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Xarbala posted:Flags > Grazes imo On the other hand, Hyakurens >>> GN-Xs. Oh, and speaking of 00, one amusing detail someone else brought up elsewhere - the Barbatos's original mace was made of frame-alloy. If Mika had managed to burn through a few less of those, McGillis might have had enough Dainsleifs to outfit his entire fleet. 
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Apr 9, 2017 17:19
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Xarbala posted:Flags > Grazes imo I love the semi-realistic look of the machines in 00. The Tierens are chunky Russian walking tanks that look something like you could run them through hell and still get the engine turning over first-try, and the FLAG's look like someone actually put thought into how you'd make a giant robot fly (nevermind transform) without just scrawling the words "FLYING BACKPACK(?)" in the page margin.
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Apr 9, 2017 17:53
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Flag against anything is an unfair comparison. The flag is a badass suit, gundam or otherwise.
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Apr 9, 2017 21:00
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Darth Walrus posted:On the other hand, Hyakurens >>> GN-Xs. Mika getting killed by his own mace would have been some amazing irony.
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Apr 9, 2017 21:07
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Shinjobi posted:Flag against anything is an unfair comparison. The flag is a badass suit, gundam or otherwise. I feel like I'm the only person who doesn't like the Flag that much. It's way too skinny and the transformed mode looks amazingly stupid even by the standards of transformers in gundam.
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Apr 9, 2017 21:10
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I don't much care for the Flag either. Besides the best aerial mobile suit is the Aries from Wing.
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Apr 9, 2017 21:13
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I like the Flag, though I like Graham's Flag Custom more than the Overflag, it has a nicer gun imo. I prefer the Tieren though. The Ahead ain't bad either!
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Apr 9, 2017 21:24
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I feel a lot of opinions would change if they somehow made the Recsnow a playable robot in a game.
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Apr 9, 2017 21:39
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The tieren is the second best example of what a mobile suit designed by a foreign country would look like.
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Apr 9, 2017 21:40
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Arcsquad12 posted:The tieren is the second best example of what a mobile suit designed by a foreign country would look like.
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Apr 9, 2017 21:42
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Zedd posted:Cherno Alpha being the first? No, G Gundam.
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Apr 9, 2017 21:44
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Well, the greatest suit of all time would be the standard ground type Leo, but I was just giving the Flag its due.
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Apr 9, 2017 21:49
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Shinjobi posted:Well, the greatest suit of all time would be the standard ground type Leo, but I was just giving the Flag its due. The Graze felt like the Leo's bastard grandson that had actually gotten a halfway decent job and respect from the guys at the office, but it lives in fear that someone will find the embarrassing family pictures.
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Apr 9, 2017 22:34
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I would agree with that, but my love for the Leo stems from just how useless it winds up being. It's the "little engine that could" of the gundam world. That said, considering the strength of the federation in the UC came from its mass produced GMs, it's kinda sad the Leo was treated the way it was in early Gundam Wing. They could be relevant, if used properly!!! 
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Apr 9, 2017 22:38
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The leo was good when the gundam boys used them. Heero lasted decently against wu fei in the movie.
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Apr 9, 2017 22:40
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Tae posted:The leo was good when the gundam boys used them. Heero lasted decently against wu fei in the movie. That was almost entirely due to plot armor though - and somewhat egregious even taking into account that Wing probably had already the heaviest plot armor for its main characters of any Gundam series. The things exploded from a single hit anywhere if they were faceless mooks, but then you have Duo get completely shot apart in one and the suit mysteriously just keeps flying.
