**Rewatch Host Wishing Over This Airspace, subbed**

[Welcome back, everyone!](#michaelwink)

Sorry I wasn’t as reply-heavy yesterday as I was for the previous two threads, basically right after I posted, I had to babysit my niece for a bit, then I was scrambling to get [the 11 million subs scavenger hunt results](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/1fzeu1y/ranime_11_million_subs_scavenger_hunt_results/) out. [](#seasonaltired)

—

– [It was only a matter of time before part of the world named Celestial Being a group of terrorists.](https://i.imgur.com/3j7Z50X.png)

– [Aha! Shirin “sore demo”!](https://files.catbox.moe/m9vqko.mp4) My initial watch of this came before I really started collecting these in the shows I watched, so I’m glad to finally be going back through one of the big Gundam series to get what I missed.

– [Child soldiers *and* because it’s part of an experiment](https://i.imgur.com/NBexrrC.png), sasuga Gundam.

– [That’s a *lot*.](https://i.imgur.com/TDMt04m.png) [](#spinning)

– [It was *also* only a matter of time before people started to deliberately use Celestial Being for their own gain.](https://i.imgur.com/05UyLmJ.png) [](#cantbehelped)

– [Good luck!](https://i.imgur.com/zcwijSO.png) [](#faito)

– [Meaning, Taribia made itself a target with this stunt.](https://i.imgur.com/xuV6gwH.png) [](#hikariactually)

– [Only *twice* as fast?](https://i.imgur.com/iuWzbHZ.png) [](#foldedarms)

– I think I like the normal ED lead-in from last episode more, but the acoustic one from this episode is pretty nice too. [](#listen)

**Rewatcher built a Takodachi Gunpla in GB4, ran into a clan of Hololive cosplayers hanging out in a public lobby, and got adopted by a player with an Ina Gunpla**

-—————————————————————————————

[Princess Marina Ismail](https://i.imgur.com/gJml4t2.png)! Not every country got folded into one of the three superpowers to benefit from the solar towers. The Middle East got totally left out of the whole deal, and with the world no longer reliant on oil, they’ve lost a lot of their international power. So now they’re just left to fight amongst each other while the rest of the world no longer has to care about them.

[Also, the real-life Azadistan only existed for a few months in 1920.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azadistan)

But how does Celestial Being intend to bring about a permanent peace? They’re going to have to keep fighting. The moment they stop, every military in the world will see it as their opportunity to go right back to doing whatever they were doing before. At this rate, any peace they get will be lucky to outlive the Gundam Meisters enforcing it. And if they have to keep conducting armed interventions all the time, then they’re not truly ending war – only monopolizing it.

[Of course, we’ve got to have a cute super soldier girl!](https://i.imgur.com/rjgUPvT.png)

[Everyone here is at peace, but only Setsuna is thinking about how fragile that peace is.](https://i.imgur.com/GRBbkZD.png)

[The Flag Custom!](https://i.imgur.com/sfuMOkS.png) The one thing the Flag has over the Exia is its superior aerial mobility. To push that advantage as much as possible, the fuel payload for its engines have been removed and lighter materials have been used for the armor. This reduced the weight so much that, even though larger and more powerful flight units were installed, it’s still lighter than the standard Flag, which means it goes *fast* – so fast that only a pilot as skilled as Graham can handle it, and even then 12Gs is pretty rough. He swapped the sides of the Linear Rifle and Defense Rod because he’s a lefty, and he updated the software to match. Also, they somehow figured out anti beam coating before actual beam weapons.

And then there’s Taribia. Because of how space elevators work, they have to be built around the equator. However, this means that the most powerful countries with the resources to construct and the global influence to administrate these space elevators aren’t actually where the elevators are located, hence the need to assemble into massive power blocs surrounding said elevator countries. Not everybody is happy with this arrangement.

[Only twice?](https://i.imgur.com/3bcOkeN.png) It’s not red…

The reveal that Taribia was just trying to reduce anti-US sentiments within its own population was pretty genius. It’s always cool to see these kinds of manipulations.

