#my choice to redraw them every time is going to kill me but hey. good practice

[soundscape-sandbox]

It appears we’re once again a funny voice from the funny place, it is very nice to meet you! Who might you be?

[the-space-above-the-stars]

my name on your...

lee taeyong x reader

Summary: As a tattoo artist, you’ve seen a lot of weird requests in your shop. But something new is when the florist across the street stumbles into your shop drunk as all hell and in the market for his first tattoo. 

Warnings: none, i mean drunk taeyong?

Genre: fluff, like entirely

Word Count: 1.7K

A/N: Requests are open!! This is based on an AU prompt I saw, but for the life of me, I cannot remember the URL of the person who put that post out, so if you see this, I’m sorry! Just a short fluffy thing. 

Rubbing sleep out of your eyes, you put down your tattoo gun, wiping the last bit of excess ink off of your client’s arm before passing them a mirror. “There you go, Yeri, how do you like it?” You ask, crossing the room for the coffee pot you’ve set to brew. It was near midnight and Yeri, an old friend and new client came through your doors a few hours back asking for a tattoo. 

“Wow, Y/N,” she gaped at the art on her arm, two intertwined snakes, one in black ink and one in white. “This looks awesome!” 

“Here,” you wrapped a bandage over the slightly inflamed red skin around the tattoo. “Give that a few weeks before you go swimming, take a bath, or go into a hot tub, okay? If you think something’s wrong, just come back, I’m usually here.” 

“Okay!” She grabbed her bag and with a wave, was out the door. Silence falls over the shop as you finish your coffee, heading back to the small workspace in the backroom where you threw up some ideas for designs. The walls were covered with tacked up drawings of tattoo designs you had done in your sketchbook. If you really liked them, you would redraw them more neatly and hang them up outside. 

Recently most of the drawings are flowers, a byproduct of your time spent drawing inside the florist’s just across the street. The shop was owned by Lee Taeyong, a boy around your age who was kind enough to let you come in and hang around the shop to sketch the flowers he arranged. He was shy, kind, and made incredible displays. Another fact was that he was drop dead, absolutely, positively, gorgeous and you had more than a few drawings of his stunning profie in your sketchbook. 

You pull another page from your sketchpad, several different sprigs of lightly etched wildflowers. Taeyong had a special bouquet set up for a customer, a personal friend and had gladly allowed you a few pictures to sketch it. It was nice, and you picked up your pen and a piece of paper. 

You had barely laid down the first line of the drawing when the sound of a bell ringing alerted you to the door opening. Just afterwards, a small crash and what sounded like some cuss words. Rushing outside, your eyes darted around to assess the damage to your shop, but there seemed to be nothing there. 

Except for a blue haired mess sprawled out on your floor clutching their side. “Hey man, are you okay?” Rushing forward to help them, you noticed that they were very obviously drunk, stumbling as you helped them into a chair. “Do you need- Taeyong?” 

“Yes?” The boy hiccuped and laughed, kicking his feet like a toddler. “Hey, you’re the girl that comes in to draw my flowers, right?” 

“Yeah, bud-” you didn’t finish as his attention shifted from you to your tattoo gear in the tray next to him, picking up the gun. “Uh, Taeyong, did you get drunk alone?” 

“No, uh, Mark was there, I think, I remember someone saying “let’s get it” but that could be Haechan imitating Mark or it could be Jaehyun, oh wait, maybe it was Lucas! But the voice was kinda quiet, so maybe Jungwoo? Wait, no, Doyoung was there! I remember cuz he drove us there. Did you know Doyoung doesn’t drink beer-” 

“No, I did not know that,” you tried to stifle your laughter at this drunk man-child, putting your tattoo gear a safe distance away. “Okay, so you didn’t drink alone, did you walk here? Just nod or shake your head.” He gave you an overly exaggerated nod of his head, eyes drifting to the designs on the wall. 

“Did you draw all these?” His eyes were wide with curiosity as he stood up, stumbling over his own feet as he reached the wall. “Wow, you’re talented and pretty-oh shit,” he giggled, not aware of the way your face was flushed bright red. “You’re not supposed to tell a girl you think she’s cute, right? I don’t know, Johnny told me that. Should I trust him, he’s pretty tall, so- hey! Can you give me a tattoo?” 

