Posted by: Mauser at May 12, 2012 01:15 AM (cZPoz)
6
Japanese spelling is "ガーランド", so it's pretty obviously "Garand". Nonetheless, there's no official link to the particular gun. Same for Mr. Springfield.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at May 12, 2012 07:53 AM (5OBKC)
Posted by: Mark A. Flacy at May 09, 2012 10:52 PM (Zdi7L)
2
It's not just the tower, though that's probably the most obvious. But if the front of the front hull's in sunlight, so should be the front of the back horizontal hull.
3
Worse than the position of the shadows--that's just not the way light and shadows look in a vacuum. Without atmospheric diffusion things tend to be either all lit up or completely dark.
6
It was in fact stock footage. The same image was used a couple of episodes before, when it actually made sense. The "clue" above was in that earlier episode.
7
Wow, I thought that little purple thing was an image defect, but in fact it's the main pirate ship, name of which escapes me now. This station is HUGE.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at May 10, 2012 11:28 AM (5OBKC)
The Bentenmaru has reserved docking as long as the crew are in quarantine, and the hospital ship is projecting a hologram at that docking point to hold its place. Just standard procedure.
My question is: Why don't we see anything of the rest of the crew in quarantine? The deputies for the main bridge crew, the engine room guys, Schnitzer's marines - aren't they in any contact at all with the bridge crew? Are they being told anything about what's going on?
I assume that they're not in on everything, but I'd be surprised if Kane or Misa weren't checking on them and telling them Marika has the ship and is conducting some form of piracy, else they'd worry about losing their jobs because of the Letter of Marque, the terms of which don't seem to be any big secret.
Posted by: jcm3 at May 10, 2012 11:31 AM (OU30d)
9
Remembering that the crew is under medical observation and quarantine, it's logical to assume that mingling is somewhat discouraging. There is no doubt some communication by phone, etc. And the plot doesn't need for us to see that, so we don't.
I finally got my download, so now I can take frame grabs.
Hmmm... Five girls, four beds. Hmmm....
Think Lilly and Maki (both standing) will share one? There have already been hints that there's something between them. (Lilly stole Maki's bra in ep 3, for instance.)
More likely one of them is just visiting. (Rats.)
Actually, this post is about the layout of the bridge, and I've got some pictures and discussion of it below the fold.
1
There are several pictures where the gap between the two decks is much smaller, and I noticed in the last episode a segment where it appeared that the upper deck was moving downwards. There are also shots where someone can be seen standing next to the command chair, which would be just as impossible as Chiaki standing where she is.
As far as how you move between the sections, I agree that it's not something they considered.
Posted by: David at April 16, 2012 10:44 AM (+yn5x)
2
The slaughter of catgirls in this post approaches genocide! *grin*
Posted by: Mauser at April 16, 2012 12:37 PM (cZPoz)
3
As for the bunks, could there be four more closer to the viewer, off the frame edges?
Posted by: Mauser at April 16, 2012 12:39 PM (cZPoz)
4
I'm not sure it's the upper deck, but it almost has to be. The princesses are stationed there, but Chiaki's standing on the lower deck (see 2nd picture). David's got the right of it; the upper deck moved down, because Chiaki was standing next to the engineering console, and now she's just barely lower than they are
when they notice the camera. No 8-foot legs for Chiaki, and there's never any hint that the bridge is in zero-G.
When the Bentenmaru was powerless, we saw Grunhilde and Misa arrive on the bridge in a hand-cranked elevator, which looked to be located behind (or in?) the bulkhead with the ships logo -- the one behind the captain's chair. But the shaft would have to pass right through the lower hallway. Worse, the lower hallway would have to be collapsed by the upper section moving down. Finally, we see into the lower deck hallway several times, and it runs straight, except for a few steps going up into the bridge. No room for the doors to be on either side. So it has to be the upper deck, and even if the two are close to the same level, the sloped edge of the upper deck separates them.
So when the upper section moved down, did that hallway move with it? And where did the lower hallway go?
