Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Again, while some of Tekkadan's problema are indeed result of Organization ambition, there is no particular blame to be put on his shoulders.

Look at it from the other direction. Thanks to getting involved in a civil war between two extremely shady, powerful factions in order to speed up their arrival at a destination they were well on the way towards anyway (it was made clear at the start of the season that once the half-metal mine got into full swing, Tekkadan would be set for life), the robot monster they unearthed ended up waking up rather than getting peacefully dismantled after they activated that Pluma and went 'nope, never doing that again'.

As a result, Orga lost a shitload of employees, his best friend ended up feeding into his own death-wish and paralysing himself, and his two previous best options for going legit, the farm and half-metal mine, have been severely damaged. Also, he's given the most dangerous person in the solar system the keys to the kingdom, thanks to the prestige from their joint kill (and we already know from his comments last episode that McGillis doesn't intend to play nice with Tekkadan), and increased the rift within Teiwaz by extending his relationship with a Gjallarhorn faction - which means that his adoptive big brother is that much closer to having to off himself.

The situation for Tekkadan manifestly worsened this episode, and a great deal of it could have been avoided if Orga was a little more patient and careful (and was able to say no to Mikazuki).

edited 30th Dec '16 5:21:37 PM by Iaculus

Minor point: I'm pretty sure the farm that got blown up isn't related to Tekkadan. It's just an agricultural zone close to Chryse that the Mobile Armor saw as a target of opportunity after Iok shot it. From what I remember, the Biscuit family farm wasn't all built in a canyon area.

Nah, it's their farm. It crops up (ahem) quite a bit in the early episodes of S2.

I wonder if Atra wanting Kudelia to have Mika's kid has anything to do with her wanting the one true threesome endgame.

But like others have said, if she think Mika being a father would make him change, she's going to be disappointed.

That and i am not sure he'd be the best father figure.

But wouldn't Kudelia have brought up it being damaged in addition to the harvest coming next month?

Yeah, the facility that got razed is certainly not Sakura's farm. You can see it in the OP, it's a wide-open crop field that looks nothing like what was destroyed by the Hashmal.

Yeah... I'm not seeing it. Orga did everything right when he found the Mobile Armor. A war machine he'd never seen before, a relic of the Calamity War. He calls the one guy he knows is extremely knowledgeable about such things: his contact in Gjallarhorn. McGillis had some plan for dealing with the Hashmal other than waking it up: he specifically made sure that no Mobile Suits were brought anywhere near it when he went to inspect it and confirm what it was. The Mobile Armor waking up was entirely Iok's fault. There was zero way Orga could have foreseen that this was an ancient superweapon that could easily crush Tekkadan on its own, and no way he could have foreseen Iok's sheer stupidity causing it to actually activate. If Iok hadn't been there, there would have been no battle, and no casualties.

Hell, even if Tekkadan hadn't gotten the half-metal mine, somebody digging the thing up was inevitable considering it was well-known there was a vein of half-metal there. And if someone else had found it and awakened it, Tekkadan would still have battled it... considering they're one of the largest military forces near Chryse, and their headquarters is well within the Mobile Armor's destructive range, they would definitely have ended up fighting it regardless. Which probably would have ended up even worse, since they wouldn't have had McGillis's intel on it, nor the Flauros.

I just don't see how you can possibly blame any of this on Orga. It was a crappy situation, to be sure, but in my view he did everything right upon learning of this thing's existence, and its rampage was due to factors beyond any semblance of his control.

Plus, the episode quite specifically states that Sakura's farm survived the attack. Tekkadan hasn't lost that.

edited 30th Dec '16 11:00:34 PM by DarkHunter

You're missing the bigger picture. It's the MA awakening at all that wouldn't have happened unless he had decided to join in this whole ill-advised war to make a quick buck - they had no reason whatsoever to bring mobile suits near the dig site, but because of the enemies they'd made, it became a serious risk. Similarly, he had a pretty great out after the whole bloody mess, which his boss and his mentor strongly encouraged him to take ('sorry, we took too much of a pounding there, we're out'), but chose not to take it.

Orga's a great battlefield commander, but dangerously impulsive when it comes to dealing with the bigger picture.

I'm with Dark Hunter on this, everything went south because of Iok. If not for him, not of this would have happened.

• They had no reason to not bring any MS suits to site. Without Mackey Tekkadan wouldn't even now it's dangerous thing to do.
• No it indeed wasn't Sakura's farm.
• Also you are wrong about destination thing. They were Teiwaz favourite pets, now they are batting for partnership with Gjalahorn. That's completely different league. And also Organization never aimed for mere prosperity.
• And lastly, while choco-char is indeed dangerous person, he is only man in solar system to give them offer of that magnitude and so far he keeps his end of bargain without doing anything illicit or unethical. Yeah, he doesn't do that out of goodness of his heart, but there is no problem with any action he took this season so far.

