Mobile Suit Gundam AGE - Episode 08 Discussion

[Znozzy]

Originally Posted by Realist_Classic

It was done in a very tongue-in-cheek manner. Even if that line wasn't uttered, the Exes will still sell like hotcakes relative to the other models.


I'm curious as to see how they go about doing this. Gundam is proprietary technology, but this episode revealed that there's potentially a whole bunch of tech buried on Earth or elsewhere. We could get some interesting non-UE antagonists along the way. Some obvious homages to Turn A seems likely as well.



That scene was like a Keroro Gunso flashback. But that's explainable

i know, but i still don't like it, it seems like a step down in the show(well i guess it confirms that gunpla sales arent doing as well as they want them to?)
i just found it silly and a cheap way to sell more models to kids.

that brings up the other thing you mentioned, the tech buried on Earth or elsewhere.

Flit's entire family spent generations? building mobile suits, his mother's legacy that Flit perfected ended up being the Gundam and the AGE system.

and it ends up being overshadowed by Woolf in his G-exes because he showed the manufractor a picture of the gundam? it doesn't make sense.

there's just so many holes in this show imo, i can't enjoy it like i enjoy the rest of the gundam metaseries, the UE are supposed to be this " big enemy " but they seem like faceless SEED-quality grunts who have no tactics at all.

i mean, did the colonies they destroyed do nothing at all? in episode 2-3 they seemed to be able to do some damage with tactics and a hidden agenda, but now they just walk around doing nothing except throw out weak punches? what happend to the badass UE in the first episode that sniped Largan in his Genoace?

Originally Posted by Kaioshin Sama

Concering the Titus and this episode, personally I have a hard time understanding why it seems that we always have to try and justify every single thing that happens in Gundam to do with power scaling, "toy commercials" and "realism" and what not that some people will obviously never be okay with. Seems like something one could spend a whole lifetime doing and never reach any sort of satisfying conclusion and personally I'd rather just watch the show and not worry about this sort of stuff obsessively unless it really becomes a problem. Then again I don't take much offense to anything other than excessive use of stock footage and speed lines in mecha combat of which this series only has the latter so far. That would be my only issue with how the action is depicted in AGE.

Back on the Titus and me not wanting to get into yet another manufactured argument over it (ask Chris Guanche of MAHQ to tell you about the former Colosseum sub forum on Mechatalk if you want to know why), maybe that's part of the reason I've managed to enjoy both U.C and AU Gundam shows so consistently. I'm willing to allow each individual series to do their own thing and have their own rules on how the MS are built and customized and don't feel the need to constantly defend anything more than a beam saber, beam rifle and shield on an MS. Just don't feel the need to make like we should always be on the ropes versus posters that don't like anything that isn't immediately recognizable as "realistic". I feel as a fan it's not really my place to try and justify nor to outright condemn each and every mobile suit design and Gundam customization in an AU series and whether it fits or not in whatever episode it's introduced in. It is what it is and if you don't like it you don't like and if you do then you do.

Forums are here to discuss things on be it good, bad, stupid, smart, interesting, boring, likes, dislikes, technology and flying gundam pigs on toasters!

Your feeling as a fan does not apply to everyone else though, if someone want's to talk about the Titus design and find details about this and that interesting, who are you or i to stop them? everyone wants to talk, that's what this forum is here for

Originally Posted by brightman

^Eh, some people may be legitimately confused... So we're just explainin' stuff.

Actually, I find that I learn even more about the universe too in the process.

That too, it's fun to discuss, everyone picks up different details that other people miss, it's fun to share the collective knowledge and opinions of a series we all appreciate.

[SoldierOfDarkness]

Originally Posted by Urei

It's not an aerial unit either and it's additional weith and armor does not improve it's chances against a unit that actualy has an ability to fly, especialy with no ranged weapons as it's equipment, which other non-UE seem to posses, as non-effective as they are. Equipping the new Spec with no ranged weapons in a combat that features aerial enemies is illogical no matter what you say.



That's a good argument, then again, Titus is not a mobility imprevement over the original eaither. The extent of it's mobility decrease is unknown. Logic dictates to treat it that way too.



As I said, fight an aerial unit with no ranged weapons and only with short reach melee weapons based around your arm, knee and shoulder all while jumping.

