#Gundam spectacles

[metropolitant]

UNVEIL THE FUTURE OF STYLE: THE EPIC PRINCIPALITY OF ZEON X OWNDAYS COLLECTION

[kalmeria]

was tagged by @podcastingpineapple for a “9 people I'd like to know better” thing! hi hello!👋 i don’t think im one of the cool people but i like doing these sooooo (runs away and hides and comes back hours later) (ive decided i have nothing to lose so im just gonna give honest answers)

last song: super star spectacle (karen and hikari’s song from the revue starlight movie)(was listening in honor of yuri day)

currently watching: ummm seasonal anime mostly: skip to loafer, gundam witch, oshi no ko. also star wars rebels for amca podcast (but i accidentally got carried away and am a season ahead already)

currently reading: i’m rereading shimanami tasogare/ our dreams at dusk by kamatani yuhki. ive started to do this every summer, it always hits home around this time of the year. i am also reading a number of enstars stories at once (i guess sudden death would be the most noteworthy here). i know neither of these is like reading reading but this is where i’m at!

(i’m adding a secret bonus category of currently listening to just to say that i’ve been enjoying my archive 81 relisten~)

current obsession: uuuuuuu. well it’s enstars. theres just so many characters and so many things to know about them my brain feels like it’s jumping up and down on a trampoline (positive), plus theres the rhythm game aspect. it is so much fun. im having so much fun right now

plus the new palisade episode dropping is my favorite time of the week! and amca every two weeks.

okayyy tagging people… no pressure though!!

@umilily @cryptidm0ths @perfectpinkprincess @shionkaida @starswallowingsea @no-myers-briggs @shlnji @alicesalias @asbestieos

[carnelianwings]

Went and saw Gundam Seed Freedom in theatre last night, I have so many thoughts about it (as you'd expect for a long time fan - I've been waiting for this movie ever since they announced it), there will be spoilers behind the cut, but the spoiler free highlights:

This movie is everything I ever wanted out of a Gundam Seed movie - the characters, the mecha, the OST, the cast, everything. It is as much a continuation of Cosmic Era as it is a celebration of Cosmic Era at its best, there's so much love put into this movie I can genuinely say I enjoyed every minute of it from the beginning to the end. My one and only nitpick is that they recasted Cagalli, but Mori Nanako does a fantastic job, so much so I don't have anything negative to say about her performance. (More on this behind the cut below, as I will delve into spoilers.)

Story pacing was actually really good here, in that there's no true retread/recap of both Seed and Seed Destiny. The movie assumes you've seen both, and while you could arguably get away with a cliff's notes version of Seed Destiny (even I know how much of a Base Breaker it is from watching it as it aired in Japan), if you sat through it you're rewarded between the shout outs and extra emotional impact from some of the scenes. There's a few brief clips of flashbacks to the prior series, but to me they feel like they're providing context (as you don't get to hear the characters' inner thoughts the same way you would out of a manga or a novel of the same story).

The animation just looked so good on the big screen, even the CGI used for the Gundams (like they've been doing in the newer Gundam series) looked fantastic. So smooth, no stock footage, you can tell where they made obvious homage shots to the original, but they're clearly redone for the movie. It was a feast for the eyes, in more ways than one.

The OST is fantastic, the way Sahashi wove the various melodies from songs past and present were a delight to the ears. I particularly love how he kept using various melody lines from Shizuka na Yoru ni as a way to musically reflect Lacus's journey and arc through the movie - just a line or two of the main melody, sometimes shifted into minor key, sometimes intertwined with another character's theme (usually whoever she's interacting with at that moment). There's also some glorious reprisals from both Seed and Seed Destiny, all rearranged to give it a grander, more spectacular sound to match the on-screen spectacle. Definitely one of Sahashi's best works, and I'm really happy they brought him back for it. Also, if at all possible - don't listen to the OST before seeing the movie. It will spoil key moments for the final battle, especially if you know which themes are used where.

Now, onto spoiler territory.

First and foremost, I really feel like Seed Freedom manages to redeem Seed Destiny as a whole. My biggest complaint in Seed Destiny is and always has been that Shinn's redemption happens in 5 minutes in an epilogue that was added on in an extended cut - I loved the idea and potential of Shinn as something of a Villain Protagonist early on, and even as we watched him spiral further and further into his grief and anger throughout Seed Destiny, the fact we never got to see what redemption and atonement meant for him was something of a sore point. One of the things I love is a good redemption arc, where the character learns from mistakes they made and improves themselves as a person, as an individual, and we finally get to see that here in Seed Freedom.

Shinn finally gets to do what he really wanted to when he enrolled into the academy, and under Kira's command he shines. For a character that was so heavily defined by his grief and anger for 50 episodes, he's done a 180 here, putting in the work and effort to turn his life around - we get more scenes of him smiling and eagerly working to help Kira as part of the team in COMPASS than angrily scowling or yelling at someone. He's finally found someone he can look up to and work towards being; it's clear he looks up to Kira as something of a role model, both as a goal and commanding officer, and has been rewarded accordingly as the pilot of the Immortal Justice. He's a lot calmer now, long gone are his days fighting for glory on the battlefield, he puts a priority on COMPASS's main mission of intervention and protecting civilians (so much so he'll voluntarily use Immortal Justice's shield to protect them over keeping it to defend himself). But it's not to say his past is completely forgotten or even retconned away - he gets called the Freedom Killer multiple times here (largely as a way to get at Kira too) and while Shinn never denies having been that person, his reaction shows he treats it as Old Shame, something he did but is no longer proud of.

And the true pay off to his arc comes in the end, when he gets reunited with the Destiny thanks to Cagalli upgrading it to the Spec II in the final stretch of the movie. He greets it like someone would greet an old friend, proudly and triumphantly launching this time to the fanfare of Seed Destiny's next episode preview bgm - it's hands down Shinn at his most heroic, and it's a moment he's earned. He's finally become the person he wanted to be at the beginning of Seed Destiny, before he let his grief and anger cloud his mind, before he was manipulated by Durandal. And in the end, his journey through the darkness that was his time under Durandal's command become his strength, granting him a spectacular flawless victory over the Black Knights achieved through his own skills - Stella protects him from the Black Knights' Mind Control, and his instinctual berserker Seed Mode keeps them from reading his mind to predict his moves. It's after all the trials and pain he went through that he comes out at his absolute best, and the Seed Freedom version of Shinn is hands down the best version of him.

Character development aside, it's genuinely heartwarming to see a character that was so narrowly defined by his grief and anger to be the one who brings a lot of the light and levity in what's otherwise a fairly heavy movie. Seeing him as a Big Eater during the ball at Foundation, his entire reunion with Lunamaria after she thought he'd been KIA'ed in the joint operation on the Blue Cosmos base, him getting hit by both Kira and Athrun during their brawl (with neither of them noticing ^^;;) - he's come so far since his Seed Destiny days he's (and I can't believe I'm actually saying this) one of the major highlights of the movie. And then there's his smile at the end when Kira finally relies on him and his cheerful response.

And of course, I can't talk about Shinn without mentioning Lunamaria - they've both come a long way from their days at the ZAFT military academy (if you go off the prequel novel Moonlight Valkyrie) and even from their time on board the Minerva. You can tell there's genuine love and affection between them, mutually supporting each other both on and off the battlefield, between them sharing a room onboard the Millennium and the energy transfer moment between the Impulse and Destiny. There's even a clear moment of redemption for Lunamaria's shooting skills when she shoots down a tactical nuke in her Gelgoog. And while she's definitely not one of the main focus characters in the movie, she still gets her moment of triumph, launching in the Impulse once more after Shinn's Destiny. Even though she's relegated to the Designated Chick Fight, it's a moment of personal triumph for her - she's grown as a person since her academy days, her time on the Minerva and with Shinn and Rey has changed her, and she's a better person for it. Even her time pursuing Athrun (even though he doesn't return her affection at all) comes back as a Meaningful Echo in how she ultimately deals with Agnes. Instead of choosing to kill Agnes in her GYAN, Lunamaria does something of a "pay it forward", disabling the GYAN and returning to pick her up from the moon after the fighting is over. Like Shinn, it's clear Lunamaria's in a better place than she was during the finale of Seed Destiny, and she also gets to join in on some of the lighter moments of the movie next to Shinn.

Onto Kira (because I'm saving my favorites for last), who is most definitely the main focus of the movie, along with Lacus and his relationship with her. Is his story arc a rehash of Seed? In many ways yes, and in so many ways, no. On a surface level, sure - we once again have Kira trying to shoulder the entire burden of the team on himself, of trying to do everything without relying on anyone else, of pushing himself to his limits, and as icing on the retread cake, we're even treated to a CV Kuwashima Houko girl (Agnes) trying to get his attention and affections. And that's about where it ends, because Agnes' motivations are vastly different from Flay's, Kira's circumstances this time around are entirely different from when he was in Seed - this is more about Kira realizing he really doesn't have to shoulder everything by himself, that even if Lacus is a non-combatant, she's there to walk next to him side by side, that Lacus's love for him is completely different from Flay's (initial) love for him. For Kira, it's The Power of Love while also echoing Seed's earlier themes of how easy it is to fall into old habits and make the same mistakes again. It's about Kira finally breaking past his remaining trauma with his relationship with Flay - he finally realizes that Lacus wants to be with him for him, that she never expected him to hand her everything she wanted on a silver platter, that she's willing and ready to work and walk with him to their final goal and destination, wherever that may take them. His relationship with Lacus was never a transactional one like it was with Flay - even if Flay genuinely grew to love Kira in the end, her true feelings for him never managed to reach him before she dies. And in the end, once he realizes what he has with Lacus, once he gets a chance to talk to her and clear the air, he's rewarded with a shiny new upgrade to the Strike Freedom, Lacus voluntarily joining him in the battlefield, and of course, that ending on the beach.

As for the whole "Is Kira Yamato a failure because he was a failed Accord or just Orphee insisting that he is superior to even Coordinators as an Accord" debate, ultimately it doesn't matter (at least in terms of Kira's arc - on a meta level, yes I absolutely want to know lol). He's got the one thing Orphee will never have (Lacus's love) and with that behind him he can overcome anything.

