#gundamn wing

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 174 Rundown

The Witch from Mercury: So we start with Suletta going to her space school since this is of course a school show and even though she and Eri look identical this doesn’t seem to be a pseudonym since the wikis list them as different people and I don’t think I want to read any more on that for risk of spoilers. Also her last name is Mercury cause she comes from Mercury so I guess my full name is DJ United States so we’re going with the Han Solo logic of making up a last name on your way to someplace I guess. On her way in Suletta finds a girl just kinda freediving into space and of course since again this is a lesbian school show this is Miorine, Suletta’s obligatory reluctant fate-driven deep connection before she even walks in the fucking door. Apparently Miorine is trying to get to Earth which may have to do with the fact she’s being forced to marry the Gundamn equivalent of Gaston who just barges into their class and starts a giant mech fight and apparently there are NO shields up despite them swinging sheets of metal the size of skyscrapers around and firing beam rifiles everywhere because Suletta is almost killed by debris if not for Mio saving her, like seriously even just a mobile suit swinging its weapon is gonna cause a huge draft at least put up some wind barriers or some shit. So after Gaston wrecks Mio’s tomato garden (fucking Big O ass motherfucking reference) Sul challenges him to a duel and they do this thing where it’s actually Mio in Sul’s Aerial but then she gets pissed and takes back over and the duel swaps opponents like three times but somehow that’s still legal and the same duel even though Gaston had Mio dead to rights. And we get to see Aerial’s full powerset, instead of standard weapons it jettisons off parts of its armor to Senbonzakura them around it and make constructs to form shields and blasters out of the parts kinda like the Mercurius (ironically) from Gundam Wing and that’s kinda really cool and demolishes Gaston in seconds. Turns out this is a Yugioh style plot where the main character coming out of nowhere to beat the reigning champ is gonna fuck a lot of political shit up and also it means Sul’s engaged to Mio now so that’s fun, not even trying to hide the lesbian shit right off the bat, gotta admire them not pussyfooting around the core appeal. I also like how Mio seems immediately warmed up to Sul and doesn’t seem to mind being engaged to her despite her being fed up with her fate being decided by outside politics before because after you Senbonzakura a mobile suit to cut a Disney villain to ribbons who wouldn’t be aroused.  

Inuyasha The Final Act: This is Jewel Purification Shenanigans: The Episode, I’ve never been entirely clear on how the jewel being pure/tainted works on a mechanical level so a lot of this comes off as the jewel just doing whatever the plot says the whole time. Naraku abducts Koga and the rest of the group aside from Inuyasha and Kagome who are coming back from getting the bow and remark on Kikyo’s character development which is a funny way of retconning how wildly her character fluctuated in her early appearances but sure, goodness of humanity got to her and made her less of a vengeful jerk or something. Naraku actually gets a 1v1 against Koga which isn’t really something I ever expected but it’s pretty cool to see even if it gets interrupted by Jewel Purification Shenanigans when Koga’s shards are purified and the plan once again becomes to let Naraku absorb Koga’s shards to purify him, but since Naraku can basically read Kikyo’s mind he does a quick little swap and puts the tainted main jewel in her body (which prolly isn’t good for her) while he works on tainting Koga’s shards. Inuyasha shows up and uses the Dragon Scale Tessaiga to do shit all before Naraku does an ‘oh noes, the Dragon Scale Tessaiga opened a hole into my body don’t look at my tainted jewel uwu’ and Koga resolves to use his shards to purify it only for it to be a trap and force Koga to be captured. Miroku does a pretty cool team attack where he uses the Wind Tunnel to ventilate away Naraku’s miasma so Koga can break free with Inuyasha’s help but Kikyo’s still fucking dying (like this is the part that confuses me, you’d think the jewel being inside the holiest woman on Earth would purify it since just being around Kikyo kept Kohaku’s shard pure but instead it just kinda kills her faster I guess) and Kagome has to use her new bow to purify the jewel inside Kikyo before Naraku can grab it again. There’s a cool little fight where Kagome purifies the jewel and Naraku has to hurry and taint it again before it touches him but he’s able to fully corrupt it again and take Koga’s shards for good measure so now Kohaku’s all that’s left which is really funny that the only thing stopping Naraku from already having the full jewel is that he spent a shard months ago to fuck with Sango a little bit like if he hadn’t been so adamant on his errand boy being a kid to fuck with his sixth most important enemy he’d have won by now. Still Kikyo hid a tiny bit of light deep in the corrupt jewel to be used at a later date and Naraku… runs away, like there’s literally nothing the group can do to him at this point why does he keep running? Either way Kikyo gets a good sendoff moment with Kaede because we remembered Kaede exists this time and Inuyasha does give her a heartfelt goodbye as we finally send her off to the afterlife. Like as solid as the scene is it would’ve been a lot more effective if we didn’t have a fakeout Kikyo Grieving Arc at the end of the original series. But still, there is something cathartic about seeing Kikyo go in peace instead of cursing Inuyasha like the first time she died and he gets to be there with her this time after regretting not being there when she died originally. Guess we have to thank random early story character Witch Urasue for crafting one of the greatest barriers to Naraku’s victory.  

