Fraktal's attempts at pretending that he can write
Red Alert / Gundam UC fusion
- Location
- Who even cares?
Something that came to me while reading the OP of a Red Alert/Mass Effect timeline over at Alternate History.
A story that, at first glance, looks like someone transplanted the premise of Red Alert into Mobile Suit Gundam's Universal Century, with the Allied/Soviet conflict replacing the Federation/Zeon one. Thing is, it wouldn't be clear which RA timeline it comes from: Stalin invading Europe and getting beaten into the ground (RA) would be mentioned, as is the restoration of the Romanovs (pre-RA2) pulling Russia back up into an economic superpower that colonized space under its own power (YR soviet ending)... but Yuri's faction and the Empire of the Rising Star are both around despite mutually contradicting each other and, after Stalin's defeat, the Allies and Soviets didn't fight any more major wars until the present conflict (which contradicts everything post-RA1).
The solution would be ultimately provided by the revelation of the local equivalent of Syam Vist being a way-beyond-expiration-date Zelensky. Namely, this timeline actually branches off from the end of the Imperial campaign in RA3: Zelensky's last-ditch attempt to undo that timeline and prevent the Empire from conquering the world caused what TV Tropes refers to as a Time Crash, ie. a cataclysmic temporal disruption that not only completely erased that timeline from existence but retroactively fucked apart several others too. Elements of those annihilated timelines progressively fused together into composite timelines, but these too winked out of existence from the disruption. The current timeline is the first one that achieved temporal metastability after the cataclysm and shows no signs of collapsing so far - in no small part thanks to Zelensky's efforts.
See, he's the very same Zelensky who tried to retcon the Empire out of existence and, having been at ground zero at the time, was thrown from one unstable timeline to another, witnessing the collapse of each and every single one over and over and over again with the full knowledge that he did this. So once the current timeline came around, he worked his ass off to get himself put in charge of chronosphere research to make sure something like this never happens. Not by trying to alter the timeline again - he knows better to try -, but by steering the research in a direction where not only it cannot be used for time travel, but even the underlying physics cannot possibly be extrapolated in that direction. He even actively sabotaged colleagues' research: deleting data, burning research notes, altering experimental results, nothing was off-limits because he knew from experience that mankind must never ever ever ever tamper with time. Of course, everyone else suffering so many inconvenient setbacks was suspicious as hell and got him painted in the scientific community as a glory hound no one was willing to work with - but seriously, who would realistically believe him if he were to come clean about it all?
By the time of the story, he's over 200 years old and even with most of that time spent in cryogenic freeze, well past the natural human lifespan and likely to keel over in the near future. Thanks to his research efforts, chronosphere technology has advanced to the point where it serves as a cheap form of interplanetary FTL travel, which is what allowed the Allies' successor organization to settle space so quickly. The Soviets, not having access to the technology, built equivalent infrastructure entirely through conventional rocketry, something they take great pride in and frequently pound their chests about whenever the topic comes up. So Space!USSR is pretty much the Principality of Zeon with the Nazi motifs scraped off and replaced with Communist imagery.
And if it's possible to downscale a tesla reactor enough for powered armor, why not a mobile suit?
A story that, at first glance, looks like someone transplanted the premise of Red Alert into Mobile Suit Gundam's Universal Century, with the Allied/Soviet conflict replacing the Federation/Zeon one. Thing is, it wouldn't be clear which RA timeline it comes from: Stalin invading Europe and getting beaten into the ground (RA) would be mentioned, as is the restoration of the Romanovs (pre-RA2) pulling Russia back up into an economic superpower that colonized space under its own power (YR soviet ending)... but Yuri's faction and the Empire of the Rising Star are both around despite mutually contradicting each other and, after Stalin's defeat, the Allies and Soviets didn't fight any more major wars until the present conflict (which contradicts everything post-RA1).
The solution would be ultimately provided by the revelation of the local equivalent of Syam Vist being a way-beyond-expiration-date Zelensky. Namely, this timeline actually branches off from the end of the Imperial campaign in RA3: Zelensky's last-ditch attempt to undo that timeline and prevent the Empire from conquering the world caused what TV Tropes refers to as a Time Crash, ie. a cataclysmic temporal disruption that not only completely erased that timeline from existence but retroactively fucked apart several others too. Elements of those annihilated timelines progressively fused together into composite timelines, but these too winked out of existence from the disruption. The current timeline is the first one that achieved temporal metastability after the cataclysm and shows no signs of collapsing so far - in no small part thanks to Zelensky's efforts.
See, he's the very same Zelensky who tried to retcon the Empire out of existence and, having been at ground zero at the time, was thrown from one unstable timeline to another, witnessing the collapse of each and every single one over and over and over again with the full knowledge that he did this. So once the current timeline came around, he worked his ass off to get himself put in charge of chronosphere research to make sure something like this never happens. Not by trying to alter the timeline again - he knows better to try -, but by steering the research in a direction where not only it cannot be used for time travel, but even the underlying physics cannot possibly be extrapolated in that direction. He even actively sabotaged colleagues' research: deleting data, burning research notes, altering experimental results, nothing was off-limits because he knew from experience that mankind must never ever ever ever tamper with time. Of course, everyone else suffering so many inconvenient setbacks was suspicious as hell and got him painted in the scientific community as a glory hound no one was willing to work with - but seriously, who would realistically believe him if he were to come clean about it all?
By the time of the story, he's over 200 years old and even with most of that time spent in cryogenic freeze, well past the natural human lifespan and likely to keel over in the near future. Thanks to his research efforts, chronosphere technology has advanced to the point where it serves as a cheap form of interplanetary FTL travel, which is what allowed the Allies' successor organization to settle space so quickly. The Soviets, not having access to the technology, built equivalent infrastructure entirely through conventional rocketry, something they take great pride in and frequently pound their chests about whenever the topic comes up. So Space!USSR is pretty much the Principality of Zeon with the Nazi motifs scraped off and replaced with Communist imagery.
And if it's possible to downscale a tesla reactor enough for powered armor, why not a mobile suit?
Flight of the Valkyries
- Location
- Who even cares?
A concept for an original story started forming in my mind yesterday, after having found this song:
The only details nailed down so far:
The only details nailed down so far:
- Mecha story with a mostly female cast.
- No harem, no yuri (at least not when it comes to the main protag, whose gender is still undecided).
- Upbeat tone but not an outright parody.
- Mechas are Macross-style transforming fighters upscaled to the size of heavy bombers/civilian airlines when in fighter mode.
- The phlebotinum that allows mechas is an exotic generator (currently referred to as a gravity distortion engine) that can somehow tap into the Earth's kinetic energy as it orbits the Sun, allowing the generator to function as power source, anti-gravity propulsion and inertial dampener all at once, as long as it stays within the planet's gravity well. Beyond low orbit, it ceases to work.
- The technology has been in use before for hovertanks and the like, but these mechas are the first example of it being used for power generation and are still highly experimental with kinks and glitches that need to be worked out before it can be mass-produced.
