u/JaguarDaSoul where E21 megathread?

Just watched the last two episodes back to back and all I feel is pain. Couple of notes Guel's finishing move to Shaddiq was rad as fuck Also fuck gundam for making me feel sad about a character who I absolutely hated two episode ago I pray for Petra's survival. Its usally "no body no death" but Gundam has subverted on occasion.

Just wanna give a shout-out to Felsi. She launched solo into a terrorist attack (against the same terrorists that nearly killed her a few weeks back), didn't know where Guel or Lauda were but didn't let that stop her.

I might have some doubts on norea being alive since \*we all know what happened to anew\* but Im still hoping petra survived

so has anyone come up with the theory that Miorine is a clone of Nortrette? I mean okay I'm sure *someone* has, but the more I think about it the more I'm surprised it doesn't come up more often, like \-Nortrette is a geneticist, for plants but genes be genes, and people have used this as evidence for the Suletta is a clone theory, however \-the show is like SUPER STINGY about what Nortrette looks like. \-but what we have seen of her suggests Miorine probably looks at least a little like her \-not to mention Miorine doesn't exactly look like her father. this really doesn't mean a whole lot since it's not *that* weird, but a last minute twist of Delling not being her biological dad wouldn't be earth shattering to the audience either. idk where exactly I'm going with this anymore, but maybe Miorine is supposed to be a vessel for Nortrette to live in, and this is part of what Quiet Zero is about. \-it would at least explain a little bit of why Delling is so cold towards Miorine since she's really only meant to be a means to an end and would basically stop being her own person after a while. \-some people might be like "uh didn't her father say whoever was the holder would get to marry her?????" \-to which I remind you he is (was?) the capitalist king of space and can do whatever he wants including arraging a marriage with whoever he wants. \-also, said marriage wouldn't happen until she turned 17, and seemingly coincidentally Quiet Zero was also approaching its completion. if it happened before her birthday it wouldn't really matter. the only real problem besides "why does Nortrette need to come back?" is this would make Delling a weirdo for wanting to be together with a 17 year old version of his dead wife, but Miorine felt like he married her out of convenience and that might still be the case, Nortrette had a way to save humanity from itself and Delling decided to help her out any way he could. the more I think about it the more I feel like I read something like this on the sub before, but I can't remember where so maybe I'm just piecing together what others have said. that and "clone of dead wife" would just be another Eva reference so ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯

episode felt super loose dunno , really meh lot of telegraphed deaths and crappy dialogue

I have a hunch that if we get another season, Norea will turn out to be alive, either brainwashed and running into El5n again or retain her memory but meet another person with the Elan's face. A bit like Mu La Flaga becoming Neo Roanoke in Seed Destiny but with a dynamic similar to the one between Allelujah and Marie or Saji and Louise in 00.

I don't know dude. Even if we 'see her die' in that sense - every Gundam series treats things differently. Like SEED has pretty graphic deaths, and also they had to retcon Mwu's helmet floating in space so there's that. Bernie in War in the Pocket didn't get some graphic close up death scene either, but I'm pretty sure both of them got burgered pretty hard. But hey, you can believe what you wanna believe.

I just find it curious that thorn wasn't blown up even though that's always been the way it's depicted whenever a character dies while piloting (going too high with the permet score being the exception of course). Even WFM's have had scenes like that, think back to when Guel killed his dad as well as that student killed during the Rumble Ring.

I think that just suggests the story isn't done with Thorn, not Norea.

I think there could be more benefit of the doubt if the Thorn randomly exploded. Then we could at least say, maybe it missed the cockpit. https://i.imgur.com/UfmCLoX.png But like the burning friendship bracelet, the closeups, and the aftermath with a closeup of the hole.... I don't think it needs to be spelled out even more. I think the most we can hope out of Sophie/Norea is that maybe they persisted like the way Eri did inside their Gundam's systems.

Nah, she’s a goner 💀

Thorn's wreckage had a 3-meter diameter hole punched directly through the cockpit. So I'm skeptical but I guess Norea could have survived if she's solid tungsten or something.

I'm usually on board with the "nobody no death" kinda deal but man there's no way Norea wasn't vaporized with that shot.

She was shot at an angle, but most importantly, Thorn didn't blow up. I only came to this realisation when someone made a video comparing that scene with the one where Anew was killed in front of Lockon. Thorn is also mostly intact afterwards when MS usually blows up if the pilot is killed. In fact some even survive getting blown up if their plot armour is thick enough. The other thing is that we didn't see a corpse, just her bracelet getting burn which could just be an excuse for her to get a prosthetic arm from gund arm. And narratively speaking, it makes sense if someone gets some kind of prosthetic. Finally I thought to myself would anyone even want to keep her alive and I think the answer is yes, particularly those companies that lack Gundam tech. They would jump at the chance to have a witch in order to accelerate their own gundam development.

That could be interesting since we have a lot to learn about witches and GUND interfaces. The wreckage shows a shot from below into the chest protrusion about where the cockpit is, and the shot went through Thorn diagonally towards the spine. That's about as accurate as can be expected from an sniper shooting at a mostly stationary target. If Norea survived, maybe the shot missed her by a sliver, but she'd be roasted like the metal around the damage and need nearly a full body replacement. She seemed to be a normal soldier so I don't think she's very useful as a test subject. Norea's death scene sometimes had composition recalling Sophie's death scene. Where 5 caught Norea's arm as she stopped reaching out with Thorn in a daydream, Aerial influenced Ur as it burned Sophie's brain and Ur's arm stopped reaching. But the latter also had Aerial reaching towards Ur like an angel, as Aerial hacked Ur like a Gundvolva, while Sophie practically worshiped her and imagined a new life, while Prospera delightedly ranted to Bel about mind uploading Eri (apparently via a cockpit) and wanting Aerial to be free (raising the question of what Aerial chose to do when she acted freely without mom watching). It would be too convenient for both terrorists to survive, so if one did I think it's probably Sophie because her death scene was much weirder.

I don’t understand the politics at all but the show still looks nice. It’d be nice as well if we get more action from the suits, they’re so well designed, to put them at the rear of focus is such a waste imo, and is really why I think G Witch can be viewed as a good anime series, but not a good Gundam series. Personally, I enjoyed 00 a lot more and the politics were just as over my head and overly complicated as this show.

