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muike posted:I'm not convinced the writers even know what McGillis' plan is at this point I'm not sure he has one, to be honest. At least, not A Plan, with caps. He has a goal, like paragon said, and he takes steps towards that goal, but I don't think he has a set in stone "Then Tuesday, I order the pastrami, which will mean that Rustal won't have enough for both himself and Iok, forming a breach in their alliance! As for step NINE hundred..." set of moves. Look at the first season. He didn't even know CGS existed when the season kicked off. By the end, Tekkadan was the center of his gameplan. And every time he could have lost them, he had a backup. Carta and Gaelio were old friends and some of the few honest people in any kind of power. They take down the terrorists, well, it's not what he wanted, but it's still moving people into a better position to get his long term reforms through, and although he loses the people he was rooting for (who he's fanboying over more by the week) he doesn't lose long term investments. Right now, he wants Iok and Rustal out of play, one way or another. But they've been setting the pace, while McGillis has been the defender, the guy with more to lose. So mostly right now, he's been trying to hold onto what he's got and reinforce it, while looking for vulnerabilities in his opponents as they come up. And also he was trying not to restart the apocalypse, probably, because even for a bastard like McGillis, that's a questionable play.
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Dec 13, 2016 08:52
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Raxivace posted:This whole time I thought IBO was MGSV, but after these Mobile Armor episodes it turns out it was secretly Peace Walker. It does seem like a good fit in a lot of ways. Especially with the subtle road to hell. I was considering when the fall of Tekkadan (which kind of has to happen this season by every narrative rule in the books. How hard it falls is variable, but that it falls is pretty much guaranteed.) would really kick off, since we're about halfway through, but thinking about it? We're probably in the middle of it already. It's just not meant to be obvious yet. The highwater mark was episode 4, after the fight with Dawn Horizon. Tekkadan just took on the largest pirate organization in the inner sphere and annihilated them. Their reputation just hit "Who the hell is stupid enough to gently caress with us?", which they could parlay into contracts pretty easy. even aside from the fact it makes attacks less likely. Teiwaz agreed their performance merited getting a hold of a mine, that's legitimate business money on the table. And their contract with Arbrau was headed towards another big milestone. If Orga was content to take things slow and steady? That's it. They'd won. No enemies who'd consider taking them out worth the trouble. Yeah, there were people grumbling at how fast they were expanding, but slowing down takes care of that, and more and more of the organization could be shifted into non-mercenary work as the mine grew. But Orga wouldn't be Orga if he knew how to walk away from the table. He made the deal with the devil, same as always, and now look at what's changed. The Earth branch is gone. Not entirely wiped out, but a significant portion of the forces deployed there were lost in lovely, pointless combat, including multiple mobile suits, and now Tekkadan's pretty much banned from working in the nice neighborhoods. The farm, one of Tekkadan's big purchases, is sold off for safekeeping, and now the mine is wiped out by killbots. (Which seems like it's not going to reflect well on Teiwaz, and considering Naze's promise... mucky territory.) Half of Gjallarhorn gunning for them again, and a deathbot woke up as a consequence. And what have they gained? McGillis in their corner? Fine, but he was helping them before, and we've seen how he deals with his friends if his plan calls for it. Beyond that, they just have a promise to string them along while every alternative they had falls to ash. All while they think they're big winners, because they've killed their enemies when they've seen them, and haven't lost too many of their own in the bargain. I'm not sure where this is going to end, and if the last few episodes have shown anything, it's that the show's going to pull poo poo nobody saw coming, but right now it looks like Tekkadan's only going to realize how much they hosed up when the bottom falls out right under them.
