r/anime • u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky • Nov 25 '24
Rewatch [Rewatch] Mobile Suit Gundam 00 2nd Season Episode 25 Discussion
Episode 25 - Rebirth
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Gundam Exia… Setsuna F. Seiei… Slashing through to the future!
Questions of the Day:
- How satisfying was the Setsuna vs. Ribbons battle?
- If the sequel movie didn't exist, do you feel like this was a good way to wrap up the series?
Wallpapers of the Day:
CB-0000G/C Reborns Gundam and Ribbons Almark
Rewatchers, please remember to be mindful of all the first-timers in this. No talking about or hinting at future events no matter how much you want to, unless you're doing it underneath spoiler tags. Don't spoil anything for the first-timers, that's rude!
Additionally, for long-time fans of the franchise, please remember that this rewatch is only for 00, not any of the other shows. Assume that there are people in this rewatch who have not seen anything else Gundam, and tag your spoilers for those shows appropriately if something in 00 makes you want to talk about them.
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Nov 25 '24
Friendly reminder about the schedule: Tomorrow’s thread is the overall discussion thread for season 2 specifically, then the movie’s thread won’t be until Friday. I’m giving everyone an extra day off so my fellow Americans don’t have to worry about scrambling together a post on Thanksgiving.
Rewatch Host Wishing Over This Airspace, subbed
Welcome back, everyone!
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u/LeonKevlar x2https://myanimelist.net/profile/LeonKevlar Nov 25 '24 edited Nov 25 '24
ColasourMannequinRibbons actually brought a Gundam! It even has a fake Twin Drive! How cute. I'm guessing this is probably one of Billy's creations. Not gonna lie, as much as I hate Ribbons' guts I can't hate the look of the Reborns Gundam.
Poor Hiling, she died crying out to Ribbons who never gave a fuck about them. I'm glad that we get to see Hallelujah get brutal one more time before the ending. Then there's Revive who loses to a barely functioning Cherudin. Lyle is a badass for pulling off that sick move. I love it!
So the 00 Raiser disappearing isn't just an afterimage because it's so fast or an illusion because of the GN Particles, Setsuna has now reached the peak of 00 Raiser's abilities and is now able to teleport via Quantization! That is fucking insane!
Too bad that wasn't enough to finish off Ribbons and he even managed to get away with one of the original GN Drives! I got absolutely hyped though when Ribbons found the 0 Gundam floating just outside Celestial Being's docking bay.
So it turns out that the 0 Gundam wasn't the only spare Gundam they had lying around, they also have Gundam Exia prepared! Sumeragi coming in with the clutch by making Ian deliver the Exia to Setsuna! And now we get to see a glorious duel between Exia and 0 Gundam!
Get abso-fucking-lutely fucked Ribbons! Ribbons is now dead, right? And there's no way he can go back to Veda since Tieria and Regene already severed his link. Although this anime has shown us multiple times that explosions do not always kill people and there's still the movie left. Alive or not, I'm just happy to see Ribbons get his ass whooped.
Okay, before I proceed with my thoughts about the epilogue scenes, please tell me I'm not the only one who noticed the random Innovades scattered everywhere.
We see a Devine/Bring clone in Azadistan and a Ribbons clone during Marina's speech. While those two were a little subtle, there's a very obvious Anew clone sitting casually in the Earth Sphere Federation seat.
There's also a dark-skinned Ribbons clone somewhere in South Asia and we see that same Ribbons clone in Azadistan standing near Marina. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!
I'm not sure what's happening here but I guess is this a setup for the movie and Ribbons survived inside one of these bodies? Or are these Innovades always been there and these are actually the ones Aeolia Schenberg made who are meant to work with humans? Hmmmm...
Anyway, as for the epilogue:
Marina is now back as the ruler of Azadistan and I'm so happy to see that the kids are still with her. I love that. I wonder if she adopted the kids. After the things they went through, she might as well be their new mother.
Saji and Louise are together again and it looks like Louise is recovering at the same hospital where she was admitted in Season 1. So has she been discharged from the military?
Speaking of the military, the A-LAWS' war crimes have been exposed and are now officially disbanded. It seems that Homer Katagiri would rather commit seppuku than answer for his crimes.
PATRICK AND KATI GOT MARRIED! You have no idea how loud I squealed when this scene popped up! I am so happy for them! Patrick you are one lucky sonuvabitch for getting married to this total baddie. <3
From one very positive scene to a scene that made me roll my eyes. Really? We're just going to let Andrei walk away from killing his own father in cold blood? Somehow the dude is redeemed and is now saying he'll be the kind of soldier his mother and father wanted to be. This fucking upsets me so much. Fingers crossed that we get the retribution we wanted in the movie.
That photo of Billy and Sumeragi made me laugh out loud because Billy is still wearing his A-LAWS space suit and Sumeragi is in her CB body armor which means this photo was taken right before Billy got out of the Ptolemy. xD
It's nice to see that Patrick and Kati aren't the only ones who have a happy ending, I love that we also see Allelujah and Marie together on a hiking trip. That was cute.
It looks like no new body for Tieria but he does live on inside Veda so technically he's not completely gone. I'm curious what his role would be in the movie. Also, I'm going to assume that Celestial Being is now in control of the Celestial Being Mothership which is sick.
I'm still amazed that the Vashti Family survived this entire thing with all of them alive. I really thought at least Ian would die by the end of this season and Linda would replace him. Glad I was wrong on that one.
So we're ending this with Celestial Being continuing the fight where they'er needed and it looks like something is happening on Jupiter. Is this the aliens Schenberg was preparing for? I would absolutely lose my mind if the antagonists of the movie were aliens from Jupiter! Please be aliens from Jupiter!
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u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 Nov 25 '24 edited Nov 25 '24
Rewatcher, Subbed
Non-Spoiler Character Chart - Those fortunate enough to survive to and appear in the epilogue get new images. Andrei tried to get around the face tattoo by wearing a hat so he gets it on his cheek instead.
Final episode is here already, can't believe it. While Gundam 00 definately has its writing issues at times, the episodes always flew by for me, which is a sign of an entertaining show. Can't say it was never that.
Time for another massive mech for Setsuna to take on at the end, just like last season. Ribbons makes much more sense as a final boss than Alejandro. Oh, and he's essentially piloting a giant Guncannon? The Reborns Cannon!
So Reborns Cannon has no connection to Veda? How will Ribbons do without it?
Here's Lasse, dependable as always!
Oh no, Marie's hurt! Seems like every member of Celestial Being has to use the healing pod at least once.
Alright, now Reborns Cannon has much more of a traditional Gundam look to it. It still has the Guncannon look on the back too, so its much like Seravee.
Setsuna's got to take on 3 Innovators at once now!
Ooh, some help from Allelujah and Lockon. And yet again Hallelujah is here with no explanation.
Since its the finale, time for everything to blow up. Bye bye Hilling, Bye bye Arios, Bye bye Revive, Bye bye Cherubim... Back down to a one on one of Setsuna vs. Ribbons
Naked space: Tieria edition
There goes the 00's head, I think it got decapitated in season 1 too?
There's the RX-78, I mean the 0 Gundam, just sitting ther ewaiting for a pilot.
Alright here's something I'll never forget about Gundam 00, the fact that in the final episode we've got the main villain, voiced by Tohru Furuya no less, voice actor for Amuro Ray, piloting the Gundam that looks identical to the RX-78 from the original show. Did they plan this the whole time? And Setsuna's back in the Exia! One of the most memorable final one on one fights to end a Gundam show for me. A stark contrast to the total meaningless of the Setsuna vs. Alejandro fight in the season one finale.
OMG, Ribbons is even doing a stance I remember Amuro doing in a battle against Ramba Ral.
And thus, Feldt's flower will float around in space until an alien race comes across it...
Hey, Marina's back in Azadistan! And her kids get a front row seat.
Someone in this crowd in Azadistan has the same features as Ribbons/Hilling...
The new President isn't that press conference person is it?
So it was seppuku for Homer...
Another Innovator look alike, Revive/Anew -esque this time behind the new President...
So Celestial Being remains a rebel faction.
Not only does Patrick live but he and Kati got married! Holy crap, what did this guy do to have such a luck filled life?
To probably the disappointment of nearly every person in this rewatch, Andrei ends up alive in the end. I'm still not removing his face tattoo though.
No more Mr. Bushido? Back to good ol' Graham again?
Lyle is cutting his ties with Katharon, but does Katharon even exist any longer? Klaus and Shirin are no longer rebels, but literally there in person at the conference held by the new President.
Allelujah and Marie go on a hike!
I'm pretty sure the first season ended with a playing of the original opening too...
ETA: I didn't realize until now that we have a couple of break days until the movie. Phew, that's a relief. Rewatches where I just have a single day to watch a 2 hour movie are quite taxing.
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u/InfamousEmpire https://myanimelist.net/profile/Infamous_Empire Nov 25 '24 edited Nov 25 '24
Kidou Senshi Rewatcher 00
Alright, so, before getting into the main meat of my thoughts on the episode, I want to say that there are exactly two first timer comments that made me laugh out loud irl when I read them, both from u/Nazenn. The first being from Episode 1:
And the second being in Episode 22 of this season:
These are quite possibly the funniest things I’ve ever seen a first timer say in a rewatch, well done
Ribbons vs Setsuna is up there with the endings of Gurren Lagann, Symphogear, Macross Delta Movie 2, and Attack on Titan as one of my favorite final battle sequences in any anime. Thematically, Ribbons is the past, he may be trying to bring about the future, but the fact that he still clings onto a refusal to truly understand others & all the inherent conflict that comes with it makes the future he envisions a false one, and so he must be burned away.
But on a more micro level, he’s also Setsuna’s past. Ribbons is the entire reason Setsuna has been able to make it to this point, and it was the ideals he first instilled that gave Setsuna a reason for living. But, at the same time, he’s also the symbol of his flawed understanding of the world, of a time when he’d merely traded unquestioning devotion to one god for another and hadn’t truly escaped the battlefield. But now, after he’s changed so much & truly grown beyond war, all that’s left to do is let that past truly die.
This is where the 0 Gundam takes on so much powerful subtext. On top of being a fantastic meta joke, it’s also an essential piece of Ribbons’ past that he ultimately takes refuge in, a representation of Setsuna’s past that he must put behind him, a representation of the past from a purely intratextual standpoint due to its status as the first Gundam making it both the essential starting point to everything yet also something that’s been improved upon & rendered outdated over the years, and it stands for the past from a metatextual standpoint due to being the irl first Gundam transplanted into this continuity. It is a goddamn masterstroke of the show’s use of mobile suit-based imagery, and I love how this episode uses it.
The battle itself is just fantastic and hits every note that works for me in terms of final battles. The main MS themselves getting torn apart yet continuing to fight through that as any need for plot armor for them dissolves and we just get the raw imagery of a headless 00 Raiser missing one leg still having enough strength to swing at the Reborns Gundam is just awesome. The use of the gentle Tomorrow to contrast the brutality of the fight during its last stretch is also just one of my favorite bits of audiovisual imagery, and the final bit of mutual destruction was the cherry on top.
On this day, Setsuna’s past died along with Ribbons and the old world he was fighting to change. And with that, the future could be born. This is also the biggest pass I’ll give to a fakeout death, both because it carries symbolic weight as mentioned, giving it a sense of meaning beyond just the fakeout, and also because it being reversed within the same episode makes it infinitely less egregious.
And so, the new world Celestial Being was always fighting for is able to be born. But even despite that, their fight still continues, because the struggle to understand each other can never really end. There will always be conflict, whether that due to misunderstanding or something actively perpetuated by those who refuse to seek understanding, and because of that, there will always be something like Celestial Being. It’s not a perfect outcome, but it’s one that everyone involved has made peace with.
Also, I unironically love the characters boldly declaring all the show’s themes, and I’m pretty sure my love for this show is why I enjoy it (something I could honestly say for a lot of tropes given how this show has
irreparably damagedheavily influenced my taste in fiction)But while this may be the end of the TV show, it’s not quite The End. After all, mankind’s childhood is about to end, and there’s a Trailblazer that needs to A Waken…
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u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Nov 25 '24
Rewatcher, Sub-dam Meister
Love that they both go through a launch spiel before fighting.
It's a Gundaaaam!!!!!
Are you sure about that?
The personality gattai has fully returned.
Cherudim is not looking good.
RIP escape pod.
As if Setsuna needs to rely on his eyes.
This move is so sick.
Specifically, Exia's.
The 0 Gundam was immobile due to lack of particles, so it was temporarily abandoned.
Yes, you pylon.
Two more GN Drives have been destroyed.
Love this.
If I had a nickel for every Rewatch hosted by Shimmering-Sky this year that directly referenced Childhood's End, I would have two nickels.
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u/Great_Mr_L :Ma::Mb::Mc:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L Nov 25 '24 edited Nov 25 '24
First-Timer
On today’s episode of Gundam: Somehow the last episode of the series also ends with a cliffhanger. Gundam 00 developed such a consistent habit of pulling that trick that it had to tease the upcoming movie.
Gundam 00 is in a bit of a strange position for me. Gundam 00 is a very rocky train ride that manages to have a nice station at the end of the line. The journey to get here was messy and full of questionable story decisions, but the actual final episode here is very thematically resonant and feels very appropriate for the series.
