The only one thing I dislike about this episode was that we didn’t get into Tanya’s thoughts very much. I really wish I could have heard what she was thinking while training the troops because it would have been undoubtedly hilarious. It is clear by her reaction that she didn’t expect any of them to continue and was just waiting for them to drop out. From what I hear, we actually got the abridged version of her training as in the LN and manga, as she shot even more artillery shells at them after the original thirty-six hour time limit just to mess with them and then went through the list of the world’s most hellish training regiments. Of course, her efforts backfired as the harsh treatment of the troops gave the impression that she would kill anyone who dared tries to quit. It’s a common theme for Tanya to see things in terms of loss and gain as her previous life as a salaryman made her highly logical but apathetic.
Tanya only sees things from her perspective without taking into account the time or the mindset of others. In truth, Tanya’s mistakes are normal due to her misunderstanding of other people. To truly defeat God, she needs to stop focusing on her own goal and expand her worldview and the utter glorious tragedy of it all, is that Tanya is the kind of person so caught up in her own ideals to ever truly consider it. Despite being a clever individual, Tanya is quite childish and short sighted. After all, the main reason she is in this mess is because she prattled on to God without thinking. Tanya, to me, is how a villain should be written, not some unfazeable egoist mastermind sitting atop a tower saying everything is according to plan. Instead, she’s just a capable individual with a flawed personality and ideology, essentially making her human.
Thus, with the battalion formed, the group receives their first mission fending off an invasion by the kingdom of Diakon. I don’t know who this nation is supposed to represent but they seem to have not updated their war tactics from the 19th century. The lack of air support and rudimentary defense against mages makes Tanya sigh at their incompetence and the ensuing battle couldn’t really be called one but rather, it was a wholesale massacre and devastating defeat for the kingdom of Dakia. It seemed all too easy and I thought that God might throw a wrench into the works, but this battle does truly highlight just how ruthless Tanya really is. Her assistant Viktoriya has been acting somewhat of a moral counterpart, but even she doesn’t chastise Tanya for her level of ruthlessness.
Out of everyone in the world, she seems to is the one that knows Tanya the best as when battalion was given an explanation by their commanding officer about shelling them with artillery, Viktoriya had already begun digging a hole to avoid the bombardment. I certainly wasn’t expecting Tanya to pull out that little girl voice to announce the attack on the capital but that was certainly underhanded and remarkably clever. No doubt, this victory will push her reputation even higher which may have slipped her mind during this mission. After all, Tanya is thinking of war in terms of the modern world, so the massive numbers of Dakia troops doesn’t impress her. However, to the various militaries of this world, the news that she defeated an army with a single battalion, will no doubt have her superiors pushing her into much more dire straits. Finally, we can see that Tanya is making use of her previous life’s knowledge as the speech she gave her battalion is almost a word for word quote from Full Metal Jacket.
Dakia (Daikon), is a reference to Romania during WW1 (Dacia was the ancient land on which modern Romania extends-they fought the Romans under Trajan). Romania entered the war in late 1916. They were quickly checked by a special army group under August von Mackensen. In 1918 they had to sign a humiliating peace treaty. They re-entered in later 1918 to recoup the losses.
While Tanya exaggerates a bit the backwardness, compared to the veteran Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Bulgarian armies they had to face, the Romanians were woefully obsolescent.
I heard about Dakia(I misspelled it.) potentially being a reference to Romania but I certainly didn’t know all of this. Very interesting. I wonder if this show will throw out more WW1 references?
Sure. I mean the Republic is France. I have no idea who those northern guys were supposed to be (probably Danes, but Dennemark did not enter WW1). We know there is a Russia-proxy, and that it is fighting in the east. There is also a Britain proxy, but it seems it is not in the war yet.
Potential references (and people for Tanya to beat around). Italians (entered the historical war in 1915. Were supposed to be allies of Austria-Hungary and Germany-which are both part of the Empire in Tanya’s world-but back stabbed them, though all expected it.)
Ottoman Empire
Portugal
Japan
Montenegro
Serbia
There are quite a lot short overviews of the whole war out now, due to teh 100 years from 1914, so you should be able to find a smooth read to get you into the whole thing. There are also some good youtube documentary series.
I almost fell off my chair when I heard her say in Japanese “Today you are no longer maggots”, Gunny Hartman lives again!