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floatingcatacombs · 5 months

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Bandai Taketh Away

12 Days of Aniblogging 2023, Day 1

Last year I wrote a post extolling the virtues of Birdie Wing, 2022’s breakthrough “how the fuck did this get made” mafia golf campfest. It’s the little show that could, animated on a shoestring budget to an audience of maybe two dozen extremely online yuri fans who tried their hardest to get literally anyone else to watch it.

It was almost certainly a financial failure for Bandai Namco, whose hopes for kicking off a VR-focused franchise fizzled in real time during season 1. But the resulting anime was a blast, a shoujo sports melodrama where literally anything could happen.

Birdie Wing took a few seasons off between its cours, during which Bandai Namco’s second lesbian anime of the year began airing: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. My jaw dropped as I watched the first episode recreate Utena’s setup beat for beat, including the female main character taking another girl as her fiancé. It’s a gutsy move which set my expectations high. G-Witch was my introduction to Gundam, and the highs of the first season were amazing. Even if I had some occasional complaints with the pacing, the cliffhanger ending and narrative ambition left me very excited for more.

Season 2 of Birdie Wing was set to fill the gap between cours of G-Witch, but ~something~ happened behind the scenes. It ended up being delayed to Spring 2023, where the two shows would air together. Great! That means double the lesbians. Or…zero?

Fair warning: From here on out I will be both a hater, and a spoiler.

Both seasons start without a hitch. G-Witch finally pops the safety bubble of its setting, with a terrorist attack on the academy followed up by an episode from the viewpoint of Dawn of Fold soldiers trying to survive a retaliatory crackdown from the Spacians. It pulled no punches with its violence and war orphans and trauma, a good sign for the struggles that awaited the main cast. Meanwhile, Birdie Wing continued to pay tribute to old-school Class S after its boarding school arc by involving its cast in a nightmare incest soap opera concerning Eve and Aoi’s parentage and the sins of the previous generation. Both are great developments for their respective shows, suggesting plenty of good stuff ahead.

Unfortunately, this is when both of these shows begin to fall apart. Eve and Aoi manage to beat the incest allegations, but afterwards their relationship just…stops. Their chemistry all but dissipates, the homoerotic rivalry giving way to their personal relationships with golf instead of with each other. The plot keeps the two of them apart as much as possible, devoid of the angsty longing from season 1, as the girls each succumb to a different form of golf cancer (even without the gay-baiting, at least Birdie Wing is still insane).

For G-Witch, a much more ambitious anime, this decline manifests as a creeping realization that they’re simply going to drop most of the open plot threads. The show takes its sweet time, even as it becomes clear that it’s barreling towards a finale at 24 episodes. The long-awaited plot twists are handled fine, I guess. But any sense that the show is aiming for greatness fades away, as it simply tries to drag itself to the finish line, buckling under its own weight. What we see on screen is what we get, and you’ll have to fill in the blanks yourself to really be happy. The Earthian-Spacian conflict ends up as mere set-dressing, and characters who clearly had intertwined backstories never even get the chance to interact. The obvious examples are the man who killed Suletta’s dad in the prologue resurfacing and that never really coming up, and everything to do with Chuchu and Nika’s backstories. I’m not here to nitpick, but it’s a shame that everyone’s characterization is left so thin. G-Witch really feels like it was meant to be a full 50-episode series, and I’m led to believe that this trimming down happened during production, as there’s just no other reason to set so much up without resolving it.

At last we reach each show's conclusion. Birdie Wing is saddled with a final arc full of professional tournaments, which is always going to be weaker than the dirty mafia golf on a conceptual level. The timeline begins to rapidly accelerate and suddenly we’re skipping ahead months, and then entire years. We don’t get to see most of Eve and Aoi’s final game, or even the period of time where they reconcile. An enduring friendship and rivalry is implied at the end, but it’s nowhere near the mutual obsession that the prior season depicted. Not an ounce of queerbait remains, even for the terminally yurigoggled such as myself.

