Gundam 00 Episode 04 [Archive]

PSJ

Tue, 10-30-2007, 07:11 AM

Finally caught up with this show. I'll just rant in here instead of ranting a smalla amount in every episode thread...

To me all the characters are still very boring and flat, There is absolutely nothing interesting about any character, exept the Union Ace pilot flying that Flag suit, Graham was his name right?

He seems to have potential to become interesting, the rest just looks way to weird for my taste and their names suck big time. Why can't they design the characters a bit more normal looking? It feels like they try to hard with the main characters to make them look interesting and have interesting names. This just makes the supporting cast all that more interesting.

On the mobile suits, i think that it's great that all the suits doesn't look super high tech. This will hopefully prevent a SEED type effect at the end when everybody had colorful beam weaponry and the war more or less looked like a candystore not a battlefield. The fight between Setsuna and Graham in his custom Flag showed that the three major powers probably got enough technology to seriously challenge the Gundams, which is a good thing.

Lastly, the best designs is Kyrios and the Flag. Kyrios got the awesome mobile armor transformation thing and an incredible beam rifle. The Flag is just Evil looking, awesome...

Yukimura

Tue, 10-30-2007, 09:30 AM

Echoing PSJ's sentiments I've noticed the most interesting characters in the show are non-Gundam pilots, perhaps with the exception of Allelujah since he's always so emo.

I'm quite interested in that random megane character that was talking with Relena 2 about the situation and how it relates to their country (let's call it the Sanc Kingdom). She seems to have a good head on her shoulders and has a snappy and rough attitude to counter-balance Relena 2's sappy idealism. I assume the story of that country will eventually become central to the story so I suspect we'll see more of her as Relena 2's advisor.

Graham Acre put in another good showing, and at this point he has made Setsuna look like a complete wuss. One of the best things I see in this series is that they are playing up the fact that it's totally the Gundams that give the pilots their huge advantage over the regular militaries of the world and none of the pilots are at an ungodly skill level. I feel much more confident in the capabilities of the true military officers like Acre and the HRL Colonel than I do in any of the Gundam Meisters', which is how it would be realistically.

It's somewhat sad that 00 is supposed to be something new and different yet it feels like Wing SEED, however I'd rather have upgrades and tweaks to something I liked then something completely different that sucked.

masamuneehs

Tue, 10-30-2007, 11:37 AM

can anyone comment on whether or not this latest release is bettter, now that Nyoro teamed up with ZC? I was going to wait for the Mendoi Conclave joint, but my patience is thin and if it seems like they're getting their shit together, I'd like to check it out...

i'll bet that right as I'm about to watch the Nyoro episode the Mendoi sub will come out...

edit - so i got super confused in the first scene after the OP (with the two chicks discussing the country's resources) and went to Nyoro and ZC's IRC channels. Currently I'm watching them go back and forth about what the people actually said and if they mean "zero natural resources left on Earth" in the intro or if there are still some and...

...and, needless to say, if the fansubbers can't come to an agreement on what the lines mean, even AFTER RELEASING THE EPISODE, I don't think I'm going to even bother with them in the future.

Plus their font is ugly.

edit again - as predicted, mendoi / conclave's:
Mendoi - Conclave -- Gundam 00 -- Episode 4 --mkv (http://bt.radicand.org/torrents/%5BConclave-Mendoi%5D_Mobile_Suit_Gundam_00_-_04_%5B1280x720_H.264_AAC%5D%5BD77ED23B%5D.mkv.tor rent)

Kraco

Tue, 10-30-2007, 05:55 PM

At last something that could fight a Gundam enough that a meister actually had to follow orders and just head straight for the safe location instead of remaining to have a dance in the air. Now all we need is a plot to ensnare a Gundam into a situation where there's no other choice but to fight. Then we would see ass kicking.

Maybe the HRL will also have a more agile mobile suit to offer to the enhanced soldier than just one of those clumsy low tech hulks.

Also, it will start to bother me before the end if the only role AEU had in this was to get a bunch of mechas destroyed in the first episode... (Although I'm not saying that wouldn't be realistic if assumed things haven't changed that much from our days.)

