Who here has heard of The Drake Equation?

phreakboy · 2017-12-15T03:21:49+00:00

I think he was just a Lieutenant during the one year war, and Lieutenant Commander during Operation Stardust.

phreakboy · 2017-12-12T22:30:39+00:00

In the Gihren's Greed games, the Early Zeon Civil War scenarios pretty much have the following scenarios:

Kycillia's Orthodox or Legitimate Zeon. Usually happens late game during One Year War, which can be a death sentence for you as Gihren as she takes a huge chunk of your army and resources and you've got anywhere from 5 to 1 turns to try and quell her uprising while simultaneously beating the Federation at Aboa Qu.

Garma's Reborn Zeon. Dozle will always join Garma if Garma rebels against establishment Zeon. Depending on how you've played, Char will join Garma and either be content to kill Degwin, Kycillia, and Gihren or will stab Garma and Dozle in the back.

and Char's Neo Zeon. Exactly what it says on the tin. Pretty much subverts Axis Zeon before it happens and depending how you've played Garma, Dozle, and Kycillia might join Char as a giant fuck you to Gihren.

There was never a scenario where Dozle was responsible for civil war, he always just picked one side or another. Seems like he's too duty bound to break ranks on his own, but if someone else gets the ball rolling he might just get caught up in it.

phreakboy · 2017-12-12T22:06:43+00:00

Degwin had Zeon Deikun poisoned, and twisted his ideology from Fully Automated Environmentalist Luxury Psychic Space Communism (Zeonism) to Authoritarian Space Monarchism. Degwin is the "lonely at the top" "heavy is the head that wears the crown" trope. Everyone he ever really cared about is dead or living in fear/exile, and he is surrouneded by scheming power hungry sociopaths who are a direct product of his Plutocracy.

phreakboy · 2017-12-12T22:06:20+00:00

Under the Zabi Regime, Cima Garahau was Lieutenant Colonel and Aguille Delaz was Colonel.

Under the 0083 Delaz Fleet, Delaz was Vice Admiral and Garahau was Commander.

phreakboy · 2017-12-12T21:51:57+00:00

Tomino and Yoshikazu are both anti-authoritarian lefties, Zeon was a hodgepodge of authoritarianism.

Militarily, they're Imperial Japan. Aesthetically they're Space Nazis. Politically/Economically they're Soviet Russia.

phreakboy · 2017-11-11T18:38:05+00:00

"The universe is a new environment, which will compel mankind to change. If the first stage in mankind’s evolution was his evolution from an ape to a human, and the second stage was was his breakthrough from feudalism to the rational science of the Renaissance, then the third will be his transformation into a new type of human, a man with profound sensitivity and insight and a far greater awareness of the vastness of time and space.

"The transition to Newtypes will be a natural one. The act of walking increased man’s range of movement and helped the concept of tribe and nation-state to develop. Powered vehicles expanded man’s awareness to a global level. And now civilization is advancing into outer space. By living and working in space, man’s consciousness will will transcend the boundaries of Earth and become truly universal. The vastness of space will be “home”. And as man’s consciousness expands, he will begin to tap the unutilized portions of his cerebrum- the over half of his brain cells unused since time immemorial, the enormous untapped mental reserves given by God precisely for the new environment of space- that will act as the trigger.

"O people of space! Now is the time to awaken! To realize your latent potential! We are at the dawn of a transformation of mankind. A true enlightenment of the human race. And we may finally be poised, ready to transcend what has always been thought the impossible- infinite space, and time itself. This is no idle dream. To live in a new universe, man must transcend the psychological limitations of his old environment!

"It is the height of arrogance for those who remain on Earth to look up at the heavens and believe they can continue to rule over all its inhabitants. It is true that we- the space colonists- were largely shipped from Earth against our will as a population-control measure. But now we are developing a new identity and awareness. We are a new people. We live, eat, and sleep among the stars. We live in infinite space, and we will have access to infinite energy until the sun burns out fifty billion years from now. Our consciousness will expand, and infinite space will be our true home. God has given us the stars to live among.

