#abyss gundam

[gremoria411]

A twofer today, just some general impressions on the ASW-G-16 Gundam Zepar (left) and the AWS-G-61 Gundam Zagan. I still haven’t watched Urdr hunt unfortunately, so I’ll be mostly talking about Zagan’s design, as opposed to anything that goes on in-series.

Another reason I’m pairing these together is because they’re both Post Disaster Gundam units, that have a two-syllable name beginning with a Z and a serial number that has a 6 in it. I’ve been able to remember them by the fact that the Zepar is Zippy. And that the Zagan has nothing to do with Carl Sagan.

Moving on from naming conventions, what do I think of them? Starting with the Zagan, I like the weight it brings to the table, it feels like it could compete with other heavyweights without much difficulty, essentially functioning as a giant can-opener to the mobile armours. It should be noted that with the possible exception of Agnika Kaeru himself, the Issues were the most prolific killer of Mobile Armours during the Calamity War. Presumably some of that was by dint of its pilot, but the Zagan cannot be discounted. It’s possible the apparent focus on defence aided in its survivability, enabling it to cope with battles of attrition better, functioning as an anvil to the other Gundam Frames’ hammer. It’s also possible that it’s missing some armament, since the hands are free. I know there’s precedent for knuckledusters in IBO, but it only being armed with the shields feels a little odd.

The design specifically reminds me of the Gremory (most likely the armour) and the Abyss Gundam from Seed Destiny (colouration and bulk, though I always remember it bigger than it actually is)

The Zepar I have considerably less to say on - it’s a nice design, agile and suited to closing the distance and stabbing things, but I do want to talk about it in relation to House Kujan, Specifically Iok Kujan.

Iok is……hm. He’s essentially a perfect example of somebody you don’t want in command. He’s a twit, and furthermore, he’s a dangerous twit, since his actions have a tendency to backfire on literally everyone besides himself. But let’s walk back a little. Who is Iok in relation to the story?

Iok Kujan is the heir to House Kujan of Gjallarhorn’s Seven Stars, the Seven Noble Families that wield the most power in Gjallarhorn, as McGillis, Gaelio, Carta and Rustal are to each of their houses (and of course Nemo, Elek and Gargin, but they’re less focused on). He only ascended to the position fairly recently, but everyone has high hopes for him since his late father was beloved.

Unfortunately, he’s really bad at it. He’s reckless, callous of those he’s fighting against and is absolutely unable to recognise his own failures.

@wordsandrobots has done an excellent analysis on Iok which I’m just going to link to here, since it’s very good:

But the crux of Iok is that he represents a great many of the failings of nobility - he’s incompetent, he’s unqualified and he displays a lack of care for how his actions effect others - not out of malice, but out of stupidity. He is a walking talking, killing example of how promoting based on blood rather than ability is such a poor idea.

But then look at the Zepar. Look at how it stands, how it moves. There’s a poise to it, an elegance, a sense of nobility. It’s armed with a sword and shield - simple, yes, but something that focuses on defence, on protection. Even the way it fights seems to be in pushing the enemy away from something, protecting it. So I would say that if Iok is representative of the realities of nobility - the incompetence and disregard for others, then the Zepar is the romanticisation of it - of a noble, red-armoured knight who would protect the people. It also represents how far the Kujan family has come since the Calamity War - Once a great and loved pilot who fought at the frontlines using a Gundam Frame, to a lacking and foolish one who fights from the rear and has to be bailed out at the cost of his subordinates lives. (I know Iok’s father didn’t pilot the Zepar, but it ties in with the theme of Iok being the end result of a lineage, rather than the beginnings).

It also draws attention to the Gjallarhorn’s meritocratic roots - Embrilla Kujan was able to slay multiple mobile armours using this machine, whereas Iok is too blinded by his own self-importance to recognise the threat that they pose, to the point he severely underestimates what it will take to kill one.

[vidfreak727]

Part 2

[i-heart-hxh]

Hi...Can I ask, what are your KilluGon fav moments? And what are your fav personal headcanons about them? Also, do you have any fav ships (from any fandom) that the dynamics remind you of KilluGon? Thanks if you want to answer....

Hello!

Thank you for asking! This post will get way too long if I answer all your questions, so here's a post where I talk about some of my fav HxH moments (4/5 of which are KilluGon related), and here's my Headcanons tag to see some of the headcanons I've posted or approved of previously. I'm sure I'll revisit similar questions to these over time as well.

I haven't had anyone ask about ships that remind me of KilluGon though, and it's a fun question to answer! I think KilluGon is very unique, so these might not be incredibly similar, but I'm focusing on ships that give me a similar feeling or have commonalities that I think are worth mentioning. I enjoy all of these ships to varying degrees!

