「Bad move」

We return right where Fam left off last week when she turned around to warn Dian about the Ades Federation. It is a departure from last week’s episode which focused on individual characters and character building. Instead, everything is set on a much grander scale. I may have come down a little bit hard on the previous episode but that’s only because there was so much potential. This episode gives Fam a nudge back in the right direction. It felt more serious and less silly overall.

Using the provincial fleet to test out Glacies’ defenses was a very smart tactic on Luscinia’s part. They were inconsequential to his battle plan (because he has control over an Exile) and his generals are very skilled in combat so losing them was no big deal. I personally think he was using them as a decoy to get rid of them. The interesting part in all of this is Vasant’s feelings toward losing the provincial fleet. She seems to be the only one who cares about Sara’s well-being and how she will look to the public by waging this war. Her words leave hope that she might become one of the catalysts for change against Luscinia and Alauda’s ulterior motives.

Glacies is an interesting nation. They seem to subscribe to the school of “the best offense is a good defense.” Their final defense, the “White Legend”, seems to come from the same technology Exiles are made of. I wouldn’t be surprised if their whole base was a re-purposed Exile. Its design and functions seem like they were lifted from an Exile. Their leaders’ words (and all the glowing) led me to believe they were activating it which wouldn’t make my theory so far fetched. One thing that does leave me very puzzled is Glacies’ vanships. Why do they need mass drivers to get them off the ground? We’ve seen Dian fly off in one without rockets just fine. It just leads me to think they haven’t thought out their use thoroughly. They do address the fact that ships have an altitude limit but I don’t think a mass driver would have any possible benefits other than looking cool.

With an Exile headed towards Glacies, I really don’t know what to expect next week. We still haven’t seen what happened at Anatoray. I’m anxious to see what plans the others are cooking up and if they’ll make an appearance soon.

* Full-lengths: 1, 14, 23, 29

 

Preview

49 Comments

  1. About the launch sleds — less fuel to take off and provides greater range for the actual ships themselves…
    Also, look cool in the Anime 🙂 The real kink in all of this is that the launch rockets would potentially fall
    back on the sleds themselves…
    But, in Anime we needn’t consider details like that…

    I liked this ep. I’m waiting to see how this’ll pan out in the next ep – exile against exile…

    mac65
  2. Well, all the tactical quality of LE1 was lost here. They pretty much made up the progress of the battle as they go only to ensure two results:

    1) there would be an exile .vs. exile battle.
    2) Ades fleet survive by plot armer.

    hoh
    1. Agreed. While the grand(er) battles of Fam is visually pleasing, Losing entire fleet (and then some) in a single battle does stretch it a bit. And the commanders from both side are incompetent as well, with Ades “Send in lots of guys until something unexpected happens, then we try to pull out/send exile in.”. Glacies are even worse. “Pray to god and hope we will survive this”

      Silent Minstrel
      1. From what I saw of Glaces, that is possibly their defense force. A country in isolation knows it won’t stay isolated for long. They’re probably keeping their bigger fleets inside and matching their tactics with the ever evolving weaponry the outsiders have. And also we don’t really have the nice three dimensional battles we saw in LE1 since its not on a Prester.

        That said if their forces consists primarily of only interceptors and Exile, I need to be turned into the leader of Glaces and ramp up defense spending on ships and intelligence networks.

        Jusuchin (Military Otaku)
      2. To be fair, during The Battle of Minagith the first season , the Anatoray fleet were basically sending their ships to suicide (until Claus’s interference), so I wouldn’t call that tactically brilliant either.

        But even something trivial like “Damage report” will add a lot to the tactical feeling of the anime.

        Silent Minstrel
      3. i think it is possible to loose an entire fleet in real life. the pacific campaign showed it.

        and throwing in everything to see how things turns out…. have we seen that before in the Eastern front and in WW1 as well?

        frankly speaking… i get russian vibes from glacies. wont be surprised if they pull out their reserves or pull their weight in numbers after being soundly defeated in the initial battles… again where have we seen that?

        c2710
      4. Really, the problem with this battle is that they always just portray one side taking damage.

        One minute Glacies’ van-ship squads were invincible against the provincial fleets, then the next minute they did a dive attack on the 3rd fleet (the reason why they can’t pull out is just beyond me) and they were entirely wiped out (cleaner than the sky pirates were) just because some super anti-vanship weapon?

        And not to mention that the 3rd fleet was left entirely unscratched. We didn’t see any of its ship taking hit. How is that even remotely possible? This is just kids making up stories: because I have super weapon A, so I annihilate you.

        A more believable story would be Glacies’ squad taking a dive, taking much heavier damage than they initially imagined whilst 3rd fleet take some troll as well.

        The rest of the battle is the same story. And I can’t help feeling that the 10% damage report of the Ade’s ships against white legacy was entirely arbitary.

        hoh
      5. Actually if you know Japanese and take a peek at the official website’s glossary page, you will know that the tactical quality of the second season isn’t quite lacking as one might think.

