Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Lafter had basically been dominating the fight with Mika due to putting her mecha's strengths (much superior mobility) to good use, but Mika managed to even the odds by grabbing her with the anchor cable and forcing her into a stand-up fight. Lafter wasn't helpless in melee range, though, so although I don't think she could have won on her own, it's possible that she could do a significant amount of damage to Mika before she went down, or last long enough for Amida and Azee to beat Akihiro and show up to help.

I agree that Akihiro definitely had the most impressive performance in that fight, though, given the situation. No A-V system, in a mook mecha, and outnumbered by more experienced pilots, and he still held his own? It may not have been flashy, but it was definitely a solid showing on his part.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

I'm up to Episode 9 in my rewatch and I'm reminded of why I love this series.

There is just so much character in it, and these slow episodes help. It's not battle after battle, and even then each fight feels... distinctive, it doesn't seem to have a lot of stock footage beam spam.

I also love how Naze acts around the kids, no wonder he hated Mcmurdo after finding about what he did to the CSG kids with the A-V implant. The man is a family man himself, with kids!

The Turbine harem remains the strangest and most uncomfortable part of IBO. It's implied (though never actually stated, IIRC) that the Turbine girls are basically in the same situation as the Tekkadan boys — orphans and human debris that gathered together as a makeshift family in order to protect themselves from the rest of the world. Except that unlike CGS, which abused and exploited the Tekkadan kids, Naze and Amida are actual decent human beings who became Parental Substitutes for the group.

Except that he sleeps with them. Seriously, what the fuck?

I also question the wisdom of putting a nursery in your warship while you're cruising around filling mercenary contracts when you've got a perfectly good mothership available (which is where all the school-age kids live anyway). But that's a relatively minor concerned compared to the fact that the kids exist in the first place.

edited 2nd Aug '16 9:57:11 AM by NativeJovian

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

The world of IBO is weird, but I think that's the point. It's a shit Crapsack World under rule of Gallajhorn who keep power by keeping everyone in a shit situation, so people eke out acceptable living circumstances.

It really says a lot when the Mafia is the loving family who actually decide to give the kids of Tekkadan a chance, meanwhile Gallajhorn has no problem preforming engineered massacres of protestors.

I'm sure Naze hasn't slept with all of them. I mean if the harem is partly a front as a women's shelter & despite his criminal activates he seems like a honest stand up guy so I'm sure he wouldn't take advantage of some poor young girl especially when the other women in the crew would most likely take offense to that.

I think he's slept with at least the 3 pilots & they seem like mature, responsible women so no problem there.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

I actually like how things don't follow our current social mores in this series. It gives a more futuristic vibe to the universe that exists hundreds of years in the future and thus should be as separated from us as we are from say, Rome Empire.

Also said Social Mores give us a clear look at how fucked up this future is.

Such as the prevalent belief that Cybernetics Eat Your Soul. While most of the cast has Cybernetic implants, Ein was already on the sanity slippage road, and old man Nadi is easily one of the kindest and most level characters in the entire series.

I don't think I even realized Nadi has a prosthetic leg until it was pointed out later in the season.

PSN ID: FateSeraph | Switch friendcode: SW-0145-8835-0610 Congratulations! She/They

Not just one, but two, I noticed his legs looked a bit funny, but I thought that they were just boots.

I like how common prosthesis are actually super unfancy. They aren't sleek curved body parts, they look like literal prosthesis.

The new side Manga shows two sets of prosthetic hands which are essentially 3 fingered blocks.

Maybe, maybe not. We don't actually know how big the Hammerhead's crew is (though it's probably smaller than the Isiribi's, given that the Turbines don't seem to have the mobile worker compliment that Tekkadan has), but there are at least three or four babies in the nursery (all of which are said to have different mothers), plus an unknown number of older kids not on the ship. No one ever makes any distinction between "the Turbines" and "Naze's harem" (though we admittedly don't see much of them outside of the three mecha pilots), so there's nothing to indicate that he isn't sleeping with all of them.

