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I love whoever said that Duo and Relena go and drag Heero out of the water together. Haha.

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These Gundams are literally like 100 meters away from a huge military base. How do they come and pick them up later (distance is not to scale, I suppose)?

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The way Zechs talks about these Gundams in English makes it seem like there have been some sort of mythical Gundams before.

English: “There's a jinx that once you see a Gundam you won't come out alive. We must pray that the jinx doesn’t come true.”

In Japanese, he’s says, 「ガンダムを一目見た者は、生きて戦場から戻らない。悪いジンクスにならなければ良いが。」 “Those who had laid eyes on a Gundam will not live to return from the battlefield. I hope this doesn’t become a jinx.”

In English, it sounds like the Gundams are already legendary, but his Japanese line makes more sense. He’s hoping that the Gundams do not become legends/myths because that will make them even harder to fight. Shows just how astute he can be about these things. Zechs understands the power of myths and legends just as much as Treize does. No wonder the two of them have such a deep understanding of the other.

Why do you think he wears the mask? He does it to hide his identity, but who would recognize him now? He was a young boy when Cinq fell. No, I think he keeps the mask because the mask is what makes him Zechs Merquise, Lightning Baron. But it also represents Treize’s influence in his life, as a man that probably first gave him the idea to put on the mask to begin with. That mask will always represent his relationship with Treize, along with his personal vendetta against those who destroyed his country. Which is why it’s always so sad for him to discard it. He’s discarding not only his personal history, and his past, but also Treize and his friendship.

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This is perhaps the first time anyone has touched Heero so tenderly. It’s no wonder that Relena becomes an obsession for him too.

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Relena has been raised to oppose killing at all costs. It’s not just her Peacecraft heritage – it’s her father Darlian’s doing. He must have been very dedicated to pacifism as well, even if he had to make compromises and sell his soul to the devil in order to keep a tenuous peace with the colonies (and protect his adopted daughter). Even though Heero has just pulled a gun on her, she still stands in front of him to prevent him getting shot again. Of course, I think she’s quite intrigued and perhaps already has a crush on Heero, but this also shows that she doesn’t want anyone to be harmed if she can help it. The fact that she thinks she can help is a point of contention in the fandom, but only a girl this fearless and crazy (and dumb lol) could do what she ends up doing.

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The boys all have rather black & white thinking when it comes to good guys and bad guys at this point. They’ve all been raised to think OZ is the bad guy, and themselves as the good guy, and things get very tough for them when they find out that, in more cases than not, they themselves have been just as bad as the “bad guys.”

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I love how bossy Relena is, and how Heero just ignores it.

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So, like… Does Duo get out of his suit underwater?! And swim to shore, to wait for his suit to rise with the other Gundam? I have never understood the continuity of this scene. Perhaps he realizes the suit is too heavy to rise quickly, brings his Gundam all the way back up, gets out, and remote controls it to get the other Gundam. I don’t know. Weird!

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“NO! Don’t follow me!” This is first time Relena has ever been forceful about anything in her life. She has been raised to be a sweet, compliant girl, to marry off into high society. Everything has been planned for her, and thus far she has gone along without complaint. But she’s met this mysterious boy, who is fighting for something… It’s awoken something inside Relena that yearns to be something far greater than herself. All she knows right now is she can’t stand by and let him kill anybody without trying to do something. And she’ll break the rules if she has to.

She sounds even more forceful in Japanese, because she uses such polite language all the time, and here is just like “NO!”

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Ahaha! In Japanese he says this really snotty “Happy Birthday to Relena.” (in accented English). Relena’s sycophants are horrible.

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Do you think all that firepower is for the Lake Victoria base? I love how Wufei thinks that being a warrior means buying a whole shit ton of missiles and bombs.

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Quatre’s line is quite interesting here. Japanese: “Even though the Earth is so beautiful…” English: “Do they know how beautiful the Earth is?”

The English is pretty much a perfect translation for the vague Japanese. In the original, he just says the Earth is beautiful, and then ends it with a “no ni” which is a grammatical marker that says, “even though [I just said this], [this thing I’m going to say] contradicts it.” He doesn’t finish his thought. It’s clear now that he’s referring to the original Operation Meteor plans- why would you want to destroy this planet?! – but it could also naturally refer to the other pilots, to the Alliance and OZ, etc. Whoever translated this into English did their research and made the best choice for this line.

Translation really is a complicated thing!

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Encountering Heero has caused Relena to realize just how dangerous and vital her father’s work really is.

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“Is he a…a little prince?” Again, I know this is explained in Episode Zero, and I can appreciate her thinking that all these boys (her brother, and then Heero) from space are kind of like the Little Prince. If I recall correctly, the Little Prince appears to a man who had lived life the way he was told, and neglected to follow his dreams because society told him he couldn’t. In a way, Relena is in the same position, and meeting Heero causes her to go down a very different path. So I can see the line being beautiful in some interpretations.

But it’s still stupid. At least we know she’s well-read.

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“Everyone who sees me dies.” Poor Duo. He really does think that at this point, doesn’t he? Everyone he’s ever cared about has died horrifically.

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Poor Heero. He’s so consumed by the fact that his mission has been ruined before it’s even started. He just wants to obliterate the Gundam now and kill himself to get rid of everything. It’s not the first time a teenager has wanted to commit suicide after making a mistake. I’m sure he tried to self-destruct it as it was falling to Earth, but as I recall Dr. J ended up fiddling around with it to prevent that from happening. Perhaps why the Gundam ends up randomly going on its self-destruct sequence later in the episode – delayed reaction?

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I guess Relena puts it together in this episode that Heero is the pilot of the machine she saw in space, and then realizes he’s from the colonies once she sees the photos later. But I don’t think she really understands the tension between the colonies and Earth, nor the reason for Heero to be fighting. She just wants to feel in the center of things.

But I do love how she stews that someone out there doesn’t like her (a common affliction for us galz).