Just watched Gundam Wing. Reflections and questions.

[Revolver Ocelot]

I'm sure there have been similar topics on this board regarding the subject of Gundam Wing, but believe it or not, even as a diehard Gundam fan, I've never seen Gundam Wing through to the end before. This topic isn't meant to start a flame war or anything. This is just my (extremely long-winded) take on this series.

I wasn't first introduced to Gundam on Toonami like a lot of people. My first exposure to Gundam was when I was about 12 or so. I found a VHS set of Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket at an anime rental place (which doubled as a comic store). I saw the title and said "Hmm. Gundam. That's supposed to be like a big deal in Japan." So I gave it a shot. 6 episodes later, I was wiping tears from my eyes. I had never seen anything like that before. My only previous experience with anime were shows like Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, Voltron, Robotech, etc. Shows I watched before I even really knew what anime was.

From that moment on, I was a Gundam fanatic. I immediately ran out and bought the Gundam movie trilogy and 0083. I imported Zeta Gundam and even learned quite a bit of Japanese just to watch it (though this later payed off for a lot of other anime).

However, when Gundam Wing hit Toonami, I didn't have cable at the time. I really wanted to watch it and was heartbroken to miss it, and just didn't have the money at the time to import it like I did with several of the other Gundam sagas.

My enthusiasm to see Gundam Wing died quickly though. I began noticing that it was getting a lot of negative flack from the Gundam fan community. By the time I had Cartoon Network, I'd lost interest. I caught a few episodes of GW during a rerun, but I didn't pay it much mind as I had caught it about halfway through and had no idea what was going on. To this day, the only Gundam saga I've watched from start to finish on CN is 08th MS Team.

With all the bashing and people saying how Gundam Wing paled in comparison to the UC sagas and most of the other AUs, I figured I wasn't missing out on much. But recently, for the sake of completion, I decided to watch it. And you know what? I honestly loved almost every second of this show. And this is coming from someone who's seen it all. From (Turn) A to Z.

There were a lot of things that really hit home with me in this saga. Firstly, and one of the aspects of Gundam Wing I liked the most, were the pilots and their abilities. They were actually skilled. I don't think fans of Gundam appreciate this enough. In many other Gundam sagas, a completely pure teenager, unexposed to war, will clumsily stumble into a cockpit and after a few weeks (sometimes days or even hours), he'll be able to take on impossible odds and take out the enemy's elite aces without too much hassle, all because of some special genetic trait (i.e. Newtype/Coordinator). Gundam Wing is one of the only Gundam TV shows that deviates from this. The pilots aren't spectacular because of their heritage, they're spectacular because they've been trained meticulously since childhood.

The pilots get a lot of flack because they're "undeveloped" and "emo". First of all, I think the word "emo" gets tossed around way too much these days. They're not cold and angry for the sake of being so. I think they're "functionally emo". They've known nothing but war all their lives. It only makes sense that their emotions have been stymied a bit. In terms of their development.. well, true, the pilots don't really advance as characters, but once again, I cite the fact that they've been through a lot of great ordeals already. The other Gundam shows are the story of youths not involved in war, getting caught in it, watching friends die, etc. These are the stories of their development. In GW, this kind of development has already occured for most of the pilots. They've experienced in a rather short time what Amuro, Kamille, Uso, and many other characters experience over the course of their entire lives within the confines of their respective shows before the story of Gundam Wing even picks up. At least that's the vybe I got from it.

