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Enough “wow” moments in that one for ya?
It’s possible that this episode might satisfy some of the Gen-con loyalists disappointed at the lack of body count in Suisei no Gargantia, although I’d be the wrong one to ask as I’m, not one of them. It was certainly depressing enough – a most bleak and soul-wearying spectacle from the opening moments right up to the last. For me that’s what Gen specializes in more than gore and violence – it’s the rejection of hope and the futility of justice and mercy that’s at the heart of most of his work. In that sense, this episode was among the most “Gen-like” of any of his series. The question is, where will we go from here?
This is the sort of episode that’s pretty difficult to digest at first viewing – there was so much information dumped on us and so much emotional impact that it’s very hard to define both the practical implications of what we were shown, and my purely emotional reaction. Nevertheless as a blogger I think it’s probably better to go ahead and post my first reactions, even knowing they may change over time. I think it’s sort of ironic that I used the “We have met the enemy, and he is us” (originally used in the comic strip Pogo in 1952, by the way) line yesterday in relation to another show, Attack on Titan, when it could just as easily have been used here. And I don’t think this is by any means a total surprise, though the degree to which it’s true probably exceeds expectations.
I’ve been saying it for weeks, but really, I’m baffled why so many viewers of this series were so eager to believe that the Galactic Alliance should be taken at their word. As a good general rule, it’s wise to treat information from military dictatorships with a good degree of skepticism – and for Heaven’s sake, in a Gen universe distrust of authority is the stock and trade. We’d already seen that they kill children they deem unfit to fight, and that they keep their child soldiers in cryogenic sleep until moments before they’re sent to die for the cause. Have they really done anything to earn our trust as viewers? What they told Ledo was the truth as they wanted him to believe it, no more and no less – as much as they felt he needed to know to attack the enemy with all his might. There were surely elements of truth in it, but it seemed logical to conclude they were couched in omissions and lies. That’s how military dictatorships – especially those in a state of war – operate.
There were really two dramas playing out side by side here. We have the personal story, Ledo pursuing his own vendetta and being used as a tool by Pinion, himself on a sort of Ahab-like mission to avenge his brother and overcome his own feelings of inadequacy at leaving him to die. And the larger story – just what are the whalesquid, and how are they connected to the Hideauze Ledo hates so desperately? On that score I’m still sorting through the mountain of information Chamber and Ledo found inside the old research headquarters that had become the whalesquid nesting ground. There was an element in this that was a bit too convenient – Chamber giving in too easily to Ledo’s order that the information be declassified for his benefit, for starters. And then, having everything neatly packaged in a made-for-TV form, as if the founders of the base knew a boy and an AI would by there in a few Millennia and would need a recap episode. But there’s no denying the fact that the content itself was a whopper.
As best I can make this out, the Hideauze – the ones we know in space – are descendants of the “Evolvers”, a group that sprung up on Earth in order to use genetic engineering to prepare the human race to flee into space and escape the fifth ice age. Resistance against them from traditionalists eventually coalesced into the Continental Union, which presumably eventually became the Galactic Alliance. Full-scale war broke out between the two factions, devastating the Earth. The C.U. eventually managed to create a wormhole drive which they planned to use to escape into space and then destroy, stranding the Evolvers behind on a dying Earth. The Evolvers found out. Clearly – though we don’t see exactly how – both sides ending up escaping through the wormhole, and brought their conflict with them. What does that make the whalesquids Ledo is happily Uro-butchering under the sea? Perhaps the descendants of the Evolvers who never made it off the planet, just as the Gargantians are the descendants of the unmodified humans left behind. How much intelligence the whalesquid retain is anyone’s guess – they seem either unable or unwilling to communicate with humans – but it seems very obvious that there are several different sub-species of them there. Included in this group is one who looks identical to the modified human that was the wife of the pioneer Evolver – perhaps it even was her – the one Chamber crushes into pulp against Ledo’s order in the final moments of the episode.
