GQuuuuuuX and Worldbuilding Through Mechanical Design

 Worldbuilding is one of the key aspects of any science fiction or fantasy work, and it's something that I feel too many people get too bogged down in. The original Star Wars (the movie itself, not the trilogy as a whole) did an excellent job with it for the most part. We learn how ill-equipped the Rebels are compared to the Empire simply by looking at their respective machines: the Rebels X-Wings and Y-Wings are all dirty and used, while everything used by the Empire is shiny and new. Five seconds in the Mos Eisley Cantina shows that humans are but one species in a highly diverse galaxy, although it does still bother me that all of the Rebels you see in the movie are human--it almost makes it look like the civil war is a solely human dispute. Regardless, while many aspects such as the Clone Wars, the Jedi Knights, and so on were established by dialogue, the bigger picture understood the classic mantra of "show, don't tell".

With a series like GQuuuuuuX, you have something different: you have a twist on a classic series, one that changed one detail in its story that led to a wildly different timeline from what we know, and how it succeeded in showing us this different world with its mecha design, and how it was more successful in that regard than the actual worldbuilding done via dialogue in the series itself. Obviously, this type of worldbuilding wouldn't work in a completely new Gundam timeline or a new mecha series in of itself, and that's fine. That's what's fun about multiverses. I've already spoken about how much I love the gMS-01 Gelgoog and its role in the alternate UC, so I'm going to talk about a few others and how they factor in here.

First, the Rick Dom. The first glimpse I caught of it was during the Beginning movie in the theater, in Challia Bull's colors. It's in the background and in the shadows, so it's hard to see that its colors aren't the standard purple and black but instead two-tone blue, a la Ramba Ral. Most of us just assumed these were the standard mass production colors since its appearance in those colors was very brief in the movie as well, so we thought little of it. After Gaia and Ortega showed up in the series proper, however, background material revealed that like the "Colony Attack" Rick Dom II from Gundam 0080, the "standard" Rick Dom colors in GQuuuuuuX was actually two-tone green.

"Kentucky Dried.": For folks who find the biscuits too juicy, period.

At first, I found this a bit odd, but then I remembered a slightly obscure piece of unspoken lore from the original series that was largely born out of reusing animation models. You see, the Gouf was blue because that was Ramba Ral's personal color, just like Char's was red. The same was true for the Dom, with the Black Tri-Stars using that black and purple color scheme on their mobile suits. While there's plenty of other material that contradicts it, the typical explanation was that these color schemes were retained on the mass-produced versions suits as tribute to the ace pilots who made them famous and fell in battle against the feared Gundam. In an alternate timeline where there was no Federation "White Devil" defeating the likes of Gaia, Ortega, and Mash, there was no need to color the Rick Doms black and purple in tribute to them, especially since they were dishonorably discharged from the Zeon army. It can be deduced that if there's a mass-produced version of the Gouf in the GQuuuuuuX timeline, it would likely not be blue, since we see Ramba Ral alive and well at the end of the series.

They put the "cannon" in cannonfodder!

The Light-Type Guncannon, or simply "Light Cannon" is another great example of simple worldbuilding that requires no additional explanation. With the RX-78-02 captured by Zeon and the RX-78-01 destroyed, the Federation had no choice but to go all-in on the limited data already collected by the 01 Gundam and the already-completed Guncannon for their mass-production mobile suit. Remember, the key to the war wasn't just Amuro's success in piloting the Gundam, it was his plethora of combat data that was used in the mass production GM units that made them so successful. The Light Cannon even has a Core Fighter, something the GM lacked, and it's STILL less effective than the GM because of that missing data. And before anyone brings up the many GM prototypes seen in 08th MS Team or whatever, remember that GQuuuuuuX was working purely with original UC properties from 1979 to 1989--anything later did not count. Seriously, there are way too many obscure Gundam variants in the One Year War now, it makes Amuro's exploits feel kinda pointless by comparison.

Shutter shades if they were cool.

