THAT Animeblog

39 Comments so far

1. Li Shan December 1st, 2008 9:25 pm

   PRINCE ALI, MIGHTY IS HE! ALI AL-ARSHES!

   As with Lelouch vs Cornelia in the finale of season 1 of Geass, superior technology means nothing when compared to good old tactical experience. The pawnage of Titeria and Orewagundam was super sweet though it was eventually ruined when CB decided to even the odds by making it 4-to-1 from 2-to-1.

   D’Awwwwww….. Young Katie is so moe.. (though she kinda looks like Katieria)

2. Zentari December 1st, 2008 10:34 pm

   @Crusader: Awesome Fallout 3 lines are awesome :p.As for the episode, ali was like like <>.

3. Square December 1st, 2008 10:49 pm

   I actually kinda felt sorry for Lindt this ep. I mean his rejection was totally reasonable. It’s like Revival saying, “oh the flaw in your plan was that you didn’t take into account they can bend space and time.” To a person that hasn’t see it first hand, that sort of talk it utter nonsense.

   … really Bob you disappoint me even more (is that even possible?) Seriously, he completely outclassed Gundam 00 in his custom Ahead, what does he need a new suit for? He’s just being an equipment whore, hell he hasn’t done anything to deserve a new suit any how. I mean if he took out Setsuna for good or delivered Gundam 00 to Federation, it would be a different matter.

   Ali… what can I say other than I hope they don’t nerf him in the next episode. It would be really lame if all of a sudden all the other Gundams could fight him one on one.

   Yeah, A-Laws… There about as evil as… on wait they’re NOT EVIL! That’s it, at this point the only thing they can do to revive their evil label is try to drop a Colony on to the earth there by forcing everyone into space. (ie the ultimate act of evil in ANY gundam series, too bad it’ll probably be the Innovators that pick up the cliche).

   Finally, I love Katie’s “F you” to CB’s beer butt “strategist”. It smacks of, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
   - from Sun Tzu art of war.

4. Kaioshin Sama December 1st, 2008 11:06 pm

   Congrats, you’re officially the last person to realize that the A-LAWS are not the true villain faction in this series. :p They’re what we like to call a puppet organization for the real string pullers. In this case it is of course the Innovators who were unveiled last season long before A-LAWS ever came into being.

   Anyway, how’d you enjoy your Ali fight? I must admit you’ve been reasonably patient for his true return. And this episode also had a lot of Katie too, you’re other apparent favourite. Though I never in a million years would have pegged you for developing a thing for Louise. I must admit that while I get the first two I don’t understand that one. Unless it’s just cause she joined the army in order to make something of herself.

   I tend to find that Katie is by far the better strategist as well. If there’s one thing I find a little forced it’s her admiration for Sumeragi who uses technology to her advantage more often then not. I wouldn’t really call what Sumeragi does strategizing and feel that the only reason she’s been so successful up till now is because she’s fought more than a handful of arrogant enemy commander’s who think they have CB all figured out. Meh…..

5. Kabitzin December 1st, 2008 11:50 pm

   Gadessa’s gun looks like it is a real Vajra-killer. Ali looks like his beard has gotten out of control due to his burns.

   The fighting with extra hands and use of lightsabers gripped with toes/feet was too absurd. It’s like putting Tieria in a fight just makes the fight that much stupider. Tieria’s Gundam is always the one with the face on the back, or the flowing locks of hair, or the feet lightsabers…

6. blind_dead_mcjones December 1st, 2008 11:56 pm

   hmmm, methinks that the A-LAWS aren’t meant to be like the titans at all, and that them being so was an assumption on many peoples’ part, they’re just part of the smoke and mirrors ploy ribbons is using to distract CB from what he’s really upto

   one thing i find interesting is the huge shade of grey that is being portrayed here, both sides view eachother as the worst vile scum of the earth, ando then exaggerate the actions each side commited. but when you compare notes, they often aren’t as bad as the other side claim, and it also shows the hypocracy in some individuals thinking. (for example: in the very first ep of season 2, zinin said “our comrades were murdered by you” kind of hypocritical to say when he too at the end of the day kills people for a living, ditto for lyle, who was calling the A-LAWS bstards when they unleashed automations on the kataron base)

   as far as i can see the A-LAWS are just the henchmen who everyone assumes is evil, and of course the A-LAWS are too busy being distracted with dealing with CB to notice that the real vilains (ribbons) are working on something dastardly (i didn’t bother to mention kataron as they’re just rebels without a clue)

7. Krebmarkt December 2nd, 2008 1:18 am

   Communist Being must die.

8. Crusader December 2nd, 2008 1:21 am

   @Li Shan
   Yeah it seems that Prince Ali has become so powerful that he can take on two perhaps three Gundams at once. Much better improvement considering how Jihad-kun gets consistently beat by Bushido Bob in the inferior Ahead. I hope the O-Raizer won’t do CB any good against Prince Ali slayer of meisters.

   Patrick wishes he were educated enough to have gone to college with Katie…

   @Zentari
   Fallout 3 still boasts one of the most awesome mecha moments of 2008. Prince Ali was just awesome in proving that he is still the Ace of Aces in this series, Patrick wishes he were half as cool.

   @Square
   Yeah Lindt is got humiliated pretty bad by Revival. It’s not so much that he sucks as a tactician, but his vision is rather limited and stuck in a conventional mindset. Against any other opponent Lindt would be a force to be reckoned with, but since he’s dealing with CB and GN pixie dust, he will never be as good as Katie. Still at least he behaved himself as a good chief of staff should.

   Bushido Bob is a gear queer and I guess that Permit is so awesome that it gives him the right to take new suits before every one else. That Permit sure is something, Bob may be a disappointment but at least he has one useful function in being the only other guy capable of humiliating Jihad-kun in the superior Gundam 00. If Only Jihad-kun were out of the way then Bushido Bob and Gundam 00 could be together.

