Line #102 Headscratchers/ValkyriaChronicles


1	[[WMG:VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles]]
2	* It's implied that up to 1/5th of Gallia's population of 800,000 people are in the military. [[spoiler:Selvaria is said to have destroyed the bulk of the Gallian military at Ghirlandaio. Did they really squeeze 150,000 people into that one citadel? With the powerful Valkyrur witch that had just spent the past year jobbing the fuck out of their entire nation? The one who's powers they don't fully understand?]]
3	** Well, that was only the main part of the active forces. There are a lot more reserves behind usually.
4	** The Gallian military has been fighting a nonstop total war against a superpower with a military disparity not unlike Serbia/Montinegro VS Austria-Hungary or Finland VS USSR, only with the added "bonus" that most of the Gallian military are woefully inept and can't really compete equally with the Imperials (which is in direct contrast to the hypercompetent bit players I mentioned before) with only the units you command really punching anywhere near their weight, much less above it. Couple this with horrifically poor leadership (again, [[GeneralFailure Damon]], whose great strategy to counter the Imperial army amounts to ZergRush and WeHaveReserves, in spite of the fact that they actually DON'T have reserves compared to the Empire but just ACT like they do). While conscription would have offset the losses to some extent, sooner or later you run out of able-bodied people to do so, and thus [[spoiler: the Gallian military by any estimate would have been vastly weaker than its peacetime strength by the time of Ghirlandaio and thus requiring far fewer casualties to constitute as having lost the majority of their (remaining) strength. That, and even assuming absolutely no Gallian had been killed since the start of the war, Selvaria wouldn't have had to kill ALL of them, just MOST of them, and 75,000 and up would constitute as doing so. Couple this with the attrition we KNOW they suffered, and Selvaria didn't have to kill nearly that many Gallians in order to destroy the bulk of their military).]]
5	* Just how does ragnite's energy ''work'', exactly? The intro goes to great lengths to describe it as a limited resource; it's implied to be non-renewable, especially when it gets refined into things like fuel and medicine... but then you gets things like the interior of Barious temple, which is made of rock with ragnite in it, and where the walls have been glowing for thousands of years. That almost sounds like it emits radiation that happens to be in the visible spectrum and has a long half-life. But then there's the Valkyrian armaments, which certain people can extract a lot of energy from all at once, repeatedly and seemingly without depleting it. Does it absorb energy from sunlight, or does being a Valkyria just act as a catalyst to get a reaction that scientists haven't been able to reproduce?
6	** I thought of it more like a uranium that doesn't give cancer from using too much of it. (as it were). Remember, you know who died in what was practically a controlled nuclear explosion.
7	** I think it's more like crude oil, the ore is actually a whole series of different compounds that can be extracted from each other and used for various functions. We hear of Ragnite being used in armour plating and as an explosive, so there's obviously a great deal of variance in the properties of the various forms. We're told the Valkyrur knew how to make some ultra-pure form for use in their energy weapons (presumably, the modern nations don't know how this was achieved); it's possible this is likening it to nuclear material (as above), but yes, we're also told the Valkyrur have the ability to act as some kind of catalyst to the process, which is why only they can use the relic weapons. Science ''has'' duplicated this, see Maximilian's artificial Valkyria getup, for example, which presumably is also how the Marmota can fire the Valkof.
8	* The first episode of the anime. Alicia's attitude in particular. Now, I know that part of drawing the events in the game out into 20 minutes meant upping the Tsundere, and I understand that. What I don't understand is when she freaked out upon learning that Isara was a Darcsen. Holding them both at gun-point, one thing. But it looked like she was going to ''execute'' them, while they were unarmed and entirely at her mercy. And not a '''minute''' afterwards they are exchanging cheerful banter. I loved the game, but that left a bad taste in my mouth.
9	** I didn't think she was planning on executing them. Isara being a Darcsen made her think Welkin had been lying to her, since General Gunther definitely was not a Darcsen, and she pulled out her gun to stop them from doing anything else. I thought it was annoying how long they stretched out something that had been resolved quickly in the game, but it doesn't have any logical inconsistencies in the story of the anime itself.
10	*** Not planning on executing them?! Her trigger finger was twitching! The series turned her into an out and out bitch
11	** No logical inconsistencies? It was a non-issue in the game; people already recognize Isara as General Gunther's adopted daughter. I mean, they're a moderately-sized town so people ''would'' know her, if not for being a famous guy's adopted daughter, then for being said famous guy's adopted [[FantasticRacism Darcsen]] daughter. Welkin's been away for a while, which excused Alicia's not recognizing him, but Isara's been at home the whole time.
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13	* Also from the anime, the Welkin-Alicia-Faldio love triangle. I can take that something like that could developing, but the fact that the characters were derailed to make it happen rather irks me. Faldio, who's supposed to be a well-regarded commander, casually brings it up in Kloden and put the operation at risk. What the hell was with that?
14	* What really annoys me in the game is the big plot twist near the end. Its revealed in the game that the reason why people are prejudiced against is because of the Darcsen Calamity. The plot twist reveals [[spoiler: that the Valkyria caused the Darcsen Calamity instead. So the Valkyria came in, conquered Gallia, put their most loyal Darcsen slaves in charge(the Royal Family), and then just disappeared?]] I can understand the desire for a plot-twist, but this just seemed like the scripts writers were doing the equivalent of "No u! Lol!".
15	** Well, that was nearly 2000 years ago (1935 years ago, to be exact). I figured the Valkyur ruled for a time, then faded away. 500 years would be a long rule, and still leave more than 1000 years before the start of the game.
16	*** You ''think'' they just faded away, but the truth is far more horrifying. How do I know? Well, remember [[Manga/{{Uzumaki}} that other time when a large group of people became completely obsessed with spirals...?]]
17	*** If they'd ruled, why did they put Cordelia's family in charge? Why'd they stop at Gallia? With their power, they could've taken the rest of Europa. Too many unanswered questions turn this into a wall-banger for me. It would've been nice if they fleshed that out a bit.
18	*** They ruled the whole continent, not just Gallia, the Darcsens put in charge of Gallia were the traitors who sold out thier own kind to the invaders and thus rewarded by them.
19	*** That's really not the impression I got. Its a plot point that Gallia's royal family use as a cover story that they are decended from Valkyrur, and thats why Gallia will never fall. If the Valkyrur had ruled all of Europea, wouldn't every nation's royal family be able to make that claim. If you've got a ingame reference that shows they ruled all of Europa, please produce it.
20	*** Who said no other royal family also claimed it?
21	*** Its not mentioned, which is reasonable since we don't have too much contact with the other nations in Europa. If I have to make any point at all, its that the information provided gives a somewhat disjointed picture of Valkyrur/Darcsen past.
22	** Odds are the writers just didn't know why Europe hated the Jews (long story short they were Scapegoats) so they made up something.
23	** I assumed that the Valkrur's victory over the Darcsens was a PyrrhicVictory (considering the Calamity required Valkrur to sacrifice themselves). By the time the war was over, there were so few pure-blooded Valkrur left that they eventually died out, leaving the non-Darcsen humans to inherit Europa.
24	*** Unlikely, as the Valkyria in-game are shown to effectively be PhysicalGods invulnerable to anything but other Valkyria. There is nothing that indicates the Darcsens themselves were responsible for them dying out.
