Some Zeta Gundam Questions

[Deathzealot]

Hello every one I recently decided to try my hand at a fanfiction based in Zeta, therefore I have a few questions to ask everyone.

Shoal Zones

1. I know all about Shoal Zones, but I am not too sure where they are all located. I know one is at Side Five, and the Corridor Shoal Zone by Side Three. But other then that I have no idea.

Lunar Cities

2. I know about Granada, Von Braun (which is the first city built),and Amman. I also read that there is a fourth city called Anaheim which is what AE is named after. But what I am wondering if there is any other Lunar cities laying around?

3. In the series we see Amman get clobbered by a Titan Missile Barrage, some sources claim the city was destroyed but we see it again later on in the series. Is it another similar looking Lunar City or was Amman only damaged?

Ship Capture Operation

4. During the build-up to the Drop Operation we see that AEUG and some allies managed to capture a few Salamis Kai Class ships. Which includes the Sichuan, but I am wondering how many they managed to capture during this. We do see an image after this of like three (two, four?) AEUG Color painted Salamis Kai Class ships lined up together being observed by the Alexandria.

Jaburo Drop Operation

5. The AEUG Fleet during this operation I have read consisted of six-to-eight Salamis Kai class ships, including the poor unfortunate Siviant II, as well a single Irish Class, and finally the Argama. Are these numbers correct, and is that Irish the Irish herself?

6. I have heard some sources claim that every ship in the fleet bar the Argama where overloaded with mobile suits, for the number I have heard was something like 48 Mobile Suits where dropped.

7. Also was there a Karaba Force at Jaburo as well, for I don't think AEUG dropped any infantry forces along with their mobile suits. So how did they managed to capture the two Garuda Class planes and storm the base itself without supporting infantry forces?

Aftermath

8. The Gundam Official Timeline states that Karaba used the Audhumla to move personal from Kennedy to a base in Ireland. I thought they attacked the New Guinea Base right after they launched the Mark-II and the Hyaku Shiki back into space.

9. Also what took so long for the Audhumla so long to get to Kennedy from South America. According to the Timeline it took over two weeks for it make it.

Anyways that is all the questions I have, for now anyways. Thank you in advance.

[mcred23]

1. I know all about Shoal Zones, but I am not too sure where they are all located. I know one is at Side Five, and the Corridor Shoal Zone by Side Three. But other then that I have no idea.

There are probably others scattered around, but they aren't mentioned. Also, don't forget that several of the Sides are renumbered in 0084, so the shoal zone at Side 5 is now Side 4.

2. I know about Granada, Von Braun (which is the first city built),and Amman. I also read that there is a fourth city called Anaheim which is what AE is named after. But what I am wondering if there is any other Lunar cities laying around?

Yes. There is Ayers City, which is featured heavily in Gundam Sentinel. According to this old page, there are also cities named St. Joseph and Epsilon, and there may be one or two others I'm forgetting plus unmentioned ones (I don't think we are ever told how many lunar cities there really are).

3. In the series we see Amman get clobbered by a Titan Missile Barrage, some sources claim the city was destroyed but we see it again later on in the series. Is it another similar looking Lunar City or was Amman only damaged?

It was Amman. IIRC, the missile attack early in the series only blocked the docks.

5. The AEUG Fleet during this operation I have read consisted of six-to-eight Salamis Kai class ships, including the poor unfortunate Siviant II, as well a single Irish Class, and finally the Argama. Are these numbers correct, and is that Irish the Irish herself?

There is an excellent panning shot in the episode that shows the AEUG fleet at Jaburo consists of the Argama, two Irish, and six Salamis Kais (One of which is partially covered by the Argama, so it's easy to miss). I don't think we know the names of either Irish, but several of Salamis Kais are named; the Sicilia, the Sibuyan, and the Sulu are all mentioned in the episode as being hit to one degree or another by Scirocco's attack.

6. I have heard some sources claim that every ship in the fleet bar the Argama where overloaded with mobile suits, for the number I have heard was something like 48 Mobile Suits where dropped.

