Friday, April 12, 2024

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Part 4 Episodes 13-16

Two weeks after the Plant Quetta incident, much has changed.  With her father incapacitated, Miorine struggles to run the Benerit Group in his absence. On Earth, Guel seeks atonement for an unforgivable sin amongst the ruins.  Meanwhile, Suletta continues to rack up victories with a new and improved Aerial and ponders why Miorine is keeping her.  But uncertainty becomes chaos when the Witches from Earth infiltrate Astacassia.  In a place where matters are settled by duels, the students of this peaceful school are about to be exposed to the horrors of war first hand

Well after that huge stinger of a cliffhanger, G Witch isnt wasting anytime is it? Practically striking while the iron is hot, the start of the shows Second Season upped the ante on all fronts from the intensity of the battles to the weight of the latest round of gut wrenching revelations. It doesn’t land wins on every front but that isnt stopping The Witch from Mercury from continuing to etch its place into Gundam history.  Let’s get into it, shall we?
 
When I say they didn’t waste anytime getting back into things post Battle of Plant Quetta, I’m not joking.  We get maybe half an episode to catch up with everyone and see how they’re processing what’s gone down.  Earth House is understandably a wreck having experienced true war first hand.  Nika is basically waiting for her comeuppance to the hand she played in the incident and Suletta is just doing her thing as if nothings changed when in fact everything has changed.  The show isnt giving anybody a real break though as the Witches from Earth, Sophie and Norea showed up.  I’m shocked they got put back into play so soon and equally shocked at how quickly Sophie was taken out.  I expected these two wild cards to be more of a presence at Astacassia but then again, subtle isnt their strong suit.  Sophie in particular was so unstable she was bound to start something eventually.  Her violent final battle with the Aerial was also the first confirmation of a long held theory that I’ll get into later.
 
It was inevitable Astacassia would become a true battleground eventually.  While it wasn’t as bloody as Plant Quetta, the shock on everyones face when the first student was killed by Sophie was one of the most powerful moments in the series, like Earth House’s reaction amplified by 110%.  It’s also worth noting that Sophie and Norea’s permit score allow them to remote control Gundam type Mobile Suits that are like Bits meets Mobile Dolls from Gundam Wing.  It gives them a numbers edge (even if they really don’t need it) and does allow for battles with larger participants.  Also, because this is G Witch, at least one person had a secret hand involved in things.  Shaddiq’s continues to excel at being the would be mastermind begging to be freaking punched. All of this chaos, bloodshed and scheming just so Shaddiq can instill a better balance in power between Earth and Space…this guy needs to get his head checked cause his methods suck.
 
Thankfully not everyone who’s the scion of a corporate overlord is as twisted as Shaddiq. Besides Miorine, we got to check in on Guel, who found himself in the hands of Sophie and Norea’s terrorist group, Dawn of Fold, back on Earth.  While Guel did start the series as an arrogant jerk, he got put in his place quickly and has been beaten, exiled and even had a hand in accidentally killing his old man.  In short, bad stuff just keeps happening to a guy who’s trying his hardest to be better.  But if Guel is one thing, it’s resilient.  It was a true moment worth cheering when he came to the aid of a child who wanted him dead and did his best to get them to safety.  Even if the kid didn’t make it, Guel’s seen first hand how bad things are going to get if he doesn’t play a hand in making them better.  It’s great to see him with a better attitude, even if its come at a huge cost for him.
 
Speaking of huge costs, oh boy, Suletta and Miroine.  They had to talk about Suletta’s Gundam Smack and if you thought Suletta wasn’t truly damaged before…oh man.  This was a tough scene to watch as Miroine grilled Suletta about her undying loyalty to Prospera.  Hearing Suletta confirm she would do absolutely anything from giving up on her dream to bring a school to Mercury or killing someone once again, it made me want to scream as loud as Miroine probably wanted to, it’s a heartbreaking moment.  Props to Miorine for going to confront Prospera right afterwards.  As hard as it was to hear Suletta speak like a puppet, Miroine still cares deeply for her Groom and wants to free her from Prospera’s control.  Unfortunately, Mommy Dearest might just risen to the top of the most twisted Char Clones in the entire franchise after what we learned.
 
It’s right up there with Suletta smashing a guy with her Gundam when Prospera revealed the truth about Aerial.  This lady mustve met Gendo Ikari in college or something because SHE DOWNLOADED HER DAUGHTERS MIND INTO A FREAKING GUNDAM!!!???? That’s straight up Evangelion and something I cant recall ever being done in Gundam before, at least not to this twisted degree.  What’s even more chilling is that Eri is even more dangerous than ever when we see her deny Sophie and Elan 5 access to her in a very violent manner given how they reacted.  And were those other Eris, one for each of the Sheild Bits?  This just got a whole lot more scary.  Not to mention Suletta herself.  This poor girl has been used and manipulated so much by her poor excuse for a mother.  And hey, it’s not like Delling is a saint himself.  But Prospera’s menace is on a whole other level and judging from her interaction with Miroine at the end of this set, it’s about to get a whole lot worse for Suletta and her bride. 
 
Quick odds and ends bit.  While the Guel stuff on Earth was great, we haven’t spent nearly as much time with Dawn of Fold to feel much for them.  Civilian loss is always terrible but it’s hard to care about the people fighting for them when the only time we’ve spent with them has been through a hyper violent hit team sent to kill Delling utilizing two psychopathic Gundam pilots. Maybe they’ll play a bigger role down the line but their story doesn’t seem as important as everything going on in space with Suletta and the others.  Maybe if this were a more traditional 50 episode length Gundam series there could be room to do more with.  In this case though, I feel like the animosities between Earth and Space here don’t feel as major as they usually do and it’s like another Gundam trope is trying to get checked off the list.
 
Yikes, four more episodes of mountains of goodness, both in action and story continuation.  Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is not messing around and it is promising a lot more to come, not all of it good for our two lead heroines. With the Mobile Suit Industry in chaos and Prospera manipulating things behind the scenes, is anyone or anywhere safe anymore?  We’ll find out Next Monday as we arrive at the penultimate chapter of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.

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