverted, despite futuristic medicine technology.
• Only Sane Man: In the Empire, Reinhard makes a point to attract and intentionally promote those who are this trope compared to the decadent, corrupt Old Guard nobility. As the series progresses, he likewise comes to recognize the value of the nobles who aren't part of the Decadent Court that Reinhard crushes and abolishes. With the likes of the Mariendorfs forming a surviving aristocracy alongside a more meritocratic cohort of bureaucrats.
• Opinion-Changing Dream: At one point late in the series, Reinhard contemplates simply grinding the Yang Fleet into oblivion via attrition, but a visitation by Sigfried Kircheis in his dreams convinces him to relent and offer a cease-fire.
• Orchestral Bombing: Oh yeah.
  • Dvorak's New World Symphony accompanying the Battle of Amritsar; tens of thousands of ships exchanging Intano Circus's, fast paced dogfights between agile star-fighters, and massive particle cannon bombardment resulting in the deaths of millions on either side, all the while lamenting the and emphasizing the horror and tragedy of the event.
• Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions:
  • Humanity is shown to have largely abandoned organized religion prior to the events of the series as a consequence of World War III and its aftermath. But it resurfaces in the form of the Earth Church. But while the Terraists revere the Earth because it is the original home, the "mother" of humanity, they do not seem to really believe in anything supernatural. Despite calling themselves "Church", they are an ultra-nationalist movement rather than a religious cult.
  • In the novel, Mittermeyer is shown genuinely praying to Odin, and Reinhard dreamed of Valhalla at least once. Many Imperial characters actually do believe Valhalla is waiting for them in the afterlife, be it Reinhard's faction or the opposing aristocrats. Moreover, not only is the Nordic pantheon allowed to thrive in the Empire, it is deeply ingrained in the minds of the populace. On the other hand, other 'gods', 'mythologies' and 'religions' are discouraged if not outright banned. This also applies to the Earth Church, where they have far more success in Alliance territories but otherwise driven underground in the Empire.
  • In one of the side stories it is mentioned that Whit Sunday is still being celebrated, but has lost all religious meaning and is nothing but an early summer festival.
  • It's also mentioned though that most people still cling on to some idea of an afterlife as well as vestiges of old-world religions, whether it's Christianity for the Alliance or the re-purposed Odinism of the Empire.
• Overly Long Name: Despite the penchant for long, important-sounding names in the Galactic Empire, the winner here is actually Alliance politico Enrique Martino Borges de Arantes e Oliveira, who shows up in some six episodes.
• Overranked Soldier: Though he is very capable, Emperor Friedrich IV promoting twenty-year old Reinhard to Fleet Admiral in charge of half the Imperial fleet seems absurd, especially considering that there were many more experienced commanders available and the military establishment and the High Nobles oppose the appointment. Reinhard's handpicked admirals are also rather young for their posts, with the youngest, Müller, starting out as Vice Admiral at 25 or 26 and the others not being much older, mid-30s at the most. The Alliance also does this, but to a lesser degree.
  • It helps that Reinhard's sister was the emperor's favorite concubine, and Reinhard himself was in a very privileged position. The novel mentions that Friedrich IV doted on him to the point where some might have suspected he had the hots for him. As for the admirals, Reinhard wanted people who weren't loyal to the current establishment, so it makes sense that he started looking among younger soldiers. (They didn't start out as admirals, they were all promoted to that rank.)
  • It should also be noted that this may have been Friedrich IV's plan all along, who saw the demise of the Goldenbaum Dynasty as inevitable. Seeing Reinhard's potential, the ailing Emperor paved the way and accelerated the former's ascendance. Though for what reason, we will never know.
• Path of Inspiration: The Earth Church encouraged people to return back to their roots, i.e., the planet Earth, which by the time period of the series^note  during the late 36th century AD had became an isolated backwater planet. As the series progresses, it became increasingly clear that the Earth Church’s real objectives were to regain the lost status and power that Earth enjoyed centuries ago and would resort to any means, from brainwashing its members to plotting assassinations of key figures in the galaxy, so as to achieve their objectives.
• Patriotic Fervor: Just about every form and manifestation is covered, from extreme nationalists to politicians cynically exploiting national sentiment to sincere patriots trying to do what's best for their people and ideals.
• Percussive Therapy: Reinhard smashes at least one wineglass per season, only one of them celebratory.
• Pet the Dog: Oberstein has an actual dog, and the narrator mentions that Lang secretly gave money to charity his entire life and was apparently a loving father and husband as well.
• Planet of Hats: Fezzan, where everyone is a scheming, moneygrubbing merchant.
• Planetville: Subverted. While entire planets tend to be shown as though they were regions or provinces, there's more to them than meets the eye. Indeed, a good deal is seen of the varying locales on Odin, Heinessen and Fezzan.
  • It's also implied that at least at the outskirts of each power's territory most habitable planets hold a relatively small number of people, due to lack of funds, technology or just plain manpower (since young men usually end up in the army, one way or another).
• Plucky Comic Relief: Poplin, most of the time. Bittenfeld sometimes.
• Post-Victory Collapse: Late in the series, after fighting the Imperial fleet to a standstill after several days of constant and desperate battle, the personnel of Yang Fleet practically collapse en masse from exhaustion, with several lying in the hallways where they fall because they're simply too tired to go on.
• POW Camp: The latter half of the Spiral Labyrinth arc in the second prequel series is set in a distant POW camp operated by the Alliance and covers Yang Wen-li's (brief) appointment in there.
• Precocious Crush: Julian had one on Frederica before he discovers that Yang proposed to her.
  • It is implied that he even intended on confessing to her before the final battle.
• Predecessor Villain: Rudolf von Goldenbaum, founder of the Empire and progenitor of the ruling Goldenbaum dynasty. The extreme Social Darwinist rhetoric and calculated brutality he used to seize and maintain power set the standards for Imperial politics and culture even five centuries later. He's also something of a bogeyman for the Free Planets Alliance, both because those same policies led to their ancestors' exile and because they're afraid that other strong and charismatic figures might try to follow his example.
