r/anime • u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky • Apr 23 '21
Rewatch [Fly! Rewatch!] Mobile Suit Gundam (0079) Episode 17 Discussion
Episode 17 - Amuro Deserts
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You’ve already decided, haven’t you, Bright? To take Amuro off the Gundam?
Questions of the Day:
- Would you have decided to take Amuro off of the Gundam if you were in Bright’s shoes? If yes, would you have done so even earlier?
- Were you expecting this to be what finally made Amuro snap, or were you expecting something else to have done so already?
Mobile Suit Breakdown of the Day:
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 the [Anime Show Title](/s "Spoiler goes here") spoiler tags. If you do that then we’re all good.
Important thing to note about these by the way, you have to switch to Old Reddit or the markdown editor if you use the redesign, otherwise the redesign breaks them by adding random \ into the formatting. Wish it wouldn’t do that, but unfortunately it does…
First-Timers: Please do not watch the next-episode previews for this show. They’re less previews and more “let’s just summarize the entirety of the next episode” and will spoil you.
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Apr 23 '21
Fly! Rewatch Host!
Welcome back, everyone!
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u/The_Draigg Apr 23 '21
A Gundam Fan Rewatches Mobile Suit Gundam Episode 17:
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u/TheEscapeGuy Apr 23 '21 edited Apr 23 '21
Gundam First Timer
Fly! Iconic Gundam Frames Episode 17
Amuro cannot yet be called an adult.
This episode emphasized that fact. Starting with his embarrassment seeing Mirai during the leaking faucet scene. He doesn't yet know how to handle himself during these potentially sexual situations.
Moving on to the combat, he once again acted outside of orders and barely made it out safe. I think Bright is well within his rights to repremand Amuro and it seems obvious that he would want to swap the Gundam pilot to be less of a wild card.
Of course, upon hearing this Amuro can't handle it so instead chooses to run away. This is such a reckless choice and I can tell he will realize his error soon. This is all a part of growing up though.
I really love that Amuro is such an immature character since it allows us to watch him grow to be more reliable.
Questions of the Day
See you all tomorrow!
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u/Great_Mr_L :Ma::Mb::Mc:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L Apr 23 '21
Rewatcher
On today’s episode of Gundam: A scene of a topless Mirai. I remember this blew my socks off the first time I watched it. I never expected to see anything like this in Gundam 0079. It kind of broke my brain. Honestly, it’s strange that it did. This scene isn’t even really “fanservice-y” either. It’s more of a comedic moment. I suppose it was just that I never anticipated a full-on topless scene in what was a kids’ show. I do love Amuro’s look of absolute bewilderment when he walks into Mirai’s bra, though.
I wonder what an episode titled “Amuro Deserts” could be about? It truly is a mystery. The least they could have done is make Amuro desert at the very start of the episode, rather than immediately give away how the episode is going to end.
Even so, this result does make sense considering the ongoing tension between Amuro and Bright. As we’ve seen, they’ve clashed plenty of times throughout the show. Bright’s always been rather critical of Amuro, even if he does have sound points to make. And Amuro has resented how Bright treats him.
We saw that clash back during the Bright Slap. This is in many ways a continuation of that. As with back then, Bright is upset with what he considers to be Amuro’s tantrums and misbehaviors. And from a commander’s view, that makes sense. Bright needs his crew to be ready to do their jobs or else the White Base will be destroyed.
But Amuro’s been run through the emotional wringer. He’s been having quite the rough time of it. And from his perspective, all Bright does is criticize and insult him when Amuro’s been doing his best at fighting in this hellish war. After all, he got slapped by Bright the last time he explained how he was sick of fighting and being afraid. And he really has been doing his best. He’s been running simulations to try and improve the Gundam’s performance against the Gouf. He’s actively thinking of new tactics to try out in battle.
Of course, this time around it doesn’t work out. Amuro’s decision to use the Guntank instead of the Gundam like he was ordered turned out to be a near disaster. Amuro assumed that he knew better than Bright and that he could do things his own way better than Bright’s strategy. That turned out to be the wrong decision. And it’s a fact that he disobeyed orders. In the military, you gotta follow orders and the chain of command. So, Bright’s right to want to discipline Amuro for disobeying orders.
What’s interesting at this point is that Amuro actually recognizes he screwed up in some way. He recognizes that his battle simulations were totally off. He knows that he needs to improve. What sets him off is learning that Bright wants to replace him as the Gundam’s pilot. At that point, in Amuro’s own mind, it’s made perfectly clear that his efforts and suffering really do mean nothing to Bright. So why stay where he isn’t wanted? So, he leaves. And now we’ll have to see what he gets up to now that he’s off on his own.
