The Great Gundam Wing Rewatch: Episodes 9 and 10

[nanslice]

First, a recap!



Episode Nine - Portrait of a Ruined Country
Zechs receives the restored Tallgeese mobile suit and returns to the land of his birth, the Sanc Kingdom, in hopes of liberating it from the hands of the Alliance. The connection between Relena and Zechs is finally revealed.

Episode Ten - Heero, Distracted by Defeat
OZ plans to transport the new Taurus mobile suits to their base in Siberia. However, Lady Une sets an elaborate trap there to lure and destroy the Gundams. Duo and Quatre arrive to attack the base's ground transportation route (which is revealed to be a decoy), while Heero and Trowa attack the base's aerial route. During the battle, Zechs uses the Tallgeese to duel Heero. However, Une interrupts this when she threatens to destroy the space colonies using the missiles of Space Fortress Barge unless the Gundam pilots surrender. Doctor J responds and agrees to surrender, but refuses to hand over the Gundams. In response to this, Heero self-detonates the Wing Gundam, nearly killing himself in the process. The remaining Gundams are forced to retreat.



WHAT A TWIST. Remember, future spoilers are welcome as long as you use whiteout text or Rot13. :3

Comments

[taichara]

The amusing part is that the link between Zechs and Relena was already on the table, if one was paying attention ~ Oh, summarizers ;3~


One of the highlights in these episodes, I would say -- aside from the spectacular finale -- is the showcasing of the instability of a good portion of the cast. Zechs is driving a wedge in his own mind, hung on the horns of his father's ways and the ways of OZ (and Treize's manipulations are no help); Relena has moved into full-blown creepy stalkerdom, displacing her grief over her father's death onto Heero; and Une's need for control and being paramount in Treize's eyes is chilling to see. We can add Trowa's deathwish to the list, while we're at it.

Otherwise, the name of the game here is sacrifice. Otto gives up his life for Zechs -- and clearly knows just what has been on the line ("Long live King Zechs") -- and one episode later Heero achives that detonation he'd been working towards since the first episode. That he's rescued by Trowa, the Gundam pilot who thinks the least of his own life, is an interesting and intriguing wrinkle. Meanwhile Wufei has effectively given up the identity he'd taken on, feeling unworthy of continuing ...


The series also begins to step up its game with actual scifi staple elements in these episodes (with which I am eternally pleased ~), because everything's better with psionics and AI --

On the one hand, we have the introduction of the "Spaceheart" / "Soul of Space", which is Wing's fancy way of describing Quatre's telempathy, etc. (seen most in action when he'd buried under the backlash after Heero self-detonates). I can still remember the years of arguments over this thing, but no fear, confirmation beyond all doubt is in Frozen Teardrop, where -- among other things -- we're told that Instructor W is growing distant because he'd been forced actively shield his mind from reading others, or being read, because Katherine will track him down via their shared psychic abilities if he doesn't ~

On the other, we get our first references to artifical intelligence / machine mind in both the ability of the Tauruses to learn from battle situations -- and potentially act without the input of their pilots -- and the ability of Tallgeese to also act against the wishes of her pilot. This is, in many ways, an even greater threat than human-directed mobile suits, something that even Doctor J is well aware of ...

For a more recent take on these events -- with some notable differences in the details -- the matching Glory of Losers chapters are summarized here --

[kalloway]

For some reason, I remember most of this stuff as happening, like, another ten episodes from now.

Wing just has a LOT of stuff happening in it.

[taichara]

Wing doesn't waste much time in nuking its ostensible protagonists into low orbit plot-wise, nope X3~

seven more episodes does net you a certain thing we're both lurking and salivating over, though, unless I miss my guess

[kalloway]

*patpats them all* I will remake you into cyborgs

\o/ you know this is what I've been waiting for

[taichara]

why not, I borged Trowa years ago if only in a minor way and Heero's always been a cyborg as far as I'm concerned ~

\o/ you aren't allowed to leave after that episode though *lolololol*

[kalloway]

I'll stick around for all of Zechs' personalities and all the Epyon, no worries

I still get some nice Noin/Quatre moments after that, too, don't I? I have no clue because my entire point is that I have the pacing all fucked.

[taichara]

two selves and counting so far ~ 83

that's well after the magic episode, yes X3

[redsixwing]

OK, so. This is probably my favorite chunk of wing. Possibly-inarticulate fansquee ahead! You've been warned.

Zechs. ZECHS. You need to back off, get away from Treize (who is beautiful poison but still poison) and work through some of that grief before it tears you in half.

"Portrait of a Ruined Country" is one of the better ep names, too. *chew* And Tallgeese! Original!Tallgeese is my second-favorite suit in the show, so getting to see it in action is a happy thing. (ROT13: Abg gung jr'ir rira frra jung vg pna qb jura gur cvybg'f abg nethvat rirel fgrc bs gur jnl, lrg.)

On a slightly less flaily-hands level: So much sacrifice. I have a literary kink for loyalty - my favorite stories are the ones involving people doing redonkulous things because someone else asked them to, and for good or ill, they trust that someone implicitly.

You can probably see why I like Gundam Wing. xD

Hm. I bet a fantasy-fied version of Une's trap here would be a great roleplaying session. Going to squirrel that away for later...

[taichara]

Alas for all involved in the longmiddle run, he's going to choose to fracture into parts, never mind tearing in half --

*descends into fanning all over the Lady which surely surprises no one at this point lol*

[turlough]

I don't think I'll ever grow tired of the opening sequence & music. No matter how often I've seen it it still manages to grip me. I'm so easy :-)

And I'll never stop being fascinated with the contrast between Duo's expressive face and gestures and Heero's extreme physical containment.

I hadn't noticed it before but now I wonder at how strangely lacking in knowledge OZ seems to be about the Alliance base in Sanc. Shouldn't they've made sure they'd better intel before the attack?

The scene with the Manguanacs harranguing Quatre is hilarious. And I love his beatific smile over the coffee.

Episode ten reminded me again how much I loathe Trieze and the way he manipulates everyone around. Particularly his treatment of Une.

[omnipotent]

Has anybody noticed how Zechs's description of piloting the Tallgeese is a bit of foreshadowing for you-know-what?