        Silent Minstrel
      6. Indeed. While they don’t exactly show it in dialogue or animation, the source work from the creative heads go INTENSELY into the theoretical complex workings of every ship you see in the show, including pipework, armaments, fuel capacity, load, etc. The same amount of detail goes into fleets and nations.

        They obviously did a very thorough mapping out of the fictional naval doctrines of each side. The whole military aspect of the show is heavily inspired by World War II and its naval tactics: huge battleships, the rise of the fighter plane, or rather fighter vanship, development of better AA weapons to combat vanships, etc.

        DaSilva
      1. I guess so. We’ll have to live with that.

        The new Last Exile’s purpose is to create something new, not to reintroduce or relive the past watchamacallit things and milk the already awesome franchise

        Alec
  3. “One thing that does leave me very puzzled is Glacies’ vanships. Why do they need mass drivers to get them off the ground?”

    Rapid deployment is the key to interception. The boosters and useage of a driver/catapult to me means they value quick launch times and that they have a tierd defense kind of system. They probably judged the best speed anything the outsiders have and once a certain point is reached, if the intrusion is on a possible straight line to the border, pilots scramble and wait, and upon the point of no return, say, Fifty to one hundred kilometers from their national borders, the Vanships launch. As Mac65 said, the usage of such normally saves fuel, and as I have said, it is a quick launch sequence and gets em to proper cruising altitude faster than utilizing ounces of fuel.

    Because in long extended dogfights, your biggest limiting factor is fuel and ammunition. Considering Glaces has technology on their Vanships that can destroy larger vessels (I am giddy to see them field an actual battleship, maybe that one has launch catapults too?) their biggest limiting factor has got to be fuel. They’re quick, nimble, and powerful. The short end of the stick is gotta be their fuel capacity.

    Also, I need to learn Japanese so I don’t wait for translations. ~_~

    Jusuchin (Military Otaku)
    1. What I want is to know how to understand all the Greek and Russian. Especially all the apparently hidden Greek jokes.

      Plus a ton of the words in the original japanese are things like “claudia” or “vanship” or “Guild” and are transliterated into “kuraudia” “banshippu” “girudo”. So you got all that covered already.

      The only japanese that’s even remotely difficult would be the naval terms like “Hard to starboard!”, a couple of mechanical terms they use when describing the guts of vanships and battleships, like airbrake, fuel line bypass, claudia pressure, and navigational stuff.

      In the grand scheme of things, you could probably understand most of Last Exile in Japanese if you really wanted to learn, as opposed to understanding something like Shakugan no Shana or Suzumiya Haruhi.

      DaSilva
      1. Attacking from above is probably another thing that they had in mind.

        The battleship turrets definitely do not appear to have the ability to elevate their guns any appreciable amount to fire at the angle of attack that the Glacies vanships come in at. Going by the rate of fire and the caliber of guns, they probably wouldn’t be too effective at knocking out too many of the nimble, small profile vanships.

        At best, in a very large and organized effort using all the top side guns in the fleet, they would be able to put up a very limited field of flak coverage, which honestly probably wouldn’t do very much. And it would completely tie up all that firepower, which would be a problem if the Ades fleets had to engage other battleships/ more vanships at the same time.

        So all in all, it appears the Ades Fleet would have been completely screwed if it wasn’t for their new equipment made specifically for wiping out anything that so much as breathes above their battleships.

        DaSilva
      1. We were instructed if we have to hold something by hand (like our Kevlars) is to use our left hand to free the right (since most cadets are naturally right handed and can manipulate things better with it) to be free to Salute when in the presence of an officer.

        I dunno, their military traditions may have changed since the end of the AD/CE calendar scheme and whatever/whenever the Exiles and Presters were first made.

        Jusuchin (Military Otaku)
    1. *note to the Quality Checkers* Turn this kind of Picture 180 and all will be fine…

      (Dunno why there is this Right hand forcing. Perhaps they dont think about it.. they drive on the Left side)

      Germanguy
      1. It’s not forcing the ‘right-hand’ facing thing. It’s a military tradition practiced by most if not all established militaries. If I recall correctly, it goes as far back as the Middle Ages and considering Japan was initially taught modern military by the French, British, and Prussians/Germans, and that the JSDF also follows this, I just found it strange.

        That said, I also said maybe military traditions have changed since the ‘modern day’ and the era that comprises Last Exile, or it can be an alternate history of Earth. I’m not saying it’s wrong, I just said it felt weird.

        Jusuchin (Military Otaku)
    1. and i think they have some kind of “docking” with an other Exile function. They look like an Half Circle… So the other Half one (if the Exile are build all the same, of course) can docking

      Germanguy
      1. I’d have to agree with you there. The death flag has been raised on her for a while. And of course the consequences is that control of that exile gets transferred to Millia, which was why the bad guys were so keen to get hold of her.

