The Official Gundam 00 Season 2 Thread Mk I

[Destiny_Gundam]

Geeze, Sergei gets one little slap that he by all rights deserved, and everyone flips out.

And they call me a fanboy...

[ShadowCell]

In their defense, I don't recall the scene where Sergei kicked Lindt's puppy.

[EinhanderAstraeaMk.I]

Love the first pic but can't see the second

Second Pic.

As for Some and Alle's Island Fiasco... MARIE!!! MARIE!!! We were so close...

Seriously though, I'd like to hopefully have a better picture of Soma's and Alle's backgrounds after Sunday roles around. And I'm guessing that Trans-Am will fail Setsuna last-minute in the next episode as well. After all, Ian had shouted to Setsuna not to use Trans-Am...

Lolicon Certification. Used to be, but then I saw Gundam 00.

[Destiny_Gundam]

Well, Sergei did let wimpy boy escape.

Anyways, come on people! There's no way Sergei even felt that slap. Don't worry about it.

You know, I'd hate Lindt for being such an ass if only Kazuki Yao didn't sound so sexy doing it.

[Genocide]

First, a slap has nothing on a Bask Om Beatdown (TM), the only thing to surpass a Brightslap.

Second, "Mr. Fruity" should never used in the same sentence as "Bask," unless that sentence is along the lines of "Bask beat Mr. Fruity six ways from Sunday, and a little more besides, just on the general principle of the name."

Actually, I had a similar vibe to the scenerio. Sure, it's just a little slap, but that's because Mr. Fruity was the only one with the gall to hit him - unlike in Bright's case where he was pounded into submission by two or three grunts. If it's indictive of anything though, Sergei might defect, and Mr. Fruity will meet an untimely demise. But for the record...

Actually, I'm pretty sure a BrightPANCH and a Brightroundhouse could match, if not beat an Om Beatdown. I did get a similar vibe from the scene and appropriately got angry.

Nothing, and I mean nothing can surpass the Wong beatdown... except the Judau-knee-to-the-gut.

Back on topic, I think Sumeragi and Kati's relationship is extremely wtf. The whole thing just seemed like a last minute thought, since somehow after an entire season, nothing ever hinted at their relationship until now.

[Areku]

Well, Sergei did let wimpy boy escape.

Anyways, come on people! There's no way Sergei even felt that slap. Don't worry about it.

You know, I'd hate Lindt for being such an ass if only Kazuki Yao didn't sound so sexy doing it.

That image of Lindt holding his hands over his head? That's from Setsuna's failed attack on the bridge. Kathy didn't move an inch during that, while Lindt cowered like a [insert Saji joke]. Then in this episode, Kathy manhandled Lindt, and while he acted calmly, I guarantee he left the room so he could hyperventilate. When we see him next, he's pansy-slapping Papa Bear.

I'm no psychiatrist, but I'd say our recently demoted Lindt is dealing with a sense of inferiority. Kathy is now his equal in the hierarchy, and has already demonstrated to be tougher than him. He's afraid of her, but he needs to reassert his own superiority somehow. He knows that Sergei can't fight back, so he strikes him while hiding behind A-LAW's authority. The fact that Sergei didn't even feel it is irrelevant, that kind of disrespect is unforgivable

That last bit was intentionally fanboyish

Back on topic, I think Sumeragi and Kati's relationship is extremely wtf. The whole thing just seemed like a last minute thought, since somehow after an entire season, nothing ever hinted at their relationship until now.

I got that impression as well. My pet theory is that the staff realized the cast members from the AEU were lacking; Kathy is awesome, but Team Patrick is Team Patrick. With just one real character (Kathy), the AEU's forces were receiving the short end of representation, while Union had three important characters (Graham, Billy, and Eifman) and HRL had two (Sergei and Soma, maybe even counting Al). Link Sumeragi to Union, and they have more significant characters coming from their military ranks than everyone else combined, but by making AEU her alma mater, things are a little more balanced.

[Red XIV]

Anyways, come on people! There's no way Sergei even felt that slap. Don't worry about it.

Yeah, and Sergei could have picked Lindt up and broken him in half if he'd chosen to do so.

[Zero Revenge]

Anyways, come on people! There's no way Sergei even felt that slap. Don't worry about it.

Yeah, and Sergei could have picked Lindt up and broken him in half if he'd chosen to do so.

Discretion is the better part of Valor.

Sergei after all does want to keep his job.

[OpMegs]

On the subject of Kati and Sumeragi's interaction, I'm rather paranoid about the cause.

