Thoughts on the ending of Aldnoah Zero

I may or may not do a full review on this, but I'd like to address a few things about the ending. I've seen a lot of people trashing this ending, saying that it ruined the show. Honestly I can see why. The climax was low stakes, no-one freaking died (spoilers), and most importantly Asseylum not only didn't chose Inaho as her flagship, but married a guy introduced a literal two episodes prior. I agree that from a viewer's perspective it wasn't the climax I was hoping for, but I think that it made sense in terms of where the story was going. The moment Asseylum made her speech Slaine knew he had lost control over the orbital knights. Even if he managed to survive the battle his forces would be weakened so severely, he would never be able to maintain this 'new empire'. At this point his dream would do more harm than good. So he wants to die. Where's the best place to die—on the battlefield. That's what the stakes were to me—akin to wanting to go out with a bang. I think it's an interesting way to end the series, on an anti-climax rather than a grand finale. As for the whole no-one died, yeah not going to argue with anyone there. While not realistic, perhaps, I didn't mind it so much. It would have been equally as unrealistic to have everyone lose all plot armor at the end. For me, it's a problem the series as a whole had, not a problem relegated to the ending. 

I'm going to dedicate a whole paragraph to this one because I think this is the one most people have a problem with. First off let's address Asseylum's decision to marry whatisface. I strongly disagree that this move makes the show bad. In fact I would argue that Asseylum's choice is a step in the right direction. Here's why: Throughout the majority of the series I felt that princess Asseylum was just that—a princess. She was always in need of rescue, and felt like that sort of peace loving Marina Ismail we've all seen before. I never really cared about her honestly (maybe this is why I don't care so much about the shipping falling through). This decision changed my view of her as a side character/ plot device into an integral part of the show. Her decision to marry to someone she doesn't love in order to maintain her ideals shows the strength of her conviction. She really transformed from a princess into an empress; from a tool used by other to someone who takes control of their own destiny.

I think it's important to distinguish a bad ending from a non-ideal ending. The ideal ending would've had Slaine sticking to his guns the entire time, with Asseylum riding out with Inaho to try to talk some sense into him while the orbital knights destroyed the Earth. Slaine would've realized he was wrong just before the killing blow, but it would be too late. Without a leader, the orbital knights would have stopped fighting, Inaho and Asseylum would've gotten married, happy ever after. While a much more satisfying ending for many, I would argue that an ending similar to the one I've described wouldn't be better than the one we got (not worse necessarily, but not better)

Whatever the case, I think that the ending made more of an impact on me than it would have otherwise. While I can't say I was left satisfied (ultimately I would have preferred above ending because I'm a sappy-mc-sap-sap who loves endings sweet enough to cause instant diabetes) I can say that it was an ending that fit the profile of Gen Urobuchi. 

On the off off off chance that you're reading this, Gen, if you do the same thing to a series I really care about *cough* Psycho-Pass *cough* I'll cry...really hard...so don't do that. 

Side note—anyone else think the reason why Inaho is like the Mr Universe of anime is because he's autistic? 

Thanks for reading! If you liked this, please share, like, or/and follow! Hope to see you again!

Gundam Seed Destiny and The Military Industrial Complex

Saying something like 'I actually kind of liked Gundam Seed Destiny' in the Gundam community is kind of akin to sieg heiling while simultaneously drinking orphan's tears from a cup made from the polished bones of one-month-old puppies, or alternatively claiming the U.C. continuity is overrated. I sort of feel like this anime gets a bit more of a bad rap than it deserves. Destiny is not a great series, in fact I'd be willing to concede that it's not even a good series, but with the amount of flak I've seen it getting, you'd think that this has a whiny self-righteous teenage edgy mcmopes-a-lot as a secondary protagonist and a main protagonist who would've ascended into the skies to become our lord  and savoir, but failed because the nails couldn't pierce his plot armor*.  Seriously— the series boasts more flashbacks than Memento, recycles animations like I joke about Call of Duty, and simultaneously boasts one of the best and worst villains I've seen in anime...and they're the same person... With that said—the recycled clips themselves are well-animated, it has a fantastic soundtrack, and has valuable commentary on one of the roots of war.