The two "Twelve Olympians" machines, the Hambrabi and Psycho Gundam, also provided a slightly less direct look into the universe. Neither of these machines did too much on-screen worldbuilding, mind you, but their supplementary material offered quite a bit. The model number for the Hambrabi in this timeline is ORX-139, as opposed to RX-139. The "O" in the prefix indicates that it came from either the Augusta or Oakland Newtype labs, much like how the "M" in the Psycho Gundam's model number indicates that it came from the Murasame labs. Both of these machines appear a full two years earlier than their Prime-UC counterparts, with the Psycho Gundam featuring the design and model number of its second iteration. You'll also notice that the Psycho's face eschews the traditional Gundam face design for something closer to that of the Guncannon or 01 Gundam--after all, why would the Federation want their big scary, machine wearing the face of the mobile suit that so humiliated them during the One Year War?

Allegedly, the Hambrabi can transform, just like its prime counterpart, but it's inefficient and time-consuming, unlike the almost instantaneous transformation of said machine. This could be chalked up to one of two explanations: one, the Hambrabi was originally prototyped as early as UC 0085 but was shelved because its transformation was too time consuming, and required further R&D. Two, the genius of the Federation's "man from Jupiter", Paptimus Scirocco, is the one who cracked the nut of said transformation system. This brings up a small problem, however: why does this Federation machine in a timeline where the Federation lost have a Zeon monoeye? In Zeta Gundam, many of the Titans machines had monoeyes for a real-world reason and an in-universe reason. The real-world reason was due to simple shorthand--because of conventions established by the original series, the audience knew to associate monoeyes with bad guy mobile suits, even though some of the suits in Zeta did break this tradition. In-universe, many of the engineers who worked on the machines used by the Titans and Federation as a whole at the time were formerly Zeons. That's why the Hizack exists: it's essentially a Zaku on the outside, but a GM on the inside. This doesn't make much sense in a world where there's no shortage of work for Zeon engineers.

Which brings me to my next point. See, while GQuuuuuuX did a spectacular job explaining the fun little bits of its mecha lore, the stuff weirdos like me (and probably you if you're reading this) love, it did an absolutely TERRIBLE job explaining EVERYTHING ELSE in its new, altered Universal Century.

The show started off well enough, with plenty of mystique and intrigue. We got enough basics laid out for us, and while some folks didn't like the early focus on Clan Battle, I found the idea interesting because it was so wildly different from anything in Prime UC, and it was an excellent way to piece together what the war was like. It only became a problem after episode 7, "Machu's Rebellion", when elements of the new UC and the Zeon Civil War took a front seat and cracks started to form. Ideas would be introduced and quickly forgotten. We'd be left with more questions than answers. 

If I'm remembering things correctly, the show doesn't even tell us that Sayla is Char's long-lost sister.

Remember when Sayla made her awesome debut in her custom Light Cannon in the Gundam's tri-color paint job, and at first, we thought it was Amuro in the pilot seat? Then, we learned it was at the same point Char did! Holy crap, what a moment! A universe where the Federation's legendary "White Devil" isn't Amuro Ray, but Sayla Mass? How did this happen? WHO KNOWS! The show doesn't tell us! At all! All we know is, she survived the war and somehow returned to Zeon and became their new ruler because she's the daughter of Zeon Deikun and she's working with Ramba Ral? Can I see that story? Please? I bet some Zeon citizens have huge issues with her, given that she was a freakin' feddie soldier.

Admitted, one Glemy Toto is one too many...

During episode 8, they mention a rumor about Gihren Zabi having an army of cloned Cyber-Newtypes. This idea is exciting! Immediately, my mind went to the Puru (yes, I'm spelling it that way) clones from the latter episodes of Double Zeta. Could we be seeing her? Perhaps a dive into her origin? Was she genetically engineered from the start? Or, maybe Glemy, a character who was originally intended, and is often implied to be, the illegitimate son of Gihren and a woman with high Newtype potential? Oh, what's that? It isn't mentioned ever again? Oh, okay.