Castlevania: The opening is Godbrand having a dream about past exploits killing humans and this brief show of competence combined with the fact that he’s basically been a joke this whole time is a pretty good indication Godbrand isn’t making it to Season 3 bros. Carmilla’s still stirring up shit, this time seemingly convincing Hector that Dracula’s going for genocide instead of containment and Dracula and Isaac have a neat conversation about how that explanation is better to placate Hector since his entire worldview predicates on how pets are to be treated. Meanwhile Trevor’s group is still plunging the depths of the Belmont Museum of Demonic Horrors (which is kinda funny because the Dracula stuff feels like it’s happening over the course of a couple days whereas Trevor’s stuff feel like a day or two max so either Carmilla’s turning everyone traitor at a record pace or Trevor’s group has a really good camping setup in the ol’ Belmont place) they talk about Magic Mirrors and how they’re basically phones and stuff and that somehow connects to Dracula throwing a blanket into the woods but idk how that’s important yet, but more importantly we do get some nice character development from Sypha and Trevor where she explains why she keeps pushing his buttons because while Trevor and Alucard are moody angsty edgelords, Trevor has a bit of levity to him and can still get a reaction while Alucard just kinda lets everything wash over him and absorbs it into his angst-hole. Like it’s interesting that this isn’t something about him being a vampire but just his personality/mental state that he is that far gone that nothing of warmth really reaches him and contrasts that with Trevor who is more outwardly prickly but can be surprisingly warm at times. Meanwhile Godbrand meets with Isaac for Phase 2 of the ‘hey join Team Carmilla we got snacks’ party and it was probably not a great idea to tell his most blindly loyal follower exactly where the plot to overthrow him is gonna take place so yeah Isaac just fucking garrote’s Godbrand and stakes him with surprising efficiency even for someone like Godbrand that’s basically a walking punchline.  

Jujutsu Kaisen: The opening scene is just a runthrough of all the beats of Yuji’s character arc so far and just him reflecting on the idea that if he hadn’t eaten the damn finger to save one guy or if he had let himself be executed, half of Shibuya wouldn’t have died here, and it’s kinda harrowing, like obviously that’s not directly his fault but I can’t say the survivor’s guilt of that isn’t legitimate and his whole narrative throughline is thrown off by his body count skyrocketing through the roof. Next Nanami finds a bunch of Mahito’s transfigured mooks and despite becoming two-face and being half dead just kinda plows right through them despite Mahito getting the jump on him in the end. I like the idea that Nanami’s so crazy strong that Mahito still had to distract and soften him up a bit just in case. Nanami swallows his regrets and urges Yuji to carry on, offering an inherited will instead of a curse as it’s the best he can do right now. The rest of the episode is Mahito versus Yuji and there’s a lot of weird shit that goes on with Mahito’s Junji Ito powers and it’s kinda funny that Mahito’s forced to do ranged fighting because if he tries to transfigure Yuji Sukuna will flip out while usually everyone else has to be careful about getting too close to Mahito. They have this whole extended sequence of Mahito creating a collapsing hallway of flesh that could just crush Yuji but he sends a dodgeable amount of buzzsaws instead and it turns out none of it mattered anyway because Yuji can just fist his way through the meat curtains. Also I’m not sure if Mahito just found two random dudes to play possum while he sucket punches Yuji or if he actively de-transfigured some of his guys and puppeted them around to use as decoys but Mahito always seems to use fists when if he’d just turn into a sword Yuji’d be dead by now. Turns out though we got a Double Mahito situation while the main one’s fighting Yuji he’s got a clone soul guy up top fighting Nobara hoping to break Yuji by murdering his friend in front of him which I don’t fully understand because like he literally just did that with Nanami and it just made him more mad but I guess it hits different if it’s a cute feisty big titty anime girl instead of a world weary mentor figure.

