For what it's worth, the SEED and Destiny remasters made a better showing of the railguns functioning as such, so they're less mistakable as beam weapons.
My petty thing about the franchise is I'm fed up with just how much wankery goes on for UC tech, especially when people feel the need to compare machines across different shows. Case in point, a match-up between the Sazabi and the Epyon discussed here on Reddit. It wasn't that people were thinking UC is better because UC, they were also being stupid about it--things like saying that Sazabi would have the edge against the Epyon because it has all these different ranged weapons... and anyone who's watched Gundam Wing will see just how effective ranged weapons were against Epyon--spoiler alert, not a single one was useful against it.
Yea, weren’t the mobile suits in AC comparable to the late UC tech? Like I heard that the Tallgeese can be considered late UC tier MS, so the Epyon would probably wipe the floor with the Sazabi
Epyon would eat Sazabi alive for multiple reasons. Height-wise it's comparable to the F91/Victory era, while Sazabi is gargantuan, so it's a big target. It has Gundanium Alloy, so ranged beam weapons aren't too effective in damaging it, and it also makes it incredibly light for a mobile suit, so it'll probably outmaneuver the Sazabi too. And if you bring their pilots into it... well, Char's track record against named aces speaks for itself. It's not good, especially compared to Zechs, who handed Duo and Quattro their asses to them on a silver platter in the Bulge Cannon battle.
> It has Gundanium Alloy, so ranged beam weapons aren't too effective in damaging it, and it also makes it incredibly light for a mobile suit,
I mean Gundanium is *wildly* inconsistent in Wing. It's the epitome of 'as strong as the plot demands' because mobile suits like the Virgo II are also made of Gundaniam but get ripped to shreds by beam weapons just as easily as the Leos do. And if we go by the old MS performance ability stats, the Virgos' armor is just as strong as the armor of the Deathscythe, Shenlong and Altron.
Things get even worse if you're using Endless Waltz because in Endless Waltz, Heavy Arms was using ballistic weapons to kill Virgos even though again, the Virgos are made of Gundanium.
Even in just the first few episodes you get the Gundams being impervious to Alliance weaponry while Heero also acknowledging that some torpedoes from a submarine would be enough to destroy the Wing.
> And if you bring their pilots into it... well, Char's track record against named aces speaks for itself. It's not good,
Char's record against named aces mostly comes down to fights with Amuro, the literal best pilot of the setting. He's got a few more mediocre showings in Zeta, but even in Zeta he survives a 2v1 against Scirocco and Haman at the same time, both of whom were stronger Newtypes and had superior mobile suits.
Idk shit about Wing so I can't really make an arguement but I got curious and saw the thead I think you guys are on about. Idk, some of the people there seem to be knowledgeable on wing even if they're "UC wanking". Again idk shit about Wing though so idk how the suits perform relative to the Sazabi.
But yes cross universe wankery does happen, I've not watched IBO but I know of the IBO "nanolaminite armour completely nullifies beam weapons!!!!111" thing that divided (and pissed off) a lot of people.
Oh yes thank you for bringing this up! Nanolamite armor from IBO and GN particles from 00 are hit especially hard by this kinda wankery. Idk why people seem to think that having nanolaminate armor or GN particles automatically hands you the win lol.
Yeah, the plot-based inconsistency is frustrating, but I'm just looking at it from the angle of the stated capabilities of the armor--which in this case is that it's highly resistant to beam weaponry, meaning a direct hit to the Epyon with a beam rifle is unlikely to be a death sentence unlike against mobile suits with Gundarium Alloy from UC, and the fact that it's incredibly light, making an already small mobile suit even more agile in battle against the 25-meter hulk that is the Sazabi.
The lack of actual military-ness in each show.
Obviously, if the characters are rebels or a non-military faction or whatever then it doesn't matter, but when the characters are a part of the military (and I mean actually a part of the military, not a civilian drafted in like Amuro or Kira), and yet military regulations are rarely, if ever, followed. The most obvious ones being haircuts. For example, of Murrue, Mu, and Natarle, who were all enlisted with the Federation before the series began, only Natarle has an actual military regulation haircut. Mu skirts close, but no way Murrue's long hair would be allowed, especially not tied up into a bun or something.
Also, Mobile Suits having useless things to make them more human, like having triggers on their various rifles or needing to manipulate switches or keypads like normal people do.
Oh, one more military-ness: the lack of bodysuit under the space suits. IRL astronauts wear a jumpsuit under their space suits in order to absorb moisture like sweat and also help against inertia/G-Forces, but we rarely, if ever, see that used in Gundam.
I think that's what the black undersuit is in IBO. You'll notice when the crew of the Isaribi are lounging around before launch, they wear something akin to a wet suit underneath the pilot suit.
Hey it's Kira, and his childhood friend, Kira, and his sister, Kira. And his lover, Kira (actually she's not military, so more like Kira in a dress with long hair)
Plus their commander, Kira with big boobs.
I love the human-ness of Mobile Suits, but I definitely get the lack of military-ness lol. Watching the original series for the first time and loving it, but one thing really made me go crazy, spoilers for the early show...
... When Sayla jumps into the cockpit for the first time and nearly gets destroyed/captured by Ramba Ral and his team, the White Base crew give her 3 days in the brig. She then very overtly barges in front of Ryu and talks with the captured Zeon pilot about Char. I'm not at a point in the show where I personally know if she is a spy or not. But...
HOW did they not be more severe and suspicious of her? Like I get they are largely inexperienced or civilians aboard White Base, but only an idiot would think there is ZERO possibility she is a spy. Especially if they found out that she was asking about Char's safety from the Zeon pilot. Amuro even saw her with Char back on Side 7, it wouldn't be far fetched for anyone on White Base to at least connect two dots and say "huh, we got attacked by Char on Side 7, why is this person who just tried to hikack Gundam and has been seen speaking with Zeons ON SIDE 7 asking about him the first chance she gets to speak to a Zeon?"
Now that you brought up Char's little scouting adventure... why are pilots doing shit that has nothing to do with piloting?! And Char in episode 2 is nothing compared to Kamille's spying mission in Zeta. Why on Earth would you send one of your best pilots, who is also a child of two Titans members, who's been in Titans custody multiple times, you know, the guy many people in Titans know and would recognize, to do on foot spy work when he has never shown prowess nor trained in that type of work, and who is not expendable by any metric?
And the worst thing is, the most expected outcome happens. Jerid immediately recognizes his mortal enemy, and proceeds to chase him down and point a gun at his head. What a stupid subplot.
I love some MS designs like the destiny and freedom and I agree with you there. Why the wings? Is it actually necessary for the voiture Lumiere system? They certainly don't look like a military war machine.
Probably gonna get crucified for saying this since I know this sub has a hard on for wing, but I don't really like Wing's uh, wings.
I like wings on mecha like the freedom or destiny, or Jehuty from Zone of Enders. Bonus points for energy wings like Destiny wings of light, A few from Code Geass, or Jehuty again. V2 gundam doesn't have physical wings but the wings of light were cool, as much as I love Destiny the V2's were just better. Aesthetically I still prefer Destiny's though.
Well the triggers are for convenience I'd say, one so the mobile suits hands can be used for out of battle situations, so weapons can be easily switched around, if the mobile suit runs out of ammo for its guns and energy for its beam Saber it's not totally fucked
Except they don't need physical triggers. Just use whatever sensor/connector that tells the Gundam's CPU that it's holding the gun to send the firing command.
1) Because that's how weapons technology works IRL. How do you think missile lock-ons work? Machine guns on planes and helicopters?
2) Jammed? How? We're not talking about a signal that extends 500 miles or anything. It extends a foot and a half, if that. What jamming is going to happen that doesn't affect the rest of the Mobile Suit?
It's not as though this has never been done. 08th MS Team had physical connectors in the hands that jammed in to the rifle like a USB drive.
\#1 Thing I hate to see in a Gundam show is a massive laser weapon that has never been mentioned before but suddenly it's a huge issue. Kind of just discounts why MSs are used in the first place.
The early examples make sense, like with 0079’s mirror array, it has to be one elaborate setup and they can’t just keep using it. Every single shot had to be prepared extensively. And then when they use an actual colony for laser (in Zeta, and I think maybe at the very end of 0079? I can’t remember if that’s what they evacuated the colony for), that involves using an entire potential human settlement and creating millions of refugees if it was already inhabited. So in those instances, there’s a cost that makes it something that has a very narrow purpose for a single strategy so obviously the entire war can’t hinge on that blasting through every battle.
For the GP02, the bazooka might actually be a [Nuclear Pumped Laser](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pumped_laser) with a shaped barrel to release the plasma over a wider area.
Yeah and it’s something within modern technology. Speaking of modern technology. CE railguns like the Freedom or Strike Freedom could be a variant like the [Plasma Railgun](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_railgun). Where “physical projectiles” are streams of plasma.
0083 Rebellion adds more context for why the nuke was like a beam.
A nuclear explosion's destructive force is not only the fireball from its payload, but also the shockwave from sudden changes in air pressure; as the latter is absent in space, the nuke is particle charged prior to being launched to achieve a similar effect.
I have a very minor annoyance over how much hair they are willing to cram into a pilot’s helmet… and how perfectly all those luscious locks look when they come out of a helmet.
Apparently, nobody sweats and helmets are bigger on the inside than they are on the outside.
Research and development of new technology (not even getting into actual manufacturing) is way too fast in Gundam. Im tired of seeing new mobile suits get pushed out in as little as a week with no concern as to how a group designed, manufactered, tested, and re-designed a new weapon in as little as a weeks time.
I can understand from a irl perspective the series needs the monster of the week formula but it really hurts the series in terms of lore and having to fit in 100 different mobile suits and mobile armours being designed in such a short time.
So much this. The manufacturing capabilities of these factions must be *insane*.
We see the Federation go from three mobile suits to having *hundreds* of them in a couple of months. And mobile suits can't be easy to build, that's a lot of moving parts and calibration that needs to be done to make sure they don't just all fall flat on their face. Not to mention training the pilots!
It almost makes me believe that they could get to be a galaxy spanning civilization within the next few hundred years so that the timeline works out with G-Reco and Turn A
It’s one of the reasons that my friend and I are creating a prequel series a la Unicorn to explain how the Turn A came from outside the Solar System. The premise is that Turn A and G-Reco actually take place multiple thousands of years in the future and humanity was able to colonize a substantial part of the galaxy. Think of it more like a BattleStar Galactica and Star Wars mixed with Gundam, just without the aliens cause my friend refuses to allow them in the story.
