The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk IV

[Chris]

Judau, most of the wing boys, Garrod, Loran, Setsuna & Flit are all orphans.

Judau is not an orphan, as his parents are working on another colony to support the family. We never hear anything about Loran's parents, so we can't assume he's an orphan.

[Sume Gai]

so Judau has parents that left him and his little sister in Shangri-la to be junkyard kids? Well that one goes up there with other examples of stellar parrenting/abandonment in Gundam! I guess I did jump the gun with Loran but I've come to assume no parents present or mentioned for characters younger than 20 or so is an orphan, so pervasive is the trope in near every anime or game.

[ShadowCell]

at any rate, Asem is no orphan and Flit is really not the horrible father the fans evidently wanted him to be. which i find to be something of a nice change. having bad things happen to you doesn't necessary turn you into a monster yourself.

[Compass]

I didn't WANT Flit to be a horrible parent. It's just... dat goatee.

He hasn't been presented as really much of a caring guy up until this episode. It doesn't feel like we know Flit at all anymore.

First episode of the arc, he brushes off his subordinate, and goes to his son's birthday to give him a weapon of war and then leaves. Then he, IIRC, brushed off his son at his graduation ceremony.

I think the biggest problem is that all the events in the ED showing Flit being an awesome dad simply aren't explained in the series, so we can't really grasp how their relationship is. I see him and Asem having lots of fun when Asem was a kid, but none of that is apparent in the series, and could have been easily as believable as Zeheart wearing his ZAFT-style red jacket walking past Asem on the street.


It's like playing the Half Life expansions without having played Half Life. You would probably never have realized Gordon Freeman was a protagonist.

[pd771]

I didn't WANT Flit to be a horrible parent. It's just... dat goatee.

He hasn't been presented as really much of a caring guy up until this episode. It doesn't feel like we know Flit at all anymore.

First episode of the arc, he brushes off his subordinate, and goes to his son's birthday to give him a weapon of war and then leaves. Then he, IIRC, brushed off his son at his graduation ceremony.

I think the biggest problem is that all the events in the ED showing Flit being an awesome dad simply aren't explained in the series, so we can't really grasp how their relationship is. I see him and Asem having lots of fun when Asem was a kid, but none of that is apparent in the series, and could have been easily as believable as Zeheart wearing his ZAFT-style red jacket walking past Asem on the street.


It's like playing the Half Life expansions without having played Half Life. You would probably never have realized Gordon Freeman was a protagonist.

Flit just acts like someone who is in charge of a war would act: busy. Even then he takes time out of his duties to go to see his son on his birthday. I think you have to look at it through the scope of his military leadership. He can't favor him any more than he already has (by giving him the Gundam) without running into issues.

[ShadowCell]

Of course Asem's relationship with his father has changed from all those happy little pictures in the ED. His father seems to have exponentially more responsibilities by the time the story starts. What's more, Asem is 17 when the story starts. It would be weird if he had the same relationship with his father at age 17 that he had at age 7.

The show doesn't present them as having a perfect relationship, as evidenced by all the stress it's caused Asem living in his father's shadow, and Flit adding to it by telling him that of course he'll become an X-Rounder because I believe in you son. But neither has it shown them having a broken relationship; the flag officer in charge of the war effort against a genocidal and technologically-advanced foe still finds time to go home for his son's birthday, and hands down to his son a weapon that prevents Asem from having to go through the misery Flit had to go through--and even though Asem's got issues around living up to his father's expectations, he still wants to live up to them and wants to be with his father.

Their relationship is just complex. As it should be.

[SonicSP]

Flit's been a good dad as far as I have seen, considering he has important duties to perform. Him handing down the Gundam to Asemu was a coming of age thing. He wants Asemu to be able to fight and protect the family if the need comes.

And I don't think Flit brushed off him in the ceremony. Going to talk to Asemu in public with that many people that are entrees like Asemu really would highlight the "special treatment" stigma Asemu already has. That being said, I do hope he sent him a text message though. And he likely didn't hear him from within the crowd anyways.

