mackysan15

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towards the end

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[request] Mcg & 🍨 ③

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Iron Blooded Orphans is my favorite Gundam

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Painted my boys for my IBO zine - you can still grab a PDF or extra copy here! Thank you so much for the support!

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characters who view themselves as tools/weapons first and people second... characters who martyr themselves for a cause because they think that's the only way they can be worth something... characters who push themselves past their breaking point again and again and again... characters for whom devotion and masochism are inseparable... characters whose self-sacrifice becomes self-annihilation...... what was my point again? i had a point. anyway.

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As I have lived in anger

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I haven’t been active here since I’m not particularly in a Gundam IBO mood at the moment. However, I’ve been thinking about finally doing a full-fledged breakdown of the Mika/Orga episode 22 scene. If anyone’s interested, feel free to let me know!

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In Buddhism, the alaya-vijnana (storehouse consciousness) acts as an unconscious collection of a person’s experiences/habits, determining how they view the world and behave. It helps to explain why it’s hard to change out of deep-seated behaviors and views as they have been gathering up for so long.

Of course, the relevance to IBO is obvious. Being stuck in bad habits and mindsets forced upon them by their upbringing in a brutal environment plays a huge role in the characterization of Tekkadan (and many of the other characters) and their downfall. It’s seen most vividly in Mika’s arc as he attempts to cultivate better habits (eg: farming, learning to read from Kudelia) but is ultimately unable to fully break out of the mold of a child soldier.

Here are the articles I used to research the AV if anyone’s interested.

(scroll down to the heading starting with 4 to get to the part about alaya-vijnana specifically though I would recommend reading the whole thing)

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When I heard about how the IBO developers didn’t get the call for a Season 2 until midway through Season 1, all the strange things about the Season 1-Season 2 relation made sense. It answers these questions:

Why was there no real foreshadowing for Season 2 stuff (McGillis talking about the origins of Gjallarhorn as well as the Ein experiment perfecting the AV leading up to Agnika Kaieru and Bael in Season 2) until the final arc of Season 1? -> they were still trying to figure out what to do for Season 2 so they wouldn’t have been able to set things up more earlier

Why, despite the Arianrhod Fleet appearing in the Dort arc, wasn’t there even a namedrop for Rustal even though that would be the perfect opportunity to foreshadow him for Season 2? -> he most likely wasn’t even conceived of as a character at that point

Why did the ending suddenly turn happy for Tekkadan despite them going down a dark path after Biscuit’s death? -> the original plan would have been for Tekkadan and Kudelia to die at the end of Season 1

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"Hey Orga, what should I do next? Is this our place? I won't stop until we get there.”

“How far do you want me to go?”

“All the way. Crush them to the very last bit.”

— Mikazuki Augus and Orga Itsuka, episode 41, “Natural for a Human”

I saw this photo from the MBS AnimeFes and I just had to do it. IBO is my favorite of the Gundam shows and it reintroduced me to Gunpla assembly.

And oh man, I’m so moved by Mikazuki and Orga’s devotion to each other. To see their seiyuu do their signature pose it just… thank you.

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Mika and Orga have such a weird and fascinating power dynamic. Orga is technically the boss and Mika will obey his orders without hesitation. However, Orga is terrified of not living up to Mika’s expectations and needs his approval. He just can’t let him down.

Mika will even override Orga’s orders if he sees him as not living up to their promise (aftermath of Biscuit’s death) or letting himself live up to their promise (Mobile Armor incident) with some bossy language to boot. I’ve seen people say Mika’s the one who’s really in charge and I can’t help but agree.

It ties into how they both have a sense of honor too. Orga has to honor Mika’s faith in him by being as “strong” and “cool” as he can be while Mika has to honor the life Orga gave him by giving his all. They both set unhealthy standards for themselves.

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The admiration that the younger kids of Tekkadan have towards Mika comes out in darker ways as S1 progresses. At first, it just seems cute that he gives them hope and that they have such faith in his ability to pave the way forward for them.

But then later, we see one of the younger kids feeling the pressure to live up to Mika by being able to take the pain of another AV surgery like him.

Finally, it all culminates in the younger children watching intensely as Mika slaughters Carta, feeling that they have to watch his fight because it’s him taking vengeance against the enemy. Unlike the older members of Tekkadan, they’re not thrown off in the slightest by his brutality.

[mackysan15]

The admiration that the younger kids of Tekkadan have towards Mika comes out in darker ways as S1 progresses. At first, it just seems cute that he gives them hope and that they have such faith in his ability to pave the way forward for them.

But then later, we see one of the younger kids feeling the pressure to live up to Mika by being able to take the pain of another AV surgery like him.

Finally, it all culminates in the younger children watching intensely as Mika slaughters Carta, feeling that they have to watch his fight because it’s him taking vengeance against the enemy. Unlike the older members of Tekkadan, they’re not thrown off in the slightest by his brutality.

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The tragedy of Mika is how he tried to find a way out of violence but ended up sinking further into violence, while the tragedy of McGillis is how he could never comprehend that there was a way past violence in the first place.

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I recently watched Mob Psycho 100 and there’s a part when a character voiced by McGillis’s seiyuu calls a character voiced by Orga’s seiyuu a manchild and destroys his ego. The irony XD

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Gundam Iron-blooded Orphans 9x9 grid: 

McGillis Fareed

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How old do you think Mikazuki is? I personally think that it would be funny if he starts out at around 13, he just looks way older because of how fucked up he is.

I think Mikazuki is older than 13 since Takaki is mentioned as 13 and he addresses Mikazuki and the older members of Tekkadan with the “-san” honorific, implying that Mikazuki is older than him. I’ve always of thought of Mika as being around 15-16.