Aldnoah.Zero - generic discussion thread

[StormKing]

Originally Posted by MeggieMay

Well they could go with the angle that the attack was done by humans, backed covertly by the Vers/Knights (personally I'm confused by the Vers verse the Knights issue at this point and I think it's going to take a few more episodes to clear that up).

As for the MC Terran and his emotionless attitude, I kept thinking he was coming off like he had Asperger syndrome. Not sure if that's what they were wanting to go for, though. When the episode started I thought he was just one of those kids who was going through a phase of trying to act emotionless for whatever reason. It didn't really start coming off as wacko until the attack. That said, humans can have weird reactions to extreme unexpected events and someone shooting rockets out of the blue at a visiting dignitary does fall under that category. It could be the show was trying to express that with the scene (remember, he saw what was going on in a reflection - maybe it didn't quite "click" on what was going on fast as it should have) but I'd have to say that is the one part of the show that didn't quite work for me. Hopefully this will clear up in the next few episodes

Can't wait for the MC to go Tatsuya on the Martians. He'll probably be killing mooks left and right until Slaine or the count show up. I don't think i've ever seen an emotionles mc who wasn't overpowered.

[bakato]

Originally Posted by LightningZERO

For those interested, a timeline for the world of Aldnoah Zero. I translated it from notes from a chinese board. According to the poster, it's from official booklet. The notes were posted months ago so I think it's pretty accurate if compared to what information we got today. Warning, reading this might spoil your enjoyment if you intend to learn about the show's world histories though the episodes.

Spoiler for Timeline:

1969
Apollo 11 landed on the Moon

1972
Apollo 17 found remains of ancient Mars technology on the moon surface. A teleportation device was unearthed in the ruins, which made travel between Earth and Mars possible. It was named "Hyper Gate"

1975
United Nations proposed the Mars development project and signed by the member nations. The resources on Mars would not for military purposes. The signing of the treaty was what actually ended the cold war. For the first exploration, Professor Ray Regalia was the lead.

1980
Mars development centre was set up and mankind started to move to Earth. First settlement involved 340,000 people.

1982
Ray Regalia suddenly turned again Earth and yearned Mars to armed itself. United Nations tried to contain the conflict by force but the situation escalated.

1983
Ray Regalia was arrested under the crime of disturbing peace but the retention centre was attacked and the professor freed. The conflict escalated further.

1985
Ray Regalia formed VERS Empire. As it was a single side declaration, the Mars was in the state of closed country.

1986
As precaution to VERS Empire, nations on Earth formed the Earth Federation and the cold war between them and Mars began.

1991
It was revealed that Earth Federation's military actually took bribes from civilian manufacturing companies. The scandals dealt a blow to the Earth Federation's position.

1996
Atlanta, São Paulo and Bombay were bombed in large scale terrorist attacks. 3267 deaths. Mars organization took credit for the attacks. Anti Mars rose among earthlings.

1997
Ray Regalia retired due to illness. His son Gillsaia ascended to the throne.

1999
VERS Empire declared war on Earth and used their military robot Cataphract to attack Earth Federation's bases on Moon. In the fierce battle, the Hyper Gate lost control and the Moon was heavily damaged. The disaster was named "Heaven's Fall". Debris from the moon formed the satellite belt. Gillsaia, who was fighting on front line was KIA. The two force decided to cease fire. Ray Regalia returned to the throne and Gillsaia's first daughter, Princess Asseylum was born.

2000
Earth Federation and VERS signed the peace treaty. The military forces were called back and a neutral zone was set up.

2002
VERS mass produced their space ships and a route between Mars and Moon was set up. Most of the Mars Knights resisted the call back orders and stayed within the moon area. The peace treaty was actually ignored on Mars' sides.

2003
Due to Heaven's Falls, the political situations on Earth were unstable and there were multiple large scale riots. To suppress the riots, Earth Federation used the Earth made Cataphracts, which were developed after the war, for the very first time.

2007
After Earth Federation ended the riots, the situation stabilized.

2010
In the 10th anniversary of the war end, nations held celebrations and peace meetings. Two side were walking towards peace.

2014
Earth Federation continues to promote good relationships with VERS and the peace talks are still ongoing.

Told you guys VERS originated from settlers.

Originally Posted by BPD Renegade

^Thanks. If it's correct, it clarifies the Vers-Mars situation a lot.

Until there is a fully identified body in a coffin being put in the ground or what have you, she is not dead. Or were you being sarcastic?

It seemed to me like they were specifically after Earth rather than subjugation. There seemed to be a lot of emphasis on our blue planet, so when Vers is revealed, it might turn out to be a lump of asteroid or maybe some sort of planet covered in technology. Edit: Negated by Lightning's timeline.

