I am so glad modern Gundam has moved beyond UNDERSTANDING.
Critical support for the Dawn of Fold in their efforts to resist Spacian oppression.
(Shaddiq being a closet Maoist was a twist I wasn't expecting.)
I am so glad modern Gundam has moved beyond UNDERSTANDING.
Critical support for the Dawn of Fold in their efforts to resist Spacian oppression.
(Shaddiq being a closet Maoist was a twist I wasn't expecting.)
The greatest anime betrayal of all would be if the writers did some sort of Enlightened Centrist thing by the final episode where the people wanting to improve society somewhat go too far and having understanding with the oppressors is the only way forward.
Shit, I hope I didn't hear a lathe humming. :lathe-of-heaven:
That's the plot of all the mid 90's -2000's Gundam. :deeper-sadness:
That said, I have a good feeling about this one. We had a character paraphrase "political power flows from the barrel of a gun".
Mobile Suit Hathaway felt like it had heavy anti imperialist themes, so maybe someone in the studio is pushing it. Hard to say where that's going either because I believe it's also intended to be a series of films
I'm holding my breath until the smoke clears and "revolution is necessary and good, actually" is dared to be the message of the finale. Or not. :lenin-sleeping:
That's the thing, Gundam used to have that message.
OG Gundam (0079) is just good ol' Nazi punching, and most UC timeline stuff is "Imperialism breeds fascism".
Gundam had it's lib moment in the 90's, but OG Gundam was written by a communist, and it seems we've finally come full circle.
i mean, gjallerhorn in ibo was incredibly obviously a standin for :amerikkka: so gundam's been getting back to based-ics for a bit
I guess Hathaway was written like 30 years ago so technically could dig up a synopsis on that to see where it goes. Dunno, maybe some of these Japanese animators are going based mode in the face of the degrading west. I sure hope so.
Tomino (OG creator of Gundam) was a student activist and card carrying commie. Most of the stuff he wrote was pretty based, minus the unexamined misogyny. I think Hathaway is an adaptation of one of his sequel novels
The movies have diverged from the novel by being a sequel to Char's Counterattack. The Hathaway's Flash novel is a sequel to Beltorchica's Children, which is roughly the same story as CCA but different enough to be its own continuity.
I think he started going to therapy in the late 90s and, surprise, Turn A and G-Reco are missing a lot of the shitty misogyny!
He also got married and had a daughter, that had to have helped a lot. (It's very sad that so often it's only that kind of lived experience that gets men to stop being misogynistic though... but yeah.)
Yeah, he had a lot of positive influence from women in his life (his therapist, his wife, his two daughters) led him to clear up the toxic attitudes. Really ridiculous if you think about it, but at least it worked out.
Moon's Cacoon has some great articles about his life in the 90s - there are lots of Turn A spoilers throughout the site, though.
at the very least dawn of fold is being treated with respect and sympathy. getting an entire episode where you root for them with no real caveats is more than most antagonistic gundam factions get
To be fair most antagonist factions in Gundam are unequivocal Nazi's sooo....
the fact that we get this whole episode still seems like a really good sign, since it seems like guel was at least a little convinced they weren't too bad despite his treatment
Guel's character arc of him being the ultimate failson, who failsons so hard into becoming a class traitor is amazing lol