Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans Urdr Hunt Part 3 - Wistario And The Rest Of The Cast

Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans Urdr Hunt Part 3 - Wistario and the rest of the Cast

I think that it’s overall a good cast, but I definitely found some characters better than others - 598, Range and Katya all have actual arcs, which results in them changing as people throughout - I’ve said prior that I found both 598 and Range genuinely compelling characters. I also found a lot of characters, while not fully developed, had enough going on that I was interested in them - Tamami, Mendou, and above all, Denmer (honestly I would love to see more of him). The only characters I find lacking are Wistario and Korunaru, which, again, would be fine if they weren’t ostensibly important. I wish the guides had more focus in general to be honest, since the only ones who get really any focus are Slice and Parstai (who get an episode at best).

Denmer Kitaco Jr., though. It genuinely bothers me how little we know about him, because it just all feels so tantalisingly close - he’s (presumably) a Venus resident, who has enough street smarts in the Era of Post Disaster, and presumably passed these on to Wistario (since I don’t really see how else he could have picked them up). He knows some form of martial art, enough to take on numerous Gjallarhorn Officers. He’s got a referenced history that Dexter and Sinister routinely bring up, he’s MISSING AN EYE, which I was initially willing to write off as a way to make him seem grizzled, but the more I think about it must be relevant in some way, considering that Wistario’s parents seem to be dead. And, as I’ve said before, he’s INHERITED A GUNDAM FRAME, which, from the way he talks and acts about it, is almost certainly something that was impressed upon him a great deal - he’s not casual or dismissive about it, this is something he’s carefully and meticulously maintained for most of his life, and he understands, on some level, what it is and what it represents. I’d wager he has his own suspicions about its past, given that he seems to have inklings but not the whole picture. And it makes it all the more significant when Wistario uses it to fight - it’s their family’s past and ancestry, but for Denmer, it’s also their families future. How must he feel, when Wistario risks his life over and over again, in a machine that he allowed him to access? And the way he interacts with Wistario- it’s obvious he cares for him a great deal, and besides Sprah, it seems like he’s been Wistario’s primary carer for pretty much Wistario’s entire life. There’s so much good stuff there, but it all feels just out of reach.

So, my love of Denmer established, what about his young charge? Well, I still think Wistario lacks a strong character, but I feel a lot more of him coalesces nearer to the end of the series. However. The central theme of Wistario is family, not Venus, buying Radonitsa is just his immediate expression of that goal. But because of the early emphasis on the Urdr hunt it’s muddled. When you look at the series through the lens of Wistario building a family, his “character” makes a little more sense. But because he’s not setting out to build a family, it’s not obvious. I’m genuinely not really sure. Either, the central theme of Wistario is buying and doing up Radonitsa Colony, and he acquires a found family along the way. Or; the central theme of Wistario is Family, and buying and doing up Radonitsa is just his early expression of that goal. I feel like I could argue for one or the other, since neither theme is strong enough for me to come down on. Because he slowly befriends every single competitor in the Urdr Hunt other than Cyclase, so if any of them win, it feels like they’ll give at least a portion of the money to Wistario, since he has the “best goal”, so to speak. Even Cyclase doesn’t really seem to care about the prize money, since he seems to be more interested in the chance of finding a mobile armour during the Urdr Hunt.

Wistario and Katya - hm. Feels more like an exploration of what Katya wants, as opposed to a genuine romance. Thematically it’s similar to Wistario’s interactions with Range and 598. He gives them autonomy since that’s an aspect of his dream? Or just because he believes it’s the right thing to do? Yes, Wistario cares for Katya, but him rescuing her feels more like he’s granting her the power to make her own choices, like he did by telling 598 about Kimball and extending an offer to Range. If it’s meant to be a straight romance, then it feels token, but “ensuring the freedom of others from a bad situation”, as I think he’s doing, doesn’t really tie in with Wistario himself at all (unless it’s about the greater economic freedom of Venus, but that feels like I’m reaching).

