#guel wednesday

[md-guel]

hey everybody and welcome to...guel wednesday? hold up, that sounds wrong. guel's been missing since the last episode, so I should probably talk about someone else. let me try again. ahem.

hey everybody and welcome to bob wednesday! where I talk about the unsung hero of episode 10

when I'd first watched this episode, it was both a confusing and exciting time for me as a fledgling guel fan 😂 I had a thought that went somewhere along the lines of "bob? but that's guel!! look he has pink bangs dangling from his helmet!" but figuring out why he's suddenly parading around as some nobody was part of the fun of watching this episode!

for the first time since the fourth episode, we're finally being given a chance to look at the other aspects of the anime's setting! and of all the people to guide us through it, it's the blue collar worker formerly known as guel. so, not only do I get to see this character whom I love in an entirely different way, I also get a deeper understanding as to why the plot brought him to such a low point in his life that he had to run away: it's because he's going to serve as our eyes in this expanding universe. suletta and miorine are still tied up in corporate and school politics so the plot had to get someone else to show us around. and I just really love it when the characters are being used as tools of the narrative the way they're meant to be 😂

but something else we get a deeper understanding of is the kind of person that guel is deep inside him, when he's not being bogged down by his dad and his name and his connections. we've already gotten a sneak peak when he fell in love with suletta who recognized him for his strength, but one thing that this episode really showed us is that guel really comes alive where his hard work is concerned. he's not bothered by the nature of the work, he doesn't complain and he doesn't put on airs either.

if anything, I'd say this bob persona is actually his dream sona, someone he's conceptualized long before the events of the anime. the guy who has no name but does good work and is recognized only by that, and now gets to live that dream. you could see it from his disappointment that they're doing a shipment for benerit, and also when he goes all soft when the captain of the ship reminds him to eat. cause I think, to him, it feels like something he's really earned by himself, and for himself. no name to satisfy, no place to fight for. he's just working and looking out for himself

personally, I would have loved to get to know this bob guy better! he probably wouldn't have lasted long, given guel's personality and sense of responsibility, but he would have been happy and free, even for a bit. he might have even discovered something new, or rediscovered something else about him

but well, that's what fan-fiction is for, right!

[globalexpressnews]

Strong Gusts Guel Fierce Northern California Wildfire

Strong Gusts Guel Fierce Northern California Wildfire

California: 

Wind gusts of up to 25 miles (40 km) per hour may hamper firefighters battling a wildfire in Northern California on Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.

Efforts to contain the fire, which broke out on Saturday afternoon in rural Yolo County, west of Sacramento, have been complicated by rough terrain. Hundreds of residents have evacuated.

The County Fire has blackened more…

[lagrandadventure-blog]

Trip Update #1 (June 20th-25th)

Lot to cram in here, flew MSP-AMS-BCN arriving middle of the afternoon on June 21st. I checked my bicycle which arrived undamaged, but note that there is a 70lb weight limit to any intl baggage, which I was distinctly above and had to repack at the airport. Stayed the first night in an airbnb near the airport, assembled my bike and started getting past the jet lag. Wednesday I got up, packed and rode to a hostel in the city center. Checked in and wandered the city a bit. Later I went on a bar crawl with others at the hostel and consumed 1-2 too many mojitos. Thursday was a full day in BCN, touristy stuff wandering and taking photos. See other posts. Visited the bunkers which is an old military installation at the top of a hills with an amazing view of the city / sea, a highlight of the city for me. Friday visited la sagrada familia, still very much under construction, then on to park guel. Around 5:00 I left BCN on the first real day of riding, ~25miles/40km to Canet De Mar to stay with a friend from my study abroad in Norway, Pol. I’ve been in Canet De Mar for two days, there was a festival for all of Catalonia on Friday as well as the city’s festival on Saturday night, lot of fireworks and a band playing on the beach till 3-4AM. Each night there was a group dinner with my hosts friends, everyone has been incredibly gracious and friendly. Today, Sunday we are laying low, I am expecting to leave around 5:00pm and ride another 25miles/40km to Tossa De Mar, camp there and continued up the Costa Brava on Monday. I have a warm showers host for Monday night near Viladamat, Spain. It has been very warm during the middle of the days, so I hope to regularly ride ~9:00-12:00, and 5:00-8:00 with room for a siesta to escape the heat. I believe I’ll be crossing into France either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning depending on my progress. All for now.

[semaphorestylee-blog]

Trip update #1 (June 20th-June 25th)

Lot to cram in here, flew MSP-AMS-BCN arriving middle of the afternoon on June 21st. I checked my bicycle which arrived undamaged, but note that there is a 70lb weight limit to any intl baggage, which I was distinctly above and had to repack at the airport.

Stayed the first night in an airbnb near the airport, assembled my bike and started getting past the jet lag.

Wednesday I got up, packed and rode to a hostel in the city center. Checked in and wandered the city a bit. Later I went on a bar crawl with others at the hostel and consumed 1-2 too many mojitos.

