#derma altland

[wordsandrobots]

Vengeance.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans | Ep42 'Settlement'

[meikyuunolovers]

I like the way Derma's face slightly moves during this scene at the moment where Mikazuki starts speaking.

[stillness-in-green]

Human Debris Masterpost (15/16)

And but so, we reach the end.  Very annoyingly, tumblr is doing that thing again where it won’t take this full post, so regrettably, I’ve had to break this up again.  I really thought I was going to get away with the whole thing, too.  Apologies to all for the double post; it will be up shortly.  

EPISODE FORTY-NINE—McGillis Fareed

Poor Eugene looks so happy when that transmission comes from the other end of the tunnel.  Chad and Ride are still a complete mess, however.  

Ride’s inside the little shack that gives access to the maintenance tunnels; Chad’s still in the car. In the driver’s seat, no less, mere hours after having been shot in the shoulder.  I assume this means either a) Ride doesn’t know how to drive a car or b) Ride was too much of a wreck to drive a car.  Atra sure knows how to drive a car, though; I wonder if she, too, was too distraught to try and drive, or Chad had to convince her to stay put at Kudelia’s?  Either way, now that he’s alone, he’s clutching a wound he’s surely exacerbated in getting himself and Ride here.  

Back at HQ, word makes its way around quickly.

Dante has probably been in the tunnels himself, rather than coming in when he heard the commotion. His head for hacking means he’s of more use down there with the cables than out on patrols to watch the unmoving Gjallarhorn lines.  

Akihiro is with Derma in the barracks, probably visiting with him where he’s been resting.  

After the credits, we join the rapidly-diminishing number of named first-season cast members in Orga’s office.  It occurs to me just now that, with Shino dead, Dante is now the leader of his unit, which is probably the in-universe reason he’s been at the last few group meetings with the others.  He is, in any case, being the most loud in his grief, pounding the wall and raising his voice about how it was their moment of truth, and Orga can’t just die like that.

Akihiro tells him to knock it off.  

As Eugene tells them (and probably himself) that Orga secured their way out, and therefore did his job as Boss, Dante returns to glaring at the wall with a tight grunt of pain. Akihiro, having just filled in the last square on his Bingo card of interpersonal loss, says that it’s their turn now.  

The adults in the room bring up a problem—that though the escape tunnel should be ready on time if they keep working, there’s now a morale issue.  Some members no longer want to escape, but would rather go down fighting, as revenge.  Eugene protests, using some very admirable adult logic to point out that they don’t even know if Gjallarhorn is responsible for Orga’s death.  

Dante is looking like he’s maybe in the go-down-fighting camp, and Akihiro says, evenly, that he understands that group’s feelings.  Eugene reminds him that he was there for Orga’s last words (well, his last orders, anyway; I think the audience were the only ones who got his last ‘words’), to which Akihiro responds with a flash of rage, teeth gritted, eyes sharp.  

Hush comes in and gets Akihiro’s death glare turned on him, which actually freezes him in place like a small prey animal staring at a predator.  

This goes on long enough that Eugene has to prompt him for what he wants, which is that Mikazuki wants to talk to everyone—a series-first!

They troop out along with everyone else, into the hazy dim light of the oncoming dawn.  

Derma has joined as well, like the trooper he is, in here with the first-season kids, who’ve been hanging tough since the very beginning.  He’s never shown hanging out with these guys other than here, but I wonder if he bunks with them or something?  

Akihiro watches Mikazuki with narrowed eyes.  I can’t imagine anyone—even Akihiro, who was probably the one closest to Mikazuki outside of Orga and the girls—has any idea where Mika’s headed with this dialogue. It’s really the closest Mikazuki ever gets to being a main character in the sense of getting up and making an active choice to lead others, rather than just be followed.  I wonder if McGillis would be surprised to see he’s capable of it?

Leading or not, his eyes are intense.  Dante swallows at the sight of them, showing that his danger sense is in fine working order. Mikazuki, it turns out, is not here to deliver a big rousing speech; he’s here to threaten everyone who’s talking like they might forget what Orga’s last order was—to live.  Seeing as he’s standing on top of Barbatos while he lays down the law here, it’s pretty terrifying, regardless of the triumph the soundtrack and the breaking dawn are trying to sell us.  

As we get into daytime proper, Eugene narrates the plan: Mika, Hush, Akihiro, and Dante will be leading the team to hold off Gjallarhorn until the guys in the tunnel can make it through to the Chryse side.  Akihiro is watching Gusion, being watched by Barbatos in the background.  

Akihiro is probably already aware that he is very likely to die today.  Perhaps he’s thinking of Masahiro, and the others.  

Dante, meanwhile, is looking at something on a data slate with Yamagi—troop distributions, perhaps, or tunnel progress.  It’s a nice echo of the similar shot they had back at the beginning of the season preparing for Dawn Horizon, if a bit depressing--none of the other people who were in that shot can be here now, after all.

Well, one of them could be!  

Derma, god, you death-seeking cruise missile, get out of here.

Akihiro, who probably knows every thought going through this kid’s head, tells him he isn’t coming along with them, giving Derma a shock with his brusque tone.

He follows this up by saying that he and Derma aren’t just Human Debris who can die anywhere now—Derma still has a job to do, and it lies ahead.  

I feel like this is the youngest we ever see Akihiro look, and it’s wonderful and painful.  He’s saying a goodbye here, and he must know it. “Lets both follow the Boss’s orders.”

Derma knows it too, I think, from his flinch of pain and bowed head.

Meanwhile, Eugene is telling the kids that he and they will be backing up the main four in Shidens. Two of them agree, attentive and dutiful; the other two are whispering about whether or not Eugene can even pilot a mobile suit, and how many people they’ve seen or heard about him being beaten by.  Chad ‘crushed’ him, apparently.  Guys, Eugene is trying to Have A Wistful Moment, here, geez.  

More than chit-chat is here to ruin the moment, though, as Gjallarhorn finally opens the attack. 

Dante goes out side-by-side with Akihiro, for the first time in the show, I rather think.  

They’re going to be ground to bits out here, against so many opponents, Dante says, still looking pretty grimly pleased about the prospect—he gets to be on Team Go Down Fighting, after all.  

True, says Akihiro, but lets at least get ground down as slowly as possible!

Then there’s a pile of drama with McGillis and Gaelio, and it is some of the best stuff in the series, about which I will have much to say another time.  

When we finally get back to our boys, it’s an episode-ending montage sequence, in which we get a few more quick shots of Dante and Akihiro, hard at work going through the meat grinder as slowly as they can possibly manage.  

And that’s a wrap on this one.  Next, and last, the finale.  

[shuubaehisagi]

wtf is a ryusei unit

[kimarisgundam]

I felt like drawing the four of them together. 

This sketch is based on this screenshot:

Derma looks so cute. Background Derma is the cutest Derma.

[wordsandrobots]

Somebody helpfully put up a hi-res version of the Iron-Blooded Orphans Special Edition OP on YouTube and that means I can finally screen-grab decent captures of one of the funniest sequences in it.

(The fact Akhiro can punch *Dane* off his feet is pretty terrifying, but hardly unexpected.)

[wordsandrobots]

Iron-Blooded Orphans fic section breaks - part 4(ish)

So, funny story. I actually only introduced one new character section break in the fourth arc of Wishing on Space Hardware (392,000 words and counting, cor blimey). Most of the action in Schemes and daydreams is from the point of view of characters I already included previously and the bits that aren’t don’t qualify for section breaks of their own. But, thankfully, I did go to the trouble of editing the first fic in the whole series, A Handful of Rusted Petals, to include some additional breaks that I’m going to need for the final arc. Given that the fic I’m currently writing will involve roughly a bazillion characters’ POVs, I thought I’d split the difference and post some of those retroactive section breaks here, so that Argi doesn’t get lonely. Roll tape!

««««««««««««⟸ ☆ ☿ ☆ ☿ ☆ ☿ ☆ ⟹»»»»»»»»»»»»

“Crap.” Argi stows his rifle and draws his knives in Astaroth's right hands. A ludicrous prayer flashes across his mind: please can I get through this without murdering my sister's girlfriend? Ludicrous because if anyone around here is in danger of dying, it sure as hell isn't Deira.

- Argi Mirage

««««««««««««⟸ ✎ ⌘ ✎ ⌘ ✎ ⌘ ✎ ⟹»»»»»»»»»»»»

There are ways they earned the right to make the decisions they did, ways too in which they acknowledge the consequences far more thoroughly than she is able to. As ever, their brittle strength scares her because she does not know if she hates it or admires it.

- Merribit Stapleton

««««««««««««⟸ ⚙ ☖ ⚙ ☖ ⚙ ☖ ⚙ ⟹»»»»»»»»»»»»

Dane kept his boots and his gloves. Nothing sentimental, it's just hard to get things in his size.

- Dane Uhai

««««««««««««⟸ ⚜ ♢ ⚜ ♢ ⚜ ♢ ⚜ ⟹»»»»»»»»»»»»

“I am a human being,” Derma tells the ceiling, saying it aloud like Dante suggested he do whenever his mind defaulted back to thinking of himself as 'just human debris.' He sighs. It feels stupid and he's not sure it really makes a difference. Though he'd feel bad if Dante knew that.

- Derma Altland

[Part 1, Part 2, Part 3]

[wordsandrobots]

The Ragnarök in G Minor playlist

So! Now Ragnarök in G Minor (part 19 of 20 in my Iron-Blooded Orphans post-canon fanfic series Wishing on Space Hardware) is finally posted in full, I thought I'd share the full list of songs quoted at the end of each chapter. Mainly because I used a draft of this post as a way to keep track of all the YouTube links I needed and, well, it'd be a shame to let it go to waste.

This will contain some spoilers for WoSH overall, since where applicable, I'm naming the characters the songs relate to (along with the chapter titles, which are attempts to sum those characters up in a single word). Thus, a cut, to save anyone who wants to dive into the fics unspoilered (I am completing the series with fic #20 in a week's time, so now is an excellent time to do precisely that, if you're up for joining me for 650,000 words of complicated feelings about one of the best shows I've ever had the pleasure of watching).

Wish (prologue) -- A New England by Kirsty MacColl

Loser/Eugene Sevenstark -- Some Kind of Hero by Felix Hagan and the Family

Oddball/Yamagi Gilmerton -- Parallax by Thea Gilmore/Afterlight

Minister/Takaki Uno -- Your Bones by Of Monsters and Men

Sword/Julieta Juris -- Apparition #13 by Thea Gilmore

Corrupt/Earth (interlude) -- Everybody Knows by Leonard Cohen

Stray/Argi Mirage -- Ain't No Rest for the Wicked by Cage the Elephant

Smith/Almandi Iverson (OC) -- Fight for Me by AlicebanD

Maiden/Kudelia Aina Bernstein -- Silver Lining by First Aid Kit

Devil/Kipchoge Ordsley (OC) + Mikazuki Augus -- Wolf Like Me by TV On The Radio

Reconcile/Dort Colonies (interlude) -- Something For The Pain by She Drew The Gun

Noble/Gaelio Bauduin -- The Road You Didn't Take by Stornaway

Terror/Embi -- Appetite for Destruction by Vo Williams

Survivor/Norba Shino -- Rattle and Roar by Skinny Lister

Fighter/Ride Mass -- Skin and Bones by Cage the Elephant

Ally/Teiwaz (interlude) -- The Game by The Levellers

Echo/Ahmed Fahim (OC) -- Rage of Dust by SPYAIR

Remainder/Azee Gurumin -- Try by Pink

Tool/Mackenzie Croft (OC) -- Fire With Fire by AlicebanD

Friend/Chad Chaden -- I'm OK by Honest Men

Grow/Mars (interlude) -- Injuries by Skinny Lister

Mouse/Atra Mixta-Bernstein -- Gold by The Wandering Hearts

Academic/Sri Chaifin (OC) -- Mile Magnificent by molly ofgeography

Fury/Almiria Bauduin -- Fall Together by Thea Gilmore

Human/Derma Altland -- Weeds or Wildflowers by Parsonsfield

Remember (epilogue) -- Embers by Skinny Lister

Vow (epilogue) -- Get Better by Frank Turner

Commit (epilogue) -- Modern Way by The Kaiser Chiefs

Run (epilogue) -- A Good Song Never Dies by Saint Motel

Move (epilogue) -- Battlegrounds by Coco and the Butterfields

[wordsandrobots]

Wishing on Space Hardware update . . . I never actually started counting these, did I? Oh well, never mind. An Update, of indeterminate numeration.

