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IBO reference notes on . . . the lone swordsman

The fights in Iron-Blooded Orphans are gorgeous – a solid advertisement for the advantages of traditional animation methods and just plain fantastic to watch. They also serve important characterisation purposes, as one would expect from a show building a story around giant mecha battles. For a while now I've wanted to explore an example of this, to confirm my impressions of how the rendering of the combat dovetails with the arc of one character in particular.

So today we're going to do a deep-dive into McGillis Fareed's fighting style and how it serves to punctuate his rise and fall across the two seasons of the show. Major spoilers ahead, alongside as many images as I could fit into one post.

Gjallarhorn's finest

The first time we see McGillis fight, in episode 5, when Tekkadan make their escape from Mars, he pilots a Schwalbe Graze – a souped-up version of the standard Gjallarhorn grunt mobile suit sporting extra thrusters and a slightly more humanoid appearance. I'm somewhat unsure how useful it is to consider supplementary material when assessing this scene, since I have no way to judge what was taken into account for the fight design and what was flavour added during or after the production of the show. However, the Schwalbe's status as a 'super-prototype' of the Graze is evident in its correspondingly higher performance: Gaelio Bauduin showcases the extra thrust that gives his machine more pulling strength, while McGillis makes use of the additional speed.

His opening salvo is, fittingly, a refined version of the standard tactics we see other space-based Grazes pilots use over the course of this season and the next. He leads with his rifle, held two-handedly, taking aim from a distance. Indeed, the aiming is what is emphasised as he takes the time to assess Gundam Barbatos and the boy inside it, noting exterior clues to the weak-points of his target. He thus deduces that the instinctual movements of an Alaya-Vijnana user nevertheless conceal a glaring vulnerability: Mikazuki Augus is unused to treating his thrusters as a part of his body and therefore isn't protecting them from attack.

This, at least, is what I think we are meant to take from a sequence where the script appears to be slightly out of sync with the action, Mika claiming a direct hit is a near miss. My best read is that means the shot would have hit him, the pilot, if it hadn't struck the thruster, and McGillis is drawing an inference based on seeing that the only damage Mika had taken up to then was on said component.

Regardless of how we unpick it, McGillis is plainly a much more calculating and considered fighter than the comparatively reckless Gaelio. By allowing his fellow officer to faff around trying to hit Mika with head-on attacks, McGillis has the space to examine the situation then select the best tactic to employ.

Having landed the first significant blow against Barbatos, McGillis follows up by using his mobile suit's grappling cable to latch on to the Gundam's arm, yanking Mika around. He then flies in at high speed to pepper the exposed machine with rifle rounds. Mika is able to neutralise this manoeuvre somewhat by ejecting the armour the cable is latched on to, but can do little else except shield himself as the Schwalbe rockets past. We are shown, therefore, that while McGillis is the sort to step back and assess a situation on first encountering it, he is also not afraid of getting up close to his enemies. Moreover, he's good at it, emerging from the engagement entirely unscathed, which might be a record when it comes to the people unlucky enough to face Mikazuki. Only the equally-skilled Lafter comes close to this and even she is eventually run to ground, via Mika's own use of cable-based tactics.

Most importantly, McGillis revels in this. Where Gaelio gets progressively more irritated (and racist) as the fight goes on, his brother-in-arms is living for the chance to face a Gundam in combat and visibly delighted to find the enemy pilot has considerable talent of his own. This completes a trifecta of defining traits for McGillis. He is skilled and smart, daring in the face of danger, and eager for battle.

Episode 5 closes on a shot of him bursting into laughter after the fight is done and Tekkadan have delivered the traitorous Todo over to Gjallarhorn's custody. Isolated from the preceding events, this would have been a startling break from the smooth, stoic, even pedantic personality shown in previous episodes. However, the fight with Barbatos bridges the gap. McGillis comes alive, providing an early glimpse of his true self, albeit still filtered through the professional lens of his day-job.