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Apr 9, 2017 23:15
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tsob posted:This I disagree with though, at least partially, because I really liked Saji (and Louise I guess) during season one when they're just civilians who exist to show what effect Celestial Being are having on the world. I wasn't too fond of them becoming more central to the plot in season two in the first place, but I especially didn't like Saji being Setsuna's backpack since I think the Raiser destroyed the look of the 00 by hanging a plane on it's back and Saji would have been as useful helping Ian on the Ptolemaois. That said, I can understand and sympathize with someone who didn't want to fight and only did so to help his loved ones. saji spends the entire first season entirely devoid of a spine. I started disliking him when he goes to visit louise in the hospital and doesn't even try to comfort her; instead, he says her name a lot and then runs away to cry. the second season is just him whining a lot and getting people killed until near the end, where he's still acting like he's above fighting but he's gonna do it anyway so he can say louise a lot. also don't get why he couldn't have just explained to her what actually happened with her parents since he knows about that by the time they meet up. also also I don't understand why the raiser and 00 weren't just docked at all times; I assume it was just so saji could pilot the raiser (and then do nothing but look for louise) as for anew, she was pretty clearly not under her own control several times. when she died, she was clearly about to go to lockon when ribbons mind controls her into fighting instead. I just think it's crazy how big of a difference in sympathy the characters get from setsuna. saji spends most of the second season being holier-than--thou to setsuna (and they barely knew each other in the first season), whereas lockon is on the same team, is related to a friend, and has spent at least as much time with setsuna as saji
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Apr 9, 2017 23:32
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Shinjobi posted:The Quant was a huge disappointment to me. Barbatos blows it out of the water. It's kind of amazing how much story and personality the Gundams in IBO had, especially in the second season. It's a show with a remarkable amount of depth, and the visuals reflect that - I don't think I can remember when I last saw suits in a Gundam show that said so much about their characters and their place in the world. I think I'll do a series of effortposts on the subject, actually, though I'm not sure whether they should go here or in the main thread.
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Apr 10, 2017 00:52
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Zechs owns the wing Gundam with a Leo using robot judo
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Apr 10, 2017 00:57
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Darth Walrus posted:It's kind of amazing how much story and personality the Gundams in IBO had, especially in the second season. It's a show with a remarkable amount of depth, and the visuals reflect that - I don't think I can remember when I last saw suits in a Gundam show that said so much about their characters and their place in the world. I think I'll do a series of effortposts on the subject, actually, though I'm not sure whether they should go here or in the main thread. Crosspost it, we're all here for gundams
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Apr 10, 2017 01:01
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Manatee Cannon posted:saji spends the entire first season entirely devoid of a spine. I started disliking him when he goes to visit louise in the hospital and doesn't even try to comfort her; instead, he says her name a lot and then runs away to cry. the second season is just him whining a lot and getting people killed until near the end, where he's still acting like he's above fighting but he's gonna do it anyway so he can say louise a lot. also don't get why he couldn't have just explained to her what actually happened with her parents since he knows about that by the time they meet up. also also I don't understand why the raiser and 00 weren't just docked at all times; I assume it was just so saji could pilot the raiser (and then do nothing but look for louise) It's an interesting(or stupid, depending on perspective) aspect of Setsuna's character that despite being the first true Innovator - you know, the evolved form of humanity which is supposed to pave the path to universal communication and understanding - he is really, amazingly, unbearably terrible at communicating with people or understanding their feelings on pretty much any level. I actually kind of hate the entire innovator aspect of his story because his interactions with others make a lot more sense if he's just a broken child soldier and nothing more.
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Apr 10, 2017 01:07
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GulagDolls posted:Zechs owns the wing Gundam with a Leo using robot judo No matter how anyone feels about Gundam Wing, this statement will also be one of the highlights of the entire drat thing.
