[Vena]

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

The Andy and Mix "animosity" was hanging in the air, yes, but there was no conflict to speak of. When the conflict came it lasted one episode. And Andy learned the truth that led him to resolve the conflict not by actually confronting Mix but by chance, from an outside source. Not exactly the pinnacle of Solving Issues By Character Interaction.

The conflict existed through the whole start, it was figurative but implied with the dig holes/fill holes. Or so I thought.

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

As for Jin and Yunoha, you can analyze everything and find explanations, but the speed was in fact out of character for Jin, and Yunoha as well (though at least she was given a believable motivation). It was just unnaturally fast. It doesn't help that they needed to focus so much on developing it in order to get a reaction out of the viewers at Jin's eventual death that the Jin x Yunoha relationship overshadowed nearly everything else.

Out of character for Jin? He didn't even have much of a character prior to interacting with Yunoha and coming to Daeva. He was an otaku, proud, and the last son of Altair. He hadn't effectively had any other interactions to have a defined character.

I'll agree that it was fast and that it was fast to fit it in for his death.

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

Again: the writers are avoiding handling scenes that lead to a certain direction. Just think about what Mikono just said to Yunoha in the latest episode. And Yunoha had no reaction. Of course she had no reaction, because that would lead the scene to a direction that writers don't want to deal with.

Mikono's logic is utterly baffling as is Yunoha's lack of reaction. This much we can agree on...

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

Uh, that's not even an issue: Andy is the type who confronts things head-on, Amata the type who is not good at confronting things head-on.

Hasn't this been a huge chunk of Amata's character development? You cannot fight fate/destiny by just sitting around and waiting for it to hit you in the face.

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

Which is the problem: they didn't imply it well enough, and then the execution was completely out of the blue. Both Mikono and Amata had exactly one scene where they even thought about Kagura, and neither scenes had no further percussion, in the following episodes they were shown to be perfectly good together with Kagura causing no tension at all between them. And then much later suddenly TENSION and KAGURA. Wuh?

And, see, I thought that the scenes, thought a bit too few, painted the picture well enough but that it could have certainly been made much clearer without such a large need to pay attention to the more minor, background details. As for the lack repercussions, doesn't this tie into the fact that, well, Amata and Mikono suck at talking to one another.

I'm going to stick with Elephant in the Room for them.

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

Yeah, but you see, you're coming forward with your idea of why and how, instead of the writers showing us why, or at least alluding to it. (FYI, I had a completely different explanation in mind. )
Btw here I'd just like to note that at this point we know more about Yunoha than about Zessica.

I was trying to say that Zessica still has a mysterious background, just like Amata, Mykage, Fudo, Izumo, and Alicia. The only people in this show that we know anything about are secondary characters, Mikono, and Kagura (by his profile). The mysteries floating around could easily be used to explain how she came to fell in love, and I offered an explanation that I thought was possible but (like I said) depends on the *past*.

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

I mean, it was treated as part of the joke and not as an attempt at communication. Amata never seriously asked her to stop, because then she would have had to react to that and that would've complicated things. And again, it's not the length of the conflict , it's the writers avoiding making the characters do the logical thing (even from their POV) because that would go against their plans. Amata could've told Mikono how his power works at any time, thereby avoiding the entire conflict, but clearly that's not what the writers wanted. Result: everyone behaves in an unreasonable way.

Amata does try to explain himself to Mikono through the seventh episode, she just refuses to listen until Yunoha spells it out for her. When was he going to tell her before that? In Episode 5 when he pushes Zessica off (that's telling someone to stop) and chases after her? When? The moment sweeps them up pretty quick and then a Kagura happens. Episode 6 would have been out of the question... and its resolved in Episode 7. Amata's flying after that is fully within explained bounds.

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

OK, to borrow your methods:
Ep 1-2: Kagura wants Mikono. He has Aquarion pinned down. With his power he can essentially dismantle a mecha, but what does he do instead? starts banging on Aquarion like an idiot. And then he again doesn't do anything as Amata (having powered up) kicks his ass.
Ep 6: He glows red AFTER he's already made Shrade lose the violin. Shrade stands there completely unarmed, preparing for physical combat (where Kagura would clearly have the upper hand), Kagura glows red, and... scrams. What. Also ep 6: he could've avoided getting his ass kicked by: a) reversing Aquarion's flight power, b) reversing the damage done to his mecha (remember what he'd done to Cayenne? yeah), c) hell, reversing the gattai, he's probably hax enough to do that. Instead he got his ass kicked.

And you can't even say that his power was a result of Mykage's boost because one, he had glowed red as early as ep 6, two, he wasn't surprised in the least by his power and knew how to use it, three, in ep 15 he managed to do everything without Mykage's support. So.

Now this I simply do not agree with it. Its made explicitly clear/obvious in Episode 13(?) when Kagura fights everyone that he has a MASSIVE power-up from Altair and Mykage, and that that is why he can do everything (that's why closing the portal was such an imperative). (Amata even remarks that there's something coming off the the mecha and Kagura.) I mean its made painfully clear that he can only reverse the damage from the Spada because of that power. The moment its cut off, his mecha is cut in two. I don't think they could have made it any more clear than that. His power is, without that power, quite a bit more limited. In Episode 14/15 he undergoes the same power-up ritual but from Mykage, so at that point his power has, once again, increased.

So reverse what you listed:
Ep 1-2: He couldn't undo shit, the only way for him to get to Mikono was to bash open the cockpit.
Ep 6: The glow is ??? but he doesn't have the powers you think he does. He cannot reverse the damage (reference Ep. 13 when his power is cut off, the Spada shreds him). Similarly, he does not have the power to stop the EVOL from gattaing.