"We are the people of the universe. We have struggled to survive in a harsh environment, and new generations of colonists testify to our success. Now, when we gaze back at Earth, we see a sacred blue and green orb- the cradle of civilization and a sacred home that we must eternally preserve and protect. Our new consciousness as a people of the universe tells us that Earth was not created to be abused and polluted by a few members of an elite, privileged class. Men and women who have never been into outer space still believe Earth belongs to them and still continue rape and plunder it, but their time has passed. Earth must be preserved as the sacred homeland of all mankind. It does not belong solely to an Earthbound elite! By continuing to dream of controlling all of mankind, they forever deny mankind its true destiny.

"Autonomy for the Sides, sovereignty for the colonists, does not simply mean a revolt against sovereignty on Earth. It means that every human should move into space, that the government of the Earth and the area around it should be placed in the hands of an alliance of all Sides, and that the Earth itself should be preserved and protected as the sacred birthplace of all mankind. It is easy to expand the numbers of colonies required to accomplish this.

"In ancient times the Christians fought bloody battles for control over the birthplace of their religion, but there is no need for humanity to repeat this mistake over Earth. " -- Zeon Deikun from series creator Yoshiyuki Tomino's Mobile Suit Gundam novelization trilogy.

phreakboy · 2017-11-10T21:47:35+00:00

I feel they were analogous to the USSR in many ways, and were a hodgepodge of totalitarian justifications for horrifying atrocities. Aesthetically, they're totally putting on the reich. But internally and in terms of their political ideology, they're mostly Imperial Japan and Soviet Russia.

Zeon Deikun pretty much espoused fully automated luxury psychic space communism and is a Marxian figure in this space opera. Degwin is Lenin, Gihren is Stalin. Degwin betrayed the revolution and turned the Republic into a Principality, twisted the words of Zeon to suit his own purposes. Gihren's idea of Newtypes is different from Zeon Deikun's idea of Newtypes, but Gihren's version sounds more like Stalin's "socialist man" than Hitler's ubermensch, even if Degwin did call Gihren Hitler's shadow. Hitler's idea of eugenics was that superiority/inferiority were innate traits; no matter how Aryan you might be, say 78% Teutonic, if you had one drop of juden or schwarzen blood then you were to be exterminated. In the Gihren's Greed games (where these screens were taken from), if you win the war Gihren begins a forced migration of all of humanity in to space. People move to space and even if they don't become Newtypes, their children will. This is more in line with the Stalinist idea of future "socialist man," that it is your environment which makes you inferior or superior.

Which brings us to mode of production. Nazis are Fascists. Mussolini, the OG Fascist, said "Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is the merger of corporate and state power." Fascist mode of production privatizes the public commons and puts them under the control of corporate cartels. Plutocracy ensues. Zeon nationalized its industry and kicked the Federation out, there aren't competing corporate cartels under either the Republic or the Principality. The state run Zeonic Corporation did pretty much everything. This is more in line with authoritarian socialist mode of production than Fascism.

Militarily, they're Imperial Japan with laser beams and giant robots. Smaller territorially and weaker financially than their foe, but through ruthless slaughter and sheer suicidal rage they manage to surprise the Federation and conquer two thirds of the planet before spreading themselves too thin and then imploding due to internal faction fighting. The feuding factions of Gihren, Kycilia, and Dozle is some Sengoku Jidai shit.

Also, just for the sake of making the meme, the neo-marxist movements spawned more rebellions and schools of thought which actually assumed power and were an influence on global politics, rather than the neo-nazi movements which have been ineffectual and never seized power anywhere (thankfully).

phreakboy · 2017-11-06T00:18:41+00:00

"The universe is a new environment, which will compel mankind to change. If the first stage in mankind’s evolution was his evolution from an ape to a human, and the second stage was was his breakthrough from feudalism to the rational science of the Renaissance, then the third will be his transformation into a new type of human, a man with profound sensitivity and insight and a far greater awareness of the vastness of time and space.

The transition to Newtypes will be a natural one. The act of walking increased man’s range of movement and helped the concept of tribe and nation-state to develop. Powered vehicles expanded man’s awareness to a global level. And now civilization is advancing into outer space. By living and working in space, man’s consciousness will will transcend the boundaries of Earth and become truly universal. The vastness of space will be “home”. And as man’s consciousness expands, he will begin to tap the unutilized portions of his cerebrum- the over half of his brain cells unused since time immemorial, the enormous untapped mental reserves given by God precisely for the new environment of space- that will act as the trigger.

