Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS

[Ryllharu]

If you remember the past seasons of Nanoha, any time the TSAB sent 'regular' forces out, they were pathetically weak. We're used to the strength of Fate, Hayate's knights, and particularly Nanoha. From Fate and Vita's past dialogue this season, she's become so powerful on a single beam scale (Hayate being massive scale) that Nanoha hurts herself badly when she enters her typical Blaster Mode she's had since season 1. They have always been exceptions to the rule. Chrono was supposedly a genius withing the TSAB, and Nanoha completely outclassed him by the end of season 1.

The Strikers are clearly becoming the same way. Teana lacks the total output of Subaru and the Knights, but her specialized shots hit very hard for their size. Subaru not only has an instant kill, she tears off barriers and outputs huge bursts of energy close range. Erio...is fast, but he's catching up to Signum's fighting prowess and style. Caro has been able to annihilate a large area for a long time, only now finally being able to control it.

The regular mages of the TSAB are more like Vice and Chrono. We've been spoiled since season 1.

EDIT:
@RyougaZell:

Episode 24 should be airing tomorrow.

[Kraco]

I wouldn't mind as such if Vita died, but I certainly wouldn't want her to be killed by some stupid robot... Dying while fighting against one of the combat cyborgs or artificial mages, that's ok, but some factory made robot from automated production lines... That would be too sad.

And Ryllharu, no matter how lousy the regular troops would be, surely they could take out some of the enemy bots. They would probably be no match for the cyborgs and such, but at least our heroes wouldn't need to pay attention to any robots.

[Ryllharu]

One of the characters, I think Teana, said that most the regular troops have no experience fighting anything that has to do with anti-magic fields, and the few that do have very little. Since Section 6 has been dealing with that since their creation, they are taking some of the harder tasks.

Every Gadget can produce an AMF, so the regular troops probably don't even know how to pierce the field in order to destroy the bot.

But I agree, Hayate should not have to deal with all the fodder own her own. The mages around her are just going *pew* *pew* without hitting much of anything.

[Kraco]

The cyborgs used some big ass gun when they tried to take the helicopter out of the sky many episodes ago. Surely if terrorists can manufacture a gun like that, the goverment of that world would be able to produce even better ones. Just deal a thousand of such guns to troops and you would have a helluva lot of firepower to take down gadgets!

[animus]

Only 23 out, which was released the 3rd of September.

[Yukimura]

Gotta chain watch s1 and s2 so I can get an idea of what's going on. But from just what I've seen in StrikerS I think it's safe to assume the TSAB's standard training procedures are basically for mage vs mundane situations. None of the regular people seem to have a clue what to do when they're facing off against another magic user.

In other news, Fate's giant sword is pimptastic, Vita has a hole where her heart should be, Erio and Caro seem to be doing great, and Teana seems completely screwed. Teana is the most confusing, she has to win because that's how these things work, but I don't see how she can do anything against those three all alone, she just doesn't hit hard enough.

EDIT: StrikerS - 22 - [yesy]

The pacing seems to be grinding down so that this battle will last the rest of the series.

[Kraco]

Goddam the author has read too carefully all the 14 editions of the Underdog Textbook...

I have never before seen a battle where the other side so vastly underestimates the other. It's like the Section Six people haven't yet realised this isn't one of their training sessions. Hmm... In fact their fight better even during their practice sessions, so I don't know what's going on... But I hope some of them die. It would be satisfying after all this inferior fighting spirit.

[Ryllharu]

Though we don't know how extensive Subaru and Ginga's cyborg parts really are, I'm willing to bet Ginga's arm wasn't like that before. The Doctor is one sick asshole.

Though I think Quattro takes the cake. She's worse than he is. The Doctor wants to obsessively create no matter the cost, but Quattro is a true sadist. She doesn't even care for her sisters like all the others do for each other (except maybe Due, who we know nothing about).

[Kraco]

Shattered frontlines with no coalescence:

Episode 23 - Yesy

[oyabun]

OMG TEA ROCKS! Not only did she last long enough for the barrier to break but she also owned those 3 cyborgs.. and they were strong too.. A lot of things will be revealed in the next episode. Pretty interesting.. And Vivo growing up and gaining some bumps all the way...nice! I wonder what will happen next..

