#AC 195

[gvk2012]

"Glory To All The Colonies" - Zechs Merquise

[acepodcastweek]

Did I miss your favourite? Let me know!

Don't know any of these? Pick a show and go listen!

Wondering where Dr. Sally Grissom is? She is too powerful and would likely skew the poll, but rest assured I have not forgotten.

Want to know more about Ace Week Fiction Podcast Festivities? Click here.

[neim-batteries-not-included]

It’s asexual awareness week!!! I present the most aware asexual!!!

(Possible eyestrain and trypophobia, vague spoilers for tma under the cut)

That is not his cardigan. You can decide whose it is, but it’s. It’s not his.

(Click for better quality)

[yuntwis]

How are you doing, is a question of that many ask but most don't mean it. Trying to do/be something is fake. What's the deal with you not being yourself? Guest B G Howard Link to his book Family Ties: Thicker Than Blood https://authorbghoward.com/?fbclid=IwAR0Cj1AKhO2ew5sfS4FSPnpzUc8mLPonq6lInwGPnrOCqiinrr2dRs_XrHw

[etrevil]

New skk illustration just dropped for the Young Ace's June issue and,

HARUKAWA THE WOMAN THAT YOU ARE, THE APPEAL IS REAL, SKK WE THRIVING, WHERE ELSE CAN YOU FIND TWO GOOD LOOKING BASTARDS TOGETHER 😭

dating, engaged, married in seven countries and divorced in all 195 of them.

Dazai staring at us while Chuuya stares of screen he knows. He knows what this does to us. He knows how much seeing them together drives us crazy.

[crabfisher]

Hi sorry to bother, but I'd love to know if you've learnt any new solitaire secrets?? (Also your furrets are cute!)

not a bother at all! I'd say i've learned a good bit of solitaire lore. The solitaire iceberg explained. first of all I learned that I am playing quite possibly the worst version of solitaire, the neopets one [hailed as Sakhmet Solitaire] only lets you go through the deck once, which is apparently not normal. I wouldn't know. I don't play other forms of solitaire. I play this one because i want the rewards it gives in the game I play.

Out of 195 games, i have won 5 times. So you could consider me a master

anyways,

Turns out The Discard Pile is actually the objective. long term goal of the game is to eventually stack every suit up ace to king into the discard pile. Once all cards are in there. you've won, easy peasy

The game is still really hard. Ridiculously so, but I imagine it would be easier if you could go through the deck more than once.

Ultimately the game is very much based on luck an patience. A bit of skilled is involved [I.e, don't place a red king onto an empty space if a red king is already on the board, always move all the cards you can already on the board before you start placing drawn cards onto it] but aside from that you just have to hope the cards are niceys to you. thats about it.

[glad you like the furrets also. :D]

[thegodshavehorns]

hey guys what are your favorite planets?

AA: there will be a l0st planet, flung free fr0m its star, spinning f0rever in the endless star-spangled night. it will have 0nce held a thriving civilizati0n, which will die 0ut with a tender sl0wness. its atm0sphere and 0ceans will freeze, until 0nly its well-insulated c0re h0lds any heat. there will be pe0ple there, still, living 0ff that heat deep in the crust, praying. it will be beautiful.

AT: i SPEND A LOT OF TIME ON THIS GREAT PLANET OUT IN THE… uH, i THINK YOU HUMANS DON’T HAVE A NAME FOR IT… iT’S SEVERAL TENS OF MILLIONS OF LIGHT YEARS AWAY, uH, aNYWAY, iT’S NICE, i LIKE CAMPING OUT UNDER THE MYCELIAL TREES AND LISTENING TO THE LIZARDS SING ME TO SLEEP AS THE SUN RISES, tHEN AT NIGHT I ROAST SOME JUICY WORMS OVER THE FIRE AND JUST WATCH THE LIGHTS OF THE AURORA ORIENTALIS, sOMETIMES I INVITE A FRIEND FROM AMONGST THE LOCALS AND WE TELL STORIES AND FLY AROUND, iT’S NICE,

TA: anywhere wiith wii-fii ii2 good enough.

CG: I HATE THEM ALL EQUALLY. I’D SPEND ALL MY TIME IN THE INTERGALACTIC VOID, BUT I HATE OUTER SPACE JUST AS MUCH.

AC: :33 would you believe i can’t remember the planet’s name? i had a lot of fun there, though! the people there had this fascinating romance system where each purrson was flushed with two other people, who were also flushed with another shared purrson, making a square. And they were pale on the diagonal. i introduced the concept of blackrom to them, and it was purrfect chaos. >:33

GA: It Is Impossible To Choose Just One. Every Planet Is Unique, Precious, And Delicate. Like A Shard Of Crystalized Precipitate.

GC: M4RS.

AG: It’s called “Areani”, and it’s got a diamond in its center that’s 8igger than two Earths! It’s mine, of course. Won it in a game of craps. ::::)

CT: ▉▉▉▉▉.

TC: AnY sPoT tO cRaSh Is GoOd, InSeCtIsIbLiNg. I bRiNg My FaVoRiTe PlAcE wItH mE. :o)

CA: planets are planets, and people are people. all places tend to blur together ovver time. that’s just as true for the others, too, though they don’t wwant to admit it.

