May30
Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet – 08
Can Ridget lead Gargantia!? Find out in this episode!
 Animazement was fun, and thinking back on it… zero cosplays of Gargantia. What I would’ve done had I’d seen one, gone running to get a pic. Anyways, Fosh and I talk about this episode of Gargantia as Ridget is given a new role and Red is content on leaving the fleet in favor of hunting whalesquids. |
 Hooray! Time for more mini talks on Gargantia with Jrow! |
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Extra Gargantia fun
Rest in peace super cool old dude.
Red does have purple eyes like Eru Chitanda!
hnnngggggggg so cute
Whenever Amy is sad a kitten dies…
Preview
Ridget and Bellows for the win
Red goes whalesquid hunting
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: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Good review guys. I listened last night, I wonder how good my memory is this morning? Probably pretty bad, as usual.
I am willing to be wrong, but I don’t think that Pinion is that decent a fellow deep down. He’s a bit of a jerk, and seems more selfish than need be. But, since that is all I got against him, I am willing to be wrong.
I gotta respect Red. He’s doing the only thing he knows how to do, to protect someone he has feelings for. Yeah, I did like how he singled her out there. Is he correct? Well, yes. But maybe no. He’s not even half-way out of his soldier days, so he is walking the only path he can.
I found it odd and beautiful watching Fairlock’s funeral. That gesture in covering him in sand, as a form of burial, with all hands on decks pitching in, was quite unique to my experience.
Next Episode: Covered in Whale Squid guts?
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
And also, how much of Red is torn by not really understanding what feelings he has for Amy? Is some of his reaction a classic male response, trying to ‘fix’ a situation through process, rather than understanding emotions? My recollection is that he was far more detached in the earlier space battle with the Hideauze. Yet now, he is very emotionally invested, and perhaps he doesn’t really understand why. So he wants to retreat to something he’s more confident doing, and justifying it through ‘protecting’ Amy and the others that he’s come to be attached to.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I’m starting to wonder if whoever developed this story got all their names from an mechanical drafting manual. Pinion, Flange, Rackage, Bevel, Bellows, Crown. If only the giant robot was Chamfer instead of Chamber.
Also, thanks to Jrow for leaving the intro and outro in stereo!
A couple things resonated for me personally this episode. One was Ridgett’s situation being put into the boss’s chair. She feels like she doesn’t know what to do, that she’s moved into a completely different position. It really helped that Bellows came in to remind her that it’s not all on her. But what she also needs to realize is that she’s already been doing that job, for the most part. Yes, there’s a lot of symbolism to being the person behind the desk, but in reality it’s not a lot different. I could also personally feel for her in losing that mentor figure, as my boss of 19 years is retiring tomorrow, and I will truly miss his knowledge, experience, insight, and friendship. Even if I know that I’m good at my work, and know an awful lot of things, it just feels like there’s a support missing. And that’s for me at almost twice Ridgett’s age. For someone like her, who has probably only been doing that for, let’s say, 7 years, it’s completely understandable that she doesn’t really know how to deal with it completely. It really felt like there were two sincere purposes to her avoiding the funeral for so long: one that she really thought she had to show ‘strength’ by working in a difficult time, and the other that she didn’t really want to face that finality that Fairlocke was gone.
The other thing that resonated was the situation with the ships leaving the flotilla. Again, this felt like it had relevance to my life now, as my WoW guild has just gone through a situation where a few folks have left as a group for personal (and of course, in my opinion, selfish) reasons. And ultimately you have to realize that life moves on. Other people do things you don’t like but as a group you have to just keep moving forward. And the situation that happened, with a new ship joining Gargantia at the same time others are leaving felt very similar to me, with new people joining our guild and happy to be there while others who are unhappy are leaving.
That kind of resonance is one of the reasons that this show just feels like a tremendously good exploration of the human condition, and humanity on a personal scale.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
The end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Fairlock’s hero funeral was beautiful. Ridget is a perfect replacement, practically Fairlock’s right hand. She only needs to brace up and learn how to manage herself. Good thing Bellows was there to give vital advice.
With the news of a new fleet leader, you can bet Rackage won’t hesitate to make a comeback. Ridget needs to sharpen herself for psychological warefare going against that red head.
Pinion’s selfish agenda is just going to get innocent people killed. He’s too much of an ass for me to find anything redeeming about him. He schemes, ridicules and takes advantage of others especially in times like this where everyone is emotionally unstable. It certainly wouldn’t bother me if he dies alone but things won’t turn out that simple.
Ledo says it’s his duty as a soldier to follow Pinion because it leads to the Hideauze but I can’t help but think it’s a way for him to deal with the fact that he can never return to the Alliance. I can’t imagine how I’d feel if someone told me it would take over 6000 years to get back home. There would have to be something for me to cope with such a spirit crushing revelation.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
This was a quiet episode, and quite sad despite the fact that we hardly knew the Commander Fairlock. I have to say that of all the episodes, this was the only one where I have to say that everyone, in some capacity, was in the right.
