Hell's Kitchen in a galaxy far, far away...

the martian is the story of one man stranded on mars with barely enough food and supplies to last him a calendar month, let alone the 14 that it inevitably takes to bring him home.

mark watney's rescue means millions of dollars in unplanned expenditures, cooperation between multiple nations that frankly have no stake in the life of one american astronaut, and risking the lives of 5 of his crew members. it is a story that makes you tackle the fundamental question of: "how much is one human life worth?"

the answer, the book (and its equally well-executed movie adaptation) offers, is everything.

they could have simply called it a day and told him that it was untenable, that they cannot possibly be asked to risk the lives of the rest of the ares iii crew. but they did not. they did not, because they deemed that no cost was too high if it meant that there was even a snowball's chance in hell that they could bring that one man home.

project hail mary, on the other hand, is a complete 180.

here, the fate of an entire planet's survival rests upon the shoulders of one rather unremarkable man. ryland grace is a middle school science teacher, whose only claim to fame is a controversial research paper. it is a story that forces you to confront the question: "how much do you personally owe humanity when its fate hangs in the balance?"

once again, the answer is everything.

ryland is not the brightest person on the planet, nor is he the bravest. he doesn't choose to be involved in saving earth, and he certainly doesn't choose to be sent on a suicide mission away from it. in project hail mary, one man has no choice but to shoulder this burden for the sake of humanity. and, it turns out, he's not the only one carrying this responsibility.

somehow, both books provide the same answer and message, only in somewhat different ways. they both serve to convey that life, no matter the scale, is worth preserving.

that when it comes to one man stranded 140 million miles away, no cost is too high, no risk too big, because his life matters. he matters. and he matters not just because he volunteered to go up there, or because it wasn't his fault, or because they know he's out there. he matters because he exists, and that is more than enough to do everything possible to bring him back.

or that no personal cost is too high to pay if you are the one person that can actually save humanity. the people may be faceless, nameless crowds to you, but their lives are worth saving simply because they exist. they exist, and that is plenty reason to doom yourself to certain death if it means that there is even a single chance in hell that you will save them. you don't have to be talented, or remarkable, or necessary to matter.

if they’re the same people, explain this:

His flavor of the "war is hell" themes might be my favorite, he chooses to continue fighting trying to protect people yet by that he abandons his family, he knows this too, calling himself a bad father in Gundam ZZ, and yet in Zeta Gundam Mirai puts her faith in him regardless, but as it stands he spent far more of his time helping other kids instead of Hathaway.

and another detail I want to point out is that Harutoshi Fukui (the writer behind Unicorn, Phenex Hunting, Turn A and Narrative, plus the Unicorn Novels) wrote a short prequel story to Unicorn called The Man Who Could Not Ride the Rainbow, in which Bright is the main character and in which he literally just forgets that Hathaway was on the Ra Calium during CCA and it is pointed out that it's not because of the fighting or his professionalism, he literally just forgot about Hathaway.

Speaking of CCA, Bright made Hathaway stay on the Ra Caliums bridge, instead of sending him somewhere safer on the ship he just told him to stay in the ships biggest target.

Coming back to the short story, Bright couldn't bring himself to talk to Hathaway as to what he did in the Jegan and as to why Hathaway (as pointed out by the story) wasn't talking at all anymore.

Bright knows he's an incapable dad and that stops him from even trying, he chose the life of the soldier and thus abandoned his family, war is hell and nothing ever good comes from it.

Also you might have noticed I used Unicorn Bright instead of CCA or any other, because to me it is very important to point out that during Unicorn Bright has a big framed picture of Amuro in his office while the only picture of Hathaway his actual son is a small family photo we see in ZZ.

In short even if his neglect for his family comes as a conflict between him trying his best to protect them and being them for them, his unwillingness to even try for them and Hathaway specifically is the real reason why he is a bad dad.