   Right now Sunrise will have to work pretty damn hard to make the A-Laws excellent evil, given how evil Wang and the Innovators are I guess there just ain’t enough room. They’d have to so an elevator drop for all three to make them evil though given how their job is to protect those elevators it just isn’t going to happen and a colony drop is a bit of stretch considering how much effort the Feddies are putting into colonization.

   Sumeragi never learns, Katie has been learning from every engagement and at least doesn’t dismiss Lindt out of hand even if she finds Lindt to be irritating. Hopefully the alliance between Revival and Katie will prove of some value as long as it lasts.

   @Kaioshin
   Spare me your insipid words, it’s only now that the last vestiges of A-Laws evil have been taken down. Given how much fuss was made over non-issues like automatons and the ceaseless CB and Kataron bullshit the only avenue left to make the A-Laws evil was Lindt, Goodman, and Homer. Goodman was turned into a softy over a dance, and now Homer’s desire to preserve the lives of his men makes the use of automatons much more clear, it was not simply a weapons test but the weapon of choice for a commander who actually gave a damn about the men and women under his command. Lindt fell when he proved that he was simply an asshole XO and nothing more, given how Titans were not as well behaved had Lindt been doing dastardly things to hurt Katie’s operation it seems that even Lindt has a line he isn’t willing to cross. Again given how all three debuted with some mildly bad traits coupled with overall mistrust by Katie and Sergei it was very possible for the A-Laws to be the inheritors of the Titans legacy. Only now is it fairly definitive, as if you anticipated that Lindt was going to behave and Homer was actually a compassionate bloke…Last person you say? Coming from the guy who was trying ever so hard to associate the A-Laws and Federation with Prince Ali’s deeds, that is awfully rich. Again they can still attempt to make the A-Laws evil, but we are coming to the point that we need a real massacre to prove it. Kudos to Sunrise if CB ends up looking like idiots when it is revealed that all the talk of massacre was manufactured by Wang to incite change and that Kataron is made up of malcontents who never gave the Federation a chance. Still there is still time for the A-Laws doing a colony drop…or something similar.

   Having Prince Ali around is always good, because shit actually happens instead of just more CB droning and moralistic platitudes. Katie was always the better thinker because she actually had to draw lessons after every engagement, Sumeragi is from the just as planned school and for her to tout that she was one step ahead when Gadessa was the unknown factor that got a clean hit is pretentious. Sumeragi has too much emotional turmoil and relies far too much on her technological edge and GN particles. Wild Bear would have kicked her in the face had Sergei had better units than space Tieriens. Besides Katie was never bullied into an operation she didn’t like and was able to see the merits of Lindt’s orthodox plan, we actually see Katie think about stuff, rather than relying on prophetic powers and quoting timetables down to seconds that have no place in actual tactics, operational art, or strategies. Katie has always operated on the side of commanding as it is known in the real world, Sumeragi is more of a prophet and just as planned.

   After all had Sumeragi been all that great then the blue on blue she helped cause would have been in her favor and she would not have lost her dear Emilio. Sumeragi doesn’t have any love for her role, Katie seems to have either been born to it or devoted herself to her profession. Last season when the odds were more even it was Katie and Sergei who won the war, if Sumeragi were more competent her losses would not have been so great and her forces would not have been divided and cut to pieces as they were.

   Louise has shown improvement and I do wish her to stay on the path that she has chosen, last season her presence was more of a nuisance than anything else. Now she actually has some depth and has shown reserves of strength and courage I doubted she ever had. Here was a girl who lost everyone she cares about, and instead of wallowing in her own self pity she decided to use the wealth that her family left her and avenge their murders. She has alos shown improvement in her piloting skills and even if Soma is dead and Maried away in Louise, Soma has one successor to pilot Smultron into battle. Her quest for vengeance is one that is far more understandable and sympathetic than the vague goals of the titular “heroes” in CB. They fight simply for their own self serving idiot ideology, Louise is simply here to deliver the justice that her dead family never got. Louise is not making excuses, she has that much going for her.

   @Kabitzin
   Well now we can dread the more phallic hidden beam sabers…

   We all know that Tieria is just full of lose as a pilot given how Ginin was able to humiliate him… the fact that Prince Ali made Tieria look like a novice comes as no surprise. Silly though it may have been at least Prince Ali was able to give both a good run before hidden beam sabers were shown. Prince Ali did send both blasting off at certain points.

   Now if only Gadessa’s gun rotated and could under go transformation… XD

   @blind_dead_mcjones
   Yeah it looks like at this point we might not be getting that epic irredeemable massacre to make the A-Laws the bad guys. Ginin lost friends so it was understandable that he would view them as murders (it was personal for him), he probably lost a bunch of young enlistees too. It’s not easy living with the fact that some kid who was not old enough to drink died on your watch. If you are going to survive as a soldier you will have to dehumanize your enemy otherwise the minute you hesitate is when you and your buddies get killed.

   The A-Laws are defenders of paradise, from what we have seen of the Federation it’s a good place to live in and well worth protecting. It’s hard to blame them for viewing those who would destroy the paradise which they helped build and was founded on the sacrifices of their dead comrades as anything less than vile. Kataron seems to draw most of its support from outside the Federation, and had been waging their war for some time before the A-Laws were formed. CB was the force that came down and started shooting unilaterally and the Trinities were the first to draw civilian blood, it is small wonder why CB is so hated by the world as their propaganda became lies once Team Trinity showed up without much public opposition to them by the rest of CB.

   So far the only thing saving CB from looking like misguided rebels is their possession of Gundams. Kataron still has not given much reason for their armed conflict with the Federation nor really justified their attempts at creating terror cells in Feddie territory. If their mission was to protect the Middle East they have clearly failed as Kataron cannot bring peace nor defend Azadistan from Ali. They refuse to integrate but still want benefits, in essence they rather beg than work, if they can’t have their charity then they will fight and take it by force, in a way they are thieves.

   @Krebmarkt
   Communism is a temporary set back on the road to freedom.

