{"id":1038,"date":"2008-02-10T15:43:02","date_gmt":"2008-02-10T07:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/2008\/02\/10\/gundam-00-episode-18\/"},"modified":"2008-02-11T19:33:38","modified_gmt":"2008-02-11T11:33:38","slug":"gundam-00-episode-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/2008\/02\/10\/gundam-00-episode-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Gundam 00 — Episode 18"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post was delayed because I was at three separate Chinese New Year-related social functions over the 24-hour span of period between 8am Saturday and 8am Sunday. I only reached home this morning. But fret not, for this sudden spontaneous generation of what is common known as a “life” is an extremely rare occurrence that will probably not happen again for quite some time.<\/p>\n

\"Gundam<\/p>\n

Anyway this episode was pretty good except for the fact that my brain was functioning like a half-dead zombie’s as I watched it. Or perhaps that was the reason. Either way, it’s a nice evasion from what had seemed like an inevitable descend into Destiny-ville.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Summary<\/h3>\n

The Trinity trio begins its campaign of merciless annihilation as it wipes out one military base after another without provocation. The Ptolemaios crew, along with almost everyone else, is confused as to whether these violent interventions are supposed to be part of the original plan.<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\nTax payers’ money<\/p>\n

Apparently the creator(s), Aeolia Schenberg or whoever he turns out to be, of this gigantic secret organization didn’t think it through very well when he\/they divided the organization into so many secret cells operating independently of one another, without providing any means for them to confirm each others’ identities.<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\nWhy must technical briefings always be done in the dark?<\/p>\n

Ian, Celestial Being’s chief technician, discovers that the solar furnaces used by the Thrones are actually knock-offs. They lack some kind of implementation which results in them having limited operating time, unlike Exia and the rest which can operate indefinitely. This is pretty damning evidence that the Trinity siblings are evil and their Gundams are probably based on technology stolen from Celestial Being by a spy within the organization.<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\n“Farewell Howard. We barely knew you. For real.”<\/p>\n

With the lost of Howard Mason, a previously insignificant character, Senior Captain Graham has gained a renewed determination to beat the Gundams with his Flag and avenge his fallen comrade. Howard should be glad that he is achieving far greater good in his death.<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\nThese meetings always take place in bars<\/p>\n

Kinue meets up with the Union soldier who claims to have seen a Gundam up close during the Taklamakan exercise. Apparently he was hidding behind some rocks when Nena exited her cockpit in enemy territory so as to give evil Haro instructions at a volume loud enough for everyone in a 100-metre radius around her to eavesdrop.<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\nIt’s good practice to stretch regularly if your job involves sitting in front of a monitor all day<\/p>\n

The convenient plot hole aside, we learn from this conversation, and a later one, that the Trinity siblings report to an entity called “Ragna”<\/strong>, which sounds like a pirated copy of Veda. (Without Windows Genuine Advantage\u00e2\u201e\u00a2) But it could really just be some grumpy old man with a mustache. There’s not enough information to make the call either way.<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\nWeddings are…<\/p>\n

On the way to one of their AEU targets, the trio passes through Spanish airspace and happens to fly over a wedding ceremony attended by the Halevy extended family, which includes Louise. Nena, being a psychotic bitch, is unhappy that some people get to have fun while she has to work her tight ass off (massacring people), so she decides to have some fun (massacring people) and fire on the ceremony. Twice.<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\n…dangerous<\/p>\n

This wipes out the whole Halevy lineage, except for Louise. Just think of all that inheritance…<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\nMy preciousssss<\/em><\/p>\n

Okay, so I shouldn’t be mean. Louise is completely traumatized by the incident and she also lost her left hand, leaving her unable to accept the ring which Saji spent weeks saving up for.<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\nGuro<\/p>\n

Emo emo emo. I am somewhat reminded of Code Geass<\/strong>, in a good way.<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\nAim for the cockpit dammit!<\/p>\n

Finally, Johann Trinity launches an attack against the Iris Corporation’s weapon factory, which is manned by civilians, and gets pwned by Graham in a one-on-one fight over Iowa airspace. Graham is smart because he steals Johann’s GN beam saber and uses it against the Gundam Throne. But he only manages to cut off an arm.<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\n“Exia, exterminating targets.”<\/p>\n

And uh, Setsuna decides to take on the Thrones. I’m guessing he’s going to get pwned, so that Exia can get upgraded into Ultra Hyper Exia Excellion Infinity, maybe?<\/p>\n

Comments<\/h3>\n

All in all, it’s an enjoyable episode with nice pacing. It is heavily plot-based, which is a good thing because G00 is really weak when it comes to character substance.<\/p>\n

Anyway, Louise lost part of her arm. Gundam Throne lost one of its arms. Am I the only one who thinks that something may come out of this coincidence? (Gundam Louise!)<\/p>\n

Okay, that’s probably going too far. (I hope.) But seriously, I can just imagine Louise being abducted by some top secret joint Union-AEU-HRL black project to manufacture cyborg pilots for whatever super weapon they plan to build to counter the Gundams. Maybe some really, really huge mobile armour that shoots missiles from its fingertips and add some giant lasers for good measure. And name it something that invokes a sense of doom and destruction, like “Break”, “Kill”, “Annihilate”, or even “Destroy”. Yeah.<\/p>\n

Also, it seems that the parent organization of Celestial Being is being set up by the story for a split-up into two factions, and the worst part: Wang Liu Mei sounds like she’s tempted to join the dark side! Oh no! :O<\/p>\n

Screencaps<\/h3>\n

\"Gundam
\n“Noooooooooo…”<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\nMy, what a huge head you have<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\nColin Powell’s descendant?<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\nTieria gets cock-blocked by Veda<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\n“Maybe those mass murderers aren’t so bad after all…”<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\n“Why did I volunteer to pilot the cannon fodder unit?”<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\nThe purple orb at the front looks like evil Haro<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\nRIP<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\nWTF? Wait… Wait… WTF!?<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\nGraham lost a few internal organs from the acceleration<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\nThis is not the “Vader” you are looking for. *Waves hands*<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\nIsn’t that bulge on the bed a little too big?<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\nEMO<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\nomg no guro pls kthxbye<\/p>\n

\"Gundam
\n“That ring was frigging expensive.”<\/p>\n

I like to play Mahjong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post was delayed because I was at three separate Chinese New Year-related social functions over the 24-hour span of period between 8am Saturday and 8am Sunday. I only reached home this morning. But fret not, for this sudden spontaneous … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[720,641,572],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}