# The Eve of the Decisive Battle
[Welcome to the Battleflag of the Stars rewatch!](https://i.redd.it/oa474irpvty81.jpg)
[<- Episode 7](/comments/1byf95v/) | [Index Page](/comments/1bce7t5/) | [Episode 9->](https://animethemes.moe/video/SeikaiNoMonshou-ED1v2.webm)
##Discussion Prompts:
* Q1 Which brother does she have the personal issue with? Or is it both?
* Q2 What do you think of the twins?
##Tomorrow’s Questions: (for tomorrow’s post, subject to change)
* [Episode 9]>!Do you really think Lafiel could have been a merchant commander?!<
* [Episode 9]>!As we enter the final battle, how has the pacing and military aspect worked for you?!<
* [Episode 9]>!Particularly in comparision with LOGH if you’ve seen that?!<
* [Episode 9]>!Predictions for the battle? (did you watch the preview?)!<
**Screenshot of the Day:** [birds! squirrels! mice!](https://i.redd.it/wy92e73rlxrc1.jpg)
by JustAnswerAQuestion
15 Comments
**First Timer, subbed**
* The changing of ideal fleet composition. More WWII parallels.
* Nothing like some light elf teasing.
* Oh? Are we even acknowledging the difficulties of heat dispersal in space?
* Ha! It actually came back to bite them! Amazing.
* **[Logistics!](#smugboard)**
* Do your battleships not have offensive weapons outside of mines?
* Seems like a rather simple plan, but a narrow front *is* your best choice against overwhelming numerical advantage.
* Wait a minute, I remember this conversation being talked about being in the novels.
* [“What Does It Feel **Like To Grow Old?”**](#tiredaoi)
* What an odd thing to gene modify.
* Some nice older romance for the side ship.
* Begging the question about just how long the timescale this series will be. Never mind what got adapted into the anime.
* I wonder if this conlang is also real?
* Good toast.
**QotD:**
1) I’m going to guess with the chief of staff.
2) They don’t seem particularly crazy. Just normal Earth aristocracy stuff.
**Rewatch Host**
* Does she *really* hate cats?
* now that’s a death flag
* “some” of you may become admirals
I was wondering about the 6 attendees at the meeting of 5 captains, but I figured one must have been her XO.
That “Yo Denka” is Beikan, the other assault ship commander with dialog. She’s not his superior military rank. “Knight” is the lowest rank of the nobility, below Baron. It does not confer a domain. It is often awarded for service.
Interesting bonding between Sobaash and Samson. Ekuriya is fascinated by landers and mortality. Sobaash is fascinated by intoxication. The twins don’t seem to respect each other, and nobody respects the twins. Even though they admit that the plan is a good one, given their limited resources.
Otherwise, not a particularly interesting episode, it’s mostly juts a countdown and character moments for side characters that otherwise never get screen time.
Apparently Sobaash got gender-swapped by mistake, and Samson lampshaded that.
For more banter, join us over in the Spice and Wolf dicussion thread.
**Rewatcher (sub + dub)**
And back to a breather after the action of the previous episode, seeing what everyone’s getting up to before the battle.
Hopefully Dusanyu can keep the big picture in mind while pondering the personal affairs of his chief of staff.
And so the resistance of Aptic III comes into play… almost. Once again space is difficult and gravity sucks. The plan for defense is pretty straightforward but the hard part is surviving, the Abh fleet here’s getting stretched thin.
I mentioned back toward the start of the season that the general term for officers is a neologism in the novels that roughly meant “flyer” in Japanese and it’s translated as “starpilot” for J-Novel Club. I only now noticed that the dub uses “aviator” for it which I think is a decent way of handling it.
Another minor detail: squadrons have six ships including the command unit and they can join together via link-pipes, [as seen here](https://i.imgur.com/wIFQTf5.png) and [in the background here.](https://i.imgur.com/lp51EpU.png) The group the Basroil’s in only has five [in this shot,](https://i.imgur.com/Cr8yEGQ.png) which is kind of accurate since they lost a ship but if the connecting pipes aren’t actually part of the ships themselves then it wouldn’t make sense for there to be one with only five linking pipes and there should be a sixth unused instead.
Going by her comments here I have to wonder if Ecryua ultimately just sees Jinto as a curiosity because he’s a Lander and therefore novel to her.
