Teres

I wonder if there might also be some cowardice to his decision, if he's willing to make the entire army go around. It makes me think he's scared of Faraday's sisters, so decides to have no contact with them at all, despite having very important information that they should know.

This should have gotten Axis in trouble, but it doesn't because he's a Sue and therefore consequences aren't something he ever needs to worry about.

Further proof that he's not equipped to be the leader of anyone, especially not a huge army. This is almost a "YOU HAD ONE JOB" instance, but in this case, it's several jobs that he still manages to fail.

Axis's "brilliant leadership" gets proven to be a lie so many times it's insane. He constantly makes the worst decisions possible and at one point even personally gets a whole bunch of his men killed!

Really, I don't know why he even needed to be a general in the first place, or why the AW needed to exist. The battlefield/warfare stuff is just meaningless set dressing when all is said and done; he sure as hell doesn't need an army to kill Gorge. And indeed he goes there to deal with him (eventually) alone.

And of course there's the obvious fact that Axis does not have the temperament to be a leader of any kind. He's antisocial as hell. He cannot keep his temper, he snaps and snarls and generally acts out on his underlings, even during planning meetings, and at one point even whines "I do not want to hear this!" while someone's trying to tell him some important information. He also allows a completely unqualified, untrained peasant to be given a command post out of sheer favouritism, and his idea of diplomacy is bullying and threatening willing allies.
Oh, and he clearly doesn't believe in law or due process because he hands out arbitrary punishments based on his personal whims of the moment.

It has to be a reference to how Sunday is church day in a few of our own religions. Given that Christianity and Catholicism have been referenced in earlier chapters...yeah.

Douglass really really really hated the Catholic Church.

It's also cruel. Unless you have a horse specifically trained to rear up when given certain commands, you pretty much have to pull back very hard on the reins, which in turn can tear up the corners of the horse's mouth because of the metal bit.

That struck me too. Axis already goes in for domestic abuse, rape and cruelty to children, so cruelty to animals fits right in.

...because country wives have to be homely old hags, I guess? Fuck you, Douglass.

It still infuriates me that people think this trilogy is "feminist" when it's full of shit like this and worse. WAY worse.

Not to mention that Hagen invited them into his home and is allowing the army to stay close by. That is very generous of him, and here Axis is (and Belial) laughing in his face and making fun of the fact that his wife abandoned him and their young daughter!

Like I said before, you'd think someone in Axis' position would understand the importance of good manners, but nope. He's needlessly rude and an asshole to literally everybody he meets.