GUNDAM: REQUIEM for VENGEANCE Review

[@bJT42]

As a lifelong Gundam fan, I loved this adaptation. They legitimately made the Gundam a horror movie character, and gave us the perspective of the Zeons (whom are normally the villains) and showed us just how terrifying and nearly unbeatable Gundam’s are in combat.

[@Myuutantobasuta]

Same bro

[@StrikeNoir105E]

Major correction: Requiem for Vengeance was never advertised by Bandai as a movie, it has always been planned as a 6-episode original net animation (ONA). For some examples: the Netflix entry into the show, dating back December 2023, refers to it as a "series". And most news sites from back then like with Anime News Network have referred to it as a "six episode series" even before this year rolled around.

[@JustRichGatesTv]

🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@rindel9699]

Holy shit, Zeonic Front mentioned! Dude how have I never found this channel before?!

[@Myuutantobasuta]

Thanks man, I try to upload at least twice a week

[@androyus]

"My 18-meter Jason Voorhees Gundam can't be this cute!"

[@Darwingreen5]

drinking game idea, every time Solari's gundam get's an arm cut off.

[@roryasrorri701]

heyyy, no kinkshaming

[@chez5791]

Solari's gundam? T_T

[@arabianfatass23]

That’s exactly what I said when I was watching. Like a horror kaiju gundam 😂

[@Galloglaoch]