Honestly, if this is where we end Kira's story, where he gets to go off into the sunset with Lacus, to live quietly in the middle of nowhere (or even return to Marshall Islands to stay with Reverend Malchio) where he doesn't have to fight anymore, where he can just spend his days with Lacus until there's some world-ending reason to step back into the cockpit, I'm good with that. Kira never wanted to be a mobile suit pilot to begin with, he only ever did it to defend the people he cares about, and if this is where we part ways with him, because in learning to rely on other people, he also realizes he can hand things off to Cagalli, Athrun, and Shinn (and by extension, Lunamaria), I'm good with that. (I'll get to Cagalli and Athrun after Lacus, I want to save my favorites for last lol)

Lacus always came off as a little too perfect, a little too good with her words, and with a Seed Mode that ... didn't activate like your traditional Seed Mode (for one thing, she never gets the Seed burst animation on screen when she goes into it; she almost always monologues her way in). And I have to say it was satisfying to see that crack some more this time around, where her decisions are a bit more questionable, where she's finally having to deal with some of the consequences of her actions (and by extension Kira's as he answers to her and only her within COMPASS). But ultimately in the end, she's still the same Lacus as ever - Silk Hiding (nerves of) Steel, steadfast in her love and support for Kira, something that nothing can change, not even meeting her genetically destined partner in Orphee. And yes, while even she gets in on the action this time, quite literally delivering the Proud Defender to Strike Freedom to upgrade it into the Mighty Strike Freedom, I don't really have much to say about her.

I will say this though (because it gets very indirectly touched on by Athrun) - if Lacus hadn't fallen in love with Kira, and had continued with her engagement to Athrun as set up by their parents, would she have gone with Orphee? Would that alone have changed events enough so that Athrun might've been conveniently KIA'ed so Orphee would've been able to sweep in?

Now, onto my personal favorites (and complete show stealers this time around): Athrun and Cagalli.

Where do I even begin? Athrun being a Big Damn Hero for Kira not once, but twice? Cagalli taking over Lacus's role for being Crazy Prepared, Bearer of (Gundam) Gifts this time around?? The complete insanity that is the Z'Gok hiding the Infinite Justice Type II??? The (remote) Battle Couple fight????

Cagalli's just pure Crazy Prepared this time. She's learned from the painful lessons of the past 4 years, ensuring there's a plan in place to get her people to safety, immediately issuing evacuation orders for the civilians to avoid direct orbital laser bombardment from Requiem. She's made peace with the fact that sometimes, you really do just need to hop into a Gundam to get shit done, so she's seen to it that the Gundams for the top COMPASS pilots are available should they ever need it. She's the one who came up with COMPASS in the first place, providing some much-needed legitimacy for what Kira and Lacus want to do. She's also very clearly been training with Athrun for mobile suit training - where she once Could Not Keep Up, she's able to seamlessly pilot the Infinite Justice Mark II remotely, a less advanced unit than Shura's Shi-ve.A, without Shura ever realizing it was someone else piloting it. She's back as the Goddess of Victory, now older and wiser and all the better for it.

For all that she hardly showed up on screen, her presence was felt everywhere, most especially whenever Athrun's on screen. Really, I wouldn't even be surprised if the next time we see Orb get threatened by Orbital (Laser) Bombardment, she tells her people to get inside to safety before turning on a shield to protect the cities and then taking the field again.

And as for Athrun - it makes sense he didn't join COMPASS, even though the fact he has a custom COMPASS pilot suit and the Immortal Justice was clearly designed with him in mind. He's found his place in Orb, staying by Cagalli's side as her personal knight. He's even got his own custom suit with the Z'Gok-hiding-the-Infinite-Justice-Mark-II - he's got everything he could ask for while still being able to do his part to maintain peace. And in a double redemption moment - Athrun's the first one to throw the punch this time when Kira starts wallowing in his self doubt and lets his insecurities get the better of him, repaying the favor Kira did back in Seed Destiny when he, well, Saviour'ed the Saviour. Athrun's the one to remind Kira that as a close friend of Lacus's that her actions this time don't sound like the Lacus that he knows, and this time (unlike when he did something similar with Shinn) it works and gets Kira back on track. Poor Shinn - he thinks Athrun's about to do the same thing to Kira that Athrun did to him during his time on the Minerva, but while Shinn's not entirely wrong, he's also misreading the room a bit, not realizing this is a "They're really good friends, and sometimes they just gotta throw some punches to work shit out" moment.

Because in overcoming everything that happened in Seed Destiny, Athrun and Cagalli have finally grown into the people they both want to be. They've found their way, fighting for what they both believe in. Their time apart in Seed Destiny forced them both grow as individuals, so that when we get to see them working together again it's in perfect sync. In so many ways, Athrun and Cagalli (and not Kira and Lacus) are the ideal the Cosmic Era wants to push - two people working together side by side, regardless of genetics, as partners and equals. The dream of Coordinators and Naturals, living and working side by side in harmony - that's them. And ultimately, it is what they do that brings the heroes victory and lets everyone fly off into the (metaphorical) sunset together. They played the long gambit - creating COMPASS (giving Shinn and Lunamaria a means to atone for the things they did, giving Lacus and Kira a legitimate way to stop skirmishes), upgrading the Gundams, being there for their friends and allies when they needed it (Athrun literally knocking sense back into Kira, Cagalli coming in with the equipment upgrades) - all while keeping their priorities in order (first the civilians, then reequipping allies, and then finally going into combat together to take down Shura), and it all pays off in the end.

Really, is it any wonder, then, when Shura tries to read Athrun's mind in the final battle he's just thinking of hot (naked) Cagalli?

[multitrackdrifting]

Well I didn't write my thoughts on the last ep cause I was playing FF16 but I'll explain why I didn't like the ending (despite loving a lot of the episode) under the cut

There's a lot of ways you can end a political sci-fi story (which Mobile Suit Gundam tends to be) and some of the worst ways it can end is a bleak "and nothing got better" and that often is the resolution for a lot of them, but it's not that bad when it's clear that the isolated conflict would just be covered up and whatever amidst the conclusion of that story. The very grounded and "realistic" stories in UC might fall into this kind of area.

I am of the opinion that more often than not it's bad practice to criticise what isn't there, that is unless you have a legitimate reason to feel that way. In this case, I feel that they brought up the earth subplots and kind of just used to thrust the story forward without actually having anything meaningful to say about Earthian emancipation or even validate that the companies in the story made that place a fucking hell hole in any meaningful fashion. You hear about a lot of the going-ons from people from Earth for sure, but you barely have it in your periphery for the majority of the season except for about 3-ish episodes.

My greatest fear as I've expressed to many friends and other people I talk to about G-Witch is that they would hand-wave all the problems away with a time skip and sadly we got literally this exact thing.

The spectacle and wonder of the family conflict tying up nicely & the canon lesbian relationship is pretty heavily overshadowed for me by the complete dismissal of the very subplot threads they opened in order to describe just how bonkers the Benerit group is/was.

OF course, I am labouring under the assumption that there is no season 3, and IBO didn't even announce theirs till like 4 months after Season 1 ended on a massive cliffhanger but this story did not end on one.

There's no seething and spiteful earth orphan in the epilogue, or any inclination that the story will in-fact continue and that leaves me feeling all the way wrong about how they handled this especially since I have to wait half a year potentially to find out if they plan to make more (which I imagine they will if not specifically to sell more Gunpla).

Of course, you might say that "oh this is a more personal Gundam story" and I don't even really feel like that's a good explanation of why the ending almost feels antithetical to the story itself like, yeah Benerit got dissolved and all was well and eveyrone became friends which is acceptable in your average shounen story but this pretty much felt like an ass-pull in some ways especially when you take in that they neglected to do anything with Earth except => guel gets kidnapped and goes to earth and briefly helps orphans and guerillas => miorine accidentally helps stage a false flag attack and pretty much nothing else?

Like that kind of irks me in the same way that playing FF14 Stormblood and there being almost nothing about Ala Mhigo irks me.

Of course, I am happy that SuleMio is a happy family not just with Prospera, but all of her daughers including Eri.

It's just... way too neat? I seldom call something an ass-pull but hand-waving that Earth is still in strife and barely any consequences were faced by the broader corporations outside of the dissolution of Benerit would be a compelling point if, like Hathaway, it had something to stand on top of (which is that in UC, fucking nothing ever changes, Unicorn happens and Hathaway's Mafty Uprising still happens in spite of Banagher's wager on possibility lmao)

I dunno, I feel happy that they're happy but really upset that they really just dumpstered everything to do with Earth and it just swept so many of the real questions that the very story we watched each week implied it would even try to answer.

I'm really hard to annoy, I love meathead shounen, I love serious and nuanced political writing in anime (e.g. MSG UC & Eighty-Six) but it's not the space magic that annoys me, I'd be a hypocrite to love Gundam Unicorn and hate it here - it's how they just time-skipped everything to a neat and tidy conclusion.

Of course, maybe a S3 announcement (which I have firmly held is probably coming) would change my mind, but yeah this was a great episode but a terrible finale.

Honestly, I even felt irked by the fact that Suletta accepts her mothers choice so plainly and I get it - the parental bonds thing is somehting I don't take for granted, anyone who has had complicated feelings about their own parents understands how a person can come to be like "you've hurt me and the people around me, and yet I still care for you" - I get it! But I really do not like how inconsistent it feels to be cleaning up the bodies of her classmates one episode and kinda shrugging everything she did off in a time-skip but this critique specifically is down to the jarring pacing that others had been complaining to this point - I suppose I am guilty of getting caught up in the spectacle but I almost snapped my neck at how hard this ending veered off

Of course, the natural commentary for this will be "selling off Benerit's assets and aiding Earth is a functional and practical way to help Earth" except that it almost feels like it comes out of nowhere due to the lightspeed pacing of this finale.

They really fumbled writing Earth in this story - yeah, there are nice subtleties in the ending but it still feels way too rushed and jarring for me to like actually find it enjoyable. Bodies don't make a good gundam ending (see: Gundam Unicorn), and space magic doesn't make it bad either (also Gundam UC lol), they just brushed off way too much.

The "incremental change" argument holds decent weight if there was any explicit inclination to continue the story from the time-skip (which I would like to see, preferrably with an Earthian protagonist at the centre of their emancipation struggles).

It was indeed nice to see the Earth girls integrated into Miorine's company, and Sabina does comment that they're not sure if it will amount to what they want - and Mio, far more mature than her younger self, steps towards that future bravely and that's cool.

I like the characterisation of the ending - but yeah, how they kinda just blitz the Earth stuff does not sit right with me.

I did like seeing all the kids being friends & being together after all they've been through, and that is a nice way to tie-up the story, but the way they kinda just use that to justify why they barely explain the rest is wild.

Course, I know I'm probably in the minority here - but pacing doomposters were right - this was a pretty abysmal ending because of how little time they had to work with.

I loved every single episode of this season, except the ending. Loved the first half of the episode, but the latter half is just way too neat and that's not because it needs bodies or something - it really does just feel like "and then it got marginally better".

I know the ending itself explicitly acknowledges that nothing may change, but as I said previously, that only works if you have something to lean on which this story does not since it's unclear if it's even going to get another season.

