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A sheep in wolf's clothing and a wolf in sheep's clothing, or character analysis of Handler Walter and Ayre

(Amazing art by u/Count15, also known as Kubaushi)

So, um, I love AC6, and it's entire cast. From Arqebus's egotistical Snail to Balams' most pathetic little scrimbo Iguazu. But no two characters have put so many thoughts in my head as Ayre and Walter. They're your most direct companions, and yet they couldn't be more opposite of each other while still being so similar.

Now I know that AC6 thrives on the individual readings by different people, everyone is going to see the story and characters differently so while I do pose some strong opinions here I think everyone's own interpretation is the most correct one.

But to get back to the topic at hand, I don't think that the opposites of those two are talked about enough, Walter, and Ayre exist almost entirely separated from each other, and somehow, they managed to be such polar opposites. The game isn't even afraid to paint them that way, like at the end of act 1. Walter wants you to rest while he gets stuff sorted with Balam, while Ayre is pushing you to go through Grid-086. Or during the attack on the refuelling base mission, while Walter laughs off the whole "walking advertisement" bit that Arqebus is shilling and just encourages you to get it done ASAP while Ayre wants you to make as much of it as possible.

But there's a greater example of this, beware of the spoiler for the endings below:

Both play a major role in LOR and FOR, but both for different reasons, and it all starts with Walters's speech right before the Escape, he has no expectations of you, no mission, no orders. The only thing he tells you is that you should "find your own freedom." Sure, he asks you to continue the legacy of the RRI, but only because it was his life's mission, his only goal so he might as well ask his closest friend in what he thinks is his last words. And he actually does stick with it. In FOR, he thanks you, but also, apologizes for asking you of such a burden. In LOR, he actively breaks through corporate brainwashing to spare you. He goes out of his way and even sacrifices himself for you, for "the freedom you chose".

Ayre, on the other hand, doesn't, her "I'll support you" falls on deaf ears when you realise she's not in it for you. You're just her vessel doing as she likes, and the second you disagree is the second this "bond" you've made is gone.

And before you say that, she's lashing out because of you doing a genocide of her people, Walter thinks the exact same. He believes that the further propagation of Coral will result in Humanity's downfall as Coral takes over the galaxy. They're both fighting for the same thing. It just so happens that they're different species.

Related tangent about the nature of Coral:

But are they? Coral and Humanity are almost the same, both spread infinitely, both want to completely take over anything without a care for the environment, and both want to use each other for a selfish benefit.

Coral wants to merge the hivemind with humanity and to use them as vessels.

While Humanity wants to use the Coral as infinite energy, to power their weapons, and to notably use it for cheap human lobotomies.

But there does exist one point of separation between them, Coral knows that Humans are people, but Humanity does not know that Coral are people.

The majority of humans involved in the Coral War see it as a war over oil, you can count how many humans know the true nature of Coral on one hand, and one of them is you. And that's assuming that RRI knows that Coral are a people, and to be a pedant, let's count them:

1. 621/Raven/You

2. Father Dolmayan

3. Walter

4. Carla

Out of the actual thousands involved in this war, 4 people know the true nature of Coral, AND THREE OF THEM WANT IT GONE PERMANENTLY NO MATTER HOW THE STORY DEVELOPS. The most poignant of them all being Dolmayan, who also interfaced with a wave mutation like you do, and yet he still chooses to fight you to the death over it.

Sorry for this side tangent. Going back to Ayre and Walter now:

So, both of them are fighting over the same thing, a goal universal to everyone, survival, and yet Walter cares more about you than the perceived genocide of Humanity and as he dies he expresses it. But Ayre, when put in the same spot, can not help but throw shade on you and Humanity, and while I will not fault her for that it is important to point out, but even more importantly her actual death, in FOR when you shoot her down she plays with your emotions one last time "Our shared dream" a dream she imagined you have and that idea is so paramount to her perception of you that she cannot imagine any other option.

And now maybe this speaks more about me than anything else, but I am so tired of having to live up to other people's ideas of me, this nebouls me that cannot exist in a reality outside of the conceptual space. This post is entirely selfish, a way for me to air out my frustration against the "popular opinion" because I cannot perceive a character like Ayre as anything but morally gray at best while every point of discourse around her goes on about "wifey" and how amazing she is. Call it whatever you like, but it is just a result of my own lived experiences.

