Aldnoah.Zero Episode 5 Discussion

Jaythor said:



Well I agree to some extent but that view is rather flawed itself imo. To be fair,
1) Mars =/= Earth. No sea on their planet.
2) Mechs aren't amphibious, I was under impression that they're like heavy tanks with legs. Same thing goes to terran cataphrapts.
3) It was the martian mech's alnoah drive/ light saber that led to his demise. Though without underwater thrusters, both of their cataphracts would still sink anyway.

jdbe said:
Inaho once again using his unbelievable war tactics that he's a massed from years of combat to beat an exceptionally tough martian.


You can guess by the sentence above I was being sarcastic. It's just another poorly developed main character who wins against the odds for no reason.


Mod Edit: Merged duplicated posts; please use the edit button.

HunterTennouji said:
I love Aldnoah BECAUSE of Inaho. Sure, he lacks personality (he did smile though) but he breaks the usual anime protagonist stereotype: He uses tactics and wits to fight a superior enemy with inferior equipment. And it's so more satisfying than an OP guy going around curbstomp everyone with no difficulty.

The Orbital Knights behaviour feels right for me. If you are superior, you develop alot of arrogance, especially when you curbstomp most enemies with little to no effort (just look at Gilgamesh from F/Z). Besides, the Vers Empire seems to be based on medieval kingdoms: Honor for the clan and name and hypocrisy at its finest.

Kaioshin_Sama said:


I'm aware, but why design a mech with such a blatant oversight in the first place. Does that not strike you as more than a little stupid and very convenient for someone like Inaho to just easily exploit. It's not really a matter of daring genius against all odds for Inaho when it's mainly just the Martian mechs having these critical oversights in their design that cause them to instantly become worthless if water and a couple of counter measures are invoked. It just feels kind of cheap and not really all that interesting strategy wise. It's like okay good job there again wunderkind, but it'd be nice to see this guy actual struggle against a mech with no one shot sure kill weakness for once and sweat it out while just barely scraping by in a win. That would certainly be more tense and the sense of accomplishment so much greater, but I guess it's not that kind of show.

And I keep following the show cause as I keep trying to mention I see potential in Slaine and some of the back story, but I'd be lying if I said I'm not starting to waffle a little on even that aspect of the show. 12 episodes pretty much ensures I'll finish at least the first cour and then it's just a matter of taking it from there.

The show is going to make a habit of Slaine failing completely in everything he attempts to do out of good intentions and possibly having everything backfire in the process as well contrasted with Inaho succeeding in everything he attempts to do out of ???? intentions. Book it.

jdbe said:
Inaho once again using his unbelievable war tactics that he's a massed from years of combat to beat an exceptionally tough martian.


You can guess by the sentence above I was being sarcastic. It's just another poorly developed main character who wins against the odds for no reason.

fst said:
We haven't been shown a reason yet, but if they do, it better be a damned good reason.

Maybe he's just autistic or something.

AICW said:


I kinda want them not to show us a reason and just have him be that awesome just because.

The butthurt would be epic.

AICW said:


I kinda want them not to show us a reason and just have him be that awesome just because.

The butthurt would be epic.

Vanisher said:
Well, the inaho part was pointless and predictable.

On the other hand the slaine part was really good... but then at the fucking end the emperors goes "well let's start war again" just like that... it was really bad, unless they give us good reasons for the emperor to trust Saazbaum so blindly, but it probably won't happen.

AICW said:


But that's the thing... he's curbstomping the enemy with no difficulty.

HunterTennouji said:


BUT he actually uses tactics and wits instead of "LOLZ, SUPAHMECHA IN MA BACKYARD, IMMA FIRIN MA LAZER!". Instead of fighting pitched battles, he uses his calm to analyze the situation and his assets and find a way to defeat his enemy. The Orbital Knights' surprise and loss of control are part of his assets (you do get baffled when say, a mouse bites back). If there is a slight chance, he will find it.

Vexper said:
1: Uhm... so what? Their main enemy at this moment an has been for a long time is Planet Earth. You'd think they'd build their military up to be effective against their adversaries.

2: Not all mechs are like that, and you certainly wouldn't design a mech with the level of technology displayed that couldn't function on a water based planet. It's absolutely absurd.