25	** The other Valkyria descended royal families likely died in the struggles following the loss of their powers, as royals used to 'we're pretty much walking nukes' ended up using that as an excuse to lack in any and all other areas. Gallia on the other hand is a neutral, peaceful country, and never had those powers to begin with. Therefore they are the only surviving family with a reasonably pure connection with the original royal families of the Valkyrian Empire.
26	* Are the Valkyrur traits appear only in women? It explain why Maximilian had none.
27	** That's implied, but Maximilian wouldn't have any to begin with-the Imperial bloodline doesn't carry any Valkyrian blood.
28	* Unit death is permanent in all battles, including skirmishes and reports. So, what is happening when you have a guy survive one story battle and then get killed off in a report battle that is placed earlier in the chronology? Does his ghost come back briefly for revenge? Do we have a trope for this?
29	** I think we do: it's called ''[[BellisariosMaxim don't think about it too closely or you'll implode the universe, you fool!]]''
30	* The cutscene directly after Mission 16. Maximillian realizes that [[spoiler:Alicia]] is about kamikaze herself and blow up the Marmota, so he tells his mortars to focus their fire at her. The Mortar crews evidently decide that this would be a ''perfect'' time to stop firing. GAH!
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32	* Alicia's bakery is ... some kind of derelict truck? Come on, Welkin, you're a war hero and a military officer with a whole stack of medals, you're friends with the Princess of Gallia, and the country has just found itself with like ten thousand fewer people to pay salaries to, and you've probably got some right to the patent on the country's first flying machine; you couldn't even hook her up with a storefront?
33	** Who's to say she doesn't have a standing store too? I mean hell, she can't bake on the street, she has to have an actual oven somewhere. Of course, if Welkin is supporting her, wouldn't that ''also'' bug you since it would mean Alicia can't raise her own funds and must rely on a man to subsidize her?
34	*** One, it costs a lot to open a business, and two, the militia is volunteer, which means Welkin, being an officer, was probably getting paid; Alicia probably wasn't. Since she was an apprentice baker before the war, and then spent however many months on the front lines, she probably had gone without pay from her probably low-paying job that entire time. Where else would she get the money? Somehow I don't think Welkin is the sort of guy who would marry Alicia and not help her out with start-up funds instead of letting it put them both in debt (being that they're married and all) with loans, but that's probably not giving Gallia's banking system enough credit (though if I were feeling cynical, I might expect him to watch her struggle with it for a few weeks, brush her off when she comes to him in tears for his input, and then step in just before she tears up her certification papers in frustration). And anyway, doesn't she have an oven in the truck? It's got an awful lot of smoke coming out of it if she doesn't.
35	*** For what it's worth, the officer's commission could have only gone so far. The militia was also conscripted - everyone in the country had military training courses for that purpose. It's doubtful that Alicia did this without any compensation. And in a recovering post-war economy going through significant political turmoil (as the ads for the second game have been suggesting), it's doubtful the crown would have just handed Welkin a bunch of money just for being a good friend of the princess. Then again, I still have trouble buying the idea of an oven on a truck, so if there was an oven on a truck, then perhaps Welkin is smarter than we're giving him credit for and he built an oven-truck that won't catch fire instead of a storefront. Oh yea, and the patent on the plane would probably belong to the crown since it was made by people in military service.
36	*** I know it's just GameplayAndStorySegregation, but if you manage to recruit Knute it's because Welkin's walking around with a shit-ton of ducats on him and he can smell it... maybe that's strictly military treasury? And even if they couldn't drop a bunch of money on him, I'm ''sure'' Cordelia could give him storefront property instead of a crate of guns one time. Argh. This really does just bug me.
37	*** I think the money in that case is a military budget and not coming out of Welkin's coffers. It's also possible that Alicia and Welkin didn't want to burden Cordelia.
38	*** Anyone open to the speculation that she merely using the truck as a selling front? While not exactly the best of ideas (when you need to resupply), it works if your bakery isn't close to a high-traffic area.
39	*** If it's just a front, then why put an oven in it? And why would Alicia be manning the truck instead of her own store, if she's got enough employees to do both?
40	*** I'll just go with the explanation of the point below and say it's just an advanced ragnite oven. If you're not so open to the strange idea of ragnite being used for cooking, remember that they also use it as fuel and as medicine, so I'm guessing that it's not a stretch to cook with it. And how small can you go in making an oven? I don't know, but I'm not going to spend my time here debating about a truck and an oven.
41	** I am personally going to guess that it is to keep up with the movements of her unit, which a regular store wouldn't be able to do.
42	** I think she just want to created her bakery as a small family business. Knowing Alicia, she probably want to spend a sweet time with Isara jr. and her hubby more than getting headache with big franchise restaurant.
43	*** Yes. [[SarcasmMode She's already thrown away the possibility of being a freaking superhero, why wouldn't she want to make her lifelong-dream career as much like being a housewife as possible?]] And what unit? She's not in the army anymore. You know what's ''really'' insane about having a bakery-complete-with-working-oven in a truck? ''Forcing a toddler to spend all day in one''. Whoever came up with the visuals of that scene is an ''idiot''.
44	*** Her dream was to be a baker, that was the whole point of apprenticing. Her military involvement started and ended with protecting her homeland, why should she just drop what she actually want to do in favor of a military career? And by the way, the truck is a converted military surplus truck (VC design notes book, page 236). Given her stated belief in making people happy with her baking a mobile bakery to bring it directly to you is really obvious.
45	** Well, to throw another opinion-log onto the discussion fire, a bakery-mobile would be a solid idea. Considering that with all the speaches towards the end about following dreams, if Alica wanted a storefront, a storefront Alica would have come hell or high water. But having a van that can serve the baking duties (ragnite ovens, whatever) seems like a better idea to a storefront. I mean, it would be cheaper to load up an oven into a van than loading an oven into a store that you would either need to purchase, build or rent. And how many bakeries do you know set up shotp and sell freshly baked buns in the middle of the town centre? She can drive it around, so there's the too and from transportation taken care of, and there is the undeniable benefit of being able to be where bread will be wanted, regardless of local location.
46	*** The reason you don't get bakery trucks in the real world (well, one of them) is that bread takes a long time to actually make. There's no room in the truck for all the things that would be necessary for Alicia to be making made-to-order breads she's selling in the ending. The heat alone would be unbearable. That entire notion is poorly planned at best.
47	* You know what? The idea of an oven in a truck bugs me. Is there really an oven in that truck? I don't think the creators of the game have considered the mechanics behind that...oh right. Lancers. Never mind.
48	** [[AWizardDidit Ragnite oven.]]
49	*** Mmmm...Ragnite bagels.
50	*** The bakery risks being one-shotted by Lancer attacks from behind.
51	*** Honestly, if they didn't bother to upgrade the armor of that bakery, shooting it from any angle is a rather unpleasant thought.
52	* The Gallian regular military. Why do they suck?
53	** TheWorfEffect. They only exist so that they can die to prove what a bad situation we're in. And because they're overseen by General Damon, who is irresponsible, elitist, and basically evil.
54	** To make you look better.
55	** It's also because they ''had'' to die, for anvil-dropping reasons; Damon was an [[BeautyEqualsGoodness ugly]] glory hound who was happy to endanger Squad 7 in favor of using his own troops and then take credit for their achievements, so he had to die for karma-related reasons. The rest of the main army had to die because if they ''hadn't'', then Faldio would have been right to shoot Alicia because they wouldn't have lived without him making that decision. Killing them all at Ghirlandaiou means that ultimately, Faldio didn't save anyone on the battlefield, and so on he [[CursedWithAwesome ruined Alicia's life]] for no reason. Of course, the entire rest of Gallia might not agree, but they're not part of Squad 7 or [[strike:Jews]] [[strike:Japanese]] [[strike: Gypsies]] Darcsens, so they don't count.
56	** Seconded. What the plot does to the army infuriates me. No one in the main party cares about all the people who live because of Faldio's decision. No one seems to care much that the majority of those people probably also died at Ghirlandaio, either. Army or militia, these are still all people who signed up knowing that they might have to risk their lives to save their country from foreign invasion. Surely they had families who mourn for them? And surely there must have been ''some'' people who survived Ghirlandaio. Squads that were reassigned once Selvaria was defeated and her army routed? People so injured that they were sent off to whatever facilities Gallia has for dealing with its war-wounded? Hell, Squad Seven itself? Isn't there anyone in Squad Seven who is in the slightest glad that Gallia had its own Valkyria that saved them? We don't get to hear about these possibilities, though, because the writers wanted to get across a bunch of Aesops about how terrible war is and didn't take the time to make sure that the game's messages were ''consistent'' throughout. The people in the Imperial army are humans too? Well, one story about that is fine; we don't need to distinguish their designs any. Gallia's military has inept and arrogant leadership? Lets vaporize the whole body; after all, no ''decent'' human being would ''choose'' to be in such a horrible, violent profession, right? (You can tell this is true by the way most everyone in the militia either retires as soon as possible or gets into training or tech development positions rather than remaining in any positions that would directly see battle.) Anyway, the army's probably mostly Gallian nobility, and surely you can see how ''awful'' and ''bad'' the nobility are by looking at General Damon and Prime Minister Borg, two examples that I'm ''sure'' are fair representatives of an entire class of people. (I'd like to hope that the second game will treat this with any more subtlety--it would damn well be hard to treat it with less--but so far I haven't heard anything that makes me give it the benefit of the doubt.)
57	** The Manga at least had the decency to give the impression that the main personality of the Army was that they were cocky assholes who considers any non-army victory a battle that probably wasn't that hard anyway. Not that is an excuse or anything, of course, but in the game we have just General Damon being General Damon and one soldier striking a surrendered, unarmed prisoner (You know who I'm talking about).
58	*** The whole "one soldier striking a surrendered, unarmed prisoner is meant to show they're bad guys" thing is definitely a symptom of the problem the game has with the Gallian military and the really screwed up ProtagonistCenteredMorality the game has as a whole. Selvaria was responsible for wiping out ''countless'' Gallian soldiers with no remorse, and just because she had her hands in the air, they had no reason to think she didn't have another ace up her sleeve or that it wasn't a WoundedGazelleGambit, ''which, as it turned out, it was''. Especially considering the hugely Karmic deaths the rest of the Imperial generals got, a pistol-whipping and a few minutes of being stuck in a room with a gloating General Damon is really the ''least'' of the comeuppance she deserved (although, being trapped in a room with General Damon could probably be considered a war crime in and of itself. He looks like he smells like corn chips and I bet he spits when he talks.)
59	** Gross incompetence in leadership positions. Problem begins with Damon who is pretty much textbook example of TheNeidermeyer. In addition to that he doesn't seem like someone who could take criticism so his officers are probably just collection of YesMan combined with TheNeidermeyer (and any competent officer was probably fired because of insubordination or something like that) [[DisasterDominoes "and those are probably not willing to take criticism of their lower ranks..."]] as a result the regular army is lacking in almost all aspects.
60	** Just wanted to comment for some point made above. Gallian Military was actually led by aristocrats or nobility. It makes sense that they are incompetent assholes who think the regulars were better than militia. Modern staff college were started when Gerhard von Scharnhorst became the director of Prussian Military Academy. Their staff courses were were used as a template by current staff courses around the world. In essence, staff officers did serve as the counterweight against their commanders, especially if they were incompetent. Maybe there is no Scharnhorst equivalent in this world?
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62	* How did I realize Elle was the narrator the first time she appeared in-game? I had originally assumed it was stated in the opening and I'd just paid closer attention than most... but I went back and she was writing under a different name, so I'm now totally confused how I immediately realized that -- her in-game voice and narrator voice aren't really similar, either. I'm really confused and kind of scared. Am I actually psychic?
63	** It's not really that far-fetched - I guessed it as soon as I met Ellet, and wasn't surprised when I was right. Sure they try to mislead you with the names and the voice, but who else could that have been?
64	** Well, IIRC, she got married after the war, which is where the name change could have come from. The different voice could have been because she was writing the book years after the war ended, and her voice aged accordingly.
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66	* Yet another question that has been bugging me. Isara's death was kind of a TearJerker for me. Beautiful scene and all, very powerful stuff. One question yet remains, though: why didn't anybody do something? I understand they were busy fighting an Imperial ambush but even when the fight ended they still had more than enough time to cry over her. Why didn't they use that time to apply some ragnaid? Or just call the freaking medic? That blondie already proved that she can run like the wind and dodge bullets in order to safely evacuate people who got crushed by tanks. Why did Isara have to die because of a single bullet?...
67	** Yea, beats me. I understand the need to have a perma-death and all, but it would have made more sense if they'd given a plot reason why Isara was permanently dead. At least shown they couldn't resucitate her in time - the game DOES have a perma-death mechanic, but the cutscene didn't show anything that would have indicated that.
68	*** It's the same reason nobody could use a Phoenix Down on Aeris, only with even less flimsy reasoning.
69	*** GameplayAndStorySegregation folks. I didn't like it much either, but sometimes the dog has to be kicked.
70	*** All they really needed is the enemy getting a lucky penetration on the Edelweiss and splattering Isara, rather than a sniper shot. Would be hard to go on living with half your guts splattered inside.
71	** Just FYI: VC design archive, page 253. Just like in the real world, Medics are protected by international treaties. They don't dodge bullets because they don't get shot at in first place. Isara's death is still irking, though. Incidentally there were quite a few other possible deaths for her, including one where she'd get shot inside the tank but she'd pretend everything was okay as her driving got progressively worse (and Welking progressively more annoyed at her poor driving) until the battle ended and they found her dead at the driver's seat. I kinda wish they'd gone with that one.
72	*** Isara isn't a medic. She's a tank operator.
73	** To address the final question there, because that's the reality of war. You can survive impossible odds, pull off unbelievable feats in the heat of the moment, and still die all because of a single bullet.
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75	* Does emperor Maximilian have some kind of weird, racist Darcsen fetish? I mean, it seems like most Gallians won't touch a Darcsen with the end of a long stick, and the implication is that the Empire is far more racist than them... Yet when he tries to force Cordelia to marry him, and she shows him that she is actually a Darcsen, he isn't disgusted, he is ''pleased''! Is that some kind of secret perversion of him or something? Do they consider it one in Europa?
76	** he probably appreciates the irony, and he is less racist than most of the good guys
77	*** [[GodwinsLaw There were virtulent Nazi bigwigs who chose mistresses right out of the camps they controlled.]] To say nothing of the fact that not everybody in a racist totalitarian state believes in the prejudices, even amongst the leadership.