Thursday was a full day in BCN, touristy stuff wandering and taking photos. See other posts. Visited the bunkers which is an old military installation at the top of a hills with an amazing view of the city / sea, a highlight of the city for me.

Friday visited la sagrada familia, still very much under construction, then on to park guel. Around 5:00 I left BCN on the first real day of riding, ~25miles/40km to Canet De Mar to stay with a friend from my study abroad in Norway, Pol.

I’ve been in Canet De Mar for two days, there was a festival for all of Catalonia on Friday as well as the city’s festival on Saturday night, lot of fireworks and a band playing on the beach till 3-4AM. Each night there was a group dinner with my hosts friends, everyone has been incredibly gracious and friendly.

Today, Sunday we are laying low, I am expecting to leave around 5:00pm and ride another 25miles/40km to Tossa De Mar, camp there and continued up the Costa Brava on Monday. I have a warm showers host for Monday night near Viladamat, Spain. It has been very warm during the middle of the days, so I hope to regularly ride ~9:00-12:00, and 5:00-8:00 with room for a siesta to escape the heat.

I believe I’ll be crossing into France either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning depending on my progress.

All for now.

[md-guel]

happy guel wednesday, everyone!! it's time for episode 3 which I love so much so let me quickly count the ways ("quickly" because if I don't make it quick, I'll be here forever)

one: he's so funny here. I think one huge advantage guel has for being not the main character, or at the most, being the tritagonist, is that they got to try so many things with him. aside from chuatury panlunch, I don't remember another character who was graced with an "ugly" funny face. it also adds to his charm as a character that outside of his family struggles and his precarious position as an ace pilot, he's just Some Guy, just an 18-year old getting through senior high, and doesn't senior high offer so many embarrassing moments?

two: the way this episode really contextualizes guel's changing relationship with his dad. i talk a lot about guel's journey to individuation but this is the episode where we really see it progressing in our very eyes. in the left scene, you could really see the betrayal in his eyes after vim hit him and that must hurt. feelings aside, I mean, but how violent does a person have to be to be able to defy gravity in zero gravity? and isn't that the white part of the darilbalde's chest piece? vim didn't even consider that guel might get hurt, it was more important to him to discipline and humiliate the golden child who's acting out

it's something guel's finally coming to terms with in the right scene and it remains as one of my most favorite scenes to this day. i love how it's such a fleeting background scene, made smaller by suletta saying how she doesn't get him. but this is the moment we see him finally accepting his abuse, though I think it's also still sad that in spite of his love for his dad, the thing he remembers the most about him anymore is his abuse. but he only allows himself to admit it in the background, while no one's looking (suletta was looking away from him). like it's something so embarrassing even to himself, which I think is such a real experience

I think the decision-making ai is such a smart way to just emphasize vim's control over guel. like that ai is basically vim's representation in guel's whole arc, it's removing guel's autonomy from him. and I love how from this point on, it becomes a plot device where guel's character growth is concerned. this is the part where mickey comes in and says it's a surprise tool that will help us later

three: the part where guel finally fights back. for a long time, I've had his line where he goes "this is my fight! mine and mine alone" stuck in my head because I love it so much, I love how it contains so much of his ego just breaking free. I also love that as soon as he disabled the ai, he regained his fighting chance against suletta and I love what that says about how strong he really is outside of his familial hang-ups. I think if he'd won this duel, his arc would have taken a completely different turn and while I would have loved to see that, I think his loss here is such a significant part of his character because he gained something else from this, and something more significant than just a plain victory.

four: him just suddenly proposing to suletta is so stupid—or is it really? first of all, that's suletta. who wouldn't want to propose to her? secondly, there's just something about him instantly falling in love with her simply because she recognized him by the strength of his actions. his actions, not his name or his dad or his family or whatever privilege he gained from his connections. being supposedly the heir of the Benerit Group, and the heir of one of the three branches, one of the most successful companies in the group, he must be more used to just being seen as some extension of jhm so suletta must have been the first person who ever recognized him as a separate person. he must have been so overwhelmed with joy that the only thing his twisted upbringing could think about is proposing to her because the whole dueling system, his entire reason for being, is just one glorified dating game, right? and I love me a himbo. guel's not really on the hunky side (though that depends on the artist, I know) but he can be an honorary himbo to me.

[md-guel]

a guel wednesday?! on this week?!

yes! we've come to the wednesday post for the first episode without an appearance from guel but I did say I was going to make one of these posts for every episode, and that includes episode 7

there's really nothing about that episode that I can talk about pertaining to guel, so I'm just going to talk about something else entirely. such as his character design!