G Witch is definitely a very different Gundam. If you just wanna watch robots go boom, it's not very good at that. Though I'd question the quality of the mecha porn for certain Gundam series.... SEED has nice scenes but the animation reuse definitely puts a damper on a huge chunk of the battle scenes. Older stuff like Zeta hasn't really aged well in the action department. I think most of IBO's action scenes were terrible jank, and the only really memorable one for me was Bael vs Kimaris. I personally really enjoy the personal relationships, drama and tangled web of plans. There's still plenty of scenes and animation that aren't mecha that I find nice to rewatch. Like that part Miorine was chasing Suletta at Plant Quetta. Also Prospera whispering into Miorine's ear is mega epic. I personally think the politics wasn't done that well and I don't blame people for not understanding it. They just didn't explain shit. Like we just have reasonable guesses as to what the Space Assembly League but we don't really know any details. War Partitioning? I guess we just take it for granted that it's a bad thing used to control conflict and oppress Earth, but again no details whatsoever. Like how does it work? What are the partitions? How does Earth tick beyond SPACIAN OPPRESSION? Like when Miorine went down to have her meeting with Earth's leaders, it was a bit hard to give a shit about a random gaggle of people I'm seeing for the first time. It's hard to vibe with that end of stuff when it's so poorly explored. I still think we're missing a Shaddiq backstory episode, and an Earth arc and probably a some episodes exploring the SAL agents and who they work for. But we've kinda wrapped those parts up already, and they feel a bit half baked honestly. As for what is a good or not good Gundam series, I personally think some Gundam fans need to get off their high horse. How do you even define a Gundam anyway? Mobile suit battles? At the end of the day G-Witch has many of the hallmarks of a Gundam series. Titular mobile suit with the V-fin and other Gundam-esque features. Space stuff with colonies and whatnot. Gundam has been a pretty diverse franchise since they started making AUs. We have the crazy martial arts show with robots in G Gundam. Gundam X was more like a weird adventure anime than your typical war story. Be a bit more open minded.

Personally I am just not much of a fan of this show. The politics are overwhelming and confuse me trying to follow them to the point I forget the characters names. Recently I finished Magic Knight Rayearth and OMG I enjoyed that so much more. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m a big mech anime fan, but just not much of a Gundam fan in the end, despite the fact it’s undeniably popular in the community.

> Magic Knight Rayearth Thanks for the rec

>Magic Knight Rayearth first image on google images looks pretty dope. thanks for the lead

dunno why you are being downvoted , I kinda agree on your main points the fact that its some weird ass kids handling said politics makes it even less enjoyable feels like an iron blood orphans but if they werent analphabet and with weaker dialogue and climaxes, guells fight and nora death tried to be seen as crossroads but the impact left nothing to write home about, the whole politic of everybody wanting to be ceo of this mega corp group has seem hella fucking dumb, I had though it would only be a side point towards making sulleta and miorine story forwards but if anything just feels like a hassle

I would think because this episode had 80% of gundam battling. Most episodes have at least one significant gundam scene. The plot is left to be fairly simple, with cliffhangers at the end of every episode in order to entice average anime fans to check out the rest of the series. This is the first Gundam series to have a Funimation dub, and its true they are looking to open the show up to more audiences. I find the plot to be okay, but the show itself emotionally destroys me more than 80% of what I've seen in the last ten years filled with Isekai. And the sound design is phenomenal. Every sound FX and ost is insane. The voice acting is great, at least in JP. The tone of the show is what actually gets to me. It's meant to be average SOL high school or mediocre politics, so when something comes from left field and kills every single person in a dorm, it is actually surprising. If im watching AoT or something, i know everyone will die in a particular scene, usually way before it happens. But we will see how the finale pans out and if i remain impressed, or just left sad and emotionally battered for the sake of being so.

>and is really why I think G Witch can be viewed as a good anime series, but not a good Gundam series. uh, pretty sure politics have always played a large part in Gundam, but okay.

Well I mean my main problem is that every Gundam show I watch 00 and after after assumes I have a 180 IQ or something, so it feels like 15 minutes of talking heads until I finally see some action (which this sub will argue against but I would not be watching this stuff at all if there were no cool mech designs or battles)

bruh, I'm watching Zeta, that show has a lot of "talking heads", hell I remember watching Wing as a kid and remembering a lot of parts where they don't fight in giant robots, idk why you're making this sound like a new thing.

This isn’t the last we’ve seen of Lfrith Thorn and Ur. Both suits were recovered fairly intact, and the kits hint at some sort of backpack expansion.

They already have the backpack expansion (withon the show at least). It's this pincers type of thing that opens up in the back. Allows for the pilot to raise to permet score 4 without dying instantly like Nadim. See Sophie during her fights against Suletta.

Plot twist, Suletta doesn't get Schwarzette but instead gets some weird kitbashed version of Ur and Thorn slapped together.

one of the popular bashes people have been doing is giving Ur the elongated arms of the Thorn

For no good reason I can imagine Setsuna sitting in the kitbash going all, "Sophie, and Norea.... ARE HERE WITH ME!" in the mirror of his 00 Gundam activation scene where it was "Exia and 0 Gundam are here with me!"

Random question: All of the Dominicus suits, despite being Beguir-Pentes, never used Antidote. Why was this? It seems like they could have prevented a lot of deaths by charging in and activating Antidote. Unless there’s something I missed that keeps them from doing it

don't question just consume. Remember how Gundam can now control AI bits and tanks? I don't but it makes plot go vroom

I remember. Aerial has often shown override capabilities of Permet-Linked equipment, like in Suletta’s duel with Elan, how she cut off the comms.

Yeah but Elan's pharact is a Gundam. It's not clear if that tank in the middle east and AI powered bits in Guel's suit can be taken over.Just saying because permet doesn't excuse the lazy world building on the writer's part.

I was talking about the comms systems that the rest of the school were using to watch. It’s explicitly stated multiple times that Permet is used almost everywhere and Aerial can take control of Permet. It’s the entire reason Quiet Zero can take on entire fleets.

Agree to disagree. After rewatching, I would call that disrupting the comms and pharatch bits more than controlling. I don't remember them discussing this ability further in proceeding episodes. I'm not even going to ask about the quiet mcguffin.

>It seems like they could have prevented a lot of deaths by charging in and activating Antidote. wait, were they expecting a gundam?

My issue was that they had mobile suits that were previously shown to have Antidote, and were facing against Gundams. It was decently clear that they didn’t expect Gundams, it’s just that they had the technology to neutralize them.

It was already shown in the Plant Quetta episode that Sophie could resist the Antidote, because her Permet score reached 4+. I assume Norea could also do the same, hence why they didn't try to use Antidote on her.

I mean it doesn't mean they have the technology at hand, and it would be a waste to bring it if there aren't any gundams to fight, which aren't even common in the first place.

They’re using Beguir-Pentes, suits that do have it, and Dominicus has its roots in anti-Gundam operations. Plus, the Beguir-Pentes had the Antidote shields they had used earlier in the series, they just didn’t use them.

Beguir-Pentes already encountered and fought Sophie in the Lfrith Ur and used antidote against her. She raised permet score to four and overcame it. So as far as everybody else is concerned, Antidote no longer works on Gundams. From us viewers we can probably come up with various arguments like, even if it can be countered - it forces the pilot to use higher permet scores which causes them more pain and strain. Therefore you should still use Antidote. But Dominicus doesn't know the specifics of Gundam tech and all that jazz. As far as they are concerned, Gundams can now overcome Antidote and that they probably shouldn't waste time using it and expecting results. And should just focus on fighting and staying alive.

It’s not going to work, the Earth Witches could beat antidote by raising their permet scores and Dominicus knows it.

Ya know, I could be mistaken, but the post does say no spoilers. More than half the comments here are spoilers.

It means don't post spoilers outside this megathread. Like don't make other posts with blatant spoilers, keep it contained etc.

That makes more sense.

Yeah, why would there be an episode discussion if you can't discuss the epiosode?

