Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

I've definitely seen that sentiment pop up before and I think it's misguided. My view of IBO 2 is that it was the inevitable conclusion because Tekkadan's biggest flaw was Orga kept insisting on their actions being apolitical when it was anything but. They were trying to be True Neutral in a world which it's politics was about factions trying the topple one another.

I don't think that Orga thought he was keeping Tekkadan apolitical, he just didn't particularly care about politics outside of how it affected Tekkadan. McGillis wanted to reform Gjallarhorn from a corrupt aristocracy to a meritocratic system, while Rustal wanted to maintain the status quo. Orga didn't give a shit either way, but he sided with McGillis because McGillis was willing to work with them while Rustal just wanted to annihilate them.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

Rustal didn't care about them at all. They were destroyed because they sided with Mc Gillis. Nothing more and nothing less.

That's also why he let remnants of Tekkadan of hook when it was annihilated.

No, he explicitly says that he's destroying them because they defied Gjallarhorn and got away with it, which undercut Gjallarhorn's authority. It wasn't just about stopping McGillis, it was about proving that Gjallarhorn was unassailable by utterly destroying anyone and everyone who ever opposed them. That's why Rustal wouldn't let them surrender. Merely defeating them wasn't enough, he had to annihilate them.

Keep in mind that literally the first thing that happens in the show is Gjallarhorn attacking Tekkadan (well, CGS before it became Tekkadan, anyway) and Tekkadan fighting back because they have no other choice. Everything escalates from there. The fact that the Mars branch of Gjallarhorn is after Tekkadan's head is why they have to accept Kudelia's job offer, which is how they get mixed up in the rest of it.

Tekkadan never had a choice. Gjallarhorn was always going to come for them. Gjallarhorn refused to back down because it would mean eroding their authority as rulers of humanity, and Tekkadan couldn't back down because doing so meant letting Gjallarhorn kill them. Which is why Orga supported McGillis in his bid to take over and reform Gjallarhorn — because that was the only way to keep Tekkadan safe in the long term.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

No he stated they were being destroyed cause they sided with Mc Gillis. The fact they beat Gjallerhorn in the past meant they could not let them go again.

edited 2nd Jul '17 12:00:02 PM by Envyus

Yep, they could live happily after first season, but they got too greedy and challenged guy they shouldn't. Result was predictable.

Orga calls Rustal and tells him that he's breaking up Tekkadan. He offers to deliver McGillis and Bael to Rustal as long as he lets the rest of Tekkadan go.

Rustal's exact words: "We need a scapegoat. Gjallarhorn's authority has once fallen to the ground. To bring it back up and show the world its deterrence against crime, taking care of McGillis alone would not be enough. Tekkadan, the devilish organization that shocked everyone with its brute force. By having Tekkadan slaughtered by the Arianrhod Fleet, peace in space will be restored."

Orga offers himself up as the scapegoat Rustal wants, as the boss of Tekkadan, and begs Rustal to take him but spare the others.

Rustal's reply: "You understand that an organization is a collection of individual members. The death of you alone would not erase the crimes of the other members. And neither would we let them go. Accept this, and wait for your last moments."

I don't see how you can read this as Rustal only attacking Tekkadan because they helped McGillis. Orga offers to betray McGillis and turn him over to Rustal along with Bael. Rustal flat-out says that the Arianrhod Fleet must wipe out Tekkadan to a man in order to reassert themselves, because Tekkadan's display of strength (in successfully opposing Gjallarhorn) has damaged Gjallarhorn's authority. Simply ending the threat they pose is not enough; Gjallarhorn must be seen killing them all.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

That was specifically in response to them joining a civil war, raiding Gjallarhorn's headquarters, and stealing their greatest treasure, though. It's reasonable to assume that less provocation than that might have spared their lives. Plus, he does knowlngly spare Eugene and company once the dust has settled, judging by his discussion with Kudelia in the epilogue.

