The background of the Squad 7 DLC story where Squad E is being covertly recruited by Ambassador Townsend turns out be a smart idea. If he brings them in to Randgriz, he thought that Gallians troops won't dare to open fire on fellow Gallians even though they're serving under the Edinburgian military while Cordelia would be kidnapped. In essence, it's similar to what the Soviets did in Afghanistan in the Cold War when they brought Spetsnaz in, the rank and file made up of Muslim soldiers and officers from the other USSR republics in the hope of pacifying Afghans who would be resentful of Soviet troops would at least get along with fellow Muslims.
Raz often claims to be "Invincible", and while he is not actually invincible, he is probably the most powerful Shocktrooper in the game and very durable. He even has a very strong potential called "Invincible". He suffers no major injuries for the entire game until he loses the Invincible potential, and then dies in the very same mission.
Riley Miller's background as a scientist, and the way it relates to her backstory. She dedicates her early career to completing her father's research on "Ragnite Compression" after his untimely demise, for the benefit of the Federation and the United States of Vinland. As the story progresses we learn the said technology is the crux that makes using Valkyrias both as a source of energy and as a city-leveling bomb possible, and that Riley's father never had any intention of completing his research in the first place, having realized how potentially dangerous said technology really was. As if the nuclear allegory wasn't clear enough, you then remember that her father's name was Albert...
In a sense of irony, Valkyria in Vinland may had a more peaceful and hopeful future had the war ended, not being seen as only weapons and with a peaceful application of Valkyria as power sources who can produce energy and healing for the people in Europa can help rebuild.
Valkyria Chronicles 4 is an unintentional Foil to Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway, which features a similar plot setting. Both feature WWII (or WWII-esque) technology and themes, specifically the horrors of war and the importance of relying on your squadmates to survive, and both focus on a squad of soldiers in the midst of a potentially war-winning operation, which goes horribly wrong, and the squad leader is forced to confront old demons from the past that threaten to erode the trust between the soldiers he is charged with leading. However, Hell's Highway demonstrates that trying to be "friends" with your squadmates is no replacement for actually acting as their leader; Baker tried to be A Father to His Men and a mentor figure, especially Leggett and Frankie, and was more or less in the same position as Claude. BiA takes a more realistic approach to the effects of trying to substitute leadership with friendship in a squad that must trust their squad leader with their lives; namely, discipline breaks down, people get killed, and the squad leader's psyche begins deteriorating badly due to it. And, when Baker finally did air out the demons he was keeping, instead of bringing everyone together, it severely erodes the trust of the men under his command, to the point that Corrion outright declared he would never fight alongside Baker again. Baker manages to just barely restore morale and get the trust of most of his men back, but Corrion looks to be a completely lost cause, renouncing his trust in and friendship with Baker even after his speech. Meanwhile, Valkyria Chronicles 4 focuses on the Power of Friendship and making nice with people who are different to get through a difficult situation; oftentimes Claude has to deal with conflicts between his teammates, conflicts that are usually solved by the characters put into situations where they are forced to work together and resolve their differences, and/or air out their secrets and insecurities. Most notably, the whole Kai/Leena conspiracy, which Claude takes in stride and doesn't seem to have any longterm effects on the squad once the secret is revealed, as opposed to the damage control Baker had to run once he outed the truth about Leggett. Although one could argue that Baker's situation was taken much more seriously by the squad because he was the one keeping secrets, the fact that Leena was actively working for the enemy (albeit to help her brother) is still a pretty heavy revelation in itself.
When downed, your squadmates bleed out and are Killed Off for Real in a few turns. You can rescue them in a couple of ways, but they are dead if an enemy walks over them. You can likewise make enemy soldiers disappear and unable to be revived if you walk over them. Think about what this means is actually happening offscreen. Both the Imperials and your own squadmates are walking up to helpless dying soldiers and executing them. It's one thing to have enemies shoot at each other to save their homelands, it's quite another to imagine the 16 year old cripplingly shy girl finding a soldier bleeding to death in the snow and blowing his brains out. Pretty hardcore for a game with a T rating. Note that this goes way back with the first game, which has been adopted with the other games.
Odin was signed up for the military by his parents and ends up in one of the most catastrophic military misadventures in the history of Europa. How are his parents going to feel if their attempts to get their son out of their hair ends up getting him killed? Or worse, what if that's what they wanted?
What would things look like from Angie's perspective if, during the events of Chapter 16, Forseti made good on his threat to massacre everyone else onboard the Centurion? Not only would she have lost all the people she'd gotten attached to, but it would be because their killer was trying to help her in particular. That's a hell of a lot to deal with for anybody, much less a twelve-year-old.
Valkyria awaken to their power only at the brink of death. Just what had that girl been through - or worse, been put through - even before being "modified" to power the ship?
