Last night, I had a dream. I dreamed I was watching the last episode and then, when it was over....it wasn't over. There was still another ep to go, and I woke up so horrified about it I almost yelled "NOOOOOOOO!!". As it turned out, I wasn't so far off. That must have been the crappiest ep, most unsatisfying ep so far, topped with an announcement about a movie to come to torture me some more (although to be fair, the movie is likely to be far more interesting, if it turns out to be about the events of 80 years ago that were hinted at in season 1 and never mentioned after). Ribbons, Revive, Healing all get blown up through the power of friendship and willpower, everybody lives happy (except some bloke, possibly Homer, who commits seppuku for some reason), Marina regains her seat as Head Honchette despite her painfully obvious lack of any kind of political ability, Cola Sour gets his happily-ever-after wedding, there is a new woman in charge of the Earth Federation, Earth is at peace forever. And it sucks. Why exactly would defeating Ribbons lead to an era of peace and prosperity? I have rarely seen such an unrealistic, contrived, Disney ending where everything is neatly solved by the sheer defeat of the Last Boss. How is that remotely like normal human politics? The message it sends here is that as long as you defeat the evil villain, believe in peace and love with all your heart and let someone else fight your battles for you, humanity will be saved. What a load of bullshit. Peace can only be achieved through personal effort, compromise, and a lot of time. It's not gonna be achieved within the span of a few years just because the guy pulling the strings dropped off. Yes, there is good in mankind, but there is also evil, and it's not crystallized in a few top figures controlling everything, like Ali and Ribbons. Killing them won't magically solve everything, like in a Disney movie. For the record, I didn't even give half a shit when Allelujah, Lockon and Setsuna had their near-brush with death. It's not so much that I expected them to survive, simply that I just didn't care. They got no characterization whatsoever this season, beyond a few broad strokes to make them almost into caricatures of themselves. In a way, it feels a lot like those new Slayers series, where the writers just checked what was previously done, noted the chars' quirks in the way a caricature artist notes his subject's main features, and exaggerated everything TO THE MAX in lieu of actual character development. So Allelujah had a split personality last season? We'll give him one this time too, it's part of his character, right? So it has no relevance to the plot, who cares, split personalities are cool, right?

As for Marina ruling Azadistan again, I thought we both agreed she was about the worst person imaginable for the job, how does it make sense to put her in charge once more?

And what's with those other clones showing up everywhere? Where the hell do they all come from, leftovers from Veda's Clones 'R' Us warehouse?

Another thing that rightly pissed me off was how Regene's motives were apparently left at sheer, uncomplicated spite. What the hell? What was the point of creating that char in the first place? Season 1 created all those big expectations about season 2, and gave an impression of a much deeper plot, with complex ramifications. So far, all of those expectations fell far, far short of the mark. The nature of the Innovators was never really expanded upon, it was never explained why they kept changing pronoun, or why Tieria's Gundam was called Nadleeh in season 1 (for all we know, that was just meant to be a tongue-in-cheek joke rather than some cryptic hint as to Tieria's nature). We still don't know what the Trinity or the black Haro were, but that's probably going to be explained in the movie.

I just feel like I wasted 50 weeks watching a show that was never meant to go anywhere beyond stereotypical, two-dimensional chars (especially after they killed off all those that had something resembling a personality and characterization), with a predictable, straightforward good guys vs evil guys plot. It's like diving off the deep end only to find yourself suddenly in the kiddy pool, wondering what happened to all the water. I started watching this series because it seemed like a good, mature, intelligent show. Now that it has shown itself to be the opposite of all of those, I suddenly understand the people who diss Gundam series, and I'll certainly think twice before ever touching that bullshit factory again. If even the director I respect the most can't come up with anything better than that tripe, what chance does anyone else have?

I already mentioned my feelings about the lack of recognition Tieria got for his ultimate sacrifice. I still feel the same, only more so. Everyone's gonna praise Setsuna as the Savior and Messiah, but none of would have been possible without Tieria. Somewhere on the dark side of the moon, is all that's left of a lost lonely soul who has nowhere else to go, who gave everything away selflessly, but got nothing in return, who knows and remembers everything, but nobody will know or remember him. Anew got a tombstone, but Tieria will never have nothing more than Veda and nobody else seems to care. And I find that sadder than everything, sadder than him dying pointlessly for people who didn't even cry for him.

This week's highlights:

-Tieria's naked ass. It took 50 eps but we finally saw it.
-Cola Sour surviving. Those cockroach genes sure are tough.

Allelujah's line count: Don't know. Don't care.

This week's drink count:

-Two shots for Allelujah finally doing something useful, eg. blowing up Healing.
-Two for Cola Sour's proven immortality.
-Champagne for Ribbons' demise.
-And add one for Rockon doing the annoyingly pompous 'This is Celestial Being' thing, even though it's not in the game anymore.

Verdict: I suggest binge-drinking to induce Korsakoff's syndrome and erase the past year and a half from your memory. God knows I feel like suing Sunrise to force them to give me back the 25 hours of my life I wasted on this crap that I'll never see again.

This week's MVPs:

1. Tieria, for clearly having the best ass in this show.

This week's LVPs:

1. Marina, for demonstrating an astounding ability not to learn from her mistakes. I hereby dub thee the Queen of Fail.
2. Graham, for failing at seppuku. Homer's method was clearly meant to work.
3. Every other char and Mizushima Seiji, for their collective efforts in making this show suck.

This week's comic:


Let's at least end on a high note. Or low, depending on your point of view.

Ok, let's see. Andrei gets mindfucked by Soma. Sumeragi does exactly what I said would be terrible writing. Ali gets his comeuppance and it feels strangely unsatisfying. Setsuna masters a new power, the Rainbow Ray. Louise and Saji make up in true Hollywood fashion with no lasting after-effects or traces of being an Innovator. For all we know the Rainbow Ray probably healed her AND Lasse. Oh joy. Lasse might not die. If only I could find the words to express my delight. Yet another pointless minor char survives for no good reason.

Now, on to the important part of the ep. I know I expected Tieria to die in this ep, but I never expected it to be this gruesome. I'm gonna need months of therapy to forget that gangland-style execution XO Freaking Hell, I swear he got the very worst death scene in the entire series, with Hong Long as a close runner up. Alejandro, Liu-Mei, Ali....They all got away with quick, mostly painless deaths, while we had to endure Tieria getting repeatedly gunned down from every angle. WTF was that shit for? Did they need to make sure there would be no doubt whatsoever in ours minds that he was dead? I could have done without seeing his bloody corpse over and over too, really. I'm gonna see that horrible spatter of blood in my nightmares for weeks to come, for fuck's sake. I still don't know whether to consider him dead or alive. He certainly had a very strong opinion on the question, but I tend not to trust talking supercomputers. His body is most certainly dead, they made sure to destroy every last shred of hope on that account. His mind seems to have merged with Veda or something, they weren't too specific on that. It's gonna get crowded, with Regene and all that data in there. Theoretically, he could just clone himself and Regene again to come back to life, just like Ribbons did, but for some reason, I got a feeling it's not going to happen. If he's the sacrificial lamb, it makes no sense on a narrative point of view if he comes back to life, cause then his sacrifice becomes meaningless. Also, as he wanted to live as a human, it kinda feels like cloning himself would cheapen the value of his life somewhat. I think he'll most likely just stay in there to keep Veda firmly in good hands, or die permanently next ep, see below.

