Gundam 00 — Episode 18
This post was delayed because I was at three separate Chinese New Year-related social functions over the 24-hour span of period between 8am Saturday and 8am Sunday. I only reached home this morning. But fret not, for this sudden spontaneous generation of what is common known as a “life” is an extremely rare occurrence that will probably not happen again for quite some time.
Anyway this episode was pretty good except for the fact that my brain was functioning like a half-dead zombie’s as I watched it. Or perhaps that was the reason. Either way, it’s a nice evasion from what had seemed like an inevitable descend into Destiny-ville.
Summary
The Trinity trio begins its campaign of merciless annihilation as it wipes out one military base after another without provocation. The Ptolemaios crew, along with almost everyone else, is confused as to whether these violent interventions are supposed to be part of the original plan.
Tax payers’ money
Apparently the creator(s), Aeolia Schenberg or whoever he turns out to be, of this gigantic secret organization didn’t think it through very well when he/they divided the organization into so many secret cells operating independently of one another, without providing any means for them to confirm each others’ identities.
Why must technical briefings always be done in the dark?
Ian, Celestial Being’s chief technician, discovers that the solar furnaces used by the Thrones are actually knock-offs. They lack some kind of implementation which results in them having limited operating time, unlike Exia and the rest which can operate indefinitely. This is pretty damning evidence that the Trinity siblings are evil and their Gundams are probably based on technology stolen from Celestial Being by a spy within the organization.
“Farewell Howard. We barely knew you. For real.”
With the lost of Howard Mason, a previously insignificant character, Senior Captain Graham has gained a renewed determination to beat the Gundams with his Flag and avenge his fallen comrade. Howard should be glad that he is achieving far greater good in his death.
These meetings always take place in bars
Kinue meets up with the Union soldier who claims to have seen a Gundam up close during the Taklamakan exercise. Apparently he was hidding behind some rocks when Nena exited her cockpit in enemy territory so as to give evil Haro instructions at a volume loud enough for everyone in a 100-metre radius around her to eavesdrop.
It’s good practice to stretch regularly if your job involves sitting in front of a monitor all day
The convenient plot hole aside, we learn from this conversation, and a later one, that the Trinity siblings report to an entity called “Ragna”, which sounds like a pirated copy of Veda. (Without Windows Genuine Advantage™) But it could really just be some grumpy old man with a mustache. There’s not enough information to make the call either way.
Weddings are…
On the way to one of their AEU targets, the trio passes through Spanish airspace and happens to fly over a wedding ceremony attended by the Halevy extended family, which includes Louise. Nena, being a psychotic bitch, is unhappy that some people get to have fun while she has to work her tight ass off (massacring people), so she decides to have some fun (massacring people) and fire on the ceremony. Twice.
…dangerous
This wipes out the whole Halevy lineage, except for Louise. Just think of all that inheritance…
My preciousssss
Okay, so I shouldn’t be mean. Louise is completely traumatized by the incident and she also lost her left hand, leaving her unable to accept the ring which Saji spent weeks saving up for.
Guro
Emo emo emo. I am somewhat reminded of Code Geass, in a good way.
Aim for the cockpit dammit!
Finally, Johann Trinity launches an attack against the Iris Corporation’s weapon factory, which is manned by civilians, and gets pwned by Graham in a one-on-one fight over Iowa airspace. Graham is smart because he steals Johann’s GN beam saber and uses it against the Gundam Throne. But he only manages to cut off an arm.
“Exia, exterminating targets.”
And uh, Setsuna decides to take on the Thrones. I’m guessing he’s going to get pwned, so that Exia can get upgraded into Ultra Hyper Exia Excellion Infinity, maybe?
Comments
All in all, it’s an enjoyable episode with nice pacing. It is heavily plot-based, which is a good thing because G00 is really weak when it comes to character substance.
Anyway, Louise lost part of her arm. Gundam Throne lost one of its arms. Am I the only one who thinks that something may come out of this coincidence? (Gundam Louise!)
Okay, that’s probably going too far. (I hope.) But seriously, I can just imagine Louise being abducted by some top secret joint Union-AEU-HRL black project to manufacture cyborg pilots for whatever super weapon they plan to build to counter the Gundams. Maybe some really, really huge mobile armour that shoots missiles from its fingertips and add some giant lasers for good measure. And name it something that invokes a sense of doom and destruction, like “Break”, “Kill”, “Annihilate”, or even “Destroy”. Yeah.
