It's a Gundam thread!

Yeah, I think I'm starting to understand that Thunderbolt is just "UC but everyone has limitless funds and resources like its a hacked Gihren's Greed game."

I'm quite confident in my shitposting you know

Man, I really should somehow get the Thunderbolt manga.

And maybe collect the rest of The Origin because the art for those manga books is so awesome...

Spelunking through a Halo Ring is something else...

I remember early 2020 the director of The Origin said he was working on something new related to the manga, then well...2020 happened. I wonder if that’s still happening.

Probably in the same void as the film.

It kinda sucks that we still don't know anything about the film, especially since we're well into year 41 of Gundam being a thing.

Especially since it was teased in one of the videos celebrating the 40th anniversary of the series.

Spelunking through a Halo Ring is something else...

I managed to finish my entire collection of Origin.

Now I just need to continue collecting Thunderbolt. Man action heavy books are a Hell of a read but they do go by quick.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

Yeah, I think I'm starting to understand that Thunderbolt is just "UC but everyone has limitless funds and resources like its a hacked Gihren's Greed game."

You could also call it 'UC at the appropriate scale for an interplanetary war'. Seriously, the forces at play in the OYW were colossal. Why should it be weird that there were en entire limited run of Neo Zeongs, or half a dozen Doloses? It wasn't like Nazi Germsny made only one Maus, or like the Yamato-class only consisted of a single ship.

What's precedent ever done for us?

Uh, yeah, it actually is like that. There was literally one Maus completed (and several others abandoned in various stages of assembly), and there were exactly two Yamato-class battleships (the Yamato and the Musashi).

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

Makes me wonder whether the Zeongs seen at the end of December Sky/prologue of Bandit Flower (not Neo-Zeongs, those are way bigger for a reason) are meant to be a deliberate reference to the Maus.

Probably not.

Spelunking through a Halo Ring is something else...

I’ve been really enjoying the animated Thunderbolt stuff so I’m looking forward to more of it being made.

I for one would now like to see Thunderbolt's take on later UC mechs like the Zeta-era stuff.

I'm quite confident in my shitposting you know

That's about 7-8 years away, though. Might take some time.

Spelunking through a Halo Ring is something else...

There were actually three Yamato-class ships - one was just converted into a carrier. And, as you mention, the Maus was built as a limited run, with both prototypes V1 and V2 seeing action (though not very much of it) and an entire assembly-line of partially-completed tanks for the Russians to capture. It was never designed to be a unique standalone like the Zeong. Scale that up to an interplanetary war rather than a fight between terrestrial nations, and it's perfectly reasonable to assume that all but the most gigantic superweapons had a few spares or partial attempts at mass-production rather than being truly unique.

What's precedent ever done for us?

I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that the Zeon was designed from the start as a unique machine that they were only ever going to build one of? The one unit that Char actually used wasn't even fully assembled; there's no reason to think it wasn't a Maus-style prototype with a dozen more of them on the assembly line.

Granted, the original MSG is far and away the worst of UC Gundam about having a bunch of one-off prototypes that never appear again. In Doylist terms it's clearly super robot "monster of the week" influence, but in Watsonian terms we never really get a good explanation. Stuff kludged together in the field? Zeon producing handfuls of every design they can think of and seeing how they fair in combat before moving to mass production? Experimental units never meant for the front lines being thrown into combat out of desperation? It's never really addressed for most of them.

Of course, after MSG, the unique snowflake one-offs are almost exclusively the providence of protagonists. With the exception of Scirocco's artisanal hand-crafted mobile suit designs (which he apparently built to kill time while flying to and from Jupiter), the only truly unique antagonist mecha after MSG is the Sazabi in CCA... though if you count Unicorn, even that got a second copy in the form of the Sinanju.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

I have just watched the first ten episodes of Gundam Wing for the first time. Here are some of my thoughts:

• My favorite Gundam pilot so far is Duo. Partly because Scott Mc Neil gives him the same voice as Rattrap, which fits his personality perfectly.