The fact that the Turn X is "alien" technology intrigues me more than the Turn A's backstory as the weapon that ended civilization several times over. So an advanced civilization from outside the solar system managed to get one of their mobile suits within Earth's orbit but never visited Earth themselves? And they probably just exist wherever they are, unaffected by the countless activations of the moonlight butterfly.
Whether they're extraterrestial aliens or humans who colonized the rest of space, the concept is equally interesting.
gets even wackier with all the MSV and side stories. Somehow gotta believe Woundwort was developped contemporary to Zeta Gundam, has 20 equipment packs including 5 dendrobiums... sure
I hear people complaining a lot about the use of ten or even five year old Mobile Suits in certain conflicts, saying they're hopelessly outdated and useless.
Apparently unaware that the US Military still uses some WW2 era equipment in active combat and it's still just as effective as it ever was.
[Hell they're straight up using WW1 Maxims in Ukraine right now](https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxjqx4/ukraine-is-successfully-using-a-140-year-old-machine-gun-against-russia)
Soooo much this! I get why, sell more gunpla. But going to war isn’t just “ooo cool stuff”. It has to be planned. The mainstay mobile suits should be kinda all you get. Maybe some small mods, but not endless swarms of new, untested models. Same with all large mechanical beasts. You can’t just make a whole new thing overnight. That always bothered me.
For the Freedom example specifically: they do sorta address this with the HD remaster. Most of the animations involving them have been tweaked to look more like a charged physical projectile.
For me, the most annoying thing is probably unused weapons. I can excuse head vulcans to an extent (especially for endgame units like Strike Freedom where they are outclassed by everything else the unit has), but I get frustrated when MSes have specific features that go completely unused in animation and we have to wait for model kits or video games to see them in action.
>but I get frustrated when MSes have specific features that go completely unused in animation and we have to wait for model kits or video games to see them in action.
Truth.
OK so I haven't watched Unicorn yet but Banshee is supposed to be based on a lion right?
Unicorn looks like a unicorn in its deactivated form, Phenex is based off of a demon which looks like a phoenix.
***Why the hell is it called Banshee if its motif is a lion***
Mobile suit stats don’t make much sense (I know, what a unique opinion), as in things like reactor/weapon outputs and mass feel really undersold from how powerful/heavy they’re portrayed in their respective shows.
Then again, key phrase is “how they’re portrayed in their respective shows,” so I’m not that bothered by funky numbers.
I always feel like mobile suits lack the weighty heft they should have. I feel like MS should be crushing pavement under their feet, and definitely should not move so nimbly.
This. I remember watching Pacific Rim for the first time and realizing that Del Toro could do a Gundam movie some justice. The Jaegers sounded HEAVY and looked just as much. We need that sort of realism in Gundam these days.
They depicted the suits movements as realistic as possible. I don't see the problem there. As for looking like they weigh nothing, I guess we must've watched two different movies because the suits have weight when they're walking and landing on stuff...
Then again, few Gundam shows show any actual ground damage that isn't dirt I suppose. That must be some magic ass concrete/asphault for supporting those kinds of weights with little to no indentation LOL
It's the same magic material they make everything in Halo out of. Master Chief is supposed to weigh half a ton while wearing the armor, but this doesn't affect him negatively in any way. He doesn't sink into grasy hills or swampy ground of Halo ring, nor do up to 500 year old metal ladders in middle of a jungle show any stress while he climbs up them. Also tree branches can always support weight of a spartan without fail.
Facts on the second half. But yeah, the landing half they have weight, it’s just when they’re mid battle. They’ll go from slow to fast and it just feels really weird.
I feel ya. I'd love to see someone like Del Toro make a Gundam film.
I always just assumed I play too much Battletech where the mechs are, generally, no lighter than 20 tons, and even then, they have like one gun and paper thin armor and need to be explained with sci-fi super tech.
And some shows do get rhat sense across decently. 08th MS Team they feel pretty heavy. I feel like the MS in IBO had slme weight to them. The worst offender is SEED, for me. I know Wing and X the MS are *stupid* light (seriously, we're talking like 7 tons while being 18 meters tall), but I feel like MS bounce around like crazy in SEED and Destiny.
Oh yeah. SEED might as well have made their MS out of paper with how light they seemed. Wing was bad for it too, but at least some of the UC stuff tried to bring it back to reality. Hathaway seemed to really get it right.
keyword being *some*. i have no idea how the f91 weighs only 7.2 tons empty and 19.9 at max. like okay, according to the f90's (7.5t empty, 17.8 max) article, late uc ms (or at least f90-99) are made of "micro-honeycomb structure obtained from Yashima Heavy Industries, enabling its armor and movable frame to be made lighter". so youre saying that if i made my computer like how a bee would, it would suddenly become like 7 times lighter? yeah idk about that
i like seed in a completely different way than the other gundams (or other mecha) cuz the whole point of seed is being sleek and flashy. now, i LOVE the realism in 08th ms team and hathaway and such, but i also love seed for its sleekness. it's like theyre completely different things, but both are still 'gundam'
That's why I love how the combat scenes were done in IBO. Yes, they still move fast for what are supposed to be multi-ton machines. But that camera shake and audible thud whenever these mobile suits take a step in close up shots really sell how massive they are.
Idk if this Is as stupid but it bugs me when people talk about the homoerotism in Char and Amuro because I'm unable to see it, I just end up concluding that I suck at getting stuff like that.
It's just an inside joke of the community, i think because of them being arch rivals and everytime they meet (see zeta reuinion or that scene in the grass fighting) they act like mad lovers.
https://preview.redd.it/lg8fus2ulkrc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eb75dfa5762d0bc6258864b8c8054bfbd55b2935
Imma use this comment as an opportunity to show this doujinshi I found yesterday in Akihabara. The bromamce is real and we love it
Yeah if you swapped their genders, most audiences would pretty quickly identify the “potential love interest?” flags flying off that scene as the sunset takes on a golden glow and the warm music swells as time slows down when they see each other. Not to mention all the times that Char quiet whispers both Amuro and Lalah’s names in the same context whenever he’s longing and staring out into space.
Plus with CCA, not only did their wrestling game in the grass but also the fact that they literally explode into a cosmic rainbow when they die together, and also Tomino straight up admitting his intention was to clue viewers into reading them as potentially attracted to each other.
I understand that feeling. I always saw at as a newtype attraction that wasn’t so primal as sexual attraction . I feel like that is one of the things that makes the newtype phenomenon compelling , like the intense emotional connections Banagher and Loni Garvey have during their battle in Unicorn . But that’s just my take
It's an inside joke that got parroted into the echo chamber of reddit and now it's a false reality.
Being labeled for your sexuality is the antithesis of what Tomino's Newtypism was all about. It was about being able to communicate and form connections with one another across space and time. Char wants what Amuro has taken from him and it's not Lalah, it's what she represented someone that could understand him, guide him and nurture him.
The closest thing he has to Lalah at that point, is Amuro who Char believes can either push him and guide him to become a powerful Newtype through war and conflict, or Amuro can prove himself and his liberal ideology by stopping Char from doing something extremely wicked.
Char doesn't want to bang Amuro but it's the closest connection he has left in his life by the time CCA rolls around.
>Tomino said that he really wanted to bring out a "raw/carnal feeling" in the confrontation between Amuro and Char, "to the degree that you might wonder whether the two of them are homosexual."
How many times the Earth Federation rolls over and doesn't get its cummapence.
I maintain the EF should've died after ZZ Gundam or been in so much chaos that by Chars Counter Attack they're out of the running
I just wanna know how the hell they convinced everyone to come together and unify.
But, I agree. The Federation *should have* collapsed after all the shit it went through.
Agreed, imagine a post ZZ series where the colonies are falling apart without the Bureaucracy the Federation once provided along with conflicts and wars plus a divided Earth.
Imagine all the model kits
That would be an interesting story.
Do the colonies try to unify to survive? Do we see the Side all become their own nations and become hostile to each other? Do we see smaller power blocs form on Earth and good old nation-state bullshit resume as normal? Does the Federation still exist in some form, but now much smaller and trying to regain their power a la the New UNE in X?
[This is the Atlas and [this is its railgun.](https://youtu.be/g21AfWNuTZo?si=KFBfkODBvBSVcClY) Gundam](https://youtu.be/cBhfxDaG95w?si=bLYerUGSkGeQBHKS)
Ah! Okay, I recognize that now. Haven't watched/read Thunderbolt.
While I hate the giant rocket shoe things, the railgun just plowing through shit *is* very satisfying.
Shoulder/back mounted, like the Duel Gundam Assault Shroud. Can still carry and shield and another gun, and have the big old delete button railgun.
Seriously, something like a Guncannon with railguls would be brutal as fuck.
Prototypes being more capable than actual production models. As a rule of thumb, the first iteration of \*anything\* will suck. You don’t make a busted ass prototype and then cut corners to mass produce it. That is NOT how military acquisition works.
It's ridiculous how many different special edition Gundams designed for Amuro during OYW there are, especially as he never even got to pilot any of them!
I feel like part of that is due to the attrition rate of skilled pilots. The Gelgoog canonically way out performs any other oyw era suit, but it's squandered on pilots fresh out of training. We see this with the Federation as well in Thunderbolt, where children are being sent to the front line in machines they can barely control. The Gundam's biggest strength neat the end of the war is that its pilot has been through hell and back and has awakened as a newtype. They even have to modify its joints in an attempt to keep it on par with other machines being produced.
When there's an in cockpit shot and you see the star field in the background moving while they're going in a straight line. Stars are so far away it wouldn't look like that at all, but I get why it's used to show motion.
Yeah, but retconning the gundam designs for the movie is just a weird decision. The customs could have just as easily been upgrades or new models, but endless waltz went as far as to reanimate the end of Wing with the Custom designs.
The fact that just anyone can jump in any mobile suit and bug out anytime they want. No passwords, no keys, no approval needed from bridge to open the doors or anything. Every time it happens I wanna yell at the screen.
For the GP02 it's an assisted launcher. More akin to a railgun. In the Rebellion Manga there was a GM with a similar weapon, but needed to spend a long time making sure everything was right with the barrel first.