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Dec 14, 2016 04:11
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MonsterEnvy posted:That stuff listed above is why it was good for Takaki to get out while everything was pretty good. Agreed. He's the only guy in Tekkadan who actually listened to Kenny Rogers. Of course, now he's an action movie waiting to happen. I mean, think about it. You got this nice, kinda shy guy at the corporate office. He doesn't stand out much, keeps a picture of his sister at his desk since he's working to pay her way through school. Says he's an orphan, doesn't much like bringing up his past. He's even got an obvious sign that he's been involved with something hosed up that only shows in private or with people he's very, very close to with the whiskers. That's exactly the guy who gets a couple scenes or an hour (depending how artsy the film is) establishing him as a Regular Person With A Sad Past before something goes horribly wrong and it turns out the guy was one of the founding members of the most infamous PMC since The War.
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Dec 14, 2016 07:47
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Kanos posted:As others have alluded to, I'm thinking more of a mutually assured destruction second strike thing; if you gently caress us up, we'll turn on our mobile armors and they'll loving kill all of you. There's absolutely no other situation where a device programmed to literally hunt down and slaughter all humans indiscriminately would ever be deployed. A device like that wouldn't need an off switch and in fact would be actively hampered in its purpose by such an off switch. Mr. Itsuka, it is not only possible, it is essential. That is the whole idea of this machine, you know. Deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy... the FEAR to attack. And so, because of the automated and irrevocable decision-making process which rules out human meddling, the Mobile Armor is terrifying and simple to understand... and completely credible and convincing.
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Dec 14, 2016 10:46
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Caros posted:I wouldn't hold your breath on that. I get a very Darius the great vibe with the seven stars. Noble families that supported him and so exist in perpetuity because of what their ancestors did. Well, whatever else happened, we know from McGillis that Agnika Kaieru was all in favor of social equality, and we know from the basic mechanics of the AV system that the original Gundam pilots were child soldiers with horrific cybernetic modification. Could be they had titles or reps before that, but they were willing to put it all on the line, and trade the old rules for reputation based on performance. Even if they were nobs, they were the sort that thinks very highly of noblesse oblige. 'Tis ours, the dignity they give to grace The first in valour, as the first in place; That when with wondering eyes our confidential bands Behold our deeds transcending our commands, Such, they may cry, deserve the sovereign state, Whom those that envy dare not imitate! and all that.
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Dec 14, 2016 22:00
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Neddy Seagoon posted:I suspect the success rate would be at least a little higher, as the AV surgeries we've seen are done by people whose level of care can be summed up as "whoops. NEXT!". Nevermind the level of support equipment they might have for the procedure. With centuries of maturation for the technology. I can believe they'd beat the current 60% success rate, but I'd think with how it's generally portrayed in-setting that it's still going to be high risk (especially for people who went in for multiple whiskers, which I'd assume as a default for Gundam pilots). Plus, they're doing all this work under heavy pressure, since they're trying to invent a machine to save humanity in the middle of a war for survival. I figure war orphans will be easy to come by, and time to reduce fatality rates less so.
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Dec 15, 2016 00:29
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Caros posted:The entire principle of the probably half baked version being used by a third rate backwater Merc group. Unlikely. Einborg was only possible since the 'horns were working on the system in secret for centuries while cursing it in public. It was presented as the bleeding edge, not just something that was forgotten. Plus, if the wide use version was safe for all ages, there wouldn't be a child soldier edition exclusive to back alley street docs. It's not insane to think the current version is less safe (320 years of development vs. back alley chop shops, seems like a wash in my book but I can see it falling either way), but if the basic tech doesn't require child soldiers, there's no clear reason for the later version to pick up the caveat. Mars has enough riff-raff that being able to add late teens to the recruit pool isn't an active penalty, after all.
