It's incredibly moving hearing Michigan calling all his soldiers by name or callsign every time he addresses them. He doesn't allow any of his men belittle their own, even when they turn tail. He is too good of a leader, man...
The fact that he knows his men by NAME (even the MT pilots) is showing that he is an amazing leader. Some could say "he in knows their name because it's shown on his display", but no, he even knows their character traits, so he really does KNOW them. His only mistake was giving Arcebus the suppression fleet. That's what probably turned the tide in the Corp war.
Michigan is also the only one besides Rusty that knows 621's skill. He knows when he was going up against him in his last fight he's most likely to die in battle, unlike V.II Snail who is just an egotistical bastard heh. I kind of felt bad when I had to fight against the Red Guns. They are clearly the "good guys" vs Arqubus who seem to brainwash their soldiers to fight for them.
@@TheBlargMarg well, compared to Arquebus they just seem "Less evil" they still don't give a shit about anything, when it's in the way of their profit.
You know that line where Michigan tells Iguazu to start a sewing club and sew that damn mouth of his shut? He wasn't just being an asshole. Iguazu was giving away key intel to someone outside Balam (you) and basically telling you the Redgun's next move as a group which is to attack the wall. Obviously Michigan isn't dumb enough to give away free info like that and told him to sew his mouth shut, not because he is annoyed with Iguazu talking but because he was giving away information that should be confidential to people outside of Balam. You can find a good explanation like this almost every single time Michigan is roasting the people under him. He even hires you to look out for his noobs on the dam complex mission even though it's such a simple task.
tbh i often see many some people misunderstood Michigan's character. like he's disrespectful, rude to his underlings. but clearly missing the point. Michigan is actually a caring tough love warrior with a sassy silly mouth. he never really insult down someone out of nowhere especially driven by the ego of being superior. he slanders those of his arrogant pricks of underlings that needs humbling. and just bc he's got trashy mouth doesn't mean that he means it when he jokes around.
yeah the “ass-wiping duty” comment makes more sense now as even the Redguns dont compete with you to destroy the dam generators despite being the ones who actually /need/ to do it
Michigan's underling gets treated way better than Snail's underling. Snail has no problem sending numbered Vespers to their inevitable deaths uninformed, while the Redguns seems to know what mess they're getting into.
He also didn't just shittalk Volta during that mission. As therandomlaniusedward2140 says, he reminds him not to underestimate RLF forces or 621. Michigan prevents Volta from arrogance with bitter commentary, because on battlefield arrogance can kill you.
Not just their names, he knows their quirks too, which means he actually took the time to get to really know them. Dude is just an old vet who never grew out of his grunt mentality, like a Mustang - old NCOs that picked up Officer commissions but still lives and breaths the grunt life.
should include here also when you dont bring the stun needle at the worm mission : "what? you didnt bring it?! G13 YOUR ABILITY TO RUIN MY FIELD TRIPS IS UNCANNY!!!"
It's a great line! I was wondering what would happen if you ran the mission without the stun needle. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Qua6h4S-u2M.html
I love that if he kills you the first thing he does is order up relief teams to help the wounded. Doesn't shit talk you or anything, just cares for his soldiers.
True, and if anything he compliments you. Calling you "the big one" and even mentioning to his own forces that even though you're just a solo AC, you were not to be underestimated.
@@eatenjaguarjaguareaten3367 Exactly, hell even the things he says to the MTs during the fight sound like insults but are him giving actual advice. "Keep your eject ready." "Those of you that run, put it in your journal to get more rifle practice." He knows he's going to lose MTs to you, but he hopes he won't lose pilots. And all he says to the ones who run is to get more training so they can fight next time.
I remember during the dam fight, if you lose to Volta, he tells you he'll kill you if you try that shit again. Based on the bios in the Arena, if 621 survived his loss to Michigan, and was one of the wounded, would he help 621, if they were alive, but wounded?
@@jackdeviant2025 I think it's Volta who tells you that he'll kill you if you try that shit again. Either way, Michigan would have helped 621. I felt bad when I chose the mission to kill Michigan. Arquebus sucks.
Same. Snail is so much worse though. I really hate that piece of shit. The Liberator of Rubicon ending broke me. It was so damn hard to do, emotionally speaking, but it was so satisfying to kill Snail like that. Snail cares about no one except himself and it's funny to overhear the Vespers talking shit about him, showing that they don't like him much either.
