Ever wanted to get into Nanoha in the year of our Sankt Kaiser, 2025?
You haven't?
Too bad I wrote this anyway :>
Here to educate those who want to get into the series for the first time and save others the time of explaining how the heck to catch up for the new upcoming works, a watch order blog post with explanations!
A One Stop Shop for all of your neurodivergent Baked Bimbo needs
Don't worry, it's still just an elaborate way of saying "Watch the Chronological release order".
This post contains major spoilers for Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (2004), and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha: The Movie 1st (2010).
Somewhere back in the late 2000s, when I was probably about 16, I watched Nanoha, and really, really enjoyed it. I had no clue what I was going into when I started it, which allowed for its major twists to really blow me away. I loved the way it broke out of the traditional monster of the week format about half way in and became a space opera about the relationship between its two main characters, Nanoha and Fate, who I became pretty invested into the yuri ship culture online for a time. When the movie came out shortly after, I loved it too, given it was such a stunning visual upgrade compared to the admittedly somewhat inconsistent animation quality of the TV series.
I’ve enjoyed Magical Girl shows as long as I can remember liking anime, and have revisited and found new appreciation for some of of the ones I enjoyed when I was younger (Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, etc); but for one reason or another, I’ve not been back to revisit Nanoha since I watched it all back in the late 2000s, besides occasionally rewatching the movies or showing them to friends. I could dedicate an entire post to why I had a hangup about going back to watch it for almost 20 years, but for expediency’s sake, let’s just say that I had generally struggled to feel like my fondness for it was more than a comfy memory of my first yuri ship; that I wasn't going to find anything more than a clumsier, less visually appealing version of the movies. The convenience factor of the movies compressing 13 episodes into a single 2 hour sitting meant they ended up replacing the TV series for me, and gradually overwrote my memory and understanding of the story and characters until I completely forgot that there were any significant differences between them. I had the position that Nanoha was a cool, influential show but other series had taken its ideas and done more with them. I felt that there was so much going on with the drama and characters in more modern series like Madoka Magica to the point that even trying to do a serious analysis would not be worth the time and only make me like Nanoha less.
The announcement of a new TV anime for the series during its 20th anniversary and a few other events surrounding it fortunately helped me come to my senses; after all, I’d already done the same thing for other things I’d loved a lot when I was younger and only come away loving them more. I resolved to try to give the entire series a fair, serious re-evaluation. I appreciate immensely the recommendation of a manga based off the 1st movie with a slightly altered series of events (thanks Takamomchi!). It was only 2 volumes long, but I found it elaborated on and delved into a subject I’d often found difficult to fully understand; what kind of person is Nanoha Takamachi? What connects the different, almost seemingly contradictory elements of her character, someone who embodies both the kind, gentle nature of a magical girl opposed to conflict, and the confrontational, competitive behavior of an ace pilot?
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Movie 1st the Comics - Hasegawa Kouji
I found the portrayal in the manga of Nanoha as a girl whose motivations and behaviors are deeply connected to her own childhood trauma to be intriguing and compelling, especially in the ways it created a contrast with her counterpart in Fate (whose trauma is a central narrative set piece of the story). But, the first movie did not seem to have any of this content about Nanoha! Did the manga invent it? Were the rare allusions to Nanoha having serious self esteem problems, culminating in the finale of the 4th movie, something that had been lost in the transition to the cinematic format?
Well, Yes!
Nanoha's malaise
I was shocked on rewatching at how much of the TV series was dedicated to something that was almost entirely cut from the movies; how uneasy, uncomfortable, and unsure of herself Nanoha is, how her friends and family view that side of her, and how hard she tries to not let them worry about her. Nanoha doesn’t suddenly become a more confident or capable person on unlocking her magical potential either, it’s only when Nanoha meets Fate that something about her starts to change, and her behavior feels a lot like a redirected expression of her previously emphasised complicated feelings! Even the lyrics of the opening, Innocent Starter, a song about shutting the world out and hiding behind a comfortable lie, that previously I’d always perceived as a song from the pov of Fate, now felt like it could equally apply to both of them!
