(L) Mouretsu Pirates

[00Coyote]

Originally Posted by Master_Yoma

So did they steal any thing or did they just help out the princess

I'm sure the Bentenmaru was well compensated for this particular voyage, probably not in pillage from the golden ship, but the Serenity Royal Family probably made some significant donations to the 'Help the pirates repair the damage from an awesome parking job' Fund.

[RX-78GP04G Gerbera]

Originally Posted by tsunade666

what do you mean by ultimate coordinator? Kira was genetically engineered by birth to become the ultimate coordinator but here they just keep the original gene and dna of the royal family. Making an identical person or a clone.

I just mean because of that whole artificial womb, gene altering, and all that stuff.

[Sackett]

I'm a little confused about what was going on on Serenity.

Not that the pirates care much, but I'd like some resolution.

[Utsuro no Hako]

Originally Posted by Sackett

I'm a little confused about what was going on on Serenity.

Not that the pirates care much, but I'd like some resolution.

The royal family are all clones made on the ghost ship. Gruier decided the whole royalty thing's outlived its usefulness and it's time to make Serenity a republic, so to do that she hired the Bentenmaru to find the ghost ship and destroy the cloning chamber. Her sister brought a fleet to stop her, but Marika managed to cut a sidedeal with the sister's forces and end the conflict before it came to a fight. In the end none of it matters because the cloning machine's was on its last legs and would've broken down before delivering the last royal -- though doc was able to keep it going long enough to "give birth" one final time.

[dahl_moon]

Spoiler for Random tidbits from the novel regarding Serenity:

The novel itself is also pretty sparse on details. Marika (and the readers) are not told the full story, so I'm still quite confused about the political background. But here are a few things that the anime omits:

• Serenity is considered a poor and backwater state, but its royal family is considered very old and prestigious.
• Serenity is consisted of three star systems with seven habitable planets. The Golden Ghost Ship had brought the first humans to the tri-system. But they aren't able to invent FTL travel on their own.
• After submitting to the galactic empire, Serenity's royal family finds it increasingly difficult to maintain unity. Many call for independence (although still within the galactic empire). Tensions flare up and settle down repeatedly over the course of history, and recently the royalists are again at the defensive.
• The technology to reproduce the "Fountain of the Rose" is already common knowledge, but the symbolism is not. Serenity's royal family has been maintaining the illusion that the family is "natural born," not "engineered." Hilde (and many other royalists, I assume) want to continue that. Gruier (and her grandfather, the grand duke, who sent her on this mission), want to accept the flow of history.
• After the ghost ship's return, the Serenity people, being staunch traditionalists and still having a lot of affinity for their founding myth, rally around the royal family anyway.
• Gruier in the novels is a lot more talented than depicted in the anime. She actually helps out analyzing the sensor data by using analytics software, which is pretty damn impressive for a middle schooler

Spoiler:

I don't think the princesses are necessarily clones; just genetically altered. Remember that the last time Serenity sent out a task force was before Gruier's birth. I think the Rose has more to do with legitimacy than anything else.
And another thing, in the novels Marika didn't negotiate with Yotov beforehand; she negotiated through lip-talking on the spot instead.

[Random Wanderer]

Originally Posted by dahl_moon

Spoiler for Random tidbits from the novel regarding Serenity:

The novel itself is also pretty sparse on details. Marika (and the readers) are not told the full story, so I'm still quite confused about the political background. But here are a few things that the anime omits:

• Serenity is considered a poor and backwater state, but its royal family is considered very old and prestigious.
• Serenity is consisted of three star systems with seven habitable planets. The Golden Ghost Ship had brought the first humans to the tri-system. But they aren't able to invent FTL travel on their own.
• After submitting to the galactic empire, Serenity's royal family finds it increasingly difficult to maintain unity. Many call for independence (although still within the galactic empire). Tensions flare up and settle down repeatedly over the course of history, and recently the royalists are again at the defensive.
• The technology to reproduce the "Fountain of the Rose" is already common knowledge, but the symbolism is not. Serenity's royal family has been maintaining the illusion that the family is "natural born," not "engineered." Hilde (and many other royalists, I assume) want to continue that. Gruier (and her grandfather, the grand duke, who sent her on this mission), want to accept the flow of history.
• After the ghost ship's return, the Serenity people, being staunch traditionalists and still having a lot of affinity for their founding myth, rally around the royal family anyway.
• Gruier in the novels is a lot more talented than depicted in the anime. She actually helps out analyzing the sensor data by using analytics software, which is pretty damn impressive for a middle schooler

Ok, see, that makes it all make more sense.

[justpassingby]

Originally Posted by Jimmy C

Did they ever explain how they got the ghost ship to make a controlled FTL flight to the Serenity home system in the novel?
From this episode, I got the impression that the ghost ship wasn't "lost" as much as "well-hidden" by past Serenity rulers, who used it as a piggy bank for discrete funds.

