#mariemaia

[the-ephemeral-bhg]

[wordsandrobots]

Endless Waltz is, of course, gorgeous and mad as a box of frogs. It's Gundam Wing playing the hits. Everyone is on fine form, too, as time, space and sundry laws of physics and geopolitics bend before the melodrama.

Treize Khushrenada wanted to make a point: thousands dead, millions homeless*. Quatre's grand gesture backfires, forcing him to once again prove he's more than a pretty face. Wu Fei makes his PTSD/identity crisis the entire Earth-sphere's problem. Heero remains chronically incapable of explaining the one and a half steps he's planned ahead. Duo goes along with him anyway because regular exercise is an important part of responsible death-wish ownership. Trowa and Sally quietly solve 60% of the plot on their own. Zechs is also there. And Relena gets locked in a room with the villains, listening to them monologue for two hours, before reminding everyone that though she is in favour of grand-scale disarmament, she's a bit fuzzier on interpersonal violence, and then catching Heero when his spring inevitably, finally winds down.

It works, as a capstone, and it's nice to get expanded backstory for everyone on screen. My main reason for rewatching it this week is noticing that Gundam Info had the OVA version up, which I hadn't seen, and wanting to compare the differences. Obviously the extended scenes help a lot in terms of rendering it as a fully functional story (plus extra Dorothy, always a plus). However I do think rejigging where the flashbacks occur lessens the impact in a couple of cases, sadly. I get why they moved Duo's, since you kind of need Trowa's to be where it is and keeping the double flashback would kill the pacing. But the loss of the OVA's particular transition for Duo is a shame. Although not as bad as what happens with Quatre, where moving the flashback later actively undermines the point being made. Kind of a little mad at that decision, even if it's broadly in service of spreading things out so the extended time-frame is clearer than in the OVA.

Still, it's good they didn't try to expand or explain how Zechs just sort of shows up again after being presumed-dead. Like - my man - how exactly are you walking into this probably high-security building, with inside knowledge of how the Preventers' code-names are themed? Have you been leaving Noin on read for an entire year, while she sends you increasingly long rambles about how things are with her? Like a jerk? (Noin and Une both perpetually deserve better.)

I'm not in the least surprised that Une's response is basically 'sure, go fight this entire army single-handed, we'll do the paperwork if you make it back'.

*Technically this particular farrago isn't Treize's fault in the immediate sense, but come on. It's still Treize's fault.

[astragifs]

[cynfinnegan]

This is just damn cool.

I wanted to ask the artist if I could post this on my GW blog, but they turned off the comments. :(

[incorrectgundamwingquotes]

Wufei, to Mariemaia: When you turn 21, people are going to tell you to buy alcohol or drugs because you can.

Wufei: But no. You know what else is legal at 21? Blades. Get yourself a sword. A big knife is also okay.

[gundamzine]

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[ms-miserable-misery]

Febuwhump Day 5: not trusting reality

Duo lay in his bed, chilled to the bone and drowning in sweat. A bandage covered his torso, a small circle of blood visible through the wrapping. Sister Helen sat by his head humming softly, while Solo watched over him protectively. Father Maxwell sat in the corner, reading from the scripture in his soothing voice.

Duo knew that something was off, that this wasn’t real. This was too perfect to be reality. Even though Duo knew it to be true, he let himself bask in the comfort of his loved ones while he could.

He turned to look at the doorway lethargically when he heard the doorknob turning. He smiled happily when he saw Heero walk in. Now he was sure that this wasn’t reality. Heero had left after the Mariemaia incident and had disappeared off of the face of the Earth Sphere. No one had seen or heard from him since, not even Relena. There was no way that he would just randomly show up in Duo’s apartment, of all places.

“Hey buddy,” Duo said, grinning as he gestured widely “Welcome to the party!”

“Hey yourself,” Fake Heero said, looking around the room speculatively. “Who do we have here?”

“Oh yeah, you guys have never met,” Duo realized. His rare dreams of Heero were normally separate from those of his past. “The pretty lady over here is Sister Helen. The ugly fucker glaring at you over there is Solo. And the gentleman in the corner is Father Maxwell.”

”Aa,” Heero responded, barely vocal, as usual. He nodded his head in acknowledgement, face looking pensive.

”Take a seat,” Duo offered, patting the side of the bed that Sister Helen wasn’t perched on. He wasn’t sure why Fake Heero looked so awkward as he did so. It’s not like there were any social niceties to be observed when you were just a figment of the imagination.

“I’ve missed you, buddy,” Duo said honestly. He wanted to take Heero’s hand in his own, but didn’t want to break the spell. It was so rare that Heero entered his dreams, so he wanted to enjoy it for as long as he could.

”I’ve missed you, too,” Heero said softly, a faint blush coloring his face.

”I wish you hadn’t disappeared on us.” Duo looked up at Heero mournfully. Finally having his best friend in front of him again, Duo found himself spilling his heart out with no prompting. “I’m having trouble doing this without you. With how we hung out together after the Eve Wars, I had thought that we would still have each other after Mariemaia’s little uprising. It threw me off real bad when you disappeared.” His eyes went unbidden to the corner of the room where he had sat with the loaded gun in his hands for hours, trying to convince himself that there was a reason to keep going. The bullet was still in the wall from where he had barely flinched out of the way in time.

Heero followed his gaze, getting up to walk over to the small hole in the wall. “Duo, what is this?” His fingers hovered over the bullet hole.

”Just a bad day,” Duo said. “That almost went in my head. I’m struggling here, buddy. The world is racing on by, and I’m just stumbling along behind it, trying to keep up.”

”Duo, no,” Heero breathed, looking back at Duo in horror. “Why? Your life is worth so much.”

Duo laughed humorlessly. “Says who?” he asked. “I’m just a dirty street rat who moonlighted as a terrorist, trying to play at being a normal person. I don’t fit in, as much as I pretend to. I’m so busy being who everyone wants me to be, that I’ve lost who I really am.”

”I thought you were doing well at Preventers,” Heero said, confusion and concern warring on his normally stoic face. “You passed your psych evaluation with no problem. You do well on your missions.”