I'm going to stay away from ships from big, currently popular shounen series that people typically bring up in comparison with HxH (JJK, HeroAca, etc.), both because the ships I've come across in those don't actually remind me of KilluGon very deeply, and also because it's more fun to recommend ships/series people may not have heard of already!

Reki Kyan and Langa Hasegawa (Sk8 the Infinity)

I'm all but certain these two were based off Gon and Killua in part--the personalities of the two and dynamic between them feels fairly similar, and the antagonist of the series, Adam, also strongly feels like he's based off of Hisoka. The series itself is less serious/dark than HxH so the intensity isn't the same, but they definitely have a similar strong friendship basis and mutual adoration to Gon and Killua.

Suletta Mercury and Miorine Rembran (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury)

Suletta is straightforward, somewhat oblivious, and grew up isolated from others (a bit like Gon), and Miorine is confident, tsundere, and trying to escape the influence of her rich and powerful family (a bit like Killua), and the two hit it off quickly and find joy and inspiration to keep going in each other. The degree to which they influence, support, and adore each other feels familiar. There are some later developments (spoilers) that remind me of Gon and Killua as well.

Yuki Sanada and Haru (Tsuritama)

Yuki, who has severe anxiety, ends up having his life transformed when the strange and overly friendly Haru appears suddenly. There's a real cuteness, joyfulness, and closeness between them that reminds me of Gon and Killua, and the way they help each other understand the world differently and change each others' perspectives as well.

Maru and Kiruko (Tengoku Daimakyou / Heavenly Delusion)

I can't say too much about this ship because I don't want to spoil any surprises, but let's just say in at least one major way it's not how it appears. Maru (the blond one) shares several commonalities with Killua, though he's at least a bit more straightforward in his emotions like Gon; while Kiruko is somewhat more tsundere initially (due to understandable past reasons). Their bond reminds me of Gon and Killua in that they travel all around together and develop a very close friendship and devotion to one another, and while one is more openly affectionate the other holds back more initially.

(This series contains some mature content, including a depiction of sexual assault, so please be careful when checking it out, but it's fantastic!)

Shindou Hikaru and Touya Akira (Hikaru no Go)

These two are rivals and obviously Gon and Killua are not, but at the same time there's a certain intensity and degree of being obsessed with each other than reminds me of KilluGon, as well as things like their bickering and the degree to which the series revolves around their connection. It's been a long time since I read the manga so I admittedly can't remember all the details, but I feel like it's maybe a few steps closer to Gon and Killua than, say, Hinata and Kageyama from Haikyuu (though that's also a great rivals -> friends ship that has some commonalities with KilluGon). It has a strong canon basis and I remember really enjoying how their bond develops!

Riko and Reg (Made in Abyss)

Riko is an adventurous, plucky girl who goes on a dangerous journey to find her missing parent, while Reg the robot boy supports her on their adventure (and semi-secretly adores her). Reg is also voiced by Mariya Ise, Killua's seiyuu, so it's hard not make the comparison! The personalities of the two are definitely similar and their bond feels familiar.

(Made in Abyss looks cute but it contains a great deal of upsetting/potentially triggering content, please be careful if you decide to watch or read it! It's amazing, but definitely not a series that will appeal to everyone.)

I hope people looking for similar ships might enjoy checking these series out!

[amalgamasreal]

Just the "best" parents. - by Dyctalopia

Source

[bagea]

its puppies

[howtodigatrench]

coloured colors switch sketch dump (alliteration intentional)

[mastomysowner]

Untitled by ʖˋƖ ıㄘ꒭🔞@LITEU

[mintyfreshe]

sorry

[stacotto]

So we have: A red-haired protagonist, who is (probably) a clone of someone else, has absolute loyalty to an adult who plans on using them for their own plans, and bonds with a total ice queen who has good reason to not trust said adult. Am I talking about Suletta Mercury or Luke fon Fabre?

[njararna]

i think perhaps my greatest gripe with vld (and dynamite) is that the storylines of the pilots ultimately feel too individualistic (tho dynamite also suffered with having only strong focus on keith and a little bit allura and hunk and everyone else was kinda. just there. so its no wonder).