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Dec 15, 2016 07:58
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Caros posted:I'm not saying that it was ever safe for all ages, far from it. My argument is basically that AV as it stands works ideally on children. It works so well in fact, that it can be done by back alley doctors in lovely conditions and still have a decent survival rate when used on kids. But that doesn't preclude the idea that in a proper medical setting it could theoretically be applied to adults. Doesn't seem to match how people describe it. Tekkadan's vets talking about it don't describe it as "Your odds are terrible", but as "Yeah, even if we would do it, which we won't, it is physically impossible for a seventeen year old to get it." And while they're not exactly scientist, you'd think they'd have a lot of practical knowledge, both firsthand and from talking with people who are scientists just to make sure they're not turbofucked. As for Gaelio not being shocked when McGillis brings it up? Gaelio knows pretty much jack/poo poo about cybernetics. Iok gives us an idea of the kind of ignorance a heir can get away with, and while Gali-Gali isn't in his league, his reaction to his first sighting of the whiskers was to bend over double and vomit in shock/horror. He was pretty naive about the dark side of the solar system, so if McGillis went "Hey, I know a way.", then, well, it's McGillis, the guy's smart. Why assume he'd be wrong?
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Dec 15, 2016 11:02
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Adel posted:I didn't notice that Shino grabs Yamagi's shoulder too, oh gosh This episode's kinda interesting in that we got a lot of great moments that advanced the relationships among the cast (Mika finally defied Orga! Shino and Yamagi! McGillis showing a little flash of regret! Atra pretty much saying "Kudelia. Threesomes. You in?", even if Kudelia might not have gotten the message!) or were just fun in and of themselves (Shino is a super robot pilot, Chad's axes uses the jet engine, Mika threw a loving arm at the Mobile Armor to wreck its aim), but the overall progress of the basic narrative is... pretty much nothing. Last episode: Mika jumps in to save Ride as Tekkadan's plan to beat the mobile armor is hosed up by Iok's idiocy. This episode: Mika jumps in to save Ride as Tekkadan's plan to beat the mobile armor is hosed up by Iok's idiocy. It's a good episode (so good!), but it's also kind of shuffling in place. Pacing is kind of a problem for this show. Of course, in an odd way, the bad pacing of the first season gives me more faith in this one. While it meandered about last time, when the time came it managed to wrap up what it needed to do nice and tight. Makes it a lot easier to believe that they'll manage this time even when I'm not sure where it's going.
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Dec 19, 2016 00:06
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It feels like they're leaning hard towards Gaelio being a major opponent for Mika right now, to the extent I can call anything. Every major pilot except him, Mika, Akhiro, and Shino just got stomped by the MA, and it's unlikely Shino or Akihiro's going to fight Mikazuki any time soon, even aside from the fact he's pretty much been confirmed as a much better pilot than either of them. Meanwhile, "Vidar" just took out most of a colony's military in just a couple minutes, and hasn't yet been clobbered by a MA. Not saying he could win. I'm just saying the show seems to be making a point of not showing him lose.
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Dec 20, 2016 07:52
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Darth Walrus posted:From how the others were behaving, they were as tough as if not tougher than the Dawn Horizon crew. Hexa frames are consistently shown as very above-average machines used by elite mercenaries, and they were entirely equipped with them. So still only a minor speed-bump, but one you can brag about a little. It's not so much something where you brag you beat them, but it's enough opposition that it's worth marking down your track time.
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Dec 20, 2016 12:23
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Shinjobi posted:Yeah, Mika actually getting riled up was loving terrifying, and I didn't understand why at first. He hasn't really been like that at all for the entire show so far, so it really stood out. Mika also got hosed up in a way we haven't seen in his fights before. Previously, when a fight ends he's still been standing, but this time, a Spinner Rodi could have dropped him if it stumbled past the other suits on site. Impaled, an arm missing, armor totaled... Barbatos was almost in as bad a shape as Mika when the mobile armor dropped.
