#Full Armour Gundam

[gremoria411]

So I’ve been seeing a lot of people chatting about the new Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance trailer, and there’s a part of it I’d like to throw my two cents in on.

Honestly, in regards to there being a billion Gundam’s running around the OYW, I made my peace with that fact years ago, so it doesn’t bother me. Yeah, yeah it’s a little silly from an in-universe perspective, no matter how many times they pull the “secret prototype” card. But from an out of universe perspective, Gundams sell, and they want it to sell. It’s a rare thing in the UC series that doesn’t have a Gundam in it.

But just for the sake of it, how many Gundams are (at present) running around in the One Year War?

Note: I was originally going to ignore things like Thunderbolt, The Origin and the Sidestories, since they all have a somewhat weird canon state. Then I realised that “Gundams that Canonically existed in the OYW” ≠ “Gundams that you see marketed in OYW sidestories”. So, I’m going to lead with the suits that we know existed, then move on to the other ones. I am, however, ignoring Manga, because I haven’t read everything and we’ll be here all day.

Alrighty, so we start off with the original RX-78 series as built in Operation V (sometimes called the “Vinson Plan”). We have:

RX-78-1 “Prototype Gundam” - As its name suggests, the prototype unit to the entire line. Never deployed to my knowledge, I’m honestly not sure what happens to it. I usually read it as being destroyed during the attack on Side 7, but I’m not certain of that.

RX-78-2 “Gundam” - you know this one. Amuro falls into the cockpit at Side 7 and proceeds to pilot it from then until the end of the One Year War.

RX-78-3 “G-3 Gundam” - apparently recovered from Side 7 and used as a test bed for magnet coating technology. Beyond that we have absolutely no idea what happened to it, since there’s a bunch of conflicting accounts. My usual headcanon is that it was used as a basis for all the MSV suits, but we have absolutely no idea if and where it was deployed.

RX-78-4 “Gundam G04” - deployed alongside unit 5 at the Battle of Solomon.

RX-78-5 “Gundam G05” - deployed alongside unit 4 at the battle of Solomon.

RX-78-6 “Mudrock Gundam” - deployed in the defence of Jaburo and the re-taking of California base.

The other two units are part of the series, but were not (as far as we know) deployed during the OYW:

RX-78-7 “Gundam 7th” - completed and deployed after the war.

RX-78-8 - we know nothing about. There may have been an 8th unit, it may just have been design data, and we have no idea if it was deployed or what it looked like.

Next; The Gundam Ground Types. There were 20 (-ish, some sources say 28) Gundam ground types produced during the One Year War from spare parts of the RX-78 series. This includes:

The units seen in 08th MS Team - 12 Gundam Ground Types were deployed to the Kojima Battalion.

The Ez8 - Deployed, as above.

Blue Destiny Unit 1 - Deployed

Blue Destiny Unit 2 - stolen by Zeon Ace Nimbus Schterzen.

Blue Destiny Unit 3 - Deployed in pursuit of Unit 2.

Slave Wraith - Questionably Canon, assigned to and deployed by Slave Wraith team.

I’m also gonna quickly call out that we have no idea on the various Full Armor units (the FA Gundam, the Heavy Gundam, the FA Ground type, the FA type B etc). Some sources say they were built, others that they were only simulation data.

And finally we have everything else:

Gundam NT-1 “Alex” - Developed at Augusta Base, then moved to side 6, where it was deployed against the Cyclops Team.

Gundam NT-1 “Prototype NT-1” - apparently an entirely separate suit to the NT-1. The prototype to the above. Presumably not deployed.

RX-78XX “Pixy/Pixie Gundam” - Questionably Canon, three units built. Unit 1 deployed in Belfast, Unit 2 in the Gobi Desert (and planned to be deployed at Odessa) and Unit 3 in Africa.

RAG-79-G1 Gundam Marine type - Sometimes known as the “Gundiver”. An underwater-spec unit. Unknown amount produced, primarily because it’s essentially a modified Underwater GM as opposed to a “true” Gundam unit.

And that’s about it for mainline UC. Gundam The Origin intentionally keeps things very vague as to how many Gundam’s exist there, so I’m not going to bother.

Gundam Thunderbolt is a bit of an odd case, since at first glance, it adds three:

FA-78 Full Armour Gundam (Thunderbolt ver.) - deployed by the Moore Brotherhood at Side 4.

RX-79[GS] Gundam Ground type S - produced by the Federation during the One Year War and after, presumably deployed.

RGM-79/GH Gundam Head - a GM with a Gundam-style head in an attempt to reproduce the psychological effect on Zeon forces.

But that last one illustrates Thunderbolt’s position on the matter, which is later made clearer in the manga in regards to the Bull-G, a unit built postwar. The Bull-G is a prototype unit contending for the position of the Federations new main unit. However, it’s actually an upgraded GM, fitted with a Gundam-style head to make it more appealing.

And this seems to be thunderbolt’s position on the matter - after a certain point it comes down to a suit’s performance rather than it being a Gundam. So yes, it adds a bunch of Gundam-style suits, but it also deconstructs that just because a suit looks like a Gundam doesn’t make it special.

Which is honestly a pretty interesting position to take.

[robotclownindulgence]

Where's that tweet that goes like: of course hideo kojima likes military propaganda movies like topgun even though everything he writes is criticising the military industrial complex. He's like a kid wanting to play with action figures of the cool tanks and fighter jets. And that's me but with the robots in gundam

[indie-ttrpg-of-the-week]

Armour Astir Advent

https://weregazelle.itch.io/armour-astir A game about mechs fighting eachother! What else to do with a giant robot, I mean You could stand around and yell about ideology for a while, but what is this? Gundam?

Touchstones: Gundam (Turn A especially), Breath of the Wild, Escaflowne, Mazinger, Ghibli movies (add a quarter)

Genre: Mech game, PBTA, High Fantasy

What is this game?: Armour Astir: Advent is a game about mech pilots fighting against an oppressive empire, fighting using not only head to head mech combat, but also stirring dissent, using backhanded diplomacy, and guerilla tactics