”I lied,” Duo said flatly. It was pretty obvious, after all. “There’s no way I would have passed that stupid eval if I had answered honestly, you silly man. And my missions go well because I don’t care if I die.”

“Duo…” Heero looked at Duo in dismay, seemingly at a loss for words before he pulled himself back together. “How can you be so flippant with your life?”

”Because it’s worthless.” Duo was starting to tire of the conversation. They were just going in circles. “Anyways, what have you been up to?”

Heero looked like changing the topic was the last thing he wanted to do, but eventually gave in. Of course he did—he was just a figment of Duo’s imagination, so he would do whatever Duo wanted him to do.

”I’ve been going around doing odd jobs. I ended up getting into agriculture. It’s nice to finally create something beautiful and alive with my hands, instead of just destruction.”

”That sounds great,” Duo said, feeling surprised. He would never have expected something like that for Heero, so he wasn’t sure what made his brain conjure that. Maybe it was just the fever talking. Either way, he was happy that Fake Heero was doing well. It made him so sad when he would dream of Heero suffering and lonely, all on his own. Duo hated the feeling for himself, and hoped that Heero really was handling life after the war better than he was.

“What have you been up to aside from Preventers?” Heero asked, walking back over to Duo’s bedside. “What do you do in your free time?”

Duo cocked his head as he considered the question. “Not much,” he admitted. “I used to go out for drinks with some of the guys from the office sometimes, but I couldn’t relax around them enough to even let myself get buzzed. I ended up becoming the designated driver while the rest of them partied it up and had a blast, and it just wasn’t fun.”

”Don’t you talk to Hilde anymore?” Heero asked curiously. “I thought you two were pretty close.”

Duo’s mood dropped. “Yeah, no, not anymore. She had thought that I had the same feelings as she did towards me. When I let her know that I just saw her as a sister, she blew up at me and accused me of leading her on, among other things. I know that it was just her hurt pride talking, but she said some hurtful things. She weaponized things against me that I had told her in confidence. It really hurt that someone I trusted was able to do that to me.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Heero said sadly. “What about Wufei?”

Duo sighed. “He’s stuck in the notion that I’m just messing around all the time. He’s very dismissive and doesn’t take me seriously. There’s only so much of that that I can take before I give up.”

“And Quatre or Trowa?”

Duo rolled his eyes. “Quatre’s busy with running his family business, and Trowa and I were never that close. Quatre and I used to email each other and call once in a while, but I guess he got busy. The replies kept taking longer and longer to get to me, and less and less calls of mine were returned.

Heero frowned at Duo’s response. He opened his mouth to keep questioning Duo, but Duo quickly cut him off. “Look, I don’t know how much longer this dream is going to last, and I don’t wanna spend most of it talking about myself and how my life sucks.”

Heero looked like he wanted to protest, but he sighed and thankfully let it go. ”Ok, fine,” he said. “What do you want to talk about, then?”

Duo smiled sadly. “I’m getting tired, so I guess we can just end it like usual.” He ignored Heero’s confused expression. “I’ll tell you how I feel about you, and you’ll tell me that I’m disgusting before you disappear into thin air.”

Heero’s brow furrowed. “Why would I ever say that you’re disgusting?”

A humorless laugh tore its way out of Duo’s throat. “Because I am. Who else would lust after their best friend? Especially when they’re obviously interested in the Princess?”

”But I’m not.” Confusion was clear on Heero’s face, even through the slight blush that colored his cheeks. “I’ve never been interested in her like that. It’s always been you.”

Duo stared at Heero in confusion. This wasn’t how it usually went. Fake Heero always yelled at him and disappeared. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Duo just rolled with it.

”Alright, let’s try this again, then.” Duo turned towards Heero and looked directly into his piercing blue eyes. “Heero, I think you’re hot as hell. I’ve been in love with you ever since the war. I want you to fuck me into the mattress so hard that I can’t even think anyore.”

To Duo’s surprise, Heero’s face went bright red as he quickly averted his gaze. His hands spasmed at his sides.

”That sounds—” Heero paused to clear his throat. “That sounds great.”

“Sweet!” Duo leered up at Heero. “Come visit me in my dreams, then, and let’s make that happen.”

”Why not in reality?” Heero asked, peering at Duo through thick eyelashes.

”Because you’re not real?” Duo spoke slowly as though explaining to a child.

”But I am,” Heero protested. “I’m real and I’m here. Why wait for a dream?”

”Baby, you are a dream,” Duo explained. How odd. Fake Heero was usually more self-aware. Was his fever fucking with his brain that badly?

Duo jerked away when Heero reached for him, gasping in pain as he pulled at his wound. “What the fuck! The hell do you think you’re doing?”

”What do you mean?” Heero asked, hand hovering over Duo’s arm.

“You know that this all goes away once we touch. I don’t want you to go yet.”

”Duo, I’m not a dream,” Heero insisted. “I’m really here. I’m sorry that I haven’t been when you needed me, but I’m here now.”

”Why would you show up now out of nowhere?” Duo questioned, not believing what he was hearing in the slightest.

”I read the mission debriefing,” Heero admitted. “I read that you got hurt really badly, that you could have died. I also saw the doctor’s notes that you’re supposed to have someone watching over you, but you’re here alone. I got worried, and for good reason, too. It looks like you’re running a fever.”

”Bullshit,” Duo argued. “Heero hasn’t shown his face in years. He wouldn’t show up out of nowhere just for me. To save the Princess, sure. But not for little ol’ me.”

“Why wouldn’t I show up for you?” Heero’s voice was starting to rise in frustration.

”Because I don’t matter,” Duo said with finality. “Heero made that very clear when he left without even saying a word to me.”

A pained look crossed Heero’s face. “I’m sorry for that,” he said. “I needed to go out and do this for myself. I knew that if I talked to you, I would end up just staying with you and I would never heal.” With his determined expression being Duo’s only warning, Heero quickly reached out and grabbed Duo’s upper arm, being careful not to jostle him.

Duo made a panicked noise in his throat when he felt the warmth of Heero’s skin, the rough calluses that covered his palms, the blunt fingernails digging into his arm.

