Anyone can be -san. It's the most general term to use.Originally Posted by TheBladeChild
Anyone can be -san. It's the most general term to use.
Yeah, I have no idea how he got the idea -san is usually for women. It's more common in anime than -chan. Onii-san, Okaa-san, Otou-san, Obaa-san, Ojii-san, and then not to mention names.
Woh, I can't beleive this just came to me, but if the old guy is 200yrs old and the recording is the same age, then that means Celestial Being was established WAY before the Orbital Elevators, since they're only 10 years old... unless two of them were built 200 years ago, and the one run by the Reform League is only 10 years old, which is pretty much impossible as they would surely be dominated due to their lack of resources. That means CB would have been established before the three superpowers, as they were created following the Pillars.
The low tech mechas fighting each others in Ceylon was quite nice indeed. They actually looked pretty realistic technology wise if not in terms of practicality. However, the Gundams annihilating them was nice plot wise but not that much to look at: It was like watching somebody stomping bugs. While it's natural the story will start and proceed like this for a while to create the settings, it would still be nice to watch battles where you don't know beforehand who will automatically win (or even if you do, it's not so blatantly evident). I hope the Flag mecha, at least, is a really tough one.
If the nations are so heavily relying on orbital solar power I guess it's safe to assume ITER failed. Too bad.
Ii was kind of sad to see how useless humanoid low tech mechas actually were, even against each other. A tank could carry just as much ordinance and be significantly more agile and maneuverable compared to those huge lumbering targets.
Little more development. So, Setsuna is the crazy one who is likely due for some romantic entanglement, huh. Well, at least his trauma is a little more believable motivator than Shin's.
The others I like well enough. I was wondering about the haro, but I guess it pilots while he is running the weaponry. The variety of the gundam designs shown off in the ep was nice too. I hate it when the mechs are just different colored versions of practically the same design. And no hesitancy about killing here in a "peace" organization.
What I was most interested in was that they used a real world conflict. Not an overly large one to be true. The Tamil Tigers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_Tigers) are relatively unlikely to see the show, take offense, and bomb the studio, but still a somewhat ballsy move. I'm wondering if they'll dare go back to the religious war theme...
But is the writer seriously proposing that attacking both sides will somehow resolve the conflict?? The larger, high-tech units and the military installations make good targets for the team, but then what? Overt conflicts with tanks and mechs can possibly be detected and stopped by Celestial Being, but covert conflict? Roadside bombs left for the opposition by combatants dressed as civilians, poisons, suicide bombers, attacking or destroying hospitals... Hell, if two groups hate each other enough they'll go after each other with knives if they have to.
Maybe the plot will be them coming to terms with the fact that they cannot stop war?
You can't stop conflict (unless you introduce a third party) but in the grand scheme of things a tanks vs tanks battle will usually cause a lot more destruction in the same period of time as random pipe/car bombings. The problem is that eventually you can find and destroy all the tanks but the pipe/car bombs can go on pretty much forever. I'd be very impressed if they actually manage to address that issue in this show instead of sweeping it under the rug and claiming people can't fight without their giant mechs.
I was thinking about that exact same thing when watching the episode, especially when the location was something like Sri Lanka where you would think pipe bombs would be as common as tanks. However, I predict they will just sweep under the carpet the fact machines don't wage wars, people do. Still, I would be more than pleased if they indeed addressed the issue and proved me wrong. Although if the show was being realistic about it, they would just need to reshape the CB mission from stopping all wars to something like stopping major conflicts, borders beings moved, or other grand things that can't easily be accomplished without major machinery of war.
