Suisei no Gargantia - Episode 4 Discussion / Poll

[Haak]

That was a wonderful episode. As expected, Ledo is starting to learn a lot from living in a far more care free society and it's a treat to watch. It looks like he had some hidden emotions for some people he cared about that even he didn't realise. Very sad stuff.

[tsunade666]

Its a very nice episode. Ledo is becoming more and more like a normal human being instead of a weapon. Said human being still doesn't understand anything but Ledo is learning. The talk with Bebel really helped him.

The black tower looks like a control tower or communication tower if you ask me. Used for communication and if its a fleet. Then antenna shouldn't be that surprising but the way its presented which is not rusting and only being covered by vegetation, indeed gives it a more mysterious look.

The first episode gives a knockout perspective from the people on space which are fighting for survival. I just can't see this having a good ending. Knowing who the writer is doesn't help a bit. For now everything is mellow down and next episode is beach episode. Its like Ledo is slowing turning into a normal person but known Gen. It will all ended up in pain. Having an enemy alien and a space fleet that doesn't have home, doesn't spell good. I can imagine an invasion in the end. Specially, the fleet reminds me of macross which goal is to find home, even if attacking an alien planet just to get a new home.

With chamber constantly sending SOS signal and trying to find the fleet. I can see it ending with either good ending with Ledo having a normal life within Gargantia or true ending where there will be an invasion in the end.

The customs of people living in space and in war is pretty different from lax living in earth.

Also I think that person isn't really Ledo's little brother but probably a clone and he is related to him. Cloning when they have minimal numbers left will help them in survival. But having a weak body then he is just thrown like a thrash into the space. Since having a painful past will be a hindrance in a mission. They probably put a hypnotism on him or minor brainwashing to forget it.

Its a reminder on who is the writer.

[Mangaka-chan]

Nice episode. I was expecting a world building episode, and while we did plenty of that it turned out to be an important character building episode too. I really like how straight forward Ledo's conversation with Bebel is by telling him those like Bebel would not be allowed to exist in space. It's harsh a harsh thing to say to someone who's bedridden, but Ledo did not say it with cruel intention as the situation is simply illogical to him. And Bebel to his credit took that information really well, which shows that despite his age he's a well-adjusted person who's at peace with his physical condition.

My favorite part of this episode though, has to be when Bebel played the flute and Ledo had a flashback. Since Ledo's society has no family unit I'm guessing the person who looks just like him in the capsule is his clone (that or they're both the clone of someone else), thereby a younger brother of sorts. Judging by Ledo's confusion as to why he was crying after that flash of memory, his memories of this person with the flute might've been suppressed. If the Galactic Alliance value soldiers who have no attachment to life, maybe whomever suppressed Ledo's memory deemed it to be counterproductive to Ledo's ability as a soldier, because memories of this person could give Ledo another purpose besides fighting.

Next week's a beach episode (well, not technically, since you kind of need land for a beach ), and I'm hoping I'll be surprised again by some nice ingots of character/plot development. Though I have to say, after the conversation Ledo had with Bebel about living life without worry I've started worrying if Bebel will make it out of this show alive. >_>

[Kirarakim]

Originally Posted by tsunade666

Also I think that person isn't really Ledo's little brother but probably a clone and he is related to him. Cloning when they have minimal numbers left will help them in survival. But having a weak body then he is just thrown like a thrash into the space. Since having a painful past will be a hindrance in a mission. They probably put a hypnotism on him or minor brainwashing to forget it.

That's definitely a possibility. In fact Ledo could be the clone of that boy because the boy himself was to weak to fight.

Its a reminder on who is the writer.

Well he is only partially responsible for the script this time, people shouldn't forget that either.

[ginger02]

Bevel and Bellows seem like they're going to be like therapists for Ledo lol

Really loving the show, it's just so happy. And i love the music; reminds me of Chrono Cross (which had a lot of sea and ocean imagery going on).

Chamber getting tied up by the strings shows a way he could be subdued in battle I suppose. Ledo's pistol sword is super cool btw.

As far as the writer's intent, I found this while browsing wikipedia

Gen Urobuchi explained on the official website that the message of the story is aimed towards those in their teens and 20s, who are either about to enter into society or recently have, and is meant to cheer them on and to encourage them that "going out into the world isn't scary". He also said that the feeling of this work will be different from others he's been involved with.

http://gargantia.jp/#introduce_staff

Never seen his previous work, so don't really know what it was like, but I'm enjoying the themes of this show. It's a nice take on slice of life.