I think the general tenet of Gen works is “a pox on both your houses” – and so it is here. There are no good guys in the larger war. The Evolvers were a bunch of Eugenicists who arguably gave up their humanity, and the Continental Alliance was prepared to pull a Committee of 300-type escape and save only those they deemed worth saving. And in the passage of time, it seems likely that neither side (though we know nothing of the Hideauze propaganda) relates much of this war to what it was originally about – the only thing that matters is to annihilate the enemy. There are elements of the “Kaleds vs Thals” story from Doctor Who here (the Kaleds being the humanoid precursors to the Daleks). Left behind on Earth, it appears the remnants of both sides had achieved something their ancestors didn’t – peace. They left each other alone, at least, each in their own environment – though arguably at the expense of advancing their societies. That is, until Ledo came along and upset the balance, a soldier out of time able to kill indiscriminately.
Existentially, this is a very dark and difficult turn. Conditioned or not, Ledo displayed a real blood-lust in pursuing the path he did. Now that he knows the truth, that the creatures he massacred were the descendants of humans, this is something he must live with for the rest of his life. As always Chamber’s role is a matter of some fascinating debate. There always seemed the likelihood that there were things he wasn’t telling Ledo, and the end of the episode suggests that he may have killed the humanoid whalesquid in order to prevent Ledo from potentially communicating with it. Certainly, Ledo directly ordered him to stop, and he crushed it anyway. The superficial explanation of his argument at the end is that he simply pointed out that the information they’d restored contradicted official records, therefore must be fabricated – but it seems more likely to me that he’s performing a programmed task to keep Ledo to keep from finding out the truth at any cost. If Ledo should turn now, what will Chamber do? I don’t think it’s impossible that we could see Ledo and Chamber on opposite sides of a conflict before this series is done.
It could be argued that this massive turn in the story is a continuation of the alienation theme at the heart of Suisei no Gargantia, in-line with what Gen suggested he was trying to do with this series. A new generation of young people forced to carry the weight of a war they had nothing to do with starting is nothing unheard of in Japan, that’s for certain. Is there a path for redemption for Ledo here? It certainly doesn’t lie in massacring all the whalesquids on Earth, that’s for certain, and going back to the Galactic Alliance to continue a war he now knows the truth of doesn’t seem like one either. In effect this is now a time travel story as much as a space travel one – the Hideauze and the Galactic Alliance are the future and Earth is the past, but theoretically at least that gap can be bridged using the same method that brought Ledo to Earth. Perhaps it’s Ledo’s fate to stop that from happening, and the protect Amy, Bevel and the surviving descendants of both the Evolvers and the Continental Alliance from being drawn into the ongoing war they started.
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litho
June 3, 2013 at 2:55 amWow moments? More like face-palm moments.
The scene at around image 26 made me go all Jean Luc Picard. Anymore and my hair would have resembled his as well.
At least my Ika Musume theory was half correct.
Kim
June 3, 2013 at 3:03 amThis was a great episode with some true thoughtful science fiction (which is what I expected from early episodes).
For me this is where the series has gotten back on track.
CAS
June 3, 2013 at 3:09 amWhen I started watching the first episode, my first thought was, that this might be a remake of Seikai no Monshou/Senki and soon discarded this idea. But now these Hideauze seem to have pretty much similarities to the Abh: A species artificially branched from the human race optimized to survive in space that returns to conquer the whole space and rule the humans (though the Hideauze seemingly don't want to rule them but wipe them out).
squaresphere
June 3, 2013 at 4:12 amI thought the twist was pretty good because it lead to the whole discussion point of what's more "inhuman"? Degrading humans to basicly weapon components or having them "evolve" into something that doesn't even remotely look human?
It'll be interesting to see how they have Ledo play this out. I mean honestly after the big reveal I thought Ledo could still be justified in wanting to kill off the squids. Just because their origins are"human", to a certain point of view they're still abominations.
Mikhailsharon
June 3, 2013 at 5:20 amWe humans are sick, foolish creatures… We should have listen to Amy and leave them alone.