Systemic change, in reality, is quite incrimental and often feels infinitismally small - and that notion might be more compelling in this bittersweet epilogue if the story had taken more pains to actually explore the earthian-spacian conflict.

Yes, they discuss conflict-sharing/war-partitioning on the different segments of Earth, but they do nothing with it at all other than laud it around as a talking point without making the viewer ever face it except when Prospera attacks Earth. I feel like so much of the Earth-side of the story is left in the abstract, and do not argue to me that it's in the subtleties of Earth house and the things that they say.

I felt like the fella in Plato's cave hearing about something and the only time I actually felt the human side of that story from the people that live on Earth was when Guel was a prisoner of war for an episode and when Miorine has to face the disappointed people who realise they're being attacked.

I had faith the ending would not go "and then it got better", and I know many people will hate that I choose to take that interpretation, but that is pretty much the summation of my feelings about how rapidly they pushed this aside. I love this series, I ahve been gassing this series every single week since like episode 3 - but this ending was unsatisfying - it's not enough to make me hate the series but yeah, I wish we had something more substantive to look toward with future stories or more time spent stressing the "other side" of this conflict.

Yeah, the Benerit group at large is on trial on TV, and there's signs that the world will change & we see future generations of kids on Earth, but I don't think it hit quite right for me. It's not a lack of grit, it's just like, you're enjoying the payoff without the adequate build-up and I feel like I'm possibly not alone in thinking this.

Earth was just a bargaining chip and an elusive idea in this season, and I really do not like that so much was left in the abstract. You can "subtext" anything into existence, but no amount of referential dialogue is going to make up for the lack of a grounded and meaningful representation of their struggle since Sophie and Norea got axed (I did not mind this at the time), and they portrayed every other Earth character outside of Gund-arm as a villain.

I really feel like this aspect of how the story was structured was ultimately quite disappointing and thus, I am annoyed at the resulting payoff.

The romance side of things was cute, and I thoroughly enjoy how thing were tied up with them - especially that Suletta loved her family despite everything (this does not boggle my mind).

But yeah my gripes with the lack of idk time to talk about Earth actually boggles my mind beyond belief.

It's incredibly difficult to feel the actual weight of "yeah Benerit was dissolved and assets redistributed lol" while being presented with next to zero context for what that means and what it could mean. Way too much is left to the imagination and while that's fine in certain kinds of stories, in one wherey ou barely even grapple with the Earth context that you've described to this point it's kind of bonkers.

Yes, I get a lot of people will feel catharsis with this ending because what they're watching for and what I am watching for may be different - that's perfectly okay, but I'm not gonna act like ti didn't disappoint me that we got the most explicit form of a hand-wave (a time skip) to end out an otherwise fantastically written series.

I do not like that one bit and I do not apologise for believing that either.

Here's another scorching take: the next season should focus on Earth, not how the Samayas heal as a family - there might be room for both, but with how neglected Earth felt maybe it's time for a POV change in this world bc they really did FA with that.

In conclusion, I sitll like the show, but this ending was really unfulfilling. I know that winning a battle is not winning the war, but the story took pretty much no pains to eloquently depict the struggles of Earth properly this season despite me thinking that the vast majority of episodes were absolutely fantastic in spite of that.

I think Suletta, Mio and Guel were quite well-written and most of the supporting cast too, but this flaw in the narrative structure is insanely glaring for me and call that pretentious if you want but I genuinely believe what I said here

Edit: I guess, the ending just doesn't say anything super daring that that's pretty disappointing.

Edit 2: I completely forgot to go on a rant but, that the use of a WMD (space laser) was not even a point of intrigue for a future conflict is also wild.

[themattress]

Gundam: The Witch From Mercury >>> Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion.

EXCEPT on one major count.

Ichiro Okouchi wrote both giant mecha anime series that balanced campy over-the-top spectacle and wacky school life shenanigans with serious socio-political and military writing along with mature philosophical and emotional themes. The largest differences is that Code Geass was divided into four cours (the first two being just Lelouch of the Rebellion and the second two being Lelouch of the Rebellion R2) while The Witch From Mercury was only two cours, and on Code Geass Okouchi was assisted in the writing process by Hiroyuki Yoshino, who is also known for extreme melodramatic works such as My-HiME and My-Otome.

While possibly an unpopular opinion, I believe that the lack of another pair of cours was actually good for Witch as it helped it avoid the fate that befell Geass. For all its gleeful stupidity, Geass had genuine substance and intrigue in its first pair of cours, and it all went out the window in the second pair. It was better Witch quit while it was ahead than risk the same happening to it. The lack of Yoshino also helped, as it meant Okouchi's worst instincts as a writer were more curbed rather than aided and abetted. A perfect example is to compare a major climactic event in Geass' first season vs. a similar one in Witch. In Geass, the big shark-jumping moment for the show was toward the end of its first season where a major political procedure centered around a princess wanting to do right by the people her family has oppressed but manipulated by more sinister interests was to occur, and of course it would all go wrong and there would be a lot of carnage and devastation that makes things worse instead of better. But instead of this being accomplished in a way that made logical sense that was set up by the narrative and the characters, it's because of an out-of-nowhere, completely uncharacteristic joke that happens to be made when a mind controlling power reaches the point of going outside its user's control. The mind-controlled princess goes on a civilian killing spree and in the end gets put down by a single bullet (which her nation's medical science can't treat despite saving a foreigner who was riddled with bullets several episodes earlier) so that her love interest feels man pain that will advance his character while all the potential of hers is casually discarded. This was the point where Geass lost its way.

By contrast, in Witch we have a major political procedure centered around a sort-of princess wanting to do right by the people her family has oppressed but manipulated by more sinister interests occurring, and of course it all goes wrong and there's a lot of carnage and devastation that makes things worse instead of better. But it is accomplished in a way that, shock of shocks, makes logical sense that was set up by the narrative and characters! It feels like a tragedy that was inevitable rather than one that happened out of nowhere because someone suddenly decided to make a joke about genocide. And of course, the princess-type character actually gets to live with the consequences and grow from them to redeem herself. This is what should have happened on Geass: Lelouch should have deliberately sabotaged Euphemia's procedure just as he was intending to, only to be met with unforeseen and unwanted consequences when Schniezel retaliates with extreme prejudice, similar to how Prospera's sabotage of Miorine ended up setting off Shaddiq to go full school shooter.

So, with all that said, what's the one major thing Geass has over Witch?

While in Witch the main protagonist is Suletta Mercury, her mother Prospera is the character with a more direct correlation to Lelouch: a strategically brilliant, personally manipulative and theatrically charismatic individual who wears a metallic mask and yearns for both revenge and the creation of a new, better world no matter how many lives they have to take to achieve these goals, and who will use their loved ones as a justification for the selfish things they do.

Even though Geass developed a bad habit in its second season of glorifying Lelouch despite his atrocities in order to pander to his popularity, it never fully lost the plot on him (that only happened in the later, separate continuity film Lelouch of the Resurrection, but we're not talking about that garbage here). The narrative's position was still that he did wrong and that he had to pay for it in the end; he himself acknowledged this and even ensured that it happened! Additionally, as awful as he could be Lelouch was a teenager, and he had been wronged when he was a mere child, so there was still a degree of sympathy and leeway that the viewer could offer him, since the adults and systems in his life legitimately failed him.

Prospera, on the other hand, ended up feeling validated for all of the horrible actions she undertook. Instead of accepting and facing the consequences like Lelouch did, she gets off scot-free because someone else rather spontaneously decides to take the blame for her. Her living victims forgive her and the dead people she was seeking revenge for even show up to say they're proud of her! The discussion that she created more victims and by her own vengeful logic is fair game to be targeted for revenge by one of them is never had! Worse is that she was already a grown woman when the tragedy that sparked her into seeking revenge and a better world transpired, and roughly half of her villainy involves manipulating children! Many viewers say the sudden endgame Death Star type laser was the worst thing Witch did, but I beg to differ: that would have been fine had Okouchi been granted more time to set it up, which would have happened if he wasn't forcibly saddled by the higher-ups with a subplot he never intended to eat up the time that it did (Guel and his stupid family drama). There is no such excuse with this decision. Okouchi just decided she was an uwu victim.

I can accept the Death Star type laser. I can even accept Suletta's big Deus ex Machina peace-sparking victory in the final battle because that's kind of a Gundam franchise tradition at this point and there have been far worse versions of it. But I cannot accept a murderous terrorist facing no repercussions and even getting rewarded for their crimes in the end. For all that went wrong in it, Geass knew (at its time as a series anyway) that Lelouch couldn't live Happily Ever After in a peaceful world with his sister; not after he'd denied so many others that same chance. But Prospera gets to live Happily Ever After in a peaceful world with the daughters and daughter-in-law that she abused, and we're just supposed to be OK with that.

You did better here overall, Okouchi, but you still need to go back to writing school.

[laurarolla]

So, regarding Gundam SEED Freedom, I can say that if you are obsessed with ideas like canon, hard science fiction, or thinking you deserve the girl of your dreams because you were taught that you were entitled to such your whole life, you probably won't like this movie. You'll also dislike it if you think eugenics is great, or if you can't handle the occasional animated booty jammed right in the middle of the screen. If you are looking for grounded, this isn't it. Incidentally, I happen to really like this movie.

It's cheesy, melodramatic, and not even remotely subtle. However, its lack of subtlety means that issues people so clearly missed in the original shows nearly 20 years ago are placed front and center, from Shinn being groomed into a weapon by Durandal, to Kira's obsessive need to take everything on himself just making things worse. It was nice to see Lacus (or Lacoos, as the new dub decided to pronounce it for some godforsaken reason) actually show more vulnerablilty. She often lacked opportunities to do that in Destiny especially, as well as the story overall.

Things I really didn't like at all were Lacus's pilot suit, the scene with Lacus and Orphee Lam Tao that reminded me of Cross Ange, and Agnes. Just... all of what Agnes brought to the table. They finally wrote a woman in SEED that I genuinely dislike even after really thinking about it. The extra problem there is that most of her issues were also reflected in Ingrid's subplot, and Ingrid's situation was more in line with the message the movie was focused on. In regards to the villains, they were the kind of jerks that were easy to hate in a fun way, if pretty flat in most cases. Orphee was basically incel space hitler, and Queen Aura is kinda just there as the driving influence. Her story pretty much happened off screen 20 years before the plot even started. The other Black Knights were qualified villains, exactly as evil as needed, but they were not ready to deal with either Shinn's trauma or Athrun's sex drive. I will not provide further details on that.

