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

Avatar_notADV · 2007-06-05, 16:12

Hey, I'm just quoting Elio and his little-boy understanding of the military that we see a few years ago, from the manga. (Basically "the Ground Forces are where you start, and they're part of the team too even if you're better than they are" mantra.) And since Subaru definitely started off with the ground-pounders, and Tea and Subaru were partnered all through training, right up until Nanoha shanghaied them... Of course, once they finished their grunt training, had they not signed up with Div 6, they may have indeed gone their separate ways immediately.

Officer training is academy-type work in the real world. We don't know how much theoretical work trainees get as a matter of course - I mean, obviously they need a lot more math than the average grunt, given the relationship between math and Mid magic - but there's no telling whether that extends to battle formations or logistics and supply or leadership.

Actually, if I might digress for a moment, it's entirely possible that a lot of 20th century military concepts might not function properly in the context of the Mid armed forces. I mean, what's a battle line to forces that can insert from space and freakin' -teleport-? Certainly the ground forces composition makes more sense if you think of them as ground-holders rather than a mobile unit... "Hold this facility no matter what" types. Rather more horrifyingly, if you can sneak a 10-year-old girl into the enemy's rear area and then she whips out a device and does her best Nanoha impression, that's gonna be -hell- on the idea of limiting civilian casualties in a conflict...

Of course, we don't know that there IS a conflict per se. Does Mid have any unfriendly neighbors? What are the "borders" of an inter-dimensional empire, anyway? It's entirely possible that they've just never run into the kind of organized resistance that has made them use military magic on a total-war scale. We can assume that they don't do so regularly, or lately, given a few clues (you don't act like the JSDF if you get shot at a lot), but the history's a blank so far.

2007-06-05, 16:12	Link #21
Avatar_notADV Once and Current Subber Join Date: Dec 2005	Hey, I'm just quoting Elio and his little-boy understanding of the military that we see a few years ago, from the manga. (Basically "the Ground Forces are where you start, and they're part of the team too even if you're better than they are" mantra.) And since Subaru definitely started off with the ground-pounders, and Tea and Subaru were partnered all through training, right up until Nanoha shanghaied them... Of course, once they finished their grunt training, had they not signed up with Div 6, they may have indeed gone their separate ways immediately. Officer training is academy-type work in the real world. We don't know how much theoretical work trainees get as a matter of course - I mean, obviously they need a lot more math than the average grunt, given the relationship between math and Mid magic - but there's no telling whether that extends to battle formations or logistics and supply or leadership. Actually, if I might digress for a moment, it's entirely possible that a lot of 20th century military concepts might not function properly in the context of the Mid armed forces. I mean, what's a battle line to forces that can insert from space and freakin' -teleport-? Certainly the ground forces composition makes more sense if you think of them as ground-holders rather than a mobile unit... "Hold this facility no matter what" types. Rather more horrifyingly, if you can sneak a 10-year-old girl into the enemy's rear area and then she whips out a device and does her best Nanoha impression, that's gonna be -hell- on the idea of limiting civilian casualties in a conflict... Of course, we don't know that there IS a conflict per se. Does Mid have any unfriendly neighbors? What are the "borders" of an inter-dimensional empire, anyway? It's entirely possible that they've just never run into the kind of organized resistance that has made them use military magic on a total-war scale. We can assume that they don't do so regularly, or lately, given a few clues (you don't act like the JSDF if you get shot at a lot), but the history's a blank so far.