I've already mentioned this but I still find it funny that I thought he was just going to be a one-off thing when he has a lot of distinctive features compared to a large percentage of the cast. first of all the two-toned hair. I know mogumo designed his hair to really look like a lion's mane, but the decision to give him pink bangs feels like it's just there as a treat for his fans. like mogumo didn't have to do that for us, but they did! even knowing that guel is hardly the first gundam character with funky hair and pink hair, I think that's the first detail of his that really stood out to me.

the next that I really love about his design is his tear mole, the one under his right eye. I know that's a detail that mogumo added, along with the floppy pink lock of hair, so that he looked less like a bully. but tear moles, right? from the name alone, they're moles that gained infamy because of the superstition they come with. tear moles supposedly foretell tragedy and hardships in the life of the person who has them, or supposedly came to being because the person keeps crying. the belief is why people still get them removed

it's literally just a tiny spot to soften his features, but I really love what a conscientious decision it turned out to be considering guel's whole damn arc. and if you think about it, aside from olcott who has a scar on his left brow, he's the only one in the cast with that distinctive facial feature which just so happen to add a lot to his character. and as a sideblog, I really appreciated that 😂

the other things I wanna talk about really just mostly revolve around his eyes actually 😂 I love the blue they picked for his eyes, i love its effect against his skin tone, and I love that he's blue-eyed despite being a person of color! I think that's a funky design choice they made, and not eye-specific, but I love that he's a person of color, period. I also love that he has funky brows that really peg him as an antagonist (to throw us off maybe?) but then, he also has really long lashes. I mean, for an anime character, they really defined his lashes! I remember laughing at a tweet that complained about his prize figure because it didn't have his signature lashes because it was really noticeable! and then one last thing: I just love how he has that sort of perpetually bored or sleepy resting face, I think it really completes the look of a spoiled lion prince which is exactly who he is

[md-guel]

hey everyone and welcome to the first guel wednesday!!! which is basically when i talk a little bit about some parts of guel for every episode every wednesday just so i can do something more in this sideblog. why wednesday? because it sounds a bit like guel's name and also that gives me time to queue things up for the rest of the series ahahahaha

anyway I'm gonna get started with episode 1! also known as the episode we all decided to unanimously hate guel's ass 🤣

though if you ask me now, I'm obviously going to tell you that that's one part of why I love guel the way I do. I'm a sideblog, after all. but so, that's the thing about the guel of episode 1, he's a textbook first boss antagonist. he's highly skilled which means he's someone whose ass needs to be beaten. he's wearing a fluffy mullet which, in his holder pilot suit, really gave me the vibes of the leader of a rowdy motorcycle gang in the american films of the 80s or 90s. and he's really arrogant, he's got his own clique, he's using phrases like "teach you some discipline" and "correct your ignorance" like some villain with a fake british accent.

and then there's this:

(i really want to know how miorine thought she could overpower guel's tits—i mean guel's chesticles. i mean—)

you could say he just read one too many fantasy books, you could say he just needs a different hobby outside of duels. but destruction of private property and attacking someone are definitely inexcusable. as far as episode 1 is concerned, this is his biggest villain arc.

personally, though, in light of how the whole show turned out, i think this was the first sign that he's started individuating from his dad. without the context of episode 2 and onwards, it's easy to see it as just a spoiled brat who got called something he didn't like. and I mean who wants to be called his daddy's little lap dog, right? but there must be something about what miorine said that really hit a sensitive nerve and I think there's every possibility that it's because he's finally coming to terms with how he's trapped by his dad's shadow.

there's also other lines like:

"Did you see that, Miorine? How Guel Jeturk fights his duels!" (Duels are pretty much the only things he can claim for himself)

"Both you and the company will be mine before long." (In the same way his father never knew how to separate his son from the fate of his company)

"You just need to shut your mouth and give yourself over to me." (As long as he obeyed his dad, Vim has no reason to discipline him)

these are just off the top of my head. it just sucks that the way he's retaliating against his abuse is to be abusive himself, especially when he and miorine are both just pawns being used by their fathers to extend the longevity of a broken capitalistic system. remember, kids, a victim of abuse is still capable of causing abuse. but considering how insular benerit companies are that their kids are only allowed to form factions within the boundaries of their individual companies, it isn't difficult to imagine how guel could have been raised in a similarly small world. his mother presumably didn't have much influence on him, and even though he has a sibling, lauda's only enabling his abuse. neither of them are aware of this, of course. and I think for the most part, at this point of his life, guel still doesn't understand the kind of abuse he's living in. he's just singing "there must be more than this [corporate] life" (to the tune of "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast)

(no, I didn't know until today that that was the title of the first song of the movie and yes, now that I think of it, guel is perfectly like Gaston in episode 1. call him "Gueston" I guess)

[md-guel]

happy guel wednesday, everyone!! it's time for episode 2 where things get screwy with the jeturk family. or, things have always been screwy with the jeturk family but this is the time for it to come to light

personally, this was the part I started warming up to guel's character. I should have taken a hint from his pink hair that he wasn't just about to be a one-off minor boss but his first appearance in episode 2 being him getting slapped by his dad, it was completely unexpected by me. we all love characters who's one thing on the outside and so many more on the inside and that was what guel became to me from this scene forward. on the outside, he's a power-tripping bully who's gotten too comfortable in his throne. but on the inside...is he turning out to be more of a puppet who couldn't see his strings and is only on the throne as a centerpiece?

