#g-witch theory

[ferhog]

[stacotto]

On today's episode of "Tales Series parellels I find in G-Witch", consider the following: Prospera (Mithos) preserving her not-quite-dead daughter Eri (sister/Martel), and creating Suletta (the Chosen/Colette) in order to take her place for the sake of the realization of a world without war (world without discrimination). I swear I can picture a scenario all too well of Eri momentarily possessing Suletta (perhaps even as part of Prospera's overall plan) to tell mother dearest that "No, this isn't what I wanted, please stop this madness" and retreats back into the Data Storm only for Prospera to fully go over the deep end.

[mayajadeart]

I’ve been kinda resistant to the idea that Suletta goes back to Prospera and Prospera actually accepts her, but I’ve also been adamant that Miorine was the one who fucked up here and that part of Suletta’s growth has to be not instantly forgiving her for it. Suletta has no self-worth outside of her use as a tool for others, and part of her development has to be learning to understand when people have hurt her, and accept that that’s not okay for them to do. That it’s just as wrong to hurt her as it is to hurt anyone else, and that she doesn’t have to forgive and forget, because that won’t erase the harm that was done. The difference is that some people, like Prospera, don’t care that they hurt you and will do it again, while someone like Miorine is capable of realizing that they fucked up, and being better, because that’s the right thing to do.

Though my theory on how that went down was that Shaddiq was gonna win the presidency due to his much stronger backing and all the work that Miorine put into teaming up with Guel will all have been for nothing, and she broke Suletta’s heart for nothing. I’m not sure which direction I like more, honestly.

So while I’m currently still emotionally recovering from THAT, an interesting thought occurred to me.

We’ve seen this dramatic point many times before, ‘Break Her Heart to Save Her’ as TvTropes calls it. In romantic terms its where the hero/heroine is suddenly seemingly betrayed/gets their heart broken by their love-interest. Only to later discover/realize their LI was only trying to help them and/or protect them from whatever bad things are going on in some self-sacrificial way and still loves them. And then the hero/heroine has to charge off to save their LI from whatever trouble they’ve gotten themself into and reaffirm their feelings with a big love confession.

However, when we apply this framework to Witch from Mercury and to Suletta and Miorine, some interesting twists/wrinkles start showing up.

It’s pretty clear that Miorine is breaking off her engagement to Suletta in an attempt to protect her from the political machinations and manipulations of her mother. BUT, as some people have already pointed out; by cutting herself out of Suletta’s life, all Miorine has actually done is play right into Prospera’s hands and make Suletta even more reliant on her mother than ever before.

And when we factor in how Miorine isn’t just ‘the Love-Interest’ but is really more the co-protagonist of the show, I think the narrative/dramatic fallout of this episode is going to play out VERY different from how this trope normally goes:

We are NOT going to be following Suletta going through the expected depression, followed by a realization/discovery that Miorine was just trying to protect her and still loves her and then charging off to save Miorine from whatever mess she’s gotten herself into,

Instead, we are likely going to follow Miorine through a brief period of ‘this is for the best…’ rationalizing, only to be suddenly hit with an utterly MASSIVE ‘OH GOD I FUCKED UP!’ realization as she sees her plan backfire. Leading to Miorine being the one to charge off to save Suletta from the mess SHE inadvertently put the girl she loves into.

And I have to say, as someone who normally doesn’t like this trope, I would be REALLY excited to see this particular twist put on it.

[kyosukeasatte]

Go forth, Tanuki and become a legend! You can (not) run and gain one now!

[ryuki-draws]

When the company that basically owns you has a quadrillion dollars to build a Gundam and put you through 2145784 painful experiments but doesn't spend 50 additional dollars to send you to the hairdresser.

[amalgamasreal]

About Prospera/Elnora...

One interesting thing I noticed in Episode 18 is that we actually see Elnora acting truly motherly to Suletta in the episode:

That's not Eri, that's Suletta as a child, but it made me realize something: she still LOOKS like exactly Eri did before she died here. It makes me wonder if all the love she got from Prospera in her childhood stemmed from being a literal clone of the daughter she'd lost. But once Suletta started aging past this point and started looking more like a darker skinned version of Prospera in her youth:

That it really hit home that Suletta IS NOT Eri to Elnora/Prospera and that made it easier for her to distance herself and focus more on Aerial, where Erict's soul actually resides.

