Untitled Tallgeese Podcast

The school year is over and it's time for yearbook superlatives. As of episodes 37 and 39, here are your winners:

• Most likely to be crowned Miss Universe on account of literally being queen of the world right now: Relena Peacecraft.
• Most dead: Tsubarov (RIP).
• Most likely to transform into a leather daddy for the Pride parade: Gundam Epyon.
• Most likely to be caught in the middle of a fight for unions in the after colony gig economy: Duo Maxwell.
• Most likely to begin a sentence with "As an empath...": Quatre Raberba Winner. 
• Most likely to be cancelled on Twitter for her problematic behavior: Catherine (and we have the receipts).
• Most likely to run off with the circus: this show, which can't resist another circus scene.
• Most unfortunate karaoke song: Trowa's seiyuu's valiant rendition of his image song, "The Clown," which along with more recent anime-inspired music like Richie Branson's Wing Zero EP is our fandom artifact for this episode.

Back from our unplanned hiatus, it’s Untitled Tallgeese Podcast! Today on Gundams of Our Lives: The Wind Beneath Our Wings, we visit Space China, home of Wufei, and our hosts get into what, exactly, is going on with Chineseness in Space China. Did you know there’s an alternative universe where Wufei is from Africa? But in this universe, Gundam Wing’s main African representation is… the circus lion, because that’s right, we’re back in the circus, which is now in space. That’s the real reason we went on hiatus: faced with the prospect of releasing another episode about a Gundam circus, now forced to discuss the mechanics of launching an elephant into space, we podcasters could no longer take the indignity. We are on strike until Sunrise takes away our bread and circuses. Nonetheless, we push through to talk about the fandom artifact: the Gundam Wing cassette dramas! For those of us who need Duo to give us a wake-up call in the morning.

2021 is about to leave us like Heero leaving the Sanc Kingdom the minute Relena takes her eyes off him, but before we go, your hosts are here to talk religion, make fun of Treize, and talk disastrous hookups—and we'll never be out of disastrous hookups! We're finally introduced to the dark and edgy outer senshi Gundam Epyon, which Treize has lovingly stashed away in a dark creepy mansion complete with his secret shrine dedicated to Heero Yuy figurines and photographs. Just kidding! He doesn't have a shrine! But he does have a lot of Feelings about Heero Yuy which he can't wait to share with us in a very long monologue, so long that we rise up like Nietzsche to declare that God--I mean Treize--is dead and Heero climbs into a deathtrap mobile suit just to get him to shut up. Come for token straight (literally) woman Cathy sharing her 1xR and 4x9 feelings and stay for Caitlin walking us through the October 1995 issue of Puff Magazine, which featured Gundam Wing trivia, fanart, doujinshi circles, and an advertisement for a Dial Fun Club. Happy New Year from your friends at Untitled Tallgeese Pod!

We're still at Relena's School for Girls (and Two Boys!) Who Want to Craft Peace, except one girl came out here to have a good time and her idea of a good time is attacking and getting attacked. Dorothy doesn't have time for your thoughts on gender essentialism and pacifism or the battle between Bad Oz and Treize Oz. She's just here to stab Heero in a fencing duel and drive Relena straight into the middle of a mobile suit battle! Honestly, big mood. And speaking of moods, we delve deep into every one of the many vibes Duo is putting out in episode 32, from "the only pilot in a healthy heterosexual relationship with someone who is not his sister" to "divorced dad in the streets, sexy goth Gundam in the sheets" to killing Trant Clark for being too online. One day Mike Flanagan will take all of the Zero System episodes from this series and turn them into a limited-run Netflix horror show, where the Zero System is a symbol for capitalism (probably) and Duo will finally be the Hot Priest Character we all knew he could be. But for the time being, you'll just have to stick with us as we pour over this week's artifact: the manga prequel Episode Zero, which explains why you keep hearing about the Maxwell Church, Meiran, and Midi Une.