i think one of the things abt voltron is that you really can't...let the pilots go off on their own. not that they have to be attached to the hip 24/7 but their storylines should be bringing them in together, not sending them into wildly different parts of the galaxy. they need to function not just as a unit within the story/to fight as voltron, but narratively as well; their arcs should really be complementing and enhancing each other. i feel like vttd understood this pretty well with the way arcs like lance's fed into the overall dynamic of the group, and in vforce, they seemed to treat the force as a proper unit that functioned together while still having their own personal stories (allura becoming queen of arus is still linked to what it means for voltron, keith on his way to becoming king consort for arus is linked to allura and also to the shifting dynamics within the formation with daniel as head, pidge deciding to remain as castle defense still means he supports voltron etc etc)

with vld...its complicated. you have allura going on what is essentially a path to godhood with alchemy and oriande and the secrets of the lions, keith literally peacing out for about two seasons with the blades to find krolia, and then shiro is a clone for a decent part and they subsequently shove him into the atlas once he's not. that's 3/6 paladins being dragged into different directions away from being a unit. keith leaving the team was...such a terrible move. a character who's lost family and been abandoned time and time again and instead of him making his own, he leaves it? and then he chills out on a space whale for two years and i'm supposed to believe he's voltron's leader now when he hasn't done the work to bond and connect with his paladins? keith and allura are also arguably the most important characters within voltron as a franchise, representing both voltron and the alliance, and its those two who are dragged away from the unit in vld (to the actual point of allura dying!!! willingly!!!!!!!!!). what results is a dissonant team with no real core to speak of, what with the constant changes in the chain of command. vforce worked so well because they understood the need for a core! golion is so endearing because within the first few episodes it knew that the team being together was the most important thing.

the storylines are just too...separate. they go on paths barely any other character can follow. and for a show about teamwork and working as one, it doesn't feel that way.

[doyouknowthisanime]

Happy Halloween, everyone!

I've got some good news - I've finished tallying up the results of the favourite anime survey and can now, finally, reveal what Tumblr's favourite anime actually are. To start with, I'd like to thank everyone who responded - yes, all 1172 (wow!) of you - and to apologise for he delay in actually getting these results out. For anyone who needs a reminder, these results are based on how many points each anime received - a first place ranking was worth five points, a second or third place ranking was worth four, a fourth or fifth place ranking was worth three, a sixth-tenth place ranking was worth two, and a eleventh-twentieth place ranking was worth one. When multiple anime had the same number of points, the anime with the most first-place votes was placed higher. The results are below the read more right here - I hope you enjoy reading!

