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-Z- (z@gundam.com)
Sat, 11 Nov 2000 09:09:51 -0800
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-gundam@1u.aeug.org [mailto:owner-gundam@1u.aeug.org]On
> Behalf Of Franz Co
> Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2000 07:51
> To: gundam@aeug.org
> Subject: [gundam] earth sphere map
>
> As most of us know, the Earth Sphere map used in MS Gundam and the OVA's is
> different from the one used from Z Gundam onwards, with Side 4,5,6 having
> exchanged positions.
> (for those who dont know check out the Gundam Project
> http://www.gundamproject.com/world/spacecolony.html )
> My question is has there ever been any attempt to place a logical
> explanation for this. I mean, is it possible to move whole sides? We do see
> empty colonies being moved in 0083 but how about whole colony clusters, even
> more so three different sides (technically two since side 5 is now a shoal
> zone). Or did they just rename the sides?
Although he considers it much too speculative to include on his own Web site,
which deals with things known to be true, Mark Simmons offered up the best
explanation to date on the renumbering of the Sides between Gundam (UC 0079) and
Z Gundam (UC 0087). I recapitulate his argument on my own Gundam High Frontier
page:
http://www.dyarstraights.com/msgundam/frontier.html#SideMaps
The simplest and, by Occam's Razor, most likely explanation is that, in the
years between Gundam (1979) and Z Gundam (1985), the originators simply forgot
where they had situated Sides 4 to 6.
How is that possible? Well, Sides 4 to 6 are incidental to the story and aren't
"fixed" by any story element. Side 1 is the first colony, built at L5 -- easy
to remember because the Lagrange point was favored by O'Neill, who went on to
found the L5 Society to promote space colonization. Side 2 was the second
colony, built at L4, the only other stable Lagrange point -- the other three
have equilibrium, but not stable equilibrium. Side 3 goes in L2, the Lagrange
point on the far side of the Moon, invisible from Earth and the farthest reach
of the Earth Sphere -- where better to situate the breakaway faction? Side 7,
the newest and least developed colony, is near Luna 2 in L3, literally the
opposite side of the Earth Sphere from Side 3 in L2, as far away as two points
can get in the Lagrange geometry.
By contrast, Sides 4 to 6 serve only to fill out the remaining Lagrange point in
L1 and double up the occupancy of L4 and L5, the two oldest space settlements.
Originally, they were staged in a line from L5 through L1 to L4 -- go back to
the oldest colony, establish a new one, then go back to the second oldest
colony -- but that fact may have been forgotten. Later, they seem to have been
staged in simple Lagrange point numerical order: L1, L4, and L5.
Whatever the reason for the change, it's been consistent until fairly recently,
when the Z Gundam Film Comics, an extension of the Gundam the Movies book
series, featured the original Gundam maps instead of the revised Z Gundam maps.
-Z-
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