Close your eyes. Imagine a beach. The sand between your toes. The sound of waves. Your eyes are shrouded in unexpectedly detailed eyelashes. Your friend sits beside you. The setting sun brings a new vibrancy to his platinum blonde hair. Two dogs run up to you. You throw a pineapple for them. You are at peace. Your name is Heero Yuy and your animation budget has just been replenished. Okay, enough of that: we have some questions. First of all, where is this beach jungle of Europe? Is total pacifism possible or is it merely schoolgirl naïveté? Why do people love war? Do freaky pointed eyebrows correlate with loving war? What other eyebrow shapes indicate political positions? Can dogs even eat pineapple? A little pineapple as a treat? We carefully research (read: totally make up) answers to these questions and more at the fancy shoujo manga rich girl school where Relena is a student, a teacher, the principal, the school board, the student council president, and the actual president of the whole country. How does she have time to do all that when she has an evil new girlfriend with a car? For our fandom artifact, Kat and Mallory played 1996 Super Nintendo game Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Endless Duel, a game about beating dudes.

In this episode, your hosts wax philosophic on anime and politics like they're college sophomores getting high off that good, good Zero System Juice. Cathy grandstands with her unified theory of anime, Caitlin breaks down just what the glory of the losers means, Mallory threads the needle of drone warfare and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Kat asks all the important questions, like "Is Quatre psychic?" and "What kind of health benefits does OZ offer?" and "Does competency get Duo hot?" (Hint: yes, yes it does.) This is the pseudo-season finale, so we're heavy on the heavy stuff, but in our defense these episodes featured two mental breakdowns, Trowa in a space coma, the Gundam scientists being huge assholes, and Treize risking it all just so he can tell a bunch of Romefeller guys he has a crush on the Gundam pilots. Thankfully, our fandom artifact -- fan postcards from the 1995 GW issues of MEGU Magazine -- helps us end things on a lighter note.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's—Quatre in Wing Zero threatening to blow up a colony! Trowa might be horrified, but we're delighted, by the artistic flair and horror movie vibes on display anyway. Caitlin reveals that she's been moonlighting as the strategist for all the Gundam pilots; too bad no one has been getting her transmissions from the Lunar Base—except for Duo, who gives us all the fanservice we could possibly ask for in these last two episodes, from getting beat up to giving moving political speeches to finally getting his government assigned female love interest in Hilde. We recount in detail how Wufei definitely kissed Duo to shut him up and save oxygen, contemplate how Oz predates fake news, tear out our hair over Heero's deadpan sense of humor, and get into our very millennial concerns of burnout and being told to die for your job, because space terrorist is a profession and this is definitely not projection, okay? Lastly, our fandom artifact is something near and dear to the hearts of all Toonami fans: the trailer for Gundam Wing's debut on American airwaves and the promo video "Space is the Place."

The wings of the tall-goose continue to flap as we brave episodes 21 and 22 of Gundam Wing. Today, we learn that Quatre has sisters—uncountable, unknowable sisters! Doctor Sisters, Lawyer Sisters, Never-Met-The-Boy-Before Sisters! Sisters sprouting from the soil, sisters flowing from the sea, sisters bursting in the air— oh, wait, sorry, that was his dad. We discuss our plans to eat the rich, represented by Quatre’s dad—but do we want to eat the rich politically or eat the rich erotically? Quatre’s battle with his father goes full Freud when we notice a central feature of Papa Space Baron’s appearance. We discuss the philosophy of colony life as narrated by Septum’s (do you remember Septum?) dad and his son [threatening voice] Gwinter. Then we break last episode’s ban on discussing Lady Une because, surprise surprise, she has once again misunderstood Treize’s religion (which is himself, but not in the way she thought). Wufei is also around doing things because of things. I support him! You go, Wufei! Both episodes end with mad cackling. For our fandom artifact, Caitlin took a field trip to a Gundam Wing collaboration event at cat-themed arcade/amusement park Namjatown and learned her love fortune.