CC: You probably t)(ink I'd say Kepler 195-4, or some ot)(er planet wit)( only oceans, but my favorite was actually K2-219-5 because it )(ad so many islands! Islands are definitely t)(e best. I liked it so muc)( I actually settled t)(ere for a w)(ile, before we all came to -Eart)(. Too bad it's gone now.

[tinyozlion]

The Char Aznable Problem 

Here’s a take for the MS Gundam fans in the audience: Using the Zechs-as-Char analogy will actually hinder you in understanding the finale of Gundam Wing.

I know there are unavoidable reasons for the comparison! Zechs is a deliberate homage, that's not in question. But I’d like to argue that taking Zechs’s actions on their own terms is the only reasonable way to evaluate them. Understanding Char’s Counterattack will certainly make Zechs’s performance more nuanced and recognizable, but expecting him to be the same person with the same copy-pasted goals is to miss the purpose of his character. 

Neither of their goals make sense outside of their respective settings and character arcs, in the same way that MS Gundam and Gundam Wing are related thematically but are both telling very different kinds of stories in different ways.

Zechs doesn’t do a heel-turn and become a Char just because the hand of the franchise swooped in and forced him to; he does a heel turn and puts on a Char Costume (…mask?) because he is playing the villain, and the villain he is playing is Char. 

Why? Because Char from Char’s Counterattack has no place in the universe of Gundam Wing. Standing up and saying Char Stuff™ in After Colony 195 makes you sound like you got the space madness. 

White Fang Milliardo shows up out of nowhere with this new kind of racism he just invented and delivers a treatise about how humans from Space have become biologically superior to humans from Earth within a couple generations... in a setting where Newtypes aren’t a thing. There is no established precedent in AC 195 for declaring that space colonists are a super-evolved utopian master race OTHER than to blatantly manufacture conflict.

 And like... ding ding ding, that’s the point. 

Char from Char’s Counterattack is a complex, disillusioned, flawed man who is trying to make the earth uninhabitable for complex, flawed reasons that he genuinely plans on carrying out.  

Milliardo is a complex, disillusioned, flawed man pretending very hard to want to make the earth uninhabitable because it’s an Ozymandias Gambit intended to galvanize all remaining forces to take part in a war that will ultimately burn through all of their military resources.

 Char from Char’s Counterattack exists in a timeline where the earth is a polluted wasteland, and the space colonies are pristine, self-sustaining eutopias with ten billion people living in them. 

Gundam Wing is a timeline where the earth is pristine, and the space colonies are oppressed dystopian slums with marginal populations still largely dependent on earth’s resources. Staging the KPG 2.0 in this context would be a death sentence for the colonies as well as the people on earth.

Char believes it’s his destiny to punish the people of earth for their selfishness and their inability to change or allow future generations to evolve. Milliardo believes the only thing he’s good for is to rid the world of people like himself, SO that the future generation has a chance to change for the better.

I’ve found that the more I know about MS Gundam, the deeper an appreciation I have for what Wing chose to adapt and where it diverged; I think that some of Wing’s greatest achievements are born from the moments it purposefully broke from its predecessor, and some of its greatest flaws come from when it chose to adapt things that just don't make sense outside of their original context-- I don't necessarily think that Milliardo pretending to be Char is one of those moments.

On the whole, what Wing feels like to me is a poignant echo of the Universal Century, as if we are seeing the reflections, the shared rhythms, of people and struggles across time and reality. Zechs is like a variation of the Char leitmotif transposed into a new composition.

…And anyway, Zechs isn’t even the Char Clone of Gundam Wing. Zechs AND Treize are the Char Clone of Gundam Wing. 

The Red Comet is an ace pilot simultaneously admired and hated for his abilities and the respect he commands as a soldier. He has the luxury of being chivalrous on the battlefield because no one can compete with him, and because his ultimate goals differ from those of the ruthless organization that holds his reigns. He has the burden of a spotless reputation hiding a dark, secret purpose. He eventually turns coat and becomes Quattro, a mentor figure to the talented pilots who idolize him and walk the same path he does. The complexities of war erode his confidence and understanding of what is right, of what is actually worth fighting for in a world where the grind of battle never stops, and the same points have to be made over, and over, and over again, paid for in the blood of young people– people just like him, who he encouraged to fight, who had bright futures ahead of them– each and every time.

The glorious Neo Zeon leader is a wheeling and dealing homme-fatale who can play the game of politics, who knows how to put on an inspiring show for the adoring masses, all while getting what he wants through deceit, charm, treachery, abuse of his charisma, even his sensuality. He is willing to do anything for what he views as the best future for humanity– particularly for the humans he thinks are worthy of that better future, all while knowing he is not one of the chosen ones. He will always carry a seed of self-loathing and insecurity with him. He knows that the version of him that people idolize is only a mirage, but he is willing to use that mirage to steer the future where he believes it should go, sacrificing whoever he needs to for an end that justifies any means.

