#I headcanon trowa as having grown up in ukraine

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More Ukrainian!Trowa

A while ago I made this post sharing my personal headcanon that Trowa grew up in Ukraine and/or is part-Ukrainian.  At the time I didn’t present any real evidence to back up that headcanon other than the fact that the circus canonically travels through the area we know irl as Ukraine, coupled with the fact that irl Funfair Travellers tend to stick to the same yearly or semi-regular routes.  That makes it theoretically possible that one of Trowa’s parents could have been brought into the circus during one of its previous visits to Ukraine.  There is no evidence to say that this did happen, only that it could have happened.

But now I’m wondering if there might be actual, canon evidence linking Trowa to Ukraine.

In the Endless Waltz film we see a young Trowa/No-Name in his mech.  Notice the insignia on his jacket sleeve and on the mech itself.  Those three joined yellow mountains on a light blue(ish) background look an awful lot like a typical anime “Wacdonald/Popsi/Macrosoft/can’t use the irl name or logo but here’s an unsubtle approximation” take on the Ukrainian tryzub/trident…

The tryzub might not seem to have any resemblance to mountains in the eyes of Western audiences, but this is a Japanese anime.  The Japanese kanji for mountain is 山, which DOES look very similar to all but the oldest iteration of the tryzub.  It wouldn’t be unreasonable for someone whose first language is Japanese to look at the tryzub, associate it with the mountain kanji, and thus make the jump from the tryzub to the three mountains on Trowa’s insignia.

In conclusion, Trowa appears to have been fighting for thinly veiled Ukrainian forces as a child.

(Bonus: Trowa’s birth name was Triton, the sea god often depicted as a merman with a trident.  Not sure if this fits in with the theory when the trident has morphed into a tri-mount, but it still seems worth mentioning.  Funny how Wufei is the one who ended up with a trident weapon.)

Another possible clue, if not to Ukrainian!Trowa then to a more generally Slavic!Trowa, is that he is linked to Doktor S.  At least two of the Gundam engineers are of origins similar to their chosen pilots: Instructor H appears to be Middle Eastern and Master O is Chinese.  While it’s difficult to determine Doktor S’s origins based on the scant clues we’re given, the spelling ‘Doktor’ is common in Slavic languages (though it is also spelled this way in German and in Danish).  Of course, Doctor Jay Null is almost certainly not Japanese, so clearly not all of the Gundam engineers match up with their pilots, and thus Doktor S’s origins probably don’t have anything to do with Trowa’s...  Still, it’s one more piece of evidence to consider as we puzzle over the mystery that is Trowa.

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I’ve got a couple of fics I’ve been working on for Gundam Wing for a while now, but now that the years-long conflict in Ukraine has escalated, I’m pretty sure their subject matter would come off as inappropriate and insensitive.  I don’t know if I should finish the stories and post them or not.  It seems a shame to throw away all the work I’ve already done on them, but would it be wildly disrespectful not to?

(EDIT: The affected stories are the tentatively titled “When the clowns still needed makeup for tears,” about Trowa’s parents and the lead up to their deaths in the air raid while the circus was touring Ukraine, and a reflective piece titled “Final curtain,” set during Episodes 12-13 in the lead up to Trowa’s attempted self-detonation on a base that is not coincidentally located near the border of Ukraine and Russia, not far from where he spent his childhood fighting).

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Duo attempts to learn a language

[The Gundam pilots have been trying to learn each others’ dominant languages.  Quatre and Trowa’s languages are proving challenging for Duo, who is stymied by his one weakness: the rolling r.  The three have set up in a rec room to practice...]

TROWA   ‘Рим.’

DUO  ‘Rym.’

TROWA  No, it’s... ‘Рим.’

QUATRE  ‘Рим,’ Duo.  Come on!  It’s know it’s hard, but I’m sure you can do it if you keep trying! 💕

DUO  Says the guy who speaks eight languages.  ‘Rym.’

TROWA  ‘Рим.’

DUO  How the fuck are you guys doing that??

QUATRE  Look, watch.  ‘Рим.’  See?  Tip of the tongue against the roof of your mouth, exhale hard, drop the tip a bit and...

DUO  Rhrhrhrhrh

TROWA  No, like...  Hold still.  *grips Duo’s jaw, pinches his mouth open, takes Duo’s tongue between his finger and thumb and puts it in the correct place*

QUATRE  😳

DUO  Eh, uh, ‘O-ah?  ‘hih ‘i’uh’ uh ‘ih-uh o-i-uh...  [Translation: Hey, uh, Trowa? This feels a little weird...]

TROWA   ‘Рим.’

DUO  Ih---ihh---  *pushing Trowa back*  Nope, I’m done.  No more of this fucking Russian.

TROWA  It’s Ukrainian.

DUO  Same difference.

[One half hour later, Wufei finds the three sitting in the rec room.  Duo is holding an ice pack to his bruised face, Trowa’s hands are covered with spit and blood and bite marks, and Quatre is pouring tea for them all.]

WUFEI  Should I ask what happened here, Winner?

QUATRE  We’re very passionate about learning.

WUFEI  I see.  Can I have some of that tea?

QUATRE  Certainly.  Pull up a chair.