#kamaria ray

[ambafaerie]

UC Gundam protagonists should look more like their mothers than their fathers actually.

[shin-meddlesome-hero]

The guys who did the "Gundam G40" short:

"Ok, so how can we also convey in less than 10 minutes that Tomino is a little weird when it comes to maternity and evil women?"

"How about we turn Kamaria Ray into a truly evil mom who wants to force Amuro to get in the robot, and when Amuro tries to escape, she sends the Gundam after him and he hears Kamaria's disembodied voice calling him from the inside of the Gundam's empty cockpit?"

"Perfect!"

I wasn't kidding.

The Gundam as the Mother, the Child trying to run away. The Mother forcing the Child to forcibly get back to the Womb. You know, pretty normal Tomino symbolism

[suranet]

Gundam/Pokemon AU

the teams of assorted side characters in the AU.

[bornetoblood]

The episode with Amuro's mom devastated me so much I had to pause the show for two months and then the next few episodes also trampled me

But we love Gundam🎉🎉🎉

oh yeah. The way I got into Gundam was I was at home alone when some preetty bad political news came out, I was taking it badly and needed to take my mind of it. So i put the first Gundam movie on, thinking it'd be a cute little romp, maybe informative about the mecha genre in an intresting way, but I wasn't expecting it to really hit me.

So yeah the first movie ends with that sequence with Amuro and his mum. I was in tears on the floor. I thought about it for days. I still think about it. The fact that's the last time they talk...

[b0ggyb1tch]

[ambafaerie]

One of the biggest what - ifs in Amuro’s life to me is “What if Kamaria accepted her son the way he is now when they reunited?”

The novels provided a more in - depth look to Amuro’s feelings towards his mother, particularly his resentment towards Kamaria for leaving behind him to stay on Earth and starting a relationship with another man, which influenced his less than ideal view on women and relationships in general.

But he was still so happy to see her again in the show until he was rejected and although Kamaria did have some right to feel horrified at her son’s violent actions, if she had simply tried to understand him and offer her support then maybe their relationship wouldn’t have permanently fractured and maybe Amuro, knowing his mother still loves him despite everything and is still alive, wouldn’t have had another trauma added to him and his psychological state would be slightly less damaged in the following years.

[ambafaerie]

Amuro and Kamaria edit to Soldier Boy by The Shirelles.

[shin-meddlesome-hero]

Mini review: Gundam 0079 Episode 13: Coming Home

When I watched the preview of Gundam 0079 episode 13: “Coming Home” I thought that I had the general idea of what to expect: The young hero would reunite with his mother and experiment again the joys of his sheltered childhood life, he will even be tempted to remain home and stay safe. However, he has a duty to fulfill, so at the end of the episode he would leave his mother in order to continue his heroic quest while promising that he would come back once the world is saved. This type of episodes used to be common on stories depicting a young hero’s journey (off the top of my head I can mention one episode from the Saiyan Saga where Gohan manages to get back home but decides to train with Piccolo before getting to see his mom or that episode from “Remi” where the titular character leaves Mrs. Milligan -who was willing to adopt him- to continue his journey with Mr. Vitalis).

As you can expect, by the time I watched the actual episode, my expectations where upturned. If there’s something I’m starting to learn about “Gundam” is that it uses the narrative of the Hero’s Journey to hint at more bleak aspects of reality. So this particular story isn’t really about the boy who becomes a Man and therefore has to leave his mother’s side. Instead, it’s about a mother who realizes that her child has changed into someone who is able to kill without remorse, while the child doesn’t understand why his mother rejects him for doing what he knows he has to do to ensure his survival and the survival of his peers. At the end, Amuro goes on with his journey not only because it’s his duty but because at that moment, that’s the only place he belongs to. Even if his mother still lives, there’s no longer a home he can return to anymore.

The episode is a poignant story about the death of innocence. Amuro comes back to his childhood home only to find that his house is being ransacked by soldiers. Shortly after, he learns that one of the girls he used to play with when he was little has died, and his hometown is desolated. He gets to find out that his mother is alive and reunites with her only to feel her rejection after he shoots an enemy soldier in order to protect himself and the other refugees. He later goes on to vent his frustration by attacking a nearby enemy base (and presumably killing even more people).

Meanwhile, Kamaria asks why such a sweet child like his son grew up to become someone who has no regards for human life. She wonders if it’s because Amuro was raised by a man (which is preposterous because we all know that women can also raise their children into murderers #feminism /j), of course what this actually means is that she feels terribly guilty for staying on Earth instead of following her family to space, and now she doesn’t know how to face the grim reality of seeing her son turned into someone she can’t recognize anymore.

We as the audience, have seen that Amuro’s not a heartless soldier yet. His transformation has been gradual and it has taken a toll on him that manifests in severe stress and trauma. He knows that he’s killing people and has great trouble to do so when the enemy doesn’t take the form of faceless Zakus and battleships that he can destroy without any conscious remorse. But he’s unable to articulate what’s happening to him, so any chance to communicate with his mother is nullified. Mother and son are unable connect with each other and thus, they can’t be together. Amuro goes back to the only people that may understand him and Kamaria is left alone with her guilt and regret. From then on, Amuro would have to go on wherever his journey takes him even if there’s no hope that he’ll have a normal life ever again. And that’s what happens to everyone that gets involved in war.

Overall this was a great episode offering an excellent character study and a reflection of how war irrevocably changes people and the horror of seeing a loved one turning into the opposite of what once they stood for.

Also this happened to be the Swimsuit Episode for some reason, so there’s that…