Meanwhile, G-Witch dedicates some of its precious final minutes to a fight with Lauda (Jesus Christ is the Schwartzette is wasted on him), and just like Birdie Wing the two girls at the heart of the show barely get any time together as the end draws near. They ultimately opt for a Macross-Symphogear ending in which Suletta pilots a Gundam that shoots gay rainbow lasers and defeats her mom with the power of love and friendship. That’s fine! But that’s the ending for a show that didn’t happen! In its last act G-Witch retreats into its shell, unable to commit to the moral weight of the world it had built up. Laughably, the epilogue time-skips to a neoliberal utopia where Miorine solves the earth-space conflict through her sheer girlboss acumen. Suletta and Miorine’s gay wedding is implied at best, and an after-credits message states that this is the conclusion of The Witch from Mercury as a story, prematurely killing any potential follow-up.

The rest is history. Kadokawa redacts an interview to remove references to Suletta and Miorine being married, Bandai releases a statement that their status at the end of the show should be left up to interpretation, and everyone is mad forever.

What happened? Both of these shows fell apart at the same time, and both in a manner that defused their implicit queerness. Birdie Wing was always a bit of a trainwreck even at its best, so in a vacuum I would have just concluded that the production ran out of steam, unable to live up to its earlier writing. But the timing of Season 2’s delay, combined with the corporate meddling that affected G-Witch, makes me downright conspiratorial. Something went down at Bandai Namco, and it led to them ordering their productions be revised halfway through to scrub out all the gay shit and play things safe. I wouldn’t be surprised if this occurred at the same time as G-Witch was trimmed down from its initial 50 to 24 episodes with no chance of a continuation. It’s also not too much of a stretch to imagine Birdie Wing receiving a “stick to sports" mandate and Yosuke Kuroda subsequently phoning it in. I don't know how else to say it: there's no reason to do an incest fakeout if you're not even going to follow up on it afterwards once you've gone through the difficult work of exonerating them.

Witch from Mercury was a commercial success (it sold a shitton of gunpla, at least!) so it seems like a surprise that Bandai Namco would clamp down creatively in such a destructive way. Or maybe not. This may be the first female-led Gundam, but in a lot of other ways it’s fairly restrained as far as Gundams go. Perhaps BN decided that G-Witch had to be a balancing act to please everyone, preventing the creative staff from truly swinging for the fences in the end. Of course, that backfired horribly and they ended up pissing off himejoshis and regular mecha fans alike. I know it’s something of a fool’s errand to expect undeniable LGBT representation from anime, but when you begin with an explicit Utena homage, I expect better.

This has all been a bit of a downer, so I wanted to end things by sharing the anime I watched this year that actually gave me what I wanted out of those two shows.

Watching through the original Mobile Suit Gundam made me realize just how conservative G-Witch is in a lot of its storytelling. 0079 is a deeply radical show for its time, and still would be if you made it today. The unhesitating depiction of war and death through the aesthetics of a 70’s children’s show is particularly bold, and even the parts of the anime notorious for being overlong successfully reinforce the overall mood of the work. Amuro’s transformation from innocent child to unrelenting psychic soldier is as inevitable and upsetting as it should be, and even with all the “filler” the script feels much tighter than the G-Witch, which ambles around with side stories that don’t resolve and characters that don’t go anywhere. Imminently watchable. I love that the mommy issues in Gundam go all the way back, and I'm also starting to understand why you fuckers have been arguing about Char Aznable for 40 years.

you.

I also watched Kakegurui this year, which served as a great alternative to Birdie Wing. It doubles down on the best parts of that show – mostly-female cast, high stakes gambling, dubious lesbian rep – with an all-consuming sleaze to it. Grab some friends who aren't easily scandalized and try not to worry too hard about gaze or the intended audience, and it will be a hoot. The production values are great, even if most of it inevitably goes to girls making upsetting faces. The first opening in particular is an animation highlight. Of course, this is a MAPPA production, so they’re far too busy flaying their workers alive in the pits of hell to ever get around to another season. May their company unionize or perish.