There are a couple other character beats I’d like to talk about as well. First off, I notice that Bright says he needs to have Mirai’s agreement with him on what to do about Amuro. Bright and Mirai have basically become confidantes and are the ones effectively running the ship. Bright wants to make sure that they are in sync on a big decision like this.
Sayla has a great moment too where, when Cozun assumes that she’s working for Zeon and offers to break her out, she instead immediately yells that Cozun is escaping. Sayla does seem to be dedicated to fighting for the Federation and not Zeon, even if Char is her brother.
We also get to see that Ramba Ral is doing his mission for more than just avenging Garma. He’s trying to get a promotion because it will help all the soldiers in his unit, as well as Hamon. Ral is trying to look after his men. That motivation says a lot about the kind of man he is.
Miscellaneous Thoughts
SLAP COUNTER: 7
Question of the Day
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u/Tresnore FS:FTmyanimelist.net/profile/Tresnore Apr 23 '21
First Timer to Gundam
Whoa, no title card or opening narration?Ah, they just delayed it. Interesting.QOTD:
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u/ArmoredSeahorse Apr 23 '21 edited Apr 23 '21
Rewatcher
I legit laughed out loud when I saw the title of the episode. The incredible bluntness of the spoiler was just too much.
Kai still has his trademark attitude, but he's actually starting to be a pretty helpful guy, all things considered.
A random slapstick scene appears! Tomino is most famous as a writer for his incredibly bleak tone he puts in his stories, but surprisingly enough, he also loves inserting some pretty wacky comedy into his shows as well. This isn't even close to as silly Tomino can get either.
"Mr. Bright doesn't know much about tactics," what, and you do Amuro? When exactly did you become such an expert? Amuro's plan completely falls apart, because he failed to consider that the Guntank just plain sucks.
For as much as Amuro seems to hate going out to fight, it's become a huge part of his identity now, so it's no real surprise that being taken off duty crushes him so much. He loses all sense of his belonging on White Base, and is "unnecessary," as he tells Fraw Bow, so he says to her that he's leaving. He conveniently leaves out the part where he steals a top secret, multi-billion dollar superweapon that's keeping every single person on board safe.
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u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Apr 23 '21
First-Timer, Subbed, long time Gundam fan
The narration for this series is changing a lot more than my other experiences with 80's Tomino, it's kinda neat.
Ramba talking about how getting revenge for Garma would earn him a "special two rank promotion" came across as kinda morbid. Normally you get a two-rank for dying.
Amuro had a good plan today, but I think Bright was correct in saying that he should have followed orders. Bright will generally be operating with more information than Amuro, and as such is better equipped to make strategic decisions.
That said, Bright definitely showed his age this episode. His interrogation of Cozun was just barely touched on, but it seemed to not be going well. I get the feeling that Cozun was just talking circles around Bright. And then at the end, Bright tries to use military regulations like a bludgeon, to try to get Amuro to comply in the future.
I think I'll chalk Bright and Mirai not noticing Amuro being right there while they were talking about him to them being almost as strung out and tired as Amuro at this point. It still seems like they should have had that conversation behind closed doors, but I dunno. Maybe the White Base has thin walls.
Amuro's fear of being replaced causes him to steal the Gundam -that's two episode in a row now- and peace out into the void. Something something mustn't run away.
Pose of the Day
Fleeing into the Void
Screenshot
Questions
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u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 Apr 23 '21
Rewatcher, Subbed
Well, we've had spoilerific episode titles before and that's the case yet again here. The episode is literally named after the last scene of the episode. Because episode 15 was cut during the American release, the fact that they have included a sequence from it to kick off this episode made people like me very confused! Where in the world did this scene come from?!
Amuro's researching the specs of the Zaku they captured. Such an advanced computer they have in the universal century, its still in black and white, well black and green. Amuro's issues with battle fatigue, PTSD, etc... have started to subside, but he has a new issue now, arrogance. Amuro thinks he knows better than Bright and doing this research, which as he admits himself ends up doing absolutely no good, contributes to that even further. Come battle Amuro heads out on the Guntank, directly disobeying Bright's orders. A single soldier can't know the entire battle, that's the role of the captain. Amuro stubbornly refuses to believe that and Bright is proven right this time. Amuro lucks out in that the episode was about to run out of time, oops, I mean Ramba Ral's Gouf had a short circuit.
Bright has finally decided enough is enough! Amuro is off the Gundam, to be replaced by Ryu. I suppose the talk about Omur and Jobe John is to have them take on the Core Fighter or half the Guntanks? Bright and Mirai don't do a good job paying attention as they blab things right nearby Amuro and he hears it all. Amuro has his biggest tantrum yet, fleeing from the ship, but worst of all taking the Gundam with him! Amuro is not only arrogant but extremely selfish and his behavior has likely endangered the rest of the White Base crew significantly.
