Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-27144409-20170705210718/@comment-25936766-20170902155743

Phantomlink959 wrote:You're thinking of the Atlesian army like the Soviets, but really Atlas is more along the lines of WW2 era USA; highly industrialized, military oriented. They accepted anyone who could hold a gun and pass a medical exam. Except her story isn't happening during the Great War or anything similar. So the comparison with WW2 USA has holes.

Current Remnant, prior to FoB, was in a "time of peace". Do you honestly expect me to take for granted someone saying that Atlas, during that time of peace, is practically like the USA during one of the, if not the most devastating and world-changing war in human history?

It's one thing to pressure their own students into becoming Specialist. It's another to practically invite just about anyone regardless of discipline and nationality.

Atlas is not just an Academy. It's run by the Military, quite literally, and the Kingdom itself is a glorified military base. Atlas is a Military Academy, not a normal Hunter Academy. Their students are taught the discipline and obedience required of a soldier, even if they can choose not to become Specialists.

Basically, anyone who studies in Atlas will, or at least should, be good Soldier/Officer material by the time they graduate.

Contrast with Shade, set in Vacuo, which aside from Shade is a total anarchy. Or even the other Academies, which, while they teach and train people to be Huntsmen, they don't enforce and hammer into them the virtues expected and demanded of a soldier. There's a difference between Warrior and Soldier, after all.

And that's where the comparison with WW2 USA fails. In those times, things were desperate everywhere. The USA was desperate like everyone else, and was pretty much forcing every man that was at least 16 years old to grab a gun and go die for his country. They needed numbers, no matter what.

Atlas is not in even a remotely similar situation, they are not even an inch as desperate as WW2 USA, and thus there's no reason to assume they have the same minimal-standards when it comes to recruiting people.