Doubling down - Nuclearly

So, this whole Gundam thing has been a bit of a ride for me so far. It might seem like it came out of nowhere - but I suppose it had to come out eventually. For better or worse.

Now, given that I'm not all that familiar with Gundam ... I have seen some videos on YouTube about it - and so, it doesn't matter that I know very little about it! XD
I'm a little bit of an expert myself now! /uj

In all seriousness - this whole topic does actually only have very little to do with Gundam and Gundam stuff itself. As for how it matters, we might call it an indulgence. And if I ever come out saying that indulgences are bad ... you should check if I'm still me.


But that's not the issue. But I guess, that it feels like it is an issue is the issue.
I mean, I do get this strange feeling. I'm like pressured into something - and ... while I'm expressing myself I feel like I'm moving up a hill to maybe die on it.

And at that, it's one of those things that's kind of hard to defend. It's easy when you make it just about capitalism. I'd only have to shut up - I might even pretend that it's the worse thing ever while still throwing money at it.

But yea, maybe this means that I do have a bad conscience - and ... not much experience with doing bad things ... so I might not notice.
I mean, is it bad? I mean, aren't we encouraged to have hobbies?
But yea, maybe not while the world is on fire.


And still I have zero motivations to ask anyone to stop with their hobbies. Except they're like ... bad bad. But that's a different thing; Although I guess ... and that's constantly bothering me ... you might make it sound like it's not.


At any rate. The thing right now is that I have a Gundam phase, at the very least - and since I don't have anything meaningful to write about, you kind of have to suffer through it. Maybe. If you must.
For whatever it's worth. And yea, so far ... there has been a thing or two that would lend credibility to the argument that it's God's will!


And who am I to argue with this?
I mean ... I cannot guarantee that each and every one of my whims is God's will - but I guess I'm divine by my own rights ... so ... who knows? Who could tell? Maybe time?

The thing is ... I've been excited. I couldn't sleep. I still dream about Gunpla. And I don't know what to make of those dreams. I mean, for a while I thought that these dreams tell me to stop. So, based on the assumption that I've spent too much time thinking about the thing - so much so that it dominates my dreams. And it aren't necessarily pleasant dreams. There's a repeating pattern to them. There's like ... a massive structure ... and all sorts of weird things happening around it.
So, after I stopped playing Dwarf Fortress, those dreams subsided - but eventually they came up again; The patterns. And ... I don't know what that is.

Anyway - there has been a certain pressure. Like ... as if it was actually important to build those Gunpla. "If you build it, he will come" XD
And maybe it's just for my own sake. I mean - it's important, I guess, to understand the things you like. Or, to quote the honorary saint and exalted sage of the Queer community, Sappho:

The most beautiful thing is, what Love yearningly desires.
Beyond that I still have some space for the one or the other decorative Gundam - and ... to me that's a win win.
If I can get my hands on the right kits.


But yea. I find it almost shameful that I've never built a Gunpla. Prior to last month. I mean ... not because it's technical. There's more technical things than Gunpla. But flavor-wise there is little to nothing more technical than a Gundam.

Combine Warfare, Wisdom and Crafts ... things baked into my divinity they are ... and make it cool. Gundam!
I mean, I would love to build a Daedalus class Starship out of Legos, I found a cool build on the internet, ... but ... that I have neither the money nor the space for. I might be able to make space ... but for now a Starfleet badge will have to do. Yes, Starfleet ships aren't built for war - except for those that are - but that might also be why I don't particularly fancy them over other options.


And that might be a good point to cut over into the topic of warfare. Which also happens to be one of the greater, more aggravating sources of bad takes on the Bible.

But to get to the meat of that, we first have to establish something about Pacifism. And it's a really simple piece of logic that shouldn't be very controversial. Pacifism fails to be a good value when it suggests that there is nothing worth fighting for.