9. Salyu December 2nd, 2008 1:51 am

   Depicting the CB pilots as inferior pilots to aces like Ali and Acre in my opinion, is a lot more interesting. It makes their plights a lot more stimulating knowing that they lost their only previous advantage, which was better technology and superior Gundams. A young, fallible, and ultimately weak protagonist is definitely better than a better-than-everyone-at-everything-super-coordinator with DRAGOONS.

10. Ominae December 2nd, 2008 1:53 am

    Alrighty! Time for some fun this coming Saturday…

    And yeah, I’m looking for more Soma bridge bunny jobs. There oughta be fics of them…

    I’m surprised that Billy almost revealed Mr. Bushido’s “real name”, if you know what I mean.

    And yes, Patrick will never, never know how Colonel Kati looked like in her early 20s. XP

11. Rhys December 2nd, 2008 3:55 am

    Please forgive this ignorant newbie for intruding, but I wanted to say a few things.

    @Salyu
    Speaking from the perspective of a writer-in-training, I’m gonna agree with you. Kira’s messiah-like-omnicompetence was a detraction to his character and to Seed’s story as far as I’m (and presumably most people here) are concerned, yet Sunrise just seem to have taken that and spread it around CB, rather than try to make them underdogs (heck, if they were competant pilots using inferior suits I suspect tehy’d have a lot more fans).

    Sumeragi in particular gets the lions-share of Co-Oridnator Omnipotence with her annoying ability to continuously pull a tech/timetable based solution out of her ‘exactly as planned’ butt – smacks of poor writing to me. I mean, if you’re going to go down that road, then at least draw from the Death Note/Light Yagami camp and make it either Excellent Evil or show her planning it out!

    In three years studying English Literature & Creative Writing at University I was told again and again to ’show rather than tell’ – Sunrise keeps telling us that Sumeragi anticipated something, but I’d much rather see it in the planning, so we can learn for ourselves of her ’skills’ rather than be blugeoned over the head were her supposed ‘genius’. Heck, look at how they characterise the redoubtable Iron Oberst (sorry to borrow from you Crusader but that phrase has now locked itself in my head) – I’d be proud to have written many of Katie/Kathy’s scenes.

    @Kaioshin Sama
    I apologise as a n00b on these boards for breaking in, but I’ve got to side with Crusader in liking Louise. Again this relates to my education, but I find her character arc and development far more compelling than most of the other characters. Another thing I learnt was to make a character relatable, yet the CBs, with their angst and endless musing on morality, seem as distant to me as aliens. Then I consider Louise (a young girl trying to make something of herself, suffering from a massive sense of lonliness) or Soma (someone trying to discover their self-identity and place in the world), and I instantly bond with them, having felt similar emotions in my life. Their pain is my pain, and that is good writing.

    In season one Louise was an annoyance, but I felt there was something waiting to happen there – to be honest though after the Halvey massacre I was convinced Sunrise only intended her as an example of the ‘boo-hoo war is terrible!’ cliche and were going to write her out or make her into a tag-along-pet for Saji (much like they’ve done with Soma, DAMN THEIR OILY HIDES), so her current standing is a major plus for me.

    This also ties into an annoying habit of mine – in anime I tend to root for the secondary characters more than the primaries. Take my previous Gundam experiences for example;

    In Gundam Wing (one of my ‘gateway-animes’), my fav was Lt. Lucrezia Noin, followed by Hilde Schbieker, simply because I thought they rocked, being powerful, assertive and competant females, which in the limited anime I’d seen up until then was a rarity. The most worthy Treize Kushrenada also scored highly, being a skilled and compassionate leader of men, an excellant combatant to boot, as well as being a snappy-dresser.

    In Seed, it was Miriallia Haww and Kira’s friends from Heliopolis, because I found the idea of civilians forced into a military situation and not only surviving but thriving in their new circumstances far more interesting as a story than the constant emo-ing of Kira having to fight his best friend. The fact that Miri and the others then CHOSE to stay on the Archangel rather than run off cemented the idea in my head that they were most worthy characters, only for Kira to effectively ignore them or use them as set-dressing. Does snubbing this supreme act of loyalty and friendship seem right to anyone? Thankfully my other Seed favourites, Murrue and Mu, got treated with the respect they deserved.

    So, by process of comparison, I seem to gravitate towards powerful soldier-girls, leaders-of-men, and secondary characters with interesting storylines. It’s hardly surprising that Louise and Soma (as she once was, RIP First Lieutenant) tick both boxes and make me want to see them gut off the heads of a few Gundams, or that Sergei and Katie are the runners up! The Federation gets all the decent characters and I’m left wanting to see them kick CB’s collective angsty arse!

    In short, Sunrise, if you want us to empathise with your protagonists, actually put some effort into crafting them, otherwise you end up with situations like this, where people are bonding more with the antagonists and secondary-characters!

    @Crusader
    I salute you Sire – I’m here every Monday and Tuesday eagerly awaiting your most excellent Rants, likewise though I never watched Code Geass I would drop in every week just to hear your thoughts on it. Let’s call me a Crusader fanboy and be done with it. Power to Corneilia-Sama and the soldaten of the A-Laws!

12. Yamila December 2nd, 2008 4:06 am

    I actually should be studying Civil Law, but couldn’t help coming here…

    Seriously, no matter how sexy he/she/it is, Moeria can’t aim a thing with that Fatty gundam… it’s plain ridiculous. I guess that Ali just wants to save him to have some more fun. It’s the only explanation I can think of.

    Regarding Ali, I’m still waiting for him to cut Nena in pieces… and now there’s a new addition to his Death Note: that Revive Revival. No one, but no one speaks like that of Gra– Mr. Bushido damnit. And if Ali doesn’t, I hope that Regene (say, in a big treachery move killing all those geiz) or whoever with a big sword makes some justice.

    (The Mr. Bushido obsessee has spoken to the world.)

    And yay for Billy cooking a new… Flag? those guys have a big problem with forgetting the past, it seems. It’d explain why he couldn’t take Sumeragi out of his mind after all those years, and why Bob is still so focused on raping Setsuna.

