Live action TV
Description
Iscandar is the name of a planet and its ruling royal family within the narrative. The most prominent figure is Queen Starsha Iscandar, a central character whose actions drive the primary conflict of the story. She is a member of the Iscandarian species, an ancient race of humanoid beings who were once a powerful and expansionist empire that used wave motion energy to conquer much of the Large Magellanic Cloud. After this period of violence, the surviving Iscandarians abandoned their aggressive ways and adopted a strict philosophy of absolute pacifism and the protection of all life in the universe. By the year 2199, the Iscandarian population has dwindled to near extinction, with Queen Starsha and her sisters, Sasha and Yurisha, being among the last of their kind.
Queen Starsha is defined by a deep and burdensome sense of responsibility. Her primary motivation is to prevent the horrific history of Iscandar, where her people used wave motion technology for conquest and destruction, from ever being repeated. This core belief weighs heavily on her, making her both a benevolent figure and a cautious judge of other civilizations. Her personality is a complex mix of profound compassion and a paralyzing fear of the consequences of her own actions. While she is dedicated to saving life, she is also secretive and isolated, often bearing the weight of her decisions alone. This internal conflict becomes the central obstacle for the protagonists of the story.
Starsha’s role in the story is that of a hidden benefactor and a moral arbiter. As Earth is being bombarded into a radioactive wasteland by the Garmillas Empire, Starsha acts in secret. Despite her close political and personal ties to Garmillas and its leader, Abelt Dessler, she cannot stand by and watch the destruction of another world. She sends her sister Sasha to Earth with the plans for a wave motion engine and a wave motion core, technology that allows faster-than-light travel. She also sends a message, inviting humanity to travel to Iscandar to receive the Cosmo Reverse System, a device capable of restoring Earth’s poisoned biosphere. This invitation sets the entire journey of the space battleship Yamato into motion.
Upon the Yamato’s arrival at Iscandar, Starsha’s character undergoes significant development. She initially refuses to give the Cosmo Reverse System to the crew. Having witnessed both Dessler’s forces and the Yamato itself use wave motion weapons of mass destruction, she is horrified to see the same cycle of violence beginning again. She fears that humanity, like her own people long ago, will use the power she has given them to become a new empire of conquest. She only relents after seeing evidence that humanity, specifically the Yamato crew, used their wave motion gun solely to protect life, not to destroy. She gives the system to the Earth forces on the condition that they dismantle their weapon and promise never to build another, forcing humanity to prove its worthiness.
Key relationships are central to her development. Her relationship with Abelt Dessler is one of a former alliance that sours as she recognizes his imperialistic brutality. Although she acknowledges his feelings for her, she maintains a formal distance from him. A more profound connection is with Mamoru Kodai, a human officer who is captured and crash-lands on Iscandar. She nurses him and, in his final days, develops a strong affection for him. She preserves his consciousness and, unbeknownst to his brother, she becomes pregnant with his child.
As an Iscandarian, Queen Starsha possesses notable abilities beyond her species’ advanced technology. Her race has psychic capabilities, including telepathy and the ability to project individual consciousness. She can also preserve a person’s consciousness as pure energy after their death. The Iscandarians are also biologically compatible with humans, allowing for the conception of hybrid offspring. In the expansive lore of the series, other members of the Iscandar royal family exist, such as the ancient figure Shalbart Iscandar, who was venerated as a saint by the Garmillan people for her role as a leader. Another member, Stasha Iscandar, is known to observe events in a non-physical form alongside other spirits of the royal line.
Queen Starsha is defined by a deep and burdensome sense of responsibility. Her primary motivation is to prevent the horrific history of Iscandar, where her people used wave motion technology for conquest and destruction, from ever being repeated. This core belief weighs heavily on her, making her both a benevolent figure and a cautious judge of other civilizations. Her personality is a complex mix of profound compassion and a paralyzing fear of the consequences of her own actions. While she is dedicated to saving life, she is also secretive and isolated, often bearing the weight of her decisions alone. This internal conflict becomes the central obstacle for the protagonists of the story.
Starsha’s role in the story is that of a hidden benefactor and a moral arbiter. As Earth is being bombarded into a radioactive wasteland by the Garmillas Empire, Starsha acts in secret. Despite her close political and personal ties to Garmillas and its leader, Abelt Dessler, she cannot stand by and watch the destruction of another world. She sends her sister Sasha to Earth with the plans for a wave motion engine and a wave motion core, technology that allows faster-than-light travel. She also sends a message, inviting humanity to travel to Iscandar to receive the Cosmo Reverse System, a device capable of restoring Earth’s poisoned biosphere. This invitation sets the entire journey of the space battleship Yamato into motion.
Upon the Yamato’s arrival at Iscandar, Starsha’s character undergoes significant development. She initially refuses to give the Cosmo Reverse System to the crew. Having witnessed both Dessler’s forces and the Yamato itself use wave motion weapons of mass destruction, she is horrified to see the same cycle of violence beginning again. She fears that humanity, like her own people long ago, will use the power she has given them to become a new empire of conquest. She only relents after seeing evidence that humanity, specifically the Yamato crew, used their wave motion gun solely to protect life, not to destroy. She gives the system to the Earth forces on the condition that they dismantle their weapon and promise never to build another, forcing humanity to prove its worthiness.
Key relationships are central to her development. Her relationship with Abelt Dessler is one of a former alliance that sours as she recognizes his imperialistic brutality. Although she acknowledges his feelings for her, she maintains a formal distance from him. A more profound connection is with Mamoru Kodai, a human officer who is captured and crash-lands on Iscandar. She nurses him and, in his final days, develops a strong affection for him. She preserves his consciousness and, unbeknownst to his brother, she becomes pregnant with his child.
As an Iscandarian, Queen Starsha possesses notable abilities beyond her species’ advanced technology. Her race has psychic capabilities, including telepathy and the ability to project individual consciousness. She can also preserve a person’s consciousness as pure energy after their death. The Iscandarians are also biologically compatible with humans, allowing for the conception of hybrid offspring. In the expansive lore of the series, other members of the Iscandar royal family exist, such as the ancient figure Shalbart Iscandar, who was venerated as a saint by the Garmillan people for her role as a leader. Another member, Stasha Iscandar, is known to observe events in a non-physical form alongside other spirits of the royal line.