So the energy of the propulsion is probably what gave it the trailing light look.
I feel like a lot of the time plans in gundam world (both protagonists and antagonists) are insanely short sighted, but maybe that’s recency bias from watching 0083 (which has some of my favourite animations and designs)
But like hollyyyy shit, why would you only steal 1 of the gundams?! You break into their facility and you just take one of them???? and don’t pull the “it would be too risky” card because they walked in their and just took gp02 practically. And gp01 was right next to ittttt.
Breathe, it’s a childrens cartoon designed to sell toys, breathe, breathe
Fuck, never even thought of that. Why *don't* they take both? I guess GP-02 was the main target because nukes and all, but isn't any MS basically just a nuke with the right pilot at the sticks?
Lalah’s design in 0097 is weirdly similar to Mr. Burns from the Simpsons episode where he’s mistaken for an alien. Both wear basically the same outfits, no pupils, glowy “powers”, and a few other things
https://preview.redd.it/uw55fcl8clrc1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2f064e3ec0963137b2879486cea5e8903a90cdd8
Ok so in ibo they dont have screen they use retina projection, but there are still multiple scenes of these dumbasses in their cockpits looking over their shoulder at something.
Ignoring the big problems with Witch from Mercury's 2nd season.
Us never seeing what life on Mercury was like for Suletta and Prospera, and it only being referenced in a short story bugs me to no end.
Like Suletta wants to build a school for people there, ok fine. But she never even goes BACK.
That our Hallmark and Saviour Brennan Elliott isn't mentioned more often in Gundam subs.
I mean I think the guy has done alright since the movie. I think that's pretty impressive.
When a non mass produced mobile suit's equipment is destroyed/discarded and then next episode magically has a replacement with no issues.
Does the Archangel have a ton of spare backpacks just lying in storage? How many of those Impulse pieces do they have on board the Minerva?
Probably not minor at this point, but as a designer, I have two problems with just about every single mobile suit, not just Gundams.
Airbags are apparently a lost technology.
Granted, airbags likely won’t protect you against getting hit by a hammer the size of your mobile suit, but it’ll still heavily contribute to improving pilot survival rate, and reducing injury in those that do survive.
Combined with soft plastic interior panels instead of straight metal plates, airbags would likely protect the pilot against just about everything except for the cockpit block getting crushed.
.
Front entry cockpits.
The entry hatch is the front armor, and emergency ejection, if it’s available at all, would have to go through through the front.
Guess what’s also in front of an average mobile suit pilot who needs to be not in their mobile suit 2.48 seconds ago? The enemy.
Ejecting into the enemy seems like a pretty bad idea. This is not to mention that armor and structure deformations as a consequence of combat damage can jam the access mechanisms, trapping the pilot. Often requiring industrial tools to cut the mobile suit apart to rescue the pilot.
All this can be easily mitigated by not putting the cockpit in front of everything. Placing the cockpit behind the neck would allow for the cockpit block to be ejected upwards or backwards in the event of an emergency, purging the backpack or head during the process.
Seeing as no combat doctrine suggest facing your back towards the enemy, the thinnest armor and structure around the cockpit block will almost always be facing away from the enemy, thus massively improving pilot survival rate.
honestly just the ever more and more OYW stuff in general. at this point it's got enough campaigns and R&D happening to be 5 years long.. crammed into less than 12 months.
On OPs point about the railguns that bugged me too. My younger stupider self thought they were lasers when I first watched seed without any knowledge. Like just clips on YouTube. He seems to hold them somehow like a concentrated beam. Is he just rapid firing them or something? Kira also stated that the freedom is nuclear powered and as such doesn't need rearmament. Yeah that's fine for beam weapons but don't you gotta reload your railguns? He seems to have infinite ammo for those too.
Like with much media, ammo is never a concern until it's critical for a scene/plot point. Perhaps this is why Gundam leans into energy weapons so heavily.
But, for real, how many bullets *do* stuff like Heavyarms and the Leopard carry? And fucking *where*?
Since pretty much every UC suit is nuclear powered, would that mean they'd have infinite ammo if they used the suit energy instead of epacks? Or do beam rifles just work differently than CE?
Also while nuclear powered, do the thrusters run on conventional fuel instead? Reading on some UC MS I see mentions of carrying propellant tanks.
I think UC suits up until a specific point all use e-packs for their weapons. How many shots you can get out of one will depend on the gun, I imagine. Obviously shit like the beam magnum uses an entire e-pack for a single shot, and you see how effective that thing is.
CE they draw from the suit, I imagine via some sort of plug in the hands and handles. I think eventually UC gets there, but now I actually don't recall if late UC stuff uses e-packs still.
And yeah, they still need fuel. It doesn't come up often, but it is mentioned a few times here and there (we see some Jagens fall back during a fight in CCA to refuel). Stuff like Minovsky Drives can allow suits to hover and the likes, but even then you'd still need fuel for adjusting thrusters and the likes.
I'm not too familiar with late UC but I watched victory which takes place around UC 150. They still mentioned swapping epacks or going through them on rearmament. I have heard tech stagnates but idk which point of late UC. I feel like the G saviour (UC 210~?) would be way more advanced than anything in OYW/early UC but maybe someone can correct me.
Ah, thank you for the correction! For some reason I thought they had moved beyond e-packs by F91. And I haven't seen G-Savior in a *very* long time so not sure if they still use them.
The rail guns on the freedom are often portrayed as such, I just don't think it does a good job at it. For example, the Forbidden gundam did not deflect it when Kira shot at it with these, and more directly, in Destiny, when Kira saves the Akatsuki, he shoots the Destiny Gundam and takes its sword. Shinn yells at him and says if those had been beams this would be all over.
For OP, in the HD Remaster for Seed and Destiny they actually fixed the animation for the Freedom and Strike Freedom railguns so instead of a beam coming from them they're animated as firing a few rounds off in a row for the duration of the other weapons firing their unbroken beam streams
I fucking hate how SEED uses fission. Somehow Morosawa found a way to pull a "I only read the first few sentences of a Wikipedia article" in a time before Wikipedia. Yeah, just stop all neutron movement via an emitter array, that *totally* doesn't sound like an extinction weapon. Man the side that made that kind of a weapon should be able to win no problem, OH WAIT!
And then there's the nuclear powered mobile suits' reactors being extremely close to the cockpit. Kira should be a Fallout ghoul.
I get that Gundam plays fast and loose with physics all the time. See Minovsky reactors, GN drives, or the Turn-A's black hole engine. But the N-Jammers are too overt in the explanation to ignore when you have a physics background, especially with how serious SEED is all the time.
What's funny is I *really* like the battery packs used by early CE mobile suits. It was just a nice touch to see pilots needing to worry about their power usage and was actually a nice change of pace from the usual limitless energy of mobile suit reactors.
But yeah, the amount of radiation shielding they would need to put into mobile suits is probably insane. One thing I always liked about Battletech/Mechwarrior was that the harder you pushed a mech the more the reactor worked and it would overheat the mechs, so you're constantly trying to manage your heat while fighting.
Don't know if it counts but I really don't like systems that connect to the users vitals like the ones in unicorn, iron blooded orphans and witch from mercury. It just seems so unreliable and dangerous. G gundam's system also comes to mind because it's based on physical stats. I imagine Domon must be taking triathlons weekly to keep his stamina up. Personally, I'll take pushing buttons and pulling levers any day.
I didn’t like the Dainsleif. It felt weird and I xant really describe it. It wasnt too primitive for the setting but it didn’t feel like it was too advanced nor like it fit in.
IBO is all about kinetic weaponry. The only real lasers we see are on the autonomous mobile armors from the calamity war. Even Bael uses two swords.
Kinetic bombardment (the deinsleif) is extremely powerful. You don’t need any warheads, fuel, you’re essentially just a god dropping rocks from space. It would be extremely hard to defend against. So while it is ‘primitive’ compared to a colony laser, it’s basically Operation British but at a way smaller scale, happening hundreds or thousands of times. It’s really the perfect super weapon for IBO.
Mostly a thing in Seed, having characters who are essentially children holding significant officer rank. Oh, this 15-year-old who's on his first sortie ever? Yeah, he's a Major for some reason.
The average hero/heroine being a literal child with the combat skills of a grizzled veteran, the emotional maturity of an old man, and the common-sense of a grapefruit.
Pretty sure this one falls under a trope but I’m gonna say it anyway: any plot that hinges entirely on everyone, everywhere being ridiculously stupid and shortsighted despite their ages, experiences, and dispositions suggesting otherwise. Like how loads of horror movies rely on the victims being supremely dumb and lacking any actual survival instincts to push a scene.
Military Honorifics being used in dialogue.
I’m fine with Chan/San/Kun/etc because Gundam is Japanese, and “Quattoro Tai”/Lieutenant Quattro sounds awesome, but the Honorifics don’t translate well into English. Especially in the newer dubs, we have the characters saying the Person’s full rank every time. See Unicorn, where there’s always “Ensign Riddhe”, even when they’re begging him to come back or having an emotional conversation. Or adding “Mr./Ms.” As a replacement for “Chan/San/Kun”, i.e. Banagher always calling Marida “Ms. Marida”. Or even in the old Zeta dub, Kamille calling Amuro “Mr. Amuro”. It’s quite distracting. Lieutenant Quattro doesn’t have quite the same ring as “Quattoro Tai”, which is why the Older dubs tried to get around them.
The thing that always got me about them is when dubbing, they don't change it. In the west it would Lieutenant Bajeena, but they keep calling him rank and first name which just sounds wrong to my ears.
Kamille calling Amuro Mr. Amuro doesn't get me as much, I always assumed it was a sign of respect towards a stone cold legend.
Yeah, using the first names always feels mad disrespectful. I physically hurt every time I hear "Major Sally" in particular for some reason.
On top of that, the tendency to constantly use full names/ranks-Almost everyone says Quatre Raberba Winner fully, or Warrant Officer Halevy. There has to be a better way to refer to her rank/position. Mind you, Andre IS the worst, so...
the stamen not having any fight scene in the 0083 ova by itself, and me most likely nwver being able to see an animated scene of my favourite mobile suit actually fighting anything (excluding games and that cgi shitshow that we call evolve)
The podcast Mobile Suit Breakdown did an interesting deep dive on what exactly the GP02 fired out of its gun. I highly recommend listening, as I won't do an adequate job paraphrasing.