@@raghav1026 It really is. It really shows just how much he's gone off the deep end. Nearly all the Vespers are pretty slimy, but he's the absolute worst.
I also think it's cool how he's one of the few AC's who uses the stationary shield to give cover to his team as well. almost everyone uses the assault armour or personal shield
@@LizarusMoviesYeah but he’s slimy. When you’re ambushing him he’s wary of the way his superior talks about V.II Snail, faking respect for the hierarchy. If you die to him in that same mission after you kill his superior it takes him two seconds flat to think of replacing that same dude. If the opposite happens that dude whose name I can’t remember for the life of me regrets Pater dying and wishes he could have taken his place instead.
Someone may have said this, but the Redguns are named after famed lakes/rivers/seas/waterfalls. G1: Lake Michigan G2: Nile River G3: Five Flowers Sea, Jiu Zhaigou, Nature Preserve, China G4: Lake Volta, Ghana Africa G5: Iguazu Falls/River, Brazil G6: Red Lake, Minnesota G7: Ghaggar-Hakra River (India and Pakistan) *G13: Lake Raven, Huntsville Texas
Wow they even have the coolest naming convention. Makes sense with the MT names to Potomac is a river that George Washington crossed during the revolutionary war I think
Didn’t notice the one when you take down Iguazu first in the alt dam mission. “Iguazu! How many ranks below you is Gun 13? Take your time, it’s a lot!”
From what I gather, G13 is the trainee rank, since fresh mercenaries don’t usually get to live long, or since most G13s who prove themselves are quickly given a position in the Redguns main ranks, G13 is effectively considered to be the worst Redgun. There’s a good chance that the trainee that was given the job of getting the AC product sample from Dafeng to the Redguns was G13, as the lucky number becomes available right after you kill the trainee in the mission. Effectively, Michigan was telling Iguazu that he expected better from G5 than to lose to G13, a full 8 ranks below. Either that or he expects Iguazu to reflect on why he lost to someone who he should have had an easy time with on paper, and improve in the future. Which Iguazu fails to do, as he hyper fixated on how their augments should give them similar advantages, and based his attempts to deal with 621 on the mentality of “if we keep fighting I’ve got to get at least one win right?” Only to go 0-4 in the Allmind route. 0-5 if you count phase one and two as separate fights, since his AC gets disabled in phase one and he uploads himself into a new one. Not even counting the fact that he loses a handful of un piloted AC’s and two C-Spiders in that fight as well. Not many people are having a good time on Rubicon, but from start to finish Iguazu is having the worst time possible.
Michigan was one of those few rational and grounded characters in the game that I've slowly come to respect through every playthrough. He comes off as rash and arrogant at first, but I've slowly come to understand that this is mostly just on the surface, and he's shown to be a lot more than just that. He's shown to have a lot of pride in his Redguns, but he also doesn't hesitate to take them down a peg or two if they ever started getting cocky, knowing that that kind of overconfidence can result in an early death. He's quick to defend his men's merits, but also just as quick to keep them grounded and never take their opponents lightly. He's also surprisingly pragmatic and rational, as he still offers contracts to 621 even after we mopped the floor with his two most promising rookies back in the dam mission. No further commentary, just treats it as an unfortunate circumstance and moves on. Whenever he raised his voice, it was definitely because someone messed up in what would be considered as "natural" in their line if work (Iguazu accidentally spilling the beans about Balam's plans to raid the wall, Iguazu and Volta(?) Getting overconfident upon seeing Index Dunham's AC, that one MT pilot who thought they can take it easy cause Arquebus only sent in one AC piloted by a mute psychopath against their overwhelming numbers, or 621 when we "forget" to bring our only trump card the Stun Needle Launcher against the Ice worm). Overall, he was a guy I'm finding really hard to hate. While other characters are complex in their ideals and motivations, he's just a simple as a rock. A very solid, sturdy rock, but can still smash your face in. He was the pillar of the Redguns, and I can understand why his men were willing to join him on a one-way trip to hell. Really a shame we couldn't get an ending where we sided with Balam, and eventually break the curse of G13 held over that bunch.
If you destroy the MT squad before Michigan, he has special dialogue. Something along the lines of: "Now it's just you and me Gun 13". Might even have special death dialogue too!
