Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - Anime Episode Discussion

[Kazu-kun]

I wonder if what happened to Eri was what Cardo was trying to achieve all along. Because she said the Gundam was the future for humanity, but that didn't make a lot of sense to me until now. But if we assume that what Cardo envisioned was a future in which people would trade their human bodies for mechanical Gun-based bodies in order to live in space, then things start to make a lot more sense.

Human bodies are too frail. We can't go too far away into space with those bodies. But if humans become "Gundam" they can go anywhere. Traveling to other stars and colonize other planets wouldn't be a dream anymore. There would be no limits to what humans can do. Though, at that point you could argue humans aren't humans anymore.

But anyway, I seriously wonder if this is what Cardo was going for.

[Shinji103]

With everybody admiring the episode quality and the rest of the episode which were all good indeed, we’re lacking much mentioning of the new winner of the title of Worst Gundam Parent. Kamille’s dad is out, and even Gendou from Evangelion has hard competition now.

And we still don’t know where Suletta came from. Is she a new consciousness in Eri’s body after her mind was put in Aerial, is she a clone, or is she just a random kid picked up by Prospera and made to look like Eri?

I’m very glad they jumped almost straight into the plot and dark side this season. At first I was afraid they were going to waste more time on the whole School-n’-Duel Isekai copying (well, they didn’t drop it entirely yet…..) from season 1 with that string of duels thing going on last episode, but we’re already jumping back into Gundam.

[serenade_beta]

Lol, the Mesugakis are so similar to each other that once they put on a helmet, it's so hard to tell who is who

[azarhal]

Originally Posted by Shinji103

And we still don’t know where Suletta came from. ...or is she just a random kid picked up by Prospera and made to look like Eri?

What would be the point to change a random kid appearance? Suletta isn't pretending to be someone else like the Elans are and Aerial remembers her at 4 years old.

More people should read Cradle Planet. It's even more interesting after this episode...

[magnuskn]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Lol, the Mesugakis are so similar to each other that once they put on a helmet, it's so hard to tell who is who

Yeah, I got pretty confused there as well. Gotta put some coloring on those suits to distinguish the teams they are on, people!

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

I wonder if what happened to Eri was what Cardo was trying to achieve all along. Because she said the Gundam was the future for humanity, but that didn't make a lot of sense to me until now. But if we assume that what Cardo envisioned was a future in which people would trade their human bodies for mechanical Gun-based bodies in order to live in space, then things start to make a lot more sense.

Human bodies are too frail. We can't go too far away into space with those bodies. But if humans become "Gundam" they can go anywhere. Traveling to other stars and colonize other planets wouldn't be a dream anymore. There would be no limits to what humans can do. Though, at that point you could argue humans aren't humans anymore.

But anyway, I seriously wonder if this is what Cardo was going for.

I guess if the technology was designed around upgrading the human body and mechanizing it like we saw with Elnora or some of the other amputees, downright turning people into machines isn't that much of a stretch.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Shinji103

With everybody admiring the episode quality and the rest of the episode which were all good indeed, we’re lacking much mentioning of the new winner of the title of Worst Gundam Parent.

F*** that shit. WHERE IS BOB??!!!

[Twi]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

F*** that shit. WHERE IS BOB??!!!

Honestly, it's probably for the best he remains out of the spotlight. After last season and how fast Sophie died, I fear for his prolonged longevity if he's on the screen. These writers have it out for him and he can always suffer more.

[Jaden]

If there were no newtypes, it would be necessary to invent them.

-Space Age Voltaire, probably

Suletta is still the main character of the show, so I suppose the next development is to upset her mother's designs, maybe by having Elan and her mommy teach Suletta to become a real gundam pilot.

And prospera puts on a brave front, but really, everything she's done so far has been a huge gamble. The most likely outcome was Aerial getting confiscated and scrapped in the first episode. She's a lot more powerless and desperate than she lets on, not really villain material. There has to be some development first for her to become the antagonist.

