#byarlant

[lizardmanartblog]

some ms paint doodles

[gremoria411]

Alright, given that I haven’t rewatched Gundam Narrative yet, let’s talk about something I did watch this week.

*Spoilers ahead*

Mobile Suit Gundam Twilight Axis: Red Blur, an 26 minute ova which adds new scenes to the original Twilight Axis, making it actually coherent in the process. The plot of Gundam Twilight Axis concerns three main characters:

Mehmet Merca - Earth Federation special forces commander, who’s been tasked to investigate the remains of the Axis Asteroid base to recover any evidence of psycho-frame or other newtype weaponry. IE the wreckage of the Sazabi. Despite what you may think, he’s actually a very nice and reasonable guy.

Arlette Almage - Formerly Char’s personal mobile suit mechanic throughout the One Year War and Char’s Counterattack (Second Neo Zeon War), though she did not join him in the AEUG. Also a Newtype from the Flanagan Institute (though apparently not a patch on Lahlah, the star pupil of the Flanagan Institute). Char personally handpicked her from Zeon’s Flanagan Institute when she was a young girl, so she views him as something approaching a father figure (honestly it’s a little unclear). This translates to her wanting to know what happened to him, which is the reason she helps Mehmet Merca to help navigate Axis.

Danton Hyleg - Formerly Char’s personal test pilot. Happily retired with Arlette, and is mostly along to support her. As he’s significantly older than her (at least ten years), he has a more realistic view of Char, outright telling him around the time of CCA it would’ve been better if he hadn’t come back to them. A very good pilot, but unable to actually pull the trigger and kill someone.

Overall, I’d say it’s pretty good, it does just enough with the time it’s got for you to be invested in these characters, and it’s got some good action scenes. It can’t disguise the fact that it’s got a very low budget (there’s a lot of scenes where you can’t see people’s faces, so they don’t have to animate lip movements), but it knows where to prioritise. I do like how even though it’s technically a set up for a later antagonist, it keeps focus on the actual characters first. Twilight Axis was originally a light novel and was adapted into an OVA and Manga. I have read a translation of the Light Novel and found it very good, since it fleshes out a lot of stuff missing from the OVA (IE Birnam’s motivations), to the point where I could honestly consider twilight axis a very good advert for it. The Manga adaptation, which I haven’t read, also looks very good. I’m given to understand that Arlette and Danton also cameo in MSV-R: the Return of Johnny Ridden, which is neat. The reason I’m pairing it with Narrative is that I view them both in similar lights - after unicorn showed off how utterly ridiculous psycho-frames can be in the right hands, we’re left with the question of what happens between now and F91 onwards for it never to be used or spoken of again. Both Narrative and Twilight Axis deal with the fallout of Psycho-frame mobile suits such that we can understand why it was sealed away and not further developed. Or, as I like to think of them, they’re curatorial works, made to answer some lingering questions.

However, I have two main non-ms design criticisms of the story - The First, and most forgivable, is that we’re not really given any information on the enemy pilots, the Fermo Brothers. I’m more forgiving of this because I think the manga fleshed them out more, and you don’t really need that much information. The Second criticism is both petty and bothersome to me, because it’s entirely likely it’s borne from my own assumptions. The Flanagan Institute, where Char headhunts Arlette, is shown to be performing inhumane experiments on children, with one of the bosses explicitly mentioning “disposal”. What bothers me about this is that to my knowledge this is basically the only piece of evidence that ever shows the Flanagan Institute to be abusive. Why does that matter? Because central to Zeon’s stated philosophy is that of the newtype, a new type of human adapted for space with the ability to sense, communicate and emphasise with others over long distances. The Federations’ refusal to recognise the newtype is synonymous to their refusal to recognise the autonomy of the colonies. The Federation refuses to recognise the capacity of mankind to evolve past it’s need for the Earth, since (as many characters are fond of saying) their souls are still bound down by gravity. So the revelation that the Flanagan institute, Zeon’s shining beacon of Newtype advancement, needed to resort to the mass death of children for its newtypes just completely undermines that. We know newtypes can naturally awaken in combat, but nowhere is it suggested that they *need* to, with both Challia Bull and Paptimus Scirocco basically just showing up, with no indication of harrowing battles beforehand. Furthermore, it also completely undercuts another notable organisation in Gundam, the Titans, who actually do resort to the kind of inhumane practices shown here. Why? Because they view Newtypes as nothing more than weapons, further demonstrating their utter contempt for spacenoids, having twisted one of the central facets of spacenoid independence into just another tool of oppression, with all the dehumanisation that implies. But if they’re just following off Zeon’s playbook for the “production” of newtypes, then it implies that newtypes aren’t actually a development for humanity at all, simply a reaction to large-scale trauma. I know Victory and other later UC shows went back on the Newtype philosophy a bit, but they (Zeon) knew from essentially day one that it wasn’t it? It just throws into question why a lot of the success stories of the Flanagan institute would even stay with Zeon, if that’s how they were treated (and it turns newtypes into the whole “super soldiers through trauma” thing, which…. I see a lot in fiction, and I bothers me a little that this is the route they decided to go for).