Samson’s like the platonic ideal of a blue-collar guy who rose up through the ranks, rough around the edges and a great contrast to the genetic Abh. …was Samson’s VA trying to speak in Baronh or his native language from Midgrat when talking about the mole? Couldn’t really tell there, just that there were also Japanese subs and the dub even switched to using the same audio for that bit. Either way that was a nice discussion with Sobash and as I mentioned yesterday all I need is the Basroil’s officers chatting with each other.
Atosryua’s a woman of modest ambitions, and also pretty basic when it came to meeting with the other captains but I imagine her attitude there’s probably average for an Abh.
—
> Which brother does she have the personal issue with? Or is it both?
She thinks it was Nefee but it was Nereis in disguise.
[](#hikariactually)
> What do you think of the brothers?
Their reputation’s overblown so far.
[](#nyanpasu)
**First-Timer**
Y’know, Sobaash is androgynous enough that [I was kinda curious.](https://i.imgur.com/kXBbQ3i.jpeg) Guess that answers that. Interesting that he is older than Samson, but not really surprising considering what we know about Abh ages. Samson must be nearly forty unless they start normal crew really young, so I wonder how old that makes Sobaash?
The concept of Abh gender identities is another interesting one. Like, such a thing would probably be a holdover from when they first split off from the rest of humanity. The gender binary is already mostly nonsense when it has reproductive backing, so I can only imagine the Abh find it hopelessly quaint.
Being able to not get drunk would be such a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I don’t enjoy being drunk, but on the other, it gives me a clear stopping point. I’m currently imagining how much I would spend on nice whisk(e)y if I could literally just drink it all day every day… that’s a scary number.
I like that the main battle plan for the attack ships is “just win for three straight days.” Simple and easy to remember.
What do we think is up between Kenesh and the Bebauses? I should maybe note that they have similar eye designs, as does Ekuryua (and a bunch of other background Abh). Maybe Kenesh’s family is an offshoot from the Bebauses and she has a chip on her shoulder about it? The Bebaus family was referred to as.. I forget the word used, but they were one of the original 29 Abh families or something like that.
I mean, the easy answer is that Nefee (it’s probably Nefee) made a pass at her and she wasn’t into it.
Anyway, this was an excellent “last chill moment before a big battle” episode.
Questions
1. Discussed above.
2. They’re fun. Good banter. Nereis does seem to be a bit bumbling at times, but his general plan for the gate defense is sound. Hopefully he has some spicy strategy to prove that he’s smarter than he lets on.
**Season 2 Episode 8 (rewatcher)**
* “In that case, we have been provided with unsuitable fighting resources” – Determining which type of ships you need is hard to predict.
* “You can always trust their ability on the battlefield” – hopefully.
* “They still have not surrendered?” – shows how much value they place on the planet.
* “We will go pillaging” “How will we do that?” – be thankful for the adults in the room.
* “Something that is right in front of us and that we can’t reach” – I once heard this expressed as *If humanity ever escaped the Earth’s gravity well, why would we go down to trap ourselves in another gravity well?* The energy needed to escape a planetary gravity well is stupendously large (and usually ignored for storytelling reasons in SciFi). Once again a world building win for Crest of the Stars.
* Very nice screen of the battle plan, but why are they calling the ships in the back of the formation “frontline”?
* The reactions upon bringing up the Bebaus.
[](#azusalaugh)
* Zero-g connections!
[](#goblet1)
* “How does it feel to grow old?” – *Asks a 20 year old.* Still a better idea than asking Samson, though.
* “This is my second bottle, after all”
[](#cokemasterrace)
* Crew talking about the captain – I doubt that would ever change.
Calm before the battle episode.
> Which brother does she have the personal issue with? Or is it both?
I told you not to ask!
**First-Timer of the Stars**
– [Hm…](https://i.imgur.com/3MCLVcs.png) [](#csikon)
– [She *has* been consistent about that, yeah.](https://i.imgur.com/M3V5idq.png)
– [Your lack of an answer *definitely* sounds like you have a personal issue.](https://i.imgur.com/WIjqySQ.png) The blushing doesn’t help either.
