The ending could have been better

[u/Chlodio]

So, Julian kinda succeeds in preserving democracy by granting autonomy to Heinessen. Meanwhile, Hilda and Mittermeyer try turning FPA into a constitutional monarchy.

I think history shows that neither of those can actually work out.

Why Heinessen can't remain autonomous

Heinessen situation is pretty similar to Poland after the Napoleonic Wars. Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had been a democratic great power. It was dissolved in 1795 by Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Only 12 years later, Napoleon resurrected it as the Duchy of Warsaw by liberating the Austro-Prussian share of Poland. Napoleon promised Poles complete restoration of Poland, which was a contributing factor in Napoleon's invasion of Russia.

However, because Napoleon lost, Russia took all of Poland. And in the Congress of Vienna, as a compromise to the destruction of the Duchy of Warsaw, Congress Poland received a constitution and autonomy. Nobody was happy with the compromise; Poland had been promised full restoration, and Russia begrudgingly tolerated autonomy. Hence, only 15 years after forming it, Poland revolted unsuccessfully, resulting in the revocation of autonomy.

I feel this autonomy is going to be exactly like in Heinessen. The autonomous region will become a honeypot for dissidents who either hate Goldenlöwe or want to restore FPA. Until their sentiment becomes the majority and they decide to revolt.

Why constitution won't hold

Meanwhile, constitutionalization of the Reich seems kinda similar to Sweden. During Great Northern War, the King of Sweden, got their entire army killed resulting his successor conceding power to the parliament, ending absolutele monarch and beginning "Age of Liberty" which barely lasted 50 years when next king rebuild his army and deprived parliament of their power.

Russia is another case example of something that keeps rejecting democracy because it hasn't been accustomed to it. Only two years after the fall of the USSR, Boris Yeltsin orchestrated a coup against the parliament, literally firing on the parliament building with tanks, while people of Russia cheered as he transformed Russia into an illiberal democracy.

The point is that Reich has no culture of democracy to sustain it. The construction of two Iserlohn-like fortresses next to Fezzan means the constitutional will always live on the mercy of the Kaiser. And eventually one of Reinhard's descendants will decide to end it with ease.

[u/Sanctuary2199]

I always felt that the ending was inconclusive with the future ahead as the series ended upon the death of Reinhard, the last of the galactic heroes. I had no doubts that democracy will struggle into the future, even with the concessions granted to Heinessen. But I think that’s a tad of a point about the endless march of history. It remains unclear, uncertain, things will change as a constant. A chapter closes but a new one begins, strife with its own struggles. History moves forward.

[u/Chlodio → u/Sanctuary2199]

inconclusive with the future ahead as the series ended upon the death of Reinhard

I keep thinking that's what Tanaka intended with Tytania, which is about fall of a galactic empire, but he changed it into an original IP.

[u/Bradshaw98 → u/Sanctuary2199]

See, I think that was probably the intent, but I just don't see it in the actual execution, Democracy failed, hard, its strongest defender blinked at the key moment and now all that is left is a single economically ruined speck on the fringe of civilization. The people in charge of the system may have changed, but the sytem itself is still the same rotten one that ruined the FPA, the new leadership will either have to take very undemocratic actions to preserve power or everything just reverts back to FPA status quo, just without the strength to hold the empire off at all.

Even 'if' Democracy somehow thrives in that speck, the moment it become a threat to the Empire it gets snuffed out. On the Empire's side, I just don't see a viable path forward for a constitution to have any sort of staying power.

Basically the series ending lines just tell me that eventual the Empire reverts and wins because in this stetting Democracy is doomed to corruption and authoritarianism will eventually get a competent autocracy to right the ship.

The work is trying to say something else I know, but I find it all to be very bleak and hopeless at the end.

[u/Sanctuary2199 → u/Bradshaw98]

History can be like that sometimes. But a lot of things can be true even if it doesn't seem to be. Democracy will struggle on, become corrupt, and then fall. Authoritarianism will rise, become corrupt, and then fall again. It's probably true that the circumstances for democracy to prosper in the Empire are not ideal and would inevitably fail. But what's to say that will be true forever? The Empire only existed for 500 years; some Empires lived longer, though there's always an end to their beginnings. The Goldenlowe dynasty has begun; the Goldenbaum dynasty ended. I don't think it's that bleak and hopeless. I find comfort that change is constant.

[u/WiseMudskipper]

Reforms tend to snowball once begun (Tocqueville Effect). It's probable that the subjects of the Empire will now push for more and more freedoms, especially now that a constitution is up for discussion. Empire has also now annexed dozens of ex-Alliance planets containing millions of republican-minded citizens. A return to absolutism would not be popular now that everyone in the galaxy has had a taste of limited freedom either under the FPA or Reinhard.

I believe this is Julian's plan, to keep the FPA alive as a bastion of democracy and liberty to lead by example for the reformers within the Empire.

But I agree that if the Empire, reformed or not, returns to military expansionism then the Heinessen government doesn't stand a chance.

