Mobile Suit Gundam 00 - Episode 03 Discussion / Poll

[hobbes_fan]

Not to point out the bleeding obvious but nearly every Gundam pilot in a gundam series has dialogue which "discharges their feelings towards their enemies" while piloting. So personally I think it's a valid observation, and I see that there are a lot of visual similarities in other scenes to other recent non-gundam series, it's a fairly petty complaint IF it is that.

Right now overall I'm fairly excited to see what happens, while 00 isn't perfect it has succeeded at least in committing me for the forseeable future. "intriguing" would be the best word for it. I expected the intro to the series to be hectic but hopefully hey can smooth over the bumps over time.

Having gone through the enitre thread, it seems the only really unhappy ones are people expecting it to be Seed like.

[Tak]

What further reinforced this deja vu was the fact that both Shinn and Setsuna spent the first few minutes of the first episode escaping the battlefield, while an uber Gundam came out of nowhere and blasted away what could have potentially been their death sentences.

Right, 00 is not SEED, and I do not expect it to be SEED. Unfortunately, SEED is very recent, and memory is memory, what can you do about it?

Originally Posted by hobbes_fan

Right now overall I'm fairly excited to see what happens, while 00 isn't perfect it has succeeded at least in committing me for the forseeable future...

Having gone through the enitre thread, it seems the only really unhappy ones are people expecting it to be Seed like.

Well, no Gundam franchise is perfect, really. Yet, at this point, I believe we should reserve our final judgment for a later time, no?

- Tak

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by NeonZ

While I thought that last scene felt out of place, calling these Gundams "powerful warmachines" isn't good enough. They're years ahead technologically compared to any of the world powers and operate freely stopping conflicts around the world as they see fit without any effective opposition.

So? Don't you get it? It's not important how powerful those gundams really are, because, to terrorists, it makes absolutely no practical difference. The government already has warmachines that are, to little clandestine organisations like them, unstoppable. So they, quite logically, picked a ground where that kind of strength was irrelevant.

The IRA suddenly suing for peace is only slightly less ridiculous than politicians worldwide suddenly going "I'm never going to steal public funds ever again! Please spare me, oh mighty Gundams!"

It's just the wrong conflict.

Under that situation, the RIRA either would have to limit itself to terrorist activity for an indefinite timespan, without any hope of making real progress for their objectives, due to certain interference of Celestial Being, a seemingly unstoppable force,

So? They've been doing it for 400 years, why stop now? Besides, you don't seem to understand the terrorist rationale. It's not about militarily pushing the English out. They know they can't do that. They're definitely not trying to tackle tanks with broken beer bottles.

It's about just plain existing in the first place. A bomb in a civilian area is something that can't be denied. They can't be dismissed as vaguely discontent dilettantes. That way, they let the world know they're really, really angry. Through their acts their cause is made known, their voices heard. They gain political power with it, with which they can push their agenda.

Sure, it has its counter-productive sides, too. Maybe it's plain crazy and hopeless. But it's been good enough for them all this time, and Gundams do nothing to change the situation. At least, they haven't yet. If they use a military victory to force institutional changes, it's different. But randomly shooting people on the other side of the world? It's got nothing to do with them.

or just plain give up, because they're likely to never achieve their ends.

400 years, they've held on. And, as I said, the Gundams didn't make a victory any less likely. In fact, if they intervene at all, they're more likely to go against the side with the big warmachines. That means the government, not the terrorists who, as soon as they stash their weapons, look just like innocent bystanders. Upstanding citizens.

[rpgman1]

Did Anon dropped Gundam 00? I was really looking forward to watching it on my PS3. People already have negative expectations on Gundam 00 based on a measly 3 episodes. It will turn around down the road, so just have patience. I don't want 00 to be SEED and Destiny, but it's turning more into Wing. I want 00 to be different from the rest of the other Gundam series.

[Archmagination2002]

I can't help thinking that there is more to the IRA ceasing operations than meets the eye. I am wondering if the destruction of the Drug Fields is what caused the IRA to stop operating(That could have been their main source of income) I also think that someone in CB could have been working behind the scenes on them to increase the effect of the drug fields destruction.

