Under the Influence: Mobile Suit Gundam Wing

[Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)]

The Gundam series is one of the longest-running and most successful
anime/manga franchises in Japan. Starting with Mobile Suit Gundam in
1979, the Gundam franchise spans multiple television series, OAV series,
movies, video games, novels, manga, and virtually any sort of
merchandise one can imagine (and probably some you can't). Gundam itself
is credited with changing the old "giant robot" genre from stories about
a boy with some inexplicable and often personified superweapon to a
story of war and politics which happened to feature giant robotic
weapons (adapted originally from humanoid-shaped worker exoskeletons).

My initial exposure to the Gundam franchise was indirect; Kathleen
Moffre (many years later to become my girlfriend, fiancee, and
eventually wife) ran a Gundam-based RPG campaign for a few years. I
didn't know much about the background, but that was all right since I
played a character who was … rather different than the standard Gundam
character set.

It was many years later, however, that I watched an actual Gundam
series, though I'd seen one of the movies and occasional episodes. It
was the newest Gundam series released at the time of our marriage – in
fact, it had just started a couple of months before the wedding: Mobile
Suit Gundam Wing, usually simply referred to as Gundam Wing.

The outline of the plot is deceptively simple, and similar to several
other entries in the franchise: Earth and its colonies are on the verge
of a new war, as the colonies want independence and Earth has no
intention of granting independence. The colonies, having gathered
together the most advanced and brilliant engineers and scientists they
could find, devise five super-advanced mobile suits codenamed "Gundams"
and intend to use these to fight for their independence both directly
and indirectly (foment confusion and division between Earth factions,
and fight against aggressors with superior firepower).

But it is far from so simple. The events on both Earth and the Colonies
are being manipulated – by multiple groups, with multiple motives – and
the young pilots of these suits are, themselves, weapons: young men
selected or even raised to be peculiarly suited to the roles that one of
the most dangerous and mysterious groups of conspirators – the "Mad
Five", the scientists behind the Gundam weapons – have selected for
them. Seeking to force a peaceful resolution to the conflict between the
colonies and Earth, the boys – and specifically Heero Yuy, pilot of the
eponymous Wing Gundam – are tricked into destroying the people most
capable of peaceful negotiation, ensuring that the war will take place.

The names of the characters alone were a clue to just how terribly
their lives were manipulated: Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton,
Quatre Winner, and Chang Wu Fei. Each of their names turns out to be a
number – One, Two, Three, Four, Five – and some other people in their
world, all connected to the same plan, have other numbers.

Gundam Wing was extremely popular, especially amongst fangirls, for its
cast which consisted mostly of young and often angsty men. This was in
fact the first fandom I encountered where a considerable proportion of
the "fans" turned out to not actually have watched the show, but simply
read fanfiction and seen fanart. This led to some rather bizarre
perceptual disconnects between viewer-fans and fan-fans, as the vast
majority of the fanworks tended to "slash" the boys together and the
fan-fans would perceive the relationships between them as being canon!
In point of fact, there's one obviously gay pairing in canon – Quatre
and Trowa are pretty much inarguably a couple – two of the boys are
clearly interested in women (Duo and Wu Fei) and one is possibly
interested in ONE girl, maybe, but in general is nothing but a living
weapon (Heero).

For me, however, Gundam Wing was more important because it became the
foundation for a new gaming and writing sequence. Kathleen often
develops her own ideas by first fan-fic writing, and then extracting the
concepts into an original story (a time-tested and respectable formula –
there are several published authors, some very respected, who've done
this). The Gundam Wingverse we created was in many ways quite divergent
from even the original canon (let alone the "fanon" that the obsessives
created), but still used many of the elements in various ways.

It was working with the Wingverse that helped give me a good grasp of
the "chessmaster" type of character. I've used some such in my writing
for years, of course, but the Wingverse helped point up how such people
worked far better than I had yet managed to really grasp at the time.
Treize Khrushrenada, for instance, turns out to have been playing all
sides for his own goal, so well that even after he was killed his engame
was still playing out.

The games and scenarios we devised all took place after the main
stories, which allowed us some freedom of decision and action. As with
many of my RPG experiences, they also allowed me to insert various
components of my own writing universes and test out how they worked in
various ways.

During this time, I finally understood how certain elements of my main
universe would come to play out – and created one of my favorite,
as-yet-unpublished, characters, the would-be knight of the future, Jared
Engelshand. The creation of Jared, his family, and realization of who
they really were and why they existed brought more of my main universe
into focus (and rippled back into my earlier stuff – "Nike", one of the
five mysterious young people seen in Phoenix Rising, is Nike Engelshand
and a distant ancestor of Jared).

It also clarified how many elements of Kathleen's universe integrated
with mine. Kathy's influence on my writing cannot be overstated; she not
only helped teach me how to write anything involving complex characters,
she also has worked with me to develop my world and even to combine
elements of the world she was working on long before she met me into a
shared universe. The major stories published are, admittedly, mostly my
universe, but they have elements of her work in them… and could not
exist at all had I not met her; even Jason Wood's saga includes elements
which had their origin in Kathy's own work.

Thus, in several ways Gundam Wing was something of a turning point for
me and my writing. It cleared up many questions about the future of my
universe, and triggered a much more sweeping combination of my ideas and
those of Kathleen. Kathy wrote a considerable amount of Gundam Wing
fanfiction, in which I had some input, but as we progressed it became
clear that what we wanted to eventually do is take the core ideas and
write our own stories, which by this time would not resemble the
original very closely at all.

