Gundam 00, episodes 47 & 48.
Two episodes behind at the worst time to be two episodes behind, because I got sick at the wrong moment. Whee.
Episode 47:
--Oh yeah. Once again, I am reminded: I am so disappointed that it turns out they're just going to fulfill Aeolia's plan all along. I dunno, maybe it's the contrary American individualist in me; in a show that opens with the heroes following some inscrutable plan that gets increasingly morally dubious as we go along, I want to see them eventually turn against that plan when its full extent is revealed. But eh, having it turn out that his plan wasn't to eradicate war with Gundam but to change humanity with Gundam is okay, I guess.
--Oh my God, is this a flashback sequence to Graham's weeaboo fanboy travels? God, I love him so much.
--This is unfair of me, but seriously, why haven't we spent more time this season on Graham and his fucked-up pseudo-honorable obsession with "the warrior's peak"?
--Are they going to kill off Graham this early, after showing us all that dramatic footage of him in the OP looking like Setsuna's final boss? Really?
--Okay, apparently not, which is good, but I'm not really sure how much further they can go with the Graham/Setsuna stuff at this point. Now that Setsuna has already rather calmly reached the conclusion that there's more to life than fighting, Graham's insistence on violence as the true purpose of life seems like a meaningless tangent to Setsuna's character rather than an important warning. Unless the ultimate proof of Setsuna's change is him Jesusing Graham back to sanity rather than simply defeating him, which would be kind of hilarious and awesome and okay, maybe that is where they're going.
--Also if that happens I will probably actually ship Graham/Setsuna instead of just laugh at it like I do now.
--For all the flaws in the first season, they had it set up so much to offer the possibility of something new, of a battle from the inside out against The Plan itself, or some kind of attempt to redeem a misguided organization, that it's more disappointing than it really should be to see it come down again to "the bad guy organization faces off for one final battle against the good guy organization." Blah blah blah this is me expecting too much from Gundam, I know, I know.
--Also, I would be more impressed by the fact that A-LAWS in S2 has the same goal as Celestial Being in S1--usher in a world united in peace--if there were any sympathetic characters (other than a broken and crazy Louise) left with A-LAWS.
--How great is it to hear Hilling saying "keikaku doori"? So great.
--Traumatized fetal position Louise! Screencap.
--Okay, so Louise is still convinced she's done the Right Thing, even after her breakdown. I am cool with that, as it means more delicious crazy tiems and also will make it easier for me to write ghostly hatesex. I mean.
--I like how they're all gathered around the screen/porthole/whatever, except for Soma who's totally just chillin' against the wall, like she's too cool for the rest of them.
--"We won't be compatible with the future if we don't change." Oh, Setsuna's dialogue. Everything else about him may change, but it never does.
--Fuck yes, Kati.
--Haha, I've seen the "army of Brings" shot before, but it will never not be hilarious.
--Graham keeps a wakizashi (or is that a tanto?) in his cockpit with him? In space? Seriously? God, I love him.
--Oh, so he can commit seppuku if it becomes necessary. But Setsuna's voice forces him to cling to life against his honorable will! This is going to be a great pairing by the end of the series, you guys.
--Yay, the fabled Setsuna/Feldt scene!
--How does Feldt even know that Setsuna and Marina are an item? But oh, his reaction. Setsuna, your fail at relationships is just adorable.
--Awwww, "guide me, Lockon." I am so looking forward to that reunion with Lockon's sparkly space ghost.
--Awww, Soma doesn't mind if Allelujah calls her Marie, so long as he acknowledges her as a partner in battle. You'd think it wouldn't have taken him so long to figure it out, but considering he is kind of insane in his own special way, I'll forgive him.
--I'm sure there's some kind of Meaningful Point in Lyle blocking a blow meant for Tieria, but I think you can guess my feelings about that.
--Katharon? Being something other than cannon fodder? What a shocker.
--Lyle's pleased greeting of them is cute. I really wish we'd gotten to see more of his interactions with the rest of Katharon.
--Let me guess: Kati is commanding Katharon. See, I always knew that what they needed was a woman in charge. Klaus, let this be a lesson for your relationship with Shirin.
--Or she's commanding her own rebel force, which is fine too, and should also be a lesson that Klaus should let Shirin take charge of Katharon.
--God, I love Patrick.
--Goodman's end is hilarious. Fuck yes.
--The couch sees all. That is all I have to say about the end.
Episode 48:
--I just love Regene's expression here.