[joshuafaramir]

Nice episode so far.
Very relaxing and gives us a lot of insight on the lives of Gargantia and Galactic Alliance
Ledo is getting corrupted by civilian lifestyle
Galactic Alliance very similar to Spartan lifestyle.

Overall, one of the stronger eps. so far in the series.

[LKK]

Lovely episode. I expected to see the difficulties Ledo would have fitting into the fleet's society. But I wasn't expecting to learn some of Ledo's past as well. Since we learned some things about Ledo's past this week, I wonder if we'll learn some things about Amy's past next week? Like where are her parents?

I wonder why the workers didn't want Chamber to fly the cargo boxes? That seems to me an efficient way to move a group of them. Much better than lifting and walking each box individually.

[SeijiSensei]

it's not a big deal in the overall scheme of things, but I thought the rain scene was a bit implausible. Given how valuable rain and fresh water are, you would think the fleet had some standard collection methods in place and a large reservoir or cistern to store the collected water. Gargantia certainly has the technological knowledge to engineer a system like that. Running around with barrels and tarps seemed a bit too haphazard for something so important.

This episode had a couple of seemingly minor events that could blossom into bigger plot lines down the road. One concerns Ledo granting someone else control over Chamber. You just know there will be some person with nefarious motives who attempts to commandeer the mecha in the episodes ahead.

The other tidbit concerns the books on the desk of the "Sage." (By the way, isn't it a bit strange no one suggested he and Ledo meet before this?) There was a glimmer of recognition in Ledo's eyes when he saw those illustrations. Might it be possible that Chamber could use those books and help the Gargantians construct a space craft? Perhaps they'd even let Bebel onboard.

[Gravitas Free Zone]

It seemed that when Chamber lifted all of the containers at once they were banging into each other in the air and also hitting the ground a little roughly, which wouldn't have been good for the contents.

The cable entanglement looked like another good reason to not do that.

So, data point: Whatever method Chamber uses to fly, it (always) generates a working field that affects an area larger than Chamber itself?

Edited to add: The spacecraft in the book closely resembled that of Project Daedalus (more), a nuclear-propulsion design.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

This episode had a couple of seemingly minor events that could blossom into bigger plot lines down the road. One concerns Ledo granting someone else control over Chamber. You just know there will be some person with nefarious motives who attempts to commandeer the mecha in the episodes ahead.

Yeah, but I hope Chamber is smart enough to not let that happen. Instead of being dumbed down to generate drama.

[Kirarakim]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

This episode had a couple of seemingly minor events that could blossom into bigger plot lines down the road. One concerns Ledo granting someone else control over Chamber. You just know there will be some person with nefarious motives who attempts to commandeer the mecha in the episodes ahead.

Hmm but it seemed while Chamber could take directions from someone else, Ledo was still communicating with Chamber through the ear piece. Thus Ledo was still in control.

[Kanon]

Lovely world building episode. Plenty of character development for Ledo as well. It's wonderful to see him slowly become more and more human.

The more we find out about the Galactic Alliance, the worse it gets. The concept of family has disappeared, people unable to fight are disposed of, children receive military training, and cloning is also pretty much confirmed. Their society exists solely for the purpose of war. Ledo's flashback was very intriguing. I can't tell if he was the child or the teenager. Whoever he was, I wonder what kind of relationship he had with the other person. They seemed to be close.

Gargantia, on the other hand is a very nice community upholding noble values. It sometimes strikes me as little too perfect, in fact. Everybody there is so nice. I hope for their sake that Chamber's SOS will never reach the alliance otherwise it will end very badly. Unfortunately, it probably will, but I won't make assumptions simply based on who the writer is. I'd like those peaceful days to continue for a little while.

Originally Posted by Kirarakim

Hmm but it seemed while Chamber could take directions from someone else, Ledo was still communicating with Chamber through the ear piece. Thus Ledo was still in control.

Yep, Ledo is still the main "operator". Chamber won't be hijacked so easily. It would be very dumb on Ledo's part to hand full control of Chamber over to somebody else.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Kanon

The more we find out about the Galactic Alliance, the worse it gets. The concept of family has disappeared, people unable to fight are disposed of, children receive military training, and cloning is also pretty much confirmed. Their society exists solely for the purpose of war. Ledo's flashback was very intriguing. I can't tell if he was the child or the teenager. Whoever he was, I wonder what kind of relationship he had with the other person. They seemed to be close.

