#gaelio bauduin

[nitwo22]

[athena-gundampla]

MG 1/100 Gjallarhorn Arianrhod Fleet Unit No. 21 Gundam Frame ASW-G-XX "Gundam Vidar"

It's done!! After completing the frame last week, adding all of the surface armour and acessories went quite smoothly. I'd already weathered and prepped everything, but even then I had to move quite quickly to get it done during the build meet I was at.

The Vidar is a disguised and revamped Gundam Kimaris Trooper, incorporating new technology and armour onto the ancient Kimaris frame, including a 3rd Ahab Reactor (done in a really nice trans-pink), knee thrusters, and these really nice rapier sheaths on the skirt armour.

Being a modern Master Grade kit, it comes colour separated from the get go, with a complete inner frame that peaks through the multi-layered armour plates. The Iron Blooded Orphans MGs in particular seem to show off a lot of the inner frame, so I'm happy I took the extra time to weather and detail it, although a lot of the frame marking stickers did get covered completely.

The colours chosen for the kit are really nice, especially the almost lavender blue that makes up the majority of the armour panels and contrasts really well with the bright pink marking stickers. I had a lot of fun with these - there are far fewer than on a RG kit, and they're nice and big so they're easy to apply. I even added a few extras, including the Bauduin family crest on the shoulder and cockpit. There's also some really nice shiny gold and chrome pieces for the frame.

There wasn't much for me to do in terms of further detail, apart from panel lining. I used both a liquid enamel liner as well as felt tip to touch up any mistakes. For some of the black armour panel pieces, I also experimented using a light grey liner, to give them some extra contrast, as black can tend to get lost and look like it isn't there at all. I've seen people do this on aircraft and it usually looks quite good, and I think it gave a few of the armour pieces a really nice worn metallic effect.

I also painted the little pilot figure and added some weathering. For the armour panels, I tried adding some drybrushing to the edges before assembly, helping to accentuate the seams between panels. I tried out a new weathering technique too using a chrome paint marker on a few of the sharp edges, and spreading out the self-leveling paint using a q-tip. This added some super shiny worn edges that catch the light and add a bit of textural variation over the matte finish.

A neat feature of this kit are the eyes and rear camera. They're moulded as a single hidden trans-pink piece that's also UV reactive, so you can make them light up both by shining UV or blue light on them, as well as placing a light source behind the head. Unfortunately there's no room in the head for an LED, although you could probably hollow it out to fit one in, and hide the battery in the backpack.

This kit is super poseable, with nicely designed joints that aren't difficult to move but are decently stiff and can hold themselves in place. Apparently the hips have been redesigned from the original MG Barbatos, although I still found them a little looser than I would've liked.

There's a decent number of gimmicks for this kit, as well as weapons and option parts. The feet include the fold-out "Hunter's Edge", which is partially missing on the HG version.

There's a few gimmicks included on the side-skirt/sheaths. There's two small verniers that swing outwards, and a little extra joint piece to let you move the skirt around for more flexible poses. The sheaths include 6 replaceable blades for the rapier, as well as the handle, and you can recreate the "reloading" action by sliding the entire sheath down, which actually pulls out a single blade attached to the handle.

There are also 2 extra "detached" blades, representing used blades that have been deposited as explosives in another mobile suit (although there's not really anything to attach them to for display, until Bandai releases more MG IBO kits).

One of the coolest parts of this kit are the twin pistols hidden in the front skirt. The holster gimmick can be a little finnicky when replacing the pistols, but they're held there securely when in place. The pistols themselves are nicely recreated, and you can even rack the slide of each one!

Finally, there's the large 110mm rifle. This has little tabs that slot in to a few holes on either side of the skirt, and an aiming camera in trans-pink that even has a foil sticker behind it to make it stand out. The rifle was always the funniest aspect of this suit to me, as it's clearly IBO's homage to the RX-78-2 beam rifle, and yet it's used by a suit that shows up as a transitional form in like 3 episodes and it gets fired once.

It's still undeniably one of the coolest parts of the kit, and it even has a removable magazine, although the part lacks a catch and so can be removed a little too easily. I wish it had had an actuating bolt as well, although it didn't really have one in the show.

Alongside all the weapons are a few hand options for holding the weapons. The hands are rather nicely done, with only a single hand that needs to be built, alongside a single moveable thumb. Instead, you switch out the fingers, between a pre-posed left and right pistol grip, open fist, closed fist, or open hand. This was much more preferable to working with the poseable hands I've seen on other MG kits. I still have sour memories of the fiddly poseable hands from the RG kits. The removable fingers also make it easier to swap out weapons for posing, and there's a little slot in each hand that clips into the weapons to hold them securely.

Overall, the MG Vidar was an excellent introduction to proper MG kits, and I'm really tempted to pick up the upcoming MG Barbatos Lupus in August.

[anotherb1rd]

Here’s some cool art by Ippei Gyoubu, a very cool mechanical designer for Gundam, among other things.

I am now going to talk about it. (There will be spoilers for Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans)

Gaelio did everything he possibly could to save Ein, going beyond human biology. Eventually, Ein is left as part of Gundam Vidar. He is there, but not human anymore, as represented by being in shadow.

After this is done, Gaelio swears to take revenge on those who left Ein this way, even adopting the name Vidar (Norse god of vengeance, according to minimal internet searching). (Also interesting to note that Vidar is named after a god while all other Gundam frames are named after demons)

It is also stated in the show that he spends ALL of his free time maintaining and tuning his mobile suit. Clearly he truly cares about this thing that everyone else only knows to be a soulless machine.

When Gaelio fights, he states that he and Ein are perfectly in sync. Sharing the same name, they ARE one being.

But Ein is not human anymore. He never truly will be again. Gaelio can not be with him, thus the physical separation in the artwork and Ein being in shadow. The only way they can be connected is through this Gundam.

[gubdam]

[billveusay]

I just watched Iron-Blooded Orphans and...

Man, I first picked that as a recurring title for these reviews back when I shared my thoughts on Hathaway's Flash, and then I needed to retroactively go over everything I had watched beforehand. Which meant three months of playing catch up on shows and movies I'd seen weeks to months ago, and so I had to remove the "just" part. But no more! From now on these reviews will be seasoned with ripe, freshly picked opinions!

Anyway, Iron-Blooded Orphans then! Definitely one of the best, and as I said before, finally one I can quite easily recommend. The characters are great, the action incredible and the story gripping, with excellent themes and ideas woven into it. However, it's far from flawless and I do have a lot of gripes, but as I go into it, remember that none of them are deal-breakers and it did end up fifth on my ranking, overtaking MS IGLOO 2: Gravity Front (yes, it's this high and yes, only Gravity Front, check my review of it in the links below) and landing behind War in the Pocket.