– [They’re going to take water](https://i.imgur.com/kPbru0u.png) from [a planet they haven’t taken over yet?](https://i.imgur.com/ppH2Rjk.png) Oh, this means a big battle is coming to *get* the water, isn’t it…
– [Heh, he’s totally letting Lafiel’s comment get to his head.](https://i.imgur.com/XE7FShp.png) [](#kukuku)
– [About half as old as my own family’s cats.](https://i.imgur.com/zDw0WrO.png) [](#harukathink)
– [All I could think of here](https://i.imgur.com/E0faV2C.png) was [that one Jujutsu Kaisen clip.](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/rxtlzx/this_man_knows_what_is_pain_jujutsu_kaisen/) [Nanamin’s so relatable.](#lifeishard)
– [Huh…](https://i.imgur.com/hxb7VJz.png)
– [These two’s friendship has been fun to see develop this episode.](https://i.imgur.com/fl7JsRa.png)
– [This sounds like a big death flag…](https://i.imgur.com/wcvpCvv.png) [](#sakurathink)
**Rewatcher**
-Bebaus brothers coming up with a good plan, to deal with being badly outnumbered. But they’re short on coolant, and lack the ability to take it from the planet they’re orbiting hmm…we’ll see if that comes into play later.
-Abh can’t get drunk. I’m not surprised.
-Interesting analogy from drunk Samson about the young people on his ship and moles who have to dig through hard rock. I don’t know what it means, though.
-Death flags. Death flags everywhere.
*A Sci-Fi Fan Watches Banner of the Stars Episode 8:*
Happy eclipse day! I hope you all got to check it out somehow!
– Sounds like the United Mankind decided to take some lessons away from the battle three years ago for their new fleet composition: surprisingly large amounts of patrol ships supplemented by a smaller number of attack ships. I guess they’ve decided that it’s much more worth it to be a mighty wall of a force rather than just relying on the speed that large fleets of attack ships have. I can certainly see the appeal in the steamroller approach.
– Interesting that Dusanyu is more willing to give the Bebaus twins the benefit of the doubt and faith in their abilities than his chief of staff. Given how she reacts to his pressing on the matter, it’s very clearly a personal issue rather than them coming from the Bebaus family. With how eccentric the twins are, I wouldn’t put it past them to have offended her in the past somehow.
– Speaking of those two, man they’ve gotten themselves into an odd issue as of late. They’re caught with low supplies of coolant, and the only options are to either hold out for supplies (which would take way too long), or try to harvest water from Aptic-3, even though the planet hasn’t surrendered to them and their fleet doesn’t have the equipment to harvest water themselves. There’s an irony to them having a shortage on one of the most common things in the universe. I guess it’s just bad luck that there’s no comets or gas giant rings to harvest ice from, and that the President is *still* trying to get good polling numbers by not surrendering yet, but I guess you just have to make do with what you have.
– That being said, the actual battle plan that they’ve made up seems simple but effective. It’s a good idea to reuse your minelayer ships as a local resupply fleet once they’ve mined the Aptic Gate, since it saves on the coolant supply by keeping them around still rather than ordering a full retreat of them. They should in theory be covered by the large amounts of attack and patrol ships anyway, which should have an easier time once all of the mines are send through the Sord. I see that Dusanyu is correct to rely on their intelligence.
– Man, Ekuryua asking a twenty year old how it feels to be old just makes me feel ancient. I will say though, Jinto is already absurdly well-accomplished for someone who can’t even legally drink yet.
– That was a nice bonding moment between Samson and Sobaash. Despite talking about all the differences between each other as people and as species of humanity, they’re still able to have a nice time sharing a bottle at an empty bar. Even across different peoples, we can all understand the principle of trying to enjoy the smaller things in life, whether is drinking liquor or using sleeping pills for large rests like the Abh do.
– Of course that comment made by Atosuryua was directed at you, Lafiel. Who else would it be directed at? You did just make her talk about the differences between what’s expected between the royalty and the nobility, after all. Even if they’ve buried the hatchet Klowal, that’s doesn’t mean she still can’t toss some light shade Lafiel’s way.
– Well, that was a weird aside from Samson there to make a metaphor about moles. It was a sudden jar in audio quality in the dub too, given the mid-sentence switch in languages. So far, I still can’t say I’m too impressed with how this dub handles stuff like Baronh, it just plain doesn’t work well with large chunks of untranslated language and inconsistent audio mixing.
**First-Timer**
**On today’s episode of Banner of the Stars:** The calm before the storm. And what a storm it will be. I can’t blame Samson for getting blackout drunk when everyone knows they’re about to fight a battle outnumbered 10 to 1.
– That title card counting down the time until the battle is giving me Majora’s Mask vibes.
– Yeah, I can see the Abh fleet having difficulty if the UM fleet has more patrol ships. The assault ships aren’t really suited to going up against them, even in large numbers.