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, buddy,” you try to evade, the kill bill sirens of unethical business going through your head. “I don’t think you signing the forms while you’re drunk is very legal.” 

“I’m not drunk!” He pouted, sitting back down in the chair and tucking his feet up under him. 

“Okay, how many fingers am I holding up?” You held up three fingers, and unexpectedly, he reached forward and grabbed your hand, counting each finger off. 

“Three! Can I get a tattoo now? Renjun went out with Jeno and Jaemin to get a tattoo on his ass, he almost actually went through with it- wait, was that your shop?” 

“No, Taeyong, I’m pretty sure I would have remembered that. And I wouldn’t recommend an ass tattoo-” 

“But I want an ass tattoooo,” he whines, head falling back on the chair. 

“What do you even want tattooed on your ass?” You grabbed another cup of coffee, and an extra for him. 

“What’s your name again?” He slurred, suddenly entranced with the pop-socket on the back of his phone. 

“Y/N.” 

“Okay, I’ll get that. Cuz you did the tattoo, might as well be your own name.” 

“Okay, Taeyong, first of all, chug this.” He took the coffee and took a sip, pouting at the bitterness. “Please? For me?” Still pouting, he finished the coffee. “Okay, now can you give me your phone, please? unlocked, I need to call your friends.” He fumbled through his pockets and found the slightly cracked iPhone, passing it to you. “Okay, I’m going to call your friends to pick you up, just wait here.” 

“What about the tattoo?” He grabs your hand as you turn, stopping you swiftly. Why were his reflexes still good when he was fucking drunk off his ass? 

“Okay, I don’t know how to explain this simply, but basically if I give you the tattoo now, you’re going to not like it when you wake up in the morning. So go home with your friends, go to sleep, and if you still want my name on your...on your ass, you can come over and I’ll tattoo you.” 

“kay,” he lets go and you go through his contacts until you find Doyoung. It fings twice before someone picks up. 

“Hello?” 

“Hello? Taeyong?” 

“Um, hi, this is Y/N, I own the tattoo parlor opposite Taeyong’s shop, is this Doyoung?” 

“This is he. What did he do, I’m so sorry, we just turned around for one second and he was gone-” 

“Doyoungggg!” Taeyong calls from the front of the shop, catching on to who you’re on the phone with. “Hiiiiii, I’m getting a tattoo!” 

“You’re not really giving him a tattoo, are you?” 

“No, god, I’m not crazy. Can you come pick him up?” 

“Yeah, we’re almost there, we just left the bar.” He hangs up and you pass Taeyong his phone. 

“Y/N, can I tell you another secret?” He whispers, even though there’s no one around. “I really like it when you come to draw my flowers. You look really pretty.” 

“Really, Taeyong?” 

“Yeah,” he nods expressively. “When you’re drawing, your eyebrows do this thing where they just-” he squishes his own eyebrows together. “And your hair keeps falling in your eyes, it’s really cute.” 

“Thanks, Taeyong. You’re kinda cute yourself.” A black car pulls out, three guys coming out. “Are those your friends?”

“Oh, yeah! HI DOYOUNG, HI JAEHYUN, HI MARK- OH, it was Mark who was saying let’s get it!” Jaehyun and Mark help Taeyong up, the tpsy boy immediately pulling them both into a hug. “I love you guys sometimes,” he mumbles, and- wait, is he crying?” 

Doyoung, flustered and obviously worried, shakes your hand. “Thanks for looking out for him, he didn’t do anything too weird, did he?” 

“Uh, well except for asking for a tattoo of my name on his ass, no, perfectly normal drunk person.” Doyoung thanks you once more and gets into the car. 

“BYE, Y/N!” Taeyong waves through the window and you wave back as the car drives around the corner and out of sight, finally exhaling. 

