When competence threatens the chain of command

Royal Navy patronage could reward a senior officer when a capable protege succeeded. Joseon command culture created the opposite incentive: an able subordinate could be treated as a rival whose career had to be destroyed through fabrication, blackmail, or dismissal. That incentive contributed to repeated army failures and left few officers willing to resist political pressure. Yi Sun-sin's later preparation was therefore an institutional exception as well as an individual achievement.