Well, 48 is easily within the range given the number of ships involved, with the Salamis Kais being able to carry at least half of that (All can carry a minimum of four, but the series shows some of them sending out more than that). I forget if the episode gives us an actual total or shows any good group shots for an idea on how many actually get dropped...

7. Also was there a Karaba Force at Jaburo as well, for I don't think AEUG dropped any infantry forces along with their mobile suits. So how did they managed to capture the two Garuda Class planes and storm the base itself without supporting infantry forces?

I've never heard of any Karaba force taking part in the attack, that it was all AEUG units. I would imagine that some AEUG pilots simply stored their MS in the back of the planes and took to flying the planes themselves, but I'm not really sure.

8. The Gundam Official Timeline states that Karaba used the Audhumla to move personal from Kennedy to a base in Ireland. I thought they attacked the New Guinea Base right after they launched the Mark-II and the Hyaku Shiki back into space.

Uh, what? I don't see Ireland mentioned anywhere on the GO timeline, or on Marks timeline for that matter. And yes, Karaba does attack the Titans New Guinea base on July 21st.

9. Also what took so long for the Audhumla so long to get to Kennedy from South America. According to the Timeline it took over two weeks for it make it.

No idea. That's one of the cases where the timeline makes no sense, and I don't think an in-universe reason has ever been offered.

[Deathzealot]

8. The Gundam Official Timeline states that Karaba used the Audhumla to move personal from Kennedy to a base in Ireland. I thought they attacked the New Guinea Base right after they launched the Mark-II and the Hyaku Shiki back into space.

Uh, what? I don't see Ireland mentioned anywhere on the GO timeline, or on Marks timeline for that matter. And yes, Karaba does attack the Titans New Guinea base on July 21st.

Hmmm... now that i look at it. Your right. Where in the world did I get that idea I wonder. Opps.

Oh well. Thanks for the quick reply Mcred.

[toysdream]

There is an excellent panning shot in the episode that shows the AEUG fleet at Jaburo consists of the Argama, two Irish, and six Salamis Kais (One of which is partially covered by the Argama, so it's easy to miss). I don't think we know the names of either Irish, but several of Salamis Kais are named; the Sicilia, the Sibuyan, and the Sulu are all mentioned in the episode as being hit to one degree or another by Scirocco's attack.

Reinforcing this, Char's dialogue in episode 10 confirms that the AEUG fleet has nine ships (six from Granada, and three from Amman including the Argama). He also mentions that they have 80 mobile suits, which seems like far more than these ships should be able to carry.

In any case, the animation indicates that at least forty AEUG mobile suits make it through re-entry, and in episode 13 we're told that the AEUG have forty pilots to return to space. Factoring in the mobile suits that were destroyed or damaged in orbit, and any pilots who may have been killed on Earth, I'd say there must have been at least fifty originally.

I've never heard of any Karaba force taking part in the attack, that it was all AEUG units. I would imagine that some AEUG pilots simply stored their MS in the back of the planes and took to flying the planes themselves, but I'm not really sure.

Some of them may have ditched their mobile suits, too. Almost half of the AEUG mobile suits we see during the drop operation are GM II units, but after the escape from Jaburo, there only seem to be one or two left aboard the Audhumla, as compared to a dozen or so Nemos. Considering how obsolete and commonplace the GM II is, they simply may not have bothered evacuating the rest of them.

No idea. That's one of the cases where the timeline makes no sense, and I don't think an in-universe reason has ever been offered.

The timelines for Zeta and ZZ were created by simply taking the episode air dates and changing the years from "1985" and "1986" to "U.C. 0087" and "U.C. 0088". As a result, they're total rubbish and make absolutely no sense based on the animation. I just try very hard not to think about them.

-- Mark

[harotype]

The timelines for Zeta and ZZ were created by simply taking the episode air dates and changing the years from "1985" and "1986" to "U.C. 0087" and "U.C. 0088". As a result, they're total rubbish and make absolutely no sense based on the animation. I just try very hard not to think about them.

Hey, MSG didn't always have a rational timeline! (as the Roman albums attest) Are you saying that you've never tried to square events in Z and ZZ with a more accurate 'reality', Mark?

(And other than the obvious and goofy two-week passage to Florida, what else, out of curiosity, is so drastically unworkable?)