How's the gameplay?: AAA has one of the most unique bits of gameplay I've ever seen in a PBTA game, refer to the Apoc World write up for the basics of the game, because there's a lot to unpack here. AAA's got a ton of standout mechanics, Let's start with Gravity Clocks! You got 3 Gravity clocks to use on anyone, and one to use specifically on your rival, Gravity clocks represent the volatile relationship you have with 4 different characters, the clock always has a value, starting at +1, that you can add to any roll related to that character, when you do so, you tick up the clock, when the clock is full, your relationship levels up, you change the nature of your relationship and that +1 becomes a +2 babyy, This encourages players to choose carefully what relationships they want their characters to focus on, and adds a lot to the Drama. AAA also has its really cool mech creation system, it's a bit too complex to get into here, but its less like Lancer's Subway style mech creation, and more like cooking from a recipe, you get to create some of your own abilities, and pick from a few pre-made ones, all mechs also have a type, which works into a weapon triangle type mechanic where certain mechs are better against other mechs. Another thing about AAA is the Faction Turn, the player's rebel group is made up of many smaller factions, each with a different role, while the empire is one group with small divisions, the idea is that while the authority is one imperialist gestalt, the rebels are more of a confederacy of farmers, local mercenaries, villagers, etc, but because of this, a lot of drama and miscommunication can happen, the Faction turn represents this, its intricacies are a bit complex to really get into, but basically during each Conflict turn, players run a scene where they instead of the big damn heroes, play as random soldiers and mooks from the individual factions, and try to fight back against imperial schemes, or try to solve local problems, this is meant to humanize the soldiers in the war, as well as show that the players aren't the last bastion against the Authority. That's about it for the gameplay, I tried to be brief but AAA is just something really really special when it comes to how it plays, there's a ton of other intricacies I couldn't even touch on here Oh right, half the playbooks don't even use mechs, they can fight during mech battles but are significantly worse during them, they're instead intended to help on the intrigue part of the war, commanders, celebrities, diplomats, footsoldiers, people who would be more connected to other parts of the war that aren't just the mech fights, during mech fights they play on the "B-Plot", basically a second narrative layer usually going on around the same time as the mech fights, think of it like a gundam episode where the main newtype child is fighting against a person who could have been a friend in another timeline and at the same time the soldiers inside the main base need to figure out who's been stealing their food supplies What's the setting (If any) like?: AAA is Setting Agnostic... kinda, there's 3 universal constants: - There's an authoritarian group known as the Authority, being fought by a union of scattered factions under one banner known as the cause - Magic exists, is fairly common place but restricted to certain people, and is connected to how mechs work - Some smaller chunks of lore like the existance of Angels, Demons, Eldritch entities, smaller scale vehicles called Ardents, etc, stuff you'd expect to see in any fantasy setting

What's the tone?: AAA is a game with a tone set by players, but the overall tone is not asimilar to that of most post Gundam mech anime, there's an overwhelming sense of war being hell, but there's still hope in fighting an evil fascist empire, also there's always expected to be a little bit of Angst

Session length: This is one of the few games I've written about I've actually sadly never played, but from reading the rules AAA does lend itself to longer, 4 or so hour sessions

Number of Players: 4+ is recommended

Malleability:  AAA is as said above, setting agnostic, if its got mechs you can run it in AAA

Resources: AAA has a fanmade google sheet, a few fan-made expansions, and two official expansions, Encore (more playbooks) and Amor Astir (romance rules, yeah idk either)

AAA is one of those games that is just a mechanical treat, everything works really well and serves a greater tonal purpose, just a really good game

[doodlegirl1998]

I think I figure out WHY the "Shig's reveal" and "dabi's reveal" makes me frown. Its bc Hori is shitting on Nana in a subtle way.

And before anyone says "I'm tripping" I can explain my case.

Look when we see the Dabi reveal, it was a result of foreshadow and was meet with importante for the story (😒alledgly as you know Hori...) so it was indeed a big moment. And note how it was Dabi who said who he was.

Now Shig? He is the grandson of Nana Shimura. What we know about Nana? 0. We do know A LOT about Endy, he is present figure in the narrative but...Nana Shimura? NOPE.

It was afo who told am who shig was(when Shig wasnt present) and again, what we know about Nana? What was foreshadow?

Look in my fics I do make the Shimuras be seen as quasi-royalty! But in canon....who fucking knows? No one seems to give a fuck when they died. Only AM cares for Nana's death and at the same time...he is ok in letting bk mock her(yes. Hori but please this is so insidious...bk is mocking the only female user. One who had a sad ending and...is being mocked by Hori's lover)

This should have been Shig's moment. After some development...after foreshadow and we see how the Shimuras were a big deal for the story/society...he reveals who he IS. But nope.

Hori:😍my lovet bk needs screentime.

Sigh

Hi @mikeellee 👋,

I feel like this links back to Hori just not really giving a shit about One For All or any of the holders except for the barest hints of plot.

Similarly, Shig Hori doesn't care all that much for in my opinion which is why we don't see too much in the way of development. Shig and his family should have got more focus, his orgins should have been built up and hinted at till we got given the pay off due to a flashback during the MVA arc. That would have made it much more impactful.

But Hori actually cares for and likes writing Bakugou and Endeavour who have less importance to the story and are his favourite "redeemed" abusers that he likes to glorify.

All this stuff about Endeavor, his backstory, his past - yes it gives him a reason for being the way he is 'obsessed with strength' but is it needed? No. Some people are just egotistical and driven - that's all Endeavor needed to be. This to me reads as Hori trying to excuse Endeav's behaviour to his family by saying "See look he's traumatised! Feel sorry for him!" when

There's no excuse for being a domestic abuser.

There's no excuse for engaging in a quirk marriage.

There's no excuse for beating and neglecting children

Or having children for the sole purpose of fullfuling his goals!

Or for pressuring a spouse to produce children until she gives him Shoto. (Rei literally said "No" to anymore children after Fuyumi and Endeav disregarded her wishes and made her have Natsuo then Shoto... That act literally made Endeav a rapist. So why is this still so up for debate among the fandom and why is Hori intent on redeeming him?!)

Also the translation of this is a bit up for debate so I'm not 100% on this - but if it is actually Enji's Dad who died trying to save a kid, that's some irony there since Endeav was trying to kill himself with Touya a while ago!

As for Bakugou, he has a plot armour on the level of a fucking Gundam. Logically, All Might would be furious at Bakugou disrespecting Nana that way and not just shrug it off. So to see All Might actually shrug off the insults to Nana in canon creates a very weird cognitive dissonance - isn't this someone All Might loves / cares for deeply? Wtf?

TLDR: The Shimuras, Shimura Nana, Shig and the One for All Holders deserved much more screentime, development and build up than they got.

Whereas both Bakugou and Endeav don't deserve all this focus.

[wordsandrobots]

Contact

[@lilenui informs me today (8 April) is Shino/Yamagi day. Actually, they informed me of this via a post four days ago, which proves I can write fast when I have a looming deadline, since I bashed this out inside 24 hours.

Anyway, in honour of today, here's a flip-side piece to accompany Falling for a Fool. Content warnings for extremely bi himbo energy and general dumbassery.]

————

It shouldn't have meant anything.

It probably didn't.

Touching other people was such a normal part of everyday life, Shino barely thought about it most of the time. A nudge here, a knock there, the clasped hand or bumped fist, a slap on the back for a job well done or a kick to the ass for being an idiot. He couldn't count how often he'd lifted one of the little guys where they couldn't reach, or knocked about with those in his weight class, or simply slung his arm around a familiar pair of shoulders just because.

What was there too think about?

Why couldn't he get this time out of his head?

The battle with the mobile armour had been intense. A giant monster robot from hundreds of years ago on a rampage that nearly ended with Chryse getting flattened, that was only stopped because Mikazuki went all-out. When the dust settled, Tekkadan were heroes once again. They'd done something nobody had since the Calamity War and by rights it ought to have been the start of bigger and bigger things, putting them on the path to truly becoming the kings of Mars.

Hadn't worked out that way, but still: they got to prove how awesome they were!

And in the middle of it all, Shino headed out to fight in a mobile suit he barely knew how to use.

Yamagi had been pissed at being dragged into the cockpit to work the new Ryusei-Go's equipment. He didn't wait to start bombarding Shino with homework afterwards, insisting he wasn't about to take a job as a full-time operating manual. That sucked because reading a mountain of technical mumbo-jumbo was more likely to send Shino to sleep than help him understand the rail-guns and the transformation mechanism and so on, but he supposed it was fair.

He'd practised hard until he could remember which buttons did what, first try.

His record now stood at switching to and from shelling-mode three times in a row without throwing anything out of whack, which had earned him a rare nod of approval.

