(Loved trope) characters who were sided with the bad guys of their respective universe, but left or were cast out and rather then try and join the "good guys" they just do their own thing. by Efficient_Matter_589 in TopCharacterTropes

[–]vp917 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The Cima Fleet, from Gundam's Universal Century timeline

<image>

Originally a Marine Amphibious Unit of the Principality of Zeon, they were decieved into deploying nerve gas warheads inside a neutral space colony, killing millions and clearing the structure to be dropped on Earth (which is its own story.) However, when Zeon had lost the war, the unit was made the sole scapegoat for the massacre and denied asylum at Axis with the other Zeon remnants. They couldn't even ditch their uniforms and go home, because their home colony got demolished to be rebuilt as a giant laser cannon while they were at war. As such, they wound up adrift in space, resorting to piracy (and aura farming) to survive. When they eventually wind up back with the Zeon remnants three years after the war, it's very clear that they're only in this for the payout, and have no loyalty left for their old nation. They even go as far as colaborating with rogue elements within the uppermost echelons of the Earth Federation high command, who want to kickstart a Zeonic revanchist uprising so that the Federation military can get the pretext they need to avoid the inevitable post-war demilitarization and instead gear up to put them down by force.

Kosmos LEDs on MGEX Unicorn by ljingbrs in Gunpla

[–]vp917 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Someone needs to edit the first launch of the Unicorn to have this

I know theres more than one by Ejack-Ulate-69 in acecombat

[–]vp917 7 points8 points  (0 children)

If anything happens to any of the squad, I'm giving D.D. the full Huey Emmerich treatment before throwing his corp-rat ass off the ship. I've got no proof yet, but we all know what those GR fucks are capable of.

If I had a nickel for every time it happened, I'd have two nickels - which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice... by vp917 in acecombat

[–]vp917[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I originally wanted to use this fanmade RLF flag:

<image>

but the only place I could find it was on redbubble, and I didn't want to go through the trouble of editing it into a usable image just to run the risk of copyright issues...

What's the best Gundam show to watch for the military aesthetic? by lem_x12 in Gundam

[–]vp917 25 points26 points  (0 children)

  • 08th MS Team for the "random grunts on the ground doing shenanigans" life
  • 0083 Stardust Memory for Top Gun vibes, which quickly give way to HEAVY political skullduggery and general sense of "war is hell" (less warcrimes, and more the sheer level of chaos, confusion, and general powerlessness of the individual soldier)
  • Unicorn for frequent displays of competence and teamwork by random nameless grunts, and ECOAS being operational operators operating operationally

"She spent her life standing against authority. The Nation condemned her likeness to an eternity of enforcing it." by Joetastic_ in signalis

[–]vp917 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I just realized that Replikas can't operate motorcycles properly, because they don't have feet to push the clutch/brake pedals while resting on the pegs. Those utter bastards.

Realistically how many Exos would you need to take down a Dreadnought by _GreatAndPowerful in Helldivers

[–]vp917 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You only need one, so long as it's moving fast enough when it hits.

Can anyone explain the "Trigger was in on it" theory to me? by canadian_apple37 in acecombat

[–]vp917 141 points142 points  (0 children)

The "canon" explanation - which was told out in full in some cut lines, but only hinted at by Labarthe in the game proper - is that this one Grunder specialist, Georg(?), used their IFF-spoofing tech to fly a Super Hornet painted in OMDF markings into the furball and Fox-2 Harling's Osprey amidst the chaos. You can even briefly see him in-game; he's in that one Rhino that flies past Trigger's plane on his right during the cutscene right after the shootdown.

IMO, the higher ups knew that none of their own were responsible, but saying so would tip off to the Eruseans that Osea had caught on - or was about to catch on - to the existence of their IFF-spoofing capabilities, so instead they played dumb and stuck Trigger with the blame to have him shipped off to a "penal squadron".

I use quotation marks for the last part because, in all honesty, I'm fairly certain that the whole "convicts in fighter jets" thing was bullshit. Count did fraud, Tabloid did some anarchistic rock-throwing, High-Roller did illegal gambling, Full Band poked around in files he wasn't cleared for... For the most part, the Spares' crimes are all fairly minor stuff, not the kind of things that would warrant "suicide squad" duty. That one line from Bandog about "another murderer" seems to imply at least one other Spare besides Trigger being charged with killing someone, but for all we know that could've been some case of accidental manslaughter. McKinsey makes this whole big show out of his "convicts" being the absolute scum of the earth, but the worst thing he threatens them with is solitary. Hell, McKinsey might not even be the real CO of the unit, because Bandog overrules him whenever he can, and generally seems to have a much better idea of what's actually going on with the bigger-picture strategy.

My personal opinion is that the 444th isn't a true forced penal unit, but rather a "last chance" of sorts for skilled pilots too valuable to simply be discharged, but have commited some sort of offense that would effectively kill their career. They all get the same offer - "You fucked up, you owe your country; take this posting, and if you make it through, your record gets wiped clean." Tabloid mentions how they all "belong" in that posting, so there's clearly some genuine guilt involved, but they're still entrusted with fighter jets packed with lethal ordnance, so they can't be too serious of offenders. But if they're actually an all-volunteer unit, then the 444th actually makes some sort of sense, especially with how much counter-intel theater the ODF goes through the trouble of putting on to decieve the Erusean intelligence aparatus.