Thank you for the video. Kinda hard to find good reviews on it. Anyway after postponing it because people saying how "woke" it is I finally wacthed and finished it so I was looking for someone's thoughts to check how I fare. I share some sentiments that I didn't mind how the females looked (kinda) nor do I think it was "woke" in the annoying sense. I also enjoyed the series overall. It was nice having things from the perspective of the Zeon soldiers and I do love the Zaku's, my favourite unit really. Such an iconic design. I am however ready for a "fight" on some of those points and things I think get in the way of this being really great. xD 1. *"We finally got a Gundam horror. Woohoo the Gundam was a horror villain". No, thats just not true.* I really want it to be but it isn't. This is absolutely true for episode 1 but after that the Gundam turns into the classic action movie villain that can never kill any named character. From being faster than them and hitting them with everything he becomes an immortal stormtrooper. Yes the shots are still framed as if he's a threat but Solari survives 3+ more encounters with him. Similar for the other guy. Actually the gundam doesn't kill a named character up untill the last 2 episodes (and 1 of them was only named after she got killed) and not for lack of fighting mind you. He just stops killing them. From a menacing killing machine he just turns incompetent. Slicing limbs of the Zakus and forgeting about them. Shooting at them but never at the cockpit. To me it just became tiresome how innefective he suddenly became. Almost as if he reached his kill quota and now he was no longer a threat. To make it worst the series made it very obvious he was not gonna kill anyone else after that. The same characters kept getting caught by the Gundam and somehow kept surviving. This is like a horror movie where all the kills are in the first 10 minutes and after that everyone escapes the killer for the rest of the movie. It stopped feeling like Gundam and this leads me to: 2. *Lack of stakes.* Pretty early on you understand that there are no stakes in this series. The same characters keep making mistakes and they keep surviving those mistakes. Lesean not listening to Solari and chasing the GM should've had consequences. Either the named people in the base should've died because of the Gundam (Heaton and the Major whose name I forgot) or Bravo himself should've gotten caught by the Gundam and killed for his dumb actions. Instead here you are scolding Solari for not letting him finish the GM. I'm not blaming you, the script shows that what he did was arguably the better decision as he could've finished off an enemy combatant and suffered absolutely no consequences for it. Yet later they treat it like our main character has always been right. The script tries having the cake but also eating it and this results in nothing. No one dies! There are no stakes! Remmeber when in episode 1 the Gundam took 4 Zaku's and Zaku tanks and just one shot them all? Yeah well now he takes 20+ shots at 2 Zaku's and 1 Zaku tank and can't kill either 1 of them. Remember when he destroyed 2 Gouf's? Yeah well now he just strikes non-lethaly the 2 Zaku's because they are main characters and can't die.The Gundam intentionaly stops before killing characters and goes to a different place just because. That's not in the gritty Gundam spirit. That's not what would've happend in The 08 MS team for instance. It's just Hollywood action movie bs and this leads me to: 3. *Way too many characters have stupid plot armour.* Sure Gundam main characters have always had a bit of a plot armor to survive. That's understandable. But at least named characters suffered consequences. In episode 1 the Gundam purposefully crushes cockpits, shoots there. He knows he needs to kill the pilot. But then conveniently doesn't kill Lesean (for some reason. He literally disabled the Gundam. Just crush it or saber it. He intentionally did it before. Nothing was stopping him. He just pretended there are higher value targets. No there weren't. Why didn't he kill him?). Then literally the same happens for our main character. He goes over her to finish her and stops and decides to go kill a tank instead. A fucking tank! That tank ain't doing nothing. Kill the pilot! You've shown that you know this is a priority! If he was so easily distracted why didn't he leave the sniper Zaku alive when there were 2 Zaku's going for him? He didn't get distracted then, he knew what to focus on and crushed his cockpit? When it came to main characters he forgor. Later on in the scrapyard - similarly. One of the Zaku's loses an arm and he just leaves it be. He pushes main character to the ground and then leaves her be to go to the hangar to deal with a Zaku tank??? What happened to finishing the pilots off? Was that reserved just for not main characters? He blows up the Zaku tank with Heaton inside and Heaton survives??? Excuse me? 10+ people are shooting at Heaton in the cockpit of a truck and he just survives. The two ladies just run past a heavily guarded outpost and get to a GM on the bridge without...well getting shot. The Gundam shoots the GM the mechanic is in and destroys it but the mechanic survives.... Very convenient indeed. Heaton and the mechanic somehow magically escape a guarded base on full alert. So what were the soldiers doing then? They weren't shooting at the ladies but they also weren't capturing the boys...so wtf were they doing? It's not like they didn't find our characters, they had proper ful lview to all 4 of them!!! Our character literally got caught in the middle of an enemy base and all of them survived scratch free. This is not the Gundam series spirit, sorry. This is just dumb. 4. The main character is just... kinda bad. She is just the best around, at everything. She's never wrong. She never makes mistakes. She is the best pilot, the best leader, the best evrything. Everyone that matters loves her and knows the good things are thanks to her. People do everything to help her. She's shown to be caring and wants to come back and has a strong motivation to do so (a kid) but also absolutely heroic and ready to sacrifice herself to help the others leave. Just nothing with her can be bad or negative. She loves her squad mates but doesn't want revenge because the opponent is a kid. She loves kids....well apart from her own as she willingly makes it an orphan to stay behind and fight the Gundam but also not to kill the Gundam because killing in war wrong. She is just all the good virtues in one and this is straight dumb and not realy in the Gundam series spirit. For instance Amuro was a dumb kid. He was wrong several times, he made mistakes, he had lessons to learn and even he is inssufarably heroic character. So imagine what you are if Amuro looks like the devil next to you. Sorry but thats not a good character. A mother who lost her husband and wants to go back to her child is a compelling enough character. Wanting to go home for that reason is heroic enough. Caring for your squad and wanting revenge was normal, they didn't need to make her a holy saint. She manages to convince the enemy they can be friends but also cries when her allies kill said enemy. Remmeber the same one that killed ALL her squad-mates? I'm also not saying she couldn't have stayed behind, sure make the ultimate sacrifice, or have her believe she's leaving with them but they have to leave early as she's fighting or do it as is, but don't play her being a mother card as to why she cares about the Gundam pilot. He literally killed your ally's squad-mate a second ago and now you're all like "bastard, why did you kill our enemy". Was the kid the only one that didn't want to be part of the war or does her hypocrisy know no end? Had the script called her on it it might've been a bit less inssuferable. But it didn't, the script treats her as if she's always right and she's holier than thou. Anyway don't get me wrong, with everything up there I'm being ranty just to illustrate what I didn't like. Despite all that I actually liked the series. As I didn't like our main character I also...kinda liked her if that makes sense. She had good potential and I liked some of her character beats. They were just surrounded with this holy persona that annoyed me. But apart that I liked Solari but I also think her character arc should've either ended with death or her returning to her child. The second required that she doesn't become the holier than thou hero and stay behind for the other sbut actually leaves the planet smg. Either would've been better than what we got imo. The doctor was fine, the mechanic was a good character (although he definately should've died in the GM), I liked the major too, flawed typical gundam character - that's what I want to see in those grounded stories. Hell, the pink haired girl was an ok character, she lacked real character really but there were grains there. We should've gotten more of her suffering the losses of her firends and thus explaining her actions. But as a menaingless side-charater in 6 episode show she was perfectly servicable. Actually my real issue with this series is that it doesn't feel in the spirit of Gundam. By that I mean it lacks gritty war realism. Bad, ugly, cruel war. Just like it is. The series felt Gundam only in episode 1 (which to be fair was a pretty awesome episode) and in the end when the Gundam pilot and Soalri were just coming to an understanding and out of nowhere a Gouf chad stabs the Gundam from behind and kills the pilot. That's kino! Chef's kiss. Was I sad the kid died? Abso-fucking-lutely. That's the point! It's not fair! Anyway those two things - proper gundam feeling. More of that please! If you reached this line then thank you for attending my Ted talk.xD Plese do share your opinions on it, I do enjoy a healthy conversation. Cheers!

[@Myuutantobasuta]

Jeez brother that’s 5 pages, that doesn’t fit on my phone, my best guess is that they kept Solari alive to try and option a sequel someday.

[@NoilBee]

DUDE! Absolutely loved your review! I felt the exact same way! As for the haters criticizing the portrayal of the 2 women in this movie, I think they’re missing the point. These are military women, not just characters meant to be cute or dainty. Their toughness and grit make total sense given the context-they’re in the military, after all. Anything else would be unrealistic and out of place. Totally agree with how they were portrayed! 🤖

[@Myuutantobasuta]

@@NoilBee thank you

[@cjopticon2378]

Though, I guarantee that most of the tattoos one of them have is probably stretching the rules related to uniforms and whatnot, lol.

[@ChristainMecha]

2024 am I right. - 11/24

[@graysnake8585]

I liked how realistic they made the Gundam look. I like it when they make anime life action styled. Helps me figure out how it look or work in real life

[@Myuutantobasuta]

@@graysnake8585 same man, this is the first time I ever considered the Gaw as feasible

[@v3lv3t]

I completely understand your take on the last 5 seconds of the movie lol. I had the same mix / wtf feelings while watching it. Although to some extends I understand even though solari thought zeon cannot win, but at that point Solari doesnt know the future fate of Zeon, especially the African forces. So her monolog at the end, kinda made sense to her timeline (supposedly the movie really end right after Odessa battle) because from odessa battle to the end of 1 year war, there is still another month before Zeon official surrender. Her spirits to continue the fight on until the end for freedom is understandable, the fight is not over, yet. But yeah, her vision to keep fighting so that children doesnt have to fight, she lost me there lololol i cant resonate with that at all. Prolonged war can only mean veterans dead replaced by younger draft. So.... that doesnt make sense to me either

[@roryasrorri701]

Yeah. The ending is a bit undercooked.

[@izzoArtistry]

💯 agreed. Subbed

[@Myuutantobasuta]

Thank you sir

[@metallicsnake.]

Iria winds up running the defense for the Zanzibar fleeing the Apsalus base at the end of 08th, she has a newtype moment and realizes that this other Gundam pilot feels the same way she does about continuing the war, and she just walks out to go meet him. Imply she's the pilot that gets gun down

[@Myuutantobasuta]

it's possible, but it sounds like she B Lined it straight from Odessa to Kenya

[@brobandit2944]

@@Myuutantobasuta the pilot's name apparently is Phoenix

[@natalebabbo-gunplaanddioramas]

Loved it!

[@carlll6101]

That part when she was defending the Gundam Pilot kid was off. He was kid soldier, that's fucked up, but MF was doing warcrimes from the moment he appeared on the screen. Kid deserved what he got.

