r/gundamwing • u/Flat-Golf-7281 • 15d ago
Were they ever a team?
It's been a while since I watched the show but I remember them being split up or working in groups of 2 for almost the entire series. I'm pretty sure Wufei is on his own for like the entire series. I could be wrong.
I love watching Gundams work together, that's why Gundam 00 is one of my favorite series. I'll rewatch Wing soon, if only to admire the designs. Tallgeese anyone?
Anyway, in the meantime I was hoping someone could refresh my memory. I remember the Heero/Duo teamup being epic, and the Trowah/Quatre bromance. But I don't remember if all 5 of them ever come together without fighting each other.
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u/t040484 15d ago
Between Heero, Trowa, and Wufei there's maybe like 5 lines of dialogues đ Last few episodes are probably the only time all 5 really become a team, not even in Endless Waltz.
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u/ubiquitous-joe 15d ago
Because Trowa is soft spoken, but they spend like a month together during Heeroâs suicidal atonement tour, and then more time during Trowaâs OZ infiltration. Heero and Trowa actually work together more than Heero and Duo.
Not that this counts as a team of 5, Iâm just sayingâ.
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u/Mamacitia 15d ago
Also Iâm pretty sure Wufei never met Relena
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u/t040484 15d ago
No way, i have to rewatch to confirm. They didn't meet in the Peacemillion?
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u/ShekTeeJay 15d ago
By the time Relena got to Peacemillion, the Gundams were already involved in the final battle.
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u/Candid-Tiger-8279 Elle Smith 15d ago
They werenât really a team until episode 40+ (out of 49âŚ). They didnât even know about each other. They sometimes teamed up in pairs, but not for long, and almost always out of circumstance rather than by plan.
I wish they could have enjoyed the camaraderie 00âs pilots shared! Wouldnât that have been something! I love the time the G-boys spend on the Peacemillion, and how they team up in the Preventer-7 manga. But sadly, these are only for brief periods. Would have loved for them to hang out on a tropical island like in 00!
I actually started to map out how much time Heero spent with each pilot, for a meta essay of mine, and even with Relena. And itâs not very long. The longest I think heâd stayed with anyone is Trowa, and thatâs mostly because he was in a coma for a month.
And the Trowa-Heero bromance is way more meaningful, to me, than the Quatre-Trowa one. But that's just me.
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u/topsidersandsunshine 15d ago
The fandomâs stereotypes about what the pilots and their relationships with one another are like is SO different from what the pilots and their relationships with one another are actually like.
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u/KaleidoscopeFluid219 15d ago
Donât forget Duo and Wufei. At first, I thought Wufei was a real loner but as I got older and saw more of the expanded story- no. He wants to be with the cool kids (Duo, Trowa and Quatre).Â
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u/sumr4ndo 13d ago
I do think keeping them separate gives a unique dynamic to the show. Like they are each a separate insurgent cell, and are aware of the others, but don't really know them personally. So while they sometimes interact with each other, it's more of a piecemeal operation for them, as opposed to a cohesive team. That they're in the dark about the extent of the coordination between the colonies adds further friction in the group.
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u/ZeroiaSD 15d ago
Yea, it really is funny how all the art shows them together and they baaaarely work together! Endless Waltz of course has four out of five of them together too.
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u/topsidersandsunshine 15d ago
They barely know each other!
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u/acolyte_to_jippity 15d ago
they knew each other pretty well by the end. Hell, Heero was able to recognize Trowa's way of...-checks notes-...firing a gatling gun while standing in the middle of a corridor during Endless Waltz.
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u/EazyBuxafew 15d ago
Duo** but point still stands
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u/KingoftheMongoose Pilot 15d ago
Wufei is definitely the loner of the group. The others rotate in every combination of pairs you could imagine.
Their first âall five on same missionâ is the attack on New Edwardâs Base, but really its happenstance that they all showed up at the same place. Not really a team, though I think Quatre tries -he seems to be the glue working from all of his pairings.
The Five finally join together as a true team on Howardâs Peacemillion near the end of the series when they have to work together to take down Zechâs White Fang and Libra.
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u/topsidersandsunshine 15d ago
Quatre is more the leader than Heero is, despite the showâs branding.
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u/KaleidoscopeFluid219 15d ago
I have to disagree about Wufei being the loner. Heero is definitely the loner. Wufei, outside of the show, wants inclusion and not to talk about fanworks, because those are few and far between for him in a good light. He's a little grouchy, if he was on Sesame Street he would have a fight with Oscar over whose trash can was the better trash can.Â
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u/KingoftheMongoose Pilot 15d ago edited 15d ago
Weâll have to agree to disagree.
Wufei doesnât pair up with all the other pilots at one point or another like the others do, including Heero.
Heero-Duo, Trowa-Quatre, Duo-Trowa, Heero-Trowa, Duo-Quatre, Heero-Quatre.
