Gundam Wing, ep. 26-30

[oyceter]

I am not even going to try to do a plot summary. Despite the fact that this DVD had two recap episodes in it, I a) am not sure I actually remember the plot and b) am unclear as to the general political state of things in the GWverse.

On the other hand, I do remember that Heero had a pineapple! See? I focus on the important things.

In the aftermath of Quatre going insane, which I sadly did not get to see, thanks to a faulty DVD (this is the problem with mailordering things and watching them four years after the fact. No quality checking!), Heero and Quatre end up being recaptured by... people. In uniforms. It is difficult to say if it's the newly formed Treize Faction, OZ, the Romefeller Foundation, or randomly formed coups and/or factions within those factions.

I think the uniforms were blue, but honestly, there were green uniforms as well, and both of them were shooting at each other, and none of them looked friendly to our beloved, insane pilots.

"Another faction?" we both yelled at the screen when the narration said "Treize Faction."

Amazingly, the voiceover then went on to give us helpful information. "If this continues, we may actually be able to understand what's going on! Incredible!" I said. Apparently the Romefeller Foundation (the secret faction within OZ, the secret faction within the Alliance, the former government and not a secret faction, as far as we know) has taken over OZ and is rapidly gaining support among the nations of Earth and the colonies. Treize resigned from the Romefeller Foundation, having decided that battling with human-manned mobile suits is actually more humane than battling with computer-controlled mobile dolls. No one quite understands this, but he makes it sound very pretty. The Treize Faction is either remnants of OZ or bits of the Romefeller Foundation or both or none that continues to support Treize, for who knows what reason. They probably want to die heroically in mobile suits.

"What is the point of war if humans are not in it?" asks Treize, which is almost a logical question. Alas, his answer is: "There is no point! And there will always be war! Therefore we should continue to war with humans so we can kill actual people isntead of machines. This way is more honorable and humane."

I am sure he says this while standing on a mobile suit with his cape flapping in the breeze, just because.

Unless, of course, he says this while randomly floating in outer space with roses.

Heero somehow ends up in Wing Zero, which has the new and crazy-making Zero System. "It makes the pilot more accurately target his enemies!" say the mad scientists. "Unfortunately, it also makes him see everything as an enemy."

Heero soon loses the maturity he has gained and start shooting at everything in sight. Quatre, newly sane, attempts to stop Heero. Amazingly, it works. Heero has flashes of visions of Quatre, as they are clearly psychically connected, thanks to outer space talking to Quatre. Heero opens his hatch, tumbles out, and falls several stories down and BOUNCES ON HIS HEAD. Since he is Heero, he is not actually hurt. He randomly sees a vision of Relena! Clearly they are psychically connected as well, thanks to ... Relena's mad stalker skillz? Anyway, he is a strange yellow-ish color.

I thought this yellow-ish color was merely a result of the increasingly cheap animation. But it was not so! Quatre runs up to the yellow Heero, touches him, and transfers the sparkly yellowness into his heart!

"WHAT THE FUCK?" I yelled into the phone. "Did you see that? He took the sparkliness! Into his heart! What is the sparkliness? Oh my god!"

Later on, Rachel surmised that there was a limited amount of crazy available for the five pilots, leading to the Law of Conservation of Craziness. Since Quatre had formerly taken all the crazy, Heero was sane during that battle. But then Quatre got de-crazied, which meant all of it went back to Heero! I then postulated that the glowy yellow sparkliness was the amount of sanity available, which Quatre transferred to himself.

Meanwhile, Trowa continues to drift in space, and we have no idea what's going on with Wufei or Duo.

After that, we got two recap episodes. The first was narrated by Relena ("SKIP!"). The second was narrated by Treize. We were going to skip, but decided to try and find Quatre going insane. To do so, we both skipped to the end of the episode and began to rewind. Let me tell you, the series? Even weirder when seen rewound.

"OH MY GOD!" Rachel yelled. "Space mushrooms!"

"What, what?" I said. "I don't remember any space mushrooms!"

"OH MY GOD!" Rachel yelled. "TREIZE RANDOMLY IN SPACE!"

I rewound a little slower. "Ack! Space mushrooms!" I yelped. "TREIZE IN SPACE!"

At that point, we decided the Treize recap episode was worth watching. In it, Treize randomly floats in space, talks to roses, admires his pictures of the two Lady Unes, and babbles his incomprehensible war philosophy.