”The hell are you doing here?” Duo choked out, mortified as he thought back to how honest he had been with Heero. How lonely he had been. How the hole came to be in his wall. How he wanted Heero to fuck him into the mattress. No wonder Heero had blushed like that.

”I told you,” Heero said. “I was worried about you. It turns out I had every reason to be and more. You haven’t been taking care of yourself. If you’re running a fever, your wound may have become infected.” He paused for a second, looking at Duo consideringly. “I’m taking you to the hospital,” he said, his tone leaving no room for argument.

“Who the hell do you think you are to boss me around like this?” Duo said angrily. “You can’t just pop up out of nowhere after disappearing for over a year and just expect things to go back to normal!”

Before Duo had a chance to react, Heero was suddenly leaning over him, their faces barely an inch apart. “I’m the one who’s going to fuck you into your mattress until you can’t think. But you need to be healed first.” And like he hadn’t just short circuited Duo’s mind, Heero was standing straight by the side of Duo’s bed, arms crossed and watching Duo expectantly.

”Fuck you,” Duo said, face aflame.

”That’s the plan,” Heero countered with a smirk. Duo hated how that smirk went straight to his groin. It wasn’t fair that Heero had such an effect on him after leaving him alone the way he did.

With that thought sobering his libido, Duo pushed himself up to a seated position. “You don’t need to come out of hiding for my sake. It’s fine. It was nice seeing you, but I can go to the hospital myself. You showed yourself in, so you can show yourself back out.”

”I’m sorry,” Heero said seriously, the smirk having faded from his face. “I know that I hurt you, and I’m sorry for that. But I’m here to stay now.”

”Don’t stay for my sake,” Duo spat out. “I’ve been fine this long without you. I can manage on my own.”

”You haven’t been fine,” Heero argued. “You need help. I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to provide that to you following the war, but I’m here now and…I need you, too.” He peered at Duo, his expression vulnerable in a way that Duo had never seen before.

”Fine,” Duo said reluctantly. “But if you disappear on me again, I’m not letting you back in.”

[ikuzeminna]

Gundam Seed Freedom was… something

I'm not exactly a Seed fan. Yes, I own the gunpla, yes, Cagalli, Athrun and Badgiruel are my favorite characters, yes, I enjoy the series up until Kira gets the Freedom, but I will still mock it mercilessly, groan at every lack of bra or brain cell and by heavens, I want to smash every single one of Lacus' Haros to pieces.

And I only watched Destiny once because I couldn't stomach Cagalli's character assassination a second time. Or Gladys', literally, in the very last second. Like, ma'am, you have a kid. What are you doing dying on an exploding asteroid? :/

So you can imagine I wasn't exactly refreshing Gogoanime every two seconds to see if the movie had dropped. Eventually, it did and I got around to watching it, and although I had already spoiled myself with plot summaries and recorded scenes, this movie somehow managed to miss even my wacky expectations. I was promised wtf scenes, and I got them, but at x1.2 speed which just left me confused and checking my speed settings all the time.

So, let's get into this, with spoilers and all.

Though honestly, what's there to spoil? It's just the last episodes of Destiny all over again, which itself was recycling Seed's finale. If you have seen Destiny, imagine reading a retelling of its finale on Wattpad with a five-year-old and a fourteen-year-old collaborating. The five-year-old handled the plot while the fourteen-year-old handled the romances. That's Seed Freedom in a nutshell.

To be a little more specific, the plot is basically a new bunch of bad guys, Accords, who are super Coordinators able to read and manipulate minds, wanting to implement the Destiny Plan because... reasons. They were all grown by Walmart Mariemaia who Benjamin Button'd herself because... Tuesday. And she's the queen of a kingdom now, somehow, which has the brilliant name of "Foundation."

"Kingdom of Foundation." Why don't you have it run by Prime Minister CEO while you're at it? Seriously, this physically hurts if you speak English. -_-

Anyway, the Earth Alliance and ZAFT are still trying to kill each other because it's Seed and while people can genetically manipulate their offspring to be superior and even reverse age now, they still haven't figured out how to grow brains yet, which is why Cagalli launched Seed's version of the Preventers, called Compass, which is basically Kira beam spamming everyone into submission like he always does because it's forbidden by law to put the words "Seed" and "originality" in the same sentence. The Accords use the conflict to make it seem as though the Earth Alliance blew up their Kingdom of Stupid Name via nuke so that they can then retaliate with Requiem because, again, originality is not allowed in this movie. Oh, and the Accords are also racist, because duh, everyone is.

Does this all serve a grander scheme? Why, of course! Do you think it's so that they can stage a successful coup on the PLANTs to gain more allies?

Actually no, that just happens to coincide.

The far grander scheme is to pinch Kira's girlfriend!! -_- I kid you not, as soon as they fire those nukes on themselves, they pull a Lady Une and make a dramatic escape with Lacus straight to space within 5 minutes tops, just so that Orphee, the leader of the Affronts To My Intelligence and a visual cross between Athrun and Cagalli, can repeatedly get rejected by Lacus since Baby Queen Abysmal Eye Shadow hardcoded being horny for Lacus into his DNA, but her love for Kira overrides her own genetic coding finding Orphee attractive (since Lacus was apparently also created by Queen Baklava For Brains while her mom wasn't looking?), so Orphee just ends up growing Shinji levels of sexually frustrated with Lacus, which, given how Lacus' (and every female's, honestly) lip fillers make her look like a blowup doll in various scenes, especially when she forms an "oh" with her mouth, I can almost understand why hearing her say no is unexpected. Too crass? That's what you get for making me watch a zoom-in on Lacus' giant butt in a cat suit in the finale.

It doesn't culminate in him choking her out, but Orphee does try to force himself on her and the fact that Lacus doesn't knee him in the balls right then and there makes the whole scene pointless. It's very reminiscent of a fourteen-year-old fanfic writer thinking a woman talking her almost-rapist out of his action is the height of female empowerment. It's not. And this wasn't written by a fourteen-year-old. Fukuda says there were over a hundred drafts for this movie. And they settled for this? Lacus should have used that unearned Seed mode and gone Corin on Orphee's nuts.