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Apr 10, 2017 01:21
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Droyer posted:I feel like I'm the only person who doesn't like the Flag that much. It's way too skinny and the transformed mode looks amazingly stupid even by the standards of transformers in gundam. That's the whole point of it; it's shaved down to be as light as possible just so the drat thing will fly. The transformation is simple and keeps the center of mass steady so it doesnt rip itself apart trying it in midair. Or liquifying the pilot when doing it at high-G's
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Apr 10, 2017 01:48
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Right then, I promised effortposts on the IBO Season Two Gundams, so let's start them off with the series flagship, Mikazuki Augus's Barbatos. ASW-G-08 Gundam Barbatos Lupus  In every regard, the Lupus is the symbol of Tekkadan and Mikazuki at their zenith. It's the adult to the original Barbatos's child, big, broad, and imposing. The original Barbatos started out as a skinny, incomplete rustbucket, and, after a series of increasingly messy field modifications, was restored to something approaching its original form. Unfortunately, that turned out to not be a very useful form for its current pilot, and so the field modifications started again, with the Barbatos symbolically 'growing up', becoming taller, bulkier, and broader-shouldered, as Mika evolved as a pilot and adapted his ride to suit his needs. The Lupus is the final monument to that growth, a sleek, expensive custom piece tailored to its pilot's needs. The crudely patched-on forearm-guns and hip-thrusters have been integrated into the design. The main weapon is a sword, befitting the mental breakthrough Mika made at Edmonton, but it's his kind of sword now, a massive bar of metal that can bludgeon as well as it can cut. Even the little sub-arms have been turned into deadly weapons. The whole thing is a perfect, elegant marriage of brute force and finesse, a walking display of wealth and power, and this is underlined by its colour scheme - while the Sixth Form was predominantly white, the Lupus has brought back much more of the bright, heroic red of Tekkadan, and the V-fin has been adorned with a gem-like splash of blue. Even the Tekkadan emblem has grown from a simple spray-paint job on the chest to two huge, engraved designs on the shoulders. The problem, of course, is that Mika should not be piloting this thing. The Season One Barbatos was a ramshackle mess to underline that using it was an act of desperation by children who had no recourse but violence, and it did eventually exact a terrible price for its service. Turning it into a slick, supercharged corporate killing machine with its crippled little pilot still at the helm is inherently disturbing, and the Lupus's design draws attention to that, too. The Sixth Form's looted Graze Ritter pauldrons were placed to resemble tiny wings, turning it into a white angel to do battle with the twisted, demonic Graze Ein for the future of Mars. Now the wings are gone - it's a tool for killing people for money and status, nothing more. ASW-G-08 Gundam Barbatos Lupus Rex  The Rex isn't just a mobile suit - it's all the lingering nightmares of the Calamity War rolled into one, a fusion of a Gundam and a Mobile Armour piloted by a child-soldier whose Alaya-Vijnana System is slowly eating him alive. The Hashmal isn't the only enemy whose essence Mika has begun to embody, though. The Lupus Rex has become a twisted, inhuman body for a pilot who has lost his own, with oversized limbs and a crown of vicious spikes. It's a walking arsenal, including piledrivers, hidden autocannons, and a supersized version of its parent suit's standard melee weapon. Mika has become Ein, the once-human monster killed in a cruel piece of theatre to usher in the new order - no longer a fledgling angel, but just another demon. Not only that, but to add to the tragedy, it's a regression. Despite its bulk, despite the new weapons, this is, at its core, the same brute with a club that burst out of the Martian soil, not the sword-wielding hero that killed Ein and the Hashmal. Mika has gone back to his roots, and in so doing, denied himself a future. Observe how the Rex has lost the Lupus's head-gem and hip-thrusters, the Tekkadan logo has shrunk and returned to the chest (significant in its own right - notice how the shoulder-emblems have been replaced with Gjallarhorn blue, as Tekkadan subordinates its interests to those of McGillis), and the extra layer of armour on its pauldrons has shrunk away - it's an exaggerated S1 Barbatos, not a fresh, Lupus-inspired evolution. The reason I'm doing these effortposts is because, as mentioned, I feel that the design of the Gundams in IBO reflects their pilots' situations and personalities in a way that's pretty rare in the franchise (especially in the second season, when the various pilots have had time to customise their suits to suit their needs and desires). Too often, 'cool and toyetic' trumps actual personality. If you can think of other designs from other shows that tell a story in the same way, though, feel free to vomit  about them, too.Next time, the protagonist of another show, the ASW-G-01 Gundam Bael! Darth Walrus fucked around with this message at 21:56 on Oct 11, 2017 |
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Apr 11, 2017 18:33
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Good write-ups but I am surprised there was no mention of the tail quite literally looted from Hashmal. I feel that inclusion is what truly makes Barbatos a monster for now he can butcher almost any pilot with but a simple thought and a distinctive sound that doesn't sound human.
