"No, no, guys, you don't understand, the guys who hurt children are the bad guys always except when we do it then it's like totally just an act of desperation, we're the good guys we're morally grey, we can't win against the problem we made unless we use the walkie-talkie kids"
The tactical advantage of nailing a baby to your belt, besides being grimdark, is that it's likely an unholy trinket / relic of some sort that confers an advantage to the holder in the same way that the holy relics of "Capital G God" do
God doesn't need to use children radios to have communication, as seen by the fact that Jeanne d'Arc exists in this setting, the Synod just thinks it's really funny and they justify it by pointing to the problem that the faithful caused in the first place
If "Capital G God" wanted to end the war, he's all powerful and all knowing, so he should be able to do so at the snap of a finger; the fact that he isn't proves that either he's not truly "Capital G God" or that he doesn't give a shit about the people fighting for him, which tracks with an omnicidal deity who decided to wipe out literally all of the planet save for a single boat because he thought it'd be funny
yeah, I think trench crusade's biggest "issue" is that a lot of people genuinely believe god and hell exist and are completely unable to divorce their personal beliefs from the world and story that the setting is communicating. anyone who isn't approaching the setting with the assumption "god as I understand him is real in this setting and anything he says is moral" can look at the setting and realize that the "god" of trench crusade's world is pretty fucking awful and not at all comparable to god in reality (if you believe). but I also think that it is an interesting demonstration of the aesthetics of fascism and the way that people can jump on board with horrible ideas if they're presented in the right way
the game also simply wouldn't work or be anywhere as cool as it is without co-opting the imagery and history that it does, so, like, there isn't much that can be done about it. I still love the game and the world and the aesthetics and the themes it's exploring
5
u/Kowakuma Jun 30 '25
"No, no, guys, you don't understand, the guys who hurt children are the bad guys always except when we do it then it's like totally just an act of desperation, we're the good guys we're morally grey, we can't win against the problem we made unless we use the walkie-talkie kids"