Icarus's blog: "Somantics"

Things really were better when I was young.

I think it has...

oh fuck me... stupid windows laptop with your STUPID automatic double spacing.

I think it has something to do with the emphasis being on story and not technology. My favorite games all have sprites (those lil flat guys drawn with a few hundred squares of single color?) Y'know- back before polygons, havok, 3-D EVERYTHING, blood spray and voice acting?

But this actually isn't about video games...

Tonight my grampa gripe is about ... I could do it about contemporary cooking too-

It's about mecha.

In my day... The days of original transformers, and prolific Universal Century Gundam sagas

Mobile suits didn't have a special attack. They didn't have a "hidden powa" drive (some device that conveniently saved your ass and had to be activated in a moment of crisis that makes binders and stabilizers look like spread wings, or makes glowy parts). You just got out there and shot fuckers.

Now- I'll go ahead and make the accusation that 00, Seed, and Wing are not "real mecha" stories, but rather "super robot" stories. All that's missing are superfluous capes, sashes, wings, and swords...

Oh wait

these shows have ALL of these.

Granted... I liked Wing when it came out.

Because I was 10 and didn't fucking know any better. The plot is canned. The dialogue is forced, but the design and splendor was... spectacular.

Then I watched 0083, 0079, and 08th MS team.

I couldn't be swayed back except to occasionally compliment the design of Heavy Arms (suhweeeet gatling guuuuuns~) and Deathscythe (the great destroyer/god of death grim reaper gundam).

Fucking awesome.

But those mobile suits were fucking INVINCIBLE. They'd take down hundreds of suits per sortie, and barely work a nerve or gear.

Amuro (another 15 year old legendary pilot) has regular crackups, meltdowns, and protests, and doesn't actually believe or know what he's fighting for.

He's not a zealot or a coldhearted murdermachine- he's a legitimate victim of circumstance rising to the call of his misfortune.

And he's a kid- so he goes to pieces and rebels.

That's a more colorful character than a glass-eyed puppet that slowly tries to become a real boy with a total of 16 lines in a 49 episode series most of which are variations on his opening dialogue of "I'll kill you" or "systems green begin the mission" "I must accomplish my mission".

I have to say though- the panty waist "peace for all" character in (now all) gundam

needs to go.

I'm not entirely sure that character is present in 0079 or the UC OVA's, and thank god really. Its out of place and obnoxious in a war space opera- but I've been informed there's a character in seed that does nothing but stand on the launch bay of a carrier shouting "please stop fighting" for a whole series.

... fanfuckingtastic. Hence why I'll likely never watch 00 or Seed. Shit sounds too juvenile and preachy.

So what brought all this on?

... about 8 people have joined the modeler forum I frequent since I joined.

... they're all seed/00 fans and "just started watching UC".

This is the rough equivalent of saying "man- I LOVED StarWars Episode 1 and I'm getting ready to watch 4 5 6!!! I heard Empire striked back was AWESOME!!!" or "I love LOTR!!! What's The Hobbit??" "I'm a HUGE Voyager fan, who's Kirk?"

While I welcome new forum activity and new blood... I kinda wish their enthusiasm was in the same place as mine.

Give me grit.

Give me blood.

Give me aces in MONSTERS.

... not tweens in shiny sparkling angel themed fey suits.

Zieg Zeon!

Hopefully they'll learn to acknowledge the superiority of UC once they've been introduced to it. Most people do.

I can't help but cringe at their fandom. Its related to mine, but so drastically different.