Heavyarms

[RX 93 ZZ]

Blanks?! Then how would he have been doing any damage at all to anything?

I assume it was just blunt force from the velocity of the bullets and the sheer number of them wacking a single target.



what gets me is if he wanted to avoid casulties then why would he fire the missles(it shows him lauching like half when the news reporters are show-casing it).

[Ascension]

Ehh, if he's firing blanks, there are no bullets. The only casualties/injuries I know of involving blank rounds either involve musket wadding or a rammer accidentally left in the barrel after loading a musket.

Those gatlings aren't muskets.

Plus, aren't the gatlings beam gatlings? Or is that just on the TV series version?

[Dark Duel]

No, the EW version are not beam gatlings.

As to the other issue, I never considered the idea that Trowa was firing blanks, nor do I recall it ever being mentioned - of course, I haven't seen EW for over a year.
I always thought Trowa was simply making sure not to aim for center mass (ie, the torso), and instead aim for the legs or arms. Those Gatlings seemed reasonably accurate at the medium-to-long range he used them in.

[Ascension]

If they're not beam gatlings, that raises huge questions about their ammo storage as well... Heavyarms really isn't all that bulky...

[Gadget]

Not an issue. Trowa ALWAYS run out of ammo. Even with the beam gatling, he still run out of ammo, power, or e-pacs.

[Ascension]

That's not what I meant. What I mean is, the H-Arms doesn't have enough room to fire off even a three second burst from eight gatling guns. Trowa should run out of ammo before he even starts firing...

[Ragormha]

Hammerspace?

But seriously, a lot of Gundam Wing stuff doesn't make sense, the weights of the suits as well, Gundam has that problem generally like Minovsky physics and SEED mode and all that jazz, but its just the trouble involved with anime.

[Destroy Gundam]

Perhaps it's all a matter of perspective. Sure, the ammo storage may not look all that large from our point of view, but from up close, it may be enough to store the ammo. We also don't know what caliber the guns are. A smaller projectile would mean more storage, presumably.

[VentZX]

Ughh. I don't know if blank is the proper term, but it was clearly shown in EW that whatever Trowa was firing were not even piercing the Serpents. They also clearly depicted a bullet casing. I'm pretty sure they were implying that the bullets were non-lethal (at least to giant robots...; I'm morbidly reminded of F-91.)

About him using the missiles though, I don't really have an explanation for that.

EDIT: Actually, I just thought of the fact that you don't ever see those missiles hit anything. Diversionary tactics? Who knows.

[razgriz]

he couldve targeted the missiles to i dunno explode before impacting the serpents or on the ground causing collateral damage and definitely knocking some of its "cousins" off their feet.

[Aegis]

Ughh. I don't know if blank is the proper term, but it was clearly shown in EW that whatever Trowa was firing were not even piercing the Serpents. They also clearly depicted a bullet casing. I'm pretty sure they were implying that the bullets were non-lethal (at least to giant robots...; I'm morbidly reminded of F-91.)

We also see Serpents get sliced even though animation shows there are no slice marks on their armour. All you had going for those certain scenes was a slash effect and/or smoke trails from the swing, and unless it's a flat out decapitation, you wouldn't even think they've even been pierced beyond falling on their backs.

And as for the Heavyarms? We see Serpent parts explode from impact, and those that took the shots on the body didn't get up after said shots. Last I checked, the pilots also weren't knocked unconscious either, so the only way these Serpents would've remained down for the count was if some of their innards got damaged, and given the armour that the Serpents have, if you didn't pierce the armour, there would've been no damage, and the Serpents would just get up and keep spamming.

[Den]

but if the bullets was blunt then it wouldnt even cripple a single serpent due to the armor of the serpent which is neo titanium... and in the EW it was said that it is almost as strong as the gundanium alloy of the gundams therefor a blunt bullet would just be a waste... and about the missiles, maybe he just set the target at the surroundings of the serpent in order for the missiles just to explode and do a little damage or maybe he just made it hit only the non lethal parts of the MS... this is just my thoughts though hehe feel free to criticized it or anything hehehe

[midnightcitysky]

Going by the stats on MAHQ, it has 88:
4 9-tube leg-mounted launchers, 2 22-tube shoulder-mounted launcher systems, and 2 2-tube launchers in the hip armor: (4x9=36)+(2x22=44)+(2x2=4)=88

yeah, I know the MAHQ profile says 88. hence why I quoted 88 missiles total twice in my post what I said I wondered about is why the 1/100th kit would have a differing number than the 1/144th kit. just to err on the side of caution i decided to state 80 to 88 in the end just incase for some reason bandai states that the 1/100th kit info is official.

but as an aside I did notice that the serpents didn't blow up so much as part did, you can clearly see in one scene a bunch of soldiers exiting crippled but not "blowed up"(please do not correct my grammar on the blowed up thing) serpents. but to be honest trowa NOT hitting any explosive parts of the torso would be farfetched, as repeating guns are known for not being accurate at all due to the constant recoil, if it weren't for the fact the guys been piloting since the age of 9 or something(Igotta recheck my episode zero comics for that info) but nonetheless trowa knew his way around a mech before he got to puberty.

but I guess since trowa IS an engineer he would know what parts not to hit in order to blow it up just as he would know what parts to hit. I mean the guys been piloting since he was a kid so he does have experience and skill. the blunt bullets....I thjink that can't be right. it all boils down to trowa using his experience as a pilot, which is more extensive than any wing boy or even zechs and noin to aim for joints and heads. he's end up wasting a hella bullets as i think most would just miss while the shots furthest out would hit the joint or head. wasteful but hey they wanted to make a point.

edit: horrendous grammar, still bad but at least not horrendous

[ZeBaron]

Hammerspace?

