History Repeating, But Improved

Late in Gundam Wing, Heero infiltrates the White Fang's space battleship, Libra. I say infiltrate, he crashes a captured White Fang shuttle in a shuttle bay and slips away in the confusion of fire suppression. 

He's partly there to rescue Relena, who went to Libra on her own to try reasoning with her brother. Zechs plans, going by his public statements, to bring about peace by killing everyone on Earth, since it's clearly the source of the problems. As though the people living in space are some different species entirely and it'll all be Lionel Hutz's vision of a world without lawyers if only Earth weren't around. More likely, he plans such an ugly, horrific battle people will be too frightened/disgusted to fight wars again.

Which is actually stupider than the idea it's all the Earth's fault. Clearly the helmet he wore all those years did about as much good preventing cranial trauma as your average NFL player's.

So Heero is also there to assess if Zechs is really committed to this (idiotic) path. They both have suits with the Zero System, and Heero's has shown him Zechs has no future. Is Zechs seeing something different?

He and Relena confront Zechs in some command center*. Zechs gives them a history lesson on how, a couple decades ago, two people worked towards total pacifism. Zechs and Relena's father, King Peacecraft on Earth, and in space, the politician Heero Yuy. They were assassinated, and things continued on the same old path of those with military power dominating those without, making them afraid and desperate enough to do crazy shit like give five 15-year-olds incredibly powerful mobile suits and tells them to kill a bunch of people.

Back when I first watched the series, I didn't think much of that scene. I figured Zechs was making a point about why preaching of pacifism was pointless. You have to fight for peace, crush your enemies, because that's what they'll do to you. That sort of thing. But, he also asks Relena if she agrees, and when she doesn't, praises her for thinking as a member of the Peacecrafts should.

So the parallel finally dawned on me. Zechs talks about a Peacecraft and a Heero Yuy, one from Earth and one from space, working towards peace. He tells this story to a Peacecraft and a Heero Yuy, one from Earth and one from space, both working towards peace. Relena had to grow to understand the gap between ideals and reality, and Heero had to understand what he was actually fighting for, what he was hoping to achieve with all the battles. But they've each retained their resolve, maybe even honed it through their what their experiences taught them.

The critical difference between them and the predecessors Zechs spoke of is, unlike Original Recipe Heero Yuy, Kickin' Buffalo Ranch Heero Yuy is a soldier. He's not easy to kill. Hell, as good a soldier as he is, even he can't manage to successfully kill himself, and not for lack of trying. And he has, at some point along the line, decided he will protect Relena (instead of threatening to kill her.) Which means now Relena is not easy to kill, either. Good luck, would-be assassins.

I thought that was a nifty little piece of the series, certain things repeat, but people can actually learn from the past failures and get it right. Of course, Gundam Wing: Frozen Teardrop might very well have blown that whole notion to hell. I've only read plot summaries off the Gundam wiki, and am not sure I understand them - I can't even follow the way of marking years that tries to manage the difference in the length of Martian years versus Earth years - but it read like a lot of the characters ended up repeating the mistakes of the prior generations, as badly or worse. Sending kids off to war, when they weren't fucking up raising them or outright abandoning them, things of that nature.

Maybe, if you go back far enough before the events of Gundam Wing, there was a point where humanity was actually getting along pretty well, those on Earth and those in the space colonies, and then things went downhill, only to rise again, briefly. Hopefully not, I'd like to think things could trend up against the inexorable pull of entropy, but maybe.

* Actually a hologram of Zechs. Kind of odd, since there hadn't been any sign of similar technology up to that point.

Bunker Busting

Of all the anime from my rewatch project this year, Gundam Wing is the one I reassessed the most. I liked it before, but it hits differently now. I get more from the stuff that's not giant mechs destroying other giant mechs. I may post about some of that later, depending on how Thursdays play out this fall. 

For today, I'm just going to talk about the bunker scene at the end of Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz. Here's the clip the times listed below are referencing. Discussion points, in chronological order:

~00:33 into the clip - Back when I was doing Burn Notice episode rundowns, I talked about my annoyance with characters who use the, "Go ahead and shoot me, then," bluff, usually as proof they are not a snitch/cop/spy, and how it never seems to backfire, no matter how unstable the person they're daring is.

(I've been thinking about if Takagi's death in Die Hard qualifies as a time it backfire. I think that requires assuming he was lying to Hans Gruber about not having the password they wanted. I feel, near the end, there's enough desperation in his attempts to convince Hans that he wasn't lying, but your mileage may vary.)

Anyway, here we see Mariemaia Khusrenada learning that Heero Yuy is not the person to run that bluff on. I mean, he was clearly going to shoot anyway, but I love how there is no hesitation. The moment she dares him, it's 'Roger that,' and BOOM!

~00:53: The thing the rewatch made me re-evaluate most was Relena. When I was younger and fixated on the pilots wrecking shit, she seemed like she was in the way. That it was everyone else accomplishing things. I didn't appreciate how much she grew through the series, how much responsibility she shouldered in the wake of her father's death and learning of her heritage. She survives assassination attempts, leads a country, accepts what is intended as a figurehead position as "Queen Relena", then pulls off a bloodless revolution through empathy, idealism and force of personality. She grapples with the gap between her ideals and reality, and what can be accomplished, but never loses her resolve to bring those ideals to life and create a future different from pretty much the entirety of human history prior to that.

