Awesome / Legend of the Galactic Heroes

This is a tale about larger-than-life figures competing on a galactic stage to determine the ultimate course of human history. Awesome moments are to be expected.

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• Die Neue These episode 3 of season 3 shows how Reinhard, Kircheis and Reuenthal freed Mittermeyer. At a certain point, Baron Flegel has a gun pointed at Reinhard. With Flegel's gun pointed at him, Reinhard coldy walks up to Flegel, pulls out his own gun and shoves it in Flegel's face, daring the arrogant Baron to pull the trigger. Reinhard is a second away from pulling the trigger himself, before Ansbach comes in to stop unnecessary bloodshed. Keep in mind that Flegel is the nephew of arguably the most powerful High Noble outside of the Kaiser, yet Reinhard couldn't care less. It's painfully obvious why this guy ended up on top of the Empire.
• Kircheis is met with complete skepticism after he's promoted to rear admiral and assigned to stop a rebellion. He does so in two days with the death of no one but the rebel leader, killed by his own men after refusing to surrender, and gets another promotion as well as his men's respect.
  • And this was a mission done after the previous admiral had failed, Kircheis did it with a fleet size that was HALF the size of the failed attempt.
  • Causing havoc within Marquis Litterheim's full fleet with less than a thousand ships.
  • Back in his early career he went axe-to-axe against Schenkopp and not only survived, but earned the man's respect.
  • His Heroic Sacrifice repeatedly saving Reinhard from an assassination attempt.
• In the OVA and 2 mangas, Oberstein jumping in front of Reinhard to shield him from Ansbach's rocket launcher.
• The 13th Fleet, a ragtag collection of survivors from a previous battle and raw recruits, successfully taking over Iserlohn Fortress. Counts both for Yang for coming up with the plan, and the Rosen-Ritters for improvising after the plan hits a snag and taking over the control room with melee weapons.
  • For Oberstein, who realized what was happening and gave his commander the appropriate advice, first to defeat Yang before the Rosen-Ritters could complete their job and then to retreat when it was obvious Iserlohn was under Alliance control. Had his commanding officer listened his advice, they would have won or at least escaped without losses instead of getting Wave Motion Gunned twice (first as a warning shot, second to kill the idiotic admiral who insisted attacking knowing they'd die).
• Mittermeyer defeating his former instructor with intimate knowledge of his tactical weakness, followed by him and Reuenthal seizing an important rebel station and Oberstein using the incident to create suspicion among the rebels.
  • His role in the Fezzan occupation, notably the instance where he promptly has subordinates guilty of theft and rape executed publicily, discouraging any further acts and conquering the hearts of many Fezzani.
  • Standing up to the Kaiser on behalf of Reuenthal, at Reuenthal's trial.
  • The flashback to his time in prison, where he gets the better of his torturer and also teaches a lesson to the Smug Snake aristocrat who put him there.
• Luring out the Lippstadt rebels into a Curb-Stomp Battle counts for Reinhard, Mittermeyer, and all the other Imperial generals involved.

• Schnieder convincing Merkatz to join the Alliance rather than kill himself at the fall of the Lippstadt conspiracy.
• Ansbach forcibly poisoning Prince Braunsweig after he wimps out of doing it himself.
• Reinhard winning a round of Xanatos Speed Chess against the Phezzan representatives by negotiating free passage through their system using the same arguments they used to sell their plan to him.
  • His speech prior to restarting the war, epically calling out the Alliance government for bringing this situation on themselves and even sending Council Leader Lebello past his Despair Event Horizon.
  • Pretty much all of his scenes in episode 73. He becomes the first emperor to set foot on the Alliance's capital planet, and within days turns the Alliance citizens to his side and officially brings the entire system under control of the Empire, positioning himself as the leader of all of humanity.
  • During the attempted coup on Uruvasi, while cornered by rebels, he responds by walking out in front of his guards and daring them to kill him.
• Yang taking the till-then impregnable Iserlohn fortress without losing a single soldier.
  • Destroying the coup's last defense by launching chucks of ice at it.
    • For added awesome, at the start of that very episode one of the golpists had declared that as long as they had it not even Yang could conquer the planet. Not even ten minutes in the episode, the very same man was on his knees out of desperation at seeing it destroyed in seconds.
  • Nonchalantly choosing to entrust a man who was formerly instructed to assassinate him with his own personal firearm.
    • At the same time, after publicly exposing Reinhard's involvement in the coup, the soldier's involved attempting to destroy the evidence and deny his accusation. His response? He completely denounces their alibi with the logic of democracy: by banning free speech their coup, they surrendered their right to defend themselves.
  • Making snarky remarks at the politicians who seek to implicate him at his own illegal inquiry while dissecting their arguments.
    • An Imperial attack forces the inquiry to stop because he's needed on the frontlines. What does he do? First he gets them to beg him to do his job. Second, he says he'll do it because he has friends there. Finally, his remarks on the timing of the inquiry and its illegal characteristics, including never explaining the reasons for it, get the secretary of defense and chairman of the inquiry to resign in shame. And they got off lucky: had the phone call informing them of the attack arrived half a minute later, Yang would have already resigned (the phone call arrived just as he was producing the resignation letter), and he would have humiliated them even further.
    • After the war he gets arrested again for of violating the Treaty of Ba'lat by organizing the hijacking of a number of warships due for decommissioning. The charge was true, but they had no evidence beyond rumours planted by his political opponents. The result? A repeat of Yang's performance with the inquiry.
    • Later, Admiral Rockwell orders Yang's execution. Yang starts snarking to the soldier sent to kill him, starting with a last request of wine from the future.

• In episodes 50 - 52, he goads Reinhard onto the battlefield after systematically defeating his men. Then tactically defeats Reinhard with only one fleet.
• Re-taking Iserlohn because he figured they could probably use it again.
• In episodes 79 - 81, he faces Reinhard again and kills two Imperial high admirals (Fahrenheit, followed by Steinmetz), nearly kills a third(Bittenfeld), and manages to hold off the rest of Reinhard's vastly superior forces until Reinhard decides to negotiate.
• The moment that Yang became the famous hero of the Alliance. A random Liutenant Junior Grade selected to handle civilian evacuation because Admiral Lynch and his staff are preoccupied with saving their own skin. Realizing the truth, Yang bides his time until the upper echelons have escaped, before immediately using them as a distraction to save the civilians. El Facil hails him as a true hero, while the Alliance is forced to promote him in order to get any kind of good publicity out of the disaster.

• Julian Minci's first battle, where he parks himself inches from a cruiser's hull and shoots the missiles it's about to fire, destroying the whole ship and riding the shockwave to safety.
  • Seeing through Muller's plan to trap the Iserlohn forces inside the fortress, and getting onto the bridge of the lead ship as they execute his plan to escape the trap.
  • Taking over a warship during his escape from Phezzan by posing as, well, himself. Followed by his refusal to execute the prisoners despite pressure from the mission's captain.

• The Batman Gambit to draw out and decimate Wahlen's forces, the first military strike of his new colony and a rousing success.
• The diversion to get himself onto Reinhard's ship. Followed by confronting Reinhard while badly injured and forcing himself to stay standing until he collapses, just to avoid the symbolism of the leader of democracy kneeling in front of the leader of autocracy.
• It should be noted that his boarding of the Brunhilde was the only time in the entire series anyone so much as touched Reinhard's ship in battle.

• Reuenthal, wearing only his military uniform, holds his own against the heavily armored Schenkopp in hand to hand combat. And when the fight ends, he immediately admits he was careless to get into a situation where such a fight was necessary.