78	** It's a strange concept but it is possible for someone to marry a woman from a race they hate. H.P. Lovecraft married a Jew and he still yelled anti-Semitic slurs in public.
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80	* Is Selvaria an albino? I assume she isn't, because she can aim at faraway things and can spend time in the sun without burning, but if she isn't, why the white hair-red eyes? Valkyries apparently get those features when they are in an "active", blue flame state, but she has them all the time(and Alicia, well, doesn't). Anything I missed?
81	** We REALLY don't know why, but [[WildMassGuessing I'm personally wagering]] that a LOT of it has to do with her prolonged experience from Imperial research and training in her abilities.
82	** Like the other commenter said, it's possibly a side effect of the experimentation. Alterntatively Slevaria just got unlucky with genetics and happened to inherit genes that give her Valkyrian looks, even before she awakens her SuperMode.
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84	* Anime bugs, quite a list too. 1) HE'S CLEARLY SKETCHING FISH, AND HE'S NOT ARMED. I don't care how paranoid you are, if a man saves you from the enemy multiple times, he's probably not a spy! 2) The town watch. Oh dear sweet Lord, the stupid town watch. Granted, they're civilians, so mistakes were probably inevitable. So why did the Militia man go out in a suicide attack in a tank that wasn't even fit as scrap metal! 3) I'm pretty sure not even modern tanks have the turning radius of ol' Edleweiss, what the hell was that!
85	** As of the first two, I completely agree. But for the Edelweiss bit... it kinda makes sense. The Edelweiss has whopping 800ps engine(equivalent to 2nd gen MBTs like M60 Patton), and only weighs 32t, about half the weight of M1A2 Abrams.So, no wonder Edelweiss runs like a sports car. Oh... and yes, modern tanks are very maneuverable. Just check some Youtube videos such　as this　one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx7KxNMHwHs&feature=related.
86	*** Fair enough, point concedeed on the maneuverability.
87	** The suspicion of Welkin at the beginning isn't (''quite'') as bizarre as you would think, as the process of hiding classified drawings in larger, more benign sketches is a long and practiced art in real-world spycraft. For instance, Baden-Powell ([[BunnyEarsLawyer yes, the guy who helped found the boyscouts]]) spent several months prior to WWI undercover as an over-the-top anthropologist trying to research butterflies in order to examine Austro-Hungarian fortifications in the Balkans. Doesn't justify the later stupidity, but it might also help that she might think the Imperials ALSO think "mistakenly" that he is a Gallian, and thus are shooting at him because they don't recognize him as one of their spies, and thus he is sticking close to her for mutual protection until he can arraigne his defection. Very, VERY contrived? Yes, but stranger things have happened. The town watch trying to attack the Imperial tank were probably desperate and not thinking straight (they ARE civilians with a minimum of actual military training from how-far-back, and thus they can't be expected to do things perfectly), and they probably figured that they had more-or-less even odds or that they at least might be able to disable it or otherwise make it vulnerable for somebody to come out of hiding and get on top so they can drop one down the hatch. Again, not smart, but not completely idiotic. As for the Edelweiss, there ARE some old tanks that do turn better than our modern ones (the old interbellum and early WWII light/medium tanks are pretty good examples due to their traditionally overpowered engines), and so the Edelweiss isn't a very typical example of the time, but it isn't that unbelievable either.
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89	* Darcsens have black or purplish hair, and a racial slur for them is "dark hair". But there are several characters, like Jane or Nils, who have black or purplish hair but aren't Darcsen. It's a little confusing sometimes.
90	** Should be noted that "dark hair" as a slur only exists in the English dub. The Japanese audio simply refers to them as Darcsens.
91	* All in all, the parallel world in which the VC games occur is pretty similar, in many ways, to our own world during the 1930-1940's. The main technological difference is that everything uses ragnite instead of oil. Why no aircraft, then, though? Are there no birds in this world for people to look at and want to fly like? Or is there some quality of ragnite that makes it impossible to use in the creation of planes or airships? Also, why do the people of this world still use swords and hammers in actual warfare? In game mechanics terms they are useful weapons, but why? What makes them so efficient in this world? Do they use some kind of special ragnite based forging techniques or something?
92	** No real idea about aircraft. You could say that because Gallia is so small it's technologically inferior and would have the capacity to produce aircraft in any real capacity...but the lack of Imperial aircraft kind of shoots that down. As for the use of swords and other melee weapons, it depends how lazy you want to be with an answer. The obvious one is that it's, like you said, just a gameplay mechanic, like HP and other stats. Or, you could go the exact opposite route. The reason why guns are so inaccurate and short range and why it takes about 5 headshots to kill a soldier isn't due to gameplay but because guns don't work nearly as well as they do in the real world. Using a sword and shield is a pretty dumb choice if a gun is able to easily pierce your armor and deal death at a distance, but if you know that your gun might take two dozen bullets to take down that lancer, it makes a certain amount of sense to just run up and hack him to death. Or, if that seems like it's reaching a bit too much, you could just chalk it up to the fact that the military leaders on both sides of the conflict are kinda, sorta, really idiotic, so to them, giving some guy a hammer and telling him to attack that tank might really just seem like a good idea.
93	** There could be many reasons for lack of airplanes: 1) Aerodynamic research is severely behind in this universe. 2) Ragnite engines are heavier than combustion engines with equal power
94	** It's mentioned that aircraft only really got started basically right before EWII, whereas our world had basic aircraft by the start of our first World War. Presumably the Europan equivalent of the Wright Brothers (or whomever you view First Flight to belong to) were born later. In addition, the book's notes about Tank Destroyers explicitly mention anti-aircraft cannons being used as a base for the final cannon, so it's possible the Empire or the Federation ''have'' some sort of scout/interceptor/bomber craft, they're just too damn rare to use on a tiny nation like Gallia when they're better used on the Empire/Fed border.
95	3) Ragnite itself is heavier than kerosene while maintainig same volume consumption rate. 4) Airplanes do exist, but the military brass view those as useless. (Military brass can sometimes be TooDumbToLive, for example in WWI British and French generals refused to field MGs en masse because "They are expensive, ammo consumption is to large and they can't be mounted with bayonet and used in infantry charge.")
96	** The easiest answer is the setting has a mild case of SchizoTech. Firearms tech is late [=WW2=] era (nobody still uses bolt-action rifles; the Gallian standard issue combat rifle is roughly based on the Gewehr 43 and other nations have equivalents). Tanks are pre-[=WW2=] design-wise, with multiple cannons (such as the M3 Lee) being standard whereas they were obsoleted in [=WW2=]. Aircraft are simply behind in this universe, simple as that - there even is a plane in the game, a very early powered-glider type.
97
98
99	* Something that's been bothering me for awhile now. Alicia and Selvaria are Valkyria and Valkyria have the power to channel ragnite energy, and everybody is scared of Valkyria powers because... they're bad, because people are assholes who will exploit them, so it's the responsibility of Valkyria to not exist if they don't want to get exploited. Okeydokey, works for Alicia, apparently. But if they ''do'' have the power to channel ragnite energy, and Europa uses ragnite for ''everything'' because it's a naturally-occuring element/mineral, why can't Alicia and Selvaria do things like sap the energy out of tanks or Ragnaid caps, or even use Ragnaid caps as extra grenades? If the lances are made of high-density ragnite and the Valkyria channeled the energy in them, why don't they deteriorate or run out of usual energy when they fire the lasers? And if ragnite really is some kind of mineral, what happens to the ragnite energy discharged by the Valkyria? Alicia might have been able to stop the Marmotah just by laying hands on it. There's a lot of worry about how Valkyria are basically victims waiting to be confiscated by greedy, power-hungry overlords/slaves to the worshipful expectations of peons, but ragnite is the fuel that Europan society runs on-- shouldn't Valkyria have more widely varied powers?