Or I could just be going too far into the weeds.

[retro-friki]

Please someone free Ericht from that cringy keychain and put Char there instead.

[slow-reader-reads-books]

Idk if anyone has made the connection, but Suletta's name is literally just "yuri" but translated and obscured through a couple language layers, right?

Like, here's my logic: Suletta is an invented name, but has two easily comprehended components: "su" and "letta". Letta is obviously related to the common French (and commonly borrowed into English) feminine diminutive ending -ette, or sometimes -lette, e.g. Colette, Lisolette, and... Suzette.

Suzette being a variant of Susan or Susanna, which is commonly abbreviated to Sue, all of which are derived from the Hebrew name Shoshana, which refers to the rose bride— I mean the rose flower, but archaically was used in reference to lily flowers!

So Suletta can be analyzed as meaning "little lily/little rose", and "yuri" in Japanese of course means "lily flower" or contextually as a genre label, fictional sapphic relationships.

So Suletta is literally the Yuri Rose Groom, case closed!

[adracat]

The Possible Significance of Notrette

Notrette Rembran is the most mysterious figure in G Witch, beating out even Prospera. We only know her from second-hand mentions and those are threadbare since it's a topic neither Miorine or Delling are keen to dredge up. She's a vast unknown but we do know one thing for certain.

She 'made' this specific breed of tomatoes. This doesn't mean she was a farmer, Mio clarifies that her mother genetically modified these specific tomatoes to taste better. So a scientist and geneticist. But why is this detail important?

Because in the second cour, we're treated to the reveal Suletta was never Eri. We naturally wonder where Suletta came from and why does she look just like Ericht Samaya, but the obvious answer would mean cloning (or Elan surgery but I doubt it tbh) We know from the Prologue Elnora is a deft pilot and engineer, but for all her talents she isn't a geneticist.

In Episode 14 we're treated to the revelation that Quiet Zero was initially Notrette's project. But how did Prospera know that and was she at one point affiliated with Notrette? This exchange seems to point in that direction. That would give Prospera access to a geneticist, of whom would be interested in her plans for Aerial aiding QZ's end goal. I wager a specific pilot would be needed to make sure Aerial could operate as planned; a pilot with Eri's brain pattern and a familial bond so A(Eri)al doesn't reject them. It would also make the symbolic significance of Suletta and tomatoes quite clever. Remember how Mio explained her mother creating them while the show focuses on Suletta feasting on one? (like a feral raccoon but that's a different problem)

In episode 12 we discover a few details about Notrette's death. Delling's words imply it was a failed operation of some sort and both couldn't escape. So Notrette sent him to live for Mio's sake. Since both her parents were involved with QZ you can safely assume this fatal incident (and maybe Prospera) are linked. Considering the brief snippets we get from Aerial in Cradle Planet, this might be the same incident causing Prospera to seek refuge on Mercury.

Take note, the youngest Suletta is stated to be is the same age as Eri was.

I'll be anticipating the rest of the season to see whether any of this is true!

[daisukoth]

[...] To harness Permet’s spatial control properties, humanity developed a specialized programming code that Permet could directly interpret and execute. This evolved into “Permet Language Engineering,” marking the beginning of practical Permet spatial control technology.

[...] While Quiet Zero (and each Gundam) utilized massive amounts of Permet, Suletta and Ericht’s shared desire to break free from Quiet Zero manifested as linguistic code within the Permet, triggering an unprecedented data storm among surrounding Permet particles. This exponential data explosion, never before witnessed by humanity, overwhelmed even the GUND Format’s network-based tolerance thresholds.

wow! what interesting lore drop about how Permet is worked with. So there is a specific coding language for Permet? And it works in such a way that you could say its almost like magic words, or incantation magic? Now if only there was a certain character in G-Witch who has connection to codes, and said to be responsible for the development of Quiet Zero

Oh well, Im sure if this character was this important we'd have some scenes with her i mean them.

[alexissara]

Gwitch and Minimum Viable Queerness

Trusting companies to make queer art is always asking for heart break even when it really and deeply seems like they made some queer art. However, despite my love for Gundam: The Witch From Mercury it must be said there is plenty of issues with the show that pointed towards the direction they have gone now that we've entered the post release era.

