Aldnoah.Zero - generic discussion thread

[Thess]

Originally Posted by Esclair

Second season Jesus Yamato could disable all enemies without killing anyone, so she could maintain her pacifist stance (nobody died!) but first season she stole a ship and blew her way out of her colony, and took part in a number of battles against ZAFT where people definitely got blown up.

That's what I thought (Destiny is something I wanted to shut down from my thoughts). Yeah, I wouldn't say she's a 100% pacifist when she's commanding battles and killing a bunch of people with this.

[Key Board]

Lacus and Kira are a force of nature. They can not do any wrong, and you do not analyze the morality and motivations of a natural disaster Let's just leave it at that and move on.

Asseylum so far is part Diana, part Sayla Maas, part Cecily Fairchild to me
Pretty sure she's closer to the action princess type rather than the preaching princess type, which I think what Lacus and Euphie fall into

Edit: In fact, I wont' be surprised if princess ends up piloting a mech later

[Arya]

I'd say that if anything this princess could be instead a creative (and working for once) version of Lacus Clyne. IIRC Lacus started as an airhead pacifist but later on she showed her true colors, becoming a traitor, doing propaganda at cost of her life and later even fighting and what not. Here we had Asseylum depicted as a slightly airhead and pacifist, but suddenly showing some of her "inner skills" The path so far is very similar.

[Thess]

Originally Posted by Arya

I'd say that if anything this princess could be instead a creative (and working for once) version of Lacus Clyne. IIRC Lacus started as an airhead pacifist but later on she showed her true colors, becoming a traitor, doing propaganda at cost of her life and later even fighting and what not. Here we had Asseylum depicted as a slightly airhead and pacifist, but suddenly showing some of her "inner skills" The path so far is very similar.

Not at all. Disguising herself and playing terran, plus "longing for the Earth" as someone space born is Dianna (man, she's even blonde!). She also went guntoothing at times. Ditto with being caught in idiotic internal politics strife that threatened to end in war, except Turn A managed to avert the disaster which escalated in Aldnoah.Zero.

Asseylum was only giddy and eager around Slaine in episode 1 (and now when she had adrenaline high in episode 3), otherwise she behaved quite seriously like her conversation in the elevator which was level-headed and show signs of concern (she was clutching Slaine's 'keeps bad spirits away' charm to hint she's worried). So I don't see any "airhead" personality, personally.

Originally Posted by Key Board

Lacus and Kira are a force of nature. They can not do any wrong, and you do not analyze the morality and motivations of a natural disaster Let's just leave it at that and move on.

Asseylum so far is part Diana, part Sayla Maas, part Cecily Fairchild to me
Pretty sure she's closer to the action princess type rather than the preaching princess type, which I think what Lacus and Euphie fall into

Edit: In fact, I wont' be surprised if princess ends up piloting a mech later

In which way she's like Sayla? I can see some Cecily, but most of her inspiration goes to Dianna. Although, naturally, they can't do an exact copy of a Gundam heroine.

[Shadow5YA]

Now shooting a smoke bomb into the sky is "blood lust"?

Oh man

[Key Board]

Originally Posted by Thess

In which way she's like Sayla? I can see some Cecily.

I'd say that Sayla and Cecily have overlapping aspects

[Arya]

Originally Posted by Thess

Not at all. Disguising herself and playing terran, plus "longing for the Earth" as someone space born is Dianna (man, she's even blonde!). She also went guntoothing at times. Ditto with being caught in idiotic internal politics strife that threatened to end in war, except Turn A managed to avert the disaster which escalated in Aldnoah.Zero.

Sorry, I don't know who Dianna is I haven't watched many Gundam shows to be honest. But still those similarities stand

[Fireminer]

Cecily, yes, but not Sayla. She doesn't (unconsciously) try to detach herself with everyone. The Princess has a bit of Marina Ismail and Minerva Lao Zabi in her (minus the hesistation.)

[~Yami~]

honestly... this episode is pretty great..

I love every single character that displayed here.. even though all of them got death flags but I'm sure I would enjoy this anime a lot

now Slaine.... enjoy your fellow Earthling and fight together side by side with your princess and Inaho.... they would make a pretty good combination

[novalysis]

Originally Posted by Shadow5YA

Now shooting a smoke bomb into the sky is "blood lust"?

Oh man

While grinning....

I wanted to say "like a maniac", but that's abit of a stretch.

