Jun4
Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet – 09
Chamber is ready to fight all the whalesquids
 We got a full house for a very interesting episode of Gargantia this week! Fosh, lvlln, Sumairii, Highway and I talk a lot about the video Red found during this episode. |
 Hell ya! This was a lot of fun talking to Lvlln, Sumairii, Highway and Jrow for Gargantia mini talks. |
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:47 — 28.7MB)
Extra Gargantia fun
Break out your 3D glasses!
Red is shocked!
Probably Ika Musume’s grandma?
d’awwwwwwwwwwwwww
Preview
Great ending artwork! Amy looks cute-o!
More space squid adventures next time
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: iLurker with 10 comments
Wasn’t the “video” Chamber actually pieces of clips from all the separate hard drives? Basically Chamber just played all the information he could salvage which is why after the video he says “This is all of the recorded information I could play back” That’s why I don’t buy into the propaganda theory and convenience I’ve been hearing a lot.
Rewatched the second half just now and you can that see Chamber scans a bunch of hard drives as he’s trying to translate/encode the data. Also I noticed the video has a lot of erratic cuts. If it was meant as propoganda I think the video would be structured a lot better instead of the piecemeal scenes Ledo had to figure put together
POWUH: iLurker with 10 comments
you can see that*
Ledo had to put together*
Bah typos…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
That’s the point I was making, that it was more just relevant clips that the Evolvers had saved, because they’re just a pretty normal group of people. It wasn’t any sort of coordinated effort by the Evolvers to tell their side of the story or anything. There certainly wasn’t a Hideauze Leni Riefenstahl working on it.
And I think it’s fair to say that as a bunch of media clips saved by the group in question, it’s probably not particularly even handed. But it’s the kind of thing that Red has the side from the Galactic Alliance, and now has part of the side of the Hideauze (I’m wondering if that name was coined to put them in a worse light, from ‘hideous’).
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
There might be a Hideauze interested in making films about skiing. World did look covered in snow…
I’ve always thought of the word hideous as well. But now, they appear quite beautiful in their own way.
POWUH: 700-799 and Parkouring Fanboy with 776 comments
It’s not so much the even handedness, but rather what Sumarii mentioned, that it told exactly what Red needed and nothing more. No data just about things like lab maintenance, cafeteria schedules, or any non-historical-video data whatsoever? I can buy that Chamber merged the clips together in chronological order, but for the end result to be that convenient a video, not even 10 minutes long, with exactly key pieces of info really challenges the suspension of disbelief.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Yeah, that part for me was as mentioned: just ‘we don’t have that much time in the show, and we want to show relevant stuff”. I can also believe that Chamber could even have selected clips for relevance, and discarded others.
IOW, that’s not something that bugged me personally.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
What wish do I get now?
Chamber is a Pilot Support Mechanism…making sure Red don’t get all up in that agitprop sound like it might come under support. At first I thought the bit where Red pulls rank was a writer’s fingerprint, as in the show’s writers are adding extra tension, and I can see that hand.
War propaganda is quite insidious when seen 20/20 during times of peace.
I’ve never bought “we shouldn’t play god” we did it with wild wheat 1000’s of years ago. It’s always seemed to me, “Don’t play god in a way that grosses us out”.
I’m with Highway on his viewpoint about the Hideauze v Galactic Alliance. It’s still a bloody war. All the Dodos? Do we have a sample of Dodos that don’t support killing humans? Same with the Hideauze?
I had to stop halfway thru the ‘cast at this time, I’ll pick up the rest a bit later in the day. Great discussion so far.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I think that there might be individuals on both sides who would rather stop the war, especially if we are now understanding the Hideauze individuals to be people with sentience and agency.
There is a definite confounding factor as well: There’s almost nowhere for humanity to be in the universe. After how much searching, they have one planet (not counting Earth)? It could be a failure to search enough or effectively, or it could be that there just aren’t that many planets out there suitable for ‘normal’ humans. I don’t know why there is conflict between the Hideauze and the GA for such limited space, as the Hideauze would seem to have a huge advantage since it seems they can just camp out somewhere near a star and be fine.
That’s one reason I don’t get why there’s a conflict, and you know, maybe there isn’t as much of one as we have been told. If the Hideauze can basically be anywhere, they have the ability to basically ignore the space-limited humans of the GA. So why would they fight for holdings of the GA? Maybe we’ll find out more about it.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
It could be that the GA won’t let the Hideauze live in peace. Or both sides are continuing the war. The conflict that started ages ago on Earth has taken on a life of its own and continued on in space. Humans can continue conflicts for generations–just look at the Middle East. Or tribal societies with traditional enemies. Heck, the British and French were traditional enemies for centuries, although their wars weren’t constant.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Thanks for pointing out the English and French conflicts. Add the Spanish and the Portuguese, and you even get privateers thrown into the mix.
