All eyes look to space as Zechs and the White Fang begin
their hostile wipeout of the remaining Romafeller forces. Guided by Wing Zero, Heero returns to space,
along with Quatre, Noin and Sally Po.
Here, they reunite with Duo, Trowa and Wufei, the Gundam Pilots united
once again against a common enemy. On
Earth, Relena’s time as Queen of the World Nation is cut short when Treize
stages a coup and takes control, planning how own counterattack against
Zechs. The final battle fast approaches
and everything has changed since Operation Meteor. Can the combined might of Heero, Duo, Trowa,
Quatre and Wufei change history one more time?
Gandalf the White once said in The Return of the King,
“The board is set. The pieces are
moving. We’ve come to it at last…the
great battle of our time.” Seeing as how
we’re only a few episodes away from the end, that statement couldn’t be anymore
true, especially if this is Gundam.
Zechs has his new forces, and a new second in command. The Gundam Pilots have come together at
last. Even a familiar face is moving to
make a counterattack from Earth. We were
all over the map but everything was moving almost smoothly.
This chapter effectively marked the end of OZ in the
series, more or less. With Barge
destroyed and Treize disowning his own men who would seek to use the Colonies
as leverage against White Fang, the original main enemies of Gundam Wing have
finally been vanquished, especially with Treize in his new role. In a way, I’m surprised with Treize’s new
role. It doesn’t feel like he made a
typical coup d’etat power play by removing Relena from the head of
Romafeller. Granted, a military leader
is going to be needed if Earth is to stand a chance against Zechs. In a way, I get Treize’s mindset to set
Relena free to do as she wishes while he gets to do what he wants and may the
best person win in their outcomes. He
knows Relena probably wont get through to Zechs (and she didn’t), so he’s
planning the next best thing. Is Trieze
still a bad guy with this really logical mindset?
Zechs, meanwhile, has solidified himself, in my head, as
the true heir of Char Aznable’s role in a Gundam series. Beyond the mask and a need for revenge, he’s
now moved up to wanting to literally destroy the world because he feels Earth
is the root of all evil. As a man who
has lost everything multiple times, I guess it was only a matter of time before
he snapped in his own way and just said “screw it”. With a Gundam at his disposal, Zechs is now
the figurehead he’s always been, just for another military force. Still, couldn’t he have chosen a better
target for testing Libra’s cannon? I
think if he took out Romafeller HQ, he could have sent a huge message…but I
guess Treize would have been taken out too and he doesn’t want that right
away. All of this makes Dorothy’s heart
throb with her War fetish. She’s got a
front row seat to the war to end all wars and she’s going to enjoy every minute
of it. I especially liked her scene with
Relena where she showed once again why she’s the “Anti Relena.” Trying to get Relena to shoot her own brother
sounds in character for Dorothy, as does locking Relena in her room with a
smile on her face because she’s trying to punish Relena for being too
naieve.
Of course, the big moments of this part came from the
five pilots finally coming together.
This is the first time since New Edwards that Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre
and Wufei have all been in the same room and this time in person. They all gelled together pretty well,
especially since they’ve all teamed up separately with each other a few
times. As expected, working together as
a team was tough at first. Ironically,
everyone came together with the Zero System, Heero’s idea surprisingly. Once this got going, the action was
spectatular. Seeing the team work
together was one thing. The best parts
were seeing Quatre and Dorothy go head to head with their separate Zero Systems
(Quatre’s in Sandrock and Dorothy operating the Mobile Dolls from Libra). Any time a character who irks me like Dorothy
gets one upped is a plus. And then we
had Duo going head to head with Mobile Dolls of Heero and Trowa’s Mercurius and
Veyate Mobile Suits from the first half of the series, complete with Heero and
Trowa’s battle patterns. The God of
Death brought the pain, especially to protect an injured Hilde. And thankfully the animation kicked it up a
notch for that fight. Duo’s two on one
battle is one of the best looking fights in the show. The rest of Gundam Wing should have always
looked this freaking good.
BTW I’m ok with the Zero System being used for “proper”
stratetgic purposes, like how Quatre and Dorothy were using it, rather than
being possessed by the system. It’s also
done a good job brining the pilots together, most recently showing Wufei that
he needs the others to beat Treize and Zechs.
However, the Zero System becoming the cure for Trowa’s amnesia was a
little much. I’m probably being super
nitpicky. The Zero System has been known
to screw with minds but it seems like luck that it decided to repair Trowa’s
memory. Trowa’s been a tricky character
this series. His amnesia brought him
closer to Catherine, which gave him a reason to fight but couldn’t this have
been established a lot earlier on to give him some drive? Even Wufei had his defeat by Treize to drive
him further, which is more than what Trowa had at the start of the season. I guess I’m griping too much. Still, the least they could have done was do
more upgrades for Trowa’s Heavyarms rather than just give it two Gatling Guns. Against the Mobile Dolls with shield that
seems highly ineffective. Guess it’s
better than Sandrock, which only got a submachine gun as it’s additional
upgrade.
Oh and big surprise, Lady Une isn’t dead. She’s just been in a coma for most of the
second half. Is she going to wake up
before the fireworks kick off? I hope
so. I wonder what kind of Une we’ll see
in the last few episodes if that happens.
Here’s hoping they can fit her in cause I feel like a lot is going to
happen in the finale. How is the world
going to look when this conflict comes to an end? For that, you should just go back to my
review of Endless Waltz lol.
Damn, hard to find a way to close out my comments on the
second to last part. The end is right
there…man did I watch this series way too quickly. Guess I’ll talk about that when we get to the
epic series finale next time. See ya
soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment