rachelmanija (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rachelmanija) wrote2007-11-12 09:12 am
rachelmanija) wrote2007-11-12 09:12 am
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Gundam Wing: Disc 7, episodes 30-35
I will elaborate more beneath the cut, but this disc has further evidence for the theory that the 5 Gundam pilots share a fixed amount of insanity between them. For ease of calculation, let's assume it's 100 crazy points, with more points making you more crazy. 0-10 is probably within the normal range.
In disc one, I estimate that Duo and Quatre each have 2 1/2 (remarkably stable under the circumstances), Trowa and Wu Fei each have 15 (weird but possibly not diagnosable), and Heero has 65. When Heero gets less crazy, the others get more crazy, and so equilibrium is maintained.
I should start tracking the crazy points during the re-watch I'm doing with Yoon (who is watching for the first time.) In case you missed my weekend post:
She has an excellent report up on our day, including a recap of the first disc of Gundam Wing, with truly hilarious screencaps. We have visual proof that Heero was programmed with Adobe Photoshop. That explains a lot.
By the way, Yoon has clearly been an unnatural influence on me: I'm voluntarily doing math!
Disc 7 suffered badly from too much Relena, and not enough pilots-other-than-Heero. Come back, other Gundam pilots! Die, Relena! DIE!!!
I was mostly bored by the goings-on in Sanc, which was a problem since there was quite a bit of that. I am hoping Sanc will be destroyed (again) in the next disc. Hopefully along with Relena.
Relena is a pacifist at great length. Quatre and Noin and Heero defend her worthless self, and also her kingdom, while demon-brow Dorothy bwa-ha-has in the background. This goes on for quite some time. An unseen Sally Po is looking for Trowa for them, but, to my great frustration, we don’t actually see him or Wu Fei for another four episodes.
In outer space, Duo gets captured and is forced to try out the Zero system. He briefly hallucinates and goes crazy, but quickly pulls himself together once he’s out of Zero. This confirms my faith in Duo’s mental resilience. Having now read Episode Zero, I think it is innate.
Zechs dons the stupid bird mask to give himself some deniability in terms of his connection to the pacifist Sanc kingdom, so he can fight OZ without wrecking Sanc’s reputation. Since everyone recognizes him as Milliardo Peacecraft anyway, the bird mask is again useless! Zechs obtains the crazy-making Zero Gundam. But since he’s crazy already, he just might be able to pilot it.
On Earth, Treize meets Heero, tries to get Heero to shoot him, and discusses philosophy. Then he gives Heero yet another Gundam, Epyon, which shows its pilot the future. (More “if you continue on this course” or “your deepest fear for the future” than unchangeable destiny, it looks like.) Basically, Epyon is Zero 2.0: makes you EVEN MORE insane! Heero pilots it. His eyes spin like pinwheels. He sees himself as the last man standing on a destroyed Earth. Needless to say, he goes crazy.
But he recovers himself enough to deliver Epyon back to Treize, even though he is so beat-up by the experience, both physically and mentally, that I was surprised to see him climb out rather than fall out. Treize immediately gives Heero arose-scented bubble-bath gun and asks Heero to shoot him. Heero declines and collapses at his feet.
I have to say, I find Treize’s behavior here even more baffling than usual.
The last episode, “The Return of Wu Fei,” also featured the return of Trowa. About time! He’s walking in the rain, looking like he’s been to Hell and back, when he bumps into Catherine, the knife thrower. (This confused me for some time, as I couldn’t figure out how he’d gotten to Earth, but later it’s explained that the circus is touring a colony.) But he doesn’t recognize her, because he has amnesia!
Wu Fei is at his Chinese colony, getting ready for a new Gundam which he feels he isn’t worthy of. Again. The colony gets attacked, he escapes with the Gundam, and his sifu gets him on radio to tell him that everyone is depending on him-- right before the colony blows itself up lest it be taken over by OZ. Unsurprisingly, this does not bolster Wu Fei’s fragile mental state. Zechs tries to recruit him as an ally, but Wu Fei fights him instead. Zechs loses control in Zero and flips out, although with Zechs, it’s hard to tell.
Quatre goes off to fetch the rebuilt Sandrock to defend the Sanc kingdom. Looking adorable in a burnoose, he trudges through the desert, murmuring tenderly, “I’m coming for you, my Sandrock.” (“Boku no Sandrock.” Awww!)
Back in the circus, Trowa is in poofy green clown pants with yellow stars. I find it impossible to take his amnesiac pain seriously in that outfit, but luckily he soon changes back to his regular outfit. Catherine hasn’t told him who he is because she doesn’t want him to go back to the war and get killed. I see why she thinks it’s for his own good, but it’s clearly not working out that way, because he is an emotional wreck-- much worse than we’ve ever seen him before. Quatre and Heero need to go comfort him and tell him who he is and give him back Heavyarms and lots of ammunition. That should make him feel better.
No sign of the yellow sparklies from the last disc. Though I note further support for my theory that the Gundam pilots share a limited amount of insanity between them: Quatre and Duo: currently sane. Heero: still crazy but coping better than he was in the last disc, not that that would be hard. Wu Fei: crazier than usual. Trowa: having a nervous breakdown.
To put it in numbers, right now I’d estimate Duo at 5 (shaken up but quick to recover), Quatre at 5 (alarming tone in his voice when he threatened some guys in the desert, and I just can’t fully trust his sanity ever again), Heero at 20 (very good, all things considered) Wu Fei at 20 (unstable and hysterical, but functional and not psychotic or suicidal), and Trowa at 50.
Sorry, Trowa. I’m sure Heero will take back some of that crazy real soon now, especially now that he’s got Epyon.
Gundam status: Quatre’s going to get Sandrock. Zechs has Zero, yikes. Heero has Epyon, uh-oh. Tallgeese self-detonated. Heavyarms is MIA, but I anticipate its touching reunion with Trowa in the next disc. Deathscythe is with Duo. Not sure what happened to Shenlong—that was a new Gundam Wu Fei had, right?
Suicide attempts:
Heero: Arguably one, when he goes to fight a battle from which he probably won’t return, etc, and won’t let Quatre come with him, but I’m going to disallow it on the grounds that such battles are a regular part of his job, and he should know by now that it takes a bigger effort than that to kill him. Unnecessarily risky, yes, but not too bad for Heero— which is also how I’d classify him voluntarily trying out Epyon.
Treize: Attempts suicide-by-Heero twice. I’m really not sure why.
Trowa: No attempts that we’ve seen, but if I was Catherine, I wouldn’t throw any knives at him.
Master Long and the rest of the Chinese colony: Successfully blow themselves up. I think.
Some random guy from the Treize faction: Successfully blows himself up. “Treize-sama, BANZAI!!!”
Wu Fei: Still none! Either he's going to get all the way through the series without ever trying to kill himself, or something really spectacular is coming up.
In disc one, I estimate that Duo and Quatre each have 2 1/2 (remarkably stable under the circumstances), Trowa and Wu Fei each have 15 (weird but possibly not diagnosable), and Heero has 65. When Heero gets less crazy, the others get more crazy, and so equilibrium is maintained.
I should start tracking the crazy points during the re-watch I'm doing with Yoon (who is watching for the first time.) In case you missed my weekend post:
She has an excellent report up on our day, including a recap of the first disc of Gundam Wing, with truly hilarious screencaps. We have visual proof that Heero was programmed with Adobe Photoshop. That explains a lot.
By the way, Yoon has clearly been an unnatural influence on me: I'm voluntarily doing math!
Disc 7 suffered badly from too much Relena, and not enough pilots-other-than-Heero. Come back, other Gundam pilots! Die, Relena! DIE!!!
I was mostly bored by the goings-on in Sanc, which was a problem since there was quite a bit of that. I am hoping Sanc will be destroyed (again) in the next disc. Hopefully along with Relena.
Relena is a pacifist at great length. Quatre and Noin and Heero defend her worthless self, and also her kingdom, while demon-brow Dorothy bwa-ha-has in the background. This goes on for quite some time. An unseen Sally Po is looking for Trowa for them, but, to my great frustration, we don’t actually see him or Wu Fei for another four episodes.
In outer space, Duo gets captured and is forced to try out the Zero system. He briefly hallucinates and goes crazy, but quickly pulls himself together once he’s out of Zero. This confirms my faith in Duo’s mental resilience. Having now read Episode Zero, I think it is innate.
Zechs dons the stupid bird mask to give himself some deniability in terms of his connection to the pacifist Sanc kingdom, so he can fight OZ without wrecking Sanc’s reputation. Since everyone recognizes him as Milliardo Peacecraft anyway, the bird mask is again useless! Zechs obtains the crazy-making Zero Gundam. But since he’s crazy already, he just might be able to pilot it.
On Earth, Treize meets Heero, tries to get Heero to shoot him, and discusses philosophy. Then he gives Heero yet another Gundam, Epyon, which shows its pilot the future. (More “if you continue on this course” or “your deepest fear for the future” than unchangeable destiny, it looks like.) Basically, Epyon is Zero 2.0: makes you EVEN MORE insane! Heero pilots it. His eyes spin like pinwheels. He sees himself as the last man standing on a destroyed Earth. Needless to say, he goes crazy.
But he recovers himself enough to deliver Epyon back to Treize, even though he is so beat-up by the experience, both physically and mentally, that I was surprised to see him climb out rather than fall out. Treize immediately gives Heero a
I have to say, I find Treize’s behavior here even more baffling than usual.
The last episode, “The Return of Wu Fei,” also featured the return of Trowa. About time! He’s walking in the rain, looking like he’s been to Hell and back, when he bumps into Catherine, the knife thrower. (This confused me for some time, as I couldn’t figure out how he’d gotten to Earth, but later it’s explained that the circus is touring a colony.) But he doesn’t recognize her, because he has amnesia!
Wu Fei is at his Chinese colony, getting ready for a new Gundam which he feels he isn’t worthy of. Again. The colony gets attacked, he escapes with the Gundam, and his sifu gets him on radio to tell him that everyone is depending on him-- right before the colony blows itself up lest it be taken over by OZ. Unsurprisingly, this does not bolster Wu Fei’s fragile mental state. Zechs tries to recruit him as an ally, but Wu Fei fights him instead. Zechs loses control in Zero and flips out, although with Zechs, it’s hard to tell.
Quatre goes off to fetch the rebuilt Sandrock to defend the Sanc kingdom. Looking adorable in a burnoose, he trudges through the desert, murmuring tenderly, “I’m coming for you, my Sandrock.” (“Boku no Sandrock.” Awww!)
Back in the circus, Trowa is in poofy green clown pants with yellow stars. I find it impossible to take his amnesiac pain seriously in that outfit, but luckily he soon changes back to his regular outfit. Catherine hasn’t told him who he is because she doesn’t want him to go back to the war and get killed. I see why she thinks it’s for his own good, but it’s clearly not working out that way, because he is an emotional wreck-- much worse than we’ve ever seen him before. Quatre and Heero need to go comfort him and tell him who he is and give him back Heavyarms and lots of ammunition. That should make him feel better.
No sign of the yellow sparklies from the last disc. Though I note further support for my theory that the Gundam pilots share a limited amount of insanity between them: Quatre and Duo: currently sane. Heero: still crazy but coping better than he was in the last disc, not that that would be hard. Wu Fei: crazier than usual. Trowa: having a nervous breakdown.
To put it in numbers, right now I’d estimate Duo at 5 (shaken up but quick to recover), Quatre at 5 (alarming tone in his voice when he threatened some guys in the desert, and I just can’t fully trust his sanity ever again), Heero at 20 (very good, all things considered) Wu Fei at 20 (unstable and hysterical, but functional and not psychotic or suicidal), and Trowa at 50.
Sorry, Trowa. I’m sure Heero will take back some of that crazy real soon now, especially now that he’s got Epyon.
Gundam status: Quatre’s going to get Sandrock. Zechs has Zero, yikes. Heero has Epyon, uh-oh. Tallgeese self-detonated. Heavyarms is MIA, but I anticipate its touching reunion with Trowa in the next disc. Deathscythe is with Duo. Not sure what happened to Shenlong—that was a new Gundam Wu Fei had, right?
Suicide attempts:
Heero: Arguably one, when he goes to fight a battle from which he probably won’t return, etc, and won’t let Quatre come with him, but I’m going to disallow it on the grounds that such battles are a regular part of his job, and he should know by now that it takes a bigger effort than that to kill him. Unnecessarily risky, yes, but not too bad for Heero— which is also how I’d classify him voluntarily trying out Epyon.
Treize: Attempts suicide-by-Heero twice. I’m really not sure why.
Trowa: No attempts that we’ve seen, but if I was Catherine, I wouldn’t throw any knives at him.
Master Long and the rest of the Chinese colony: Successfully blow themselves up. I think.
Some random guy from the Treize faction: Successfully blows himself up. “Treize-sama, BANZAI!!!”
Wu Fei: Still none! Either he's going to get all the way through the series without ever trying to kill himself, or something really spectacular is coming up.
no subject
I totally forgot about Wu Fei's colony BLOWING THEMSELVES UP! And Treize attempting suicide-by-Heero!
I love Epyon so much. I mean, it is a magenta gundam! With devilish green eyes! And a prehensile tail!
I still cannot believe I also totally forgot about Trowa's TRAGIC AMNESIA!
no subject
I love Epyon. After several episodes of tiresome politicking-with-Relena, it really brought the crazy back to the plate. Plus, tail!
I can't decide which reunion will be the most touching and emotional: Trowa with Quatre, Trowa with Heero, Trowa with Heavyarms, or Quatre with Sandrock.
Did you get a GW suicide icon? Nag Yoon!
no subject
I love your one of Heero plonked down in the water. Bwahahaa!
The Sanc Kingdom bits are soooo boring. Dorothy should do more insane things to make it interesting.