Episode Seven - The footnotes

Hello and welcome to Radio Meteor, the podcast where I watch an episode of 90’s anime Gundam Wing and ramble about it because I just have so many emotions about space. This week, we discuss how manly Quatre is, how completely gauche Wufei is, and I get unexpectedly enthusiastic about Septem. God help my soul. Word of the episode is 'kisama'.

Chapter Text Episode 7 - Recorded January 2019

LISTEN TO EPISODE SEVEN HERE Below is a copy of the transcript of this episode, created by the astrological  Noirangetrois, and punctuated throughout with additional commentary by me in bold and in brackets (Edit: Like this!), plus a few links to relevant mentions. :) So without further ado, here are The Footnotes. Hey there and welcome to Radio Meteor, the podcast where I watch an episode of 90s anime Gundam Wing and ramble about it because I just have so many emotions about space. This week it’s episode seven, “Scenario for Bloodshed.” "Ryūketsu e no Shinario," or 流血へのシナリオ in Japanese. Welcome to orbit. [musical interlude] Okay, Episode 7. I’m just going to go out and say it, this episode is kinda boring. There’s a few great big takeaways, namely that they accidentally kill off all of the pacifists. Smooth move. But other than that there’s a lot in here that’s just quite forgettable as well. I suppose it fits into that point in the storyline where it is absolutely necessary that you have a lot more stuff introduced that has to be explained and justified in order to set up... literally the next chapter. That’s what they refer to this whole situation -  this whole scenario as. But in doing that, it does take away some of the immediacy. It does have this information overload. Let’s go back to the old format and start off with a discussion of the language. I’m going to do this by character this week. So we’re going to start off with Quatre. He has a conversation where he’s on the telephone, and this is a nice example of his character, because he’s off on a super secret mission to attack the New Edwards base, where he believes all of the OZ leaders are being gathered. He decides he’s going to book a hotel. I assume it’s at least a three star. It sounds like a nice hotel - the Starley Hotel in San Francisco. But he rings them up and he says something which is translated in the English subtitles as, “I’m traveling by myself, is that a problem?” If you put on your hoteliers hat, you might be thinking, “Why is that a problem?”. Because if you’re a hotel you get a lot of single travelers coming through. And the reason it sounds strange is because that’s not what he says in the Japanese. In the Japanese, he says, “Kodomo hitori.” (子供一人・こどもひとり） “Kodomo” - “child,” and then “hitori,” （一人・ひとり）“alone” or “unaccompanied.” What he’s effectively saying here is, “I am an unaccompanied minor. Is that a problem?” It suddenly makes more sense in a hotel context. Maybe they don’t have a policy to allow under 18s to book rooms. I suppose this highlights the fact that I could be over-egging (Edit: Alright, I am. I over-egg everything but that’s half the fun) this whole theme, but at the same time, this is the first instance of one of the pilots referring to themselves as a child on any level. They’ve been referred to as children or “shounen” by other people, and they have never refuted that but neither have they claimed it for their own either. This is the first in-character, in-episode that, yeah, I am not an adult. Quatre does quite a bit of talking this episode, which means we finally get a bit of insight into his speech patterns. We’ve already discussed that he uses the pronoun “boku,” （僕・ぼく）which is that politer, more boyish pronoun, and that he is relatively polite in general. Just like I said with Relena, she says “Hanashite kudasai,” as in “let go of me, please!” He does the same thing in the heat of battles. He’s Mr. Manners in a crisis. When Duo and Trowa are fighting at the end, he doesn’t use his strength to intervene, but he says, “Matte kudasai!” （待って下さい！・まってください！）“Matte”（待って・まって) means “wait” and then “kudasai” is please. It’s very ingrained for him to speak in this manner. Having said that, when you compare Quatre to the other pilots, he is polished, he’s more polite. But he’s no less direct, and I think that’s key, and I think that really gets missed in the English. This scale of how direct something can be is very different to how we speak in English and how we register that in English. Rather than… I’m trying to think of a good way to clarify this… Temporarily, I’m going to jump over and talk about Trowa and Heero, because they speak very directly, but with this manner that they just simply don’t have time to deal with pleasantries. They’ve got things to do; they’re on a mission. Small talk has gone out the window. They’re both users of the pronoun “ore,” （俺・おれ）which we discussed is that one that demonstrates a little bit of arrogance. You’ve got a good opinion of yourself, it’s very masculine. And they both use endings on their verbs which are what’s called the “dictionary form,” which is the most basic form of the verb. In the conversation that Quatre has with Trowa, Trowa says, “Ore wa hitori de yaru.” (おれはひとりでやる・俺は一人でやる） “Ore wa,” “I am,” with that masculine form, “hitori de,” “alone,” then “yaru,” “will do this.” “I’m doing this alone,” is the translation, which is a good translation. Quatre responds with, “boku mo sou sa,”　（ぼくもそうさ・僕もそうさ） which automatically, even in the in the tone, “ore wa hitori de yaru,” “boku mo sou sa,” it sounds so much lighter and friendlier and much more polite. Make no mistake, it’s still very direct. So that “boku” (僕・ぼく） is that boyish “I,” “mo,”（も） “also.” “Sou”　（そう） is used a lot in sentences akin to the work “ditto,” so it’s whatever the person said before, that action is what I’m referring to but I’m not gonna repeat it verbatim. Then that “sa” （さ）ending is where it gets really interesting. “Sa” is similar to the ending on Japanese sentences, “yo,” （よ）which means a statement of fact or a statement you’re very confident in, or a method of slightly correcting people. That’s how you use “yo.” If someone said to me, “Oh, it’s sunny today,” I’d be like, “Ame yo,”　（雨よ・あめよ） as in, “no, it’s raining,” “ame,”　（雨） “rain,” “yo,” “duh.” “Sa” is used to soften things that would otherwise sound irresponsible. That’s one way you can use it. It is also used as a statement of fact. It’s a little bit more casual, and it’s also one that, although it is nominally gender neutral and it is used by all genders, there is a stereotype that middle-aged old men use “sa” a lot. So it does have this sort of masculine connotation to it. So I feel like that’s really telling about Quatre. He has directness, but he’s also got the social nous to put some polish on what he says. He’s no less direct, but he does it in a way that’s got a bit more panache. Let’s compare that to, again, Trowa and Heero. They just tend to be direct for the sake of efficiency of communication. Like, ’I’ve got something to say, gotta say it, there I’ve said it’. Compare that to Wufei. Wufei we can assume… well at this point, we don’t know much about Wufei, but going meta for the moment, we do know that he has come from a relatively privileged position within his own clan. He is one of the movers and shakers of his people. He is educated. He has presumably been taught some manners as well, but he does not use them. Wufei is just rude, and it is a deliberate choice, because we can assume, that perhaps unlike Trowa and Heero who lack social graces because of lack of experience, Wufei knows damn well what he’s doing. Like I said in Episode 4, he is portrayed so unsympathetically, he’s almost impossible to like. He wades in at the end and he addresses everybody using “kisama.” (貴様・きさま）Now, I’ve been talking about this hierarchy of ways to address people. “Aitsu” （あいつ）and “koitsu”（こいつ） are sort of third person ways to talk about somebody. “Anata”（あなた） is hardly ever used. That is the pure pronoun for “you,” but you don’t tend to use it. It can be over familiar, it can sound a bit daft because it’s something middle-aged women use to talk about their Japanese husbands and 90% of people don’t have that. It’s kind of old fashioned. “Omae” (お前・おまえ）you can bro-sie that up, and you’ve got “teme,” （てめぇ）which is rude, but the one that you absolutely cannot make friendly or jokey is “kisama,” and that’s what he wades in with. And it’s almost too much. If you use “kisama” in real life, you are likely ー if you use “teme” even in real life - you are likely to be laughed at for having read too much manga, and fighting manga in particular. Wufei falls very much into the category of “that anime guy” who uses all of the stereotypical rough language to sound like he’s a super tough guy. But if we made this a little more meta, it’s almost laughable, the kind of disparity between how Wufei talks. He’s come straight out of some, like, high school delinquent anime, and the others are all fairly straightforward. Which I do kind of enjoy. But also it continues to underline how Wufei is this character you’re not supposed to like, and that’s bizarre because he is one of the main five. He is a protagonist, he’s supposed to be one of the good guys. But he is the butt-monkey. Maybe that’s the point. He is supposed to be the one you’re like, “Oh, god, that guy.” It’s just amusing to watch. I really just can’t decide. Duo is the most difficult one for me to actually listen to and understand what he’s saying. He speaks very fast. But he also plays with language in a much more fun way. He is much more fun to listen to. Trowa and Heero are very direct and to the point and they use the words that suit the context. Duo messes around a little bit. When he sneaks onto Heero’s aircraft carrier, casually hitching a lift, and Heero runs down to the hold and finds him popping out of Deathscythe, Duo just greets him by saying, “Omae hayaku tsumekomu yo.” (お前早く詰め込むよ・おまえはやくつめこむよ）“Omae” is a way to address somebody that you’re familiar with, and that’s how I think Duo is using it here. He has very much adopted Heero into his gang. Then we have “hayaku tsumekomu.” “Hayaku”（早く・はやく） is hurry up, and then “tsumekomu,”（詰め込む・つめこむ） they translate it in the English subtitles as, “to load.” Then that “yo” is the alternative to “sa,” which we’ve just discussed. But that “tsumekomu” verb is not the one you would typically use for putting a machine onto an aircraft carrier. It means “to stuff” or “to cram.” You would use “tsumekomu” if you were packing a suitcase and you have to sit on the lid to close it. What he’s effectively saying is, “Hey bud, shove yours in as well.” It’s nice, it’s nice. It’s very much his personality. I enjoyed that for no reason other than it’s just 100% Duo’s own good self. We have one weird and interesting sentence with Zechs where he addresses himself in the third person. This is where he’s about to land in Nairobi and he is having an introspective moment and saying, if the Alliance falls and OZ takes over, what really changes? And then he asks himself, “Dewa nase tatakaunda, Zechs.”　（では、なぜ戦うんだ） That “dewa”（では） is “in that case”, “nase,”　（なぜ） “why,” “tatakaunda,” （戦うんだ・たたかうんだ）“are we fighting. “Dewa nase tatakaunda. Zechs.” But the “Zechs” that he says is separate to the question. It’s almost like an afterthought. We get this hint that Zechs, like Lady Une, has a split between his identities. Very similar, perhaps, to what Relena is also going through with her Darlian/Peacecraft identities, only his is much further down the line, much more established, and he’s also in a position with much higher stakes. He can’t afford to be found out as Milliardo Peacecraft at this point, even though it seems to be pretty much public knowledge. He has adopted this Zechs personality as a means to an end that he has sort of lost. He has sort of lost his objective. So quite why he’s addressing himself in the third person here in unclear. Is it that he’s addressing “Zechs Merquise, why are you fighting,” or is “Zechs Merquise” the answer? So, “what are we fighting for,” and then he reminds himself, “oh I’m doing this because I’m pretending to be this other person.” That’s really the first big step we have in his character arc, or the first sign that there even will be one beyond him getting a big robot and fighting for Treize. The very last language thing will tie into what I’m going to talk about in terms of what we’ve learned about the world, so we’ll do that in a moment. [musical interlude] In this episode, everybody groups up in two different teams. They go to New Edwards Base, and they accidentally kill Noventa, Vente, and the other Alliance pacifists. It’s that episode, and it takes some 20 minutes to set up and do. I just gonna go out and say it. It’s kind of boring. This episode, we get introduced a number of new players, and just like Mrs. Darlian, drink them in, because they’re gonna be gone in the next ten minutes. We get a really confused picture of who is in charge and who is doing what. We’ve got Field Marshal Noventa, who is the chief commander. We can assume he is possibly the absolute head honcho of all of the armed forces and the Alliance. He is like the president of this organization, and everything filters down from him. Makes you wonder why it’s in such a poor state. You get introduced to General Septem, who is the leader of the Alliance space forces, and we are introduced to General Vente, who is the leader of the Alliance’s terrestrial forces. And a bunch of other people who are not important enough to be given names. They just get to be killed. And somewhere in this weird mix we have the Specials. They keep talking about OZ as if OZ and the Specials are completely different. And perhaps they are, or perhaps they’re not, because Treize is involved with OZ. This is where I get really confused as to what the actual Venn diagram looks like. Where is that overlap? It’s so muddled. This is the bit where the whole show falls apart because it’s so quickly slapped together. There’s no real explanation of what the hell is happening. It’s overly complicated. And then you’ve got Treize playing both ends against the middle. Mr. Seven-legged Bug. Let’s start with what we do know. The Alliance was founded to deter militarism, but inadvertently somehow became a military power of its own right. It has been putting money and everything else into weapons development and building armies and bases. Somehow its objectives have changed from what it was originally designed to do. Part of that might be because you’ve got people like Bonaparte, who was blown up in his blimp in a previous episode, who was using the Alliance’s structure to garner power and basically just squat like a parasite on top of everything, and lead the good life with relative ease. So we’ve got an Alliance that has ideals. It’s become too bloated and people are using it to their own advantage. Then you have the pacifists, the General Noventas, who are looking to take the Alliance back onto its old track to try and demilitarize and make it more of a United Nations type setup, I assume, where it’s much more about discussions between Earth and the colonies. Discussions between nations on Earth as well. We still have separate borders on Earth from levels of governments under the Alliance. Then we have the Specials, led by Colonel Treize, with Lieutenant Colonel Une, and they are the spigot into all of the money of Romafeller and all of the highest tech military ware, so all of the mobile suit tech comes through the Specials, with the allowance that they will be able to drop in and do what they want in terms of warfare. And then there’s OZ. OZ is really poorly defined. J has already pegged them as the enemy. We know that Treize is involved with them, but who they are and how they fit into this in unclear. Treize spreads rumors that the OZ leaders are gathering at New Edwards Base, rather than Alliance pacifists or this more general conference. But it’s not clear what he actually claims. Is he claiming that Noventa and all that were OZ? Or is OZ well known? Where has it come from? In, I want to say, Frozen Teardrop, as much as we dislike it, mentions that Odin Lowe worked for the Colony Autonomy Organization, which later became OZ, if I have that right. If I don’t have that right, please correct me because I’ve had it in my head that that was the case. Even then that seems very circular. So you’ve got a pacifist movement that became militarized, and then you had an autonomy organization that then became anti-colony. What the fuck is going on on this planet? It’s just so messed up. And then Treize messes it all up even more. They’re having this conference and Noventa has the room, he has support. He’s saying essentially, “Let’s demilitarize. We know there’s a threat from the colonies, but this is perhaps a very good opportunity for us to speak to them and say, hold on, we deserve peace, let’s open communications, let’s dial this back. We don’t have to actually raise it to a level of war, because it’s not war yet.” And he has the support of the room. They are willing to do this. And he is right, because the Gundams are not supported 100% by the colonies. There are people in the colonies who are willing to sit down and have this conversation. And Treize essentially says, “It’s all going in the wrong direction if it goes that way.” Why? Why? Beyond causing a war, I don’t understand what possible motivation he has, other than he’s like the Joker in Batman and just wants to see shit burn. That’s all I can think of. He has no motive, other than just being a seven-legged bug. And he gets his way, because has staged an OZ coup, I assume he’s been leading it, and basically ruins everything, and tricks the Gundam pilots into assassination all of the pacifists, creating a power void which then he can step into. On that note, this episode and particularly the blowing up of the pacifists is generally accepted as Heero’s big mistake. Heero certainly takes it all on himself, and he was the guy who pulled the trigger. It’s also picked up a bit like that in fandom, but I’m not sure that’s really fair. He wasn’t the only person who got this mission spec. Duo got it as well; so did Trowa and Quatre. They all followed on as well. Heero’s machine is the only one that’s capable of quick flight, which gives him this massive advantage, but if anybody else had been in Wing Gundam rather than Heero, I think they would have done exactly the same thing. It’s only Wufei who has a different perspective on it. We’re not quite sure where that comes from. Whether Instructor O got different information or he figured out that it was rumor and tipped Wufei off, but then didn’t tell anybody else is one scenario, which is pretty fucking dodgy. Way to shoot yourself in the foot, O, if that’s what’s happened. Or Wufei’s the only one who has been suspicious and cynical enough to sit back and question everything that he’s getting. That would make sense to do that because they all receive this mission; they all jump straight into following it, despite the fact that they are on Earth and much closer [than the scientists] and this information has been recycled through space and, obviously, spy networks. None of them thought, “You know what, I might go down to the New Edwards Base and do a little bit of hacking, just to double check who’s turning up.” (Edit: Events in Episode 12 actually argue against this, so be sure to check that out!) They’re all quite capable of this. None of them did it. Except perhaps Wufei. Even though he is a butt, and he is the butt monkey, he gets it right. And he also sneaks up on everybody. You know, for shame Duo. You’re supposed to be the sneaky one. Should have seen him coming. I’m just willing to blame Treize for this. I think it’s all Treize’s fault. That’s my 2 cents on this. Give Heero a break. Here’s something I forgot to mention. Duo immediately, or instinctively IDs Heavyarms as an ally. Trowa and Quatre open fire because they don’t know what the hell they’re looking at, and Duo uses the work “mikata.” (味方・みかた） He’s like, “even though we’re on the same side.” Then he questions it. Well, who are these guys? And Heero’s like, “I don’t know. They could be new OZ models or something.” But I do find that really interesting. It’s probably just a glitch of the script, but I did love that Duo immediately spotted a Gundam and was like, “A friend!!” I’m also gonna give Septem a bit of a nod here. He is a gross idiot. He does raise some valid points in the conference when he questions, “If we demilitarize, what about the attacks that we’ve been undergoing recently from the Gundams?” Because at this stage they don’t know for a fact who the Gundams are or what they want, other than completely random destruction of Alliance stuff. Because nobody has issued a statement. Heero or such has not gone onto YouTube and put out a message. Even if it’s really basic, like “Alliance bad, we want them dead.” And then Treize, quite cannily, doesn’t lie. He says, “We think the colonies made them (true) for purely destructive purposes.” Also true. They are weapons. It’s very hard to think of a reason why these things would have been invented if it wasn’t just for destruction. They weren’t exactly designed for ballet, were they? So I’m gonna give Septem a bit of a boost here. He’s a gross idiot; he gets poorly used, and he gets killed, overkilled. The man’s already dead falling out of a plane, Une, you didn’t have to shoot him through the head. But he’s not as bad as he was. He did have a horrible voice actor, I recall, in the English version, but in Japanese, he doesn’t sound too bad. He just looks fugly. That is something I never thought I’d be doing　ー stanning for Septem. That’s also a sentence I never, ever want to repeat in my life. My god. Lastly, on this whole splintering thing where we have Zechs make his first big step onto his character arc, where he is addressing himself by name, is that he offers Noin an out. So far he’s been kind of detached and cold from Noin. He’s ignored all her advances. He kind of cares about her general well-being, but he’s not buddy-buddy. However, he is very uneasy about dragging her into this coup. Then they’re in the plane en route and he warns her, essentially saying, “You might not like where this is going.” I think underneath that, he’s saying, “You might well think different of me after this happens.” And Noin sticks with him. In fact she’s even told not to overdo it. She’s mad. She’s kind of out for revenge for recruits, and in the absence of Wufei, she’s willing to take it out on whoever it is she’s told to fight. It’s only in the heat of the battle that she goes, “This is a very bloody way to set a foundation for peace.” So she does start questioning it there. Again, it makes you wonder who Noin would be if she wasn’t in this situation. Poor old Noin. I do kind of like her; I do kind of feel for her. I don’t understand her; I don’t think I’d ever be her, but I do feel for her. So that’s it. And I apologize this episode is kind of muddled, and there are no good or clear answers, other than that what has been retroactively added into the canon. The episode itself doesn’t clarify incredibly well what is going on. However, as Treize puts it, the curtain has raised for a new chapter and effectively, one man has tipped the whole world over into war. He must have been working on this for months, and he’s succeed. I’m going to quote what Lithle (I think) wrote in... probably the fanfic, “Salt:” ( Edit: it was and she did! And also it’s excellent and you should read it right now.) Treize’s whole motivation is that he wants to rub humanity’s nose in the mess they’ve made on the carpet, and it’s always stuck with me because that just seems like the only summary of what he’s doing that makes sense to me. I will keep watching, obviously. Hopefully, Episode 8 will make up for how boring this episode was. And hopefully give us something else to sink our teeth into, really, in what the hell Treize is doing. I have hardly talked about his character or how he talks because there’s nothing that really stands out or makes sense or is telling. He’s polite when he needs to be, and he just farts around with birds mostly. I think the problem with Treize, and the problem with this series is that the antagonist… They wanted an antagonist that was like Char Aznabal from the original MS Gundam series, who was sort of sympathetic, who could come over to one side or the other, die heroically and get a redemption or whatever. But they also needed an enemy enemy, and they wanted him to be not gross. They wanted him to be this sort of suave and sexy sort of character, when they’ve got some quite chunky personalities who just kind of stomp around being like, “Uh, huh, guh,” teenage grunt. Trowa, by the way, still looks like someone pissed in his cereal. I am looking forward to him cheering the fuck up. So that’s it. That’s Episode 7. We’re finished with the vase falling from the table. It’s a metaphor for something, and the metaphor is war. That’s it. Thank you for listening. Thank you for staying with me on this weird and wonderful journey that we’re going on. As ever, if you’re watching along as well, if you have thoughts, if you have comments, please drop me a line. My tumblr is lemontrash.tumblr.com, or you can pineapple me on my website. I will see you in orbit next time. Bye!