#12 days of anime #gundam #birdie wing #gundam the witch from mercury #kakegurui

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pencil-peach · 7 months

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G Witch Onscreen Text: Episode 9

We have now reached part TEN of my ongoing project to transcribe and discuss all of the onscreen text in G Witch! Because I like writing!!! We have reached Episode 9, "If I Could Take One More Step Towards You."

<<Click Here to go back to Episode 8 (That post actually goes rather in depth into Duel Statistics. You should check it out if you happen to be interested in. Duel Statistics.)

The Beginning of the End. (Of the season.)

In the opening flashback, we see Guel winning yet another Duel, and at that point in time, he now has 8 wins. Ireesha says that he's probably done about 5 duels that month. With this information it's like. Utterly Impossible to determine how long ago before the story proper this scene takes place in, but here:

The Holder is required to do at least one duel every two weeks if there are available challengers. Guel had 28 wins by the time the show starts, so if we assume that Guel did that bare minimum, (which he definitely did not do) 20 duels would take about 40 weeks, or around 9 and so months. So that's the absolute MAXIMUM amount of time possible between this flashback and the show proper.

This doesn't really tell us anything at all, but yknow. I had fun. And isn't that what it's all about?

TEXT: BUSINESS TRANSFER AGREEMENT GRASSELEY M&D COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE SHADDIQ ZENELLI AGREEMENT

THIS BUSINESS TRANSFER AGREEMENT [the 'Agreement'] shall be governed by space front customary law and inter-front commercial treaties.

The agreement is entered into as of this date written below, by and between GUND-ARM, Inc ["Seller"] and Grassley Research and Development ["Buyer"]

WHEREAS, Seller desires to sell, and Buye* desires to purchase, substantially, all of Seller's assets and WHEREAS, the parties desire to enter into this Agreement for the purpose of setting forth their mutual rights and obligations with respect to the foregoing.

Shaddiq Zenelli

Grassley M&D Company Representative SHADDIQ ZENELLI

____________________ GUND-ARM, Inc Company Representative MIORINE REMBRAN ____________________ DATE

*(The word here is supposed to be Buyer, but it's actually misspelled like that on that agreement. Oopsie!)

Lots of LEGAL stuff....hochi mama....

One day I will make a post examining how Belmeria is meant to be a dark reflection of Nika. Just you wait.

And I COULD say SOMETHING about how the last time Guel sees Suletta before he runs away she's running ahead of him down the LIGHTED PATH and he CAN'T FOLLOW but I have to save that for the GUEL ANALYSIS SERIES!!! (Which I will return to...wait for me md-guel....wait for me...)

Anyway, back to a relevant detail, in the scene where Shaddiq talks to Miorine to convince her to call off the duel, Miorine has gathered a bunch of tomatoes and laid them out like this.

She's actually using them to plan out a battle strategy for the Grassley duel. The 2 tomatoes on the bottom are Suletta and Chuchu, and the 6 tomatoes at the top are the Grassley Pilots.

Shaddiq's Michaelis (Left) and the Grassley Girls' Beguir - Pente's (Middle) are actually both successors built from the Beguir Beu (Right) used in the prologue. (That's why they can use Anti-GUND Format Equipment such as the 'Antidote')

When you look at them side by side, it's pretty clear, but if this fact slips by you, you really miss out on the sharp difference in Prospera's behavior watching this duel compared to all the previous duels. Before, she showed unwavering confidence and faith that Suletta and Aerial could stop any opponent, but in this duel, when we see her, she's silent. She's not smiling. In a very real way, she's looking at the Mobile Suit that took her husband away from her.

And when Aerial overcomes the power of the Antidote, she sheds a tear

This was probably the biggest obstacle standing between the completion of Quiet Zero, and now that it's been overcome, the path has never been clearer.

Anyway, during the Role Call of all the Grassley girls, Sabina is shown to specifically be incredibly popular with women. Which I mean....can't blame em..

During this scene, we can see that the Team Battle title card has a slightly different UI, adding the respective Team Name of the Commander. Miorine never officially joins Earth House, but since all the members currently in the fight are, they probably just chose that.

We also see that the official color coding of Earth House is Cyan.

