Gundam 00 — Episode 22
Once upon a time there were three siblings (one with an unhealthy obsession with his sister) living happily in the forest. One day, a big bad mercenary appeared in front of them and shot two of them dead.
When story writers run out of ideas, character deaths are the best way to emulate plot progression, just like how lazy anime bloggers write crappy episode reviews instead of coming up with original content. *cough*
Summary
“Arrrr. Shiver me timbers! There be landlubbers about!”
Lockon is fine! He needs three weeks to heal completely, but meanwhile he is wearing this pirate eye patch that is making Feldt all hot and bothered. She is jealous of the homoerotic tensions between Lockon (seme) and Tieria (uke), who by the way isn’t even human (bestiality?).
“Aeolia Schenberg hates our freedom (to kill each other).”
The UN keeps up its attack on and Trinity siblings, driving them to the brink of exhaustion. It calls its new anti-Gundam operation Fallen Angels and is taking credit for “developing” the GN-X weaponry system. Politics: take credit for everything but do nothing.
The Old Glory getting an upgrade
Graham’s Custom Flag is getting a GN drive. I guess someone took my advice on making a Flagdam! But I still think that my idea of swapping the heads make more sense since the body of a Flag is clearly not designed to disseminate GN particles…
“Setsuna, you’re our only hope!”
Setsuna decides to go down to Earth and give the UN a piece of his mind, and to finally prove to himself that his precious Gundam is the best-est Gundam in the whole world. I am Gundam! Gundam. Also, the new GN arms’ assault container can apparently launch into space by itself, so everything’s cool even though Exia can’t use the space elevators anymore. (How convenient.)
“Hi.” *Bang*
Ali, everyone’s favourite psychotic serial-killing mercenary, is back and he kills Michel within seconds of appearing in this episode. (Must be some kind of world record.) Hurray! one less annoying siscon in this world. Ali then proceeds to hijack Zwei, which has its biometric lock disabled by the hacked Veda, and pwns Johann with it.
Exia is anorexic
Exia appears in the nick of time to save Neena from certain death. I guess this means that Neena will soon turn over a new leaf, join Celestial Being and possibly become Setsuna’s personal sex slave.
Hannibal rising
Libonze finally manages to unlock Veda completely. Aeolia Schenberg’s cryogenically frozen ass shows up and he gets shot in the face a few times by Alejandro with a solid gold handgun that fires silver anti-vampire bullets.
“Oh snap! Why didn’t I keep my body in a bulletproof glass… Or didn’t I?”
But Aeolia planned for this and a hidden contigency routine in the system causes Veda to unlock all the (real) GN drives to function at their full potential. (Begging the question as to why Aeolia crippled them in the first place.) This happens just in time to save Setsuna from making a fool of himself as usual.
Red makes you go three times as fast
And by “full potential”, I mean “flamboyant red paint scheme”.
Instead of destroying Ali and ending this whole shit once and for all, Setsuna chops off a bit of Zwei and gracefully steps back to allow Ali to escape, while he hovers motionlessly in the air trying to strut the coolest pose he can muster with a bright glowing-red Gundam.
“I AM GUNDAM!!!”
Frankly I seriously don’t understand Michel’s role in this whole story; he took up way too much airtime for a character who was just there to die. But I’m just glad that he’s dead.
Screencaps
GN arms’ assault container
Sleeping beauty
Would you trust your life with this doctor? He’s clearly blind!
Feldt stalks Lockon
“Tieria, why won’t you accept my feelings?”
Training to be a whore
This makes sense…
Please do not adjust your TV
It’s funny how Gundams always hold each other like people do
Those crazy European designers
Don’t do drugs
Oh noz
The victorious hunter poses for a shot with his prize
Alejandro loves his bling
You know it’s more powerful because it glows now
This must be some kind of futuristic radio channel
By the way, Mendoi-Conclave’s release is being delayed at episode 20 due to intensive typesetting involved in recreating Saji’s cellphone messages. Don’t kill the messenger/translator!
March 12th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Yes I have, and that I recall three named characters died. As of this episode of Gundam 00 7 named characters have died and 9 if you want to count the two named pilots from the Union and HRL respectively that died, but never really got any character development beyond the part about Graham killing his superior officer and for defending the “honour” of the HRL.
So yes. And at the way 00 is going it looks like it’s probably going to increase that death count differential over Code Geass.