        Scruffy
  4. that’s was a Awesome war on the sky,so Glacies have their own Exile and have lost technology from white legend.
    one thing I do not like,what liliana reason to help lukia ?? is because her hand already dirty,agree with lukia grand plan or just because she love lukia is still a mystery and if she don’t have a strong reason to make her self as tool or exile key for lukia I fell sorry for millia.

  5. A fairly good episode, though I’ve always felt that the thrill of seeing massed fleet combat is often lost in anime when one side just pulls out a superweapon that proceeds to annihilate dozens upon dozens of ships and set the stage for a plot-driven 1v1 battle that is easier to animate. Gundam has done it, Code Geass did it, and LE1 came close to doing it a couple times, though that final example tended to avert itself a bit better than the first two. I always hate it when battles turn into that because it never seems to dwell on the horrific implications of that. Here, we saw dozens of Ades ships smashed to pieces in the course of less than a minute. These were capital ships that were most likely manned by hundreds of crew, all of whom certainly died when their ships were smashed. The cost involved for Ades to maintain such large fleets have been discussed previously, and this was before we saw them take such brutal losses here. As someone mentioned above, Ades seems to just pull these massive fleets from the Hammerspace of the plot.

    I’m almost certain Luscinia used this battle as a ploy to wipe out the undesirable provincial fleets, so kudos to him for remaining above the silliness and staying a good villain. But, once again, the complete and utter destruction of an entire fleet garnered about two minutes of screentime. For something that had such a profound impact on Vasant, I feel this could have been played out more. In fact this entire battle should have taken up the entirety of the episode, leaving Fam and co.’s journey for later. One of my favorite anime scenes of all time is the opening battle in LE1 where the musket soldiers face certain death in a largely pointless exchange of rifle fire, and I think an opportunity to recreate such an atmosphere was lost here.

    I’m afraid my patience with this show is beginning to wear thin. I facepalm every time Fam starts whining about how awesome everything was at the Grand Race and how she and Gisey always seem so utterly horrified at the prospect of war when they’ve been engaging in piracy since before the show even began. I’ll keep coming back because I really like a fair amount of the side characters and because I feel this is all building up to a truly epic conclusion, but the road towards that conclusion is becoming very hard to sit through.

    Actene
  6. I like the Glacies too much, really.
    Hope that they’ll at least bring down some of Ades generals along if they gonna be defeated.

    “If we’re going to explode, let’s at least explode with some dignity!”

  7. Two things can happen in the next episode.

    1. Both Exiles will destroy each other giving more reason to pursue Anatoray’s Exile next.
    2. It will be a big design flaw for two Exiles to attack each other, so neither Exiles will attack each other and the Ades have to change strategy.

    Julio
  8. if its not for the exile, i cant help it but notice alot of ww2 inspired equipment and tactics.

    from the rockets that look like hedgehogs or those mounted on cruisers for shore bombardment to the AA guns of glacies and to the russian style tactics of glacies

    c2710
  9. Regarding the Minagith battle. While it was suicide on Anatory’s part, it was showed clearly (with heavy built up) that the commanders take this decision due to their chivalry values.

    Mad Thane was entirely relatable when he decided to go for the suicide and his character shines when he made his sense, overcame this ridiculous tradition and decides to retreat.

    Here, whilst there was some built up, but we got no inkling why the provincial fleets are so eager to meet their death (which took less than a minute).

    hoh
    1. Their stupidity is probably the reason why their countries end up in the Ades’ hand. Most of them are very young and thus, inexperienced.

      I agree that Mad-Thane from the first season refused to retreat (at first ) because he was bounded to chivalric honour rather than plain stupidity.

      Silent Minstrel
    2. I would think that the provincial fleets had no idea what they were walking into. These are the same people who either watched or grew up listening to stores about how the invincible Ades Fleets totally obliterated their countries’ militaries hardly breaking a sweat. This was also apparently the first time they were ever involved in a campaign.

      So combining this all together: They have no actual combat experience, individually and as a whole, give or take a couple of veterans. They share a false sense of security from history. They are eager to prove their worth and be accepted into greater society, ready to fight & die, for their honor and Augusta.

      A recipe for disaster.

      Their fleets are also noticeably less well equipped than the mainstay fleets of the Ades Fed. and had no weapons capable of fighting off the experienced Glacies pilots.

      DaSilva
  10. While the battles get my blood really pumping, what I really want is for the studio to completely break the cutie.

    Fam should have to face some serious harrowing hardship, like arriving at Kartoffel too late and arriving at the scene of a massacre of sky pirates and their families. Of course, something that drastic probably won’t happen.

    But I think we need to see Fam fail, with some serious consequences involved and see how she responds, how her character grows from the experience. It’s something that people have been starving for.

    Also, what do you know. Glacies DOES have men. I guess we can’t all have harems of silver haired beauties.

    DaSilva

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