[@Myuutantobasuta]

Her crew took that position, but her mom instincts wouldn’t let her once she knew

[@annguyen-tr3ne]

what war crime? He attacked an occupied enemies base, and later an enemies convoy. The resupply base? It was categorised as an enemies base, civilian and wounded enemies combatant probably not listed during briefing

[@carlll6101]

@@annguyen-tr3ne he was killing downed pilots, killing civilians, interfering with red cross, in destroyed regional HQ there was destroyed field hospital, at the scrapyard he attempted to shoot at field hospital etc, etc...

[@annguyen-tr3ne]

@@carlll6101, to him, there is no indication that the convoy is Red Cross and wounded related. The Vehicle has Zeon markings rather than UMRC, mind you there are UMRC trucks at the base they fled from. At the Regional HQ and Scrapyard, he was aiming at the Main building. The fact that it was turned into a field hospital is something no one outside of the Zeon force knows. Attacking an enemy's main base is a valid tactic. If any civilian dead, it is collateral damage due to lack of intel Killing downed pilot? The pilot was very much still active combatant when he crushed the cockpit, he haven't announce a surrender and his MS haven't completely disable. Gundam pilot. The midnight attack is also not a War Crime because the EFF that retreat during the day return to attack, rather than pretend to surrender. If any war crime was being committed knowingly it was Zeon pretending to be EFF officer which fall under False Flag tactic

[@carlll6101]

@@annguyen-tr3ne I don't agree, he disabled the Zaku by ripping power conduit and then crushed the cockpit. EFF troops threaten to kill the UMRC doctor taking supplies from UMRC truck destroyed in Gundam attack. This is Red Cross in this setting, those were war crimes.

[@Humans71]

Since it's hinted the Gundam pilot lost his family to the war I would've loved if his background was his family died in the colony drop I feel like that would've added more sting to the terrorist line

[@Myuutantobasuta]

The Gundam pilot is intentially setup to be vague, I found some Japanese production material and his official name was just “Gundam pilot”, I really thought though they were gonna somehow make him Iris’s missing son

[@BradfordCarter]

If they mentioned the colony drop then it wouldn't be Zeonic revisionism. They don't want to think about that part.

[@seb24789]

They already did that exact same plot in Code Fairy.

[@Myuutantobasuta]

@@seb24789 nah bro lol, code fairy has way more cake until the girls get traumatized and fail the war

[@Myuutantobasuta]

@@BradfordCarter the most revisionist part for me was the Africa corps at the end, but they’re definitely glossing past the Sydney drop, Iria totally doesn’t care about it

[@ZenRyoku]

1:42 let's just do what Mikasuki would have done.... .... STRAIGHT SHOTMUTHAFUKASRYTEINTHAFACE!!!!! (this guy knows what I'm talking about.....)

[@Myuutantobasuta]

@@ZenRyoku yeah you’re right Orga

[@joshuacheong5678]

This series is great, gritty and realistic. Sound design and the OSTs are good too. Human animations gradually became better as the episodes go by. I love Iria as the main character. I hope we get more Gundam projects in the future with the unreal engine 5.

[@Myuutantobasuta]

I’m hoping this gets enough views to pay for a sequel

[@PagemanX]

Zeonic Front comparison is pretty on spot, when the Gundam appears there is insanely close of episode 1, one shotting everything and being very hard to "kill".

[@Myuutantobasuta]

Man I miss that game

[@harveycasey1900]

Hailey was a badass👍🏿

[@arkgear1779]

Just finished it was definitely really great small series and yeah if what you said about the ending is true 😅 hope we do get sequel just to find out her fate

[@Myuutantobasuta]

Eating beans and never seeing the sun in a diamond mine will surely end the exploitation of children

[@antleredsnek]

I'm coping for the ending, let her join the AEUG

[@Myuutantobasuta]

That would be cool

[@back_stabbath9729]

I feel they're keeping the ending intentionally loose so they got room to do something else down the road which hopefully comes to fruition. I could see her end up in Karaba or AEUG at some point in the future under the right circumstances.