Another thing that really annoyed me about Tieria's death was the others' reaction to it. When Lockon died, everyone was bawling their eyes out and moping around the ship, but when Tieria died, those who knew about it didn't react beyond "Oh my God they killed Tieria." "You bastards. So, what else is going on?" I don't know about you, but I didn't believe for one eyeblink Setsuna was remotely sad about it. "Oh. Bummer. I'll avenge your death, little buddy."
Considering Tieria did the most for CB during his short, underappreciated life, I find that pretty callous. Without Tieria there would be NO CB this season. He kept them together and worked hard at fulfilling Aeolia's vision, for Lockon's sake. If not for him, Setsuna would still be going around with his laughably outdated Exia-with-a-cape and would have simply gotten killed by that Ahead in episode 1. Tieria should just shut down Veda and leave them to their own troubles, buncha ingrates.

More things to reflect upon: Regene said he 'was waiting for this'...First of all, waiting WHERE? Is his mind, soul or whatever stored on Veda's HD or what? Second of all...he was waiting for what exactly, for Setsuna to develop a new power no one was supposed to know about that would enable him to take over Veda with Tieria's cooperation? That seems like a ridiculously long shot. Even if he and Tieria somehow planned everything together, including getting killed in order to link with Veda (why would they need to die anyway?), having the whole thing hinge on Setsuna's ability to pull new powers out of his ass seems like shockingly bad planning. Or not, maybe they managed to use their Innovator brains to calculate the Rate of Apparition of Bullshit (RAB) in this show and were able to pinpoint the exact moment when the next blip would occur ¬.¬

Along the same line of thought, if Tieria needed to die in order to be reborn as an all-knowing creature and save everyone, is it time to start a new religion? I call Pope!

For next ep, here's what I foresee: Setsuna will come up with the ultimate Transam that will result in Marina's song getting beamed into space. Everyone will get naked and realize the errors of their ways and be best friends forever. Since they won't need it anymore, they'll blow up the Innovator base, Veda, Tieria, Regene and their respective sorry corpses inside. Or Tieria will activate the self-destruct sequence to make sure Veda is never used for evil ever again. Either way, what do I have to look forward to anyway? Ian Vashty naked? The sudden revelation of why Marina has been hogging so much air time for the entire season?

This week's highlights:

-....Do I really have to say it?
-Hallelujah showing up for no reason. And being completely irrelevant to the plot, as usual.
-Regene not being completely dead. His motives are suddenly thrust under the spotlight again. I can't imagine he'd go to such lengths just to rule the world, honestly.

Allelujah's line counter: Does anyone even care anymore? No matter what he says he's still as useless as Marina and her Brady Bunch.

This week's drink count:

-Champagne for Ali's demise.
-I didn't bother to count Allelujah's lines, but have some more anyway.
-I also recommend some hard liquor, to dull the pain a little bit.

Verdict: Still not enough.

This week's MVPs:

1. Tieria, for giving his life so that everyone else could keep theirs.
2. Setsuna, for at least giving a meaning to Tieria's death.
3. Regene for.....whatever the hell he did. Synching with Tieria and activating his power or something.
4. Rockon, for not listening to the voices in his head and giving Ali what he had coming for a long time.
5. Soma, for mindfucking Andrei so neatly.

This week's LVPs:

1. Ribbons: I wish I could stab you in the fucking eyeballs for this.
2. Allelujah: The only reason you're not getting killed is because you're completely useless and irrelevant to the plot. And that applies to you too, Hallelujah.
3. Saji: Man, your arms must be weak little noodles if you can't push off that tiny Louise. Or maybe you were getting your freak on? I heard some guys like it...
4. Sumeragi, for doing exactly what I said she SHOULDN'T do.

This week's comic:

What do you want me to do a comic about, the part where Tieria gets shot in the head, or maybe the bit where Setsuna finds his bullet-riddled, blood-spattered body? That one sure was a barrel of laughs!

So, in this ep we finally learn where Ali has been all this time. Apparently, he's been lurking in the shadows, waiting to shoot the first idiot who decided he wanted to be caliph instead of the caliph. I said Regene's death would be tragic. Weeell, it was sad in a way, the way that means 'pathetic'. He had great potential as a character, he could have been much deeper, much more complex, with grander motivations than bald-faced ambition. All that potential was squandered in one moment, leading us to wonder exactly wtf all that buildup was about. And so, Regene joins the ranks of characters like Seymour and Vayne who started out promising, but quickly turned out to be your average ho-hum evil berk.

As for that whole Cola Sour dying part...Well, some bloggers thought they spotted an escape pod in that explosion, so we can still keep a measure of hope. He IS immortal, after all. Killing him like that would be such a kick in the teeth, even if it was a romantic, heroic scene. It still feels immoral, like someone donkey punching your grandmother. It's so outrageous you take it as a personal insult.

I'd been wondering how the whole Billy/Sumeragi issue would resolve itself. Seeing as they're at the weapons drawn stage, I don't exactly foresee a kiss-and-make-up solution. Sumeragi suddenly professing her undying love for Billy and saying how silly she was and wouldn't he please take her back would just be terrible writing. Personally, I'm hoping Feldt will hack into those Portal turrets behind him and gun him down from behind. Sneaky AND funny!

Other than that, it's the usual fight-fight-fight, bite-bite-bite, Transam and Allelujah being his usual useless self. I expect he'll either die next ep, or Soma will die and he'll go Hallelujah (they had to have brought him back for SOME reason, other than cheaply pandering to the fanboys, I hope) and murder the nearest bloke. Anyone care to bet that if Soma kicks the bucket, she'll miraculously revert to Mary just before, for one last touching scene with

And finally...the trap is sprung. As we expected, Tieria goes to his own doom willingly, like the sacrificial lamb he is. There can be no doubt that he's gonna die, he just walked into a situation from which he can't survive, as per the laws of narrative. He went off alone to face Ribbons, the main villain. Neither of them will allow the other to survive. Since Tieria's not the protagonist, he can't possibly win. And since this isn't one of them Nickelodeon cartoons where nobody ever dies and they just get a minor wound to the shoulder while the hero saves the day...Yeah, you see where I'm going with this. As we're getting ready to bid farewell to him, we might as well have a little bet on how the deed is going to happen:

1. Shot by Ribbons.
2. Shot by one of Ribbons' clones.
3. Shot by Ali. Freakin' irony.
4. Shot by Revive.
5. Shot by Healing. Wouldn't be the first time. I bet she wouldn't miss THIS time.
6. Mind-fucked by Ribbons.
7. Mind-controlled by Ribbons and killed by one of his teammates.
8. Mind-controlled by Ribbons and killed himself.

