Just because Valkyries are treated well doesn't mean they'll always like the way things are going. Especially when there's no clear and present danger to humanity.
They don't even need to blatantly rebel. You'd just need a few Arcologies to say, " meh we're going to just do our own thing." That could happen gradually, as the UN stops issuing as many orders, or a mayor or two starts ignoring orders or laws.
Perhaps the biggest thing that's going to prevent any sort of factionalism after the war is over is Tac/StratNET.
A large part of what drives that sort of thing is either a sense of disillusionment with the people in the chain of command above you in that they are short-changing you somehow, or looking at how screwed up things are and thinking you can do a better job by striking off on their own.
The enhanced communication, including the background information StratNET presumably includes with its communications, would go a long way towards mitigating this. You feel you are being short-changed? Send out some messages and either the problem gets fixed and if it doesn't get fixed you know why rather then a press agent giving you platitudes. Feel you can do better? Look at StratNET and see where your "make it better" plan has already been tried and didn't work so you don't strike off on your own.
I'd actually be more worried about the second and third generations after the war is over. They would hear all these stories about Humanities glory days of old but look around and see all the restrictions in place that are perfectly reasonable to the people who lived through the war but seem unnecessary now and start raising a fuss about that.
Actually isn't life in the arcologies pretty much post-scarcity to the point that their are so many restaurants and recreational centers inside precisely because people have nothing better to do.
I expect to see conflict to not really flare up as much after the war simply because humanity will not be using up most of their resources for the war effort and can start making more arcologies that are not mega-fortresses themselves with the goal of putting all of humanity in Arcologies.
Their is not really that much source of major conflict if everyone is promised a good life. Sure Valkyries will become top dog because the Arcology director is the Valk that is bonded to the Arcology's core, but they would all be specially chosen for their position.
Sure their will still be political dick waving and other stuff, but when resources are freely available and people don't really suffer that much, conflict is hard to incite.
I threw this together because I was feeling bored. Don't expect it to be great, or even really that good.
War of Beliefs
She walked across the former battleground.
...Is this really all I was fighting for?
She was not so naive as to believe that everything would go back to normal, after the Antagonists left. But as things were, she had to wonder whether it would have been better if they had stayed.
Countless people lay dead; some valkyries, some ordinary people, but all the same, they were human.
At first, she was reluctant to join a side. On one hand, you had people who thought that, because the war was over, that the Valkyrie cores (and its derivatives) should be decommissioned, and only be used under the circumstance that the Antagonists return. On the other, you had people opposing those people, saying that the government shouldn't let up on making and improving Valkyrie cores, as they could come by at any time, and tear the world apart again with little warning. And then, on a foot, there were those who believed that Valkyrie core use should be restricted to building and construction, and have all of their weapons confiscated and/or destroyed. And one of the biggest players in the whole debacle believed that...
The list went on.
...but eventually, after a year of hearing the reports, rebuilding towns that had been ravaged by the war of beliefs, watching people on the streets protest, and coming home to the desolate city of Perth...she found that she couldn't bring herself to stand by anymore.
Her friends had long since went off on their separate ways, joining the groups that they believed in.
She, herself, had not joined any group. And she wouldn't, until this situation finally stopped being a war.
But until then, she would do her best to lessen the fighting. It might take a month, it might take a year, it might take a decade--but she was not going to back down.
She sprang into the air, flying off in a seemingly random. She had missed this one, but she could do something about the next.
At first, I was unsure if this should be an older Anna or just a random Valkyrie. Should I bother to continue this snippet, I'll likely be choosing the former. Likely while also revamping this, because frankly, this is a first draft and it shows.
Well, when your question can immediately go up in a moral philosophical flame in a matter of minutes, it's safe to say that you should remember to tag @Avalanche
If anything, it'd notify him of the beginning.
Seriously, this can go squick very fast.
That's a fair point. I was tempted to do so, but if nobody else in the thread really latched onto the idea as it floated by, there would be no point in bothering him. Plus, building a little debate first is fun, y'know? Gives time for people to think of ideas to make incurring a WoG worth it. Like a valk healing station, or valk transports, or valk prisons, or valk cryostasis units, depending on what happens to the people in storage.
because the war was over, that the Valkyrie cores (and its derivatives) should be decommissioned, and only be used under the circumstance that the Antagonists return.
