Ten episodes in and Mobile Suit Gundam is already playing with the fates of its characters. This is a war, after all, and in war people die. This episode sees the White Base struggling to make it past the last line of Zeon defence before the make it to Federation airspace! Will they make it in time? And who shall perish?
Let’s find out in our Five Thoughts on Mobile Suit Gundam‘s “Garma’s Fate!” Spoilers, obviously, but it’s also a 40 year old show.
1. Zeon Oppulence
This is, as far as I can recall, the first episode that has opened and not focused on the White Base. Instead, the opening shows us a lavish party attended by Garma and Char. It’s interesting because it shows a different side to the society of this Earth. Pretty much all we’ve seen of the world has been through the eyes of refugees and children as they flee their way across a blighted landscape.
Here, we’re reminded that ballgowns are still a thing and that there are still people in this world able to throw expensive and lavish parties while Amuro and the others struggle to survive. It’s interesting to me because it shows another side to the Zeon/Federation conflict. One where people of differing ideologies must rub shoulders with one another under pretence of a party.
2. Can Love Bloom On The Battlefield?
As you can imagine from the episode’s title, Garma gets the short end of the stick this episode. Spoiler alert for a nearly 40 year old show, but he bites the big one by the end of the episode. Obviously, in order for the show to make us actually feel something by the time Garma meets his demise, we’re first shown his secret love affair with Icelina. Forbidden by Icelina’s staunchly anti-Zeon father, Garma and Icelina almost become an obligatory Romeo & Juliet allegory.
What stands out to me, though, is how the show uses this to develop Garma’s motivations. Suddenly, he’s not just defined by his need to impress his sister (that we’ve still yet to see) and instead we know that’s attempting to capture the Federation’s Mobile Suit to win favour with his father in the hopes that he will be allowed to marry Icelina. And if that fails, Garma is ready to throw away his ideological beliefs and his loyalty to Zeon just to be with the one he loves. That’s a strong message for this show.
3. Silent Running, Or Metal Gear Gundam
When we do catch up with the White Base in this episode, things are little Hunt For Red October. Sneaking through the ruins of a city that is the last line of Zeon defence between them and Federation airspace, the White Base must run almost silently. It makes for a pretty tense sequence and sets up the rest of the episode for a nice change of pace. It keeps the White Base on the back foot, forcing Amuro to lure the Zeon forces away from the White Base in order to ambush them.
And when that ambush happens, all hell breaks loose. Amuro sneaking through the city is a great sequence and one that shows his still relative inexperience in these kinds of things. However, the near brutal efficiency with which he’s able to dispatch Zakus in almost shocking in a weird way. It brings a new element to the action and doesn’t just recycle concepts we’ve already seen. For a show made in 1979, it’s doing a great job of always evolving the action.
4. War Is Hell, Continued
Having the White Base hide from the Zeon forcess in the domed baseball field is one thing, but having the Zeon forces carpet bomb them while the refugees cower inside is something else entirely. It’s harrowing. The animation and the sound design for this part of the episode convey the claustrophobia of having to survive inside a giant tin can that’s all that’s standing between you and certain death. And it brings a sense of genuine warfare to the episode beyond the big robot fights.
We also get to see an all-out assault against Garma’s Gaw by the White Base after Amuro successfully lured them into their trap. It brings a new scope to the action. We’ve pretty much only seen Mobile Suits and one-man fighters engage one another with the White Base providing firing support. Between the White Base, the Guntank and the Guncannon all firing on the Gaw, it’s on a scale we’ve never seen in this show.
Continued belowAnd, alas, it also gives us our first major character death of the series. Poor Garma. I almost feel sad for him. He didn’t ask for this. Yet he still went out on his own terms, hoping to at least ram the White Base with his own ship to offset his certain death. The fate of Garma is a sad one, our first casualty of a war that simply uses it’s soldiers to fill a meat grinder.
5. A Scope Beyond The White Base
With Garma’s death, we also finally get to see beyond Earth to the Principality of Zeon. It’s a short scene at the end of the episode, but it conveys so much. We see Side 3, the home of Zeon, on the other side of the moon and we see Garma’s father, Degwin Zabi, react to the news of his son’s death. I love this because it shows a world beyond the scope of our point of view. The actions of this war ripple beyond simply the characters we’ve been following. Instead, a death on Earth can cause a father to drop his cane in shock on a Space Colony on the other side of the moon. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a turning point that, once again, expands the scope of the show.
