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Namtab
Feb 22, 2010

It'll be tomorrow now because I spent my evening destroying a sofa

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MJP
Jun 17, 2007

Are you looking at me Senpai?

Grimey Drawer
Speaking as someone who was raised a proper reform Jew I want nothing more than for Being X to start somehow sneaking in the requirement to keep kosher onto Tanya

Onean
Feb 11, 2010

Maiden in white...
You are not one of us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynfwf7JUg0s

Nitrousoxide
May 30, 2011

do not buy a oneplus phone




I'm really liking these.

Namtab
Feb 22, 2010

So let's talk about Unnamed Salaryman in the first book. To do this I'll be using book quotes liberally. First up, a few disclaimers:

1.) Although I'll be posting things from the book that have already happened by this point in the show, I can't guarantee that some themes won't arise/be introduced later on. I also can't guarantee that they won't do an episode on Unnamed Salaryman's childhood. Assume that this post, and similar posts may potentially include minor spoilers.
2.) As with a lot of novel > anim adaptions, some things may change. I know for a fact that the vision of Being X was changed, and that the conversation was truncated. That won't come up in this post, however be aware that some things may not be true for anime-salaryman. So what's the point in using the books? It gives us an idea of authorial intent as to the salaryman's character and motivations. As ever the author's intent isn't the be all and end all, but it's a start in terms of analysis of the work.
3.) This post is going to be long. This is an amateur translation of a Japanese book, and therefore the prose is likely to be awkward. I've done you the favour of turning things into proper lines and paragraphs.

Understood? OK!

So to proceed in order, I'll quickly summarise the very first section. Tanya is born, and the salaryman's consciousness is essentially subdued, unable to cope with the complete alien sensation of being a literal baby. At roughly age 3 the salaryman's mind begins to properly assert itself until finally it has control over Tanya.

The story then goes into a slight explanation of the Stanford Prison Experiment. The conclusion drawn is:

quote:

The surprising thing was that, this phenomenon had nothing to do with a person’s reason, conscience, or personality; but was rather brought forth by the persona of the
role which was being acted out. In other words, these two experiments clearly showed that humans will obey their environment, going so far as to willingly ignore their own reasoning and conscience. To say it in a more extreme manner, it is that anyone is capable of being a prisoner guard in Auschwitz.

Thus, speaking from a logical point of view, humans would always be affected by their environment, causing them to behave far from that of their own original nature.

After having learned of such matters regarding what kind of creatures mankind truly were during my time in university, the first thing which I felt wasn't discomfort but rather it was more of a natural acceptance as if I had expected it to be like that.
. To slightly paraphrase, the conclusion the salaryman accepts is that people act in accordance with their roles, and will exercise as much power over others as they feel they have.


quote:

During elementary school, I guess everyone was taught that all humans are equal under the state’s compulsory education. We learned that all humans are equal and irreplaceable. However judging from this, we could also easily find out that some situations were unequal. Why is the student sitting in front taller than me? Why are some of the students in the class good at dodgeball, while others are not? Why can’t the student in my neighbouring seat solve such a simple question? Why can’t the student seated behind me stay quiet and listen to the teacher?

However, elementary students are placed in a "Be a Good Child" environment. Even if everyone is different, there is still the need to say that everyone is an important existence. The fear is that if they do not follow this rule, they would be labelled as "Bad Children". So "Good Children" work hard to not become "Bad Children". Then when preparing for middle school exams, "Good Children" start to despise "Bad Children" in their hearts, avoiding interaction with them. Successfully getting into a good middle school, followed by a
entering a high school with a high university enrolment rate, lastly into a well known university, they strive for perfection under these rules and conditions while going down the shortest path to success.

To continue acting as "Good Children" in this environment, it is required to keep on fulfilling other people’s requests and not betray any expectations. Constantly reading reference books and textbooks every day, then comparing their results with other students, feeling as if they have been placed in the middle of some sort of examination warfare, these students treat those who play games every day as losers. In this environment, where results are everything, they naturally look down on those students with poor academic results. On the opposite side, the poor students do not believe that they themselves are smart. After all, what little pride they had were already crushed by the aforementioned group of geniuses long ago.
It goes on like this for a couple more paragraphs, but the point is clear. First of all, a vague ridiculing of the belief that all people are equal when there are also differences that set people apart. The salaryman's view on school is one wherein students compete to be considered to be "good children" through obtaining good exam results. Studying hard, avoiding those more into games than studying. Constantly competing with the other students to get good results, while remaining aware that some students are just naturally more inclined towards effective study and retention than others.


quote:

Placed in this world where they struggle to safely breakthrough this exam warfare, after getting into the so called famous university, the game rules change. Willingly or not, most people among the group will realize that the world will start to judge you by "What you have done" instead of "Excellent results". Facing this changed rule, only those who are able adapt well in this new environment are able to handle it.