Sure, Walter is a liar who actively uses lobotomized people to do his bidding, the same people he lies to, but he gives a damn about them, he cares for them so much as to forsake his mission, his facade of cynicism and coldness whistling away bit by bit until it's not there anymore, he's trying to be the wolf so that he can pretend to bare the atrocities he's committing in the name of human survival.

And call this a cynical and bad faith reading but, Ayre, on the other hand, is also a liar who actively uses lobotomized people to do her bidding, but she couldn't care any less, because to her this isn't about you, about 621, and it will never be. In Ayres' story, you are a convenience that either follows expectations or dies. She doesn't see what she's doing as wrong in any way, and I don't disagree. She is Coral, and that's her species, but to pretend that it is in any way about 621 while trying to play at your emotions is trying to be that sheep.

This is before even mentioning that to side with Ayre is betrayal of EVERYONE who saved you, Carla, Walter, Chatty, but also Humanity itself.

While to side with RRI, it is to betray only Ayre, who was never on your side.

Sorry for the lengthy read, and thanks for getting through it, I know this is long and pointed, but these two characters have become some of my favourites in anything so I wanted to talk about them.

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Gundam Wing. 13x6. The last poll I ran on twitter said anime throwback so here ya go. 💕

Instead of watching that garbage debate I wrote porn and finished this up. A much better choice for my mental health.

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sometimes I read a radioactively bad take and just sit there like "not only do you not understand this story but you fundamentally do not understand how stories work in general, and you have never considered that your discord with every piece of fiction you come across could possibly be a problem on your end"

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I'm actually going to crash out, I've been wanting the HG Full Armor since I saw Thunderbolt way back when but it hasn't been in stock ever.

Until two days ago, WHEN I DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY I CAN SPARE ON MORE GUNPLA.

Slightly upset but we move.

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I've seen a lot of people complain about the "lack of emotional attachment to the characters" as well as the obsession with Shuji.

And while yeah I would have preferred to get Yuri in Gundam again that's fundamentally not what this story is about.

Especially with the revelation from this week's episode.

(Photo unrelated just looking for exposure)

Spoilers below cut:

First off a lot of people think that the 12ep limit is hurting the show and while it's not done yet and we can't really say yet from how it's shaping right now it looks like the perfect amount.

The current primary theme being built up is:

"The inherent destructiveness of trying to fix the past"

And that's how the show should end IMO.

But let me elaborate:

Firstly the story looks like it is the UC timeline trying to violently fix itself after a "canon event" (Lalahs death) didn't come to pass. The world is built up as hollow, half of the cast doesn't get full names and the other half exists solely to do something about the broken timeline.

And at the center of that discussion Shuji Ito, an actual ghost in the machine:

I don't think that Shuji was ever a "real" person, he's an anomaly summoned directly by the Lalah in the sunk Elmeth whose whole goal is resetting the timeline. From the "homeless rizz" as Reddit dubbed it that so fully overtook some of the strongest newtypes the show showed us, to the fact he calls himself a parasite.

But also something to note, no one aside from Nyaan and Machu knows about Shujis existence, sure Challia read Machus mind and finds out about her knowing him but that doesn't mean anything, even Annqi who actually spied on the Red Gundam doesn't know about him.

And isn't it suspicious that he and Kira-Kira completely disappeared in the Zeknova? And that it happened right after he got Nyaan obsessed with himself?

Speaking of which, especially after this week, the Zeknova is the most obvious manifestation of that theme. A huge violent explosion that takes and destroys everything, which happens as the result of the timeline trying to correct itself.

And yeah while romance has always been important in Gundam, this specific story isn't about that, it's about obsession, about exploitation and most importantly it's about the destructiveness of trying to fix the past.

And that final theme will manifest itself by that futile attempt destroying this entire world.

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Well it's

today :>

Our tomato-shaped girl gets to beat up more cops and make more money by beating normal people up in her Evangelion Gundam

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I know we have the vague deadline of now-sept 18th for the Silksong release (cuz of the game being at AMCI then) but I hope they can wait on it till like July cuz I am about to go into actual finals week and I would prefer to not miss it.

But also Silksong tomorrow, until it's out, then Silksong today

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UGH finally have enough time to write something again, going from a crazy busy weekend to needing to study for what might as well have been finals week in Uni was tough, but I have a day with nothing going on:

But seeing as I'm way not caught up on my Gqux write ups I'll just leave it till next week for the next episode, today I'll just bring my new theory regarding the show:

(Source, Gqux card game? I cropped the full image but the site I got it from labelled it as card art)

And as always spoilers below cut:

So let me being by saying that I was wrong about bbygirl being the Red Gundam, it was Lalah instead.

