幼女戦記Ⅱ

They are similar but different. They share a penchant for extremely rational decision making, and are both capable of quickly embracing new concepts into their decision making. What separates them is their motivation. Zettour does not seem to care about sacrificing himself at all if it were to complete his goal of saving the empire. Tanya meanwhile cares most about herself, but has a strong conviction that to protect herself, she must make herself useful in the systems that she is a part of

It's also a big reference to the politics behind WWI. The war kept going because the political side could never agree on what peace should mean between the different countries/alliances. It's also not necessarily them being dumb. The danger of total war is that it's a self reinforcing system. The more the country has sacrificed, the more the people that have made those sacrifices want to see victory. It's the mother of all sunk costs. If they stop now, their country will likely end up collapsing hard due to all the accumulate strain of the war, without anything to show for it. The people won't accept that and will likely hold the politicians responsible, possibly violently. So the only way for the politicians to stay safe at this point is just to continue piling on bodies in the hope of an eventual victory. And if you think this is unrealistic, just look at Russia right now. They're stuck in the same conundrum. The current political elite is toast if they give up on this conflict. So now they're stuck cannibalizing their country in the ever fleeting hope that they might end up victorious. They still keep making insane demands at peace negotiations. Starting a war is easy. Ending them is incredibly hard.

This is a good episode to highlight one of the ways Tanya works over a lot of other Isekai. Is Tanya OP compared to a lot of other characters in her setting? Sure. But there are plenty of others who can effectively challenge her and endanger her life. Like the Russians very nearly killed her this episode...it's a hell of of a lot more engaging if you think the protagonist has to struggle versus the curbstomps so many Isekai characters routinely do against there enemies.

Makes me wonder if the war can be won by overpowering the opposition with the jewels. Everyone will keep pace with one another regard the jewel technology: more power, duration, resilience to breakage, speed of production, etc. We saw that happen regards design of aircraft, tanks and ships throughout WW2 IRL. But could you gain advantage by simply targeting the enemy jewels? Gaining a significant numerical advantage in jewels (and thus mages flying with them) means you'd overwhelm the opposition on a front. Jewel-shattering tech is where the future of this warfare is at. Something else struck me this episode too: Tanya saw Grantz standing beside Zettour below and was instantly able to communicate with him. The mages' best use might be battlefield communications alone - that's how you get proper combined arms - they could use the magic to move their battlegroups around as fast as modern militaries do.

You can also use any helicopter to transport people to hospital, but ambulance helicopters are better equipped for it. I imagine specialised medical mage has computation jewel tuned for carry capacity and speed since they don't need to to cast nukes. They can also carry magic defibrillator instead of a large gun. You also want to give a mage like that advanced medical training to handle larger variety of injuries. It would be expensive to give that kind of training to every drafted mage and their time can be better used learning offensive and defensive magic.

turn invisible Funnily enough, this is actually something she can do. We've seen light magic be used a few different times, one of which was using it to turn invisible (or close enough) with IIRC the V2 mission. It's also responsible for various illusions (e.g. the test to join the mage battalion, in a fight in season 1, in the interrogation scene in season 2). Probably also responsible for the laser attacks that Sue uses too.

IMO the main reason why this works is because you know that Tanya is on the losing side. Yes, the Russian mage was close to her equal and so gave us a fantastic fight scene out of it, but there was never really any doubt as a viewer that Tanya was going to survive. But there was a LOT of doubt about if Zettour was going to survive. Or if the pincer movement would work. Maybe he sacrifices himself to win the battle but dies in the process. Tanya is OP enough to win fights but not SO OP that she can win on her own, let alone wars. And that's what makes things always feel tense and engaging

it's a hell of of a lot more engaging if you think the protagonist has to struggle versus the curbstomps so many Isekai characters routinely do against there enemies. That depends on the anime. For a lot of those anime, the battles aren't the selling point. In their cases, curb stomping the opponent is a feature, not a bug. Of course, there are also a lot where your complaints are correct (there are A LOT of isekai). Reincarnated as a Slime is the best (and worst) example for this IMO.

This is all a simulation put on by god to get a reaction out of him. Who's to say what even happens when he dies. It could just be a training exercise like skeleton soldier couldnt protect the dungeon or Re:Zero. Or maybe he can't die until he learns his lesson. Nothing in this world matters outside of the scope of what the god wants. When the anime ends nothing in the world will really matter, just what the MC learns or cares about in the scope of what the god wants to teach him. It (should be) a really clever misdirect from the writers, we care about the war but in the third act we will probably get tore out of it for the real details that matter.

It was painfully clear to anyone with sense that the war is already lost. The only question now is how badly the Empire will lose. Even victory at this point would be painfully pyrrhic. That's why someone thought this Saldim 528 plan with Tanya's head as bait was Zettour's idea to shock the Empire into accepting a White Peace. I still think that was more or less his goal, but the madlad was willing to up the ante and put his own head on the chopping block as well. He just can't make the crushing defeat look too obvious. He has to try, and still fail, to get the message back to the politicians in not-Berlin... or at least shock his friend Rudersdorf into standing up to the politicians. However, as compromised as his hotheaded friend has become... it would likely backfire and make Rudersdorf that much more reckless. The Empire, and Zettour, are truly in that dire of straits.