PSJ

Tue, 10-30-2007, 06:21 PM

Since the AEU got their top of the line suit destroyed i'm sure that they will come up with something to challenge these gundam fucks. I also think that the only thing that makes the gundam pilots better are the superior suits. I mean when they fight those grunt suits its like going up against a paintball gun with a cannon, it's simply not fun since the outcome is clear.

The HRL colonel did a great job though, i have started to like him and Graham Acre the most. Lockon would be cool if he didn't have such a ridicolous name. And i have to disagree on Allelujah being pretty interesting, at least this far. Setsuna feels like a slightly altered copy of Shinn, just downsized on the depressive psycho tendencies. The purple haired guy is just too boring i don't even remember his name. I really hope that they start digging in these characters past real soon.

One more thing i detest is that the gundams always looks the same, especially the main chars gundam, the exia is so fucking boring it almost hurts to watch sometimes. I mean have some courage with the design, Kyrios got awesome design, when was the last time a suit was orange?

I have to disagree with the SEED and WING comparasions to. It isn't some angsty brats who get new toys like the begining of SEED and it isn't some teenage warmasters who rule a thousand suits at once with their eyes closed like in WING. The one thing that caught my eye was when Celestial Being announced that they will stop fighting with fighting and Graham sort of said "Yea like that's gonna work.. Idiots." There hasn't been anyone that i know of in any previous gundam show that has said words like that. The "evil" people have all been crazy powerhungry idiots in, especially SEED, where you had guys like Patrick Zala and Azriel.

One final note. I hope this show turns out into something good after this start, just even out the playing field between the gundams and the opposing forces and put some meat on those main chars bones and it will be pretty awesome. That's my prediction.

Buffalobiian

Tue, 10-30-2007, 09:14 PM

America peacefully monopolizing their world... sounds familiar.

Graham's flag is the bomb. It most resembles Kyrios. Even their fighting style's similar, but then the suite pretty much determines how best to fight. Wonder how effective that anti-beam coating is. Should deflect normal shots at a good angle, but it'd be interesting to see how it does against Dynames's sniping, or Exia's beam saber.(if Graham's up for it, he can give Virtue's cannon a try).

AEU hasn't taken any action yet...That pilot from the first ep better not be their ace, it'd suck compared to all the other talents the HRL and Union have. HRL's suites seem quite primative compared to the other powers. Their quantity may make up for the lack of quality, but it won't work in the long run.

So suites these days can't go for a dip yet. The limiting factor will be their use of jet/rocket propulsion. Unless they fix this up, the Gundams will have very handy escape routes.

masamuneehs

Wed, 10-31-2007, 12:34 AM

i wanna say that this show has alot of potential. If a small resource rich country grudingly aligned with the former U.S. dictatorship can come up with a plan that makes people seriously think the Gundams are gonna help them, and then celestial being goes and marks a great tactical victory by destroying those troops... that's some pretty good political and military intrigue, in the fourth episode

i mean, it is not a small deal that Celestial Being just DECIDED that the seceding country simply was a bunch of warmongers and deserved to have their armed forces attacked, even though the much bigger superpowers who they haven't even attacked is sitting by with their carriers in NO defensive positioning at all... Seriously, CB loses strategy points on this episode like woah.

I really like the American president in this show, which is hilarious, specially considering I hate the real current one...

Graham Acre = Best character so far. No question.

Setsuna's "daydream" reminded me of a certain Terminator 2 scene... kid needs serious padded walls...

I still hate Hallyelujah, but am more an more down with the "parralels" they are so not subtly drawing between current political and military affairs and the premise of the show.

Kraco

Wed, 10-31-2007, 05:18 AM

i mean, it is not a small deal that Celestial Being just DECIDED that the seceding country simply was a bunch of warmongers and deserved to have their armed forces attacked, even though the much bigger superpowers who they haven't even attacked is sitting by with their carriers in NO defensive positioning at all... Seriously, CB loses strategy points on this episode like woah.

It was obvious nobody in the Union could leave some unstable warmonger country to run free so close to the space elevator / solar power cable. That's why the US wasn't the actual offender in this conflict. Also, the USA didn't yet even have time to attack at all so who knows how the situation would have developed in the absence of the CB.

