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Originally Posted by Akiyoshi
All of your post sounds very reasonable but i must disagree on that part. The series as a whole is definetely itnended to be more serious and dark than previous installements (with varying degrees of success xDU). But the Grendels are blatant comic relief characters, in their few appearances they had beaten the record of funny cartoon faces of all the cast combined, they also cover lots of comedic stereotypes: The loud and flamboyant leader Carter, the heavy Tsundere-ish Maria (seriously she could be a Kugimiya Rie character without trouble xDU), the resident cloud cuckoolander Lolo ...heck, even Quinn with her serious personality plays the foil for most of the group xDU
Sure they may not be very successfull at comedy but the intention of the characters is clear. Of course they also fill the bill for disposable lesser villains (as the Wolks play the role of disposable lesser heroes xDU). But their intention as comedic characters is painfully obvious xDU
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Well, as I've noted before, I have yet to actually see those chapters (the translation ends before they show up, and I haven't cared to dig up raws). But there is a clear distinction I feel needs to be made here.
There are few moments, here and there, in Force (even before the Grendels show up), that are meant to be amusing. But they aren't strictly comedy, either. They aren't meant to make you laugh, so much as bring a bit of a smile. A few lighthearted moments, meant to break the tension of the darker elements present.
That's a bit different than actual comedy. And Force itself is not meant to be a comedy (and neither is Nanoha in general, meant to be a comedy). One of my first real laugh out loud moments was in Season 1, where Nanoha sees Yuuno as a boy for the first time. It was a lighthearted moment, but S1 was in no way a comedy.
That's what we're dealing with here. Yes, the Grendels have specific traits, but I'd wager that's just Tsuzuki being lazy and reducing the trash bad guys to walking stereotypes to make it easy. Minor bad guys aren't known for heavy development or characterization, after all. Their only job is to make just enough of an impact that they aren't Stormtrooper #4352 and pose at least a little danger... and then get walloped/captured/etc.