100. Yona of the Dawn - 82 points

99. Devilman Crybaby - 83 points

98. Monogatari Series - 83 points

97. Lucky Star - 84 points

96. Toradora - 84 points

95. Dr. Stone - 86 points

94. Princess Jellyfish - 86 points

93. ERASED - 87 points

92. Noragami - 87 points

91. Wolf's Rain - 88 points

90. Azumanga Daioh - 90 points

89. Paranoia Agent - 90 points

88. Odd Taxi - 91 points

87. Banana Fish - 93 points

86. Digimon Adventure - 95 points

85. Akira - 95 points

84. Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni - 95 points

83. Psycho-Pass - 96 points

82. Little Witch Academia - 96 points

81. Monster - 97 points

80. Mononoke - 98 points

79. Free! - 99 points

78. Kekkai Sensen - 99 points

77. Trigun Stampede - 102 points

76. Haibane Renmei - 103 points

75. Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters - 104 points

74. Gintama - 105 points

73. Violet Evergarden - 107 points

72. Dorohedoro - 113 points

71. Made in Abyss - 113 points

70. Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury - 113 points

69. Eizouken ni wa Te o Dasu na! - 115 points

68. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind - 116 points

67. SK8 the Infinity - 117 points

66. Samurai Champloo - 117 points

65. Your Name - 118 points

64. Castle in the Sky - 119 points

63. Perfect Blue - 119 points

62. Promare - 120 points

61. One Punch Man - 122 points

60. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - 126 points

59. Kiki's Delivery Service - 129 points

58. Kaguya-sama: Love is War - 136 points

57. Inuyasha - 136 points

56. Assassination Classroom - 142 points

55. FLCL - 143 points

54. Pokémon - 144 points

53. Death Parade - 148 points

52. Dragon Ball - 150 points

51. Natsume Yuujinchou - 157 points

50. The Apothecary Diaries - 158 points

49. Revue Starlight - 159 points

48. Durarara!! - 160 points

47. Yu Yu Hakusho - 162 points

46. Naruto - 163 points

45. Black Butler - 165 points

44. Attack on Titan - 167 points

43. Houseki no Kuni - 168 points

42. Steins;Gate - 172 points

41. Cardcaptor Sakura - 186 points

40. Code Geass - 186 points.

39. Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-Kun - 187 points

38. The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. - 192 points

37. Kill la Kill - 194 points

36. Bungou Stray Dogs - 194 points

35. Baccano! - 198 points

34. Bocchi the Rock! - 201 points

33. Chainsaw Man - 208 points

32. Demon Slayer - 209 points

31. Serial Experiments Lain - 213 points

30. Jujutsu Kaisen - 227 points

29. Spy x Family - 236 points

28. Howl's Moving Castle - 238 points

27. Princess Mononoke - 240 points

26. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - 241 points

25. Sailor Moon - 249 points

24. Mushi-shi - 249 points

23. Princess Tutu - 254 points

22. Nichijou - 263 points

21. Trigun - 265 points

20. Spirited Away - 266 points

19. My Hero Academia - 266 points

18. Fruits Basket (2019) - 269 points

17. Soul Eater - 292 points

16. Sousou no Frieren - 300 points

15. Yuri!!! on Ice - 333 points

14. Fullmetal Alchemist - 364 points

13. Ouran High School Host Club - 374 points

12. Death Note - 437 points

11. Cowboy Bebop - 450 points

10. Haikyuu - 457 points

9. Neon Genesis Evangelion - 496 points

8. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure - 496 points

7. Hunter x Hunter (2011) - 516 points

6. Revolutionary Girl Utena - 537 points

5. One Piece - 633 points

4. Puella Magi Madoka Magica - 664 points

3. Mob Psycho 100 - 943 points

2. Dungeon Meshi - 985 points

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - 1106 points

Congratulations to FMA Brotherhood for winning! For more detailed results, go to this spreadsheet. Once again, thank you all for participating, and waiting so patiently for the results!

[ventique18]

Book 7, Chapter 7, Episode 112

Malleus and Ortho start duking it out so Idia goes full panic attack mode. Why is one of STYX's gundams fighting Malleus in the courtyard?!

Idia: "But Malleus' appearance... is that, is that overblot..?!"

SUDDENLY THE SKY STARTS CRACKING?!

Idia: "Eep! What is it this time?!"

Malleus: "... This dream is starting to crumble."

Malleus: "You are not supposed to be part of this dream. The moment you showed yourself to your brother, this dream no longer has a "happy ending".

"Littler Shroud. I need not even eliminate you myself."

"Let yourself drown into the abyss, along with this destruction."

Idia: "Eh?! Wai, wait Malleus! Don't just leave me here!"

Ortho: "... I see. My humanoid self exists only because of "that tragic day". Has me appearing here brought a huge contradiction to my brother's "happy ending"?"

Black haze starts enveloping them. Idia slowly sinks with it.

Ortho: "Hold tight! Don't let go of my hand!"

Idia: "Ugh, my arm is getting torn off..!"

Mama Shroud: "Orthy? Can you hear me? Get out of there now!"

Idia: "That voice... Mom?!"

Ortho: "But, but if I let go now, big brother will--!"

Mama Shroud explains that the magic in that dream is rapidly getting reconstructed. If he doesn't come back at once, the signal between him and STYX will get buried and they won't be able to recover him!

Mama Shroud: "Please come back, Ortho! This is an order!"

Idia: "Ortho? This battlesuit..?"

Idia: "Gah! My head! It hurts!"

Ortho: "Brother?! No, don't let go of my hand..! Ah!"

Idia screams a guttural scream as he falls down the abyss.

Ortho: "BROTHER!"

"We will definitely, definitely save you..!"

[vidfreak727]

Abyss Gundam - Part 1

[tinyozlion]

“And Its Name is επυον”: Where Did Epyon Come From, Literally and Figuratively?

On the pillars before the Oracle of Delphi, the navel of the ancient world, an inscription carved read: “know thyself”. 

Inside the Oracle’s inner sanctum sat the Pythia, bent over smoking fissures in the temple floor, breathing the sacred poison that would let Apollo in. It is a dreadful ecstasy– dangerous, body-wracking; gaining knowledge of the future shortens hers. 

Far in the future, a man exiled to a gilded oubliette speculates his own worth and relevance to history, surrounded by ghosts, becoming a ghost himself. Alone with his doubt, he looks for the god in the machine, seeking answers: “Why do we fight? For what should I fight?”

But the god he built is silent.

The world of automated warfare becomes increasingly bleak and devoid of reason. He is terrified that the pilots who so inspired him will lose their purpose just as he has, and join him in miserable freefall. 

Out of this wild abyss Treize builds the Epyon. Not for himself–  he will never pilot it. There is almost nothing of Treize in this suit, not that we can recognize from its exterior. It is not the heroic Tallgeese with its Attic crest– it is something clawed, stygian, one of the bat-winged Erinyes with a torch and whip. 

Epyon is not a weapon; it is a punishment. It is retribution for a world that has forgotten its humanity, its rites, its propriety. For its pilot, it is a scourge– the cracking whips of the Furies in their brain, driving them into a frenzy. Madness. Holy poison, to let the future in. 

Its name, επυον, is meant to mean "Next", or “After”. 

To guide the future, you must shorten yours. 

You must not be a victor, when you pilot this suit. 

Where did Epyon come from, in the mind of its creator? Everything we see of Treize forms a cohesive aesthetic: Roses, swords, romanticized old-world decadence, heroic motifs, gold, blue, white, red. Where did this thorny, tyrian-purple chimera live in him? Shouldn’t we have seen it lurking somewhere? Or does it seem to come out of nowhere precisely because he designed it to be his antithesis? 