And what exactly is a defensive positioning of mobile suit carriers and the accomppanying escorts? They were pretty close to the enemy state so most likely their positioning was already as defensive as it could have been.

Yukimura

Wed, 10-31-2007, 08:03 AM

I saw the CB's actions as preventing a war from starting. Their stated mission is to eliminate war, not save the weak or rescue the oppressed. If they had done nothing the Union would have likely attacked that little country and there would have been a war, instead CB attacked and destroyed much of the little country's fighting potential, forcing them to negotiate. The end result is that the Union gets back what it lost without firing a shot and no one but CB got any blood on their hands.

The thing the show seems to like ignoring is that even without a high tech military the little country's people probably still don't like the Union and a portion of them would be likely just resort to terrorism style tactics instead of overt military action if this situation were to occur in real life.

masamuneehs

Wed, 10-31-2007, 11:25 AM

But guys, if a nation is like "um, we'd like to be independent so we can address our people's needs better than the governing superpower does" is that really a thing CB should go in and crush? Who are they to decide that a nation should or shoudn't be independent?

In this case, the Gundams attacked the little country because the guy came out and said, "We're going to defend ourselves with military power!" Naturally he thought CB operated under the "protect the weak" pretense (shows he wasn't paying attention to what happened in the Sri Lanka episode...), and got snuffed because he was going on the offensive.

What happens when a nation goes "um, we'd like to be independent so.... but we don't have a military..." ??? Will CB step in and defend them, or just let the superpower come in and massacre them to put them into place? Hell, even if a superpower simply threatens the nation into rejoining them by lining up their military on the border, doesn't that count as violent coercion?

It was obvious nobody in the Union could leave some unstable warmonger country to run free so close to the space elevator / solar power cable. That's why the US wasn't the actual offender in this conflict. Also, the USA didn't yet even have time to attack at all so who knows how the situation would have developed in the absence of the CB.

Again, it works out in this case, but if the same nation hadn't had its own military, would CB allow the Union to take them over simply because they're close to the elevator? If anything, the Union was the one who built the elevator near that country, encroaching on their territory.

And what exactly is a defensive positioning of mobile suit carriers and the accomppanying escorts? They were pretty close to the enemy state so most likely their positioning was already as defensive as it could have been.

Well, I was speaking in regards to the Gundams. The Excia literally flew right up and through the Union fleet, and could have fucked them pretty bad. It was obvious that the rebels were focused on defending their country; they had no other choice considering their relatively weaker numbers and the fact that they had to protect vital sites. It's not like the rebels were going to launch a sortie off their coast against the massive Union force... In such a case, the only people the Union needs to defend against are the Gundams.

Considering the Gundams were recently active in other places, the one place you wouldn't expect them to attack from would be from the rebelling country, which is exactly where all the Union attention was on. They already know that the Gundams jam shit, but dispersing scouts into their surroundings who could shoot off a visible signal (light beams or flares) and having a flexible fleet formation which could be repositioned fairly quickly against the eventually ariving Gundams (a problem if all 4 come from all different directions though...), plus a few MS continually on guard at least near the commanding flagship... well, that's what I'd have hoped my military would do... Certainly not let a freaking Gundam sneak up right behind them, dart through them with all sorts of chance to take out the commanders on the flagship, and not meet an iota of resistance...

Kraco

Wed, 10-31-2007, 03:06 PM

As long as they weren't going to attack the CB first it makes no difference, though. Since the carriers and escorts launched no AA missiles and used no point defence guns, it's pretty obvious their doctrine said not to attack first. It could have certainly turned out a costly decision, but as we saw, it paid off really well in the end.

So, with such a decision in place, their formation was just fine considering the Gundams.

Yukimura

Wed, 10-31-2007, 05:07 PM

Another explanation could be that the Union fleet was given orders to simply report Gundam spotings and and let Graham's unit deal with them. Graham's boss told him to capture a Gundam not destroy them all so it would make sense that the fleets would have been ordered not to simply attack all Gundams on sight.

Buffalobiian

Thu, 11-01-2007, 09:47 AM

I think both sides' attitudes were like: Okay, this is the situation, us, the US (maybe Union would have been a better choice of words), will deploy troops to country X. X will fight for independence. What will CB do? let's wait and see.

