Gundam Show Thread - MSG thru GQuuuuuuX

[Bolt]

Third episode was fun to watch. But..

Spoiler

I immediately disliked the red gundam pilot telling us  "the gundam says.." what is Char the ghost in the machine now..?

 

[Big s]

5 minutes ago, Bolt said:

Third episode was fun to watch. But..

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I immediately disliked the red gundam pilot telling us  "the gundam says.." what is Char the ghost in the machine now..?

 

Maybe 

[Big s]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Probably Zeon's next-gen MS based on reverse-engineering the stolen RX-78 Gundam.  The one that de facto replaced the Gelgoog in this timeline.

It could also be a fed suit due to the fact that in the preview it mentions the unbeaten feddy 

[Seto Kaiba]

3 minutes ago, Bolt said:

Third episode was fun to watch. But..

  Hide contents

I immediately disliked the red gundam pilot telling us  "the gundam says.." what is Char the ghost in the machine now..?

It would not be the first time that happened... or even the first time that happened specifically to Char.

Spoiler

Of course, there's the EXAM System from Blue Destiny which was inhabited by the consciousness of Newtype Marion Welch, the Unicorn Gundam Phenix from Narrative that was inhabited by the ghost of Rita Bernal, the imprint of Char's consciousness in the Sazabi's psychoframe that was used to create Full Frontal, and the memory imprint of Char that was used to create Afranshe Char in Gaia Gear.

 

 

Just now, Big s said:

It could also be a fed suit due to the fact that in the preview it mentions the unbeaten feddy 

Unlikely, IMO... those machines look like derivatives of the RX-78 Gundam.  We know Zeon halted development of new mobile suits in order to reverse-engineer and replicate the captured RX-78-2 Gundam.  The Federation, on the other hand, modified the design of the Guncannon for its main MS the RGM-79 Guncannon Light-type.  We know what that machine looks like via the movie and Beginnings pamphlet.

Spoiler

Said undefeated Federation ace is almost certainly one Sayla Mass, who defeated Char at the Second Battle of Solomon right before the Zeknova and whose signature machine was a Gundam tricolor RGM-79 Guncannon Light-type.

 

[Big s]

6 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Unlikely, IMO... those machines look like derivatives of the RX-78 Gundam.  We know Zeon halted development of new mobile suits in order to reverse-engineer and replicate the captured RX-78-2 Gundam.  The Federation, on the other hand, modified the design of the Guncannon for its main MS the RGM-79 Guncannon Light-type.  We know what that machine looks like via the movie and Beginnings pamphlet.

I didn’t get the pamphlet, but the pilot does look like she’s wearing a fed pilot suit as well. 

[Seto Kaiba]

32 minutes ago, Big s said:

I didn’t get the pamphlet, but the pilot does look like she’s wearing a fed pilot suit as well. 

Yeah, the new pilot that appears in the trailer does appear to be wearing something based on the standard OYW-era Earth Federation pilot suit.

[Seto Kaiba]

Another Tuesday, another painfully mediocre episode of GQuuuuuuX. 

It looks like we're going to be seeing a fair amount of recycled no-background zooming and twirling from the titular Gundam going forward.

We get to see a very quick Clan Battle with recycled footage, and then people protesting against the Sodon's presence in Side 6.  

Spoiler

There are some mildly interesting remarks by a Side 6 government official who is watching the protests.  He talks for a moment about some kind of internal power struggle or possible Enemy Civil War going down in the Principality of Zeon.  It seems like Gihren and Kycilia are beefing over control of Zeon's government?

That sounds way more interesting than whatever the hell we've got going on here...

There's a second clan battle against a team sponsored by a PMC that normally uses Federation MS's.

Spoiler

That new machine we saw in the teaser... that's this timeline's Zeon-developed Gundam mass production type, the gMS-01 Gelgoog.

It's still pretty dull stuff.  The Federation ace is a one-trick pony who lasts a couple minutes but never manages to land a real hit on either Gundam...

Spoiler

... then dies when the Gelgoog's frame gives out under the stress of her wire trick and takes a beam saber to the cockpit.

 

Like a Newtype ghost, it's all flash and no substance.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

GQuuuuuuX. is just terrible. I thought episode 4 was a bit better than last week.  But the bar was set so low that almost anything would be better.  I like the Red Gundam and pilot but that is it. 

[Hikuro]

didn't think it was terrible. The only thing I have issues with in this series is the need for these clan battles which is just like WfM's lil dueling system and the character designs not matching up to the rest of the animation. 