I just finished posting Fic #18 over on Ao3, which completes the set up for the grand finale. Mwhaha. This brings the total word count to over 476,000 words. *expires on the spot* *revives immediately because it’s still not done!*

I had originally planned not to post the final arc until I had everything ready but honestly, all my plans around timing are vague suggestions at best and have consistently gone out of the window. C'est la vie.

I’m working steadily on Fic #19, the extremely reassuringly named ‘Ragnarök in G Minor‘, currently on chapter 7 of 20 (on top of which there will be a total of 10 prologues, interludes and epilogues). Overall, I think I’ve got about a third of the writing done, and the planning/plotting for the rest is unfolding nicely, so I’m feeling good about progress -- even if I can’t actually say when it’ll be done yet.

For those wondering about the title beyond the gag about invoking another Gundam series, I direct you to this harpsichord version of Bach’s Polonaise in G Minor, with reference to music used for Gjallarhorn in IBO and the character who has been the main instigator of chaos thus far. Also Mozart associated G minor with, to quote Wiki, “sadness and tragedy”. So. Yup.

Anyhoo, I thought since it will be a fair while before I get to posting, I would share some technical details one what I’m doing with #19 AKA here is the hole I am digging for myself.

I decided to structure this story so each chapter is told from a different character’s point of view. That is, each chapter focuses on a single character and that is the sole use of their POV in the narrative (excluding the epilogues where I’m going to mix and match). This is the technical maximisation of the strict single-POV-per-section style I’ve been using throughout the series, which is hard mode in terms of landing emotional beats but does force me to make each chapter the culmination of a particular character’s development. Not necessarily the end-point of their stories, you understand, but the point at which I can say, this is definitively what the character is like under my pen.

I think I’ve worked out an order that will let me tell the story I want using this method. It involves a a lot of jumping around temporally, the narrative looping back to tell earlier events from other perspectives, but that does means I can do some quite excellent chapter cliffhangers too (yes, a man with a gun IS going to spring through a door at a dramatic moment, because sometimes you really do just have to Chandler yourself out of a situation).

And it means I can do cute flourishes like entitling each chapter using a single word I associate with a character, and ending them on a quote from an appropriate song. Which admittedly does double my workload somewhat. I’ve managed to sort out the words but I still need to find songs for some people.

For your (hopeful) amusement, I’ll list out the chapter titles and then the characters with their associated songs under this spoiler-preventing cut. Have a go at guessing which go together, if you like. Some are pretty obvious, others probably less so. Regardless -- thank you for reading if you have been!

It’s great to have had so many of you along for the ride.

Chapter titles (not in the order they will appear):

Academic; Devil; Echo; Fighter; Friend; Fury; Human; Loser; Oddball; Maiden; Minister; Mouse; Noble; Remainder; Smith; Stray; Survivor; Sword; Terror; Tool

Character playlist (likewise alphabetised to protect the innocent):

Almandi Iverson (OC) - Fight For Me (AlicebanD)

Almiria Bauduin - Fall Together (Thea Gilmore)

Ahmed Fahim (OC/it’s complicated) - RAGE OF DUST (SPYAIR)

Argi Mirage - Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked (Cage The Elephant)

Atra Mixta-Bernstein - leaning towards Gold (The Wandering Hearts)

Chad Chaden - not sure yet

Derma Altland - not sure yet

Embi [Barton] - Appetite for Destruction (Vo Williams)

Eugene Sevenstark - Some Kind of Hero (Felix Hagan and the Family)

Hirume [I should invent him a surname too] - not sure yet.

Julieta Juris - Apparition #13 (Thea Gilmore)

Kudelia Aina Bernstein - My Silver Lining (First Aid Kit)

Kipchoge Ordsley (OC/it’s complicated) - Wolf Like Me (TV on the Radio)

Gaelio Bauduin - The Road You Didn’t Take (Stornaway)

Mackenzie Croft (OC) - leaning towards Fire With Fire (AlicebanD)

Norba Shino - Rattle & Roar (Skinny Lister)

Ride Mass - Skin and Bones (Cage The Elephant)

Sri Chaifin (OC) - Mile Magnificent (molly ofgeography)

Takaki Uno - Bones (Of Monsters and Men)

Yamagi Gilmerton - Parallax (Afterlight)

[stillness-in-green]

Human Debris Masterpost (14/15)

Okay, gang, I am officially finished with the re-watch, and all that’s left is formatting and posting.  I’ll be doing that in two posts--one now, one later in the week.  in the meantime, lets get into the last big space battle, with...

EPISODE FORTY-FIVE — If This Is the End

We open right up with Chad and Dante this episode, engaged in combat with a some stripe of Graze unit or another.  These guys are taking more work to put down than the usual goobs, we see as it takes a lot of shooting, a grenade, and one of those Rodi machetes to get the job done.

Chad says that they’ve strayed from the battlefield and need to get back to the Isaribi.  Dante wonders aloud how the battle is going, and Chad, in a surpassingly rare moment of raising his voice, flares back that there’s no way it’s going well.  

Back on the main front, Orga is promising his teenaged followers girls and money (neither of which they have a damn clue what to do with, a disparity a number of reviewers observed back when this episode first aired).  Akihiro, ever the ascetic, fires back that he doesn’t have or need ‘em.

The fighting continues after the credits, with another brief shot of Akihiro, and, cursing at Arianrhod and still hurling machetes like a champ, Derma.  He’s down a Rodi-arm, too, which is a nasty bit of foreshadowing, I must say.  

Some Graze units close in on the Isaribi, but Chad and Dante return in time to drive them off before anything too serious can happen.  

Dante is the first one to react to—something, an alert beep starting up in his cockpit.  It could be the arrival of Isurugi and company, but, more likely, it’s a heads-up that Arianrhod’s forces are falling back, as another of Rustal’s signature false flag plays goes live.  

Dainsleif shots pepper the field, swiping the Hotarubi and Shino’s Flauros Ryusei-Go. Our Debris boys seem to have been enough on the outskirts that they don’t have to evade much; we get a shot of Akihiro, and can hear Chad and Dante reacting as well from their Rodis.

After two volleys, Arianrhod goes to standby, to see if any signals of surrender go up.  This gives Tekkadan some time to regroup, pulling people off the Hotarubi, and collecting some bodies, which we find Eugene, Chad and Dante paying some quick respects to, possibly having just finished moving the bodies in themselves.  Eugene uses harsh words—idiots cashing in before they got to the finish—while Chad apologizes that bodybags in a storage room is the best they can do for the dead at the moment, and Dante promises revenge for them.

Afterward, they report to Orga on the bridge, Eugene that they’ve finished moving things over, Dante with the more technical report about fried weapons control and reduced propulsion, and Chad with the bleak summary that the Hotarubi could be remote-piloted and used as a shield for the Isaribi.

Eugene asks what their next play is and, when Orga starts talking about McGillis and retreat, interrupts to ask where they’re going to retreat to. When Orga turns his gaze on this blatant display of lip, he finds the three staring at him very seriously indeed. Eugene looks actively angry; I think Chad and Dante are mostly just wondering if Orga’s really thought about what he’s saying.

Dante echoes Eugene, observing that they don’t have anywhere to go back to unless they win. Chad says that if it is the last battle (as Org has been repeatedly claiming), then they need to see it through. As I commented in the last post, neither Dante nor Chad show the slightest fear at the prospect of dying out here; they’re 100% willing to give everything they’ve got for the chance of victory.  (Orga’s used those tactics all along, of course, and here is where the fruits of those tactics finally begin to wither—but Orga’s tactical insight and how his deep-rooted insecurity feeds into his strategies are an entirely different essay topic.)

Shino interrupts to announce his own idea, and his audience goes from this:

to this (note the sudden profligation of sweatdrops):

Once the terminology is out of the way, however, the boys find that Shino’s plan is indeed to their tastes.  

‘Nice and simple,’ Dante says.  ‘Like us, right?’ Chad jibes.  

(Help, I love them.)

And we get one last lovely shot of this group-togetherness, as Orga allows himself to be pushed by his followers’ confidence into a plan you can see his gut instinct rejecting as too brash. Enjoy those smiles while you can, boys.

The whole gang guards the ships as the Hotarubi pulls the Isaribi on towards this last fateful shot; you can see Gusion and the Rodis swooping and circling around the ships along with all the other unique suits Tekkadan has.  

Akihiro and Ride, and probably a great many others, yell at Shino to shoot.

And—well, we all know how that went.  

One last thing to bring this episode to a close: it’s easy to miss in all the gut-curdling screaming Shino is doing as the credits kick in, but someone in a Rodi is bringing Hush back into the mobile suit bay.  No definite way to say who—maybe Derma, who’s backed-up Hush in the past?—but here’s the shot of it, in any case.

EPISODE FORTY-SIX—For Whom?

The bulk of the first half is taken up with the retreat from the combat, and the sacrifices made to ensure said retreat is successfully.  We can spot the Rodis here and there, but the first time one jumps out as significant is when Derma gets pegged by Arianrhod’s parting shots and an explosion goes off in his cockpit.  

A Rodi perched on top of the ship flies up and retrieves him, returning fire.  No one calls out on the commlines, so there’s no telling who it was.  Dante is the more dramatically appropriate choice, as he’s much more closely tied to Derma, but Chad does do an awful lot of rescuing people through the second season, and it might make sense for Dante and Derma to have been mirroring each other’s positions on the Isaribi’s sides while Chad held down the center.  

Thank god for whichever one of them it was, though, because as I believe I noted in posts made back when the show was still airing, Derma was the number one character I wanted to make it out of the series alive, and it’s thanks to the other Rodi’s quick response that he did.  

Later, we find Derma outside the medical area, now down one arm.  Atra apologizes that all the beds are full, to which Derma says it’s fine, that everyone else is worse off than him.  And I feel the need to point out here that, while several of the guys we see in the quick shot of the med-bay are indeed wearing more bandages than Derma, there are an awful lot of them who still have all four limbs attached, so I am—to say the least—skeptical that they are all in worse shape than Derma.  

Color me totally unsurprised that he would say so, though.

He slides down the wall, certainly already thinking about how useless he’s going to be even if he recovers, when our other three ex-red stripes show up en masse—a strikingly uncommon sight, outside of the opening credit sequences—to check on him.  

Akihiro goes down to one knee, saying his name, but there’s no response, and Akihiro himself is still clearly figuring out how to approach the issue.  

Dante jumps in to say that Derma’s lucky, that it was just his arm.  I’m sure he means well.  

Derma says, harshly, that he wishes he’d died out there, because—as he now says out loud—he’s no use to anyone as “an incomplete body.”  The camera cuts to an extremely tight shot of Akihiro, close enough to hear the low, ragged inhalation he takes.  

He then thanks Derma, which startles the boy’s eyes opened again.  

And it’s not, as one might expect who didn’t know exactly how many people Akihiro’s lost in his life at this point, a thanks for his service, or his sacrifice.  In a direct callback to the aftermath of the Silent War Arc (over ten episodes ago), when Akihiro told Lafter that he wishes he’d talked to Aston more when he was alive, Akihiro tells Derma that he’s glad he’s still able to talk to him.  