Well, Miracle Cores were apparently trustworthy enough to be used in basically the entire industry, yet now they would decommission them entirely and there would be enough people to support a faction that by definition doesn't trust war heroes?
Please, that faction would be either made of nutjobs or die out quickly or not formed at all. It certainly wouldn't last long. Twenty years after the Croatian War for Independence and the war veterans still get respect from basically the entire population (or at least the population that isn't completely stupid). Low pays for being part of it are still a sore topic for people who pay attention to that. The government still gives a shitload of preferential treatment for them. "Oh, you want to join my high school and your dad was part of the war efforts? Boom, extra point for you [there's 80 points]." [This was only recently removed, I think. Academic ability is still academic ability, or so it goes.]
Now magnify that effect to the entire humanity. This wasn't a case of being a Serb or a Croat or casting one out from their nation*, this was a war for survival. You think the people won't tell their kids of how 60% of humanity died (I don't know the exact figures) out in the first few months of combat? Most kids will be able to tell you anecdotes (from their parents) and facts about the war most people don't care to remember.
As it turns out, a war (especially one where all of humanity is on the line) is something that is preserved in memory for a long time. If Valks don't get anything for actively participating in that war? Yeah, I'll go buy a sombrero and eat it.
Like, no joke, war is taken as a serious topic by everyone. My mom must've told me a dozen times how my oldest brother nearly died as a child because of bombarding.
… I just think the lot of you are underestimating the effort the government will take to suck up to Valks. If you have war veterans on your side, political parties have to be careful around you. For example, a newspaper was apologist for Croatian soldiers in the war. Like, you could taste the outrage of anyone talking about that scandal. I think my History teacher nearly blew her top and categorically destroyed their BS in under 10 minutes. There's even a yearly seminar on the September War held in my school. There are experts on it. There are theses on it.
Point is, you can't put that under the rug unless you somehow mind control the entire population. And I do mean the entire population of the planet.
*The particular shitstorm I'm referring to came to be because Ilija Garašanin wrote Načertanije (1844), a 5,400 word document on how Serbia could become several times bigger. And, well, the premise is to claim territories in modern-day Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and the Republic of Macedonia. In some historical forms, Greater Serbian aspirations also include parts of Albania, Bulgaria, Greece (Thessaloniki, Macedonia), Hungary and Romania. As you can see, people vehemently protested to the idea of Greater Serbia.
… Sorry for the rant, but I think you guys are thinking way too little of how people feel about war. I think Valk Cores (or Miracle Cores, depends if people decide to rename them) will still be in use even if the war ends. As for that political movement… I'm giving it a week before its bullshit is brought to light and the populace gets so outraged it spontaneously forms salt mines in Arcologies all over the world.
Well, Miracle Cores were apparently trustworthy enough to be used in basically the entire industry, yet now they would decommission them entirely and there would be enough people to support a faction that by definition doesn't trust war heroes?
Please, that faction would be either made of nutjobs or die out quickly or not formed at all. It certainly wouldn't last long. Twenty years after the Croatian War for Independence and the war veterans still get respect from basically the entire population (or at least the population that isn't completely stupid). Low pays for being part of it are still a sore topic for people who pay attention to that. The government still gives a shitload of preferential treatment for them. "Oh, you want to join my high school and your dad was part of the war efforts? Boom, extra point for you [there's 80 points]." [This was only recently removed, I think. Academic ability is still academic ability, or so it goes.]
Now magnify that effect to the entire humanity. This wasn't a case of being a Serb or a Croat or casting one out from their nation*, this was a war for survival. You think the people won't tell their kids of how 60% of humanity died (I don't know the exact figures) out in the first few months of combat? Most kids will be able to tell you anecdotes (from their parents) and facts about the war most people don't care to remember.
As it turns out, a war (especially one where all of humanity is on the line) is something that is preserved in memory for a long time. If Valks don't get anything for actively participating in that war? Yeah, I'll go buy a sombrero and eat it.
