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Gundam Wing Analysis

Wufei | Past | Meiran | Oz | Justice | Nataku | Sexist |
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Conflict of the Dragon
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Wufei.

The name elicits a variety of responses including everything from extreme dislike bordering on hatred to a simpering fondness one usually reserves for a pet. The least popular of the Gundam pilots, Wufei has the unusual honor of being the fifth wheel - the pilot without another "pilot pairing" - and as such, is the target of every possible kind of coupling. He is the butt of many jokes, the pilot conveniently excluded from most fanfic; the one usually most exaggerated and misunderstood.

But why?

Well, I can't tell you what other people think - but I CAN tell you what I think, and that's the purpose for this page.

I've done my best to draw from the most dependable resources and to compile the most accurate Wu-shrine possible; if you find something you disagree with, feel free to let me know. I'm always open to discussion, and if you've got evidence I don't, then the more the merrier, I say.

Enough introduction. Welcome to the Mind of Wufei.

Wufei: History/Attributes

Name: Chang Wufei

Age: 14 in Episode Zero / 15 in Gundam Wing /16 in Endless Waltz

Chang Wufei began his journey toward Gundam pilot at least a year before the first episode of Gundam Wing (AC 195).

Born in approximately AC 180, Wufei hailed from the Dragon Clan, which had been banished from China at least a hundred years before. The members of this clan were considered dangerous; so dangerous that when they were banished from Earth, they were sent to a colony that was in severe disrepair. They had not been meant to survive.

 

Approach

Wufei is a loner by choice; as a result, he often has information and experiences that the others do not. A good example would be in episode seven, in which he was the only one who knew that the supposed "conference of OZ leaders" was actually a setup by Treize Kushrenada to trick the gundam pilots into assasinating those who were getting in Treize's way.

Of all the pilots, Wufei tended to choose the most personal attacks. When he took out Victoria Base in episode four of Gundam Wing, he attacked the DORMITORIES - not the mobile suit hangers. This was a very odd move, and not at all one a trained soldier would normally have done; it shows a different kind of mentality.

Physical

It's an odd thing that of all the main characters in this series, Wufei is the only one who actually looks ethnic. Even Sally Po - who is supposed to be Chinese - is fair skinned, fair haired, and has a light eye-color; Wufei alone really looks as though he belongs to something other than the Caucasian genetic pool.

Of course, the animators give no reason for this; but if I were pressed, my guess would be that this is a result of the Dragon Clan's total isolation.

Colony A0206 was cut off from the rest of the the colonies and from earth. In the process, it seems to me that they missed a general homogenization that was happening on the earth, thanks to the Alliance whole-earth government and disbandment of many international borders.It sounds silly, but the proof is everywhere you look. Only Wufei, whose family propagated far out in space, retained his cultural heritage and appearance.

And he looks rather nice, if I do say so myself. ~_^

 

Past

Quote: "With your strengths and abilities, you could alter the flow of history." - Master Laoshi O

Wufei was one of the most capable warriors of the Dragon Clan. He was a child prodigy, a genius mentally and a marvel physically. He was capable of defeating those much older than he in battle with almost no effort, and studied philosophy with a hunger that set him utterly apart. It is little wonder that Master O chose Wufei to be his Gundam pilot.

Quote: "No one can change the course of history." - Wufei

Unfortunately, this tendency towards the philosophical resulted in Wufei having a very technical, removed attitude toward life and an extremely large ego. By the time we see him in Episode Zero (the manga that comes before Gundam Wing), he has already become convinced that there is no justice - and therefore, no need to fight.

Meiran

Quote: "Well, this was hardly my idea!" - Wufei, after Meiran insulted him on their wedding day

As per his clan's tradition, Wufei was married at the age of 14. His bride was a girl named Meiran, who was the grand-daughter of Elder Ron - the clan's matriarchal leader.

This was less than an ideal marriage; Meiran was Wufei's exact opposite in many ways, and the two had little grounds for communication. She preached about justice, about action and fighting, and was always training for battle; she also held a very dim view of her husband's scholarly ways and lack of desire to fight. Meiran had a high enough opinion of herself that she changed her name to "Nataku," who was an ancient warrior goddess of the Dragon clan.

Wufei found this less than amusing.

They fought often, both mentally and physically, but no matter what field they chose, Wufei was her superior - which bothered her especially because he never practiced. Wufei was simply preturnaturally gifted - with which she could not compete. Unfortunately, this served to reinforce his own views of himself and his correctness.