-—————————————————————————————

Questions of the day:

* I can see a lot of countries more genuinely trying to bait their enemies into getting an armed intervention. They just have to be careful about keeping their own hands clean.

* The Union is in the better position to potentially subdue a Gundam, but the HRL is the one that’s actually trying to take one for themselves. And the AEU is… just there I guess? As for the results, *laughs in rewatcher*

**First Timer – sub**

I’m already so, so sick of hearing the words “Celestial Being”

In general I’m also finding the dialogue increasingly grating. It was dull but decent enough in previous episodes, where for example all nations would find out about the CB spokesman but address it differently after that. Today’s episode had a lot of lines that we’ve either heard before with no added meaning (“this is celestial being”), or sheer redundancies, such as the Taribian president saying “the gundams are attacking our military” just after the american forces also said that, which was just after the gundam pilots commented on doing that, which was just after the people in HQ suggested that was the goal. At that point this is known information, and as we find out later the whole point, you could have just cut that line and had him move on with the scene and used that shot for more interesting things. That’s not this only example from this episode, just the one that stood out most

Similarly, the narration was woefully underused this episode. Rather than just repeating the existing basic world context, they could have used that narration to explain the fate of the smaller nations who don’t have access to the solar power, and then the two women wouldn’t have had to very awkwardly and dryly narrate that to the audience instead of having a more natural conversation about the situation.

All that said, I did like Lockon’s scene with Alelujah. Using questioning him about the current state of things as a launching board into a “exactly so in that case go rest” discussion was clever of him, and further showcases both his caring and the fact that he’s use to working with these more unusual other pilots

Ask and ye shall receive about a girl pilot! And an enhanced one as well, which is interesting that we get her independent of the hyped up Flag that the other normal guy is piloting. Usually those would go together, but once again I like the fact that instead of keeping one as an antagonist and putting the others as just worldbuilding, all three factions are getting very difference responces to this.

Setsuna at the fountain is scene of the day. Nothing much to say about it, but it greatly enhanced the entire episode for its presence.

I also took note of the fact that Sumeragi was using the super computer to support her existing predictions and calculations, not to either do them or gather the possibilities so she could work from there. Or at least that is if the phrasing in the subtitles was accurate. And I like that, that even with powered tech it is a person knowing people who is at the center of it all. It further reinforces the conclusion at the end of the episode, taking this from national political goals to very human ones: The government of that nation wanted to stay in power, and they were willing to use everyone, including CB, their military, and even their own people as sacrifices to do so. Very true to history, especially with the US involvement.

Complaints about the dialogue aside, I think this is my favourite episode so far precisely for this balance it had about the big military actions being about people and their choices first and foremost, and how other people will react to that.

(Speedy post as I forgot to watch the episode last night so had to type all of this up in the last twenty minutes after watching it this morning… and now sitting here waiting the three minutes for sky to post the topic so I can go eat haha)

*A Gundam Fan Rewatches Gundam 00 Episode 4:*

– It’s hardly surprising that the Human Reform League would brand Celestial Being as terrorists in their press conference about the Ceylon intervention. It’s certainly an uphill battle for Celestial Being, since Christina is absolutely correct that the power blocs are only going to strengthen themselves to prevent more interventions from happening. They wouldn’t capitulate to a smaller group like Celestial Being so easily, even if their technology is highly advanced.

– With Azadistan’s situation, you can see how hard things are for nations that aren’t a part of the gentleman’s club of nations that have their own orbital elevator and solar energy plants. As Marina and Shirin discuss, they’re struggling with terrorism and factions vying for control in a country that’s being left behind the others, since their oil exports are heavily taxed due to solar energy being mankind’s new preferred power source. You know that shit is dire if Azadistan’s National Assembly is willing to reimplement the monarchy if just to find *some* solution to the hole they’ve found themselves stuck in.