Personally, my money's on #2. But I seem to suck at death bets lately, seeing as all of last week's batch are still alive. For the time being. Maybe it'll turn out to be option #9, where he doesn't get killed. But I don't think so.

This week's highlights:

-Cola Sour complaining that the Gundams are late in helping him. Priceless.
-That swarm of Brings/Divines. Loltastic. Just goes to show how lousy and expendable they are that so many of them are getting blasted all the way to Jupiter. Why did they get an A-list seiyuu like Okiayu to play that loser, anyway?
-Tieria successfully infiltrating the enemy base, possibly under the cover of a cardboard box, we'll never know.

Allelujah's line counter: 7, counting 3.

This week's drink count:

.....Er. I wasn't paying too much attention, but I think we're staying sober this week.

This week's MVPs:

1. Tieria: Way to fake your own death and Solid Snake your way right to Ribbons, squarely pwning Revive and Healing along the way. At least you'll go out knowing you could pull this off without needing Setsuna to save you every step of the way, and with every character in this show now being a foil to Setsuna's grandeur, that's quite a feat.
2. Cola Sour, for terminal heroism.
3. Sumeragi, for going off to face the Portal turrets with hardly more than a big gun and a whole lotta balls. Who do you think is braver here, the girl facing two turrets and an ex-bf alone, or the jilted nerd who needs two turrets to defend himself against three (non-combatant) girls?

This week's LVPs:

1. Regene, for being yet another boring cliche villain. What a letdown. Tieria should be ashamed to be related to you. I'm just glad he never had time to get attached to his evil twin.
2. Billy, for general suckiness.
3. Ribbons, for having clones of himself all sharing the same mind in Veda. I'm sorry, I thought this was supposed to be hard sci-fi (minor a few bends for aesthetics), not Slayers. I know it can be confusing, what with Tieria and Xellos looking so much alike, 00 and Next having the same director, and Alejandro having Gourry's voice. That's probably what got you mixed up in the first place. Me, I'm expecting Setsuna to master the Dragon Slave any day now.

This week's comic:

Well, I thought of making one about Seravee losing its arms (hint: Monty Python), but I couldn't get a good frame, and I was pretty sure I would have felt like crap about that comic next sunday morning.

Ok, I'm gonna add a new item to the drinking game: from now on, whenever the show pulls some bullshit out of its ass, take one shot. If it's so ridiculous you can't stop laughing, take two shots.

We can put that new rule into application right now, with Graham's LUDICROUS bushi training. If the sheer idiocy of that waterfall scene isn't worth two drinks, I don't know what is. Does anyone care to remember that he's AMERICAN? This isn't The Last Samurai! Moving on to the next item of bullshit, Setsuna pulling a Shirahadori (grabbing the sword with two hands) on Graham. We even have Mythbusters to confirm this is class A bullshit, so take as many shots as you feel the scene's imbecility warrants. Let's keep ninja shows and mecha shows separate from now on, ok? I got a feeling we're breaking several laws of nature here, on top of the laws of narrative.

Noticed that Healing and Revive got some new Gadessas again? The Innovators' budget must really be in the red right now... Also, what makes them think they'll win this time, with the exact same model as before? Didn't Setsuna spank their asses thoroughly enough? ......Oh, wow, Ribbons created an army of Brings. That's just....wow. Maybe you could even invade Liechtenstein with those. Bring and his clone were pathetic, where's the point in making an army of pathetics? Multiplying anything by zero still gives you zero, you know.

Oh, please, Graham, you half-baked samurai wannabe, by all means commit seppuku; don't let me (or Setsuna's ramblings) stop you. Killing your hapless self is the right thing to do *nod*. Here, let me sharpen that wakizashi for you so it'll go in nice and smooth.

...Uh-oh, Feldt gets a nice touching scene. She's dead meat, isn't she? She's been relegated to a bland background char for most of the season after Soma joined, why give her any attention now unless she's about to die? She might as well paint a great big bull's eye on herself. Also, what was the point of that scene? She suddenly and without warning grew a crush on Setsuna? Why not, now that he's an all-powerful superhuman being? For all we know, he now exudes his own fragrance of Axe deodorant. If they're really pulling out some kind of Feldt x Setsuna out of their asses, it's gonna be even worse than that botched Rockon x Anew romance.

..."Going to find the future"? What kind of inane supposedly awe-inspiring call is that? I'm pretty sure the future happens all by itself, it doesn't get lost under the couch and you have to look for it. Is it just me or this ep has an unusually high ratio of meaningless lines meant to sound really cool, until you really listen to them?

It was sweet of Rockon to defend Tieria, but.....Why should Tieria need it in the first place? Sure, his particle shield was weakened, but last I checked, Seravee was the 'heavy armor' of the four. Logically, its armor should be stronger than Cherudim's shield bits.

On another note, this ep sure took care of my 'Where are Kati and Cola Sour' worry. Nice entrance, by the way. He didn't even get shot down. It's still a bit weird to see him fighting alongside CB, when he almost killed Tieria last season.

The last scene was at the same time incredible and disappointing. Yes, it was very unexpected to see Regene headshot Ribbons, but looking at the preview, looks like Aeolia found a cure for hot lead through the prefrontal cortex. How do you kill someone like that? Silver bullets? A stake through the heart? Holy water? The thing that disappointed me the most, though, was finding out that Regene was doing all his dirty tricks strictly out of boring, run-of-the-mill ambition. All this time I hoped that maybe Tieria's humanity had leaked into him and communicated the desire to let humans lead themselves, when in fact, he just wanted to be King of the Castle. Looks like his death won't be tragic after all. Oh well, if it's a choice between him and Tieria, go ahead and smush him.

My death bet for ep 23: Feldt, Lasse and Mileina's mom. I expected Tieria to do in ep 23 before, since Lockon died in 23 during season one and it would have made a nice link, but I think there are still too many unsolved issues about him and Regene to solve them all in one ep. I really thought Tieria and Regene would meet much more often in this series >_< So many great plot opportunities wasted on useless Marina scenes...