I'm just saying someone certainly died.

Originally Posted by Irenesharda

Here's a look at the map from the episode and what the destruction of the moon (Heaven's Fall) did to the geography of the world. I'm sorry east and west coast of the America, it looks like America lost huge chunks of it's continental land. Half of Australia is gone. And poor South America...

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Thanks, that's really helpful. I think I understand a lot better now. The Vers Empire seem to be almost completely antagonists from pretty much all fronts.

And miraculously enough Japan is pretty much unscathed.

Bet this professor was an insane asshole.

[OkamiNoKaze]

What we didn't see was the princess making a contract with a small furry critter, she then changes her name to "Mami" but seriously I don't think she's dead, like most of you. Man New Orleans just can't catch a break

[Irenesharda]

Originally Posted by bakato

And miraculously enough Japan is pretty much unscathed.

Bet this professor was an insane asshole.

Yeah, it's kind of convenient that Japan looks mostly untouched, despite it's dangerous position geographically. And yet, Heaven's Fall seems to have pretty much erased all of the Gangetic Delta, most of Brazil, most of Manchuria, huge chunks of Africa, the entire east coast of Australia, the Baltic countries, the Canadian Shield, and half of the United States.

[coded321]

inaho's(mc) calm and logical personality is somewhat new or orginal for me. during the scene with the missiles, inaho just saw it and handled it like a boss. any mc from any other action series that i know of would have freaked out or reacted more in some way, but inaho simply saw the missiles and assesed the situation. i'm really looking forword to the next episode

[andyjay729]

Originally Posted by BPD Renegade

Merp! Looks like a smidgen of Southern California and Florida managed to make it through, but there went the majority of the population in the US. Looks like Heaven's Fall was heaviest on our part of the hemisphere.

Thanks for the map.

Dang, does Gen have something against the US? Looks like most of South America's lost territory was "just" the Amazon, which would obviously wipe out some incredible wildlife, but would take out a, umm, relatively small population.

[Elder]

Most of North America was also wiped out in Kamen Rider Gaim when they were destroyed by their strategics missiles that were sent back to them.

[Jimmy C]

In some ways, I hope the princess is dead. She doesn't need to see her dreams being trampled on after her supposed death.

[Traece]

Originally Posted by Jimmy C

In some ways, I hope the princess is dead. She doesn't need to see her dreams being trampled on after her supposed death.

Since she spent the whole episode being built up to die pointlessly, I hope she stays dead so that she can avoid being associated with Aldnoah.Zero.

Seriously though, this was beyond unimpressive. Any attempt at creating any tension was effectively butchered by the fact that at no time did they ever try to surprise us with any of the developments in this episode. There was never a reason to expect anything but an outbreak of war, and no reason to think the princess would survive. Not only was that already present, but then they alluded to it and flat-out showed those developments being developed. How is there going to be a shred of tension if we all know what's coming? It's as if Aldnoah Zero itself sat beside me in a theatre and went: "This next part is going to be good. This thing is going to happen and it's gonna be great!" every five minutes.

This first episode could have been a 5-minute narration and it would have been just as- no, maybe even more effective. Basically AZ episode 1 is: Good ideas, not-bad exposition, the most predictable plot they could think of. I sincerely hope that this episode is vastly different from the remaining 11.

[bakato]

Originally Posted by Irenesharda

Yeah, it's kind of convenient that Japan looks mostly untouched, despite it's dangerous position geographically. And yet, Heaven's Fall seems to have pretty much erased all of the Gangetic Delta, most of Brazil, most of Manchuria, huge chunks of Africa, the entire east coast of Australia, the Baltic countries, the Canadian Shield, and half of the United States.

If there was enough force to scar continents, then it's pretty unbelievable that resulting tsunamis didn't drown Japan's entire population.

[Domonkazu]

looks very promising.

Kalafina is always awesome.

[Flower]

Well then - that was a pretty good first ep.

Yes, mecha type series as a tough sell for me, but this one looks kinda interesting so far.

Urobochi can get dark, of course, like rolling in the mud despair, which I amnot particularly interested in to that level, but dark series can be good if done well, so whynot give it a try?

[MCAL]

Two excellent premieres in a row. And just in case you didn't know who was writing this... I present you the ending. Obviously the princess is alive (Not enough despair there), so there isn't much mystery to that (Especially when they didn't show her face) And the animation was excellent.

[Asuras]

Originally Posted by Irenesharda

Here's a look at the map from the episode and what the destruction of the moon (Heaven's Fall) did to the geography of the world. I'm sorry east and west coast of the America, it looks like America lost huge chunks of it's continental land. Half of Australia is gone. And poor South America...

Images

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The holes created seem to indicate a level of destruction capable of several hundred mass extinctions at once. The extinction of the dinosaurs might have been initiated by an asteroid causing a crater only 112 miles wide.

