#(they're actually both very good and something i would have likely gotten around to reccomending anyways)

[comicaurora]

So, you mentioned on the podcast that you were watching some classic-era Gundam.

For the season(s) you've watched, assuming you're not planning on suddenly taking the plunge and making a Universal Century Detail Diatribe, would you mind sharing your opinion so far? Universal Century can be a bit divisive, but I always enjoy seeing people's opinions on it. I have mixed feelings on some of the decisions made, myself, but in the grand scheme of things I enjoy what I've seen so far. (Especially Unicorn, but that's not really classic era.)

Also, I'd like to reccomend watching (or reading!) Gundam The Origin, since it acts as a really good, pretty, (and in the anime's case, short) prequel series to the original.

It's interesting! I've watched the compilation movies for 1 and 2 and most of 3, and I can't tell if they lost the plot after 1 or if the writers were being really, really scathing in a subtle way.

1 was incredibly blatant about how Amuro is a traumatized kid who got strongarmed into being the gundam pilot and using it to kill people, something that he clearly absolutely hates - and it's pretty overt that the Federation Force is more than willing to mulch up as many child soldiers as they want in order to win. The movies, and I assume the show they're compiled from, go out of their way to show that there are sympathetic young people on both sides of the conflict that just want to be free of this war, and there are also right bastards on both sides that are willing to be very callous with the lives of others. You can, of course, always identify who the compassionate people are by how pretty they are, and all the right bastards by how grotesque they are. It's pretty unsubtle about that being the core of the narrative, and they really twist the knife at certain points, like when Amuro's mother is horrified and ashamed at him self-defense-killing a Zeon soldier that was actively menacing her refugee camp, and Amuro concluding that she doesn't love him and he truly has no family to go back to.

By 2, things have gotten a little confusing, and I'm inclined to assume this is because the compilation movies had to make some cuts that would've made the character arcs flow a little more smoothly. Amuro decides to leave the whole war behind, which makes sense, but he takes the gundam, which doesn't. They introduce this thread that Amuro is extremely attached to the gundam and very proud of his ability to pilot it, and he has an actual breakdown when he learns that other members of the crew are now trained in its operation and can use it just fine, if not quite as skillfully as he can. It seems like there was a bit of a lurch from "Amuro has been unwillingly dragged into this nightmare and is forced to fight again and again despite his extremely obvious PTSD" to "Amuro refuses to let go of the giant robot that tethers him TO this nightmare," and while it's very interesting in the implications, it doesn't exactly flow cleanly. In fact, this is where there seems to be a bit of a shift from "war is bad" to "wow! cool robot." Amuro goes from PTSD-catatonia every time he destroys an enemy mobile suit to counting them during fight scenes, which is kind of a chilling indicator of the mechanized horror he's becoming accustomed to - assuming that was on purpose and not just a broad defanging of the story to do more Cool Robot Fights.

But the thing is, there's this subplot sometime around 2 or 3 involving a bunch of actual toddlers that have been hanging around on the ship - because it started as a refugee vessel escaping the destruction of a colony, so there's a lot of women (who are now conscripted pilots, of course, and shockingly badass for the era it came out in) and children onboard, and they've been stuck on the front lines running from Zeon with almost no ground support because the Federation likes throwing the gundam at things too much to care about a handful of six-year-olds potentially getting mulched. But throughout this little arc, the kids are finally on track to getting rehomed on Earth by the military - something that the kids are unhappy about because they've got a whole Found Family thing going, but Amuro approves of them leaving, saying "little kids shouldn't see people killing each other," which aligns very firmly with how he is a kid who hates all the killing he's stuck in.

Except then the happy ending is that the six-year-olds get to stay on the warship because they recently helped out with bomb disposal and "they've seen things you guys can't imagine, they don't want to leave!" And this is either really losing the plot or absolutely brilliant spiteful writing on the part of the creative team, because as I understand it, executive meddling was pushing them to include newer, flashier, more colorful giant robots (weapons of war and untold suffering that our teen hero has been trapped in by a mechanized war machine that has effectively enslaved him for his talents) to push toys to the exact age demographic of those chipper six-year-olds. It's almost like the teenage child soldiers are turning out to directly face the camera and saying "what's the difference between forcing us onto the front lines and letting these precocious youngsters keep flinging themselves into the crossfire? Gotta sell more gunplas, right?"

So if that was on purpose, I really liked it. If not, it's kinda hearbreaking to see the show gradually start pulling its punches in favor of turning the Oops All Babies warship into a heartwarming found family situation.