Every Gundam series has some sort of giant mega death weapon thingy, and of course, GQuuuuuuX was no different with the literally Lovecraftian Yomagn'tho: weaponized Newtype hax taken to the extreme. I'm fine with this concept, it's suitably ridiculous. Nyaan powers up this enormous weapon and fires from one side of the Earth to the other and wipes Space Fortress A Baoa Qu off the Earth Sphere in one fell swoop, a cosmic glow lighting up the skies below for all to see. How does the Earth Federation respond? They don't! You would think that even the defeated Earth Federation would go, "Hey, maybe we should send a Magellan-class battleship with a couple mobile suits up to space to uh, see what's going on up there. Might be a good idea, don't you think?" Nope! The only time the Federation even slightly poked their heads up after the war was when we saw the previously mentioned "Twelve Olympians", aka, the "Not Titans", who apparently carried out some kind of poison gas attack... somewhere! Like they did in the main UC timeline! No context as to why, though! That would have been too interesting, I guess. God forbid we see the next-generation Federation mobile suits, too.

And going back to Nyaan, it was pretty obvious from the start that her name was an alias. She's a refugee, sure, but... why did she change her name? She came from Side 2 on a mobile suit, but... when? What kind of mobile suit? Was it Federation, Zeon, or something else? Does she have living family? 

And don't even get me started on Shuji! The heck even was his deal? Was he like, the "Other Side's" Amuro? Was he the one originally fated to pilot the Gundam before Lalah started to muck around with causality? Or was he just some dimension-hopping shmuck who got pulled into all of this? The idea of Lalah losing it and creating the new universes is farfetched, but one I can accept given everything else in the series, but at least plan things out before you write the series. It was very clear, and if I recall, they even admitted as such, that they were making this up as they were going along.

The last episode did one of the cardinal sins of anime tropes: introducing a new, as-of-yet unnamed concept in the eleventh hour that takes its name from mythology or literature. Pop Team Epic famously made fun of. Apparently, the GQuuuuuuX has a trapped Newtype soul inside it, or something, called the Endymion system! Who's the Newtype in question? Uh, it's Amuro from "The Other Side", I guess? When Challia mentioned "Endymion", I immediately got a bad feeling, because I knew where they were going with it. In Greek Mythology, Endymion was shepherd and lover of the moon goddess Selene who was placed into eternal sleep. The name may also sound familiar as Prince Endymion was the Sailor Moon character who was reincarnated into Mamoru Chiba, aka Tuxedo Mask, who was played by Tohru Furuya, the same actor as... Amuro Ray! An actor who famously, in 2024, was caught up in an extremely gross domestic abuse scandal involving him and a fan who's half his age (before you freak out, that still makes her like 30) and seriously, the more you learn about it, the worse it gets. It'll make that scene of the GQuuuuuuX's cockpit "arms" embracing Machu seem... very creepy. They even brought him back, admittedly just for one line, for this scene, which was incredibly jarring considering he's been dropped or recast in all of his other roles.

Look, I think why I'm so frustrated here is because I was so enamored with the concept of GQuuuuuuX. It had and still has so much potential, and yet the series dropped the ball harder than a space colony dropped on Sydney. The excellent work done by Hideaki Anno with the flashback story portions in episodes 2 and 8, and Ikuto Yamashita's masterful industrial mecha designs clash jarringly against Kazuya Tsurumaki and Yoji Enokido's poorly planned overall story. (I may have some of the credits besides Yamashita wrong there, but my point stands.) I wanted GQuuuuuuX to be a new version of the Universal Century for a new generation, a remix of the story and characters we love like a Gihren's Greed campaign gone off the rails, but instead we got a half-baked detour of only 12 episodes that just felt unfinished and unrealized. The most I can hope for is that someone else will take the reins of this universe in the future, be it in the form of a manga or anime spinoff. There are good ideas here, they just needed more time to gestate.

The Fallout TV Series is Awesome and I Can't Wait for Season 2

Season 2 of Fallout is coming soon, and I'm excited for the return to New Vegas! When the show was first announced, I'll admit that I was skeptical. While I enjoyed the Halo series, I know I was in the minority, and as you probably guessed from my post about Fallout 4, I'm not the biggest fan of how Bethesda has approached the franchise from a story standpoint. I was afraid that the TV series would be more of the same, especially when preview screenshots of what looked like the Prydwen were shown--yes, the giant airship is cool, but the Brotherhood having such an audacious display of power sort of goes against their original ethos as isolationist, technology-hoarding pricks, does it not? Yes, they had airships in Fallout Tactics, but that game was (key word: was) of dubious canonicity. I'm not here to talk about canon, that's tedious as hell, and a story for another day. Nah, right now, I'm here to talk about why the show is awesome and why it worked.