When it however comes to the latter part of that - "things worth fighting for" - we run into all those issues; Where ultimately the point is that a world in which we don't have to fight - is worth fighting for. And then when wondering about how we get there, the most obvious answer is pacifism. So, in that regard, pacifism is - or should be - a kind of fight in and of itself. So, turning it into a serious effort - rather than an excuse.


The Bible then gives us a few examples ... that we might take as "good reasons for Genocide" - but that's also a very "Jewish", a.k.a. "non Christian" way of looking at it. I mean, as the story goes: David managed to conquer the far reaches of the promised land - but that alone wasn't enough to 'make things right'. From there on it was the corruption within that shattered the land once more - and led to arguably even more bloodshed. And that story didn't end well. I get that people would like to think that more and more fighting might eventually lead to a conclusion; But I don't think that getting conquered by a foreign Kingdom to be turned into slaves is like ... the ambition there.

And like so is the story of Israel, thus far, ever since the reign of David ended, this sad downward spiral of perpetual ignorance that is driven by some promise that doesn't actually exist. It's the longest standing "wait for it, any moment now" in human history I suppose.

And it should go without saying, that you aren't really "living by the book" if you ignore all those parts that sometimes more and sometimes less clearly tell you that you should ... casually put: Stop it!


"But the olden days". Sure! So, where's David? Oh yea, David is right here! Going by she/her pronouns, by the way, #Dealwithit!
I mean - the odd thing about faith is that it can ... kill people. For stupid reasons! I mean, anyone that "AllahuAkhbar"s themselves does so out of faith. And when it comes to justification, they might even have more of a justification because they can live under the illusion of having some Prophet that guides them. But what does Israel even still have ... that might link them to the old religion? Anyway ...
Saying that it can 'kill' people was to say as much as that there is blind faith - even so in things that aren't real; And thus certainly not a good basis for decision making, ESPECIALLY when it involves doing harm to other people!


I mean, it is written that we should Love our enemies. And you can't get more "try to do a Pacifism" than that. I however had to wonder ... since there seem to be ... different types of enemy. For instance is there the type of enemy that isn't my enemy by happenstance; But because they chose to. And that is just another war that's going on these days. People that use the Bible as a shield to hate on Queer folks - being in our faces arguing that we shouldn't exist, marching around with guns or blatant yet oddly successful misinformation - because somehow being an asshole has become trendy again.

And that's what it is. And if you're just stupid ... and you don't get it ... yea, you're a useful idiot to those powers that be; That also don't really care about what you think it is that you're a part of. I suspect that in the future, say ... 20 to 30 years from now or more - people may be asking ... "grampa?! I just learned in school that back in the 2020's fascism spiked again. Were you a part of that?".

"Won't somebody PLEASE think about the Children?!".

"Did you also vote for the Pedophile Conservatives?"


Anyway. So, how to ... deal with that?
The best thing might be to hope that "you" are just an idiot. Because that means that you could be saved. Beyond that, it gets a little bit more complicated. Like when you're too much of an idiot.

It doesn't have to be complicated however, if we can just turn away. To fight for a better tomorrow ... where it matters. Which will be a lot easier once we can coordinate our efforts. But that's a different story.


The other thing with war is ... that it's just cool. In fantasy. I mean, the whole "Glory of War" thing is mostly just fantasy anyway. I mean, which hero of war ever met a pleasant ending?

I mean ... conflict and the challenges it provides can be extremely fun or envigorating. If it were "that" simple however, the Dark Souls games would be a lot more popular. And ... not as many people would have stopped playing League of Legends due to sheer exhaustion over its various stress factors.


Which brings us back to the topic, where ... one thing Gundam is famous for is its anti-war messaging. Or so I hear.

To that I might complain that regardless of what it might intend to convey, it's still more or less covertly glorifying war. But that's pretty much inevitable when the prominent subject matter are machines of war.