I really love that kind of contrast in characters. guel is strong on the outside but fragile on the inside which kinda makes you wonder, how much of his outer strength was stemmed from his fragility? or how fragile is he really that he had to get that strong just to cover it up? that sort of interplay is really interesting to me, and I'm really happy that that was azakami-san's interpretation about guel, too (I'm talking about this clip).

the other bit that delighted me in this scene is this expression he makes while he's bowing to his dad:

like the guy sure as hell doesn't know how to fight against his dad, after years of living completely on vim's instructions, but guel isn't without his own pride and honor, too! that's kind of vim's fault, actually, but it's one of those...unintentional effects? he's raised to be a true jeturk heir but vim's mistake is that he forgot guel isn't some mindless mannequin. he's an actual human being (in the context of the show because of course guel's truest form is just a fictional character, the product of several multi-level meetings...well you get where I'm going) who happens to be really good at the thing his dad made him do (I mean I think vim has a hand on guel getting into the dueling scene) and happens to enjoy it enough to make it his personality!

so that little snarl that he makes, that's a sneak peek into the kind of person he is without his dad's influence. the guy who's actually really strong enough to triumph against his challenges, who has enough shame to ask his merry troupe to fix up miorine's green house in his place, and who's proud at what he does and to whom honor still means something.

and then this guy comes into the picture:

but to go completely off-tangent, I really wonder what sort of plan they had for guel at the beginning of the series! I imagine that most of the earlier episodes were pretty much set in stone before the ratings and the character and mobile suit rankings came in, and this entire sequence really makes guel look like he's being built up to be suletta's big baddie. given, they have stayed rivals (frienemies?) until the end, but the vaguely ominous presence of an after credits testing scene plus that visor glow seems a bit too much now, given the kind of friendship and understanding guel and suletta ended the anime with. 😂

[md-guel]

annnnd happy guel wednesday, everyone!! we've come to another guel-filled episode and another one that's filled with high stakes and high emotions after a brief respite on the guel side of things. like the passing of the eye of the storm? or another way of putting it is out of the frying pan, and into the fire!

there's so many parts of this episode that I love to just think about on a day that ends with a y. first up: guel jeturk and suletta mercury's relationship. I've already spoken at length about their similarities and I love how this episode just plays with that again. their first scene together has guel confessing his feelings again but this time, in a way that makes him look a little less stupid (though the power of suletta mercury compels him to still look like an idiot doing it). it's meant, for sure, as a service to the guel and suletta shippers and as a comedic and soft break between serious moments. it's also a great vehicle to emphasize suletta's conviction of pushing through with her relationship with miorine

and I think that alone already defines a new gap between guel's character and suletta's. for 17 episodes now, maybe 14 if we account for the time suletta takes to get familiar with her holder uniforms, suletta's head is still very much in the marriage game. she has been the unbeaten holder for some time now, which I think at this point, still defines a huge part of her relationship with miorine. that used to be the world guel lived in until suletta came into his life. 17 episodes later, that is no longer the world he is living in when he meets suletta again. as far as both characters' arcs are concerned, guel has pretty much gone beyond the known path. suletta's decisions are still defined by delling rembran, and essentially the benerit group's game of love, but guel's decisions have evolved into one of his own making

even the way he behaves during the oath taking ceremony is vastly different from when he started the show and now that his white color has transformed from a jacket into an inner shirt. the duels used to be his bread and butter, but now he sees them for what they've always been: a means to an end.

second: his transformations. not just his own, but his mobile suit's, too! in episode 15, he was shown to be making the first step into a new life, but this is where we really see him moving forward. not just moving forward, in fact, but striding forward! he leaves his vanity behind by cutting off his hair, and he doesn't even give us time to mourn for the loss of his lion's mane! he just says it's damaged, anyway, and digressing just for a bit, I love how this scene shows us a glimpse of him being everyone's beloved leader. he's tall, that's why he's drawn to tower over everyone, but I love how that just makes it easier to show that everyone looks up to him. but regardless of this, he also acts down-to-earth among them, a little bit awkward now that he's lost much of his vanity and he's not being performative anymore, but charming nevertheless

going back in topic, I just love darilbalde's new look, too. I don't remember where it was that I read that his new shield is bigger than the last one because of guel's traumatic experiences, but I think they're right! I compared the first shield that came with his first HG kit with his new one in the expansion parts set and it's at least 1/3 wider, which lends to a more imposing silhouette. and I just love how the transformations aren't just to mark a change in guel's character or to sell more merch but also because guel and darilbalde have been transformed to suit their new purposes

third: the different depictions of his trauma. this anime's pacing picks up especially towards the last few episodes, but I will always feel lucky and grateful that they still found room to show us the effects guel's trauma has on him. and I love how much of it also affected his fight with suletta, even though he still has the moves and the muscle memory. I was definitely at the edge of my seat while I was watching the entire thing, screaming guel's name in my head!