I don't really see the Turbines or Teiwaz as "criminal" so much as "operating in a lawless area". We never see them doing anything overtly illegal, like racketeering or murdering business rivals or other things associated with organized crime. They're probably involved in smuggling, given that they operate private shipping routes outside of Gjallarhorn's jurisdiction, but given that Gjallarhorn is essentially a military dictatorship I find it hard to consider that "criminal" in the usual sense. Teiwaz is considered dangerous because they're a large, well-funded organization that operates independently from the normal sources of law and order and are therefore willing and able to take matters of justice into their own hands. Witness how Naze deals with Maruba — he basically sends the guy to a forced labor camp to work off his debt. But then, compare that to Orga, who was about to shoot him in the face. In any case, Teiwaz has nothing on groups like the Brewers, who are straight-up space pirates.

I dunno... Amida has a whole conversation with Atra where she basically says that Naze is so awesome that the harem members consider themselves privileged to be able to share him. Which is creepy as balls and makes me think of cult groups with uber-charismatic (and utterly sociopathic) leaders (and also completely dismisses the interpersonal problems that group relationships as a real-life lifestyle choice have to deal with).

I don't think the Turbine harem is meant to be taken that way — even in-universe it's clearly considered strange, to say the least. Witness Kudelia and Atra's reactions when the subject first comes up, which are best described as "politely freaked out".

I think that was deliberate. I just thought they were boots, personally.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

My personal theory on Naze's harem (or at least its origins) goes something like this. I suspect how it got started (at least sort of) is that Naze and Amida wanted to have children but Amida is unable to do so given that massive scar across her torso. Which is when they turned to outside help, either as a surrogate or another woman sleeping with Naze (again depending on how bad Amida's injuries were) and it sort of spiralled out of control from there.

It was Lafter who said that the Turbines were a shelter, IIRC I believe it was the episode after Biscuit died.

Naze and Amida's characters kinda scream Too Cool to Live to me, but then again, episode 24...

Remember that Naze isn't Maruba, but Orga, a decent, well-intentioned person who tries to look out for the people he cares about, but is operating in such an utterly warped cultural framework that he ends up exploiting them instead without realising it. The Season Two trailer is a big hint that this dangling plot thread from the first season is getting picked up again - Tekkadan has gone from a means to an end (getting Orga and his friends out of poverty) to an end in and of itself. The children Kudelia was teaching to read have become pilots for top-of-the-line experimental suits. Mikazuki, rather than having a shot at that farm he wanted, is now the mascot for a major corporation, the suit that crippled him slathered in company logos. Orga has become an executive just like Naze in a ruthless criminal organisation that may be working with the single most dangerous man in the solar system.

Orga may not be banging his subordinates (well, not outside a few billion doujinshi), but he's taking some pretty major liberties with them, and I suspect that the Turbines will end up as a cautionary tale about the path he's taking his friends on. I mean, they put a nursery aboard a battleship. If that isn't hubris, what is?

What's precedent ever done for us?

I don't think that's a fair take on Orga. It was made pretty clear in the final episode that what everyone (including many viewers) took as a Roaring Rampage of Revenge over Biscuit's death was more practical than that. As soon as Kudelia and Makanai make it to the parliament building he calls everyone off and basically says "new priority: don't die!", which the Old Man remarks is the order he wanted to give all along, but couldn't because if Tekkadan failed their mission, they were all screwed.

Now, Orga certainly still has some personal issues (most notably his slavish devotion to Mika, to the point where Mika merely expressing a preference pushes everything else out of Orga's head), but inadvertently becoming He Who Fights Monsters isn't one of them. Yeah, some members of Tekkadan — arguably including Biscuit — are killed due to Orga's orders, but one of the ugly truths of being a combat leader is that sometimes you have to order people to their deaths for the good of the rest of the group. The fact that Orga was able to do this — not lightly, but at great need — without letting it cloud his judgment is a sign of him maturing as a leader, not him going off the deep end.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

Up to Episode 14. And I am reminded this is where the glory of "Raise Your Flag" vanished.

With that, I return to skipping the intro. Still, these slow episodes really help the show a lot, giving us time for character and setting.

I agree the second OP and ED aren't a great replacement. I'm on episode 21 though, I couldn't stand waiting on the dub anymore. Series is pretty good with those character moments I agree.