    A-laws being nice folks aren’t big news. As far as I know (I repeat, as far as I know… if I’m making a mistake, don’t be so hard on me please), in the Gundam franchise there’s never good or evil, just opposite factions. Some more likeable than others though.

13. elvadrieng December 2nd, 2008 4:51 am

    I’m kind of disappointed at how tieria was pwned in this episode? Is there a need to make the pilot skills of the CB to be so inferior?

14. grss1982 December 2nd, 2008 6:06 am

    “There better be a Flag underneath all that extra armor.”

    @Crusader: There’s no Flag underneath, BUT it has freaking “Beam Fingers!!!!!”

    http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/8628/1228034650425yx7.jpg

    AWESOME!!!!!

    BTW…it looks like a modified black Gadessa.

15. lilu December 2nd, 2008 6:24 am

    When I saw Ali in action: “BRAKE GUNDAM!”.
    Oh, Patrick, I was waiting for his special move AGAIN.
    Gra- Mr. Bushido with license has an opponent Innovator Revive Revival with license.
    Now there is the only thing left to cement Kati vs Sumeragi – Patrick.
    Marie: Soma is upset, because her family is not CB, it is Feldt’s family.

16. lilu December 2nd, 2008 6:30 am

    @grss1982:
    The strange thing is that I think the black modified Gadessa belongs to Mr. Bushido, but I know it should belong to Innovator.

17. schneider December 2nd, 2008 8:23 am

    Damn, those foot sabers are genius. Ali is castrating everyone who goes near him, ironically taking a leaf out of Setsuna’s old hidden blades trick.

    And Patrick is already back in business, how wonderful.

18. skoll December 2nd, 2008 11:29 am

    Who didn’t get that A-Laws weren’t the actual enemy? I thought we all got that, what with the constant shots of strange androgynous beings talking about weird transhuman shit schtick.

19. Kaioshin Sama December 2nd, 2008 1:45 pm

    @Rhys: Look at you trying so hard at the Sunrise bashing. You managed to work just about every single cliche in there too. Good effort, but unfortunately you are misguided in not just that. Whoever said I didn’t like Louise as a character or what they’ve done with her? You side with Crusader (I don’t want to ask about the worship/idolization thing you’ve got going on) then you side with me on this one as well.

    I would love to know a few things though. First, where are you seeing this messiah-like omnipotence in CB? I see loss after loss after narrow escape so you must being watching some other show instead and pinning the blame on 00 and Sunrise.

    Second how exactly have we not been shown Sumeragi putting her plans into action, even if they aren’t those of a tactical genius. We’re shown more than we are told and explained to about her plan in this episode alone. Unless you missed the second half were Katie and Revive hint at the use of Trans-am and then we get to see just what they mean. To me the scenario is born of neither especially good nor especially bad writing, but just writing. Though I suppose for most internet folk it has to be either one or the other since there is no inbetween in anything anymore in the blogosphere especially. Either that or you had to find a way to work the “bad writing” meme in there. Meh…..

    Third, how is Mu getting ressurected from a noble death only to do a bunch of stupid shit in Seed Destiny getting the respect he deserves? Are we experiencing recall bias throughout all of these gripes perhaps? Seems to happen a lot with Sunrise anime and the complaining demographic. And by a lot I mean consistently.

    Fourth….. I don’t know about you but I’d say that they’ve done a decent job in unveiling the motivations and backstories for most of the meisters. That’s not a question, that’s just my opinion. Since people are going to mistake that for an “I think they are the greatest heroes ever” statement since we deal in extremes on the internet now I will try to explain that that just means I find them tolerable and okay. Hope that gets across.

    Strangely I too tend to identify with the secondary characters in Gundam series more than the primaries. I guess it’s from knowing what to expect from the primary characters after seeing every Gundam series such as their stories have become boring. The meisters on the other hand, I can’t say they are your typical Gundam protagonists at all, so I do find them interesting to a degree. Just not as much as say…..Ali or Sergei.

20. Crusader December 2nd, 2008 2:42 pm

    @Salyu
    Problem with them being weak is that their skills seem to be stagnating heck Ali proved that he wasn’t just sitting around for the last four years when he kicked the shit out of Gundam 00 and Seravee. I’d like to see some improvement, but given how they are still getting beat down hard by the Feddie Aces hard I can’t say I put much faith in Setsuna or any one else actually beating Bushido Bob or Ali convincingly.

    @Ominae
    I hate this Marie person instead of boring bridge bunny fanfction we’d be better off with some LouisexSoma yuri goodness. Patrick might get to see 20 year old Katie if he gets into her picture albums, he’d pay a handsome fee if some one were willing to sell them…

    @Rhys
    Glad to have you on board may Oberst Katie lead the Federation to victory!

    @Yamila
    We did have the Titans, and recently because of the three sides BS from SEED we have had irredeemable factions before. Thankfully much of that was averted, though now we just have to hope it won’t simply be everyone vs Ribbons.

    Titeria was never a good pilot he was the Innovator assigned by default, it comes as little surprise that Tieria could not compete once the tech gap was bridged and Ali was piloting something better than an Enact.

    Revival ain’t all bad he/she at least intends to work with Katie whereas Bushido Bob never gave her much respect.

    @elvadrieng
    Tieria always was the weakest one, it comes as no surprise that Prince Ali with his godly kills was able to beat him like the impotent loser that he was. After all Tieria had trouble against Patrick of all people…

    @grss1982
    I do believe Bob plans on getting catty with Gundam 00. Still hope Bob beats Setsuna once again.

    @lilu
    Patrick is back and he’s here to stay, what better way to contrast Sumeragi vs. Katie by showing how Katie succeeded in life by having an ever loyal and adoring Patrick while Sumeragi killed her Emilio and ended up with a stalker like Billy.

    @schneider
    Prince Ali MIGHTY is he, he will always one up those CB losers because he’s just that great a pilot. Truely Ali deserves to carry the Permit at some point.

