Gundam GQuuuuuuX‘s remixing of the story of the 1979 anime classic has had to dance around some pretty major players as it weaves in a cast of a new generation of post-war spacenoids and obscure faves from the original show. The shadow of Amuro Ray, through his absence, and Char Aznable, through his perpetual ability to stalk Gundam‘s narrative, looms large over everything the series has done up to this point. But now, arguably the original Gundam‘s other major figure is preparing to step into the spotlight.
“Falling on the Moon,” the latest episode of GQuuuuuuX, splits itself between the events of the final hours of the One Year War in 0079—polishing off the remainder of the prologue footage from GQuuuuuuX – Beginning – in the the process—and the series’ contemporary five-years-later era to set the stage for what is now a brewing conflict to come between its young female heroines Machu and Nyaan. Together, they are pawns in the broader astropolitical game among Zeon’s head honchos that has simmered in the background of the series.
But that conflict is about to get a huge psychic wrench thrown in it, it seems. The closing moments of the episodes follow two researchers, Tirza Lionni and the mysterious Shirouzu, as they discuss their eager participation in two of Zeon’s top secret projects. One is the “Yomang’tho site,” the secret name given to development of the Solar Ray, a vast superweapon from the original Gundam, and the other is the successor mobile suit to the GQuuuuuuX, the GfreD (much easier to say for those initially confused by the series’ title). But Shirouzu is immediately presented as suspicious to the audience, as he briefly regards Tirza with a look that shows one of his bright blue eyes under a mop of platinum blond hair.
He happens to look at a lot like Char Aznable, who has been missing since the closing moments of the war depicted earlier in the episode. He happens to sound a lot like Char Aznable, and shares a voice actor with him in both Japanese and English. Char Aznable (excuse me, sorry, Casval rem Deikun, excuse me, sorry, Quattro Bajeena) certainly does not have a history across Gundam of using pseudonyms and assumed identities to infiltrate and undermine the plans of his most hated enemies, Zeon’s ruling Zabi family, or anything. But if all that wasn’t enough, it’s even more deliberately clear that Shirouzu is a Char (whether the man himself or some kind of clone; Gundam has, of course, done both, metaphorically and literally) in what he’s reacting to when his proverbial mask falls away for a moment: Tirza regretfully confides to him her frustration that Zeon has been unable to locate the mysterious “Rose of Sharon.”
This “object” has been brought up briefly in GQuuuuuuX before—whatever the Rose was, it was under the control of the Zabis before it vanished just as mysteriously as Char did in the “zeknova” explosion that ended GQuuuuuuX‘s version of the One Year War. But the next time trailer for episode nine, itself titled “The Rose of Sharon,” makes it all the more explicit just what that object is: a person with an uncanny resemblance to Lalah Sune from the original Gundam.
Introduced in the final few episodes of the 1979 anime, Lalah is one of the most important thematic cornerstones of the show, and her legacy drives much of the thematic thrust of the rest of Gundam‘s primary “Universal Century” timeline. A young woman groomed by Char as his potential secret weapon in his revenge plot against the Zabis, Lalah is one of the first and most prominent emergences of Newtypes in Gundam. The purported next evolutionary step for humanity as civilization moves from beyond Earth and toward life in the stars, Newtypes are beings with enhanced senses, from psionic precognition to empathic communication abilities. Lalah is presented as both one of the most powerful to have emerged and also Gundam‘s commentary on the tragic exploitation of this burgeoning evolution of humankind, as she’s promptly tasked with using her Newtype abilities to control an experimental weapon of war and enact awesome and terrifying levels of carnage.
It’s this exploitation that ultimately sees Lalah lose her life just a few episodes after her introduction in the climactic episodes of the original Mobile Suit Gundam—sacrificing herself in the crossfire of a duel between Char and Amuro—but her relationship with the two men as they both begin to grasp with their evolutions as a Newtypes becomes a defining connection between them throughout their remaining appearances in Gundam continuity. It’s no surprise, then, that it’s clearly going to be the case in GQuuuuuuX that Lalah is similarly treated as a tool for other people’s goals and ambitions, given the way the Rose is talked about more like an object rather than a living being. But what is surprising is that, so far at least, Lalah’s connection to Char is playing out slightly differently in this re-imagining—and may not climax in tragedy this time around.
Although episode nine is going to be the first time we explicitly deal with Lalah as a character in GQuuuuuuX, it’s not the first time the series has invoked her. The psychic sing-song sound that became her leitmotif in the original series has shown up multiple times as an important beat throughout GQuuuuuuX so far, most notably during the aforementioned explosion that saw Char vanish. Even Lalah’s death sequence from the first Gundam has already been referenced in the series during its fourth episode, with the killing of the vengeful Federation Newtype Shiiko serving as a similar moment of psionic bridging between Shuji and Machu being framed and presented in a similar way to how Lalah and Amuro interacted with each other in her final moments.
“Falling on the Moon” further makes her psychic connection to Char apparent too, with Lalah appearing in a split-second frame during the episode’s 0079 sequence, seemingly making him realize that he’s about to fight and potentially kill his sister Artesia (better known by her alternate identity, Sayla Mass), who had become the Federation’s top Newtype pilot in GQuuuuuuX‘s seemingly Amuro-less timeline. Even before she’s fully on the stage, GQuuuuuuX has constantly woven Lalah into its broader exploration of the Newtype concept, albeit subtly. Now it seems like the time is nigh for her to not just step from the shadows, but also potentially put her on a path toward encountering Char once again.
Will it put her on a path to exploitation and fated death, after she’s seemingly managed to escape that in GQuuuuuuX‘s imagining of the Universal Century? What will Lalah mean to the series’ new protagonists, beyond her connections to some of Gundam‘s oldest and most defining moments? What does it mean for the chance for things for this character to play out differently in the first place? We’ll have to wait and see, but it’s clear GQuuuuuuX is ready to engage with all these questions now. What remains is what it will have to say beyond echoing Gundam‘s classic stories as it does so.
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Read the full article here