6
Speaking of the hallway with Chiaki and the princesses - I just noticed the hand-holds/ladder-rungs running down the middle of each wall. Those will be very handy if the artificial gravity goes out, or if the ship gets hit with enough G's to overwhelm their inertial dampers...
Posted by: Siergen at April 16, 2012 02:34 PM (3/gGt)
7
Then it's barely possible, based on your 2nd picture, that the elevator we saw Misa and Grunhilde get out of is located in the wall directly behind Marika in the picture in message 5. Except that looks like a solid wall, and I see no reason not to have a door to the elevator there. It would place the change of levels only a few meters behind the captain's chair.
8
Also of note in that hallway is the lighting ON the floor, right where you would expect it to trip people. And of course the shadows on the girls are not taking account of the fact that light is coming from both above and below. Oops.
Posted by: David at April 16, 2012 03:04 PM (+yn5x)
9
Ubu, that wasn't an elevator. That was the top entrance, which connects to that hallway.
13
Yeah, that makes sense. I rewatched ep. 10, and there's a scene in which Misa enters the bridge via the same route, only the door's working. I never realized that the "bulkhead" was only a few inches thick (and slanted!); I thought it was big enough to house an elevator shaft.
I'm really on a tear with only half-noticing things lately, I guess.
14
Yes Steven, I was referring to the shots which show the stairway leading down (away from the upper bridge though). I still think the timing was right for one of the animators to read your earlier posts and add the shots for this episode. Too bad it still doesn't answer how the crew can easily move from one level to another.
Of course, I recall seeing a painting of a an American Civil War-era wooden steamship that had a "bridge" running across the middle of the ship, several feet off the deck. The officers could easily walk from one side of the side to other in battle to get a better view, without interfering with the gun crews (and vice versa). Maybe the separation of the senior officers from the lower-rank bridge crew was a design feature of the ship when it was first built, before being converted to a privateer...
Posted by: Siergen at April 16, 2012 07:51 PM (3/gGt)
15
Don't know about the bridge layout, but the one blond girl is straight outta Sailor Moon...
Posted by: Tex Lovera at April 20, 2012 03:14 PM (DvLEA)
That's Princess Gruier Serenity. Guess who else is named "Princess Serenity"?
This series has quite a few callouts. The girl with black hair, draped over one of her eyes, is named Syoko Kobiyashimaru, which is a reference to the Star Trek "Kobiyashi Maru" test featured in ST2: Wrath of Khan.
1
1/2: I'm sure there are relief personel. Schnitzer in particular has a crack team under him, any number of those might have manned the weapons console. I'm guessing you're right and he was in the CO's chair.
3: Behind the captains platform.
4: Probably just modified for quick donning. She said that she was going to fix the uniform to make it easier to don and doff.
5: Yes
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at March 28, 2012 09:27 PM (EJaOX)
One way I can tell that a series is a good one is that it engages the part of my mind that tries to figure things out. Some thoughts below the fold, spoilerish.
1
An hour for her hair? When I rewatched that episode, I decided it would be a major breach of reality if she ever showed up in it again without at least two assistants and most of a morning to prepare it.
2
She certainly must have had quite a retinue with her on that liner.
Which makes her stowing away all the more amazing. Not only did she have to sneak onto Bentenmaru without getting caught, she had to give the slip to all her maids.
3
I'm thinking robot maids. For Gruelle's wardrobe and hair, I mean, as opposed to my usual thoughts about robot maids...
As for staying at the school,
with Gruelle officially in the yacht club, the Odette II presents interesting possibilities for vacation trips home. We know it's got good armor and an up-to-date electronic-warfare system; perhaps someone "forgot" to remove the weapons as well, and they're just locked down in ways that surely no schoolgirls could ever circumvent.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at March 06, 2012 06:18 PM (fpXGN)
4
J, I can't see it. I do believe that Odette II will figure in the series again, but not that way. (And I don't believe that it is armed.)
The Bentenmaru's crew didn't seem too concerned with
the three ships escorting the Princess' cruiser, even if things got dicey, (some comment was made to the effect that the Bentenmaru was "vastly more powerful"), so they might have even been able to handle four corbacks -- but the larger battleship would likely have been a more formidable danger. And the five ships acting together...that probably would have turned into a bad day. Which makes me wonder if Pirate ships might be exempted from armament limitations generally imposed by the GE.
