Headscratchers / Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

• CGS's fighting force is composed of the First Group, where the "elite" adults are, and the Third Group, where we can find our downtrodden and abused protagonists. So... where is the Second Group? Does is even exists? If not, then why jump a number?
  • Maybe when CGS was founded, Third Group didn't exist, and Second Group was the support staff, and when they created Third Group, they couldn't be bothered to rename everything?
  • While this sounds really out of character for the leadership of CGS, maybe Second Group got wiped out to the last man, and they never recreated it to honour them?
  • I got the impression the "Human Debris" guys were the Second Group, since they have unique uniforms and seemed seperate from both the first and third groups.
• How did Barbatos Gundam managed to maneuver so well in space? From what I recall, Land-Use mobile suits are calibrated completely different from Space-Use mobile suits due to multiple factors like gravity, so did Tekkadan modify Barbatos or was the mobile suit naturally agile with its old-but-not-obsolete specs?
  • To be honest, Barbatos seemed more agile in space than it was on Mars. It's possible that it's been in space-calibration the entire time and was operating on land less effectively than it should have been. It's also possible that it was modified for space use but Gundam usually adds equipment for that, and we're working with a Gundam built for additions that didn't seem to have any. Then again, series like 00 and the original explicitly didn't need any additional equipment to fly in space, so it's pretty likely that had no issues with space operation in General.
  • There's also the fact that it had the Ālaya-Vijñāna system installed. While most mobile suit pilots have to rely on manual controls, Mikazuki can skip over that since he's directly linked with the Barbatos.
    • All Mobile Suits are designed to be used in all enviroments, but usually need to be calibrated to function well in the environ. Barbatos was noted to feel heavy the first time in space, then was tuned to function better.
• It is stated that the relatively few number of Gundams are so powerful that they are capable of stopping a war verging on human extinction. It begs a question: how the hell did those kind of weapons ended up in the hands of privateers like CGS or Brewers?
  • It's implied that after the Calamity War ended, the Gundam frames were scattered across the solar system, probably so that no one Earth or space superpower would have access to all 72. If the party that created them (confirmed in Ep.22 to have been the proto-Gjallarhorn organization that formed at the end of the Calamity War) did not concentrate them all in one area, and they're machines that only extraordinary individuals can even pilot, they're subject to anything that could happen to weapons not in any sort of government custody. They can be found, sold, stolen, repurposed (CGS used Barbatos as a power generator), and of course - provided you have someone that can pilot them - used. And given that three centuries have passed since the Calamity War, that's a lot of time for any Gundams in the wind to have been unearthed, even if they were once hidden. granted, it;'s confirmed that only 26 of them are still functional,but it's unknown if they're all in use.
  • Tekkadan later found Flauros buried atop the Mobile Armor (probably where its pilot was killed,) and it is highly possible Barbatos was found similiarly.
    • Exactly. Gundam's (and most IBO mobile suits) are so sturdy that even critical damage that kills the pilot still leaves them salvagable. It's like many of these, including Barbatos and Flauros were Gundams who were defeated in the Calamity War and simply left where they were until someone found them. The fact that both were missing their cockpit blocks would support this, as Mobile Armors were programmed to smash the cockpits and leave the rest of the suit where it was as the most effective method of taking out mobile suits.
• No doubt that the Gusion Gundam has supreme armor that can shrug off battleship artillery and sharp weapons, but is the inner frame really that durable? I mean, Mikazuki managed to kill the previous pilot of Gusion by exploiting a weak spot within the tough armor, so doesn't this mean that once the armor is compromised, Gusion is just as good as scrap metal?
  • Of course it's durable, it has to be to hold up that much armor. However, remember that the whole point of armor is to protect the frame, and while the armor is covered in nanolaminate, the frame is not, and attacking a heavily armored unit in joint sections is the best way to take it down. Furthermore, if you've seen the frames for both the model kits of Barbatos and Gusion, Mika literally stabbed the latter Gundam in the cockpit. In fact, the frame not being damaged that much is pretty much the only reason they can keep it on their fighting force after the battle.
• The lack of Ejection Seat and Escape Pod is often the primary reason of deaths for mobile suit pilots, yet for 300 years since Calamity War, none of them actually considered providing pilots means of ejecting from their mobile suits. The Schwalbe Graze was the sole exception which actually included an Escape Pod, but the Gjallarhorn dropped out the idea from their production model Grazes without explanation whatsoever. Ace Custom or not, as long as you aren't piloting the Schwalbe, there is no Ejection Seat or Escape Pod for you. Question needs being asked whether the people in Post Disaster even have a concern for the pilots' safety at all.