But seriously, a lot of Gundam Wing stuff doesn't make sense, the weights of the suits as well, Gundam has that problem generally like Minovsky physics and SEED mode and all that jazz, but its just the trouble involved with anime.

You forgot the power of love! You can't not list the power of love...or whatever Mobile Fighers run off of.

but if the bullets was blunt then it wouldnt even cripple a single serpent due to the armor of the serpent which is neo titanium... and in the EW it was said that it is almost as strong as the gundanium alloy of the gundams therefor a blunt bullet would just be a waste...

Railguns can use blunt projectiles, and they perforate targets because of a ridiculous amount of kinetic velocity. Not that the anime (or anything else) indicates that the gatlings are secretly railcannons, but if a bunch of bullets are hitting your mech at hypersonic speed, don't you think the constant rattling (if that's what it's to be called) might break something loose?

[midnightcitysky]

yeah but it'd take a lot of rattle to break something loose as we've seen gundams and leo's get smashed into walls and still get up. I mean the force of a mech on mech collision IMO would do way more than constant rattling could...and the bullets DO penetrate the serpents armor...you do see them with bullet holes. pause during the big fight scene at the end if you do not see bullet holes...well, I'll eat my hat....seriously, I will, and post links to pictures.

and about the H-arms ammo storage no ones mentioned the valk's gunpod, it supposedly has 200 rounds and is a 3 barreled gatling gun but it seems to last quite a bit in terms of sustained fire. but yeah the H-arms does seem to have more ammo than it should, but it's not the first time or last time that'll happen. let's just be glad the writers didn't go all G gundam and say the gatling guns run on courage and love or something(don't take this as an insult to G gundam it's a joke)

[WhiteWingDemon]

There could have been blunts loaded in as ammo. If he hit a leg ten times with blunt ammo its going to break. For example I could kick a door four times and have nothing happen but on the fifth time I could break it open.

Just my two cents.

[FEMC_Mirage_Corp]

There could have been blunts loaded in as ammo. If he hit a leg ten times with blunt ammo its going to break. For example I could kick a door four times and have nothing happen but on the fifth time I could break it open.

Just my two cents.

Bullets do damage from kinetic energy. The shape of the bullet is only relevant for it's ballistic characteristics. Blunt or sharply pointed affects how the bullet flies through the air, not it's penetration. Dum-Dum rounds for example are blunt, because they have had the metal jacket portion on the front shaved off so they will balloon in the target. If you made the bullet blunt with a metal jacket you wouldn't get the balloning effect.

Most pistol ammunition is blunt because they are lower velocity and thus the mass increase is more important than the loss of energy due to air resistance. Most rifle bullets are likewise sharply pointed because they travel at several times the velocity of a pistol round and are thus more affected by air resistance.

[Recon 5]

Perhaps he loaded up with WW 1 era K- bullets (the GW equivalent, that is) or some other kind of smaller caliber (maybe even pistol caliber) AT ordinance? If fired in insane quantities those would produce the superficial 'peppering' seen in Endless Waltz, but they wouldn't be powerful enough to threaten the pilot unless Trowa shaved off a Serpent's cockpit armor with them beforehand.

[Aegis]

Or we could simply take it at face value and that Trowa's aim with gatlings guns simply allowed him to pepper the Serpents without destroying them outright. Really, it's even more far fetched that, after retrieving the Gundams from space that Trowa would suddenly take the time to reload those gatlings with what amounts to 'weaker' ammo, especially given how easily those guns managed to pierce and cripple those mobile suits in even a few little hits, let alone a whole wad of fire.

And as for the toughness of Neo Titanium? Sure, it's been said that they're almost as durable as gundanium alloy, but the toughness is also highly dependent on the mobile suit's design as well. Afterall, Tallgeese mobile suits have titanium armour, yet withstand blows that would've completely annihilated a Leo, and Virgos tend to blow up real good even though they're given gundanium armour. Serpents may have tougher armour, but since they're still cheap mass produced mobile suits (in relation to the Gundams anyways), their armour isn't necessarily as tough as it could've been.

[abrahamsen0]

I don't get what you guy's are getting at. Those are real bullets. Trowa was just trying not to kiil them all. So yeah, the only raeson is Trowa's skill and his targeting. I also heard that the bullets were gundanium tipped. There's also no way all the serpent pilots survived. If you watch EW again you can see HvyAms just grazing most of the Serpents with the gatlings. When I watched it the only time I saw sustained fire on a target is when he was shooting down the missiles.