I Have Also Just Found Out Its Only Going To Be Three Episodes, As Opposed To A Full Series.

I have also just found out it’s only going to be three episodes, as opposed to a full series.

The protagonist, Rio Hojo, is essentially standard energetic boy, his design reminds me of Wistario Afram’s a lot, and I’m liking the style of protagonists we’re getting here. He’s also Hawaiian, which is cool. It’s a nice contrast to his avatar, who while I don’t dislike, I do think looks kinda generic in comparison (it’s probably the black hair).

I don’t really have any strong opinions on the mentor, Seria Urutsuki, other than the fact that she’s probably gonna be Mask Lady, the Char. However, Mask Lady?

Is that an Ippei Gyoubu lady? I freaking love it so much. Yeah, it’s a lot like his other work, but his other work is good and we get to see this one animated. I absolutely adore the jacket. It’s always wonderful to see the similarities between how he designs people and how he designs mechs, which elements are common, and which are not.

And now; the mobile suits.

The Lah’s just fine. I don’t really dislike it or anything, I’m inclined to believe that a lot of the design choices are due to it wanting to be an Entry Grade, and thus needing it to be based of a suit that already has an Entry Grade model (this being reinforced by the Build Strike Exceed Galaxy also being an Entry Grade). I do like the RX-78 design and it is justifiably iconic, It’s just we see a lot of them, and it gets routine.

The aforementioned Build Strike Exceed Galaxy looks lovely, and I’m sure it’ll make for some wonderful poses and designs, especially with all the effect parts.

I honestly don’t have much of an opinion on either the F-Kunoichi Kai or the Plutine Gundam. I’m not that interested in Cross Silhouette as a line, and Gundam Build Divers re:rise wasn’t that long ago. I would hope that if they’re releasing the Plutine that we may eventually get kits for the Dubious Arche Gundam and Reverse Turn X from the finale, but I wouldn’t expect it. Though I will admit I would love to Display the HGBF Plutine and the HG00 Plutone opposite each other now.

And now the two I’m actually looking forward to. The Shin Burning Gundam and the 00 Diver Arc. The Shin Burning looks to have such a dynamic pose, and it’s precursors were all typically suits that had an emphasis on Martial Arts, so it’ll make for some cool poses even before considering the wings or effect parts. I do think that the legs look a little odd though, probably the roundedness. The 00 Diver Arc is an odd one, since while I very much disliked the 00 sky, I had basically no feelings on the regular 00 Diver. This one looks to have a fancy energy sword system like the AGE FX or 00 Quanta, which I’m very much interested in (as well as those little sword bucklers on the arms). However, I do find the chest quite boring. Sticking a gun in the chest isn’t an alternative to actual visual design.

Finally, I don’t actually have a stake in the “Metaverse” as a concept, in series or out. I think that someone at Bandai just realised they’d accidentally created advertisement for such a thing in the form of the build series. I should probably also mention that due to the massive amount of MMORPG’s and similarly massive, all-encompassing online things in Japan at time of writing, it’s quite possible that it’s a very different climate to that of the western world in regards to how feasible a metaverse’d actually be.

Okay, so we gotta a bunch of information on Gundam Build Metaverse this week, and I got opinions on it.

I’m also gonna just quickly preface this with two things for context.

1. If you’re new to Gundam (since there’s always a bunch of new people with any new show, and Witch from Mercury is no exception), then know that the Build Series has massively lower stakes. The general target demographic is a lot lower, and it typically patterns itself a lot of Pokemon - the whole shonen-y vibe, the whole “to be a master” thing. I personally also like this, but it can be a bit of a tone whiplash going from “mainline” Gundam to the Build Series.

2. As above, I generally like the Build series for both the Anime and the model kits, with both Build Fighters and Build Fighters Try having some of my favourite fight scenes in the entire Gundam series. However, I absolutely loath the first season of Build Divers (I might do a post on it later), and as such a lot of what I don’t want to see is directly cribbed form that.

In a nutshell, though it’s lower-stakes, I’m usually here for the fights and the model designs, and a lot of what I focus on is gonna be those.

I’m trying to stay away from long posts unless it’s analysis or me gushing about something, so I’ll follow this up momentarily.

Mafia by J.Juan

There’s a scene in The Clone Wars that I find pertinent to this.

Count Dooku’s replaced Ventress as his apprentice, and is in the process of training Savage Opress as a replacement.

It’s very similar to Yoda and Luke’s training, just with added motivation (IE force Lightning). Dooku is trying to get Savage to lift the stone pillars, and Savage Tells him it cannot be done. Dooku replies:

“The task is only impossible because you have deemed it so”.

It’s essentially exactly what Yoda tells Luke in Empire Strikes Back, and reinforcers the fact that Dooku was once Yoda’s apprentice.