This week's highlights:

-Tieria grinning. It's been a while.
-Soma letting Allelujah call her Mary. I wonder if that means her two personalities are merging.
-Tieria praying to Lockon. Awwww....
-Rockon defending Tieria. Close enough.
-Tieria miraculously regaining the ability to fight all by himself with his overpowered mecha. Hallelujah!
-Kati and Cola Sour showing up. And Cola Sour even calls himself immortal, sweet.
-The long-overdue death of Fastard.
-Regene nailing Ribbons right between the eyes. Holy crap. I did NOT see that coming.

Allelujah's line counter: 7+3

This week's drink count:

-One for Allelujah's lines
-Two for Cola Sour's 'immortality'
-Plenty for all the unbelievable bullshit in this ep.
-Champagne for Ribbons getting utterly, spectacularly pwned in the most awesome fashion


This week's MVPs:

1. Regene for that splendid marksmanship. And for demonstrating the use of the interdimensional anal pouch.
2. Tieria for fighting on his own and smiling again.
3. Feldt for a nice flower.

This week's LVPs:

1. Fastard for taking so damn long to get killed.
2. Ribbons for assembling an army made entirely of his worst underling. Bra-vo *sarcastic clapping*. All you need to do now is send them to the Stormtrooper Shooting Academy.

This week's comic:
(If you're having trouble viewing the picture, try reloading. Scrapbook is unreliable.)


Just a variant of last week's comic, but I don't have time for more at the moment.

Ok, let's keep this short and sweet. Hong Long dead. Liu-Mei dead. Nena dead. Whoohoo! Sucks for Hong Long though. Liu-Mei's a bitch and then you die, really. I really wish they'd expanded a lot more on their complex relationship and why the heck Hong Long felt so compelled to defend that waste of DNA. The whole thing, like Anew and Rockon's relationship, felt rushed and botched. Probably because Marina stole precious airtime that could have been employed building OTHER chars. Also, I really don't get why Regene would have given Veda's coordinates to Liu-Mei, only to sic Nena on her after. What the hell? Why not just tell Liu-Mei to go to that colony, wait in the shadows until she passes the paper on to Setsuna, THEN have Nena gun her down like a dog? The way he's going about everything just seems so needlessly convoluted, it's like he just makes up his bullshit as he goes along.

It also strikes me as odd that Marina's song would play on the radio. No, not just because it's really crappy and no self-respecting FM station caring about its ratings would touch it (kiddie voices and Hammond organ? Come ON!), but also because Klaus' argument about people being tired of fighting just doesn't hold water. As Hercury pointed out, the Earth Federation controls all the information, so the people aren't likely to even KNOW there's fighting going on anywhere, and probably aren't likely to care about a bunch of poor brown people getting nuked. Give Peace A Chance was written during the Vietnam War and it caught on because thousands of young Americans were getting forcibly shipped off to their deaths. This just isn't happening this time, there's no draft, the rest of the world is at peace and prosperous, nobody cares. Unless this is playing on Katharon's underground AM station, I call bullshit on this too. I swear, by the end there won't be anything left of this show but cowpies.

Oh, and that last bit? AUUUUUUGH! Quick, someone throw bleach in my eyes!!! Goddammit, why isn't Tieria ever around when Setsuna decides to throw one of his naked parties? I'm gonna carry horrible images of naked Graham to my GRAVE, freaking hell XO Why do I get the feeling this show will end with everyone naked singing Marina's retarded song? Just add pot and you got an instant hippie party! Good grief...

We only have four eps left and there are still many unresolved plot issues. I really hope they won't just drop through the cracks, which seems more than likely with the way Mizushima has been rushing everything that didn't involve Setsuna or his bitch. Other than the stuff which seems likely to get resolved because they're an active part of the plot, there are still the following points:

-The whereabouts of Kati and Colasour.
-Ali's whereabouts.
-The Billy/Sumeragi subplot.
-The contents of the black Haro.
-The exact nature of the Trinity siblings. They're not Innovators, nor super-soldiers, so what then? Defective Innovator attempts?
-Aeolia's real plan for humanity -- then again, I guess it's become pretty clear, they probably don't need to spell it out for us.
-The reason why Innovators change pronouns when mentally distressed.
-Why several scientists vanished over a period of a few hundred years. That was brought up back in season one and never mentioned again.

Also, I didn’t think I could hate Setsuna any more, but there you go. Not content with showing up Tieria at every turn and stealing focus away from him, basically turning him into yet another lackey, he now steals Tieria’s chance at a meaningful death. There will be no dramatic showdown between Tieria and Ribbons, not with Setsuna’s newfound Messiahood; only a short and pointless death, to make Setsuna look even better. That seems to be the function of every other char now. Killing Anew shows how compassionate and noble he is, saving Rockon’s life like that. Oh, and he managed to pulverize those Innovators, rescue his friends and protect the Ptolemaios, all in an eyeblink. He’s just so cool and everyone else is just weak and helpless without Saint Setsuna. He can even pick up the radio and hear Marina’s song in his mind, for fuck’s sake. Honestly, the rest of you guys should just retire and live the rest of your worthless lives on some atoll in the Pacific, you’ve all been made redundant by Setsuna’s omnipotence. Allelujah and Soma stopped being relevant long ago, Tieria’s been pretty much neatly written out of the plot and turned into some incompetent retard who suddenly can’t fight Innovators anymore. As for Rockon, he wants to kill Setsuna, so again, he’s only there to make Setsuna look good. I strongly suspect they’re only allowed to lived so they can die later and give Setsuna more scenes. Oh, he’s gonna be devastated, for sure. And then he’ll avenge their deaths and look good doing it and prove once and for all that he’s the greatest hero the world has ever known. At this point, I think I’d much rather watch Tieria commit suicide than suffer that kind of humiliation >_< Knowing that he existed just to boost Setsuna’s ego just makes everything so much worse >_< All he had left to himself was his own death scene, and I just know they’re gonna find a way to make it all about Setsuna instead. The only shred of hope I have left is Sumeragi’s cryptic comment about Seraphim’s ‘true powers’ way back when. Hopefully, Tieria will be allowed to show off one last time and go with a bang before the plot quickly snaps back to fawning Setsuna- and Marina-worship. Hell, even Shirin is suddenly realizing that Marina was right all along and that the way to peace IS by curling up in a corner and just wishing everybody would get along, pretty please.

If you need me, I'll be in the bathroom vomiting sand.

This week's highlights:

-Liu-Mei and Nena dying, duh.
-Hong Long dying a pointless death, just like I predicted.
-Louise's major breakdown. Hooo boy. She finally broke. I wonder if the meds are doing it, or she just completely lost it. Regardless, she looked awesome blowing up Nena.

Allelujah's line counter: 5

This week's drink count:

-One for Allelujah's lines
-One for Louise telling Andrei to STFU
-One for Graham being a Gaylord again.