First off, one of my biggest critiques relates to the worldbuilding. It's great, but there's a very recurring dissonance between what we're shown and the supposed scale of events and powers in place. This is a story where the players are intercontinental, even interplanetary coalitions, all overseen by an organisation powerful enough to have supreme authority over all of humanity. And yet Tekkadan, who doesn't seem to have more than 100 members, can go toe to toe with them on a regular basis even in situations where Gjallarhorn 1) knows exactly where they are 2) Has enough time to gather as much troops as they need, like on Makanai's island or the Edmonton siege. For the latter, I vaguely seem to recall Gjallarhorn not being able to intervene for political reasons, but if the capital city of an intercontinental super nation can be locked into a week-long siege by twenty mobile workers, all focusing their attack on a single bridge, it does makes me raise questions. There's also the worker uprising and their protest of like 80 dudes, which was especially funny to me as a french person for self-explanatory reasons. I know the point is to show how fucked they are in the face of Gjallarhorn's supremacy, but even then, it feels weird that they even thought they had a chance. Not to say that this problem is omnipresent, the space battles feel much more consistent with the player count we're presented with, but they're are also much easier to fill with of troops, vessels and debris, so it does make me wonder if it was due to technical limitations for the ground battles.

This discrepancy between what we're told and what we're shown remains in season 2. Tekkadan has allegedly grown much bigger and is now a major global player, but it's not apparent in any way. They have like 20 new guys. Then a "war" breaks out between two of the superpowers, and the fighting seems limited to a meadow and two shrubberies. There's manipulation at play on both sides to destroy Tekkadan and draw out McGillis, but only the strategy of Galan Mossa gets called out, and not the minuscule scale of the conflict. Maybe other battles are happening all around the border, but we don't see them, we're never told about them and everything important happens around Takaki and the earth branch. It's present all the way through the final battle. The Arianrhod troops wait a few days so it looks like they gave Tekkadan the chance to surrender, fine. But once the hostilities begin, it shouldn't take all of these mobile suits so long to destroy their base. They're surrounded in an open field, they only have five mobile suits to defend them, and they're good, but I have trouble believing that they can hold off all of the enemy suits at the same time. Not a single one is able to go around one of them and destroy the base? Even though, judging by how many get destroyed, there are probably more than a hundred (not sure because they never give us a wide establishing shot of the enemy forces, which is another issue).

On a similar note, it's also weird that we only see mobile workers, mobile suits and spaceships used in battles. I mean... if they have spaceships, what happened to fighter jets? Bombers? Long range artillery? That one would have definitely been useful during the Edmonton siege, where they mainly faced mobile workers. Maybe they've been banned like the Dainslef, but even that made me raise question. It's just a big nail gun with explosives, it's efficient but doesn't seem toxic, radioactive or prone to collateral damage, so why would Gjallarhorn ban it for everyone if they can just make it illegal for anyone other than themselves to use them. I may have missed something.

To explain these weird dissonances, you could make the argument that the calamity from 300 years ago has vastly reduced the human population, but it doesn't really fit. It's mentioned at one point that the Turbines have 50 000 members, and yet the story always treats them like they're limited to the crew of the Hammerhead.

And for the sake of comparison, 00 is undoubtedly inferior, but for all its flaws I can honestly say that they made the large scale of the conflict much more believable, save for the final battle of the show being the incarnation of conservation of ninjutsu. Despite Celestial Being being... ahem, despite Celestial Being having even less personnel than Tekkadan, they spend the first few arcs establishing how the balance of power is tilted in their favour. First the stealth provided by the GNovsky particles gives them the initiative most of the time. Second, early on the gundams are several dozen cuts above every other mobile suit and can demonstrably mow down through hundreds of grunts no problem. So in the first season, the economic blocks can only put them on the back foot whenever they manage to both ambush them and outnumber them with their most state of the art mobile suits, I.E the ones that are too recent and expensive to mass produce by the hundreds. Even when they even the playing field by acquiring solar reactors of their own, they still don't have enough to completely overwhelm them with numbers, and it's also the point where the gundams get upgrades of their own. All in all, it remains balanced and believable. Plus, most mobile suits can fly and are ostentatiously fast enough to outpace artillery fire, so it doesn't feel weird that they're the only war machine around. Tekkadan are certainly more underdogs than CB, but most of their battles feel like 1 against 3, when it should feel like 1 against 100.

Now, for the pacing and structure. It's pretty good, especially in the first season, which benefits from a clear goal that they continually move towards, the same thing that gave the second half of Turn A Gundam my beloved its edge. Season 2 was more hit and miss for me though, mainly because in several arcs, they build up the stakes a lot to the point where I thought that we had entered the main plot, only for the problem du jour to be dealt with pretty quickly. For example, I was very surprised to see Galan Mossa get killed so early, but the biggest one was the Mobile Armor. Really thought it would play a major role in the rest if the story, or that more would show up even if they managed to destroy that one. And each arc did have consequences that changed the statu quo, but never to the degree that I was expecting given the weight they gave each of them. So it kind of felt... stop and start? Or like the plot of arcs were connected by bottlenecks. But frankly, it's probably just a me thing, I won't even say it's a critique.

What I will count as a critique is the weird... u-turn on the tragic ending. Overall, the last arc was incredible. I love how everyone realises that actually, powerful speeches, reckless stunts and heroic sacrifices can't always carry you through the finish line. And as they get driven into a corner and the protagonists fall one by one, you really feel the tragedy.

But then everything turns peachy. Mars gets its independence, the legacy of Makanai gets carried on on earth, and I don't know how to feel about it. On one hand, Rustal Elion is definitely not evil just because he opposes the protagonists, in the same way that McGillis being on their side doesn't make him not a dick. But even though his politics weren't very clearly established, he did seem to stand up for enforcing order and the statu quo and make Gjallarhorn even more powerful, so I don't get why he'd use his position to actually give more power to the people. Maybe it's because he knew that despite the failure of the revolution, Gjallarhorn was untenable in its current state so they had to chill, but because it's not addressed, I'll admit that for now I gravitate towards "they didn't want the ending to be a total downer".

Next on my list of niggles... the choreography is great, but they regularly fall back on very used tropes and beats. The classic "I push you out of the way to take the bullet myself" happens a bunch of times, and it always made me grit my teeth. If you have enough momentum to propel someone, you don't lose your inertia the instant you touch them, it takes effort to stop and stand in front of the attack. You wanted to be hit by that. And no one ever tries tackling the attacker instead of standing in front of them with arms stretched out. It's one of my personal pet peeves. Another combat beat that they repeat a lot is having the secondary characters struggle in a fight, and when all seems lost, the cavalry (I.E the Gundam) arrives and turns situation around. It felt repetitive the eighth time it happened, but I'll admit it's a very very minor complaint. However, it's not exclusive to IBO, and most of the Gundam shows have a tendency to do it repeatedly, even the bests like Turn A... with the exception of the original show. Alright, I mainly brought it up to remind everyone that Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 can still give lessons to the rest of the franchise, especially when it comes to making every fight unique and interesting in an episodic format.