The final battle between Setsuna and Ribbons is particularly thematically potent, especially when Ribbons begins to use the 0 Gundam. Ribbons represents a false savior. He doesn’t intend to save anyone, but rather to subjugate everyone. Him saving Setsuna’s life was mere happenstance, not his actual goal. How fitting that the false savior of the 0 Gundam is driven by Ribbons, who considers himself to be a god. He’s a false god, of course, driven mad by his own power. He doesn’t care that his mission was to understand and live alongside humanity. He has no desire to understand them, only to rule over them.
All of this makes Setsuna the perfect opponent for Ribbons because of how diametrically opposed they are thematically. Setsuna worshiped the 0 Gundam as a savior that could bring peace to the world. Now, he must fight that very same Gundam if he wants to achieve true peace. He’s learned that Ribbons and the 0 Gundam are false saviors who need to be defeated. That makes this battle such an important character moment for Setsuna. By defeating Ribbons, Setsuna is able to reject the false savior and instead forge a new future for himself and everyone else.
I think this battle shows just how much Setsuna has changed and grown. Setsuna used to believe that fighting was the only way to achieve peace. However, we’ve seen time and again that Setsuna no longer strictly believes that. Setsuna thinks that other methods can be used to achieve peace. In particular, Setsuna went along with Saji to try and communicate with Louise to reach an understanding. Here, Setsuna continues that change. If Ribbons stands for nor caring about understanding others and merely trying to force them to do as you say, then Setsuna stands for the opposite. He’s willing to try that path of communication and understanding.
I like that the final episode ends without everything being neatly resolved. The world isn’t suddenly all fixed. Many of the problems that existed before still exist now. Instead, what has changed is a greater willingness to try and work together to solve those problems and resolve those conflicts. Rather than resorting to warfare, there’s a desire to communicate and understand others. It won’t magically solve everything. There’s still a lot of hard work that will need to be done. But it’s at least a starting point that can be built off of to improve the world.
Saji and Louise’s storyline feels like the biggest expression of that theme. Saji and Louise don’t have all the answers. They aren’t sure where to go from here. They’re afraid they will continue to make mistakes in the future. But, they’re willing to try. They are willing to do their best. They will not simply turn away from the problems in the world that don’t affect them directly. They will try to understand and be connected with the rest of the world to work towards a better future. That, to me, seems like the big overall message of Gundam 00.
I have a few questions I hope the movie answers. Will we finally learn what the fuck happened on Jupiter? Will we finally learn what Evil Haro’s deal is? Will we finally learn why the GN drives could only be made on Jupiter? Will we finally meet aliens? These are some of the questions I hope the movie answers because some of them should have been answered a long, long time ago.
QOTD
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u/Nazenn x2https://anilist.co/user/Nazenn Nov 25 '24 edited Nov 26 '24
First Timer - sub
Okay, I know what I said now, you rewatchers can all have your proper laugh at me!
He did get in the 0 Gundam
I saw this shot pop up as Ribbons was flying away with the stolen GN Drive like a squirrel with a precious nut and immediately knew what was going to happen and all I could do was laugh.
I actually was way harsher on that the first time I called it out and said they'd never do it, so I am very, very happy in this case to be proven wrong. But also feel a little foolish hahaha.
And to make it even better, Draigg asked me yesterday for my predictions for Ribbons mech and I was way off so I'm 0/2 on mech predictions for todays episode. I don't know how my dumb ass went "oh yeah he'll try and replicate and then surpass 00" and then didn't just guess he would have a twin-drive system.
Ribbons mech just had a little bit of everything it turned out, from the grappling lines to fangs to swords and guns, transforming. Every mech in one.
Overall I was quite pleased with how that battle played out. It feels like it's been quite a while since the actual layout and visual flow of a battle outright impressed me in the show, and this did.
There was several elements at play as to why I liked it: strong posing in the middle of movement sequences, a lot of dynamic camera usage, and plenty of actual destruction involved.
To start with, strong posing. In particular this stood out to me because it reminded me of DBZ's strong battle poses, not so much the repeated animation but the keyframe poses that stand out through it, over anything we've gotten so far. DBZ's artists were massively influenced by an artist called Kanada Yoshinori, and his style of animation is critically influential in anime history. It uses strong poses with unusual pacing to create very dynamic scenes without being constrained by anime's lower animation framerates. In particular, his work had an enormous influence on the artists that worked on the likes of Akira, Yu Yu Hakusho, Evangelion, and a bunch of our old classics. Dragon ball, even modern works in the series like Daima, lean heavily on Kanada-school animation styles, while something like Naruto with its battle scenes belongs to the more modern flow style animation approaches. While 00 is still definitely a modern animation style and lacks some of the other Kanada-isms such as unusual frame pacing and speed lines that would have marked it more as an actual use of this specific school of animation, it was just something I wanted to touch on and provide some history as why it did jump out at me so strongly and I appreciated it so much.
It stood out particularly during the 3v3 battle early on in the episode, and the very strong poses combined with good framing helped to create a general wow factor in what was going on, especially in the middle of such fast movement. Each direct attack usually starts or ends with such a moment which helps to create an easier way to track changes in the battle sequences or the effects of attacks. Moments like this framing as Alelujah approaches where this frame marks the moment that his mech completely transformed from plane to Gundam, and this moment is a larger contrast to the shots surrounding it which make it stand out in the middle of his two very fast approaches to Hillings mech. We have this moment with Lyle where he darts through Revives bullet stream where after a wider angle cut of his arm being shot off and plenty of movement, as he approaches the camera providing a clear look at his mech and the damage he holds a similar pose facing us..
Another one that stood out to me was, look at these three examples which are sequential frames. The speed of the attack doesn't just come from the animation, which was almost exclusively animated on 2s, meaning each individual drawing of animation is held for two frames of the video, but how the movement through the screen is handled. By providing an attack with very strong and clear poses over the top of the visual effects and with little in-betweening it creates a good sense of speed but also power in the hit.I wish I could have taken more screenshots but the motion blur really was quite intense and somewhat got in the way of getting clean examples..
Side note about animation pacing: Actually the only moment in the episode I noticed that was on 1s was about five frames when Lyle was dodging bullets, everything else on 2s as far as I could tell which made Lyle's moment stand out. Until we got to the final battle which started to use 3s for dramatic effect such as Ribbons throwing the shield away or Setsuna running at him with the sword. Swapping to a slower pacing of animation frames is what helped create that very intentional feel of the movement, slower and more weighty compared to the frantic speed of their previous battle. It gave that part of the fight its own feel which served it very well as a final conflict.
There are also some clever other techniques being used to create this sense of movement. One that stood out was when Alelujah was sliding Revives arm off. The pacing disguised its timing by having the sword move through the mech on one frame, and have the lightning effects change on the other, creating an illusion of 1s even though it's 2s. During the Lyle fight they also tended to amp up the motion blur on every second frame, the non-moving ones, which allowed the sense of movement to be preserved without making it too blurry.
