Thoughts on the GQuuuuuuX Movie

Here's just some reflections and observations about the GquuuuuuX movie, in no particular order. I'm not calling this a review, but if you really want something like one then I would say that I liked it and I'm interested in seeing where the series goes.

So between the Doan's Island movie and Challia Bull getting promoted to main character status in GquuuuuuX it seems like the '20s are a great time to be a character who appeared in exactly one (1) episode of Gundam 0079.

The beginning phase covering the One Year War is a little weird considering the mostly faithful character designs but the new mechanical designs. The Zakus are fine, I like when things have a little bit more exposed tubings and thrusters. The redesign of the RX-78-2 I'm mostly fine on but the head is wrong. It's too mono-colored. It's missing the splash of red on the forehead thingy and the chin, and there isn't enough of a color distinction around the eyes for my tastes.

Mildly surprised that even when Zeon stealing the Gundam and being able to reverse-engineer mobile suit sized beam weaponry, the Federation still manages to push the war back into space. I mean I guess since they didn't show anything happening to him, Tem Ray got out of the Gundam-jacking fine and kept working on Federation mobile suits?

The Federation trying to drop Solomon on Granada felt like a stretch. That's more the Gundam SEED Federation (although they'd just nuke everything tbf) than the UC Federation. A little bit too much “hey, you remember this???”

Also massive lmao that Kycillia would stay to the end. She's the least likely Zabi to do anything noble. Garma would do it, he's idealistic. Dozle would stay because he thinks he can catch the asteroid base. Ghiren is high on his own farts. But Kycillia “Prep my ship for departure and surrender the base fifteen minutes after I escape” Zabi? C'mon.

The shots inside the colony have a certain physicality and mundanity to them that I love. It's a place where space is beneath your feet rather than over your head, but there are still power lines and ramshackle buildings. Crowded transit stations. And yet when a ship flies through into the air at the center with the gravity is weakest, you can look up and be looking down at the top of it. That the strange to us is commonplace in the constraints of this place.

Even in the Universal Century, ACAB.

But also the police Zakus shooting some giant tear gas bombs into the refugee town to clear the streets and then just pulling the buildings down to find the maintenance hatch is up there again with the physicality and mundanity thing.

At first I wasn't sure what to think of the character designs, and then I found out that Diebuster staff was working on this show and it all clicked. I have some mixed feelings about Diebuster but not the designs for the most part.

Also the bit under the bridge is so Diebuster (complimentary).

Perhaps it's obvious but my Called Shot for a twist is that when everyone's going into the rainbow zone and sensing someone, they're sensing Lalah, Amuro, and Char from the main UC timeline. Or at least Lalah. I don't know why they would have her singing happening in the rainbow zone if she wasn't going to be a apart of things. And if she was a part of Char's life in the alternate timeline I'll be mad at them cutting her out because she's kind of too important to sideline.

I've known Haro in a beanie for 90 minutes and if anything happens to him I'm going to blow up this space colony and myself.

I am relieved that even though this is a “Zeon wins” AU we're not getting a big uncomfortable Lost Cause story about how Zeon is so great and noble and perfect. The outright statement that things aren't just wonderful, that “Zeon won the war but spacenoids still aren't free” fills me with more hope.

Note to self write the breakdown of Stardust Memory vs. Thunderbolt season 1 as very bad Zeon story vs very good Zeon story.

One bit I do wonder about in terms of the goodness of the move specifically is that it doesn't really get into Amante's motivation in any big way. You definitely get a sense that there's something more in life that she's looking for, but not specifically what it is. Which is fine for a series where you can slowly build up to the revelation, but in an enclosed movie it makes it a little awkward that I didn't quite feel like I knew why she was driven to these extremes.