(Go watch Turn A if you have no idea what I'm talking about. It's Seed but better. Which is an embarrassment, since Seed came out right after it.)

At this point it's pretty clear that our fourteen-year-old has infiltrated the plot with her romances, because we can't have a mere final battle with giant robots and pink explosions, it has to mean something!

And in this case, that meaning is a battle for Lacus' love!

Same, Cagalli. -_-

So it's time now to look at the romance side of this movie, just so that you can understand why my brain started dripping out of my nose by the 1 hour mark already.

Every single character arc in this movie is relationship drama. Every. Single. One. From Kira to Lacus to Orphee to Ingrid to Agnes to even Luna and Shinn. If characters interact, it's always in the context of the same freaking love triangle. No variation.

So let's go through the list. First, we have Orphee, who we've established wants to get into Lacus' pants. Ingrid, the blue-haired Accord chick, is saddened by this because she wants him to get into hers instead, which, given how this Village Of The Darned refer to Mini Me as their mother, is... Freudian to say the least. Baklava For Brains either didn't code her right or is a sadist, I guess. Next, we have Kira, who is in Lacus' pants, but thinks Lacus prefers Orphee and starts whining about it because the movie can't make up its mind on how it wants to portray their relationship. It's clearly established that them living together alone and acting like husband and wife is anything but platonic, but when Lacus and Orphee have their shoujo sparkle moments of intense, sexual attraction, Kira acts as though he isn't her boyfriend, when it's abundantly clear that he's seen her naked on the daily for the past year or so. The movie adds the new character, Agnes, to the mix here, who looks like a pink Misa Misa (alas, without the hidden intellect) and has the hots for her commander, Kira, taking every opportunity to hit on him, even going so far as to try to plant one on him while Lacus is "hiding" around the corner.

....She's not even trying.

And you know, you just know a fourteen-year-old wrote this because we hear nothing of the 152 regulations that hitting on your superior officer go against, never mind any consequences, because... brilliant writing. That they dare to give Agnes Flay's voice is such an insult to me, considering how her writing was freaking Mark Twain level compared to this Post-It note version we're getting here.

Kira ultimately rejects her and Agnes, who previously mocked Luna for settling for whatever came along (which had me laughing real loud because where is the lie?), falls into Walmart Yzak's arms a mere two seconds later because he told her she's pretty and proceeds to spend the rest of the movie as a bad guy because that's what happens to a woman scorned: both self-esteem and the IQ start hitting the negatives.

There are also Murrue and Mwu, and while they don't have drama, they are pretty much reduced to their relationship to each other. You think you were gonna get any personality out of the veteran captain of the Archangel? Pfff, not with Becky writing. Have Murrue jumping, straddling and kissing Mwu on the bridge in front of everyone instead.

The only girls who aren't strangled by a relationship are Meyrin, who barely says three lines but gets to be a pilot now for some reason, Cagalli, who is, weirdly, the best character in the movie, and Ehehe. (You will know exactly who I mean once you watch it.)

Out of those three, Cagalli is the only one actually in a relationship and, lo and behold, her and Athrun are unexpectedly handled well! They even use that they are dating in their fight against Walmart Yzak, which leads to that famous lewd Cagalli fantasy of Athrun's. Cagalli even gets to react to that! (She's not pleased. lol)

The funniest part is that we didn't even know Walmart Yzak is allergic to girl cooties, what with hitting on Agnes previously, so this was Athrun full-on trolling him with Seed's version of the Sexy Jutsu. Look at Athrun having a sense of humor. Look at Cagalli consistently making every scene she is in better. :)

I'm honestly surprised that the best characters in this movie end up being Athrun and Cagalli, with the former being the most badass and the latter the most relatable and best-written, complete with personality and crowning moments of awesome, given how they had been handled in Destiny.

Took them 20 years, but they finally made up for it. Now, if only the rest didn't suck so bad. :/

Because the rest is pretty much Kira and Lacus angsting over not deserving each other for almost two hours because they apparently never sat down and talked about their feelings and relationship, so the merest hint of rejection or competition sends them spiraling into a depression that becomes a galactic conflict for reasons beyond intelligence. Like, picture Shinji and Asuka in a stable relationship act like Shinji and Asuka in Eva, without any depth and in dumb. That's the level of Huh???? the relationship was written with. It makes no sense at all.

Why are you two so insecure? Why is all it takes one comment from random people to make you question your year-long relationship??

Agnes, Ingrid and Orphee are there to provide an external source of conflict because the relationship itself is full of gaping holes so we can't focus on that, and because Becky is fourteen, the best she can manage is contrasting Kira's and Lacus' lip service pure love with evil horniness. Even though it's heavily implied that they've boinked, too.

Okay, I'm being mean to my fictional Becky here. I have actually seen digital manhwa that have this exact same love story, so it's not like you can't write them as an adult and make money with them. I just had irrational expectations, I guess, after Flay hopped over that low bar.

The cherry on top of this sad puddle of melted brain matter is Fukuda saying in an interview that he viewed Kira as having an obsession with Lacus in Destiny, so this was his attempt to fix that. Sir? You catapulted their relationship right past toxic and straight to the acid pit from MK II, Erich Fromm quote or not. Lacus blathering about needing someone because you love them (mature love) rather than loving someone because you need them (immature love) is nothing but lip service in this fetishistic nightmare Lacan would balk at.

I had to sit through two hours of "Gundam Seed - Get All These Drama Queens Freaking Therapy, But Not For War Trauma, But For Their Psychotic Relationship And Self-Esteem Issues."

Because not being in a relationship with the person you want in this movie results in emo exits to the left (seriously, count them), incessant temper tantrums and desperate clutching from heartbreak. We also get to wade through Kira's emo episode as the movie's emotional turning point, whining that Lacus doesn't love him because he can't make her happy and that he's good for nothing, which Athrun thankfully beats out of him quickly in good ol' Beavis and Butt-Head fashion, lest they have to go through Kira's character development in Seed again, too. And no, Kira still hasn't learned how to throw a punch properly. Athrun destroys him.

