I was thinking about what makes Gundam so boring to watch and

>Why bother with robots

You just summed up like 9/10 of all mecha anon.

The Gundams are literally there to sell and do cool shit. Of course there is no real worry about if the Gundam will win a battle. The real drama is supposed to come outside of the suit. Trying to broker a deal between warring factions, hostility among crewmates, a massive loss somewhere far away that the Gundam can’t reach but may effect someone the hero cares about.

Just like any war story, it’s not about whether the main character will win, but what shape everyone around him will be in when he gets out of the mobile suit.

>>14937593

It goes back to Kurt Vonnegut: "Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of."

Mika and the Gundam is never fucking challenged, neither on a mental or a physical level. The closest to when this happened was when that one pirate called out Mika for being an adrenaline junkie, but Mika just shrugged that off. Likewise, Mika shrugs off all the supposed tragedy that happens to Tekkadan, further devaluing the deaths in the series (why should we care when the protag doesn't?).

Compare Mika to Setsuna if you wish. At this point Setsuna had pulled a gun on his teammates, gotten his shit slapped silly, had a haircut, mentally lost himself, mentally found himself again, found himself a worthy rival, mourned the loss of a mentor/friend and other comrades in arms. (now I'm not saying Setsuna was a masterpiece of writing either, I'm just drawing parallels since they are both the stoic type). What has Mika been doing for one and a half season?

>>14937627
Killing people for little other reason than that he was told to do it by his commanding officer. Which could be fun to explore, if they played his status as a remorseless child soldier for horror. Hell, even if they played it for pathos like they do with all the other child soldiers it could be interesting. As it is, Mikazuki comes across as more robotic than his Gundam.

>>14937627
>Mika and the Gundam is never fucking challenged, neither on a mental or a physical level.
They're not the focus of the show.

Akihiro had his little brother squashed
Takaki nearly died
Biscuit died
Norba and the Ryusei-Go got destroyed and nearly killed
Mika lost an eye and arm
Aston died

You are an absolute idiot if you think Mika is the protagonist, and I hope you and your entire family dies of cancer.

>>14937685
All these characters were boring and uninteresting.
6 eps with Bernie and I called my eyes out.
23 eps with Biscuit and I didn't even give a shit, I barely managed to yawn.

>>14937627
This isn't so much a problem with Mika as it is Tekkadan as a whole.

>>14937685
Akihiros brother was a fucking terrible plot point

>>14937627
>Mika and the Gundam is never fucking challenged
Not really...

Season one:
>Ran out of fuel and would have been fucked if it wasn't for Crank needing to get wounded Ein out of the way in the fist fight
>Was on the ropes in the duel against Crank before he was able to use the tip of the mace thing to attack Crank's Graze straight in the cockpit
>Would have been defeated by McGillis and Gaelio if it wasn't for the Isaribi showing up and picking him up mid battle
>Fight with Azee was mostly her dominating him and ended in a draw
>First fight with the pepe gundam ended due to pepe gundam not having enough fuel to continue fighting
>Would have lost the first Gundam vs Gundam fight with Gaelio if it wasn't for Akhihiro showing up with his new Gundam turning a 1 vs 1 fight into a 2 vs 1 fight
>Would have gone up against an unbeatable number of Grazes if Kudelia hadn't made her "Shoot me down on a live broadcast if you dare" gamble
>Would have gotten his ass kicked by Gaelio in their second Gundam vs Gundam if it wasn't for special equipment installed just for Gaelio's Gundam
>Would have died on earth atmospheric entry if he hadn't been able to use that Graze Ritter as an atmospheric reentry shield
>Would have been killed by Graze Ein if he hadn't tapped into the Barbatos' abilities so hard it gave him brain damage

In short:
>Challenged =//= Beaten

>>14937794
Actually come to think of it, if you qualify running away as being beaten then the first fight with McGillis and Gaelio ended with Mika losing the battle.

