SHIN KIDOU SENKI GUNDAM WING

SAINAN NO KEKKA
Mission Log: Gerald Tarrant
The Relics Arc

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INTRODUCTION

          OK, before you kill me for killing Noin...I do have a bit of an explanation at the bottom. But first things first. You have to bear with me before we get to that.
          The Relics Arc was a bit of a challenge for QS and me. For one thing, this nasty thing called Real Life has a knack of getting in the way, and I can't even count the number of times we were interrupted by it while writing this arc. First of all, I had to go to Asia on a family emergency, so the story was put on hold at the end of May. After the end of Act 4, it was put on hold again while QS and I went on our various summer excursions (including Air Force Basic Training for me...boy was that exciting >< ). When we both got back, we said "All right! No more interruptions!" Boy, were we wrong.
          Whoever says that good writers just write naturally forgot one simple fact: writing, just like any other art, requires practice. And writers who get out of the habit of writing find that they get stuck very very easily. Which happened to both of us. Not writing for three months really put a kink in the plot, and neither of us felt that the stuff we were turning out was very effective. Not to mention that RL stepped in again with some other family emergencies.
          Then the tragedy on September 11 happened, and we weren't sure what to do. For one thing, Sainan no Kekka, as a sequel to Gundam Wing, has as its central focus the theme of terrorists, terrorism, the media, and war. How would our readers take the portrayal of Arabs in our story? How would they see our viewpoints on the Gundam pilots and the measures taken by different characters in our fanfiction world to deal with terrorism and its effect on innocent civilians? Yes, SnK is just a work of fanfiction, but all writing reflects the world around us, and QS and I were seriously considering changing several key elements of the plot because of what happened on September 11.
          We finally decided that it wouldn't work. Because if we change the plot, we change the themes and lessons of Gundam Wing. Because that's what GW is really about: war, terrorism, and killing in all its ugliness, and the price that people must pay for freedom. For the truth. And what exactly is the truth? We're still trying to figure that out, and the characters of SnK are no exception. All of them are struggling towards their own concepts of truth as they grow and become dynamic characters in a world that is not willing to accept them.

 
THE RELICS ARC IN RETROSPECT

          Although it took us about twice as long to write this arc as compared to the first one, I'm more pleased about how this arc turned out than the Revelation Arc did. First of all, QS and I were more "settled" into our roles as SnK authors when we started this one, and we had a firmer grasp on the characters. The Revelation Arc was our "proving ground," while the Relics Arc was exploring the limits.
          Most of this arc was about character interaction. The goal was to have all the characters moving towards a central point (read: the Preventers headquarters) by the end of it, and I think we accomplished that. On the way, many of the characters discovered who they were, had long talks with other characters, and began to bond. This will become important later.
          Below I explore several of the key elements of my writing in the Relics arc.

 
THE A007 GOVERNMENT

          Before we depart A007 for the time being, I wanted to give a brief overview of the A007 government structure. I know I’m not good at politics, but on A007 I don't have to be, because the A007 government is military based. Just as the president is the head of the government of the United States, the ranking general of the armed forces is the leader of the colony. The governor is a figurehead, kept there to make the World Nation happy.
          As A007 is not a very large colony in terms of population, there is no need for a vast military network. Most of the bureaucratic functions of the government take place in the center of the capital city. The outlying towns and cities are all mining towns, populated by miners who are more or less autonomous. The military is more concerned with the civilians living within the capital, who pack and sell the ore that is trucked or flown in.
          Dermand Etille was never the ranking military officer, but he was up there at the top, and he realized the signs of trouble when the rebellion started brewing. The rebellion, unlike "normal" rebellions that we think of, was not initiated by civilians against an overbearing military. Rather, it was the military government that initiated it against the World Nation, demanding autonomy and a chance to rule themselves.