I also really loved the atmosphere of this show. It reminded me a lot of Zeta. I think the feeling of "darkness" is thrown around a bit too much amongst the Gundam fandom, particularly with V Gundam, which isn't really dark at all. There's a constant melancholy, brooding, ominous air about Gundam Wing that V Gundam just didn't have in spite of it being called the darkest Gundam saga out there next to Z (and some even consider it darker than that). One of the aspects I've seen Gundam fans use to support this is that, unlike many other Gundam sagas, Gundam Wing has a distinct lack of character deaths. I think the effect of this aspect of Gundam has always been exaggerated, especially in V Gundam. Oh, sure, lots of people die in V Gundam. But I wouldn't say it's deserving of the "Kill'em All" moniker it gets from a lot of people. The only people who die who I'd even call main characters are Oliver, Odelo and Chronicle. Oh, sure, there's the Shrike team, but this crack team of busty damsels seemed (to me) to have only been introduced for the sake of getting killed, which is pretty evident when one of them gets offed in damn near every episode. In Gundam Wing, the only character who dies is Treize, and I think this is a lot more shocking and dramatic than any of the deaths in V Gundam because Treize isn't some faceless cannon fodder character like the members of the Shrike team. He's there in the first episode, and he survives for the 47 subsequent episodes before he dies. That's a lot more dramatic than all the deaths of all the Shrike team members combined. Besides, I think Turn A Gundam is a prime example of not needing regular main character bloodbaths in order to be powerful.

I also see a lot of people complaining about the characters going off ad nauseum about why they're fighting, what war is, etc. Well, long-winded sessions of characters crypically expressing their motives is like a Gundam staple. I don't see why Gundam Wing should be singled out.

So after watching this series, I have to say that it's better than all of the UC series except Z, and better than all of the other AUs except SEED and possibly Turn A (I'll have to watch Turn A again in order to make a more accurate comparison; I haven't seen it in about 4 or 5 years). With these feelings, I'm left with the daunting question: Why the hate?

I guestimate that a lot of the Wing-hate stems from "hardcore" Gundam fans trying to be l33t by belittling ignorant newbs who have no access to Gundam outside of Toonami. I also imagine that it has a lot to do with the fact that it gets so much more love from the mainstreamers and that pisses off a lot of the oldschoolers who think all that love should be going to their precious UC sagas that they wax nostalgiacally for whenever some precocious n00b mentions Heero, Duo or Zechs. Of course, I could be wrong on both accounts.

So yeah.. what the dilly-o?

[AmuroNT1]

Speaking as a long-time fan of Gundam Wing, I've noticed that the hate comes from different sources - old hands who hate it for deviating from the UC formula, people who mistakenly assume that it's all bishonen and no depth, and so forth. What really depresses me is that people who proclaim themselves to be intelligent anime fans and yet hate on the show for the same hollow reasons that people have been parroting off since the show first came out. If someone can come up with real reasons for disliking the show, then I can respect their opinion...but that rarely happens. Instead we get "Heero is emo, Relena's an idiot, the Gundams are invincible", etc.

BTW, I also despise the way "emo" gets thrown around these days. It's like, if you're not a screaming, violent nutcase, you're emo.

[Thrawnma]

Back in the day, in order to be "cool" with the older Gundam crowd, ya know, the guys who watched third-hand Zeta Gundam VHS Fansubs and thought themselves especially important for doing so, you had to bash anything that wasn't UC, and Wing ended up being the posterboy for that crowd-bashing.

It's a fine series in its own right, maintains contextual continuity, doesn't break rules it sets (for the most part). All-in-all a very solid Gundam series with a very different, deep, and unique focus that's lost between UC Elitists and Seed Fanboys.

[Revolver Ocelot]

the Gundams are invincible"

Yeah. I hear that one a lot too. And I'll never understand it for the life of me.

All 5 of the first generation Gundams in GW are destroyed and replaced by about halfway through the series. And let's take a look at the other Gundam sagas for a sec...

V2 with its 10 mile long wings of light... Strike Freedom with its funnel system that can outspam Amuro's Nu in about 5 seconds... and Turn X with its technology-destroying tidal wave of nanomachines...

Compared to that, the Gundams in GW are pretty tame, no?

[Haros_Pet_Kat]

It used to be cool to hate Gundam Wing, but now it's cool to hate Gundam SEED Destiny, heh.