--Ribbons is such a troll. Seriously, the only way I can get enjoyment out of the villains in this series--other than Graham--is to think of them as overevolved trolls. Okay, there's also Andrei, who could have been a good villain if they'd actually put some effort into him instead of just making him kind of a low-grade douche. But I'll be fair: once you start seeing them as trolls, Ali and the Innovators are pretty great.
--This "my consciousness is linked directly to Veda" has me wondering about Tieria's end. Since he has to survive for the movie, I suspect we might see his body getting killed, but him taking over Veda with his consciousness and bringing his newfound humanity to it to make it once again a tool for good and peace. Hopefully with the help of Lockon's sparkly space ghost.
--Awwww. Well, I still have hope that Regene will be true to his troll roots and return as the final boss somehow.
--Yay, we'll finally get our Kati/Sumeragi space sex!
--Fuck yes, Kati hasn't switched over to Celestial Being's side, she's still sane enough to see that they're wrong but also that they're the lesser of two evils right now.
--Bitch, you did not just kill Kati. I won't have it.
--Humanity's last, best hope? No, you are not Babylon 5. You will never be Babylon 5.
--Okay, Kati's still there, even though it apparently showed her ship being disintegrated. I don't know.
--"Let's atone for changing the world." Yes, this; I really wish they'd spent more time on this theme instead of mucking about with A-LAWS as evil and the rebuilt Celestial being as the noble freedom fighters...ah, well. (Although I do like how GN Drives being the new superweapon's power source plays into that.)
--LASTO MISSION: STARTO
--Goddamn but I still hate when Tieria calls Lyle "Lockon." It just jars me so much out of the flow of the episode. How much would it have cost them to do something about giving him a new codename, one of his own, after he had his Anew breakdown on them? They could even have done something with the changing-for-the-future theme! Sigh.
--Oh, yandere Billy's face in that scene is so great.
--Awww, Sumeragi is so gay for Kati.
--Oh, Patrick. I will end something if he's really dead. That would just be wrong. I mean, I'm pretty sure that even with the kind of quality they've put into this season, they'd have spent more than five seconds on the scene if they were really going to kill him off.
--Awww yeah, Louise.
--Can we have some information on why Lyle suddenly cares about fighting Ali now? Please?
--Oh fuck yes. Crazy Billy vs. Sumeragi showdown.
--Having "Trust You" cut in on all the dramatic battle sequences is getting predictable.
--Awww, Saji and Louise.
--Oh fuck yes, Tieria facing off against Ribbons in the heart of Veda.
Episode 47:
--Oh yeah. Once again, I am reminded: I am so disappointed that it turns out they're just going to fulfill Aeolia's plan all along. I dunno, maybe it's the contrary American individualist in me; in a show that opens with the heroes following some inscrutable plan that gets increasingly morally dubious as we go along, I want to see them eventually turn against that plan when its full extent is revealed. But eh, having it turn out that his plan wasn't to eradicate war with Gundam but to change humanity with Gundam is okay, I guess.
--Oh my God, is this a flashback sequence to Graham's weeaboo fanboy travels? God, I love him so much.
--This is unfair of me, but seriously, why haven't we spent more time this season on Graham and his fucked-up pseudo-honorable obsession with "the warrior's peak"?
--Are they going to kill off Graham this early, after showing us all that dramatic footage of him in the OP looking like Setsuna's final boss? Really?
--Okay, apparently not, which is good, but I'm not really sure how much further they can go with the Graham/Setsuna stuff at this point. Now that Setsuna has already rather calmly reached the conclusion that there's more to life than fighting, Graham's insistence on violence as the true purpose of life seems like a meaningless tangent to Setsuna's character rather than an important warning. Unless the ultimate proof of Setsuna's change is him Jesusing Graham back to sanity rather than simply defeating him, which would be kind of hilarious and awesome and okay, maybe that is where they're going.
--Also if that happens I will probably actually ship Graham/Setsuna instead of just laugh at it like I do now.
--For all the flaws in the first season, they had it set up so much to offer the possibility of something new, of a battle from the inside out against The Plan itself, or some kind of attempt to redeem a misguided organization, that it's more disappointing than it really should be to see it come down again to "the bad guy organization faces off for one final battle against the good guy organization." Blah blah blah this is me expecting too much from Gundam, I know, I know.
--Also, I would be more impressed by the fact that A-LAWS in S2 has the same goal as Celestial Being in S1--usher in a world united in peace--if there were any sympathetic characters (other than a broken and crazy Louise) left with A-LAWS.
--How great is it to hear Hilling saying "keikaku doori"? So great.
--Traumatized fetal position Louise! Screencap.
