#g-quacks

[anhilliator1]

Quick note on the GquuuuuuX's Head -

Look closely.

It has teeth.

[wordsandrobots]

That's a point actually.

In Gundam's Universal Century timeline, there is a distinction between 'bits' and 'funnels' when it comes to psycommu weaponry (that is, remote-controlled weapons directed via psychic power transmitted across wibble-physics particle fields).

A 'bit' is a fully-realised drone with its own internal generator and rocket engine, as deployed by mobile amours like the Elmeth. These tend to be quite large, comparable to the wire-guided turrets of the earlier Braw Bro.

A 'funnel' is a more refined version of the same technology, trading the generator for a capacitor, allowing them to be scaled down at the cost of operating time. While bits are generally overly large to be mounted on a mobile suit, ten or more funnels can be comfortably stored aboard a single 'suit. I believe the Qubeley was the first on-screen 'suit to come equipped with funnels (expanded universe stuff has put a whole lot in between the Elmeth and the Qubeley, but Zeta itself is pretty restrained with its psycommu machines' abilities).

(Side note: the massive fin-funnels on the Nu Gundam mess up this nice, neat distinction, since they have on-board generators. Technically, they should be called bits! But I suppose we can attribute that to the Federation lagging behind Neo Zeon when it comes to this technology and ripping of their enemies' work.]

Now, because funnels are much simpler, much more cost-effective and - most importantly - allow for easier rendition of cool fast-paced swarm-tactics, UC Gundam has tended to emphasise them over their clunkier predecessors. The Psycho Gundam Mk II uses 'reflector bits', implying these are generator-equipped devices, but this aside, it's much more likely to encounter someone shouting 'funnels' as they unleash a zippy storm of fast, battery-powered laser guns.

However, with the red Gundam in Gundam: GQuuuuuux sporting bits ripped straight off the Elmeth (we'll see how literal that is in due course, I suppose), it got me wondering how much this naming convention has been carried forward to the rest of the franchise.

The Rose Bits used by Gundam Rose (that's the French one) in Mobile Fighter G Gundam are designed as smaller versions of the Elmeth's bits, with a floral twist. Although the Rose carries a seemingly limitless supply of these things, there's no reason to assume they are meant to be mere funnels: the tech level in G Gundam is *way* higher than the UC (or the cartoon logic dial is turned way up, your choice), so miniaturising fully self-contained drones would presumably be trivial.

G Fighter also introduces an additional category of somewhat-related weaponry that will be carried forward into the next series, Gundam Wing - a fully remote-controlled mobile suit.

The Death Army are kind of on the border with this, since while they technically have pilots, those people have been subsumed by the Devil Gundam's nanotechnology. It's also not clear to what degree they act independently and to what degree they are merely extensions of the DG. However, Wing's mobile doll system is far more cleanly a case of an on-board computer running a mobile suit sans human pilot, with dolls either acting autonomously or while directed by a central operator.

Wing also features the Mercurius mobile suit and its 'planet defensors', which are closest we see to traditional bits or funnels in the After Colony setting. These disc-shaped drones can detach from the Mercurius in order to project a forcefield to deflect those pesky beam attacks (something some iterations of UC funnels are also capable of).

Like funnels, these rely on regular recharging to remain operational. They're also the start of a sub-tradition for the AU series to present drone weapons that are almost but not quite reiterations of the UC originals. Gundam SEED's DRAGOON system will continue this later.

Returning to the release order, Gundam X sees bits evolve to one natural end-point: the Flash System and the Bit Mobile Suits. Combining the mobile doll idea with the psycommu concept, these see fully-functional mecha slaved to a manned 'suit, allowing a single psychic to become an army.

Which is great, in terms of maintaining a consistent classification scheme, since mobile suits certainly fit the criteria of 'possessing an on-board generator'. However Gundam X also gives us the Vertigo (OK, Bertigo if we're going to insist on official names), an equivalent of the Qubeley equipped with a swarm of . . . bits. I mean, they're funnels. They are the same idea, with a very slightly altered design, animated in an identical manner. If funnels are named for their shape, that would equally apply here. But it doesn't.

And it makes sense. This is the same technology as the bit mobile suits, in story; why would they be referred to differently? So we get a simplification of the terminology that is then carried forward into most subsequent non-UC series.

Gundam 00 refers to drone weaponry as either 'bits' or 'fangs', the distinction being somewhat opaque but apparently hinging on how stabby the individual units are. They're otherwise identical in concept, relying on stored power, housed on a mobile suits, controlled by 'quantum brain waves' (or a handy robot sidekick), and enabling fast-paced swarm tactics.

Gundam: The Witch from Mercury likewise features 'GUND-bits', coming in both funnel-like and full mobile suit forms, the former of which sees a return to forcefield projection and of bit-on-bit/funnel-on-funnel combat.

Overall, I think it's a fairly logical progression. 'Funnels' makes total sense when you see a Qubeley or its derivatives, but is otherwise an somewhat odd term, whereas 'bits' naturally implies component parts or separable units.

Now, the only question left is whether GQuuuuuux will be written with sufficient nerdishness to not only depict bit vs funnel combat, but take the time to provide a breakdown of the difference between the two types of drone.

[seinaet]

gquuuuuux looking kinda neat 👀

[wordsandrobots]

Current minor-major quibble with GQuuuuuuX:

Why isn't killing people in the sport battles where you're only supposed to chop off the enemy mobile suits' heads a bigger deal?