I suppose for a movie about the value and nature of love, it's not surprising just how dang horny this movie is. Like, I know SEED actually has a surprisingly horny feel to it already, what with the shower scenes, the multiple post sex bedroom moments, the strange music video sequence in the Special Edition of the original series that included scenes of Kira and Fllay having sex while the song Zips was playing... okay, so I guess the movie isn't really off brand at all when it comes to being horny.

Overall, the movie is pretty standard Gundam fare that eventually turns into really absurd spectacle in service to a genuinely wonderful message about the idea of love, individuality, and the freedom to make our own destiny. Is it a great finale to SEED specifically? In some ways, yes, but a central theme of SEED is about the idea of how we need to move away from vengence as our response to pain and instead embrace justice, particularly the restorative kind. That bit gets a little lost in the shuffle, but overall I'd say the movie does right by the characters we first met over 20 years ago.

[stacotto]

*Inhale for four, exhale for four* Alright, let's get into it.

Guess we'll just start at the start, Asticassia is far more wrecked than we could see at the end of episode 20, death count is probably in the scores if not hundreds, and the survivors are basically in a refugee camp. Earth House and Suletta out here doing their best to make everyone comfortable, which automatically makes them the GOAT house. Petra's alive...ish! Mio's President now, for whatever that's worth, Quinharbor is a bombed-out crater, and those slimy Peil crones somehow managed to once again pull the "we didn't know this unethical thing was being done right beneath our noses" card (even if they really didn't know until someone else told them, I wouldn't put it past them to want a piece of that pie). More on them later.

The meeting between Earth House, Guston, and Belmeria is a perfect example of what I like to see in an infodump; nothing is said that characters in the room should already know, everything is news to someone. I really really dig now Suletta handled relaying her nature as a clone, and maybe feeling a little smug that my headcanon that those flashes of Eri's memories of the Vanadis Incident really were a full memory share between the two. And of course, Suletta understanding that there is probably no reasoning with Prospera, but no unnecessary angst beyond that. I like it, it's refreshing. Also hot damn, we've been theorizing about a "Caliban" Gundam for months and this is not what any of us expected but I'm not complaining; it really is thematically appropriate that Prospera's creation would be piloting the machine named after Prospero's servant.

Now to the real spectacle of the episode: The Space Assembly League charging headfirst into something they should know could not possibly end well. To paraphrase what I've been saying about Quiet Zero ever since episode 16; "You may have your guns, but I control all the triggers". You literally cannot fight against it with any conventional weapon. The only way to fight against the QZ Data Storm network is with a Gundam of your own, and Sophie Pulone showed us exactly why even that is a toss-up. The more I think about it, the more I feel we're building up to a reveal that Suletta may have actually inherited her sister's affinity to the Data Storm, it just might need a little push to fully manifest.

Miorine really cannot catch a break here. She may be President, but that pales in comparison to the world falling apart around her. Quinharbor is in ruins. Her father is still in a coma. The League has popular support to dismantle the Group by force. It's really telling that Sarius is the one telling her "Look, I'll take the L on this, you keep the Group together" but she completely refuses to sacrifice anyone else, one of my favorite tropes when done well. It'll be interesting to see what her next move is.

Ah, Elan Ceres Number 5. Curious as to how he went from Ur's cockpit to sneaking around Asticassia but that's neither here nor there; he's finally given up the act (and genuinely apologized to Suletta, that was good) and is joining up with the heroes for the final act, which I appreciate. He says "no Gundam" which does pique my curiosity as to how he's going to contribute - Enhanced Persons are no doubt chosen by the Peil AI for piloting skill, so I doubt that he won't be piloting period - but I do get the distinct feeling that he's going to pay the CEOs and Elan Prime a visit...with bullets.

Welp, guess we know who's piloting the Schwarzette whenever that comes up now; Lauda about to follow in the infamous footsteps of one "Graze" Ein Dalton. I do kinda hope that someone can snap him out of it before it's too late; most likely candidate is probably Petra if she can wake up soon, given that A) He's definitely going to try and kill Miorine, so that knocks her out, B) there's no way he's going to listen to Guel after learning he's the one who killed Vim (even if it was by accident in self-defense), and C) Suletta is still the "Mercurian Wench who ruined everything" in his eyes. If he can't be reasoned with, Guel's probably going to have to kill him, I'll put my chips on that.

We in the endgame now.

[fiannalover]

Gundam is, all considered, a pretty grounded franchise most of the time. Like Yes, it is about giant robots and all The Spectacle of that, but most of the time battles follow War Strategy and even if they're on shonen panic survival instinct, it's still stuff you're like "yeah that's sensible"

Which makes it all the more brain turning off dopamine inducing when

YEAAAAAAAAAAAA

YEAAAAAAAAAAAA

[thefencebeetle]

Continuing my Mobile Suit Gundam first time viewing, just watched episode 8 and here are my thoughts.

Brief moments of humanity are always pretty shocking. The Zeon pilots waving at the refugee child is incredible. Them going back to ensure all of the refugees are safe is even crazier. I really did not expect this show to lean that much into this aspect.

The "good guys" doing a gigantic crime by hiding their weapon of mass destruction with refugees is also crazy, although its not really pointed out in that way. And the main hero ends up shooting the Zeon pilots down to avoid being discovered.

These pilots end up living and are saved by the mother and child, but the pilots also reveal that the city the mother is looking for was wiped out.

Its so weird how this show has simultaneously a huge boner for weapons and combat, but also a huge distaste for the killing and loss that comes with war, but presents both aspects side by side. It reminds me Hideaki Anno, who seems to have this same contradiction in stuff like Evangelion and Shin Godzilla.

The fact that the show doesn’t really explain why this war has happened or how it’s become so brutal and omnipresent makes this contradiction even more unsettling : on one side it disconnects us from the war to enjoy the spectacle, but it also presents both sides as being on an equal moral footing as none has a claim to a righteous war goal.

[surveillance-0011]

I was wondering if you could maybe do some Kenny high on life headcanons if you haven't already

yes ofc! im also gonna take the time to say feel free to send asks + hc requests whenever bc ill most likely get around to it even if it takes me a bit to think of things. just nothing abt the comic yet bc i'm still working on getting my copy :3c

he/him polysexual demiaroace

Big on collecting, had a huge collection of geeky merch back at home and he'd love to build that back up again asap

huge weeb huge nerd duh

Very very glad general space culture is a bit more open to the sort of things he's interested in and very very glad the Bounty Hunter is also a huge nerd

exaggerating a liitle bit of how much space loves anime but he's not far from the truth

Loves Akira and NGE. Also big on Gurren Lagen and Gundam.

Gunpla builder. glad BH, Lizzie and Gus have hands to help with this. Gene DGAF so he don't count

Likes fruit flavored candy a lot. Like anything from hi-chew to juicy drop n peach rings n stuff

More than a little impulsive and impatient. Gets restless easily.

Trusts easy, kinda gullible especially before the events of the game. Easily fell for spectacle/face value assumptions.

Generally just. doesn't read the fine print. not as observant as he could be. should be.

But also very curious very excited to learn and see new things he needs his enrichment. take him to aquarium take him to library take him to museum

Wanted to be an astronaut when he was a kid

Likes those glow in the dark stars that you can stick to walls.

Went to trade school, good with mechanical work.

In a human au he’d wear headphones with lil antenna attached

Chill with knifey if concerned by his perpetual bloodlust. Tried to get him into Chainsaw Man and Akira.

If he ever meets Harper I think things would be more than a little awkward but they would end up getting along really well. Like besties well

BUT she would kick his ass/spray him with the hose on the highest power setting in the back yard first. It's only fair.

I don't say this as "ew icky kenny must suffer" i have the idea in my head that they mutually agree to something like this since harper has repressed so many of her emotions that something weird and cathartic like this would be the only way to work through it and Kenny just decides it's better to get it all over with in this kind of self flagellating manner than deal with someone else being mad at him for years perhaps in a moment of weakness he instantly regrets but it ends up working out.

Maybe he'd feel slighted at first?? Or insecure about it?? But Harper being so buddy buddy would make him slip back into place more and feel more like it's alright in the end.

And also anime buddies. We can make this happen. we don't have to fight. peace and love

that being said...

More below the cut but warning it's all abt the whole G3 thing and uh warnings to mentions of character death, manipulation and mentions/implications of suicidal ideation.

I think Rel was taking advantage of him but it wasn't like. 100% trying to play Kenny like a fiddle. It's just that he definitely cared more about infinite ammo, a mechanic, and quirky commentator for his exploits 3-in-1 than Kenny as an individual and had no qualms about bringing him into his shady, dangerous lifestyle.

Kenny definitely let a lot of information slip to Garmantuous and the G3, under the impression that maybe they would just cooperate with the Gatlians and it would be a mutual helping sort of thing. He didn't know the extent of the G3's crimes or what they would really do to Gatlus.

I think Garm and/or Nipulon mostly pressured/ encouraged him to talk and he figured at worst they’d be pushy or get some folks on Gators into hot water

Escaped from their clutches for a while only to be recaptured. Rel became much crueler to him as a result of the attempted betrayal.

Conflict-averse, when it comes to actual social disputes.

Creature forgave him quickly. Gus and Sweezy had to gradually warm up to him and it would never really be the way it was before.

Kenny felt pretty distressed by this. didn't they know he lost everything too? Couldn't it just. be over now?

I mean. Let's be real here. Yes Kenny was manipulated and his worst crime was mostly just running away and trusting the wrong person. But when that mistake leads to something so big? Ofc it's gonna make people mad. Esp with a vague, rushed confession instead of really being able to speak his peace

And I think not wanting to tell people, only being prompted to in order to tell the story first, and that whole "you mean i didn't even have to tell anyone ermwhat the sigma!!" bit really do seem. pretty selfish. i'll admit it irks me more than just a little.

Granted I'm sure no one's thinking straight when their whole planet's been wiped off the census and I think general survival and trying to keep a stable group came before most else in Kenny's mind. And in general he wanted to get out into the world, really see it, and prove himself only to fuck up more in the end. but it's a principle sort of thing to me.

But I like to think (and definitely want to write/draw a little something about this) that he eventually managed to really talk things out and reach a slightly better middle ground. Because everyone else really suffered for his fuck up and ofc they can't just "oh it's okay" it all away. But at the same time changing the trajectory of the galaxy's politics and wellbeing as a whole, getting entire planets destroyed because of one wrong move would break anybody down.

And I think they were getting somewhere before he. well. vanished off the face of the Earth

I read that reunion with Lez as a sort of reconciliation but I'm not sure if Kenny ever forgave himself for fucking up his friend's life like that.

