The Official Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans Anime Thread Mk III

[SNT1]

And with the next episode's title, it appears we are about to get some rather serious war developments. SNT1 will doubtless like that, and won't be the only one.

I sure hope so, because I didn't expect "Vidar Rising" to be only a 1-minute "buy this HG Gunpla" showcase

-Is this an episode where literally every named character still alive (sans Takaki and sister) had a spoken line? To me, a dubious distinction. I really don't give two shits about "Oh, they're training again!", "Oh, they're tuning things again!", "Oh, they're in the break room again while Atra cooks, again!" Before we got into the actual juicy development (was it Vidar or the Teiwaz scene?) I counted the first 7 or 8 minutes of this show as mostly useless.

+My boy Hush though, he's getting better. Even if he's bootlicking Mika a bit too hard there. Now that's one training scene I'd like to see, in a weird master and apprentice scenario.

+Finally some Teiwaz development. I'd like to see Tekkadan really run into some trouble and see how Naze handles this.

+Vidar's debut was decent, I guess. Notice it has the Graze Ein theme (or similar to it). I feel Ein is still somewhere.

+Julietta needs to die in a spectacularly epic fail way, she reminds me of Hiling Care a tiny bit.

+Chad, I know that feel bro. Did not see that coming.

-McGillis/Almiria. *shudder* That was creepy.

+ McGillis : Agnika = Zaheer : Guru Laghima (for those who watched Legend ok Korra), this guy will end up piloting Bael, IMO. If he's the final big bad then he might even get delusional and proclaim he's the second coming of Agnika. At this point though, I believe him when he says he wants to reform Gjallahorn, and not just some facade for something else.

[Outlaw]

+Chad, I know that feel bro. Did not see that coming.

If I was drinking something at the time I would have done a spit-take.

Spoiler

I thought she would end up with Orga eventually. That came so far out of left field it should be considered a foul.

[BrentD15]

I sure hope so, because I didn't expect "Vidar Rising" to be only a 1-minute "buy this HG Gunpla" showcase

When is it never a "buy this Gunpla" showcase?

[Dark Duel]

Never. Though I do have to admit, having watched it again, that I do kinda wish it'd been just a little longer. Still, it was a minute or so of pure awesomeness, so I'm not gonna complain too much.

It might be mask-to-mask, Duel, if Chocky is disguised as Montag.

Good point. That would make things especially interesting - Have we ever had two masked characters on opposite factions at the exact same time?
I can't remember off the top of my head, but I can't think of any.

-McGillis/Almiria. *shudder* That was creepy.

+ McGillis : Agnika = Zaheer : Guru Laghima (for those who watched Legend ok Korra), this guy will end up piloting Bael, IMO. If he's the final big bad then he might even get delusional and proclaim he's the second coming of Agnika. At this point though, I believe him when he says he wants to reform Gjallahorn, and not just some facade for something else.

- Yes. Yes, it was. It was kind of cute at first, but it very quickly shifted gears to downright extremely creepy.

- Oh. My goodness. That is actually an excellent comparison, given that - this season at least - he's talked about the dude several times, and now here he is reading his biography.
I am really curious to see what comes of this next.

+Chad, I know that feel bro. Did not see that coming.

If I was drinking something at the time I would have done a spit-take.

Spoiler

I thought she would end up with Orga eventually. That came so far out of left field it should be considered a foul.

-I KNOW, RIGHT?

Honestly, I was expecting the same thing as you, so this completely blew my mind. Though

Spoiler

the short bit when they're talking and he starts patting the top of her head at one point was both adorable and hilarious.

Apart from the Gjallarhorn thing, it also looks like they're setting the stage for some potentially interesting internal conflict within Teiwaz as well, what with that one dude with the pimp coat who clearly does not like that Tekkadan is getting as influential as it is...Gonna be interesting to see what comes of that, IMO perhaps moreso than the development of the Gjallarhorn thing.