Still though, I'll never buy the kits just like how I never bought the mercury or reconguista kits. 

[Graham]

Halfway through watching episode 4 and can already feel myself losing interest in this show.

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, Hikuro said:

didn't think it was terrible. The only thing I have issues with in this series is the need for these clan battles which is just like WfM's lil dueling system and the character designs not matching up to the rest of the animation. 

The main problem with the Clan Battles is that they don't make sense in the context of the setting the way Duels in The Witch from Mercury do.

G-Witch's Duels were mock battles with detuned weapons held as a way for the Benerit Group's various defense companies to demonstrate their latest products in combat and benchmark their rivals latest developments.  Junking a few MS's in a student pissing match or for sport is small potatoes for companies who control the economy of the entire solar system.

GQuuuuuuX's Clan Battles... well... the Pomaranians and some other clans are refugees living in illegal tenaments in Side 6, who nevertheless somehow have the kind of money necessary to buy the equivalent of a fighter jet on the black market and keep it fully fueled, armed, and operational.  It's an illegal sport, and even with the illegal gambling on the events it doesn't quite make sense how civilian randos can manage that.

 

1 hour ago, Graham said:

Halfway through watching episode 4 and can already feel myself losing interest in this show.

The lack of a story hook is perhaps its biggest weakness.

It's leaning real hard on its "What if?" storyline, but that's not enough to make it interesting.

[Big s]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

GQuuuuuuX's Clan Battles... well... the Pomaranians and some other clans are refugees living in illegal tenaments in Side 6, who nevertheless somehow have the kind of money necessary to buy the equivalent of a fighter jet on the black market and keep it fully fueled, armed, and operational.  It's an illegal sport, and even with the illegal gambling on the events it doesn't quite make sense how civilian randos can manage that.

Probably started off with something like a couple construction companies making massive wagers against eachother using less than legal or down in the dumps citizens to make some cash or just to blow some cash on the desperation of these down in the dumps refugees. They probably just would say the suit was stolen and if anyone gets caught they’re on their own. It probably then kinda blew up into something bigger with illegal betting on their viewing platform. At that point then it probably became a bit easier for the junkers to get involved either by actually stealing the suits or rebuilding trashed ones.

 

4 hours ago, Hikuro said:

Still though, I'll never buy the kits just like how I never bought the mercury or reconguista kits. 

I almost like the standard Guncannon and the Gundam 01 that got destroyed in episode one. The gelgoog has absolutely no resemblance to a gelgoog and just looks like a junky gm. Looks like next week they’ll have some Doms and maybe those won’t be so bad. So far still nothing that makes me want to buy the merch

[PointBlankSniper]

9 hours ago, Big s said:

I almost like the standard Guncannon and the Gundam 01

Literally me. Those are the only two designs that almost look good to me, and had the most impactful action sequences at that. They're what I look forward to seeing in model kit form most, just to make a final decision on whether I like their designs or not lol. At the same time, it seems like those are exactly the two units getting skipped for kits... Somehow even the Light Guncannon that only showed up to get tossed by an explosion for 2 frames is getting a kit before them... Maybe they are saving those two for P-Bandai 2 years after the show ends 🤡

[Seto Kaiba]

10 hours ago, Big s said:

Probably started off with something like a couple construction companies making massive wagers against eachother using less than legal or down in the dumps citizens to make some cash or just to blow some cash on the desperation of these down in the dumps refugees. They probably just would say the suit was stolen and if anyone gets caught they’re on their own. It probably then kinda blew up into something bigger with illegal betting on their viewing platform. At that point then it probably became a bit easier for the junkers to get involved either by actually stealing the suits or rebuilding trashed ones.

I'd assume that, as in the real UC, Mobile Suits in this bad future alternate UC were developed as weapons from the start rather than as construction equipment.

(It's only in the Gundam AUs that Mobile Suits were developed as nonmilitary hardware first.)

Given that MS's like the Zaku are still military hardware even in alternate UC 0085, it seems unlikely that they would be in civilian hands as industrial machinery... and they're also be astonishingly expensive, making it unlikely a civilian construction firm would risk totaling one (or more) on illegal underground fights.  The idea that a handful of broke refugees are able to acquire, repair, maintain, and arm something like a Zaku is pretty silly on its own.  It's even worse with Shuji and the Red Gundam, since he's seemingly doing it all himself in a cramped airlock space that the Gundam doesn't even fit in.  Just Anno's usual sloppy writing.

