Prepare to face the wrath of Girard Spriggan.

—-

Episode forty-two picks up right where forty-one left, with the battle for Luna base continuing. Kio is still engaged in battle with Fram and the Federation defector Girard Spriggan enters the fray. It’s a bit of an oddity to introduce a character this late into the series with less than ten episodes remaining, but her inclusion and back story do hint at a greater importance to Kio and the other X-Rounders, especially with what happens at the end of the episode but more on that later. As for her character, Girard is one of a tragic background which led to her defect to the Vagan with a hatred for the Federation. However, this doesn’t explain her fixation with defeating the Gundam unless she sees the Gundam as the ultimate symbol of the Federation. That is left up in the air by the series so who knows where that will go. 

As a whole, the episode spends nearly its entire run time focused on her Girard and her background with a good chunk devoted to her flashback tragedy. We find out that her original name was Reina Spriggan and later changed her name to that of her dead lover who died in an Federation X-Rounder experiment. This isn’t the first series to have experiments on the superpowered pilots so it was expected to be included in this series, but it is just surprising to see how small in scale it has affected the series. As for Reina’s hatred, it is completely understandable to the audience considering that even though Girard Fornell died, he was being made to be the scapegoat for the failed experiment due to the bureaucracy of the Federation with them looking to protect their own interests over the truth of the matter. It puts into question for the audience whether they should be rooting for the Federation in this war and just how Flit can still be such an adamant defender of the Federation. All these questions should be put at the forefront of the series as we wind down to the finale. 

As mentioned earlier, episode forty-two ends on a cliffhanger centering around Girard Spriggan. Her X-Rounder abilities manifest themselves on a whole new level to the point that fellow nearby X-Rounders like Kio, Zeheart and Fram are affected by her. This is most likely a byproduct of the Federation experimentation that was shown in her flashback, but just what kind of power is being manifested is left to speculation. Whatever they may be, it doesn’t bode well for Girard and the other X-Rounders. 

Despite the late introduction of Girard at this point in the series, episode forty-two of Gundam AGE was a solid watch. Girard’s worth as a character will depend on how much of an impact she will have on the conclusion, which should be determined within the next few episode. 

GO Rating: 3.5/5

The AGE-1 gets a new upgrade