Celestial Being’s base is called Krung Threp in case anybody didn’t know. It’s the short form of the Thai name for Bangkok, Thailand, the full version of which is in the Guiness Book of World Records as the “longest place name”.
March 12th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Talk about Ali, he’ll probably end up like Raww in Gundam SEED. Writers won’t take him off the line until the very last episode. But with all the original Gundams with full power, I doubt he would ever survive.
But there is at least one interesting fact: what if he or someone else found the last of the 5 furnaces at the last episode?
March 12th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
There are alot of things wrong with this episode… Dont get me wrong, I’m a great fan of gundam, and 00 has exceeded my expectations so far, but…
1st- Lockon lost his gd eye. But he cant aim well? I though it was Haro doing the aiming? But maybe it has something to do with the mind.
2nd- Btw, who is Tiera, Libbons and nena? They can access veda so are they robots or sumthing? If they are why are they fighting like crap?
3rd- And how did the doctor get in? Are there more people to the ship’s crew than we know? And where did they get the GN arms? The GN particles were green and i tot the real ones could onli be made in Jupiter? Was it in the aeolia guy’s plan? They said onli 1 was ready, so how many were there and how many guy’s were there to pilot it?
4th- How does the GN-X squad know where are the thrones hiding? And why does the thrones have some gas thingy?
5th- How many Haros does Ptolemaeus have?
6th- Why din they show how the Thrones escape from their ambush at their hideout?
7th- How the hell were they able to smuggle gundams thru the pillar b4 this?
8th- do gundams have unlimited extra parts? How many fangs have we seen that have been destroyed?
9th- Michael was killed by a shot to the shoulder
10th- wat is the purpose for GN arms? I thought they were supposed to be additional parts for e gundams, then it turned out to be some crap
11th- Did Ali leave his enact behind? The gundam was worth e effort but leaving a gd machine behind was a waste of money. And he left with a gundam with no limbs?
I’m not a critic, and I know that gundams are not supposed to be realistic.
looking foward to episode 23!
March 13th, 2008 at 2:04 am
@Juz: All of those are some well pointed out inconsistencies some of which we’ll probably never know. The thing with the Japanese is that some things just are and the why is courtesy explanation. Let me try though:
1. I think Haro tried to compensate for any accuracy errors Lockon made.
2. I don’t know and it might not be revealed for some time yet. Nena though I think is just a normal girl with comuter skills who was studying it. We aren’t sure if it was even her that locked Tieria out. Did we ever see her eyes glow even?
3. I think the GN Arms was at Krung Thep. As for Doc Oc they must have picked him up somewhere offscreen.
4. Because Neena forgot to put up the Stealth Field
5. A whole Harom full
6. No idea
7. I think it might have something to do with Lagna before he turned traitor or Wang’s influence.
8. That’s an excellent question. I doubt the Zwei is a factory so where did he get more fangs. And where did Johan get a new arm.
9. I thought it was through the chest, but I’ll have to check.
10. I think it hooks on the back G-Defensor style.
11. Ali is impulsive enough that I’m not sure he cares. The new power is more important to him.
March 13th, 2008 at 2:12 am
to Kaioshin Sama
you said that Code Geass have half the deaths of Gundam 00 among named characters, let’s remember together
In Gundam 00 you see die among named characters:
1 trinity brother one
2 trinity borther two
3 the sister of Saji
4 the scientist of the Flag
5 the mother of michelle (michelle lost an hand)
6 Aeolia in cryigenic sleep
7 one pilot of the Flag squadron
In code Geass you see die among named characters:
1 - Kururugi Genbu the father of Suzaku was killed by his own son (it remembers any to you?)
2 - Marianne Vi Britannia, the mother of Leoluce and Nunnaly, was assassinated and her daughter was permanently injured during the fight (it remembers any to you?)
3 - Naoto Kōzuki, the brother of Karen, in the first ep
4 - Clovis the 3° prince of britannia
5 - Euphemia, the young and cute princess of Britannia who shooted on a mob whit a machinegun
6 - Cornelia her sister, the scary and evil princess of Britannia
7 - the general of Britannia who betrayed her cause Leoluce Hipnosis
8 - Nina Einstein who charged the black knight with a NUKE in the hands of her robot, if she didn’t die, pratically ALL the other main character will die
9 - Mao , the chinese guy that cannot switch off his telepathy powers
10 - Kaname Ogi, zero second in command who was shooted by his lover
11 - Kewell Soresi, a knight of britannia, killed by Karen
12 - Jeremiah, the knight that Zero named “Orange”, killed by C.C.
12 - C.C. the witch, probably died fighting Jeremiah, but since you see in the flashbacks that she died many times in the past, she will resurrect again
13 - the father of Shirley, even if you dont’ see him, his death changes the relationship between Cecil and Leoluce
14 to 100 - Several Black Knights who were with Zero from the beginning were killed in action, many others britannian and japanese characters were in very poor condition when the story stops, so even if Nina Nuke will not blow, they probably die
and i was too lazy to check the whole series to provide more details and characters…
In any case, if the director of the second season of Code Geass will be the same, i’m sure like hell that the survivors will not come back for no reason like did Ali in Gundam 00 ep 22
in Gundam 00 i’m sure that in the last ep you will see:
in the left corner Setsuna with a White Gundam
in the right corner Ali with a Red Gundam
in Code Geass i was never sure of what was going to happen, if Suzaku and Zero will became allies or killed each others, and if Euphemia was going to marry Suzaku (she was killed, Marina Ismail will LIVE)
By the way, if you watched Code Geass and cannot tell the difference between it and Gundam 00 there is no word i can say to change your mind
March 13th, 2008 at 3:29 am
Zecks, thats completely wrong. You start off saying NAMED characters. Too bad 14-100 isn’t NAMED characters and Father of Shirley also is not a NAMED character. If you want to do it hat way, why not include the 1000 killed in Gundam attacks in 00 and space? Also, you don’t even know if half the people on the Geass list are dead. Nina, Ogi, Cornelia, C.C. (who probably didn’t die), Jeremiah (you don’t see him dying yet), and who is the general of Britannia who betrayed her cause Leoluce Hipnosis
With Code Geass your nitpicking while Gundam 00 you are obviously being more lenient letting characters like Lockon and Setsuna’s parents not be included. Kaioshin Sama’s count of 3 was, yes, less than the actual number but your numbers are not accurate either.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:35 am
@Zecks:
1: Died prior to the series doesn’t count.
2: See #1.
3: That wasn’t Karen’s brother. He died before the series, in which case see #1.
4: Died within the first three episodes doesn’t strike me as very memorable.
5: Sucks to be the pink princess.
6: Sucks to be the violet princess, although some spoilers say she survived.
7: Sucks to be the Darlton, the general of the violet princess.
8: Nina was never shown dead, and it’s been confirmed that she’s coming back.
9: Mao was a nutjob.
10: Ougi’s been confirmed to be alive and in jail.
11: Curel is a minor character, so meh.
12: Jeremiah’s sinking to the bottom of the ocean, but that dun mean he’s dead.
13: Same with C.C.
14: I don’t give a shit about minor people in the grand scheme of things. If I gave a shit about any of them, then maybe I’d count them a “character death”. But until such time, no. And Gundam has had plenty no-name soldiers and civilians die too, but I don’t see you mourning for them.
@Kaioshin and Juz:
1: Lockon manually aimed the sniper rifle. Period. Haro makes adjustments for when he starts missing (and even then he chose to adjust it himself in episode 9), and controls the Gundam’s movement for when Lockon’s concentrating purely on sniping.
2: Nena is not the same as Tieria and Ribbons. Her eyes have never had the Veda interface glow. The Trinities are only genetically enhanced soldiers created to serve as Gundam Meisters. Ribbons is working only with Alejandro, while Tieria’s loyalty lies with the original crew of Gundam Meisters.
3: Regarding Dr. Moreno, they referenced him in a few past episodes, although I can’t remember which.
4: The traitor of Celestial Being fed the UN forces the information.
5: A lot of Haros indeed.
6: Because the battle in space was more important.
7: They touched on the whole smuggling Gundams up the pillar thing back in episode 3.
8: It goes without saying that you keep spare parts around your base.
9: Michael was shot in the left side of his chest, around the area of the heart. Johann was the one shot in the shoulder, which kept him from fighting Ali very well after they got in the Gundam fight.
10: GN Arms serve as both add-on parts for the Gundams as well as a mobile artillery unit. It also showed that it can dock with a mobile container, which allows for the transport of Gundams to and from space.
