#lotgh analysis

Reinhard is a character centered around the ideal of power—he fulfills the role of the righteous dictator, fighting with honor and pride. But in order to get there, countless bloodshed was needed, and much of it was, in a way, pointless. For what is a man and the war he enacts compared to the passage of time, and mortality?

In this post, I want to examine Reinhard's weaknesses, and the way his motivations slowly change in the course of the story without him even realizing it.

So let's start examining, as always, his trauma.

Lack of Control

Young Reinhard lived with his father and sister, and it’s clear he had a pretty normal childhood, although there was always the underlying implication of being only a minor noble. Compared to the ones who actually held the power, all Reinhard’s family had was the resources, and for a while, that’s all Reinhard needed. 

But the family, and more specifically—the boy’s lack of power was made clear the moment the Kaiser decided to take Annerose for himself. The boy’s age, lack of influence, lack of control, and lack of strength, all collided so that the only figure of care Reinhard in his life was taken, leaving a huge hole in his heart that he subsequently tries to fulfill by dreaming of not only taking his sister back, but also, by conquering space in its entirety.

In response to Annerose’s kidnapping, Reinhard decides to control everything and everyone, becoming stronger than all by obtaining the ultimate power. To slowly rise his way in the ranks and create a better world, he uses the help of Kircheis, his childhood friend, to do so.

However, Kircheis also acts as Reinhard's moral compass, to remind him that he’s not the powerless boy anymore, and that sometimes, there are answers different to massacre and sacrifice. 

This is the struggle of Reinhard’s character, because a voice inside him, later taken form by Oberstein, constantly pushes him to take extreme measures to achieve results, under the presumption that if he hesitates, like he did when the powerful, scary monster called aristocracy took Annerose away, he will lose everything once more.

This is why the massacre in Westerland occurs.

Reinhard is pushed to extremes in the search for his goal, and only someone who also experienced that loss, but that remains idealistic regardless, like Kircheis, can keep him on a balanced path to victory.

This is why his death marks the beggining of the end for Reinhard.

The End of One's Soul

When Kircheis dies, the ideals in Reinhard also do. When Kircheis dies, what is later referred to by Yang’s fleet as “foppery and whim”, a quality required for balance when analyzing LOTGH’s themes, is gone. Reinhard loses his soul, his dreams, his reason to fight, all because the anchor keeping him grounded in his childhood disappeared. 

Before, Reinhard hoped to do things differently. To not sacrifice the innocent, to not reward bloodshed—this is why he wanted to become emperor in the first place. But now... all Reinhard can see is war, difficult choices, necessary measures and distorted realities. With now only Oberstein guiding him, he’s driven to loneliness and inhuman acts… because machiavellean ways may be effective, but without a soul to counter balance them, one becomes little more than a husk of flesh, making decisions logically and optimally.

As Oberstein himself comments in regards to the man’s death: "Shadows must be accompanied by light. But if the light dims...

Annerose's "abandonment" (in quotes because Reinhard is a grown ass man) also contributes to the death of Reinhard's soul. Because she sees the consequences of his actions—of his ever-increasing "the end justify the means" mentality, and his willingness to enact massacres if it's what he needs to become Kaiser.

Reinhard becomes Kaiser, but as a result, he's now alone. Because for power, a price must be paid, and oftentimes, it's one's soul.

And this figurative death catches up to Reinhard. He becomes ill, and no matter how much he tries to keep fighting, his body tells him that he’s lacking the soul needed to power through—the soul that Yang had, that later Julian inherited, and that allowed them, despite being at extreme disadvantages, to win against Reinhard. 

This is why Reinhard could never win against Yang. 

Because this series alludes to the idea of the driving force that moves us needing to be fueled by emotion, whether it is foppery and whim in Yang’s fleet, honor in the empire, or love, as it was the case for Reinhard once.

However, once this love is gone… once all driving a person are machinations and a desire for power that isn’t even understood, you end up with Reinhard’s coronation. A ceremony full of loyal servants, but without the two most important people in his life by his side.

Conquering for Pride

By this point onward, Reinhard is deconstructed as a character. Frequently falling ill, being caught up in endless burocracy while wondering what's the meaning in it all—only when he gets to fight Yang again does he seem to liven up, and yet when he dies, he reveals his true colors:

Reinhard depends on friend and foe for his own survival. At this point, he wages war for his own ego—to excel, and find pride in his winning. As he fights, first Yang, then Reuenthal, and finally Julian, Reinhard realizes that by this point, this isn't about politics, or liberation anymore. No. It's about feeling powerful, like he wasn't when he was a child.

He must be, or otherwise, his existence is meaningless. Is that why he dies when peace is achieved, I wonder?

Reinhard advances, achieves and conquers, to try and make up for his own self percieved weaknesses—his fear of being controlled or following other people's lead, instead of his own.

He’s a man that would rather destroy entire planets than face his fears, anxieties, and most of all, himself. It’s the cruel tragedy of the average man, driven to madness to excel in order to ignore and hide his true weaknesses. Even after Yang's death, and the entire universe unified, he continues to feel powerless, and he doesn't even understand why.

Loneliness of the Kaiser

His relationship with Hilda highlights his difficulty facing emotions best—he seeks her company trying to fill Kircheis’ absence, an she ends up becoming the sole pillar of soul left in his life. Without even consciously desiring it, he ends up seeking her and sleeping her not out of love, but out of loneliness, wanting to be held by someone, anyone.

