Gremoria411 - Side 5 Galleries

This idea harassed me since morning ;- ;

A twofer today, just some general impressions on the ASW-G-16 Gundam Zepar (left) and the AWS-G-61 Gundam Zagan. I still haven’t watched Urdr hunt unfortunately, so I’ll be mostly talking about Zagan’s design, as opposed to anything that goes on in-series.

Another reason I’m pairing these together is because they’re both Post Disaster Gundam units, that have a two-syllable name beginning with a Z and a serial number that has a 6 in it. I’ve been able to remember them by the fact that the Zepar is Zippy. And that the Zagan has nothing to do with Carl Sagan.

Moving on from naming conventions, what do I think of them? Starting with the Zagan, I like the weight it brings to the table, it feels like it could compete with other heavyweights without much difficulty, essentially functioning as a giant can-opener to the mobile armours. It should be noted that with the possible exception of Agnika Kaeru himself, the Issues were the most prolific killer of Mobile Armours during the Calamity War. Presumably some of that was by dint of its pilot, but the Zagan cannot be discounted. It’s possible the apparent focus on defence aided in its survivability, enabling it to cope with battles of attrition better, functioning as an anvil to the other Gundam Frames’ hammer. It’s also possible that it’s missing some armament, since the hands are free. I know there’s precedent for knuckledusters in IBO, but it only being armed with the shields feels a little odd.

The design specifically reminds me of the Gremory (most likely the armour) and the Abyss Gundam from Seed Destiny (colouration and bulk, though I always remember it bigger than it actually is)

The Zepar I have considerably less to say on - it’s a nice design, agile and suited to closing the distance and stabbing things, but I do want to talk about it in relation to House Kujan, Specifically Iok Kujan.

Iok is……hm. He’s essentially a perfect example of somebody you don’t want in command. He’s a twit, and furthermore, he’s a dangerous twit, since his actions have a tendency to backfire on literally everyone besides himself. But let’s walk back a little. Who is Iok in relation to the story?

Iok Kujan is the heir to House Kujan of Gjallarhorn’s Seven Stars, the Seven Noble Families that wield the most power in Gjallarhorn, as McGillis, Gaelio, Carta and Rustal are to each of their houses (and of course Nemo, Elek and Gargin, but they’re less focused on). He only ascended to the position fairly recently, but everyone has high hopes for him since his late father was beloved.

Unfortunately, he’s really bad at it. He’s reckless, callous of those he’s fighting against and is absolutely unable to recognise his own failures.

@wordsandrobots has done an excellent analysis on Iok which I’m just going to link to here, since it’s very good:

But the crux of Iok is that he represents a great many of the failings of nobility - he’s incompetent, he’s unqualified and he displays a lack of care for how his actions effect others - not out of malice, but out of stupidity. He is a walking talking, killing example of how promoting based on blood rather than ability is such a poor idea.

But then look at the Zepar. Look at how it stands, how it moves. There’s a poise to it, an elegance, a sense of nobility. It’s armed with a sword and shield - simple, yes, but something that focuses on defence, on protection. Even the way it fights seems to be in pushing the enemy away from something, protecting it. So I would say that if Iok is representative of the realities of nobility - the incompetence and disregard for others, then the Zepar is the romanticisation of it - of a noble, red-armoured knight who would protect the people. It also represents how far the Kujan family has come since the Calamity War - Once a great and loved pilot who fought at the frontlines using a Gundam Frame, to a lacking and foolish one who fights from the rear and has to be bailed out at the cost of his subordinates lives. (I know Iok’s father didn’t pilot the Zepar, but it ties in with the theme of Iok being the end result of a lineage, rather than the beginnings).

It also draws attention to the Gjallarhorn’s meritocratic roots - Embrilla Kujan was able to slay multiple mobile armours using this machine, whereas Iok is too blinded by his own self-importance to recognise the threat that they pose, to the point he severely underestimates what it will take to kill one.

I still think it's really cool how Amuro starts as the shittiest pilot alive (because he's a 15-year old) that only gets carried because he's in the biggest, fattest stat stick in-universe at the time (a few retroactive additions made in the future notwithstanding), enough that even its crappy vulcan guns are tearing Zaku IIs apart, and when he starts getting a bit too cocky, Char and Ramba Ral show up in objectively inferior pieces of junk and absolutely deliver his pizza, they just drag his face across every available surface in Planet Earth like he's a Yakuza mook, all because they are simply that much better at piloting, and the thing is, Amuro takes that very seriously.