• The Promise: "Please win the universe, Lord Reinhard!"
• Proud Merchant Race: Fezzanis are portrayed as such.
• Proper Lady: Annerose von Grünewald and Hortense Cazerne fit this archetype fairly closely.
• Psycho for Hire: Ovlesser is a hulking brute who seeming fights solely for the love of killing.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: Other than the opening and closing themes, and two national songs (the anthem of the Free Planets Alliance and the military anthem of the Imperial Army), the entire soundtrack is made up of classical music.
  • And it knows how to use the music, too. For example, episode 14, "Liberation of the Frontier Zone" makes good use of Dvorák's New World Symphony, and many other episodes and scenes feature relevant and fitting passages from Ludwig van Beethoven's Third and Fifth Symphonies, Gustav Mahler's Symphony No.5, Johannes Brahms' Symphony No.1, and many other works.
  • The attempted assassination of the Kaiser and Prince during a party with a bomb is set to part of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks.
  • Some pieces are also associated with certain factions, such as the use of Mahler's Third and Sixth Symphonies for the Empire.
• Putting on the Reich: Subversion: while the fashion of the Imperial army is quite based on German fashion (specifically Prussian), the story's refusal to take sides actually means that the superficial similarity is exactly that, superficial. It would have DEFINITELY applied when Rudolf von Goldenbaum was emperor, though.

Q-S

• The Quisling: Seen amongst the less honorable on both sides when the opposing side invades.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The 13th Fleet, which was hastily scrambled together from new recruits and survivors from the Battle of Astarte, along with a helping of Imperial expatriates that serve as special task forces, an enemy defector, and a turncoat.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: The Alliance, of all people, resort to it to resupply after Reinhard von Lohengramm destroys their supply ships during their "liberation" of the frontier territories.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • Alexander Bewcock, Sidney Sithole for the Alliance are notable examples, though not the only ones.
  • A number of Imperial military officers and noble houses also count. Who become the norm in Reinhard's reinvigorated Empire.
• Recycled Animation: The OVA episodes generally had a habit of recycling certain scenes, especially those involving space combat. That said, said moments aren't always immediately recognizable.
• Recycled IN SPACE!: Just from the description this anime sounds like War and Peace IN SPACE! Which really just makes it all the more great.
  • It's more like Romance of the Three Kingdoms or even Game of Thrones...
    • In Space.
• Red Baron: Many characters have them, but the one most commonly referred to by his nick name is "Gale Wolf" Mittermeyer.
  • Yang Wen-li has a few: "Miracle" Yang, Yang the Magician, The Hero of El Facil, etc.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The most obvious example is the Odd Friendship of the honest, passionate, working-class idealist Mittermeyer and the cold, calculating cynical aristocrat Reuenthal; they even get matching capes!
• Redshirt Army: Anyone who fights the Rosenritters. (Except for Reuenthal and Kircheis, possibly the only two people whose respective fights with Schönkopf end in a draw.) Also the common Terraist cultists.
• Reluctant Ruler: Yang Wen-li has enough talent, competence and popular support to become a significant politician, if not the leader of the Free Planets Alliance if he wanted to. But out of principle, a devotion to democratic ideals and partly out of laziness, he refuses to even consider that option. It's only in later episodes that he actually begins entertaining the notion of taking power, if very reluctantly. He dies before anything significant comes out of that, however.
• The Remnant:
  • Many of the old nobility continue to plot and act against Reinhard von Lohengramm's reformed Empire, even if it's a hopelessly lost cause. A few of these, though, kidnap the 7 year-old Kaiser and seek asylum with the Alliance, causing the then cold war between the Empire and the Alliance to REALLY heat up.
  • Later, the Iserlohn Republic becomes this compared to the defunct Alliance.
  • The remaining noble houses that have endured the downfall of the Goldenbaum Dynasty such as the Mariendorfs become this to the old aristocracy, by virtue of being in Reinhard's good graces and not succumbing to the same sins that befell those who joined the Lippstadt rebellion.
  • It's implied that the Earth Church was founded by loyalists of the original United Earth Government in a bid to bring the focal point of mankind back to Earth.
• Renegade Splinter Faction:
  • The Lippstadt rebellion is led by members of the old High Nobility seeking to restore the Goldenbaum Dynasty after Reinhard von Lohengramm seizes power. The majority of said rebellious nobles, however, are self-serving and delusional to a fault. As they're clearly in it to maintain their old privileges and to solidify their influence in the Imperial court than any genuine loyalty.
  • The Yang Fleet ultimately finds itself in this situation in the final days of the Alliance. Yang Wen-li in particular find himself thrust into the role of leading the "El Facil Revolutionary Government" by republican dissidents hoping to inspire the rest of the FPA. Even after being assassinated by Terraists alongside many of said dissidents, the Yang Fleet manages to hold together. Bringing together the El Facil survivors, they go on to found the Iserlohn Republic.
  • Adrian Rubinsky's clique in Fezzan is revealed to be one to the Earth Church. Although the planet was intended to be a Terraist front, albeit one that most of its denizens are unaware of, Rubinsky is much more interested in Playing Both Sides and benefiting himself than following the orders of his cultist "superiors".
• Retcon: This first flashback to the suicide of Reuenthal's mother shows her slumped over a table with an emptied glass of poisoned wine next to her. The second shows her lying in bed with a half-empty jar of pills in her hand.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: The Alliance officers who murder Rebelo in an attempt to curry favour with the Empire. Something similar happens with Grillparzer.
• The Rival: Mostly the two main characters, to each other, but rivalry exists between other characters as well.
• Romanticism Versus Enlightenment: The Empire (Romanticism) vs. The Alliance (Enlightenment).
  • Possibly other way around. Reinhard is pragmatist, and his reformed Empire is Enlightened Monarchy, a form of government endorsed by Voltaire. Yang is Honor Before Reason type of guy, and his band of misfits supports republican democracy, government arguably invented in modern form by romanticist philosophers.
