Another example is the internal frame of Turn-A. In the past, we were supposed to think that it's mostly "hollow", now the MG introduced an internal frame, can it be explained away? Yes easily. Will it adversely affect anything in the future? most likely not. Does it make pointless all the past conversations about "hollow" or how Turn-A was different from other MS (UC, AU and even amongst the Flat, Borjarnons and Sumo). Yes, but that's the nature of most Gundam conversations isn't it? -- Dr. Core
I don't think it makes it pointless. It doesn't change how they show up in the animation. The Turn-A, Turn-X, Sumo, and Mahirows were clearly the top end of MS performance in the series. You can take all the Turn-A MS and group them by similar capabilities. We talked about this during the run of Turn-A and I found some scraps of the discussion in a some old emails from 2000.
From Mark Simmons
It is mentioned that the MS with spines-(Rib, Wadd, Flat?, Eagle?) are the oldest of the moon race's mecha. So, where in time do they fit in? And, btw, did the moon race build any of their own MS or just did they just acquire them all as heirlooms and/or dig them up? I suspect the latter. Though possibly they design their own new mobile suits based on this rediscovered technology. Presumably some of the antiques, like the Sumo, are so advanced as to defy duplication; most of the Moonrace mobile suits that could plausibly be original creations are based on the cruder spine technology. As for the spines... the only indicator there is that the Eagel, probably the most ambitous spine-type design, has a cockpit identical to those used in Gundam X. (Ditto the Gozzo.) So it's possible that the spine design dates from the later years of the UC/AW era, which I think would indeed predate FC-derived designs like the Mahirow and Sumo.
....
Incidentally, "Memory of First Wind" has lots of line art of the Cannon Irfute, revealing that it has a linear seat identical to the ones used in F91. The accompanying text confirms that it dates from between F91 and V Gundam. Meanwhile, the Irfute and the spaceship Willgem are supposedly about 2300 years old, which indicates that year zero of the Turn A calendar probably does match up pretty well with year zero of the UC calendar.
-James
