Here's five more episodes for my comments and review, Season 2 Episodes 16 thru 20!
Setsuna in the 00 Raiser faces off against Graham in his Masurao, which has kicked on its "secret weapon" Trans-Am mode. He blitzes the 00, but Setsuna turns on his own TA mode and does the awesome teleporting trick, and much slashy bashy commences. But before the battle can get decisive, Ptolemaios and the other Gundam arrive, and Graham runs away. (Y'know, LightningCount, you're right that this series has far too many convenient retreats.
) Setsuna, about to pass out from his gunshot wound he's still suffering from, hears Lockon Neil's voice saying that HE couldn't cahnge, but Setsuna still can. He says he will, he'll change right now and start to reform himself. Hooray for self-improvement and growth!
Hercury and his military coup d'etat forces have taken control of the Africa Tower, intending to get the public's attention and let them know what's really going on with their bad government and A-LAWS, but as is to be expected, in a society where the powers-that-be control most, if not all, of the media and information the public gets, word doesn't get out. And then A-LAWS releases a wave of automatons into the tower, which kill everything in sight, and Veda does a real spiffy, on-the-fly job of editing the footage so it looks like the coup members fired on the civilians instead. Sergei arrives, trying to talk some sense into Hercury and call this thing off, since he knows this situation cannot end well for anyone, especially with the government control of the information (again thanks to Veda, which most people don't know about). Katharon and Celestial Being force are en route to the tower to help the coup and/or avert a disaster. Hercury starts to release the civilian hostages, hoping that they'll spread word of what really happened with the automatons, but...
The flashbacks featuring young Sergei, Hercury, Holly and Andrei as a young boy are good stuff. Good soldier Sergei was willing to let his wife die to help protect the under-construction HRL orbital elevator from rebels or terrorists. Andrei's estrangement from his father might've been averted if Sergei had reached out to his son when he needed it. And hearing Hercury's idealism both in his youth, and seeing it distorted into ill-thought-out, desparate actions in the present, are admirable yet tragic. And speaking of tragedy...
The Federation government and its A-LAWS cronies have deliberately manipulated this situation to legitimize an attack on their part. They begin redeploying their forces, and both Sumeragi and Kati see what's happening - that they're moving to avoid falling debris from the tower based on wind dispersal patterns... because they also find a second Memento Mori superweapon up on the orbital ring. Oh, this is NOT going to be good, at all...
And the sad part is, when everyone else figures this out, Hercury admits that he messed up big-time. Well, NO S#!T, Sherlock! You want to expose A-LAWS, which has had NO qualms about murdering tens of thousands of civilians before, and you know that the government completely controls the media. And you just HANDED them a military and PR victory on a silver platter, complete with more civilian casualties, 'cause now the coup forces, CB and Katheron are all gathered there, in the sights of Memento Mori 2. Y'know, Gundamdom does love to expose human folly to no end, and rightly so (and I enjoy it, frankly). Lots of people with good intentions making bad decisions, and this mess just made Hercury one of the worst.
And the worst does happen. Ptolemy can't get up in orbit to stop Memento Mori 2 in time, so Setsuna takes 00 Raiser up to tackle it alone. In TA mode, he seems to fire a HUGE mega-blast at MM2, which also blows away another Innovator pilot whose name I don't care enough to know/memorize, but it's not actually a beam shot, IT'S THE BIGGEST BEAM SABER BLADE EVAH!!!!111oneoneone
Setsuna manages to damage the facility, but the weapon is still intact and it fires, but the damage causes it to miss the lower orbital platform where Hercury and Sergei are at, and instead hits the pillar column itself! The pillar's outer structure begins collapsing, the pieces above the atmosphere burning up, but the ones in the atmosphere will fall on the population centers below the tower. What follows is a very tense and dramatic scene, with pretty much everyone pitching in to shoot down the falling debris. Marie even deploys in the GN Archer (which to my delight, changes into a pretty spiffy, unique looking MS
), since this isn't a battle, but an effort to save lives. Some hours later, the rain of debris has stopped. Sergei and Hercury are looking over the area and the damage, and the ruins of the Africa elevator (though its central core cable is still intact and tethered to the orbital ring). Suddenly Andrei, angry at both Hercury and his father, snipes and kills Hercury, then attacks Sergei. Marie tries to stop him, but Andrei does the dead, damaging Sergei's MS and injuring him. Sergei apologizes to Andrei for not being a good father, and then he dies when his Teiran Taozi explodes. And Marie screams in anguish. Goodbye, Sergei. You were one of the good ones.