[@Myuutantobasuta]

Hopefully, right now it feels random though

[@braxos319]

I'm with you 100 % on this review. Great series except for the ending. BUT it does make you yearn for another series to see her fate.

[@Myuutantobasuta]

Yeah I'm feeling that.

[@sleeplessknight99]

I dunno about the Gundam pilot commiting warcrimes. To me it was just conducting combat operations against enemy forces. At one point it ceases its attacks to go back and help his GM wingman. Now the Zeons in this series. They are clearly not welcome on earth because we clearly see a "Zeon go home" flyer on a pole possibly posted by the local inhabitants. So why would the innocent civilians be willingly hanging out at the junkyard base with their invaders? Answer, because they're not. They're kept there against their will to prevent any from escaping and tipping off the EFF about the secret Zeon base as well as to act as a human shield against aggression should they be found out. That's the real war crime. The arc when our main characters dress up as EFF soldiers to infiltrate their base? Disguising yourself as the enemy is a war crime. Admittedly this next one probably wasn't intentional, but in the last episode when Solari tries to talk to the Gundam pilot to reason with him can be seen as an attempt to surrender which causes the gundam pilot to let his guard down which causes him to get stabbed in the back. This could be seen as feining surrender in order to get an advantage on your opponent during war. Yes, this is also a war crime.

[@cd5sircoupe]

I'll just keep it to one point here. I was watching this again with a friend that doesn't have Netflix & my bro who I think already watched it. My brother thought it was a series with multiple seasons planned, I was like nah I think it is a pretty standalone project, didn't know it was originally planned as a movie. Without trying to spoil it, I said while Iria doesn't die by the end, I think her story's done. They give her an epilogue where it essentially bookends, but I suppose it does leave the door open for a continuation. I would prefer they not since I don't like the choices they made regarding her epilogue. The only way it works is if she is a completely broken individual and stands in opposition of her values for the entire length of the run time after the edgy possibly cyber newtype kid got shanked. It doesn't really make sense in my opinion, they could have done better there. However, I would like them to perhaps do another movie/season like this one but following a different cast, with a higher budget. That would be rad.

[@justincholos.balisang6884]

Could've benefitted with more episodes for world building and character development, especially the Zeon folks. If Season 2 ever happens, I hope it's either a direct continuation or a perspective from the Gundam pilot.

[@Myuutantobasuta]

I'm hoping for a Director Continuation, The Gundam Pilot is busy with the hamburgers.

[@stevefelten1197]

I liked it, but I still can't root for the space nazis but Salarias seemed like she really wanted to be back home with her kid and music.

[@Myuutantobasuta]

Right

[@arsyasnipman2330]

My verdict when i finished watching is "if you can handle MS IGLOO, you can handle RFV" and i agree when you said "this is better than IGLOO"😂

[@Myuutantobasuta]

Respect fellow Igloo veteran

[@arsyasnipman2330]

@@Myuutantobasuta 🤝

[@graysnake8585]

Not gonna lie, this feels like All Quiet on the Western Front, but Gundam

[@kriysixvector4552]

Nice

[@jasonworlock5113]

I will start by saying neither side in the one-year war was right. Both sides did horrible things. That said it was only in episode 3 Junkyard that one Zeon officer Captain, Alfee Zydos, to point out that the Zeon force are from space and they have come to Earth. He falls short of calling it what it is an invasion. Now did the sides and the Principality of Zeon have the right to independence and self-govern, yes. Did they have the right to poison a colony that was still on good terms with Earth, killing everyone on the colony, and then crash that colony onto Earth. NO, this of course is conveniently not mentioned at all in Requiem for Vengeance. As I said there were plenty of villains on both sides of this war and that both sides had good people out there. Until the end I would have called Iria Solari one of the good ones, but her idea on how to stop more children from becoming soldiers is to hook up with a unit that has no intention of letting the war end there by making it impossible for both sides to not bring children into the fighting flips that around and destroys her character.