On one side obeying, abusing the loophole and ridicule the rules, while on the other side being bounded by the rules.

In the end what they learnt was that rules were an irreplaceable presence for the optimization of the system. Unbound freedom is just pure destruction; rules that have no freedom is just a pure tyranny.

Therefore, although he hated being restricted, at the same time he was worried about having unrestricted freedom. He was unable to understand what are the people who were late for class [were] thinking, unable to understand what kind of values do the people who got drunk lying beside the road had, unable to understand the brain of the PE department people who kept advocating about spirit.

Relatively, he was overjoyed for being able to give a reasonable explanation by pinpointing the relationship between rules and freedom at the Chicago school meet up. As long as one obeys the rules, you will be able to continue on the right track. All the while acting like a diligent student but actually hiding the fact of being an otaku. In his opinion, this is what it means to be free of the restriction of rules.
So next up he went to university, where things became less about excellent results and more about "what you have done" (a combination of experience and effective results?). He also learns to follow the rules whilst also trying to use them to his advantage. To be able to present a public face that is what people expect whilst also having hobbies that most around him would not respect (i.e. finding the loophole). Worth questioning is the revelation in this block that the salaryman is an "otaku". Was he one of the good children, avoiding his former friends who would rather mess about than study? Or was he one of the avoided bad children?

quote:

Friends who had pleasant interactions with him, other than his high school friends, are those people he met in university who had the same interests. Building relationships and ability with others, at the same time wasting some of their free time before going out to society. Of course there was also the need to invest diligently in honing your skills, study vigorously till you reached an adequate standard of language and etiquette. After that along with the signalling theory, he will soon become a well praised excellent
student.

Just that the demand for these kinds of people, surprisingly isn’t for their ability, but more emphasis on what was on their resume. I guess for those who got excellent results for entrance exam, graduated from a famous school, plus were familiar with the interviewer, they were the best candidates available for the recruiter. Based on this reason, the unemployment tide for university graduates also couldn’t really be counted as an obstacle. After all the starting point is different. If you want to go according to the facts, it's a handicap race. Visiting the seniors in the company before going for an interview is a must. And not just that, you will still need to invite the HR recruiter for a drink and have a chat.
Don’t even mention the senior from high school, or the senior during university who are now in charge of hiring people. They would just straight away give him advice "That company’s HR department just happens to be looking for this kind of talent, it would be best to use this during the interview". With this kind of opportunity, even if you were only at an average standard, there would be no trouble finding job. As long as one was not picky about jobs, you would be able to get a decent salary.
The salaryman fostered an effective network of contacts and worked on being outwardly acceptable to others in order to compensate (potentially) for a weaker resume than the "geniuses". He cared less about which job he got than he did with ensuring he got one with a decent salary.

quote:

Becoming a cogwheel of society, submissively executing orders and just ensuring that its own part of job is completed. Then unknowingly, the referring of oneself from “boku” have turned into “watashi”.

Work ethics? Personal style? Creativity? As long as there was a proper salary for that amount of workload, a useful member of society will never question about the job content. And for the companies, they will pay the best talents that could do their assigned task to a satisfactory degree. Following and obeying the business theory without a single doubt, putting profit as priority. Getting used to this corporate lackey lifestyle, actually isn’t that difficult. Heartless? Cyborg? Cold blooded? Inhuman? You will only be worried about these things at the start. It is hard to understand such pathetic yelling, and I felt afraid of people who are in this crazy state, on the verge of using violence. But I got used to it, just like
when I was schooling.

Humans are adaptable living beings. The so called environment adapting, is to act out the roles that were given to you, if you are a guard do your guard role well, and if you are a prisoner, do the prisoner role well. He was just like that, switching between the world of work and interest, living a peaceful life. Of course, work was
conducted in the most efficient way possible, so as to prevent his own precious free time being wasted. Thus he obeyed all sorts of business requests, trying his best to avoid failure in his job. Because of this, he caught up to both his parent’s salary after thirty years old, and was well on his way to become a successful person.