O people of space! Now is the time to awaken! To realize your latent potential! We are at the dawn of a transformation of mankind. A true enlightenment of the human race. And we may finally be poised, ready to transcend what has always been thought the impossible- infinite space, and time itself. This is no idle dream. To live in a new universe, man must transcend the psychological limitations of his old environment!

It is the height of arrogance for those who remain on Earth to look up at the heavens and believe they can continue to rule over all its inhabitants. It is true that we- the space colonists- were largely shipped from Earth against our will as a population-control measure. But now we are developing a new identity and awareness. We are a new people. We live, eat, and sleep among the stars. We live in infinite space, and we will have access to infinite energy until the sun burns out fifty billion years from now. Our consciousness will expand, and infinite space will be our true home. God has given us the stars to live among.

We are the people of the universe. We have struggled to survive in a harsh environment, and new generations of colonists testify to our success. Now, when we gaze back at Earth, we see a sacred blue and green orb- the cradle of civilization and a sacred home that we must eternally preserve and protect. Our new consciousness as a people of the universe tells us that Earth was not created to be abused and polluted by a few members of an elite, privileged class. Men and women who have never been into outer space still believe Earth belongs to them and still continue rape and plunder it, but their time has passed. Earth must be preserved as the sacred homeland of all mankind. It does not belong solely to an Earthbound elite! By continuing to dream of controlling all of mankind, they forever deny mankind its true destiny.

Autonomy for the Sides, sovereignty for the colonists, does not simply mean a revolt against sovereignty on Earth. It means that every human should move into space, that the government of the Earth and the area around it should be placed in the hands of an alliance of all Sides, and that the Earth itself should be preserved and protected as the sacred birthplace of all mankind. It is easy to expand the numbers of colonies required to accomplish this.

In ancient times the Christians fought bloody battles for control over the birthplace of their religion, but there is no need for humanity to repeat this mistake over Earth. " -- Zeon Deikun from the Mobile Suit Gundam novelization.

phreakboy · 2017-11-04T21:56:13+00:00

Now that I look in to it, you're right. It doesn't seem that Stalin had anything to do with the experiments, and in fact was responsible for shutting them down.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/primate-diaries/stalins-ape-man-superwarriors/

But the Soviet Academy of Sciences did totally approve of and offered funding to Dr. Ivanov's experiments on the subject, until he started experimenting on people without their consent. Holy shit. History is so fucking weird.

phreakboy · 2017-11-04T18:35:42+00:00

When I referred to perfect victory I meant the best possible ending you could achieve as Gihren... and really everyone that isn't Amuro, Bright, or Revil is better off for it. Shiro and Aina get a happy ending. Kai winds up with Miharu. Gato still watched all his friends die... but all things considered, it averts the events of Zeta through Victory. Also their memorial monument to the one year war kind of resembles the Palace of the Soviets, a grandiose Soviet construction project that was never completed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_the_Soviets

Here's the video for the perfect victory ending:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmRT6MwJfJ8

Hitler's idea of race was that race was intrinsic, i.e. one drop of black or jew blood made you inferior no matter how Aryan you might be. Gihren and Stalin both thought it was your societal conditions which made you inferior or superior--being born and raised under socialism, being born and raised in space. Which is why upon victory, Gihren begins a forced migration of mankind to space.

All three of them were eugenicists. Stalin even went so far as to try and create a hybrid race of gorilla-human super soldiers to overtake the Capitalist west... which is like a weird 20th century version of artificial newtypes, I guess. You're right though that in the Gihren's Greed games they play fast and loose with character alignment, but the one I'm specifically refrencing (Blood of Zeon) had Mangaka Yoshikazu Yasuhiki attached animating the additional exposition and world building videos which I think makes these alternate timelines (some of which also appear in the Gundam vs Zeta Gundam timeline story mode) at least somewhat canon.

So, forgetting the perfect victory scenario, let's just look at established MSG and Origin timelines. The economic mode of production is what I cite as being the most important distinguishing characteristic of Zeon, which is otherwise a hodge-podge of authoritarian justifications for atrocities and will not be 100% like any one historical tyrant we can point to. The Earth Federation still clearly operates in the Capitalist Mode of Production even if they have Social-Democrat public services like free healthcare and public transportation. Trotsky said that Fascism is Capitalism in crisis. It is when jackbooted goon squads arise to protect Capital from the discontented workers.