- The anti-gravity propulsion part means that the mechas do not actually require aerodynamic lift to stay in the air. They transform into fighters merely to minimize air resistance and thus maximize speed, but are fully VTOL-capable in both modes and accordingly able to pull off any aerial maneuver without stalling.
- The inertial dampener part being momentarily overclocked to make the mecha massless is what allows the mechas to transform on the fly without falling apart from mechanical stress. Without it, they can still transform, but much slower. While g-force is not as much an issue as in real-life aircraft, it is still present: a mecha being hit hard enough to send it spinning in a backflip spiral can still make the pilots suffer G-LOC.
- The mechas are all two-seater and operated via a neural interface. Because the response speed and accuracy depends on the two pilots' compatibility rating, the pilots generally make a big deal out of who's paired with who for the mission, as well as who's the main controller and who's the guy in the back.
- While not a set-in-stone law, the compatibility rating between two people tend to depend on how much they trust each other to watch their back and how motivated they are to reciprocate. There are other, still unknown factors the scientists are trying to figure out, hence why the pilots are constantly re-paired from mission to mission and made to run simulated dogfights in various teamups.
- Girl who joined up when her mother got injured. No special aptitude but generally doesn't have to be motivated in order to make her pull her weight in the team. I'm personally more drawn to this version because it is highly rare to have an all-girl cast in a mecha show without yuri.
- Boy with a Shinji Ikari-esque personality. Has a detectably higher than average compatibility rating with nearly everyone, speculated to be because of his "suck it up and deal with it" attitude when it comes to other people's flaws.
- @MarqFJA87 suggested a third option: combine the two and have the girl be the main protag, the boy a deuteragonist.
- Eldritch abominations drawn to Earth by humanity's use of gravity distortion technology. Possibly from a parallel dimension?
- Aliens who arrived to the Solar System on a slower-than-light generation ship for colonization purposes, only to discover the hard way that Earth is already inhabited. As of the story, their ship is currently idling in lunar orbit and launching scouting parties, which is what the protags fight. There is no convenient common language or universal translator, so the two sides cannot communicate and have no idea who each other is (from humanity's perspective, aliens suddenly invaded with no warning; from the aliens' perspective, they finally reached their new home, only to find squatters occupying the place).
Flight of the Valkyries (part 2)
- Location
- Who even cares?
Got character drafts for the above. No names yet.
- "Ojou" archetype, highly self-assured, constantly boasting about her superiority over the plebs and ribbing the others about it. Prime alpha bitch material at first glance. Yet when the chance comes for her to do something actually hurtful to the new girl like a bully would, she subverts audience expectations by basically going "ha, like I would really do it!" because she doesn't actually mean it. Same reason why the others play along with it, jokingly calling her Princess and treating her just like anyone else. Later revealed to be a result of her upbringing as the eldest daughter of a rich CEO, lavished with gifts and attention all her childhood and having received the best education and tutors money can buy. When she boasts her superiority, she's not talking out of her ass - and the reason for her career choice as mecha pilot is partly to show the plebs how it's done and partly out of a sense of noblesse oblige.
- "Nice girl" archetype whom the heroine immediately notices is wearing a medical exoskeleton but doesn't comment on it. She also visits the infirmary unusually frequently and one time when she's hanging out with the main protagonist, she asks to be taken there after falling a bit harder than usual. Turns she was born with brittle bone disease and the medical treatments to make her survive infancy bankrupted her family so badly that they're still broke by the time the story takes place. This made her relationship with her family quite strained and left her with a sense of being a burden. She signed up to pay off their debt. No regular military would consider someone like her, but this isn't a conventional unit - and her illness gave her plenty of patience and manual dexterity without affecting her g-force tolerance enough for it to be a factor. And due to having been accepted by them instead of treated as a burden, she's extremely loyal to the team.
- "Glasses girl" archetype. Naturally gifted at piloting to the point where she has the highest killcount on the team (but is rather modest and dismissive about the fact) and the others frequently defer to her when it comes to who's giving out the orders under fire. Fairly attractive beyond generic cuteness, extremely well-endowed - but whenever someone points that out, she calmly but pointedly changes the subject. Privately, she seethes of hating her funbags because of how uncomfortable having them is - but it's evident that it's not the full story. As it turns out, every single female in both sides of her family is small-chested; when she hit puberty, it started a lot of malicious rumors that her mother must've slept around. What actually happened is that her mother was violently raped by a mugger, got pregnant from it and decided to keep the child because it wasn't at fault. It was kept as a family secret so that the girl wouldn't have to live with that kind of social stigma. This caused her major angst to the point that she tried to commit suicide at least once and has a scar on the bottom of her left breast from when she tried to cut it off with a kitchen knife. When the others find out, the ojou expresses everyone's collective opinion in a rather funny way by telling her in no uncertain terms that "these boobs are yours and yours alone" and that she shouldn't be ashamed of having them because the ojou would personally give her father's entire wealth if she could draw her last breath smothered between them.
- "Token loli" archetype - I say 'token' because she's only a year or two younger than the others, but looks a few more due to naturally being petite. Personality-wise, the trope that fits her the most is Only Sane Man: not only she's the least quirky of the bunch, but is frequently snarky and sarcastic, with an equally frequent use of the "...what." expression, kinda like a loli version of Kyon. Confirmed to have the highest IQ of the bunch, which left her somewhat socially isolated due to everyone getting the impression that she's got no sense of humor. Liable to react with the enemy pulling a new trick out of their asses with an indignant "Oh, come on!"
- Another "glasses girl" archetype. She constantly gives off an aura of her head being in the clouds - and it is: she's a huge geek with an almost fetishistic interest in anything that involves blowing shit up. Like, running all over the base at full speed while making weapon fire and explosion noises with her mouth, followed a few hours later by her screaming "WAAAAAAGH!!!" while emptying her mecha's entire ordinance capacity in a single salvo, followed by going back to her room and playing with the literal carpet of WH40k figurines scattered all over the floor with a goofy :3 plastered onto her face. Really damn aggressive in combat to the point where she's a friendly fire hazard if not at the very front of the formation; almost always racks up the highest ammunition usage in any battle.
- Location
- Who even cares?
Yet another idea I haven't mentioned before. A few months ago, I had this idea of Zeon Deikun's widow choosing to place her children under Degwin Zabi's care rather than having them run off with an obviously crazy Jimba Ral. The entire Zabi family ends up agreeing to it for one reason or another:
What I've been thinking today is a simple addition: what if Casval and Amuro knew each other before the One Year War? In particular, Tem Ray and his son spend the summer holiday at Side 3 - in actuality, the EFSF caught wind of Zeon's military R&D being up to something mobile weapon related and sent Tem in to sniff around a bit under the guise of being at Side 3 on a holiday. One time when Tem is going off to spy again, he and Amuro part with Tem ordering Amuro to not wander around because he'll get lost again and Amuro irately replying that they aren't on Earth this time around. Thing is, a group of street punks overhear this, conclude that Amuro is an Earthnoid and decide to teach him a lesson for not staying home. They toss Amuro into a back alley but before they can really get to the physical part, they're interrupted by Casval casually asking them what they're doing while leaning against the wall at the entrance of said back alley. Cue fistfight where Casval individually dominates the punks until they gang up on him, at which point he starts having a hard time... until Amuro joins in.