Another thing about Wistario; Somehow the moment where he thinks Londo Brom’s about to kill him gave him more characterisation than half the series. Here, in this moment, he comes face-to-face with death. He’s a child, a young boy, who’s carrying the dreams of everyone around him, who just really wants to save his friend, who’s about to die. Despite his competence and piloting skills, he is still a child, and this moment showcases that vulnerability. Hell, the only reason he survives is that the Zagan gets struck by lightning and 598’s able to pull him clear just in time. He gets outclassed and barely survives, sure he manages to pull himself together and fight the mobile armour afterwards, but I’d wager that he’s going to have some rough nights ahead of him.

In fact, that might be it with Wistario. While his character is tied to the aftereffects of war (the economic depression, and effects of colonial administration), there’s kind of no connection between him and mobile suits. There’s no “reason” for him to be as good a pilot as he is, there’s no real sense of mobile suits being a part of his life before this. Yes, he wants to buy the Radonitsa colony, but he is just essentially fighting - and killing, for a big pile of money. And it’s an active choice on his part. But we’re not really shown the sort of person that would take the decision to fight for money - pretty much every engagement Wistario enters is the result of another party attacking him first. So there’s this disconnect between who Wistario is, and what Wistario does.

I don’t really think that he’s a *bad* protagonist per se, he just feels a little half-baked, and I feel that, for being the protagonist, we really don’t know a lot about him.

*the following contains spoilers for Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans Urdr Hunt*

Alright, so I’ve finally finished Gundam Ibo Urdr Hunt, and I’ll be doing a proper post on it momentarily, but I do want to get one thing out right now.

I kind of really love the Hajiroboshi Second Form.

Which is a little odd in isolation, since it’s not actually that different from the original Hajiroboshi.

It’s really just got new shoulders, the new boosters on its backpack (the head might have been reworked slightly, but I think that might just be me) and a new sword. However, two of these features (the Boosters and Sword) bring it closer to its original form.

Just looking at its armaments on their own, I like them. I will admit I have a weakness for suits that are “We have a sword, let’s just use that really really well”. I like both the Destiny and the Throne Zwei for those reasons. But the Hajiroboshi second form has some points in its favour that those two don’t- it’s in Post Disaster 324, a setting where that is a very viable strategy, and it’s got those lovely thrusters on its back that seem to primarily serve to get it into melee range (not to mention the harpoons). I also like the shield -it’s streamlined, but not to the point of not being protective, and while I like how it’s got the claw tips for thrusting, it’s nice how there’s so little emphasis on them (though that might just be from the last protagonist suit I looked at being the Lah). But the Cross Mace hearkens back to the main sword of its original armament and the thrusters also bring it closer to the original silhouette of the Marchosias

So it kinda just feels like the ghost of the Marchosias.

Which is great, because both the Hajiroboshi and Barbatos seem to have something going on in that regard. Mikazuki talks to the Barbatos during the battle against Ein in Edmonton as if there’s some last vestige of its former pilot present, while the Hajiroboshi seems to react on its own when encountering mobile armours. Based on what we know about Gundam Frames from the original series, it’s typically some form of interaction with the Alaya-Vijnana (like when the Gusion Rebake gets shut down when attempting to engage the mobile armour, since Akihiro gets overwhelmed by the feedback). The Barbatos’ connection is obvious - Mikazuki’s in a high stress situation when using the Alaya-Vijinana, and presumably he’s doing something similar to what the original pilot did - using the sword to fight an enemy not too dissimilar to a mobile armour. However, the Hajiroboshi’s is considerably less clear. It seems to either lock up, as the Gusion Rebake did, implying it’s fitted with a limiter; or it seems to “flash back” to a similar fight from the calamity war (at least that’s my read on it versus Harael) and from there act as if it has the “True Alaya-Vijinana” installed (it’s only in speech marks because I don’t really have a better term for it). It’s honestly a little unclear on whether it’s Hajiroboshi, the Mobile Armour or both that has the flash backs, since it’s from Harael’s perspective but Wistario mentions seeing them.

