In an earlier post I mentioned how Gundam Wing influenced 7th Moon. It first aired in America on Toonami on Cartoon Network, right after Dragon Ball Z. I really think everyone should watch Gundam Wing, especially world leaders, because I feel it demonstrated the futility of war better than any other story I've ever heard. First, let's start with what Gundam Wing is about. Gundam is a franchise of mecha, giant robot anime, and this one was the first offshoot that abandoned the original Gundam Universe and created it's own story line that was similar to, but in no way actually connected to the original Mobile Suit Gundam. Gundam Wing took place in the year After Colony 195, or 195 years after colonizing outer space. The colonies hang just within the orbit of the moon so they aren't that far from Earth. The Earth Sphere Alliance has united all the nations of Earth and the space colonies under their military dictatorship, the weapon of choice being mobile suits, giant robots controlled from within by pilots. At the beginning of the series, the Earth Sphere alliance won using these mobile suits and the scientists who created them are filled with regret and decide to create an even more powerful mobile suit they call Gundams to help a rebellion. The colonies in space are decidedly the primary victims and the scientists decide to recruit young men from the colonies to pilot the Gundams and run special missions to overthrow the Earth Sphere Alliance.
The series lends itself to be about these five young men and their Gundams, each of which is as unique as the pilots. It is good to see how war affects these young men, clearly representing the spectrum of young military recruits. Duo Maxwell is popular among fans, partly because his Gundam the Death Scythe is bad ass, even though it's technically the weakest because it only seems to have the plasma scythe for a weapon, and yet Duo makes it work, he represents the ideal soldier, confident and never wavering, Duo is the only pilot who actually keeps his head on straight through the entire series. Then there's Wufei Chang, who is clearly out for vengeance with his Gundam Shen Long, though he always calls it Nataku, which it seems is a reminder of his lost love who died during the hostile takeover of his colony. Then there's Quatre Raberba Winner, pilot of the Sandrock, who is an idealistic rich kid who fights because he believes in peace and loses his mind big time when he finally realizes that peace can not be achieved through war, though I'm getting ahead of myself on that one. Then there is Heero Yuy, pilot of the eponymous Wing Gundam, who is suicidal, in the first episode he tries to end his own life and destroy his Gundam to get out of having to fight, and throughout the series you get the feeling he's always hoping that he'll get another chance to end his life properly, clearly a traumatized individual he borrowed his name from a martyred pacifist from the early war days and we never find out what his real name is. Finally, Trowa Barton, pilot of the Heavy Arms, also taking his name from someone else, Trowa seems to be a blank slate, possibly a sociopath, he may actually be the most damaged of all as he seems to be going forward on some sort of auto-pilot, just doing whatever he has to to survive.
However, while those five have their own interesting personal stories that reflect the effects of war, the war itself is better demonstrated through Zechs Merquise and Treize Kushrenada. These two men are rivals in war and largely represent the conflict of war in general. Zechs shows up first and we are led to believe that he will be the primary antagonist of the series as he fights for the Earth Sphere Alliance against the Gundams. Treize on the other hand seems to be involved with the rebellion and has an air of charisma that convinces us that he's a good guy. Then we find out that Zechs is actually Milliardo Peacecraft, the son of a family of pacifists who tried to prevent war and ironically the death of Milliardo's parents ignited the war. Milliardo is fighting for the Earth Sphere Alliance because he believes that if one side wins and unites the world, there will be peace, so he picks the winning side and tries to bring about his ideals. Unfortunately, he runs up against a difficulty of realizing that once one dedicates their life to war, there really isn't a place for them in peacetime, he has seen too much bloodshed to be able to live in a peaceful world, mostly just wracked with guilt believing he has to right to stand next to pacifists and civilians that actually managed to stay out of the war. Treize goes even further when we get our big twist halfway through the series, the rebellion actually wins and establishes a new world order with Treize as the new leader. Then something really weird happens, Treize abandons his post as world leader to begin a new rebellion claiming that the new world order is just as corrupt as the last one, even though he was in charge of it.
It really doesn't make sense at first, even the Gundam pilots are confused and don't know what they are supposed to do next. Chang hasn't gotten revenge and keeps on track, Trowa and Heero try to go with the flow having long been disillusioned regarding the ideals their comrades fight for, Duo still believes in his rebellion, in denial about, or completely oblivious to the fact that the Gundams were partly responsible for Treize taking over since he actually believed his rebellion was about independence for the colonies, but Quatre is the hardest hit, when he realizes there are still casualties and all his fighting was apparently for nothing, he actually goes on a psychotic killing spree. However, it soon becomes clear what's really going on, Treize Kushrenada never intended to win his revolution, he just wanted to go down in a blaze of glory and die a hero's death. He never lets on that he's disappointed that he survived the war, he manages to keep up an honorable charismatic facade, because he knows his plan only works if the people still love him. This second half of the series is rather depressing because at first you think "They won, the war is over, why is the story still going? Why is Quatre going insane?" but then you realize the horrible truth, war is never over. Finally, Treize and Zechs/Miliardo have a showdown, one half of the world against he other, and Treize tries to challenge Zechs to a duel and reduce the global conflict to a one-on-one battle of honor. This is about as close as we ever get to seeing Treize show his true colors and admit he's crazy and his followers even moreso for trusting in him to begin with. Zechs refuse the duel because he sees through Treize and wants there to be a spectacle so people can see how pointless war is. In these final episodes it becomes clear that war is pointless on a level that only this series has been able to describe, when you see how different people at all levels of the war are affected, soldiers, officers, world leaders, politicians, revolutionaries and even civilian bystanders, you realize there is never any good reason for war because ultimately, everybody loses and nobody wins.
If you didn't quite get the point watching the main series, they hammer it home with the movie Endless Waltz. This movie features the daughter of Treize Kushrenada, Mariemaia, following in her father's demented footsteps. She's a little girl, but the way she explains what she believes was her father's philosophy with absolute conviction she's actually the creepiest character of all. The title actually refers to how she describes the cycle of war and peace, as if they are just dance steps in the Endless Waltz. Unique for some movies based on anime series, Endless Waltz doesn't contradict the series, but rather compliments it stating clearly what the series was trying to say all along.
I believe if enough people watched Gundam Wing, we would all get the idea that no fight is worth fighting and we should all get along. At least our world leaders should watch and learn and realize that this is how any and every war will end, with everyone losing.
Well, that's it for now. Please watch Gundam wing if you get the chance and get your copy of 7th Moon from Amazon or Barnes and Noble. I believe Gundam Wing is also available on Amazon. Really, even though I may have given away the whole story, the way it's shown will affect you in a way my description falls far short of.
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