Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans Episode 49 Discussion / Poll

[Twi]

Iok isn't the only one blessed. Mika's last strike to Julieta should have killed her, but she's still alive after pulling off that hail mary throw that screwed Shino's shot up.

And technically, Nobliss didn't order the hit... this time. His men took the initiative. Then there's the fact that we don't know where he is to wish him dead and he's funding Kudelia's company. Rustal is literally trying to stomp them out to the last man and is an active threat.

[DMurphy]

And in reality, even Iok's strange, strange luck serves a narrative purpose. In a story that has themes of 'the world is a very unfair place,' it is horribly unfair that Literal Worst Human Being In The Show Iok Kujan (edit: Wait, no, I forgot Iznario. Iok comes second) should survive so much -- and honestly, what better way to hammer in that particular message to the audience than to make them viscerally feel how unfair and unequal things are.

[Sinestra]

So it's looking like Rustal is going to be the true winner here. If he wins outright no one will be able to touch him. He's the epitome of what Mackey was trying to change. This series is literally looking like all the bad corrupt characters survive only to carry on the status quo. While the good guys get slaughtered. Mika will Fight till the end to allow the rest to escape. I really enjoyed IBO till the past 5-6 episodes where it felt like they were in a rush to kill all the good guys.

[chi4ko]

Originally Posted by Sinestra

This series is literally looking like all the bad corrupt characters survive only to carry on the status quo. While the good guys get slaughtered.

Tekkadan are nowhere close to being 'the good guys'. They've done plenty of shady stuff themselves, got involved with the mafia, then even started to act like one (executions of Radice and that activist guy), became so blinded by their goal that they lost all empathy for fellow human debris (during Jasley's 'execution'). And if you say 'it's all Orga's doing', well, even if he was the leader, all of them gave him the silent nod, those who got fed up - quit (Takaki).

[TheForsaken]

I don't get why people think that Rustal is power hungry. All he has done so far is putting down rebellion and revolts.
I would laugh so hard if the next episode he says "Now my job is done, I'll go retire". That will be the best way to humiliate McGillis

[DMurphy]

Originally Posted by TheForsaken

I don't get why people think that Rustal is power hungry. All he has done so far is putting down rebellion and revolts.
I would laugh so hard if the next episode he says "Now my job is done, I'll go retire". That will be the best way to humiliate McGillis

I don't think Rustal is power hungry, because that implies he wants power he doesn't have. But as the most powerful man in the most powerful organisation in the system, he is as powerful as he's going to get.

But I do think he's more interested in preserving his power than he is with doing the right thing. I doubt he sees it that way -- he sees it as protecting the stability of Earth and the colonies -- but his actions, many of which cause massive loss of life and undermine both Earth's stability and the values that Gjallarhorn ostensibly stands for, belie the fact that he's more interested in eliminating a threat to his power than he is with keeping the peace.

[Twi]

Rustal was also the one who caused the Dort riots and the war on earth. He creates situations for him to solve and show his power. That's the reason he's the bad guy here. Tekkadan aren't saints, but there's a difference between killing someone on a battlefield opposite your side and pulling crap like Rustal has.

[NBG]

Rustal pisses me off so much but I l've grown to like him for being a bastard

[Dragon_Slayer_X]

Originally Posted by DMurphy

"He was turning out to be a pretty interesting carbon copy of another character in the franchise!" might be the most self-defeating statement I've heard all week.

Weirdly, this whole thing is actually improving my opinion of McGillis drastically, because god, at least he has critical flaws and made mistakes, imagine how boringly he could have been written if some people had their way.

Yes Yes paint it for your own convenience.........Char Clone or a Masked guy has become iconic in Gundam franchise and hence my statement. It doesn't matter if they are a "carbon copy" or "boring" in your mind, it's how they does things in their OWN show that makes them interesting and Macgillis was interesting to me. Despite his view on absolute power he actually tried to change the rotten and corrupted Gallarhorn even if his hands were stained in blood.

[Tenzen12]

I don't think Rustal trying maintain power for himself in particular but for Galahorn as whole. He is not good man, but without him power of organization would deteriorate and we saw where that would lead.

As far as I am concerned Rustal is necessary evil, which is SLD reason why I gound whole this coup as bad idea of insane megalomaniac and never hoped for it's success.

[Skaddix]

The coup would have been fine if it worked.
The problem is now killing Rustal is probably a net negative.

I mean do we really trust Gali, Iok and Almaria to get things done in the future. Maybe Gali and Iok could do a good job and maintain Peace and Order with several more decades of training under Rustal. But as they are now no. Iok is an idiot. Gali only cares about how he feels, way to up in his emotions. Of course, this series loves its asspulls so Gali turning into a great leader magically aint that absurd I suppose.

Originally Posted by chi4ko

Tekkadan are nowhere close to being 'the good guys'. They've done plenty of shady stuff themselves, got involved with the mafia, then even started to act like one (executions of Radice and that activist guy), became so blinded by their goal that they lost all empathy for fellow human debris (during Jasley's 'execution'). And if you say 'it's all Orga's doing', well, even if he was the leader, all of them gave him the silent nod, those who got fed up - quit (Takaki).

Good Guy is Relative. They are good relative to Rustal.

Radice betrayed them. Helped try to assassinate Makanai then dragged them into a Proxy War that was just to kill as many Tekkadan Members as possible along with McGillis

The activist guy hired a bunch of pirates to try to kill them all.

And talking to Human Debris in combat is not the best technique. Besides at this point the goal was we are going to change the System by Being King of Mars and can fix the Human Debris Problem later.