    @skoll
    Problem was establishing cteh A-Laws complicity, since we now know, the A-Laws don’t take their orders from Ribbons directly but from the Feddie Government they swore to defend. Besides given how we are pretty deep in already with nary a dead child or civie, it seems CB and Kataron were bullshitting about the terrible A-Laws. I like it better this way, it would have been rather unfortunate if Lindt was starting to one up Ribbons in the realm of evil.

    @Kaioshin
    Again with the cries of bashing…the guy confessed how much he liked Wing and SEED, which is more than I can say and yet even now he’s “bashing” because he sees that Sunrise is using a just as planned device with Sumeragi.

    The main point is that unlike Katie we never see Sumeragi actually sit down and gloss over maps or let alone really think on the same level, and yet she’s a genius…right. I don’t know about you but if Sumeragi gets surprised and then goes on to say it was all part of her calculations, I’d call that bullshit. If her calculations were as good as she says she could not be surprised and yet Gadessa gave a a good blast across the bow and scant seconds later going off trajectory was all part of the plan. Her genius is explained after the fact with the just as planned utterances, never are we shown her working like Katie or Lindt. The Gulf between how both are shown is quite vast, let’s be honest here Sumeragi doesn’t suffer from the fog of war that Katie and Lindt do, that is pretty omnipotent as even Reinhard and Yang were victims to unforeseen things. It’s not god like but at the end of the day Sumeragi gets to boast that she knew what was going to happen and who was going to do what…if that is not omnipotence what would you call it then if you could divine the future and account for every action the your opponent will make? Just as Planned perhaps? Thing is Sumeragi never knew that it was Katie and she sure as hell doesn’t know Lindt, and yet she knows how they will think…it’s a bit of a stretch to say the least.

21. Kaioshin Sama December 2nd, 2008 3:23 pm

    Oh you mean the emergency launch thing? Yeah that kind of came out of nowhere, but I highly doubt that going off trajectory was part of the plan, it just sort of happened. My guess would be that the emergency launch was a precautionary measure just in case they were met in orbit, but then again it still just seems a little convenient and that only works if we are under the assumption that that was why she launched the 00 Gundam in the first place. Then again (again?) I actually did something similar in one of the old Gundam Strategy games on the Super Famicom so it can’t be that unlikely a strategy as far as Gundam series go. Always have your MS act as a vanguard for your ship whenever in dangerous territory or potentially about to enter dangerous territory. Always!

    Still Katie is by far the better strategist and a more interesting one to boot. I think that much is clear to everyone. She just doesn’t have the 00 Gundam and it’s seemingly full range of deployment (Sea, Air, Land, Space, Atmosphere) power at her disposal.

22. Haesslich December 2nd, 2008 5:30 pm

    I will only say this, rather than add more fuel to the fires of Sunrise bashing or the various fights which are going on in the fandom: Louise is far, far more interesting now than she was in the first season where she was portrayed as a rich airhead whose only purpose was to be fawn over Saji and then do nothing. After her maiming, I expected her to see more usage as a ‘morality pet’ to show why Celestial Being was on the side of the angels… whether or not they deserved that designation, and whether or not they were shown effectively by the director to be so.

    Having her as a pilot who isn’t invincible, yet isn’t a helpless mook or obvious redshirt (unlike the Astray Girls in SEED… or hell, ANY non-hero pilot in a Gundam series) is a change. Having her put forward reasons for piloting which go beyond ‘angst, angst, specious claim of morality’ is refreshing, especially in comparison to Celestial Being whose pilots depended more on the belief their cause was righteous and the quality of their technological edge after the first third of the first season. She’s had more character development time than most of the characters in show, who have either stayed somewhat stagnant (Sumeragi, Setsuna) while staying out of the ‘oh, woe is me, I’m so helpless’ role (Marina), but without becoming annoyingly whiny (Saji). She’s sympathetic, much as Katie is, and does a better job representing the common soldier and defuses the usual fanboy desire to classify characters as heroes or villains due to how things went for her in the first season… and which has been particularly pronounced as a trait among the fandom since Gundam Wing… and brought to a head with SEED Destiny, with the way the designated heroes went from doing morally questionable things straight into willingly cooperating with the genocidal maniac… and then having Fukuda claim they were the good guys all along, even though we didn’t see them really questioning the morality of what they were doing.

    Katie, Louise, and Sergei have class – and consciences. Both have seen relatively low points (blue-on-blue fire for Katie, the massacre of her family for Louise), and are working for the Federation with an awareness of the consequences of their actions. We saw this in the first season as well, such as when Exia helped stabilize a detached segment of an orbital station and Sergei ordered his men to let the Gundams that one time due to their humanitarian actions. Small things like that were among the more refreshing parts of the earlier Gundam shows, and are appreciated when they show up… which, in my books, has become less and less common as the antagonists have become more and more like caricatures in recent years as various directors’ political views seep into the storyboarding and directing.

    But that’s going off track…

23. Crusader December 2nd, 2008 8:04 pm

    @Kaioshin
    Launching the Gundam 00 as CAP was not the problem the problem was that firstly as Sumeragi was knocked off course Gundam 00 ought to have been at some indeterminate distance which she could not have accounted for, secondly opening the hatches when going into orbit is usually fatal, but GN particles seem to overcome that and many other things that we have yet to see, thirdly she could not have anticipated what Zhejiang had on hand given how she was not where she intended to be, and fourthly she did not ask anything about that thing that blew her off course or raised nary a question about Gadessa.

    I don’t like the “Just as Planned” approach that they use with Sumeragi because it’s more arbitrary telling than actually showing that she is thinking. The fact that she never asks the right questions like WTF was that thing that blew her off course in a single shot really does a number on her reputation as strategic genius. Quoting time tables is utter bullshit given how that is not how it works, and since she has not taken any visible lessons from her defeats makes her too big an idiot to let her pass the genius test. One would assume given how Corner was able to get 7 GN-Tau drives from seemingly no where that the genius ought to have inquired about how Wang could have missed it, but no same old Sumeragi relying on Wang without the least bit of suspicion or at least showing us that she has a secondary source for intel.