So all in all, the situation worked out well, for him specifically. He got a Gundam to call his own, did his part in the battle, bringing down a canyon to split the mobile armour off from its drone swarm, and Yamagi was still talking to him despite everything. Sure, with what had happened since, it felt like a very small achievement in amongst a storm of massive disasters, but you took what you could, right? It definitely wasn't nothing, to finally have the strength to protect his friends.

Yet the memory kept worrying at him, like a stone in his boot.

Not the whole thing, just one particular part.

Because there'd been this moment, on-route to the target, where he'd needed to swerve. He can't remember what he was avoiding, exactly. An outcropping or a crater, some common hazard of speeding across a rocky desert, pinging on his sensors. He'd done what he always did, throwing the Ryusei-Go into a sharp sideways jink, and normally that'd be that. Only, he had another person stuffed in there with him and when he hit the dodge harder than he'd meant to –

The cockpit rocked as he regained his balance.

And Yamagi's hand struck his shoulder.

Which made sense. Yamagi was sitting across Shino's knees, folded practically in half, and there wasn't anything else for him to have braced against. It was that or being pitched across the cabin. In any case, Shino hardly felt the touch. Yamagi was not what you'd call heavy, or especially strong. He could've pushed with all his might and it'd likely have done very little had Shino been standing up, much less sitting down with a back-rest behind him.

But Yamagi didn't push.

He flinched away and hunched up, and began tapping furiously at his data pad.

Now, true, Yamagi wasn't the world's biggest fan of being manhandled. A holdover from how he got treated when he first joined the CGS and quite a lot of the time after then, before Orga took charge. Probably from being a small, slim little guy who worked for a military company in general, really, especially since getting so badly sick from the Alaya-Vijnana surgery meant he never took to the training. It was understandable, if he was sensitive over getting shoved around

Shino did his best to respect that, even when circumstances meant he needed to physically move Yamagi about the place.

Yamagi usually let him know if he went to far, with glares that had him regretting his life choices.

Except this wasn't that. Yes, Shino did catch hold of Yamagi as well, to stop him going flying, and got shrugged off for his trouble, but he was fairly sure that hadn't been the reason for the reaction. No glare, for one thing. Could it run both ways? Did a dislike of being touched make you hate touching? That didn't sound right. Then again, Shino couldn't say he'd ever paid much attention to who or what Yamagi went around touching. Maybe it was just something he'd failed to notice?

No, hang on, Yamagi helped him put on Alaya-Vijnana connector blocks all the time.

Surely he'd have noticed if that made Yamagi uncomfortable?

If they hadn't been fighting a life-or-death battle, and if Orga hadn't chosen that exact moment to come on the comm to tell them to get a move on, Shino would probably have asked Yamagi what was up then and there. He regretted missing the chance. He got too caught up in the high of victory to remember to do it when they made it back home, only thinking he should after Yamagi had already shoved the pad into his hands and hurried off, boots dangling from his…

Wait.

Did Yamagi run away from him?

He replayed the scene in his head, trying to recall the exact expression with which Yamagi delivered the instruction to read the damn files already. He'd had his head lowered, fringe falling across his face, making it hard to see fully and meaning it was even harder to picture in hindsight. Vaguely annoyed and despairing? That wasn't exactly unusual. Sometimes, Shino genuinely wondered why Yamagi had put up with him for so long.

That was probably why Shino was worrying about this.

He and Yamagi made such a good team, he hated the idea of anything coming between them.

Was it just a gross place to put your hand? Checking for himself, running a finger around the point under his collar bone where the slab of muscle on his chest gave way to his arm, there didn't seem to be any strange bumps or warts or whatever. Maybe the bare skin felt bad? Mobile suit cockpits weren't much better than mobile workers when it came to overheating and getting ugly-sweaty. Except Yamagi had been wearing gloves…

And Shino never got complaints from people who touched him there while working up a nicer kind of sweat!

The thought wrapped around to hit his brain like a live grenade.

No. No! Absolutely not. Why would he think for even a second that that had anything to do with it? Sure, yeah, it was technically an intimate place to touch, and looking at things from that angle – the angle where he hadn't been wearing a shirt and he and Yamagi were closer than they'd ever been before in their lives – then the connection wasn't a totally wild one to make. Under other circumstances, for other people, it might have been sensible. But come on!

Did Yamagi seriously think Shino thought he'd been trying to cop a feel?!

That was crazy!

For starters, Shino would never think that. Tekkadan was his family and as far as he was concerned, that put everyone else in it squarely off-limits when it came to any sort of intimate touching, giving or receiving. That was just… obvious. Orga said they were a family, and Shino cared about the guys around him the way you were supposed to care about your brothers, so of course he wasn't about to start leaping to all the wrong conclusions just because –

It suddenly occurred to him he hadn't ever checked if the others took the same meaning from what Orga said as he did.

Perhaps he needed to change angles again.

Yamagi being into guys wouldn't be the most surprising thing. All the crap the First Group bastards used to sling around aside, it was hard not to notice how uninterested Yamagi was in girls. Or at least, he wasn't interested in going out on the town to pick them up. Like Orga, except without the feeling the point was flying over his head. Yamagi seemed to understand sex as a concept, he just didn't appear to want it with the kind of people who showed up in Shino's magazines.

Didn't he ask if Shino was into girls once? As though there could be any doubt!

…had he maybe wanted a different answer?

OK, this was starting to feel weird. Now Shino was wondering if he'd ever seen Yamagi look at someone in a way that suggested he wanted to get it on with them! He was always so quiet and serious, it was hard to picture him being horny. Or giving anybody the time of day, honestly. The closest he got was maybe how he'd looked when they were putting the Alaya-Vijnana into the Graze Custom. The intense concern he'd shown over the pain the testing caused Shino.

Since then, he'd made it a mission to always perfectly tune Shino's A-V system, to avoid it hurting him again.

Did… did he do that for anyone else?

An itch spread across Shino's scalp as he took stock of the sheer amount of stuff he relied on Yamagi to do for him. Hell, there hadn't been a question that he'd be the one to head off to the Saisei to get Gundam Flauros fixed and turned into Ryusei-Go the Fourth. Shino bought the paint out of his own pocket but he'd known he could rely on Yamagi to make sure his new machine came back a roaring pink. Shino knew he could rely on Yamagi, full-stop, with pretty much everything.

Which was great!

Having a comrade – a friend – who'd make sure he got what he needed to fight the way he wanted was amazing!

Why though? Why did Yamagi do that? Shino was always bugging him with new ideas and he was always going along with them, despite his better sense. Sometimes, he'd explain bluntly why a suggestion was stupid and impossible given their resources, then come back an hour later with a plan to get close to something like what Shino wanted, and the result would turn out even better. In fact, the only time he'd flat-out refused was…

When they talked about funerals.

When Yamagi said he'd not make ice flowers bloom for Shino because they were too expensive.

Shino got the strong urge to slap himself across the face. He'd known he was being given the brush-off back then, it just hadn't occurred to him that was because – because, well, how could it have been? 'Cos when you started bringing in things like… then you weren't talking about sex any more, were you? And he could deal with somebody thinking he was hot, he could handle them being embarrassed over that, but if it was more than just a guy into guys being into a hot guy –

He was getting ahead of himself.

Way, way, way ahead of himself.

