Mailbag 67: Going Astray

Posted January 22, 2008

The new year of the Mailbag continues with another nail-biting installment.

David Roquis asks:
I just finished watching Turn A Gundam and really liked it. However, I
have few questions about the show!

1. At the start of the show, why does the Militia attack the Moonrace
right away when they land? I understand the point of creating a militia
to be sure that the Moonrace won't invade them, but they were already
negotiating by radio since 2 years so they knew the Diana Counter forces
will arrive and it was not like it was a surprise for them. Don't you
think the Militia is in fact completely triggered the war?

2. Do you have any clue why Guin Lineford keeps calling Loran as
"Laura"?

3. What happened to Cancer and Muron at the end of the show? The last
time we saw then was in episode 40 when they were in the FLAT floating
in space, and I don't remember seeing them in the final episode with the
other Red Team member going to the Moon in the Willgem.

4. Don't you think it is a bit weird that in the final episode that Loran and Queen Diana are married, but they both sleep in different bedrooms? What was the point of that? After all the nudity present in the show, I would not have been shocked to see them sharing the same room.

Chris responds:
1. Well, the Moonrace obviously came to Earth because negotiations broke down. If negotiations break down and a foreign power brings armed forces to your territory, that's pretty much an act of war, so it doesn't matter who technically fired the first shot.

2. No idea... maybe he wishes that Loran was a girl and can't accept that he's a guy.

3. Their fate is never shown, so we're left to assume that they happily drifted away in space to do their thing.

4. Beats me.


Maximal Elder asks:
1. I get that the ZGMF-X56S/? Destiny Impulse, ZGMF-X56S/e Abyss Impulse, ZGMF-X56S/d Chaos Impulse, and ZGMF-X56S/? Gaia Impulse were testbeds for the technology that went into the Destiny, Abyss, Chaos and Gaia Gundams. But what I am wondering is if the test equipment set up like Silhouette packs or were they permanently mounted on the suit? If they are like Silhouette packs then could they be sent out on the DRAGOON flyer? Also do these Impulse units still have the ability to split up into the Chest Flyer, Core Splendor, and Leg Flyer?

2. Do you think this is the end of the SEED universe now that they have moved on to Gundam 00? I would really like to see more of the ASTRAY side stories animated.

3. In some of the ASTRAY side stories they call some Gundams Astrays, even though they really have nothing in common with the Astray units.  Like in X ASTRAY when Lowe finishes fixing up the Dreadnaught Gundam and giving it the DRAGOON backpack they start calling it the X Astray. Or in DESTINY ASTRAY Lowe names a suit he found in pieces aboard Genesis Alpha the Astray Out Frame. In both cases the suits are of ZAFT design and have no similarities to the Astray designs used by Orb. Is it just that Lowe likes that name Astray so he gives it to any suit he works on?

4. In DESTINY ASTRAY it's pretty clear that the Testament Gundam and the Out Frame are based on the same design. And by the model numbers the Testament is Unit 1 and the Out Frame is Unit 12. So any idea what happened to the other 10 units? It's said in the manga that this design was created by ZAFT to test out captured Striker Packs from the Alliance.  Something that versatile wouldn't be left where just anyone can find them.  I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of them were used as spare parts. But the rest could still be actively used. Especially if they have the same universal backpack mounts that give the Out Frame the ability to mount Striker, Silhouette, and Wizard Packs. Do you think its possible that we might see more of them if they continue the SEED side stories?

5. I get that the Proto-Saviour is the prototype for the Saviour that Athrun uses in DESTINY. But how did the Earth Alliance get their hands on it?  Is it another example of the Alliance stealing suits from ZAFT? But considering that it was made after the 3 Gundams are stolen from Armory 1, ZAFT should have tightened security to keep it from happening again.

6. In SEED FRAME ASTRAYS Orb has another prototype unit called the Green Frame. Does this one have any special features like the other 3 prototypes, the Red, Blue and Gold Frames?  Since there isn't much info on the site, I'm wondering if this one is for testing the N-Jammer Canceler for use on Orb mobile suits.

Chris responds:
1. The Gaia variant requires a special custom Leg Flyer. Given how bulky the Chaos and Abyss variants look, I doubt they could be sent on a Silhouette Flyer and would probably have to be mounted directly on the Impulse.

2. Given that there's a SEED movie in the works and the FRAME ASTRAYS manga is currently running, I don't think we've seen the end of the universe yet.

3. It's a symbolic name because the Astrays stray away from a path. When Lowe attaches the DRAGOON pack to the Dreadnaught, he tells Prayer that it's an Astray because there isn't just one path and he has to find it for himself. Similarly, he creates the Astray Out Frame and bequeaths it to Jess Rabble, who travels his own path as a journalist to find the truth of the world.

4. I don't know where you're assuming that from, because there aren't 12 units of the Testament. The Testament is part of a series of N-Jammer Canceler equipped Gundams that ZAFT creates during the first war, including the X09A Justice, X10A Freedom, X11A Regenerate and X13A Providence. There's only two Testament units: the X12A stolen by the Earth Alliance, and the X12 Lowe finds on GENESIS Alpha and turns into the Out Frame. The Out Frame was just a reserve unit created to serve as spare parts for the X12A Testament.

5. Stealing of mobile suits is very common in all Gundam series, but it's laughably easy in the Cosmic Era universe. There's no explanation given as to how the Alliance gets its hands on the Proto-Saviour, just as how there's no explanation how Lacus' forces come into possession of the Gaia Gundam or Strike Freedom.

6. Very little information has been released so far on the Green Frame, but so far it seems to be identical to the way the first three were before they started to be modified. We don't know yet if it does anything special, but right now I doubt it.


Maelstromm asks:
After a short correspondence with a fellow mecha fan at the Mecha and Technology section, I was thoroughly confused about a very simple question - does the Providence's shield actually have Phase Shift armor or not? I assume like all standard CE shields that it has anti-beam coating applied to it, but official lineart for it shows the shield being the same color as the rest of the body when the Providence is in PS down mode. Could someone please clarify?

Chris responds:
Since the lineart shows it that way, I would say it does. The Providence's shield is different because it's part of a system that mounts over the left forearm and covers the hand (assuming there's a hand underneath). Since it's an integrated part of the suit, it's only natural that it would have Phase Shift armor too.


Toxicity asks:
MAHQ's show and movie reviews are great, and your mecha profiles are second to none, but I was wondering if you had ever considered adding a section to include the character bios from the shows you review and have mecha profiles for.

Chris responds:
Thanks for the comment. Years ago, there was a plan to do Gundam character profiles. Some of the long-time members of the MAHQ IRC channel began work on organizing character lists, but we eventually stopped for whatever reason. The main reason was that it was too much work. MAHQ is hard enough to manage as it is now, and a section for character profiles would make it even more unwieldy. If you're curious, you can see that old character profile template here. As you can see, the design was pretty similar to that of our mecha profiles, and the two sections would've been cross-linked.


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