But enough quibbling about a whole 14 seconds of animation, what do I think of the mobile suit designs? These are arranged favourite to least favourite (though to be honest I’m not particularly crazy about most of the offerings here), and do not include the R-Jarja (I’ll cover it if I ever talk about Neo Zeon/Axis Zeon or the Gyan). Given that most of these suits are variations, I’ll typically discuss my feelings on their original counterparts as well. I’m using the Novel Artwork, since I generally prefer it (and image limits), but this applies to both versions of the designs.

First up, the AMX-011S Zaku III Custom. Straight-up my favourite mobile suit here (though that doesn’t mean a whole lot….) I like the Zaku III because it’s chunky, well armed and proof that even Neo Zeon is not immune to nostalgia. True, it gets outclassed during the First Neo Zeon War by all the 4th-Gen mobile suits running around, but it’s still a very solid design. I like how the Zaku II-to-Hizack-to-Zaku III-to Geara Doga-to-Geara Zulu line plays out too, with each one having slightly different characteristics. I have a very mixed views on Char’s custom mobile suits - which I like, because I enjoy judging the suits mostly on their own merits, rather than on who’s piloting them (key word being “mostly”). That said, occasionally one of Char’s suits can end up being a really baller design, which I just adore. Sadly, the Zaku III Custom shown here is not one such design, though I do like the idea of Char Piloting a Zaku III for whatever reason, hence it’s inclusion here. It’s actually quite nice, since it’s a relic of Char that the two characters attach value to, a momento of their time together, that nonetheless must be left behind on Axis. Just like Char.

Note: GB02’s decision to spit out a Byarlant Isolde at me is essentially the reason for this entire post, since I was forced to actually formulate an opinion on the blasted thing, having been utterly apathetic towards it until now.

The Original Byarlant is a suit I’ve gone back-and-forth on over time, disliking to tolerating to (generally) liking. It’s got a very unique silhouette to it, and I like how it essentially ended up a high-mobility suit with so much of its body devoted to thrust, and you can believe it’s high mobility, since it’s so many thrusters that can move and swivel to precisely direct the suit where it needs to go. The head’s pretty gorgeous and I like how inhuman it is, along with the Byarlants hands and feet. It’s got a very minimalist armament - just two beam sabers and beam guns (strong beam guns, mind), but I find this only adds to its sleek feel. It looks like someone wanted a war machine that was also a race car. The colours are both villainous, appropriate for a Titans machine, and eye-catching, with the yellow drawing your eye to the face, and the red highlighting either thrusters or limbs, again emphasising it’s mobility. I do like how the feet look both delicate and weighty at the same time - they’re both designed for high speed and yet don’t look like they’d struggle to hold up the suit itself.

The Byarlant Isolde takes several features from the later Byarlant Custom - chiefly the shoulder thrusters and back fuel tanks, creating the sense that Birnam was able to get their hands on some new parts, but not enough to fully upgrade the Byarlant. I will say that I absolutely adore the new colour scheme - I didn’t expect to like a lilac and white mobile suit this much, but somehow the Isolde makes it all work. I should note that the Byarlant is similarly outdated to the rest of the mobile suits present, however, The Titans and Neo Zeon didn’t have that much of a tech gap, chiefly since Neo Zeon declared war basically right after the Titans defeat. They undoubtedly had an edge in Newtype weaponry and heavily armed mobile suits, but from a practical standpoint, a high performance suit from the latter days of the Gryps War is probably going to stand a better chance than a Grunt unit from the Neo Zeon war. The Byarlant was always a fast suit, so this makes even more sense. This is why it slightly baffles me that the Tristan is considered Birnam’s best unit, but I’ll talk more about that later. Though I do like the original Byarlant’s head, I find the Isolde’s Gundam-style head to be growing on me. It’s likely a more advanced head than the original Byarlant, and likely better suited for its environment of a dense asteroid base (in UC, Monoeyes tend to be better at range, whereas Twin-eyes are better in close quarters (it’s to do with target tracking at differing ranges), though it’s not a large enough difference for it to get called out). It was likely also chosen for the lingering psychological effects it may have on any former Zeon or Neo-Zeon personnel they might run into while investigating axis - appropriate, since the Titans also dabbled in that. I will say that the new head gives the Isolde and absolutely wonderful silhouette - the sunken red-on-white eyes make it look very imposing and it reminds me of some of the head designs from Gundam Sentinel (the geometric nature of its V-fin also helps with the intimidation factor in my opinion, though I’m not really certain why).