The end of the fight with him is slightly different if you wipe out all of his support before he appears and wipe out the mt support that drops with him before you kill him. He gets support from an additional heavy mt and he directs his last words to you instead.
True the writing and the way the missions play out is so good the characters feel real even though you don't see them. I also like the fact that you never really communicate with humans and it makes the world feel a bit more cold and bleak with an emphasis on technology. It fits the tone of the game perfectly.
"best character" is hard because there's Rusty. but he's up there. I love his roasting tendencies, the way he kept complimenting Raven while his army underestimating us. He died a honorable death, RIP Michigan.
I didn't care for them initially, but then Snail started looking down on me and Walter and I quickly grew to hate Arquebus. Snail's English VA does a damn good job at giving Snail such an easy to hate voice. I've heard his Japanese VA and I find him a lot less annoying to listen to. Same for ALLMIND.
One of the only fun characters and easily one of the most likeable. Would have loved an ending to side with Balam, just to see Michigan rally G13 like he does his army of MTs at the end. At first he seems like a dick, but he's the best handler of all the faction leaders in how he leads his people.
V.VIII Pater seemed nice in the briefings actually, in that professional but not up his own ass way... but later you learn he's a sociopath and even hear him ordering sending people to "reeducation" camps
A lotta people are talking about how Michigan's abrasive attitude is his way of showing that he cares, such as how he lets the MT squads know they stand no chance against 621 and should keep their ejects primed, and tells anyone who doesn't want to die to pull out of the fight. One thing I'd like to add is how loyal his MT pilots are. When he flat out tells them that joining him in taking on 621 is a suicide mission, to join him "if you've got a death wish", one of his men says "ready to die sir" pretty enthusiastically. That sort of loyalty is kinda ironic in a beautiful way. His way of talking to his soldiers is meant to both inspire them to be better, to have a meaningful impact on the battlefield, but also to focus on surviving long enough to actually see the fruits of their labor, his line about throwing the cobalt medals is him hinting at how a medal isn't worth it if you have to die for it. Yet he inspires them so well that they disregard the latter point of his advice because sticking with him is what makes them feel like they're doing something meaningful.
Michigan is such a dad, he knows that 621 doesnt have any personal feelings, he knows this is just a job and focuses on protecting his men, and even praise 621 for his skills and warn about it. He cares about every single men in his army and never insult them even he speaks to be jerk outside. Even description of his AC tells that every asset of his will be sent to his fellow colleagues after his death, this shows that he cares about his men a lot. What a chad, im so sorry that he must die through out the mission. He deserves much better than that.
I love this mission, if I have one minor nitpick over the campaign is that we didn't get to work with the guns nearly enough. I would have liked a few more missions fighting along side them, feel like we get a ton more time with the Vespers.
Agreed. Fires of Raven was sad, but Liberator of Rubicon actually broke me. I was in tears fighting Walter and then actually ugly crying when the credits rolled. Yes, genocide is extremely not good to say the least, but I got very attached to Walter. It hurts worse knowing that he'd been messed with by Arquebus by that point and wasn't actually his true self anymore. Ayre being there begging us not to fight made it even worse. Compare how he struggles to speak when you fight him in LoR vs how he and Carla talk as you clear out the inside of the Xylem in Alea Iacta Est. I was relieved ALLMIND didn't make me fight him again.