– The Human Reform League’s name is way more literal than what you’d probably think, considering that Soma Peries here is a superhuman herself, the product of a secretive super-soldier project thought to have been cancelled before. It seems that the presence of Celestial Being is forcing them to play their trump card now. It really does make you wonder what else the HRL is cooking up, since Soma herself is pretty young to be a superhuman soldier. Hopefully there isn’t a certain Dr. Catherine Halsey involved here.

– Fun fact: you can get Setsuna’s hot dog (minus all the PTSD-induced daydreams) to order over at the Gundam Cafe.

– For as shocking as Taribia’s break-away from the Union is, I suppose they do have a point that the Union is pretty much acting at the whims of the United States, since the Union is mobilizing their army at America’s request. That said, it’s not like they’re entirely doing this out of a pure sense of independence, since Taribia is fully expecting Celestial Being to intervene and take the hits for them. Declaring independence and demanding an equal share of solar energy while using Celestial Being as a meat shield is rather underhanded of them, since while the space elevator is near them, it wasn’t just them that funded it’s construction. It’s at least enough of an angle for them to work with.

– Side note, but I have no idea why we’re calling this country Taribia. It’s very obviously Venezuela, based on where it is in South America. And there’s also the fact that some of the maps in this episode clearly have Venezuela marked on them. Like, we already had the United States of America and Brazil directly mentioned by name, so it’s odd that we’re doing a “no actual communities were harmed” thing with them here.

– The power blocs and Taribia really did misunderstand what Aeolia Schenberg said in his video. They apparently thought that he meant that Celestial Being would support the underdog in a conflict, but as Wang and Alejandro note, they’ll intervene against the side that provoked the conflict to begin with. And in this case, that’s Taribia. That said, President Stegmeyer played this situation well while it was unfolding. All he had to do was park the Union and American army off the coast and wait for Celestial Being to do their thing, and then swoop in with an offer to help defend Taribia from Celestial Being as long as the prime minister rescinds everything he announced before. He certainly does know how to play realpolitik on the fly.

– It seems that Shirin has a keen eye for realpolitik too, given how she laid out everything about what the incident could do politically. Now that Taribia has accepted America’s offer, they’re basically locked into supporting their presence as policy and rejoining the Union, all while quelling anti-American sentiment and getting aid from the Union. Although I will say that Shirin might be off on this being a likely intended outcome for both America and Taribia, since the prime minister genuinely did look like he would’ve preferred if he would’ve gotten his country independence. Regardless though, this intervention does send a strong message: Celestial Being won’t always side with an underdog, and will chose to enforce peace at all costs even if the situation seems clear cut in the other direction. Other nations of the world will need to beware their presence, even if they’re not a part of the power blocs.

**First Timer – Sub**

Hm. Which one is the Human Reform League again? Looks like the Asian one? Ih look, consequences. The name of the game is not *disarmament*, it is *escalation*.

Well, at least the writers have them recognise that any ‘peace’ due to Celestial Being can only possibly last as long as they do. And with the events of today’s episode, at least *someone* seems to have an actual plan…even if that plan appears to be ‘we are The Villians, come at me bro’.

That’s mot going to end in world peace. It’s more likely to end with a *world war*.

Two other things I find particularly worrying…*super soldier*. Oh, *bugger*. Someone has been breaking into the genetic engineering and eugenics vault. That neber ends well.

And, of course, *they still need some bloody therapists*. Setsuna is absolutely not right in the head.

**Rewatcher, subbed**

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 was my first Gundam series, so it holds a special place in my heart. I first watched it 7 years ago; glad I’m able to rewatch it with everyone here!

Anyways, I missed the first few days, so here goes:

**Episode 1:**

I love this episode. The animation is good. The soundtrack is great. It’s just 20 straight minutes of Gundam pilots flexing on the plebs.

>Did any of the characters seen in this episode catch your eye in terms of who you want to see more of?

I feel like it’s cheating for me to answer this since I’ve seen it before

>What do you think of Celestial Being’s stated goal to end war by using violence?

