(44) Futari no Lacus - Two Lacus's

[mayoraasei]

As we approach the end (it is definitely ending on the 1^st October as the final episode with have a special screening in Tokyo and will be broadcast half an hour earlier), the carnage have now started up in earnest.

Continuing on from last week, while Lacus makes her broadcast, Mia is actually also shown in an inset on the screen. As Lacus pours forth a torrent of words questioning Dullindal's motives and denouncing her belief in the Chairman, Mia looks terribly cornered and stutters, only to be overriden by Lacus. She whimpers and Athrun frowns in pity. It is pretty clear that there's something wrong with Mia, who can't counter Lacus' confident claim that she is Siegel Clyne's daughter and fought along with AA in the last war without actually providing concrete evidence.

People in western Eurasia are watching in bafflement. Dullindal orders an end to the broadcast of Mia. Lacus questions whether blaming LOGOs is the end of the problem, that it's not Naturals or Coordinators are wrong, but that there's something wrong with the world. She says that they need to understand more about Dullindal's motives before they can trust him, and Dullindal watching the broadcast alone, snarls.

«Opening song»

There's a lot of confusion especially in ZAFT-friendly places. In the end, some decide that since ZAFT relieved them from EA, and Orb is friendly with EA, they will continue to follow ZAFT. Others continue to look dubious.

Dullindal orders a shuttle and tells Mia to go into hiding for a while. Mia apologises for the stuff up and Dullindal kindly consoles her saying that it was a unexpected accident and that he was thankful for all her help so far. He looks at her like a predator, and she recalls Athrun asking her to run away with him. She is led away onto the shuttle. Dullindal himself leaves for "Messiah".

On Minerva everyone's wondering what's happening. Rey walks out angrily.

Talia enters the bridge and interrupts Arthur before he could question her that she had no idea what was going on either, but Lacus is not their superior officer and that their orders don't come from her. The fleet headquarters order Minerva to go to Carpentaria and then rendez-vous with the Moon fleet.

Shinn and Lunamaria chases after Rey and Shinn asks what he thinks of that Lacus. Luna recalls her spying on Athrun and the mention of another Lacus, and she asks which is the real one. Rey says that they're speaking nonsense and that it was the enemy's intention to make them confused. He wonders why the real one should be considered correct and the fake one evil. Here he recalls Rau, who I guess, was fake in many ways, as well as being a genetic copy of Mwu's father. Remember when Kira/Mwu shot Rau's mask off? Well, here we are finally shown Rau's face just after his mask was shot off, and it looks pretty hormal to me...though he looks really child-like. Rey says he has no interest in it all and that he's fine with Dullindal being correct.

Rey starts speaking about Freedom and Athrun Zala. Luna demands what they meant by Athrun, and Rey tells her that he's alive and on AA. He shows her Infinite Justice and says that he was piloting that suit. Luna asks dazedly that Meyrin would be alive too, and Shinn clenches his eyes shut as he remember back to stabbing the GOUF. Rey says that if she's alive she's probably on that ship. Luna looks at Shinn questioningly, but he refuses to meet her eyes.

Near the moon, the Requiem is starting up, and commander is satisfied that they are doing something instead of just building them. They launch a bunch of Windams, probably to divert attention to the power up. Yzak and Dearka had been sent to the area, and a skirmish begins. Dullindal receives report a colony had started in motion towards PLANT and that the Jule (Yzak's) and Janice (Heine's old?) squad are engaged with the escort fleet. Dullindal's shuttle approches a rather interesting looking colony. He tells them to continue, and smiles to himself.

Yzak and Dearka have no idea what was going on and the only thing they can be convinced of is that they need to stop it. The escort fleet is ordered to retreat. Djibril aims for Aprilius - the capital of PLANT. Djibril presses the trigger himself. The beam fires and is bent through a hollow cylinder of mirrors(?). Yzak screams for retreat out of the beam's way, but it bends again. This is done several times until the beam hits one PLANT through one of its bulbs, and carves through two other more. One of the PLANT overbalances and slams into another one. Carnage all abound as the vacuum sucks people out of PLANT.

Dullindal watches with a surprised expression - but it looks more like fascination than genuine shock. He glances at the stunned man beside him, clenches his fists and snarls in anger, "WHAT HAPPENED?!" The damage report on the Moon reports Januarius 1-4 have been hit, and December 7 and 8 collapsed due to colliding with Januarius 4. With one shot, 6 PLANTs have been destroyed - which someone calculated to be around 1.2 million civilians, given that Junius 7 had 200,000 people. Djibril is pissed off that they missed Aprilius, and the technicians report that it had probably been due to the combat.

Yzak slams down his fist in anger and shouts that they need to shoot it down - that if there's a second round, PLANT will be gone. The people on AA and Orb watches in carnage in shock. On Minerva someone screams for their mother. Rey says that it's Djibril.

Lots of reused footage as Yzak and Dearka take apart one Requiem mirror.