TQ
justinnm
June 3, 2013 at 5:46 amIt's always nice that you first start your posts with a paragraph spoiler-free (not even names), basically summing up your take on the story's execution. It's good for people who haven't watched the show, don't want to get spoiled, but still like to know how the thing's evolving. *thumbs up*
Highway
June 3, 2013 at 5:53 amI think this was definitely a better 'twist' than the reveal of Sibyl in Psycho Pass. I had been thinking that the Hideauze had been intelligent creatures, on the same level as humans. I had also been wondering if there had been some 'uplift' from the humans that brought them to that intelligence level. This wasn't exactly what I had in mind for uplift, bit I think it fits the narrative pretty well.
One thing I'd hoped to get was more of an idea of how long ago this had happened. How long have Ledo's people, and the Hideauze, been away from Earth? And I wonder if the name Hideauze itself is from 'hideous', in description of what the Continental Alliance folks thought the Evolvers had turned themselves into.
We'll see how this is handled from here out. A question is 'are there any of the Whalesquids left?" or did Ledo just commit, essentially, genocide? Even in war, that's looked down upon.
ftghb
June 3, 2013 at 8:42 amoh wow. I purposely skipped last week's episode so that I could watch these episodes with a stronger sense of connection. Ever since we found out that hideauze were also inhabitants of earth, I had a very strong sense that they were at least an intelligent, sentient race on the level of humans, but I didn't expect them to actually be former humans. That imagery of the fetus-hideauze bouncing across the screen sent a shock the back of my back. Chilling.
This certainly raises an interesting dilemma for Ledo moving forward. Assuming chamber is programmed to kill hideauze, I wonder if this will lead to conflict with chamber. It definitely raises a biological and even a moral question: knowing their roots, can we still even regard hideauze as humans, given our definition of 'humanity'? Taking into account culture, ethics, morals, intelligence, social standards, biological patterns, I'm sure that the 'evolver' race has surely thrown away/changed a significant portion of these traits that we typically attribute to humans. There is no question that the majority of society places emphasis and priority on the rights of other humans compared to other forms of life. so at the end of the day, what prevents us from treating hideauze the same as, say, a killer whale or a dolphin?
Btw, did this remind anyone of Shinsekai Yori when we found out that queerats were basically a population of subjugated humans who had been experimented upon?
Simone
June 3, 2013 at 8:57 amI suspect though the 'whalesquids' are actually the descendants of symbiotes, not of 'whole' Hideauze – a human+symbiote combination. I also wonder if the Hideauze are still human in any aspect or have actually lost their individuality as part of the evolutionary process and have become something more like a hive mind. They do look kind of Zerg-like to me.
It's also funny how all the main themes from the season seem to overlap with what HunterXHunter is doing at the same time. Sword Art Online and BTOOM! are all about death videogames? WE HAVE GREED ISLAND. Attack on Titan and Suisei no Gargantia are about man eating monsters and humans twisted into quickly evolving eldritch abominations who are now the original mankind's mortal enemies? CHECK OUT OUR CHIMAERA ANTS, WE DID IT FIRST. Togashi must have been a predictive genius on the level of L-Elf to deliver with such precision at years of distance.
admin
June 3, 2013 at 9:09 amIt's the definition of true creativity, really. Togashi wasn't above paying homage or satirizing, but he was a true innovator in terms of theme and plot.
deafvader
June 3, 2013 at 10:25 amJust wondering whether Chamber is really of the dark side.
Seems likely that Chamber using his neuro scan must have detected his pilot's "traumatic and erratic brain waves" and thus refused to acknowledged his last command not to kill the little thing.
Another question is whether many years, the new species has lost their reasoning and soul. They can't seem to think. They don't seem to care much about humans even killing the guy's brother just for exploring. Guess they lost all humanity and become instinctive type creatures.
admin
June 3, 2013 at 12:23 pmHe was exploring around where they give birth and raise their children. Instinct or reasoning, most beings would react in a hostile way. How much does Pinion care about killing whalesquids?