[Deathzealot]

The timelines for Zeta and ZZ were created by simply taking the episode air dates and changing the years from "1985" and "1986" to "U.C. 0087" and "U.C. 0088". As a result, they're total rubbish and make absolutely no sense based on the animation. I just try very hard not to think about them.

Hey, MSG didn't always have a rational timeline! (as the Roman albums attest) Are you saying that you've never tried to square events in Z and ZZ with a more accurate 'reality', Mark?

(And other than the obvious and goofy two-week passage to Florida, what else, out of curiosity, is so drastically unworkable?)

I can think of a few.

There is an excellent panning shot in the episode that shows the AEUG fleet at Jaburo consists of the Argama, two Irish, and six Salamis Kais (One of which is partially covered by the Argama, so it's easy to miss). I don't think we know the names of either Irish, but several of Salamis Kais are named; the Sicilia, the Sibuyan, and the Sulu are all mentioned in the episode as being hit to one degree or another by Scirocco's attack.

Reinforcing this, Char's dialogue in episode 10 confirms that the AEUG fleet has nine ships (six from Granada, and three from Amman including the Argama). He also mentions that they have 80 mobile suits, which seems like far more than these ships should be able to carry.

In any case, the animation indicates that at least forty AEUG mobile suits make it through re-entry, and in episode 13 we're told that the AEUG have forty pilots to return to space. Factoring in the mobile suits that were destroyed or damaged in orbit, and any pilots who may have been killed on Earth, I'd say there must have been at least fifty originally.

I've never heard of any Karaba force taking part in the attack, that it was all AEUG units. I would imagine that some AEUG pilots simply stored their MS in the back of the planes and took to flying the planes themselves, but I'm not really sure.

Some of them may have ditched their mobile suits, too. Almost half of the AEUG mobile suits we see during the drop operation are GM II units, but after the escape from Jaburo, there only seem to be one or two left aboard the Audhumla, as compared to a dozen or so Nemos. Considering how obsolete and commonplace the GM II is, they simply may not have bothered evacuating the rest of them.

No idea. That's one of the cases where the timeline makes no sense, and I don't think an in-universe reason has ever been offered.

The timelines for Zeta and ZZ were created by simply taking the episode air dates and changing the years from "1985" and "1986" to "U.C. 0087" and "U.C. 0088". As a result, they're total rubbish and make absolutely no sense based on the animation. I just try very hard not to think about them.

-- Mark

Moving on, thanks Mark for the responses I forgot that Char mentions verbally on how large the fleet it. So it would be a good guess that those other two ships from Amman are Irish Class then since we do see some under construction when Char tours the facility during an earlier episode.

Now I have another question to ask.

How large was the Titans Fleet during this. I know that the Alexandria led the fleet but I believe it was far smaller then the gather AEUG Fleet. Also wasn't the Bosnia still part of the fleet, for while Lila and the majority of her pilots where killed at Colony 30 I don't think the ship itself was destroyed.

Anyways thanks again for info. All of you have been a big help.

[toysdream]

Hey, MSG didn't always have a rational timeline! (as the Roman albums attest)

Sure, but the timeline they eventually arrived at was fairly reasonable. There are places where I have quibbles, and the White Base tends to "park" for weeks at a time in the strangest of places, but there's nothing downright preposterous. Most of the other UC stories have perfectly sensible timelines, too. It's only Zeta and ZZ that got stuck with the "let's use the episode air dates!" malarkey.

(It's still common practice, though, to use the air date of the first episode - or the release date of the movie - as the starting point for a given story's timeline. The MSV books actually tried that with First Gundam, using the first episode air date for the launch of Operation V and the last episode date for the end of the war, but neither of these ideas stuck.)

Are you saying that you've never tried to square events in Z and ZZ with a more accurate 'reality', Mark?

Well, sure! It's like a scab you can't stop picking at. But ultimately, nobody is going to care what I think the timelines for these shows should look like, so it's really a wasted effort.

(And other than the obvious and goofy two-week passage to Florida, what else, out of curiosity, is so drastically unworkable?)

