Toshiue Elite Onna Kishi ga Boku no Mae de dake Kawaii - Ch. 38.2

[Hikineet]

Thanks for the chapter.

 

[baconcat]

Fine cat.

 

[Alesund]

In regards to the last credits page, this is my counter-argument:

 

[jipowap]

Your dedication to in-depth doctrinal analysis and critique of this ero-comedy manga is an inspiration. Bless your brain.

 

[asdman]

I am so happy that the backnight is there to protect Haru v card while away from Karen. It can't possibly end up with Haru x blacknight right?

 

[demonslender]

i fucking knew that haru figured it out immediately. he even started teasing her the very first chance she let her guard down and openly showed her jealousy.

 

[Amariithynar]

I disagree with your conclusion, and the reason is because of roles/responsibilities of a commander. I think that many units are, for the most part, "well-oiled machines" in terms of day-to-day garrison tasks. The role of a commander is not to concern themselves with these. That is the duty of NCOs and subordinate leaders. In fact, commanders shouldn't really concern themselves too much with any current operations (CuOPs), because at the time of execution, the plan should be developed enough for subordinate leaders to handle everything (this is one aspect of the concept known as Mission Command). The exception to this, in my opinion, is during complex combat operations with many unknown variables where the commander must make decisions on the spot. But generally, the commander should mostly be concerned with future operations (FuOPs) to make decisions and set conditions before execution. You'd be surprised on how many decision points there are in even operations you'd think to be straightforward. Something as simple as deciding whether to assault from the left or the right can become complex when you factor in costs, benefits, risks to force, risks to mission, etc. And it's the commander's job to accept risk, provide guidance to staff, and choose the Courses of Action (CoAs) that they deem best fit for mission (this is a process known as the Military Decision Making Process, or MDMP). A commander cannot make these decisions or provide guidance when they are absent.

I can go on and on about this stuff, but explaining in more detail would mean going into the weeds of leadership philosophy, MDMP, and a couple other topics. If anyone's interested, you can reach out via discord and we can have a discussion. A lot of this does start treading into the art of leadership/warfare rather than the science, but that's why it's such an interesting topic. But regardless, I stand by my opinion that Karen leaving her unit (ESPECIALLY to be an adj for a different unit) is a horrible decision as a commander.

I'm not disagreeing that her coming here is not a good idea, but that the thrust of your argument is off; the problem there as I see it is that you are referring to a very rigid chain of command as per modern military (the "leadership philosophy" you speak of), whereas the knights operate (and have always operated; Haru's shown this pretty well throughout his time working with either group back in the day) more or less as solo operatives with a great deal of operational leeway; something more like MI6 or similar paramilitary special forces; there's only like 20 members of the group, same as this one that Haru's been sent to train. She isn't needed there for the day-to-day operations, and with Madeleine's invention, she is easily reachable in case of emergencies that exceed those operational boundaries that require commander-level attention or approval, assuming that there hasn't been a temporary dispensation of authority to Madeleine, or other similar contingency measures.

 

[jjhoonster]

I'm not disagreeing that her coming here is not a good idea, but that the thrust of your argument is off; the problem there as I see it is that you are referring to a very rigid chain of command as per modern military (the "leadership philosophy" you speak of), whereas the knights operate (and have always operated; Haru's shown this pretty well throughout his time working with either group back in the day) more or less as solo operatives with a great deal of operational leeway; something more like MI6 or similar paramilitary special forces; there's only like 20 members of the group, same as this one that Haru's been sent to train. She isn't needed there for the day-to-day operations, and with Madeleine's invention, she is easily reachable in case of emergencies that exceed those operational boundaries that require commander-level attention or approval, assuming that there hasn't been a temporary dispensation of authority to Madeleine, or other similar contingency measures.

You make some excellent observations! However, I would like to clarify two things. First, the roles/responsibility of a commander has nothing to do with a rigid chain of command or leadership philosophy. I would say that the role of a commander actually falls firmly into the "science" aspect of warfare. It doesn't matter what the commander's leadership philosophy is or what unit they belong to; their duty remains the same.