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Dec 25, 2016 20:23
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Belzac posted:I wouldn't call the battle of Edmonton an anticlimax. Also Ein beat 3/5 Tekkadan MS pilots in like 5 seconds and brought Mika to the breaking point. But I guess there was no threatening enemies OR a climax so what do I know. I think the problem with Edmonton is that they blinked. Iron Blooded Orphans has always been slow to kill off Tekkadan characters, and mostly that works. Living characters can do a lot more than dead ones, and there was enough incidental non-lead death so the grit stuck around. But in Edmonton, they almost killed characters, and it was pretty much a magician letting the wires show. It reduces tension for the heroes along one axis since it's much harder to believe that anyone's going to get offed with a name and backstory, and that's going to stick around until someone like Eugene or Akihiro carks it. Which is doubly a shame, because if it hadn't been for the fakeout, I'd say the show would paced consequences fairly well this season. The Mobile Armor left Mikazuki pretty much helpless outside the cockpit, the war with no name killed one of the two leads for the arc (who'd been around since the middle of season 1, even if he was background), and lots of collateral is pretty fair damage. Characters surviving the MA fight would be a relief rather than feeling rote. But they made a mistake, and now it's a bit of a weak spot for the series. How bad it is depends how the last arc goes, I suppose. If it's a bloodbath and Lafter and Shino have compelling and essential roles in the last act, then it's going to be easy to ignore in looking back. But if it's more pulled punches for no strong narrative benefit, it's going to be a real problem with the show as a whole.
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Dec 27, 2016 10:05
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Sam Faust posted:IBO season 3 spoilers I think that kinda could work as an ending, assuming they want to go something other than complete tragedy with Mika. Give him enough rope that he can walk around a little, and place the Barbatos, disarmed and partially dismantled, in the middle of the Griffon farm. Seems like a reasonable enough middle ground. Mika's permanently crippled away from the Barbatos, can't leave, reliant on others to even get some loving groceries... but he's got a simple life, and it's something he can be happy with that isn't an endless stream of violence, burning himself piece by piece to hurt his enemies just a little more. Not that it feels like there are any guarantees with this show, but it's something that fits with the foreshadowing earlier in the season, at least.
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Dec 28, 2016 05:06
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I'm just impressed with how much Iok hosed up at this point. He took a situation that would, by all odds, have been a controlled demolition and not only got hundreds of people (including his own men) killed, not only stained his reputation and the reputation of everyone working with him, but he managed to set things up so McGillis moved from "Alright, I got enemies, but I also got friends (correction. Useful playing pieces. Kinda murdered my friends. Don't regret it, though!). Play this smart and careful, like everyone else, take over by prestige and public acclaim" to "You know what loving rules? Violent revolutions. Screw political stability! Imma get a Gundam!" Most people jumping into complicated political games like an idiot don't manage to gently caress everyone over, but Iok, he found a way.
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Dec 31, 2016 11:40
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Zebulon posted:I'm both confused and disappointed by the lack of a Rules of Nature edit of that fight on youtube. I've seen a Rules of Nature version of it. Not a perfect sync, but it exists. Here you go.
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Jan 2, 2017 01:58
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So, apparently today's extra week of delay did produce another preview for next week. Gone from the twitter already, but it's... interesting. Flashbacks to when Naze and Amida first met. Naze looking sad but resigned while Amida looks away. Orga yelling into a monitor. No points for guessing what that adds up to.
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Jan 9, 2017 00:20
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MonsterEnvy posted:This may actually be the case. Though in this case he likely has not met a good deal of them. I'm not sure about met, Naze seems the kind of boss who'd make a point of at least a handshake for new employees. But yeah, it's a fair bet that the overwhelming majority of his "wives" don't have much to do with him. Episode made Naze's whole setup fairly clear, I think. Naze met Amida when he was just a up and coming young smuggler and she was a merc. They fell for each other hard, so when she took a contract to work with a women's shipping company, Naze followed. And when he saw the lovely conditions, he made a point of trying to make them less poo poo, because he's both a nice guy and a total poon hound, which is why he joined the mob. Current setup is that women trying to get out of a poo poo situation can "marry into" the turbines, at which point they're part of the family and under Naze's protection. If they want to screw someone who isn't him, that's fine, because the point of the thing is making life less lovely for the family, not helping Naze get more action. If they want to gently caress him, the door's always open. Any kids born into the family from either source (unless someone leaves, in which case they're free to go and best of luck) are treated as Naze's, and kept on a ship until they're old enough for schooling, at which point they go to a nice charter school because being a mob boss has perks. There's still several questionable points (There's a lot of room for confusion for someone going out of slavery into a marriage for protection, and it's unclear how well Naze can clear it up. I mean, episode makes it clear he doesn't make the offers, but he's not going to turn it down either.) but the episode clarified a number of other issues that put Naze firmly in the same camp as Tekkadan (if more experienced and thus avoiding a few of the pitfalls). It's a hosed up solar system, and it's made up of hosed up people, but these particular hosed up people are trying to make it suck less within their little sphere of influence. (Which is why Kudelia and McGillis are the two most influential people in the series. They're actually trying to replace the whole broken system, not just carve out a less broken niche. If it works, it helps everybody. But in the meantime, there's going to be a lot of bodies hitting the floor.)