I've got to say the absolute nadir would be episodes 17-19 of ZZ. Here, the Argama tests its new hyper mega cannon on an abandoned colony; witnessing this, Judau takes off in his Core Fighter, and sneaks into Axis to rescue Leina. Here he meets Haman and Ple, escapes to find his buddies waiting for him, docks with the Core Top and Core Base to form the ZZ, and then sneaks back into Axis to make another attempt at rescuing Leina.

According to the official timeline, the Argama's cannon test (and thus Judau's desperate flight to Axis) takes place on April 12, U.C. 0088. Judau infiltrates Axis on April 29, and makes his second attempt on May 8. In other words, the sequence of events I described above takes just under one month according to the timeline, so Judau must smell terrific by the time he gets back to the Argama!

There's lots more of this kind of rubbish. Take, for example, episodes 47 through 49 of Zeta. With Axis in imminent danger of crashing into the moon, the AEUG launches Operation Maelstrom to capture the colony laser, which is also right in front of the moon. Then the Argama makes a desperate dash to Axis to help the colony laser target it, rushes back to rejoin the AEUG fleet, and arrives just as the Titans are beginning their attack. In the Zeta movies, they don't even bother with the detour to Axis, and this is all just one continuous fleet battle.

Total elapsed time between Operation Maelstrom and the final battle, as per the official timeline? About three weeks. Guess that business about stopping Axis wasn't so urgent after all!

How large was the Titans Fleet during this. I know that the Alexandria led the fleet but I believe it was far smaller then the gather AEUG Fleet. Also wasn't the Bosnia still part of the fleet, for while Lila and the majority of her pilots where killed at Colony 30 I don't think the ship itself was destroyed.

The Titans forces consist of just the Alexandria and Bosnia. (The Hario is also in the neighborhood, but only Scirocco deploys from it.) It looks like they deploy at least a dozen Hizacks, in addition to Jerid's and Kacricon's Marasais.

-- Mark

[Deathzealot]

I have another Zeta Gundam Question for you all.

First a question with Zeta Gundam overall, when Hayato is sent over to the the Audhumla the Valkyrie Plane flies away meaning that there is another pilot on board. Is this correct? (Lame Question I know)

Now some further questions since I have watched the New Translation Movies, and I have few questions about evens in them.

First of all Hayato mentions that the Audhumla and the Sudori when split up with the Sudori heading for Kennedy(?) to send the AEUG Pilots into Space, and the Audhumla flying elsewhere. Later when the Titans started chasing the Audhumla we never really are told that the Titan's Garuda is the Sudori. So is it another plane the Garuda herself perhaps or maybe the Melord since the Kilimanjaro Battle and following Dakar Battle not in the movie? And Karaba still has the Sudori?

Also what really made Axis pull back after the Final Battle for beside Kamille not being brain fried, nothing really seems different between the final episode of the series and the end of the final movie. But Axis pulls back never the less.

That is all I can think of right now.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: (@Mark) What about the Marasai from the Gundam Evolve Zeta Episode?

[vindKtiv]

First a question with Zeta Gundam overall, when Hayato is sent over to the the Audhumla the Valkyrie Plane flies away meaning that there is another pilot on board. Is this correct? (Lame Question I know)

Lame answer, but Zeta is full of anonymous pilots and such that I wouldn't be surprised if what you said was true.

[Deathzealot]

/snort/ Thanks Vind. I should have expected that. But in my defense I posted that around two in the morning after a long-night of work.

[toysdream]

First of all Hayato mentions that the Audhumla and the Sudori when split up with the Sudori heading for Kennedy(?) to send the AEUG Pilots into Space, and the Audhumla flying elsewhere.

Yep. It looks like the plan is to send the Sudori to Kennedy, and the Audhumla to Hickory. The pilots aboard the Sudori will go back to space immediately, and the Audhumla contingent a little later. (And hey, does that mean Roberto doesn't die in the movie continuity?)

Later when the Titans started chasing the Audhumla we never really are told that the Titan's Garuda is the Sudori. So is it another plane the Garuda herself perhaps or maybe the Melord since the Kilimanjaro Battle and following Dakar Battle not in the movie? And Karaba still has the Sudori?

