Saga of Tanya the Evil II ‒ Episodes 11-12
What's interesting in this battle specifically is the fact that, of the three ace mages, Tanya herself is likely the weakest. Mary is exactly as her namesake implies when it comes to her power level, and Mikel is armed not only with a jewel on par with Tanya's but also a fully pressurized suit that allows him to ignore any issues with extreme altitude.
The reason that Tanya wins, however, is all strategic thinking. In the case of Mary, she's all emotion, no logic—all talent, no hard work. She's the exact opposite of Tanya. Mary may be stronger, but Tanya is easily able to out-think Mary—to both defeat the girl without firing a shot and use her to assassinate Rudersdorf.
Meanwhile, Mikel makes the mistake that so many do: he underestimates Tanya. Of course, this is exactly as Tanya intends. She acts like an idiot child, using the same attack she used to defeat Mikel last time and even reloads in the middle of it—practically begging him to stab her. And once he does, she has him locked in close combat and forced to either hold on as she slams him into a plane or abandon his weapon and be shot as he tries to flee.
As for the dramatic side of things, we have the whole assassination plot as Zettour sets out to kill his friend and seize power. And Rudersdorf knows he is likely to die—that his goals and Zettour's are just too philosophically opposed. Moreover, he knows he would be unable to stop such an attempt on his life, as he is not half the strategist that Zettour is. But the true tragedy is, in the end, after Tanya and her squad fight so long and hard to protect him, Rudersdorf believes that the assassination plot was all in his head. His final thoughts are that he misjudged his longtime friend. And the truth is, he did misjudge Zettour… just not in the way he believed.
Tanya is baffled in the season's closing moments. She was sure that Zettour would quickly end the war. That by taking absolute military power, he could force everyone into line. She no doubt feels betrayed as Imperial armies roll into Idola. It's the exact kind of insane plan she thought they were trying to avoid by killing Rudersdorf.
But make no mistake, Zettour in no way lied to Tanya about wanting to end the war despite appearances to the contrary. The reason Rudersdorf had to die wasn't that he was too crazy but rather because he wasn't crazy enough. In fact, Zettour laid out his true intentions to Rudersdorf to judge his reaction in their final conversation:
“We got them interested enough that they're willing to give us conditions. Then if we both lose another million, no, ten million lives, even the stupidest of them will be willing to talk.”
This is Zettour's plan: to make the war so costly for everyone involved that no one will oppose an end to the war no matter what that end looks like. The military, the civilian government, and even the Kaiser are afraid that Zettour has become a dictator. However, we have another word for when one man holds all the responsibility: a scapegoat.
Zettour isn't trying to just end the war. He's trying to prevent the next. To do this, he is willing to not just play the bad guy but become the bad guy outright. This is likely what Zettour told the Kaiser to get his approval. Instead of the responsibility for the war lying with the Kaiser, it will all fall on Zettour. In the end, everyone else will be spared for “just following orders”—well, as long as they don't end up dead on the battlefield.
Will Tanya be among that number? Let's hope for a third season or another film to find out.
Episode 11 Rating:
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Saga of Tanya the Evil II is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
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