Final Thoughts on the Pacific Rim: Final Breach (and franchise)
Love how Tumblr affirmed my feelings about this comic. I've been thinking about it a little for the last couple of days, along with engaging with the community, so I want to just vomit out my thoughts on where the whole franchise is going, along with some things I missed in my review.
Pacific Rim (the first movie) is something you can write a literary essay on. All other installments are corporate slop shoveled into the mouths of hungry fans. If you have followed this blog for a while, you would know I'm a huge fan of Chuck and Herc Hansen and their Jaeger Striker Eureka, even though they are side characters. Why? Because their lore is cool and their characters have depth! I genuinely can't name any characters that are like that after the first movie. Speaking of, what's with the Chuck erasure? Why has he not been mentioned since the first movie?
I completely forgot that 'Final Breach' was a fan-funded comic. I remember being so excited seeing the GoFundMe- because finally! More PR content! Only for it to turn out like this. Just going to bullet point my thoughts about the comic and franchise from here on out.
What I meant in my first review about me being glad that Newt died was that it was the only "logical" conclusion to the whole stupid premise of "kaiju-taking-over-his-mind" thing in the second movie. What is NOT logical is the whole death scene (where the dialogue does not sound natural whatsoever), and the only thing Hermann has to say is "goodbye, old friend" and promptly moves on. Mind you, they have known each other for DECADES (I think by that point around 3 to 4 decades, but don't quote me) and went through very traumatic events with each other. They clearly don't care about legacy characters.
Raleigh with a beard is probably one of the worst things in the comic. Oh, and the fact that he is a kaiju now, but you can't tell by his appearance or anything, and the whole explanation doesn't make sense.
What happened to Jaegers looking unique and realistic? Remember the good old days when you could actually tell them apart via visual design and movements, and they didn't look like the same bunch of pentagons?
It should've ended at the first movie and some of the comics, sorry. Not everything needs to be a franchise! Especially when you are dumbing it down to be big robot fight big monster. Do you think something like the lore book 'Man, machines, and monsters could work with the second film or The Black?
Already put this in another post but I'm going to say this again: After Final Breach, the Pacific rim community needs to realize that we’ll only be satisfied when we come together and create our own comic/rewrite. Do yall remember the zine that came out a while back from @edgeofhopezine?
Look how cool this is! So many talented and amazing artists and writers in the fandom are, who care a lot more than the company. I will hold out hope for the prequel series, though.
An Op-Ed to Legendary upon reading Volume One of ‘Final Breach.’
***Edit: Re-blogged to share an update below***
As you lovely folks no doubt know, the first volume of the Pacific Rim sequel to Uprising to conclude the story has been released in digital format and us poor souls who backed it have been sent digital copies. To say it’s a travesty is putting it lightly. While I know it’s not likely to be read by anyone at Legendary, I decided to express my views. In case anyone would like to read what I sent them, I’ve put the text below the cut. Please be advised there are spoilers and frank language describing what happens in the comic which some may find disturbing.
To anyone else who backed this and wishes to express their dissatisfaction, if you log in, and navigate to ‘updates,’ there is a form saying: If you have any issues, click here to direct message us so that we can help! This prompts a message saying “Send a message To:Legendary Comics.” By Jove, don’t mind if I do…
I’m also going to try the public comments section but I’m certain my comment will be moderated and not see the light of day.
I don’t necessarily think it will be read by Legendary or make any difference. However, we fans funded this project and if I paid a painter to paint my house and they dumped a can of paint on the floor, I’d express my dissatisfaction as well.
Without further ado, here’s what I sent:
I am compelled to write this after reading volume one of Final Breach and to express my deep disappointment in the project.
The first Pacific Rim movie is beloved because it is a story about human connection through crisis, and about how different types of love and relationships, while occasionally complex, have the power to be greater than the sum of their parts. The giant robots punching monsters were just a (very cool) bonus. This is why the popularity of the movie re-spiked during the pandemic: we all needed a story about the world coming together through global adversity.
All your subsequent iterations of this franchise have missed that mark. The fans stayed with you through a complicated relationship with Uprising, which notably featured child soldiers and a plotline that took a beloved hero from the first movie (Newt), subjected him to nonconsensual possession with no redemption, and took another beloved hero of the first movie (Mako) and fridged her unnecessarily for the “male hero pain” of her newly arrived brother character.
We, the fans, backed this project. We wanted you to fix the sins of Uprising with this comic. I feel you have failed us.
If you were to have looked at Pacific Rim fan interactions online, you would have no doubt noticed a significant lean towards the beloved fan-favourite characters of Newt and Hermann. One of the many reasons these characters have had an enduring impact on fans is their positioning as heroes despite falling well outside traditional heroic stereotypes. They are intellectuals and a little off-beat, but they are not ridiculed or othered for their “nerdiness” or potential neuro-atypical characteristics, alongside a healthy dose of queer coding (with Hermann Gottlieb being a clear homage to Alan Turing and Newt falling outside typical male masculine norms in almost every way).
To therefore have abandoned and reduced the character of Newt to a few pages, which reveal that he is, in fact, still alive and still being held hostage and mentally tortured for years, only for Hermann to acknowledge this and then kill him anyway, is, quite frankly, a travesty of story-telling.