Maybe so! In the movies, Buran et al just refer to their plane as "the Garuda", so maybe it really is the original one of its class.

Also what really made Axis pull back after the Final Battle for beside Kamille not being brain fried, nothing really seems different between the final episode of the series and the end of the final movie. But Axis pulls back never the less.

Hard to say. But in the ZZ TV series, I think Haman eventually realizes that the obsession with returning to (and conquering) Earth is a kind of bad habit for Newtypes, so it's possible that her decision to turn around and go back into deep space could be seen as a better outcome for the character.

EDIT: (@Mark) What about the Marasai from the Gundam Evolve Zeta Episode?

What indeed! Gundam Evolve does show us a couple more Marasais intercepting the AEUG landing operation, as well as an extra black Rick Dias (in addition to the one we see on the ground in the TV series) and some Federation GM IIs. I suppose, if we're stuck with the figure of 80 AEUG mobile suits from the TV series dialogue, then this operation really should be much larger in scale than the TV animation made it look.

Not to mention that, since the TV series also says that the AEUG send roughly forty pilots back to space, this would mean that the AEUG lost half its mobile suit pilots in a single operation! You'd think that would be a devastating blow.

-- Mark

[Deathzealot]

First off, I am sorry about the thread necro but I figured it best to use this thread instead of starting a whole new thread which basically the same topic.

Now I have a few questions about some timeline stuff with Zeta Gundam.

1. We see the Argama sending Reccoa to Earth which is around late March, however the Drop Operation isn't till early May. Therefore my question is what in the world is she doing in the month or so she is down there. For if I remember right she was down there to scout out Jaburo before the Drop Operation, and she couldn't been doing that for that long. Besides we later see her in a raft down the river towards the base about the time the Argama was on the moon. Is this another of those weird timeline areas like the bit where we have the Audhumla going from Jaburo to Florida in a week?

2. We are told that the place Amuro is based at during the early part of the series is the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. It was mentioned somewhere that this base is now a Mobile Suit Academy, however I am also aware there is another Federation MS Academy somewhere in Holland if I remember right. Is that the only two MS academies in the Federation, beside Ecole which is from the Manga, maybe in some of the background info?

3. I also noticed that in the movies during the Drop Operation the Alexandria was accompied by not just the Bosnia like they where in the series, but by the Brunei as well. However Bask used the Brunei to get back to Gryps, therefore did the ship rejoin the Alexandria for I thought it was regular Federal ship like the Bosnia due to the crew wearing regular Federation uniforms.

4. During the AEUG's Granada Operation they captured the Sichuan, however I seem to remember that there happened to be more then just a single ship in that dock. Therefore did the AEUG capture more then one ship during that Operation. Also the Troops used in this attack where they AEUG or local troops. For Char, or was it Roberto, mentioning that something about the troops.

5. Also during the movies I noticed that some of the crew of Buran's Garuda (the Garuda or Melord) where wearing modified regular Federation uniforms that sported Titan symbols along with the front of the jacket remarkably like a Titan's Uniform Jacket. This is really seen during that battle where Four dies and the Garuda is destroyed. Are these officers Titans or just Regular Federation Forces assigned to the Titans?

This last question is not really about Zeta but 0083 but it does reflect on my UC Gundam Fanfiction I am working on currently.

6. I have read through both Mark's Timeline on his site, and the Gundam Official Timeline. From what I understand the Colony Drop is around fifty hours before it hits the planet. Did the Federation even try to evacuate the people from the area before it hit since it looks like they had plenty of time to do so. Or did they just relied on the Solar System II to destroy the colony.

[toysdream]

1) As we should all remember - just see earlier in the thread for some grim examples - the official timeline for Zeta Gundam is nonsensical BS. If you're thinking about if for even two minutes, that's two minutes of your life you'll never get back.

If we were actually trying to be rational, the sequence of events in the animation would be roughly thus...

* The Argama drops Reccoa off in Earth orbit, then travels through the L1 shoal zone to Side 1, visits Colony 30, and returns to the moon. That should take about 7 days - there's no real reason for the Argama to loiter in any of these areas, since that just increases the odds of the Titans finding it.