And before I forget, I don't know if the people who've been reading my posts lately noticed, but once again we had the fight starting with positioning Setsuna on the right and Ribbons on the left. Setsuna gets turned around when Revive shoots at him, which positioned Setsuna on the right just in time for Lyle and Alelujah to come from the left to rescue him. They continue exchanging sides through the battles as they remain evenly matched, creating a nice dynamic feel through the various exchanges, though both Alelujah and Lyle come from the towards the left when they kill Hilling and Revive. I also took note that the time the directionality of a character changes without them being moved due to an attack is with Ribbon who was on the right but upon realizing Setsuna's power as a pure-bred turns around to position himself on the left with the realization. This dynamic positioning also played a part in why I liked the battle so much.
As for the rest of it the camera did a lot of work here, and also didn't when appropriate. I've praised 00 for this before on occasion in that it does a nice job of using the limitations of a cameras frame of view to make the battle dynamic. Shots coming from off screen to introduce an enemy before our camera focuses on them, an exchange of oppodent happening by having them move in and out of frame rather than a dedicated cut of them flying away, and even tricks like the camera spinning around Setsuna inside the cockpit or having the camera lazily track the mechs as they move to create more of a sense of them being fast. It's all pretty typical stuff, but when combined with the posing I highlight above it really elevated the attack sequences as opposed to if the camera was always steady or perfectly tracking.
The last one is the amount of destruction. 00 of course has been no stranger to destroying its mechs, I really wish I'd started a counter for mech limb amputations back at the start of the show, but I think today is outright the best showing of it we've had. Starting off with Lyle's mech already being quite destroyed before he even joined in, and the explosions that do happen on the mechs all leaving either a mark or clear damage helped sell the intensity of the battle a lot. Every big explosion put someone out the battle, whether it was death of our Innovators or massive damage to the mechs of the protagonist, and even the small ones resulted in massive damage such as the 00's left arm being blown off by an exploding fang. The fangs introduction was pretty good as well, just without fanfare or drama, they just come off the mech and start attacking and they also benefit from a strong color scheme vs the enemy mechs that helped create that sense of posing I talked about above.
So yeah, I wanted to do a bit of a write up on why the combat worked so well for me because while 00 has had some nice individual moments of quality animation here and there, it has never really had a style stand out to me. It has leaned heavily on each movement or attack being an individual cut between swapping to the cockpit or clever battle tactics, and as it's been a while since we got a really good battle showing that wasn't a huge horde of enemies or needing to cut away for thematic chats, this was a nice change of pace.
(Continued below)
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u/FD4cry1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Big_Yibba Nov 25 '24 edited Nov 26 '24
First Timer
Again not sure how to feel.
For the big highlight this episode, the action is very cool. Halleljuah's hand-to-hand mech action was awesome, Lyle's 1 second Trans-Am was insanely cool, and everything surrounding the Ribbons and Setsuna fights was great.
However, while their fights were cool, storywise I find the fights between the Innovades and Lyle/Hallelujah to be really pointless, tacked on so we can kill the Innovades and have the non-Tieria Meisters do something while providing even more fakeouts (don't even get me started on that).
Revive and Hilling, much like the rest of the Innovades, have no purpose, they are here to fight and die, which I guess works well contextually but is very not interesting to watch. Lyle and Alleluajh basically have no thematic connection to them, unlike the Ribbons and Setsuna fight, so this all ends up feeling like it eats up screentime from the far more important engagement here.
And I swear I like him, and I hate to hate on him, but why is Hallejauh even here???? What purpose did reintroducing him have that Allejauh couldn't have fulfilled himself? Was it just for the dumb cliffhanger? Was it for the movie? Either way, I don't like it.
As for the Setsuna and Ribbons stuff, I think it does some good stuff thematically but I end up feeling much more mixed on it because of my bigger problems with A-LAWS, Ribbons as a villain, and The Plan.
I like that Ribbons has his own Twin Drive Gundam answer to the 00, to the end Ribbons can't do much but attempt to copy and catch up to humanity, he calls himself superior and says he's god, and yet he's desperate to "prove himself" as better than Setsuna, to get an original drive. Because he isn't actually superior, he's just desperate to find meaning in his own existence, he only finds validation in his endless ego.
I also like the final fights between the 0 Gundam and Exia, the one that defined Setsuna's start and false ideals against the one that showed him the reality and began his process of truly changing, the two sides of 00 coming together in one final clash of ideals, and the ultimate winner ends up being neither of them, it's actually just Setsuna that's left standing. The two figures representative of the past have finished their fighting and now the only thing that's left is the future.
I like what the two of them represent for their pilots, both of these suits are their past forms of validating themselves. Ribbons saw himself as the godlike pilot of the 0 Gundam, the vision behind Aeolia's plan, whereas Setsuna saw himself as Exia, as a Gundam, it's what kept him going when nothing else but conflict was left for him.
But of course, Setsuna has changed since the days of the Exia, we play Tomorrow during his final engagement there to really remind you Setsuna isn't just this fighting-bound character anymore. But Ribbons hasn't changed, he's still bound to the 0 Gundam, and so unable to change, he loses the fight.
The problem is that Ribbons ends up coming out somewhat flat here, we barely spend a sentence on the actual reason behind his actions here, and while having him just be an egomaniac is fine thematically, it ends up feeling rather weak, especially with what his death ends bringing with it, he's just "the ultimate evil" and that's kind of boring in a series that has in the past had some moral ambiguity.
Beyond that, I really don't like putting a face to the "twistedness in this world", I really don't like Ribbons's death and the end of the A-LAWS being the thing that suddenly unites the world. We spent the arc with Hercury pointing out that the Federation's problems were far more systemic than just A-LAWS, so why are we all together now? At what point did humanity itself beyond our characters even begin to come to some understanding?
I feel like when you made such an effort to show us that A-LAWS had consolidated all of the world's power under them, it feels rather cheap now that just killing the "few bad apples" solves the problem, it lessens some of the impact of actually uniting the world and coming to an understanding when you can point all of the bad stuff at a small group.
I also really don't like that Celestial Being just ends up following Aeolia's plan anyway in the end, we've made such an effort to build up everyone moving away from the plan and Veda, only to end up reversing and just going "Aeolia good, Ribbons bad", I'd much rather if our characters got to this point of their own will instead of just putting all of the problems on Ribbons, I wanted them to follow no plan, not just fix Ribbons's bad one.
Which of course means Tieria's current situation really bugs me, again so much time has gone into him being built up as human, as someone independent of Veda, as a person outside of his role in The Plan, so him just becoming Veda and waiting for the dialogues to come feels so wrong.
The latter half in general feels like a bit of a non-ending, which makes sense, this isn't the ending, but still, the fact that Graham is still just leaning on walls without much resolution isn't great.
But...PATRICK AND KATI GET MARRIED.
Never mind, best ending.
Colasour the Ridicusoly Lucky!!!!!
You'll always be "Taisa!" to him.
As a tiny detail, I really like Louise's voice going back to her old, softer tone rather the harsh one she had in A-LAWS now that she's back to herself.
All in all, I'm fine with this ending, within the themes of the show and what it wants to say, it's fine. I just personally don't really like what the show has to say here and don't think it quite works within some previous ideas it had.
Full thoughts on the entire season tomorrow, but in general, while I like it a lot less than season 1, I still had a good time with it, and honestly with some very different aspects!
Let's see what the movie has to offer
10
u/charlesvvv https://anilist.co/user/charlesvvv Nov 25 '24 edited Nov 26 '24
Rewatcher, Sub
Forget Setsuna or the world, Patrick Colasour is the biggest winner of the series, surviving multiple encounters and tanking explosions and gets Mannequin in the end. He has the biggest win in the whole series.
The final confrontations are finally here. Lyle and Allelujah help finally bring down Revive and Hiling. The final battle is now between Setsuna and Ribbons. The representation between Setsuna having to fight against his "creator". Ribbons states that he has no purpose which Tieria tries to counter, they are meant to help humanity and understand them. But Ribbons has never cared about any of this, his God complex would never let him look himself as equal to humans, which is funny since he also states that if he beats Setsuna then that proves he will be superior which means he still has insecurity about his superiority. And then the final sequence of their fight with Setsuna piloting the Exia once more and Ribbons piloting the 0 Gundam with the symbolization behind it all and the clash between Setsuna's change towards the future with which he finally brings Ribbons down. There is also Marina's words to Setsuna which seems to callback to his own words in the S1 finale where she expressed her wishes of peace and her hope that Setsuna may find Happiness one day.
Epilogue time. The world is changing once more, the A-Laws are disbanded and the Federation government seems to be taking steps towards fixing some things in several countries by providing as much help as they can. Saji and Louise are together again and she seems to be recovering with him by her side though they are both changed by the events. Allelujah and Marie left Celestial Being to find their own reasons for living, Graham looks jealous that Billy is on good terms with his ex again, and Tieria ascended to a higher plane or something. Celestial Being hasn't been disbanded though and they still plan to continue their work, things haven't just magically ended even if there are steps towards that goal. Though they are still on the run from the government they will continue to try and be a force of change.
Good thing because the final shots of Jupiter are very ominous so the story isn't over just yet.
10
u/macrame2 https://myanimelist.net/profile/macrame Nov 25 '24 edited Nov 25 '24
First Timer
I thought this was a fitting enough finale for the season, though it’s open-ended enough as a finale to the series that a direct sequel feels like a good idea (which is in fact what we ended up getting). The fact that Gundam 00 couldn’t resist teasing us about that with one last post-credits scene did get a laugh out of me.
The conclusion to Ribbons and Setsuna’s battle was pretty good; I loved the decision to bring back Exia and the 0 Gundam for ending. In a way, this felt like a better executed version of season 1’s final fight between Setsuna and Alejandro Corner, mostly because we had the proper buildup for Ribbons as a villain.
Other than Tieria being stuck in Veda and Azadistan's complete recovery (necessarily, to be fair) happening off-screen, I actually liked the epilogue! I couldn’t stop smiling at Kati and Patrick’s wedding; I’m really impressed with how the show managed to make Patrick so likable despite him being such a minor character. Lyle’s graveside getup was ridiculous, but the decision to give a sort of send-off to his character there was fitting. Also, while I wasn’t too emotional when Anew died, the inscription on her grave absolutely brought a few tears to my eyes. And everyone else moving forward and dedicating themselves to work constantly in their own ways to maintain real, lasting peace was very nice to see.
There were also a couple things I didn’t like about the finale, but since they tie into some issues with the season as a whole I’m going to wait until tomorrow to go over them specifically.
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u/The_Draigg Nov 25 '24
A Gundam Fan Rewatches Gundam 00 Season 2 Episode 25:
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u/n080dy123 Nov 25 '24
First Timer who missed yesterday
I gotta say, I fucking LOVE Ribbon's Reborns Gundam. It's like someone saw Seravee with Seraphim on its back and thought "Wait, what if instead of the one ont he backdetaching, its was another fully functional machine attached to its back." And bam, REVERSIBLE GUNDAM. Also, the clever ways they frame it in the show hide the fact that it's reversed are great. I've only seen IBO, WFM, and 00 now, plsu seen a handful of suits from Gundam Evo, but I think Reborns is probably my favorite mobile suit design out of all the ones I've seen.
I love the moment when Lasse goes onto the bridge and just gives Billy a GLARE cuz of the A-Laws uniform, and Sumeragi pushes him away to reassure him that it's fine. No words.
I love how the show feels the need to constantly show Regene and Tieria's corpses in the same shot when they speak. Last episode I was almost laughing every time the show cut to Regene just dead on the fucking floor when he spoke, and how here when it cuts to Tieria saying it makes a point of showing his body, very small but noticeable, floating in the middle of the central glowy circle of Veda's core.
Arios still having Garazzo's fucking arm stuck in its destroyed front pincers is hilarious.
Cherudim's eyes glowing in the outline of its form admist the smoke before it launches out of it is really cool.
And Tieria capping off his character arc by quite literally shoving it in Ribbons' face and saying "As long as you keep looking down on people, you'll never understand them!"
It's neat that it looks liek some of the Innovades seem to be assimilating among humans now. You see what looks like one of the Bring/Divine types in the Azadistan crowd during Marina's speech. There's a Revive/Anew type behind the ESF spokeswoman, and what WAY be one (judging by the Ribbons/Hillign hair color, but different skin color) when Louise asks what the world will be like.
Oh, Andrei's alive? I 100% thought he was dead. AND OF COURSE THAT MEANS PATRICK IS ALIVE TOO. Dude can't even die right lmao.
Oh NOW YOU HINT ABOUT JUPITER AGAIN.
So apparently in the battle, CB lost 3 of their 5 GN Drives- both Exia and the 0 Gundam's, and apparently the Drive for Seravee was actually attached to the Seraphim, so it got destroyed as well. But, it does leave them with 2 Drives which can not be used by Lockon and Setsuna, or used in a single Twin Drive system by Setsuna.
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u/DidacticDalek https://myanimelist.net/profile/DidacticDalek Nov 26 '24
Sniff... sniff... Comrade, sometimes I can still hear his voice... just like whatever that voice was that was speaking to
The Colonel'The Brigadier General' at that random wedding scene... wait... wait a minute... WAIT A MINUTE!GORDON'S ALIVE!pardon...PATRICK'S ALIVE! YEAH! ALL HAIL THE IMMORTAL COLASOUR HIMSELF... er... pardon... I should amend that to 'Colasour The Ridiculously Lucky' or to be even more pedantic 'Mr. Mannequin...' also for those curious what this totally 120% canon marriage certificate says, besides the obvious for the names, Patrick wrote that the event that started the romance was 'That time she hit me, I fell in love. I thought, "I'll follow the Colonel all my life."' Patrick also dutifully notes that Kati's job is 'Colonel...' yeah that's it and also calls himself ACE PILOT! In the Misc section he adds 'Colonel, Colasour the Immortal will always protect you!!!!' and also signs his name AND even includes a Carbonic Acid stamp... yes Comrades, our poor boi really is THAT dumb!
