>Gotcha. I -did- wonder, but...well, everyone else in the original 501
>is hooked up at that point and I was thinking it'd be a bit of a
>forced issue for every single original member to pair off with each
>other. =)

Well... not everyone else. (glances a little guiltily at Perrine)

>>In fairness, there are only so many ways to play the
>>inscrutable-semi-polymorphous-alien-blowin'-stuff-up-machine card. :)
>>
>I have a feeling that entirely true fact is more of a commentary on
>cliche anime plotlines than a critique on Strike Witches in
>particular.

It's a way of having a war show and still being able to keep it at least a little lighthearted. If the Neuroi, or the Heterodyne, or the Alone, or what have you, are just literally-faceless alien robots that can't be bargained, reasoned, or indeed communicated with, then the war against them is one without guilt for the human participants (unlike wars of humans vs. humans-or-other-thinking-beings, stories of which generally devolve into angst wallows in the Gundam tradition). I think that's why the Strike Witches creators shied so violently and obviously away from doing anything meaningful with Neuroi-chan after they created her, because they realized a bit belatedly that putting a relatable face on the Neuroi was last thing they wanted to do.

So, because I've got to do things the hard way, I went and brought her back, and am now trying to keep the thing acceptably light anyway. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.