「二人三脚登山は命懸けて, イグアズ山岳砲撃戦 II」 (Ninin Sankyakutozan wa Inochikaete, Iguazusan Gaku Hougekisen II)
“Three-Legged Mountain-Climbing Is Life-And-Death, The Artillery Battle In The Iguazu Mountains II”

If the enemy can kill other Objects with artillery fire, why not just sell that to other militaries? Seems like there would be a market. P.S. I’m pissed I missed the pole dancing episode. Damn!

Why Not Just Sell That Weapon To Militaries?

I’m back from my week of drinking an inadvisable amount with my buddies, so it’s back to blogging shifty sci-fi. Speaking of shifty sci-fi, why don’t they just sell their Object-killer artillery gun to militaries? Seems to be a lot of militaries running around on this world. Though that’s more of a worldbuilding issue than a straight sci-fi one.

Fridge logic aside, the danger this weapon poses to our heroes was implemented well enough. They pulled out The Worf Effect (trope!) when that douchenozzle got slagged in his superior Object, then slagged the base and almost got the Baby Magnum to boot. I like how the Mass Driver Conglomerate seems to have the advantage, but they’re as much on the ropes as the Legitimate Kingdom is—not in this engagement in particular, but in the long-term, since they can’t get resupplied. That means both sides will be fighting dirty, and that’s what I like to see.

Splitting The Party

Everyone knows you should never split the party (trope!), but what about when circumstances do it for you? I’m okay with this. I like getting to see Qwenthur team up with Frolaytia and Havia with Milinda, even if the latter was mostly ignored in favor of the former. It’s just … it’s not as funny without Qwenthur and Havia together. Frolaytia and Havia works too, as does Qwenthur and Milinda, but Qwenthur and Frolayita is about the best we got this time, and they’re not a barrel of laughs. Which is all right, not everything needs to be a barrel of laughs, but it sure helps. Laughing keeps me distracted from the flaws.

Crazy Is The Death of Empathy

I don’t like when Havia implies that Bilany Saronna (Takahashi Minami) is crazy for wanting to blow the dam regardless. Thinking someone is lazy is the end of thought, and the end of empathy. It’s also lazy writing. Unless someone has a real mental condition—in which case, I would certainly factor that in, though that doesn’t necessarily make them “crazy” either—I prefer to assume people are rational. It’s just that we might not agree on what’s rational, as is the case with Havia and Bilany. Logic, after all, is often negotiable. Havia mentioning that Bilany’s team wants payback was much better. He should have stopped talking there.

Frolaytia’s Magic Uterus

I gotta admit, I don’t much likes stories that focus excessively on aristocracy and nobility. I don’t mean the old-style nobles, where kings became rules because they were the biggest bastard around, and their chainmail was dyed in other people’s blood. Those I’m cool with. It’s just they get all hoity toity and start looking like this douchebag that I tune out. What can I say, I’m an American through and through—I think royals are pricks. Unless they have the decency to not be bastards about it, like most “royal” individuals today.

It should come to no surprised that Frolaytia’s baby factory subplot isn’t my favorite. But I’m trying to look past that bias. Does it work well? Oh, and we have another example of what I mentioned in the latest monthly post. Just like Usagi’s arc in Taimadou, Frolaytia fighting not for her ideals or goals, but for her very right to choose. But I’m trying to look past that, too—even if both Frolaytia and Lady Vanderbilt are stuck with antiquated romantic plots, Ohime-sama doesn’t have that problem. I think. We’re not really sure yet, are we? Guh.

Past all that, it … it’s all right? It explains why she’s a career woman in the military, it explains why she didn’t like that other noble douchebag, and there was a nice bonding moment between her and Qwenthur when he heard her whole story, and cracked a joke rather than getting all serious. Which was the right choice, when talking to a woman like Frolaytia. But past that, your mileage may vary with this subplot, I suppose. It ain’t getting me far.

tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – The MDC is shelling. Bright Hopper is down, Baby Magnum is damaged, & Frolaytia has a magic uterus. Wait, what? #heavyobject 11

Random thoughts:

  • I appreciate how it was the enemy who blocked out the satellites. That’s better. It feels less stupid / like a coincidence, and more like the enemy is a competent, dangerous threat.
  • I guess Havia has an antiquated romantic plot too, so at least there’s some gender equality in the old world nobility nonsense? Which is good? And it does go with the vibe they’re trying to establish. Doesn’t make it less annoying, though.

