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| "I only wear this mask because it looks cool" Sasuga Char Aznable. It's almost certain that he's the real deal, but my guess is that his near-death experience at the end of CCA fundamentally changed him. He probably let go of everything that made him the person he once was (his past grudges, his ego, his old connections etc.) and now believes he has fully embraced and become the literal vessel for the ideals and wishes of the Spacenoids. That kind of self-important reasoning is so typically Char I can't help but be 100% convinced that it's him. Or maybe he really just is some kind of clone of artifically reconstructed version of Char. I'm really enjoying it so far, and other characters like Marida or Riddhe seem to show a lot of promise. |
SapewlothAug 19, 2016 2:29 PM
| Proud founder of The Official Anti-Ging Freecss Fan Club Join now! Kellhus said: GuusWayne said: there is a limit to the suspension of disbelief And it's the fan that did it. Not the smoking porn reading rubik cube genius rape ape with a magic boat. |
| The return of Char Aznable!!!! Another great super triple episode!!!! |
| This is actually the episode that got me hooked. Am okay with Banagher's naivety, he's only 16 after all. Still don't understand his fixation towards Audrey tho. |
| Rewatching the series, just mindblowing how perfect the storytelling is. Non stop. Goosebumps. |
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| With the Gundam world, and all about the U.C. era all is incredible!!! |
| If this guy is Char then the question is? How did he survive the event of CCA? |
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| Wow! Simply awesome stuff and I preferred this from the previous episode (although I refreshed my memory on the UC timelines AFTER viewing episode 1, so I may re-watch it). The dialogue was spot on and intriguing, seeing the new Char is fantastic, and Banagher came off very well, too. Excited for the next episode! |
| It's kinda surprising for me, but I think Banagher might become my favorite character out of the Gundam pilots. But let's wait and see :) |
| The totally-not-Char is voiced by Char’s voice actor Shuuichi Ikeda and also has the rank of captain. And a scar. Well, even the phrases are similar. “It doesn’t matter how powerful they are if they can’t hit me”, just like Char said when first fighting Amuro. Do I even need to continue? If he's not real Char it'd be really strange teasing. Nahel Argama seemingly has the same doctor as in Zeta! Why was Mineva floating while sitting in confinement o_o Didn’t look like zero-G at all. Animation mistake? Another callback to the original series, a sign saying “Black Three Stars” Really enjoying the show so far, good balance between action and talking. Callbacks to the original series that don't feel forced or artificial (I'm not sure if Full Frontal counts when he's most likely just Char and not an antagonist created as a clone of Char to please the fans, though I'm prepared for that too). Marida confirmed best girl after that dinner scene xD |
| I hope they won't keep the identity of Full Frontal not ambiguous till the end xD Banagher was just hit by reality and now already another attack. Hope the family he was dining with won't get harmed. |
One Piece episode 914 & 915 & 1027 were a mistake and 957 brought the salvation - FMmatron |
I watched the TV series years ago. At the time the only other Gundam show I had seen was War in the Pocket. I recently binged the UC saga (MSG > Zeta > ZZ > CCA > 08th MS Team > Stardust Memory), so it's interesting coming back to this. There is a lot to unpack here. Full Frontal is Char I think Full Frontal is actually Char. Narratively, it'd be unsatisfying to play the "he's actually a clone!" card given that they already did that with Puru. Full Frontal being a clone doesn't make much sense either. How could Full Frontal be activated and be able to impersonate Char, a man he has never met before, to the point that he manages to fool everyone? The simplest explanation is probably the correct once. As to how Char survived atmospheric reentry in an escape pod... I think it was Newtype magic. In MSG, Newtype powers were downplayed: aside from it mainly being telepathy, the only other power Amuro and Lalah had was combat precgonition. Newtype powers get more crazy as the series went on: Zeta started adding mindrape powers and the spirits of the dead being able to speak with the living. ZZ added Judau being able to intimidate Haman Karn with sheer magical force. And then CCA added the Axis Shock. At this point, Newtype magic can be used to justify anything. I'm going with that Char died, but had such force of will that he has managed to stick around as a physical ghost (like an Unsent from Final Fantasy X). Shortly after he died, his spirit rematerialized on some colony and he resumed operations. Char's motivations over time It's interesting to see how the character motivations have been retconned over time. In MSG, Char was a psychopath who murdered lots of innocent people over a perceived slight. In MSG, it seems unlikely that Degwin actually killed Deikun, as Degwin was presented as a good man. He didn't even want the mass murder; he was reduced to a figurehead by Gihren, who did the mass murder. Origin seems to pretty conclusively exonerate Degwin of the