I haven't yet gotten to those stories – I feel that telling the
chronologically earlier history is necessary, especially to lay
groundwork for what happens in the far future – but they are waiting,
ready for when the time comes that Jared Engelshand, the supremely
self-confident and arrogantly clueless son of nobility, meets up with a
certain young man who demolishes Jared's illusions… and triggers the
transformation of their world.

And when I write those stories – with Kathleen, as there is no way I
can write some of this without her help – I will always remember how it
started with Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.




--
Sea Wasp
/^\
;;;
Website: http://www.grandcentralarena.com Blog:
http://seawasp.livejournal.com

[David Goldfarb]

SPOILERS for _Gundam Wing_.










I watched _Gundam Wing_ on Cartoon Network. They had two versions of
their dub: one that showed in the afternoon, which followed the usual
restrictions of childrens' cartoons -- in particular, no mention of
death or dying -- and one that showed very late at night (I think
midnight) which had a more faithful translation. So for example
in the latter Duo Maxwell was known as "The God of Death", and in
the other as "The Great Destroyer".

There are at least two places where Heero Yuy, as I first saw the
show, says to someone, "I'm going to stop you." And I found out
only later, that the original version of the line was, "I'm going
to kill you."

Only it turns out that here the bowdlerized version is in fact superior,
because in *none* of those places does he in fact do it. (I imagine
life insurance salesmen eavesdropping on Heero, waiting for him to
say, "I'm going to kill you," and then attempting to sell a policy
to his intended victim.)

--
David Goldfarb | Nunc, Pince, tibi nocendus sum.
goldf...@gmail.com |
gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu | -- Aniinsani

[Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)]

On 4/25/14 12:53 AM, David Goldfarb wrote:
> SPOILERS for _Gundam Wing_.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> I watched _Gundam Wing_ on Cartoon Network. They had two versions of
> their dub: one that showed in the afternoon, which followed the usual
> restrictions of childrens' cartoons -- in particular, no mention of
> death or dying -- and one that showed very late at night (I think
> midnight) which had a more faithful translation. So for example
> in the latter Duo Maxwell was known as "The God of Death", and in
> the other as "The Great Destroyer".

The scary thing was that the "faithful" translation was almost TOO
faithful; it was literalist in places where it might have been served
better to have someone more expert in English expressions revise the
dialogue to use metaphors and turns of phrase that were clearer to the
audience. On the other hand, it sometimes gave a particular flavor to
people's conversation that might have fit with the sort of retro-1800s
civilization depicted.

>
> There are at least two places where Heero Yuy, as I first saw the
> show, says to someone, "I'm going to stop you." And I found out
> only later, that the original version of the line was, "I'm going
> to kill you."
>
> Only it turns out that here the bowdlerized version is in fact superior,

No, because it's one of the points that the stone-cold assassin Heero
Yuy SHOULD kill them, and doesn't -- to some considerable confusion on
his part. He actually ends up PROTECTING Relena Darlian, after
specifically entering her school to assassinate her, and doesn't
understand WHY.

There's plenty of material showing that he's killed many times before.

[Magewolf]

Have you heard about Frozen Teardrop? It is a light novel series written
by the head writer of Wing set 30 years later on Mars. There is so much
going on that it is hard to describe but it has clones and offspring of
the main casts and a few of them who had been in coldsleep all going on
insane rampages.

I can not say it is good but it is never boring.

[Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)]

Yes, Kathleen and I ignore it. We have our own canon as to what happens
afterward, based on the original, and it's much better. :)

[William December Starr]

In article <ljaqbn$bih$1...@dont-email.me>,

"Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> said:

> During this time, I finally understood how certain elements

> of my main universe would come to play out -- and created

> one of my favorite, as-yet-unpublished, characters, the
> would-be knight of the future, Jared Engelshand. The
> creation of Jared, his family, and realization of who they
> really were and why they existed brought more of my main
> universe into focus (and rippled back into my earlier stuff

> -- "Nike", one of the five mysterious young people seen in

> Phoenix Rising, is Nike Engelshand and a distant ancestor
> of Jared).

Is it Engel-shand or Engels-hand?

-- wds

[Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)]

Angel's Hand, yes.

[Walter Bushell]

In article <n4KLL...@kithrup.com>,

gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu (David Goldfarb) wrote:

> Only it turns out that here the bowdlerized version is in fact superior,
> because in *none* of those places does he in fact do it. (I imagine
> life insurance salesmen eavesdropping on Heero, waiting for him to
> say, "I'm going to kill you," and then attempting to sell a policy
> to his intended victim.)

Maybe "kill you" means "make a killing off you". English for Japanese
people very hard can be.

--
Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greed. Me.

[Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)]

On 5/4/14 12:28 PM, Walter Bushell wrote:
> In article <n4KLL...@kithrup.com>,
> gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu (David Goldfarb) wrote:
>
>> Only it turns out that here the bowdlerized version is in fact superior,
>> because in *none* of those places does he in fact do it. (I imagine
>> life insurance salesmen eavesdropping on Heero, waiting for him to
>> say, "I'm going to kill you," and then attempting to sell a policy
>> to his intended victim.)
>
> Maybe "kill you" means "make a killing off you". English for Japanese
> people very hard can be.
>

No, he means "I Will Kill You." "Omae o korosu", if I remember the
romanization right ( I may not)

The fact that he doesn't follow through on this, despite being an
extremely effective (and actually superhuman) assassin, is one of the
hints that Relena Darlian is, herself, something very unusual.