Second (and this is one of my pet peeves simply because it happens a lot), please do not dismiss concepts because they "only apply to modern militaries". I try to stress this every time, but when I do these analyses I do my utmost to stick to concepts that apply universally (hence the "science" vs the "art"). It does get pretty close to the line sometimes, though. But I am of the opinion that it does not cross the line specifically when it comes to what a commander is actually supposed to do.

There's actually an entirely different but equally interesting discussion/rant I want to make about how the Black Hawk is organized and functions (and the Kingdom in general). I disagree that the Black Hawk functions similarly to MI6 (MI6 is an intelligence agency), but I do agree that it has some similarity to a special forces group in terms of organization if not mission set. But in SOF, commander guidance is even MORE vital to the unit than a normal unit. There is an ENORMOUS amount of planning involved in each and every SOF mission. If Karen was the equivalent of a SOF commander, I would be judging her even more harshly. But I don't think the Black Hawk comes even close to doing anything related to the Kingdom's equivalent of special operations. And in my mind, the Black Hawk is at minimum a company-sized element because of what I believe to be their mission set (I may expand upon these ideas in a future rant).

Additionally, the operational leeway you mention is actually another part of Mission Command! But in actuality, SOF doesn't get as much leeway as you think they do, primarily because of the nature of their missions. But that also is another aspect of Mission Command! Mission Command is a fascinating subject, and there's a lot more I want to say about it in the context of your comment because it's another fun rabbit hole to jump into. But I won't here, because this is already going on pretty long.

If you want to discuss more, reach out to me on discord. Don't think the MD comments section is the best discussion platform for this lol, so I won't be replying more here probably. I do appreciate how much thought you're putting into this though. There's a lot of interesting topics to dive into and aspects to consider when it comes to military analyses of fictional works.

 

[Amariithynar]

You make some excellent observations! However, I would like to clarify two things. First, the roles/responsibility of a commander has nothing to do with a rigid chain of command or leadership philosophy. I would say that the role of a commander actually falls firmly into the "science" aspect of warfare. It doesn't matter what the commander's leadership philosophy is or what unit they belong to; their duty remains the same.

I agree! I just don't think that Karen has much to actively do because she has trained her unit to follow her ethics and trusts them to carry out their orders accordingly, without needing her input, which is quite different from how it works in modern militaries but was quite common with older era militaries, especially those still employing swords and armor as primary tools of war.

Second (and this is one of my pet peeves simply because it happens a lot), please do not dismiss concepts because they "only apply to modern militaries". I try to stress this every time, but when I do these analyses I do my utmost to stick to concepts that apply universally (hence the "science" vs the "art"). It does get pretty close to the line sometimes, though. But I am of the opinion that it does not cross the line specifically when it comes to what a commander is actually supposed to do.

I am not dismissing any concept because it "only applies to modern militaries", I'm noting that the rigid structure you are referring to within the military is a very modern concept. This isn't to say there weren't any rules in older forms of military, and often punishments would be far more immediate and severe for breaking those rules- but they were still overall far more lax in their organizational structures, even before (in terms of going back through the ages from today) you get to the eras where militaries were made up almost entirely of conscripts beneath nobles, who wielded the military strength as their own personal backing, with only a few general rules of war that were accepted culturally.

There's actually an entirely different but equally interesting discussion/rant I want to make about how the Black Hawk is organized and functions (and the Kingdom in general). I disagree that the Black Hawk functions similarly to MI6 (MI6 is an intelligence agency), but I do agree that it has some similarity to a special forces group in terms of organization if not mission set. But in SOF, commander guidance is even MORE vital to the unit than a normal unit. There is an ENORMOUS amount of planning involved in each and every SOF mission. If Karen was the equivalent of a SOF commander, I would be judging her even more harshly. But I don't think the Black Hawk comes even close to doing anything related to the Kingdom's equivalent of special operations. And in my mind, the Black Hawk is at minimum a company-sized element because of what I believe to be their mission set (I may expand upon these ideas in a future rant).

