BRO-FIST: 01 and 03 style
If there’s a common stereotype for Heero and Trowa that I never really bought, it’s that they are extremely cold and emotionless. There are countless scenes in the series that disproved those labels for both, but I think the major “debunker” is their interactions when they worked together. That’s that series chunk I officially referred to as the Heero-Trowa Bro Arc. :p
Remember Heero’s first successful self-detonation? It was Trowa who took him and nursed him back to health (that’s a good debunker for the Trowa stereotype, but we already know the guy’s got a penchant for looking after…um, broody pilots. Looking at you, Wufei). Heero wakes up after a month; Trowa gives him updates. The next thing we know, Heero’s joking about self-detonation and Trowa is laughing about it. It isn’t exactly a light moment, but at least we see them shed their ultra-seriousness for a while. It’s also a nice touch to remind the audience they’re watching…well, humans. These kids are focused on their missions, they’re calculated, but they are not robots. They really can’t be “perfect weapons” or “perfect soldiers.”
After that, we see Trowa taking Heero’s follow-your-emotions advice to heart. (We also see how that didn’t work for the first time, thanks to Catherine’s tears and infamous bastard punch.) Heero then leaves the circus to find and apologize to the relatives of the Alliance leaders he mistakenly killed…and Trowa accompanies him. The thing here is, Trowa doesn’t need to do that. He can stay in the circus and let Heero do his self-appointed mission. But he goes anyway, the reasons unclear.
Now this is where Trowa switches on what I remembered calling his “concerned mom” mode. He acts as if he still feels a little responsible for Heero. He throws a lot of “Take better care of your body,” “Don’t overdo it, your arm is still injured,” “Leave it to me and take a rest” (check out episodes 12-16). And apparently Heero doesn’t think of the other guy’s concern as too intrusive. He even gives out a lot of thank-you’s in return. Like when they discovered they’re being followed by OZ agents:
Trowa: Going from place to place like this, I knew it’d only be a matter of time before someone found us.
Heero: I’ll take care of it.
Trowa: Wait. You shouldn’t overdo it in the state you’re in. I’ll stop them.
Heero: Thank you.
The Heero I know from a couple of episodes earlier might have said something like, “I don’t need your help, I can take care of this myself.” I like how he’s not rejecting any of Trowa’s attempts at helping him. It’s weird, but I think this is actually Heero’s way of thanking Trowa: by giving the guy his trust.
This extends even to when they traveled to Antarctica for a duel with Zechs. Since Heero won’t accept Zech’s charity—the repaired Wing—he borrows Trowa’s Heavyarms instead. Heero adjusts and repairs the heck out of the mecha, but our Mother Hen Trowa tells him to take it easy. He takes Heero’s place and does all necessary adjustments, with Heero’s injuries in mind.
The Heero-Trowa Bro Arc ends when they go to space again to fight OZ, if I remember correctly. Many things happened after that—there’s Vayeate-Mercurius arc, the ZERO!Quatre incident, the amnesiac Trowa arc, etc. They did not interact so much then, but they grew separately as characters, providing more debunkers for the common pigeonhole.
(You know, I didn’t plan to write anything this long. I just found the above image in one of my old folders and I was only writing a caption. Now look what it became.)
PS: I remember this scene where Quatre is trying to snap the amnesiac Trowa, under the influence of ZERO, back to his senses. Quatre reminds him of the people he wants to protect and I initially thought it’s bizarre that Heero’s the first person that flashed in his mind, followed by Catherine and Quatre.
But then I mused, maybe somewhere along the way Heero really has become a significant person to him. After all, that’s the guy that reminds him it’s okay to follow his heart. I believe he has always heeded that advice ever since Heero gave it. When he sacrifices himself so an unstable Quatre would come back to his senses, I believe he’s following his heart. When he pledges to protect and come back to Cathy, he’s following his heart. And we he takes off to space to fight alongside others again, he’s following his heart too.
The whole thing may be a good anchor for the 1x3 ship, but personally I see them just as really, really good comrades. They click together as partners. :)
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