It's hard to peg what's going to happen with Chamber. He may very well end up defining Ledo as a traitor (assuming Ledo rejects the orthodoxy he's been taught) and become his enemy.
Highway
June 3, 2013 at 1:49 pmHmm, I don't know if Chamber is as leading as that. Say Ledo just decided "We will never attack another Whalesquid"? Chamber didn't seem to push particularly to keep attacking, or even attack in the first place. That was pretty much all Ledo. And as easily as Chamber's classified information block was overruled, I don't know how much agency Chamber has, especially when it's in conflict with his pilot.
Simone
June 3, 2013 at 1:59 pmTo me it sounded like Chamber was basically playing a bit snarky there – it never incited explicitly Ledo, but just because he was doing exactly what he was expected to do, killing Hideauze. All his objections were rather weak and matter-of-factly, practical ones. On the other hand, he acted much more strongly when it came down to trying to protect classified information – though it could not oppose a direct order – and arguably, its killing of the Hideauze girl at the end was so swift probably to PREVENT Ledo from having the time to give him a proper order not to do so (I guess desperate BIG NOs don't count as properly formulated sentences, so the AI can find a loophole there). The feeling that this is going to end as a Ledo vs. Chamber fight, a miniature version of the war fought in space, is growing strong with me. Of course, I hope at that point we start seeing any kind of weak point in Chamber. As it is now, Chamber is not only all-powerful, but able of perfectly functional tactical and strategical thought on his own, to the point that one is left wondering why would it even need a human pilot to begin with. I suppose the human is the one taking the actual decisions, so maybe Chamber's ability for creative thought is somewhat limited, and that might be the only flaw that Ledo could exploit to defeat it, if it came to that. That and the fact that probably Chamber has a strict programming not to kill him – otherwise, that would be a very short fight, no matter how smart a plan Ledo can come up with.
admin
June 3, 2013 at 2:00 pmThe fact that he killed Ika Musume even after Ledo ordered him to stop suggests that he has protocols that supersede loyalty to his pilot. Just exactly how his priorities have been set up is something that's likely to be a major topic over the last few episodes.
In other news, I'm astonished at the sheer absurdity of some of the comments I'm seeing about this episode at other places, though thankfully not here. Some of it is just profoundly disturbing.
admin
June 3, 2013 at 2:12 pmSimone, as we've already seen that the pilots are disposable to the G.A. I wouldn't pin much hope on Chamber having a set of Asimov's Laws that prioritize not harming Ledo above everything else. If he has a prime directive I'm guessing that's not it.
it may very well not come down to Chamber (i.e. the G.A.) vs. Ledo – that's only one possibility, though I feel it's the one this episode is hinting at. Chamber may in fact be more capable of independent thought than we realize he is, and conceivably could come up with a scenario whereby he changes his priorities based on being irretrievably distant from the Alliance.
Simone
June 3, 2013 at 2:32 pmWell, even with disposable pilots, I must believe that at the very least the G.A. still thinks they are somewhat needed, or why using them in the first place? I guess even militaristic space dictatorship would find it unsettling to leave their entire firepower in the hands of A.I. controlled autonomous mecha. That pretty much screams 'I for one welcome our new mechanical overlords'. I think something like a 'never kill your pilot' directive might be implemented not in order to preserve human life, but in order to keep the A.I.s in their place. Of course, the A.I.s might as well be in charge of preventing their pilots from defecting from orthodoxy, but after all, why would they need to kill them? If a defection took place in the Alliance, all the robot would need to do is stop obeying, shut itself down and signal the High Command. The rebellious pilot would be trapped in his tin can until someone comes to dispose of him and the robot could be re-used for another, more obedient pilot.
And what kind of comments are you talking about? I'm curious because the worst I've read is "well, even given these news, the Hideauze/Evolvers still are kind of dicks", which is somewhat true – it's just that the Galactic Alliance is no better at this point. Nothing resembling the crazy backlash at the perfectly sensible don't-randomly-kill-pirates speech in Episode 3 though, which kind of destroyed a bit of my faith in humanity.
admin
June 3, 2013 at 11:01 pmI'm not repeating it here, but it can be seen at the usual places.
