The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread AGE-8

[Compass]

Well, I found MyAnimeList and tried to read those boards about Sword Art Online the other day. What a disaster. At least this one is dignified in its approach of love and hate. We can proceed to wear monocles now. (o_Q)

[Newtype87]

I think my feelings towards AGE at this point could best be described as "disappointed." This show had the potential to be a true epic spanning the generations as it explores what war does to a society as it drags on and on, and one family at the heart of it all, and it kind of does that but it's not very well organized or paced. And it's a real shame, because I don't want to dislike a Gundam show, and I really don't in this case. The things I like are balanced by the stuff I dislike, and the rest is kind of average and not worth talking about. I just find it "meh."

EDIT: Also, the thought that our back and forth here counts as reasonable debate compared to other fan hangouts is sad.

[bullethead]

The discussion for Gundam 00 here was pretty great that I recall even if I was mostly lurking at time, everywhere else though, you'd be amazed just how much people railed against it. The general consensus in my other haunts seems to be that the last good TV series was Turn A Gundam which coincidentally or perhaps not also happens to be the last Gundam TV series to air before the internet really took off and subtitled Gundam episodes became readily available. Hmmm.....

I think that has a lot to do with it, because as more people were exposed to Zeta through the US release, both the show and Tomino's positive reputation have gone down. With newer shows, people are able to share their opinions on episodes as soon as the shows are released through official and fansub channels, so there's no way for a modern show to have a reputation based completely on the positive impressions of fans.

[Chris]

Guys, let's have a little less meta discussion and stick to the show itself.

[Compass]

What exactly was Derek's death supposed to entail? Sadness for the viewer? I didn't expect it, but it's not something I would have found out of the ordinary. A lesson for Kio? Apparently, he didn't care. Another talking point for Abis? He never brought it up with Kio.

In fact, I don't think this episode mentions him dying at all. No one apparently remembers from the crew...

Did I miss something? We're stuck with two pilots left in Abis' group plus Kio. Obright has been randomly cameoing being there, but hasn't done anything of note. The other guy I don't even remember his name.

[angelwingzero]

Well I don't think anyone is arguing that all the Vegan should be executed.

Flit sure is, and from the sounds of things Flit has a lot of supporters.

Yup, from seeing how all of the Vagans seem to be brainwashed into an entire people willing to lay down their lives to kill the enemy, Flit may not be far off the mark. Not saying that genocide is okay or should be the solution, but if a random kid like Deen is willing to jump into a mobile suit then who's off limits? There are few resolutions at this point that will end even remotely happy for the Vagans.

[Amion]

Well, I found MyAnimeList and tried to read those boards about Sword Art Online the other day. What a disaster. At least this one is dignified in its approach of love and hate. We can proceed to wear monocles now. (o_Q)

By jove your right! Why, I think we should brew a spot o' tea and discuss this topic gentlemanly. Kei my good man, would care to join me at Duelgundam's imaginary cafe? I hear if we put a good word in about destiny, he may graciously offer us some coffee free of charge.

On a truly serious note, I wonder why no one has mentioned SEED and Destiny's ghost visitations by Flay and Stella. Neither had special powers and yet were able to come back. Still, it would be for the worst if Yurin materialized to stop Flit from becoming a mass murderer. And I'm praying she won't.

[Outlaw]

Same wave lengths here, Outlaw

Well dang, can't believe I missed your post. Still, great minds and all that.

Yep, it's something I can't help but comment on and notice a lot lately. For me I started noticing it during Gundam 00 when I'd watch an episode and think, "okay surely people will find this enjoyable and I'll go have a nice fun discussion on the usual forums" only to look on in horror as people would through what must have been a good bit of detective work find one incidental flaw or what could possibly be construed as a flaw amidst what I felt were pretty tight episodes and nitpick the ever loving crap out of it for an entire week while ignoring all other positive factors.

There are a million reasons for people to be nitpicky. I think a lot of people just do it to make themselves seem/feel more deep and intellectual. Another is that for some reason negativity seems to be more communicable than optimism. When people are upset or unhappy we often feel the need to vent or share, whereas when we are happy about something we are content to keep it to ourselves and feel no need to go shouting it from the rooftops. Combine that with the ubiquity, accessibility, and anonymity of the internet and well, you can guess the rest.

On a truly serious note, I wonder why no one has mentioned SEED and Destiny's ghost visitations by Flay and Stella. Neither had special powers and yet were able to come back.

Wasn't it stated that it wasn't actually Flay's ghost but more a figment of Kira's imagination or something, or is that another one of those bajillion Gundam rumors?

[DeganUAB]

I've never heard that flay's visitation was an hallucination. It seems almost like a given that if you're a newtype-esque character you'll get some sort of psychic power. In age lord ezelcant said x-rounders are a regression not an evolution. I think they are an evolution and that he only perceives them to be a regression because his desired race is devoid of war. So since x-rounders are really good fighters he doesn't want them in his future.

[Amion]

If your info is true, Outlaw, then thanks. Although I am pretty darn sure it's just another one of those annoying rumors.

