Wufei essay
Feb. 19th, 2009 09:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ingvildI think I'm going to post my more well-phrased speculations here, just so I have them somewhere (and can point people towards them, what, me shamelessly pushing my thoughts on others? Don't be absurd.
So. Wufei, in Endless Waltz: why did he change sides? What was that with him suddenly being so set on fighting Heero? Was he right, about the two of them only being able to acknowledge their existence in the battlefield?
I can’t help but think that he was wrong about that. However, I think he wanted it to be true. Moreover, he needed it to be true.
Wufei is a rather complex character. He has no problems with killing soldiers in their sleep, he believes that he has no right to pilot his Gundam after loosing to Treize in a duel with swords, he calls both his Gundams Nataku for some reason, and he’s a habitual loner. If you add in his Episode Zero appearance, he becomes even more complicated. I believe that it’s easy to explain why he joined Mariemeia, and that it can probably be traced back to two people: Meiran and Treize. (BTW, Mariemeia, Meiran – those names are kind of similar, aren’t they? Is there a reason for that? Especially in a film that hammers in, again and again, the importance of names.)
Wufei, in Episode Zero, was a scholar, not a warrior. He could fight, but preferred not to, and his wife Meiran scorned him for that. She called herself Nataku – that’s a war god, isn’t it? Either way, Meiran died defending Wufei, and after that, he took up her fight. The translation I read had him thinking that her spirit had gone into his machine – Shenlong Gundam. (Later it was apparently transferred into Altron, if I understand his “The new Nataku is strong”-comment right.) When whoever it is says that the Gundam is Shenlong, not Nataku, Wufei is angry. He thinks they mean that he should forget Meiran.
No wonder, then, that he didn’t send Altron to Quatre so it could be sent into the sun.
More than anyone else, Wufei has no place to go after the war. Duo has the salvage yard and Hilde, and if that didn’t work, Quatre would probably welcome him. Trowa has the circus and Catherine and again, if he knocked on Quatre’s door, he’d be welcomed. Quatre has the Maguanacs, the other pilots (Duo and Trowa), a big damn business empire and, if none of the other options worked out, 29 sisters. Heero, well, who knows what he was doing besides keeping an eye on Relena – he’s already investigating her kidnappers before Duo knows that she’s been kidnapped. She’s a very public figure. I’m sure it would hit the news sooner rather than later. However, no matter what Heero was doing, he tends to often change his approach on the spot. He’s pretty adaptable.
Wufei, on the other hand, was such a loner during the war that he didn’t really form strong bonds with anyone. His own clan elders blew up his colony. Unlike Heero, who fought so he could stop fighting, Wufei fought so he could keep Meiran’s memory alive. What’s he going to do afterwards, throw away her memory and return to being the person she scorned?
And then there’s Treize. I’ve seen this funny cartoon with Treize haunting Zechs after his death (“I’ll be waiting, Milliardo”) but really, the one he’s truly haunting is Wufei. Treize was the one who defeated Wufei, making him lose his right to fight (as far as Wufei was concerned). Treize shocked Wufei when he revealed that he knew exactly how many had died because of him. Treize killed himself by impaling himself on Wufei’s trident (no dirty jokes, please), and Wufei, with tears in his eyes, murmurs: “I didn’t think I would win”. A bitter victory, that.
And then along comes Treize’s daughter and offers Wufei a place where he doesn’t have to give up his Gundam and stop fighting. Yeah, he’s going to take her up on that offer.
Side note: I guess that’s why Heero tells Wufei to self-detonate. As Quatre’s scientist puts it, those with a lot of power have to be willing to give it up. Wufei isn’t willing to do that, and Heero knows it. Heero’s making a point, and Wufei doesn’t look very pleased.
However, I’m not sure Wufei was convinced that what he was doing was right. For one thing, there’s Trowa. How exactly did Trowa not only survive his assassination attempt on Dekim, but was also trusted in a mobile suit afterwards? Was it similar to the deal with Trowa, Heero, the Mercurius and the Vayate, this time with Wufei in the role as jailer? Is Trowa such a good bluff that he managed to convince them that he was on their side? Either way, Wufei could have ended all that with a simple “you know, he once pretended to be an OZ officer as well”. Heero and Duo escape after Trowa opens up with all he’s got and “mysteriously” misses. Wufei knows that Trowa’s a better shot than that, but he doesn’t reveal him. Trowa’s still trusted when Duo and Heero enter the complex for the second time. So did Wufei allow Trowa to do his thing because he wasn’t sure of the rightness of his cause? His flashbacks show him as violently opposed to the original Operation Meteor. Maybe he let Trowa stop that part of the plan, while Wufei concentrated on his own thing.