Fast forward now, 4 months later instead of 4 years later. Solar power from the Africa Tower is restored, and the Federation President says THANKS to Memento Mori, the complete collapse of the elevator was averted in the "Break Pillar" disaster. However, said MM2 is soon destroyed by the Ptolemaios and its Gundams. The president also announces that the regular Federation military will be absorbed into A-LAWS to eradicate dissidents and create a true united world. Don't forget the "under one military dictatorship" part, Mister President!
Oh, and Kati Mannequin has gone missing.... *rubs my hands and cackles with glee*
The A-LAWS/Security forces are on the hunt, sending kill teams and automatons into Katharon and other dissident bases and safe houses all over the world. Klaus, Shirin, Marina and the orphan kids are hiding out in an old house in what seems to be Europe. I'm surprised (as are this group) to hear the song Marina and kids wrote being played on the radio. Underground pirate resistance radio, perhaps? However, their peaceful break is cut short when a Security kill team shows up. A brief firefight ensues, but our heroes sneak out through an old bomb shelter/escape tunnel. Shirin tries to give Marina a gun but she refuses, saying if she took it, she could never look at the children again.
I have say that, while I like Marina (certainly more now than I did in S1), her pacifism is being taken too far. Her desire to not INITIATE force against others is admirable and I totally agree, I live by the "non-agression principle," too. But there's nothing wrong with using force to defend yourself and those around you. Idealism and pacificism is all well and good - as long as you can keep yourself alive to keep preaching it. I don't think those kids will think any less of you if you have to shoot someone to save their lives, Marina. They've already been traumatized by losing their parents and being victims of the fighting. One well-meaning woman with a gun shooting down bad men trying to kill them isn't going to make them any worse off. *deep breath and exhale* Anyway... they make it to safety, another safe house while Shirin goes to find Klaus at a rendezvous point.
Lots of intrigue and some new clues about the Innovators. So (in theory, because if it comes out of an Innovator's mouth, at this point I have no reason to fully believe it), Aeolia Schenberg created the Innovators with very long lifespans, and equipped with skills for the "dialogues to come" (whatever that means, I still don't have a clue), because even when a great human leader rises to power and does good things and brings peace, that human eventually dies, and their ideas are forgotten, and humanity goes back to the old violent ways. It sounds like Aeolia only created Ribbons, or if he created any other Innovators, they may be long gone. And Ribbons created Regene, and maybe the others? What about Tieria? I still want to know HIS pre-series background/origin. Anyway, Ribbons proves more and more that he's an egotistical jerk, insisting that Regene remembers HE created him, not Schenberg. He seems to think of himself as a god, and he says the Innovators won't be guiding humanity - HE will. Was this part of Schenberg's plan, or did he make a mistake in creating an android that would become a diabolical narcissist?
Wang asks Ribbons about the world to come, and his unfolding plans, and it seems like he intends to teach humanity a lesson. I have a feeling this lesson will NOT be pleasant. He also tells Wang that she can never be an Innovator, which seems to upset her. He no longer has any use for her, and he's aware of some secret meetings and dealings between Wang and Regene. Regene gives Wang a paper note, containing the coordinates for Veda's location, to give to Celestial Being. Alright, what gives with Regene? He's trying to go behind Ribbons' back for his own reasons, but what are they? I wonder if it's because of the shared DNA between Regene and Tieria, perhaps some special link between their minds, and Tieria's growing humanity is having an effect on Regene? I really don't have a clue yet.
Later on, Ribbons says he thinks he's best suited to pilot the 00, and he asks Regene if he agrees. Regene says yes, but Ribbons says he knows that she thinks no such thing. Then Ribbons slaps Regene, and says his mischief has gone too far, and he knows what'll happen next time if it does... Regene looks scared. I don't know why Regene would think he could get away with anything behind Ribbons' back. Ribbons can remote view/telepath link up to any of the Innovators, he does it all the time. Aside from cutting an Innovator off from Veda (like he did with Tieria), I wonder what hold he really has over the others?
Wang and Hong Long are on the old Trinity Team ship, en route to Ptolemaios to give them the Veda location, when their ship systems all suddenly shut down. Nena calls them, says she's doing it, and that while Wang has everything, she's hollow inside. Nena's "shuttle" is actually camouflage for her Gundam Throne Drei, which she uses to start blasting and blasting and blasting the ship, cackling with glee. Are Wang and Hong killed...? Tune in next time, folks! Too bad Wang couldn't get the coordinates to Ptolemy first... but still, the two-timing turncoat had it coming.