For whatever reason, they're given incorrect intelligence that has them regard each other's task forces as enemy units by accident(seriously, that's a colossal error on the behalf of the intelligence area. Someone probably got a bullet for that.), and the resulting fubar (not helped by the AEU selling Hellions to the highest bidder probably making FoF ID problems insane) causes deaths(not just injuries or lost equipment, but *deaths* of trained personnel)....and their commanding officer doesn't seem all that worried about it. In fact, he seems more complementary of their tactical skills than concerned that these two just caused dozens of deaths of their own troops by accident and probably could do with some post-traumatic counseling of some kind. Given the AEU's politics seemingly being a collective of competing interests, I have to wonder if there wasn't some political jiveing going on behind the scenes there.

[Attomoku]

Well hopefully Al can work though some things in the next ep.

Im getting kinda tired of all this "Marie... Marie..." bullshit. Its seriously stunting his character development... I miss Hal, he wouldn't put up with his tantrums and let his shiny new suit get wrecked so early/easily 'cause of it.
I think they got rid of him too soon

[Momaru]

Faulty information? Hmm seems someone, or in this case, perhaps something was manipulating the actual intel? I doubt that Veda had anything to do with it, but considering information manipulation is it's specialty, it makes me wonder if Veda had something to do with this "faulty intel". Especially because it was such a gross error. In any case, somebody certainly seems to have done this intentionally to achieve some end since Kati and Sumeragi weren't punished for their FUBAR, but were actually complemented.

[skyknight]

Well, in the flashback scenes, we never saw Kati and Sumeragi in the same room, just an upper-level officer, whose face we can't see, giving each lady a separate explanation. Was the actual intel at fault or did somebody plan it? It depends on who will benefit the most. I also doubt Veda would have do with any of this, as its purpose (supposedly) is fulfill Schenberg's vision.

Given the limited exposure of the AEU during S1, I'm not sure on what principles they operate or function. But from various dialogues, I could say: they sell weapons to all parts of the world without regards on how it would used (terror attacks, PMCs...), they hire mercenaries to do some work (Ali had a position within the AEU), and they are more of a collective organization than a unified body (some members did want to support Azadistan).

I don't know if there was any hidden agenda behind the accident, one could be to kick out Sumeragi from the military, given her background is different from AEU (she is part Asian, right?). But it should be cleared out in the next eps. And I do hope to see a battle of wits between Kati and Sumeragi!

[Trisk]

Back on topic, I think Sumeragi and Kati's relationship is extremely wtf. The whole thing just seemed like a last minute thought, since somehow after an entire season, nothing ever hinted at their relationship until now.

I got that impression as well. My pet theory is that the staff realized the cast members from the AEU were lacking; Kathy is awesome, but Team Patrick is Team Patrick. With just one real character (Kathy), the AEU's forces were receiving the short end of representation, while Union had three important characters (Graham, Billy, and Eifman) and HRL had two (Sergei and Soma, maybe even counting Al). Link Sumeragi to Union, and they have more significant characters coming from their military ranks than everyone else combined, but by making AEU her alma mater, things are a little more balanced.

To be fair, Kathy seems like the type who, when faced with a traumatic event, puts a mental block on it and simply does their best not to brood on the subject, as opposed to Sumeragi, who is constantly haunted by it. (In Sumeragi's defense, Kathy was probably not intimately involved with any of the pilots who became casualties as Sumeragi was with Emilio.) In any case, when Lindt brought the incident up, it gave a reason for Kathy to think about the subject. From there, it's not that hard to hypothesize that she thought about Sumeragi/Kujou and realized that some of CB's strategies were eerily similar to the ones Kujou would pull off.

As for Sumeragi's sudden transition from Union to AEU, remember that in the first season, Louise is an exchange student from AEU-affiliated Spain in Union-affiliated Japan - is it really that hard to see Sumeragi the same way?

[T.V.]

Back on topic, I think Sumeragi and Kati's relationship is extremely wtf. The whole thing just seemed like a last minute thought, since somehow after an entire season, nothing ever hinted at their relationship until now.

I don't think so.
We were misslead by Sumaragi's acquantance of Dr. Aifmann and Billy, leading us to presume she had been part of the Union.

However, thinking back, I don't think Sumeragi being part of the AEU and known by Kathy was tacked on. Quite the contrary infact.
Sumeragi Lee Noriega has a last name of Hispanic origin, and her beloved dead boyfriend also has a spanish surname name (Emilio).
She quite possible has always been intended as being from Spanish (thus) European descent.

I'd say her and Kathy's acquantance has been planned for, from the start.