My first novel, Wage Slave Rebellion, is available now. (More info—now in paperback!) Sign up for my email list for a FREE sequel novella. Over at stephenwgee.com, the last four posts: $%&@* cuss words, Stephen, what is best in life?, It depends, and Momentum & mental space.

 

Preview

38 Comments

  1. After listening to Frolaytia’s sit-rep on her alternatives to being on the frontlines, I personally can’t think of anything to respond with. Good on Qwenthur for that little diversion.

    OTOH, I personally don’t think flooding the canyons and mining tunnels with the man-made lake water would do much to the rocket-artillery object, and there isn’t any visible base of operation for that object to get wiped out either. (aka. I want to see what reason had made the lieutenant to actually want to destroy the dam. Revenge? If it was the sole reason, that’s very low.)

    ps. what would you guys say after listening to Frolaytia’s ‘little’ segment?

    info600
    1. there was an Army that blast a Water Dam, to hold an Enemy Army to move on. But they also did not care about their own Civilians in the flood. No names to avoid pointing finger now

      it happen in our past

      WorldwideDepp
      1. Unfortunately I can think of way to much real history to base the dam blowing situation on. Military actions that actually have no purpose other than the we got to be doing something logic, or the it was an ok idea but we know now that idea was wrong but we going to do it anyway non logic, or this is for revenge logic.
        WWI rules this category, WWII got a bunch of it. And I can think of more recent examples.

        RedRocket
  2. Why they do not sell their Top Notch Heavy Object Guns to other countries?

    Easy

    to still have the only on Top Notch Heavy Object. To be on the Top of the Objects food chain

    WorldwideDepp
    1. if somebody got the best gun, then they sell the same gun in alower quality, hide the how, improve the current, gain favor and nego-cards from the players and more. i think the author for this anime didnt really think through past the banters and earnin.

      nothin
  3. I find the Conglomerate to be the best enemies so far. Forced by the circumstances, playing dirty for good reason, adapting their space-exploration technology for military use, takings risks… And the more interesting part? We haven’t seen them yet. The mystery helps their presentation.

    And yeah, I understand that their former bosses chose another space-exploration technology, but seriously! If they can do that to Objects, that artillery is worth millions, just not in the space industry.

    Mistic
    1. Thats Mass driver Weapons, capable of holding Megatoons of Atom Bombs powers, without the negative things that come with them, they use the effect of an Asteroid crush on Earth, and with more Power they could even create more craters….

      This Weapon is a City Destroyer, no more an Country Doom weapon

      WorldwideDepp
    2. @Mistic

      Agreed. It’s not surprising when the first book (or light novel) is the weakest in the bunch, but with such an experienced author, I despaired a bit at how rocky the first adapted LN was. This is better. Still a B movie, but better.

  4. Frolaytia’s Magic Uterus

    Wow. The last time Stilts was this appalled, it was Magic Jesus right?
    Come to think of it, Magic Jesus did come from a Magic Uterus

    For a moment there, I thought we were about to get a major plot-shift where Frolaytia x Qwenthur becomes the one true pairing…(particularly after she noticed his carefree attitude and him having no intention and ulterior motives to knock her up)

    Techim
    1. That’s the Ballad of Magic Jesus. The ballad part is important. It makes the whole idea seem more swanky.

      I felt that potential swing too, but I didn’t believe it, and am not surprise that it didn’t happen. She knows that a commoner like Qwenthur wouldn’t care about her boys-only uterus. She realizes that it’s an oddity of the aristocracy that’s $%&@#^ mad, to put it lightly.

    2. I thought we were about to get a major plot-shift where Frolaytia x Qwenthur becomes the one true pairing…

      The Frolaytia flag just got triggered, that’s all.
      Since it’s Kazuma Kamachi, I’ll bet it’s going to be a Harem with Milinda, Frolaytia, Ohoho, and maybe a few more yet-to-be-introduced characters. :I

      Magnus Tancred
  5. Frolaytia’s uterus gets added to the list of impossible things in the show, I guess. It seems like even more then most anime this show runs on anti-science to the point that if you could throw a physics textbook from the real world into it somehow you would would destroy the whole show with giant explosion.