Oz

Quote: "Remove the dangerous element on A0206, in the L5 cluster." - General Septem, giving Sally Po the order to massacre the Dragon Clan

Not long after Wufei's marriage, General Septem began a cleansing of "non-productive" colonies, according to Treize's orders. This basically meant that they "sterilized" any colony considered unproductive - or, in the case of the Dragon Clan, dangerous to the new order. "Sterilization," of course, was just another word for killing everyone on the colony concerned.

In an odd twist of fate, the captain who was forced to be in charge of some of this particular raid was Sally Po; guilt-ridden over her actions in this particular skirmish, Sally Po eventually defected from the army and became a rebel leader - but that is part of another story.

Quote: You can't handle that thing! It's not something a woman can pilot!" - Master O, attempting to keep Meiran from killing herself in battle

When OZ attacked (using both mobile suits AND germ warfare), Meiran took the initiative to leap in one of the two gundams Dr. O had in process there and go out to fight. The gundam she took was not named, but it looked like the Tallgeese.

Wufei disagreed with her going out to fight because she was weak enough to be injured; determination was all well and good, but it wouldn't do much to save a 14-year-old-girl from her death. Determined to protect her, he jumped in the other gundam - Shenlon - and took off after her.

Quote: "The flowers are dying..." - Meiran

Much fighting ensued; Meiran was gravely injured. Wufei arrived not long after her, but as in everything else, he was suited to pilot a Gundam much more than she; by the time he reached her, she was almost dead.

Wufei did his best to remove the threat of the OZ pilots so Meiran could escape, but Meiran - who was thinking of him first as he was thinking of her - failed to leave and instead flung her gundam in the path of debris that was going to collide with Shenlon.

Her gundam was all but destroyed; Wufei managed to rescue her from the wreckage and brought her back to the colony, as per her request, but it was too late; she was already dying.

Quote: "I was... strong, wasn't I? You weren't ashamed of me as your wife, were you?"

"No. I wasn't ashamed. You're strong - stronger than anyone."

"No. You are stronger." - Meiran and Wufei, as she died

Meiran died in Wufei's arms; and the moment this happened, Wufei's path toward Gundam pilot was sealed. Disregarding his own disbelief in justice and fighting and war, Wufei took up Meiran's speeches and went to battle in her name.

The name of Nataku.

Quote: "Dont' worry about the colonies; destroy [OZ] first." - the doctors in general to the gundam pilots in general

Justice

When Meiran died, the guilt Wufei felt affected him in extreme ways. Although he had stated very clearly that he did not believe there was such a thing as justice, that fighting was a useless thing, that no one man could change the future, he willingly put away all his studies and dedicated himself to being a gundam pilot after his wife's death.

He went to earth under the heading of righting wrong, of stopping OZ from doing further damage and getting vengeance on the evils of Romefeller in the name of "justice" - which is to say, in the name of his wife. It no longer mattered that Wufei did not believe Justice existed, nor even knew what it was; what mattered was that his wife had died, and he had failed her.

Nataku

To this end, Wufei renamed the gundam Shenlon "Nataku," in respect for his wife. He believed that since she died defending it, her spirit lived in it - which is why, during the series, he was concerned that he did not have "Nataku's" approval, nor the right to pilot it. He believed throughout the series that his wife was stronger than he was, and that he deserved nothing in her place. As the embodiment of the weakness he so despised - since that weakness had led to the death of his wife - Wufei wrestled his own formative beliefs down to pilot and fight.

Unfortunately, it was not a facade he could consistently hold. His heavy emphasis on strength and on his own ability only served to distract him from the truth until he was defeated - but not killed - at the hands of Treize Kushrenada. Having lost the only thing he had been able to grasp as part of "justice," Wufei retreated from the fight for a while, convinced he no longer even had the right to touch the machine in which his wife's spirit lived.

Sexist

Quote: "I refuse to fight women and pacifists." - Wufei, to Noin

Wufei often makes disparaging remarks about women, claiming that that such weak fights depress him or are worthless. The reason, however, is not as simple as it first appears.

Remember - Wufei came from a MATRIARCHAL society; Ron Shiririn, the grandmother of his wife, was the Dragon Clan's leader, and someone he highly respected. This, combined with his persistent belief that Meiran was stronger than he could ever be, indicates that he was not as sexist as he appeared to be.

