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Headscratchers: Mobile Suit Gundam Age
    Commander Brat 
  • Okay, so Decil Galette is a really good pilot and an X-Rounder, so it's obvious why Vagan wants him in a mobile suit. But why did they give him any authority? Even before killing Yurin, and even even before he calls a retreat out of boredom (which is not a legitimate military reason to retreat when you are winning the battle), the first thing he does in the series is run off, and he winds up in the one Federation ship that's actually a threat, which runs a massive risk of being taken into custody. Then he jumps in the Gundam to play with it and... doesn't do anything useful like try to steal it, or sabotage it, or at least find out its technical specs. He just takes a joyride. Absolutely none of his actions paint him as someone who is qualified to hold any rank above pilot: he's not smart, he's not guiley (at least beyond the point necessary to be seen as a mischievous kid), and he's capricious. If anything, the Vagan ought to have given him a designated 24/7 babysitter, not a position of authority. So... what the hell?
    • It's pretty obvious that, in the second generation at least, Vagan isn't giving him any authority and is treating him rather like a mad dog on a leash, useful but dangerous. As for his treatment in the first generation... not sure. It seems that the Galette family is in Ezelcant's good books (perhaps they are Vagan nobility?), what with all the authority he throws at Zeheart in the second generation, so perhaps Desil was getting preferential treatment on Ezelcant's (who wasn't there to witness Desil's screw-ups) orders.
    • It's also probably because in Vagan society, X-Rounders would more likely have higher social status than regular people. Since Desil was one of the more powerful Vagan X-Rounders, his words would have a lot of clout, at least before he squandered it at the end of the first generation.
      • Yeah, it was gratifying to see that he had no status other than "particularly brutal pilot" in G2, so that at least made sense. I guess I'll just have to use that rationalization for why he retained any rank in G1 even long enough to kill off their other X-Rounder, since he had done a couple of really idiotic things before that final straw. I mean just his first Gundamjack stunt should have been enough... though Vagan does seem to have a general problem of making bloodthirsty glory hounds with poor judgment their Ace Pilots.
      • He was pretty much their only X-Rounder in their forces in Gen 1. So he was a very important asset. Once they found a better X-Rounder who was both powerful, skilled, and nevermind simply having half a brain and not being crazy (they'd likely have taken an average intelligent XR over Desil) but was a very professional and intelligent commander, in Zeheart, Desil was promptly frozen with the other X-Rounders and demoted to attack dog.

    Kira Yamato and Kio Asuno comparisons 
  • Why do people feel the need to compare these two? Both are drastically different in the way they go about the way to spread pacifism. And in fact it could be argued that Kio is better at it. Why say that Kira is better when there is larger evidence supporting that Kio has a better reason for going the way he does and is better?
    • Probably because Kio continuously tells his opponent,especially Fram and Girard,to stop fighting and understand each other.
    • Kira is better at what he does because unlike Kio, Kira can actually kick ass while delivering his holier than thou speeches to his opponents. Not to mention, he doesn't do retarded crap like try to talk down an enemy who has gone berserk as a result of a psychic overload.
    • Not sure why this was deleted, but the other troper's assessment of Kio and Kira sounded spot-on. Kira was the most recent protagonist who annoyed many fans by being preachily pacifist—they have lots of differences, but that's the main thing people remember.

    Bring On The Psychos! 
  • What exactly is it with Vagan and choosing unstable, self-centered X-Rounders to be their Ace Pilots? Decil was the first, but half the Magicians 8 acted like particularly enthusiastic Proud Warror Race Guys/Gals rather than the bitter shells that Vagans are supposed to turn into according to episode 37/38, selfishly disobeying orders and getting themselves killed doing so. And Girard was known to be a potential danger to her own side, yet Zeheart used her prominently in battle. At that point he had the authority to bench her and stick with less powerful, but more stable pilots to fight the Gundams if he wanted. After the Magicians' 8 insubordination and Decil becoming such a liability that he was abandoned to the Gundam, why would Vagan insist on taking the risk yet again?
    • Zeheart actually didn't want Girard to participate because he suspected what might happen. However, she disobeyed orders and deployed anyways, at which point he couldn't do much about it. Also, when you're raised in an environment where you're taught at an early age that Hope Is Scary and that you have to unconditionally hate everybody in the Earth Sphere, of course you're going to grow up with really severe emotional and psychological issues.
    • Also, X-Rounders are supposed to be excellent at combat. With the exception of Asemu "Super Pilot" Asuno and Woolf, every single Ace Pilot is also an X-Rounder. The two traits seem to go hand-in-hand. It might also tie into Ezelcant's ill-thought-out Social Darwinist scheme: the X-Rounders are exactly the type of people he doesn't want in his new Eden. By putting them on the front line, they will very likely get killed in battle, while taking down some enemies with them.
    • OP—oops, lost track of this. Okay, my bad for forgetting that Girard's sortie was against orders, although the general trend of Vagan putting unstable jerks into their elite corps still bothers me. know the Vagan were given a reason for having lots of Jerk Ass soldiers late in the show, but apart from the Phantom Three—whose Antagonist in Mourning moment was pretty touching really—they seemed to be very self-involved. It seemed to be mostly about personal glory with the Magicians 8 (they seemed more insulted than saddened at the loss of their comrades, unlike the P3) and apart from 37/38, there wasn't much acknowledgement that their behavior is aberrant (apart from the plan fact of "insubordination, you shouldn't do that"). Although I like the idea that tossing them on the front lines as human grapeshot was all part of Ezelcant's plan... that could also explain why a rookie like Deen was deployed straight into the elite corps. And hell, maybe even why they threw Yurin into that Sacrificial Barbie mobile suit.

    Inescapable Mars Disease 
  • If the disease the Vagans suffer is due to being so close to mars, can't they just build new space colonies farther away from it and emigrate there?
    • Space colonies are expensive. Really expensive. Vagan is pretty obviously suffering from a poor economy and a general dearth of resources. Pretty much everything they have they are putting either into their military or medical research on the Mars Ray disease. They could maybe move their colonies away from Mars (Second Moon at the very least is travel-worthy), which might get them away from the Mars radiation... but then what? They'd be drifting about in deep space, cut off from any supplies or trade. At least around Mars you can make trips to the surface to mine minerals or water. In deep space they'd probably be worse off than around Mars, even with the Mars Rays taken out of the equation.

    Ezelcant's Master Plan success? 
  • Ok so Ezelcant's Master plan or Project Eden, was to somehow, fight an intentionally prolonged bloody war in order to kill both the "weak" and the stronger people that were violent and desired war. Then these so called worthy people both Earth Born and Vagan would live on Earth in total peace. Ok.....removing the obvious fact of that plan being both insane, not likely to work, and Ezelcant not even really seeming to work on it beyond prolonging the war, making MORE weapons of war like Legilis his super clone and Vagan Gear. Ezelcant dies in total happiness, thanking Kio and seeminging acting like his plan was a perfect success. Except it wasn't. Like at all. All he accomplished was getting Zeheart and a bunch of his own men killed, kill every named pilot but the 3 Gundam pilots and his super clone, and force the Vagans into peace with Earth and return to status quo. At no part of this does his crazy Eden plan come into fruition. And if he changed his mind on it, the show made no attempt to convey that at all. So....what? He shouldn't be happy at all. His plan failed, alot of his people died, and he basically wasted his life.
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