On the Ptolemy, the Marie personality seems to be gone or repressed again, and Soma Peries is back in control. I assume her re-emergence was triggered by Sergei's death, and she's angry at Andrei, wondering how he could throw away something she never had - a father. She's also been flying the GN Archer in combat, having helped take out Memento Mori 2, and being cold to Allelujah. Allelujah is not happy with this, since he promised Sergei that Marie/Soma wouldn't be fighting anymore. Lyle tells Allelujah to not force his will on her, that she has to grieve in her own way, and accept that she wants to fight now.
Setsuna's gunshot wound isn't healing as fast as it should, and it's revealed that somehow, he has been infected with the harmful red pseudo-GN particles. However, something is preventing them from spreading as fast as they normally should, as opposed to Lasse (oh no, is he dying now, too, from his injuries?
). Something is working to suppress the damage. I'm guessing it's the 00 Raiser Trans-Am mode's condensed green GN particle field, that maybe it has healing properties, as opposed to the harmful reds. Setsuna deduces that, by injuring him, the Innovators are trying to get their hands on 00, because they have no info on the Twin Drive System. 00 is CB's trump card.
Saji is still anguishing over Louise, and what he can do to get her back. Saji asks Setsuna if he will shoot down Louise. Setsuna says that's up to Saji, but the Gundams allow them to create things, not just destroy things in battle. Setsuna says he'll try to help Saji see Louise. Go Setsuna! It's great to see him really making the changes he wants, even in little ways, like trying to help someone salvage a lost love.
And, big surprise (not), Anew Returner is revealed to be an Innovator spy. She and Lyle have developed a romantic relationship, and while her feelings for him are genuine, she's also been giving away Ptolemaios' location to A-LAWS for the last 4 months, putting them under constant attack. Lyle figures out that she's an Innovator, but he doesn't let a little thing like that stop him.
We also get a bit of Lyle's background, where he explains that Neil was the gifted one, and he didn't want to compete with him, so he ran off many years ago, and didn't really know his brother well. It's little touches like this that make me appreciate Lyle's character more and more as the series progresses. He's not just a "replacement Lockon," he really is his own man, with his own flaws and strengths, and thus this "twin replacement" trope is more forgivable in this series than, say, Neo "replacing" Mu in Destiny.
On the A-LAWS space fleet pursuing Ptolemaios, Andrei is proud of his commendation for killing the coup d'etat's ringleader, but he also gets a lot of grief for killing his own father. Sadly, Andrei is proud of that, too. I really, really, really don't like Andrei, but unfortunately, a lot of the blame for how he turned out can be laid at Sergei's feet. And he can't seem to keep his creepy hands off of Louise, giving her that weird and disturbing hug, while she just stands there, stunned, lost in her own head and wondering if she'd be able to kill Saji. Such messed-up, badly damaged people...
So thanks to Anew, the A-LAWS fleet gets Ptolemy's location and launches another attack. Billy and Graham are on the A-LAWS ships, Billy telling Graham that he's made some improvements to its Trans-Am system. We also see Graham put on a smaller version of his mask, and see that, oooooh big surprise, his face is scarred.
The pilots on both sides launch in their MSs, with Lyle telling Anew "I love you" right before he takes off. Oh boy... one of these two are going to die. :\ I do love this scene, though, with all of the characters quietly saying a name to themselves, someone they're trying to find, or protect, or avenge... everyone has their reason for being there.
The big battle ensues, with Tieria capturing Innovator pilot Revival to try to get information on Veda's location. Saji looks for Louise, while Soma is hunting for Andrei, looking for revenge for Sergei's death. Setsuna activates the 00 Raiser's Trans-Am mode, and the effect brings out Hallelujah, who goes wild with the Arios, as expected. Saji find Louise and they have a Matrix-y psychic talk, with Saji trying to get her to come back with him, but Louise is far too lost in her hate and anger. Soma goes after Andrei but Allelujah's back to normal and stops her. Saji screams for everyone to stop, that what they're doing is just making things crazier, and they're making no progress at all. It's an anguished, heartfelt plea for sanity amongst the insanity, and for once, I think I have to agree with Saji.
Oh, and Graham's been sitting back in his MS the whole time, watching, not even fighting, pondering how to press "the boy" Setsuna into being his "worthy adversary." Yawn...