An overture in orbit

By the time episode 19 rolls around, McGillis has taken the mask further off, entering an alliance with Tekkadan to fulfil his ambitions. It is interesting to note that, compared to other 'Char clones', McGillis is only tangentially involved in chasing after the series' main Gundam. This aspect of the plot is left to Gaelio and his subordinate Ein Dalton, while their erstwhile superior busies himself laying the groundwork for upstaging his adoptive father.

As such, McGillis' second foray is against his own side, when he comes to Tekkadan's assistance during their descent to Earth. This time, he is piloting the Grimgerde, a much more unique mobile suit that serves as a means of hiding his identity from the Outer Earth Orbit Regulatory Joint Fleet troops his old friend Carta Issue has ordered to intercept the Martian interlopers.

Once again, he enters the fray by opening fire from afar, hitting his targets with pin-point precision. If you watch the sequence where he shoots down the Graze Ritters chasing Barbatos, you'll see he's taking out their backpacks, disabling the boosters that allow the Graze-frame 'suits to manoeuvre in zero gravity. Even if this doesn't kill the pilot outright, it removes them from the fight, leaving them unable to keep up with a battle extending into Earth's upper atmosphere. A great detail, demonstrating again McGillis' considered approach to combat.

He abandons the gun after only two shots, however, switching instead to the Grimgerde's signature arm-mounted swords.

His close-range engagement with the Ritters – which are modified for slightly higher manoeuvrability but otherwise function as a more ceremonially-orientated version of the standard Graze – is extremely brief. The truth is that he needs to do little other than provide a distraction to allow Mikazuki to break through. But in these few seconds, we get a preview of how McGillis fights using his preferred style.

Based on later events, it seems likely he picked the Grimgerde specifically because of its weaponry, as a means of channelling his personal hero, Agnika Kaieru, who also fought with twinned swords. Flashbacks show McGillis learning to fence at an early age and swordsmanship is evidently a skill he has continued to hone into the present day. In this, he displays the same ability to expose his enemy's weak-points that we saw with his use of a gun. He slashes at the Graze Ritter's head, then strikes it on the back while it's off balance, two swords allowing him to attack in rapid succession. To make clear that we are supposed to read continuity between the two fights, these moves are how Mikazuki links this unfamiliar mobile suit to 'the chocolate man' he fought against over Mars.

Suffice to say, McGillis is established as an extremely formidable combatant.

The science of fratricide

Everything discussed so far has been building to McGillis' third battle of the season, which is to say, murdering his best friend.

Crucial to the events of the final couple of episodes is the fact McGillis is essentially controlling both sides. Under his 'Montag' guise, he has enabled Tekkadan's descent to Earth and given them the material support necessary to reach the Arbrau capital of Edmonton, Canada. Meanwhile, as a member of Gjallarhorn's Inspection Bureau and heir to one of the Seven Star noble families, he has authorised a secret research division to merge Ein with a giant, Alaya-Vijnana-equipped Graze variant. The latter is ostensibly done to help Ein and Gaelio complete their mission to intercept Tekkadan and capture Kudelia Aina Bernstein, which at this stage has become a matter of personal vengeance.

In reality, McGillis is providing Tekkadan with a self-evidently 'evil' enemy to vanquish in front of the watching world, demonstrating Gjallarhorn's corruption via the existence of the human augmentation experiments necessary to create the Graze Ein. Ein's presence and defeat ensures the election for Arbrau's prime minister ends in favour of a candidate who will reject and expose the schemes of McGillis' adoptive father. Obviously this is staking a lot on Tekkadan's – and specifically Mikazuki's – ability to win the fight, but at this point, I don't think there's much doubt over that in McGillis' mind. He already fed Carta Issue to them, sending her out to get herself killed trying to stop their progress. Ein is simply repeating the trick.

Theoretically, he may have intended to do it a third time with Gaelio, who is initially the one to fight Mikazuki on the plains surrounding the city. Based on what we know about McGillis' personality, though, I am sure he hoped events would proceed as they do, with Mikazuki being drawn off to deal with Ein, leaving Gaelio out in the open, alone.

