Fantasy Dimensions » Gundam 00

Gundam 00 – What is Celestial Beings True Goal?

FDimension — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 09:43:02 +0000

I’m going to begin by merely assuming that you’re up to date on Gundam 00. If not then what are you waiting for? If you’re reading this then you’re obviously into Gundam 00. If you’re not I suggest going to pick it up. Anyway…

What is Celestial Beings true goal? World domination? The right hand of the Union? It sure as hell isn’t peace. Peace isn’t forged through war and any good pacifist knows that fighting to stop war is only helping it last longer unless you want one side to win. We have three sides along with multiple mercenary factions and even the factions have in fighting. We know Celestial Being is not good because they’ve done nothing good.

Oh sure they’ve stopped the terrorist strike in the first episode. However, since then they’ve done nothing really helpful other than starting war and violence and invoking the war machine to pump out more and more advanced technology to combat them. They’ve burned fields that support whole countries (even if it was drugs… it was still some of their main income), they’ve attacked the strangest enemies, and worst of all they are doing nothing but provoking the world to fight back against them. There is no true peace here.

So what is their true goal? Let’s assume for a minute that their “PACIFIST FIST” (Slayers, get it?) attack isn’t their real goal. What is their real goal? Well, obviously if we look at it long enough we’ll see a few likely scenarios:

Uniting the World

This is a possibility. Their goal may be to unite the world into defeating them. This isn’t very likely because it’s just not Gundam enough. Anything that cut and dry is just way too simple. It is possible though. Even then there would be problems. Like, with Celestial Being gone, what point would there be in working together?

Eviliness

The other theory is that Celestial Being is evil. Evil as in they want to destroy the world balance for a reason (maybe world domination). If they were truly evil we’d know that Lockon could just take down the space elevators from a far distance and bam the world economy destroyed. A more realistic theory is holding the elevators hostage for whatever true evil goal they have. This is more believable but it has one problem. It doesn’t give us their true goal (what would they want from holding the elevator hostage) and how could they keep it hostage long enough for their goal to be received.

It’s very plausible that at the root of CB there is an evil core. Evil as in the point of view from the normal person looking at it and going “that’s evil”. The reason I say this is that there is just no good in any of their actions. They’ve accelerated the drive to produce war fairing vehicles. They’ve caused strife and conflict. They’ve ruined lives. Sure the end justifies the means but there is just something wrong with the whole thing.

Stopping War

Yeah right, but let’s just go ahead and assume. Maybe their goal involves some kind of wicked idealistic future reading machine that can determine the actions and reactions……. yeah.

Anyway you look at it, I just don’t like what’s up with them. I guess in the end we’ll find out (a year from now considering the half a year brake) but I don’t know. Every Gundam needs three waring factions. One side is Earth, one side is space, and the other is our crew that comes from Earth or space but is kind of a third faction because both sides are both neither good nor evil. We have three factions that are all resembling the generic Earth nation that is corrupt but not going out of their way to be evil. We have no space faction. We have Celestial Being who shows up, messes with people, and plays some weird game of chess with overpowered equipment and underskilled pilots (Setsuna is underskilled in my opinion).

I guess we’ll look back at this whenever it’s revealed and go “huh, why didn’t I think of that then”.

P.S. Gundam 00 needs more coloney drop.

Gundam 00 – Is it Worth the Download?

FDimension — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 08:14:03 +0000

Obviously if you’re going to pick up a new series you’re going to want to know if it’s worth your time and Gundam 00 is one (if not the only) interesting robot shows this season. For people heavily into the robot genre this season may seem a wash after Tenga Toppa Gurren Lagann and for many Gundam 00 may be unviewable due to the strict contrast between the super robot and the just normal robot series.

It’s true, we’re spoiled by big budget high animation and the over the top story lines of shows like Gurren Lagann which makes something like Gundam very boring. There is no token Kamina character who makes you shout with joy. There is no amazing attacks that require five minutes to shout the entire name or charge the lasers. There is however a real political landscape and a very deep plot.

Lots of people were introduced to robots recently by Gurren Lagann and I have no doubt that they may find many other robots enjoyable (even though Gurren Lagann’s broad viewership makes it though to beat) but they may take a disliking to Gundam 00. The plot moves along at a slow pace only because there is so much plot to go through. Each episode (so far of the four I’ve seen) contain tons and tons of plot but like any fifty plus episode series there is so much to go and so much you don’t know.

So, I’m going to say up front, there is a difference between super robots and regular robots. Super robots will make the impossible possible through shear burning spirit. Regular robots will make the impossible possible with bravery and skill against enemies who are only slightly stronger than the machines they utilize. So you’re not going to get any galaxy throwing competitions going (even in fake space).

If you’re ok with that or a regular Gundam fan then you’re in for something that is worth following in my opinion. If nothing more than something to old off to the mid-season break with Code Geass season two may start. The episodes are entertaining and there is no glaring mistakes yet.

Those burned by Gundam Seed Destiny have no need to worry. This looks really solid so far and there are no transforming robots to spend the entire episode with stock footage on. The pilots are not very, how do you say… emo, so you’re good on that front. In one episode one of the pilots even followed orders when that choice may make things very difficult for them in the near future.

I can’t spoil much but I will say that the Mendoi (the subbing group) is rather hardcore and also very big assholes. However, one of their subbers has shown that Gundam 00 has a lot of research on current world tensions and utilizes them in the series. There is a lot of political comment and tons of interesting tid-bits you would not normally find.

The mecha so far are pretty decent. We have the “I-win” lightsaber, but there are doubts about how long it’ll be the “I-win” button of choice. We have a princess, like Wing, along with four Gundam meisters.

If you liked Gundam Wing, enjoyed Gundam Seed (the original), and you thought most other normal robot shows were okay then I’d head over to http://www.mymenclave.com/ and start downloading.

If you like super robot shows and have never seen a serious robot show before then I suggest getting Gundam Wing first to test the waters. You can watch the original series or even Seed if you want. There are always different opinions on which shows are the best. Personally I like all of them (except Gundam Seed Destiny). So try it out for yourself.

Gundam 00 Takes a Break – Time Slot for Code Geass?

FDimension — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 07:08:01 +0000

Sunrise is doing both Gundam 00 and the second season of Code Geass but we do know that CG has been moved to next year in place of Gundam 00. It’s known that Gundam 00 will be taking a break halfway through its airing but we don’t know why or what for. Current rumors give 26 episodes of Gundam 00, 26 episodes of Code Geass, then the last 26 episodes of Gundam 00.

If that’s true then Gundam 00 will not finish for a year and a half while Code Geass will still be half a year off from Gundam 00′s original airing meaning spring. It makes sense giving that sunrise doesn’t want their two main franchises going at one another during the airings.

We’ll have to wait and see for more information but the only concern is: will Gundam 00 be good enough that you won’t mind the wait?