Back on Ptolemaios, Sumeragi and the pilots try to interrogate Revive Revival, but are getting nowhere. Then on the bridge, Anew steers the ship off course, shoots Lasse, announces she's an Innovator, and takes Mileina hostage. Anew and Revive are working together, to try to steal the 00 Gundam and the 0-Raiser, but Soma, who can also use quantum brainwaves and is able to sense them, tracks down Anew, and they manage to rescue Mileina. Revive takes off in the 0-Raiser, and Anew can't get to 00 so she takes a shuttle, after they infest Ptolemy with a computer virus that shuts them down and also steals some data. Setsuna and Lyle pursue in their Gundams. In an awesome "gotcha!" moment, pink Haro pops out from behind Revive and bounces around the Raiser cockpit, distracting him and plugging into the Raiser cockpit to take over. 0-Raiser docks with 00, but Revive blasts the cockpit controls with a rifle, shutting down the Raiser and she gets out, picked up by Anew's stolen shuttle. Lyle is close to shooting down the shuttle, but he just can't do it, and he gets angry at himself. As Anew flies off, she says she really does love Lyle. Yep... this relationship is sooooo doomed.
Ribbons is now with the A-LAWS fleet pursuing Ptolemy, aboard a big battleship/carrier looking vessel. He's talking with Louise, and we learn he gave her the meds she takes that suppresses the cellular defects in her body. He says he wants Louise to create a united world without war, and to avenge her parents and destroy the Gundams. He's giving her the new MA called Regnant, an improved version of the Empruss. He also tells her he wants Louise to become the first human Innovator and guide the world. He asks if she'll do this, and the eyes of both of them glow. She says she will. I have to wonder at this point, how much of Louise's actions are of her own free will, and how much of it is Ribbons controlling her, as he is able to do with actual Innovators (as we see more of later). I suspect the "medications" she's taking are more than just keep-her-alive chemicals... maybe they're changing her body, too, thus giving her the glowie yellow Innovator eyes? Maybe her prosthetic hand, too... she's so much a puppet. And yet... as I write this, I'm suddenly hit with a Gundam comparison for these two... Ribbons and Louise are Paptimus Scirocco and Sara Zabiarov. Except without the hormone-fueled, doting-on-androgynous-mastermind part.
Between the previous battle and the next, some repairs are made to Ptolemy, but they're not fully functional yet. Lasse is healing in the regeneration tank. Setsuna tells Lyle that when the time comes, he'll pull the trigger on Anew, so Lyle won't have to, and he can hate Setsuna if he wants. Gee, I wonder who's about to die...? This is a powerful little scene, but it definitely gives away what's about to happen.
Another big MS fight, with 3 Innovators in MSs and Louise in the Regnant fighting Cherudim, Arios and Seravee. 00 isn't able to launch yet, and the 0-Raiser's cockpit is still being repaired. The Regnant has a BFG beam weapon, whose beam can turn to follow its target! This is pretty neat, but for the life of me, I've never understood how something like this could actually work. But then, this is science FICTION. :p Anyway, the battle focuses mostly on Lyle vs. Anew, and the part where his Trans-Am'ed Cherudim is trashing Anew's MS in slow-motion is very cool and surreal. Then he rips open her cockpit, says he's going to make her his woman again, that he takes what he wants, even if she's an Innovator. Um, way to be a bit of a chauvenist pig, Lyle. She starts to leave the cockpit, to come with him... but then Ribbons takes control of her, and makes her start fighting back again. Ribbons doesn't like Innovators being treated like lowly humans. Ribbons-controlled Anew damages Cherudim, then flies in for the kill, but 00 finally shows up and shoots Anew's MS. Lyle and Anew have a naked Newtype soul communion thingie, then Anew dies when her MS blows up.
Back on the ship, Lyle is furious , beating the stuffing out of Setsuna, who doesn't fight back, but then Lyle breaks down crying. As he does, Setsuna seems to hear an echo of Marina's voice, singing her song... a telepathic link to her, back on Earth, maybe?
Just a couple of add-on comments and items:
Ribbons says the cell abnormalities in Setsuna should've reached lethal levels by now, and he wonders if the Twin Drive has something to do with that... and if this means that Setsuna has started to change. Hmmm, I wonder what this means?
That teleportation trick the 00 does when it's in Trans-Am mode is pretty spiffy!
And on the A-LAWS ships following the fight when Saji told everyone to stop, Andrei sees Louise moping over Saji, and he says if she can't close off her feelings, so he'll have to do it for her. That doesn't sound good... I think he's going to go after Saji, try to kill off his "competition"... as if Louise has ANY romantic interest in Andrei whatsoever. Sheez, get a clue, you loser!