Applied Phlebotinum Blog/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • 8.8: A possible inversion, Clawshrimpy stated that he recieved much hatemail for his rating of 4 out of 10 for Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, but funnily enough, he gave Gundam Seed the same score. and given how fair he was in the SEED review to the parts that worked. (See Memetic Badass and A Day in the Limelight sub entries below.) It's probably not as bad as it sounds.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Clawshrimpy views Lacus Clyne as a not-so-subtle attempt to put a Macross-style Idol Singer into a Gundam series.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Clawshrimpy was pretty positive reguarding Andrew Waltfeld, and thinks the Desert Arc was not too bad, aside from Sai being mistreated.
  • Growing the Beard: Clawshrimpy's Gundam SEED reviews are much improved from the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann podcasts.
  • Idiot Plot: Clawshrimpy thinks that both sides of the war in Gundam Seed are equally impotent.
    • Clawshrimpy really starts to harp this about Azrael's use of the nukes in the final 5 episodes of Gundam SEED. at one point he played a clip of Andrew Waltfeld explaining "the role of any long range nuclear weapon is to serve as a deterrant." and then he played a clip of Azrael asking what the point of stockpiling nukes is if you won't use them.
      • He overlooks that the EA nukes have already failed to be an effective deterrence against ZAFT. Azrael was partially right.
      • The first five episodes of Gundam SEED Destiny is allready beginning to slowly crush his will. Between Djbril making him facepalm to Shinn and his friends not realizing there are fellow Coordinators on Earth and viewing Earth's destruction as "a good thing."

Clawshrimpy: I could end the review here! But I'm just getting started.

  • Memetic Badass: Clawshrimpy believes Andrew Waltfeld and Mu La Flaga to be this.
    • As of the 31-35 Gundam SEED review video, looks like Sai has made his badass list.
  • Memetic Mutation: played with at the beginning Couch Gag for the SEED 31-35 review video, to snark at the "Nicol loved the Piano!" scene.

Clawshrimpy: Got that out of our system? No need to retreat to any hackned internet memes, or anything like that? After all, we know that red robots move 3 times faster, we know that Captain Quattro, he is A CHAR, we know why Roy Fokker won't be able to enjoy his Pineapple Salad, we know why not to go into random bathroom stalls, because I was the asshole all these years, 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS, and ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWAH. Dang that was meta as hell, though obviously falling short of Rolo.

  • MST3K Mantra: Clawshrimpy deconstructs this trope, in the sense that he tries to encourage people to think about what's going on in a given plot, rather than accept whatever crazy thing is being done, and not blindly accept it because "Well it's a show with Humongous Mecha, it doesn't need to make sense!" which is what Clawshrimpy tended to be harsh on Gurren Lagann for, in his mind, "stretching Willing Suspension of Disbelief too far, even for Super Robot" and it's why his commentary was so biting reguarding silly plot points like most things Azrael and Patrick Zala does in Gundam Seed. the GaoGaiGar review however, plays it straight, with Clawshrimpy trying to respond to the people who call GaoGaiGar bad because of it's Monster of the Week "kiddie" nature, and Clawshrimpy tries to point out it DOES have strong Character Development and has some merit in terms of writing.
  • Nightmare Fuel: He seemed a little grossed out over Nicol's exploding head.