'Cycle of revenge' isn't quite right, given that the people McGillis victimised most heavily were the people who had the least to do with his awful childhood, and that the injuries that Tekkadan took so personally were often delivered so off-handedly, but there's pretty obviously a cycle of violence, with the oppressive systems of the Post Disaster Era not only hurting the disadvantaged, but degrading them.

Naze Turbine, a petty crook, tries to rescue the disadvantaged women he finds by turning them into his criminal empire, with him as their collective employer-husband, and when he, the single point of failure, chooses to back the wrong horse, they get almost entirely wiped out in a mob war. Orga Itsuka, a child soldier, tries to save his friends by creating a child mercenary organisation with him as his leader, and his efforts to live up to their image of him as a living god drive him to take increasingly extreme gambles until he loses everything. McGillis Fareed, the child prostitute, tries to escape from his terrible youth by reinventing himself as a storybook hero and leading a revolution, but his traumatic past has left him without the empathy or interpersonal skills to build any kind of movement, and he dies a reviled traitor.

What makes this compelling, though, is what these broken people can accomplish despite all that's arrayed against them - all of them create beauty in some way, and make the world a slightly better place. Naze runs the nicest, safest organisation in the solar system for most of the show, and lays the roots for a newer, stronger version (with an implicitly less skewed power structure) to be reborn after his death. Orga gets lowborn kids through school and into the employ of influential politicians, kick-starts the regeneration of Mars, and saves hundreds of lives even while the world is crashing down around him. Even Mc Gillis, the most broken and least effectual of the three, manages to give a child bride a significantly less awful experience than she might otherwise have had (well, mostly), and leaves a lasting impression on one of the most important people in Gjallarhorn. Plus - and this is important - McGillis and Tekkadan together manage, through their mad, doomed, crusade, to shock the solar system into actually starting to fix its shit.

It's particularly instructive to compare them with the other side of the coin, Kudelia. She should, theoretically, be the positive example here - she's privileged enough to largely be untraumatised, and so she's able to make significant gains through political reform, cultivate a wide network of friends, and make it out the other side as the ruler of Mars that Orga tried to be, a beloved heroine with a wife, a kid, and the ear of the leader of Gjallarhorn. The thing is, though, that peaceful internal reform has its limits, and S2 amply demonstrates them. The first problem is that it's slow, and people suffer in the meantime, which is what drives first the Martian independence movement and then Tekkadan to extreme action (the moment where she is forced to authorise Allium's death is almost as key to the show's themes as that child on the Brewers' ship gunning down Norba's marines). The second problem is that it's dependent on the continued goodwill of powerful people in a system that puts the powerful against the powerless, and once violence breaks out, Kudelia's power and influence vanish as her mercenary, opportunistic sponsor, Nobliss Gordon, who was key to her victory in Season One, cuts her off, while the war steadily destroys everything - the farm, the half-metal mine, the children of Tekkadan - she had fought so hard for. After Rustal wins, she is little more than a puppet, allowed only the smallest, most modest expressions of defiance in the knowledge than anything further will see her destroyed.

In Season Two, Kudelia chooses peaceful reform, accomplishes very little, and lives as a hero. Orga chooses violence, accomplishes a great deal, and dies as a monster. It's a grim take on the process of healing social injustice, but not one without real-world evidence.

edited 2nd Jul '17 1:24:15 PM by Iaculus

What's precedent ever done for us?

How can you read it as anything else? Tekkadan went against Gjalahorn and thus Gjalahorn wiped them out. If they didn't went against Gjalahorn they wouldn't be wiped out.

It can't get any more trivial then that.

edited 2nd Jul '17 1:27:51 PM by Tenzen12

It seems pretty clear to me that the bit about Tekkadan shocking the world with its brute strength is primarily about Edmonton. That was what really put Tekkadan's name on the map — that's what undercut Gjallarhorn's authority and led to things like the economic blocs developing their own military forces instead of relying on Gjallarhorn. Tekkadan was part of McGillis's coup as well, of course, but Gjallarhorn fighting itself (and the conservative faction winning handily) doesn't harm Gjallarhorn's image of invincibility nearly as much as being flat-out defeated by a third-party outsider like Tekkadan does.