On arriving to take Mikazuki's place, McGillis immediately reveals his identity and complicity in everything that has happened, making absolutely sure Gaelio – who he grew up with and who considered him a dear friend – knows the full depth of his betrayal. In short, he goes out of his way to make Gaelio angry.

Everything else aside, this is why McGillis wins the fight. As I will shortly discuss, he certainly out-classes Gaelio on a technical level. But this initial act of psychological warfare throws Gaelio entirely off his game, leaving him to flail passionately at a far more composed enemy. McGillis continues to goad him throughout, keeping him riled up and stopping him thinking clearly. The consequences are evident from the start, where McGillis easily evades Gaelio's enraged charge and scores a solid cut on his mobile suit's head as a result.

In terms of physical attacks, these follow from what has already been established of McGillis' technique. He aims for the head and then the cockpit, breaching the latter. Earlier, when he took out Carta's troops, it is plausible that he only aimed to disable. Here, there is no doubt of his intent to kill.

As such, he sets about removing the obstacles in his path, starting with the shield Gaelio uses to blunt the impact of that stab to the cockpit. Kimaris, the Bauduin Family's Gundam, is built to use a lance as its main weapon and one of these (the 'Destroyer Lance') was discarded during the earlier fight with Gundam Barbatos. Leaping over to where it lies and taking command of its systems, such that it boosts itself up into his hand, McGillis hurls it back at Kimaris, dislodging the shield entirely.

This does have the disadvantage of re-equipping Gaelio with a large offensive weapon, but it is rapidly apparent this won't tip the scales. Hampered by the extra weight, Gaelio is reduced to fighting one-armed at close range and his short-sword is no real defence against McGillis' attacks. Another hit takes off Kimaris' right pauldron, exposing the shoulder joint beneath.

McGillis' Grimgerde is, on paper, the weaker machine. It possess only a single Ahab reactor next to Kimaris' two and is less well-armoured. Additionally, the Kimaris Trooper form Gaelio has been using since a couple of episodes prior is adapted for operating under Earth's gravity, sporting extra thrusters to allow it to manoeuvre while using a weapon as large as the lance.

However, the Grimgerde is also an extremely nimble machine. In the hands of a skilled pilot – as it certainly is here – it can dance rings around a theoretically more powerful enemy. McGillis likely cannot afford to take many hits. But thanks to his abilities and Grimgerde's capacity for gymnastics, he easily avoids taking any.

When Gaelio charges at him again, McGillis retreats a considerable distance across the open terrain, the increased space between them acting as a buffer. As he does throughout this whole engagement, he allows Gaelio to throw all his strength into the battle while reserving his own for when it will be most effective. Control remains the watchword here. At no point does McGillis lose the upper hand.

Coming in close once more, Gaelio throws aside his lance, switching back to the short-sword. And from here on out, things proceed with a terrible inevitability.

There is never any doubt who will be victorious. Gaelio is fighting from a place of shock, the sudden betrayal bringing him to tears. McGillis, by contrast, has long mastered his own feelings, approaching the murder of his best friend with cool detachment. As Gaelio swings wildly, he slices at the Gundam's knee and the shoulder, leaving Kimaris paralysed and defenceless against a final, precise stab through the cockpit.

Season 1 does not represent the highest McGillis will reach in terms of his combat abilities. But like Tekkadan's success at Edmonton, this is perhaps the last time he can claim an absolute victory, without caveat or compromise. This fight is a showcase of his strengths and of his style, of his skills and his ruthlessness.

It is also, fittingly, the very thing that dooms him in the long run.

Caught off balance

Come Season 2 and his elevation to the Seven Stars, McGillis has lost any interest he once had in conforming to typical Gjallarhorn fighting styles.

Having passed his Schwalbe Graze on to aide-de-camp Isurugi Camice, he switches to using a Graze Ritter, the same machine formerly operated by Carta and her elite guard. He then proceeds to be an obnoxious show-off when called on to bring an end to the unexpected war between the Arbrau and SAU economic blocks. Wielding two swords, he absolutely clowns on a group of Arbrau mobile suits, taking them to pieces.