Also, it seems that the parent organization of Celestial Being is being set up by the story for a split-up into two factions, and the worst part: Wang Liu Mei sounds like she’s tempted to join the dark side! Oh no! :O
Screencaps
“Noooooooooo…”
My, what a huge head you have
Colin Powell’s descendant?
Tieria gets cock-blocked by Veda
“Maybe those mass murderers aren’t so bad after all…”
“Why did I volunteer to pilot the cannon fodder unit?”
The purple orb at the front looks like evil Haro
RIP
WTF? Wait… Wait… WTF!?
Graham lost a few internal organs from the acceleration
This is not the “Vader” you are looking for. *Waves hands*
Isn’t that bulge on the bed a little too big?
EMO
omg no guro pls kthxbye
“That ring was frigging expensive.”
I like to play Mahjong.
February 11th, 2008 at 12:08 am
Well by looking at the upcoming merchandise Exia will get something like UC’s Dendrobium or CE’s METEOR, called the GN Arms (though it looks more like a smaller version of Dendrobium). Maybe he’ll get that soon after this upcoming fight in episode 19, but I have a feeling that the fight may be very short instead.
On the other hand, since Graham has managed to chop off Throne Ein’s arm and snatch a weapon from it, would that mean Gundam’s technology would be partially exposed to Union (but their systems are a bit different to the original 4 we know of)?
February 11th, 2008 at 12:14 am
Fascinating Episode.
I can definetly see Saji joining the Union military and ending up in a fight with Setsuna.
As Graham now has a GN weapon, we might actually see GN particles in use by the Union soon.
Will this be the end of Darth Vader? We will never know
February 11th, 2008 at 2:16 am
I guess its about time for Exia to become Exia Strike Freedom
February 11th, 2008 at 2:20 am
Who would let Saji pilot a freaking suit?
What’s up with sunrise and kids? Why would anyone in there right mind let a highschooler pilot a mobile suit?
February 11th, 2008 at 3:35 am
@Raphael: Avalanche Exia is only normal Exia with a bunch of boosters on it. It only has seven swords, which are oh so conveniently stuffed into its backpack. It’s likely that it won’t make an appearance in the anime.
February 11th, 2008 at 3:57 am
Exia & upgrade..
Hmmm. Arent you thinking far ahead yet?
what about the hidden special capabilities
of the Mobile Suits like the one that Tiera had.
February 11th, 2008 at 4:03 am
Well, I think it’s a bit early to assume that Saji will pilot anything. He would prolly get pwned by that w/e first name corlasawar guy. Unlike Setsuna, Saji’s got no experience in mobile suits. So unless the 2nd season is a time skip, there will be little to no chance that he’s going to participate in combat.
Personally, i think his sis is going next, seeing as how she just barely escaped death at alley, unlike that whats-his-name soldier that gave her the info. She’s stooped too far into Trinity’s space and since Nena is psychotic, i would guess she really loves that space…
My guess is Saji will somehow meet up with Celestial Being after it is witnessed that the two gundam sides actually appose each other. Afterall, there has got to be some significance to his meeting with Setsuna. If you remember correctly that one time Louise’s mom left for Spain louise was crying “I will never see Mama again” and Saji asked Setsuna to help him with her. If my guess is correct, then that was a miniaturization/foreshadowing that she would (literally)never see her mom again, and that Saji would have to ask Setsuna for help again.
February 11th, 2008 at 4:22 am
Weddings are…
a blast!
lol xD
Well, I’m curious to see what happens with the ‘real’ Celestial Being attacking the Thrones. I could see CB hooking up with the nations, at least for the time being.
Cock Block lol.
Also what will Union do now that they have a fake GN Drive (the GN saber)?
I wasn’t aware that DarkMirage was Chinese =O
And it seems that one assistant guy to the observer (green-haired young guy with the white robe thing xD) is the spy?
February 11th, 2008 at 4:29 am
I don’t think the Union can do much with the saber. Afterall, it only emits and uses the GN particles. Furthermore, it isn’t the GN drive, as far as i believe, it simply “borrows” it. And with such little information on the imperfect GN particles I would say that they could not even identify it seeing as how the closest one to do so was reduced to the atomic level.