I'd agree with that. If there's a coherent theme in IBO — and I'm not convinced that there is — then it's a bittersweet tragedy. tldr, fighting the corrupt system is virtually dooming yourself to an ignoble death, but if you're lucky you can get to be a Doomed Moral Victor and make things better for everyone else.

The reason I don't particularly buy this interpretation is because Tekkadan never actually gave a shit about fighting the good fight, they only fought back out of desperation because the alternative was letting the corrupt system crush them. This is made abundantly clear when, for example, Zack asks Chad how he feels about fighting and killing other human debris — Chad says he doesn't care, all he's doing is killing an enemy before they can kill him. You can't really have a doomed moral victor if the doomed party isn't moral to begin with.

The most frustrating part is that they had all the elements in the show, they just failed to connect them in a meaningful way. We see that Tekkadan actually does care about their fellow man (moreso than Gjallarhorn does, at least), with their doing things like refusing to let even volunteers get Alaya-Vijnana implants, and the way they throw themselves into harm's way in order to stop Hashmal from killing innocent people. So clearly they do have better natures, but that never actually comes to the fore — their motivation is purely selfish, in that they just want to be able to live without people like Gjallarhorn wrecking their shit whenever they feel like it, rather than having some guiding ideal.

I'd buy that if it wasn't an obvious Ass Pull. There's absolutely nothing to suggest that Rustal was anything but a self-interested prick who only cared about the system because he happened to be sitting on top of it. Then in the last five minutes of the series, he institutes democratic reforms and starts enforcing human rights because... there's no good "because" except "otherwise it would have been a completely Downer Ending". Rustal is a miserable excuse for a human being whose every move is determined by what will provide greatest benefit to him personally. He even tells Julieta that he's one of the terrible people that she hates and makes no excuses about the fact.

But then lol nope turns out he was secretly a good guy or something? Whatever, it makes no goddamn sense.

Tekkadan went against Gjallarhorn because Gjallarhorn showed up on their doorstep with mobile suits intending to kill them all. There's pretty much a straight line of cause and effect from "Gjallarhorn Mars Branch attacks CGS base in order to capture Kudelia" to "Gjallarhorn hits Barbatos and Gusion with an orbital dainsleif bombardment, declares Tekkadan wiped out" where each major decision point on Tekkadan's part is a choice between 1) keep fighting Gjallarhorn, 2) let Gjallarhorn kill us, and 3) run away and slowly starve to death because mercenary work is the only way they have to make a living.

The story of Tekkadan is the story of the little guy fighting their hardest against being crushed by the uncaring system, briefly achieving some small successes, and eventually being crushed by the system despite their best efforts. There was no hubris. There was no principled stand. There was just trying to survive in a world hell-bent on killing them — and, ultimately, failing.

edited 2nd Jul '17 2:24:42 PM by NativeJovian

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

Rustal more importantly needed a symbol to crush than anything to help serve Gjallahorn cause. It's pretty much why he let what's left of Tekkadan live. Barbatos the Devil ended up being that symbol that he needed to serve as an example. With that he got all he needed to spare the remnants. What Orga offered him couldn't that serve that goal.

Just like it was the Hero Agnika who made Gjallahorn by defeating the evil symbol the Mobile Armors. He needed something with lasting power for whatever plans he has for Gjallahorn.

Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.

No Tekkadan went against Gjalahorn because they were offered riches and power. It's story of little guy who defeated giant in order to live, but then hot cocky and challenged even bigger guy just because it wasn't enough for them.

They could be forgiven for Edmonton (and Rustal nor anyone else had really choice on that matter) because whole that operation was well known for being illegitimate and harming Tekkadan would do more harm than good and Rustal wouldn't do anything undermine Gjalahorn position.

But in moment they actually bared their fangs on Gjalahorn as organization they lost all plausible deniability.

Also in whole show there wasn't even single thing hinting Rustal was seeking personal profit.

edited 2nd Jul '17 2:37:41 PM by Tenzen12

I think we can all agree that what we needed was an entire episode after Mika and Akihiro's last stand to show why and how these changes happened.

