KATHY LAM

KATHY LAM 黑山

Me: Hey, I should do some short posts on the SD Gundam series designs, since I won’t have much to say on them.

Also me: I should do a post on the Great Zeong.

The MSN-03-2 Great Zeong was an upgraded version of the MSN-03 Zeong, a sister unit to the MSN-02 Zeong which was used by Char at a Baoa Qu. Though a veritable improvement on the Original Zeong, the Principality of Zeon lacked both the resources or technological know-how to build it. A prime example of the latter would be that the Great Zeong was designed to split into seven independently functioning parts, all controlled by the Newtype pilot, compared to the original’s comparatively simple wired hands and detachable head for use as an escape system. The Great Zeong is armed with a scattering mega particle gun in the chest which can also function as a “standard” Large Mega Particle Gun, a 5-barrel Mega Particle Gun in each of the arms (the arm is essentially built around the gun) which can of course be detached through the psycommu system. The Great Zeong is also armed with a mega particle gun in each leg, and another one in the head. There is yet another small Mega Particle Gun behind the front skirt, typically used when the lower body is detached. Moving on from beam-related weaponry, there are two Anti-ship missiles contained within each shoulder binder and finally each leg mounts a heat claw on its underside. In addition to all this, the Great Zeong mounts an I-Field Barrier Generator (presumably in the chest) and a Minovsky Craft System for atmospheric flight. Just as with the original, the head could also be used as an escape system. Interestingly, each of the separate parts mounts a mono-eye system when separated, including a secondary head mounted inside the upper body, akin to the Apsalus or Zaku II (I wonder if that’s any benefit to the pilot, or it’s just a design thing) . The design would be later developed into the NZ-000 Queen Mansa/Quin Mantha.

Before I get into talking about the design, I want to give a quick run-down on my feelings towards the better-known Zeong’s:

The Original MSN-02 Zeong is absolutely gorgeous. Legless, murderous, kingly, terrifying. It’s a fantastic design and its lack of legs adds charm, especially since it replaces them with thruster bells, granting it great speed and manoeuvrability. The wired hands are uniquely effective, heartening back to Gundam’s super robot roots, but also being supremely effective in combat. The head has a sort of grim expression to it, and the thrusters on each side give it a noble look- appropriate for a suit bearing the name of Zeon itself. I will admit bias here, since GBO2 gives it the sort of move-set where it can continually throw beams at something while managing to dodge with little trouble, but I do still like the Zeong itself. It feels like an appropriate final threat to cap off the series, without going overboard.

The Perfect Zeong is the Zeong with legs. Solid, makes for some cool poses, and I like how they just make it look more imposing.

I said during my Build Metaverse review that I don’t really like Mobile Armours that are just a bunch of fancy weapons and systems crammed on. The Neo Zeong is that. I like both Gundam Unicorn and Gundam Narrative, the series they’re from, and I think that they’re utilised well, but they don’t really grab me design-wise (if you need four I-fields for cover, and it still doesn’t cover the entirety of the Mobile Armour, then your MA is too large). Though I will admit that I’m probably down on them because I really like the Sinanju, which is used as their control unit. The Psycho Shard Generator does make for some cool visuals, but it’s probably the absolute limit of Newtype tech in U.C.

Also, I’m probably not gonna get the opportunity to bring this up again, but it’s stated that the Neo Zeong II is built using spare parts from the original. If you have enough left over to build a completely new unit of something as big as the Neo Zeong, I’m not sure that can be classed as a “spare” anymore.

As a successor to the original Zeong, I genuinely prefer the Great Zeong to the Neo Zeong, simply because it’s still a mobile suit, albeit a beefy one. The Neo Zeong is just a block of armour and Newtype tech, though I’ll admit this is just the design since I enjoy its use in the series. I just like how imposing the Great Zeong is, and it feels like an excellent evolution of the Zeong’s design. The Zeong’s an unfinished prototype, albeit a strong one, the Perfect Zeong is that prototype completed and the Great Zeong is just the Zeong but more, with it’s arsenal of mega particle cannons and additional weaponry. The fact that it can split into seven feels like the designer took the Zeong’s wired arms and just ran with it, which is fun, and the heat claws are a nice addition. I also like the shoulder binders, since they give it a gorgeous silhouette but they’re also used for the anti-ship missiles and Minovsky Craft System. I like the subtle change to head, it gives it a more aggressive feel when compared to the grim expression of the original.

They also have a translation of the Gaia Gear Radio Drama, if that interests anyone.

hi, just wondering where are you watching urdr hunt?

There’s a YouTuber, Trafalgar Log, who’s translated and uploaded all the game cutscenes (and a little gameplay).

