Gundam 00 Season 2 Episode 05

[masamuneehs]

thought this was the best episode of the second season so far. Even though the first part of the episode had a good amount of awful things in it.

First, they send all four pilots, two Gundams, and their strategist to meet with a group that they really don't know too much about. This leaves the Ptolemy in what kind of absolutely defenseless vulnerability?

Second, Setsuna bitches New Lockon out for taking off his helmet, and in the very next scene has his helmet off. Nice.

Saji. I still don't like that guy, and it's too easy to rag on him, but, really, almost every single ordinary guy under the sun is going to make the series of choices he did in this episode. If anyone's to blame, it's the guard that gave him the keys to the Jeep. Looking forward to seeing how they continue with his story. And, yes, I did just say that I'm interested in Saji and Louise's part of the story.

Guess I was wrong about it being a marriage proposal... Sergei is still the best guy in all of the enemy forces, and even though Andrei is going on about how he let his mother die, I've got a hunch there's some circumstances behind that story... Or it served as the catlyst to make Sergei into the awesomely upstanding guy he is now.

Mobile Dolls. As I mentioned before, the issue of 'unmanned weapons' has only been addressed in one other Gundam series (it was notably absent in SEED). And I think this show is doing a good job of showing how twisted and distantly vicious this practice (which is becoming more and more a part of modern warfare, and thereby one of the most relevant issues a show like this could actually address) is, both in regards to how it ups the amount of 'collateral damage' and in how it distances the act of killing from the people responsible for the bloodshed. What does it mean for us? I have a hunch it'll be the tipping point in getting Feddies like Mannequin and Sergei to wind up on CB's side. Also, I have a feeling it'll serve as the main point of confrontation between Wang Liu Mei and CB.

I liked Graham in this episode, silly hat and all.

Ribbons. You dah man. I think they enhance Ali too, just because it seems to be Ribbons (and his strangely named andro harem's) SOP. And, yeah, I'm excited too. The man was born Cassius Clay, but the name they screamed was, "Ali! Ali! Ali!"

Wang Liu Mei provided the surprise of the episode for me. She got info from Nena about A-LAWs going to attack Kataron's base. She immediately sent word to CB (noteably naming Tieria here...) to help them. This is a bit of a surprise to me because, at least from the first episode, I'd always thought she didn't give two shits about Kataron (after all, they're like well organized flies up against a boar with the difference in their equipment), but since CB had nothing to gain by going back there and engaging crack A-LAWs troops, it makes it pretty clear that Wang Liu Mei still sees them as serving some kind of purpose down the road...

[Ryllharu]

Second, Setsuna bitches New Lockon out for taking off his helmet, and in the very next scene has his helmet off. Nice.

Mobile Dolls. As I mentioned before, the issue of 'unmanned weapons' has only been addressed in one other Gundam series (it was notably absent in SEED). And I think this show is doing a good job of showing how twisted and distantly vicious this practice (which is becoming more and more a part of modern warfare, and thereby one of the most relevant issues a show like this could actually address) is, both in regards to how it ups the amount of 'collateral damage' and in how it distances the act of killing from the people responsible for the bloodshed. What does it mean for us? I have a hunch it'll be the tipping point in getting Feddies like Mannequin and Sergei to wind up on CB's side. Also, I have a feeling it'll serve as the main point of confrontation between Wang Liu Mei and CB.

It wasn't Setsuna that bitched New Lockon out about taking his helmet off, it was a brief revival of the master of discipline, Tieria.

While I definitely see the connection, there is still a big difference between drones and killbots, and A-LAWS is definitely using the latter. "Unmanned" drones in today's world still rely on a human operator to make the judgments and pull the triggers. A-LAWS is using killbots, so they just drop them down and take a hands off approach to the killing. That was the issue that the Meisters and now Soma have with them. A-LAWS pilots remain vicious because they don't have to worry about taking on the weight of someone's life. They didn't kill lots of innocent people, the killbots did. The whole, "I was just following orders," line of crap that goes all the way back before WWI. No guilt, no problem. Pilots (even cops too) have to bear the burden of each kill when they pull the triggers, and that's part of the honor bound thing a lot of the Meisters, Soma, Mannequin, Sergei and maybe even Mr. Bushido have.

While drones do remove the operator from the situation, and the conundrum of putting yourself in as much risk as the people you are killing, making it "fair," the killbots situation brings it to another level entirely.

[6Zabuza9]

this episode was pretty crazy

i doubt ali has been modified, i believe ribbons merely commented that ali is a one of a kind man

seems like all mr bushido will do throughout this season is to fight setsuna a couple of times

man, the whole time i knew sergei wasn't proposing to soma. can't belive all of u guys thought about that.

and yes, i agree with you all that saji is a complete douche

[masamuneehs]

It wasn't Setsuna that bitched New Lockon out about taking his helmet off, it was a brief revival of the master of discipline, Tieria.

While drones do remove the operator from the situation, and the conundrum of putting yourself in as much risk as the people you are killing, making it "fair," the killbots situation brings it to another level entirely.

Ah, it was Tieria then? Good, it's about time he stopped being so pathetic and soft...

I still disagree with you slightly on the 'unmanned weapons != killbots' thing. A lot of it comes down to specifics about how the killbot is operated. If we compare remote controlled drones to fully automated drones, there is a difference. Both are unmanned, but, as you said, there's a level of moral gravity that comes with actually pulling the trigger. The further removed the trigger puller is, the less they're likely to feel affected by the weight of their actions.

But I was pretty sure I'd seen a few things about fully automated weaponry floating around in the news. Granted, remote controlled unmanned weapons are what's growing now but, well, I don't think we'll have to wait too long before these "killbots" are dubbed benign monickers just like their "unmanned drone" predecessors.

It does make for excellent discussion material though. And I agree with you on your assessment of the effect it has on the A-LAWs troops (though some of them seem quite fine with these scales of massacre, even if they're not identifying their victims).

I think she did it for three reasons: To have the CB witness the massacre, giving them even more motivation to try to stop A-LAWs; to have another fight between the CB and A-LAWs; and lastly sending that manner of information to the CB ensures the CB still trusts her word to a degree, which will no doubt be important when things really start to matter and her more nefarious plots are revealed. I doubt she actually cared about Kataron at all. This was just convenient for her.

I thought that CB's motivation against A-LAWs was already pretty strong, and, yeah, I guess New Lockon, Tieria and Allelujah haven't witnessed the Automatons first-hand like Setsuna has. But I agree more with you about the last point than anything else. Gots to be keeping up appearances.

[Kraco]

Wang Liu Mei provided the surprise of the episode for me. She got info from Nena about A-LAWs going to attack Kataron's base. She immediately sent word to CB (noteably naming Tieria here...) to help them. This is a bit of a surprise to me because, at least from the first episode, I'd always thought she didn't give two shits about Kataron (after all, they're like well organized flies up against a boar with the difference in their equipment), but since CB had nothing to gain by going back there and engaging crack A-LAWs troops, it makes it pretty clear that Wang Liu Mei still sees them as serving some kind of purpose down the road...

I think she did it for three reasons: To have the CB witness the massacre, giving them even more motivation to try to stop A-LAWs; to have another fight between the CB and A-LAWs; and lastly sending that manner of information to the CB ensures the CB still trusts her word to a degree, which will no doubt be important when things really start to matter and her more nefarious plots are revealed. I doubt she actually cared about Kataron at all. This was just convenient for her.