Today we follow the lives and loves of average young adults on a college campus through Gundam Wing episodes 19 and 20: Zechs Merquise has graduated from Earth High School and plans to shed his emo mask boy image with a total reinvention when he starts at Space University. He studies Mobile Suits in Classical Japanese Literature with eccentric Prof. Howard. Professor Lady Une (do NOT call her “Lady” or, worse, “Mrs. Une”) is offering her famous course on Military Propaganda this semester and everyone at S.U. is enrolled. For her advanced students, she is also teaching a seminar on The Psychology of Fascism, but her senior pet Nichol is beginning to notice that some days she’s her usual hard-ass self and sometimes she’s like “Oh, I’ll give you an A+ just because you tried.” Wufei, however, was earning every bit of his A+ on the “Attacking Barge” assignment, before crashing and burning on the final. Meanwhile, Duo is struggling at S.U. because he’s so good-looking no one takes him seriously; everyone treats him like a dumb baka! He can’t enroll in Public Executions 101 and they made him take The Aesthetics of Getting Your Ass Beat twice! His casual hook-up Heero is excelling in The Biology of Machines and spending a lot of time with Trowa, the T.A. for Prof. Mercurius’s Chinese Literature Through Idioms course. In Advanced Fandom Artifact Archaeology, we dust off Super Robot Wars and other Gundam games to problematize the question of “Who would smash who?” versus “Who would smooch who?” Surprise, we don’t actually answer anything—that's academics for you! Bam!

Like your favorite danmei drama, this episode is full of death and rebirth: Zechs Merquise dies and is reborn as Milliardo Peacecraft, Heero is reborn as transfer student Duo Maxwell, and this podcast is reborn as Lagrange Colony Trap House as we skeptically evaluate the colony's response to Lady Une's political machinations. Have you missed us talking about Lady Une? Well, worry not, because for the next few episodes, we can't shut up about Lady Une, how she performs femininity in her ambassador role, if she's lost her mind, and whether or not it's all a tribute to Utena/Rose of Versailles/Hitchcock. Quatre self-destructs in an attempt to vie for our attention, but we like Romefeller and Treize are fully occupied with the dilemma of the mobile dolls and what they mean for the agency of human pilots. Sorry Quatre! Maybe in your next life, you'll be reborn as the main character, the way your character was intended. Our fandom artifact for this episode is a deeper dive into the speech Heero "Definitely Duo Maxwell" Yuy gives at the end of episode 18, a transcript of which is available at https://gwepisode50.tumblr.com/post/121506858735/heeros-brutally-honest-speech. 

The final stop in our apology roadtrip is Antarctica, where Zechs has planned a mobile suit battle that will ultimately end up merging Heero with Gundam Heavyarms and triggering the Second Impact. Wait, sorry, wrong series! We give props to Trowa for his emotional labor, Treize doesn't actively kill a metaphorical baby but it's a close shave, and Relena commits a federal mail crime-- but it's all in service of creating a better future for Heero. And while GW's lasting legacy should be how the Antarctica duel actually gives us characterization through piloting styles, it probably remains most well-known for its outrageous promo art, which is this episode's fandom artifact. Check out our socials next week for some examples!

In Episodes 13 and 14 of Gundam Wing, it’s all eyes on Trowa in the center of the ring just like a circus he’s about to blow up. Baby, he’s a put-on-a-show kind of girl, so he’s going to do some terrorism and self-destruct. Luckily, Catherine punches him in the face, as all of us wish to do to all Gundam pilots. Sunrise wastes some great goggle-wearing designs on one-off characters who exist only to allow Zechs to claim ethical superiority. The podcasters wonder if all anime is fascist—wow, @ past us, that’s a little extreme, let’s calm down. But we toss aside our serious analysis of politics to get to what’s really important: World Apology Tour Featuring Heero and Trowa. They spent all that time alone on the road together—what did they do—did they accidentally brush hands—did they keep glancing at each other but missing when the other one looks back—we become feverish with possibilities. Heero apologizes to a Relena clone while Relena herself gets a fashion upgrade and yells at some old men. For our fandom artifact, we look at a map of the Gundam pilots movements for the first 17 episodes, bringing new meaning to the phrase “Trowa the bloody clown.” The map is available with translation and color coding courtesy of GW Episode 50, available online at https://gwepisode50.tumblr.com/post/128770106040/gundam-wing-world-map-episodes-1-17. 

Just because you can't travel in the pandemic doesn't mean you can't visit ARAB WORLD and CHINA WORLD with Cathy, Caitlin, Kat, Mallory, and the cast of Gundam Wing! We had too much fun last episode talking about shipping and sex, so naturally this episode is absolutely no fun at all as we delve into colonialism and nationalism as it applies to Sichu—sorry, the Autonomous Mountain Region of China, whether shipping Wufei and Sally is weird psychosexual incest, Trowa's teenage terrorist trauma, and just how incredibly hot Noin is when she pulls up in a motorcycle to save Relena from dying while in her best Revolutionary Girl Utena cosplay. Whoops, I guess that part about having no fun at all was a lie. This episode's fandom artifact is the state of fan internet and webrings circa early 2000s, including the Society for the Defense of Duo's Intelligence.