Posted by: Dave Young at March 06, 2012 06:52 PM (ZAk0Z)
6
Expanding on Dave's comment and pushing into some other things I've thinking about for a while, the entire set up with the letters of marque
seems to me like a bit of a political compromise. The GE doesn't allow piracy, but they do respect local laws and customs, so as part of the annexation a compromise is reached: Privateers are allowed but are essentially only grandfathered in. New letters of marque cannot be issued. Old ones can be renewed, but only in restrictive circumstances (bloodlines, requirement for actual piracy shortly after renewal) so as to make them slowly disappear. The Sea of Morningstar government wants to keep them around for their military utility though, so they do a lot to assist in successful renewals (government escort while Marika is renewing, lax requirement for what is considered "piracy" to include what is essentially a tourist show).
It all seems like a dance where the Sea of Morningstar is trying to keep military forces that it would otherwise be denied and the GE is trying to eliminate them without being too obvious and risking revolt in the rest of the empire (I imagine a great deal of their ability to maintain their empire is due to them treating their subject systems fairly enough).
Posted by: benzeen at March 06, 2012 08:34 PM (R9i5E)
7
benzeen: That sounds like it might be pretty close to the mark.
Posted by: Dave Young at March 06, 2012 08:59 PM (ZAk0Z)
The privateers
are an excess military ability which fell through the cracks. But they're also politically useful because they represent "plausible deniability". For instance, when those Serenity ships were incoming, Sea of the Morningstar sent Bentenmaru instead of the Stellar Military because Bentenmaru isn't quite official. If it had been the Stellar Military which directly observed Serenity ships firing their weapons, they would have had to open fire themselves and it would have gotten ugly. Bentenmaru didn't carry that obligation, and Marika was able to defuse the situation without bloodshed.
Likewise, the operation that Gruier hired Bentenmaru for couldn't really be done by the Serenity military on her behalf, I suspect. But hiring what amount to mercenaries to take care of it is something where everyone can pretend and look the other way.
I wouldn't be surprised if even the Galactic Empire uses privateers that way once in a while. Their status as being legal-but-only-just-barely is handy in situations where a government needs to do something but doesn't want to take official responsibility for it.
While I'm here, thought I'd mention that I'm going back to "Gruier" as spelling of her name. When she's introduced to her class in the middle school, her name was written on the chalk board both in Japanese and in Roman letters, and it was spelled Gruier. It wasn't a subtitle, it's in the actual show graphics. So it's the official spelling, and we're stuck with it.
Just like we're stuck with "Bodacious Space Pirates".
9
By the way, about that "being too obvious" part of it:
I wonder if the assassin in ep 1, and the Lightning 11, are both working for the Galactic Empire?
I can believe that they're trying to eliminate the pirates. And at the time of a generational turnover in pirate captaincy, there's a distinct vulnerability which maybe, maybe, some organization in the GE is trying to use. After all, if they'd managed to kill Marika, then Bentenmaru's letter of marque would have expired and that would be one less privateer to worry about.
Of course if, as I suspect, there's a revolution brewing and the pirates are part of it, and if the GE suspects, then that's even more of a reason to do it.
10
Of course if my theory is correct, I want the show to spend at least a few minutes on the person who negotiated in that part of the agreement--it seems he or she was one heck of a smooth talker...
A couple of ideas on the grander politics:
A direct revolution could be afoot, but since the population doesn't seem terribly oppressed, I'm not so sure. I'm leaning more towards the GE having over-expanded when in capable hands, but after a couple of generations of rot is now having a hard time maintaining its control over all of its territory. In that scenario, the ones responsible for the attempts on Marika would more likely be the old regional rivals jockeying for position for when the GE starts falling apart in that area.
Of course a lot of it is probably just me finding that to be a more interesting scenario than the other, which seems more conventional. As a result, I'm probably wrong...