Whether or not “Frozen Teardrop”, the novelized sequel to Gundam Wing, can be considered canon is a source of contention amongst many fans, but looking at it purely as a way to judge script-writer Katsuyuki Sumizawa’s intentions when he wrote the series, I find many parts of it to be informative. 

To paraphrase the fan-translation, it states that Treize found blue and white to be emblematic of heroism, colors associated with victory, and so their complementary opposites, black and red, could be seen as the colors of the defeated, associated with loss. For Treize, defeat and loss are tied inexorably to his vision of the future: “it was the defeated who changed the era and began the next”, as it says in the novel. 

Epyon is meant to negate the ideal of the conquering hero, the counter for a world beset by victorious cowards who command legions of dolls to do their killing and dying for them. As Treize designed it, Epyon has no projectile weapons; it is a suit purely for one-on-one combat, a suit that demands you risk everything when you fight.

No surprise then, that he gives it to the first Gundam pilot he meets– remarkably, the one whose self detonation caused everyone in his orbit to question their involvement in the war-- though one gets the feeling that any of the pilots would do. Treize hopes that Heero will use the Epyon to navigate the chaos to find the true purpose he is fighting for, and determine what course the future will take. 

But Heero has never been concerned with this sort of navel-gazing, and has no interest in discovering whether or not battle itself has a grander purpose or ultimate meaning. He fights the enemy in front of him and will continue to do so until either his life, or the supply of enemies, runs out. Heero does not overthink the future; he does not dwell on consequences. Treize does nothing BUT overthink the future and consider the fractal spread of consequences. They are mutually incomprehensible to each other, but perhaps not at cross purposes. 

Heero enters the cockpit convinced that he is expendable and redundant, that his only goal is to survive. When he returns from his test flight in Epyon, he can barely stand or speak. From that point on, he thinks about the future, about who and what will be important for what comes after the fighting has ended.

Eventually, the Epyon passes to the only person more disillusioned and estranged from his sense of purpose than Treize is– to Zechs, where it seems it was always meant to go.

• How And When Was Epyon Built?

Whew! Now that the metaphysical stuff is out of the way, let’s talk about the physical development of Epyon, and how that must have come about.

As we know, after his confinement by Romefeller, Treize, lurking around with the lights out and questioning his place in the universe, uses his now copious free time to build this gundanium dominatrix using only his laptop and the power of depression.

Now, even if we are to accept that Treize is a programming and engineering savant on top of all his other accomplishments, it would still be beyond even His Excellency’s considerable talents to pull an entire Gundam out of a hat in the basement of an abandoned Disney castle. 

Where did he get the gundanium? The crew? The construction equipment? Isn’t he under house arrest? Why would Romefeller leave him unsupervised to build a demon robot that predicts the future? 

These questions have been annoying the fandom since 1995. But, if you look carefully (VERY carefully, one might even say obsessively), it's possible to find the connective threads that make Epyon’s construction less of a magic trick. 

--Let’s go through the list of these unclarified canonical whoopsie-daisies in order of most to least glaring!:

If Treize is being kept in confinement in the Romefeller headquarters, why is he allowed to design and build a mobile suit?

*:･ﾟ✧ Our princess is in another castle! *:･ﾟ✧

The mansion that Treize goes into during episode 27 is NOT the castle that we see him in during episode 34. This switcheroo would probably have happened sometime in the MIDDLE of episode 27– which I guess might as well be the case, since episode 27 is a dreamlike, nonlinear stroll through Treize’s spiraling existential crisis.

Between Treize being confined in the Romefeller headquarters and developing the Epyon, Treize is in fact liberated by the Treize Faction and moved to the blue-roofed castle in the middle of the forest near the Luxembourg Base, which is where the faction has made their headquarters.

Presumably the crew and equipment needed to actually manufacture a new mobile suit were available at the base.

Treize’s confinement at this point is largely self-imposed; he could rally the factions loyal to him and make a move on Romefeller (as he does later), but he doesn’t believe he has the ability or the right to do so. Instead, he builds Epyon, and just kind of winds it up and lets it loose on the world to see if anything interesting happens.

And it does! The interesting very much happens.

Where did Treize get the gundanium alloy to build a Gundam?

The shipment of gundanium that Heero destroys in episode 4 was being transported on an OZ carrier, and it had to have been going somewhere. This gundanium was ordered WAY before Zechs’s gundam rebuilding project, so its purpose is left unidentified– someone in OZ clearly wanted to experiment with this new material for developing mobile suits. 

Adding to that, the gundanium that Zechs had access to when he was rebuilding the Wing Gundam had to come from somewhere, and that somewhere was probably the very deep pockets of a guy who likes to keep his best friends happy.