*** The next morning, you’re almost done with a girl getting her boyfriend’s name on her neck- a choice you’re sure she’s going to regret- when Taeyong walks in, wearing heavy sunglasses and holding a bouquet of flowers. “Hey Taeyong, give me a minute here.” He nods, somewhat meekly and takes a seat as you wipe away the excess ink and give the girl the normal post-tattoo warnings before she heads out. “How’s the head?” You ask, taking a seat at the reception desk.

“Hurts every time I look at anything that isn’t black. Uh, these are for you,” He sets the pretty arrangement of yellow tulips on the desk. “For an apology for bursting in on you drunk and asking for an ass tattoo of your name- I was way too drunk-” 

“Taeyong,” you laugh, taking the flowers. “It’s okay. Honestly, I’ve had sober clients come in asking for weirder things. The flowers are beautiful, thank you.” 

“I didn’t do anything else last night, did I?” 

“Uh well, you called me pretty, like twice, but I think that’s about it.” His face flushes a deep red, and you can’t help but smile. “And I don’t know if that’s just the alcohol talking-”  “It’s not!” He stutters as a clarification, getting even redder. “I mean- okay, I’m not trying to make this even worse for myself, but I think you’re really pretty, Y/N, and I’ll let myself out now.” He turns to leave, but stumbles when you lean over and grab his sleeve. 

“That’s good,” you grin at the bewildered look on his face, your laugh breathy. “Because I, for one, think you’re really pretty as well, Taeyong.”

A/N: this is short, but i kinda like it. it’s chill. Requests are open!

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S3 Ep 43: Tea Can Just Knock Over Joey Wheeler With Her Index Finger

Guys guys guys, my favorite Character is back. That’s right--the storyboarder!

So this episode looked helllla nice for a Yugioh episode (again, this is Yugioh, it will win no awards.) It wasn’t as nice and fluid as the episode where they temporarily killed off Joey Wheeler, but I give it a good 2nd place.

You can tell we’re getting to the climax of the season because they’re throwing down their most entertaining art people onto the screen, giving us about 5 zillion dutch angle fashion close-ups of Marik’s cabbage face, and a whole lot of zany and hard to very hard to draw fish-eye lens angles of Pharaoh.

Also, everyone wears flared bell-bottom pants now. New stylistic decision, as decided just now. Everyone in pants now has flares. Even if their pants are cargo pants. How very 00′s. (my pants were flares from like birth until 2006, it was a good trend, super comfy, bring it back.)

(read more under the cut)

First off, Evil Marik decided to rewrite Marik history a little bit with some hilarious retconning that only the most evil Marik would think is legit.

I mean I was there when Marik was introduced and was a complete asshole all of S2. I remember when Odion considered murdering the hell out of his little brother because this Marik guy was such freakin tool and his Dad was an evil cultist bastard. I...I’m gonna go on a limb and assume that calling Marik a “loyal servant” is a freakin stretch. Marik made his choices. Yes, his bad side killed his Dad, but they have made sure to indicate that yes, this is the evil inside of Marik, something that he himself caused--but most of the things that Marik has done (with the exception of killing his own Dad) is still Marik. He did that.

The fact that his evil side can’t quite connect that his good side and evil side are at all the same however, is fitting for an evil Marik to think. More and more, Marik and Marik are becoming 2 different people, and this game is the deciding factor to finally give this guy full autonomy of his other half.

We’ve seen this type of contrast before with Bakura and Ryou--where Ryou and Bakura don’t really get along but have always been clearly different people, so the culpability of what they do tends to fall on Bakura. (which is a pretty GRAND assumption, I still think Ryou is a precious but absolutely still shady little bastard) So, it’s a little different that Marik considers himself two completely different people when it’s just...not the same. Marik’s alter ego is just an ego. More like how Yami was in Season Zero but a little bit more evil. Both Marik’s have the same upbringing and the same source.

It’s been kind of an interesting progression now I can look back on it, where slowly the two have been clashing to the point that they are in fact different, disparate people now. The fact that Marik points out how his situation similar to Yugi and Pharaoh being a host is almost like “well yeah, it would have been nice to see how the whole Season Zero Yami evolved into more of a separate person over time, I’m glad you inferred that, and I’ll never get to see it, thanks” But again, all that is inferred. Whether Yami Yugi eventually became Pharaoh over time or whether Pharaoh is a big retcon of Yami Yugi for the new series in order to keep the culpability for what he does off of Yugi Muto was never directly spoken in the show so it’ll be left to your fanfictions.

