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kaigouWhile CP was out of town, I was especially bored, at points -- you can only scrape popcorn off the ceiling for so long before you have to do something that doesn't require your hands over your head. After rewatching a few comfort-zone shows, I got bored enough that I figured maybe I'd try and actually finish Gundam 00. Took some doing, since I never d/l past ep 11 in S2, but Shinsen-subs comes through, and...
Dude. Is there like some kind of compulsive obsession with saying everyone's entire name? Is it a cultural statement, maybe? Some kind of logic behind why Setsuna has to always always always say out every character's entire name (including his own). Hell, I make it to S2 ep20 and get a first-name only and want to cheer. For crying out loud.
I've seen enough dog whistles to remove any last traces of doubt as to whether 00 is really Wing v2.0 -- there are just too many nods to very specific fannish favorites from Wing, but then on the other hand... my brain follows it and then breaks. Because if I can line up nearly all of them as analogues, does that make Saji the analogue for Duo Maxwell? Because if so, someone shoot me now and save me from the last five episodes. That's just freaking sad, ignoring that I've spent the last twenty episodes grinding my teeth over the fact that a) Saji just can't seem to fucking grow a pair, and b) no one will shoot him and save me from having to listen to him whine.
Yeah, I'll slash with the best of them, even randomly at that, and with a few notable exceptions any pairings I support are often mutually contradictory and all over the map. Except Saji. He's like the poster boy for unslashability. With any gender, including the third rail of dual-gender characters in this series. He's just... no. He has, like, zero sex appeal. Negative, even, and I'm firmly convinced this is because he has absolutely no spine. He is limp like jellyfish, and if that's not an unattractive visual for bedroom fun, I just don't know what is. So, yeah, Duo Maxwell analogue, please oh dear lord let's please say it ain't so.
Although I guess it doesn't really matter, since it's already canon that Tieria loves Veda, and Setsuna loves Gundam. I was about to snark about threesome fics with Grant, Setsuna, and Gundam, but I'm sure they've already been written. And if not, only because most fanficcers don't usually waste their time on canon pairings, and that's a canon threeway if I've ever seen one, baby.
Anyway, back to Saji: obviously these are screenwriters without a single ounce of mercy. If they had any at all, they would've cleared out Saji in S1 ep1, turned Louise into Char*, I mean, uhm -- damn it. Whot's-his-name. The crazy one from Wing, with the VA who always does one-half of any most slashable pairing (I swear the guy has like slash radar or something). Not Treize. Other guy! With the HAIR! OMFG, I cannot remember. He's the mini-Char, and my brain halts. Whatever! Louise should've been the mini-Char, not the Virgo-obsessed whot's-his-face** who's pretty much done a lot of posturing and a whole lot of absolutely nothing. I mean, talk about an homage that does nothing but reveal just how pointless the trope is by now, unless it's meant to be a smokescreen and the real Char-type-role is fulfilled by Livonze/Ribbons*** -- I still think it would've been far more intriguing to have Louise as that role, but she's as much a pawn as the rest.
Also, wow, I didn't think a VA's voice could annoy me enough to actually MUTE his lines, but the VA doing Sergei's son, Nikolai? oh, hell if I know -- man his voice annoys me. I thought Alleluia's voice was annoying at first, but it grew on me. Sergei's son's voice grows on you, sure, like one of those fungi you have to see the doctor and get ten shots to get rid of. A seriously bad, itchy, kill-it-now kind of growing on you. If he didn't sound like he's got a stuffed-up nose thanks to having nostrils plugged with tissues after being punched square in the nose, I'd be willing to punch him myself, but obviously someone tried that already and it didn't make him quit the role -- because I swear it sounds like his nasalness has gotten worse. It's like nails on a freaking blackboard.
Last, giant mecha version of Too Stupid to Live: never ever ever tell someone you love them right before battle. Surefire absolute without a doubt fastest way to end your relationship, usually by death, and if not your own, then your beloved's plus with a twist of betrayal. Just keep your trap shut and tell them you're in love, after the war is over. If you tell them sooner, you won't live long enough to see the war's end, anyway.
* APPLESAUCE.
** I can't take him seriously, ever since his reappearance with New Fancy Suit... with BUNNY EARS. Who needs Twin Drive when you've got the best reception on your block for the weekly Gundam v ALaws Cage Match? No tinfoil required.
*** Okay, am I the only person who starts humming old Elton John songs whenever someone says that guy's name? Livonze wears his war wound like a crown / He calls his child Jesus / `Cause he likes the name... / And he shall be Livonze / and he shall be a good man...
*is bricked*
Dude. Is there like some kind of compulsive obsession with saying everyone's entire name? Is it a cultural statement, maybe? Some kind of logic behind why Setsuna has to always always always say out every character's entire name (including his own). Hell, I make it to S2 ep20 and get a first-name only and want to cheer. For crying out loud.
I've seen enough dog whistles to remove any last traces of doubt as to whether 00 is really Wing v2.0 -- there are just too many nods to very specific fannish favorites from Wing, but then on the other hand... my brain follows it and then breaks. Because if I can line up nearly all of them as analogues, does that make Saji the analogue for Duo Maxwell? Because if so, someone shoot me now and save me from the last five episodes. That's just freaking sad, ignoring that I've spent the last twenty episodes grinding my teeth over the fact that a) Saji just can't seem to fucking grow a pair, and b) no one will shoot him and save me from having to listen to him whine.
Yeah, I'll slash with the best of them, even randomly at that, and with a few notable exceptions any pairings I support are often mutually contradictory and all over the map. Except Saji. He's like the poster boy for unslashability. With any gender, including the third rail of dual-gender characters in this series. He's just... no. He has, like, zero sex appeal. Negative, even, and I'm firmly convinced this is because he has absolutely no spine. He is limp like jellyfish, and if that's not an unattractive visual for bedroom fun, I just don't know what is. So, yeah, Duo Maxwell analogue, please oh dear lord let's please say it ain't so.