That said, I personally think the reforms in Gjallerhorn were done because they were hurting a lot more than viewers thought. Think about it this way- a couple years ago a rag tag group of fucking immature little hicks from Mars throw down and successfully brake through a blockade to make reentry on Earth and kill two heirs of the Seven Stars. Not content with that the little fucks then proceeded to break another blockade around the city of Edmonton and reveal that Gjallerhorn, the oh so perfect apolitical watchdogs of humanity, have not only been illegally getting involved in the elections of an Economic Block, they have also been conducting experiments with the Alaya-Vinana, a system that they themselves have been rallying against as inhumane for years.

Understandably, the Economic Blocks of the world start putting together armies of their own, because clearly those Gjallerhorn schmucts can't be trusted. Then about

edited 2nd Jul '17 3:32:29 PM by unlikelyauthor

Fate Grand Order players will know me as Ryusei-Go.

It was Tekkadan that spearheaded the attack on the Gjallarhorn headquarters and almost killed Rustal (and Julietta - not as much of a matter of public importance, but possibly one of private importance to him) during the battle above Earth. They were pretty obviously the core of McGillis's forces - and that's a huge deal right there, lowborn child soldiers using banned technology to make a rebellion of that scale workable. Edmonton was a border skirmish featuring a couple of the Seven Stars that caused a leadership reshuffle due to political scandal - the attack on Vingolf was a straight-up coup-attempt that put everyone except the Arianrhod Fleet out of action, and involved someone announcing to the entire solar system that he was the return of King Arthur and they needed to bow down before him. That's a far more profound challenge to Gjallarhorn's authority.

It's also a slight misread to say that Tekkadan never had a choice. The problem was that Orga fell into seeing the pride and reputation of his organisation as equivalent to their lives - it's why he didn't sit out the Dawn Horizon fight and let Arianrhod stomp them, it's why he ignored McMurdo and Naze's warnings about McGillis, and it's why his redemption involved arranging a humiliating retreat that would destroy Tekkadan as an organisation but let its members live. That said, it's slight because the show takes into account those social pressures - allying with McGillis was a mistake that Orga repented of and tried to reverse, but it was also the trigger for a big enough shock to the solar system that it led to reform.

Remember that Tekkadan had two years of peace after Edmonton, and then involved themselves in a Gjallarhorn civil war out of pure ambition. The line between the fall of CGS and the fall of Tekkadan isn't that smooth.

On that note, saying that Rustal's decision came out of nowhere ignores pretty much every interaction he had with his subordinates - grooming Julietta, a lowborn, for actual leadership (that conversation they had where he said 'stop trying to wreck yourself getting stronger, you're strong enough, now learn about everything else there is to being a soldier' was super important), criticising the brutality and corruption of his organisation, and talking about the importance of an evolving system rather than a fixed ideal were all signs that he'd be happy with measured reform once he stopped the plebs from burning the system he loved diwn. Rustal is profoundly hypocritical, but it helps to remember the positive hypocrisy as well as the negative (like when he orders his inner circle not to mourn a fallen comrade and then privately mourns him anyway), and remember that hypocrisy, from another perspective, is adaptability, the ability to change along with a changing world. It's that which he's talking about with Julietta - 'I'm a hypocrite, but I'm going to make the world better. Are you OK with that?'.

The solar system is a democracy run by aristocrats. The people who rebelled were monsters, so we're doing what they wanted. Gjallarhorn lives, and yet Gjallarhorn as we know it is destroyed. Tekkadan is destroyed, and yet Tekkadan as we know it lives. It's Rustal's core strength, above anything else, that he can live within these contradictions.

What's precedent ever done for us?

There was also his speech about how Gjallahorn is a group made up of numerous people and he scoffs at Mackys ideals because he's obsessed with individual strength to use it to change the world.

Following the reforms those same people voted for him, while Macky tried to do everything on his own at the end and failed because a person and his Cyborg Robot Buddy fought him off. If he won that fight the damage to his suit would have allowed even his men to finish Macky off.