[Ryllharu]

Teana's fight was great because it wasn't very impressive from a typically Nanoha climax fight. What made it great is that she thought about what she would do. She noticed the three attack in the same way often, and took complete advantage of them. Her peashooter isn't flashy, but her bullets pack a wallop. Nanoha trained her to make penetrating bullets after all.

A perfect contrast to Subaru's fight. Use twice as many cartridges, and break out a Subaru Divine Buster that more resembles Starlight Breaker (The little tracer beam first, then the full blast). It seems to me like Ginga didn't have an IS. My guess is she was the original prototype, Subaru was the improvement. Looks like they are also clones of their late mother. Hmm...who else was in Zest's squad photo? Quint (Ginga and Subaru's mother) and Lutecia's mother.

Vivio should be too hard for Nanoha to make friends with again. Her adult hairstyle is Nanoha's, and her barrier jacket resembles Nanoha's as well. (With a bit of Ginga/Subaru thrown in, strangely enough). She still knows who her real Mama is, at least deep down.

[Kraco]

A great episode at last. Nice fights without too much hesitation for a change (once Subaru actually decided to fight). Teana was a fine surprise, although seeing how she had been labeled the brains of the team earlier, it's not surprising her fight involved such precise tactics. Still, I would have liked to see her actually shoot at the end, not only give a police line...

How the Vivio-Nanoha fight started sucked long and slimy noodles, though. I mean, I'm not a child psychology expert, but if somebody tortures you and laughs next to you all the time while you are suffering, just how likely are you then to believe that person instead of your beloved surrogate mother? Some serious Stockholm syndrome there...

[Ryllharu]

Well, it should be clear by now that Quattro is a huge bitch. At times she seems worse than the Doctor because she's more sadistic by far. She denounces her sisters (Wendi, Deici, Sein and especially Cinque, who everyone else seems to love), loves to torture Vivio, and lacks the respect for Lutecia and Fate that the others seem to have.

Her IS is illusion based, so she could be messing with Vivio's perception in a similar way to how she's controlling Lulu.

[animus]

I agree with Kraco. Also, despite all that all powerful relic talk she exits loli-mode and has an older mentality, mature body, deeper voice and grows armor? I mean, magic can do nice stuff but uh... I really hate it when they do this kind of stuff in anime.

[Ryllharu]

They did it to Hayate in season 2. It's a mahou shoujo staple since Sailor Moon. You see enough of it, you get used to it.

I don't understand why she grew claws though.

[shinta|hikari]

The transformation is not a big deal, since the premise of this show IS magic, it is still within the flow of the story.

I think the reason why Vivio simply cannot believe Nanoha is because of a spell or hypnotism of sorts. It is really easy to use strong feelings if you simply redirect and manipulate them instead of suppressing them, which was done in this case.

[Yukimura]

Um...is Ginga going to make it...she looked like she got pretty WTF PWND!?! by that blast. How many cartridges was it?

As to Vivio, I didn't see the growth spurt coming (haven't watched the earlier seasons so maybe that would have given a hint), but I am also a bit confused as to whether she just doesn't remember Nanoha anymore or if she's actually remembered the mother of whoever donated the genetic material she was made from. Also how the hell does/will Vivio know how to use magic? I have seen the first few eps of the first Nanoha and she didn't seem to instinctively know everything there was to know about it right off the bat...but no matter, I predict they'll be about to fire love beams at each other but Nanoha will feel bad and let her self get shot in the face, causing Vivio to realize what's up and freak out, but I don't thinkg it'll happen till ep 25.

[shinta|hikari]

I hope that Nanoha pawns Vivio. I never liked her and her extreme proximity to Fate and Nanoha, especially in bed.

[Kraco]

Oh no! It will be too sad if a little girl gets pawned really bad. She still is a little girl even if she is inside that body.

What I don't understand is why Nanoha didn't wreck the room. Obviously it had some role in connecting Vivio to the ship. Nanoha could shoot Quattro's illusion right next to Vivio so in practice she should be able to lay waste to the whole place except for Vivio herself who has the ancient ultimate defense heritage. If Vivio lost her connection to the ship, she might be easier to return to her original state.

[oyabun]

Maybe she's too concern about Vivio and wasn't paying attention to the area.