Gundam 00 Episode 12

[masamuneehs]

honestly, i'm of the same opinion about the plot... I don't really see a whole lot in it. It's got a great setting, taking some modern day and historical precedents and creating a rather thorough world stage for the events to unfold on...

But I just don't care. I mean, we know no side is really good or bad (although Ali and whoever is behind him continue to evolve into pure villains), but why should we care? Care about the pilots? Bah. Care about Marina and her country? For all the facts we know about the country's history and Marina's role in her government, I still don't think we've got a real reason to give two shits about her.

This show doesn't seem to be doing a good job investing us in the characters or parties involved. We're showered with facts (sometimes to repetition) about how things came to be, where the characters come from, etc., but there've been only a few scenes were we could actually sit down and say "THIS makes me care about the character or country!"

Setsuna's child soldier opening scene, Allelujah's spook space shuttle past, Sergei's somewhat guilty compassion towards the HRL Super Soldier Girl (and his initial horror at the project), Hal and Al's excellent dialouges, Ali appearing as a jihadist in a flashback after we know he's a selfish, money hungry weasel... Aside from these scenes, I've yet to see anything convey information and emotion to the viewer.

the exception continues to be Graham Acre. The way he talks, the things he says, we're constantly learning about his personality. He has yet to have a big flashback or any personal history revealed, but all of his scenes continue to slowly build him up as someone who we're supposed to care about.

Also, Marina's assistant. Goddamn that woman just oozes strength! You can tell she's the type who would be best suited to be in a position of power, but is denied that because of circumstances, so works as hard as possible to have be an impact player anyway.

Take the Azadistan opposition leader in this episode. The guy is central to the entire episode. Everything that happens revolves around him in some way. Yet, aside from the first scene where we're shown he's reluctant to use force, what do we really learn about him? What do we care if he lives or dies? We're set up to think of him as a compassionate person from Marina's flashback with him, but that's too little too late. So long as central plot events hinge on characters that we don't care about, it's like we're watching some weird glittering news cast: the events might be complex, the stage massive, the consequences important, but the people are just names and the events remain distant to us.

This show plows through plot events and showers us with information, but it doesn't give us enough small things for character development. Honestly, I think I know more about Saji, Louise, and her mom than I do about main characters or countries. Show us some conversation about meaningless stuff (like Felt and the other CB girl had about shopping that one time), show us some humor based on character actions / mood (like Louise's mom developing a thing for Saji).

Seriously, it isn't hard to make viewers care about your characters and the world they live in. Almost every single movie and anime I've seen has made me more invested in it (even if I didn't like it) than this show does.

And, I swear to God, if I see one more scene with that CB Union rep where nothing new is revealed or said, I think I'm going to flip out. Nothing you haven't heard before or haven't figured out for yourself has ever been said by him. Complete waste of time.

[Psyke]

Graham Acre was awesome. Seems to me he'll eventually be getting a Gundam of his own. Or at least something better than a "mere Flag".

[Ryllharu]

Graham definitely stole this episode. He showed Lockon that he's a true master of mobile suits. A lot of the other pilots all around, and even that CB NAMBLA pedo who just drinks and makes snide comments without doing anything, have all commented once or twice that Setsuna (the supposed "main" character) pretty much sucks at piloting. The other Meistars have made some stupid mistake or another.

Graham displays his absurd ability in this fight. Putting aside how a beam weapon fires slow enough for him to react, he has an amazing repertoire of skills, from transforming his mobile suit to dodge a shot (proving he knows every inch of the Flag, and how and in what way it configures itself) to his insane reaction time. While his body can't entire handle the strain, he puts everything into his piloting and battle.

Yeah, the plot isn't always so cohesive. But to be honest, that's what I like about it. It's a good reflection on our own world. Leaders aren't perfect. Shirin is a better leader than Marina. No one appears to be truly good. The "heroes" aren't the best in their field by a long shot. A lot of people are in it for themselves, that HRL asshole that Sergei arrested, Al-hisnameistoohardtospell, everyone in the AEU. War is messy, sloppy, and a lot of innocent people get involved. Human exploitation that was supposed to be kept secret.

It's the reactions that everyone has to whatever the incident of the week is that makes the show. Saji and Louise, vaguely detached from it all, involved in a space disaster and a subsequent terrorist attack. All of a sudden they care. Then her mom drops in and they're back to only idly watching it all unfold on the news. If they're not directly involved, most people don't give a shit.

Christina losing it during the space battle, she's always been a civilian, not a soldier. Felt, child of soldiers, is barely effected by anything, just gets the job done. Sumeragi has ghosts of her own, copes by being an alcoholic.

Each of the Gundam pilots have their own little thing that makes them a little nuts, and then we're back to Graham. He's apparently always been the best, and he damn well doesn't want to be bested by someone just because they have better technology. He's egotistical. He sees each news item as a chance to prove his own worth against the Gundams by taking one down. He gets pissed when he misses his chance.

There doesn't really need to be a cohesive plot at this point. It's one, enormous character study.

[Kraco]

There doesn't really need to be a cohesive plot at this point. It's one, enormous character study.

While that could work under different situation (like Lucky Star or Minami-Ke), I don't see it working here, and I agree with Masa. Well, it's all fine to build a good psychological study of the human mind in real politics, but this is supposed to be an entertainment TV series, not a text book.

I see as the main problem here the fact this concentrates on pretty much nothing, like has been said, and presents an endless list of characters who do a multitude of different things for a total of three seconds before their screen time ends. You can't really build a story like that, not even a setting for developing characters. For Ryllharu's sake I will admit you can portray a cavalcade of characters like that but hardly develop in a manner that would spark any interest.

But I suppose if they had just concentrated for this one desert country for most of the series it wouldn't have given much of a global impression. Maybe they didn't have any alternatives with so many uninteresting characters, after all.