Also they started really banging the "newtypes are the plot now" drum in 3 and once everyone started getting psychic powers I kinda lost steam tbh

[1ddotdhq]

💙 Thurs 1 Oct ‘20 💙

We MADE IT! By that, I OF COURSE mean the AMAZING iTunes chart jump that Walls had today, a full nine months after its release (like almost to the day!). It re-entered US charts sometime in the middle of the night at number 1084, and was picked up by an update account (HLDaily) on twitter - they urged new fans to go buy Walls if they had not already. And oh boy, did they! As of press time,  Walls has hit NUMBER ONE IN 17 COUNTRIES (including the US UK and India which did not hit number one at release time) and re-entered the worldwide iTunes charts at number 147, and I expect it will keep climbing. As Louis said: “Boom!”

To cap it all off, Louis came onto Twitter to express his surprise! Amongst many statements, he said, “Wow...You lot are fucking unreal”, and when told that he was at #1 in the US, he said “How!!!???? You guys are fucking mental”. He expressed similar excitement and disbelief when he was told that he was also topping iTunes charts in Brazil, India, Mexico, and the UK, though he mentioned that “it’s not about individual places. The overall support blows my fucking mind”. He did reply to HLDaily when a fan tagged them - Louis said that the whole thing was “mad”. Louis also announced that he’s been working on LT2 (!!!!!!!) - he’s written four songs in four days and is cooking “banger after banger”.  He said he will “probably” have a new single for us by 2021 - I was literally sobbing when I read this you have NO IDEA!!  Louis also admitted to “obviously” (lol) “stealing funny screenshots from fans” and to having gotten into basketball in the last few years. He says he will have more “social” causes (but not political ones) in his songs in future, and he recommended some music (BIG MOOD). To cap it all off, he said that we “really are” unstoppable and that we “really don’t fuck around, do we?” Ummm, NO! WE DON’T. My favorite tweet, though, was: “You’re all fucking amazing. Put me in such a good mood”.  Congrats, Louis, and I hope we see more golden days like this one very soon in the future! 

There was much speculation about what was driving this growth and whether his new label could be involved, because it seemed far fetched that a fan push could be so profound, but a look at iTunes numbers is useful for context. They don't allow access to their album unit sales, but you can find some info on single songs sales, so, to give some numbers: the song in the 200th spot in iTunes sale is Falling by Harry, and it’s sold 137 units in the last 24 hours. At 115, it’s Helen Reddy with 199 units sold - not a huge jump in units to influence the charts. But, when we get up to the top ten, number 6 is Justin Beiber, with 1444 units in the last 24 hours. In the number one for songs, you have Demi Lovato, who has sold 4803 tunes in the last 24 hours. If the album sales numbers are even mildly proportional (they are presumably smaller), it's clearly plausible as a fan effort that managed to hit just right and snowball. Arista, Louis' US label, posted in happy celebration but sure didn't take any credit, and whoever Louis' new mysterious UK label are they didn't spill the beans by weighing in but I'm sure they're patting themselves on the backs for their signing! A relatively small step in terms of sales numbers but a huge leap for fankind indeed.

And that’s not all - the sun himself peeked out from behind a cloud sometime last night in a pub in Oxfordshire. Louis was wearing a black hoodie (shocker) and a red baseball cap; the fan said he had a mask, but asked if she would prefer to take a picture with a mask on. She said no, and the picture features him, the fan, her friend, and her dog, who Louis called “a good little lad” (awwwww the way I ADORE him). They took a (not socially distanced) picture, and let me tell you THOSE EYES!!!! Ugh, I could also get lost inside of them. It was lovely to see him, at any rate, and I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a bit more of him in the coming months. 

And while we’re speaking of Golden (have you noticed a theme today, guys?) Golden was activated for radio play yesterday afternoon! This after all of those music video pictures we were getting really does seem to indicate a quick turnaround on the promo for this song, but first things first: we’re keeping an eye on the DYKWYA website to see when IT becomes golden-themed! Harry also finalized his Grammy submissions - they are: “Fine Line” as Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album, “Adore You” as Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Music Video (my Fish Video <3 <3), and “Watermelon Sugar” as Best Pop Solo Performance. Honestly, could this day GET ANY BETTER????? 

As it seems to be a business heavy day, we’ve got to mention that Zayn continues to be a presence on Instagram, promoting Better for Asian and Brazilian audiences, as well as a UK Spotify playlist that has added the song. Niall also continues to prove that he’s Very Much On Social Media by popping up in Julia Michael’s livestream and saying he needs to “go listen to the new song” and asking her to “do a dance.” She did, but oh for the days when we could see those two goofs doing dances together!