post-scarcity gundam socialism

21 - he/him/xe/xem - jewish- neurodivergent, chronically pained star wars, TTRPGs, gundam, dune, 40k

[tictacpbandai]

There's a specific quote from Amuro in Zeta gundam that's been like, haunting me and how it relates to the like, perception and treatment of newtypes in gundam fandom. It's from ep37, The Day of Dakar but it's not from Char's speech or from the scene of Char and Amuro in the hallway, no it's from the start of the episode when the AEUG and KARABA members are getting ready to deploy and sneak into the assembly when Kamille and Amuro are talking about Beltorchika and Amuro says

with Kamille responding

it kind of, idk, puts into stark relief the reality of what a newtype is in gundam. It's understanding, it's awareness, but it's not specifically the psychic awareness of others wills and emotions. It's awareness of history, of impact, of consequences, of the world. It's, people like to like, write off newtypes as weird space magic, a relic of the 70s and 80s sci-fi and the obsession with future magic psychics and science indistinguishable from magic, hope for the future and all. But it's, they're both more and less deep than that and more thematically relevant than that conception belays.

Tomino harps so much on the ability of youths to shape the world and escape the cycle of conflict and death and the perpetuation of violent masculinity within the system but the point of newtypes is to highlight what is required for that and the toll that take..... and the way that those systems of violence punish, abuse, and appropriate the power of those who have that awareness more so than any others................

[4everfour]

so much of char's counterattack just falls apart if you consider that char actually wants to do any of it or was genuinely planning to do that from the beginning of zeta. like, don't get me wrong, his ass was totally planning to drop axis on the earth, he wasn't going to back out of doing it. but also she's just so resigned to humanity failing itself and failing its future that it becomes the only way to push his ideals forward because that's the only thing he knows how to do since he has nothing else in his life

it's an overestimation of char's abilities tbh to be like "oh he always wanted to do that" and i think so much of CCA shines because it's such an annoying cry for help. the way he goes to the window to think, "amuro, i'm doing something extremely wicked" for no real discernable reason in the middle of buying off the federation... and the entire first 30 minutes of CCA is literally everyone that worked with char during zeta interacting with each other and hashing out a repeat of the conversation: "hey, there's no fucking way char's going to actually do this, right?" "hey, this seems so out of character, right?" i mean cmon. the whole thing feels like a last ditch-effort and also a suicide attempt (that char doesn't even actually know is a suicide attempt because she doesn't know herself either)

even amuro who has had his mind literally melded with char, who has seen char's inner mind, who knows all of its workings and why he thinks the things he does, is like "hey. there's no way you're going to do this right?" which also i love because the entire dynamic of char and amuro is built off of the newtype ideals of them supposedly being able to 100% get each other inside and out, but the systems of war and enemy ideology prevents that from ever amounting to anything actually meaningful especially after lalah dies. in the last moments of CCA amuro is still completely fucking baffled by char & ultimately that's how humanity is able to reject and repel the axis drop. you can crawl inside of someone's skin and understand them entirely but it still isn't enough to save them, it still isn't enough to take that back with you and into your own body in a meaningful way when the world pits you against each other, when your values prevent that communication. you still have to kill the person you get the most in the world. you still go back to who you are and look at them and say "i don't understand you"

and that's exemplified more in CCA because all of CCA is built on char playing a role she doesn't even want. in zeta before she makes the huge broadcast speech to turn the tides in the favor of the AEUG she remarks to amuro how politicizing on such a huge scale makes her feel like she's going to play the part of a clown. bright keeps him off of the battlefield after that big speech is given because all of a sudden char has turned into a figurehead for the AEUG overnight and him dying on the battlefield will kill their momentum. char is always like "hey, send me out there in the hyaku shiki to help kamille," and they never do.

cut to CCA where char's all ready to go for speech #39840324 with his hair slicked back out of his face and wearing his uniform saying "i feel like a clown." char believe he is right but he also doesn't want to do it. it's just a matter of him picking 'being right' over 'wanting' anything because simply char hasn't been allowed to get anything he 'wants' and so he doesn't know how to do it anymore. the only person who can provide him that comfort is literally amuro because of their newtype connection.

