17 May 2018

Mecha Academy Episode 2 Chapter 3 Commentary

Fighting crime in different ways, in "By Your Leave" Chapter 3.

A bit of action for the story.  It's taking longer than I expected to have the mecha going.  There hasn't been any training to drive the suits yet, so how do I get some action in?  Random crime.  Or not so random.  If I can't show the mecha in action, I can show the cast.

The group in Vaughan's Landing got the bank robbery.  The idea was to show them working together as a team.  Ric stepped up as leader and got everyone in place.  But Miyami noticed the robbery building up.  She might not come from a great neighbourhood, and I'm only realizing that now.  It did make sense at the time that Miyami was the one to notice.  Rhiannon is in a social class that can either send others to to run errands or arrange for regular deliveries of what's needed.  Ric is from a small mining colony, which will be detailed later but the population numbers in the tens of thousands at most.  Lars is a farm boy and while he is in his home town, bank robberies aren't a regular event.  That leave Miyami, a city girl.  She was the one best suited to spot the robbers.

Miyami's opening move was inspired by the TV series, Leverage  The hitter of the group, Elliot Spencer, played by Christian Kane, didn't go for flashy moves.  His role was to keep the others safe, and he was efficient at it.  Against a group of mooks, his go-to move was to drop to his knees while punching down.  It's super effective.  And after building up Miyami in the last episode, it was time to show her in action.  Miyami fights to win.

Ric doesn't have it as easy.  His training is all from the Academy.  He gets surprise but he isn't Miyami.  The pistols were there to be neutralized; the robbers had them, the cadets needed to get rid of them.  So, while Miyami was brutal and swift, Ric had to work for his victory.

In Shelter Cove, Dusty has her own fight.  Again, there's a difference between her and the rest of the squad.  The squad in Vaughan's Landing had time to prepare and actively trying to stop a crime.  Dusty got mugged; she didn't want the fight but it came to her.  She also didn't leave her technique at the Academy.  Welcome to more of Dusty's mysterious past.  Like Miyami, she fights to win and she's a little more savage about it.  Back in the first episode, Dusty defended herself from Rhiannon during sparring without throwing a punch.  Rhiannon will never know what happened in Shelter Cove if Dusty has any say about it.

The name of Dusty's hotel is inspired by an ad for a travel agency that showed the difference between Ocean Side, as in beside the ocean, and Ocean View, as in can see the ocean if the trees bend in the wind the right way.  Ocean Reach is close to the ocean so that the people staying in the hotel can reach it with a twenty minute walk.  She's not interested in seeing the ocean, though.  Dusty just wants time by herself to be herself.

The final scene caps off the differences between the two groups.  Dusty just left her would-be muggers lying on the ground.  She didn't want any police inquiries.  Ric, though, had Abby call the police.  They all had their reasons.  Ric was being civic minded.  Dusty just doesn't want anyone prying into her background.  At some point, I do need to reveal more of what happened with Dusty in the past two years.  It's on the list to be done.

Friday, Mecha Academy, "By Your Leave" Chapter 4, "Back to School".
Also Friday, over at Psycho Drive-In, The Mummy (1999).
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, hiatus as I will be at CanGames.

1 comment:

  1. That was a really good part, for a couple reasons. First, having split the party, having them further split was the right move. It worked for me at the fair, and it works here, in particular Rhiannon and Lars finally addressing the Susanna issue more openly versus the constant joking. Rhiannon in particular has had little to nothing to do (aside from be a prop for Miyami), so I liked it for that reason too. And talking about dancing I feel is better than watching all the dancing.

    Second, the thugs on Dusty helped to not have my eyes glaze over during her section, as is starting to happen. Cafes don't seem to further either plot or backstory, and Haag cameos can only do so much. I vaguely wonder where Dusty has the money for all this. I can't quite figure out where the call for help came from (were the thugs hoping a girl would show up, rather than cops?) but the scene worked. Granted, I think I would have preferred Miyami in action there and Dusty's reaction to the cheap shot, but it is what it is. (It might also be good to have Rhiannon talk to Susanna, but I'm not sure that's going to happen while Miyami's always paired up with her.)

    Finally, having Dusty see the report, helping to link the two events together, was an excellent choice. That way she knows some of what her squad was up to, so they have a talking point when they reconnect. Also her thinking it was Ric's initiative shows how they're "bonding", in a sense. Ric is a bit of a risk taker, though that's probably why he got so many prizes too.

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