Delicious in Dungeon: The group are still on the forest floor and end up jacking a Basilisk for some chicken and eggs which is always good by me since chicken’s my personal favorite. Nothing too important in this section it’s mostly just the obligatory action section. Next Marcille starts to feel bad when the group doesn’t seem to need her magic for anything despite her supposedly being a Frieren-style OP mage and they even dunk on her methods of harvesting Mandrakes despite it literally being the textbook method. Long story short she tries her own way and fucks it up like the girlfail she is but the group finds there was a reason it was written that way and everyone’s a little right and a little wrong and they all reconcile, it’s a nice moment considering Marcille’s basically the de facto main character at this point. Lastly we find out Chilchuck takes disarming traps VERY seriously and kinda segregates the group based on their specialties and tells everyone to stay in their lane because he doesn’t really work well with others or taking instruction. Still Senshi kind of mixes in cooking stuff with his trap stuff and they end up having a bit of respect for each other and realizing a specialty doesn’t have to be a hard and fast rule and diversifying skillsets can be beneficial for everyone. Like I’mma be honest, this show is kinda really basic thus far and even though I hate the video game fantasy genre the cooking stuff seems to kind of be getting in the way of the pacing since they have to structure each section around a new dish so I’m kinda already ready for something new but I know it smoothens out so I’m gonna bear through it for now.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End: The demon guy that’s come to kill Frieren basically has the watered down magic version of Doflamingo’s Devil Fruit and Frieren’s able to shield herself from it temporarily and it’s really funny because he’s talking about how she can’t break the strings and she’s just like ‘Oh yes, the string is very strong, but the arms holding them are quite soft’ and fucking cuts off both his arms before nuking him into the floor. Now unfortunately demons disintegrate when they die so now Frieren’s basically a fugitive because he killed a guard on his way in which is kind of funny that his plan works better with him failing than if he succeeded and had to explain why there was a dead guard even though I’m sure that wasn’t intentional on his part since he was sure he’d win. I kinda rolled my eyes at the idea of having a Frieren framed for murder plot and even though she does have to lay low because of it, the Captain isn’t a fucking moron and immediately puts together what happened now that the girl who didn’t nuke the town when she could’ve is gone and one of the sus demons is missing, so good on him, glad we didn’t draw that out. Unfortunately Lugner has Suitengu’s Blood Sephiroth powers and kills everyone except the Captain and is like ‘well guess we’ll just cut out the middle man and bust down your barrier the easy way’ and the funny thing is Aura’s army is like right outside like idk if Lugner just got word to them that the plan was speeding up or the expected the diplomacy plan to have them lower the shield like right now like just ‘oh we’re friends now give me the launch codes’. Frieren goes to confront Aura while Stark and Fern go to fight the remaining two demons despite Stark being concerned that Lugner doesn’t consider them a threat at all and completely failed to acknowledge their existence when they first met. Frieren basically tells him that just because he doesn’t think much of them doesn’t mean they aren’t a threat to him and to have faith which is kind of a cool touch like not every arrogant bad guy is gonna have a perfect scouter on power levels like sometimes if they ignore you they’re just wrong. Stark breaks in to free the captain and he gives a whole ‘go on without me’ speech when Stark can’t cut his bindings but Stark does the smart thing and the thing I was shouting at the screen and just goes to break the chair. Lugner comes in to fight and Stark says fuck you to this arrogant guy ignoring him and inserts himself into his field of view which is a nice show of confidence gained on his part. He fights him for a bit before Fern blasts him out of nowhere with the Demon Genocide Beam which unfortunately doesn’t kill him but they escape into the city while Frieren goes to take down Aura.

Vinland Saga: Canute’s ready to descend on Ketil’s farm like the plague but he hasn’t COMPLETELY gone off the deep end just yet and does want to try and see if he can use scare tactics and overwhelming force to get them to surrender without needlessly spilling blood and the rest of the episode is basically a deconstruction of why that is absolutely not going to work. Ketil comes back and Thorgil’s ready for war while Ketil himself is just kinda comatose and ready to blow off a stress load in the human being he uses like a body pillow. Leif’s also there and though he can’t see Thorfinn since he and Einar are being detained since I guess they caught up to Einar eventually, Pater like a chad asks him to buy up Thorfinn’s new friends so they can be free with him too which if Ketil wasn’t in the process of going off the deep end he could probably have Thorfinn and Einar for free but Arnheid was always going to be the problem. Speaking of which Ketil’s wife tells him all the shit that’s gone down while he’s been gone in the most glibly meltdown-inducing way she can without actually lying to him. Like Ketil’s wife is just the biggest bitch but also I do kinda feel bad for her because you get the feeling that don’t even like each other and she’s just a hollow replacement for that other girl that got murdered when the other farm dude married her. So despite all his talk of hating violence Ketil immediately goes into rage mode and starts beating Arnheid once he finds out, not even believing that her baby is really his at this point. See now this is the difference between a pacifist and a coward, a coward is afraid of getting hit but will always take the chance to hit if they know they can get away with it, Ketil doesn’t hate violence he hates the idea of a fight or of people hating him, once shit stops going his way you see what a pathetic guy he really is. At this point Arnheid’s half dead and is only saved by Snake while Ketil agrees to give Thorfinn and Einar to Leif but vows to keep Arnheid to the bitter end which makes his plans for her really grim. Despite all this Ketil’s ready to just come at the King at this point and is steeling himself for war which I’m fine with, burn the whole place down at this point I’m ready for Daddy Canute’s army to come kick this whiny manchild’s ass and I know that’s not the point of the show but at the same time the hypocrisy in the episode is just really good at getting under your skin like there’s nothing I hate more than someone who talks about peace and then is violent when there’s no consequences to them.