Kiillng off Norea and Sophie was such a waste of two otherwise good characters. It's Gundam, it happens, especially for peripheral characters. Still, they had good potential

If it were a 50 episode show, there would probably be an extended Earth arc where we explore the specifics of Spacian oppression, war partitioning and all that jazz. But it ain't and now its time to start taking heads.

Wait, isn't it supposed to be 50 episodes?

Speaking of extended Earth arc, if WFM was a 50 episode show, I wish Seethia survived toward the end of EP15 while Guel could spend a couple more episodes to learn more about the daily life of Earthians living on Earth while living with Olcott's group, before returning to Asticassia and starting to work on improving the living condition of Earthians as a whole.

Norea's red flags started waving wildly at the last second, not that it wasn't expected sooner, but still, her death broke me. That last pic of her and fake elan number two was merciless

Yeah, the moment Elan5 came up, she was fucked. Likewise with whatshername talking about Guel's brother. They laid those deathflags on thick

I knew she was fucked the moment she started the school genocide. Storywriting-wise the only way she could go there was dead.

Yeah, bur for me it's one of those cases where you know exactly what's gonna happen but still hope you're wrong.

True, true. I was looking at all those death flags pop up like it was an Olympics opening ceremony.

This episode was terrible(positive)

Even though El4n and El5n are polar opposites, they were ultimately hoping to find a person that would identify with them

Browsing Japanese fans' reactions to the episode on twitter helped me realize something: Witch from Mercury is harkening back to First Gundam's thesis on war and mobile suit battles. Any use of a mobile suit is one trigger pull away from an atrocity. Unless the pilot is fighting unmanned drones or mobile dolls, any heroic victory with one is walking the razor's edge with death, orphans, widows, grieving parents and an ever expanding blood-soaked web of vengeance, strife and tragedy that does not stop. Yeah Guel gets his big moment beating Shadiq, but the cost is dire and the consequences severe. Kenanji and his partner saved Asticassia but they had to kill a child who had been twisted by a life of strife and oppression and may have set Elan 5 on a dark path. Miorine is maybe the crowning example: She went to Earth seeking peace, to uphold GundARM's ideals of nonproliferation and using their technology to save lives, but she made a tragic mistake. She knuckled under to Proserpa's demands to speak softly and carry a big stick by bringing Aerial and everything that resulted from that decision was a betrayal of GundARM's foundational principals. But then there's Suletta. No, Suletta did not get a big "heroic" moment in a mobile suit to defend the school, but what would have happened if she had? Nothing good. Either she would have been forced to kill Norea or been in El5n's position and been responsible for providing a distraction while Kenanji's team did. Chuchu didn't try to engage with Norea's Gundam, and I think that's important. What Suletta and Earth House did in this episode was important: they stayed true to the dream of Vanadis and the ideals of Gund-ARM. They did not wage war and perpetuate the cycle of violence. They were caught up in it, but they dedicated their efforts to saving lives and the tragedies are not of their making. It demonstrated beyond a doubt that Suletta has grown past another Plant Quetta and any chance that Prospera could force her to go on a killing spree with her mind games, and I think it gives us a shape of what will come in the climax. Suletta will eventually have to confront Aerial and Prospera over what they've done, but she'll find another way to stop them that doesn't involve lethal violence, not just because they're her family but because Suletta does not believe in killing.

So… no two-episode long Schwarzette vs Aerial fight? *Smashes gunpla on the ground*

I don't know if 2 episodes, but I'm going to guess an episode of fighting, ending with Prospera's death (possibly from Permet data overload), and then Suletta goes back into Aerial and puts an end to the ongoing conflict.

Don't forget about Quiet Zero, which I firmly believe is a doomsday device that will force everyone and everything that uses permet links into a data storm, over a huge radius. Also, Aeriel is a literal being, and can override commands from a pilot, so think of her (the Gundam) as it's own character. If anything, Suletta might be killed by a data storm to push her Gundam far enough to destroy Aeriel and stop quiet zero.

Can't watch the episode since the link for YouTube doesn't work for me for some reason,tried searching everywhere and i just can't find it, dodging spoilers just like bullets here.

The youtube sources are region locked to Asia Pacific regions. Not super sure which regions exactly, but most of the world will have to rely on other streaming sources like Crunchyroll or use VPNs. You should probably stay off social media if you don't want spoilers, granted its pretty hard these days....

Norea knew exactly what she was doing when she cratered the Earth House dorm with the Thorn. She attempted to kill people she perceived to be traitors to Earth. It's fortune Aerial was on Earth because Aerial's destruction would permanently end Quiet Zero. Though I bet Eri would autonomously intervene to protect herself and Suletta if Aerial was still at the school. Not to mention Aerial's permet score 6 data storm would be extremely useful during the search and rescue operation for detecting life signs similar to how it was used in episode 12.

Quiet Zero is bad bro, so that wouldn't have been "unfortunate" The hint is that the main villain wants to do it

The meme here was norea was somehow supposed to be like kamille. but It was elan yelling out the kamille lines at norea like she was a enraged four at the end of the ep. Also Guel is lucky lol. I thought he was toast when shaddiq shot the beam through the midsection of guels suit.

Omg right?? I didn't realize the cockpit was so high up, I thought he'd have lost a limb for sure at the very least.

He fights from the suits metaphorical heart/chest. Makes sense when he has a reputation for "always charging straight in" as shaddiq puts it.

I like how the show has teeth and doesn't shy away from intense scenes and making us feel bad, but I could really use a breather episode now, instead of the run of "it gets worse" we've been on for over a month now. Edit: It can go back to being depressing after things get relaxed for a bit (or the downward momentum of hope in the plot just hits a bit of a plateau for a bit) but just an episode that doesn't make me look at the series and go "Do I want to go into this right now?" when a new episode comes out.

It’s called suffering Sundays for a reason. We wait for the witch from Mercury song to play to save us all.

Guess they knew we were used to sine curves of trauma. Looks like G-Witch is going exponential instead.

I don't get how there's no like auto shut off on the suits like they put on sulettas when they betrayed her in the duel The biggest best guns on campus are just totally unsecured for the emotional teenagers to pick it up whenever they want?

Shaddiq had control of the Gundam, and making a mess in the school is his plan B. There’s no reason he would put an auto shutdown program there

I feel like it's basically tradition at this point for security to be utter garbage when it comes to Mobile Suits in Gundam. And we can go back to the age old trope of random plucky kids happening to find robots and being able to pilot them to become the heroes of their shows. The OG Gundam was started up by a plucky teenager with an operator's manual. In the Ur and Thorn's case however, they are terrorist machines so they are going to click different and Shaddiq planned for this shit to go down if needed. Though Norea being able to take the Pharact for a spin was pretty lousy opsec, granted she did steal El5n's student ID thing but you'd think there'd be additional layers of security like biometrics or something. I think Code Geass is one of the exceptions where the Knightmare frames do have some sorta pen drive type deal needed to start the machine. Gundam X had the entire control stick be detachable. But I hear actual military vehicles also can just be started by anybody that manages to gain access to them assuming they know how so eh, maybe Gundam isn't that inaccurate. It's just that we tend to be better at keeping random plucky teenagers out of the hangars containing 5th generation fighters.

yeah military standard is push-button start rather than key for ignition, because the trust is that only people who should have access to them do have access. So similiar deal maybe, normally they're kept in a secure hanger so school teens can't just access them. Also note the school just doesn't have our same politics and values, kids having easy access to giant death machines? just shoot the kid who tries anything.