– That is the difficulty that the Abh face. They don’t want to move forces away from the areas they captured, so that limits what reinforcements they can send to the battlefield.
– Dusanyu really likes trolling his poor Chief of Staf. [](#nuidideverythingright)
– Huh, looks like Aptic not surrendering is actually becoming an issue. [](#hardthink)
– Uh, I don’t think it’s a good idea to have a military commander talk about pillaging so lightly because he wants to be dramatic. [](#watashiworried)
– Well at least the other commanders were able to talk Nereis out of pillaging Aptic just for the sake of it when they’ve got better resupply options available.
– I wondered if the Abh were going to take advantage of the Sord opening in the battle. It makes sense to do so. The UM fleet will be limited in where they can deploy and will be open to a surprise attack the moment they exit the Sord.
– It also makes sense to box the UM fleet in so they can’t take full advantage of their numbers. It’s like the Greeks (who were more than just the famous 300 Spartans, I should add) using the narrow mountain pass at Thermopylae to block the Persians. Or the Iserlohn Corridor in LotGH.
– It’s weird to me that the “battle ships” are not expected to be front line fighters but the “patrol ships” are. The naming sense is very weird. Maybe it’s just a translation issue. [](#morethanonewaifu)
– Nefee has the right idea as Chief of Staff. Get rid of the boss so he doesn’t screw up a perfectly good plan.
– Man, Ekuryua is such a Ruri-Ruri. Every single line from her is so deadpan. It’s great. [](#azusalaugh)
– “What is it like to grow old?” Well Ekuryua, here’s how it feels. I start talking about some of my favorite movies, games, books, etc. to people younger than me, and they haven’t experienced any of them and talk about how old they are. [](#whippersnappers)
– The Abh can’t get drunk from alcohol? [I think Scotty would have some words to say about that.](https://youtu.be/7sYJinHOvwM?si=A85uRgPFBai_7OT9)
– The Abh can just take a pill to make themselves fall to sleep right away? I’m so jealous. I wish I could do that. [](#pout)
– Man, that shot with the ship’s lights shining over Samson and Sobaash through the window looks so pretty. [](#neat)
– I can sympathize with Samson. I’d also feel a bit odd taking orders from someone who was born after I started my job.
– Oh, I notice that Samson and Sobaash are now sitting right next to each other. [Is there something going on here?](https://imgur.com/SmNGZIY)
– [Prost!](#goblet1) Now all they need to do is smash the goblets.
This was a nice little episode showing the characters before the battle. I like having the opportunity to just spend time with these characters and see them make preparations before needing to go into battle next episode.
**QOTD**
1) It must be both. The twins seem like a package deal. You don’t get one without the others.
2) I don’t think I’d call them spectacularly insane. They are eccentric, though. Nereis in particular seems to be a bit out of it. He’s not crazy, but it’s more like he’s often spaced out. It reminds me of Osaka from Azumanga Daioh.
Rewatcher(The quiet episode)
Sub
As befits the ep number versus the season size, we get our tension building/animation saving ep. The placement of that varies a bit more in modern productions. But this one at least gives us a lot of characterization and not so many recycled scenes. We finally get the tidbit that Abh don’t really get drunk, explaining Klowal’s weird choice to drink sake with Lafiel. But Samson certainly feels it. Now they translate it as booze but I have to assume due to amount and method of drinking, they are also drinking sake or perhaps some the weirder Japanese liquors. They exist, Ghost in the Shell of all things mentions them.
We get some interesting confirmation that Jinto seems to have mellowed Lafiel for an Abriel, which makes sense but is probably confusing considering what she was like in S1. We also see him getting Ekuryua to understand humans a bit better. Anyways, everyone gets ready for battle.
QotD: 1 Yes
2 They somewhat are overpromised in what they’ve delivered thus far.
**Rewatcher/Novel-Reader**
…well, at least it’s not the same repeated infodump?
The UM has fortified itself with heavier firepower. Going in on more cavalry and fewer infantry, in essence.
A blush, from Cenesh? There’s some story there regarding the Bibauth brothers.
Speaking of which, banter between the the brothers. Now they want to steal water from the planet for coolant.
…having overlooked that the Abh Star Forces don’t *have* any ships capable of hauling goods from a planet’s surface. (slow clap)
A little ways back, someone commented about the Bibauths being similar to those idiot princes from Heroic Age. Happily, this is not the case. They may be eccentric, but they know combat strategy. In this case the most surprising thing about their strategy is that it’s too ordinary.
