>>The name on her birth certificate is "Bf 109." She isn't as bitter as
>>Fw 190, but it's still annoying.
>
>Accounts differ as to whether it was changed when her mother married
>Willy Messerschmitt in 1938. (Given that he was her father
>anyway, it's a bit academic, but you know how the Germans are
>about paperwork.) It's not entirely certain whether 109 herself
>really knows any more.

This is the prevailing theory, yeah, and it's one I agree with, but I think the larger point has always been that 109 is the one who gets to decide who she is, not the goddamn Allied league.

(The delicious irony, of course, is that much of the drama of the show stems from the Axis league schools, who, lets face it, are the putative villains, trying to impose their vision of the sport on the Allied league schools.)

>>Ilyusha has always been a bit out of place. The only other one who is
>>at all like her is Stuka, and she fuckin' hates Stuka. There
>>are two whole volumes devoted to that rivalry, in fact.
>
>In fairness, it's not hard to hate Stuka. Apart from her erratic
>handling characteristics and homicidal mania, she's one of those women
>who laugh like that. Ugh.

Her sister is all right, tho. Ju 88 isn't as flashy, but she's the ultimate utility player and holds the unique distinction of having taken kills off the Allied league in every mode of competition. Including torpedo bombing, of all things, which the Axis league in general sucked at and which the German girls had no demonstrated prior experience in.

Sadly, they were going for "dependable, strong, reliable" and ended up with "boring and stale." Remember her spotlight episode? It was 22 minutes of Ju 88 concentrating on the fundamentals and achieving solid-but-not-flashy victories before getting shot down by P-50. Her manga chapters were the same way. She eventually turned into "person who stops Stuka from doing ever-more-insane-shit" which was necessary, I suppose, but not that much more interesting.

>>She can barely operate as a fighter, but she looks like one, so
>>she can't hang out with the bombers either.
>
>Yeah, but nobody wants to hang out with the bombers anyway. They're
>so boring, especially the four-engined ones. Escort missions,
>am I right?

Don't forget the arrogance that comes with knowing you provide financial backing to the entire rest of the league. Sure, the hardcore propellerheads will always be all about the fighters (and the fighters are, far and away, the most popular characters) but in-universe, the Bombing Meets pull insane levels of attendance and command significant alumni attention and donations. Liberator is an okay person despite that, just a colossal boor, but god, B-17? She thought she was so damn special, and you couldn't even call her on it because she kind of was. The way she expected P-50 to always walk behind her and to her right in the "escort position" even when not on the pitch is the kind of thing that spawned a million fanfics of P-50 teaming up with 109 "just this once" to throw a match.

Having said that...

I'm sure you've seen the OVA starring the Pacific Conference torpedo and dive bombers, and I'm sure you hated it, because it was a tragedy that didn't present as one at first glance, but it has a special place in my heart. Val and Kate just... they tried so hard, you know? Constantly shot down, beaten up, regarded with contempt and loathing by their adversaries, treated as a goddamned nuisance even by their teammate Zero (her shrieking tirade at them from her hospital bed after she took a lot of injuries creating an opening for them in a match they then proceeded to blow is heartbreaking) they always were prepared to fuel up and get out there and play their hardest, even with shitty equipment and no support. Even the last-minute addition of Jill to their roster can't save them.

Their American adversaries ostensibly have a more upbeat storyline, being the ones who win in the end, of course, but Dauntless is a figure of wasted potential, only really kept around to mentor Helldiver and Avenger; her old injuries keep her from being a real contender and everyone knows it. Helldiver senses this on some level, but Avenger, who runs up an ungodly score against Japan, is completely oblivious.

At least, she is until the coda, where they're at the finals in Korea in the early fifties, when changes to the league rules eliminated torpedo bombing as a competitive category. Demonstrations only from now in. In thirty years nobody will even remember what her medals are for.

That OVA was by far the finest of the bomber-related storylines. Probably because the fast-attack bombers are just inherently more interesting than the big girls, you know?

>No, if Il-2 ever wants to get anywhere socially, she's going to have
>to start a new club for ground attack aircraft. And then figure out
>some excuse for not letting Stuka join.

The ground attack aircraft keep pretending to be fighters and running off to hang out with the cool girls, is the problem. Ilyusha is arguably better at blowing shit up than any of them, but the only one she can take in a dogfight is Stuka, and she'll do that anyway regardless of social consequences. :)

-Merc
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