What was your first Gundam series?
// Wing. Not on Toonami/the original NA airing circa 2000 or so (though I remember my friend drawing Heero Yuy in class at the time and explaining ‘he keeps things in those shorts’), but on my own, in 2002…
I kept reading all this “yaoi fanfiction” on the “internet” and decided I wanted to see what the actual show was about, I think…
Lo and behold, I don’t see 1x2 (Heero x Duo), I don’t see 3x4 (Trowa x Quatre)… I see Quatre x Heero (or 4x1x4 as I affectionately dub it).
So the manga was a little different but the idea’s the same. ^_^;
(btw, no, I never shipped Kira and Athrun. :P …it’s why I ship(ped) Athrun and Cagalli, though — they tried to kill each other a couple of times, too… I have a very long and detailed list about how those two are really Heero and Quatre… ;)
Anyway, I discover most fanfiction is pretty bad and most characterization in most fic is REALLY bad.
…I also discover that despite GW basically turning into the Heero/Quatre Show for the third quarter or so, it seems like nobody ships it…
In addition I totally fall in love with Quatre as my favorite for no apparent reason that will later be explained, perhaps *cough*Newtype*cough*…
(all the cast is, really, maybe, that’s why they’re the young people who change the world. but Q is the poster child.)
…and so then eventually I decide to see why everybody keeps talking about the original and “UC” and this “Ah-MOO-row”…
…but that’s another story.
tl;dr: I still ship my original Gundam OTP, and still have a special place for GW. It doesn’t have the messy gutpunch realism and anguish of UC or SEED/GSD, but the stylized drama and idealization and hope of AC is nice to watch, too. It’s a very well-produced, what, five-act opera? As Treize-sama would approve.
I ♡ do love me some Gundam.