Meanwhile, Yugi has decided that they’re going to try and purify the Marik situation and save the good side. This is sort of the Yugioh thing, to dispel the bad forces from people and leave behind hollow husks, so yeah...it tracks. I mean...there’s very little Marik left to save, but it’s better than a husk, amiright? Better than what happened to freakin PaniK, RIP. I’m sure erasing over half of your identity will go over real well for Marik and be absolutely painless.

And then we had a lovely scene that, for those people doing scene redraws from anime, as has been a popular trend on art blogs lately--this is your episode for Yugioh. This episode’s got moody lighting, we’ve subdued all our weird ass colors into one concrete palate (remember how green the carpet used to be?) we got interesting elements of Marik being here despite being chopped into pieces. We got so many ellipses drawn in perspective (y’all I could write an entire posts just about ellipses but I’ll spare you). It’s like Yugioh gave itself a redraw.

I can’t believe this shot came out of freakin Yugioh.

Also, this guy was an ASSHOLE for the past 2 seasons but the show was like “time to make him likeable” and so they dropped some good ass cinematography and sung that sad backstory tune on the trumpet and you know what? It works.

+++++++++++++++RANT ABOUT REDEMPTION ARCS FEEL FREE TO SKIP THIS MASSIVE WALL OF TEXT++++++++++++++++++++++++

Now I think the arc of Marik is pretty simple and people are pretty chill with it. But, I’m gonna talk about villain redemption arcs just in general--gonna sidetrack a little from Yugioh for a moment. Partly because I watched 6 seasons of Once Upon a Time, which is basically Villain Redemption Arc Controversy: The Show.

It bothers a hell ton of people when TV shows have to make a villain redeemable, but there’s only one episode left so they put their hands up and say “but I swear the good side of him was always good” But, does that mean Marik’s going to make up for all the murder and sending people to the shadow realm? No. He never will. Even if Marik was completely his bad half the whole time, it still wouldn’t make up for the damage done. Dead people are...DEAD.

Marik can’t actually make any choices right now to redeem his character. All he’s doing is accepting he will never be a full person ever again. Hence why he is in slices and pieces, and in several shots is trapped either in an empty glass or a window. The choice to redeem him is entirely on other people.

And that’s the thing about redemption arcs that I want to bring up--how much of a character’s redemption relies on what the villains do to “Make up for what they did”, and how much relies on everyone else to redeem them. I think the tendency is for people to assume that the villains should be doing 90-100% of the redeeming, but unless they have a time machine--they can’t do any. Even if they freakin die to sacrifice themselves it’s still like “that character was basically little Stalin, right?

I’ve seen like a million ways to write a redemption arc, but none of them, not a single one that I can think of, can ever truly make up for the things the villian has done. There’s no way that Darth Vadar was suddenly going to become a good Dad, no matter how many Palpatines he can toss into a...whatever that was at the end of that movie. That’s the riddle behind what makes redemption arcs so engaging--By all cultural standards these villains should always be tagged a “bad guy” but, we, the audience, are being challenged to ignore those standards.

And I know a lot of people see redemption arcs as a quasi-religious sort of adventure into atonement, where we’re supposed to see ourselves as the villain searching for some type of forgiveness from a higher, most-likely-a-reference-to-Jesus-power, but I don’t really see them that way. Maybe it’s because, I dunno, I haven’t killed anyone recently or possessed other people’s minds or strung them up to anchors and dropped them into the ocean. But if you see yourself as a Marik, then go for it, I won’t stop you.

But, to me, a redemption arc is more of a question posed for us as viewers. Since it is impossible for the writers to ever fully redeem a character, the only ones doing the redeeming are the people watching it, who’s reaction will differ wildly from person to person, and that’s what makes it fascinating.

