Warning, rant incoming. · 5:00am Dec 12th, 2017
Let me preface this by saying that I'm not in the military. I know full well that I wouldn't take well to the military life, and have known that for years. Hence my decision to stay a civilian, for good or for ill.
That said, I have nothing but general respect for the people who do choose to serve in the military, especially in this day and age. The vast majority of the people serving in the armed forces of the United States of America are volunteers - no one forced them to put on the uniform, they chose to do it. I'm not going to begrudge nations that do have compulsory service, however, especially given that many of those nations probably need it - case in point, Israel.
It's because of this that I don't like stories that automatically treat military officials and soldiers as evil simply because they're in the military. Yes, plenty of people serving in the military have done obviously bad things, and in some cases were outright encouraged to do bad things. However, being a soldier does not mark you as some sociopathic killer - being a sociopathic killer marks you as a sociopathic killer.
At the same time, I don't approve of works that, while they don't show armies as evil, don't particularly show them as being competent. As much as I enjoy it, the few times that it's shown military action, MLP has made the Royal Guard out to be, save for a few choice individuals, lousy at their jobs. It's gotten to the point that, in the movie, they weren't even there to fight off the Storm King's forces.
I like to think I've done at least a little to counter that in the Quiververse - previous screwups have been acknowledged (and in stories to come, retconned somewhat), and there will be less of it in the future given the fact that recurring characters are (and will be) more than capable of doing their jobs. If I ever make a mistake, however, I hope that my readers will point it out to me.
Thanks very much for sharing this with us. Yeah, I will agree that, while I, myself would not take well to military life, I DO have a lot of respect for those that choose to risk their lives to defend their countries for their enemies.
And, yeah, I'm pretty sure the reasons the military is rarely (if ever) is allowed to be shown as competent in the series are 1. most of the major villains would realistically have them hopelessly outclassed (either through sheer power [the likes of Discord for example] or just having them REALLY badly outnumbered [the Changelings for example]) and 2. showing the military as competent wouldn't leave the show's main heroes much to do in the series openers and finales.
I agree with most of this post. However, while portrayals of incompetent armies grates on me in general, I think it makes sense for Equestria specifically. In my headcanon, the ponies have grown complacent over the years due to a combination of a society that promotes harmony as the ultimate virtue, long periods of peace, and the perceived might of Celestia (as opposed to her actual might, which we've seen time and again is rather lacking). That the Wonderbolts, who are nominally their most elite air force, have much more in common with celebrities than an actual military unit probably doesn't help either, though that might also be a product of the above, rather than a contributing factor (or maybe both a product and a contributing factor?).
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I'm not saying that the Royal Guard would have a chance against Discord - they wouldn't. A part of me, however, is convinced that with competent leadership on the ground, the Changeling invasion could've been made a bit more difficult for Chrysalis and her forces.
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That's an argument that I can easily agree with, and I can understand complacency after one major attack - the aforementioned Changeling invasion - but one wonders why they didn't learn anything from it.