This week's MVPs:

1. Louise for blowing up Nena. Sweeeet.
2. Nena for killing Liu-Mei. Kudos!
3. Regene for backstabbing Ribbons and engineering Liu-Mei's death...albeit in a weirdly roundabout way.

This week's LVPs:

1. Setsuna for gaining yet more powers and making Tieria redundant. I'll make you pay for this, I swear.
2. Liu-Mei for getting Hong Long killed. God knows he deserved better than having an ungrateful bitch like you for a sister.
3. Rockon for not shooting Setsuna when he had the chance

This week's comic:


Deep wanted me to put a bull's eye on Setsuna's back. I did the next best thing.

They've been talking about that 'dialogue' for a while, now. At first I thought it was some mistranslation, but I guess that's really what they mean. Sooo......Dialogue with WHOM, exactly? Ribbons, you ARE aware that talking to yourself is called 'schizophrenia', right?

...My compliments for that shot right before the lights went out, by the way. I missed that kind of imagery...

Oh, wow, Soma, you rock XD I bet during that time Saji is curled up in fetal position as far as possible, hoping Anew won't remember he's on that ship too. Maybe Soma can't snipe her way through this hostage situation, but here comes the cavalry! It was obvious that Rockon's sudden turnaround was a trick, but.....Sweet Baby Jesus, I did NOT expect Setsuna to just shoot him like that. Those suits aren't supposed to be bulletproof, remember your OWN gunshot wound, Setsuna?! The whole rescue attempt kicked ass, but I really gotta call this bullshit.

Wow, that's...uh...some advance anti-theft technology you got in there......Haro attack! That was as funny as it was ridiculously effective XD I especially liked the auto-docking feature. Up yours with barbed wire, Revive! And they got to mock him too! That was some truly incredible pwnage right there, definitely the best bit in the ep.

....Rockon, stop listening to your dick and/or the voices in your head, you could have blown up the two of them!

.....Ok, what the hell was that flashback? They didn't have time to build up their relationship with all the pointless Marina scenes and Saji angsting, so we’re being treated to a montage-flashback of Precious Memories? Not just that, they're all scenes we never saw before, so it just makes their whole romance seem all the more unreal. I’m sorry, but I find it very hard to weep my little eyes out over a supposed true love that didn’t exist 3 weeks ago, I don’t care that all of this is supposed to have happened during the 4-month hiatus. If anything, that only makes it worse. They could have made Anew show up much earlier so we could have actually SEEN all those moments in the flashback, instead of just jumping straight from polite conversation to pillow talk and putting us before the fait accompli. How is that remotely good writing? That entire flashback only reminded me of one of Peter’s flashbacks in Family Guy. “Hey guys, remember when Anew and I were lovers?” “Oh yeah, that was hilarious.”

.........Good God, Ribbons wants to rule the world through Louise? I gotta say, a season ago the very thought of Louise being viewed as mankind's leader would have been anything from ridiculous to downright scary. Now it's scary for different reasons, she'll essentially be a puppet for Ribbons' nefarious goals. He doesn't even need to manipulate her, he can literally control her like a robot. I wonder if the same applies to Nena and Ali...

The particle beam CURVED? OK! THAT DOES IT! I officially call BULLSHIT on this show! Oh yes I did! And there's nothing you can say or do to make me take it back, the bullshit call STAYS!

And Tieria's Ultima Hadouken Kamehameha once more dispels harmlessly at a crucial moment. I already called bullshit on the show, remember?

Blah blah tragic battle blah blah predictable appeal to Anew's innate goodness, but with truly disturbing pro-rape overtones. So, Rockon, you're one of those guys who just don't take 'no' for an answer, huh? What was all that crap you were telling Allelujah again, about respecting the girl's wishes? That was just hot air, right? Unfortunately for you, you had an audience for that little speech other than Anew. That answers a nagging worry I've had for a few months, and not in a comforting way. Ribbons can control the other Innovators, presumably Tieria included. The shape of Tieria's doom just gets clearer every week, doesn't it? He'll reach Veda, managed to connect, transmit over the essential data to the Ptolemaios just before Ribbons takes him over and turns him against his friends. At this point, he has a choice of getting brutally gunned down by them, or heroically killing himself. Ogre's choice, die fast or die slow >_< In case you're interested, my money's on the suicide option, cause it sounds so noble and human and I can really picture Mizushima writing this scene and congratulating himself over it, maybe even getting a little moist-eyed.

Ahh, but you got your buddy Setsuna looking out for you, aren't you glad?

That naked scene did nothing to raise my empathy level either. It was so embarrassingly bad, I almost got a rash. The dialog was just so trite and cliché, I felt like I was reading one of the Hameln parodies. Boy, I’d sure love to believe that you two understood each other, but since the whole extent we got to see of that was one make-out scene, I’ll just have to take your word for it. Overall, I think what pisses me the most about this ep was that it clearly showed Anew’s only function was to become a token love interest and get killed in order to change Rockon and spur him into action. Yes, Aerith, I recognized you under that lavender wig, you can take it off now.

On a lighter note, Setsuna will really get it now.

Aaand sure enough.....He really looked zoned out about it too. No apologies or even an "Oops". You're one cold-hearted bastard, Setsuna. Well, we're all hoping Rockon will repay the favor and shoot down Marina for ya, right?

Man, I really miss the good old days when this show used to be about politics and high stakes, before it turned into some kind of tinkling contest (figuratively, of course). The bad guys have telepathy and high-powered mechas? Then we'll get those too! It’s not so much an arms race as a race to see who can be the biggest douche and who can destroy the credibility of this show the most. I miss the days when Marina was just as useless, but mostly harmless and decorative, much like a potted plant, instead of being touted as the Holy Mother of Humanity with her retinue of Small Innocent Children. I miss when the show had decent, believable chars fighting for their cause instead of arrogant little turds with a superiority complex bending the laws of reality to come out on top. This show used to have a political plot with some plausible hard science. Now you not only need to suspend your disbelief, you have to send it all the way to Abu Dhabi and get a total frontal lobotomy to ingest the kind of crap they've been pulling lately. After Tieria dies, I honestly don't know if I'll keep watching, cause he's pretty much the only reason I'm putting up with their bullshit at the moment. There is simply no freaking way in hell this series will end in a way that won't make me projectile vomit all over my screen, and that sounds like a bitch to clean.

This week's highlights:

-I'd say Tieria's cover's blown, what with Revive's giant obvious innuendo, yet nobody pressed him on that? Wouldn't they worry about having another Innovator in their midst? If Sumeragi knows the truth, she should certainly give Tieria a serious talking to.
-Now we know what Louise's medicine is for, it fights the cell damage she got in the attack. In other words, just like Lasse, she's dying.
-Goddammit, Liu-Mei survived?! Alright everyone, throw up that champagne, we'll just have to save it for another day XO At least Nena looks like she's trying her very best to finish the job. Oh, and I predict Hong Long will die next ep and we'll finally get to know why he takes that crap from his little sister.

