Question about Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory

[Timeless Enigma]

This post and thread will contain spoilers obviously.

The colony drop was successful, but what exactly was Zeon's target? The world didn't seem to turn into a wasteland or anything like that. I was left scratching my head.

Also, was Cima merely a rogue Zeon member? I was reading some Gundam sites via google and one character bio of Cima said that she was in fact a Federation officer in deep cover. I think that statement was incorrect, but i'm not 100% sure.

[srb]

Cima was defecting to the Federation since she was hated by everyone in Zeon due to a colony gassing incident which she had no knowledge about and her superiors blamed her for it to save themselves. After A'Baoa Qu had fallen Axis invited all Zeon fleets to seek refuge there - all except Cima's marine corps.

The target for the colony drop was Jaburo, the Earth Federation's headquarters in South America, but I believe it hit a random spot in the middle of the US instead.

[MakubeX2]

The purpose of the whole operation was to make a fool out of the EF in order to show the future space rebels that EF is not as strong as they look.

Delaz and his fleet was aware that they were going on a suicide mission given that the difference in size of their force in comparison with EF's.(That's why they had ask Axis to come and retrive any survivors of the operation beforehand.) If they want to die fighting, they might as well as make a mockery out of the enemy.

The first shame bought upon the EF is that the GP02A got stolen.

The 2nd shame was that they reveal that the EF won by resources and dirty tricks on TV.

The 3rd shame is that an entire fleet of EF was wipe out by a single MS and one of EF's origin.

The final shame is that they had succeed in making a colony drop on Earth despite all attempts by EF to stop it.

[brightman]

Actually, the target of the colony drop was never intended to be Jaburo. That's the thing that Burning discovered before he died and was so shocked about (and I believe Kou finds out about it in Ep 12 too). The target had always been North America, which was where a lot of the food supply in the world was grown. So they actually wanted to cause climate changes in the area that will kill the crops can cause a famine for the Earthnoids.

[MakubeX2]

Actually, the target of the colony drop was never intended to be Jaburo. That's the thing that Burning discovered before he died and was so shocked about (and I believe Kou finds out about it in Ep 12 too). The target had always been North America, which was where a lot of the food supply in the world was grown. So they actually wanted to cause climate changes in the area that will kill the crops can cause a famine for the Earthnoids.

As i have said, I don't think Delaz plans to do anything big which will hit the EF hard.

The entire operation was a smear campaign on the reps of EF. Just think about it.

[brightman]

The entire operation was a smear campaign on the reps of EF. Just think about it.
But that doesn't explain why Lt. Burning was so shocked and thought it was such an urgent matter.

[srb]

You're correct Brightman, my mistake. It was around a year ago or so since I last saw it so I must have remembered it incorrectly.

The smear campaign theory is good as well but to me that would just be a very nice bonus to help future rebellions.

[MakubeX2]

But that doesn't explain why Lt. Burning was so shocked and thought it was such an urgent matter.

OK.Burning discovered this just before Gato hit the EF's fleet with the nuke.And nobody else (except Delaz and his fleet) know the big picture to the operation.

I think what he found out was that Delaz plan to hijack a colony and hurl it at Earth. That's why he is shocked.

[brightman]

I think what he found out was that Delaz plan to hijack a colony and hurl it at Earth. That's why he is shocked.
OK, it still doesn't explain why Gato went into the colony just to change the course from Jaburo to North America, and then to start gloating about it for that matter.

[MakubeX2]

OK, it still doesn't explain why Gato went into the colony just to change the course from Jaburo to North America, and then to start gloating about it for that matter.

The purpose of the Operation was not to deal a serious blow to EF. It is to shame them enough to inspire future rebellion. It's a psychological campaign, not some terrorist act.

Gato never change the course of the Colony. He himself said :- "We are not dropping it on Jaburo !" He is just finalising the course to make sure that the Colony drop where they intend it to be.

Looking at how clearly the Colony is from Jaburo. It's like Delaz Fleet jeering EF :- "Ha ha. You might have wipe us out but look ! We have drop this to Earth, there's nothing you can do about it."

And looking at how slowing the colony is entering the atmosphere, if they want to deal some serious damage, they could have add more propellent to accelerate the drop.

[Kageh]

I never did understand the ending to that series.

