Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury

Episode 20

"The End of Hope" is definitely an ominous title for an episode of a show that had already escalated into emotional terrorism (I mean that as a compliment) to watch. We are 20 episodes into this new Gundam anime, bodies had already started hitting the floor, and they are probably not going to stop any time soon before the season is over. This episode functions as something of an escalated bookend to the 14th—remember everything that went down in that one? Unlike that episode's time-delayed turning points, however, it seems as though we are well and truly past being able to even pretend to go back to how things used to be.

Shaddiq finally makes his move this week, with the key component of his plan seemingly having just been to shut Norea in that psychological pressure-cooker of a room with Nika and Elan No. 5 for however long that was, before turning her loose so she could do…exactly what she and Sophie did seven weeks ago. It turns out about as well for everyone as you would expect. There is the initial question of how much Shaddiq predicted what would happen when he finally turned the trio loose (especially as other characters make remarks that indicate they were still somehow blissfully unaware of the whole Norea-being-an-Earthian-terrorist thing), but the prince's remarks at the end of his spaceside battle with Guel make clear that this was all the setup: forcing the Benerit Group's hand by visiting violence on its precious Spacian students.

Calculated as the layers of this scheme are, we can read some interesting parallels with other plans in motion. Most notable are Shaddiq's remarks reiterating that much of his motivation for doing this is to protect Miorine from being sucked in and corrupted by participating in all this capitalism-based violence. That's the same misguided mindset that led Miorine to manipulatively cast out Suletta for what she saw as her own good. It's been one of those driving themes of The Witch from Mercury: children struggling to be in control of their own destinies as others take actions for them without asking them what they want. It's not just the adults who are using these youths as pawns, as the kids wind up feeling the need to manipulate each other as well, much in the same way that the upper class in an economic system is happy to pit the have-nots against each other for their own benefit.

That struggle to live, to do what we personally want against the tide of more powerful manipulators, is embodied in the extremely entertaining explosive violence on display in this week's episode. Norea brings the fight with her and winds up walking the same tragically familiar path as her departed comrade Sophie. The dramatic irony that she might have been saved resounds all too clearly; there is even a viewpoint character to directly espouse that. El5n of all people turns out to be a vector of empathy and understanding for someone like Norea. When a schemer like Shaddiq is counting on your vengeful rampage as a component of his manipulations, isn't the most powerful act of freedom-fighting rebellion to run away and live for yourself instead? It hurts even more because, unlike the way Sophie wound up burning herself out, Norea actually relents and stands down at the end thanks to El5n's words, only to be coldly put down moments later anyway. This in turn tilts El5n to his own vengeful violence, and the inescapable cycle continues.

The Witch from Mercury is also insightful in showing that it's possible for the people trapped in these struggles to find another way. Guel's battle with Shaddiq is a visceral demonstration of that. It's true open combat, no duels or regulations constraining things, and in that context you might presume this to be another instance of Shaddiq puppeteering Guel into provocations. But we see by the end of it that Shaddiq's flaw was in not realizing how much Guel had changed thanks to his sad-times sabbatical. By the end of the fight, Shaddiq is the one sliding into emotional slip-ups, while Guel is able to calculatedly cut him down into a non-lethal defeat. It's poetic, given that Duel Jerk's previous duels were so commonly decided by exactly these kinds of component cuts. It particularly mirrors Guel's defeat by Suletta back in Episode 1. She really did end up teaching him a lot in life.

"The End of Hope" thus almost comes off as an ironic title for an episode where, through so much of this denouement of death and destruction, our characters are still searching for that hopeful, better way. Despite experiencing something of an upswing last week, Suletta still shuffling through school keeping busy as best she can, before the incidents in this episode drop a building on Petra (who really did decide to go all-in on her death flags for this episode). Now the school, the greenhouse, and that single person she was still able to follow around have all been taken from Suletta, and she can't distract herself any more. What precisely she can do here is unsure, and it's a terrifying uncertainty faced by all the students now.

It's the same sort of real-world worry that any children living in Interesting Times must grapple with, trying to carry on their regular lives despite awareness of the horrors happening just outside, only for the horrors to arrive and smash down their front door. But while it might have been easier and more expected for The Witch from Mercury to promptly start lining the kids up for combat, the writing instead sticks with a staunchly caring approach. Suletta, along with the others, defiantly digs through the rubble that's left of the school they attended, not to wallow in misery regarding those who died, but to try to reach and help those who might still live.

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Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris is keeping busy keeping up with the new anime season, and is excited to have you along. You can also find him writing about other stuff over on his blog, as well as spamming fanart retweets on his Twitter, for however much longer that lasts.

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