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Originally Posted by 4Tran
From the creators' points of view, the meeting between our leads was the main (indeed, only) point of the episode. The entire terrorist subplot only existed to bring them together. Part of the reason it turned out so poorly is that they had effectively written themselves into a corner, and needed lots of handwaving to get out of it.
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This is a war. Of course, anybody could not get to meet anyone or allow the freedom of actually trying to fit in, let's say, a rather melodramatic way of showing how they met in the middle of war.
It was under those stressful instances that Setsuna and Marina got to meet, and so far, after all the ruckus that CB has been doing for the last 7 episodes it would seem to be to be unrealistic if the world's "terrorists" haven't actually done anything as of yet and maybe delay it for the finale or something...
I must agree that the pace was rather erratic and random, but so far the haphazard pacing of Gundam 00 is enough to give anyone the sense of getting panicky or anything by the entire premise...in the real world, a lot of things DO happen at the same time, and even a whole day's broadcast of whatever is really going on all around the world is not even enough to show the level of catastrophe or whatever a coup is doing that could inevitably affect another random country in the middle of nowhere...I think Gundam 00 has actually handled it pretty well.
War isn't something you could actually put on pause and try creating an overly feel good way of how the hero and heroine met. If it were, it would rather become even more out of place. After what happened in Moralia, CB is now officially the enemy of the entire world, and so the real war begins.
Saji's sister is also thinking in the same way as I do, that what CB is showing to the world could be the front of something else.
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Based on the requirements of the story, and the constraints the creators made on the story, it was sort of inevitable that the meeting was going to turn out badly. While it may be possible that there are ways that it could have been written better, they would certainly have taken that opportunity if they could think of it.
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I am pretty sure not all relationships have the idyllic characteristics of stereotypical "love at first sight" kind of background to them. Granted that Setsuna and Marina could have met in far better circumstances, in the current situation, there really was no other choice but to have them meet by "force" after she magically saved him from the police. The CB were asking for it, and so the situation has gone critical.
Making Setsuna and Marina meet in a better situation would actually become disjointed from the central point of the episode, or the series at this point. You could also probably say the same thing about Sumeragi and the ponytail man; they could have met during better times, but the war has forced them to meet in a way that was kind of stressful for the both of them, him being the techie of the Union hard pressed to find out about the Gundam and she as the tactical forecaster for the CB just trying to enjoy herself before the beginning of the mission.
Marina was quite happy when she found out about Setsuna and wanted to talk to him; she was a Queen under a lot of stress and wanted to share how she felt about the current Azadistan situation to someone who could understand it the way that she does. Unfortunately, Setsuna was from Kurdistan, and Azadistan was the cause of its spiral to destruction, and for everything that has happened. Marina tried to explain that they tried to resolve everything through peaceful means; Setsuna snaps at her that everyone else was still being killed even as they talk. Hearing something like that from a Queen who still doesn't know anything yet is quite infuriating for Setsuna, as it was the reason that made him think like he is the Gundam.
anyway, can someone try explaining to a person who was the direct victim of a war how everything was done in order to curb his hatred for that country? The war robbed him of his innocence, and maybe somewhere along the way, he might have been betrayed by Ali for tricking him to kill the only persons which could've at least tried shielding him from that kind of pain, and Azadistan was also a major factor why there are still people being killed even as he fought as a kid soldier back then. Setsuna is still filled with a lot of hatred and pain and it was only Ali, among all the persons he have come up against, who was able to get him worked up like that; he didn't randomly choose to show himself to anyone either. The hatred he bore for Azadistan made it a lot worse that he blurted all those WTF things out loud to Marina that he is a GM.
seeing things through Setsuna's context could probably clear all those things; heck,
Lockon was also starting to show this kind of anger in that episode by always muttering that he would snipe all those bastards down, and he could already barely contain himself, if it weren't for Haro. Lockon's hatred for terrorism is the same as Setsuna's hatred for Azadistan and Ali (if he hates Ali); those guys could snap at any moment, like any normal person would. I am pretty sure Allelujah's fear of drifting alone in space could be akin to Lockon and Setsuna's hatred; Allelujah was the first victim of this WTF syndrome when he directly disobeyed the plan made by Sumeragi in a bid to save those civilians.
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Once a group uses unrestrained violence to attack a country, that country basically receives casus belli to do whatever they want to the instigating party. Generally, this free hand can be used to garner a great deal of public support and grants power to the rulers. In effect, countries gain quite a bit by letting everyone know that they plan to use force themselves.
Besides, France blew up Rainbow Warrior for much much less cause.
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Of course, look what happened to the recent Iraqi war.
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I think that the creators may pick up the story thread of the terrorists' sponsor at a later date. However, the sheer convenience written into the story doesn't exactly get my hopes up that it'll be handled very well.
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Setsuna and Marina were bound to have met, no matter what happens, because they're the OTP of this series.
seriously though, if CB didn't find out soon enough who the sponsor is, it could create even more massive witch hunts for the blocs to purge CB, until they are forced into a situation that would trap them and for the blocs to get a hold of the GN Drive technology. Of course, they're bound to protect all those GN Drives with their lives. That is why the need to hunt those terrorists down. Also, by the way CB was acting, it isn't very unreal at all to think that a terrorist group somewhere is going to force the CB out of hiding and so entrap them like that, being used.
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Basically, the power blocs stood to gain plenty by being seen to attack the terrorists, and to gain nothing by manipulating Celestial Being into doing so. By the way, I'm not sure if anyone's pointed it out, but the terrorist bases were in the Marshall Islands and Guyana which is actually in HRL and Union territory respectively; so it was by no means in neutral territory.
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I don't know. They released the biometrics through the internet, hoping that CB could be tricked to do it for them, maybe because they were lazy.
seriously though, as they knew CB's weakness for trying to end all conflict by creating conflict, that kind of plan will attract them to go out of hiding, and could be the cause why they could be traced sooner or later (as the next ep preview shows somewhat). So they win both ways; by using CB to exterminate the terrorists, they could not be found responsible for "planning" to stop violence with violence and CB would be even more hated by it, and they could continue on with their Gundam catching plans without making everybody realize that is their true intended goal. They could get praised for stopping the terrorists as well.
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You're probably reading too much into it. One doesn't keep someone from being desensitized by ignoring the fact that they're going to kill people. Besides, it was obvious that the scenes were purely for fanservice - Sumeragi even pointed it earlier  . Personally, I'm rather pleased that the creators decided to be so blatantly honest.
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Well, being those persons who are responsible for co-directing the Gundams' movements and that the lives of the Meisters themselves depend on them, Sumeragi knows that they need to relax every now and then. I am pretty sure that the fanservice was also some kind of therapy for the 2 young girls; I am quite sure that they knew what they were getting themselves into when they joined CB, and Sumeragi is just helping them try to at least act "normal" once in a while, knowing full well that it could very well be their last, if Veda's plan were to work "just as planned".
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