Nanoha, far from feeling inadequate or simplistic on a revisit was only making me realise how and why it had such a big influence on many other emotionally intense, pain fueled stories in the genre that followed after it.
The final scene on the pier in the last episode that has always made me cry whenever I watched it. Going through the TV series and watching it again, it was stuck in my head for days afterward. I thought a lot about why it impacts me so much. And it helped make a few final important pieces really click for me about Nanoha herself, and why this scene means a lot to me.
You have warm hands...
I think this scene stands out a lot because it is a scene of contrasts, where Fate (stoic, love starved) is engaging with positive emotions and smiling and feeling uplifted whilst Nanoha (expressive, from a loving environment) is breaking down and crying, she's experiencing catharsis.
It's relatively easy to intuitively understand why Fate is smiling. She is expressing agency and reaching out and engaging with someone she perceives as an equal, and getting positive feedback. (She has had good influences in her life like Rynith and Arf, but as familiars, they by default serve and respect their master.) Fate's only source of affection from another human was her mother for the first days of her life and implanted memories that she comes to understand are fake. Her mother abused her in ways that made her view engaging with others as transactional; conditional affection was perpetually set on requirements that she could never meet. The only reason she was willing to believe that her mother would ever love her again is the faint memory of it once happening. She was incapable of trusting anyone else because of her trauma, and viewed herself as not even worthy of being cared for.
Fate is now experiencing what it feels like to move past her trauma and take a chance on trusting someone, it going well (instead of her mother punishing her for even considering it), and being allowed to explore that feeling in a safe environment. She is learning what it means to feel joy by expressing vulnerability, and coming to know and feel that she is not alone. She is coming out of her shell.
But why is Nanoha crying? Well the surface read is that she is experiencing a sense of relief from the anxiety and worry held in her heart for Fate. This is true! But Nanoha's deeper childhood trauma is a huge element in what has driven her to this moment too. Nanoha does not start reaching out to Fate purely out of the kindness of her heart, and she does not continue to keep pushing to get through to her out of a sense of commitment or moral responsibility (although, yes, she is a kind girl with a strong sense of justice!).
Extremely normal things to think about someone who just nearly killed you
Nanoha sees something of herself in Fate from the very first time they meet. It's in her eyes. Nanoha becomes, quite frankly, obsessed with Fate, because despite everything, Nanoha is incredibly lonely too, and struggles to accept this fact about herself. Her life is so idyllic, how can she feel so uncomfortable? Why is she lonely? Because she doesn't feel like her own pain is valid, and thus never opens up about it.
It feels like a throwaway moment at first, but when Nanoha's brother and girlfriend discuss how she seems to be down lately, they talk about how Nanoha never talks about it when she's worried about something. It rounds off with a platitude about how she'll be fine/she'll figure it out.
oof
But she isn't fine, and she hasn't figured it out! Nanoha was traumatized by the circumstance of her father nearly dying from severe injuries, the impact that event had on her family, and the resulting circumstances of her upbringing (being left alone most of the day, every day as her mother works to support three children and her siblings look after and help their sick and overworked parents). She was isolated, felt like a burden, and became frustrated with her own inability to help her family cope with the situation. She still hasn't been able to move past that period of time in her life.
"I'm not lonely, because I'm used to it."
Across the TV series, we see her express this through frequent moments of internal discomfort and uneasiness, a simultaneous sense of disconnect and overwhelming responsibility to the people around her. Her frustration with herself turns into guilt and self loathing, her genki attitude starts to represent something she's desperately trying to be, so as to not make people not worry about her, rather than how she feels deep down. In turn, the seemingly contradictory behaviors she expresses in her competitiveness and refusal to back down from a fight (to a self destructive extent), represent an expression of how heavily she feels the weight of her obligations to others, perpetually holding herself to a higher standard to push away the feelings of inadequacy.
Nanoha becomes fixated on Fate because she subconsciously understands that Fate is a way for her to come to understand herself. She feels compelled to reach out and understand her, and to have Fate understand her in turn, because Fate's trauma feels valid and close to hers, because Nanoha won't deny the feelings of others, only herself.
None of this dialogue is in the movie!
When Fate tells Nanoha, whilst wiping Nanoha's tears away
"I think I understand something now...when you see a friend crying, you feel the same sadness."