Cut to the two of them, scuffed and bruised, lounging on a hillside and sharing a fistbump after a victorious joint asskicking.
- Degwin because he doesn't want children's blood on his hands.
- Gihren because marrying Artesia off to Garma grants the Zabis legitimacy.
- Dozle because he's got a soft spot for kids.
- Kycilia because this way, Casval and Artesia can be kept within arm's reach in case they get ideas about overthrowing the new regime.
What I've been thinking today is a simple addition: what if Casval and Amuro knew each other before the One Year War? In particular, Tem Ray and his son spend the summer holiday at Side 3 - in actuality, the EFSF caught wind of Zeon's military R&D being up to something mobile weapon related and sent Tem in to sniff around a bit under the guise of being at Side 3 on a holiday. One time when Tem is going off to spy again, he and Amuro part with Tem ordering Amuro to not wander around because he'll get lost again and Amuro irately replying that they aren't on Earth this time around. Thing is, a group of street punks overhear this, conclude that Amuro is an Earthnoid and decide to teach him a lesson for not staying home. They toss Amuro into a back alley but before they can really get to the physical part, they're interrupted by Casval casually asking them what they're doing while leaning against the wall at the entrance of said back alley. Cue fistfight where Casval individually dominates the punks until they gang up on him, at which point he starts having a hard time... until Amuro joins in.
Cut to the two of them, scuffed and bruised, lounging on a hillside and sharing a fistbump after a victorious joint asskicking.
EvaUnit01
Kept you waiting, huh?
Somehow.... smells to me like the One-Year War is going to take a level in SEED.
I do not actually consider this a bad thing, given who posted the idea.
Fyrstorm
Gun Waifu Extraordinaire
- Location
- 'Straya
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well, I'd like to know some of your plans on it first, so I can properly weigh in.
Twist of Fate
- Location
- Who even cares?
Well, things I've been thinking of:
- Reimagining the whole deal around spiral energy from "explicitly supernatural stuff born of willpower" to somewhere more along the lines of "ridiculously fucking advanced technology born of a very high-level understanding of quantum physics present-day theoretical physicists cannot even dream of".
- More focus on the post-singularity "lost technology" aspect of the setting.
- Pigmoles would be mentioned to be artificial livestock genetically engineered before humanity's fall, hence why the animal is perfectly adapted to a subterranean environment (none of the planetary surface needs to be devoted to farmland), why it eats minerals instead of organic matter (doesn't need an existing food chain, allowing it to be easily imported to other worlds) and why its flesh is so crazily nutritious (its metabolic chemistry was deliberately designed to be far more efficient than natural processes).
- Rossiu's village are an Adeptus Mechanicus-style cult, descended from the engineering crew of a human starship that crashed during the final battle in orbit (it impacted nose-first and engineering was in the rear, hence why they survived). No idea why they're resource-poor... possibly a genetic "glitch" in their pigmole population that's been excarberated by said population's prolonged inbreeding not letting the "glitch" be bred out?
- Common ganmen tend more towards being the same basic frame with pilot- and environment-specific customizations than completely unique designs. With that said, current-era ganmen designs used by Beastmen tend not to be parts-compatible with pre-fall ganmen. Less efficient, too (against current-era ganmen, pre-fall ones are anti-army). Doesn't stop Lagann from taking over them, but the process takes a few moments longer.
- Speaking of which, Lagann's combine-and-assume-direct-control ability would be explained as Lagann-types having specifically been designed for switching rides mid-battle for maximum versatility. With that said, Lagann-types were notoriously difficult to master back in the day due to the finicky neural interface; Simon himself would be persistently plagued by migraines, nosebleeds and even ear-bleeding, as well as initially not being able to make Lagann move without being psyched-up by imminent or ongoing combat. The frequency of the former would drop off as he gets more used to it and only come up later on while he's really going all-out, while the latter would go away entirely.
- Tymilph's land battleship is not the only one of its class by far, nor is it the first one the heroes encounter, nor the first one they jack. Same with Cytomander's sky battleship. Expect more fleet-on-fleet engagements than just the one at Teppelin.
- The existence of the Beastmen would be explained as an ongoing experiment Lordgenome is running with the aim of isolating whatever genetic, molecular or other factor is linking reproductive capability with spiral power and eliminating it from the human genome so that the Anti-Spirals will leave humanity alone for good.
- While this is undoubtedly going to be a major turn-off for lots of people... the humor would be dialed down. No grimdark, though; that's not my style. Also no decrease in awesomeness because that's TTGL for ya. Let's just say that Asura's Wrath left a deep impression on me...
EvaUnit01
Kept you waiting, huh?
Mmkay.....
Oh, yeah, I remember this one!
Me, Daniel Bryan, and a couple thousand or so other people all think that you should definitely make this a thing.
- Location
- Who even cares?
The pre-fall era is generally treated by current humans as a "time of myths" kind of deal passed down via oral tradition.
Well, that was the original impetus. But yesterday while watching someone's blind reaction series about TTGL, I thought - "hey, why not go all the way and overhaul it completely instead of rehashing the same plot"?
- The story's "airtime", as it is, would be increased considerably, with the Four Generals being recurring antagonists instead of one-off deals.
- The standard terrain outside would be steppe instead of desert. Hell, the story might not even take place on Earth anymore but on a terraformed pre-fall colony world, with the locals having forgotten their origins.
- Simon sees Kamina more like a surrogate father figure than a big brother type.
EvaUnit01
Kept you waiting, huh?
<Simon not referring to Kamina as 'Bro'>
EvaUnit01
Kept you waiting, huh?
A super-cool dude who has convinced me to withdraw my prior objection.
Twist of Fate (part 2)
- Location
- Who even cares?
Oh, you.
Anyway, recalling some of my previous brainstormings on this one:
- Simon's realization that he doesn't have to replace Kamina after the latter checks out results in Simon and Kamina having different powersets during combat. Namely, Kamina tends to be the one who uses physical drills while Simon simply throws around raw spiral energy without bothering to materialize it, ranging from drill-shaped hardlight projectiles to energy versions of the Lazengann's drill-tentacles to drill-funnels that dematerialize into energy to evade interception then materialize back into physical form to resume attacking. Inside the Lagann, Simon is an utterly fucking unstoppable god of destruction.
- And that naturally doesn't go unnoticed by the Anti-Spirals either. Remember Boota's deal in canon? That Simon's unused spiral energy accumulated in his sidekick over the years until it reached literally astronomical levels? Imagine the same deal but with several millennia's worth of an entire planet's worth of humans' collective spiral energy accumulating in a single child. Simon already would've been the best of the best in his generation at using spiral energy but being surrounded by an entire planet's worth of a spiral race not allowed to use it, it just kept accumulating like water behind a dam until it found a spillway in the form of Simon.
- But this isn't necessarily a good thing. Back when they were a spiral race themselves, the Anti-Spirals possessed the capability to remotely observe other universes. Entities like Simon are so crazyfuckinginsanely charged with spiral energy that they could cause the Spiral Nemesis merely by existing - and the Anti-Spirals having seen firsthand that exact scenario happening to another universe is what got them so badly spooked about spiral energy in the first place. To them, Simon is armageddon incarnate, an absolute worst-case scenario, an anathema who blasphemes against creation with his very existence - and ironically enough, the Anti-Spirals are absolutely terrified of him. That is why they do not immediately vaporize Earth upon discovering his existence: they're wracked with indecision whether they should eliminate the threat immediately, or stay the hell away because antagonizing him could have very dire consequences for the universe.
CalumTraveler
Age Raveler
- Location
- Corner of No and Where.
Amusingly, it's the Anti-Spiral's own actions that *caused* this if they're still the ones that forced Lordgenome into keeping humanity underground and from using their spiral power. Would they become aware of this very ironic turn of fate? That by taking their course of suppression across the other races, they created that which the sought to prevent?
Nazi Gundam concept
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- Who even cares?
Reposting from SB after an overwhelmingly positive response.
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A question that came to me while watching a let's play of Wolfenstein: The New Order.
If Nazi Germany were to develop a dieselpunk version of a Zaku I using 1939-era technology, what would their name for a mobile suit be?
I was thinking that sometime in the thirties, the highest echelons of Nazis are discussing Jewish Physics when one of them brings up the Jewish legend of the golem (know thy enemy and all) as a dismissive example that fairy tale levels of stupid shit is the best those entartet untermenschen can possibly come up with. Except Hitler, being Hitler, promptly starts handing out orders that military R&D is to round up the top mechanical engineers of the Reich and have them top that with something Aryan that would strike terror into the hearts of the enemy and scare them away from attacking the Fatherland ever again.
Not to mention that the whole idea of a giant killbot is so ridiculous that western intelligence efforts will never ever believe it.
Development is difficult and ponderous. The first major issue is found to be the powerplant: even with batteries borrowed from the Kriegsmarine's Type VII submarine, the prototypes couldn't operate for more than a few hours while untethered and nuclear reactors haven't even reached the conceptual stage yet. Ultimately, the engineers just threw up their hands and supplemented the battery with a diesel generator.
Then there was the fact that not only the whole thing was so insanely mechanically complex that no human could possible drive and fight at the same time, it was hard enough just to learn how to make it walk without losing balance. Ultimately, a three-seater cockpit was squeezed in: a driver seat at the bottom with levers and pedals for operating the leg hydraulics; a gunner seat in the middle with foot pedals for rotating the torso, hand-operated winches for moving the arms and a small cathode ray tube TV screen connected to a boresight camera mounted onto the bottom of the hand armament; and finally a commander seat at the top with pedals for rotating the head so that it can be used as a periscope with a far longer line of sight than any tank's.
Even so, it was an utter nightmare to maintain, even with compromises put into the design. The arms had a highly limited range of motion to keep the joints as robust as possible. The fingers weren't actually usable, nor did the hand armaments mount an external trigger; those handles were just handles for holding and aiming the weapon, with the firing mechanism being directly wired to the gunner's controls. Switching weapons mid-battle is also out of the question.
Nevertheless, the go-ahead was given for a limited production run. And thus in September 1939, the Polish Army received the fright of their life...
Although ponderously slow and cumbersome, absolutely nothing the Polish had on hand could go past the Sd.Kfz.400 Gehenpanzer I's massive armor plates. Even artillery shells bounced right off before either the head-mounted 2 cm autocannon or the magazine-fed semi-automatic rifle version of a Flak 38 obliterated the offender. Far too slow to participate in blitzkrieg maneuvers, the behemoths were instead driven straight into the heaviest clusters of enemy resistance like a hammer while the conventional forces followed behind to provide covering fire against flanking attempts and to mop up any resistance left after the big boys' passing. Not that the latter was really needed; brave as the Polish were, more than once the Germans had the tattered remains of whatever Polish unit they most recently encountered hysterically begging to surrender after the Gehenpanzers were through with them.
To them, the Gehenpanzer was not a monster of a war machine; to them, it was an act of God. As hodgepodge the design was, its sheer psychological effect who'd never seen anything like it in fiction, much less in real life, was undeniable. Think Tiger tank times 10.
In the spring of 1940, the Wehrmacht rolled into Denmark while the Gehenpanzers remained home to receive a thorough check-over and tweaking in preparation for the real deal in France. Hitler personally inspected the war machines during this downtime and upon returning to Berlin, immediately approved a budget expansion for expanded production and crew training. Meanwhile British and French intelligence were scratching their heads in confusion about what could've happened in Poland because the first-hand accounts they have speak of invincible steel giants that wield cannons like men wield rifles. They speculate it may have been just a really big tank that spooked the refugees, or maybe even a Guntank-esque deal. But walking machines? Preposterous.
They were quite spectacularly proven wrong when in May, the Gehenpanzers attacked the Maginot Line with overwhelming force. Ordinarily, that wouldn't be a problem because the French had the following strategy in case of German invasion:
German propaganda covered up the Gehenpanzer losses at the Maginot Line to give them an aura of invincibility when they were finally unveiled to the world at the Paris victory parade. After finding their jaws, the world's reactions are along these lines:
----
A question that came to me while watching a let's play of Wolfenstein: The New Order.
If Nazi Germany were to develop a dieselpunk version of a Zaku I using 1939-era technology, what would their name for a mobile suit be?
I was thinking that sometime in the thirties, the highest echelons of Nazis are discussing Jewish Physics when one of them brings up the Jewish legend of the golem (know thy enemy and all) as a dismissive example that fairy tale levels of stupid shit is the best those entartet untermenschen can possibly come up with. Except Hitler, being Hitler, promptly starts handing out orders that military R&D is to round up the top mechanical engineers of the Reich and have them top that with something Aryan that would strike terror into the hearts of the enemy and scare them away from attacking the Fatherland ever again.
Not to mention that the whole idea of a giant killbot is so ridiculous that western intelligence efforts will never ever believe it.
Development is difficult and ponderous. The first major issue is found to be the powerplant: even with batteries borrowed from the Kriegsmarine's Type VII submarine, the prototypes couldn't operate for more than a few hours while untethered and nuclear reactors haven't even reached the conceptual stage yet. Ultimately, the engineers just threw up their hands and supplemented the battery with a diesel generator.
Then there was the fact that not only the whole thing was so insanely mechanically complex that no human could possible drive and fight at the same time, it was hard enough just to learn how to make it walk without losing balance. Ultimately, a three-seater cockpit was squeezed in: a driver seat at the bottom with levers and pedals for operating the leg hydraulics; a gunner seat in the middle with foot pedals for rotating the torso, hand-operated winches for moving the arms and a small cathode ray tube TV screen connected to a boresight camera mounted onto the bottom of the hand armament; and finally a commander seat at the top with pedals for rotating the head so that it can be used as a periscope with a far longer line of sight than any tank's.
Even so, it was an utter nightmare to maintain, even with compromises put into the design. The arms had a highly limited range of motion to keep the joints as robust as possible. The fingers weren't actually usable, nor did the hand armaments mount an external trigger; those handles were just handles for holding and aiming the weapon, with the firing mechanism being directly wired to the gunner's controls. Switching weapons mid-battle is also out of the question.