100
101	* So this game is supposed to take place in a world that parallels WWII and 40's-era technology (minus aircraft, evidently), but girls' militia uniforms have bare midriffs, thigh stockings, and short skirts in varying combinations... but as far as I can tell, that only applies to shocktroopers and scouts, ''the units most likely to see direct combat''. The short skirts and thigh stockings are [[ZettaiRyouiki an incredibly popular quasi-fetishy character design trope]] right now, but seriously, ''only the shocktroopers and scouts''? Why is it that they need to dress essentially like schoolgirls with guns, but not the female lancers, or female engineers, or female snipers?
102	** You probably should ask the creators. They were partially inspired by [=WWII=] stuff, but then again they did work with Sakura Wars before.
103	** Rule of cool/sexy?
104	** VC Design Archive, pages 73, 77, 101, 103, 248 and probably a bunch of others. The idea is to have visually interesting characters, not perfectly realistic uniforms. They're 'realistic enough'.
105	*** That's not the question being asked. If it's "visually interesting" to have the units who are most likely to see direct combat wear miniskirts and thigh-highs, why is it visually ''un''interesting for the lancers, snipers, and engineers to wear uniforms that actually ''are'' realistic?
106	** At least in the Steam version, only Alicia and Rosie (and Isara) wear short skirts. All the other female militia members wear shorts and the male ones long trousers.
107	*** Same with the original, at least when I played it. A bit head canon-y, but Since the ones with skirts and stockings hold rank, and Gallian military strategy at the time is basically "Send in the lower ranks" maybe the corporals and the sergeants of those classes ''weren't'' supposed to see direct combat, and thus got less practical outfits. Same as Captain Varrot's shin long skirt.
108
109	* Maybe I'm missing something obvious, but why do Karl and Faldio have the same last name? Are they related? Is it a coincidence? If so....why? This drives me nuts in an EmptyRoomPsych kind of way.
110	** I don't think that'll be addressed for a while.
111
112	* I think it's well established that tanks have that ragnite radiator that you can shoot. Now, I could understand that driving a missile into the engine is perfectly capable of blowing it up, but why can shooting it up with a machine gun get the same effect?
113	** For that matter, you're telling me that of all the engineers and tank operators in the world, only one [[spoiler:(Jaeger)]] actually thought to cover that radiator up [[spoiler:and even then, not immediately]]? You're telling me that Theimer and General Gunther were able to build the Edelweiss as an otherwise state-of-the-art tank, but left that radiator exposed and left the tank vulnerable to one-shooting? And that neither Welkin, Isara, [[spoiler:Zaka,]] the entire R&D research facility, nor anyone else who has repeatedly shot enemy tanks in said radiator, had the idea to cover up the Edelweiss's [[spoiler:or Shamrock's]] radiator? Overheating or not, tanks shouldn't be able to be destroyed by a machine gun clip to the engine! They're even exposed on [[spoiler:the Marmota,]] which makes one wonder why, instead of mines, the Gallians didn't just shoot it there! At least on the Batomys, they were partially hidden. [[spoiler:I'm guessing Jaeger, the tank genius he was, designed that thing. Because apparently no one else has that foresight.]]
114	*** My guess is that there are engineering problems that haven't been overcome yet. Since they presumably radiate heat (thus the name radiators), then it would make sense that covering them would interfere with that. Apparently only a few Imperial engineers have come up with a way to cover the radiator and still have it function properly, and it's not yet in mass production for line tanks for whatever reason. Probably the Marmota and the Lupus represented prototypes of the new tech. The sequel does mention that Gallia is lagging behind in the technology arms race, so it makes sense that the Empire invented it first. It would also explain why the Edelweiss doesn't have it - it's an ''old'' tank and predates the new technology.
115	*** Plus Ragnite-powered engines may not necessarily run the same way standard combustion engines do. It's been shown that ragnite is EXTREMELY volatile, since just shooting barrels of the stuff is enough to destroy a tank if its close enough. It's not unlikely that a high caliber bullet can punch through the weak rear armor and set off a fuel line.
116	*** An in-universe support of both of the above lies with Jaeger's tank. He can armour plate it to great effect, elimiating the weak spot and making the tank a severe drain on resources to take down compared to pretty much any other tank. The issue, of course, is that since it is bloking the radiator, it will overheat rather rapidly, so he has to remain in close proximity to outside coolant to prevent an engine blowout. That ties the tank to a camp, which is great for defence, but you are essentially setting up a bunker, since chasing down the enemy or pushing for new positions would be unviable.
117	*** Maybe shooting the radiator with a machine gun doesn't actually blow it up, it just breaks the radiator to the point where it can't do its job (like in chapter 10) forcing the crew to surrender or be cooked alive. It just blows up in-game so you don't have a bunch of junked tanks cluttering the battlefield.
118	* The 'verse's Gallia-centric nature, and its' treatment of the AF: the canon's been fairly good at showing that the problems of the universe (racism, authoritarianism, etc) are pretty down-to-earth, and can only be truly solved in a gradual, almost glacial way. The existence of the GRA in the sequel shows that much. But things are improving. And we can accept that much. Except..... there's a massive, 50,0000+ ton elephant in the room that shows absolutely no sign of going away anytime soon. The Autocratic East Europan Imperial Alliance. TheEmpire has already fought three wars with Gallia (EWs I and II and the Gallian war of independence) and from Helmut's epilogue it has shown no signs of changing. And it is clearly WELL outside of Gallian capability to defeat in a lasting manner (take a look at the respective sizes: the tiny blue dot up against the big Red colossus). Which'll only lead it to try again. And again. Which means that there can be no entirely lasting closure, regardless of the numerous improvements in Gallia itself (development, recovery, the downfall of the GRA, etc). And yet... nobody ingame or in the meta apparently seems to be troubled by this fact. No major qualms with the inherently negative (literally being the source or at least exemplar mof most of the 'verse's thematic ills: totalitarianism, militarism, racism, moral perversion (at least regarding Valk powers and human rights), etc.) Why is nobody interested in addressing that?
119	** It could just be that it's a pointless question to address for the characters. It probably goes without saying that every single character is well aware that it is utterly impossible for them to ever really defeat the Empire, but they have more pressing matters to attend to. Of course, they never have to actually beat the Empire anyway. Even though the story is centered on Gallia, it's clear that it's just a sideshow in the larger war. As long as the Empire is at war with the Federation, they can never really throw more than a token force against Gallia, and dialogue between Avan and Zeri in the sequel implies that if hostilities with the Federation ever really ceased, there's a good chance that the Empire would fracture back into separate countries again. Or, if you want a cop out answer, you can just say that they've learned to live with the fact that as a tiny country they're at the mercy of international superpowers.