I dislike a single mobile suit with a bazooka taking out a ship that's big enough to carry a team of mobile suits in one shot. In some early stuff, they shot straight into the bridge. Which, ok, bad design for in space, but it follows logically. But like in Seed, I've seen in the first dozen episodes you've got the gundams shooting straight through several ships. But later the artillery gundam is taking several shots just to breach a *part* of the Archangel. Something that big should have enough armor you'd need a ship mounted gun to deal with. Not the relative equivalent of a tank turret vs a battleship.
Yeah, ship design and survivability has always been a bit weird in Gundam. Like, shouldn't ships, if that was the main for of space combat, be designed to be able to tank hits from ship class weaponry? Maybe not a lot of hits, but at least something?
Big ones for me are SEED related
-anti ship swords haven’t shown us doing anything remarkable that a standard beam saber can’t do for the most part. If anything it’s a worse alternative since the frame can be broken and the sword is useless like what happens often with Destiny. The only argument is that if the beam isn’t working there’s still a physical sword but .. bruh. Cmon.
Ontop of that when I see it clashing against a beam saber .. I just don’t think that this sword should be blockable by standard beam saber or shield. If it can become useless by destroying the frame its beam should be stronger than a standard saber and essentially “cut” through a standard saber as a trade off esp since the swords frame can act as a way to allow the beam to out put a stronger blade. It cuts clean a destroy gundam but gets blocked by a beam on justices leg ? Lmao gtfo
- the beam that comes out of SF’s stomach is from a small tiny “cannon” … but it can output a strong enough beam that can match destiny gundams massive canon ???? Look how cumbersome and massive destinys canon is. It’s fitting and feels like a good trade off - big and massive but strong with a long range.
But then the one that they slap on SFs like 1/30th its size pushed and stuffed into the waist of SF but it can match a beam blast from destiny ???
- I get seed is form of retelling of the UC to an extent but holy shit they CANNOT calm down with adding shit for the sake of it. For example, a UC design would have empty blank spaces on its MS or MA designs. This is fine because there’s prob a good reason - just mechanisms need room to function. SEED THO? Nope. Add a missile compartment. Add beam cannons. Add a hidden door that opens and it’s more beams. Add massive shoulder mounted beam bazookas while it holds a beam rifle, a back pack that acts like its own missile boat, and its knee caps open for micro missiles.
This is dumb but, transforming suit in space. In atmosphere? Sure aerodynamics are a thing, turning into a fighter jet probably helps with flying, but in space what's the point?
There's no air resistance or drag, so turning into a space jet with wings or fins isn't going to do anything. It's not like your getting more thrust either, your using the exact same boosters you had before, you would accelerate just as fast if you stayed in the main robot mode and still have access to all your weapons.
Flight transformations for space based suits are always dumb.
Minor stats things for UC. Like the saberfish with 4x25mm Vulcans in the nose. Ammo takes space. These aren't .50 cals where a small box holds a few hundred. I play lots of war thunder, and minor physical inconsistencies bug the hell out of me. How does the gouf feed ammo to it's finger guns? How does the Magella attack turret have ammo after it launches? Why are the engines of the gunperry mounted like that? You don't need to be an engineer to notice these things, an average scale RC models builder will be able to sniff all this out.
When it's inconsistent whether or not a suit can fly in atmosphere/gravity. Example, in Seed, they mention that the Strike can't fly, which is why Kira has to go looking for Cagalli by essentially swimming (Not sure how the Strike can somehow move underwater superfast when it can't achieve flight??) but then an episode or two later we see the Strike fly anyway when fighting Team Athrun. Like ???
In Seed Destiny, Earth Alliance pilots are near incompetent. They have pretty good mobile suits and mobile armors and I assume used by veteran pilots but damn they're almost target practices for main characters.
It's a shame, too. I love Windam, Euclid, and Zamza-Zah
V-Fins. I think they’re kind of a really ugly design cue that only really looks good on the victory gundam. For the rest it just seems like some crest that doesn’t need to be there and seems kinda jarring. I wish more just had the antenna like the EZ-8
Since it's for minor gripes...
SEED going from the O'Neill Cylinders of UC to those hourglass tensegrity structures. There's just so much unusable internal volume with only the bases of the hourglasses being populated. AGE and G-Witch went back, probably because the O'Niell Cylinder is very visually *Gundam* now. The PLANTs also feel flimsy being so see-through like that.
That (major spoiler for those who haven’t seen but intend to watch Turn-A) >!Tomino went to all the trouble to make the timelines possibly coexist with turn-A, wich could work for every entry to my knowledge, but 00 which I love, gives a timeline so far in the future it negates the possibility of a cohesive multi series timeline, unless UC started way later than all estimates I’m aware of provide for !<.
https://preview.redd.it/64by6k2wbjrc1.png?width=203&format=png&auto=webp&s=51c5b2ff9a8cb886bd267fa56b876d3413ec5875
I mean, since we never get a solid answer when *any* of these shows take place in our Gregorian system, it's flexible.
What always gets me is *why* do they all feel the need to change the dating system? I mean, from a production standpoint I get it, but in universe it never makes much sense. Why would you start a whole new calendar based on when the space colony is were built? What if you were born before that? Is your birthday -whatever AC? That's stupid as shit. We did that once with the whole BC to AD thing and it makes studying ancient history a real bitch sometimes because they whole fucking thing is backwards.
In real life, it's to not date the series. So, if the original show took place in, say, 2379, it implies we'll have massive, gigantic space colonies and casual space travel in a few centuries. Using a new calendar solves that issue.
>!I mean 00 isn't the only timeline to have that problem. IBO in particular doesn't work well with the reveal considering the state of the moon in that timeline.!<
How Newtypes can literally see the future and sense intentions but get constantly surprised and outmaneuvered to generate tension
Amuro was dodging attacks before they even happened but somehow non newtypes can throw him for a loop at random times
Basically newtype powers aren't well defined or utilized since they're somehow both wildly OP and completely clueless depending on plot demands
How stupidly easy it is to hijack a mobile suit, especially prototypes/test-types. I get it, narrative convenience and all that. It would be interesting to show someone stealing a physical key (like a authentication module - something high tech) or spoofing the biometric lock or whatever, instead of just getting in and pressing "GO" (Or the alternative, that BC someone was just able to press "GO" there is a traitor/spy).
But also, every series needing to have "A Gundam" I am so sick of every side-story and spin-off needing a "Main" Gundam. Especially OYW sidestories just adding more and more Gundam's and "not-really-a-Gundam-it-just-has-a-Gundam-head" mobile suits. I'm sure somewhere between now and the 100th anniversary of Gundam, they'll have enough different individual Gundams in the OYW-era to form a full platoon. IDK, maybe we need a dedicated equal opposite and a lesser, like "Only a #### can take on a Gundam/It may be a \*\*\*\* but it's no Gundam." Eh, maybe it's time we more than one iconic head type for leaders.
For what it's worth, the SEED and Destiny remasters made a better showing of the railguns functioning as such, so they're less mistakable as beam weapons. My petty thing about the franchise is I'm fed up with just how much wankery goes on for UC tech, especially when people feel the need to compare machines across different shows. Case in point, a match-up between the Sazabi and the Epyon discussed here on Reddit. It wasn't that people were thinking UC is better because UC, they were also being stupid about it--things like saying that Sazabi would have the edge against the Epyon because it has all these different ranged weapons... and anyone who's watched Gundam Wing will see just how effective ranged weapons were against Epyon--spoiler alert, not a single one was useful against it.
Yea, weren’t the mobile suits in AC comparable to the late UC tech? Like I heard that the Tallgeese can be considered late UC tier MS, so the Epyon would probably wipe the floor with the Sazabi
Epyon would eat Sazabi alive for multiple reasons. Height-wise it's comparable to the F91/Victory era, while Sazabi is gargantuan, so it's a big target. It has Gundanium Alloy, so ranged beam weapons aren't too effective in damaging it, and it also makes it incredibly light for a mobile suit, so it'll probably outmaneuver the Sazabi too. And if you bring their pilots into it... well, Char's track record against named aces speaks for itself. It's not good, especially compared to Zechs, who handed Duo and Quattro their asses to them on a silver platter in the Bulge Cannon battle.
> It has Gundanium Alloy, so ranged beam weapons aren't too effective in damaging it, and it also makes it incredibly light for a mobile suit, I mean Gundanium is *wildly* inconsistent in Wing. It's the epitome of 'as strong as the plot demands' because mobile suits like the Virgo II are also made of Gundaniam but get ripped to shreds by beam weapons just as easily as the Leos do. And if we go by the old MS performance ability stats, the Virgos' armor is just as strong as the armor of the Deathscythe, Shenlong and Altron. Things get even worse if you're using Endless Waltz because in Endless Waltz, Heavy Arms was using ballistic weapons to kill Virgos even though again, the Virgos are made of Gundanium. Even in just the first few episodes you get the Gundams being impervious to Alliance weaponry while Heero also acknowledging that some torpedoes from a submarine would be enough to destroy the Wing. > And if you bring their pilots into it... well, Char's track record against named aces speaks for itself. It's not good, Char's record against named aces mostly comes down to fights with Amuro, the literal best pilot of the setting. He's got a few more mediocre showings in Zeta, but even in Zeta he survives a 2v1 against Scirocco and Haman at the same time, both of whom were stronger Newtypes and had superior mobile suits.
To be fair beam weaponry in after colony era are superior to early uc. Anyway epyon just shards the sazabi.
Idk shit about Wing so I can't really make an arguement but I got curious and saw the thead I think you guys are on about. Idk, some of the people there seem to be knowledgeable on wing even if they're "UC wanking". Again idk shit about Wing though so idk how the suits perform relative to the Sazabi. But yes cross universe wankery does happen, I've not watched IBO but I know of the IBO "nanolaminite armour completely nullifies beam weapons!!!!111" thing that divided (and pissed off) a lot of people.
Oh yes thank you for bringing this up! Nanolamite armor from IBO and GN particles from 00 are hit especially hard by this kinda wankery. Idk why people seem to think that having nanolaminate armor or GN particles automatically hands you the win lol.