and then guel's comeback after lauda and jeturk house scream at him and pull him back to his senses. it's such a stark difference to his second duel with suletta where he said "this is my fight! mine and mine alone!" at that time, that line was so admirable because it was him taking a stand for himself for the first time, but that line is so lacking now at the current state of things. so now he's not just fighting for himself, but for lauda and jeturk house and the rest of jhm, too, and they're all rallying behind him!

and then the change in the behavior of the decision-making ai in this battle. we don't really know the reason why darilbalde's team fixed the old ai system's learning module, but the change is so symbolic of the development in guel's plot. the first time it was introduced, it neglected his will and did everything on its own, like vim once did in his life. but now that guel is starting to shake off his influence, the ai's behavior becomes more responsive to his will

lastly, this episode has one of my most favorite battles in the entire anime. guel's internal struggle, the charged energy at the second half of the fight, the cool robots and effects, and just how wrong it all is. it's only natural, of course, for suletta and aerial to raise the permet score to ensure victory, but unlike the other mobile suits registered in the school, I don't think aerial was ever regulated by the school, and I don't think the school would have known how to regulate her either. it's the same thing sophie pointed out on episode 14, about aerial's weapons and such

after guel has shaken off his trauma, at least until he can see this fight through, he brings himself to a more equal standing with suletta and I think that shows that he really has a fighting chance to win this duel at aerial's current permet level. but, aerial is a gundam and not only that, there's no mobile suit or intelligent machine in existence as of this episode who could be more powerful than aerial and her override mechanism.

like i said, it's only natural for suletta and aerial to raise their permet scores to win the battle, but I think it's both terrifying and wrong that suletta and aerial did that on a school brawl, against a schoolmate who doesn't even pose any serious risk to her or miorine's life. I don't know if it's ever explained anywhere if raising the permet score has to do with the pilot's feelings or emotions, but in this duel, it's obvious that the trigger is suletta's desperation for miorine's favor, and I don't know if that's something she would have had to result to if it weren't for benerit's faulty marriage game, clouding her real sentiments towards miorine. in fact, there's a bit of this that I find rather similar to that part in episode 12 when suletta crushed the pilot under aerial's hand.

in spite of that, miorine and prospera's (and aerial's!) interference assured that suletta lost, a funny nod to when vim enlisted lauda, felsi and petra to hijack the system during guel and suletta's second duel. she loses the title of holder and it becomes devastating to her because her entire life so far has been tied to that title, for all that it's just a shiny vip status manufactured by the benerit group.

that was guel's life before. the reigning holder who lost it because of someone who challenged him for miorine's hand, and he has been through a lot of devastating news just to get where he is right now. if it wasn't obvious before that guel and suletta are basically two peas in a pod, I think this would make it clear. and I just really love thinking of them both like that! if it hadn't been for the events of the anime that have always kept them at odds with each other, I think they would have really become good friends, being two people who would have really understood each other, from their origins to the paths they're taking.

[md-guel]

a happy, happy guel wednesday to everyone but most especially to the boy ever guel!!! jeturk!!! who's finally made it back to the screen as an unwilling accessory of what I think is one of the darkest episodes to have been shown by the anime. people love to hate on this for being such a combo breaker, but me, I love to love on this, so here's me showering it with all the love that I have

if i may, I'm going to start with the lighter stuff first and by "lighter stuff", I actually mean "guel jeturk" in spite of all the stuff he went through

the feeding scene is such a traumatic opener, especially for us who've been eager to see how guel has been doing. but it's such an effective way of setting the mood for the entire episode and I'll always be happy that guel was used as a vehicle for it. but from that scene alone, it becomes obvious that the situation is dire, for both guel and olcott (standing for the dawn of fold). guel is steeped deeply in depression that he's completely lost sense of himself, and olcott is also desperate enough to use a living human being as a ticket to safety

with the out-of-canon uh...official headcanon, though, of guel being a bit of a home cook, I really have to wonder how this experience affected his feelings towards food. did he suffer from an eating disorder? did his palette change or is there a type of food that he just can't eat anymore without being triggered?

when the building fell, I still think that for all of guel's inherent goodness, it would have still been the easiest thing to just abandon seethia and get himself out there to safety. but even though he does explain later that he did it because he felt sympathetic towards seethia who wanted to see her father, I think this one scene just speaks volumes about how brave he really is. remember, he's just a kid. he's never had to kill someone before and when he does, it ends up being his dad. seethia is nobody to him, and it's easy to be more concerned of his own traumatic experiences (seethia had been found in a very bloody state) and his safety than some child who's been left for dead, anyway. but he really went through the trouble of getting her out of the debris, never mind that seethia blamed him for everything