Like, no joke, war is taken as a serious topic by everyone. My mom must've told me a dozen times how my oldest brother nearly died as a child because of bombarding.
… I just think the lot of you are underestimating the effort the government will take to suck up to Valks. If you have war veterans on your side, political parties have to be careful around you. For example, a newspaper was apologist for Croatian soldiers in the war. Like, you could taste the outrage of anyone talking about that scandal. I think my History teacher nearly blew her top and categorically destroyed their BS in under 10 minutes. There's even a yearly seminar on the September War held in my school. There are experts on it. There are theses on it.
Point is, you can't put that under the rug unless you somehow mind control the entire population. And I do mean the entire population of the planet.
*The particular shitstorm I'm referring to came to be because Ilija Garašanin wrote Načertanije (1844), a 5,400 word document on how Serbia could become several times bigger. And, well, the premise is to claim territories in modern-day Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and the Republic of Macedonia. In some historical forms, Greater Serbian aspirations also include parts of Albania, Bulgaria, Greece (Thessaloniki, Macedonia), Hungary and Romania. As you can see, people vehemently protested to the idea of Greater Serbia.
… Sorry for the rant, but I think you guys are thinking way too little of how people feel about war. I think Valk Cores (or Miracle Cores, depends if people decide to rename them) will still be in use even if the war ends. As for that political movement… I'm giving it a week before its bullshit is brought to light and the populace gets so outraged it spontaneously forms salt mines in Arcologies all over the world.
...Do you understand the concept of a first draft? This is me trying to get into the head of the world, and see what works. I did not put a lot of effort into this. Otherwise, I would've just rammed into a writer's block, and I would have learned nothing from the experience
And besides, that was meant to be one of the extremist groups, who see the Valkyrie Cores as essentially the new nuclear weapons.
It was in-story that Miracle Cores were used in industry before big honking AGs came around to smash everyone. Said Miracle Cores were then militarized and renamed Valkyrie Cores.
The post didn't apply to just you, it was meant also for the entire thread. I put in an example with some current problems to make people understand war heroes aren't a thing of the past when the war itself is done. I bet Anna's opinion on politics of any sort after the war would be the next best thing to holy writ, what with developing multiple variations of the same thing that basically allowed them to win, not to merely stall longer. Just as we still remember the quote from Bhagavad Gita because of Oppenheimer, so too will Anna influence society to a great degree.
But yeah, I do. Urobuchi decided to explain to show us how a happy ending was just a flight of fancy on his part and no, that's obviously not going to be a part of a movie named Rebellion, are you fucking insane?
Something like that.
Butch_Gen Original tweet
Umm... somehow the word "draft" 稿 had lots of misunderstandings, so let me explain it. "Draft ~" means "the screenplay that was submitted in the ~-th screenplay meeting". Which means Draft 0 is the rough draft that was never submitted in meeting. For this, first it went through certain self assessment and had weak points corrected or scenes cut in order to fit the length requirement, then it became the first draft and would be submitted.
Butch_Gen Original tweet
So, as I talked here and there, for MadoMagi the first draft was already quite smooth and it went through only small changes to become the final draft. In short, the contents did not change much compared to what you saw in the broadcast. At most there may be a few scenes dropped because of the length issue. But since they were not really significant scenes, they were cut.
Butch_Gen Original tweet
On the other hand, for action scenes there were no description at all and for the settei on that part it was all built into by Inu-curry-san. So the material where you could double-check all these and perhaps give a wry smile or find it amusingly ridiculous – that is what you can call MadoMagi Draft 0.
Butch_Gen Original tweet And then, right, things like what all those people who got possessed by the "box witch" tried to mix in the bucket – they were all described in stark details. That is Draft 0.
And this is pent up frustration reaching critical mass because hot damn, I will have to know all this information and more besides as a prerequisite to passing History at all this year. Oh, and a yearly seminar on the September War I won't remember at all because the noise doesn't reach well over the entire hall and I can't be bothered to remember that stuff.
So I saw my chance and took it. I'm just waiting for the inevitable rebuttal by a superior history buff.
