Quote Originally Posted by Ryllharu View Post
Watching this episode, I also wouldn't say it's a matter of the girls fighting better than the veterans.
It's true they lost members all the time, especially to the laser class (which is why I call the laser class the only really believably tough opponent). However, once they landed in the previous episode, they kept fighting at approximately that same area for a long time, all the way to engaging a whole pile of enemies in melee combat. They only started to lose when the first wave of beta wasn't the only wave, after all. However, the regular military (maybe I shouldn't call them veterans as there's no guarantee of that, but nonetheless they weren't trainees anymore) got simply overrun by the first melee betas.

Since I accept the existence of mecha in a mecha universe, my remaining problem is twofold: Don't try to make the enemies look stronger by making humans look stupid and ineffectual. Don't make n00b main characters look special by making real soldiers far too weak. Neither of these errors in the eps were by any means unavoidable.

Quote Originally Posted by Yuki
We must never forget, 08th MS team is the exception not the rule, in mecha, the younger you are the higher your maximum potential fighting ability is. Veteran mecha pilots can at best fight younger pilots to a stalemate after their first skirmish which the vet may win to show he's not just another grunt, however young pilots always have a fair or better shot at blowing veterans out of the sky regardless of how much actual experience they have.
That's certainly true for great many shows, but it's hardly a universal rule. More often than not it's simply a result of the fact the main characters tend to be young for the sake of the younger audiences. But even in something like Gundam 00 the sheer superiority of the machine and experience seemed to be more important than any other factor (aside from the main character status). My favourite character Ali showed that multiple times, not only in the beginning. He was an old man for action by anime standards, yet kicked more ass than pretty much anybody.