After that, due to his commitment to business and his loyalty to his superior, he was promoted smoothly in the HR department and lastly gifted with the position of section chief as his touchstone.
Upon becoming employed he proceeds to continue focusing on presentation and virtue signalling. He completes his role competently, although he works completely to rule, never seeking to excel but merely to complete tasks as specified, as efficiently as possible. His job is within HR and he completes his role coldly, ignoring insults from those he has to deal with. He continues to juggle his outward face with his private interests, and rises swiftly up the corporate ladder as a result of adhering to expectations and rules.


Thoughts: He's excessively rules orientated and focused on the idea of "roles". He believes that the path to the most comfortable life for him is to just do as expected while appearing competent and willing to do more (see the scene where Tanya is carefully trying to make it sound like she wants to be assigned to the front lines while being aware that her superiors want her at the rear). Tasks are completed efficiently, but without regards towards anything but achieving the desired outcome (possibly the motivation behind the scene where Tanya uses excessive force to discipline a soldier, she may have felt that generating a high level of fear was the quickest way to achieve the outcome, regardless of the effects it may have on the soldier). This may also go some way towards explaining the pillbox scene, although I suspect that's also partially do do with what happens next...

A rough summary of Tanya's outlook on life could well be "Be the guard, not the prisoner"

Raenir Salazar
Nov 5, 2010

"According to Wikipedia" there is a black hole that emits zionist hawking radiation where my brain should have been

I really should just shut the fuck up and stop posting forever
College Slice
Thanks for the write up Namtab! I appreciate these.

ViggyNash
Oct 9, 2012
I feel like the majority of those themes have been effectively covered by the show so far. Tanya's inner thoughts and outward actions so far have sufficed in that.\

Also I hope they don't do a backstory episode. I feel like we've seen enough of his pre-Tanya existence to know where he's coming from.

tweet my meat
Oct 2, 2013

yospos
This show seems pretty decent surprisingly. I'm cautiously optimistic about it, but it seems like it could go off the deep end with the magical nazi girl premise at any moment.

Onean
Feb 11, 2010

Maiden in white...
You are not one of us.
Honestly, that seems like a highly unlikely possibility. I haven't read the books, but Tanya is entirely focused on following the rules on the quickest path to an easy life. Being a militant, conquering dictator is not an easy life.

Ranzear
Jul 25, 2013

I hate how Nazism has completely erased pre-WW2 German history.

tweet my meat
Oct 2, 2013

yospos
Yeah I know it's WW1 era, I'm still just iffy on the premise. It seems like it's riding the razor's edge of entertaining gritty stuff like drifters and could turn into just another lovely edgy anime at any time.

Mordaedil
Oct 25, 2007

Oh wow, cool. Good job.
So?
Grimey Drawer
It's super edgy already. Embrace the edge.

Ranzear
Jul 25, 2013


Tatsumaki starts slipping through in this one.

ViggyNash
Oct 9, 2012

Mordaedil posted:

It's super edgy already. Embrace the edge.

It's that but in a good way, in that in actually has a point to being edgy. It's a philosophical/moral battle between a rather hosed up guy and literal GOD (or not-GOD as the case may be).

Mordaedil
Oct 25, 2007

Oh wow, cool. Good job.
So?
Grimey Drawer
Edgy is good until edgelords ruin it.

Nine of Eight
Apr 28, 2011


LICK IT OFF, AND PUT IT BACK IN
Dinosaur Gum
This week on Tanya the Evil: Tanya succeeds in screwing herself over without any help from Being X

Futaba Anzu
May 6, 2011

GROSS BOY

Man, the manga or however much of the LN I read wasn't nearly as lit as the anime so far. They really did something to change the pacing or something because I'm enjoying it way more than the print media. I'd maybe even argue that the slightly more grotesque art style, fish lips and all, might be amplifying how good it is right now. It'll probably end up being my aots.

Futaba Anzu fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Jan 27, 2017

The Lord of Hats
Aug 22, 2010

Hello, yes! Is being very good day for posting, no?

Nine of Eight posted:

This week on Tanya the Evil: Tanya succeeds in screwing herself over without any help from Being X

I really enjoyed how this all played out. She tried so hard to show off her (considerable) strategic knowledge and value in planning, but underestimated her own reputation as an actual combatant. You can already see from here just how she's going to be venerated by military history nerds.