I think their reasoning is that if they disrupt the operations' of both sides enough, and make it clear that they won't be able to wage war the way they like as long as CB still exists. Both sides will eventually come to see that it is futile fighting against each other as long as CB is there, and that may lead to an alliance of sorts. What CB is hoping for is that the world will hate them so much that they will stop fighting each other, and ally against them. CB will then have to fight the whole world and by the time they are either destroyed or have fought back the world, the people will see the pointlessness of them fighting each other or have forgotten why they have in the first place. As they said, they will be persistant, and this will involve multiple interventions. I just don't think its realistic that they can be everywhere all the time with only five gundam meisters.But is the writer seriously proposing that attacking both sides will somehow resolve the conflict?? The larger, high-tech units and the military installations make good targets for the team, but then what? Overt conflicts with tanks and mechs can possibly be detected and stopped by Celestial Being, but covert conflict? Roadside bombs left for the opposition by combatants dressed as civilians, poisons, suicide bombers, attacking or destroying hospitals... Hell, if two groups hate each other enough they'll go after each other with knives if they have to.
Maybe the plot will be them coming to terms with the fact that they cannot stop war?
As for the pipe/car bomb thing, CB realistically, can only stop full scale war/battles. Besides, in a world where military forrces use giant mobile suits, would pipe/car bombs have the same effect as they do on the humvees and tanks of today? Unless they are for assassination purposes, I doubt they will have the same devastating effect on military units.
Props though, this is the first time i've seen an ongoing conflict featured in an anime. I can realistically see the conflict in Sri Lanka going for another two centuries. I wonder, with organizations like Tamil, will we be seeing the Fatah and Hamas in the holy land? They would be prime targets for Celestial Being.
Last edited by DeathscytheVII; Tue, 10-16-2007 at 09:34 PM.
I'm sure groups like Fatah and Hamas aren't above a good old suicide bombing if that's the only option available. When was the last time you heard about a tank or plane battle in the Middle East? However they do have to get their munitions from somewhere so I could see CB sniffing out weapons cache's and sending in Meisters on the ground to take them out. If Gundam Wing taught us anything it was that while every conceivable problem can be solved with a Gundam or 5 the non-Gundam solutions are sometimes much more efficient.
Pipe and car bombs do absolutely nothing to the tanks of today. However, that's beside the point. The point is that if it becomes a constant condition of the battlefield that heavier vehicles will be taken out by the Gundams, then using only infantry will become the viable option. After all, if the enemy still tries to rely on mechas, the Gundams will appear and take them out. So, it's just men against men, with possibly only very light transportation that won't be noticed by the CB as military vehicles of significance.
The writers are obviously avoiding that issue. Even terrorists have Mobile Suits, as we saw with the Sri Lankan conflict. We can assume that production of such units is incredibly cheap, that they are readily made and available, whatever. It's clear that most conventional weapons aren't used. It's regular infantry (as we saw in the beginning of the first eps) supported by Mobile Suits.
Like DeathscytheVII said, CB's idea is to make everyone join together hating them. The difference is that for most Mobile Suits, the Gundams are overwhelmingly superior. Expanding on that, CB as it's name implies, comes from the sky and leaves the same way. They're not meant to be found. Even as it floats about in orbit, apparently no one can see their flagship, probably due to the dispersal of GN particles from there as well. You can't attack something that can't be found and is small enough to slip through most security nets (yes, the idea of terrorist cells as they exist today).
I don't see how GN particles would hide the ship from sight. If it could, then they would employ that technology on the Gundams themselves. I find it hard to believe that CB developed and trained the Gundams and their Meisters using just one flagship.
This is where the Chinese "Lady" comes it. I'm waiting to see how she's connected to CB.
Am I severely confused, or isn't that exactly what the Gundams emit for both propulsion and the side effect is the electronic interference? They spray the damn things out everywhere. That's why I speculated it would be a good thing to have on the flagship as well.
Katagiri stated it explicitly in this episode after Graham asked him what the "light" was.
Ryūmin is probably a financial backer. That's my guess anyway.
EDIT: Not to hide it from sight, but from radar and satellites that don't use optical means of detection. Finding anything in space is not that easy. Stars are much brighter up there, and small objects blend in. As long as they don't get profiled as a black speck moving across the Earth, they'd be nearly impossible to find.