From a UC fan's point of view, a lot of the hate comes from people who appreciate Gundam Wing for the absolute wrong reasons, "LOL EPYON WUZ SO KOOL I WANNA BE JUST LIKE ZEKZ!" I was only twelve or whatever at the time, but after watching Gundam Wing two or three times, I began to realize some of the deeper symbolism going on especially with websites that had more info on some of the deeper meanings. Duo used to be the bestest, but now Treize is my favorite character.

Still, you can't deny that UC tends to have better fight scenes than Gundam Wing. Sure, the Newtype climbing in cockpits is total BS, but that was probably acceptable in the 70's and 80's where people just wanted to watch a good show, and even in Gundam Wing people find it hard to accept that fourteen year old kids are devastating armies despite their earned skill.

A SEED fan told me that fourteen year olds acting like serious adults was unrealistic compared to teenagers acting like teenagers in SEED. I see the point, but the last thing you watch Gundam Wing for is realism.

As for the "emo" thing... Emo? That is shorthand for emotional. Only Quatre is whiny (funny that I say that, because Quatre's American VA is the same one used for Amuro in MSG and CCA). Heero lacks emo, if anything. Duo is cool. Trowa lacks emo as well. Quatre is an Amuro. Wufei has hot blood.

So yeah. I agree that the term "emo" is thrown around too much.

And one last thing...

GUNDAM WING IS NOT A YAOI ANIME.

[Thrawnma]

Don't the teens in Seed typically hold offices and ranks of high importance for no real good reason?

[Haros_Pet_Kat]

No. I'm sure Kira had a good reason, but if I tried to explain, my post would be moderated.

[Revolver Ocelot]

It used to be cool to hate Gundam Wing, but now it's cool to hate Gundam SEED Destiny, heh.

Yeah. I'm going to have to start a topic about that one to. I LOVE Gundam SEED and Destiny. They're my favorite Gundam sagas, and they tend to get hate for reasons equally as stupid as GW.

ex. That scene where Cagalli and Athrun are crying together is just so corny and lame and stuff!

Yes, because crying when you're pretty sure you just killed your best friend is SO not cool. I mean, honestly, who cries when their best friend dies? Psh. Not me. I'm a badass. Semper fi.

But that's for another day..

[Zetsu]

Please don't. Although this is a relatively civilized forum, I would rather not have to sit through another CE sludgefest, as this forum(and the internet in general) has had one[thousand] too many. It's various flaws and strengths have been brought up and defended too many times already. It's been 3 years now and still people won't let it rest.
As for Gundam Wing. Personally, I don't hate the show, but it certainly isn't one of my favorites. It's an alright show, I enjoyed it when it came on, and like many Gundam fans it was my first exposure. I don't hate on it or flame those that do, I just don't particularly care for it either.

[jam!]

Hear! Hear! I have a reason for not liking Gundam Wing right now.

However, I'll first have to say that Gundam Wing was my first real exposure to Gundam when it aired on Toonami. (I had previously watched episodes 1 and 2 of Gundam 0083 but I had forgotten about it before I watched Gundam Wing.....I would watch Gundam 0083 again in totality when it later aired on CN).
When I first watched GW, I LOVED it however I was always wondering about some things which broke even my very flexible suspension of belief such as Heero dropping miles through the air and surviving on multiple occassions, Grunt MS exploding from being punched in the head or gut, Heavyarms, a HEAVY ARTILLERY Gundam, performing flips and twists in midair like a balerina, how Quatre could rebuild a super high-performance Gundam by HIMSELF (at least it looked so), among other things.
Still, I LOVED the show. The final battle was simply awesome. Sure I found Relena to be blissfully stupid...seriously she was a stalker who did nothing but follow the GW boys around yet somehow she was important simply due to her familial ties.
Still though...I LOVED it.