So what if Yamagi's flinch could possibly, maybe be taken as a response to… that. What other clues were there? He hadn't squirmed or blushed. He was a predictable level of snitty over being treated as on-site tech-support. He'd… not exactly been pleased when Shino got a tiny bit loud over Ride using Ryusei-Go the Third to snag the monster's attention. Nothing out of the ordinary for someone so cool under pressure, the only sign of nerves was a single foot tapping against Shino's knee.

Hold on.

Back up.

For a long few minutes, Shino sat with what snatches he could remember from before the flinch. The yelp Yamagi gave on being hoisted through the hatch. The restless patter of his toes, like he was trying to grab on with them. The all-business voice in which he rattled off information about the Flauros cannons. The faint reek of engine oil, soaked into his overalls, mingling with the new-clean smell of the cockpit and the animal musk of another body. The way he kept looking away –

None of it should have meant anything.

It still probably didn't.

But if Shino's suspicions were on the mark, then there was somebody in Tekkadan who did not think of him as family, or at least, not the kind of family Shino had assumed they were. Which meant he needed to figure out what to do next, because he couldn't just leave the guy hanging after going so long without realising. He'd have to say something, do something, decide if he wanted to see what came of saying yes…

Surprisingly, there didn't seem to be much of a question over that.

Good to know.

Even so, he ought to make sure. It'd be a huge pain in the ass if he worked himself up to asking an important question only to find he'd completely misread the situation. That'd be a real jerk move, inflicting such an awkward mess on Yamagi, and then Shino'd be the one dealing with horrible embarrassment. No, the smart thing would be to get a second opinion, check his working, make sure he wasn't chasing down the wrong rat hole with all of this.

And Eugene was sitting right there, so –

“Hey, can we talk about Yamagi? Do you think he… likes me or something?”

[slpytired]

What MS from the Gundam series would the Bocchi the Rock! cast pilot?

inspired by this post

KESSOKU

Bocchi: i’m thinking she uses something like the GM Dominance or Gundam Stormbringer. something that seems unassuming, a little antique, but still delivers on the power and style. maybe when she goes full guitarhero/robohero mode she equips the Full Armour parts for the Stormbringer for a big power up. honourable mention: ZZ Gundam, Wing Zero Gundam

Nijika: as the leader and drummer of the band, i would think she pilots something with support capabilities, like the Zaku II from Thunderbolt, with the Big Gun equipped for long range sniping

Ryo: she is definitely piloting something shoddily cobbled together with spare parts. not because she can’t afford something better, mind you, but because she makes it work really well. the Byarlant Custom from Gundam Unicorn would probably fit her pretty well

Kita: she’s a pretty flashy person, so i think she would pilot a Char Custom, or really anything Char or his clones would pilot. the Sinanju and Providence Gundam seem like the flashiest mobile suits i can think of that fit this bill

SICK HACK

Kikuri: she is definitely piloting something old and beat up that has no reason to be on the battlefield, but her incredible skills more than make up for the bucket of bolts she’s riding in. i think the Red Rider or Pale Rider are fitting for her because of how they sap the life of their pilot, just like her alcoholism…

Shima: she seems like a really reliable person, so she would probably run something that’s solid all around, like a Jegan or a Zaku Warrior

Eliza: she reminds me a little of Elpeo Ple from ZZ Gundam, so i think the Quebeley fits her pretty well. they come in lots of different colours too, so i wouldn’t be surprised if Eliza custom painted hers

OTHERS

Seika: she doesn’t pilot anymore but back in the day she used to cycle through mobile suits because she kept pushing them too hard. i imagine she eventually found a solid machine like the Gundam Mk II that served her well until she retired to become a handler

PA-san: never piloted in her life, instead she does maintenance on the mobile suits that Starry hosts

Yoyoko: the Pale Rider Dullahan fits her aesthetic, and it sort of follows in Kikuri’s footsteps

[farsight-the-char]

If I ever do a full cosplay:

Char's outfit from Gundam (with Mask), but with added armour, with Tau iconography replacing the Zeon.

Add the Talisman and a prop Dawnblade (among other 3d accessories).

Commander Char Farsight.

[suped-up]

MHA Manga Chapter 396 Spoilers

Spoilers for the most recent My Hero Academia chapter

I absolutely LOVE Armoured All Might’s new suit.

The look reminds me of a lot of certain Iron Man suits or the Armoured Batman suits. Honestly it’s kind of cool to see Toshinori Yagi join Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne in the “superheroes without super powers use cool suits” trope.

I also never realised how much Horikoshi designed All Might to look like Gundam suits. Honestly it should have been more obvious because of the massive yellow V on his head and that one full colour artwork he did which literally had a giant Gundam version of All Might. But now that I’m seeing this new suit I can really appreciate the influence.

I’m a little worried for what will happen to All Might within the next couple of chapters, it seems that he won’t be around much longer. There’s still hope though.

Maybe.

Possibly.

He’ll be fine

.

.

.

[himecommunism]

drew a quick thing for my armour astir character's backstory, mostly because gundam and utena has been jacking me full of lesbian power

[scoobertfoo]

so we were gifted the Penelope/Odysseus Gundam and man

this thing might be a HG but you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a full on MG, not just for size but build quality as well!

building the Odysseus Gundam on its own was really fun & satisfying, if this kit was just the Odysseus alone i would've been satisfied but NOPE

THERE'S THIS THING

and i am SO impressed with the build quality of it. I was worried the legs would simply flop down from all the additional weight but nah! it poses AND stands just fine!

(there's a limited range of motion due to all the added armour but that's more or less unavoidable)

did i mention this thing is BIG? because it's Big

(normal HG barbatos for comparison)

I'm very, very happy with both the build process and finished product. 10/10 would suggest getting if you're in the mood for some big plastic

[therosecrest]

I dreamt of playing Gunpla battle. I was randomly assigned a unit, some kind of Full Armour Gundam. It had a shield, a rifle, a shoulder cannon, rockets, the lot. I fought against two, a Kira Yamato cosplayer, who had adopted his mannerisms and self-righteousness, and another, who I don't recall.

It was a really cool battle! I managed to defeat the second player without receiving too much damage, but exchanged significant damage with Kira, shedding armour and weapons. By the way, between "shots" my Gundam became a Zaku. Finally, I charged desperately with my heat hawk - or possibly even a beam axe - and we swung savagely at each other. I crippled his Freedom Gundam, but my Zaku was cut in half from the breast up. I lost. Remarkably, it did not explode, and I seem to recall exiting the cockpit, despite the fact that it would have been in the lower half, and even if it wasn't, I should have been turned into a pile hamburger. Well, I wasn't complaining. That match was fucking sick.

[gremoria411]

Gundam Requiem for Vengeance then. I don’t really have anything to say on the new trailer other than it reminds me of a trailer I once saw for Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children.

However, given that I did a post on the Gundams in the one year war last time, I figured I’d go over the Full Armour units that I skimmed over this time around.

First up, the PF-78-1 Perfect Gundam. Now I usually try to use fairly neutral pieces of art for these, so they best illustrate the mobile suit in general, but this thing…… well.