There's also the morally dubious to downright fucked up elements, and the choice to present them as normal and just the way things are without anyone calling them out, making it clear how harsh and nasty this universe is. Kudelia, an important political figure, allying with the mafia to accomplish her goals, McGillis and Almiria, Atra ending up pregnant at... I don't know her age but I refuse to believe that she's older than sixteen. It's certainly audacious, but honestly I don't feel qualified to tell if it was handled well or not, so I won't touch upon it, I just felt like I should mention their presence in the show.

One last gripe to segue into the characters round up. Like G-Witch and like 00, isn't there too many of them? It mainly concerns Tekkadan: it's nice that we get to know a lot of these guys to show how this is not just a mass of disposable characters, and after some time I could identify basically every named one, but even when I reached that point, I basically had to play catch-up on who did what in the first 15 episodes because it was still a big blur of faces and names at that point. This may also be a me thing, IRL I'm equally bad at remembering people, and especially matching their names, faces and the context in which i met them.

Now, on to the characters! Starting with Tekkadan.

The main duo are an great pair, and I don't think I've seen a dynamic like theirs before. The way they slowly build-up the core of Orga's deal and his relationship with the rest of Tekkadan, their toxic feedback loop of "we have to push forward" making them spiral onward to their doom... very nicely done, I'm ruined. As for Mika, he could have easily come across as edgy (like early Setsuna) or bland (like late-stage Setsuna) but they managed to convey the fact that he's a terrifying little weirdo very well through subtle understated acting and writing. He genuinely kept me on my toes, wondering if or when he was gonna do something completely ruthless and horrible, like icing an innocent civilian because they witnessed Tekkadan doing something illegal or something. It's also hard to write a character that seems consistent but has an unique internal logic driving all of his actions that's very different from the one most people operate with. It's easy to make this type of character come across as random, but here they did an excellent job.

Atra is cute as hell, and seemed like a perfect sacrificial lamb, so I'm very happy that she survived.

Kudelia... works well enough in the plot but she's still a pretty basic archetype and I don't have much to say about her. I was sad when sad things happened to her and happy for her when things went well, but she's definitely not the highlight of the show for me. Plus, because her character is at the center of the global geopolitic, she was often the one who suffered the most from the confusing worldbuilding.

Biscuit however is a highlight, and the absolute best boy. I love how we can see in retrospect how important he was as the Jiminy Cricket on Orga's shoulder, and how his death could be seen as the first step on Tekkadan's road to ruin. The circumstances of his death seemed a bit contrived (why would you bring up your mobile worker so close to the fight for no reason?) but nonetheless, it was well deserving of maybe the most bone-chilling scream of grief in the whole franchise.

Akihiro is also cool. He's a very classic character but an effective one, he had some great moments, and giving his Gundam a giant pruner is a bold choice. I have some niggles with the Brewers arc, like the way it starts: "Oh by the way Yamagi/Takaki (I genuinely don't remember which one it was), did I ever tell you about my brother, with whom I was separated when we were children? I still hope I'll find him somed- OH CRAP, WE'RE BEING ATTACKED! AND WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT, IT'S BY MY BROTHER". But aside from that, I like him alright.

Shino was a delight and oomph, that final scene with Yamagi might have been the one that hit harder for me. Even though... technically, wasn't it a tad bury-your-gays-ish? In any case, I'm not the best one to judge that, and at least his death was very meaningful in the larger plot, it was far from throwing him away just for the sake of not having nice things for more than 3 minutes.

Ok, rapid fire. Eugene is alright as well. Chad and Dante were maybe the most "who are you people again?" of the bunch. I really liked Takaki and his arc with Aston, very sad. Ride, also alright. I love the old guy, but he's one of my favourite archetypes so that's hardly surprising, and him and Nina Purpleton Merribit Stapleton are very cute. Hush, Zack and Dane are an okay addition, but I don't think Hush needed to have a whole arc just so they could justify him being the one to lug Mika around like a potato sack.

Next, the Gjallarhorn guys.

I really was expecting McGillis to be the final boss against Tekkadan, so nice job subverting them expectations. I also wasn't expecting him to be that much of a Char Clone but wow, that scene at the end of season 1, where he shows up in a red suit to betray and kill his lilac-haired childhood friend, that's confidence in assuming your status. Actually he feels more like a mix between Char and Guin Rhineford, being on the side of the good guys for most of the show despite being very obviously morally questionable, plus the downfall caused by hubris thing. I'm really interested in how things would have turned out if his plan succeeded, and if Tekkadan would have eventually turned on him or the reverse. Probably a lot of fanfics out there exploring that.

As for Gaelio, he 100% was written by a Garma simp who wrote a whole fanfic about him surviving and coming back to get revenge on Char by pulling a Monte-Cristo on hi- wow, I can't believe it took me this long to realize Char was already basically Edmond Dantès in a different mask. Anyway, I'm not complaining, and it was cathartic to see McGillis also have his moment of "but... the narrative... you're supposed to be a mini-boss, I didn't even get to confront the big bad... is that allowed?". His relationship with Ein is also quite touching. On that note, Ein is a good mirror to Mikazuki, progressively losing their bodies to their mobile suit as they becomes a single-minded machine of destruction. They should hang out with Daryl Lorenz. And Carta Issue is very extra, I love her.

Now for the season 2 gang. I've already mentioned how weird it was for Rustal Elion to be nice as pie in the epilogue when nothing in his character indicated these tendencies up to that point. He cared for his subordinates, but he was still willing to commit atrocities to remain in power and prevent McGillis from reforming Gjallarhorn. But before that, he's an effective enough master tactician type antagonist. Better than Paptimus Scirocco because he does seem to have a plan, but still far from an Aiguille Delaz, again because of the confusing worldbuilding making some parts of said plan equally confusing.

Next, Lok Kujan. Because we've had many Char-clones, but not enough Jerid-clones (save for Poe in Turn A). But unlike Jerid, the writers were very aware of how much of a fuck up he was and had fun making him the most pathetic upward fornicator of them all. He is quite delightful in that regard, and his death was very satisfying. As for Julieta... I still wonder about whether or not she was necessary to the story, frankly. I don't dislike her, I don't like her either but in the end... I guess I just don't mind her. Very neutral feelings all around.

On to Teiwaz then. Naze is... likeable and charismatic enough, I'm still not sure about how to feel about his harem crew. It can be interpreted as just a front he puts on in... front... of the other Teiwaz members, and in actuality some of the women of his crew could be people he helps out with no strings attached. But unless I'm forgetting something, I do think it's implied that every of them is his wife. No shade on polyamorous couples, and Naze clearly genuinely cares about them all to a high degree, but it does make me question the implication that none of them turned down his offer, especially considering that their relationships starts with an imbalance if the choice they're given is between marrying him and being exploited. Actually, maybe the women on his ship are specifically the ones that wanted to be his wife, while the rest are part of the 50 000 working in the Turbines network. But even if that's the case, some of the crewmates do seem uncomfortably young, and we don't know their age but... alright, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and move on.