Ridget is placed in command and she’s not ready for it, but she matures through the episode and learns to rely on others in order to lead. Despite the fact that Amy and Bellows call the people who are leaving idiots and fools, I don’t see what’s wrong with them trying to do what they want to be happy? They have the right to pursue their own happiness elsewhere, they are not prisoners and therefore don’t have to stay with Gargantia. Flange and the others don’t seem in particular to be greedy or anything, they just either don’t accept Ridget as the new leader, or they believe there is a future for them in finding Earth’s lost technology. They are nothing wrong with that, they are allowed to chose their own path as human beings.
Yet, also, I can see why Gargantians also feel the way they do since they feel that they people leaving are foolhardy for wanting what is forbidden. They see it as suicide and are feeling abandoned, that’s natural and all a part of change.
As for Amy and Bevel, both of them are sad to see Red leave. Amy I think is being a little immature as she doesn’t even want to understand nor accept that despite the fact that Red can enjoy himself, he’s still a soldier. And like all soldiers, he is willing to put himself in harm’s way in order to protect her and the humans of Earth. However, it’s okay for her to be immature because she’s only a teenager and this is her first love. I think Bevel understands a bit more, but he’s a kid and is not mature enough to understand what Red’s been through.
And lastly there’s Red who has found out that his SOS will never reach the Alliance and Chamber can’t get there without help. He is stuck on Earth, maybe never to go home, and there is no one who in Gargantia who can understand or care about his plight. (I wanted to strangle Pinion this entire episode! Especially when he made light of the fact that Red can never go home. I hope a whalesquid Hideauze eats him!)
Nevertheless, like a good soldier, he is still willing to carry out his duty to take out the Earth Hideauze even if he knows that it will most likely be suicide. He is the only one who understands the Hideauze and he will not allow them to do to the people of Earth, what they did to the Galactic Alliance. He will fight them until the end.
I think this was a good episode and served to express the fact that change is on the horizon for everyone and that you can either accept it or get run over by it. Change will come whether you want it or not, whether you are ready for it or not.
I give this episode a 8/10.
POWUH: 500-599 with 543 comments
I’m going to agree with you: Pinion can go and get eaten by a whalesquid Hideauze!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I dunno, I really haven’t had a problem with Pinion. Yeah, he’s kind of a jerk, but he’s an honest jerk. It just seems that his motivations are out there to see: glory, wealth, revenge. He doesn’t want to deal with heavy emotions, so he’ll deflect them as much as he can.
POWUH: 500-599 with 543 comments
This episode really laid down a bunch of heavy stuff. But it’s about time this show give any signs of a story beyond Red joining the fleet.
Fairlock’s funeral was well done- everyone saying goodbye with a handful of sand, putting it in different spots. Quite a bit of symbolism in where one puts the sand. Ridget and Flange both aimed for the hands.
Ridget is ready now, she just has to really be ready to rely on others now. I think Bellows can help her out, though. So despite losing Fairlock, Gargantia has a good next leader coming. Once she let her hair down it was pretty clear. It’s like a power signal, I think.
Red, of course, argh- poor guy can’t go home. I started to wonder if Red actually has gone back in time, and so he ends up starting the Hideauz-human war or something. Although that would be pretty crazy.
But seriously, if Red wants to protect Amy, he could just stay with her. Of course, that’s impossible with his soldier way of life. And Amy could have tried harder with communicating her feelings as well, of course.
My guess is that if the pirates come back, Red could find out, but too late to keep Amy. I’m doubting her survival, which is really a pity.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 131 comments
The funeral ceremony was beautiful – slow-moving, solemn, and simple, though very heartfelt. I like how everyone on the ship got to pay their respects somehow.
I also like Ridget’s conflict with taking the leadership role. You’d think, as a viewer, that she would transition rather smoothly into the role as she’s been running quite a bit of the operation even when Fairlock was the leader. But she actually presents a very realistic reaction to the situation – helplessness as she tries to assume the responsibility of being the leader of a broken-up Gargantia, and loss upon her father figure’s death (with said father figure being a solid reminder of her real father).
Which is why Bellows’s advice and the subsequent show of support by the veterans after Ridget’s heartfelt plea really quite lifts the spirit. It’s wonderful to see that though the fleet’s smaller and with less defenses, it’s still rather tight-knit. That’s certainly better than a bigger fleet with less camaraderie.
As for Red, he has a very roundabout way of caring for Amy, but I thought it was completely in character – he cares for her (and Bevel by extension) while still keeping his soldier’s perspective. And I think it’s rather sweet of him to be honest about it (albeit a little coaxing from Bevel). And now that Chamber’s said it’s impossible for them to get back to the Galactic Alliance, it should more or less strengthen his desire to protect the only place he can come back to now.
(On a side note, it’s a nice touch to see Red improve his Earthian speaking to the point that he doesn’t seem to be using his translator anymore, and he his little awkward pauses in speech are more or less gone.)
I thought Amy would take it worse, though, but I’m glad that she didn’t throw a tantrum or anything. It feels to me that Bevel said much of what Amy wanted to say, though. I wish they could’ve been more honest to each other.
In any case, I still think that it’s a supremely bad idea to pursue the whalesquids, if the preview is any clue. Also, as a side note, the BGM was incredibly beautiful this episode, especially during Ridget’s speech. Definitely getting the OST when it comes out.