However, I would later watch UC and the bitter reality of the way those Gundam shows portrayed characters totally impressed me on another level. The focus was on the characters and not how uber their skills were or their MS were. I could also see where GW took many of its ideas from and how it was a method of revamping Gundam to portray to a new audience. It was then that I realised that the GW developers sacrificed many of the staples of Gundam in order to produce this show and embrace a new audience however I had no problem with it. GW was still LOVABLE.

All that changed with Endless Waltz though. It simply made a mockery of everything and focused solely on beautiful animation. I remember when I began watched EW that I was extremely excited to once again experience the thrills I had while watching GW because, while UC was enjoyable for its realism, GW was just an adrenaline rush as I remembered it.
However, while I liked the fact that Relena was a more matured and useful character, I began to wonder what was the sense of this sequel?
They totally redid the reason behind Operation Meteor and frankly didn't explain it properly. Treize's death, as stupid as it was, was now worthless. The GW boys had not changed at all during the time of peace...no character progression at all. Zechs was alive for no reason at all hence giving his actions at the end of GW no real basis.
And once again...the Grunt MS go down easily to all the Gundams until the plot calls for it. I could no longer suspend my disbelief and it was clear that the plot-shielding of events and the deus-ex machina style of writing simply hindered my love for GW.

I won't lie to you guys, I still like the show but for its downfalls, I'll always prefer UC.

[Revolver Ocelot]

however I was always wondering about some things which broke even my very flexible suspension of belief such as ... Grunt MS exploding from being punched in the head or gut

I recall this occuring many times throughout the UC. In one episode in the original MS Gundam, Amuro is fighting a Zok under water and he shoots it in the head and it somehow explodes. Not sure how. The head is just the main camera, and they were under water, so you can rule out mechanical fire. Also, explosions from punching suits is really common throughout all Gundam sagas. In happens several times in V, most notably to Odelo.

Heero dropping miles through the air and surviving on multiple occassions ... Heavyarms, a HEAVY ARTILLERY Gundam, performing flips and twists in midair like a balerina, how Quatre could rebuild a super high-performance Gundam by HIMSELF (at least it looked so), among other things.

This kind of testing of one's suspension of disbelief is, once again, commonplace throughout all Gundam sagas, just in different froms. There's always supernatural silliness in Gundam, and anime in general. Am I supposed to believe that Char and Amuro's genetics allow them to communicate with Lalah and other characters across the vacuum of space? For the benefit of the doubt, yes, I am. Compared to that, I have no trouble believing that a Gundam can somersault or a pilot can survive fatal pitfalls.

Sure I found Relena to be blissfully stupid...seriously she was a stalker who did nothing but follow the GW boys around yet somehow she was important simply due to her familial ties.

Relena and Dorothy are what you get when you take Katejina and split her pre-pilot personality and her post-pilot personality into two separate people. Neither of them are anywhere near as annoying as Katejina..

And once again...the Grunt MS go down easily to all the Gundams until the plot calls for it. I could no longer suspend my disbelief and it was clear that the plot-shielding of events and the deus-ex machina style of writing simply hindered my love for GW.

Yes, yes, yes.. but once again.. all of this stuff happens in the other Gundam sagas. All of it. In every saga. UC, CE, CC, AW, whatever. I don't see the point of singling out Wing when it's just as blatant anywhere else. It's like saying "McDonald's makes people fat. Screw them, let's go to Burger King!"

I agree with your points, but I still see a bit of a bias. I don't think Wing was really revamped for a new audience. It was just what was going on with Gundam at the time. I think it was a great move to let a bunch of new directors come in and have their on take on the Gundam mythology. Some of it worked and some of it didn't, but it provided a lot of diversity. And if you feel that Gundam Wing was some kind of sell out.. well lemme tell ya, Tomino sure as hell didn't make anime out of the kindness of his heart. He wanted some money, and he got it. But what was cool in the 70s and 80s wasn't going to be cool in the 90s.. Gundam had to change. Frankly, between ZZ, F91 and V Gundam, I think the UC was beginning to get a bit stale (dont get me wrong, I love them all), so I welcomed the change with fresh new shows like G Gundam and the other AU ventures.