I think Lezduit is relatively lucid if a bit dazed + confused, just unable to speak verbally. At the very least he's got a general idea of where he is what's goin on etc. And I think he did forgive Kenny but I'm sure if / when he is/was still aware of everything he'd still feel grim about stuff. If he could he'd totally just tell Kenny it would be better to be honest

And I think when Kenny first confessed everything Lez really wanted to tell him he could have been honest about all his doubts. Lezduit never thought he was a fuck up after all.

I'm honestly interested in the idea that maybe the Bounty Hunter didn't drop him, or that that was only half the problem; maybe he let himself fall or wriggled out of holster/grasp during a bout of guilt and doubt to just say fuck it and start over.

Or maybe not to start anything new at all and just. end it. That's dark but after everything maybe during a stressful mission it just all got to him and he freaked out and make that knee-jerk decision.

Though I'm sure he's survived and in my mind he's currently trying his damndest to make his way back to the Bounty Hunter.

i still like my prediction, as contrived as it may be, that Lizzie ends up finding him now that she's off on her own, too, and you end up reuniting with them both.

I mean. they're still using him for promo shit. there's no way he's GONE gone, they're probably just looking for a new VA and making sure the story fits together now.

And he is missed. By Creature definitely, by Gus yes even though he's not quick to admit it, and totally not Sweezy nooo why would you think that nooo why does she get kind of quiet and solemn when she goes to make fun of him and remembers he's not there noooo naur ahaha wtf are you talking about.

Knifey has also been like "Man i miss that blue bugger shame he's probably dead' and freaked everyone else the fuck out for a little bit

Lez doesn't know he's gone but I'm sure if/when the news reaches them it would be a small bout of mild panic (read: Major, major panic covertly expressed as " :O uh oh") but as much as they worry they'd kind of also just be like "eh he'll turn up somewhere". Happened before, and he's sure the Kenny he knows will tough it out. Not necessarily or primarily denial, mind you. I mean a real, genuine faith here. Lezduit knows his friend.

[whypolar]

Gundam Unicorn OVA 3: The Ghost of Laplace

Some of the most stunning visuals from these OVAs yet. What a beautiful piece of animation.

Choosing which screenshots to use for this post hurt me. If I had my way, I would include multiple shots of every sequence where something explodes. Many, many things explode.

I'm glad I don't have problems with flashing lights. The lasers in this one get pretty intense.

This post is very long. There's a lot of novel stuff I want to talk about. Let's get into it!

(Previous posts: Day of the Unicorn, The Second Coming of Char)

I won't lie, they got further into the plot than I thought they were going to. I was expecting more time in Palau and then Riddhe and Mineva arriving and doing stuff on Earth, with the confrontation in the ruins of Laplace being saved for the next one. If I'd paid attention to the title I could have realized they were going to go to the coordinates, but I obviously did not. It caught me pretty off guard!

I definitely feel like this one benefits from multiple watches. They all do, for sure, but this one had a lot of little moments that were much stronger the second time through. A lot happens very quickly! Taking the time to pay attention is rewarding, especially in terms of emotional stakes. It was easy on a first watch to just get caught up in the spectacle and not fully process everything that's happening-- and that's for me, who already knew the background context and plot beats going in.

The Obligatory Music Section

Some of these tracks were probably also in the last two, but I didn't link them so it doesn't count. Here are the standouts I'm highlighting this time:

Bring on a War -- I love the strings on this track. Guitar? The instrumentation for this entire soundtrack is so fun and complex. The intense drums! The woodwinds! The weird ghostly vocals! That repeated noise that sounds like a gunshot and breaking glass! So good.

Capture -- Equal parts jaunty and menacing. I like the bells at the start.

Merry-go-round -- The credits song. Pop music with lyrics about the inescapable repetition of history: it's a proud Gundam movie tradition.

Environments

You guys remember places?

We're spending time in and around a large colony again, so the sweeping establishing shots are back. The space port is so beautiful, and so alien in how you're expected to traverse it.

I definitely will be looking up the staff once I'm done watching these. For many reasons, really, but I'm very curious about who was doing the environmental art and design.

And while we're talking about environments--

Operation Billiard

The most important reveal: the glowing orb pillars in the purple palm tree lounge are low-gravity hologram pool tables.

It turns out that the vaporwave room was a billiards hall this whole time! I assume this is a nod to how the attack plan on Palau was named "Operation Billiard" in the novels.

We get a quick explanation of the plan in the OVA (separate the asteroids that make up Palau, seal the military port, rescue Banagher during the confusion) but they don't bother to explain the mechanics in detail. Why would they need to? When you see a bunch of explosions and a giant fuckoff laser, it is immediately obvious why that might be a problem for Neo Zeon.

Fuck that one Eye-Zack in particular

If you're curious about why it's "Operation Billiard": Palau is made up of four asteroids. They planned to use the force of the Mega Particle Cannon to knock them all into each other. This would obstruct the exits for the military port in the centre of the asteroid cluster, trapping the Zeon forces inside.

The manoeuvre worked as intended, but Frontal knew the attack was coming, so he was able to move all his forces off Palau ahead of time.

(A small number of other random Zeon-aligned soldiers were deliberately left out of the loop to act as bait, because the Sleeves didn't care about them. The way the guys that try to escape through the cracks get picked off one by one is kind of horrific. They might as well be marching single file into a mech-destroying meat grinder.)

I do think the attack on Palau is more harrowing in the novel. In terms of the combat, I'm not sure if that could be avoided. It feels inherently easier for me to remember that every mobile suit is a person while reading textual description than when there's a beautiful laser light show going off before my eyes.

That said, in some places the framing is just different:

I really love this scene, for the record.

In the novel, Nashiri is a perspective character during the battle. We are reading from his viewpoint inside the cockpit with his crew while they pick off Zeon soldiers one by one-- and then the Sinanju swoops into view, and they immediately know the plan is compromised and that they're going to die. They are burned and vaporized to dust, and then we switch to Angelo's perspective.

What I find memorable about the novel scene is the loss of life: how methodically they had been killing, and how quickly the Sinanju does the same to them. How they saw it coming but could do nothing. How living, breathing human beings could be reduced to literally nothing in an instant.

The OVA positions the camera outside, with the Sinanju. We see Frontal slowly and deliberately carving out the Loto's entire chest to make sure he got all of them. We do not see or hear any of the Loto's pilots. We see inside Frontal's cockpit, for a shot of him looking cooly down at his handiwork before moving on. What I find memorable about this scene is that Frontal is scary.

(Imagine me here getting stabbed with a beam weapon, saying "Wow! Cool Antagonist!")

It's not like death isn't thematically important in the OVA-- they absolutely remind you with dialogue that every mobile suit blowing up is a person dying. We see a shot of this same Loto and its partner after the battle as burned out wrecks, and it's clear Daguza and the other ECOAS guys are thinking about their dead comrades. Riddhe and Banagher both deliberately attempt to spare enemy pilots. The level of destruction is immense! The robots are simply too cool. It can't be helped.

This is one of the benefits of multiple watches. When you've already seen the cool robots once before, you can focus in more closely on what they're doing, and what that means.

There's another reason the battle loses some emotional charge: focus is drawn away from noncombatants almost entirely. We see very little of the regular people who live on Palau.

For all Riddhe assures Mineva that they have no intention of attacking the areas where civilians live, it is unavoidable that slamming the asteroids they live on together will have consequences.

The novel describes intense earthquakes. Two residential blocks collapse. Residents are rolling and tumbling around. Windows of the houses that stay standing shatter. You get a real sense of fear on the civilian level.

The OVA gives us a quick scene with Tikva. There's some dust and some shaking, but he stays standing easily enough. We don't see anything collapse on screen. We hear people screaming in confusion and terror, but none of them are visible. Likewise, the streets are totally empty of people and identical to their first appearance when Banagher is making his way to the space port. Civilians are basically not relevant.

The novel spends a lot more time on Palau even before the attack. We spend time with Gilboa's family. Banagher genuinely befriends these people! He plays with Gilboa's kids and fixes a machine they use to make a living. It's a bit sad to lose all that, but I get it.

There's also scene in the novel where a truck driver in one of the connecting tunnels gets blown back fifty feet by the force of ECOAS' bombs going off, slams into a wall, and passes out. He wakes up when he's discovered several hours later, after the attack is over. It's more funny than anything, because he's just like, fine, lmao. I was so sure he was done. Fifty feet just intuitively sounds like too much to be survivable, until you remember there's no gravity.

Anyway, you wanna know something that was appropriately menacing during the Palau attack? The Unicorn. The Unicorn was perfect.

The joy of a hunter.

Marida vs. Banagher

Oh... this sequence is so visually striking.

I was shocked by how quickly it all happened. This isn't a criticism. I guess I was expecting it to linger more, like the scenes with Amuro and Lalah in '79. The amount of concrete "information" conveyed here is so much more than that, and yet it covers it all in less than two minutes. You certainly get a sense for how instantaneously Marida and Banagher are communicating, and how overwhelming it must be for both of them.

I will likely revisit Marida's backstory in future posts, in relation to other scenes that happen later. For now, I'll just say I was surprised and impressed.

I'm admittedly very curious how this scene reads for people who don't already know the backstory going in. Hell, how does it read for people who aren't familiar with Gundam ZZ?

(I put on the dub for my second watch. This is the first time I heard how "Ple" is pronounced in English. Fucked up.)

I wish I'd taken notes on specifics, but I think they shifted some dialogue around between combat, the Newtype link, and the scene in the hospital room. It's not really important, but I think it's interesting how scenes with similar dialogue or themes can be folded into each other in an adaptation.

Some stuff cut from the hospital scene:

There's a CT scan of Banagher on the wall in novel. "You checked whether I was a Cyber-Newtype too, didn't you?" When I read the English translation, I thought they dodged telling the audience what the result of the test actually was. I thought that was a really interesting choice. Unfortunately, I don't think it's actually the case, having checked the Japanese. I can't be 100% sure, but I think the meaning of the line is that as far as the doctor could tell with the equipment they had available, he detected no evidence of Banagher being a Cyber-Newtype. 😔

When Banagher and the doctor discuss Newtype theory, they cut a line where the doctor suggests that a world where everyone knows what everyone else is thinking without obfuscation or deception might not be the magic bullet to end war, and could even be more violent. He's also a little more direct in the novel about implying that the emergence of Newtypes could create a divide between them and "Oldtypes."

The doctor points out that Newtypes are theorized to evolve in space, and how this would be a problem for Earth-Space relations. Banagher says that they should just make everyone evolve all at once. The Japanese line seems a bit vague, but the English translation interprets this as him suggesting they pull a Char / Mafty and send everyone into space. I think that's a fun way to take it, particularly because Banagher thinks it's a childish idea even as he says it. It's cute to me.

