>>13591455
High ranking members of the Goldenbaum dynasty defecting to the alliance seems to have been common for the losers of political struggles (one of Friedrich IV's older brothers was killed trying to do so), so he may be simply following the precedent of others.

One of the main differences between the FPA and the Empire is that the former is generally united by adherence to ideology, such as democracy and freedom, whereas the latter is based upon relationships of personal loyalty. Merkatz had pledged his personal loyalty to Braunschweig, albeit unwillingly, and thus can't bring himself to submit to Reinhard since it would be a violation of that loyalty. Basically, he sees his conflict with Reinhard as a part of his personal pride, whereas the conflict with the FPA was just business as a soldier. Fahrenheit is younger and more flexible in terms of his mindset, and is willing to put his pride aside for practical purposes. Merkatz is too set in his old ways to do so.

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Rewatch episode 23, those points are addressed during the scene. He has too much "pride" to surrender (he stuck with the nobles and isn't going to turn face just to save his own life) and because Reinhard's side now represented the Imperials, defecting to the FPA would be a way of continuing to fight Reinhard.

It's not that Merkatz hates Reinhard (he doesn't hate the FPA either), he's just a professional soldier with pride in his duty and career. He fought the FPA as a loyal soldier in his earlier years, then fought Reinhard's side as a loyal soldier to the nobles as his latest assignment/duty. He didn't harbor any bad feelings toward the FPA but merely saw them as the forces he was ordered to fight against, so he has no qualms about joining the FPA to continue fighting as a soldier against Reinhard.

It's a bit weird to understand, but the man is more about loyalty and pride than anything else. He doesn't care about ideology or politics.

So Merkatz was just under Reuntal/Mittermeyer in terms of skill right?

How did the FPA manage to survive if it only had 2 competent admirals in this time, with one of them being ex-Imperial?

>>13591553
>How did the FPA manage to survive

It didn't.

>>13591580
I mean as long as they did

FPA had Yang and Merkatz and thats about it. Empire had Reinhard and all his admirals that were pretty damn good. FPA's shit leadership should have had them lose even with Yang

>>13591590
>FPA's shit leadership should have had them lose even with Yang

They did. It's just that the Empire, up until Reinhard made his power play to take over, was too incompetent to mount a successful invasion. The difference between Reinhard and Yang was that Reinhard was willing to subvert the system he served in order to achieve his goal.

>>13591590
Don't forget Bucock.

Really though, the time between the beginning of the series and the collapse of the FPA is only four years. A multi-planetary government being conquered in less time than the Second World War. With that in mind, once the Goldenbaum dynasty came to an end and they had lost all of their other admirals in the invasion and civil war, the FPA does pretty much collapse immediately.

>>13591611
Wouldnt the tier ranking be
Reinhard=Yang>Mittermeyer/Reunthal/Merkatz>Reinhards subordinates after he takes power>Bucock>the rest?

>>13591613
I've always liked to believe:
Reinhard + Kircheis > Yang > Reinhard

>>13591590
The FPA also probably had a few other competent admirals (like Ulanhu) who were lost during the botched invasion.

>>13591613
I'd rate Bucock above Reinhard's post takeover subordinates. He pretty much schooled them during the Battle of Mar Adetta. Another thing to note is that whenever Bucock faced Reinhard's forces he was always outnumbered yet still put up a good fight. Just because he's not Miracle Yang does not make it an unimpressive feat.

>>13591613
In the two battles we see him in, he's outnumbered 4-to-1 and 5-to-1 respectively, so he performs pretty well considering those circumstances.

>>13591622
It should be Reinhard + Kircheis > Kircheis > Yang > Reinhard

>>13591613
>>13591622
>>13591646
Powerlevels don't mean shit, wars are won off the battlefield. This is why for every battle they have there's nine episodes about economics and logistics.

Yang won every battle he fought yet he still lost the war.

>>13591611
>A multi-planetary government being conquered in less time than the Second World War.

WW2 was mostly a ground war, and ground wars always take a long time. The war in LoGH is more analogous to a naval conflict, and naval conflicts are much shorter (see: Spanish - American War). This is because ships can't just be built in a few weeks, and have a limited number of ports they can return to. This leads to shorter wars.