It’s a bit of an odd one. First originating in the 1982 Manga Plamo-Kyoshiro, it was built by Shiro Kyoda (the kid in the bottom left of the above picture). Note how I said built. This manga is essentially the earliest permutation of what would eventually become the build series, where the focus is shifted from War to Modelling. Now normally this is where I’d earmark it as a build kit, except that it’s canon to the Universal Century as well. It was apparently a planned upgrade plan for the original Gundam, but was never built, with its data being carried into the Full Armour Gundam, being canonised in MSV. Its armaments are much the same as the original, only adding a built-in 2-barrel beam gun to the arm, four drop mines to the shield and a Shoulder Cannon to the backpack. The shoulder cannon is notable because it’s nature is different in each work - it’s a high pressure water gun in Plamo-Kyoshiro, a 360mm Rocket Gun in MSV, and a high-output beam cannon in Build Fighters.

I admit I was looking forward to talking about the Full Armour Gundam here, but its position in canon is just difficult. Officially, it was never built and existed only as simulation data, because the excess armour and weaponry would have slowed it down too much. Unofficially, it shows up damn everywhere, typically as a foe of either Johnny Ridden or the Perfect Zeong. I’m going to call out two examples here and then move on, primarily because they actually name pilots of the thing. In the videogame Spirits of Zeon: Dual Stars of Carnage, a blue Full Armour Gundam is piloted by Earth Federation Fighter Ace Takashi Kitamoto during the Battle of Solomon. Meanwhile in the manga Mobile Suit Gundam MSV Battle Chronicle Johnny Ridden, a Full Armour Gundam is piloted by Heinz Baer against Johnny Ridden’s Full Bullet Zaku (honestly I mention this because I absolutely love Heinz Baer’s character design, shown below). Armament wise, the Full Armour Gundam retains the Vulcan Guns and Beam sabers of the original Gundam, but carries a twin beam rifle as opposed to the original’s single-barrelled model. In addition, it gains a 360mm Rocket Cannon on its back and four missile bays, built into the knees and clavicles. As a design, I really like the thing, but I’m unsure why. Maybe it’s the simplicity of it being an up-armed and armoured version of the original Gundam, or maybe it’s that there’s some really nice art of it, particularly it’s Debut in Mobile Suit Variation (MSV).

C’mon, Look at this guy. A flying ace who wears a sweater under his pilot suit.

Next up, the FA-78[G] Full Armour Gundam Ground Operations Type, originating in MSV-R. Nice and simple, now. It’s essentially a Full Armour Variant that’s designed for ground combat, using the RX-78-1 Prototype Gundam as a base. It was designed, but never built (whether due to costs, practicality or the lack of the RX-78-1). Design-wise, yeah, it’s nice. Critical areas are up-armoured, and some new weapons added, but it still looks fairly agile, and the Prototype Gundam features make it stand out a little more. It’s armed with Vulcans, Two Beam Sabers on the left arm, a twin beam rifle on the right arm, a 360mm Rocket Cannon on the backpack and a missile launcher. Not much more on this one, it’s just neat.

The FA-78-1B Full Armour Gundam (Type B). Oh, I love this thing. Also originating from MSV-R, it was developed from the G-3 Gundam, rounding out the three full armour units. It was designed primarily for anti-fleet combat, with the assumption that it would be piloted by a Newtype. MSV-R keeps things vague on the details, but given that it seems to have been developed in response to The Battle of a Baoa Qu, the general theme of Full Armour Units and that it was intended to be used with a Newtype Pilot (which the Federation really didn’t have a lot of), it feels a safe bet to say that it was probably never built (honestly, Zeon went big on Newtype research and even they only had about five combat-ready examples). Armament wise, the Full Armour Type B is rocking Vulcan guns, a 360mm Rocket Launcher, a Triple Beam Rifle, upgraded missile launchers in the knees and clavicles, two beam sabers mounted on the left arm and a large missile launcher on the back, which is loaded with two large anti-ship missiles on the front and twenty along the back of the launcher, designed to counter any anti-beam defences employed by its victi- targets. Employed by its targets. Design-wise, gorgeous, I love the patterns on its armour and the simplistic colour palette of blue, grey and golden-yellow for the details is just wonderful. It’s heavyset yes, but it doesn’t feel excessive since it’s designed for anti-fleet work in space. The box-style beam saber adds to this, since it gives the idea of a quick weapon primarily to block attacks, as opposed to its primary armament. I’m not typically a fan of the G-3, but the Full Armour Type B blends its aesthetic so wonderfully.

Next up, the FA-78-2 Heavy Gundam. Another simple one. Three-Four units built postwar, with at least one of them being piloted by one Den Berserk. Apparently one unit was lost during atmospheric entry tests. Essentially a second go-around at the full armour Gundam concept, only a brand new mobile suit as opposed to an add-on. It is armed with: A shoulder mounted Beam Cannon, a singular beam saber, a frame launcher (essentially a composite weapon combining a Gatling gun with a 4-tube missile launcher) and an optional Beam Rifle. Again, just a lovely design, really liking the added bulk on the chest and the visor emphasises its ranged speciality.

The second unit (right) is equipped identically to the regular Heavy Gundam and appears in the Manga MSV-R: the return of Johnny Ridden, where it’s repainted and piloted by Ingrid 0. Due to the series being set in U.C. 90, Unit 2 is somewhat upgraded when compared to the original, being equipped with a bio-sensor for use by newtypes and a set of Dummy Launchers not dissimilar to those found on suits around the time of Char’s Counterattack. These were pretty clearly later additions, however. It was also equipped with a bazooka, patterned off the original Hyper Bazooka used by Gundam units in the One Year War. EDIT: I’d like to note that we don’t know which unit was lost during atmospheric entry tests, so it’s possible that the “lost” unit was Unit 2, so it could be employed “off the books”, as it were.

The RX-78SP Gunner Gundam was designed shortly after the end of the One Year War, during a review of captured Zeon materials. It’s essentially a sniper Gundam, featuring an improved sensor pod and specialised beam rifle in addition to the standard Gundam armament of Vulcans and beam sabers. I say designed because it was never built, development began and a mock-up unit was built from a GM, but it was deemed that the G06 Mudrock Gundam was able to perform the same role. A Full Armour variant appears in the Shin Matsunaga Manga however (MSV-R: Legend of the Universal Century Heroes: Rainbow’s Shin Matsunaga).

[silverhaired-hothead]

So basically your Duel Assaulshroud is equivalent to a UC era Full Armour Gundam?

The Duel was made by Naturals, so they probably designed it to be similar to that.

//muse just saw this ask srry

[thaliarchus]

Finnsburh reimagined

The Finnsburh/Finnesburg Fragment is a preserved slice of a larger lost Old English poem describing a battle at the hall or fort of Finn. Tantalisingly, the poem we now call Beowulf contains a clipped, allusive account (at 1068–1158) of what is evidently in some sense the same story.

In CWKB I combine the two and do a bit of neatifying to form one self-contained narrative, which is depicted on the gigantic shield of the even more gigantic armour’s armour forged for Kin-Bright in Book XI (okay okay it’s the Dendrobium from Gundam 0083, I confess it). Since it’s a neat whole package, I offer the current draft here in full. I shoved a few notes in at the end.

You can read and (I hope!) enjoy this even if you’ve no familiarity with CWKB.

And also there the long-known lays appeared, among them tale of Wolf who wedded Heath and kin-home left, a risky peace to make in rock-holds of the girdling asteroids, when Tar was young, and households sought their wealth in far-flung hinterspace, and stitching-ships were few and rare, when blood-ties still a clan-feud might assuage. A daughter blessed their joining; she was last of blessings all they knew. From Heathing-Hall in peace they sent her out, when small, to folk of Wolf, the hard and ore-rich Starhost, a foster-child to be; to sibling great of Wolf, old Star-Blade lord— her uncle—swore she foster-daughter’s oaths; as foster-child faithful, Heath-Star grew.