I read in a lot of reviews that people cheered at this scene, but I had to check my speed settings because the movements were all so fast. The pacing is really abysmal in this movie and I don't mean in a plot kind of way, but in a "my cat hits my keyboard and keeps fast-forwarding scenes until I stop it" kind of way. There are so many scenes that feel like I've accidentally hit increase speed, especially in fight scenes, and I'm utterly confused because letting a scene breathe was never an issue in Seed. We all remember Kira bawling his eyes out every five minutes and either muting the audio or dying from laughter because the VA just sounded severely constipated. Here we get sequences like Kira's Freedom getting destroyed, Shinn's Justice getting wrecked, a nuke going off, the Archangel being blown to pieces, and if any of it was supposed to make me emotional then it utterly failed because not even the characters react to these events with how fast we have to get to the next scene. Never mind people practically teleporting from one location to another, except for Kira who takes longer than Goku to get somewhere.

Seed Freedom is a very weird mix of dragging and speed-running and I don't get why. You had 20 years, man. In fact, even the movie knows it's paced awfully, which is why it keeps giving you the location every time, to increasingly ridiculous degrees.

Anyway, back to the plot and romance. So, Athrun snaps Kira out of his funk with a good walloping. What's next? The rescue mission, of course, which is supposed to be the scene that fixes Kira's and Lacus' relationship by proclamation of their true love for each other! Yay, emotional payoff for this relationship I was totally invested in and not groaning through.

Well, truth be told, I can't stand kumbaya Kira and Lacus in Destiny, so this movie not making me want to scream at my screen whenever I saw them is a feat. Too bad Becky heard me, because she presents us with the following, which somehow manages to be the most mind-bendingly dumb exchange in the entire movie, which honestly requires a superpower at this point to pull off.

Kira, if she slits Lacus' throat, her vocal chords are gonna be the least of your worries. Why is the only one with a functioning brain in there Kisaka? Who, by the way, owns super Coordinator mind reader like it's nothing, despite being a Natural, because ovaries.

Just, ugh.

So after Kira and Lacus get to tell each other "I love you!" with dramatic catches thrown in despite no need for them, making things just awkward, we rush off to the final battle and it's like Fukuda took 5 episodes that were supposed to be the finale and condensed them into three, while cutting half the transitions. There's colorful pew pew, Shinn hilariously weaponizing his stupidity, things exploding, people dying, Yzak and Dearka pushing new gunpla sales, Mwu outright breaking the last remnants of my brain, Lunamaria and Agnes having a girl fight, Murrue ramming a space ship into another one because screw logic, and finally, rolled into this erratic nonsense burrito is Kira defeating Orphee with the power of Lacus' love and her being able to use the Force now, while Horny For Pink is still screaming about wanting to get into her pants and Ingrid still wants him to get into hers instead.

Thankfully, they both die and rid me of their presence.

The saving grace really are Athrun and Cagalli, who rely on actual skill and brains in their fight, and thus end up the best part of the movie by a landslide.

...And then there's Mwu tanking a Requiem shot to the face without issue and deflecting its beam with its puny shield to destroy various targets and Requiem itself because dinosaurs.

Dang it, D.J., stop writing the script for the movie and go back to your noodle pictures. I have a hard enough time reining Becky in as it is. The happy conclusion is everyone smooching or reaffirming their relationship status otherwise, while Lacus blathers over the ending song with her and Kira as two human shaped blobs ready to get nasty on the beach.

Hooray.

So what's the verdict?

Gundam Seed Freedom sucks. And I don't even mean that as a movie, but as a Seed movie. If I previously thought Seed's characters had the depth of a rain puddle, then Freedom threw a maxi pack of paper towels on all of them.

You get a gigantic cast, with various well-established characters with pasts, and, somehow, only Athrun and Cagalli resemble themselves. The rest are bulldozed to single word characteristics like dumb, horny emo, or rude.

For instance, there are two separate occasions where Compass fights a Destroy, and Shinn doesn't care. Stella even gets a cameo, going full Tokomon teeth in his mind at the Evil Dumbass Brigade trying to infiltrate it, but do you think her traumatic death would warrant a reaction when he has to face the mobile suit she piloted when she was killed before him? Naaah.

Kira starts the movie with something resembling a personality, but that gets quickly flushed down the toilet by the time he and Lacus go through the same scene for the 8th time.

Murrue? Don't get me started on Murrue. Murrue spends the entire movie in heat. Funnily enough, she's finally wearing a bra when Archangel gets hit, so no more gainaxing boobs. But she's worse than the horny teenagers.

Everyone else you know and love is just there. I don't remember Sai even getting a line. Miri does, one. Dearka and Yzak exist and it's a big, fat whatever. You'd think they could have put some of them on the ships' bridges, so that we could get cool discussions, right? Yeah, no, have two new characters instead, one of whom is voiced by freaking Jiraiya. No, not Jiraiya's VA, but Jiraiya, because that man doesn't vary his voice one bit.

As someone who used to watch Naruto, it drove me bonkers. Especially when the female VAs put in the effort to blow everyone out of the water. Props to Cagalli's new VA especially who manages to capture the original's stresses and pauses perfectly. I knew right away it was Cagalli despite the different voice. Kudos.

Another positive thing are the backgrounds of the movie. I'm pretty sure a sizeable chunk of the budget was invested in those. They all look gorgeous.

Those visual feasts sadly make the wonky characters stand out more though. Movements down to the very mouth flaps look really choppy, 3D Gundams are always a bad idea, please stop doing that, and often enough the animation quality dips noticeably.

This movie is also in love with potato noses so huge, Gerard Depardieu would laugh at them. It's especially weird 'cause half of those are on Coordinators. You know, the designer babies? Did dogs and pigs go extinct in the Cosmic Era that they need to sniff for truffles themselves now?

It's also a complete crime that the movie ends with no one having kicked Orphee between the legs. Or in the face. He taunts Kira so many times with the line that all he's good for is fighting that I kept yelling at my screen for Kira to please just display that and introduce a bat to Orphee's face.

