AMAIM Warrior at the Borderline EP 18 – Oh, So They Aren’t All Cartoon Villains?

Hi Irina, how are you doing? Have a good time? I did something unusual for me, but I drove down a state on Friday to visit some cool wordpress people and it was the first time that I met online people in real life. It was also a lot of fun but punctuated with some traffic jams in the middle of nowhere to get there but I guess there is equality.

I know that we talked about meeting before, but I really do want to meet you too someday. That time and distance thing is annoying in making this happen. Some with a pandemic that people are acting like aren’t around anymore, but still it. But I would like to meet you someday because I think it would be a lot of fun. A culture shock would make it so fascinating too.

That sounds like tons of fun. I haven’t been down to the states in a few years with everything going on but under normal circumstances, it’s not a very tough trip.

And I’m glad you had fun visiting WordPress friends over the weekend. It’s always nice t put a face to the name. Especially when it’s people who you’ve been following for a whale and you already have a few things in common. It makes it way less awkward than meeting up with virtual strangers.

I’m not sure if Canada is much of a culture shock though. The poutine is very good. That’s worth the trip.

The sad realities of the world and meeting people aside, AMAIM had a pretty relaxing episode this week compared to previous episodes. But not sure I have a lot to talk about for this episode because it was pretty simple too.

I mean, the idea of North America being all evil and taking over Japan is still there. So I was right in some ways, but wrong in other ways. I mean, Eurasia and our Japanese rebels did join together to take on their forces, but it wasn’t Alexei. It was some guy that I am not going to remember the name of who has a Japanese wife and is kind when helping and sheltering Japanese citizens in a company town like scenario. That was clever honestly.

Relaxing!!! I was stressed out the whole episode. Everything was death flags left and right. Guy with Japanese wife was practically made up of them. You have nerves of steel Mr. Scott!

I wouldn’t rule out an actual military allegiance just yet. This was more like a detour. It was all unofficial and one time only. The rebels were doing a favour and in exchange they got to strike a bit at the American forces and maybe get a bit of good karma for future use.

I just don’t know who they are going to align with. Let’s face it, AMAIM does not do nuanced antagonists very well. So far, all the bad guys we have seen were BAD. Like killing children, kicking puppies, BAD! No room for interpretation or mitigating circumstances. Except for Brad…

Now this could be the one exception. Brad could become increasingly the main antagonist, creating a  somewhat balanced cast. That would be great but not in keeping with everything else in the show. Or Brad could personally defect after being given particularly inhumane orders or discovering that the military he serves was also undertaking some cruel operations without his knowledge. Something like that.


Irina, How shocked were you that: 1) a non Japanese commander was not an asshole and 2) the guy with so many death flags attached to him considering his wife was pregnant, actually survived to the end of this episode. I was so happy that he did and that his daughter is very cute and soft. All just adorable and comfy.

It even made Amou feel better after being in a similar sort of scenario to his backstory where children became scared of him, but he let the baby hold his finder and he cried. It was honestly pretty touching. Maybe cliche in some ways, but it showed that he isn’t broken and that life can continue onward.

I was so happy that all those flags were a bait n switch. Honestly! And they did a pretty good job with it, I have to say. Since AMAIM hasn’t been all that subtle so far, I was entirely prepared to see the guy die. Possibly a hero having saved his wife and child or something along those lines. Even though it was so obvious and so cliché, I really thought that’s where the episode was going and I wasn’t looking forward to it. After last week’s grim episode to have more death and despair just felt suffocating. I sent most of the episode and certainly all of the fight, on edge.

But then they turned it around. And not in some unbelievable Deus Ex Machina sort of way. In a completely logical and foreshadowed turn of events, which still gave the main characters the credit for their success. Like if it happens again, they’ll be ok! That’s nice. I was way happier to see everyone doing well at the end of the episode than I would have been if I hadn’t been so worried the whole time. Good job sow!


It also made me feel happy to see Gashin and Shion to watch this sad kid feel happy for once and that reaffirmation that they are all friends. Really comfy times for all the great reasons and ideas. Plus, every pilot got the time to show off during the North America invasion of the Japanese citizen shelter. It really has shown how much their technology in their mecha units has developed and how experienced all of them are here too. Sometimes simple things work.

It’s also just really nice that there are people our “terrorist cell” have as allies. Especially since they shared technology with each other and cooperated. Even had a really cool strategy using their AI data and other things to make their fighting look realistic. I wish we saw more than just a few moments because I wanted to see how that would work. It gave more comfy feelings.

Speaking of pilots during the fight. I did like that las minute confrontation when Shion had the enemy cornered. It was a mirror of what happened with Amou a few episodes ago but of course, it ended very differently. What I thought was particularly nice about the moment is that it was Amou who deescalated the situation. Shion was panicking a little. Not because she was in a dangerous spot but because the realities of war are catching up with all of them. But then it was Amou who reminded everyone that there is another way. And somehow that brings everything full circle. Certainly he has changed and will probably never quite be the same. But he’s not too far gone either, you know.

Finally speaking of the North American forces, it kind of made me laugh how the villain was so cartoony and unimportant they didn’t show up in this episode until they started the invasion. All the talk of the Ghost technology was between Brad Wyatt and his many people beforehand with the political game of thrones Brad is playing. He won and that means…he has to work just as hard as he is.

Oh, I switched over to Brad again, but he’s just so much more interesting? What do we know about the other guy? He’s egotistical? He thinks just having some trace elements of Ghost technology in his suits allowed him to just be better than experience pilots who somehow defeated a mechanical god. Then he ran away in the end after being defeated with Shion being given a moment similar to Amou’s and it turned out different. Maybe a sign for good things to come. Hopefully. Still, this guy played his role and I hope he never shows up again.

Oh yeah, this week’s villain was just funny. He is supposedly a genius in some was. Not in piloting obviously. So maybe we’ll see more of him but he’s first outing certainly wasn’t all that impressive. 

But this is sort of what i was alluding to. Brad told us he basically hates the guy. This is the worst person in Brad’s opinion, and he has not spoken like this about any of the opposing forces. Yet the army gave this hateful guy carte blanche with a number of very powerful weapons next to what is in practice a civilian outpost. Sure it’s an enemy outpost but not one of particular military importance or treat. With everything we know about Brad and his specific feelings for this guy, It seems like he would already be facing a bit of an ideological rift here. 

How long can this go one before it becomes unsustainable?

So yeah, I was happy about this episode for the most part. Just a good episode with some cool political intrigue, not just an asshole “enemy” commander, and a lot of other things. It’s nice to know that good people are out there still and I hope there is more still out there.

I was wrong about Alexi and our Amaim friends joining forces, so you can call me out on that. Maybe I predicted the future too soon. I hope that it does happen. 

I was also happy about this episode. I thought it was paced very well. It kept things exciting and had a very nice ending. And it brought in just enough new elements to make me curious about what happens next!