assassination, as it is said that Degwin allowed his kids to play with Deikun's, so it sounds like they were close friends. The guy who kept hammering that "Degwin killed your father!" theory into Char's head looked like this:  Given how later UC plays up the Federation's burning hatred of Newtypes, it'd make more sense that Deikun was assassinated by the Feddies because they feared his Newtype rhetoric. In Zeta, Char is retconned into a heroic figure, who joins AEUG not out of an ulterior motive for revenge, but because he truly wants to fight against evil. He also doesn't kill Mineva Zabi (when MSG Char absolutely would have). This is probably because Char was the breakout popular character of MSG, so when he was brought back for Zeta they probably wanted him to be likable person, so the psychopathy was dropped. However, Zeta is the start of when Char becomes a space hippie who worships the Earth. In CCA, Char is once again retconned, this time back into being a psychopath like MSG Char. He retains Zeta Char's space hippism. He also becomes a Newtype supremist. it's pretty clear that he doesn't actually believe in spacenoid freedom. He just tells people what they want to hear so he can wipe out the oldtypes and get back at Amuro.  Unicorn's version of Char goes back to Zeta's framing of him as a genuinely heroic, selfless person fighting against oppression, but drops the space hippism and newtype supremacy stuff (probably dropped because hippism stopped being in vogue after the 80s, but that's an American perspective. Dunno how long it lasted in Japan, if at all). While in CCA, Char touted "spacenoid freedom!" to the masses, I don't think Full Frontal would bother to explain his motives to a teenager unless he truly believed it. (Whereas before, Gihren/Haman/CCA Char only said that to cover up for their evil desires to commit genocide or to conquer). This makes the Sleeves probably the most legit, actually heroic Zeon faction in UC. Perhaps the most heroic faction in UC period, as thus far they are the only faction that haven't committed mass murder (even AEUG did that in ZZ, and they became Londo Bell, who are now the new Titans). Thus far the only thing the Sleeves had done was Marida killing people through negligence, same as what Emma did in Zeta at the moon city. Inconsistent state of the Earth Sphere In MSG, Zeon wasn't defeated. MSG starts out with Earth on the brink of surrender. There is such a shortage of men that they are conscripting child soldiers. The White Base is the only Feddie warship seen up until the fleet assembles for the final battle at the end, and IIRC half (or 30%) of the Feddie fleet got lasered, and who knows how many more ships were lost trying to take A Baoa Qu. However, Zeon wasn't defeated; they still had Side 3 and 3 fleets stationed there. I don't think the Feddies could've won. Side 3's prime minister only "surrendered" because the popular leadership, the Zabi family, had been wiped out. The rest of the Zeon forces felt that they hadn't truly lost, so they left Side 3 to go to Axis (or if trapped on Earth, bunkered down in Africa, waiting for the return of Zeon). 8 years after the OYA, Zeta and ZZ happens. AEUG and the Federation go to war. AEUG appears to only have 2 or 3 ships, but the Federation has at least a couple hundred (which are lost over the course of the Gryps Conflict). The last of the Feddie fleet got lasered by the Gryps colony. Axis returns, bringing along with them the ships from the OYA AND new ships that had been built out in the asteroid belt. They have overwhelming numerical superiority to the Federation. Axis is only "defeated" because Glemy decided to launch a civil war right on the verge of victory. Oh, and a Feddie fleet shows up out of nowhere at the end. Presumably the Axis fleet was destroyed. Then CCA happens, 5 years after the end of ZZ. Char now has a fleet of ships out of nowhere. It's unlikely that Char could've built up a new fleet at Sweetwater without Londo Bell stopping him, so these ships are more than likely what remains of the Axis fleet. Char's fleet has overwhelming superiority to Londo Bell: Bright only has a handful of ships. (What happened to that huge fleet of Feddie ships that showed up at the end of ZZ?). Char only loses one ship in CCA. Now we reach Unicorn, which takes 3 years after CCA. The situation has inexplicably flipped. It now appears that the Sleeves only have a small handful of ships (thus far, just Char's ship and the triangle ship). What happened to Char's fleet? How is Char still leading the Zeon Remnants/Sleeves after CCA? Remember, after Axis Shock happened, Char's fleet was still far larger than the Federation's. Char/Nanai should've easily had been able to finish of Londo Bell. They had that win in the bag. It would appear that in the years between CCA and Unicorn, Char has somehow managed to lose almost his entire fleet, despite having overwhelming superiority to the Feddies. Why would anyone follow him now? Why would bother donating to a guy who can't even win against the Feddies even when he should? Another thing too, is that it would appear that Char has lost Sweetwater Colony, which was effectively his capital in CCA. He is now based out of some asteroid. Yikes. Again, another blow to his credibility that is overlooked. Speaking of Nanai, what happened to her? She should be by Char's side. Full