Zeta Zero
June 4, 2013 at 3:03 pmI'm waiting for the "I'm sorry Ledo, I'm afraid I can't do that" moment.
Simone
June 4, 2013 at 3:23 pmOr Instrumentality. Chamber killing that Evolver girl reminded me of EVA-01 vs. Satoru so much.
Eternia
June 3, 2013 at 1:42 pmWow. Just wow. I prevented myself from reading this post before I watched the actual episode myself. And I am glad that I decided to do that.
This truly Gen-like. In his previous works we can see similar things:
– Saber's ideal vs Rider's ideal, Saber's morality vs Kiritsugu's morality
– QB's morality vs human's general morality
– Akane vs Sybil's morality
Just what is wrong? Just what is right? What is justice? It's really Gen's favorite theme.
Is the Galactic Alliance wrong for killing Hideauze? Well… they may be once human? But I bet they don't even retain half of a normal human's intelligence. They are just science freaks who have modified themselves into abomination. Still, does the Alliance have the right to execute them? Just because they are different? Just because they betrayed humanity? To call them evil? I bet that even now in space, the Galactic Alliance is the one who initiated the war. The Hideauze are simply protecting their nest.
Highway
June 3, 2013 at 2:03 pmIs any war among humans on Earth more right or wrong? It doesn't make it more or less morally clear whether they're of human descent or not. It just points out that the history between the two groups is a lot longer than 'we encountered these space bugs'.
I think it's also been said that the Hideauze have initiated acts of aggression, so it's not just one-sided aggression and the other side is purely defensive.
Aside, I think it might be a little preemptive to classify the wormhole escape plan as similar to the Committee of 300's plan (at least in Robotics;Notes, I haven't seen Stein's;Gate). For one, the Continental Alliance wasn't planning on *making* the Earth uninhabitable. That was happening on its own, or as a result of long-term policies. So if you've got a crisis, and you have limited resources to mitigate that crisis, you're going to prioritize people. I don't really fault them for not having a lottery or some other 'fair' methodology. One doesn't always exist, and there's not really any obligation to use it anyway.
admin
June 3, 2013 at 2:07 pmI assume you're OK with the whole killing children and only waking soldiers up 5 minutes before combat thing as well?
Simone
June 3, 2013 at 2:43 pmI think that at the beginning of the whole thing the Continental Union might have been the one with the more sensible point of view (though there seems to be quite a bit of bigotry in labelling unquestionably the Evolvers as 'freaks'. Like everything that after being discovered is 'against nature' and blah blah blah. If the people experimented on were volunteers and every care was taken to ensure their safety, why should one despise them as monsters? Desperate circumstances call for desperate measures after all). It quite clearly spiraled out of control very soon however. I suspect that with the scarcity of resources that must come with life (and war) in space, both races must have had quite the hard time. Which does not mean senseless killing of children is justified (especially seeing how the entire damn war is pointless anyway), but makes it seem like a sort of obliged choice – pretty much like shipwreck victims going cannibal, it's morally repugnant but to be expected from people pushed to the edge of survival.
Highway
June 3, 2013 at 5:06 pmI'm not ok with any war. All of it is morally repugnant, except for maybe the purely hypothetical strict war of defense (which wouldn't happen in any sort of reality).
Waking up soldiers 5 minutes before combat isn't what I'd advocate, but assuming that their planet of Avalon (?) is as overcrowded (or strictly controlled) as I'd infer from the fact that 4 weeks is considered a just reward for 16 years of service, they don't place a whole lot of value on soldiers. So why 'waste' resources on them by keeping them awake and alert more than necessary?
Understanding a policy and motives based on the pressures of a ficton is a lot different from supporting or advocating it. There are lots of fictons I wouldn't want to live in because of these kinds of pressures.