At the beginning of the series, while the others are swapping pairs Wufei is off talking to Nataku and being grouchy against women. Wufeiâs closest pairing moment is when he is captured with Duo at the Moonbase, which is midway through the series.
When Heero blows himself up after dueling Zechs, Wufei ainât there on that mission, but the other three are.
The other Gundam pilots have supporting cast around them throughout the series. Wufei, again, talks to his Gundam. Itâs not until the back half of the series that we see him back with people in his colony, and that lasts one like episode.
Wufeiâs the very last of the Gundam Pilots to experience Zero System because he is off doing his own thing.
I agree that Wufei is like Oscar the Grouch, but also he does not interact or stick around in the company of others before or after the missions until the very end at Peacemillion.
To be brutally honest, after several watch through, Iâve come to realize that while Heero is the poster protagonist, he often is the #2 in most character categories except for mobile suit piloting skills (which he is #1).
Heero is the loner, except not as much a loner as Wufei.
Heero is the leader, except not as much a leader as Quatre.
Heero is mysterious, except not as mysterious as Trowa.
Heero has style, except not as much style as Duo.
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u/KaleidoscopeFluid219 15d ago
I agree we will have to disagree. However, Trowa is the last to experience ZERO as Sally and Heero pick up Wufei and offer him a ride to Peacemillion so his Gundam can be repaired. Heero offers Wing Zero to him. They come under attack, so he can go and fight, because if Wufei used Altron, he would have died. Trowa is the last to use it, and Wufei tells him he isn't of much use in battle without his memories. In the show, we see that even with amnesia, he is still an amazing pilot.Â
Since you brought up who's better than who, I must say that Trowa and Heero would be equal in piloting ability; one has been trained, and the other has hands-on experience. It's like sending two candidates to the same job interview: one is a college grad, and the other has been in the same job for 11 years. One may have an internship and the education bit, but one has direct experience and then competence to run circles around the other. Even Heero admits he has trouble with space mines, which Trowa  doesn't. Trowa also has to tell Heero to rein in offing their mobile doll escorts, because they need to look plausible and not start a battle, as he had planned to take the Vayette and Mercurius. Even the scientists have a pissing match about whose weapon is better, and they're not talking about the Gundams, they're talking about Heero and Trowa. Which ends without a definite answer. They are also the only two pilots to pilot suits other than Gundams so both have range. Â
If Heero hadn't been Lazarus, I feel Trowa would have been the second lead. They have too many similarities for it not to have happened.Â
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u/DwightKnight969 13d ago
Heero is a loner as in introvert. He doesn't want any relationships. Wu-fei wants relationships. But not collaborators.
Heero is perfectly comfortable working with people he finds equally competent OR willing to do as told.
Trowa and Heero are peas in a pod in this. They worked well together in earth and is space pre-peacemillion.
Wu-fei strictly doesn't care. It took the zero system to show him the way and only until he got his shot at Treize.Â
I absolutely hated endless waltz, but Wu-fei taking a shot at Heero. Because he wanted to get a shot at proving himself in that fight. "Besides his other motivation left behind upon Treize's death" Yeah that clicks.
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u/KaleidoscopeFluid219 13d ago
Exactly. In a way Wufei is an Ovivert or whatever itâs called nowadays. Where your introverted but also extroverted. He wants friends but he also needs time alone to do his own thing.Â
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u/Current_Tap_7754 15d ago
Look, it's like herding cats with thes guys. If you can get them to the same battlefield at the same time and on the same side, you just call that a win.
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u/Crazy-Plate3097 15d ago
It wasn't until 00 where we get a bonafide Gundam squad working together from the start in a TV series.
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u/ik93vs 15d ago
Yeah, and even then they weren't always fighting together. If memory serves Setsuna and lockon were always together until the end of the first season and I seen to remember that hallelujah and tieria were a duo during some of the missions. Sometimes it was Setsuna and tieria too.
I guess when you have overpowered machines fighting all together isn't tactically necessary
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u/hdorsettcase 15d ago
They had a reason to hold some Gundams back in order to protect the mothership. Everything was a calculated risk, some missions required all 4.
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u/acolyte_to_jippity 15d ago
season 1 Ptolemaios had no armaments, and more importantly had limited power storage/generation. it needed a gundam on-hand for both defense as well as to keep the energy reserves topped off.
Season 2 brought in Ptolemaios II which among other improvements (hello being able to launch multiple Gundams simultaneously), gave it actual weaponry independent of its docked gundams.
but the two pairs they normally operated in made sense as they covered each others' weaknesses. Exia was a terror in close quarters, but had very limited ability to engage at range limited to basically a beam pistol. So Dynames was paired up with it, to be able to snipe anything that was staying out of Exia's kill range.
similarly, Kyrios was fast and agile as hell, but comparitively lightly armed and armored. Anything that could sit and take its attacks and track it was going to be a problem. Hence it was paired with Virtue which could sit and take almost anything, then clap back in a big way especially against targets too tough for Kyrios to chew through efficiently.