Tomorrow as promised Banagher Links, afterward whatever the poll decides, go decide what you'd like

A selfish and stubborn girl, who also happened to be one of the strongest newtypes before Banagher, naturally talented and quick learning, and she became Hathaways Noa first and only obsession, and yet she couldn't care any less about him, her interest was much more with first Amuro and later Char. She was looking for someone to be better than her dad, and Hathaway was looking for someone like himself because of his dad, the both share that parental trauma yet neither of them can help another, inspite of that Hathaway tried while Quess was trying to find love with Char.

And yet Hathaway went down the path he's on because of her, because he's still that 13 year old boy who stole a Jegan and doesn't know how to properly interact with people. And yet he saw how the world didn't change after someone he admired so much die, so he had to take the change in his own hands.

Quess was a catalyst for everything that Hathaway does, and if it wasn't for her, he would have never joined Mafty, the fact that someone who Hathaway couldn't have known for more than 2 days affected him so much shows how much he really loved her inspite of the unrequited feelings.

Go watchh CCA it's an amazing movie

Anyhow tmrw 閃光 and the day after Bright Noa

What is up with Hathaway's hair?

(Definitely not prompted by someone else)

(Img source below cut)

So let's stick with the green-brown color for this one. (as opposed to the black-brown because this doesn't matter either way)

First of all we have to notice that Hathaway at base is someone who specifically wants to be himself, he wants to be understood as himself. CCA is the first showing of this, along with the first time he's an actual character, everyone and I do mean everyone during Char's Rebellion couldn't care any less about how Hathaway feels, from Bright just actually forgetting his existence (according to "The man Who Could Not Ride the Rainbow), Amuro thinking that seeing war is good for him to Quess being too far gone to even tell him no. Almost every character who interacts with Hathaway during the movie just doesn't care what he thinks, used to add to the theme of "the old generations are failing the new ones".

Coming back to the hair thing, Hathaway gets the color from Bright, they both share it. Also in Gundam Hathaway and in Hathaway's Flash novel Hathaway only ever complains about how Brights clout has made no one want to interact with Hathaway Noa, just the son of Bright Noa. This would be enough wouldn't it? To explain that Hathaway changed the hair simply to add that degree of separation from his father.

But there's one more, after CCA Hathaway pretends to not be doing things out of emotion alone, he always acts like there's some material justification to his emotional response, Gigi for example:

Hathaway says he's saving her cuz she might be a spy but is actually doing it because he cares about her.

So to him justifying the hair color change comes from trying not to stand out, green is not a usual hair color, so instead he changes it to the 2nd most popular in the world, and now he's not worried about being an emotional baby in his own mind.

Another tid-bit about the hair is that Hathaway now shares a hair color with Amuro Ray, in-universe I think this might be that subconscious bid for Bright's attention, but on a meta level this represents that Hathaway's ideology draws connections to the White Devil himself. Hathaway is often described as a combination of Char and Amuro, through Char's lack of faith in the change of the RF and Amuro's faith that humanity will change.

Hathaway's hair is a minor but multifold connection to his character and arc and on a meta level represents his arc in a microcosm of dyed keratin.

Tomorrow: Amuro Ray, Bright Noa and fence sitting of tired veterans. (Throwing rocks with this one I know, but idrc)

He spends more time building comradeship with his pilots than he does with his own children, to the point that he doesn’t know how to properly discipline or communicate with them, especially Hathaway, who as a result turns on him by following in the footsteps of Char.

Quess spent her whole life in Earth where she and her stepmother shared a mutual dislike while her father didn’t pay attention to her unless he needed to bring her to something related to his political career. She was also a Newtype who was awed at traveling to space for the first time and formed a connection with Hathaway, who also experienced parental neglect, which was unintentional on Bright’s part, and from the looks of it might be the first time she made a friendship with a kid her age.

A childhood of dismal parenting and being mostly left to her own devices made Quess subconsciously seek out Amuro and then Char to fill out the parental attention and care she did not receive from her own parents. Of course, she also idolized them and had an adolescent crush that caused her to verbally lash out on their lovers. It is war but Nanai slapping her and being responsible for enhancing her Newtype powers with Chan killing her emphasizes they are adults while Quess was just a kid they either dismissed or used. Quess, like any teenager, wants to be taken seriously and at the same time dislikes men because of her father’s dismissiveness.