[Skyfall]

Hm ... not exactly thrilled by this episode. The 'cliffhanger' fight ended up being less spectacular and shorter than i expected it to be, but i guess it is not that bad, considering the obviously superior mobility these gundams have thanks to the deus ex particles. What i do like about the show is that the gundams are not absurdly ungodly compared to grunt suits (and grunts actually seem to be better than the ones in GS/D), so i can actually see them putting up a fight when they get outfitted with newer generation MS.

I don't particullary like how episode 3 developed things. I understand their attempts to show the world is somewhat being influenced by the appearance of Gundams (4 Gundams against the world! *cough*), but a 400 year old conflict coming to an end simply because of this seems far fetched at best. Virtue being transported to space via the elevator was kinda eyebrow raising as well - the elevator is supposed to be THE most important thing the country has. The security sure is not impressive.

Should be interesting to watch how this all develops though - there is little doubt about some shady purpose being behind the celestial beings, as i can hardly imagine truly stopping the wars being the goal intended for them , whether the pilots are aware of it or not. Especially considering there are no apparent wars going on per se. I wouldn't be surprised if their actions end up causing one though somehow

I like the overall 'cold war' setting, as it opens the door for some politics on a rather global scale.

What i don't like is the painfully dull cast of characters the cheeZily labeled celestial beings sport. Stratos aside, the rest of them are about as exciting as watching paint dry. Wang sparks some interest in me as well, but thats it. So far Graham seems to be by far more interesting than any of our protagonists. I would say the characters are the weakest link this show has thus far, because you could replace guys like Tieria (thats and ugly trap if i have ever seen one) and Allelujah with a monotone speaker and no one would be the wiser. Setsuna is not particularly interesting either - your usual teenage emo pilot.

The detached form of story telling is not helping in this regard. I prefer a more personal look at the situation, not feeling like watching the whole thing as a distant observer. More character focus please

Overall the show has potential, but episode 3 was not as good as the previous one, and not exactly that great. 6/10
(PS - the less i hear the fancy 'celestial beings' or 'gundam meisters' per episode, the better)

[Tak]

Now, lets give them some credit, just because the IRA decided to sign a peace treaty, it does not mean its anything permanent. Treaties can be made and broken.

Regardless, in 2005, the IRA or Provisional Irish Republican Army already commenced a cease fire. Only the RIRA and other smaller splinter groups are still active. At the moment, we have no way of knowing just which group the IRA in 00 is referring to (since a lot claim to be the descendant of the original IRA).

In any case, if the IRA in 00 is a reference to PIRA, then a peace treaty is most likely a follow-up progression to the cease fire. Hell, I have reasons to believe that CB is using the IRA as a smoke screen as well.

But we will, as always, wait and see.

- Tak

[Matrim]

It's not important how powerful those gundams really are, because, to terrorists, it makes absolutely no practical difference. The government already has warmachines that are, to little clandestine organisations like them, unstoppable. So they, quite logically, picked a ground where that kind of strength was irrelevant.

The IRA suddenly suing for peace is only slightly less ridiculous than politicians worldwide suddenly going "I'm never going to steal public funds ever again! Please spare me, oh mighty Gundams!"

It's just the wrong conflict.

Amen to that.

we have no way of knowing just which group the IRA in 00 is referring to

It's called Real IRA, according to the news Saji watches in the end of the episode.

[Nightengale]

Originally Posted by Tak

Now, lets give them some credit, just because the IRA decided to sign a peace treaty, it does not mean its anything permanent. Treaties can be made and broken.

Regardless, in 2005, the IRA or Provisional Irish Republican Army already commenced a cease fire. Only the RIRA and other smaller splinter groups are still active. At the moment, we have no way of knowing just which group the IRA in 00 is referring to (since a lot claim to be the descendant of the original IRA).

In any case, if the IRA in 00 is a reference to PIRA, then a peace treaty is most likely a follow-up progression to the cease fire. Hell, I have reasons to believe that CB is using the IRA as a smoke screen as well.

But we will, as always, wait and see.

- Tak

It's REAL IRA. The news broadcaster specifically said so.

Regardless, the sudden arms-down by RIRA is pretty weirdly unconvincing.