We finally end up returning to what Relena's doing. She has fancy new clothes and has lost the bangs of insanity (my current theory is that people switch outfits whenever they switch factions. Rachel said this would be helpful, if only she could remember which outfit went with which faction). Relena is now running the newly resurrected, completely pacifist Sanc Kingdom, or she's running a boarding school to teach complete pacifism. Or both. For reasons unbeknownst to anyone, she decided to accept the devil-eyebrowed, monstrous-yellow-car-driving Dorothy from the Romefeller Foundation. Dorothy laughs evilly. Relena expounds on complete pacifism. Rachel and I agree that while pacifism is a very good goal, laying down weapons when people in giant walking robots are shooting everywhere is not necessarily the best strategy to achieve it.

Thankfully, Noin and Quatre agree with us and plot behind Relena's back to get military protection for the Sanc Kingdom.

Pacifists really don't do all that well in this series.

Heero and Quatre have a touching conversation over dogs, as Heero believes dogs can sense the innate kindness in everyone. "He is totally thinking about the tragic dead puppy!" I said. "Because deep down inside, he is kind too! At least, when he's not being crazy."

During this conversation, Heero is holding a pineapple. Neither of us are sure how he got it or why, but clearly Heero has an affinity for produce of DOOM! He then decides to play fetch with the dogs. And the pineapple. Strangely, the dogs actually go after the thrown pineapple.

Rachel and I then debated if the pineapple was stranger, or if the bok choy was stranger. "Because the bok choy made sense in the context, at least," Rachel said. "The pineapple is just... sort of there."

"Yes, but that means that Heero basically went to the kitchens of the ship, found the bok choy, and then carried it with him to the hangar to use as a distraction!" I said.

"Well, it worked," Rachel said pragmatically.

"Yeah, but... why the bok choy? Did he just see it and think, 'Oh, a bok choy! Perfect for my plans of terrorism and destruction!'"

"Um. Because... " Rachel started. "The bok choy is getting more irrational by the moment."

Oh, also, Noin and Sally are cool. Sadly, Noin will probably join up with Zechs again at some point and get swallowed by his insanity field. But we will enjoy the cool women while it lasts!

Links:
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Comments

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Are you going to ever make the Cracktasticness Generator and add Random Produce to it? :)

[oyceter]

Hee! Um... maybe after applications?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I loved the way the characters kept having conversations about how they couldn't tell who the enemy was and which side they were on, and they clearly meant it philosophically, but it was also literally true!

a boarding school to teach complete pacifism.

Like the bok choy, that didn't seem that weird when it happened, but now that I read about it...

[oyceter]

Yes! I forgot to add all the moments when everyone was like, "What side are we on? Who are our enemies?"

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

We both forgot that the butler is named Pagan!!!

[oyceter]

Again! It is just so overshadowed by everything else!

[katie-m.livejournal.com]

I am oddly sad to hear that Heero fell three stories onto his head and still didn't get to die. Hang in there, Heero! Have faith! Perhaps someday your suicide attempts will work.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

So far his closest shot was when he self-detonated his Gundam with himself inside, and ended up in a month-long coma plus extended recovery time.

[katie-m.livejournal.com]

Did he get some handholding out of it, at least?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

GOD YES: hand-holding, shoulder-leaning, caretaking, rescuing, doing his work for him so Heero can rest and recuperate, plus verbal expressions of admiration and affection.

Best yet, it results in one of the other Gundam pilots loaning Heero his Gundam and teaching him to use it: something which is canonically just Not Done. Oyce and I think that is like sharing toothbrushes. Or bank accounts.

I discuss all that in-depth in the following (massively spoilery) write-ups:

http://rachelmanija.livejournal.com/532131.html#cutid1 (details the hand-holding)

http://rachelmanija.livejournal.com/533912.html (psychoanalyzes Heero's hurt/comfort complex, with particular reference to that incident)

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Edited comment to fix second link; the hurt/comfort complex explanation is at the top of the entry.

[oyceter]

Considering how good he is at nearly everything else, he is spectacularly bad at blowing himself up.

Well...

[seawasp]

... he's a genetically engineered super-warrior, who can take thousands of volts through a security grid without flinching, fall something like 500 feet and only break a leg, and so on. He's MEANT to be almost unkillable, and his attempts to commit suicide are acting against his basic design.

GWing makes more sense than some of the other Gundam series. The annoying part is that they never actually admit that they're using the NewType concept, avoid discussing it, and therefore all the NewType phenomena that we see are, to a viewer unfamiliar with the prior Gundam series, totally confusing and nonsensical.

Re: Well...

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

So what was going on with Quatre taking on post-Zero Heero's gold sparkles?