    Of course the real problem is the show keeps bringing up it’s bad science and then piling more on top of it instead of using it as background like most shows. It gets it’s physics, material science,engineering,biology, military tactics and strategy, and geopolitics all wrong and then it just keeps doubling down on them. In fact I can not think of any field of study that the show brings up that is handled correctly.

    Magewolf
    1. It is very improbable not impossible. There are three ways it could happen. First is the previously mentioned magic, which is impossible. Second is chance. Depending on the number of generations, it is extremely unlikely but there is a small chance of getting almost all boys, though without knowing the number of generations or the precise gender ratio, you can’t really calculate it. There is a chance you could flip a coin 1000 times and only get 2 or three tails (The probability is less than .0001% but still not zero). If this is the case, I hope whoever beds her gets all girls, just to 1) thoroughly disprove any magic ability to produce males 2) even things out statistically. The other option is conspiratorial. Which is to say that the vast majority of the female children are killed so as to preserve the myth that the produce nearly all males.

      zrnzle500
      1. In a fairly reasonable science way the Honor Harrison series has something most of the way there. In the Honor series, On one world in part from a rushed genetic modification, 3 our of 4 male children are miscarried resulting in a huge female to male ratio. Actually need a opinion from someone with Doctorate in Genetics if possible in the X chromosome but the theory would be a genetic defect that activated only in XX pairings that then caused almost all female offspring to naturally abort probably very early in pregnancy. As mentioned by others here other ways are in theory possible.

        This defiantly a Asian nobility problem where most Asian cultures are still stuck on the boys are better than girl rule. The European nobility has gotten modern on this.

        Interesting point, the royal family of Europe, there is only one thanks to intermarriage all of them relatives are in line of succession to all the countries, actually developed family traditions that has made the vast majority of them forward thinking, concerned for the people and the peoples opinion, good rulers. In example the King of Spain given absolute power after the death of the Dictator Franco voluntarily put himself out of power by setting up a constitutional monarchy. The King of Bulgaria actually got elected Prime Minister for a awhile. (as normal in democracies even though most outsiders think he did a great job his party is currently out of power)
        I am almost a monarchist, that is almost I still worry on the replacement problem, in that the modern ideas of good rule infected both the royal family of Europe, and the non related Muslim Royalty (not the dictators), in example both the King of Morocco and King of Jordan died with popularity ratings in the 80 percent range which is almost impossible in democracy. Sort of with the competition of democracy the traditional nobility and royalty got their act together.

        Military the whole show is stupid, of course almost all shows military set ups are stupid, horrible bad. This show has gotten better in this current version.

        Who needs a shoot up first version of a space based bombardment system. Sooner or later someone is going to launch a space orbiting bombardment station and take over. Controlling the high orbital is the only game once you can get there.

        At high tech scoff levels planetary defense does get possible again with force shields and defector beams/shields and repulsers.

        RedRocket
      2. @RedRocket

        To quote Winston Churchill, who was actually quoting someone else, but that’s neither here nor there: “Democ­racy is the worst form of gov­ern­ment except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” The nice thing about democracy is that you never have to make a roll on the monarchy dice.

        The monarchy dice can be, well, dicey. You might get good rulers, rulers who can think ahead and be better than any democratically elected ruler could—but you might also come up with snake eyes, and get one of the insane ones. Which has happened many, many times throughout history. Absolutely batshit bonkers people with the fate of nations hanging on their unhinged minds. Which is to say nothing of the mediocre rulers you can get, which democratic societies would never elect, or, if they did, get rid of inside a decade at most rather than being saddled with them for 30-40 years.

        No thanks. I’d rather have my say, no matter how slight, and leave the monarchy dice in the bottom of the drawer, to be used only where they can’t do much damage—in fiction.

    2. I have actually heard of families with an improbably large number of children of one gender, and that this trait appears to be genetic; that is, their children would also have a disproportionately high chance of having children of that particular gender too.