  • Upon taking a fatal steel beam through his shoulder, he refuses to have surgery and leave his fleet to fend for itself, and spends the next several hours giving calm, rational, and effective orders while under enormous pain.
    • "Stop panicking. I'm the one who is wounded, not you."
  • Killing Job Truniht, then treating the dying man to a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, including berating him for forcing Reuental's last kill to be as dishonorable as shooting an unarmed man he'd called to his office.
• Rubinsky defeating his Smug Snake son before escaping the Imperial occupation force. Welcome to the Magnificent Bastard designation.
• Episode 52 has five: Julian figuring out Reinhard's strategy, Poplan tricking two fighters into crashing into a cruiser and destroying all three ships, Yang drawing Reinhard out into the middle of his forces, Muller's Big Damn Heroes saving Reinhard from that last one, and Yang forcing Muller to leave the battle to get another shot at Reinhard.
• Hildegard von Mariendorf defying Reinhard's intentions by convincing his two top admirals to attack the Alliance's capital and force them to surrender, thereby winning the whole war (and saving Reinhard's ass in the process, as Yang was seconds away from blowing him to space dust when the command to stand down came).
• Admiral Alexander Bucock versus Reinhard von Lohengramm at the Battle of Marr-Adetta. The old, infirm Bucock gives the military genius ruling the Galactic Empire and the fleets of his best admirals the greatest You Shall Not Pass! moment in the series, fighting off a fleet of over 100,000 ships with one-fifth the number of alliance vessels and destroying a good quarter of Reinhard's ships in the process. At the end, he goes out with a smile and a toast to democracy. Reinhard is so impressed by Bucock's refusal to waver in the face of impossible odds that he orders all his fleets to render salute to the fallen admiral as they pass the battlefield.
  • He had one during the invasion of the Imperial space following the Seventh Battle of Iserlohn by giving commodore Falk (known for proving his talents only with speeches and never with actual results and responsible for both the disastrous operation and ordering to sack the seized planets when the supply lines were cut off by Kircheis) a piece of what he deserved: he gave him a seizure and caused his temporary blindness (thus removing him from active duty for almost a year) by rebuking him over the radio.
  • His What the Hell, Hero? speech after Truniht's surrender about how the Alliance deserves this defeat for betraying the ideals it was founded on.
  • Luring one part of the Imperial fleet into an asteroid field, then slipping around behind the rest and making a pincer attack on them.
• For the series' first half Frederica Greenhill appears to be nothing but a Faux Action Girl. But when Yang is arrested, she trades her housewife clothes for her military uniform and a gun, teams up with the Rosenritter, and finally breaks into the prison and shoots Yang's executioner in the head.
• Schenkopp is pretty much a walking CMOA, but particularly stands out during the mission to rescue Yang from prison. He escapes the police with some timely assistance from the rest of the Rosenritter, then kidnaps the Alliance Council Leader Lebello on the highway by blowing up his entire escort. He then demands that Yang be set free in exchange for Lebello's life...along with a hundred bottles of wine. All while leaking the conversation to all the Imperial forces so the government won't be able to cover it up. Finally, after the government proves willing to let Lebello die, he breaks into the prison in "half a nick of time" and gives one of his men a chance for his own CMOA, shouting the group's identity to the prison guards and making them run away instantly.
  • In one of his first battles after taking command of the Rosenritter, He leads his troops into storming and taking over ship after ship, each time taking several minutes to sing challenges over every Imperial channel to a traitorous former commander he knows is somewhere in the enemy fleet.
  • After getting a fatal wound with an ax in the back, he doesn't retaliate against the man who did it and acknowledges that he was beaten. After killing two more people who try to finish him off as the gaping wound gets worse, he then looks at the other Imperial soldiers still standing, and asks which of them wants the honor of being the last person he kills. They understandably all get out of his way, and he walks up the stairs and sits at the top just so he'll die looking down at something rather than up.
• Julian, Poplan, and Mashengo's escape from the Earth Cult base, particularly the beginning with Julian's flying kick to a guard and Poplan ruthlessly killing a doctor who refuses to give them any information.
  • And that's not counting the other major event that happens around the same time. Namely Reinhard's campaign to wipe out the Earth Cult once and for all. And largely succeeding.
• Mashengo gets one of his own during the second conquest of Iserlohn Fortress, braving a hallway full of arrows to caber-toss a marble pillar at the crossbowmen, completely obliterating them.
• Lutz and Muller protecting Reinhard during the coup on Uruvasi, with special mention of Lutz's cry of "Sieg Kaiser!" before raising his gun against seemingly impossible odds, followed by his Heroic Sacrifice buying time for Reinhard and the others to escape, taking quite a few of the mutineers with him.
• Kesler stopping Mittermeyer from murdering Lang, keeping him from becoming a criminal by convincing him to let Lang be dealt with legally. And he doesn't mention he already has the evidence to do just that, forcing Mittermeyer to agree with him purely because he's right, without the promise of satisfaction against Lang.
  • Saving Hilda and Annerose during the Terraists' attack on the Imperial Phezzan residence, involving jumping through a window into a burning building and shooting two attackers in the heart while in midair.
    • This also nets Kesler both a Heartwarming Moment and another moment of awesome, as Hilda's handmaid takes a fancy to him, and a brief voice-over states that he marries her several years later.
• Poplan and Katerose von Kreutzer tag teaming Wahlen's forces, with some of the show's best and most fluid battle animation to boot.
• Wahlen's flagship taking a hit and him being nonchalant about getting his prosthetic arm blown off: "Losing something I lost before does not inconvenience me at all".
  • Him quelling a huge riot just by giving both sides a Death Glare.
• Annerose gets one during the attack on the Imperial Phezzan residence when she throws a statue at a Terraist and whacks him in the face, then shields Hilda from the falling glass his resulting wild shot causes.
• Mecklinger's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Grillpalzer.
• Reinhard: "There is only one Reinhard von Lohengramm, and there is only one man whose name will be remembered for killing him. Who wants to be that man?"
• Paul von Oberstein managing to completely invert Honor Before Reason by simply pointing out that the so-called "honorable" path would cause millions of unnecessary deaths, while his more dishonorable tactic would save them. In the process, without breaking a sweat, he also verbally browbeats two of the Empire's greatest geniuses. And Bittenfeld.
• The first half of the season two finale, dedicated entirely to Yang and Reinhard meeting face to face for the only time in the series. They simply have a civil conversation comparing their opposing idealogies, each with complete respect for the other as a Worthy Opponent, and the scene never feels slow at all despite its unusual length.
• The very first episode has Reinhard and Yang prove just how good they are: Reinhard's fleet of 20,000 ships is outnumbered 2-1 and his hand-picked excellent subordinates have been replaced by older admirals who think he's just a lucky parvenu yet he still wins with ease by attacking and overpowering two of the three enemy fleets (and his admirals start paying him the respect he deserves), and Yang puts together not one but two different plans to counter him, but he's ignored twice (and the Alliance loses over 25,000 ships).
  • The following episode confirms this when Yang's superior officer gets injured and orders him to take over their force: an easy Imperial victory quickly turns in a brutal attrition battle from which both Yang and Reinhard have trouble to extricate themselves, and when one of Reinhard's admirals disobeys an order to try something else he makes his flagship an easy target that is promptly shot down by the Alliance fleet. In the end it turns in a strategical stalemate when Yang and Reinhard both realize that continuing the battle would be pointless and decide to retreat at about the same time (he still gets a tactical victory by destroying far more Alliance ships than he lost. Or that he brought to the battle, for what matters).
