From Losers to Glory-A Gundam Wing Special-Part 8

 

Previously:

Trowa sacrificed himself to save Heero’s life and Quatre’s soul.  Meanwhile, Duo and Wufei escaped captivity in newly upgraded Gundam models that look eerily similar to ones they’d use in a certain OVA this manga shares part of a title with.  Everything else played out about the same since Volume 7 of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz-Glory of the Losers only covered 2 episodes of the Anime.  But it looks like Volume 8 has a bit more ground to cover on both ends.  So let’s see where everyones gotten to now that the second half of the Anime and Manga have both begun.

Vol.8 (Episodes 26-32)

In the Anime:

As the war between Romafeller and the Treize Faction heats up, Relena Peacecraft resurrects the Sanc Kingdom as a neutral safe haven.  Heero and Quatre fight their way there with the help of Lucrezia Noin.  In space, Duo links up with Hilde Schbiker, a former OZ cadet he befriended, to complete his Gundam Deathsythe Hell.  The pair are tracked down by Lt. Trant, the OZ officer in charge of experimenting with the Wing Zero.  Duo is forced to test pilot the Gundam but ends up battling Trant in his own Deathsythe Hell.  Trant is overwhelmed by the Zero System and presumably dies (his fate is left ambiguous).  There are also a pair of clip show episodes during this section, recounting the events of the series thus far from the perspectives of Heero, Relena, Treize and Lady Une.

In the Manga:

• Duo makes plans to infiltrate OZ’s Lunar Base to acquire the materials he needs to finish Deathsythe Hell.  Here he meets Hilde, who pursues him when he tries to escape.  Since Trant’s unit is declared AWOL for continuing to research Wing Zero, Hilde is targeted for elimination as well, but is saved by Duo.
•  When they are captured, Duo and Hilde have an extended conversation about the state of the Colonies and the Gundams hand in ruining their chances at peace.  During their talk we see glimpses of Duo’s backstory from Episode Zero, including the priest and nun who cared for him at the Maxwell Church. 
• Duo and Hilde end up bonding and when Trant comes looking for Duo, Hilde offers to take Duo’s place as the Wing Zero test pilot.  They instead part ways on good terms, with Duo leading Trant away so Hilde can escape.
• Trant’s hallucinations from the Wing Zero include glimpses of him fighting with Tallgeese.
• Much like in the Anime, Relena has spent much time off page reestablishing the Sanc Kingdom.
• As Relena and her butler, Pagan discuss the current political climate on Earth, we see Heero and Quatre have returned to the planet and are fighting their way to an unknown destination.
•  Unlike the Anime, Duo does not pilot the Wing Zero for Trant.  Instead, Duo leads Trant to his Gundam and they duel.  Duo almost self destructs to stop Trant but Wing Zero’s boosters are destroyed by a returned Hilde, who uses Duo’s Sythe to aid in battle.
• In the aftermath, Trant is killed and Wing Zero is heavily damaged.  As Hilde mourns his loss, Peacemillion and Zechs approach her and Duo.

After a couple of Heero heavy volumes, we get one that seems that it was Duo’s time to be in the spotlight.  In fact, Heero and Quatre’s escape from the moon takes up about 1/4^th of the books space while Duo’s Wing Zero mini arc occupies the other 3/4^ths of it.  For me, there’s nothing wrong with this since Duo is my favorite character in Gundam Wing (many could say the same).  To make things even better, we merge a couple of storylines together but everything works out about the same, which is when Glory for the Losers is at it’s best.  In this case, the two stories are Duo first meeting Hilde (which happened before he was captured and brought to the Moonbase) and Duo’s encounter with Wing Zero.  And I think Hilde actually plays a more active role in this newly formed tale, heck she even managed to severely damage Wing Zero (it’s gonna need some new engines and I can think of one Mobile Suit that might be up for donations in that department soon).  At the core of everything, this was Duo’s story and we got to see more of his views on life in the colonies, his desires to fight for peace and, as a cherry on top, we even get to see some snippets of his Episode Zero origins at the Maxwell church.  I wont lie, with the character interactions and the new action sequences, I think I like this version of Duo’s Wing Zero story better than the Anime.

And it looks like the new Duo material will continue into next time as a new challenger appears: Zechs Merquise.  We never got a Duo vs. Zechs battle in the Anime so this is pretty exciting.  Who will survive…well both of them will but…ah nevermind.  See ya next week for a new episode of From Losers to Glory: A Gundam Wing Special.