Frontal/Char seems to be pretty well known. Even with the media blackout by the Federation, word would've spread to other Zeon who would've told her about his return, so there is no reason she shouldn't know that Char is back and go to him. Misc The Unicorn being locked to a single person's biodata is an interesting gimmick. Previously it was hard to justify why the most powerful mobile suit in the setting would be given to a bratty pilot. In MSG, there were three other mobile suit pilots (Sayla, Kai, and Hayato) who could've easily piloted the Gundam just as well as Amuro, so once Amuro started being insubordinate there wasn't any real reason why Bright shouldn't have just appointed someone else as the Gundam's pilot. This is a problem with other Gundam series as well, so this gimmick works to justify why Banagher wasn't stripped of the Unicorn as soon as he was captured. I like how Banagher knows jack all about piloting and doesn't seem to ever press any buttons or move the joystiqs or the throttles. He seems to only use the mind-machine interface to control the Gundam. Maybe he controls the Gundam by imagining himself as a knight in space, charging towards his enemies? Unicorn feels sorta bleak. Zeta had Federation members leaving to form the AEUG, which gave us hope that the Federation would be reformed. However, in ZZ the AEUG starts leaning towards evil, and by the time of CCA they appear to have rejoined the Federation and have become the new Titans. And now in Unicorn, we have Londo Bell straight up committing Titans-esque actions, such as indiscriminately attacking colonies, as well as oppressing the space colonies. And Bright is still apart of this organization? He hasn't left to form a new AEUG to fight Londo Bell? It sorta makes UC feel hopelessly bleak, as if the Federation will never stop being dicks to the colonies, and there will continue to be uprising after uprising. kashim said: Rather uneventful episode Yeah, it was mostly an exposition/setup chapter. garfield15 said: -Stupid ZZ. I just had to watch you in order to understand the Mineva Zabi thing. Aside from Marida, it seems that ZZ is completely irrelevant thus far. The Mineva body double has never been brought up since. garfield15 said: -MOST AWKWARD FAMILY DINNER EVER! (loved the part where Marida picked the kid upside down and handed the girl to her mom) It's pretty nice that Marida apparently guest stays with the people she is ostensibly protecting. I wonder if the captain and Full Frontal do the same. Duskrados said: -Sinanju is sexy!! Isn't the Sinanju an Anaheim mobile suit? IIRC Anaheim didn't build any Zeon mobile suits; they just mass produced the same Gundam and cheap knock-off Gundams for the Feddies. Zeon has all sorts of wacky and unique mobile suit and mobile armor designs because Zeon designs their own machines. So why did Anaheim make the Sinanju, which looks less like your standard Gundam or Gundam knock off and instead looks like a Zeon machine? Only explanation I can think of is that Anaheim deliberately made this suit hoping it'd get stolen by Full Frontal. Anaheim is trying to perpetuate the conflict? Acquiesc3 said: Are all UC Gundam this good? Seriously thinking about seeing them now. They're overall very good. Better than most anime that aired within the past 10 years IMO. argilium said: actually, if you were paying attention, it was obvious that the guy from Anaheim Speaking of Anaheim characters, what happened to Mr. Wong? Hannah_Ana said: I love Banagher!! Of the wimpy UC Gundam protagonists (Amuro, Kamille, Kou, and Banagher), I personally liked Amuro the most. However, Banagher I do think Banagher comes off as the most realistic wimp. kisami said: can we have a protagonist who is not overly naive and totally idiotic? so far it all seems to be politics, so we wont see prolonged action for a while... Sadly it seems that Judau (ZZ protag) is your only option here, as he is idealistic but not wimpy nor idiotic. Your only other choice of Gundam protagonists are either total wimps, or emotionless robots (Heero/Setsuna/Mikazuki). Siva said: Haven't seen any of the prequel to this sereis but I think Audrey is the only one of the few female main characters in big gundam series that actually do something instead of just being there for the sake god knows. This is so true it hurts. Relena in Wing and the 00 princess were insufferable. The princess from IBO was more tolerable but still pretty boring. Thus far, Audrey/Mineva has been the only remotely likable princess. martin03345 said: Banahger hasn't been too angsty After the angstyness of Amuro and Kamille, Banahger is rather refreshing. He also seems to accept responsibility for killing that Sleeves pilot (whereas in Zeta, Kamille constantly blamed the people he blew up and refused to accept that he blew them up). If Bright Noa was there on the Nahel Argama instead of Otto, this ordeal would have been finished in 3 minutes lol Bright is more composed than Otto but realistically there isn't much more he could've done against Char either. If Bright was in command I think he would've handed Mineva over as it would have been his crew's only hope of survival. The alternative would've been certain death. Besides that, Bright might have asked Char how he survived atmospheric reentry in CCA. shakeyourpup45 said: freakin' Amuro gave Char a little more of a