Nanoha begins to cry so hard she can barely stand. She feels seen. For the first time in her life, she feels like her pain is real and valid, because Fate is someone she can believe understands how she feels. Her internal self denial starts to turn off and the years of repressed pain are being let out and purged. She is learning what it means to experience relief and catharsis from sharing her vulnerability with someone else, just as Fate is learning to feel joy from sharing hers. Together, they are not alone.
A girl who has only ever been told she's not good enough, and a girl who has only ever told herself that she's not good enough; coming together to help each other break free from their painful pasts, and embrace a happier future together. What is love besides souls trying to heal each other?
Ah, I'm crying again...
When I first watched this show as a very queer repressed and depressed teenager, I don't think I understood how powerful what was going on here was. I don't think either Fate or Nanoha do in this moment either! But as their tears flowed, and so did mine, and I never forgot about it despite growing older and more distant from the source material.
It spoke to my own similar struggles then, trying to conform to something I wasn't, and crushed by weight of responsibilities I couldn't live up to; even though I didn't really understand what I was going through. And it speaks to me now as an adult, where I understand and have managed to overcome those struggles, something I was only able to do by putting my trust in my best friend and now wife Holly, who helped me to start to believe in myself.
...did I mention Holly's favourite colours are black and yellow...
Revisiting Nanoha in 2025 helped me understand something not just about Nanoha as a character, but myself. I'm really glad I came back to this show, and now more than ever, I think it will always hold a special place in my heart.
She feels compelled to reach out and understand her, and to have Fate understand her in turn, because Fate's trauma feels valid and close to hers, because Nanoha won't deny the feelings of others, only herself.
This post contains major spoilers for Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (2004), and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha: The Movie 1st (2010).
Somewhere back in the late 2000s, when I was probably about 16, I watched Nanoha, and really, really enjoyed it. I had no clue what I was going into when I started it, which allowed for its major twists to really blow me away. I loved the way it broke out of the traditional monster of the week format about half way in and became a space opera about the relationship between its two main characters, Nanoha and Fate, who I became pretty invested into the yuri ship culture online for a time. When the movie came out shortly after, I loved it too, given it was such a stunning visual upgrade compared to the admittedly somewhat inconsistent animation quality of the TV series.
I’ve enjoyed Magical Girl shows as long as I can remember liking anime, and have revisited and found new appreciation for some of of the ones I enjoyed when I was younger (Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, etc); but for one reason or another, I’ve not been back to revisit Nanoha since I watched it all back in the late 2000s, besides occasionally rewatching the movies or showing them to friends. I could dedicate an entire post to why I had a hangup about going back to watch it for almost 20 years, but for expediency’s sake, let’s just say that I had generally struggled to feel like my fondness for it was more than a comfy memory of my first yuri ship; that I wasn't going to find anything more than a clumsier, less visually appealing version of the movies. The convenience factor of the movies compressing 13 episodes into a single 2 hour sitting meant they ended up replacing the TV series for me, and gradually overwrote my memory and understanding of the story and characters until I completely forgot that there were any significant differences between them. I had the position that Nanoha was a cool, influential show but other series had taken its ideas and done more with them. I felt that there was so much going on with the drama and characters in more modern series like Madoka Magica to the point that even trying to do a serious analysis would not be worth the time and only make me like Nanoha less.
The announcement of a new TV anime for the series during its 20th anniversary and a few other events surrounding it fortunately helped me come to my senses; after all, I’d already done the same thing for other things I’d loved a lot when I was younger and only come away loving them more. I resolved to try to give the entire series a fair, serious re-evaluation. I appreciate immensely the recommendation of a manga based off the 1st movie with a slightly altered series of events (thanks Takamomchi!). It was only 2 volumes long, but I found it elaborated on and delved into a subject I’d often found difficult to fully understand; what kind of person is Nanoha Takamachi? What connects the different, almost seemingly contradictory elements of her character, someone who embodies both the kind, gentle nature of a magical girl opposed to conflict, and the confrontational, competitive behavior of an ace pilot?