Allelujah's line counter: 10, counting 6. He even got the first line of the ep on the Meister side.

This week's drink count:

-One for Setsuna getting beaten to a pulp. If that doesn't count as a huge bitchslap, I don't know what does.
-One for Allelujah's lines.
-We came SO close to having a Marina-free ep! Goddammit!

Verdict: Well, you should drink a few more anyway to Anew's memory.

This week's MVPs:

1. Rockon, for trying really damn hard.
2. Soma for trying to rescue Mileina.
3. Haro for that kickass attack.

This week's LVPs:

1. Setsuna, for killing Rockon's girlfriend. Weak, dude. He told you not to fucking do it.
2. Ribbons for ruining everything.
3. Healing for being a callous bitch, but what's new?

This week's comic:


Yeah, I know, I'll go to hell for this one.

Aw geez. Why is it always like that with cliffhangers? You go to bed thinking Marina will get killed, looking forward to it, only to find out the bitch cheats death once more. And what for? Bitch won't protect her own life or her kids', making her once more useless baggage. I'm glad to see even Shirin's getting sick of her. You just go and keep thinking you can protect those brats with rain drops and roses and whiskers on kittens, Marina. I'd love to see the look in the children's eyes as you spectacularly fail to protect them with any of those and get machine-gunned down. Fortunately for you (and for them), that look probably won't last very long.

Allelujah, for God's sake, Soma's a better fighter than you, stop worrying about her like some Jewish mother. You'll be telling her to wear a sweater when she goes into battle next >_<

Uh.....Just exactly how Setsuna's so-called 'cell abnormalities' should have him near death? According to your logic, he got exposed when Ali shot him four months ago, right? And Lasse's been walking around with the same crap for the last five years. But who cares, Setsuna's turning into the Messiah, right? Soon he'll acquire superhuman strength and shoot beams from his eyes and probably learn to levitate stuff, cause that's how cool he is, and they're not at all trying to shove him down our throats. Oh, and no, he's not some boring old clone of Heero or anything with no personality and pricey toys to make up for it.

.....Wow, that sure is a lame excuse to suddenly bring out Hallelujah for no reason with no consequences. Go on dear, do your little bit, say the same lines as usual, you're not at all a one-trick pony getting very old. Say, ever heard what they used to make glue from?

Oh, for God's sake, shut up, Saji! Everyone's enjoying the nice battle, nobody's gonna stop just because you and Princess Useless want to sit in a corner and cry about it until the rest of the world feels bad for you and spontaneously starts loving its neighbor.

Hallucination time...If Louise had shot Saji, I wonder if he'd died in the real world....Sadly, we'll never get to find out. Saji, way to break her brain again.

Vishnu Seravee....That Gundam just keeps getting more and more ridiculous, doesn't it? I miss Nadleeh and its God-like powers >_<

.....Graham, why the hell are you complaining about Setsuna not going out of his way to fight you when you never joined the battle? Nobody probably even saw you. Or dismissed you as not being a threat anyway, which is even funnier. And what's that 'idea of your own'? You're gonna pack your things, go home, have a good cry in the shower and curl up in bed with some hot cocoa?

Ohh, finally they get to meet Revive. I got two beefs with that scene. First of all, why is Rockon the only one to notice the resemblance with Anew, when it's REALLY PAINFULLY OBVIOUS?! I don't think you need to know her every pore in an intimate way like only a lover could to be able to tell Revive has the same damn face! Secondly, wouldn't Tieria notice the glowing eyes and know he's connecting to Veda? What kind of former Innovator are you? I can only guess he apparently never saw himself in the mirror while accessing Veda, but still, someone should notice that human eyes don't normally do that!!

Well, well, Lasse, and here you always thought those cell abnormalities would kill you. Aren't life's little surprises fun?

Looks like Regene's finally paying for all that crap he's been pulling so far. Intriguing how Ribbons manages to know all about it...I wonder if he can spy on Tieria the same way, or if Tieria being disconnected from Veda saves him from Ribbons' prying eyes. At any rate, Ribbons' threat is quite chilling...As Regene's creator, what can he do to him? Can he uncreate him, or deactivate him? If so, does that apply to Tieria too? Have they all been dancing on the palm of his hand all this time?

Nena, normally, I'd really appreciate your contribution to world peace by violently blowing up Liu-Mei, but....dammit, couldn't you do it AFTER she gave the coordinates to CB? >_< Another thing.....Is Nena acting under Ribbons' orders, or for the sake of her own revenge? In that case it would just be an unfortunate coincidence with really bad timing. It's even more unfortunate for Hong Long who never did anything wrong, frequently doubted Liu-Mei's sanity, and got dragged along in all the crap she did for reasons unknown. Sucks to be him at this moment.

This week's highlights:

-Anew's eyes now shown as Innovator eyes in the OP. I wouldn't have seen it myself, since I always skip it, but Yasu found it mentioned on some blog.
-First six cannons, now six beam sabers...
-Revive seemed happy to get captured, so that was part of the plan all along....Can Ribbons read Tieria's mind to know this was the time for it?
-Whoo-hoo, the end of Liu-Mei!
-Has anybody seen Cola Sour lately?

Allelujah line counter: 10 lines, counting 6.

This week's drink count:

-Two for Seravee's blatant display of freakish anatomy
-One for Regene getting bitchslapped
-One for Allelujah having lines. Though he got help from Hallelujah in there.
-I know it's not in the current version of the game, but I still feel Liu-Mei's messy death warrants opening a bottle of champagne, don't you?

Verdict: Mmm, that's good moider!

This week's MVPs:

1. Tieria for capturing Revive, though I'm pretty sure Revive wasn't trying to get away very hard.
2. Nena for killing Liu-Mei. You lost points for bad timing though.
3. Shirin for telling off Marina.

This week's LVPs:

1. Ribbons for that chilling threat to Regene. And slapping him kinda miffs me too, it's like slapping Tieria by proxy >_<
2. Marina for being useless, as per usual. Now there's a Princess that should have been Scrapped at birth if I ever saw one.
3. Hallelujah: Do you even have a purpose anymore? Unless you go apeshit and stab Rockon in a fit of fury, I really don't see the point in you showing up anymore.

This week's comic:

........What the hell? It took you guys FOUR MONTHS to go back up there and blow up the Memento Mori? Half the world could have been turned into a giant golf course by that time!

As expected, Mary turned back to Soma mode and Allelujah is miserable again. All is as it should be.

