-------------- Original message ---------------------- From: "Joseph Riggs" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > By five obvious sides, I meant the Ptolemais crew, the Trinities, and the > three > superpowers (who, while working together, are merely in an alliance of > convenience for the moment). I'm not saying that one of them won't drop out > all > of a sudden. The Trinities are the most obvious candidate for that. But at > the > moment, we've got five obvious distinct "sides" to the conflict.
I understand your point - I am just thinking further down the line that is all, as I cannot see the rest of them last beyond the next couple of episodes. > Wang does represent a potential asset to the Trinities. No, she can't send > firepower to aid them if they get in trouble. But her network of agents > could > provide valuable information to the Trinities that would allow them to pick > and > choose targets, or possibly figure out what's really going on in the world if > Ragna chooses to abandon them (which I suspect he will). It's entirely > possible > that they'll realize that Ragna has betrayed them, and then use data acquired > from Wang to locate Ragna and kill him. And whether or not they've been > played > for fools, they carried out their missions because they believed in the > cause. > Even if Ragna chooses to abandon them, they still see themselves as having a > goal to achieve. It's all nice and stuff if no one is actively targeting them, but there are - UN would want them either dead or their Gundams, and the original Meisters want them dead as well. They are really caught between a rock and a hard place, and there is very little Wang can do for them, especially their location are found. If they are not found, then yes, Wang can be an asset, but with the way things are proceeding, I just see them as being "done" really soon. > And while the superpowers are using their mobile suits against CB, we've yet > to > see anything that would prevent them from using the mobile suits against each > other should they decide to do so. Admittedly, that would be a foolish > decision. And the super powers had managed to avoid direct military > confrontations even before CB forced cooperation. But there's nothing ruling > it > out as of yet. This is my original "theory" on the whole CB conflict - they are trying to drive this stuff out in the open for people to see. > I'm sure Ragna will die soon as well. I don't know what will cause his death > (I'd personally finger whichever faction Ribbon really works for when they > cause > all Hell to break loose). But I don't think he's fulfilled his entire plot > purpose yet. He's currently the only link between Kinue's investigation and > CB's problems. So I suspect he'll stay alive long enough for Setsuna to pick > up > on the link through Saji. Which is why the more the reason for him to die quickly, so Setsuna and company CANNOT figure out what's going on. I just see that the original Meister will never really figure out what is going on in season one, as they will be too busy staying alive. Only my speculation of course :) > What you're saying doesn't make much sense, though. CB doesn't really need > to > have its image wrecked. They've already done that themselves to a large > extent. > Having CB show up and shoot up both sides of the conflict wouldn't really > have > changed peoples' opinions of CB, imo, since CB had already done that in the > past > (in Ceylon, for instance). It was noted earlier that the construction of the > solar array system caused huge economic problems in the Middle East, and the > UN > has embargoed the international oil trade which effectively destroyed the > economies of the Middle Eastern nations. Personally I wouldn't be surprised > if > there really is a group in place that wants to keep the Middle East unstable > for > currently unrevealed reasons. Also, Shirin, who appears to be the single > sharpest political analyst in the series, thought that "good PR for the UN" > wasn't much of a reason for the UN to get involved in Azadistan. So I'm > inclined to discount that as a reason. If Ali is not there, then it doesn't make any sense for them to be there, but since he is, then I see it as a thing to basically keep CB busy for a while, as if Union and Ali are involved, I really don't think just Lockon and Setsuna would be enough to keep the fighting down. I agree the PR angle is weak, but I see it more as a heavy handed PR move, as like I said, if Ali is successful in getting the whole thing started, the whole thing might last a while and I don't think CB can make the thing go away as quick as some of the other conflicts. > You say that Setsuna probably won't be back in Japan for a while. On the > contrary, I think that there might be some very good reasons for Setsuna to > return to "civilization". Wang appears to be about ready to break her > contact > with the Ptolemais. She's been the one providing the Earth-side agent > network > so far. Veda's not being used because of the fact that it's been compromised > by > Nene Trinity. That means that the Ptolemais crew has only very limited > information about what's going on at ground level, and that means that > they're > going to need to send some people down to take a look around. And though as > Core points out the Gundam Meisters don't generally make the best agents, > they're really the only people that the Ptolemais can send. But they don't know Wang is not really on their side anymore - I know Sumeragi already suspect Wang is not really on their side, but they have no way of confirming that. Yes, they need information on earth, but with the conflict seems to escalate so quick I really don't think Sumeragi can afford for any of the Gundam to be at a location where they can be isolated, since they were monitoring the last Throne "action", so they know there are GN-X out there. 10 against 1, especially against Exia, which is a melee oriented suit, is not a good idea. Yes, they can remain hidden from conventional units and what not, but we are not 100% sure whether they can hide from other Gundams. I guess I might be too cautious in the approach, but hey, it was just a guess on my part :) Remember, Sumeragi is asking Ian to grab the GN Arms, and we know from the models that only Exia would be using it in the first season, so for Setsuna to go to earth, do the thing and then come back for the GN Arms seems to just a big waste of time. > Billy can modify Graham's Overflag, but the basic problem remains. The > Overflag > uses a conventional propulsion system, and that causes the unhealthy levels > of > G-Force stress on the pilot that we saw when Graham went up against the > Trinities. Further improvements to the Overflag will likely only make the > situation worse (the Overflag Graham pilots appears to be good enough that if > you stuck a mobile doll system in the cockpit, it might very well be able to > beat a Gundam Meister in a duel). The only way around that seems to be the > GN > Drives, which appear to use some sort of anti-gravity system to move (which > negates the G-Forces - maybe GN stands for 'Gravity Null'?). That's why I said Graham need Billy to study how the GN-X works, so they can see if they can "reproduce" the engine or what not and incorporate that into the Overflag. You have to realize that even Graham knows that only beam saber or that type of weapon can damage a Gundam, and in order to use something in that power range, they need something like GN-Drive to drive it. > I believe Ian stated that the counterfeit GN Drives were missing the > shielding > that the normal GN Drives had. Unfortunately, if they're emitting some sort > of > harmful radiation, then Soma and Sergei are now being affected by whatever it > is. I am guessing on this as well, because it wouldn't make sense otherwise - if the "mass production" GN drive can be done safely, I cannot imagine the CB don't start to roll that out already. > As far as the saber is concerned, we know it can hold a charge for at least a > short period of time (since Graham was able to use it after he disarmed his > opponent). So it should in theory be possible to charge it up before a > battle. > This would allow a pilot armed with it to get at least several critical > seconds > worth of use out of it before the charge was used up. But before this can > happen, Billy will need to spend some time examining it. But you still need the particles to charge it with (those use GN particles, you know), so they still need access to GN Drive in order for it to work. To me, it sounds more logical for Billy to figure out how the power source works, as with that figured out, using higher end weapons shouldn't be that difficult. -------------------------------------------------- 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