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Apr 11, 2017 18:39
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Hunt11 posted:Good write-ups but I am surprised there was no mention of the tail quite literally looted from Hashmal. I feel that inclusion is what truly makes Barbatos a monster for now he can butcher almost any pilot with but a simple thought and a distinctive sound that doesn't sound human. Well, I did somewhat allude to that, but it's not just the tail - it's those giant claws, too. The Lupus fought like a warrior, but the Rex fights like an animal. One thing that does make the tail worth mentioning, though - with the exception of the Hashmal's Plumas, it's the closest that the PD setting comes to the ultimate weapons of so many other Gundam shows, funnels and bits. In the UC and those settings philosophically close to it (hi, AWGX), funnels are the horrifying epitome of how Newtypes, the next step in human evolution, are abused and exploited - rather than using their telepathy to connect and reach understanding with other people, they are forced to link their minds with soulless killing machines. In IBO, meanwhile, the Alaya-Vijnana System conveys a slightly different kind of horror - that of humans being literally turned into inhuman war machines themselves, and of having to accept this deal with the devil to survive in a hostile universe. The twisted forms of the Graze Ein and Lupus Rex are the ultimate expressions of that horror, using the A-V System to not only simulate the movement of the human body, but surpass it, letting pilots instinctually move in totally unnatural ways to better kill their enemies. Remember how Mikazuki says it feels like he's always had a tail, and how that's reflected with the umbilical constantly connecting him to the Rex?
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Apr 11, 2017 19:11
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Crunchy roll just sent an email for a Gundam day sale thing. Not sure what is on it but might be worth looking into.
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Apr 11, 2017 22:13
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OK, next on our list: ASW-G-01 Gundam Bael  I already said that this was the protagonist Gundam of another show, but I'm going to say it again, because seriously, look at this thing. Pretty much every Gundam protagonist from Kira Yamato onwards could conceivably fly it. It's got the simple, clean design that all other suits of its class will be compared to. It's got the iconic twin straightswords. It's got the angelic wings. It's got the friendly, heroic colour scheme of blue, white, and a few subtle splashes of red. It even adds an element of implicit series continuity - the little red emblems on its crotch and shoulders are identical to those on the Barbatos, which is thus retroactively transformed into the edgy, gritty antihero spinoff with a scarier-looking weapon, a fresh gimmick (looting parts off enemies to empower itself), and a few small hints at technological progress since the last season, like the enhanced subarm unit for holding its weapons. It's the Strike to the Barbatos's Impulse, basically, or the RX-78 to its RX-178. Relatedly, it looks old in a way that no other suit in the show really does, an austere, beautiful work of art that once carried the hopes of the entire solar system, and is now a pretty relic but an obsolete weapon. Most modern suits are either boxy and functional, like the Graze, Shiden, and Full City, or masses of sleek, spiky doom like the Graze Ein, Lupus Rex, and Julia (or some combination of the two, like the Kimaris Vidar) - you don't see the graceful, understated artisanship of the Bael, with its little golden swords or its stylised, wing-like thruster-pods, any more. Even the other Calamity War Gundams we see, the Kimaris and Flauros, look more advanced and more designed around the practicalities of fighting a war for the survival of the species. This being IBO, though, there's also an element of the sinister to it. Blue, usually a symbol of purity and heroism in Gundam, is here the colour of corruption and brutality, and the most visible bit of red (usually a heroic colour) is in the eyes, which is the one place you don't want it to be - after the Hashmal fight, red eyes are a symbol of self-destructive madness. The face is also eerily blank, especially next to the Barbatos's more conventional, humanoid design, and resembles a lunatic, tooth-baring grin when viewed up close. This may have once been the weapon of a heroic saviour, but not any more, and choosing to wield it will take you down the same brief, doomed path as Agnika Kaeru. Next time, Gaelio's search for a new identity in the ASW-G-XX Gundam Vidar and the ASW-G-66 Gundam Kimaris Vidar.
