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Originally Posted by rpgman1
Fans love Lockon and this comes out quite shocking, killing out one of the most beloved Meisters. You can see that fans don't like Ali and fans will react wanting to see him dead in the end of season 1. You know Sunrise and Bandai, they really need to make big sales from the models and other Gundam 00 merchandise. If the director screws the fans over, then sales will plummet and Bandai will do something to rectify it. Ali seems to be the main antagonist, but we don't count out Alejandro and Libbons just yet. We'll see if they'll make any sudden moves in the last two episodes.
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Actually not everyone wants Ali dead. At first I wanted him dead since he was just a nuisance that was just there to reveal more fancy Exia gadgetry. But now, he's a force all his own, on nobody's side but his own. I wouldn't exactly call him evil. A selfish, amoral bastard? Absolutely. But he's not out there to say "LET'S MAKE EVERYONE MISERABLE". He doesn't have any overarching ideology. In fact, he's more like an extreme version of Soul Calibur's Mitsurugi. He's a mercenary and he's simply out for more money. Is it bloody money? Of course. But money's money, and everyone has to make a living.
Ali doesn't go around wantonly slaughtering civilians. He incites war. He kills combatants. Is it amoral that he turns little kids against their parents? Sure. Guess what? The middle east is lawless. You do whatever the hell you want to, but just be prepared to pay the price. Ali knew that and always knows that, and that's perhaps why he's that damn fucking good. He knows what's on the line in his trade, and prepares accordingly.
After all, selfishness and competition is a core part of human nature, or communism would succeed. Ali is not only secure in that fact, but thrives on this selfishness that eventually creates conflict that takes lives. As Lacus Clyne implied when going SEED mode, the cause of lethal conflict isn't some external force, but built in to human hearts. So it's basically simple economics--supply and demand. Where there's a supply of battle, there'll be a demand for world class pilots like Ali. Ali knows it and thrives on it, and simply decided to set his profession in one of the baser professions. But shit, politicians are ubiquitous, aren't they? And while a mercenary may kill a few with a gun, or a gundam, a politician can kill thousands with a single word. That's what gives rise to assassins as well. As they say, a dagger at night is worth a thousand swords at day.
Ali is good at what he does, and he just so happens to be against the gundams, not because he has an ideological conflict with the gundams per se, but simply because their goals are bad for his business! At the very heart of it, he's just being a businessman looking to keep his shop open. Sure, it's not the most ethical or cleanest business, but it's a way of making a living.
This is why I believe that Ali never *did* believe in God, that he simply was out fighting in Krugis and training those little kids simply to prolong conflict. The guy simply likes a good fight, and to make some nice money off of it. Come to think of it, Setsuna may also be full of shit when he said Ali Al Sarges killed Lockon's parents. Who says he even happened to be there? What if it was someone else altogether?
It'd be nice if Lockon would survive just for Ali to tell him "nope, wasn't me--I don't touch civilians--governments and soldiers? Sure. Civilians? Even mercenaries have their do-not-do lists." Frankly, I think it just may very well be nice to see Ali go free. He's not a guy out to change the world or to force his opinion on anybody. He's just out for himself. He's an opportunist. But guess what? We're all opportunists somewhere. We all want that something good for ourselves, and will go to some lengths to achieve it.
Ali wants a good fight. Ali wants money. Ali wants a luxurious lifestyle with a woman to be his wife while he lives in a mansion running a defense contracting company while dealing in the latest arms in a world where humans don't have to be kept down by some overarching police force telling them not to fight and to just be their competitive (sometimes lethal) selves, in which he can profit.
Does that sound like some religious extremist like those guys in Azadistan, or some crazy ideological nutcase like Alejandro Corner or Rau Le Creuset? Nope. Not at all. In fact, I find Ali Al Sarges to be one of the more HUMAN characters in the show in contrast to the jaded Meister crew (and just about every one of those characters has some ideological grudge--Setsuna was a child terrorist, Allelujah was designed to be a killing machine, Lockon had his family destroyed, Tieria is some cyborg bent on achieving Aeolia Schenberg's ideals, Sumeragi did something really stupid in the Union and ran away, Felt's there because her parents died for it, and we have no idea why anyone else is there (Christina, Lasse, etc...). And even more in contrast to the crazy idealogical idiots like Alejandro Corner or Wang Liu Mei.
Does Ali care about changing the world? No. Does he care about random civilians? Nah. They're just pawns to him. What does he care about BEATING THE GUNDAM TO AVENGE HIS COMRADES like Graham? No. What does he care about? Just himself and his own interests--and in truth, I find that I can relate more to Ali than probably the rest of the cast combined. I don't think about ideologies or changing the world for the hell of it. All I care about are my own self interests. Whether that causes me to invest my happiness in trying to make others happy to earn a return in happiness from them, or invest my time in order to make money to buy things which can make me happy (such as more time than I invested in order to get that money), I don't know. All I know is that I'm a human being and somewhere in me, I care about myself a hell of a lot more than I care for a random person on the street somewhere in Schmucksville. I don't care what happens to them so long as it doesn't affect me. That's because I'm a human being, and human beings are intrinsically selfish, or communism would work. We're not hive-minded, and nor are we superheroes. The cause of wars, corporate scandals, deceitful politicians, etc... is all a result of human selfishness going the wrong way. This selfishness is programmed into our very beings. I am secure in this, and Ali is secure to the extent that he THRIVES on these aspects of selfishness making humanity take a turn for the worse.
And before you say how terrible it is to capitalize on the vices of humanity, what about all of those sweets and junk foods you see in supermarkets? What about all of the weight loss books that are printed as a result of said junk food? What about beer, fattening expensive chocolate, sports cars, and the list goes on and on. We're humans and we have weaknesses. There are plenty of people who make their livings capitalizing off of these human weaknesses. Ali is no different. Which in my mind makes Ali one of the most human characters in the series, which is why I actually want to see the guy survive. I think if Mizushima has the balls to do what he did with Lockon, then I challenge him to have the balls to NOT have there be karmic justice for all.
In fact, I would be clapping my hands if Ali moved on from his mobile suit piloting and war-mongering into running a legitimate defensive company as Gaille Biage with a woman of equal human-ingrained selfishness and entrepreneurial spirit at his side as his wife, and with children being raised to be secure in humanity's vices and to base their own entrepreneurial spirits around that.
I honestly would *love* to see Ali come out of this as a successful entrepreneur who would later thrive not on competition for human life, but competition for money, and to thrive on crushing his competitors in the business world. He already makes a damn fine entrepreneur selling himself as a mercenary. I'd like to see someone whose ideologies are purely material succeed--because it's a hell of a lot better to live as a successful big-time CEO than some crazy ideologue barely making ends meet in the real world.
Graphic Designer
Would be fun if it happened, who likes Billy anyway?
