#anyway i love norea

[brontidepng]

norea......... lovely

[beeffilledshark]

While I’m very happy at wfm’s success and how it’s drawn so many people into Gundam (me included), it’s so upsetting we have to do this song and dance and explain how to “interpret” the explicit narrative that Sulemio is a real romance despite “them never kissing or saying I love you.” The whole fucking point of Gundam and the Newtype story is “understanding each other without misconception,” and while Witches aren’t able to really do that the same way Newtypes are, the core story of Suletta is getting people to truly understand her.

Sulemio’s resolution is Miorine finally “understanding“ that Suletta WANTS to save her family and Miorine revealing her “ugly” and disheveled self she’s hidden from everyone, only getting a taste of it when she invited Suletta to her room in ep 4. Suletta “understands” her mother and Aerial’s betrayal after Quinnharbor and that they do love her, just that they think she’ll be fine separated from them and to not involve her in their machinations. Chuchu’s entire arc is the perfect example of this theme: she goes from violently hating Spacians and picking fights with them on a regular basis to basically becoming Suletta’s older sister and rescuing hundreds of Spacian students and providing food and aid to them. The tragedy of Norea and El5n is amplified by this theme since only El5n could possibly “understand” Norea’s agony and existential anguish in considering herself a living casualty of war as a Gundam pilot. What’s made worse is she “understands” El5n empathizes with her and truly cares for her moments before being killed by Cathedra after her rampage. Hell, the Space Magic solution of Gwitch is a direct reference to Unicorn where the Gundams project the love interest's voice throughout the Earth Sphere so that they can communicate directly with the common person.

If you’ve watched Unicorn as many times as I have, you know they drill this fucking theme into your head every chance you give them but similarly to gwitch, there’s no kiss scene or “I love you” scene. Gundam, and Sunrise in general, has a long-standing tradition of demonstrating the primary romance through the dialogue and actions of the characters. I have never seen anyone question if Audrey and Banagher are in a relationship despite them never having any kind of kiss scene or a scene where they utter “I love you.” Of course, they were kind of meant to parallel Amuro and Sayla, but the dynamic between Suletta and Miorine are almost identical: Gundam pilot who has to protect the Princess from scheming enemies on both the enemy and their side.

The point of this post is that you have to be able to possess an ounce of media literacy in order to understand the sheer plot and character interactions of most popular Gundam media. Now that a lot more people are interested in picking up this franchise, I’m BEGGING you to really think about these shows and movies beyond the mech fights. Every Gundam series has something you can pick apart and the first step in analyzing that is to understand some of the core ideas of Gundam. We don’t kiss here. We’re too high brow to have that so we have characters say shit like “promise you’ll come with me to Earth,” since it means Miorine intends to incorporate Suletta into her future and in her desires or calling the Princess of Zeon Audrey despite her government name being Mineva. Though it may have been forceful, Banagher understood what Mineva wanted and vocalized that by referring to her as her cover name until the end of the OVA.

I do also want to add, this theme is why the Blowjob Brothers exist in nearly every incarnation of Gundam ever. Once you learn how to interpret characters' actions and how they demonstrate love, you'll understand why the fandom has so many gay ships with varying degrees of "authenticity" or canon-ness. The difference with Suletta and Miorine is that it's unabashedly explicit and the focus of Gwitch.

Anyways, any fellow Gwitch enthusiasts who are dipping their toes into 0079 or IBO or any other property as their second Gundam experience, please understand that a LOT of narrative devices and characters are direct references or homages to the past and trying to catch up on it all is like trying to integrate yourself into a religion you converted into. There's a lot of unwritten practices and beliefs that you have to learn and teach yourself, especially since there's psychos out there in the fandom.

(this entire post was spurred on by a dipshit twitter user arguing Sulemio wasn't the goal of gwitch and they changed it mid-hiatus to appeal to the wokes asdfklafd;ljkasf. Anyways Chamuro is real and gundam loves doing polycules this is unironically true)

[animehouse-moe]

Mobile Suit Gundam - The Witch From Mercury S2 Episode 10: The Woven Path

So two things to start. I apologize for not getting this post out until today, but it was Father's day on Sunday (I'm not a father) so was spending time with family. Secondly, really cool that Ryusuke Tarou did an end card for GWitch. They're a super cool illustrator that has just what you need when you want to see all your favorite characters happy and free of trauma, living it up in the modern day. Their Twitter is full of fun and wholesome illustrations.

Anyways, the episode at hand. A lot going on, a lot of callbacks and references, and a lot of importance pieces. Unsurprisingly, that means a lot to talk about! Well, waste not want not, I'll get started.

If it wasn't already clear, Quiet Zero is a very large piece of religious symbolism coupled with the concepts of life and death, and it's not exactly subtle. The episode starts off with a Gundnode that is placed squarely within the cross that appears on Quiet Zero, evoking comparisons to crucifixion in regards to the sins that innocent Eri is forced to bear.

From the unsuccessful attack on Quiet Zero that brought the Gundnodes out, we bounce around establishing where all the characters begin at this episode. Finding Miorine holed up in her room, the Earth house puttering about getting prepared to follow Suletta into battle, and Suletta herself talking with Elan.

I thought they did a really good job of handling the interaction between this pair, as Suletta sits on the same bench she waited at her Elan for. The current Elan doesn't sit down though, rather he faces away from Suletta. I think it's a nice touch to keep this pair's relationship distant and on different wavelengths, and in part to show this Elan running away from something yet again. It's a great little piece to his character, that thanks to Suletta's words and Norea's book, allows him to see why someone would rally against the fear. For something greater than themselves, something that they want to protect or save.

Skipping ahead a little bit between the buildup, Guel comes to Suletta to offer her a chance at redemption. Just as she did for himself, though this time in the form of a duel.

I think it's great, and I also think it's a solid callback to Utena. I also hear there's a similar scene in an older Gundam series, but I'm a first time watcher (essentially) so I wouldn't have known otherwise. Anyways, choosing fencing as the form of combat was a really great decision on Guel's part. Half ego, half character, he challenges Suletta to a form of duel that can't be fibbed or faked, one that relies on the moment itself rather than careful planning or preparation. He wants to fight Suletta to prove himself, but to also allow Suletta that opportunity. He doesn't want to hold Miorine over her, nor does he want Suletta's pity. He wants to stand alongside her, to be shown to be equals through the purest comparison possible. I love it, I really do. I love how much our little Bob has grown into a man, but truth be told, thanks to that piece towards the end of the episode, I'm scared for him.

Anyways, here's the super smooth fencing sequence.