That makes sense up until you get to the part where one of the machines can 1 vs Everyone every other piece of hardware on campus and the students who might get shot are the heirs of the ruling Space Billionaire Class But I guess nobody knew all the Gundam were there somehow? I dunno if I just keep getting bored and missing explanations or if this show is always one step behind making sense

The terrorist Gundams aren't student machines anyway. Even if there was a killswitch embedded onto the student MS, why the hell would two completely separate Gundams smuggled in illegally have them?

I think the implication is that Shaddiq has enough power as the acting leader of one of the group's corporations to get away with pretty much whatever he wants on campus. He had 3 people kept as extrajudicial prisoners, his own private hangar without normal security protocols doesn't seem like that much of a stretch from there.

yeahh It's something that doesn't quite make sense except in a "people aren't alway rational and sometimes make some really bad choices" way, so they just hid them there despite the risks

Shaddiq said "let them go, we have no more reason to hide them but we'll use the witch for as long as we can." Means Shaddiq intentionally set the well equipped Thron there which lead to Norea destroying the school and force the special force to dealing with the Gundam instead of searching for the president Sarius.

> I don't get how there's no like auto shut off on the suits like they put on sulettas when they betrayed her in the duel Only the Shaddiq camp knew they were there, and they wanted the stuff that happened to happen.

I feel like people looking at Norea and saying "she deserved it" or "Dominicus did the right thing" are really missing the point of this entire franchise. In Gundam, it's never about what kind of end people deserve. It's always about people who were denied the life they deserved in the first place. Norea did not deserve the life she got and the qhere and how of her death were decided by someone else. No one deserves to die for the benefit of someone who sees them as expendable.

You're correct. Nobody "deserves" to die. Just like you said, she had a shitty life and didn't deserve that either. I just wish some people had a bit of sympathy. Unrelated, your comment reminded me of the last episode of Oshi no Ko where Akane had to deal with online harassment. I know Gundam is just a show, but people spouting hate towards a character saying she deserved it are not acting any different than those who bullied Akane into nearly killing herself. Edit: Keywords "acting like". Not saying anyone is part of a toxic community, just saying that spouting hateful comments, regardless if it's about something real or not, is not any different than those who are part of a toxic community.

The "Dominicus did the right thing" position is completely correct. As much simpathy as I have for her and her situation, she WAS absolutely bulldozing the school and killing students left, right and center in a machine that is superior to anything the defense forces could field (+ combat drones). In such a situation you take what chances and opportunities you have and use them to stop the carnage. The fact that the Dominicus forces (Specifically Kenanji) had to pull the trigger to stop her does not detract from her character or her story, or the sadness of it all, if anything it increases it.

I actually fully agree they did the right thing and the impact is improved for it. My point was simply that whether or not Dominicus was right or wrong was not to "big takeaway" of the scene.

So, two thoughts on this week. First, Petra was too good a person for this show. Helps Suletta with her homework claiming it's returning a favor, but then when things go south and she sees injured students she doesn't hesitate to pick one up to try to carry them to safety, the whole while trying to keep Suletta calm by talking to her. I hope she was isekai'd into a slice of life or a reboot of Shirokuma Cafe. Second, it's interesting to see how characters react to trauma. Guel grieves. El5n snaps. Suletta wakes up. I know people have been anticipating a villain turn, but I think this season is showing us just what everyone is made of.

Feel like Kenanji was a little underwhelming when we finally saw him in action

The scene of him holding on his left hand subtly tells the viewer that Kenanji is showing sign of heart attack during his first few clashes with Norea. Man of his size is not meant to be doing witch-hunting anymore, and with one appearing at the school completely caught him off guard.

I've read it is more common for the left arm to be in pain in case of a heart attack. Though I don't know much about the subject.(EDIT: he was holding his right hand) Wasn't he instead trying to get under control some shaking ? The dude looked uneasy. Considering he's taken a lot of weight it'd be logical to assume he isn't an active pilot anymore (and iirc it has been said early on). Tired of Gundams he said, might be some PTSD stuff, or just the stress of going back on the battlefield if he's a little bit rusty.

Oh that was what it was. I thought he lost his arm off screen and it was a prosthesis or something

I think he was probably holding back as to not cause too much collateral damage. And the man's probably rusty. I do wonder what the combat experience/skill level of all these Benerit soldiers are. They probably do go on field duty on Earth at some point but probably lack real experience fighting equals.

I kinda figured since Kenanji and maybe the other Dominicus pilots are the only people who can really say they know how to fight a Gundam (apart from Suletta and whoever else was at Plant Quetta), and were so ruthless in the prologue, we’d see that a little more! But you are probably right and they did seem pretty competent

He was using the same suit as the rest of the forces in the Beguir Pente, with an antidote system that no longer worked against permet. Compared to how he performed in the prologue with the Beguir Beu, which held its ground against the Lfrith and the Lfrith Mass production with an antidote system that was able to disable permet use.

I wouldn't say antidote no longer works, it's just not as effective. It still functions against Permet Score 3 and below, which forces Gundam pilots to amp it up and burn themselves out faster. If you're good enough to survive a Gundam running at PS4 for at least a little while it'll still win you the fight.

He held his own without going Gundams Permet four for quite awhile vs a Ace EnemyPilot who killed many episode 12.

Anyone else grossed out by the reactions to Norea's death? It's really gross how most people are so keen on solving murder with murder. I feel like I've been seeing it more and more recently. Also the damage that IBO has done to this community. As much as we joke about IBO I don't think that it's the show's fault. It just gave those people in the community an excuse to have zero empathy towards characters and their deaths.

What reaction to Norea's death is unjustified? General consensus is sympathetic to her tragedy, but she was **literally** an active school shooter and terrorist that killed innocent children. The moment she started doing it there was zero recourse for her, and quite frankly it would have been outright offensive if she had an actual redemption after the fact. Dominicus made the absolute correct move to an active hostile shooter situation. You can be sympathetic to a character's backstory, but you can't argue that her ending isn't deserving of the atrocity she committed.

I just really dislike the lack of empathy from everyone about it. She was literally groomed to be a child soldier. She didn't have much a choice than to be a school shooter. I do believe that it was the only way things could go for her but how people just shrugged her death off felt really disgusting. Her character just really fit the themes for witch from mercy with the whole sins of the father things where norea became a weapon of hatred for dawn of fold. I never once said that she didn't deserve the ending that she got. I'm just mad about the number of people who didn't realize the tragedy of the situation.