Not even Shinn gets to throw a punch his way, and that boy is allowed to wave a sword at a person. But in a manner that makes me wanna tear my hair out.

That's a saber, you moron. You don't hold sabers with two hands. Coordinator, my foot. You deserve getting your butt kicked just for that. Though I went full panda facepalm when Yzak With Hair Horns started doing cart wheels during their fight.

Just. Throw a brick at my head, it's less painful.

Then we also have the gem that is the dance scene between Pinky and Horny For Her, which cracked me up specifically, because it's supposed to be this beautiful~ smooth~ charming~ skilled waltz the super Coordinators perform that makes Kira so sad, and I'm dying of laughter because I'm an avid Ballroom e Youkoso fan and if there is anything that series taught me, it's a) the man's hand goes where the bra strap is, so Orphee fails at a basic hold already and b) that's the most pathetic throwaway oversway I've ever seen. Total beer keg.

If Kira knew the first thing about dancing, he would have been sassing Blond Athrun instead of getting all mopey, like actual Athrun did to Discount Yzak. Would have improved the movie by x1000 actually if Kira had gotten the same amount of brain cells as his sister and friend and spent the two hours snarking at all the fanfic nonsense instead of acting like he got gut punched all the time.

Alas, we can't have nice things. What we get after 20 years and over a hundred drafts is a movie about Kira's and Lacus' love story that's literally no different from a Wattpad fic. It glues itself to the surface level of the concept and pulls it off as if the entirety of the two prior series doesn't exist, while making sure to give it no substance at all. Sure, they throw in names and reuse plot points that anyone who has seen the series knows, but they end up as mere Easter eggs. There is no taking advantage of established backstories or past events. Not even a nod. Creating a sense of continuity or closure?

Not in this movie.

Another thing is this bizarre tug-of-war between prudish and sexy Lacus. There's no opening anymore in which she can float naked across our screen, so the movie needs to push her boobs in our faces in a different way, I guess, but she's still a "pure" character so it just ends up being... weird. She won't kiss Orphee and probably whip herself every night for ever considering it, but she'll prance around naked on the beach with Kira and go all Golden Boy with how she's shown riding those wing attachments for the Freedom. Like, make up your mind, movie.

I understand why Fukuda wouldn't want to sully Lacus' "purity" (outside of teenager's minds >_>), but I really wish that she had just kissed Orphee. Just, give me something to work with here. You can't drag out "No! I don't love you! I love Kira!" for two hours by recycling the same exchange over and over. If she had kissed him, there would have been a point to all the relationship drama at least. But like this, it's just boring and inane because we're stuck at the setup and never move to a build up or climax, much less a resolution.

So yeah, outside of the Cagalli and Athrun scenes, this movie really didn't do it for me. I actually recorded my reaction for my own amusement because I thought I'd have a blast hate-watching it, but it's just me going "good grief" increasingly loudly as the movie goes on and pausing to check my speed settings.

Oh, and me losing my mind at Kira and Lacus keeping their motorcycles in their living room. Who on Earth does this???

[gatormeister]

Just finished Endless Waltz, and it is absolutely fantastic. I loved every second of that movie. Took everything that was good in Gundam Wing and turned the dial up to eleven. Got just that little bit extra backstory for the pilots. More Tallgeese is always a good thing. I like the TV versions of the suits better in every case other than the Deathscythe Hell, that one's about equal with the TV appearance I'd say. Give Heavyarms back it's orange damn it!

Absolute pacifism was always a weak ideal in the show, mostly because it just sort of worked all the time just by Relena talking. It was only ever really opposed by war mongers. Endless Waltz finally shows the struggle that is maintaining peace and peaceful attitudes in a way outside of having some cartoonish monarchist/fascist practically look at the camera and call it naive before being proven wrong very shortly after. Which was fine in the show really, as I said in a previous post, Wing tried doing a lot with it's plot that it couldn't fully support, and the end result was some plot points that just never sat quite right.

Mariemaia was a seven year old trying to become a world dictator. She was just a puppet of course. Sort of a Haman and Mineva situation there. But every time she'd open her mouth to try and sound smart I could only think, "You are literally seven, what the hell are you talking about?" Which was funny.

My favorite suits from the series and movie would be the Tallgeese with the Tallgeese II be my favorite iteration, the Wing Gundam of course with Unit 01 the first iteration being my favorite of those, the Sandrock, and the Deathscythe Hell TV version. I liked the Leos and Tauruses, but the rest of the grunt suits just weren't big hits with me. I'd put the Leo above the Taurus, but I would also say that everything I like about the Leo, the Graze from Iron Blooded Orphans does the same but better.

Over all an okay to good series with a fantastic ending. I don't know if I'd watch the whole series over again, but I'd absolutely re-watch Endless Waltz. Next up is War in the Pocket followed by Stardust Memory and Thunderbolt, but before that I'm going to take a small break from Gundam. I may have only just started posting about the shows with Turn A, but I have been watching Gundam basically nonstop since around the August last year. Going from G-Witch, to IBO, to The Origin, 0079 the series, Zeta, Double Zeta, Char's Counterattack, 08th MS Team, Unicorn, Narrative, Turn A, and now Wing and Endless Waltz. It's been a lot, and I am ready to watch some shorter shows without giant robots in them... for at least a little bit. I'm thinking I go back to Gundam in February. I'll still be posting pictures of Gunpla I build in the meantime, but that's a lot different than sitting down and watching multiple shows that are around fifty epsiodes each. See ya!

(Edited to add Narrative into the list. A movie so self contained I literally forgot to put it in with the rest of Gundam.)

[theotherwesley]

Character Opinion Bingo: Mariemaia Khushrenada?

Oh, Baby Strawberry Dictator-sama? I'm very normal about her thank you for asking

[thisweekingundamwing]

This Week in Gundam Wing 17- 30 September 2023

Here’s the roundup for September 17th - 30th, 2023!

Remember to give your content creators some love! Be sure to join in on the events at the bottom! And remember to send in any new works you see or make next week!