And then he thanks Derma again, for surviving, using the boy’s full name this time—Derma Altland.

Much like me by this point, Derma begins crying.  

God only knows how much of what Akihiro’s communicating he’s really receiving, but I think he must get the gist of it.  He knows Akihiro was Masahiro’s brother; he knows Akihiro had taken a personal interest in both Derma and Aston after Tekkadan took them in.  He knows, certainly, that Akihiro lost those Masahiro and Aston as surely as Derma himself did.  I’m sure Derma’s tears in this scene are, in part, shed for what he’s just lost, and for the uncertainty of the future, but my hope is that some of his tears are also for the gift that Akihiro’s just given him—the reminder that Derma matters, that there is at least one person in the whole wide, cold world that is glad of his existence.  

Shakily, he accepts the thanks.

And, barring a few shots taken from the closing moments of the first season, that is the last of the Human Debris for this episode.  Which is just as well, because much more would probably have destroyed me completely.  Lets move on along.

 EPISODE FORTY-SEVEN—Scapegoat

We rejoin our boys in Orga’s office in Tekkadan’s HQ, back home on Mars after quite a lot of time away.  They’re discussing McGillis when we first find them, with Dante putting in that he thinks the man is both dangerous and crazy, for still thinking about fighting Arianrhod.  

When Eugene floats the idea of turning McGillis and Bael over to Gjallarhorn, Chad and Dante get the first reaction, exchanging solemn looks, with Dante agreeing that it could be a chance for Tekkadan to just start over.  

It’s a nice thought, but one that ignores how much of a name Tekkadan has made for itself, as we will find.  Akihiro objects on different grounds, though, saying that the boss he knows would never betray an ally like that.  Recall that he praised Lafter for ‘seeing through her obligations’; even though he doesn’t really know and, given the man’s involvement in Aston’s death, probably doesn’t really like McGillis, Akihiro is against betraying him.  And of course, as far as his regard for Orga goes, Akihiro was handed his freedom by Orga, for nothing more than being an old ally and staying out of the way of the Third Division’s coup, back at the beginning of everything.

Orga agrees that it wouldn’t be the right thing to do, but hedges that ‘the right thing’ doesn’t matter to McGillis anymore.  We don’t get to see anyone’s reaction to this, as that’s when a news program starts talking about their ties to McGillis, and they have more pressing things to react to.  

Dante is impressed that Tekkadan made the news—as people thought of as revolutionary heroes, no less! I think this is probably a flash of Dante’s thing about recognition, rather than the first time he’s ever seen his group mentioned on the news—I mean, they have to have been on the news before, given all that stuff with Hashmal, right?  And protecting Kudelia?  And so on? But Dante’s always valued being known, and I’m pretty sure he’d take notoriety over being unknown any day, so even in a situation like their current one, he’s still a little pleased to see Tekkadan in the news.  

The others are decidedly less thrilled.

We find them again later, when Orga gathers everyone up to talk about how to proceed—namely, that anyone who wants to get out should do so immediately.

Dante protests, along with Eugene, while Akihiro watches with serious eyes, just saying Orga’s name under his breath.As protests grow louder, Zack cuts in to be the doom-saying Cassandra no one wants to listen to.  Derma is on-scene, we find in a series of crowd-pans, having drawn in close behind Chad and Dante.

Afterwards, as everyone is making their final preparations, Orga makes a last-ditch effort to give up first McGillis, and then himself, to Rustal Elion.  Rustal refuses—as to why Orga’s life alone isn’t enough, he gives Orga some schpiel about organizations being groups of members, and one person’s death not erasing another person’s crime.  Personally, I suspect it’s more that Rustal is canny enough to know it wouldn’t make Gjallarhorn look good, noble, or powerful to publicly execute a lanky Martian teenager for getting caught up in adult affairs—thus are tyrants exposed, and martyrs made.  The average citizen of the system probably only knows Tekkadan as an organization name, and better by far for them to stay that way—just a name, with no faces associated with it that might touch peoples’ hearts.

In any case, Eugene and Akihiro catch at least the tail end of this conversation, and while Eugene has Orga by the lapels, Akihiro is clutching at where his red stripe used to be once more, looking actually hurt that Orga would try to pull a stunt like this, that Orga could be so oblivious to how much he means to everyone.  (He’s a little off from where the red stripe would have been; I am willing to concede that he might also just be clutching at his jacket to keep from laying Orga out with a right hook.)

“You gave us life when we were nothing but walking corpses,” he says, and “You made a family for us.”  And more than a lot of the members of Tekkadan, Akihiro values family, as Orga well knows.  

Orga implicitly agrees to talk things over, which presumably is what leads him and Eugene down to the cafeteria, where we find Dante and Chad again.  Chad is summing things up, that they’re now on wanted lists and have nowhere to run, so long as they are who they are.  

This tips Kudelia off to the plan that will end up saving what few survivors that make it out of this series (good teamwork, guys!), and she asks why they don’t become someone else?  It’s impossible to change their personal data on Mars, but on Earth…

47.10

Chad namedrops Makanai as he figures out what she’s getting at, which I have to say I’m a bit impressed by, but then I suppose he had lots of time to figure out the exact nature of Arbrau and Chryse’s relationship when he was on Earth.  The gist of it is that, since Chryse is still technically Arbrau’s colony, all Chryse ID records are handled back in Arbrau, so if those records can be adjusted, Tekkadan can, in fact, disappear. And, as Chad has recalled, Tekkadan is on good terms with the best possible person in Arbrau to help them with that, its honest-to-god Prime Minister.  

The next bit of good news comes from Merribit and Dexter, here to announce that Tekkadan has scraped up some funds after all, and Dante turns a look on Chad like, “Holy shit, are we about to get away with this?” that I deeply enjoy.

Dante’s also the first to ask what’s going to happen to Tekkadan as the credits begin to roll, though. He’s not the only one the name means a great deal to, of course, but as I mentioned above, I’d imagine a significant amount of his current self-esteem is tied to Tekkadan’s fame, so it’s no surprise he’s the first one to voice hesitation about, essentially, betraying and abandoning the lily emblem they’ve been bearing all this time.  

Mika responds with a content smile that where Orga is, is where everyone belongs, which Dante accepts with a rueful kind of cheer.  Chad seconds that, even with a different name, they’ll still be themselves.  

Kudelia gets up to contact Makanai, and that’s when everyone realizes the outside lines have been cut.  Also we find out where Akihiro’s been, as he shows up with his lieutenant to announce that Tekkadan’s been surrounded by Gjallarhorn forces.  

EPISODE FORTY-EIGHT—Promise

After some intro material, Chad is the first person we hear talking after the credits, relating the state of Tekkadan’s communication—the cables have been cut, and all their LCS drones get shot down as soon as they send them up.  Dante summarizes as we cut into the group meeting, that without methods of communication, they can’t get any outside information, let alone contact Makanai like they’d planned. 

Eugene observes that, while Gjallarhorn hasn’t done anything yet, they could attack at any time, leading Dante to ask if they should attack first, then?  

Eugene shoots the prospect down due to the disparity in the size of their forces, and Akihiro asks Orga what they should do.  

Orga, for his part, reiterates that if they can make an escape, the victory is theirs—they demolish the building, make it look like they’ve been wiped out, then go ahead with the plan to contact Makanai.  This plan impresses Dante, who smiles about it only briefly before returning to a frown when Eugene stands up to remind everyone that they still don’t have a way to escape.  In lieu of two screenshots, I offer this in-between one.

(Do your best, Dante.)

Yukinojo gives the team a method, though—old maintenance tunnels—and Orga reiterates to everyone, over a batch of serious-face pan-overs, that the upcoming battle is not about killing anyone to end the battle, but rather about every single member of Tekkadan making it out alive.  

Dante makes a curious face here, as Orga tells them to never back down on living—he’s the only one to make a verbal response, rather than just nodding resolutely like we see Eugene and Chad do.  The obvious difference is that Eugene and Chad have both led before—even aside from his position as Orga’s second, Eugene was always in the captain’s seat of the Hotarubi, and Chad of course had his position as leader of Tekkadan’s Earth Branch. One can assume they’re both familiar with the concept of victory being how many heads you can count at the end of the day.

Dante, on the other hand, has always been out on the front-lines, in a mobile worker, a mobile suit, or even just a team of dudes with guns and armor.  I’m sure he’s very used to the idea that Tekkadan’s victory will be bought with Tekkadan deaths, one of which might be his own; historically, that’s what most of Orga’s battle strategies boiled down to.  Hearing that victory means him—means everyone—living is basically unprecedented for him.

As Orga walks away, Eugene complains a little about him, just like the old days, to which Dante responds in kind—that Orga seemed more like his old self just there.  Chad concurs, noting Orga’s confidence.  And they’re right; it’s been a long time since Orga’s had that fire and self-certainty.  Being free of all other chains and requirements, and no longer obligated to listen to McGillis, Orga is more like himself than he’s been in a long time—Dawn Horizon or earlier, I’d say.  (Orga and McGillis parallel each other in an interesting way in that regard, I think.  Neither of them is very good at adjusting the way they operate for scenarios outside what they know, though McGillis hides it better.  More on that another time.)

Feeling the group’s confidence, we get one of Akihiro’s rare smiles, and the four go off to get back to work.

At the tail end of the next scene, when McGillis finally realizes that he’s on his own for this one, he gives Orga a way to get a small group out, by taking a car while all of Gjallarhorn is focused on Bael breaking through the lines.  Orga contacts Chad to get the car prepared, and get Atra and Kudelia as well, as they’re heading for Kudelia’s Admoss Company.  This, I think, solidifies Chad as next in command after Eugene (who was off investigating the tunnels at the time), which is certainly gratifying to me.

We find Chad doing his best to carry out those orders in the next scene, where he, Kudelia and Merribit are having to convince a reluctant Atra to leave.  He doesn’t use an honorific with her name, I notice, which is a bit nice—it speaks to him seeing her as a peer, rather than someone removed from him by rank or social distance.  

This scene also puts him in the room for Kudelia saying right there out in the open that Atra is carrying Mikazuki’s child.  It’s easy to read it as a running gag in combination with his not knowing about Merribit and Yukinojo’s relationship, but it’s not played anything like as comedic, and Merribit’s reaction indicates that it’s the first she’s hearing of it, too. I’m pretty certain this is the first anyone outside the Bracelet Trio has found out.

For her part, Merribit is staying behind.  I’m certain she, too, is reluctant to leave behind the man she loves, but aloud, she claims that she still has work to be done.  She tells the other girls not to worry, that they’ll meet again—the iron flower won’t wilt so easily, which brings a smile to Chad’s face likewise.  

The next time we spot him, he’s finishing up getting the car ready.  

Two cars head out when Bael does; given later dialogue and setting shots, I’m assuming the second car is headed for Yukinojo’s best guess as to where the old CGS maintenance tunnels are going to surface?  Chad’s driving one car, we can assume since we don’t see him in the shots showing Ride and Orga or Kudelia and Atra seated, but someone else must be driving the other, and we never see the driver of that second vehicle.  

Anyway, they make it to Admoss in one piece, at which point Ride and Chad take up watch out the windows while Kudelia reunites with Cucubita, who’s been very worried.  When Cucubita drops the bomb that the news is saying Tekkadan is refusing calls to surrender, though, they close the curtains.

Chad’s the first one to articulate the understanding of why Gjallarhorn was so intent on blocking their communication—because Gjallarhorn is manipulating the media narrative, exactly like we saw them do back on Dort.  Orga knew already, of course, that Rustal had no intention of accepting a surrender from Tekkadan; now he knows that Rustal won’t even let the world see that Tekkadan tried to.  A scapegoat.

They put the talk aside, though, to get on with matters at hand—contacting Makanai.  Kudelia and Orga are the ones to make the call, though Chad and Ride are right on hand.