[willyvereb]

In regards of the purple mecha's field.
Perhaps it only works in one direction?
Clearly, the mech has no issues with moving or using the loudspeakers.
So the barrier allows transfer of matter and energy in one direction while completely blocks from the other.
Really, is it that difficult to figure out?
Besides, even if it weren't the case who cares?
Fiction did far more errondeous stuff under the pretense of tactics.
As everything such stuff only sounds really good when you don't start to over-analyze it.
If you stop enjoying series for such oversights then you probably don't have too much fun in your life.
Like with everything just enjoy it for what it is.
Also Aldnoah Zero being more realistic than your regular share of mecha shows?
Hahahaha!
Give me a break!
It might be more pragmatic with a few things and seems to have interesting ideas but otherwise it's cut from the same cloth as Gundam, Macross, Code Geass and the rest.
Hell, this show will extensively feature ancient barely understood alien technology.
That's nearly the #1 way to handwave anything in Science Fiction.

[Lantern]

Originally Posted by willyvereb

In regards of the purple mecha's field.
Perhaps it only works in one direction?

The episode actually kinda hinted that it has some sort of reverse optical camouflage by projecting itself on top of the 'black hole' field (Using the aldnoah's light I'm guessing. They've been emphasizing on this 'light' a lot), which could be its method of hiding its visible weakness.

When the mech reconfigured/start up after landing (ep 2), and when it shut down after being damaged (ep3), it briefly turns black before showing color again.

Ofc, this doesn't explain the talking to people part but they did try to address the obvious problem in a way.

[Iron Maw]

Originally Posted by willyvereb

Fiction did far more errondeous stuff under the pretense of tactics.
As everything such stuff only sounds really good when you don't start to over-analyze it.
If you stop enjoying series for such oversights then you probably don't have too much fun in your life.
Like with everything just enjoy it for what it is.

As other detectors have already said a couple pages back, nobody would care about any of this if the show itself wasn't so insistent about trying to show how smart it is. If creators had just said Trillram's mech was using magic then it would have been fine. Even introducing a fictional matter or concept would have worked a'la most Gundam series. That's one way how most good writers avoid this kind of debacle in the first place when talking about a field they're obviously unfamiliar with.

When a show wants all of it's concepts to be taken seriously they are asking to be scrutinize to reasonable extent and that exactly what it's audience is doing. Thus any perceived faults found in the work that undermines own rules isn't problem with viewers, but that of the writer.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Arya

I'd say that if anything this princess could be instead a creative (and working for once) version of Lacus Clyne. IIRC Lacus started as an airhead pacifist but later on she showed her true colors, becoming a traitor, doing propaganda at cost of her life and later even fighting and what not. Here we had Asseylum depicted as a slightly airhead and pacifist, but suddenly showing some of her "inner skills" The path so far is very similar.

Since you don't know Diana Soreil from Turn-A Gundam, I'd say, from your interpretation, Asseylum is an amalgamation of Lacus & Cagalli from SEED. Asseylum is both gentle in mannerism like Lacus, but also has some (limited?) physical prowess like Cagalli. Both are princesses in SEED, so I think they are legit inspiration material in this case .

[rickadams]

Spoiler for Screenshot of mecha booting up:

Apparently the OS preferred by Earth Forces in Aldnoah Zero is ASIMOV, coded in 100% jQuery. Actually, it's jQuery UI code from the Aldnoah official site http://www.aldnoahzerousa.com/ specifically a portion of the file http://www.aldnoahzerousa.com/assets/js/AZ.js

[kyp275]

Since Esclair’s excellent post has covered most everything else, I’m going to focus on these points:

Originally Posted by Triple_R

That certainly sounds like a peace-loving diplomat to me.

Just want to point this out, there are no ends of statements like that by actual politicians and diplomats, I don’t think most are considered “peace-loving”.

We're not talking about playing Halo here, or just going to a shooting range. We're talking about shooting off weaponry in an actual real life warzone, in a military mission where people could easily die, possibly as a consequence of the Princess' actions.

Been there, done that, have you? Also please, firing smoke into the sky is about as likely to kill someone as me spilling my water at my desk. TBH, it’s not that I don’t see where you’re coming from, but rather that you’re basing your thoughts on assumptions due to lack of experience, and in this case your assumption is way off base.

For someone who values peace and friendly relations between Mars and Earth, I really don't think enjoyment ought to be what she's feeling right now. I think it would make more sense if she had been more sober about the mission, like everybody else taking part in this mission seemed to be.

First off, the “enjoyment” is a momentary one upon figuring out how the thing works (and how fking awesome it is to shoot one), it’s not as if she’s giggling while they’re evading the enemy mech or even during subsequent scenes when she’s continuing to deploy the smokescreen.

