Quote Originally Posted by masamuneehs
But stop and think for a minute. Those fucking people were fighting in modern day Japan (or not far from modern day), and they were fighting some fucking killer enemies. The Unknown Soldier said it himself, that they lost, but, at the same time, that some small remnant of humanity got to live on. Then you have the scene where the Princess herself comes in to rescue a single soldier.

It leads me to believe two things: A) Those opponents were jamming the living shit out of the humans. If they had to resort to audio communication like that, they were getting killed, and getting flanked the way Felicia's unit did had to be a common thing for front line units like hers. B) The humans knew (at least at the end) that they were going to lose a lot. The Princess was fighting for one individual as if she knew that one day all that might be left would be one or two people. It's not unthinkable that the entire war was fought just to make the Earth so unihabitable that the opponent couldn't/wouldnt want to continue after it. One tank kills one unit and sounds an advance so more units can get in range and take out one more unit a piece, and it really doesn't matter if each tank gets killed after they knock out an opponent, so long as they all move forward. That's power in numbers and an absolute objective.
While on the one hand I don't agree with Kraco's harsh criticism of Filicia's former commander, they weren't fighting the nameless enemy that inspired the Sieze legend of the maidens and who's skeleton is lying under the river. They were fighting one of the other remaining empires. The Helveticans have been fighting with one of the other nations for decades, and that was just another battle fought in the middle of No Man's Land.

But you do bring up a good point about Princess Iliya. She is willing to fight on the front lines, and every soldier's life is precious to her. She is willing to risk her own life to save that of one of her soldiers. Rio, who was suspected by the Priest to be a princess herself (be it legitimate or not), shows some of those characteristics, but has a lot to learn herself. Filicia was inspired by that act, and treats all of her soldiers with care. She doesn't want any of them getting hurt, and wants to give them a peace and a sense of prolonged camaraderie that she lost. She knows it might not last, but she made a vow to protect them as much as she is able.