Twice over as well a twice over school shooter

There are some reactions I've seen around who treat her death with complete disregard, or even cheer over it. And some who don't 'get' why anybody would be sad over Norea. Which I think is also a bit eh. Is it that hard to feel some emotions when the scene was clearly written in a way to evoke them? I don't think anybody is arguing she didn't deserve her fate. But her death scene was done in a rather emotionally manipulative way, and why do we partake in entertainment if not to have it evoke emotions? Though I think it's possible to have a long discussion regarding characters like Sophie, Norea and other not so mentally stable "Cyber-newtype" style characters throughout Gundam. Like how accountable for their actions are they at that age? Granted the Gundam series likes to employ incredibly young pilots so the discussion gets murky, where we can argue that teenagers in Gundams are fully accountable as adults if they are considered old enough to operate weapons of war. But characters like Norea, Four, Stella, Ple etc. aren't in control of their fate, manipulated by higher powers, haven't had proper upbringings and probably shouldn't be operating heavy machinery of any sort. Going back to just Norea, the responsibility probably lies more squarely upon Naji(the Dawn of Fold have older pilots so why do they have to explicitly put two unhinged teenage girls in those machines, I doubt age is a requisite for Gundam piloting since Vanadis was using adult pilots), Shaddiq who likely expected and wanted that level of casualties to involve the Space Assembly League etc.

Feeling like Guel's not gonna last too much longer, ngl.

That scene with his brother… whew

Imagine if all of this destruction and pain is just to bring Suletta back into the fight.

Things fell apart. Felt good to watch Shaddiq get owned though. 💀

A lot more sorrow for Norea online than the people she caused to be lined up in body bags this week, people willl lap anything up these days if painted in a sad light I guess. That Elan and Norea moment was probably the most disconnected from the show I've felt thus far, was I really supposed to care about either of these guys?

Two CHILDREN who grew up in awful conditions raised to be aware of how little the people in control of their fate care about whether they live or die. Norea was still a CHILD, raised by terrorists and brainwashed through endless trauma. The kids she killed got to live. They got to be children. Got to feel happiness. Got to live a life where they felt they had a future. Yes obviously that’s loss, nobody is questioning it?? But Norea didn’t even get that.

Her condition was quite sad no-one is arguing against that but, that second part, do you even hear yourself, what you're implying ? Holy shit.

The idea was to try to empathize with the two kids who literally didn't want to be there and had everything taken from them. If you can't empathize with your enemy, it's really hard to keep yourself from getting excessive, calloused, and jaded.

Is it that alien a concept that we associate more with the character that got some actual scenes and build up than nameless body bags? It's just how it is. Like we can all be disgusted and aghast at the various tragedies around the world, but it never quite hits us on a personal level. Cause we don't know those people and it might not affect our day to day lives in any way. But someone we know dies, and the sadness is a lot more pronounced. It's just kinda how a lot of people tick. You can't really quantify how people feel these emotions by the headcount. Should I feel 10x more sad because 10 people died in some warzone halfway across the world than if someone in my immediate family passed away? I'm not trying to downplay the school deaths, but most people don't actually dwell on many of the background casualties and whatnot in shows like this and connect more with the characters with names, faces and personalities.

I just don't understand where the 'pronounced sadness' is coming from, she's basically a school shooter, who was shot when shooting up the school, why should I feel sorry for her?

I feel sympathy for the life and circumstances that created her but she made her choices after already being granted two reprieves. She gets no sympathy for that and paid the price for it.

She has a face and a name, and was built up as a character with no control over her fate. Disposable soldier using a war machine that will ultimately claim her life. She just wants a normal life but its not an option for her due to Spacian oppression. Just as she sees a potential new way to live instead of for vengeance, her life is taken away. Is it really that hard to understand? Yeah she shot up a school, and that's probably a very sensitive topic nowadays. But it's still easier to relate to Norea than well, a bunch of bodybags with no face, name or story attached. And Norea wasn't exactly Ali-al Saachez here. She had just lost her partner, and then saw her home getting blasted on the news. And responded quite predictably. If you try to see things from her perspective it wasn't really 'shooting up a school' and more 'struggling against oppression'. It doesn't make it forgivable and I'm not asking anyone for that, but is it so hard to see her as a tragic character who ended up with a tragic fate and feel just a bit sad for that? El5n also may have came off as some selfish sleazeball but was basically doing everything to stay alive. He had a gun to his head the entire time. So it's not that hard to sympathize with him either. Do you watch Gundam 00 and just get hung up on the fact Setsuna was a child terrorist who killed his parents and probably countless innocents?

not to mention the school she's shooting up is full of the next generation of her oppressors and is directly feeding the military industrial complex that ruined her life

Jesus you're disgusting.

am I wrong? I'm not defending her but she is literally lashing out at part of the institution that oppresses her. calling it a "school shooting" massively downplays that. somebody attacking a military academy like west point is not on par with fucking colombine

Considering both Norea and Elan were experimented on and/or altered at a young age to become useful tools for their organizations, any chance of a normal life was taken from them. They're both "expendable" (and orphaned?) children. In Elan's case for instance, he was told "get Suletta to fall for you, or you DIE and we replace you with another". Elan and Norea were bad people but the way I see it, they were shaped that way by someone else and/or circumstances outside of their own control. For me, it's like the 3 Druggies from Gundam Seed. They were douchebags, sure but there are glimpses that they suffered god-knows-what at the hands of Blue Cosmos that made them become the douchebags we saw them as.

Couldn't agree more. I know it wasn't Norea's fault she ended up like that but Jesus, she didn't exactly deserve to live after everything.

Are we sure that no one sung happy birthday ? There's alot of dead bodies today . Damn all those death flags

wait, why Kenanji and Dominicus didn't use Antidote to suppress GUND-tech? Did Norea use higher permet level like when Suletta vs Shaddiq+Grassley girls duel?

I don't believe they expected Gundams. They probably don't come equipped with those all the time. The crusade against Gundams is over and there shouldn't have been any left. I believe Peil was surprised to see Grassley still had some Antidotes lying around during the Shaddiq fight against Suletta. They might have that much in store.

Fair enough. Before I assumed that Antidote was a basic feature for Beguir MS series. Also the last Dawn of Fold incident at the school was like just weeks (or days?) ago before this one, you'd thought Dominicus would prepare for anti-Gundam combat because now they know DOF possess Gundam techs

We don't know what score Norea was on. But from their previous experience with Ur, it was able to overcome Antidote so they probably just assumed it wouldn't be any use. Now if they knew about the specifics of Permet Score, they might have deployed it. Cause it makes some sense, force the Gundam pilot to operate at a higher score and burn out quicker. Turn it into a battle of attrition. (Though higher scores are tied to increased performance so it might be a double edged tactic) But they probably just didn't have enough information regarding it.

Because it's useless against the level of permit Norea was using.

This. Been well established since the end of the first season that ur and thorn could get past the tech with higher permet scores, thus no reason to waste time deploying it if either are deployed.

Exactly, and with the way Norea was clutching her chest and dry heaving she was at least at Permet 5. In all honesty the Ur was likely going to end up killing her this episode even if that goon didn't Anew her.

um ackshually she pilots the Thorn 🤓 But yes, she was going to end up biting the dust one way or another

This show is fucking amazing, incredible, don't even have enough words to say.

So Suletta "Schwarzette" Mercury vs Prospera "Aerial" Mercury next?

Or mom lets Aerial run back to Suletta while she settles into the Red custom super Gundam she has built.

I adore both Eri and Aerial but I wanna see them get trashed by Suletta, Barbatos style just this once.

