Gundam Show Thread - MSG thru GQuuuuuuX

[Big s]

3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Caught today's episode of GQuuuuuuX.

It's... actually not bad.  The series is getting off the dime and deciding to actually do something.

I get that feeling as well. I didn’t mind the old school fight of the week plot device, but it did start feeling a little same old same old after the last episode. It was nice to get a break here and I get the feeling that after next episode the show is gonna be on a new course 

[Big s]

This week had an entertaining episode. Things will probably be very different from this point on. Really looking forward to how things might end up

Spoiler

Had an interesting Gyan type suit that I kinda want to see a bit more of to really get a feel for the design and a pretty cool Hambrabi, which might finally be a mobile suit that I really like. Also interesting to see that those mobile armors had some hidden tricks.

not sure how a gigantic hole in the colony didn’t suck everyone out, but maybe there was a cover or something 

also might be something really dragging in some major conflicts that may be fun to see play out. 
And it was cool to hear some Zeta music in the soundtrack.

Looks like the next episode will be another flashback type of episode 

 

[Seto Kaiba]

Caught today's episode of GQuuuuuuX over lunch... it was pretty disappointing.

Last episode sold us the idea that there was going to be a big, climactic confrontation between the Twelve Olympians and Pomeranians for first place in Clan Battle and a possible double assassination attempt on Kycilia Zabi.  We get none of that.  The Gundams don't even fight.

Spoiler

The entire "fight" is just the Psycho Gundam Mk.II going on an unchecked rampage across the interior of Izuma colony from the interior gate of the loading dock all the way up to the helipad of the government building's helipad where Kycilia is trying to escape, where it finally gets intercepted.  But not by the Gundams or even the Side 6 MPs in their Zaku II's.  Challia Bull intercepts both the Psycho Gundam Mk.II and the Hambrabi and effortlessly wipes the floor with both of them in literally a single minute without taking any damage himself.  He then effortlessly chases down the Gundam QuuuuuuX and captures that with a single shot.

The rest of the episode is just more of Machu and Nyan getting hysterial and even violent over their weird and seemingly sourceless obsession with protecting Shuji.  Machu tries to rob the Pomeranians to help Shuji escape to Earth, and Nyan tries to convince him to run away.  Ironically they're BOTH wasting their time because the Red Gundam's psycommu seemingly runs out of patience with their bullsh*t and raptures his *ss away in a "zeknova" (an Axis shock that seems to work more like a space fold given that it teleports him, his Gundam, and a spherical chunk of space around it to parts unknown).  

By the end, the Titans attack has been mistaken for an act of terrorism and the Pomeranians are being branded as terrorists themselves with the team members going on the run and Machu being outed on the news.  Shuji's gone to the rapture, and everyone else is on their way to Zeon.  Machu's rotting in the Sodon's brig after getting captured by Challia Bull and Nyan has seemingly let herself be recruited by Ensign Xavier out of despair after Shuji vanished and is accompanying Kycilia to Granada.

Out of nowhere at the end, Challia Bull is now seemingly planning double regicide.  Apparently the rumors are at least partly true, as he reveals to his aide-de-camp that he is actually planning to assassinate Kycilia.  He's not doing it on Gihren's behalf, though.  He wants to assassinate Gihren too.  His goal is to preserve the post-war stability that Zeon and the Earth Sphere have by assassinating the two Zabi leaders at the same time.

 

The writing in this episode is back to being a hot mess... particularly when it comes to the two main girls weird obsession with Shuji, a personality-less character they've spent almost no onscreen time with.  Their sudden devotion to him and willingness to both fight over him and kill for him comes off as downright psychotic.

The new designs being introduced are getting progressively less fugly.  However, that appears to be a function of Studio Khara's ham-handed designer having to divide their limited time across multiple machines and therefore not having enough time to ruin each classic machine to the same extent as the Gundam and Zaku.  The Psycho Gundam Mark II looks fine and almost UC-like until it starts dropping its armor and becomes an off-brand Evangelion in a maroon banana hammock for some reason, but the Gyan and Hambrabi made it past Khara's designer seemingly without more than a very minor aesthetic overhaul.

[Big s]

7 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Last episode sold us the idea that there was going to be a big, climactic confrontation between the Twelve Olympians and Pomeranians for first place in Clan Battle and a possible double assassination attempt on Kycilia Zabi.  We get none of that.  The Gundams don't even fight.

I kinda figured that would get derailed fast since the team had been bought out and the preview showed the refrigeration unit in action.

 

7 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

The writing in this episode is back to being a hot mess... particularly when it comes to the two main girls weird obsession with Shuji, a personality-less character they've spent almost no onscreen time with.  Their sudden devotion to him and willingness to both fight over him and kill for him comes off as downright psychotic.

I don’t think it’s that weird of an obsession. Most girls when I was that age would rather go for the long haired oddball than a basic guy that’s got their stuff together. Shuji may or may not be exactly a love interest as much as the guy with something to offer. For one girl he’s the escape from boredom that she’s been desperately craving and his partnership offered that awakening to her. To the other girl, it’s basically necessity for basic survival. He can get her away from her financial responsibilities. A teenage girl and a good amount of adult women will always pick a mess of a guy that’s offers a hint of a dream over sensibility and stability, even if there’s a high chance of derailing their life

[Big s]

9 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

but the Gyan and Hambrabi made it past Khara's designer seemingly without more than a very minor aesthetic overhaul.