Not me being mad today about people over exaggerating the "do or do not there is no try" and hating on the Jedi for it as if it's not an idiom about always trying your best and giving it your all (and considering things when you do them) instead of literally saying don't try if you can't succeed. :/

I've always understood "do or do not, there is no try" as "ultimately, you will either have done or not done" - it seems like it's about focusing on the outcome instead of the process.

(As a recap of what exactly happens in ESB: Luke is doing a handstand trying to lift stones with Yoda perched on his leg when the ship suddenly sinks further into the water. It breaks Luke's concentration and his rocks fall, along with him, and Yoda. Luke laments they'll never get the ship back, Yoda laments that Luke always thinks things are too hard to be done, Luke says lifting stones is different, Yoda says it isn't, and Luke agrees to try, which is when Yoda has his iconic line.

And critically, after Luke does try and fail, Yoda gives him a great speech about the nature of the Force and how it binds everything together and Luke despondently says that it's just impossible. Upon which Yoda lifts the ship out of the water, of course, and Luke exclaims that he can't believe it, to which Yoda answers that that's why he's failing.)

Obviously you won't always get things right the first time, and that's precisely what Luke is frustrated about in the scene. And because he's disappointed that he's not getting things right, he doesn't even want to try anymore - his first instinct is to give up because he thinks the situation is beyond fixing.

So the critical point about the quote is that this Yoda shifting the focus: he tells Luke to stop thinking about what he's doing and concentrate on what he wants to do.

This is because of Luke's current state of mind, because Luke is currently associating his own efforts with failure, it's not just a random thing he's saying to make him feel bad.

Everything Star Wars tells us about the Force is that it's used through both intuition and confidence:

That's why the Jedi train so hard from such a young age - you can't doubt yourself or second-guess the Force, or you will get your ass kicked by both the universe and your potential opponents. You have to be able to trust your instincts because you have to rely on them - hence the need to either instill good Force-oriented instincts in kids, or in Luke's case relearn his own base sentient instincts. You can't learn to categorize the material world as 'too heavy,' 'too far,' 'not possible' - you have to focus on the Force, not the physical nature of the objects or your own limitations.

Luke thinks and feels the way a non Force-sensitive would: 'heavy things = can't be lifted.' He was doing okay lifting stones upside down, but he was using his muscles to stand upright, not the Force (hence why he was struggling to stay up and why he fell so easily). His concentration was clouded by material concerns (the loss of the ship and his own powerlessness) so he couldn't maintain it. He sees success as depending on his own conscious efforts but that's just not the way it works, he has to let go because his mind is just not wired right yet and so his efforts are necessarily counterproductive. It's that materialism that Yoda is responding to.

That's the point of Yoda's lesson imo - it's not so much about the technicalities of 'giving it everything you've got,' it's about something much deeper. He is trying to get Luke to radically change his mindset and entire worldview (the 'luminous beings, not this crude matter' quote is from this scene too), because Luke is never going to succeed if he thinks in terms of 'trying.'

If Luke could visualize the starship out of the bog and focus on that, the starship would be out of the bog. If he's focused on trying to lift it out of the bog, then he'll fail because everything in his mind tells him he can't.

Which is exactly what happens.

And the fact is, we know Yoda is 100% right with his advice and that everything he says and teaches in that moment is endorsed by the narrative - because he easily succeeds where Luke kept failing.

Story-wise, it couldn't be clearer that Yoda's advice is good, because it's immediately proven that not following it doesn't yield results, but that following it does.

Like most Jedi maxims, "Do, or do not. There is no try," is circumstantial advice and I'm pretty sure it doesn't show up again in Star Wars canon, be it the movies or TCW (until Rebels that is, when Kanan quotes it to Ezra like it's a rote thing that Yoda used to say all the time and it's kind of 'ah ah' moment because neither of them can figure out what it means). Which is why it kinda bugs me that it was elevated to a Yoda proverb like it's something he says constantly and not just something Luke needed to hear in that moment. It's a banger of a quote though.

Just realised that part of the appeal of units using the Rodi frame in Iron Blooded Orphans (besides them looking like little potatoes/dumplings/buns with guns) is that their design resembles the old prototype Zaku unit built by the Principality of Zeon

(I’m specifically referring to the Man Rodi, Landman Rodi, Monkey Rodi and my personal favourite, the Labrys)

With them appearing as exaggerated versions of the following:

The Zaku prototype units (in some sources called “crabman”)

Which were then replaced with the Mobile Worker and subsequently the Waff in Gundam: The Origin.

It’s just neat spotting common design themes with the Zaku-esque suits.

Oscar Chinchoni

Hm, maybe I should start a high grade G-Witch collection for dead pilots.

By my count, I’d have three (for major characters, at least).