Just finished Gundam Wing!
As I've mentioned before, I saw this about 12 years ago. I remembered the characters and MSes, but pretty much forgot the plot.
It's a pretty good show, but my biggest complaint was the Sanc Kingdom arc (Episodes 29-37). It was like the writers were trying to have a bet how many times they could sneak in the phrase TOTAL PACIFISM into each episode. In general, the franchise has done a good job of being anti-war without saying how anti-war it was. The other shows are a "show, not tell" type affair, and at times Wing gets to be frustrating shoving down the "war is bad" message. At least during that arc. I suppose the final battle is like that two, where you have two guys (Treize and Zechs) who are fighting each other just to show the world how horrific war is, but it isn't so hamfisted as it is during the Sanc Kingdom stuff. But before that and after that, this show is pretty balls to the wall hardcore.
One thing I thought was kind odd is that Treize and Zech's plan was to create a war so horrific that no one would ever want to fight again, but according Treize, only about 10k people died during the course of the show, with only about 200 people dieing during the final battle. Pretty low numbers for a war that was supposed to be so catastrophic it'd change the human condition.
That said, the final battle was pretty awesome, and might be a contender for favorite final battle in the show.
The Gundams aren't as indestructible as I remember them. They're pretty much getting repaired after every episode during the final 8 or so episodes. And before that, there is a pretty big stretch of the show where each Gundam is essentially destroyed. So yeah, not really indestructible. That each Gundam was capable of destroying entire battalions of MSes without breaking a sweat. I'm pretty sure the human kill count was pretty low (since they spent most of the show fighting Mobile Dolls), but in terms of MS destroyed, I'd say the Wing cast easily has an exponentially higher MS kill count than any other pilot from other shows combined.
In terms of pilots
Heero > Quatre > Trowa > Duo > > > Wu Fei
I didn't want to like Heero at first. He's too stoic and at the beginning of Wing implied to be psychotic. But as the show goes on, it's pretty obvious he's actually a pretty kind dude, even if he occasionally threatens to kill his love interest from time to time
Quatre. Back in the day, I used to hate him. Maybe it was his English voice actor or something, but I dunno. Something about him was off putting. But he's actually a pretty likeable guy and the brains of the group. I think people kind of overplay his attraction to Trowa. At first he wanted to hang out with Trowa just because he was the only Gundam pilot Quatre knew of. Later on, he wanted to find Trowa because of the guilt he felt.
Trowa. For a while he was my favorite. The part where him and Heero were together was great, as was the part where he was undercover as a OZ soldier. But then he disappeared for a while and during that time Heero and Quatre grew on me.
Duo: As a kid, I liked him the best because of how outlandish he was, but really he doesn't get to do TOO many important things. Still, he's aight
Wu Fei: I don't care for him at all. He's a pretty big tool. Plus he killed Treize, who was pretty much the best character on the show.
So yeah, other than the Sanc Kingdom stuff, it was a pretty solid show. I'm not done with AC yet though! Next up is the Endless Waltz OVA!
0080 > 0079 > Zeta > Victory> 0083 > ZZ > Char's Counterattack > Wing > F91> 08th MS Team > G
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"Baby, can you dig your man? He's a righteous man." - Larry Underwood