July 12: Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (XAW, Day 7)

[Zeke]

Day 7 comin' at ya, and this one's really outta nowhere. Tate, of Chex Quest fame, has been writing a number of other fivers. Today he hits 5M.net's newest section, becoming its first guest writer -- and unperturbed by the fact that I wrote off this whole genre in a previous fiver.

Here's Five-Minute Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz. I have it on Tate's authority that there are five Gundams and five pilots, so there's the XAW connection. I'd actually have settled for counting the number of letters in "Gundam Wing", but I'm easy to please.

By the way, Tate wrote this as a birthday present for his sister. Happy birthday, Tate's sister!

[Derek]

I have no idea what any of that said, Tate, but it was still pretty funny. You had a lot of good timing in your fiver.

Dekim: Oh that's right. You and Zechs are siblings. You're both Peacecrafts.
Relena: That's right, but what we need in the face of your tyranny is a world of warcraft!
Dekim: Enough with your foolish games!

Nice.

[NAHTMMM]

Relena: How do you do? I'm the Vice Foreign Minister of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation.
Ambassador: I'm glad to meet you. Please have some tea. I have so many questions for you. Like: why does a one world government need a foreign minister?
Relena: I've wondered that myself. By the way, this tea isn't drugged, is it?
Ambassador: Maybe a little.

*double-snerk*

Mariemaia: (over planet-wide television) I'm declaring myself Queen of the World. My colony of X18999 is rebelling against Earth. We're mainly upset about being given such a stupid name

Sounds totally justified to me.

Duo: Well, don't worry about us; we'll be fine. But feel free to try to intercept the garbage scow on its way to the sun if you want to.
Quatre: Good idea. Quatre out.
(Pause)
Duo: I wonder if he thought I was being serious.

*snerk*

Mariemaia: You turned evil whenever you wore those glasses.
Une: I think there was something wrong with the prescription.

[PointyHairedJedi]

I chuckled; the real thing sounds baffling enough that I'm surprised you could make enough sense of it to five it, Tate...

[Tate]

Originally Posted by PointyHairedJedi

I chuckled; the real thing sounds baffling enough that I'm surprised you could make enough sense of it to five it, Tate...

Just be glad I didn't five the series itself. I couldn't even make sense of that. This sequel movie is more than complex enough for a fiver.

DISCLAIMER: DA da da DA da da DA da da DA da da DA da da... hey, who stopped the music? We weren't done!

Nice touch, Zeke.
I'm glad you guys like my fiver. Maybe someday I'll five something that isn't hopelessly obscure.

Here's a suggestion: try to find all the references I've included in the fiver. The "Zero Wing" reference is pretty obvious, but I've also included references to Mega Man and Death Note, and a few shout outs to TVTropes. Incidentally, my sister is a fan of all three. (Bonus points if you figure out why I put some of these references in the lines of certain characters).

[Zeke]

I wondered if that Mega Man reference was deliberate! I'm such a huge fan that I tend to see references that aren't there... but slipping a capitalized Wily and the words "break, man" into a line about a guy named Duo seemed like more than mere chance. (Was that all of them?)

[Tate]

Originally Posted by Zeke

(Was that all of them?)

Not quite. I also included a reference to Battle Network/NT Warrior. A hint: in the real Gundam Wing anime, Quatre actually did have twenty nine older sisters... but no brothers.

Originally Posted by Zeke

... but slipping a capitalized Wily and the words "break, man" into a line about a guy named Duo seemed like more than mere chance.

Ironically, that Mega Man reference was applied to Duo for a reason completely unrelated to his name. A hint: think of your member title: "Super Fighting Robot!"

[Tate]

In case you all were wondering (you were wondering, right?) about those references I mentioned, I thought I'd explain them.

Quatre: Give me a break, man. Duo's not that Wily. How naïve do you think I am?

As Zeke pointed out, this is a reference to Proto Man (aka Break Man) and Dr. Wily from Mega Man. Duo also happens to be the name of a Mega Man character. But there's a different reason I put this reference in a line about Duo. In the English dub of Gundam Wing, Duo is voiced by Scott McNeil, who also voiced both Proto Man and Dr. Wily in the Mega Man cartoon series.

Duo: You're such a wimp, Quatre. It probably comes from your family. How many sisters do you have again?
Quatre: I have twenty-nine older sisters. I also had a brother named Hub, but we don't talk about him much

Another Mega Man reference. In Megaman Battle Network, the main character (Lan Hikari) had a brother named Hub. Hub died but was turned into a computer program: "Megaman.exe". This is another voice actor joke, as Quatre is voiced by Brad Swaile, who voiced Lan in the anime "Megaman: NT Warrior".

Professor G: And letting people die would really conflict with your "shinigami" persona.
Duo: That's right! What kind of personification of death would I be if I let people die? Wait a minute...
Professor G: Forget about it. And forget about Operation Meteor too. Just steal Deathscythe and fly to Earth on your own.
Duo: Hey great idea. In return, you can take this notebook I don't need anymore.

In the anime, Duo refers to himself as "shinigami". This is translated variously as "the great destroyer" in the kid-friendly dub, and "the god of death" in the mature dub. Basically, shinigami is the Japanese equivalent of the grim reaper. It's also the name of the beings in Death Note who are responsible for the death note (a notebook that kills people whose names are written in it). Hence, as shinigami, Duo hands out a notebook.

Quatre: Let me just write all those names down in this notebook; I'll never remember them otherwise.
Duo: Uh...where did you get that notebook?

Brad Swaile also voiced Light Yagami (or Kira) in the Death Note anime, which is why Quatre is the one writing names in the notebook.

And now for the TV Tropes references:
At the end of the Gundam Wing series, it looked like Zechs died. But then he got better.
Heero accidentally killed a girl, and her little dog too. (Of course, this is also a Wizard of Oz reference)
Heero frequently says "I'll kill you!"; this is an ineffectual death threat.
Finally, I turned Mariemaia into someone who wants Relena to die for her ship. (That page actually uses Relena as its chief example) Mariemaia also qualifies as a "shipper on deck" and a yaoi fangirl. This is to poke fun at the rampant hatred of Relena among the Gundam Wing fanbase, especially among the yaoi contingent. Just in case you were wondering, all these aspects of Mariemaia were invented for the fiver, the character in the actual movie is nothing like that.

I'd also like to give credit for the lines I blatantly ripped from other fivers: "KABLAZMO!"
"That probably wasn't the best time to bluff, was it?"
"Everyone's entitled to one fatal mistake".

[Nate the Great]

I wish I could muster the enthusiasm to shill for TV Tropes, but I just don't have it in me.

[Loverly Light]

As you know, I love this. 'Twas an awesome birthday present. ^^

[Zeke]

Welcome, LL! Sorry about the holdup with your registration.