Makanai plays reluctant for a bit, presumably because he is so old and has been in politics for so many years that it is actually, physiologically impossible for him to just agree to something without being kind of an ass about it first.  (I love him.) As Orga goes to beg, though, Makanai interrupts with a cheery comment about how hard it is to refuse the one(/s) who saved his life.  He’s directing this at Orga, but it’s likely he’s referring to Tekkadan in general. Tekkadan, of course, is the organization that delivered him from exile and returned him to power.  One other alternative is also possible, of course.

Chad is the one who actually and directly saved Makanai’s life.  While we don’t know that Chad greeted Makanai at the beginning of this phone call, we do see Chad straighten up in response to Makanai’s aforementioned dialogue, and say the man’s name aloud in the way of one who knows when he’s being talked about and is responding accordingly.  Certainly I prefer the reading that Makanai’s line there is obliquely aimed at Chad, or at least Tekkadan-as-represented-by-Chad, because it means the Silent War arc was good for more than just stripping Tekkadan of assets and members, beginning the season-long process of knocking them all the way back down to where they started.  It means that Chad’s prior courage and devotion to duty are now the vehicles by which Tekkadan will be delivered.  Not bad for a third-stringer!

Makanai says, in any case, that they should hurry to Earth, as there’s someone there so worried about them that it’s hampering his (and therefore also Makanai’s) work, leading to a nice little exchange between the group and Takaki.  The prodigal returns!  Chad doesn’t lean over the video screen, but does contribute to the conversation, wide-eyed at the news that Takaki’s working at Makanai’s office now.

Takaki credits Orga for his current circumstances, though vaguely enough that we still don’t know exactly who landed Takaki this job, or if Makanai just reached out himself—a plausible enough idea, I think, given how much attention Makanai had clearly been paying to the young men of Tekkadan’s Earth Branch, both before and after the bomb.

In any case, after the call ends, Cucubita and Atra bring in some drinks for everyone (coffee?), which I imagine go almost completely untouched.  Chad points out that they still don’t have a way to get to Earth—Gjallarhorn will be watching the Isaribi. Seeing as Chad was piloting the Isaribi back in season one, and thus presumably the one dealing with port authority on both Dort and Earth, and Mars when they went back home, he probably has a good idea of what he’s talking about here.

As it has been since the first season, though, the girls from the Turbines are there to pick up the slack.  Orga is jubilant in his rebellion against certain death, and his mood is catching.

Chad and Ride bring the car around while Orga has a last conversation with Atra and Kudelia. Then, as Orga heads to the door with Ride, Ride says the cursed words: “It’s quiet.”  The soundtrack pretends not to notice what’s just happened, and we get a look around outside.  Chad is standing outside the car, and looks around at something.  

For the third time this season, I knew my favorite was dead, so dead, but nope, his luck continued to hold out!  Turns out he was just looking at Orga and Ride coming down the hall!  No problems at all!  

Ha ha…

I provide the rest of these screenshots with no further commentary, save to note that Chad’s reflexes are as sharp as ever, and wonder if this will be the scar that sticks with him where the healing tank washed all signs of the office bomb away.  I suppose it must be so.

Check back later this week for the last two episodes, and wrap-up, and thanks to everyone who’s read along this far.

[stillness-in-green]

Human Debris Masterpost (11/?)

After somewhat longer than I’d been intending, I’m back with the next post, after which I will likely go watch another episode or two in hopes of having a follow-up soon!  In the meantime, though, I misstated last time that the Earth arc was over; turns out we have one last wind-down there before we move into the Hashmal arc...

EPISODE THIRTY-THREE — Sovereign of Mars

In the continuing saga of my being delighted by Makanai and Chad, Chad is literally the first person Makanai asks about when Kudelia, visiting him in an unreasonably gorgeous hospital room, tells him that Tekkadan will be withdrawing from Earth.  He even says that he’s heard Chad’s already out of the hospital, suggesting Kudelia is not the first person he’s asked for information about the young man—he quips that it’d be bad for his conscience if such a young man died protecting someone of his age.  We will continue to see this gratitude play out over the course of the season, both in some small nods and some very big ones indeed.  Keep an eye out!

On that note, though, we cut over to the young man himself, sitting by himself and looking over a data slate.  

Immediately, Akihiro and Lafter arrive, and Akihiro guesses in one try that Chad is looking over a list of the fallen.  As Chad blames his shortcomings for the (not inconsiderable) length of the list, Akihiro tries to tell him that it isn’t his fault, to which Chad breathes out an uneven breath and shakes his head, but doesn’t argue the point, instead commenting that this must be how Orga feels all the time.   

The sharp-eyed may notice something on the data slate that the show has avoided telling us up to this point—that Aston has taken Akihiro’s last name, Altland.  Hold that thought for just a sec.

Chad folds in on himself, saying that he hates every second of still being alive, that it would be much better to step forward and take the hit himself.  What they tell him after this—and what is there to tell him, really?—we don’t see, as Akihiro and Lafter take their leave.  

Lafter comments in this scene that she didn’t know Aston had shared Akihiro’s last name, to which Akihiro replies that a lot of the Brewers’ kids didn’t have last names when they came into Tekkadan’s care, but that “they” had taken good care of Masahiro. He doesn’t mention Derma here, but we will, much later, find out that he has the last name as well; Akihiro gave it to the last two surviving members of Masahiro’s unit.  

This is extremely touching, but also makes me wonder about our own Tekkadan trio’s last names. Were they captured at an old enough age that they remembered their surnames, or is it just a difference between CGS and the Brewers?  Perhaps the bosses still used full names at CGS for, oh, scheduling rotations or rollcalls, whereas the Brewers just threw children into combat as necessary with no more attention paid to it than that?  Or perhaps Maruba Arkay was more careful with his record-keeping than Brooke Kabayan?  

In any case, Akihiro says that he wishes he’d talked to Aston more when he had the chance; that it’s too late after someone’s died.  Remember this line for later, because it’ll come up again, and it’ll be a heartbreaker.  

After some politicking elsewhere, we return to Takaki and Fuuka’s apartment, where Fuuka is staring sadly at the photo of the two of them with Aston.  She asks if he remembers when they took it.

It was, we find, the day they’d randomly decided on for Aston’s birthday.  Fuuka made “a great feast”—for context, I invite you to look at the cake and two modest side dishes on display in the photo—and Aston talked more than usual.  I like to think they had to rope a neighbor into taking this picture, explaining Aston’s deeply discomfited expression and unwillingness to look at the camera.  

Otherwise, this scene largely exists to shed some more light on Takaki’s conflict about what to do next with his life, so we’ll move on.  

We find Chad and Akihiro in a group chat about Tekkadan’s next move, as Orga relays the terms of the deal McGillis is offering them—that whole “King of Mars” business that will prove to be so very costly for everyone involved.  As Eugene asks what that’s even supposed to mean, Chad fills in that king ‘means someone important, right,’ illustrating very succinctly for us how woefully little these young man know about history.  A shame, really, as some time spent with a history book might have provided enough examples of downfalls-brought-on-by-hubris that some of what’s to follow could have been avoided.

Like Mikazuki and Eugene, Chad and Akihiro are both cool to go with whatever Orga decides.  Chad, at this point, is likely just so ready to be out of a leadership position, and Akihiro has never really second-guessed Orga ever since watching him get the Third Division out of that elephant vs. ant situation with Gjallarhorn back in the CGS days.  No surprises here.  

Takaki, on the other hand, is getting out while he can.  He cites Fuuka’s happiness, and the happiness they have now, as things they’d be throwing away chasing an even bigger reward; he knows more people will die in pursuit of that golden ending, and he just can’t take risks like that, that gamble with his kid sister’s happiness.  Akihiro, who, you’ll recall, has talked with Takaki before about younger siblings and how important they are, looks like he knows exactly how Takaki’s feeling here.  He probably would have even if Takaki hadn’t spelled everything out, of course, but Takaki’s honest and earnest that way.  

Chad, curiously, seems more reluctant to let Takaki go, protesting when Orga accepts Takaki’s resignation.  I can’t imagine he begrudges Takaki his decision, but I wonder if he worries?  We were told, way back when, that people like the orphans of Tekkadan can’t get good, safe, reliable jobs, which is the whole reason they work as child soldiers to begin with.  Perhaps he’s concerned that, in choosing the happiness Takaki has now, Takaki is losing the very means he has to maintain that happiness?

As if to confirm this, we find them afterwards walking down the hallway, with Chad reassuring Takaki that Orga will try to find Takaki a good job on Earth.  (And man, I don’t know if it’s Orga or Kudelia or what, but given that we find Takaki later working for Makanai, someone sure came through on this.)  

Takaki apologizes about leaving, but Chad tells him not to, that the Earth Branch was saved thanks to him (a very generous assessment) and that they’ll always be family, even apart. This is a very sweet thing to say, but a dangerous one as well, if you look at this series through the lens of the many, many yakuza/mafia story tropes it’s been playing with since Day One. Mikazuki, perhaps a bit more aware of this, coldly rejects this, and tells them that Takaki’s only family is Fuuka now, so he doesn’t have to worry about Tekkadan anymore.  

Akihiro tells them not to mind Mika’s brusqueness, that he’s doing it to be kind, and reiterates the message—that Takaki shouldn’t worry about Tekkadan’s fate from here on out, and should instead concentrate on living his life with his sister.  He also thanks him for being friends with Aston, because Akihiro is resolved to remind us at every turn that his life is an unending parade of tragic loss, which has in turn made him extraordinarily sensitive to the value of camaraderie.  

After ducking back in on Makanai and Kudelia, we have one last scene that is just determined to completely break my heart: Akihiro and Chad surveying the paltry few crates containing the personal effects of the dead Earth Branch members, and talking about places to belong.

Specifically, Chad says that Earth was like a second home for them.  A strange thing, he thinks, since when he was Human Debris, he didn’t think there was a place for him anywhere—much less two places.  

Indeed, if you consider a stray comment from one of the Earth Branch kids some time ago, that people in Edmonton were happy to see them, it’s very possible that Arbrau might have been a more welcoming home than Chryse.  I remember reading a staff interview once, about how the person in question thought of Tekkadan as people who spent their lives at work.  You can see the truth of that observation in this: while it may or may not be the case that some members of Tekkadan have apartments or houses to go back to, the only ones who we ever explicitly see go home are Biscuit and Takaki—the only two members who are willing to leave Tekkadan to protect the happiness they already have.

Even if it was just for a short while, I’m so glad the Earth Branch kids, and Chad in particular, had a shot at knowing there was someplace else that would welcome them home.

As if to accentuate that his time in the spotlight is done, Chad gets the preview text this episode. He notes that to protect the place he belongs, he’ll have to start training again when he gets back to Mars, and calls to Akihiro let him do sit-ups with him.  (Truly, Akihiro’s exercise regimen is a black hole from which no character even tangentially related to him can escape.)

EPISODE THIRTY-FOUR — Vidar Rising

After several episodes away from home, we finally return to Mars, and with it, Derma is onscreen again, standing with Yukinojo watching a Landman Rodi get lowered into the hangar.

He asks if there’s been a pilot decided yet, to which the old man replies that of the three Rodis that made it back, Chad will have one, but the others haven’t been assigned yet. Derma asks, politely but very directly, to be able to use it, and Yukinojo, a bit surprised, notes that it’s a machine salvaged from the Brewers, and probably tied to bad memories.

Derma acknowledges that to Human Debris like him, the Rodis were basically coffins.  However, if Aston piloted one on Earth (died in one on Earth), then he’ll do the same.  Derma, just to be clear, is now the only surviving member of what was originally a tight-knit group of five.  I’m altogether certain the kid is dragging around a death wish the size of Jupiter by this point, and just…  Thank god he managed to connect with Dante, because I think he would otherwise be far too depressing a character to even think about.