So, Suletta wins the duel, and with it the chance to talk to Miorine. I think it's very endearing, and like many have said prior to me, does a great job of allowing Miorine to quite literally open her own door. Before that though, she's crushed under the weight of her own actions, unable to move forward. Suletta doesn't offer her mother's hollow words to justify sacrifice, but rather approaches Miorine as someone who shares a terrible burden as well. I could say a lot more, but I'm going to summarize with this: it's the inverse of Suletta's experience at Plant Quetta. It's Suletta reaching out a caring hand to support Miorine through her fear of violence and death that stains her vision red. Suletta herself admits to her actions at Plant Quetta to establish that comparison for this moment.

Through this conversation, she uses a lot of the words that her mother gave her. That she was protecting someone, that it was the right thing to do. She does very well at realizing her mother's grasp on her in her own way, and in experiencing senseless death first hand, comes to understand how terrible it is. And of course, Suletta is a curse breaking machine through this second cour/season, as she continues to reference her mother's words in opposition to them. What I really love is how she's internalized the original phrase, and subconsciously uses it now, in her own ways, to uniquely support and encourage the characters that need it. It changes bit by bit each time we hear it, but it's still there, and it's still Suletta's version.

Suletta does successfully encourage Miorine, and coaxes both a potential death flag and future date out of her once-again fiancé, and we get a really impactful scene of Miorine moving forward to open the door on her own.

While the act is her own, she still has Suletta waiting on the other side to support her. Suletta still extends a hand out to Miorine, like her own mother did back on Plant Quetta. But rather than excusing or justifying Miorine's actions, she's accepting them alongside Miorine, providing a hand to hold onto while she fights onwards. What I really like with this scene is its subtleties. Suletta's hand reaches out further than Miorine's, but despite that action of reaching out, she places her open hand beneath Miorine's to allow Miorine to reach out for Suletta as well, and when Miorine does reach out, there's hesitation at first. And then there's the ending scene of their hands intertwined, where they both appear in the center of the frame without one side greater than the other. Really small details, but I think really important in regards to how the pair are interacting with and approaching each other. It's incredibly cute, and is only further bolstered by the use of a piano rendition of the opening song that punctuates this entire interaction.

With Miorine out of her room, the plan to begin an assault on Quiet Zero can begin, as Suletta climbs into the monster Calibarn to prep.

There's not a whole lot to comment on as Miorine retakes the reins of the Benerit Group, and even pays a visit to Shaddiq prior to the Calibarn testing. The real impactful piece is Miorine during Suletta's permet score testing. Despite the pain that Suletta's in as she climbs the scores, Miorine is the one that pushes her through to success. I think it's really great how much confidence she has in Suletta through this sequence, and that it all melts away when she reaches the needed score.

And with that success, the Earth house bolstered by the Benerit Group sorties to challenge Quiet Zero. It's also here that my panic attack for Bob begins. He's sortied in his own Dilanza when a Schwarzette appears and fires on him, with his own brother piloting. I'm scared for two reasons: the last time Guel fought family in space his father was killed, and his brother is piloting a Gundam. This means only one of two things, Bob dies, or his brother dies. I can just barely bare Guel losing his brother as well, but losing Bob himself would be heart crushing at this point.

Anyways, onto Suletta and Calibarn rallying against Quiet Zero! I really liked this piece because you can tell that Eri is in fact, holding back against her younger sister.

Also, Calibarn is Caliban from Prospero

Yeah, that's on me, I forgot to add it in the last episode where the name was revealed. I was more so irked by the fact that it was the convenient existence of another Gundam, that I completely spaced out on the fact that Calibarn was foretold by the existence of Aerial and Prospera. So yeah, my bad, but GWitch is still holding itself close to Shakespeare's Prospero, with the ideal of bringing Ericht back to life (which is a power that the play version of Prospera does wield).

Anyways, how is Eri holding back? Well, glad you asked! It's pretty clear to see in this one sequence here. The Gundnode has several arms which wield several beam sabers against Suletta and Calibarn's one. Child's play to understand that Eri could have ended the fight then and there, but instead opted for a more even playing field for Suletta. Really nice touch to show the love that Eri still has for Suletta.

And the icing on the cake, Ericht now appearing above her own casket. The whole idea of a cradle existing within her own casket, where she typically resides is a lot, and speaks to Prospera's grief for her lost daughter, so this sequence takes a different approach. Suletta's only ever seen Eri as Aerial (well, she used to, now they're separate), so the concept of her being "dead" doesn't ring true for her.

It's here that we find our episode's end though. Left on a cliffhanger, waiting to discover the fate of many of our characters, and what will become of Suletta and Ericht. Lots of great stuff, and I'm very curious to see if GWitch will stay true to it's Shakespearean roots.

[mahoushoujotechsupport]

finally have time to continue my rewatch and its the bob episode

this episode really raised my expectations for the show in a way it never delivered so idk that there'll be much to say unless i see random stuff that ended up tying in later

now that the show is over i kinda feel like this episode was unnecessary lol it should have been a half ep if all it was gonna do was push guel back to space. it should have been an episode where the audience is made to sympathize with the plight of earthians more given what was to come and from what we see in the episode itself, but from the posts i saw around the internet between when the episode aired even up until now, a lot of people did not care for the earthian struggle and some even called them stupid. i'm sure that's just a ton of outspoken reactionaries but i wish they could have done more with this plotline

instead we get this idiot full on stockholm syndroming over his abusive father. guel could have had a clean break from everything. hell, he could have continued being a shitty capitalist but yknow maybe not be a war profiteer.

anyway, this ep marks our first opening change with eri's silhouette finally revealing her datastorm form

i love nika's character but lol i'll always side with norea on this issue. nika's idealism is noble, but it just doesnt work irl. and her saying that dawn of fold is causing suffering is so laughable when spacians and the benerit group are literally foaming at the mouth for profit at each new conflict on earth that they can provide weapons to

sabina-sama, my beloved

yea amerikkka sucks, norea, i agree

lol capitalists are so goddamn stupid

the depressing thing about this line is how so many things work like this irl and capitalists don't care that eventually profits will come down to a trickle becuase they'll jump on to the next big thing to get them high profits as quickly as possible

lol this is so dismissive to the suffering of an entire planet these evil ass people just left to rot

i didnt remember that they have kenanji in this scene telling rajan what a bad idea it is to send benerit group brownshirts to attack earth. i guess it's supposed to paint him in a better light and make him seem "reasonable" or "moral" or whatever but lol no

literally everyone pretty much until almost the end of the show

i wish we'd gotten more interactions with sophie, like a flashback of her on earth with these kids would've been nice

ok i guess i forgot the fight in this ep is cool, but lmao the prodoros doesnt even have a kit at all!!!!!!! so like what was the point

damn comrade olcott rules

oh huh thats kind of interesting. whatever that thing olcott's wearing looks an awful lot like the headpiece suletta and miorine wear in the timeskip to communicate with eri. i'm guessing it's some kind of gund tech since that facilitates the use of his prosthetic arm?

