Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Huh well this tidbit makes my disappointment over Iok's 'blink and you miss it' dress down more satisfying. The way the dialogue was written I thought Rustal was threatening to can his alliance with House Kujan. According to Iok's updated wiki entry Rustal DID terminate the alliance and that's why Iok's rushing to form an alliance with Jalsey to find a way back into Rustal's good graces.

Assuming the wiki entry isn't wrong itself; small as it is, it's nice to see some sort of consequence being dealt to Iok. Still even for how Gjallerhorn handle things I still feel they didn't do enough to reprimand someone who almost turned Mars into a graveyard.

On the issue of Atra's request of Kudelia I'm with those saying BAD IDEA!! I can get Atra in her panic over Mikazuki's utterly lack of giving a damn for his own life for Orga's goals and thought up the first idea that came into her head or seemed like the right choose in her mindset. That said yikes, extremes, hopefully Kudelia talks her out of the idea. Hopefully the two find better ways to not just comfort Mikazuki but also maybe get him to come around and realize he has more to live for than being just a warrior. Hell we've seen shades Mikazuki aspired beyond fighting to run a farm but he's so willing to let it go after his right-side paralysis; just what the hell is wrong with him? What events damaged him so much he's this... existence mimicking a person and barely.

Hell both Mikazuki and Orga need to be sat down together for an intervention. While their brotherly bond has its strengths, the toxic aspects are beginning to drown both of them. Maybe if enough of the crew talked it out with them it'd make a dent. Orga mostly at least in my opinion as Mikazuki is very... stubborn about his way of things. Probably a defense mechanism to survive his shithole of a childhood and life before CGS became Tekkadan after Kudelia waltzed into their lives.

Hell the story starts with a very young Mika capping a mo'fo. Just what the shit has that kid been through?

Atra plan is dodgy, since I don't think Mika even realizes the impact his self-destruction has on other people. It's not that he wouldn't care about his child, he simply wouldn't make the connection between dying in battle and orphaning his child.

Also, a sad thought about Atra - does she want it to be Kudelia's child because she doesn't believe Mikazuki would care as much if it was hers. She never had much of a confidence when comparing herself to Kudelia after all.

Kudelia would be able to provide for the child easier while she on the other hand works as part of Tekkadan.

I kinda thought Atra's plan was gambling on Mikazuki being reborn. She did ask Kudelia what her past life was, and it'd be a nice thematic echo from the Brewers arc.

It's hard to say. But as others have noted up thread that there's a very good chance that she's asking Kudelia because Atra can't have children. Remember she and Kudelia are supposed to be fairly close in age but Atra still looks like a child next to her. And its generally agreed that there's a distinct possibility she (and to a lesser extent Mikazuki) have had their growths stunted due to childhood malnutrition. And that can leave a whole host of other side effects besides the immediately obvious.

Meh, I doubt she's permanently sterile. It is a distinct possibility that she hasn't started ovulating yet, though. Malnourished girls often don't reach puberty until 16.

Depending on how thick the terraformed Martian atmosphere is, exposure to cosmic rays can have all sorts of unpleasant effects.

In all honesty, I don't expect this topic to go beyond an Imagine Spot next episode before it's dismissed for being a bad idea like whoa. Actually trying to go through with it would be quite dark and screwed up (pun not intended).

edited 26th Dec '16 2:07:49 PM by ComicX6

Considering the fact that people do live their whole lives on Mars, including reproducing, it can't be too much of a problem. Regardless, being in space is going to expose you to more cosmic rays than any atmosphere. You pick up about 1 mrem/hr at cruising altitude on a plane, which is well above the altitude at which the air is breathable for more than a few minutes. A livable atmosphere must have between 150 and 250 millibars of oxygen partial pressure. Radon levels would be similar to those on Earth, but radon primarily affects the lungs, not the reproductive system.

While Hush carrying Mikazuki around like that was funny at first before the grimness fully set in, I have to wonder why no one could grab a wheelchair or something for the poor guy.

"Just carry me."

"Huh? No, look, I'll get you a wheelchair and we can—"

"A hassle. I'm not heavy. Just do it."

I can see this!

In Mikazuki's opinion, he already has a perfectly good wheelchair, and getting a spare implies he's ever going to be out of the first one.

Indeed plus he probably sees it as training for Hush. Hell it could be his way of payback for Hush 'annoying him' so much.

I mean a wheelchair is useless since I'm pretty sure most wheelchairs require the use of both your arms and Mika can only use one of them. He'd need people to push him around anyways and carrying him is just as inconvenient. I can totally see why Mika doesn't want to waste money on a wheelchair since he can't use it himself and people would have to move him either way.

Never heard of motorised wheelchairs? They're a thing. A pretty common thing, actually.