As the low level conflict continues to smoulder in the far east, the Middle East again rumbles. The newly established Mediterranean Alliance, consisting of the countries of Iran, Turkey and Algeria, none of which are members of the United Nations, just earlier this month signed a mutual defence pact. Tensions in the region have escalated sharply as disputes over the ownership of the Higgs resources being mined from the Tripoli spatial anomaly continue. UN founding member South Africa developed the mines co-operatively with Algeria, but dividend renegotiations have broken down due to disagreements over the share of Higgs Reaction material and Generators. Algeria accuses South Africa of constructing many more Arcologies than necessary in order to artificially stack the distribution of Higgs material, a claim that South Africa denies. Closely entwined with these issues are continued protests by world governments against Iranian projects into the militarisation of Miracle Cores. Experts globally are in agreement that the state sanctioned use of Miracle Cores as weapon systems will, thanks to their very nature, lead into a perpetual and uncontrollable global arms race, utterly derailing reconstruction efforts. Iran on the other hand continues to claim that the United Nations Central Government already maintains a military force comprised of Core Partners with weapons integrated into their frames.
I talked a bit about this back when the thread started but might as well list it out, here's some truncated notes, I have this as a timeline but eh, focus it down.
Immediately Post Impact humanity is suffering pretty much as you would expect, global commerce extinct, CONUS, North West Africa and EU nations directly hit by the major fragments of the Impactor and smaller meteorites raining down pretty much globally, tsunamis for all Pacific and Atlantic coastlines, global firestorms, global super storms, acid rain which was thankfully not global, USA and Russia Deadhand systems launching their WMD stocks thankfully most knocked off course by inclement weather, the whole nine yards. The methane release from frozen stocks being disrupted countered the nuclear winter effect so yay I guess?
Now amongst all the wreckage there would be these tiny white globes could occasionally be found.
Naturally, people started hitting them with hammers to see if they would break. No one hit quite hard enough to the relief of historians currently.
But occasionally, with direct skin contact, they would apparently just disappear into humans body, which would naturally freak them out and have them say "do not want"which would cause it to reappear.
Pretty useless really, if apparently completely harmless so lab conditions got relaxed and then one researcher wore a digital wristwatch whilst handling those 'weird snowglobes' and then suddenly realised that she knew the exact geographical time of wherever she was standing through a heads up display. Her wrist watch was also missing and when she wanted it back it appeared in her hand and she no longer knew the time. Wow, you get a forcefield? Awesome how come we never noticed this before?
Science occurs.
It's discovered that these miracle machines could pretty much absorb, repair and improve upon any technology given to them. So naturally one person asked if she could absorb a defunct solar electrical power grid. She could. Suddenly amenities. Food processing plant? Yep, then spit it back out and it's brand new. Chemical processing plant? Yep, what do you need, I can synthesise basically any industrial chemical. Heavy metal working plant? Yep, feels slower taking this in than before though... Sewage processing? Oh god no what please don't make me... fine. Yes it works. No I'm not going to let you pump sewage into a machine I'm attached to that's fucking gross let me spit it back out.
It's discovered that synched machines can either be stored 'somewhere I dunno' or completely external so long as they stay within range of that weird forcefield.
Suffice to say, more science occurs, other people are discovered to be compatible with the god machines and the start of proper rebuilding starts.
Humanity noticed the weird gender disparity between people compatible with these god machines pretty quickly but who cares.
Then they discover these weird enormous tornadoes roaring around the major impact sites. Naturally, they send people inside to look at what was up. Wow, there's literally what the fuck inside here. Ohh what's this? Weird gravity readings.
Suffice to say, after a little bit of science, humans start jacking Higgs Generators and Higgs Reaction mass from the space contained inside the Tornadoes as fast as they can for free energy forever. 'Better than fusion omfg!' is the general reaction.
Skip a few years, humanity looks to be well on the way to recovery, at least in the areas that people care about, which is the 5 founding UN nations of South Africa, Brazil, India,Australia and China. Then their mining expeditions inside the tornadoes all go silent. A few military convoys get sent in to see what was up. Disappear.
Hmm.
Suddenly, aliens.
Military? What military? The armed forces was literally at the bottom of the UN priority list. The first months are a slaughter of proportions not seen since Impact. Right now, Valkyrie frame are all in the forms of cities and reconstruction vehicles, useless for combat.
