I really enjoyed how much shifting of forces took place during the last five years.

- I went into this pretty blind, so I really have no idea who the A-LAWS or Kataron are, but it is very interesting to see Louise with a new hand on one side, given where Saji has now ended up just because he was friendly with some random guy. I wonder exactly how much Libbons has done to her. The Tieria lookalike woman with her at the end of last season is apparently part of Libbons' harem, so I wonder how far he helped her beyond giving Louise a new hand. It should be interesting to see what she does becoming a newbie pilot.

- Shirin being a leader or at least high ranking officer in the Kataron. We had always suspected that she could have been part of something else, but for her to be in an organization that can more or less be called terrorists was very intriguing.

- Soma (ever my favorite) in what appeared to have been a long off-duty rotation, now much older and notably more feminine, heading towards what looked like a very happy life with Sergei. Soma always seems to get the short end of the stick, called back to duty after she might finally be gaining some semblance of a normal life.

- Feldt, older as well, and very happy to see so many of her comrades safe.

- Tieria, not a woman as we all expected him to be, still pilotting a fatty Gundam.

I liked the way they did age progression on most of the characters. It looks well done.