I don’t see how else war could possibly be ended.

**Episode 2:**

My favorite aesthetic detail here is the curved screens the Human Reform League soldiers are sitting at. It’s not like we don’t have the tech, but a single giant curved monoscreen is definitely a choice.

I love how big and clunky these non-Gundam mobile suits feel on the ground. Really drives home how far ahead Celestial Being is.

Oh wow, Mr. Gundam himself is here to help! What a reveal.

I feel like in Episode 1 the Gundam pilots were trying not to kill their opponents, but rather take them down non-lethally. The kid gloves are definitely off here with Setsuna slicing right through the cockpit and everyone exploding everyone else.

There’s something really funny about Sumeragi dramatically saying “That is Celestial Being” while a spinning can of “Earth Beer”/”Earth Space Beer” floats past her.

> What do you think it would take for there to not be conflict in the world anymore?

Seems close to impossible. I have no idea.

> Given they seem to accept being the bad guys (like with Allelujah calling himself a mass murderer after the bombing), what do you think of the show setting Celestial Being as the protagonists?

I don’t think that Allelujah calling himself a mass murderer means they’re accepting that they’re the bad guys. Besides, considering the genre their kill count is basically a rounding error right now.

**Rewatcher – Gundam 00 Ep4:**

I found [Setsuna’s nightmare sequence](https://i.imgur.com/PdQOOWu.png) to be quite effective at communicating his deal. It captures what he fears the most in a world without peace. Setsuna’s reaction throughout is also telling because he remains his usual stoic face. He has witnessed this tragedy before so he knows what reality can bring. Also, this nightmare is not the first time he experienced the disassociated intrusive thoughts in.

The main setpiece of the episode is the political crisis with not-Venezula. My read of it was leaning towards criticizing CB’s ways, and how their peace-enforcing interventions can be abused. At the end, we got the reveal that this was all political theatre for existing ruling parties to further entrench themselves without a care for the people. The problem of the Union (US)’s dominance over its partners was never resolved. All that happened was dissent being silenced for daring to challenge the people who held power.

Before it was revealed to all be staged, I did have the question of what would CB do in this sort of situation? For the powerless, violence is the only language the powerful will pay attention to. It is a topic Gundam has touched upon before. It is told with *the* Gundam. Common angle being the Gundam empowering the youth in a world of adults.

At the start of the episode during the scene with Marina, I did have the thought that a government could abuse CB to qwell any civil unrest. Just sit back and do nothin until the protesters throw the first punch and have CB your problems.

Meta-narratively, it is interesting to see this conflict presented. [Gundam 00/Franchise:] >!Third party armed interventions failing to address societal issues was my biggest grip with the previous Gundam show before 00. Lacus Clyne, I like you for your character conflict of identity and destiny, but I find your methods to bring peace highly questionable. 00 as possibly response or at least a show made with previous Gundams in mind.!<

Other random points:

* The deep traumatic shock in horror as I realize that between [Saji and Setsuna,](https://i.imgur.com/KgkdocT.png) Saji is actually the older one by 13 months. [](#forgotkeys)

* [Kyouka ningen!](#happyclap) Just the brief introduction to them on the scene, but still me pointing and cheering. [Gundam 00:] >!To get more specific, the Allelujah/Soma is one of the parts I am most excited to see. I was already a fan before and since then I’ve become deeply Zeta-brain so I love Cyber Newtypes storylines in Gundam. I’m always a fan of them when they show up especially Cyber Newtype romances.!<

* [“Flag Fighter”](https://i.imgur.com/KYo6m5b.png) is 100% a term Graham came up and tries to make a thing. [](#kukuku2)

___

**Q2)** The country to first employ the perfect people to steal a Gundam, teens with attitude.

[](#umucool)

As much as he fits the energy of a teen with attitude, Graham is 27. By Gundam terms, he is already an ancient adult.