The gals themselves are okay, if a bit redundant (I kept confusing Lafter and Eco). Lafter and Akihiro were very cute, but her death was a nasty case of fridging. Still hit hard though.

And finally, in the category of "helpful old dudes", McMurdo and Makanai are also alright, though the latter's behaviour in season 1 seemed to hint that he wasn't as well intentioned as he seemed, but it turned out he was just an old little troll and that's fine too. The fact that he provided a very simple path to Kudelia's success and Mars' independence with a clear goal could be seen as a tad artificial, but there's a fine line between convenient writing and efficient writing, and that's certainly efficient.

For the visuals, not much to say cause it's all great. Great animation, good character designs (as I said, some characters look a bit similar and that made it hard to tell them apart at the beginning when I didn't know them well, but it's leagues above the lanky playmobils of 00), great mechanical design, the tops, maybe even my favourite. I actually wonder why I didn't check it out sooner because it's the closest thing to Armored Core that I've seen so far in this franchise, and Armored Core is what got me into Gundam.

By the way, I have to mention how good Tears of Orphans is. Definitely in the top 5 of my Gundam songs ranking that I will definitely make.

Now, this would normally be the end of the review, but I have been following a certain someone by the name of... Adverbs and Androids, I believe. He has oft praised this show in much detail, 40+ essays' worth of detail to be precise. As of writing these words, I have refrained from reading his thoughts before I had put down my own to paper (or screen) but I shall now go check it out and see if that changes my opinions. See you next paragraph.

...

Re-emerges with a 2-month beard. Oh boy... I feel like I was giving a testimony on the stand and the defence attorney left the room, before coming back pushing a hand truck with a pile of alibis and counterarguments reaching the ceiling. All of them very convincing and instructive, I have indeed changed my opinions and learned a lot about this show. And the persisting influence of the nobility in modern day British politics for some reason.

So yeah, this made me reconsider and withdraw most of my criticisms, or at least rephrase them to "an imperfect execution of a rock-solid idea". I'll go quickly over these two categories, starting with the former. It is indeed dubious to call the tragic death of Shino bury-your-gays when his death is not only essential to the tragedy, but also when several straight members of the cast get the exact same treatment. What also led me to wondering if that was the dreaded BYG was the fact I hadn't really noticed the build-up of their relationship leading to their tearful separation throughout the show, partly due to my trouble identifying characters and partly because I'm just very oblivious in general, which I'm not ashamed of admitting because that gives me something in common with the magnificent idiot in question. But because of that, it was pretty much "oh my god, they're- oh he's dead" for me. But that's my B.

Reading a bunch of very detailed breakdowns of the plot, themes and character trajectories also helped me see the importance and repercussions of each arc in season 2, some aspects of the geopolitics, the true tactical brilliance of Rustal Elion and the value of certain characters like Julieta and Kudelia. So I'm also withdrawing the statements regarding these.

As for the Turbines situation, obviously I count it among the "it's the farthest from ideal situation, but that's the way this world works" and they're all doing their best. It is also apparently stated that some of the women in his crew are indeed not his wives, so again, my B. As for the points where I accept the counter-arguments but still have doubts about the execution, let's go back to Rustal Elion and the ending. I did not miss the fact that his reformed Gjallarhorn had him as the "democratically" elected leader, with supreme power he did not have to share with the six other stars any more. And it's true that if you think about it for five minutes, this is far from a happy ending for the survivors, and there's still a lot left to do. But I wonder why the show had to frame it like a full-on happy ending, as if to trick the viewer, when there's no more story after that and no expectations to be subverted. I guess it could be seen as a satisfying conclusion for those who were only watching for the surface level entertainment, leaving more depth for those willing to go deeper. But even as I was closer to the first category because I had not yet read a War and Peace of dissertations, the tonal shift was less satisfying than jarring. And I didn't want a brick of depression to the face either, I'm all for ending on a positive, or at least hopeful note. But what we got seemed a tad excessive.

Also Lafter's death. It definitely makes sense in the context of the plot to have her die as the final spark that sets the powder keg ablaze, and the abruptness of her death reminds the viewer of the harshness of this world. It is still a tad regrettable that this ended up resembling an unfortunate trope very closely.

But on a final note, I stand by (most of) my remarks on the weird scale dissonance and the recurrence of poorly staged sacrifices in combat. Still, I must salute you @wordsandrobots for having produced such a massive library of incredibly insightful commentary and analysis. You truly deserve your Ao3 username. And in my defence for missing many essential plot elements and character beats, I was watching this show at the rate of one to two episodes a day so it took me a month to finish it which, combined with my attention span and temperamental memory, meant I wasn't in the best situation to appreciate the series in all of its complexity and depth. While I am tentatively gonna go a limb and assume that you have maybe, probably, watched this show more than once ;) Phew! These reviews of 50 episodes series always take a while. I am taking a Gundam break because I desperately need to watch something else and catch up on other shows. But as it turns out, I will return with another long one. Because I have received an invitation to the birthday party of Gundam Wing, and I will accept this invitation and not threaten the life of its sender. I'm sure the protagonist of this show will be equally polite.

(I just discovered that Gundam Wing began airing in April 1995, and since I'll probably start watching in a week or two, this joke became unintentionally very à-propos)

I'll see y'all there!

My gundam Reviews :

> Hathaway's Spark > Mobile Suit Gundam > Gundam Zeta > 0083: Stardust Memory > 0080: War in the Pocket > 8th MS Team > The Witch from Mercury > Gundam Thunderbolt > The Origin > Turn A Gundam > F91 > Gundam Unicorn > Gundam 00 > MS IGLOO > Gundam Narrative > Iron-Blooded Orphans > Gundam Wing > Twilight Axis > Requiem for Vengeance

[by-vanillin]

I was so happy with their ending, im glad they get to be together

[winterwedded]

i doodled a baby macky & gali last night

[local-redhead-bookworm]

I made Gundam Vidar but if Gaelio’s “main character syndrome” was even more obvious in GB4

First off, that premise is hilarious. I opened this ask and had to try not to burst out laughing just from reading it. Gaelio, my favorite buffoon who has no idea what genre he’s in or what role he’s playing.

That looks really cool! The classic RX-78 colors work really well on Vidar, I wonder how well they’d work on other Gundams from IBO. Something about this color scheme really highlights how weird a lot of the feet for the IBO mechs are though. Not a bad thing about your variant, just an observation on the base.

I’ve been meaning to hop into GB4 for a while now, I’m dying to kitbash mechs for my OCs. If only I could find the time lol, that’s the real problem

[sheepibum]

Title: a constellation of blood drops

Summary: Tekkadan decides to salvage Gaelio’s mobile suit for spare parts; turns out that the most useful one is the pilot. To the dismay of everyone involved.

i | ii | iii | iv | v |

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

VI. nulla dies umquam memori vos eximet aevo (no day shall erase you from the memory of time)

Gaelio has been preemptively regretting having to talk to McGillis about this ever since the last serious conversation he had with Mikazuki. It has made him miserable, but at least he’s prepared when the man boards the Isaribi and makes time to speak with him.