11: I doubt Ali gaves a shit about his Enact anymore.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:37 am
to Juz
Wanna know how the GN Arms connects? look at this pics:
http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/00/gn-001-gnarmor.jpg
the Thrones were betrayed by Alejandro. To gain points among the alliance he told them about the location of their base, if you follow his monologue when was inside Veda he say that: the alliance and celestial beings will be under his control and the role of the trones is over.
He needed the thrones to scary the HRL, AEU and USA so they formed the alliance
He needed Laguna to sell GN drives to the alliance, so they can get rid of all the Gundams
For what is happening i can tell that Ali is working for him
He knew the location of the Thrones, and the security code of the red Gundam was hacked so he was able to pilot it. Not to mention that he got rid of Laguna, so now nobody can tell the alliance that Alejandro was inside the Celestial Beings
The real GN drives were made on Jupiter, and are the ones with the hidden superpowers
do you remember the episode when you see a little flashback before the opening?
80 years ago: 2 men inside a broken space station around Jupiter. Inside there are corpse but no data or weapons, they were disappointed to have not found anything about Aeolia foundation when they see an Haro, a broken one with preciuos data inside, that is the Haro inside Neena Gundam!
Probably, basing on that data, they come back to Earth and created the red GN drive, and that is the reason between the difference from the GN-X and the true Gundams
i am critic, i do know that the tech in gundam and any mecha anime can’t be realistic, but i don’t care of tech, i even like Mazinger that is absurd tech. I am critic about the story, if is well made or not.
The background of Gundam 00 was very well made, this plot i have just written is very good, there are other details i just can’t lilke
to Kaioshin Sama
1 - Sorry, i forget to include the death of Laguna and the tieren pilot in the list, but still is no match between Code Geass and Gundam 00
2 - A story can be changed during the making, but if it is made by a professional it will be good.
If it is made basing on the fans vote, you will see discrepancy in the story, and that is what i can see in Gundam 00
3 - Any mecha series have a toy line related to it, if not they don’t do a mecha series, but an action series, The weight a sponsor have on the plot, (more fights and less character talk) can change a lot.
4 - You are right about Gundam W, the initial plot can appear similar but the story goes on in a very different way
5 - You can be right about not judging a series till the end, i hope Gundam 00 it will be better in the next season, but still the ep 22 will be a parody of itself
March 13th, 2008 at 3:49 am
This episode is as ridiculous as ep 15 was stupid. Blah.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:54 am
to RMX
you can like Code Geass or not, i liked it and based my mail to what i remembered without loosing much time to it. The characters i mentioned were selected in the same manner of the deaths in Gundam 00. If you think that the 3° prince of Britannia made a short apparition (3 episodes), so are the pilot of the Flag, the pilot of the Tieren, Aeolia, Laguna and the mother of Michelle, that compared very few times during the story. For not to mention the six episodes life of the thrones.
The death of the parents of Suzaku and Leoluche was seen in flashbacks and had weight in the story
BTW this is a Gundam forum not a Code Geass forum, so please cut off about it
i apologize for have speaking about it so much and i apologize for the errors i could have made about the name of the characters and so on
March 13th, 2008 at 4:12 am
@Zecks: Don’t get me wrong. I love Code Geass, and if I didn’t love that I wouldn’t have begun to appreciate mecha and wouldn’t have made the move over to Gundam 00.
I just don’t think you’re being all that fair to Gundam in this case. The minor characters that you just mentioned all have varying degrees of character development, which is why I tend to care about them more than Prince Clovis, who died after ordering a massacre on a ghetto, or Empress Marianne and Prime Minister Kururugi, who were shown in flashbacks and were never given character development farther than that. I’ll give you the chance to tell me who I would miss more.
Allow me the opportunity to eulogize for the side characters of Gundam 00 who have met their maker:
Howard Mason was a Flag pilot developed over the first half of the season as a man with pride in his country and his unit, and died a noble death trying to defend that pride, as reckless as it was.
Lieutenant Ming was a Tieren pilot whom we saw for only one episode. I can’t say I got all attached to him given the short amount time he got, but I’ll give him props for having the balls to sacrifice himself for the pride of his nation and his fellow soldiers.
Aeolia was frozen in a coffin on the moon, and the way the glass sounded against the gunfire doesn’t seem like the glass was breaking. It seemed bulletproof to me. But if he’s dead now, at least I remember him for the his recorded speeches that were intended to rally the world around a cause of peace.