Here we see that in a Team Duel, the "Team Leader" and the "Commander" are two different positions, and can be held by two different people. The Team Leader fights in the duel, while the Commander is who will be awarded the victory or defeat depending on the outcome of the battle.

We also see in this shot that Chuchu's Demi Trainer is registered in Asticassia as "CHUCHU'S DEMI TRAINER"

When Aerial first goes offline due to the Antidote, this warning flashes across Suletta's helmet at first. It's [???] MODE but I can't read the first part. Gomen :( My best guess is that it's an Error message for a sort of Assisted Piloting Mode that Suletta had been using up to this point.

Then the warning switches to MANUAL MODE, which is what Suletta interprets as Aerial saying she needs to continue the fight by herself.

We can't see it fully, but Miorine's name appears on the winner's screen. So only the Team's Commander receives the victory in a Team Battle.

TEXT: AGREEMENT No. 2030-23 GUND ARM INC. Grassley M&D

Each party submits to the exclusive jurisdiction of the BENERIT enterprise entrusted court, and agrees not to commence any legal action regarding or related to the subject matter of this agreement in any other court.

This seems like the end of the agreement.

Any way here's a comparison of Miorine and Delling's cursive. If Father Daughter Cursive Comparisons is something you're interested in. Miorine has cute handwriting.

That's all for this episode!! Woohooo!! For your final gift...

FUCK you. I'm symbolizing you as an unripe green tomato to represent the potential love we could have shared that never blossomed due to our respective personal ambitions being at odds with each other. Yeah and its permanent. BITCH.

Click here to go to episode TEN. FUCKER. >>

OR click here to go to the MASTERPOST.

#g witch #gundam the witch from mercury

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the-eeveekins · 11 months

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Just finished my G-Witch marathon ahead of the finale, and some thoughts:

- I still think the 1st season was incredibly solid and a necessary set-up to make the events of season 2 hit as hard as they did. I wish Miorine had been a little less abrasive to Suletta as the episodes went on, and there was definitely some waste here and there, but ultimately it was probably planned to end on the slap so there isn't much helping it.

- The pacing for S2 feels a lot better when watched in one day. Things are happening fast, but it doesn't really feel like you're missing anything important until around episode 21/22. The slow build-up of the SAL and their goals was a lot more obvious to me with hindsight and being able to see the little clues in each episode one after another.

- My opinion on the unfortunate waste of time or poor focus on characters hasn't changed, however. Episode 15's time with the DoF was a complete waste and that time could've been spent better elsewhere. Lauda vs. Guel should have been earlier and a better job needed spent explaining why Lauda blames everything on Miorine. They skipped scenes like Suletta explaining Ericht to Miorine, the full interaction between Suletta and Miorine before she boarded the Calibarn, and even the talk between Chuchu and Nika. Instead we got scenes like the Martin and Nika talking and the silly fencing duel.

What we got was still really good, but it does leave a lot of what-ifs on my mind heading into the finale. Episode 15 and the SAL build-up into being the last minute final villains makes a lot of sense if they've already got plans for a 3rd season. But if they don't, then all that time would've been better spent fully focusing on the Mercury and Rembran storylines with Quiet Zero, and making that the focus of the finale instead of the mostly background SAL and wasting almost a whole episode on a group and person we probably won't see.

Still, I can look past most of these problems because the core of what I love about G-Witch has been so good (Suletta, Miorine, Prospera and Eri's stories), and if ths finale can deliver a satisfying conclusion to those storylines, I think I'll walk away happy, regardless of another season or not.