In the magazine Gundam Ace they edited our a writer stating that Sulleta and Mio were married. They apologized for that statement ever making it in to begin with on Twitter the X gonna give to you dot bomb with this.

This obviously lead to tons of angry fans and queer folks but it wasn't like this came out of nowhere. Despite some people saying it's just "western brained losers" or something that thought there was queer bait in the Witch From Mercury there is something that queer people forget which is that most straight cis people literally have no brain cells. They espically have an inability to see sapphic relationships as real or valid.

Gundam The Witch From Mercury was explicit, more explicit than a lot of media but they intentionally excluded the three universal signifiers of romantic or sexual love from the show despite it being centered for all 24 episodes around the Sulmio engagement. These three signifiers are an "I love you" "I Love You too", a kiss, or fucking. Gundam is a toy commercial for kids so while sex is probably not on the table it isn't actually even off the table for Gundam given the series history has had off scene sex and bad stuff too like adult women trying to seduce like a 10 year old boy. So like these shows aren't afraid to do some shit. Many say that Gundam doesn't do kisses that is a lie, Z, 00, Seed, and Iron Blooded Orphans's all have done kisses. I love yous also happen across the series, the end of G Gundam has a special love attack that blows up the last boss.

This is all to say Gundam: The Witch From Mercury activated a strategy corporate media called minimum viable queerness. In order to get the gay dollar, to seem progressive, whatever it may be a company will do as little gay as they can get away with to get the gays actively invested in their art. Ultimately, their aim is to have it be blaringly obvious to queer folks but invisible to the hets. The show also did the minimum viable amount of women making sure the men had utterly meaningless fights near the end just for women to be on screen less. These fights involve men who are not either of the main two girls getting mad at each other for some kind of connection or action towards one of the girls. These take up a significant amount of the second seasons run time not to mention one of these men got a full episode devoted to him. Meanwhile the main couple of the show was away from each other for the vast majority of episodes, almost never in the same room and almost exclusively on somewhat bad terms.

In the show Sulleta is the main character but in season one she is mostly piloting against men with one fight against a pair of girls near the end. Chuchu is given sidekick pilot status and lives to the end but she doesn't get her own highlighted battle ever unlike a side side character in Guel's brother who gets a major fight against his brother weighted against the fate of quite zero and Sulleta and Ariel fighting. Which comes after Guel fought Shadiq for no reason which came after Guel fighting Sulleta again for Ariel which came after Guel trying to survive in a mech when he was stuck on earth earlier. Guel was in a mech 1 more time than Sulleta was in season 2. The two other witch girls die in their first and second time respectively of being in a gundam in season 2 and the second of the pair gets maybe a word in with our main character her whole existence and never talks to our secondary main character at all. The action is still in large part being given to men even in the woman centric series.

And in this "queer centered" story we see very explicit delectations of feelings from Guel, Shadiq, Petra and Lauda which are all heterosexual ontop of all the adult characters being hetero, implied hetero E5 with Nora dying for considering being with a man and E5 sexually harassing Sulleta. The series overwhelming overcompensates for it's queerness by aggressively pushing straightness and in particular having other main characters want our lesbians heterosexually.

This does not mean that the writers or animations didn't want to be more explicit or that they did a bad job. they did a great job but we cannot know what is Namco Bandai and what is Sunrise. We just can't but it seems given recent statements that likely Bandai was very hands on in controlling the show. Not to mention giving it's first woman lead series a much shorter run time than most other Gundam series got and intentionally closing it off from an easy sequel series despite it being the most profitable series ever for them.

It appears to me as if Namco Bandai's intention was to convert a bunch of lesbians into gundam fan and throw mild gay bait at us to keep us coming now that we converted, far less explicit than Sulleta and Mio but attempting to ride it out in good faith and have us enjoy the men shows that appealed to boys to not break their delusion that they are making a boys toy for boys. Feeding us right into more Gundam Seed is like trying to choke out any potential life and I think we're gonna see a decline in Gundam sales following Gwitch representing the betrayal of these sapphic fans but more so simply the lack of interest in the bar being lowered.