Aside from that, he's in a high position in the military in the middle of a war. He's not the only one that's sacrificing family time and even then we've seen him think fondly of Asemu before in his monologues, when we have yet to hear that for Emily or Unoa (that doesn't mean they aren't any though).

[HellCat]

I think alot of the 'Flit be Gendo' stuff was inspired by the last several eps of Flit's arc, where he was full of rage, wrecked Wears, slammed a beam saber down a corridor and screamed about how the Vagan couldn't possibly be human. Couple that with the fact that the last we saw of him and Emily as teenagers were them seperate as Flit stewed in his depression over failing to become a Gundam saviour and it perhaps isn't too strange some question his parenting. Probably didn't help that the first scene of adult Flit spelled out that his view of the Vagan has perhaps only gotten worse in the last 25 years.

[Chris]

A couple of points to consider about Flit that a lot of people seem to be glossing over:

1. When almost everything you care about has been killed or destroyed in front of you starting at a young age, you try not feeling bitter about it into your adulthood. If Flit felt conciliatory towards the Vagans, that would make no sense because it runs counter to human behavior.

2. As far as brushing off Asemu or not spending enough time with him, he has a pretty damn important job as a vice admiral and commander of the EFF's headquarters. People in the military can't just drop everything to spend time with their family. Also, even though he joked about it a bit with the pat on the head, he has to maintain a certain level of decorum now that his son is in the military.

In short, nothing that we've seen so far suggests that Flit is acting in any way differently than you'd expect someone in his position to.

[DuelGundam2099]

People are still pulling the Gendo card with Flit? I'm the guy that called Romary the useless romantic with ultra raunchy words for pete sake and even I couldn't complain about something this nonexistent; can't we talk about something with more sense?

[G-Slayer]

How about we talk of how useless Romary is as a romantic interest?

[DuelGundam2099]

Outside of being Kio's future mom she hasn't done anything useful yet.

[Sume Gai]

i think we need to wait and see where she'll sit between Zeheart and Asemu before I declare her useless.

[SonicSP]

I think at the moment Hino is going to pull a stunt on us and make Kio's mother a random brown haired girl. Although as a RomaryxAsemu fan, I'll be happy if she becomes the mother.

[zerogradius]

The predicatability of the lineage is the only issue I have with the generational storyline. We know that Asem must survive, and that he will end up with Romary, just as we knew for Flit and Emily. As much as I liked the last two eps of Flit's arc, too much of it was obvious. I would not mind if we were surprised with Romary ending up with Zeheart and Asem marrying someone else. Or Asem could be killed off and either Unoa could bear Kio or have Romary give birth to his kid some time after.

[DuelGundam2099]

^That is not entirely impossible considering Flit's mother has the same hair color as Kio, they could just call the genes recessive or something.

[farjad93]

The predicatability of the lineage is the only issue I have with the generational storyline. We know that Asem must survive, and that he will end up with Romary, just as we knew for Flit and Emily. As much as I liked the last two eps of Flit's arc, too much of it was obvious. I would not mind if we were surprised with Romary ending up with Zeheart and Asem marrying someone else. Or Asem could be killed off and either Unoa could bear Kio or have Romary give birth to his kid some time after.

Noooo, don't kill Asemu off But, in all seriousness, I have to agree. I wish they didn't reveal all 3 protagonists beforehand since it eliminates a lot of the tension and drama that could have been built up in the series. So, I wouldn't mind a twist in the story if only to shake up the predictability factor.

[Arsarcana]

Unless the official site has been trolling us, a twist is pretty unlikely since we've been told specifically that Kio is Asem's son. If all we knew was 'Flit's grandson' then I'd be expecting something like Kio actually being Yunoa's child.

[SonicSP]

Yeah, I believe they have told us that it's Asemu's son and that automatically makes him Flit's grandson too.

.......unless they're going to pull an adoption stunt on us, in which case he won't be of Asuno bloodline. Not that I find that likely in the slightest but just a strange thought. I guess the biggest they can pull on us as far as lineage is concerned is Asemu marrying another brown haired girl since the hair color and the Emily precedent makes that the betters favorite.

[latenlazy]

Holy crap this episode was intense. Haven't seen a fleet battle in Gundam like this in a while.