  • Played straight in terms of Reinhard's and Yang's approach to tactics. Reinhard is a romantic who glorifies and lives for war, believing in the ideals of glory and honor, with him having an 18th century approach of gentlemanly warfare in the battlefield. As a result, he generally insist on fighting the direct way by confronting his enemies head on. Yang, on the other hand, is a cynic, who at best, views war and the military as a necessary evil. With his only concern being to win the battle via whatever means necessary with minimum causalities on both sides. Therefore, any number of underhanded tactics such as guerrilla warfare, sabotage, hit and run tactics, misinformation, etc, are all fair game for him as long as it gets the job done.
• Rousing Speech: Happens every now and then, with varying levels of cynicism, demagogy and good old stupidity. The undisputed king is Yang Wen-li, whose first Rousing Speech goes something like this: "Er... Giving our life for the fatherland... and stuff... um, I guess it's just that we can only drink good tea while we're alive so let's fight and not die!"
• Rousseau Was Right: Most of the main characters on both sides are inherently noble people who want what's best for their nations.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Quite a number of aristocratic characters on the Imperial side tend towards the Noblesse Oblige kind of nobility. Unfortunately, they're outnumbered by the sort who make up much of the Empire's Decadent Court...at least under the Goldenbaum dynasty. Once Reinhard ascends the throne however, the surviving nobles tended to fall under the former, either siding with the new Kaiser or fleeing the Empire.
• Rule of Symbolism: In the New Galactic Empire, Reinhard, Reuenthal and Mittermeyer wear white, red and blue respectively, the colors associated with (among other things) the French revolution. Fitting as they openly fight for an enlightened monarchy. They're also the colors of the Free Planets Alliance, which is another hint that the two sides are each working towards a government for the people.
• Sacrificial Lion: Just because many characters die doesn't mean some of them aren't remembered more than others. Kircheis is a good example.
• Schizo Tech: Quill pens and bulky computers exist alongside cybernetic replacement limbs and armour-wearing soldiers wielding axes. Using ultrasound to examine the development of fetuses seems to be Lost Technology, given that the doctor who watches over the delivery of Prince Alexander feels the need to announce "It's a boy!". Justified, since the novels were written in the '80s.
• Scifi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale: In regard to population growth and migration rates, at least. 269 years before the battle of Astarte the Alliance was founded by the remainder of a group of 400000 prisoners who had escaped the Empire. 113 years later they had sufficient population and industrial capacity to field a starfleet that could defeat the first Imperial fleet sent to subjugate them and hold their own afterwards. It is stated that after the Empire becomes aware of them large numbers of dissidents immigrate to the Alliance, swelling their numbers. By the time of the main series, the Empire's population is stated to be around 25 billion people and the Alliance's around 13 billion. Not completely impossible, but very unlikely considering the circumstances.^note Elaboration: Considering the limits of natural population growth, the fact that Alliance territory can only be reached through a couple of narrow space corridors no doubt guarded by Imperial fleets with orders not to allow passage to the rebel territories, the fact that it would likely be difficult for fleeing dissidents to bring along everything you need for colonising new planets thus placing a burden on existing Alliance infrastructure, the social and political implications of admitting large numbers of new citizens whose ideas of how the government should be run might be at odds with those of the original founders and so on makes it difficult to see how this could work.
  • That could be chalked up to the Galactic Empire's feudalism making them exile the intelligentsia, thus making things easier on Nguyen Kim Hua when the refugees landed on the very planet that would be named after their leader.
• Secret Police: In what appears to be a borrowing from Militaristic Japan, the Military Police doubles as a political police, having the authority to intervene against civilians on suspicion of sedition.
• Setting Update: The Die Neue These adaptations update a lot of things from the 1980s OVAs. This time around, there are hairstyles and clothes mirroring the 2010s and 2020s, there's more diversity among the ranks in the military like non-whites and female officers, the computers are now sleek and thin with touchscreen holograms and, everyone uses the internet and social media. Similarly, the Empire is updated from the 18th-century fashions of the OVAs to a late Victorian, Edwardian style of dress.
• Sexy Backless Outfit: Dominique likes to wear back-revealing dresses.
• Shirtless Scene: A brief still of Reuenthal in bed with Elfriede. A Modesty Bedsheet covers them below the waist, and Elfriede is pressing herself against his very muscular chest.
• Shout-Out: A salary sheet in episode 54 lists Beat poets and writers Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Lew Welch, and their contemporary, composer Paul Bowles, as well as Italian Industrial music pioneer Maurizio Bianchi, Japanese artist and critic Noi Sawaragi, and American Jazz drummer Art Blakey.
• Shower Scene: Hildegard has one in episode 89, complete with full rear nudity.
  • The manga has scenes of Shower of Angst with Reuenthal (full rear nudity) and Mittermeyer (frontal but he's sitting and there were strategically placed shadows).
• Shown Their Work: Though their grasp of English and German is shaky, the creators obviously did good work when it came to researching general history and the cultures the Empire was based on. Not only do they do a fair job of depicting the retro architecture and fashions, they also show characters using mannerisms, for example curtseys, that would likely be unfamiliar to the Japanese audience.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift:
  • Downplayed in the OVA, but one visible sign of change after Reinhard becomes Emperor is how the Empire's general fashion sense is much more reminiscent of the mid-late 19th century, as opposed to the more baroque 18th century wardrobes of the Goldenbaum era.
  • Despite having formally retired after marrying Yang, Frederica trades her housewife looks for her old FPA uniform to save her husband and join him in his campaign against the Empire.
• Smart People Play Chess: Invoked with Yang Wen-li, who proves himself time and time again to be one of the smartest and deadliest men alive and occasionally is seen playing chess. Inverted in that he kind of sucks at it.
• Smug Snake: Job Trunicht, oh god Job Trunicht. Nearly everyone in charge on Fezzan too.
