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I have very little to say about this disc that isn’t spoilery, but for my faithful but not-yet-watching readers, I will try:
1. Heero, who previously made excellent use of a bok choy of D00M, here magically finds a pineapple. In the desert. And uses it to play fetch with some dogs by way of cheering up a depressed comrade.
2. Pacifism just does not seem to be a viable philosophy in the Gundam-verse. Given that, I am surprised that it has so many adherents, and even its own girls-only boarding school.
3. Relena’s faithful butler is named Pagan. This comes up early, but I forgot to mention it before.
4. Gundam upgrades are like Microsoft upgrades: the old system is usually better.
5. I haven’t been talking about them as much because they’re not the leads and they’re not as colorfully crazy, but there are some awesome, badass female characters in this series.
That’s it for the non-spoilery parts.
Quatre and Heero are re-captured. Quatre is understandably depressed. Some faction overruns wherever they are, and orders Heero and the mad scientists to test the Zero Gundam. Apparently it has the “Zero system” which Quatre didn’t even use during his rampage, but it enhances your combat skills while making you go berserk. The scientists are quite proud of it. Heero tries it. He goes berserk. And yet, Heero on Zero is still less crazy than Quatre without it.
Quatre gets in another Gundam, the one Heero used to fight him, and threatens to set off both their self-destruct buttons. Then he psychically projects himself into Heero’s mind. Heero falls out of the Gundam, about a hundred feet down, and bounces off his head. OW. He is glowing with yellow light. In the best visual non-sequiter of the series so far, he has a brief vision of Relena. Then he passes out. Quatre runs up to him, and draws the light into his own body, where it briefly sparkles over his heart.
Um. WHAT.
What was the yellow light?? What did Quatre do with it, and why? I get that he is psychic; the bit where he mentally took down Heero was quite clear. It's the yellow light part that baffles me.
Oyce and I decided that the Gundam boys have only a limited amount of sanity, which is shared between them, and Quatre was taking back Heero’s sanity. This theory is supported by the fact that when Quatre went off the deep end, all the other pilots were quite rational. And also by Heero going crazy the next time we see him. It is somewhat undermined by Quatre then apparently telepathically realizing that Heero is from Earth... so, by Quatre-logic ("If we blow stuff up, everyone will follow us to outer space!") they should go back to to Earth. I don’t know, maybe Quatre sucked the Zero out of him? (Except later it seems to be back.) Or maybe Quatre healed him from whomping his head, except Heero did not come to as one would expect in that case. Are there fan theories on this?
The Gundam Quatre used blows up as he bundles Heero onto a shuttle for Earth. I’m not sure if he hit the button or if it just overloaded. The mad scientists note happily that Zero is still OK. They’re confident that the next test run will go better!
We then have two recap episodes. Even an hour of recapping cannot begin to summarize this series, so I skip the first one, which is narrated by Relena. I watch half the second one, which is narrated by Treize. It has lots of philosophizing, plus Treize spinning in space with roses. We learn that he keeps memorial photos of Une… one for each personality.
Back on Earth, Relena has started a school for girls in pink uniforms, to teach absolute pacifism. She has an evil exchange student from Romefeller (WHAT) with demonic eyebrows and a HUGE yellow car, who loves war. Relena inexplicably does not think this is a problem. All the scenes at the school are like slightly less bizarre, non-musical outtakes from Utena.
Noin and Sally Po kick ass and retrieve Heero’s original Gundam, Wing. They have an adorable discussion about how sweet they think the Gundam boys are. Clearly they are unaware of recent events.
Heero and Quatre land on Earth. There is now a Treize faction. I guess they support Treize! There is also a non-Treize faction, which I think is separate from Romefeller, which has apparently taken over OZ. Plus every nation on Earth is randomly fighting each other. The characters have several discussions on this disc about how they don’t know which side they’re on or who the enemy is or what any side wants. They mean this philosophically, but I think it's also literally true.
By the way, I do not feel that either Quatre or Heero is sufficiently angsty and guilt-ridden about Trowa possibly being dead, considering that the whole thing was Quatre’s fault, and that Trowa’s Gundam exploded because he took the beam meant for Heero. Just saying.
