Legend of the Galactic Heroes (MICHIHARA Katsumi) - Vol. 8 Ch. 78

[MangaDex]

 

[favine]

War is hell.

 

[thirtykei]

Guess it's impossible to avoid bloodshed in space wars

 

[zanonyn]

Really good how this drives home that some aspect of genuine truth and patriotism, normally entirely praiseworthy anger at corruption, and even brilliant enemy leadership can still all be utilized as part of Reinhard's plans. The soldiers and leaders backing the coup are getting used, yet are also totally real in their feelings and not without justification after having been thrown away for political garbage for so many decades. So they can't just be trivially convinced and have their morale undermined, they won't simply surrender. But "fighting to the last man" means more alliance losses, which is precisely what Reinhard is after.

Which then meshes perfectly with the side fighting to keep order, Yang is incredibly brilliant, but without the same charisma and drive for power he's stuck being more reactive. He can't offer the other side a 3rd way but merely hope they'll be like him. But they aren't. And here that same brilliance means he'll win and annihilate his opposition yet again, which is precisely what Reinhard is after. His positive qualities as a man and soldier, and those of his own forces, get used to further Reinhard's aims, despite him discerning those aims well ahead of time! LoGH remains a classic of great game space opera for good reason all these decades later.