[deadite]

I watched the prologue again and it seems I completely missed that Eri had a "little sister" and Elnora didn't look very fond of that little sister.

[Shinji103]

Originally Posted by azarhal

What would be the point to change a random kid appearance? Suletta isn't pretending to be someone else like the Elans are and Aerial remembers her at 4 years old.

I don’t know, I was just putting the possibility on the list.

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

F*** that shit. WHERE IS BOB??!!!

Originally Posted by Twi

Honestly, it's probably for the best he remains out of the spotlight. After last season and how fast Sophie died, I fear for his prolonged longevity if he's on the screen. These writers have it out for him and he can always suffer more.

*facepalm* S***, I somehow completely forgot about him. I feel particularly embarrassed with myself about that because I always thought he’d make the perfect male protagonist alongside Suletta if they weren’t going for the yuri innuendos.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

F*** that shit. WHERE IS BOB??!!!

Working on his mask? Though there's already Prospera, so I don't know how that would work.

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Lol, the Mesugakis are so similar to each other that once they put on a helmet, it's so hard to tell who is who

It's hard enough without the helmets...

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

I wonder if what happened to Eri was what Cardo was trying to achieve all along. Because she said the Gundam was the future for humanity, but that didn't make a lot of sense to me until now. But if we assume that what Cardo envisioned was a future in which people would trade their human bodies for mechanical Gun-based bodies in order to live in space, then things start to make a lot more sense.

Human bodies are too frail. We can't go too far away into space with those bodies. But if humans become "Gundam" they can go anywhere. Traveling to other stars and colonize other planets wouldn't be a dream anymore. There would be no limits to what humans can do. Though, at that point you could argue humans aren't humans anymore.

But anyway, I seriously wonder if this is what Cardo was going for.

How would they do reproduction though? I suppose those small remove controlled gundams could be made dexterous enough to build other gundams, but how do you make a new human mind to put inside?

[Wandering Soul]

If anyone was worried that thing would return to the status quo, this episode took care of those worries. Nika's gone, Earth House has been detained, Shaddiq has went through with his plan of destroying the Beneritt group, Sophie is dead, and a popular theory has been confirmed. We also don't know if Miroine will agree to take up her parent's plan and what Prospera's endgame is supposed to look like.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Shinji103

And we still don’t know where Suletta came from. Is she a new consciousness in Eri’s body after her mind was put in Aerial, is she a clone, or is she just a random kid picked up by Prospera and made to look like Eri?

It's not the former because Suletta very much looks like she's 16, but Eri should be 23 or 24. I'm going with clone with Lfrith's "mind" downloaded into it, which would explain why she can communicate with Aerial.

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

How would they do reproduction though? I suppose those small remove controlled gundams could be made dexterous enough to build other gundams, but how do you make a new human mind to put inside?

Humans would be immortal, so would there be a need to reproduce?

[Frontier]

I'm guessing Bob is on Earth somehow given his imagery in the OP.

Although with Lauda possibly injured, I wonder if Jeturk will be desperate to find another blood relative to fill in.

[azarhal]

I've seen someone point out something interesting on Reddit. Everything Belmeria calls BS, turns out to be BS. She questions Prospera needing such a high permet score for Delling's project and ask her real motivation...we don't see Bel's reaction to that revelation thought, but I'll got with her face still saying "that's BS".

Also, Bel can tell you the permet score required for "no more war" Quiet Zero by just reading something in a few seconds. It's probably not a new idea in this case. And Prospera is weirdly open to her, so I wonder what she needs her for.

I'm calling it too: Nortrette is in Quiet Zero right now and Sophie probably got what she wanted aka join Eri (beyond the data storm), Aerial will probably get a 12th Gund-bits now...

Oh and Bel stop adding death flags, you will die just by the weight at this point.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by azarhal

I've seen someone point out something interesting on Reddit. Everything Belmeria calls BS, turns out to be BS. She questions Prospera needing such a high permet score for Delling's project and ask her real motivation...we don't see Bel's reaction to that revelation thought, but I'll got with her face still saying "that's BS".