Nevertheless, the go-ahead was given for a limited production run. And thus in September 1939, the Polish Army received the fright of their life...
Although ponderously slow and cumbersome, absolutely nothing the Polish had on hand could go past the Sd.Kfz.400 Gehenpanzer I's massive armor plates. Even artillery shells bounced right off before either the head-mounted 2 cm autocannon or the magazine-fed semi-automatic rifle version of a Flak 38 obliterated the offender. Far too slow to participate in blitzkrieg maneuvers, the behemoths were instead driven straight into the heaviest clusters of enemy resistance like a hammer while the conventional forces followed behind to provide covering fire against flanking attempts and to mop up any resistance left after the big boys' passing. Not that the latter was really needed; brave as the Polish were, more than once the Germans had the tattered remains of whatever Polish unit they most recently encountered hysterically begging to surrender after the Gehenpanzers were through with them.
To them, the Gehenpanzer was not a monster of a war machine; to them, it was an act of God. As hodgepodge the design was, its sheer psychological effect who'd never seen anything like it in fiction, much less in real life, was undeniable. Think Tiger tank times 10.
In the spring of 1940, the Wehrmacht rolled into Denmark while the Gehenpanzers remained home to receive a thorough check-over and tweaking in preparation for the real deal in France. Hitler personally inspected the war machines during this downtime and upon returning to Berlin, immediately approved a budget expansion for expanded production and crew training. Meanwhile British and French intelligence were scratching their heads in confusion about what could've happened in Poland because the first-hand accounts they have speak of invincible steel giants that wield cannons like men wield rifles. They speculate it may have been just a really big tank that spooked the refugees, or maybe even a Guntank-esque deal. But walking machines? Preposterous.
They were quite spectacularly proven wrong when in May, the Gehenpanzers attacked the Maginot Line with overwhelming force. Ordinarily, that wouldn't be a problem because the French had the following strategy in case of German invasion:
- If the Germans attack the Maginot Line, flank through Belgium.
- If the Germans try to go through Belgium, link up with British expeditionary troops to the north and dig in.
- In either case, the Germans cannot make any headway and will eventually get ground down via attrition due to the Allies having sea superiority, just like it happened in the last war.
German propaganda covered up the Gehenpanzer losses at the Maginot Line to give them an aura of invincibility when they were finally unveiled to the world at the Paris victory parade. After finding their jaws, the world's reactions are along these lines:
- GB: "...allies or no allies, no way we're going back there. Not without much bigger tanks than what we have now."
- US: "...daaaamn. Good thing we're not involved."
- Japan: "That gaijin monstrosity is... impressive. It appears we made the right choice in allies."
- USSR:
(long, fearful silence)
Stalin: Comrades. This is the last time I am not informed of the existence of something of this magnitude. Have I made myself clear?
(terrified nodding)
Stalin: Good. Now... (taps on a newspaper photo of a Gehenpanzer) I want this for our forces. You have one year.
- Italy:
Mussolini: That is truly the crown achievement of fascism. Can we perhaps... talk about export?
Hitler: No.
Mussolini: As fellow fascists, I'm certain we can work out something-
Hitler: No.
Ultra Sonic 007
Trying to keep things simple~
- Location
- Colorado
Reposting from SB after an overwhelmingly positive response.
----
A question that came to me while watching a let's play of Wolfenstein: The New Order.
If Nazi Germany were to develop a dieselpunk version of a Zaku I using 1939-era technology, what would their name for a mobile suit be?
I was thinking that sometime in the thirties, the highest echelons of Nazis are discussing Jewish Physics when one of them brings up the Jewish legend of the golem (know thy enemy and all) as a dismissive example that fairy tale levels of stupid shit is the best those entartet untermenschen can possibly come up with. Except Hitler, being Hitler, promptly starts handing out orders that military R&D is to round up the top mechanical engineers of the Reich and have them top that with something Aryan that would strike terror into the hearts of the enemy and scare them away from attacking the Fatherland ever again.
Not to mention that the whole idea of a giant killbot is so ridiculous that western intelligence efforts will never ever believe it.
Development is difficult and ponderous. The first major issue is found to be the powerplant: even with batteries borrowed from the Kriegsmarine's Type VII submarine, the prototypes couldn't operate for more than a few hours while untethered and nuclear reactors haven't even reached the conceptual stage yet. Ultimately, the engineers just threw up their hands and supplemented the battery with a diesel generator.
Then there was the fact that not only the whole thing was so insanely mechanically complex that no human could possible drive and fight at the same time, it was hard enough just to learn how to make it walk without losing balance. Ultimately, a three-seater cockpit was squeezed in: a driver seat at the bottom with levers and pedals for operating the leg hydraulics; a gunner seat in the middle with foot pedals for rotating the torso, hand-operated winches for moving the arms and a small cathode ray tube TV screen connected to a boresight camera mounted onto the bottom of the hand armament; and finally a commander seat at the top with pedals for rotating the head so that it can be used as a periscope with a far longer line of sight than any tank's.
Even so, it was an utter nightmare to maintain, even with compromises put into the design. The arms had a highly limited range of motion to keep the joints as robust as possible. The fingers weren't actually usable, nor did the hand armaments mount an external trigger; those handles were just handles for holding and aiming the weapon, with the firing mechanism being directly wired to the gunner's controls. Switching weapons mid-battle is also out of the question.
Nevertheless, the go-ahead was given for a limited production run. And thus in September 1939, the Polish Army received the fright of their life...
Although ponderously slow and cumbersome, absolutely nothing the Polish had on hand could go past the Sd.Kfz.400 Gehenpanzer I's massive armor plates. Even artillery shells bounced right off before either the head-mounted 2 cm autocannon or the magazine-fed semi-automatic rifle version of a Flak 38 obliterated the offender. Far too slow to participate in blitzkrieg maneuvers, the behemoths were instead driven straight into the heaviest clusters of enemy resistance like a hammer while the conventional forces followed behind to provide covering fire against flanking attempts and to mop up any resistance left after the big boys' passing. Not that the latter was really needed; brave as the Polish were, more than once the Germans had the tattered remains of whatever Polish unit they most recently encountered hysterically begging to surrender after the Gehenpanzers were through with them.
To them, the Gehenpanzer was not a monster of a war machine; to them, it was an act of God. As hodgepodge the design was, its sheer psychological effect who'd never seen anything like it in fiction, much less in real life, was undeniable. Think Tiger tank times 10.
In the spring of 1940, the Wehrmacht rolled into Denmark while the Gehenpanzers remained home to receive a thorough check-over and tweaking in preparation for the real deal in France. Hitler personally inspected the war machines during this downtime and upon returning to Berlin, immediately approved a budget expansion for expanded production and crew training. Meanwhile British and French intelligence were scratching their heads in confusion about what could've happened in Poland because the first-hand accounts they have speak of invincible steel giants that wield cannons like men wield rifles. They speculate it may have been just a really big tank that spooked the refugees, or maybe even a Guntank-esque deal. But walking machines? Preposterous.
