Spoiler
Then again, I'm expecting a lot of "MIISSS MARRIIIDA!" in Ep 5. Sigh.
Geki wrote:I haven't followed the novels so I'm not really up to speed (I own all the blu ray releases through 4), so forgive me for being ignorant... The battle scenes and mech porn are absolutely top notch. I'm a long time gundam fan for 30 years now (yeah I'm old). But man my tolerance for weepy gundam pilots is at it's end. Does Banagher get any better? Seeing this theme repeated over and over for the past 15+ years in about every series since 08th team is just, trying.
Granted the old shows had their moments too, but in a series so short like UC it just seems dominated by a whiny, weepy emo and it's driving me nuts.
Emo...I hate it when that word gets thrown around. I don't see Banagher as emo at all. Emo implies that he's emotionally unstable, depressed, and self-centered to the point where they can get nothing done, and only wallow in their own self-pity. Banagher's pretty much the opposite; he's actually a remarkably strong person. I don't see him as a pacifist so much as someone with common sense and a objective view of what's happening around him. Think about it; He has rejected the self-enabling views and convictions put forth by Full Frontal, Marida, Daguza, and Zinnerman that enable them to rationalize their role in the conflict. Him calling out Zinnerman on being a huge hypocrite and beating the piss out of him was my favorite part of ep 4. He even called Mineva's on being impulsive when she said they had to destroy the Unicorn Gundam to prevent a war, and his insistence in calling her Audrey (while annoying) is kind of his way of saying that he would rather her find her own path rather than cling to the notion that she needs to take responsibility for the Zabi Family's actions, even at the cost of her own life.Andrew_Graruru wrote:I've been wondering about this too. I mean, just looking at the Full Armor Unicorn makes me assume he can't keep up this ludicrous level of pacifism, unless all those missiles are just for show.
Spoiler
Then again, I'm expecting a lot of "MIISSS MARRIIIDA!" in Ep 5. Sigh.
Idealism has a number of definitions, though. Unicorn's prevalent theme is that subjective forms of idealism are bad, and are part of what lead to things like conflict. Banagher doesn't adhere to any form of established idealism as it's defined in Gundam. He's rejected all of the ideals imposed on him by other people, whether it be the notion that Spacenoids needed a group of despots like Zeon to give them the strength to attain freedom from the Earth Federation's oppression, or the idea of looking up to a unified world state to bring about peace, or smaller, more abstract things like retribution in the form of violence on the offender, or imposing a grim responsibility left behind by someone else on yourself (there's a bit of irony in this one, considering his role in the story. Loni points that out rather well.) If there's one thing very consistant about Banagher, it's that he doesn't attach himself to any concrete ideals or doctrines, but rather does what he feels is right in his own heart.ShadowCell wrote:Gundam did have one very consistent theme about idealism: it's bad. and yet here we've had idealist after idealist at the controls of some hyper-powered death machine, with Banagher as thus far only the most recent.
I think a big problem is that somewhere along the line it seems to have been decided that the theme of Gundam is 'kids/teenagers always know best", which really wasn't the message of the UC shows. The young protagonists might have been free of the biases ground in as of adult life but at the same time they could also be immature and shortsighted, factors they needed the older character's guidance to help grow out of. In particular, going alongside the 'preaching from a super weapon' angle we seem to increasingly have this thing where the main cast have to start out with an organization but split off because clearly they know better then anyone. Compare with the original series; the White Base crew might not always have been the Federation's biggest fans but they stuck with them to the end in fact became increasingly involved with the chain of command. If the series was being made now, seemingly Amuro would convince everyone the White Base needs to go solo and fight both factions.ShadowCell wrote:at the very least, Banagher is consistent. he can't preach and cry that we shouldn't be fighting and all the reasons everyone gives for doing so are horseshit and then turn around and slaughter someone like Loni without a second thought. he at least has to try to get through to her; otherwise he's just Kira in the Universal Century. and when Banagher does kill people, it's pretty much either out of fear (that faceless Zulu pilot that Angelo had such a burr up his ass about) or anger (like blowing away Gilboa while raging after Full Frontal--and his anger vanished as soon as he realized who it was he killed). thus far i can't really think of anyone he's unambiguously intentionally killed.
with that said, yes, i am absolutely tired of Gundam protagonists who preach about how we should all be getting along and fighting is not the way from the cockpits of their walking weapons of mass destruction. it's sort of a weird inversion of Gundam, because for all its faults while Tomino was at the helm, Gundam did have one very consistent theme about idealism: it's bad. and yet here we've had idealist after idealist at the controls of some hyper-powered death machine, with Banagher as thus far only the most recent.
i suppose time will tell whether or not Banagher stays this way or not, because so far, he's been pretty ineffective at imposing his ideals on reality.
http://www.kadokawa.co.jp/comic/bk_deta ... 1112000423虎哉孝征が描く機動戦士ガンダムUCを一挙収録! 今ここに、MSの視点から歴史が語られる!!
It's implied that the Federation lets Zeon remnants romp around the Earth's sphere because it gives proper justification for them to maintain a military presence throughout.Antares wrote:
I did find it... amusing, that the Sleeves/Neo Zeon still had things like the big red weapon of mass destruction hidden somewhere on Earth; it looks like the Feddies will never ever manage to mop up massively powerful insurgency groups even if they'd have decades to it in.
I was wondring why Full Frontal mentioned Haman. Makes me wonder why Char never tried to acquire the thing himself.J-Lead wrote:Also, the Shamblo is a leftover from Haman's Neo Zeon that was constructed in secret by teh Garvey Corporation. It's existence isn't entirely silly.