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Gundam Wing, ep. 36-40
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rachelmanija's hilarious write up explains our new and improved theory of crazy points in the GWing universe. Also, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif){kind=small}
rilina has begun watching! And last but definitely not least,
yhlee offers proof that Heero was programmed by Photoshop. If some of the Gundams are run on Vista and Heero is programmed by Photoshop, no wonder he tries to self-destruct every other episode.
Alas, I was unable to fully appreciate the insanity of this disc because I was watching with a raging headache. On the other hand, it's not like that stopped me from snarking and laughing hysterically and "awww"-ing at the touching reunion of boys and their Gundams.
Rachel has noted that shounen clearly proves that the only people with penis envy are the people writing shounen. I feel GWing privileging of the relationship between boys and their giant stomping machines with humongous, phallic-esque guns over any other human relationship fits neatly into this theory. This is also emphasized by the fact that any time a Gundam appears in the series¹, random nameless soldiers must comment, "OMG! It's a Gundam! How will we ever fight that thing?" before being blown to bits.
¹ Seriously. Every single time. At least five times an episode, for forty episodes so far!
Anyway! Quatre is touchingly reunited with Sandrock! Both Rachel and I were very touched and awww-ed as Quatre talked to his Gundam again. How things have changed from when the pilots talking to their Gundams just made us laugh insanely!
Relena's adherence to absolute pacifism now makes her go for disarmament of the Sanc Kingdom. Normally, I would be all for disarmament, but when enemy forces are tromping through your kingdom with mecha and shipping more in by the second, I think disarmament is not the best strategy. At least she has the wits to evacuate her School for Future Pacifists. Unfortunately, said evacuation means transporting the students to a Sanc Kingdom hospital while giant mecha continue to tromp through, as opposed to, say, getting them out of way of giant mecha. Also, I feel evacuating the school is good, but evacuating all the citizens of the Sanc Kingdom would be even better.
Thankfully, Noin, Quatre and Heero all disobey Relena and defend the Sanc Kingdom, although I think Heero does this not to defend Sanc, but to just kill lots of people and look insane.
Noin is then psychically influenced by Quatre to suggest that they go back to outer space. I suspect that in the next disc, they will return to earth again, as Quatre really seems to enjoy ferrying between the two.
Dorothy and Relena have philosophical conversations about war and peace while things are blowing up around them. Rachel noted that everyone in the series tacks on "for world peace!" to whatever rationale they have, which leads to statements like Dorothy saying, "War is beautiful! We should have more war! It is the nature of humanity! For world peace!"
Neither of us can tell if Dorothy is insane and admires Relena like she says, or if she's insane and heaps sarcasm on Relena, or if she's just plain insane. Also, thanks to this series, every time I read about someone having devilish eyebrows in a romance novel, I think of Treize or Dorothy. I don't think this is as sexy as the romance authors seem to think it is.
Thankfully, Relena actually does something sane and resigns and teams up with Romefeller. I don't think this is the best way to absolute pacifism, but at least it stopped mobile dolls from killing people temporarily.
Duo is later reunited with Deathscythe, in yet another touching scene.
Zechs flies back to earth in Wing Zero, only to be shot at by Heero in Epyon. Heero either hasn't gotten the news that the battle's over, or he has and doesn't care, or he has and can't process it because he's INSANE. Zechs and Heero then proceed to have the most pointless battle ever, and in this series, that's saying something!
I think Zechs is fighting Heero just because Heero shot at him, and Heero shot at him because he's insane. Both of them are technically on the same side at this point, as they're both trying to help the Sanc Kingdom. Not that this stops them from dueling...
During the battle, Wing Zero talks to Zechs and Epyon talks to Heero. Despite awww-ing at Duo and Quatre's reunions with their Gundams, I think Zero System Gundams should be ignored if they talk to you. This goes double if they make you say "Enemy! Enemy! Where is my enemy!" endlessly while your eyes insanely go from side to side and turn yellow.
As a side note, I can't take Zechs seriously at all because he's wearing his helmet! Inside of his space suit helmet! He has double helmets! He looks SO RIDICULOUS!
Anyway, the show illustrates the insanity of Zechs and Heero battling by having their eyes turn yellow. Then the Gundams collide and there's a lot of sparking. I think it is their Absolute Terror Fields. And then! Random Matrix numbers start scrolling on the screen and we get Pokemon-level flashing of images! They nearly shorted out my brain.
