MythSearcher wrote: ↑Sun Jan 29, 2023 6:10 am
If you put it that way, MSG is made to be a one off series.
It was.
Sunrise had no plans for any kind of continuation of the story when it was developed or at any point during its production. Indeed, the viewership numbers in the initial broadcast run were bad enough that they were quite worried they'd be facing cancellation before they ever got to finish it. It was only after it took off in reruns and the subsequent compilation movies that Sunrise ever entertained plans to develop a continuation.
MythSearcher wrote: ↑Sun Jan 29, 2023 6:10 am
heck, Zeta is also so, they only decided to do ZZ in the middle of Zeta.
... what?
Zeta was developed
as a sequel. At no point was it a stand-alone story. From the initial concepts to the finished story, it was built on the events and setting of the previous work to continue and expand upon its story.
MythSearcher wrote: ↑Sun Jan 29, 2023 6:10 am
V is also pretty much one off other than being the distance future sequel to UC.
True, but because it was developed as a far future sequel in continuity with the other UC works it is by definition not stand-alone.
MythSearcher wrote: ↑Sun Jan 29, 2023 6:10 am
What you are saying is only looking in hindsight for the UC series, but not the others, and call them one off at the moment of creation but still look at UC series as not being one off even when they are basically not made to have sequels in mind.
There is a key distinction here that you're missing.
While the original
Mobile Suit Gundam was developed as a stand-alone series, the subsequent works developed in the Universal Century setting are fundamentally not so because they are sequels, prequels, and side stories which share that same setting and its history. They're in continuity with each other and their contributions to that shared setting and its history affect each other. After decades of new material building upon that shared universe, the sheer quantity of material and the increasing density of references to previous works in that continuity can be rather daunting for people who are new to
Gundam as a property.
Sunrise's solution for introducing new viewers to
Gundam without having to grapple with the problem of continuity lock-out caused by decades of past material is the AU stories. They use the signature
Gundam formula and the same iconic tropes, but often with a new twist and in a new setting and history which is unconnected to any previous
Gundam work. In this way, they can present an original
Gundam story to the new and casual viewers without any of the narrative baggage that comes with continuity to other works. A story that can be enjoyed and fully understood on its own as a single piece. They're not intended to get sequels and become timelines like the UC because that would largely defeat the purpose of developing them as separate and self-contained stories for easy consumption by people who are seeing
Gundam for the first time.
SEED was not intended to have a sequel. It ended up with one, but only because its viewership numbers and merchandising performance were unexpectedly over 50% higher than anyone expected and were not just an all-time high for AU series but the best
Gundam as a whole had done since
Zeta and
ZZ. Had
SEED Destiny been able to keep that momentum up, CE could have unintentionally ended up a separate ongoing timeline like the UC.