Spoiler for Bla bla bla abridged version:

To put it short, they resonated the three Roschmann nuclear fusion reactors' energy wave to knock the time-space balance, inducing Chrono Quake time-space quake and went into subspace

The previous places where the Ghost Ship was seen were time-spacely unstable, and that's why the ship appeared and disappeared there. And yes, the "Ghost Ship" was not a folk tale started by the folks, but instead it was from the Royal Family. You are correct about the "well-hidden", because the Royal Investigations Fleet do know where it will appear

The accelerator of the Ghost Ship applied Mobius Band (Sasamoto called it Ring) and energy coil that took the shape Klein bottle to 'wash away' the critical mass for nuclear reaction to occur. (He made me read )

Well, at the end the Ghost Ship appeared near but outside of Serenity System, so there was no worry about it destroying the planet.

.........
Boy does Sasamoto really loves German . Reminds me of Tomino and his UC gundam
and also this

Glad there was no BananaG and Audrey Burn scene from here . It's not like there was gravity anyway :P. Oh, and expect another old time Hollywod actress's name to appear when they adapt vol 3

[Julio C]

Well I'm guessing that is the end of that Arc. Marika sure shine this time. I wasn't expecting her to pull a devious move like that. I hope the next arc is awesome as well. That insert song "Black Holy" is nice, maybe I should buy the single.

Well now that Last Exile is over, this is now my premier show. It's time to re-watch the whole series so far since I have time to focus on this show now.

[Ithekro]

....

So after giving birth to Chibiusa, Neo-Queen Serenity decided that was too much trouble and started cloning herself, and the tradition held for thousands of years. That would explain the traditional hair style for civilian clothes use. And the Rose motif based on the traditional father or lover: King Endymion.

....

Or something like that.

[sa547]

With the closure of the Serenity arc, this episode did all right, but in return... As I said before, Marika's "universe" has expanded.

@dahl_moon: excellent explanation for some things left unsaid.

And...

"Everything works out when you're a pirate!"

This redefines the KISS principle -- keep it simple, stupid -- and the best way to get things done is to clear all other obstructions out of the way.

[Trajan]

I've been enjoying this show, but like others have noted, this episode left a lot of unanswered questions from the Serenity arc. I didn't see this addressed above, but maybe someone who has read the novels can shed some light on the following.

When Gruier wakes up, Marika tells Gruier that the rose was drained dry of genetic samples. Gruier looks pained and responds with a soft cry of "No . . .". This would imply she wanted there to be genetic material in the rose (which she was going to destroy). But then when the baby is brought in, Gruier tears up and says "I almost killed this child?" This would imply she didn't realize there was any genetic material left. As someone from a family born through this process for generations, it seems likely she would consider genetic material in an artificial womb to be the equivalent of an in utero embryo.

So my question is, did Gruier initially want to "kill" the genetic material, but then once she saw the baby, she changed her mind, or what? I guess you could just chalk this up to a pre-teen princess not really considering the consequences of her acts, but I was hoping there is a better explanation.


On another note, the way Marika's deviousness is played, the show has it come across as clever and cute. But if you think about it for a second, Marika essentially sold out her client (Gruier) and made a "better deal" with Yotov to save her own skin/get a bigger score. Of course, in the end Gruier is happy that Marika sold her out, but that doesn't change the fact that at the time Marika sold out Gruier for a better deal, Marika had no way of knowing that Gruier would forgive her. That's not cute devious, that's straight villainy.

[Sheba]

Serenity were Capsuleers all along? Lol.

[LoweGear]

It technically isn't "selling out" if both parties do the same thing for a goal that is mutually beneficial to both. It's more like Yotof and Marika knew a resolution favoring one party or the other would end in much bloodshed, which both of course would know isn't pretty, and yet both wanted their respective goals to be achieved. It would only be selling out if Marika acted with intent of throwing her lot with Grunhilde, which didn't happen.

Marika does continue to impress with her super-competency though, without appearing convoluted or contrived. Give her a few years and she'll do Bruce Wayne proud

[MeisterBabylon]

I was wondering when either Shebs or AX would come and post an EVE response to this episode.

Originally Posted by RX-78GP04G Gerbera

Did anyone else besides me get the whole "Ultimate Coordinator" vibe from Gundam SEED/SEED Destiny with this episode?

I refer you to a certain Star Trek episode: Up the Long Ladder.

I don't think there's enough genetic material in that rose to last for thousands of year (that's more than a pluripotent stem cell can provide). Instead, there's a limit to copying before replicative fade renders the clone unviable. So back then the clock had already been ticking.

With this being the last princess, a succession war is imminent.

(And yes, I have all of TNG memorized...)

[Anh_Minh]

So just add more cells from a living Royal. Or a bum off the street, who cares?

[Trajan]

Originally Posted by LoweGear

It technically isn't "selling out" if both parties do the same thing for a goal that is mutually beneficial to both. It's more like Yotof and Marika knew a resolution favoring one party or the other would end in much bloodshed, which both of course would know isn't pretty, and yet both wanted their respective goals to be achieved. It would only be selling out if Marika acted with intent of throwing her lot with Grunhilde, which didn't happen.