These first generation Valkyries quickly ditch their construction materials and synch in military vehicles. Kludged together machines that should have no chance of functioning but do through the Valkyrie Core's upgrading. They managed to hold the line.
People start syncing in military hardware only and begin forming the first proper Valkyrie Frames as we see them, flight capable, dedicated warmachines. They were the first to turn the tide, attacking against Antagonist areas rather than just defend. it was around now that the global draft and other processes were first implemented.
You'd be considered part of the third generation. The UN has gotten its shit together and has a process for creating new Valkyries and plan to wipe out the Antagonists properly.
tl:dr:
Um, here's the actual answer to your question.
1: Valkyrie Cores (excepting The 300) are discovered bare of anything.
2: People synch in machines to them to form the frame,
2.1: Currently, the base machine that is first integrated would be an infantry powered armour with the necessary control software to help neophtes.
2.2: The second thing would be a power generator. Generally fusion.
2.3: Integrate weaponry. The you're done.
3: Give up the completed frames for other people to use.
It's a systematic production line, Valkyrie work on this whilst they are on break from the frontlines. There's no mystique about it.
Okay, I'm not sure anymore whether someone mentioned the industry thing offhand or I just deduced it because I never read that post by Avalanche. Might be that someone did it in the 50 pages of arguments we had, but I can't remember who did so.
Um, I guess their function was mentioned in some other history lesson? I skimmed all the chapters and I found basically nothing.
The post didn't apply to just you, it was meant also for the entire thread. I put in an example with some current problems to make people understand war heroes aren't a thing of the past when the war itself is done.
> fighting for humanity's survival
> "Oh yeah, people will totally hate you all after you save their ungrateful bacon. GG, have fun."
This isn't exactly Vietnam nor is the situation even remotely the same. The enemy is pretty clearly defined and the enemy pretty clearly wants everyone dead. Humans are very much opposed to this. Valks help them back up human rights with contemporary bullets, thus Valks are good.
That's what I'm seeing, but my eyes are drooping already, so...
Late edit: My eyelids were drooping, no body horror here. *sweatdrop*
I just caught up on this quest. Wow! It's pretty great; I see why it's so popular. There are many things I could comment on, but a couple come to mind.
> fighting for humanity's survival
> "Oh yeah, people will totally hate you all after you save their ungrateful bacon. GG, have fun."
This isn't exactly Vietnam nor is the situation even remotely the same. The enemy is pretty clearly defined and the enemy pretty clearly wants everyone dead. Humans are very much opposed to this. Valks help them back up human rights with contemporary bullets, thus Valks are good.
you stated an absolute, I cited a situation where it wasn't true. even in a situation like this not everyone likes hero's because sometimes they fail. They might just be fringe groups but there will be people who hate Valks even if it was only because someone was too slow to save a specific person they cared about. Others might love Valks but hate the U.N. because you can hate one without the other. Finally someone could just wander off and colonize space and not be under U. N. authority.
Valks might be heroes but heroes are people, when it's over not everyone will do the same thing and I don't think many will want to be a big stick or show animal for the U.N.
Vietnam was weird from the word go. It was the first time AFAIK, that America resorted to outright war over Communism, it was one of the earliest wars with attached reporters, it wasn't terribly popular, and it got less so because casualties mounted and NOTHING was gained over pretty much the entire course of the war.
World War I latest four years and World War II lasted six years for a combined total of ten years. The war against the Antagonists has been raging for the last thirteen years. Half the global population, which was already lower then today IIRC thanks to the Impact, died within the first three months of the conflict.
To remind people how bad things were until recently:
Also, humanity was almost annihilated in those first months. The UN left all the areas too close to Breaches to hang and global population once again went into nosedive. Europe, North Africa and CONUS had rebuilt human populations in the years Post Impact and well, no longer.
Casualty and death rates for every branch of the infantile UN Armed Forces were horrendous, hundreds of First Gen Valkyries died in those first months too. Retaliation with the remaining intact nuclear weapons managed to break up the groups of conventional AG forces pouring fourth from the Major Breaches, at which point they stopped attacking and seemed content to buildup forces for the rest of 2057.