Posted by: benzeen at March 06, 2012 09:49 PM (R9i5E)
11
I just found it odd that the main battery had the CAPABILITY of being interfaced with the Coms.
Posted by: Mauser at March 07, 2012 03:37 AM (cZPoz)
12
benzeen: I don't recall the exact wording right off hand, but
the voiceover at the beginning of the last episode strongly gave the impression that at least some elements in Serenity (i.e., the Princess) were seeking more freedom, so I tend to think Steven's cut on this is probably the right one. And things like "freedom" tend to be very subjective. The tax that got the whole Boston Tea Party thing going were minescule compared to what we routinely pay today. Also, there may be oppresive aspects of GE governance that we simply haven't seen yet. But, ya know, whichever way it goes, it looks to be interesting.
Posted by: Dave Young at March 07, 2012 10:28 AM (FKGw9)
I just found it odd that the main battery had the CAPABILITY of being interfaced with the Coms.
Actually that makes sense.
Tight beam, secure communications are vital and the ships battery likely
has the power to punch through any jamming. The guns are obviously
transmitters anyway and could provide redundancy to the regular
communication array in the event of damage, or provide additional narrow
beam transmitters when a 'party line' is needed.
Also, for a really long range transmission the main battery at high
power would be a useful, (albeit STL) backup, perhaps sending an
important message across interplanetary distances at greater range than
it could conceivably damage something.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at March 08, 2012 11:21 PM (EJaOX)
14
Of course, if you mis-calculate the signal strength, you could literally end up talking someone to death.
Posted by: Mauser at March 09, 2012 01:50 AM (cZPoz)
Space Refrigerator Yamato
And now a trip to the refrigerator. (This always happens to me.) Naturally, this is loaded with spoilers, so it's below the fold.
more...
1
Nooooooooo! The catgirls! Think of the catgirls!
Posted by: ubu at October 13, 2011 07:18 PM (GfCSm)
2
It looks even worse in light of recent astronomical discoveries. Sure, we haven't found an Earth-type planet yet, but its looking more and more like its just a matter of time and refinements in search technique. And we have, IIRC, found a whole bunch of giant planets in the blue zone that could conceivably have inhabitable moons.
Posted by: metaphysician at October 13, 2011 07:27 PM (3GCAl)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 13, 2011 08:26 PM (+rSRq)
5
And how Time Travelers from the future always end up in the 20th century.
As good as it was, there WAS an awful lot of scenery-chewing going on too. I think having a melodramatic backstory was one of the recruitment criteria for the Star Force.
Posted by: Mauser at October 14, 2011 12:51 AM (cZPoz)
I am completely out of it today. Two naps, more caffeine than usual, and I feel like I weigh about half a ton. I can't write.
But there is an idea that occurred to me the other day about Phil Foglio's "Buck Godot" stories that won't leave me alone. So here goes:
Early in the canon (maybe the story about the teleporter?) we learn about the law machines. They're sapient robots who, one day, appeared on all human worlds simultaneously and implemented The Law. Nobody knows where they came from, or why the human race was the only species they picked on in this way.
There were 21 (IIRC) elements to the Law, and each would come into force when a certain (unspecified) proportion of the population voted for it. But you could only vote "yes" and you could only vote once. When the required number of yes-votes had accumulated, that law went into effect and henceforth was enforced by the law machines.
The deal about New Hong Kong was that when the law machines arrived there, someone hacked the voting process and change it so that it read, "There is no law on New Hong Kong." It immediately accumulated an overwhelming number of yes votes, and though the law machines found the hacker and did something with him, they didn't change it. That's why New Hong Kong has such a wild-west feel to it. It's the only world in Humanspace where The Law doesn't apply.
Now... in Gallimaufrey we learn that for the last several hundred years, the human race has been the custodian of the Winslow, as part of a deal with the Prime Mover. In exchange, the Prime Mover guaranteed that the human race would not go extinct.
What occurred to me was that the Law Machines were the way that the Prime Mover fulfilled his side of the bargain. He's the one who created them and sent them to humanity, and their implementation of The Law had the effect of suppressing the most pernicious tendencies of the human race, which otherwise might have led to self-destruction. If I've got the chronology right, it seems that they showed up just about the time that humanity took over as guardians of the Winslow.