The Ahava Azieru is a weird one. I know basically nothing about the design or it’s origin, and even it’s general form is unclear. It’s a mobile armour that I can only assume is patterned after the Neue Ziel, but when I first read the novel, I assumed it was some sort of prototype to the Alpha Azieru, so I’ve no idea what it could be a derivative of. It’s very well armed, and it seems to have at least some common design features of Late-UC Mobile Armours. I do like how it can essentially afford to sit back and throw beams at its opponents, but it seems remarkably slow for a MA (though that could be down to the pilot). It seems to have the design of a dragon, with its large winglike shields and funnel tail, which is an odd decision, since it’s ally, the R-Jarja is mentioned multiple times as being a “Knight”, an enemy of a dragon. Yet Arlette uses it to communicate with the enemy pilot, so they don’t come into conflict? It’s an odd thing. I do very much love the head (perhaps I have a thing for inhuman head designs in Gundam, though it’s awkward to see in relation to the rest of it).

The Jegan (Birnam Type). It’s a purple Jegan with a custom visor and rifle, used by Birnam. While it’s nice that it’s giving us a preview of what the Crossbone Vanguard’s suits will eventually look like (it’s rifle resembles a shot lancer somewhat), it honestly doesn’t do anything. It could have been replaced with any other grunt suit and it would have been the same (I’ve gone off the Jegan’s design a touch as of late, so forgive me if I’ve little to say on this one).

Finally, the Gundam AN-01 “Tristan” (typically just called the Tristan) and Kurwenal. Since the Kurwenal is an add-on to the Tristan, I figured I’d cover them together. This is also because although the Kurwenal is my least favourite design, I have more to say on the Tristan itself. I find the Kurwenal to just be boring honestly. It’s a bunch of missiles and Newtype tech bolted to the Tristan, relying on overwhelming firepower as opposed to anything else. I don’t like it’s colour scheme or it’s form at all, it feels too much like a toy with its blue and red colours and blocky psycommu claws. While it’s 5-tube beam pods make for a good visual, I can’t really appreciate them because they’re just a box that shoots scattering beams. There’s no design or artistry to them like there is with funnels, those agile and adaptable little attack drones. Lastly, when it gets broken up the Tristan just sits there. I’m not saying I expected it to leap out and continue the fight, it just looked so very goofy that I couldn’t take it seriously as a weapon. Onto the actual Tristan then. The novel art does help it a little but……. It’s just so boring. It’s the NT-1 Alex repaired with parts that make it look more like the MK-II. Performance-wise, the Byarlant Isolde was probably better-performing than it. It looks very generic, especially when compared to other Gundam-type mobile suits. Part of it might be that it exists at a time when 4th-Gen MS are all the range, while it’s only a 2nd gen at best. But the way it’s presented as Birnam’s big trump card is just silly when it’s roughly two wars out of date. It almost got taken out immediately by the Zaku III custom and only survived because the pilot couldn’t pull the trigger. I guess it’s supposed to represent the Gundam’s legacy in the same way that the Zaku represents Char’s legacy? But it’s basically the only Gundam that neither Char or Amuro had anything to do with, so that line of thinking falls a bit flat. It’s just overall dull.

Oddly so, even, because despite it changing very little, I find that I prefer its predecessor, the Gundam NT-1 “Alex” considerably. Part of it might be the older style of design, the well-defined place that the Alex has - it’s a nice piece of Late-OYW design, being cutting-edge and (spec-wise) able to give pretty much anything of the same time period a run for it’s money in the right hands. It feels like something between the RX-78 and the Gundam Development Project (Gp01, etc) and I like how elegant it feels, without losing any of that all-important weight. It feels like a space-specialist Gundam, counterbalancing the Gundam Ground Types from 08th MS team, with its extra ambac thrusters, compact and powerful backpack and general blue colourscheme. It’s well-used, since it shows the Federation moving to capitalise on their strengths and how desperate Zeon is at that stage of the war to stop things getting any worse. It also further demonstrates the massive power disparity between a Gundam and many of Zeon’s mobile suits, only being destroyed through great sacrifice and luck. That might just be it, the Tristan has too many recycled elements for me to look at it as it’s own thing, and it’s missing all those finer details from the Alex, so it just looks lesser by comparison. It’s little more than a charismatic grunt, compared to the absolute terrifying monster that was the Alex.

[gonk2020]

[gundamfight]

[therosecrest]

[slpytired]

Favorite mobile suits?

here's some off the top of my head:

Zeta Gundam(!!!!!), Gundam MK2, ReZEL, Byarlant Custom Unit 1, Gaplant, Sazabi, Red Rider (actually the whole Rider series of MS are really cool), Moon Gundam, Gundam Ground Type, Xi Gundam, God Gundam, Gundam Aerial, Gundam Lfrith Ur, Darilbalde, Zowort Heavy, G-Self, Gaeon, Turn A Gundam

thanks for the ask! i'm always open to talk about Gundam stuff :3

[robedruby]

HG Byarlant

[scarletlotus182]

Ok so now that it’s had time to marinate in your brain: Unicorn thoughts? Also how’s 00 going?? Don’t forget the movie!

