From Losers to Glory-A Gundam Wing Special-Part 11

Previously:
Despite bringing a souped up, Angel Wing sporting Wing Zero, Zechs found himself lost in a Zero System vision of the future and a battle with Heero in Gundam Epyon.  The Sanc Kingdom fell, Relena surrendered herself to the enemy and Duo and Wufei decided to make an unscheduled pass at an unfinished Battleship Libra which never happened in the Anime.  Oh and Quatre has his Sandrock back…but it isn’t in its Endless Waltz form yet…bummer.  Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz-Glory for the Losers is heading into its final stretch.  Let’s see what other changes await.

Vol.11 (Episodes 37-41)

In the Anime:

Relena is installed as “Queen of the World”, the new figure head for Romafeller.  Her messages of peace move the battle weary Romafeller, swaying public opinion away from Romafeller leader Duke Dermail.  Meanwhile, in space, a new power faction enters the fray in space.  They call themselves the White Fang and declare they will liberate the Colonies from OZ, Romafeller and the Earth.  They take over OZ’s Lunar Base and seize control of the Mobile Doll construction plant, killing Tuberov in the process.  They also seize the unfinished Battleship Libra as their new headquarters.  Quatre returns to space and learns from Duo that Trowa is alive but suffering from amnesia.  Slowly but surely, Duo, Quatre and Trowa come together to battle the White Fang.  During the battle of the Space Fortress Barge, Zechs appears as the new leader of The White Fang and destroys Barge single handidly, declaring he will erase the cause of all problems in space, the Earth.  Treize takes advantage of the new chaos, and the death of Duke Dermail at the hands of the White Fang, to stage a Coup D’etat and take control of Romafeller and all of Earth’s forces away from Relena, leaving the former Queen to travel to space to reason with her brother.

 In the Manga:

• During the Libra battle, Sedici, on orders from Quinze, secretly contacts Duo and Wufei to try and recruit them to the White Fang.  When both refuse, Sedici fires Libra’s main cannon at them.  Both pilots survive but are forced to retreat.  With few options, Duo and Wufei join up with Peacemillion
• After getting Epyon from Heero, Zechs wanders battlefields for a little bit, searching for his future purpose.  He is contacted by Quinze (who is at a restaurant on Earth similar to where he meets Zechs in the Anime) and is asked to lead the rebellion in space.  Zechs agrees and Quinze names the rebel group “White Fang” in Zechs’ honor.
• The Artemis Revolution begins following Queen Relena’s speech, not before.  Duke Dermail and Tuberov are both captured in space (Dermail traveling to speak with him following Relena’s taking full Romafeller leadership power away from him).
• Dermail and Tuberov are briefly freed by guards loyal to them.  Tuberov goes mad trying to retake control of the Mobile Dolls, leading to his demise just as in the Anime, only this time, Dermail is killed along with him.
• It is Dorothy, not Trieze, who removes Relena from her position as Queen, saying it is a decree from the Romafeller Foundation (but likely she is passing along words from Trieze following his successful coup d’etat).  Dorothy then offers to take Relena to space to confront Zechs.
• Zechs and the White Fang attack fortress Barge.  Zechs finishes the fortress off after it receives a devastating hit from Battleship Libra’s main cannon.  Duo, Quatre and Noin are not present for this battle as in the Anime.

Huh, so I guess I was wrong, we covered a lot more than two episodes in this Volume.  Ah the White Fang, my favorite forced antagonistic force for the last act of the Anime.  It looks like my wish to see the Barton Foundation take on that responsibility will not happen after all.  I will give some credit: Sedici trying to coax Duo and Wufei to the White Fang before they officially announce themselves is as close to some proper build up to their appearance as we’re ever gonna get.  Actually, in looking at things now, White Fang does get more build up than I though.  Hell, the group doesn’t christen itself until Zechs joins the cause.  Zechs too gets a little more reasoning for wanting to join up, wandering through several battlefields rather than sipping hot cocoa in a tavern somewhere.  I think I like Duke Dermail’s demise in the Manga more than the Anime.  Rather than going down in kind a less than glorious fashion (destroyed before he or his forces could even start fighting the White Fang), he sees just how mad Tuberov has become and has to die seeing the nightmare he may have unleashed upon the Earth begin to take shape…that of his own weapons being used against his forces and foiling his conquest.  Meanwhile Dorothy continues her streak of inserting herself into events she was never part of in the Anime.  Granted she was around during the Queen Relena segments, but Relena getting deposed by Treize was a highlight of the show, one the few time they actually shared screentime (if not the only scene).  Giving that honor to Dorothy robs the moment of its effectiveness I think.  However, Dorothy will always look stunningly beautiful in that black dress.  Eyebrows or not, that would definitely make me want to follow her to the Dark Side.

At the very least, I’d follow Dorothy into Space, which is where all of the action is heading too since we’re now closing in on the last act of the Anime.  Trowa is still MIA and no sign that Heavyarms or Sandrock are getting their upgrades any time soon.  Well there are still 3 volumes of this Manga to cover so we’ll see what happens.  Right now we’re on track for From Losers to Glory: A Gundam Wing Special to wrap up in two weeks with a new episode next Friday and a double sized finale the following week.