So, got around to watching the new gundam show.

I've got to admit its pretty stylish.

Our protagonist is a school girl with a lot of the same manic energy as Kamina... and similarly limited ability to back it up. Until she jumps into the cockpit of a Zeon Gundam on a covert op (yes, they sent a big brightly painted giant robot on a 'covert operation') and manages to get the experimental psycommu going.

At which point the kempetai mobile suits who would like the opportunity to break up a refugee camp and/or to stop the Zeon gundam and the mysterious red gundam to stop fighting _inside the damned colony_! are a bit outmatched.

Having got to the end of the first episode and been disappointed not to see more, right now, I think this one might be a winner.

Is there any indication of how tf you're supposed to pronounced "GQuuuuuX"? :)

--G.
or why?
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>Is there any indication of how tf you're supposed to pronounced
>"GQuuuuuX"? :)
>
>--G.
>or why?

They appear to use "G-Quack"

As for why, my best guess is because it's an alternate Universal Century.

>As for why, my best guess is because it's an alternate Universal
>Century.

I'm not familiar enough with Gundam lore to understand how that tracks. In case there's been a Misunderstanding™, I specifically meant "why 'GQuuuuuX'?" I wasn't questioning the entire premise of the show. :)

--G.
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>>As for why, my best guess is because it's an alternate Universal
>>Century.
>
>I'm not familiar enough with Gundam lore to understand how that
>tracks. In case there's been a Misunderstanding™, I
>specifically meant "why 'GQuuuuuX'?" I wasn't questioning the entire
>premise of the show. :)

from my understanding reading the TVtropes page, "The name of the titular GQuuuuuux, or Gundam Quuuuuux, is actually a codename in the Gundam's system to hide its true identity. If information on the GQuuuuuux's true identity or origins were to be found, the suit will self-destruct."

So it's auto-censoring its own name to somehow prevent it from blowing up, apparently.

--- Philip

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Insert Pithy Comment Here" Fandoms -- Fanart -- Fan Meta Discussions

>So it's auto-censoring its own name to somehow prevent it from blowing
>up, apparently.

OK then! That's... odd, but I assume there'll be some kind of payoff for it later.

--G.
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>>As for why, my best guess is because it's an alternate Universal
>>Century.
>
>I'm not familiar enough with Gundam lore to understand how that
>tracks. In case there's been a Misunderstanding™, I
>specifically meant "why 'GQuuuuuX'?" I wasn't questioning the entire
>premise of the show. :)

I'm guessing the u is because it's based on the Universal Century, the X because the style is a bit experimental and the G for gundam. That's just me guessing though and I have no idea why there are five u's

>I'm guessing the u is because it's based on the Universal Century, the
>X because the style is a bit experimental and the G for gundam. That's
>just me guessing though and I have no idea why there are five u's

I just finally got this, and I feel like I really should have twigged to it sooner. quux is a metasyntactic variable (placeholder term in sample code/pseudocode) in computer programming--fourth in the "standard" (for which read: 1970s MIT) sequence after foo, bar, and baz. There are no new ones after quux; if you need a fifth one, it's quuux, and so on.

You'd think I'd have remembered that before, given that I blew an entire printer cartridge trying to print the Jargon File back at WPI. OK, so that WAS in 1991, but still.

Anyway, mystery solved. Maybe. Assuming we want to believe Sunrise's writers are up on American computer programmer slang from the 1970s. (Though I guess that does lead to the follow-up question, is it the eighth version of something? :)

--G.
I guess there are six Us, but the sixth one is hard to spot the way they've stylized the logotype
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Yeah this is why the other gundam's called the GFred.

>Yeah this is why the other gundam's called the GFred.

The red one? I've only seen the first episode...

--G.
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No, the red gundam is called the Red Gundam. The one that's introduced later on is called the GFred. I won't tell you who pilots it. Sorry, I thought we were relatively spoilers-off in this thread.

>No, the red gundam is called the Red Gundam. The one that's introduced
>later on is called the GFred. I won't tell you who pilots it. Sorry, I
>thought we were relatively spoilers-off in this thread.

Eh, I wouldn't worry about it too much. No idea when/if I'll get to see the rest of it, anyway...

--G.
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Well

a) it's only 12 episodes
b) you probably won't get maximum enjoyment out of it unless you're a big Char Aznable fan/you know the original Gundam (0079) anime pretty well

LAST EDITED ON Apr-15-25 AT 05:33 PM (EDT)
 
You've forgotten the most relevant part of talking about G-Cucks: that it's an alternate history version of the original 0079 version of the show, where Amuro never fell into the cockpit of the original Gundam and thus Char managed to claim it for himself. Leading to a scenario where Sayla in the Guncannon is the Federation's top ace, Char disappears in a mysterious rainbow-type event called the Zeknova, which stops Solomon from crashing into Granada.

Zeon essentially wins the one year war, but the colonies insist on retaining their independence rather than joining Zeon as the zeeks assumed they would. Challia Bull then dedicates his time to finding out where Char went.

Well, I was waiting for this to be shown... which mostly was in yesterday's episode, which I watched right away.