Rey shows Lunamaria and Shinn how Requiem fires from the underside of the moon and can use its multitude of mirrors to bend the beam towards any target they wish. Rey says that it was their fault for allowing Djibril to get away. Shinn shouts that Djibril got away because - and we see flashbacks of Justice, Freedom and AA. Oh Shinn...you're still the same ==;

Minerva launches into space. Talia gives a short prep speech beforehand saying that this is a win-or-die situation, else they have nowhere to return to.

Athrun laments that it's the same as when GENESIS fired (I mistook Rey's voice for Kira earlier...and now I mistook Athrun's voice for Kira too ~~;;;) Lacus says again that the war just becomes a cycle of anger and more fighting. She then mentions that the Destiny Plan is to create a world where a person's genes will decide their fate, that only those who are useful are allowed to live to their potential and those unnecessary are executed. Mwu/Neo remembers back to his days in Phantom Pain with the three Extended's. Athrun, Kira and Lacus continues the explanation that then, everything decided, people will feel powerless to rail against fate, and accept, and there will be no more conflicts because there is no point.

Mwu/Neo asks what Dullindal would be in a world like that, king? Kira wonders if it's really useless to do anything. Mwu/Neo then smirks and asks why Kira can't do something useless. Athrun scowls and says he won't give up. And a cheesy moment follows as first Kira, then Cagalli, then Mwu and Murrue (with cheesy smily smily <3<3 all-bound) follows. Meyrin nods her head perkily in agreement. Kira tells Athrun that they should go to space, Athrun nods and the two shake hands on it.

Up in his Messiah satellite, Dullindal sits atop a throne with his legs cross and a smug smile on his face.


Comments:
- I wish I read Brave New World. But I still love Hamlet.
- Apparently you can see the plan for Requiem in episode 27, when Dullindal was looking at the plan for Destroy. This suggests that he has an astounding grasp on EA information.
- Once again we are shown how much Yzak has matured. Instead of beating out immediately in anger as he would have done in GSeed, he makes the rational and logical decision that they need to take out the Requiem before it could fire again.
- I think - I'm not good with the technology aspects of GSD, the Requiem is an enormous beam cannon (not a concentrated gamma like GENESIS). The beam is targeted towards short, hollow tube-like structures, the insides of which are lined with mirrors or other directing devices. This acts as a deflection mechanism - and probably also as a focusing mechanism. The beam is then "bent" (or redirected) towards another target, which is usually another mirror-device. This allows the beam to curve around the moon. I'm guessing the last mirror is also in motion during the firing, as the beam moves laterally as it carved through the PLANT, instead of just staying fixed in one direction. There are several mirrors located between the Moon and PLANT - not all of them are used per firing round. This gives Requiem an enormous amount of manoeuvrability and versatility without compromising its own security.
- It seems everything is still going as planned for Dullindal. The audience is given a good amount of clues that Dullindal is acting the part of a shocked Chairman.
- The Destiny Plan sounds like something Dullindal would do. He's already lamented in earlier episodes that it would be nice if everyone would achieve the best in their genetics. He expressed disappointment that Kira's abilities as a fighter were wasted. He judged by genetic potential to give Impulse to Shinn and not Rey. He disliked unforeseen events, and part of his dislike for Kira was his interference with Lacus. Clearly Lacus and Athrun were a better match, at least from a genetics point of view - I guess. I guess he never predicted that Kira was really, really good friends with Athrun >__>; I'll need to rewatch 29 again to get the rest of his philosophy...
- Shinn's really worrying me.
- This attack on ZAFT is going to make Lacus' speech and appearance backfire...but considering how biased this whole thing is, I doubt we'll see the repercussions.

Comments

[jezjezjezza.livejournal.com]

you wanna borrow brave new world? I have a copy :D

btw fenglet, we're meeting for lunch this thursday, right? *hopes she didn't forget the details* in front of fisher? erm.. what time? *incompetant*

[luna-rainbow.livejournal.com]

Oooh!! Can I borrow it off you? ^-^ Thank you!!!

Why do you have a copy of it? ==;; It wouldn't be the same reason as why I have a copy of Hamlet, would it........?

Yes, Thursday, 11am, outside Fisher. Er. I'm in Bosch though so I'll take a while to walk up, sorry about that.

[jezjezjezza.livejournal.com]

it would be, I'm guessing. that is, if the reason you have a copy of hamlet is because you loved it when you read it in english :D

ooh, 11am eh? thanks fenglet, I actually thought it was 12 o.o (then I'd be the one who'd take a while.... ^__^ eep)

I shall go look for bnw :)

[luna-rainbow.livejournal.com]

I did Hamlet and loved it ^-^ So I don't really regret not having done BNW.

I prefer reading hardcopy to softcopy. I hate reading on computer for long lengths of time. My eyes got so much worse after spending an entire holiday reading Chinese novels online T__T

[jezjezjezza.livejournal.com]

yeah I remember feeling blind after reading all of my 'classical novel' on the computer for three days straight (gee, I wasn't a last minute person..) for english =___='