Amuro recognized what Quess desired and refused to play the role because he can’t give her that, but Char doesn’t recognize it for what it was until Amuro pointed it out to him and showered Quess with affection to turn her into an effective tool. Gyunei claims he cares but in reality he objectified Quess as a prize to be won to prove he is better than Char.

So let's start of by saying that Mafty Navue Erin is the supposed 4th coming of the Red Comet since CCA (if you count Zoltan Akkanen from NT, and if not, he's the 3rd), which is the movie just directly comparing him to Char, in spite of the fact that Char might be the one who caused the most harm toward Hathaway despite the fact that he never actually interacted with him directly.

Char turned Quess into his tool while leading her on, and thus led to Chan fighting Quess which led to her death, which led to Hathaway killing Chan. Which all leads to Hathaway becoming Mafty, Char on his "suicide by Amuro" mission accidentally created his successor, it's a messed up cycle which Hathaway fell a victim of.

And not to mention that Hathaway isn't following in Char's footsteps because he believed in his ideals, he's doing the same thing that Char did purely because he doesn't know any better and simply believes that the world must change otherwise all the people (Quess) who died during Char's Rebellion would never rest. It's really really ironic that aside from Full Frontal, Hathaway is the closest to Char's spirit still haunting this world.

It really is insane how much damage a single guy with mother issues can cause.

That is all for today, tomorrow Xi Gundam design part 3 and the day after Chan Agi (I am reaching for who to talk about in relation to Hathaway anymore, Mirai I guess? Maybe?)

(Img source is a screencap from Gundam Hathaway)

Từ 2021 chưa thấy động tĩnh gì về Gundam Hathaway phần tiếp nhỉ. Thật sự rất thích phần đầu luôn, làm rất tinh tế, chỉn chu. Ba nhân vật chính cực kỳ "'charming", cả về ngoại hình lẫn cách mà bộ phim khắc hoạ tính cách và tâm tư của họ. Nhìn lại tranh của character designer Pablo Uchida trông thích mê.

Mặc dù có liên quan đến những phần Gundam timeline UC trước đó, ai chưa xem vẫn cần tìm hiểu qua chút, nhưng phim không quá khó hiểu. Đạo diễn không thả một nùi tình tiết phức tạp đánh đố người xem quá mức đâu. Riêng điểm này đã thấy thoải mái rồi. Cảm giác đạo diễn Shukou Murase ổng khéo, ổng biết cân bằng ấy :))

Rất thích lúc phim chậm lại để Hathaway và Kenneth nói về áp lực khi có cha/người tiền nhiệm quá nổi tiếng, trong khi hình ảnh tập trung vào những món đồ chơi trẻ con màu mè. Tình tiết này như thể cuộc đối thoại giữa hai cậu bé vậy.

Hay khi Hathaway nói chuyện với người tài xế taxi, cậu nhận ra rằng người ta đang lo những thứ tủn mủn như mưu sinh hàng ngày, trong khi lý tưởng của cậu, những việc cậu đang làm với danh nghĩa Mafty hướng đến "lợi ích trăm ngàn năm sau". Ngay sau khi ông lái xe nói rằng đang chật vật kiếm một tấm giấy chứng minh thân phận, thì hình ảnh tiếp theo là Hathaway quét tấm thẻ trắng quyền lực, dùng làm gì cũng được, sẽ có chính quyền chi trả.

Đặt những điều nhỏ nhặt sát ngay những điều lớn lao, đặt những chi tiết thể hiện sự khác biệt về vị thế và lối suy nghĩ bên cạnh nhau, quả thật đạo diễn thú vị đó chứ. Bộ phim cũng không cố nhấn mạnh tình tiết đó, không gò ép nhân vật vào một hành động bất thường mà làm rất khéo léo, phù hợp với diễn biến chung.