[Pinklin Thomas]

Gundam Wing was the first Gundam series I ever watched, and for that It will always have a special place in my heart. I was pretty enamored with it when it first came out, but on repeated viewings I have found that it hasn't really held up.

The biggest impediment to my enjoyment was definitely all the random and nonsensical philosophizing that every character did (although it's possible this was only the English dub). Don't get me wrong, I know every Gundam series (even the UC ones) have plenty of pseudo-intellectual musings on war, peace, human nature, blahblahblah, but it seemed like Wing took it to another level. I think the random BS that came out of the characters' mouths would even embarass the writers of Grey's Anatomy, and that's saying something.

And I definitely didn't find the pilots to be "emo," just completely dull and poorly developed. Add the average action scenes and the stupid plot, and you get a pretty average series.

[Revolver Ocelot]

And I definitely didn't find the pilots to be "emo," just completely dull and poorly developed. Add the average action scenes and the stupid plot, and you get a pretty average series.

Yep.. and nobody in making these statements ever bothers to explain how they're dull or poorly developed, nor do they express how the characters in the other Gundam sagas are less dull or poorly developed than the ones in Wing. Likewise for the "average" action sequences and the "stupid" plot. Everyone loves using these concepts, yet no one ever seems to like to explain what they mean without getting really pretentious or just resulting in the good ol' fashioned "Well it just is, okay?"

[AmuroNT1]

Haros Pet Kat: When referring to a person's personality and attitude, most definitions of emo hold that an emo person is emotionally candid, sensitive, shy, introverted, glum, and quiet. Depression and broken-heartedness are sometimes used to describe the emo personality. The factuality of broken-heartedness as a personality trait stems from the opinion that emo music contains multiple references to unrequited love and emotional and relationship problems. At least, that's what Wikipedia said. In short, "emo" is used by many anime fans to describe any character who exhibits even the slightest negative emotion, whether it's justified or not ("Shinn lost his family? Cry more, emo kid!").

jam!: There was about a month between Quatre's discovery of Zero's plans and his destroying that first colony. Given that his family is a major mining magnate in the colonies, I don't think it's unreasonable for him to be able to build a complete Gundam in one month.

And personally, I adore Relena. The poor girl just gave off a bad first impression, and apparently lots of people decided to hate her because of it. So she gets called a stalker, even though she only looks for Heero for about the first 1/5 of the series. And she gets called an idiot, even though she says some pretty profound things and people respect her for them.

For the record, I also love Dorothy, because she's so interesting and amusing. Heck, I like basically everyone in GW, except the people you're really supposed to hate (like Alex and Muller, and Dekim).

[Zetsu]

No offence my man, but it seems like the backbone of your support is that although Wing has flaws, other Gundams have those flaws too, so it's alright for Wing to have them. In my opinion that's kind of a flimsy argument, because you're excusing the faults of something based solely on the faults of something else. Indeed they are all part of the giant Gundam metaverse and should be judged accordingly, however, they should also be judged individually as a show, and on their own merits. And when you do that, you have to look at the series as it is, and not use the convenient excuse of "well, this isn't a very good character", or "this isn't a very good plot point, but since the other Gundam series had bad plot points it's alright". In the case of Odelo, for example, it wasn't that he was simply punched, then exploded, his suit was slammed in the cockpit, then sliced with a beam saber, and finally kicked away. I'm sure the suit had already sustained some battle damage from being in such a fierce battle, and due to the sheer force of the attack, I don't think it's very much of a stretch for that to cause the suit to explode. There's also the plot aspect, and the way it was done was rather well done. This to me means a lot more than a Gundam simply punching a Leo in the gut, resulting in the entire suit's destruction.
I agree that Wing does not deserve most of the hate it gets, and am also tired of hearing all the cliche points detractors love to point out. However, above all, it comes down to the taste of the individual in question. For some people, all of the questionable aspects can be ignored and the show simply enjoyed for the good points of the cool characters and Gundams as well as the intricate(if a little pretentious) plot and setting. Others may not care for the characters, or prefer UC/AU/whatever mechs, or just can't get into the story. Both parties have a right to their opinion, but when they become overzealous about them, that's where things go wrong. In my opinion, the hardcore W fanboys are just as annoying as the UC elitists. Both go on and on about how their show(s) are better than the other, and end up only alienating other fans that would otherwise enjoy said series. You yourself have fallen victim to this, losing interest due to what other members of the community said about it. More extreme cases of this would be a UC fan(or even a normal Wing fan) hating on Wing in an attempt to fit in somewhere. The bottom line is that you can't help what other people like and dislike.