PSJ

Thu, 11-01-2007, 03:26 PM

"Country X" seemed more like they depended on CB to defend them as they were so suprised when CB attacked them instead of the Union. The easier choice was to defeat Country X's forces instead of Unions so it made sense that CB took them out.

I don't think the Union fleet was told to just stay put, that just seems to stupid. They have no idea what CB is going to do, they are completly unpredictable this far and if they had the Union fleet as their target they would have ended it before the fleet could say "what happened?". The normal thing to do here is keep an eye out for the gundams and take defense positions against them as soon as they are spotted. Since "Country X"(forgot the name) weren't going to leave their home turf to attack a larger fleet the Union had all the time they needed to keep a lookout for the gundams but they didn't. Something was flawed in their plan. I would never sit idle and let a potential enemy sneak up behind my back before i could notice it, especially not such a strong enemy.

Also letting Graham take care of the gundams is also a bit weak, the gundams would have more than enough time to destroy the entire fleet before Graham and his boys got off their ass to do something seeing as the Union didn't bother to keep an eye out for the gundams. "Hey they arrrrrgh!!!" Something like that would probably be the message to Graham.

The thing is though, that even if CB wants to prevent war they just make themselves the target and this results in that HRL, AEU and the Union tries to obtain high tech warequipment to defeat CB and this results in more money to weapon research and production which means less money for the people in the countries.We have to assume that CB wants to save these innocent people but their logic just makes it harder on the people.

Kraco

Thu, 11-01-2007, 04:36 PM

I don't know why you would think that way. Even today the US (AEGIS) cruisers should have an automated point defence, so it makes no sense whatsoever in the future such a thing wouldn't exist. The only explanation why the fleet didn't attack the Gundam flying by was that they didn't want to attack the CB first. If they had wanted to attack, they would have. They certainly had plenty of time.

PSJ

Thu, 11-01-2007, 04:48 PM

That's exactly what i mean, how can they allow the Gundam to just fly by? They have no idea what CB is planning and they just "oh well lets see if he attacks when he gets closer, maybe we can do something about it when he is in our face". They didn't move an inch when the gundams appeared and that seems weird to me. At least take some kind of Defensive position if they noticed the gundams early like you said they should have done.

No matter how i look at it i can't find anything that justifies their actions. The same goes for Taribia's forces, when the first one got shot down they just sat their like pigs waiting to be slaughtered. Are all the military commanders idiots? Sure the gundams are strong and has superior fighting ability but i would at least try doing something, wouldn't you?

Death13a

Thu, 11-01-2007, 05:15 PM

Union couldn't attack Gundam because the only way is to get visual on Gundams (NO radar, heat(no exhaust) or sound(no engines) and maybe infared going to work to detect them). So how are you suppose to defend when you are ordered to attack country and you have no idea from where Gundams will come and who they will attack? And when you figure out who they are attacking, you are died. Taribia's forces were counting on Gundams for them to fight. Without Gundams they are just waiting for bombardment from ships to be recycled to local background.

Yukimura

Thu, 11-01-2007, 05:29 PM

For the Tarabian's 1) they wouldn't have had working communications thanks to the G-Particle interference and 2) They were probably expecting CB to come and help them and thus shocked when the Gundams opened fire.

The Union's actions seem like they could be blamed on smart budget management as much as unrealistic writing. It's cheaper to animate a Gundam flying past a bunch of static ships or shooting at immobile Tarabian troops than to animate a full scale three sided battle. Seeing the Union ships try and fight them on the way in would have been completely worthless to the story (other than adding realism) so I don't think it was that big a deal for them to just not have them do anything. I'd rather have awkward inactivity during unimportant battles than terrible animation quality in the final episodes because they wasted money on a big navel battle that was insignificant to the overall story.

Kraco

Thu, 11-01-2007, 06:20 PM

Union couldn't attack Gundam because the only way is to get visual on Gundams (NO radar, heat(no exhaust) or sound(no engines) and maybe infared going to work to detect them).

Well, visual alone would be plenty and enough. Even today you could build a homing system relying on the visible area of electromagnetism. And radar would work just fine from such a short distance. And it's not like the Gundams even look particularly radar deflective, but I suppose they could be from longer distances, but there should be no troubles from shorter distances. The fact they are perfectly visible tells they don't have any uber electromagnetic dispersion capabilities.