I love that little kind of subtle blink he makes when he hears that his company and his family are going bankrupt, and I think it speaks a lot about how boundless his love is for them, too. the whole situation with vim is unfortunate, but I don't think it's guel's fault to still default to loving him especially after his guilt for killing him. I just like that guel is ready to just give up on life until he heard about his family, and then he suddenly comes alive. because it's not just about him anymore, and he's never been one to just sit on his hands especially when his loved ones are concerned.

shortly before the building fell, too, I remember reading a lot of fans saying that guel had tried to protect the kids with his own arms. like use his arms as a shield to protect them from the collapsing roof. I often watched that exact scene with 100% screen brightness, and I think it could be plausible! if guel is the skillful pilot that he is who knows the in-and-outs of pilot and mobile suit safety, and if it's true that asticassia had earth survival classes, then it would have been automatic for him to put his arms over his head to protect himself. but he doesn't. instead, he extends them outwards in the direction of the kids, and I like that he did it, too late, too. like he'd reached out towards them in alarm when the roof fell before he got buried in it, too.

I will also always love that seethia asked him what he wanted but that guel said he didn't know. ironically, this is the first day he is well and truly free of anything. free of his dad, free of the dawn of fold. but it's a kind of freedom say, a domesticated animal would find out in the wild. he's free, yes, but he doesn't know how to be free. his whole identity has been tied up to his dad that now that he has to stand on his own two feet and make his own decisions, he's lost. he's pretty much just running on instincts here, and that bit of stubborn bravery that's keeping him moving

seethia is just so thin here 😭

another example of just how brave I think he really is: this is only his second encounter with death, though it's the first time he's really looking at a corpse. it would have been completely understandable if the stress just became too much for him and he just ran away and hid somewhere else until the whole thing blows over. but for the sake of seethia's life, for that simple hope of bringing her to her dad, he pulls through, he wears the flight accessories of a dead man and even sits in the place where he was murdered

if people ever doubted his skills on piloting a mobile suit, since he only ever flew jhm's ones before, I think this is a stunning example of his innate skills. the prodoros suits are far from being the shiniest mobile suits, and I won't be surprised if this is an older, or less technologically-advanced suit than what he's used to. even the cockpit screens looks far too different than the spacian suits but he's able to operate it without difficulty

I love this scene so much. I really love how guel was given the imagery of a star that lights up the skies when things seem so hopeless. and slightly off-tangent, I also love how a lot of the artwork, from ippei gyoubu, from the fans, that came out during this episode got the memo and ran away with it. guel is such a bright star, all right; he's an ace pilot on skills alone, and he's a well-loved house leader and friend. I also like to think that this was to symbolize his rebirth. he'd fallen far enough so now he can only go up

and I love that that's how he found the strength to move forward. he's still clueless, he's still lost, but he knows he has to start somewhere and he can't just be stuck there anymore. he probably has absolutely no idea about what's going to happen in the future, only that he has to save his dad's company so that's what he's going to focus on for now. which, maybe some people think it's stupid. vim had abused him, and now he wants to preserve his memory. will guel ever learn? or will he always be stuck in his dad's shadow

in the end, guel doesn't get to save seethia and he ends up...absolutely nowhere. not at the bottom from where he started or at a better place. hes just...existing somewhere at this point. this time, he really truly is nobody, more nobody than even 'bob' ever was

if you ask me, I think at this point of his arc, he's still very much stuck in his father's shadow because he wasn't able to extricate himself properly from it. but I don't think it's fair to say that he failed to grow as a character just because he's going back to his old cage. you can't blame a child for loving his father. it's not a person's fault if he wants to go back to his loved ones. if what he's doing is bad or wrong, then is it good or right to hate and abandon his people? it doesn't make any sense to me, not in the context of guel's history and character

but, so that's the lighter side of this episode for me. as for the heavier one, oh boy. if anyone's ever doubted that the spacians are as bad as the dawn of fold says they are, this should clear things up. the dawn of fold are terrorists, all right, but who branded them as terrorists in the first place? who pushed them to such lengths?

it was hard to watch guel being tortured with force-feeding but if you ask me, it's much easier than watching the earth garrison force picking the dawn of fold pilots like fish in a barrel. these guys are helpless. they're scared and they're small! their lives have been ruined by the greed of capitalists, and they're only trying to fight back because of what the capitalists did to them! it's a losing battle the minute they concocted the plan. benerit group may as well have sent trained soldiers out on a bunch of farmers with pitchforks. that's how large the gap is between them, but the benerit group didn't care as long as they could take their hurt feelings out on them. and boy, does it feel very personal, knowing what's going on in real life with the rest of the world

[md-guel]

happy guel wednesday everybody! here we are at episode 14 which is also the third and last episode where guel didn't make an appearance! the next one is going to be an exciting one but before that, let's talk about the new guel who will meet us on season 2!

