[arkhangelsk]

Originally Posted by Avatar_notADV

For story purposes, I'm prepared to accept Regius as a good reason why TSAB isn't more focused on anti-gadget doctrine, detection, prevention, yadda yadda. We know he's directly responsible for spiking dissemination of anti-AMF doctrine, for example. It's certainly not much of a further stretch to posit that he's been using his influence to keep TSAB away from things that would make Jail less effective - not with an eye to making them able to punch him out, just so that they don't get caught/tracked down and expose him in return. He's genuinely surprised that Jail ended up turning on him, right? So he's got a nasty suspicious mind but it's pointed at the wrong direction (i.e. Hayate and her subordinates, not his own mess). ;p

I'll actually think that he never really trusted Jail, not since Zest died. Remember that someone was quite noisy about Ep5 - that was probably Regius. What was probably the surprise was that they would dare, and can mount a workable raid into his HQ. That, at least, was the assessment shared by TSABbies, and is not a particular flaw of Regius.

And to be fair, the guy does have a strategic purpose that none of our heroines seem to share - to institutionalize capability into the Ground Forces. Right now, what security the TSAB provides is by Arcenciel and by what seems to be horribly few elite mages. The capability is individual, not as an institution, which is a very delicate situation to say the least.

Personally, I enjoy having fun with the weird technical/societal/doctrinal aspects of Nanoha because it's there to have fun with. Sure, at the end of the day, "writers weren't that great" is the conclusion to come to. But it's fun to figure out how it might have worked. I had a lot of fun with that "hey, wait" thing comparing the TSAB strategy meeting thing to ancient Japanese military/political control structures, for example. It's kind of fanciful, sure. But it COULD work!

My sentiments exactly. While one should always be conscious of the stupidity of the authors, trying to analyze what works, what doesn't work, why they might make particular choices is a lot more helpful, and fun.

I don't know if you can make conclusions about Fate's scythe. Actual scythes are ineffective melee weapons because they're rather cumbersome and oddly-balanced. But Bardiche isn't a real scythe; he's a staff that happens to sport a (weightless, presumably) energy blade. Thus, the awkward balance isn't nearly as much of an issue, especially because he simultaneously increases his user's speed to compensate and then some. That said, Fate's also comfortable just whacking stuff with Bardiche as an ax...

Also, admonitions to "take it easy" now make me envision floating Nanoha and Fate heads. "Yukkuri..."

Also, with the scythe, they showed Fate as consistently useful with it. SO while the scythe might be a poor decision, she does have the skill to force it to work (at least versus the opponents she faces), so it says something nice.

Originally Posted by Jimmy C

Funny you should say that, Zest already pwned both Signum and Vita in StrikerS, even if Signum finally did him in. If he had been in A's, The Wolkies would have been crushed in ep4.

Point.

That would have to depend on how they go down, don't you think? There are so many ways to do it without making them look like idiots in a fistfight.

Obviously, the example would have to show him being competent, so let's say he wins by using real world sword fighting methods versus the anime methods - rather than Zest's brute force win. Sorry I can't be more specific but melee is Keroko's forte, not mine.

Originally Posted by Keroko

Query: Is Nanoha a show meant to display a realistic military in a realistic military setting?

Observation: Nanoha is a magical girl show that has a bit of military sprinkled in. The show itself is meant to represent heroines battling the wicked forces and helping the weak through the power of friendship and beams of pink death.

Yes. Now, since they have chosen to sprinkle the military in, the parts we DO see should be made into ... well, at least something not hopelessly incompetent.

If they were really set on making a magical girl show, instead of seeing anyone fighting in Ep23, we should have all of them stay home and mutter sugary crap like "The Aces, I trust you" or "You are our only hope now, aces..."

Analysis: Being that is the case, the scenario writers (whom themselves aren't exactly an army in numbers) will do research into the military as far as is considered important. Ranks, methods of referral and some military jargon will be found and utilized. Research into proper military tactics won't yield enough knowledge to accurately write battle tactics unless vast amounts of research is made. This is not even counting the research needed for animators to display such a setting.

If anything, as a whole superficial research will probably OVERESTIMATE what we can do, which is less of a problem when setting a baseline for your sci-fi/magic to exceed so as to look genuinely impressive. Superficial reviews the new, and the potential (for example, this radar can detect 300km out). Most of the time, it is digging deep that will review all the limitations of equipment (but not when the target is under 1000m in altitude), organizations and proliferation.

Secondary query: What is the target audience of Nanoha? Are military buffs among them?

Observation: The target audience of Nanoha are fans of the magical girl and action genre.

Uh, Tk3997, Mirificus, ATC, and me don't exist? What was the point of sprinkling in the military if not to attract suckers like us?

Conclusion: Since the show was never meant to display a realistically accurate military setting, attempting to do a vast amount of research into correct military tactics is a waste of time and budget, and is better spend elsewhere.

Like what.