They didn't move an inch when the gundams appeared and that seems weird to me. At least take some kind of Defensive position if they noticed the gundams early like you said they should have done.

There aren't anything a ship could do when a high speed aerial vehicle suddenly flies over, aside from using AA fire and countermeasures. Ships are slow things. They can't be moved fast enough into any defensive positions (and what would those even be, anyway?). A ship of that size is practically a stationary target for a Gundam.

Well, other than that, the ships should theoretically be quite resistent. The shield the Gundams use can take plenty of hits, yet they are light enough to be carried by a flying vehicle. So, it's more than reasonable to assume the ships are extemely tough because they don't need to fly. A ship is a thing that can economically carry huge loads. So, the Gundam would have been hard pressed to sink even one ship before all the others would have opened fire and taken the Gundam out of the sky. So, I deem it wasn't a bad gamble for the Americans.

Yukimura

Thu, 11-01-2007, 07:13 PM

Kraco are you on crack today or something? Visual guidance is not generally used for a good reason...it's extremely easy to fool. As to radar working, the first episode showed pretty clearly that radar would NOT pick up a Gundam (Exia was spotted visually by one of the people in the tower at the AEU base and the radar operator commented that his scope showed nothing). And in ep 04 the Exia was again picked up visually by some guy on the bridge and blew by faster than anyone on the bridge could even react.

And just because you can see something in the visual band doesn't mean it will appear on radar at all. Radio frequency EM radiation and visible frequency EM radiation are not the same and don't always behave same way in similar environments. The F-22 is plainly visible to the naked eye but has the radar cross section of a pigeon.

As to the ship armor. Gundam beam weapons have always been able to cut through metal like it was tissue paper. If Exia had started shooting at those ships with it's beam cannon the ships would probably have had enormous holes in them and immediately started to sink.

masamuneehs

Thu, 11-01-2007, 07:22 PM

some good points, but there's still no reason that they can't use satelites to track the Gundams movement. and, although you'd need to extend your forces in a large radius to counter the Gundams' speed, having visual scouts is the only way I can imagine them having any chance of preparing for them...

But, to move on to other matters, I'm interested in what people think about that brown haired woman with glasses who appeared alongside the Middle Eastern Queen (Setsuna's future love interest). She reeks of bad guy...

Also, seems that Tairibia = Venezuela.

Yukimura

Thu, 11-01-2007, 08:58 PM

Megane-chan is currently my favorite character (Sorry Graham, you're too crazy). I have high hopes that she will stop the Princess from fully maturing into Relena 2. She reminds me of Noien, but as a political specialist instead of a combat specialist.

Buffalobiian

Fri, 11-02-2007, 01:13 AM

So, the Gundam would have been hard pressed to sink even one ship before all the others would have opened fire and taken the Gundam out of the sky. So, I deem it wasn't a bad gamble for the Americans.

Dynames (Lockon) could probably take out every single bridge in moments.

some good points, but there's still no reason that they can't use satelites to track the Gundams movement. and, although you'd need to extend your forces in a large radius to counter the Gundams' speed, having visual scouts is the only way I can imagine them having any chance of preparing for them...

Gundams can swim, so satellite tracking would be easily lost. You can track the gundams again after another operation, but that's assuming CB doesn't take out the satellites first. I can't imagine how CB will justify their actions though.

Kraco

Fri, 11-02-2007, 02:40 AM

Kraco are you on crack today or something?

Unfortunately my crack isn't quite as potent as yours, though.

Visual guidance is not generally used for a good reason...it's extremely easy to fool.
Somehow it seems to me your forget we are talking about a situation far into the future. And one Gundam flying in the empty sky doesn't quite sound like an error prone situation. Who knows what countermeasures the Gundams have but that hardly prevents from trying, does it? Or perhaps you belong to the people who think it's better to just sit still and accept death if you only have 10% chances of surviving...

As to radar working, the first episode showed pretty clearly that radar would NOT pick up a Gundam (Exia was spotted visually by one of the people in the tower at the AEU base and the radar operator commented that his scope showed nothing).

