As mentioned in the title, Here Be Spoilers...
So... Any bets on who lived and who died at the end? More on the climactic fight, but only after I'm sure that everyone has had a chance to see it. I don't want to spoil that yet... Sergei and Soma have apparently figured out who Allelujah is. And Allelujah apparently recognizes Soma's voice in this episode. So I'm guessing that the two have some backstory together. I'd definitely be interested in seeing that filled out. More interestingly, Hallelujah appears to be content to surface just enough to deal with the headache from Soma without actually seizing control as he normally does. That's a first... Quite a few Jinxes were blown up in this episode (there were 26 at the start - or possibly 25 and one Throne). I'm wondering if any will be left by the time the end of the season rolls around. I'm guessing that the writers are getting set up for something big for the season finale, but it's too early to make any guesses about what that might be yet. I wouldn't be surprised if Graham's Overflag is the only mobile suit still operable at the end of the season that has one of the red GN drives. I'm guessing that the season finale will only be slightly less violent than Gundam Zeta for the UN Forces because some of the UN pilots will survive with inoperable mobile suits. Nene made a run for it in her Gundam. It probably would have been smarter to throw herself on Setsuna's mercy. On the plus side for her, apparently all of the HRL Jinxes are in outer space at the moment. So for the time being, no one's actually chasing her. >From Ali's comments, it appears that the entire reason for the actions of the >terrorist group that he led (and that Setsuna was a part of) was to either >delay or stop construction of the AEU's solar elevator. Why? Presumeably he >was working for Corner at the time. What did Corner get out of keeping the >AEU from finishing their elevator? Note that this does fit with Ali's actions >in Azadistan, where he starts the trouble by... *drumroll* ... blowing up the facilities that will allow Azadistan to use power from the elevator. And also note that at the start of the series, ten years AFTER the Union and HRL have finished their elevators, the AEU elevator STILL is not complete. Why does Corner have a thing against solar power? Is it tied to his family's conflict with Schoenberg? Or is there something else involved? Cultural odds and ends... The mobile suit carriers were identified as Union Virginia-class vessels. The AEU Colonel identifies one of them as the Norfolk. But Norfolk is a British name. The name actually does turn up as an American place name, but I believe it's "Norfolk Yards", which is where some of the ships of the US Navy are built. I mentally noted a couple of episodes ago that the Union military salutes by keeping the elbow close to the body. This is not how the American military salutes. I assumed it was a clueless animator thing based on the salute used by the Japanese SDF (though I'm only assuming that's where it came from - I know some militaries do salute in that style, but I don't know which ones). The "clueless animator" aspect was disproved in today's episode when Sergei and Ali exchange salutes. Sergei performs a salute using the more common arm pose (i.e. with the upper arm parallel to the ground), but with his palm facing the same direction he is. Ali responds with a salute that has the same arm position, but has his palm facing down (i.e. the salute used by the modern US military, among other nations). I doubt this is important to the story in any way, but I thought it was an interesting touch. Kudos to whomever took the time to figure it out. >From the episode preview, it appears that Corner will be piloting a mobile >suit in the next episode. Definitely didn't expect that... Though it's also >possible that he's merely piloting the ship that took him to Veda. I guess >Ribbons isn't going to lock him inside the Veda facility as I'd assumed. junior