Regardless if any given shipment of gundanium made it home in one piece, what it means is that OZ has a way of obtaining gundanium, and if OZ has it, then Treize has it.

How would Treize know how to build a Gundam?

During the process of rebuilding the Wing Gundam from the ground up, Zechs and his engineers would probably have kept extensive records and made new Gundam blueprints that Treize would know about. Also by this point in the series, several Gundams and their pilots have been captured, and the Gundam’s engineers forced to build Vayeate and Mercurius for Lady Une. OZ would therefore have all the data they need to build a fresh Gundam, and once again: if OZ has it, then Treize has it.

Okay, but how would Treize know enough about the ZERO system to be able to reverse engineer it?

As mentioned in the entry about the ZERO system, the AI of the Taurus mobile suits eventually becomes the Mobile Doll AI. This is a predictive battle algorithm OZ already had in the works long before the Wing ZERO was discovered. 

Additionally, Treize is likely to have had access to the data being recorded by Trant while his team was researching the ZERO system, even if he was getting it covertly via a Treize Faction infiltrator, or a member of OZ who was still loyal to him. 

How does Treize know so much about designing mobile suits and their cockpit systems?

One has to remember that Treize was the instructor at Lake Victoria Base (the same position Noin holds when we first meet her in the series), responsible for training OZ’s elite pilots, and (according to “Frozen Teardrop”) involved with crucial tactical developments and improvements to OZ’s lineup. 

Yes, he’s a fancy-pants aristocrat, but you can’t say he doesn’t know his way around a mobile suit. He’s best friends with Zechs, after all– nerds of a feather flock together.

But how would he know to program the security system to accept Heero Yuy?

Well, ever since he was captured and hospitalized Heero’s biometric data would have been on file with the Alliance military, and therefore available to OZ, and therefore (again) available to Treize– so by now His Excellency will have certainly been made aware that Heero’s bones run on a third-party Adobe Photoshop plug-in.

But who cares about that crusty old data? All of the Gundam pilots have been accounted for and fingerprinted and scanned and microchipped up in Fortress Barge! They could probably 3D print Heero Yuy out of PLA and sell action figures if they wanted.

As to why Treize picked Heero specifically, I have two theories:

The first is that he simply programmed the computer to accept any and all Gundam pilots that might want to drop in for tea and assassination (and probably Zechs too, just in case he was in town).

The second is that Dorothy’s presence in the Sanc Kingdom means that Treize has a little bird keeping him informed about everything happening there, including that both Heero and Quatre are attending the Peacecraft’s School for Wayward Radical Pacifists. 

True, Dorothy is technically there to be her grandfather Duke Dremail’s little bird informant, but Dorothy’s loyalties are her own, and she very much likes and respects her cousin Treize. She’s probably beaming news of the Gundam pilots directly to him on their shared eyebrow-frequency the whole time she’s there.

Eyebrow-to-eyebrow communication.

As one final note– I’m aware that the more recent manga adaptation, “Glory of Losers”, contains its own version of events that attempts to reconcile the building of Epyon with other events in the series. However, while I appreciate that they made an attempt to resolve the big, lingering Epyon Questions, I find that like most of their retconned material involving Treize, I… 

I don’t like it. 

Or to put it less personally, I think it creates an even more dubious timeline of events that is somehow less credible than the original. In this version, Treize begins the planning and construction of both Epyon and Tallgeese at the beginning of the series, before the original Tallgeese has even been brought into play and LONG before the ZERO system is introduced– somehow with the foreknowledge that these suits will be vital for the development of the new era. 

I think this is a contrived way of making Treize into an omniscient puppet master who was retroactively steering everything in the correct direction from the very beginning, and was therefore always right and always assured of his role in the future– and I think that does his character an incredible disservice. In a story about the deep significance of changing people’s hearts and minds, the fact that Treize is retroactively scrubbed of his flaws and morally questionable decisions runs counter to the central thesis of Gundam Wing, and what has made it such a memorable story. 

“Glory of Losers” is a beautiful manga and I do think it does an incredible job of presenting the rather garbled narrative of the series in a new light, with some truly masterful tweaks that add depth to the characters and story. But it’s also guilty of some egregious changes to canon that serve no purpose other than to reconcile the main series with the events of “Frozen Teardrop”, and as an excuse to redesign all the mobile suits to be cooler and sell more model kits.

…On the other hand, in this version of the story, Treize was already familiar with Tallgeese from his earliest days in OZ. 

This is obviously another very unnecessary and suspiciously convenient retcon that I feel is in dubious taste– HOWEVER: it does mean that Howard gets to meet young whippersnapper Treize Khushrenada, who just so happened to be the one to ask him to paint it white because he thinks one day he’d like to pilot a Big Damn Hero Machine himself, and he wants it to be a more "elegant color." 

