gundam 37-43 (end)
Sep. 11th, 2025 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizardjayEPISODE 37: THE DUEL IN TEXAS
I love that they named this station Texas. It's not even New Texas or anything. Obviously the Texas on Earth is now Old Texas.
Fraw Bow and Amuro talk. It's really been so long since they've actually had a relationship...
Idk why Char said he didn't have any weapons on his ship. This is SURELY not true.
I don't think they really explained why Char, Lalah, and Dr. Flanagan went inside Texas. If they did I forgot. I assumed it had something to do with Lalah's testing.
We continue ramping up the existence of psychic powers by having Amuro and Lalah sense each other.
Anyway RIP M'Quve. I hope your stupid vase breaks.
EPISODE 38: CHAR AND SAYLA
Irrelevant note from this episode: the Federation has a ship which is completely green on the outside and normal inside, while Zeon has a ship that is as close to normal as Zeon makes them, and the inside is inexplicably so green that it casts green on all the people too. There has been no green glowing ship like this before or since. (*Note from the future as I return to finish these notes: in early Zeta the AEUG ship has a mysterious green room once more! What this means, I have no idea.)
Char is SO lucky that the one time he needs to abandon his mobile suit, he's in a place with atmosphere. WEAR A SPACE SUIT.
Getting all the Char and Sayla and Zeon (and Newtype??) backstory while on live radio with Bright is amazing.
They were raised by Jimba Ral: a relative of Ramba Ral?
"Char tells Sayla that he joined the Zeon to get close to the Zabi family, but now realizes that true peace won't be achieved even if they are defeated. He believes this due to newtypes." See, this is my main confusion with the end of this show. What does that mean, Char? What are you fighting for? He never really explains, even when he's asking Sayla (and later Amuro) to work with him. Toward WHAT, Char? How does fighting for Zeon help? At some point he and/or other Zeon people like Kycilia were dismayed that the Federation had a Newtype; not just because it would be harder to fight them, I think, but because it would be like... morally wrong to have psychic people fight each other. I mean I agree there that it seems to be really fucked up for their mental states to be more aware of the other people you're killing and all that. Removes the distance. But you could also say that's desirable because maybe that will make people fight less... Anyway I don't know what Char wants from all this.
Does Char always keep a briefcase of gold on his ship for if he needs to bribe someone or convince his sister to do something?
RIP Federation green ship. ("We don't have any weapons" Char said last episode. Why Did You Lie? For what purpose???)
EPISODE 39: THE NEWTYPE: CHALLIA BULL
I fell really behind on my reactions so I'm now basing these on the wiki episode summaries (which are really quite good!!).
This episode is funny to watch after GQuuux. Challia Bull is so irrelevant here and they made him a main character there. Also he's apparently in his 20s here but he looks like 50.
Lalah is so scary... we spent a while debating on how her mobile armor and its remote guns might work, and we don't really know. But they're too small to probably catch on any kind of sensor, or even to target easily...
Mirai ALSO a Newtype...
Not the Braw Bro again, aka the thing named exactly like Fraw Bow.
I'm interested by the discussion of Char's Newtypeness vs Lalah and Challia; he's less 'open-minded' or whatever they said.
Anyway RIP Challia. (I've now said something in this vein for three episodes in a row... everyone just keeps dying T_T)
EPISODE 40: LALAH'S DILEMMA
Amuro's convo with Mosk Han, the engineer who proposed the magnet coating, is so funny. Mosk Han is like "please survive because I need to get data from your performance" and Amuro is like "fuck you I hate you. You callous bastard." Anyway the magnet coating is the type of science I like from Gundam: it makes enough sense on the surface that it's satisfying to think about, and at the very least it seems like it could be plausible if you thought about it deeper.
Oh right this is the episode where Degwin goes "have you heard of... Hitler? You're being pretty Hitler-ish" to really hammer it home in case you have no brain. Also they start talking about superior races. Gihren: "yeah sure I'll be Hitler."
