Mobile Suit Gundam AGE – 40

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So begins the “Three Destinies” Arc and with it, the home stretch for Gundam AGE.

OP4: “AURORA” by Aoi Eir

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I just want to reiterate how depressing the situation is for Kio, and the humanoids of the solar system.  The poles of influence in his world:

  • A genocidal, hate-driven old ghoul perfectly willing to sacrifice his 13 year-old grandson to achieve his dream of wiping out an entire race.
  • The worst father ever, who’s decided that a stalemate with perfectly balanced enemies is the way to limit bloodshed.  Hey Asemu, ever heard of World War I?  How’d that work out for you?  And you’re perfectly OK walking away and leaving your son in the hands of your genocidal father?
  • A dying eugenicist trying to create a master race, who’s convinced you’re the reincarnation of his dead son.

[sage]_Mobile_Suit_Gundam_AGE_-_40_[720p][10bit][1267A1CF].mkv_snapshot_00.43_[2012.07.16_09.49.31]Seriously, there are times when I just get so angry at the sheer stupidity of the characters in this show that I want to kick in the screen.  But here’s the thing – the fact that I now care enough about what happens here to get pissed off about it means the series has made enormous progress from where it was before.  And I also think that stupidity is the point, at least to some extent – I mean, mankind’s stupidity and hatred leading him into pointless conflict is hardly a new Gundam theme, and it clearly central to AGE.  So by hook or by crook, they’ve drawn me into all this and I’m quite interested to see what happens from here.

[sage]_Mobile_Suit_Gundam_AGE_-_40_[720p][10bit][1267A1CF].mkv_snapshot_04.02_[2012.07.16_09.52.50]To those who disagreed with me in my skepticism that Flit’s worldview was really being refuted here, I apologize – clearly you were right, and he’s officially been declared wrong by the series.  The issue is, he’s got a lot of competition in that department – and I’m expecting some sort of deathbed conversion where his character is redeemed in the end (if he’d been allowed to marry the girl he truly loved, maybe he wouldn’t have ended up so twisted).  I see Kio’s decision here as the only one he could take under the circumstances.  It’s naïve and seemingly doomed to fail, but isn’t that the sort of thing a 13 year-old would decide?  Kio has no one to turn to – not his father, not his grandfather, not even a really close commander as Woolf was to Asemu.  He’s truly on his own and forced to improvise, to decide not just what to believe but how to act on it based on the conflicting information he’s been exposed to.  He may seem foolish, but someone in this show had to decide to try and do the right thing for the right reasons no matter how hopeless it seemed – and it might as well be Kio. 

[sage]_Mobile_Suit_Gundam_AGE_-_40_[720p][10bit][1267A1CF].mkv_snapshot_04.25_[2012.07.16_09.53.13]So now we have the little boy with the big mobile suit, the sleek and svelte Gundam AGE-FX, cast as the messianic figure.  We have Ezelcant, who appears to have either a clone or the pickled body of his son in a jar, poised to take up his insane vision after he dies. We have Flit, prepared to use a WMD on Luna Base as the first step towards the genocide of his dreams – much to Einus’ horror.  And we have Asemu, the king of poor judgment, having decided in his infinite wisdom to fight with his father because “balance” is better served with Earth in control of Luna.  What a freakin’ mess. And who’s that woman smirking over Zaeheart’s shoulder, I wonder?

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ED4: “Forget-me-not ~Wasurenagusa~” by FLOWER

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6 comments

  1. A

    I absolutely love the clusterfuck of ideologies this show has become. Seriously, I think the set-up they have for this final arc is great and I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens, for better or worse. If the OP is any indication, Asem and Flit are going to eventually realize their plans are stupid and support Kio, but I'm sure that's going to be a lot more difficult for Flit to do than it is for Asem.

    Flit isn't going to succeed in his genocide but I think he's still very justified in feeling the way that he does. The Vagans literally took everything from him and it's going to take quite a bit for him to decide not to kill them all. I hope they can manage to pull that off well assuming it happens, considering that he has every reason to hate them and his hate hasn't really waned over the years.

    I'll defend this show to the death most of the time, but even I'm not sure I can defend Asem's 'plan' for the war. Forcing both sides into a stalemate and preventing battles might save some lives in the short-term but it's just going to cause more death in the long run and it does nothing to end the war. He probably would have been better off just going back to the EFF instead of hanging out with those pirates and doing that for 13 years. Hopefully it won't take long for Asem to realize that it just isn't going to work and he finally leaves the pirates to be with his son.

  2. If I'm to differentiate, I think Asemu's plan is stupider and Flit's is more reprehensible.

    Flit has good reason to hate the Vagan, yes. But there's no reason good enough to make excuses for someone who's stated purpose in life is genocide. For me, this is not an especially gray area.

  3. A

    Yeah, I don't want him to succeed in his genocide, I just want them to have him inevitably change his tune in a way that makes sense and doesn't feel contrived.

    Or he could just go down in a fiery rage refusing to compromise, but I really don't think that's what the show is going for.

  4. F

    I can't believe they went with the Kira Yamato solution.

    Its like the show is intent on making me hate it as much as physically possible.

  5. Where else would you go with the story at this point? Ezelcant and Flit are obviously wrong, so what other third path makes any sense?

  6. F

    I actually agree with Kio, its just that we did the "I'm not going to kill the enemy" bit before, and it was SPECTACULARLY ANNOYING that time, so I'm not very amused to see it show up again here.

    Gundam AGE is specializing in taking the most annoying plotpoints and cliches from previous Gundam series and then executing them in the worst way possible.

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