GundamGAF's Victory Gundam Rewatch
Episode 37
We start up with another shot of that lovely decapitation from the last episode. I didn't mention anything about it last episode, because, really, it's pretty tasteless, but I just want to give a special mention to how Marbet just sort of passes around the head for the others to gawk at. It's not shocking, just dumb.
Skipping ahead to sometime after that, the Captain grants the crew permission for a vacation, to show that the cease-fire is legit. Of course Shakti just about loses her damn mind out of excitement. It's actually a half-decent plan, since it gives them a plausible excuse if anything goes down - considering how badly their Trojan horse gambit crashed and burned way back on Earth, it's better that they try not to think too hard. I say "half-decent, because Zanscare's just using it to buy time. Of course. We get a little side conversation about how people who grew up in colonies can't handle the smell of sea salt or decomposing flesh, which sends my "forced aesop" sense off the charts.
Sicily somehow convinces Duker and the higher ups to indulge her specific branch of biker fetishism, and Uso and co. end up having to fend off a squad of hydroplaning unicycle mecha.
The squad goes after the White Ark first; Duker figures that if they take the ship down first, the suits will have to scatter. They're unsuccessful, of course, because following a plan even as simple as that requires the kind of competency and skill that this squad has failed to demonstrate so far - but they manage to land a glancing shot to the Ark's engine room, and when the kids try to put it out, a shockwave knocks Shakti over and injures her, forcing the rest of the crew to try and escape on a nearby island while the others fend off Duker and his toadies.
An island...of BONES! Bones from the sea life that left the polluted ocean to die, rife with the stench of decay! The Kranskie sisters completely lose it, and the others are somewhat upset about it as well. Sp00ky stuff, but the teens seem to fixate on the pollution an awful lot...
Then the sisters start talking about how the Earth is practically uninhabitable because of the extent of the pollution.
Then Shakti starts prothelesizing about how it's not such a terrible thing - after all, everyone bleeds, and everyone dies. Then she muses about how this level of pollution could have easily been avoided with even a modicum of effort. Warren joins in and they all have a little jam session about how the Earth can survive. Then we get this line:
I hope to god that this is the kids' takeaway from all this, and not the show's ultimate message. I hope that there's something huge that happens next episode that crushes this idealistic pap like the bones that popped under the weight of the suits during this little detour. Because lemme tell you, this episode is no Doan's Island, and if I have to hear such a left-field justification for the war for the last stretch of the show, I'm going to get pretty agitated.
Anyway, Marbet and Uso put Bottom Fighter foot to ass and sent the BESPA forces packing. Tomadache and Odelo helped too, I guess.
Afterwards, the crew gets together for a post-battle pow-wow, and Uso reflects ON THE STRUGGLE WITHIN HIS HEART BETWEEN HIS MORALS AND HIS THIRST FOR VENGENCE... quietly.
GundamGAF's Victory Gundam Rewatch
Episode 38
Odelo tries to take charge. It doesn't end well.
Uso tries to find Odelo and Elischa after his attempts at assertiveness fall apart. It doesn't end well.
Marbet tries to bail Uso out. It doesn't go well, and it gets them all dragged into an ambush.
Uso counters the ambush by diverting enough power to his shields to hold off the main assault. It goes well at first (although I imagine that EXVS players who use the V2 would break down crying at such a sight,) but ultimately that plan doesn't end well.
Odelo tries being assertive again, and at first it went horribly wrong, but then he and Uso accidentally pull off an inferior version of BEAM CONFUSE, and they take out the ship with Duker in it; with Renda's death earlier in the show, the two of them ultimately eliminated 2/3rds of the most influential members of the Motorad Squadron. Everything ended better than expected.
Anyway, have some gifs.
That last one reminded me of Reader Rabbit, for some reason.