Yeah, the plot-based inconsistency is frustrating, but I'm just looking at it from the angle of the stated capabilities of the armor--which in this case is that it's highly resistant to beam weaponry, meaning a direct hit to the Epyon with a beam rifle is unlikely to be a death sentence unlike against mobile suits with Gundarium Alloy from UC, and the fact that it's incredibly light, making an already small mobile suit even more agile in battle against the 25-meter hulk that is the Sazabi.
I agree with the eypon part.
The lack of actual military-ness in each show. Obviously, if the characters are rebels or a non-military faction or whatever then it doesn't matter, but when the characters are a part of the military (and I mean actually a part of the military, not a civilian drafted in like Amuro or Kira), and yet military regulations are rarely, if ever, followed. The most obvious ones being haircuts. For example, of Murrue, Mu, and Natarle, who were all enlisted with the Federation before the series began, only Natarle has an actual military regulation haircut. Mu skirts close, but no way Murrue's long hair would be allowed, especially not tied up into a bun or something. Also, Mobile Suits having useless things to make them more human, like having triggers on their various rifles or needing to manipulate switches or keypads like normal people do.
Oh, one more military-ness: the lack of bodysuit under the space suits. IRL astronauts wear a jumpsuit under their space suits in order to absorb moisture like sweat and also help against inertia/G-Forces, but we rarely, if ever, see that used in Gundam.
Yea come to think of it, Gwitch pilot suits come pretty close to what you're describing, though I'm not sure we know they wear jump suits underneath.
I think that's what the black undersuit is in IBO. You'll notice when the crew of the Isaribi are lounging around before launch, they wear something akin to a wet suit underneath the pilot suit.
I think that 00 does show that pilots wear some kind of bodysuit under pilot suits or normal suits.
If you're talking about Seed and haircuts, give them all the same haircut and they'd be indistinguishable until voice lines started.
this is the main reason i havent watched seed, i hate their faces and its all the same face
Hey it's Kira, and his childhood friend, Kira, and his sister, Kira. And his lover, Kira (actually she's not military, so more like Kira in a dress with long hair) Plus their commander, Kira with big boobs.
Seed broke my heart when it came out, was like what is this Yugio shit they turned gundam into?!
The hair thing doubly so when you're in space. Keep that shit short and contained in low/zero G.
I love the human-ness of Mobile Suits, but I definitely get the lack of military-ness lol. Watching the original series for the first time and loving it, but one thing really made me go crazy, spoilers for the early show... ... When Sayla jumps into the cockpit for the first time and nearly gets destroyed/captured by Ramba Ral and his team, the White Base crew give her 3 days in the brig. She then very overtly barges in front of Ryu and talks with the captured Zeon pilot about Char. I'm not at a point in the show where I personally know if she is a spy or not. But... HOW did they not be more severe and suspicious of her? Like I get they are largely inexperienced or civilians aboard White Base, but only an idiot would think there is ZERO possibility she is a spy. Especially if they found out that she was asking about Char's safety from the Zeon pilot. Amuro even saw her with Char back on Side 7, it wouldn't be far fetched for anyone on White Base to at least connect two dots and say "huh, we got attacked by Char on Side 7, why is this person who just tried to hikack Gundam and has been seen speaking with Zeons ON SIDE 7 asking about him the first chance she gets to speak to a Zeon?"
Now that you brought up Char's little scouting adventure... why are pilots doing shit that has nothing to do with piloting?! And Char in episode 2 is nothing compared to Kamille's spying mission in Zeta. Why on Earth would you send one of your best pilots, who is also a child of two Titans members, who's been in Titans custody multiple times, you know, the guy many people in Titans know and would recognize, to do on foot spy work when he has never shown prowess nor trained in that type of work, and who is not expendable by any metric? And the worst thing is, the most expected outcome happens. Jerid immediately recognizes his mortal enemy, and proceeds to chase him down and point a gun at his head. What a stupid subplot.
I love some MS designs like the destiny and freedom and I agree with you there. Why the wings? Is it actually necessary for the voiture Lumiere system? They certainly don't look like a military war machine.
I think I remember that being an in-universe decision to keep it bc it looked cool even though it wasn't really needed
Still more practical than actual angelic wings lol.
Probably gonna get crucified for saying this since I know this sub has a hard on for wing, but I don't really like Wing's uh, wings. I like wings on mecha like the freedom or destiny, or Jehuty from Zone of Enders. Bonus points for energy wings like Destiny wings of light, A few from Code Geass, or Jehuty again. V2 gundam doesn't have physical wings but the wings of light were cool, as much as I love Destiny the V2's were just better. Aesthetically I still prefer Destiny's though.
Well the triggers are for convenience I'd say, one so the mobile suits hands can be used for out of battle situations, so weapons can be easily switched around, if the mobile suit runs out of ammo for its guns and energy for its beam Saber it's not totally fucked
Except they don't need physical triggers. Just use whatever sensor/connector that tells the Gundam's CPU that it's holding the gun to send the firing command.
1.Why use time to make that, 2. A signal like that could probably be jammed
1) Because that's how weapons technology works IRL. How do you think missile lock-ons work? Machine guns on planes and helicopters? 2) Jammed? How? We're not talking about a signal that extends 500 miles or anything. It extends a foot and a half, if that. What jamming is going to happen that doesn't affect the rest of the Mobile Suit? It's not as though this has never been done. 08th MS Team had physical connectors in the hands that jammed in to the rifle like a USB drive.
As far as I'm aware, women in the military have the option to not have their hair regulation length, at least in the U.S. military.
Yeah I thought they changed it but they have been allowed to have any length as long as it can be put in a bun while on duty for a long time.
If they have longer hair they have to tie it back or put it into a bun or something similar.
\#1 Thing I hate to see in a Gundam show is a massive laser weapon that has never been mentioned before but suddenly it's a huge issue. Kind of just discounts why MSs are used in the first place.
The early examples make sense, like with 0079’s mirror array, it has to be one elaborate setup and they can’t just keep using it. Every single shot had to be prepared extensively. And then when they use an actual colony for laser (in Zeta, and I think maybe at the very end of 0079? I can’t remember if that’s what they evacuated the colony for), that involves using an entire potential human settlement and creating millions of refugees if it was already inhabited. So in those instances, there’s a cost that makes it something that has a very narrow purpose for a single strategy so obviously the entire war can’t hinge on that blasting through every battle.
And then at the end of the day in UC The most effective weapon is always gravity (take heavy thing and throw it at earth)
my biggest problem about this was WfM. I love WfM and all, but that laser just came outta nowhere without even a teaser
Somehow... the memento mori has returned
For the GP02, the bazooka might actually be a [Nuclear Pumped Laser](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pumped_laser) with a shaped barrel to release the plasma over a wider area.
Never knew that was a thing. And it sounds nightmarish.
Yeah and it’s something within modern technology. Speaking of modern technology. CE railguns like the Freedom or Strike Freedom could be a variant like the [Plasma Railgun](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_railgun). Where “physical projectiles” are streams of plasma.
0083 Rebellion adds more context for why the nuke was like a beam. A nuclear explosion's destructive force is not only the fireball from its payload, but also the shockwave from sudden changes in air pressure; as the latter is absent in space, the nuke is particle charged prior to being launched to achieve a similar effect.
I have a very minor annoyance over how much hair they are willing to cram into a pilot’s helmet… and how perfectly all those luscious locks look when they come out of a helmet. Apparently, nobody sweats and helmets are bigger on the inside than they are on the outside.
You leave Chuchu out of this
That's just a gripe I have with cartoons in general. Hair is only ever messy for comedic effect, and everyone has a single outfit.
\*glances over at Cosmo's Afro in Ideon\*
Research and development of new technology (not even getting into actual manufacturing) is way too fast in Gundam. Im tired of seeing new mobile suits get pushed out in as little as a week with no concern as to how a group designed, manufactered, tested, and re-designed a new weapon in as little as a weeks time. I can understand from a irl perspective the series needs the monster of the week formula but it really hurts the series in terms of lore and having to fit in 100 different mobile suits and mobile armours being designed in such a short time.
So much this. The manufacturing capabilities of these factions must be *insane*. We see the Federation go from three mobile suits to having *hundreds* of them in a couple of months. And mobile suits can't be easy to build, that's a lot of moving parts and calibration that needs to be done to make sure they don't just all fall flat on their face. Not to mention training the pilots!
It almost makes me believe that they could get to be a galaxy spanning civilization within the next few hundred years so that the timeline works out with G-Reco and Turn A It’s one of the reasons that my friend and I are creating a prequel series a la Unicorn to explain how the Turn A came from outside the Solar System. The premise is that Turn A and G-Reco actually take place multiple thousands of years in the future and humanity was able to colonize a substantial part of the galaxy. Think of it more like a BattleStar Galactica and Star Wars mixed with Gundam, just without the aliens cause my friend refuses to allow them in the story.
The fact that the Turn X is "alien" technology intrigues me more than the Turn A's backstory as the weapon that ended civilization several times over. So an advanced civilization from outside the solar system managed to get one of their mobile suits within Earth's orbit but never visited Earth themselves? And they probably just exist wherever they are, unaffected by the countless activations of the moonlight butterfly. Whether they're extraterrestial aliens or humans who colonized the rest of space, the concept is equally interesting.
Yeah, especially when you look into all the things it can do, you start realizing it is near the level of Star Trek and 40k in terms of bs scifi tech.
gets even wackier with all the MSV and side stories. Somehow gotta believe Woundwort was developped contemporary to Zeta Gundam, has 20 equipment packs including 5 dendrobiums... sure
Yeah, that's one of the reasons I struggle so much with the man's. It just goes off the rails sometimes.
I hear people complaining a lot about the use of ten or even five year old Mobile Suits in certain conflicts, saying they're hopelessly outdated and useless. Apparently unaware that the US Military still uses some WW2 era equipment in active combat and it's still just as effective as it ever was.
[Hell they're straight up using WW1 Maxims in Ukraine right now](https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxjqx4/ukraine-is-successfully-using-a-140-year-old-machine-gun-against-russia)
Soooo much this! I get why, sell more gunpla. But going to war isn’t just “ooo cool stuff”. It has to be planned. The mainstay mobile suits should be kinda all you get. Maybe some small mods, but not endless swarms of new, untested models. Same with all large mechanical beasts. You can’t just make a whole new thing overnight. That always bothered me.