Now, for the Hilda x Reinhard shippers out there, few as you may be, I’m not saying there isn’t love between them, but the fact is that Reinhard is moved by a need to be vulnerable first, and a love for HIlda second, or at least that’s the way I see it.

He marries her out of duty and guilt for sleeping with her while being drunk, not out of desire. Even Hilda knows this.

As her father says, Reinhard is a man who is so extremely competent at warfare, that he ends up being lacking in other areas, in this case, the emotional. This might seem minor, but it's the defining trait that spells the tragedy of his character.

Self-deceptive Warmongering

As he has achieved world peace, Reinhard begins to be unable to cope with his existence, which is partly why he resorts to Hilda in the first place. This happened after he was reminded of Westerland by one of its victims, and you can tell that in a way, he agrees that he shouldn't go unpunished for his crimes.

Reinhard knows he's a murderer, and that his hands are stained by blood.

And yet he cannot help but continue looking for excuses to continue the bloodshed.

This is also why he's also so insistent in fighting Reuenthal, pointing out that he's the one who started the rebellion time and time again, and being unable to be persuaded by Mittermeyer, despite having all the authority to reach a peaceful resolution with him.

Of course, Reinhard is justified in this, as Reuenthal also isn't trying to communicate, and it was him who started the conflict—but still, one cannot ignore that this battle is the result of two egotistical and prideful men putting their egos at the forefront and being unable to talk to each other as a result. Because deep down, Reinhard wanted to prove his superiority to Reuenthal, through a fight.

This is also why he fights with the Alliance at the end of the story.

He accepts the negotiations for peace with them, but only after they prove their ideals are worth it through bloodshed. In this sense, his pride and honor show their inherent belligerence, and as Julian criticizes, historians would only look it as one more sacrifice for the sake of peace—the deaths of thousands becomes just a number, and that's exactly what it is for Reinhard as well. The death of soldiers is just a number to him.

Whether Reinhard will admit it or not, he's a warmonger, and he uses war as a way to find meaning in his existence. Pride and honor are just the fancy words he uses to disguise this fact.

Death of the Strong

Reinhard’s soul is a fire that slowly is whiffed out, until finally, when there’s no one else to fight, it ends. Because the strong are useless when there is no opponent, and titans fall when no love is supporting them. 

Sadly, the love had already returned—Hilda was the Kaiserin, their son had just been born, and Annerose had come back, but it was too late.

Reinhard had spent all his life as a sword, and when it came down to settling, he couldn't stop being one. All his life energy had been spent on a bloody task.

The universe had been unified, and made right, but the man who lost his soul couldn't get it back once the task was over.

He fought for his dreams, and he continued to do so—dreaming of a paradise of warriors that would justify his bloodshed: Valhalla.

But in the end, Reinhard is just a man. A selfish, selfless, loved, loveless, man. And he died like any other.

Whether he found his paradise or was burnt in hell for his actions, is only for him to know.

Never-Ending Struggle

With all of this in mind, I want to conclude my analysis by examining Reinhard's actions—and to ponder whether they were worth it, or not. And for this I want to examine Lotgh's themes in general.

Hilda, as Reinhard's biggest confidant, assures that Reinhard has brought positive change, and saved countless lives even if he has dirtied his hands as a result. He has sacrificed, been punished for it, and improved the world as a result.

But in a way, it feels as if she's just trying to protect his ego.

Because Oberstein, Reinhard's most effective agent, says it best: The pride of the Kaiser has resulted in countless corpses as a result of direct but prideful confrontations, when sneakier, dishonorable, but overall more effective methods, would have resulted in much less death.

It's strange, but in this sense, Oberstein is much more humanitarian than Reinhard ever will be. I'd argue this is why his death humanizes him so much: a man who thinks of his dog as he is dying, must be human, too. He just didn't let his pride or feelings cloud his judgement, unlike everyone else in the story.

I wouldn't say he's completely in the right though, and I'd argue this is also what Bitttenfeldt's and Oberstein's struggle at the end of the story symbolizes. The both humane and inhumane aspects of pride and honor, of foppery and whim, that end in countless bloodshed and yet at the same time are necessary for humans to remain human, and the deeply compassionate and yet also incredibly cold machinations of the utilitiarian reasoning, in which most lives are saved, but at the expense of one's soul.

Reinhard was certainly a mix of the two, for better or for worse. Rather than judge his results or his character, I think that what matters is to look at the whole picture—Reinhard suffered so much, and yet also achieved a lot and brought suffering and happiness alike to the world.

The reason why the story is named Legend of the Galactic Heroes must be precisely because of this—because it contains figures such as Reinhard, Yang, Oberstein, Julian and many more, all whom were heroes in their own way, and yet also mass murdering villains.

It all depends on how history will judge it.

It Must Be Something

I’d like to finish with an analysis of the last opening song, “Must be something”. 

This is a song of grief, that laments the childhood lost, and Kircheis’ passing, and along with it, losing your meaning, or soul. “Why was I born to live this windy day?”

A loss in purpose, and a constant question—what is driving me now that I've lost everything?

“There must be something, that leads me through the space between.”

Reinhard does not know what is that “something” that drives him, and his biggest mistake is forgetting it, and losing the meaning he found in it all. Getting caught up on what's ahead, while ignoring what is in front of him. Reinhard begs for “something” to serve as motivation, to add some sense to his senseless wish to fight and be strong—a wish rooted in love, but that has long been forgotten by the Kaiser.