And that was really good, switching away from the opening episode's characters for a full episode flashback that reanimates the opening of the old MS0079 with the quality of the Origins OVAs and the mecha style of this show. It was beautiful.

I am loving the show so far, and last night was a delightful treat.

I can't wait to see what we get in episode 3 and the remainder of the series.

(Also: Machuu and Shuji totally fight in the Battledrome on Friday Nights with Nyaan as their manager.)

>You've forgotten the most relevant part of talking about G-Cucks: that
>it's an alternate history version of the original 0079 version of the
>show, where Amuro never fell into the cockpit of the original Gundam
>and thus Char managed to claim it for himself. Leading to a scenario
>where Sayla in the Guncannon is the Federation's top ace, Char
>disappears in a mysterious rainbow-type event called the Zeknova,
>which stops Solomon from crashing into Granada.
>
>Zeon essentially wins the one year war, but the colonies insist on
>retaining their independence rather than joining Zeon as the zeeks
>assumed they would. Challia Bull then dedicates his time to finding
>out where Char went.

And then the latter-half of the series ended with the revelation that the 0079 timeline is itself an alternate timeline, both branches of an original timeline where Lalah Sune failed to prevent Char's death and used her powers as a Newtype to literally create a multiverse in a desperate attempt to create a new reality where he survived.

The result was a timeline where Char took the place of the Zeon grunt who botched the theft of the White Gundam, speeding up Zeon MS development while the Federation continued to lag behind. Since there was no pressure to match the Federation's Gundam and the mobile suits descended from it, Zeon was able to focus all their research efforts into Psycommu tech whose earlier introduction won the war. One of the unfortunate knock-on effects is that Char never met the Lalah Sune of this timeline so she remained in the brothel he saved her from in the original timeline.

LAST EDITED ON Jun-25-25 AT 06:38 AM (EDT)
 
Yeah, gonna be honest: I never saw '0079 is itself a branch timeline' coming.

Overall, I'm pretty ambivalent with how G-Cucks ended. I'm not and will never be a 0079 fan, in fact I think it's one of the most dragging piles of rot that the mecha genre carries about and in particular SRW wears it like an albatross that it can never take off and write better, more interesting stories without (J, W and UX being the exception).

The entire show was a Char-wanking 0079 fanfic, probably with as little Furuya involvement as possible due to the cheating scandal. It didn't have enough time to explore its characters or its premise well enough, and should either have given more attention to clan battles or cut them entirely instead of half-assing things.

The Machu-Shuji-Nyaan love triangle was ... painful, the object of their affections seemingly too high on space weed at all times to care, the kiss at the end incredibly contrived and seemingly a middle finger to Witch from Mercury, although at least I can hope Machu and Nyaan explore their yuri feelings for one another on Earth as they search for their mutual crush object. Theory that Shuji is some sort of messed-up tulpa created by Char and Amuro's collective feelings about Lalah is also a decent way of looking at things.

And the whole question of WHICH Amuro or from what timeline that actually was at the end will remain a question for the ages.

Despite all that I'm interested to see what happens when it ends up in an SRW. Hopefully we can save Shiiko and get her as an early game recruit.

Someone I know suggested a two-timeline game with zeta/cca, mazinger infinity, getter armageddon, dancouga, original jeeg and original gaiking in timeline 1, and then gqux, mazinkaiser SKL/mazinger zero, getter arc, nova, shin jeeg and LODM in the second timeline. That'd be pretty swank.

Given Origins showed that Char knew Lalah _before_ the war, it seems like a continuity failure but these things do happen with such a long running franchise.

Gundam: The Origin is actually technically also an AU. That's why things like the timing and MS used at the battle of Loum are a bit off, why the Feddies have the Iron Brigade Guncannons a lot earlier than they should, etx.

Also, I actually like that pretty much all UC continuity issues can be explained as "Well, that was one of Lalah's dreams" now.

>Also, I actually like that pretty much all UC continuity issues can be
>explained as "Well, that was one of Lalah's dreams" now.

Was G Gundam caused by her eating too many nachos before bed?

"Peanut butter sandwiches..."

Shut up, Vic.

My hot take, for whatever that's worth, is that GQuux is probably my favorite show since 00, and I think it's better than Unicorn as a UC entry in a lot of ways.

For all the brevity and rushed plots (and dear GOD I wish we had another season - or at least another dozen episodes!) we saw an emphasis on the need to break cycles and move beyond the past, and the climax / ending put that out there wonderfully. For all the talk in UC and NT about moving beyond the past conflicts, we don't really see it (and the stories of F90, F91, Crossbone, etx. in the UC all basically come back to the same divides again and again.)

GQuuuux gave us an ending where the pieces on the board can no longer fall into the same patterns again. New players, and a new future. Char meeting Lalah in a new context and with new goals - seeing the folly of what he would have become if he'd simply continued on his path, and trying to live a real life, not simply a hollow figure.

I have no idea if we'll see more stories in this setting, but I really hope we might.

(Also the Gquuux and GFred are stand-ins for the Gundam MkII and I will die on this hill.)