They were quite spectacularly proven wrong when in May, the Gehenpanzers attacked the Maginot Line with overwhelming force. Ordinarily, that wouldn't be a problem because the French had the following strategy in case of German invasion:
What happened in real life is that the Germans slipped through an area the French didn't think they'd try due to rough terrain, split the Allied forces in half, pushed the British into the sea, then turned south, flanked the Maginot Line from behind and was in the process of grinding it down when the French capitulated and ordered the remaining defenders to stand down. A similar sequence of events went down this time as well - except the French were not planning for Gehenpanzers when building the Maginot Line, nor the fact that they were actually pushing through (albeit with casualties). Because of this, the French panicked and ran down south for damage control, only realizing that they were set up when the rest of the German army rolled out of the now-undefended Ardennes with shit-eating grins on their faces. They couldn't have been able to bring the Gehenpanzers through that way due to having had to cross that rough terrain in a timely manner to maintain the element of surprise, so they instead threw them into the thick of it as decoys.
- If the Germans attack the Maginot Line, flank through Belgium.
- If the Germans try to go through Belgium, link up with British expeditionary troops to the north and dig in.
- In either case, the Germans cannot make any headway and will eventually get ground down via attrition due to the Allies having sea superiority, just like it happened in the last war.
German propaganda covered up the Gehenpanzer losses at the Maginot Line to give them an aura of invincibility when they were finally unveiled to the world at the Paris victory parade. After finding their jaws, the world's reactions are along these lines:
- GB: "...allies or no allies, no way we're going back there.
- US: "...daaaamn.
- Japan: "That gaijin monstrosity is... impressive. It appears we made the right choice in allies.
- USSR:
- Italy:
...I'd read it.
/fund it!
Yet another Evangelion rehash
- Location
- Who even cares?
Reposting from TV Tropes to see if anyone's got issues with this.
CalumTraveler
Age Raveler
- Location
- Corner of No and Where.
I like the concept. Sounds like it'd be fun to read.
- Location
- Who even cares?
New idea: what if we were to cross over Gundam IBO with Homeworld?
Namely, the Gundam Frames are pre-exile Hiigaran designs.
Namely, the Gundam Frames are pre-exile Hiigaran designs.
- Most of them didn't survive the war or the 4000 years afterwards.
- The majority of the surviving units are in Taiidan hands, refurbished and put into service as trophies for ace pilots. Modifications include the removal/disabling of the Alaya-Vijnana system, allegedly due to it destroying the mind of a non-Hiigaran pilot but actually due to the Taiidan being racist scumbags who believe that plugging a Hiigaran's mind into the machine has defiled it, so plugging themselves into it would spread the corruption to them as well.
- The Barbatos made it to Kharak and is the basis of all early Kushan designs.
- The Gusion used to be in Taiidan hands but the Taiidan commander supervising operations in the Outer Rim lent it to the Turanic Raiders after the latter were repeatedly beaten back by the Barbatos... only for the Barbatos to defeat it in a pitched battle, after which the Gusion was claimed by the Kushan and put into service.
- The Bael ended up in Kadeshi hands.
- The Flauros is in the Taiidan Imperial Honor Guard until Elson grabs it during his defection and gives it to the Kushan.
Extrasolar Eva
- Location
- Who even cares?
New idea that came to me after binging through Xenogers' trope page.
An Evangelion story that does not take place in Japan. In fact, no country or continent has a name recognizable to the reader. Not just that, but the local equivalent of SEELE are connected to an ancient religion that preaches that humanity brought ruin to heaven and was cast down in punishment. What's more, it's mentioned that the greatest mystery in the field of paleontology is why does humanity suddenly appear in the global fossil record roughly ten thousand years ago with no evolutionary ancestors, recently confirmed to be almost perfectly coinciding with the planet's last mass extinction event.
What's going on is that Rebuild's Third Impact wrecked Earth's ecosystem so badly that after a century of futilely attempting to rebuild civilization on dead soil and toxic water, humanity evacuated on a sleeper ship that subsequently crashed due to lack of maintenance. More specifically, the ship found this planet and was in the middle of an automated landing when the deceleration mechanism failed during reentry. The automatics managed to eject the cryogenic sections which used their own independent propulsion to escape and make a soft landing, but the main hull kissed the ground at terminal velocity in a fireball comparable to an asteroid impact.
Most of the cryogenic sections escaped the blast radius in time, but with all but one of the storage sections having went down with the ship, humanity was basically back to the stone age and took ten thousand years to get back to modern technological levels.
What makes this an Evangelion story is that the one storage unit that survived the impact happened to be carrying Evas as an "in case of Angels, break glass" measure. Even worse, that sleeper ship was actually based on the Wunder's technology and used Unit 01 as a power source. I have two ideas for antagonists:
An Evangelion story that does not take place in Japan. In fact, no country or continent has a name recognizable to the reader. Not just that, but the local equivalent of SEELE are connected to an ancient religion that preaches that humanity brought ruin to heaven and was cast down in punishment. What's more, it's mentioned that the greatest mystery in the field of paleontology is why does humanity suddenly appear in the global fossil record roughly ten thousand years ago with no evolutionary ancestors, recently confirmed to be almost perfectly coinciding with the planet's last mass extinction event.
What's going on is that Rebuild's Third Impact wrecked Earth's ecosystem so badly that after a century of futilely attempting to rebuild civilization on dead soil and toxic water, humanity evacuated on a sleeper ship that subsequently crashed due to lack of maintenance. More specifically, the ship found this planet and was in the middle of an automated landing when the deceleration mechanism failed during reentry. The automatics managed to eject the cryogenic sections which used their own independent propulsion to escape and make a soft landing, but the main hull kissed the ground at terminal velocity in a fireball comparable to an asteroid impact.
Most of the cryogenic sections escaped the blast radius in time, but with all but one of the storage sections having went down with the ship, humanity was basically back to the stone age and took ten thousand years to get back to modern technological levels.
What makes this an Evangelion story is that the one storage unit that survived the impact happened to be carrying Evas as an "in case of Angels, break glass" measure. Even worse, that sleeper ship was actually based on the Wunder's technology and used Unit 01 as a power source. I have two ideas for antagonists:
- Adam made it to the planet alongside the humans due to SEELE. Enemies are Angels, the good guys' headquarters is in the exact epicenter of the sleeper ship's impact crater. Unit 01 survived the crash and is in the good guys' custody, although they've never managed to activate it so far because the Eva used its Impact shenanigans to reincarnate Shinji's soul and will only respond to him.
- In an ironic reversal of roles, Unit 01 went active as a Seed of Life after the crash and spawned an entire Lilim ecosystem in the impact crater. When the humans discovered it, however, Unit 01 did not recognize them as its spawn and began spawning Lilim Evangelions in the same way Adam spawns Angels to fight off the intruders. Humanity was initially fine with avoiding the crater but recently, the Lilim Evas began wandering beyond the crater and attacking nearby human settlements, resorting in humanity being forced to fight them off with Adamite Evas reverse-engineered off of those the sleeper ship was carrying.