The Hambrabi did look like there wasn’t much different, but I need a better look on that one. The gyan on the other hand looks very different. There’s a little bit of a facial similarity and just a bit in the lowered legs. Maybe the only thing that doesn’t look totally redesigned would be the backpack, other than that it looks very alien. But the joints aren’t weird and I kinda think it might be a favorite of mine for the show so far. I want a better look though at the Hambrabi before I make a judgement on it because sometimes something looks great in the show until you really see its details.

anyway, here’s pics of the kit that I had put in the model pages. Again, I think it looks very alien compared to the original version just found a pic of the hambrabithis one probably has the most similar look to its original design, but also wild looking. Arms are a bit thinner than I would have liked, but I don’t really think it’s made for hand to hand. There’s face is totally creepy though and I might buy a kit if they make one

Edited 10 hours ago by Big s

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, Big s said:

I kinda figured that would get derailed fast since the team had been bought out and the preview showed the refrigeration unit in action.

I kind of figured the opposite... that they were bothering to show the fight in the trailer, so there was probably a lot more of it since it was being shown as a centerpeice of the next episode.  My mistake, I suppose. 

 

1 hour ago, Big s said:

I don’t think it’s that weird of an obsession. Most girls when I was that age would rather go for the long haired oddball than a basic guy that’s got their stuff together. Shuji may or may not be exactly a love interest as much as the guy with something to offer. For one girl he’s the escape from boredom that she’s been desperately craving and his partnership offered that awakening to her. To the other girl, it’s basically necessity for basic survival. He can get her away from her financial responsibilities. A teenage girl and a good amount of adult women will always pick a mess of a guy that’s offers a hint of a dream over sensibility and stability, even if there’s a high chance of derailing their life

That's not quite what I'm getting at.

There's not really a sense of how much time has passed since the first episode, but Machu and Nyan have spent very little time with Shuji in the series thus far.  What little they've had in terms of interactions has mostly been Shuji talking to/about the Red Gundam or watching him graffiti everything that isn't nailed down.  It'd be one thing for them to both be so attached to him if the series had actually shown a developing relationship between them, but Machu and Nyan seem to jump straight from being strangers to a dangerous level of obsessed with him.  Machu basically goes from treating him like a stranger to suddenly having a massive emotional breakdown over Nyan having seen the "kira kira" because it was just for her and him, to robbing the Pomeranians and threatening to shoot the team's sponsor to protect him... all in what's implied to be maybe a couple of weeks at most.  It all seems to revolve around the "kira kira" too, which kind of suggests that this isn't natural... they're being brainwashed somehow.

[Big s]

4 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

There's not really a sense of how much time has passed since the first episode, but Machu and Nyan have spent very little time with Shuji in the series thus far.  What little they've had in terms of interactions has mostly been Shuji talking to/about the Red Gundam or watching him graffiti everything that isn't nailed down.  It'd be one thing for them to both be so attached to him if the series had actually shown a developing relationship between them, but Machu and Nyan seem to jump straight from being strangers to a dangerous level of obsessed with him.  Machu basically goes from treating him like a stranger to suddenly having a massive emotional breakdown over Nyan having seen the "kira kira" because it was just for her and him, to robbing the Pomeranians and threatening to shoot the team's sponsor to protect him... all in what's implied to be maybe a couple of weeks at most.  It all seems to revolve around the "kira kira" too, which kind of suggests that this isn't natural... they're being brainwashed somehow.

I’d imagine that it’s more than a couple of weeks. They had enough time to rise all the way to the top and they do kinda imply that there were more battles that weren’t shown. Maybe it’s just one a week type of event, not sure on the regularity. But even if it was only a short time, you gotta remember that these are only teenage girls and emotions hit fast and irrationally.

As far as the robbery, she had found out that the leader of her clan was gonna sell friend out and get rid of the Gundam, which basically is the key to her whole life plan. They’ve shown she had no real interest in the standard life and had a dream of going to earth. I think she felt that they were gonna basically take her entire life away along with the only thing that could allow her to change her life. And not only that, but she probably feels that most if not all of that money should be hers anyway since she’s been the one convincing Shuji to go with her and without her gundam that they’d have gotten nowhere anyway.

There’s also the Kira Kira addiction going on. That stuff is more addictive than heroine. It can cause people to make irrational decisions, people to risk their careers and mothers to abandon their children just to fill that high. And then there’s the risk of overdose that is totally destructive to all around.

Kira Kira is a hell of a drug

Edited 5 hours ago by Big s

[Seto Kaiba]

7 hours ago, Big s said:

The Hambrabi did look like there wasn’t much different, but I need a better look on that one. The gyan on the other hand looks very different. There’s a little bit of a facial similarity and just a bit in the lowered legs. Maybe the only thing that doesn’t look totally redesigned would be the backpack, other than that it looks very alien. But the joints aren’t weird and I kinda think it might be a favorite of mine for the show so far. I want a better look though at the Hambrabi before I make a judgement on it because sometimes something looks great in the show until you really see its details.

The Gyan hasn't actually changed that much... they've stylized it a bit, but it looks like all they really did was round off the sharp corners on the MS-15B Gyan from [i]Twilight of Zeon[/i], lose the skirt, and sweep back the top of the conical head.  It still has a lot of the original Gyan's odder design choics like the flared ankles, the scuba tank-style backpack, etc.  It even has a similarly-designed spear and shield.  Which is nice, IMO the 15B is probably the best looking version on the Gyan.  This looks like it could be out of an episode of [i]Gundam Evolve[/i] instead of the incredibly overdesigned hot nonsense going on with the Gundams and Zakus that just look like someone said "How busy can we make this, visually?".  

Kind of says a lot that that this is one of the show's best looking designs thus far, and it also seems to be one of the ones their designer screwed with the least.