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Gizmodo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
The ‘GQuuuuuuX' Finale Might Be One of the Most Hopeful ‘Gundam' Endings in Years
So much of Gundam GQuuuuuuX's riffing on the legacy of the 1979 original across its 12 episodes has been almost about a yearning sense of inevitability that it could only end in one way—a retread of what came before narratively, and a continuation of the cycle of conflict that has broadly defined the franchise at large and the Universal Century setting that GQuuuuuuX played with in particular. But in its final episode, GQuuuuuuX played with its nostalgic sensibilities one last time to imagine for itself a future that broke the cycle of Gundam, and the thrall of its past self.A lot happens in 'That's Why I,' the 12th and seemingly final episode of Gundam GQuuuuuuX on its road to imagining that future—much of it grappling with that question about the inevitability of the show's remixing and obsession with the events of the original Mobile Suit Gundam. The final battle between Machu, Nyaan, and Shuji (and Challia and Char, the adult spectators to the conflict of a generation beyond them, dealing with the scars of their own conflicts) largely becomes driven by a revelation made early on by Shuji. The Lalah Sune inside the Rose of Sharon is from a reality where Char died at the hands of Amuro Ray in the One Year War, sacrificing himself to save her, and he has been chasing her across endless realities in that moment ever since, as she desperately tries to find one where Char survives. But she never does, recreating her despair that sundered reality in the first place and distorting those realities beyond existence. In order to stop Lalah from bearing that pain over and over—threatening to bear it once more, should Char reject what she's done—Shuji decides its time to essentially euthanize her, ending this latest reality before she can destroy it and her original one in the fallout. It's perhaps telling at this point that this Lalah, very clearly distinct from the Lalah of the original Gundam, has not been able to create (or even contemplate) a possibility that leads to the events of the original Mobile Suit Gundam, where it's Amuro and Char who survive, and she does not. Even the Lalah of GQuuuuuuX's reality, where Char has survived but doesn't meet her during the war, only had visions of timelines where Char meets his end saving her. The Rose Lalah, the GQuuuuuuX Lalah, there isn't any dream of a happy future for them: it's either the pain of loss or the the pain of never knowing this man she still yet somehow knows thanks to her Newtype connection. In many way it maps to the trajectory of the Universal Century setting as we know it: where the evolution of, deeper connection between, humankind represented by the awakening of Newtypes is constantly cut short by the tragedy of repeating wars between Earth and its colonies. A future where that profound understanding is always marred by a sense of loss, the tragedy what could've been, as that cycle of conflict continues. The very act of Gundam being saved from premature cancellation and its spinning out into one of anime's most enduring franchises almost belies that hope for peace: the hopeful end of the war in the original Gundam gives way to Zeta Gundam's setting where Earth has turned further totalitarian in its oppression of the colonies, sparking a resurgence of Zeon that climaxes in Char's Counterattack. The cycle doesn't stop there, with new wars and new factions emerging across stories like Unicorn, Hathaway, F91, and Victory, and even eventually implied further still in adjacent alternate universes like Reconguista in G and Turn A Gundam. GQuuuuuuX almost makes this literal in having Shuji pilot the image of original Gundam—not remixed, but styled to how it appeared in the original anime—to commit his attempted euthanasia. As Machu and Nyaan battle to stop him, the Gundam blurs reality, growing and transforming into a more literal version of its 'White Devil' moniker, an almost literal specter haunting the people of this so-called-aberrant reality. But ultimately, Machu defies Shuji, not by killing him (although she does get to cathartically slice the Gundam's head off as a finishing flourish, a very potent image given the ideas at play here), but by begging him to break free of this cycle of death and to contemplate a reality where Lalah is allowed to move on from her grief in her own terms. The evolution of Newtypes, as Machu understands it, is in finding strength in the deeper connection it brings, in exploring new potentials and possibilities—that she was made a stronger person in her own evolution as a Newtype in meeting Nyaan and him. In her mind, Lalah can't find that same strength unless she's allowed to confront the loss of her own deeper connection to her Char and move on from it, knowing that there's a world out there where the possibility of them both living lives, albeit separate ones, exists. In making him realize that Lalah has to be allowed the chance to make that realization herself, rather than be protected from it, Machu doesn't just win the day, but galvanizes GQuuuuuuX to deliver a hopeful future for its alternate spin on the Universal Century. Char and Challia part ways, the former promising the latter to make a better life for himself that would make the latter proud, after Challia expresses fears that Char's own loneliness could lead him down a path of self-destruction—as it eventually does in the original setting by Char's Counterattack. That road even starts with this version of Char finally meeting 'his' version of Lalah, giving them both a potential path to a happy ending together. Zeon, free of the fascistic rule of the Zabi family, installs its own version of Char's sister Artesia as its new ruler, imagining a future where her family's ideals for spacenoid independence could live on beyond the usurpation of the Zabi dynasty. The series closes on Nyaan and Machu relaxing on Earth—rebonding after their separation in the climactic episodes of the season—hopeful that that this was not the last time they'll see Shuji, and with Machu even reconnecting with her estranged parents. GQuuuuuuX's ultimate ending—arguably not even that distinct an ending, considering it leaves the door open for further exploration of this vision of the series in ways few might have expected it to—is not that the cycle of Gundam itself must continue, but that a possibility for the series to imagine new potentials, new visions of even its most sacred aspects. A possibility where this earned peace is not temporary, but sustained—and that Gundam can still be Gundam if it imagines itself contexts and futures beyond that cyclical conflict. It's a poignantly hopeful denouement to a show that has largely defined itself through an obsessive remix of Gundam's past to gift the idea that it does not have to be forever beholden to it. 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.