A dozen years and one went peaceful past; in time, the head of Star to Heath-Hall came, high Star-Blade and retainers all, for spell as guests, the wedding-treaty's strength to mark in friendly stay, while orbits’ certain path their rock-holds two at distance furthest held, and also that young Heath-Star’s rise to spear they might with rituals mark, the foster-child anointed now as pilot, new to arms. Then, as the Star-hold hourly distant grew, with rock-roads fast against each other’s line, the first of feasts for wine-washed days they held. In jests the two courts’ thanes their wars recalled, and then outside of jest, in waxing ire; to weeping fell the warriors in their cups, at thought of evils borne and evils done in strife between their space-dust households two, then set their cups aside, and weapons drew, or stool-legs snapped, or bottle-necks up-took; Heath-Fire, head of clan, from table high with bloody shouts sought spill of blood to quell, and Star-Blade hests out-hurled, that spear-hands now nor heard nor cared to heed, and spousèd Wolf with heart-fear saw the families turn to fight.

Affray between the great rests not in room: in next among the sights on shield wrought, from hall the revellers burst, and armours sought. In hour's span, the battle-lines stood clear, with Starhost troops ensconced in deepest parts of asteroid, around the mead-bench hall, while Heathings wall-rim held, and ways full blocked from hall to ships. And both the leaders urged a peace-bond’s passage, both in vain, for death, now sprung anew at feast, on wrongs long-felt had heaped. And Mare-Fist, chief of Star-Blade’s spears, a roaming knight who pledged her troth for gifts, with grim-formed look unbuckled guiding words: ‘Ruler and ring-giver, | risk lies in waiting: your niece here is near, | from their nest sprung-forth, the blood of their blood, | blade in our spear-band, yet they rush ruthless, | us to wreck and destroy. Talk not and tarry not, | tear a break-out to our warships a way, | whirl us off Heath-rock.’

But Star-Blade would not flight to thought admit, from pride full princely, also from the hope that words both wise and witful might yet wrest the households warring into pause and truce— peacemaker’s boldness, high and grand and doomed. In panel next, by craft-work cunning shown, the Heathing foot, by knowledge of their home, now ever closer crept to foe-gripped parts, through ducts and holes, with light and power off-switched, and then some Heathing armours, lifeless, cloaked in sensor shrouds, they ran on cables in, full near to hostile home. At hour arranged, the pilots engines fired in crash-start mode, so eyes up-flared in rock-heart gloom, the gleams of light returning from their spears—all these with fine-ground dust of pigments rare the face of shield showed—and Mare-Fist, seeing, asked, ‘Are these day dawning, | drake-fire flying, or hall's cables | kindled and burning?’ In irony grim | answered Star-Blade: ‘This is no day dawning, | nor drake-fire’s flight, nor hall’s cables, | kindled and burning; foes come bearing | battle’s toolkit, war-gear wearing. | Now the woe-deeds rise that our folks’ hatred | fostered gravely, our weak-hearted shame. | Now shield against shot speaks in the war-moot, | now spear-shaft resounds, grief-dealing sound. | Grip and awaken, O warriors mine; | mind now to boldness, board-shield to brawl-arm, | now buckle full fast.’

Then gold-ringed thanes arose to armoured seats; to hangar door-posts warriors lordly went. The swap of spears began—each thrown-shaft’s jets, although to weakest, gentlest strength down-tuned, fore-driving blade full deep in walls of stone— and bitter brawl of lesser sort, the foot-bands’ play with boarding-pike and gun, grenade and knife. For six-score hours, defended Star the hall, its stairs, its module-blocks ancillary, and doleful price Heath paid, their hold to free. Both clans to fray now clung with bitter bliss, and both destroyed what stores they could, and Heath the water-plant down-shut, in-thrusting thirst among the pains their weakening foes now faced. At last made Star-Blade sally over-bold, and household guard in passage stood well trapped, where Heathing crews had mining slag down-tipped, that corridor on map might Star-snare be. The hostile guests then wall of warding shields and blood-parched pikes up-threw, and life’s blood sold at teenful price; here hands not clumsy wrought on shield’s face a fierce and hopeless fight.

Then Wolf had little cause to bless the might of oaths and honour-faith, for Star-Blade sib in cockpit dead was found, and armour next held Heath-Star, deathly wounded, barely just to pilot’s rank-stead raised, already slain in sworn defence of uncle, foster-sire, and clan-head, three-in-one, by troth destroyed. So Wolf there wept. And tiny gemstones bright the artisans in-worked, those tears to show; this passage every Taru child would know, for Heath-Star was in nursery rhymes enshrined. Then slaughter stilled, for Starhost leader lacked, and Heathings had near all their armours lost, and narrow ran survival margin now for coming months, for every life on rock: so grievous stood the ruin of their stores, so long the path before they lanes again would find in orbit’s curve where shipping plied. Though Mare-Fist Starhost headship could not hold by blood, she was their wisest, mightiest spear among that visit’s throng: for time she took their leader’s seat. That needful peace might stay, that any there might last the orbit’s way, to Heath her service, sword, and spear she swore, in treaty equal hateful to both sides. Starhost hall would hold, and treasure take— though little worth it had till they survived— and Heath by gods and chthonics of the rock an oath now swore, that not by word or works would Heathings bond-peace break, nor through ill-wit killings recall, nor carp insulting speech, not though the guests now followed leader’s bane, the one who slew their gold-ring-giving lord, since this on them by force and Fortune came; if any Heathing should the murder-breach renew to mind, then sword would make it right.

Now rare and few were graves on asteroid, while tally slain stood great. In smelt-room’s heart, where mine-wealth once from rocks they wrung, a pyre most lordly now they piled; with spears its form stood braced, and blood-stained mail its side-slopes graced— each ring full carefully the shield-wrights carved— at peak, above all other bodies raised, there Star-Blade of ill-fated wisdom lay. At Wolf’s behest, young Heath-Star next beside they laid, the niece by uncle, shoulder-matched, the bones to burning cast, to flame consigned, for Wolf a brother and a child off-sent. To ceiling-vents wound ruin-fire great; the swell-flame, the greedy-most of spirits there, all for-swallowed, all whom fray had reft from both the clans. Their grandeur passed away.

Through bloodstained orbit’s wait, on honour gnawed the mind of Mare-Fist, living on as thane of lord most oath-bold and fore-doomed. Then thought of homeland came, and thought of spear-sibs slain, and those yet left, the troops yet left whose troth to leader dead had gravity of right. Her ring-prowed ships and long she yearned to launch on void; on wrongs unmet she thought, on slights avenged, on faith still owed to blade-lost lord, how meeting most unfriendly might be wrought, that Starhost might the patterns right preserve. So universe’s ways she did not spurn when Bear-Left battle-gleam took up, the best of swords, and in her lap it laid, as sign.

And so in turn to Heath a downfall came, a sword’s-death foul within his clan-hold hall; again that well-wrought room with blood was stained; the Starhost soldiers to their ships then brought all treasures of that void-lord’s mighty house, every jewel and gem fine-worked they found; and Wolf as well, returning to his folk of birth, they sorrowing away off-bore. This lay and many others round the face of looming godlike shield wound in curve, the tale-hoard great of Foldway-treading Tar.