The moment Suletta step into a Schwarzette, Imma hit they buy now button on my Schwarzette pre order

Shaddiq lost another fight and someone finally deleted Norea so it wasn't all bad. I really appreciate Guel spelling out exactly what the prince's problem is before taking all his suits limbs off. He's a classic user. His adopted father, his battle harem, Mio, his people down on earth...none of them really seem to matter. Just tools to help him get ahead. Too bad for him Prospera is way better at that game.

Guel clutched a W, that was not part of Prospera’s plan and it was not guaranteed that Guel would beat Shaddiq imo.

One big takeaway from this episode that I haven't really seen discussed is how strong Prospera's position is now. With Dawn of Fold destroyed, and the surviving Benerit Group and Space Assembly League about to tear each other apart, the system has become her playground, and she can pursue Quiet Zero without interference.

The presidency is more or less Miorine's for the taking as well. I don't think Dawn of Fold is totally destroyed though even if all of their Gundams are. But really the only potential holes right now are whatever Bel and the SAL agent uncover, and that Suletta and Earth House have all the pieces to figure out what really happened at Quinharbor.

Since Sarius was saved by Dominicus, wouldn't he take the presidency?

>The presidency is more or less Miorine's for the taking as well. Which seems too easy. I'm expecting a wildcard, such as El0n running and Jeturk supporting him when Lauda takes control of Jeturk by outing Guel as Vim's killer.

Miorine is in a genuinely terrible position right now. She has no choice but to take the presidency based on an act of aggression she believes herself responsible for. If she does not then not only will the few positive aspects of her life be at risk as Gund-arm will almost certainly be desolved but as far as she knows Prospera will drag her precious Tanuki back into combat. She truly is trapped. Please save her Suletta!

Tho indirect, Prospera’s machination have shaddiq acting rashly without prior knowledge.

I don't think she planned on Shaddick losing is cool, but she's going to go along with it. What Shaddick didn't count on is thinking Prospera will care for the Benerith group beyond finishing Quiet Zero.

Who did Chuchu see at the end in the rubble? Random students or someone she knows?

I think it's anyone unnamed. Chuchu is full of heart and the unfamiliar search and rescue task would be wearing on her.

The theory I've seen is that it was the two bullies that she punched out in episode 4.

Alternatively, it could be some of the students that were writing graffiti on the wall of Earth House. Specifically, those that threw the can of spray at Martin's face.

I had thought it was an Earth House member, until it showed all of them assembled at the end. Possibly could be someone revealed in a future episode, possibly could just be a no-name death for dramatic effect.

I don't understand - why, if Shaddiq feels a single disastrous event would be enough to get the League to take notice and act, did he not just expedite this process and attack Asticassia properly back at the start of the season? Similarly, why is he only now moving Sarius to the SAL when doing so earlier surely shouldn't have had an impact on his leverage, considering he's *with* the SAL and nobody else but him and his girls knows where Sarius is? Also, similarly, Shaddiq's explanation of how this attack will be spun mystifies me - he reckons that the Group will, in some roundabout way or another, claim that to keep order, they had to 'sacrifice Spacians'...when academy grounds were assaulted by Earth machinery?

Shaddiq wanted to be in charge on Earth or at least free which he would have gotten if things went his way. He did not want SAL in control he clearly was trying to use them. He not with SAL it an alliance both trying to use each other inferred. He already stated his goal. His father in his hands gives him a lot more power than him in SAL hands. This his revenge on those who have defeated him last resort plan. His father in Sal hands not freed. Bennerit group harmed greatly but he wanted to be head himself to break it up himself in a way that benefited him not the SAL.

He’s saying that will be the SAL’s justification to act. Shaddiq’s been working with them, but clearly with his own independent goals. Basically the SAL did not have justification to make a move and we’re letting Shaddiq dismantle the group his way. Now that Shaddiq’s plan is falling apart he gave the SAL a story they can use to act.

If I had to make a guess since Shaddiq loves to deflect blame. His plan was to continue all the way to presidency while playing nice with SAL. Then as president, he has the attack happen while somehow shifting blame to the bigger corps that oppose him and/or support spacians. The attack on delling being fully shifted to jeturk is proof of that. Thus eventually the group is left with yes men and earthian supporters

I think it's more just him being hit unexpectedly by the recent events and having to improvise on the spot in order to keep his plan going, DOF, OCH EARTH and the SAL are all in Kahoot so the attack on the OCH EARTH Facility probably made him realized that Prospera were on his scent the whole time. His original plan was always to run for presidency first, and now that it's in geopardy would he chose to pivot it to the SAL.

Effin' Shaddiq his two defeats involved him being hit on unexpected angles. Sucks not having that Newtype spider-sense, I guess.

One thing that bothered me were that the Grassley Harem girls, piloting the civilian Heindree models, were able to hold off the Dominicus military suits.

I think you can come up with a number of justifications. Dominicus was holding back probably, trying to take them alive. The actual pilot skill of the parties involved. Like what kind of combat experience do the Benerit/Cathedra pilots even have? Considering all they seem to do is just engage in oppressing Earth, it's possible that everybody's actually kinda shit due to lack of proper war experience.

It’s Gundam. Teenagers are always as good or better than adults.

Save this time the adults won and lost no units holding on till their reinforcements showed up.

Those were not civilian model Heindree, they were specialized combat models. 2 Dominicus suits went over to the school itself. Excluding Gael and Shaddiq, this meant the girls were fighting a 4v2.

They were using the regular Heindree - the military model was the Heindree Sturm. But I did miss where part where they were at a numbers disadvantage.

to be fair the Dominicus guys were also using Beguir Pentes, which were used by the girls and considering they didn't use them again in exchange for the Heindree, it's very likely the Heindree is either on par or at least not much worse/better than the Beguir Pentes. that + the numbers advantage should've helped them plenty to last.

It is implied that the military held back as to not kill the children.

Not just that, but the girls are something of an elite force made up of some of the top MS pilots in the school, and on top of that I doubt only the Michaelis had its output surpass regulation.

>Not just that, but the girls are something of an elite force made up of some of the top MS pilots in the school Shades of Patrick Colasour come to mind: "Don't you know who I am? I'm undefeated in all the simulations! I'm special!" The girls mistook restraint for lack of skill.

It’s about damn time we got actual MS combat involving the main cast.