scare in their first encounter. I think this ties into Char's evolution over time. In MSG Char wasn't the end-all-be-all pilot; he was just competent enough to take opportunities when he sees one and bail out when the odds are against him. He almost always relied on other Zaku pilots to keep the enemy distracted from him while he scored his kills; once his Zaku meat shields were gone he fled. Similarly in Zeta, Char relies on the help of other pilots to stay alive. It's not until CCA that Char is depicted as this unstoppable, ultimate mobile suit pilot (who ironically gets shutdown really quick by Amuro). martin03345 said: He never will. His seiyuu has been dead for quite some time so a cameo is more than likely not going to happen. Oh wow, I never knew that Bright's original VA had died. :( Tengoku_no_hakai said: Banagher got himself into quite a situation... I wonder whose side he's going to end up on. He should join the Sleeves, as they are currently the most righteous and the most innocent faction in the setting. It seems that the Sleeves are the new AEUG, rebel group fighting against oppressive Federation forces (Londo Bell seems eerily similar to the Titans). ex_necross said: Angelo is easy to make fun of, but I quite like his character. I'm not sure I'd agree with calling him "psycho", though he does have an unhealthy obsession with his commander. I guess I'm psycho with my obsession with my pythons and boas lol. Angelo reminds me a lot of Dilandau from an older Sunrise show, The Vision of Escaflowne. Volatile Metrosexual lieutenant who is obsessed with his much more level headed and charismatic leader.  Also, it's rather notable that Full Frontal doesn't appear to be manipulating Angelo like CCA Char did with Quess. Again, Unicorn's iteration of the character seems to be much more heroic and less psychotic. SomaHeir said: Riddhe reminds me of Wiseman, Bernard from War in the pocket :P Bernard is nothing like Riddhe. Bernard was mature, level-headed, and kind. Riddhe, barged into the prison cell of a teenager and begins ranting at her and goading her into validating his delusions. Riddhe also recklessly charged at the freaking Red Comet. You know, the ace with an unpeckable tally of kills, is piloting a state of the art machine, and just wiped out the rest of Riddhe's squad? Bernard was self sacrificial trying to take out the Gundam in 080 but he wasn't recklessly suicidal to charge in like Riddhe did; he at least prepared and came up with a plan. SomaHeir said: Amuro takes the cake as the most whiny protagonist in the UC era. Kou from Stardust Memory is far and away the most whiny protagonist in the history of mecha, period. He makes Amuro look tame by comparison. Sapewloth said: It's almost certain that he's the real deal, but my guess is that his near-death experience at the end of CCA fundamentally changed him. He probably let go of everything that made him the person he once was (his past grudges, his ego, his old connections etc.) and now believes he has fully embraced and become the literal vessel for the ideals and wishes of the Spacenoids. That kind of self-important reasoning is so typically Char I can't help but be 100% convinced that it's him. Don't bother trying to make the many different characterizations of Char makes sense. He's whatever the current author wants him to be. The author of Unicorn likes the idea of Char being a true hero fighting for spacenoid independance (rather than a psycho out for revenge, or a space hippy/newtype supremist who wants to wipe out oldtypes on earth), so that's the character Full Frontal is in this story. St0rmblade said: Didn’t look like zero-G at all. Animation mistake? Zero gravity is extremely inconsistent in Gundam. Whenever they go to the moon, they act like it has Earth gravity of 1G, rather than 16% of Earth's gravity. When spaceships like the White Base or the Argama are accelerating or takes evasive maneuvers, the acceleration never seems to be taken into account and the occupants still float around the ship like it isn't accelerating. |
Valyrian1124Jun 30, 2021 1:46 PM
| If Full Frontal really is Char, then Neo Zeon may influence Banagher, but hopefully he won't become corrupt or anything. But, understanding what things are like on both sides is definitely important. |
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| "Full Frontal" is such a badass name but I can't help but find it funny too. I'm just glad Char is back in any form. Great developments with Banagher and Marida too. |
very good episode, this is getting very intriguing. i like how they explore the ideology of zeon more than other animes the plot is interesting and also the characters are really good for now, gundam unicorn is truly a pleasant surprise also i think that full frontal isn't really char, but some sort of clone or something like that |
| ''Touch the darkness inside me'' |
| "War is never justified" oh shut up, Zeon are literal Nazis responsible for the death of billions, the war against them is absolutely justified because they want to commit genocide and far more people will die if you don't stop them. |
| Heh, he's three time faster than others heh heh |
| I'm not sure what it is, but so far this doesn't seem super interesting for me. Maybe I was hoping for more or the story is yet to pick up... |
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