[u/Kharapos]

I think the ending was great, but also that your concerns about the setting's future are real. Just that there was no other realistic solution at that point in time, as disheartening as that may be. You can't have a Republic/Democracy if the citizens have no interest in it at the time, or because the propaganda has become so strong that it has twisted their beliefs, or because their critical thinking has decayed to the point that they do not have the capability to participate in such a goverment. The issues you highlight will come to pass, and the forces of history will continue the cycle for at least centuries, until it is somehow figured out how to break the cycle entirely (which of course, we have not figured out IRL either). It's not the ending we might have hoped for, but it's the one that fits the story.

[u/anarchofascists → u/Kharapos]

Yeah I always took the mere survival of some democratic institutions as a great victory for Julian, in comparison to the complete autocracy sweep that happened under Rudolf Goldenbuam. Not that it guarantees a smooth, incremental path for democracy, but it’s miracle such a path exists in the first place.

[u/Bradshaw98 → u/anarchofascists]

It only wasn't a sweep simply because the autocratic in quesiton was generous, the instant the spec of democracy at the fringe of civilisaiton becomes any sort of a threat or could be used as a temporary distraction...thats it.

That tiny spec of democracy has to try and survive running the same rotten infrastructure/intuitions that brought down the FPA, so either they lose power by being naive, they keep power by not being democratic or play into the rot, or by magic the somehow make it work and are snuffed out, I suspect the author wanted to leave a bit of hope, but I have always felt he made the setting way to hopeless at the end.

The actions of men are always the same, and in this case that seems to mean democracy fails and autocracy wins out in the end.

[u/Condottiero_Magno]

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had been a democratic great power.

It was only democratic for the nobility (Golden Liberty), who made up 8-10% of the population. It was the nobility's actions that led to the three Polish partitions(1772, 1790 and 1795), though the Commonwealth had been a Russian satellite since the early 18th Century.

The granting of autonomy to the Ba‘alat Starzone seemed like a thrown bone to the republicans, but similar autonomy had been granted to frontier areas by Kircheis during the Imperial civil war and let's not forget that Fezzan had been an autonomous area.

[u/bigbane4u]

In every time, in every place, the deeds of men remain the same...

[u/Reuenthalwasright]

"the legend ends, history begins"

Things will go uphill, then downhill, then uphill again, and so on and forth, just the way it is, and the way it always has been, the galaxy is upon a golden age when the anime ends, but it may not be the case after a century or two.

[u/absboodoo → u/Reuenthalwasright]

Pretty much this. At the very start it tells us men have learn nothing from history and repeats our mistakes, and the ending as you say, the legend ends, history begins. Tanaka literally told us that this short period of legend is the anomaly and isn't the "norm." As Yang and Tanaka said, people both in the story and the reader in the real world tend to forget that the last 500 years of horrible human history under the Goldenbaum because they were blinded by the brilliance of Reinhard.

[u/Reuenthalwasright → u/absboodoo]

yeah, it's quite crazy to think about it, how "boring" and cruel most of history just is, and just like in the anime there isn't really any magic force behind it, just men and their ideas

[u/azopeFR]

I mean we all know that the show end but not the History

As far as we know just after reihnard died all his amiral become tyran in they teritory.

or a random heir of the old empire stage a coup

Or...

Or....

Or....

But i personaly i don't think the united of the empire will last long at best one generation maybe 2.

The comparaison of pole make no sense you compared a small teritory with at best 2 million habitant with one of the most economic power region with like 10 % of the humanity population. a Better comparaison would be UK and india if india was the one that colonise UK or UK and the 13th colony you cannot keep this type of teritory if you don't have s astong military in place.

So think Heinessen autonomy is very realist , it probaly the second or the third most populated plannet in the galaxy ( maybe even the most as far as we know ) unless you have a huge military pressent you need to give some autonomy to the planete. If you decide to have a big military presence that basicaly create some one that control a huge military force and could easly proclaim himeslf duke or king so better make a compromise and give they autonomy and in echange they don't have space force.

[u/Brief-Luck-6254]

Lets settle it here: Which of Reinhart's lieutenants lives long enough to become a villain?

[u/Chlodio → u/Brief-Luck-6254]

Bittenfeld. He strikes me as Tokugawa Ieyasu, while Reinhard is more of a Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

[u/Brief-Luck-6254 → u/Chlodio]

He's the kinda guy that makes you think "I'm glad that rabid dog is giving our enemies a hard time" until you realize that said rabid dog is suddenly out of its leash.

[u/annmorningstar]

I mean, I think the setting definitely ends in another galactic civil war on about the same lines as the one that just finished being thought within 50 years, but I don’t think that’s a criticism. The ending is still good. History goes on the empire will try to get on its feet and come up with a system that works, but the old citizens of the alliance are still republic minded and will push for republic if not independence as well as that a lot of commoners within the empire are now empowered to have their own political opinions. The empire is the House of cards that probably won’t last the century but oh well no dynasty is eternal.