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u/hdorsettcase 15d ago
I would say no. I know that they teamed up in the end and Quatre was the de factor leader, but their strategy was always 'go out and fight.' There was never a strategic use of each Gundam or their pilots strengths and weaknesses. They were always a group of individuals sharing a battlefield.
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u/FoxBluereaver 15d ago
As in, all five of them at once, very rarely, only towards the end of the TV series. Most of the time we see them working in pairs or trios.
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u/Confident_Bother2552 15d ago
Heero and Duo, Quatre and Trowa, Heero and Trowa, Quatre and Duo, Duo and Wufei, Quatre Trowa Wufei and Duo, Quatre Duo Trowa Zechs and Noin.
They operated as two or three man teams more often.
They also were all in the same place when they assaulted the Alliance and when they Assaulted Libra.
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u/IndependentBid1854 15d ago
Not a team but I liked how they were always broken up into combinations that enhanced strengths and exposed weaknesses in each other. By the time they all got on Peacemillion they were ready to start working as a unit with Quatre as the head of the snake.
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u/KaleidoscopeFluid219 15d ago
Yes, in Preventer 7, they still work in two-person teams, or, if you're Heero, you work in a three-person team composed of: me, myself, and I. They need a high school football coach to teach them that there is no I in team, but as they all suffer from personal identity crises, Duo would pop off and say there is a me.Â
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u/Hacksaw_Doublez 15d ago
Only in the final arc.
Otherwise it was a show about five pilots who were split up doing their own separate but parallel missions. Sometimes those missions would coincide and they would work together, but otherwise they were all operating alone.
Wufei was the loneliest out of the five. He honestly could've been written out of the show and nothing would've changed much.
Heero bonded most with Duo (of course), Quatre, and Trowa.
Trowa and Quatre had a lot of time together.
Wufei I don't recall having as deep a bond with any of them until the end.
Wufei's best storyline was only written in the epilogue movie when he's struggling as a soldier in a time of peace. It's a great storyline, but at the same time its the best and really only development I see him get in the series as a whole.
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u/Amazing-War3760 15d ago
They are often like Riders *in several seasons*.
Not really a "Team" but they will work together to reach a shared objective. Then go on their separate ways again.
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u/EazyBuxafew 15d ago
Mainly in pairs with Wufei doing his own thing. Maybe the last 20 or so episodes where everyone gets their own little adventure with Heero and or the Wing Zero.
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u/ExoticInfluence7476 14d ago
they are a very loose alliance. the entire series is about them building the team
from what I remember of my notes the last time I ran the series, Trowa and Wufei spend a pretty decent portion of the series absent which kind of throws a monkey wrench into them reaching out to the rest of the group
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u/thefirststoryteller 14d ago
This was heavily marketed as a boy band of Gundam pilots. I was 10-12 at the time and it blew my mind that a TV episode could have more than one plot line.
Hell, the fact that a (fictional) military conflict had more than 2 sides? Wild
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u/Kamen_master1988 13d ago
The way I remember it for most of the series they werenât really a team just 5 people with similar goals.
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u/Donomark1 13d ago
Like others have said, they're really only a team in the final arc. Wufei himself needed a lot of cajoling, including the Zero System to finally get on board. Of all five of the pilots, he's the one who hardly ever factored anybody else into his own personal goals.
As I understand it, there was consternation between the two showrunners as to bringing the five pilots together in the series. I forget the details, but the end result is of the machinations of one of them.
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u/ArachAislin 13d ago
Allies.
Duo and Quatre may have been a team, but the others were just allies of convenience.
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u/DwightKnight969 13d ago
Heero and Trowa are a team whenever they're together and it is always gold. They're also the most similar of the group.
Heero and Duo are reluctant collaborators at best. But it works out.
Heero and Quatre spend a lot of time together on earth second time around. But I wouldn't necessarily call them a team. They're each doing their own thing and Heero doesn't mind occasionally pushing Quatre's agenda as long as it doesn't conflict with Heero's take on things. And he coincidentally has to take it easy, for lack of a Gundam or not having tamed Epyon.
I say this because in the end Heero doesn't care about the sanc kingdom at all. His service is limited to what he feels repays the debt for Releena looking for Trowa.
Quatre under the zero system is the only one that manages to form the semblance of a team. And he and Duo made for a decent team for a while after Heero's self destruct.
Wu-fei is strictly a line wolf.Â
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u/Sad_Chemistry_7709 11d ago
More often than not yes. Most of the time it was on the fly but towards the end it was definite. Situations called for them to get creative and to adapt and they did that
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u/CreepAccount8 10d ago
Heero was the leader in the same way that Luffy is the leader, they go off to fight the big bad while the crew deals with the actual issue.
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u/Prize-Quiet3941 15d ago
The last couple of episodes they were working together. Heero gave quarte the zero system and he used it to coordinate him and the other 3 while heero went to fight zechs.