Gundam AGE - 02

Episode 2 continues right from where episode 1 left off, a UE missile attack on the Nora colony... and runs straight into the type of problems that the pilot had.

The missile is bigger than the MS...

The missile hit badly damages the colony's outer wall, causing instabilities in the colony rotation and a slow degradation of life support, which will cause the colony to break apart in under six hours.  Under those conditions, Grudech proposes launching the new battleship Diva and the Gundam, as they have the potential to defeat the UE units. An initial plan to launch escape capsules is quickly nixed, and instead, they plan to use the Diva to evacuate the colony.

Gundam + scaled up A-wing = Diva?

The evacuation plan is "simple".  The colony residents will be evacuated to the undamaged colony core, which the Diva will then tow to safety.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

The Diva's captain, once briefed on the plan, decides to ignore it completely, expressing incredulity that the plan would work, and deciding to prioritize the safety of the ship over the colony residents by launching immediately.  Grudech, however, intercepts him and his staff before they can make it to the ship, and takes the captain hostage.

Taking the captain hostage, nothing unusual here.

 Back in the colony's control center, everyone except the old commander and his assistant have evacuated, and he orders her out as well, though since the core can only be disengaged from the colony from there, the person disconnecting it will be left behind.  When she voices an objection, he says that he has another escape route to use, and makes her go.  Once out the door, though, he congratulates himself on being able to BS like that with a straight face.

Thinking: And I can't believe she bought it...

Shortly after, the colony's command crew boards the Diva and arrives at a completely empty bridge.  With no one there, and the AGE Builder component of the Gundam on board,  they decide to take things into their own hands and start making departure preparations, despite the Gundam not boarding yet.

Flit, meanwhile, had been using the Gundam to chase after a survivor who had gotten left behind in the evacuation.  He eventually catches up to her after she initially runs away, and the two make it out into space, only to run into the Gafran that had been attacking the colony.  Back on the Diva, Vargas activates the AGE Builder, which analyzes the Gafran's data, and it quickly (i.e. in under a minute) designs and builds, out of chunks of metal, the AGE Gundam a beam rifle potent enough to shoot down a Gafran, which he proceeds to do.

Everyone breathes a sigh of relief, with the threat gone, only for the girl Flit picked up to say that the units that are approaching are different from the last one.

Again, there is more wrong than right about this episode.  The colony will break apart in six hours, there are escape capsules located (presumably) all around the colony... and instead of launching them because "they only hold 100 people, and who knows how long an evacuation will take"... you decide to evacuate everyone anyway, only to the colony core, then use a battleship to tow something hundreds of times its size and mass?  With what anchor points? With what engine?  Hell, with what sorts of cable?  The writers made him out to be the bad guy, but the Diva's commander is right.  That plan is painfully stupid.

Second, the commander's decision to stay behind and die so he can disengage the colony core. He resigns himself to death for it, but doesn't seem to remember that there are the escape pods still on the station.  Oh well, I guess that's why it's called "terminal stupidity".

Third, the AGE Builder.  Just call it the "Deus Ex Machina" and be done with it already.  Using the principles of evolution, it creates new blueprints to make itself stronger... a job it does so well that it takes under a minute to not only design from scratch, but build a fully functional high-power beam rifle?  To hell with the rest of the storyline, just make that thing churn them out as fast as it can.  Of course, that's not really how evolution works either, but the writing on this is so laughably bad that I'm not going to pick on that.

Fourth, the beam rifle.  It increases power by spinning the beam like a drill.  Seriously, what?

Fifth... and this is the one positive. It's made painfully obvious that the girl is very plot relevant.  Whether she ends up being a newtype copilot like Tifa was in Gundam X, or if she has some ties to the UE (personally, I'm hoping for the latter), she has some role to play, and so far, she's the most interesting character I've seen.

Her only appearance in the ED