The Official Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans Mecha Thread Mk II

[Dark Duel]

Whether Gaelio has any cybernetic parts or not, it's too soon to tell - a distinct possibility, though. As for Gaelio being Montero-head, I think we ALL knew that more or less from the moment he showed up, so him being the pilot of the Vidar was pretty obvious. And recent information stating that Vidar - as I(and others) have suspected from the beginning - is in fact built from the remains of Gaelio's Gundam Kimaris simply serves to confirm that.

As for the others, we know that Rustal Elion knows something about the Gundam Bael, so it's possible that the Elion family may possess that machine much like the Bauduin family had Kimaris.
The Helmwige Linker is another possibility, assuming that McGillis eventually ditches or loses his current Graze Ritter and returns to piloting the Grimgerde. I kinda hope not - be nice to see a main character continue kicking ass in, basically, a grunt all the way to the end.
But we will see.

Speaking of the Helmwige Linker though, that sword is pretty massive. I mean, I look at it, and the first thing it brings to mind is the Thrudgelmir's Zankantō.

[nacho-wan]

I got the feeling that Bael is an upgraded Barbatos - or at least a Freedom unit if the Barbatos is the Strike. It surely looks too modern compared to the rest of the "ancient" Gundam units.

As for the Linker, I dig it's design. I kind of hope we got to see a couple more of Valkyries before the show is over

[yazi88]

Performance wise they should be about the same because all the Gundams have the same frame... its the outer armor and hand weapons that make the Gundams different aside from the pilot's skills. Although we don't know if the Bael has been upgraded since the war, if anything someone from the 7 stars, McGillis may likely will pilot the Bael. The Barbatos has gotten a massive overall and also upgraded with modern parts by Teiwaz given how worn out and battle damaged it was along with the Flauros.

[SonicSP]

I got the feeling that Bael is an upgraded Barbatos - or at least a Freedom unit if the Barbatos is the Strike. It surely looks too modern compared to the rest of the "ancient" Gundam units.

Personally I think it's unlikely Bael is an upgraded Barbatos. Bael is the no 1 demon in Ars Goetia which would make it ASW-G-01 of the Gundam Frame series IE a different Gundam Frame unit than the ASW-G-08.

And it's hard to tell what upgrades are on what unit. Both the Gusion and Gusion Rebake are modern redesigns as opposed to the original Calamity War Gusion (although Full City restored the original unit design to some extent, it was said). As mentioned, it's possible that Bael may have had upgrades over the years or even after Tekkadan incident as chaos starts heating up in geopolitics.

It wouldn't surprise me if it turns it the upgrades are much more recent. Gaelio was KIA inside the Kimaris, so it wouldn't surprise me if there was some upgrades done to the other family's Gundams too out of shock of the incident.

[False Prophet]

Two things, weight and force.

Keep in mind that simply being melee doesn't automatically bypass nanolaminate's damage reduction. It's mentioned in Grimgerde's profile that shifting in its center of gravity can be result in its blade (made from special material nonetheless) simply doesn't has enough force to penetrate the armor. On the other hand, we saw that the smoothbore cannon work if shoot upclose. It's all about blunt force.

So it's likely that lightweight polearm simply can't deliver enough force to punch through the armor while heavier polearm can be unwieldy. Sure, someone like McGillis and Mika are likely can stab through the gap between armors with a spear, but I doubt that it's more practical for Faceless Soldier A than an axe.

What about the Gilda's sickle? It looks small, while the sickle-shape itself is nearly imposible to penetrate the armour by any manner (its weight is insufficent for a strong slash, and the stab is impossible.)

[Kuruni]

IIRC, Gilda fail to take down even a single Landman Rodi with that sickle. You know, maybe it's indeed just a very poorly design weapon. It happened IRL afterall.

[yazi88]

Its the timing, speed, and angle of the swing that can determine the killing blow with melee weapons, especially on more armored units like the Landman Rodi.

Most of the mobile suit takedowns we've seen in this show are about disabling suits or damaging them enough rather than destroying them and killing the pilot... Mika seems to have the most kills rather than takedowns, but he did disable quite a number of units during the space battle with Dawn Horizon.

In season 1, Mika had a hard time using the Katana Blade for the Barbatos, it also had to be upgraded after seeing Mika's combat data input. It was better for stabbing than slashing, and even then all the melee weapons are meant for blunt force and the occasional stabbing rather than the slashing type that we are quite used to in Gundam because of beam sabers.

[Dark Duel]

The main thing I'm personally wondering right now is what the deal is with that white Shiden variant that showed up - is that gonna be Orga's machine, or who's gonna pilot the thing?
Also, personally, I saw that and my reaction to its appearance, especially its head design, was "What's the RX-0 doing here?"

Though to be perfectly honest, I am also curious about the mobile armors - both the Worker-size one and the gigantic one that is apparently still at the Half-metal mine on Mars. What's gonna happen with those.
I am at least vaguely curious as to who the respective pilots of Bael and Helmwige Linker are gonna end up being. My theory is that one of those two is gonna end up being Rustal Elion's personal machine when he eventually takes to the battlefield personally. I do kinda wonder what their colors are gonna look like as well, but mainly the pilot thing is what I'm wondering.