Speaking of the devil, Dante appears to point out that Akihiro figured Derma would say something like that, and already arranged it (Mikazuki is not the only person who can cut seniority lines for personal protégés, it seems).  He says that he’ll pilot the third, and exhorts Derma that they’ll show the world what former Human Debris can do—Derma, of course, had not used any such past-tense phrasing about himself a moment ago.  He agrees, though, soft and emphatic.

Meanwhile…

Keeping true to his words in last episode’s trailer, Chad is out training (read: keeping just ahead of Hush, despite being in a much lower end machine).  This is the very first time the audience has seen him in a mobile suit, and he’s looking happier than we’ve seen him in ages, rowdy and competitive, like he’s had a huge weight lifted off his shoulders.  Lafter and Azee observe as much themselves; that Chad is unusually “amped up” after the bad time he had on Earth.  

He’s still in good spirits a few scenes later, when he runs into Yukinojo back in the base.  The old man compliments him for getting stronger on Earth, which, as he generally does, Chad downplays, saying it’s thanks to Yukinojo’s good maintenance.  Yukinojo gives him a good friendly slap on the arm for this show of modesty, and says they’ll be counting on him, presumably a fairly standard, “Welcome to your mecha piloting gig,” phrase.

He notices something weird, though, sniffing at the air.  Shortly afterwards, he interrupts a cute OT3 sequence between Mikazuki, Kudelia, and Atra to worriedly insist that something is going on with the old man, because he doesn’t smell anymore.

This leads to the revelation that Merribit and Yukinojo are dating, hence the old man keeping more on top of his hygiene.  Chad—had not yet heard the news.  

(I’m so sad we don’t get a real reaction image out of this, by the way, just a camera-pan-up-while-yelling-happens gag.)

Outside, Akihiro is critiquing Ride’s exercise regimen, in that it doesn’t have enough food in it, and Ride tries to be mature (he has to lead the young kids now, with Takaki gone) in the same sentence as he says something childish (he skipped dinner because he doesn’t like the bean stew they were serving).  Akihiro jokingly chides him (a true rarity) that wanting to be strong is all the more reason not to be a picky eater, and I sit here wondering if he remembers that fish he turned his nose up at back in the first season.  

Chad comes running up to ask if Akihiro had heard about the whole Old Man/Merribit dating thing, only to get a nonplussed, “Uh, yeah, duh?” reaction from Ride, and the observation that it happened when he was away on Earth from Akihiro.  

Chad demands to know why no one told him, prompting Akihiro to ask, in confusion, why anyone would, leading to the above delightful teary-eyed face, and the helpless, muted question of, “Hey, we’re on the same team, right?”

Pretty much everyone at the time this episode aired took this display to mean that Chad had been harboring a crush on Merribit, and I’m inclined to agree.  Firstly, because it’s the reading that makes the most sense of behavior that would seem really out of type otherwise.  Secondly, because it means that if you believe, as I do, that Chad and Yamagi have got something going on in the epilogue, his earlier crush on Merribit suggests that Chad has a type: Yamagi and Merribit share a lot of traits, though Merribit has definitely grown more into them.  Both blonde, both dedicated and soft-spoken, both coolly professional, and both with a not-very-deeply-buried sarcastic streak that gets more biting the more worried they get.  It’s a really great bit of continuity, I think.  

And that is the last of the red stripes we get this episode—finally, a short write-up!—so lets move on to the next one. 

EPISODE THIRTY-FIVE — Awakening Calamity

After some unusually ominous opening narration and a duck-in to Saisei, we return to Eugene giving the sub-leader types some progress reports and instructions. Looking at who’s in the room suggests that Chad has landed himself something of a leader position since he got back—we have the head mechanic, the Teiwaz liason, the captain of the Muscle Squad, the captain of the Shooting Star Squad, and Chad.  I don’t remember him having a particular group under him, but if he gets a squad name, I look forward to hearing it!

(He is still a bit hung-up on the news about the adults dating.)

Later on in the cafeteria, we find some discussion of pay raises.  Shino, as was ever his wont, wants to go celebrate with girls, inviting Eugene and Chad along with him.  Eugene, having had some time to think on it since that first night out at Saisei way back in season one, refuses, citing some very smooth-sounding talk of not being able to buy love with money.  Chad immediately asks Merribit if this is true, and when she confirms, says he’ll pass as well.  I cannot quite decide if I think it’s cute that he wants a real relationship or depressing that he had to double-check on the possibility of buying it.  Either way, I hope Merribit is being paid extra for the amount of babysitting she does with these boys.  (Akihiro is in this scene, but does not deign to participate in the nonsense.)

The next sequence, taking place in Kudelia’s office, starts out with some delightful OT3-building (Kudelia is handling Atra and Mikazuki’s money!), but derails somewhat when we find out that she is doing this for Ride and Akihiro as well, and is open to doing so for Hush if he’d like her to.  The scene focuses more on the general inability of Mars’ disadvantaged children to handle money, but it’s interesting to note that Akihiro specifically has left his funds in Kudelia’s hands.  Chalk it up to one of many, many conversations I wish we could have seen.

Returning to Tekkadan, we have a brief comic interlude of Chad puzzling over a shift in relationship dynamics between Shino and Zack, but don’t get to find out what went on with The Girls last night, as Eugene comes in with some assignments.  

The main pilot trio (Mika, Akihiro, and Shino), as well as Chad, Hush and Zack, will be guarding Orga and his guest (McGillis, not in his Montag persona for once) during the latter’s visit.  By this point, we can see that Chad is well nestled back in with the main fighting force, rather than stuck on a ship’s helm or on a different planet entirely, and it’s nice to think he’s getting some legit camaraderie back in his life.

McGillis takes a second to greet the other members of Tekkadan after shaking hands with Orga. Shino is the only one to verbally respond, while Akihiro makes a sound of acknowledgement and bows his head; Chad notices the latter, and hurriedly echos it.  I wonder if the etiquette levels with Gjallarhorn are very different compared to what Chad dealt with on Earth?  Or perhaps he just trusts Akihiro’s cues more than his own experience?  

Akihiro drives the car on the way out to the mine as McGillis and Isurugi explain a bit about what they’re expecting to find there.  This prompts Chad to ask if they shouldn’t be bringing some mobile suits as well, if the thing at the excavation site is so dangerous.  McGillis drops the information that no, mobile suits might awaken the mobile armor, as they’re archenemies.  As he’s been eyeballing Mikazuki all episode, he adds that Mikazuki’s Gundam must have fought mobile armors as well, three hundred years ago.

This attracts a bit of Akihiro’s attention, as the other Gundam pilot in the car, and he wonders what sort of monsters these mobile armors are, that mobile suits were made just to fight them.  (And he has plenty of reason to wonder, seeing as his own Gusion is strong enough to crush lesser suits with ease and totally shrug off point-blank self-destruct explosions.)   

McGillis doesn’t use the words Artificial Intelligence here, but says the mobile armor thinks by itself and fights automatically.  Probably drawing on both his experience as a ship pilot and his close friendship with a hacker, Chad asks how that’s possible.  McGillis mostly dodges the question, just explaining that the capacity to fight on its own is why it could be so destructive, back in its heyday.  

(Akihiro and Chad, left with the car.)  

As Iok shows up, here to ruin everything (as was ever his wont), Orga runs up, yelling at Chad to call Eugene and get him to send mobile suits out—Chad has in fact already got headphones on before Orga’s even started talking, because Chad knows a bomb about to go off when he damn well sees one.  

It is too late to prevent the doom, though, as, with a fluid rippling of lights that looks it belongs to a different show entirely, a back-up chorus the likes of which we won’t hear again until Bael, and a sound effect like absolutely nothing else in the series, the mobile armor awakens.  

And we will come back to this before too long, hopefully, with what I anticipate to be somewhat shorter posts, as the series is now well and truly past focusing on the Human Debris cast as Human Debris.  I don’t doubt I’ll still find some stuff to ramble about, but things should speed up from here on out.  Thanks for reading!

[stillness-in-green]

Yuletide 2018 (and other updates)

I return from the traditional end-of-year hiatus with fic!  

Foreign Atlases: From Mars to Earth and back again, the process of building Derma's prosthetic, and the longer process of getting him to accept it.

The requisite Yuletide IBO fic.  It's by no small measure the longest fic I've written for an assignment in the seven years I've been doing Yuletide, but I guess that's to be expected when someone asks for fic about one of the Human Debris cast!  The ending on this one gave me some fits--balancing an OC doctor for lack of any good fits for the role in the canon--but on the whole I'm pretty pleased with it.  It's got some worldbuilding and talk about the setting's spirituality, a load of material between Dante and Derma, and what I thought was a nicely tidy folding of Yamagi's feelings for Shino into his feelings on Derma's situation and what to do about it.  I had a little exchange between Merribit and Yukinojo that it killed me to cut; I may throw it up on my Kofi in a few days.  Keep an eye out!

Composing Our Collapse:  Character by character, line by line, the four youths who will become the warlords write their relationship together before writing it apart.

The apparently-now-a-requisite Yuletide Ronin fic, this time in the form of a Soulmate AU set back during the warlords’ mortal days.  This is one that could have been much longer if I'd pressed on into their lives after being recruited by Talpa, but I didn't have a neat ending in mind for that and it would have ballooned the length hugely; it was also already unbalancing towards favoring Cale more than I had initially intended.  I like some of the scenes I wrote, though; they may likewise find their way to Kofi posting eventually.  

A Short Peace: Winter in Tokyo is a misery, especially when a certain someone hasn't been answering his e-mail.

CANIS: The Speaker is an extremely good, vividly rendered BL manga with a canonical poly relationship between its three protagonists, who all skew older than the norm.  It engages in some of the genre's more melodramatic elements (organized crime, prostitution), but is somewhat unique in that has a lot more time for politics and a lot less time for rape-as-love than many of its peers who share those elements.  It's a bit of an odd duck in that it's a spin-off/prequel of a much more normal BL series in which The Speaker's protags are peripheral antagonist figures, but you don't particularly need to read the other CANIS installments (Hello Mr. Hatter and Hello Mr. Rain) to follow The Speaker.  (Though FWIW those installments are also quite fine in their own regard and the Speaker trio's material is all excellent).       Anyway, as you can see by my shilling, I like the series a lot, and I also like canonical poly relationships, so I knew I wanted to write something for the series when I saw the request go up.  This is not a long fic, just a bit of dabbling with where they are shortly after the upheaval the most recently-available chapters are headed for.  Not quite dark, not quite fluffy, it's as ambiguous as its leads, who are all kind of worried about the future but fiercely determined to protect the present they've just regained.

In other news, I’m so, so close to having the next chapter of the IBO wedding fic done; I just need to sit down and hammer it out.  I’ve also been trying to knead a (highly id-ficcy) Hugtto Precure story about Listor and George into existence, because Hugtto’s Hamster Family Drama is annihilating my soul right now and I need to memorialize my feelings about Listor’s terrible coping mechanisms.  Of all things, I’ve also started poking very hesitantly at that enormous Fate/Zero fanfic again, though I am skeptical that an update will come of that in anything like short order.  I also have a huge pile of ask-memes and the like that may get posted on my still-pretty-barren Pillowfort account at some point.

[stillness-in-green]

Human Debris Masterpost (8/?)

So in the wake of the series ending, I have several other meta posts I want to write eventually (another one on Gaelio, one for my sparkly new ship, one on spirituality in the setting...), and I am still working on some fic stuff, though the second half of that Gaelio+Rustal fic is on temporary hold pending verification of some information circulating on Japanese Twitter about Gaelio in the epilogue. 

