“History isn’t just records of the past.” – Yang Wen-li

Consisting of 110 main series episodes, dozens of side stories, several films, an ongoing remake, and based on a book series of the same name, Legend of the Galactic Heroes is one of the true standouts in the history of anime. It is hard to overstate just how respected the series is as a technical and literary work. It is sprawling in its scope, covering about a decade of time in detail, and calling back to events that happened hundreds of years before we are first introduced to the world. Nearly every episode introduces some new idea or in-world development that causes you to change what you expect from the show and rethink everything that happened up to that point. Central to most of these themes is the question of politics.

Set in the distant future, the narrative proper is mostly about the struggle between the Free Planets Alliance (FPA) and the Galactic Empire. The FPA is a bloated, failing, liberal democracy crippled by bureaucratic institutions that have completely robbed the broad masses of any real power. The Galactic Empire is a monarchy where the ‘Kaiser’ is backed by a grossly privileged class of nobles. Our protagonists are Yang Wen-li, would-be reformer of the FPA, and Reinhard von Lohengramm (previously von Musel), would-be revolutionary in the Galactic Empire. The main ideological stage is set for the battle between Yang’s democratic views and Reinhard’s vision of a benevolent dictatorship.

Quite controversial topics, and many a “Galactic Heroes” fan has set out on the discussion of which side is right. Should we support Yang and representative democracy? Or should we support Reinhard and hope for a good-spirited monarch? The answer, I believe the show makes quite clear, is neither. But first, I feel it is necessary to respond to a few of the show’s critics. For, despite all of its themes of social upheaval, it is quite popular to accuse the show of being, in essence, conservative.

Note: Spoilers will be largely avoided. But as a precaution, do not click on any of the links throughout the rest of this article unless you are okay with spoilers.

Myths of Great Men

One of the first accusations hurled at Legend of the Galactic Heroes (referred to as LOGH from this point forward) is that it supports the so-called “Great Man Theory.”

“To begin with, Legend of the Galactic Heroes is a full-throated supporter of the Great Man theory of history, in which singular individuals change the course of history through their will and genius.” – Rob Hutton, The Conservative Heart of “Legend of the Galactic Heroes” “Unfortunately, Legend of the Galactic Heroes is also inherently, legitimately fascist in it’s beliefs as it total[ly] buys in into the Great Man Theory of History” – James Morgan, as quoted in “Legend of Galactic Heroes: a familiar fascism“

As Hutton correctly points out, “Great Man theory” holds that history is largely the result of the movements of significant individuals, or “great men.” However, that is about as much credit as I can give either of these articles, as any real analysis of the show reveals it as being extremely critical of this view, not in support of it. This is shown in many ways.

(a) The Beginning & The Cast

From the very start, LOGH challenges this conception. The first half of season one is largely spent hopping around to different side characters and showing the way the world has affected them. We get entire episodes dedicated to people like Susanna von Benemünde (ep 11) and Wilhelm von Klopstock (ep 9), who have been affected by the rules governing the aristocrats and suffered a fall from grace. In episode 13, we see the ways the war has ripped apart the Kleingelt family and shaped even their romantic relationships. Without spoiling anything specific, none of these characters I have just mentioned appear in more than one episode. If the series was really trying to sell you on “Great Men,” why dedicate several whole episodes to telling insular stories about life in the Empire? We even get comments and points of view from characters who are not even named. If we return to about halfway through episode 13, you’ll see my favorite one. A son is helping his father load up a truck, and the two of them, clearly farmers, are discussing the Imperial troops that are occupying their town. The father says that they are ‘reinforcements,’ and the son aggressively responds with, “Whose? The nobles? It has nothing to do with us.”

And this focus on side characters and other points of view is not limited to the first bit of the series, even if it is perhaps most explicit then. There are over 100 named characters, only some of which are pictured in the diagram below.

Each of these characters is given a specific personality, point of view, or role. If the series is really trying to sell us on history being the movement of a few “Great Men,” then it must be fumbling at the task. To give so many characters so much screen time would seem to horribly undermine that message.

(b) The Dead & The Nameless

SPOILERS FOR THE NEXT SECTION. SKIP IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED.

It also must be noted that the show kills nearly everybody, and I mean everybody. There is hardly a “main character” who makes it out alive. And you know what? The series keeps going. Main characters are not so essential after all. The biggest villains and the greatest heroes pass in and out of the world, and the world just keeps going. History does not hinge on them, and the movements of the world reach their climax with or without them. We see much of the personal suffering caused by these losses, and we even see some social and political consequences when a powerful or popular figure dies, but these deaths are never the end. Historical processes, military or otherwise, continue without them. The world of LOGH may be better or worse for losing certain individuals, but it always still is.

Characters are also killed by accidents, illnesses, and collateral quite often. Our “heroes” don’t always die dramatic deaths. In fact, it is usually the opposite. They die needlessly and stupidly. A recurring trend also is that supposed main characters are killed by side characters. Often, nameless ones. I don’t know how you can really say that a series is pushing for “great men” when main characters are more likely to die to some nameless gun in a crowd than they are to go out in a blaze of glory. The world chews up all of these “great men.”