--Okay, so Louise is still convinced she's done the Right Thing, even after her breakdown. I am cool with that, as it means more delicious crazy tiems and also will make it easier for me to write ghostly hatesex. I mean.
--I like how they're all gathered around the screen/porthole/whatever, except for Soma who's totally just chillin' against the wall, like she's too cool for the rest of them.
--"We won't be compatible with the future if we don't change." Oh, Setsuna's dialogue. Everything else about him may change, but it never does.
--Fuck yes, Kati.
--Haha, I've seen the "army of Brings" shot before, but it will never not be hilarious.
--Graham keeps a wakizashi (or is that a tanto?) in his cockpit with him? In space? Seriously? God, I love him.
--Oh, so he can commit seppuku if it becomes necessary. But Setsuna's voice forces him to cling to life against his honorable will! This is going to be a great pairing by the end of the series, you guys.
--Yay, the fabled Setsuna/Feldt scene!
--How does Feldt even know that Setsuna and Marina are an item? But oh, his reaction. Setsuna, your fail at relationships is just adorable.
--Awwww, "guide me, Lockon." I am so looking forward to that reunion with Lockon's sparkly space ghost.
--Awww, Soma doesn't mind if Allelujah calls her Marie, so long as he acknowledges her as a partner in battle. You'd think it wouldn't have taken him so long to figure it out, but considering he is kind of insane in his own special way, I'll forgive him.
--I'm sure there's some kind of Meaningful Point in Lyle blocking a blow meant for Tieria, but I think you can guess my feelings about that.
--Katharon? Being something other than cannon fodder? What a shocker.
--Lyle's pleased greeting of them is cute. I really wish we'd gotten to see more of his interactions with the rest of Katharon.
--Let me guess: Kati is commanding Katharon. See, I always knew that what they needed was a woman in charge. Klaus, let this be a lesson for your relationship with Shirin.
--Or she's commanding her own rebel force, which is fine too, and should also be a lesson that Klaus should let Shirin take charge of Katharon.
--God, I love Patrick.
--Goodman's end is hilarious. Fuck yes.
--The couch sees all. That is all I have to say about the end.
Episode 48:
--I just love Regene's expression here.
--Ribbons is such a troll. Seriously, the only way I can get enjoyment out of the villains in this series--other than Graham--is to think of them as overevolved trolls. Okay, there's also Andrei, who could have been a good villain if they'd actually put some effort into him instead of just making him kind of a low-grade douche. But I'll be fair: once you start seeing them as trolls, Ali and the Innovators are pretty great.
--This "my consciousness is linked directly to Veda" has me wondering about Tieria's end. Since he has to survive for the movie, I suspect we might see his body getting killed, but him taking over Veda with his consciousness and bringing his newfound humanity to it to make it once again a tool for good and peace. Hopefully with the help of Lockon's sparkly space ghost.
--Awwww. Well, I still have hope that Regene will be true to his troll roots and return as the final boss somehow.
--Yay, we'll finally get our Kati/Sumeragi space sex!
--Fuck yes, Kati hasn't switched over to Celestial Being's side, she's still sane enough to see that they're wrong but also that they're the lesser of two evils right now.
--Bitch, you did not just kill Kati. I won't have it.
--Humanity's last, best hope? No, you are not Babylon 5. You will never be Babylon 5.
--Okay, Kati's still there, even though it apparently showed her ship being disintegrated. I don't know.
--"Let's atone for changing the world." Yes, this; I really wish they'd spent more time on this theme instead of mucking about with A-LAWS as evil and the rebuilt Celestial being as the noble freedom fighters...ah, well. (Although I do like how GN Drives being the new superweapon's power source plays into that.)
--LASTO MISSION: STARTO
--Goddamn but I still hate when Tieria calls Lyle "Lockon." It just jars me so much out of the flow of the episode. How much would it have cost them to do something about giving him a new codename, one of his own, after he had his Anew breakdown on them? They could even have done something with the changing-for-the-future theme! Sigh.
--Oh, yandere Billy's face in that scene is so great.
--Awww, Sumeragi is so gay for Kati.
--Oh, Patrick. I will end something if he's really dead. That would just be wrong. I mean, I'm pretty sure that even with the kind of quality they've put into this season, they'd have spent more than five seconds on the scene if they were really going to kill him off.
--Awww yeah, Louise.
--Can we have some information on why Lyle suddenly cares about fighting Ali now? Please?
--Oh fuck yes. Crazy Billy vs. Sumeragi showdown.
--Having "Trust You" cut in on all the dramatic battle sequences is getting predictable.
--Awww, Saji and Louise.
--Oh fuck yes, Tieria facing off against Ribbons in the heart of Veda.