Do MS pilot's skills outside the cockpit correlate with their piloting skills? Not talking about things like G-Gundam, where the answer is very much a 'yes', but more about the "realistic" shows. Like is a martial arts background going to guarantee someone being good at melee MS combat, or a good sniper being good at long-ranged MS combat? Sometimes this seems to be the case, but other times it's a no. Like IBO's Mikazuki is skilled in melee both in and out of the cockpit, while Amuro knows how to fence while being good with MS melee weapons.But than we have proof to the opposite. Like in G-Witch we have Suletta, who is very much more a long-ranged fighter. Yet she managed to defeat Guel, a known MS melee fighter, in an Olympic fencing match. In the same show, we have Chuchu, who seems to begrudgingly pilot a long-ranged MS as a very physical person, yet the one time she tries MS melee, she gets rekt very easily. Then all the way back in 0079, we have Hayato, a known judo fighter, who seems to only pilot MS in long-range combat, and Zeta has Kamille, a karate prodigy, mostly pilot in long-ranged combat. I could go on about this, but it feels like this keeps changing from character to character. Sometimes there's an obvious correlation, but sometimes it seems to be more tied to their personality and character, rather than skills outside the cockpit, and sometimes there're just none. Like it seems like a pilot with no skills in handling weapons could just become a good sniper with a MS.
>>23838015up to the writer
Yeah.
>>23838015It depends, just like in real life. A guy who's good at origami isn't necessarily good at jobs that actually require precision and a calm mind, and the other way. You don't really need to learn how to shoot a gun to know how to fight with a MS in a long-range fight, and you don't need to know how to punch to make a giant robot punch.>>23838017Also this.
>>23838015Two words: Barry. Ho.
>>23838015Seems to depend on the show. I vaguely recall Wufei in Wing translating his martial arts skills to how he piloted the Shenlong/Altron. Problem is it's not terribly consistent, and there's nothing that implies that Gundam Wing has anything like a Psychoframe analog that would explain this shit.
>>23838189yeah and it doesn't stop him from picking up a beam cannon and going to town anyway, more than once
>>23838212>>23838127It depends on the show, on the character, on the scene, and depends on the writer. Mecha often represent their pilot's character in many ways, and if the pilot's personality is being a martial artist, there's a chance of the MS moving kinda like a martial artist. It's not necessarily meant to be "lore accurate" but more just a way to make them look cool. Sometimes there is a clear correlation, but other times it's more a reflection of personality or character.
>>23838015>G-WitchG-Witch's piloting styles and MS seem to be more a reflection of the pilot's character, and not of their actual skills. Moreover, the MS weapons in the show are often the type, which really can't be trained with outside the cockpit. Guel uses a spear and a halberd, Shaddiq has ZA CLAW, Lauda uses a giant axe and a katana, Suletta uses a literal broom, and Chuchu has a sniper rifle and a one-armed minigun. The only character whose skills may correlate with their piloting style is Elan 5, who is skilled with a gun and used dual pistols with the Pharact. But even then, the way he fought on foot is not like how he fights inside the cockpit. Moreover, Asticassia doesn't seem to teach any infantry skills like weapons proficiency, so it's already a moot point.>FencingFencing in G-Witch seems to be a form of spatial awareness and reaction exercise for piloting students. The WfM novel describes it as follows: "Advance, retreat, their footwork was precise yet daring. Both were elite pilots, their reflexes and spatial awareness honed to perfection." In other words, Suletta's win was more a reflection of her being a better pilot, rather than being better at close combat.>ChuchuChuchu is a weird one. It's directly stated that Chuchu initially disliked her Demi Trainer being based on hit-and-run sniper tactics. That would make you think she prefers melee combat due to skill, but the infobox seems to imply that it's more just a personal dislike of the idea of retreating and running away. Of course, it's hard to really make any conclusions. She does lose to Shaddiq in melee, but that was more due to her MS being outmatched by a superior MS. I looked into her game stats, and they seem to vary. SD G Generation makes her a melee pilot, while Arsenal Base very clearly makes her into a long-ranged specialist. Since neither of these games are actual canon, the truth probably is that she has better skills as a long-ranged pilot, like the anime showed us.
>>23838882>while Arsenal Base very clearly makes her into a long-ranged specialist.Isn't it because Arsenal Base is a card based arcade game? I assume they make the pilot cards to synergize with their canon MS, while G Gen is more about fanservice and simulating what the pilots would be better at if they could pilot anything based on dev assumptions.
>>23839040Not necessarily. If anything, Asobase often even supports switching MS and pilots around. Some of the pilot variations have very different stats, though some stay very consistent across the board. If we stay with G-Witch characters, we can see that pretty much all Suletta cards are meant for long range MS, even though some Aerial variations are meant for close range combat.https://www.gundam-ab.com/titles/pl/g-witch_001.phphttps://www.gundam-ab.com/cardlist/?search=true&freewords=LX01-057#viewAt the same time we have Guel, whose cards differ in skill between long and short range, even though most of his canon MS variants are meant for short distance combat.https://www.gundam-ab.com/titles/pl/g-witch_002.phpSo there definitely is a bit of synergy going around, but I don't think it's like in the Gundam TCG, where pairing up the MS with the right pilot gives you a boost (anyone who knows this topic better, please correct me if I am wrong).My point was more that because the stats are based on what the devs think, we can't exactly take them as being canon or official. Is Chuchu good at close ranged combat in G-Witch canon? Maybe, but we'll never really know, because we see so little of her in close combat. However, if we went by G Generation's stats alone, we'd have to believe that Chuchu was better at it than Master Asia, which is probably not very likely. In the show itself, which is the true "canon" material, we see that she's very comfortable and skilled in long-distance combat. Chuchu has those small humorous moments, where she tries using the beam rifle as a club, but in those situations she's usually backed into a corner either by the Michaelis or by Gundvolvas. All her "kills" come from shooting from a distance, and it doesn't seem like she especially looks for chances at doing melee.
>>23838015Usually yes since their movements are in sync with their machine.
>>23839227When I think about it, even this is extremely inconsistent. Sometimes when they do it, it's synced to their actual limb movement, but other times it's done using the controls.
>>23839436I feel like there would be different times where you would want that level of control, so it's probably like in UC where they reference auto VS manual controls in the cockpitE.g., Seabook clumsily tries to grab the beam rifle using manual hand movements, not realizing that the Gundam's computer would have an automated way to quickly grab the rifle off the rack
>>23839462To me it looks like the synchronization with arms usually happens when the mecha is not moving or at least when it's not in combat. It makes sense in that regard, as there could be something that they need to grab with the MS but there is no automated command for it. In mid-combat, there would probably be very little use for it due to the hectic nature of MS combat and the pilots needing to use both hands to control the MS.