#the witch from mercury #gundam the witch from mercury #g witch

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mahoushoujotechsupport · 10 months

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episode 6, here we go again... lmao i literally... had this post open, was writing up my final thoughts and my cat jumped up on my laptop and i fuckin lost everything. no ctrl-z to help me i have no idea what happened gdi lmao

so i will try to remember what it was i wrote initially

cowardly belmeria winston. i do wish she'd received some punishment for being literally in charge of human experimentation at peil. i'm so glad prospera uses her guilt against her

so like this is the line that made everyone go what the fuckkkkkk right? assuming they werent speedwatching and just ignored the fact suletta is 17 and belmeria is referring to the vanadis incident here

all the double take lines in this show are so amazing. like yea this doenst mean anything on first watch because of course suletta is her daugher but hohoho

honestly love the idea that suletta went to earth house for comfort after they found out what happened with el4n and his unknown (to them) 180 towards suletta. and part of that group of people comforting suletta includes miorine even if she does have to be all tsundere about it

i do wonder how angry she must have been that el4n was a dick to suletta though. imagine if shes playing her little shooty game on her phone to blow off steam here just like she did in ep 2 in the bathroom

random note: once chuchu calms down a few episodes back, miorine just is a staple at earth house just like suletta

god fuck you tumblr for ruining my og post. i had written a whole thing about this frame and how i appreciated that gwitch never let miscommunication/misunderstanding tropes get in the way of anything (i know some people would argue otherwise because of the break up arc but i dont agree with them).

miorine couldve stayed quiet about this but she brings it up so suletta knows it doesnt only concern her. theyre a team.

also like how even though shes a little socially awkward goober, she knows el4n's about face is weird and doesnt make sense and pretty much immediately begins questioning if there was anything she might have done

we never really got to find out much about el0n did we? like what does he do? does he still learn the school things that el4n and his predecessors would have presumably been learning at asticassia? where does even come from? iirc we only learn about the whole peil AI used to pick the next ceo but where does the selection pool come from?

i really really hope that by this point in the story people werent still mean to suletta at school. she just sounds so fuckin dejected over her potential new friend turning on her so suddenly that it's hard not to imagine that people would pretend to be nice and then just make fun of her like those 3 girls did in episode 1

our tsundere bride won't be having any of that though

bless you nika for calling out this dumbassery

interesting to think about how shaddiq is the only one of the big three guys that doesn't just project their weird insecurities on suletta. both guel and el4n immediately think that her genuine honest-to-goodness kindness is some sort of backhandedness

this got me thinking back on sophie basically saying the same thing to suletta during their fight. and yea, makes sense considering sophie and whoever el4n originally was are part of the oppresed class in this universe

she was probably freaking out a little bit just like the rest of earth house right here huh?

i've seen enough posts calling the permet score gay thing an asspull but if we go back to this episode, it's literally the same thing but on a smaller scale since aerial hadnt even hit permet score 6 here yet

all of us where el4n when this happened

i can't really do this scene justice because when the replichildren silhouettes are on screen its only one at a time, but i just love how it transitions out from the silhouettes to the gund bits with their laugh as the only thing we hear

its weird and confusing on first watch but man is it great once you know whats up

smug bride

👀

how did people deny the eri/aerial theory?????

i know this is kinda played up for laughs because it isnt really until you rewatch that you realize that miorine's definitely smitten with suletta at this point. but i'm glad nika exists for being the sole person who saw past miorine's cold facade and noticed it too

i'm also happy zeonic is translating the light novels in full now instead of the LN only chapters because everything ive read up on about LN2 regarding this whole el4n arc sounds so good. yeah she was jealous as hell, but here she is being supportive while mistakenly thinking this is a romantic interest

such a fucked up callback lmao

i can't believe there were people who outright refused to watch the prologue. imagine just missing the emotional gut punch this scene is supposed to mean without that context

also god fuck belmeria for trying to argue with the peil hags over keeping el4n alive after failing. you know what you were getting yourself into. you shouldn't have done it at all in the first place

right so, i hope i managed to write up more or less what i had originally written before losing my post

episode 6 definitely marks a turning point for the series i think where we finally start leaving behind the slice of life school stuff we've been seeing and all the mysteries begin to pile up reminding you that the beginning of this whole story was a tragedy

excited for episode 7 because miorine rembran girlbossing is just great

#g witch #rewatch time #g witch episode 6

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skye-huntress · 2 years

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The Witch from Mercury Reaction

Episode 6: “A Gloomy Song”

Let’s start off with that bombshell in the opening scene. That woman, Belmeria, tried to mention something that happened in Prospera’s past 21 years ago. Now, assuming Prospera is indeed Elnora, it’s hard to imagine there is a bigger incident that happened in her past that can top the events of the prologue. So if that’s what it is, Eri would be 25 years in the present. Now, it still wouldn’t be impossible in a sci-fi setting for Eri to be Suletta, say for instance, cryostasis, but it seems unlikely. It’s clear we need more information to draw any definitive conclusions.