One last comment, though.
I did find very interesting that the specific naming convention of the Gundam Frames - that they all have the names of Demons - was referenced in dialog in this episode(By Merribit, of course).
AFAIK, that is the first time in the series so far that it is specifically mentioned.

[SNT1]

I sure hope so, because I didn't expect "Vidar Rising" to be only a 1-minute "buy this HG Gunpla" showcase

When is it never a "buy this Gunpla" showcase?

The problem is I actually wanted much more "buy this Gunpla" showcase than useless daily lives exposition. Atra cooking things don't sell me Gunpla.

[Amion]

I think this episode's cooking scene wasn't too bad. It gave me a bit of dialogue with Kudelia that indicates she might in fact be on board with Orga's plan to take control of Mars, and also shows Mika is getting embarrassed by Hush's growing reverence to him.

That said, a couple scenes were worthless, such as with the two new mechanic characters who really haven't grown much. the big guy has shown to be rather friendly, but other than that their tiny moments aren't really growing them on a larger scale. Give an episode of focus to show why we should root for them, as with Hush. Preferably old-school style where there is plenty of action.

And yes, more gunpla showcasing, please. The thing is, would SNT1 be complaining as much if these short fights were in all the dialogue heavy episodes instead of one more dinner scene? That way, there'd still be action even in episodes that lack full-scale battles.

As said before, let's hope next episode is chock full of it, and features Vidar actually participating in the excavation site battle, assuming there's a fight there. It looks like we're about to have a tussle over the mobile armor. Of course, with Tekkadan having possession of the smaller mobile armor pod thing, I think we can conclude the Elmeth-Quebeley lovechild will go to them as well, once it's out of the ground.

[Loop_Stratos]

So episode 3 depicts Iok as being a good shot and now he has an aiming skill directly proportionate to Sekai's?

[domino]

I'm starting to think we're about to see an interesting dynamic play out between Mika/Hush and Galileo/Ein

First I have the hunch that Galileo's mask is an interface for Ein to take over Vidar and even control Galileo's body - hence recreating the AJ interface without requiring Galileo to give up his body or get the surgery as an adult. That may explain why it took so long for Vidar to get up and running as well as why Vidar said "He forgot" immediately after battle. It is possible that was Ein speaking and not Galileo

With that in mind, it's possible that Galileo/Ein will target Hush when they see the growing comaraderie between him and Mika - forcing Mika to feel the pain/loss of a subordinate much like how Galileo felt when Ein sacrificed himself for him and what Ein felt when Mika killed his commanding officer.

This may FINALLY be an opportunity for Mika to progress as a character besides a more-efficient Heero Yuy/"kill-em-all maniac"

[Kuruni]

I'm pretty sure by "he forgot" it's simply answer to Julietta's observation that it doesn't look like he's fighting for revenge at all. In that battle, he's too overjoy to be with his old buddy again and indeed forgot the grudge.

[SNT1]

First I have the hunch that Galileo's mask is an interface for Ein to take over Vidar and even control Galileo's body - hence recreating the AJ interface without requiring Galileo to give up his body or get the surgery as an adult. That may explain why it took so long for Vidar to get up and running as well as why Vidar said "He forgot" immediately after battle. It is possible that was Ein speaking and not Galileo

Well you'll be proven correct if the Vidar actually has Ein... or whatever's left of him anyways, and if the MS gets into some sort of bloodlusted frenzy when it sees Barbatos again.

What I'm seeing so far though is a brewing, inevitable clash between Gaelio and McGillis. It's a far more personal grudge than Ein's on Mika (or Gaelio on Mika, for that matter). Which by the way, I hope Ein stays completely dead.