(Note that, for all his charisma and "the man on a horse" ego, Treize Khusrenada never tried to directly oppose Relena the way he did the Romefeller Foundation. He waits until Zechs makes his idiotic, "Earth is the problem," declaration and uses everyone's fear to seize control. He knew in a straight up confrontation with her, he'd lose.)

Most of all, she doesn't blink. She's surprised the first time Heero pulls a gun on her, but I wouldn't say she's scared. She certainly isn't afraid to shield him from Duo moments later. After that, after her father's assassination, Relena refuses to sacrifice what she believes in for her own life. (She surrenders the Sanc Kingdom so people won't die for her, which is not the same thing.)

And so you get Mariemaia, trying to puff herself up after Heero's first shot (probably the first time anyone has directly threatened her), only for Relena to see right through it. The deadpan delivery of, 'Are you afraid, Mariemaia?' is perfect. It's not really a question. She knows the kid is afraid. Everyone in that bunker is afraid, except Relena. All the guys in the magenta shirts and armbands are soldiers that, through luck or skill, survived the events of Gundam Wing. You figure they faced death before, but they weren't ready for this. Which brings us to. . .

~1:31: When I first watched Gundam Wing on Toonami, lo those many years ago, I used to joke about how often Relena and Heero would say each other's name. Often in a soft murmur, and often it was the only thing they might say at that moment. You could make a drinking game out of it. 'Heero. . .' Take a shot. But in this case, it's once again Mariemaia's reaction that's the selling point.

Relena was always key to Dekim Barton's plan, in much the same way as Mariemaia (who thinks she's running things, but it's Barton actually giving orders.) Mariemaia has the lineage to get the surviving Treize Faction idiots to support Barton's plans. She gets him the muscle he needs. Relena's the one person people on Earth and in space believe in. She'll legitimize his coup, get the people to accept it quietly. And, because she's a pacifist, in Barton's eyes (and Mariemaia's) that means Relena's weak. She'll do what they want.

Except they're wrong. She won't bend to them, anymore than the Gundams - even if all the pilots other than Heero are trying not to kill their opponents - so now her value is as human shield. Just one problem, Heero knows the depth of her conviction in her beliefs. There's a reason he tells her more than once that she's stronger than he is. (In the Blind Target manga, he tells Quatre she's, 'the strongest.') She's willing to die rather than help Barton set himself up as ruler of humanity.

Mariemaia's just now figuring that out. The little gasp and the shocked look, priceless. It's sinking in that, the beloved elader who is supposed to be her bullet shield, the one whose presence is meant to ensure her safety, has a murder/suicide pact with the same Gundam pilot about to blow his own ass up trying to kill them. Don't you hate when that happens?

~1:45: I did make the mistake of reading the comments on that video. I mean, I know better than that from 20 years ago when I'd watch Weird Al's "Smells Like Nirvana" video and the comment thread was just one person being outraged on Kurt Cobain's behalf, and then someone correcting that person by pointing out the Nirvana guys not only agreed about how unintelligible they were, but were thrilled to get parodied, ad nauseam, forever.

But, setting aside the dozens of comments to the effect that telling Heero that Relena's in there only makes him more eager to shoot - yes, that's why he visibly lowers Zero's buster rifle immediately afterward - there was some debate about the location of that last shot. Did he alter his target on the third shot, because of the memory of that little girl? There is the brief shot of his targeting screen where the reticle seems to shift, but it sure as hell looks like the third shot hits the exact same place as the first two. I think it represents him raising the buster rifle again and sighting in on his target.

I think it's more that Heero is being incredibly precise. The little girl with the flower died because Heero miscalculated where he puts some explosives, so a mobile suit got knocked into an apartment building by the blast, killing innocent people. He's not going to make that mistake twice, he shoots where it will tear open the shelter, but the people in the bunker will survive.

I could be wrong. Could be Heero figured he had to stop them, but he'd die in the process when Wing Zero blows up hundreds of feet in the air. From that view, he was killing himself at the same time as penance.

Instead, he survives, climbs down into the bunker, symbolically shoots Mariemaia with an empty gun, which I think is his way of closing the door on that period of his life, going by his 'I'll never kill again,' comment before he collapses. Which isn't in the video I linked to, but is worth mentioning for how it connects to what is.

Sunday Splash Page #225

 

"They're Sagittarius, Actually," in Gundam Wing: Battlefield of Pacifists, by Koichi Tokita (artist), Hajime Yadate and Yoshiyuki Tomino (creators), Katsuhiko Chiba (scenario)

I've discussed before that Dragon Ball Z on Cartoon Network's Toonami block was the first anime I watched that a) I really was a fan of, and b) I actually knew was a cartoon from Japan. I don't think Gundam Wing was the second, because I think Toonami started showing the various Tenchi Muyo! series first, but it was definitely the third.