Also, Bel can tell you the permet score required for "no more war" Quiet Zero by just reading something in a few seconds. It's probably not a new idea in this case. And Prospera is weirdly open to her, so I wonder what she needs her for.

I'm calling it too: Nortrette is in Quiet Zero right now and Sophie probably got what she wanted aka join Eri (beyond the data storm), Aerial will probably get a 12th Gund-bits now...

Oh and Bel stop adding death flags, you will die just by the weight at this point.

Honestly the longer that scene with Belmeria went on the more I was worried Prospera was going to kill her (though admittedly it doesn't seem like she's overtly resorted to murder outside conditioning her daughter to be okay with killing).

She seems like the first person to jump ship or try to expose Prospera when she realizes how deep this all goes. Especially after finding out what happened to Eri.

[azarhal]

Originally Posted by Frontier

Honestly the longer that scene with Belmeria went on the more I was worried Prospera was going to kill her (though admittedly it doesn't seem like she's overtly resorted to murder outside conditioning her daughter to be okay with killing).

She seems like the first person to jump ship or try to expose Prospera when she realizes how deep this all goes. Especially after finding out what happened to Eri.

She can still do that next episode.

I actually don't get why Prospera is telling her anything. Prospera doesn't need her to develop the project from the looks of it. But she wanted to find the witch at Peil. Now Prospera wants to find out who made the Ur/Thorn.

I'm starting to think she needs to hook more than Aerial+Suletta to Quiet Zero to achieved her goal. Like a bunch of witch orphans...

[Endscape]

Originally Posted by Frontier

Honestly the longer that scene with Belmeria went on the more I was worried Prospera was going to kill her (though admittedly it doesn't seem like she's overtly resorted to murder outside conditioning her daughter to be okay with killing).

She seems like the first person to jump ship or try to expose Prospera when she realizes how deep this all goes. Especially after finding out what happened to Eri.

Bel is under the thumb of the child incinerating hags of Peil, so I assume they've incentivized her to not run to the authorities.

Even if this new information caused a crisis of conscience, I don't think she has any proof and Prospera now basks under the protective wing of Peil and Delling; in this late stage capitalist dystopia I wonder how much the authorities could actually do.

There's also the danger she could blab to the hags, but Bel seems a decent sort and what Prospera is doing is still morally superior to child incineration, if just barely, so I doubt she will.

[Chosen_Hero]

Oh great, more newtype space ghost bullshit... wonderful.

Considering the latest episode I am just going to leave this here for no real reason: (this is what I said back when we got the youtube prequel)

Spoiler for I still stand by this:

Originally Posted by Chosen_Hero

Not a fan of how the story seems to be portraying transhumanism as the "good side" (something a lot of Gundam likes to do, still think that newtypes and their ilk like the innovados/innovators are dumb), at least they showed the bad side to it in this prologue but the existence of the MC being the chosen one who is able to perfectly sync with technology kind of hints that the story has chosen a definite side on this, but hopefully there's more nuance to this series than I am currently giving it credit.

With that said, the animation and artstyle is on point and am glad they chose to forgo 3d animation for the mobile suits and went with hand drawn instead, this just looks really good in motion.

First if all, no, I will not applaud the show confirming the obvious plot point that we have known since season 1, this episode doesn't really change my stance from the first season, it still has the same problems.

Second, If by the end of this series Suletta doesn't somehow become the villain I will be very disappointed and will give this show a 0/10 out of principle alone... huh, if I had a nickel for each time it felt like the only way to make the main female protagonist interesting was to turn her into a villain, then I would have two nickels... which isn't much but it's weird that it's happened twice.

Third, geesh was it difficult to tell who was who in that whole sequence, all of them basically sounded the same and the suits definitely did not help.

Fourth, I really hate it when characters are introduced and killed off this quickly, of course since Suletta can't ever lose (which is a problem in and of itself) it was obvious what the outcome was going to be.

And lastly, the show should just make Bob the main protagonist... I mean it.