[Kei Katsuragi]

Well, technically there is no such thing as an 'evolutionary regression' in the sense that humans just stop adapting and actually go backwards on the tracks. Evolution is merely the process of adapting, and X-Rounders seem to be an evolution in that sense. The way I interpret it now (I initially interpreted it as a pseudo-intellectual comment made by the show ) is that humans are becoming more barbaric and war like. Several powerful X-Rounders we have seen have gone insane like Decil, Zeheart, and Girard. Even Kio, for a brief moment. Being good at fighting in the Advanced Generation after renouncing all military technology to the EXA-DB is kind of a bad thing.

By jove your right! Why, I think we should brew a spot o' tea and discuss this topic gentlemanly. Kei my good man, would care to join me at Duelgundam's imaginary cafe? I hear if we put a good word in about destiny, he may graciously offer us some coffee free of charge.

Well.... I am getting low on chocolate bars, and that guy has a lot of them....

On a truly serious note, I wonder why no one has mentioned SEED and Destiny's ghost visitations by Flay and Stella. Neither had special powers and yet were able to come back. Still, it would be for the worst if Yurin materialized to stop Flit from becoming a mass murderer. And I'm praying she won't.

Spoiler

The problem with Yurin appearing as a ghost and telling Flit not to do something resolves some sort of plot thread/character arc with Flit in the laziest way possible.

What exactly was Derek's death supposed to entail? Sadness for the viewer? I didn't expect it, but it's not something I would have found out of the ordinary. A lesson for Kio? Apparently, he didn't care. Another talking point for Abis? He never brought it up with Kio.

The initial shock of the Digmazenon cannon. The main reason why I think Seric didn't bring it up with Kio is because there is no reason to. From an in-universe perspective, what was he supposed to say? People die? From a meta-universe perspective, I'm absolutely sure the writers knew we as an audience didn't care about Derek, so if characters brought him up, a lot of complainers of the show would be saying how we never knew or cared about this character, and they are wasting our time.

P.S: Kaioshin Sama, please stop writing essays.

[Chris]

On a truly serious note, I wonder why no one has mentioned SEED and Destiny's ghost visitations by Flay and Stella. Neither had special powers and yet were able to come back. Still, it would be for the worst if Yurin materialized to stop Flit from becoming a mass murderer. And I'm praying she won't.

The thing about that is that while Flay's ghost appeared and spoke to Kira, he couldn't see or hear her, so she was just saying the things she wanted to in life but didn't have the chance to. This was confirmed by Fukuda. We could assume that ghosts appear everywhere, but they specifically wanted to have Flay appear and say those things, even if Kira couldn't hear her. I don't recall what the story was with Stella.

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

I say chaps, is there any more room at the cafe?

[Kei Katsuragi]

I just read Chris's review of Episode 47. How the ZOINKS did I not think of the V-Max!? I want the Legilis to have a Burst mode, so we can have V-Max Red. Hell, we kinda had that with their force field duel.

[Compass]

(o_Q) c[_]

The fight scene was fine. I have no issues with how awesome that looked. It just seemed like this episode was built for shock after shock. Deen and Kio making peace, and perhaps convincing both sides to step down, would have been nice. But then ZAP.

Also Zanald getting away with "oh, you were too close" to Zeheart. Really?!

[Amion]

As far as shocks go, how is that in any way different form the finale's of other Gundam shows? Zeta had a killing spree. I'd personally say killing off characters in AGE right now is a positive thing, especially when we were so afraid it would somehow avoid people actually getting killed.

And in a morbid sense of humor the first scene we get is Flit's mom being crushed and burned to death with the Gafrans slaughtering the colony's civilians. Come to think of it, did we ever get an explanation how Flit escaped the Gafran?

On a trivial note, I just read that Vega is associated with an ancient religion, Zoroastrianism, that attributes it with the term conqueror. So in a way, the Vegans named themselves conquerors. I wonder if Ezelcant knew that? This is from wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega

[Chris]

On a trivial note, I just read that Vega is associated with an ancient religion, Zoroastrianism, that attributes it with the term conqueror. So in a way, the Vegans named themselves conquerors. I wonder if Ezelcant knew that? This is from wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega

That's nice, except for the fact that the official subs in the stream use "Vagan."

[toysdream]

The word "Vegan" already has a very common English-language meaning. Could you really keep a straight face if the Earth Sphere spent 49 episodes at war with hardcore vegetarians?

-- Mark

[bullethead]

The word "Vegan" already has a very common English-language meaning. Could you really keep a straight face if the Earth Sphere spent 49 episodes at war with hardcore vegetarians?

-- Mark

No, but it would've made the show a lot more entertaining and coherent.

[Newtype87]

The word "Vegan" already has a very common English-language meaning. Could you really keep a straight face if the Earth Sphere spent 49 episodes at war with hardcore vegetarians?

-- Mark

No, but it would've made the show a lot more entertaining and coherent.

And all the mobile suit names would be vegetable puns. Broklaw, Momo, Malaea, Keleri, Kakarot… and their big secret base would be called "Grand Patch" or something like that.

Admittedly, when I hear Vegan (Vay-gan), I think Contact, so it wouldn't be too silly for me.