I was actually quite surprised (and delighted!) that guel would be given a new setting artwork just because he changed his hairstyle and his uniform! but whenever I drop by guel's character page in the official sites, I always stop to look at this sheet.

the first one they used to introduce guel to us has him looking appropriately high and mighty, confident and arrogant, with perfectly-styled hair. it's the same air he wears on his pilot suit setting sheet so the difference between his first two setting sheets and the new one for season 2 is just vast. for obvious reasons.

what I love about it though is how the difference came from so many smaller, subtler differences around his face. like it's not just his hair or the dirt lines on his face or his uniform.

his eyelids are heavier, which already makes his eyes smaller and flatter, but they made his pupils bigger and bluer too. so he's not only sad and tired, but especially at the bottom picture, he's become vulnerable. or at least, more vulnerable than he already is; he used to just be hiding his vulnerability, but now it's all out in the open and his eyes can't hide it anymore.

I really love the way they drew his lips, too, particularly in the side profile ones. he used to have firm lips and a stiff frown, but now they've gone soft. which makes me wonder, how much of his frowning has always been a conscious decision? like a face he puts up so people didn't see through him. and now he just looks really lost, and hasn't he always been the type? he had a general direction about where he wanted to go, like the holder title, the future ace of dominicus corp, but with no way of getting there for as long as vim treated him as an extension of himself. and now he's just lost his way altogether.

and I know I've already spoken about this before, but I really think this is all a part of guel's arc where his ego gets destroyed and ripped to shreds. obviously, he still has all the style and color hints from the first setting sheet, but he's also lost all the characteristics from it. he used to be tough and proud, now he's just depressed and weak. he's completely lost the version of himself that he'd used to cover up his insecurities, and now where or what does that leave him with?

[md-guel]

happy guel wednesday, everybody! we've come to the first episode of the second cour which also happens to be the second episode where the star of these wednesday essays doesn't make an appearance. so we're going to take this opportunity to talk about a scene where his friends talk about him, too!

I really wish we could have been shown what felsi meant about guel's super cool style in the rumble ring. during the broadcast, I had a silly hope that there would be a quick scene of nika showing suletta an old recording of the rumble ring where we get to see a sneak peek of how guel fought. but hear me out, guel's last scene before the first season ended was him howling and drifting in space, so I've been as antsy as everyone during the months-long break 😂

but just going off of felsi's admiration, I wonder if guel's probably the type to play with his enemies during his duels if his life doesn't depend on it. even as far as episode 13, we already know that guel's trusted method is to meet his enemies head on and thanks to jhm's pro-pilot all-rounder suits, that's probably his most comfortable style, too. but he's also arrogant and an undefeated champion until suletta came into the picture. and, his family bears the emblem of a lion, a large cat, so I think it would have been fitting for him to lead his enemy around for a bit if he's in the mood for it before he dealt the killing blow

if that's the case, I bet his rumble rings would have been quite the spectacle and everyone would have been tuned into it, whether they're real fans of the sport or just because everybody's doing it, so they might as well. like the superbowl in America!

[md-guel]

hey everyone and welcome back to guel wednesday!! we've now come to episode 11 which is largely to set up the characters (and suletta and miorine's feelings 😌) for the season finale. guel doesn't show up a lot here since the perspective has been split up between him, suletta and miorine, but he does get a slice of the action!

i mentioned in the last guel wednesday that even if guel would have wanted to stay as bob for as long as he can help it, there's no way he would have lasted with that kind of life, and this is the episode that shows us why. nobody in that ship knew who guel jeturk was, not even the naji and sophie, but guel has never been the type for deceit, which is funnily another difference he has with his father who's all about political intrigue and stuff. no, in fact, the thing about guel is that he always has to be so damn righteous. bob would never know anything about desultors and how to procure them, but guel jeturk does. is it any wonder how naji recognized him?

thinking about it, though, it's funny that he grew up to be that kind of man considering the fact that his father wouldn't mind getting his hands dirty as long as he could get what he wants. assassination, shady alliances, and I'm sure he's committed a few crimes on earth, too. but this is the stuff that would have caused guel to balk

if i had to guess how he came to he the kind of man he is, I'd say a huge part of it is because of his dad. the obvious choice for him is to want to be like his dad, but he never said anything about wanting to be ceo of jhm like him. before everything went south, what he wanted to be was the ace of dominicus. he wanted something else than what his dad wanted for him, he wanted to be different

so, I think it's the same with his sense of morality. and I think that's something that he hasn't fully realized yet because he was raised thinking that he loved his dad and he probably deserved all the abusive discipline he got. episode 11 is the farthest he's gotten away from his dad's influence and the furthest he's come to individuation

but, as with most of the things he's tried his hands on lately and failed, he's not very good at the whole individuation thing

[md-guel]

