Cyclase Mayer - Tumblr Posts
Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans Masterpost Part 2 - Cyclase Mayer and Gjallarhorn
Okay, Cyclase. I don’t really have that much to say on his origin - there’s nothing wrong with “disgruntled former archeologist whose parent was murdered by gjallarhorn”, but it just doesn’t really grab me for some reason. I do still love how utterly unrepentant he is about his numerous betrayals. He does have *some* similarities with Mcgillis for me, but that’s probably only because Mcgillis sees Gundam Frames (or rather, Bael) as the end-all of strength, whereas Cyclase sees Mobile Armours. It’s interesting how they’ve both been negatively influenced by Iznario Fareed however.
It took me a weirdly long time to realise that Cyclase was a Char Clone. Then again, I was comparing him to Mcgillis basically from the start, so……
Hm. I think that the fight at the end with the mobile armour (Mebahiah) is supposed to be an illustration of Afam and Cyclase’s differing philosophies - Afam wins because he has his friends with him to back him up, forming an effective force against the mobile armour, whereas Cyclase, who has sought power in solitude, has his “champion” defeated. It’s further shown with how they treat their allies, with Wistario visiting each in turn and thanking them, while Cyclase just rebuffs Tagging’s attempt at small talk.
Wait, so what was the point of Omden Colony Corporation/Cyclase getting two rings? That feels like it should be significant in some way. I assumed that it was either to emphasise their ruthlessness (they killed someone else for their ring) or the scale of the company (they’d managed to obtain two on their own), but in practice it just means Cyclase has two guides.
Given what mobile armours are capable of - hey, maybe Gjallarhorn was right to suppress the technology? Just gonna throw that out there. Like, the more of them we see, the easier it is to believe how deadly they were, and why the Gundam’s were so necessary. Though obviously, that doesn’t justify Gjallarhorn’s murder of Doctor Mayer.
Speaking of that, it’s possible that that was just an accident which Gjallarhorn had no part in, and Cyclase is just jumping to conclusions. That said, why I think he’s right is the fact that it’s Iznario Fareed, the shadiest seven star of them all. If it had been someone else then maybe you could say Cyclase was wrong, but Iznario? Yeah, definitely murder.
“Does this mean…… the mobile armour isn’t a higher form of being?” - Cyclase, buddy, it’s a giant robot that wants to kill all humans, it’s not that hard a concept to grasp. I do kinda love how absolutely crushed he is that his plan failed though. Like, no “hm, an imperfect god” or “this is but a temporary setback”, he’s genuinely pissed that this didn’t work out and even his “I’ll start again” thing feels like he’s desperately trying to save face. All in all, he’s a good villain because of what he does and how he does it, more so than who he is.
Okina Uroka is an interesting character, especially in contrast to Londo Bron, since they both want the same thing, but go about it in different ways. I like his design, it feels very good for an “old retainer”. I’m genuinely unsure how much power he held in the Issue family when Carta was still alive, since he doesn’t seem at all unused to power. It’s also nice because it’s another exploration of the consequences of Tekkadan’s actions in the main series, showing the far-reaching effect they had.
Another interesting detail is that Okina Uroka mentions “the Baklazan and Falk Families Calculations have been a great comfort to us” and Mcgillis states that they “hadn’t lost their privileges”, so could they also be heirless? If so, it could be that we’re witnessing Gjallarhorn finally crumbling since the Noble families that compose it are really struggling with their lines of Succession. Huh, the Fareed’s also kinda count here, since Iznario’s has no “legitimate” heirs (i.e. by blood). This also presents a fascinating possibility of why the Gundam Murmur wasn’t seen/used - the vault’s locked to a blood relation of the Fareed’s which Mcgillis isn’t, so he wouldn’t have been able to access it.