SPOILERS OVER.

(c) History as an Unreliable Narrator

The biggest hole in this argument though, and honestly the single most criminally unaddressed aspect of the show, is that LOGH is not telling you that the events of the story actually 100% happened the way they are portrayed. I have never seen anyone else make this point, but one of the main themes of LOGH is that history lies. Allow me to clarify.

LOGH says a lot about history, and it typically talks about it in two different ways. First, “history” as the actual movement of the world. Secondly, “history” as the human study of that movement and the process of crafting narratives around it. It is the latter that LOGH seeks to single out and critique.

The series is set in the future, but it is clearly meant to be interpreted as if it happened in the past. This can be seen as a call back to the famous Star Wars opening crawl, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” And while LOGH does not happen in our past, nor in a different galaxy, it certainly is told as a work of historical fiction. The narrator even speaks of every event in the past tense. But what is it trying to tell us about history as a narrator? Does it think that history (in the second sense used above) is infallible? Quite the opposite, and this is shown in many ways.

Within the show, characters make note of the unreliability of history on several occasions. In episode 39, we get this rather explicit statement of the matter.

“Even if you look at a mountain, if you only look at it from one direction, you can’t grasp the whole… Embodiments of evil don’t exist other than in television dramas…Maybe history will classify us not as good but as the evil camp…people aren’t strong enough to endure the recognition that they’re evil. Therefore, believing in their own righteousness, they fight to force their views on other people.” – Yang Wen-li

In this little speech, he makes quite explicit that people wage fierce battles to instill their ideas onto others. He even explicitly says that this happens in the sphere of history. In fact, Yang, who is undeniably one of the most morally upstanding characters in the show, even goes as far as to say that history might view him negatively. We as an audience know that Yang is a good man, but history is at risk of distorting this information.

Another pretty explicit statement comes later on, in episode 58.

“A man like Job Trunicht will leave his name forever in history as a consummate businessman.” – Oskar von Reuenthal

History might remember the wonderful Yang as a villain, but it also might remember a despicable career politician like Job Trunicht positively? What kind of history is this that remembers our heroes as villains and our villains as heroes?

But it is not just statements from the characters that give us insight into this dynamic. In episode 40, “Julian’s Journey, Mankind’s Journey,” we, along with Julian, actually watch an in-universe documentary about the history of the galaxy. It is told from the FPA’s perspective and clearly biased. TV tropes has this to say about it:

“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.”

If only they could see the bigger picture that this is but one frame of! LOGH explicitly shows you that historical narratives are flawed by literally showing you a supposedly objective historical narrative. Within the show, that is, among the characters and in their world, history is an unreliable narrator. It tells stories about the world but not always purely as they happened.

This is not limited only to the in-universe story though. No, the narrator of the series, the disembodied voice of some future historian, also is shown to be quite unreliable. It is pointed out that some characters are remembered in conflicting ways, some are shrouded in mystery, and others vanish from the pages of history without a trace. This is hardly some sort of omniscient third person relaying pure facts to us. They have holes in their worldview that they can’t close, and we have no reason to believe that they are any more reliable than the historians displayed in Julian’s documentary.

Perhaps most blatant is that the title of the series is literally “Legend” of the Galactic Heroes. It isn’t a factual recounting but a “legend.”

This opens up a whole new way to view the series. While I think even the content of the series forces you to be critical of the “Great Man” theory, I can’t deny that there are elements of it that persist. However, that is not to say that LOGH actually endorses that view, but rather that history as we tell it endorses that view. The series goes out of its way to challenge it and to challenge us. If the critics of the show think that LOGH is attempting to give a one-to-one factual retelling, then they have revealed that they trust historical narratives a lot more than LOGH does.

Note: Another common complaint about the series is that many of the early villains are portrayed flatly, as one-dimensional. I would simply ask the audience to remember that ‘history is written by the victor.’ And I would further ask them to tell me all the nuanced ways your country’s media depicts its enemies.

Pro-Dictatorship?

Our critics, both Hutton and the various voices over at Wi[s]se Words, also accuse the show of supporting dictatorship.

“There’s a bone-deep conservatism to Legend of the Galactic Heroes, one that tends towards supporting military dictatorship” – Hutton “[LOGH] sides far more with absolute monarchy over democracy so long as the monarch is enlightened and meritocratic in his ruling” – James Morgan

Again, the series is meant to be viewed critically, as a flawed retelling of a historical period. With that lens, their interpretations are already open to attack. But on top of that, nearly the first half of the series is dedicated to showing the ways dictatorship fails inevitably. The entire Goldenbaum dynasty is a testament to that.

Further, it is remarked several times that only Reinhard could possibly handle the task. Yet even he fails, repeatedly, under the pressures of that power. In fact, probably his greatest attribute as a leader is his ability to pass on tasks to others. He knows who is best for the job and allows his government to work relatively independent of him.

To spoil something as vaguely as possible, most character don’t even support dictatorship by the end of the series, and it isn’t implied that it will last much longer as a viable system into the future.

