From Losers to Glory-A Gundam Wing Special-Part 3

Previously:

While destroying the Lake Victoria Base commanded by Lt. Noin, Wufei has flashbacks to his dead wife and we learned the true origin of his Gundam’s nickname, “Nataku”.  Meanwhile, before Heero and Duo could get into mano v mano brawl, the Gundam pilots were all contacted by their respective Doctors and told to head to New Edwards to stop the distribution of a new breed of Space Mobile Suit.  Yeah…not all of that quite happened in the Anime and on today’s “From Losers to Glory”, the changes only become more substantial as we head into the third volume of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz-Glory of the Losers.  Let’s get started then.

Vol.3 (Episodes 7-9)

In the Anime:

The leaders of the Earth Sphere Alliance meet to discuss entering peace negotiations with the Space Colonies.  Treize and OZ leak false intel to the Gundam pilots, making them believe the gathering is exclusively comprised of the core OZ leadership.  The Gundams attack and in the confusion, Heero kills Field Marshall Noventa and his fellow Pacifists, turning public opinion against the Gundams.  At the same time, Treize initiates Operation Daybreak: the plan for OZ, which has had troops planted in various Alliance bases across the planet, to overthrow the Alliance.  Among these list of targets is Zech’s former homeland of the Sanc Kingdom, which he liberates with the help of his newly finished Tallgeese.  Wufei makes an assassination attempt on Treize but is defeated in a duel.  Treize spares him but the damage to Wufei’s spirit has been done.

In the Manga:

• Wufei, Quatre and Trowa all arrive at New Edwards before Heero and Duo (as opposed to the opposite order of arrival in the Anime).

• Operation Pleiades commences as the New Edwards assault begins.  We see more detailed attacks on Alliance bases across the globe, including Somalia where Noin students Alex and Muller make their first appearance.
• The liberation of the former Sanc Kingdom happens concurrently with the events at New Edwards.  Zechs wins the battle single handidly with Tallgeese and kills General Onegell, the man who led the attack that destroyed the Sanc Kingdom originally.
• During his evacuation, Noventa speaks with Quatre, Trowa and Wufei, the latter two outlining the many crimes of the Alliance, which Noventa denies.  Quatre, however, believes him and allows Noventa and his shuttle to leave. 
• Heero still kills Noventa, as he does in the Anime.  However, debris from Noventa’s shuttle strikes the New Edwards base.  General Septum and Darlin are both critically injured but Darlin saves Relena in the process.  Darlin dies, telling Relena her true heritage and, in effect, it is Heero who kills Relena’s foster father rather than Lady Une in the Anime.
• Duo is the one who reveals OZ’s duplicitous acts to Heero and the others, instead of Wufei.
• Zech’s loyal subordinate, Otto, dies fending off an Alliance counterattack in the Tallgeese, knowing Zechs is too injured to pilot it again.
•   A dying Septum launces a satellite missile at New Edwards to destroy the Gundams (rather than Lady Une ordering the bases self destruct in the Anime).  Sally Po asks Heero to stop the bases destruction.
• As Relena mourns her fathers death, Weridge comforts her and recalls an image of Relena’s birth mother, Queen Katrina, who is seen sitting in a Mobile Suit cockpit and sporting a pilot uniform similar to the one Heero and the others wear towards the end of the Anime.
•   As Heero reflects on his failure, we see images of his Episode Zero origin as well as his Endless Waltz flashbacks as well.
• Sally Po finds Relena and Weridge mourning Darlin in the ruins of New Edwards.

Yikes, it feels like everything has changed here.  The Battle of New Edwards might have the same outcome but getting there, man what a wild ride.  I especially liked that Heero still carried out the execution of Field Marshall Noventa but also inadvertedly caused the death of Relena’s father in the process.  That’s gotta add a whole new level of depth to the relationship between these two.  I also liked that Noventa got his wish to speak with the Gundam pilots briefly.  I’ll always wonder how a conversation between Heero and the Field Marshall he killed might’ve gone but it makes sense that if Noventa were to connect with anyone, it would be Quatre, the most pacifistic of the bunch.  The biggest reveal of this new volume is one single page: the one showing Relena’s mother piloting a Mobile Suit…holy crap I’m not gonna lie, that’s kind of hot to see.  It boggles the mind to think of “What if Relena took up her mothers bad ass fighting career?”  I doubt anything like that would’ve happened but I’m hoping that now that she knows where she comes from, we might actually see some of Relena restoring the Sanc Kingdom, unlike in the Anime.  Still, Volume 3 accomplished a lot by adding her to the chaos and central action of a battle that rocked the series and most of the cast to the core.

Speaking of big series moments, I’m thinking we’re going to get to one of the Gundam Wing Anime’s more infamous moments next Friday.  Will we see any major changes to a scene so famous they went ahead and spoiled it in the legendary Toonami trailer?  Find out next week when From Losers to Glory-A Gundam Wing Special reaches a semi cliffhanger of its own (I’ll explain more then).