At one point – after using a downed 'suit as a shield – he backflips in mid-air while jumping across the battlefield to massacre another hapless grunt, who he de-hands and then stabs in the cockpit. It's a neat refresher on how McGillis is at once a lethally skilled combatant and a man in possession of a flair for the dramatic.

There's obvious continuity between this and his use of the Grimgerde. It is very easy to picture the former machine pulling off these exact tactics and we later learn that the chief reason for the switch is to distance himself from the weapon with which he (thinks he) murdered Gaelio, rather than necessarily a preference for the Graze.

Importantly, however, although McGillis dominates this skirmish, the war itself is a far cry from the contrived circumstances that delivered him victory at the end of Season 1. His own tricks have been turned upon him, as an agent of rival Seven Star Rustal Elion, Galan Mossa, works to incite a conflict that tarnishes the accolades McGillis garnered after stepping into Carta's roll heading Earth's defence and peacekeeping forces.

McGillis ends this scene staring out over ongoing battles, trying to unpick what's going on. We as the audience know Mossa is manipulating things, including co-opting Tekkadan's Earth Branch via the duplicitous Radice Riloto. It is in large part due to this contingent of child soldiers that the otherwise ill-disciplined and inadequately trained Arbrau military can put up any sort of fight against SAU forces backed directly by Gjallarhorn. With McGillis arriving to deal with matters personally, Mossa sees an opportunity to outright assassinate him, rather than merely dragging the war on until his reputation is in tatters.

To this end, he ambushes McGillis while he's leading a squad against Arbrau's forward base. Mossa's mercenaries (using Geirail frame mobile suits, the predecessor to the Graze) pin down the other Ritters, creating an opening for Tekkadan's Landman Rodis to strike at McGillis. The Landmans, piloted by Aston Altland and Takaki Uno, are heavily armoured and have a bulbous appearance that makes it seem they should be ungainly within a planet's gravity well. Thanks to the Alaya-Vijana system, they are in fact highly manoeuvrable, Aston going so far as to jump up a tree to attack McGillis from above.

From his prior experience with Tekkadan, McGillis immediately clocks who is coming after him, identifying the tell-tale quick, instinctual movements of the enemy 'suits. This prompts him to call out, trying to discern if he is being targetted on the orders of Tekkadan's boss or if somebody else has suborned the group. Under other circumstances, this might have stopped the fight. Coming after several episodes of Takaki and Aston being isolated and manipulated by Mossa and Radice, it only prompts them to double-down on their mission, ignoring 'the enemy's' talk.

Determined to defeat McGillis and end the war in one blow, Takaki rushes him, firing. McGillis evades deftly, running up a hillside and vaults over to relieve his attacker of the machine gun. Undeterred, Takaki switches to using his 'hammer chopper', the Man/Landman Rodi's signature hatchet-like weapon. He knocks away one of McGillis' swords and comes fairly close to taking him down by sheer brute force, eventually disarming him completely.

In this we see a downside to McGillis' preferred techniques. When he has no time to plan out an engagement and isn't given the space to make use of his understanding of an opponent's weak points, he is quite rapidly overwhelmed. At this stage in the battle, it's possible he still wants to negotiate with people he views as his allies. Equally, up to now, we have never seen him try to engage in melee combat with an Alaya-Vijnana user. Takaki is coming at him so fast and so relentlessly that, for a crucial few seconds, he doesn't have room to jet clear. The contrast to the stage-managed fight with Gaelio is stark.

Even so, McGillis isn't helpless. Blocked in by Takaki's unexpected ferocity, he resorts to the kind of bare-handed tactic we'd more usually expect to see from Mikazuki and Barbatos. The Graze Ritter's frame isn't tough enough to survive punching the Landman's elbow joint full-force but he does manage to smash loose the forearm holding the chopper that had just been embedded in his shoulder. He's then able to snatch the chopper out of the air with his remaining hand, switching the balance of power with one desperate move.