NotALizardman
Jun 5, 2011



lol they brought her a high chair

PoptartsNinja
May 9, 2008

He is still almost definitely not a spy


Soiled Meat

The Lord of Hats posted:

You can already see from here just how she's going to be venerated by military history nerds.

I'm just going to leave this picture of the Red Baron here.

Cao Ni Ma
May 25, 2010



Tanya has a great smug face and an even better "Oh poo poo I hosed up" face

Nine of Eight posted:

This week on Tanya the Evil: Tanya succeeds in screwing herself over without any help from Being X

Not true. In the previous episode we saw how Being X pointed the general into Tanya's direction. Everything that happened afterwards was just the blocks falling into place.

The show has so many small details that seem very significant when looking at the greater picture. Tanya's lesson at the start of the episode about the highest ranking officer being culpable for their soldiers actions is going to be an important part of this arc I'm assuming. Tanya's observation about persuading people when they are emotionally defenseless (My little rationalist cant be this Hitler)not only applies to Tanya, but to Being X as well.

And this story is like alter Lot. Instead of god taking things away from Lot he just keeps on giving him more stuff and responsibilities. Like yeah Tanya is hosed up having to sink or swim leading a battalion (Really its more like a big platoon) but she's being fast tracked into major and one can assume if things work well she'll be a Lt.Col by the time she finishes it. I think her big detractor is a Lt.Col as well right? Next arc is writing itself already.

Cao Ni Ma fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Jan 27, 2017

Eej
Jun 17, 2007

HEAVYARMS

Onean posted:

Honestly, that seems like a highly unlikely possibility. I haven't read the books, but Tanya is entirely focused on following the rules on the quickest path to an easy life. Being a militant, conquering dictator is not an easy life.

Also not a book reader but I don't think she wants to become a militant dictator. I'm pretty sure she is aiming to climb the ranks of the not-Prussian Officer Corps and become just a part of the General Staff which is "easy" in that she won't get shot anytime soon and her high level of intelligence and competence from her previous life guarantees success and job safety. Her original goal as a salaryman was to be a department chief so basically a difficult to replace cog in the bureaucratic machine. She was reincarnated as an orphan with high magical aptitude in a country that drafted kids with high magical aptitude so God was setting her up to be shot at.

I'm not sure where this show is going but I'm on board if it's just Tanya constantly getting sabotaged by either God or herself for being unable to compensate for other people's "irrational" behaviour. Aoi Yuuki is a treat and it's fun to hear her lovely salaryman voice. Also I think the animation style is perfectly fine even though they clearly spend more time on Tanya's face than on like the rest of the characters combined.

Paracelsus
Apr 6, 2009

bless this post ~kya

Cao Ni Ma posted:

And this story is like alter Lot. Instead of god taking things away from Lot he just keeps on giving him more stuff and responsibilities.
I presume you meant Job. Lot was was Abraham's nephew who managed to escape the destruction of Sodom only for his wife to turn into a pillar of salt and his daughters to sleep with him while he was drunk to carry on the family line.

Cao Ni Ma
May 25, 2010



Paracelsus posted:

I presume you meant Job. Lot was was Abraham's nephew who managed to escape the destruction of Sodom only for his wife to turn into a pillar of salt and his daughters to sleep with him while he was drunk to carry on the family line.

Yeah that one, that Job dude. Its been long time since I went to catholic school and it didnt leave a good impression on religion in general for me

Raenir Salazar
Nov 5, 2010

"According to Wikipedia" there is a black hole that emits zionist hawking radiation where my brain should have been

I really should just shut the fuck up and stop posting forever
College Slice

Cao Ni Ma posted:

Tanya has a great smug face and an even better "Oh poo poo I hosed up" face


Not true. In the previous episode we saw how Being X pointed the general into Tanya's direction. Everything that happened afterwards was just the blocks falling into place.

The show has so many small details that seem very significant when looking at the greater picture. Tanya's lesson at the start of the episode about the highest ranking officer being culpable for their soldiers actions is going to be an important part of this arc I'm assuming. Tanya's observation about persuading people when they are emotionally defenseless (My little rationalist cant be this Hitler)not only applies to Tanya, but to Being X as well.

And this story is like alter Lot. Instead of god taking things away from Lot he just keeps on giving him more stuff and responsibilities. Like yeah Tanya is hosed up having to sink or swim leading a battalion (Really its more like a big platoon) but she's being fast tracked into major and one can assume if things work well she'll be a Lt.Col by the time she finishes it. I think her big detractor is a Lt.Col as well right? Next arc is writing itself already.