I don't mean in the characters-confront-the-harsh-reality-of-war sense. I mean in the oh-shit-pack-it-up-boys-we-need-to-run-like-hell-or-we're-all-going-to-jail-forever sense. As @thedancingwalrus-blog noted last week, the Pomeranians seem remarkably sanguine about one of their team executing an opponent on live TV when we haven't really had much indication this is meant to be more than a particularly risky game. I get that the Side 6 authorities aren't being depicted in the best light here, but you'd think someone somewhere in the political establishment would be a little leery of getting a reputation as the place where murder is legal so long as you do it in giant, public-property-endangering robots.

It's just one of those details that is bugging me, especially now it's happened twice and indications are it's not likely to upset the status quo on its own.

[wordsandrobots]

You know, I was wondering how GQuuuuuux intended to convey its alternate 0079 backstory without bringing the momentum to a screeching halt. Would we get it in snippets? Would it be a quick opening narration? Would it be where the show started, ala Witch From Mercury's prologue?

I never would have bet on option 2: they just whole-heartedly paused the plot not even two episodes in for a half-hour flashback.

It's a choice! It's most definitely a choice. And I mean, if Bandai handed you all the money to make a Gundam show, why wouldn't you spend at least some of it lavishly animating your AU fanfic in full?

Sure, this could have been a five minute narrated summary told via Challia explaining his deal to one of the kids he's currently babysitting, maybe conveniently glossing over certain conversations with That Guy that we the audience are privy to, and you would have had exactly the same contribution to the story achieved here by suspending every single plot-hook set up in in episode 1. Yes, it's an excellent argument for the utility of telling over showing in such cases. But at, hey, least we got to see some nice aesthetic call-backs to the original show (those backgrounds were gorgeous and I am loving the newtype flashes). That's worth it, right?

This probably sounds overly sarcastic and it kind of is, although I must stress this isn't coming from a place of dislike so much as an appreciation for how audaciously bad a decision this was, story-telling wise. I'm sure it works much better in movie form (although even then: did they put this in the same place?! Please tell me they made this the actual start instead).

It's just that, as someone firmly in the 'I'll give a fig about this show when I find out what the actual plot is' camp, it is extremely funny to see them drop the Sword of Damocles that was always going to hang over the premise so early and with such thorough disregard for episodic storytelling.

(If you want an actual early-doors criticism, it's that I'm dubious of elevating Char from his canonical position as the dunce of the original crop of newtypes. It's very significant in the original UC that he struggles to keep pace with his supposed brethren all the way through to CCA. He's the greatest pilot alive . . . right up until Amuro hits his stride and Lalah comes on the scene. And I don't think this version of events properly sold the idea handing Char the Gundam would change that: wouldn't it make things much too easy for him, removing the intense struggle Amuro goes through to develop his powers and therefore, ironically, neutralising a key part of OG Char's entire philosophy? I don't know, perhaps this is me misreading the original and therefore this alternate take on events, but it always struck me that Char getting repeatedly overshadowed by others was pretty key to his character.)

[wordsandrobots]

Well here dies my last remaining hope G-Quuuuuux was building to having anything resembling a point of its own.

And Lalah is doomed forever, not because of the exact circumstances, people and mistakes that intersected to create a moment of tragic horror, all possibility cut short in a foolhardy instant, but because there never was any other possibility and never will be. Just the same story, looped endlessly, to no purpose.

People think the ending of Zeta is bleak. It's got nothing on this.

[wordsandrobots]

A round-up of this week's aesthetic observations on the Gundam franchise in lieu of writing another (three) long post(s).

My repulsion from the Build series isn't, I think, solely rooted in the weird corporate-ness of the the premise but also the co-opting of visual language intended to convey mortal peril and its usage for weightless fluff. That is to say, the fights always seem to be animated identically to a 'proper' Gundam show, even though Build goes out of its way to remind the viewer this is simulation. It's not like you can't wring drama out of 'harmless' games (*cough* Yu-Gi-Oh! *cough*), just that I don't think 'it's like real Gundam fighting (except it isn't)' is the best way to render an e-sport.

The main problem with the GQuuuuuuX is the utterly atrocious colour-blocking. The design *is* a bit needlessly fiddly but that's only an issue because they've gone so granular with the layout of the deco. No single block dominates, so there's nothing for the eye to catch a hold of and work out from. Compared to something like the Aerial, the G-Self or the Turn A, or even the Wing, where the extra detail and greebles/redesigns are muted by very straightforward blocking, the GQuuuuuuX is constantly at risk of becoming a confused jumble of bits. The fact the thrusters merge so readily with the arms is particularly jarring when trying to keep track of its movement (or just looking at it in static poses, as in the HG kit advertising pictures). Everything smudges and none of the shapes are distinct enough to escape the morass on their own.

This is galling because I quite like the actual structure of the thing. I wonder if it could have been improved by dialling up the contrast on the colours, but I suspect they really just needed to wash out the detail with larger blocks of blue and white. The original scheme works well for a reason.

Also there is a spectrum of Gundam reinvention that goes from 'RX-78 but different' to 'hit the mecha randomiser' and someone should have a go at plotting that graph some day.

[anhilliator1]

Is that a HEAT HAWK?