Gizmodo
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
‘GQuuuuuuX' Is Taking Its ‘Gundam' Remix to a Whole Other Level
Last week, I said that Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX's remixing of the original Gundam continuity was letting several of the original series' biggest characters haunt the narrative, from the absent Amuro Ray, to the slightly less absent Char Aznable, and then the one figure who's really been skirting around the edges of GQuuuuuuX's periphery in earnest, the mysterious Lalah Sune. This week, Lalah stopped skirting… and then some. To the surprise of no one after last week's setup, episode nine of GQuuuuuuX, 'The Rose of Sharon,' is indeed for the most part about Lalah Sune making her way into the series' narrative, as Machu manages to escape confinement with the GQuuuuuuX and head to Earth, where she finds Lalah forced to work at a lavish brothel. But while this Lalah is indeed a Newtype—regaling staff and Machu alike of the visions she sees in her dreams—she is not the Rose of Sharon that Machu was seeking in her hopes to be reunited with Shuji. Instead, this Lalah is almost haunted by what has come to pass, her Newtypism not really granting her a vision of the future, but what was, as GQuuuuuuX offers yet another spin on a classic scene from the 1979 anime. Floating in the cosmic glow that represents the connection forged between Newtypes, Lalah flatly explains that the future she sees is her own: the future of another Lalah, a young woman who meets a young Zeon officer in red who whisks her to the stars… a Lalah who falls in love with that man, and also his rival, as she dies in battle saving the former from the latter. What the Lalah of GQuuuuuuX sees beyond time, as she says to Machu, is the original story of Mobile Suit Gundam. The implication then that GQuuuuuuX's remixed timeline of the Universal Century co-exists alongside Gundam's original one, in some capacity, already raises a bunch of fascinating questions, but things only get more interesting in the episode's climactic moments, when we and Machu alike discover that the Lalah was right when she told them that she is not the rose neither she, nor Shuji, nor everyone else has been looking for after it went missing… Because another Lalah Sune is. The Lalah Sune, if you will. Hidden for years at the bottom of the ocean until Machu and the GQuuuuuuX find it, Lalah's mobile armor the Elmeth, locked in time from the moment of her death in the 1979 anime, has some how become an almighty object of vast psionic power, a Newtype beacon that has transitioned across this divergent timeline, calling out to the generation of Newtypes that forged it in the first place in characters like Char and Lalah, but also the generation that has grown beyond them in this new timeline, like Machu, Nyaan, and Shuji. Of course, Gundam is no stranger to the alternate reality trend that has become du jour in contemporary pop culture. It's been on it for decades at this point, when Mobile Fighter G Gundam created the first alternate Gundam universe to exist on TV outside of the stories that had been told in the Universal Century setting. Ever since we've had a bunch of other alternate realities to provide the setting to new Gundam series, we've had realities that, like GQuuuuuuX, has mirrored and riffed on the Universal Century stories to create their own echoes of its ideas. Hell, Turn A Gundam presented a vision where its setting was a far-flung future after a 'Dark History' that eradicated humanity back to a technological reset—one that touched upon every corner of Gundam continuity up to that point in some way, a comment on the cyclical nature of historical trends, while also symbolically honoring the entire metatext of the franchise up to that point, regardless of continuity. Suffice to say, the coexistence of a GQuuuuuuX timeline, with all its changes, and that potential of the original timeline alongside it, is not exactly unfamiliar territory that Gundam is wading into as it explores all this. With GQuuuuuuX having just a few more episodes to lay out what exactly it wants to say in all this remixing and meta-commentary, time will tell if all these self-referential reveals will result in the series creating something additive to that vast canon—or if its wild evocations are simply designed to spin the heads of diehard fans.