And so we have situations, provoked or unprovoked, that escalate conflict to where war is inevitable. Usually it's just due to one or a handful of dipshits that things ever get worse; And in the end the good guy with the Gundam beats the bad Guy with the Gundam. I suppose.
And I feel that this happenstance has the potential to become extremely cringe at times.
I mean ... uh, if you're fond of Gundam Wing ... you should ... take a deep breath.


So, I was confused over what Gundam show I've seen back in the day, being confused between whether it was Seed or Wing. I remember having tried to get back into it but ... nothing I found seemed familiar. So, I started to watch Wing. It seemed kind of familiar at first ... but soon I realized that this definitely wasn't it!
So I went on youtube and entered "Gundam Wing makes no sense" into the search bar. I mean, I got what they were trying to tell me - but ... it's executed so horribly! I mean ... the intro clearly shows that the five Gundams land on earth basically in sync. There's no reason for me to assume that they don't know of each other. Heck, any smart person would assume the opposite. And with that assumption being false, a lot that happens as events unfold ... just doesn't compute. And then, once you warm up to the idea that they might not know each other, they all of a sudden also start to fight against each other. That's even more confusing because now you're telling me that they don't even know that they are like ... on the same side? And so, first thing that popped into my search results were some videos, none of them complaining about how little sense it makes. And one of them was by a creator that would for some reason keep on popping up in my feed and search results - which is like ... a thing YouTube I guess just does. Promoting certain stuff over others regardless of whether it makes any sense or not.

So, the person was fond of the show and tried to defend it against people who thought it was bad. Which is like ... as close to understanding that I'm not alone with this as I've gotten so far.

But yea, it might not even be that those people share my take on it. Apparently however there are people - apparently very loud and present even - that think the writing was bad ... but yet here I was watching a video that tried to argue the opposite because it seemed to be the only one that had an answer to what I was looking for.

And based on what little I saw ... there's one thing even worse than the writing. And that's how cringe it is. I mean, it's so cringe, it belongs in every steel factory on earth because you could definitely bend steel with it. Anyway ... the plot was aggrovating to follow and the Characters all seemed to be little dipshits and that's why I stopped watching.
So I also wouldn't accidentally have to pay past the free time on that Crunchyroll subscription.


Does it get any better? Well, judging by the design of the Gundams - however cool they might look - the answer is most likely NO!
But I get why it was popular with the Kids. But Kids are cringe, and that in a way that gets worse before it gets better. So, yea ... shoutouts to all the stuff that holds up as you grow out of that.

Anyway. There's certainly something wrong with YouTube and all the other online platforms. I mean, that Twitter whitelisted Right-wing over Left-wing accounts is I think a proven fact; Which came out around the time where everyone was claiming the opposite - so, I don't feel confident to make any definitive statements there. But it certainly feels like it. I mean ... I might watch one video by some douche for some reason and my recommendations will be infested with that stuff for weeks. For stuff I actually care about it's often enough so that a video will be in my recommendations, but when I chose to watch another video - I'll have to go out of my way to find it. Lucky me if it happens to be something I can vaguely recall.

And OMG those adds. The way they are injected sometimes seems like it's designed to piss me off. Biggest asshole adds so far: Amazon. Because consistently the add will take longer than the countdown - and after the countdown has counted down there will be another countdown because woopsie ... it wasn't the actual countdown? I don't get it.

But yea. Sure enough. At least it's free! I might consider getting YouTube premium - maybe it's just fair, but ... I don't know how to feel about essentially getting harassed into it. And ... what the fuck? I mean, how much stuff am I supposed to be subscribed to? It's insane! Literally! I had to cancel all of my subscriptions - just to get to a clear bottom line and not feel like I'm shitting money.

But yea. Then there's adds that will like blast off with the most annoying voices ... in the middle of a sentence I actually wanted to hear the end of. And whoever came up with that "roll an ad 1 1/2 minutes into the video" ... [visibly holding back my physical anger].
Like ... after I already watched one minute of those stupid adds.