So presumably, the Hajiroboshi’s fitted with some kind of system that mimics Alaya-Vijinana, but I would like to offer another suggestion; What if, on some level, the pilots are still in them?

Now, we know that Alaya-Vijinana is a man-machine interface developed prior to the calamity war, but there’s two specific pieces of information that we’re told about it I want to focus on;

“The Alaya-Vijinana creates a Pseudo-brain lobe in the pilot’s body using nanomachines, allowing the pilot's brain to directly process mobile suit data fed through the physical connection.”

“Furthermore, this continuous link can cause consciousness to be forcibly maintained even in situations where the pilot is supposed to faint or even die instantly.”

So, an extra brain lobe to process the information and the system will keep the pilot alive even in situations where they shouldn’t be. So, is it possible there could be some sort of feedback loop or that the mobile suit could retain some of the pilot’s habits (the Barbatos telling Mikazuki how to use the katana through a sort of frame-wide “muscle memory” of its previous pilot).

It’s also interesting that this seems to happen during moments of great stress for their modern pilots - at those points when the greatest amount of data would be moving from the person to the mobile suit. So, if, say for example, a pilot was regularly facing strong enemies in life-or-death situations, might the system retain that data too? The heightened reaction speed, the chemical reactions leading to emotional output, the movements of the pilot to resolve the situation. The Calamity War was a time when humanity was desperately pushed to the brink by the mobile armours, it’s very unlikely that they would have taken the time to work out all the bugs in the system (heck, if they were taking high pilot losses, it might have been seen as a bonus).

So yeah, the Hajiroboshi might be haunted.

As the Hajiroboshi appears as a ghost of the Marchosias, there might also be another ghost in the machine.

I just thought that it’s a rad connection.

Kycilia is a really cool and fascinating character.

Still alive, and will try more stuff soon. Randomly remembered this dude exists

The AMX-017 Gigantic was a planned nuclear-capable mobile suit designed by Axis Zeon for use in their Invasion of Earth, being one of multiple competing plans designed to tip the balance in Axis’ favour. The Gigantic was based on data recovered from the stolen Gundam Gp02 “Physalis” during Operation Stardust memory by the Axis Technical Fleet, and was designed for much the same purpose: the deployment of Tactical Nuclear Weapons. To this end it was armed with an Atomic Bazooka, for deployment of the nuke itself, and a beam saber, for the suit’s own protection. Presumably, it was intended to be deployed with an escort to cover for its lack of armaments (either that or the Axis engineers took the Gp02’s limited armament to be a feature, not a bug). The Gigantic was ultimately passed over in favour of the Dublin Colony Drop, which was ultimately successful for the Axis Forces, inflicting heavy casualties on Karaba and the AEUG, while resulting in the Earth Federation Government ceding Side 3 to Axis, returning the Republic of Zeon to their forces. Though the Delaz Fleets’ attack at Konpei Island (/Confeito/Solomon) demonstrated the power of nuclear weapons, the Axis forces lacked any nukes which could be utilised by the Gigantic. Following their failure to seize the federation asteroid base Luna II and the nuclear arsenal held there, the Gigantic was then mothballed, as it was unable to carry out its assigned task.

I do like the Gigantic’s design, you see the GP02 Influence, and yet there’s an obvious Zeon flair to the design. I like the white and purple colour scheme, it converts the same sense of danger as Haman’s Qubeley, and the art’s lovely of course. The large thrusters on the design also imply a speed, again analogous to those on the Gp02. The cockpit’s reinforced, suitable to survive a nuclear blast, and I love how beefy the head is. Sleek, yet armoured, designed to funnel blast waves around the body. The feet remind me of the Don, another Zeonic influence. It’s just rather nice. That said, I’m just now noticing that the elbows can’t bend, which is a choice.