Aww, Shirin and Klaus used those four months to get closer too. Though I bet it must be pretty hard, with Marina and her rabble living in the same house. Brr. Worse yet, Marina somehow took time out of her busy schedule of being useless and incompetent to get signed up to a music label and record a single with her small humans? Now we have to hear that inane song on the radio too?! XO This just gets worse and worse! Soon all conflicts will be stopped by that idiotic song being broadcast all over the world, and in blatant defiance of all logic and human history so far, people will NOT think that it's complete and utter bullshit and believe every word of it, thus ushering an era of love and brotherhood. Saint Marina, the Peacemaker, they'll call her. Meanwhile, I'll be violently retching in the toilet. If this is the future in store for us, screw reincarnation, I don't wanna live through that! Even a nice warm stay in Hell has to be better than having that idealistic BS shoved down our throats. I swear, if Tieria wasn't in this show, I'd have stopped watching long ago. Is Mizushima Seiji still directing this? Or did he turn over the reins to his five-year-old daughter and her team of pink My-Little-Ponies? Cause ever since the halfpoint, the series has been plummeting down to earth in a fabulous tailspin. At this rate, better to have Tieria die soon than see him singing along to Marina's song in the grand finale of the last ep where everyone on earth will hold hands and wear flowers in their hair.

Aww, Rockon takes over the Big Brother gig from Lockon, at last XD It's nice to see him get involved with his fellow Meisters so much, instead of hiding in his room and Twittering on his Blackberry. Also, thank you for finally getting that women can fight if they bloody well want to. We should send Rockon to have a little man-to-man talk with Andrei...

....Why does Setsuna have some kind of fake GN particle effect in his shoulder? Last I saw, he was shot with a gun, not skewered with a beam saber. Is it just that exposure to the particles when you have an open wound allows them to enter your body and mess with your metabolism? Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Except for the part where those particles that can apparently penetrate metal are stopped dead in their tracks by skin.

Also.....Is it just me or this ep has really ugly art? Look at Anew's head when she's talking about Setsuna's owwies, it looks like Stewie Griffin's.

Man, Steph, do you have some kind of telepathic link with Mizushima Seiji? Way to forecast Aeolia's plan to turn everyone like Tieria. Have a box of cookies! As for you, Ribbons, thanks for throwing Liu-Mei's pride to the ground and peeing all over it. 'Preciate it! Still, I do wonder why Regene has been meeting with Liu-Mei all this time...Is he plotting against Ribbons? His own stakes in this are far from clear...Is he curious about his 'brother'?

Boy, Andrei, you sure know how to rationalize patricide. And somehow, you seem to think that someone who can kill perfect strangers ought to be able to kill their own family. That's pretty warped. You can hug her all you like, but she's still gonna leave you for Saji anyway and you'll be left with no family and no girlfriend. good. Those genes of yours shouldn't get passed on, you seem to have developed a spontaneous mutation bringing about stupendous imbecility.

.....Huh. I thought Tieria had stopped calling everyone by their full name once he started declaring himself human. So what gives? Is that nasty Veda trying to get into your brain again?

What the Hell? You guys already moved to the bed part? I got nothing against pairing Rockon with Anew, but....Good God, at least develop their relationship better than "they only talked to one another a few times, four months later, they're doing the nasty and you'll just have to take our word for it". Interesting how Anew just BSODed at the mention of her family. Isn't it a bit rude of Revive to peep in on them as they're snogging? And why the Hell can Setsuna feel quantum brainwaves now? Is he turning into an Innovator too? Great! Why don't you learn to pilot Seravee next to make Tieria even more redundant? He's already got precious few reasons to survive without boobs like you going around trampling all over them.

Setsuna still calls Saji by his full name? Man, you and Tieria really should get together. I mean, he asked you about your shoulder, that practically makes you lovers in the mind of those yaoi fangirls, right?

Nice to see what those people are thinking as they head into battle.....up until the point where Tieria uttered "Veda". Goddammit man, after all that crap you went through in those past five years, haven't you moved on a bit? XO
On the other hand, Setsuna's "Gundam" made me laugh my ass off. Marina, you got some stiff competition. And you might die too! Go snipers!

On a final note, that's a pretty great risk Regene took, giving Veda's location to Liu-Mei like that. I really wonder what he has to gain by going behind Ribbons' back like that. Is he just doing that crap to spite him cause he doesn't like the cheeky way Ribbons acts? Or is it something more? Maybe he wants to help his 'brother' after all. They share some kind of telepathic link, although it only seems to go one way, maybe Tieria's more human feelings for Lockon are leaking into Regene's mind and 'contaminating' him as well. Oh, also, those glasses may be the same as Tieria's, but they really don't look good on him.

This week's highlights:

-Tieria still pining for Veda. Ugh.
-Marina in the line of fire!
-Regene messing around some more for yet unknown reasons...

Allelujah's line counter: 13, with 7 counting.

This week's drink count:

-One for Allelujah getting halfway decent lines for once. Even though the rest of them were probably 'Mary!'

Verdict: My drinking game's not doing its job...

This week's MVPs:

1. Regene, for nicely backstabbing Ribbons.
2. Ribbons, for totally crushing Liu-Mei. That was beautiful, man.
3. Setsuna, for loving his Gundam more than Marina. Haw-haw!

This week's LVPs:

1. Andrei, for thinking it's perfectly normal to kill your own dad when you don't agree with him.
2. Allelujah, for thinking he knows what's best for his girl.
3. Tieria: ......"Veda"? For God's sake, you need a girlfriend.

This week's comic:


Idea came from Deep, freely adapted...

The plot thickens....it now appears that Ribbons created Regene, and presumably the rest of the Skittles Rangers. To what end? Just feeling lonely? We can safely assume Aeolia himself or his followers created Ribbons, so was he just a prototype? Were there others before him, failed models? Regene sure doesn't seem to enjoy being reminded of his life debt to Ribbons...This feels like something deeper than just sibling rivalry, Regene really seems to loathe the other guys. Then again, pretty much all of them are just a bunch of twisted misanthropes who'd stab one another in the eyeball given half a pretext, so it's hard to tell if his animosity towards the others is any different. So much for being a superior species. I say lock the sorry lot of them in a room, turn off the lights and let the problem take care of itself in a few minutes. Besides, if Ribbons planned to lead humanity all by himself, why did he need to create all those flunkies? I mean, I'm glad for Tieria's existence, of course, but creating rivals seems very self-defeating...

My god, that scene with the three Meisters almost made me bust my spleen.
<Rockon> *Fiery remark*
<Tieria> *Sharp observation*
<Allelujah> .......*Wasn't gonna say anything*
It just summarizes Allelujah's current participation in the series so well.

....I just gotta comment on this.....Tieria, SIX cannons, really? Why not throw in a few thermonuclear devices just to make sure nothing survives?