  • "Overture to a New War", the extended remake of these episodes, makes Reinhard's victory against the Alliance 4th Fleet (his first victim) even more awesome. As he had taken them down so fast that the first the 6th Fleet heard about it was Lohengramm Fleet opening fire on them from nowhere. And Reinhard still found the time to make his men rest between the two engagements. For added awesome, the Alliance plan called for surrounding Lohengramm Fleet, but the force that ended up surrounded was 6th Fleet.
  • It also gives Yang's friend Jean Paul Roberts a moment, as, like Yang, he anticipated Reinhard's plan (and he was the only one in 6th Fleet to understand where Lohengramm Fleet was coming from), and even put together the same tactic Yang will later use to stalemate Reinhard. Sadly, 6th Fleet commander vice-admiral Moore ignored him and played right in Reinhard's hands, the result being 6th Fleet surrounded and slaughtered to the last when Moore refused to surrender out of sheer pride (and had Lapp arrested for mutiny when he called him out).
• In the third episode, the fanatics of the Patriotic Knights Corps try to break into Yang's home. Emphasis on try, courtesy of Yang's remote-controlled hydrant.
• The crushing of the Alliance invasion of Imperial space. The taking away all the food from the planets that were about to be invaded just to stretch Alliance supply lines may skirt the line due the awfulness of the act (then again, it was Oberstein's idea, and we know how little he cares of things like honour), and the annihilation of the supply convoy was just too easy to qualify, even if it instantly got the so-called Liberation Fleet to scrape the barrel and got Falk to order to plunder the 'liberated' planets for food. But the spanking of the Liberation Fleet at the hands of Reinhard and his subordinates? Pure awesome. Especially because the only Alliance force that managed to get away with little losses good order was Yang's 13th Fleet (and they did that by forcing the Kempff Fleet to disengage to regroup and avoid annihilation and then running away because they knew the strategic outcome of the campaign was already decided) and Kircheis, being Kircheis, captured an entire enemy fleet before facing with Yang (who was in serious trouble and had no idea if he would get away when Reinhard ordered to let remains of the Liberation Fleet assemble at Amlitzer).
  • The Battle of Amlitzer, culmination of the campaign, was one for both Reinhard, Yang and Kircheis. Reinhard, because he forced the Liberation Fleet in a battle they couldn't win through the whole campaign, and destroyed another Alliance fleet. Yang, because he still defeated the Mittermeyer Fleet (in the opening moves of the battle to boot) and the Black Lancers thrice (both time as an afterthought. The first time, his main trouble was the Mecklinger Fleet keeping him pinned and unable to help the disintegrating Eight Fleet, and when they tried to interfere he swatted them away as they prepared to attack him from behind. The second time Yang was covering the retreat of the 5th Fleet and the survivors of the 8th and spanking the Black Lancers just happened to be the easiest way to cover the retreat of the other ships. The third time, finally, was Yang saw he could retreat, and breaking through the Black Lancers was the fastest way to do so), and nearly salvaged the situation. Kircheis, because when Yang was about to deal with Mecklinger and reverse the course of the battle he managed to catch him with his pants down, appearing behind him with 30,000 ships and easily breaking through the Alliance minefield that should have prevented him from doing just that.
• Ovlesser holding Rentenberg Fortress for the Lippstadt League in spite of Mittermeyer and Reuenthal's relentless attacks with superior forces. And given it was boarding actions, he did it personally, repelling the attacks with his battle axe eight times. He then butted in a communication between Reinhard and his admirals to challenge him to come and fight him.
  • Then we have Mittermeyer and Reuenthal personally boarding Rentenberg to capture Ovlesser. With some smarts, they succeed, trapping him in a pit hole prepared just for him. Renterberg fell immediately after.
  • Then Oberstein finding a way to make him useful to Reinhard's cause, not leaving Ovlesser any chance to to refuse. How did he do it, with brainwashing? Nothing so tasteless: he simply convinced Reinhard to call him a Worthy Opponent and send him back to the Lippstad League for another battle, as well as having all of Ovlesser's captured subordinates executed without Ovlesser's knowledge. As expected, Braunschweig took the fact that Ovlesser was the only one not executed by Reinhard as proof of treason and had him executed, sowing the seeds of mistrust and suspicion among the nobles and their soldiers.
• During the Alliance Civil War, the Battle of Doria. 11th Fleet, loyal to the National Salvation Military Council, has prepared a trap to assassinate Yang and then attack his forces... And, as they emerge from warp in the Doria starzone waiting for their spy's signal that Yang has taken the bait, the whole Yang Fleet, that was lying in ambush, opens fire on their flank and executes a by-the-book Nelson's Touch. It's one of Yang's easiest victories, made better by Nguyen Van Huu (Yang's subordinate who led the thrust that cut in two 11th Fleet) laughing as he did his job and told his men they were better make sure they hit the target when they shot, even if they didn't need to aim in the situation. The commander of 11th Fleet had only one thing to say: "Didn't See That Coming".
  • What about Bagdash, the man sent to assassinate Yang? Did he change sides? Nope: Yang saw through the ruse and told him he believed him, and when Bagdash went to a tank bed to recover before sending the signal Schönkopf, who had also seen through the ruse changed the timer. Bagdash wouldn't wake up until after 11th Fleet has been reduced to ten ships who Yang has let go. Then Bagdash switched sides...
• In episode 25, we learn that, with the Lippstadt League out of the way, duke Klaus von Lichtenlade, the Minister of State (that, with the Prime Minister position vacant, was the de facto head of the government) was plotting against Reinhard. In episode 26, Oberstein uses an unrelated attempt on Reinhard's life that ended with Kircheis' death as the excuse Reinhard's admirals need to act against him, so what the admiral do? Well, have you ever seen thousands of warships landing in the same city and its outskirts with tanks parachuting down? Because that's how they returned to the capital to arrest Lichtenlade and his accomplices.
  • Also, Oberstein giving Reinhard the figurative kick in the pants he needs to recover from Kircheis' death.
• Mückenberger's role in "My Conquest Is the Sea of Stars" is made of win. Hell, the first thing he did was to point out that Reinhard wasn't the only one who got promoted for Nepotism to an incompetent vice admiral who was also the nephew of duke Braunschweig. He's also the guy responsible for Yang and Reinhard first encounters at Legnica and Fourth Tiamat with his failed Uriah Gambits (whose results were when Mückenberger starts realizing that Reinhard's rise wasn't just due to favoritism).
  • Also, the two battles. At Legnica they fought in the atmosphere of the gas giant... And the, suddenly, Reinhard retreated causing 6,000 kph winds to pin down the Alliance Fleet, and then set the atmosphere on fire, with Yang anticipating many of his moves but getting ignored by the fleet commander. And at Fourth Tiamat... Well, let's just say about the juiciest parts: Mückenberger tried to get Reinhard killed by sending him to charge the combined 2nd, 10th and 12th Alliance Fleets but Reinhard got on their flank by calmly waltzing there as soon as he got into range without firing or getting fired upon (the Alliance fleet commanders feared a trap and didn't realize until Reinhard got into position. Lobos rightly chastized them for this during a lull in the fight), thus getting in the right place to secure victory once Mückenberger attacked, and Yang saved the Alliance fleet by taking Reinhard and his flagship as hostages. This was how they became Worthy Opponents... And Reinhard got promoted and made Count von Lohengramm.
  • Mückenberger's end: he was a high noble and a political enemy of Reinhard, so the Lippstadt League tried to recruit him... And he, instead, warned them to not underestimate Reinhard and his men and calmly retired after making sure Reinhard knew he had no intention of getting into political squabbles anymore. Of all of Reinhard's political enemies during the Goldenbaum Dinasty, Mückenberger is the only survivor.