Interestingly, in SD Gundam G Generation FIF, there’s a non-canon scenario where the Gigantic is Piloted by Karius, a surviving wingmate of Anavel Gato, the pilot of the Gp02, which is neat.

In rough order;

The general plots, themes and who’s actually important to the plot in Wing only really coalesce towards the end, and even then there’s a movie (Endless Waltz) to cap everything off, but I’ll admit it does get a little meandering around the 2/3rds mark.

The pilot’s backstories were *supposed* to have an entire episode of the series dedicated to them, but it got cut from the series and was never dubbed (though some editions of endless waltz include it). This is commonly known as “Episode Zero”. I haven’t seen it, personally, so I don’t know how effective it is at that.

To my understanding, Wing had a very tight production schedule. Read: was basically written and re-written as they went along. As such, it can read a little disjointed when taken as a whole.

Lastly, regarding Gundam Wing being put together to sell toys - kinda, yes. Gundam in general’s game plan is to make a cool story with cool robots in the hope that you like them enough to buy the robots, the original series only became as big as it did through re-runs and toy sales. I can’t remember the source right now, but I remember reading that the mecha designer (presumably Kunio Okawara) had to design one toy with a transformation gimmick (what would become Wing) and one toy with an extending arm gimmick (what would become Shenlong). In addition, 4/5 the designs were recycled/unused from the previous series, Mobile Fighter G Gundam, leading to a multinational theme (Deathscythe’s European, Shenlong/Altron’s Chinese, Sandrock’s Middle-Eastern and Heavyarms is American).

I’ll admit I haven’t seen the series in a good while, however, so I can’t speak for its overall quality.

Gonna vent about Gundam Wing here because FUCK

I know people like this show, and I can see the appeal in the angst between the pilots and the cool robot fights (when they actually happen and aren't just one-sided ass-beatings) and all that jazz. And i just want to say, I'm not gonna stop you from enjoying Gundam Wing. Hell, maybe someone can spell this show out for me and help me get it.

In the meantime, with that out of the way, I want to talk about my feelings regarding Gundam Wing as somebody actively watching through it.

I'm writing this review of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing in the middle of episode 34 (almost 10 episodes away from the end of the show), and I'm left questioning what the point of all this even was. Gundam Wing's upfront pitch was simple & sweet: Heero Yuy & other Gundam pilots go down to Earth and it's pretty straightforward: smash shit up for the larger United Earth Sphere Alliance folks, and is OZ & Zechs were there and sometimes Trieze would show up and say some shit and feel like a solid fit for a complex main villain. Then the Gundam pilots have to go back to Earth and now everyone is kind of meandering about. God, and then a few of them reunite under the female lead Relena's flag. But that kind of fizzles out when lo'-and-behold Heero Yuy runs off in a Gundam yet again while Quatre stands by? Who even is the main villain anymore? Because Trezie said his fight was "over" like his ass gets to say that when his soldiers are out there still clawing for relevancy now that a faceless main villain has invaded the story. It is impossible to feel any sort of way about anyone, nobody important ever actually dies and, again, the role of the antagonist has shifted between two or three different old guys. They really only did one pilot's backstory adequetly. I don't care about any of these people and at this point I'm just watching this to figure if the Gundam Wing Zero & Epyon doing weird mental stuff is going to go anywhere. But if that element is anything like the conflict, it's fizzle out right before it does anything worth discussing.

I don't understand any of it, none of these little bastard Gundam pilots can stick together and it totally underminds the squad dynamic set up from the start. Half of them don't even do anything for most of the series. It leads me back around to my first question, what was the point of this show? Was ALL of this really slapped together to sell toys? (I mean, it was then it worked. I want a model kit of the Mobile Dolls and I own kits the 5 Gundams + Deathscythe Hell) Who is even the brainchild behind Gundam Wing? Who is to blame for this whole thing to begin with? Give me a name, if there even is one.