Why DIDN'T Zeon just wipe out the earth? I mean... if they were going that far, why not just go all the way? I mean... WTF? They killed ALL those feddies during that ceremony with a nuke for crying out loud. It's not like they were against mass murder.

What happens in the next series of UC? Did dropping that colony have at least some impact on future events? Not too interested in the older series, but I am kind of curious how that colony drop affected things if at all. Seems like such a wasted effort. It's easy to shrug off humilation. A fallout induced ice age on the other hand....

[MakubeX2]

I never did understand the ending to that series.

Why DIDN'T Zeon just wipe out the earth? I mean... if they were going that far, why not just go all the way? I mean... WTF? They killed ALL those feddies during that ceremony with a nuke for crying out loud. It's not like they were against mass murder.

It seems that Delaz was only going aganist EF, not the people of Earth. They just want everyone to see how useless the EF is and hope that people will just rebel aganist them.

What happens in the next series of UC? Did dropping that colony have at least some impact on future events? Not too interested in the older series, but I am kind of curious how that colony drop affected things if at all. Seems like such a wasted effort. It's easy to shrug off humilation. A fallout induced ice age on the other hand....

That will be Z Gundam.Go read it up.Or buy the DVD box set when it's out.

[brightman]

Gato never change the course of the Colony. He himself said :- "We are not dropping it on Jaburo !" He is just finalising the course to make sure that the Colony drop where they intend it to be.

The EFF all had the projected target of the colony as Jaburo. Gato went into the colony to change the course to North America. Yes, its "finalising", but its obviously done to conceal the ulterior motive of Operation Stardust.

Why didn't they just drop it on Jaburo otherwise? It would deal much more damage to EFF than dropping it on a bunch of barren fields. The point is to terrorize the Earthnoids into submission by dealing damage to their vital needs.

And looking at how slowing the colony is entering the atmosphere, if they want to deal some serious damage, they could have add more propellent to accelerate the drop.

But they did do a lot of damage. From Bask's speech itself: "You needn't look at the drop of the space colony 3 days ago which devastated the North American granary..." And you can see later on that all the crops were wiped out from the blast. It obviously affected quite a bit. So its definitely a terrorist act in my view.

Otherwise it would be quite a stupid plan. They are already fully aware of presence of other potential rebels like Axis, so simply charging the entire fleet in suicidally to perform some attack that isn't even going to cause any damage is just plain idiotic.

[MakubeX2]

Why didn't they just drop it on Jaburo otherwise? It would deal much more damage to EFF than dropping it on a bunch of barren fields. The point is to terrorize the Earthnoids into submission by dealing damage to their vital needs.

Submission ? What Submission ? Zeon is dead. Delaz Fleet is very much decimated.All the suviviors had gone over to Axis.Axis will not return for another 4 years. So who does the EF or the people on Earth submit to ?

Like I said,it's plan to show how ineffective the EF is.

Otherwise it would be quite a stupid plan. They are already fully aware of presence of other potential rebels like Axis, so simply charging the entire fleet in suicidally to perform some attack that isn't even going to cause any damage is just plain idiotic.

Like I've said.Delaz fleet is a fleet with maybe 10 ships with less then 100 MS at most.The EF is a government with all of Earth's resources and people at hand.They knew they weren't a match from the start. And they only ask Axis to retrive the survivors from the operation and not join in the operation.Theire purpose is not to do damage to the EF.But shame them.

[brightman]

Submission ? What Submission ? Zeon is dead. Delaz Fleet is very much decimated.All the suviviors had gone over to Axis.Axis will not return for another 4 years. So who does the EF or the people on Earth submit to ?
Submit to the ideals of Zeon? Submit to the fact that the EFF isn't very reliable as you said? It's no different from any terrorist act. That's the whole point of terror anyway.

Like I've said.Delaz fleet is a fleet with maybe 10 ships with less then 100 MS at most.The EF is a government with all of Earth's resources and people at hand.They knew they weren't a match from the start. And they only ask Axis to retrive the survivors from the operation and not join in the operation.Theire purpose is not to do damage to the EF.But shame them.
Yes, they didn't do damage to the EFF, but they specifically aimed at North America to damage crops so that the ordinary Earthnoid would feel the force of the colony. That's the whole point. And what's shown in the show supports that.