 
HEERO'S "AWAKENING"

          At the beginning of Act IV, Heero's character was a hard one. For one thing, I'd already established him quite firmly in the personality of "Wing," and I was asking myself how I could transform him from the person he had become to the Heero Yuy of the TV series. In the end, I decided that I didn't have to. The Heero Yuy of the TV series is the character that became Wing, and undergoing such a serious transformation meant that, for Heero, there was really no going back. The TV series Heero and Wing are both naive and innocent in different ways. Heero was naive in the way of emotions, love, and relations with others. Wing is naive in the sense that he seeks to escape from his past, that since the war has ended he is no longer needed. How, then, could the boy now called Wing and who had once been Heero Yuy regain his true identity?
          As I said before, the Heero in SnK is a new Heero, composed of piece of both the old Heero and Wing, searching for something to call his own. The lessons he learned while living in the Breaks are not likely to leave him soon, and things like his drug addiction are scars that he will have to nurse and heal on his own. Heero says repeatedly, "I'm not Heero Yuy." This is reminiscent of Milliard's reply to Lady Une that "Zechs Merquise is dead." In the Flowers in the Snow sidestory, Zechs' wounding of Heero and the resulting scarring on his face is a kind of "rite of passage," Heero's transformation from the savior of the colonies to something darker and uglier.
          Wufei is in his own way the only person who can help Heero. Both of them have been running from their pasts, unable to accept their own actions. While Wufei has been calling out for forgiveness to his dead wife, Heero has kept his emotions bottled up inside, inside his head, in the form of amnesia. It is only when Wufei recognizes Heero in the attempted assassination scene that he realizes what kind of person he has become. In a sense, seeing Heero brought Wufei to an epiphany of sorts.

 
WHAT ABOUT DARKFLIGHT?

          A couple of people have commented on Darkflight's interest in Heero as a kind of shounen-ai. My response to that is: most Gundam Wing fans online have been watching anime for so long (particularly shoujo anime) that any kind of friendship between male characters is automatically interpreted as having some kind of shounen-ai content, whether it does or not. Darkflight is not interested in Heero that way. The TV series (we're not talking about the drawings in the various artbooks/calenders/etc, just the series) does not support shounen-ai, and I've tried to make Darkflight the kind of character that would be believable in a TV GW setting. Darkflight is someone who is at the top of his trade, knowing that he's one of the best, and needing someone who can match that. Heero provides that someone. Darkflight is a very lonely boy (ever heard the saying "It's lonely at the top?") who remembers nothing about his past, and in Heero he finds a kind of comfort that Heero can't remember any of his past either.
          With the introduction of Wufei into the picture, Heero starts to change and Darkflight resents that. As leader of the group Shadowwing, he has taken a kind of pride in knowing that while Heero is the more talented one, it is still Darkflight who runs the show. Now, the tables are turned and Darkflight finds himself left out in the cold while Heero and Wufei pursue a goal infinitely more challenging than any he has ever faced. In short, Heero has suddenly become "somebody" while Darkflight is still a "nobody."
          Perhaps if his partner Wing hadn't turned out to be Heero Yuy, pilot of the Gundam Wing Zero, savior of the colonies and the world, and one of the World Nations' Most Wanted Criminals, Darkflight wouldn't have that much of a problem with it. You kind of have to feel sorry for the poor guy. ^_^;;

 
THE GUNDAMS

          The Relics Arc is named "Relics" for a reason, and these relics are the Gundams. Wing Zero, Deathscythe Hell, Heavyarms, Sandrock, Shenlong, and Epyon. These are the six main Gundams that appear in the series, and in this arc, we see the first of them appear. Duo brings back Wing Zero and Deathscythe, while Wufei recalls where what really happened to Shenlong. Not all of them will be able to brought back - Quatre has totally dismantled Sandrock for a greater good, and Heavyarms and Epyon are still at large.
          The Gundams are a symbol of a dead age: the age of the War. On one hand, the Preventers and the pilots realize that by bringing these powerful weapons back, they are only confirming the appearance of what the media and the public are saying about them: merciless killers, etc. On the other hand, they recognize that the Gundams might still serve a purpose. At the very least, if it is true that the war is over and that people should move on, the Gundams should be all destroyed.