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Jan 16, 2017 23:22
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ImpAtom posted:Mika at full power is effectively a berserker. He relies entirely on the fact he is faster and more ruthless than his enemies to win and in fact his full-throttle attack on the MA involves basically getting torn apart and kind of getting lucky that it wasn't a double-KO. He's scary but that scariness involves the fact that he's superior to his opponents who largely are inept and useless pilots. McGillis isn't an untalented pilot and has shown himself smart enough to take advantage of enemy weaknesses. Mika's direct, and most of his opponents are kind of middling at best, but everything the show has said and shown has been about how, yes, he is that good. His personal style of good is self-destructive and ruthless, sure, but he's got more than just his killcount. Even attributing his victories over enemy aces to his ruthless attitude and the Gundam as a big stick, there's a moment in early season 2 that cements Mika as an exceptionally talented pilot. The big fight with Dawn Horizon, in one of those touches that links IBO closer to the Universal Century than most AUs, has a few scenes of the various Mobiles Suits repairing, refueling, and reloading. Mika checks in for a basic reload midway in, and the show makes a point of mentioning (Through Hush, in his pre-Genos phase) that Mikazui has moved more than any other Tekkadan mobile suit... while using the least fuel of anyone. McGillis and Julieta, the two best "standard" pilots in the series (we don't know what Vidar's deal is, exactly, but we can be pretty sure he has A Deal), are both in awe of Mika's piloting. This isn't Loran in Turn A, a middling-to-decent pilot who wins because his MS is amazing and his opponents are mostly chumps. He's closest to late game Amuro, where his machine is high end, but the real slaughterhouse potential comes from the pilot.
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Jan 18, 2017 05:37
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Belzac posted:Don't talk poo poo on Loran. He's probably one of the best pilots in the show because no one knows how to pilot anything. Hey, I wasn't talking poo poo. Loran's cool. He's a perfectly decent pilot in a setting with exactly one really good pilot, and a lot of really bad pilots. It's just that he's a decent pilot in an unbelievably broken Mobile Suit, while Mikazuki is a terrifying and monstrous pilot in a pretty good mobile suit. Loran's real skillset is being a decent, calm, and levelheaded person despite being the hero of a Gundam series. Mikazuki... Mikazuki isn't so good at that.
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Jan 18, 2017 08:17
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Raxivace posted:What if the final boss is...Mika himself!!!!??????!!!!!????? Pretty easy fight, tbh. Mika's been steadily killing him this whole season.
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Jan 19, 2017 02:08
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Guy Goodbody posted:So we got a knightly, winged Gundam going up against a spiky monster The multitudes marvelled, saying It was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, "He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils."