The ship isn't that big. The rotating storage that holds the Gundams and the linear catapult takes up the overwhelming majority of the volume. They've made it as small as possible to further avoid detection by optical means.
Last edited by Ryllharu; Wed, 10-17-2007 at 02:04 PM.
it's a gundam, folks. there's almost zero chance that the evil guys, or anybody, adopts tactics that can't be countered by one single, souped-up mobile suit (like suicide bombing, covert ops and other 'flesh-level' guerrilla tactics).
You can't sell model kits of pipe bombs...
anyway, yeah, like I said, the three main factions obviously SUCK in space. CB just floats around up there, and I'm sure the GN particles are playing a hand, but it's absurd to think they couldn't eventually find them... I mean, follow the freaking Gundams with some visual scouts. Whatever happened to cloaking technology for the AEU, HRL and Union?
On the topic of the hot chinese chick, her and those two weird random guys who comment from their hotel room randomly, I'm interested to see how they're connected to CB's origins and how exactly they function. I'd be thrilled if it didn't turn out to be more plot convenience BS, and actually played a large role in the story.
Humans are different from animals. We must die for a reason. Now is the time for us to regulate ourselves and reclaim our dignity. The one who holds endless potential and displays his strength and kindness to the world. Only mankind has God, a power that allows us to go above and beyond what we are now, a God that we call "possibility".
I think CB's intentions are double edged. On one side, CB is crippling major military assests on all sides. On the other edge, the different forces have to band together in order to deal with this threat.
It seems like the former is happening so far. Instead of banding together, the three factions are now competing for the technology. Its a proverbial gold rush.
(Why...why does the main character have to be another berserker emo kid?? Sigh...)
The gundams have shown they are not above attacking infantry, as they had shown when they massively bombed that base full of infantry and gundam units as well as supporting infantry in tamil. If anything, if these paramilitary factions decide to fight exclusively with infantry it would make their job easier, since there is a higher concentration of manpower and leadership within smaller zones as opposed to armies spreading themselves out with mobile units. It would be an even bigger massacre, especially if CB manages to locate infantry/terrorist training camps as well (protagonists seem to have a way of finding these things hehe)The point is that if it becomes a constant condition of the battlefield that heavier vehicles will be taken out by the Gundams, then using only infantry will become the viable option. After all, if the enemy still tries to rely on mechas, the Gundams will appear and take them out. So, it's just men against men, with possibly only very light transportation that won't be noticed by the CB as military vehicles of significance.
I wonder how CB would react though, to enemy targets that mingle in with civilian populations. Would they destroy them, ignoring all collateral damage? This would certainly incite more hate against them for sure.
And random note about the car/pipe bombs, i'm pretty sure they can blow treads off the tracks of tanks at least, in any case
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/i...s-tank-a_x.htm
Yeah, that's true for sure. But from that point of view the mechas would be even weaker to such effects. Wheel and tracks are highly more economical in moving heavy vehicles than feet. Thus, the mechas can't be nearly as heavy and thus nearly as well armored as tanks could be.
Nah. You are now assuming the army generals would just mindlessly order the infantry to move out in large quantities and formations. As it's known the CB will attack anything, they would need to make sure the formations are inconspicuous enough either not to attract attention or be inconvenient to wipe out. A giant mecha is easy to defeat even from far away, but dispersed infantry hiding all over isn't easy at all. And chasing them would put the Gundams in a seriously bigger danger as well.
The Sri Lankan artillery must have used some anti-personnel rounds against the emo Gundam pilot and thus didn't even dent the paint, but when attacking against the main super powers you could be sure it would be APFSDS or whatever new armor piercing technology available that would be directed at them. And when they would be desperately trying to pinpoint small groups of infantry hiding, they would be vulnerable to such fire, as well as all kinds of small shoulder launched AA projectiles.
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