So, thoughts on the episode.
I'd actually forgotten that this series believes in anyone dying - I kinda had a hope that Latrova would survive. I'd forgotten that it's possible to be too cool to live. Colonel Badass, Ace Pilot, Mother to her troops, knows when to shift from being a hardass to a Team Mom...
*salutes*
That said, once Sandek suggested the eastern front needed heroes, I knew in my heart there was no way Latrova and Zhar were getting outta there alive. I hoped, but....
daaaaamn. Fuckin' hurts.
Hero of the Soviet Union is a decoration given out. Supposedly it's the highest honor the Soviet Union can give, equivalent to the Medal of Honor. In practice... it depends on the circumstances that led to the person being awarded the medal. Brezhenv and
Zhukov were both awarded four times, but nobody can deny that Zhukov earned his medals, unlike Brezhnev... So it's some consolation, but not much.
While there's the usual animation derp, I have to say I'm impressed with the animators - most people would animate dumb iron bombs, but the animators are using cluster self-forging fragment submunitions. Ace Combat players, those bombers were dropping SFFS cluster bombs on Zhar. And I can see those being extremely useful if you had air superiority, as these are powerful area effect weapons (as an example, the American Mk 20 Rockeye cluster bomb uses the same principle, and is one of the many aircraft delivered antitank weapons in use: at the time of the Cold War and Gulf War, Maverick missiles and Rockeyes were used for antitank missions, before being supplanted by laser-guided bombs and JDAMs).
Also, given how Shwarzesmarken notes that all TSF cockpit recorders record all data, and how Commissars can both listed to the records and live mike, I figure Latrova was trying to not say anything explicitly over the comms, but to no avail - it's quite clear she knew too much.
Sandek is... a pragmatic villain. I can actually sympathise/understand his position: I'm in a similar position of being an expert and the man with a plan, who the bosses don't listen to or value, and treat like shit, but get called in to bail people's asses outta the fire. Still, that was a dick move.
Last words: Goddamnit Soviets. Goddamn you. Burn in hell Rogofski. Goddamn motherfucking tosvarish chekist. Yob tovyu mat.
(And that exhausts the last bit of my Russian.)