Quatre moseys off to have a long conversation about pacifism with a farmer with a walrus moustache. Heero, having completely lost the hard-won sanity and maturity he displayed a few episodes back, is now suffering from battle fatigue or Zero after-effects or post-head-bounce syndrome or guilt over Trowa taking the beam, etc. Probably all of the above. He keeps saying the same stuff he said while he was in Zero, only in somewhat more reasonable tones. Baaaaad sign.
Heero expresses his crazy by joining some mercenaries. I have no idea what they want or who they’re fighting, and Heero clearly doesn’t either. Or care. His battlefield conduct is erratic, to put it kindly. Then it gets outright suicidal. Again. He is soon totally surrounded by mobile dolls (which are taking over the world for Romefeller; I forgot to mention that), in a blown-up suit, about to get killed. If that’s actually possible. I am beginning to wonder if that would require a nuclear explosion, or perhaps a volcano.
Quatre is still chatting with the walrus guy. I scream at him to get off his ass and go save Heero before it’s too late. Quatre apparently hears me, because he leaps into the nearest mobile suit, kicks out its operator (literally, go Quatre!), and goes to save Heero.
In perhaps the best surprise entrance yet, Noin flies in, drops a big-ass beam cannon on to the field, and tells Quatre to use it to get away while she covers their retreat. He does, explaining to Heero that they now need to go to Sanc, kingdom of the frilly pink pacifists. Because everyone always does whatever Quatre says (even now) they do. That’s when Quatre hugs Heero or else helps him walk, by the way. Relena appears at the airport to smile coquettishly at Heero. Uh-oh.
Trowa, Duo, and Wu Fei are MIA for the whole disc! Come back, other Gundam pilots!
Gundam status: Deathscythe and Shenlong: MIA with their pilots. Heavyarms: also MIA. Wing: about to be returned to Heero, I presume. Repaired Sandrock: about to be returned to Quatre, I presume. Tallgeese: presumably with Zechs, who is also MIA. Zero: with the mad scientists. Yikes. Mercurius and Volatilus (or whatever their names were): Both blown up, though in this series, that is not necessarily a permanent condition.
Suicide attempts:
Quatre: One suicide threat, no actual attempts.
Heero: One attempt that we see, but it’s clearly the latest and most enthusiastic of a string. Heero is backsliding big-time.
Relena: Less sense of self-preservation than a lemming, but no actual attempts.
1. Heero, who previously made excellent use of a bok choy of D00M, here magically finds a pineapple. In the desert. And uses it to play fetch with some dogs by way of cheering up a depressed comrade.
2. Pacifism just does not seem to be a viable philosophy in the Gundam-verse. Given that, I am surprised that it has so many adherents, and even its own girls-only boarding school.
3. Relena’s faithful butler is named Pagan. This comes up early, but I forgot to mention it before.
4. Gundam upgrades are like Microsoft upgrades: the old system is usually better.
5. I haven’t been talking about them as much because they’re not the leads and they’re not as colorfully crazy, but there are some awesome, badass female characters in this series.
That’s it for the non-spoilery parts.
Quatre and Heero are re-captured. Quatre is understandably depressed. Some faction overruns wherever they are, and orders Heero and the mad scientists to test the Zero Gundam. Apparently it has the “Zero system” which Quatre didn’t even use during his rampage, but it enhances your combat skills while making you go berserk. The scientists are quite proud of it. Heero tries it. He goes berserk. And yet, Heero on Zero is still less crazy than Quatre without it.
Quatre gets in another Gundam, the one Heero used to fight him, and threatens to set off both their self-destruct buttons. Then he psychically projects himself into Heero’s mind. Heero falls out of the Gundam, about a hundred feet down, and bounces off his head. OW. He is glowing with yellow light. In the best visual non-sequiter of the series so far, he has a brief vision of Relena. Then he passes out. Quatre runs up to him, and draws the light into his own body, where it briefly sparkles over his heart.
Um. WHAT.
What was the yellow light?? What did Quatre do with it, and why? I get that he is psychic; the bit where he mentally took down Heero was quite clear. It's the yellow light part that baffles me.
Oyce and I decided that the Gundam boys have only a limited amount of sanity, which is shared between them, and Quatre was taking back Heero’s sanity. This theory is supported by the fact that when Quatre went off the deep end, all the other pilots were quite rational. And also by Heero going crazy the next time we see him. It is somewhat undermined by Quatre then apparently telepathically realizing that Heero is from Earth... so, by Quatre-logic ("If we blow stuff up, everyone will follow us to outer space!") they should go back to to Earth. I don’t know, maybe Quatre sucked the Zero out of him? (Except later it seems to be back.) Or maybe Quatre healed him from whomping his head, except Heero did not come to as one would expect in that case. Are there fan theories on this?