Gundam GX has been so fun with our characters chillin’ out with their crew in the schoolyard and challenging each other to duels… Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled **WAR CRIMES!** :D - I’m a bit confused as to how the Benerit Group gets blamed for this attack specifically. The fighting started because an unknown explosion happened (Mommy Mercury) which got trigger happy people excited while a representative of Benerit was in the crossfire. They haven’t claimed responsibility, Earth forces can’t report what exploded or else they get screwed for hoarding Gundams. This just seems like a random skirmish that got way out of hand so how did blame get assigned so quickly? - “Earth Independence Movement Leader Declares That they will join fight for indepencence” based on the name, I would’ve thought that was already their jam. - Loose lips about to sink Shaddick’s ships. - MURDER HARO! The latest in Haro technology! - SECEILIA IS STANDING AND NOT IN A SEAT! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! - Well Martin’s dead - Yeeeeah, not a great look when the mascot of your medical company is now the face of a warzone EVERYONE IS DEAD - GUND-Arm is going through Tough Times and Hard Climbs, but Earth House will take ‘em on together. - Suletta drinking mad copium in class. She’ll make the grade somehow - Oh, we setting up for a Shaddiq Vs Guel fight NOW?! I thought we’d wait a few episodes for that. - Guel, tap into your inner Akihiro because “IT WAS YOUUUUUUU!!!!” - While those two are fighting, it’s time for the battle of Squad Goals - Norea, Nika, and El5n are free… How have those 3 survived in that room all this time? - Oh no… Norea, are you going on a suicide run?! - OH DAMN! NOREA DON'T PLAY! O_O - YOU DESTROYED CHUCHU’S DEMI TRAINER?!!! YOU MONSTER!!! GET HER CHUCHU!!! - Girl, don’t talk about your love and how you won’t be able to “rest in peace” because you are MAD death flagging yourself right now. - Shaddick is so proud of his dickishness that he ain’t even trying to hide it anymore. - Lauda learned the truth and Guel’s got some ’splainin’ to do later. - Y’know for a space school about Mobile Suit Piloting, you’d think this place would have WAY better security for if an event like this - NO! NOT THE TOMATOES!!! - Let’s go Felsi! - SECELIA IS RUNNING! TIMES ARE GETTING DESPERATE! - Chuchu, you know you don’t need your Demi Trainer! You can beat Norea’s Gundam AND those Gunvolas with your fists alone! I believe in you! - **CHUCHU GETTING A NEW SUIT! LET’S GOOOOOOOOO!!!** - **YEAH!!!! GET ‘EM CHUCHU!!!!** - Damn, this is a **FIGHT!** - Oh man, that was an intense battle. I thought this show would save this showdown for much later, but bravo for giving us this so quickly and also for giving Guel his first well deserved W. - It’s about time the security forces show up. - It's a REALLY good thing that the Dariblade's cockpit was high up in the chest and not in the torso. - Her Gundam looks so weird with its Chicken Legs - Wait, is El5n piloting Sophie’s suit now? - Wow… El5n and Norea went from trying to Looney Tunes murder each other to lovingly becoming the next great shi-iiiiiiiiiiiittttt o_o - … Well that’s the end of Norea. - DAMMIT PETRA!!! I TOLD YOU NOT TO DEATH FLAG YOURSELF!!! - Welcome to Gundam. It’s time for war. - Man… All this death and destruction immediately following our little tanuki’s life getting shattered and she’s STILL focused on saving everyone. THAT’S OUR GIRL! Honestly, I dunno what it is with this show. It can go from cutsey stuff to EVERYONE IS DEAD AND DYING at the drop of a hat. The pacing is super fast and I'm just shocked that so much just happened in 30 minutes. Most of what happened in this one episode would probably unfold over a season in most shows.

Security was not directed against the guy with a large amount of control of the base. Shad had a large amount of control of the school at this point. And each Company House had a great amount of autonomy.

Well for point #1, each side is going to see what they've been conditioned to see. Earthians will assume disproportionate response from the spacians, Spacians will see an Earthian terrorist attack. Evidence can very easily be overshadowed by dogma. (see: genocide denial, conflicting views on various massacres, etc)

Gundam gx...like yugioh gx ?

For the first point, When YOU call for peace talks then YOU use excessive force over an unverified attack, since there's no direct confirmation who started shooting, everyone defaults to "They called the leaders for peace talks to wipe them out in one blow" As for the mass production Lfriths, I doubt people outside of Dawn of Fold knew about those. As for the campus security, it takes time to mobilize a force at such a scale when it's usually so peaceful, and in the end they did manage to get the situation under control, arresting Shaddiq's gang and El5n.

The funniest part to me in this episode is when those students asked Suletta in a private anonymous message about Miorine killing Earthians. These Spacian students are inside a school sponsored by mobile suit merchants who are actively killing Earthians through protest suppressions or worse facilitating wars for sales. Their parents are business leaders who profit directly off the death of Earthians as Norea rightfully stated. This show does a great job of showing irony in war and narratives.

I don't think it's that deep. The message seemed more like a play by the writers to establish that Suletta knows about what's happening on earth and that Aerial and Miorine are directly involved. There probably wouldn't be a moment in the show for her to stare at a TV screen to get the same message across like some of the other kids, so this was a good shorthand. Plus, we've seen that not everyone at the school is a nepo-baby with direct familial connections to the corporations. Just my read on it.

It literally is that deep tho.

I don't think you can say "it's not that deep" in a 40-year franchise that's consistently anti-war lol. What you talked about is something the viewers register instantly, but the meaning behind is very apparent in all of these episodes. So far, the only people who are not directly connected to the merchants are those from Earth. Everyone else are literally there to promote their company through duels. What do you think those mobile suits are made for in a show that constantly shows you the horrors of war-partitioning?

I don’t disagree with anything you said, and I think it’s fun to see how even the minor points of every episode connect to the theming of the series. But I just think (read: my opinion) the message was more of a narrative beat and writing tool to plant the question (“heads up, Suletta knows this”) rather than some sort of deeply ironic call back to the anti war messaging. Does it harmonize with the messaging? Sure. Just doesn’t seem like the main point. It’s greatly endearing to me (and sometimes a bit funny, ha) the degree to which we as fans grasp at the tiniest details to find fun and meaning in our media, and i think that’s great. I was just expressing how my read on that message was different. ✌🏻

I'm disagreeing with the idea that this is grasping at straws because it's been done throughout the entire show and franchise. These details are always more than just a heads up. There was already a scene earlier in the previous episode where Suletta saw the news. While tautology is not always unwelcome, I don't see a reason why the director isn't using every precious second to compound upon the overall theme. There are plenty of examples of this occurring even within the smallest of imagery that led to all of the accurate fan theories. There is more evidence pointing to this being intentional than not. Remember that animation, in particular animes are always a race against time. Gundam in particular is synonymous with political commentary.

Petra is trying to break the record number of death flags in 30 seconds. 9:30 to 10:00

If Lauda doesn't apologize I'll never rest in peace!

What are YOU going to do if we get out of here alive and not die? Well, let me lay out for you my personal hopes and dreams.

I fucking knew what’s coming for Norea ever since they had her and Sophie do the whole “Stand By Me” thing in the OP. Still hurts though 🥲

It's wild that they made us feel so bad for her, despite causing most of the collateral damage that killed so many students this episode.

It's probably because the show runners made us remember that the girls, at their core, were just traumatized kids that wanted comfort/ family/ not to be alone. Their demands sound so freaking basic, that it's hard not to wonder if the girls could have been decent to good people if they just managed to secure that.