He's the one that didn't die.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

He's the one that didn't die.

I wasn't sure he died at first (the parallels with Bebel (can't help but think of Belmondo) were too unsubtle), but upon rewatching the scene, it's pretty obvious what happened here. Makes me even more curious what his relationship with the kid was. I was under the impression soldiers didn't interact a lot with other people, much less kids.

[Anh_Minh]

According to Ledo, all Galactic Alliance kids are soldiers or soldiers in training. No reason they shouldn't interact with each other. Maybe the older kids get some command training out of managing the younger ones.

And I don't think Gargantia embodies noble ideals. It's obvious they're complacent. And their leadership's full of short-sighted cowards.

[Haak]

Considering that its Ledo's memory and we saw the older guy's perspective on the kid being taken away, I'd say it's safe to assume Ledo is the older one.

Funnily enough though, like Kanon I didn't put two and two together and just figured the kid was seperated, but given how much they were talking about how the disabled and frail are treated, it makes sense the kid must have died, so that was some real fridge horror for me and it puts Ledo's crying in an entirely different light.

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

it's not a big deal in the overall scheme of things, but I thought the rain scene was a bit implausible. Given how valuable rain and fresh water are, you would think the fleet had some standard collection methods in place and a large reservoir or cistern to store the collected water. Gargantia certainly has the technological knowledge to engineer a system like that. Running around with barrels and tarps seemed a bit too haphazard for something so important.

They probably do have something like that for the majority of the water, but then many people would want to have their own easily-available and private water sources at hand without having to rely on a central source. Makes me remember my younger days when the family didn't have access to 24/7 water, and so we'd have to fill up the central water tank to provide water for the day. Yet despite having said tank, and having available faucets throughout the house, we'd still fill up individual basins and tubs of water for distribution throughout the house anyway.

[mistress_kisara]

This was a pretty good episode Ledo is starting to learn the language! and aww poor sobbing Ledo..

[Jan-Poo]

I'm glad to see that after the weak episode3 we get yet another awesome episode, this is exactly what I was expecting to see at this point of the series and it was very well done.

Everytime Ledo wondered about the meaning and the inefficiency of the Gargantia's social structure there was a question that I really wanted him to think over and so I felt very happy when finally Bebel made him that very question.

It seems that Ledo's life has been very hard, but I'm a bit skeptical about whether that's the kind of life you have in the whole galactic alliance or if that only applies to soldiers.

Ledo apparently doesn't know anything about Avalon and how people live there. Chamber said that people there have citizens' rights and more importantly the right to reproduce freely.

That doesn't seem very compatible with the kind of cloning system and no family that it is hinted from Ledo's flashbacks, it wouldn't be "efficient" under Ledo's standards. Why would someone want to reproduce freely if he couldn't live with his offsprings? What would it matter whom your genes are going to be matched with?
Unless that was Chamber's way to say they can have "sex" which whoever they want. But then that would still mean people in Avalon reproduce through the "standard" mean and not through artificial fertilization.

[Mangaka-chan]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

Chamber said that people there have citizens' rights and more importantly the right to reproduce freely.

That doesn't seem very compatible with the kind of cloning system and no family that it is hinted from Ledo's flashbacks, it wouldn't be "efficient" under Ledo's standards. Why would someone want to reproduce freely if he couldn't live with his offsprings? What would it matter whom your genes are going to be matched with?
Unless that was Chamber's way to say they can have "sex" which whoever they want. But then that would still mean people in Avalon reproduce through the "standard" mean and not through artificial fertilization.

I'm not sure if people on Avalon have families either, since Chamber said "family" is an archaic concept, which implies it's no longer in existence in the Galactic Alliance culture. And considering that the Galactic Alliance wants soldiers who are willing to throw their lives away for the "greater good of mankind" I feel like it's likely the concept of family was done away with so they'd have well trained individuals who are loyal to the ideals of the Alliance rather than to their kin.

Even if citizens could reproduce "freely" they might be required to hand their off spring over to the military for training at birth, and this is something so routinely done and ingrained in their culture that nobody questions the practice. Also if the people allowed to reproduce are those that are both elite soldiers and individuals who strictly adhere to the rules/orders anyway, I imagine no one would raise a fuse.