Are you on the edge of your seats? Don't be. Expect this to be drier than an evaporated glass of Merlot. Oh, and you've had a decade to watch this, so no complaining about spoilers. To give you a bit of of shallow context—the military industrial complex refers to the arms industry. They supply a country with everything from tanks to jets, to battleships. Basically they make weapons of war. So what happens when there is no war? Demand on their products decreases. What creates demand? You've got one guess. The influence of the military industrial complex on politics and war is well documented. Eisenhower himself warned the public of the dangers that the military industrial complex could potentially have on the course of American history in his final speech as president. To boil it down to the basics:

1. The Primary goal of any corporation in a free market based economy is to turn a profit 
2. The military industrial complex does make money as countries update their military and buy the latest technology, but not nearly as much as when a country is at war and a constant stream of weapons is needed to fight.
3. Using lobbyists, corporations fund politicians in order to allow them to be elected to various positions in the government. Thus, corporations have a degree of influence on the decisions a politician makes. Pass that bill limiting the funding of the military and in a couple years you might find yourself facing an opponent with much better funds and, coincidentally, a bit more sympathy toward the repeal of said bill.
4. This factors in to a politicians decisions in deciding whether or not to go to war. It's not that this is the deciding factor of war. The influence of the military industrial complex has on war is making it more likely that the politician will go to war than if the MIC wasn't involved. 

Destiny presents a future where the MIC is the primary influence on whether or not a country (or in this case a planet) will go to war. Hidden inside the radical anti-coordinator (term for genetically engineered people who live in Space Colonies) group Blue Cosmos, an inner circle of various parts of the MIC gather in order to push the possibility of war into the certainty of war. After taking advantage of an opportunity to create a war, Logos finds itself pitted against Chairman Durandal, a man who understands the complexities of the system of war and potential profits made from it. His solution to the issue of profiting off of war is to directly target Logos bases of operation and high ranking officials.

The angst...

You may be asking, justifiably, 'how will this help?' Violence will just lead to more violence, just destroying the MIC won't solve the problem. Exactly—which is why Durandal has to pull the weed out by its roots; anything else will allow it to grow back stronger than ever. Can you guess what's about to happen? I mean you shouldn't. The series has to find some way to make the good guys the good guys and in keeping with its 'there are no right sides in war,' bullshit it decides to make the Chairman's solution be a Brave New World style way of genetically engineering everybody to have one skill and only one skill thus they will never have the ambition or aptitude to pull anything like a war off ever again and uuuuugghhhhh. Here are a few reasons why this would suck;

1. It makes everyone coordinators, means that ZAFT would have to forcibly make everyone a coordinator. Not only might this lead to another war, but also creates more resentment than ever and is the equivalent of what Blue Cosmos was trying to do to coordinators.
2. Obvious moral issues.
3. Power in numbers, you might make someone great at piloting a mobile suit, and other that suck piloting wise, but enough in numbers can overwhelm a really good...actually never-mind—this is Gundam we're talking about. 
4. Probably increases tension between classes more than it would otherwise; makes rebellion more likely.
5. An enforced caste system determined entirely by birth without any room for class movement. 
6. There is a much easier system to implement that would solve the whole MIC problem.

What is that other method? Nationalizing the MIC. Assuming you haven't left in a fit of capitalist outrage, let me explain. What Durandal wants to discourage is the use of war as a way to earn profit. Nationalizing the Military Industrial Complex means that it is no longer profiting from war. No-one is paid to buy arms, therefore the only way to profit from war is to fight a war where winning the war would yield enormous economic advantage (Natural resources, eliminating a rival, etc). It's not that nationalizing the MIC would eliminate war altogether, but it does eradicate a factor making war more likely.

Now that it's been remastered...yeah can't think of a joke for this one

So there you go. If you liked this, like it. Sharing is also great, and commenting is even better. I promise I'll make something funnier next time...and maybe before the turn of the century.
 *Actually he just skipped the 'lord and savior' and became God.