I don’t know why but I’m so obsessed with “Intercept the Redguns” from a narrative standpoint. At this point, Balam Industries is completely screwed now that Arquebus Corporation possesses the scavenged PCA tech to drive them off-world, pretty much all the Redguns have either deserted or were killed off and many of the lesser grunts and MTs were wiped out by the Watchpoint’s defenses and mass desertions occurring and all G1 Michigan has left of his forces are his most fanatical MT squadrons taking on a pointless mission of trying to take down Raven and hopelessly charge through NEPENTHES. But does he turn tail and run? No, he orders his soldiers to charge into battle against a single pilot of mass destruction (C4-621 Raven/V.IV Rusty) for a hopeless battle in the service of an uncaring corporation and dying senseless deaths on the battlefield, par for the course in the world of Armored Core. Sure, Michigan could’ve read the room and knew this to be a lost cause and joined the withdrawal from Rubicon 3 to face the wrath of Balam’s higher ups for his failure but he’ll be damned if he wasn’t going all in to “bag the big one” and take a shot at eliminating the Wall Climber, the Worm Killer and the only G13 who has lived this long. Even when he dies, does his MT squadron break and try to flee? No, they assert that Michigan gave it his all, stand their ground and continue to fight. If 621 dies, Michigan wastes no time calling in relief teams to the front to tend to the wounded. Even Handler Walter doesn’t sound ecstatic about killing Michigan off, simply telling 621 to get the job done. They must’ve known each other back on Jupiter when Walter was sent there as a boy before the Fires of Ibis erupted. I’m almost reminded of Stannis Baratheon and his ill-fated March to Winterfell from Game of Thrones (TV Series only! Book Stannis is very different and much more successful). Forces depleted from mass desertions and facing overwhelming odds with no hope of victory but goes down fighting. Goddamn, I so wish there was a route to side with Balam all the way, maybe a DLC or “AC6.1” game like For Answer and Verdict Day where we have more options to side with the other factions such as the PCA or BRANCH.
I was disappointed that there was no siding with Balam option, imagine leading the charge of the elite MTs in a suicidal Hail Mary assault on Arquebus in the underground facility.
I love how much venom Michigan delivered in the line "I guess Arquebus sent a top Vesper to provide running commentary." obviously it makes sense but you don't often hear him sound like anything else than a drill sergeant.
ya forgot the one where you don't bring the stun cannon to the worm fight. think it's something like "G13 your ability to ruin my field trips is UNCANNY!!"
"Why don't you do the math and tell me how much he's worth?" "G13 is worth 2000 Albanys sir!" "Shut up and get back to fighting!" "SIR YES SIR!" You can feel that he's proud that that soldier answered the question correctly but mad that he's not focusing on staying alive
Does anyone else think Michigan would have bailed on Balem if he knew Coral was alive, and one of it's living pieces was inside Raven? Dude seems like he cares about Raven despite Raven being independent. I'm sure he would have been more than happy to put the Xylem in the ground, especially to get a shot at Snail.
Do note: In korean subtitle & Japanese voice/subtitle G1 *Don't* charge extra, but *Exclude* from repair cost as a tuition fee after G4/5 is destroyed. idk what's wrong in eng localization but G1 is even more awesome in non-eng language. In korean & japanese subtitle G1 says more him-like amazing line: Walter: "Michigan, I'll pay the repair costs." G1: "You made this into unlaughable field trip! I'll take it excluding the tuition fee!" It's *Excluding* - unlike eng version. Possibly indicating that he think 621 taught a lesson or two to arrogant G4/5. Totally a good leader.
You know Michigan is a real leader when his men, who are fully aware they're going to die since the Raven just killed roughly 50% of their numbers by the time Michigan deploys, still follows him willingly. Even when he gave them an option to retreat.
I also noticed how even Walter respects Michigan in the Attack the Dam complex by offering to pay for Volta's and Iguazu's repairs as well. He could have just said sorry about that but offers recompensation. So much in between the lines.
I really see a wasted potential in Balam group. We have 2 main endings and a «secret» one, but none of them make us side with corps. We burn the Coral and beat corps strategically; side with RLF and beat the corps face to face; side with Allmind and kill everyone including corps... It would be good to have a 3rd main ending where we side with an only corp who don't look like *complete* jerks - Balam. Devs wouldn't even have to do very much. Just to add another turning point mission - not ambushing Vespers or killing Michigan, but defending Michigan from Rusty; make Balam units in University city friendly; and finally, add a few "get in, shoot sh*t, blast something, get out" missions like at the beginning of the game to turn the tide of war. Taking out Xylem mission would need only dialogues change so that we side with Balam instead of RLF. BAM! We get a logical and fun bad ending that fits in pretty good - embracing our merc identity or something like that. Not becoming a hero nor a villain, but staying a loyal mercenary G13 till the end.
I day dream G1 Michigan becomes a real hero and joins the Runiconians and crushes Arquebus and then helps out with the igazu matter by smacking some sense into him.
I saw someone propose that instead of killing Michigan and MTs in “Intercept the Redguns”, we somehow convince them to join up with the Liberation Front and fight against Arquebus for a common cause, maybe even forming a mercenary company like the Raven’s Nest from Gen. 1.