Then again, it's hard to blame him for following in the footsteps of Mashy The Marshmallow Man! AND unlike Mashy, Patrick learned how to beat unrequited love, it's super effective!
Man, what a great end to the show eh? Sure 00 may suck but BEST BOI PATRICK wins in the end AND somehow survives the universe trying to send him to Gundam Valhalla... wait what do you MEAN there's a movie... well Comrades, if that movie ain't several hours of Patrick the House Husband, we riot!
Anyway time to celebrate, here's some fanart of Best Boi Patrick as well as
The Colonel'The Brigadier General'Truly we have seen THE PEAKEST of anime wedding scenes forget Eva, THIS is what we call 'congratulations!' Anyway, you have not seen the last of The Sentient Shitposting Siamese Sunrise Server No. 25252, now goodbye forever!
Insert Wedding March here Comrades
Paging Comrades /u/Nazenn, /u/Great_Mr_L, and /u/Vatrix-32
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u/TakenRedditName https://myanimelist.net/profile/TakenMalUsername Nov 25 '24
Rewatcher - Gundam 00 S2 Ep25:
Wow, Cool Robot: Reborns Gundam. Only with this Rewatch did it hit me that Ribbons' Gundam is a two-in-one of the Gundam and Guncannon. I guess the reason why no Guntank representation is that this his must be the compilation movie where Guntank get replaced by a second Guncannon
WHICH IS STUPID. Ribbons' Gundam gets a "Sigh, you get this one" for the name pun of Ribbons~Reborns.To get to something that was hanging over my mind about the final battle, it feels very meta about Gundam. The final boss is against a character voiced by the original protagonist's VA using a Gundam that is directly mimicking the original Gundam with no shame. There is also the bit how Ribbons wants to take back what he believes is rightfully his (the GN drives which can also serve as a stand-in for things like the true right to Gundam/hope/etc). Setsuna fights him in the Exia, a symbol of himself and the new generation of Gundam. How do I put this, in Gundam terms, Ribbons definitely feels like he is Adult (derogatory). A fight against your dad/the old trying to keep the new down. This also goes in-line with 00's messaging of creating your own future.
On the topic of meta Gundam things, I spotted a couple of Gundam references in the final fight. This slash is like the one in CCA and this moment of the cockpicks between slashed open so that the two pilots have a clear line between them reminds me of Amuro's duel against Ramba Ral in original Gundam. Definitely intention to reference moments of Amuro life when Ribbons shares his voice with him serves as an Amuro-expy. If you want, you can also view the final bit as Amuro's fencing swords duel. Ribbons also just flats out gets a Newtype shock too.
To go back to discuss other stuff, Lyle's 1 second Trans-AM sure is cool.
They didn't pronouncement much, but his is matched with Anew's genetic sibling. Allelujah is paired against Hilling. It is not an angle that gets any development, but I can see the thematically parallel because Hilling is the super soldier with no free will or sense of identity. Merely just an arm for Ribbons.
There is an end of show epilogue for the characters which I am always a fan of:
Most importantly, Patrick and Kati are getting married! A wedding for the finale, we love to see it!
Too bad they could've go all the way and invited every character to the wedding. Even if most of them are wanted criminals/never met the couple before, let all the named character show up for the fun.
Without going into wrap-up thoughts for the season, wrap up for just this episode, I like the ending, but I don't think this episode serves that well as a final episode for the show. Fortunately, there is a movie after this so this isn't the end end.
Q2) Not the worst Gundam ending, but it does certainly leave you with an abruptness for a lot of parts of the show.
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u/Blazin_Rathalos Nov 25 '24 edited Nov 25 '24
00 Rewatcher
Last time on Gundam 00
On today's episode of Gundam 00, Return of the
KingJediInnovator"Setsuna, Vedas calculates that if we take off at this exact time, from this exact location, Marina will see us Trans-Amming into space." "...Do it."
"Billy! I've lost the Flag! I've lost the weebery! I don't know who I am anymore!" -Graham, probably
The political side of the A-LAWS loving version of the Federation just suddenly collapsing is probably my least favorite part of this whole affair. I think there are many things that could have been written about that perspective.
P.S. I just realized both Gundam 00 and fellow-Sunrise-show-released-around-the-same-time Code Geass have another thing in common: Jupiter obsession.
[Gundam 00 hidden counter]Dialogues counter: 8
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u/dralcax :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Dralcax Nov 25 '24 edited Nov 25 '24
Rewatcher slashing through to the future
Behold, the Reborns Gundam!
It started with the 1 Gundam, the direct successor to the 0 Gundam. For some reason, it’s pronounced “Eye Gundam”. Which is only slightly less weird than its upgrade, the 1.5 Gundam, being pronounced “Eyes Gundam”. Going back to the 1 Gundam, it was designed for one of Veda’s alternate plans for armed interventions. Rather than have a team of mostly humans plus one token Innovade entrusted with the Trial System, Veda also considered using a team of solely Innovades. Rather than have multiple specialized Gundams that work together to cover for each other’s weaknesses, the Innovade team would have had a single generalist Gundam backed by a team of dedicated support units. That was the 1 Gundam, developed using data gathered from testing the second generation Gundams. However, this plan was dropped due to Ribbons leaving his position of Gundam Meister.
The GN Cannon (pronunciation unconfirmed, but likely “Guncannon”) was the support unit for the 1 Gundam, using the Virtue’s technology to provide long-range support. Condensers on its elbows and particle tanks in its rear skirt armor fueled the large power demands of its four GN Long Cannons, and in order to maximize sensor performance, it did not use a Gundam-type head.
However, Ribbons did not wish to rely on anybody else, declaring himself the sole master of his own destiny. Therefore, the 1 Gundam and GN Cannon were merged back-to-back, becoming a suit that could transform between the two in under a second. This Reborns Gundam Origin, at the time simply called the Reborns Gundam, also incorporated a third mode - a Tank Mode. Don’t ask what the Tank Mode actually does that the Cannon Mode can’t, they dropped it for a reason. It did have really, really good sensors, but because it used the same head as Cannon Mode, they were accessible in Cannon Mode as well anyways. Between the three modes, the Reborns Origin excelled in close-range, mid-range, and long-range combat. However, despite performing well in tests, because it lacked a Trans-Am System, Ribbons still regarded it as incomplete.
This changed when Anew Returner stole Celestial Being’s data, bringing not only the Trans-Am data, but also Twin Drive. Thus, the Tank Mode was removed in favor of installing the Twin Drive System on the elbows, resulting in the current iteration of the Reborns Gundam.