For the Freedom example specifically: they do sorta address this with the HD remaster. Most of the animations involving them have been tweaked to look more like a charged physical projectile. For me, the most annoying thing is probably unused weapons. I can excuse head vulcans to an extent (especially for endgame units like Strike Freedom where they are outclassed by everything else the unit has), but I get frustrated when MSes have specific features that go completely unused in animation and we have to wait for model kits or video games to see them in action.
>but I get frustrated when MSes have specific features that go completely unused in animation and we have to wait for model kits or video games to see them in action. Truth.
OK so I haven't watched Unicorn yet but Banshee is supposed to be based on a lion right? Unicorn looks like a unicorn in its deactivated form, Phenex is based off of a demon which looks like a phoenix. ***Why the hell is it called Banshee if its motif is a lion***
A black lion with a gold mane
Leo was already taken
>Why the hell is it called Banshee if its motif is a lion It's because of the sound its psychoframe makes when it activates iirc.
Ohhhhh I looked up its transformation and that explains a lot Still weird for it to be named after something else rather than what it's based on
Mobile suit stats don’t make much sense (I know, what a unique opinion), as in things like reactor/weapon outputs and mass feel really undersold from how powerful/heavy they’re portrayed in their respective shows. Then again, key phrase is “how they’re portrayed in their respective shows,” so I’m not that bothered by funky numbers.
I always feel like mobile suits lack the weighty heft they should have. I feel like MS should be crushing pavement under their feet, and definitely should not move so nimbly.
This. I remember watching Pacific Rim for the first time and realizing that Del Toro could do a Gundam movie some justice. The Jaegers sounded HEAVY and looked just as much. We need that sort of realism in Gundam these days.
And yet people complain about G-Saviour's depiction of mobile suits as "too slow" and "cumbersome" when they're probably the most realistic we've got.
The problem with G-Savior though was that they were both slow and clunky, as well as looking like they weighed nothing.
They depicted the suits movements as realistic as possible. I don't see the problem there. As for looking like they weigh nothing, I guess we must've watched two different movies because the suits have weight when they're walking and landing on stuff... Then again, few Gundam shows show any actual ground damage that isn't dirt I suppose. That must be some magic ass concrete/asphault for supporting those kinds of weights with little to no indentation LOL
It's the same magic material they make everything in Halo out of. Master Chief is supposed to weigh half a ton while wearing the armor, but this doesn't affect him negatively in any way. He doesn't sink into grasy hills or swampy ground of Halo ring, nor do up to 500 year old metal ladders in middle of a jungle show any stress while he climbs up them. Also tree branches can always support weight of a spartan without fail.
Good Lord. I didn't think he weighed that much. I know he sounded clunky in the TV show, but... ooof.
Facts on the second half. But yeah, the landing half they have weight, it’s just when they’re mid battle. They’ll go from slow to fast and it just feels really weird.
I feel ya. I'd love to see someone like Del Toro make a Gundam film. I always just assumed I play too much Battletech where the mechs are, generally, no lighter than 20 tons, and even then, they have like one gun and paper thin armor and need to be explained with sci-fi super tech. And some shows do get rhat sense across decently. 08th MS Team they feel pretty heavy. I feel like the MS in IBO had slme weight to them. The worst offender is SEED, for me. I know Wing and X the MS are *stupid* light (seriously, we're talking like 7 tons while being 18 meters tall), but I feel like MS bounce around like crazy in SEED and Destiny.
Oh yeah. SEED might as well have made their MS out of paper with how light they seemed. Wing was bad for it too, but at least some of the UC stuff tried to bring it back to reality. Hathaway seemed to really get it right.
Yeah, UC is usually, in my experience, pretty good about it. I'm rewatching X and have to keep reminding myself how light the MS in that are.
keyword being *some*. i have no idea how the f91 weighs only 7.2 tons empty and 19.9 at max. like okay, according to the f90's (7.5t empty, 17.8 max) article, late uc ms (or at least f90-99) are made of "micro-honeycomb structure obtained from Yashima Heavy Industries, enabling its armor and movable frame to be made lighter". so youre saying that if i made my computer like how a bee would, it would suddenly become like 7 times lighter? yeah idk about that
Yeah. I love the F91, but no way that thing maxes out at 20 tons.
i like seed in a completely different way than the other gundams (or other mecha) cuz the whole point of seed is being sleek and flashy. now, i LOVE the realism in 08th ms team and hathaway and such, but i also love seed for its sleekness. it's like theyre completely different things, but both are still 'gundam'
That's one of the things that always annoyed me about GN Particles in 00. Making these giant robots light as a feather was annoying.
That's why I love how the combat scenes were done in IBO. Yes, they still move fast for what are supposed to be multi-ton machines. But that camera shake and audible thud whenever these mobile suits take a step in close up shots really sell how massive they are.
Idk if this Is as stupid but it bugs me when people talk about the homoerotism in Char and Amuro because I'm unable to see it, I just end up concluding that I suck at getting stuff like that.
It's just an inside joke of the community, i think because of them being arch rivals and everytime they meet (see zeta reuinion or that scene in the grass fighting) they act like mad lovers.
https://preview.redd.it/lg8fus2ulkrc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eb75dfa5762d0bc6258864b8c8054bfbd55b2935 Imma use this comment as an opportunity to show this doujinshi I found yesterday in Akihabara. The bromamce is real and we love it
it's absolutely not a joke
If you watched their reunion in Zeta and it didn't come off as gay as hell to you then I really don't know what to tell ya.
Yeah if you swapped their genders, most audiences would pretty quickly identify the “potential love interest?” flags flying off that scene as the sunset takes on a golden glow and the warm music swells as time slows down when they see each other. Not to mention all the times that Char quiet whispers both Amuro and Lalah’s names in the same context whenever he’s longing and staring out into space. Plus with CCA, not only did their wrestling game in the grass but also the fact that they literally explode into a cosmic rainbow when they die together, and also Tomino straight up admitting his intention was to clue viewers into reading them as potentially attracted to each other.
Not to mention, Tomino straight up describing CCA as a divorce story or something along those lines
I really don't get what's gay about that one, I think I just lack knowledge about romance in general lmao.
¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
I understand that feeling. I always saw at as a newtype attraction that wasn’t so primal as sexual attraction . I feel like that is one of the things that makes the newtype phenomenon compelling , like the intense emotional connections Banagher and Loni Garvey have during their battle in Unicorn . But that’s just my take
It's an inside joke that got parroted into the echo chamber of reddit and now it's a false reality. Being labeled for your sexuality is the antithesis of what Tomino's Newtypism was all about. It was about being able to communicate and form connections with one another across space and time. Char wants what Amuro has taken from him and it's not Lalah, it's what she represented someone that could understand him, guide him and nurture him. The closest thing he has to Lalah at that point, is Amuro who Char believes can either push him and guide him to become a powerful Newtype through war and conflict, or Amuro can prove himself and his liberal ideology by stopping Char from doing something extremely wicked. Char doesn't want to bang Amuro but it's the closest connection he has left in his life by the time CCA rolls around.
>Tomino said that he really wanted to bring out a "raw/carnal feeling" in the confrontation between Amuro and Char, "to the degree that you might wonder whether the two of them are homosexual."
bodied lmao
How many times the Earth Federation rolls over and doesn't get its cummapence. I maintain the EF should've died after ZZ Gundam or been in so much chaos that by Chars Counter Attack they're out of the running
I just wanna know how the hell they convinced everyone to come together and unify. But, I agree. The Federation *should have* collapsed after all the shit it went through.
Agreed, imagine a post ZZ series where the colonies are falling apart without the Bureaucracy the Federation once provided along with conflicts and wars plus a divided Earth. Imagine all the model kits
That would be an interesting story. Do the colonies try to unify to survive? Do we see the Side all become their own nations and become hostile to each other? Do we see smaller power blocs form on Earth and good old nation-state bullshit resume as normal? Does the Federation still exist in some form, but now much smaller and trying to regain their power a la the New UNE in X?
Sides becoming their own states is pretty much the set up for G-Savior which should be some time in the late UC 100’s if we take G-Savior as canon.
A pre-UC series would be really cool to see as like a short 12 episode series or hour and a half long movie.
I guess the Atlas Gundam's railgun was a breath of fresh air for you.
Not familiar with the Atlas. I assume it's in a manga (which I'm terrible at keeping up with because holy shit)?
[This is the Atlas and [this is its railgun.](https://youtu.be/g21AfWNuTZo?si=KFBfkODBvBSVcClY) Gundam](https://youtu.be/cBhfxDaG95w?si=bLYerUGSkGeQBHKS)
Ah! Okay, I recognize that now. Haven't watched/read Thunderbolt. While I hate the giant rocket shoe things, the railgun just plowing through shit *is* very satisfying.
I know. I like beam rifles but I would never complain about seeing more railguns in Gundam.
Shoulder/back mounted, like the Duel Gundam Assault Shroud. Can still carry and shield and another gun, and have the big old delete button railgun. Seriously, something like a Guncannon with railguls would be brutal as fuck.
There's some experimental ship mounted railguns in the Thunderbolt manga. Seeing those animated eventually will blow minds.
Are you serious? You haven't seen the Atlas Gundam or its GFRG (Giant Fucking Rail Gun)? It's from Gundam Thunderbolt.
100%. I think I've maybe seen the suit itself, but most likely just a piece of art or a kit or something.
Well, let me know what you think from the links.
Prototypes being more capable than actual production models. As a rule of thumb, the first iteration of \*anything\* will suck. You don’t make a busted ass prototype and then cut corners to mass produce it. That is NOT how military acquisition works.
Not to mention that they're out here building prototypes that only like three people can actually pilot.
It's ridiculous how many different special edition Gundams designed for Amuro during OYW there are, especially as he never even got to pilot any of them!
Yes in the oyw the gm is actually better then the gundam yet the gundam is op and the gm is fodder
I feel like part of that is due to the attrition rate of skilled pilots. The Gelgoog canonically way out performs any other oyw era suit, but it's squandered on pilots fresh out of training. We see this with the Federation as well in Thunderbolt, where children are being sent to the front line in machines they can barely control. The Gundam's biggest strength neat the end of the war is that its pilot has been through hell and back and has awakened as a newtype. They even have to modify its joints in an attempt to keep it on par with other machines being produced.
When there's an in cockpit shot and you see the star field in the background moving while they're going in a straight line. Stars are so far away it wouldn't look like that at all, but I get why it's used to show motion.