And the reason the Law Machines didn't override what happened on New Hong Kong was that their mission only required that enough humans survive to represent a viable breeding stock. If New Hong Kong did eventually self-destruct, it was OK as long as other human worlds continued to exist.
Not too impressive an idea, is it? But when ideas like this seize me, the only way I can get them out of my head is to write them down. And I don't have the energy to write anything else today.
1
Interesting - I hadn't thought of a possible connection between the Winslow and the Law Machines, since they were (IIRC) introduced in different story arcs. It seems plausible, though preventing self-destruction by itself doesn't preclude an external source of extinction, such as war.
I wonder if the author could be convinced to comment on this?
Posted by: Siergen at October 04, 2010 05:19 PM (Xh3Fu)
2
War was one of the things which was against The Law.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 04, 2010 05:35 PM (+rSRq)
3
Right, but The Law wasn't enforced on the universe as a whole, just on human worlds. (Though not just against humans!)
It's not enough. Law-bots may have done a good job of keeping people from killing each other, but they were clearly inadequate against an external threat, such as attack by another species... or, say, against a rogue bio-weapon.
That said, it's definitely got the right flavor to it. Prime Mover comes up with an elegant solution, implements it, quits worrying about the details. And yet with holes in it... well, we know that the Prime Mover is not nearly as omniscient as he's cracked up to be.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at October 04, 2010 06:18 PM (pWQz4)
4
And while it doesn't prevent the external threats you mentioned, there's no reason that the Prime Mover couldn't have implemented the Law Bots specifically to deal with within-species problems, while he plans on dealing with outside-species threats in other ways.
Posted by: Boviate at October 04, 2010 06:25 PM (PJNgE)
I have no idea whether this is a unique idea or very widespread, or even whether it's canon. But I thought I'd share it with you, just in case you might find it amusing.
The Law Machines came out of no where and imposed the Law on all human worlds. No one knows who sent them, or what their ultimate mission is.
If I understand the chronology, they showed up about the time humanity became guardians of the Winslow.
I think it was the Prime Mover who sent them. And I think that the Law Machines are the primary means by which the Prime Mover prevented the human race from becoming extinct, because The Law suppressed the worse instincts and inclinations of the human race, which would otherwise have led to self-destruction.
And the reason why the Law Machines permitted the Law to be avoided on New Hong Kong was that their mission didn't require saving every single human world. All they needed was to protect an adequate breeding stock.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 04, 2010 06:57 PM (+rSRq)
7
In one of the original Starblaze edition graphic novels for Buck, a vicious trade war between two human factions that had resulted in heavy civilian casualties was generally agreed upon as the reason the Law Machines arrived--the first of two "Great Checks" upon Humanity.
The other Check, IIRC, was Lord Thezmothete himself, decreeing a version of the Prime Directive would be obeyed, as far as trade was concerned, to prevent over-exploitation of younger races.
Posted by: Douglas Oosting at October 04, 2010 10:36 PM (N9Lwt)
We hypothesize that the Catheans have faster-than-light travel but they don't have faster-than-light sensors. There are only two ways to find out what's going on in a given star system: look at it with telescopes (with the inevitable centuries or millenia latency and poor visibility), or visit it to look around.
The Cathean mother ship is on an exploration mission. They move the mother-ship to an unexplored section of the galaxy, and then the mother ship dumps out a whole bunch of one-person scouts, that being the Rulos and her sisters. The scouts are capable of short-distance star travel (maybe 20 light years) but aren't capable of traveling galactic distances. The pilots of those ships (including Eris) all work for Chaika, commander of the exploration team and one of the top officers of the ship.
Each scout is assigned (one?) previously unexplored star system with instructions to check the place out. Does it have planets? What kind of orbits are they in? Are any of the planets habitable? Do any of them have life? How evolutionarily advanced is it? And prize of all prizes, do any of them have intelligent life? How advanced? Have they discovered stone tools yet?