Also it was Teiwaz who gave Tekkedan the mine in the first place - which means Mars is damn lucky Mc Murdo gave it to Orga and not some other branch that wouldn't have the access to info about it or the resources to combat it when it activates after inevitably being dug up.

And Iok's presence had nothing to do with Tekkedan, not directly anyways; he was there because Dickface in Teiwaz tipped him off about Pedochar going there. Orga is making a number of very dangerous gambles, and he's all but guaranteed to burn for it, but the Hashmal incident ain't on his head - though what he does with the aftermath (see: Mika) most certainly is.

edited 31st Dec '16 4:25:48 AM by TheAirman

Well, bad news: no new Gundam episode tomorrow because holiday, and the week after that there is some kind of "special program" airing in Japan that takes up Gundam's slot. So the next episode won't air until January 15th.

Aw man, i really want to know what Kudelia's response to Atra's demand will be.

There will be a new episode this week, yea?

I think so.

The new episode is out now and in it we have:

• A new Opening
• A new ending
• An explanation from Atra
• People praising Mika
• The Turbines being forced to go on the run

Second shot of the new OP is a friggin higanbana. That's not worrying at all

Someone should really kill Iok

Brothel mistress giving terrible life advice

Naze and Amida deathflagging

From the sound of it, it's unlikely that many of Naze's wives have even met him, so his operation isn't really that skeevy. Could have been brought up earlier

Ending shot of the ED also worrying

I suspect that this is going to end with Tekkadan absorbing (part of) the Turbines

edited 15th Jan '17 4:51:13 AM by Hylarn

He also appears to not go out of his way to seduce his nominal wives. It appears he sleeps with them only if they approach him about it.

"They're not just my wives. They're also like my daughters."

Heh.

• Opening thoughts:
  • I don't like the song.
  • The parts with the flowers are ominous as hell.
  • Julieta is shown at the same part of the opening as Kudelia, Atra, and Lafter. I doubt that Julieta's going to have a Heel–Face Turn anytime soon, so does that mean that she's going to be someone's love interest? When she was first introduced, she reminded me a bit of Sarah Zabiarov, which is not a good sign for her.
  • If you're wondering, the characters shown in the quick flashes above all of Tekkadan are Iok, Jasley, Naze, Rustal, and Vidar.
  • Can Macky die sooner rather than later? Because his bit in the opening was really really creepy.
  • No Gundam Bael. Looks like the rumors that Mika was going to get Bael as an upgrade were false.
  • Worrying absences: Amida, Azee, and Isurugi. Okay, the last one's not so worrying since he has no personality, but the first two are going to hurt if they die.

As for the episode proper:

• Iok's plan with the railgun was surprisingly smart of him.
• Interesting that Vidar says he wants to understand McGillis and not just kill him. My guess is that when Rustal bites it, Macky will somehow convince Gaelio to rejoin him.
• Damn it Julieta, just let Iok dig his own grave.
• Naze: "I view my wives like my daughters." Ewwww
• Naze: "Except for Amida, my marriages are shams to protect my wives." Okay, that's much less creepy.
• Naze: "But I still sleep with my wives (who I view as daughters) if they're willing." Ewwwww.
• Yeah, Naze's not long for this world. The question is how many of his wives are going to go down with him. Amida's definitely a goner, Lafter's probably going to live because of Akihiro, Azee could go either way.

Edit: Judging by the opening, Barbatos is going to get a tail instead of the traditional wings. I approve.

edited 15th Jan '17 5:59:39 AM by lrrose

Season 2, Episode 14:

In which Mika is presented with a modest proposal.

Iok gets played so easily it's almost comical. Atra is really bad at... flirting? Can you really call that flirting? Naze, please don't call your wives your daughters. Doesn't seem like the Turbines are lasting much longer. Well, Tekkadan will probably welcome the survivors, so hopefully there are any.

Even worse, refer to this.

I'm surprised that Landman Rodi get nice highlight in thw new OP (even more than Shiden squad), guess it's a Ensemble Dark Horse in term of popularity? Still, the brief scene with new Barbatos look outright beastial.

I wonder what Jasley thinking...it look like he just realized he's dealing with someone foolish enough to be used. Really, that and the next scene give impression that people're fully aware of how stupid Iok is. You can read Oh, Crap! on those two subordinates when Iok ask them to follow him blindly.

With Hashmal gone, people go back to political game. But as McGillis point out, the play style does changed because of that battle.

I'm glad that Kudelia is mature enough to deal with Atra's impulsive request. Although it seem that Atra just take her encourage in wrong direction, upset Atra is real cute (and the two at least resemble Beta Couple there). That being said, she just raise massive death flag for Turbines.

We finally get background of the Turbines (another death flag, dammit). Nice to see Amida give Spinner Rodi a chance to redeem (and Naze even recite Felini's motto).

Tension rising...

edited 15th Jan '17 7:58:39 AM by Kuruni