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EP. REVIEW: Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

My main beef with IBO is that I felt there was so much wasted potential. I see it in nearly every facet of the show. Orga and Mika's relationship could have went somewhere, but it didn't really.

It makes much more sense that the Tekkedan crew didn't get "more development" with Mika's closing observation that "they had already found where they wanted to be"

it was the simple goal in Season one for Tekkedan to be an operational mercenary corp, they completed the Kudelia mission that prompted a steady stream of work and Orga honestly didn't need to go into any more ambitious jobs than the ones he had been offered.

That's 2017 for you. Who cares about normal families anymore right?

I loved the way it ended, not a lof of anime go for the "antagonist that should win actually wins" route, I thought that was nice.The build up to it was a little bumpy but that ending was really good.

Rustal never gave that vive of Villain that didn't understand or apreciate what his enemies were trying to do, I think he just disagreed with the methods Mcgillis and Tekkadan were using to get there so when he makes the decisions he makes in the epilogue my whole thought process was like, "yeah, why wouldn't he do that?". Sure he used shady tactics to win but so did Choco and everyone was fine with it.

I don't know, I think it was a really good ending for this series and the one that makes the more sense.

Ps. Akatsuki is so f*****g cute!

FackuIkari wrote:

I loved the way it ended, not a lof of anime go for the "antagonist that should win actually wins" route, I thought that was nice.The build up to it was a little bumpy but that ending was really good. Rustal never gave that vive of Villain that didn't understand or apreciate what his enemies were trying to do, I think he just disagreed with the methods Mcgillis and Tekkadan were using to get there so when he makes the decisions he makes in the epilogue my whole thought process was like, "yeah, why wouldn't he do that?". Sure he used shady tactics to win but so did Choco and everyone was fine with it. I don't know, I think it was a really good ending for this series and the one that makes the more sense. Ps. Akatsuki is so f*****g cute!

See, I think the way they went is fine - but they execution was horribly shallow.

Rustal may understand what his enemies want to do - but in no way did he ever seem like he agreed with them. He doesn't care that Ghallerhorn is corrupt, as long as it works to his benefit and the organisation continues with him at the helm everything else is moot. He is a character who was never humanized and we have no reason to actually believe he would do any of the things he did in the second half of episode 25 because they erode his power. That is completely against his character.

He has no reason to lower restrictions on Mars unless he had a puppet government in place ready to go, which he didn't. He completely unnecessarily cedes power to Kuudelia and democracy in general, again things which he has no reason to do because as far as the public is concerned he was in the right. His actions only make sense if he felt like the tower was starting to crumble beneath him so he decided to reduce the height and make the base stronger - but the reality of episode 25 is that he has the best possible ending and no reason to lose power except to give the audience a phony sense of satisfaction.

This is perfectly exemplified when you look at how Jullietta went from a loyal dog, to a loyal dog. At the start she is blindly loyal, she seems confused at the idea of trying anything other than being blindly loyal, then it ends with her being blindly loyal. Even though she has her epiphany speech - that is rendered completely moot by her getting pissy about Kuudelia pointing out the fact that Rustal is a piece of shit and she isn't much better. If she honestly had internalized the idea that Rustal was a bad person then she wouldn't have cared, hell she would have been more open towards Kuudelia's point of view. But she isn't, her first words are 'I don't know why Rustal gave her power', which, granted is a very good question since Rustal could simply tie her to Tekkadan and destroy her. Even if he thought it would be easier to leave her alone and keep her where he can see her, he didn't need to give her such a powerful position.

It's just bad writing, Rustal exemplified Ghallerhorn's corruption and suddenly he does an about face. You could easily change this too, just make it so the media had some access to the fight and then his acts become those of self-preservation and they make sense given his character. Instead they are weak, feeble attempts to shoehorn a satisfying ending into the narrative whilst not actually writing one.


Ultimately, this is a just the largest, most offensive symptom of the larger problem with this series - the villains lack heart. Sure, they aren't out and out evil for the most part but at no point does anyone on Ghallerhorn's side beside [expletive] Iok even speak about anyone besides themselves. Rustal is all about himself, Jullieta is about her worth to Rustal, Gaelio is about revenge/senpai didn't notice me. For all the shit that Tekkadan does, and they are certainly not saints, you at least feel like they constantly have the needs of their group and others in a similar situation in mind.

So honestly, the second half of the episode felt like a slap in the face. Death and loss is all well and good, but don't try and have your cake and eat it too. No one in Tekkadan would feel anything but resentment and hatred towards Ghallerhorn after this, so this idea that they've 'grown up and are doing things more subtly now' is a joke.

I could go on about how much this ending was just awful, but I guess I'll give it a rest and end with: in theory the idea for this ending isn't bad, even a failed rebellion can cause change and force questions that the system doesn't want to answer so it reorganizes itself to lose a little of its power to save face. But that's not this ending and that's not these characters - Rustal was never shown to be a man who was pragmatic above all else, he was too destructive for that and left way too many openings that people with half a brain would have exploited in a deeper series.

I can applaud them for trying, but that doesn't make it good.

...Is that supposed to be a bad thing given who we're supposed to be comparing her with?

Sure he used shady tactics to win but so did Choco and everyone was fine with it.

I still like it, it's better than McGillis and Tekkadan winning without the resources, people and power necessary against the most powerfull force on Earth just because of will power for a feel good ending instead of the bittersweet one we got that fits better with the tone of the series. It wasn't perfect but I really don't think it was THAT bad.

P.S. Best kill: Akihiro. -SQUISH!- Go ahead and judge me as a person, but you have no idea how satisfying it was to watch Iok get his just desserts in excruciating, humiliating fashion. I've replayed that an embarrassing number of times.

I still like it, it's better than McGillis and Tekkadan winning without the resources, people and power necessary against the most powerfull force on Earth just because of will power for a feel good ending instead of the bittersweet one we got that fits better with the tone of the series. It wasn't perfect but I really don't think it was THAT bad.

She exists really just as a baby maker so we can feel a bit better about Mika getting killed off.

Fllay, similar to Katejina, is a character that you want to hate but that has a lot going on and was actually developed throughout the series.

Flay still winds up coming off as an unlikable bitch that the story in no way does anything to make her look sympathetic or redeemable. So it's really a case of YMMV on her not being someone you shouldn't hate.

The problem is that they actually did have resources. They were out numbered, but considering the lack of ace pilots Rustal had versus McGillis and Tekkadan and how much damage those aces were able to do, they should have at least put up a good fight. Sure, at the very end, it would have required something major for Rustal to somehow lose.

I'm not really bothered by Tekkadan losing or the protagonists getting killed off. It is how they did it.