With holes like that, the very size of the Earth would change significantly, not to mention all the crust that would have been torn up. I don't understand how humanity on Earth could have possibly survived such an event.

[mnedel]

Explosions that could destroy large parts of continents would cause an extinction event. Maybe some microbes would survive but nothing else. Dust from the explosion would fill the atmosphere for centuries to come. Earth surface temperature would rise by thousands of degrees. The ground would melt and everything would be incinerated. This was actually discussed by scientist in a TV show. The question was what would happen to Earth if large asteroids fell. Well, the answer was the above scenario. If they were going for serious SF they dropped the ball here. I could by it if it was destruction from some energy weapons. They could annihilate things, erase them out of existence with no side effects but like they presented it in the show it’s just ridiculous.
Also, the timeline doesn’t make sense or the sub is wrong. They call themselves a new species and talk about generations in space but the first colonists only came to Mars a few decades ago. That would mean most of them were born on Earth. That is not enough time for such mentality to develop. My theory is that the found the old race that built the tech on Mars. Maybe they were in stasis or something and they are now the ruling class or they somehow got merged with humans on Mars.
Other than this, it was a great start.

[Utsuro no Hako]

Originally Posted by BPD Renegade

I think his and Slaine's current portrayal gives us a lot of room for character development later on. I can't really see either of them being as passive as they were for the entire series, and given that this is a two-cour (confirmed?) we have plenty of time for them 'evolve,' so to speak.

Well Slaine at least got a defiant look in his eyes after Cruhteo left him, and Inaho seemed to be picking on Yuki at the beginning ("How do you want your eggs cooked? Too bad, they're scrambled," etc.).

Originally Posted by bakato

It's obvious the Martians planned this. To be precise, it was the Martians who were left stranded after Heaven's Fall.

Maybe not even all of them. Only about half the castles attacked at the end, so at least some of the other knights aren't buying Saazbaum's BS.

Originally Posted by Irenesharda

Thanks, that's really helpful. I think I understand a lot better now. The Vers Empire seem to be almost completely antagonists from pretty much all fronts.

I don't know about that. I get the impression from that timeline that Gillsaia was the real villain. Things remained peaceful between Earth and Mars until the year before Ray Regalia resigned, and they reverted to peace once he took over again, which suggests to me that Gillsaia might've pulled some sort of coup to further his own anti-Earth agenda. The timeline states that the Knights are disobeying orders by remaining around Earth, so they're acting as rogue agents only nominally aligned with VERS. I'd bet they were Gillsaia's comrades during the war and are more extreme than the actual VERS government.

Also, this bit from the timeline is interesting:

Gillsaia's first daughter, Princess Asseylum was born.

That would imply Gillsaia managed to have a second daughter after his death. I wonder if she might be the "Rayet" character mentioned in the cast list.

[JustThisOne]

A very promising start, so average kids turn into soldiers. Not exactly original, but hope to see where this ends up.

[bakaouji]

Personally, I think that Urobuchi is incapable of creating characters that you can empathize with but he's pretty ambitious when it comes to plotting a story. Sometimes a little too ambitious when he starts treating his characters as nothing more than chess pieces.

Although it was a largely predictable episode, what I liked most was the MC's stone-faced stolid reaction to the missile flying over them. I suspect he's the embodiment of Urobuchi's personality-- cold as iceberg-- not because he's a bad person but because maybe he hit his head hard enough at some point that he lost the ability to empathize with others. Anyway, I'll call this show a success if he makes me feel something (anything but abject apathy) for the characters.

I didn't much care for the unceremonious info-dumping but now that we've got cumbersome setting out of the way, we can get to the meaty parts. [Like how our MC comes across a Mars relic and pilots it to save a world he doesn't care about.]

[LightningZERO]

Originally Posted by Utsuro no Hako

That would imply Gillsaia managed to have a second daughter after his death. I wonder if she might be the "Rayet" character mentioned in the cast list.

I read the timetable again and the correct term should be First Child, a gender neutral term. Don't think makes any different though

[Traece]

Originally Posted by bakaouji

I didn't much care for the unceremonious info-dumping but now that we've got cumbersome setting out of the way, we can get to the meaty parts. [Like how our MC comes across a Mars relic and pilots it to save a world he doesn't care about.]

I for one welcome a psychopath MC that fights because *shrugs*.

There was the one scene where the drunk Lieutenant is talking about all the lies they fed children and reflecting on how screwed up things are going to be because of it. Even if that character and that scene has been done to death along with half of the things in this show, I really liked the way it was worded and presented. Usually that scene is some sort of after-the-fact apology or some nonsense like that. This was genuine behind-the-scenes reflection.