After the battle, Heero falls out of his Gundam and BOUNCES ON HIS HEAD! Again! Zechs falls out too, though we don't get to see it, and then Zero falls off a cliff! Heero, probably glad Epyson has stopped talking to him, manages to con Zechs into trading Gundams.
All this time, White Fang, a faction of the colonial independence movement, ousts Romefeller and OZ and possible other colonial independence movements (it's hard to tell at this point). The animators are clearly running out of ideas for more uniforms because the White Fang Gang is distinguished by having white bands tied around their arms. Meanwhile, Relena dons a new hairstyle and dress as she joins Romefeller, further cementing my theory that you can tell what side people are on by what they wear. Noin's new independence from the Sanc Kingdom alas results in her donning a truly awful cowboy shirt. It has fringe. Lots of fringe.
Zechs emo-ly mopes in a bar, telling the bartender that oh noes, he once again has no one to protect! At least this time he doesn't go on about blood on his hands. And since he has disappointed his dead pacifist father and failed his pacifist kingdom once again, he decides it would be a good idea to join the ultra-militant White Fang.
No, really.
Yes, his logic escapes me as well.
Also, I think walking in the snow is the series' shorthand for angst, as Heero also carries a dead puppy in the snow at one point.
At this point, Rachel and I decided that Zechs has his own set of insanity points. He also projects an insanity field that affects people around him (aka, Noin), but he does this without losing any of his own insanity.
OH! I forgot! We also get to see a Teddy Bear of Innocence being blown up, along with a Stuffed Rabbit of Innocence! I think there were also a few Little Girls of Innocence.
In her first speech as Romefeller's figurehead, Relena proclaims that all national boundaries are now gone, and the world is now one giant world nation. "WTF?!" I said.
"I know! Look at Trowa and Noin's hair!" said Rachel.
"No, no! Relena just DISMANTLED ALL THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD!"
"Wait, I missed that."
And since she is Relena and has an insanity field of her own (it must run in the family), instead of all nations of the world immediately bombing the hell out of Romefeller, everyone claps and agrees.
And then Duke Dermail's plane explodes! I can't remember why he's in the plane, but he's now dead!
Speaking of dead old guys masterminding ways to unify the earth, our last mastermind has blown up in White Fang's takeover. He does the best insane laugh that I have seen so far, but that's probably because I haven't rewatched the Quatre going insane episodes yes. And they keep replaying the footage over each previously! You can have the TV and mute and STILL know he's going "BWAHAHAHAHAHA!" just based on what he looks like!
Ok, this is getting way too long, so I point you to Rachel's post for recaps of what the pilots are up to, including the circus called "A Circus," Trowa's amensiac expression of angsty DOOM!, and Wufei going berserk.
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Quatre's LAUGH OF INSANITY totally topped that other guy's. You should re-watch those episodes.
I agree, pilots should not listen to their Zero'd Gundams! They probably tell you to kill the president and put tin foil on your head. (Actually, maybe tin foil would help.)
Maybe Heero was dropped on his head as a baby, and his repeated falls on to his head are a subconscious effort to recreate and heal his head-drop trauma. Or else to crack his skull and die. But it's clearly too thick for that.
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I think this may be the most profound thing I've read all week! I am filled with joy.
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(Anonymous) 2007-11-16 10:14 am (UTC)(link)Iirc, the reason Heero wanted to change gundams was because Epyon was screwy. The Zero System was supposed to show people who their enemies were (and seriously, given how many factions are running around and confused everyone is it isn't too much of a stretch to see how "EVERYBODY" could be a perfectly valid response). Since Zechs was confused so was Wing. With Heero and Epyon, however, it was a bit different. Treize had screwed around with Epyon's systems so instead of clarifying who to shoot it was trying to force Treize's will on the pilot. That's why Heero was so quick to get away from it and why Zechs was so quick to jump in it.
Trust me, it makes (a little more) since later in the show.
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Hee, I'm not sure it makes sense later on! This is the fourth or fifth time I've seen the entire series, and I used to have a website up with a list of all the different factions and who was in them and why, along with a timeline and a notation of all the important places. And it still doesn't make sense to me!
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(Anonymous) 2007-11-17 10:43 am (UTC)(link)~Onion
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It's a Gundam
Re: It's a Gundam