February 14, 2012

Mouretsu Pirates -- who are we fighting?

I think the biggest question I have right now about Mouretsu Pirates is, who is the enemy?

Someone out there is one. There was the attempt to assassinate Marika in the first episode. And there was the attempt to kill her on the Odette II.

And let's be clear: the attack on the Odette II was intended to kill her. If the ship had surrendered to Lightning 11, they'd have taken Marika off it, and she would have never been seen again. Once capture was impossible, Lightning 11 began to fire on Odette II, in a situation where surrender was no longer possible. If they couldn't kill just her, they were determined to kill everyone on the ship.

So there's something really serious going on, and someone ruthless is trying to get the Bentenmaru. Who is it?

Given that Bentenmaru is a privateer, for a while I thought maybe it was whoever she'd been preying on. But ep 6 showed us that this isn't the case. There seems to be a peculiar cooperation between Bentenmaru and her prey ships. They are cooperating; the evidence is clear. Princess Apricot knew the attack was coming, and helped with it. It was more like theater than anything else.

So if not the prey, then who?

If, as I conjecture, there's a revolution brewing among the members of the Colony Federation, and if the privateers are being used as a way of laundering money to fund preparations, then the logical opponent would be the Galactic Empire, the folks that showed up during the original revolution and conquered both sides.

According to Misa, the Galactic Empire seems willing to tolerate the privateers, at least officially. But if they suspect that the privateers are being used as a fund-raising mechanism for a revolution, then maybe some sort of GE Secret Service is trying to fight back, off the books. That's my guess.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 10:21 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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1 If it is the GE (as seems likely) it's an interesting datum that they're responding covetly at this point.  Are they just being reasonably circumspect, or are they uncertain of their strength?  In order for a revolution to make sense, one would guess the later.

Posted by: Dave Young at February 14, 2012 11:56 AM (DYR2Q)

2 Making the GE the enemy, or at least the enemy responsible for what we've seen happen so far, seems too simple to me.  Just going on how Shingu went, I'd say it's some third party looking ahead at how events are going to unfold between the GE and the local/human entity, and decided to stick their finger in the pie to manipulate the outcome.  Of course that third party could be a faction within either side instead of someone completely new.

Posted by: David at February 14, 2012 01:15 PM (+yn5x)

3 Although the cruise ship raid appears to have been staged, I think they also attack non-cooperating targets, How else would her mother have so much experience with weapons, and be able to speak of her previous experiences deciding on whether or not to shoot people?

If I'm right, then whoever the privateers have been raiding might be trying to curtail future losses by reducing the fleet of privateer ships by one.

Posted by: Siergen at February 14, 2012 06:55 PM (3/gGt)

4 That just doesn't seem romantic enough for this show. There needs to be some sort of series-level story line, the way there was for Shingu and Nadesico. And "Dammit, stop raiding us!" isn't enough..

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at February 14, 2012 07:02 PM (+rSRq)

5 Oh I'm sure there will be more powerful enemies down the road, er, space lanes.  However, the first enemy that our young captain bloods her blade on might be fighting her in self-defense.

Posted by: Siergen at February 14, 2012 07:19 PM (3/gGt)

6 If it is the GE (as seems likely) it's an interesting datum that they're responding covetly at this point.  Are they just being reasonably circumspect, or are they uncertain of their strength?  In order for a revolution to make sense, one would guess the latter.

Not always the case... sometimes, you just need a farm boy that hears voices to get a revolution going.

Posted by: Wonderduck at February 14, 2012 08:30 PM (Zg0Yp)

7 Sorry for being historically illiterate, but I don't get that reference.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at February 14, 2012 08:50 PM (+rSRq)

8 Well, if he'd said girl, I'd have guessed Joan d'Arc, but I'm stumped too.

Posted by: ubu at February 14, 2012 08:56 PM (GfCSm)

9 Wow, the geekery is weak today.  I assume WonderDuck is talking about a certain kid who grew up in the desert maintaining irrigation droids, meets a mysterious older man who gets chopped in half a few days later, and after that appears on occasion to talk to the young boy as a glowing blue spirit that nobody else sees.

Posted by: David at February 14, 2012 09:07 PM (Kn54v)

10 That was, indeed, the nub of my gist.

Posted by: Wonderduck at February 14, 2012 09:32 PM (Zg0Yp)

11 You know, I thought of that, but I didn't think of his visions in that context.  Especially since he didn't get the revolution going; that was Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Garm Bel Iblis.

Ok, I admit I had to go look that last one up, my memory failed me.

Posted by: ubu at February 15, 2012 08:59 AM (GfCSm)

12 Please avoid topic drift.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at February 15, 2012 09:47 AM (+rSRq)

13 It makes me wonder if such a light-hearted series will have us have to watch as Marika is forced to actually kill someone.  And what will happen in the aftermath of that Moral dilemma.

Posted by: Mauser at February 17, 2012 01:42 AM (cZPoz)

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