From the moment he mentioned them, I’ve been keen on finding out about the Drifters….
POWUH: 500-599 with 543 comments
I feel like the GA and the Hideauze groups began with a lot of tension, and at one point, they erupted into war after said tension grew. And at this point, the GA is keeping the war going as a means of keeping the economy going (since war seems to get economies moving when done properly, ie WW2 for the US) and the Hideauze have no choice but to defend themselves.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I would imagine that at first the reason for friction was disapproval due to squick factor. I’d imagine the real catalyst for the war would be the impending ice age (I’ll note that an ice age on the earth will be many times more catastrophic to humanity, and all other life, than global warming).
However, I think the “oh no, the Continental Alliance is making a wormhole and leaving the rest of us behind!” is pretty falsely incendiary. If I make a wormhole to search for another planet, I don’t have any obligation to help you out if the planet’s going to become uninhabitable. I may, because I desire to help other people, but others claiming an obligation to humanity are just wrong, in my view.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I suspected it’d turn out that the Hideauze would be Earth animals genetically engineered by humans, but it went much further than I’d thought!
So now Red is going to be forced to make the biggest decision of his life–does he continue trying to exterminate the whalesquid or does he go against everything he’s been taught and all his training as a soldier and try to find a peaceful resolution?
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Yeah, that trans-human element is sure the zinger.
If he doesn’t have to fight, he does have a home to go back to, that is for sure.
POWUH: 500-599 with 543 comments
Yay! A super long ‘cast- I’d say the Google Hangout provided good audio, at least for my ears. Great birthday present.
I was happy that there was a twist in the Hideauze, although I think they could have shown the twist differently, like more with those baby things rather than videos. The existence of “Ryan Matsumoto” bugged me a little, like seriously, what? It felt like a completely different animation team with a different art style did some of those news segments and interviews.
I guess it’s interesting that the Hideauze are originally humans, turned into weird squid things. I could buy the idea that some people end up trying to evolve themselves later on, although I couldn’t buy the continued existence of the UN. By the time we have crazy space elevators that are sooo big, we will have something other than the UN.
Well, I do suppose I got what I originally wanted from Red- a sort of realization that his killing isn’t just killing monsters. Of course, he can’t really do much about it, since he’s so far away from the Galactic Alliance and no one else there will stop the war.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Today is your bday? Congrats!
Yeah same here I was happy they finally threw in some surprise info on the Hideauze! I wasn’t expecting them to be human LOL
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Happy B-day, Gecko!
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
ooo, ~Happy Birthday!~ Good to know that the audio is ok. It’s not as good as previous records, but we did have many more peeps with us. I don’t want to tip too much (since it’s not official), but we did talk a bit about “streaming” these discussions.
I’m interested to see what Red does next after seeing this. As you say, not much he can do (for now) with the GA, but how this affects his current partnership with Pinion and also Flange.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Happy Birthday Gecko 🙂
Being pedantic, they did have the “Continental Union”. 😉
POWUH: 500-599 with 543 comments
Thanks for the happy birthday’s guys 🙂 I’m feeling lazy right now so I don’t want to write it a couple times
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Something that didn’t fit in the podcast, but that the subject reminded me of is Spider and Jeanne Robinson’s Stardance novels. Prior to this episode, there was no obvious parallel to the books, but with the reveal this week of the symbiotic spacefaring relationship of the Evolvers, it exploded into all sorts of common threads. They’re books that I recommend anyway (although not that often, as an appropriate audience rarely presents itself), but for those interested in the themes here, including friction between those who accept the symbiote and those who reject it.
And I’d guess that anyone who watches anime and this show in particular would probably be a good audience for the book.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Gargantia probably takes ideas from a lot of sources and the whole science screws with dna always goes bad, I mean sure there are some positives, but for the most part it ALWAYS goes bad…
It sounds like a interesting read.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
It’s a good read, although I would worry that a bunch of people will get the first book, Stardance, and read it all the way through and wonder what the hell I was thinking. It’s in the 2nd and third books that this stuff comes out. In fact, I would say it’s possible to just start from the second book, Starseed, and probably be fine storywise, and go back and read Stardance at your discretion.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Whoa, this podcast is overpowered with bloggers. Did you guys think all of you would have managed to get your thoughts in with such a short amount of time?
