Aldnoah Zero

There's been a couple references to an event that happened 15 years ago; that puts him at about the right age to have seen something pretty bad when he was a kid, which could go a ways to explaining his lack of emotions.

Well they're still too OP, at the very least.

And that's... not the point? I mean, we're supposed to be reaching the War Is Hell part of the invasion, and what better way to illustrate that then the space age equivalent of "Ride of the Valkyries"?

I actually really like how their Kataphrakts are so OP, because the one-sidedness of the fight kinda makes you realize just how outclassed the Terrans are in their puny Real Robots when they're fighting an army equipped with honest to god Super Robots. Because, well, if you're piloting a mostly earthbound mech constrained by modern military technology and the engineering problems of the square cube law, you're going to get fucking destroyed by the exact same robot if it doesn't have to mind any of that annoying physics shit and can just swipe a hole straight through you with its magic disintegrator arm.

Weak, Terran damage < REAL MARTIAN DAMAGE!

edited 12th Jul '14 1:37:11 PM by KSPAM

I dunno, it just feels well-trodded ground at this point and I don't think the show has really provided a solid 'hook' yet. I don't really have much faith that the Martians are not gonna be a Zeon clone.

I mean it's not bad so far or anything. It's just, eh.

edited 12th Jul '14 1:41:49 PM by Scherzo09

Except there's no Gundam on Earth's side. This isn't a fight, it's a one-sided slaughter unless somebody pulls out something that can match what the martians have.

So, is the only reason the Martians dislike the Terrans because of a superiority complex? Well, ignoring the princess thing, I'm just talking about before that happened.

Martian cult brainwashing.

Dollar's to donuts Nao is gonna steal some Martian Wundermech. Or something. Unless they're gonna do an entire anime about Earth fighting a losing battle, which would definitely be interesting but I doubt they have the balls to do it.

I honestly hope they do something like that because "They're like Zeon because reasons" just feels too much of a cop-out for me.

edited 12th Jul '14 1:44:02 PM by Scherzo09

Ah, I suppose we should be betting on what the Urobuchi twist will be this time.

edited 12th Jul '14 1:47:05 PM by tvsgood

I'm willing to bet he will get said Wundermech, but in a traditional Urobuchi twist it impacts absolutely fucking nothing and turns the tides of battle from "hilariously one-sided slaughter" to "slightly less hilarious one-sided slaughter meaninglessly prolonged by the well-meaning but pitifully inadequate resistance of one Terran in a stolen mech he doesn't know how to properly pilot".

The rest of the anime is about the slow crawl to the inevitable conclusion of our protagonist's struggles, that being that he only manages to extend the defending Terrans' suffering before their obviously crushing defeat and increases the overall cost of the war in human lives and permanent damage to Terran infrastructure.

edited 12th Jul '14 1:55:48 PM by KSPAM

But Urobuchi has been on his medication lately so it won't be a bad ending!

edited 12th Jul '14 1:58:49 PM by tvsgood

On another note, best princess ever. Opening credits confirmed it. Another thing the credits (kinda) confirmed is that the Martians must have some kind of massive "fuck you" superweapon even worse than the landing castles, because that explosion we got to see from space near the end of the Kalafina awesomeness was at least Chicxulub-sized.

I guess the fact that Nao hasn't been in a mech yet since the invasion began is a good sign, but I'm still weary. Maybe it's a Madoka thing where it all comes together in episode 3.

Thoughts on the episode:

As I thought, the earthlings have no hope of standing up to the martians. Maybe it's simply a matter of finding Achilles' Heel, but even that may only be enough to let them sue for peace.

So princess did survive, and in pretty much the way I was expecting her to - via convenient body double. What I wasn't expecting were the skills in hand-to-hand combat nor the intelligence to ask the right questions. Granted, they've also given our protagonist enough information to see through the disguise, but he'd find out anyway.

The body-double thing does make me wonder though: If they've got a body double available, why wasn't that information known by those higher up the chain? Why weren't they in pretty much continuous contact with the rest of the martian host? Surely the fact that the heir to their empire was still alive would have been the first bit of information passed through the chain of command after the assassination attempt?

So now we've seen how Slaine's character arc will progress. Too bad for him, I suppose.

Those who live through this will at least have interesting "how I met your mother" stories to relate to the kids.

It's entirely possible that they either don't care she's alive or are working to rectify the situation. We don't know how high up the authorisation for the false-flag goes.

So how tall are the Kataphrakts, exactly? They seem to be somewhere between 30-40 feet tall (again plausible assuming they're built using materials only slightly lighter and stronger than steel), but it's kinda hard to tell from some of the visuals.

It seems to depend, I think the Terran mechas are based on Martian mechs from the original Planetfall, about 20 feet or so, but these new generation mechs seem to wildly vary in size.

At this point though does it really matter to the average martian if the Princess is alive as long as they're in the dark about who launched the attack? Unless they can uncover the conspiracy the princess's opinion is going to be sidelined.

edited 12th Jul '14 2:25:47 PM by Scherzo09

Looking back on the episode, I think my favorite scene was Nilokeras vs. Marito's squad (because it is Marito's, not that dead twat's). It was a really effective "oh shit" moment, the pacing of it was great, and the musical score continues to impress.

This episode actually made me think the opposite The princess is really dead, and there's a greater conspiracy at work, maybe that brown haired girl is the real princess or something, since they wouldn't abandon the blond one.

I don't know how they can make the martians ever likable it's as white vs. black as they come.

Does killing that one dude count as Shooing Out The Clowns when the series is only two episodes old?

This invasion is so one-sided, I love it. With a tech gap this big anything else would be stupid. But man, Earth forces were stomped hard. Die Terran scum, die...

...uhm, I mean those Martians are cartoonishly evil. And their prejudices make no damn sense given the short time table. Most of those guys should have been born on Earth!

Predictably the Princess is alive, and of course it was a false flag operation. I kinda like her though, she got spunk.

Our main character is kinda lacking to be honest. I would like him to emote at least a little bit.

At this point it wouldn't even matter if Princess contacts the knights, since even she must think it was an Terran attack. The other girl is the dangerous one.

edited 12th Jul '14 2:33:40 PM by Shlugo_the_great

I just saw an interpretation on twitter that saw Inaho's lack of reaction as numbness rather than stoicism.

edited 12th Jul '14 2:52:54 PM by majoraoftime

Which would be more valid interpretation if not for the fact that he acted the same way before the invasion began.

Hm, I ssume they're going to figure out a way to kill Martian kataphracts, get one of their own (maybe the princess has one for some reason), or something like that, otherwise this'll be over too quickly. Though, even then I don't feel like this fight is winnable; I suspect the resolution will be more political

I hope we can come to regret wanting the MC to get in touch with his emotions. Bring on the destructive breakdowns!!