Quote:
Originally Posted by wingdarkness
Not trying to blow your thoughts into smithereens, but there is something you might be sweeping over...And that thing is called a cataclysmic armagedden  (Crazy I know, but when talking Gundam this is cheese on a cracker)...Now I'm not saying Gundam 00 will try this or won't try it, but there is already a precedent for retconning technology in Gundam based on events that basically restart the world...Now both Turn A Gundam and Gundam X both specifically deal with world's that are in-effect forced to start over because of cataclysmic events...If Gundam 00 wanted to (not that they should) at some point blend the timeline there is relevance in Gundam lore to support it...
In the UC there are seemingly countless colonies, so many colonies that some have been destroyed and or abandoned just floating in space...If blended this could be easily explained as the tail-end of the effort started hundreds (Maybe even thousands) of years ago created in the 00-verse...Once space-colonies are fully functional and transport to space pretty nominal, why even have the elevators? That's if they weren't already destroyed in the events that forced the 00 world to dissapear...I mean the people who started the "Universal Century" (In this context) may have started it because they didn't really know what year it was^^...
Getting back to the technology, it can easily digress in a situation similar to how it regressed in Turn A...The dystopian world is created without people even knowing it's been created...Furthermore, in this world ignorance is bliss and if Wright-Brother planes are still flying around like it's all good, then it's all good (like in Turn A)...My point is whenever the technology is re-shaped it doesn't have to be as l33t as the lost technology it truly is...I mean think about the ridiculous technology in MSG...While now it looks pretty tame, for the universe itself, psyco-frames, colony stability, minovsky particles, Cyber-human evolution, fin-funnels (which are just pre-programmed bits in 00 instead of a much more advanced mind gear in UC)..Again Minovsky particles, hmm...Maybe GN Tau technology really did pollute the earth to the point some dude named Minovsky found it's toxic reminisce all over the earth (But to him it's just a new scientific discovery that screws with radars)...What I'm really getting at here is that while Gundam 00 SEEMS more advanced than UC in technology, it's really not at all...Additionally things in the UC can be seen as a progression of a destroyed 00 world...You might find the Gundam-head, but never the GN Drive...Nevertheless it still sparks an idea that somehow gets into the hands of Amuro's dad...
Now again I don't prescribe to Gundam 00 taking this course and while I'll stand by my point that it is a prequel in essence, it can be a symbolic prequel without ever being a true prequel...However if somehow, someway, with the twists and turns, and intellectual writing this show has delivered on various levels, I wouldn't be surprised at all if they pull some "Sixth Sense" type of jawdropper in the end connecting it with the UC timeline...Remember before this show even started all the buzz was that Sunrise was gonna do a UC again if they didn't do another CE...Just food for thought, but I don't think you can easily dismiss the concept that some are getting at... |
The thing is, while this might make for some very good fanfiction, it would entail the largest retcon in Gundam history, overturning decades of established backstory even in the animation itself. They aren't going to make 00 the prequel to UC by resetting EVERYTHING.
Linky to a complete timeline, from AD to UC. Near the top of the page, you'll see how they (cannonically) can tell you the dates UC began. UC 0080 is actually over a century BEFORE the events of 00.
Now for other points:
Take the cataclysmic option: one of the first things of both series that do it is that the cataclysm not only regresses technology (except for the mechs, which remain and thus can (eventually) be reverse engineered), but utterly shatters population. Utterly. No indication from any source has ever so much as hinted at that kind of happening in UC, ever. That isn't the kind of backstory event that can be skipped. And even if there was a cataclysm (and at this point the only real one would be elevator destruction), it doesn't wipe out the technology. In X such, the technology was still there to be studied. MS technology would still exist. Knowledge of MS would still exist. What wouldn't exist would be fleets of jets and conventional aircraft carriers has used in UC, because those are already obsolete in 00. Cataclysm may or may not be the fate of 00, but it won't be what makes 00 into UC. (And, FYI, UC was intentionally chosen as the year the EF's space colonization project started: in 00, colonies have already been in development for awhile.)
In UC, the only abandoned/ "forgotten" colonies are the ones that were destroyed in the One Year War. But colony construction isn't the only use of the Elevators: their most important use is powering the world. Their are no nuclear plants in 00. There is no need for them either, meaning no Jupiter energy fleet. Solar power is the only source of energy (besides possibly true GN drives) in 00, and the infrastructure to make it to UC does not exist.
The point about technology isn't that 00 has better technology than UC: it's that 00 already has technology that for UC was a long series of "firsts." The first bipedal mobile suit, the first beam weapon, the first transforming mobile suit, these are all first-time inventions in late UC that are well established practices in 00. These wouldn't be first time occurance if 00 was truelly the beginning of UC. Minonsky, too, has his own backstory: there are sources on the basics (and mathmatics) of Minovsky physics, and they include nothing about light particles or GN particles. Minovsky physics are a closed book. They aren't even dangerous in of themselves: you can breath them, pour them on your cereal and eat them. Except when put into a form to kill you, they aren't anything that special.
I got no problem if you want to say 00 will be the prequel of another series or timeline (I won't agree, but that's different), but it won't be UC.
Fly since ↔...
Thus on this note, Gundam 00 has actually done a decent job so far in keeping their characters 'in character'. The politicians of the HRL/Union/AEU don't do 'unrealistic' stuff like laying down their arms and embracing Celestial Being as an ally; idealists such as Setsuna don't act according to a 'rational cost-benefit analysis' for personal gain; ordinary civilians such as Saji are apathetic until the war affects them directly.
