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Gundam Wing and Yaoi
*updated 04-06-01*
Disclaimer: (I can't *beileve* I'm actually being reduced to
writing one of these danged disclaimers...)
This is my own opinion. Send all offended e-mailings and/or
praise to greentanktop@gundamwing.org.
May I please note that you are infridging on my rights to post my
opinion if you send me flames. Unintelligent Flames will more
than likely *not* be rewarded with a reply. (If you have an
opinion, and are polite about it, then please please write me...
I'd love to hear from you.) If
you are looking for yummy yaoi fanfiction and the likes, you can
visit The Best of Yaoi/ Fanfiction Archive. There are some really good fics there.
A Little
History:
In Grade 10 (1996ish), a girl brought a tape of Anime Songs to
school. At the time we - (we being my anime friends and I) - were
all Sailor Moon addicts, but we still listened to her tape and
taped songs off of it. I liked three of the songs, one was from
Fushigi Yuugi, another was from some obscure anime nobody knew
about, and the last one was from an anime no one know about
either called "Gundam Wing". The song was my favorite
of the three, and it had a good deal of English words among the
Japanese ones. The name of the song was "Just
Communication."
Unfortunately, or fortunately the first time I was really exposed
to Gundam Wing (besides the slight stumbling upon it in grade 10
I mentioned) was the summer of 1999. And my first exposure just
happened to be looking at a full length yaoi Doujinshi featuring
yours truly, Duo and Heero. At the time I liked them because they
reminded me, VERY slightly of two characters I made up whilst
still in High School. I surfed the net for more Duo and Heero
stuff, and soon caught the extensive "Internet Gundam Wing
Yaoi Bug" that seems to be very abundant. I hadn't watched
the anime at all at the time. I hadn't read much if any of the
official stuff. All I knew was that I loved to read the yaoi
fanfics... and I thought I "knew" the characters merely
though that.
The Fanworks:
In the end, fanworks revolving around Gundam Wing really are more of a hindrance than a good thing. About a half a year later I acquired two tapes of Gundam Wing subtitled, episodes 1-4 on one tape and 13-16 on another. At the time I had been biding my time reading fanfics. And more fanfics. Oh, and looking at Doujinshi's too. You know what they taught me?
Ahem. ^_^ Thanks to fanworks, I thought I knew some very
*interesting* things that weren't totally true, if at all. They
were as follows:
a) Heero says "Omae o Korosu" a heck of a lot more than
he actually does in the anime.
b) Duo is a nymphomaniac.
c) (on the same line of thought) Duo will sleep with anything
with two legs and a *ahem*...
d) Trowa is a "seme". Or a "uke". (This is a
debate that I'ver encountered so many times... which I'm not
touching with a ten foot pole in this particular essay.)
e) Quatre is a nymphomaniac as well half the time.
f) Wufei is a lot more psychotic in some fanworks than he'll ever
be in the anime. He shoots his mouth off a heck of a lot more
too.
g) Treize is bastard. (I was surprised to discover that he's a
heck of a lot *less* of a bastard in the anime.)
h) Heero hates Relena with a passion and wants to kill her *very*
badly.
i) Relena is one of the most annoying people on the face of the
planet and really ought to be put out of her misery. (I think it
was because of this one that I actually don't mind her that
badly... I watched the anime and went , "OH! She isn't as
bad as everyone suggests...")
j) Dorothy wants to sleep with Relena.
*Deep breath* Okay, so when I watched the first couple tapes
in Japanese, I admit, I was actually quite surprised at how DULL
the anime seemed. (At first, at first! ^_^ Now I'm addicted... to
the plot. ^_^) The only good bits, to me, where the bits with Duo
and Heero interacting (or not really interacting ^_~). Oh, and I
was impressed with the bit where Heero informs Relena that
"omae o korosu" in the first episode.
At the same time, I was somewhat surprised to find almost none of
what this huge Yaoi web enthusiast thing revolving around Gundam
Wing actually seemed to exist. Still I was still gun-ho on the
idea, being a Yaoi Enthusiast, and I continued to dabble in the
Gundam Wing Yaoi thing for a while. In fact I still do to this
day... if I see a fic I really like, and out of character-ness is
at a minimum, I'll still recruit a fic to be placed in my Yaoi
archive. HOWEVER...
Now I have seen a good portion of the episodes in English as well as sub-titled and "Endless Waltz" in subtitles. The Anime taught me some things I feel I should note about the couples in Gundam Wing.
The Bottom Line:
(And this is coming from a *Yaoi Enthusiast* of all people...) I really can't see a Heero and Duo relationship happening. I... can't. There's a lot of friendship, hey-buddy-buddy stuff going on, and yeah, there is angst to play with, but I... can't see it. *another deep breath* Really, Heero is meant to be with Relena. (there, I said it.) Now, that doesn't mean that it isn't NICE to read Heero and Duo fics, but they are just unrealistic. Watch the anime. (And watch it just for the sake of watching it, try to eliminate all your bias'.) Relena confuses Heero, but he likes her. He thinks about her a lot. He just doesn't know what to do with her, that's all. And you can *tell* from the card exchange thing at the end of the anime that he likes her. And Heero isn't gay either... *grins* if at all, he's non-sexual... ah, nevermind.
Duo isn't meant to be with Heero. They conveniently paired him up with a girl named Hilde. I caught it. I also caught the fact that Duo is *very* heterosexual. He hit on girls, flirts with girls, and is just one of those guys I remember back in high school as being a bit of a player. He knows what he likes and more than likely has enough hormones to boot. :D Now I *may* be wrong, but I don't think so. Also I think the fact that in episode 32 when the Zero system makes him hallucinate about blowing up the colony, and he thinks about the blast killing Hilde, it definitely made me think that he obviously had feeling for her... weither sexual or not, I suppose that's up for interpretation. :P
Can I spaz about Wufei now?? Treize and Wufei MIGHT have been together... if it were RAPE! Wufei would *not* consent to sleep with the enemy... unless they broke him first. Period. I'm quite firm on this one... (and if I ever do finish that fanfic, you'll see what I mean. ^_~) On the same note Wufei isn't necessarily meant to be with Sally either. (However, since I'm currently on a Sally and Wufei kick, convincing myself of that fact may be harder than I thought... *sweatdrops*)
... The only couple I can see slightly is Trowa and Quatre. And they're just sweet. ^_^ I can actually see this pairing happening... logically. But then you throw in the factors of Trowa's apparently dark past... *shrugs.* And even if you don't, there really is no evidence beyond friendship between Trowa and Quatre. HOWEVER, they do seem to be closer than any of the other boys in a physical manner. Quatre acts like he has a school-girl crush on Trowa though, especially at first... and from past experience, nothing much seems to come out of those. *makes face, then grins*
And so ends my opinion of Gundam Wing and Yaoi.