|
|
Well, basically GW has a simple plot structure: battle between Earth and Space Colonies. Gundams were designed and produced in colonies, and their pilots fight for the sake of freedom and peace of the colonies.
If that was all, it wouldn't be so complicated as now, and I wouldn't analyse the plot devoting this whole page to it. The thing is, "it is NOT a good/evil plot".
We all know no one is either perfectly good or perfectly evil. As long as that statement is true, we have no right to classfy people as wholly good and wholly evil. GW certain can't make us JUDGE. Think of the situation when you watch other animations (I really can't suggest an example, though.) However good the special effects or everthing else might be, they do have this black and white plot, which prevents us from further thinking. We watch it, say "Oh, so he/she is a bad one." and that's the end of our own thinking. Our imagination becomes passive from then.
Think of Treize Khushrenada, for instance. He is closest to the model of conventional "bad guy" in the TV series. However, as Sally said, "He was a total pacifist, after all." And soldiers actually respect him and gladly die for him. Lady Une changed her personality to follow his belief. He shows affections toward GW pilots and chooses to be killed by one of them at the end. Now, does this sound like a usual bad guy model at all?
Of course, I am not saying everyone's perfect angels. And there IS good and bad. General Septem or Dekim Barton, they were killed during the war. Quinze, who was in the White Fang, and the doctors, who created Gundams in the first place, died during the war. Even Treize was killed when he was fighting with Wufei. They were the main causes of war and they got what they were supposed to get eventually. Then, let's extend what I said before here. When you watch an animation other than GW, don't you often find it is easy to guess, from the beginning, who's the bad guy and who's not? Even if someone was acting good in order to hide his/her identity, he/she eventually turns out to be bad. Or if someone regretted what they did and changed his/her mind, it is another black-white plot because that person simply changed from black to white (total bad to total evil). GW, unlike others, does have a uniqueness here. THEY ACT ON THEIR BELIEFS and they are NOT black and white. When Treize started the war, he did not think he was doing the bad thing. His dream was to change the history and he did what he did to in order to achieve that goal. Also, when Zechs joined the White Fang and fought the GW pilots, he had an exactly same belief as the belief he had when he fought against Mariemeia with GW pilots.
The only unrealistic side is that people got what they deserved to get. This is the author's judgement. BUT that also is one of the characteristics of GW plot structure - symbolism, which will be dealt with later.
Its Theme analysis / Plot structure / characters' interactions : Warning- not 'romantic relationships' I have a separate section devoted to that in Characters page.
Gundam Wing ¨Ï Bandai, Sunrise, Sotsu Agency 1995 - 2001
Copyright ¨Ï Jenny Ko 2001