  • The Outer Earth Orbit Joint Regulatory Fleet suffers the most regarding this, most of them could have survived if there had been an option to eject from the suits before Mikazuki reached them. And not even Carta herself was immune to that, perhaps her true cause of death wasn't even the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown delivered by Mika, but rather, being in an Armored Coffin without Escape Pod just like everyone else.
  • Units equipped with the Ālaya-Vijñāna System might not even be capable of mounting an ejection system or escape pod. With the pilot's nervous system directly linked with the Mobile Suit, suddenly severing that connection could be, in a word, bad.
  • Season 2 have other possible reason: how they are rejected. Hexa frame mobile suits was designed with cockpit in head explicitly for ejection seats, which implies that chest-mounted cockpit escape pod does not work that well.
  • Season 2 gave another reason: Mobile Suit, at least the Gundam, are going against Giant Mobile Armors with extremely powerful Beam Weapons that even a grunt Mobile Suit can tank, but will vaporize any humans outside. Ejection Seats may as well be a death sentence if you are that close to the energy beam.
  • Bear in mind, the groups we see are Tekkadan (who are generally seen as, to put it nicely, expendable), and Gjallarhorm (who are largely pseudo-aristocratic, "chivalrous" figures). It may be that PD suits aren't equipped with ejector seats because no side sees them as necessary (CGS sees most of their pilots as expendable resources, so no great loss if they die, and Gjallarhorn sees ejecting from one's suit as "dishonorable")
  • Given that Mobile Suits in PD are MUCH more durable than other universes, where typically critical damage to the torso section will make the entire thing explode. Here they have thick enough armor to be repaired despite taking lots of punishment and the reactors are nigh unbreachable and are perfectly stable despite being wrecked and left in a heap for hundreds of years. It could simply be that ejection pods aren't seen as that critical. Pilots are expected to know their machines limits and fall back if they take too much damage and they don't need to worry about bailing out because the suit's gonna explode from a lucky shot. And if they keep pressing the attack in a damaged suit, then they accept probable death.
• On a lighter note, it seems no one in Post-Disaster era has thought of developing a Gatling-Gun-type weapons before, even though there're abundant types of physical firearms and kinetic weapons, and the fact a weapon with absurdly high fire rate can stagger or even knock down smaller Mobile Suits.^note The only time when the word "Gatling Gun" is mentioned at the subtitle is during episode 25, right before Mika decided to call Ein out that Crank was wanting to die himself. Even so, there's no sign of head vulcan for the Barbatos and no one in Post-Disaster has ever carried a Gatling Gun on screen.
  • Munitions cost/Effectiveness ratio. Gatling-type weapons are prohibitively expensive, even in the current world. The ammo isn't going to be enough to efficiently damage anything with significant armor (like most mobile suits or warship), and is overkill for anything else. The seeming tactic of using gatling guns to stagger/pin down enemies to finish off with a more powerful weapon? Normal machine guns work as effectively and it's easier to just directly use said powerful weapons. Gatling guns advantage is at ranges/speeds that the sheer rate of fire is needed to offset poor accuracy, but MS combat doesn't take place at those relative ranges (in fact they most often fight at melee range where their weight/cumbersomeness would be liabilities)/speeds thus there's no advantage to justify their impracticalness.
  • Side material has since given a gatling gun using Mobile Suit, ASW-G-04 Gundam Gamigin. Said gun is the heft that only Gundam fames, which has twice the standard reactors, have the strength to effectively wield and from the Calamity War when the opponents (superhumanly agile Mobile Armors and swarms of fragile Plumas) would have made such high rate of fire weapons preferable.
• What is the exact nature of the relationship between Orga and Merribit? I know that The Other Wiki and miscellaneous sites have stated Merribit to be some kind of mentor towards Orga, nothing more, but… a majority of her screentime tends to revolve around him a lot, and some◊ scenes◊ in◊ particular◊ seem to imply that the closeness they share might be more than just mentor and mentee. It also doesn’t help that Orga has officially stated to not be interested in women (though it’s more of a “distraction” reason than anything else), so… what is it? Does Orga have a small crush on her? Is Merribit acting some kind of mother figure to him? Really, what is it?
  • Close relationships don't necessarily have to be romantic in nature. There's no sexual tension between them, but Merribit is in a bit of a unique position with Orga since she's the only one who really understands how tough organizing and leading Tekkadan is on him, which means he can open up to her regarding The Chains of Commanding in a way he can't with anyone else, even Mikazuki. There's trust there, but no demonstrated attraction. For Merribit's part, it does seem like she cares about Orga, but in the way a teacher cares for a beloved student, or possibly even a mother to a son.
