Headscratchers / Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt

• What's the G-Fighter doing here? For those of you who don't understand, let me elaborate. The G-Fighter was present in the original Mobile Suit Gundam as a Mecha Expansion Pack to the RX-78-2 Gundam. When it came time to do the movie trilogy, Tomino decided to the G-Fighter with the more realistic Core Booster which was an add on to the Core Fighter. In all subsequent material, the Core Booster is used instead of the G-Fighter. Makes sense, right? However, in both the December Sky movie and the first episode of season 2 of Thunderbolt, the G-Fighter can be seen. So, has the G-Fighter been retconned back into existence as something that was developed but not used in the One Year War? Or does this take place in the original timeline? Alternatively, this could just be one big Continuity Snarl...
  • From what I can tell, it was seen being used by a random GM pilot during the final battle of A Boao Qu. It's entirely possible that the only reason it was there was because it was recently finished around the same time as the GM becoming the Federation Forces' mass-production unit. Considering how it added considerable mobility and firepower to the standard GM, it was probably a better time than any to use it. In all honesty, the former seems more likely.
  • Everything in Gundam that is animated is canon. Even contradictory takes on the same story, like the original series and its movies. Weird, I know. Point is, Thunderbolt including the G-Fighter is just as valid as if they chose to use the Core Booster instead.
• Why is that after the first arc everyone speaks of the Psycho Zaku as if it had defeated the Full Armor Gundam? I mean, wasn’t it a tie? Both machines lost their heads, almost all of their weapons and were seriously damaged. Hell, the Psycho Zaku even exploded because of all the damage it took! Yet everyone keeps hyping it as “the Mobile Suit that defeated a Gundam”. Why?
  • In context of the setting, the Gundam is basically seen as the ultimate weapon of the Federation, and while both were destroyed, *BOTH* were destroyed. Yes, the Psycho Zaku was destroyed, but it still managed to defeat the Gundam, even if it was a mutual loss. And thats the big factor. The Psycho Zaku was an untested prototype that was sent out in a last ditch effort to fight the Gundam. While it did loose, it still defeated the Gundam in a mutual defeat. And as the was the Zeon forces that showed up after the fight and captured Io and the Gundam remains, it was a big boost in moral for the Zeon troops.
    • Technically speaking, it's not the ONLY mobile suit that defeated a Gundam - the Zaku II Kai also holds this distinction, and the circumstances are almost identical.
    • Hell, the Zeong also counts, and in terms of propaganda would be superior because it did destroy the Gundam. And much like the Psycho Zaku (and the Zaku II Kai), it was a Mutual Kill. Which might be telling that we did see several Zeongs in the Flanigan Institute.
• Why are most of the units we see at the Battle of A Baoa Qu the Thunderbolt Sector-specific versions? Is the work saying that that's just what all MS look like now?
  • Units in the Thunderbolt sector were supplied that way in order to allow them to operate for long period away from supplies, an example of this would be (in the Manga) where we see a pilot exchange occurring with a Zaku II and a Big Gun, with the suit remaining in place and not undergoing resupply. The Moore Brotherhood (and presumably The Living Dead Division too) also had a surplus of Weapons and Supplies in relation to their mobile suits, so they could equip each one with extra equipment in order to give it better odds against the enemy.
  • It's an alternate continuity where that's just what a GM, a Gelgoog, etc. looks like. It's why the model kits aren't sold in the HG-UC line, but instead the HG-TB line. Same as Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin but subtler since it's different characters.
• For that matter, why do the Thunderbolt Sector GM units have a Core Block system? The Core Block System is the first thing eliminated from mass-production units because it's supposedly ridiculously expensive.
  • The result of the first battle we see is your answer: Casualty rate in the Thunderbolt Sector is so high that if they didn't have them, the entire Moore Brotherhood mobile suit team would have been wiped out in this battle alone. Also, the core blocks they used was a vastly simplified version, it didn't have weapons or a learning computer (said to be the most expensive component in the Core Fighter), and was more akin to an escape pod.
• How valuable is the Thunderbolt Sector? The Federation treats it as extremely important, and throws a great deal of units and manpower into it (including the Full Armor Gundam). Yet Zeon doesn't see fit to occupy it with more than the bare minimum of suits and reject pilots. They seem to have maybe half a dozen suits, to the point that their ace has to go into battle in a Zaku I. The wild disparity between their apparent value of the sector is incredibly odd.
  • The Federation doesn't treat the Thunderbolt Sector as important either. The Moore Foundation is only given the bare minimum needed to operate, as evidenced by how their "reinforcements" were essentially teenage mobile suit pilots with only the most basic of training and zero combat experience. It's just that by that point of the war, the Federation has far more resources it can throw around than Zeon does.
  • Those reinforcements are more indicative of how strapped the Federation was for soldiers than writing off the area. The fact they got them at all speaks volumes, really. And in addition to them (and their GM Cannons and other state-of-the-art equipment) they got a damn Gundam, one that seems for all the world to be superior to the White Devil. The Federation should be gearing up for the Battle of A Baoa Qu, instead they're sending a great deal of supplies (and seemingly have been for a while) at half a dozen Zeon suits.
  • The Moore Brotherhood are given weapons and supplies by the Federation, and fight to retake their former home. This means that they're technically not part of the Federation and thus aren't really prioritized supply wise. However this changes later on, as The Thunderbolt Sector is needed as a staging ground for the assault on A Baoa Qu, which is part of the reason why the Federation sends much of its support. This is also the reason why the Zeon Forces retreat from the sector after the forces there are wiped out- A Baoa Qu is far better defended. The Gundam was two-fold. It was delivered in order to clean out the Zeon forces in that area, but was not expected to succeed, but only soften them up, This lead into the second reason- It's stated numerous times throughout the OVA and Manga that the intention is for Io to be a martyr for the Moore Brotherhood, in order to inspire the next generation of pilots (i.e. The reinforcements) to fight harder against Zeon.
    • ... they are absolutely part of the Federation. That's like saying Shiro wasn't part of the Federation because he's part of the Kojima Battalion.
  • essentially, the thunderbolt sector was a potential staging ground for a direct attack on side 3 which is probably why the feddies were willing to put the resources they did Into it especially near the tail end of the war. As for the living dead division, I suspect it was mostly a cost saving measure, defend the important location with as few troops as possible by using elite snipers with nothing to lose, and at least near the wars beggining there probably wasn't a pressing need for that many troops stationed there on defense when your largely winning. At the point thunderbolt takes place though, the zeeks were stretched to the breaking point so there probably wasn't much if any to send the living dead divisions way, who were pretty battered by that point anyways, I mean they were always a small force to begin with but apparently at their peak they had about 20-23 mobile suits and in thunderbolt they have... about 4 or 5.