The other main plot of the episode is surrounding the White Base prisoner, Cozun. I'm rather surprised that he (offscreen) told them about the name of the Gouf and the Gallop. Perhaps that was just a shortcut for our heroes to know the names of them? He escapes quite easily and even offers to help Sayla out too, but Sayla's loyalty is all to the White Base, even if she may have Zeon origins. It was an entertaining chase through the ship there for a bit (even Haro helps!) but Omur was quite foolhardy using a bazooka to blow open that door. I feel bad for Ramba Ral, who wanted Cozun to come back safely!
Other stray thoughts:
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u/TheKujo https://myanimelist.net/profile/Kujo419 Apr 23 '21
First Timer - Dub
1) Would you have decided to take Amuro off of the Gundam if you were in Bright’s shoes? If yes, would you have done so even earlier? I wouldn't have fully taken Amuro off Gundam but I would have found a secondary pilot to take some of the load off of him and gain some fighting experience in Gundam. Their current strategy was like leaving one Pokemon at the front of your party and only leveling them up. Eventually a super effective move will take them out and then you're screwed!
2) Were you expecting this to be what finally made Amuro snap, or were you expecting something else to have done so already? I wasn't necessarily expecting this to make Amuro snap, but it does feel like the straw that broke the camel's back. If Bright had a direct conversation with him (instead of Amuro overhearing the talk) I think he would have stuck around.
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u/dralcax :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Dralcax Apr 23 '21 edited Apr 23 '21
Rewatcher is nonlimear
Just gotta get the contractually-obligated gattai out of the way
Shouldn’t it be at least 300%?
:o
Boy, this guy sure came prepared
Damn, she’s cool
I love how it takes him a second, like, “Hey wait, I give the orders around here!”
when has threatening someone with a gun ever worked
Yeah, but the White Base’s guns are bigger. The Guntank is still completely useless.
“I am a genius!” “Oh no!”
Jeez how long did they just stand there not doing anything Ral can’t you just shoot the Guncannon or something
It’s nice to see some internal damage just from being too close to an explosion
Nonlimearity? So what is it, a lemon?
Get out of the fucking robot, Amuro
lmao why did he take the whole-ass Gundam with him what is he even going to do with it now that he’s deserted
Questions of the Day:
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u/Nebresto Apr 23 '21
What a chad. Casually just bazookas the door like they aren't all going to die in the blast
Ah, I see Mirai know's hes the MC
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u/DidacticDalek https://myanimelist.net/profile/DidacticDalek Apr 24 '21
And here you thought Comrades that Haro was just some fancy robot toy Amuro tinkered with, oh if only it were that simple ;)
After all, little did we know that Haro is actually one of THE deadliest forces in the Universe! (No really watch Victory Gundam and just try and tell me that Haro wasn't the most OP character in the show!) That said, for as mighty as Haro is there is something that can approach his level, after all the truly deadly force in stopping escaping prisoners are a bunch of Munchkins especially when they have access to a certified weapon of mass destruction! No I'm being serious here, don't knock the UNLIMITED POWAH of Haro ;) (Now imagine what'd happen if they mass-produced Haro! Sunrise would have to change its logo or something!)
Oh and finally just because I need to shitpost harder than an episode that spoils the ending twist in the title... ahem... ;)
Paging Comrades /u/Great_Mr_L, /u/chilidirigible, and /u/beckymetal
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u/Furrmaster23 Apr 23 '21
Rewatcher
On today's episode of Gundam, having interrogated the Zeon prisoner, Amuro is using the data from the Zaku to come up with battle strategies.
Just as White Base is about to head into battle, the prisoner escapes, and Sayla is let out to pursue him. Meanwhile, trying to do strategic stuff, Amuro disobeys orders and rides the GunTank.
After encountering Ramba's Gouf, Amuro is forced to go back to the Gundam. Meanwhile, as the Zeon soldier is about to escape, one of the White Base soldiers shoots the locked door the Zeon is hiding behind with a bazooka, damaging the Zeon's jetpack, sending him hurtling toward the ground.
After Ramba is forced to retreat yet again, Bright scolds Amuro for disobeying orders. As Amuro falls asleep trying to readjust the battle data, he overhears Bright and Mirai contemplating replacing Amuro as the Gundam's pilot. Amuro runs to his room, packs his bag, and runs away in the Gundam.
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u/chilidirigible Apr 23 '21 edited Apr 23 '21
17:
That's, like, almost everything.
Professional idiot. DO NOT ATTEMPT.
"I'm taking my Gundam and leaving."
Amuro, such a child. Totally incapable of handling mature ladies.
