A matter of scale maybe? Let's not compare an autonomous bot to a nuclear weapon. This is more about a new UAV entering service.
First off, claiming that a skyscraper-sized robot that's semi-secretly a cyborg alien angel is equivalent to a Predator drone is absurd. In terms of both cutting-edge science/engineering and sheer destructive ability (albeit more slowly), Evangelions are
way closer to the Manhattan Project than a new way to combine decades-old RC and weapons tech.
Misato (we) are good, because we have all the time to come up with our strategies, and have special relationship with the kids. There's always a better solution in hindsight.
I would give Gendo a pass if he made bad decisions
at first, then realized why his orders weren't being followed and adapted over the course of the battle. I'd still criticize him if the topic came up, but I wouldn't support votes to rub his face in his mistakes.
That's not what happened. Gendo kept giving orders that were bad in the same way for the whole battle. This wasn't a knife fight between two dudes in an alley; this took
minutes to resolve. Sure, that's not enough time to come up with a perfectly detailed stratagem, but I didn't criticize Gendo for failing to do that. I criticized him for failing to adapt to the situation
at all.
Those things are not something to take care of in the middle of a battle.
...what are you talking about? Yeah, you (usually) can't
improve morale in the middle of battle, but
that's not what I'm criticizing Gendo for failing to do. I'm criticizing him for failing to accept the morale he entered the battle with and work within the constraints that puts on him.
And that
is something commanders need to worry about in the middle of battle. The military history every commissioned officer learns are
full of battles where one side or the other had to work with troops that would refuse some of their orders, for one reason or another. If your infantry won't charge down the hill, don't order them to charge down the hill; find a battle plan which accounts for your infantry staying at the top of the hill. This is basic military theory!
And in this situation it's actually Misato's job to make sure Gendo's orders are being followed, since she's the only officer between him and the kids. Shitty orders too.
That depends on what the job of a middle officer is. Is it to ensure orders from higher officers are followed, or to ensure objectives are met? Even disregarding the
literally apocalyptic stakes of this particular battle, that isn't an open-and-shut issue. There are many command-and-control doctrines, which each have their own contexts where they work best.
And some of them
do focus on goals rather than orders! Consider
command by negation, prominently used by the US Navy, or
mission-type tactics, developed by the post-Napoleonic Prussian army. Whaddya know, even some of the most effective military forces in history had doctrine where lower officers were given flexibility to complete objectives based on their understanding of local conditions, ignoring bad orders from people who can't see the situation as clearly.
There are
absolutely situations where cultivating that kind of flexibility and freedom in the officers is a bad idea. Perhaps most prominently, dictatorships need to worry about junior officers using their freedom to coup the central government. Even if a more flexible command-and-control doctrine would be more effective in battle, political concerns limit the dictator's choices.
However...for everyone except Gendo Ikari, battle effectiveness matters
way more than Gendo Ikari's political concerns. Again, if the Evangelion corps is rendered inoperable,
the human race is in imminent danger of extinction. Defeating Angels with minimal damage to the Evangelions, their pilots, and hopefully civilian infrastructure should be Misato's top priority. If Gendo gives orders which threaten the human race,
fuck him.
I want to emphasize something: I'm not a military theory expert, I just read a history blog that references military theory. If I sound like one, it's because I know what words to Google and read some Wikipedia pages. If Gendo wants to act as a military commander, he has
no excuse for not knowing all of this and more. The whole
point of officer training is making sure that officers understand this shit well enough to act on it in battle, when every second counts.
Her responsibilities are tactical command in battles with Angels, iirc. The only strategic goal she cares about is killing all of them. Need-to-know basis applies here, and Rei is a good example: Misato doesn't need to know her secrets to give her orders in battles. Same goes for other strategic goals and politics.
First off, you're wrong. Misato gets consulted for all
sorts of things that have nothing to do with killing Angels. Remember the plushies?
Second, even if you're right, anything relevant to killing angels would be need-to-know information. That's what need-to-know
means. If Gendo Ikari has some strategic concerns that might get in the way of killing Angels, he needs to let his Angel-killing officers know about them, or accept that the Angel-killing officer is going to fuck over his strategic concerns. This is
especially true of the Angel-killer-in-chief, who both has the highest security clearance of any Angel-killing officer
and the greatest ability to fuck over Gendo's strategic concerns that she was never informed of.
That's more like leftovers Gendo can't be bothered with.
Either Misato's role is political/strategic (and Gendo is a bad commander because he's denying her information
necessary for her role), or Misato's role is
not political/strategic (and Gendo is a bad commander because he's delegating tasks he doesn't like to arbitrary members of staff, regardless of their duties or expertise).
Allowed to ask - true, being denied the answer based on insufficient clearance - also true.
You're falling back on the appeal to authority again.
You've been doing that a lot, actually, but rarely so subtle. You're not arguing that Gendo is ethically mandated to withhold information from Misato, or that it's strategically advantageous. You're arguing that he has a higher rank than her, and is therefore allowed to do so.
This is, incidentally, a point that no one has disputed! Gendo
can withhold whatever information he likes, give whatever order he likes, and Misato can't stop him. But if his strategic and tactical decisions are
stupid, then he should be criticized for them. By and large, you are arguing
not that Gendo's decisions were smart, but that he is authorized to make them. Focusing just on this last post:
And in this situation it's actually Misato's job to make sure Gendo's orders are being followed, since she's the only officer between him and the kids. Shitty orders too.
Her responsibilities are tactical command in battles with Angels, iirc. The only strategic goal she cares about is killing all of them. Need-to-know basis applies here.
That's more like leftovers Gendo can't be bothered with.
Allowed to ask - true, being denied the answer based on insufficient clearance - also true.
And that's not getting into how many of these arguments are
about whether military officers
are required to share certain information with their subordinates. Which is partly my fault for getting sidetracked, but still.