He goes from shitass kid in an unfortunate situation that doesn't want to get in the robot to the most unwell child soldier in the war, which is really saying something, but most importantly, becomes so good at piloting the Gundam that the Gundam physically cannot handle Amuro's piloting. They need to apply "Magnetic Coating" to its joints so they don't fucking snap away from the main frame because Amuro, one, moves too damn well but also in too extreme a way for the frame to handle it, two, despite being equipped with two sabers, a shield, a beam rifle and vulcan guns, Amuro is a stern believer in introducing most everyone in thagomizer range to his Rated Z for Zeon hands, the single most official pair of hands in the business, tax free. He KEEP going Ip Man on these dudes, he does NOT need to do a Jamestown on these mother fuckers but he INSISTS. Somehow even the Gundam Hammer, which is a giant Hannah Barbera cartoon flail-- Ok, look at this thing, words do not do it justice

Even this god damn Tom and Jerry prop is less savage that whatever Amuro decides to do the moment he's done throwing his shield to get a free kill on someone and it officially becomes bed time forever for the unfortunate sap at the business end of his ten-finger weapons of mass destruction.

The RX-78-2, "Gundam" for its friends and family, even has a top of the line cutting edge Learning Computer that 'learns' alongside the pilot and their habits. This data extracted from it was so absolutely fucked up that it completely revolutionized Mobile Suit combat afterwards, which is a wholesome thing to think about when The Best Combat Data Ever came from a really angry, really stressed 15 year old that doesn't even like piloting. He was 15! He made Haro with his own hands! Amuro literally just wanted to make funny cute spherical robofriends! Amuro was out there trying to make Kirby real, but fate had other plans for him. His cloned brain put in a pilot seat is one of the setting's strongest 'pilots'.

They made fucking Shadow the Hedgehog with his brain, god damn.

By the end, Zeon is rolling out Gelgoogs out of its mass production lines. These things are in the Gundam's ballpark in terms of overall specs (or "power level"). Amuro is bodying them as if they were episode 1 Zaku IIs.

AND THEN HE GETS FUCKING PSYCHIC SPACE POWERS. Not that he needed them, he bodied a couple Space Psychics without any of those powers before awakening to them. But heaven's most violent child was not done evolving, whether he liked it or not.

Char bodied him in a souped up Zaku II at the start, a machine objectively inferior to the Gundam. Amuro more or less one-sidedly beats the shit out of Char when he's in a custom Commander-type Gelgoog that you could consider to be equal spec-wise to the Gundam. Amuro is the embodiment of Finding Out. He is Consequences. You tell him he better make it hurt, better make it count, better kill you in one shot, buddy, he needs half a fucking shot. The complete transformation. One could consider the central 75% of the show as long drawn out training montage turning a kid into the Geese Howard of giant robots.

I’m currently at Episode 22 of Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans: Urdr Hunt, I’ve got about two episodes left and since it seems to be a two-episode finale kind of deal, I figured I’d take a break and note down some thoughts up till now, then maybe do another post after the finale. Though I haven’t really arranged these, so I’m probably just gonna ramble.

*The following contains spoilers for episodes 1-22 of Gundam Urdr Hunt*

I’m liking a lot of the Mobile Suit Designs, Gundam and Grunt. Plus, it’s nice to see old favourites again, like the Grimgerde and Hyakuren. However, I do feel like some could be better utilised - The Asmodeus is a cool design, and it works as a lancer to the Hajiroboshi, I just feel like it could have been used more.

Similarly, is is odd how a lot of the major threats are lead-from-the-front characters, since obviously they have to function as bosses. I dunno, it’s just strange compared to all the non-action opponents from the original series.

I really enjoyed Range and Katya’s inclusion as characters, since they’re just sitting there providing a good general basis of what the average citizen of Post Disaster knows - Katya knows a lot of insider knowledge of Gjallarhorn for example, which the others remark on regularly. While Range is sceptical of the existence of mobile armours and views the Asmoday as just a particularly strong mobile suit. So they provide different ends of the same spectrum, I suppose.