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Movie 1st the Comics - Hasegawa Kouji
I found the portrayal in the manga of Nanoha as a girl whose motivations and behaviors are deeply connected to her own childhood trauma to be intriguing and compelling, especially in the ways it created a contrast with her counterpart in Fate (whose trauma is a central narrative set piece of the story). But, the first movie did not seem to have any of this content about Nanoha! Did the manga invent it? Were the rare allusions to Nanoha having serious self esteem problems, culminating in the finale of the 4th movie, something that had been lost in the transition to the cinematic format?
Well, Yes!
Nanoha's malaise
I was shocked on rewatching at how much of the TV series was dedicated to something that was almost entirely cut from the movies; how uneasy, uncomfortable, and unsure of herself Nanoha is, how her friends and family view that side of her, and how hard she tries to not let them worry about her. Nanoha doesn’t suddenly become a more confident or capable person on unlocking her magical potential either, it’s only when Nanoha meets Fate that something about her starts to change, and her behavior feels a lot like a redirected expression of her previously emphasised complicated feelings! Even the lyrics of the opening, Innocent Starter, a song about shutting the world out and hiding behind a comfortable lie, that previously I’d always perceived as a song from the pov of Fate, now felt like it could equally apply to both of them!
Nanoha, far from feeling inadequate or simplistic on a revisit was only making me realise how and why it had such a big influence on many other emotionally intense, pain fueled stories in the genre that followed after it.
The final scene on the pier in the last episode that has always made me cry whenever I watched it. Going through the TV series and watching it again, it was stuck in my head for days afterward. I thought a lot about why it impacts me so much. And it helped make a few final important pieces really click for me about Nanoha herself, and why this scene means a lot to me.
You have warm hands...
I think this scene stands out a lot because it is a scene of contrasts, where Fate (stoic, love starved) is engaging with positive emotions and smiling and feeling uplifted whilst Nanoha (expressive, from a loving environment) is breaking down and crying, she's experiencing catharsis.
It's relatively easy to intuitively understand why Fate is smiling. She is expressing agency and reaching out and engaging with someone she perceives as an equal, and getting positive feedback. (She has had good influences in her life like Rynith and Arf, but as familiars, they by default serve and respect their master.) Fate's only source of affection from another human was her mother for the first days of her life and implanted memories that she comes to understand are fake. Her mother abused her in ways that made her view engaging with others as transactional; conditional affection was perpetually set on requirements that she could never meet. The only reason she was willing to believe that her mother would ever love her again is the faint memory of it once happening. She was incapable of trusting anyone else because of her trauma, and viewed herself as not even worthy of being cared for.
Fate is now experiencing what it feels like to move past her trauma and take a chance on trusting someone, it going well (instead of her mother punishing her for even considering it), and being allowed to explore that feeling in a safe environment. She is learning what it means to feel joy by expressing vulnerability, and coming to know and feel that she is not alone. She is coming out of her shell.
But why is Nanoha crying? Well the surface read is that she is experiencing a sense of relief from the anxiety and worry held in her heart for Fate. This is true! But Nanoha's deeper childhood trauma is a huge element in what has driven her to this moment too. Nanoha does not start reaching out to Fate purely out of the kindness of her heart, and she does not continue to keep pushing to get through to her out of a sense of commitment or moral responsibility (although, yes, she is a kind girl with a strong sense of justice!).
Extremely normal things to think about someone who just nearly killed you
Nanoha sees something of herself in Fate from the very first time they meet. It's in her eyes. Nanoha becomes, quite frankly, obsessed with Fate, because despite everything, Nanoha is incredibly lonely too, and struggles to accept this fact about herself. Her life is so idyllic, how can she feel so uncomfortable? Why is she lonely? Because she doesn't feel like her own pain is valid, and thus never opens up about it.
It feels like a throwaway moment at first, but when Nanoha's brother and girlfriend discuss how she seems to be down lately, they talk about how Nanoha never talks about it when she's worried about something. It rounds off with a platitude about how she'll be fine/she'll figure it out.
oof
But she isn't fine, and she hasn't figured it out! Nanoha was traumatized by the circumstance of her father nearly dying from severe injuries, the impact that event had on her family, and the resulting circumstances of her upbringing (being left alone most of the day, every day as her mother works to support three children and her siblings look after and help their sick and overworked parents). She was isolated, felt like a burden, and became frustrated with her own inability to help her family cope with the situation. She still hasn't been able to move past that period of time in her life.
