Re: [gundam] *Spoilers* Gundam 00 Episode 4

[Joseph Riggs]

Yeah, I wasn't really focused on the "anti-US" aspect of it so much as I was interested in learning about what the political situation within Union was.  SEED's Atlantic Federation was a much nastier version of the US (practically run by Blue Cosmos it often seemed) than what we're dealing with in 00, which is so far just a cynical view of the country and its influence on the rest of the world.  Given the great degree of dislike in South and Central America (at the recent Miss Universe pageant in Mexico City, the US contestant was booed by the audience during the competition), I found it somewhat odd that those regions would be part of a US dominated nation.  The episode confirmed that there's still a lot of resentment in place, even if officially the Union is one big happy fa! mily.   And in Taribia's case, it was mentioned that the proximity of the elevator to Taribia (the sub I had said it was close, but I suspect that "close" in this case meant that it was actually within the country) was probably part of their motivation to revolt.   For the scenes with Marina Ishmael -   I rewatched it, and my translation mentions terrorists as well.  I'd apparently forgotten some of that when I wrote my post.  Parts of that segment (specifically where the two are talking about the energy situation) and the segment at the end when the advisor is talking about the results of CB's intervention seem to have somewhat confusing and possibly contradictory sentences.  So I'm not sure I completely understood everything that was being stated in those two segments.   Since she's apparently the ruler of Setsuna's home country (mentioned in an earlier thread on this list), presumeably the reconstruction they were talking about was a reference to cleaning up what the Dominic did when they trashed the place.  If the other major population centers looked as bad as that one city did, then reconstruction would have been VERY expensive.  That's devestation on a level that Western nations haven't seen since the end of WW2 (Eastern front level of devestation, which was even worse than on the Western Front) - but presumeably without a Marshall Plan to help pay for fixing things.  My somewhat garbled understanding was that the last of the oil reserves were used to help provide the energy needed for the restoration, and now the energy needed to run the country is solar power that's being provided by an outside source (specifically the US), but with strings attached that are causing resentment in the country.  And even if a! nother oil-producing nation were inclined to help out, they can't because there's an international embargo on the oil trade (presumeably because of its scarcity - the intro claims that fossil fuels are completely gone, which implies something beyond scarce, but doesn't exactly fit with one or two sentences in the segment in my sub).  i.e. since the nation has no fuel of its own, the only way to get energy is through one of the three nations that control the distribution of power from the elevators.   Stray thought...   We know a Gundam appeared in her country (we saw it in the pre-OP sequence in episode 1).  It's possible that she's aware of this, and has particular reason to prefer that CB not appear again (aside from the general destructiveness that a raid by CB against the malcontents in her country might cause).  But that's just unfounded speculation for the time being.   Also, given CB's founder and the vulnerability of the elevators (as seen in episode 1...), it's possible that CB's ultimate goal is to eliminate the possibility of a threat affecting them, and at the same time somehow make the energy that comes from them freely available to everyone on the planet (as opposed to the solid control that the three alliances have them under).   junior ---------[ Received Mail Content ]---------- Subject : Re: [gundam] *Spoilers* Gundam 00 Episode 4 Date : Wed, 31 Oct 2007 02:32:52 -0400 From : "Dr. Core" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To : list@gundam.com I wouldn't dwell on the focus on anti-US, I suspect when other nation-states come into the spotlight there will be ample amount of cynicism in store for them. But the writers are not shy at all naming names or come close to naming names: the US, Real IRA, and an almost direct reference to Iraq. > We saw something similar in the sequences with the character who probably occupied > the most screentime in the episode - Setsuna's female counterpart in the OP. There are > serious issues in her country. It's not entirely clear what the cause of the problems is, The version I saw mentioned "terrorism" in reference to the fires, and "spent all the fossil resource on _reconstruction_". Reconstruction from what? With oil money? And multiple simultaneous terrorist bombing? And Setsuna being a Kurd? It looks like Iraq, sounds like Iraq and smells like Iraq.

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