His thing, of course, being that he wanted to fight Heero. Why? Wufei asks Heero if “you guys are doing the right thing”. He wants that answer, because if Heero and Duo are right, then Wufei is wrong.
Let’s stop for a moment and consider Heero’s role among the characters, in the story and overall. For all that he in the flashback claims to have been lost since the day he was born, he doesn’t much act like it. The thing that first struck me about Heero is that five minutes after they meet him, people begin to believe that he can do the impossible, whether or not he’s given them reason for that belief. (The one exception is Duo, who got to know Heero at his most self-destructive.) The other thing about Heero is that he’s the least self-doubting of the pilots, and I think that’s what allows him to make such an impact on people. I’m reminded of one line from that training song in Mulan: “Once you find your centre/You are sure to win”. Heero is very, very centred. For all that Quatre is the field commander of the pilots, the brain as Zechs put it, Heero is the heart.
Remember that comment Sally made to Noin? “Those kids have put their doubts behind. They’ve found their missions in life! If you stay by their side you won’t go astray.” Heero put his doubts behind long before everyone else.
So you have Wufei, feeling rather lost and confused and Heero, not all that confused ever, really. And that’s why Wufei so desperately needs Heero to be the same as him: because then Wufei would be doing the right thing.
Heero, of course, refuses to even answer, instead putting his finger right on the part of the problem he knows about: Treize.
As for why Wufei insists on a battle, rather than just talking, well. Wufei believes in lessons learned in a fight. What’s that episode when he says “If your cause is just, you’ll defeat me!”? It’s after he’s been beaten by Treize, and after Sally convinced him to fight again. I think it’s in space. Either way, Wufei believes that. But again, Heero refuses to cooperate. He seems more intent on keeping Wufei from damaging Zero too heavily than on fighting properly. Wufei, too caught up in his own stuff, doesn’t notice.
That’s why their fight couldn’t end any other way than it did. If Wufei had won, he’d been convinced that what he was doing was justified. If Heero had won, he’d have been right, but he’d have been doing the opposite of what he preached. Only by deactivating Zero and letting it fall into the ocean could Heero truly force Wufei to find the answer to the question: when does the killing stop?
Because if there’s one overhanging theme in Endless Waltz, it’s that words have to be backed up by actions.
So. Wufei, in Endless Waltz: why did he change sides? What was that with him suddenly being so set on fighting Heero? Was he right, about the two of them only being able to acknowledge their existence in the battlefield?
I can’t help but think that he was wrong about that. However, I think he wanted it to be true. Moreover, he needed it to be true.
Wufei is a rather complex character. He has no problems with killing soldiers in their sleep, he believes that he has no right to pilot his Gundam after loosing to Treize in a duel with swords, he calls both his Gundams Nataku for some reason, and he’s a habitual loner. If you add in his Episode Zero appearance, he becomes even more complicated. I believe that it’s easy to explain why he joined Mariemeia, and that it can probably be traced back to two people: Meiran and Treize. (BTW, Mariemeia, Meiran – those names are kind of similar, aren’t they? Is there a reason for that? Especially in a film that hammers in, again and again, the importance of names.)
Wufei, in Episode Zero, was a scholar, not a warrior. He could fight, but preferred not to, and his wife Meiran scorned him for that. She called herself Nataku – that’s a war god, isn’t it? Either way, Meiran died defending Wufei, and after that, he took up her fight. The translation I read had him thinking that her spirit had gone into his machine – Shenlong Gundam. (Later it was apparently transferred into Altron, if I understand his “The new Nataku is strong”-comment right.) When whoever it is says that the Gundam is Shenlong, not Nataku, Wufei is angry. He thinks they mean that he should forget Meiran.
No wonder, then, that he didn’t send Altron to Quatre so it could be sent into the sun.
More than anyone else, Wufei has no place to go after the war. Duo has the salvage yard and Hilde, and if that didn’t work, Quatre would probably welcome him. Trowa has the circus and Catherine and again, if he knocked on Quatre’s door, he’d be welcomed. Quatre has the Maguanacs, the other pilots (Duo and Trowa), a big damn business empire and, if none of the other options worked out, 29 sisters. Heero, well, who knows what he was doing besides keeping an eye on Relena – he’s already investigating her kidnappers before Duo knows that she’s been kidnapped. She’s a very public figure. I’m sure it would hit the news sooner rather than later. However, no matter what Heero was doing, he tends to often change his approach on the spot. He’s pretty adaptable.