3: I find it highly annoying that that pilot doesn't consider the use of any part of his mech aside from his arms. "He's got hold of my wrists! I have no upperbody or legs to combat him! I am now helpless!" It's also shortsighted design wise because he can't deactivate his swords(or the pilot himself is to stupid, as he's already proven more than once). Them not having any type of thrust that can't propel them out of water is beyond me at this point. I can't honestly believe he'd voluntarily go out into open water knowing that.

The arrogance of the antagonists is overwhelmingly annoying considering the level of incompetence they display piloting their terrible mechs.

HunterTennouji said:
I love Aldnoah BECAUSE of Inaho. Sure, he lacks personality (he did smile though) but he breaks the usual anime protagonist stereotype: He uses tactics and wits to fight a superior enemy with inferior equipment. And it's so more satisfying than an OP guy going around curbstomp everyone with no difficulty.

The Orbital Knights behaviour feels right for me. If you are superior, you develop alot of arrogance, especially when you curbstomp most enemies with little to no effort (just look at Gilgamesh from F/Z). Besides, the Vers Empire seems to be based on medieval kingdoms: Honor for the clan and name and hypocrisy at its finest.

hinore said:
Something that intrigued me was a comment to the Emperor. Something to the effect of the Vers Bloodline needed to 'summon' the power of Aldnoah.

If we take this literally, it could mean there's a genetic component to using Aldnoah tech.

If the princess's DNA is needed, then it would make sense that Terrans faked her death to gain the secrets of Aldnoah. Something Slain unwittingly confirmed.

That could explain the Emperor's reaction.

If applied to the knights, then their units may be tailor designed.

I don't know if Trillram's personality matched Nikolaras, but Vlad struck me as a samurai type, and Aygre (?) would seem to match that. No range weapons and escape mechanisms.

HunterTennouji said:


BUT he actually uses tactics and wits instead of "LOLZ, SUPAHMECHA IN MA BACKYARD, IMMA FIRIN MA LAZER!". Instead of fighting pitched battles, he uses his calm to analyze the situation and his assets and find a way to defeat his enemy. The Orbital Knights' surprise and loss of control are part of his assets (you do get baffled when say, a mouse bites back). If there is a slight chance, he will find it.

June93 said:
That's fine and all, but why didn't the writer make more characters in the cast have some semblance of intelligence? Especially the higher ups?

orangpelupa said:
or the emperor act if he was manipulated. but in reality, he is the one that orchestrate the whole thing

he plan the terrorist attack,
he drugged mars princess,
he want WAR with earth

Keten said:


I don't think you should generalize the entire mecha genre and say it "Breaks the usual anime protagonist stereotype" unless you have actual experience with the mecha genre. Judge it for what it is, not for what it isn't. You are basically saying "The character is good because it's different from all the mecha I haven't seen."

Edit: Also, even if it did break some stereotype, that doesn't make it good.

eliterodriguez said:

Other people argue that its not believable that adults die and that the kid is the only one actually wining. Maybe because their so stupid and they won't listen to him just like how the other adults ignored Marito even though he was the only one with actual experience against the Mars Knights

HunterTennouji said:


We haven't seen that many higher ups have we know? For the Orbital Knights, they are a bunch of Gilgamesh. For the Terrans, they are stuck in the thought of conventional warfare (which seems fair, the F-22 Raptors used in the second episode is one of the best air fighters IRL) and are more inclined to follow protocols that they have learned in military academy. Inaho is as unconventional as you can get. Even most tacticians in real life history uses so crazy tactics that their enemies can't comprehend them.

wakka9ca said:


This is a bit too convenient don't you think. It falls into the "Adults are Useless" trope.

Strategist0083 said:


"Inaho is as unconventional," this the key to the MC's personality. He's what known in broader typological terms as an INTJ introvert, the rarest of personality types and one your not likely to encounter very often, especially in western societies that favor extroverts.

INTJ introverts live mostly within themselves and are known for their lack of emotion. They're logical, analytic, and considered natural scientists and strategists. People can't relate to Inaho because chances are high that they don't share his personality type in any capacity and have never known anyone who would fall under the INTJ category.

retepeters said:


not really... i am an introvert myself (trying not to be) and i don't like inaho's personality cause it is just fake... being an introvert doesn't mean having no emotions (nor not showing any)

not saying that he can't have a quiet personality, just saying that they clearly exagerated that in the expectation to make the genius look cool

Strategist0083 said:


"Inaho is as unconventional," this the key to the MC's personality. He's what known in broader typological terms as an INTJ introvert, the rarest of personality types and one your not likely to encounter very often, especially in western societies that favor extroverts.