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Jan 20, 2017 03:43
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Adel posted:I had kind of a different read to Julieta saying she was relieved, I took it that she thought she was prepared to die for Glorious Lord Rustal, but when actually faced with the possibility, she honestly wanted to live. I took her "relief" to be that she was, in a way, grateful towards Iok for incidentally saving her and that it was a possible set up for her top warm up a little to him. I think she was relieved, but she wasn't happy she was relieved. She was in a duel to the death with the best non-Mika pilot she'd ever met (Seriously, I underestimated Amida. Julieta's nowhere near a slouch, and she'd have been killed five times over in anything but her current monster), and she genuinely respected her opponent. She wanted to be the kind of person who embraces that, who wins on her own merits or dies with no regrets. She saw Mikazuki and Vidar fight, and it was beautiful. And now she gets that fight, she finds her nerves in rebellion against the vision she had of herself. She wasn't the win or die ace. She wasn't like Amida, the sort who would embrace martyrdom. She was just another grunt, hoping and praying her skill and her suit would combine well enough to let her live one more day, and whose only gut reaction to an enemy taken down by unfair means is "thank you, oh Lord, that it wasn't me this time." Julieta found out that she wasn't who she wanted to be when fighting against someone who actually was that kind of person. It's a sobering kind of experience.
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Jan 22, 2017 22:37
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Kanos posted:The dude deployed illegal superweapons for the noble task of arresting an accused criminal(who was framed for possession of those very same superweapons), repeatedly and willfully ignored the accused's attempt to surrender peacefully in favor of opting to use those illegal superweapons to attempt to mow down fleeing civilians en masse, and then ordered those illegal superweapons to fire on an enemy with his own troops in the line of fire to preserve his own life(which was only in danger because he was an arrogant moron). Iok cleared the bar for war criminal and kept running until it was a distant memory in the distance here. Iok's worse than Rustal. Rustal's a bastard, but it's for a purpose. He kills children, burns cities, and commits war crimes with an endgame in mind, and weighing it against an alternative that he thinks is unacceptable. He thinks that a world without Gjallarhorn will fall into anarchy, and that if people are squirming, you need to put the boot firmer on their necks. Massacres like Dort are controlled burns, a little harm to keep the forest intact. He's a very bad man, but he's also a competent one, and the kind of person who's kept Gjallarhorn limping along this long. Meanwhile, Iok's committing the same crimes, but without the planning. Rustal's able to sleep because he tells himself that his sins were for the greater good. Iok just doesn't notice he's a poo poo.
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Jan 22, 2017 23:40
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AradoBalanga posted:As long as Iok isn't the catalyst, I'd be down for a Victory Gundam ending. Yeah, we're getting to the point where the original Mobile Suit Gundam's tagline feels relevant. "Who will survive?" And with Takaki gone, there's no guarantees left. chiasaur11 fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Jan 30, 2017 |
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Jan 29, 2017 23:22
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Cao Ni Ma posted:You mean Takaki right? He's scheduled to do one of the next episode previews and given the 100% mortality rate they've had one the last few weeks not even him is safe. All I'm saying is, after his last arc, they could drop a colony directly on top of him and I'd give him better than even odds. Even by Iron Blooded Orphan standards, he's been waving off death flags like they were traffic signs in Miami.
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Jan 30, 2017 01:10
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ImpAtom posted:I saw it coming because they kinda waved every single flag in the world. That's kind of the default for Iron Blooded Orphans, though. Everyone's got all the death flags a single person can carry flying all the time. (Again, Takaki). It's not a matter of "if" so much as "when". And this was assumed to be a cooldown episode. Also, she just got a kit, was the only Turbine in the OP, and the arc seemed to be doing the delay round, where characters split up for a few episodes so the survivor can tear up when the other dies with nothing they can do. I figured that Azee was the one who was going to die when they split up. Needless to say, I figured wrong.
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Jan 30, 2017 06:15
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Zebulon posted:Probably just an easier mounting system for carrying extra equipment. We've also already seen Mika use the subarms on the back of the suit, the ones in those white pods beside the tail, to cave in at least one cockpit block. Having extra arms for mounting equipment and giving Mika new and strange ways to murder unsuspecting fools seems justification enough. I appreciate how devoted Mika is to using every part of his MS for murders. While some pilots just pick one move and use it over and over, Mikazuki keeps you on your toes. Will he kill you with a gun? A mace? A kali-ma special? There's no way to know until he tries. Never a dull moment.