Laguna was a bigshot president of a corporation and was puppeteering the actions of Team Trinity before Ali killed him. He can go to hell for all I care.
LOUISE’s mother I feel sorry for a little bit, although those scenes with Saji, Louise, and Mama were a tad annoying more than once.
March 13th, 2008 at 4:40 am
Yea you are right, maybe i gived the impression i’m one sided to Gundam 00
I wanted it to be better of Gundam Seed 1 and Code Geass, and i was disappointed…
You got points about Code Geass and i explained myself bad, sorry again, but this is a Gundam forum so i don’t want to talk here.
I do care about civilian death, even nameless one, war is always tragic, and i hope for Celestial Beings victory. The thing i don’t support about em is that they attack soliders, but they didn’t shoot to the politicians that are the real ones who choose to do wars. When Allelujah destroyed the research facility on enhanced humans, and killed innocents kids who were his brothers. I hated it, cause Celestial Beings don’t attacked the politicians of the HRL who decided to build that facility, it was Sergei who made them pay… Maybe i’m becoming too political…
Coming back to the original prupouse of this forum, do someone knows if Aeolia survive?
I liked his character, maybe the one frozen was a dummy. how bulletproof was the glass have no importance, if Alejandro controls the place he can destroy it with a demolition charge or eradicate the coffin from the floor to not damage Veda
March 13th, 2008 at 4:58 am
@Zecks: Well I found our problem. You came in expecting something like Gundam SEED or Code Geass, while I came in with no Gundam experience whatsoever, and I didn’t expect it to be anything like Code Geass. That is the difference between us.
The thing that Gundam 00 does differently from Code Geass is the portrayal of collateral damage and the deaths of bystanders and those with minimal involvement in the situations around them. Gundam 00 gives characterization to those it hurts and kills, or at least gives us a perspective of them that will give us reason to feel sorry for their losses.
Code Geass took civilians and victims of war and exploited them to a ridiculous level, throwing them away as pawns are on a chessboard. I couldn’t feel too sorry for them, because that was not the message of the series. Instead I felt that the writers were trying to breed a hatred for the cause of all the suffering, as what Lelouch harbored for Britannia. It gave me all the reason to cheer on every act of Lelouch and the Black Knights’ movement, and every opportunity to loathe every single one of the actions taken by the Britannians.
Both shows have the elements of the shades of gray, but I think that Code Geass polarizes the viewer into picking a side and coming to a decision on which is black and which is white, while Gundam depicts everyone in the shade of gray, save for maybe a few characters like Ali.
March 13th, 2008 at 5:34 am
@Zecks_75: Well I like both Gundam 00 and Code Geass. They are both similar and different in a number of regards. The key link between them is that both have kept me wanting to come back for more next week more than any other series airing during there seasons.
As for Aeolia we aren’t sure yet. One of the greatest inconsistencies I’m waiting to see tied up soon is the one between Dr. Eifman’s disbelief in his true intentions and Aeolia’s own statement this episode that his intentions are genuine. Is it possible he is still yet lying to the Meister’s. There is still something a little fishy about Trans-Am, it seems to demonic, to vicious, almost like Ali, which is the opposite of what Setsuna wants to become.
@Guner: Does anyone take you seriously anymore after you’ve failed to come up with a single well though out point of criticism and just settled for the Jay Sherman “It Stinks” route? Anyone out there? *Crickets Chirping*
March 13th, 2008 at 5:47 am
Not in the mood kaio. But it os oddly comforting to know that whatever happens, you will always be a fanboy.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:05 am
@Guner: It’s likewise comforting to know the predictability of ones such as yourself. And remember, I can’t be a fanboy, ’cause I haven’t seen any other series before this one. =D
March 13th, 2008 at 6:21 am
How is it that a guy who basically dedicates himself to saying how much he dislikes fanboyism get’s called one for happening to like one show. I almost never post links to my articles on other people’s websites out of principle, but this time I think an exception is warranted.
http://animehistory.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/i-am-not-a-sunrise-fanboy/
March 13th, 2008 at 6:34 am
You protest too much. In this case its not even a good objection. Who the hell cares about other series.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:40 am
Ohhhh no. No no no no no. I’m not getting dragged into an endless debate like the relativety one you had with DM. Just read the article or not, that settles it from my end.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
DarkMirage > Kaio