I've often referred to the Silent War arc as Season 2 in miniature – a microcosm of the forces that bring about tragedy for the series' protagonists. In few places is this clearer than how things go for McGillis. Facing determined and organised opposition, his poise rapidly disintegrates. He is pushed as far on to the back foot as we have ever seen him and responds with efforts to survive that border on self-destruction, smashing his 'suit's arm to pieces in the process.

And it isn't enough to save him. Yes, Takaki only survives because Aston knocks him out of the way of the chopper. But even mortally wounded by the intercepted blow, Aston grapples McGillis, trapping him for Mossa, who comes racing in for the kill. If not for the timely arrival of Tekkadan's main force, McGillis would have died right then and there, a victim of planning, teamwork and sacrifice greater than his individual skill could match.

Nemesis

To review, then, McGillis favours a fighting style that uses speed and precision to target enemy weak-points. He is capable with ranged weaponry but displays a preference for twin swords. This style serves him well when he is on the attack, striking from a position of relative strength or preparedness. When he is taken by surprise, he is vulnerable to becoming overwhelmed or even myopic, addressing the immediate threat to his life at the expense of wider situational awareness.

(Does everybody see why I wanted to do this now?)

I'm going to skip over the Hashmal arc for brevity, since basically nobody except Mikazuki does anything other than get their arses handed to them during the fight with the mobile armour. For present purposes, it is sufficient to note McGillis emerges with both the motivation to go all in on overthrowing Gjallarhorn's current leadership and with his first hint that Gaelio survived the assassination attempt. By which I mean, Gaelio hops up on a mesa to loom ominously at him, because what's the point of masked vengeance if you can't be needlessly melodramatic about it?

Things rapidly accelerate from there, McGillis undergoing Alaya-Vijnana surgery in order to activate Gundam Bael, a key part of his plan to take on Agnika's mantel as Gjallarhorn's supreme authority. This is the culmination not only of his coup d'etat but of his entire personal philosophy. In claiming Bael, he can finally realise his ideal of the strong, powerful individual capable of transforming the world.

Except he can't, because the Arianrhod Fleet under Rustal's command is significantly stronger than his own forces and the rest of Gjallarhorn does not automatically bow down to him when he turns on an old mobile suit.

Also, Gaelio has spent the last two years working out how to kill him and is finally in a position to initiate a rematch.

Gundam Bael is the (retroactive) explanation for why McGillis fights the way he does. Configured for a fast, aggressive, twin-sword style, it reduces the Grimgerde and Graze Ritter to lacklustre imitations by comparison. By now, thanks to Mikazuki's efforts against Hashmal, we have seen exactly how far Gundams equipped with the Alaya-Vijnana can amplify the abilities of their pilots. With McGillis opting to embrace this same augmentation, the stage is set for him to become even more lethal than he already was, perhaps to the extent of removing the issues he faced fighting Takaki and Aston.

In the opposing corner, Gaelio has also embraced body modification as the path to his goal. The Alaya-Vijnana Type E takes the remains of Ein Dalton and turns them into a device that can operate a mobile suit at peak effectiveness without risking the pilot's physical well-being. Gaelio picks out a target and the system takes control of his body, operating the 'suit through him. This combination sees Kimaris – in its 'Gundam Vidar' guise – manifesting moves previously performed by the Graze Ein. Come the battle in Earth orbit, and Kimaris itself has been further adapted into the perfect McGillis-killing machine.

The two trade a series of quick blows before getting interrupted by some of McGillis' troops, who Gaelio rapidly dispatches in a show of strength. When McGillis steps back in to protect Isurugi (now piloting a rebuilt version of the Grimgerge, the Helmwige Reincar), Bael and Kimaris initially appear evenly matched. Their clash does not really speak to any particular strategy on either side and for all the sparks they knock off one another, neither party has an obvious advantage.

Then two things happen: we get a reminder that McGillis is coming into this handicapped (thanks to getting stabbed through the left palm earlier), as his grip on Bael's controls momentarily weakens; and Gaelio specifically counters a move McGillis used during the assassination attempt.

