Gundam: The Witch From MercuryEnded Its First Season With the Power of Incredible Violence

Mobile Suit Gundam : The hag From Mercuryhas very much beena Gundam showfrom the get - go — in lockstep with the wider franchise in the direction it plays with some of the series’most enduring elements , and in how its worldbuilding extrapolates Gundam’slongstanding critiques of capitaland the military industrial building complex . But in its first time of year finale , it cue us it ’s ready to get its hired hand very dirty .

The 12th sequence of the series , simply style “ The Witch from Mercury , ” convey a dramatic conclusion to an attack on the Mobile Suit development adeptness Plant Quetta by a grouping of human terrorists sleep together as the Dawn of Fold . As all our various pouch of graphic symbol converged on the installation — Suletta and Miorine , who reconcile a previous distancing in their relationship to appearcloser than ever before ; their parents Prospera and Delling , themselves seemingly form together in spite of a tortured backcloth ; the Earth House students from Asticassia , slow embroiling themselves in the Das Kapital of the Mobile suit industriousness ; and even Guel Jeturk , bring back into the world he ’d tried to run aside from , and his dispassionate Fatherhood with it — Witch From Mercury exhibited a capacitance for furiousness unlike anything we ’d seen sincethe series ’ prologue instalment .

echo the attack that begin the series — as the Dawn of Fold , backed by its own Gundam - wielding “ witches ” from Earth , carved a bloody way through Quetta — all of our untried wedge are brusquely force into the sort of conflicts that they ’ve been trained for at Asticassia , only to discover just how horrible that engagement can be when it ’s not gamified for school politicking and aliveness are on the pipeline or else of social and capital standing . It ’s not that Suletta , Miorine , and the rest of the Asticassian students are incognizant of violence ; their lives at school are drive by it , just in a defanged , desensitized fashion .

Screenshot: Sunrise/Crunchyroll

They are train to become pilots and engineers of weapon of warfare , or the next multiplication of manager of companies that drive an interstellar military economy that has driven a wedge of poverty and persecution between the the great unwashed of Earth and the space colonies . Disputes big and small are finalise by the ritual combat of the Mobile Suit duel , full - exfoliation mecha combat that while utilizing thinned weaponry , is still using military - grade computer hardware capable of rending these machine into chip — there ’s no killing , just the victory conditions of claiming the antenna of your rival ’s suit . There ’s no acknowledgement of what conflict in reality entails in what we ’ve look of life at Asticassia ; everything is just remove from the actual cost of a world where giant machines engage warfare .

The sudden force of the Fold ’s violation is traumatic for all of our young point of view across the installment . The Earth House students are paralyze by fear as the facility explodes all around them . Guel , in a tragical twist , inadvertently duels and kills his sire , each unaware that they are in their several peregrine causa until too late . Most crucially , Suletta is bring from the verge of terror by her mother , after the latter brutally gun down a grouping of Fold terrorists to save Suletta from suffer a similar portion — sinisterly manipulating her girl into excuse that she should not dread violence , but that it is the logical decision of her hopes to protect her female parent , her friends , and her relationship with Miorine in this rough world .

That ’s exactly what Suletta goes on to do , almost like her female parent ’s word flip a permutation in her . There ’s a present moment of joy as we see her , in thenewly upgraded Aerial , chase off the Fold of Dawn with an all-powerful blast from the Gundam ’s new shaft rifle to end the installment — until a post - credits scene offer a consequence of brat that changes The Wiccan From Mercury forever . As Miorine and her bruise founder attempt to find medical help , only to be corner by one of the stay terrorists , Suletta and the Aerial come crash into the scene … and as the infiltrator nurture their heavy weapon at Miorine , Suletta remove decisive , brutal activity .

Screenshot: Sunrise/Crunchyroll

nail the Aerial ’s palm down onto the terrorist , their body explodes in viscera . The present moment is slow down , so we can see blood spray across the trading floor , across the Aerial ’s finger’s breadth , across Miorine ’s petrified face as body role lazily float past her , blunt to that small repugnance as a greater one unfolds in front of her . Suletta , ever the ditz , go up out of the Aerial while slipping on the blood and moxie of a someone she just , without qualm or quibble , smashed into gory paste . As she raises a blood - soak hand to Miorine to cheerfully declare her St. Bride deliver , Suletta ’s brass carries none of the revulsion that she experienced when her mother saved her earlier , or the repugnance of her fellow students , or even the repugnance of Miorine in front of her , unable to do more than breathlessly call Suletta a liquidator .

With that second , Witch From Mercury has crossed a threshold many Gundam shows have foil before , and crossed quicker — its young friend forced to face the nature of death and state of war straight and horrifically . Gundam has done this many time before , of course . Even last year’sCucuruz Doan ’s Island moviegave us Amuro calculatingly mow down a fleeing soldier by stamping on them with his Gundam , albeit nowhere close as graphically as portrayed here . Even then the level of pedigree displayed has been matched by the franchise in the past , alongside many more second that , while bloodless , were just as if not more red . And yet , that ’s not the point of this violence ’s shock . It ’s not the gore that makes this Gundam , but the shockwave of its impact on the relationships between all these character we ’ve come to know over the preceding season .

Time will order just what kind of lasting impact this peculiar moment will have on The Witch From Mercury heading into its 2d run this April — what it means for Suletta ’s relationship with Miorine , what it means for Prospera ’s own plan for her girl and the Aerial , what it means for the inevitable outbreak of conflict that now comes between the myriad companies at play in the serial ’ world . But one matter is sure : by spending its first time of year rooting conflict in the safe confines of duel , and by outstrip the course and literal warfare of its wide worldbuilding to couch its young characters in a bubble of isolated condom , the show ’s hard - crook approach to violence made an impact almost unlike anything Gundam has done before .

Screenshot: Sunrise/Crunchyroll

Screenshot: Sunrise/Crunchyroll

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Screenshot: Sunrise/Crunchyroll