• In episode 79, Yang managed to pull off a reenactment of the Battle of Cannae against Bittenfeld and Fahrenheit's Imperial Fleets, in that he achieved a total encirclement of the enemy while having a numeric disadvantage. For those that are not familiar with military history, Cannae was one of the greatest tactical feats in all of history, and no one ever managed to pul it off again after the death of Hannibal Barca... Until Yang at the Battle of the Corridor, more then 3000 years later. And even more awesome was that in this historical Battle of Cannae, Hannibal managed to inflict a 1-13 kill ratio on the Romans, and it was considered to be a crushing defeat for them. In the case of the Battle of the Corridor, if you do a bit of quick math you will find out that Yang managed inflict a kill ratio of 1-175 against the Imperials!
  • While possibly the greatest of the feats he replicated, it wasn't the only great historical tactic or strategy he used. The list includes Trafalgar (at Doria, during the Alliance Civil War) and the Trachenberg Plan (the strategic plan put together by the military genious of Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, Carl von Clausewitz and every other military genious in the Sixth Coalition save for Wellington to prepare Napoleon's defeat at Leipzig. Yang replicated it to prepare the battle of Vermilion, only his forces were less numerous than his opponents... And he still succeeded. And as Reinhard admitted, he was literally seconds away from winning the entire war when the Alliance ordered a ceasefire).
• After the Imperial Civil War, Reinhard decided to launch an invasion of the Alliance, but they first needed to deal with Iserlohn Fortress being in Alliance hands and blocking the way. Someone suggested to build another fortress and use that as base to attack Iserlohn, but it was antieconomical. So, what did the Empire do? They took the nearly identical Geiersburg Fortress and made it mobile and warp capable before sending it to attack Iserlohn with its fleet of 16,000 ships. Sure, Yang still stopped the attack, but the Empire did something that was supposed to be impossible...
  • The subsequent Eight Battle of Iserlohn was pure Cool Versus Awesome. Iserlohn and its 10,000-strong fleet trying to stalemate for a month awaiting for Yang's return (as he had been called to Heinessen for an illegal inquiry) against Geiersburg Fortress and the Kempff Fleet and Müller Fleet, totalling 16,000 ships, trying to conquer or destroy Iserlohn:
    • first move: an exchange of Wave-Motion Gun shots. Didn't do too much, aside for discouraging other assaults like that;
    • the second move is again from Kempff, who used the interferences in the sensors from the previous fire to send a boarding party (the Alliance unable to do the same due fear of the Empire finding out Yang isn't there). Cue the battle between the Imperial boarding party and the Iserlohn defenders, attacking each other in space while in power armour and riding flying bikes... For all the ten seconds it took the Imperials to realize they were fighting the Rosen Ritters, at which point they ran;
    • Kempff third move, three days after the boarding attempt, is unbelievable in its boldness: he sent out Muller and his fleet to circle Iserlohn and attack from behind while he charged with Geiersburg firing the Vulture's Claw, tanking the Thor Hammer fire until the two fortresses came close enough to block each other's Wave-Motion Gun with the tide in the respective liquid metal armour caused by the vicinity between the two masses. Oh, and the tide meant that the liquid metal armour on the side facing Muller was stripped away, and the gun towers floating on it went away too. Cue Muller breaching Iserlohn's outher walls and trying to board, until Merkatz managed to solve the situation: first they moved the Thor Hammer (that was also floating on the liquid metal) in such a way to shoot at Muller from an odd angle; then Merkatz took off with the Iserlohn fleet and Yang's usual flagship and started circling Iserlohn, passing close to the Hammer; Muller guessed they were trying to be chased and decided to circle the fortress from the other side... And got into range of every single floating gun turret of Iserlohn while the fleet turned tail and surrounded him. When the Kempff Fleet came to reinforce Muller, Merkatz let them go and didn't give chase to not get into Geiersburg's gun turrets range. Also, Muller did learn from a dying POW that Yang wasn't on Iserlohn, but Merkatz's trick (and use of the Hyperion) managed to make him doubt of the data (he still realized it was the truth when another POW gave a fake confession of having been ordered to tell them that to confuse them, but Kempff fell for the fake confession and stopped him from setting an ambush);
    • When Yang finally arrived with 5,000 ships from independent squadrons assembled in a single fleet as best at they could (and instructed to assume pre-ordered formations as soon as Yang gave the code word), Kempff led 12,000 ships against him after taking care of sealing the Iserlohn Garrison Fleet inside. With a superiority of over 2-1 and believing Yang in the fortress, he expected to smash them into bits. Cue Yang's force putting itself in a ring formation and bombing the fleet from all sides, with the Imperial fleet unable to escape the ring because the Alliance Fleet was occupying all the usable space of the corridor. And to make things worse, Merkatz and Julian had anticipated Kempff's plan to keep the Garrison Fleet sealed in, so they kept the fleet inside the liquid armour and charged back out as soon as Kempff was away, catching him with his pants down. Kempff tried to charge in the ring of Yang's fleet to at least break into Alliance space... Cue Formation E and the ring becoming a wall, blocking the Imperial Fleet's route;
    • Kempff retreated to Geiersburg, and tried his last move, something so absurd he couldn't come up with it until he was too desperate for anything else: ram Geiersburg into Iserlohn to take out both his "huge good for nothing fortress" and the one thing blocking an Imperial invasion of the Alliance. Remember that above it's mentioned Yang destroyed Geiersburg? That's when he did it, and with embarrassing ease (as he already had a plan for this situation): his fleet shot one of the thrusters moving Geiersburg, causing the fortress to careen into the Muller Fleet and go in a place where the Thor Hammer could finally cause terminal damage to Geiersburg and blow it into pieces. End result: Geisersburg and the Kempff Fleet that had docked to evacuate the crew were annihilated, and the Muller Fleet was reduced to just 700 ships (with Muller wounded when a battleship collided with his flagship). Now you know why they call him "Magician" Yang;
    • the last act of the battle: as Muller led his fleet away in spite of his wounds and promised his men he would bring them all home, the commanders of the Alliance reinforcement squadrons, rear admirals Van Huu and Alarcon, led their 5,000 ships to try and finish Muller Fleet. Will Muller fail in his endeavour? Nope: Reuenthal and Mittermeyer, previously ordered to go and reinforce Kempff and, if necessary, take over the operation, arrived in time to put themselves between Muller and his pursuers and annihilate the pursuing squadrons, before retreating when Yang (who feared this happening) arrived to bring back his insubordinate men.
    • Finally, we relay what Reinhard and Yang would have done had they been in command: smashed Geiersburg into Iserlohn as soon as they arrived and before anyone could put the ships in place to use Yang's counter, and then move there another fortress. The sheer boldness, coupled with the fact it would have succeeded without fail and they both spoke of it to their aides without having any idea the other had the same idea, put this plan here. Also, a bit of awesomeness for Oberstein as he didn't react at all when Reinhard told him of that plan (Frederica took a few seconds to digest what she had just heard when Yang told her what he would have done, and was actually scared by it).
• In episode 41, we have another example of Yang's strategic abilities. We see admiral Bewcock open a letter Yang wrote him a month earlier and just delivered to him, then there's a cut to Reinhard announcing his admiral that the coming invasion of the Alliance will pass from Fezzan and thus bypass Iserlohn, and then cut again to Bewcock:
  "I see. He thinks that the Imperial Fleet may pass through Fezzan?"
• The Eight Battle of Iserlohn was pure Cool Versus Awesome due the Empire deploying Geiersburg against Iserlohn. Not having another Geiersburg available, for the Ninth Reinhard sent Reuenthal with his own fleet and the subordinate Lennenkampf Fleet and Lutz Fleet, for a total of 36,000 ships. And they actually give Yang a run for his money:
  • For his first move, Reuenthal sends in the Lutz Fleet in an half-enveloping formation, in such a way the Thor's Hammer can't get them all before they board the station. Yang sends out part of his fleet... At which point, as planned, Lutz uses the Yang Fleet as shield to close in on Iserlohn.