    Katie behaves in a manner that gives her som credibility, Sumeragi on the other hand doesn’t. If Gadessa knocked you off your ass any sane person would want to know what the hell it was and how intel missed it, but this is not he case with Sumeragi with her prediction BS, she did not predict it and showed no sign that she did. The problem with her character is that her genius is not only taken for granted but has to be infallible most time, as such Gadessa was all part of her calculations which leads me to the conclusion that her characterization is not up to par with Katie, and overall not believable. The CAP was good, but ignoring Gadessa was something else.

    Katie, Sergei, and Lindt all operate under limitations Sumeragi does not, as such her methods stand out more and are subject to far more scrutiny. The three Feddies all had to learn, Sumeragi never learns anything new because she doesn’t have to until it’s too late. If Sumeragi operated under some constraints that were insurmountable by GN particles then we’d have a different and possibly better dynamic. Right now though Sumeragi has been saved by GN Particles and Gundam 00 more often than her own genius.

    @Haesslich
    Indeed Louise has come a long way from her old self with motivations that are in my opinion more human and sympathetic than anything the CB crew boast. Thankfully they did not make her some morality pet or poster child for why war is bad. It is sadly true that Louise has grown more in the same time as a character than Sumeragi, Haptism, most of the secondary string in CB (Lasse, Ian, Saji), and to an extent Lyle as well. Mariana is still pretty much the same person, but granted she was only a couch potato for most of S1 that was somewhat expected even if a bit deplorable. Even Prince Ali showed an increase in skill given how he went toe to tow with two Gundams one of which was the All Powerful Gundam 00.

    I like how Louise is not feeling sorry for herself and improving her skills. She at least connected with one person if only briefly, hopefully since Soma is gone Louise will prove most worthy of Smultron. Oddly enough most of the pity for Louise is coming from those around her, particularly Andrei. As much as we give him crap at least he showed some tact and limited himself to information on her within the public domain. If Louise has one failing its that she has attracted less than stellar suitors, Saji is useless, and Andrei is a bit creepy (though at least he shows that he cares more about her and shows much more interest than Saji ever did). I like this more humble and more confident Louise. She isn’t afraid any more even if she chose to undergo some risky science for the chance to deliver justice to those who robbed her of her family. It will be a fine day when Louise tears Nena to pieces, though Prince Ali might do it for her to add the first dead family to his tally. Either way she has more depth now than she did as the air headed rich girl that hung around loser harem animu male.

    Indeed since Louise has very different motivations from the usual set of reasons she shines a bit brighter as a character than the rest. Katie, Sergei, Lindt, Goodman, Ginin, and Homer all fight because its their job to fight what appears to be a very convincing threat from both Kataron and Celestial Being. With any luck some of the secondary blokes will be given air time to develop more. It’d be interesting to see Katie’s side of the story for once. We know how Sumeragi ran her own life into the ground, but there is plenty of room to see how Katie dealt with it. Blue on Blue is never taken lightly and there is an immense sense of guilt if you were the one who somehow or somewhat responsible.

    At the very least we are limited to only one Mariana and one Saji, any more and the drag might have even been greater.

    BTW I tried loading the blog on the iPhone, it works great if your cell phone contract is about to expire, writing out long comments is a bitch though, but it loads fairly well and looks fairly good. Even if its a bit pricey in terms of functionality its priced decently enough (cellphone, PDA, and iPod all in one), only thing that sucks is the battery. Overhaul is still in the air though mellowbunny has already planned out an agreed upon lay out.

24. Haesslich December 2nd, 2008 9:53 pm

    Crusader: It’s the Twitter feed and other plugins which kill the RAM. You’ll find iPhone firmware upgrade 2.2 will fix a lot of the crashing that 2.1 would suffer from, but if you zoom in too much… it’ll die. Just a warning.

25. Crusader December 2nd, 2008 10:51 pm

    @Haesslich
    Yeah I got the 2.2 upgrade when I got mine, thankfully my eye sight is good enough that it’s not an issue. Pretty nice LCD they put in though, I am thoroughly impressed at how far I can zoom out and still read.

26. Haesslich December 2nd, 2008 11:29 pm

    The pixel per inch ratio is 163, IIRC. In contrast, a Sony PSP has only 128ppi and your typical 1080p-capable 42″ high-def TV has a 53 ppi ratio. The Amazon Kindle has a 167ppi for its e-paper, which is one of the sharpest displays on the market.

    But memory is going to be the main problem with your iPhone, along with battery life – the RAM is the limiter, especially when it comes to displaying websites with a lot of images… like this one.

27. Crusader December 2nd, 2008 11:42 pm

    Well I guess we’ll have to wait for the second gen iPhone to see if the RAM issue is resolved, but I have no hope batteries will see any significant improvements anytime soon. It’s the same issue with the Landwarrior concept, batteries just don’t last long enough, the man or woman who finds the next big leap in battery technology will be very wealthy or at least make their employer very wealthy.

    At least I don’t think they soldered on the battery for the 3G so battery replacement might not be so bad…

28. Kaioshin Sama December 2nd, 2008 11:52 pm

    @Crusader: Yeah GN Particles are kind of broken. You make a compelling case and you know what it’s hard to deny that Sumeragi as a strategist is pretty underwhelming. I’m gonna give you this one since I’m more or less out.

    @Haesslich: Wait, who did Fukuda claim were the good guys in Seed Destiny? By the end of it I didn’t know what the heck was supposed to be going on or what point he was trying to make so any confirmation would be nice as to just what he was trying (and arguably failed) to show with that series.