Zechs is the ace pilot. Treize is the glorious leader. They’re both variations on theme of Char.

Char’s story takes place over the course of his lifetime, spanning multiple series-- Zechs/Milliardo simply doesn’t have time to be everything Char was in the time frame of Wing. Instead his influence is played by two people, representing different eras of his life, existing simultaneously and in coordinated opposition to each other.

Nobody can really be Char except Char, and Char can't really be substituted for Zechs or Treize within their own universe. Even clones grow up differently when they're raised in different environments.

[shurisu]

Bakugan Height HCs

I was lazy, so instead of full body pngs comparison, you need to stick with this one

Ok so:

I imagine Volt - visibly being the tallest NV character- is somewhere between 190-195 cms (193 in this chart)

Keith is also obviously tall,yes, even if he wasn't cheating with that hair, so he is around 186-188

Shadow would be same height or maybe 1-2 shorter than Keith but in contrast to Keith's slender frame his muscular build makes up for it . Around 185-186 cms

Klaus is also close to former two, so a solid 185

Gus,Ace,Billy are i think around the same height around 182-183 cms (or we can say 180 at least)

I think Dan,Shun,Hydron and Baron are around 175- 178 cms

Julie is the tallest among girls around 168 cms

Mira is also around same height maybe slightly shorter (165 suits well imo)

Alice is around 163cms

Mylene is a solid 160. (Yeah she's definitely a tiny badass)

Lync would be same height around Mylene or slightly shorter 160-158 cms for him

Runo is around 156-158 cms

And Koichi of Bakugan,Marucho, I'm saying this because I think he's also portrayed way shorter than he really is.I think he's around 155 (even though he looks like? 110?)

[godsandvillains-if]

hello! i have to admit, this isn't my kind of jam but from the intro alone you have me curious! i wish you the best with this project! i was wondering if we can get some info about what the ros appearance; things like race/ethnicity, nationality ...... hero/villain costumes ;-P who wears spandex and who has a cape!

Hello dear Anon!! 🤗

You can find some details on the ROs appearances down below. For more in-depth details, you guys can check out my Patreon next month or wait until you meet the characters in game! Mind you, the character sheets will also shed light on things like personality, relationships and the characters' entire arsenal and powers 😊

But enough about that! Down below you can find more details about every ROs physical appearance:

— Archon —

Height: 205 cm or 6'7’’;

Build: Broad shoulders, toned and muscular;

Hair color: Midnight black;

Hair type: Short with loose curls / Shoulder-length and wavy;

Facial hair: Always shaved;

Eye color: Dark blue;

Skin color: Fair pale.

— Mars —

Height: 195 cm or 6'3’’;

Build: Very toned and tall;

Hair color: Midnight black with red tips;

Hair type: Short and straight / Long and straight, kept in a single braid;

Facial hair: Stubble;

Eye color: Dark red;

Skin color: Fair.

— Stardom —

Height: 190 cm or 6'3’’;

Build: Lean, long legs and toned;

Age: 28 years old;

Hair color: Natural gold blond;

Hair type: Undercut with ear-length messy hair on top / Shoulder-length hair mostly kept in a loose bun;

Facial hair: Blond ducktail style;

Eye color: Light blue with specks of green;

Skin color: Ivory and permanent sunburned.

— Wildcat —

Height: 170 cm or 5'5’’;

Build: Average, short and in shape;

Age: 23 years old;

Hair color: Black with purple highlights;

Hair type: Short, messy and straight / Short Chanel haircut with feathery long bangs;

Facial hair: None;

Eye color: Violet with hints of dark blue;

Skin color: Purple.

— Zodiac —

Height: 185 cm or 6’;

Build: Average, long limbs and in shape;

Age: 31 years old;

Hair color: Warm brown;

Hair type: Short and kinky / Shoulder-length, coily and kept in an afro;

Facial hair: Full beard;

Eye color: Light brown;

Skin color: Dark brown with bronze undertones.

— Ace —

Height: 180 cm or 5'9’’;

Build: Muscular and sturdy;

Age: 38 years old;

Hair color: Mostly gray with a few black strands;

Hair type: Very short, military style / Shoulder-length kept in a tight bun;

Facial hair: Medium stubble;

Eye color: Steel gray;

Skin color: Warm Beige.

— Paladin —

Height: 175 cm or 5'7’’;

Build: Very toned and lean;

Age: 26;

Hair color: Black;

Hair type: Medium-length styled in neat rows of braids along their scalp;

Facial hair: Shaved;

Eye color: Light brown;

Skin color: Porcelain pale.

Thank you so much for the question! 💕

[arabicquotescom]

الشجاعة هي اتقان الخوف و ليس غياب الخوف .

[wrestler-smash-or-pass]

Weekly Wrapup 3/31/24 (late)

This Week's Rankings:

Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane) - 82.4% smash

Mayu Iwatani - 64.2%

Mike Santana - 64.1%

Carlito - 58.5%

Mick Foley (Cactus Jack) - 58.3%

Ace Austin - 48.0%

Stevie Richards - 46.9%

Michelle McCool - 46.2%

Jeff Hardy (Willow) - 42.5%

Dan Severn - 37.9%

Matt Hardy & Shannon Moore - 34.3%

Charles Mason - 33.2%

Faarooq Asad - 28.9%

Logan Paul - 13.8%

Average smash rating this week: 47.1%

More stats under the cut, along with my observations, commentary, and some of my favorite tags...