INTJ introverts live mostly within themselves and are known for their lack of emotion. They're logical, analytic, and considered natural scientists and strategists. People can't relate to Inaho because chances are high that they don't share his personality type in any capacity and have never known anyone who would fall under the INTJ category.

retepeters said:


not really... i am an introvert myself (trying not to be) and i don't like inaho's personality cause it is just fake... being an introvert doesn't mean having no emotions (nor not showing any)

not saying that he can't have a quiet personality, just saying that they clearly exagerated that in the expectation to make the genius look cool

retepeters said:


not really... i am an introvert myself (trying not to be) and i don't like inaho's personality cause it is just fake... being an introvert doesn't mean having no emotions (nor not showing any)

not saying that he can't have a quiet personality, just saying that they clearly exagerated that in the expectation to make the genius look cool

retepeters said:


not really... i am an introvert myself (trying not to be) and i don't like inaho's personality cause it is just fake... being an introvert doesn't mean having no emotions (nor not showing any)

not saying that he can't have a quiet personality, just saying that they clearly exagerated that in the expectation to make the genius look cool

jdbe said:


Its all good and well saying he's an INTJ personality. But he's not had an inch of development, not to mention, I feel people are going to far into excuses as to why he's a justifiable beast.

He's had no military combat experience barring the first fight, he coolly managed to articulate a strategy that no one could think of, not even the adults. The problem is in this episode is the fact that the tactics were child's play, he controlled everything, even telling the commander of the ship to do stuff, whilst she had a cosy chat.

You can't always look so deep into characters with no prior knowledge to go off, this isn't evangelion you know. Look at it at face value, is there anything convincing as to why he's so brilliant, errrrr no. I can understand why the Martians may underestimate earthlings, but come on, he got beat in 4 minutes flat.

jdbe said:


Its all good and well saying he's an INTJ personality. But he's not had an inch of development, not to mention, I feel people are going to far into excuses as to why he's a justifiable beast.

He's had no military combat experience barring the first fight, he coolly managed to articulate a strategy that no one could think of, not even the adults. The problem is in this episode is the fact that the tactics were child's play, he controlled everything, even telling the commander of the ship to do stuff, whilst she had a cosy chat.

You can't always look so deep into characters with no prior knowledge to go off, this isn't evangelion you know. Look at it at face value, is there anything convincing as to why he's so brilliant, errrrr no. I can understand why the Martians may underestimate earthlings, but come on, he got beat in 4 minutes flat.

retepeters said:
yay inaho saves the day again... getting really sick of this :/

jdbe said:


Its all good and well saying he's an INTJ personality. But he's not had an inch of development, not to mention, I feel people are going to far into excuses as to why he's a justifiable beast.

He's had no military combat experience barring the first fight, he coolly managed to articulate a strategy that no one could think of, not even the adults. The problem is in this episode is the fact that the tactics were child's play, he controlled everything, even telling the commander of the ship to do stuff, whilst she had a cosy chat.

You can't always look so deep into characters with no prior knowledge to go off, this isn't evangelion you know. Look at it at face value, is there anything convincing as to why he's so brilliant, errrrr no. I can understand why the Martians may underestimate earthlings, but come on, he got beat in 4 minutes flat.

A-Knight said:


Inaho is probably just a natural genius. People like that have existed IRL. Some people just don't like him because they can't self-project onto him. It's basically being jelly. Complaining about the unrealism is stupid and is like complaining about water being wet. Inaho isn't the best MC out there, but he is better than what you usually get these days. Plus, the incompetency on all sides can be somewhat justified if you look at the nature of this show's setting. Having overwhelming tech (Vers) or living in a period of highly politicized quasi peace (Earth) tends to destroy military competency.

Also Inaho is not actually emotionless. It's more accurate to say that he is bad at expressing his emotions.

A-Knight said:

Inaho is probably just a natural genius. People like that have existed IRL. Some people just don't like him because they can't self-project onto him. It's basically being jelly. Complaining about the unrealism is stupid and is like complaining about water being wet. Inaho isn't the best MC out there, but he is better than what you usually get these days. Plus, the incompetency on all sides can be somewhat justified if you look at the nature of this show's setting. Having overwhelming tech (Vers) or living in a period of highly politicized quasi peace (Earth) tends to destroy military competency.

Also Inaho is not actually emotionless. It's more accurate to say that he is bad at expressing his emotions.