In the end, I suppose we're to assume that IRA in the end, doesn't want to see Ireland destroyed by both their civil-war and CB's take-no-sides-decimate-all approach.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Nightengale

It's REAL IRA. The news broadcaster specifically said so.

Regardless, the sudden arms-down by RIRA is pretty weirdly unconvincing. In the end, I suppose we're to assume that IRA in the end, doesn't want to see Ireland destroyed by both their civil-war and CB's take-no-sides-decimate-all approach.

I will wait another episode at least before making another comment on this. But do we even have any proof CB had anything to do with what happened in Ireland?
I mean, how does a Japanese civilian school boy know if the world is changing or not, it's not like he is an expert on world politics.

If anything, I think it is used to show how naive the boy is. For someone who's sister is a reporter, I expected him to be a bit more of a sceptic than what is shown.

[Tak]

Originally Posted by Nightengale

Regardless, the sudden arms-down by RIRA is pretty weirdly unconvincing.

Just watched the episode again, (and why do I keep on missing details!), you are right, it is the RIRA.

If it is the RIRA, then its all the simpler. The RIRA never amounted to a significant number, just enough to disrupt the boarders.

Seriously, though. Put your self in their shoes for a moment. Its like this, if some unknown faction came out of nowhere today and leveled most of the Middle East (or other countries/factions etc...) suspected of supporting terrorism of any sort with anti-matter weapons, and that there was no way to retaliate against them, not even through international scrutiny, I think it'd be a wise choice to accept their demands, especially one as simple as 'peace'. Why? Because pretty soon, you'd be out of a reason to even exist!

Heck, for those familiar with 13th century history involving the Mongols committing atrocities in every place imaginable, you can see some faint parallels with the Celestial Being in 00. As one Slavic chronicle puts it, they came, they decimated our land, and fainted into the shadows.

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

how does a Japanese civilian school boy know if the world is changing or not, it's not like he is an expert on world politics.

I suspect because you do not expect the RIRA to suddenly quit, but they did.

Hell, the world changed when Bush went after Iraq, and that didn't take a genius to figure out. But, lets be fair, aren't we being a little hard on the show already? Cmon, let it flow for the next 10 episodes before we drop the hammer, eh?


- Tak (Besides, the CB is not conquering anyone, they are trying to keep everyone in check)

[Deathwing]

i kinda think this show has the wrong premise on how the world works people are not gonna fold to somebody just because an outside force threatens them. sure people will unite to stop the gundams (and even then some people just hate others and rather die) but what happens after the united force of the world beats the gundams ... same situation as before the gundams just more firepower to kill each other with the next time. When your willing to fight for a cause your usually willing to die for it no matter what that cause. i think this show just downplays human determination. (some thing that wing did not do which this show is badly trying to copy with no character development hell i cant even tell some of the pilots apart)

hoping this show picks up soon i really want to like it but the only things im liking so far is the animation quality (this is seriously nice work imo) and the OP (full thing is on youtube and i cant stop listing to it)

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Tak

Just watched the episode again, (and why do I keep on missing details!), you are right, it is the RIRA.

If it is the RIRA, then its all the simpler. The RIRA never amounted to a significant number, just enough to disrupt the boarders.

I don't think that what the RIRA is today is very relevant to what a group calling itself RIRA four hundred years in the future will be.

And if it's somehow the same group that survived four hundred years, then it can hardly be called insignificant.

Seriously, though. Put your self in their shoes for a moment. Its like this, if some unknown faction came out of nowhere today and leveled most of the Middle East (or other countries/factions etc...) suspected of supporting terrorism of any sort with anti-matter weapons, and that there was no way to retaliate against them, not even through international scrutiny, I think it'd be a wise choice to accept their demands, especially one as simple as 'peace'. Why? Because pretty soon, you'd be out of a reason to even exist!

They didn't level anything much. They fought other Mobile Suits, not civilian targets. That hardly concerns terrorists. The closest they came to was burning down that field, but meh. That's still no cause for a big public announcement. A bit of a wait and see attitude, maybe, but that's it.