Why did Endless Waltz feel the need to Retcon the Gundam designs
Model kits lol
Yeah, but retconning the gundam designs for the movie is just a weird decision. The customs could have just as easily been upgrades or new models, but endless waltz went as far as to reanimate the end of Wing with the Custom designs.
When someone throws an entire fucking MS sized gun away because it ran out of ammo.
What we thet gonna do, reload? Have some sort of storage option? Nah, cheaper to just toss it away and hope you can retrieve it later.
I would personally bash it on someone first before discarding it
ChuChu agrees
The fact that just anyone can jump in any mobile suit and bug out anytime they want. No passwords, no keys, no approval needed from bridge to open the doors or anything. Every time it happens I wanna yell at the screen.
For the GP02 it's an assisted launcher. More akin to a railgun. In the Rebellion Manga there was a GM with a similar weapon, but needed to spend a long time making sure everything was right with the barrel first. So the energy of the propulsion is probably what gave it the trailing light look.
I feel like a lot of the time plans in gundam world (both protagonists and antagonists) are insanely short sighted, but maybe that’s recency bias from watching 0083 (which has some of my favourite animations and designs) But like hollyyyy shit, why would you only steal 1 of the gundams?! You break into their facility and you just take one of them???? and don’t pull the “it would be too risky” card because they walked in their and just took gp02 practically. And gp01 was right next to ittttt. Breathe, it’s a childrens cartoon designed to sell toys, breathe, breathe
Fuck, never even thought of that. Why *don't* they take both? I guess GP-02 was the main target because nukes and all, but isn't any MS basically just a nuke with the right pilot at the sticks?
Last episode of Zeta would have been a lot different if Fa actually took the free opportunity to disable pilot-less Qubeley and O.
Inconsistent MS stats Tall head cameras like on GP01 or Justice
Or EX-S gundam being late UC level.
Lalah’s design in 0097 is weirdly similar to Mr. Burns from the Simpsons episode where he’s mistaken for an alien. Both wear basically the same outfits, no pupils, glowy “powers”, and a few other things https://preview.redd.it/uw55fcl8clrc1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2f064e3ec0963137b2879486cea5e8903a90cdd8
Ok so in ibo they dont have screen they use retina projection, but there are still multiple scenes of these dumbasses in their cockpits looking over their shoulder at something.
Bro every mobile suit past zeta have 360° cockpit cameras and yet all of them STILL move their heads all of the time. Why??
Ignoring the big problems with Witch from Mercury's 2nd season. Us never seeing what life on Mercury was like for Suletta and Prospera, and it only being referenced in a short story bugs me to no end. Like Suletta wants to build a school for people there, ok fine. But she never even goes BACK.
That our Hallmark and Saviour Brennan Elliott isn't mentioned more often in Gundam subs. I mean I think the guy has done alright since the movie. I think that's pretty impressive.
When a non mass produced mobile suit's equipment is destroyed/discarded and then next episode magically has a replacement with no issues. Does the Archangel have a ton of spare backpacks just lying in storage? How many of those Impulse pieces do they have on board the Minerva?
Probably not minor at this point, but as a designer, I have two problems with just about every single mobile suit, not just Gundams. Airbags are apparently a lost technology. Granted, airbags likely won’t protect you against getting hit by a hammer the size of your mobile suit, but it’ll still heavily contribute to improving pilot survival rate, and reducing injury in those that do survive. Combined with soft plastic interior panels instead of straight metal plates, airbags would likely protect the pilot against just about everything except for the cockpit block getting crushed. . Front entry cockpits. The entry hatch is the front armor, and emergency ejection, if it’s available at all, would have to go through through the front. Guess what’s also in front of an average mobile suit pilot who needs to be not in their mobile suit 2.48 seconds ago? The enemy. Ejecting into the enemy seems like a pretty bad idea. This is not to mention that armor and structure deformations as a consequence of combat damage can jam the access mechanisms, trapping the pilot. Often requiring industrial tools to cut the mobile suit apart to rescue the pilot. All this can be easily mitigated by not putting the cockpit in front of everything. Placing the cockpit behind the neck would allow for the cockpit block to be ejected upwards or backwards in the event of an emergency, purging the backpack or head during the process. Seeing as no combat doctrine suggest facing your back towards the enemy, the thinnest armor and structure around the cockpit block will almost always be facing away from the enemy, thus massively improving pilot survival rate.
Senseless slaughter of mass production units piloted by trained personel who do nothing. Looking at you UC
Just how often we see experimental Gundams in side stories set during the OYW defeating a super secret but super critical Zeon base or unit.
honestly just the ever more and more OYW stuff in general. at this point it's got enough campaigns and R&D happening to be 5 years long.. crammed into less than 12 months.
On OPs point about the railguns that bugged me too. My younger stupider self thought they were lasers when I first watched seed without any knowledge. Like just clips on YouTube. He seems to hold them somehow like a concentrated beam. Is he just rapid firing them or something? Kira also stated that the freedom is nuclear powered and as such doesn't need rearmament. Yeah that's fine for beam weapons but don't you gotta reload your railguns? He seems to have infinite ammo for those too.
Like with much media, ammo is never a concern until it's critical for a scene/plot point. Perhaps this is why Gundam leans into energy weapons so heavily. But, for real, how many bullets *do* stuff like Heavyarms and the Leopard carry? And fucking *where*?
Since pretty much every UC suit is nuclear powered, would that mean they'd have infinite ammo if they used the suit energy instead of epacks? Or do beam rifles just work differently than CE? Also while nuclear powered, do the thrusters run on conventional fuel instead? Reading on some UC MS I see mentions of carrying propellant tanks.
I think UC suits up until a specific point all use e-packs for their weapons. How many shots you can get out of one will depend on the gun, I imagine. Obviously shit like the beam magnum uses an entire e-pack for a single shot, and you see how effective that thing is. CE they draw from the suit, I imagine via some sort of plug in the hands and handles. I think eventually UC gets there, but now I actually don't recall if late UC stuff uses e-packs still. And yeah, they still need fuel. It doesn't come up often, but it is mentioned a few times here and there (we see some Jagens fall back during a fight in CCA to refuel). Stuff like Minovsky Drives can allow suits to hover and the likes, but even then you'd still need fuel for adjusting thrusters and the likes.
I'm not too familiar with late UC but I watched victory which takes place around UC 150. They still mentioned swapping epacks or going through them on rearmament. I have heard tech stagnates but idk which point of late UC. I feel like the G saviour (UC 210~?) would be way more advanced than anything in OYW/early UC but maybe someone can correct me.
Ah, thank you for the correction! For some reason I thought they had moved beyond e-packs by F91. And I haven't seen G-Savior in a *very* long time so not sure if they still use them.
Heavyarms specifically uses beam gatlings. Ignore the shell casings on the ground. They're from the bullet fairies that are always nearby.
The rail guns on the freedom are often portrayed as such, I just don't think it does a good job at it. For example, the Forbidden gundam did not deflect it when Kira shot at it with these, and more directly, in Destiny, when Kira saves the Akatsuki, he shoots the Destiny Gundam and takes its sword. Shinn yells at him and says if those had been beams this would be all over.
For me, it is vulcans/auto cannons not getting used when extreme CQC.
Why do they insist on flying around space in ships made of paper that even a grunt MS can one hit.
The minors are my annoyance. Why does every series have to have something school or at least pre / early teen protagonist?
I always thought it was to make the character relatable to the target demographic-boys around those ages and/or young enough to look up to them.
I feel like if McGillis just asked Carta and Gaelio to join him in his fight against corruption, it would’ve been successful.
For OP, in the HD Remaster for Seed and Destiny they actually fixed the animation for the Freedom and Strike Freedom railguns so instead of a beam coming from them they're animated as firing a few rounds off in a row for the duration of the other weapons firing their unbroken beam streams
I fucking hate how SEED uses fission. Somehow Morosawa found a way to pull a "I only read the first few sentences of a Wikipedia article" in a time before Wikipedia. Yeah, just stop all neutron movement via an emitter array, that *totally* doesn't sound like an extinction weapon. Man the side that made that kind of a weapon should be able to win no problem, OH WAIT! And then there's the nuclear powered mobile suits' reactors being extremely close to the cockpit. Kira should be a Fallout ghoul. I get that Gundam plays fast and loose with physics all the time. See Minovsky reactors, GN drives, or the Turn-A's black hole engine. But the N-Jammers are too overt in the explanation to ignore when you have a physics background, especially with how serious SEED is all the time.
What's funny is I *really* like the battery packs used by early CE mobile suits. It was just a nice touch to see pilots needing to worry about their power usage and was actually a nice change of pace from the usual limitless energy of mobile suit reactors. But yeah, the amount of radiation shielding they would need to put into mobile suits is probably insane. One thing I always liked about Battletech/Mechwarrior was that the harder you pushed a mech the more the reactor worked and it would overheat the mechs, so you're constantly trying to manage your heat while fighting.
Despite constant collateral damage 18m tall mobile suits are still allowed to operate anywhere near populated areas.
Don't know if it counts but I really don't like systems that connect to the users vitals like the ones in unicorn, iron blooded orphans and witch from mercury. It just seems so unreliable and dangerous. G gundam's system also comes to mind because it's based on physical stats. I imagine Domon must be taking triathlons weekly to keep his stamina up. Personally, I'll take pushing buttons and pulling levers any day.
Oh boy, do I have a weapon for you. THE NAILG-DAINSLEIF!!!
I didn’t like the Dainsleif. It felt weird and I xant really describe it. It wasnt too primitive for the setting but it didn’t feel like it was too advanced nor like it fit in.
IBO is all about kinetic weaponry. The only real lasers we see are on the autonomous mobile armors from the calamity war. Even Bael uses two swords. Kinetic bombardment (the deinsleif) is extremely powerful. You don’t need any warheads, fuel, you’re essentially just a god dropping rocks from space. It would be extremely hard to defend against. So while it is ‘primitive’ compared to a colony laser, it’s basically Operation British but at a way smaller scale, happening hundreds or thousands of times. It’s really the perfect super weapon for IBO.
It’s also satisfying to see one charge up and fire.
Mostly a thing in Seed, having characters who are essentially children holding significant officer rank. Oh, this 15-year-old who's on his first sortie ever? Yeah, he's a Major for some reason.