Anyway the Zeon soldiers do not understand teamwork the way the White Base does, and Lalah's support ends up hiding behind her. (They either don't have comms or Lalah is not comfortable callimg out to them for support... the excuse of Minovsky particles seems to mean that communication can be possible or impossible depending on what's needed for the plot.)
The supply people seem to dislike or disrespect Char because they haven't gotten him a uniform for Lalah.
Lalah uses a pretty personal and childish argument that Amuro Is Bad because he's Going Against Char. But then again, is Amuro's motivation much different? (Obviously Zeon is bad, but our heroes are mostly fighting because Zeon attacked them and their families, etc... also against the killing of billions and war crimes that mostly happened pre canon, of course. I guess there's that.)
EPISODE 41: A COSMIC GLOW
Degwin's Garma recording (or, as I thought at the time, hologram and voice changer over someone else, but the wiki doesn't seem to agree): so weird.
Kycilia: Char, I know you were trying to kill us... but we're cool now, right?
Char: sure.
No idea what made Kycilia think this, because Char killed the only Zabi he had access to so far. This begins a mild confusion that carries me through the end, of 'what IS Char's current motivation?' and 'what is everyone saying about the future for Newtypes?'
Lalah Char kiss O_O and she finally convinces him that perhaps, it would be a wise idea to wear a space suit in space. This is lucky for Char because otherwise he would die this episode.
Lalah argues that Amuro has nothing to fight for, as if his friends don't matter. Also the desire for an end to the killing of billions. In general with Lalah's introduction to battles, we are moving into a very psychic plane of battles... we have actual conversations with enemies, which we never have.
Rest in peace Lalah T_T though she seems to have some ghostly remnants.
EPISODE 42: SPACE FORTRESS: A BAOA QU
THE SOLAR RAY MEANS SERIOUS BUSINESS. Rest in pieces Degwin I guess.
It's a rough moment when the White Base, ship of newly drafted soldiers, is the rallying point for the remnants of your ships.
Amuro lying about having Newtype premonitions of their success :D we've really come around to the psychic powers that nobody really believed in or thought about a couple episodes ago.
Gihren truly doesn't know how to make himself sound not suspicious. He didn't even ATTEMPT to say he didn't know Degwin was in the line of fire when he fired the Solar Ray. I did think this was a strong possibility; I mean he didn't care either way, but it's very possible he didn't know beforehand. But he doesn't even try to say he's innocent, and actually in a couple minutes he admits to killing their father on purpose; he thinks admitting it genuinely doesn't matter. Surely Kycilia agrees with him, or will go along with him because he's stronger or something. I mean, who knows how much Kycilia cares either... but it's a great pretext for killing Gihren!
Anyway there's fighting or whatever. Char has a new mobile suit with no legs. I should say more for the penultimate episode but I have since forgotten anything interesting in the fighting. Many of the Zeon pilots are revealed to be students.
EPISODE 43: ESCAPE
This is an absolutely jam packed episode. It has everything in it.
Amuro and Char fight in the suits. The White Base is hit and forced to land. It gets hit further and Kai and Hayato go out to defend. They too get hit soon and have to eject... but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Amuro's preprogramming of the Gundam to walk forward and shoot up is really impressive and exciting. (Surely it's preprogramming, right? And not psychic magic? There's no psycomm in the Gundam. SUPPOSEDLY.) And then both suits do massive damage to each other... and we transition to a human to human battle!!! NOW is when Kai and Hayato get in serious trouble.
CHAR AND AMURO DUEL WITH SWORDS IN SOME KIND OF FANCY ZABI ROOM. Sayla shows up during this. Then: "Char tells Sayla and Amuro that taking revenge isn't his priority anymore; they are entering an age of newtypes and if Amuro wants to understand him [he should] fight alongside him." What does this MEAN, Char? What does it mean???? It's one thing if it's supposed to be ambiguous and confusing, but.... is it supposed to be? I'm not sure.