[delicatefade]

Hello! For the fandom asks: 8, 9, and 20?

8. you hope more people will come to appreciate ___ (a ship, a trope, an episode, etc)

Bianca! I wish we knew more about her, but from what we do know, she is a brilliant and curious smith. She is being considered for paragon status!!! The first ever surface-born dwarf to be considered for paragon. She takes great risks for her craft. This did not have to be. She is high-born and married into a near untouchable political alliance/dynasty. She could be a kept, safe woman in a massive estate. But instead she out here making Indiana Jones look like a layabout. Also, I am a sucker for the Varric/Bianca romance and have many a head canon about it.

9. a ship that isn't your OTP but that you enjoy

Warden/Alistair. There's so many ways that ship can go that vary based on the warden's politicsl choices and race. So many permutations! And in fanfic, each canonical permutation can then be twisted further (and has been!) And Alistair is such an interesting character. He's pretty straightforward and simple on the surface, and so digging into him in a romance is neat!

20. your very first fandom!

Sailor Moon/ Gundamn Wing when I was in middle school. THANK YOU, TOONAMI. That's when I found ff.n and the rest is nerd history.

[arialerendeair]

Tag Game #2!

Tag 9 people you want to get to know better! 

I was tagged by @moorishflower and @sans--seraph!

Three ships:

Dreamling - I’ve written more than one million words of both Malec and Sabriel, the other two pairings on this list, and there is no doubt in my mind that I’m going to soar past that number for Dreamling as well - it’s merely a matter of time.  I never know quite what’s going to grab me about a pairing sometimes (why did this grab me and not Aziraphale/Crowley, for example?), but when Dreamling grabbed me, it has gloriously refused to let go.  I love the characters, the world, and I love that it’s challenged me to write in different ways than I have in the past.  I love the sass, the sarcasm, the angst potential, and agony they can put each other through.  They’re a pairing based around stories - Dream as the prince of them, and Hob as the embodiment of them.  How can you not love them?

Malec - This is the ship that, after I fell out of Sabriel and into a period of not writing for more than a year - made me remember that I still knew how to write.  I hadn’t forgotten, a broken heart hadn’t stolen it from me.  I fell in love, and I decided for the first time that I was going to be good at action scenes (something I’d considered myself bad at for ages in the SPN fandom) - and it’s still one of my best accomplishments that now I feel I write them very well!

Sabriel - This is the ship that really taught me to WRITE in a way that no other ship had before.  I remember falling into SPN from the Sherlock fandom and then falling into the niche corner that was Sabriel.  It was like I had finally put on shoes that fit for the first time in my life.  It was also the first ship that ever made me consider being a writer full time - because I learned how much I loved writing, and could feel and see myself getting better over time.

First ever ship: Heero/Duo from Gundam Wing.  Coincidentally, they were also the first ever pairing that I wrote waaaaay back in April, 2004.  (Yes that fic exists on the internet still.  Yes, it’s older than a lot of you.  Yes, it’s also old enough to vote.  I have Feelings about this.  I should put it on Ao3 someday for sake of sheer posterity, but I don’t know if I ever will.)

Last song: Just Communication from Gundamn Wing.  (Which is entirely @moorishflower‘s fault.  The Nostalgia.)

Last movie: Pacific Rim (Which is definitely not related to the AU that is currently 10k and refuses to end because Dream and Hob are ridiculous.)

Currently reading: The Annotated Sandman - Volume One (I got this for Christmas, as well as a complete edition of the comics.  When I saw the Annotated was available at the bookstore I scrambled like a madwoman to get a copy and have been devouring it.)

Currently consuming: Strawberry Yogurt.  Because yum.  Also because I could not be arsed to snack on anything reasonable like candy this evening. 

Currently craving: Aged cheddar - because I ate through all the fancy aged cheddar I got for Christmas.  It was so good, so worth it, but I want so much more of it, please. 

Tagging... let’s see! @rainbowvamp, @mayhemspreadingguy, @darthstitch, @softest-punk, @cuubism, and... oh hell this is always the part I’m bad at.  Whoever else wants to play!

