AnimeSuki Forum - View Single Post - Military, Authority & Decisions In MSLN series

Avatar_notADV · 2007-06-05, 13:25

Japanese military, Cats, remember? "you just screwed up bad, trainee, I'm gonna hit you" is not frowned upon. Even the Signum Punch is within normal discipline.

We have to place Div 6's performance in light of the context - that is to say, in a 26-episode anime series. ;p Thus, having the opponents show up and do something, succeed (to show that they're not total incompetents, and thus dangerous enemies), and get away (so that we don't have a 13-ep series!) is totally understandable.

Given the rather huge deficiencies in intelligence that they're suffering under (total lack of knowledge about enemy intentions, force estimates, capabilities other than "yeah, okay, we've seen three types of drone", whereas same enemy can keep them under observation during action...), it's hardly a surprise that they're not acting in an optimal fashion anyway.

As far as the hotel, an actual military action would have been "clear the hotel, call in reinforcements". With the restriction of not suspending the auction or alerting civilians to incoming trouble, they did okay - they got diverted by the diversion because, well, what have they been DOING but fighting drones? Good thinking on behalf of the opposition, plus absolutely superior intelligence, and a very limited objective that was -not- what Div 6 was there to prevent, allowed a success there.

As far as the training problems go, absolutely, the objectives of the training exercises should have been stated up front. If it's necessary to take it slow and break in the trainees to prevent them from suffering physical harm, you -freaking tell them that-. Hell, Nanoha even has this nifty anecdote about how, despite her Ace of Aces and S+ and aura of absolute awesomeness, pushing it too hard almost killed HER, and hey won't you -look- at the scar! This, I think, is a failure caused by narrative demands, which is still kind of weak on behalf of the writers, but understandable - they can't "surprise" the viewer with the whole "Nanoha got shot up" thing if they explain it in advance. But still, poor form.

Tea's whole freaking out... well, I'll say going in that Tea's baggage is her own damn problem. But with modern special forces training, that shouldn't be any sort of problem whatsoever; NOBODY who gets selected for SEAL training thinks that they're average, it's part of the mentality you're instilling into the trainees. Nanoha, well, she doesn't know that, and she ought to - she's certainly presented as someone who's done her goddamned homework when it comes to training, and even if the TSA's totally ignorant on how to do this stuff, she happens to be "really good friends" with the world's greatest expert on the most comprehensive archives in existence. Presumably Yuuno could have dug up some US Army special forces training manuals, or someone else's equivalents; even if he didn't do so on his own accord as an excuse to drop in on Nanoha... ;p

But Nanoha obviously hasn't read anything on the topic, so either she's haring off in a completely different direction out of sheer pig-headedness, or we've run into a limitation of information the writers didn't have. I vote (b) here. They can't make Nanoha know something they don't know themselves, and let's be honest, the ins and outs of military training in a special forces unit are not a topic of general interest or something you'd find a lot of Japanese literature addressing!

However, the resolution was pure Nanoha - "you're not listening to me, so I shall pwn you until you shut up and listen for a second!" And it worked, again. ;p (I personally would have been happier with a discussion with everyone there, if only so Tea could say "wait, wait, who in here has been in a fight with Nanoha?!" and seen the hands go up...)

2007-06-05, 13:25	Link #19
Avatar_notADV Once and Current Subber Join Date: Dec 2005	Japanese military, Cats, remember? "you just screwed up bad, trainee, I'm gonna hit you" is not frowned upon. Even the Signum Punch is within normal discipline. We have to place Div 6's performance in light of the context - that is to say, in a 26-episode anime series. ;p Thus, having the opponents show up and do something, succeed (to show that they're not total incompetents, and thus dangerous enemies), and get away (so that we don't have a 13-ep series!) is totally understandable. Given the rather huge deficiencies in intelligence that they're suffering under (total lack of knowledge about enemy intentions, force estimates, capabilities other than "yeah, okay, we've seen three types of drone", whereas same enemy can keep them under observation during action...), it's hardly a surprise that they're not acting in an optimal fashion anyway. As far as the hotel, an actual military action would have been "clear the hotel, call in reinforcements". With the restriction of not suspending the auction or alerting civilians to incoming trouble, they did okay - they got diverted by the diversion because, well, what have they been DOING but fighting drones? Good thinking on behalf of the opposition, plus absolutely superior intelligence, and a very limited objective that was -not- what Div 6 was there to prevent, allowed a success there. As far as the training problems go, absolutely, the objectives of the training exercises should have been stated up front. If it's necessary to take it slow and break in the trainees to prevent them from suffering physical harm, you -freaking tell them that-. Hell, Nanoha even has this nifty anecdote about how, despite her Ace of Aces and S+ and aura of absolute awesomeness, pushing it too hard almost killed HER, and hey won't you -look- at the scar! This, I think, is a failure caused by narrative demands, which is still kind of weak on behalf of the writers, but understandable - they can't "surprise" the viewer with the whole "Nanoha got shot up" thing if they explain it in advance. But still, poor form. Tea's whole freaking out... well, I'll say going in that Tea's baggage is her own damn problem. But with modern special forces training, that shouldn't be any sort of problem whatsoever; NOBODY who gets selected for SEAL training thinks that they're average, it's part of the mentality you're instilling into the trainees. Nanoha, well, she doesn't know that, and she ought to - she's certainly presented as someone who's done her goddamned homework when it comes to training, and even if the TSA's totally ignorant on how to do this stuff, she happens to be "really good friends" with the world's greatest expert on the most comprehensive archives in existence. Presumably Yuuno could have dug up some US Army special forces training manuals, or someone else's equivalents; even if he didn't do so on his own accord as an excuse to drop in on Nanoha... ;p But Nanoha obviously hasn't read anything on the topic, so either she's haring off in a completely different direction out of sheer pig-headedness, or we've run into a limitation of information the writers didn't have. I vote (b) here. They can't make Nanoha know something they don't know themselves, and let's be honest, the ins and outs of military training in a special forces unit are not a topic of general interest or something you'd find a lot of Japanese literature addressing! However, the resolution was pure Nanoha - "you're not listening to me, so I shall pwn you until you shut up and listen for a second!" And it worked, again. ;p (I personally would have been happier with a discussion with everyone there, if only so Tea could say "wait, wait, who in here has been in a fight with Nanoha?!" and seen the hands go up...)