Well, that was a doozy. Then again, that seems to be par for the course with Season 2. Whereas Season 1 was a slow burn up until the end, crazy stuff seems to happen a lot more frequently this season.
So due to Prospera’s actions, Gund-Arm is faced with a massive PR disaster that they’re ill-equipped to handle. Suletta once again takes her mind off things by attending class. Petra (Yuuki Hirose0), Lauda’s secretary, provides Suletta with some notes she took as a sort of thanks for the latter’s actions during the campus attack earlier in the season. Petra is another one of those characters that I’ve never mentioned before because they’ve done squat beforehand. I’m noticing a trend with this show’s cast. I do like seeing of the Jeturk kids warm up to Suletta but this would mean a lot more if Petra was a more prominent character. Also questionable is Petra’s apparent romantic interest with Lauda. Like yeah, we have seen these two work together but they barely have any actual chemistry with each other. Also, Lauda? Really?
Now aware of Shaddiq’s alliance with Dawn of Fold, Guel and Avery’s team head back to Asticassia to confront him. Shaddiq actually saves them the trouble by intercepting them with his team and admitting his crimes, resulting in him and Guel squaring off against each other. Shaddiq hopes to keep Guel pre-occupied while he has Sarius relocated. He also allows Norea, El5n, and Nika to be released, thereby enabling Norea to attack the school campus on her Gundam and force Avery and his men to focus their attention elsewhere.
The fight between Guel and Shaddiq is perhaps the first real interaction between the two and it gets very heated. I would say Shaddiq’s animosity towards Guel is a bit surprising but only because he’s never really expressed it before. Given his character, it does make sense that he’d resent Guel for being a rich Spacian boy and the son of a shady businessman. Him blaming Guel for Miorine’s recent misfortune is a bit far-fetched though. I mean, Guel really has nothing to do with it and Miorine honestly brought that upon herself. Guel’s hatred is a easier to understand from the get go. Shaddiq did play a part in Vim’s death and even though Guel understands Shaddiq’s intention, the fact remains that the latter is a straight up terrorist who has gone too far.
Discourse aside, I really dig this fight. The animation and fight choreography in Witch from Mercury is generally quite good but goddamn does it shine here, especially towards the end. I particularly enjoy how even the fight is. Shaddiq seems to have the upper hand most of the fight but Guel doesn’t know when to quit and his Daribalde is armed and versatile enough to back him up.
Most surprisingly, Guel comes out of the fight as the victor. I suppose that’s the expected outcome but man, after seeing Guel’s losing streak and getting a win handed to him, I’m amazed that this show actually gives him an honest, legit victory. Has this guy overcome his horrible luck or is this a massive fluke? Honestly, I am leaning towards the latter. Right before Shaddiq surrenders, Lauda inadvertently learns that Guel is the one who killed Vim. Lauda may be incredibly loyal to his brother but that’s bound to cause some sort of divide between them.
As for Norea, she uses her Gundam and Gundvölvas to avenge the recent attack on Earthians, resulting in many students getting injured or killed. This would admittedly sting more if the casualties were characters we actually knew but seeing so much destruction on Witch from Mercury‘s main location is still a shocking sight to see. Dominicus tries to protect the campus, with Avery taking on Norea himself. I haven’t been able to mentioned it before but Avery is actually the same enemy pilot shown in the prologue episode (and yeah, he really let himself go). Kind of a shame that the show doesn’t do much with this guy but I do at least like that he puts up a decent fight here, having a lot more experience against Gundams than the average person.
El5n arrives to the scene in Sophie’s Gundam and he manages to convince Norea to stop her rampage and run away with him, only for Norea to get killed by a Dominicus sniper. I have mixed feelings on Norea’s death. With how much harm she’s caused, seeing her live and run off could be a bitter pill to swallow. Conversely, this scene does make me feel sad that Norea dies. She and El5n are both kids who feel they have nothing to live for and El5n hopes that the two of them could maybe change that together. But in the end, Norea doesn’t even get that chance. If not for Norea, I certainly feel for El5n here. Just when he thinks he’s found a kindred spirit, he finds himself alone again.
During Norea’s rampage, Nika reunites with Earth House. While they obviously have a lot of catching up to do, everyone puts that aside so that they can tune a mobile suit for Chuchu to use to defend the school. After the fight, they reunite with Suletta and help her search for survivors. I really hope their assistance in the recovery effort will help them in the long run. With all the recent Gundam-related attacks, they’re bound to face even more discrimination so maybe some of the survivors will come to their defense.
Watch Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury on Crunchyroll
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