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Apr 11, 2017 22:59
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Manatee Cannon posted:Saji spends the entire first season entirely devoid of a spine. Being able to stand up for yourself isn't the sole defining feature of a good person or a good character, so I can't really say I gave a poo poo about that. I liked that him and Louise were pretty average people living nice lives that were interrupted by and hosed over by Celestial Being's existence. Their existence intruded a bit too hard by the end, with all the effects they had over the season, but I still liked it. Manatee Cannon posted:Also don't get why he couldn't have just explained to her what actually happened with her parents since he knows about that by the time they meet up. Presumably because rationally explaining something to someone who's acting irrationally isn't going to do much good. Manatee Cannon posted:As for anew, she was pretty clearly not under her own control several times. To the audience sure. To the crew of the Ptolomiaos there's never really a moment where she's clearly being controlled until perhaps the very end, when she's just about to come back due to Lyle's actions and then attacks. At which point Lyle is the only one around, and Setsuna basically has to shoot her to save his life. Manatee Cannon posted:I just think it's crazy how big of a difference in sympathy the characters get from setsuna. Not really. As soon as they get the 00 back Setsuna is the one telling Lyle he doesn't have to kill her and shouldn't pretend he does, and that he'll do it instead if he has no other choice. The implication obviously being that he hopes he won't have to and that he hopes Lyle can persuade her otherwise. Setsuna just isn't that great at expressing himself. Ever, really. Darth Walrus posted:The reason I'm doing these effortposts is because, as mentioned, I feel that the design of the Gundams in IBO reflects their pilots' situations and personalities in a way that's pretty rare in the franchise (especially in the second season, when the various pilots have had time to customise their suits to suit their needs and desires). Too often, 'cool and toyetic' trumps actual personality. If you can think of other designs from other shows that tell a story in the same way, though, feel free to vomit I would say that it's not so much "cool and toyetic" that trump giving the units personality as not making the units shadow the pilot's personality is a decision (consciously or otherwise) on the production team's part because doing so takes away from their nature as war machines. Giving the unit a personality, especially one that mirrors their pilot makes them less an impersonal war machine and more a reflection of the character. Considering that many of the mobile suits over the years have been units made by other people and only adopted by the pilots mid conflict it makes sense that they wouldn't reflect the pilots. And personally I'd see that as a good thing, at least, depending on context. I agree it can be a good thing to have them feflect their pilot's personality in some shows, but things like the original Gundam, Victory, SEED etc. are not shows I would say that applies to. On the other hand, G, Wing, 00 and a few others do make sense to have that happen, because those units are tied to their pilots and in some cases made for them. I think you could probably see many of the Gundams in those shows the same way. Tieria's units reflect his androgyny and struggle between his humanity and innovata self for instance, while the Qan[t] reflects Setsuna's nature as a soldier who wishes to be more than a soldier. It's loaded with weapons, but barely uses them and concentrates mostly on communication during the film. Communication it can really only use by stripping away it's armor and exposing itself. And then in the epilogue it comes back looking much more sleek and less aggressive, which reflect's Setsuna's time away. I'm sure you could do the same with other units from those shows if you wanted, or expand them in to effort posts solely about those suits if that was your inclination. Darth Walrus posted:In the UC and those settings philosophically close to it (hi, AWGX), funnels are the horrifying epitome of how Newtypes, the next step in human evolution, are abused and exploited - rather than using their telepathy to connect and reach understanding with other people, they are forced to link their minds with soulless killing machines. I never got this sense from any UC series. I can certainly agree the shows pushed the idea that newtypes being exploited for war was a bad thing, but I never saw something that would suggest that any newtype was "forced" to connect with a machine, or that doing so was the zenith of their tragedy and horrifying for them. Several of them chose to use funnels, like Amuro, Char or Haman. While anyone that tries to argue Marida using funnels was the epitome of her horror deserves to be mocked. tsob fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Apr 12, 2017 |
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Apr 12, 2017 01:58
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I always welcome more effort posts, I should make one about why the Strike Freedom is a good design. Irregardless of the show it's in.
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Apr 12, 2017 02:07
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Zedd posted:I always welcome more effort posts, I should make one about why the Strike Freedom is a good design. Irregardless of the show it's in. I'd actually like to hear this largely because the golden trim on it always drives me nuts and I'd like to hear a positive view of it.
