Gundam Wing: disc two (episodes 6-10)

[rachelmanija]

Though there was a point when I was worried that things were calming down too much, this show continues to bring on the crack! And the absurdly complicated politics! And the explosions! And lots and lots of fast-moving plotty goodness! And much more insanity from the gundam pilots! Though Heero, disappointingly, only attempts suicide twice in five episodes, the last attempt was a doozy. Even so, I suspect that nothing can ever top unbuckling his parachute in mid-fall.

Episode 6: Tears of a Clown Party Night.

Trowa, as I mentioned, is moonlighting as a circus clown, in a mask and poofy clown pants. (Trowa has either bad taste or bad luck in lower garments; he also gets the Nazi combat shorts.) Some knife-throwing girl throws knives at him as part of their act. Then she suddenly realizes that he doesn’t fear death! That he craves death! He angstily spins in a metaphoric blackness—still in his clown suit! He doesn’t bother to dodge her knife, which cuts his face!

Knife Girl (later backstage): “Um… Are you all right?”

Trowa (still in clown suit; idly playing with circus lions): “I really don’t care if I live or die, so I couldn’t be bothered to dodge your knife.”

Knife Girl: “…WTF?”



Meanwhile, Relena barges into Heero’s room at the high school he is still inexplicably attending. He pulls a gun on her. Hee. However, he later shows up for the school dance. But gundams attack! He attacks back! Or maybe he attacked first! I have no clue what was going on here, to be honest, except that Treize ordered Relena to be killed, then randomly rescinded the order. But not too soon to have Heero debate, in his gundam looming over her, over why he couldn’t bring himself to step on her.

Treize has an intimate moment with some birds, which he releases from their cage, only to have them return on their own. I think he thinks they are like the colonies or people or something: they want to be ruled. Maybe the birdies told him not to kill Relena?

Episode 7: Scenario For Bloodshed.

This episode was so confusing. I think Treize organizes a coup d' etat, with the poorly motivated help of Zechs (still pompous; still in bird mask) and Noin (still pretty cool). Une throws a general out of a plane, then shoots him as he falls. (Une: still awesome.) Treize and his devilish forked eyebrows sucker Heero into blowing up a plane with all the pacifists and negotiators on it. Oops.

All five gundam pilots meet! Woo-hoo! After the obligatory fighting amongst themselves, Wu Fei explains that a) they’re on the same side, b) they’ve been had.

Episode 8: The Treize Assassination.

By now I was so confused about who was on which side and who was taking orders and who was acting on their own and why anyone was doing anything, that I began taking notes. They didn’t help with that purpose, but I did acquire a lot of out-of-context comments about the pilots.

For instance, “Quatre is smart.” This is true, though I don’t recall what I was specifically referring to. Also, “Wu Fei is crazy.” I think this had to do with his conversation with his gundam, Nataku. (Dude, his gundam is named Nataku! How cool is that?!)

Finally, “Wu Fei: idjit.” I think this is because he accepted Treize’s offer to duel him with swords rather than killing him with his gundam. Treize kicks his ass, then lets him go for no reason. A lot of Treize’s decisions seem entirely motivated by the fact that if he did the logical thing, the series would end then and there.

Heero attempts suicide briefly, by deliberately getting in the line of fire.

Oh: this whole episode was the pilots’ (Heero-tachi, as the narrator amusingly calls them) attempt to kill Treize for making them patsies.

Other notable bits: Sally Po remembers Heero from when he leaped off the cliff; Zechs is Milliardo Peacecraft, Missing Prince of the Kingdom of Impractical Pacifists, and presumably Relena’s brother; Heero totally saves everyone from blowing up.

Episode 9: Portrait of a Ruined Country.

Duo and Heero go back to school! Duo points out that Heero would be less conspicuous if he tried acting less ostentatiously broody. Heero broods at him. (“Duo is smart.”)

Nooo! It’s Relena, previously blissfully absent, and her pink Cadillac! Duo notes that she is insane for going all googly-eyed over a guy who wants to kill her. I love Duo. He and Quatre are the only non-crazy pilots.

Speaking of Quatre, he is hanging out with his friends in fezzes and his right-hand man, Rashid, who looks exactly like Wolverine. Quatre casually mentions that the soul of outer space is talking to him. Strike my last comment.

Trowa and Wu Fei are lurking at the circus with Knife Girl, who for no apparent reason is in a bikini. They are strange and silent together, which amuses Knife Girl.

Zechs gets the prototype gundam, Tallgeese, which hasn’t corrected for g-force or something like the other gundams are, and so is hard to use without killing the pilot. Zechs pilots it. It nearly kills him. He ends up in a field hospital with an oxygen mask over his bird mask.

I’m sorry, I just find Bird-Mask Zechs impossible to take seriously— not even when he reveals that without the stupid bird mask, he is surprisingly hot. It’s just, if you’re concealing your identity, don’t draw attention to the fact by wearing a bird mask. It’s like Heero’s ostentatious brooding, only ten times so.

Then some dude who I thought was working for Zechs, except by now I have no idea whose side anyone is on, steals Tallgeese and suicide-bombs Zechs’ country with it.

Episode 10: Heero, Distracted By Defeat

A giant cyborg hand fills Heero’s viewscreen. Ah-ha, so at least one of them is receiving actual orders. I had wondered about that. It’s the scientist cyborg mechanical hand guy. The pilots all go on some mission, which involves dueling Zechs in the presumably repaired Tallgeese. Une, who has become quite the megalomaniac, threatens to bomb the colonies if the pilots don’t surrender. Mr. Mechanical Hand pops up on the screen and surrenders. But Treize doesn’t want Une to bomb the colonies, because it would end the series.

Heero self-detonates! OMG! He actually blew up his gundam with himself in it!

Quatre, way away in his own gundam, doubles over in pain, clutching his chest. Interesting. Quatre must be an empath. Maybe that stuff about the soul of the universe was not so nutty after all.

Trowa grabs the injured but not dead (because he’s clearly indestructible) Heero, and all the pilots flee in shame and dismay.

As always, anyone who posts spoilers for upcoming episodes will be detonated. But if anyone wants to explain the politics as we know them at this point, that would be very welcome.

Comments

[weirdquark]

I wasn't paying attention to such things when I watched Gundam Wing, but I remember hearing that someone went through and discovered that everyone is too busy doing other things to be having sex. No two characters (or at least the Gundam pilots -- I don't remember if it holds true for everyone) have unaccounted for time at the same time and in the same place. Whenever two characters are in the same place at the same time, you know what they're doing the entire time they're together. Whenever any one character has time in which they could be sleeping with someone, everyone else is either busy or totally inaccessible.

So if this is true, you have to not care about the slash fitting into the plot continuity.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Not really, there's a number of points when we catch up with pairs of gundam pilots who have obviously been hanging out together offscreen for time periods ranging from a couple hours to, in one case, one month.

[greenapple2004.livejournal.com]

Partly for this reason, my two favorite writers tend to focus on what happens *after* the series itself. And one of them likes the more unusual pairings of 1x5 and 2x5, which I wouldn't have believed until I read it for myself. :-) (I do have a soft spot for 3x4... and Treize is always hot, no matter what)

So yeah, let me know when you're done, and boy do I have some links for you!