"I'm not lonely, because I'm used to it."
Across the TV series, we see her express this through frequent moments of internal discomfort and uneasiness, a simultaneous sense of disconnect and overwhelming responsibility to the people around her. Her frustration with herself turns into guilt and self loathing, her genki attitude starts to represent something she's desperately trying to be, so as to not make people not worry about her, rather than how she feels deep down. In turn, the seemingly contradictory behaviors she expresses in her competitiveness and refusal to back down from a fight (to a self destructive extent), represent an expression of how heavily she feels the weight of her obligations to others, perpetually holding herself to a higher standard to push away the feelings of inadequacy.
Nanoha becomes fixated on Fate because she subconsciously understands that Fate is a way for her to come to understand herself. She feels compelled to reach out and understand her, and to have Fate understand her in turn, because Fate's trauma feels valid and close to hers, because Nanoha won't deny the feelings of others, only herself.
None of this dialogue is in the movie!
When Fate tells Nanoha, whilst wiping Nanoha's tears away
"I think I understand something now...when you see a friend crying, you feel the same sadness."
Nanoha begins to cry so hard she can barely stand. She feels seen. For the first time in her life, she feels like her pain is real and valid, because Fate is someone she can believe understands how she feels. Her internal self denial starts to turn off and the years of repressed pain are being let out and purged. She is learning what it means to experience relief and catharsis from sharing her vulnerability with someone else, just as Fate is learning to feel joy from sharing hers. Together, they are not alone.
A girl who has only ever been told she's not good enough, and a girl who has only ever told herself that she's not good enough; coming together to help each other break free from their painful pasts, and embrace a happier future together. What is love besides souls trying to heal each other?
Ah, I'm crying again...
When I first watched this show as a very queer repressed and depressed teenager, I don't think I understood how powerful what was going on here was. I don't think either Fate or Nanoha do in this moment either! But as their tears flowed, and so did mine, and I never forgot about it despite growing older and more distant from the source material.
It spoke to my own similar struggles then, trying to conform to something I wasn't, and crushed by weight of responsibilities I couldn't live up to; even though I didn't really understand what I was going through. And it speaks to me now as an adult, where I understand and have managed to overcome those struggles, something I was only able to do by putting my trust in my best friend and now wife Holly, who helped me to start to believe in myself.
...did I mention Holly's favourite colours are black and yellow...
Revisiting Nanoha in 2025 helped me understand something not just about Nanoha as a character, but myself. I'm really glad I came back to this show, and now more than ever, I think it will always hold a special place in my heart.
Spitballing a Fire Emblem Jugdral mod for a Paradox Grand Strategy game + Some Alt History Ideas
This idea originally started off as thinking about a Europa Universalis 4 mod since that's the only paradox game I've played, but thinking about it later, Crusader Kings is almost certainly a better choice. I just don't know the mechanics as well so what follows is mostly alt history ideas with some EU4 mechanics that I think exist in some capacity in CK. The primary religion of most of Jugdral would be something resembling either the way different Islamic Schools work in EU4, or like Hinduism with every nation being locked into choosing patron Deities representing the founding Dragon of that country. Cult of Loptyr would exist in a few scattered provinces.
Grannvale would probably be something resembling the HRE, with Belhalla as The Emperor. Their heir dies at war with Isaach, and a regency council is implemented for Belhalla given Azmur is too sick to rule. This council would comprise of Reptor, Lombard, Arvis, Ring, Byron, Claud.
Chalphy would have a unique mission tree and events to subjugate surrounding territories and incorporate them into the Empire's territory, and Sigurd would be heir for the earlygame, with insane general stats. Event would fire giving him Consort Deidre of unknown Dynasty. Verdane probably has razing mechanics so Horde-esque government. Agustria probably has Eastern tech or some kind of boost to cav to infantry ratio. Artillery probably get represented by Mages depending on tech group and Archers (which are worse) are what you get if you don't have the right tech.