YouTube

Trafalgar Log

Mobile game cutscene translator apparently, I also translate manga elsewhere!

The entire series thus far can be watched on their channel, and it also includes translations of the sidestories from the game.

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.

*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.

Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans Urdr Hunt Masterpost - Part 1

Alright, I’ve finally finished watching Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans Urdr Hunt, however when putting together this post I didn’t quite realise the scale of it until I was almost finished. As such I’ll be splitting it into three (ish) main posts - This one will be discussing the Ending, a little bit on Londo Bron, and the Zagan. The second post will be my thoughts on Cyclase Mayer and Gjallarhorn, and the last post will be my thoughts on Wistario and the rest of the cast. I’m also planning to do both a post on the series mechanics (in which I’ll talk about the mobile suits and mobile armours) and a character piece on Londo Bron at some point in the future. It just felt a little too long to be just one post, even for me.

Overall, I enjoyed Gundam Urdr Hunt. That said I’m glad I waited to watch it until now, because I think if I’d watched it without the promise of the movie on the horizon, I would have found the ending disappointing. But we’ll get to that. I’m largely going to be referring to my prior post, but I’ll be covering a lot of the same points. Though some of these I noted down as I was watching, so it might be a little more disjointed than usual.

We’ll get to the ending Immediately, as it happens. As I said, I found it overall a good show. The ending, well, it isn’t really an ending. It’s sort of a “the adventure continues”. Katya is recovered and Wistario goes around and thanks all the other Urdr Hunt Participants (except Cyclase) then returns to Radonitsa Colony on Venus. It feels more like the culmination of an Arc than a conclusion to the series, which I guess it is. But Gundam’s never been a series that has arcs so it’s a little odd. All that said, this is where i feel Urdr Hunt’s nature as a video game works against it, since most of the story prior to this has been “gathering the party”, with the Mobile Armour (Nerimiah) functioning as the final boss. I think the movie’s a way to give it a proper conclusion that isn’t tied down to the needs of a videogame.

But the battle at Ratatoskr I do have one criticism of - Wistario races to reach the shuttle, but it’s struck by lightning and explodes. Agonising moments pass, as Wistario thinks he’s failed, then Katya appears from the explosion. Putting aside the fact that we knew damn well she was gonna survive, fuck those Gjallarhorn Pilots, am I right? Also, she survives an explosion in just a normal suit? No shrapnel or explosive force? It feels more annoying because she could have just been in a casket or escape pod or something, but no, magic explosion. I don’t know, it just seems odd, like there’s so many other ways that it could’ve gone that would’ve made more sense.

I like how we get that view into Gjallarhorn with Mcgillis, Okina Uroka and Isurugi. It’s nice to see an internal view on how that all went down (even though I’m sure Uroka is seething on the inside). It’s also very interesting how Uroka just straight up doesn’t answer Mcgillis’ direct question. Way to tip off you have something to hide, my guy.

In brief, the ending’s just alright, there’s stuff I liked (Gjallarhorn), stuff I didn’t (Magic Explosion) and stuff I’m middling on (Nerimiah). I’m glad that there’s a movie coming so it can have a proper conclusion.

However, I do have plenty of other things to say, so let’s get to those;

Londo Bron is an idiot and I love him

I’ll be doing a proper post on him at some point later, but I’m so very happy for his inclusion in the series. He’s basically one of Carta’s former subordinates, her ex-“knight” if you will and I absolutely love the character dynamic this brings to the table. If I didn’t already love the Zagan, he would have definitely made me look at it fondly.

Speaking of, the Gundam Zagan. I’ve already talked about it just from a design perspective prior, but it’s an absolute juggernaut in this. It carves through three Grazes with ease, and is the only enemy in the series to seriously give Wistario a run for his money. It does all this, with a pilot without Alaya-Vijinana. I don’t doubt that other skilled pilots like Londo Brom exist in post disaster, but the Issues certainly weren’t head of the Seven Stars for nothing. It would have been sufficient as a final boss in my mind, but I really can’t find flaw with it. (I might do a proper post on the series mechanics too)

It’s possible that it’s stored in Ratatoskr as a last resort if Nerimiah was to escape. I’m genuinely unsure as to why anyone would willingly preserve a mobile armour, especially (presumably) Arzona Issue, but at least Zagan’s inclusion as part of the prison shows some foresight.

I really hope it’s able to be salvaged though, mostly because if it appears in something else, we might get a HG kit of it. (Also it bothers me a little that Londo Bron essentially wrecked a relic of the Calamity War in its first sortie in 300 years against Wistario. Kinda feels like I’m watching someone use an antique vase to bludgeon a child to death).