~Mod Hel

Fanfiction/Ideas/Snippets:

@noirangetrois

Green Mischief https://archiveofourown.org/works/50260426

Gen, Trowa Barton & Duo Maxwell

Sally Po, Trowa Barton, Duo Maxwell, Heero Yuy

Teen And Up Audiences, No Archive Warnings Apply, Cocktail Friday, Alcohol, Trowa and Duo being little shits, bad star wars references, Wufei will not be pleased

Sally is unimpressed by the creepy-looking cocktail Trowa and Duo serve her, especially when they start talking nonsense. Before long, however, her own plan begins to form.

Wine and Hugs https://archiveofourown.org/works/50416243

F/F, Sally Po & Lady Une,Lucrezia Noin & Lady Une, Lucrezia Noin/Sally Po

Lady Une, Sally Po, Lucrezia Noin, Mariemaia Khushrenada (mentioned)

Teen And Up Audiences, No Archive Warnings Apply, Cocktail Friday, Alcohol, Wine, Birthday, Friendship, Post-Canon, Not Gundam Wing: Frozen Teardrop Compliant

Sally and Noin bring Une a belated birthday gift.

Fandom Discourse:

gwpromptmeme

GW Prompt Meme event

Rules: https://gwpromptmeme.dreamwidth.org/408.html

Main Page: https://gwpromptmeme.dreamwidth.org/

Calendar Events:

@gwcocktailfriday

Cocktail Fridays!

Post responses on Friday, during Happy Hour between 3 & 5 pm in your own timezone.

Here’s the prompts for Friday, October 6th! https://gwcocktailfriday.tumblr.com/post/730182557559291904/cocktail-friday-post-responses-on-friday-october

In need of prompts!

@thisweekingundamevents

Events Calendar https://thisweekingundamevents.tumblr.com/post/730188053636841472/updated-events-calendar

If you are hosting an event currently, or are planning on one, hit us up with links and dates! We’ll add them to the Calendar and reblog your notices to get the word out!

GW Holiday Gift Exchange 2023

Participants List https://thisweekingundamevents.tumblr.com/post/730187822630322176/participants

GW Hallows

https://thisweekingundamevents.tumblr.com/post/729978476539559936/gw-hallows-2023-heres-the-prompt-list-for-this

[noirangetrois]

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Fandom: Gundam Wing Relationships: Sally Po & Lady Une, Lucrezia Noin & Lady Une, Lucrezia Noin/Sally Po Characters: Lady Une, Sally Po, Lucrezia Noin, Mariemaia Khushrenada (mentioned) Additional Tags: Cocktail Friday, Alcohol, Wine, Birthday, Friendship, Post-Canon, Not Gundam Wing: Frozen Teardrop Compliant

Summary: Sally and Noin bring Une a belated birthday gift.

Excerpt: Une had just gotten comfortable on her couch, reading glasses on and book open in her lap - yes, an honest to goodness paper book - when she heard a knock on the front door. Confused, she set down her book and got up to check through the peephole, then smiled as she recognized two of her closest friends.

“Sally, Noin, to what do I owe the pleasure?” she asked once she’d opened the door.

@gwcocktailfriday

[astragifs]

[persianblue01]

Excerpt from a roleplay. Heero is Relena's self assigned bodyguard post EW and is driving her home after a late night in the office.

Heero would always be a soldier. No matter what the situation, no matter how many years had passed, he was raised and practically built to be a soldier. It was all he knew. It was why he was struggling so much in a post war world to find his place in it. As much as he hated to admit it, he had understood Wufei's reasoning when he joined Mariemaia Khushrenada. There wasn't a place for them in the world, but that didn't mean that Heero wanted to keep fighting in it. It was part of why he hadn't followed Wufei when he joined the Preventers; he'd still be fighting. Protecting peace was a worthy cause, but Heero... Heero was tired in a way that ran bone deep. He'd been trained to be a killer at such a young age, but he never fully lost his humanity and that part of him that was still human wanted to live a normal life. At least, as normal as he could get. He was jealous of Quatre, Trowa, and Duo for having things to go back to. Places to call home, a purpose of some sort. Heero had, had nothing before the war and it left him with nothing after the war. Maybe that was why he found himself pulling into Relena's driveway at a quarter past 2 in the morning. It was just the natural progression of things for someone who had nowhere else to be. She wasn't pulling punches with her questions either, but Heero wasn't one to out right lie. He might not answer or withhold certain information, but he was too kind of a person to lie to another person. Though sometimes he wished he could lie to himself. He was actually a lot like Duo in that respect, though he'd never told the other as much. "It's complicated," he settled on as he turned off the car. Gundams in general were a complicated topic, but especially when it came to the relationship between the machine and its pilot.

[incorrectgundamwingquotes]

[during Mariemaia’s Rebellion]

Zechs: Hey!

Duo: Ugh, this guy again.

[pyroanime2k16]

Gundam Wing Sequel: Angel's Reckoning

Premise

This is set around the same time as Frozen Teardrop, with a few differences.

Since the end of the OZ and Mariemaia conflicts, there has been years of peace. Mobile Suits as weapons of war, while still a little fresh in people's minds, are largely a thing of the past as MS are now strictly made for civilian-use only. Strict laws are made in order to make this possible.

Our heroes from the conflicts are living normal lives as best they can. Duo and Hilda are raising their son, who's much like his father. Zechs and Noin live happily with their twin children. Wufei and Sally have some sort of kinship as they raise Kathy together. Trowa (Triton) lives peacefully with his sister at the circus.

For Quatre, things are not so simple. Much to his surprise, he has a clone named Katherine. He's been trying to take her under his wing, but it's been a challenge. The Preventers, led by Une and Relena, have had their hands full with 1: training Phobos and 2: keeping watch on an organization potentially breaking the MS law and 3: gearing for an inevitable armed conflict.

Heero, meanwhile, has a clone that he's been raising as his own daughter. However, that also has challenges as he's forced to be cryogenically frozen, only able to be woken up for 48 hours a month at most. He has yet to specify why, though most speculate that his health's declining.