____________________

J. R. R. Tolkien assembled a coherent theory unifying the Finnesburh bit in Beowulf and the separate verse fragment, and his materials were cleaned up and published in the 1980s by A. J. Bliss (as Finn and Hengest: The Fragment and the Episode).

Tolkien’s account is a smart solution of the problems offered by the two texts, by an incomparably better philologist than I am. But it does rest on the assumption that the Beowulf-poet and the fragment-poet had roughly the same, agreed scenario in their heads. Given the observable high variation between different variations on legends which do survive in multiple full versions, I think this assumption fragile at best.

In my reworking, I felt free to streamline some elements of the story—I avoid wholly the enigma of the Jutes—and find space-operate equivalents: asteroid-holds for hall-forts, and so forth. I chose a route through the narrative possibilities stressing the pathos of Heath-Star’s death and Wolf’s experience of the disaster.

Some lines are more or less straight translations from Old English, some are looser summations, and some are free elaborations.

[ariesgamesandminis]

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[wordsandrobots]

IBO reference notes on … the Gundams (part 1)

[Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Addendum 1]

Or: a spotter’s guide to the Calamity War.

[Note: I tried to post this twice today before figuring out that one of the images was causing it to be consigned to Tumblr oblivion. Apparently a shot of Lt. Crank's gloved hand was too racy for this site. Yeah.]

I said at the time that the fanfic Of Obsessions and Erotemes was written as an alternative to writing an essay expanding on my thoughts regarding the Gundams in Iron-Blooded Orphans. This is probably not strictly accurate, however, and I've been struck by the urge to take a figurative walk through the canonical examples out of the 72 Gundam frame type mobile suits.

I want to focus on the Gundams as they started out during the Calamity War, as far as that is possible, and what this says about the nature of the conflict. I will probably follow up at some point with notes on the mobile armours too, since they are the flip-side of this narrative. As I’ve had cause to mention before, I’m generally content with not knowing too much about the historical event that serves as the basis for IBO’s world-building. I think that adds rather than subtracts from the story. Still, it is fun to play with what we get and piece together an impression of what happened three hundred years prior to the series’ beginning.

For the purposes of not writing a post ten thousand words long, I’ve split the Gundams into three groups based on numerical position in the master list, which is of course taken from the Ars Goetia. Here, I will be drawing on Crowley’s edition.

All images shown here are either borrowed from the Gundam Wiki or are my own screenshots.

As with all my posts like this, spoilers are present for everything.

The Gundam frame

Let’s start with what is under the hood, to whit: the Gundam mobile suit frame.

I covered some of this in my post on the aesthetics of the mobile frame concept, but the most important detail about the Gundam type is how human-like its proportions are, in both limb structure and eye placement. Unlike other frames, this is intended from the start to be used with an Alaya-Vijana system, so designing it to more closely approximate the human form makes a great deal of sense.

At the same time, there is something fittingly demonic about the skeleton, down to the claw-like fingers. However it must be noted that this is specifically Barbatos’ frame; the talons on on the feet are not reflected on the others. Indeed, based on the design work for Kimaris and Flauros, the feet are the part that varies the most from machine to machine.

A Gundam’s power – both in the sense of motive force and superior strength – comes from the twin Ahab reactors making up its torso. It’s the only mobile weapon in Iron-Blooded Orphans confirmed to have multiple reactors, with the implication that this boosts the output beyond simply adding the two together. Indeed, when operating at full capacity against a mobile armour, Barbatos seems barely able to contain its own energies.

Ancillary material states Ahab reactors are made ‘on a plant near a fixed star’, implying a difficult process to begin with (or at least a factory in orbit of the sun). Synchronising the reactors so they run in parallel is adding extra complexity on top of that, which is one of the reasons Gundam construction is a lost art. These things are the peak of mobile suit design and have never been equalled since they quite literally saved the world.

A Gundam, then, is not merely another weapon. It is the maximisation of human capacity, allowing a pilot to exceed their bodily limitations to destroy an inhuman enemy. We don’t know for sure the Calamity War pilots ended up in the same sorry state as Mikazuki (though the taleof Agnika Kaieru’s spirit residing inside Bael carries some interesting implications). But we do know the Alaya-Vijnana places extraordinary pressure on human physiology by its very nature, and the Gundams themselves come with competing limiters as a result. One that disengages in proximity to a mobile armour, allowing the full force of the reactors to be unleashed; another that switches on at that point, to stop this burst of power immediately overwhelming the operator. Only by accepting the danger can the pilot proceed with their attack.

It’s a duality of ultimate strength and ultimate risk that makes the Gundam frames seem like suitably desperate creations. They are the demons that prevented total apocalypse, while consuming their pilots body and soul.

ASW-G-01 Bael

The first king of the Hell, and therefore presumably the first Gundam to have been constructed. From latter machines, there is the suggestion that deployment order did not match the numerical codes, so it isn’t entirely clear if we can solidly say they are numbered in the order they were built. But it seems reasonable to assume that this represents the start of Gundam operational history.

If we can take Bael to exist in the present exactly as it did in the War, it is a relatively simple affair, sporting nothing more flashy than a pair of wing-like boosters (I say wing-like purely because they are not functionally wings; they’re more an elaborate jet-pack). From a design point of view, Bael otherwise matches exactly to the template set by the series’ hero machine, Barbatos: the armour and thruster placement is identical and we may take this to be the default.

The combat philosophy behind this machine appears to be the same too: strike fast and strike sharp. It follows that Agnika Kaieru was the kind to lead from the front. Indeed, kit manual text makes it clear he was self-sufficient in battle, taking down mobile armours solely with his twin swords. Given McGillis holds his own against an entire fleet for a while, this doesn’t feel like a stretch and it certainly explains why the man became such a legend.

The symbol on Bael’s left shoulder is the original Gjallarhorn logo, which more directly presents the source of the organisation’s name: the horn that sounds Ragnarök. This would later be elaborated into the flag used in the present while remaining as a some sort of badge/pin or medal on officers’ uniforms. I find that fitting, that something simple would be built up over time into a grander image, disguising the root truth. In many ways, that sums up Bael’s place in history.

From the Ars Goetia:

The first Principal Spirit is a King ruling in the East, called Bael. He maketh thee to go Invisible. He ruleth over 66 Legions of Infernal Spirits. He appeareth in divers shapes, sometimes like a Cat, sometimes like a Toad, and sometimes like a Man, and sometimes all these forms at once. He speaketh hoarsely. This is his character which is used to be worn as a Lamen before him who calleth him forth, or else he will not do thee homage.

Notably, the sigil used for Gundam Bael’s interface does not simply replicate the 'canonical’ seal from the Ars Goetia but rather reinterprets it.

Clearly OG Gjallarhorn had graphic designers on staff. Also, Bael’s main console screen is of a uniquely narrow design, in a rather elaborate housing. It would seem the cockpits were refined for later models, simplifying things towards a standard pattern seen in Kimaris and Gusion that would itself go on to become the standard for Gjallarhorn 'suits.

ASW-G-04 Gamigin

Pretty much all we know about Gamigin is that it exists, it was originally piloted by Kalf Falk and it made it out of the Calamity War in one piece. Oh and someone in the armoury department was having a laugh the day they issued this Gundam its weapons.