• The funniest scene is when Une shoots Septum in the head, just in case he manages to survive falling thousands of feet.

• The weirdest scene is when Dr. J says that Heero is a kind-hearted boy. Given that he regularly laughs at the people he kills, and one of his first actions is to almost destroy a civilian shuttle because it was in the way, this is a bit hard to swallow.

De Romanīs, lingua Latina gloriosa non fuī.

Actually, Heero just stops laughing at killing people at one point.

And the shuttle wasn't necessarily in the way, it was a potential witness. Early on, Operation Meteor kinda relied on having as little witnesses as possible lest the Alliance or OZ got wind of it.

Spelunking through a Halo Ring is something else...

It's kind of hilarious that Heero completely borked up his part of Operation Meteor from the get-go. Zechs forced him to abandon the Wing Gundam with a Leo.

One thing I like about the Sinanju is that, if you take away the modifications that make it look more like the Sazabi like the red paint job, it actually looks like a cross between a Zeon mobile suit and a Gundam. This is made more clear with its original design, the Sinanju Stein. Which makes sense, since the Sinanju Stein was made using data from the Sazabi and the Nu-Gundam.

Edited by M84 on Jan 14th 2021 at 2:54:36 AM

Disgusted, but not surprised

I'm thinking of adding a note about how we find out what happened to the actual Phenex on Unicorn's trope page by referring to Narrative. Because I generally believe that the one we see in that Reconguista OVA is nothing more than an imperfect replica.

Edited by G2BattleConvoy on Jan 15th 2021 at 12:14:24 PM

Spelunking through a Halo Ring is something else...

Been a while, but:

NEW HATHAWAY TRAILER.

Spelunking through a Halo Ring is something else...

Man I’m gonna have to learn to take the name Mafty seriously.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

Heero bursting into laughter is one of those early installment weirdness issues when ater on he is so emotional restrained you think he is nigh emotionless

but its so freaking memorable

I'm A Pervert not an Asshole!

What are your thoughts on the friendship between Durandal and Rau Le Creuset in Destiny? I used to believe pretty strongly that theirs was a genuine friendship with a significant difference in their philosophical beliefs but the tropes pages have several new-ish entries to them that assert that there is good reason to believe that Rau would hated Durandal and Durandal's demise at the end was a moment of achieving peace for Rau.

I wouldn't have a clue as I'm pretty apathetic to the CE timeline.

Spelunking through a Halo Ring is something else...

Not personally familiar with CE, but a number of Gundam tropes pages kind of push the boundaries of what is canon and insert the troper's own personal interpretations.

Related to UC though: since the AEUG was formed from Federation and Zeon troops and then later rejoins the Federation and becomes Londo Bell, I wonder if any Zeon OYW veterans are now fighting on the Federation's side. It's possible but I'm curious if it ever pops up. Post Gryps, Haman mentioned offering any stray AEUG soldier the chance to join Axis Zeon; and I assume ex Zekes would take her up on the offer, but I wonder if any stayed on.

Edited by DrPsyche on Feb 1st 2021 at 12:37:23 AM

No idea. Only ex-Zeon AEUG soldiers I can name off the top of my head are Apolly and Roberto, both of whom died with AEUG.

The idea that Apolly and Roberto were Zeon troops that followed Char from Axis is a pretty hefty retcon — the way Zeta itself presents it, they were Federation soldiers that followed Lieutenant Quattro when he defected to the AEUG.

It's honestly kind of hilarious how everyone and his dog recognizes Char's disguise (even people like Bright, who never met Char face to face), but Apolly and Roberto are entirely clueless. Apolly even makes an ass out of himself during the meeting with Axis, when Haman introduces Minerva. (He says something like "hey, it's just a kid!" and has to be shushed by someone else, IIRC.)

You can argue that actually he's just a really good deep cover agent, but as far as I'm aware, there's literally nothing in Zeta that suggests Apolly or Roberto are aware of "Lieutenant Quattro"'s true history. It's Char's Deleted Affair that completely rewrites their history to being One Year War veterans on the Zeon side, then making the trip to Axis and back with Char.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.