Second, being “sober” in combat has everything to do with professionalism and/or apprehension, mostly about one’s own mortality, The Princess is neither a professional soldier nor was she worried (or at least very confident in her ability) about her own life.

There's different contexts for enjoying the shooting off of guns. Some of them are perfectly consistent with valuing peace. For example, enjoying LARPing with guns would not be inconsistent with valuing peace. But enjoying shooting off guns in a real life warzone in an actual military mission where people could die? That does seem a bit inconsistent with valuing peace to me.

I think your example of usage of guns by people who value peace says a lot about what your views on gun usage in general (also, did not know LARPing with guns is a thing, someone please put those guns out of their misery). It only seems inconsistent to you because frankly you lack actual experience of what it’s like to actually being in combat, and I would guess shooting firearms in general.

[Arya]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

Since you don't know Diana Soreil from Turn-A Gundam, I'd say, from your interpretation, Asseylum is an amalgamation of Lacus & Cagalli from SEED. Asseylum is both gentle in mannerism like Lacus, but also has some (limited?) physical prowess like Cagalli. Both are princesses in SEED, so I think they are legit inspiration material in this case .

We can agree on that, but if I can say, the way Asseylum behaved during the whole Inaho "assault" it was so much graceful that it still be closer to Lacus with combat skills than Cagalli with princess mannerisms.

All in all, as I said to another poster, I think that the show is teasing us right and left with every similitude that came up to their mind. And for me it's working, I find it moderately funny, and on their part it a smart move to keep the fans engaged.
From my limited knowledge here the feelings/similtudes I get from the characters, just for fun:
Slaine / L-elf, Princess / Lacus (but yea, a mixture of different princesses), Rayet / Kallen, Inko / Hare+Ayase, Yuki / ?, Marito / Kaji / Mu la flaga. And I'm forgetting some surely... oh, yes, the MC, Inaho. That's more difficult because we have more material about him. And I can't see him like Lelouch nor L-elf.

[willyvereb]

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

As other detectors have already said a couple pages back, nobody would care about any of this if the show itself wasn't so insistent about trying to show how smart it is. If creators had just said Trillram's mech was using magic then it would have been fine. Even introducing a fictional matter or concept would have worked a'la most Gundam series. That's one way how most good writers avoid this kind of debacle in the first place when talking about a field they're obviously unfamiliar with.

When a show wants all of it's concepts to be taken seriously they are asking to be scrutinize to reasonable extent and that exactly what it's audience is doing. Thus any perceived faults found in the work that undermines own rules isn't problem with viewers, but that of the writer.

Same for the examples I had in mind.
JJBA is praised for its use of smart strategies during battle yet it actually has similar issues with BS solutions.
It's just how these things roll, really.

And besides, the actual solution here has no faults.
The barrier indeed has gaps and it indeed doesn't let in anything including light.
Problem only comes up if you start analyzing the finer details which is practically a fault for any technology in Sci-Fi.
For example how come the vibro-knife used by Idaho's K-6 melted the purple mech's armor to glowing orange via friction yet both the knife and Idaho's mecha received no harm?
Or how was that thing even powered?
If there are such materials for the knife and a power source to make it vibrate with such intensity then how come they don't use these for the whole mech?
You could get practically indestructible machines running well in the excess of the speed of sound that way.
Really, it's pretty cheap to poke faults at the representation of various Sci-Fi tech.
But what good comes from that?
None.
Just enjoy the show and complain when something actually dumb happens.

[ReddyRedWolf]

I think the Vers empire is basically a revolution gone sour.

In just under two years of initial settlement the founder started a rebellion with delusions of grandeur. Sure there are difficulties but it is a f*cking colonization mission did they expect it to be a cakewalk?

Now under 30 years they are terraforming Mars. How quickly would they have developed that with Earth's resources instead of developing weapons?

Mars is still dependent on Earth for supplies which is why cargo ships were developed by Vers.

The way I see it Mars is a mini North Korea. The Vers famiily declaring themselves royalty hardly gives them legitimacy. The Knights know that.

On Earth it has greener pastures with lots more people and resources which they can rule over.

If they can control Earth the Knights have a leverage on Mars as it is still dependent on shipments from Earth.

So what we got is an opportunist back stabbed by a bunch of opportunists.

[Funkatron]

Side topic: will the princess end up with strong, silent type Inaho or Mr. "Mai Princessu!" Slaine? Place your bets!