Episode 5 By Nyoro~n
It sucks to be Saji Crossroad.
"He" is back! Let the killing spree continue!
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Episode 5 By Nyoro~n
It sucks to be Saji Crossroad.
"He" is back! Let the killing spree continue!
Well Saji assisted in mass slaughter as in less then a hour you were responsible for killing almost as many people as gundams in their existence, sweet dreams Saji as you dream of cute and fluffy automatons slaughtering people. They sure bring Aaaaallllllliiiiiii back without a scratch and in full glory of fiery slaughter/genocide.
Alright! Ali is back. And surely better than those pitiful robots in Ribbon's company. Now we are talking and things should get more interesting. Although they did already get plenty interesting in this ep. Even Soma's situation was cleared, and I don't need to worry anymore about her marrying an old geezer.
Saji got what he asked for. Too bad quite a few people had to die to open his stubborn eyes. It's a good question, though, why Ali is burning that country. Surely it's not needed only for luring Setsuna there. Ali was an agent of chaos in the s1 but more than that he seemed to love fighting. However, burning a half-dead country shouldn't present too many fighting opportunities. Perhaps the Federation paid him to do that.
The first half of this episode had my eyes rolling every second.
Have the princess meet with people she knows. Have her meet with children. The children have one of the following:
1) At least one overly cute little girl held in someone's arms. Check.
2) A boy missing 1+ teeth. Check.
3) An additional child, separate from the first two (but not discounting the possibility of a missing tooth) who is antisocial and a loner. Check.
Then there was the stupid guard who gave Saji keys to the jeep. It is a secret base. I expected a lot more out of Kataron given they haven't been wiped out in four years, but then again, there must be a reason they haven't had any success against the Federation thus far.
Ribbons and his robots did send Ali, this is part of their plan. In fact, from what I took out of it, the "transcend humanity" line means they may have modified him a bit just like they did Louise.
Now to the things I really liked about the episode.
Lots of Soma Development: While I am admittedly a little disappointed it is only going to be adoption (come on, at least it would have been unique), it is still nice to get a little clarification on it. More importantly, we are seeing a great deal of softening in her. Either she is finally shedding her angry, by the book, obedient dog personality or Marie is beginning to reassert herself from the inside. Hopefully the former moreso than the latter. She is a super soldier, but much like her mentor, she puts a lot into honor on the battlefield. Similar to the same way Graham "Way too Obvious Disguise and Dumb Nickname" Aker withdrew from the battle because he couldn't fight Setsuna that time. Soma may have had a normal life stolen from her at a young age, but she doesn't want to see non-combatants slaughtered wholesale. She could have easily killed Lockon, but she didn't. I enjoy this softer, yet still just as excellent a pilot Soma.
Saji got a literal punch to the face, and then an emotional kick in the jewels: While I'd much rather see Setsuna punch Saji's lights out, having a douchebag traitor within the regular army will do just fine. The other plus side is we got to see how truly honorable Sergei is in comparison to his own douchebag son. After all that, Saji realized it was all his own fault. You don't have to be an aggressive killer like CB or A-LAWS members to kill people, just can be a backstabbing coward too. What I find even more delightful, especially with that final scene of the ring dropping out, that Saji is going to be on the recieving end of another really powerful kick to the emotional nutsac, when he finds out that though he remained a whiny pacifist, Louise became a bloodthirsty killer, just like the psychotic bitch that made her that way.
The middle east is the whipping boy of this gundam universe: Really. Never have I seen a region so shit on during a series. I loved the thinly-veiled burning oil wells that were "disguised" as GN particle generators. It was a very nice touch, and radiating people with toxic fake GN particles is just one more excellent way to show what kind of callous assholes the Federation really is. It also is one of the most vivid images to bring up a reference to the conflicts in the Middle East to both Western and Eastern viewers, since both Iraq conflicts resulted in that very image appearing on the news many times. I don't even need to close my eyes to recreate the image of those kinds of fires, blackening the skies.
Then...just for fun, Ribbons has Ali burn Azidistan to the ground.
Saji's a huge dumbass. What was he expecting when he gave information about rebels to the people being rebelled against? Dismantle their ways over tea? Yeah, ok.
Well, at least Saji learnt that A-Laws are even worst than kataron and Celestial Being. Wow... what an ep...
I tried. I really did. I tried my best to sympathise with Saji, but I can't get over the fact that he's
One. Fucking. Dumbass.
Seriously, while Celestial Being gave people a common group to hate, Saji is to focal point of us audiences' frustration. And the center of stupidity, did I mention that?
/rant
Other than that, Lockon really let his guard down today. I'm sure Tieria's already on to him, leaking Katron info that even Celestial Being didn't know as "common knowledge". Come on, who are you trying to kid?