Heck, for those familiar with 13th century history involving the Mongols committing atrocities in every place imaginable, you can see some faint parallels with the Celestial Being in 00. As one Slavic chronicle puts it, they came, they decimated our land, and fainted into the shadows.

What atrocities did the Gundam commit, that'd make them so feared? If you're a soldier, I'd understand being worried. But terrorists aren't soldiers. They have other kinds of problems.

I suspect because you do not expect the RIRA to suddenly quit, but they did.

Speaking for myself, I don't expect the IRA conflict to last four hundred years, beyond a grand unification of Europe.

Hell, the world changed when Bush went after Iraq, and that didn't take a genius to figure out.

Oh, the world started changing when the gundams made their appearance. How much, and for how long, is still uncertain, though. But the thing is, the IRA putting their weapons down means nothing with regard to that.

But, lets be fair, aren't we being a little hard on the show already? Cmon, let it flow for the next 10 episodes before we drop the hammer, eh?

You want to wait till episode 13 before deciding it's stupid? I'm willing to wait for a bit before releasing definite conclusions, but for now, let's just say I'm not impressed with the shows' politics.

Note, just because it's pretentious and stupid doesn't mean it can't be fun.

- Tak (Besides, the CB is not conquering anyone, they are trying to keep everyone in check)

We don't know what they're trying to do. They've so far failed to say anything that didn't trip my bullshit detectors, but I guess we'll see.

[Tak]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

They didn't level anything much. They fought other Mobile Suits, not civilian targets. That hardly concerns terrorists. The closest they came to was burning down that field, but meh. That's still no cause for a big public announcement. A bit of a wait and see attitude, maybe, but that's it.

Actually, I was implying what made them capable of being feared (for what is still largely unknown) was because of what they can potentially do. So far, you are right, they have not leveled anything, but I am stating specifically that when these guys do get started, there seems to be no practical way of dealing with these 4 random forces of Gundams, not even through the usage of international scrutiny. Now, as of yet, what they have done was to go against military targets, but this would also include terrorist bases or what not.

One fact is clear, they are not there to help the underdogs, as we have already witnessed that in Episode 2.

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

What atrocities did the Gundam commit, that'd make them so feared? If you're a soldier, I'd understand being worried. But terrorists aren't soldiers. They have other kinds of problems.

Again, you are not reading it right. It has nothing to do with atrocities, it has more to do with their ability to come, destroy, and leave. Such was the Mongols during the 13th century, who were not under any effective scrutiny, came as they pleased, plundered, destroyed any form of resistance, and then puff into the shadows. So far, thats what CB is doing.

- Tak

[Tak]

Damn double post...

[Anh_Minh]

Yeah, and technically the European government could carpet bomb Ireland. That's still not what should worry the IRA.

I admit the CB are a bit more of an unknown quantity, but a public surrender is still a wild overreaction.



And as for terrorist camps being a valid target - sure, but Gundams change nothing to the fact that if a camp is found, it'll be easily destroyed. In fact, seeing as governments these days may be hesitant to deploy military forces, and certainly treat terrorists as a much lower priority than Gundams, they'd only have more time to escape.

It's a good time to be a terrorist in 00 right now. Why quit?

[Tak]

Actually, at this moment, we don't even know exactly what made the terrorists quit~

- Tak

[Anh_Minh]

It's implied that it's the Gundams' fault. Sure, it may be some kind of weird coincidence, like all the terrorists suddenly getting (non-violent) religion. But how likely is that? And remember that this is basically a story about Gundams. Would that bit of news get screentime if it was unrelated?

Now, there may be something slightly different from the obvious, like the IRA being infiltrated by the CB. I hope so. But meh, I don't really believe it.

[SGT.Mitsuki]

i sooooooooo hated this episode! :X
it left me with a strong desire to vieuw the next! :X now im all like WAAAAAAAH I NEED TO SEE THE NEXT thats a good thing ofc but its a pain if u need to w8 for the next 1 to come out : p

[Ninjacat]

This episode is so incredibly moronic.

If big giant machines of destruction were all you needed to stop drug traficking and generations-old terrorist feuds, those two things would have been extinct by 1980.

I'm probably done with this series. The desing and animations are gorgeous, but it feels like it's written by a bunch of six years olds.