    • Bonus point for Reuenthal stealing the tactic from the Alliance: Sidney Slithole had already used the tactic during the Fifth Battle of Iserlohn in the attempt of capturing the Fortress, only to run away when the commander of Iserlohn (a separate post from the commander of the garrison fleet) fired on the Imperial ships to hit the attackers (opening the wedge between the garrison fleet and the Fortress' crew that would later allow for Yang's capture of the Fortress).
  • Differently from the Imperial commander at Fifth Iserlohn, Yang isn't willing to fire on his own men to hit the Imperial fleet. So, how does he counter Reuenthal's assault? He has other ships sortie with his flagship Hyperion (while he stays on the Fortress) as a distraction for the actual counterattack: the Rosenritter boarding the Tristan to try and kill Reuenthal. The Imperial crew ultimately repel the boarding (with Reuenthal himself facing off with Schönkopf and living), but Reuenthal is still forced to recall Lutz and back off.
  • Second Reuenthal attack: divide the fleets in squadrons of 500 ships each and attack by multiple angles, and when the Thor's Hammer is firing at one squadron have a few of them attack in another place of Iserlohn concentrating fire in such a way to push away the liquid metal armour. Yang countered that by firing the Thor's Hammer through the liquid metal to push it back into place. And hit the Imperial ships with the wave of liquid metal. At least Reuenthal destroyed some of the floating gun batteries... And achieved his strategic objective of covering the invasion passing through the Fezzan Corridor, that has now been launched disguised as reinforcements for the attack on Iserlohn, thus making the Fortress strategically worthless. If only the Alliance government had listened when Yang warned them they'd do exactly this...
  • With Iserlohn now worthless, Yang has been authorized to abandon it, and is preparing to do so to try and kill Reinhard in battle (as his death without a successor would cause infighting among his admirals, and both know this and that the other knows). Reuenthal doesn't know Yang's goal, but he knows he'll evacuate and launches a series of spoiling attack to do as much damage as possible and disturb the already difficult task of moving over 5,000,000 people. This is Attemborough's chance to shine: to give the Fortress' defenders a morale boost and try and force Reuenthal to give them pause, he leaves the Fortress with 500 transports escorted by 2,000 ships, and when Lennenkampf gave chase the warships escaped... And the transports exploded, causing heavy losses and spreading chaos in the enemy force, now vulnerable to the outnumbered Alliance forces. Lennenkampf successfully retreats and returns to the main fleet, but between the transports and the Alliance warships he lost 2,000 ships (bonus point for Lennenkampf Fleet including the Garga Falmul, the largest ship in the Imperial fleet and the mightiest after the Wave-Motion Gun-equipped Asgrimm).
  • Finally, Yang leaves Iserlohn. The Imperial Fleet enters, and disarms the bombs that would otherwise have blown up the Fortress... And Yang is happy. Wait, what? Turns out the bombs were a distraction for the real present: a computer sabotage that, if necessary, would allow Yang to easily recapture the Fortress. And when the time came, he did. Now you know why even Reuenthal, who knows Yang relies on his reputation to make his enemies exitate and second-guess him while he prepared an underhanded but relatively simple tactic, still fears him and his trickery. Reuenthal did suspect the bombs were just a diversion, but decided to not verify, because whatever Yang's plans were they didn't matter as long as Reuenthal himself wasn't in command when it came to dealing with them; and Yang could not have another chance anyway.
  • The final appendix to the battle: during the occupation, an Imperial lieutenant commander was caught embezzling Alliance resources and sentenced to death according to military law, and Reuenthal not only carried out the death sentence personally, he also demolished his justification that what he was doing was minor compared to Reinhard's crime, namely taking over the Empire, yet he was being executed while Reinhard was hailed as a hero, with a simple question: "Then why don't you take over the country?". Then he shot him.
  • An addition is that as the purpose of the Imperial attack was a diversion, and winning before the other half of the fleet manages to secure Fezzan would have been pointless, Reuenthal wasn't really going all-out and concentrated on stalling for time; nevertheless, to put up a convincing act, his attacks were actually dangerous. As Yang noted, the Empire didn't skimp out just because it was a diversion.
• The grand finale to Kesserling's preparations to kill Rubinsky and take over Fezzan: finding out that Rubinsky knew exactly what he was planning and had guards ready to kill him the moment he pulled a gun on him, while hoping he wouldn't force him to do it.
• Reinhard's arrival on the occupied Fezzan was this without him doing anything: the presents, both military and civilians, all saluted him with shouts of "Sieg Mein Kaiser" and "Sieg Kaiser Reinhard", before he could proclaim himself emperor. Even more awesome for someone versed in Roman history, as now he's enjoying a Triumph in the original sense of the word (a celebration for a successful military commander whose conditions, in Republican times, included being spontaneously proclaimed emperor by the troops) and some of the greatest emperors were proclaimed by the troops.
• After the occupation of Fezzan, Julian and others are trying to return on Heinessen to rejoin the fight, but the ship smuggling them, the Berezka, gets intercepted by an Imperial destroyer. It appears the end of the flight... Then Julian asks: "How did admiral Yang conquer Iserlohn Fortress?", and you know what he's going to do: he steals the destroyer. Ladies and gentlemen, Yang Wenli's ward.
• The battle of Rantemario is one for Reinhard for a simple fact: between his numbers (over three times the Alliance combined fleet), superior discipline and morale, and his subordinate fleet commanders including Mittermeyer and Fahrenheit (whose flagship came with a Wave-Motion Gun), he had won before the start of the fight, his opponent Bewcock knew it... And Reinhard still forced him to fight then and there before they could be reinforced by the Yang Fleet, otherwise he would have been able to simply advance on the Alliance's major worlds. The only reason the Alliance fleet was able to retreat was that Yang arrived just in time.
  • Also, for the Alliance, as not only they resisted two whole days in that situation, but they did it with such feats as beat back the Mittermeyer Fleet (the squadrons of Marinetti and Zarnial, of the HQ Fleet, identified his flagship and unleashed such a desperate counterattack to force him to retreat) and then avoid overextending (at Third Tiamat something similar had happened, only the Alliance 11th Fleet had continued to attack and got annihilated), get the Fahrenheit Fleet in a gravitational current throwing debris at them and nearly throwing them in the local star, and disable two squadrons worth of Imperial ships to use them as shields (and under Mittermeyer's nose to boot: he sent those squadrons to shield the main formation from an Alliance fighter attack, only to realize too late he had been played).
  • We also finally have Bittenfeld showing why he's an admiral. On the first day he's placed in reserve, and when he decides to move anyway he just places the Black Lancers in a position from which he'll be able to attack if ordered. And when they're finally unleashed on the second day (after Bewcock and his men managed to use Mittermeyer's ships as human shields), the Alliance identify where and when the Black Lancers will emerge from the gravitational current and thus be vulnerable to counterattack and concentrate fire on them at the right point and moment... And they still shatter the Alliance formation. Had Yang not arrived right after that and caught the Imperial reserves with their pants down, the Alliance Combined Fleet would have been annihilated by the guy they were used to consider a joke.
    • Even Reinhard's order to the Black Lancer was awesome: "It's your turn. Hang the enemy commander's beret on the Black Lancers' spear and deliver it to me." And, after whistling in appreciation at the order, Bittenfeld started collecting berets.