He clears his throat from the dread filling his stomach and forges ahead, because he made a promise, damn it.

“How much do you remember about the laws regarding polygamous marriage for a member of the Seven Stars Families?” is what he says.

Predictably, McGillis turns toward him with a smile that could cut glass.

“Oh? Are you planning that far ahead already?”

Gaelio does his best to shrug without wincing.

“Say, if I were to marry all members of Tekkadan, would they be recognized as free citizens of the Earth Sphere?”

And Gaelio will tell himself later to mark this day on his calendar, because it’s the first time he has managed to surprise McGillis into howling with laughter until he’s a writhing mass of humanity curled up in a ball, trying to fit his fist into his own mouth to hush the sounds he’s making.

“There is...” He gasps, still shaking. “There is a limit to the number of... consorts an heir of one of the families is allowed to have.”

Gaelio sighs; of course there is.

“Less than—” He does a mental calculation, the whole of Tekkadan plus whatever relatives they may have, plus the pastry sisters might be too big of a stretch; he probably would have to make do with the most vulnerable younger members; “—fifty?”

McGillis snorts, but it is good-naturedly and his eyes are still bright. It’s a good look on him. Makes it a bit harder to remember that Gaelio will never forgive him.

“Try twelve.”

“Damn.”

“Yes,” McGillis nods, his smile sharpening in way that is impossible to ignore. “However, there are no laws that limit the number of children an heir of one of the families can adopt to ensure the survival of their House and Legacy.”

Gaelio doesn’t ask is that what you father did? but he thinks about it, and that’s bad enough. Regardless of their past, they are here now, working toward a common goal, and that goal involves making sure that the members of Tekkadan have a life waiting for them when this conflict ends.

“Thank you, McGillis.”

“You’re welcome,” McGillis honest smile is becoming a more common sight these days, but it still manages to punch the breath out of him every time. “But you were also right, should you choose to marry, your spouse would be recognized as a free citizen of the Earth Sphere and part of one of the families.”

“That’s... good.”

“Yes, I suppose Mikazuki Bauduin has a nice ring to it.” And then, because he’s a bastard, he adds: “However, I must remind you that your family will ask you to provide an heir, so you should discuss the topic of surrogacy with him before that.”

It is entirely possible that McGillis is trying to rile him up, but really, they grew up in the same social circles and he should know better. Gaelio has already thought extensively about that.

“That shouldn’t be a problem, Miss Atra seems already determined to carry his children and there is no requirement for the heir of the family to be blood related to me.”

McGillis stares at him gob smacked and Gaelio mentally adds another exclamation point to the mark that he will put on his calendar. He has surprised him twice in less than twenty minutes, surely that is some kind of record. Next thing he knows, McGillis is laughing so hard that he’s in pain and Orga bangs into the door threatening the two of them to behave and don’t make me come in there like an angry mother.

What even is his life.

★

There is no point in pretending that Mikazuki would choose him above everyone else vying for his attention, but those vying for his attention will at last have to recognize that it would be a convenient union. For all involved.

“Four spouses is well within the limits, isn’t it?”

“The Turbines have been a terrible influence on you, Gaelio. But yes, four is a very respectable number, especially so if the point seems to be to ensure an adequate offspring is produced... But four?”

“... Mikazuki should be obvious.”

“So it is, but he is also the choice that would be most contended.”

McGillis doesn’t need to clarify what he means; not only is Mikazuki another man, and a much too young looking one to boot, and that will be enough to get tongues wagging, but he is also from Mars, and not even a citizen but a Human Debris. He has the stigma of the Alaya-Vijnana system quite literally impressed upon his skin. He has no family ties that could offer any sort of advantage financially, politically or otherwise, although the reputation of Tekkadan should at least assuage those seeking advantage in military affairs. He is also, and the thought alone stings, disabled when not plugged to the Barbatos. He is quite possibly the worst choice of a partner he could make. There is no one else he wants more, is the thing.

Atra is little better, and she reminds him too much of his own sister to treat her as anything else, but he could pretend for all of their sakes. Mikazuki would not leave her behind, and Atra would not let Mikazuki go anywhere she wouldn’t be able to follow, so accepting her has been an unavoidable choice.

“Mikazuki and Miss Atra, then, I understand, but the other two?”

Gaelio explains his next choice, making no effort to hide how much it pains him to do so.

Kudelia is a possibility, both a best-case and worst-case scenario at once. On the one hand, a union with her would be glaringly obviously beneficial in all the ways that matter to the remaining members of the Seven Stars, on the other hand, she is as infamous as she is popular and the ideas she fights for haven’t exactly endeared her to those who wish to protect the status quo. He would have to tread lightly when presenting his intentions, but if she cares for Mikazuki, and he knows she does, she would have to accept that the protection offered by his lineage would be an invaluable asset.

“Alright then,” McGillis winces, and it’s a wonder that he has stopped wearing his mask at all times around him. “And the fourth? Orga?”

Orga Itsuka loves Mikazuki in a wholly different way, but he would never accept to marry Gaelio for his sake, pretense or not.

Gaelio sighs, exasperated.

“Hush Middy, at this point I think is accurate to say that I would need a crowbar to pry him off Mikazuki.”

(Orga comes banging at the door not five minutes later, after one of the younger members of Tekkadan goes and tells him that McGillis is being murdered in his own room and is dying quite loudly.

“I swear to god!” Snarls Orga, when he slams open the door, although he doesn’t believe in any higher beings.

“That’s just how he laughs, I don’t know what to tell you.”

“Make him stop!”)

★

McGillis is no longer laughing, but there’s a small smile on his face that makes it seem like he’s no longer Atlas, burdened by the weight of the world and its sins.

It is with that same smile, but cold, cold eyes that he turns to Gaelio and speaks once more.

“You’ll have to make sure they survive the war, then.”

Gaelio catches himself before nodding, the tone of McGillis voice so mild he could have been talking about the weather. This is not something they have discussed before.

“War?” The word leaves his chest like a ragged exhalation, and McGillis looks sorry for him.

“... I’m sorry, Gaelio.”

Sometimes, McGillis makes it too easy to remember that he should hate him. That he does, sometimes.

“What have you not told me, McGillis?”

McGillis closes his eyes and begins to talk.

★

“That was your plan?” He sneers, in spite of himself, once McGillis is finished. “That was—that was your plan, that was it?!”

McGillis opens his mouth to defend said plan, be he needn’t have bothered. Gaelio has no intention of letting him speak.

“What were you going to do if they didn’t accept your command?! What made you think they would take a look at a Mobile Suit and submit just for an obsolete law?!”

“It the Gundam with the soul of—”

“It’s a Mobile Suit, for fuck’s sake! A children’s story!”

And oh, isn’t that a revelation. The way McGillis jaw snaps shut, against the cruelty of the world that insists on shattering the ideals he holds most dear? A fairy tale with brave knights that are able to save the world with a feat of valor, of strength?

This world is not so kind.

(Had he always been so naive? Or had he, like Gaelio, chosen to blind himself to whatever threatened the hope he had managed to salvage for himself?)

No, this world is far too cruel for a man like him. He can almost justify still caring for him.

“I always thought you were the smartest out of all of us,” he says, because he still loves this man like a brother, but he hasn’t forgiven him and probably never will. “I’m glad to see that is not the case.”

And then—and then he dares and places his hand on McGillis shoulder, a ghost of a touch.

“I’m sure we can come up with some other plan, between the two of us. Just in case,” he adds, because he doesn’t want to see the hope crushed in his eyes again.

“Yes,” McGillis smiles. “Thank you, Gaelio.”

His real smile is a thing of wonder, so different from the usual, controlled upturn of his mouth than Gaelio learned to associate with the man that it changes his whole face, makes him looks years younger.

Gaelio has to swallow down the bitterness in his throat. This is what he means. So many years, and he never noticed he had been living a lie. He hadn’t wanted to notice, he just wanted the comfort of having his friends, his upper-class life, of not wanting for anything.

He has to go to the Barbatos after that, and for the first time he’s the one who pulls Mikazuki against him and holds him there even though Mikazuki protests that he was practicing his writing. This world is far too cruel. It has taken far too much from the people he has come to care about, and he can’t help—he can’t help but think that it’s not over yet.

★

Given the latest revelations, Gaelio has had no choice but to (once again) come to the same, sad conclusion he’s been trying to forget in this new lease of life: ultimately, he cannot trust McGillis.

Hell, he can only barely trust himself. In all honesty, given that he was born and raised in the same cesspit as McGillis and Catra and Iok fucking Kujan, he shouldn’t trust himself at all.

Unfortunately, circumstances demand that he stepped up and played the role of responsible adult, regardless of how woefully unprepared for that he is.

Indeed: McGillis is delusional and Tekkadan is mostly made up of children with no idea how the world works beyond the horrors they have survived. He has the task of saving them all or the most he can. Obviously he’s the only one who can see the kind of mess they’ll make if left to their own devices. But that’s fine, between himself and Merribit he’s almost certain they can make up for the lack of common sense of everyone else.

Most of all, what he cannot believe is that he’s turned out to be the sensible, reasonable one from among his childhood friends.

★

Spurred by such terrible thoughts, Gaelio find himself once again hunting down Orga Itsuka with the single-mindedness that probably runs in the veins of all children of the Seven Stars Families, much to their detriment. At least it’s being put to good use in this case. Probably.

Orga Itsuka looks warily at him; not like he did at the beginning, or the first time Gaelio cornered demanding a truce, but more as if he knows that he’s not going to like whatever Gaelio has to say but it is nonetheless in his best interests to listen. Merribit, thank all the stars, is also there, holding Orga’s arm like that will prevent him from escaping their clutches.

Like before, Gaelio explains his reasons to Orga Itsuka mostly because he has to make him understand in order for him to give Gaelio permission to assign himself another near-suicidal, but necessary, mission.

Because Rustal Elion is an opponent so far above the wight class of the child soldiers that he would swallow them whole and they’d only notice when they started being digested; that’s the kind of monster that man is, every inch the Head of on the Seven Star Families.

“Rustal Elion will never be your friend, he won’t even be your ally, but if he thinks he can use you to get close to his goal, he’ll do it.”

That man would use someone until he couldn’t wring a single drop of blood more, and then he’d use them to pave his way to the goal he holds dearest above all, that he intends to reach even if it meant betraying and abandoning his own family and subordinates.

“He doesn’t want to be a footnote, he doesn’t want to be just another name in a branch of his family tree; he wants entire chapters in history books to be dedicated to him, he wants to leave a mark.”

Ruthless Elion. Back in the Academy, all the students used to jokingly call him that, in hushed voices. And none of them knew a thing, none of them could have imagined how true that nickname was.

“So offer him that,” Gaelio says, to a wide-eyed Orga. “And give him whatever he asks for when he doesn’t believe you capable of giving him that, because having him as a lukewarm ally will be leagues better than letting him Tekkadan could stand in his way, or, worse, could be used as a stepping stone.”

★

Gaelio bites the inside of his cheek, debating his next betrayal, but merely as a formality. As much as he loves McGillis as a brother, as the best friend he believed him to be, as the man whose ideals he will follow, whose side he will take in the war he’s so hellbent on starting—Gaelio’s heart already has a clear owner.

And if that owner also has a clear owner, then the hierarchy is clear.

Gaelio opens his mouth and spits out the words, half warning, half plea:

“Take it from someone who knows, Orga Itsuka—McGillis has no idea what he’s doing.”

(He doesn’t understand how the real world works, he doesn’t say. In spite of having already been exposed to the worst of it, he definitely will never say.)

★

Orga wavers at that, maybe because it should sound like nothing but lies, maybe because the honesty in Gaelio’s voice feels as though it had to be extracted with hooks and pliers, but he finally concedes.

Gaelio is granted permission to present their case before their enemy, to go into the wolf’s den and offer it a meal in hopes it will choose to ally itself with them.

Mikazuki had made a deal with the devil for their sake. Gaelio would be remiss if he did anything less.

Still, Mikazuki’s devil is made of metal and asked for nothing but flesh; Gaelio’s is flesh and blood and human all over and he doesn’t know yet what he will be asked to give.

But he will give it, if it is in his hands to do so, if that means that Tekkadan, this court of children that Mikazuki would kill and bleed for, can be saved.

Can be safe.

★

Gaelio is not Tekkadan’s, in spite of everything that has happened, he still believes this. Tekkadan, however, is Gaelio’s. Such are the fangs of his upbringing, finally showing.

It is only right, then, that such fangs and claws are put to use in safeguarding what is his.

He prepares for his arranged meeting with Rustal Elion with a fastidiousness that he remember afflicted his mother when she prepared Almiria for her engagement party with McGillis. He was sent appropriate clothing for the occasion, and McGillis even lent him one of his most trusted aides, aware that this would be akin to an opening move in this war he still expected, who had trimmed Gaelio’s hair and once again caked his face in makeup—although, granted, of much higher quality than the one he had previously used to hide his scars.

Gaelio looks at the full-length mirror McGillis’ aide had brought with him, and inspects his perfectly-tailored armor, the subtlety of his war paint, squares his shoulders and goes off to bargain with the devil.

★

Gaelio has already played the zealot before Rustal Elion, it should hardly be a difficult thing to play such role again. If the object of his zealotry has shifted just enough to align with Elion's own interest, no doubt twisted by the very real flaws of the organization he was, oh, so willing to worship before, and how it had only proven to fall short of his expectations after his, oh, so harrowing experiences while undercover—well, people are always willing to see what they want to see. Gaelio won't be even lying, really.

(There was worship of course, as there were expectations, given how he was brought up, his family, his everything, and all those things lie in a heap of bullshit, now that Gaelio has peeked behind the curtain and found the wizened old husk of their ideals, rotting like a corpse left in a basement.)