**00th Timer Searching for the One**

A very interesting concept for an episode, I was waiting for someone to abuse their system, since “stopping war” the way they’re doing it, also stops it from being a deterrent for stupid choices that you wouldn’t ordinarily make. So in this case, they had to be the deterrent instead, which ended up playing right into the Union’s hands, it all tracks, it’s all annoying as hell, and it makes sense.

Granted, I think the Taribia leader could’ve taken the bluff a bit further, call bullshit with one hand, and raise a white flag in the other, don’t even bother with an army, or a single piece of weapon being raised. What will Celestial Being do then? Attack your weapons factory? The parliament?

In other notes:

* The Russians finally have a [new face](https://i.imgur.com/J7koRrw.jpeg) [Gundam lore] >!is she 00’s Cyber Newtype?!<, and [Sergei](https://i.imgur.com/Vgg9LK3.jpeg) is becoming likeable lately.
* [Setsuna is haunted by war](https://i.imgur.com/LYYAfKj.jpeg), he can’t live in the peaceful world everyone else lives in, when he’s seen how easily it can all shatter.
* I think the [Gundams could do with a horn or any fancy entrance](https://i.imgur.com/YFsM8wV.jpeg), in this context, the theatrics would help their goals, since they’re sending the message to everyone at arrival.
* [Of course…](https://i.imgur.com/EccKzu5.jpeg) [](#bruh)
* [So… 3 times as fast?](https://i.imgur.com/nntBSH0.jpeg) [](#mug3)
* I didn’t expect that they’d catch up in 4 episodes, this isn’t gonna be fun for Setsuna.

The resource conflict has been established, lots of countries are suffering because of it, and using Celestial Being for their purposes failed. But if the Union keeps pushing them around, that’d basically make Celestial Being their guard dogs in a way, I’d be interested in seeing whether the bigger picture or the Afghanistan Princess can change Celestial Being’s plans in the future (good luck getting it past Rigid Fn’ Seiei though).

>1) How else do you think the world is going to abuse what Celestial Being is doing for their own benefit?

You can use them as guards for any unfair status quo, since they’d stop any uprising, so have fun and be as shitty as you want, just without it being “aggression”.

**Rewatcher, First Time Sub**

Setsuna really likes using people’s full names doesn’t he

I really liked the politics played in this episode. The two involved nations and Celestial Being as a sort of way to fulfill objectives. Of course Celestial Being is aware they are being used in this case but they stick to their rules. The Conflict in question deals with a nation trying to leave the Union prompting the Meisters to intervene. Again nice look at the politics playing between the main blocs and the non affiliated countries but I guess it also shows how CB’s rules can be played into the favor of one side.

Watching this unfold is Marina Ismail, our Gundam Princess because no Gundam show is complete without one (except a couple). We saw her already a couple times but we see more of her situation with all the civil unrest with ideological factions fighting for control as well as the country’s resources used for the Space elevator yet they have no use of it. Some interesting parallels that they used here.

Also really interesting seeing Setsuna’s thought process when he imagines everyone blown up before being interrupted, he’s not over from what he’s seen. We also see Colonel Smirnov meet Soma Peries. In particular is how Smirnov notes is that she’s too young for this which I really liked from him showing more of his character.

First timer. Dubbed

Man this assistant to the princess is a little too happy to watch her current leader fail, all the while accurately(?) assessing the possible reason behind the latest actions of Celestial Being, all so she can… what, school her inexperienced superior and thus make her a better leader? Because so far all she has done is be an asshole all the while salivating anytime she hears about CB since anything they do means a grab for power for Her… country.

“if you can’t understand any of this, then you’re not qualified to save this country” – and what, bitch, you are? It’s always those who aren’t wearing the crown who think it’s easy to shoulder the responsibilities of it.

Did Setsuna have rocks in his shoes or something? Did he eat a devil fruit? How the fuck was he able to sink to the bottom like that feet first?