Prospera seems very informed. She knew about the assassination attempt, and about there being multiple “Enhanced Persons”. What else does she know and how? It’s clear she is working with other people, and whoever they are, they not only have an amazingly intelligence network, but they also have resources, enough to build or rebuild a Gundam it seems.

The girls seem confused about Elan’s behaviour which isn’t so surprising. Last episode, they were quick spin his behaviour and actions to suit their own narratives and desired outcome, and got it so wrong. They don’t know anything of substance about him other than he doesn’t express any emotions, which to me was a red flag from the start. It also probably doesn’t help that Suletta is so trusting, she never found any of Elan’s actions suspicious, so she probably thought nothing of his questions or his desire to pilot Aerial alone. She probably didn’t even tell the others that happened.

Before I get to the next point, Chuchu said that Elan was starting to piss her off now, right? I read/remember that, right? I thought all Spacians pissed her off by merely existing?

So, I pointed this out last reaction, and I am glad it is being brought up now. When Suletta duels, she is effectively also gambling with her engagement to Miorine, so accepting a duel without her consent is a pretty shitty thing to do to her. But now that it has been acknowledged and she’s explained it to Suletta, she’ll be more mindful of it in the future.

I suppose there had to be pretty severe consequences for Guel. It’s difficult for me to feel sorry for him, he for the most part brought it on himself with his recklessness and impulsiveness. So now he has been evicted from Jeturk House, but his tuition is still paid for. He just doesn’t have a place to stay anymore and not just anyone would take him in. We’ll see what comes of it in the next few episodes.

So, in order to fight in space, Aerial needs a thruster module, was it? But Suletta didn’t have one and Earth House can’t afford one, so Nika’s plan is to build one from scraps. Even then, it’s made clear that Suletta has to win just for Earth House to cover the costs. It just reaffirmed my confidence in Suletta’s inevitable victory

So “Enhanced Person Number 4” would eventually die anyway if he continued to pilot Gundams. Seems Peil are still far from finding a solution to this crucial flaw.

As soon as he walked in with that fancy suit, I knew that was the real Elan Ceres. So Number 4 takes all the risks, and Elan gets to keep the reputation and rewards, including Miorine’s hand in marriage if Number 4 were to win.

The damning part though when he promised to give back Number 4’s face and identity. Meaning he’s not some clone, he’s a person whose identity was erased and rewritten. Meaning, they are still sacrificing humans lives to piloting Gundams but they’re also ensuring no one would ever know who they are or that they ever existed. That’s so much worse than what Ochs Earth and Vanadis were accused of. No further proof is needed to know the Cathedra Agreement wasn’t based on bioethical concerns.

So here’s the thing. When Suletta was testing the thruster, Miorine didn’t have to join Nika in the shuttle. She has no technical expertise, and she can easily communicate to Suletta from the station. The only reason she would be in the shuttle would be to stay as close to Suletta as physically possible, there’s no other explanation.

Also, Miorine’s little pep talk is something. She’s basically saying, yeah, it’s annoying how Suletta gets into other people’s business when they don’t want her to. However, because she is her annoying self, Miorine’s in a much better place now, so perhaps it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Unless it backfires and blows up in your face, like it did for Guel. Regardless, it’s too late for regrets, whatever “Elan’s” problem is with Suletta, the challenge was made so all she can do is move forward.

Mio-Mio really said that if Suletta loses it would be bad for her as “her bride”. Pretty sure, if Suletta were to lose, you would no longer be able to call yourself “her bride” but it seems like that’s how you want to refer to yourself anyway. Oh, she’s falling. And I agree with Nika, I think she has already forgiven Suletta, she just can’t stay mad at her fiancée.