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Nunnally Lamperouge Being Awesome
- Location
- Who even cares?
In the past years, I've been tossing around ideas for Code Geass every now and then. Knowing my track record, likely won't get written - but that doesn't mean I can't develop them.
First and foremost, Suzaku goes from deuteragonist to tritagonist, with the deuteragonist role being filled by Nunnally. Reason for said change being that I once wondered: if sakuradite allows the creation of robotics, why not lower extremity medical exoskeletons? Some might think that that particular application of medical technology runs contrary to Britannia's survival-of-the-fittest rhetoric; I believe otherwise, as it would allow otherwise disabled individuals to keep pitching in for the Empire instead of being a leeching parasite, so to speak.
Due to having access to an exoskeleton allowing Nunnally to move around without a wheelchair, she does not have to be babysat all the time but can live mostly unattended. This, however, has caused Lelouch to feel useless and be even more detached and cynical than he initially was in canon. Another factor in Nunnally being able to live on her own is the fact that while she's still blind, she has a very good sense of hearing and as blind people tend to do, even developed a degree of echolocation that allows her to semi-accurately guess the layout of her immediate surroundings even without touch.
Originally, I pondered over the possibility of Nunnally being one who gets contracted by CC instead of Lelouch... but let's face it: she's nowhere near the genius he is, nor as willing to geass people. So what I'm thinking is that Nunnally is out in the city when she gets grazed and knocked to the ground by Kallen's truck. She's not injured but her exoskeleton was hit hard enough to malfunction, so she can't go anywhere and Kallen, seeing that she's just a teen and a blind one at that, tosses her into the truck with the intention to drop her off somewhere safe once they've shaken off Britannian pursuit. I mean, Nunnally can't see their faces anyway, so she can't give a description to the authorities.
While she's in the back of the truck, Nunnally tries to call Lelouch on her phone but gets cut off when the truck goes into the tunnels; Lelouch, not being stupid, responds to the cut-off call from an agitated Nunnally by using the remote GPS app he put on her phone just-in-case to locate her and immediately figures out something's wrong when it indicates she's in Shinjuku. So he promptly steals Rivalz' bike and comes running, so to speak.
When the iconic moment of Lelouch receiving his Geass comes, Nunnally is present as well and sees the same trippy vision Lelouch does. And in case you thought things won't go off the rails even more, you're wrong - because in order to increase her chances of Lelouch cooperating, CC tampers with Charles' geass on Nunnally to make it gradually lose effect over her sight throughout the following weeks. All that's immediately noticeable is that Nunnally opens her eyes, but still cannot see; it's only when she wakes up next morning that she very nearly screams in surprise when she realizes that she can actually see, albeit it's extremely blurry.
This presents a rather unique situation, for multiple reasons. One, the siblings are understandably pleased at this development (while CC is all smug in the corner, naturally). Two, it's awkward because Nunnally has to get used to it. Three, it's problematic because Nunnally has to keep pretending she's still blind in order to not attract suspicion, which she's less than enthused about. That last part is especially notable, as their friends naturally find out one after another and get caught up in things.
Anyway, to go back to the initial plot. Lelouch naturally places more priority on getting Nunnally out of there than fighting Clovis' forces, so he only uses the Japanese insurgents to open himself an escape route - which conveniently also allows the insurgents to escape themselves and in greater numbers than in canon, giving Lelouch more credibility when he shows up.
Kallen gets adjusted a bit as well. She no longer hides her physical fitness to the point where she's an active member of the fencing club. She's good enough at it that her peers repeatedly ask her if she plans on becoming a professional fencer, but she always deflects such questions by claiming that she's doing it for fun. This becomes somewhat of a plot point during her first run-in with Suzaku behind the controls of the Guren: the two put up such an amazing display of Knightmare combat that both sides momentarily stop to gape at them going at it with such insane skill and speed that some are genuinely wondering if they're actually human. After the duel, with the two factions disengaging, the Guren briefly turns back towards the Lancelot and does a fencing salute, something that irritates a few Britannians who interpret it as a taunt but which has Cornelia quite amused (and thoughtful over how an Eleven could know such a professional gesture). It also catches Suzaku's attention when he later sees Kallen doing the exact same salute in school and despite knowing that it's like the fencing equivalent of a handshake, his gut feeling just won't leave him alone...
How the plot would go later on, I'm still not sure. But it is certain that Nunnally would be involved with the Black Knights all the way, serving as the voice of reason and morality counterbalancing Lelouch's calculating and sometimes brutal efficiency. She's also the one to find out and confirm Kallen's real affiliation due to her acute hearing recognizing Kallen's voice beyond doubt. As for who'd fill in the role of Zero? Both, of course: both siblings show up in identical costumes and both siblings call themselves Zero, to the point of sometimes speaking in turns and completing each other's sentences.
What is certain is that with Nunnally being with the Black Knights, she'd never get captured by VV and consequently would remain with the Black Knights.
Non-Nunnally story developments would go differently as well. One particular mental image I had today was the Black Knights ambushing and hijacking a sakuradite transport plane above the Bering Strait sometime during the inter-season time period for their own needs (namely, their Knightmares were running on fumes at this point due to lack of resupply opportunities) and the Black Knights going to the EU instead of China. By this point, Nunnally is not only the de facto second-in-command (and acting commander if Lelouch isn't available) of the organization, but also turned out to have surprising aptitude for handling Knightmares (with Sutherland-type cockpits, that is; she understandably has trouble with Gekka-type cockpits due to not being able to work the foot pedals while lying down).
I'm conflicted over whether Nunnally should be able to talk CC into contracting her too - but if she does, I think I know what kind of geass could fit her personality: one that gives her the mental equivalent of Suzaku-level reflexes (basically bullet time) when someone she cares about is in danger (and later on, whenever she wants) and can actually cancel out Rolo's geass if activated before his does. I feel this would be fitting: one sibling bearing the Power of the King, one sibling bearing the Power of the Messiah. One having the power to make the world a better place, the other having the desire to do the same, complementing each other like yin and yang.
Of course, this is just my rambling...
First and foremost, Suzaku goes from deuteragonist to tritagonist, with the deuteragonist role being filled by Nunnally. Reason for said change being that I once wondered: if sakuradite allows the creation of robotics, why not lower extremity medical exoskeletons? Some might think that that particular application of medical technology runs contrary to Britannia's survival-of-the-fittest rhetoric; I believe otherwise, as it would allow otherwise disabled individuals to keep pitching in for the Empire instead of being a leeching parasite, so to speak.
Due to having access to an exoskeleton allowing Nunnally to move around without a wheelchair, she does not have to be babysat all the time but can live mostly unattended. This, however, has caused Lelouch to feel useless and be even more detached and cynical than he initially was in canon. Another factor in Nunnally being able to live on her own is the fact that while she's still blind, she has a very good sense of hearing and as blind people tend to do, even developed a degree of echolocation that allows her to semi-accurately guess the layout of her immediate surroundings even without touch.
