Shoukoku no Altair - Vol. 26 Ch. 144 - Red Snake's Bells

[MangaDex]

 

[zanonyn]

I'm glad to see this as the end game to finish this epic series. It's not just about winning the war dominating the entire series but if can they "win the peace" afterwards. Kind of the paradox of a world conflict like that, the kind of military, military economy, leadership, thinking, and geopolitics necessary to win could easily turn into more conflict afterwards if not managed well. Even the victors have to change. Zaganos clearly has his own plans for all of this, and given his demonstrated intelligence network and other players it does feel like the conspirators' thinking is a bit shallow (not that that is necessarily unrealistic). That doesn't mean everything will necessarily go his way either, but for example he may well have already coordinated this with Buyuk pasha or others. Mahmut wasn't surprised. And the prep work of this rebellion is still enjoyably serious, I like how in this series there is repeated serious usage of terrain, engineering, weather and so on as key elements. This end game is particularly fun because you have all these players who are now very hardened, experienced veterans who've seen a lot of not just war and politics but each other. Re-reading the first few volumes and then the last few, the growth is nice.

 

[Grimmycoffee]

Maybe he's just not there at all? I can't tell his endgame though, assuming that all of this is somehow part of his plan.

 

[alacaelum]

Zaganos had already predicted this.

I don't talk like he knows all, more than once during the war, he made mistakes, but he succeded because he had the brains and foresight to have contingencies prepared... and the backbone to go through his decisions, he made gambles too.

He had an eye for the future, he knew the cost of victory and defeat, and he knew that winning a war is only the first step... what comes next makes winning feel like a walk in the park.

I still don't believe Zaganos wants to rule, this was revenge no way around it, but I think he already had the conviction of ending his hate with him... will he accept death... I don't know, but there is still unfinished business that need attending if peace is to come, and he will at least finish what he started.

 

[zanonyn]

I still don't believe Zaganos wants to rule, this was revenge no way around it, but I think he already had the conviction of ending his hate with him... will he accept death... I don't know, but there is still unfinished business that need attending if peace is to come, and he will at least finish what he started.

It occurs to me that from one perspective even this could be part of his true revenge. He wasn't just mad at individuals even though sure he hated the emperor, he was mad at the whole system of governance that resulted in that outcome. If he simply became something of the same nature as the emperor, then the system would still be the winner. Creating a future with a domestic and geopolitical structure different from the empire, capable of resisting anything similar that might arise again, and having it be successful, would arguably be what would truly complete his "revenge". He'd be showing not merely that one man of military power could overthrow another, but that everyone who had worked to support the system from the emperor down were wrong all along because there was indeed a different path. No claiming "it was only way, we only did what we had to do to keep order".