[AmuroNT1]

TBH, I don't think I've ever seen a hardcore Wing fan act in any fashion like the UC elitists are said to act. Heck, the people who REALLY care about Wing for intelligent reasons are few and far between; more often, you get the idiots who only liked it for pretty boys and pretty explosions. Those people, my friend, are NOT Gundam Wing fans, any more than the drooling legions of Harry/Draco fangirls are true Harry Potter fans. Referring to them as such demeans people like the TC and everyone else who enjoyed the show for its actual merits.

[Mwulf]

I dislike Wing for the same reason I dislike Destiny: the inane dialogue.

I love everything else about it... (it's a fun show, what can I say?) but, damn... all that babbling about total pacifism was absurd. Hell, that's a moral theory a class of trained monkeys could shoot down after a short debate.

*sigh*

Granted, some people say the same thing about Lacus in Seed... but I can only assume they misread something... 'cause the translations I've seen actually make sense. (and a helluva lot more sense than Relena or Vash ever did.)

[Kiggz]

Wing Is my Fav by far because i think the suit designs are a lot different then most of the series. Wing had 2 main thing's that made it stand out.

1-The Music was amazing the songs and back ground instrumentals that they used in wing were the best i have heard in a anime to date, Rhythm emotion & Just Communication were amazing intros.
01-The Wings Of A Boy That Killed Adolescence
05-When The Dragon Swims, Everything Ends

Amazing soundtrack and back ground music for the mobile suit fights this really pumped me up when watching a gundam fight in this series.

2-I liked how the characters were not young foolish kids that joked around and had pointless Dialogue, these guys stuck to their missions and did anything to accomplish their goals.

Character flaws
Heero Yuy-He was at frist a little strange to me to i was surprised he was the main character but after a few eps i understood why he was like this he was a cold warrior who would do anything to complete his goals.

Duo Maxwell-Duo was the best he was so funnie and such a cool character no i didnt see any flaws in him beside the fact that they dont really explain his past that well.

Trowa Barton-Trowa was like hero a little strange and they did not really explain much about him heck we dont even know his actual name but thats what made him the Trowa we all love and know he was a mysterous
Maniac and very good at using the heavey arms.

Quatre Winner-I hated him the most he was sort of annoying some times but he had his moments

Wu-Fei-Battle harded warrior he was very cool his only flaws were he had some of the least screen time but it showed us that he did things alone and that was his style.

Zechs-Cool character no flaws he was almost perfect as they had made him to be.

Treize Khushrenada-Very respectable cool character his flaws were that he did not fight alot but still he got the point across he was a badazz

Others- Relina and Dorthy lady une ect. they were all decent characters i was satisfied with most of them hilde seemed like a short atempt to futher the storie line of duo so did trowas sister.

OZ were the ulitmate bad guys in a series i loved them they were so bad yet they managed to make them selfs look like graceful warriors of respect and honor lol i loved them, their Mobile suit infantry were awsome i loved the aeris and taurus ect.