Soma doesn't hit 50 year old men: +1
Sergei doesn't hit Soma: +9000, though he himself should be under temptation:D
Since it was only an adoption, I can't see the need for her to hesitate. Sure, she was a supersoldier deprived of a family, and it's probably a bit of a shocker to have someone want to be your father, but having lived together and all, you'd think the answer's an easy yes.
While I'm not sure whether this A-LAWS attack was shine some truth into Saji's mind, it may also serve another purpose. After four years of successful hiding, Celestial Being is definitely suspicious, no matter how you looked at it. Katron's leader had faith enough, but the rest of them will see this as entirely CB's responsibility. How will that work out in the long run regarding any co-operation? Gene-1 might be able to clear up some misunderstanding, but even he doesn't know everything about CB. They'll probably get over the entire thing by next episode, but any carry-over may have implications on further co-op movements.
I don't see Ali wanting to get modified by a bunch of androgynous robots. I think it meant something else. Basically Ribbons and his cohort of clone sycophants view humans as inferior beings. However, Ali was the best pilot of season one, so even Ribbons can't deny his skills somewhat transcended humanity.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryllharu
Though I guess we will learn the truth soon enough. Even if Ali got somehow modified, I very much doubt in any manner silimar to Louise. Ali must still be his own man. Throughout the first season he was doing exactly what he wanted, and I doubt they will change that now.
thought this was the best episode of the second season so far. Even though the first part of the episode had a good amount of awful things in it.
First, they send all four pilots, two Gundams, and their strategist to meet with a group that they really don't know too much about. This leaves the Ptolemy in what kind of absolutely defenseless vulnerability?
Second, Setsuna bitches New Lockon out for taking off his helmet, and in the very next scene has his helmet off. Nice.
Saji. I still don't like that guy, and it's too easy to rag on him, but, really, almost every single ordinary guy under the sun is going to make the series of choices he did in this episode. If anyone's to blame, it's the guard that gave him the keys to the Jeep. Looking forward to seeing how they continue with his story. And, yes, I did just say that I'm interested in Saji and Louise's part of the story.
Guess I was wrong about it being a marriage proposal... Sergei is still the best guy in all of the enemy forces, and even though Andrei is going on about how he let his mother die, I've got a hunch there's some circumstances behind that story... Or it served as the catlyst to make Sergei into the awesomely upstanding guy he is now.
Mobile Dolls. As I mentioned before, the issue of 'unmanned weapons' has only been addressed in one other Gundam series (it was notably absent in SEED). And I think this show is doing a good job of showing how twisted and distantly vicious this practice (which is becoming more and more a part of modern warfare, and thereby one of the most relevant issues a show like this could actually address) is, both in regards to how it ups the amount of 'collateral damage' and in how it distances the act of killing from the people responsible for the bloodshed. What does it mean for us? I have a hunch it'll be the tipping point in getting Feddies like Mannequin and Sergei to wind up on CB's side. Also, I have a feeling it'll serve as the main point of confrontation between Wang Liu Mei and CB.
I liked Graham in this episode, silly hat and all.
Ribbons. You dah man. I think they enhance Ali too, just because it seems to be Ribbons (and his strangely named andro harem's) SOP. And, yeah, I'm excited too. The man was born Cassius Clay, but the name they screamed was, "Ali! Ali! Ali!"
Wang Liu Mei provided the surprise of the episode for me. She got info from Nena about A-LAWs going to attack Kataron's base. She immediately sent word to CB (noteably naming Tieria here...) to help them. This is a bit of a surprise to me because, at least from the first episode, I'd always thought she didn't give two shits about Kataron (after all, they're like well organized flies up against a boar with the difference in their equipment), but since CB had nothing to gain by going back there and engaging crack A-LAWs troops, it makes it pretty clear that Wang Liu Mei still sees them as serving some kind of purpose down the road...
It wasn't Setsuna that bitched New Lockon out about taking his helmet off, it was a brief revival of the master of discipline, Tieria.Quote:
Originally Posted by masamuneehs
While I definitely see the connection, there is still a big difference between drones and killbots, and A-LAWS is definitely using the latter. "Unmanned" drones in today's world still rely on a human operator to make the judgments and pull the triggers. A-LAWS is using killbots, so they just drop them down and take a hands off approach to the killing. That was the issue that the Meisters and now Soma have with them. A-LAWS pilots remain vicious because they don't have to worry about taking on the weight of someone's life. They didn't kill lots of innocent people, the killbots did. The whole, "I was just following orders," line of crap that goes all the way back before WWI. No guilt, no problem. Pilots (even cops too) have to bear the burden of each kill when they pull the triggers, and that's part of the honor bound thing a lot of the Meisters, Soma, Mannequin, Sergei and maybe even Mr. Bushido have.