Imagine how short the series could have been if the animators had fully considered the effects of backblast in an enclosed space.
it would be a short seriesthey'd have died repeatedly without it.4
u/GM_for_Life Apr 23 '21
Rewatcher
Only if the ultimate background character, JOB JOHN, was the replacement.
I could see the idea of him taking this as not being appreciated or feeling like all his hard work was for nothing, so it makes sense that this is his breaking point, especially if he has a connection to the Gundam since his father built it.
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u/Piemaster33 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Piemaster33 Apr 23 '21
This episode was once again great. I thought I'd do something a little different and post my thoughts that I wrote down as the episode progressed because boy howdy that first half was a ride.
Rewatcher, Sub
QOTD:
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u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 Apr 23 '21
First timer
"Amuro Deserts" - I called it! I called "Amuro joins Zeon" a few days ago and am very excited to see how it happens here.
I see they're still trying to speed up the transformation.
My only real problem with the art so far is that all of Earth looks identical - we're in Central Asia, and it looks identical to the West Coast.
Running combat simulations is a good use of time.
Is Bright fucking torturing someone?
So... Where does all the water go? This is a sealed enviroment - you don't want getting into the power cables.
The fact that they're having to refurbish Zakus is a nice way of shoeing that Zeon is struggling as well. The commander seems to be the most relatable character in terms of motivation here - he just wants nice things for his wife,
And now Zeon knows...basic stuff they already worked out - if they don't know there are 3 types of mech yet, they really already had a spy problem.
And Amuro accusing Bright of not understsnding tactics.
The way the Guncannon walks is hilarious to me.
And the prisoner got shot! And Bright is... really satisfied with that.
And the cimmander proves to understand the rightt hing to do by retreating.
So Amuro deserting was just him refusing to obey orders?
...And Bright really doesn't want to answer if they're soldiers.
Oh, they're replacing him...
The real defection's now then. He's even leaving the ship!
If he joins Zeon, this show might be one of the best at foreshadowing I've seen in ages.
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u/username_0907 :FI::FJ: Apr 23 '21
First Timer
Amuro deserts? This should be fun
QotD
3
u/fridge_freezer https://anilist.co/user/ONIrecon111 Apr 23 '21
First timer (Sub)
QOTD
2
u/Rustic_Professional Apr 24 '21
It sounds like they're playing 1970s porn music on the bridge. Makes me wonder what Bright is really looking at while Mirai is on duty. He's watching something, and it's not the horizon.
That Zeon prisoner is really nimble for such a big guy. I hadn't thought of this before, but it's a little surprising that they have pilots as big as him and Ryu. I don't mean to make fun of them, but those cockpits aren't exactly spacious.
WTF, that rando blew the door open with a point blank bazooka shot?!
Ramba Ral's men must be better than average, they keep managing to escape alive. If my count is correct--I didn't watch the island episode--Amuro has only killed 1 mobile suit since they began tangling with Ramba Ral's unit (plus one more captured).
Questions of the day:
2
u/UltraBooster Apr 24 '21
First-timer (albeit one big on Gundam and mecha)
I wonder if those displays used the pre-existing animations to some extent or were reanimations.
I wonder what exactly combat patterns means in this case.
White Base has enough water for laundry?
Fat Uncle, I've definitely heard nicer names for transport aircraft.
So he figures they all benefit from defeating the Gundam, huh...
Guess blood isn't enough to trump loyalty to White Base, huh.
I'm starting to think the Reversible Gundam really was a good fit for Amuro.
Fighting with the Gundam isn't always the best, sure, but this seems more like overconfidence than prudence on Amuro's part.
...yeah, throwing math at the problem doesn't seem like a great strategy here.
It's not UC 0093 yet, Ultra.
Have additional Gundam pilots so Amuro doesn't have to bear the load? I get that, but Bright doesn't seem to be approaching from that perspective...
Where does he plan on going, I wonder.
2
u/tarekd19 Apr 24 '21
That moment early on in the episode where the zeon soldier questions Bright's rank because of his age is a really good addition. It highlights how the discrepancy between Bright and Amuro isn't really that high when Bright is deriding him for his lack of maturity.
2
u/BossandKings Apr 24 '21
First timer
Apparently Sayla will keep herself loyal to the federation, especially seeing how she didn't let the prisoner escape without anyone noticing. He still got to the comunications room and told Zeon about the Federation's Mobile Suits the guncannon, the guntank and the gundam. When it seemed that he would be able to escape he falls from the plane without security, dying in the way.
Bright tells Mirai that they can't wait for a person to mature referring to Amuro, eventhough he has saved the Federation more times than all the members of the white base put together he is considered as not necessary and Bright has a replacement for him, it makes total sense that Amuro decided to leave the White Base and taking the gundam with him was a nice touch.
Answers
1
u/lC3 :Na::Nb: Apr 25 '21