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Lieutenant General Gundam

Better than a lot of the proceeding season.

REAL ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT!
We learn what they were keeping Iok around for.
Julieta has become a SUPER PILOT
Mika dies, no bullshit.
Almost half the seven stars are dead >>> democracy is a big leap
Rustle's still running things, and wants Galge-horn kept close to home.
OH HEY ITS A NEW TOY GRAZE TYPE. When is it for sale?
Between half-metal negotiations and anti-human debris legislation, Kudelia has done more real politics than every previous princess girl combined.
Ride is suddenly a badass assassin.
Obvious "Man I love" fake out.

It could have been a lot worse.
 
As soon as they panned to the view of the space, I went I FUCKING CALLED THIS OMG

Also, I'm not even mad at this point after this episode.

R U S T A L E L I O N

Do not go gentle into that good night
Old age should rave and burn before close of day
Rage, Rage at the dying of the light!​
 
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Man, it's sure good to jump to the victorious camp at the last second.

Say it with me everyone:

R U S T A L E L I O N
Well, that was a trainwreck till the end.

Still, in a way, it has been fitting. Chocolate Char ends up reverse-succeeding by proving the current model is unsustainable? I think he'd like that in a way, especially since now he's a figure of legend.

inb4 McGillis actually worked with Rustal from the very beginning

Also, I got to watch Iok screaming like a little girl as he's crushed to death. That makes this a good episode alone.


And now:



The Salt Merchant's Union thanks you for your continued patronage.
 
Ah watching Iok get crushed was cathartic.
Julieta is still a shit because she couldn't even kill Mika and Barbatos while they were falling apart.
But yeah I figured this would be Mika's last stand from these last few episodes.
Poor Kudelia and Eugene though.
 
I always had a feeling that Orga's words for 'Crush anybody that gets on our way' was going to bite Tekkadan in their ass one day and so it has been done.

Honestly, the 'villains' needed more screentime than just doing stuff in the background
 
Wait, is this April Fools or something?
 
So Rustal lets Mars form their own government and reforms Gjallarhorn? Okay, sure, whatever. The world is objectively better? Okay, fine.

Why isn't he under arrest for fucking using Dainsleifs on multiple occasions? I'm guessing because of the massive amount of influence that Rustal had over the media when he was the Lord of the Elion Family must have something to do with it.
 
I just realized something...Mika died, but that was due to succumbing to Orbital bombardment wounds. He didn't lose a single MS to MS fight in this series.
 
That was ... actually good. Like a genuinely good conclusion that did something new and different compared to previous shows. I have begrudgingly grown to admit that the last arc, while messy, has been genuinely quite enjoyable. It never quite let go of the things I didn't like about it, but I always feel that a final episode is the most critical part of a series. And this was a good final episode. It didn't do many of the things that I would expect out of a Gundam finale, and that turned out to be fine. It turned out to be surprising and striking and will be a memorable finale episode in the Gundam canon.
 
It's finally over! And, well. That was something else, wasn't it?

At first blush the whole thing felt like the expected outcome of a UC show, i.e. huge status quo preserving power wins against revolutionaries and gangsters from space, except the revolutionaries are the protagonists and the status quo is represented entirely unambiguously as a fairly shitty thing for most people, right up until it fixes itself by replacing the deadwood and the damaged with the capable and the motivated. It still felt like the writers didn't quite know how to handle child soldiers ("do we make them seem noble by giving them a chance for heroic self sacrifice or do we acknowledge the senselessness of their existence by having the survivors and erstwhile opponents work to stop more of them being made?"), and Julietta just felt amazingly ineffectual right to the end, but there were some brilliant bits of sound design and direction, and for all of its' looseness the animation of the final fight really conveyed the power, and the futility, of Mika and Akihiro's attempts to live true to themselves.

Also, Kudelia and Atra's adorable family life was just too cute for words! :3

Also also I do hope that bit with Ride comes to nothing because this probably the best end that could have been achieved by this creative team and I don't want anything else to come after and spoil it.
 
Fun fact: the only AUs to get sequel movies were Wing and 00. Both had the small, emotionless child soldier as the lead pilot and a princess type. My prediction is the IBO movie will have:

Gratuitous gundam redesigns,
A huge swarm of identical enemies,
McGillis reappearing in a upgraded Grimgerde,
Enough impact to almost completely displace the TV series in super robot wars,
Mika doing something to make shippers go nuts.