Full Frontal

In the novel, we see Frontal arranging his battle plan before the attack begins-- we see that he knows the attack coming, we see him move his troops off Palau, and we see him give orders to leave the Unicorn where Banagher will find it. In the OVA, we learn most of this in retrospect. I don't think the framing changes much, except insofar as it means less screen time for him and Angelo.

The big scene we lose is the one where they speak to one of their major sponsors in Neo Zeon, the guy who owns Palau. He tries to goad Frontal into officially admitting to being Char and taking off the mask, implicitly threatening to rescind his support if he doesn't. Frontal responds to this with "That's okay. I actually came by today to tell you we're leaving! How convenient. Bye."

Frontal speaks very differently to this guy than he did to Banagher, even beyond refusing to remove his mask. It's a fascinating contrast, and I like it a lot. Frontal is very good at being threateningly passive-aggressive in multiple registers.

A good and telling bit of dialogue from Frontal that we lose by cutting this scene: "Char Aznable is a man who lost."

I still don't understand what they're doing with Riddhe, and I'm getting increasingly concerned about it.

I cannot believe how many Riddhe opinions I apparently have had this whole time, just waiting to be revealed.

OVA Riddhe does not feel like much of anything to me so far, which is bizarre when his novel counterpart has so much going on. His blandness is even more noticeable when he's spending so much time with Mineva, who is a very strong-willed character with defined beliefs.

I would say his characterization has been made subordinate to hers, except she doesn't even gain anything from it? Cutting his screen time also cuts hers as well. He's the character that she's interacting with most for this entire section of the story, so making him less interesting just means she has a less interesting conversation partner!

Riddhe is a major character, and there are events later that hinge on the audience giving a shit about him. He needs to have substance, because the story is going to treat him like he has it. If he doesn't have it, it will fall flat.

Here are the key points I want to go over:

Novel Riddhe's values and beliefs are made very clear, while OVA Riddhe feels more ambiguous and flimsy.

Novel Riddhe's relationship to his family is far more complicated and compelling than anything we've been told about OVA Riddhe so far.

Novel Riddhe is shown to have strong emotional ties to the crew of the Nahel Argama.

Novel Riddhe has many clearly established reasons not to do what he does-- personally, professionally, and legally-- and chooses to do it anyway.

This scene was funnier in the novel, because it tells you they have a telephone for each member of the family, but they're all in the same room where they get answered by the same butler.

Novel Riddhe is thoroughly established as a person with opinions and a strong moral compass. He does more to help others, at greater difficulty than anything OVA Riddhe has been faced with thus far, and the negative consequences he knowingly takes on are made more explicit.

In the novel, there's a whole extra step before taking Mineva to earth. Mineva has been moved off the Nahel Argama to another ship, the Alaska, which was going to bring her to a be held at a base on the moon. Getting her out of there is a lot more convoluted than knocking out a single guard and then sneaking down some hallways when no one is looking.

Riddhe sets off a bunch of smoke canisters all over the ship to cause confusion, knocks out some guys, flees the Alaska in a shuttle, shakes the mobile suits tailing them by flying through a debris field, lies about his reason for returning so they let him back on the Argama, and ultimately sneaks Mineva back onto the ship and into his mobile suit. Since the battle has started at this point, it's impossible for the Argama to contact the Alaska or vice-versa.

It makes sense to cut this for time. It's an extraneous trip just to return to the status quo of them needing to sneak off the Argama again anyway. There are other ways to show Riddhe's determination without giving him a dramatic heroic sequence.

But here's the problem with removing it: Riddhe doesn't just rescue Mineva. Takuya and Micott are also on the Alaska. It is strongly implied that they're going to be disappeared.

(There are people from the Intelligence Department on the 'Alaska', so leave the prisoner to them. Don't ask any further.) "Then what about the civilians? They..." (Will be treated as those who violated confidentiality and dealt with as appropriate. You have no need to be involved with them.)

That's significant! Mineva is a person with obvious political importance, and Riddhe became emotionally attached to her before he even knew that. It is entirely possible to interpret rescuing Mineva through a lens of selfish motivations, especially in an adaptation where we aren't privy to his inner thoughts.

Riddhe has no special attachment to Takuya and Micott. He saves them because he has an obligation to do so, because leaving them behind would be wrong.

Are you wondering why the Alaska came to pick them up in the first place? It happened because Riddhe contacted his father at the request of Captain Otto, even though he really didn't want to, in the hopes that he could prevent more deaths by requesting additional support for the Argama.

But Riddhe's father didn't send the support Riddhe requested-- he sent a ship to pick up Riddhe and the prisoners. Why send military support when he can just remove his son from the battlefield that he never wanted him to be on anyway, right? He doesn't even respond himself, some random military guy does it for him.

... this admiral might not have even thought of him as a person. He was just looking at the shadow behind his back-- the authority of Senator Ronan Marcenas. Riddhe felt the emptiness of talking to a wall as he yelled, "WHY ONLY ME...!"

To me, novel Riddhe's frustration with his family is the single most important character trait he has. It informs every single one of his decisions. And so far, in the anime, it has not come up even once.

Riddhe is not just a bit distant from his family. He is repeatedly described as having run away from home. We are told he has not spoken to his father or his sister in some time. He literally refers to his 'family' in scare quotes while thinking about them.

Riddhe too felt repulsed by the fact he had to rely on the 'family' that he had been hiding from at this point, but there was no other way.

[...]

There’s no other choice. Riddhe returned back to his room and ended up spending 2 hours writing a mail to his father. He had never sent a phone call for the past few years, let alone a message. His body did not have a function to communicate with his father, and he felt a chill when he started off with ‘Dear Father’.

[...]

"Since I entered the army with the family's objection, I never intended to come back, but just this once, I have to do this."

The car ride with his father when they first meet and head back to the house is incredibly miserable. They casually drop that Riddhe's mom is in a nursing home, and then they sit in total silence.

Riddhe was looking in front silently, not looking at the greenery passing by outside the window. He was about as silent as the time when he piloted the “Delta Plus” into the atmosphere—no, he might be a lot more tense here. Sitting diagonally in front of him was Ronan, who had his mouth shut, not intending to look away from the notebook terminal. As for what they actually talked about on the limousine, there were only two lines, “Mom?” “She’s in a Nursing Home in Switzerland.” What was left was the heavy and unbearable silence passing between them.

Eventually, Riddhe starts speaking to Mineva while she's looking at the scenery, very obviously as a way of needling his dad. It's an insanely loaded conversation. He basically says "hey Mineva, have you ever read Gone with the Wind? Did you know it takes place here, in Georgia? Just thinking about wealthy white farmers enriching themselves by exploiting Black slaves as we drive to my rich politician dad's house, for no reason."

The dig is not subtle. His dad sarcastically responds to it by pointing out the comparison, as if pretending he isn't extremely aware that's why Riddhe brought it up in the first place, and then they go back to totally ignoring each other.

This is something I think is important: in the novel, Ricardo Marcenas-- Riddhe's great-grandfather and first Prime Minister of the Earth Federation-- is not white. He is stated to be mixed race both during his political speech, when he talks about his heritage, and later when Mineva sees his portrait.

It is an unbelievably pointed choice to have Riddhe and his father be white-passing and from the southern US while the dead great-grandfather with lofty ideals who was implicitly assassinated by his own government was visibly (and proudly) multiracial.

Between the family's politics and Riddhe's sister being in an arranged marriage for political and business reasons, you can guess that this is more than just a coincidence of genetics. Ricardo's descendants wanted to hold onto power, and power was disproportionately held by white people, so that's who they married. Fukui is hitting me with a big cartoon mallet labeled "racism and its consequences persist in the politics of the Earth Federation."

And this... just doesn't exist in the OVA, I guess. They cut the lines about Ricardo's heritage from his speech, and he looks like any other white guy.

The anime as a whole so far has a general trend of cutting anything that directly mentions real-world racial identity or politics, without exception (see also: Syam and Banagher). They've also been erring on the side of lighter skin tones across the board, even in cases where novel description says otherwise.

The doctor on the Argama is described as Arab, with light tan skin. They coloured him half a shade darker than Banagher, who is half a shade darker than Mihiro.

Gilboa is Black. He's still Black here, but they gave him the absolute lightest possible skin tone that still reads as brown. He's way more ambiguous than his wife and kids, and they also have light brown skin. He's described as dark-skinned in the novel!

Yeah, people can have these skin tones with those backgrounds. Obviously. But they've chosen to convey information that is clear in the original text ambiguously, and they've done it to multiple characters.

I'm going on a bit of a tangent here, but this felt like the most appropriate place to bring it up. IT BOTHERS ME.

Anyway. Do you know who is the first character in the novel to bring up the rumours that Ricardo Marcenas was assassinated by the Federation? Because it isn't Daguza in the cockpit with Banagher-- that's later. It's Riddhe.

Riddhe is the one who suggests conservative elements within the Federation might have wanted to a eliminate a more liberal and idealistic Prime Minister while also providing an excuse to root out separatists on the basis of anti-terrorism. Riddhe is the one who gives a scathing account of what his family did in the aftermath of the assassination, where Ricardo's son took advantage of the situation to gain power with the support of the same conservatives who killed his father.

Riddhe says all that directly in front of his dad, who yells at him for spreading nonsense conspiracy theories, tells him he doesn't know anything about politics, and says that he abandoned his family. Wrow.

Riddhe is ultimately ashamed of himself for provoking his father just because he's angry. He thinks it's selfish and childish for him to risk jeopardizing the relationship when he's relying on his father's power to accomplish his goals and protect Mineva.

Calm down, he's a Senate Council member who can deal with the army that will suck up to him. I have to put aside all personal feelings and tell him.

Riddhe took Mineva's line about her responsibility as a member of the Zabi family very seriously. He comes back to it repeatedly. He doesn't want to have anything to do with his family, but he knows there are things that only he can do to help, precisely because of his family-- and he has an obligation to try.

There's a very interesting tension, where Riddhe is only even able to survive and successfully enact his plan because of the otherwise unwanted privilege conferred by his father. It's made clear that even that might not have saved him if he hadn't gotten extremely lucky! It comes up again and again, at every step of the plan.

No matter whether the "Nahel Argama" survives or not, Ensign Riddhe's military career will be at an end.

[...]

"I'm risking my life here as well. I might even end up facing the firing squad if I mess up here, you know?"

[...]

If the situation had happened during a Parliamentary Session, the contact would definitely bounce around amongst the secrataries, and the "Delta Plus" would most likely be shot down without any confirmation of its identity.

Even after they manage to land safely by using the name of his family as a shield, the guards surrounding them when they disembark are hostile and keep rifles trained on them the whole way.