February 11th, 2008 at 5:22 am
I don’t think that all gundams have hidden ablities like virtues. with virtues it was because exia was Gn-001, dynames was 002 kyrios was 003
virtues was 005, they are missing a 004- which turned out to be Nadeleeh.
February 11th, 2008 at 5:23 am
Raphael: The Avalanche is only an added on system that allows short burts of incredibly high speed. After it is used it has to recharge. Its not much of an upgrade, especially against other gundams. I’m willing to think that there will be some sort of upgrade to Exia though, even if it is just the Avalanche. They are gonna need it if they want to defeat the Thrones. The Thrones are powerful even if their GN drives are just knockoffs.
WebN00b: Exia does have hidden systems, but they aren’t buit in like Virtue’s is. Exia’s are things like the Avalanche.
Lastly there is only one reason I want to see Saji in a mobile suit, I want him dead. That whiny little sissy boy pisses me off. There is no reason to let him live, he has no role in this anime other than to take up free screen time. As of now he always complained but done nothing to change anything, He just tries to appease others and suck up to them. The only change I see happening is him becoming a pissed off boy who wants revenge. With his level of absolutely no experience and skill in a mobile suit, even if he manages to get in one he will get killed. And a person like that would never be allowed into a suit by any military, he’d be considered mentally unstable. As for the time skip theory where he can get some training in I don’t see that happening. The Thrones are movving to fast for that, and forcing everyone around them to move at that speed too. The fact is in the amount of time it would take a completely new pilot to get the sufficient amount of training it would all be over. I simply don’t see Saji piloting a mobile suit.
February 11th, 2008 at 6:09 am
looks like saji is going to be the next shin from gsd
February 11th, 2008 at 6:40 am
Shadow: I agree wholeheartedly that the timeskip is a bit of a bizarre idea, but no one can say it is impossible. Afterall, somehow in GSD, Shin went from n00b to Kira lvl in a span of 10 episode equivalent to about a week or so. But of course that is GSD and he did have the SEED.
As for the upgrades, i don’t think they are absolutely necessary against the Thrones. We have to admit that their weapons are, indeed, powerful. But as far as i can see they only have one advantage to the original monsters: less screentime ;). The only reason for them being able to save the gundams in ep 16 was because of a surprise attack, and the militaries lack of information. Also like in this ep we saw that Graham was able to take out an arm off because of a surprise attack, and a little bit of inspiration from a dead man, of course.
As for the Saji in suit thing, you cannot say it is impossible. Those with inspiration can sometimes exceed those in talent. If he obtains the ambition of death to gundams because of Louise, and if he has natural talent, it is quite possible. Though of course, i am defending him, and we have yet to see how he reacts to the experience. Based on his personality he would sulk, but everyone with screen-time has a purpose. If the producers were planning on killing him off they would’ve when he and louise were about to get pulled in by earth’s gravity. But i still stick to my original idea that he will probably run into Setsuna sometime or another.
February 11th, 2008 at 7:16 am
I remember recalling when Exia was fighting the uprated Enact that was piloted by Ali al Serges and he was being pwned and then at the climax Setsuna got angry and the suit used the anger and it’s blades sharpness increased and it cut the Enact’s blade in two…maybe Setsuna will figure out how to control that at will…sort of like the SEED mode…who knows…I just want my HD downloads :)
February 11th, 2008 at 7:17 am
PS: Graham is a badass.
February 11th, 2008 at 7:44 am
NENA IS SUCH A FUCK NUT. I really hope she gets her vagina ripped out and then fed to her. This episode is good for the fact that it makes me mad.
Anywho, who wants the new trio dead?
February 11th, 2008 at 8:06 am
What are you people thinking? Saji is not a fighter. He is a wimp.
The ability to fight is something that is settled for good in early childhood. He doesnt have the drive.
February 11th, 2008 at 9:00 am
Man… I guess Nena wasn’t kidding when she told Setsuna not to piss her off…she sure is crzay
February 11th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Way to be mature about this lol. Though, I would not say fighters spirit is born as much as it is developed. And Saji does have a drive, though i’m sure he might not follow it.
February 11th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Theoretically an old dog can learn new tricks. But fighting is less of a formal art and more of a basic instinct. A wimp like Saji is going to hesitate at exactly the wrong moment.