It's not part of the main Gundam timeline, with I don't know how many series and movies set within it. Rather, it's off in its own distinct timeline, which has its appeal. I don't have to worry that I haven't seen a bunch of other series that preceded it. I think means Gundam Wing is the Gundam version of Marvel's Ultimate Universe.

From what I remember reading, it wasn't popular in Japan because all the teenage pilots were considered to be too pretty. I don't know if that means it wasn't popular at all, or wasn't popular with the traditional/entrenched/hardcore Gundam fans. I'm thinking the equivalent of the American comic fans who complain about replacing a white guy superhero with a black woman or a teenager.

There's been a few mangas based on it, and I owned three. Episode Zero was a prequel, looking at each of the pilots as children and explaining a few things about their backstories. Why Duo refers to himself as a "God of Death", why Trowa was running around using the name of a dead son of an important family.

The other two, Blind Target and Battlefield of Pacifists were set between the anime and the Endless Waltz movie, and focused on the difficulties of moving into a new era. There are people in the colonies (satellites out in space) who doubt that the Earth is really going to treat them as equals rather than servants. There are those who profit from that sort of mistrust continuing. And there are those who want to be the ones holding the reins. So the pilots have to find their way through a changing world like everyone else. Question why they fought and whether they're done fighting. What the Gundams were meant to represent.

So the stories have a mix of ideologies and goals that make for interesting conversations. I feel like my imagination - or maybe my memory of the anime - is doing a lot of the work for the art. Koichi Tokita can convey the movement in combat, and sometimes the force, but I don't think the art carries the sense of size and power. That these are dangerous weapons that people covet because they could tilt the balance, upset the fragile state of things at the moment.

Something A Bit More Serious Than Usual

I'm having some difficulty starting this. Perhaps best just to start at the beginning, which is Gundam Wing. One of the central conflicts is the pursuit of peace, and the problems that arise from the differences in how people define "peace", and how they pursue it. The main characters are teenagers who have decided to fight an organization based on Earth that they feel is unfairly restricting the lives of the people living in the colonies humans have constructed in space*. They fight so that the people don't have to, and believe (initially) that if they can destroy the offending elements, it will bring peace to the colonies. Other characters think of peace as something where the aristocratic ruling class runs the show, 'cause democracy and liberty are dangerous ideas**. Still others believe that war will bring about peace because if the battles are horrific enough, people will realize the futility of war, and they'll get sick of it. And then there's one person pushing total pacifism, and that's the one that intrigues me.

Can total pacifism work? Looking through the Stanford Encyclopedia's entry on pacifism, this sounds like absolute pacifism, as opposed to contingent pacifism***. Where a government would deny itself the use of force as a method of dispute settlement. Gundam Wing suggests it only works if everyone**** is on board. After all, if you're having a dispute with someone, and they bring a bat with them, and you stand there, unarmed, determined to talk it out, there's very little to stop them from caving your skull in and doing as they wish. So is the key to get everyone to agree to sit and down and talk things out, to get people used to talking with their enemies, rather than just blowing them up, and can that actually happen? Our history suggests probably not, because if you just kill everyone on the other side, you get everything you wanted, but if you talk things out, with an eye towards a compromise that will satisfy everyone*****, well you probably had to sacrifice something you wanted, and who wants to do that?

If a country preaches total pacifism, then they can't have any sort of military, even as a defensive force, can they? The entry on absolute pacifism suggests there is some belief that violence is OK as self-defense******, so perhaps a defense force is allowed. Except, if you have a military, even if it's just for protection for outside aggression, there is probably a temptation to use it, or there can at least be a perceived temptation by your neighbors. Then they get nervous and arm themselves, ostensibly to defend themselves from you, and what if one side decides they have to attack preemptively? Pacifism would seem to be at risk if only because people can be fearful and prone to abandoning ideals when they get scared.

Additionally, can someone who supports the idea of pacifism fight to protect it? If one thinks that country and its ideals are that important, they'd want to defend them, but that would run contrary to the ideals one wants to protect, wouldn't it? If one begins to fight, that's a signal they've given up on a peaceful negotiation, which doesn't seem very absolute pacifist. Contingent pacifist, I suppose, fighting on the grounds that the harm done by this fighting will have greater benefits for the long-term.

I am really surprised at how many different kinds of pacifism are out there. I guess I always perceived it as "no fighting, period", but it can have a broader range than that, I suppose.

* For example, after the assassination of a prominent person who was working towards more peaceful relations between Earth and the colonies, this organization restricted contact between the colonies, effectively turning them into isolated islands, separated by superior military force.

** I'm paraphrasing, but that's essentially what one character spouts off at a get-together of like minded types.

*** Or perhaps skeptical pacifism. The argument there is, if someone attacks you, and you kill them on the grounds it was self-defense, well, how do you know? They hadn't actually killed you, so perhaps you could have settled things peacefully. That's the gist of it, anyway.

**** Meaning everyone that group could come into conflict with.

***** At least satisfy them enough they don't take up arms again.

****** Apparently based on the grounds that absolute pacifism is an ideal, that everyone will fall short of, if only by the basic requirements of nature that require something living to perish so that another individual can survive by eating it.