Marika does continue to impress with her super-competency though, without appearing convoluted or contrived. Give her a few years and she'll do Bruce Wayne proud

But in the end, didn't Marika effective side with Grunhilde? Marika and crew were hired by Gruier for a mission they knew to be dangerous to find and deliver Gruier to the Ghost Ship, so that she could then go on alone and destroy the rose. At some point Marika decided that the risk of further bloodshed wasn't worth the payoff she was getting from Gruier. At that point, Marika could have just told Gruier that the Bentemaru was off the job. Instead, Marika secretly contacted Yotof and made another deal: you gas your royal, we'll gas ours. We don't know if Yotof told Marika what Gruier was planning to do aboard the Ghost Ship or not, but either way, Marika knew she was working against Gruier's stated interests, without telling her.

In the end, Gruier failed to accomplish what she set out to do because Marika's direct actions prevented her from destroying the rose. In effect, Marika did side with Grunhilde, who was seeking to protect the rose. Marika effectively sold out her client and sided with Grunhilde's faction and in return they agreed not to assault the Bentenmaru's crew. Without the deus ex machina baby that melts Gruier's heart, would she really have been happy with the end result?

Gruier really would have been bettter off hiring Chiaki-chan for her mission of destruction!

I'm sure the intent is to show Marika's "super-competency" in setting the whole scheme up, as you say. But the problem here is that the anime writers were too clever by half and they make Marika appear to be willing to sell out clients to save her own skin.

Spoiler for LN comparison:

Interestingly, from what I read upthread about how it goes down in the LN, Marika there comes off looking much better (quick-thinking, creative, etc.). I'd be curious to know why it was changed for the anime.

[sa547]

Didn't saw that coming, but then I doubt if there was a story that had absolutely no plot holes.

Anyway, and fittingly enough to end the arc, someone came up with a remix of the OP (not sure if anyone would like it).

[justpassingby]

Originally Posted by Trajan

Spoiler for LN comparison:

Interestingly, from what I read upthread about how it goes down in the LN, Marika there comes off looking much better (quick-thinking, creative, etc.). I'd be curious to know why it was changed for the anime.

Spoiler:

In vol 2
- She is described to be inexperienced in navigating through the storm. I think this imply the first time she went outside Tau Ceti.
- Marika is still learning, even though it has been half a year since vol 1 ended. The one who asked "What's a crossfeed?" was Marika, not Gruelle. She also like to watch->think -> decide.

- After Marika chased Gruelle from the bridge, Coorie asked about what is the priority of this mission? Marika answered the first one is that everyone will return safely, followed by searching of the Ghost Ship. Then Coorie asked some more, between the Ghost Ship and Serenity Fleet, which has the higher priority? And Marika said that Serenity is higher in the list than the Ghost Ship, saying there is no one living on the Ghost Ship . Too bad Marika was wrong. I wonder how the books will go if Marika, the Serenitys (especially the two princesses ) actually incidentally blow the Ghost Ship .

- Coorie asked Marika to train Gruelle in processing information. Though Marika said that she is inexperienced, Coorie replied that she is at least better than the princess. Several days later, Gruelle was helping Coorie and Ruka. Marika with Misa then talked. She sighed and said, "Is is because we're born differently?" (In the anime, Coorie said this "Umare chigai?). Misa said that the Captain is good, but the Princess's concentration ability is higher.

- Marika didn't actually offer the Princess her pirate attire, but instead Gruelle was the one suggested that when they talked to the Serenity fleet that was chasing Yotoff. Misa did said that the Princess is more suited to be a Pirate captain than Marika (joking? )

- Marika decided to "solve things peacefully" by lip-talking with Yotoff, while the lip-reading was done by Misa. After Gruelle woke up, Marika said to Gruelle that she mouth-arguing with her sister will not lead to anywhere. Marika asked whether Gruelle has talked about this mission with Grunhilde and did anything resulted from it, and the princess said that they have talked about it several times. Marika added that even though the Serenity troop is under Grunhilde, they will still have problem pointing the guns toward Gruelle, but they don't have problem pointing their weapons to the Bentenmaru crews

[Random Wanderer]

Originally Posted by Trajan

In the end, Gruier failed to accomplish what she set out to do because Marika's direct actions prevented her from destroying the rose. In effect, Marika did side with Grunhilde, who was seeking to protect the rose. Marika effectively sold out her client and sided with Grunhilde's faction and in return they agreed not to assault the Bentenmaru's crew. Without the deus ex machina baby that melts Gruier's heart, would she really have been happy with the end result?

Actually, I would say yes, she would. Because the end result is what she wanted (no more Rose). She simply didn't get to destroy it herself. Gruelle won, Grunhilde lost. Marika did what she did to save lives, because the princesses were getting worked up enough that a fight would have been almost inevitable had they not been stopped somehow. And I am quite confident that Gruelle would not have been happy having people on either side die because of her.

[MeisterBabylon]

Originally Posted by Random Wanderer

Actually, I would say yes, she would. Because the end result is what she wanted (no more Rose). She simply didn't get to destroy it herself. Gruelle won, Grunhilde lost. Marika did what she did to save lives, because the princesses were getting worked up enough that a fight would have been almost inevitable had they not been stopped somehow. And I am quite confident that Gruelle would not have been happy having people on either side die because of her.

...this reads exactly like a Star Trek episode's resolution.