This all at least inspires Char to kill Kycilia, who's trying to escape. YAY.
Amuro then gives everyone psychic directions on how to survive. I guess he's sensing everyone in the area and their intentions... this is a huge powerup.
Bright: Sayla, you should try and reach out to Amuro... as a daughter of Zeon, you're the most likely to have Newtype powers.
Kai, standing behind Sayla iirc, having no knowledge of this Zeon thing: HUH??? HELLO???? (No one explains anything.)
Anyway then the KIDS are the ones to feel Amuro's approach. And then the crew signals him with a light!! They catch him! Everyone is so happy to see him!!!
I was relieved. Sure, I was pretty sure that Amuro showed up in future series. Sure, I was moderately confident that even though they've made this show pretty dark, they weren't going to kill the protagonist. I mean it's at least nominally for kids, right? Right???? Even so, I worried for him. But he's alright!
Everything's gone to shit. The White Base has been destroyed! Every mobile suit they have has been destroyed!! They have nothing!!! But they're alive!!!!!!!!! It's all over!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Don't worry about the sequel!)
THE END
Anyway, overall thoughts: Gundam Good. That is all*. We immediately moved on to Zeta.
*Okay, I could probably say more. But I feel I said a lot of it with my first post... it's just nice. It's very grounded (within the premises of its concept and ideas, of course) but it still has a lot of fun and whimsy. The characters are fairly simple but they're interesting. Amuro, despite being a protagonist with arguably very little agency or independent action, still shines as a person with thoughts and feelings. (Remember when Amuro deserted? Those were the days...) The enemies have enough drama going on to make them interesting but they're also.... they're pretty evil. Char is an enigma and I understand why he's so popular. He's still kind of a shit person though. War is of course miserable and this permeates everything. And... the mobile suits are cool, okay? They're cool. I like to see a giant robot. Finally, the show has heart. THAT is all.
I love that they named this station Texas. It's not even New Texas or anything. Obviously the Texas on Earth is now Old Texas.
Fraw Bow and Amuro talk. It's really been so long since they've actually had a relationship...
Idk why Char said he didn't have any weapons on his ship. This is SURELY not true.
I don't think they really explained why Char, Lalah, and Dr. Flanagan went inside Texas. If they did I forgot. I assumed it had something to do with Lalah's testing.
We continue ramping up the existence of psychic powers by having Amuro and Lalah sense each other.
Anyway RIP M'Quve. I hope your stupid vase breaks.
EPISODE 38: CHAR AND SAYLA
Irrelevant note from this episode: the Federation has a ship which is completely green on the outside and normal inside, while Zeon has a ship that is as close to normal as Zeon makes them, and the inside is inexplicably so green that it casts green on all the people too. There has been no green glowing ship like this before or since. (*Note from the future as I return to finish these notes: in early Zeta the AEUG ship has a mysterious green room once more! What this means, I have no idea.)
Char is SO lucky that the one time he needs to abandon his mobile suit, he's in a place with atmosphere. WEAR A SPACE SUIT.
Getting all the Char and Sayla and Zeon (and Newtype??) backstory while on live radio with Bright is amazing.
They were raised by Jimba Ral: a relative of Ramba Ral?
"Char tells Sayla that he joined the Zeon to get close to the Zabi family, but now realizes that true peace won't be achieved even if they are defeated. He believes this due to newtypes." See, this is my main confusion with the end of this show. What does that mean, Char? What are you fighting for? He never really explains, even when he's asking Sayla (and later Amuro) to work with him. Toward WHAT, Char? How does fighting for Zeon help? At some point he and/or other Zeon people like Kycilia were dismayed that the Federation had a Newtype; not just because it would be harder to fight them, I think, but because it would be like... morally wrong to have psychic people fight each other. I mean I agree there that it seems to be really fucked up for their mental states to be more aware of the other people you're killing and all that. Removes the distance. But you could also say that's desirable because maybe that will make people fight less... Anyway I don't know what Char wants from all this.