• So Last Season: Played straight at the Battle of Astarte (where the Alliance tried to recycle the tactic that won them the first battle of the war and got trounced when Reinhard took advantage of them temporarily splitting their force in its component fleets and picked them one by one), but usually Averted by Yang, who tends to recycle old tactics (for example, at the Battle of Doria he adopted a variant of the Nelson Touch, of all things) and win (Doria was possibly the most one-sided Curb-Stomp Battle of the series).
• So What Do We Do Now?: After the Empire defeats the Alliance, many of the military characters on the winning side (talented men who have made their living through war) suddenly find themselves with very little to do. Tragedy ensues.
• Soap Opera Disease: Seriously, what are the chances that one of the smartest politicians and military leaders in the galaxy would die of a "rare mutative connective tissue disease" at the age of 25, two years after becoming Emperor?
  • And Tanaka Yoshiki could just have opened a medical book and given Multiple Sclerosis to Reinhard even if rare, in some cases the illness HAS killed people in their middle 20's.
    • Well yes, but arguably realism was never really the point. The mystery illness was just a device to give Reinhard a "proper" death that rounds out his legend. Hilda even tells people that Reinhard didn't "die," he "let go of his life" or something to that effect.
    • There is a fairly severe taboo about using real conditions and diseases in media in Japan — it would be highly unlikely that Yoshiki's publisher's legal team would allow him to reference an actual disease in fear of offending someone with the actual diseases. Generic, unexplained space illnesses would be acceptable, however.
• Someone to Remember Him By: Felix, Reuenthal's son by Elfriede. Reuenthal even comments on the Dramatic Irony before he dies. Subverted in that it's not for the mother's remembrance a sort of memento of friendship.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: Might come out to be this in the beginning to most viewers, especially during an epic space battle scene where you expect similarly epic space battle music to be playing, but instead this is playing.
• Space Age Stasis: Although there is still technological development, humanity in general is mentioned as having reached a plateau centuries previously. This partly explains why space colonization exponentially slowed down over time and may account for the Days of Future Past aesthetic on both sides.

• Space Is Noisy: Lasers go pew pew, causing ships to explode in earth shattering kabooms. In at least one battle, opposing commanders even seem to yell at each other over loudspeakers (as normal communications would ostensibly be jammed).
  • Or, you know, they're just hacking into the opposing side's communications channels.
• Space Marine: The Rosenritter is a notable case. Its members have been consistently regarded as elite soldiers; their standard equipment includes incredibly tough armor and they are practically the only group in the series to engage in boarding tactics against enemy ships.
• Space Mines: Used by both factions a couple of times during the series, and they are deployed in the millions.

• Space Opera: The quintessential anime example.
  • It is also a subversion: one usual characteristic of space operas is not taking into consideration the impact technology and the colonization of space have on human civilization. This series REVOLVES around how advancing technology and the colonization of space have changed human society, and it takes pains to make sure this is explained in loving detail.
• Space Pirates: In the history of this particular universe, they are one of the primary reasons the Galactic Empire was founded in the first place, but they are mentioned only infrequently. In part because Rudolf and his successors all but wiped out every single one of them.
• Spanner in the Works: Both Yang and Reinhard are shown to be this for each other's plans. Their actions and schemes also fly in the face of the Terraists' Ancient Conspiracy.
• Speech-Centric Work: Dialogue drives much of the plot, since we get a window into the backroom deals and councils of war where many of the most important decisions are made.
• Spell My Name With An S: both in fansubs and some of the on-screen text, despite most of the names being perfectly valid, often existing Western names.
  • The most egregious examples are probably "Joanne Lebello" for João Rebelo and "Guen Van Hugh" for Nguyen Van Thieu. Even main characters aren't immune (Julian Minci / Mintz). The official website rectifies some of this ... but then gives us new mistakes like Dusty Attemborough. The Gineiden Encyclopaedia is generally regarded as the authority on official spellings.
  • Trunicht's name seems to come from the pro-apartheid politician Andries Treurnicht, and France has two far-right politicians called Karl Lang and Philippe de Villiers.
  • Reinhard's last name was apparently supposed to be "von Lohengrin," but the name "von Lohengramm" has since become so iconic that it's impossible to imagine him otherwise.
• Squishy Wizard: Even though there is no magic in this series, if high intelligence and knowledge but low physical abilities are traits of the squishy wizard then Yang would be one. However, it is never stated whether Yang is actually bad at physical activities or if he is just bad at directly hurting a person in front of him (which is understandable since he prefers pacifism if he can help it). He has been shown to possibly have some pretty nice reflexes, dodging a laser gun shot from within a few meters, even if he did dodge it a bit clumsily.
• Standardized Space Views: All the time.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Kircheis and Annerose.
• Starship Luxurious: Every Imperial flagship and space fortress apparently has space for mahogany and ivory detailing and expensive artwork. The Alliance ships are, however, clearly more utilitarian. Trope usage is probably intentional.
  • It probably has to do with the Empire spending more money on its ships. Aside from looking fancier, Imperial ships are also more developed than Alliance ships, for example they're able to actually land on planets (even in water), etc.
  • In a similar vein, one of the side stories features a space station in orbit around an uninhabited planet that functions solely as a luxury resort. One of the more decadent features is a huge waterfall which exotic birds perch around. Why they took the trouble to create this environment aboard a space station that can only be reached via starship from an inhabited planet instead of creating a resort planetside where logistics would be much easier and you wouldn't have to worry about life support is never explained.
• Starter Villain: In the first season, Yang has to deal with the Patriotic Knights Corps (Job Trunicht's street thugs and a front for the Earth Cult) and the National Salvation Military Council (a hardline faction in the FPA armed forces that views Yang's pacifist and anarchist tendencies as harmful to the war effort). At the same time, Reinhard has to deal with the court partisans of Countess von Benemünde (one of the Kaiser's former concubines who becomes a Woman Scorned after Reinhard's sister Annerose displaces her) and the Lippstadt League (a league of powerful nobles who oppose Reinhard in the Succession Crisis that ensues after Friedrich IV's death). Note that for both characters, their respective Starter Villains are ostensibly on the same side of the main conflict as them.