I feel like this element of luck is part of why they swapped his model airplanes for a good luck charm, but it's still so weird to me. His luck is important because of the risks he's taking, and they're not really playing that up as much as they could be. They could tell us in retrospect, but Riddhe knew the risks going in, and that's important.

One thing he knows he's going to lose, unavoidably, is all of his established social relationships in the military.

Survivor's guilt and having lost friends is something that comes up a lot in Riddhe's internal dialogue after the destruction of Industrial 7. I talked about it a bit in the last post. His crewmates are people he cares about, not only in an abstract sense of duty and obligation, but as people.

He's clearly deeply hurt by lying to the crew about his real intentions during the attack on Palau, especially as some of them are glad to see him back and praising his bravery as a soldier.

Does OVA Riddhe have strong relationships to anyone on the Argama? Maybe. He gets some advice from a superior officer. He banters with one of the other pilots for three lines or so. The doctor certainly believes that Mihiro is on edge specifically because of Riddhe's "death", but there are no particularly significant interactions between them to confirm it.

Riddhe's romantic interest in Mihiro is established very early in the novels, when he asks her out to a movie before launching for the first battle. He says he needs something to look forward to so he'll come back alive.

This comes back again when he's heading out for the Palau mission, when she specifically privately contacts him:

(Good luck, Ensign Riddhe. I haven't forgotten the promise to watch a movie.)

And he just has to agree, knowing that he's not coming back and she's going to be mourning him, thinking he's dead. Man.

When it becomes clear the battle isn't going to go as planned, Mineva can sense Riddhe's hesitation. She tells him to stay and fight, because otherwise he'll regret it for the rest of his life. While this works as a character moment for Mineva in the anime, I don't feel like it's a convincing one for Riddhe. What made it work in the novels was that we already knew this was an accurate assessment of his feelings. In the anime, rather than her resolving the conflict for him, it almost feels like he hadn't even fully realized he was having one until she told him.

Maybe I'm being uncharitable and nitpicky, and this all comes across just fine to people without my preconceptions. I just can't shake the feeling that too much scaffolding for his character has been removed, so now even big character moments are failing to stand up on their own.

Riddhe's latent newtype connection to Banagher and their Man's Promise is plot important, but on an emotional level it is nothing to me. I don't care about Riddhe's masculine pride. I care about him having a fraught relationship with his shitty rich dad who he has deliberately avoided for years. I care about social bonds. I care about sacrifice.

Banagher's trust in Riddhe in the novel is meaningful because the audience has reason to believe that Riddhe deserves that trust.

I really hope they can integrate at least some of this stuff going forward, but I also worry it might be too late. I can imagine it failing so easily-- like if they give me Riddhe yelling at his dad, but without all the established context it just comes off like he's a brat throwing a tantrum.

I'm pretty sure his crush on Mineva is going to start becoming relevant now, too, so I need them to give me something to work with as soon as fucking possible if they don't want me to become a relentless little hater. Please.

I want to believe they can still flesh him out enough to work for me, even if it's not perfect.

Micott's arc is altered by changes to Riddhe's arc.

This isn't a super dramatic change, since she's not a load-bearing part of the narrative like Riddhe. I do think how they shifted things around is interesting and worth talking about, though.

In my post on OVA 2, I mentioned that Micott is the one who snitches on Mineva in the novel. This was removed in the anime, where instead Daguza just recognizes her face himself. Now the reason becomes clear-- they moved it here, instead.

In the novel, the second part of the conversation they have in this scene happens on the shuttle back from the Alaska. Since the Alaska was cut, they obviously couldn't do that, but having the betrayal without including the resolution would defeat the purpose. Their solution was to combine the betrayal and reconciliation into a single scene, by having Micott consider reporting Mineva's escape but ultimately back down. I think that's a very clever way to handle it.

Micott is more emotional in the novel version. The circumstances are completely different, so the difference in tone makes sense.

"I know this isn't something I should be saying. But sorry, I have no intention of apologizing to you. Your army was the one that decimated our colony." ... "But, I want to apologize to Banagher. If I don't, I..." The rest of her words were vague due to her crying.

She apologizes to Banagher in the novel equivalent to the hologram billiards scene, when Takuya deliberately leaves them alone for a bit so they can talk. Banagher is puzzled by her apology, and they just kind of cyclically apologize to each other for a bit. It's cute.

The novel version of the conversation is very unsubtle about implying that Banagher implicitly believes Riddhe is trustworthy because they have a psychic connection. Micott's line in the anime, where she just comments on Banagher behaving differently than usual, is more vague.

Micott also sticks up for Mineva to Banagher, which I thought was sweet.

"But since you helped her out once, you have to bear responsibility and help her out until the end. That girl's feeling rather down inside despite making a strong look."

The Vist Foundation: Martha, Alberto, and Gael

God, I love Martha. I've been waiting for her desperately. I loooove her anime design. She looks so good. My evil wife.

The Vist Foundation is much less present in the narrative than expected, so far. I'm not entirely sure what to think, but unlike Riddhe's changes, it doesn't raise any alarm bells for me (yet). The Foundation itself is central to the conflict, what with 『The Box』, but all the individual people in it are minor characters.

Do you remember Gael, Cardeas' bodyguard? At this point in the novel, Gael is on the Garencieres. His interactions with Zinnerman and the rest of the crew are very tense and uneasy, but he's a key player in the plan to rescue Marida. He talks to Banagher briefly during the battle as well, just like Gilboa.

Gael wants to capture Alberto and force him to publicly reveal information about Martha, thus ruining her reputation. This allows him to have his revenge for Cardeas without killing her (since Syam objected to him doing so).

For Marida's escape-- rather than being blown out into space, the guys transporting her are gunned down by Gael, and that's when she takes the opportunity to slip out of her bonds.

Gael confronts Alberto about killing Cardeas, and Alberto has some interesting dialogue:

"THAT MAN ONLY CARED ABOUT HIMSELF! HE THOUGHT THAT HE COULD DECIDE EVERYTHING JUST BECAUSE HE'S STRONG! HE THOUGHT THAT PEOPLE WHO WERE WEAKER WERE JUST SLACKING OFF... BUT I'VE BEEN WORKING SO HARD!"

[...]

"Aunt [Martha] was very kind ... She was willing to recognize and accept me. Dad doesn't know about such things."

I could imagine Alberto having a conversation like this with Marida instead, since it's related to her reason for saving him in the novel-- she recognized his connection to Banagher. When Marida saw Banagher's mind, she saw the burden placed on him by Cardeas, and she sees the same thing in Alberto. She mentions that they both have the same sadness in their eyes.

(We still haven't seen Martha tell Alberto that Banagher is his half-brother, by the way. Is Marida going to tell him instead? Does he know? I need to know if he knows!)

Anyway. Alberto shoots Gael and more crew from the Nahel Argama arrive, having heard the commotion. Gael flees.

The scene keeps going, but I'm stopping here, since we might be getting into stuff for the next one.

Daguza has a lot of backstory that doesn't make it in.

Man, this guy is carrying around so much baggage. Banagher has no idea. Content warning for child death for this part. Scroll down to the screenshots if at any point you decide you don't want to read it.

After the conversation with Banagher in the tea room, we get a much longer conversation between Daguza and the other ECOAS guy. We learn about "The Sweetwater Operation", during which ECOAS murdered a bunch of children as collateral while trying to take out a group of terrorists. Yes.

Sweetwater was a refugee colony. The living conditions were terrible, basically a slum, and it eventually became a hub for anti-Federation activity. During Char's Counterattack, it was a working base for Neo Zeon. After the conflict ended, it became "a breeding ground for terrorist planning."

"Those terrorists ignored human rights and laws, so their crimes that went beyond the law should be punished by means beyond the law" -- gee, where have I heard that before? What could Fukui possibly be referencing here?

To summarize: intelligence failed to report the presence of a school bus, ECOAS blew up a bunch of kids along with the terrorists, 33 of them died, and the four who survived were disabled for the rest of their lives. Investigators covered up the incident and it was reported as an accident, but rumours still spread within the Federation special forces. ECOAS was nicknamed "The Manhunters."

Honestly, I think it's a kind of contrived scenario compared to the much more cruelly mundane way that kids and other innocent civilians get murdered during anti-terrorist raids and drone strikes in real life, but I see what Fukui was going for.

From that point on, ECOAS continued to be given dirty missions due to their reputation. I would bet those 33 kids are not the only children they've killed during their career.

They do a lot of justifying it to themselves during the conversation. "It was the intelligence branch's fault, we couldn't do anything." "Well, we were facing a group a group of people who would drop colonies and asteroids on the Earth. If we didn't take them down all at once, there might have been more children killed." "Yes, we have to allow a little sacrifice for the sake of the many." Again, all very familiar.

Despite his words, it's very obvious that Daguza feels guilty. His discussion of himself as a cog is a lot more charged when you know exactly what kind of violence he enacted as part of the machine.

Let me ask honestly, what is this order we have to protect even if it means killing children? [...] Despite understanding that, I still continue to kill myself off, telling myself consistently that it can’t be helped. Won’t I become a real cog gradually? I swallowed reality and sold out myself bit by bit. In this sense, I’m a foolish creature who’s sealed in this shell called an adult.

While they do talk about how Banagher is a child during this conversation, we don't get the line from the OVA here about never having had children and Daguza's implicit fatherly feelings toward Banagher.

The idea does come up later, with Daguza expressing that no matter what the box is, it's not worth exchanging for the future of a child like Banagher. It's pretty clear that this is the reason he's so ready to go to his death.

And what a death it was.

He wanted to hand his life to a child, a child who would think about the future. Of course, he did not think that he could wash away all his guilt after all the atrocity he did, but he felt surprisingly happy that he could do this. He, who only knew how to act on priorities to fulfil his duties, was leaving everything to a young life that had no blood relations or bonds with him ...

Holy shit.

I love the Sinanju with its busted face. Such a look.

Anyway, this death is one that I think is more disturbing than it was in the original text. The decision to let his rocket launcher float just far enough from the beam to survive and then splatter against the emblem is downright nasty. It allows for a person whose body has been totally vaporized to still look like they're leaving behind remains. It feels like a full body gore splatter, even if closely watching the sequence makes it clear it's not. That rules.

And that's when we get our second Destroy Mode activation.

A Gundam is a monster. A Gundam is a devil.

Do you ever think about how Frontal is tactically the single most important person on the battlefield for his side, but he puts himself at risk of burning to death to stop the Unicorn from killing Angelo? Because I do. I think about it a lot.

RIP Gilboa. It really hit me while watching that Banagher has multiple potential surrogate father figures who explode directly in front of him, much like his real dad did. So far, Otto is the only adult man to survive giving Banagher friendly paternal advice.

If you've read all this, thanks for indulging me. I hope it was interesting.

