First Impressions / Gundam

Summary:

With Marina about to get shot, Klaus fires first and kills both of the security forces men. Shirin then leads Marina and the children into an underground tunnel, and along the way, she offers Marina a gun. Marina, however, refuses to take it because she knows that if she did, then she wouldn’t be able to look straight into the eyes of the children. Up in space, the Gundam Meisters and the Ptolemaios crew prepare for the coming A-LAWS attack. There are only 12 A-LAWS mobile suits, but Sumeragi is sure that reinforcements will come, so she warns everyone to stay alert. Setsuna’s goal for this battle is to reunite Saji with Louise, and while he engages the enemy force, he tells Saji to look for Louise’s mobile suit. When Revive fires at the 00 Raiser, Setsuna dodges and sends Tieria against the Innovator. As predicted, more A-LAWS units spon arrive, so Sumeragi has the Arios and the Cherudim fight them. Soma doesn’t stick with Allelujah though and instead goes off on her own looking for Andrei. Lyle, on the other hand, decides to use his shield bits in assault mode, and he’s able to make short work of four opponents with it.

Meanwhile, at his base, Ribbons finds out from Hilling that the 00 Gundam is taking part in the battle. Based on Veda’s forecast, Ribbons thinks that Setsuna’s cellular abnormality should have reached a fatal level, and he wonders if this is related to the Twin Drive and if this means that the change has started. Back in the battle, Saji hasn’t been able to find Louise’s mobile suit, but he does notice two suspicious meteoroids near the Ptolemaios. When he and Setsuna get attacked by Hilling, Setsuna activates the Trans-Am system, blows up the arms of Hilling’s mobile suit, and then races back towards the ship. In doing so, they fill the battlefield with particles, and everyone is able to hear their thoughts. This also has the effect of bringing out Hallelujah. Setsuna and Saji are able to make it back in time to keep the Ptolemaios from firing on the two mobile suits that appear from the meteorites because one of them is Louise’s. Andrei tries to stop the 00 Raiser from reaching Louise, but he’s easily tossed aside, and Saji then calls out to her.

With the 00 Raiser and Louise’s Ahead right next to each other and covered in particles, Saji and Louise find themselves on a platform overlooking the Earth. Saji remembers how they had looked down on the Earth like this five years ago, and it was because of that that he decided to work in space. He tries to appeal to Louise to return to how they used to be, but she feels that she can’t. Pointing a gun at him, Louise explains that she devoted herself to achieving a unified world and a lasting peace. For her, that means defeating Celestial Being and avenging her parents, and if Saji gets in her way, she claims that she’ll shoot him. Saji, however, knows that Louise was not this kind of girl, and he refuses to believe that she changed herself to be this way. He knows that she is a gentle person who studied hard to go to space, is selfish and clumsy, and gets lonely easily. Confident that she won’t shoot him, he approaches Louise and gets her to lower the gun. When he hugs her, Louise remembers how her family died and how she was left without a left arm. Back in reality, Louise is unable to handle all this and starts screaming as Andrei tries to come to her rescue.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, Revive and Tieria are still facing off, and Tieria finally decides to activate the Seravee’s Trans-Am. Revive is forced to eject right before the Gadessa explodes, but instead of getting away, he’s caught by the Seraphim Gundam. The 00 Raiser meanwhile reaches the limit on its Trans-Am, but Soma then joins the fight against Andrei. She wants to know why he killed Sergei, however Andrei is doesn’t answer and instead wants to know why she’s alive. With the Arios coming to help, Andrei decides to retreat, and he takes Louise with him. Soma tries to give chase, but she’s held back by Allelujah, and ultimately it’s Saji who convinces her to stop. Saji feels that even if they get revenge, they can’t bring anyone back from the dead – it would only add to the sadness. Unbeknownst to the Gundam Meisters, Mr. Bushido had been watching the battle and is disappointed at how tepid it was. He sees this as Setsuna refusing to be his worthy rival, but he also has something in mind.