Most total votes this week (most enthusiasm)

Logan Paul - 479 votes

Carlito - 253

Kabuki Warriors - 244

Mick Foley (Cactus Jack) - 230

Mike Santana - 220

And least total votes this week (least enthusiasm)

Faarooq Asad - 166 votes

Dan Severn - 174

Mayu Iwatani - 176

Stevie Richards - 192

Michelle McCool - 195

The closest poll was Ace Austin, who lost 98-106

Bottom Ten Overall

Vince McMahon - 3.9% smash

Ric Flair - 4.6% smash

Nasty Boys - 7.1% smash

Kane (Corporate variant) - 10.1% smash

Miracle Violence Connection - 11.8% smash

Gene Munny - 12.4% smash

Spike Trivet - 12.% smash

Kevin Sullivan - 13.1% smash

Logan Paul - 13.8% smash

Triple H (Terra Ryzing variant) - 18.6% smash

Bottom Women Overall

Nia Jax - 28.7% smash

Michelle McCool - 46.2% smash

Eve Torres - 47.1% smash

Carmella - 47.8% smash

Nikkita Lyons - 48.2% smash

Top Tag Teams/Trios

Kabuki Warriors - 82.4% smash

The Golden Lovers - 80.4% smash

Unholy Union - 74.3% smash

Best Friends - 66.7% smash

Motor City Machine Guns - 65.5% smash

Some changes to the overall standings this week: Michelle McCool took the No. 2 spot on the least smashable women list, Logan Paul made No. 9 on the least smashable overall list, and Kabuki Warriors knocked the Golden Lovers off the top spot for tag teams that we'd like to be tag teamed by.

Logan Paul also got the fourth most votes overall. Usually when someone gets a lot of votes, it's because Tumblr is overwhelmed by its lust (Christian Cage, Hangman, and Sami Zayn, to name a few), but with Logan Paul, the motivation was more...bloodlust. His poll received the most pass votes so far (413), surpassing even Vince McMahon.

Also just want to share that Friday night, I had a dream I met Bret Hart and he told the the name of the handsomest wrestler alive and insisted that I run a poll on this guy. Sadly I cannot remember the name he said, and I'm pretty sure it would just be gibberish even if I could remember.

And now for some of my favorite tags and comments

@tache-noire on Dan Severn: #hes like if dax had hair

@daphne-minor on Logan Paul: #i’d rather smash bam margera than watch logan paul do anything

[shenanigans-and-imagines]

20 Questions for Fic Writers Game

Tagged by @jo-harrington. Thank you!

1) How many works do you have on A03?

According to AO3, 195. However I do know it’s more since I have made a few drabble compilation. Someday I’ll reorganize everything.

2) What's your total AO3 word count?

686,641

3) What fandoms do you write for?

Baldur’s Gate 3, Stranger Things, Marvel/MCU, Star Wars, The Magnificent Seven, M*A*S*H, Good Omens, and a scattering of other fandoms here and there.

4) What are your top five fics by kudos?

Skipping Drabble/Headcanon compilations

I Want It All (Astarion x Ace!Tav)

Life Is Inevitable Like That (Ineffable Husbands)

Trust Me (Poe Dameron x Reader)

An Unspoken Thing (Doctor Strange x Reader)

Questions (Ineffable Husbands)

5) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I respond to most of them, or at least try to. I think it’s important to building a community, which is what I hope I encourage. Also as a way to show that yes, I did read it and yes, commenting does matter.

6) What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

What If…Loki Lost His Love?

I don’t do major character death or angst in general. It’s just not what I’m looking for in fics, but I actually think I did a good job on this one.

7) What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of them? They’re basically all one-shots with happy conclusions. I think if my recent stuff, probably I Want It All.

8) Do you get hate on fics?

I did get one “kill yourself” message a few years ago, but it was just one person on anon. The reception to basically all of my fics have been positive.

9) Do you write smut? If so, what kinds?

I’ve written some smut. I’ve done a couple of Kinktobers and some for Clone Wars. I think the best way I can describe the way I write smut is “sensual”? And it’s a little rougher. Idk, somebody better versed than me could describe it better.

10) Do you write crossovers?

Not really

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I did have a few of my Poe Dameron fics stolen a few years back, but I messaged them and they quickly deleted the fic. That all being said, if anybody notices my works being stolen or copied, please let me know.

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that anyone has told me.

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

My sister and I have talked about it, but no.

14) What's your all time favorite ship?

Ineffable Husbands

15) What's a WIP that you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

*glances at all WIPs I already have published and drawers full of WIPs saved on my computer*

What are you a cop?

16) What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, characterization and emotions. At least that’s what people have told me.

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

Prose. I’m still working on getting more creative with my descriptions. I could also really get better at scene setting in general.

18) Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I’m not against it, but use it wisely.

If you want to reader to understand what is being said, write it out in the language of the fic. This isn’t a movie. Putting a translation at the bottom of the chapter or in the middle of the sentence makes it sloppy. Instead type out “they said in X language, “___”.

However if you want a character to hear something being said in a different language and they don’t understand it, then type it out of you want.

19) First fandom you wrote for?

Unpublished? Harry Potter

Published? Sherlock (no you can’t read it)

20) Favorite fic you've written?

Don’t make me pick. I’ve written so much and I have a soft spot for so many for a variety of reasons. If you want to send me a fic title and ask me about it, I’ll gladly answer any questions you want.

Tagging @leighsartworks216, @kittttycakes, @can-of-pringles, @flapjacques and anybody else who wants to join in!

[palms-upturned]

Situation inside Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital ‘extremely bleak’

Nov 2nd, 01:35 GMT

Bernard Smith, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank

We’ve heard this evening from the spokesman of the Palestinian health authority in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qudra, about the “extremely bleak picture” of the current condition at Al-Shifa Hospital.

Now, they are running on a secondary generator. But the hospital’s ventilation and AC system have stopped working because they have almost ran out of fuel.

Oxygen production system for patients have also stopped working, and even the freezers in the morgue are not working.

We understand that the fuel provided by Palestinian organisations could only last for a few hours. There’s going to be a disaster if there’s no fuel in the next few days.

This is the hospital that the Israeli military said should be evacuated. They alleged that Hamas has tunnel networks underneath the hospital.

It’s also why Israel has refused to allow the delivery of fuel as aid. Israel says the fuel risks being diverted to help Hamas military operation.

At the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, their main generator has also stalled.

These hospitals of course are already overflowing with casualties and patients. The staff are exhausted. Now it seems that they are on the edge of viability at these hospitals.

[boanerges20]

Kawasaki Ninja Sports Package Type-RR [RCM-195] by AC Sanctuary Tokyo West Photo: Sanctuary Tokyo West

[tinyozlion]

“True Peace” and “Total Pacifism”: the Peacecraft Ideals & the Point of it All

(buckle up, this is a long one)

Capital “P” Peace is by far the most crucial concept in Gundam Wing.

It is a simple word that’s tossed around a lot and it pulls far too much weight for one little noun. The range of topics covered beneath this straining umbrella of a term includes everything from “a general sense of unthreatened well-being”, to “unilateral demilitarization and disbandment of global military rule”. The fault here lies not with translation difficulties or simplification for the ease of dubbing; real-world discussions of pacifism and peace are plagued by a lack of nuanced vocabulary as well. Alas, in this instance, it is the English language itself that has conspired to prank us.

Nevertheless, while overuse of the word is certainly frustrating at times, I find that when broken down and decoded, what may appear to be a lot of vague, flowery statements about the Virtues of Peace™ is actually a strategic political debate. 

 …Mostly. This is complicated somewhat by the fact that there are a significant number of characters for whom making flowery statements about the Virtues of War™ is a hobby and a way of life. So yes, indeed, sometimes convincing someone with Extreme Eyebrows that mankind can find value outside of eternal, violent conflict IS a priority that must be considered. 

Part of why I think Gundam Wing had such a profound effect on its young audience when it came out is that it managed to cover most of an Intro to Ethics course in 49 episodes and a movie. It was a lot of kids’ first exposure to philosophy and politics, and it communicated its ideas by way of exciting robot fights and aspirationally cool characters. Gundam Wing made it easy to care about complex, abstract ideas and how they might affect the world– ideas that, at least for American audiences in the early 00’s, were well in advance of what they were likely to encounter in public school. 

…Now, maybe you read that and found yourself thinking: “Come on, ‘peace is better than war’ is a pathetically simple dichotomy that no one needs to seriously debate���-- and I would love to give that to you. But as an American, I must beg you to consider that in the USA we have been trying to decide for decades whether an average of 75 school shootings per second is enough school shootings to consider implementing basic gun control.

Never underestimate the ability of a simple idea to become so polemicized that it becomes impossible to talk about or resolve without a total public paradigm shift– and now consider that learning how to cause a paradigm shift is exactly what Gundam Wing is all about.

--There Is No War in A.C. 195--

For the majority of cases, when a character talks about war or peace, they mean specifically “between the Earth Sphere and the Space Colonies”--  as in, “an end to the conflict we have been embroiled in for roughly 20 years”. 

This rather misleadingly makes it sound as though the Alliance is at war with the Colonies– but in AC 195, the Colonies do not have a military to go to war WITH. The Colonies aren’t engaged in a war with the Earth Sphere Alliance, they are under military occupation by the Earth Sphere Alliance. 

When the Gundams first come to Earth and begin attacking the Alliance/OZ, the immediate question is: is this a declaration of war by the Colonies? 

The burden continuously falls on the Colony ambassadors to prove that the Gundams are not politically associated with them. For all intents and purposes, they consider the retaliation of the Gundams to be acts of terrorism– which they must! Because otherwise they will indeed be at war with Earth, something the Colonies absolutely, 100%, definitively cannot afford. The Colonies are space bubbles. They can be popped. They can be blockaded. Earth provides the Colonies with the majority of their resources; declaring war against it would be insanity.