Other than that, the Union and AEU still seem to have close ties by 00's time. It wouldn't be too uncommon for AEU and Union military personnel to be on exchange visits or have cooperative (training) operations.
She could even have attended university overseas.
After all, if the Union shares military technology (i.e. Realdo, Flag) aiding the AEU's defence programs, they still must share strong economic and political bonds.

[pd771]

Back on topic, I think Sumeragi and Kati's relationship is extremely wtf. The whole thing just seemed like a last minute thought, since somehow after an entire season, nothing ever hinted at their relationship until now.

I don't think so.
We were misslead by Sumaragi's acquantance of Dr. Aifmann and Billy, leading us to presume she had been part of the Union.

At first I assumed the same thing too, but when I remembered back, her connection to Eifman and Billy was college. Eifman was a Prof and Billy was her TA or something. It makes sense if they were close (which was obvious) for them to know about what happened in the incident. She probably just went to school in the Union as a foreign exchange student.

[Dean_the_Young]

I don't think so.
We were misslead by Sumaragi's acquantance of Dr. Aifmann and Billy, leading us to presume she had been part of the Union.

However, thinking back, I don't think Sumeragi being part of the AEU and known by Kathy was tacked on. Quite the contrary infact.
Sumeragi Lee Noriega has a last name of Hispanic origin, and her beloved dead boyfriend also has a spanish surname name (Emilio).
She quite possible has always been intended as being from Spanish (thus) European descent.

You know who else has Spanish names? Most of Latin America and in, oh, say 40 years from now, about a third of the US.

I concur with Areku, that the writing cast realized that the AEU had been largely shorted from relevance due to a lack of characters. There really were no indicators of Sumeragi being from Europe, while there were many implied ties with the Union. (College with Billy, a connection with famed Union scientist Eifman, Graham having heard about the incident, etc.)

While there was no proof saying she couldn't be from Europe, that could easily have been just a result of trying to play mysterious.
t.

Other than that, the Union and AEU still seem to have close ties by 00's time. It wouldn't be too uncommon for AEU and Union military personnel to be on exchange visits or have cooperative (training) operations.
She could even have attended university overseas.
After all, if the Union shares military technology (i.e. Realdo, Flag) aiding the AEU's defence programs, they still must share strong economic and political bonds.

I'd disagree, on a few issue. Somethings have stuck in my head after rewatching S1.

First, there's no real support that the Union and AEU are particularly close. Graham wasn't supposed to be at the demonstration trials in episode one, there's been no suggestion that the Enact was given (as opposed to copied/reverse engineered/stolen) to the AEU, and it's been shown that the AEU lags behind the Union and the Leage.

On the other hand, when the League President first broaches the possibility of an alliance with another power, he mentions the Union and only the Union. Though it turns into the three-power capture mission, the implication that the Union was first and foremost might have some meaning.

[Gundam Genki]

I don't think we should jump to assumptions as to where she came from...

Kujou sounds Japanese enough to me for starters. Remember 'Sumeragi Lee Noriega' is a codename.

On the other hand, Billy and Graham being present at the AEU's demo of the Enact DOES imply more or less close ties... If Union and AEU where 'somewhat hostile' towards each other, they wouldn't be there without being arrested.

I do however doubt that Sumeragi wasn't intended to be AEU from the start. 00 has been one of the most consistent animes I've ever seen. And they thus far only implied that Eifmann (whose name sounds pretty German to me) and Billy knew Sumeragi (or 'Kujou') from college... Perhaps she could've been an exchange student? I don't remember any mention of her in context with the Union military.

We actually still don't know a lot about her. And the series HAS been pretty consistent as far as I know... Let's just see ^_^

[Arsarcana]

Sumeragi Lee Noriega has a last name of Hispanic origin, and her beloved dead boyfriend also has a spanish surname name (Emilio).
She quite possible has always been intended as being from Spanish (thus) European descent.

There's a tiny problem here: Sumeragi is her code name (remember Billy's complete WTF reaction when he heard it?) and thus has absolutely nothing to do with where she might actually be from. Setsuna's not Japanese despite his code name coming from that culture. Apply to the other Meisters as you see fit.

[Chris]

I think people here should refrain from jumping on the cliche of presuming to know what the writers are doing or why they did something. The people who do this are usually going by scant information and are often proven wrong. Case in point: in season 1, because Japan was an economically protected territory of the Union, everyone assumed that Louise was American and was thus surprised to discover she was actually a Spaniard. Let's wait for more information before pronouncing "The writers did this because [insert pet theory with no facts]."

[thehod]

I agree with the possibility of exchange students between the Union and AEU. But I also think the Union and AEU are more so friendly competition rather than between the HRL.