Does Char always keep a briefcase of gold on his ship for if he needs to bribe someone or convince his sister to do something?
RIP Federation green ship. ("We don't have any weapons" Char said last episode. Why Did You Lie? For what purpose???)
EPISODE 39: THE NEWTYPE: CHALLIA BULL
I fell really behind on my reactions so I'm now basing these on the wiki episode summaries (which are really quite good!!).
This episode is funny to watch after GQuuux. Challia Bull is so irrelevant here and they made him a main character there. Also he's apparently in his 20s here but he looks like 50.
Lalah is so scary... we spent a while debating on how her mobile armor and its remote guns might work, and we don't really know. But they're too small to probably catch on any kind of sensor, or even to target easily...
Mirai ALSO a Newtype...
Not the Braw Bro again, aka the thing named exactly like Fraw Bow.
I'm interested by the discussion of Char's Newtypeness vs Lalah and Challia; he's less 'open-minded' or whatever they said.
Anyway RIP Challia. (I've now said something in this vein for three episodes in a row... everyone just keeps dying T_T)
EPISODE 40: LALAH'S DILEMMA
Amuro's convo with Mosk Han, the engineer who proposed the magnet coating, is so funny. Mosk Han is like "please survive because I need to get data from your performance" and Amuro is like "fuck you I hate you. You callous bastard." Anyway the magnet coating is the type of science I like from Gundam: it makes enough sense on the surface that it's satisfying to think about, and at the very least it seems like it could be plausible if you thought about it deeper.
Oh right this is the episode where Degwin goes "have you heard of... Hitler? You're being pretty Hitler-ish" to really hammer it home in case you have no brain. Also they start talking about superior races. Gihren: "yeah sure I'll be Hitler."
Anyway the Zeon soldiers do not understand teamwork the way the White Base does, and Lalah's support ends up hiding behind her. (They either don't have comms or Lalah is not comfortable callimg out to them for support... the excuse of Minovsky particles seems to mean that communication can be possible or impossible depending on what's needed for the plot.)
The supply people seem to dislike or disrespect Char because they haven't gotten him a uniform for Lalah.
Lalah uses a pretty personal and childish argument that Amuro Is Bad because he's Going Against Char. But then again, is Amuro's motivation much different? (Obviously Zeon is bad, but our heroes are mostly fighting because Zeon attacked them and their families, etc... also against the killing of billions and war crimes that mostly happened pre canon, of course. I guess there's that.)
EPISODE 41: A COSMIC GLOW
Degwin's Garma recording (or, as I thought at the time, hologram and voice changer over someone else, but the wiki doesn't seem to agree): so weird.
Kycilia: Char, I know you were trying to kill us... but we're cool now, right?
Char: sure.
No idea what made Kycilia think this, because Char killed the only Zabi he had access to so far. This begins a mild confusion that carries me through the end, of 'what IS Char's current motivation?' and 'what is everyone saying about the future for Newtypes?'
Lalah Char kiss O_O and she finally convinces him that perhaps, it would be a wise idea to wear a space suit in space. This is lucky for Char because otherwise he would die this episode.
Lalah argues that Amuro has nothing to fight for, as if his friends don't matter. Also the desire for an end to the killing of billions. In general with Lalah's introduction to battles, we are moving into a very psychic plane of battles... we have actual conversations with enemies, which we never have.
Rest in peace Lalah T_T though she seems to have some ghostly remnants.
EPISODE 42: SPACE FORTRESS: A BAOA QU
THE SOLAR RAY MEANS SERIOUS BUSINESS. Rest in pieces Degwin I guess.
It's a rough moment when the White Base, ship of newly drafted soldiers, is the rallying point for the remnants of your ships.
