On Marina's royal standing -- if she really is a "princess" in a "kingdom" (rather than, say, a "principality") I suppose one long-shot possibility is that she's _in_ _line_ to become the first ruler of the newly-(re?)established monarchy but doesn't yet wield any real power (i.e. they agreed to establish a royal line, and Marina's provisionally been selected to be the first monarch but has not yet been crowned). It would be a historically odd situation AFAIK, but given the power struggles within the Azadistan government I suppose it's possible. As if she didn't have too few bargaining chips already... Hopefully her _real_ job isn't to get assassinated in lieu of anyone actually important when the country's situation becomes even worse than it already is. Likewise, I took "first princess" to mean "first royal they've had since reestablishing the monarchy" rather than "first in a sequence of potential successors to the throne." As far as whom she's visited -- I suppose it also helps that the AEU's elevator is on dry land and fairly close to the region. I'm still trying to figure out how they get solar power from the HRL's island-based elevator to the mainland. Unless the elevator isn't actually used as a conduit, and they beam the energy at an angle to collectors on the mainland.
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Re: [RE][gundam] Gundam 00 Episode 8 *Spoilers*Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:07:42 -0500 Odds and Ends... I snipped all of the original text, though I don't think that should be an issue. You usually do need a King/Queen/Emperor/Emperoress in order to have a Prince or Princess, but not always. It's not an absolute requirement. The fact that we have not seen any other members of the royal family suggests quite strongly to me that Marina is the official figurehead, there is not royalty above her, and she has no other immediate family members. As I recall, there was a line or two in the last episode that suggested that the Conservative faction is the one that elevated Marina to her current position. The opposing faction is the Reformers faction I believe. Marina has probably only been seen visiting European nations due to geography, not due to who will see her. She's in the Middle East, which means that the European elevator is probably the closest, which means that it would provide the easiest access to the solar power that she wants. The Asian elevator probably isn't that much further away. But I would imagine that hooking up to the Union's elevator in South America is a last resort. However, that doesn't mean that she's getting a lot of respect during her visits. As noted, she doesn't appear to be meeting other heads of state. It was mentioned earlier (not by me), and it probably bears mentioning again. There's a very good chance that Marina's "advisor" is in reality a handler provided by the people who put Marina into place. Some of her comments have seemed awfully close to the boundry between "advice" and "threats". "First Princess" might be a reference to the social structure of the nation. If Azadistan retains the clan based society that many Middle-Eastern nations do today, then the head of each clan might be a "prince" or "princess". Because of Marina's elevation, she would then be the "First Princess". But that's merely speculation on my part. I wouldn't tie the fact that Marina stopped to an attention disorder. My own thought is that she's depressed because her mission is an obvious failure so far, and has little chance of working. She knows she's probably wasting her time, and would like to go home (but can't because the slim chance that she'll pull this off is quite possibly the only thing that will keep her country intact). So she's feeling homesick, and suddenly spots what she thinks is one of her fellow countrymen. She stops to chat to get some small bit of home, only to belatedly realize that she's made a mistake. She doesn't seem very well suited to her task tempermentally. And by rights there should be at least one or two other people accompanying her as diplomats. junior -------------------------------------------------- The Gundam Mailing List MK-II [email protected] Archives: http://www.gundam.com/gml Help: Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with this in the BODY: help list _________________________________________________________________ Your smile counts. The more smiles you share, the more we donate. Join in. www.windowslive.com/smile?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_Wave2_oprsmilewlhmtagline