Ok, that Transam+00 Raiser beam saber just bypassed 'Kickass' and went straight to 'Ludicrous'. I am not believing that for one second. And I just can't believe they just blew up Divine too. What the hell? Why did they bother getting an A-list seiyuu for a char (well, two chars) that had less lines than Allelujah and lived for 2 eps before getting exploded. Twice. What the hell was those guys' purpose in the series, really? Sporadically harass Tieria into joining the Darkside and provide the Meisters with a chance to showcase their Gundam's top guns? No to mention the fact that Setsuna's can't aim worth shit. You've got a beam saber the equivalent of nuclear Kamehameha or Hadouken and you miss a giant set of fragile lenses the size of an asteroid right in front of you? You couldn't at least....just...nudge 'em just a little bit so they'd shoot at the Earth Federation headquarters and then you could go "W00t! Pwned, beeyotch!"? What kind of a lousy main char are you?

So...it has now become clear what the wind direction Sumeragi noticed in the previous ep signified...The Memento Mori's hit at the top of the tower triggers an auto-purge and sends thousands of deadly chunks of metal drifting down to Earth, heading right for the nearby town. That's pretty fiendishly clever, if I may say so...I really gotta say though, that whole scene with the elevator auto-purging its outer covering rocked my socks off. 60,000 people died, but they looked cool doing it.

Well, I gotta hand it to you, Tieria, your ridiculous amount of firepower really paid off. So THAT's why you got six cannons. So what if Rockon's a sniper? By the time he or Allelujah shot a dozen of those chunks with their puny guns, you managed to vaporize hundreds of them. You don't even need to aim, chances are you'll nail what you want and a good chunk of the scenery along, too. And yet, somehow, your Transam Hyper-burst shot failed to blow up that big one. Yeah, that's entirely believable and has nothing at all to do with the fact that the director wants to prove Setsuna's superiority over all of mankind.

.......Boy, it sure is lucky the wind wasn't blowing in the direction of Katharon's hideout, isn't it? Otherwise, Marina and her posse might have gotten killed. Yay, God watched over them and all that.

And then, out of some warped misplaced filial piety, Andrei decides to kill his dad. Oh boy, just when I thought I couldn't hate that shitstain even more. I always knew Sergei would die, but I figured he'd at least die doing something worthwhile and heroic, not getting killed by his own ungrateful bastard of a son. At least some good will come out of it, Mary will go back to Soma to make Allelujah miserable some more. It's just not Allelujah unless he's angsting at everything like a good emo kid.

This week's highlights:

-Anybody notice the tombstone that said 'Nikorai'? XD
-Or for that matter, that Sergei's Tieren Taozi seems to have some kind of giant sausage jammed up its butt?
-So Ribbons created Regene and probably Tieria too? What does that imply? Can he control them?

Allelujah's line counter: 12 lines, but only 4 that count. Still, he got way more lines than Tieria in this ep, which would be vaguely insulting, except he's still as useless as before. Men like Tieria don't need words, they can express themselves fine with 6 cannons :D

This week's drink count:

Nothing at all. You'll have to stay sober. Maybe that's why this ep marked me as being really shitty. It would probably have gone down better with a few drinks.

This week's MPVs:

1. Sergei, for doing what he believed in until the end.
2. Tieria, for having bigger and better guns that clearly took care of business like nothing else.
3. Mary, for having her own kickass new Gundam :D

This week's LVPs:

1. Andrei: You killed your own father, you blathering cretin.
2. Fat bastard (Fastard for short). Yes, you, the fat idiot on that ship. You suck. I hope you'll at least make a nice fireball when they blow you up.

This week's comic:


This one took a lot of cogitating, but with Yasu's help, I finally got it out.

The ep picks up where 15 left off, with that shocking coup d'etat in the AEU Orbital Elevator, where Hercury is trying to make the world a better place. Soon, he'll find out the military's not exactly as bad as he thought. It's much, much worse. He can reveal to the world that the Earth Federation massacred millions in the Middle-East, but honestly...If he thinks the nations will unite and overthrow their corrupt governments over the deaths of brown, probably non-christian people living in countries they couldn't pronounce, much less pinpoint on Google Earth, he's as naive as Marina.

Looks like Sergei's gonna be the required sacrificial lamb for this mission. I'm glad he gets an important role, but.........They're not really expecting him to survive, are they?

It's interesting to see how Tieria seems take an active part in the mission planning now. Then again, it only makes sense since he was essentially in charge in the years after Sumeragi left, but I'm just glad he didn't just settle back to his old habits of not getting involved and bitching at his comrades. She seems to rely on him a great deal too, I'm guessing he pretty much takes over for Veda now. In the battlefield, he also seems to be an unofficial leader, though the others pretty much do what they want when they want, really -.-

So, I see Soma's Tieren Taozi got repainted in more masculine colors. I guess Sergei just didn't feel right going around in a pink mech after all...

Huh, Andrei didn't tell Louise to wear a skirt, for once. I'm impressed. He must be feeling a bit under the weather or something.

Ohh, those wascally Photoshoppers! Making it look like the rebels slaughtered all those people! Well played, sir!

.......Holy crap. I think Sergei out-assed everyone this season. What the hell?

Good grief, Graham, you really need a hobby. I swear he's getting a hard-on in this. He's practically biting off his own tongue, for crying out loud. What is Graham's point in this season, really? He's just this annoying little twisted oddball who stalks Setsuna around like some creepy old pervert lurking around the candy store. He has no stakes in this fight, other than getting his freak on fighting Setsuna. I think I just found Seymour's little brother, another annoying Twinkie who just won't die and keeps on getting in the way to the REAL boss.

OMGWTFBBQ, another Memento Mori? Whodathunk it!

This week's highlights:

-That ass-shot of Tieria when he was standing next to Sumeragi, and the following crotch-shot. Don't tell me that wasn't intentional.
-No less spectacular (and unexpected) were all those Sergei ass-shots. I did not see that coming.
-Aww, Divine misses his useless and pointless big bro? I'm sure if you asked nicely, Ribbons would give you a hug and a cookie and tuck you in at night too.

Allelujah's line counter: 3. But only 1 counts.

This week's drink count:

-One for Graham gaying out.
-Two for a blessedly Marina-free ep.

Verdict: Boy, I wish I still had the ass count in my drinking game.

This week's MVPs:

1. Sergei for taking center stage. That means he's gonna die soon, right?
2. Sumeragi for some really sharp intuitive quantum leap of logic.

This week's LVPs:

1. Graham for being an obsessive loser.
2. Pretty much everyone else for not doing jack squat in this ep.

This week's comics:


Idea came from Deep.


I've been wanting to do this gag for MONTHS, waiting for the right scene.