Eternia
June 4, 2013 at 9:09 amThey can't help it. They are stranded on the outer space, with unwanted companion. Their mortal enemies, the Hideous are ready for suck their blood any time. They haven't even found a planet which is suitable for living. The resources are very limited, so they have to economize. By hibernating, they can reduce the cost on oxygen and nutrition. By killing weakly new born, they can economize even further. I believe that some minor tribes on our earth also do this practice. Again, another question on morality.
😀
Beckett
June 4, 2013 at 7:29 pm"Is any war among humans on Earth more right or wrong?"
Yes? I for one am pretty glad the Revolutionary War happened, and the nazis certainly had to be resisted in World War 2. I'm not a scholar of ancient history but I'm sure there were a ton of past ones that were fully justified as well. "All war is wrong and the world should be made of bunnies and rainbows" is pure naive pie in the sky fantasy.
ReddyRedWolf
June 3, 2013 at 2:05 pmThe Evolvers already created a method to survive the Ice Age with adaptation to space. Except their way shuns all technology and are slow in space travel. They went Luddite for biotech.
The Continental Alliance creates a wormhole drive so people can leave Earth faster with a better chance to find a new homeworld.
What did the Evolvers do? Lets steal their shit and leave behind the inferior humans and we Transhumanist alone will rule the cosmos!
That sort of behavior still continues as the vector of Hideauze expansion is the Galactic Human Alliance expansion via wormholes.
The Hideauze are no longer Human Transhumanists but parasites chasing their prey. The symbiont has taken over their psychology and are no longer human intellect in anyway.
The Galactic Alliance has it also bad. Their over reliance to Artificial Intelligence has resulted to the A.I. discovering the Zeroth Law. The machines like Chamber think they know what is best for humanity.
grm_rules
June 3, 2013 at 6:04 pmYou forgot that the Continental Union was the side which started the hostilities.
So its not that weird that the Eolvers tried to sabotage their enemy's plans.
ReddyRedWolf
June 4, 2013 at 2:33 amThe Continental Union attacked them as it was revealed the Evolvers recruitment methods involve illegal human experimentation in violation of international law.
The leader of the Evolvers was so focused on SCIENCE! that he used unwilling people or those who can't consent for experimentation. Elain Matsumoto was a child you really think that is viable consent?
The Evolvers was cult criminal organization akin to CoS. And the rest of the world treated them as such due to their criminal actions.
Their cult status was confirmed with their leader they alone should rule the universe therefore they are entitled to the wormhole technology that they did not develop.
Remember they developed the symbiont technology to survive space because in their belief FTL being not possible. Well the scientists of the Continental Union proved them wrong. And they can build colony ships Macross style to survive space.
That is an insult to the Evolvers as the Continental Union made them look like idiots. And are leaving them to travel space slowly. So they followed the Contineltal Union to continue their war.
admin
June 4, 2013 at 2:34 amAnd besides, they look all icky and the C.U. are handsome.
grm_rules
June 3, 2013 at 5:57 pmTheres still the possibility that the Hideauze in space are not the Evolvers who left earth.
What I mean is that the fish/bug like creatures in space might be only the symbionts the Evolvers must have brought along/created in space. Somehow those symbionts managed to flee/overthrow the humans and now are attacking whats left of the previous Continental Union. Or perhaps the actual Evolvers are using them as very convenient asset.
What Im trying to say is that its very weird that a sentient species would degenerate all the way to animal like thinking just because they adapted their bodies.
Kim
June 3, 2013 at 9:08 pmSometimes you can't look at science fiction so logically and need to think of the meaning and symbolism behind it.
The point is the evolvers were willing to throw away their humanity to evolve into something "better".
At the same time we have the Alliance who wanted to remain human but in the process also seemed to throw away their humanity.