I'm really looking forward to watching the next one. I've heard good things, and that arc of the novel, uh... well, it's a lot. I'll have to think about how much I even want to get into it.

[erismourn]

Granted my sample size is 2 but having read a couple books featuring the idea of mecha as their main gimmick. I genuinely don't think the written medium is the best format for capturing the essence of giant robots fighting. Yknow. Like I think the visual + sonic spectacle is kind of the point. You can't convey the super bassy "whoosh" as a giant robot swings its arm to punch another giant robot in writing with as much impact as the visual

Like. I watched a handful of gundam episodes for the first time yesterday and was immediately more compelled than I was reading either of the 2 books I'm talking abt here

[thenewfuture]

Indeed. Now Kyoko Kirigiri Former Ultimate Detective, Head of the 14th Future Foundation Branch ‘Necro Lover’ You may proceed with your opening statement that you have prescribed to all Remnants once they have regained consciousness and have been debriefed on all the events they have missed upon avatar deletion and memory loss.

I suppose we can do that now. *Kyoko gets her tape recorder out*

What are your names?

I am Nekomaru Nidai!

I go by many names: The Overlord of Ice, Master of Darkness, Ruler of Hell, Tanaka the Forbidden One.

But it matters not what I am called, all you need to know is I am me and me alone! Ahahahahaha!

.........Okay...

What is the last thing you remember?

I remember waking up upside down in the funhouse, and falling to my death.

The scrolls of my recollection run far and wide throughout the history of the space time continuum...

Gundam: I know how the universe was created and how it will end. I can perceive the very essence of the past, present and future. My tale ends with me attempting to secure the rampaging beasts with my own dark circle with the spell, "Chronosis", and spared my Devas from the onslaught. But they proved to be more formidable than I gave that Monochromatic devil credit for.

And so while my mortal body was battered, I arose to the heavens in a glorious spectacle on the battlefield. And here I stand today like a phoenix rising from the ashes in a glorious and grand inferno!

............

....Can you remember your time at Hope's Peak Academy at all?

Nah! It's all fuzzy there...

Krrrnngghh! I seem to have be hit by another spell, for those days are not are stored in my scroll of recollection...! However, I swear I will do all in my power to-

Okay. You can't. Moving on.

Finally, if given the oppurtunity; will you repent for your misdeeds and work to better the lives of others?

Sure! Sign me up! I'm reeaaaaddddyyy!

Hahahaha! You ask me if I shall cease my conquering of this world so easily?! You must have no idea who you referring to! I am Gundam Tanaka! Soon to be leader of the glorious Tanaka Empirrrreeee! They shall tell tales of the fear soaked epoch of darkness I shall bring about-

It is a "YES" or "NO" question!

Gack...!

A-Ahem...! Y-Yes, I will...

Thank you! *click*

Jesus, fuck, with these people...!

[bairusong23conceptart]

Academic Blog #2

(If I had known I'd need to cite so much reference material, I would have quoted less content. And it seems I might have been a bit too chatty in my last piece.)

This time, let's talk about one of my personal favorite designs in the Mobile Suit Gundam series: the YMT-05 Hildolfr.

1/100 Model of YMT-05 Hildolfr (Mobile Mode)

1/100 Model of YMT-05 Hildolfr (Tank Mode)

From a conceptual and hard-surface design perspective, the YMT-05 Hildolfr's design by Hajime Katoki is noteworthy for several reasons. The transformable nature of the Hildolfr, which allows it to shift from a mobile tank to a humanoid form.

The hard-surface design is especially prominent in the Hildolfr's tank form, where the emphasis on angular, protective plating contributes to a believable armored vehicle capable of withstanding and delivering heavy firepower. In MS form, these surfaces transition seamlessly to accommodate bipedal movement, showcasing Katoki's ability to blend form and function without compromising the integrity of either mode.

Additionally, the design of the main cannon, which maintains prominence in both forms, is a successful example of integrating a significant weapon system into the overall form factor. This not only enhances the visual impact of the design but also implies a practical and purposeful construction, an essential aspect of hard-surface design.

And the color scheme and the detailing work, including the panel lines and mechanical joints, give a sense of realism and practicality to the design. It suggests a machine built for purpose, rather than spectacle, aligning with modern design principles that value utility as much as aesthetics.

The Hildolfr's design strengths lie in its transformative ability, practical hard-surface detailing, and a functional weapon system integration, all encapsulated in a design that communicates speed, agility, and ruggedness.

Though it seems that not many fans have taken to this design, leading to its lukewarm reception. Perhaps, in the Japanese sci-fi domain, which often venerates the trendy aesthetics, a design that prioritizes practicality over flashiness fails to capture attention. But I'm quite certain that if such a design were to be more widely seen, its allure would surely spread far and wide.

References

Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: The Hidden One Year War (2004) Directed by I. Takashi. [Feature Film]. Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc.

[multitrackdrifting]

The only gripe I have about G Witch is that gundams are like when you play a gacha game and it has pvp but one guy has maxed out whale units and ur just a funny little f2p fella so you get washed cause your personal input didn't matter as much as the specs. That's not to say Suletta isn't a good pilot, just that the Aerial is so fundamentally jokes relative to the other mechs that the battles are a nice spectacle but rarely that close.

The Aerial isn't overpowered in the sense of its toolkit, but because the world doesn't use Gundams it has almost no adversity in battle. The Aerial isn't even invincible either, its base arsenal isn't that strong compared to some other series like the Beam Magnum could literally eviscerate a mobile suit near its shot. It's mostly that it has funnels, but it's not immune to EM interference, and it has literally lost limbs.

Any time power-scaling comes up I just have to mention that Unicorn can literally control time and collapse reality itself, and Turn A also disintegrate all surrounding matter with Moonlight Butterfly so it's like, yeah, I mean, it's overpowered in its own story but in the grand scheme of things it is just a handy mobile suit fighting a lot of grunt ones. Hope this season addresses that (and it's looking like it will, based on the HG kits).

[goldeneyedkim]

The WIP List - Aged WIPs

Okay, so irl is kind of... high stress at the moment, so let's see if I can just bury myself in some writing.

In particular, I'm starting to get super itchy about fics that I haven't finished and keep intending to. Going to start this as a way to kind of keep myself accountable for actually making progress on these things.

On this list:

After the Light - the Stony MCU/Old Guard crossover that was originally a oneshot, I probably should have left a oneshot, and really probably only need one chapter left to finish--just have to decide what to do it with.

The Real Monsters - the Naruto/CM crossover that I originally thought was going to be 5 chapters, and now I'm hoping to just finish in four. My friends all laugh at me when I say I hate Plot and Plot is a four-letter word? This fic is everything I mean about "I hate plot." It has an 8-year-old Naruto and Sasuke, so there is no romance to play off here, it's just actual plot, and fuck me, I hate this so much. Why did I do this to myself? This is a plotfic, and I know the end, but it's how to get there I'm fucking stuck on, and this one has a lot of people who have been very patient. I just want it done.

Boundless - EraserMight soulmate fic I started for-fucking-ever ago. It follows canon very closely, so I just really need to sit down and speed-watch the relevant parts, and just finish the last chapter where they decide that, yes, they want a romantic relationship with one another.

Prepared to Sacrifice - Ugh... this one has one or two chapters left, maybe, and I'm already 2k into the next one, it's just a very particular type of headspace to write, and I'm having trouble figuring out how to finish it off. I was going to write a sequel but that's almost certainly not going to happen, so the final chapter might just be the opening chapter of the sequel I wrote. It would work as an open-ended epilogue. So just need to finish the damn thing.

A Dragon Among the Ashes - a DekuBaku slavefic that I started for a big bang a while ago and... realized in the middle of writing it that I don't actually like BakuDeku enough to make them the center feature of anything more than a short fic. Like, I do ship them in the lowkey, background way that I kind of feel like "this is basically a good as canon" for a lot of things, and I include them as a background ship a lot, but... Shouto has become my blorbo, and if it's not focused around him, ugh, it's a struggle. I really just need to finish the last damn chapter.

Fireworks and Warnings probably belongs on this list. I probably need to just figure out an end and write it. It's been on hiatus for like 3 years. *sigh*

Basis for Human Hope - Gundam Wing omegaverse fic with 13x2 (yes, you read that right) and endgame 5x2. I need to see if I can remember how to write short stuff and see if I can crunch this one down. I'm, uh, just noticing how many hits that fic has (relative to most GW fic lately), and... yeah, should work on that next chapter.

On the Things Not Posted But I Really Should Work On:

Sequel to my EdRoy darkfic - dealing with the fallout of Ed being mated against his will, for public spectacle no less, and also being knocked up. If I could knock this out in 20k, I'd be delighted. I... uh, have no such faith it's going to be under 30k.

Sequel to my consensual bitching DekuTodo fic - This one has actually been started. I'm, like, over 2k into it (might be more), but uh, kind of missing the endgame here. Probably should just be Shouto having the baby (babies? I honestly don't remember what I was planning), so this should be relatively (I know, I know, don't laugh) short.

Firsts series - This is the high on the list to immediately finish. I started this idea way back when writing Stand Without Flinching. Since finishing the Stars That Have People Names mainfics, this is literally the last piece of the series I plan on writing, and I have had the worst time making myself work on it. I finally kicked my ass into gear last night, and got about 3.5k written on it, and two more of the 5 "firsts" written. That makes 3/6 done, three more to go, and 2 are smutty (which are usually easy, I just really was not in a mood to write smut last night). I really, really want to put this series to bed and mark it complete, so I think this is going to be the next one on the list.

All right--and of WIPs that are not on this list:

Surviving the Fire - weekly updates on this one, and I tend to be very good at keeping to a strict schedule. Next chapter of this hits today. Not a concern.

If You Have Been Brutally Broken - on a schedule, every other Wednesday, I also have at least a couple more chapters pre-written, so hopefully by the time I'm live writing this one, I'm done with Surviving. I love this fic, and I'm excited to force myself to finish it.

A Bun in a Hidden Oven - I basically have it finished. I can add another chapter; we'll see if I bother. No concern here.

When You're Married and No One Told You - this has always been open-ended, and I'll add to it if/when I get the inspo.

To Be Alpha - this is the BakuTodo alpha quirk fic. I have no damn idea where I'm going with it. I'd like to move it up to the WIP list but it's been sitting where it is for years b/c I'm stuck and I disclaimed that when I posted it.

Beware of Alphas - NaruSasu omegaverse. I love the idea of this world (where alphas are locked out of society), but mostly going to see if I find fun prompts to keep it going. Low pressure, as inpso hits.

Okay, now that I've wasted time typing all that up--let's go write. Surviving is due today, so it gets first priority. We'll see what else I get done after that.