And like, that’s my thesis here at the very last paragraph of this long meandering rant. Redemption arcs aren’t about “hey is this person good enough to be redeemed (because that will never happen)” it’s “are you too good to redeem that person?” It’s a large scale experiment on the viewers watching and that’s why it makes people so freakin pissed and uncomfortable. Every redemption arc calls them out directly, and for some people it’s just like--the world ends or something. I have seen actual internet mobs develop over...a villain redemption arc. Which is weird.

And so I’ll leave it with my other spicy take that...you don’t have to redeem every villain when the question is asked. I mean these aren’t real people. The questions of “would you redeem this person” is asked entirely hypothetically. And that’s what makes up stories, not just the interaction of the people inside the stories, but when it affects the moral structure of the readers directly, and seeing how for some people, that can be a very intense and deep reflection. (which usually leads to a hell ton of either retconning fanfiction or a hell ton of really, really angry posts)

bro’s just told me that Yugioh is just a redemption arc for season 0 Yami Yugi. Bro and his spicy headcanons. This one holds some water though, lol.

++++++++++++END OF A SUPER LONG RANT ABOUT VILLAINS THAT I HELD IN FOR THE ENTIRE 6 SEASONS OF ONCE UPON A TIME, WOW A LOT OF PEOPLE HAD OPINIONS ABOUT CERTAIN CHARACTERS THAT THEY JUST EXPECTED EVERYONE ELSE TO HAVE, AMIRIGHT????+++++++++++

Anyway, back to jokes.

Again, Storyboarder just...nailing these weird ass shoes that are somewhere between a dress shoe and a boot. Shoes are hard to draw, y’all. This storyboarder. And they even made sure that the shoes looked very small and precious the way Yugi shoes would be. Little Cinderella size 5 Yugi shoes.

Oh finally.

So it was only a matter of time before the people who actually care about being possessed noticed this situation, it just took like...a season longer than I thought it would. I’ll be honest it was quite cathartic for them to actually address for the first time in what feels like a long time “SHOOT, GHOSTS!?!?”

Although it was kind of funny that the biggest reaction to all of this came straight from Joey. Yugi still doesn’t care, Tristan’s decided to just accept this, and Duke is just slowly backing away. But Joey’s going to try and do the work that Yugi should have done last episode.

HOT DAMN.

So, lets go over the Yugioh power chart here. Tristan can punch out Bakura. Tristan can also defeat Seto Kaiba with a broomstick. Joey can kick Tristan, even when Tristan is armed with a broomstick, so hard that Tristan flew through a metal door and bent it completely over backwards. Tea, however, can knock Joey completely over with one single index finger.

How has this girl ever been abducted? Was she just bored?

Bro wants to bring up that she once incapacitated a man with her butt. Just falling on top of a guy and hitting him with her butt of steel. Was she even in danger from the shipping container when she could just bat it away? She once choked out Season 0 Yugi Muto. She was always fine.

Credit to Joey, he keeps trying, and it gives us, for the first time, a sneak peek into what it must be like for Yugi and Joey to hang out on the offtimes that Yugi switches over and Pharaoh hasn’t quite gotten the memo.

This is in fact, the second time that she’s done this.

(meanwhile, sitting next to Odion, is one single cargo pocket floating in the air, gently smoking a purple haze like incense)

Welcome back Odion! I only now just realized how freakin jacked your neck is.

Like y’all his neck is wider than his head, hot damn.

Anyway, this show is secretly all about the power of big brothers, so I assume he’s going to start the mile long crawl to the top of the tower and then just...walk in...just walk right into a shadow game...?

...no one thought to stay with Odion? Like not even Serenity? Or at least leave him a weelchair? what the hell?

Odion always gets the worst wrap, this poor guy.

Anyway if you just got here, this is a link to read these recaps in chrono order from the beginning and watch my progression of knowing nothing about Yugioh to knowing a lot about random facts about Yugioh but still knowing absolutely nothing at all just like Socrates.

And here’s that shot of Marik for y’alls anime scene redraws, knock yourself out.