[@Myuutantobasuta]

you are 100% right

[@khoivo7947]

I wouldn't call the animation "state of the art". It's a lot better than 40k fan-animations (Erasmus Brosdau used to work on some 40k animations) but its clearly a little lower than what people would expect of a modern 3D animated show. The facial animations are a far-cry from the likes of Love Death Robot. The voice acting is... mediocre? Voice direction is not great, and I have some issues with the audio mixing for "human" scenes. Mobile Suit scenes though, are awesome. They sell the Gundam, its destructive power and its weight extremely well. All the fight scenes are amazing. I mostly skip to them once I knew what the main plot was essentially about.

[@Myuutantobasuta]

eh as it currently stands as far as my data is telling me, its the longest animation ever fully produced in Unreal Engine 5 with no outside interference.

[@WasabiAwesomeSauce]

I loved it as well. Best thing to happen to franchise in years

[@Myuutantobasuta]

Thanks Wasabi

[@IronWarhorsesFun]

Most of this story was good. Gave me good IGLOO vibes right up until the last 5 seconds.

[@Myuutantobasuta]

Yeah those last 5 seconds are a doozy

[@Artemis-Polara]

Appreciating the recap but you might need to rewatch the series (assuming you haven't already) since details here and there were incorrect.

[@Myuutantobasuta]

Yeah the audio here is basically from my live first watch, then I rewatched it during the edit, I tried to delete anything that was super wrong

[@xo3g]

Best part was when zeon Chad showed up 🤘😎

[@bigboi7817]

Both sides lost half of their populations. They need every man woman and child they can get. Of course theyre conscripting alt girls and violinists. Its one of the few times in fiction it makes sense to have so many women in the fight.

[@neonnwave1]

I enjoyed it for what it is. It's not perfect but I'd give it a 7/10. There was love put into this OVA and it shows. The biggest problem that I and many have is the facial and character animations. Environments and mechanics look great and the fight scenes are nice. As for the story, it misses its overall message of how revenge will most likely lead to more suffering. Personally, I don't think the Newtype element adds anything to the story. It really didn't matter in the end if there were Newtypes or if someone was. Second, I would have preferred if Solari saved the Gundam pilot after both suits got heavily damaged. Lastly, I think it would have been better if Solari was bent on getting revenge on the Gundam but eventually realizes it's pointless as it just brought more pain, suffering and death. Especially if her personality changed and some of the people on her team point it out, or witnesses people she knows giving into their anger and suffering the consequences for it. It also would have been great if after seeing that the Gundam's pilot is a child that she would question her drive for revenge. In the final battle, after learning that revenge is ultimately pointless, she pleads with the Gundam pilot who was also hell bent on getting revenge on the Zeon for dropping the colony. This way you'd have both characters being at odds with one another despite being cut from a similar cloth (one learned to let go of their anger and vengeance while the other has not). Also would have been better if Solari returned to her son. Living in regret is not a way to live - let go of the past. As for the controversy, even I think it's dumb. The reason so many people get upset over female protagonists is because of how often in recent years Hollywood would force 'ugly mean man hating Mary Sue' protagonists, which a lot had similar looks to Solari and Haily (tattoos, half-shaved head, looking like men, no booba, etc.), and basically tell the audience that they have to like them or else they're 'insert generic insult here'. Even women were getting tired of it. While I can understand why some people would be angry, I don't agree with it nor think it's justified. Solari and Hailey aren't Mary Sues nor are they disrespectful or demeaning towards men or anyone else. What matters isn't the character's design - it's what the character is like. If characters always had to be good looking, then why is it that Yzma, Cruella De Ville, Daria or Edna Mode loved so much? Side note: It was an American who wrote the story for Requiem For Vengeance. It was directed by a German.