@@VictorIV0310 that would be contradictory to the philosophy of the raven’s nest tho. Rubiconians have a solid belief system while Balam are most likely compromised of humans who made the corporate body inorder to survive in the harshest reality on the milkway system, especially earth. Corporations are made up of individuals who share similar interests and they don’t need a governing body of nations anymore since the Great War collapsed all goverment authority to an extent. Due to this the ravens nest was created solely to allow the freedom of choice for their warriors to chose and weave whatever path they want to make. If you took Balam and forced them to be the next raven’s nest then the remaining ravens (aster king and nightfall) would most likely erase you. Ravens have to make up their own mind and it’s their true freedom they have to find.
This fight broke me personally. I always liked G1 Michigan. He's this kinda drill sergeant you'd easily take a bullet for in a war. Also: "Fine. Whoever gets to take down G13 gets to take home a Balam Cobalt Medal! ...They're good you know -- they go real far if you throw'em." This is funny AND sad at the same time. Funny cuz...you know - big guy throw medal haha. But also sad because this implies he got one of those medals at some point and for whatever reason he threw it away. So he was not happy over getting it - it was not worth it. This guy straight up rocks and it makes me sad that *Spoilers* There's no ending where you can side with Balam...why FromSoft? I wanna side with Michigan :(
The cobalt medal thing I remember someone saying was him telling them that it wasn't worth it, but for different reasons I think than what you're theorizing. Can't fully remember what, but something about perhaps how such a medal is perhaps perceived in general by various militaries. I don't know, would have to try and look more into this
I wish we got endings for siding with one of the corporations just so I could not be directly or indirectly responsible for every Redgun dying They’re all good people (except arguably Iguazu but given time I think even he would get tired of being so hard-headed and feeling sorry for himself losing everything gambling) I love all the dialogue in the Intercept the Redguns mission because it all does such a great job of showing us what kind of person Michigan is, but I hate doing the mission because I feel horrible side note I’m not sure if I prefer Hell on Four Legs or Mean Ol’ Michigan lmao oh yeah other side note, don’t forget we never even get a single tiny little clue as to what anyone at all in this game looks like (the sketches you can find don’t have much in the way of details) the writing and voice acting just go so hard they don’t need the extra visuals
I was trying to S rank missions and I saw I missed a couple. There is a little talk with Michigan before the worm mission but it's not that interesting. There is some good dialogue if you kill Iguazu first in the dam complex alt mission though. I might have to record that and reupload because it's pretty funny Iguazu gets roasted hard. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more voicelines for waiting around in the worm mission/kill Michigan mission or something too. I'm sure there is some situation I didn't try.
LOOK ALIVE GUN 13 Your mission is to exfiltrate 12 happy meals for the Redguns, you are to ensure the package contains only boys toys or I’ll WELD YOU TO THE PLAYPLACE MYSELF
"Must've given as good as he got, we can still win this!" And he was right. I was always damn near hanging by a thread when this mission ended. Died several times to the remaining MTs in the field. Rest in peace, Mr. Hell On Four Legs.
@@exia1407finding Volta like that was so sad for me. I was like, wait... this looks famil- oh no... not like this man... you guys should've call me for this...
It should've been an indicator to me that despite Michigan's harshness, he assigns you a calling right off the bat while Pater or snail never did anything similar.
@@romancisar7593yes, apparently there isn't dialogue if you succeed to break the shield without the gizmo, which is definitely a shame and a missed opportunity
Its interesting how Michigan and his people talks to each other like they all sounded rude but all has respect with each other, except Iguazu. Michigan talks to Iguazu just as he would anyone, but iguazu clearly isnt respecting or got the hint that michigan care
Iguazu is too much of an asshole and idiot to understand that he had friends and leaders that gave a damn about him. It led him to one disaster after another as a result. He didn't have the skills to be arrogant but was arrogant anyways, right to the bitter end.
To be fair, realistically not everyone will take well to Michigan's style of leadership and such. Iguana's (This is intentional) response to it isn't the healthiest, as I believe most who didn't take well to the method in the past just told him they were leaving or something. Because as far as we know, there may have been members who stuck around and gave it a genuine try, but leaving when they saw it just didn't suit them. Wouldn't find it surprising either if Michigan is more lenient perhaps with those who join the Redguns willingly or at least gave it a chance (Unlike Iguana)