★

Rustal Elion receives Gaelio personally and escorts him to a chamber in one of his ships so opulent it could be displayed as a piece on a museum dedicated to the influence of the Château de Versailles.

“Please sit, Lord Bauduin. We will have refreshments brought to us in a minute, but I believe you’d prefer some privacy for our discussion.”

“Of course, my thanks for your consideration, Lord Elion,” Gaelio makes a show of bowing his head just a smidgen more than strictly necessary, placing himself squarely beneath his host. “It is an extremely sensitive matter what I wished to discuss with you, although perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I wished to plead my case before you, as someone who as of right now could be considered the head of the Seven Stars families.”

Rustal Elion takes a set before him and laces his fingers together with a placid smile, the very picture of an understanding, doting superior willing to lend an ear to a troubled youth.

“Please speak freely, Lord Bauduin. I am aware of your complicated situation, after all and would happily lend a helping hand should you need it.”

“It is indeed a complicated situation,” Gaelio agrees, demurely. “And I’m afraid that I have only complicated it further during my time… in this mission, in a manner unbefitting of the heir of one of the Seven Stars. Which is why I must beg your assistance, Lord Elion, as I’ve heard you have a vested interest in the standing of Mars and all its citizens.”

This is a fib, and not even a very good one, since all of Gjallarhorn could be said to have such ‘vested interest’, but only for the worse. However, Rustal Elion’s eyes shine with the intensity of a predator smelling blood and he opens his hands in a welcoming, soothing gesture, a friend in Gaelio’s hour of need willing to hear him out, even if the last time they spoke Gaelio had all but called all of Mars the dregs of humanity.

“Of course, Lord Bauduin! Such humanitarian causes are one of the many duties of our station, and your first-hand experience has no doubt granted you a valuable insight of the plights the so-called human debris must endure,” he says, panegyrizing to the point of artifice. “You can rest assured that I will not pass judgment on you, rather, I believe you should be praised for having learned from this experience.”

Gaelio tries not to wince and cannot be sure if he succeeded. He thinks of the many ways he could spin a tale for Rustal Elion to bait him into action, to present the choice of allying himself with—not Tekkadan, certainly not, but the heads of two of the Seven Stars, Six, now that the Issue family has lost its successor. That would give him the support of half the families, not counting his own, an absolute, undeniable majority. It takes him perhaps half a second to realize that, if Rustal Elion deems him untrustworthy, they will all be doomed and there would be no guarantee of him leaving this ship with his life.

Thus, Gaelio, who knows he’s making a gamble he can’t afford to lose, chooses to parade his one weakness in front of Rustal Elion.

“I intend to marry a human debris,” he says, with all the gravitas such declaration of war deserves. “I will not bring shame upon my family, so the laws will have to change. The world will have to change, to make a place for us.”

Gaelio will drag the entire world, kicking and screaming if need be, to the point where they all see at least a fraction of the brilliance he sees in Mikazuki.

“He will not be called a human debris when I marry him; he will be a person, with all the respect that entails. I won’t have the time to formally duel everyone who shows any disrespect otherwise. And I will formally duel everyone, anyone, the whole damn world, to have him.”

Even as the words leave his lips, he knows they are the truth and there’s no hiding that from the predator before him. Rustal Elion must be able to read some of his desperation in Gaelio’s face or voice, because the amiable business smile he had kept firmly affixed on his face finally changed to something realer and hungrier.

“If you can grant me that, Lord Elion,” Gaelio says, with the fervor of the devout. “I promise you will have the support of the Bauduin family in all of your endeavors, as well as my personal cooperation, in whichever manner you see fit to use. I cannot speak for my good friend McGillis, but I have it on good authority that he would me more than amenable to join hands in pursuit of a worthy goal.”

Rustal Elion abandons all pretense of humility, throws his head back and laughs.

“Why! You flatter this old man, Lord Bauduin,” his smile only grows, even as his eyes do his best to dissect Gaelio where he stands. “Should I take this to mean that the Bauduin and Fareed families would support me, either in improving or restructuring Gjallahorn?”

Gaelio’s smile is one that would be at home in a family picture of a perfect day in the park, a charming young man adored by the world, with the rest of his life before him.

“The times have changed, Lord Elion. If the rest of the Heads would rather cling to the stories of old and bury their heads in the sand, we who know better are aware that this means we should change as well. Lord Kujan, for all his brashness, has made it no secret that you are willing to spearhead such changes. Please, do consider our proposal. We have high hopes for a mutually beneficial relationship.”

Gaelio stands up and bends in a perfectly respectful bow, before being escorted to the docks by one of Rustal Elion’s aides. Every step he takes before arriving to his ship, feels like ice cracking below him. It is only until he is on his way back that he allows himself to curl up into a tiny ball and hyperventilate, uncaring of which child has to see one of his breakdowns; by now it is practically a rite of passage.

(For who, he’s not quite sure.)

★

Mikazuki Bauduin.

It is a meagre offering; in another life such statement would be insulting, but in this one Gaelio knows better. He would much rather take Mikazuki’s last name. Gaelio Augus. He would have twice the ‘g’s that Mikazuki treasures for the connection it represents to Orga Itsuka. Gaelio Bauduin, with all the protection the name represents, with all the considerations both political and otherwise that he would be able to give Mikazuki, would be taking that away.

Bauduin.

The name of a ghost, since the scion of the Bauduin might as well be dead, for all that life has changed him.

But he has nothing else to give. Not even his clothes are his own.

Mikazuki Bauduin.

It should make him happy, and it’s a bitter pill to swallow to find out it doesn’t.

Perhaps, once McGillis is done wrecking havoc among the Seven Star Families, once Kudelia is done with her humanitarian work, once Tekkadan doesn’t have any reason to be other than the bonds they have and the moniker of ‘human debris’ is relegated to the gutter where it belongs, once Rustal Elion is done scribbling his name in history books for the sake of the legacy he so dreams of leaving, regardless of whether he has to write it down in ink or blood—perhaps then he will be allowed to be Gaelio Augus, with no need for consorts to ensure an heir, with no obligations to fulfill but those to his own heart.

He hopes Mikazuki is willing to wait for him.

God, he hopes they all are.

★

Ah, but Gaelio is wrong, after all.

This, although not a surprise, for once comes as a relief.

Here it is, something that he has, that is his, that he has been given: strips of pale blue leather, carefully woven and decorated with an iron charm. Tangible proof of the existence of life after death.

And this, too: he promised Mikazuki his own green-house, and he intends to keep that promise, honoring with the gravity of wedding vows and knightly oaths. He thinks of Mikazuki, surrounded by greenery, of Miss Atra’s laughter and Kudelia’s earnestness, and he thinks that there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for a future in which he can have all of that.

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Notes: Haha, it’s been so long I legit had to open up a bunch of wiki pages to look up some stuff. ヾ(￣▽￣)

But everything I was too lazy to look up I made up, yay!