 

 

10 hours ago, Big s said:

The gelgoog has absolutely no resemblance to a gelgoog and just looks like a junky gm.

Well... yeah?  That's what it is.  

The Beginnings pamphlet from the movie suggests that Zeon cancelled the original MS-14 Gelgoog program after Char captured the RX-78 Gundam.  It seems that Zeonic simply reused the cancelled program's name for their mass produced Gundam they reverse-engineered from the RX-78, making the Gelgoog literally a Zeon GM.

[Big s]

4 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

I'd assume that, as in the real UC, Mobile Suits in this bad future alternate UC were developed as weapons from the start rather than as construction equipment.

Not saying they were ever originally intended for construction, just that after possible over production, that they were mostly considered surplus and sold off as construction and security uses.
There could also be something going on the background with the war ending so soon that the mobile suit production companies could be backing the betting since this is the closest thing to actual combat testing they can find with the war over.

 

6 hours ago, PointBlankSniper said:

They're what I look forward to seeing in model kit form most, just to make a final decision on whether I like their designs or not lol.

I was also thinking that. And like you, was actually disappointed that they skipped those two even though they had the big fights in that second episode. And I was even more disappointed to see that they’re making both of those ugly legged gelgoogs instead of either of the Gundam 01 or Guncannon into kits 

[PointBlankSniper]

27 minutes ago, Big s said:

I was also thinking that. And like you, was actually disappointed that they skipped those two even though they had the big fights in that second episode. And I was even more disappointed to see that they’re making both of those ugly legged gelgoogs instead of either of the Gundam 01 or Guncannon into kits 

The gelgoogs are a literal headscratcher and strange product planning. They look pretty lame, but the red one by itself at least could've been understandable for its place in the story. The black (dark navy?) one getting a kit is kind of nonsense. It's just a palette swap that belongs in p-bandai, and even then, it would have been too insignificant to get a kit.

Meanwhile the 01 is also primarily a palette swap, just with a new face and a couple more weapons, yet somehow has an absolutely different presence. Its nearly just as easy to make as spamming those gelgoogs, and would have been their cash cow based on the general reception i'm hearing

[Big s]

1 hour ago, PointBlankSniper said:

Meanwhile the 01 is also primarily a palette swap, just with a new face and a couple more weapons, yet somehow has an absolutely different presence. Its nearly just as easy to make as spamming those gelgoogs, and would have been their cash cow based on the general reception i'm hearing

Yeah, it’s strange how a simple color swap makes the body look totally different 

the clown colors on what they’re calling the “White Gundam” don’t they do it any favors. But the head on the 01 looks a lot better as well 

[Seto Kaiba]

3 hours ago, Big s said:

There could also be something going on the background with the war ending so soon that the mobile suit production companies could be backing the betting since this is the closest thing to actual combat testing they can find with the war over.

Maybe, but there's been no indication of that thus far.

Based on the last episode, it sounds like the One Year War didn't so much end as go on indefinite hiatus because neither side was able to gain a definitive advantage.  Zeon "won" because the technological advantage they gained from the successful capture of the Pegasus and Gundam was just enough to offset the Federation's superior logistics and vast manpower advantage long enough for both sides to give up.  Side 6 seems to be developing its own weapons despite being neutral, there are hints of a Zeon civil war, and there's maybe-rogue-maybe-not Federation pilots trying to destroy the Red Gundam.  It seems like a cold war that's about to go hot again.

Thus far, there doesn't appear to be any evidence that defense contractors are running Clan Battles for secret testing.  All the machines we've seen or heard them mention are old ones from the war.  Most competitors are using Zaku IIs.  One team is apparently using Doms.  That Side 6 PMC that let the Witch and another Federation pilot swap in fielded its Gelgoogs instead of Guncannons, but they're still OYW machines.  The only categorically NEW hardware in play thus far is the GQuuuuuuX and that's technically stolen.  With the tension that high, I'd imagine neither the Federation or Zeon would want to tip their hand so readily.

[PointBlankSniper]

10 hours ago, Big s said:

the clown colors on what they’re calling the “White Gundam” don’t they do it any favors. But the head on the 01 looks a lot better as well 

Now that you put them together, even the 01 is distinctly more white than the "white gundam" lol

[Seto Kaiba]

15 hours ago, Big s said:

the clown colors on what they’re calling the “White Gundam” don’t they do it any favors. But the head on the 01 looks a lot better as well 

That's the same color scheme those two units have had for  40+ years now... and basically every main Gundam has the color scheme on the left.