[logh-icebergs]

Episode 15: The Battle of Amlitzer Starzone

October 10-15, 796/487. To the surprise of absolutely no one with any common sense, Reinhard’s admirals make quick work of several of the Alliance fleets, killing a bunch of redshirt admirals in the process. Unable to swallow the humiliation of withdrawal, Lazzll orders the remaining forces to gather in the Amlitzer starzone, where with their powers combined they can...I dunno, kill slightly more people on their way to defeat I guess. Any lingering dreams of a miraculous turning of the tides are crushed when Kircheis uses the newfangled technology of directional Seffle particles to destroy a minefield and bring his fleet of 30,000 ships to the battle as reinforcements.

Poplan!

Olivier Poplan showed up way back in “My Conquest” in the role of a rather dopey comic relief character, one of the tools the movie used to show us a variety of perspectives on the ongoing battles. We’ve glimpsed him once or twice since, but in this episode for the first time we get to focus on him a bit more; and the first thing that the OVA wants us to know about Poplan is that he’ll take any opportunity, even the twenty seconds before his Spartanian fighter is about to launch into battle, to flirt with a cute girl:

To be fair, she is indeed really cute…

There is a lot to say about this incredibly brief interaction. What Poplan actually says is “na, ii darou?” which translates most literally to “hey, isn’t it okay/good?” There are a couple factors that make this incredibly vague phrase feel like a flirtation or come-on: the way he leans toward her with a slight smile; the lowered voice. Her response reinforces this read by treating his actions as inappropriate to the current situation. (What she says is “komarimasu, tai-i, konna toki ni”—”that would be troublesome at a time like this, Lt.”) Is she reading him correctly? Could his question have actually just been about the progress of the repairs on his ship?

Well, yes, it could have been, but the accompanying body language and tone are flirty enough that at the very least there’s innuendo built into his words. Of course as she points out, this is a ridiculous time for him to be propositioning anyone; their interaction is immediately interrupted by an officer berating him for being the last plane out, Poplan takes off, and (spoiler!) we never see this woman again. What on earth, then, was the point of that twenty-second scene?

I’ve mentioned that Cazellnu plays an important role in the show by embodying some of the heteronormative structures of Alliance society: Not only does he himself have a picture-perfect wife and kids (we’ll see them soon I promise!), but we’ll also hear him explicitly voice views about the righteousness of marriage and procreation. Poplan plays a similar and complementary role, giving voice to another side of heteronormativity: the pressure for men to constantly pursue women as sexual conquests. His introduction in this scene emphasizes that sex is so constantly on his mind that he can’t resist flirting even as he flies into battle—and of course that very idea, of men as sex-obsessed and unable to control themselves around women in any situation, is another widespread norm. True to this introduction, Poplan discusses sex constantly: bragging about women he’s slept with in the past; teasing other characters about not sleeping with enough women; pontificating about the virtues of sleeping around (with women). This potentially puts characters who don’t relate to this sort of hypersexualized straight masculinity in somewhat uncomfortable situations.

There’s another angle to Poplan’s strange timing here: The fact that his ambiguous proposition is guaranteed not to go anywhere at the moment makes it entirely performative. In fact if you pay close attention to Poplan (and we will!), something around 95% of what we see involves performing or projecting heterosexuality rather than, well, actually enacting it. Obviously that doesn’t mean that the stuff he says is insincere or false, but ambiguity is always worth keeping an eye on in this show.

...and Konev!

No discussion of Poplan is complete without talking about Ivan Konev, the other star Spartanian pilot of Yang’s fleet and Poplan’s constant companion. When Poplan discovers that the firing sights on his Spartanian are misaligned, Konev covers for him to help get him back to the relative safety of the ship, leading to in my opinion the most intense scene of the whole episode.

We’ve seen Poplan and Konev deal with the stress of battle by treating it like a game: betting on the outcome back in “My Conquest,” and generally keeping up a running tally of their respective kills for bragging rights. But these are in fact life and death battles, not some video game; and faced with malfunctioning equipment that put his life and the lives of the rest of his squadron in heightened danger, Poplan’s fear and frustration come out as anger against the officer in charge of maintenance. It’s Konev who intervenes. 

Poplan’s expression and posture soften the moment Konev puts a hand on his shoulder. Just that one instant establishes Konev as a grounding presence and someone Poplan has a deep connection with.