120	*** Well, going by the events and ideology of the first game, nobody's worried about the Alliance because everyone who's not the Empire are morons. The big scary plan to run Gallia into the ground was to kidnap their princess. At least Maximillian was smart enough to invade and marry her, which is in itself kind of a dumb plan, because even political marriages aren't a game of tag. "Aha! Got the ring on, you're mine now! Hear that everyone, conflict is over, I won, and now I'm Super Emperor. Nyeh!" Gallia isn't worried about anybody but the Empire because the Valkyria Chronicles universe doesn't run on cause and effect, it runs on fairy tale logic and ProtagonistCenteredMorality. Gallia will always fight the Empire, and Gallia will always win because Gallia is the best, end of story.
121	*** Gallia reminds me a lot of Switzerland they only really cared about their own independence, so all they had to do was make it so much of a hassle to invade that everyone would just go around them, real life Nazi Germany had planned to invade Switzerland but eventually decided against it because of how much effort it'd take for so little gain, the Empire decides pretty much the same thing except only after they invaded Gallia
122	* Captain Varrots rank. I know she's just militia and not the actual army, but she has command of multiple squads of men and seems to take her orders directly from the General. Ranks must be pretty squished for the rest of the militia too.
123	** The militia tends to get assigned to the worst suicide missions. Chances are the reason Varrot takes orders from the general as a captain is because everyone who ought to be between her and him is dead.
124	** As for the 'multiple squads', I believe this has something to do with questionable localisation. In English the unit that Lt. Gunther commands is referred to as 'Squad 7', and the unit Capt. Varrots commands is referred to as '3rd Regiment' (of which 'Squad 7' is under). None of those names make any sense (barring any esoteric army organisation), for a regiment (usually commanded by a colonel) is usually made up of several battalions (which usually has (very) roughly 1000 men apiece), and a squad (usually commanded by a sergeant) usually has around 10 men. Yes, I know that having organic armoured vehicle at squad-level is very unusual. Yes, I know the organisation of militias are usually not conformant to regular army structure. However it's still quite a leap from a unit usually commanded by a NCO to one that is usually command by a field-grade officer. And a militia that is organised wildly different than regular army is usually not conductive of operating cohesively together. But all of those goes away when the Japanese voice is considered. Japanese voice reveals that they are actually 7th platoon[[labelnote:dai nana shōtai]]第七小隊[[/labelnote]] and 3rd company[[labelnote:dai san chūtai]]第三中隊[[/labelnote]]. Instead of an oversized squad, Lt. Gunther is commanding a platoon (which usually has 20-40 men and is usually led by a lieutenant). And instead of under a regiment, 7th platoon is organised under 3rd company (a company usually has somewhere around 100 men and is usually led by a captain), whose commanding officer is Capt. Varrots.
125	* [[FridgeLogic I don't know how I managed to miss this before]]: The Gallian royal palace takes up, like, one third of their capital city, when viewed from afar. Either their capital is ridiculously tiny (as in, small town sized, barely even worthy of being called a "city") or their palace is ''massive'', as in "How the hell do they maintain such a titanic structure so well? It must take like a thousand people working constantly just to keep it clean".
126	** [[AWizardDidIt Ragnite.]]
127	* Why does everybody think Maximillian thought of Selvaria as only a weapon? Selvaria explicitly says to him in Chapter thirteen, "Your Grace took me from that place, raised me '''to be a human before a Valkyria'''". Sure, her story is tragic, but it seems to me he thought of her as a ''soldier'', not a weapon, and that Selvaria was probably much less human in behavior before Maximillian got her out. Being a conquering Emperor, ordering her to blow herself up and destroy the main army wasn't just casually discarding her, he was making a sound tactical decision ''that they both agreed with''; if Squad 7 didn't have PlotArmor, he'd have had Gallia in the bag. Sure, it was cruel, considering he knew she loved him, but even if the reasoning behind it was severely screwed up (let's remember that Max isn't exactly well-adjusted either), Max was conquering Gallia for the ragnite, which (IIRC) was getting scarce in his own land and had no apparent alternatives. Maybe it's just my other frustrations with the game talking, but asshole or not, I can't help being a little pleased with Max for ''not'' placing the life of a single person over the needs of the nation under his rule.
128	** Their relationship may of started out as something different, but by the events of the game, Maximillian is clearly ''obsessed'' with the powers of the Valkyria, also, Maxi-boy ''wasn't'' doing it for his nation, but for himself, the conquest of Galia was for his ego, yes, I think Maximillian did care for Selvaria, but by the time he ordered her to sacrifice herself, he no longer saw her a person.
129	*** If he was obsessed with the power of the Valkyria, why kill the only one he had?
130	*** First, because Selvaria was proven to be [[YouHaveFailedMe not-so-unstoppable]] [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness killing machine]]. Second, the destruction of Ghirlandaio (and the bulk of Gallian forces) allowed Max to run a second Randgriz offensive.
131	*** Not really. She lost ''one'' fight against another Valkyria, and it's been pointed out in other places that Selvaria really didn't need to use the final flame to wipe out the Gallian army, she only did it because she was ordered to and was too heartbroken to refuse ''because'' she'd been ordered to. She might be slightly less invincible than power-eruption-crazed Alicia, but Selvaria deliberately lost the battle at Ghirlandaio as part of the final flame plan, she's still completely invincible to normal bullets whenever she wants. If he were obsessed with her powers so much that he didn't care if she lived or died or had any human dignity, there's literally no reason to kill her, especially since "that place" still exists and can most likely still use a living test subject since it's working on his artificial Valkyria power armor.
132
133	* [[spoiler:Isara Gunther's death]]. Preforming maintenance in the one part of the base open completely to sniper fire ? There were at least 4 tanks in that fight, are you telling me that base didn't have an area for maintenance or storage? No look outs either? The actual death I'm fine with, but the cutscene it was done in was terrible. It's so simple to make it make sense, just have [[spoiler:Rosie's talk with Isara bring her outside]]. It makes Welkin look REALLY incompetent.
134	** Welkin's intelligence doesn't tend to hold up to close scrutiny anyway. [[MST3KMantra Just repeat to yourself, it's just a show...]]
135
136	* Alicia's [[CursedWithAwesome whining about being a Valkyria.]] She volunteered to serve in the militia and she chose to go to war, she's a natural-born killing machine who has no problem at all with shooting other soldiers in the face. No one ever tries to talk her into doing anything, or force her to go anywhere, that she wouldn't have already been doing as a normal soldier, and even when presented with ample opportunity to do so, she is never so "out of control" that she doesn't focus immediately on the most dangerous threat to her allies in combat, and in fact, the only time she even risks getting her allies harmed with the collateral damage is when she's getting ready to kill herself for no damn reason. The only difference between Valkyria-Alicia and Regular-Alicia is that Valkyria-Alicia is bulletproof and takes human life with a laser instead of a rifle. What the Hell was she complaining about?!
137	** Firstly she volunteered to join militia which is to be demobilized as soon as Gallia isn't in danger to be conquered, but the moment she was outed as Valkyria she was forcibly conscripted into regular army and from what she knows about Damon & co., she doesn't have to be genius to figure out that she will be used as weapon of conquest (seriously I imagine Damon planned to launch war of conquest against empire since he had weapon against which there was no counter except for another Valkyria (Selveria is the only other known Valkyria and her defeat is vital to saving Gallia from conquest)) also that war wouldn't have been her choice (army would probably threaten everyone she cares about to force compliance).