Video game movie and TV adaptations are pretty hit-or-miss, and there are a lot more misses than hits. Street Fighter: The Movie is goofy and fun, but for every one of those there's Borderlands: The Movie, Doom, and so on. Sure, there are the Sonic movies, but that's a franchise I'm not much of a fan of so I won't go into that. One recent example that I did really like was Detective Pikachu. They did an excellent job adapting the world of Pokémon into live action. The world was vibrant, recognizable, and more or less took place within the world of the main Pokémon games! That last part impressed me. They were able to make a movie adaptation of a big video game franchise, have it appeal to mainstream audiences, and set it within the world of the game itself. Such a thing was once thought impossible.

Given the Legion's attitude towards women, I have a bad feeling about this, and I think Lucy does too.

The Fallout TV series is set in 2296 in California; the first time the series has returned to the state save for some small slivers of it in New Vegas. It has three protagonists: Lucy, a naive but kind-hearted vault dweller from Vault 33; Maximus, a loyal Brotherhood of Steel Squire who may not be the sharpest tool in the shed; and The Ghoul, a cowboy mercenary who, over 200 years ago, was a blacklisted Hollywood star named Cooper Howard. Each character allows the audience to see a different perspective on the wasteland: Lucy is the audience surrogate, experiencing it for the first time. Maximus has spent his whole life here, living as a member of one of the most iconic groups in the franchise. The Ghoul/Cooper gives us flashbacks of what life was like before the war, while his "present" self became pretty much everyone's favorite character. Yeah, I'm thirsty for The Ghoul, what of it? It's about The Vibes, man. He's got The Vibes.

I wonder if they'll actually acknowledge who the original "King" actually was...

Most importantly, the show became a perfect entry point for newcomers to the franchise and didn't lean too heavily on fanservice, for the most part. One of the biggest problems with Fallout 3 and 4 is how it features things that are quintessentially parts of "West Coast" Fallout, despite taking place in the greater DC and Boston areas. Super Mutants, Radscorpions, and Cap currency all existed as parts of the west coast Fallout world for a reason. Super Mutants were made at the Mariposa Military Base, scorpions are barely seen outside of desert environments, and bottlecaps existed as currency because they were an indicator of fresh water. Fallout 2, which took place 64 years after the first, used an actual currency system minted by the NCR, since that game took place entirely within that faction's territory. 3 and 4 should have had their own unique currencies, but I guess that would've required too much creative thinking.

The Goodest Boi

Despite being set in prime classic Fallout territory, we don't see Radscorpions or Super Mutants. The most we see of the latter is a hand-drawn wanted poster for one. We see the skull of a Deathclaw in the final scene of the series, and that's about it. I appreciate the restraint. It made it even more satisfying when we see the perfectly recreated props like the Stimpacks, Pip-Boys, and laser rifles. They even had the Water Chip from the first game, although I would argue that this bit doesn't really go anywhere and feels like little more than a callback. 

What's also important is the tone of the series. Fallout deals with a pretty serious subject matter, yes, but it never shied away from comedy. The TV series absolutely nailed it. Scenes where we learn the true nature of Lucy's father are properly shocking and heartbreaking, while others like when Lucy gets exiled from Vault 4 had me laughing my ass off. The series understands the nature of the wastelands: it's dangerous, it's unforgiving, and it's weird as hell.

Now, if there is one Nit with which I have to Pick, it's about Shady Sands. No, it's not about the fact that they nuked the NCR's capital, nor is it about a freakin' date on a chalkboard which could have easily been an error. It's actually about the location. Shady Sands is supposed to be much further north than Los Angeles. It should be noted that it actually does slightly shift between the first two games, but not that drastically. I'd really consider this to be pretty minor if it didn't bring up other questions like, how come nobody mentions the Boneyard? Is it in San Diego now? It's a retcon, sure, but just establish it as one to answer some questions. That's all I want.