[heather-m-quigley]

in another place last week i was tagged in the middle of someone's "i take back everything bad i said about golf" convo because someone discovered birdie wing and wanted me to watch it. implying i didnt follow season 1 and am eagerly anticipating season 2 this friday(?)

he must have been away for a bit because he told me to watch gundam the next day (complicated reasons why it came up)... and some of the others know i've watched about 150 episodes of gundam in the past 2 or 3 months. 🤣

gundamn thats a lot of gundam

[666prophet]

oh I super loved gundamn when i was younger! but haven't 100% kept up with it. Do you have a favourite season?

I hear you. Haven't really watch and of Witch from Mercury, but people seem to like it so I'll get around to it eventually. I would have to say that Wing and Fighter G are probably my top two. Don't get me wrong love them all, but those two will hold top honors always.

But you can’t deny how fuckin catchy the theme song was for original Mobile Suit.

[military-thought-machine]

It's

[askgundamwingfans]

Oh my goodness the responses!!

Thanks everyone for taking the time to add your perspective. For everyone reading, feel free to reblog with your own answers to any of these questions, or send in some questions of your own.

Without further ado, lets do an easy warm up post this week. The answers are in no particular order, let me know if I should be keeping answers from a single responder together 

Did you take a break from GW fandom? If so, what made you come back?

I took a ~10 year break for school and work. The pandemic got me looking back on my old hobbies and I went looking fanfic that I used to love. It was supposed to be just a quick tip toe into nostalgia but that was back in November and here we are.

There have been periods when I've been less active (especially if you look at my publishing history), and I haven't always hung out in the most popular fandom bases, but even during my quieter periods if I'd been asked "are you still part of this fandom" my answer would have been definitively yes. I think one of the great things about fandom is that it's for us to participate in on our own terms and what it means to be "in" a fandom is a huge net.

A friend of mine wanted to read my old fics but I wasn’t on AO3, so I made an account.

More like I just drifted away. I'd peek back every now and then. But now my new good friends are all in the gw Fandom so I'm much more involved than before

Yes - I organically lost interest in fandom after I first got into GW (2000s) due to RL, came back because I finally had time to sit down and (re)watch the series during COVID.

Which characters/ships are you most interested in? What do you appreciate most about them?

Oh, gosh. I love a well-written rare pair or a seemingly crack ship that, when you read it, suddenly doesn't seem so far-fetched anymore. And likewise, the characters that you don't see being written so often. GW has such a rich ensemble cast to draw from, I like seeing fresh faces get a turn in the spotlight and treated with the same depth as the usual favorites.

I am definitely a 1xR fan first and foremost, but I also love all the GW ladies. Relena was always a favorite because she was probably the first female character I had ever really seen that stood her own with the male characters. She was just super interesting - a feminine, peaceful character that becomes a world leader? And not through magic? Sign me up! Coming back into fandom I started going over the ladies' personalities. I find Dorothy to be absolutely fascinating as a character with her shit-disturbing ways. Hilde, Catherine, Noin, Une. I love that they're given individual strengths and flaws, and each have their own roles that aren't necessarily just supporting the male characters. Even today it can be rare to find a female character that has a personality, history and role all to her own.

Quatre and I don’t have enough space to even go into this, haha. I ship him mostly with Trowa and Duo.

I generally will try most non 3x4 Trowa ships. I lean most towards 1x3 and 3x5, though somehow I got into 3x6 at the end of my first run in fandom, probably because the one writer who got me into it was so funny. I think for whatever reason, I just ended up in Trowa-centric mailing lists for 1x3, 2x3, and 5x3, and Trowa-centric, and the 1x3 and 5x3 lists were the more active ones. I do remember feelings those stories were really unique. The one 5x3 that I remember from my first run was actually super edge-lordy and ended with murder/suicide (it was a very messed up story!!!!). What stuck in my mind was how that writer managed to treat the pilots somewhat opposite of how most others wrote them - arguably straight up OOC for the sake of exploring a darker story, but it also was the first time I think that Wufei was the nice guy/hero and not just a side character wingman. This is similar to why I got into 6x3 - a specific writer was just a fucking hoot about the way they wrote both Trowa and Zechs, and whether it's OOC or not, it was probably the first time I had read anything that funny in fanfiction (especially in stories with sex/smut). So I guess the TLDR is that the stories that happened to really change my mind on characters and/or fic as a medium strongly influenced why I like certain ships. They were also probably arguably very OOC which also influences how I approach fanworks.

Duo will always be my favorite, cause I relate to him the most

[recents]

im watching gundamn wing with my bf because it was really important to him growing up. we’re on episode 2. this is the best thing ive ever seen. every single character is fucking insane.

[cryptocollectibles]

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing #1 (May 2000) by Tokyopop

It is the year A.C. 195. After two decades of oppression, a network of space-based rebels strike back at their opposing force, OZ. Using super-strong armor called gundanium, scientists construct advanced mobile suits called Gundams. Written by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Hajime Yatate, drawn by Koichi Tokita, cover by Koichi Tokita.