Your forgetting that the Age Gundam is more or less a general purpose machine with a blank slate. The purpose of the AGE system is to allow the Gundam to adapt to whatever situations it finds itself in and not something in the future. That's how adaptation works, it's adapting to whatever specific environment it finds itself in.

For example.

First battle against UE - Gundam uses the Genoace's flashlight to no avail.
Age System - Designs a rifle that can penetrate the UE's armor enough that it actually overwhelms their own mega cannon.

Second battle against Zadarn or that fast UE - Gundam's rifle damages it to a certain extent but cannot actually keep up with it.
Age System - Insufficient as this was the only time it fought against this unit.

Next battles against regular UE so the rifle is more or less sufficient but AGE system continues to gather data.

Third and fourth battle against brute UE unit - Gundam's beam is easily scattered by the new unit. Simply put it probably could penetrate the armor but it has a field that deflects the shots so I don't see why making an even more powerful beam would work. It's like in Gundam 00 where the GN-X's use beam scattering particles that can deflect any beam regardless of its strength. The brute also closes in for combat and batters the Gundam like it's B***h.
Age System - Finds that the Gundam's close quarter combat is rather insufficient as it can't even match the brute's raw strength. Designs a new set of arms and legs with heavier armor and beam CC which allows the gundam to match the brute in hand-to-hand combat as that is what the Brute excels in.

The way I'm seeing it the AGE system is simply adapting and trying new things with the Gundam as Titus is obviously not an ideal unit to use. Once the Zeda comes back the AGE system will re-adapt again in order to combat it. In the end the AGE system will put everything together into one unit to handle all of them at once.

On that matter the G-exe is awesome.

Flit's entire family spent generations? building mobile suits, his mother's legacy that Flit perfected ended up being the Gundam and the AGE system.

and it ends up being overshadowed by Woolf in his G-exes because he showed the manufractor a picture of the gundam? it doesn't make sense.

A manufactutor who also happens to have a Zeda in his store. I think that speaks for itself in regards to what tech he has access to. The AGE system is superior but it needs to catch up with it.

[ReddyRedWolf]

Originally Posted by Znozzy

Flit's entire family spent generations? building mobile suits, his mother's legacy that Flit perfected ended up being the Gundam and the AGE system.

and it ends up being overshadowed by Woolf in his G-exes because he showed the manufractor a picture of the gundam? it doesn't make sense.

You don't read between the lines do you?

1. The Silver Chalice Treaty forbade certain mobile suit technologies. Causing a major downgrade as time passed.

2. The Gundam is a legendary machine in the past known as a savior. The Asuno family seem to be connected to this legend. Woolf's buddy even knew about the Gundam legend.

3. The revelation this episode a certain Yark Dole, masked guy in charge of the creepy kid, also known as the Black Merchant is selling MS blueprints nobody should have. He seems to be connected to the UE given Woolf's buddy MS smith is customizing a UE MS, the Zedas.

Ergo G-Exes is more advance than the typical Federation MS because of Yark Dole's technology leak.

Why he is leaking forbidden MS tech is unknown.

[Znozzy]

Originally Posted by ReddyRedWolf

You don't read between the lines do you?

1. The Silver Chalice Treaty forbade certain mobile suit technologies. Causing a major downgrade as time passed.

2. The Gundam is a legendary machine in the past known as a savior. The Asuno family seem to be connected to this legend. Woolf's buddy even knew about the Gundam legend.

3. The revelation this episode a certain Yark Dole, masked guy in charge of the creepy kid, also known as the Black Merchant is selling MS blueprints nobody should have. He seems to be connected to the UE given Woolf's buddy MS smith is customizing a UE MS, the Zedas.

Ergo G-Exes is more advance than the typical Federation MS because of Yark Dole's technology leak.

Why he is leaking forbidden MS tech is unknown.

1. i know about the treaty.

2. The Asano family is known to be a family of Mobile suit designers/builders, of course they are connected to the Gundam " legend "? that was revealed in the first episode

3. this "Yark dole/Dark Merchant" might be a descendant from one of the pre-Silver Chalice treaty families that built mobile suits, maybe even one of the Asano's? who wants to continue vaging war, and kept the technology that the Silver Chalice treaty banned, he might have a hand in funding the UE, or the UE might've gone to him for mobile suit's

it would explain the technology gap between the current federation and the UE, and even add up to the so called " Legendary saviour " in the end(With Flit's family beating it), think about it:

a Zeon-remnant group who didnt discard their technology for peace, instead they kept a grudge over time, inproving and gathering funds in the shadows, and in time they started doing hit-and run attacks on colonies their ancestors held grudges against with their superior technology

to put it short, they might be going for revenge?