* The day after the Argama docks at Amman, Char and Henken meet with Wong Lee for a strategy meeting, while Kamille and Emma go for a drive and run into Kacricon, who's been stationed near Amman to spy on the Argama. (Episode 8.)

* On Earth, Kai and Reccoa meet. (Reccoa mentions at this point that she's four days away from her capsule on foot, and that the AEUG is beginning its Jaburo invasion the next day.) Meanwhile, the Alexandria visits Anaheim to pick up supplies, and the AEUG take advantage of this opportunity to raid Granada and capture a bunch of ships. Kai and Reccoa sneak into Jaburo in an attempt to warn the AEUG the base is being evacuated. (Episode 9.)

* The Argama leaves Amman, and joins the rest of the AEUG fleet in the L1 shoal zone before proceeding to Earth orbit. That could take as little as 2-3 days, but Tomino's novels say that it takes two days for the AEUG fleet to finish launching from the moon, and they spend two more days mustering their forces in the shoal zone, so this could actually be another 7 days or so.

So on the evidence of the animation, supplemented by Tomino's novels, it seems like this should all take a little more than two weeks. (It kind of depends on the gap between episodes 8 and 9, but the animation makes it look like virtually no time passes between them.) Since Reccoa and Kai get captured around the same time the Argama leaves Amman, she only has to keep herself busy for about a week or so.


2) We're told that Amuro is doing some kind of cadet training, but that doesn't mean there's a formal military academy there, let alone a "Mobile Suit Academy." Not every Federation Forces soldier is a mobile suit pilot!


4) Yes, the AEUG captures a bunch of ships at Granada. As we've already discussed, the AEUG fleet includes six ships from Granada, and the only ship at Granada that we know they didn't steal is Manity's Irish-class ship.


5) These are all regular Federation Forces personnel (and/or Newtype Labs personnel like Buran himself) who've been reassigned to the Titans. You'll notice that, even while they wear Titans emblems, Buran and Ben Wooder are constantly scheming to outmaneuver the actual Titans and score points for the Newtype Labs by bringing down the Audhumla themselves.


6) Who knows? It's never been explained whether Gato deliberately aimed the colony at North America or whether its course was altered by the Solar System, whether it was originally on course for Jaburo and Gato altered the course at the last minute, etc etc. Up until the last minute, the Federation is still busy evacuating Jaburo, so it seems like they either don't know the colony is headed elsewhere, or the colony in fact was aimed at Jaburo until Gato made those final adjustments.

-- Mark

[harotype]

Can we have the debate about precisely where and/or what 'Cheyenne' actually is? If it's a toss-up between the NORAD complex at Cheyenne Mountain, or the actual closest military facility to Cheyenne, Wyoming… (which, hey, is a traditional air training base and was named for a guy who won the Medal of Honor as a teenager...)

For a Federation that's so concerned about their security, I don't know why they would let Amuro near either of those, but perhaps they've moved the nukes out of Francis E. Warren by UC.

Does that patch he's wearing when he meets Emma (blanking on it except it's something like 'ATAAPAA') give us any clues?

The real reason for Cheyenne, of course, is that he's The Newtype in the High Castle...

[toysdream]

According to Tomino's Zeta novels, it's an "air defense command base" that's no longer really in use. The underground air surveillance systems at the base used to be connected to observation satellites and radar nets, but now they merely gather intelligence from other parts of North America via optical cables. Amuro and a few other old soldiers are just stationed there to maintain the facilities.

Based on that description, it sure seems like they're talking about the NORAD complex.

-- Mark

[Deacon Blues]

They must have reactivated in by the 90s since that's where Ronan Marcenas is later on and his estate is somewhere nearby if I remember correctly.

[toysdream]

Okay, here's another timeline-related question for Zeta Gundam mavens. If we wanted to try and fit the actual story to the Cinderella slipper of the official timeline - it's ultimately a hopeless exercise, but even a partial fit would be a worthy achievement - it's going to be necessary to insert some arbitrary gaps into the sequence of events.