Back on Earth, Marina and Shirin emerge from the tunnel and head for a rendezvous point with Klaus. Shirin directs Marina and the children to wait in one spot while she goes ahead because she believes that Marina would just be a burden since she refuses to carry a gun. Unlike Marina, Shirin declares that she – and Katharon – are fighting. By now, the Gundam Meisters have returned to the Ptolemaios, and Setsuna finds Saji alone in a dark room. Saji surprises Setsuna by making up his mind to fight in order to get Louise back. Over on the A-LAWS ship, Andrei attributes Soma being in Celestial Being to his own father’s betrayal. When he sees Louise curled up in a ball repeating Saji’s name, he decides to carry out what he thinks she wants. On the bridge of the ship, Arthur is going over their losses and the fact that Revive was captured. Hilling, however, thinks that Arthur doesn’t understand their way of doing things, and she wants the next operation to be just them Innovators.

At that moment, Sumeragi and the Gundam Meisters are unmasking the Innovator they captured, and Revive introduces himself. On the bridge of the Ptolemaios, however, Lasse suddenly notices that the ship is going off course, and when he tells Anew, she points a gun at him. When the others question what she’s doing, she reveals that she’s an Innovator and fires. Ribbons meanwhile is feeling that the 00 Gundam is suitable only for him, and he gets Regene to agree with him. Ribbons knows that Regene isn’t sincere about that though, and he slaps and warns Regene because he knows what Regene has been up to. In space, Wang Liu Mei and Hong Long have been unable to contact the Ptolemaios, and things take a turn for the worse when they suddenly lose control of their ship. Nena then contacts them, but she’s not about to help – she instead laughs at them and explains that she’s the one responsible. Revealing her hatred for Wang Liu Mei, Nena brings out her Gundam Throne Drei and proceeds to blow up the ship.

Preview

Despite this being an action episode where Saji and Louise finally talked to each other at length, it actually ended up being the final moments that were the most exciting. Certainly a lot of cool things happened during the main battle, like Hallelujah reappearing because of the particles and Tieria using the Seraphim Gundam to capture the Gadessa’s escape pod, but without Mr. Bushido getting involved, it never really felt like the Gundams or the Ptolemaios were in any danger. In contrast, Anew’s betrayal – which I hesitate to call a betrayal because her Innovator personality was activated, so she’s not necessarily acting on her own free will – does pose a threat, especially to Lasse since he got shot and to the 00 Gundam which is apparently her target. Incidentally, I wonder if Lyle will have to shoot her now or if it’ll be someone like Soma who’s shown in the preview facing off against her and probably has no qualms about firing. Either way, I think Lyle now probably has a better chance of surviving the series than Anew does.

There were more surprises after the ED with Nena betraying Wang Liu Mei and blowing up her ship with the Gundam Throne Drei. It seemed like a rather unceremonious end to someone I expected to be around until the final couple of episodes (what with all her talk of changing the world), but I guess it’s always possible that she made it out alive somehow. As for Nena, it’s unclear to me what she gets out of this other than the satisfaction of killing someone she hates (which of course may be exactly why she did it). In this case, she’s not helping Celestial Being out since now they won’t get the location of Veda, and she doesn’t have many other places to turn to. Her return to semi-craziness also makes me think that she’ll be killed before this is all over, especially since she’s still using her old mobile suit.

As for Saji and Louise, they had a nice chat that got her all confused and him as determined as ever, but of course they can’t end up together yet – stupid Andrei always messing things up. The preview shows Louise’s new mobile armor in action though, so maybe she’s not all that confused. I also found it interesting that Saji and Setsuna have developed a pretty deep bond, and Setsuna’s role in this episode was almost entirely helping Saji get to Louise. Maybe Saji will return the favor someday. Oh and I almost forgot: of course Marina didn’t die because Klaus saved her by shooting first. I could have done without the whole thing about her not wanting to take a gun though – we know what kind of person she is and I don’t think there was a need to remind again us of that. I’m still hoping though that something interesting develops between Marina and Setsuna.

130 Comments

  8. lol, Wang Liu Mei gets what she deserved for a long time, well not the way I pictured it but still :D. Wonder what Nena do now, I’m sure she won’t join Innovators and I don’t see Celestial Being welcoming her with open arms…

    krogi
    Reply

  10. Anew is really annoying 🙁
    Yeah, this episode has lot of twists in it.
    I can’t believe Gundam Throne Drei comes back. I thought they would trash the old gundams like they did to Duel and Buster Gundam.