*secelia voice* kashtanka woof woof

can the novels please give us more info about this lmao like we're just never going to know why the hell notrette created quiet zero

i'm really never gonna feel sorry or bad for delling, like ok you were sad your wife died and you were a controllling freak

ok sure it's finally revealed to us why he came up with this ridiculous holder system but how dumb do you have to be to do this?

i said it in an earlier post as part of my rewatch, things could have gone soooo badly for miorine. guel was physically abusive, how was that leaving your daughter in "safe hands"? someone could have become the holder and literally raped her or something

anyway i hate delling and i'll forever headcanon that even though maybe they're on amicable terms in the end, miorine probably never fully forgave him

ok on rewatch i guess this episode was better than i remembered it being. like standalone, its definitely a good episode imo, but mannnn i really really wish it ended up tying more into the actual plot than it actually did. i just really sympathize with dawn of fold lol and instead they just got kinda brushed off as being pawns of the SAL's big plan to just rearrange who was profiting off weapons sales lol

ok might do ep 16 tonight too, not sure yet

[zakublaster]

g-witch thoughts! i loved this show, it’s my favorite non-tomino gundam by a mile and while i wish it had gotten the full 50 episode gundam treatment to better pace certain plotlines and flesh some things out, i think it was still satisfying.

spoilers //    and such under the cut.

suletta and miorine get married 🥰 the ending felt like a direct reference to the ending of iron-blooded orphans, with miorine in her suit rolling up at the nice little farm suletta is living at with the rest of their family. two mainline gundams in a row ending on women being married. not that bandai will acknowledge it.

it’s a relatively low-death ending, but miorine and suletta floating in space gave me echoes of fa and kamille, though with an immediate happy ending instead of waiting through zz to see how it went. and it certainly doesn’t have the punch or power of utena’s ending. i think it could have hit those zeta or utena highs with more episodes, but for what it is, it’s simple and sweet.

i warmed up more to the miscellaneous elans as i began to saw them both as a broad comparison point for suletta and eri - el5n unmasking prospera seemed anticlimactic at first, but i think his place as a clone makes that more interesting and it was put into perspective by el4n being who suletta meets in the data storm. and after him barely being a character prior to this, it was amusing to see original elan be like ‘lol anyway later losers, gonna go fuck that jeturk guy.’

the slighter death toll and happier ending also brought me back to utena in some ways, with the elans reminding me in ways of mamiya.

i still wish sophie and norea had gotten some lines from the data storm, though. i liked seeing prospera’s husband and all, but sophie and norea were more interesting so i want some follow up beyond ‘they’re just vibing in the soup~!’

but speaking of nadeem or whatever, wild that kenanji never got any sort of comeuppance for killing him or, like, threatening children and shit. even prospera could not defeat his immaculate tboy swag, good for him. he’s too hot for me to hold it against him.

prospera is a very interesting char clone, and while i think she suffers more in the finale from that rushed feeling than sulemio do, i like the broad strokes. my biggest criticism is the ableist tendency of shows like this to go ‘eh, shaddiq gets years in prison as his punishment, and prospera gets (checks notes) being in a wheelchair’. as though that is a punishment, or that it would hinder her ability to commit further crimes. (her actual reason for not doing so is love of her family, but if i were the council who was about to space laser quiet zero and everyone in it, i’m not sure i’d accept that one as an out.)

but eri being able to connect with her sister reminds me of ple two’s connection to the original elpeo ple swaying her to aeug’s side; and i think we see in char’s ending a similar hesitance about his plan that prospera has, when he revealed he gave amuro the psycho-frame for nu gundam. so i think there’s some gundam history shorthand helping with the shorter episode count, for me.

the tone of the ending prior to the cute mercury family stuff - the ‘well we solved this conflict but let’s be honest it’s gonna last like a decade at most’ - reminds me, again, of iron-blooded orphans... but also turn a gundam, in a way i appreciate. turn a has that same vibe of ‘these evil capitalists are out of the picture, this conflict is resolved, but the ones who remain or who replace them? they are just building more mobile suits for the next time a war comes.’ it’s a happy ending for our heroes, but it’s not a resolution to the class war between earthians and spacians.

nika’s hair is sooo cute, yessss! she looks so good!

lilique has such a cute outfit in the future, nice!

guel... i get why you cut your hair but it’s been three years, man, hire a stylist. it’s not a good look on you my guy!

for how little time they got on screen, petra and felsi made me smile.

i think it needed more episodes to deal with some of the other conflicts - miorine and her father largely just make up by way of his near-death, for instance - and i could use a couple of one-off episodes with chuchu and her eight union dads or an ojela/nuno comedy hijinks episode. but i still really like it, overall.

[paxesoterica]

iahsfliabf;azfzsmf

Thoughts on Episode 11 of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury below, there are spoilers, please please please watch it before proceeding (unless of course you don’t care about spoilers, in which case carry on)

SKFGSLIEFSFL!

Why is this show SO amazing

Anyway, some actual coherent thoughts:

-Poor Suletta deals with feelings of rejection about as well as I expected, i.e. overworks herself and assumes she’s useless : (

-Delling and Prospera are no longer in the opening sequence and have been replaced with Sophie Pulone and Norea Du Noc, the titular Witches from Earth; since I’m assuming Prospera isn’t going to die yet, I’m guessing it’s not an omen of her and Delling dying, but Sophie and Norea becoming major antagonists (but who knows for sure at this point)

-So, Delling and Prospera are apparently working together on a project, and she just told him (and the audience) her real name for the first time, and also he knows she’s a witch (in the Gundam sense), and apparently Aerial can reach a permet score of 6 (which is 2 more than what’s previously been shown to kill pilots)...what even *is* Prospera’s plan at this point? Also kinda worried about the name ‘Quiet Zero’, that definitely sounds like something you’d name a superweapon : /

-Maybe *Shaddiq* is going to end up as the main antagonist, what with how he’s trying to kill Delling, Vim, AND Miorine, what a prick

-I’m thinking that theory that Suletta is a cyborg whose enhancements are all subdermal (like that one lady we saw back in the prologue) seems increasingly likely, due to Miorine’s remark about her stamina and the fact Suletta didn’t flinch at any of Miorine’s punches, until she hit the solar plexus (I remain very interested where Witch from Mercury is going with its transhumanism themes)

-...Y’ALL

-No, but seriously, Y’ALL: anybody who watches the scene with Miorine hugging Suletta and crying and telling her to say that she (Suletta) wants Miorine to rely on her and asking Suletta to never lose any duels and to stay by Miorine’s side forever, and can say with a straight face that Mio-Mio is NOT in love with this dork from Mercury should be awarded an Olympic gold medal for mental gymnastics (also, Miorine thinks the keychain isn’t cool at all, but of course she’s keeping it because Suletta gave it to her)

-And because we advanced, we gained two: Suletta and Miorine all but saying “I love you” AND a cliffhanger as Sophie and Norea attack Plant Quetta and threaten the now happier couple’s lives along with everyone else’s! Merry Gundmas I guess!

