Hayate probably suspects, that as Queen of Night Sky.. a certain phrase relates directly to her.- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead
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Nanoha StrikerS
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Well, it seems I've finally caught up with everyone, despite the number of 16hr days I've been working lately...
Mild spoilers in white: First off: Hey! You don't talk about Rein-chan like that, got it, tiny? Grr. But it does seem they have something in common beyond size. Although I wonder what makes them so small, while the first Reinforce was full-sized. Maybe Unison Devices grow up really slowly?  Vita, Rein's "lord"? Still, the enemy seems to lack intel on the Aces (for that matter, so do parts of the TSAB -- more later). Signum: "Eh, it's Fate's car -- let's go wind up her odometer." "Sister Sarah" (yeah, I know, but that's how it *sounds*) seemed pretty paranoid about Vivio. I wonder if artificial life forms have a bad rep, and if this could tie in with Erio's comments later. Of course, what this means for Fate should be obvious. Vivio's eyes: significant of anything? Nanoha: "Fate-chan, Hayate-chan... help! Please?" ROFTLMAO. Nanoha's definitely not bad with kids, but she doesn't have Fate's touch. Forward Chorus: "WE'RE SORRY!" And speaking of, Erio and Caro's reaction to being reminded of Fate's "mothering": PRICELESS! Subaru sucks at paperwork. BIG surprise. I wonder what she was about to say before Tea finger-flicked her. Chrono get flustered at Fate calling him "Big Brother." C'mon, Chrono, take it like a man. You've got KIDS of your own, for cryin' out loud! (and just when did THAT happen?!? I'm gonna have to start collecting the manga or something to fill in these plotholes, aren't I?) If I'm getting this right, it sounds like The Fall is slowly showing up in more and more of Carim's predictions. If her predictions really *are* completely random in time and space, within her stated window, then the increasing rate of incidence implies an event that is large, widespread, and with far-reaching repercussions. And as anyone who works intelligence can tell you, the more "hits" you have on something, the better you can filter out the chaff and refine your grip on the "hard" elements of the data. One thing I notice they don't touch on is whether her predictions are merely probabilities, or dead-certain futures unless someone acts on the prediction. Maybe they don't know. But I imagine getting into that would take an entire episode of talking heads, and we probably only have a dozen eps eft, so.... Erio is worried by what Vivio's existence represents. And this hints at some things about Erio himself, as well. And the intimations about Artificial Lifeforms in general are worthy of note. Well, the land where "crystals and greed combine" is probably Midchildia. The "holy land" is probably Al-Hazred. But what "wings"? Who is the "dead king"? The "Dancing dead" might refer to the ALifers, extrapolating broadly from Erio's hints. The "tower of law" would appear to be the TSAB itself, and I'm assuming the "ship of law" would be the Navy. Interesting how the Ground Forces don't seem to show up on the hit list. Hm. Section Six is "deniable." That's... not good. You don't create a deniable, disposable organization with that kind of firepower unless you expect to need it very badly... once. And expect to need to dispose of it, after. General Fatso's aide seems to know more than he does, and may in fact be steering him for the sake of an outside agenda. Either way, her intel on Hayate appears to be lacking, which implies that Hayate's background, and that of her Knights, is not widely known. I don't know why Fatso keeps calling Hayate a criminal, either -- I don't recall her breaking any laws, unlike Fate, who did but got clemency. This suggests that a cover story was manufactured after the BoD incident was concluded. Admiral Graham's being allowed to retire instead of being court-martialled appears to be an open secret. Hm? Fate and Nanoha both seem to imply that Hayate was instrumental in getting them both where they were in the TSAB, before joining Section 6. But that doesn't make much sense -- they had seniority (okay, not much). And Nanoha mentions the Yagami family as if it had pull, but AFAIK Hayate *has* no family, aside from the Knights and Admiral Graham -- not exactly a load of useful political connections, there. Vivio abandons "bro and sis" (let's face it, Caro and Erio are stuck with the roles now. And they're so cute at it) to glomp "Mom" as if she didn't really expect Nanoha to come back. In RL, that's usually a sign of kid who's used to people vanishing on her. Uh, oh. Hayate appears to be strolling down a path similar to the one that got Nanoha hurt a few years back. Hayate and the photo album: it was nice to see the Earth Crew again, even if only in snapshot. And... was that the piano music from "The Incredible Hulk" (series, not movie)??? 
My comments to the above, in white..
Reinforce does, in fact, have a full size form. Though she's still the size of a child of about 9 or 10. She prefers to remain small, though, because it's more energy efficient. She also likes having an excuse to fly everywhere. Chrono's marriage to Amy took place in the timeskip in the comic itself, although the marriage was very imminent, as Arf suggested that they were already expecting the twins before they got hitched. Erio's statements mean there are two forms of vat-grown human, normal 'artificial humans' who have implanted memories, but probably not a lot of consistency between them. And then there's Project F, which takes the entire contents of a specific person's noggin and dubs it onto the freshly grown clone's gray matter. (Project F, also, violates multiple laws, even with the equipment shut off and unplugged.) Something that was not noted very heavily in the animated portion of Strikers, but was implied in the bridge comic, is that Hayate had left Earth just after graduating from middle school. Fate and Nanoha remained behind and completed their high school on Earth, while Hayate began going through Command track. Hayate has, all in all, about 4 or 5 years on them, and she seems to KNOW EVERYONE. (She and Vita call one of the Legendary Three Admirals 'Grandma Midge' ferinstance.) I think that Vivio's day probably didn't start off too well, finding herself floating in a glass jar. Hayate's not overextending herself in the way Nanoha was. Nanoha pushed her magical power to the edge of the envelope.. and very nearly got herself canceled for it. I think Hayate is, most of all, worried that she's trapped in the MIDDLE of Carim's Prophecy Sift. The TSAB is, in effect, Hayate's family. Something that threatens it, threatens her. - Grumpy Uncle Gearhead - Grumpy Uncle Gearhead
Vivio... is cute. Cuddles and puppies cute.
I'm not a puppy person. So I still like Caro better. But Vivio is very cute. 'Moegaton bomb' indeed. The fact that Caro somehow knows Lutecia from back when suggests that the latter has a normal background somewhere if you go back far enough. We do know that the former spent some time in a lab, though, so on second thought that might have been when they met... Also, we get our first clue about Zest's origin, which can only be of the good. 'Hayate-chan... Fate-chan... tasukete..." ...it took me quite a while to figure out that people kept using telepathy in this scene; I kept thinking that they needed to shoot their animation people again. *notices eyecatch* Vivio's eyes!! EEEEEEEEEEE!! *glomp* Awwww, how cute, they're blushing. ^_^ *dies laughing* Is it just me *snicker* or was Fate's 'oniichan' in a *snk* distinctly intimate tone of voice? *dies again* ...Hm. What I get out of that last scene is... Hayate is expecting to die. She's taken her dream of an independant unit, her reputation, her life, and now her precious friends and closest family, and laid them neatly out on the altar. She's decided that the overall well-being of thousands of kids she's never met, and of the organization that protects them, is worth more than everything she has in the world... and now she's waiting for the knife to come down. Yeah, doubts'd be appropriate at this point. Ja, -n =========== =============================================== "V, did you do something foolish?" "Yes, and it was glorious."
This is not the end.
This is not the beginning of the end. This. Is the end of the beginning.- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead - Grumpy Uncle Gearhead
Ep. 14 at the usual places
![[Image: faveosig.jpg]](http://eobert.dyndns.org/~crimson/faveosig.jpg)
Well, looks like we finally have absolute confirmation about at least one pairing, not that there was much doubt in the first place.
Fate and Vivio are both gonna be rather startled when they wake up, though, I think. The additional detail on Geis and the TSAB's internal politics is very nice, true, but the thing that really made my day is the transporters. ^_^ ...ooohh... that's interesting... and provides us with a very plausible explanation for who's paying Scaglietti - one of the worlds whose entrance into the TSAB's ranks of 'Midchildian lackeys' was, shall we say, less than entirely voluntary. Or even just a splinter group would do, if it were large enough... Is it just me, or is Verossa trying to set Teana up with Hayate? And, ooh, Subaru backstory! Overall, despite the fact that not much really happened, I found this to be a very satisfying episode - it resolves a lot of questions I'd been wondering about and sets up what looks like it'll be a real blast of a finale. I am a happy worldbuilding monkey. ^_^ Ja, -n =============================================== "I'm terribly sorry, but I have to kill you quite horribly now."
Acoss is trying to kill two birds with one stone.
Teana has a 'Walking Wounded' sticker on her forehead and Hayate is, to be quite honest, working herself into an ulcer or a heart attack or both by the time she's 30. Get Teana a friend to keep her from going mental, making her transition to Blackcoat more clean. Get Hayate a friend so that she doesn't start sprouting red circuitry along her limbs and raining black holes down on everyone some day. A win-win situation.- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead - Grumpy Uncle Gearhead
Clingy Vivio+lace-trimmed Fate+clever Nanoha=PRICELESS!
Although I'm still withholding judgment on the whole "couple" thing -- if nothing else, I'm convinced that the writers are enjoying teasing us. If you think back to Nanoha and Yuuno at the post-auction wind-down, it looked like they were hinting in the N+Y direction. Babysitter Zafira... Hee! Look at Teana and Hayate wallking away from the camera together -- either Hayate's tiny, or Tea's really tall (and the girl is all *leg*). Last ep, it was Hayate who was doing the "I'm going to protect everyone if it KILLS me" inner monologue. This time, it's Fate. "Mommy!" I don't know what's haunting Vivio, but it's pretty obvious that she lost someone, and quite possibly more than one. The girl is traumatized. But that dual chorus "Yes?" seems to have settled her a bit. Speaking of which: HEAD EXPlOSION IMMINENT: CUTE LIMIT EXCEEDED!!! I was sure for a moment that Caro had just killed Erio. But he didn't choke (then again, I'm sure most of them have training in the Heimlich maneuver). So... no nukes? Hm... I dunno, it seems like this policy leaves the TSAB worlds vulnrable, if combat power is limited to people who are *born* with it. Not to mention the sociopolitical implications. Well, I guess now we know what the "Black Tower" in Carim's prophecy is. Goodbye, dear Asura -- we hardly knew you. Chrono has grown into his role quite well, don't you think?
Episode 17: I could put a huge wall of white text up. But I won't.
Remember that episode in season 2, where Hayate goes red-eyed and Kana Ueda unleashes a scream that curdles the blood? Subaru outdoes her. By a very large margin. Hold onto your seats, kids, this is gonna be a seriously ugly final battle.- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead - Grumpy Uncle Gearhead
what puzzels me is how much of the city seems abandoned. Enough that they an use wide area attacks to flush out a few escapees.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?" B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
I hadn't noticed that, but... hmmmmm... That's very interesting, isn't it?
Declining overall population, with the familiarly modern looking city mostly a leftover from before the TSAB's formation? Relocation to more fashionable parts of the Spiral Arm? Someone who wanted to write a really different and dystopic Nanoha fanfic (ie, who is not me) could probably postulate a situation like the real world has in North Korea... All sorts of interesting points in that. Good observation, CNN! Ja, -n =============================================== "I'm terribly sorry, but I have to kill you quite horribly now."
I have been trying to figure out how that would work form a socio-economic standpoint but I can't figure out conditions that would math all the observed facts.
facts: 1) Large parts of the city are abandoned. Entire sectors are abandoned, not pieces here and there. Unless the situation is extremely bad this means people have been forcefully moved. 2) The ground fores headquarters is relatively new and incredibly huge. 3) When seen from above the city seems omgwtf huge. 4) The city when seen form hayates window at night seems to have most windows lit uniformly and a little dim, possibly a reflection from elsewhere. this might just be an animation error though. 5) Large government agencies (the TSAB) still where building new offices there relatively recently. 6) Crime is low, which means people are not yet desperate, otherwise a beat up girl in a dark alley would be a common sight, which it clearly isn't. What I come up with is a city that was thriving less than 10 years ago to now become a virtual ghost town for some reason, with large sections closed off so they could shutdown the sewers and other utilities to those sections. But none of the indicators that would lead to such a state, unless there was a flu pandemic a few years ago, and 90% of the people died. But I think we would have heard of such a minor detail by now... E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?" B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
It could also be that they deliberately lured the Numbers to a sector that's undergoing clearing.