- Buy this comic book with Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies at the Crypto Collectibles store on OpenBazaar -

[yungcrybby-anonymousbosch666]

i remember i told my friends i liked G Gundam and Gundamn 0083 way, way way more than Gundam Wing and everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Gundam Wing was boring and pretentious. Duo was the one good character.

[chiripepe]

[neezuko]

2. first anime crush

2. Heero Yuy from Gundamn Wing 🤷🏼‍♀️

[z-o-m-b-a-e]

Will always be my favorite gundam

[tokiro07]

What if 'Gundam SEED' was told from Flay's point of view? How would they approach it? Would it have been better?

I’m assuming this is in response to the post I made a while ago about talking to someone about Gundamn and saying that SD Gundam was the only good Gundam show.

I’m sorry to betray your expectations, anon, but I’ve never seen Gundam Seed. The only Gundams I’ve watched have been G Gundam, SD Gundam, and Gundam Wing, all of which I was too young to really retain much of. 

I was just responding to that customer with something I thought would be ridiculous and make him laugh. If I ever watch Seed, I’ll try to keep this question in mind

[askgundamwingfans]

This concludes the answers so far for the first set of AskGWFan Questions. If you have anything you wanna ask the group, use the ask function on tumblr or send me a dm!

What's a character/ship you've learned to appreciate? What made you change your mind?

Relena x Dorothy. Both as characters and as a ship. Part of this is that I hadn't seen all of the series at the time I first did fandom, but I had seen Endless Waltz, and that was the extent to which I had known Dorothy. She doesn't even interact with Relena in EW!! I had no impression of her (besides whomst??), and I honestly don't even remember if Relena ever appeared in fics I read since a lot of them were AUs anyway. However, after seeing the series and MISS RELENA and all of Dorothy's... Dorothy, I think she's got some great cult appeal!! And my mind really changed on both when I saw the whole series properly. I'm not sure I would have been on board with them at the time since I was less discerning about how female characters often get developed poorly, but I don't regret that I experienced Relena and Dorothy fully at a time where I could appreciate them.

I eventually started to appreciate Relena more, she grows up a lot by the end, even if she definitely should not be handling the responsibility she has...

Honestly breaking outside of the typical ships by reading more fics broadened my horizons. Writers I loved ventured into non-typical and I found myself enjoying the exploration. I think over time it had less to do with the ship and more to do with the characters as the fandom aged.

I've been reading a lot more yaoi since interacting with the larger fandom. I've always loved non-traditional gender roles in romance stories, and I don't know why it took me so long to try yaoi? I've read some yuri but never in Gundam Wing. Interacting with the yaoi community has opened up a lot more characterization of the pilots for me, which have always played the role of "tough, emotionless boys" in my headcanons.

Howard. He’s amazing and hilarious and as I get older I’m more and more like, is this the only sane character? I used to just be like “who is this weird guy?” and now I’m like “why isn’t there more Howard?”

What characters/ships do you think got some negative flack? How has the GW fandom's attitudes towards those characters/ships changed?

The scientists hahahahahaahah. I think for the most part unless you are in a niche group, the scientists are generally seen as child abusers to varying degrees. Tsubarov? Everyone still hates him but acknowledge he has a flair for the dramatique. Camp villain appreciation I guess. Relena was definitely shat on, being at the unfortunate intersection of romantic rival and 'annoying' female lead. Again, as someone whose canon experience was informed by Endless Waltz more than the anime, I don't remember if I had any opinions on her at all. However, I think people have admitted where they were wrong (whether owning up to bashing, or speaking up about fandom broadly).

Well besides the obvious Relena, one character that got so much hate and bashing in 1xR circles was Sylvia. I remember one of the first things I checked when I got back into fandom was Sylvia's role in the show and was surprised to see how little she actually does?? She's literally in one episode but was constantly dragged into 1xR stories to be a romantic rival for Relena. Pretty much the same role Relena took on in a lot of 1x2 stories. I guess we just got away with it because she was a minor character. It was just interesting to me that 1xR fans gave some girl the same treatment that 1x2 fans did to Relena. I think that realization helped me put aside the Relena bashing and move on from it. If I don't see Sylvia as an evil character anymore, why would Relena bashers? And I was really happy to find that I was right. As the fandom moved away from romance-centric plots to look at self growth and politics, less characters became target for fandom hate/bashing, and we moved on.