138	Secondly she is also alumni of the same or simmilar research program that produced Selveria so there also were some pretty nasty memories coming back.
139	Thirdly Selveria was probably viewed as either monster or tool by most of imperial military (only two people that I'm sure viewed her as a person were her assistant and Radi Jager) and Alicia probaby feared that she will be viewed as either of these things even by her former comrades.
140	*** Alicia was '''never''' conscripted or forced into doing anything she didn't want to do. No one even approaches her about it. She had absolutely no reason to think that would happen. The only thing anyone has to say about her being a Valkyria is that they beg her to save them, there is never any talk about her being studied. They never even move her out of Squad 7. I don't know why anyone points to Selvaria as an example of how bad Alicia could have it. '''SELVARIA IS IMPERIAL, ALICIA IS GALLIAN''', their situations are NOTHING ALIKE. The whole point of Gallia being the good guys is because they don't do shit like run concentration camps and enslave people. Also she has no memories of her childhood, she's an orphan with no memory of even being a Valkyria; at least in the first game, that's not even close to true. I admit I didn't play the second or third ones, so if that's canon, it's a really stupid RetCon.
141	*** Note: the anime and the game diverge in the details here. In the anime (going by the wiki), Damon has Alicia transferred to the regular army after her Valkyria powers are revealed, and it turns out [[spoiler:Alicia and Selvaria were originally held in the same Imperial research facility]].
142	** Alicia signed up to be an ordinary militia member. Not to be the sole savior of Gallia (and treated as such by almost everyone), an increase in responsibility that might just be daunting to the I-just-wanted-to-be-a-baker small-town girl; also, a lot of people don't like being put on pedestals in general. Then the only other Valkyria she knows[[labelnote:*]]while she and Alicia are in very different circumstances, Alicia doesn't know the sordid details of Selvaria's childhood, and even if she does they're probably not going to be at the front of her mind[[/labelnote]] blows herself up in the name of love and duty, which is going to leave an impression.
143	*** None of that is true. One, she's not the sole savior of Gallia, one of the major themes of the story is that her powers are worthless next to the power of teamwork. Two, handful of (recently devastated, desperate) people, who she only encounters once and never sees again, ask her to save Gallia, ''which she's already doing, she literally joined up to take back her home'', but none of her responsibilities change and nothing comes of it, that's hardly being put on a pedestal. And three, Selvaria can't possibly have made an impression with her devotion to love and duty because Alicia wasn't there to hear any of Selvaria's motivations, because Selvaria deliberately sent Squad 7 away with her own men, and beyond a handful of sentences, that's all the contact they have with each other.
144	*** Alicia doesn't turn out to be the sole savior (even if the heroes would have failed but for her interventions as a Valkyria on at least two occasions), but a good portion of the militia/army certainly appear to treat her as such after her awakening. Seriously: some of them kneel and call her a "god-child"; I think that constitutes literal worship. If it weren't for her Valkyria powers, they wouldn't have any expectations of her beyond those they have for any other Squad 7 member; they certainly wouldn't be venerating her. Hell, Faldio went to the extent of shooting her in the first place because of her powers.\
145	Sure, she ends up not using her powers again before Maiden's Shield anyway, but she can hardly know that ahead of time. (If she'd thought about it more, she might have figured out (or heard from Rosie or Largo) that Welkin wouldn't order her to do it, but Damon or Varrot might well overrule him if they deemed it justified.)\
146	As for 3): Certainly Alicia doesn't know most of the details about Selvaria's motives. And yet: Alicia (already predisposed to think of herself as bearing a unique burden) asks the only other Valkyria she knows why she fights. Selvaria makes a comment about (romantic) love. Half a day later, Selvaria blows herself up. Alicia's going to react to that.
147	* Again, she never sees any of those soldiers who "worship" her after that first instance, nothing happens beyond a few randos talking in the background for one scene. Faldio shoots her because of her powers, but frigging ''duh'', she's fighting a war, that she volunteered to fight in full knowledge of what had happened because she was there to see it, and she's the most badass person in her squad, getting shot really shouldn't be a mindblowing concept for someone who not only knows quite well the importance of the war effort but also took a near-fatal bullet and managed not to be injured by it. Selvaria falls in love and blows herself up, but Alicia has no context for what any of that meant and didn't try to blow herself up for the sake of love ''or'' duty, so that's irrelevant anyway. Selvaria's death didn't show Alicia anything except that the Final Flame is a power that she has access to, and she immediately used it to kill herself because of her self-loathing. Love and duty had nothing to do with it beyond getting some practical use out of her own suicide, you can tell because she starts the self-detonation while Welkin is within a few seconds' running distance, she wasn't really thinking about anyone but herself at that point.
148	* Do smoke bombs existed beforehand, or Isara the first one to develop that? Because if the latter is true...how the heck does infantries move against entrenched lines and such? I know this is different universe...but the concept itself isn't even new even in our world, so...
149	** It looks like Isara was the first to develop it. As far as I know, smoke grenades have never been a big part of trench warfare, so they would probably use the same tactics we used in WWI, such as attacking at night from advanced positions, tanks (which seem to have devolved faster in this setting by the look of the Edelweiss), and artillery strikes softening targets up. Or, if gameplay=story, rushing headfirst toward the trench and shooting the enemy in the head :P. If the infantry was unsupported, then it isn't like handheld smoke grenades would help much (seeing as their range is "as far as you can throw" and the smoke is comparatively minor compared to what the ISARA pumps out).
150	* Why do so many enemy aces spend the entire battle they appear in hiding in secluded corners of the battlefield doing nothing unless you go looking for them? The whole point of having elite soldiers in a unit is so that they can use their skills to help turn the tide of battle.
151	* Why weren't Rosie and Largo court-martialed for insubordination? They openly disrespect a commanding officer, and even if Welkin is easygoing enough to just shake it off, you'd think Alicia would at least threaten to throw them in the brig or something.
152	** Because Welkin was apparently born on Opposite Day. He's a military prodigy, but he can't figure out how to stop Selvaria. He's an educated scholar, but when he can't make a good argument, he just punches the other guy in the face. He's a sensitive, romantic hero, but he waits until his girlfriend is suicidal before he pays any attention to her emotionally. He's obsessed with nature and plants, but his useful observations about the environment are just common sense. He's a noob who's never been involved in combat, but he gets a command position because his sister's been maintaining the family tank. Rosie and Largo didn't get punished for insubordination because Welkin probably thought it was a compliment.
