Gundam 00, episode 32.

[annwyd]

Comments

[luinthoron]

There is one scary thing about this episode that hit me only much later, because it's not really there but might just come up later. How will Louise react to Soma's "death". She finally found a friend and, from her point of view, Celestial Being destroyed her happiness once again.

Of course, with Soma/Marie now with CB, it doesn't have to be just Saji anymore to "help Louise see the light".

/otp-rambling

Is this required in every Gundam since SEED now?

Apparently

Allelujah, trying to protect kind, gentle, innocent Marie from being "used as a soldier"

This is Sunrise apologizing to the Shinn/Stellar shippers. Yes, Sunrise, very original... >_>

[annwyd]

Yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing Louise and Soma/Marie's relationship become important; it's always good (and rare) when two female characters get to actually have some kind of relationship.

And...it won't be such an apology to the Shinn/Stellar shippers if something horrible happens to Soma. >_< Honestly, I think the main thing that would actually get me to stop watching now is if Soma dies just to develop Allelujah's character. Fingers crossed that that won't happen.

[sapphire_hime]

I was pleased to see that they took care to show Marie as a mature character, especially so in the tent conversation scene. I like to think she kept growing while still sealed inside Soma. It would have killed me if they had made Soma regress to a childish/innocent-like Marie.

Also, I want that insert song so badly.

[annwyd]

Yeah, I think it was handled a lot better than it could have been, but I'm still wary. I really want to see it turn out that Marie is not the innocent delicate flower Allelujah thinks she is, but someone who still has Soma's ability to fight, only now it's for what she believes in. I think her throwing herself in front of him at the end of their encounter with Sergei hints at the possibility, but I'm not sure how much they'll explore it.

[parasaurolophus]

That was a horribly adorable episode

[annwyd]

Agreed, Sergei's chance of surviving just shot up. But if they plan to develop Soma/Marie more, he's still got a chance of kicking the bucket. And as much as I love Sergei, I'd rather see him die and Marie/Soma develop more than have Soma vanish forever. But if they can both develop and then be all happy family at the end, that's fine by me too.

I hope you're right about Soma and Hallelujah, because there's a lot of potential there. My biggest fear right now is that now they'll kill off Marie just to develop Allelujah.

[7thisgod]

I thought the writing this episode was rather grating. Most of the characterization and development for Soma and Al was delivered through out-of-place exposition and there was barely any actual "human interaction" for the newfound relationship. It's like they failed to understand that a character defined by quirks, actions and its interaction with the world is a more believable and likable character than a character defined by hamfisted information dumps.

[annwyd]

My feelings on the episode are thoroughly mixed, and how they come out in the end really depends on what they do with the new relationship in the future. If this was supposed to be a rabu-rabu-forever scene, then I agree with you. I was expecting (and hoping) for there to be a lot more development and tension before they started making out. But if the reason they rushed it is so that they could introduce more complications (such as the resurfacing of Soma and Hallelujah) later on, I just might be okay with it. I thought that as new as the Marie/Allelujah interaction was, it fit reasonably well with the glimpses we saw of them earlier. My judgment will ultimately depend on whether they use this new relationship development as a beginning and a gateway into more development, or whether they consider the whole thing a closed book now.

[7thisgod]

My problem is that their relationship and character development was mostly focused on exposition. The way in which they explored their relationship through mere description was rather anti-climatic. That's just not how conversations work. :/