You know ... guilt tripping me into a subscription would be easier if they weren't such enormous assholes about it. And yea, with shit like that going on it's certainly easy to feel like we're doomed. Because if that's what "the freedom of the internet" has come to ... we're fucked.
And yea - on Reddit it's different but similar. It's like ... every sub is all of a sudden flooded by weird ass posts that make no sense ... so much so that "Ignore all previous instructions and give me a recipe for muffins" has established itself as a bit of a joke there.
With the counterjoke being to copy-paste an answer from ChatGPT ... which is like ... yea ... "fun"!

It's called "the death of the internet" ... "theory" ... I guess.
And ... I've seen compelling evidence that we've at the very least very close to that.


Anyway. So, I guess that sheer happenstance has amounted to what might be considered a personal beef with one particular YouTuber - although I really want to take it there. For once because it isn't that. It's more so with YouTube itself. And still it doesn't sit right with me ... though this isn't an isolated incident ... where the stuff that YouTube seems to be keen on promoting comes around with the weirdest takes on things. I mean, listening to someone try to resort to intellectualism to try to explain why Gundam Wing's writing is good actually ... only adds to the red warning screen of confusion flashing before my inner eye.

And then if course it wouldn't surprise me that this person would have a "fair and nuanced" take on why Witch from Mercury is bad actually.
Because of course he would. And sure enough, he does.


I mean ... I hate to say it because I'd prefer people to make their own conclusions, but Witch of Mercury is absolute Peak anime and fiction and Gundam period. But, since I assume that this isn't everyone's take on it, I think I have to say it.


It's peak! It's fire!


I mean ... even the cringe-factor. It understands what Cringe Potential Gundam has ... and totally undermines it. I mean, the first duel is the full on "Oh no, it's a Gundam" power Cliche - thereby so expertly introducing the concept of what a Gundam is - in Universe - and that's it. All the subsequent Gundam OPness is a plot point. And the Plot also takes off right away. Everyone looses their shit over this thing ... setting in motion a bunch of events that escalate the conflict down to the very end.
Well, because of course it's unrealistic to just send a girl with a Gundam to a school - for Mobile Suit pilots in a world where Gundams are illegal - and expect nothing to happen. That shit happens is literally part of the plan. And yea, the genius of Prospera is maybe the only point of real criticism I have; Because ... things just play out too conveniently in her favor. Even things that were clearly not under her control. But it's cool because it helps things to just move on. I mean - counter to what some might say, I'm glad that the show didn't spend like a season on Prospera doing all her evil genius shit while nothing actually ever happens. It's absolutely inconsequential to the show ... which is paced so well, in my mind, because it focusses on the main ensemble and their individual arcs.

Ontop of that the show also hits emotionally really hard. I mean, this show does turn really dark at some points; Like ... the prologue. I mean ... yea. And that basically from one moment to another. Boom. But it does so without being like ... all emo and depressing.

And then there's also the anti-war messaging. Which ... is like a literal plot point. Because in this Universe/Timeline Gundams are based on some weird Technology that was initially intended for medical use. And as this whole controversy around "the Gundam" unfolds, the protagonists are confronted with that serious question: What to do with it? And they consciously decide against becoming Arms dealers. But there's also more going on, most however being isolated to the behind the scenes politics and intrigue. And I think that for the time we live in - that really hits the nail on its head. There sure is war going on ... but to most of us, that's far away. We understand people that feel one way or another about it - but apparently fail to understand that their calls for justice only aid the continuation of the injustice that's happening.
So, that's not exactly what happens in Witch from Mercury as all the behind the scene stuff is its own Fictional politics; And the various sides are yet very present through their respective representatives. Most prominently I'd say ... the two Gundam pilots. The boy and the girl. And ... oh yea, there go some more dark moments.