I SEE ABSOLUTELY NO ROADBLOCKS THAT COULD PREVENT THIS
 
G2BattleConvoy said:
So Rustal lets Mars form their own government and reforms Gjallarhorn? Okay, sure, whatever. The world is objectively better? Okay, fine.

Why isn't he under arrest for fucking using Dainsleifs on multiple occasions? I'm guessing because of the massive amount of influence that Rustal had over the media when he was the Lord of the Elion Family must have something to do with it.
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Because he has justification the first time he used them, and nobody who knows about the second time cares enough to blow the whistle on him.
 
Claudette Savagely said:
Julietta just felt amazingly ineffectual right to the end
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If there's one thing about this m a s t e r s t r o k e that I would change, it would be finding some space for her to:

Properly fight Mika. In the glimpse we get it's clear that she's actually pulling even with black rock barbatos, and I don't actually have an issue with Mika succumbing to his wounds rather than being clearly defeated, but I would have liked a clearer view of the two of them throwing down. Of course, part of what made the episode fresh was that there was no final duel as such - that battle played out between McGillis and Gaelieo in the previous episode.

Still, the imagery of her lofting Barbatos' severed head was very strong, and I guess she's going to grow up to be Gjallarhorn's boss, so that's cool.
 
Ford Prefect said:
If there's one thing about this m a s t e r s t r o k e that I would change, it would be finding some space for her to:

Properly fight Mika. In the glimpse we get it's clear that she's actually pulling even with black rock barbatos, and I don't actually have an issue with Mika succumbing to his wounds rather than being clearly defeated, but I would have liked a clearer view of the two of them throwing down. Of course, part of what made the episode fresh was that there was no final duel as such - that battle played out between McGillis and Gaelieo in the previous episode.

Still, the imagery of her lofting Barbatos' severed head was very strong, and I guess she's going to grow up to be Gjallarhorn's boss, so that's cool.
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As Gaelio says, the lady knight being seen to defeat the devil was some good stuff, even if it didn't quite happen that way. That last shot of her with B-dog's head on a stick set to the tune of the cries of her warriors really struck me, which much of this series hasn't done, and in probably one of the few remarkable vocal performances of the series, Mao Ichimichi really sold her final declaration at the end of the battle.

Also her hair-do at the end was fucking great! Evidently power in Gjallarhorn comes with access to the finest hair and makeup stylists! (does this make her the hair-apparent?) And speaking of being done up in style...

Poor Iok :>
 
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Speaking of that, I really love the moment where Akihiro is getting the shit kicked out of him, then he's like 'wait a minute'

Like a lot of the characters, Akihiro was always there, and he had great if understated screen presence. He had a good send off and as the 'second Gundam' pilot it was nice to see him with almost equal billing to Mikazuki. Honestly, that part where they both declare their names and their full Gundam names, was a moment that had me shaking my fist at the screen going 'I thought I didn't like this show!' Even Mika was in the mood lol
 
Ford Prefect said:
Speaking of that, I really love the moment where Akihiro is getting the shit kicked out of him, then he's like 'wait a minute'

Like a lot of the characters, Akihiro was always there, and he had great if understated screen presence. He had a good send off and as the 'second Gundam' pilot it was nice to see him with almost equal billing to Mikazuki. Honestly, that part where they both declare their names and their full Gundam names, was a moment that had me shaking my fist at the screen going 'I thought I didn't like this show!' Even Mika was in the mood lol
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That was another example of really good voice acting, because that light-bulb moment could have come off as unbearable cheesy had Akihiro's VA not decided to void the warranty on his vocal cords. Personally the moment that really sold me was when Mika licked the blood off his lips and started grinning maniacally, and I was just sat there like "wtf i love ibo now lol". Damn you G-Tekketsu, for being fun somehow! :V
 
I just remembered, way back in S1, Ride was the one who designed the trademark Tekkadan logo that Orga liked. He really stuck to the meaning of Iron Flower.
 
The pose Julieta strikes is practically identical to what McGillis struck in Episode 45. McGillis does it to rally his revolutionaries, Julieta does it to re-inspire the Arianrhod Troops.

In addition, a lot of the motions of the fight between Gaelio and McGillis seemed to be very similar to their fight at the end of S1. I haven't looked at it frame by frame, but there are similarities, especially towards at the end.
 
There's colony gassing, too. This, along with Thunderbolt adding detail to the immediate postwar period, makes me glad IBO is over and we can all forget about it. :V
 
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