The Gundam Quatre used blows up as he bundles Heero onto a shuttle for Earth. I’m not sure if he hit the button or if it just overloaded. The mad scientists note happily that Zero is still OK. They’re confident that the next test run will go better!
We then have two recap episodes. Even an hour of recapping cannot begin to summarize this series, so I skip the first one, which is narrated by Relena. I watch half the second one, which is narrated by Treize. It has lots of philosophizing, plus Treize spinning in space with roses. We learn that he keeps memorial photos of Une… one for each personality.
Back on Earth, Relena has started a school for girls in pink uniforms, to teach absolute pacifism. She has an evil exchange student from Romefeller (WHAT) with demonic eyebrows and a HUGE yellow car, who loves war. Relena inexplicably does not think this is a problem. All the scenes at the school are like slightly less bizarre, non-musical outtakes from Utena.
Noin and Sally Po kick ass and retrieve Heero’s original Gundam, Wing. They have an adorable discussion about how sweet they think the Gundam boys are. Clearly they are unaware of recent events.
Heero and Quatre land on Earth. There is now a Treize faction. I guess they support Treize! There is also a non-Treize faction, which I think is separate from Romefeller, which has apparently taken over OZ. Plus every nation on Earth is randomly fighting each other. The characters have several discussions on this disc about how they don’t know which side they’re on or who the enemy is or what any side wants. They mean this philosophically, but I think it's also literally true.
By the way, I do not feel that either Quatre or Heero is sufficiently angsty and guilt-ridden about Trowa possibly being dead, considering that the whole thing was Quatre’s fault, and that Trowa’s Gundam exploded because he took the beam meant for Heero. Just saying.
Quatre moseys off to have a long conversation about pacifism with a farmer with a walrus moustache. Heero, having completely lost the hard-won sanity and maturity he displayed a few episodes back, is now suffering from battle fatigue or Zero after-effects or post-head-bounce syndrome or guilt over Trowa taking the beam, etc. Probably all of the above. He keeps saying the same stuff he said while he was in Zero, only in somewhat more reasonable tones. Baaaaad sign.
Heero expresses his crazy by joining some mercenaries. I have no idea what they want or who they’re fighting, and Heero clearly doesn’t either. Or care. His battlefield conduct is erratic, to put it kindly. Then it gets outright suicidal. Again. He is soon totally surrounded by mobile dolls (which are taking over the world for Romefeller; I forgot to mention that), in a blown-up suit, about to get killed. If that’s actually possible. I am beginning to wonder if that would require a nuclear explosion, or perhaps a volcano.
Quatre is still chatting with the walrus guy. I scream at him to get off his ass and go save Heero before it’s too late. Quatre apparently hears me, because he leaps into the nearest mobile suit, kicks out its operator (literally, go Quatre!), and goes to save Heero.
In perhaps the best surprise entrance yet, Noin flies in, drops a big-ass beam cannon on to the field, and tells Quatre to use it to get away while she covers their retreat. He does, explaining to Heero that they now need to go to Sanc, kingdom of the frilly pink pacifists. Because everyone always does whatever Quatre says (even now) they do. That’s when Quatre hugs Heero or else helps him walk, by the way. Relena appears at the airport to smile coquettishly at Heero. Uh-oh.
Trowa, Duo, and Wu Fei are MIA for the whole disc! Come back, other Gundam pilots!
Gundam status: Deathscythe and Shenlong: MIA with their pilots. Heavyarms: also MIA. Wing: about to be returned to Heero, I presume. Repaired Sandrock: about to be returned to Quatre, I presume. Tallgeese: presumably with Zechs, who is also MIA. Zero: with the mad scientists. Yikes. Mercurius and Volatilus (or whatever their names were): Both blown up, though in this series, that is not necessarily a permanent condition.
Suicide attempts:
Quatre: One suicide threat, no actual attempts.
Heero: One attempt that we see, but it’s clearly the latest and most enthusiastic of a string. Heero is backsliding big-time.
Relena: Less sense of self-preservation than a lemming, but no actual attempts.
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