[hesitationss]

gundam: the witch from mercury cour 2 ep 2/ep 14, spoilers ahead!

okay okay i did make a post freaking out about this episode, but i'm a bit normal again. if you haven't watched the prequel episode, i highly recommend doing that! my personal watch order was watching gwitch ep 1 season 1 and then doing the prequel, it made for a really cool experience and gave me much to think about and OH BOY ep 2 has me THINKING HARD.

we get more of prospera's evil schemes... is it evil? she wants to end all war... by the end of the ep... YEAH it's fucking evil lol.

i am so glad that the earth students aren't just being tossed aside for the main plot, they are being included as a part of the stakes. nika's involvement with shaddiq's plans and them all having personalities, it's so nice to see! martin is becoming more and more upset with nika and nika we are seeing both a bit of nika's backstory as well as her personal wants and dreams beyond the mask that she has put up for everyone. her story about her being in extreme poverty and working on machines and being really happy about being able to go to school, if viewers haven't picked up on war is bad themes yet... this episode for sure solidifies so much. even still, she wanted to bare the burden of everything after realizing how bad everything was turning out to be. even still, she didn't want her fellow earthians getting involved and wants them and suletta to have a normal school life... but nika is just a kid too 😭🥺

also lol...elan is so annoying oh my god.. i know he is like desperate to live, but damn lol 😭

also just a side note but lilique is so cute!! she's very sweet and was just trying to share goat milk with space ppl, they did not have to be so disgusted with it!! also one thing i appreciate is that there are characters with a variety of bodies. lilique is a plus size teenage girl and she even had normal teen boy troubles in season 1 when things were more normal... <3

okay onto the rumble ring: um another side note but lauda having a moment with petra while that other girl is like HUH...dat cold hearted boy is capable of having feelings?

anyway,.. the emotional beats of the rumble ring happening with like all of the pilots personal goals and thoughts coming together on a "mock" battle field while belmeria confront prospera is so chef's kiss. like ugh so much is happening and then chuchu in her usual anger at the elite/spacians is about to blast them in her machine, but it thwarted by flashbacks from the plant quetta incident... i really think that plant quetta is such a major turning point for all of the earthians. they have had to suffer the most already, and now they realities of war are starting to sink in. i'm also just assuming that chuchu's rage is mostly from experiencing the prejudice and aftermath of war as well as wealth inequality and being raised by her 9 dads who are amputees or disabled in other ways from warfare, but she herself has never experienced it first hand until plant quetta. all these earth kids are being haunted by the consequences of imperial and capitalist violence and they are the ones who must endure the most. it's such a noteworthy moment for me in this episode, especially after sophie and norea make their appearance and nearly kill lauda. chu, even after everything knows the reality of war violence and moves to protect them because she doesn't want to see anymore people die.

but chu isn't the only one in the aftermath of war, that's all of the earthians, including sophie and norea... when sophie gives her mini monologue about the things she wants, the things she will kill for "meals big enough to fill my stomach, a fluffy bed to sleep on, warm showers, [...] and also.. a family who will always love me" despite the killing, you can't help but feel for them too, they also took on the "GUNDAM curse" to pilot killing machines to hopefully change their lives. and they fully believe in what they're doing because they have no other choice. the fate of the witches from earth is tragic because children fighting wars in machines that kill them is tragic.

new elan clone doesn't want to die, so he is also fighting for his life, nika has been kidnapped, suletta is starting to realize the weight of taking a life. sophie and norea... i shan't go on... there is so much happening and at the centre of it all is prospera and truth about eri samaya... "creating a world where eri will be happy" AAAHHHHHH

any way i'm going to become a villain now 🚬🐀😭 we're really in it for real now... earth students PLS survive!!

[makishinichi]

random thoughts after watching gwitch

im not a gundam fan so this is just a mild observation as a random watcher. im sure everyone and their mom has dissected the series from front to back, so everything i yap about here has probably been discussed already but anyway! there were a lot of themes that i found interesting...

the concept of "romantic" love. of course, it's a common theme where male characters only see romantic love as something to "conquer" and don't see the female love interests as true people with true feelings. there were many elements of that here too, but overall i felt that the male characters saw suretta and miorine as metaphors for their true desires, like. guel's romantic love for suretta was formed due to his desire to be accepted. eran's feelings for suretta was due to his desire to not be alone. and ultimately they did find what they were looking for, but not in suretta. by the end guel had to fight his little brother who had accepted the old him all along and was furious that his big brother had changed (even if it was for the better). eran's reincarnation found some form of companionship in norea and when it was cruelly taken away, he joined forces with suretta to make sure it doesn't happen anymore. these men didn't have to torment women to fulfill their desires. when suretta and miorine stood up for themselves, the men were forced to open their eyes and find what they were looking for elsewhere.

also the idea of a romantic love that caused the death of familial love (even if by accident) is so interesting to me! i was so intrigued. usually in situations like these, the character would choose romantic love over familial love. but what happens when, driven by romantic love, you end up destroying a bond you did not choose to destroy? it would be well and good if guel chose to kill his abusive father for suretta's sake. but that autonomy and choice wasnt given to him. i thought that was a very interesting plot point!

and in counterpoint suretta and miorine were actively making choices in defiance of their own true desires because of their "love" for each other, even if they didn't view it as "romantic". suretta chose to protect miorine even if it meant it might hamper her list, miorine chose not to escape to earth even when presented with an opportunity because of suretta.

speaking of which the full moment thing in the first season made me cheer so hard like when shadiq gave the instruction to carry out the assassination attempt i was like YES! a father must die to complete the circle started by the death of eri's father in episode 1! i love stuff like that it was so much fun.

the political elements... idk if they wanted me to root for the earthians but seeing the earthians manage to break into the strong defences of the super rich with outdated gear made me think well.. you want me to root for the "terrorists" right? and when it was revealed that the spaceians were making money off warmongering on earth i was like HMMM... you want me to root for shadiq right???!!!! lmao obviously they wanted to show how the cycle of violence will never end until someone comes up with a proper solution but idgaf i'm team earth! lol

and my favourite: suretta's desire to confront (and be with) her mother and sister. "even if no one understands your goal, i'll support it!" "i'm selfish and i want to be with you!" this theme is one that i love greatly and many of my favourite pieces of media always have this theme - the theme of forgiveness and love being an active choice somebody makes for themselves, rather than it being the "right thing to do" or "being the better / good person". they're under no obligation to forgive or love, but they chose it anyway, for their own sake and not for anyone else's. there is no moral superiority in choosing to love. its simply a choice that suretta made.