Best episode of the season, possibly best episode of the whole series. Zettour having absolute faith in Degurechaff, a complete willingness to die to end the war, them back to back in the fire. Absolute cinema. Who knew that death camps were such an effective way to make elite mages? Here I thought they just starved and worked you to death. Seemed to work out fine for Mikel, who is probably the best mage Tanya has faced yet. Mary is still so funny. She's like a dog; she hears Tanya's name and is already running off for walkies. Tanya might be fine with it, but I'm a little salty every time I see Kampfgruppe (not combat team!) Lehrgen rather than Salamander, Degurechaff, or Zettour. Lehrgen isn't even in the theatre most of the time.

Who knew that death camps were such an effective way to make elite mages? Here I thought they just starved and worked you to death. I thought Salamander Group were going to cut their way through the Federation mages so quickly the AK mages were going to have to swoop in to rescue the Fed. forces. Having them being so hardened by the brutality of the gulags that they have the advantage in shielding is really cool. Will admit to being slightly disappointed that the Federation mages aren't flying around in a mortar and pestle like the Baba Yaga... they've been so good (and funny) with the cultural identities so far, eg.: skis for the Scandinavians and Harry Potter-like broomsticks for the Allied Kingdom.

I read it as Iron Man suits with deliberate lack of cultural significance to signify the party instead. I also reckon that it’s also simply better computation technology. Maybe skipping a few safety regulations. Tanya’s gem was also only reserved for her because it was too dangerous for everyone else if I recall correctly. Maybe in the gulags most mages were lost in experiments or sth. There should be way more than we are shown after all.

Having them being so hardened by the brutality of the gulags that they have the advantage in shielding is really cool. Honestly it's kind of bizarre because it trivializes the horror of the Gulags. They show no visible signs of being mistreated and they are still completely loyal to the party that sent them there. The only consequence of their stint in the Gulag seems to be improved teamwork and combat power and deeper bonds. There is no negative consequence of their time in a freaking death camp, not even psychological scars. I guess Gulag in this world means more something like training camp, not death camp.

I'm betting there is some extra cost to it that we just haven't seen yet. (Well besides the fact that they were arbatriarily discarded and then equally arbitrarily forced into the war when they were needed. That is shitty all on it's own.) Considering we know that Tanya's own computational jewel requires the literal Power of God not to self destruct and kill her, I'm betting the Not-Soviets made their tech on the corpses of ALOT of people. I'm betting the cost is something to do with the synchronizing between users. Like maybe it wears down resistance to the party's propaganda. Creating a quite literal form of group think.

He way the Fed mages fight also very distinct. Mikhail were literally using using his subordinates as human shield as long as it means they can take down the enemy. Granted it's probably a strat only those who went throufhlabor camp hell like them are willing to put themselves as meatshield for their commander, a very communist way of fighting. The Empire's mages constantly dart around them so they obviously have superior mobility, but it seems like the Fed's mage specialized in durability (the computational orb on Mikhail took a whole magdump and was still functional). Iirc each nation develop their mage tech differently. Empire with maximum mobility, Albion with top speed horse model, Entente... idek what those meatball mfker skiis do but I am pretty sure the Federation's are built to tank hits.

Communists made a justifiable infamy of being low tech, ragtag, and brute force, but you shouldn't let that could your judgement to the many technological feats they did achieve. Even with all the purges and bullshit, irl USSR was the first side in the world to introduce sleek fuselage warplanes en masse during the interwar period. That goes for both fighters and bombers. They made a .50 cal machine gun that is slightly lighter, and much simpler, than the Browning M2 around the same years, then later introduced one that is 10 kilograms lighter after WW2. Their tank designs once they locked tf in were some of the best in the world, it's not just their massive numbers that counted. The US also likes to think itself the only nation in WW2 to introduce a mass issue semi-automatic rifle, but the Soviets actually did it first with the one you can see in the episode (probably, I need to look closer, but I'm fairly certain it's either an SVT-38 or an SVT-40, the latter was the specific model produced in the millions but it's practically the same design). They only couldn't field their whole army by virtue of having a much larger army and the whole having your country and factories under attack bit. All to say, it's not out of the realm of possibility for this world that the Soviets have extremely advanced computation jewels. They had straight up orc technology in many respects ( cough cough Mosin-Nagant cough ), but in others they were at moments at the leading edge. This is simply the nature of logistics for such an immense state.

Didn't the movie have a couple of other Imperial Aces fight against the Allies? Tanya is an Ace of Aces, but she has serious competition even within her own ranks. Nevermind the entirety of the Allied mages, it makes sense that 1-2 Federation mages are just as cracked. They've survived the Gulags, and probably came out tougher, like with Tanyas own mage wing. They just don't meet up, generally, because they are engaged elsewhere.

It was only Mary Sue who fought on equal ground with Tanya, because Mary was also blessed by Being X, just as her father was before his last clash with Tanya. It's been well established in the series that no mage can stand up to Tanya if they haven't been blessed by Being X, but suddenly these Federation mages who should be lacking in nutrition, health, combat training, and experience tanked a shot from one of Tanya's Blessed Spells and then kept trucking with an impentrable shield that withstood the combined fire of her entire unit and herself. This fight sucked because it just went full battle shonen and power crept the setting for no real reason.