All this makes “peace with the Colonies” a very lopsided affair. Since officially speaking the Colonies have no military power, and since the nations of Earth that had previously allied with them were wiped out, negotiating for peace would require placing full trust in the Alliance. In other words, it would mean relying on the oppressor to stop oppressing purely as an act of goodwill. 

This is why the “Peace Negotiations” proposed by the Alliance military leaders was at best a naive gesture that would have broken down at the first conflict of interest. The Alliance was responsible for the oppression of the Colonies to begin with– choosing to withdraw is a matter of their convenience; there is nothing to negotiate, because they have all the power. At worst, its “diplomacy” would simply be a farce designed to put a benevolent face on continued exploitation.

–Which is exactly what happens under OZ’s rule: “peace” is obtained in name only, while nothing about the power dynamic changes.

Here’s the trouble with settling for peace by any means: Every single military organization in Gundam Wing expresses a desire for world peace.

 The Earth Sphere Alliance Military began as a peace-keeping measure. OZ claims it is correcting the Alliance’s failure to bring about world peace. Romefeller insists that it will bring about peace through a firm, authoritarian hand guided by the traditions of the ruling class. White Fang asserts that earth is responsible for all wars, and that peace can only be attained by destroying it. 

There are many, many roads to “peace” that end in totalitarianism, to peace removed from liberty, to Pax Romefeller. In practice, White Fang’s approach would probably be the most effective at bringing about total, ever-lasting peace– if the result is all you care about, then sure, mass-extinction is one way to go! 

But assuming we value peace because we ALSO value life and happiness and art and puppies and things like that, then we need to set the acceptable standard for peace somewhere above the eternal calm of a dead universe.

--The Peacecraft Ideals--

So, having established that “world peace by any means and any cost” is not a reasonable, humane, or moral outcome to strive for, we must consider “True Peace” to be a different outcome from “peace”.

As defined by Relena and ideals of the Sanc Kingdom, True Peace must be non-exploitative. It must require no threat of violence to enforce. To establish it, the means of military conflict must be removed and abolished, and the sources of human dispute must be addressed by means other than force of arms. Most importantly, True Peace requires fostering a transformational attitude towards peace– one that empowers the collective will of the people to both achieve and maintain peace. 

To summarize, the Peacecraft plan of action is:  1) Remove weapons that are the means of military conflict, 2) Remove the primary sources of military conflict, and 3) unite people in the desire for peace, and to uphold peace.

It’s this last point that is so crucial to events that the entirety of the final narrative arc hinges upon answering the all-important questions: how does one foster the desire for peace, and bring about a massive paradigm shift that can change the course of history? and what price is one willing to pay for it? 

“Absolute pacifism [which is understood as a maximal and universal rejection of violence and war,] is an ideal. Some versions of absolute pacifism go so far as to abjure the idea of personal self-defense. Other absolute pacifists may allow for personal self-defense while rejecting the impersonal and political violence of war. Almost every defender of absolute pacifism recognizes the difficulty of attaining the absolute ideal.” “The world often presents us with difficult ‘kill or be killed’ choices as in the question of self-defense or war. Absolute pacifists may hold that it is better to be killed than to kill. But such a choice may be impossible for many of us to make. Pacifists will often argue that this way of describing a situation—as one where the choice is ‘kill or be killed’—usually presents us with a false dilemma: often there are other nonviolent alternatives to either killing or being killed. But when presented with such a stark choice, absolute pacifism may require self-sacrifice.”  --“Pacifism”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Andrew Fiala, 2006

--Pulling back to real-earth for a moment: there is a wide and continuous spectrum of ethical, religious, political, and practical attitudes to be found spanning the distance between Absolute and Conditional forms of pacifism, but despite its similar name, the Total Pacifism of Gundam Wing is not a synonym for Absolute Pacifism: 

There is no indication that Relena is against self-defense, nor that she insists on absolute non-violence; she’s a staunch defender of the Gundam pilots, after all, and they’re practically the face of violent resistance. She admits that in past history there were conflicts that could not have been avoided, and that one cannot maintain civilization without some degree of enforcement of principles. We can safely assume (especially after her change of heart in Endless Waltz) that she supports the proportional defensive reaction of people who are resisting oppression. But killing people is not, or at least very rarely, justifiable in her worldview (allowing for the fact that both Relena’s character and her philosophy evolve over the course of the series), and warfare never is.

“Peaceful intercourse is easily rejected by those who assert the benefits of the martial values, who claim that a war brings out the best of people and of a society, that wars heighten humanity s perception of itself in the great existentialist quest between life and death, that war relieves the monotony of consumerism and so on. This highlights one of the most difficult aspects of pacificism, that the goal of peace and of tranquility may not suffice human nature. The persistent nagging of bellicosity, of adventure, personal and collective glory, whether it derives from something genetic or culturally deeply embedded in most societies, remains an easily revitalized clarion call to war. The culture of peace is often very shallow, taking many generations to produce, and even then can be swiftly eroded with atavistic rhetoric.”  --“Pacifism”, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Alexander Moseley

(...Remember what I said about needing to convince certain people that mankind can find value outside of eternal warfare?)