Hello and happy guel wednesday!! we're slowly coming up to the end of the first half of the anime, which brings us to another meaty episode for guel's arc! in-depth conversations about family trauma and the actualization of it, what doesn't episode 9 have?

guel comes back into the picture during suletta's evening stroll, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one who thought that this would be guel's opportunity to get back into the cockpit and score a win again. suletta's looking for a pilot and he's a damn good pilot who's just missing a mobile suit!

it's too bad that he turned down suletta's invitation, but the conversation they had after is one of my absolute favorites because of how it just highlights their similarities with each other, and what that means for them both in the long run.

one of the points that have been established about the two of them by this time is how much their parents defined their identity, for better or for worse. so even when by this episode, suletta is already soaring high in her victories while guel has pretty much lost everything he has to lose, when suletta asked him "you love your father, right?" and told him that she understood where he was coming from because she loved her mother, too, any gap between them just got reset to zero.

it's a passing line, but it's enough to show that guel and suletta are actually mirror images of each other, and that they've always been bound to each other ever since the start, which is a really interesting narrative device for me. they're both ace pilots, they're both under the thumbs of their parents, they're both doing what they're told to do in a corrupt system that's too big for their naive upbringing to fully comprehend. and going forward, that becomes a recurring theme between them and their respective character growths.

I always thought this scene was heartbreaking because even though guel had pretty much found a friend in suletta and was ready to move forward with her, his complicated feelings with his relationship with his father holds him back. he and suletta may both be similar, but their standing and the way they're progressing with their own identities is far too different at this point. and guel is lagging far behind from suletta who feels sure about her relationship with prospera. or is he? she's shown to be leaving him behind, but what if it's actually the other way around?

then the next day, the call comes from his father saying he's pulling him out of school and he's going to teach him how to make money. telling him how to live his life as he does, and this is the point where the lifeline guel has been hanging onto finally snaps. now it's clear to him that his dad only wants him as a projection of himself and he stuck it out there in the camp, in the marriage game for the hand of a woman he was never even attracted to, for nothing

I'd already mentioned this before but I really think that part of him winning all those duels was because that was guel fighting to keep his place in his dad's table. miorine was his ticket to a pat on the back. he's a golden child who constantly needs his dad's approval to function, and now even that is gone from him. it's sad, his love for his dad is starting to become some object he doesn't know what to do with, after living all those years bearing its weight, even when it's getting too heavy. but sadly again, it had to happen for guel. this is when things start to get interesting for him, after all

[md-guel]

Hello hello and welcome to another guel wednesday! guel makes it back to the show but a little worse for wear than the last time we saw him. it's a fairly quick "meanwhile" scene for someone who's just had a major development in his plot, but I do have several questions

first of all, I really wonder what it is that he's drinking in that mug 😂 I used to think it was one of those instant oat drinks where you just add water. but there's that light-colored moving dot of sorts that makes me wonder if this is hot chocolate with marshmallow all along! it's definitely not coffee, though, I don't think a connoisseur would take his coffee like that.

second, guel was obviously very popular during his time as an ace pilot and the leader of the Jeturk house, and now that he isn't, he's pretty much lost his immunity from being bullied. but what makes me wonder is how did he learn to gray rock so quickly when he's always been the impulsive sorts. or: has he always known how to gray rock as long as he's the only one in the firing range, but when other people he cares about are dragged into the picture (the primary example at this point being suletta), that's when he leans into his emotions? and: did he learn how to gray rock from his father's abusive discipline?

lastly, I really wonder about guel's mindset here. he's still largely the arrogant, angry person he was introduced as, but he's not fighting his fate here as a scapegoat. it's probably because the part in him that still loves his dad accepts it as his punishment, but he definitely isn't acting or feeling sorry for what he did. he's still holding onto his pride and honor as a jeturk which is something his father could never take away from him because he has his own brand of pride and honor that his father didn't teach him

[md-guel]

Hello and welcome to this week's guel wednesday! we're coming up to the point in season 1 where guel starts to get scarce, starting with episode 6 where he gets nudged off to the sidelines after getting all of the action in the last ep

fans of the classic revolutionary girl utena may know this as the "saionji episode" maybe (i nearly called him "sanji" 💀). but setting aside any prior knowledge of utena's signature, this is also the episode where guel gets to put on his funny hat again* to lighten up the tension.

*again here pertaining to his ass slap from episode 1, his funny face on episode 3, and that part in the oath-taking in episode 5 where he forgot he was a part of the three branches until suletta called him out on it

it's such an important point in guel's journey but because that's not the issue that this episode is seeking to resolve, we're left at a bit of a "cliffhanger" where his development is concerned. frankly, I think the anime seemingly "shunting" him at the lowest point of his life is chef's kiss. talk about a multi-layered storytelling!

meaning, this is a role that guel has become comfortable with. but this episode isn't just about his talent (and azakami-san's, really) for comedy. this is also the episode where the rebellious golden child has well and truly fallen from grace and become the family scapegoat