#sanya litvyak

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[atamagaitai]

2010-10-21 04:13:46

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[megamidevice]

Eila Ilmater Juutilainen & Sanya V Litvyak (Swimsuit ver.) • Strike Witches 2 1/8 Scale Figure by Alter

[nanaeljustice]

A drawing I did for this year's Sanya birthday.

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Sanya V. Litvyak : Bunny Style - 501st Joint Fighter Wing Strike Witches ROAD to BERLIN

Release: April 2023

Manufacturer: FREEing

Size: 1/4 scale, 15.7in

[wormgumz]

2009

[pattern-recognition]

the sanya v litvyak cover of pretty fly for a white guy, the dr dre cardcaptor sakura post, and that pantsu drawing of lain with tupac are all multimedia examples of the same extremely good genre

[shintorikhazumi]

I included the sauces this time, eyyy. All rights go to the anime creators. I just do the dumb edits.

[tirorah]

Road to Berlin Episode 8 Highlights: Part 2, Balancing Leadership and Empathy

In Part 1, I focused heavily on the trust between Eila and Sanya, and how that trust was challenged along the way. But there’s another story to episode 8, one that involves Minna and Gertrud: a heartbreaking detail that becomes the driving force behind Sanya’s actions.

First, some exposition. Now that Gertrud and Erica have cleared the route of attack to Kiel, the military intends to deliver a precision strike to the Neuroi’s artillery batteries. But the appearance of the fog Neuroi over Kiel makes this impossible to achieve. Sending Witches to fight in that fog is incredibly risky, and thus the plan is changed: instead of a precision strike, the military will carpet bomb the entire city of Kiel.

But there’s a massive downside. Kiel’s port facilities, which were the objective in the first place, will be severely damaged in the process. They’d need to wait for the port to be rebuilt, and that would delay Operation Southwind again, this time all the way past the spring of 1946.

Gertrud becomes intensely frustrated by this, to the point that even Erica tells her to calm down. But later, as Gertrud confronts Minna over the brass’s decision, the deeper reason behind her anger is revealed:

Minna and Gertrud were both born in March 1926, on the 11th and 20th respectively. Spring will probably be too late for them. What you’re seeing isn’t entirely anger: it’s anxiety, it’s fear, and a loss of hope.

For the entirety of Road to Berlin so far, Minna’s been a bastion of calm. But it’s here where her composure finally slips, just enough for her voice to break a little. Of course she hates it; it must’ve killed her inside when she was informed, and then again when she had to relay this information to everyone else. But her hands are tied.

Seeing what she’s done, Gertrud apologizes, and they resign themselves to the flimsy hope that their magic will hold on long enough to take back their homeland.

But Sanya overheard, and she’s not going to accept this turn of events.

An oft-overlooked fact is that, although Eila is older than Sanya, Sanya is actually the senior officer of the two. They both hold the same rank, but Sanya attained that rank before Eila did. And thus, for the first time in a Strike Witches season, we get to see Sanya take charge.

She marches into her and Eila’s room and formulates a plan of attack. Then, she brings in the other Witches who weren’t assigned to bomber escort duty: Eila, Yoshika and Shizuka. She presents her plan to Minna and takes it upon herself to train the others for the battle.

And Minna allows this.

Minna has always been a fantastic leader, but her style of leadership is unlike what one would traditionally expect from a military officer. It can be said that she cares too much, that she gets too attached to her comrades, seeing them as family and not as assets. In fact, in Season 1 this flaw of hers backfired spectacularly.

Minna’s biggest day-to-day challenge, then, is balancing her leadership role with her strong sense of empathy. And it’s this same trial that Sanya faces now. It’s a pattern repeated again and again throughout the episode.

Sanya’s determination stems entirely from her wish to help Minna and Gertrud. She understands how they feel, and she would never want to experience that herself. She’s almost treating this as though it’s Orussia’s liberation that’s at stake.

But she also understands there are limits. She can’t pursue this mission to the point where lives are sacrificed, and so whenever they find themselves outmatched by their foe, Sanya resolutely orders a retreat. Later on, after Eila inadvertently messes up the plan, Sanya barely hesitates before she takes Eila off the mission. This is bigger than them.

Minna, too, cautions Sanya more than once. Retaking Berlin with her own hands is secondary to the safety of her girls, and she won’t have them taking unnecessary risks on her behalf. But she lets Sanya proceed, because if there’s one thing Minna’s good at, it’s allowing her girls to be the best they can be. If that means Minna has to bend or work around the orders she’s given, then that’s what she’ll do.

And this is also why it’s such a good decision to have Minna talk to Eila. Not only does this help both of them understand why Sanya is so determined in this, it also finally gives Minna more time to do what I wanted to see all season: a chance to be a nurturing mom to her little family. It shows the viewer that Minna looks after both their physical and emotional well-being.

The fact, then, that Sanya is doing all of this for Minna’s sake feeds perfectly into something I’ve written about myself: Minna puts in so much effort to protect her girls, but who protects Minna? In my fanfic, I gave this role to Minna’s love interest. But in reality, it’s Minna’s entire self-made family that gives back to her. It’s a circle of love, and that’s what makes the 501st such a strong unit.

It’s once again thanks to the strong character writing in Road to Berlin that all of these matters can be shown to the viewer. It would’ve been easy for the writers to repeat Sanya and Eila’s earlier antics: Sanya as a ghost, Eila as an overprotective girlfriend. But Road to Berlin moves them forward, and in doing so, creates the breathing room the characters need to be at their best.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

[lazruck]

@ryu-seii Thank you for this I love it!

[ddbofthestars]

Daily Callie 2 - Day 210

Sanya

A Twitter user and good friend of mine by the name of JediRalts requested Callie as Strike Witches’ Sanya Litvyak for today’s Daily Callie.  It’s a very special occasion for them, after all.

[kon-kon-kon-kon]

[my-anime-goods]

Strike Witches: Road to Berlin - 1/4 Sanya V. Litvyak: Bunny Style Ver. Figure by Freeing. Release: April 2023

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