Originally, I pondered over the possibility of Nunnally being one who gets contracted by CC instead of Lelouch... but let's face it: she's nowhere near the genius he is, nor as willing to geass people. So what I'm thinking is that Nunnally is out in the city when she gets grazed and knocked to the ground by Kallen's truck. She's not injured but her exoskeleton was hit hard enough to malfunction, so she can't go anywhere and Kallen, seeing that she's just a teen and a blind one at that, tosses her into the truck with the intention to drop her off somewhere safe once they've shaken off Britannian pursuit. I mean, Nunnally can't see their faces anyway, so she can't give a description to the authorities.
While she's in the back of the truck, Nunnally tries to call Lelouch on her phone but gets cut off when the truck goes into the tunnels; Lelouch, not being stupid, responds to the cut-off call from an agitated Nunnally by using the remote GPS app he put on her phone just-in-case to locate her and immediately figures out something's wrong when it indicates she's in Shinjuku. So he promptly steals Rivalz' bike and comes running, so to speak.
When the iconic moment of Lelouch receiving his Geass comes, Nunnally is present as well and sees the same trippy vision Lelouch does. And in case you thought things won't go off the rails even more, you're wrong - because in order to increase her chances of Lelouch cooperating, CC tampers with Charles' geass on Nunnally to make it gradually lose effect over her sight throughout the following weeks. All that's immediately noticeable is that Nunnally opens her eyes, but still cannot see; it's only when she wakes up next morning that she very nearly screams in surprise when she realizes that she can actually see, albeit it's extremely blurry.
This presents a rather unique situation, for multiple reasons. One, the siblings are understandably pleased at this development (while CC is all smug in the corner, naturally). Two, it's awkward because Nunnally has to get used to it. Three, it's problematic because Nunnally has to keep pretending she's still blind in order to not attract suspicion, which she's less than enthused about. That last part is especially notable, as their friends naturally find out one after another and get caught up in things.
Anyway, to go back to the initial plot. Lelouch naturally places more priority on getting Nunnally out of there than fighting Clovis' forces, so he only uses the Japanese insurgents to open himself an escape route - which conveniently also allows the insurgents to escape themselves and in greater numbers than in canon, giving Lelouch more credibility when he shows up.
Kallen gets adjusted a bit as well. She no longer hides her physical fitness to the point where she's an active member of the fencing club. She's good enough at it that her peers repeatedly ask her if she plans on becoming a professional fencer, but she always deflects such questions by claiming that she's doing it for fun. This becomes somewhat of a plot point during her first run-in with Suzaku behind the controls of the Guren: the two put up such an amazing display of Knightmare combat that both sides momentarily stop to gape at them going at it with such insane skill and speed that some are genuinely wondering if they're actually human. After the duel, with the two factions disengaging, the Guren briefly turns back towards the Lancelot and does a fencing salute, something that irritates a few Britannians who interpret it as a taunt but which has Cornelia quite amused (and thoughtful over how an Eleven could know such a professional gesture). It also catches Suzaku's attention when he later sees Kallen doing the exact same salute in school and despite knowing that it's like the fencing equivalent of a handshake, his gut feeling just won't leave him alone...
How the plot would go later on, I'm still not sure. But it is certain that Nunnally would be involved with the Black Knights all the way, serving as the voice of reason and morality counterbalancing Lelouch's calculating and sometimes brutal efficiency. She's also the one to find out and confirm Kallen's real affiliation due to her acute hearing recognizing Kallen's voice beyond doubt. As for who'd fill in the role of Zero? Both, of course: both siblings show up in identical costumes and both siblings call themselves Zero, to the point of sometimes speaking in turns and completing each other's sentences.
What is certain is that with Nunnally being with the Black Knights, she'd never get captured by VV and consequently would remain with the Black Knights.
Non-Nunnally story developments would go differently as well. One particular mental image I had today was the Black Knights ambushing and hijacking a sakuradite transport plane above the Bering Strait sometime during the inter-season time period for their own needs (namely, their Knightmares were running on fumes at this point due to lack of resupply opportunities) and the Black Knights going to the EU instead of China. By this point, Nunnally is not only the de facto second-in-command (and acting commander if Lelouch isn't available) of the organization, but also turned out to have surprising aptitude for handling Knightmares (with Sutherland-type cockpits, that is; she understandably has trouble with Gekka-type cockpits due to not being able to work the foot pedals while lying down).
I'm conflicted over whether Nunnally should be able to talk CC into contracting her too - but if she does, I think I know what kind of geass could fit her personality: one that gives her the mental equivalent of Suzaku-level reflexes (basically bullet time) when someone she cares about is in danger (and later on, whenever she wants) and can actually cancel out Rolo's geass if activated before his does. I feel this would be fitting: one sibling bearing the Power of the King, one sibling bearing the Power of the Messiah. One having the power to make the world a better place, the other having the desire to do the same, complementing each other like yin and yang.
Of course, this is just my rambling...
Flight of the Valkyries (part 3)
- Location
- Who even cares?
Did some brainstorming today on the original story concept mentioned higher up this page. Specifically, this part:
I've been thinking of combining the two: the abominations the girls fight are artificially-created beings, similar to Pacific Rim's kaijus. The aliens are dropping them onto the planet in an attempt to try and scare humanity off the planet so that they can have it for themselves.
More specifically, the generation ship that carried the aliens here was launched towards the Solar System centuries ago. They haven't been aware of humanity's existence until after they entered the system and are mistakenly believing that the humans are squatters who moved in during said centuries. The aliens don't want to commit genocide, so they're dropping in the beasties to try and scare humanity into leaving the planet, not realizing that we're an indigenous species and lack the means for interstellar travel. At least, that's the initial status quo; after a while, the aliens would get suspicious at our seeming stubbornness at not getting the message, squint at us a bit harder and realize that something's not right because we're too technologically advanced for squatters. And it would be at this point that they'd have a bit of a schism between those who want to make contact and work out a mutually beneficial solution on the basis that we were here first and those who want to clean house on the basis that after all the effort and resources their forebearers poured into the colonization mission, they can't just scrap it because the target planet happens to be inhabited.
I've been thinking of combining the two: the abominations the girls fight are artificially-created beings, similar to Pacific Rim's kaijus. The aliens are dropping them onto the planet in an attempt to try and scare humanity off the planet so that they can have it for themselves.
More specifically, the generation ship that carried the aliens here was launched towards the Solar System centuries ago. They haven't been aware of humanity's existence until after they entered the system and are mistakenly believing that the humans are squatters who moved in during said centuries. The aliens don't want to commit genocide, so they're dropping in the beasties to try and scare humanity into leaving the planet, not realizing that we're an indigenous species and lack the means for interstellar travel. At least, that's the initial status quo; after a while, the aliens would get suspicious at our seeming stubbornness at not getting the message, squint at us a bit harder and realize that something's not right because we're too technologically advanced for squatters. And it would be at this point that they'd have a bit of a schism between those who want to make contact and work out a mutually beneficial solution on the basis that we were here first and those who want to clean house on the basis that after all the effort and resources their forebearers poured into the colonization mission, they can't just scrap it because the target planet happens to be inhabited.
Another Magical Girl Eva concept
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- Who even cares?