I like how each of the maids/guides has their own personality, and I like seeing how they interact with each of their charges. But I do wish we saw more of them. Part of its because they feel like they have that potential to shine very well, and it’s also quite a large cast, so not everyone gets an equal share. I also found it interesting that they were all stated to have been “bought”, so they’re all former Human Debris. Unfortunately, Parstai (blue, with Foundling) is the only one it really comes up with, but presumably the others had full and interesting lives beforehand. You get hints of it with Batch and Tagging (the two that go with Cyclase), with Tagging being an excellent mobile suit pilot, and Batch having experience in ship command and a cautious bearing, but we know very little of the others prior lives.

I didn’t expect to vibe with the Zan Brothers as much as I did, that was weird.

Kouzou Mendou’s pretty rad. A genuine Archeologist, hoping to reveal the causes behind the Calamity War, and just generally seems to be a decent fellow. He does admittedly score points because he very clearly understands how dangerous Mobile Armours were/are, and is the first character to really articulate that. I kinda wish he’d told us, the audience, some new information about the Calamity War, but that’s not really a criticism at all.

Cameos from other Ibo Characters - mostly I can take or leave them, but I’d be lying if I didn’t get pumped when Mcgillis (as Montag) showed up in the Grimgerde to fight Londo Bron. I also loved seeing Isurugi going around, being generally competent.

Actually yeah, Londo Bron. For my talk about Cyclase Mayer at the start of this, I found myself really enjoying Londo Bron, surprisingly so even. He’s a good pilot, he has noble intentions, and he feels like a really good example of an Antagonist, but not a villain. He’s only really opposing Wistario because he wants to restore the Issue Family, and Katya is the best way to do that (I might do a proper post on him some other time).

Another character I really like, despite their short screentime would be Major Bradley. He’s essentially the perfect picture of a colonial administration officer - he’s corrupt, he’s unreasonable, he’s pretty solidly classist, and it all just works. He’s not even cartoonishly evil, he’s just the sort of corrupt Gjallarhorn Official that illustrates the failings of the organisation. Obviously he shares a lot of DNA with Coral Conrad, from the original series, but the boredom, the arrogance with which he carries himself just makes him memorable. Plus he just looks obscenely British, furthering the colonial parallels.

I am absolutely loving the fight scenes in this. Yeah, a lot of the fighting is supposed to be for the in-engine graphics, so they could have totally phoned it in. But they didn’t. If only other shows that cut out background, story, plot and characterisation to ostensibly focus on the fights *cough* *cough* Build Divers *cough* could do that.

I do love how absolutely shameless Cyclase is. Just like “Oh boy, how do I get out of this one? I know, Betrayal!” It works into his character and it’s really fun to watch, but it’s just kind of hilarious how he makes at least like five betrayals in the space of the show. Very efficient.

Character Designs’ still top-notch. I don’t really have any specific examples that I haven’t already mentioned but yeah. It’s good.

Ah, I mentioned that I was considering getting the Hajiroboshi kit? The thing is, a lot of the time I can really like a character, and that can end up selling me more on their mobile suit’s model kit. This is the first time that’s ever happened with a mechanic. In brief; I don’t want the Hajiroboshi because it’s the mobile suit Wistario Pilots, I want the Hajiroboshi because it’s the mobile suit Denmer maintained all these years.

I do have two more points - one positive, one negative, but I’m gonna pull those out as separate posts, simply because I want to consider them separate from everything else, and I feel like I’ll want to follow them up separately after the finale.

In a nutshell, I’ve generally liked Iron Blooded Orphans: Urdr Hunt - it gives a good showing of the world of Post Disaster besides what we’ve seen with Tekkadan and Tanto Tempo, and a lot of the side characters are interesting. The only issue is that some characters and mechanics feel somewhat under-utilised.

(Though maybe that’s my own fault for hyping myself up for the Asmodeus).

Water Serpents I, Gustav Klimt (1904). Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in the Belvedere Palace, Vienna.

I love the dichotomy of pilots and their mechas in Gundam. There will be an 18 meter tall war machine utilizing the latest advancements in electronics and firearms named after a demon or some shit with the meanest face you've ever seen on a robot and then the pilot will be the human equivalent of a Quokka