But in and around that, there’s still no shortage of red-stripe watch to document.  I actually went over the word limit on Tumblr for this post (at least, that’s what I’m assuming by the fact that Tumblr won’t let me post the damn thing), so I’m going to do a two posts back to back.   Sorry for any inconvenience, but the first two episodes’ worth of material are too short to post on their own, and I worked too long on Episode Thirty’s post to let it sit another two weeks.  Lets get on to it, with...

EPISODE TWENTY-EIGHT — Battle Before Dawn

We go a little while with no sightings, but Shino’s unit is on the advance patrol in the hunt for the Dawn Horizon, meaning we get their reaction to the bad intel.  

The complaining Dante we only see from the back (you can spot his red hair), but they show Derma’s face as he reacts to the rather more ships then they had been expecting.

As the battle gets properly underway, Akihiro gets launched in the newly remodeled Gusion (Full City, a coffee roasting term?), proving much more capable of speaking up and giving his men orders out on the battlefield than he is in the cafeteria.  He tells his boys to go dance with death (or so the subtitles claim; I am a tad skeptical of this), providing a marvelous example for Ride in going all out.    

Shino, being Shino, gets distracted admiring Akihiro’s sweet ride and gets caught by surprise by an opponent who wasn’t as K.O.ed as he thought, but gets rescued by his underlings.  Derma lays down some covering fire to fend off a new enemy trying to close in, and Dante swoops in to finish off the opponent Shino was engaged with.  He tells Shino not to go charging in alone, to which Shino replies that he trusts them to have his back.  

I‘ve talked a bit before about how I’d like to see more interaction between these two, but I wonder how much time they really have clocked together?  If Dante is a habitual back-up for Shino (as seen here, but also in the Brewers arc, and even as far back as the very first episode), it’d suggest they’ve been paired at work for quite some time.  Perhaps that influence helps explain Dante’s unusually chipper attitude compared to Akihiro and Chad in season one?  

Akihiro being a little unnervingly excited about The Clamps that Seisei mechanic (who has a grisly imagination for weapons and a quirky difficulty with naming themes, it would seem) has equipped Gusion with.  He’s actually a little annoyed by the surrender signal he gets in response to this, the latest in a long string of them, which definitely draws some attention to all the hot-bloodedness boiling beneath that straight-faced surface of his.  I suppose he’s not actually used to surrender signals—the Brewers never went in for them, nor Gjallarhorn.  It’s probably the first time he’s had to take personal surrenders since the CGS days, and I suspect he wasn’t in a position to be doing much of that back then anyway. 

He wants to stay out on the field, not considering being completely out of ammo reason enough to go back and resupply when he still has The Clamps, but Lafter points out that Ride is not fine (Ride has, in fact, been getting kind of nervy and desperate as his first true space battle wore on), and Akihiro is his captain.  He accepts the rebuke without further debate, painting as true what he will be awkwardly telling Lafter considerably later—that he trusts her wholly on the battlefield. 

Sandoval’s ship, we find, is largely defended by Human Debris—like Akihiro back in season one, they don’t seem to wear the stripe on their flight suits—who won’t surrender because they don’t have that option.  Sandoval finds them convenient in this regard, but unlike Kudal Kudan, does not seem to take a tremendous amount of pleasure in it.  Mikazuki goes through them like wet paper.  

Shino’s group comes in to relieve Mika just in time for Sandoval’s personal goons to come out, and Dante shoves Derma away in favor of drawing attention to himself, leading him to get tangled up by the first proper showing of the nonsense the Hexa frames can get up to—not just the wires, which we see Gjallarhorn using periodically, but the grappling hooks.  He takes Shino’s order to jettison the arm they’ve caught, and the trio retreat.  

This could all start to get a little bad, as Tekkadan is getting worn down, falling behind in repairs, save that Arianrhod takes this opportunity to show up and start attacking just everybody, starting with Derma, who has no idea why this is happening to him.  

The show is not entirely clear on this itself—I assume Arianrhod’s claim is that they’re here to break up the squabbling, and that means putting down both sides, which means some attacks dished out to Tekkadan while there’s still plausible deniability about their alliance with Gjallarhorn-via-Isurugi.  

In any case, Orga and Isurugi both know who the big prize is here, that being Sandoval himself, and command their pilots to focus on capturing him.  And here comes a bit I mentioned way back during the introduction of the Turbines—the reason you would ever even consider putting your one hacker in a mobile suit.

And it’s so he can hack into the systems of defeated mobile suits and get you data from the enemy side!  It’s seriously gutsy, too—you’ll notice he’s just floating there in his flight suit, hatches open, easy victim to any stray shots fired his way—though I assume Shino and Derma were covering for him here.  In any case, good job, Dante!  Seriously, this is really cool—the long engagements, the pit stops for repairs and snacks, the electronic warfare, just the whole nine yards.  I’m hardly a connoisseur of robot anime, but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen anything with this particular touch of realism, and I very much enjoyed it.  

And that brings us to the end of this episode, as Iok and Juliette enter the field.  

EPISODE TWENTY-NINE — The Trigger of Success

There is a lone snippet of Akihiro at the beginning of the episode as the fight wraps up, with Akihiro suggesting they need to go fight Arianrhod as well to claim their prize, being told by Lafter and Azee (much as they did when the boys were ready to take Carta up on her 3v3 challenge) that doing that would be the stupidest possible decision and they should definitely not do that.  

Later on, though, we get a bit more material, as Hush corners Mikazuki in the cafeteria hoping for some personal mentoring.  Akihiro bails out the door immediately, saying that he’s going on ahead.  

It would seem to suggest that they were eating together, though we weren’t shown that directly.  It wouldn’t be much of a surprise, though; they’ve been exercise buddies for goodness knows how long.  Akihiro was not the only red-stripe in the cafeteria, though!

As Eugene and Shino do some mild heckling from the sidelines about Hush asking Mika to intervene with Orga re: him being able to pilot a mobile suit, the conversation is getting some very close attention in the background courtesy of Dante and Derma.  

This was, I think, the second I fell in love with Derma on my first watch-through; I adore him and Dante hanging out and watching this conversation with the intensity of people who know they aren’t at the top of the pecking order around here and have a particular interest in how newbies trying to jump the chain on seniority is going to affect them personally.  It’s also the first confirmation we have that they’re actually hanging out together outside of deployments and man, I’m so curious as to how that relationship looks.  

I generally get the feeling most of the Human Debris cast don’t really hold grudges (other than poor Vito, anyway), focused mostly on just trying to stay alive, and expecting much the same from everyone else.  Also, it’s easy to imagine the Human Debris kids with the Brewers were largely sorted by squad and didn’t socialize much with other kids outside of that unit.  You wouldn’t want too much communication going on; after all, all indications are that they actually outnumbered the non-slave Brewers pretty considerably.  Not a situation in which you want dissension bubbling under the surface.  

That is to say, I doubt Derma holds all those dead kids against Dante in particular, but I wonder how they first started bonding.  Under Shino?  Some kind of common interests?  Dante making a particular effort to extend a wing after Aston (the only surviving member of Derma’s group) went with Chad to Earth?

Anyway, Dante and Derma’s stink-eye here delights me to no end.  

We move onward to Allium Gyojan’s office, where Orga is having the single most Mafia Shakedown style scene he will ever get, a task for which he has, hilariously, brought along Akihiro’s team to assist, giving us this great bit of Akihiro getting to menace Allium over the phone line.

(Ride.  Ride, please.)

I checked, but Shino and company to not appear to be in with the crowd on the street.  On the other hand, I can imagine Dante’s computer abilities being put to good use as they were moving in, so perhaps they’re elsewhere.

And that’s it for this one!  Not a huge amount of activity here, but we’ll be getting loads of it as we move forward into the next arc, so lets get at least a start on it, with the next post.

[stillness-in-green]

Human Debris Masterpost (7/??)

So wow, guess who totally underestimated how much her post length was going to balloon when the increased Human Debris presence of season two hit her four-episodes-per-post guideline?  Yes, it’s me.  So for the rest of season two, I’ll be posting on the basis of trying not to dump over five thousand words into the tags in one go, HAHAHAerk.  Only two episodes today, and it’s still as long as any of this series’ previous longest posts, back in the Brewers arc!  

So, getting on into it, we open season two with...

EPISODE TWENTY-SIX — New Blood 

We open with a gravestone/memorial covered in names, almost certainly a number of which belonged to some of the unnamed Human Debris of the first season.  Alas, we have no way to track them specifically, but here’s the stone in any case, if for no other reason than that some of the names on here are A+ ridiculous Gundam Names.  (R.I.P. Purple Downey.)  

We find that some time has passed since we last left our group, but they’ve been plenty busy, swearing oaths to Teiwaz proper.  None of our boys in attendance at that ceremony; it seems that it was a bit more exclusive, as we see only Eugene, Mika and Merribit as known figures on the Tekkadan side, and only Naze and Amida (and the very first shot of Jasley, notably) on the Teiwaz side.  

No, our very first red-stripe watch shot of the season, even before Akihiro, surprisingly goes to Aston! 

He’s on scene when Atra is narrating about how Tekkadan’s new position as military advisor for Arbrau, and the associated Earth-branch location where we will be spending so much time in the season’s second set of episodes.  It’s immediately followed by our first shot of one of last season’s boys, Chad, watching Takaki do a certain amount of the talking, though we’ll eventually find out that Chad is, in fact, in charge around here.   

As you can see by the fact that as he’s gotten a uniform jacket that doesn’t have a huge red stripe slathered across the shoulder and back, Chad and our other ex-Human Debris have finally and truly become ex-Human Debris.  Praises be! And I’m glad that it is Chad who’s actually in charge; I’ll confess to a moment of miffed protectiveness, back when I first watched the episode, at the idea of Takaki (in season one, still designated as ‘the leader of the younger boys’) having been promoted over Chad.  It seemed a trifle unfair, though of course we had no idea which of either of them was better suited to a command position at the time.  But more on that in due time.

Our other two members of the original trio follow along shortly, as we find Akihiro and Dante back on Mars.  This is our first hint that Dante will also be moving into a more major role; you’ll recall that in the first season, he was an extremely sporadic presence, a third-stringer who showed up periodically to support Akihiro or back up Shino, but who seldom got much at all to do, and tended to vanish from group scenes practically as soon as he’d entered them.  You had (or at least, I had) the impression of him as someone who was kind of a jack-of-all-trades, flitting around from one area to another as his presence was required, but with no dedicated position like Chad or Akihiro held. Well, we’ll soon find out that he does indeed have a preference on the matter, and his appearance here, with Akihiro and Shino—Tekkadan’s second- and third-best mobile suit pilots—makes it fairly plain what that preference is going to prove to be.

Our last character to be on the watch for, Derma, will have to wait just a little longer for his first showing of the season.

This shot comes up as Atra tells us about the increasing strife in the world and how Tekkadan’s startlingly good performance at Edmonton has lead to a higher number of children being sent to war, and a likewise growing number of Human Debris.  So these boys don’t have the red stripe yet, but they’re bound for it.  And they are all boys, I notice.  We never do see a girl with the signature Human Debris mark, and I wonder a bit about why that is.  There are certainly possibilities that leap to mind, but they’re as unpleasant as they are obvious, so I won’t get into them here.  I will say that it’s something to keep in mind for when we get to the Turbines backstory.  

And speaking of the Turbines!  To the tune of a rather jazzy piece of music that I’m pretty sure is played absolutely nowhere else in the series, we find Lafter hard at work beating some training into an extremely outclassed Dante, who’s making some really great faces about it.

Dante, for all his hacking skills, is kind of a meathead, but he’s an extremely loveable meathead.  He’s dedicated and stubborn, earthier and more pragmatic than the perpetually upbeat Shino, but still more openly firey than either Mikazuki, who’s as remote as his namesake most of the time, or the taciturn, stoic Akihiro.  This makes him a great addition to the main roster of pilots, giving the writers someone they can be a little comic with—witness his defensive yelling and cursing here about trying his best as Azee shouts at him to react faster—without sacrificing sincerity.