Relena’s Total Pacifism is primarily an anti-military political stance; it is only secondarily a philosophy of nonviolence. Over the course of the series, Relena confronts over and over again the notion that many people are drawn to the act of fighting for various reasons, ranging from the vindictive to the instinctual. It is not an impulse she shares or understands, but she recognizes that it exists. She is ready to admit that even within Total Pacifism, a world totally without violent desires may be impossible– but it is not necessary that people accept a world where those desires give rise to military conflict. 

–Something that is worth noting is that the Peacecraft’s plan for total pacifism does not include a rubric for solving conflicts that do arise, only how they should NOT be solved. 

In the series, the single method that Relena espouses for solving disputes is through “dialogue”-- something that is repeatedly pointed out to be a flawed and inadequate form of conflict resolution. “Dialogue” cannot solve all of humanity’s problems, that is unquestionably true– but neither is it a bad place to start as a baseline. More to the point, of all the possible conflicts and struggles that humanity might encounter in the vast expanse of the future, it’s futile to try and codify the best method of solving all of them based purely on abstract theory and best guesses.

 Again, the Peacecraft ideal is only secondarily a philosophy; its primary goal is not to tell people HOW to solve all future problems, its goal is to solve ONE problem, and that one problem is war. 

“Disarmament” Means Mobile Suits

Removing the possibility of military conflict is a preliminary for Total Pacifism, and therefore it is necessary to implement universal disarmament– and “disarmament” as it pertains to the conflicts of AC 195 means primarily the discarding and prohibition of Mobile Suits.

The reason for this is not simply because Mobile Suits are dangerous weapons. After all, Mobile Suit warfare is hardly the biggest or baddest type of war the human race has developed– leveling a city with Mobile Dolls couldn’t possibly be worse for people than leveling a city with an atomic bomb– the main thing Mobile Suits allow people to do is fight wars using infantry in space.

Not only do Mobile Suits allow for space combat, they also grant very granular control of combat zones and civilian populations without substantial risk to the troops– which is great if you’re trying to enforce military rule in the Colonies. Space fortresses and missile satellites are also threats of course, but where a missile attack would simply destroy or damage a Colony, Mobile Suits allow military forces to take direct control of it, the area around it, its resources, its populace; everything, inside and out. This is why disarmament of MS has to be a primary concern for de-escalating conflict between Earth and the Colonies: as long as Mobile Suits are still in the picture, the potential threat of domination by the Earth Sphere remains, and nobody in the Colonies is going to relax. 

The Other Pacifists of A.C. 195

“Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice. A common and natural result of an undue respect for the law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder-monkeys and all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, aye, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no doubt that it is a damnable business in which they are concerned; they are all peaceably inclined. Now, what are they? Men at all? or small movable forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power? […]The mass of men serve the State thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, &c. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well.”   —“On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”, Henry David Thoreau

The Sanc Kingdom is not the only proponent of pacifism in the Earth Sphere.

 In the Autonomous Mountain Region of former China (helluva mouthful, you'd think they'd have given themselves an actual name), for instance, we’re shown another civic leader who gathers support for demilitarization and objects to Alliance occupation. Like the Colony leader Heero Yuy and King Peacecraft before him, this unnamed leader is assassinated, and his independent nation taken over by the local branch of the Alliance military.

It’s only a brief footnote in the series, but it’s important because it demonstrates that the dream of pacifism is not dead on Earth, despite how often it has been violently silenced by the prevailing world order. It speaks to how powerfully the message spread by Yuy and the Sanc Kingdom resonated with people that their ideals continue to generate new martyrs; we see it also in the nations surrounding the Sanc Kingdom who are willing to stand up against Romefeller and refuse to participate in military affairs.

The existence of these nameless “Autonomous Regions” and “Independent Nations” shows us that there is at least some degree of successful resistance against the Earth Sphere government (whether that be the Alliance or OZ); it’s also clear by statements from Duke Dremail that these independent entities are considered a tremendous threat. 

In a system of global military rule, to renounce the military is to essentially declare one’s withdrawal from the existing government– something that surprisingly doesn’t elicit immediate reprisal under Romefeller’s oligarchy, at least when the seceding nations offer no armed resistance.

But the rise of pacifistic nations on earth is nevertheless regarded with as much suspicion and hostility in A.C. 195 as it was during the Sanc Kingdom’s first bid for Total Pacifism, and while Romefeller, unlike the Alliance, is either unwilling or lacks the unilateral authority to quash dissenters without justification, it is more than willing to manufacture justifications to remove political rivals from the playing field. But what’s important is that they still need that manufactured justification– Romefeller, like any authority structure, requires a certain level of assent and cooperation in order to maintain power. 

The practical implication of multiple countries withdrawing from the Earth Sphere and/or refusing to support the global military, is that the Earth Sphere government has fewer nations to tax and draw on for resources or support, and more places where rebel elements can take refuge. In the long run, a sufficient number of simultaneously defecting nations could mean the collapse of global military rule itself.