    Genestarwind
    Reply

  15. Go Klaus!

    Hooray some more SajixLouise action. It looks like Louise may believe Saji. I hope that’s the case. I couldn’t really understand all of the dialogue.

    Revive is a bastard. If he is indeed controlling Anew, and Lasse is dead as a result, I hope Revive dies in the most painful way possible.

    I hate Nena almost as much as Ali right now, if not more. The only reason I hate Ali more at the moment is because he killed Lockon. D: Gah. So many pseudo-plot twists.

    Akiyama
    Reply

  16. @krogi

    CB isn’t exactly in a position to turn away allies right now.

    But even if they wouldn’t take her in…I can pretty much guarantee that Katharon wouldn’t give a shit about CB’s problems with Nena, if she can help them fight the A-Laws.

    Anonymous
    Reply

  18. @Anonymous

    I get that. I’m only saying that Nena is in really strange place right now. I think that she would end up on CB side but she won’t be trusted and treated very well unless she tells them everything about Wang Liu Mei’s mischieves. She won’t end up with Katharon because she doesn’t have ANY connection there.

    krogi
    Reply

  24. Dam! Lots of twists this episode! Tell me Omni, did Wang Liu ming deliver the code telling the location of veda to the celestial being? If she didnt, then talk about quite a loss for the celestial being side. That would’ve been a purpose to Wang Liu ming, by eventually going back to the celestial being by first infiltrating the enemy (the innovators), which I guess pissed off Nena, whom also wanted to helped out the celestial being. So Nena thought she would interfere further and just killed her off, all without knowing her intentions all along! Dam talk about twists!

    X
    Reply

  31. I bet that Nena works for the Ribbons now. If that the case, it would be a good reason for Louise to change sides when she finds out. We have almost all the elements for the final bout.

    Final battle arrange (my opinion)
    Tieria Vs Ali
    Louise Vs Nena
    Lockon Vs Revival
    Setsuna & Saji Vs Ribbons
    Allelujah & Soma Vs Andrei

    Mak
    Reply

  32. I’m with Omni on this one… We can’t be sure that Wang Liu Mei is in fact dead.

    As much as this show loves killing off people, it also has a thing for keeping them alive.

    Think Patrick, Graham, Ali, etc. etc. etc… especially Patrick. Many of us thought he was dead in season but he magically came back to life.

    Res
    Reply

  33. Wah, I knew it! Anew will betray CB. But in the preview, it doesn’t seem like she is controled by Revive.
    Poor Lyle…

    Nena shows up with her Throne Drei? Phu, and she also killed Wang. She couldn’t give the information to CB, so it’s kinda bad for them that she died here.

    Oh man, I want to watch the next episode…

    Arisa
    Reply

  34. Arisa you should have seen the previous episodes where Lyle and Anew were about to kiss eachother.. she got controlled by Revive I think for a moment. And yeah I hope that Wang Lui Mei is still alive… after she’s given the mssg to CB she can die a slow and painfull death. And I wonder how Mr. Bushido will act… looking forward to the next episode.

    Cruel
    Reply

  44. Has anyone noticed that Ribbons is spending a considerable amount of time disconnected from Veda(no glowing eyes of doom)? Is that a sign that he is following his own scheme and not Aeolia plan anymore?

    Ayle
    Reply

  47. – Oh freaking yes! Hallelujah is back!
    – I guessed Revive and Anew shared the same gene. Not sure of anybody noticed – the Innovators comes in pairs. Regene & Tieria, Anew & Revive, Ribbons & Healing, Divine & bring.
    – Anew’s “betrayal” was kinda expected.
    – Wang Liu Mei can’t possibly die way that fast -.-
    – Marina, hi.

    Rie-chan
    Reply

  48. tiera what fool, he should know out of all of them that anew and revive are twins. dont forget he is the one who caught him. seriously being disconnected from veda makes innovators dumb.

    reilina
    Reply

  49. @Res: how about Sergei? Any possibility that he can make himself alive out there,some where? You know Sunrise,right? No. I don’t think Wang can die that easily. And Nena,she’s not siding on which side. I got a feeling that she may end up just like Mwu like the one on GS,which he’s trying to make his own choice.