and i'm sure portraying the "terrorists" as darker skinned was a choice. i won't say it's good or bad. but it was a choice!

another thing was about how the characters started up with simple goals but in the end had to actively undo the sins of their family. it may seem unfair but characters like miorine and guel had benefited from the oppression of earthians, and so their simple dreams of wanting to stand on their own without their families telling them what to do could not exist until they stood up against the direct oppression caused by their families. its true, everything doesnt exist in a vacuum and even the simple desire of being independent unfortunately, in a political context, is running away from the sins of their family. and instead of being independent, they inherited their family's sins and actively tried to undo it.

some usual thoughts on the seiyu: i loved the cast. i wasnt very familiar with suretta, miorine and guel's vas but they impressed me a lot! it was nice to hear mamiko noto and makochan play roles that arent the type of roles i usually hear them in. also the episode where eran and norea were screaming at each other made me laugh cause those two vas are really good at screaming and crying so it was really nice to listen to lol

there's a lot more i thought about but i cant remember so that's all i'll write here lol. overall it was a very interesting series and made me think a lot in terms of thematic significance as opposed to the plot and characters. not sure if thats what they wanted to achieve but it was how i consumed it anyway!

[anonanimal]

gundam witch from mercury episodes 20, 21

norea ;_;

there's a special gundam from the past that's extra strong / hostile to the pilot????? everybody say it with me: TALLGEESE!!!!!!!!!

el5n just eavesdropping and choosing his moment to walk through the door...lmfao

i love pathetic old women yes belmeria yes!! grovel!!!!

look i know prospera just killed a looooot of people so this isn't looking likely but: what if the world she's going to make for eri is good? has anyone even asked her?

prospera: "look eri this is the beginning of the world i'm going to make for you!" *pointing at the debris of hundreds(?) of shredded mobile suits and their pilots*

HOW did prospera and delling build something this massive anyway? guess they had to do some creative accounting so nobody looked over the expense reports like "hey mr. president sir how come 80% of our money is going into something called '🤫'?" where'd they build it at? hid it behind a moon?

miorine is just hanging out at the benerit group front and getting traumatized by the news i guess. babygirl maybe you should let the space assembly league dissolve the group, what have they ever done that was good for anybody? you should hit the front's big red self destruct button and go find suletta. sigh.

so petra's alive, that's cool. have a feeling lauda will be in jail or dead if/when she wakes up since right now it looks like lauda has the genius idea to kill miorine and that's definitely not going to happen.

[7deadlycinderellas]

If the summer of our lives could just come again, ch22

Ao3 link

The Eyrie

Watching Robin trying to shoot a bow, Sansa is filled with a mix of annoyance and sympathy. She sees bits of Bran and Jojen in his jerky movements (though much less in his whiny voice). Though, she thinks, watching him slip his elbow and send the arrow soaring far too high, even Jojen’s a better shot than him.

“You’re dropping your elbow,” she says in an even voice from across the training yard. “Pretend you have a fence post under holding it up.”

The master-at-arms helping Robin ignores her words, before instructing him to do much the same as she said. His arm still wobbles.

Silently putting aside the hood she had been stitching rabbit fur lining into, Sansa quietly makes her way to the chambers her and Catelyn had been put up in and retrieves her bow. She returns to her spot and continues her sewing until the master-at-arms leaves, dismissing Robin.

Before the boy leaves, Sansa stands, nocks her arrow and looses it. She hits the target with ease.

Robin looks at her funny.

“How’d you do that?”

“Practice,” Sansa tells him, with an eyebrow raised.

“They don’t teach girls to shoot.”

Sansa bristles. Some people clearly do. All the things Arya used to complain about are becoming more and more understandable. She tries to guide Robin’s words in another direction.

“Like I said, all you need to do is practice and you’ll get better. You might not be great but you will get better. My younger brother has a bad leg and can’t stand up for long periods of time, but he loves to shoot from horseback. My sister shoots like she was born with a bow in her hand. All of our brother’s learned as well. I didn’t want to be left out.”

She looks at Robin askance. He’s paying attention, but barely. Sansa does not envy his future advisors.

“Do you ever feel left out, Robin?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you’re supposed to be Lord of the Vale someday. But do your mother ever ask for you to help her with petitions? Does she ever teach you anything about what you will be expected to do? Have you even left the Eyrie much?”

Her questions are pointed, and as she guessed, Robin’s face falters a little.

Sansa takes the opportunity to sling her bow over her arm, take the hood she was sewing and leave.

When she re-enters the keep proper, Catelyn is helping Lysa with her hair, and Lord Royce is going over paperwork for the arrangements so that the guests might be accomodated.

“May I be of any assistance?” she asks the older man.

He shakes his head,

“There’s no need my lady, you and your mother are guests. Where have you even been getting off to?”

“I insist,” she says, with a smile. He finally passes her the stack and she starts sorting through them.

She chatters a bit with Lord Royce, talking about her excitement for the wedding.

“I had to miss my own sister’s wedding, I’m glad to see this one. It’s been so hard, since Mother and Father…”

She trails off, deliberate, turning her head just enough to see Lord Royce take note of her words. She smiles, changing the subject.

“Are all of the houses of the Vale going to be present?”

Lord Royce nods, and Sansa notes he looks a bit put upon.

“They’ve been chomping at the bit for Lady Arryn to remarry for years. She hasn’t done well by herself.”

“I noticed, she doesn’t seem happy at all. Do you think she is? She must love her son at least, she keeps him so close.”

Just as expected, she sees Lord Royce wince.

She hears much the same when she goes amongst the other lords and ladies of the Vale as she assists in greeting their arrival at the Eyrie. They speak of eagerness to see Lysa remarried. There are other things they speak of too. Distrust of Petyr Baelish among them.

“They all speak of his low birth,” she tells Catelyn quietly, as they return to their chambers to dress. The wedding is in the evening, and it’s barely midday. Lady pads behind the two of them as they walk and talk quietly.

Catelyn sighs.

“I understand, and I’ve come to hate myself for it. They seem him as seeking power, as obtaining his position through deceit and under-handedness.”

They’re right, Sansa thinks. And in her mother’s face, she again sees the shadow. The shadow of these things that she would have assumed of her own goodson.

“Do you think you can do as I asked?”

Catelyn nods, her face faltering, if only a little. Sansa reaches out and squeezes her mother’s hand.

“It’s not lying, none of it. Not really.”

Sansa is dressed in her finest gown, green edged in gold, Catelyn in a similar one, though more subdued.

When they enter the hallway off the side of the High Hall, Lysa is already in her dress and cloak. Sansa can spy Littlefinger off on the other side, finishing his last preparations. And in the middle, Sansa notes, the Moon Door.