 
ZECHS AND NOIN (AND DOROTHY)

          Now to the part that you've all been waiting for. Why did I kill Noin?
          First of all, yes, Noin is dead. And no, she will not be coming back. I am NOT a big fan at ALL of the "oh, they're not really dead. They managed to survive!" or "he fell into a river and got amnesia!" plots. I think those are corny and overdone, and so Noin is truly and really dead. Why?
          I can't reveal the whole story for a variety of reasons, mostly that if I do so I will give away the rest of SnK and spoil it for those of you who are reading it. So I won't. But Noin's death has to deal with her relationship to Zechs/Milliard, Dorothy, and Relena. You might remember the "Trio" side which Quicksilver wrote a few weeks ago. In it, she explored the relationship between Zechs and the three main women in his life: his sister Relena (the Creator), his childhood "sweetheart" Noin (the Preserver), and his rival Dorothy (the Destroyer). Zechs' life is presented through the viewpoint of these three women. Relena resents him for leaving her alone. Noin remembers him as the man he was, while Dorothy jealously guards the man he is.
          Noin is the key to Zechs/Milliard's inner soul and the reason for his stagnation. Out of the all the characters in SnK, Zechs and Noin are the two who have not changed from their personalities at the beginning of the story. Forever stuck in that path which they are comfortable traveling, Zechs and Noin need dramatic change for progress to occur. And this can only occur, in my opinion, if one or the other of them lets go.
          Noin represents to Zechs all of his past. Knowing her since they were cadets at the Academy together, in their early teen years and beyond, he looks as her as the constant in his life. As long as she is there, he will remain in his comfort zone. When he thought she was dead, at the beginning of SnK, he began to explore new possibilities, with his life, his career, with new people. Zechs is a man who has lost his way, and when Noin comes back to him, he seems a lot more stable, more in control. However, that control is all an illusion. He is merely falling back into his old ways, and the only way to rid him of the chains of the past is to separate him from Noin, the symbol of a dying age.
          I see Noin and Trowa as very similar in their personalities, views on order and discipline, and responses to action. Watching the series, you see Trowa in the Vayeate trying to draw Quatre out, standing in his way as he attempts to kill Heero. Then we see Noin reasoning to Zechs through the power of their relationship, standing in his way as he tries to cut down the Peacemillion. Noin is a soldier through and through, and perhaps in this, Heero was partly right - in this new age, people who are soldiers and only soldiers are not needed and cannot survive. As we see in the series, Noin cannot even renounce her views on war through support of Cinq's absolute pacifism. She realizes that fighting for a cause is what she does best, and in the new era of the World Nation, there are few causes worth fighting for.
          In a way, killing Noin was a test for me as an author as well as for you as readers. QS and I talked this over a couple of acts before the actual event, and we both realized that we might lose some readers due to this. Some people love Noin too much to continue reading a story in which she dies, and that's fine. But as an author, I believe that sometimes drastic measures are necessary to keep a plot moving and the characters dynamic, and Noin's death was one of these. It is a symbolic gesture as well as a plot element, and I hope that you'll come to realize this in the next couple of acts, or at least by the time the story ends.
          As for Dorothy, a few people have written with concerns of who Zechs will "get together" with now that Noin is dead. I repeat: Sainan no Kekka is NOT a romance fanfiction. And as it is, I suck at writing romance. So don't look for anything mushy coming from me in the rest of this fic.

 
THE BETRAYALS ARC AND BEYOND

          So I bet many of you are asking yourselves, "wow, with that ending, what can I look forward to next?" It's named the Betrayals Arc for a reason...but I can't tell you more than that. If the Relics Arc was exploring the limits, the Betrayals Arc will break those limits. Lots of explosions. Lots of heavy philosophy, just like in the series. Sainan no Kekka is about to take a serious turn in the direction of crazy. Are you willing to come along for the ride? ^_~

 
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