Ryujin wrote: ↑Thu Dec 29, 2022 2:24 am
It was nice to be somewhere warm enough for just a T-shirt over the past week or so.
In any case, an assortment of thoughts, opinions & observations about the previous two episodes & then some.
About Suletta:
I've come to realize something integral to Suletta: her sense of self-worth is
tied directly to how she thinks she can be a benefit to others. It's something that's intertwined with her personality, something that's been constantly drilled into her from the time she arrived at Mercury, where her family’s acceptance into the local community was, to her, predicated on winning them over by her usefulness as a MS pilot. When we see her doing all sorts of menial tasks--delivering fertilizer, doing errands, she was doing this voluntarily & unhesitatingly, even cheerfully. I doubt that it was Miorine tasking her to serve drinks to Shaddiq & Sabina, it was most likely done on her own volition. It would totally be in character if ‘work at a maid café for the high school festival’ was on her bucket list.
It can be argued that Miorine was taking advantage of this proclivity, but she was ready & willing in any case. Afterwards, Miorine probably had good intentions with regards to getting caretakers for the greenhouse & Elan as a test pilot in order to lighten Suletta's workload, but to Suletta, it was a criticism, that her efforts were subpar, she's not worthy of her duties--which leads to her going overdrive with swabbing the deck, rushing to handle livestock, etc. It's wide open to interpretation of course, but that note of exasperation from Miorine at the livestock bay may as well be her saying, "What the heck, this is beneath you, why does my groom insist on doing this?!?"
It's been noted that, intentional or not, she displays clear signs of Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria in the latest episode--Suletta's basically bullying herself and it's kind of symbolic that she's doing her misery spiral in a toilet stall. In the following confrontation, Miorine realizes what's happening quickly enough & does the right thing afterwards--in hindsight, she's also shown a propensity for reading people, albeit far from Prospera's level--and in the process drops the cantankerous facade that she constantly hides behind to express her own honest feelings. I might expound on that in a later thread, along with other observations about her character development but, suffice to say, her words were explicitly a variation of “Make me miso soup every day.” which elicited quite the reaction from JP viewers.
Parallels between Parent & Progeny:
'The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.' I'm sure that many of you have already noted it, but I may as well put it to writing.
Miorine & Delling can both be described as being pushy and overbearing, with a willingness take bold, decisive action (often impulsively in Mio's case) and damn the consequences. Furthermore, they keep their true emotions hidden behind either a cold or a cantankerous façade. Most of the time though, this can only be discerned through nuances & unassuming visual cues that are easily missed, ignored or discounted. However, both also share a sense of responsibility for said consequences, as can be seen by Miorine hijacking Aerial at the very start and the twisted roundabout way that Delling 'handles' Miorine. Unfortunately, this treatment appears to have warped Miorine a ways, such that she ends up treating every relationship, every exchange, as a transactional one. That is, until Suletta bumbles along with a genuine concern for her well-being & an earnest, selfless slap to somebody's butt.
Both Guel & Vim can be described as being straightforward, impulsive, with an absence of subtlety. The difference though is that Guel’s actions have an earnest quality to them; he is guided by his personal moral compass, while Vim is driven more by ambition & malice, petty or otherwise (and he knows it--no excuses or justifications are needed). We also see flashes of it in Lauda’s temperament, but he generally keeps it hidden under a cool exterior. Perhaps the influence of his mother, the presumed mistress? The fact that his Dilanza is armed with a giant axe, along with being highly ranked by the bookies, speaks volumes.
Segueing a bit, at one point I didn’t really know what to make of Guel’s DV actions towards Miorine in the first episode, since it felt at odds with his evident distaste towards Shaddiq for the treatment of women as betting chattel & his subsequent white-knighting of Suletta. I'm speculating that, asides from Miorine’s continued refusal to accept her situation, the pressure of maintaining his Holder position and living up to his father’s expectation must have been getting to him as well; note how little a provocation it took to spark a duel with Parker Eastcott, who subsequently serves as a convenient avenue for his underlying frustrations. He may have also been feeling emasculated at insinuations that he couldn’t ‘keep a leash on his woman,’ so to speak, not to mention a certain fragility to his self-worth that Secelia effortlessly pounces on. Further on, the need to reconcile his ideals & his love for his father would’ve been eating at him as well, leading eventually to his ultimate decision (taking one step...to the side? lol).
As an aside, Miorine’s constant attempts must’ve given him a nice series of lessons on what NOT to do, and everyone expecting him to leave Asticassia would’ve given him a good head start however he planned & executed it. Should’ve dyed that forelock black, though.