I personally feel that a "Mage" is best thought as being functionally equivalent to a Tank. So a United States tank battalion for instance is 58 tanks.

Though I personally feel that once again "Sci-fi writers have no concept of scale" strikes again; as while Mages are fairly powerful I don't think a battalion is large enough to have the strategic effects desired on screen, a corps sized formation might be large enough to stop breakthroughs; I'm not sure what a battalion sized force is supposed to accomplish other than maybe doing US Army Ranger/British SAS style raids.

Cao Ni Ma posted:

Yeah that one, that Job dude. Its been long time since I went to catholic school and it didnt leave a good impression on religion in general for me

You know a weird thing about being older and more well read is that I've started to have a small appreciation for religious texts and theology as a way of enhancing my appreciate of games, literature, or just the intellectual exercise. Like, why doesn't Descartes meditations hold up to scrutiny today but are still interesting in his explorations of Dualism? Stuff like that. Like none of it is going to change me from being a atheistic leaning agnostic but still, some of it is cool; like just knowing about Job leads to an interesting perspective imo about Youjo Senki. That's just my feeling.

Raenir Salazar fucked around with this message at 22:37 on Jan 27, 2017

Nitrousoxide
May 30, 2011

do not buy a oneplus phone



The mages in this show are more equivalent to somewhere between a WW1 and WW2 close air-support aircraft.

Scouting and supporting ground assaults are their primary functions but they can dog fight in a pinch.

Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Jan 27, 2017

lets hang out
Jan 10, 2015

Tanya compares mages to attack helicopters in the book

Belgian Waffle
Jul 31, 2006

Raenir Salazar posted:

Though I personally feel that once again "Sci-fi writers have no concept of scale" strikes again; as while Mages are fairly powerful I don't think a battalion is large enough to have the strategic effects desired on screen, a corps sized formation might be large enough to stop breakthroughs; I'm not sure what a battalion sized force is supposed to accomplish other than maybe doing US Army Ranger/British SAS style raids.
Well, it is a test run. Presumably, if Tanya's brigade is really successful (which it will be, I'm sure), we're going to see more of these rapid-response mage brigades popping up and then there'd be that strategic-level impact.

I think it'd be hilarious if Tanya's proposal ends up being the start of some Air Force equivalent for mages in this world.

Cao Ni Ma
May 25, 2010



I mean yeah mages really are like light/heavy cavalry or support air craft but they are still individual people and not a team/squad per "mage". At the end of the day Tanya will be accounting for 48 soldiers and their equipment, not 48 tanks their operating teams, their maintenance/repair teams, all the logistic and support personnel that are parts of these battalions which can have hundreds of soldiers as well as all their equipment that are worth millions of dollars.

The only part which could be sketchy is accounting for the soldiers if they start doing...war crimy things, since they are individuals with the power of tanks/aircraft.

Guy Goodbody
Aug 31, 2016

by Nyc_Tattoo
Commissar Cain: The Anime

ugh its Troika
May 2, 2009

by FactsAreUseless

Guy Goodbody posted:

Commissar Cain: The Anime

That doesn't really work because Cain is genuinely a good person while Tanya is a vicious little poo poo :v:

Command Ant
Aug 9, 2010

I can make you
worth your weight
in gold!


Best faces of winter 2017.

Belgian Waffle posted:

I think it'd be hilarious if Tanya's proposal ends up being the start of some Air Force equivalent for mages in this world.

The last episode is going to be a pants factory exploding and the reveal that this was a Strike Witches prequel all along.

Namtab
Feb 22, 2010

What I'm slightly interested in is the world's history. We know that its Earth because of the geography and the fact that there's a book on Hannibals battle at Cannes. We know that magic is done through technology (the man-made gems). We also know that its 1921 and world war 1 hasn't happened yet.

ViggyNash
Oct 9, 2012

Cao Ni Ma posted:

The only part which could be sketchy is accounting for the soldiers if they start doing...war crimy things, since they are individuals with the power of tanks/aircraft.

Hey, remember that lesson about officer responsibility for soldier misconduct at the beginning of the show? I'm sure that was a totally random segment and is not predictive of things to come.

Eej
Jun 17, 2007

HEAVYARMS

Namtab posted:

What I'm slightly interested in is the world's history. We know that its Earth because of the geography and the fact that there's a book on Hannibals battle at Cannes. We know that magic is done through technology (the man-made gems). We also know that its 1921 and world war 1 hasn't happened yet.