When McGillis blocks Kimaris' lance with crossed swords, as previously protected him from one of Gaelio's attacks at Edmonton, the lance starts spinning like a drill, the sudden force blasting Bael away and causing McGillis to drop his left-hand weapon. This is followed up by burst of gunfire from the lance, forcing him to dodge and weave, which is at least something Bael's speed and manoeuvrability are ideally suited for.

Undeterred, he swings around to counterattack, his first blow, from Gaelio's left, aimed at a shoulder; his second, at Gaelio's back or head. And, twice in a row, he is deflected by Kimaris' articulated shields.

In light of the earlier battle, it's clear Kimaris – Kimaris Vidar, I should say, giving it its proper title – is now constructed to counteract McGillis' tactics, protecting the mechanical vulnerabilities that enable to the Grimgerde to carry the day. Further, we must assume that the rapid movement of the shields is enabled by the Type E system, responding far quicker than Gaelio could alone. Once more, superior numbers (if we allow a rather morbid interpretation of what's going on) and advance planning are turned against McGillis.

This does not automatically hand Gaelio the fight. McGillis struggles to block more of his attacks with only a single sword, his injured hand causing him to falter once more. But he does not simply give up and by darting out of the way of a lance-thrust, he is able to swoop around to attack from behind, aiming at the lance rather than Kimaris' main body. Having thus disarmed Gaelio, it appears for a second that he has turned the tide in his favour.

Unfortunately for him, he missed most of the earlier tussle between Kimaris and Isurugi's forces and so wasn't present for the reveal of a crucial part of this newly-reforged Gundam's arsenal.

That's right. Drill-knees, motherclucker.

McGillis reacts as one might expect to his opponent suddenly sprouting a lengthy piece of hardware from a random orifice, and while he's goggling in utter disbelief – and experiencing a confidence-shaking flashback to being stabbed by his under-aged fiance – it looks very much like he is about to bite the bullet. Um, drill-bit.

Gaelio, however, was not counting on the devout loyalty of Isurugi, who jumps on the drill and further echoes Aston's sacrifice by locking the Helmwige around Kimaris, preventing it from giving chase as Bael beats a hasty retreat.

To put it mildly, this fight is a disaster for McGillis. Even setting aside the collapse of his efforts to take over Gjallarhorn, his crowning triumph in seizing Bael for himself is undone by the arrival of Kimaris Vidar. Like Mossa, with two years to plan, Gaelio matches and exceeds his would-be murderer, undermining McGillis' skills with superior preparation.

Swatting flies

Thus the series sets up one half of the final confrontation. The next half is to re-establish McGillis as a force to be reckoned with. Despite the passing evidence of how powerful his augmentation and Gundam have made him (he was able to keep pace with Gaelio for a while), it isn't until a couple of episodes later, once the action has shifted back to Mars and his injury has healed, that he demonstrates exactly what he can do.

In the course of escaping Tekkadan's besieged base, Bael is confronted with Iok Kujan's Graze (commander type) and promptly runs it over. This is made significantly easier by the fact that Iok jettisons his weapons, hoping to manufacture a scenario where McGillis attacks first, adding to the media narrative constructed around the defeated coup. McGillis, being in a "rather foul mood", is only too happy to comply, effortlessly smashing the Graze to the ground and stabbing through its cockpit, missing Iok himself by a hair. Hence freed to engage without looking like the aggressors, the other Gjallarhorn troops move in.

They prove little obstacle to McGillis, who deploys his customary precision with the full force of a Gundam frame behind it. I want to highlight that while this shows the greater power of his current machine, his fighting style remains quick, athletic, and targetted at weak-points. Indeed, taking everything into account, I think we have to say this is what McGillis has always been working up to.

His full fury finds its ultimate expression once he returns to space and sets out to confront Rustal's entire fleet on his own. Emerging dramatically from a collision between his remaining ship and an enemy cruiser, he cuts a violent swathe through the Arianrhod mobile suits, literally slicing them to pieces, often before they have a chance to resist. The might that won the Calamity War, manifesting in a defeated man's mad determination to keep fighting.

