nanslice | The Great Gundam Wing Rewatch: Episodes 11, 12, 13, and 14!

First, a recap!

Episode 11: The Whereabouts of Happiness
With his retreat path from Siberia blocked off by OZ troops, Duo is forced to travel with Quatre and the Maganac Corps to their base in the desert, but when OZ troops locate the Maganac's base, they distract the enemy while Duo and Quatre escape. At the same time, Zechs gathers the remains of the Wing Gundam and plans to rebuild it, seeking a rematch of his interrupted duel. Meanwhile, Relena attempts to take revenge on Lady Une and is nearly killed in the process, but is saved by Noin.

Episode 12: Bewildered Warriors
Heero awakes at a traveling circus troupe after being rescued by Trowa from his near-death experience in Siberia. Meanwhile, a depressed Wufei encounters former Alliance Major Sally Po, who is now a guerrilla leader. Sally helps Wufei overcome his loss to Treize, causing Wufei to pilot the Shenlong Gundam once again.

Episode 13: Catherine's Tears
Zechs returns to the Lake Victoria Base, where he meets two of Noin's former students. He agrees to join them in a military offensive, but Zechs is forced to kill them when they reveal their merciless attitudes to war. Meanwhile, Trowa uses the Gundam Heavyarms to attack an OZ base, planning to self-destruct afterwards, but Catherine Bloom, a knife thrower in the circus, forces Trowa to realize the value of his own life.

Episode 14: The Order to Destroy 01
Heero places his fate in hands of Sylvia Noventa, the granddaughter of Field Marshal Noventa, who Heero killed at New Edwards, while Relena openly defies Duke Dermail, the leader of the Romefeller Foundation, the organization of European nobles with monetary and military support for OZ, which impresses Treize. Meanwhile, Zechs begins to reconstruct the Wing Gundam until suspicious officials from Romefeller order him to destroy it. While Zechs complies with the order, it is revealed that he has arranged for a dummy to be destroyed.

Thoughts and speculations! Remember, future spoilers are welcome as long as you use white text or Rot13. :3

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Noin's loyalty to Zechs is almost terrifying. The way that they wrote her behavior towards him really irks me. This powerful military woman who follows some man who barely acknowledges her around like a puppy, and hangs on his every word? She's almost as bad as Une is towards Treize. At least we can somewhat tell that Treize is smitten with Une, though he tries to hide it (he has no problem with her seeing his nudity [then again, if my body looked as good as Treize's, I'd show that off too] and invites her to partake of wine with him, and violates her personal space from time to time . . . Treize himself may be oblivious to it, and may be trying to manipulate her, but it's obvious he's into Une. She is a capable and loyal woman, who could blame him?). With Zechs, it's hard to know for sure. He obviously trusts her, but . . . well, to go further into that would include spoilers.

I, too, have always thought that their depictions of the Earth were missing some pretty huge land chunks.

It is interesting that you write that Wufei was going to be African. I wonder if that means he would have been sub-Saharan African, or North African (although if Quatre is Berber, he could technically be North African, and some folks do include some regions of North Africa in what they consider to be the Middle East). As an African-American, one of the things that saddens me about anime in general is the seeming lack of characters of sub-Saharan African origin. Perhaps someday . . .

It is probably good that Wufei was not sub-Saharan African, because if his personality was going to be the same as it is written now, he would have been the poster child for the Angry Black Man trope (not necessarily a bad trope, but I do tire of seeing it--we are capable of emotions other than anger!).

Noin doesn't bother me any more than anyone else in the OZ/Alliance/Romefeller circles bothers me, because the behaviour is the same across the board -- follow the dictates of the noble/superior officer you've latched onto because That Is Your Place In The World. No different than, say, Otto as an immediate other example in Zechs' sphere of influence.

That Noin (and Une) are included in that fascist regime rather than it being completely masculine speaks louder than the individual characters.

Unfortunately I can't verify that note about Wufei one way or the other; I received it second-hand, as it were, and I'll admit I haven't seen it in any source materials (so far) --

The Great Gundam Wing Rewatch: Episodes 11, 12, 13, and 14!

Re: teal deer running around the world --

Re: teal deer running around the world --