Well it looks like alt-A-H hasn't declared on alt-Serbia yet because alt-Russia isn't in the fray. As far as know there's been a border skirmish with alt-Denmark and an all out war with alt-France so that aspect of the Schlieffen plan is still there. The place isn't run by facists so there's no Nazis running around looking for Lebensraum so I think it's fair to say that the conflict is basically Franco-Prussian War 2 that spirals out of control and sucks the world into WW1.

HerpicleOmnicron5
May 31, 2013

How did this smug dummkopf ever make general?


I'm kinda confused now. Wasn't the whole 'Plan 315' a delaying action on different fronts and shifting troops to conquer each front respectively? But if they're only fighting Not-France, they only have the one front to fight on the continent.

lets hang out
Jan 10, 2015

That narration in episode 1 was really out of place because it had nothing to do with what was going on in that episode and the story still hasn't caught up to the point where it would be relevant. It doesn't apply to the first book at all.

The show has not done a great job of explaining the war situation. Like I haven't seen the latest episode so maybe it's been mentioned there, but that fight when Tanya blew herself up in episode 2 was the very first battle of the war.

lets hang out fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Jan 28, 2017

AnoHito
May 8, 2014

The latest episode does, in fact, start to explain the war situation.

Eej
Jun 17, 2007

HEAVYARMS

HerpicleOmnicron5 posted:

I'm kinda confused now. Wasn't the whole 'Plan 315' a delaying action on different fronts and shifting troops to conquer each front respectively? But if they're only fighting Not-France, they only have the one front to fight on the continent.

So the border skirmish in not-Denmark (actually looking at the map again it's actually in not-Sweden and it looks like Prussia ate into Swedish land after the not-Schleswig War part 2) happens in 1923 and episode 1's narration is in 1924 (while the actual action is in 1923) so in a year's timespan the Not-Franco Prussian War 2 sucks in Not-England and Not-Russia (and maybe also Not-Austria too?) and Plan 315 takes place and also fails. At least, that's what I'm getting out of it.

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Raenir Salazar
Nov 5, 2010

"According to Wikipedia" there is a black hole that emits zionist hawking radiation where my brain should have been

I really should just shut the fuck up and stop posting forever
College Slice
Lots of Ender's Game vibes to be honest; particularly how Not-Colonel-Graff and Not-Major-Anderson talk to our Not-Ender who is really kinda keen on the "Win the fight in the shortest possible way so I can go home."

Eej posted:

So the border skirmish in not-Denmark (actually looking at the map again it's actually in not-Sweden and it looks like Prussia ate into Swedish land after the not-Schleswig War part 2) happens in 1923 and episode 1's narration is in 1924 (while the actual action is in 1923) so in a year's timespan the Not-Franco Prussian War 2 sucks in Not-England and Not-Russia (and maybe also Not-Austria too?) and Plan 315 takes place and also fails. At least, that's what I'm getting out of it.

Yeah I'm confused too but your account sounds like what's happening.

So the time line is:

Not-France & Scandinavia have a war excersize that "on accidents" into Not-Germany but is stopped by artillery and a local backhand blow.
Tanya spends 6 months in a test pilot gig at Peenemünde and is forced into a literal Devil's Bargain.
Not-Germany Dows Not-France during this time but Not France mobilizes faster than expected and pushes towards the Rhine?
Tanya is transferred to the Rhine and NOT ONE STEP BACK!?
The situation stabilizes and Tanya is transferred to undergo command track officer training; at some point during this time the General Staff starts formulating ideas for a rapid reaction task force comprised of a critical mass of mages to achieve operational goals? Tanya posits that unless they end the war soon on favourable terms the war will escalate?
Not Russia and Not England answer France's CTA?

What seems strange and interesting to me is how long the war has been going without much progress while Tanya was being a test pilot or going back to University. The Franco-Prussian war's pivotal battles I think were between August 4th and September 1st 1870, under a month. The opening phase of WWI was between August 4th to September 12th; but the French had British help in the form of the BEF and Russian help in the form of their invasion of East Prussia from August 17th to September 14th.

You got like a year in which 'the Empire' has not made a lot of progress against 'not France' presumably due to trench warfare; but it's hard to imagine France in WWI lasting a whole year without the BEF or Russians there in the opening months to release some of that pressure on them.

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