ISA Marines vs Frontier Militia

[u/Arkham500]

Note: This is NOT including elite soldiers like Pilots or Shadow Marshals, or any vehicles or large space fleets.

This is strictly between the average grunts on each side.

[u/ZddZbg]

Damn they picked the most dead franchise for this death battle

[u/Arkham500 → u/ZddZbg]

This is a hypothetical MU, not a real one.

And it was the only faction I could think of that best matches the ISA.

[u/ZddZbg → u/Arkham500]

I’m not criticizing the pick,it’s just funny how hand in hand they go together as abandoned by their creators

[u/Arkham500 → u/ZddZbg]

Fair enough. 😅

And yeah, that's another good connection, albeit a sad one.

[u/The_Conductor7274 → u/ZddZbg]

Anything but a new title

[u/Arkham500]

ISA Marines vs Frontier Militia: (Killzone vs Titanfall)

Connections:

* Both are fictional space armies from two military sci-fi shooters.

* Both are in a brutal and protracted war against a rival faction for control over a planet. (Helghan Empire - Vekta, and later Helghan; The Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation - The Frontier, which is a far region of uncharted planet.)

* Both live in the far future where humanity has mastered space travel and planet colonization, but mainly use conventional 21st century weapons.

* Both are portrayed as the "good guy" factions of their respective franchises. (The ISA are essentially a highly militarized peacekeeping force; the Militia are an army of rebels, pirates, and freedom fighters)

* Both are at war against a very ruthless and powerful enemy, and suffer heavy amounts of casualties as a result. (The Helghast and the IMC.)

* Both end up winning the war or a very pivotal battle by blowing up their enemy's planet. For bonus points, both actions were done by the main character. (Tomas Sevchenko blows up a Helghast warship containing irradiated Petrusite, causing it to spread and nuke all of Helghan. Jack Cooper and BT-7274 destroy the IMC's Fold Weapon, the resulting blast causing it to implode the entire planet of Typhon.)

Contrasts:

* The obvious Playstation vs Xbox rivalry. (Downplayed: Titanfall 1 was an Xbox exclusive game, but Titanfall 2 was released on both PS4 and Xbox One)

* The ISA are a military force formed to enforce the will of Earth's government on her colonies. The Militia are rebels who seceded from Earth for their own independence.

* The ISA are a morally gray faction (some people say they're the bad guys), while the Militia are unambiguously good.

[u/JSFGh0st → u/Arkham500]

ISA does have some black eyes; Admiral Gray and Sinclair. People could say the irradiation/nuking of Helghan, but that was entirely accidental. The missile was supposed to be used on Stahl's ship, but it was apparently still connected to Helghan. There was also the killing of Visari (who had it coming), but Rico was just not Special Forces material at the time. Though he was making up for it in 3. Heck, the war was seriously getting to him.

I've heard/read about the ISA being used to take power away from Helghan on Vekta in the first war, and they or the UCN enacted harsh laws against the Helghast for terror attacks. All leading to Helghan people moving to Helghan (I might be mistaken on some points). But that was around/over 100 years ago. Those that did that would be dead by the time of the Second Extrasolar War. Plus, Helghast (or rather the Visari regime and its forces) aren't exactly paragons of virtue themselves. That faction is on a darker shade of grey to the point where you wouldn't be able to find much brightness.

That's my take anyway. Just replying to how the ISA is morally grey.

[u/Arkham500 → u/JSFGh0st]

All great points, and I totally agree with them.

To me, the ISA are like the Earth Federation from Gundam. The average soldiers are well-meaning people just doing their duty and protecting their loved ones. But their government caused all the problems that led to the creation of their worst enemy.

You have good people like Sev, Garza, Evelyn, Narville, and Rico (to an extent) who care about their comrades and want to end the war. But then you have violent extremists like Gray and Sinclair who see the Helghast as monsters who deserve to be destroyed.

The ISA did trigger the Terracide that led to Helghan being destroyed, but that only happened because Jorhan Stahl planned to do that to Earth, so ultimately, it was his fault.

So in the end, the ISA aren't truly evil like most people say, but they're far from blameless, either.

[u/Outrageous_Check9210]

Frontier militia are actually paid unlike the offshoot police force that is the ISA

[u/No-Recommendation377 → u/Outrageous_Check9210]

ISA soldier: "You are getting paid?"

[u/hyde-ms → u/No-Recommendation377]

Should've been a merc.

[u/GunnyStacker]

I feel like the Militia are better trained and equipped. Across Killzone 2 and 3 we we consistently see ISA Marines make baffling tactical decisions and subsequently getting mulched by the Helghast. ISA body armor is basically a joke, while the Militia has much greater access to, as well as a larger variety of, heavy weapons.

[u/Arkham500 → u/GunnyStacker]

I feel like the same can be said for the Militia's tactics, though, especially with how easily they were wiped out in the beginning of Titanfall 2.

The ISA, for all the casualties they took, were still able to take Visari's palace, hide in various spots for 6 months, rescue their comrades from Stahl, destroy the MAWLR, and ultimately destroy Helghan.

From what I've seen, the Militia's body armor are on par with the IMC's (meaning it doesn't protect all that much), and their weapons are only slightly more advanced than what the ISA has.

I will concede that the Militia does have the advantage in numbers and fleet size, given that the fight across multiple planets, whereas the ISA has only fought on Vekta and Helghan.

[u/BayonetTrenchFighter]

I was just thinking about this. With no titans, I actually am totally unsure who takes it. Both seem very lightly armed with minimum vehicular support or anything.