Although I guess it doesn't really matter, since it's already canon that Tieria loves Veda, and Setsuna loves Gundam. I was about to snark about threesome fics with Grant, Setsuna, and Gundam, but I'm sure they've already been written. And if not, only because most fanficcers don't usually waste their time on canon pairings, and that's a canon threeway if I've ever seen one, baby.
Anyway, back to Saji: obviously these are screenwriters without a single ounce of mercy. If they had any at all, they would've cleared out Saji in S1 ep1, turned Louise into Char*, I mean, uhm -- damn it. Whot's-his-name. The crazy one from Wing, with the VA who always does one-half of any most slashable pairing (I swear the guy has like slash radar or something). Not Treize. Other guy! With the HAIR! OMFG, I cannot remember. He's the mini-Char, and my brain halts. Whatever! Louise should've been the mini-Char, not the Virgo-obsessed whot's-his-face** who's pretty much done a lot of posturing and a whole lot of absolutely nothing. I mean, talk about an homage that does nothing but reveal just how pointless the trope is by now, unless it's meant to be a smokescreen and the real Char-type-role is fulfilled by Livonze/Ribbons*** -- I still think it would've been far more intriguing to have Louise as that role, but she's as much a pawn as the rest.
Also, wow, I didn't think a VA's voice could annoy me enough to actually MUTE his lines, but the VA doing Sergei's son, Nikolai? oh, hell if I know -- man his voice annoys me. I thought Alleluia's voice was annoying at first, but it grew on me. Sergei's son's voice grows on you, sure, like one of those fungi you have to see the doctor and get ten shots to get rid of. A seriously bad, itchy, kill-it-now kind of growing on you. If he didn't sound like he's got a stuffed-up nose thanks to having nostrils plugged with tissues after being punched square in the nose, I'd be willing to punch him myself, but obviously someone tried that already and it didn't make him quit the role -- because I swear it sounds like his nasalness has gotten worse. It's like nails on a freaking blackboard.
Last, giant mecha version of Too Stupid to Live: never ever ever tell someone you love them right before battle. Surefire absolute without a doubt fastest way to end your relationship, usually by death, and if not your own, then your beloved's plus with a twist of betrayal. Just keep your trap shut and tell them you're in love, after the war is over. If you tell them sooner, you won't live long enough to see the war's end, anyway.
* APPLESAUCE.
** I can't take him seriously, ever since his reappearance with New Fancy Suit... with BUNNY EARS. Who needs Twin Drive when you've got the best reception on your block for the weekly Gundam v ALaws Cage Match? No tinfoil required.
*** Okay, am I the only person who starts humming old Elton John songs whenever someone says that guy's name? Livonze wears his war wound like a crown / He calls his child Jesus / `Cause he likes the name... / And he shall be Livonze / and he shall be a good man...
*is bricked*
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no subject
Date: 23 Oct 2009 04:45 am (UTC)Damn. Now I want to watch both the original Mobile Suit Gundam and 00 just to see where 00's ripoffs/homages come from. It can't be any worse than attempting to watch Gundam SEED Destiny. Then again, I would rather try to re-read The Fifth Sorceress by Robert Newcomb than watch that series.
no subject
Date: 23 Oct 2009 05:02 am (UTC)00 I nearly DNF'ed just because I was getting bored, and things were getting bleak. I mean, yeah, there's "put the characters through their paces" and then there's "kill off every blooming character like some twisted version of Survivor". In that sense, 00 is going back to Gundam's roots, after Wing's no-one-really-dies (and as I understand it, SEED was pretty close, or at least had minimal death rate).
What makes 00 worth watching in a completely different way is how topical it is, and how much more of a political commentary it is, like the original Gundam series (and what the later series seemed to get away from, IMO). More than a few times I come close to wincing, because I'm looking at an SF view of the world from a culture so opposite my own, and its views of the rest of the world are bleeding into the storyline. Ripped from the headlines isn't just a cliche for American TV, after all. (While no one could've predicted the current US president when the series was in production, it still makes from some incredible irony at times.)
But yes, there are subtle Wing homages, though some may argue that those were in turn homages to the original series -- what I'm mostly glad of is that at least this time around, the whole absolute-pacifism crap that got trotted out in Wing and in SEED isn't a prevalent part of this series. It's presented more as a personal preference by some of the characters, but not as a political view let alone one that's admirable. (In fact, there seems to be a bit of a slant that those who choose pacifism are weak, or at the very least badly naive.)
Meanwhile, I still can't get that damn Elton John song out of my head. *heddesk*
no subject
Date: 23 Oct 2009 05:50 am (UTC)00 still sounds interesting. Maybe I'll get around to it after I've tracked down a copy of Rubyfruit Jungle and finished my papers for the term.
no subject
Date: 23 Oct 2009 03:27 pm (UTC)Plus, you know, Wing homages.
no subject
Date: 23 Oct 2009 04:54 pm (UTC)(Yes, it helps here that I did get familiar with a lot of stuff like this, thanks to having had a teacher early in my history studies who was not only an Amnesty International member but was huge on World Conflict Awareness in general. I probably was one of the very few people either pre- OR post-apartheid who could tell you who Mangosuthu Buthelezi is--partly because, among other things, the history teacher not only taught about the main conflict going on in South Africa but the politics between, say, the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party (Buthelezi's branch). This pretty much led to a lifelong love of learning the "rest of the story"; said teacher was also largely instrumental in a lot of other things too, and is one of the few people I honestly owe a life-debt to (for personal reasons).)