Seriously though, if Bael is the default, this is a heavy-duty model. Gamigin looks a hell of a lot less manoeuvrable, even accounting for the extra thrusters built into its skirt, and its standard-sized arms appear positively weedy compared to the heft of the body and legs. Clearly though, that was a trade-off deemed acceptable for the sake of destructive capacity.

The giant Gatling gun speaks for itself, but the revolver axe is the more interesting item here. As silly as it looks, it’s represents the (presumed) earliest incorporation of Dàinsleif weaponry into a Gundam frame mobile suit.

'Dàinsleif’ is a term used to refer to anything that launches javelin-like projectiles at high speed with the intent of puncturing nano-laminate armour. It’s unclear if the present ban on their use extends to smaller-scale versions like this, which is a point-blank deployment of the technology.

The blunt side of that axe is designed to strike an enemy and fire a spike straight through it. Crude but effective. Or so we can assume given this machine was piloted by one of the first Seven Stars and therefore must have destroyed a great many mobile armours.

From the Ars Goetia (Samigina/Gamigin):

The Fourth Spirit is Samigina, a Great Marquis. He appeareth in the form of a little Horse or Ass, and then into Human shape doth he change himself at the Request of the Master. He speaketh with a hoarse voice. He ruleth over 30 Legions of Inferiors. He teaches all Liberal Sciences, and giveth account of Dead Souls that died in sin. And his Seal is this, which is to be worn before the Magician when he is Invocator, etc.

This is one of several demons with multiple names listed in the Ars Goetia. There doesn’t appear to be any pattern to which was picked as the ID for the corresponding Gundam.

ASW-G-08 Barbatos

Teiwaz are stated to have restored Barbatos to its original state so we can assume the 4th form represents the version that fought in the Calamity War. Given this, it likely used a katana in battle, as the sword Teiwaz provides bears the same logo as the 'suit and we know from their work on Flauros that Gundams store information about their own weaponry (see also Mikazuki’s sudden competence with it when he connects deeper to Barbatos).

Intriguingly, with the retroactive introduction of predecessor designs, it appears Barbatos takes cues from both Bael and Gamigin, which ties these three low-numbered models together nicely. It is also relatively unspecialised in comparison, lacking the features that mark out the previous two. When found, it had a small buckler shield built into a gauntlet on its left forearm, similar to those the 5th form in the series would use. However, there’s no indication if this was used as a mount for mortars like the later version, leaving us with a machine that appears to have been a simple melee combatant.

The absence of gimmicks showcases just how powerful Gundams are in comparison to other mobile suits, at a baseline. In any given fight during Season 1, Barbatos is faster, stronger, and more adaptable than its opposition, and while we see it built up with add-ons over the course of the series, those often seem to get in the way or provide only passing advantages.

Since my focus is on the Calamity War, I’m not going to go into any detail regarding the Lupus and Lupus Rex forms. But I will posit the idea Barbatos’ original pilot was of a different temperament to Mikazuki. If it is indeed their 'ghost’ who comes to his aid in Edmonton – some trace left behind in the system that allows him to understand the katana in the nick of time – they seem to have been a master of that weapon, favouring lethal precision, in stark contrast to Mikazuki’s gradual transformation into an animalistic, living weapon.

(The mace that Mikazuki leads with seems to have been something Maruba bought for possible use if he could ever get Barbatos running, rather than a relic of it previous operations.)

From the Ars Goetia:

The Eighth Spirit is Barbatos. He is a Great Duke, and appeareth when the Sun is in Sagittary, with four noble Kings and their companies of great troops. He giveth understanding of the singing of Birds, and of the Voices of other creatures, such as the barking of Dogs. He breaketh the Hidden Treasures open that have been laid by the Enchantments of Magicians. He is of the Order of Virtues, of which some part he retaineth still; and he knoweth all things Past, and to Come, and conciliateth Friends and those that be in Power. He ruleth over 30 Legions of Spirits. His Seal of Obedience is this, the which wear before thee as aforesaid.

Again, we see a redesign of the seal for Gundam Barbatos’ start-up sigil.

I like the choice to make the lines more dynamic.

ASW-G-11 Gusion

We don’t know if this is what Gusion started out looking like. Gusion was found in a debris zone and passed through various hands before it reached the Brewers, and we know the Brewers’ Man Rodis are custom jobs, more heavily armoured than standard Rodi frame models. On balance, this is probably something they cooked up to fit their requirements.

But gives us an idea of the limits of a Gundam frame’s flexibility. The arms and legs have been stretched outwards from the main body to accommodate the armour load-out. You can see a glimpse of the piston that operates the hip joint under the skirt in the image above, providing a sense of where the legs have been moved. Quite how this works is unclear since we only see the head exposed when the Turbines start deconstructing this form. The fact it does work emphasises just how far the Gundams can be reconfigured. The Turbines even go so far as installing extra arms into the Rebake version given to Akihiro, seemingly with no issues at all.

Gusion also provides an example of the fate suffered by quite a number of the Gundam frames: that of being lost and forgotten after battles during the Calamity War. The figure provided for how many frames are known to have survived is 26, but it’s unclear where that sits in the timeline of IBO canon, throughout which several Gundams are uncovered from previously hidden resting places. Certainly it appears only a minority of such 'suits remain in Gjallarhorn’s custody. While some have most likely been destroyed outright, many may still be drifting among debris fields or buried at the sites of battles from three hundred years ago.

It’s a neat conceit, leaving fertile ground for fanfiction or spin-offs to play on, and underscores that these machines belong to a bygone era most have forgotten about.

From the Ars Goetia:

The Eleventh Spirit in order is a great and strong Duke, called Gusion. He appeareth like a Xenopilus. He telleth all things, Past, Present and to Come, and showeth the meaning and resolution of all questions thou mayest ask. He conciliateth and reconcileth friendships, and giveth Honour and Dignity unto any. He ruleth over 40 Legions of Spirits. His Seal is this, the which wear as aforesaid.

The connection between the machine or pilot and the Ars Goetia descriptions is somewhat variable throughout this list. In some instances there’s nothing obvious at all. However, I love that Gusion bestows honour and dignity because of how beautifully it ties into Akihiro’s arc. This said … I don’t actually know what a 'Xenopilus’ is. My first thought was 'Xenopus’ and a frog motif certainly would explain Gundam Gusion’s appearance. But I don’t think that’s right? Answers on a postcard, please.

That’s where we’ll leave things for today. I will probably post the next instalment sometime tomorrow.

Other reference posts include:

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (Part 1)

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (Part 2)

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (corrigendum) [mainly covering my inability to recognise mythical wolves]

IBO reference notes on … three key Yamagi scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Shino scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Eugene scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Ride scenes

IBO reference notes on … the tone of the setting

IBO reference notes on … character parallels and counterpoints

IBO reference notes on … a perfect villain

IBO reference notes on … Iron-Blooded Orphans: Gekko

IBO reference notes on … an act of unspeakable cruelty

IBO reference notes on … original(ish) characters [this one is mainly fanfic]

IBO reference notes on … Kudelia’s decisions

IBO reference notes on … assorted head-canons

IBO reference notes on … actual, proper original characters [explicit fanfic – as in, actually fanfic. None of them have turned up in the smut yet]

IBO reference notes on … the aesthetics of the mobile frame

IBO reference notes on … mobile suit designations