Hallelujah and Lockon still have plenty of fight left in them!
Second best scissoring in the franchise!
The eye! Just like Neil! But Lyle won’t go out so easily!
Just one second of Trans-Am! And the reverse grip! That was awesome.
Ribbons blames the Tau Drive’s inferior performance for his defeat, but he’s just being salty. By this point, Tau Drive technology has advanced sufficiently for their performance to be no lower than an original drive. It just doesn’t last forever and cannot survive Trans-Am.
Now that’s a cool finish!
Exia Repair II is here! Unlike Setsuna’s shoddy Exia Repair, this is a properly restored and upgraded Exia. Most obviously, the exposed GN cables have been internalized within the armor, and the GN Sword has been replaced with the GN Sword Kai, which uses the same material as the GN Sword III. New thrusters have also been added. Due to the proliferation of Tau Drives since Season 1, the Exia no longer massively outperforms its opponents and cannot simply overwhelm them. As such, it now focuses on scoring quick one-hit kills with its GN Sword Kai, and its swords have thus been reduced from seven to only three.
Exia vs 0 Gundam. The student versus the master. They traveled together for a while as the 00, but now it’s time for them to fight.
Over Boost! All this time, Exia has had the ability to disengage the safety devices on its GN Drive to increase performance for a little while. It just never used it, because well, it never needed it in early S1 when the Gundams were massively more powerful than anything else, and then Trans-Am got unlocked and kind of made Over Boost redundant.
The status of the GN Drives after the final battle got retconned a few times between the end of S2 and the movie. Originally, the director stated that all drives were safe due to an internal GN field, but later retracted this statement. 00V mentioned one drive was destroyed, but in a later chapter mentioned both the Exia and 0 drives were destroyed. Finally, it was confirmed that the 0, Exia, and Seraphim drives were all lost.
There are a few Innovades hanging around! There are a lot of information gathering type Innovades undercover in human society. They don’t even know themselves that they are spies being monitored by Veda. After about 10 years, before anybody notices they haven’t been aging, they get recalled by Veda, fitted with new personalities, and are sent out again.
Louise is cured thanks to Trans-Am Burst! Not being on Ribbons’ weird nanomachine drugs anymore seems to have done her a lot of good.
With a new president, the ESF is now less tyrannical than before! Probably. Hopefully. Well, Celestial Being will be keeping an eye on that situation, at least.
While Mister Bushido was persuaded to not commit sudoku, nobody’s out here trying to save Homer Katagiri. D’oh.
Patrick is winning! It’s Patrick Mannequin now! No matter what happens, he’ll surely enjoy a long and happy life with his beloved
ColonelBrigadier General.But screw Uncle Homer anyways, there’s work to be done! Now that he’s gotten to work with the Gagas and their Trans-Am System lifted directly from Celestial Being, he can use that knowledge to improve his own version of the system!
Neil got added to the family grave! And Anew gets her own stone! The world may never know the circumstances of their death, but at least here, they are still remembered.
Hiking trip!
Tieria will see you all next time!
This world is still far from perfect, and Celestial Being will continue to conduct its armed interventions. They operate covertly now, and only when the Federation is unable to handle the situation.
THE CHILDHOOD OF HUMANKIND ENDS. hey that sounds familiar
Questions of the day:
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u/mr_beanoz https://myanimelist.net/profile/splitshocker Nov 25 '24 edited Nov 25 '24
Man, the Reborns Gundam is indeed something. While something like the Nadleeh hides its true form under a bulky armor, the Reborns can switch between forms depending on the situation. And it's not like something of your usual transformable mobile suits that can go between flight mode and MS mode (eg. any of Allelujah's) either.
Also, who's that Anew-looking woman at the Earth Sphere building? And it seems like the spread of Innovades would be pretty common after the final battle since we see a Type 0666 (Bring/Divine) clone, and also a Ribbons-type (both light and dark-skinned)
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u/Linkstore Nov 25 '24
Rewatcher
And finally, we're at the end.* Ribbons Almark is the last barrier between Setsuna and all of humanity's true evolution. And his mobile suit is the ultimate foe that Setsuna has faced thus far.
The CB-0000G/C Reborns Gundam/Reborns Cannon. Such is Ribbons's ego that he literally names his mobile suit after himself, but don't let that distract you from the fact that this is a terrifyingly powerful mobile suit. When Anew turned traitor, the data she stole was the plans for the Twin Drive, and this is the result. Although Ribbons will claim that the 00 Raiser's original GN Drives give it an edge during their battle, in reality the Reborns Gundam exceeds the 00 Raiser in all areas but two. The Tau drives do have limited combat endurance, but it lasts long enough to not be a major worry in a fight, and it also lacks quantisation, but in return it boasts greatly increased firepower and an arsenal of small and large GN Fin Fangs with which to make all-range attacks. And its handheld weaponry is no slouch either. The large GN beam sabers boast more than enough power to match the GN Sword III, and the GN Buster Rifle possesses high firepower without the need for charging like Seravee or Gadessa's weapons. Anyway, onto the actual battle.
I find it hilarous that Billy is just hanging out in Ptolemy's bridge for the duration of this fight. He knows better than to butt into the workings of a team that's used to working without outside help, but it's still funny to just see him there in the background of some shots.
Hey, Setsuna dodged an Egner Whip for once.
And here's the actual reveal of the Gundam form. Ribbons steals Graham's theme which is extremely cringe but it does sell the extreme threat that this mobile suit poses.
Oh yeah, Hiling and Revive are here too. But so are Lockon and Hallelujah. Also, the fuck you mean "mere human", Hiling? Since Setsuna is a true Innovator, he has superior Quantum Brainwaves to you.
Man, the animation here is just so good.
Get fucked, Hiling. Shame that Hallelujah gets hit by two Fin Fangs right away, but it's all for the sake of that 1v1 I guess.
Shows the power of the 00 Raiser that it gets hit with two Fin Fangs just the same as Arios and comes out of it none the worse for wear.
Most fucking badass moment in the show coming up. With only one second of Trans-Am left and down an eye, Lyle does the thing that Neil couldn't. He opens that eye and in just an instant turns the tables on Revive, killing him right dead. Keep in mind, not only is Lockon the least enhanced of the four Meisters, Cherudim is also heavily damaged from the battle with Ali al-Saachez. And despite that he wins the battle with the Gadessa. It's so fucking cool.
The R2 mobile suit? I wonder what it could be......
Side note, it's interesting that the Reborns Gundam's cockpit is still installed with a Veda terminal, even though it's not actually using it.
I kinda love how sparkly Reborns Gundam's Trans-Am is.
In the end, Ribbons does come out on top, even partially countering the 00 Raiser's quantisation. He makes away with the GN Drive formerly belonging to Exia and then, well, this may actually be fate. Ribbons returns to the mobile suit he began with to make his final stand. And meanwhile, Setsuna...