OZ begins to conquer Alliance-held countries on today’s episodes of Gundam Wing, leading Caitlin, Kat, Mallory, and Cathy to ask the hard-hitting questions: Are Trieze and Zechs having sex? If so, how serious are they? We discuss Zechs’s devoted underlings, including poor Otto who dies in the unstable Tallgeese—is that why we named our podcast after it?! Duo and Heero briefly star in a sports anime, The Basketball That Heeroko Plays, and we relaunch our campaign to make sure Wufei gets shipped with everyone, starting with a romantic coffee date with Trowa. Then the three podcast Sort-of-Catherines reckon with the show’s Catherine as an uncanny shadow form of ourselves. Finally, we all come to understand the true heart of OZ thanks to… the black plague? Sorry, Lady Une, read up on feudalism next time. For our fandom artifact, we relive the melodious prose of Animerica magazine c. April 2000 and discover a quote that unlocks all the secrets of Gundam Wing’s gender relations. For listeners who want to follow along, most of the Animerica Gundam Wing issue is available online at https://www.animenostalgiabomb.com/mobile-suit-gundam-wing-castle-of-cagliostro-trigun-animerica-april-2000/, thanks to Anime Nostalgia Bomb. 

Pacifism is, like, so last episode of Gundam Wing as Caitlin, Kat, Mallory, and Cathy make like Heero and carve up a plane full of well-meaning but nonsensical plot points. Join us as we fail to explain why Wufei and Treize can communicate seemingly through foghorns and crossed swords, if Treize is sexist, classist, or both (definitely both), where Zechs got that beautiful engraved ivory pistol, and how to wake you or your local Gundam pilot from a failure coma. And in our fandom artifact section, Caitlin shares some stories from the all-seme Duo-focused doujinshi collection "Phallus Sex Symbol." We may not know what the Soul of OZ is, but we definitely know that seme Duo tops Rashid and is taller than any man in the world. (Cathy is sorry for her audio in the first ten minutes and promises to stop broadcasting from a mobile suit at the bottom of the ocean.)

In this episode, Caitlin, Kat, Mallory, and Cathy get fully on board with Relena's groupies as Relena bravely faces down Lady Une's exploding makeup compact, OZ mobile suits descending on her school, and one of at least three attempts by Heero Yuy to kill her. We take a detour into the mystery of how the characters were named, unintentionally kill the whole circus industry like the millennials we are, intentionally attempt to kill Quatre with space tuberculosis, and discuss the romantic implications of telling someone you want to be "attacked." Finally, have you ever wondered why Heero's eyes were specifically described as "Prussian blue" or why we know Treize is "Aryan?" Tune in for our fandom artifact section where we discuss the official Sunrise character profiles and what they did or didn't tell us.

In this episode, Caitlin, Kat, Mallory, and Cathy trawl the seas (unsuccessfully) for a deeper understanding of the setting and the political tensions between the Alliance and OZ, debate whether or not rich schools cover math (no, you only learn horseback riding and fencing), revisit our 14-year-old mean girl selves in Relena, and debate hiring practices for circuses. In our fandom artifact section, we talk about the music of Gundam Wing, which both gave us hits like the OP, Two Mix's classic "Just Communication," but also far lesser-known character songs like Duo Maxwell's character song, "Good Luck & Good Bye." 

The year is 2020, After Gundam 41. After decades of vaguely remembering Gundam Wing canon, a group of rebels in various states of fandom participation (anime and others) decided to come together to record a podcast where they slowly but surely rewatch the series. Three of these brave individuals have finished the series in its entirety, but the fourth will be making their first attempt at completing the journey. This podcast goes by the name of "Untitled Tallgeese Podcast."

Join Kat, Mallory, Caitlin, and Cathy in this introductory episode where we talk about our history with watching (or not watching) Gundam Wing, how it was marketed to American audiences on Cartoon Network's Toonami, the broader context of the Gundam universe and mecha anime, our memories of what characters we loved, and give our predictions of what pairings we'll come out of this shipping.

More information (including a transcript and our socials) can be found at our Tumblr: untitledtallgeesepodcast.tumblr.com.