29. Haesslich December 3rd, 2008 12:13 am

    Kaioshin: IIRC, in an interview after the series was over, Fukuda claimed that the crew of the Minerva were the heroes (and protagonists) all along, even though the original cast had usurped their roles towards the end of the series…. because Kira and company had ’strayed from the path of justice’. Of course, Kira and Lacus weren’t the ones involved in the colony drops, nor were they willingly using the Neo-GENESIS device or going along with the genetic determinism plan that the PLANT Chairman had, or preparing to destroy millions of people… so yeah, whatever. They’re still the protagonists and main characters, despite being shoved aside by the crew of the Archangel, who stop Dulindal from forcing everyone on Earth to comply with his wishes whether they wanted to or not. Y’know, they’re villains because they ’strayed from the path of justice’ because they weren’t cooperating with a totalitarian dictator and didn’t go along with his plans even after being made privy to them.

    Talia Gladys sure deserves a ‘Mom of the Year’ award too for choosing to die with Dulindal and Rau’s clone and telling someone else to keep an eye on her kid, without talking to him. The plot was rather incoherent at that point, and like many people I lay the blame on his wife’s doorstep along with the choices he made in shifting the show’s focus to the original crew.

30. Kaioshin Sama December 3rd, 2008 1:33 am

    @Haesslich: Wow, I never knew Fukuda actually had that little of a handle on his own series. I’m almost left to wonder if he’d given full control of it to the wife by the end since it seems like he barely knew what happened in it or how the various portrayals came across.

31. Salyu December 3rd, 2008 2:02 am

    You do get a little bit of insight into Sumeragi’s planning, albeit not enough probably. For example in Season 1, you DID have Sumeragi sit down in front of a large screen of maps, predicting the three regions that would try to rebel, and having VEDA double check her predictions. However, back then it didn’t matter as much because we could all assume that Sumeragi’s strategies were somewhat related to VEDA’s strategies (at least during their interventions, and not when they are attacked), and supercomputers are obviously never wrong . Hell in Season 1, Sumeragi could come onto the deck and command her troops with a beer in her hand and no one even did a double-take.

    After showing her planning once though, Sunrise hasn’t done so again, and it’s somewhat fitting because this is GUNDAM, a mecha anime about robots bashing into each other; not DEATHNOTE and there isn’t a need to delve deep into Sumeragi’s every thought of every episode for 5 minutes. Just ask yourself, do you want to hear Sumeragi talk to herself for 5 minutes every episode? Also, you only see Mannequin actually “planning” a strategy once thus far. And this time, the planning was only shown to show the dissent between Mannequin and Lindt. Sumeragi on the other hand, really has no one to talk to to go over her plans with (the only one she had before was VEDA). I guess the difference is Mannequin makes battle strategies while Sumeragi seems to be able to predict the future.

    About the Gundams themselves, I think the Throne has a huge advantage technology-wise now with its Fangs plus its superior pilot. Tieria’s fatty Gundam was never meant for 1on1 combat, unless it has a Nadleeh Jr. mode (and I bet it does). Fatty Gundams have always been meant for blowing up ships and large numbers of grunts from afar. Trans-AM also reminds me of a fuse between the pilot seeding and the lambda drive from Full Metal Panic, especially 00’s twin GN drive. I’ll laugh if Setsuna is only able to get the 00 to operate at full capacity when he “becomes Gundam” again.

32. Haesslich December 3rd, 2008 2:38 am

    Kaioshin: If you were ever wondering why people were calling for Fukuda’s head, except for the brainless twats in Japan who made SEED Destiny one of the most popular franchises ever (helped, no doubt, by the pretty pilots who got fujoshi everywhere arguing for what the BEST pairing was)… well, look for interviews. I’m still trying to figure out what drugs he was on, or if he was just taking his wife’s word for things – sorta like how Robert Jordan was writing the WoT books after book 5 like he was following a teenybopper’s suggestions for what ’should happen next’.

33. Square December 3rd, 2008 8:22 am

    You know what just struck me as very very odd. If Sumeragi was supposed to be the awesome strategist why did she never try to find out who the military planners were near the end of season 1? Katie and Sergei were operating at a huge disadvantage in that they had almost 0% chance to figure out who was CB’s strategist, considering CB is a secret org that probably operated in cells.

    However, leading a huge coalition of the world’s 3 major military powers is probably big news and something that is easily found out. I mean even the average grunt of this massive undertaking would know the names of Katie and Sergei. So even if Wang never provided this info, it would only take a look at the normal newspapers to figure this out. That right there shows that Beer Butt is actually a pretty horrible strategist who was relying on only 1 source of information to do her planning which continues even now. Sure her “tactical” choices are decent cause she’s getting real time data, but her strategic plans are based on nothing other than her guessing and the occasional Wang tip (hoho i kill myself).

34. Gundam 00 / Season 2 / Episode 9 « Anime Anonymous December 3rd, 2008 11:17 am

    [...] That Anime Blog [...]

35. Dark Messiah December 4th, 2008 3:12 am

    whew.. The Party is really started now, Prince ali is a mascot or the dark horse in this show. There is no fun without prince Ali.
    Colonel Katie sama is very cute when she was young (I will admit it she is my type)

    Well that’s it, Now i back to work….

36. blind_dead_mcjones December 4th, 2008 8:48 am

    @ crusader

    you make a good point regarding zinin.

    i wouldn’t neccessarily call them the defenders of paradise, thats the federation army’s role, the A-LAWS to me seem more like the SAS, who are to deal with situations quckly and quietly (by proxy preventing the army’s resources from being stretched), and yeah sometimes that role calls upon them to do what the naive idealist would consider morally questionable, but hey alls fair in love and war, btw that titans-solidifying massacre might be comming up soon (hopefully, i wouldn’t hold my breath though) in the next few eps as the A-LAWs are supposedly going toe to toe with one of the nations who doesn’t want to be integrated into the federation.

    from what i gather most of the beef people outside the federation have with the federation is that they seem to be forcing nations to join them rather than being given a choice in the matter(kind of like when moral guardians try to force their beliefs on everyone else ‘for their own good’) course that still does nothing to justify katarons actions

    on a different note, tsunderia should just surrender the seravee over to soma/marie now, as she would be far more capable pilot than what he could ever hope to be

    i find it amusing how bushido bob trusts billy implicitly despite the fact that he might be a bit mentally unstable (this enters wild speculation, but one of the drama CD’s implies that billy was responsible for the incident that killed grahams CO as he had supposedly loaded grahams flag with live ammo, the reason, cos said CO was allegedly dating sumeragi, and considering how quickly billy joined A-LAWS upon finding she was CB…) then again bushido bob is possibly insane in his own right.

