Amuro deserts the White Base when the strain of
responsibility becomes too much. As the
White Base hunts for him, Amuro does his best to prove his worth by waging a
one man war on Zeon forces in the desert.
But Ramba Ral isn’t waiting for White Base and its crew to reunite and
make nice. Low on resources and
exhausted from constant battle, the White Base is the perfect target and Ral is
ready to strike. Enemies meet in battle
face to face and heart shattering revelations are made as Amuro, Sayla, Bright
and their friends engage in their most difficult battle yet…and one cherished
crew member will not survive.
We’ve reached the half way point of Mobile Suit
Gundam. As I close out this week of
episodes I feel pretty good about the series so far. Sure, the same problems still persist and
they begin with the letter A. But Gundam
is doing everything else so right and so good that you can almost overlook
Amuro’s stupidity…until you learn it’s infectious and everyone else starts behaving
like an idiot but im getting head of myself.
While he’s been around for a good bit now, it still feels
like we’re saying goodbye to Ramba Ral and his crew way too soon. Much of my wishes he could’ve come back later
in the series as either a recurring rival like Char or even a sympathetic Zeon
ally. Still, the series always did the
most with him ever since he came on.
From his charm as a leader, to his heart as a husband, to his prowness
in battle, Ramba Ral is easily Mobile Suit Gundam’s MVP and even in death he
gave the White Base grew its greatest lesson and biggest defeat so far. It’s a real shame. I was wondering if there should be a “What
If” tale involving Amuro joining up with Ral and Haman after they extended
their hand in friendship. Who knows what
more Amuro could have learned hanging around them a little bit longer.
That’s not to say that Amuro’s desert adventures weren’t full
of lessons themselves. On his own Amuro
had to…well he did what he usually did: complain, get overconfident, do the
wrong thing and live with the mistake.
Though he did help an injured Zeon soldier following a big battle, which
involved him crossing paths with Kycillia Zabi (who looks like she’s trying to
do a genderbend cosplay of Cobra Commander).
But his break from White Base was brief…and everyone reacted accordingly
to his return by throwing him in the brig.
And Amuro STILL wanted to bitch about being the best like no one ever
was. Suffice to say you know you need a
reality check when Ryu, the big brother figure, decides its his turn to smack
the crap out of you. The end of this set
looked like Amuro was ready to turn over a new leaf. But it might’ve come at too high a cost, namely
the aforementioned Ryu.
This set of episodes had the action at the highest level
of personal. The Mobile Suits were in
each others faces most of the time, right down to Amuro getting in close with
the Gundam and severing the arms off of Ral’s Gouf. But then the entire crew had to get in on the
action when Ral’s men boarded White Base.
For the first time since the beginning of the series, it felt like all
bets were off for everyone. Even if some
minor (or never seen) characters had to be buried in the aftermath, it was
nonetheless a hard moment for the crew.
But nothing was harder than an injured Ryu sacrificing his life to kill
Haman and protect the family he’d come to find on White Base. And that term is what makes this all the more
emotional. Ryu’s pointed out numerous
times, as if it wasn’t obvious already, that the White Base doesn’t have a
normal crew, it isn’t a normal ship.
Most people aboard aren’t soldiers.
Theyre just a rag tag group of suvivors fighting their way through a war
they got swept into and trying to stay alive.
They might not realize it but with little support coming their way,
especially since Matilda told them flat out that White Base’s main mission was
data collection at this point, Bright, Amuro, Sayla and the others only have
themselves, their big dysfunctional family.
In time they could become more tight knit. But that could be tough now that Ryu is
dead. Bright passes out from exhaustion,
Mirai panicked while fighting Sayla’s second guessing and the enemy, and Amuro
is oddly enough the calmest of everyone right now. You could not have picked a worse place to
leave the cast at the halfway mark.
You know what, I could spend a little bit of time talking
about how Amuro’s bratty impulsiveness managed to infect other crew members
(making them do stupid stuff) or how I don’t really get why M’Quve wouldn’t
back Ramba Ral (I guess he’s helping Kycillia with a power play?). But for once, im going to let this slide
cause I really enjoyed the halfway mark of this series. This series did a lot of things right by
putting every character through the ringer.
You felt the pressure, the sadness, the weight of every decision and
sacrifice made. Best yet, it did this
for both sides of the conflict. You felt
just as much for the White Base crew as you did for Ramba Ral, Hamen and their
men. This set of episodes was not
without faults. But when the good
outweighs the bad, gotta give credit where credit is due.
So the White Base heads into a major Federation operation
without it’s conscience (Ryu) and Bright temporarily out of commission and
White Base itself in pretty bad shape after a M’Quve ambush. I cant wait to see how the second half of the
series kicks off and hopefully capitalizes on all of these dramatic
developments. See ya next Monday
everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment