General Essays
Time to put up with my rantings. Let the ranting
begin.
Why
is Gundam Wing not just a guy Show?
It's not a difficult thing to grasp
really. The fact of the matter is that it all comes down to the certain appeals
of the show. There are different parts of the show that appeal to females. Of
course, I'd know from personal experience.
The story is always the big thing. Without a solid appealing
story, there is nothing worth watching expect Mobile suits blowing each other
up. The story of war and peace, and the balancing act on that fine line between
right and wrong is always present. From the beginning you're never quite sure if
Zechs Merquise and Treize Khushrenada are really the bad guys, or potential
heroes that are simply misunderstood. Another interesting part of the plot is
the room for romance. The director had said he never had intention of having
romance since he was uncertain at how to portray it. However, for fans, there's
always room for it. Hence, there is that division of fans that suspect there
could be same-sex relationships and hetero pairings.
For me storywise, I like the fact that these characters are
3-d made. Not talking animation wise, but in the depth of their personalities
and their views on the war. You have views that are of ALL parts of the
spectrum. You have pacifists, and you have extremists. You have people that only
want justice, and you have people that only want to show how ugly war can be
when it costs the lives of people for stupid reasons.
Another nice perspective is that you can see the realistic
view of the world. Peace is never easy, and can easily be broken, as we see with
Endless Waltz.
Ah... romance. L'amour, the
sweet wonders of two people searching to find each other. Such wonderful
thoughts that make the heart pitter-patter with excitement. Do these feelings
exist in Gundam Wing? Technically, I AM sad to say, the answer is no. There was
no intention of that sort when the production team created this AU to Gundam.
But any English teacher will show you ten thousand things in a book that the
writer never gave a second thought to. And that is the Fan view on Romance in
Gundam Wing.
There are two perspective camps on this matter, and a small
third one as well. There is yaoi/yuri. Basically, there are same-sex
relationships that could exist on this show. Among the more popular ones are
Heero-Duo, Trowa-Quatre, Wufei-Treize/Wufei-Duo. I won't debate on this matter
because the same arguments would be applied to the Non-yaoi pairings, and
further more, no one will change their perspective on this issue.
The second is of course the non-yaoi or Canon fans. Basically
pairings that are possible, but they are hetero pairings. I go to the canon
pairings in more depth in the individual characters' pages.
A surprising third camp, can be called bi-sexual. In other
words, the kind of pairings that one would find in three-way romances that have
one character loving someone of both sexes.
While, I am a Canon supporter, I will admit that some
alternate pairing have certain appeals that would make them somewhat
possible. But in the end, what really matters is what do YOU, the individual,
believe in? No matter what your preferences of pairings are, the big thing is
that you believe in it. After all, no one can really define love, just as you
can't see it, or taste it, or hold it in your hands. Love isn't tangible, but
you experience and feel it's effects all the time.
Just as with the whole
romance debate, this is no different a topic of discussion. I personally don't
agree with most yaoi/yuri pairings in GW fandom. However, as I have said in my
Romance essay, there could be different interpretations of the many
relationships that people have speculated about these characters.
I have no problems with yaoi/yuri pairings because those
reflect reality. In real life there are gay couples. Who can honestly say that
love is limited to only hetero/straight couples? In fact, as the dictionary
describes it, the very term "soul mate" is "someone, in which,
one has similar ideas, and temperaments. In other words, your soul mate is like
the other half of you, the person or, in many cases, the people, that you have a
special relationship and bond with. Who wrote a law saying that your soul mate
must be the opposite sex or is the one you must marry and/or have sex with?
This unique term has become synonymous with Romantic/Sexual
love, which is very limiting when you look at it. After all, you love your
family and your friends, but that doesn't mean you want to marry any of them,
right? So how can you limit the many aspects of love into just ONE definition?
I'm not saying that one side is right, but I AM saying that,
even though I don't agree with Yaoi interpretation of GW, power to those that
do. It's what they believe in, and I won't have the nerve and arrogance of
judging anybody harshly for it. I only hope that no one will judge me harshly
for my thoughts on this matter and on any others in the future.
Why do fans love
Gundam Wing? There's no brain surgery or great theory of complex thought to
really understand why people LOVE Gundam Wing. Fans in general, love many things
about Gundam Wing. The biggest thing of course is the Mecha. Who can resist
large, fighting machines called Mobile Suits? And who can resist the even
greater Gundams? Not many I think. There's nothing like watching a good MS fight
to get the ol' blood pumping in the system is there? These Mecha are designed to
be fighting machines in the story, and sleekly designed to impress those
mechanical loving people interested in the abilities of those weapons.
Especially for the female fans, the guys themselves are what
fangirls LOVE!!! They are bishonnen and just absolutely too well drawn to
resist. There's nothing that gets a girl's attention, but a cute looking guy.
But there are fans like me that are very much attracted to
the story and the personalities of these characters. These are not some
cut-board cut out people. They have beliefs, feelings, and ideas that really
reflect the ideals of different people. It is within this world that we can
really see ourselves reflected back and see for ourselves how foolish we can be.
Want to submit your own essays? Or you have more that you'd want to add? Then e-mail me!