[brightman]

Originally Posted by ReddyRedWolf

3. The revelation this episode a certain Yark Dole, masked guy in charge of the creepy kid, also known as the Black Merchant is selling MS blueprints nobody should have. He seems to be connected to the UE given Woolf's buddy MS smith is customizing a UE MS, the Zedas.

Actually, the masked guy in charge of Decil as seen in Ep 5 is listed in the credits as "Geera Zoi", also voiced by Cho... Could be an alter ego? Or a different guy? Or a mistake.

[justsomeguy]

I know I'm late to the discussion, but LOL, the G-Exes was more impressive than the Titus. High output beam sabers stronger than DODS rifle shots and comparable to the ones on Titus, and finesse, and strength apparently equal to the Titus. Forget the AGE system, the guy who built the G-Exes is more impressive.

[aeriolewinters]

Forget the AGE system, the guy who built the G-Exes is more impressive.

I'm quite sure that the factory has shady dealings, which is why they can build something as impressive as the G-Exes. If the Diva's crew was wise, they'd let the G-Exes Spar with the Titus again and again for it to gather more data.

[kk2extreme]

Wow, you can buy better mechs outside of the military, this shows how weak the Fedaration is...

I think the UE grunts so far are just scouts, who knows how powerful the main force is

[justsomeguy]

Originally Posted by aeriolewinters

I'm quite sure that the factory has shady dealings, which is why they can build something as impressive as the G-Exes. If the Diva's crew was wise, they'd let the G-Exes Spar with the Titus again and again for it to gather more data.

The guy has a Zedas sitting right in his garage alongside Genoaces and Zaku ripoffs. He's either getting his tech from the UE, or is building for them.

[SvenCalBayan]

Originally Posted by bio9205

... the G-Exes is totally kickass. Screw the Titus.

I couldn't agree more. The G-Exes is awesome in terms of looks and battle equipement. The white on black (whith the white color being dominant) paint scheme is superb. I prefer that over an entirely black colored mobile suit (the dark gundam look is kinda cliché now...).

Frankly, the G-Exes and the regular Gafrans are the best looking mobile suits so far.

The regular Gundam is okay... but it's Titus form is just... not okay. How about I just call it Fat Gundam. I mean, I do the the same thing for those bulky Gafrans called Baka.. baku, baqto... Fat Gafrans.

___________________________

As for the story, well it's... not that interesting. Still, can't wait to learn more about the UE.

So now Flit has probably the 'Mafia Army' (Zalam Union) and the 'Aristocratic Alliance' (Euba Alliance) to back him up against the UE.

And yeah, like most people here, I'm also tired of hearing Emily... Flitto, Flitto, Flitto, Flitto, sigh... Flitto, sigh, Flitto, sigh, sigh... Flitto, Flitto...

When his Hinata... oops, I mean Yurin returning ?

[FlareKnight]

Certainly the Gundam should be able to keep advancing which is its strength over the other mobile suits. Long term it's pretty damn strong since it can keep improving.

G-Exes though is pretty nice. Woolf can pilot just fine and it just has a nice look to it. Plus nothing wrong with dual-wielding .

[EroKing]

I'm still watching this only for the return of Yurin

[Kaioshin Sama]

Probably the strongest episode for me since 3. That was exceedingly manly throughout and the fight was probably the best of the arc so far.

Some things obviously went down a slightly predictable route (not that I believe that's inherently an outright bad thing) like Boyage and Ract realizing that there are currently fights bigger and more pressing than their petty blood feud and teaming up to help protect the colony with the Gundam, though sadly there was no manly handshake at the end. Still they did pretty decently considering they couldn't even scratch the UE. However of course the UFC Gundam as I'm calling it was able to do the bulk of the work and it's pretty easy to see that it's based off of the UE Baqto they just fought. Big, bulky, kind of slow but really durable and able to project beams from striking points in order to do maximum damage. This thing is a pretty useful upgrade. I think that's the first time Flit has taken out quite that many UE mobile suits with the Gundam in one battle, but of course the timely arrival of Woolf with the new G-Exes has significantly increased their war power and he was able to help as well. Suddenly the UE aren't looking quite as insurmountable a foe to face, but they'll still need yet more good modern mobile suits if they want to attack the nest.