    Piy0_Piy0
    Reply

  51. Information for those who don’t know, Innovators exist in pairs, either both males or male and female. Pairs share the same genetic properties.
    1. Ribbons Almark (Male) – Healing Care (Female)
    2. Tieria Erde (Male) – Regene Regetta (Male)
    3. Revive Revival (Male) – Anew Returner (Female)
    4. Bring Stability (Male) – Divine Nova (Male)

    Christopher
    Reply

  54. But it was clear that Anew is an Innovater. She has such a weird name and she was also seen at the end of the first season, when she was standing behind Ribbons… If you look exactle, she is also standing behind Ribbons in the 2nd OP of the 2nd season.

    Arisa
    Reply

  57. Well I found it ok for Marina to not take a gun. Somehow a gun doesn’t fit her anyway.

    Of course, this coming from someone not from the US. Here in Europe we’re more reluctant with guns anyway, so Marina’s attitude makes a lot more sense to us.

    tokugawa
    Reply

  61. Man Lyle will snap and kill all the innovators now i guess since he was in love with her or just faking love so he could get close and learn her secrets also a valid possibility
    but it’s all good. Setsuna will rape all their asses can’t wait for next ep to see some more action like this one.

    Chrome
    Reply

  62. @Tokugawa
    Marina might sooner or later pick up a gun if those children she cares about end up dead REVENGE seems to be the theme in this series almost everyone in this series wants revenge or has already their revenge Saji tried to bring Louise back but i think he is wasting his time louise is confused and might have a split personality she torn between Saji and wanting Revenge with plot twist that keep coming at the end of every episode, it is most likel that this series is going to have a bittersweet ending thats if they are not aiming for season 3 and even though there might be one of those cliffhangers that have you saying WTF at end. Ribbons obviously isn,t happy that Regene is
    straying off the innovator’s path and slaps her Wang liu Mei is most likely alive thanks to her hong long therefore resulting in his own death i think Anderi will kill himself because Louise chose Saji over him just my theory.

    Peter Rice
    Reply

  63. EPIC EPISODE.
    I loved Tieria vs. Hilling, so cool.
    LOL, It was funny when Andrei tried to block 00 Gundam from getting to Lousie…he yelled “Gundam” and a sec later he got knocked to the side XD
    ANDREI DIE.

    But yeah, I think Nena might join up with CB, but I’m not sure if she can be trusted….She was a bit crazy with her laugh at the end though haha

    redX
    Reply

  70. Where’s Ali Al-Saachez? I want to see him come in as Ribbons is trying to enact this other plan of his, kill him and say something like “Sorry boss, but I love war, and your way seems like a road to peace, and I’m just not going to let that happen.” Then he laughs like an maniac over Ribbons body and says, “Now who else should I kill today.”

    pjay
    Reply

  73. This sets up Louise to join CB because she’s out to avenge her family; who was killed by Nena, Nena now works for Ribbons, Ribbons controls the A-Laws and the Federation. So if she is truly out to avenge her family she will defect very soon. Hopefully she shoots Nena right in the back as she goes, seeing the Drei and remembering everything. Unfortunately, that mobile armor she rocking isn’t gonna last long without a refill so it might be a scene reminiscent of Hilde going to Dou from Gundam Wing, maybe she’ll bring the data on Veda with her.

    JLaP
    Reply

  77. Somehow, I think the main message here was Saji holding back Peries/Marie. It’s a bit underrepresented, but what he said actually makes the most sense. Getting revenge is no solution and is only an egoistic way to temporarily feel better – it neither solves anything nor does it provide any form of “justice”.

    I think Gundam 00 has especially shown that revenge – even if seen as “justified” from a single perspective – has a far more negative impact on the global scale. The chain of “avenging someone dear to you” would never end, because in the end every single person has people who hold them dear and would have “reason” for revenge. Conflict therefore would never stop if revenge was any method of “justice”.