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Jan 31, 2017 07:52
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The Sandman posted:He doesn't, he just hopes that it takes Iok long enough to spin up the hamster wheels that by the time that's done he at least can't gently caress up the current situation any farther. I like Rustal's competence quite a lot. There's kind of a question during the first season of how Gjallarhorn hadn't self destructed long ago, and Rustal is the answer. In addition to the self serving jackasses and the people who actually buy their own propaganda, there are men like him. The people who think the stability is worth the price, and who know what measures need to be taken to keep it. McGillis and Kudelia have presented both the idealistic and the cynical side of "This system needs to go", but until Rustal, we didn't really have someone saying "But the alternative is worse." with any conviction. Nice to get that settled. He's a bastard, but he's a bastard with an understandable agenda and a long career in building bastardry related skills. Really curious where it'll go for him and McGillis in the end.
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Feb 1, 2017 03:20
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Argas posted:Another thing that's pretty much up in the air without more info on the history of Teiwaz, but McMurdo isn't really blameless. He may very well be the guy who made Jasley his second-in-command, rather than it being an acceptable compromise in the theoretical transformation of various smaller organizations into Teiwaz. Considering that he's been depicted as a cultivator-figure, Jasley may very well be the sort of person he is because of McMurdo. Jasley being the bad apple of Teiwaz might not be a fluke, he might be McMurdo being too soft on a person he once cultivated. And now Jasley is looking to take his place, if not in public then at least in private. It's been mentioned Jasley's got a lot of the other bosses in his corner. Basically, right now it looks like McMurdo's gotten soft in his old age. He's the mob boss who wanted to go legit and got most of the way there, so now the scum that lifted him to the top doubts he's got what it takes any more. And, judging by the latest episode, he don't.
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Feb 1, 2017 20:57
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We're all focusing on how Tekkadan's doing, but I figure the Julieta subplot is worth a mention. She's pretty much getting offered the Graze Ein package, and there's no way that's going to go well for anyone. It ties into the themes of the rest of the episode, with the mention that to be the best means no longer being human, but geeze.
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Feb 6, 2017 00:41
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Cao Ni Ma posted:I mean hasn't it been loving obvious now since season 1 that Tekkadan punch way above their weight on this? People discounting Tekkadan has been a theme for just as long. They're a small PMC, with two ships where Rustal's fleet has dozens. Yes, Iok might be able to deal with them now, but it would make enemies of Teiwaz and cost resources that would be better spent on dealing with McGillis's real play. I think at this point Rustal thinks of Tekkadan as being a world class welterweight. Good, but if you put them in a ring with Joe Lewis they're going to crumple fast. It's more important to keep the shipping lanes running than to bother swatting a few flies. And, honestly, if they're a threat to Rustal they'd loving ruin Iok's fleet, even if they lost. I mean, the man managed to lose 20% of his forces when going against an opponent who was surrendering. You want to keep an eye on him if you want to get any use from those assets.
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Feb 7, 2017 00:26
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Darth Walrus posted:They were pretty well-armed, though. It wasn't a Dort-style pre-prepared slaughter. I'd place putting down that kind of rebellion as morally neutral. And watching again, he went to the side of the cockpit for most of the killshots, not dead center. We even saw surrendering survivors. He killed people, but he clearly didn't kill everyone.
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Feb 13, 2017 05:49
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booksnake posted:I agree with McGillis this episode, Gaelio's a naive fucker who cares too much about honor and is himself escalating the situation by rallying around Rustal. Really do need more Kudelia scenes or people will forget that only one person is an actual hero here Escalating. Escalating. McGillis Fareed just launched a military coup of the most powerful group in the solar system and you're accusing Gaelio of escalating? Like, that's Rustal's whole deal! Not escalating. Keeping things from flaring up, no matter the cost. Yes, Kudelia's the one person trying to fix the busted system for the right reasons, and I'm sure she's going to be the one bringing things in the right direction come the endgame, but she's a politician, and this situation has been rapidly moving out of her area of expertise and into the field of crazy people stealing giant murder robots, which is much harder to handle with soft pressure. This is the time for killers, and of the current set, Gaelio is the closest to being a good man with a righteous cause. For all the good it's liable to do him.