Simone
June 4, 2013 at 10:36 amIf that would be the case, there would be no moral dilemma – the Hideauze would be evil alien creatures and possibly a parasitic infection that should be exterminated. But that would destroy the point the series is trying to make. Also, where was it stated that the Hideauze have no rational thinking? It's hard for me to think that it would be possible for a race of irrational animals to hold its own against a strategically planned attack from a powerful technological civilization. It already stretches my suspension of disbelief in Attack on Titan, where the physical and numerical superiority of the irrational Titans is overwhelming. We have already confirmed that the first Hideauze had rational thinking capabilities. They might now have evolved for example in order to communicate better amongst themselves in space – by telepathy or radio signals – so that they aren't able to talk with humans anymore. They might even have pushed that as far as to reach a hive mind state. But I doubt they are irrational.
Chin
June 3, 2013 at 11:12 pmBTW, when will you write your Summer Previews? Anichart already have the list for this year and most of the video PV's are now available for viewing in YouTube.
admin
June 3, 2013 at 11:54 pmSomewhere around the 15th probably.
Maxulous
June 4, 2013 at 12:15 amBest episode since the first really – I don't need another anime that focuses exclusively on character interactions (especially when the majority are this dry). The whole 'they were humans all along' plot twist is getting a little stale, although I liked the sci-fi concepts behind it and time travel is welcome.
ftghb
June 4, 2013 at 5:21 amwas it actually time travel? I was under the impression that Ledo simply fell out of the wormhole and ended up in present time earth.
Maxulous
June 4, 2013 at 2:13 pmWell that essentially is travelling through space and time … but yeah that's what I mean.
ishruns
June 4, 2013 at 11:01 amSorry but wasn't that a little cliched. That Hideauze were once human might be a left field revelation, it is one that is pretty commonly done. I mean that's it? Nothing else could be done? Something a bit more interesting perhaps.
The whole now we are killing humans thing becomes the issue and that is such a done to death morality issue. I would have preferred the Hideauze just be aliens attacked by humans, thus this whole mess is the Galactic whatever, or that Hideauze where possible a slave species to humans, raising that moral issue.
Don't want to pour cold water on you lot but doesn't anyone else feel this turn of events is so used up and disappointed Gen couldn't do better.
admin
June 4, 2013 at 12:14 pmNo.
Eternia
June 4, 2013 at 2:55 pmWhat makes a good writing to you, then?
-Hideauze being some random squids they met in space
-Hideauze being experiment animal which has gone rampant
Sorry. I like current setting much much better.
Beckett
June 4, 2013 at 7:35 pmHave to admit I was sort of hoping the Hideauze would be a completely separate species that evolved from cephalopods. Maybe they evolved sentience and started developing technology and then the humans attacked them out of fear.
Although my personal secret desire would have been for the squids to start it since cephalopods are creepy and plotting against us and we should take them out before their plans come to fruition.
Thatguy3331
June 6, 2013 at 1:55 amYou know I think its a tad funny how I off handedly thought "hey wouldn't it be really 'tragic' if the hidiaze were really humans?" some time before I saw this episode, only to see the human like fetus in one of them to have my off handed suspicions confirmed to my horror, which I guess made the video footage alot easier to swallow. You put up an interesting point though how the humans and 'hideauze' seem to have peace until Ledo showed up. I wonder now what that will bring now hat he destroyed a whole nest…
Also I almost misread 'A.I.' as 'AL' (from FMA) while reading XD
Volatile Seraph
June 6, 2013 at 12:34 pmYou know, on the theme of this series being for youths-moving-into-the-adult-world, Chamber could be seen as the 'parent' figure for Ledo.
Ledo is essentially unable to survive without Chamber, and in previous episodes disregarded Chamber's advice and even tried to make a place for himself in Gargantia. Chamber upholds the GA's views, which are upheld by Ledo, to a certain degree.
I felt this was somewhat apparent in this episode, since Chamber withholding the information could be seen as his attempt to protect Ledo from the truth along with how he tries to convince Ledo that the information is false and counterfeited… kinda like how a parent might try to ensure a child continues his/her views and beliefs and might debunk others. Chamber killing that last hideauz/evolver almost seemed to be a stern scolding against Ledo's outbreak.
A bit random, but these are just my thoughts.