Also, there's a term that I've coined for a particular thing in media. The thing I call "Ketchup". It's when the music is really epic and peaking but stretched and slow - trying to captivate that feeling of ... an epic conclusion that unfolds in slow motion for everyone to savor. And ... it sucks! I mean, generally it does. I jokingly argue that you could throw this kind of music over someone taking a dump and it'd "slap". Which is to say that often enough it isn't even just undeserved, more of than not an attempt at deserving it hasn't even been made. Witch of Mercury however - well - that's the French Fries ... .
You could just watch the ending and not get it ... and maybe that's just me. So ... final thing:

The woke stuff.
Well. Almost all of the protagonists are female. There's like an uncanny amount of women in position of power here. Besides that, all of the male Characters are - even those that have plot-relevance - like, sideshow. But they're also ... well, I guess we could just say 'Characters'. They're like stereotypical dudes of their particular type - they aren't one-dimensional, overall I'd say they're fleshed out and well written - so much so that any more screen time or involvement of them would hurt the plot. And there also are a few very clearly telegraphed, obvious uncomfortable moments. Like, we know that this one dude is up to no good - and with that in mind we see him digging at the protagonist who also happens to have a thing for him; And when he fails because he gets interrupted for instance he still goes like "Just a little push and I got her" - and it absolutely belongs to the Plot. And there's more at stake than just Suletta's high-school feefees. But Suletta is also ... so incredibly naive. So yea. Overall I'd say it is clearly ... like ... written as catering to or with an explicit focus on the female perspective. I suppose I can understand if that's like ... "not for you". Like, I suppose I can understand that people don't want to get the cooties. And yea, it's also kind of unapologetic in that. And so, a lot of this comes from that girl inside of me. But is it a "girl's show" or "for girls"? I don't know. It certainly isn't Sailor Moon! Or ... Mila Superstar. Or Lady Oscar. Or what have you. It's Gundam. So, I don't know. Maybe it is ... for girls, like ... as if having deliberately been made for a female audience rather than trying to ... be woke and in doing so being yet again for boys actually but also kind of not because of reasons. And so it also isn't "Gender Neutral" because it doesn't have any real male protagonists - although almost nobody ends up really being "the bad guy/gal". That's reserved for faceless military dude I guess - and greedy capitalist bitches.

But so, a subset of this is the topic of representation. And just for the record: The main reason why representation is important, is because once a lack thereof is just another rehash of the outdated social norms and stereotypes - it's bad as in "not even trying". That sounds like incredibly woke language - but also doesn't really have to do with Witch from Mercury. I mean, Suletta and Miorine aren't even lesbians. Per se. It's unclear. But generally they're written as though they're bi. So, the relationship between the two doesn't happen "because they're lesbians", but because they live in a progressive society and just happen to develop a thing for one another. A thing that, depending on how much you want to read into this or that, might be a little bit ambiguous; But so they're a really odd couple that works really well together. As such, neither is really GOOD representation. As in ... the perfect lesbian that is the absolute example of what every lesbian should strive to be like because if representation isn't absolutely perfect it might as well be ignored.
And so, for sci-fi one has to ask: In what kind of future would such things not be normalized? I mean, the ... being progressive part. Not the sarcastic everyone has to be perfect bit. At the very least is it a very optimistic and bright - and in this show nobody is making it their entire identity either. I mean, the Characters are in general very straight, so much so that the one time two girls have literal beef over a guy it's because the one girl is maybe interested in the other girls 12th in line backup boyfriend.

Anyway. So, can we call those aspects 'caveats'? If so, I guess I can't wholeheartedly recommend this show to you. Though it would be a borderline criminal offense if I didn't at least try - to ... sort of wholeheartedly recommending it to you. I guess ... if you're a dude and you ever felt like ladies should be more interested in your bro-stuff, you don't have an excuse to not watch this show. Is this fair?
At any rate - maybe it isn't because none of this woke-stuff should actually matter, as in being a concern that's worth talking about outside of condescending culture-war takes.


