#“skill issue” - Seiei

[elf-simp]

04: Clash (liliturgy prompt list)

"You have much to learn, child. Trickery should be expected from every angle. Now come, stand and ready yourself once more."

[tieria-erde]

okay I've been following you for a bit and like. what is gundam 00 because it looks rlly interesting

i know this ask is literally 2 months old but bear with me. i’m gonna explain gundam 00 to you now

[warning for (fictional) war, terrorism, child abuse, child experimentation, “evil alter” trope (sort of)]

mobile suit gundam 00 takes place three hundred years in our future, in 2307 AD. in a time where the earth’s fossil fuels have been almost entirely depleted, the world has turned to solar power for its energy. to achieve this goal, the main world powers have built three orbital elevators -- essentially, towers that stretch up into space and serve both as solar power satellites and (as the name suggests) elevators into space. three factions have formed around these orbital elevators: in the americas and japan, the union of solar energy and free nations (better known as the union) -- in europe and some parts of africa, the advanced european union (or the AEU) -- and in south and east asia, the human reform league (or the HRL). however, even though the orbital elevators provide the world with functionally limitless energy, wars continue across the world, and nations that aren’t a part of the three major powers are often left without solar energy, as they have nothing to offer in return. in this way, the world in gundam 00 looks very much like the world we live in today.

this is where celestial being comes in. celestial being is a secretive organization in possession of four powerful machines known as gundams, which have higher combat capability than any mobile suit manufactured by any government. (mobile suits are, to clarify, robots designed for combat -- the classic image of a mecha.) after making its debut by exposing that the AEU is keeping more military forces in their orbital elevator than they were permitted and simultaneously thwarting a terrorist attack on the HRL’s orbital elevator, celestial being comes forward and announces that they plan to use the gundams to eliminate war by forcibly crushing it. if any conflicts arise across the globe, celestial being vows to intervene. so, as celestial being commences its armed interventions, the powers of the world stand up against them -- all while everyone, both in celestial being and outside of it, begins to contemplate the questions of how far is too far? can peace really be achieved through violence? is what celestial being is doing really a good thing? what price would you be willing to pay for peace?

now that you know the premise of the show, i’m going to talk a bit about some of the main characters -- namely, the gundam meisters, the four pilots of celestial being’s gundams.

setsuna f. seiei, the show’s main protagonist, is a teenage boy from krugis, the 24th century equivalent of kurdistan, and the pilot of gundam exia. setsuna is a former child soldier whose life was saved on the battlefield by a gundam when he was young, and he has since grown to idolize the gundams as a symbol of peace, a way to change the world for the better by fighting. he’s a stoic and can oftentimes appear emotionless, although you’d be remiss to claim that he actually is emotionless. he constantly acts on impulse without regard to celestial being’s rules about things like keeping the identities of the gundam meisters secret, and this continually lands him in trouble with the other meisters, especially tieria.

lockon stratos is celestial being’s sniper, the pilot of gundam dynames. by far the only gundam meister with any real social skills, lockon acts as an older brother figure to many of the members of celestial being, especially setsuna. lockon is easygoing, rarely ever too serious, and is often the one to quell conflicts between the other meisters. it may seem at first that he hardly has any problems compared to the rest of the main cast, but every member of celestial being joined for a reason, and lockon is hiding some issues that run deep.

allelujah haptism, who doesn’t even have the most ridiculous name in the show, is the pilot of gundam kyrios. allelujah was raised in the HRL’s super soldier institute, where scientists experimented on the minds of children in hopes of enhancing their combat abilities. as a result of this traumatic upbringing, hallelujah haptism manifested -- allelujah’s (and i say this with strong air quotes) “““second personality”””, who, as opposed to allelujah’s dislike for fighting, is much more willing to get his hands dirty and kill in order to ensure his own survival. i have to mention here that this trope was shitty in 2007 when this show aired and continues to be shitty now; in defense of hallelujah, his character is not just “i want to kill people because i’m crazy and unhinged”, and his arc with allelujah has a lot to do with them learning to cooperate and coexist, but the evil murderous alter trope is still Very Much There and i acknowledge that it is harmful and not well written.

now, the fourth and last meister is tieria erde, which is a name you had better already know if you follow me. tieria pilots the gundam virtue, and is easily the least likable gundam meister in the beginning of the series. his past is shrouded in even more mystery than lockon’s, but he has a dedication to celestial being’s plan that borders on obsessive, and he’s more than willing to fight or even kill the other meisters if he believes they’re a danger to the plan. setsuna, with his tendency to go off on his own and make impulsive decisions, is often the subject of tieria’s ire. in short, tieria is an arrogant, unfriendly little prick, and i, tumblr user tieria-erde, want to beat him into the ground with my fists. tieria is also the character who, arguably, goes through the most growth of any character in the show, and i love him more than i can say in words.

gundam 00 is my favorite show in the world for a wealth of reasons. i love its art style, its mecha design, its battle choreography, and by god, i fucking adore 00′s characters and themes. if you’re a fan of metal gear, you’ll be a fan of gundam 00. this is a show about war and tragedy and the cycle of violence, but this is also a show about understanding each other -- about how, in the end, people are good, and a better future is possible and worth fighting for. in my opinion (and in the opinion of plenty of others), the show’s second season falls short on carrying out some of the themes that it sets up in season one, but the show’s ending is still satisfying as hell.

to summarize, gundam 00 is a show about war and giant robots that will tear your heart out and painstakingly tape it back together by the end of the show. @durinswizardwheezes and @ninthfeather have also made their own posts here and here that do a great job of explaining the show and the things that i love about it, so do check those out!

also, as a side note -- obviously don’t watch a show purely for its diversity, and 00 isn’t exactly outstanding in that department, but just for the sake of mentioning it: the cast is very racially diverse, setsuna is aro coded, and tieria is VERY much gay and nonbinary coded. (i’ve also heard that lockon was word-of-godded as bi, but i haven’t seen a source for this and it doesn’t come up very much if at all in canon. 00 fans hmu if you have a source i want my hcs validated) two of the villains in season one also have some really weird gay energy and are HEAVILY implied to be in a relationship by the OVA version of the show if you’re into that? (don’t watch the OVA special though it’s BAD)

thanks for reading! if i’ve succeeded in getting you interested, gundam 00 is subbed on crunchyroll, and you can find the dub on whatever ~totally 100% legal~ sites you may use to watch anime. and, if any of my mutuals start watching gundam 00: please talk to me about it. please. please. literally begging you. do you know how hard it is to find fans of a mecha anime that came out in 2007? please

edit: tieria is actually canonically nonbinary!! he absolutely is not the peak of nb representation (for reasons i can't get into b/c of spoilers), and him being nb is never actually discussed in the show, but i thought i should make that correction since i mentioned it when i first made the post.