[Shinji103]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Comparatively speaking I think AO is attacking this scenario from a realistic perspective - 14 year-old girls act like 14 year-old girls, kids die and adults have to wrestle with the morality of that.

Sure, but that doesn't mean Fleur has to act unfriendly.

Originally Posted by Chaos2Frozen

While unfair, that's how it works in this profession- If Ao can't handle abit of harsh treatment, how are they suppose to trust him went things get REALLY dicey in the future? Put yourself if their shoes if you're a soldier, could you trust that person to watch your back?

And didn't they agree not to bring him because he needed the rest? Their whole reasoning basically boils down to him not being able to perform if he's tired and hasn't slept in days.

It's not about "fair" at all. It's about common sense and courtesy. And it's not about how Ao handles it (and he's clearly handling it well enough), it's about how Fleur is treating the "new guy." (you don't need to be a hardened 30 year old combat veteran to know you want to get along with your teammates, new or old)
Clearly Ao has the talent to be a formal pilot for Pied Piper; he did very well in his first two battles. And that's before considering he had absolutely no training or experience then. And then this battle happened almost immediately after those first two. It's pretty obvious to anyone how good he'll be when he's refined and battle-hardened He's already shown he's a good pilot, and here he did by himself what two experienced pilots couldn't, so where would any doubt in his skills come from?

The bridge crew agreed on him needing rest; Fleur said he'd be useless anyway.

Originally Posted by duckroll

It doesn't matter how powerful Nirvash is. If Ao is not prepared for a mission, he is not needed. There is no need to wait for him or be concerned that he is not coming along. They've handled missions before without Ao and if they need to they will continue to. If Ao is ready and willing on a mission, you don't see any of the characters rejecting him or getting in his way. Context is everything.

I'm not sure who said anything about the Nirvash, but Ao has shown he has what it takes to be on Pied Piper twice before this episode. We've seen that the common strategy for Generation Blue is just to sit around and shoot from outside the enemy's detection range. Lots of people can do that. Ao has shown the skills to dive in and hit them up close while they fight back.
In the context of this episode, whether or not he needed the rest/was ready or not, my point is that Fleur calling him "useless," especially with Ao's great track record, was harsh and uncalled for.

Anyway it's not like they were going out of their way to hurt Ao's feelings. He was the one who couldn't stay awake, and he isn't exactly a regular part of their team at this point anyway. He knows that as well, and he doesn't seem to be surprised that people aren't exactly treating him like God's gift to Generation Bleu.

I know they weren't going out of their way to shun him, but Fleur could tone it down a bit. And again, it's not about Ao falling asleep (which was perfectly reasonable since he had gotten almost no rest since the attack in episode 1), it's about Fleur going the extra mile to call him "useless," when she's seen firsthand that he's not. He's rough around the edges, but who's an ace pilot when they first hop in the cockpit? Ao did very well for his first few fights, and he already did better in this one.
I'm not sure what Ao not expecting special treatment has to do with Fleur being unnecessarily harsh, either.

Originally Posted by OceanBlue

Edit: Speaking of his place on the team, it kind of bothers me how useful Ao is right off the bat. I can attribute some of it to the Nirvash, but Ao just seems to be way too competent in fighting Secrets. It's just weird that he was able to do what Goldilocks couldn't do so easily considering his lack of experience.

He's Eureka's son.
Eureka was automatically a gifted pilot as well, especially due to her being a Corallian. So it makes sense that her son would share this.
Of course, how much exactly this series has to do with Coralians is still uknown, but it's perfectly obvious that Ao isn't a normal human (the whole hair-"magically"-returning-to-blue thing) and we know that Eureka (whether she's the original Eureka or an alternate-universe Eureka) is also special in some way, so it's logical to assume her son is special in the same/a similar way.