      Hanabira.Kage
  6. I think they didn’t to sell their rail guns to military because their former parent company won’t let them, and probably would threaten to not sell to their buyers if the bought from their former subsidiary. As to why the didn’t sell while in the company, this could be from corporate politics/bureaucracy. Now if they were business robots maybe they would pursue both, but as the rail guns have non space travel purposes, that could make them a better sell than the other option. The other option faction would want to prevent that, and judging from the fact the other option won out, they had the power to do so. Rationally speaking, it’s stupid, but we’re dealing with humans not robots.

    zrnzle500
    1. As I said in the post, humans are (almost) always trying to be rational, we just don’t always agree with what each other deems as rational. Without knowing more about the situation, it’s all conjecture. I doubt the author thought through the situation well enough, though. It was mentioned that the weapon was probably a prototype though, so I guess it’s like they just figured this out … though in which case, it’s hard to imagine they developed such a delicate weapon in the time since they split with their parent company.

      All in all, I don’t advise thinking about it too much. It won’t make sense. Best to just enjoy the Frolaytia oppai.

      1. Yeah that was all conjecture. And it is rational to deal in politics as it is as opposed to a pure ‘rational’ state. Personally I would argue that to some degree humans are not rational, it’s just we think we are, though we are probably the most rational animals.

        Personally I’m more of a Milinda guy myself, though her oppai and thighs are nothing to scoff at

        zrnzle500
      2. Oh, human beings are by no means actual rational. We’re emotional sonsofbitches through and through. I just said that we’re trying. Few people think of themselves as evil or crazy. We always think we’re the good guy, and that we’re right and everybody else is gone. Unless, of course, the individual in question is uncommonly self-aware.

      3. I wouldn’t say they were evil either, just following their self interest. What is good for one faction isn’t necessarily good for the whole company. That doesn’t make them bad, just human. If you aren’t looking out for yourself, who else will?

        zrnzle500
      4. https://randomc.net/image/Heavy%20Object/Heavy%20Object%20-%2011%20-%2003.jpg

        Bad Haircut-kun got OSK. I have no problems with this.

        https://randomc.net/image/Heavy%20Object/Heavy%20Object%20-%2011%20-%2030.jpg

        Okay, I can appreciate why Frolaytia just being an extremely beautiful noble with tons of self-absorbed asses coming after her hand in marriage would be terribly cliche and uninspired, but I can’t say I think the Magic Cauldron Uterus route was exactly the right way to go here.

        Let’s play around with this a bit and say… oh, contrary to her sadistic nature and lascivious pole dancing, Frolaytia actually has quite a weak constitution and giving birth could pose a significant risk to her life. Her despicable excuse for a family, one mostly made of men, has decided to effectively screw her over in some vain attempt to continue the family line and sell her out. Frolaytia-chwan, obviously, isn’t having any of that and enlists into the military, etc, etc.

        Now, had the author decided to go this route or something similar, this could’ve allowed for much better character development, whereas with the Magic School Bus Uterus, I don’t quite see how this allows for much else save for some rather forced development between Frolaytia and Qwenthur.

        Ryan Ashfyre
  7. It’s not impossible. The female body has mechanisms to manipulate the male-female-ratio at birth. It the family has a new kind of genetic decease, which wreaks havoc with these mechanisms, it could happen.

    Enan84
  8. Wow.This is surprising.

    I am very impressed with how the author has done his research. As someone who is familiar with the military, the targeting system that is described in the story is very familiar and actually real. The proper name for it is called “over the horizon radar”. In fact many countries, for example the Aussies are using such systems, in the Aussie case, its called JORN.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jindalee_Operational_Radar_Network

    The setup is different, but I am still impressed that for an author who is not known to be ex military or a scientist, that he would know about over the horizon radars.

    Mil
    1. Also, this is High tech Mass driver ballistic Weaponry. the Speed or the Kinetic mass on impact on the Surface, can annihilate entire Citys or Countries, it depends on the speed.. So here they use mach 25.. what if, they technical could become faster? they are human created Asteroids impacts.

      let alone the Impact Power are far superior then xxx-Atom Bombs, and “Fallout” clean, but with that you can greate an Crater that could fill with Water, or… you make an man made Vulcan…

      WorldwideDepp
  9. It’s interesting that they are in Brazil, and they are talking about flooding cities as a plan… Well, a few weeks ago, in Brazil, there was a mining flood that did just that (and one town was completly destroyed). LOL.

    I guess they are getting their ideas from the news.

    André
  10. I had to say it:

    Frolaytia just gave all the H-doujin writers even more material for Heavy Object H-stuff. There I said it. What no one said but probably had it in their minds when they heard her this episode. =)

    Okabe_Rintarou

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