[domino]

Doubtful that Ein is indeed dead but it is possible that only his AI remains while his physical body is gone. Clearly he still exists in some form or fashion given that Galileo referred to him "as very close to him right now"

I agree that I'm mostly looking forward to the showdown between Galileo and MacGillis but I'm also expecting an epic Vidar/Ein vs Barbatos/Mikasa rematch! Whichever one ends up being the finale will be interesting

[Chris]

Doubtful that Ein is indeed dead but it is possible that only his AI remains while his physical body is gone. Clearly he still exists in some form or fashion given that Galileo referred to him "as very close to him right now"

I agree that I'm mostly looking forward to the showdown between Galileo and MacGillis but I'm also expecting an epic Vidar/Ein vs Barbatos/Mikasa rematch! Whichever one ends up being the finale will be interesting

I don't think there's anything "clearly" about it. People speak in metaphors sometimes, and I think you're overthinking things and making unsupported leaps.

[domino]

Unsupported leaps? Wouldn't you say that convo where he refers to Ein is a very unusual plot point if they ultimately do not reveal some connection between Ein, Vidar and Galileo?

I'm not arguing that I'm right though. We'll see but just like the signs that "Mask" is Galileo there are also signs that Ein still exists in some form or fashion

[Kuruni]

We'll see but just like the signs that "Mask" is Galileo there are also signs that Ein still exists in some form or fashion

Clever, very clever choice of words. So even if he's truly gone, you can still claim you're right since "exist in memory" is still a form or fashion.

[Chris]

Unsupported leaps? Wouldn't you say that convo where he refers to Ein is a very unusual plot point if they ultimately do not reveal some connection between Ein, Vidar and Galileo?

I'm not arguing that I'm right though. We'll see but just like the signs that "Mask" is Galileo there are also signs that Ein still exists in some form or fashion

How is it a plot point? Gundam's masked men often speak in ridddles to create the air of mystery. Gaelio saying that Ein is close to him now is far more likely just referring to that he's dead, rather than this convoluted theory you've proposed. I think you're misinterpreting his dialogue to stretch it to fit your theory rather than just taking it at face value.

[Dark Duel]

Personally, at this point, I'd say we don't yet know enough about what we're dealing with here to make any kind of intelligent judgement one way or another. I mean, all we have to go on is one cryptic line from Montero-head in which he may have been speaking metaphorically(which is far more likely IMO), so I for my part am not going to speculate until there is some kind of clearer indication as to whether it's just Gaelio in a mask or if there is more going on.

As for why Vidar was in maintenance for so long, there could very well be a simple mechanical reason for that.
It was mentioned somewhere IIRC - I forget where exactly - that part of the reason why relatively few Gundam Frames were produced was the difficulty in getting two Ahab Reactors to run in parallel effectively. Vidar has THREE Ahab Reactors, so it's a safe bet that getting all three reactors to operate in synch was even more difficult.

[Amion]

I would argue that Vidar's dialogue to Julietta was questionable at at least one point in the recent episode, so we have more than just one line of Montero-head saying something peculiar that has no immediate easy interpretation.

[Kyuzo Aoi]

One other thing, in the episode where Vidar fights off Oceanian Federation rebels, the colony sports an Oceanian Federation flag. I can't determine how the flag's design looked like, but it was red.

[X_zoro]

Doubtful that Ein is indeed dead but it is possible that only his AI remains while his physical body is gone. Clearly he still exists in some form or fashion given that Galileo referred to him "as very close to him right now"

I agree that I'm mostly looking forward to the showdown between Galileo and MacGillis but I'm also expecting an epic Vidar/Ein vs Barbatos/Mikasa rematch! Whichever one ends up being the finale will be interesting

I don't think there's anything "clearly" about it. People speak in metaphors sometimes, and I think you're overthinking things and making unsupported leaps.

Gonna agree with you on this Chris masked man in Gundam have always been talking in riddles and heck even if he is alive ( which I also doubt ) he wouldn't even have a body

[Amion]

Rewatched episode 34. The subs are different this time around, and it appears that yes, I was slightly mistaken about his wording. However... the manual for the Vidar on the mecha thread indicates there IS something very super highly secret about the Vidar Gundam's control scheme... now that is suspicious no matter how it's sliced.