the end of childhood
I finally watched the final episode of Gundam 00. I suspect I'm missing some giant joke or some hidden meaning, because I don't get it. In the end Celestial Beings haven't changed an ounce in their self-belief as the governing force of mankind. I mean, okay, left up to these individuals it's really not too much of a threat since at the moment they've got their head screwed on the right way, but humans don't take much to become twisted and what happens if they lose their way? As Vimes says - who watches the Watchman?
This whole thing feels like a chronicle of their heroic journey to prove themselves right, which feels somehow even worse than Gundam Seed Destiny being the chronicle of Kira proving he's a more scene-snatching hero than Shinn, which clearly shouldn't be the point.
I don't get it. I don't get how this thing can be so...incomprehensibly terrible. And terribly incomprehensible.
If we talk about politics, it started off nicely and derailed approximately in episode 7 in both seasons. It's all very fine setting up such a complex political climate, but it's crazy to think that everything was solved by A-LAWS clashing against Kataron in the end, especially since the vast majority of people on Earth weren't even informed about A-LAWS' activities.
I don't understand what the series is trying to say. I don't understand what changed over course of 50 episodes. The conflicts and prejudices and misunderstandings that drive war are still there. Just having an international police is only going to drive it underground, not eliminate it. I've forgotten most of GS and GSD but at least the conflict is better delineated as mutual dislike between Naturals and Coordinators, which was finally pacified by them being forced to cooperate for the sake of self-preservation.
Characters changed and learned things about why they wanted to fight. Or perhaps they lost their conviction, but nevertheless they learned what they wanted to fight for. We learned about their personal conflicts and we were allowed to sympathise with them. There are way too many characters in G00 and none of them are allowed time to fully develop, and someone needs to tell the scriptwriter that character develepment isn't giving a 3-minute monologue backstory. None of the major characters had a distinctive message, and none of the minor characters had a distinguishing personality. Learning their own reasons to fight doesn't equate to reiterating the line, "I am going to fight because I am a Gundam Meister" or "I am going to fight for the sake of peace".
Even the fights were boring ==; The characters in GS and GSD all improved in piloting skills over the course of the series. None of the four Meisters had any real growth in the series. What changed was only their mobile suits, which kept getting a convenient power-up whenever they needed one =___= The final battles all ended up being two streaks of light smashing against each other. I didn't realise I was watching Dragonball.
There should be a central message to the story. GS was about the need to accept the responsibility to go to war if one wants to protect anything. GSD was about the value of freedom of choice and freedom of dissent, even if it is at the price of longlasting peace.
I don't know what G00 is trying to say - that we would all understand each other if we could communicate our thoughts? - Then why wasn't that mind-reading Trans-Am shown to promote understanding in those people on Earth? Why didn't it move beyond the petty misunderstandings between quarrelling lovers?
That humans can make their own peace without the need for an overruling "Innovator" entity? - Then why hadn't they done so already at the start of the series? What exactly is different now from the start?
That there needs to be an ulterior "police force" to prevent war? - Then how is that different from A-LAWS? Certainly, one is objective and the other subjective, but what's the difference if you're merely using tyranny to wipe out dissent?
That understanding was the key to peace? - Then where is the promotion of understanding at the end of the series? How will someone living in a highrise in Tokyo come to even sympathise with the plight of an orphaned child living on the wastefields of Kurdistan?
All in all, this series FAILED. It failed to deliver a central message, it failed to provide well-developed characters, it failed to deliver well-planned and interesting battles, it failed to show any of the problems at the start of the series were resolved rather than destroyed.
And they're making a movie out of this, to be released next year ==;;;
This whole thing feels like a chronicle of their heroic journey to prove themselves right, which feels somehow even worse than Gundam Seed Destiny being the chronicle of Kira proving he's a more scene-snatching hero than Shinn, which clearly shouldn't be the point.
I don't get it. I don't get how this thing can be so...incomprehensibly terrible. And terribly incomprehensible.
If we talk about politics, it started off nicely and derailed approximately in episode 7 in both seasons. It's all very fine setting up such a complex political climate, but it's crazy to think that everything was solved by A-LAWS clashing against Kataron in the end, especially since the vast majority of people on Earth weren't even informed about A-LAWS' activities.
I don't understand what the series is trying to say. I don't understand what changed over course of 50 episodes. The conflicts and prejudices and misunderstandings that drive war are still there. Just having an international police is only going to drive it underground, not eliminate it. I've forgotten most of GS and GSD but at least the conflict is better delineated as mutual dislike between Naturals and Coordinators, which was finally pacified by them being forced to cooperate for the sake of self-preservation.
Characters changed and learned things about why they wanted to fight. Or perhaps they lost their conviction, but nevertheless they learned what they wanted to fight for. We learned about their personal conflicts and we were allowed to sympathise with them. There are way too many characters in G00 and none of them are allowed time to fully develop, and someone needs to tell the scriptwriter that character develepment isn't giving a 3-minute monologue backstory. None of the major characters had a distinctive message, and none of the minor characters had a distinguishing personality. Learning their own reasons to fight doesn't equate to reiterating the line, "I am going to fight because I am a Gundam Meister" or "I am going to fight for the sake of peace".
Even the fights were boring ==; The characters in GS and GSD all improved in piloting skills over the course of the series. None of the four Meisters had any real growth in the series. What changed was only their mobile suits, which kept getting a convenient power-up whenever they needed one =___= The final battles all ended up being two streaks of light smashing against each other. I didn't realise I was watching Dragonball.
There should be a central message to the story. GS was about the need to accept the responsibility to go to war if one wants to protect anything. GSD was about the value of freedom of choice and freedom of dissent, even if it is at the price of longlasting peace.
I don't know what G00 is trying to say - that we would all understand each other if we could communicate our thoughts? - Then why wasn't that mind-reading Trans-Am shown to promote understanding in those people on Earth? Why didn't it move beyond the petty misunderstandings between quarrelling lovers?
That humans can make their own peace without the need for an overruling "Innovator" entity? - Then why hadn't they done so already at the start of the series? What exactly is different now from the start?
That there needs to be an ulterior "police force" to prevent war? - Then how is that different from A-LAWS? Certainly, one is objective and the other subjective, but what's the difference if you're merely using tyranny to wipe out dissent?
That understanding was the key to peace? - Then where is the promotion of understanding at the end of the series? How will someone living in a highrise in Tokyo come to even sympathise with the plight of an orphaned child living on the wastefields of Kurdistan?
All in all, this series FAILED. It failed to deliver a central message, it failed to provide well-developed characters, it failed to deliver well-planned and interesting battles, it failed to show any of the problems at the start of the series were resolved rather than destroyed.
And they're making a movie out of this, to be released next year ==;;;