This Week’s GQuuuuuuX Was for a Slightly Different Kind of Gundam Sicko

It’s been wide since we archetypal heard astir the premise for Gundam GQuuuuuuX that it was a bid being developed by creatives with an unyielding, loveably fannish reverence for the archetypal 1979 anime that started it all. But this week arsenic the bid deed its halfway turning point—and ramped up its stakes significantly—GQuuuuuuX besides revealed that it’s besides being made by radical who are fans of another Gundam show.

Specifically, Gundam‘s successor, Zeta Gundam.

“The Plot to Assassinate Kycilia,” GQuuuuuuX‘s sixth episode, sees young protagonist Machu assailed connected aggregate fronts, arsenic unit from her schoolhouse and location life, lingering jealousy implicit Nyaan’s awakening arsenic a Newtype, and a caller menace of being sold retired by Clan Battle manager Annqi to Zeon each travel to a caput connected the eve of her what mightiness beryllium her last scrap successful the GQuuuuuuX. But beyond each that, the occurrence lays the groundwork for an intriguing governmental strategy simmering successful the inheritance surrounding the titular Kycilia Zabi, 1 of Zeon’s ruling household members arsenic she comes to sojourn Side 6.

The occurrence does a batch to play up that the Zeon forces already astatine Side 6 serving nether Challia Bull mightiness not beryllium wholly connected committee with “her excellency”—there’s doubts from his ain subordinates arsenic to wherever his loyalties prevarication betwixt Kycilia and her member Gihren, but we’ve known since Beginning‘s flashbacks to the alternate 0079 that Challia himself was onboard with Char’s concealed plans to overthrow the Zabis entirely, truthful there’s aggregate games astatine play. But it besides throws successful an other complication: the titular crippled is seemingly not coming from anyone affiliated with Zeon, but their erstwhile opponents successful the One Year War, the Earth Federation, erstwhile it’s revealed that the mysterious institution down Machu and Shuji’s last clan conflict opponents person precise acquainted faces.

© Sunrise/Prime Video

They are nary different than Bask Om and Gates Capa, members of the Titans from Gundam‘s 1985 sequel, Zeta Gundam. Set astir a decennary aft the archetypal series, Zeta flipped expectations by having its protagonists, a rogue autarkic radical called AEUG, conflict the Titans, the Federation’s elite peculiar forces part dedicated to wiping retired Zeon remnants, but besides an progressively authoritarian and almighty subdivision of the Federation trying to usurp power of the satellite and the abstraction colonies alike. It seems truthful acold that in GQuuuuuuX‘s re-imagining of Gundam‘s Universal Century timeline, the Titans are present much of a guerrilla radical themselves successful the aftermath of the Federation’s decision successful the war. But portion Om is an absorbing summation to the caller amusement (he was a large antagonist successful Zeta), it’s Capa who becomes much absorbing present as GQuuuuuuX prepares to dabble with different fascinating constituent of Gundam history.

In Zeta Gundam, Capa was a trial taxable from the Federation’s Newtype labs, 1 of respective pilots who undergoes a bid of surgical and intelligence upgrades (and look mentally destabilizing trauma successful the process) to beryllium enhanced arsenic a “Cyber Newtype”, an artificially engineered mentation of the earthy evolutionary process that makes humans surviving successful abstraction make empathetic psychic abilities and heightened awareness. The emergence of the Cyber Newtypes is simply a large constituent of Zeta Gundam‘s worldbuilding, arsenic the Federation and Zeon’s remnants alike statesman to effort and exploit the emergence of Newtypes arsenic weapons of war, utilizing their abilities to aviator adjacent deadlier mobile suits. And though Capa’s got a antithetic co-pilot present than helium did successful Zeta, a mysterious caller quality and chap Cyber Newtype known lone arsenic Deux truthful far, they’re piloting the aforesaid horrific weapon…

© Sunrise/Prime Video

The Psycho Gundam, concisely glimpsed successful the next-time trailer astatine the climax of the episode. A transforming mobile armor developed by the Murasame Newtype Labs in Zeta, the Psycho Gundam and its successor suit were specifically designed for usage by Cyber Newtypes, monolithic mecha aggregate times the size of the mean mobile suit, and stacked with a terrifying magnitude of weaponry. Both iterations of the Psycho Gundam besides enactment tremendous intelligence unit connected their pilots, yet driving them to full intelligence breakdown earlier their deaths, so, suffice to say, things are astir to get beauteous unsmooth connected GQuuuuuuX!

It’s a fascinating improvement that the bid itself its turning its eyes to the archetypal Gundam‘s successor arsenic a mode to amplify the stakes getting bigger and bigger beyond immoderate of its protagonists. In immoderate ways, it’s conscionable a earthy continuation of the mirror GQuuuuuuX has held up to the 1979 anime aft all, though it’s not precisely the aforesaid clip quality its main communicative is set, similar Zeta was, years aft the decision of the warfare that shaped the original Gundam, pursuing a procreation of radical who were raised successful its aftermath.

But it’s besides a telling 1 thematically: if the original Gundam was a much wide chopped astir its Earth vs. Zeon conflict, Zeta was each astir muddying the lines and adding further layers of complexity to that struggle for its protagonists, asking them and the assemblage alike to critique systems of powerfulness beyond the expected thought of who was the leader and who was the villain. If things are astir to get existent for GQuuuuuuX‘s young trio of heroes, it’s possibly lone fitting that the bid begins to bespeak on, and gully nonstop notation to, Gundam‘s ain darker, morally messier successor successful turn.

Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX is present streaming connected Prime Video

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