While drones do remove the operator from the situation, and the conundrum of putting yourself in as much risk as the people you are killing, making it "fair," the killbots situation brings it to another level entirely.
I think she did it for three reasons: To have the CB witness the massacre, giving them even more motivation to try to stop A-LAWs; to have another fight between the CB and A-LAWs; and lastly sending that manner of information to the CB ensures the CB still trusts her word to a degree, which will no doubt be important when things really start to matter and her more nefarious plots are revealed. I doubt she actually cared about Kataron at all. This was just convenient for her.Quote:
Originally Posted by masamuneehs
this episode was pretty crazy
i doubt ali has been modified, i believe ribbons merely commented that ali is a one of a kind man
seems like all mr bushido will do throughout this season is to fight setsuna a couple of times
man, the whole time i knew sergei wasn't proposing to soma. can't belive all of u guys thought about that.
and yes, i agree with you all that saji is a complete douche
Ah, it was Tieria then? Good, it's about time he stopped being so pathetic and soft...Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryllharu on Mobile Dolls and Helmets On
I still disagree with you slightly on the 'unmanned weapons != killbots' thing. A lot of it comes down to specifics about how the killbot is operated. If we compare remote controlled drones to fully automated drones, there is a difference. Both are unmanned, but, as you said, there's a level of moral gravity that comes with actually pulling the trigger. The further removed the trigger puller is, the less they're likely to feel affected by the weight of their actions.
But I was pretty sure I'd seen a few things about fully automated weaponry floating around in the news. Granted, remote controlled unmanned weapons are what's growing now but, well, I don't think we'll have to wait too long before these "killbots" are dubbed benign monickers just like their "unmanned drone" predecessors.
It does make for excellent discussion material though. And I agree with you on your assessment of the effect it has on the A-LAWs troops (though some of them seem quite fine with these scales of massacre, even if they're not identifying their victims).
I thought that CB's motivation against A-LAWs was already pretty strong, and, yeah, I guess New Lockon, Tieria and Allelujah haven't witnessed the Automatons first-hand like Setsuna has. But I agree more with you about the last point than anything else. Gots to be keeping up appearances.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kraco on Wang Liu Mei
Mr Bishido, was kind of fucking name is that ?
One can easily tell that he was patriotic to Union. However, when the Union, the Human Reform League and the AEU decided to form a supranational body of government, I believe this was when Graham had started discarding his identity.Quote:
Originally Posted by Inazuma
After all, a country is made when a certain type of people share a common history, heritage, language, culture, religion, etc. and when Graham had lost that [Union], he decided to use a pseudonym so the comrades who had died in Season One in battle alongside Graham all remember him as an integral man instead of a "military dog" of A-Laws (or vice-versa).
Now he puts on the title of "Mr.Bushido" (which is pretty contradicting because contemporary Japan was part of the Union). I speculate that this is a symbolic message of saying that when the old world died, he now puts on a mask because he is unable to look at the past with his own eyes, which leads to the action he takes by being a "one-man army". One could say that Mr.Bushido is symbolically, a symbol of the new Federation government that Celestial Being must overcome.
It sounds more like the kind of retarded names that American producers/directors/ABC Family writers use when they want to make something Asian and specifically Japanese because anime and kung-fu movies are, "in." The kind where the Asian girl in it, exact count of (1), is named either Yuki or Kasumi. They also take random Japanese/Chinese words they really have only a miniscule understanding of the definition and culture behind, where they use for things like, "The Scroll of Fugu."
Graham, being the same kind of American, wants to sound cool and mysterious in his secret identity. Maybe he even knows what Bushido is. So he does the exact same thing, starts wearing obscenely stereotypical Japanese clothing and an Oni mask.
It's kind of the same way that Setsuna's name is Japanese (he's either Persian or Arab, yet his code name is Setsuna F. Seiei) so that Japanese viewers are meant to identify with him easier.
I don't know what it is about the ED, but I find it entrancing. This is one of the few OP/ED sequences that I actually sit through every episode.
According to the Drama CDs Graham is a fan of samurais and their style of living. But yeah, Mr. Bushido really sounds retarded >_>
Ali's badass as usual. It's not surprising they did that, considering Setsuna's attachment to that country. I wonder if its a new suit, or a modified Throne Zwei. It didn't look like it at the beginning, but the ending scene really resembled the throne gundam to me at least. Either way, Ali's gonna kick ass.
It looks much less bulkier than Zwei, almost as thin as those Enacts.