How many would-be could-be priests do you figure there are among the flagellants? The magic wielding or non-magic kind? How many engineers? How many soldiers? How many masons, carpenters, loggers, tinkers, nurses, teachers, etc. brought to their lowest by the circumstances of their lives and world? How many people who might, from a strictly utilitarian perspective, have potentially served Ostland and the Empire to a far greater extent in any other capacity than serving as suicidal meat shields or living bombs? Flagellants were always going to have been a tragedy, however utilized, whoever they potentially could have been already lost.
The best outcome for flagellants is for them not to have become flagellants at all, but we're too late for that, for these. And in a world such as Warhammer, there will always be further circumstances that will cause more people to become like flagellants. And yet, I also strongly agree with the sentiment that incentivizing the use of flagellants by making them more efficient for our purposes is setting a grim precedent to be followed by those who will give far less consideration to their use. Freddy is recognized as a hero of the Empire, chosen by Sigmar himself. Who knows how many crazies, or merely those cold and calculating with authority, will take up this tactic with gusto upon hearing that he condoned it? Encouraging their own downtrodden, whatever their condition, to go out in a blaze of glory in a similar fashion? The more 'useful' or 'efficient' the flagellants become, the less incentive their is for trying to staunch their existence at all.
And Freddy loves his people, flagellants and all! He has himself charged suicidally forward in the face of foes that defy believe again and again! Few of those who might mimic him would be of such character! Few would do as he does, spending enormous amounts on the cults for the explicit care of their people, the hospitals, the Kitchens, providing magical healing to those most dire (though note worthily, those most useful), as Freddy's Ostland does. It doesn't matter that the idea was our daughters. It doesn't matter that other factions do it, so other imperials could independently come up with the idea. Because Freddy is Freddy, and by condoning this decision the masses both here and far may easily interpret it as his decision alone unless we decide to broadcast that 'oh no, it was actually my daughter's decision!'. Fuck that.
I recognize the utility of the decision in the current circumstances, but Freddy has made so many mistakes by not considering the optics and long-term consequences of his decision, and I would love if we'd stop doing that. And we cannot measure what damaged will be caused in far less dire circumstances if we condone suicide bombers in such and extreme one. We can't pretend that this tactic will only be used in times of greatest and most desperate need. It's already going to happen in some measure, why do we need to condone and thus encourage it further?
I get that Flagellants are of limited effectiveness against Dark Elves as it is due to the sheer difference in abilities, but I would like to note that we're already going to benefit from the practice just with the few scattered bombers that are going to be mixed among the flagellants already. Once the Dark Elves put 2 and 2 together after a few bombs go off, they will realize that any of the remaining flagellants could be so equipped, which means that that much more ranged fire and attention is going to be payed to the flagellants either way, allowing the traditional flagellants to perform their usual role all the better, by taking heat off of those units that are better equipped for actually putting the dark elves and their monstrous menageries down.
The horrors of the warhammer world are more than we could ever truly stop, and suicidal warriors will always exist to some degree. So many of these flagellants are ineffective and unarmed because the world cares not for them and we can't help every suffering person in Ostland. Does that mean we should not try? Cause it's going to happen anyway? Imagine if even just some of these people had access to the magical healing we deal out to our favorites and most effectives in droves. How many more would be better fit, or better equipped, to fight and die just as suicidally, but so much the more effectively? It's too late to mend and equip these flagellants so, and some bombs have already been promised, but rather than condoning practices that encourage others to use their downtrodden as ammunition, should we not rather encourage policies that flagellants rarer and less necessary?
Isn't a big part of what makes Freddy special the fact that he tries his hardest to help, when others would not? Has he not seen, time and again, the tragedy of Slayers, who might have better served Karaz Ankor through other means, spend their lives more quickly before the eyes of Grimnir? And we can't pretend that flagellants are anywhere near the effectiveness of slayers, though perhaps with sufficient support, planned well in advance, they someday could be. Hell, Freddy with his dwarf cred could probably organize something like that, a new sort of order by which those who have lost themselves could spend their lives with greater purpose. Just a musing.
I was on the fence when I read the chapter, but having thought about it and typed all this out, I can't condone supporting suicide bombers at this time. Maybe it'd give us a slightly better chance at surviving, maybe it will prove more effective than anticipated, but it working out well would not necessarily be a good thing for the future it would lead to.
Oh, and on an unrelated note, the comments on ogres and age have stirred up an idea for an omake I've had for quite some time now. Might bother to actually type it out in the near future, will have to see.