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Apr 12, 2017 03:55
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tsob posted:I never got this sense from any UC series. I can certainly agree the shows pushed the idea that newtypes being exploited for war was a bad thing, but I never saw something that would suggest that any newtype was "forced" to connect with a machine, or that doing so was the zenith of their tragedy and horrifying for them. Several of them chose to use funnels, like Amuro, Char or Haman. While anyone that tries to argue Marida using funnels was the epitome of her horror deserves to be mocked. Stuff like the Psyco Gundams in UC and the Patoulia in GX are newtypes literally forced to connect with their machines and were pretty horrific tragedies, but I think the point that Walrus was making was a metaphorical one; in order to survive and prosper, newtypes that should be using their abilities for communication and understanding are instead using their abilities as a convenient and effective way to kill people. Funnels as objects and equipment aren't horrifying in and of themselves, but they are the most emblematic example of a "newtype weapon", which is a phrase that should be an awful contradiction in terms but the tragedy of the setting is that not only is that phrase not contradictory, it's normal. Kanos fucked around with this message at 04:29 on Apr 12, 2017 |
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Apr 12, 2017 04:23
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Darth Walrus, have you written a similar design review for season 1? I'm curious about your opinion on Graze Ein.
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Apr 12, 2017 05:11
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Raxivace posted:Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2017-04-07/mobile-suit-gundam-composer-yushi-matsuyama-dies-after-house-fire/.114528 I missed this one. drat shame. The music from MSG is catchy as hell and has some outstanding revised orchestration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXsokrngCBg
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Apr 12, 2017 05:31
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RottenK posted:Darth Walrus, have you written a similar design review for season 1? I'm curious about your opinion on Graze Ein. A garbage mobile suite for a garbage person.
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Apr 12, 2017 07:49
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tsob posted:On the other hand, G, Wing, 00 and a few others do make sense to have that happen, because those units are tied to their pilots and in some cases made for them. I think you could probably see many of the Gundams in those shows the same way. Tieria's units reflect his androgyny and struggle between his humanity and innovata self for instance, while the Qan[t] reflects Setsuna's nature as a soldier who wishes to be more than a soldier. It's loaded with weapons, but barely uses them and concentrates mostly on communication during the film. Communication it can really only use by stripping away it's armor and exposing itself. And then in the epilogue it comes back looking much more sleek and less aggressive, which reflect's Setsuna's time away. I'm sure you could do the same with other units from those shows if you wanted, or expand them in to effort posts solely about those suits if that was your inclination. It was largely those custom machines I was thinking of, and I'd argue that any (even most ) of those don't convey the same depth and complexity of information about their pilots as the Gundams in IBO. The various metamorphoses of the AGE Gundams, for instance, tell you basically nothing about the people flying them (especially the AGE-FX - would you get 'saviour-machine designed by a child to end wars without killing people' from that?), with the exception of the Dark Hound, which only really conveys the information of 'is a pirate, likes to use dirty tricks to level the playing-field'. The Gundams from 00 are a little more complex, with details like Setsuna's character development being symbolised by the Exia, a little angel made of swords with exposed cabling and an asymmetrical design, being replaced by the 00 Raiser, a significantly bigger, less swordy, and better-put-together angel that relies on the bond between two friends to make it go. I'm not quite sure about some of the other suits, though. The Arios is just a sleeker Kyrios that can shove the GN Archer up its butt, which I guess says something about Allelujah, but not much, and while the Cherudim clearly shows a difference in approach between Neil and Lyle, going from an angelic gunslinger that values precision over firepower to a down-to-earth soldier that saturates the battlefield in missiles and beams, I'm not all that sure it's a meaningful difference that tells us much about them as people. Similarly, in SEED, what do Kira and Athrun's preferences for 'every gun ever' and 'every sword ever' respectively tell you about their personalities and situations? Other custom suits do tell you something about their pilots, but it's generally a single strong (and often quite superficial) image rather than something more complex. The Gundams in G are either embodiments of national stereotypes or embodiments of abstract concepts (Satan for the Master Gundam, God for, well, the God). In Wing, Wufei is Chinese, so his Gundam is hella Chinese, Quatre is North African, so his Gundam is fairly North African, and Duo is a tragic jokester, so his Gundam is covered in images of death and mortality. There's