There was a bloody scene in the middle of this episode where they were tracking three Gundams and it looks pretty much like screen presenting radar information (or intel from other accurate means - what's the difference, anyway).

The F-22 is plainly visible to the naked eye but has the radar cross section of a pigeon.

And what's the problem about shooting down a pigeon, eh? You don't need more than that.

As to the ship armor. Gundam beam weapons have always been able to cut through metal like it was tissue paper. If Exia had started shooting at those ships with it's beam cannon the ships would probably have had enormous holes in them and immediately started to sink.

Well, I'm not really talking about plot devices here. It's all well to say the Gundams are invincible and will win every battle by default, but that wouldn't make a very exciting series, would it (nor would it explain why Setsuna was trying to avoid Graham's shots in this episode)? I don't know if that's a Gundam tradition, though, because this is my first Gundam, but I still hope it's not.

Still, those ships probably were nuclear powered and thus they would have plenty of energy for their own beam weapons or rail guns that could send the Gundam back to the orbit (in pieces) in necessary. If the Gundam could take the damage from future ships' main guns and missiles without a scratch... Well, then it would be the high time to drop such a children's series. But once again, I'm hoping that's not the case.

Yukimura

Fri, 11-02-2007, 12:55 PM

I didn't realize this is your first Gundam series Kraco but that explains some things. It's basically a tradition that at the beginning of a new Gundam time line beam technology at a mobile suit scale is pretty much unheard of if it exists at all. Then the first Gundam(s) of that time line tend to come along and utilize beam technology and everyone else is completely shocked and overwhelmed by it until they acquire the technology themselves and put it into newer models. It's also tradition for Gundams to be significantly faster, more maneuverable, and harder to damage then any of the grunt suits they fight against unless said suit is piloted by a named character. 00 has not really demonstrated that the Gundams are as indestructible as some of the other suits to carry the name but at the end of the day this show is a Gundam show so I wouldn't expect to see a bunch on nameless soldiers disabling or even damaging any of the Gundams no matter what tricks they might have up their sleeves. And as to your comment about the dodging that's another Gundam tradition. A 50-60 ton machine being able to dodging rail gun shots or laser blasts from a few hundred meters away is par for the course assuming the pilot of the machine has a name. If that sort of thing bothers you you might as well just stop watching.

And you're right about the scene at 15:49 looking like a radar display. That scene is in direct conflict with most of what we've seen so far with Gundams and radar. Since the screen was acting very much like a real radar screen I must assume either the writers don't know how to maintain both current technological accuracy and futuristic technological continuity or the Gundams can simply turn their radar cloaking on/off at will.

As to the weapon guidance issue I don't doubt that in the future guided weapons could be made capable of switching to visual guidance depending on the situation. However I don't see any reason why anyone would ever put that sort of technology into a guided weapon. As I mentioned before it's extremely easy to fool. A visually guided weapon would be significantly less effective at night and wouldn't be able to cope with something as simple as a smokescreen, why would anyone spend the time and money to developing such a sophisticated visual guidance system when an enemy could so easily counter it? Your point that a Gundam probably wouldn't fool a visual guidance system is not a compelling reason for the militaries of the world to have paid for the R&D and mass produced weapons incorporating such guidance systems in a world where there main concern would have been potential war with one of the other super powers.

Kraco

Fri, 11-02-2007, 05:49 PM

Well, that could be true. The major power weapons so far as mass production models, after all. I have to admit that's a very good point. Still, it's hard to imagine the major powers wouldn't have any drastic electronic warfare methods of their own (though how helpless they are when facing the Gundam caused disturbances kind of suggests they have forgotten to do their homework...).

It's not like I was so far THAT disturbed by the emerging Gundam traditions, after all, we haven't really seen that much yet. The Gundams have only fought against clearly inferior opponents so far, aside from the last fight with Graham that Setsuna (surprisingly) had the balls to avoid when he could. I'm only hoping eventually we will see some.