First Saki from Valvrave gets her own spin off manga about her past before the events of the series and now Bellows from Gargantia. I’ve noticed a fair amount of animes are getting their own mangas centered on some of the supporting characters. It must be a new trend going on.
So my previous thoughts were right on the money with humans experimenting with whalesquid DNA. Scientists are always trying to screw around with things they’re not supposed to. The idea of research like this coming into existence doesn’t sound so farfetched anymore because so many things are being done these days that you’d never believe in a million years would come to pass.
What happened between the evolvers and the protesters is the usual conflict of opinion among people. Some believe what they’re doing is immoral while others see it as a possible means of survival. When it all comes down to it, it’s all based on point of view and will. As an example, a scenario could be used: If the planet was flooding and your only remaining means of survival is adapting to water, would you be willing to alter your DNA to establish a balance with the changing environment?
I’m pretty sure the Alliance soldiers are in the dark about what Ledo found otherwise they wouldn’t be so gung-ho to fight the Hideauze. The Alliance probably monitors psychological health as much as physical and this news would definitely throw things into chaos, hence Chamber’s immediate dismissal of the video.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
hahaha I know right? This was a lot of fun listening to Jrow, Highway, Lvlln and Sumairii give their thoughts on this episode! Even though I was only there making jokes…yeah…
I kind of want Amy to get her own manga spinoff, but Bellows is also interesting so I will read it anyway! As for Saki from Valvrave sure why not.
Reminds me of Index/Railgun! Science + Anime = BAD THINGS HAPPEN YO.
The Alliance = the real villains imo
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Nice review guys, I think all of you did a nice job with this.
This episode was really off-putting for me at first. When I first saw it, the shoddy science along with the weird reveal (which had already been spoiled for me beforehand) really made me mad on first viewing. However after stewing on it and talking about it for a day or so, I actually came to find that I do want to see what they are going to do with this.
First, as to Chamber, I don’t know, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Unless they seriously want to introduce a sudden “A.I.s are taking over” plotline, I don’t really think they’ll turn Chamber from being the supportive character he is. I mean he is a machine so he will believe first in the Alliance in terms of if the video was propaganda or not, he also has built in safegards that will hear certain keywords and flash the “confidential” red tape. And as for the ending, I think that he probably wasn’t able to respond in time, especially since at the beginning of the fight, it was Chamber telling Red that they could just “drive” the Hideauze away and that he was losing power and suggested that Red fall back. It was Red pushing on at those moments, so I don’t think Chamber was really acting on his own in the last part.
As for the video thing, it could be propaganda at the time since it was found in the headquarters of the Evolvers, but I doubt it was specifically to trick the soldiers of today’s Alliance. Remember also that Chamber took a bunch of clips from several different sources, ran them through his processors in order to convert and translate them and then pieced them all together in a way that made sense to make one video.
To the whole Evolvers/Hideauze and the Alliance war thing, I think that as for when the war began, I would have to side with the Alliance in that I don’t think it right to mess with your body’s genetics, especially if you can advance your tech instead and use that to survive. As a scientist, I know that there are always variables that are outside of your control and it really seems that the Hideauze is an example of genetic engineering going out of control turning humans into trans-humans, and then further into a species altogether different. I however think the Contenintal Alliance wrong in some aspects as well, and that both sides were actually in the wrong to different degrees.
As to the war that exists now, I think that it has really been so long that no one even knows the original reason the war began. Even the higher ups in the Alliance may not know. The information on the beginning of the war could have been marked classified hundreds to thousands of years ago and no one bothered to declassify it or even to look into it. Even in America you have files that have remained classified for decades and even those who have access to them don’t know they’re there, much less look at them. Besides, as of this point I think that the war has no longer become a fight for ideals but a fight for survival.
The Hideauze have long ago lost their humanity and behave more bestially now. If you remember in the beginning that the Hideauze were not just destroying Earth ships but consuming them whole, people and all, they are really dangerous and have no qualms about consuming humans. They do exist on energy in a pseudo-photosynthetic way, however, unlike plants, I think the Hideauze in order to support the complex functions of a higher level organism and even posses energy-based bioweapons such as the lasers used in the first episode, they would have to consume/absorb a whole lot more energy (solar or otherwise) than any earth plant to keep alive. This could be why they live near the star and why the attack the Alliance. So really, the revelation that the Hideauze were once human does change everything, but at the same time, really changes nothing.
As for how this will affect Red, Gargantia, and all other parties, I don’t know. We’ll have to see where this goes. I really do wish they had actually brought in some of this earlier instead of having those two or so throwaway episodes, but maybe they will try to do something interesting in these last 3 episodes.
I give this episode a 7.7/10.