So far the AEU "ace" is looking more like comic relief. Reminds me of Alex Smith from Gravion, without the attempts at womanizing (yet). He's _just_ good enough not to die yet (dodged Virtue's BFG attacks but looks like he got singed so bad he had to make a crash landing). I noticed Virtue's pop-up cannons in the intro sequence; makes me wonder what the similar-looking pods on the legs are. Also makes me wonder if the thing has any close-range guns (it's listed as having beam sabers, but does it have anything to cover that gap in offensive capability between "BFGs" and "swords"?). So far we've seen the "bazooka" and those shoulder cannons; both look like they'd be unwieldy at close range. Assuming anything lives long enough against those wide-angle BFGs to GET into melee range... About the mercenary (name is apparently Ali Al Sarshes) -- I wonder if he was one of Setsuna's old comrades, or an enemy instead? Wikipedia's entry claims it was his voice being broadcast across the Kurdish Republic in the first scene; that implies it was his Anf mobile suits razing Setsuna's homeland. If that's the case, it reminds me a bit of Gauron and Sousuke from Full Metal Panic... Also, I wonder if we'll be getting an Ali Al Sarshes Custom version of the Enact in HG? There's already a listing of a Graham Acre's Custom Union Flag coming up. On Soma's suit -- it sounded to me like they were installing the Quantum Brainwave equivalent of a Faraday Cage into her suit, to block outside interference with her thought processes. And as expected, Sergei's not happy about the idea of sending her into battle again.Sounded like some of the characters were alluding to plans for space colony construction in the future. I doubt we'll actually see one completed during the series (unless it's in the epilogue or something -- along with discussion of adopting a new calendar?), but it wouldn't surprise me to see such construction used as a cover for the construction of a Colony Laser. Moralia's citizen-to-foreigner ratio sounds a lot like the United Arab Emirates -- UAE is 85% non-citizens, compared to around 95% for Moralia if the total population of the latter is 4,180,000. I'm guessing it's made explicitly clear to prospective foreign workers exactly what their status is in the country, with expulsion (and loss of employment) or worse for non-citizens who try to upset the system. Something I found -- Azadistan (the name of Queen Marina's country) is apparently Persian for "land of freedom." The use of Persian suggests that Azadistan may be a future Iran, or part of it. They also mentioned that it had recently reformed into (or was in the process of reforming into) a monarchy. Given that the current trends prefer reform _away_ from authority centralized in one person, it makes me wonder just what their government was before that enthroning a monarch is considered an improvement. Did they spend 200 years under some sort of military junta, or a succession of such governments deposing one another? Sadly, in that part of the world, I could believe it... NOBODY looks their age in anime. I thought Queen Marina was younger, but according to Wikipedia she's 24! Only two years younger than Sumeragi Noriega of the Ptolemaios. And Soma's listed as being 18 years old. Probably young for a military MS pilot, but not a child soldier by any means. If Sergei thinks she's too young for combat, he'd be horrified to learn that the guy who diced his Tieren on Earth was even younger! At least they're getting away from ridiculously young pilots, aside from Setsuna. Everyone else seems to be a reasonable age.
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [RE][gundam] Episode 6 spoilersDate: Mon, 12 Nov 2007 14:11:59 -0500 Yes and no. The focus of the episode is an operation by the AEU (finally doing something...) that's specifically designed to draw out CB. And it's pretty obvious to everyone - AEU, CB, and the rest of the world - that drawing out CB is the entire point of the operation. That means that CB will be facing many more mobile suits - and high quality mobile suits at that - than they have in any previous operation. And this time CB isn't actually intervening in a conflict (they "interrupted" a joint military excercise), which means that the people that they're attacking won't be distracted by non-CB units on the battlefield. So providing customized equipment to help the Gundams out makes sense. And the upgrades seem fairly minor. We're not talking "full-vernion" level stuff. The Dynames (the Gundam piloted by Lockon and his Haro) only received huge armored plates to better protect it from incoming fire. Exia got two new blades. I don't remember seeing anything specifically added to Khyrios and Virtue, although Virtue did use two new shoulder-mounted pop-up cannons that I don't remember it using previously (then again, Virtue has spent most of its time in the series so far repowering Ptolemais, and not in combat). As for my own comments on the episode... One of the themes this time seems to be "Small World". That, and "Everyone has a screwed up past." We learn two little bits of information about "Billy" Sumeragi this episode. She knows Graham's pony-tailed friend from way back when, along with the professor that's leading Union's anti-Gundam unit. And she was apparently the strategist for some incident that the three of them as well as Graham all know about. If it went bad, her love of alchohol may have come as a direct response to it (though so far as I can tell she's never actually appeared on-screen while drunk to date). One also wonders if it might be possible for her friends to recognize her handiwork in the strategies given enough time and data. And in the second cliff-hanger of the series, we learn that Setsuna and the mercenary employed by AEU (introduced in this episode) have a common past. I'm guessing that the mercenary trained and led Setsuna's squad for a while. It appears that the normally emotionless Setsuna isn't happy about having to fight him, although it was hard to tell since he only realized the man's identity in the last seconds of the episode. He's also looking at least slightly out-classed, since the mercenary isn't having any trouble predicting his movements (which might be a result of their shared past). Another item to note - the advanced "tweaked to fight the Gundams" mobile suit was given to the mercenary, and not the AEU's "ace". The HRL has evaluated Soma, and made the fixes that they hope will keep her from having another breakdown if she runs into Allelujah again. The doctor mentioned adding something to her suit, which raises questions on whether she normally relies on "clothing" to remain stable. Two members of the Ptolemais's bridge crew are finally given enough screen time to be more than just faces on the bridge. They're still mostly stereotypes at this point, though. Marina wants technicians to help her country have access to solar power. Presumeably that means that she wants to hook the country up to the power network coming from the elevator. No one is currently willing to send technicians, however, with the reason given being that the country isn't safe for technicians to enter. Simultaneously darkly amusing and sad comment on AEU attitudes regarding military deployments. At least one of the member nations won't permit it (an event 300 years prior is mentioned, which probably means that it was Germany that won't allow the deployment, and the "event" was Nazi Germany in World War 2). It's sad in part because it mirrors modern-day attitudes toward military deployments in some of the European countries (deployment of troops from some European nations in areas of Afghanistan where they might have to fight Taliban forces is prohibited by the nations because of the fear that a single death of a soldier might cause the nation's population to force the withdrawal of the troops from Afghanistan). And there's another reference to the incomplete status of the AEU's elevator. The nation attacked has 180,000 citizens, and 4,000,000 foreign workers. >.< That latter number seems awfully high... How is the government maintaining control without granting citizenship to more of the foreign workers? junior ---------[ Received Mail Content ]----------Subject : [gundam] Episode 6 spoilersDate : Mon, 12 Nov 2007 11:29:39 -0500From : "Dr. Core" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>To : [EMAIL PROTECTED] going to get into the big discussion on episode 6 since I am only reading off the synopsis. But isn't it a bit early to get upgraded Gundams already? None of them has even a symmetric face-off against a real opponent yet and they are already getting more uberful. -- Dr. Core -------------------------------------------------- The Gundam Mailing List MK-II [email protected] Archives: http://www.gundam.com/gml Help: Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with this in the BODY: help list -------------------------------------------------- The Gundam Mailing List MK-II [email protected] Archives: http://www.gundam.com/gml Help: Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with this in the BODY: help list _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live Hotmail and Microsoft Office Outlook – together at last. Get it now. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA102225181033.aspx?pid=CL100626971033