As for Vidar, I like what I've seen so far. The pistols being stored underneath the front of the waist is unusual but effective, and its rapier setup actually works pretty well.
One thing that bugs me though is that the reloading setup it's got for its rapier - as I commented in the anime thread - IMO would work exceedingly well with a Shot Lancer - allowing the pilot to easily reload the Lance after it's been fired, giving it greater effectiveness than a single-shot Lancer like the ones in F91/CV.
I also think a Shot Lancer-type weapon would've fit even better, given what we know of Vidar and its pilot, than a rapier - though I suppose that would've made it maybe just a tad too obvious, which I guess is why they went with a rapier rather than a lance. Still, the Shot Lancer all too rarely gets any love IMO, so that would've been nice.

[YokozunaBulldozer]

The Vidar is AWESOME.
Really nice debut in my opinion.
The gimmick/mechanism for his rapier is quite interesting.
I think that is what I like about the tech in this show, they give non-beam weapons moments to shine.
The Vidar's rapier could have been a super-charged-special-beamsaber-thingy in typical Gundam fashion but no, they opted out for something else.

[Dark Duel]

Yes, I do very much appreciate the total absence of beam weapons in this series, as it gives a chance for kinetic/shell-firing/physical blades to shine.
I am a little surprised that we haven't yet seen any heat weapons a la the Dom's Heat Saber or the Zaku's Heat Hawk, but that doesn't really bother me all that much.
Still, it's something that might be effective against Nanolaminate armor, so I dunno.

I just hope we don't see that change at any time soon - I don't want to see beam weapons in this one

[yazi88]

Yeah, I'm quite surprised there aren't heat weapons, but then again, most weapons are blunt force or pierce, few slashing... Heat weapons in other Gundam shows are made for slicing hence the heat factor.

[AmuroNT1]

I'm pretty sure the Uni-Shiden is Orga's, based off the dialog where Shino refers to it as "the King's throne".

[YokozunaBulldozer]

Yeah, I'm quite surprised there aren't heat weapons, but then again, most weapons are blunt force or pierce, few slashing... Heat weapons in other Gundam shows are made for slicing hence the heat factor.

Though I would not mind heat weapons making a comeback.

I'm pretty sure the Uni-Shiden is Orga's, based off the dialog where Shino refers to it as "the King's throne".

I always wondered what a suit piloted by Orga would be like. I guess the way it fights will be pretty standard?
Standard as in using a rifle and shield that is.
I know Orga can get fearless as well but he does not seem to be the bash the enemy with a gigantic tool type of guy.

[Kuruni]

Or electric, like Gouf's heat rod.

Well, I remember it's mention that napalm would work fine against nanolaminate armor. We're yet to actually see it.

...Am I weird to wish for a heat palm? One that's burning red ...

[SonicSP]

Yeah, I'm quite surprised there aren't heat weapons, but then again, most weapons are blunt force or pierce, few slashing... Heat weapons in other Gundam shows are made for slicing hence the heat factor.

It still a bit surprising to me because of the Nanolaminate Armor's supposed weakness to extreme heat, then again maybe nobody could make one that would be effective without melting the weapon itself - like how 00 Gundam Sword's GN Katars were.

Or electric, like Gouf's heat rod.

Well, I remember it's mention that napalm would work fine against nanolaminate armor. We're yet to actually see it.

...Am I weird to wish for a heat palm? One that's burning red ...

Biscuit mentioned that napalm will melt it repeated continuos hits, referencing the Turbinzes bombardment of them during that battle.

Other weapons also slowly damage the armor, though Biscuit's line implies that napalm would do more damage compared to normal projectiles. How much more effective though, is not elaborated upon. Of course, unlike normal cannons, the nepalm missiles the Turbinzes apparently can be shot down. Some bazookas in the show are also equipped with napalm rounds.

Their usage pattern and the sort of ambiguity in Biscuit's original line sort of implies increased effectiveness but not a panacea to it.

[SonicSP]

*delete*

[Amion]

I thought I distinctly saw the vidar's leg slashy things to be superheated in its commercial battle. Was I mistaken?

[Dark Duel]

Well, there's nothing in the episode itself as far as I could see that would seem to imply that Vidar's stabby-feet are anything other than ridiculously sharp. Of course, its combat time in that episode is only like, a minute, so maybe it's too soon to say for certain.

[yazi88]

Hmm.... on the side of the box for the HG Vidar Gundam.... it shows the Flauros and its color scheme... guess who the pilot is considering the color scheme... It was hinted at when it was found....

[Dark Duel]

Considering it doesn't only show the color scheme, but a specific nickname for the Flauros as well, I think all that does is confirm what we all knew was going to happen pretty much from the moment they found the thing.

Disclaimer: Not my pic - it was posted in Flauros's talk page on Gundam Wiki.