And that is the funniest shit I can possibly imagine. So I’ll give it that.

I'd like it to be at least 20% more elegant

[amalgamasreal]

Parents - by arcticcave

Source

[ultimate-anime-tournament]

THE ULTIMATE ANIME TOURNAMENT BEGINS! featuring 384 shows spanning 60 years!

all matchups are listed below the cut, and the first polls will be going up shortly 👍

edit: made a google spreadsheet documenting all matchups and their wins/losses!

left side:

Majokko Megu-chan VS Soul Eater VS Turn A Gundam

Noragami VS Ranma 1/2 VS Shadows House

Captain Tsubasa VS Barakamon VS Ojamajo Doremi

Dr Ramune: Mysterious Disease Specialist VS Joshiraku VS Concrete Revolutio

Maya the Honey Bee VS Bocchi the Rock! VS Senyuu.

Angel Beats VS Golden Kamuy VS Initial D

Lucky Star VS Mononoke VS Assassination Classroom

Go! Princess Pretty Cure VS Shirobako VS Space Pirate Captain Harlock

Golden Time VS Death Note VS Ao Haru Ride

Food Wars VS One Piece VS Space Battleship Yamato

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K VS Blood Blockade Battlefront VS Poco's Udon World

Space Patrol Luluco VS Yu-Gi-Oh! VS Your Lie in April

Slam Dunk VS One Punch Man VS Candy Candy

Doraemon VS Akame ga Kill VS Black Clover

Space Dandy VS Sazae-san VS Bloom into You

Show by Rock!! VS Pokémon VS Restaurant to Another World

Uchouten Kazoku VS Tetsujin 28 VS Miracle Girl Limit-chan

Sally the Witch VS March Comes in Like a Lion VS Ground Defense Force! Mao-chan

Day Break Illusion VS Heidi, Girl of the Alps VS Zombie Land Saga

Yuri is My Job! VS Kimagure Orange Road VS The Seven Deadly Sins

Akudama Drive VS Future Boy Conan VS Land of the Lustrous

BanG Dream! VS Rin-ne VS Serial Experiments Lain

Snow White with the Red Hair VS Juni Taisen: Zodiac War VS The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Ranking of Kings VS Osomatsu-san VS Odd Taxi

Flying Witch VS Bodacious Space Pirates VS Shugo Chara

Yuki Yuna is a Hero VS Super Dimension Fortress Macros VS Spy x Family

Magic Kaito 1412 VS Kaguya-sama: Love is War VS Kingdom

Aikatsu VS Cells at Work VS New Game!

Blue Exorcist VS Sound! Euphonium VS Ashita no Joe

Re:Zero VS My Hero Academia VS Pani Poni Dash

Ouran High School Host Club VS Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai VS Children of the Whales

86 vs Erased vs Demon Slayer

Mashle vs Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt vs Bakemonogatari

Skip and Loafer vs Shiki vs My-Hime

Laughing under the Clouds VS Naruto VS Sakura Wars

The Vampire Dies in No Time VS Dragon Ball GT VS Fist of the North Star

Shadowverse VS Blue Lock VS Tamako Market

Legend of the Galactic Heroes VS Lycoris Recoil VS Tanaka-kun is Always Listless

Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple VS Sonic X VS Samurai Champloo

Cutie Honey VS Tokyo Revengers VS Parasyte

Kaiji VS Deca-Dence VS Clannad

I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss VS Digimon Adventure VS Charlotte

Kageki Shojo!! VS Majuu Senshi Luna Varga VS Stars Align

Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions VS Gintama VS Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits

Bubblegum Crisis VS Air VS Made in Abyss

Touch VS Fire Force VS Love Live! Sunshine!!

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer VS Sket Dance VS Himitsu no Akko-chan

Zatch Bell VS Little Witch Academia VS Gal & Dino

Parappa the Rapper VS Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout (Fabiniku) VS Talentless Nana

Nyanbo! VS Bomberman Jetters VS Do It Yourself!

Kochikame: Tokyo Beat Cops VS Nobody's Boy Remi VS Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury

Chika Ichiban VS Squid Girl VS Anne of Green Gables

Ikkyuu-san VS The Case Study of Vanitas VS Free!

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story VS Chihayafuru VS So I'm a Spider, So What?