  • Finally, the appendix to the battle on the Alliance side: Yang being promoted to Fleet Admiral, the highest rank in the Free Planets Star Fleet, at the young age of 32. A new record. And with the previous record holder, the legendary Bruce Ashbey (the man who gave the Empire such a defeat that, had he not died right after his greatest triumph, the Alliance could have marched all the way to Odin and conquer the place), receiving the promotion posthumously...
• The Battle of the Black Hole, that is, one the battles of Yang's take on the Trachenberg Plan: Yang waited for the Steinmetz Fleet with his back at a black hole... And then nearly threw the Steinmetz Fleet in the black hole. They only escaped with their own moment of awesome, a desperate manouver that achieved a slingshot effect and got them out of the way (at the price of being sitting ducks for Yang for a while)... Then the Lennenkampf Fleet showed up and prevented Yang from destroying Steinmetz anyway... So Yang kicked their ass instead. And, having achieved the tactical objective of causing a lot of Imperial losses and the strategic objective of pushing Reinhard closer to offer himself as bait (and thus become vulnerable to Yang's attempt at killing him), he left.
  • The details of what Yang did to Steinmetz make it more awesome. Seeing the enemy fleet with the back at a black hole, Steinmetz guessed it was a defensive position and had his fleet half-encircle Yang... Making his front thinner, at which point the Yang Fleet attacked, broke through their centre, and turned to attack, with his fleet in half-encirclement formation. Steinmetz, not being an idiot, realized he could do the same, organized his fleet to do it... And Yang, being a genious, had his fleet concentrate every single gun in the same point of the Steinmetz Fleet's front, achieving a Wave-Motion Gun-like effect, ruining any chance Steinmetz had at pulling Yang's trick. Then, having detected the Lennenkampf Fleet three hours away, Yang started pushing the Steinmetz Fleet in the black hole, as he was now in a hurry.
• The Battle of Vermilion. Reinhard prepares a trap to finally defeat Yang in open battle... And Yang, with an outnumbered fleet, comes seconds away from killing him twice. The first time Yang was stopped due Reinhard's plan (having his subordinates return as soon as Yang showed up to defeat him with overwhelming numbers) going better than expected (as Müller got lucky with his assignment and could return earlier than expected), but the second time the only thing that saved Reinhard was the Alliance government surrendering to an unexpected attack on Heinessen and ordering Yang to stand down (when Yang obeys and stands down, Reinhard is left wondering why the hell he's still alive).
  • Also, this is when Müller cements his status as Reinhard's third greatest admiral, just behind Mittermeyer and Reuenthal, and becomes known as "Iron Wall" Müller. Because the Alliance could destroy his flagship and then the ships he moved his flag to three times, and yet he was still leading his fleet in battle. Also, his intervention in the battle: an Alliance battleship was charging her guns to fire on the Brunhild when his fleet arrived heralded by the explosion of that very Alliance battleship.
  • Reinhard's plan to stall Yang deserves mention: he deployed his fleet in many thin screens, screens that the Yang Fleet would easily break through but that would slowly chip away their material and mental strength while keeping them away from his flagship. It took three days and breaking through nine of them for Yang to formulate a counter... And he still needed Julian to guess their deployment before finding a solution.
  • Before dying, Imperial vice-admiral Carnap provided an hell of a See You in Hell: informed that Reinhard had no reinforcement available and ordered to stand his ground and die if necessary, he declared "Die, he says? Fine, I will! If I die, I'll reach Valhalla first, and you'll be the one running errands for me, Reinhard von Lohengramm!"
• After having been ill for all his life, Hilde's cousing Heinrich von Kümmel has started getting manipulated by the Terraists, and on their orders managed to lure Reinhard with a small number of attendants and Hilde in his garden, right over a room filled with the explosive and hyper-sensitive Seffle particles. Before blowing Reinhard up, however, he decided to force Reinhard to beg for his life... And that's where his plans went awry: Reinhard being Reinhard, he told him he didn't care, between Kümmel's coughing fits commodore Kisling, the commander of the Imperial Guard, snuck out of his seat and behind him, then Kümmel pushed things a little too far and Reinhard punched him, knocking the detonator out his hands, and the moment the detonator fell on the ground Kümmel was jumped on by Kisling and a platoon of the Imperial Military Police, dispatched by Kesler as soon as Job Trunicht had warned them but after Kümmel had started his rant (and in the meantime, the Terraist church in the Imperial capital was stormed by another platoon, with their bishop captured before he could kill himself). And when a cultist popped out and tried to kill Reinhard, one of the attendants casually disintegrated his gun before gunning him down when he tried to escape.
• The great Kaisers are Reinhard's worthy predecessors:
  • Rudolph The Great single-handedly reformed a decadent society on the brink of collapse into the Galactic Empire. Sure, his methods were extreme, and he both created the nobility that would become a Decadent Court and crossed the Moral Event Horizon with the Inferior Genes Exclusion Act (a law ordering the execution of handicapped people), but he did obtain results;
  • Kasper took power at 26, and everyone saw him as a weak man who only cared of his castrato choir and his male lover Florian. Then count Eckhart, who had held the reins of power since the reign of Kasper's predecessor, tried to have him assassinated... And when they barged in his apartments they were met by the shooting squad assembled precisely for them. Then, having got rid of the tyrant Eckhart, he abdicated and disappeared with Florian;
  • Kasper's successor Julius was nothing special, aside for him outliving two heir apparents, but his son and original heir apparent Franz-Otto single-handedly solved the mess left by Otfried I (Kasper's predecessor);
  • Otfried II succeeded emperor Sigismund II the Fool, and inherited a collapsing economy and a nation torn apart from injustices. When Otfried died of overwork six years later, the Empire's economy was growing and the injustice had been corrected with little bloodletting;
  • Erich II ascended to the throne by surviving the paranoia of his predecessor August II the Bloodletter and setting up a revolt that easily crushed the Imperial Fleet sent to suppress him. He also had the Imperial Guard officer who killed August promoted three ranks for the deed and executed for the murders he committed on August's orders, and generally saved the Goldenbaum dinasty in spite of what the Bloodletter had done;
  • Gustav was an ill man, and had originally been passed over twice for the throne due to this. When he finally ascended to the throne, he was poisoned... And in spite of his ill health and the poison, he managed to crown a worthy successor, who, being the son of a woman from the low nobility, thus giving the whole High Nobility a giant middle finger;
  • Maximilian Joseph II, Gustav's half-brother and successor, was blind due a poisoning. He swept away the corruption reigning since the time of his father Friedrich II and stopped enforcement of the Inferior Genes Exclusion Act. For this he was given the nicknames of "the Seer" and "the Rebuilder";
  • Kornelias I, Maximilian Joseph II's successor, tried to solve the war with the Alliance (going on since Friedrich III's reign) peacefully. He was laughed at many times... Then he personally bulldozed through the Alliance Starfleet and nearly won the war, only stopped by a palace coup forcing him to return home to crush the impudent fools. Afterwards he did not attack the Alliance again, as the economic situation was too bad for it and the attack would have only spoiled his previous accomplishments;
  • Friedrich IV manipulated Reinhard von Lohengramm and made him into the hero the Empire needed to cleanse the galaxy of the High Nobles. Reinhard never suspected that the man he swore to kill managed to do THAT.
• During his assault on Earth, the Wahlen Fleet had trouble landing their troops, as the atmosphere near the Terraist headquarter (on the Himalaya) was too thin for parachutes and the terrain was too bad to directly land the ships. Wahlen's flagship Salamander landed anyway, thanks to the fact the captain was an Ace Pilot.
  • During the assault we also saw the Empire's Panzergrenadiers in action. Ever wondered why giant axes bordering on halberds are used for meelee combat between armoured infantry and all foot soldiers carry those large rifles? Because lesser meelee weapons just break on their armour, and anything less tham those huge infantry rifles doesn't even leave a scorch mark.