Further, this tends to go against their other main complaint.

“From its opening episodes, Legend of Galactic Heroes aims to tell the story of a battle between democracy and dictatorship.” – Hutton

If the series is about a struggle between competing political systems, then how can you claim that it is also about “Great Men”? Do “Great Men” make history, or do systems of political organization make history? Systemic and structural approaches to history are quite literally the opposite of “Great Man” approaches.

I think, yet again, LOGH is too critical for its critics. It does not support dictatorship. But it also does not support liberal democracy. It rejects both for being unstable and ultimately rigged against the masses. It doesn’t actually tell you what the solution might be, but it does hint at it.

The Leftism of the Galactic Heroes

I believe the actual politics pushed by LOGH are much more Left-leaning and even radical than most people realize. There is a ton of evidence for this. We get serious hints of it early on in episode 17 when Yang says that the standing army shouldn’t exist. In episode 22, it is revealed that Kircheis, after defeating some of the old Imperial fleet, removes military and political personnel from the previously colonized planets and declares that they have the right to self-determination. Abolishing the military and liberating oppressed peoples from imperial rule aren’t exactly “conservative” positions.

In episode 27, we get a short list of the things Reinhard is doing as Prime Minister. They include…

Abolishing the noble class system

Establishing democratic constitutions

Allowing the formation of unions

Guaranteeing freedom of the press & freedom of speech

Instituting fair tax reforms so as to further erode the old class privileges

Pushing for impartial legal systems

And nationalizing all of the wealth and land previously held by the nobles

What a fascist! How right wing of him!

This list of policies would make most “progressive” types in the US blush! Can you imagine Bernie Sanders calling for such radical change? This is not to say that it was a utopia, or even that these reforms were sustainable given the authoritarian way the state functioned in instituting them. But, to be fair, the show doesn’t even claim those things. It is made known that Reinhard doesn’t even think they are where he wants society to be, and even his allies criticize the fact that the system of monarchy is not fit for maintaining his radical vision. One character even remarks that this vision could only be realized if the people ran their own government.

To bring this point home, that LOGH is actually extremely radical and “Leftist” in its politics, I just want to put a few quotes from Yang Wen-li side-by-side with some quotes from a few historical figures…

“An army is a tool for violence, and there are two kinds of violence… Violence to control and oppress and violence as a means of liberation. You know what we call a national army is fundamentally the former example. Its a pity, but history doesn’t lie. When those in power confront popular opposition, there aren’t many examples of the army siding with the people.” – Yang, ep 35 “Everywhere, in all countries, the standing army is used not so much against the external enemy as against the internal enemy. Everywhere the standing army has become the weapon of reaction, the servant of capital in its struggle against labour, the executioner of the people’s liberty. Let us not, therefore, stop short at mere partial demands in our great liberating revolution. Let us tear the evil up by the roots. Let us do away with the standing army altogether… The experience of Western Europe has shown how utterly reactionary the standing army is.” – Lenin, The Armed Forces and the Revolution “For as long as human history goes on, the past will continue to accumulate… Our present civilization is the result of our past.” – Yang, ep 35 “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.” – Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte “People may need societies, but they don’t necessarily need ‘nations.'” – Yang, ep 31 “The Communists are further reproached with desiring to abolish countries and nationality. The working men have no country.” – Marx & Engels, The Communist Manifesto

It should be noted that, after that last remark, Yang is accused of being a “radical anarchist.” Not exactly subtle!

End

I don’t think we can say exactly what political position Legend of the Galactic Heroes is trying to support. And that probably has something to do with the fact it was written during the Cold War. What I can say though, is that it is certainly not conservative. It is extraordinarily critical and radical. It is anti-class, anti-government, and anti-oppression at its core. It calls on us to challenge our institutions, our figureheads, and even the stories we tell ourselves. In its framing, it even calls on us to challenge the series itself. It is not just a great piece of story telling. It is a crucial and important work that deserves our attention and study.

Do not try to give the reactionaries credit for this. Do not try to distance yourself from it. Instead, take up its mission. LOGH is ultimately for the people. Treat it as such.

And I would like to send you off with one last pair of quotes, ones that give me hope.

“In its mystified form, the dialectic (Marx’s method) became the fashion in Germany, because it seemed to transfigure and glorify what exists. In its rational form it is a scandal and an abomination to the bourgeoisie and its doctrinaire spokesmen, because it includes in its positive understanding of what exists a simultaneous recognition of its negation, its inevitable destruction; because it regards every historically developed form as being in a fluid state, in motion, and therefore grasps its transient aspect as well; and because it does not let itself be impressed by anything, being in its very essence critical and revolutionary.” – Marx, Capital, Afterword to the Second German Edition “People tend to make the common mistake of believing that a situation will last forever. Try and think about it. The Galactic Empire didn’t exist five hundred years ago. The history of the Free Planets Alliance is half that length. And Phezzan has reached an age of no more than a century. Anything that hasn’t existed since the genesis of the universe needn’t survive until the end. Change is sure to come… Just as people sometimes die, nations aren’t eternally indestructible things, either.” – Yang, ep 39