All the latest talk in this thread was, after all, nothing but speculation of what might have happened if the Gundam attacked the fleet. But because that didn't happen, anybody's guess is as good as anybody else's. I'm only saying that if a single Gundam will start to annihilate fleets like that clearly from within the point defense distance and doesn't get a scratch out of it... Then I might decide Gundams simply aren't meant for me. FMP is one of my most favorite series but it never gave that kind of feeling, and you can't say it doesn't share some similarities to even this series.

Yukimura

Fri, 11-02-2007, 06:21 PM

Lol it's funny that you mention a Gundam raping fleet scenario considering that in an episode of Gundam Seed Destiny the main character got pissed off and sunk around a dozen surface ships all by himself armed with only a double sided sword (he took no damage either). However, 00 has not introduced the type of technology that the SEED universe had that allowed for such a feat to take place.

DeathscytheVII

Fri, 11-02-2007, 09:17 PM

Interesting episode, i like the small surprise when the gundams started attacking the small country's forces. However, I do wonder if CB is treating the three big factions differently. Considering their declaration stated that they will attack any country with a military agenda, yet they left the Union fleet alone. I dunno, but sending an armed force to coerce a country back into a union counts as a military agenda to me.

I guess CB wants to avoid the sort of power vacuum that destroying one of the three powers would entail, so their declaration does not apply to countries who have a military agenda to wipe out CB :p but how will they deal with them i wonder.

masamuneehs

Fri, 11-02-2007, 11:25 PM

I do wonder if CB is treating the three big factions differently. They left the Union fleet alone. I dunno, but sending an armed force to coerce a country back into a union counts as a military agenda to me.

i don't think they'll need to wait long to try to fuck over the Americans (who, in this episode were expressly named as one of the warmongering superpowers, showing the Union to just be their political front after goat raping over Central and Southern America). Considering they've got the most effective anti-Gundam unit operating so far (named Graham Acre; since those two guys with him is cannon fodder).

i wouldn't be surprised if the Union fucks up and does something overly aggressive soon, getting CB to really target them for a true confrontation between Setsuna and Graham.

shinta|hikari

Sat, 11-03-2007, 12:29 AM

It is almost a sure thing that the gundams will eventually start destroying enemy fleets in the future, but that is probably after they give them their first power up and want to show it off to start attracting buyers for the model kits.

Buffalobiian

Sat, 11-03-2007, 03:47 AM

And you're right about the scene at 15:49 looking like a radar display. That scene is in direct conflict with most of what we've seen so far with Gundams and radar. Since the screen was acting very much like a real radar screen I must assume either the writers don't know how to maintain both current technological accuracy and futuristic technological continuity or the Gundams can simply turn their radar cloaking on/off at will.

The Gundams can indeed turn off their cloaking at will, and vice versa. This was demonstrated in ep1 where they picked up Exia on radar, lost it, then tracked it again using visual means.

Also, when Graham met Setsuna while still using the unmodified Flag, he said the most likely reason he found him was that he wasn't cloaking himself. (ep3 I think).

In both scenarios, the Gundams were using those light particles as propulsion. I guess it might be the intensity (unlikely though), or some other property (such as, wavelength, hence frequency) that may contribute to the jamming action.

As for treating the large powers differently, I don't really agree. From the way they talked about their objective (CB's objective as a whole) and the way they speak and act, they are doing everything by the book, or their book. They deemed the "starter of conflict" Tairibia and they felt that was all that they needed to justify their attack. If America started some sort of conflict openly, I'm positive they would take similar action, cept they'll send Virtue in there too. CB is powerful, but they're cautious and not overconfident about it. As for the civil war in Sri Lanka, they both sides seemed really keen on taking each other out, so they both started it. Result: CB got them both.

Kraco

Sat, 11-03-2007, 04:50 AM

I guess CB wants to avoid the sort of power vacuum that destroying one of the three powers would entail, so their declaration does not apply to countries who have a military agenda to wipe out CB :p but how will they deal with them i wonder.

Destroying one fleet would be far from destroying one of the major powers, though. It didn't look like that big of a fleet, anyway, probably only enough to beat whatever forces the small rebel country might have had.

If they really tried to destroy all the armed forces of a major power, they would face nuclear weapons and that wouldn't serve anybody's best interests... But then again, they only said they want to stop wars, not destroy things as such. This time it worked well like this because it's unlikely the USA would start a genocide in Taribia or anything like that.