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Feb 13, 2017 12:20
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Darth Walrus posted:He's trying to present himself as an acceptable alternative to Gaelio by showing that he can take care of the Bauduin family. 'I am also your son'. The armed guards are the stick, Almiria being happy and safe is the carrot. It's either deeply cynical or deeply naive - and with Earth aristocracy politics being as they are, I'm genuinely not sure which it is. Could be both. Probably is both, honestly. McGillis doesn't think of things in the same way as most people, so his obvious answers to problems aren't the same as theirs, and the same is true of his complicated problems. Moving on to the other side, Rustal's got a Grand Inquisitor moment this episode, doesn't he? The church no longer needs its founder, the religion is best off without its messiah. He's not just rejecting an Agnika who'd choose McGillis, he's rejecting anyone who would destroy what 300 years have built. Interesting little conflict here.
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Feb 19, 2017 23:42
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Dulkor posted:I have a feeling that was the original plan before the Hashmal arc led to Gaelio tipping his hand and Mika giving him confirmation of his ideals while fighting Hashmal. Yep. Looks like finding out that Rustal had all his dirty laundry and could set the pace scrapped his old plans. Meanwhile, Mika just went out and provided an advertisement for his whole "Just smash poo poo with overwhelming force and people will fall in line" suspicions. McGillis has never been twelve steps ahead. One or two at most, based on the lay of the land. And when he misreads people, well, Orga punches him in the loving face.
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Feb 20, 2017 12:36
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Midjack posted:If we see Azee again she'll be teamed up with Kudelia and the remnants of Tekkadan in the epilogue as part of a "give Human Debris and exploited women a chance" organization on Mars. Which would make her the only person of the three 'killed' in the season 1 finale to survive season 2. Well, arguably Ride could join that club, but Ride's odds are not good in the next few. And yeah. Tekkadan's not doing great at the moment. As in, they're pretty drat hosed. Curious how this is going to end, because even death or glory plays seem like they just wind up with death at the moment, but a pure nihilistic ending doesn't seem quite in the show's style.
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Feb 26, 2017 23:11
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Mordja posted:I hope Julietta survives. She's such a big, drat hero this episode. Except, you know, on the wrong (relatively speaking) side. Vetinari feels like an appropriate thinker for this situation. "I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are good people and bad people. You're wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides." (I also think Rustal would agree with "They think they want good government and justice for all, Vimes, yet what is it they really crave, deep in their hearts? Only that things go on as normal and tomorrow is pretty much like today.")
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Feb 27, 2017 03:35
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ImpAtom posted:I'm curious, did they ever state exactly what made the railguns banned? I mean they're horrifyingly effective weapons but "horrifyingly effective weapon' being banned would outlaw half of Mika's suit on its own. Presumably for the same reason that nobles tried to ban crossbows and rifles. Without the railguns, no-one but an ace pilot is going to be a threat to Gjallarhorn. People like Mika and Amida can take down a Graze if they get a mobile suit, but an average pilot will get killed by weight of numbers pretty quickly. With the railguns, a suit can get in a sniper position, blow a few VIPs to hell before he gets dealt with. It's basically removing a threat to their power under the guise of humanitarian motives. Standard 'horn MO.
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Feb 27, 2017 05:40
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Hunt11 posted:This episode has proven that the only sane player left in the game is Kudeliia. I'd say Orga's still sane. He's clearly realized how much he's hosed up, it's just that, through bad luck and even worse decisions, he's out of options that aren't "work with total loving lunatic". If he gets an out, he'd probably cling onto it with both hands. As for ages, I think the general idea for Mika in season 1 is 15-ish, and the same for Atra. Season 2 is after somewhere around 2 years of timeskips, and since Kudelia started the series at 16, she's at least 18 now. Childhood malnutrition and crippling surgery do a number on growth.
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Feb 28, 2017 00:06
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