Final thoughts on Gundam 00 (Season One)

Finished watching Mobile Suit Gundam 00 last week. I think I used up an entire roll of tissue paper while watching the last few episodes.

WARNING: THE REST OF THIS POST CONTAINS A LOT OF SPOILERS.

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Too many deaths and painful losses were depicted in this series. Although it hurt and made me cry so hard my eyes were swollen for a day or so, I still enjoyed watching the entire thing. For some reason I liked how series captured the kind of things that happen during times of war. No one is safe from it, not even the civilians ensconced in their homes or the supposedly powerful Gundam Meisters. No uber Mary Sues or Jesus Yamatos in this series; no sir.

Lockon Stratos broke my heart. I adored him from the beginning, but then he just had to up and pull that stupid revenge stunt. I literally screamed when he got injured saving Tieria, and I couldn’t stop crying when he died because of that hot bastard Ali.

Speaking of psychos…the Trinity siblings? I hate them, especially Michael and Nena. Johann was tolerable (except for his strange preference for cycling shorts), but Michael and Nena were just infuriating. I was very, very happy when Ali killed Michael and Johann, but was disappointed that that bitch Nena got away.

I absolutely despise Nena. I’m fine with cutesy characters, and I can tolerate psychos to some extent. But a psycho who acts like an innocent twit just to get away with the shit that she does? I hate it. Fuck you, Nena Trinity. I hope you die a slow and painful death in season two.

…dammit, now I’ve lost my train of thought and wasted my time ranting about her and making a fugly image of her. Ffffffffffff.

Anyway.  What else can I say about Gundam 00… the animation is consistently good; I didn’t spot a single episode with animation/art that looked rushed or subpar. The music is great…but then with big shots like L’Arc~en~Ciel and Stephanie doing the theme songs and BGMs composed by Kenji Kawai (the same guy who composed music for the Ghost in the Shell movie), you can’t really go wrong. The mobile suit designs are awesome. They look sexier less clunky compared to most other mobile suits from the other Gundam series, and somehow the designs seem to make more sense…well, I still sort of don’t get Nadleeh’s “hair”, but it apparently has a function and still looks cool in its own way.

I think my only complaint about the series is the fashion design. I mean, sure, some of Sumeragi’s outfits were cute, but some of the clothes were just awful, as illustrated by Johann’s cycling shorts and Tieria’s pink cardigan.

All in all, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 is one of my favorite anime series to date. And with those damned cliffhangers at the end of season one (…is that a Tieria clone or did he just get a perm…?), I need to buy myself a copy of season two before I start trawling the net for spoilers.

Random thoughts on Gundam 00 (Season One)

I just started watching Mobile Suit Gundam 00 recently (which might probably come off as strange because I bought my Gundam Nadleeh before I even got to watch the series), and I can honestly say that I like it. Watching some of the other Gundam series (like Wing and Seed) was kind of a chore for me, so I’m surprised that I’m actually looking forward to watching more of 00.

I like how the story centers on the the power struggles between nations and the prevention of war and terrorism. I find it somewhat timely, and the themes are something that most people can relate to. The characters seem pretty decent too. None of them are really annoying (i.e. so stupid and/or badly written/designed that I can’t stand them) thus far…although I sometimes want to punch Setsuna F. Seiei in the face for being a robotic, Gundam-obsessed moron and bitchslap Tieria Erde for being such a tight-ass.

Lockon Stratos is my favorite so far. Not just because he’s the hottest Gundam Meister there is, but because I like his laid-back-but-serious-when-necessary attitude, he pilots a smexy Gundam, and has an entire crew of cute little bouncing Haros.  Ali Al-Saachez is hot too, but I’ve been warned about his personality beforehand, so I’ll try to stay away from him.

I have mixed feelings about Allelujah Haptism. Growing up in a predominantly Catholic country, his name just makes me frown whenever someone mentions it. And his voice is…too young. Whenever he and Tieria are having a conversation, I catch myself wishing that their voice actors would trade places. My boyfriend says that there’s a reason for his voice being like that though, but since I have yet to find out what those reasons are, my dislike for it will remain. Al (I will call him that because his real name is a pain to type and, like I said, it makes me frown) is pretty okay overall, though; his name and voice are the only things about him that bug me.

Seeing as I’ve only watched ten episodes of the series, my opinions are subject to change. I have a feeling I’ll eventually start hating/bitching on something (or someone), and I’ll be sure to post my raves/rants here.

Crusaders and pirates and dwarves! Oh my!