• State Sec: The Empire, unsurprisingly, does this better than the Alliance.
• Still Wearing the Old Colors: Merkatz and his aide still wear the old Goldenbaum-era uniform even after siding with Yang.
  • Yang's "Irregulars" still wear their Alliance uniforms, even after their separation and the Alliance's dissolution.
• The Stinger: In the last episode it's revealed that Erwin Josef von Goldenbaum may still be alive.
• The Stoic: Oberstein, Merkatz and Eisenach.
• The Stool Pigeon: An Imperial soldier who broke protocol through an inappropriate comment was snitched on by another. Reinhard von Lohengramm asked Fräulein Mariendorf to use her judgement on how to handle the situation. Hildegard did punish the soldier that broke protocol, but she punished the snitch even worse by demoting him. Lohengramm was pleased, saying that it was wise of her to prove the point that no soldier can expect reward from him for duplicity and betraying his comrades. Classy attitude from both of them.
• Storming the Castle: The taking of Iserlohn.
  • More climatically, the boarding of the Brünhild.
• The Strategist: Yang, celebrated as Hero of El Facil, finds himself in this role as the story progresses.
• Succession Crisis: One kicks off a civil war in the Empire, with various factions supporting three different grandchildren of Friedrich IV for the throne.
• Suddenly Significant City:
  • In the backstory, Brisbane, Australia became the capital of the United Earth Government which was established after almost of a century of warfare that left much of the world devastated and practically all major cities destroyed.
  • In the main story, while it had always been important to the galaxy's political and economic spheres, Fezzan becomes a Suddenly Significant Planet after Kaiser Reinhard makes it the new capital of the Galactic Empire.
• Suddenly Speaking: Near the end of the series, Eisenbach (Famous for not speaking and using using hand gestures to communicate what he wanted) finally says something: Checkmate. It surprises everyone around him since they didn't know he could talk. The only one not surprised is Mittermeyer, who at some point had previously heard him speak before.
• Suicide Mission: The first time Yang Wen-li is sent to capture Iserlohn.
• Super Prototype: Imperial flagships are often equipped with new technologies that may or may not be mass-produced at a later moment (as with the curved armour that makes the Brünhild Nigh-Invulnerable-it was tested against the mightiest ship-mounted guns available at the time and she reported no damage-and later used with the Perceval, the communication suit of the Forseti and the Wave-Motion Gun of the Asgrimm). Also, the Alliance has the Triglav (supposed to be the prototype of a new class of flagship and equipped with better warp drives and more numerous and longer-ranged cannons) and the Leda II (with the Alliance's take on the curved armour of the Brünhild and Perceval and better guns than the standard cruiser).
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • During the Battle of the Corridor, Mittermeyer attempted to order a feigned retreat with his fleets so that he can trick Yang's forces to charge in and so that he can encircle them. However, because he tends to be close to the frontlines when he unleashes they maneuvers and this time he is way back on Reinhard's ship, it's execution is faulty at best. Similarly, in the same battle, after vice admiral Fischer (the guy in charge of fleet movements) was killed, Yang admits that at this point, it really doesn't matter what kind of genius tactics and tricks he comes up with anymore. Since the loss of Fischer means that what remains of his fleet simply don't have the necessary coordination needed to put them into action.
  • Unlike many Military Science Fiction, which pays very little attention to the impact that war will have on the civilian economic sector, this series show exactly how much of a drain protracted warfare will have on the productivity of a society. Even when Yang managed to capture the Iserlohn Fortress, putting the Alliance at its most advantageous point militarily since the beginning of the conflict, it was stated that the Alliance's economy is being pushed to its breaking point, and will soon completely collapse if peace isn't achieved soon.
  • It was stated from the very beginning that the Empire outmatched the Alliance in both resources and manpower. Thus the Alliance tend to respond to Imperial aggression rather than be the one to iniate it. This changed after Yang captured the Iserlohn Fortress, and prompted the Alliance to iniate a deep offensive into Imperial realms that ended badly. That debacle was followed by the costly Alliance civil war, which saw more fleets, defensive weaponry and outposts destroyed. By the time Reinhard came knocking, the Alliance was still in the process of replenishing its losses. The Alliance at that point had no choice but to amass everything they could find that had any semblance to a space-worthy vessel, some even resorted to Break Out the Museum Piece just to fill the numbers.
  • After the fall of the Alliance, in order to show that they are benevolent invaders, the Imperial administration under Reuenthal decided to allow the Alliance's citizens to keep a degree of their civil rights, such as the freedom of speech and assembly. As a result, anti-Imperial occupation protest took place all over Heinessen. Ultimately ending in a public memorial service for Yang Wen-li turning violent, forcing the Imperial forces to enact a deadly military crackdown.
  • The Lippstadt rebellion was by and large one huge wake-up call for the old guard of the Goldenbaum Dynasty. Many of the dissident nobles learn the hard way that promises of glory and zealous grandstanding in themselves mean nothing without a competent military force, an actual backbone and the sort of Noblesse Oblige that they're supposed to embody. Reinhard meanwhile gets a taste of the kind of heavy burden he would have to carry as a leader, by allowing the atomic bombardment of Westerland to happen, if only to end the revolt quickly and expose the nobles' atrocities.
  • Oberstein is the ultimate realist who only cares about achieving the ends to best benefit the Empire by whatever means necessary, regardless of the human cost or how unethical that decision might be. While on paper, that makes him the ultimate statesman and administrator if you are looking for effectiveness, in reality, this makes him highly unpopular with most officers and soldiers alike. And his lack of concern for the human factor when making decisions resulted in a full scale street riot breaking out with the Imperial occupational forces on Heinessen due to him putting Bittenfeld on administrative leave. It's shown as well that he's painfully aware of his actions as a Necessary Evil, which is in part why he would rather have Reinhard rule rather than someone like himself.