Sarius & Shaddiq are both decidedly cautions & calculating, favoring the use of a third party for their schemes. It can be seen with how Sarius wove Peil & Jeturk into his own plans while keeping himself at a safe distance from possible fallout and, in the process, having to exert virtually zero effort & resources to boot! He may have overextended his hand by bringing his complaint directly to Cathedra, but then again, his opposition to the GUND format appears to be a matter of public record & well within expected behaviour. This caution is reflected in Shaddiq’s fighting style, with how Sabina’s squad did most of the heavy lifting. Even ChuChu’s takedown involved misdirection with the Beam Bracer. It also figured prominently in Shaddiq’s relationship with Miorine with how he saw Guel, again a third party, as basically keeping her safely in reserve for him, but that ultimately led to green tomato on his face. Too little, too late, as is said.
Incidentally, all three had lost their mothers at an early age, and the lack of guidance & tempering from a maternal figure at an early age has clearly had a negative effect on their emotional growth. An oblique Tomino-ism?
Regarding the DoF Desultors,
a long-running Pet peeve of mine is that Gundam, nay, a majority of shows from Japan involving mecha, persists in using the outdated Vic formation, instead of Finger-Four. I presume it’s good for story-driven character dynamics & makes for easier choreography, but it’s frankly a tactically inefficient relic from Imperial Britain & Japan.
On the matter of the Space Assembly League
Miorine didn’t seem to be distressed about Feng Jun's affiliation, which suggests it’s some sort of legal organization, a neutral third party whose members just happen to dabble in the occasional 'victimless' crime. Call it a hunch based on zero evidence but, while not illegal, might it be a group that’s looked down upon by the big corporate groups? Perhaps something akin to a space truckers’ union, an organization that offers a modicum of agency to the blue-collar crowd? For an organization interested in quickly raising its own armed forces to a state of minimum credible defense, I can see the appeal of mobile suits equipped with the GUND format as it would seem to offer a shallower learning curve and shorter training time to achieve a working level of proficiency. A means to quickly obtain & raise viable combat pilots to a standard that’s sufficiently competitive with those of longer-established forces.
On the other hand, it may well be a collection comprised of what modern gamers would refer to as 'indies,' a coalition of small- and medium-scale industries loosely allied together as a measure against the massive AAA groups. Again, similar reasons to obtain Gundam-types.
Incidentally, Feng Jun’s the only character of note with a distinctly oriental name. Well, maybe Norea, her surname suggests a Vietnamese lineage. There’s a noticeable lack of Japanese surnames. Maybe Japan’s economic situation & declining growth rates finally caught up with it (throws shade at Kyoukai Senki). I don't remember anyone or anything referring to Earth specifically as a 'hellhole,' but abandoned infrastructure overgrown with weeds, colorful as they may be, may as well be visual shorthand for 'economic disaster zone.' Too many people fixated on equating 'hellhole' as 'apocalyptic nuclear wasteland' all thanks to pop media, methinks. Even then, places like the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone today serve as a counterpoint to this.
Edit: Completely forgot that Nika has a kanji name.
There have been comparisons elsewhere between Sophie Pulone & Nena Trinity,
but I find it superficial at best. Nena was literally a child running around with a big gun & virtually no adult supervision, but Sophie strikes me more as the stereotypical edgy teenager with a father figure who’s lenient enough to permit her a flashy act or two (besides, it helps with the intimidation—dominating the fittest, most aggressive hostage is pretty much a textbook play)--Bob was never in danger of being shot just for shooting his mouth off—but asides from that, I doubt she’ll endanger missions by disobeying orders. No crossing the line, insomuch as how Naji defines it, anyways. Her subsequent antics also have the feel of a long-running schtick with Norea.
Speaking of which, I’m thinking that Naji may have taken a shining to ‘Bob’ in the course of that exchange, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up on Earth way before everyone else. You blue-collar guys don’t really have it much better than us Earthians, right? Gotta show a bit of solidarity here, them corpos profiting from the fruits of our labor & all that. Also gotta put that Guel Camp experience to good use, yo.
It's certainly not for everyone & can be frustrating to some, but I personally find the murkiness of the plot
just fine--it invites audience involvement, investment & speculation, offering a measure of unpredictability while maintaining some veneer of plausibility & rational story structure (Y NO CATHEDRA WITH GUNS A-BLAZIN', the masses cry. Now they know why). I'm seeing this as the midpoint of the series, the 2nd Act of a traditional 3-Act structure--everything's still in the process of coming together as the co-MCs encounter obstacles whose primary purpose is to drive forward their character development. It remains to be seen if the 2nd cour will be the 3rd Act all the way, but I feel that Kobayashi & Okouchi, (and apparently an enthusiastic staff) will deliver
and that the overall sales numbers & positive reception will hopefully persuade Sunrise to loosen the budget purse strings some more.