against all odds char feels slightly indebted to amuro for being the only person who's been able to decimate all of his masks so who else is even going to be allowed to kill him? no one else will be killing char for "Being Char" dying at the hands of anyone else it would simply be killing "the guy who is trying to blow up earth." only amuro is allowed that privilege because char can't let down his guard around anyone else; he doesn't know how to & that's the whole crux of reccoa's arc in zeta

idk i just like it. people who watch CCA and think "why did he do any of that it makes no sense" yeah that's the point. you're supposed to be sided with amuro and everyone who doesn't want earth to fucking explode kdjflkjds you're supposed to align with the power of humanity literally repelling axis, saying, "i don't get you, char!" and in that way you have given your soul to the aurora that allows earth to keep on existing

[x-wingisaac]

[x-wingisaac]

One of the captivating things about Andor's tonal grief is the places we never go back to.

Once Cass & friends leave Ferrix, we never see it again. Kenari, Aldhani, Narkina, and most hauntingly Ghorman- once the characters leave, there's no going back.

The excellent production design made these places tactile, vivid, real. And then, once the characters survive the horrors and count their dead, the places are left behind. And we grieve them just the same. When Cassian and Vel toast to their lost, they toast to Ferrix, the Dhanis and Aldhani itself.

Star Wars is a franchise that struggles to leave just about anything behind, its places among them. How many times have we returned to Tatooine, somehow the most galactically important middle-of-nowhere? It's evident in the RotJ special edition and TRoS celebration montages, and in the countless video games, comics, and series that keep finding contrived ways to return to the same five-or-so planets, even those presented as specifically backwater or secluded.

But Andor makes us familiar with these spaces, planets, peoples and cultures, and lets their stories end in potent uncertainty. And it's more powerful than seeing what became of them. Cassian's life and story is one of constant displacement and motion. We feel it.

It all comes to mind as I face my own displacement from a location and community that I loved and hoped to be able return to. My path ahead will be a change, but it looks stable. It's not the end of the world, or of my world, but it is an ending. The nooks and crannies and oddities I'll never see again. The faces and names that might be sequestered to memory. There's a bell you'd ring to mark the end of your time there, and I never did get to ring it myself.

Sisyphus learns to push a new boulder. One always finds one's burden again.

Cassian's ashes will never be bricked.

Bail bids the force be with him.

Can't toast them all, can we?

[qqchurch]

[kaxtwenty]

"My condolences to the souls of those who get caught in the crossfire."

"Forgive us."

[x-wingisaac]

seeing Hathaway Part 2 in the theater with a friend in just a couple mins, so excited

[x-wingisaac]

utter peak

[x-wingisaac]

seeing Hathaway Part 2 in the theater with a friend in just a couple mins, so excited

[x-wingisaac]

Here I am.

Here I remain.

[x-wingisaac]

tomodachar life

[x-wingisaac]

put Char Aznable on my Tomodachi Life island

[ferhog]

Watching the original Gundam series after originally watching the movie trilogy version years ago is a funny experience, because it's like watching the original Star Wars except now it's in TV show format and the Millennium Falcon crew are stopping on a different planet every week on their way to Alderaan and Darth Vader shows up every time but some lucky turn of events drives him away making him go "Drat! I'll get you next time, Millennium Falcon!"

[x-wingisaac]

Don't cry anymore, because someone out there's waiting for you now, and they're dying to see you.

[x-wingisaac]

After War Gundam X is absolute, thorough peak and every UC Gundam fan needs to watch it.

If ever there was a thesis on Newtypes, on what Gundam has been saying this whole time, it is AWGX and its just so good

[azertyrobaz]

How's that caf, partner?

[x-wingisaac]

The divorced DILF noir detective x droid partner yaoi needs to happen but Disney is too cowardly to let it free.

Let them kiss. Let it in! Let it run! Let it run wild!

[x-wingisaac]

Shagia Frost told me the Freeden keeps killing his strange veteran mobile suit pilots so I asked how many pilots he has and he said he just goes to the woods and gets a new pilot afterwards so I said it sounds like he's just feeding pilots to Garrod and then Olba started crying.

[x-wingisaac]

[x-wingisaac]

I feel like most of the footage we've seen in the Dune part 3 trailer is going to be in the first 20-30 mins of the film. Like the opening is going to be showing us the extent of Paul's jihad, and the timeskip to Messiah is going to come partway in.

I have a feeling that we haven't seen the meat of the film just yet, and that leaves me very excited.