Looking a little exasperated, Yukinojo helpfully namedrops him for the audience, plenty of whom had absolutely no idea who he was, as was very obvious if you were following the various review blogs covering the series at the time.  Zack, the pompadour-newbie, observes that this is Dante’s first time in the mobile suit.  If I had to guess, I’d say Dante has been pushing for priority in mobile suit training for some time, and pestered everyone about it so much that, when they got in the shipment of Shidens, they decided to let him be first in line for the “Lets all get annihilated by Lafter” party.  If he was half as persistent about it as Akihiro was in season one, but way louder, it’s easy to imagine why Yukinojo felt so facepalmy about it.  

Rather pleasantly, the new guys assume that Dante’s holding his own as well as he is because of his Alaya-Vijnana implant, a view Shino quickly corrects for them.  No, Dante actually is just that capable, or that well-read, or has done that much time in a simulator, or some combination of the above.  

Anyway, you guys, I love Dante and so should you.

Directly, we find out that Akihiro is now in charge of a unit of his own, with Ride as his second-in-command, and the little firebrand is very quick to jump in with the drill sergeant talk.  Gotta be faster if you wanna get a word in edgewise, Akihiro-han.  

This, incidentally, could suggest that Dante is Shino’s second, if you assume that picture earlier of the four of them talking by the mobile worker is a unit leader meeting of some kind.  

When next we see him, Akihiro is clarifying for us how much of its work Tekkadan still does with no shirts on.  Dante was shirtless earlier, of course, but that was just for practice, and during the day!  Surely, as a fancy official company, Tekkadan doesn’t let its employees do actual commissioned jobs half-naked?  

No, in fact, Tekkadan does exactly that, a fact which will be thrown into even more hilarious contrast when they’re teamed up with McGillis for the whole Hashmal misadventure later.  Look forward to it.  

It’s easy to miss in the glare, but here’s our first shot of Derma for the season!  As well as a quick little moment for the ShinoYama shippers, we also find Dante examining a data slate alongside Echo, as probably the most computer-literate people on the field right now.  The grouping tells us that Dante is indeed in Shino’s unit, as is Derma, a supposition that will be confirmed shortly.  It also lays some early groundwork on Derma and Dante having taken to each other enough to hang out when they’re not immediately on the job, as we will later see. 

I really feel for Akihiro in this sequence.  He spent almost the entirety of the first season in a mobile suit, and half of it in a Gundam, and now he’s back in this rattling three-wheeled deathtrap as a bunch of mobile suits charge the field? My God, couldn’t they at least have gotten him one of the Shidens or something to pilot?  Or is this one of those things where Tekkadan is doing all it can not to escalate, only to look on in horror as a villain proves willing to up the ante (see: Graze Ein entering Edmonton; everything about the Dainsleifs)?

Apparently not, as Shino swoops in to save the day in the newest iteration of his Ryuusei-Go, the lot of which I will at some point assemble a post for you all on, because they’re all great, especially the crash helmet.   

And here we have confirmation of Derma and Dante’s placement under Shino’s wing, as well as the headaches it causes poor Derma, who probably never imagined something like this was going to be his life back when we met him in the first season.  

Possibly to not have to think about how deeply embarrassing Shino’s weird naming themes are, Derma moves in, and proves himself to be an entirely capable combatant with a sword, it turns out.  Witness his opponent’s jazz-hands of defeat! 

Dante, meanwhile, keeps his firing range distance. Judging by his expression, he’s having a bit of trouble here (it is, after all, his very first live combat in a mobile suit).  It may also be the case that’s he’s already worked out what Elgar and Enbi are hollering at Hush and Zack about—that this assault is too straightforward, and that there’s going to be more to it than there first appears.  

Derma continues to perform like a tiny champion badass, saving Dante (not so good with a sword, it seems) by making a huge skyward leap and landing on Dante’s opponent with his machine’s foot driven squarely into the man’s cockpit.  Truly, the difference in their levels of experience is made very clear in this scene, in case anyone has forgotten that Derma fought an unknown number of space battles in a grunt mobile suit under the command of Kudal Kudan, a man who treated his subordinates with all the affection and respect an underground dog fighting ring affords its combatants.  

Dante keeps at it like a champ, though, responding that he’ll make it last when Derma asks after the levels of fuel left in his thrusters.  It��s a risk he’s taking here, as running out of fuel would leave him completely disabled on the field.

Thankfully, as the early haze of predawn gives way to the blue of early morning, the team ace arrives, with the new opening theme streaming out behind him, and we bring the episode to a close.  Before we get to the next one, though, lets hit that new intro, shall we?

OP 3 — Rage of Dust

This opening’s a little fun in that it’s more grounded and contiguous than the others, with less generic Purposeful Walking, Forceful Yelling, or Significant Imagery. There’s a sense that we’re seeing snippets from a particular set of events—a Tekkadan sortie in space against Arianrhod, a fight the Earth branch and McGillis are dealing with on Earth, and so on. For example… 

Our first shot, right near the beginning, is of Akihiro passing by a room where Mikazuki and Ride are suiting up for space combat.  Akihiro’s managed to get dressed more quickly than either of them, because Ride is still kinda bad at it and Mikazuki is trying to do it one-handed while also bolting a snack. 

He heads on down the hall, serious as ever. 

We find Derma and Dante, paired up again, drifting above a Shiden hanger, also suited up, with Dante getting some orders of some kind via his helmet. 

After the title screen, we skip to some shots of more everyday life, like Akihiro and company being amused at Orga’s irritation at the petty everyday difficulties of running a business. 

Chad is dealing with similar fine detail work, though assisted by, as we will find, a far more treacherous accountant. 

Aston we find having a late afternoon snack with his new (only) favorite family. 

He’s very happy, and it’s a little impressive how hard you can raise a death flag using no more than a smile in an opening sequence.

We are now into the more standard imagery, but at least everyone looks nice.  Here’s Chad with Eugene, our two responsible, sub-leader types (and Shino, who dived out of the sub-leader position like he was getting scored on it).

Akihiro gets the screen with the two he’s shared his last name with, though of course we won’t find that out for some time. 

And there’s Dante, squirreled well away from anyone significant to him.  (Do your best, Dante.)  

And that’s it for the new intro, so lets get onto the next episode! 

EPISODE TWENTY-SEVEN — In the Midst of Jealousy 

Showing his similarity to his squad leader, Dante is entirely ready to pursue the Dawn Horizon guys when Mikazuki drives them into retreat. 

Derma is little different, protesting when Mika calls them back from following.  He also shows the distinctive shape of his mouth here.  I think there’s a Japanese term for this quirk of character design, which I do not immediately recall, but it’s pretty unique to Derma (albeit not wholly consistent), and gives him a kind of sulky look, like someone whose lips are perpetually set in a terse line.  Also, the kid is ripped. Not so different from any of the others, but seriously, go back and compare his build in the Brewers arc to here. Tekkadan has been good to him.  

Derma and Dante both begin rebuking Mikazuki for his reckless usage of Barbatos, which is fun. Derma, having a particularly terrible space rat kind of upbringing, doubtlessly has a pretty finely tuned handle on fuel management, which Mikazuki does not and never will bother with developing, while Dante is just miffed that they just got it fixed, too.  One gets the sense that everyone who’s been with Tekkadan for any length of time gets pretty used to Mikazuki Being Like This.

  Certainly it’s not news to Akihiro. 

We see again here, on the Dawn Horizon flagship, the piratical red stripe theme.  The captain, Sandoval Reuters, has a big red bullseye painted on his forehead as well.  At this point, I almost begin to wonder if the red stripe is more a mark of Outer Sphere horrors than anything else.  Piracy, slavery; throw a red stripe on it and it’s like a code for civilized society to stay as far away from it as possible.  

In any case, while Dawn Horizon absolutely uses Human Debris, as we will later find, they certainly don’t use them on the bridge like the Brewers did, which definitely suggests an organization that has its act together a bit more thoroughly than Brooke Kabayan did.  

We return to a sobered Tekkadan, where the veterans are discussing a future containing up to ten assault ships, and the new recruits are wrestling with the reality of how quickly and brutally death can show up when you’re working for a mercenary outfit.  Akihiro comes in and tells the newbies that anyone who wants to quit can do so. Tekkadan lets people decide if they want to stay or leave, live or die. 

He strokes his fingers down the front of his uniform while he says this, right over where his stripe used to be, and it’s maybe my single favorite of his character moments in the entire show.  It’s quite clear that he’s thinking back to when Orga took over and offered the lot of them not only their freedom, but a choice, to go and take severance pay with them, or to stay and be as much under the organization’s protection as any other member.  I love that the show just trusts us to have figured out what the stripe indicated, remember where it was, and know why that freedom of choice was and is so huge to Akihiro that he needs to make sure everyone understands that they have it.

It’s unclear how much of this weighted history the newbies are aware of, but Shino certainly understands the significance, giving Akihiro a rueful, understanding smile.  

Meanwhile, in far less introspective territory… 

Dante is super pumped about being a mobile suit pilot now, and wants to start putting a kill count on his unit.  I, meanwhile, reflect on the fact that Dante, who until he got his first paycheck doubtless never actually owned anything post- whatever incident it was that landed him with a Human Debris stripe, wants to start personalizing his unit right away, anything to put his mark on it.  Taken together with his season one preview dialogue about finding comfort in neatly aligned computer data, it suggests someone who values physical proofs of existence, and is reassured by things you can observe and interact with, regardless of what anyone else thinks of them or you.  

The Turbines girls (and Ride) are less than impressed, reminding him that he didn’t take down anybody solo, and also, it isn’t his personal unit to mark up yet anyway.  Poor Dante gets no respect.  I’m glad he’s of a personality that can roll with being rebuked by someone several years younger than him with nothing more than some complaining about procedure. 

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Chad has his hands full with his own Teiwaz liason, Radice here, who is already talking faintly treasonous talk about how HQ (Tekkadan) is failing to uphold their bargains, and doing that talking right out in the open hallway instead of taking it to whatever sort of private office Chad must logically have.

When he gets to the point of suggesting that the troubles of the Mars branch have nothing to do with the Earth branch, Chad looks surprised, then stern, and responds with a firm defense of Orga’s requests and considerations of their situation.  When Radice doesn’t back down, only complaining more openly, Chad tells him point blank that regardless of the branch Orga is the boss of Tekkadan, which means his words are to be trusted and followed; that this is what defines Tekkadan.  

Guys, I’ve liked Chad since season one, but I didn’t blame anyone back then for not knowing who he was.  His position was never detailed, he had nothing but throwaway dialogue, and you never saw him away from work long enough to get any kind of bead on who this guy was and made him tick.  This is his first real stand-out scene as a character, and it is so, so defining.  It gives us so much material to work with in one scene. 

It tells us that this is a young man who’s responsible, open-minded enough to let others say their piece, reluctant to push too hard or make a scene, but wholly willing to plant his feet and refuse to budge when someone goes too far in questioning the people and organization to which he is unfailingly, unstintingly loyal.  Knowing he’s in charge despite not being very prominent last season tells us also that he works well with others, that he’s cool-headed enough to be put in charge, and more than that, put in charge of a branch located on a planet he’s barely seen, working with people he doesn’t know, dealing with anything from unintended microaggressions all the way up to full-throated, to-his-face ethnocentricism.  Taking that position (because I very much doubt he had the self-worth to volunteer for it) shows him as either quite brave or distressingly selfless, depending on how long he thought about it before accepting it.  

You guys.  I love Chad.  You should too.  