A bit of rapport being built up between Samson and Sobaach. Funny thing, Sobaach is actually male in the novels. Don’t know why they decided to give him a clearly female voice for the anime. Though he is noted to be highly androgynous, even by Abh standards.
We have some actual numbers about the upcoming battle. They need to hold out for about 72 hours against a superior enemy fleet, and one that’s outfitted such that the assault ships aren’t at an advantage.
So… Samson must be at least 40 years old. He looks really good for his age.
I find myself not having much to say about these episodes lately. It seems like not a whole lot happens in any of them… not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, but I’m amazed at how this anime can fill up time without feeling like it’s dragging its feet.
First timer, subbed
Seems the United Mankind arrived at a new conclusion about conducting warfare, we’ll see how it pans out. I don’t know if we’ve gotten any metric on patrol ships vs attack ships, but I’d assume patrol ships would be the smallest class. The idea might be that more patrol ships grants greater flexibility since you can spread out your weapons rather than concentrate them all in one place.
I’m a sucker for the kuudere archetype, so I’ve found myself hopelessly endeared to Ekuryua.
These moments between characters as the battle clock counts down really sell that the bridge crew have come to appreciate each other’s company. Samson and Sobaash in particular have a great scene. Pulling all nighters trapped blind in plane space will do that to you.
QotD:
1) My guess is the Admiral, given he’s the one who blushed and she was blushing earlier.
2) Slightly eccentric, but they have great chemistry on screen.
**Rewatcher**
Looks like the chief of staff had a bad experience with one of the brothers, naturally the admiral takes this opportunity to tease her.
Isn’t the water on the planet most likely salty? So pillaging it seems rather a resource intensive operation.
Waiting outside of a gate as a chokepoint seems like such an obvious thing to do how can the invaders play around this scenario.
And we’re back to Jinto raising flags with Ekuryua [](#elsiesigh)
Samson x Juth is something I wasn’t expecting.
> If we survive the next battle….
RIP them I guess, talk about unnecessarily raising death flags.
I just realized Juth is a guy whoops. [](#killitwithfire)
A good calm before the storm episode.
Why is formatting so shit now with this new mobile UI on desktop? Why does nothing fucking works.
—
**First timer**
– [Well, that and the fact that you got fuel from another ship, but sure.](https://imgur.com/a/XKYnaJq)
– [Wasn’t it previously said that the brothers hadn’t seen actual combat but that “they have to learn at some point”?](https://imgur.com/a/JUqWRBy)
– [I’m sorry, man? I thought that was a woman!](https://imgur.com/a/uwZYX9p) Those damn elves and their soft features. The female voice actor doesn’t help.
– [I don’t know Lafiel, do you see other royals at the table?](https://imgur.com/a/G9V7J6g)
– [Being young never stopped Reinhard.](https://imgur.com/a/qaQo4U0)
>QotD
– I’m gonna say one of them and I’m gonna say it’s because they dated.
– Meh.
Hmm. I seem to remember watching this last night, but man, memories … fading. Let’s see if today’s questions can bring some back?
1) I don’t care. I think that they both have the charm of a Harkkonen. Perhaps not even that.
2) See above.
But yeah, I’m with commander whatsername on this, and think that her late, not exactly lamented brother is probably higher on the not-quite-a-skidmark-on-humanity-or-abhlinity-totem-pole scale than these two.
Which is to say, I rather do not like them. Although, it would have been potentially amusing to see them try to pillage the poor planet below, or coerce a surrender from its poor leadership. Bleh.
(It would also have been very funny to see something similar to a Spaceballs reference in action, no doubt. :P)
Yeah.
Speaking of which, it’s tempting to nickname the two brothers after the two modes of operation of said Spaceballs reference.
Again, 😛
I sure hope that space Deedlit gets a chance to kick both their pretentious a@#!#$es, or something like that.
As suddenly, I’m reminded of the two overly pretentious squirrels, or was it chipmunks from the old Warner Brothers cartoons.
“Indubitably”…
Anyway, I’m suddenly empathizing with the poor alcoholic pilot dude. At least he got a nice date of of the deal. Shoulda asked for her phone number, right?
Yeah, sorry, my brain is dead, and I forgot most everything. That’s what happens when you watch six episodes in one day, I guess. Hope everybody had a great eclipse day!
(I enjoyed it, it was literally awesome. Existential, even.)