Fuck, where do I start with Unicorn?

Uhhhh, I really loved it, of course. It's definitely one of my top Gundam series. If CCA was the ending to the "main" UC series I think Unicorn was the perfect epilogue and it perfectly represents the heart of what the series is about. People still face conflict, and yet there are those you strive for peace and understanding no matter how naive or idealistic it might be.

Banagher, as a protagonist does a great job embodying this too, imo. He's not particularly strong or talented like the other UC protagonists before him but he's honest in a way that the others aren't.

Mineva also being a main character is great given how she was a catalyst for a lot of really big events in Zeta, and I just think it's cool that a small scene in the original MSG would end up paying off with a plot point like, 30 years later. And honestly, the entire cast is great. In particular I got really attached to Marida and Zinnerman. The only character I'm kinda ehh about is Riddhe, he's just.... kinda there, and his arc feels really out of place.

I have some issues with how Marida's arc "ends", it again feels like a long line of UC tropes that just rub me the wrong way the more it happens. I think the fate of all cyber newtypes/puru clones is kinda lazy but I'll admit that I think Marida's death was handled a lot better than previous incarnations of this trope- in at least the sense that it had actual impact and felt like she had more of a presence in the series, rather than a lot of other cyber newtypes feeling like they were made to be disposed of by the narrative. That said, Marida's death hit me the most and I actually cried during that scene while I was at work. The only other character who came close to that impact was the original Puru, and I was more mad when that happened.

As for non-narrative stuff, the presentation of Unicorn was amazing. Soundtrack by Hiroyuki Sawano literally does not miss, and I think a lot of the CGI holds up pretty well. There are a couple sequences that look kinda off but none that really stand out to me. The MS designs all fuck supremely, I love the Delta Plus and the Jegans, especially love the Geara Zulus and their very "wolfenstein" look. The fact that they carry Mobile Suit STG-44s is also rad as fuck. Unicorn even manages to make a lot of the older suits look really good and have some moment to shine, like the scene with the old Zeon suits raiding the EFF base before the Byarlant of all things taking them down.

I think my favorite scene in the series though is when Banagher uses destroyer mode to hold onto the tether and the Sleeves' carrier. That scene was actually Peak.

I'll probably talk about 00 when I finish season2 and then again when I finish the movie, but I'll say I'm loving it a LOT. I can see why a lot of people recommend 00 if UC is too daunting of a starting point.

[buggernaut-kal]

My attempt at an Advance of Zeta primer chart! At a glance it’s super intimidating to track all of the suits it presents, and the charts I’ve seen floating around get really complicated, so I tried to make a simplified guide.

The main goal was to find the AoZ MS that have a direct link between anime MS (thank you Gundam Wiki!) and have those be the representative samples. Once you learn all AoZ designs have some relationship to one or more of a TR series design it gets a lot easier to check what variants exist. The only reason I have a variant on here (the Hazel Custom + Icarus Unit) is because it’s a direct predecessor to the Byarlant. I hope this makes it easier for folks to digest some Advance of Zeta designs, because they really are cool to look at, but they can be heard to research!

[bagea]

OHHHH they're called the "titans" because the vast arsenal of their mobile suits, (palace athene, baund doc, the o, psycho gundam(s), asshimar, gaplant, messala, byarlant, bolinoak sammahn, a ton of the aoz suits) are bigger than the zeta gundam, and the main characters mobile suits

[kocurek1921]

Short list of my all time favourite mobile suits as a pinned post:

RGM-89 Jegan and all its variations

RX-160G Byarlant Isolde

MSN-001X Gundam Delta Kai

RX-0 Unicorn Gundam in Unicorn mode

RX-124 Gundam TR-6 [Woundwort]

EB-06rs Graze Ritter Commander Type

MS-14Jg Gelgoog Jäger

GNT-0000 00 Qan[T]

RGZ-95 ReZEL

RGM-96X Jesta

Honourable mentions because I hit Tumblr's photo limit for the post:

AMS-129 Geara Zulu (Ellic Custom)

VGMM-Gf10 Gundam G-Lucifer

RIX-003 Cannongan

ZGMF-1017 GINN Insurgent Type

AGP-X1/NU Fake ν Gundam

MSM-04 Acguy

[the-real-countess]

The Byarlant is the perfect Mobile Suit don’t even trying persuading me it’s one of those overblown gundams. Any suit could do those shenanigans with a protagonist in it

[voltkaizer]

Byarlant Custom, by TAKA-F

[gundamfight]

[therosecrest]

[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