  • Suppose you are a military genius and have a great eye for scouting talent. You surround yourself with some of the most talented admirals in the galaxy. What happens once you start losing some of those admirals? You get screwed and can't replace them, that's what. Once Reinhard starts losing one High Admiral after another, he finds that the up-and-coming admirals aren't nearly as talented and his military operations start suffering because of it.
  • The Earth Church has spent the past several generations plotting to manipulate, and ultimately overthrow, both the Empire and Alliance in its bid for power and to make Earth the center of humanity once again. As it turns out, however, running an Ancient Conspiracy for so long is shown to be much more tenuous than it looks, due to there being so many moving parts and assumptions that even a single Spanner in the Works or self-interested opportunists like Rubinsky and Trunicht can cause centuries' worth of scheming to unravel, if not collapse.
  • The series also goes at length to show how the consequences of something of the scale of Rudolf von Goldenbaum's sweeping, reprehensible actions would reverberate over centuries. While those policies were successful in forging a Germanic culture and identity that many have long embraced as their own, said policies were nonetheless seen as so excessive even by some of Rudolf's own descendants that much of it's diluted if not phased out by the time Reinhard was born, whether due to genuine remorse or pragmatism over being too wasteful. That still doesn't stop the inertia from those atrocities from persisting, however, as seen in the prejudice, decadence, and corruption plaguing the Empire at the start of the series.
• Survivor Guilt: Most characters face this at some moment or another, since many people they care for die during war, but in case of some characters it's truly heart-wrenching.
• Sympathetic P.O.V.: One of the factors that helps drive home the moral ambiguity of the central conflict is that both the Empire and the Alliance get roughly equal amounts of screen time.

T-V

• Tactical Withdrawal: Both sides use this extensively, especially if one of the more humane and prudent officers is in charge at the time.
  Yang: "All right! It's time! All ships... RUN!!"
• Take Over the World: Reinhard von Lohengramm's final objective (well, in this case the universe, but still). Subverted in that he not only is the series' hero but also accomplishes it about halfway through the series.
• Talking to the Dead:
  • Reinhard von Lohengramm does this constantly when facing a moral quandary. And he's not the only one.
  • Later on, Julian Mintz views the act of collecting and editing Yang Wen-li's old papers as an extension of the conversations they used to have while the latter still lived.
• Tareme Eyes: Yang Wen-li.
• Teen Genius: Julian Mintz and Reinhard (in the OVAs, prior to the main series - he's around 19-20 when the main story starts).
• Tempting Fate: In My Conquest is the Sea of Stars, Yang explains that since the atmosphere of the planet is composed of hydrogen and helium, it would take only a match to wipe out their entire fleet. However, he doubts that anyone in the enemy fleet would ever think of it. What happens next?
  Reinhard: "Fire the nuclear fusion missile."
  • Yep, Ivan Konev, great job talking about funerals just before your sortie in the middle of war. Not hard to guess what happens afterwards.
• Terraform: Apparently very easy in this universe, given the very earthlike nature of Odin, Heinessen and Fezzan at the very least - plus the fact that Earth has been almost completely abandoned even though it should in all likelihood remain the most hospitable planet for humans unless the ecosystem was completely messed up, and that does not appear to be the case.
• The Theme Park Version: The Galactic Empire is a mashup of the late 18th century Kingdom of Prussia, the Austrian and German empires and National Socialist Germany. People typically wear outfits reminiscent of the 18th and 19th centuries and whenever foodstuffs are mentioned by name it is usually stereotypically German fare like black beer, black bread, white sausages and Frankfurterkranz. And it has apparently remained like this for almost 500 years before the beginning of the main narrative.
• The Dreaded: Admiral Yang Wen-li. As noted above his reputation as an unbeatable Chessmaster extraordinaire causes his opponents to repeatedly second-guess themselves, and this is arguably just as important as his top-of-the-line tactical abilities. One can make this case for many supposedly unbeatable commanders such as the fictional Grand Admiral Thrawn and the Heer's Erich von Manstein.
• Theme Naming: Alliance flagships tend to be named after Trojan heroes. Yang has Ulysses (latinized Odysseus), Lobos has Ajax, Carlsen has Diomedes, Morton Achilles etc.
• These Hands Have Killed: Both of our protagonists realize that they are responsible for the deaths of up to millions of people. Yang in particular can't stop bringing up how much blood he's shed.
• This Is Reality: In the main OVA episode 88, Attenborough tells Poplin, that since they aren't living in a third-rate TV anime (which is technically true: it's an OVA), Yang Wenli won't just come Back from the Dead just because a producer wants it to happen and that death is final.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Hildegard (short hair, wears pants, takes an active role in politics) compared to Annerose (long hair, frilly dresses, makes handicrafts). Hildegard becomes girlier during her pregnancy by wearing dresses and growing her hair longer. Frederica Greenhill and Hortense Cazelnes probably also qualify.
• Took a Level in Badass: Julian Mintz, just... Julian Mintz: goes from cute boy to the Mario of the Yang team and also their leader
• Toplessness from the Back: Elfriede shows this when Reuenthal rudely wakes her up while she is sleeping in the nude.
• To Win Without Fighting: A goal of the best commanders, to win with as little bloodshed on both sides as possible. The achievements in this are Yang's recapture of Heinessen during the Alliance Civil War (he informed the coupists they had been manipulated by Reinhard and destroyed the Kill Sats defending the planet. Number of losses: two, the leader of the coup and Reinhard's mole) and Kircheis defeat of the Castrop Rebellion (he demanded the surrender of the rebels after making sure their Kill Sats would blow up if they opened fire. Number of losses: one, the depraved leader of the rebellion who went out of mind when the satellites exploded and got killed by his men for that).
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: One of the previous Kaisers (Manfred II) was actually a fairly decent guy who truly wanted to reform the empire and normalize relations with the Alliance. Unfortunately a bunch of radical nobles (manipulated by the Terraists) killed him before he could get anywhere.