Secondly, remember that even though Meiran was strong she still died. This had a profound effect on Wufei's psyche; women who fight die - and some part of Wufei's mind could not get past this. He seemed to believe that it would be better if women did not fight and then would not have to die; no matter if they were weak or strong, if they fought, they would die. Or at least, so Wufei seemed to believe.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, what he accused Noin of was TRUE. Noin hesitated to kill Wufei because her maternal instincts leaped into play when she saw how very young he was. "A baby," she actually called him - when a man, as a trained soldier, would probably not have hesitated to kill Wufei or taken him into custody at once. If this were typical of the women Wufei fought against, then it would be a perfectly reasonable assumption on his part that women WERE often weak.

Fourthly, one of the major influences in his life as the series progresses IS a woman: Sally Po. More on this later.

So is Wufei sexist? Probably; but out of personal guilt rather than a superiority complex. As with everything else, Wufei is attempting to live a philosophy he cannot believe.

Treize

Needing an outward focus to distract himself from his obvious hypocrisy, Wufei fixated on Treize Kushrenada. The reason for this initally was simple; during the battle in which Meiran died, one of the soldiers Wufei had killed ranted about not failing "his Excellency Treize" - which indicated to Wufei that the man who'd ordered the attack on his colony had been none other than Kushrenada himself. Wufei now had a name on which to he could place blame for all all his woes: Treize Kushrenada. To Wufei, "justice" now really involved "revenge against Treize," and so, without any real belief in his own validity, Wufei continually sought for that goal.

Sally

Sally Po was the only one finally able to convince Wufei that no matter how weak or strong you were, you HAD to fight for what you believed in. She's the one who got him back in the saddle, so to speak, after Treize had defeated him in their duel, and affected Wufei enough that at the end of Endless Waltz (which I'm half inclined to disregard anyway), he joined her and worked with her presumably for a long time to come. She functioned in a way like an external conscience for him - something he desperately needed since losing his wife, his doctor (O), and his way.

Gundam

Wufei pilots two gundams in the series: Shenlon (Episode Zero, Gundam Wing) and Altron Shenlon (Gundam Wing and Endless Waltz). Both gundams are are also called Nataku (for explanation, see Why).

Shenlon-Nataku was 16.4m high (just under 54 feet) and weighed 7.4 tons. Altron-Shenlon was the same height and weighed 7.5 tons.

Shenlon's most unique weapon was called the "Dragon Fist;" the left arm was extendable to amazing length, and was also equipped with a powerful flame thrower. Altron Shenlon was able to do this with both arms, and Wufei took advantage of the extra reach in almost every battle.

Opinion

It is my personal opinion that Wufei is the most interesting of the pilots. So why did I pick Wufei? For one major reason: He's a hypocrite.

I'm not saying he's evil, or shallow, or pathetic. I'm saying that he is fighting for a cause that he adopted on behalf of his dead wife - and as such, is NOT fighting for something that HE believes in himself.

Let's not forget: he specifically said that justice did not exist.

Now, it is true that he has probably altered his opinion some time after Meiran died; however, it certainly did not happen in Gundam Wing.

In the earlier chapters,when he finally fought against Treize and lost, Wufei did not react as a young man who had a cause to uphold no matter the cost.

Rather, he behaved as a young man who'd lost what he had to live for.

He collapsed; he spent only God knows how long moping because he'd failed "Nataku," because he'd shamed her and because he was weak. A man with a purpose would not be focusing on that; if Wufei had really believed in what he preached regarding justice, he would have been focusing on the INJUSTICE of it all, and on the effects of his failure on those around him. Instead, he focused purely on his failure as proof that he was not as "strong" as his deceased wife.

Quote: "I wasn't expecting to win..." - Wufei, after killing Treize Kushrenada

In later chapters, when he succeeded in killing Treize (although it didn't exactly happen by his choice at that time), he collapsed again - this time because he had neither expected nor truly desired to win. In response, he weeps - something he was unable to do for Meiran. At the end of his battle, having succeeded in his shallow goal of revenge, Wufei was finally able to cry.

So what does all this mean? This means, in a nutshell, that Wufei is a fairly complicated character; he's highly intelligent, incredibly gifted and preturnaturally athletic - but none of those things meant that he ever belonged on the battlefield.

This is the reason why he chose odd, more personal attacks than most. For example, why he attacked the dorms rather than the mobile suits at Victoria Base; the viciousness that comes with such an attack is highly personal - vengeful, and not at all the norm. This is ironic especially because by attacking in the way he did, Wufei ensured that he would never see his victim's faces - making it as impersonal as possible.