I thought April Fool's was over; I almost saw it coming but still didn't expect this joke of an ending
WINNER: Rustal Elion. Kind of a 180 from the viewer's PoV that he would be the one to end Human Debris and make Mars independent. What I do buy though, that he's a hero; from others' point of view he squashed an insurgent extremist rebellion and their mercenary lackeys, nothing more to it.
LOSER: Mika and Akihiro. I did like the way they went full throttle, though I wish Gusion had done the red eye as well. They fought well, the BLR was absolutely feral, but in the end Dainsleif-Ex Machina's ends them, thus they're losers.
WINNER: The rest of Tekkadan. Looks like they got to live fairly normal lives.
LOSER: Iok. An honorable guy until the end. Too bad his luck ran out when Akihiro found out who he was. Satisfying.
WINNER: Gaelio and Julietta. Wouldn't be surprised if Gaelio had a hand in Rustal's "reformation" thanks to him finally "understanding" McGillis. Julietta a big damn war hero. And maybe because I think like The Office's Michael Scott at times: "I like you better with a little more meat on you." ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
LOSER: Nobliss. I like the way this one ended, a very gangster way.
Anyways, the ending still kinda sucked overall. Actually, the last 6 episodes blew chunks. Almost as bad as a Code Geass R2 meltdown.
-I mean, really, show us some more in-depth-cockpit shots of impaled pilots and their last dying words! It seriously got old to the point that I don't even care or feel sorry anymore. It felt artificial. Say what you want about "beam spam" (why is this even a bad word in some Gundam fan circles nowadays??) but sometimes I just like to see certain pilots get blown the eff off without needing to hear their forcibly dramatic dying words.
-I know it's just me, but there's something bugging me about this ending: Main heroes die, bad guys destroy them, bad guys somehow reform to what the good guys wanted anyways, and all is good. It's a very simplistic summary admittedly, but it doesn't sit right with me, and I don't like it.
-Almost as bad as "Gundams were never seen again" ending. Super rushed epilogue. Maybe a good thing if a potential sequel featured Tekkadan, because I'm tired of Tekkadan.
Overall, I give S2 a 5.5/10, IBO overall maybe a 7/10
+Fantastic setting.
+Fantastic tech concepts.
+Great lore, I would like to find out more about Agnika and their MA exploits.
+Great MS battles.
-Crappy character development, some remained one dimensiona for the most part and some have had great potential only to be halfway useless *coughHushcough*
-Death flags a thing. Never have I seen a show where a flashback more apparent than any other show announces to the world that they're dead shortly after.
-Gruesome pilot death scenes. Not because they were gruesome, but because they overdid it.
-episodes between battles. I don't care about you daily lives, random Tekkadan guy.
-Dainsleif Ex-Machina. I guess it's ok to use now?
-Aston/takaki arc. Almost as bad as S1's Teiwaz arc of no MS battles for 3 episodes straight, in S2 we have 3 straight episodes of these idiots as if the writers are forcing us to care and feel about them. We got Galan Mossa here which is a cool character but ultimately still wasted.
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Sadly, I still support this show because of awesome Gunpla.
Now, as for sequels, like I said as long as there is no Tekkadan (and maybe a different director?) I would be more than open to the possibility. I would like to see an mini-OVA about a PMC-like group not unlike Tekkadan, who has also salvaged their Gundam frame, and their main thing is awakening Mobile Armors and killing them like it's a damn sport. I need more MA's in IBOverse.