Well, back in the olden days Relena and Wufei were probably the ones who got it worst. Dorothy. Hilde. Zechs. Treize. Heck, even reasonably popular characters like Duo and Quatre had their own "defense" societies against some of the fanon surrounding them. But fans have grown up over the years and portrayals of the characters and various ships have too. (2x5 for instance has gone from a total rare pair to one of the top GW ships on AO3 which I find a fascinating trajectory.) Have we evolved into a perfect utopia? No, and there will probably always be complaints about how a given character or ship is popularly portrayed. I certainly have my bugbears, just like anyone else might. But it's a long time since I've opened up a fic and seen character bashing of the sort that was common c. 2001. People might not be shy about sharing their opinions on their own blogs, but picking fights on other people's content? Flame wars? Not so much these days. The GW fandom might be smaller, but we're also closer-knit. Fandom is about having fun; finding the pockets that bring you enjoyment and finding ways to filter out the rest, and I think we mostly get that (or we're just too old and tired to have much fight left in in us lol).

Well, very early Relena and Duo battles made me nervous of the fandom back in the day, but I think those mainly came from places within ourselves that we can see now don’t need to be at odds. I love them both and I am glad to see the fandom embrace them both on their own merits. I think it’s easy to be anti- when you are younger and appreciative when you are older (and I totally understand how people could be anti! No judgements. I just love everyone and want everyone to be happy. Except Zechs. He has some SERIOUS explaining to do.)

Oh, Relena *definitely* had a lot of negative flack. I'm glad most of us seem to have mellowed out about the poor girl. It's hard to hate a kid when one is in their 30's, lol

Relena of course, but also 3x4 was seen as the “lesser” ship back in my day and there wasn’t much depth or enthusiasm by many other fans.

[glowstickia]

Hunger Waits For No Witch

[AO3]

The booth is still open, however the witch is away. Dark powers or no, witches have to eat too you know.

The halls were crowded with amass of children, classmates. Lisa strolled through, ignoring the sickeningly sweet smells of caramel and neon wooden booths beckoning kids to play games and win prizes or buy snacks. She squeezed past the pack of face paint, fake limbs, and cheap fabrics and wove through the labyrinthian hallways until she stumbled across yellow tape. Her lips twitched a grin as she adjusted the black book in her hands.

DO NOT CROSS

CRIME SCENE

The yellow tape stretched over the entrance to the art hall. No booths were set past them. None planned anyways, yet, past the tape she could see the murder scene. Tiled floors and lockers were splattered in red. She looked up and snorted. Some specks of the fake blood were up there too. They were on the hit list, in more ways than one.

The flickering lights farther along the darkened hallway struggled along with the low hum of the florescent lights. Lisa patted the wall slightly beyond the tape, as if to apologize for the rest of the school for not using it's perfectly spooky atmosphere for this occasion. She had noticed the classroom Haunted Houses while under construction earlier that week. Neither compared to this hallway.

She slowly moved her hand back as she felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise. Chills sent goosebumps down her arms. She stared forward, half lidded eyes slowly moving to her peripheral. Movement to her left as someone's sneaker squeaked against the tile floor had her head snap towards the sound. Her eyes narrowed. The shadows had changed. The distinct primal warning of someone watching churned in her gut. Her lips twitched a grin. So this was the game they were going to play, hm?

She spun on her toes and continued to her en route: the cafeteria. Her stomach grumbled in anticipation and slight impatience as she returned to the more populace halls. Vendors yelled out, beckoning hungry customers with their call. Kettle corn, candy corn, peanuts. Her mouth watered at the looming smells of snacks. She kept her eyes forward and hands wrapped around her book. Substance first. Snacks, later.

Her focus drowned out the idle chatter and zeroed in on faint music blasting from the double doors she was weaving towards. An organ trilled before the notes started crescendoing and moving, faster and faster. The jumble of notes pulled at her, tugging her along as she entered the cafeteria.

To the right, off to the side was an organ resting on a large flatbed cart. The shining metal of pipes squeaked as a man wearing a thick cape hunched over the keys. His arms raised and slammed dramatically onto the ivory, the pipes spewed a mash of notes into the air. She wandered over to him as he finished Toccata and Fugue in D minor. His head rose before he spun around on his stool. A white half mask greeted her. He bowed at her. She bowed back.

"Evening Mr. Capriccio," she said to the band director, "wonderful to hear your haunting display as always."

Mr. Capriccio pulled a water bottle out from the hammer space of his cape and took a long swig. "Ah, yes, good to see you too." He cleared his throat and gestured to the organ. "Any spin chilling requests?"

Lisa grinned. "Hall of the Mountain King?"

He rolled his shoulders. "Finally, something other than the Ghostbusters theme and Wonderwall." He cracked his fingers and spun back towards the organ. 

The organ started soft as Mr. Capriccio started repeating the notes, louder, and louder. Lisa turned towards the cafeteria. Fake cobwebs and plastic spiders hung over the windows. Orange and black streamers held up only by clear tape dangled from the white tiled ceiling. As she moved towards the line amassed with kids dressed in colorful costumes, the music shifted slightly.