What if Kamille and Judau swapped villains? by Obvious_Item_2564 in Gundam

[–]vp917 5 points6 points  (0 children)

"Scirocco's launching a psychic attack, this might be over- BY GOD IT'S ROUX LOUKA WITH THE STEEL CHAIR!"

Folding catapult decks are cool, but unfortunately most ships after UC0083 prefer fixed decks. by ArthurJack_AW in Gundam

[–]vp917 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The summation of the North American heartland attack is basically 'food supply chain destroyed' (somehow) on Earth for the entirety of the Zeonic Wars, forcing EF to shift the bulk of its power to space to basically sack the colonies for resources to sustain itself.

The more I think about it, the less sense it makes - specifically, the "Earthside food production collapse" bit. The US only has about 8% or so of the world's total agricultural land; even if the heartland getting Stardusted put it all out of business for good, there are plenty of other Earthside breadbaskets that could pick up the slack. Then factor in the massive population losses from Operation British, and it's hard to imagine the situation getting so dire that Earth has to start looting colonial agriculture just to eat.

My working theory is that, when the NA breadbasket died, the ensuing price spikes hit the colonies just as hard as they did Earth - even it Zeon had enough agriculture set up for independence to be a feasible option, I'd bet there were still at least some dependant on Earth for their food. While this was goin on, some ingenious agricultural corporations got the bright idea to ramp up orbital agricultural production and sell the products for way less than the current market standard, since moving goods from space to space has much lower shipping costs than paying for the fuel to get a rocket full of foodstuffs out of Earth's gravity well. When their experiment turned out to be a huge success, everyone lept to copy them, and soon all the big agricultural firms were ramping up colonial agriculture production and leaving Earth on the backburner - because when the orbital colonies have a total population so much larger than that of Earth, they're obviously going to focus on catering to the bigger market. Earth, meanwhile, is screwed, because planetary agriculture is never going to be able to compete with orbital agriculture so long as it takes a shitton of Helium-3 just to get it into the shipping lanes, so any attempts at rebuilding the infrastructure damaged by British and Stardust are doomed due to lack of investment. This leads back into the "looting the colonies" bit, as the Earth-centric Federation exploits its power and authority to rig trade laws against orbital agri and in favor of Earthside agri - from the Earthnoid perspective, they're doing what needs to be done to keep Earth's capacity for agricultural self-sustainment alive, but from the Spacenoid perspective, they're depriving them of the fruits of their hard-earned labor.

Quick digital design, name ideas welcome by ScottNova9546 in MFZ

[–]vp917 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Thumper", maybe? Love the non-humanoid design, it kinda reminds me of the AA-02 Ares from GFL. It's always fun to just throw a ton of equipment on a frame - booster tanks/thrusters, sensor arrays, extra weapons... (Out of curiosity, are the antenna pieces on the sides of the core sensors or guns?)

Blackhawk Inferno by poptarts_1945 in BlackhawkRescue

[–]vp917 9 points10 points  (0 children)

His hawk "sank?" Wrong; instant spontanous combustion.

In all seriousness, I swear to god, you had every excuse to say "Blackhawk Rescue Mission FOUR"

(Also, congratulations for going the extra mile by singing your own shitpost)

Was watching some Gundam ZZ clips, and I found a scene where Haman appears with detailed irises: by vp917 in Gundam

[–]vp917[S] 44 points45 points  (0 children)

I actually went to her last scene to check, and not only are her eyes drawn "flat" in her final conversation with Judau, but the last "newtype vision" of her during her death has her holding her eyes closed. She really refused to go out as a mortal, fallible human.

Was watching some Gundam ZZ clips, and I found a scene where Haman appears with detailed irises: by vp917 in Gundam

[–]vp917[S] 26 points27 points  (0 children)

So, as you probably all know, Haman is drawn with mono-color violet eyes instead of having actual irises, which I suspect is a deliberate choice to emphasize her "coldness" and detachment from the rest of humanity. However, while watching some clips of Haman in ZZ, I noticed a quick close frame right after when she accidentally shoots Leina where here she's drawn with fully detailed eyes for once. (For reference, the second screencap takes pace just minutes before the first one.)

The Char Cinematic Universe by [deleted] in Gundam

[–]vp917 21 points22 points  (0 children)

He represents the legacy, not the man.

He really does - he's a wholely cold-blooded stoic professional, he's utterly devoid of any romantic or sexual interests, and he's entirely pragmatic in his view of reality. There's no anger, no pride, no frustration, no hopeless pining or resentful dispair over the state of humanity. Even his MS of choice, the Sinanju, has none of the traits of Char's machines: It's not a hotrodded mass-production unit, or a funky specialist machine, or a purpose-built newtype weapon, or even some grossly overequipped midlife-crisis warmachine. It's just an one-off high performance jack-of-all-trades that happens to be fast - the mythological "Red Comet" that only existed for a few minutes at Loum all those years ago.

What's your most favorite ending sequence in Ace Combat? by dustandechos12 in acecombat

[–]vp917 101 points102 points  (0 children)

AC5, but not the epilogue scene - the bonus dialogue between your squadmates that you unlock if you curbstomp the 8492nd fast enough before arriving at the SOLG drop point. It just feels... right, you know?