If Sigurd succeeds in subjugating Agustria, a event will fire with most members of Grannvale declaring a coalition war on Chalphy, Silesse will ally Chalphy but be having a pretender war rebel problem that has to be sorted out first.
Winning that war triggers the event where Arvis assassinates Sigurd and Revokes the Privilegia. Gen 2 then follows as you'd expect with state religion being changed to Cult of Loptyr for the Empire, and this leading to a revolution with Seliph at the head of it.
But, more interesting than this is the potential for alt history. What if Sigurd dies early?
Well, presumably, Grannvale descends into a Civil War. If Veltholmer comes out on top, the same broad plot will unfold, Arvis will just have to finish the subjugation missions himself before Gen 2 can fire.
If another Grannvale Duke wins, then we'll assume Julius has been born already and Manfroy takes him away. Manfroy can then start his own revolution with Julius at the head, and Julius himself would not be Literally Just Loptyr at this point, so he'd take a similar role to Seliph. There might be some kind of event chain that could be used to delay him falling to Loptyr possession, because it could get pretty interesting if he hasn't consolidated power yet but changes state religion to the Cult, you could get another internal conflict, possibly between him and Julia (religious league war).
Some ramblings about Europa Universalis and history
I was supposed to continue with that Poland playlog but, ironically, the process of recording and maintaining a playlog made me want to play the game in a different file I didn't have to playlog in. Which then ended up becoming my focus. I'll talk about it a bit.
I chose to play Tibet for similar reasons that I chose to play Poland; it's a country that has been large and powerful in the past, but eventually became sandwiched between greater powers and divided up between them. Trying to understand how and why this happened and RP preventing it was a way for me to try feel less uneasy the reality of what this game generally expects you to engage in, expansionist violent conquest.
My Tibet game has gone pretty well, I finished the mission tree and have become an Empire. I control pretty much all of the Himalayas, and a significant amount of surrounding territory, along with Bengal, parts of western China and Vietnam. There were a lot of interesting stories in how it all unfolded, but I'm not here to relay those right now.
After I finished my mission tree (which mostly provides free permaclaims to old territory under the control of the ancient Tibetan Empire), I began to heavily invest in development of the country. Tibet is now a very rich Buddhist Theocracy ruled by a Dalai Lama, with the Clerical Estate privilege of "Inwards Perfection" which provides negative penalties for declaring war or taking provinces in peace deals, but improves your country's internal developments.
I built a strong Navy and developed even my expensive to develop mountain provinces till they became rich too. I have level 8 mountain forts with ramparts at all entrances to my country (invaders are losing thousands of men a month trying to get inside). I am allied with Russia, who has the largest army in the world (who trust me a lot because I helped them reach the Pacific Ocean). I have been vassalising small countries in the Indian subcontinent and throwing my boundless excess money at them in subsidies to help them thrive. I have gifted money to nearby South East Asian countries to help them resist European Colonisers and I recently stood up to the combined might of Spain and France to prevent them from taking the land of small two province minor who would have certainly folded immediately (their other nearby ally abandoned them when France declared war, the AI knew it would be a stupidly hard war). I vassalised that country afterwards because me protecting them overcame their relations malus of Tibet being of a different religion.
This feels…good? I'm achieving positive things instead of just it being a series of bloody conquests?
But to get to this position, I had to go to war a lot. And I had to convert many provinces to Vajrayana Buddhism to maintain unity (being of a different sect was not permissible by the mission tree). Without conquest, I would have been stuck as a small poor country that hung onto independence by being hard to invade in the mountains till eventually the rest of the world developed more advanced military technology and capacity to sustain massive armies to override my natural defensive advantages. And I had to rely on the help of a gigantic Russia who colonised all of Siberia and is partaking in colonising South East Asia as much as it can get away with too.
It's made me have to step back and think a bit about why I'm even doing any of this. I worry I'm trying to give myself "clean" excuses to play a game about a topic I fundamentally dislike engaging with. And I'm unsure of where I stand on how I'm supposed to really interpret periods of history involving conquest and colonialism. Today I also realised I was kidding myself by thinking diplomatic annexation was a way of forming peaceful unions, you get a diplomatic reputation penalty and you upset your other subject nations by doing it. You're basically taking the land by force but the other country's government chooses not to say no. There is no real way to play this game without getting your hands dirty.