• Tragic Bromance: Reinhard and Kircheis, Mittermeyer and Reuenthal.
• Tragic Hero: Reuenthal is brilliantly talented and has every trait necessary for becoming a great ruler, but he's outshone by Reinhard's sheer genius. Although he respects and admires Reinhard, his conflicting feelings of loyalty, admiration, ambition and jealousy cause his fall in the end.
  • How traumatizing his childhood was. Being condemned as a bastard and not worthy of being born since you've had a sense of self is brutal, no matter how rich and lavish his surroundings were.
• Tragic Keepsake: Reinhard von Lohengramm's medallion.
  • Arguably the body of Yang Wen-li, kept in stasis aboard Iserlohn until they can bury him on Heinessen.
• Translation Convention: Despite the show obviously being in Japanese, when considering the culture, it's safe to assume that the members of the Empire are actually speaking German. Occasionally suspended to allow the actors to deliver some heavily accented Poirot Speak, like "Mein Kaiser" or "Sieg...sterben" or sing the Alliance national anthem ("Riberti sutands foh furidom...").
  • Judging from in-universe writing, the Empire speaks German and the Alliance English. Despite this, there is no evidence of any language barriers when characters from the different sides interact. Given that the Alliance was founded relatively recently by escaped prisoners from the Empire they should probably speak the same language in any case.
  • In Japanese there's a marked difference in the speech patterns used in the Empire and the Alliance (at least in higher circles, common people tend to speak the same way on both sides). Characters in the Empire tend to use more archaic-sounding speech.
• Truce Zone: Fezzan is introduced this way. Despite being officially under control of the Empire, it remains politically neutral and does not allow any military vessels from either side to enter its space. Naturally, this makes the planet a valuable waypoint for both refugees and spies.
• True Companions: The "Yang Fleet," both before and after the Alliance's defeat. In fact, the sense of companionship becomes all the firmer as the Yang Fleet and Iserlohn become the focal point of anti-Imperial resistance.
• Truer to the Text: Die Neue These, compared to the original series, seeks to be closer to the novels in how it portrays characters and events.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: Possibly Third Line, Some Waiting. The war as a whole and the rivalry between Yang and Reinhard dominate the series, but the plot does weave in a few subplots with supporting themes and characters that stand out.
• Übermensch: Reinhard is a military and political genius who wants to reform The Empire from the inside by taking power.
  • Rudolf von Goldenbaum seems to fit the bill as well, given that he was able to transform the old Galactic Federation into an autocracy ruled over by his descendants that lasted almost 500 years.
• Uncertain Doom: The final episode of the OVA reveals that the young Erwin Josef II may not be dead after all leaving open the possibility that the Goldenbaum Dynasty may not be over just yet
• Unfriendly Fire: The Empire's Marquis Littenheim actually opens fire on his own men to cover a retreat. He gets killed like the rat he is.
• United Space of America: The Free Planets Alliance are this, its overall aesthetic reminiscent of 20th Century America.
• Unknown Rival: Falk to Yang. Yang was so clueless as to why the other man was so uptight that someone else had to explain it to him.
• Unreliable Narrator: Played with in the historical documentary Julian watches, which while detailed and straining to be neutral comes across at times as biased if not pro-Alliance/anti-Imperial. Given the issues brought up regarding history itself, it's almost certainly intentional.
• Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: Discussed in the form of "What would happen if Iserlohn's unblockable Wave-Motion Gun would fire at Geiersberg's unpenetrable shield?"
• Vestigial Empire: At the end of the series the Empire makes peace with the Republicans, who relinquish control of Iserlohn in exchange for being allowed to control the Baalat starzone containing Heinessen. In effect, a rump state controlling little more than the capital planet of the old Free Planets Alliance is allowed to coexist with the Empire and retain a democratic republican constitution.
• Victory Is Boring: A major theme in the latter part of the series. In fact, the entire fourth season explores this trope in detail, as the last possible obstacle to Reinhard's influence is done away with by the end of the third.
• Villain by Default: the Earth Church

W-Z

• War Is Hell: This series does not shy away from showing the senselessness of war and the misery it causes.
  • Episode 51 in particular is VERY jarring. The series has shown how bad war is up to this point, but in this particular episode, casualties are shown VERY graphically, as in amputated limbs and disembowelment. No other episode drives this trope home as powerfully.
  • This trope in general is also a big motivator as to why both sides try to find ways in putting an end to the Forever War once and for all.
• Warfare Regression: Downplayed. Seffle particles have made melee combat by knives, bayonets and axes once more necessary in areas saturated with them, due to how combustible they can be. On the other hand, conventional and energy munitions are still used aplenty as Seffle particles can be just as dangerous to their users when deployed gratuitously.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Both Iserlohn and Geiersberg Fortresses have them. As does Fahrenheit's flagship, the Asgrimm, though you only see it fired once.
  • Also, Yang Wen-li actually IMPROVISES one by having all the ships in his fleet fire at the exact same point in space, causing the beams to fuse into a bigass beam that cuts through the enemy fleet like a knife. WOW.
  • Reinhard does the same during the Third Battle of Tiamat, effectively obliterating the attacking Alliance fleet.
• We Can Rule Together: Reinhard to Kircheis. Inverted in that Kircheis actually accepts, subverted in that the scene is a portrayal of the Power of Friendship.
  • Reuenthal later plays this trope straight with his best friend, Mittermeyer - who turns him down.
    • One has to wonder how straight that was, considering at hearing the response he smiles and says "Take care of the Kaiser." He probably thought it would worth a shot but knew fully well that Mittermeyer would refuse. Similarly, the exchange started off with Mittermeyer giving Reuenthal an offer at a Last-Second Chance, which he similarly refused; one gets the impression that it's basically an elaborate and indirect means of wishing one another farewell, knowing that the ensuing battle can only end with one of the two left standing.