not much nuance there. RottenK posted:Darth Walrus, have you written a similar design review for season 1? I'm curious about your opinion on Graze Ein. I didn't, but there's not much to say about the Graze Ein, simply because it's built around a single, strong concept rather than a bunh of complex layers. It's an ordinary man turned into a monster symbolised by a Graze, the show's generic grunt-suit, being turned into a monster. That said, it's impressive how hard they commit to the concept. Its high heels are now claws. It's lost its rifle, and its humble little axe has become two enormous ones, turning it from a simple all-rounder into a brutal berserker. Its once-smooth head has sprouted a crown of thorns, a warped parody of a Gundam's V-fin. Those huge, exaggerated pauldrons with the drop-down guns are demonic wings to match the Sixth Form's angelic ones. Its transformation, with the huge, strangely-jointed limbs (the hinged wrists are a particularly fun, disturbing touch) is so extreme that its 'skin' is cracking apart under the strain - the knees, the shoulders, and the head are now left exposed and unarmoured. The head-sensor, already one of the creepier elements of the Graze's design, has gone from a cold yellow to a mad, staring red, bulging out of the ruins of the helmet. The Reginlaze Julia is actually a little more interesting, because it's a robot wearing a costume. It has the Graze Ein exaggerations - oversized weapons, elongated limbs, lots of spikes - but most of them are part of an optional, removable shell over a regular old grunt-suit. It is, like its pilot, caught halfway between being a monster and being a mortal, and it's telling that in her final battle on Mars, after resolving to retain her humanity, Julietta removes the leg-coverings and fights on the Reginlaze's original two feet. The GE isn't the only suit whose spirit it carries, though - there was another sleek, spiky single-reactor machine that held its swords like that, and ushered in a new era with a tragic victory, effortlessly putting down a not-all-that-evil young man who'd become a rampaging, inhuman monster. In the final battle, McGillis and the Grimgerde emerge from the grave to kill their allies by proxy one last time. The designers even drove it home by mentioning that the Julia's swords were tipped with the exact same metal used for the Grimgerde's blades. This also, of course, brings us to McGillis's great inspirations, Agnika Kaeru and the Bael. Julietta has become his true heir, saving the solar system from the demons of the Calamity War one last time, but it's neither as great a victory nor as great a sacrifice as it was last time. She killed a dying, unconscious lowborn child just like her after he was crippled by a squad of nameless, faceless grunts, and in return, she got to live happily ever after as the next heir to Gjallarhorn, securing the futures of people like him and her rather than leaving them outcast for centuries as 'space rats'. The Bael is dead - it's been dismantled, hidden, and locked down tight - and its heir is darker, sharper, and crueller, but also more mortal, for good and ill. It's hard to imagine the Julia inspiring and destroying people as its predecessor once did. It's a Pershing tank in a museum, not the sword in the stone.
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Apr 12, 2017 15:04
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Darth Walrus posted:The Reginlaze Julia is actually a little more interesting, because it's a robot wearing a costume. It has the Graze Ein exaggerations - oversized weapons, elongated limbs, lots of spikes - but most of them are part of an optional, removable shell over a regular old grunt-suit. It is, like its pilot, caught halfway between being a monster and being a mortal, and it's telling that in her final battle on Mars, after resolving to retain her humanity, Julietta removes the leg-coverings and fights on the Reginlaze's original two feet. While you're generally right, you're reading too much into this part. The thruster legs are very clearly designed for space combat, and they'd be little more than cumbersome dead weight in a ground fight. Especially against a high-speed threat like the Barbatos Gundam, which she was dispatched specifically to engage.
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Apr 12, 2017 18:19
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Neddy Seagoon posted:While you're generally right, you're reading too much into this part. The thruster legs are very clearly designed for space combat, and they'd be little more than cumbersome dead weight in a ground fight. Especially against a high-speed threat like the Barbatos Gundam, which she was dispatched specifically to engage. It's entirely possible and not all that uncommon for stuff to have both practical application and symbolic meanings.
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Apr 12, 2017 18:25
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Pureauthor posted:It's entirely possible and not all that uncommon for stuff to have both practical application and symbolic meanings. Yes, and I'd agree if the fight was in space. Common sense is not good symbolism.
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Apr 12, 2017 18:28
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Well these are shows about giant fighting robots that completely throw out the square-cube law, so I can see how the practical requirements could be the only concern here.
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Apr 12, 2017 18:56
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