I feel like I like this chapter, but I can't honestly tell anymore; I just wanted to get this out, like, pls just let me finish this damn chapter, I promise I will fix it all pretty when I finally post it on AO3—so here it is! I hope it was worth the wait, and as always thank you to everyone who still reads this thing ヾ(•ω•`)o

The fix-it is really heavy in this one and it will only grow stronger, so please forgive my sins keep that in mind. I’m scrubbing everything that goes wrong in the second season off the face of the planet with these last chapters.

(Augh, I don’t want to write Rustal Elion again, why must I suffer for my craft (；′⌒`))

Also, it's really been a year, right? Darn. Happy winter holidays (again) and happy new year (again), keep taking care of yourselves and eat something tasty and maybe pet a cat!

[kydoesthings1]

chryse defensive battle arc if it was peak

[athena-gundampla]

MG Gundam Vidar is coming along nicely!! Only the stickers left.

She matches my drink

[wordsandrobots]

So I've never seen anyone badmouth Gaelio as often as you, besides the ones that rightfully complain that he shouldn't have come back. Not that I wholly disagree, but what are your reasons?

Oh, anon. No, no, no. No, you have to understand, I *adore* Gaelio. He's perfect, vengeance arc and all. He is my absolute favourite chew toy. I wouldn't have spent so long writing fanfic focused on what happens to him, mentally speaking, post-canon if I didn't love the obnoxious lavender-tousled prick to death.

Gaelio Bauduin is a man fucked over by his social position, a sweet kid scarred by having been born into an aristocracy, who nevertheless retains enough of a moral compass to change for the better. He learns. He grows. He cares for those closest to him with an earnestness that belies his snobbish, flippant attitude. He genuinely, uncomplicatedly commits to justice and loyalty in ways his upbringing ought by rights to have beaten out of him.

He is additionally the single biggest reason the story ends as badly as it does, on account of being the most hideously self-absorbed dipstick on the face of the solar system.

(Second most hideously self-absorbed, we do have to factor in Iok.)

In another story, Gaelio's gradual dawning realisation that the attitudes he was taught are bullshit would be a process of redemption. His experiences with Ein, his compassion towards Carta, his vitriolic semi-mentor/semi-friend relationship with Julieta, his apology to Mikazuki -- these are the markers of someone learning to be a better person. In another story, he'd be learning to be a hero.

But in this story, his slow personal journey isn't what's important. What matters is how it interacts with a world too cynical to run on heroic narratives. Elion uses him as a political wedge. Tekkadan do not give a rat's arse about what he thinks. McGillis allows no room for an epiphany concerning their friendship until it is far, far too late. In imagining the scales had fallen from his eyes, he railroaded himself into the biggest screw-up of his life.

It's not completely his fault. As I said, he's used and rejected by others, and McGillis did have a damn good go at murdering him. But if he had been slightly more open-minded, slightly more willing to put his money where his mouth was when it came to his disapproval of Gjallarhorn's actions, and slightly less prone to making everything about his feelings -- well maybe he wouldn't have ended a broken, wistful shell of his former self, voluntarily disabling himself and regretting everything he didn't understand.

It's *beautiful*. Seriously. The tenor of your question leads me to believe I should restate my opinion that Iron-Blooded Orphans is a near-perfectly executed tragedy. When I say Gaelio is 'Always Wrong (TM)', I mean that is the part he plays in the tale. The man who makes every possible mistake he could in the course of getting exactly what he thought he wanted. It's a narrative role and he is a fantastic way of filling it because unlike Iok (who exists entirely as a hate-sink), Gaelio *does* have redeeming characteristics. He's loyal and principled. Passionate and determined. Able to adjust his world-view based on his experiences. Ultimately capable of swallowing his pride and admitting he was wrong.

And it doesn't matter one single jot. Things still end in flames, not just in spite of his attempts to do right by those he accidentally doomed but because of those actions.

Also he's a melodramatic brat who canonically used to flirt using Norse mythology, repeatedly injured people on his own side by mistake, got his arse handed to him by children (again, repeatedly), adopted the most on-theme moniker he could while wearing a doofy mask for months on end, and spent Season 1 with a crush on the world's least-hinged cop-brained class-traitor. I denigrate his character in precise proportion to which it is presented as lamentable.

Anyway, to lay off the verbosity for a minute, please also understand that if my opinion on a character is negative in the sense of 'I think the writers fucked this up', I'm unlikely to spend much time creatively cussing them out. For instance, to pick another Gundam example, I don't enjoy Shinn from SEED:Destiny. I get what the writing is going for with him and I think it's a neat plot concept, but I find the actual result grating. It's the same for a lot of the cast. Overall, I just don't rate that show very highly. So I don't talk about it, and I don't expend effort to dig into narrative roles, how characters come across, what that means for other parts of the story, etc. To put it bluntly, it's not worth my time, especially when there are people who *do* like SEED and don't need me raining on their parade.

But I enjoy watching Gaelio and that's exactly why I bad-mouth him. It's more than a passing joke; it's part and parcel of what I love about how Gaelio is implemented, that he's that much of an aristocratic nitwit, and that even when he's making moves towards the broadly 'good' end of the moral spectrum, he's still got a deeply hierarchical attitude. This is a man who, in the middle of quite understandably wanting to get back at somebody who tried to assassinate him, reflects on enjoying being in the heat of battle again after having just beaten-up/killed a bunch of workers trying to break free of colonial rule. There is a *lot* you can dig into about what (and who) Gaelio sees as important and how his attitudes are a perpetual work-in-progress, constrained both by his assumptions and by the alliances he has to make in order to pursue his revenge.

It's well executed, as I said, and I happen to find it extremely compelling. Certainly more so than if he hadn't been resurrected because the show-runners liked his voice actor's performance.

[kaxtwenty]

I was thinking about Gaelio again and god…

What a selfish human being, the writers really were on their A game when crafting that magnificent bastard.

He’s great because he’d be the hero in so many different contexts. But unfortunately, in the context of the Post Disaster timeline and IBO itself, he’s instead a horribly arrogant, selfish classist—albeit with redeeming qualities—who got hundreds of people killed, most of whom were child soldiers, all because he couldn’t look past his hatred for a single moment and realize that he was fighting to maintain an incredibly shitty and classist status quo.

A true Char Clone to match McGillis. His bisexuality is his most redeeming trait.

[lilenui]

Weekly Yuru-tetsu~ Mecha extravaganza edition Gaelio: I don't understand. You're riding in the same mobile suit as the one in which Carta Issue proclaimed her love for you. This feeling... Isurugi: Is this romance talk, brigadier general? McG: No it's NOT, Isurugi.

Chad: I'll lure in the mobile armor! *WOOSH* GOO! *BONK* *swirl swirl swirl* *Grab* the shidens: Yayy Laser beam: wiiuuummm Chad: Waaahh!!!

[saltyspacenoid]

The McGillis and Gaelio analysis is online! Please share :3c

[winterwedded]

they're fooling around (baby's first compact mirror)