  • And before the assault... Well, a Terraist in his flagship's crew tried to murder him with a poisoned knife. Wahlen neutralized him by letting himself get stabbed in the left arm, use the fact the knife was in his arm to keep the cultist blocked, and then shooting him in the shoulder (he wanted him alive for interrogation, but didn't see any reason to put his men into danger by having them subdue an healthy cultist). The poison knocked him out for a few hours, and the doctors had to amputate his arm, but not only he didn't let such a small thing stop him, but he didn't show any problem with the loss, and had his attacker brought to him to personally interrogate the poor bastard.
• After the assault, Wahlen offers a reward to Julian and friends, who, under the guise of Phezzani infiltrators, helped the assault go relatively smooth. What did Julian ask? Well, he was interested into seeing how people on Odin lived... So he asked for a passage there (plus a refund of whatever they lost in the battle, but that was to keep the cover). He got both.
• In episode 66, Bittenfeld snapping Reinhard out of his apathy with just a few well-chosen words.
• Episode 67:
  • Reinhard's epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the Alliance government, calling them out for selling out first Yang and then Lennenkampf and breaking the peace treaty and their own laws in the process, and then announcing that not only now he has no choice but the use of force (and more specifically the Black Lancers, who are already being deployed), but asking Yang and his men to join him to seek justice from the Alliance government, thus preventing him from rejoining the Alliance forces in the war. With a single speech, he separated Yang from the Alliance (while he'll join him), justified his impending conquest of the Alliance, caused infighting at the highest levels of the government and the military, and broke the Alliance morale to the point Heinessenpolis got in the middle of multiple riots among those who had not escaped to the mountains, especially the spaceport clogged up of people trying to escape.
  • Yang's answer to getting cut off from the Alliance? Why, attacking Iserlohn. He already conquered it once, after all. And that time he didn't have a sabotage in place to make it easier to conquer.
  • Alliance's special emissary William Odets, sent to try and negotiate a withdrawhal of the invasion force, gets dissed by Mittermeyer's subordinates, who also quip that the Alliance could not defeat Yang even with ten times his ships. Odets reply? Pointing out that Reinhard failed just that.
• In episode 69, a random Alliance commodore named Bufort managed to stop the advance of the Black Lancers by cutting his supply lines. It didn't stop him for long and he paid with his life and those of his men, as Bittenfeld took it personally and wiped him out while waiting for the next convoy, but until then the various Alliance attempt at resisting had failed to even slow him down...
• Episode 70 has the Tenth Battle of Iserlohn. Yang can't lead in person due politics, but he had already planned it well enough that Merkatz and Schönkopf can execute it in pure Magician style (even if Poplan says Yang should be called a swindler):
  • It starts with Badgash' epic trolling of the commander, admiral Lutz, who first receives an order to leave the fortress and attack Heinessen with a pincer movement and then one of staying inside and guard the Fortress against Yang's tricks, also warning specifically for saboteurs and ordering to start an investigation against dishonest actions. Which one is true, and which one is fake? None of them, it's all a ruse to get Lutz to stay inside until the right moment: not knowing which one was the real one, he decides to suspend the sortie and launch an investigation just in case the second one is real, and, due Iserlohn having a garrison of one million people, there's no chance there would be zero dishonest soldiers and in fact they caught criminals and saboteurs numbering in the double digits, resulting in Lutz believing the second fake order and disbelieving the first, plus the two fake orders that imitated Reinhard's style when he has to repeat an order, and, finally, the one to sortie that actually came from Reinhard. That's why Poplan says Yang should change nickname from "Magician" to "Swindler";
    • As an appendix to the above, Reinhard himself can't make sense of Yang's plan when he's told that Lutz isn't launching. He suspects it's one of his machinations, but he cannot understand what he's planning, and only repeats the order to sortie while not making sure it's enforced because having the Lutz Fleet there should still benefit him... Thus reinforcing Lutz's determination to stay inside, especially after Bagdash adds a threat of court martial if he doesn't launch immediately.
  • As planned by Yang, Lutz convinces himself that Yang is repeating his plan from the Seventh Battle, that is to lure out the fleet and then sneak in, and decides to launch with all his forces and trap him between his own fleet and the Thor Hammer. As Lutz expected, Yang Fleet immediately attacks Iserlohn to board it... And Thor Hammer doesn't fire. Remember when Yang had been forced to abandon the fortress at the end of the Ninth, and was happy that Reuenthal had been able to deactivate the scuttling charges? Those bombs were a distraction for the hidden program that locked down the Thor Hammer, the floating batteries and the manual override while opening the docking gates, program that Yang Fleet has now activated. Thus Yang Fleet is free to board the fortress without any danger;
  • Once boarded, the Yang Fleet personnel has five hours to seize Iserlohn before Lutz returns, and the Fortress' marines alone outnumber Yang Fleet's whole crew. Except the Iserlohn garrison is already low on morale for what happened previously and the boarding party include the freakin' Rosen Ritter... And once the garrison realize who they're facing, they run away;
  • Still, Lutz Fleet returns before the control bridge is seized. Iserlohn is safe, right? Nope: the boarding party seized a secondary control room and unlocked Thor Hammer, and Lutz Fleet is in range. One shot later, Lutz is unable to reinforce the garrison, and the already low garrison's morale is shattered and unable to mount any meaningful resistance. Seeing this, the garrison commander surrenders Iserlohn in exchange for his men being allowed to leave.
• Episodes 71 and 72 have the Battle of Marr-Adetta, The Last Dance of Alexander Bewcock and the Free Planets Star Fleet. And truly deserves the trope:
  • The very battlefield was an awesome choice: knowing he's going with 20,000 starships against Reinhard's combined fleet of over 100,000 and he's short on battleships and carriers to boot, Bewcock choose the Marr-Adetta starzone for his Last Stand. How is it an awesome choice? It's a star system-wide Asteroid Thicket with a star sending off chaotic solar wind in the whole system except for one corridor, amounting to an equalizer between the remains of the Free Planets Star Fleet and the bulk of the Imperial Fleet. Also, by letting this choice being discovered by Imperial recon Bewcock ensured Reinhard won't simply march on Heinessen (as he had in fact been suggested to do), as it serves as a gigantic gauntlet thrown at him;
    • He also isolated the combined fleet from the Black Lancers, whose charge had broken the Alliance fleet at Vermilion. Without them around, fighting Reinhard is less hopeless than before.