Those advanced scouts are elite-of-the-elite. If they do make contact with a tool-using alien race, that very first contact is critical and can set the pattern for all future interactions. Get it wrong, and friendly relations may become impossible.
So the scouts are heavily trained, and are selected for certain characteristics, which Eris displays in spades. (And no, I'm not referring to her breasts.) Eris is smart, kind, even-tempered, happy, brave, resourceful, personable, even charismatic. She is exactly what you'd want a scout to be to give you the best possible chance for successful first contact.
Part of being a scout is that if you do luck out, you get to be the ambassador. This is an honor. It's a duty. It's also a considerable risk, as this series makes clear.
Eris hit the jackpot. The system she was assigned to explore contained a planet inhabited by a technological civilization which was within a couple of hundred years of developing star travel; it's the prize of all prizes for this kind of exploration mission.
Especially because Eris had reported her strong suspicion that the Doggies had been on Earth for quite a while, and that they were behind the first attempt to kidnap and kill Eris herself. Hardly any wonder that Captain Kuune decided to move the mother ship to the Sol system when they received the first reports from Eris. She clearly was going to need the resources and support of the ship. (No, they didn't show up because they wanted to taste braised beef. That was a joke.)
Ubu in comments mentions just how nice Eris seems to be. I don't think there's any reason to believe that this is a racial characteristic of the Catheans, though they do in general trend that way. It's a selected characteristic of the crew of the ship, and in particular it's a selected characteristic of first-contact specialists like Eris.
Most scouts won't ever find a planet like Earth, but all of them are ready to do so if luck favors them, and they're all trained for that mission. Any of the rest of the people working for Chaika would have been about the same, because anyone who isn't wouldn't qualify for that assignment.
Eris certainly understands the gravity of her situation, and the burden of responsibility on her is heavy. But she handles pressure well. And again, I think that's the result of selection. Likely they test for it, and those who don't handle the pressure don't get that job.
I'm thinking of a contemporary earth equivalent: submarine service in the US Navy. Crew for subs are recruited from the rest of the navy, and they're all volunteers. There are ten times as many volunteers as there are positions to fill, and they undergo really very strict testing to make sure that only the very best get in.
One test I've seen film of involves putting some of the men in a chamber full of pipes and valves, and having high pressure water leaks develop. This is something that can happen in a real submarine, and if you don't handle it well the sub could be lost. So the test is very realistic: it's loud, it's cold, the water pressure is very high, and by all accounts it's terrifying. Some men who go through it panic and start screaming and try to escape instead of dealing with the leaks. Obviously those don't pass the test.
How many billions of Catheans are there? How many volunteer for this kind of mission? Millions, maybe? Only the very best of the best make it through, and those are the ones we're seeing. Hardly any wonder they're impressive as hell.
The mission is a complex one. The Catheans are trying to make a good first impression on Earth, obviously. They're also trying to find out the real deep truth about what kind of people the humans are, and that's at least as important, and probably even more difficult. (And they're trying to avoid having the Doggies derail the whole process.)
Doing a knowledge-dump from the local library was a valuable part of that, and you have to believe that as soon as Eris transmitted all that information to the ship that a team of specialists on board began reading and evaluating it. But direct observation of how humans react to the Catheans, and direct observation of humans in daily life, is also immensely valuable and that's one of the areas where Eris shines. Close observation of three particular humans has been another aspect of the process, and the Catheans have learned a lot from Kio, Manami, and Aoi.
Eris has made mistakes. It's inevitable that there will be some misunderstandings (the swimsuits) but she hasn't made any that seriously jeopardized the mission. And all through the series, what becomes clear is that Eris (and Chaika, and Kuune, and Melwyn) are tremendously competent at their jobs.
Title of the show notwithstanding, they are not there to have fun. They are having fun, but that's not the mission.
1
Along these lines, "asobi ni iku" doesn't necessarily mean "to go to play", in the English sense of the word. It could be visiting a friend for the afternoon, going out sightseeing, any sort of "casual" excursion. But there's also another, less-common meaning for the verb asobu: "to study abroad".
-j
Posted by: J Greely at September 26, 2010 12:21 PM (2XtN5)
