Gundam 00 Episode 09

[masamuneehs]

huh, Krazy brings up some tactical points that really do make you question Sergei's "brilliance". It's clear that he's trying to capture the Gundams... but you would think destroying the Ptolemaios would be part of that...

but, now that I think about it, you may be right when you say all we saw in this episode is Sergei's own diversion... holding back the Ptolemaios (no way that he knew they didn't have any serious firepower on the ship... in fact, you'd almost have to assume that a ship belonging to a group as technologically advanced as CB would fuck your day up...) while trying to capture the Virtue or Kyrios (the airplane looking one).

Either way, one thing is clear, and that's that Sergei is spreading his forces to engage all the Gundams at once. This seems absurdly risky. I understand that you need to keep the Gundams from ganging up on you, and his strategy certainly keeps them relatively isolated and avoids getting flanked by the Kyrios and Virtue...

You'd assume they'd leave the Exia (clearly an anti-mobile suit Gundam) and Kyrios (fast enough to probably escape no matter what) and go for the slow Virtue or the Dynames. Both of those units seem to be weaker in close combat. They're both hard to get at initially because of their incredible range, but once you swarm them...

[Buffalobiian]

When they have overwhelming suits like they have, Sergei decided to divide and conquer. If he focused all his troops onto one target, like Sumeragi thought he would, then she would surround him using a pincer manoeuvre(if he attacked the mothership), or she'd have the other gundams launch an attack at their exposed backs (if they attacked one of the gundams in front). Now that they've split up, Sergei can attack each gundam specifically using data they've collected from previous battles to pinpoit each gundam's weakness, while at the same time, they can perform a co-ordinated attack due to their numbers.

edit: hmm, didn't see massa's post for some reason. He summed it up better. Oh well.

[KrayZ33]

well but they didn't send mobile suits to virtue... just an empty transport-vessel

so they attacked the mothership with nearly everthing (except for these ~6 suits and that pink one). and they KNEW that it was their ship and they DON'T shoot at the gundam but on the heavily shielded ship. so this can only be a diversion but what is the point of not bringing any anti-ship weapons with them and do some serious damage. they intend to destroy that ship (the kamikaze-attack proves that) so...

i understand that part with diversion and they did good when they lured that fast gundam (i think its kyrios?) into the minefield and blocked him. but they could have done so much better i think.

and i m not sure of the effectivity of a minefield but why didn.t they surround kyrios and lay minefields on his escape route... this would also cut of reinforcements... + they do need 6 minutes to actually get there which should be plenty of time for so many units... i mean when they think they are able to capture kiryos with only 6 mobile suits, they also should be able to caputer him with even more suits who are protected by a minefield.

the only one who could intervene is Virtue but he can do that now too...

well i think next episode will answer some of my questions, i still like gundam very much so no problem :P

but i wish they would stop making these awfully made fighting sences where a gundam fires 3-4 beams into space which do obviously miss and the mobile suits around these beams do "dodge skillfully".... it looks so stupid it makes me vomit.

i m happy that the enemies are at least a little bit skilled and not like in seed or so where only the main characters and 2-3 other can pilot a gundam... the rest do control their suits like a 4 years old girl.

mobile suit 1: pew pew
mobile suit 2: pew pew
mobile suit 1: destoryed
mobile suit 2: pew pew

or even better

Gundam: pew pew *slice and dice*
mobile suit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,.....20: *ahhhhhhh we are totally outmatched*

but in Gundam 00 it does at least LOOK like: skill > equipment and that's what makes this series worth watching and thats why i actually did like this episode a little bit :P (not very much but still worth watching!)

[shinta|hikari]

skill>equipment? I doubt that. Maybe if the gap in skill is way too large yes,but the equipment is by far the mostdecisive factor, and is technically CBs edge over everyone.

[Kraco]

The only people who have any skill in this series are those who have a name repeated at least a few times. If you don't have a name, you will pilot your mobile suit like a four years old girl and get killed instantly (no wonder, though, if you pilot like that). If you have a name, you will stay alive in a fight against the Gundams (though still not win, it seems).

And even if this particular space fight has so far looked a tiny bit better than the previous fights, I think it's far too premature to think this will be anything else but another act of comedy in the end. In almost all the previous battles we have seen so ultimately poor leadership and personal piloting skills that it would make even a soviet general cry out in horror.

[shinta|hikari]

Exactly.

[KrayZ33]

well that's why i said "the enemies are at least a *bit* skilled"

in gundam seed destiny 10 or 20 dropships deploy their suits which are killed in nearly a second when kira or so went on a rampage and shot 10000 lasers out of 4-5 guns.

and in this episode it did at least look like the normal suits are actually able to do something and the gundams even do miss! (not only in this episode but in the ones before too) in all the other gundam - series every shot was a direct hit which destroyed their weapon or the whole suit.

they simply dont die the same way again and again... its actually funny to see that someone in the background does get shot and loose his right leg or arm while the others are spreading out to make it more difficult to get hit. i m fine with gundams being much more superior but not as much as it was before... there was actually no reason for a army because one could destroy like thousands of them in one second..

if they keep that up i m fine with it... but when they are ending up forming exia to a second kira i will stop watching gundam forever
i mean look at episode one.. i m sure Exia would have lost if Lockon didn't help him and there only ... hmm let me guess... 6 mobile suits?

as long as they work as a team they seem very strong but this proofs that one alone can't do much... and thats good

edit: the gundams do have weaknesses!