  • When the battle starts, the Imperial vanguard led by Knappstein and Grillparzer (two bloodthirsty and unexperienced admirals that consider Bewcock just an old geezer and who Reinhard sent in first to serve as cannon fodder and see what Bewcock was planning), who successfully penetrate the corridor, with Mittermeyer ready behind them to intervene. Then, as expected by Bewcock, a burst of solar wind starts throwing asteroids at them. Mittermeyer falls back, Knappstein and Grillparzer cluster their fleets to defend themselves from the asteroids without leaving the corridor... And are promptly routed when the Alliance fleet fires an Alpha Strike at the big juicy target they've just provided them, with the damage made worse by a second burst of solar wind disorganizing their formation. After leaving the corridor, Grillparzer has his fleet in counterattack formation to crush Bewcock when he comes out to pursue... Except that Bewcock, being that much smarter than him, had already ordered his men to not give pursuit;
  • While Grillparzer is brought into reserve after suffering 30% losses, Knappstein is sent back in to serve as a distraction for Fahrenheit, and gets spanked. Fahrenheit manages to come to Bewcock's rear... And avoid his other trap, that would have seen him countercharged and annihilated. As it is, he manages to seal the other exit of the corridor, while Knappstein, believing that Bewcock was exposed, runs into Bewcock's minefield and is blocked (a tactic praised by Reinhard and Reuenthal as soon as they see Knappstein's charge), and unable to take further part in the battle;
  • Fahrenheit meets Bewcock's countercharge with the advantage of defence... And the disadvantage of having fallen for his other trap: Alliance's vice admiral Carlsen's squadron that had stayed hidden until then and got on his flank, and are now attacking. Fahrenheit realizes what's happening and falls back just enough to be ready to counterattack when Bewcock's force and his other squadron cross paths and get disorganized, but that is Just as Planned: the two Alliance forces don't cross paths, but Carlsen's squadron continues its charge and attacks the Imperial main fleet, while Bewcock keeps Fahrenheit pinned down;
  • Carlsen's attack finally provides Reinhard some awesomeness, as he had anticipated the chance of getting an enemy attack in the rear... And put "Iron Wall" Muller and his fleet there just for that. Once again, Muller lives up his name, to the point his new flagship Perceval gets struck by Alliance fire and shrugs it off;
  • In the meantime, Fahrenheit managed to escape Bewcock, and is getting on Carlsen's rear counting on Knappstein to keep the Alliance commander-in-chief out of his way. As Knappstein is still pinned down by Bewcock's many minefields, and cursing the fact he didn't bring with him directional Seffle particle generators, Fahrenheit gets Bewcock and his main force pursuing him. As for Knappstein, he probably had to be saved by the rest of the fleet;
  • While pursuing Fahrenheit to give Carlsen time to try and break through Muller, Bewcock assesses the situation, and changes plan: he overtakes Fahrenheit to charge directly at Muller and then at Reinhard. In the end, Muller, with Fahrenheit's help, manages to stop Bewcock, but to do so he had to send against him 30% of his fleet, and Carlsen breaks through;
  • Carslen's charge is strong, and has much impetum... And less ships than the combined Lohengramm and Reuenthal Fleets, with Muller and Fahrenheit closing in fast. Carlsen's charge is stopped, and the whole Free Planets Star Fleet is surrounded by Eisenach moving from his position on the right wing to get on Bewcock's rear. And differently from the other fleets, Eisenach Fleet is positioned in such a way it doesn't have to tune down its attack to avoid friendly fire;
  • Bewcock's doomed, right? Nope: he had planned for this evenience, and, as expected, the Marr-Adetta star disrupts the surrounding Imperial fleets with another burst of solar wind and asteroids. At which point Bewcock breaks through Muller again and attacks the Imperial centre with Reinhard in it;
  • Muller shows up and attacks Bewcock on the flank, splitting his fleet in two. Doesn't matter: turns out Bewcock's goal is to kill Reinhard or die trying, and as long as the Brunhild is shot down he wins. Carlsen's squadron coming into range... And Reinhard, having planned for this and knowing that by now he's low on energy, stops him as if he crushed on a wall;
  • Turns out that isolating the Black Lancers doesn't keep them out of the battle, but serves as a gigantic "I'm here, shoot me" flag: Bittenfeld suddenly appears on Bewcock's rear with his whole fleet, and even manages to shoot down Carlsen;
  • Speaking of Ralph Carlsen... In his last moments he mentions he didn't go to the military academy, but climbed up the ladder up to vice admiral rank without any officer-grade instruction;
  • By now, the Battle of Marr-Adetta is decided in Imperial favour. At this point Bewcock and some of his ships fight a rear guard action to allow as many of the survivors to get away and possibly join Yang;
  • In honour of his spirit, and at Hildegarde's prompt, Reinhard has Mittermeyer offer Bewcock a chance to surrender. He calls directly Reinhard, refuses and makes a toast to democracy in his face, and dies toasting at democracy while Imperial fire destroys his ship. The Imperial Fleet salutes Bewcock and his men;
  • Finally, a comparison of losses: the Free Planets Star Fleet entered the battle with 20,000 ships with low numbers of battleships and carriers and only few of them escaped to join Yang, while the Imperial Fleet entered with over 100,000 ships in full order of battle and loss a quarter of that. They lost more ships than the entire enemy force;
  • As an appendix, three hours after the battle the Imperials learn that Iserlohn has fallen, with Yang outwitting Lutz and Reuenthal (who had not checked for Yang's last present when he conquered the place), sending the whole fleet into Oh, Crap! mode until Bittenfeld and Hildegarde pointed out respectively that Iserlohn's strategic value was not as great as it once was and its fall has no impact on this campaign, and that this wasn't one of Yang's plans, as otherwise Bewcock would have been the one conquering Iserlohn with Yang's instructions and Yang the one fighting at Marr-Adetta.
• Episode 73:
  • João Rebelo's Dying Moment of Awesome. Having spent most of his term as Chairman of the High Council as an appeaser in a vain and desperate attempt to preserve the Alliance, even trying to get Yang executed because Lennenkampf believed him involved in a number of anti-Imperial activities (he was right, but there were no proof), when admiral Rockwell and his subordinates arrive to kill him with the excuse he would have him executed if the Empire asked he calmly confronts him, admits as such and then dismantle his excuse, starting by simply pointing out he's no Yang and the Empire would have no reason to demand the head of someone so worthless, before standing up from his chair and daring the soldiers who were training guns on him to shoot him.
  • The bureaucrats on Heinessen refusing to surrender public documents to the occupying Imperial troops because there's no law authorizing them to claim said documents, knowing well they'll be killed for this. Two of them even told the Imperial soldiers that there's no such thing as an emperor.
  • Reinhard being Reinhard. Rockwell killed Rebelo in an attempt to buy his own safety? Executed with his co-conspirators for treason while pointing out that Fahrenheit changing sides at the end of the Imperial Civil War and their actions were completely different. Those bureaucrats engaged in civil disobedience? Pardoned and praised for their courage, as if they had been in power the Alliance would have never fallen. Republicans trying to assassinate him and killing themselves when Bittenfeld's men catch them preparing? Have Bittenfeld return the bodies to the families and not punish them, as otherwise he'd become another Rudolph von Goldenbaum. He also finally acknowledges the Free Planets Alliance as a legitimate government of the past. All of this has the effect of conquering the hearts of most people on Heinessen and preventing a bloodbath.
• Upon the death: of John Robert Lap, Jessica Edwards publicly confronts Trunicht with a devastating speech that gets her hunted down by nationalists afterwards.
  Jessica: I only came to ask you one question, Secretary of Defense.
  Trunicht: (humorously) I hope its a question I can answer.
  Jessica: Where were you?
  Trunicht: Huh? What?
  Jessica: My fiance went to battle in order to protect the motherland, and now he's gone. Secretary of Defense! Where were you?! Where were you, who glorify the war dead?!
  Trunicht: Miss...
  Jessica: Where is your family?! I offered my fiance as a sacrifice! So where is your family, you who preach the necessity of citizens' sacrifice?! Are you practicing what you preach?!
• The Battle of Dagon in the documentary Julian watches, which was the first battle between the Alliance and the Galactic Empire. The Alliance forces, despite being outnumbered over 2-to-1, managed to almost completely annihilate the Imperial force while suffering minimal casualties of their own.
• Episode 6 of Die Neue These: Frederica gets called attractive by one of the Rosenritter one too many times in the span of the few minutes she and Yang have been at their base. Clearly having been annoyed by their lack of respect, she takes him down when he reaches his hand over to touch her. Mind you, this guy is about twice her size, only the appearance of von Schönkopf stopping her from breaking the grunt's arm.
• The Imperial Admirals leaving to fight the invasion force in episode 11. Seeing the fleets take off after a toast, while departure is playing adds to the bombasity of it all.