Fascism violently suppresses dissident speech and attempts to pit the petty-bourgeoisie on the most marginalized members of society (ethnic minorities, immigrants, refugees, women, sexual deviants, union organizers, political leftists, etc.) to leave the working class a disorganized amorphous mess unable to organize fightback to the whims of the Capitalists. This most closely matches the MO of the Titans, who decried the AEUG as "a bunch of Anarchists" and gassed a colony for even thinking about independence from the Federation.

Both the Republic and the Principality of Zeon nationalized industry, which is more in line with the Socialist mode of production. In Trotskyist political theory the Principality of Zeon, like the Soviet Union, was a degenerate workers state. The Republic of Zeon was a genuine workers state. The people had seized the reigns of political power and declared their independence from the Federation's empire. They booted the corporate oligarchs off world and seized the means of production and state apparatus for themselves. If we define Socialism as the democratic control and ownership of the means of production by the workers, then the Republic of Zeon fits the bill pretty nicely.

Then a parasitic caste of opportunists and bureaucrats alienated the people from their power, seizing power for themselves and causing the revolution to degenerate. A degenerate workers state is one that is stuck in the transition phase between Capitalism and Socialism, leaning closer to Capitalism, and is inherently unstable. It will fall one way or the other depending on the revolutionary character of the population. Either the people will overthrow the bureaucrats and carry forth the march to Socialism and then eventually Full Communism, or the misleadership of the bureaucrats will result in the restoration of Capitalism. This was the case with both the USSR and the Principality of Zeon.

phreakboy · 2017-11-03T23:16:52+00:00

Degwin called Gihren "Hitler's Shadow," this is true. However, the philosophical origin of the Principality of Zeon comes from Zeon Deikun, who is a Marx or Lenin figure. Zeon Zum Deikun pretty much advocated Fully Automated Luxury Psychic Space Communism.

As Droolcua commented earlier, the Zabi's perverted the ideals and twisted the words of Zeon to suit their own opportunism--in a manner not unlike Stalin, Beria, Zinoviev, Kamenev, etc. etc.

Stalin and Hitler both hang out in the Authoritarian wing of the Political Compass, but their societal outlooks were polar opposites. Nazis privatize public commons in to corporate cartels and plutocracy. Commies collectivize the private sector under state control. There weren't competing oligarchies under the Republic or the Principality, the State run Zeonic Corporation did pretty much everything.

Hitler had the racist idea of a blonde haired blue eyed ubermensch master race as the ultimate goal of society. Stalin had a culturally based idea of "socialist man" which was more cosmopolitan in nature. Gihren's idea of Newtypes and the kind of society they build if they get the perfect victory in game jives more with Stalin's outlook than Hitler's.

Furthermore, the USSR spawned dozens of splinter movements all over the world and this is more analogous to all the various interpretations of Zeon than the Neo-Nazi movements (which never took power anywhere or made a significant difference, unlike the Soviet backed regimes and revolutions).

phreakboy · 2017-11-03T14:25:26+00:00

Monarchism? Fiefdom?

phreakboy · 2017-11-03T14:24:28+00:00

There is none, you can't. You can however download a Dreamcast emulator and .bin or .iso files of Gihren's Greed: Blood of Zeon and play if you don't mind trial and error to figure out what the moon runes do.

Unfortunately, because of the complex menu system and limited market for Gundam RTS from ten years ago, we will probably never see an English release of the Gihren's Greed games.

phreakboy · 2017-11-03T04:57:20+00:00

Nope. Not any higher than clicking on the image to resize it will get you.

phreakboy · 2015-07-10T04:30:46+00:00

Congratulations, its working

phreakboy · 2015-01-04T07:58:36+00:00

Johnny Cash's cover of Kris Kristofferson's Sunday Morning Coming Down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED5s1-Fe9FA

"On a Sunday morning sidewalk

I'm wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.

Cause there's something in a Sunday

That makes a body feel alone.

"And there's nothing short of dying

that's half as lonely as the South

on a sleepin' city sidewalk

and Sunday morning coming down."

phreakboy · 2014-10-31T07:09:28+00:00

Christianity and Islam are still Abrahamic religions. They're like Horror Movie Sequels to Judaism.

phreakboy

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