I Just loved wing for the suits and music they alway were smashing thru all the leos and trash suits it made them look like gods it was so cool the characters always had good punchlines when the music kicks in and they start kickin OZ's butts it was so the suspence was always there cuz of OZ they were always planning something for the gundams.

I liked it apposed to U.C because it had the rawness and unexpectable battles that U.C didnt i love zeta and the other U.C's but i got bored of all the zaku's and countless dummies fighting newtypes.

I also liked wing because it made the characters seem so Mysterous to other series it did not know trowas real name, Wing did not tell us which pilots were newtypes which made it interesting to observe after time it had me thinking Hero & Trowa were Newtypes due to their abilities and lack of emotions from their training even tho trowa was not a real pilot and just a random person who stole the heavy arms lol.

Wing was the best it had so much suspence they always got thier heads to deep in troble agianst the enemy and it always resorted in cool battles and great action.

I would say wing was the best gundam series in my opinion when it came out it was new different and fresh for U.C

Zeta & Wing are the greatest series in gundam history they both stand out the most and are the 2 most action packed with great characters & dialoge

[Revolver Ocelot]

Zetsu: I never said that just because the UC saga did some things bad was a get out of jail free card for Wing to do it too, but you have to admit, bashing Wing for things the UC gets away with scott free is a little hypocritical, no? Trust me, I'm not a hardcore Wing fan (I just watched it, after all), I'm just a hardcore Gundam fan in general. I love Gundam through and through and embrace it in its entirety (except SD Gundam and G-Saviour, which I don't consider part of the Gundam line). All I wanted to see was some good explaination as to why this series in particular should be singled out for bashing.

I think Gundam as a whole is one of the most well-crafted and consistently good, expanding works of mythology. When you compare it to its contemporaries like, say, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc., the level of consistency is far greater in Gundam, in my opinion. I think every Gundam saga has something incredible to offer, and frankly, I think the merits each series has are very hard to compare. I give every Gundam saga a 9/10. Only Zeta and SEED are 10/10, but that's still only a slight advantage.

Kiggz: I totally agree on the music aspect. The soundtrack was phenomenal work by Kow Otani, who also composed the music for my favorite PS2 game ever: Shadow of the Colossus. It's eerie how vague similarities between the music in Wing and the music in SotC pop up at unexpected times.

[wing zero alpha]

Yeah, I remember those days too well, where just because one watched the original Gundam series they were automatically superior to those that were just getting into it via Wing. My personal favorite example was a versus thread on the Gundam Project website (now defunct) that pitted a Zaku II against the Wing Gundam, in which almost everyone went for the Zaku because of Wing's "faulty physics". But I digress, we're not here to talk about that.

In actuality, Wing didn't really suffer much differently from follow up Gundam series; it seems whenever a new Gundam series comes along that's not UC, as I never saw MS IGLOO or the Zeta movies go through any real bashing, the show is automatically hated in anyway shape or form. It happened with Gundam X for deviating from the usual Gundam trend with its cavalier storyline, Turn A Gundam for being a one hundred eighty degree turn around from previous Tomino works like Zeta, Gundam SEED for "borrowing" elements from the Universal Century (remember that previously people were complaining about Gundam series deviating from UC standards), SEED Destiny for the same reasoning, and now Gundam 00 for being something different again. Give some time and the hate will pass as everyone turns their attention to the next big series.

However, the trick is to watch it and see for yourself what kind of series it is. You can't rely on the word of others; in Wing's days, one of the big reasons for all the hate and slandering was because it was the "cool" thing at the time. If you didn't know who Amuro Ray or Kamille Viden were, then you were subhuman or worse. That kind of treatment has carried over to SEED and I have no doubt it will carry over to 00. So really, if you're interested in the series (and I don't mean because it's Gundam in general), then watch it to the end and judge for yourself whether it's good or bad. Beyond that, anyone else's word is their opinion and shouldn't have presedence on yours.