Wufei, on the other hand, was such a loner during the war that he didn’t really form strong bonds with anyone. His own clan elders blew up his colony. Unlike Heero, who fought so he could stop fighting, Wufei fought so he could keep Meiran’s memory alive. What’s he going to do afterwards, throw away her memory and return to being the person she scorned?
And then there’s Treize. I’ve seen this funny cartoon with Treize haunting Zechs after his death (“I’ll be waiting, Milliardo”) but really, the one he’s truly haunting is Wufei. Treize was the one who defeated Wufei, making him lose his right to fight (as far as Wufei was concerned). Treize shocked Wufei when he revealed that he knew exactly how many had died because of him. Treize killed himself by impaling himself on Wufei’s trident (no dirty jokes, please), and Wufei, with tears in his eyes, murmurs: “I didn’t think I would win”. A bitter victory, that.
And then along comes Treize’s daughter and offers Wufei a place where he doesn’t have to give up his Gundam and stop fighting. Yeah, he’s going to take her up on that offer.
Side note: I guess that’s why Heero tells Wufei to self-detonate. As Quatre’s scientist puts it, those with a lot of power have to be willing to give it up. Wufei isn’t willing to do that, and Heero knows it. Heero’s making a point, and Wufei doesn’t look very pleased.
However, I’m not sure Wufei was convinced that what he was doing was right. For one thing, there’s Trowa. How exactly did Trowa not only survive his assassination attempt on Dekim, but was also trusted in a mobile suit afterwards? Was it similar to the deal with Trowa, Heero, the Mercurius and the Vayate, this time with Wufei in the role as jailer? Is Trowa such a good bluff that he managed to convince them that he was on their side? Either way, Wufei could have ended all that with a simple “you know, he once pretended to be an OZ officer as well”. Heero and Duo escape after Trowa opens up with all he’s got and “mysteriously” misses. Wufei knows that Trowa’s a better shot than that, but he doesn’t reveal him. Trowa’s still trusted when Duo and Heero enter the complex for the second time. So did Wufei allow Trowa to do his thing because he wasn’t sure of the rightness of his cause? His flashbacks show him as violently opposed to the original Operation Meteor. Maybe he let Trowa stop that part of the plan, while Wufei concentrated on his own thing.
His thing, of course, being that he wanted to fight Heero. Why? Wufei asks Heero if “you guys are doing the right thing”. He wants that answer, because if Heero and Duo are right, then Wufei is wrong.
Let’s stop for a moment and consider Heero’s role among the characters, in the story and overall. For all that he in the flashback claims to have been lost since the day he was born, he doesn’t much act like it. The thing that first struck me about Heero is that five minutes after they meet him, people begin to believe that he can do the impossible, whether or not he’s given them reason for that belief. (The one exception is Duo, who got to know Heero at his most self-destructive.) The other thing about Heero is that he’s the least self-doubting of the pilots, and I think that’s what allows him to make such an impact on people. I’m reminded of one line from that training song in Mulan: “Once you find your centre/You are sure to win”. Heero is very, very centred. For all that Quatre is the field commander of the pilots, the brain as Zechs put it, Heero is the heart.
Remember that comment Sally made to Noin? “Those kids have put their doubts behind. They’ve found their missions in life! If you stay by their side you won’t go astray.” Heero put his doubts behind long before everyone else.
So you have Wufei, feeling rather lost and confused and Heero, not all that confused ever, really. And that’s why Wufei so desperately needs Heero to be the same as him: because then Wufei would be doing the right thing.
Heero, of course, refuses to even answer, instead putting his finger right on the part of the problem he knows about: Treize.
As for why Wufei insists on a battle, rather than just talking, well. Wufei believes in lessons learned in a fight. What’s that episode when he says “If your cause is just, you’ll defeat me!”? It’s after he’s been beaten by Treize, and after Sally convinced him to fight again. I think it’s in space. Either way, Wufei believes that. But again, Heero refuses to cooperate. He seems more intent on keeping Wufei from damaging Zero too heavily than on fighting properly. Wufei, too caught up in his own stuff, doesn’t notice.
That’s why their fight couldn’t end any other way than it did. If Wufei had won, he’d been convinced that what he was doing was justified. If Heero had won, he’d have been right, but he’d have been doing the opposite of what he preached. Only by deactivating Zero and letting it fall into the ocean could Heero truly force Wufei to find the answer to the question: when does the killing stop?
Because if there’s one overhanging theme in Endless Waltz, it’s that words have to be backed up by actions.