Okay, Suletta, I get why you want to talk things out with “Elan”, but did you really have to sing that damn song?

Seems Lauda has taken over all of Guel’s responsibilities, including the duelling committee position. Not sure what this change will mean yet.

So Suletta’s stake is to learn all about “Elan”, which I think is pretty fair thing to ask. Number 4 never gave up much information about himself willingly, and never even explained why it is he’s so pissed off at her. She wants to at least understand him so she can at least figure out what this whole thing is about. And I just want to tell those girls, no, that is not a love confession. That’s an “I’m interested in you” confession, which can be either romantic or platonic. You can’t love someone you don’t know, and most of what she does know about Number 4 is a lie.

Again, Miorine does not need to be in the shuttle with Nika, she could have stayed at Earth House and watch the match in relative comfort. She is there because she wants to be as close to Suletta during the duel as possible.

So Number 4 finally reveals his true feelings. He’s jealous because Suletta also pilots a Gundam but she still has everything, while he was stripped of his own identity. He thought she was someone in a similar situation, someone he can relate to. But because she wasn’t what he wanted her to be, he wants to spite her, to take something away from her instead.

We all noticed the difference, Number 4 raised the Permit Score throughout the fight to power up and control his Gundam, meanwhile all Suletta did was ask for help from “everyone”. It’s like she considers those Gund bits to be their own individuals and even went out of her way to protect a single bit from being destroyed. Everyone had it wrong, she’s not controlling the Gund bits directly, they are moving on their own, in a way that is far to organic to be the work of a conventional AI.

That brings us to the deciding moment of the battle, Elan had her cornered, but it looks like Aerial reacted on her own. That pulse seems similar to that anti-Gundam we saw in the prologue, but I can’t say for sure what it is. My best guess, it was like Aerial boosted her own Permit score to override and overwhelm Number 4’s own link, and because of that, he caught a glimpse into Aerial’s mind. He heard and saw the silhouette of a seemingly playful child, that turned out to be one of Aerial’s Gund bits. I wonder if this means Aerial is still just fooling around at this point and hasn’t taken any of these duels too seriously because she knew she and Suletta would win.

Suletta scores her second victory, and has struck a decisive blow to two of the three branches. We’ll see in time what affect this will have but certainly everyone is going to start taking Suletta more seriously. Especially since both the Duelling Committee and the powers-that-be within the Benerit Group are fully aware that this was a duel between two Gundams. They’ll be more cautious about challenging her in the future.

So, Miorine says she will allow “some minor two-timing” since she is an “understanding bride”. That’s interesting. See, when Suletta first brought up how she wanted to date, Mio-Mio didn’t seem all that bothered about Suletta wanting to date other people. She pretty much said it was okay since she had no plans of seeing the engagement through. Now it seems she’s changed her tune, her comment suggests she is giving permission for Suletta to see other people, but I’m wondering what the limit is for “some minor two-timing” to Mio-Mio.

More importantly though, it seems now Nika is starting to acknowledge that Mio-Mio has feelings towards Suletta.

I have to agree with Mio-Mio, if they don’t show up at least a few minutes before, they are running late. And again, she doesn’t have to be there, she probably shouldn’t be, given that this time it is pretty much a date this time. It’s clear at this point that she cares about Suletta and wants to look out for her. And I’m fairly certain her comment was her subtle way of telling Suletta that if Mio-Mio was her date, she absolutely would show up at least five minutes early because she deserves a date that values her time. Heck, she wasn’t even the date and she showed up early anyway, so there you go!

He’s not coming. Not surprised that a person who is referred to by his superiors by only a number is expendable and easily replaceable. And now we know the meaning of the episode’s title.

Now, what does this mean? The implication is that before long, another “Elan Ceres” will take number 4’s place at the school sooner or later. What does that mean for Suletta’s relationship with the person she thinks is “Elan”, I can see it going a number of ways, but it will likely involve a lot of confusion, deception, and heartbreak.

#the witch from mercury #g witch #g witch spoilers

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