I stated MI6 for a very specific reason; Their stated areas of focus are,

• Counter Terrorism – stopping terrorist attacks in the UK, against our interests overseas, and supporting our allies
• Disrupting Hostile State Activity – tackling threats from hostile and malign states, promoting the UK’s prosperity and influencing international affairs
• Cyber – promoting and defending the UK’s cyber realm and using our cyber expertise to reduce threats.

These match up quite well to the roles that we see the Black Hawk function as in the story previously; they don't deal with common bandits, but when a big named group that is functionally a terrorist group shows up, they're there. When there's terrorist activity caused by enemy state actors, they're there. When there is demon activity, they're there. When there's disruption in an allied state, they're there supporting them. The "cyber" aspect would be equivalent to the "magic" and "magic tools" aspect in their world, and they were the ones called in to deal with the complicated magic barriers and evil eye based on magical expertise, not just on their role. I will say they fail hard in the "intelligence" part of things, though, hah!

As for the size- They're the fourth cavalry unit within the knight's regiment. At Haru's graduation ceremony, there were approximately 35 new recruits, which just a few chapters later was pared down to only a few remaining (because they weren't up to snuff), so it's not like they're hurting for bodies and needing to pack the ranks, either. That further confirms for me that they are a small, elite unit, rather than a company-sized element like you suggest; that seems more accurately to be the entire Knight's Regiment, which Karen's father is the commanding officer thereof.

Plus, Ian Fleming, man.

Additionally, the operational leeway you mention is actually another part of Mission Command! But in actuality, SOF doesn't get as much leeway as you think they do, primarily because of the nature of their missions. But that also is another aspect of Mission Command! Mission Command is a fascinating subject, and there's a lot more I want to say about it in the context of your comment because it's another fun rabbit hole to jump into. But I won't here, because this is already going on pretty long.

Current modern SOF somewhat agreed, because they at least nominally have governmental oversight and have to justify their actions to the public; prior to 1994, however, MI6 had fairly broad operational leeway because they were a shadow organization prior to that. CIA and FBI were actually quite similar back then, too, with programs like MKULTRA or its predecessor Project Artichoke for the former, and Cointelpro for the latter.

If you want to discuss more, reach out to me on discord. Don't think the MD comments section is the best discussion platform for this lol, so I won't be replying more here probably. I do appreciate how much thought you're putting into this though. There's a lot of interesting topics to dive into and aspects to consider when it comes to military analyses of fictional works.

I actually prefer the longform format of the forums, because it allows for time to think as writing one's reply (in total I believe I've spent about an hour writing this response), and to go back and edit as necessary, though I can see why you'd say that the MD comments section specifically is not the best discussion platform for this topic in general.

 

[genR]

I can't wait until Kar- I mean, the black knight gets a heat stroke from that stupid armour and requires personal medical attention from Haru…

On the rant on dereliction of duties by the black hawk's commander. I'd say if the author is any good, he'll be able to tie that up by making the black hawk face troubles that would require Karen's immediate presence. Which can then be used for maximum drama if her dad/other higher ups are made aware she did it to chase tail shota. Not that I'd bet a lot on that though, writer's just as likely to merely use the situation to maximise slapstick/echi/embarassed moments.

 

[MangaRockRefugee]

Gunna play devil's advocate in regards to the rant
1) author doesn't really understand how militaries work, leading to the issues with underutilization
2) Haru asks for support because he suspects some fucky dealings in the background, and needs someone explicitly aligned to the same cause
3) Madeleine sends Karen because the latter is not in the state of mind to do anything of value back home, mainly because of baggage train worth of unprocessed trauma.

 

[alpalin]

I wonder who is in the armor ?

 

[zombielunch]

I really hope we get to see muscles and chubbly nude.

I assume we will, but it is a pretty big squad.

 

[Aryan44444]

When new chap

 

[Jstar338]

Haru doesnt need and adjutant. He's perfectly capable of handling this on his own. Karen just wanted an excuse to be with him