Idiok manages to an even dumber and more self destructive interpretation because he doesn't listen to anyone around him despite being told to listen to those around him. Repeatedly.

edited 2nd Jul '17 5:53:17 PM by OmegaRadiance

Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.

Uh, Rustal is the guy who deliberately started a war on Earth — which directly undermines Gjallarhorn as an organization, as Gjallarhorn's entire purpose is to prevent that sort of thing — because it made McGillis look bad. He also stages false flag operations repeatedly, has no problems with massacring civilians, and breaks Gjallarhorn's own laws without thinking twice. He has no higher motives — literally the only thing he cares about is maintaining and expanding his own personal power.

Some more development would have been nice, but what bothers me more than the suddenness of it was the fact that it required Rustal to do a complete 180 in terms of motivation. There's nothing to suggest at any point prior to the epilogue that he gives a damn about anything but himself... then, immediately after finding himself in a perfect position to declare himself emperor of the solar system (most of the Seven Stars are dead, he's just defeated the most powerful opposition Gjallarhorn has faced since the Calamity Wars, etc) he... declares democracy? Does not compute.

In order for the epilogue to make any sense at all, they'd have to do one of two things. Either show that there's more to Rustal than pure ambition and then show that his reforms further those goals, or else show that despite his ambition, he was somehow forced by the political situation to institute the reforms we see. I've seen people posit one or both as a headcanon explanation, but based on what we actually see in the show, I really don't buy it. It really just comes off as Rustal changing his mind for no apparent reason.

You're dismissing Edmonton too easily — this is, as unlikelyauthor pointed out, when a group of nobodies from Mars successfully broke through several Gjallarhorn attempts to stop them, killed two prominent members of the Seven Stars (a family head and an heir), defeated one of the legendary Gundams that Gjallarhorn has been keeping locked away as a trump card for centuries, and revealed that Gjallarhorn was both illegally tampering in elections and using Alaya-Vijnana technology (which, while it doesn't seem to have been actually illegal, was certainly seen as extremely distasteful).

All of this is a huge deal to the general public. The average schmoe on Earth sees Gjallarhorn as invincible, honorable, apolitical defenders of humanity. This entire image is shattered by Tekkadan. Gjallarhorn is defeated — not once, but repeatedly; not out in the boonies, but in the seat of their power on Earth; not low-level flunkies, but the highest echelons of the organization; not rank-and-file Grazes, but both their newest, most advanced technology and their ancient secret weapons.

In a single stroke, Tekkadan shows that Gjallarhorn isn't invincible, honorable, or apolitical. The shock of the incident is enough to overturn three centuries of uncontested rule by Gjallarhorn and convince the economic blocs to start their own independent armies again. That's a huge deal. It alters the fundamental relationship between Gjallarhorn and the rest of humanity.

In contract, McGillis's coup is essentially a palace revolution. It's hugely important within the organization, but outside their ranks, it doesn't change much. Gjallarhorn run by McGillis is little different than Gjallarhorn run by the Seven Stars as far as the economic blocs are concerned.

This is the point Rustal makes. Merely defeating McGillis isn't enough. In order to redeem Gjallarhorn in the eyes of the public and convince them of Gjallarhorn's power, he has to wipe out Tekkadan and make up for the defeat they suffered at Edmonton.

No, they became involved in a Gjallarhorn civil war when Rustal deliberately targeted them. Rustal engineered a war that both made McGillis look bad and all but wiped out Tekkadan's Earth branch. As with season one, they were attacked first, and only struck back because they had no other options. Unlike season one, their initial response is political (working with McGillis to reform Gjallarhorn from within, and taking control of Mars as their reward) rather than physical, which goes to show Orga's growth as a leader and Tekkadan's alliances giving them more freedom of action compared to their early days.

The fact that Rustal treats his subordinates well just means that he's read the Evil Overlord List and knows that earning his minion's loyalty out of love is better than using fear. He's still dismissive of human debris and Tekkadan as space rats and trained dogs, so it's not like he's some enlightened humanitarian who sees past Gjallarhorn's cultural prejudices, and for all his supposed grooming of Julieta, he still basically tells her to act as a human shield to protect him from Mika and Barbatos, even if it means getting herself killed in the process.