    I hope they will emphasize on this thought in the upcoming episodes.

    tokugawa
    Reply

  78. Char:
    Just like Saji/Katz? ^^’

    Those are some insightful words, Ieyasu. Dunno if Lyle may fall into the trend though (with his probable “Shoot the Dog” of Anew and going after Revive), since some eps ago he said “Fight for the future, not the past.” or something like that. He may be another victim of the revenge theme, just like his brother. 🙁

    leoh
    Reply

  83. @X

    Wang was unable to get through to the Ptolemy. I suppose it’s possible that she transmitted the code and just got no response on account of everybody being busy dealing with Anew’s betrayal, but more likely Regene will have to deliver the Veda coordinates himself if he wants to go through with betraying Ribbons.

    @Mak

    Nena’s sole agenda is revenge. Other than Ali himself, there’s no one she has a stronger motive to kill than Ribbons.

    Also, it wouldn’t really make sense for Ali to go up against Tieria in the final battle. Ali was built up from the moment he appeared in the series as Setsuna’s rival, after all. It’d be like if Full Metal Panic had somebody other than Sousuke killing Gauron; it just doesn’t work.

    @Arisa

    To be fair, weird names are meaningless for Celestial Being members, since nobody uses their real name anyway.

    @tokugawa

    You make a valid point about revenge…but this is also a war. Andrei is an enemy soldier. Why should it be more problematic for Soma to kill him than for her to kill an anonymous grunt?

    @JLaP

    Like I said before, it makes no sense for Nena to be working for Ribbons. He’s Ali’s boss, and she wants to kill everybody who works with Ali.

    Anonymous
    Reply

  85. yeah, it is not hard for me to fathom that WLM is still alive somehow, she most likely will make it to the Ptolemaios on her last dying breath and give the coordinates over or something to that effect. they wont kill Anew just yet, nor do i think she leaves, she will somehow stay with the crew and make up with everybody, somehow. not to mention i want to know what ‘change’ is Ribbons talking about with respect to Setsuna. Setsuna is going to get super powers in knew it.

    GGear0323
    Reply

  87. What I really couldn’t stand was that Saji and Louise’s big meet-up basically consisted of 85% namecalling, 10% staring at each other, and 5% actually trying to talk about things.

    Hallelujah’s three-second appearance was amazingly disappointing, ughhhhhh. I do hope that Soma gets off her revenge-horse though; that particular motive has been used way too many times in this series already, and I really can’t care about it anymore.

    Innovators are too damn flat. Not knowing any of their motivations kind of pushes them towards that though. Lui Ming getting killed was also pretty lame considering she hasn’t done shit all season; the same could pretty much be said of Nena and Graham. They’re just there. (And whatever happened to Ali while we’re at it? Do I care anymore?)

    Sigh. The sad part is that even with all the relationship emo filler the last few episodes have been concentrating on, there still hasn’t been anything substantial since they’re bouncing back and forth between three or four couples. :\

    Kiri
    Reply

  94. Espada’s Weekly Gundam Opinion Episode 19
    1. Marie is not dead awwwww…
    2. <_< love stories cant be truly end in happy endings ehh?
    3. Sunrise pls give Allelujah more screentime i want bloody action
    4. Wrong move in bringing in an innovator to the ship…
    5. Anew is just a computer and just do what is programmed to her…
    6. Nena’s Gundam is <_< nothing change to it…
    7. Second episode that ends with a BANG!

    Next Episode:
    1. Oh noes double OO will be hijack!
    2. Liu Mei will not be dead… hmm 50% sure about it ^O^
    3. Will Anew choose innovator’s or Lyle….. nope she will die…

    Espada
    Reply

  98. “Anew’s betrayal – which I hesitate to call a betrayal because her Innovator personality was activated, so she’s not necessarily acting on her own free will”

    i don’t agree with this the anew that showed up in this episode was the REAL anew to begin with i feel and the one that was in love with lyle was just some fake embedded personality

    lockon
    Reply

  99. Now we all know tht Anew was an Innovator for a long time, just because Revive control her by using his brain waves n use her to track down CB, then probably shes tryin to escape from a ship. As for Saji n Louise, im glad they finally meet together but they fail united each other because of the bitch Andrei interfered them, i hope he die fast for his own idealistic nonsense and kill his own father. For next episode Louise goin to pilot Mobile Armor n CB goin to oppose as a great threat but Saji n Setsuna havent know about it. For Wang Liu Mei n Hong Long, Hong Long probably dead n Wang Liu Mei was wounded that got shot down by Nena, lying around the space, i hope she still survive becoz she got information of Veda that Regene gave her n hope tht Ptolemaios will search for her. The last one, Nena looks more like extended child, dont u think so?

