Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans Ep. 34 Thoughts

The Gundam Virar, formerly the Kimaris

With the episode titled "Vidar Rising", you'd think this will focus entirely on Gaelio (under the alias "Vidar") and his Gundam Frame (which shares his alias namesake). Well, we do get to see Gaelio in action, and his motivation for joining Rustal, which is obviously revenge. To be frank, I wasn'really impressed with the Gundam Vidar, in both its design and performance. It's not as intimidating as many other antagonist Mobile Suits in the Gundam franchise, such as the Sinanju in Gundam Unicorn, or the Tallgeese in Gundam W. Gaelio also refers to the Vidar as though it was a person, likely meaning his subordinate Ein, who met his fate at the hands of Mikazuki last season, may likely be inside the Vidar.

As expected, Tekkadan's decision to work with McGillis in return for control of Mars does not bode well with Teiwaz, though the big boss himself, McMurdo Barriston, sees this as an opportunity to profit big. Still, Naze warns Orga that he will have to eventually take on Teiwaz as well to complete his ambition, which may include a showdown between the two sworn brothers.

Probably why we get to see a shot what appears to be Orga's own personal MS (if not Eugene's) referred to as the "King's Throne". We also get to see the dugged up Gundam designated as "Flauros", with the other discovery being a support unit for it.

The King's Throne

The Gundam Flauros

A little bit of light-heartedness is inserted in this episode with the reveal that Merribit is dating Old Man Nady, much to the surprise of Chad, when everyone in Tekkadan already knew the news. Seems any romantic relations between Merribit and Orga are dead in the water. We get to see Hush acting like a little puppy towards Mikazuki, all in hopes of continuing his training, to which poor Mika finds annoying. The latter meanwhile, still follows his dream of one day being a farmer on Mars, to which Kudelia promises to keep that dream alive.

Finally, we see McGillis and his child fiancee Almira talking briefly about Gjallarhorn's origin and philosophy and how McGillis strives to restore it in the present Gjallarhorn. One of the things he says to Almira was, if successful, it will allow her to marry virtually anyone she wishes, even if she's only a child. It kind of irks me a bit that McGillis's ambition also implies child marriage under the original philosophy of Gjallarhorn. Besides that, McGillis's ambition is no different from Nobunaga (and to an extent Hitler) from Drifters. It may be just me, but I'm starting to see a trend in works like Iron Blooded Orphans and Drifters for a call to have a unified government, but is split into several divisions of which they operate independently, similar to the Federal-State system of the United States. It is only in My Hero Academia that I see the message that having a government of law and order is good, while changing it in the name of freedom (the motivation of the villains) is a bad thing.

This week's episode of Iron Blooded Orphans is the calm before the storm next episode. However, we are already seeing tensions coming from all sides as the Fareed-Tekkadan alliance and Rustal Elion's Gjallarhorn are about to meet head on. And this is just Episode 9. We're not even halfway into the season yet!