Ryll, my issue is that unlike Ironblooded Orphans (which I liked), the kids in this series show NONE of the skills that make any comeuppance plausible/believable. When the kids in IBO rebelled (and "kids" meant all the way to young adulthood, really), they had already shown their capabilities to sustain and support themselves. We saw them be active soldiers already, on top of being mechanics and whatever else.

Mercury shows us a bunch of privileged, spoiled children, YOUNG children, some of them being into engineering, but most of them just enjoying the riches their parents gave them. That's why I hate Miorine and can't take seriously your "she wanted to become a farmer on Earth"-argument: THAT Miorine would call for her butler the moment farming got "hard". Farming is nothing like her little garden, and unless she meant "becoming a farmer" in the same way she became a prosthetics manufacturer (by paying other people to do stuff), there's no way she would have succeeded. This Miorine is all about "I deserve it because I am me" and political games that rely on adults in this world being idiots where a 14-year old girl can outwit them.

And if it came to open battle, who would actually fight (and murder) enemy mecha? Stuttering Suletta? Or all the inexperienced students? Fact is these children have no means nor expertise to rebel. That's why everything comes off as children being childish, unlike IBO.

But that's a fundamental issue of this anime to begin with: Somehow children and young adults run everything in this world, with adults being DUMB business men and politicians in the background, only existing to hog money and make dumb decisions that allow the children to present themselves as smarter. sigh :/

I'm still inmidst of watching the first Gundam-anime and it's frustrating how much more mature it is writing-wise.