  • Also, after the Battle of Vermilion and the Alliance's surrender, Reinhard offered Yang a position as one of his fleet admirals. Unsurprisingly, he refused.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Many characters who die early in the series qualify, but the most notable among them is probably Jean Robert Lappe, Yang Wen-li's best friend since their cadet days who is reputed to be of similar calibre as Yang but has the misfortune of being assigned under an incompetent commander and is ultimately killed in action in episode 1.
• We Will Wear Armor in the Future: Some soldiers wear complete suits of armour that are quite effective at resisting blasts from hand-held laser weapons (unless they hit a weak spot), yet are strangely weak against plain old axes.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Paul von Oberstein is an example of a "protagonist" with no apparent conscience, whose role is to essentially do the dirty work that Reinhard simply won't. Particularly when he intentionally fails to stop a planet from getting nuked to oblivion, in order to get propaganda photos to benefit Reinhard's fight against the high nobles. Possibly a case of Utopia Justifies the Means.
  • Near the series’ end, Reinhard remarks to Hildegard that Oberstein might well turn on him if he felt it necessary for the Empire's well-being. And he says it with an approving smile on his face.
  • It's revealed that this is Dwight Greenhill's motivation for leading the coup that triggers the Alliance Civil War, namely because he sincerely sees no other way and partly because someone has to rein in the other conspirators. Only to realize too late that he's an Unwitting Pawn to a gambit by Reinhard and Oberstein.
• Wham Episode: The Imperial conquest of Fezzan, the deaths of Kircheis, Yang Wen-li, and several others.
• Wham Shot: Dwight Green Hill being announced as the chairman of the National Salvation Military Council.
• What a Senseless Waste of Human Life: Said by multiple characters on numerous occasions, at least in spirit.
• With Due Respect: Happens often on both sides. Officers who're willing to listen to their subordinates generally are better off than those who don't. The most extreme case is Reinhard von Lohengramm: if Siegfried Kircheis has any doubts about any course of action Lohengramm wants to take, Lohengramm WILL listen to him, even after Kircheis's death.
• Woman Scorned: Susanna von Benemünde. Her attempt to bring down Reinhard's sister backfires.
• Won the War, Lost the Peace
• World War III: Known in-universe as the "Thirteen Day War", it happened in 2039, over 1,500 years before the series actually begins. The conflict would end without a victor as both sides had reduced each other to ashes, leaving such a scarring impact on humanity that the use of nuclear weapons still remains highly regulated by law and unspoken custom.
• Worthy Opponent: Deconstructed. The top military commanders from both the Empire and the Alliance admire and respect their respective counterparts for their skills. They are also well aware of the hypocrisy behind those feelings as they send the soldiers under their command to battle in the front lines. At one point, even the narrator lampshaded this.
  • Oberstein is notable for incurring the ire of his fellow admirals by criticising the bloody expedition led by Reinhard against Yang late in the series as being purely borne out of emotion and was a senseless waste of the lives of Imperial soldiers.
• Wrong Genre Savvy:
  • The High Nobles who took part in the Lippstadt rebellion more or less think that they're playing their Decadent Court games on a larger scale, not realizing that instead of a taking part in a political thriller about the palace intrigue of overthrowing the young upstart usurper, they are actually in a Military Science Fiction, and that their bloodlines and titles matters very little when confronted by a talented military commander with the support of the common people. They paid for their mistake at the cost of their lives.
  • The Alliance government, military, and general population with very few exceptions seems to be delusional about their situation, with tragic consequences that ends with the destruction of their nation. They all seem to be under the impression that they are in your typical Space Opera (à la Star Wars), in which the Good Republic, Evil Empire principle applies, and that they are the righteous defenders of liberty and freedom against the onslaught of the evil autocratic empire. Despite the repeated protests from the likes of Yang, Jessica, and Rebelo that they are actually in a much more cynical and morally ambiguous setting more akin to Game of Thrones IN SPACE, in which Grey-and-Gray Morality is in full effect, and that just because you fight for a good cause doesn't mean that you will win.
• The Wrongful Heir to the Throne: Reinhard von Lohengramm deposes the last Kaiser of the Goldenbaum dynasty, an 8-month old baby.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: In different levels. Whether it's Yang trying to outwit an enemy on the fly or Reinhard and Oberstein's gambits against Fezzan and the Terraists.
• Yandere: Susanna von Benemünde. Originally Kaiser Friedrich IV's consort, then he ditched her after he bought Annerose from her father. In the Gaidens, she nearly had Reinhard killed twice in order to antagonize Annerose, and in Golden Wings, Krumbach is implied to be taking orders from her, and in the main series, tries to kill Annerose herself with Flegel's help, only for Siegfried, Mittermeyer, Reuental, and Oberstein to foil it. When the Kaiser hears of her attempt on Annerose's life, he has her kill herself with poisoned wine, the same way she tried to kill Annerose.
• You Are in Command Now: The first instance of Yang Wen-li taking command of a fleet is through invocation of this trope. Good thing, too.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Admiral Bewcock comes out of retirement to lead the few remaining Alliance ships to deter Reinhard's march to fully annex them. He manages to hold off 100,000 ships under the direct command of a tactical genius with nothing but a hodgepodge fleet of 20,000 ships cobbled from whatever the Alliance could scrounge and a brilliant defensive strategy.
• Zeerust: This was particularly evident in the novels (written in the late '70s and '80s) and OVAs (largely made in the late '80s to '90s).
  • Julian Mintz is actually seen firing up DOS to load a history program on his 39th-century desktop computer, albeit shown to have 566198844 megabits of RAM (539 terabits). Handheld phones also don't seem to exist, and people still use answering machines, albeit with video functions.
  • The computer Yang uses for research in Spiral Labyrinth has some degree of artificial intelligence, while the one used by the Earth Cult on Earth Julian infiltrated seems to use some kind of optical or magneto-optical data storage technology which is still severely anachronistic.
• Zerg Rush: The Alliance actually relies on this tactic to win the very first battle of the series (Astarte). Predictably, they don't.
  • The Empire also used the same attack in the same battle, to a greater effect.

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