Amuro lying about having Newtype premonitions of their success :D we've really come around to the psychic powers that nobody really believed in or thought about a couple episodes ago.
Gihren truly doesn't know how to make himself sound not suspicious. He didn't even ATTEMPT to say he didn't know Degwin was in the line of fire when he fired the Solar Ray. I did think this was a strong possibility; I mean he didn't care either way, but it's very possible he didn't know beforehand. But he doesn't even try to say he's innocent, and actually in a couple minutes he admits to killing their father on purpose; he thinks admitting it genuinely doesn't matter. Surely Kycilia agrees with him, or will go along with him because he's stronger or something. I mean, who knows how much Kycilia cares either... but it's a great pretext for killing Gihren!
Anyway there's fighting or whatever. Char has a new mobile suit with no legs. I should say more for the penultimate episode but I have since forgotten anything interesting in the fighting. Many of the Zeon pilots are revealed to be students.
EPISODE 43: ESCAPE
This is an absolutely jam packed episode. It has everything in it.
Amuro and Char fight in the suits. The White Base is hit and forced to land. It gets hit further and Kai and Hayato go out to defend. They too get hit soon and have to eject... but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Amuro's preprogramming of the Gundam to walk forward and shoot up is really impressive and exciting. (Surely it's preprogramming, right? And not psychic magic? There's no psycomm in the Gundam. SUPPOSEDLY.) And then both suits do massive damage to each other... and we transition to a human to human battle!!! NOW is when Kai and Hayato get in serious trouble.
CHAR AND AMURO DUEL WITH SWORDS IN SOME KIND OF FANCY ZABI ROOM. Sayla shows up during this. Then: "Char tells Sayla and Amuro that taking revenge isn't his priority anymore; they are entering an age of newtypes and if Amuro wants to understand him [he should] fight alongside him." What does this MEAN, Char? What does it mean???? It's one thing if it's supposed to be ambiguous and confusing, but.... is it supposed to be? I'm not sure.
This all at least inspires Char to kill Kycilia, who's trying to escape. YAY.
Amuro then gives everyone psychic directions on how to survive. I guess he's sensing everyone in the area and their intentions... this is a huge powerup.
Bright: Sayla, you should try and reach out to Amuro... as a daughter of Zeon, you're the most likely to have Newtype powers.
Kai, standing behind Sayla iirc, having no knowledge of this Zeon thing: HUH??? HELLO???? (No one explains anything.)
Anyway then the KIDS are the ones to feel Amuro's approach. And then the crew signals him with a light!! They catch him! Everyone is so happy to see him!!!
I was relieved. Sure, I was pretty sure that Amuro showed up in future series. Sure, I was moderately confident that even though they've made this show pretty dark, they weren't going to kill the protagonist. I mean it's at least nominally for kids, right? Right???? Even so, I worried for him. But he's alright!
Everything's gone to shit. The White Base has been destroyed! Every mobile suit they have has been destroyed!! They have nothing!!! But they're alive!!!!!!!!! It's all over!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Don't worry about the sequel!)
THE END
Anyway, overall thoughts: Gundam Good. That is all*. We immediately moved on to Zeta.
*Okay, I could probably say more. But I feel I said a lot of it with my first post... it's just nice. It's very grounded (within the premises of its concept and ideas, of course) but it still has a lot of fun and whimsy. The characters are fairly simple but they're interesting. Amuro, despite being a protagonist with arguably very little agency or independent action, still shines as a person with thoughts and feelings. (Remember when Amuro deserted? Those were the days...) The enemies have enough drama going on to make them interesting but they're also.... they're pretty evil. Char is an enigma and I understand why he's so popular. He's still kind of a shit person though. War is of course miserable and this permeates everything. And... the mobile suits are cool, okay? They're cool. I like to see a giant robot. Finally, the show has heart. THAT is all.