Aggretsuko VS Hakumei and Mikochi VS Mou Ippon

What's Michael VS Kimono Jihen VS Kiratto Prichan

Mushishi VS Uma Musume VS Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

Sabikui Bisco VS Dorohedoro VS The World Ends With You: The Animation

Un-Go VS The Case Files of Jeweler Richard VS Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure

Sonny Boy VS Tiger & Bunny VS Black Butler

A Place Further than the Universe VS Lupin III (all Parts) VS Tsuritama

Tari Tari VS Maoyu VS Buddy Daddies

Horimiya VS Akiba Maid War VS Cap Revolution Bottleman

Helck VS Play it Cool, Guys VS Revolutionary Girl Utena

right side:

Gegege no Kitarou VS Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood VS Urahara

D.Gray-Man VS Bakuman VS Devilman

Violet Evergarden VS Death Parade VS Speed Racer

Skull Face Bookseller Honda-san VS Mazinger Z VS Planetes

Aim for the Ace! VS Futari wa Pretty Cure VS Saiunkoku Monogatari

Comic Girls VS Galaxy Express 999 VS Dr. Slump

Wedding Peach VS Ronja, the Robber's Daughter VS Haikyuu!

Saint Seiya VS Mahoutsukai Chappy VS Yuri on Ice

Hikaru no Go VS Yona of the Dawn VS Mega Man NT Warrior

Black Lagoon VS Nichijou VS Space Cobra

Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles VS Stop! Hibari-kun VS She and Her Cat: Everything Flows

Space Brothers VS Gakuen Alice VS Dragon Ball Z

AKB0048 VS Kino's Journey -The Beautiful World- VS Musashi no Ken

Flip Flappers VS Hamtaro VS Daily Lives of High School Boys

Another VS Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju VS Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon

Gurren Lagann VS Hana no Ko Lunlun VS City Hunter

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water VS Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun VS To Your Eternity

Kiteretsu Daihyakka VS Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun VS Noir

Bungo Stray Dogs VS Soreike! Anpanman VS Moomin

Hajime no Ippo VS Paranoia Agent VS Mobile Suit Gundam

Maison Ikkoku VS Yuru Camp VS Sherlock Hound

Great Pretender VS Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress VS World Trigger

Little Princess Sara VS Ghost Sweeper Mikami VS Keep Your Hands off Eizouken!

My Next Life as a Villainess VS Kirby: Right Back at Ya! VS Air Gear

Saint Tail VS Haibane Renmei VS Astro Boy

Crayon Shin-chan VS Tokyo Ghoul VS Hell Girl

Heaven's Design Team VS Neon Genesis Evangelion VS Kiznaiver

Servamp VS Akane-chan VS Yo-kai Watch

The Vision of Escaflowne VS Tsurune VS Sk8 the Infinity

The Promised Neverland VS Hime-chan no Ribbon VS Fruits Basket

Urusei Yatsura VS Dr. Stone VS Shaman King

Star of the Giants VS Cardcaptor Sakura VS Angelic Layer

Berserk VS Kodocha VS Ping Pong The Animation

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's VS Boys over Flowers VS Otherside Picnic

Monster VS Sgt. Frog VS K-On!

Aria VS The Rose of Versailles VS Beyblade

Natsume's Book of Friends VS Planet With VS Detective Conan / Case Closed

Nodame Kantaabire VS Kyou Kara Maoh VS Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Duel Masters VS Shounen Ninja Kaze no Fujimaru VS Hunter x Hunter

Mahou Shoujo Lalabel VS Carole & Tuesday VS Powerpuff Girls Z

Big Windup! VS Heartcatch Pretty Cure! VS Fighting Foodons

Gosick VS Ace Attorney VS Inazuma Eleven

Given VS The Prince of Tennis VS Cowboy Bebop

Code Geass VS Teppen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! VS FLCL

Wolf's Rain VS Reborn! VS Princess Tutu

Magic Knight Rayearth VS Romeo x Juliet VS Oshi no Ko

Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo VS Bakugan VS Jujutsu Kaisen

Yu Yu Hakusho VS Love Live! School Idol Project VS Trigun

Kimba the White Lion VS Waccha Primagi VS Toradora

Ultra Maniac VS Mahou Sensei Negima VS Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight

Visual Prison VS Steins;gate VS Inuyasha

Vinland Saga VS Assault Lily Bouquet VS Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

Pop Team Epic VS Gingitsune VS Tokyo Mew Mew

Blue Period VS Higurashi When They Cry VS Fairy Tail

Chargeman Ken VS Shin Sekai Yori VS Chainsaw Man

Beyond the Boundary VS Silver Spoon VS Hyouka

Stitch! VS Mobile Suit Gundam SEED VS Symphogear

Kuroko's Basketball VS Pokemon Horizons VS Gatchaman Crowds

Ghost Stories VS Non Non Biyori VS Samurai Flamenco

Fushigi Yuugi VS Psycho-Pass VS Azumanga Daioh

Bleach VS Dragon Ball Super VS Ace of Diamond

My Neighbor Seki VS Mob Psycho 100 VS No. 6

Full Metal Panic VS Princess Principal VS Ya Boy Kongming!

Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei VS Puella Magi Madoka Magica VS Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song