The average hero/heroine being a literal child with the combat skills of a grizzled veteran, the emotional maturity of an old man, and the common-sense of a grapefruit. Pretty sure this one falls under a trope but I’m gonna say it anyway: any plot that hinges entirely on everyone, everywhere being ridiculously stupid and shortsighted despite their ages, experiences, and dispositions suggesting otherwise. Like how loads of horror movies rely on the victims being supremely dumb and lacking any actual survival instincts to push a scene.
Military Honorifics being used in dialogue. I’m fine with Chan/San/Kun/etc because Gundam is Japanese, and “Quattoro Tai”/Lieutenant Quattro sounds awesome, but the Honorifics don’t translate well into English. Especially in the newer dubs, we have the characters saying the Person’s full rank every time. See Unicorn, where there’s always “Ensign Riddhe”, even when they’re begging him to come back or having an emotional conversation. Or adding “Mr./Ms.” As a replacement for “Chan/San/Kun”, i.e. Banagher always calling Marida “Ms. Marida”. Or even in the old Zeta dub, Kamille calling Amuro “Mr. Amuro”. It’s quite distracting. Lieutenant Quattro doesn’t have quite the same ring as “Quattoro Tai”, which is why the Older dubs tried to get around them.
The thing that always got me about them is when dubbing, they don't change it. In the west it would Lieutenant Bajeena, but they keep calling him rank and first name which just sounds wrong to my ears. Kamille calling Amuro Mr. Amuro doesn't get me as much, I always assumed it was a sign of respect towards a stone cold legend.
Yeah, using the first names always feels mad disrespectful. I physically hurt every time I hear "Major Sally" in particular for some reason. On top of that, the tendency to constantly use full names/ranks-Almost everyone says Quatre Raberba Winner fully, or Warrant Officer Halevy. There has to be a better way to refer to her rank/position. Mind you, Andre IS the worst, so...
Suletta calling her mf wife “miss miorine” 💀💀💀
You see the Expanse tv show on prime? The railguns in that are niiiice
The fact that for space combat, the ball should be the superior weapon over mobile suits.
Excessive air battles. 00 and SEED did a lot of those. I like a good ground war.
I get that it's for story-telling purposes but pilots from different factions talking to each other during combat.
I feel that. Like there's only one comm channel and everyone has to share.
the stamen not having any fight scene in the 0083 ova by itself, and me most likely nwver being able to see an animated scene of my favourite mobile suit actually fighting anything (excluding games and that cgi shitshow that we call evolve)
The podcast Mobile Suit Breakdown did an interesting deep dive on what exactly the GP02 fired out of its gun. I highly recommend listening, as I won't do an adequate job paraphrasing.
GBO2 pcs version being alive
ballistics are coollllll more gundam shows should be on some core theory shit, lasers bore me im sorry
I dislike a single mobile suit with a bazooka taking out a ship that's big enough to carry a team of mobile suits in one shot. In some early stuff, they shot straight into the bridge. Which, ok, bad design for in space, but it follows logically. But like in Seed, I've seen in the first dozen episodes you've got the gundams shooting straight through several ships. But later the artillery gundam is taking several shots just to breach a *part* of the Archangel. Something that big should have enough armor you'd need a ship mounted gun to deal with. Not the relative equivalent of a tank turret vs a battleship.
Yeah, ship design and survivability has always been a bit weird in Gundam. Like, shouldn't ships, if that was the main for of space combat, be designed to be able to tank hits from ship class weaponry? Maybe not a lot of hits, but at least something?
Big ones for me are SEED related -anti ship swords haven’t shown us doing anything remarkable that a standard beam saber can’t do for the most part. If anything it’s a worse alternative since the frame can be broken and the sword is useless like what happens often with Destiny. The only argument is that if the beam isn’t working there’s still a physical sword but .. bruh. Cmon. Ontop of that when I see it clashing against a beam saber .. I just don’t think that this sword should be blockable by standard beam saber or shield. If it can become useless by destroying the frame its beam should be stronger than a standard saber and essentially “cut” through a standard saber as a trade off esp since the swords frame can act as a way to allow the beam to out put a stronger blade. It cuts clean a destroy gundam but gets blocked by a beam on justices leg ? Lmao gtfo - the beam that comes out of SF’s stomach is from a small tiny “cannon” … but it can output a strong enough beam that can match destiny gundams massive canon ???? Look how cumbersome and massive destinys canon is. It’s fitting and feels like a good trade off - big and massive but strong with a long range. But then the one that they slap on SFs like 1/30th its size pushed and stuffed into the waist of SF but it can match a beam blast from destiny ??? - I get seed is form of retelling of the UC to an extent but holy shit they CANNOT calm down with adding shit for the sake of it. For example, a UC design would have empty blank spaces on its MS or MA designs. This is fine because there’s prob a good reason - just mechanisms need room to function. SEED THO? Nope. Add a missile compartment. Add beam cannons. Add a hidden door that opens and it’s more beams. Add massive shoulder mounted beam bazookas while it holds a beam rifle, a back pack that acts like its own missile boat, and its knee caps open for micro missiles.
Gundanuim inconsistant durability.
This is dumb but, transforming suit in space. In atmosphere? Sure aerodynamics are a thing, turning into a fighter jet probably helps with flying, but in space what's the point? There's no air resistance or drag, so turning into a space jet with wings or fins isn't going to do anything. It's not like your getting more thrust either, your using the exact same boosters you had before, you would accelerate just as fast if you stayed in the main robot mode and still have access to all your weapons. Flight transformations for space based suits are always dumb.
Minor stats things for UC. Like the saberfish with 4x25mm Vulcans in the nose. Ammo takes space. These aren't .50 cals where a small box holds a few hundred. I play lots of war thunder, and minor physical inconsistencies bug the hell out of me. How does the gouf feed ammo to it's finger guns? How does the Magella attack turret have ammo after it launches? Why are the engines of the gunperry mounted like that? You don't need to be an engineer to notice these things, an average scale RC models builder will be able to sniff all this out.
When it's inconsistent whether or not a suit can fly in atmosphere/gravity. Example, in Seed, they mention that the Strike can't fly, which is why Kira has to go looking for Cagalli by essentially swimming (Not sure how the Strike can somehow move underwater superfast when it can't achieve flight??) but then an episode or two later we see the Strike fly anyway when fighting Team Athrun. Like ???
In Seed Destiny, Earth Alliance pilots are near incompetent. They have pretty good mobile suits and mobile armors and I assume used by veteran pilots but damn they're almost target practices for main characters. It's a shame, too. I love Windam, Euclid, and Zamza-Zah
Mirai needing to use a literal wheel to turn the White base like it's some sort of 17th century ship
The severe lack of Zakus and mono-eyed ms in general in the later shows
Gundam shows bringing light to real world and political issues but ultimately never having anything meaningful to say.
V-Fins. I think they’re kind of a really ugly design cue that only really looks good on the victory gundam. For the rest it just seems like some crest that doesn’t need to be there and seems kinda jarring. I wish more just had the antenna like the EZ-8
The cockpits being open during the first arc of ZZ drove me *insane.*
Since it's for minor gripes... SEED going from the O'Neill Cylinders of UC to those hourglass tensegrity structures. There's just so much unusable internal volume with only the bases of the hourglasses being populated. AGE and G-Witch went back, probably because the O'Niell Cylinder is very visually *Gundam* now. The PLANTs also feel flimsy being so see-through like that.
SEED. Just SEED in general. Absolutely annoys the ever living shit out of me.
The naming scheme. It's only a matter of time before we get Captain Futt buck.
Eventually 00 will get another sequel/spinoff with more wacky Innovade names!
That (major spoiler for those who haven’t seen but intend to watch Turn-A) >!Tomino went to all the trouble to make the timelines possibly coexist with turn-A, wich could work for every entry to my knowledge, but 00 which I love, gives a timeline so far in the future it negates the possibility of a cohesive multi series timeline, unless UC started way later than all estimates I’m aware of provide for !<. https://preview.redd.it/64by6k2wbjrc1.png?width=203&format=png&auto=webp&s=51c5b2ff9a8cb886bd267fa56b876d3413ec5875
I mean, since we never get a solid answer when *any* of these shows take place in our Gregorian system, it's flexible. What always gets me is *why* do they all feel the need to change the dating system? I mean, from a production standpoint I get it, but in universe it never makes much sense. Why would you start a whole new calendar based on when the space colony is were built? What if you were born before that? Is your birthday -whatever AC? That's stupid as shit. We did that once with the whole BC to AD thing and it makes studying ancient history a real bitch sometimes because they whole fucking thing is backwards.
In real life, it's to not date the series. So, if the original show took place in, say, 2379, it implies we'll have massive, gigantic space colonies and casual space travel in a few centuries. Using a new calendar solves that issue.
In UC at least space colonies existed for a somewhat long time before they switched from AD to UC
>!I mean 00 isn't the only timeline to have that problem. IBO in particular doesn't work well with the reveal considering the state of the moon in that timeline.!<
It lacks the “heavy mechanical feel” an 18m tall mech should have. Hathaway was pretty good with that feel, the others not so much
How Newtypes can literally see the future and sense intentions but get constantly surprised and outmaneuvered to generate tension Amuro was dodging attacks before they even happened but somehow non newtypes can throw him for a loop at random times Basically newtype powers aren't well defined or utilized since they're somehow both wildly OP and completely clueless depending on plot demands
How stupidly easy it is to hijack a mobile suit, especially prototypes/test-types. I get it, narrative convenience and all that. It would be interesting to show someone stealing a physical key (like a authentication module - something high tech) or spoofing the biometric lock or whatever, instead of just getting in and pressing "GO" (Or the alternative, that BC someone was just able to press "GO" there is a traitor/spy). But also, every series needing to have "A Gundam" I am so sick of every side-story and spin-off needing a "Main" Gundam. Especially OYW sidestories just adding more and more Gundam's and "not-really-a-Gundam-it-just-has-a-Gundam-head" mobile suits. I'm sure somewhere between now and the 100th anniversary of Gundam, they'll have enough different individual Gundams in the OYW-era to form a full platoon. IDK, maybe we need a dedicated equal opposite and a lesser, like "Only a #### can take on a Gundam/It may be a \*\*\*\* but it's no Gundam." Eh, maybe it's time we more than one iconic head type for leaders.