In the past, I had probably a pretty simplistic view of these topics as "things that happened in the past were bad and we try not to do that anymore". But playing this game has made me have to grapple with how concepts we established to bind our groups together (religion, cultural and ethnic identity, etc), a way for us to overcome small differences more and thrive as slightly larger communities just, stop working at a certain point because they ran into other communities that developed differently enough that they weren't compatible without some compromises. And generally those compromises were "do not interact" (not always viable when resources are scarce) or "war". The concept of a universal shared humanity as an alternative took centuries to become something people could unite around.
When your society essentially maintained and developed it's existence on the basis of opposing those outside the ingroup to achieve stability, the historical outlook on humanity seems pretty bleak, it feels like we were always doomed to have to commit atrocities en masse to get to a point we could stop committing atrocities. (not that we aren't still committing atrocities…).
I realise this has been a bit of a rambling post. I don't really have a solid answer for some of these thoughts yet but I wanted to get some of them out somehow, somewhere. I think we are making progress, generally, but I do not want to end up in a perspective where I view horrible things in history as "good actually, because it was part of progress in the grand scheme of things". But I'm also reluctant to view us as inevitably doomed to have been warmongerers. Trying to find a balanced perspective in the midst of this is really hard.
Europa Universalis IV - No DLC Ironman Poland Beginner Run Part 2
Brandenburg starts to get walloped after I pulled out of the War and has to start making peace deals. Then pretty much every HRE minor in the surrounding area wants a piece of the pie and jumps on them. The Emperor forced them to all give it back though, lol.
I would have said no to this given the 5% tech cost increase is going to really add up over the rest of game but I didn't wanna get sucked into another big internal conflict whilst I'm waiting for Danzig to fire.
Wolgast refuses tor return what territory it took though. In the meantime I had to deal with some rebellions whilst integrating new territory. Lithuania had a rebellion or two as well that I helped put down.
Hungary spurned the Habsburgs and split from them. I was able to capitalise on this and secure and Alliance with Austria. Should be useful vs the Ottomans.
I also allied Venice because they started the renaissance so they might share knowledge with me. And their armies will again, be critical vs the Ottomans.
I got a Cardinal and took the Cardinal related Estate Privilege.
Danzig still hasn't fired. I started annexing my three vassals giving the Estate privilege to avoid the diplorep penalty. At some point I was able to Vassalise Riga (OPM theocracy in the middle of the Livonian Order.
I really wanted to intervene here but I didn't want to get sucked into a huge war with Muscovy and stop the Danzig event going off (sounds familiar right?).
Crimea didn't get vassalised by the Ottomans, which is another huge relief for me.
Danzig finally fires. Odoyev had got annexed at this point.
The Teutonic Order has a REALLY good ally in Denmark, so Norway and Sweden got sucked into this too, which made me pretty worried to start with. I'll spare the play by play but what essentially happened is that both Crusader Knight kingdoms got slammed whilst the Danish navy sat somewhat pointless blockading ports, and just, not showing up at all. The AI seems to be really bad at using transports and didn't want to push through Novgorod (They may have denied them access? Wasn't keeping track)
I took Aristocratic ideas in the meantime to pump my Cavalry.
Frustratingly, Hungary started a war with Wallachia that eventually turned into a full annexation. I was too tied up to commit to helping. If Teutonic Order didn't have such a strong ally it would have been possible to fight two wars so I let this go. Probably a mistake in retrospect, I could have let Venice and Austria do all the heavy lifting here, but I didn't know the AI was going to be so bad at attacking me.
To makes things worse, Novgorod and Muscovy started fighting too. At this point I had the Crusaders on lock and Denmark had yet to do anything so I got cocky and decided to enforce peace (should have really gone for humiliate rival as a seperate war). This may or may not have been a mistake, because Denmark suddenly actually showed up the second I got into that war. I do suspect it had something to do with military access rules.
Basically what happened almost instantly after I got involved in a war with Muscovy. I think if I had just gone for a seperate war the Scandinavians wouldn't have been allowed through Novogrod. Military Access rules are things that do my head in a bit.
