Dr. Core wrote:
Also people missed my point about "practical technology". Here, Chris
is an ally: it's the economy, stupid! And also one more point: people
prefer not to die. No amount of anime physics can retocon the fact
that people, in general, don't enjoy dying. So in the context of
Gundam, I don't want to get into a discussion if "X" is
technologically possible; let's agree, within Gundam, ANYTHING is
POSSIBLE. But let's discuss, within some imagined environment like a
Minovsky battlefield, what technology is most LIKELY to bring VICTORY.
So take two very important military themes from Gundam itself: lack
of resource (economy*) and lack of soldiers (death**); and discuss
what weapon systems either side would use to bring VICTORY with finite
amount of resource and finite number of soldiers. The issues of
"economy" and "death" is universal and unchanged by Minovsky physics,
fusion reactor and beam weapons.
Actually, I agree with that in a certain way. Now that we are realizing
in the real world that the true weapons are information and pinpoint
accuracy, I find many gundam designs to be really clunky. The true
weapon of a gundam should be its OS and how it adapts to situations,
rather than being a walking tank. In this sense, I was drawn heavily to
modular systems, like the Strike and Hazel, as well as mecha with
advanced OS's, like the Freedom and its like.
* - why economy is an important theme in Gundam: the middle part of
First Gundam, as well as the second half of 08MST, was built against
the backdrop of Battle of Odessa. And Odessa is one huge fight over
resource (mining).
Economy, I feel is always the root of many wars. Or rather, resources,
be they actual or perceived. Most of Gundam's conflicts really do
revolve around that.
** - why death is an important theme in Gundam: (1) the whole idea of
First Gundam was that WB and Gundam fell into the hands of junior
officers and civilian kids because of the loss of the majority of
qualified soldiers on the Fed side during the early part of OYW; (2)
by the end of OYW, we have heard the similar thing out of both sides
Revil, Krishnia, Bright and Char: that the likes of super weapons
Gundam, Gelgoogs, Big Zam (and NT) gives your side only small
advantage, what really decided the victory was plain old numerical
superiority of (non-NT) manpower. A GM is no match for Gelgoog, a
Ball is no match for Zaku, but Fed just flooded A Bao A Qu with Mao
Zedong-like "sea of men tactic".
True, it's still how much of what quality of weapons and men that you
can field that wins it, not your aces or your prototypes.
Look, unlike Star Trek and Star Wars, Gundam invites fans to be
critical about logic and sense. So let's see Gundam creators (and
fans) stand up to the scrutiny.
Unfortunately, I don't see that happening very often anymore. While I
love Gundam Seed/Destiny, the logic of the whole thing is perfectly
for...well, cartoons.
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