Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu - Episode 103

Woohoo finally an episode mostly about Oberstein. First thing first, his priority has always been “cleaning up” the workplace, no matter where he is lol. For real, he’s too busy to pay attention to Bittenfield mocking at him or the other admiral who don’t accompany him. We can see that this guy is a man who always has planned ahead, and when given the right time he’ll execute them right away, what a diligent man. I love how they say “grass-mowing” as it shows that Oberstein cares about the minor detail.

The conversation with the 3 admirals was simply epic, no facial expression, just words, he poured all of the frustration he held inside for a while into all of them at the same time, giving me a hard laugh as well. Even after he got assaulted by Bittenfield, he immediately got back to his desk without saying anything back, I’m starting to think this guy is way even more than a masochist -_-.

And this line was probably the best:

The problem is, he doesn’t care what others think, which is why they hate him so much. He doesn’t talk to anyone else except when it comes to work-related matters, he doesn’t share his thought or idea with the other contemporaries, which is also why people don’t understand him, they think he’s a suspicious man who’s up for something bad.

For the record, I somewhat agree with the way he works, it is cruel and against most people’s will in the short term, but if you think about the long term it’s worth it. Since he always plans his work meticulously, he must have thought of all the possibilities that can occur after something’s done, which is why he doesn’t hesitate to make such a daring plan despite being hated by many. Overall a great episode, getting to love Oberstein more even though his screentime is short -_-.

I can see while there’s a lot of people come to like Oberstein from this episode, those on the opposite side would simply bring back the Westerland and Kircheis’s death as a means to “sink” Oberstein’s reputation down.

While I have nothing to say about Westerland since it’s debatable, Kircheis’s death, on the other hand, is a different matter. If you really think Oberstein wanted Kircheis’s death then I think you’re wrong, it was Oberstein’s miscalculation on his plan, he didn’t expect that someone would make such a daring assassination attempt which caused a long-lasting impact on Reinhard and even himself as well.

Firstly, if he wanted Kircheis dead, he would have done it in a safer way, which at least doesn’t involve Reinhard on the scene. I mean Reinhard could have got himself killed during that incident, and Oberstein was willing to take the hit for Reinhard’s sake.

Moreover, if it was Oberstein that got killed instead of Kircheis, how could he proceed to further expand his plan and scheme to scour the Empire of the Goldenbaum’s remnants, how could he aid Reinhard by being the “shadow” to counter the “light” (Kircheis). So tell me, why would Oberstein risk that much just to get rid of someone who merely stood in his way?

To get further into this matter, what Oberstein wanted was a FAIR judgment from Reinhard, as he favors Kircheis too much, which would cause a great dispute among his subordinates. Oberstein never wanted Kircheis dead, he just wanted Reinhard to treat everyone as equal, no more no less, thus persuading Reinhard into making changes on personnel policies.

While many people think that Oberstein is a cold-hearted, emotionless “robot”, he has occasionally expressed his “human” part (Or to be more precise, he does care about what’s going on around him), which I believe was done subconsciously: like at the aftermath of Reuenthal’s rebellion or Kircheis’s death (his speech about light and shadow), or about the dog that he picked…

The reason why Oberstein has such a cold view towards everything could be linked to his past, which was revealed by Schenkopp. Even when he was just a kid, his peers didn’t seem to like him (Schenkopp showed us lol), hence his being isolated, failed to understand the basic things of a human need such as love, care, affection, happiness, etc., thus leading him to be such a Machiavellian guy.