ANYWAY, Radice gets frustrated and stalks off.  He says it’s because the conversation isn’t going anywhere, but with what we know about how the upcoming arc plays out, I suspect it’s more because Chad refuses to back down, and he really hates it when teenagers don’t concede to his adulthood.  There’s maybe no character in the series who more purely disdains Tekkadan as children, I think, than Radice, so someone like Chad, who’s serious and responsible and, just sometimes, completely impossible to sway, must be just infuriating.

It would be very satisfying to me if it didn’t lead to Chad spending the bulk of said upcoming arc in uncertain health and almost wholly offscreen.  SIGH.

Chad also seems to find the encounter frustrating, sighing hard and rubbing his head, probably discontent and wondering if there’s any better way to handle that guy than he can figure out, along with being worried about his friends back home.

  Meanwhile, other adults are getting mouthed off at by even younger children, who have a far less respectful attitude about it. Aston, we find, has been trying to “show the ropes” to some of Arbrau’s military, and one of them has not taken kindly to some point of policy or another, and is having to be physically restrained from taking a swing at the very unapologetic Aston. 

Takaki breaks it up and apologizes, but cannot get Aston to do the same.

Man, this kid’s eyes.  They were sharp and vivid even in season one, but they’ve only become moreso with the increased focus from the narrative.  It’s interesting that he played kind of a mediator with his companions with the Brewers, trying to ease both sides of the closest thing we ever saw to an inter-group conflict with them.  He’ll be doing the same later on in this arc with his new group, but he certainly doesn’t seem to give a damn about playing the peacekeeper where outsiders are concerned.  Aston, your wolfpack tendencies are showing. 

Back at the Uno household, we find Takaki has invited Aston back for dinner, though Aston was expecting a scolding from Chad’s second in command.  It’s a little notable here, I think, that compared to Derma, Aston and Takaki have not bulked up anywhere near as much, suggesting either that Derma is really dedicated to a workout routine or that there is less conflict/stiff competition for mobile suits on Earth.  It could be an inconsistency between animators, but I’ll be keeping an eye on it.

When asked how his food tastes by Takaki’s sister Fuuka, Aston says it tastes good, then shares a somewhat inconsiderate (and depressing) personal detail: that he used to eat garbage growing up, so everything tastes good now.  (This suggests he ate even worse before joining the Brewers, who at least seem to have thrown nutrient bars at him every now and again.)

He asks Takaki if he doesn’t get lonely on Earth, away from Mars, and then gets just the tiniest bit flustered when Takaki calls him a friend, and man, I just don’t buy this kid as a detached recluse who never cared about anyone before Takaki and Fuuka.  How would he even understand loneliness well enough to ask after it if that were the case?  I wonder if we’re meant to read all the ship-teasing that will follow as legit? Because it would certainly explain things if Aston felt something different for Takaki than for Masahiro and Derma and the rest but could never quite put his finger on the word for that difference, so just assumed that his more intense feelings After Takaki must have indicated a dearth of feelings Before Takaki, when it’s plain that he’s always been fairly invested in his immediate peer group.  

Anyway, I will continue to try to puzzle Aston out as we move on, and beg your forgiveness for harping on the same point repeatedly.  

Normally at this point I would cover the third ED, Shounen no Hate, but as it turns out, it has not a lick of red stripes in it anywhere, so it’s a wash for our purposes.

That said, I have the next episode down, and have been making relatively steady progress through them, so our next episode should not be altogether too long in coming.  Look forward to it!

[stillness-in-green]

i love all your posts on the Human Debris in IBO, they're all really well written and i enjoy reading them a lot!!!!

Thank you very much!!  I enjoy writing them a lot.  The Human Debris are all such sweeties and I love them all.  And all the ones I was most worried about managed to survive!  I was sure there was no way Dante and Chad were going to make it out of the show alive, and yet!  And I was rooting SO MUCH for poor Derma, if only so the show didn’t kill literally every named character from the Brewers Debris.  

Speaking of Derma, now that the show’s over and he lived, can I just say that I love the EXTRA IRONY of him being the one to talk about reincarnation with the other Brewers kids and how nice it would be, to be born somewhere better in their next lives–and yet he’s the only one who won’t find out the answer for a good many years yet?  Because I love that irony a lot.  

[stillness-in-green]

Human Debris Masterpost (6/12)

So, before we start, yes, I’m as surprised as anyone that Chad made it out of this week’s episode alive.  You guys, I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself if Akihiro, Chad and Dante all manage to survive this.  Could I possibly get so lucky?

Ride, meanwhile, seems destined to coast gracefully out the end of the show on a tide of corpses. I’m like 80% sure that kid’s parents were the first victims of whatever fell powers they bargained with to avert any doom that ever came for their son.  

In any case, this will not be a hugely long post, as there’s not a lot of red-stripe activity in the finale, so lets get on to it, with...

EPISODE TWENTY ONE — To the Place of No Return

Wildly little to talk about with this one.  Akihiro is our only Human Debris character in the whole thing, so just to hit the highlights:

He’s briefly shown in a lookout position with Mikazuki as Gjallarhorn draws closer. 

He’s also having some trouble adjusting to in-atmosphere combat in Gusion.

Mikazuki speaks a language he understand though (it’s body language), and tells him to follow the sensations rather than trying to think about how to manually make the machine do what he wants—in essence to remember that he’s got an Alaya Vijnana system and doesn’t have to think to make the machine do what he wants.  It’s enough to get his shots on target, in any case.

He also gets this delightful little, “I’m allowed to shoot, right?” moment when Carta’s trying to do her speech—which is nice, since it’s typically Mikazuki that gets those moments, and he’s much more certain about it than Akihiro, who asks permission (after the fact, mind).  

The battle goes on as all the red flags around Biscuit foreshadowed it would, and we move on, to…

EPISODE 22 — Not Yet Home 

A random red-stripe appears!  There’s a Random Brunette—not, I don’t think, meant to be Akihiro—floating around the bay on the transport ship, so I guess there are at least a few around after all.   

Akihiro himself is here as well, but hanging around Gusion’s cockpit instead.

There’s also one standing in the rough circle around where Biscuit has been laid out—which makes sense, as we’ve always gotten the idea that Biscuit is a conscientious, sweet guy to everyone. 

Towards the end of the episode, meanwhile, we see a few in the crowd listening to Orga’s speech to rile up the group after Biscuit’s death. 

And that ls likewise it for this one!  Man, this write-up’s going way faster. 

EPISODE 23 — The Final Lie 

Only one observation on Akihiro here: when Carta issues (heh) her challenge to a 3-on-3 fight, Shino is of course all for it, but Akihiro is very ready to throw down as well.  

It’s easy to miss because Azee and Lafter break in to remind them (like good mafia members) that they don’t gotta do a deal with nobody, because they have the entire upper hand here.  But you can just see Akihiro going to crack his knuckles here.

There’s also three red-stripes in with Yukinojo (rather a first; I assume he’s pulling help from whoever’s available, since he doesn’t have his full usual crew) right as the ending credits start cueing up—one of either side of the screen, and one behind his shoulder.  Actually, looking back on it, this might be because they’re dealing more with mobile workers than mobile suits.  Mobile suits seems to take a bit of literacy to optimally handle, whereas mobile workers may not, and given the kind of work CGS seemed to do back in the day, I’m sure all the ex-Human Debris are extremely familiar with mobile workers.  

And I think Dante and Chad might be back next episode, maybe, so lets move right along. 

EPISODE 24 — A Future Reward 

We open after a time skip of three days, to find Tekkadan badly hurting but hanging in there.  When the mobile suits catch a break, Mikazuki comments about finally being able to eat something, to Shino and Akihiro’s disbelief.  I think it’s a little interesting that neither of them, but Akihiro in particular, hasn’t actually learned this tendency, of eating when you can.  But then, perhaps Akihiro’s gut instinct is more attuned to only getting food after a successful battle, not right in the middle of one.  Certainly food deprivation seems in line with e.g. how the Brewers treated their Human Debris.  

There are a number of group shots in Orga’s big speech in this episode, and I do not see a red stripe anywhere among the listeners, not a one.  There are likely some members of Tekkadan too injured to stand outside and listen to a lengthy morale-boosting speech, but I think it’s likely that any Human Debris brought to this encounter acted, as they often do, with such willful disregard for their lives that if any of them survived, they’re definitely in that too-banged-up-to-walk category.  

Finally, though, in the final push, as the Tekkadan group on the bridge is getting stomped, Eugene shows up with reinforcements, including Chad and Dante—the first time we’ve ever seen either of them actually hand-piloting anything this season, though of course we know from the very first episode (and certainly the Turbines arc) that Dante was capable of it, and could assume Chad was as well. 

Them, I remembered.  You know who I totally didn’t remember showed up here, though? 

It’s these two!  Aston and Derma, the two surviving Brewers kids, here to fight for their place/pay day.  Which is interesting in light of their earlier and later characterization—it’s a little reversed, perhaps, than what you might expect.  But then, I’ve always been of the opinion that Aston cares far more for his comrades than he was willing to accept he did, and Derma may be fronting somewhat, happy in the moment of playing Big Damn Heroes.  And hey, I’m sure the paycheck is an interesting novelty for him.  (I don’t buy it as his primary motivator, though.) 

Anyway, this reinforcement probably single-handedly saves Ride’s life, and that kid will be pulling like three times his weight next season, so good job, team!

Most of the rest of the episode is, of course, dedicated to Ein being an unholy terror-beast, so lets move on, to the final episode of season one. 

EPISODE 25 — Tekkadan 

I don’t often include the robot shots, but here, have this one, showcasing the results of Akihiro’s completely off-screen battle with no less than four Grazes, which he fought solo, and, well… 

I particularly like that he’s nicked someone else’s sword to hold, and may well have beaten a dude to death with their own arm. 

He’s gotten kind of nose-bleedy about it, which could be from an injury, but more likely means he had to wring a bit more than he was used to out of the Gusion himself.

The bridge group’s battle draws to a close with the sighting of a ceasefire signal flare; Chad calls Eugene’s attention to it, and we also get this shot of Dante cracking open his cockpit (very bravely, too).  I’m thinking that’s Aston in the background there, a bit too distant to see the scar.

And then we cut to the wrap-up material.  Akihiro we find hanging out with Eugene and Shino.

The two are talking about finally going home, and the ones they lost being able to rest in peace, which draws one of these rare non-fighty smiles out of Akihiro. 

After some wrap-up with our two main characters and their respective most significant side-character relationships, we come back to the Tekkadan group as a whole for Orga’s series-closing speech.  And throughout this, we get both our last shots of our named red-stripes, as well as, for the sharp-eyed, confirmation that some unnamed ones survived as well! 

The first one we can see was probably in my hypothesized ‘too injured to walk around’ group, as we can see by the huge full-limb cast on his leg and the cane he’s holding.  (Look just to the right of Barbatos, and down, to the left of the blond dude.) 

There’re also the two on the right here, looking much more intact.  So it seems we have a fair number of red-stripes after all, thankfully. Of course, we never got any distinct recurring character designs for any of them other than our named ones, so by the time next season and the new, unstriped uniforms roll around, we will lose any way to track them.  Ah, well. At least Dante and Chad will have more (far more) to do.

Speaking of, here’s our last shot of our main character red stripes, with Chad looking either slightly off-model or like he’s had a bit of a haircut while he was here.  And so serious, Dante!  Don’t worry; you’ll get plenty of time to grin (and lots of time to not) soon enough.  

And, as if to foreshadow people who will also be getting more to do next season, we get a shot of Aston and Derma as well. Aston’s solemn about it; Derma looks a bit like this is the first time he’s ever heard such a great inspirational speech.  

And at least as far as the Human Debris cast are concerned, that’s a wrap on season one! I hope everyone’s enjoyed this first half of the tour, and will continue on with me into the next season, which offers no shortage of opportunities to point and yell about the red-stripe cast, particularly as they start getting enough attention that those less-eagle-eyed viewers/reviewers are finally forced to start noticing them.  Bless.