    Anson Goh
    Reply

  103. Graham Masurao standing like Master Gundam lol Wao~Hope his MS can release in 1/100 soon =D
    I think Wang Liu Mei wont die so easily, coz her own hand Veda code are for Tiera to open final phase Veda System,and it fully a trap control plan by Ribbons, and also a final badass in innovators? GNXXXX cant wait for it =D, if the rumor it was real~~

    AzureNight
    Reply

  106. before im more interested on how the couples going to end up, but after watching the last episodes my interest shift to setsuna&00. it seems like 00 powers are not just a tool for war…damn veda i want to know what do you intend to do with.

    reilina
    Reply

  114. Anew’s Glowing OP eyes probably means that she will eventually end up in CB (post someones death or not). Or Lyle will say “I’m a Spy” and ditch CB (improbable).

    Hmmm…Nena is SO KOS by Louise. I’m pretty sure Louise remembers the look of that Gundam that wtfpwned her entire family and left hand.

    Vsin
    Reply

  116. Lyle’s reaction in seeing Revive may not exactly mean that there is an obvious facial resemblance between Revive and Anew. Come on its a hundred years into the future, there are a lot of people with purple hair at that time lolz. He may have simply noticed Revive’s glowing eyes which he has already seen from Anew. That could be the answer on why we got a reaction from Lyle and not from the other CB crew.

    @Vsin

    I was actually going to say the same thing ^_^. The writers probably thought about this a long time ago. The common choice is to give Nena a new suit after the 4 year time skip. But seeing as how the Throne Drei is the only CB suit Louise saw. The Drei can then be used as a plot point in convincing Louise that it wasn’t CB and most especially not Saji that killed her entire bloodline.

    Creid
    Reply

  117. iono, maybe they didnt show it, but it seemed like other than lyle, the others were completely oblivious to the fact that revive looked like anew =/

    🙁 i do hope for a happy ending though…it sucks that in shows like these, there HAS to be main characters that die off T_T

    mango
    Reply

  121. Watch, Wang lie mei miraculously survives…

    I like Soma in action, missed that. And Hallelujah too….without him, Allelujah is just boring.

    And a lovey dovey Lyle should just kill Anew…I dont know why but Im irritated by their relationship.

    unknown2
    Reply

  122. I was preferring Marina to die.

    If she died like how Fllay did in Gundam Seed, it would be more dramatic. Only when she dies will she realise her idealism.

    And Wang Liu Mei should just die since she’s just a supporting character. It’s time she left the stage.

    And the Memento Mori incidents are just stupid. I think the destruction of the PLANTs in Gundam SEED Destiny was more epic.

    D.H.
    Reply

  123. To everyone thinking that Setsuna is turning into an Innovator, well, there’s one part that is missing – the Innovators are Veda terminals, and I assume there’s some mechanism inside them that allows them to connect just like computers do. I do think he’s turning more into a super soldier.

    @ttacker
    Reply

  124. When Louise realize that CB dont kill her father and mother she will help Saji, and that happen when she see Nena and her Gundam. I hope Louise and Nena kill each other. Wang is not dead, her brother save her, maybe he is dead, but Wang is alive, she cant die until the end of the series.

    Rosi
    Reply

  125. @DH PlANT wasn’t destroyed. And if you are talking about the Super Fortress of heir Chairman, then it’s way different than G00. Here the grunts are even a considerable threat to the CB crews. Not to mention, that the Innovators also are better pilots and that GSD had a crew of immortals in their ranks. (-cough- Kira in berserk mode)

    Cain
    Reply

  126. @@ttacker

    They use quantum brain waves to interface with Veda, they are not machines. I think the super soldiers are a level under that as they use their quantum brain waves for fighting purposes.

    Ayle
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *