The epic space opera, Tytania. A tale of the intergalactic power struggle between the mighty Tytania clan and the unassuming yet charismatic rebel, Fan Hyulick, the universe’s sole beacon of hope against the oppressive Tytania regime. There were space battles aplenty, but the real focus was on character motivations and lots of political maneuvering. The readers are already crying out, “Oh no, politics!”, but politics can actually be… Interesting. With the conclusion of Tytania’s first season, I wanted to talk about various aspects of the show from the characters to various plot points.

Ariabert Tytania. He loves fighting and a good cup of tea.

To explore the aspects of the plot, first we will take a look at the principle players in this opera, starting with the Tytania clan’s Duke Ariabert Tytania. He is the initial character we are introduced to, as well as the first to be humbled by defeat at the hands of Fan Hyulick. Ariabert started as the archetypal Tytania, prideful and arrogant to a fault, which culminated in the first loss Tytania had experienced in 200 years when his fleet was crippled by the resourceful and crafty Hyulick. Ariabert was utterly humiliated but eventually swallowed his pride and utilized the same tactic that defeated him to quell a rebellion in another system, showing some growth as a character. Aside from these two events, Ariabert hasn’t done much in the story yet, so it’s difficult to say much about him besides the fact that he admires Jouslain and doesn’t seem to particularly care about becoming the next clan lord. However with the death of Zarlish, he will soon get his chance to shine with his new appointment to field commander of the Tytania armada. I don’t know how many of our readers are familiar with Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but I’ll make an analogy here nonetheless. I see Ariabert as something of a Zhao Yun kind of character. Ariabert is a valiant field commander with a solid grasp of the fundamentals of battle while having a good head on his shoulders, such as knowing when to put his ego aside and when to retreat.

The ambitious Idris Tytania. He’s always scheming some kind of plan.

Next we move on to Duke Idris, the youngest of the four dukes. One word comes to mind when trying to describe him. Snake. In popular lore, the snake is thought of as being deceitful and vindictive, which fits the machiavellian Idris perfectly. He is constantly scheming, using people to his own devices, and isn’t afraid to dispose of those that have lost their value to him. You can judge a person by the people they keep around him, and Idris doesn’t exactly keep people of high caliber around him as demonstrated by his willingness to use and dispose of Alses and Berthier for his own ends. Alses was the black sheep of the proud clan, and no one wanted anything to do with him due to his vanity, incompetence and cruelty. Berthier betrayed his countrymen and sold his country and cheap loyalty to Tytania. Idris’s deep-rooted ambition stems from his desire to become the next clan lord after witnessing how devoted his father was to Tytania only to die a dog’s death in the end. Essentially, Idris’s motivation is to become numero uno and push everyone else around, and he doesn’t care who he steps on to get there. Case in point, Idris used Alses as the sacrificial lamb so that Tytania could finally declare its personal war on Fan Hyulick. No matter how evil or stupid Alses was, it was still Idris that orchestrated the events that lead to Hyulick killing Alses. His youth and desire to prove all his naysayers wrong makes him extremely brash, almost at the level of Zarlish. His combination of intelligence and brashness makes him extremely dangerous and unpredictable. On several occasions he will often sabotage the other dukes for his own advancement, and his actions often help Tytania in the short-run but are detrimental in the long run. While Fan Hyulick destroys Tytania from the outside, Idris is destroying Tytania from the inside. While Tytania the show has no true villains, Idris comes pretty darn close. In keeping with my RoTK analogies, Idris is a Cao Cao. Cao Cao is most known for being cunning and deceitful to achieve his ends, not caring who he stepped on to get there. Perhaps his most famous line in RoTK was, “I would rather betray the world than let the world betray me”. It perfectly fits the way Idris thinks.

Zarlish Tytania. A “shoot first, ask questions later” kind of guy.

Next up is Zarlish Tytania. Brash courage is his calling card, and in a show where intelligence, strategy and deceit win the game, his days were seriously numbered. After his mother sent him on a blind hunt for Fan Hyulick to avenge the death of Alses, I had the foreboding sense that Zarlish was going to bite the bucket before the end of the season. Zarlish didn’t have a mind for politics, as he always advocated the iron fist approach to everything, but shined on the battlefield with a zealous, almost reckless abandon. The man had courage in spades, but he often failed to fully analyze a situation before rushing in, which was both his greatest strength and weakness. All in all, he wasn’t stupid nor was he a bad guy. Despite the fact that his brother was a narcissistic nitwit, he still cared for him. Although he didn’t always listen to his subordinates, he did genuinely care about his men, which shows the strength of his character. The other dukes didn’t always agree with his one track mind, but he was an important pillar to Tytania. Valiant, headstrong, a man that only knows war… I’ll say Zarlish was Tytania’s Guan Yu. He gave his everything to Tytania, and it took no less than a platoon of armed soldiers to finally take him down. It was regrettable that Zarlish came so close to his goal of capturing Hyulick on multiple occasions only to meet with failure, especially since it was all at the behest of his foolish mother.

Jouslain Tytania. Enigmatic and brilliant.

Last is the enigmatic Jouslain Tytania, considered by many to be the greatest among Tytania’s four dukes. Several characters in the show have said outright that he is the most talented of the dukes, and the only successor worthy to become the clan lord. However, Jouslain himself said he wished Tytania would never require he fully utilize his skills, as it would entail Tytania being in danger. Though he is generally known as a peacemaker, he has shown on several occasions to be utterly brilliant and ruthless when necessary. He truly is the most balanced of the four dukes, excelling in all aspects of strategy, politics, and social skills. He has demonstrated he possesses a multitude of soft skills the other dukes lack by taking care of Princess Lydia and shaping Bal’ami to be a respectable man. Before talking about Jouslain further, I’ll use this opportunity to talk about Lydia and Bal.

Princess Lydia, one of the few female leads in the show.

Lydia is the spontaneous and spunky princess that is surprisingly mature for her age. She’s a bit naive yet seems to have a deep understanding of politics and the workings of Tytania. She’s supposedly supposed to be a major focus of the story, and the plot looks to be ingratiating her with the Tytania clan, especially Jouslain who sees the passion in her heart. Her true role in the series still remains to be seen as most of her screentime thus far has been devoted to character development, and she hasn’t done anything too major.

Bal’ami to me started out as a cookie-cutter Tytanian; ambitious, arrogant, foolish, and looking for advancement. Bal tried convincing his father, Marquis Estrades to start a coup against Ajman and take his rightful place as clan lord. Seemingly aware of Bal’s ambition, Jouslain took the young Tytanian under his wing as an adjutant and fostered positive growth in the young man. Bal soon realized the error of his ways and tried to dissuade his father, but it was in vain as Estrades continued with the attempted coup and lost his life. Bal could have just as easily lost his life or become another Idris due to his blind ambition, but it was Jouslain that guided him on the correct path.

Jouslain has demonstrated aspects of his personality that the other dukes lack through the way he interacts with other characters, especially Lydia and Bal. He’s not ambitious. He doesn’t even want to be clan lord, a position of unlimited power. Unlike Zarlish and Idris, power is not his motivation. He desires peace and works toward that end tirelessly. Though the show has played a large focus on Jouslain as the yin to Fan Hyulick’s yang, his calm demeanor makes him difficult to read, even to those that know him best. I will refrain from Jouslain’s RoTK analogy until I get to Fan.

Ajman Tytania… What to say about Ajman? He really hasn’t done much besides sit at his desk looking cool. At the very least we know he’s comfortable with delegating the day to day running of Tytania to the dukes. Otherwise he just sits around looking cool and badass, making comments amount how the bitterness of coffee suits defeat and such.

Galactic goofball and savior of the universe, Fan Hyulick.

I’ll wrap up the character analysis portion of this article by examining Fan Hyulick. In the first episode he was appointed to the post of Admiral by the Eurian government to essentially fight and lose the battle against Ariabert. On a whim, Fan Hyulick decided he wanted to win the battle and handed an embarrassing loss to Ariabert and the whole of Tytania. Fan’s renown as hero and savior of the universe helped him gather a motley crew of talented individuals after getting discharged by Euria. Fan essentially wandered around as a vagrant for half the season until the death of his beloved (and useless) Lira spurred him into taking vengeance against the equally incompetent Alses Tytania. Lira’s final wish to see a universe without Tytania is now his driving motivation. Though he is a goofball with a strange penchant for omelets, it is often shown that Fan Hyulick is truly something special. He has proven that Tytania is not invincible by delivering heavy blows to the Tytania regime by defeating Ariabert and killing the “impervious” Zarlish.

As a whole, Tytania as an organization is the galactic bully that beats up smaller, weaker kids (planets) and takes their lunch money (through contributions and resources). Fan Hyulick is “that” guy that stood up to the bully and gave him a bloody nose. He has inspired others to stand against Tytania, though these outside efforts often end in failure. Case in point, Doormat Doorman’s little rebellion with the Blaze Flag army was utterly decimated by Zarlish. Even competent people can’t stand against Tytania. Albert Kanack gave Zarlish trouble by impeding the latter’s progress in his hunt for Hyulick but ultimately succumbed to Tytania’s fear tactics.

Jouslain and Fan meeting face to face.

Now I didn’t forget about the analogy I skipped earlier. Jouslain and Fan are like two sides of the coin. Jouslain is the only true rival of Fan, and Fan is the only true rival of Jouslain. They are equally talented as demonstrated through their acknowledgment of each other at the end of episode 24 with their spiritual face off and again in 26 when they finally met face to face. Fan and Jouslain are equal, one is not greater than the other, so with that I’ll say both are like Zhuge Liang, RoTK’s peerless strategist. I know the RoTK buffs are saying, “Hey Noirsword, hey Noirsword, Zhuge Liang did have rivals like Sima Yi and Zhou Yu, and he did have an equal in Pang Tong”. Sima Yi, Zhou Yu and Pang Tong were inferior to Zhuge Liang in various degrees, so they don’t really compare.

The dynamic between Tytania and Hyulick is very much a war of class. Clan Tytania is regal and full of nobles. Fan represents the everyday man, the middle and lower class people resent being oppressed by Tytania. The people will soon rally against Tytania as Fan continues to win battles and gain popular support.

We know Tytania is destined going to fall, ushering in a new age for the universe, but the drama stems from how Tytania will fall. Mainly how Fan will go about gathering his army, how Tytania will respond, and the strategies both sides will employ in battle. The house that Tytania built still stands strong, but Fan has quite literally knocked out one of the house’s major pillars. The foundation is also starting to rot with rampant incompetence and greed among Tytania’s lower ranks (See: Corrupt officials and a willingness to hire turncoats that betray their countries and comrades). The first season was just the tip of the iceberg, and many more exciting battles are sure to be in store.

One of the major complaints about the show is its slow pacing. I consider it more methodical than slow because a rebellion against the galaxy’s super power isn’t going to happen overnight, it takes time. Fan has also needed time to find himself as well as a reason to fight. If I had to wager a guess, this story is only 1/3 over. There are still three dukes left, and they will only get more dangerous as Fan defeats each and moves on to the next, eventually culminating in a battle for control of the universe with Jouslain and/or Ajman. I can’t wait for the next season to see what happens next.

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