EDIT: Done with the whole now. Really good ride.

edited 8th Aug '16 2:38:27 PM by VeryMelon

The problem for Orga is that he's created a system that allows his friends to live and prosper, but only if they fight for him against impossible odds. Much like with any good tragedy, the steps that led to it all felt very reasonable and necessary (as they probably did when Naze went wife-hunting), but while he pulled back from the brink in the S1 finale, the crucial question was always going to be whether he let go after giving his friends a bunch of money and opportunities and let them choose their own paths. The S2 trailer shows him embracing his role as a Teiwaz executive and turning Tekkadan into a massive, big-budget franchise. It's really not a good sign.

I'm sure he's still largely a good guy, and thinks he has his friends/employees' best interests at heart, but the footage we've seen so far shows our boy going a couple of steps further along a very dark path. Ride getting into one of their new suits for sparring was one of the most disturbing shots of the trailer.

What's precedent ever done for us?

You know, you've been saying that during season 1 too, claiming it's going to end in tragedy and Tekkadan failure, but nothing of the sort happened. Maybe they don't actually plan on making Tekkadan into Failure Heroes.

Well I hope not at the very least. Cause I'm terrified of the idea that this series will end in tragedy & Mika won't get to achieve his dream of owning his own farm.

How fucking sad will that be right?

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

Very sad.

I think the biggest reason for Tekkadan still being militaristic is because there is still a market for only that.

Not helping is in the Teiwaz head and Nobliss, who want a military might Tekkadan. Take those out of the equation and things should go better.

Basically Orga has no real choice but military force at the moment, another war is on its way.

Oh, c'mon, this is hardly some weird, unsupported outsider opinion. Tekkadan has two driving forces - Orga, who wants them to be a prosperous mercenary company, and Kudelia, who wants them to not have to fight to live. Those two coming into conflict eventually is inevitable, and the show really hasn't come down on the side of 'child soldiers are cool and good', especially taking the Brewers arc into account. It's also been mentioned in several interviews that the story was retooled at the last minute from a dark, casualty-heavy ending so that Season Two could happen.

The show has kicked a lot of conflict cans down the road, but it's definitely raised them as problems that will eventually be dealt with. There's also the fact that the preview is all about Tekkadan being powerful and successful, with some troubling undertones - expecting a pleasant but imperfect status quo to be overturned is just a basic understanding of fiction.

edited 9th Aug '16 4:48:42 AM by Iaculus

What's precedent ever done for us?

Kudelia didn't really had much issues with the way Tekkadan was doing things - Merebith did and she was basically told to shut up and stop meddling.

Of course things are going to go badly in the second seasons, but in all probability it will have less o do with any inherit flaws of Tekkadan and more with the war that's been brewing for a long time and would happen with or without their involvement. One that they will probably going to end tho.

There will of course be tragedies and sacrifices along the way, but for the show to arrive at the conclusion that all of what Tekkadan done was a terrible mistake and they were better off not trying, would go against the basic theme of the show - it's about pushing forward no matter how much life tries to crush you, not folding back and admitting defeat.

edited 9th Aug '16 5:12:04 AM by Shlugo_the_great

To fo otherwise would admit defeat and live under a oppressive rule.

It's not about not trying. It's about ensuring you don't confuse a means to an end with the end itself. Being child soldiers isn't sustainable - it's a step on the road to something that is. Throughout the first season, Orga drops hints that he doesn't quite grasp that - he doesn't really buy into Kudelia's mission, and is more interested in pursuing daring, high-risk strategies to ensure Tekkadan's reputation and prosperity than thinking about a life beyond a mobile weapon cockpit. Now the S2 trailer's rolled around, and he's hired more child soldiers, kept his crippled best friend on as a pilot in the machine that de-limbed him, and tied himself more closely to an untrustworthy organisation that may or may not be working with the single most evil man in the solar system. None of those are good signs.

What's precedent ever done for us?

I sort of saw the hiring of more child soldiers as an out reach of sorts. "You'll still gave to fight to eat, but we will actually treat you like a human being and not a disposable meat shield/ punching bag." Type thing. If that actually makes sense.

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