>>13591659
The main point was to emphasize the differences in scale between a single war on Earth versus one across multiple planets. A war of that scale ending in four years is quick. It's even faster if you consider the first two years shown in the show are the first season, meaning the actual New Empire invasion and FPA collapse only takes two years.

>>13591659
Well, there were ground wars in LoGH. They just didn't show much of them at all. For instance, there is a part during the Alliance's Civil War, where there is a short part about Schenkopp leading ground forces to take a planet. And he comes back to the ship covered in kiss/lipstick marks. So at least in that instance, the ground war didn't take years. And IIRC one of the gaidens also had a few ground wars between the FPA and the Empire.

He outright says it

His loyalty was always to the Goldenbaum Dynasty. He would rather side with the Alliance than with the person that tore that down.

>>13591611
The FPA's attempted coup by Greenhill and co. + the disastrous Amlitzer (think it was this one) campaign greatly weaken the FPA. They go from being in a better position than the Reich to having difficulty defending themselves, even with Iserlohn under their control.

It makes sense that the FPA would end up collapsing in such a comparatively short time after losing so much of their manpower and so many of their senior officers.

>>13591657
Actually, the show proved the exact opposite. Powerlevels are all that matter when you can't rely on economics and logistics. With how hamstrung and incompetent the FPL was, it was a miracle that they were able to last as long as they did, and that was all thanks to powerlevels.

>>13591793
The reason the FPA was able to hold off the Goldenbaum dynasty for centuries was because they mobilized their entire economy toward fighting the war, whereas most of the resources in the empire went to maintaining a space feudalism/police state.

Things only change when Reinhard reorganizes the administration of the Empire itself, enabling him to sustain larger campaigns into the heart of the FPA. Tactically, the Imperial generals often found themselves outmatched by Yang, but once the Empire was reorganized winning battles didn't really have any meaning since they couldn't actually sustain a war. The only time where logistics and economics were really meaningless was when Yang had the chance to kill Reinhard in battle but didn't go through with it.

>>13591682
>The main point was to emphasize the differences in scale between a single war on Earth versus one across multiple planets.

And? WW3 would have lasted only a few days, weeks at most. If anything the fact that the war managed to drag out for 4 years is unrealistic in that it is too long, not too short.

>>13591696
>So at least in that instance, the ground war didn't take years.

I imagine ground wars wouldn't last a very long time in a setting where you can call in an orbital bombardment from anywhere.

>>13592191
I don't even understand what you're trying to say with the WW3 analogy. A hypothetical nuclear war limited to an intercontinental scale on a single planet isn't even comparable to a war that would be waged across whole planetary systems. There's no button they can press that can launch a missile that could travel across an arm of the galaxy in five minutes, so comparing it to a nuclear war with ICBMs makes no sense.

>>13591611
>Bucock
Fuck...

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>>13592243
>>13591611

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>>13591455
My question- When did Poplan went to california?

>>13592135
And Reinhard was only able to take over the Empire because of powerlevels. With how many times the odds were against him and his admirals on the way up, powerlevels were the only reason that he was able to defeat the nobles. Hell, one could argue that powerlevels were the only real reason he defeated the FPA because he had the balls to invade through Phezan.

>>13591540
I guess that kinda makes sense... I still think it's a bit weird that fighting Reinhard has higher priority than the conflict with the Alliance, but I guess it's just a different world.

>>13593633
california crisis looks so sick i wish there was a good quality version of it. also lmao at the ending

>>13591590
There are actually a lot of competent commanders in the Alliance. One of the S4 episodes talks about how Dusty Attenborough could've been a Fleet Admiral by 30 if Yang hadn't been the one shining hope whose brilliance drowned out all the others. And in general the FPA's subordinate commanders have a higher competence level than the Empire's, as illustrated by the fact that most of the named Imperial characters are admirals and nobles while most of the FPA's are subordinate officers like Frederica or Fischer or Murai.

>>13591732
Yang even said that they should sue for peace with the Empire and establish a new paradigm while they held the upper-hand, which shows just how strong the FPA was after the conquest of Iserlohn despite being smaller than the Empire.

>>13593633
He seems to be acting like Poplan, but appearance wise that shot looks more like Mittermeyer.

Schenkopp was great, he's my favourite side character after Bittenfeld.

>>13594632
That ending was such a buzzkill that even notPoplan felt bad for the super excited girl.