One direction the show chose that really excited me was who fired the first nuke. When it comes to mutually assured destruction, it does not matter who fired the first shot. One side launches their warheads, so does the other. When they're in the air, nothing else matters. So, who fired the nukes? Simple. Vault-Tec did. I remember hearing on the ShoddyCast that this was an idea from the Fallout movie pitch of the late 90s/early 2000s, and I thought it was genius. What better way to sell the Vaults than to drop the bombs yourself? They have a vested interest in keeping the Sino-American war going.

Where's season 2 going to take us? Honestly, we can only speculate beyond "Holy crap it's New Vegas". The region looks like it's a mess, and it's very possible that Caesar's Legion won the war. This is easily the worst possible outcome in the game itself. I can never bring myself to side with the Legion. I always gun down slavers in video games unless it has the potential to break the game (looking at you, Morrowind). That said, I think from a storytelling standpoint, the Legion winning the Battle of Hoover Dam has the most potential. What happened to Courier Six? Did they side with the NCR, Mr. House, the Legion, or were they Independent? Did they die during the battle? What of Caesar's tumor? Did the NCR win the battle, but was it a pyrrhic victory and the Legion came from Arizona with massive reinforcements? I hope the show answers these questions and more.

Fully expecting a crisis of conscious for Maximus.

The trailers for the show also showed what looks like Vault 0, a location originally from Fallout Tactics. I've never played Fallout Tactics, but it appears this game, or at least ideas from it, are now part of the Fallout canon. I'm actually here for this. While the idea of the Brotherhood being more than isolationist technology hoarders never sat right with me, I think the idea of them attempting--but failing--to be that is interesting, so I'd like to see how that plays out. Vault 0 is also likely the headquarters of Vault-Tec, so I'd like to know what they've been doing there for the past 200 years.

New Vegas had so many characters and locations that will be super exciting to see. In addition to the Legion, the posters show what looked to be Ghoulified members of the Kings. That's a story I want to hear. We also see what looks to be Victor--if he's here, does that mean Mr. House is alive? We did see him in the flashbacks in season 1. What about Yes Man, is he installed in House's mainframe? And if we see Yes Man, will he be played by Dave Foley? God I hope so. Rumor also has it that Macaulay Culkin is playing a "mad scientist" character--could it be Arcade Gannon? Maybe Fantastic?! Will we see any of the companions like Veronica, Cass, Boone, or maybe Marcus? I have so many questions, and while I do worry I may have my expectations set too high, I think the series will deliver on most of them. Not every question needs to be asked, and not every question needs an answer. 

I'm curious where Fallout TV will go after season 2. Will we go further into Fallout's past, and visit Vault 13 for the first time since Fallout 2? Will they go to the midwest? That's an area barely explored in Fallout lore. In fact, where was that Enclave facility actually located in the first season? I want to see them as the bad guys again. The X-series Power Armor in live action would be downright badass. Regardless of where it goes, I'm excited for it all. It seems to me like when Fallout has actual writers, it's really good! How about that.

It's Still a Gelgoog, Gundamn it!

It is the year 2025 of the current era, and the new Gundam series called GQuuuuuuX is on the horizon. Upon hearing rumors of this series taking place in an alternate Universal Century where Zeon won the One Year War, my interest is piqued beyond belief. The preview movie comes out in Japan, and it turns out the rumors are true. Char in a red Gundam? Mobile suits with awesome industrial designs? The Federation mass-producing the Guncannon as their mainstay mobile suit? I must know more! One thing that really caught my eye was reading that upon capture of the Gundam, Zeonic's engineers reverse-engineered its technology to create the next generation of mobile suit, while canceling their existing plans. I frantically look up all the art I can, while cautiously avoiding any big spoilers for the most part. 

The day finally comes, and there I am in the theater with the Gundam fam I recently assimilated back in 2023 and my buddy Mike. I'm also high off my ass because I wanted to truly experience the Kira-Kira. I'm enjoying the hell out of myself, and we get to the scene that would become the first half of episode 8, "Falling on the Moon", where the Federation attempts to drop Space Fortress Solomon on Zeon's moon base Granada. Char deploys the forces from the repurposed Pegasus cruiser, now painted in Zeon greens and named the Sodon. The forces are mostly Zakus and Rick Doms, easy to identify for even a casual fan. But alongside them was something I couldn't pin down: it looked like a GM! It had a turquoise visor, with beam pistols in each hand. I turned to Mike and whispered, "What is that?!" and he wasn't sure either. Regardless of the name, I knew that this had to be the mobile suit Zeon developed based on the Gundam's data.