Other things that happened were of course Boyage and Woolf's mechanic guy introducing the mystery of a black market legend named Yark Dole (who I believe is that hooded man we've already seen talking to Decil) and of course the reveal that the mechanic dude has a UE mobile suit in his warehouse, hinting at a more terrestrial origin for our apparent alien foes.

Music was at it's best again this episode like with episode 03 as well which all helped with the pacing and flow of the battle a bit. If I have any criticisms (everyone's favorite thing when discussing Gundam....can't very well leave this part out) it's that the art still isn't quite where I feel it needs to be for a Gundam series (though there were far less speed lines this episode and more actual combat segments) and some of Woolf's dialogue felt a little too silly, even for his happy go lucky asshole kind of character. As much as I know he thinks he's hot shit and ready to compete with the Gundam for UE kill counts I really don't see how the UE are supposed to care about and respond to which particular way he's going to kick their ass.

Once again though the enjoyment and the positives far outweigh the negatives like with every episode but the last one, but shhhh....don't tell anyone I said that about a Gundam series folks or I might get in trouble.

Originally Posted by TheEroKing

I'm still watching this only for the return of Yurin

Danbooru is your friend. Personally I'm watching the show cause it's pretty good for a kids show and it's my favourite franchise, but I suppose everybody has their own reasons. Far be it from me to argue with all the "I'm watching this only for" posts though since they are after all a staple of the internet.

[Rising Dragon]

I really don't understand the huge craze over Yurin, unless its one of those Japanese archetype things, like Rei Ayanami. She certainly wasn't that impressive to me.

[wingdarkness]

Well I did enjoy the first bit of the episode when the Franky Franky Gundam came on the scene and started pile-driving the UE mechs, but the episode died for me right after that with the next array of battles that were just not up to snuff...If you want me to forget about some of the story aspects of the show I'd like the action scenes to communicate a little bit more in pure action...

Honestly it's the fight choreography...It's slow...It's not imaginative for the most part and ultimately bland in nature...I mean i half-thought Cagali was piloting the Blue-UE mecha during the scenes where it was fighting the Generic Zaku-mechs...With a machine that is so much more advanced in maneuverability, to watch that thing repeatedly just arm-block, and shoot hand sprays, it's just pathetic...The scene with the Gundam and company "running" down the walled-off streets was particularly hard to take...There's just a lack of fluidity in the movements that's extremely noticeable to me (Except for Wolf ofcourse )

Also I find the battle music some of the weakest in all of Gundam..Just doesn't energize the fights at all for me...Gundam usually kills with the score...

This episode did make me grin a bit as I think this was the first time I ever saw a Gundam kick an enemy MS in the nuts^^ (Titus right before the commercial break)...Also with the revelation that the UE is getting their suits made at the local Space Pep-Boys (Intel be damned) we might finally get a sense of who's piloting these things, and have less souless UE battles moving forward...And what's that, did I see a maskedman in the preview? Certainly that wasn't Mr. Bushido in the cloak? Hell I'll take it at this point...

"Go, GN Wolf Fangs!!!"

5/10...Blame the Fangs...

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Rising Dragon

I really don't understand the huge craze over Yurin, unless its one of those Japanese archetype things, like Rei Ayanami. She certainly wasn't that impressive to me.

It's literally just cause she's shippable and looks cute. It's something that's easy for people that aren't all that into Gundam AGE or even Gundam in general to identify with.

For whatever reason Gundam has just always had this huge shipping trend ever since Seed times.

[U<3Anime]

Originally Posted by TheEroKing

I'm still watching this only for the return of Yurin

*Co-sign* The same goes for me. Well, I guess I'll tune in for that G-Exes and Zedas. I'm definitely going to root for sexy Zedas next week and hope it tears AGE into shreds.

Man, why do the side-characters have much cooler looking units than the main character? >_>;

[PzIVf3]

I though Woolf is gonna say WOLF FANG ....FIIIIST. I remembered those days from Dragonball.

[Vsin]

Just a random comment about the G-Exes, but I feel as though if you filled in the "mouth mask" lines on the head it would make it look better. I dunno, maybe it's just me.

[Duo Maxwell]

Isn't half of the staff in this ep from OGIN? I like the direction it's going.