From Losers to Glory-A Gundam Wing Special-Part 2

Previously

Five Gundams and five young pilots descended to Earth but their story we all know if happening a bit…differently.  Welcome back to From Glory to Losers: A Gundam Wing Special.  Over the course of the next couple of months I’ll be looking at each volume of the manga Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz-Glory of the Losers, and comparing them to the span of episodes they cover in the TV Anime.  Last weeks debut Volume didn’t have a tremendous amount of changes but they were still substantial.  This week…well we get a helluva lot more.  Let’s get to them.

Vol.2 (Episodes 3-7)

In the Anime:

Despite being sent on separate missions, the Gundam pilots slowly begin to cross paths.  Heero finds himself in Duo’s debt after the latter rescues him from an Alliance facility.  Meanwhile Trowa and Quatre meet and bond while Quatre’s support team, The Maguanac Corps, repairs their Gundams.  At the Lake Victoria base, Wufei bombs the troop barracks and destroys the prototype Taurus suits.  This enrages pilot instructor Lucrezia Noin, who joins her former comrade Zechs Merquise in going after the Gundams.  In space, Relena’s father is assassinated by Lady Une, right hand woman of OZ Leader Treize Kushrenada.  Before passing, Darlin reveals to Relena that she is the last surviving daughter of the Peacecraft family of the Sanc Kingdom.  Relena briefly meets Heero’s mentor, Doctor J, before returning to Earth.  With things at a fever pitch across Earth, Treize sees the perfect opportunity to lure the Gundams and their pilots into a trap that could steer the whole planet into OZ’s waiting hands.

In the Manga: 

• Quatre and Trowa’s mini battle at the end of Episode 3 is more of an actual fight.

• During Wufei’s attack on the Lake Victoria base, we cut back to his Episode Zero origin story a year prior to the main plot.  Here we meet Mei Lan, Wufei’s wife, and the original intended pilot of the Shenlong Gundam.  When the Alliance threatens to destroy the L5 colony with a biological weapon, Wufei sorties in an unfinished Shenlong, while Mei Lan flies out in a dangerous Tallgeese prototype. The colony is saved but Mei Lan is mortally wounded and dies in Wufei’s arms.  Wufei then becomes Shenlong’s pilot but affectionately calls the Gundam “Nataku”, which was also Mei Lan’s nickname.
• Lady Une announces that “Operation Daybreak” is in fact “Operation Pleiades”, with “Daybreak” being a dummy name leaked to the colony rebels.
• When Trowa parts ways with Quatre, we see his Endless Waltz flashback featuring the death of the real Trowa Barton.
•  We are introduced to Sylvia Noventa, granddaughter of Field Marshall Noventa of the Alliance, just as the Marshall departs for New Edwards.
• Duo battles Heero, looking to get revenge on him for taking his Gundam’s parts.  Their duel is ended when Doctor J and Professor G contact them both with orders to attack New Edwards, where the new Taurus space Mobile Suits are supposedly located.
• Zechs and Noin are sent to liberate the former Sanc Kingdom and test the newly completed Tallgeese.
• Vice Foreign Minister Darlin, Relena and Marquis Weridge all meet at New Edwards.  Weridge warns Darlin about a potential threat on his life.  Relena also learns from Weridge the origin of Heero’s name (albeit unintentionally) as opposed to being told by Doctor J.
• Whereas he is absent for the bulk of the New Edwards battle in the TV Series, Wufei is now the first to arrive and commence the attack on the base, knowing it’s a trap but aiming to kill the present Treize.  Quatre is also on route along with the Maguanac Corp (who were not present for the New Edwards battle in the Anime).
• It should be noted that while these events take place between Episodes 3-7 of the TV Series, the death of Vice Foreign Minister Darlin and Lady Une’s attack on the St. Gabriel Institute in order to kill Relena haven’t happened yet.
  

So I’m wondering if the Barton Foundation is going to play a larger role in this telling of Gundam Wing.  It would help to better set them up for their villainous role in Endless Waltz and in the TV Anime, they’re never, ever mentioned at all.  One of the most important additions in this Volume are the inclusion of Trowa and Wufei’s backstories.  Wufei’s is probably my more favorite of the two because his wife, Mei Lin, if a freaking bad ass and I wonder how things would’ve gone if she had lived and gone on to be the fifth Gundam pilot instead of Wufei.  I also like the expansion of Heero and Duo’s relationship within the series, giving them more of a friendly but at times intense rivalry.  It allows for a lot more action that is cool to look at.  Same for Trowa and Quatre actually getting more of a brawl during their first encounter.  Gundam 00’s Ian Vashty said “It’s a dark day when Gundams fight amongst themselves”…but it is always so freaking cool to see.  The fact that Relena’s foster father is still alive should shake up what’s coming next at New Edwards.  Plus Wufei shows up to that event first rather than sitting out the entire fight.  I think next week will be the first time we see how story beats play out with a new set of characters in the mix. 

That’s it for Volume 2.  See ya next week as we take a look at the start of Operation Pleiades and see just how differently the history we know continues to change.