>>14937593
Gundam is shit, news at eleven. And the reason why is that it's a toy commercial. Gundam is the most pleb mecha anime franchise.

>>14937794
So what you're saying is Mika has a lot of plot armor?

>>14937593
It only took you 32 episodes to figure out something everyone realized back in episode 7.

>>14937685
>You are an absolute idiot if you think Mika is the protagonist,
neck yourself you fucking subhuman holy shit

>>14937853
Sure if you think close calls, fights ending in a tie and plain running away as falling under "plot armor". Should he end up like Kira Yamato in SEED Destiny or the original Lockon Stratos in 00?

File: are you jesting me.png (114KB, 347x344px) Image search: [Google]

114KB, 347x344px

>>14937627
>Kurt Vonnegut

>>14937685

Mika has gotten more than sufficient screentime that could have been used to actually develop the character as everything else was going on. Instead they just dick around with time (which is a large reason why people say the show is boring I suspect. Too much screentime is wasted on stuff not happening).

>>14937794

I saw those moments too. They completely failed to deliver on the tension part. You don't actually think Mika is in trouble at any point.

>>14937921

> or the original Lockon Stratos in 00

You mean beaten and dead? Sure why not, that would actually be an interesting and daring turn of events. Maybe then the other characters would stop going through the motions and actually start acting.

>>14937794
So plot armour after beasting everyone
No he was dominant
He was holding his own against both of them for a huge amount of time only taking minor damage
This was actually pretty even
Yes pepe retreated and wasn't doing amazing anyway, not really helping you here
Pretty even fight, only at the end there did he have an issue
He goes through them like nothing most of the show
So not challenged
So not challenged
He was holding his own against it, this is the closest to an interesting challenge he has to overcome but it is just oh wait I have more power. Like most shows would so that episode 10 and then actually build something interesting off it. IBO he just does it at the end of season 1, and isn't important at all in season 2. Even losing his arm has meant fuck all cause all he did was stand around with them at his side anyway.

I think that anon said it wrong though, it isn't that he doesn't get challenged but that he never has a real or interesting struggle to overcome a challenge. Instead of some power him must control (this should have been the whole arm bit), special way the fight must go or different feeling about the fight he just goes "yeh k orga." Then goes out and wipes the floor with most stuff and may take a bit longer on another gundam which to overcome he just sort of does. This is also not helped by his general demeanor, which 99% of the time seems uninterested in even fighting, occasional but muh family and then you may get a tiny spark of rage in a sort of angry face.

File: 7q46qg.png (291KB, 640x480px) Image search: [Google]

291KB, 640x480px

>>14937711
>Crying over hamburger meat

>>14938933
Really? Because most of those would have ended in Mika's defeat if things had been just a bit different.

>>14939087
>So plot armour after beasting everyone
He caught Oris completely off guard and injured Ein on his first combat mission. If Crank had decided to use the Barbatos running out of thruster fuel to attack
>No he was dominant
Not after he lost the mace thing, then he was completely without a weapon
>He was holding his own against both of them for a huge amount of time only taking minor damage
Not really, the only reason he took so little damage was the armor and he had to completely purge the armor on his right arm to avoid what would have been a killing blow. Any more damage to it and he would have lost his dominant arm
>This was actually pretty even
Not until he finally gets to reel in Lafter's MS and even then it's a tit-for-tat kind of thing that could have ended ether way if it hadn't been called off mid-fight
>Yes pepe retreated and wasn't doing amazing anyway, not really helping you here
Pepe was literally invulnerable to Mika's attacks when he didn't know how to attack it between the amor panels yet (he only figured this out in the next fight)
>Pretty even fight, only at the end there did he have an issue
The fight with Gaelio really wasn't an even fight until Akihiro showed up with a counter to Gaelio's lance
>He goes through them like nothing most of the show
He's not gone trough that kind of numbers and it's clearly indicated that those were just too many
>So not challenged
If he didn't have that one time use reactive armor, he would have been beaten so I wouldn't call it "not challenged"
>So not challenged
That once again was a close call and a gamble that paid out
>Waah waah
He really wasn't holding his own against Ein in the last fight until he tapped the AV system in the Barbatos until the point of literal brain damage. At this point it's pretty clear that he's going to undergo even more brain damage at some point in S2 to get out of a similar pinch.

>>14939087
>I think that anon said it wrong though, it isn't that he doesn't get challenged but that he never has a real or interesting struggle to overcome a challenge. Instead of some power him must control (this should have been the whole arm bit), special way the fight must go or different feeling about the fight he just goes "yeh k orga." Then goes out and wipes the floor with most stuff and may take a bit longer on another gundam which to overcome he just sort of does. This is also not helped by his general demeanor, which 99% of the time seems uninterested in even fighting, occasional but muh family and then you may get a tiny spark of rage in a sort of angry face.
Mika isn't supposed to be your typical Kira Yamato, (original show) Amuro Ray or Banager Links protagonist. He's supposed to be a stoic type who doesn't let the killing get to it and has gotten the point of being completely dulled to the idea of killing people before the show even starts. Complaining that he's not a specific type of character is just silly when it comes down to it.

>>14939171
He is not complaining that Mika is not "x" type of characters, what he is saying is more in the lines that for Mika being the character that he is, extremely stoic, it translates poorly when is to transmite the seriousness of the situation to the public.

Let me try formulate a example:

Imagine two characters fighting a mortal mecha battle for their lifes in an scene, both fighting and taking hits in the same way: one of them is sweating, heavy breathing, making severe expressions, passing the feeling of tension necessary for the scene. Then we have the other character, that is almost always stoic/cool, with a uninterest expression, like he is fixed in front of a candy machine trying to choose what he want. The latter fail to deliver the tension on the scene.

Yes, this is Mika character, at this point we all already accepted it, but this doesnt mean that it really works very well in the series.

>>14939165
>If
As in he did not, so he was not challenged
>Not after he lost the mace thing
You mean that part where he got stabbed through and Mika was fine?
>Not really, the only reason he took so little damage was the armor
You mean the one really good hit they got and he dealt with it? In that whole fight. He didn't have to purge any more either and got a piece off them which he used later
>Not until
Don't even need to argue here, you admit it
>Pepe was literally invulnerable to Mika's attacks
And he wasn't damaging Mika at all either, Mika just needed to go oh hit the joints
>The fight with Gaelio really wasn't an even
It was, you'd have a better chance at arguing it wasn't when he nearly got stabbed which was one moment
>If he didn't have
Which he did, are you watching another ibo where he didn't get it?
>That once again was a close call
Which he survived (in a pretty ridiculous way) without getting any more flustered than usual
>He really wasn't holding his own against Ein
He really was, and Ein proved he was incapable of killing already
> clear that he's going to undergo even more brain damage at some point in S2
I'm tired of IBO fans saying wait stuff will happen soon, it is like 30 episodes so far more should have happened twenty ago

As I said I don't completely agree with the never challenged point, but just look how hard you need to twist to make stuff sound like he was even a bit challenged in most fights.

>>14939171
>Mika isn't supposed to be your typical
That doesn't make him well written, at a push he has had minor developments and teh character hasn't been explored.

>>14937593
The Kimaris is a Gundam and loses your point?

>>14939993
Came here to post this

File: 1479077358002.webm (660KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

660KB, 1280x720px

>>14937593
00 did it really well. The Gundams were OP af but they were meant to be. After a few sure victories their enemies start using tactics or just overwhelm them with numbers. Every battle besides the first few stomps actually feel tense.

In S2 the Gundams aren't that OP. Thats part of the reason I personally hated the season. S1 had tension AND the Gundams felt like Gundams.

Keep Gundams strong, but make them face insurmountable odds.

Orphans is just shit when it comes to giving Mika strong opponents. There is no tension at all because his character is basically "he just wins." Usually the tension comes from other characters being in danger, but you know when Mika's on the screen he's just going to win.