153	*** Literally everything in the above paragraph is either false or at best wholly misleading. [[labelnote:1]]Welkin is clearly depicted ''not'' being pleased with Rosie and Largo's insubordination, which is why he specifically throws down the gauntlet with his "48 hours" wager.[[/labelnote]] [[labelnote:2]]That Welkin can't figure out how to defeat a literal superhuman who's invulnerable to all known weapons in Gallia's arsenal is not a criticism of Welkin. Selvaria is eventually bested when Faldio figures out how Gallia can get its own superhuman.[[/labelnote]] [[labelnote:3]]Welkin punches Faldio in an (unsurprising) outburst of anger over Faldio shooting someone he cares about, not because he's losing an argument. The argument doesn't even start until a bit later in the scene anyway.[[/labelnote]] [[labelnote:4]]Alicia was doing her best to pretend there wasn't a problem, and even when Welkin knows better there's a limit to how much he can press her on the issue without a) being unethical, and/or b) likely making things worse. Also, Alicia is never actually suicidal in the sense implied, she's willing to suicide bomb the Marmota, which is an entirely different kettle of fish.[[/labelnote]] [[labelnote:5]]Welkin's nature knowledge being actually simple common sense may be true, but is not an opposite.[[/labelnote]] [[labelnote:6]]Welkin gets made a lieutenant in charge of a squad (a platoon, really) because he had officer training in university, same as Faldio.[[/labelnote]]
154	*** Only if you make excuses for a lot of the crap that happens around Welkin. [[labelnote:1]] He didn't actually do anything about Rosie and Largo, so it really doesn't matter how he felt about it either way. He goes about earning their respect instead, but that's the problem, he's their commanding officer, their opinion of him doesn't dictate whether or not he's in charge.[[/labelnote]] [[labelnote:2 and 3]] Welkin's entire character is based around the idea that he's intelligent and resourceful and can get out of suicidal situations, but he blows it with Selvaria. That ''would'' be okay, because Selvaria was nearly unstoppable, but Welkin already knows why Faldio shot Alicia before he even goes into Varrot's office, immediately resorts to violence before asking pertinent questions, and condemns Faldio out of hand without offering any better solutions. For a character so heavily centered on succeeding through teamwork and creative solutions, that's a pretty bad fail.[[/labelnote]] [[labelnote:4]] Alicia may have been doing her best to hide it, but her best was ''crap'', and if Welkin cared about the ethical concerns of falling in love with his sergeant, there wouldn't be a romance plot. She's overwhelmed and near-tears for at least a few scenes toward the end, and holy shit is she ever suicidal, the ''second'' she finds out what the Final Flame is, she jumps at the chance to use it and declares herself already dead, even though there's absolutely no reason for her to do that (not to mention she probably would have flash-fried Squad 7 if she'd succeeded.[[/labelnote]] [[labelnote: 5]] Sure they are. Formal education that's supposed to make you superior to the bumpkins and thus more qualified to be in charge, versus basic common sense. They're not mutually exclusive, but they're still opposites. [[/labelnote]] [[labelnote: 6]] True, but since Welkin's officer training gets mentioned maybe once or twice in the entire game, while the Edelweiss and Belgen Gunther get name-dropped in reference to his leadership all the freaking time, it's an InformedAttribute. Even the Zero Punctuation review notes this. [[/labelnote]]
155	*** [[labelnote:1]]Welkin's failure to deal with Rosie and Largo's insubordination is indeed a problem with him, but also clearly not what you claimed above ("thought it was a compliment").[[/labelnote]] [[labelnote:3]]Faldio engaged in deliberate friendly fire against Welkin's love interest with the intent of turning her into a human weapon. Most people would be plenty angry at that regardless of what the stated reasons were (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant#Second_formulation Kant's second formulation]]). I'll grant that people might very reasonably expect better of Welkin.[[/labelnote]] [[labelnote:4.5]]The Marmota was on its way to flatten Randgriz for all they know (it wasn't, but what it was doing was probably even worse), and their sole plan to stop it had failed catastrophically. From any sort of realistic POV (as opposed to reading/writing a work of fiction trying for [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism an optimistic depiction]]), Alicia using the Final Flame on the Marmota was ''the correct decision'', and even the complete loss of Squad 7 would be a more than acceptable tradeoff. (The militia regiment loses two whole squads to the Valkof anyway, but they don't exist outside that scene so we don't care about them)[[/labelnote]] [[labelnote:5]]Even if its fairly significant to the plot that he uses his wildlife knowledge/common sense to formulate some of his battle plans, even if he didn't have any training in this field he'd still qualify to lead on the basis of his ''military'' training and the fact that he does in fact get things done (or, okay, because his dad was a war hero and he has his own tank). Anyway, it's common sense that the other characters noticably fail to use if they have it, which would be a fair [[WatsonianVersusDoylist Doylist]] criticism of the story but not a Watsonian one of Welkin.[[/labelnote]] I'll concede 4.0 and 6. [[labelnote:*]]Also, why are 2 and 3 lumped together? They don't have any real connection.[[/labelnote]]
156	** As far as they knew at the time, Welkin was just some greenhorn who was instantly promoted to commanding officer after barely even a day into recruitment, while Largo and Rosie have been in the army for ''years''. Plus, the fact that he's openly friendly towards the race that's widely believed to have nearly destroyed the world in the past [[spoiler:and indirectly caused the slaughter of Rosie's family]] is likely a sore spot with not just Rosie and Largo, but the entire Gallian army. Hell, I'm pretty sure the army's resentment of Welkin for his friendliness towards Darcsens is a plot point. Plus, as far as they knew at the time, literally the ''only'' reason Welkin was instantly promoted to their CO was because he just happened to still have his father's old tank, and his father himself was a famous war hero.
157	*** It's said in the game's personnel files that military training is commonplace in Gallian schools of all levels, and undergoing such training apparently counts for something during wartime. Welkin had undergone officer training and tank combat training (up to university level). Combined with the fact that he demonstrated military competence during the Imperial attack on Bruhl, that he's the son of a famous commander, and that he probably would've forbidden the military from taking the Edelweiss (along with its driver, Isara) unless he remained with it, the militia promoted him to Lieutenant when he enlisted. It's somewhat informal, but it makes sense even within VC's stretched logic; the militia needed people to fill the officer ranks, if nothing else, and Welkin was a decent candidate. However, because it's an informal promotion, it's understandable why many (such as Rosie and Largo) were initially irritated by the decision. (It's worth noting, though, that Largo had turned down promotion on several previous occasions; if he didn't want to serve under officers younger and less experienced than he is, he shouldn't have insisted on remaining an NCO until well into his thirties.)
158	** Two reasons, most likely: The Sevens are part of the conscript army. Any one who can hold a gun has to fight. They can't afford to throw away two noncommissioned officers, especially when one is an actual honest-to-God veteran of the last war, over a bit of lip. (Plus, when it comes to conscripts as opposed to volunteer soldiers, a bit of insubordination is expected.) Secondly, following up from the first point, because Largo is a seasoned combat veteran, and Rosie is very well liked by the shock troopers under her command, the other enlisted conscripts are going to put a lot of value on them and their opinions. Welkin could have thrown them in the brig for insubordination, but forcing them to acknowledge that he is a competent commander was ultimately more efficient at cementing his status as OIC among the other conscripts.
159	* Hans in the epilogue. Going by [[spoiler:Isara Jr.'s]] development thus far, at least three or four years have passed since the end of the game... but the porcavian hasn't grown in size at all? (If that's just how big they are at maturity, how did they tell Hans was a juvenile when they first found him?)
160	** A potbellied pig won't get much bigger than a housecat.
161	* Why us everyone so liable to throw away Valkyria? A bomb goes off once, and a soldier can be used in every battle. They're literally one-in-a-million. Even if they ARE powerful as nuclear bombs, I don't think you can afford to waste them. There's about ten-ish in the ''entire world.''
162	* Am I the only person who facepalmed at Faldio's unnecesary heroic sacrifice? The Marmota was out of commision, Maximillian was defeated and unarmed, and the 7s basically had won the day. All Faldio did with suicide was to endanger the lives of the very same people he intended to save, and deprive Gallia of a high ranking prisioner.

Context Headscratchers / ValkyriaChronicles