Ha, looks like I'm not the only one that missed a day for the re-watch. If only I were as prudent as ambientmystic. Ah well.
GundamGAF's Victory Gundam Re-Watch
Episode 4
All of the kids are slowly becoming more and more involved in the League Militaire's efforts to get the Victory Gundam operational and out of Kassarelia. As Shakti watches the others run groundwork, she muses about how much Uso's changed. She's only just met Katejina, too, and she can't help but notice that Kate has a dislike of babies - which is clearly why she stepped up to take care of Karlman. Kids raising kids, what kind of future will our descendents be living in?
Uso's exuberance for helping the League Militaire - setting booby traps and being super jazzed about the Victory Gundam - isn't exactly helping his image, either. But they're grounded until repairs can be made to the titular suit, so he's really just making the most of a bad situation.
Meanwhile, at the enemy's base, Sabat clues his comrades in on the Core Fighter's location, and vows to get revenge for the illustrious warrior Gary; he ends up leading Fuala, Dupre and our favorite ski-mask enthusiast on one more mission to retrieve that dagnabbed Shokew.
Nyung still needs some spare parts for the Core Fighter's repairs, so Uso volunteers to take him home, where he's got a veritable motherlode of electronics to use for spare parts. Computer banks, training sims for mobile suits, and enough power to power everything, even if it's all a bit outdated and buggy. If it wasn't clear enough before that Uso was practically made to pilot a suit, it is now.
Uso Ewin: Continuing the long standing tradition of training pilots via custom video game cabinets.
Sabat and co. manage to narrow down the amount of territory that the League's base could be in, so Marbet sorties in the Core Fighter to run interference (again) before they can find and destroy the transport. That said, she ends up tipping her group's hand just to avoid being fried to death, so it's a Pyrrhic victory.
Uso jumps into the thick of things yet again, but even booby traps and VR training can only get you so far against a familiar enemy; Uso lands a killing blow against Sabat, but Chronicle forces Uso to bail out in another jarringly comical moment.
Flashforward to the present, and Uso's practically a full member of the League, much to Shakti's dismay. She can't help but notice that he's becoming fixated on the Victory Gundam; I can't help but be happy that we're finally back to the present.
GundamGAF's Victory Gundam Re-Watch
Episode 5
Second - everyone in that base is kind of insane. They seemingly have no qualms about letting a kid pilot their most advanced weapon. No problem about their lives being in the hands of that one kid. Good that Katejina brought that up because it made me realize that I've always disliked it when everyone is standing in the way of a young ace pilot but here it's even worse - no one has any fucking opposition about Uso being out there in the war. I need to explicitly hear that there's not a single able-bodied and able-minded pilot in that base aside from Marbet. This is just a bit too crazy.
It was pretty refreshing knowing that someone knew that it was messed up to make a kid take point in combat, no matter how well-trained they were - and for that person to say it out loud instead of monologuing to herself about it.
Still, pretty much everyone knows that he's their best chance at survival now that Marbet's injured; Everyone except Marbet in that base is old as sin, there's no way they could handle being jostled around in the Core Fighter. No point in giving the kid extra stress about it. Besides, with the way that the Feds commandeered kids during the One Year War and the First Neo Zeon War, there's a good chance that every single person left over in the League was a teen when they were forcibly enlisted somehow; that would explain why're they're so gung-ho about everything.
It was also nice to see Chronicle show some initiative this episode. He was as sensible as last episode, and surprisingly competent as well - seems like he's a lot more productive when he's not wearing that mask of his. Maybe it cuts off his air-flow or something.
Gary doesn't come off so hot in comparison; he finally gets to show what he's all about this episode, and he ends up blowing it. I have to admit, I'm more than a little disappointed that the man doesn't live up to the myth.
The lack of shading is a really, really huge deal for me. Makes it look so cheap.
At least there's still occasionally some shading and the backgrounds look good.
I've got to agree. Still, there are some moments that make up for that, I think. I'm not a fan of some of the mobile suits, either - they just seem so disjointed between form and function. Victory's just weird to me right now, and I'm just hoping that this is part of a rough patch in the series.