The unguarded fear that flashes in Poplan’s eyes for just a second here gives me chills.

Shit has gotten serious, and Konev’s words don’t soften that reality; but his steady expression and touch quell Poplan’s rage and help him channel his emotions into renewed focus on the battle.

Interestingly, this exchange comes to us entirely courtesy of the anime team. In the novels it’s Schenkopp who pulls Poplan off of the other officer, in a much more abbreviated version of the same scene. (Poplan actually holds a grudge against Schenkopp for stopping him before he could more thoroughly teach the guy a lesson.) The anime writers made a specific choice to change and expand this scene to show us this different side of Poplan and Konev’s dynamic. Of course we’re not here to catalogue all of the slight deviations from the novels; but a change like this suggests to me that Poplan and Konev’s relationship is one they’re particularly interested in developing, so we should be paying attention.

War

This sentiment echoes Yang’s tea speech from episode 6; finding themselves in this battle, his main goal is to find a way for as many people to survive as possible.

Zooming out from Poplan and Konev’s struggles in their little corner of the fight, the overall battle seems to go exactly how Reinhard drew it up and exactly how Yang and some of the other Alliance commanders feared. Yang places himself on damage control duty as much as possible, knowing from the beginning that their whole fleet is at a huge disadvantage especially after Reinhard’s successful strategy to tax their supplies.

During the various scattered battles we get some fun peeks at the different fighting styles of Reinhard’s admirals, for example when Mittermeyer swoops so swiftly into the midst of an Alliance fleet that he actually has to back up a bit before they can effectively fire at the enemy ships...

...While meanwhile Kircheis just stands on the bridge of his extremely red flagship like the badass he is and calmly encourages any Alliance forces that come near to surrender.

After retreating to minimize losses against Kempf’s fleet, Yang finds himself facing Kircheis and outnumbered four to one; avoiding the temptation to surrender, he concocts some sort of plan involving a U-formation and trying to attack Kircheis’s forces from three sides at once, but since he’s ordered away to Amlitzer in the middle of that fight we’ll never know what the outcome of this tactic would have been. 

This gif is interesting for two reasons: one, everyone’s utter shock at Yang admitting out loud that if it weren’t for concern for the other remaining fleets he’d be tempted to surrender; and two, the ridiculous redraws that keep switching back and forth—Yang’s character design, as well as the entire background, change repeatedly in the course of these few seconds. What the hell.

The main point I want to make about this battle is, well, actually how uneventful it is. LoGH is about understanding cause and effect, inevitability, ways of thinking that lead to different outcomes. We’ve known for several episodes that the Alliance went into this invasion underprepared and for the wrong reasons, while Reinhard has carefully taken steps to weaken the Alliance forces and give himself even more of an upper hand. There are no shocking twists here: The invasion is a disaster, as it should have been, and Reinhard’s (and Oberstein’s) strategy is rewarded with a convincing victory.

Right, Bittenfeld, that's...pretty much what I said.

Stray Tidbits

This brief interaction between Reinhard and Oberstein near the end of the episode is a nice microcosm of the dynamic we’ve seen develop in previous episodes: Oberstein being kind of baffled by the concept of Reinhard fretting about one of his admirals more than the others. Hang in there Oberstein, maybe someday you’ll underst—nah, actually, probably not. Reinhard’s “damn you caught me” expression as he tries to claim he was “just checking” is too cute. 

Don’t worry Reinhard! Kircheis just has to gaze at Alliance commanders with those calm blue eyes and they surrender to his every whim, you know that.

If you’re watching on Hidive, I hate to say it but for once I’ve got to score one for the fansubs: As far as I can tell what Yang says here (after Frederica reminds him that Julian has told him to cut down on drinking) is just “so you two have joined forces?” (The verb is 連帯する, rentai suru, “to have solidarity/share responsibility.”) Cute (if a bit weird) as the Hidive version is, it's a definite stretch.

And while we're at it, here's the original laserdisc version, complete with random blue tube in the background.

Hidive subbers, I would read your fanfic but for the official translations let's stick to what they actually say...

Am I a terrible person if this gif just makes me laugh?