exia is very weak in range combat, while lockon is very immobile when he is sniping (haro is controlling the suit while he aims)

i dont know the weaknesses of virtue and kyrios but i think very is very slow (yet powerfull) and kyrios does not have any defense abilitys (but he is very fast)

but yeah you guys are right when the equipment is totally outmatched (like in the first 2 episodes where the suits couldn't even aim at the gundams because they were so freaking slow) even the most skilled fighter won't win... its just the same in every online game *lol*


edit2: hmmm maybe its just the good animation that got me this time... i didn't see a repeated scene yet (while they were fighting)... i hope this wont change so soon

[TheBladeChild]

Ditto the animation is holding me this time, also the fact this is the first gundam series to be shown in HD which is why the mendoi subs have such awesome quality. Im liking what this new crew is doing to the series, as long as it doesnt turn into seed/gsd then ill be happy. So far it seems that Setsuna wont have a love interest. I cant see any of the girls in his age range[Wang(17),Louise(17),Felt(14)] ending up with him.Mariana is 24 so shes quite older then him and she seems more like an older sister if anything. I'd be glad if he didnt end up with anyone because I always hated the rule that the hero must have a woman thing in gundam.

[Ryllharu]

There is still a lot to do with skill. Did you forget about Setsuna's former mercenary/jihad leader? He didn't have an extremely tricked out Flag like Graham and he was far more effective at countering Setsuna. This is largely due to him being his teacher, but it does show that technology is not everything in this series.

Even Sergei used the dumpy HRL Generic Unit 07000 to put Setsuna into an uncomfortable position.

Now that the HRL and Union are coming up with better models, we should see the Gundams challenged quite a bit more.

[Yukimura]

Wasn't there something special about the mobile suit the AEU gave Ali? I remember it either being an experimental model or somehow customized to be better than a standard Enact. Anyway the way things have been established so far the current powers shouldn't be able to completely close the technology gap since that would require them to get GN particle technology. I don't think even the current CB actually understands how to create GN particles, just how to harness and utilize them.

00 is doing a decent job of making the pilots seem fallible and vulnerable, even to grunts, which is cool. But still the pilots don't completely suck, since awesome mechs with crappy pilots would just be depressing.

[TheBladeChild]

I just looked on Animenfo.com and it seems that S2 or Part 2 of this series will be released in October 2008, can anyone confirm this? If thats the case then S1/Part1 of this series will end about April. Dang 6 months gap is a long time. Well at least CG will start around that time. So I wont have nothing to watch

[Ryllharu]

There kind of has to be a break. Sunrise animates both Gundam and Code Geass. If one is starting up again in April, the other won't be running.

[TheBladeChild]

Well I guess im ok with the break, it just means(I hope) that the quality of the anime is better.

[masamuneehs]

I still don't understand how nobody is talking about Lockon's "twin brother" or whoever the guy hiding behind that tree at Lockon's parents' grave was.

Personally, I think it's an ultra lame plot device. It's like they're digging through some of the cheesiest anime character cliches ever. We have anti-social, robotic, emotionally challenged anti-hero protagonist who lets his emotions run wild. There's split personality who is also a designer baby and a reluctant fighter. We have a super femme who is also a complete asshole and stickler for the rules, probably because he feels guilt for some event that occurred before the series started and that he'll have to confront before the series end.

And we have the talkative "cool guy" who now also has a mysterious twn brother.

The main characters are seriously hodgepodges of absurdity.

[TheBladeChild]

I still don't understand how nobody is talking about Lockon's "twin brother" or whoever the guy hiding behind that tree at Lockon's parents' grave was.

Personally, I think it's an ultra lame plot device. It's like they're digging through some of the cheesiest anime character cliches ever. We have anti-social, robotic, emotionally challenged anti-hero protagonist who lets his emotions run wild. There's split personality who is also a designer baby and a reluctant fighter. We have a super femme who is also a complete asshole and stickler for the rules, probably because he feels guilt for some event that occurred before the series started and that he'll have to confront before the series end.

And we have the talkative "cool guy" who now also has a mysterious twn brother.

The main characters are seriously hodgepodges of absurdity.

Didnt you answer your own question? I dont find his brother particularly important and I agree with you that it is a lame plot device.

[Ryllharu]

But isn't that why we're attached to all the satellite characters? All of them have been far more interesting than anyone that actually pilots. We've got Soma and Sergei, the connection between Graham, Billy and Sumeragi, whatever screwed up way Louise fits into the story, Shirin (Marina's very politically savvy secretary), and all the other support characters that have proven more interesting.

I say let the pilots be lame cliches. They are only the blade that is directed by the rest of the cast.

[TheBladeChild]

But isn't that why we're attached to all the satellite characters? All of them have been far more interesting than anyone that actually pilots. We've got Soma and Sergei, the connection between Graham, Billy and Sumeragi, whatever screwed up way Louise fits into the story, Shirin (Marina's very politically savvy secretary), and all the other support characters that have proven more interesting.

I say let the pilots be lame cliches. They are only the blade that is directed by the rest of the cast.

Lol nicely put.

[masamuneehs]

I say let the pilots be lame cliches. They are only the blade that is directed by the rest of the cast.

do you really think that'll last though? (the part about them only being the blade). I dread the day when the pilots start spouting philisophical idealist nonsense and, in the words of the original Setsuna, "Acting on their emotions". Then again, it's possible I'm just completely expecting the worst because of how SEED turned out...

The main characters are the main for a reason. Even i'd be a bit pissed if they were pawns forever. I'm confident (and frightened) that they'll move on their own eventually.

[Kraco]

I'd be more surprised if none of the pilots had any siblings. People tend to have those, after all, except in China (and possibly Japan with it's ultra low birth rate).

[KrayZ33]

hmmm the pilots arn't japanese... at least not all of them