Char Aznable During The Battle Of Loum

Char Aznable during the Battle of Loum

The amazing digital art of Anato Finnstark

Masamune Shirow

So I was thinking about Gundam Iron-Blooded orphans recently and I remembered this interesting detail.

In several of the side materials (I think it’s the model kit manual for Bael, but I’m not certain) it states that there has been several would-be heirs to Agnika Kaieru’s legacy over the years (IE Bael) but none of them had been able to get the Gundam frame to respond until McGillis came along. Thus implying that McGillis is the “true” heir to Agnika Kaieru’s ideals.

This is neat for several reasons, not least of which is the implication that Rustal Elion was somehow able to thwart an ancient, 300-year old prophecy. Rustal reforms the corrupt Gjallarhorn and in doing so rejects both its present form, and it’s past one. As such, the defeat of both Tekkadan, the Devils of Mars who use ancient Gundam frames from the calamity war and McGillis, who openly espouses old-fashioned ideas from the era of Calamity War sends a clear message that such “relics” have no place in the world anymore.

McGillis is the Heir to the legacy of a bygone age, which no longer has a place in the modern world Rustal, and indeed by the end of the series Kudelia Aina Bernstein, plans to create. If McGillis has been born during the Calamity War, he would have been one of Agnika Kaieru’s staunchest supporters. So it could be said that his defeat at the end of the series signify’s that he was born in the wrong era.

And what other character is constantly referenced as “being born in the wrong era”?. Lieutenant Crank, the very first (okay, technically second) threat that Tekkadan has to face, right at the beginning of the series. The man who’s misplaced ideals of chivalry put him at odds with the world that Tekkadan wish to create.

I just thought it seemed like a cool comparison. Bookends.

concept for Sudbud complex, Darling Harbor, Sydney by Roger Dean

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Kenichi Ishibashi from Metal Heart    “NZ-333″