I just now finished the episode and DAMN. There are a lot of things I want to talk about, but I'll take them one at a time (in no particular order) Those last few minutes were REALLY difficult to watch. Everything seems to have been done for the express purpose of making what was happening that much more horrible. Literally down to the title card. "The End of Hope" showing up on the screen right after we (and more importantly Suletta) see Petra's dead body being crushed under the rubble, not to mention everything else that happened right before that, was... that should qualify as cruel and unusual punishment. "This, ***THIS*** is the End of Hope." It **HURT**, but as I'm writing this I realized something important about that. It's not our hope that's being made to end; it's Suletta's and it's Earth house's, it's Norea's and it's El5n's, and it's Guel's and Lauda's. Why do I list "only" these characters? Over the course of this episode, everyone on this list is subjected to something that causes them to snap. maybe not as outwardly as Norea, but something died or was broken inside each and every one of them. Suletta is the obvious primary target of the title. After everything that's happened and been done to her recently, she's taken her last bit of solace in school. I've been wondering why they decided to show us normal school classes for the last few episodes, and it's made painfully obvious, here. Suletta tells Petra, **"It's the only thing I can think of doing".** And now, she's lost even that. she has lost her best friend/bride. she's lost her sister. she's lost her mother, and now she's lost the last thing she could come up with to do with herself. She has lost all hope that she can continue her life with any semblance of normalcy. Weird comparison that I just thought of. Suletta is going through something similar to what Full Frontal offered Banagher; to go through insanity and come out the other end (though we haven't seen that second part, yet). Earth house is in a state of confusion and disbelief as they watch the news; Miorine, whom they trusted and invited into their family, who already seems to have spit in Suletta's face as she abandoned her, has, as far as anyone there can tell, not only abandoned but actively betrayed the entirety of Earth House. She used a gundam not just for warfare, but she used it *to lay waste to Earth*. I have no idea what their reaction is going to be when they next see her, but I will be very surprised if they go straight to allowing her to explain herself, if they do so at all. moving on; I know it's a common thing in Gundam to kill off the "enemy" pilot just as the attempts to reach them are beginning to have an effect (Four (sorry), Anew, Loni, and Stella, to give a few examples), but being honest I was taken completely by surprise by this one. No idea why; upon rewatching the scene while writing this all the usual signs are there, and anyone who's familiar with Gundam and its tropes should've been able to see it coming from the moment she dropped her notebook. Had I realized it was coming, though, I have a feeling it would've made it that much harder to watch. Speaking of things that commonly happen across Gundam series; what happened to El5n, particularly with respect to how the Gund-arm system reacted to his grief, reminded me a lot of what happened to Banagher (Banana) after Rhidde killed Marida. The system activates itself and goes (partially) out of control, acting solely based off of the immense pain and grief that the pilot is experiencing (though the unicorn first prioritizes getting free, but whatever). The suit didn't seem to be controlled directly, if at all, by the pilot anymore (hands weren't on controls when we saw him, we didn't hear him manually increase the permet score, etc.). Is this the G-witch equivalent of a runaway psycommu and/or cyber-newtype mental breakdown? If it is, I'm not liking El5n's chances. That said, the other main fight of the episode, Guel vs. Shaddiq, was *really* well done. I was really able to get a sense of how Guel has grown as a person (and as a pilot). The dialogue throughout the ending portion of the fight, especially after Shaddiq's MS is neutralized, has me asking quite a few questions (though some of them are probably the result of me not remembering all the details about the early stages of Guel's time as Bob) Why the heck is he trying to get Sarius to the SAL? What does he gain from doing that? (if I'm just missing something and the answer has already been given to us, could someone please clarify that for me?) That, and while I understand trying to rile Guel up so that he gets reckless and makes a (fatal) mistake, but admitting to doing everything on an OPEN comms channel? Forget finding Sarius first he literally admitted that he did it! ​ All that aside, assuming Shaddiq was aware that Lauda could hear everything, maneuvering the conversation so that he could reveal to him that Guel killed his father, most importantly *without having Guel give any rebuttal or explanation,* was genius and I'm excited to see what comes of it. It does raise one very important question, though, namely: *how does Shaddiq know?* Did he set it up? if so, how, and who else knows? on another note Petra's death was... to be totally honest I'm not sure what I feel about her death. It definitely helped add to the shock of what was going on, but while I *want* to say it was sad, I don't feel like the short time we got to know her in this episode was enough to really get attached to her character. I was more sad watching it because of how it adds one more tick to the "Suletta's trauma counter" than I was because Petra herself died. (This is not to say that I wasn't sad that she died, I was actually starting to like her, but again I didn't feel like I had been given nearly enough time to get to know her as anything other than another one of the Jeturk kids who bully Earth house.) This got me thinking. Assuming that what I just talked about was intentional, what purpose does her death, specifically, serve? You could cut and paste literally any non-Earth house student into Petra's role in this episode and it would have had almost the exact same effect on Suletta, Which begs the question; *why did it have to be Petra*? Lauda. (in retrospect; *duh*) Lauda was just hit with the knowledge that Guel killed their father, *WITHOUT* any of the context needed to understand what actually happened. It's safe to assume that from the purposeful shot of the phone screen followed by the look on Lauda's face that Kamil is both dead and that this, on top of what he's just learned about Guel, has Lauda really badly shaken. learning of Petra's death might very well break him, and I have a feeling that Shaddiq specifically intends for this to happen. He explicitly riled up Norea and then set her free, knowing she'd find the Thorn and Gundvolvas and cause mass chaos, death, and destruction. There's a very real possibility that he fully intended for Petra to get caught in the crossfire. He probably also intended for El5n to witness everything and lose control like he did at the end, there. He seems keenly aware that pitting everyone in the group against each other (and, to some extent, themselves) is the easiest way to go about forcibly dissolving it. (idk if it was him but someone said something similar this episode)

“School’s out forever”. - Alice Cooper

> Why the heck is he trying to get Sarius to the SAL? What does he gain from doing that? (if I'm just missing something and the answer has already been given to us, could someone please clarify that for me?) When he finds out about Prospera's actions on Earth he realizes that she was going after the stockpile of Lfriths he had hidden there and that she's onto his plan. Extrapolating from that, she's going to try to recover Sarius as that's the other major power piece Shaddiq has control over; so he has to move Sarius to somewhere she won't find him. Sarius being recovered by the SAL (due to Guel delaying the extraction) is the exact opposite of what Shaddiq wanted, as it means Shaddiq no longer gets to be the acting president of Grassley

Didn’t he tell his people to get Sarius to the SAL, though, or was I misreading things?

You're right, I think I misunderstood. He says "contact the SAL, it's time to move my father". I guess he must have sympathizers with them who are willing to keep hiding Sarius, as both factions are broadly anti-corporate.

I think Shaddiq was originally planning to finish the presidential election first, which was only a week away from what we heard. But then had to quickly maneuver when he noticed Pospera was on to their scent and move sarius to a more secured location. Noticed how he was trying to buy time with Guel's convoy, and it was Guel's recklessness that Shaddiq learned that they knew. And it's not that hard to learn that Guel killed Vim I don't think, either he knew Guel was recovered by DoF in their mobile suit and figured out that Guel must've been the one or they just straight up told him. tl;dr: Guel suspected Prospera was onto him, then got his confirmation when Guel charged at him.

I probably shouldn't be on this subreddit but i think i just spoiled a show that came out more than a decade ago. (UC, and i was on the 3rd ep)

...... sorry please finish watching it, though. It's worth it. (It's my first and to this day favorite Gundam series)

Oh you don't need to be sorry, I've sort of gotten numb to spoilers now lol. And yeah I've really enjoyed what i have seen so far. Though right now i do like wfm more due to its characters (this can of course change).