So many things happened in WoW this week that I don’t know what to talk about first, LOL.

Weeping for a Fallen Crusader

I never liked Crusader-type characters. You know, the Tirion Fordring type who believes in the goodness of all and the Light and whatever else the goody-two-shoes like. They just seem so…unbelievable to me. Like it was just a front, or they were brainwashed to be like that, or whatever.

Crusader Bridenbrad, a member of the Argent Crusade who chose to isolate himself from everyone upon learning that he was infected by the Plague, was…different somehow. He seemed more sincere, more noble, and more worth my trust and affection. Call me a shallow softie, but his quest chain had me in tears toward the end. I’m not the only one who shed tears for Bridenbrad though. RIP, noble Crusader.

Chain Heroics and learning the ropes of Survival

Earlier last week, I did some chain Heroics with my guildmates (that’s a few of them up there dressed up as dwarves and dancing with my Hunter). We were at it for a really long time, and it was around 7am my time when we were done. I forgot which dungeons we ran, but I do remember that we did Gun’drak and Trial of Champions. One of our guildmates, a more experienced Survival Hunter, helped me out by giving me tips on shot rotations and about my pet…and he even Enchanted my equipment, gave me some gems, and gave me half the gold I needed to learn Artisan Flying. Yes, my guildmates are generous like that, haha.

Pirate’s Day and Brewfest

Not much to do on Pirate’s Day, but it was fun to run around in a pirate costume for a while. I accidentally removed Captain Demeza’s buff though, so I didn’t get to run around in costume for very long.

I don’t drink in real life (I seriously don’t drink anything with alcohol in it…well, fine, I taste some of them, but I don’t down entire glasses), but Brewfest is an awful lot of fun. The music’s kind of catchy too, and the goblins’ chatter is kind of funny (“I can’t feel my legs!” “I can’t see!”). My only problems with Brewfest are random disconnections and horrible lag when I go to Orgrimmar’s Brewfest grounds.

That aside, I think the game somehow made it up to me by letting me win the roll when the Great Brewfest Kodo dropped while my guildmates and I were trying to complete the “Save Brewfest!” quest and the Direbrewfest achievement.

I really need to get me some more mounts.

We’ll continue farming Coren Direbrew throughout the remainder of Brewfest, so hopefully even more members of our guild will be riding on Brewfest mounts soon.

Dead or Alive Extra Figure: Kasumi Special feat. Yamashita Shunya (Sega Prize)

I just bought myself a Dead or Alive Extra Figure: Kasumi Special feat. Yamashita Shunya figure by Sega. This was originally a UFO catcher/claw machine prize, but I bought it in a local toy shop last weekend.

While this figure features Kasumi in one of her alternate costumes, another version of the figure, featuring Kasumi in her signature blue and white costume, was also produced. You can view the figure’s official product page here.

I’m not a fan of Dead or Alive at all; I actually hate the games, but I still think the girls are pretty. This figure is really nice for a “prize” figure, so I just went ahead and bought it.

Most of the other prize figures I’ve seen usually have poorly-made faces, but as you can see above, this figure’s face is quite pretty. Her having a nice face was part of the reason why I wanted to buy her in the first place.

More pictures (and comments) below!

Recent World of Warcraft shenanigans

Lots of amusing stuff happened when I played World of Warcraft over the past weeks. I think I should have posted separate entries for this, but I kept on forgetting to.

Dinging level 80 and pwning a guildmate in chat

My boyfriend and I were in the process of earning the last few XP points we needed to get to level 80 few weeks back. Just when one of our guildmates whispered me to ask “When are you guys going to get to 80?”, I leveled up.

A case of mistaken identity

I just logged in as my main character, Arinae, when I received a whisper from one of our newer guild members. I never spoke to him before, so I was confused as to why he actually whispered me. Turns out he mistook me for another guildmate’s alt, whose name was “Aernai”.

Going on my first raid

I went on my first ever raid last night with some of my guildmates. We were one man short of a 10-man raid party, but they figured we could still handle it. I died a few times thanks to my lack of experience and failure to understand some of the instructions my guildmates gave me over Ventrilo, but it was pretty fun. We started at around 1:00am and kept at it until around 3:30am though, so I had one heck of a headache afterward. I got lots of equipment upgrades though, so I’m not complaining!

We didn’t get to finish going through Naxx since a lot of us had to go AFK a few times and some of us had more important things to attend to (like sleep and having to leave for work), so we’re going to finish it tonight.