    @Schneider

    indeed the foot sabers are a nice add-on, now he can jack bitches up, with his feet

    kind of like the retractable boot knife but mobile suit scale

37. Highman December 4th, 2008 3:12 pm

    Well I’m digging Ian wife, Linda but hoping she wont have a death flag around here because she so too hawt for me and Nice column about Louise change from S1 to S2 now she holds the rank of gundams with women who are GARWOMAN! But title goes to 08th Gundam MS Team own Karen.

38. Crusader December 4th, 2008 7:40 pm

    @Haesslich
    Who is the bigger fool the fool or the fool who follows, I want not only Fukuda’s head on a pike, but the head of everyone who gave approval to his madness. This cancer must be removed entirely it is not one cell we were dealing with it was a tumor, and let’s hope it wasn’t systemic…

    @Salyu
    I don’t think cutting back on Sumeragi’s planning time was in any way a good idea, it could have added something, but instead we got Saji and Louise in the first half, and now we got, Desu-Yellow, Haptism, and Marie, and still Saji. Time could be better spent else where, but for now let’s hope that Prince Ali will deal with these problems in a manner most spectacular.

    Katie at least is thinking over every step, as was Sergei remember the glorious slaughter of last season at the end Sumeragi abandoned the bridge…yeah. Sumeragi just isn’t up to snuff yet, she spends more time crying about her past than thinking, bear in mind Gadessa knocked her off her beer butt, but nothing was ever said about where the hell Gadessa came from…

    Jihad-kun will never bring out the full potential in Gundam 00, only real Aces like Bushido bob and Prince Ali can bring out the best in their machines. After all both went toe to toe with the supposedly inferior GN-Tau drive, versus the two real GN Drives that Gundam 00 has…Clearly jihad-kun is not up to par.

    @Square
    Sumeragi does indeed make military intelligence an oxymoron. She could have found out, as to why she never did, I bet she was relying on Ms. Wang to do all of that for her. Besides Sumeragi has other things to worry about like her awful awful past that makes her the saddest person in the world…

    Tactically, decent. Strategically, lazy. Operationally flawed. When Rommel said that use could be made of the dumb and the lazy, he meant for tasks other than command…

    @Dark Messiah
    May Prince Ali exact an even greater toll in the next ep. Even better if he almost kills Nena (doubly better if he succeeds while dragging Louise along) only for CB to save her under some false sens of justice or some other sorry excuse…

    @blind_dead_mcjones
    I think that as part of the spear the A-Laws are its defenders, and even if it is not a perfect paradise it certainly is better than the hell hole CB and Kataron rather have in its stead. If they don’t go the Titans route it will at least be a significant sign that they will not be following Zeta too closely if at all. That way at least it will be different rather than a “remake” like SEED was. Since it looks like Ribbons is doing everything behind the scenes with the Feddies and no one else taking notice, for now they have acted as any state would have, opportunistically. Besides they haven’t overtly coerced anyone just yet. Azadistan was already a failed state and leaving it be would have caused problems just like we are experiencing now in Somalia. It may not be morally right, but it’s not exactly evil or malicious either. Better that there be in Azadistan a semblance of Feddie order than anarchy. Given how the Feddies take governing seriously and spreading the wealth to member states to please the electorate, I’d sooner believe that things are better now there than they were when Mariana ruled from the couch in front of a TV…

    I await this invasion, but unless the ones being invaded have done nothing wrong it might end up gray anyway. Supposing that the spoilers were somewhat true and the nation of (insert proxy name here) becomes wedded to Kataron through Princess Poverty… Well it cannot be said the Feddies would be completely in the wrong for attacking a nation that harbors known terrorists that have attacked the Federation.

    I don’t want to see Marie pilot anything as that would invalidate all the BS they shoved down our throats when Soma died. Besides I want to see Tieria suffer a whole lot more for his insolence.

    I still don’t know how that Sumeragi plot line is possible Billy was Union and Graham was Union but how did Sumeragi of the AEU get involved later? Moreover how come Katie and Billy have not spoken ever given how they had some contact before. It be interesting to see how Katie, Leesa, and Billy went to school together and how it was they even spoke then but not now.

    @Highman
    We shall see if Linda is up to par, but may Desu-Yellow and Ian die at the hands of Prince Ali, so that Linda might be freed up from the shackles of family…

39. Lawl December 9th, 2008 4:02 am

    =[ But nao in ep 10, they gave 00 a free 4x boost in addition to it’s 4x boost of Twin drive to begin with. So it’s like, 16x a GN-X3. If Prince still manages to touch the guy after they basically shoved him SSJ4, then this will be the most epic antagonistic Gundam series ever.

Leave a reply

For all who are wondering how to get raw/subs from this blog, it will not be answered. Please use your good sources to figure it out.

Also, please refrain from using smileys with the "<" and ">" characters. Your comment WILL be cut off if you do. Styling html such as <em>, <strong> and <p> can be used. Please use spoiler tags (<spoiler></spoiler>) around any spoilers you may post.

Do note that most comments will not be deleted as we believe in freedom of speech. However, comments without any constructive criticism and only made of vehement personal insults will be deleted at the author's discretion.

Recent Comments

Categories

open all | close all

Poll

What has Impz been doing for the last couple of months?

• Finally got that sex change operation
• Infiltraing the border to 13's house
• Researching new ways to hide his package
• Spelunking
• Undercover at an all-girls Catholic school

View Results

 Loading ...
• Polls Archive

Blogroll

The AnimeBlogger Network