Armies and weapons and soldiers don’t spawn automatically on a map. Everything has to come from somewhere, and a global military organization needs to be supplied and maintained by the globe.

Whatever the Alliance’s policies were, it’s safe to assume that OZ/Romefeller inherited and maintained many of them, partly because they were always part of the decision making process, and also because hey, why let a perfectly good global bureaucratic infrastructure go to waste? The Alliance began as a cooperative global peace-keeping initiative; at its root, it was developed from international bureaucracy, rather than an imposed dictatorship. Even after it became the dominating world government, that underlying bureaucratic structure surely remained to some extent. National borders were still recognized, at least as an organizational convenience; the Alliance relied on taxes from the various recognized nations under their control (including the Colonies), as well as the heavily-incentivized funding of the arms industry, tied to the wealthy estates of the Romefeller Foundation, many of whose members were leaders or rulers of different nations themselves. It’s also likely there was some sort of draft for citizens of the Earth Sphere and the Colonies. 

Why does this matter? Because in non-violent resistance, particularly in civil disobedience and non-compliance, it’s necessary to find ways to gain leverage that don’t involve offensive combat. In the case of resisting a military oppressor, learning what conditions allow the military to continue operating, and how to disrupt that operation, is of key importance. 

Outside of Earth, we’re shown another notable example of disruptive resistance from the Winner family– adamant pacifists themselves, though their sole male heir, Quatre, broke with tradition and chose to fight against OZ using the Gundam Sandrock. The Winner family is in charge of several major natural resource satellites, a primary source of supplies for the adjacent Colonies. When those Colonies allied themselves with OZ and began arming themselves in spite of their past commitment to pacifism, and in spite of OZ’s quite recent manipulative and violent suppression of the Colonies, the Winner family patriarch protested this move vehemently. When it was clear the now-militarizing Colony would continue supporting OZ and intended to begin manufacturing weapons on the natural resources satellite, Mr. Winner removed his support from the Colony– both ideologically and physically, by decoupling the resource satellite; a move that cost him his life at the hands of OZ.

A Glass Kingdom Throws No Stones

The Sanc Kingdom’s existence is based on hope. 

It assumes peace (i.e. a state of goodwill and non-conflict) is the natural state humanity longs for, the only condition it can truly flourish in, and therefore it is in everyone’s best interest to pursue. Even those who advocate in favor of war would eventually see the pragmatic benefit of peace– wars are costly, and demand a constant supply of resources and humans to throw into it. If everyone simply acknowledged these truths, True Peace ought to be the inevitable outcome.

This position is largely (but not universally) viewed as naive, idealistic, and ultimately hopeless. Even its proponents acknowledge that the Sanc Kingdom’s ideals are built on trust and air– but they maintain that their belief in that trust is nevertheless of utmost value, for inspiring others to realize what might be possible if that trust were universal. 

The Sanc Kingdom’s one defense is its total lack of offense. By removing itself as a potential threat and offering no resistance or antagonism to the ruling power, it minimizes the incentive for that ruling power to overrun and destroy it– but there are no guarantees. 

Relena pragmatically warns her students that the Sanc Kingdom will never be a safe place until Total Pacifism is adopted globally. She herself is prepared for the likely scenario that advocating for peace will cost her her life. The tenuousness of the kingdom’s position is fully acknowledged by all– how could it not be? The current Sanc is built on the ruins of the previous generation’s bid for pacifism. 

Despite this, the kingdom’s doors are open to all; Relena maintains a supremely generous view of mankind that gives everyone the benefit of doubt, continuing within the same logic that non-aggression will be met with non-aggression. Perhaps more accurately, this policy is her way of insisting that this is how peaceful interactions ought to be; despite the considerable risk they incur, both she and her kingdom stand defenseless in a world of grasping military powers, wielding only her dignity, her public visibility, and a conviction that everyone is capable of choosing respectful conduct. 

The Sanc Kingdom is perfectly set up for martyrdom– and it is a very short ride before it gets there. 

But the power of Relena’s ideals is not tied to the existence of the Sanc Kingdom– it’s not even tied to her, or the Peacecraft name. The naivety, the impossibility, of pacifism in an era defined by global military rule, is constantly reiterated, and yet it does not disappear. 

Even as the bottleneck of war grows tighter and the violence between the ever-fragmenting world powers continues to escalate, the majority of people bearing witness to these horrors look to an alternative that offers hope, as practiced and advocated by a brave girl facing impossible odds. 

The more pitched the violence becomes, the louder its perpetrators shout that peace is impossible, while to the people suffering its effects, the more outrageous and unnecessary that violence is revealed to be. The ones waging the wars seem to be the ones generating new reasons for them, their excuses becoming increasingly absurd, their justifications transparently thin. 

Is it really so absurd or unreasonable by comparison, to take part in an actionable plan for peace?

“I’m aware that my views may appear to be a little naive to some people, but I wonder why people battle if everyone agrees that it’s foolish to do so? I don’t think that we’re too far from the answer.”