Types were also really rare, less than one thousand in total for the first year of the conflict were seen. They only entered 'mass production' in 2059, at which point all simulated models pointed to Gen Two Valkyries being unable to hold back the increasing number of Types and the eventual destruction of humanity. Armstrong Lunar base started building Arkships at this point.
Then in 2061, during the Battle of Britain, humanity found the Three Hundred and nearly completely wiped out Antagonist forces in Europe, culminating in the destruction of Uralsk Breach, the Eastern most AG Breach.
It was a very brief celebration as the First Type Zero, Indra, appeared after the destruction of Uralsk Breach and stalled the march westwards. Indra was initially thought to be one of a kind, so with the Three Hundred and increasing numbers of Second Gen Valks, humanity continued to push. When Abraxas cut apart Noah, Type Zeros were still just two of a kind and humanity doubled down on winning on Earth as fast as they could. When Aswang basically wiped out the Central African Arcologies in 2063, the realisation that this war would be long and bitter sank in and plans for institutionalisation of training for Valkyries formed.
you stated an absolute, I cited a situation where it wasn't true. even in a situation like this not everyone likes hero's because sometimes they fail. They might just be fringe groups but there will be people who hate Valks even if it was only because someone was too slow to save a specific person they cared about. Others might love Valks but hate the U.N. because you can hate one without the other. Finally someone could just wander off and colonize space and not be under U. N. authority.
Valks might be heroes but heroes are people, when it's over not everyone will do the same thing and I don't think many will want to be a big stick or show animal for the U.N.
I think you completely missed my point. Valks are outrageously good political capital. The only reason humanity isn't dust on the wind is because of them. They're the very linchpin of human society. See also: the existence of Arcologies.
Furthermore, this is basically a post-scarcity society. There's one Arcology with 150 million inhabitants and the major (or whatever the fuck he is) decided to bring back dinosaurs on a whim.
This was treated as a mere eccentricity. By the newspaper.
Transporting 20 million people is supposed to be small potatoes to the UN.
So how do you get the populace to like you? Simple, you suck up to the most influential people who everyone likes because they've got no choice but to like them as a whole (not individuals).
So yeah, I doubt the many politicians of the world won't bend over for the Valks as long as they get public support of some kind or Iunno, something really exotic.
There are myriad ways a Valk is good for politics and good PR. Politicians aren't exactly stupid when it comes to public support.
And besides, this rose from the idea that somehow, Valks would be dissatisfied enough to start an uprising or some equally stupid bullshit. I'm simply unable of conceiving of a reality in which the people in charge would try to fuck with the basic underpinning of their survival. Make no mistake, Valks are vital for continued human existence as is. If the Valks were to disappear overnight?
Only read about one tenth of the topic, but I had to do a fanart because reasons.
So here's Sandra (Btw that's a quite odd color scheme for a "white knight")
Only read about one tenth of the topic, but I had to do a fanart because reasons.
So here's Sandra (Btw that's a quite odd color scheme for a "white knight")
So how do you get the populace to like you? Simple, you suck up to the most influential people who everyone likes because they've got no choice but to like them as a whole (not individuals).
So yeah, I doubt the many politicians of the world won't bend over for the Valks as long as they get public support of some kind or Iunno, something really exotic.
There are myriad ways a Valk is good for politics and good PR. Politicians aren't exactly stupid when it comes to public support.
That takes it in the other direction, though. Instead of Valkyries have extra political power because they take it by force, maybe they have extra political power because the world gives it to them willingly.
"You want your vote to count for as much as the vote of a Valkyrie? Stop talking crazy man! Each one of them saves a million people; they should each get a million votes!"
If a Valkyrie runs against a non-Valkyrie for office, is the non-Valk going to win? They can easily end up in charge that way too.
World War I latest four years and World War II lasted six years for a combined total of ten years. The war against the Antagonists has been raging for the last thirteen years. Half the global population, which was already lower then today IIRC thanks to the Impact, died within the first three months of the conflict
Yeah. Like I said more like WW1 than say Vietnam which it was being compared to.
Because other then referencing just the Eastern Front in WW2? I can't think of a modern conflict with losses on this level. Maybe some of the brush wars after WW2.