As fans of Gwitch we need to demand better, it does work, we've seen companies fix statements about Sailor Uranus and Neptune before and other similar instances. We can also make them see if they want to reach the high highs again we need the great shit we get in Gwitch but then even more that the minimum we'll let them get away with is far more than the last time.

If you enjoyed this post consider throwing me some money on Patreon to help me make actually queer art without corporations controlling my voice. I'm hoping to write a bit more about minimum viable queerness in the future but I wanted to really just talk about this while I was mad about it and get it up there. Anyway, back to the writing mines with me, hope you have a great day and go out there and be gay.

[squareincube]

With g-witchs finale airing tomorrow let me come out of the gate swinging by saying the show will not end there lmfao. we still have sulettas unfulfilled goal of building a school on mercury, prosperas long emotional arc that has just arrived at her singleminded pursuit for revenge finally broken (and cmon youre not convincing me thats where her character ends), the space assembly league *now* coming into the picture along with peil tech, AND SULEMIOS WEDDING. most likely scenario is that were headed for a gundam 00-esque finale, with the current emotional storyline being resolved for now while more things are being set up for a prospective s2

[lotus-3dart]

If the theory that Notrette was actually helping out Prospera since the beginning is true...

It would be really funny if Notrette was the psycho and thats why the plan spiraled out of hand.

Elnora: Okay Notrette the plan is real simple... You seduce Delling and tank his company

Notrette: Uh-huh yeah I hear you but... *Pulls out a DVD of Neon Genesis Evangelion* have you ever heard of Human Instrumentality Project?

And thats how Quiet Zero got made

[stacotto]

I'm going to play devil's advocate here (and yeah, devil seems like a pretty mild appelation for Prospera Mercury right now), but I want to point out it's just Belmeria assuming that Prospera turned Eri into Aerial for the evulz. I'm getting vibes of the Alaya-Vijnana dilemma, and there may have been a point where Eri simply couldn't disconnect from the Lfrith (we do see her literally wired in during the prologue, but sunrise has been so stingy about how mobile suit interfaces work here), so Prospera just decided to make lemonade; less "hahaha I'm going to turn my daughter into the OS for a WMD" and more "at least you can stay alive this way". Not trying to be an apologist, especially since according to some interpretations Aerial as she is now is more than enough to just pull the trigger on Quiet Zero and mama's trying to push her even further, so who knows.

[leminoh]

I doubted the vision, but I've been enlightened and now I can't go back

[athena-cat-wizard-official]

Symbolism in Witch From Mercury's Bit-Staves/GUND-bits

So, I've noticed some interesting symbolism in the bit-staves/GUND-bits that the various G-Witch gundams use. Suletta's Aerial, even in the rebuild, has bit-staves that form a shield and even demonstrates shield projection abilities, which matches really closely to her personailty of wanting to protect and help others. This extends to Aerial rebuild, which maintains a shield form for the bits but adds a gun form, showing how while Ericht also wants to protect people, she is less concerned with harming others to get her way.

On the other hand, Lauda's Schwartzette has GUND-bits that form a sword, with one of the individual staves acting as a blade itself. No while we didn't really get much characterisation of Lauda, his main motivations while piloting the Schwartzette are all about violence and enacting revenge, and he's putting his life in danger to do so, encompassing the idea of "those who live by the sword, die by the sword".

It goes further than that though! Lifrith Ur and Thorn don't really have proper GUND-bits apart from the Gundvolva, which reflects both the scrappy, low resource nature of Earth and Dawn of Fold, as well as their nature as an organisation striving for collective rights, rather than individuals.

The Gundvolva are also a neat bit of foreshadowing to Aerial Rebuild and Quiet Zero's bit-suits, which are almost identical.

It's not clear whether Gundam Calibarn's broomstick is a GUND-bit or just a weapon/booster. The broomstick design is a holdover from the general witchy and norse mythology theming of the show, which was a lot more pronounced during development. I'm not sure it represents anything about the character. If Calibarn has no GUND-bits I'm actually completely at a loss because I have no idea what that would symbolise about Suletta's character. If you have a theory please reblog!!! Anyway, the symbolism in this show is great, and I hope future Gundam projects maintain this standard.