GUNDAM

Tomino actually got in trouble with the toy producers for the original Gundam series because he lied and said that RX-78 was taller than 50 feet when it was a little under. This was back when robots were supposed to be super huge.

Are you really taking practicality into account when discussing big space-fantasy-fighting robots? Sheesh. Realistic combat stepped out for a smoke ten minutes ago.

I never liked any of the Tallgeese. They just looked plain and dull to me. Epyon looks like a bloody Balrog! A Balrog that you can drive! A Balrog that'll precog you so hard you'll vomit!

Epyon indeed looks awesome, and I never even got far enough in Wing to see it in action! I've just seen pictures ...

Now, I've of course never seen Endless Waltz either, but I am rather enamored of the version of Wing Zero with those big majestic angel-ish wings.

My personal connection to the Gundam franchise as a whole is rather weird. I have used them in various works since way back in my first year of high school, where I thought up a sequel to The Skin Of Our Teeth featuring ships and mobile suits from various UC shows, Wing, and Seed. Maybe even G, I can't quite remember. It was 5-6 years ago, and a stupid story at that.

Much more recently (i.e. now), I've re-imagined a number of mobile suit designs (mainly some Zaft stuff at first, then later practically everything from both the Federation and Zeon in Unicorn) as "rigs", the 15-20 foot tall Powered Armor from my post-post-apocalyptic Fraternity Wars universe.

I know, it sounds so much like some kind mashing things together, and I wish I had the ability to be more original. But when it comes to equipment, weapons, mechanical stuff (from cars on up through mecha), I've always been very bad at thinking up stuff of my own. It doesn't help that I can't draw worth a damn...initially all the rigs in Fraternity Wars were completely original designs, but they've been stuck inside my head ever since, and I wanted at least one faction to field something a bit more tangible.

edited 28th Oct '10 2:21:08 PM by frog753

Tallgeese II > Tallgeese III

I'm sorry but that golden crazy mohawk just looks too awesome.

The best mobile suit in the show is the Taurus. Because it looks cool.

-Whoops-

edited 28th Oct '10 4:27:43 PM by Miijhal

@Furiko: Well, yeah. I'm a UC Gundam fan, which at least sorta-kinda tried to almost-nearly make logical sense while trying to deal with the fact that it was still a merchandise-driven series for kids.

Though there's still the space-ships piloted by a ship's wheel...

@Deboss: The head vulcans stopped being useful after 0079 and were never useful, ever, in any of the AU series.

^The vulcans shot down missiles at least once in Wing, I think. Still not high-quality long range weaponry.

Gundam Wing pretty much blew my mind when I first saw it. The only giant robots I had to play with at the time were from Mech Warrior, and although I played Virtual On and was in love with it, it didn't quite "register" in mind that I was controlling a giant robot. Same with Transformers, to be honest.

Then I saw Gundam Wing, and all this crazy stuff was happening. The cockpit was in the chest? With monitors showing a feed from the cameras in the head? That guy just blew up too enemies with a single shot? And now he's laughing about it? I thought he was supposed to be the hero? And holy crap, look at the way those machines move.

Needless to say, it solidified giant robots as my most favorite thing ever. I was never able to go back to Mech Warrior after that.

@Funnyguts: Yes, I agree.

edited 28th Oct '10 7:17:44 PM by LizardBite

I didn't think there were actually people who even knew about Virtual On anymore...

Raiden was awesome in the game. Just for the solopwn factor.

Another machine I like the look of is Calamity Gundam. I hear that they were supposed to be half again as tall as the other Gundams, but that got slapped down because then the toys would have to be a different size, too.

sigh

Calamity is pretty awesome, but it's predecessor, the Buster Gundam has that kick ass combining beam cannon. It looks so epic when he does the combination and shoots it.

Actually, the gatlings are pretty effective in Wing. Especially the Wing Zero's giant shoulder-mounted ones, which are its standard ranged equipment when it's not in full 'nuke everything with the Buster Rifle' mode.

Basically, any time it unhouses those, a whole lot of Taurus dolls are going to die.

edited 30th Oct '10 7:57:40 AM by Iaculus

Those aren't the vulcan guns. Wing has two machine cannons on the wing binders, and two vulcan guns on its head like most Gundams do.

edited 30th Oct '10 8:44:59 AM by Miijhal

Nope - the shoulder-cannons replace the head-guns on the Zero. It's just that both the Wing and the Zero also have a pair of small guns mouted in their chests.

Wing, does, however, have head vulcans.◊

edited 30th Oct '10 10:00:56 AM by Miijhal

Indeed it does.

I'm not so attached to the mecha in Gundam as much as the massive battles and EPIC POLITICS. In few other series will you get such epic powerplays in both space and on Earth. I really like the way Gundam imagines future conflicts between humans. From what I've seen, there are no aliens in Gundam except human derivatives such as the innovades and co-ordinators.

edited 31st Oct '10 3:57:23 PM by Shichibukai

The thing that got me into Gundam and that's put me off most of the AU series is how it would portray both sides as being made up primarily of normal people, with a few scattered assholes and lunatics on each side. The Federation weren't paragons of justice and the Principality of Zeon wasn't composed entirely of mustache-twirlers.

It's also why 0080 is my favorite series in the franchise. I think it got that point across best.

And as for aliens... SEED has Space Whales.

edited 31st Oct '10 4:09:27 PM by Miijhal

^ Oh yes, that's another thing. There are average people as well as genocidal maniacs. The factions are three-dimensional.

I'm not sure what Space Whale you're referring to though. I watched the whole of SEED (not Destiny). Maybe I missed something.

-looks at trope page-

Oh, those space whales.

edited 31st Oct '10 4:20:54 PM by Shichibukai

Is obligated to hate SEED because of those space whales

The only reason I disliked the Space Whales was because when the fossil was introduced, it pretty much screamed Chekhov's Gun at me... then nothing ever came from it.

I have a deep-seated loathing for shitty alien designs. Aquatic Mammals that are capable of living in a near 0 degree Kelvin void are near the top of that list.

Why hate one great series over a few fossils?