Shooting Stars: Signs of the Great Change
(in which I maundered on about GW’s first episode title)___
In ancient culture, shooting stars were not merely streaks of light against the night sky. They were believed to be harbingers of doom, and often they were thought of as precursors to a great empire’s fall. To some, they represent poor souls that travel in the dark; to others, they were believed to be kin of the fallen Lightbringer himself.
In Gundam Wing, I think the shooting star being referred to in the title of the first episode meant more than just being Heero Yuy’s Wing Gundam in flight mode.
During my most recent rewatch, I caught OZ referring to all five “shooting stars” of Operation M as “battle seeds”, as they would surely sprout into more skirmishes upon landing on Earth. And it’s true—the Eve Wars were written in the ever-so-colorful history of the After Colony universe.
I personally think this is a nice, modern take on the old beliefs. But the meteor there isn’t only an omen of war. It’s there as a sign of a change too, and not necessarily of the bad kind. Remember that the title isn’t just “The Shooting Star” or “The Meteor”—there’s a she who saw it. There’s a girl involved: Relena Peacecraft.
The pilot episode’s title is telling you that this story isn’t just about robot clashes, or young soldiers cooped up in Gundanium suits, or anti-villains with noble intentions. It’s also about a girl whose life took a 180-degree turn the moment she saw that meteor. It’s about how she’s forced to plough herself out from the joys and inanities of teenagedom so she can take up the role of an adult. It’s about how she chose her own battlefield. It’s about how beliefs and bloodlines tossed her right smack in the middle of a war, and how she became instrumental in the achievement of peace.
It’s about how she became one of the most important figures in After Colony fifteen years after the first ball of fire whizzed by—not as a shooting star, but as the bullet that killed the original Heero Yuy.
Love her or hate her, you can’t deny she’s a big part of Gundam Wing.
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A/N: I’m joining FYGW’s celebration of the show’s anniversary through a weekly rewatch! Next time, I promise I’ll actually rewatch an episode and not just blather about its title.
But hey, more chances for me to overthink again! :p