Clutch win
This was a huge gamble but it paid off, Lithuania won their battle and were able to reinforce in the nick of time to win the one to the south that I by all rights should have lost. I probably barely won thanks to the 10% morale boost I had from spending Papacy points.
Rip Wallachia. I'll free you eventually.
It was getting way too hard to fight on multiple fronts and Moldovia was about to finish being annexed, which was going to limit my manpower and force limit, so I peaced out with Muscovy, dragging one of their vassals out as well and hoped Novgorod could use the time and damage I'd done to avoid getting totally decimated.
The Livonian's finally peaced out. I sent Lithuania 100 Ducats because honestly they did a lot of heavy lifting with their armies and I was concerned about their econ. I military access'd my way across the HRE to Denmark to siege them to make them fuck off at this point.
Muscovy got attacked by a Khanate from it's backside after it finished annexing one of its largest vassals mid war and that seems to have turned things around for Novgorod.
I am pretty upset at how much Hungary got done whilst I wasn't able to stop them. I'm unsure if I should be trying to dent the Ottomans or cut Hungary down to size first next at this point.
One of Novgorod's allies is also going to get eaten and I can't do much about it. :(
much about it. :(
FINALLY OUT OF THIS WAR.
That does it for now. Time to rebuild and figure out if if I'm taking on Hungary or the Ottomans next.
Europa Universalis IV - No DLC Ironman Poland Beginner Run
I'm a beginner to this game and I found myself constantly restarting instead of accepting my mistakes, despite playing Ironman to limit savescumming. So I am going to playlog here to try to hold myself to account better.
I had spend a while getting accustomed to things and getting over my own initial "ick" factor when it came to conquering territory, but I decided in the grand scheme of things, Poland is a country I'm happy to try to help become a superpower instead of being partitioned by its neighbours, given they were an incredibly tolerant country (for the era). Plus the Hussars are pretty cool.
To begin with, my goals are going to be
Reincorporate the Crusader Knight Kingdoms to the north into Poland and Lithuania, and maintain the Commonwealth as a tolerant and robust state in Europe.
Slow down Muscovy as much as possible and try to stop Imperial Russia forming, because they'll be a permanent headache.
Return the Balkans to native rule, probably by vassal feeding Bulgaria back it's cores in reconquest, ultimately removing the Ottomans from Europe.
Otherwise, try to grow in the way the game's missions encourage.
The usual start, summon diet, claim land. It's always nice to get the free Papal Points demand as your first Agenda.
Poland's Sejm (Parliament) gives the nobility a huge amount of loyalty and influence by default so I don't need any other privileges for them. Burghers I enforced interfaith dialogue, gave orthodox autonomy and took the prestige boosting patronage of the arts.
I allied Lithuania (you get a Personal Union over them very shortly anyway) and guaranteed Odoyev, a small state near enough to Lithuania that I can vassalise, getting to it before Muscovy can.
These are pretty good stats so I took the heir.
After a brief period of not having enough rivals (awkward), getting the Personal Union with Lithuania allowed me to set Muscovy as a rival. My rivals are now Hungary, Muscovy and the Ottomans.
I would like to be on good terms with Austria but they usually end up Allying Hungary. I will probably have to fight them later. So be it.
Bohemia started a war with Brandenburg pretty early on. I decided to ally Brandenburg to get dragged in, since most of Bohemia's territory is in the same cultural group as Poland (West Slavic), and it's vassals are in the Krakow Trading Node. But first I had to build to force limit and restore my army's morale.
The Moldovan Vassalage event fired off successfully whilst I was building up my army. With two vassals, I could pick the strong duchies estate privilege, increasing my diplomatic relation slots.
I just barely beat Muscovy to the punch on securing Odoyev as a Vassal. I had to send them a gift to hit the 190 rep in time.
The war went pretty well and I occupied Bohemia's vassals fully, before peacing out seperately. Unfortunately I didn't have any fabricated claims so it was a bit more expensive than I would have liked it to have been. I don't want to be in a war too long with Bohemia because the Danzig event is going to start being able to fire off soon in Prussia.
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