I guess my feelings are similar to that of Saji, I genuinely don’t get why CB attacked Teribia as opposed to doing literally anything else that others predicted that they’d do. I personally thought they were going to attack both sides so as to actually eliminate war but, as the asshole assistant to the princess pointed out, all this action does is make America look good at the end of the day and any desire for any other country to distance themselves from America look bad. I mean Sniper leader says that CB doesn’t tolerate those who take advantage of CBs presence and goal, but people are going end up doing that anyway as we saw in this episode. I’m also still not sure what Hallelujah meant when he said that this was one-sided. Did he mean their actions? Because if he did then again I agree.

**Rewatcher, Subbed**

**[Non-Spoiler Character Chart](https://i.imgur.com/9x2CmfZ.jpeg)** – Four more characters added bringing us to 33 by episode 4… lol. At this point I’d say I’ve swapped out any of the older pics I wasn’t happy with aside from [Gundam 00 minor spoilers]>!Patrick, who I’d like to swap to something a bit more goofy to fit with his memeable role.!<

***

Good to get at least a little bit more time with our Celestial Being ship crew. Poor Lasse and Lichty haven’t been seen since episode 1.

Setsuna’s reading up on Aeolia Schenberg, wonder if even a Celestial Being member like him has any idea what’s going on with him.

The way they show them in these shots, the Orbital Elevators look so skinny and brittle, way too easy to destroy.

So some nations still are reliant on fossil fuels, presumably ones that aren’t part of the three main political blocs?

Do they have AI bots working on fixing up Kyrios?

Sergei’s ordered to acquire a Gundam, and do so before the Union or AEU does. He says it as if it were easy!

I agree with Sergei that Soma looks too young to be a part of this, but as said yesterday in spoilers [Age spoilers]>!she’s canonically 18!<

Stinks that Setsuna can’t simply enjoy his lunch in a park without thinking about something horrible happening.

Upgrade time for Graham’s mobile suit! Alas, it wasn’t repainted red… He at least has a pair of Roberto/Apolly style wingmen to join him now though.

Rather than Celestial Being’s efforts causing parts of the world to unite, we’ve now got a country seceding from the Union and thinking it can take advantage of Celestial Being’s interventions to do it.

That’s four episodes, four outfits for Wang…

Oh wow, Setsuna stores his Gundam underwater? For whatever reason I didn’t think until now about where he may be hiding it while living in that apartment. Is anyone nearby gonna notice as it blasts off out of the water?

Is that yet another outfit change for Wang? LoL.

Oops, looks like things aren’t working out as planned for Taribia.Still got 5 minutes left in the episode and they already are reversing their secession plans.

A mere four episodes in and Graham’s already attacked Exia twice. Like an annoying mosquito to Setsuna.

Once again their battle is over right away though.

Ooh, another lead in!

Is Saji questioning why Celestial Being attacked Taribia because they hid from the public the fact that they brought out their military forces expecting a US attack? Or is Saji a bit clueless about world affairs? I suppose we are at an advantage since we have access to world leaders every episode.

Meanwhile next door neighbor Setsuna has already made it home.

***

**Quid’s Voice Actor of the Day**

Time for our final Gundam Meister, **Tieria Erde**, who is voiced in Japanese by **Hiroshi Kamiya**. This is his second Gundam role, with his first being Shams Couza in Gundam Seed CE 73: Stargazer. He
would later return to the Gundam franchise in one of the rare Gundam shows I’ve not seen, Gundam AGE, where he plays Zeheart Galette. I figure he’s most well known for playing Koyomi Araragi, main character of the Monogatari franchise. He also appears as Shinji Matou in the Fate/Stay Night franchise, Yato in Noragami, Izaya Orihara in Durarara! and Levi in Attack on Titan. Also check him out as Quon in Towa no Quon if you want to see him voicing a different type of character than those he usually does.

In English he is voiced by **Sam Vincent** who was previously featured in Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny as Athrun Zala. The only other thing I’ve heard him in is Death Note, where he plays Sidoh and Stephen Gevanni.