Why in the world did that thing even exist? Sansa wondered. Was hanging not enough?

Sansa smiles widely when she approaches her aunt Lysa.

“You look beautiful,” she tells her, reaching out to touch the edges of her cloak. What even to call it? She wonders, it’s not a maiden’s cloak. Westeros could really use better traditions for second marriages.

Lysa nods, and so Sansa prattles on.

“You must be so excited, I can only imagine, and you’re marrying a man you’ve known nearly your whole life.”

There’s a flicker in Lysa’s eye, a flicker Sansa feels herself quake when she recognizes the spark. She saw it just the instance before Lysa had grabbed her before, and squeezed far too hard. Good, she knows that spark.

In the corner of her eye, she sees Catelyn leading Littlefinger over by the arm. She sees Lysa see the two of them.

“Mother spoke so often of the three of you being close as children. It must be so good to not have to be alone after your husband’s untimely death.”

Lysa’s eye begins to twitch. She grabs Sansa’s arm a bit roughly, but she can take it.

“Come niece,” she says stiffly, on edge, “Let us join the ceremony.”

Sansa stands and she sees as Catelyn tilts her head up to kiss Littlefinger on the cheek. She watches, seemingly in slow motion, as Lysa’s face contorts, she watches as she rushes forward, grabbing at her sister violently. She watches her mother’s face twists with shock. She watches as Littlefinger’s eyes go wide and he tries to separate them. She hears shouting, from all three of them.

They are too close to the moon door, Sansa thinks. Far too close. It’s not open yet, but she suspects it will be.

She sits on the ground, Lady at her feet, and waits.

 Over the Wall

Bran had scrawled more on the back of the note. Jon reads it to himself when they’re back in the cave and supposed to be sleeping.

It should hurt, he thinks, learning that his brothers in black had decided he was dead. But, he reasoned, it had been years. It had been three to four times longer than he’d spent with the Night’s Watch at all since he’d disappeared.

And it made what was coming easier to take, what he knew was coming as soon has he took the note from the raven’s leg and read its contents.

The bird had followed him and Ygritte into the cave. Jon had never seen a bird act like that before, it had hopped from one spot to another, as if in awe of its surroundings. Then all of a sudden, something had disappeared from its eyes and it panicked for a moment until Jon found a stick and shooed it out of the cave.

This was what he was thinking about when he went to sleep and had his dream.

In the morning, when he shows both to Rowan and she nods quietly, and tells everyone they have to leave.

“Do you think it was prophetic?”

Rowan’s nod is gentler than her last ones, and more unsure.

“I’m not sure if that’s the right word. Most humans who speak of green dreams speak of dreaming in symbols. Yours was very straight forward right?””

Jon nods, the images from his dream playing before his eyes, even as they begin to fade as dreams did.

“Perhaps…”

“What?”

“Perhaps you understand these dreams more fully because you already speak the language.”

“Speak-” Jon is nearly speechless, “Rowan, are you saying you think green dreams are the weirwoods trying to speak to humans?”’

“It makes sense, too much,” she replies, “Especially knowing of the physical toll green sight takes upon the humans who have it. They are burdened with images that they don’t understand and have no ability to. Their minds are grappling with something they cannot reason and so the body revolts.”

Jon keeps his mouth shut. Nothing she says matters once they all begin to pack up and begin the journey south.

Traveling through the tunnels under the earth is not exactly straightforward, but as they are free of obstacles, it is much safer and faster. They emerge at cave openings to set a fire and sleep, but can’t go all the way through without losing the protection of the wards at the far northern end.

Even with Gilly and her sister’s maps, Jon’s never sure exactly where they are. After a little over a month’s travel, one of the caves opens up into a much larger space than the others have, revealing an enormous underground hot spring.

The other women squeal at the warmth and the chance to bathe properly, instead of out of a kettle. Jon sits quietly in one of the side pathways, allowing them some privacy.

He gets a look as they all file in. It’s strange, Gilly aside, he’s almost come to think of them as a collective. He files off their names. Jyna, Nella, Ryta, Norea, Gilly (carrying Sam), Henneh. He sticks outside to give them privacy, wondering if there’s anyway for them to wash off what’s happened to them. They all seem to be happy with it, at least.

After a bit, Ygritte joins him. She sits and he throws an arm around her idly.

“I know where we are now.”

“How?”

She turns her head to look at one of the smaller paths off another side of the spring.

“We’re along the Milkwater just south of the Frostfangs. This is where we took you to meet with Mance Ryder before. “

Jon frowns,

“This place doesn’t look large enough for a big group of people to shelter.”

Ygritte shook her head.

“I took you out here to try and tempt you away from your crow vows.”

Jon raises an eyebrow, his hand playing errantly with the ends of her hair.

“And how did you do that?”

Her smile turns mischievous instead of melancholy, if just for a moment.

“Stripped naked and went ‘want some?’”

Jon snorts loudly.

“Guessing I did?”

“Well you didn’t really say yes or no, you just sunk to your knees and stuck your face between my legs…”

He laughs, and kisses the side of her face, with intent. He still doesn’t care for recollections of his previous life, and he hates the look on her face still.

“That was the last thing I remember before I died,” she admits, “That I wish we had just stayed here.”

They can’t stay. They both know that. The dead are coming and the fate of everyone and everything. But once the others are finished, the two of them strip down and slide into the water to try and wash off some of their burdens.

Once they are a bit sleepy and wrinkled from the heat, Ygritte pulls herself onto the edge of the spring to sit. And with an idle thought, Jon swims to her, gently pushes her knees apart, and buries his tongue inside her. She wraps her fingers in his curls and pulls them, with rather less force than her someone hearing her moans would probably think.

He’ll call it recreating a good memory.

After they dry off, redress, and rejoin the others, Jon asks her.

“How far are we from the wall?”

Ygritte chews her lip.

“On the ground, I’d say a moon’s turn. Down here? No mountains to cross, no snow, no bears, but not exactly a straight line of a journey either. Maybe a week less than that I’d say.”

The closer they get to the wall, the narrower the passages become. Much of the rock turns into tightly packed earth, and they can only go through one at a time.

Jon asks Rowan,

“How are we supposed to get over the wall once we reach it? The tunnels will be sealed and guarded at all the castles.”

Ygritte had told him many times of when the wildlings had climbed the wall  before. How one off placement of her pick had caused a crack that nearly killed them both. He hadn’t been looking forward to it, but more than that, he knew it was impossible. He could have probably carried Sam on his back, but there is no way to get all of Craster’s girls over, even one at a time.

Rowan shakes her head.

“We aren’t going over, we’re going under.”

Even in the extremely low light, Jon can see Ygritte’s face twist.

“Fuck me,” she mutters under her breath. When Jon looks at her quizzically, she replies.

“Story goes that three thousand years ago, brothers Gendel and Gorne discovered a huge network of caves that caverns that led one into another. They even found a passageway under the Wall and tried to use it to invade the North. They failed, and that path has been lost since.”

Jon’s face pinches,

“I guess we’re lucky Mance and the others never found it.”

“They wouldn’t have,” Rowan interjects. “These caverns were why I came south in the first place. I had to dig many free of earth, a few had even collapsed completely. But the way should be clear for us now.”

Jon’s sick of the torch-lit darkness. He’s sick of the damp air.

And so, when Rowan finally beckons them to the end of the largest cave opening they’ve seen in days, he squeezes Ygritte’s hand, and they guide the others out into the light.

And Jon takes the first breath of northern air he has breathed in years.

 Winterfell

The morning comes that Robb and Ned must leave for the Dreadfort. They are both reluctant, as Sansa and Catelyn have according to raven, just docked in Gullstown.

Bran claps one hand on his father’s shoulder. Standing straight, he’s up to his brow.

“It’s not for too long, and we still have three Starks in Winterfell. “

Most of the others leave for breakfast, but Gendry lingers behind.

“Wanted to say thanks again, to the both of you.”

He shakes both of their hands, and for the first time, looks them square in the eye as he does so.

He’s the last one to breakfast, and when he gets there, it’s just the small group around a pot of porridge. Rickon’s feet swing, unawares, while Meera and Arya whisper quietly. Bran’s head is resting to one side on the wood of the table.

“Is he…” Gendry asks, trailing off. They’ve all been paying close attention to what Bran tells them when he wargs, since the day when they’d woken up to the news that Jon was alive and unharmed, though they were not as shocked by the knowledge that one of the children of the forest had survived as Bran and Meera were.

“No,” Meera replies, not even looking up, “He’s sleeping. We were up late again last night.”

Gendry raises an eyebrow in her direction and Meera rolls her eyes. Jojen told Bran the truth all those years ago, that it wasn’t safe to warg alone, especially not for as many hours as he had been doing it. And if the best way to bring him back to earth afterwards involved her getting to discover the noise he made when she sucked on his earlobe, well, call it a bonus. Her next words are quiet though.

“There are big groups of others gathering far north towards the Lands of Always Winter,” Septima had flown past several, all heading in one direction.

“At least they aren’t coming south yet,” Arya adds grimly, though she is as apprehensive as the rest.

Gendry spares a glance down the empty table. Rickon had managed to already disappear without a word.

“Where’s everyone else got off to?”

“Rickon ate two bites and ran straight off,” Arya tells him. She doesn’t let on how much she worries about her youngest brother, tall now, but still without even the traces of a beard. How she sees the wildness in his movements and fears he may slip away. He’s the best archer they’ve got after her and Meera.

“And Theon left without eating.”

Gendry snorts at that. No doubt off trying to flirt with some of the Free Folk women. He’s having both more and less luck with them then with the other women from the north. More willing, without worries of their virtue, but also less likely to be impressed by him and his stories of being Ironborn. Gendry wonders if perhaps he just likes the challenge.

“And Jojen and Shireen left for the library already.”

That was expected, they did that pretty much every day. Shireen admitted that books aside, she is still unused to the cold of the North.

Right now, despite her cloak and the walls, she is still shivering under her cloak.

“Does it get this cold where you’re from?”

Jojen shrugs over the lip of his book.

“I don’t remember the last winter, I was too young. I know it gets cold enough that most of the bogs freeze over, but it’s pretty hot in summer, and I don’t think it ever gets hot here.”

He goes quiet again, and Shireen pouts a bit. She likes talking to him, but he’s so quiet most of the time it seems like she has to drag the words out of him. Or maybe he’s just comfortable being silent a lot of the time. She spares a glance at the book he’s going through.

“You’re reading about diseases and healing?” she asks, with a grimace.

“Lots of things about caring for wounds in here,” Jojen replies, “That could end up being really important.”

He’s quiet for a long moment.

“And it’s sobering to realize how likely that I probably would have died if I hadn’t been born the son of a lord, even if a minor one. There’s nothing in here that could change me, but I could have drowned or fallen from a horse, just because I would have been left alone all the time.”

Not even withstanding that others might not have even understood his visions. Might have thought he was possessed by something.

Shireen’s silent. She hates how much she understands. She’s heard all the stories about what happens to most people with greyscale. Disfigurement sounding so minor in comparison to potential blindness, loss of appendages and madness before death.

“When I got sick,” she says, slowly. It feels like a secret, even though it isn’t. “My father sent for any maester who thought he might be able to help. I don’t even know if it became known that they stopped the disease. Feels like the sort of thing that should be spread through all of the known world.”

She would have died, she comes to the dim realization. Had she been the daughter of a sailor or a crofter, or even a merchant. Maesters were under no compulsion to treat any but those in castles. Those who paid them.

She opens her mouth to say something else, when Jojen suddenly goes stiff and falls from his chair.

Shireen knows she would normally be frightened, but she isn’t. Jojen had said he had fits when the visions came to him. She very calmly moves his chair and the stacks of books on the floor so that he doesn’t hurt himself.

After only a minute or so, his jerking movements still. Shireen recalls Leeman, one of her uncle’s men. He had had a shaking fit after being ordered to stop drinking so much, and she’d seen how the maester laid him on the ground after. She remembers him doing much the same with men who had drank so much they passed out.

When Jojen still, Shireen rolls him onto his left side, leg and arm bent, and one hand under his chin. She worries for a moment before he sputters and takes a deep breath.

“Are you hurt?” she asks, and starts to say something else when he reaches out and grabs her by the arm, frightening her more than the fit had.

“Get the others,” he tells her in a voice far deeper than his normal one.

“What did you see?”

He squeezes his arm tightly, and the look in his eye makes her words catch in her throat. She stands and instead of leaving, she pulls him up, throwing one of his arms over her shoulder to bear his weight, and half pulls his towards the library door.

[austingossip-blog]

we know your otps, but who are your brotps?

this is an excellent question since we all know that brotps are the better otp’s anyway, don’t we?? okay so let’s start out with maisutton (yes, i’m gonna do this with shipnames!! ) who are just so darn cute. love em. norea they’re my otp but they’re my brotp too?? just love them in every way and if they don’t wanna admit their deeply romantic feelings for each other we at least still have them as friends, right?? also i like daycee, which is supposed to be jaycee and dahlia.  hannah and her dog should definitely be mentioned here too. I think it’s named darcy? So harcy or dannah? 

[anonanimal]

more witch from mercury thoughts post ep 18

what if all the stuff people have projected onto suletta comes true: if she's really an enhanced person, if she's really an orphan, if she's the thing sophie felt in the data storm. all this could become true depending on how the plot goes, e.g. if prospera dies, well, she'll be an orphan then

i concur with what others have said that it makes sense for them to explore having multiple pilots in one mobile suit as a way to dilute the physical load of piloting, pacrim style

this redditor is right...words i hate to say... if the show is leading us toward the conclusion that delling rembran is a good guy somehow i'm going to kill. jk there's no way we're getting "delling actually good guy" reveal because even the best possible version of delling is still a man who was president of a huge quasi-governmental coalition of weapons manufacturers that have been actively, directly engaged with destroying the earth and oppressing its inhabitants. also on the personal level there's the whole dueling game arranged marriage thing. delling redemption arc maybe. he and guel can start a redeemed character support group

ep 18 was more suletta suffering + setup and oooooh my god this trip to earth is going to go so bad. the way prospera said "take aerial?" not even trying to pretend she doesn't want miorine to take aerial. it's gonna be so bad. no miorine you can't show up to this conflict that's older than you and just ask everyone to get along without bringing something material to the table. miorine has been shown to be smarter than expected so maybe she's actually winning at 5d chess against prospera but let's be honest. i doubt it. she's still just a kid. the very position she's in right now, she was manipulated into. prospera scheming with shaddiq who wants to be president of the group + this trip is going to be sabotaged to tank miorine's chances. but that's not the only motivation, polling or early voting or whatever those numbers were showed shaddiq was going to win anyway. he doesn't need to ruin this just to win, he needs to inflame the earth-space conflict as part of his overall plan which is apparently to destroy the benerit group. not sure how this peace talk turning into a bloodbath will help prospera with quiet zero but i'm sure we'll find out

i really thought whatever was left of eri's consciousness loved suletta, this ep raises so many questions. was she also doing a shoo the dog to suletta or...what? WHAT IS GOING ON. the way prospera asked eri for her opinion on what to do with suletta was s c a r y don't tell me eri is calling some or all of the shots. or is prospera manipulating her by letting her think she has a say

secelia being behind the haro confessional pffffffft utena black rose arc anyone?

oh and el5n just telling nika and norea everything lmfaooo i'm so looking forward to whatever the house arrest three do next

i'm gonna revise my idea that eri died soon after the vanadis incident and say based on her appearing a bit older than four in some instances like the opening or ending (can't remember which), and most tellingly the flashback where prospera is slumped over comatose eri while apparently-suletta is in a bassinet, she'd lived for a few years after. and there was a brief time suletta was alive while eri was. which means prospera started the cloning shit before eri had even died. so it wasn't just prospera going crazy with grief trying to bring her back, but maybe anticipating her death and getting started on some kind of replacement body / key to raise the mobile suit's permet score. since it's confirmed all the gund-bits are clones, and there was not enough time for prospera to give birth to 13 children, prospera had access to sufficiently advanced cloning tech to grow them in fishtanks or whatever. it's possible suletta wasn't a clone and prospera artificially inseminated herself with nadim's frozen sperm...somehow...but come on. eri did say "you're all repli-humans" with no buts

prospera got help with the cloning from notrette right...suletta a clone just like those tomatoes...miorine's dead mother continues to haunt the narrative

oh god suletta please don't take "you were a key and we don't need you anymore now that the door is open" to heart and decide to find a way to...close the door

miorine's so good at keeping her business face on i almost forgot delling is still in a coma. mio do not make this ill-advised trip to earth, go sit by delling's side and cry or something. please. anything but what's about to happen

[anonanimal]

witch from mercury thoughts ep 13 & 14

new opening and ending are so good. new opening wasn't very gay but the ending has the kiss fake-out and the very deliberate hand-holding. the way they slowly curl their fingers at the same time is interesting hmmm

delling in a coma...miorine held for questioning...miorine alone with prospera... i don't like that shit at all STAY AWAY FROM HER

suletta trying to comfort lilique by saying she and aerial will protect her, and her trying to give nika the "advice" of move forward, gain two were creepy as fuck, suletta baby i need you to get a grip

i think suletta challenged them to a duel because she thinks that's how things work, because she's that naive, and it's lucky for her and nika that that was exactly the right thing to say to sophie

norea and el5n's eyes being the exact same light green color, and that little comment he made about her eyes reminding him of someone else (el4n i assumed) makes me wonder.....

the way sophie recited miorine's info, seems like it was something she'd memorized for the mission

aERIal REAL!!!!!! and even though it was implied from the start, prospera revealing it was still pretty horrible. illustrated by belmeria trying not to throw up. sophie's death was horrible. everything is so horrible oh god. so. i guess sophie calling suletta big sister wasn't totally wrong, just that suletta's actually the little sister

so earth just has a surplus of orphans to do whatever with, huh. slaves, terrorists, surgically altered spies, you name it

i'm sure what shaddiq has told norea and sophie their mission is and what shaddiq is actually trying to accomplish are not the same. he wanted them to show up at the school partly to keep suspicion off of him and make all this look like terrorist attacks totally not orchestrated by spacians

these children taking over their parents' companies...lauda and miorine > the roy children. since they're minor children i expect there to be real adults running the show even if they're nominally ceos by weird space company law, would love to see this. i mean we know children really can have companies in their own names, albeit with adult help, probably more than they realized (gund-arm inc), because for the elites everything is a game, but even so, surely companies like those in the benerit group are too important to let children do ceo things

soo extremely fucked and chilling, the shot of benerit group ships heading to earth to start their war on terror

i need the earth house kids to get out of this alive please sunrise please i'll never ask for anything again. martin turned nika in right? that's why he was standing with his back against the wall clutching his phone? they would have shown up anyway to question everyone in earth house but the way they ask for nika...martin turned her in. and he doesn't know the details of everything so i'm sure he thinks the destruction caused by sophie and norea could have been prevented if he'd turned nika in before. poor martin :(

people repeatedly projecting onto suletta and being disappointed is so sad. 3lan thinks she might be an enhanced human like him, nika thinks she might be an orphan like her, sophie thinks suletta is the thrill she's been looking for. does miorine ever project her desires onto suletta? i think there have been times she wants to but she's too cynical and suspicious to let that part of her win. basically mirroring anthy and utena

i love/hate this classic gundam plot of "protagonists fighting for their lives on the wrong side of history" always a bad time

^love that this person made this connection with suletta calling her mother a magician

since aERIal is confirmed we have to start speculating again about where suletta came from. i'm betting cloned from ericht. i'm supposing right now that ericht died from effects of interfacing with the gundam very soon after the incident. so if the incident was 21 years ago, and suletta is 17, it took about four years for the successful ericht clone to be "born." can you imagine doing science experiments on the remains of your young child for four years. no wonder elnora is so fucked up