McGillis is at his most unhinged during this sequence, ranting about how he's going to kill Rustal and show the world a lone man can change everything. One doesn't wish to be over-casual with the word 'apotheosis', particularly not with a character for whom this is not especially religiously-coded (certainly not in comparison to Ein). Nevertheless the line from his taking on Carta's elite guard, through the fight with the Arbrau Defence Force, to this is a straight, continuous escalation aligning completely with McGillis' stated philosophy of individual power.

He has gone from attacking the weak-points on Grazes to decapitating entire capital ships.

There is, to be sure, a corresponding increase in savagery. Whether it is pausing to taunt his opponents from atop the 'corpse' of a mobile suit or taking another leaf out of Barbatos' book, using Bael's hand to tear off the chest armour from another hapless victim, McGillis no longer hides his 'teeth and claws' beneath military composure. Yet even this we have seen before, when he was cornered by Takaki. His back once more against the wall, anything goes.

And, once more, it isn't nearly enough to carry him to victory.

Two against one

The final confrontation between Gundams Bael and Kimaris is a knock-down, drawn-out slog, steadily whittling away their arms and armour. In the first few moments, Gaelio accidentally destroys an ally when McGillis dodges him, one of Bael's swords is shattered while blocking gunfire, and Kimaris' left hand is skewered clean-through, an odd little echo of McGillis' earlier wound that is closely followed by a broken sword hilt to the eye.

Gaelio gains some distance by deploying his drill-knee but McGillis comes right back at him, stabbing Kimaris in the chest even as he takes a solid hit from the lance. Again, though, experience has taught Gaelio where to protect himself and this repeat of Edmonton does nothing to prevent him clocking McGillis with a haymaker punch.

Any semblance of planning is gone. This is just two men and a ghost doing their level best to murder each other. McGillis responds to more gunfire by driving his sword into the lance. Gaelio abandons the broken weapon in favour of a sword of his own, imploring Ein to "use all of him" to take everything from their foe. McGillis digs claws into Kimaris, trying to gut Gaelio. Gaelio – or Ein, the distinction ceases to matter – headbutts him. On they go, sparks and limbs flying, blood and electricity filling their cockpits, the other Arianrhod soldiers keeping their distance, awaiting the outcome of the clash.

To McGillis, this is proof of his creed, that only power matters. Gaelio defies him, claiming the power he wields is completely different from what McGillis believes in. In one sense he is right, because he's is not doing this alone. He isn't relying on his own strength but ceding control to someone else, to the remains of a friend who can go to greater lengths than he could alone.

Combined, they drive McGillis into an actual corner, trapping him on the hull of Rustal's flagship. To the very end, McGillis does all he can to win, meeting them sword against sword, breaking their drill, drawing yet more blood. But the Type E is too much for him, willing to tear off clunks of itself to destroy one of Bael's wings and allowing Gaelio to grab the detached drill-bit as a last improvised weapon.

McGillis final act as a mobile suit pilot, as he disbelievingly admits he has been bested, is to fire Bael's remaining wing-mounted gun, pitching the two (three) of them into an out-of-control spin that ends inside the ship's hangars. It's a messy, ignoble conclusion, highlighting McGillis weakness to the unexpected and the failure of his single-minded commitment to doing things single-handedly.

Because that, above all else, is the hallmark of his fighting technique. In the scenes I have covered, even when he is technically operating to support someone else, he never once actually coordinates with other soldiers. His idea of doing so is to swoop in out of nowhere to save the day, taking action without communicating his intentions. It cuts both ways too: he is astounded Isurugi would step in to save him, unprompted and unrequested. Poisonous (per Gaelio's assessment) or not, his ideals remain consistently expressed in how he approaches combat.

If he can't do it by himself, it doesn't count.

[Index of other writing]

#mcgillis fareed #gaelio bauduin #gundam iron blooded orphans #gundam ibo #g tekketsu #tekketsu no orphans #reference #notes #mobile suit #combat #gundam #gundam bael #grimgerde #gundam kimaris #vidar

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