My assumption in that statement was that yes there would be someone, most likely Hush, there to wheel him around.

To be honest I thought that motorized wheelchairs still required both hands because I forgot the controls were on the chair and thought they had to be held in one hand and used with the other.

edited 27th Dec '16 9:22:40 PM by Chariot

Controls? Who needs controls when you can take the A-V system off a Mobile Worker and... wait, just how big is the system? It might not fit on anything smaller than a Mobile Worker. Maybe prosthetics like the mechanic's legs, or the rig that the shopkeeper from Robotics;Notes uses, would work better. Shame Gjallarhorn has been suppressing that sort of thing.

Ever heard of Stephen Hawking? As far as wheelchair is concerned Mika can scrap another two or three angels...

Didn't get around until seeing this week's episode until just now because of holiday stuff, but it was honestly a bit of a letdown for me.

The final takedown of the MA was brutal and actually saw Mika struggling for once, but it was so fast-paced and the framerate was so meh that it wasn't really visually impressive. Maybe that was just an artifact of the streaming and it'll be better on bluray? I hope so, anyway.

Mika getting (more) paralyzed was expected to the point where I would have been surprised if it hadn't happened. I still think he's going to fully sync before he can unsync properly, but since he's still got one eye and one arm, he hasn't hit that point yet.

Atra asking Kudelia to have Mika's child was a bit out of left field. If she was just hoping to tie him down with fatherhood, why not have his kid herself? I think there's something else going on there (and I doubt that Atra is naive enough to think that a kid would tie him down anyway), but we won't know until we hear more on the subject.

Iok is finally getting some repercussions for his stupidity. Unfortunately for everyone, it's just driving him to additional stupidity, and it's almost certainly going to turn out badly for everyone. I wonder what Rustal's plan for Iok is — I'd been assuming that he considered Iok an ally and a protege, but he hasn't done any actual teaching even when Iok makes it painfully clear that he Doesn't Get It, so maybe he just thought of Iok as a useful idiot the whole time? That wouldn't fit his theme of having loyal supporters that he genuinely cares for (like Galan and Julieta), though. But then, Vidar doesn't fit that theme either, does he?

Not sure what the deal with the new prototype they're hyping up for Julieta. I hope it's something more interesting than just another Gundam frame. There's a half dozen of the things banging around at this point, they've kind of lost their uniqueness value. No idea what else it could be, though.

Other than that, not much new in this episode. Yes, McMurdo is still wary of Tekkadan's rapidly expanding power, but is willing to let them see their current endeavour through before reacting. Yes, the Turbines still have skin in Tekkadan's game. Yes, Orga is still angsty about the dubious methods he's using to secure Tekkadan's future, but no, there's still no better alternative. Yes, McGillis still has vague, somewhat creepy revolutionary intentions. We've seen all of this before, and most of it recently, and the episode still wasted a significant amount of screentime on rehashing it.

I feel was thinking about that system that Vidar was having trouble with and I've got a - Galeo lost one or both legs against Mcgillis and now he's using cybernetics. The system he was using on Vidar uses the prosthetic to form a neural connection between pilot and suit like the one Astaroth's pilot has in the Moon Steel manga.

Speaking of that, I was hearing that the Warren family who originally owned Astaroth were one of the Seven Stars. Anyone know if that's true?

'No better alternative' doesn't seem quite right here. This was Orga's last chance, where he was shown hard evidence that his approach was no longer viable (the mine and farms were severely damaged, and Mika was now a half-vegetable), confronted with what he's doing wrong (severe impatience plus a dose of Sunk Cost Fallacy) and offered an out (McMurdo and Naze's none-too-subtle entreaties to pull out of the Gjallarhorn civil war and return to the safety of Teiwaz), but ploughed on anyway.

They are still on their way to success though. Orga way of doing things lead to lot of sacrifices, but as long as they reach their destination and keep believing it was worth it still is nothing to be condemned. Orga doesn't need change his way and if he did now, it could be much worse.

edited 30th Dec '16 8:12:50 AM by Tenzen12

No longer viable? They ended up, completely unexpectedly, facing a remnant of the Calamity War and came out on top. Their half-metal mine was damaged and a civilian agricultural plant was destroyed, but they fought a mobile armor and won without any major catastrophes (like losing a major chunk of their mobile suit forces or letting a city get destroyed). Yes, Mika being injured is a significant personal cost, but Tekkadan as an organization did fantastically well given the situation they were in. I don't see anything about the incident that suggests it makes Orga's plan for Tekkadan going forward no longer viable.

Yeah, while some of Tekkadan's problems can legitimately be blamed on Orga's ambition, this incident with the Mobile Armor definitely wasn't his fault. If it was anyone's fault it was Iok's.