5 Point Discussions – Gundam Build Divers 23: “The Fateful Two”

The impossible raid battle for the sake of Sarah’s life begins.  The aces of GBN go head to head for the sake of a life…and the game they all love. Remember, if you like this article and 5 Point Discussions, please share it on Facebook or Twitter! It really helps. And if you’ve got any comments or questions, please hit me up @SageShinigami.

1. I’m giving this a point of its own ’cause it kinda sucks what they’ve done to Yukki here. He had an entire development episode where he talked about how he wanted to grow as a person and a pilot. They spent several episodes showing him not coming to GBN so he could finish building his new Gunpla. Then instead of getting a spotlight episode to show it off, he’s relegated to a single moment in the climax of the show–and he’s not even really a focal point. His new suit, the Jegan Blast Master, appears to be a Jegan suit given the wings and Twin Sattelite Cannons of the Gundam Double X. That’s so absurd it leaves one wondering why he chose a Jegan as the main suit to house all this tech, but maybe he just has a thing for mass-produced mobile suits.

2. Unsurprisingly, the person least in favor of this entire Gunpla Battle has decided to ignore this complicated bet Riku and Kyoya are doing to erase Sarah himself. It’s borderline genre savvy–the odds are so in his and the Coalition’s favor that things almost have to go the other way, so he’s circumventing the chance they’re taking with GBN. They don’t talk about it, but I guess in a more meta sense they’re not just risking GBN–they’re risking this guy’s job.
Before Sarah can be erased though, Kyoya arrives and uses the administrator privileges of his Force Nest to stop him from bringing harm to her. The GM wonders why he’d risk the entire game on a stupid Gunpla Battle, and Kyoya actually makes the pretty salient point that this whole game exists FOR Gunpla Battle. Granted, that still doesn’t counter the “my job’s on the line” point the GM could bring up, but I guess the counter (counter) argument there would be if the game crashes they’d just have to build it again, meaning even BETTER job security?

3. Arguably, Magee vs. Rommel is the most interesting clash of ideologies here. Despite Team Build Divers being up against literally THOUSANDS of soldiers, things break down into one on one matches pretty quickly, including seeing these two go at it. The most valid argument for saving GBN (aside from Mr. GM not wanting to lose his job) is that such a realistic portrayal of virtual reality allows people to be themselves, rather than be constrained by their real bodies. In Rommel’s case, there’s a pretty good chance he was either talking about himself or a VERY close friend when he mentioned people in his Force being unable to move or talk without the game. And in Magee’s case, there’s an also decent chance they aren’t able to express their gender on GBN quite like they do in real life. Rommel “says” that without saying it, but Magee’s still fighting for Sarah because they seem to understand anything else is literally murder. Ironically, this high stakes battle only makes me wanna see these two fight with all the stakes removed just so I’m not rooting for Magee so hard. Granted, the fact that they’re piloting a Deathscythe means I’d probably still root for them anyway.

4. Coming in with the most frustrating fight is everyone’s favorite “Just Kiss Already” couple, Shahryar and Tigerwolf. They meet in the middle of the episode and start kicking the crap out of each other, but as I’ve mentioned before, this barely makes any sense. Shahryar spent so much time talking about how important love was, only to simply give up on the concept at the last second? What love could be more pure than that to protect another life? The two of them get into it, but for whatever reason Shahryar tries to battle him in close combat–an area where Tigerwolf is king. Despite having shown off most of his techniques in his battle against Riku a few episodes ago, he unleashes one new special ability: a stasis bubble he can trap people in before hitting them with a giant dragon made of energy.
The “twist” at the end of this fight is Shahryar revealing he just wanted someone who could challenge him in battle (which would normally be a fair response but here is just incredibly shallow), and that he never truly believed in the cause of the Coalition. Instead, he joined them to learn all their strategies. That’s actually a great plan, so let’s just hope he doesn’t stupidly waste most of Tigerwolf’s energy, wreck his Gunpla, and then get both of them found by the Champion! Wait, what’s that? All three of these things happen? Oh, well I guess that’s it for them, then.

5. Next Episode: I was really hoping it wouldn’t come down to this, but here we are. Riku vs. the Champion in a one on one to decide if Sarah lives or dies. They’d done so well building Riku up as someone who was talented but not covered in protagonist powers, and that almost makes this look worse because now it’s not like he worked his way up the ladder–he’s come up short against everyone from Ogre to Tigerwolf, and now he’s facing the guy who crushed Tigerwolf and Shahryar at the same time?  I’m expecting BS, or for Kyoya to surrender easily.
Gundam Build Divers is available on Crunchyroll and Bandai’s GundamInfo YouTube channel.