What follows is a one-page, extremely graphic death by electrocution, after which we get one panel of Hermann standing by the smoldering corpse of Newton and saying the narrative equivalent of “woah, tough break bruh,” only to show up on the next page all business, with all traces of apparent sadness gone. This is slipshod writing and a callous abandonment of, honestly, both characters. You gave Newt a horrific on-screen death which disrespects and tosses aside the character, his entire narrative arc, and his potential for redemption, especially after the revelation that he is, in fact, still alive. Hermann Gottlieb’s character gets a more silent (and less graphic) death: the death of realistic depictions of humanity, guilt, or grief. You single-handedly ruined both characters in one fell swoop.
You have fundamentally misunderstood what fans love about this story.
Why is it relevant to mention the Pacific Rim fanbase? Because we funded this project. I’ll say it again: we funded this project. And as a fan who funded this project, I have to express my disappointment.
I have no idea if this will be read, but it needed to be expressed. If you have, in fact, read this, then I thank you for your time and implore you to take better care with the television series (or go ahead and retcon the further sins of this travesty of a comic; the fans will not begrudge you for this, I promise).
Do your research. Talk to fans. Understand why the first movie is a beloved classic. Do the things you did not do when laying out the story for this comic. We are the reason you met your funding goal, and we hoped for better.
Boy, where do I start with this? Apologies for the random ordering. I just need to get my thoughts out with this.
Part 1: THE ART/CHARACTER DESIGNS
Listen, I'm not one to judge art when I can barely draw a stick figure. But I seriously didn't like the art in this book. It got better towards the end (I believe they switched artists), but it was still pretty mid.
^is it me, or does this not look like the same dude
The Jaeger designs are also not good. At least in the movie, the Jaegers, while being unrealistic in comparison to the first movie, were pleasant to look at.
Also, Raleigh with a beard makes me sick, and not in a good way. Maybe I'm just distrustful of men with beards, but he looks like he climbed his way out of a rainforest after his plane crashed. Get a razor bro!
PART 2: THE PLOT
Alright, just going to rapid-fire my thoughts
The writing isn't bad, I just find the premise stupid
THE BREACH IS CLOSED. THE BREACH IS CLOSED. WHY ARE WE TRYING TO OPEN IT BACK UP TO TRY AND GET TO THEM
No explanation in the world will ever be reasonable to me about the above. Didn't the world spend a ton of money and a bunch of people die in order for the breach to close? Are we just ignoring the first movie? Ok.
If drone technology exists, WHY ARE WE SENDING ACTUAL PEOPLE DOWN THERE TO PILOT THE JAEGERS? Congratulations on getting dozens of pilots (who most likely had prior Jaeger piloting experience) killed.
In my Substack article about how the second movie doesn't make sense, I was wondering how the program was still getting funded (because the PPDC was basically defunded with an actual threat going on). I'm glad that it was stated that their funding was getting pulled, especially since there hadn't been any new incidents happening.
Honestly, I'm not mad about Newt dying. If it were me, I would've nerfed him immediately after he was captured, and the world would've moved on. This is a day of mourning for the Newmann shipers.
The fact that Raleigh and Jake have a 100% on the neural handshake- maybe this is just a nitpick, but I personally think that after 20 years Raleigh would've struggled, even if it was the smallest bit, and especially with a guy he doesn't know.
Nitpick #2: In the year 2026, I think that the main Jaeger should be named more creatively (especially not including a slur!). I do think being able to break apart into two Jaegers is cool, though.
Nitpick #3: Since it blew up like a nuclear bomb, shouldn't Striker Eureka be completely destroyed? Like, no parts left? I don't understand why anything is even left on the bottom of the ocean (and in the comic 'Aftermath' (I believe), Jake was able to interface with the drift core and see Stacker's last memories and thoughts. How was it still intact well enough for him to be able to do that, let alone safely?)
Speaking of Striker Euerka, no mention of Herc? Maybe in the later volumes, he'll be mentioned, but he was named the acting Marshall. Not to mention all the years he was a Jaeger pilot: you guys don't want his expertise?)
I do think the panel in Raleigh seeing Mako's picture was very sweet.
But speaking of Raleigh, the kaiju DNA thing was that bad. It's better than him dying of cancer as the novel suggested.
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When volume 2 comes out, I'll do a review too. But yeah, just wanted to get my thoughts out.
Conn-Pod: The pilots' control center, located inside the Jaeger's head.
Pilot Motion Rig: The mechanical frame the pilots stand in to control the Jaeger. Also known as the Pinocchio Rig.
Drivesuit: The two-layered suit worn by the pilots. The first layer is called the circuitry suit.
Circuitry suit: The first layer of the drivesuit; it's black with gold circuitry.
Feedback Cradle: The metal plate that bolts to the backs of their drivesuits. It transmits tactile feedback into the pilots' nervous systems via the circuitry suit.
Data Relay Gel: A yellow fluid inside the circuitry suit, inserted at launch.
Pons System: The system that links the pilots' minds together.
Muscle Strands: Steel cables that act act as muscles in the Jaeger's body.
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