Like it or not, this peace is short-lived as the organization is dead-set on wiping out those involved with Operation Meteor and the OZ conflict.

New Characters

Tenshi Yuy

Repurposed from my Gundam Build OCs, Tenshi is the sole clone of Heero, raised by him and the other Gundam pilots as his daughter. Physically, she's very much like her father, but with longer hair.

She's cheerful, kind, and often relaxed. She's also quite charming and has a brave and heroic side to her, not to mention selfless. She also cares about her family and friends deeply. As such, she's quite affectionate.

Much like Heero, she can be cold and stoic and much like her father, she believes that the best way to live life is by one's emotions. This is shown when she encourages her friends to show and vent out their sadness and angry openly.

As for what's unique about her, Tenshi is 19 years old, 5 feet and 6 inches, and is VERY protective over her loved ones. She can be quite violent and quick to act if there's danger. She also quite nerdy, especially about the gundams and weapons.

She is also a woman of respect, learning, and change. She respects her family, friends, teachers, and others as people, rather than idols. She's also willing to learn and change if necessary. Even though she struggles with it.

She carries around two pistols for emergencies and has no issue with using them. She will also often call Heero's Gundams as "Dad's shadow/wing" ("Kage/Tsubasa no Otousan" in japanese), showing her belief that the Wing Zero can be viewed as Heero watching over her and showing her deep care and love for her family.

For those of you who are curious about her sexuality, she’s aromantic and sex-repulsed.

Antagonists

The antagonists are comprised of certain FT antagonists (like Katherine) and original ones, like our main antagonist. The organization members are mostly motivated by getting revenge on those who were involved in Operation Meteor and the OZ conflicts, due to massive losses of life.

Our main antagonist, while also motivated by this desire, wants to punish the world rather than uproot the discourse and make things better. She is largely calm and collected, strategically thinking of how to best ensure the destruction of the enemy, but is can be mentally unstable towards her enemies.

In terms of appearance, she is very similar to the late Treize (including his height), though her outfit is more similar to Une's.

Mobile Suits

As said, most MS in the current MC era are meant for civilian usage. As such, they do not contain any form of weaponry. They are primarily based on the outdated Leo, as it was cheap and easy to mass produce.

Of course, Duo II uses the Warlock as he does in FT, but Phobos uses the Prometheus (which was original stolen by Katherine in FT). Quatre uses an MS meant to mimic the capabilities of the Sandrock.

The Wing Gundams

Both Wing Gundams from the show and EW are featured in two different ways. Here, the show's designs for the units are canon, but were upgraded to their EW/Katoki designs later.

The Wing was salvaged after the Mariemaia conflict as a secret last resort method by the Preventers. Wing Zero was upgraded during the last days of the Eve Wars. Later, Wing Zero would be salvaged after the Mariamaia conflict and be reborn as a new unit, again by the Preventers.

BOTH were done at Heero's request.

The Wing was renamed Wing Gundam Second Coming. Statistics-wise, it is essentially identical to its EW counterpart, but comes equipped with the WING system (a lesser copy of the superior ZERO system. Both have the same job, but WING gives less information and is far less taxing on the pilot). It also serves as an AI/auto-pilot.

The Wing Zero was upgraded into the Wing Gundam Archangel. Virtually, it is identical to the Wing Gundam Snow Wing Prelude from FT, but it has a few new features. It has been refitted with a co-pilot cockpit specifically for Neo-Bird Mode, the Wing Zero's ZERO system (now upgraded to be less mentally taxing), active camouflage, two heat swords stored in the Seraph Binder, and two beam pistols hidden in the Twin Buster Rifle.

Antagonists

Aside from using MS from FT, the main antagonist uses an MS based on the Tallgeese with a complementary Mobile Armor.

It is named the Tallgeese Meteor, which was based on the Flugel and Tallgeese II, but significantly upgraded. The Armor is named the Armageddon Unit, specifically made to destroy the Gundams.

Elites commanders are allows to use MS that are designs to LOOK like the Operation Meteor Gundams, as a means to mock their opponents.

Story Overview

The first season would start off more light-hearted, as Tenshi (despite knowing she's a clone of the greatest Gundam pilot in the AC/MC timeline) is trying to live a normal life.

17 episodes are used to showcase the characters' bond with each other and demonstrate their capabilities, while 5 are used to set up the main conflict of this story, which is the antagonists' goal to kill the Gundam pilots in an act of vengeance.

3 others are used as recap episodes, summarizing the original show, the EW movie, and what happened in between these three stories. This also includes the development of the FT and unique MS.

The second season would primarily go through the conflict, showing that while Tenshi and Duo II, as well as Zechs and Noin's kids, are most CERTAINLY not ready for war, they will protect their families by ANY means.

This will reveal who the antagonists are (some are still the same from FT, though it'll be hinted at much better here), Wufei's involvement (because he's always the person doing his own thing), and WHY Heero was continuously going through cryo.

I'm ultimately considering Heero either giving his life to protect the children or die in peace while bonding with his friends and family. That's his endgame. The Wing's last mission is to bring Heero back safely for a proper funeral.

Tenshi would go after the main antagonist herself, believing that no one else she loves should die because of this nonsense. Ultimately, she succeeds in reaching her target, but loses in a one-on-one fight.

Phobos, Duo II, and Zechs and Noin's kids rescue her, thus convincing her that they need to work together in order to return home. The younger cast resolve to stay while the OG cast leave to ensure the Wing's safety.

During the final battle, Tenshi with the Wing Archangel lays waste to EVERYTHING daring to challenge her. Duo II, Zechs and Noin's kids, and Trowa Phobos are with her in the Wing Archangel's cockpit after the Warlock, Prometheus, and other allied units are destroyed.

Duo, Trowa, Quatre, Zechs, Noin, and Wufei will join the final battle in the OG Wing, Tallgeese Heaven, and Epyon Bai respectively. Duo, Trowa, and Quatre piloting the regular Wing is them paying tribute to Heero, much like Tenshi is by piloting the Wing Archangel.

The OP would be Across The End by Two-Mix, because yes. Nightwish's Wish I Had an Angel would be used as an insert song during the final battle.