For instance, the flow of events from episode 39 onwards - when Gryps 2 begins moving towards the moon - is largely governed by the laws of gravity and orbital mechanics, and the action is continuous from episode to episode, so there's very little room to insert extra time or space out events. By my calculations, the laws of physics pretty much mandate that everything in these episodes would take about one month, rather than the three months the official timeline arrived at by plugging in the episode air dates.

On the other hand, there's no law that says episode 39 has to follow directly on from episode 38. At the end of episode 38, the Argama has just picked up Char and Kamille in Earth orbit, and is headed for the moon to pick up supplies. At the beginning of episode 39, the ship is docking at Side 2 for supplies instead, and Char has apparently transferred to an Irish-class ship in the meantime. Over at the Gate of Zedan, Jamitov and Bask are still discussing how to respond to Char's Dakar speech (back in episode 37), but since they're basically waiting for the colony laser to be completed, they really haven't been able to do anything but sit and wait.

So how much time has passed since Char's Dakar speech? The official timeline says that just 8 days pass between the speech and the Argama's arrival at Side 2. But since there's no direct connection between these events, the gap could really be arbitrarily big.

There's some precedent for this in the timelines of other series. The official timeline for Gundam Seed, for example, inserted a gap of more than two months between episodes 46 and 47 of that series, giving the Earth Alliance time to mass-produce N-Jammer Cancelers and wage an off-camera campaign against ZAFT's terrestrial forces.

Likewise, we could rejigger the Zeta Gundam timeline to leave certain major events unchanged - for example, Axis's arrival in the Earth sphere on October 12, and Char's Dakar speech on November 16 - and then insert a two-month gap before the final space campaign kicks off in mid-January of the following year. Not only does that allow us to pace things out in a way that's much less insane than the official timeline, while minimizing disruption to the overall chronology and associated side stories, but it also creates some big pockets of undocumented history that would be great raw material for fanfic.

So just for the sake of argument, what other windows of opportunity do we have to insert arbitrary gaps in the action? A couple of posts ago, I mentioned the interval between episode 8 and episode 9 - during which everybody is parked on the moon, Kacrikon is conducting a stakeout near Amman, and Reccoa is wandering around in the Amazon jungle. The animation makes it seem like no more than a day or so, but it doesn't require it, and we could actually leave all the players in a holding pattern for as long as we feel is plausible.

Other gaps that occur to me: episode 20 to episode 21, episode 26 to episode 27, episode 34 to episode 35. Any thoughts?

-- Mark

[Deathzealot]

Hmmm Interesting question Mark.

My Head Canon for Episode 8/Episode9 Gap is a bit shortened like you mentioned early from about a month to about two weeks. During that time Reccoa didn't land in South America like it is implied in the animation but instead she landed at Kennedy to let Karaba know about the Operation and maybe some preliminary talks out of the way between the AEUG and Karaba. This could be a couple days to about five days. Then she heads down to South America the old-fashioned way via a plane of some sort or a boat where she arrives at SA Town of some sort preferably along the Amazon River. This kinda matches up for timewise for rafting along the Amazon towards Jaburo like could have been a couple of days couldn't it?

That is my two-cents on this question. I don't have anything for the other gaps.

[toysdream]

The problem is that, in episode 9, Reccoa tells Kai that her re-entry capsule is four days away on foot. That doesn't mean it's only been four days since she arrived - that seems impossible based on the animation, so presumably she's been hanging around near Jaburo watching the action - but it does suggest that her original capsule is only about 50 kilometers away. (This is relevant to the plot because she'd have to go back there to contact the AEUG and tell them Jaburo is being evacuated; since she's in a hurry, she and Kai try to sneak into Jaburo and send a message from there instead.)

The animation also suggests that Karaba and the AEUG aren't that well coordinated. In episode 13, Katz says that Hayato rushed down to Jaburo as soon as he heard what was happening there, which would seem to rule out a leisurely interview with Reccoa before she went down to Jaburo.

As far as the gap between episodes 8 and 9, one of the things going on in this interval is that the Alexandria is parked at Granada, trying and failing to obtain supplies. By episode 9, Jamaican has given up waiting and takes the ship to Anaheim to bully them into supplying the Alexandria. So part of this is a question of how long Jamaican would plausibly wait before going to Plan B.

-- Mark