Which leads to another point - there's a classic fictional trope, especially in sci-fi/fantasy/anime but also in other media, where a character presents a reasonable rundown of exactly why the course of action ordered by their boss is a bad idea and why the reasonable (and possibly moral) thing to do would be to back down, scale down their efforts, try to find a peaceful exit from the conflict, etc, and the rest of their faction derides them as a weakling or a coward for it, despite it being extremely obvious that they are the most competent of the lot. That's the beat that plays out next, where Cidolfus Orlandeau tries to lay out exactly how dire the resource situation is, how the peasantry starving would collapse the entire social order of the kingdom, and how they totally lack the strong morale and resolve among the troops that they had during the Fifty Years War (which was resistance to an invasion of their home, rather than a civil war over competing noble claims), and Goltanna calls him a coward and his advisors mock his lofty title of 'Thunder God' as undeserved.
[...]
It's very obvious in this scene that Goltanna and most of his advisors are using self-serving and circular logic to justify what they want to do anyway. The enemy is starving and crumbling under the mass of refugees, so clearly they are about to collapse any second now, but also they're so dangerous and perfidious that we have to fight them to our last peasant because they would just destroy us immediately, but also starvation and drought and having no money doesn't matter because our cause is righteous and our resolve is strong. We fight to free the people from tyranny but also we need to triple the tax burden to sustain the war effort. Our people are fleeing Zeltennia to Gallionne en masse but that is actually good because it means more refugees for them (don't ask why they fled our lands). It's all completely circuitous because the only thing that matters is that each argument somehow land at "and therefore it's correct for Goltanna to continue the war no matter what." It's obvious that Cidolfus is the only one with something approaching a clear vision here, which is why his points have to be dismissed. Blanche nearly goes to blows over Cid's last remark and Goltanna cuts them off, then curtly tells Cid that he disappoints him.
