For someone criticizing the storytelling so heavily, you sure missed a lot :)
PrometheanSpark said:Gren wanted to find out if Vicious had betrayed him, however the dialogue before he uses the bomb they hand him to attack Vicious and kill Lin wouldn't have told him either way.
Been a while since I watched this, but Gren says something like "were you (i.e. Vicious) trying to kill me again?" He was waiting for Vicious to deny he betrayed Gren the first time. Vicious didn't. Gren got his answer.
PrometheanSpark said:He then fails to use an explosive strong enough to blow Vicious out of the sky before proceeding to be shot out of the sky by Vicious's air missiles himself.
The bomb was his backup plan. His first was to shoot Vicious, which he might have done if Lin hadn't intervened.
PrometheanSpark said: How can a man who served as Vicious's brother-in-arms during the war on Titan be so bad at killing a man he definitely had the drop on repeatedly?
Because Vicious is that good. If you haven't noticed by now, he's pretty equal to Spike, and Spike has been shown to be an ace pilot. Gren, meanwhile, hadn't left the planet in years. He hadn't exactly been practicing his piloting skills.
PrometheanSpark said: Furthermore he thoroughly prepared to kill Vicious and attacks him before truly knowing if he was actually betrayed or not. I think people are mistaking pot gaps and ambivalence as some sort of transcendental depth to the narrative that simply isn't there.
How is this a plot hole? He went to confront Vicious because he wanted to find out if he was the one who betrayed him. He was pretty sure of it already because of what Julia told him, which is why he was prepared to kill Vicious, he just needed a final face-to-face talk to confirm it first. He wanted to believe that Vicious wasn't the one who betrayed him, which is why he gave Vicious a chance to deny it before firing.
PrometheanSpark said:Why did Gren even take Faye back to his apartment before arranging the drop?
Gren explained this one himself. He was lonely. He knew he was likely going to his death, and he wanted real human contact before he died. It's really a very human reaction, and part of why, historically, so many hasty marriages happen right before soldiers go off to war. They want to know that someone will remember them and miss them if they die, and that someone will be waiting for them if they come back.
PrometheanSpark said:Why does he handcuff Faye other than to take her out of the plot set up a convenient place for Jet to rescue her?
See above. So someone would be waiting for him if he came back.
PrometheanSpark said:Why did Spike just run into Vicious without preparation then threaten to kill him?
Spike wasn't expecting to find Vicious, he was expecting to find Julia. He didn't realize Vicious was using Julia's name until he found him there. It was a surprise for both of them, but once they were face-to-face, it was on.
PrometheanSpark said:There are several other parts of the story that don't make any sense and function in such a way to further a weirdly convoluted story line.
The convoluted storyline is one of the reasons Bebop is so great, actually. The fact that it isn't a straightfoward anime that holds the viewer's hand through the entire series is actually one of the main reasons I love it and think it's brilliant. If you're not willing to pay attention all the time and put some thought into what's going on, Bebop is simply not for you. And that's fine! Nothing has universal appeal. I just don't see why people have to declare "overrated and overhyped" because they personally don't like that thing. There's nothing wrong with simply saying "I didn't like it, it's not for me" and moving on. |