Lisa shook her head and scratched her raven's chin. She tried at least. She shifted her book to her other arm as she opened and closed her fist reworking the blood back to her hand and save her straining arm. The doors leading outside were closed, locked. Rain gently pattered against them. Her eyes shifted to the tables filled with kids. Flaming red hair caught her eye. Farthest from the line sat a dragon, a princess knight, an alien with an aluminum cone hat, Rorschach, and a body guard. The dragon laughed loudly, pounding the table with his fist as the princess knight next to him punched his arm.

Under all the chatter and organ music playing in the background, Lisa heard someone's soul leave their body. Her eyes shifted a few tables over to the blonde curls dressed in more pink than usual. Across from Glinda the (Nosy) Witch was Max, his face resting on the table. Next to him was Mr. Bathrobes, patting his back.

Dimitri's eyes moved, and locked with hers. Lisa winked at him. Dimitri removed his hand and turned back to Suzy whose flailing arms suggested a battle strategy was being put in place. Beside her, her flying monkey was jotting notes and looking thoroughly unamused. He kept his eyes on his yellow notebook, possibly doodling ways to off the "good witch". Suzy hands smacked one of his feathery blue wings. His eyes narrowed at her before he jotted down another idea.

"LISA!!!" a voice shouted across the cafeteria.

Lisa turned her attention to the rapid movement of Jeff's arms as he waved at her from his seat. He wore a neon green suit with a white, puffy chest plate. Two green triangles stuck out from his untamable orange curls. He grinned at her as he practically bounced out of his seat. She returned the smile and waved politely with her fingers.

The line moved. Lisa's attention pulled back to her stomach as it angrily gave its two cents. She grabbed a tray and the cafeteria's special. Sloppy Joes with a choice of potato chips, an undescribed veggie, and a can of fruit juice. She wandered over to Jeff's table, her smile returning on her lips upon noticing the grimalkin across from him. Violet looked up from her tray. Her hair was pulled back by braids and a headband with cat ears stuck to them. The rest of her outfit was black. As Lisa grew closer she noticed the dab of pink paint covering part of Violet's nose. Black painted whiskers were also drawn on her face.

"Hello Gundamn and Grimalkin," Lisa said, sitting next to Violet.

Jeff's face turned down. "It's uh....an eva suit." His voice quivered.

Lisa's hand immediately reached over and patted his. "I mix those up. I'm sorry."

Violet moved her lips away from her straw. "We're not as knowledgeable with anime as you and Cody are, Jeff."

Jeff raised his hand, finger trembling as he opened his mouth. "But, you watch Sailo-" Violet stared at him. Her juice box slowly crushing in her grip. "But you do..." his voice was soft.

"Ah, I'm sorry." Violet's shoulders relaxed as she immediately reached over to pat his hand. "We don't speak of it in public."

Lisa stabbed her sloppy sandwich with a spoon and took a bite. She swallowed. "So, how's the festival life treating you?"

Jeff brightened. "Oh! You missed it! There was a fight and fake blood was everywhere. The hallway looks like its from The Shining."

Violet snorted. "I'm sure she had a hand in it." She sipped on her juice.

Lisa faked a gasp. "Whatever do you insinuate Violet?" She stabbed her sandwich again. "Me? Starting fights? I run a business. Speaking of which," she leaned forward, "when are you two going to visit me?"

Jeff sniffed a bit. "I still haven't won Starchman's Sentence Stars yet."

Violet shrugged as she sipped the air remaining in her juice box loudly. "Hate to tell you Buns, but your prices are steep."

Lisa leaned next to Violet. Their shoulders touched, her face only centimeters from Violet's. Lisa curled her index finger under Violet's chin. "Pretty girl's get a free palm reading." She winked, slinked back to her tray, and continue eating, ignoring the red blooming on Violet's face.

"Aw," Jeff said, crestfallen, "why does she get a free palm reading."

"If you have a star," Lisa said between bites, "you can have your tarot read instead."

His lips thinned as he contemplated. "Friend discount?"

Lisa shrugged her shoulders. Her eyes never straying from her tray. "Only for crystal ball readings."

Jeff grinned. "I'll take it!"

"You'll have to swing by my tent though with a few stars." She looked up, "The crystal is not to be moved." She patted her lips with a napkin. Her eyes shifted to the empty spots next to Jeff. "Strange, we appear to be missing a couple...friends."

Violet inhaled sharply. "Cody mentioned something about meeting someone at a car. Ed's with the club of weirdos." She turned quickly to Lisa, her braid swung wildly behind her. "And," she leaned close, "don't do that again."

Lisa grinned. "I won't," she dug her spoon into her waterlogged veggies, "in public."