I don't recall him ever actually doing that — which I'm pretty sure I'd remember, because it'd be enormously hypocritical if he did, as he's among the most brutal and corrupt people in Gjallarhorn.

The only time I remember him doing that is when he's using it to dismiss McGillis's (legitimate, if you'll recall) claim that Gjallarhorn's own laws make him, as the pilot of Bael, sole and uncontested ruler of the organization. It's blatantly self-serving and insincere.

He didn't love the system. Carta loved the system (and look where that got her). Rustal manipulates the system to his advantage when he can and goes outside of it when he can get away with it.

Except he never actually talks about making the world better. He berates McGillis as a childish romantic and Tekkadan as rats and dogs, while never offering any vision of the future of his own besides maintaining the existing status quo — where he happens to be one of the seven most powerful people alive, what a coincidence.

edited 2nd Jul '17 7:18:27 PM by NativeJovian

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

Yes, he supported war on Earth... to undermine Mackey position... who was threat to Gjalahorn. He staged false flag operations and have no problem massacre bunch of civilians in opposition.

So yeah he wouldn't do anything to undermine Gjalahorn position. Every his action good and evil was done to enforce it.

The thing about Rustal isn't that he treats his subordinates well, it's that he treats some of them too well. Gjallarhorn is an aristocratic system built on lineage. The whole point is that lowborn don't rise above a certain level - even Crank and Gaelio treated Ein as a valued subordinate, not a successor. Rustal, on the other hand, spends the entirety of Season Two preparing a lowborn combat pilot for high office while making her the heroic postergirl of the most powerful fleet in the solar system. He explains political dynamics to her, encourages her to think independently, and asks her opinion when he does something that might be dangerous to her or simply unethical. Remember that he doesn't just order her to fight Mika - he lays out how dangerous it will be for her, explains why it is important anyway, and then asks if she's OK with that. That is not a normal soldier-commander relationship, especially when the military is aristocratic, and speaks volumes about how willing he is to reform the solar system.

This is also one of the reasons I trust his speech on what he likes about Gjallarhorn - he's talking to Julietta, and he never, ever lies to Julietta, even when it might be advantageous to him. He goes out of his way to point out his own hypocrisy to her, lay out the reasons why doing as he orders might be a bad idea for her, and talk her down from becoming a cyborg war machine to better serve him.

Plus, his fondness for a flexible, malleable, and durable system fits well with everything he does. He gives Iok a slap on the wrist for massacring the Turbines so that there won't be a scandal over the fall of a Star, and then micromanages his life so that he's never in a significant enough position of responsibility to do it again. He lets Iznario live out his retirement despite his horrific crimes so that Gjallarhorn's reputation will not be compromised, and then enacts reforms so that there will be no more child slaves for him to prey upon. He obliterated the people who sought to destroy Gjallarhorn, and then implements the reforms they would have wanted once the dust settles. Justice and other high ideals are not important to him - indeed, his relentless hypocrisy is simply a sign of his total abandonment of idealism - but he will preserve order and continuity while making people's lives better.

You're also continuing to undersell the Dawn Horizon incident. After two years of peace, Tekkadan butts into a Gjallarhorn operation and gets into a firefight with its soldiers in order to steal their glory at the behest of another Gjallarhorn faction. It was a big sign for Rustal that Tekkadan was still McGillis's ally, and therefore still a valid target in a covert war that started when our resident Char Clone got Carta killed and Gaelio crippled.

What's precedent ever done for us?

The second season is about Orga getting blinded by greed and impatience, buying into McGillis pie in the sky promises and dragging Tekkadan into a conflict they should've stayed as far away from as possible. It's quite frustrating really, and probably the reason why I didn't enjoy it as much as the first season - it's just one terrible avoidable decision after another, and every time Orga has second thoughts, someone will talk him into continuing on the bad course of action with emotion based, sentimental arguments.