We also know that Team 6's training takes place, not in an actual ruin, but in a holographic projection of one. And it's quite close to HQ.- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead - Grumpy Uncle Gearhead 
If they switched from a tech based society to a magic based one only 70 years ago, they might just be shifting people around the city while they convert the area to a magic based infrastructure.
Or maybe they had to evacuate the area do to fallout or something from one of those wars they were talking about. Although the area looked more timeworn then battle damaged to me. -- If you become a monster to put down a monster you've still got a monster running around at the end of the day and have as such not really solved the whole monster problem at all. Quote:That's a thought. Another one might be that Midchildia's capital had an infrastructure or industrial role that no longer applies under the new rules - like, why bother running a port when you've switched to using skyships or teleporters to deliver heavy goods right to their destination? So most of the jobs just went away, and the people followed. Later, the city government zoned people out of the sparsest districts to cut utility and maintenance costs, even as the TSA ground forces moved in and started becoming the major source of employment... A neutron bomb during the wars would also work, I think, but I prefer the former view. Ja, -n =============================================== "I'm terribly sorry, but I have to kill you quite horribly now."
Isn't it more likely that they simply put up a Barrier, like they did for the battles on Earth?--
"I give you the beautiful... the talented... the tirelessly atomic-powered... R! DOROTHY! WAYNERIGHT! -- Sucrose Octanitrate. Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
Another possibility, I think it likely that the sections abandoned are connected to the disaster Nanoha and Fate rescued Subaru from - since that was obviously large scale and involved lost logia, there is firstly the possibility that sections of the city lost vital utilities (Water, heat, electricit etc..) for extended periods, and second that the possibility of those sections which connect to the utilities conduits of the destroyed area would be evacuated due to the possibility of lost-logia produced contimination.
15 is released, normal sources
Concerning the scream in episode 17... I've only intentionally watched one ahead of what's been subbed. But, I misread an AMV (well, it looked like more just a clip with some overlaid music) summary and thought it was referring to the training incident from a few episodes back.
Yikes! That scream does take over from the scream towards the end of season two. Worse, I can only think of a very short list of things to set off Subaru like that. You know, season three ups the stakes. In the first two seasons the villains simply had goals the wanted to achieve and were willing to fight for them. It looks like our villain in season three is much the same, only one of his goals would appear to be creating chaos in the process. If I had to guess I'd say he hoped knocking down the current order will make it easier to put in place a new one. Sort of a burning of Rome to allow for remodeling. That and he would also appear to be, oh, merely a suit or two short of a deck. ----- Will the transhumanist future have catgirls? Does Japan still exist? Well, there is your answer.
The new opening credits, Massive Wonders, is very nice. And fitting, considering the events of 17.
The new opening almost looks like they're trying to pass a torch, I think.. because this is looking more and more like the Nanoha & Subaru Show. Season 4.. Magical Gear Solider Subaru?- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead - Grumpy Uncle Gearhead
*post in the middle of episode 15 because I want to mention it.*
Am I the only one to notice that Signum fights the training fight in a skirt? It HAS annoy the trainees at LEAST a bit. That and I'm surprised that Fate's the coddling mother and Nanoha the strict one, I would have bet it would be the other way. 
I would be scared if Fate was a strict mother, given her upbringing. She is much more likely to provide what she herself didn't get.
Nanoha on the other hand pushed herself to do her best, with a supportive environment to fall back on. And is likely to emulate that for her charges. Of course it's been 6 years since I had my psych courses in college, and I may be misremembering things.-Terry ------ "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint Exupery "Luge strategy? Lie flat and try not to die." - Carmen Boyle (Olympic Luge Gold Medal winner - 1996) Mary Sue's theme music -Terry ----- "so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today" TF2: Spy Quote:Huh, that's logical, I wonder why I didn't see that. Though that might be caused by the fact that my skills at guessing other peoples thoughts, feelings and motivations are just below mediocre.
I just finished rewatching the first season, and feel really dumb for not realizing that the 'Project F' Elio refered to awhile back is almost certainly Project Fate, the Project Precia was working on before her accident.
-- If you become a monster to put down a monster you've still got a monster running around at the end of the day and have as such not really solved the whole monster problem at all. |
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