But what does it change for all my other theories?

Quite a lot, since now we know that this is a split timeline more than likely trying to correct itself. But let me address something else first:

Shuji Ito, and the fact he might have never even been real, Shuji is (or was) so utterly disconnected from actually living and so unable to be disconnected from the Red Gundam that my leading theory is that he and Kira-Kira are both the timeline trying to correct itself so violently as to spawn a whole person and a phenomenon via the Zeknova. I don't have a lot of evidence for this other than:

Shuji's obsession with following the Gundams (mainline UC Lalah's) words.

The fact that Annqi did not get anything on Shuji while spying for the Red Gundam, more than likely she didn't investigate herself and only put up spying devices, and if we assume that Shuji is a Psycho apparition it wouldn't be too surprising that he wouldn't show on camera.

Kira-Kira disappeared together with him in the Zeknova, Deux was violently lashing out when she lost it and even Machu seemed to draw from her anger instead of Kira-Kira in that fight.

The reappearing of Char, cuz that blonde guy with blue eyes covering the top of his face with hair is obviously bbygirl. Assuming that the first Zeknova took Char from the timeline and brought out Shuji and Kira-Kira it can't be a coincidence that we only see him now.

The hug scene from episode 1, if Shuji exists as an artificial construct with his only goal being correcting the timeline via any means necessary, then it wouldn't be a surprise that his Newtype connections would also be just that. Artificial and being made for a higher purpose, while the hug scene between Machu and Nyaan would be them really making a connection. (Yuri cope)

This theory is more like "I wouldn't be surprised if it's true" more than anything but it's probably the best I've got about Shujis deal.

Either Amuro or MLH (mainline LalaH) is texting Machu, so we are still missing a key player to this trio, Amuro, and while it would make sense for his Gqux timeline version to be either dead or completely irrelevant, he isn't to Lalah. So what if the event that brought MLH also took Amuro there and while MLH got knocked out into perpetual sleep by the existence of her Gqux version, if we assume Amuro died in the Gqux timeline his Mainline version could be running about also trying to restore the timeline.

This one is very much a "eh maybe" cuz there's not enough proof other than, no Amuro, so I'm not treating as anything more than wishful thinking.

But now onto the main event, and the most obvious thing ever (although I said that about Char being the Red Gundam)

The Gqux timeline exists only in an attempt to restore the UC proper:

So Char dies and Lalah lives, but that's not right, and as such the universe sends the Elmeth and MLH back in time and her trying to avoid Chars death manipulates the weave of things so that it's Char who gets the Gundam, but that didn't work at all, and now MLH is knocked out due to this and the existence of her Gqux version.

Now the objective is simple, do something to force the timeline to reset again so that all could be right and so MLH can sacrifice herself for Mainline Char, the problem is that only two people are even vaguely aware of this goal, Char who just came back into this time and Gqux Lalah.

Char gets the Red Gundam and over the course of the coming episodes he fights to get to the Rose which is currently in Ghirens custody.

Machu and Nyaan now both on opposing sides, one out to get Ghiren and the other to get Kycilla. And that's the setup for episode 11.

During the episode, the two make up. Take out the Zabis and the episode ends with Char getting to MLH and resetting the timeline as Machu and Nyaan are united once again.

And episode 12 opens with the line:

"A half-century has passed since mankind began moving its burgeoning population into space."

And the first episode of Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 plays.

I'm probably wrong again about a lot of this, but it's been fun speculating, feel free to give me any feedback and most importantly thanks for reading, see you sometime soon hopefully.

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I've been having a week so sorry for not posting still, but I'll be back here next week at the latest:

But I got a lil time to watch this week's episode at least:

THAT'S LITERALLY EVA 01. YOU CAN CALL IT FRED OR WHATEVER BUT THAT IS JUST EVA 01

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Well it's

today :>

Our tomato-shaped girl gets to beat up more cops and make more money by beating normal people up in her Evangelion Gundam

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big shoutout to trans people that decide to change their last name too. sometimes you’ve just gotta throw the whole name out and start from the beginning.

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Machu

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No post today also unfortunately because I just had so much shit jump on me today and I'm already tired as hell.

Have the photo on all the progress I managed for the RG Crossbone X1 at least:

The head was a lot tricky and the eye sensor stickers are messed up but it's fine.

All I have left for tmrw is the accessories and decals if I even have enough time for that.

Either the Gqux post will hopefully be up tmrw but I am in no position to make promises rn