They shouldn't have had an Earth branch in the first place. That was beyond what they could handle and was a big part of why Orga got suckered into McGillis's promises. One of the instances where they could have reasonably made a different decision.

Your preferences are not everyone else's preferences.

I don't agree with that take on the relationship between Rustal and Julieta. He's willing to sacrifice her as late as the battle against McGillis and Tekkadan in lunar orbit, where her orders are essentially "do whatever it takes to stop Barbatos". That's not a job you give to someone if your plans require them to survive. (Meanwhile, in the same battle, Iok is safe in the bridge with Rustal, not out in the midst of mobile suit combat where he'd undoubtedly prefer to be.)

"Making people's lives better" is a higher ideal — one that he shows no concern with whatsoever prior to the epilogue. He dismisses McGillis's desire for reform as childish, he dismisses Tekkadan as dogs and other human debris as rats. He perpetrates or allows repeated mass slaughters without expressing regret for the necessity. His consistent response to any sort of dissent is to smash it without doing anything to address the issues the dissenters brought up.

What? Dawn Horizon attacked Tekkadan first. Tekkadan went after them to prevent further attacks. The Arianrhod Fleet showed up to steal Tekkadan's kill, not the other way around.

So he should have... what, not allied with McGillis and let Rustal et al slowly grind them into dust? Tekkadan was already in their crosshairs. They needed someone like McGillis to counteract Rustal's influence, otherwise they'd end up on the wrong end of a trumped-up charge and a dainsleif annihilation unit like the Turbines did. Okay, that happened anyway, but they had no way to know that would happen in advance. Their options were "fight, and either win or die trying" or "don't fight, and just die".

The idea that Tekkadan is fighting too hard, too fast, or for the wrong reasons is repeatedly brought up by a variety of different characters — all of which are proven wrong a few episodes later. Merribit thinks they're just out for revenge, then Orga proves her wrong by calling everyone off as soon as their mission is complete instead of pushing them to kill as many Gjallarhorn troops as possible. Naze warns them about pushing too hard, and then gets politically outmaneuvered and the Turbines are destroyed.

Easy to say in hindsight, but they couldn't have possibly known that at the time. They'd just finished up their big job of escorting Kudelia, they needed another one to keep their income flowing. Helping Arbrau train its own military should have been easy, no-risk money. The only reason it turned out otherwise was because of Rustal's political scheming and false-flagging, neither of which is something they could have reasonably expected beforehand.

edited 3rd Jul '17 8:24:30 AM by NativeJovian

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

It's true that calling Earth branch mistake is not exactly accurate. There were lot of abnormal circumstances going on Tekkadan couldn't predict, but it was legitimate business opportunity with backing of trusted allies.

Anyway making "people life better" is not necessarily higher ideal it's simply result of actions which can be driven by any kind of motive.

As for Iok he wasn't in battle not just to keep him safe, but maonly as punishment and to prevent him make huge mess as is his habbit. Julietta in other hand is competent combat pilot whom Rustal trust.

edited 3rd Jul '17 9:21:53 AM by Tenzen12

We cant really ascribe making peoples lives better as a driving force behind Rustal's actions

Sure if it happens, he's probably not gonna interfere with it, but let's not kid ourselves

Happy people usually lack urge overthrow governing structure. So there is that.

If he had not kept going with Mc Gillis, Rustal would not have messed with him.

Yes they were attacked by Dawn Horizon first. But they did not have to go and take them down. Gjallerhorn was planing on doing so anyway and they found out about it.

The earth branch stuff happened, because of a traitor and only having one officer in Chad there, Takaki was largely a non combatant. Yet he was the only one there that could take charge.

After this they shut down the earth branch and decided to get more ambitious, Takaki even felt it was a bad idea which is why he quit.

They decided to ally with Mc Gillis for the King of Mars stuff, which caused Jasley to go fully against them which led to a lot of other things like Naze's death

But the biggest thing was when Mc Gillis started his coup. Had they not gone along with it Rustal would not have gone after them.

edited 3rd Jul '17 1:39:21 PM by Envyus