Rustal on the other side is status quo. And if maintaining the Status Quo means gunning down helpless civilians he is more then happy to do it. Because he doesn't want to give them a pay increase.

[Twi]

Unfortunately, at this point everyone decent enough to take the reins after killing Rustal is dead. I don't trust Gaelio as far as I can throw him after he placed revenge over the right thing, if he ever cared about that to begin with. Julieta clearly doesn't give a f*ck at this point after Rustal pointed out that he was one of the shady men she was pitying Tekkadan over being manipulated by. Even Iok wasn't that blind.

And Iok.... this man has so much blood on his hands from being stupid and being corrupt that it isn't funny.

[Skaddix]

Yeah Julietta might be more blind then Iok.

Iok was never under the impression Rustal was a saint.

Not sure why Julietta was.

[vic-vic]

Julietta thinks that Rustal are great man (just like Iok and all other personell in Arahnrod fleet)... well, they are right. As people already stated in this topic, Rustall is one of the most powerful people in the entire human controlled space. And he have skills and wits to back his position up.

Yes, he is not saint - he is a ruthless feudal lord and more than willing to use all sorts of dirty tactics to win. But he also reasonable and care deeply enough for his people to the point where they are willingly goes on a suicide missions (like this infiltrator in episode 20).

[ReddyRedWolf]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

Now that I mentioned it, many of the prior grim foreshadowing turned out to be true like the aforementioned Naze’s concern, McMurdo’s remark that Kudelia’s action will lead to war, Biscuit’s growing concern for Orga’s reckless tendency, Kudelia’s foreboding narration before G-horn civil war, etc. And the character action certainly propel towards that direction. Whether you like it or not is not my business.

In fact, there are more grim foreshadowing than good foreshadowing in this show. So, how come people like you unable to see the bad things to come is beyond me.

Kudelia I can compare to Philippine national hero Jose Rizal. A pacifist reformer that showed the rot in the system and the powers that be didn't take it kindly and created their own problem by martyring him leaving the only option a violent revolution.

This was actually Nobliss' plan to rile up Earth, the colonies and outer sphere so there would be a war whom he can sell weapons.

Rustal is making a mistake creating martyrs. The Airanhod fleet can't cover the entire solar system especially if they are not the government and banks like Teiwaz aren't beholden to them. Tekkadan has made friends with both Abrau and Teiwaz and even they have a bone to pick with Gallarhorn.

[Twi]

Originally Posted by vic-vic

Julietta thinks that Rustal are great man (just like Iok and all other personell in Arahnrod fleet)... well, they are right. As people already stated in this topic, Rustall is one of the most powerful people in the entire human controlled space. And he have skills and wits to back his position up.

Yes, he is not saint - he is a ruthless feudal lord and more than willing to use all sorts of dirty tactics to win. But he also reasonable and care deeply enough for his people to the point where they are willingly goes on a suicide missions (like this infiltrator in episode 20).

Note the key word there. That's the crux of the problem. To secure and care for those people, he stages operations that get innocent people killed so that the rich and corrupt could remain in power. McGillis, for all his flaws, at least intended to tear that down so that those who wanted power would have to fight for it and weren't restricted by their social standing. Tekkadan just wanted to put themselves in a position where they wouldn't have to keep taking risky jobs, but Orga got over ambitious. Even then, they never did anything outright illegal since they were a legit PMC.

[ReddyRedWolf]

Originally Posted by vic-vic

Julietta thinks that Rustal are great man (just like Iok and all other personell in Arahnrod fleet)... well, they are right. As people already stated in this topic, Rustall is one of the most powerful people in the entire human controlled space. And he have skills and wits to back his position up.

Yes, he is not saint - he is a ruthless feudal lord and more than willing to use all sorts of dirty tactics to win. But he also reasonable and care deeply enough for his people to the point where they are willingly goes on a suicide missions (like this infiltrator in episode 20).

Nope he killed his own side with that same infiltrator. He doesn't care about the rank and file.

[DMurphy]

The thing is, Galan was happy to die for Rustal. He was happy to discard his entire identity, and his family, to devote himself wholly to serving Rustal, and Julieta isn't so different. It's likely there are many more, and even among those who aren't that extreme, Rustal tends to inspire genuine love and devotion.

This is the thing, Rustal is the antagonist because his priorities and ideals preclude Tekkadan's, and he's the villain because his methods are brutally Machiavellian and often motivated by self-interest, but he's not a cackling megalomaniac, and I think that confuses people -- which is why we just get people pretending that he is.

Ultimately, Rustal is a principled man who at least tries to live his life by a particular code of ideals -- a code of ideals that perpetuates massive social inequality, but a code of ideals nonetheless. He's also a flawed man whose actions often end up undermining those ideals. But he's self-aware, he inspires loyalty, and he's not really needlessly cruel, and he's driven.

He is, in fact, very similar to Orga and McGillis (well, except Rustal doesn't get lauded by creepy fans for wanting to marry a ten year old, natch). Both of them are principled and idealistic, both of them also inspire loyalty, and both of them find that they cannot adhere to their own ideals all of the time. Both Orga and McGillis are aware of that, too.

I'm not saying that Rustal is a good man -- he's not, neither is McGillis, and Orga barely qualifies as one on a good day -- but he's not bloody Ganondorf, either.

[vic-vic]

BTW, the while corruption in GH is a no small part of the overall shitty condition of Earth's colonies, why everyone forget that Major Nations are even more to blame, considering that they a ruling body?!

[Skaddix]

The Major 4 Blocs handle the day to day non military stuff.

Gjhallahorn in The Real Power.