Mobile Suit Gundam AGE - 48

That was a pretty impressive display of character deaths, both in terms of volume and importance.

I’m certainly no closer to knowing how next week’s episode is going to end all this, though whether that’s a good or a bad thing I’m not sure. This week seemed for a while to be mostly clearing the field of extraneous characters for a focus on the core group, but the last moments of the ep put a rest to that notion. There’s an ad hoc quality to the last few episodes that has be a bit worried about whether the ending is going to be completely FUBAR, but at least we’ll only have to wait one more week to find out.

That Fram should buy the farm (though not on Eden, sadly) this week could hardly have been less surprising. Along with Seric (Seric!) she’s had by far the most death flags of anybody in this arc, and the only surprise is that she lasted as she did. But I’ll give AGE some credit for contriving a fairly moving scenario surrounding her death, probably the most compelling sequence of the episode. Not only did she die at Zaeheart’s hands, but he specifically gave her the fatal order – one she carried out willingly. It was a sort of a last all-in bet for Zaeheart, full commitment to the eugenicist’s master plan – and when it failed, that left Zaeheart pretty much broken beyond repair.

It’s a remarkable list of dead – not even counting the most important one we have Fram, Obright, Zanald, Leil, Jonathan, and the Diva itself – which along with Obright was probably given the most GAR sendoff of the bunch. But I didn’t expect Zaeheart himself to join the list before the actual finale. He was clearly going around the bend, seeing visions of all his dead comrades urging him to sacrifice half his forces to wipe out the Gundams, then taunting him after he failed miserably. It was all over so quickly – he jumped into his Gundam Legilis in a rage and got himself killed by Asemu in what felt like 15 seconds, without even deploying his A-list weapons. Considering the depth of the love-hate bromance between Zaeheart and Aseumu that’s spanned over half the series I really expected more, both in terms of the fight and the tearful goodbye. So long, Z – you may have been the worst military commander ever, but at least you died in pursuit of the sick and twisted dream of a dying old man.

So what now? Who knows. With Ezelcant on his deathbed none of the big dogs of the Vagan are even left, apart from the clone – perhaps this is going to come down to the Vagan being crushed and Fit having them defenseless and broken, and deciding to show mercy and not genocide the lot of them. That would be pretty anti-climactic, to be honest – and it feels as if the moral conflict surrounding Kio’s pacifism has been completely marginalized as the last few eps have mostly been extended battle sequences. With Zaeheart gone whatever tangential role Asemu had seems largely undercut, too. I guess the series will end as it started, with Flit in the spotlight. It’s going to be a surprise, frankly, if AGE can come up with something cohesive that gives closure to the more interesting themes the series has developed – but I’ll certainly give it a chance to prove me wrong.

6 comments

Anonymous

September 18, 2012 at 1:18 am

seen pic read mention on it yet find it not worth the watching due to reasons

1.lack of characters develops blame on timeskip hype characters they last only few eps or put on a bus.

2.mis-used of women in this series good grief is this series being a bullied or they don’t like women in gundam? (or better yet PG-age are women haters)

3.too much timeskips really lacks more to work give skip it all.

etc etc really no longer PG-gundam series really bad project to watch give good news the PG-age is almost over indeed goodbye & next gundam series give us a main lead female gundam pilot.

Arabesque

September 18, 2012 at 1:39 am

I'm surprised that there wasn't a mention about the performance Hiroshi Kamiya gave during Zeheart's death scene. I mean I realize the dialogue given the history of each of the characters and context of the situation and how they got there made it absurd and ludicrous, but even then Kamiya-san had clearly given it his all in the reading and managed to give the lines emotions that made it hit hard.

''worried about whether the ending is going to be completely FUBAR''

Well, ''completely'' is the key word here I think …

''That Fram should buy the farm (though not on Eden, sadly)''

Well since the housing market went to Hell I'd imagine she might still find a nice place to stay in. A pity she bite the dust this episode, but I suppose it was inevitable she was going to fall over from how carelessly she was pushing all these daisy's on Obright.

''It’s a remarkable list of dead – not even counting the most important one we have Fram, Obright, Zanald, Leil, Jonathan, and the Diva itself''

The Diva had the most memorable death out of those, and seeing even the AGE Builder be destroyed was just surreal …

''got himself killed by Asemu in what felt like 15 seconds''

It was closer to about half a minute truth be told, but still what an anti-climatic way to go with this storyline.

''So long, Z – you may have been the worst military commander ever, but at least you died in pursuit of the sick and twisted dream of a dying old man.''

I laughed more than I should've.

Well, we can at least credit Zeheart with being a consistent loser to the very end. Never managed to win any battles, never managed to succeeded in any mission, never managed to make a path for himself … and yet he still stuck there to the bitter end after selling out on his dreams. What a … moving story?

'' With Ezelcant on his deathbed none of the big dogs of the Vagan are even left, apart from the clone ''

Honestly, at this point we have not a single named Vegan character left to be representative of their side, other than apparently an insane clone of Ezelcant (well, moreso than usual). So bleh, this isn't an understanding ending, Kio never managed to get through to anyone of note on the Vegan side and make them see the light. Bleh.

Fencedude

September 18, 2012 at 2:22 am

I really, really wanted Zeheart to cap off that performance with a "ZETSUBO SHITAAAA!!!"

Would even have been perfectly appropriate.

I feel so sorry for Kamiya, having to read such horrible writing must have truly left him in despair.

Fencedude

September 18, 2012 at 1:32 am

This is the worst final battle in a Gundam series ever. Just truly atrociously horrible. FLAWLESS VICTORY was better than this.

SEPTEMBER 16th, 2012. NEVER FORGET

belatkuro

September 18, 2012 at 3:26 pm

Zeheart's been around for 2 generations and he disappears in what, 15-20 seconds flat? Oh wow.
It's like they're not even trying anymore. Oh well, one more episode left.
Pretty much the biggest flop in Gundam history. At least I'm proud to say I watched it to the end. That counts for something right?

Anonymous

September 18, 2012 at 8:27 pm

I was actually pretty satisfied with the Zeheart vs Asem fight, it bothers me that people bring that up as the thing that sucked in the episode.

He didn't deserve to get a cool final duel. Yeah, it's what people expect and want; a cool, long final fight between the protagonist and antagonist. But I don't think that was fitting for Zeheart. His death exemplified how pointless the cause he devoted his life to was. He completely wasted his life despite having wanted something else.

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE – 48

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