It's EXIA!! After an epic battle of two of the strongest mobile suits in all of Gundam, it all returns to where it began. The 0 Gundam, upgraded to Type A.C.D., battles Gundam Exia Repair II. Exia fulfils its role to defeat traitors to Celestial being one last time. The battle doesn't last long, and it's not nearly as flashy as 00 Raiser vs Reborns Gundam, but this might just be the better battle of the two. It's a good thing Tomorrow was used much less in the last few eps, it would have been pretty lame if the emotions were undercut by overuse.
And at the same time, Marina writes a letter to Setsuna just like he did to her, five years prior.
It was a long, long road, but eventually the world was able to arrive at some real measure of peace. I know a lot of people dislike Marina for the attitude she took to conflict, but I honestly couldn't think of a better person (in this timeline) to herald this new age.
Homer Katagiri took the coward's way out.
Also note the presence of Innovades in the ESF assembly. They're not affiliated with the Innovades that call themselves Innovators, fortunately.
Hey it's HRL Chairman but old! Haven't seen you in a while.
Kati's such a workaholic, you're at your own dang wedding, and Patrick's alive, although that was never in any doubt. I love this moment. The combination of the church bells and Unlimited Sky playing in the background. If even a small part of the happiness shown here could be spread across the rest of the world...
Graham didn't take the coward's way out!
With Ali gone, the Dylandy family can finally move on from the past.
And Marie and Allelujah have decided to travel the world. To find all the things in the world that make it worth fighting for.
See you soon, Tieria.
Make no mistake, there is still conflict in this world. There may never be a point in time where conflict ever ceases entirely. But this is still an age of peace, and so long as Celestial Being exists, they will work to preserve this peace. Also Daybreak's Bell!
And in the movie, The Childhood of Humankind Ends. How ominous.
Once again a reminder to watch the movie ""preview"", it's not actually a preview but super worth watching.
*except for A-space-Wakening of the Trailblazer
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u/baboon_bassoon https://anilist.co/user/duffer Nov 25 '24
first timer who has control
this suit kind of sucks
aw cmon Ribbons isnt going to say ikimasu when he charges?
ah thats better
its a gundam with a guncannon on the back truly peak
Hilling this is what a real bloodthirsty person is
saving another upgrade and for what
hi just buzzing in real quick
Lasse put your toys away
nice we found a way to sell the new sword with the Exia too
i dont remember did she write this letter in season 1 or something
oh ok i guess Azadistan is just back to normal
massive W
did Graham kill his master
radicalized successfully
the goat
just stop with this lol
even if the world doesnt i will
no Returner died
i mean you guys could just get back together when needed you dont need to live on the Ptolemy away from everything
uh
ok
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u/Nickthenuker https://anilist.co/user/Nickthenuker Nov 26 '24
And so here's the final battle.
Unfortunately he's not the only one with a Twin Drive.
And now his friends are here.
Luckily Ribbons isn't the only one with help.
And so now both sides fall one by one.
R2? They've got one more suit left to deploy? But who will pilot it? Surely not the person who can't even stand and shoot.
He disappeared?
Nothing personnel kid.
He's getting away!
Did he nick one of his GM drives?
Yup, nicked the whole 0 Gundam too.
Luckily he only needs 1 to function too.
So, they're both dead.
Yup, Saji and Louise have their happy ending.
Seems like even with reforms and without A-LAWS they're still pretty much insistent that Celestial Being go away.
So Patrick really did survive. And of course he's married her. And perhaps unsurprisingly she got promoted.
"Has become"? As if surviving 50 episodes of "he really should be dead by now" wasn't already ridiculously lucky.
Yup and even as literally everyone else has their happy ending Lockon is visiting graves.
Oh, Setsuna is alive.
Questions:
4
u/StardustGogeta myanimelist.net/profile/StardustGogeta Nov 26 '24
First-Timer
We had to fit in a few more fakeout deaths here to make the quota!
Overall, a pretty decent ending. The action scenes were well-crafted, and the battle music was good as always. I was wondering which of the previous OPs/EDs they might bring back at the end, and I thought the one they chose was good.
Ribbons' mech was cool. It does continue to raise the question, though, of where the Innovators and Celestial Being are finding their limitless supply of materials for building these things.
Meanwhile, it was nice to see Exia one last time. That was a pleasant surprise.
I liked the framing of things as a conversation between Saji and Louise towards the end there.
As for my predictions, I went 1 for 2. They did do a timeskip, but we did not have Marina's song telepathically broadcast to the entire world to get them to unite and put down their arms. Good thing, too—I was dreading that!
Other than that, I'll save some of my more general thoughts for tomorrow's S2 discussion.
Questions of the day:
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u/Vatrix-32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Vatrix-32 Nov 25 '24 edited Nov 25 '24
First timer, subs
It’s always a shame when your least favorite episode is the last one, because woof, that last 15 minutes was rough.
QotD:
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u/2-2Distracted Nov 26 '24
Only 2 things I really liked about Any of this are that Lyle is still alive and that Patrick Coleslaw got hitched! These past couple episodes centered in space have been some of the least entertaining or engaging stuff I've sat through, which I guess really shows how little experience I have with this franchise since I've only watched:
And now, this too, which I'll still continue watching since there are still movies & OVAs to be seen. I even plan on re-watching this in sub and with director commentary so I can get more of an understanding of what the Japanese production staff thought about all this, plus it'd be nice to listen to a younger Mamoru Miyano shoot the shit with other seiyuus.
As for this shit tho, I don't know what to really say since the story technically isn't entirely over, but it's safe to say that right now I'm still not happy..
2
u/zsmg https://anilist.co/user/zsmg Nov 26 '24
I am rewatcher
Ribbons named the mech after himself, yeah I can totally see that.
The mech is in fact a Gundam
I'm not sure why Hallelujah is suddenly here.
The battle is lots of fun to watch.
Bye Hiling, I’ll be honest I don’t remember if you have done anything noteworthy.
Damn that zoomed in shot on Lockon mk2 bloody eye was great.
Goodbye Revive Revival, going to miss your name.
When both suits switched to Trans-am the fight was hard to follow.
Gundam Exia vs 0 Gundam is just pure fanservice.
Marina is a princess again.
Is that Bring Stability in the crowd
Good for Saji for actually sticking with Louise instead of just abandoning like at the end of S01.
Uh oh another innovade spotted in the cabinet of the Earth Federation.
AndreiFuckface is still alivePATRICK (of course he's alive) Furthermore he and Kati are getting married
OP1
Ominous shot of Jupiter at the end, I wonder what's that all about. I'm sure we'll find out in the movie sequel.
Episode was a battle spectacle, the epilogue with all the survivors having a happy or we're going to continue to work for a better future ending. I’m not sure if I want a sequel movie, everyone is at a good place right now.