[@luisespinoza3877]

Didnt care about the gender, the characters are actually good!!! They are in the frontlines unlike the other female characters. Thats how you write characters who are to “represent”

[@LongTran-kp3kz]

Ugh. Goddamn 'fans'. Oh, and I didn't know about the animators being from Germany.... Huh. Anyways, my only real issues with the film was that there was yet ANOTHER FREAKING OYW RX-78 GUNDAM!!!!!!!! ....and the mysterious kid pilot Newtype. Like, EFF had ANOTHER Newtype pilot!? And they forced a kid to do it? Wasn't this before EFF opened up their own Newtype labs? And was the kid a native born Eartnoid? ....I'm still not rooting for Zeon though... Fuck the Space Nazis. ...which makes me feel bad for the cast in particular.

[@Myuutantobasuta]

Technically based on the fact the kid is a confirmed new type the timeline works out if you factor in Amuro Rey being notorious and then the Blue Destiny development project,

[@justincholos.balisang6884]

Augusta was already active during the OYW, especially due to Graves (or the Graves Organization) who's behinde the Pale Rider project. Not to mention, Flanagan Institute defectors are a thing as well, especially the developer of the Blue Destiny.

[@SudartiDarti-oy5jz]

,tambah pasucaan,army,sar,megatroon,otomatis1/2

[@oratank]

nah this just has better modeling but Igloo animated better

[@Myuutantobasuta]

@@oratank hmmmmmmm

[@sleeplessknight99]

How to tell me you're blind without telling me you're blind.

[@cosmomage2166]

Way better than igloo.

[@Myuutantobasuta]

Igloo was a tech demo

[@BradfordCarter]

The ending is perfect. It's so stupid that it makes perfect sense if you know about the future. Yes, Iria is doomed - we know that but does the intended audience know it? If you don't know anything about Gundam you're coming in with a blank slate. The whole series is framed from the beginning in Zeonic revisionist terms. Instead of the One Year War it''s "The Revolutionary War." Issues of morality in warfare are reduced to a difference of opinion between naive liberals and hard-nosed killers. This is classic fash-fic. An in-universe work of fiction meant for a Neo Zeonic audience as a call to action: the heroic Zeon Remnants are waiting for us to come liberate them from the Federation yoke. You, the new generation honor their memory by following their fathers' footsteps. Guys like Cashymere would've been raised on stories like this. Iria is a classic fashfic femme protagonist: she both conforms to all the standards of social reproduction as a wife & mother, while also being an exemplar of her culture as a violinist, while also answering the call to serve as an elite mobile suit pilot? And she's hot too? It's checking off all the boxes. When she transfers her guilt over abandoning her son onto the Gundam pilot, what does she do with it after he's dead? She blames her own decisions on the Federation. She blames the Federation for using child soldiers, even though it was Zeon who killed their parents by doing the colony drop and waging war in space and on Earth for most of a year. Critical context you wouldn't know coming into this show, because it was written by Zeonic revisionists. When the kid said she should surrender, he was right. If she had surrendered he'd still be alive and she wouldn't throw her life away in the future. Her ending makes perfect sense because she's meant to be a representation of the Remnants. This is pure propaganda. This was also the turning point of the war, when Zeonic forces were no longer the overpowered juggernaut they were earlier in the war. The Federation could beat them with conventional forces, and suddenly there are prototype Federation mobile suits to deal with, which they'd never faced before. It's the kind of scenarios armchair generals like to fantasize over decades later. Instead of panzers at Kursk it's Zaku IIs at Odessa. In this story they're the beleaguered underdogs facing the White Demon. In this context they can seem heroic and sympathetic. When they were overpowered at the beginning of the war, they just seem like mass murderers. Which they were. You can tell Iria is a fascist too because she doesn't feel any guilt about the Feddies she killed, or presumably all the civilians who also died in that process. She's only haunted by the memories of the people she lost, which ties in to the loss of her husband and abandonment of her son. This is Iria's personal psycho-melodrama. The tragic backstory of the fascist hero. This is one of the most novel takes on Gundam ever conceived, and it's proven by all the ways that the events tie in with the rest of the UC timeline.

[@eikooowiesnowyowlchannels1921]

1st

[@Myuutantobasuta]

Welcome back Eiko

[@eikooowiesnowyowlchannels1921]

​@@Myuutantobasuta your welcome

[@RACH90810]

​@@Myuutantobasutado you think she will join karaba, AEUG or Axis.