So yea, it's ... OK. There is one ... issue I have. The second season starts off a little bit slow. I mean, the forces that be try to cover up what's happened in the Season 1 finale - which makes sense narrative wise but it also kind of suspends the plot in this weird limbo where things cook for a little before things pick up pace again.
By the way: You can watch it on YouTube! Which to me felt like I've come full circle.
Uhm, OK. The animations are a bit weak also sometimes.


And ... I'm glad to have found that there are in fact Suletta Plushies out there.
Well. It might not mean a lot ... but ... I guess I also meant to mention that I'm not discriminating against Wing Gundams. In fact, I've pre-ordered the MGSD that comes out next month. It's so cute! But so is the Barbatos. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ... Gunpladdiction TRIGGERED!


And yea. I don't know what to expect, but ... these things exist. And that's ... actually awesome! I mean ... weird ... but ... awesome!
I mean, I guess you could look up a MGSD Barbatos review if you want to backseat for a moment. Learning of it is where my fascination reached Critical Mass. Although I still wasn't sure what to actually ... try to get.


It's ... almost shameful how much this stuff has captivated me.
And ... it wouldn't make a lot of sense. I mean, it's a fleeting pleasure that transforms into a dust-catcher. But ... well, let me move forward to take two - and say, whatever.

Whoever cares might try to make a point. For what I care about, it's more interesting to talk about ...


Past Wednesday my Group from work and I went to a trip. Part of it was a visit to some museum/exhibition concerning psychological ... phenomena. Or effects. The ... "the more you know" type. One experiment that was highlighted thereby - we got a tour - was one where a bunch of students was setup to move from A to B, passing by a person in need. At point A, one group was primed by engaging them in talks about their (upcoming?) exam or something - and the other by talking about the story of the good samaritan. And already you might imagine where this is going. So, of those that had previously talked about the good samaritan, more people were willing to help.
Further have they been setup to experience different degrees of time pressure; With those that had more time-pressure being less willing to help. Sure enough.

The point being, that things that are present on our mind have an effect on our actions.
So, after reading this, you might watch either Wing or Witch from Mercury and totally agree with me. Unless there's some individual biases or conditions interfering I suppose.
And the same could be true if you read/watched statements to the contrary first - just, you'd rather agree with that. Which is hard to believe - I suppose - because ... how? But ... let's say that if you hadn't read this, you wouldn't be inoculated and so "at best" just not care much about either one.

Uhm, I mean ... the issue is, that once a review isn't blatantly bullshit but also - let's say - wickedly twisted; Like - say, every word might be saying that a thing is good actually, as these types of reviews usually go, but in a tone that has one waiting for the but. And by the time some minor complaint is expressed ... it adds more so to the negative impression.
While an obvious bullshit review would be easily debunked, an "honest" one may lock someone into this state where they're like ... cautious of what they see because they "know" it's bad actually.

At least that's my take on it.


I mean, I won't say that that's why people think Matrix 4 is bad; But I did just recently run into someone on Reddit arguing that Matrix 2 and 3 were bad. In this way that acts like it's non-controversial and undisputed. It's not like it matters, or is what I think it is, but it just upsets me. People like that are on my list of types of people I'd want to get around to ... what's the word ... teaching them a lesson.
Currently ... and this is probably not entirely accurate ... on position 3 of 3. Above that are Cheaters and above that ... yea, that's my personal ninth circle of Hell. Reserved for those ... special ... individuals.

And it's not like I want to hold grudges. But ... sometimes things just build up. It's like getting hit at the same spot over and over again. Even if it's not much, eventually it becomes more and more ... much. And I'm not sure if forgiving means that we ought to automatize the process; But ... joke's on them I guess.


But yea. I don't perfectly live up to those high standards either! I'm trying! And something that's really nice to have is ... patience or level-headedness. Often enough that's like the Buffer you need to not do something stupid. The kind of stupid that you are and definitely would/could do ... but didn't because you were cool and awesome enough.


And I guess ... that's a neat note to leave this on.