    • It's looking more like the Teacher-Student/Mother-Son relationship is more likely than a romantic one, considering that Merribit is now dating Nadi.
• How did Eco Turbine arrive on Earth with Tekkadan? Lafter and Azee arrive in Mobile Suits, but she's not with them. She also didn't seem land with Tekkadan as they were surprised the Turbines aided them. They made a fuss how hard it would be to get transport to Earth so it's also hard to believe she arrived separately?
  • Two Words: Offscreen Teleportation
• They say Mikazuki had set his Ālaya-Vijñāna to maximum in episode 17, so how did he coax out the extra performance against the Graze Ein? It's not like they fully disable the limiter like they did against the Mobile Armor, and Mikazuki was in enough desperate situations (saved only by unforeseen outside factors) that I question why they didn't resort to overclocking it sooner.
  • Maybe maximum refers to what it could safely do, which is what he bypassed? It also never occurred to him it could do that until that fight. As for fully removing the limiter, no-one knew about the secondary Mobile Armor limiter until then.
• I have to ask: If Iok REALLY wanted to stop McGillis from destroying the Mobile Armor and taking the glory for it, why didn't he just open fire on the mobile armor that Tekkadan had found as soon as he spotted it? That would pretty much accomplish his goal right away and put him on equal footing with McGillis.
  • Considering that someone who isn't one of the Seven Stars knows more about Mobile Armor than he does, he probably isn't the brightest bulb in the room to begin with. The fact that he is actually being called "That Stupid Idiot" by McGillis, Akahiro and Jullieta in one single episode does not help his case.
  • Also, he was probably assuming the Mobile Armor was inoperable, and that McGillis was intending to secretly repair it to create a pretext for destroying it. Shooting an inoperable Mobile Armor wouldn't give him any benefit.
  • Actually, they were in the middle of attempting to arrest McGillis and not considering anything about the Mobile Armor when he awoke it.
  • Forget Iok. The real question is why didn't Vidar step in? With his AV-E system he probably could have destroyed Hashmal, and then Gaelio would have gotten the Order of Seven Stars and completely scuttled McGillis plan. Sure it would have tipped his hand, but he went to Mars just to taunt him and heavily imply his true identity anyway so it seems like he didn't care about that point. I guess you could argue he wanted McGillis to start his rebellion so he'd be able to have his revenge match against him, but given that he and Rustal were gonna ignore the rules about Bael to reject him anyway you'd think it wouldn't matter and would just be rubbing more salt in McGillis face if Gaelio ALSO had legitimate reason to be in charge based on the rules McGillis was trying to exploit.
• Why did Aston Atland die to McGillis' sword? The Rodi he was in was taken from the brewers from season one, and had established itself as tough, so I find it difficult to believe that it fell to a single sword strike.
  • Because at that point the Rodis were essentially obsolete, and were going up against a top of the line Graze Ace Custom variant. This is not even getting into how skilled of a pilot McGillis is and how he is able able to accurately pinpoint the cockpit for an instant kill.
• Why didn't Mika simply tear Julieta into pieces or at least finish her off when he has the perfect opportunity to do so? The Julia is broken and he's right next to her, it wouldn't make sense for Mika not even bother trying to avenge Shino.
  • Perhaps after hearing Eugene call him back, he decided to just let Julieta bleed out? It isn't the first time he had unusually drawn out the annihilation of a target, as a certain person within the Outer Earth Orbit Regulatory Joint Fleet can attest.
• Why didn't McGillis activate Bael's limiter release mode? Mika's first activation vs the Graze Ein established that knowing about the system isn't required to turn it on, just controlling the Gundam via the A/V system and mentally asking it for more power. And since Gaelio needed Kimaris's limit release to match McGillis when he wasn't using Bael's, McGillis's solo run would have worked.
  • Maybe he simply didn't want to cripple himself. It's also implied that removing the limiters even carries a risk of KILLING the pilot, and he intends to rule over Gjallarhorn after his victory, so he can't take that risk.
  • There's also the fact he was in a less then sane frame of mind over his lifelong plan being thwarted, so he may not have had the mental clarity to do so even have occurred to him in the midst of his breakdown.
  • According to the technical background McGillis's AV system is the perfected version and not the flawed one the kids have to have installed, which is why he could get it as an adult. It's already operating at maximum efficiency and machine-pilot connection so turning the limiter off would do nothing for him. He doesn't NEED to turn the limiter off to get a better sync with Bael because he's already got it as high as it can go for him by default. In a sense he had the limter off from the start.
• Why are some of the letters in the titles and credits in red?
  • Well it is called Iron BLOODED Orphans.