This is one of only two times where the Gelgoog is seen in its standard mass-production colors.

No information on what this machine was called, or even its model number, was revealed before it appeared in the series proper. We caught a glimpse of a new machine in the trailer for the series, which looked not unlike that mobile suit I saw in the theater, now sporting a color scheme like the classic GM. Many of us speculated on what this machine was, some thinking this was the GQUC's version of the GM, but I knew that wasn't possible. Sure enough, episode 4 of GQuuuuuuX rolls around, they make their appearance, and we hear the line:

"That's a Gelgoog! Those are mass-produced Gundams!"

Of course! It makes perfect sense! Of course Zeon would repurpose the name they were going to use for their existing beam weapon-equipped mobile suit. Why wouldn't they? Mobile suit names, especially Zeon ones, are total nonsense. "Gouf" is taken from "gufu", which is Japanese onomatopoeia for laughter. "Asshimar" is taken from "aa, shimatta" which basically means "ah, damnit!" or "oh, shit!" The new version of the Gelgoog even came with a new model number, gMS-01, indicating that it's the first mobile suit Zeon derived from the Gundam. It may look completely different from the prime UC's Gelgoog, but its role in Zeon's military is the same. Heck, while the Prime UC Gelgoog is this big, beefy boy, these ones are small, smaller even than a GM!

This came from the pre-series trailer, before we knew its name.

Despite it being pretty obvious when you think about it for more than five seconds, there was an utterly bizarre backlash to the design. People did not understand why it looked this way. "Why is it called a Gelgoog when it's clearly a GM?" Well, one, it's not a GM, because GM is a Federation name. Second, even accounting for how different the designs in GQuuuuuuX are from their prime counterparts, it doesn't have enough design commonalities with the Gundam to be considered a GM. Third, did you not catch the part about Zeonic canceling their existing next-gen MS plans in favor of mass-producing the Gundam? The gMS-01 makes perfect sense from a narrative standpoint. 

In the most literal sense of the word, the Gelgoog is a GM, assuming we use the term "GM" to just mean "mass produced version of the hero mech". That's what I've been using as shorthand for years now. Some examples would be the Ichinana from Mazinger Z Infinity or the Grapearl from Gurren Lagann. I've always been a fan of these kinds of designs. It feels like a logical evolution of the hero designs, and visors just look cool.

That said, I think Bandai/Sunrise/Khara made a mistake by having the first Gelgoog that's seen in full in the series be the one that's colored like a prime-UC GM. This is probably the biggest source of confusion, and I do have to wonder that if they gave it an all-new name, nobody would have been confused. When you see the machine in Zeon colors, even with a visor, it's pretty clearly a Zeonic suit. It even has the characteristic "snout" all of Zeonic's machines have.

The Zeon colors make the snout more visible.

I think what ultimately bothers me here is the lack of critical thinking. If it looks like a GM, it must be a GM, right? Well, what about the GM Camouf? That isn't even pronounced the same way. (Oh, by the way "GM" is pronounced "Jim" and the GM in GM Camouf is pronounced "Gem" with a hard "G" sound DO NOT @ ME.) There's a bit more nuance to the naming of vehicles. If the US stole the prototype for the Soviet MiG and made their own next-generation aircraft from that design and called it the Tomcat, would it still be the MiG? No! It would be the Tomcat, because the name is just what they thought would be cool at the time. That's all there is to this. Also that's probably historically inaccurate but you get the gist.

At the end of the day, the gMS-01 Gelgoog is a design I fell in love with at first sight. I'm a sucker for industrial design mecha, mobile suits with visors, and I love painting kits of Zeon suits. This thing gave me all three in one package. It should come as no surprise that I've already built and painted two of the damn thing. Between this and the F80 Gunraid, 2025 was a good year for fans of visored mobile suits.

I'll get into my thoughts on this series as a whole later, but for now I just wanted to get this one off my chest. I love you, tiny Gelgoog.