Apology in Advance for the probable incoming Sulemio v Destiel Poll posts.

There are layers to why the dumb ship poll has me feeling so passionate, some are: -Sulemio more or less checked off a Bucket List Want I thought I would die before seeing it become a reality. That being: a Sapphic Anime couple where the main focus and story doesn't revolve around discovering or accepting their sexuality and showing it can be a successful story public perception wise and money wise (G Witch has some of that self discovery stuff but it's like a D or E level plot). And having it so the gay relationship can't be perceived away as besties or sisterhood or with a Bury Your Gays end. -wlw/GL ships constantly getting overshadowed by mlm ships or get played down to hype up mlm ships because "there can only be 1 lgbtqi+ ship" mentality in fandoms. -Sulemio fandom was vibing and more or less quiet until this rewoke us up here on Tumblr. We are all once again speaking and writing deep analytical lengthy posts about how deep, well written and portrayed the love between both characters were not only in subtext but throughly explicit sentences in dialogue or actions of Suletta and Miorine, and the world around them. I am very happy to join in and revisit the awesomeness that their story was since I can't truly replicate the journey that was watching their story as it developed in real time. (Shout out to my 2 het cis male acquaintances who nagged me to give G Witch a shot back when only ep 0 and 1 were out you guys freaking amazing. Bros gave me unforgettable memories.) -But a big one I see not getting talked about a lot is how this match up is giving a big and much needed reality check to western-media-live-action-only-consumers/fans that: Just because something is an animation it does not make that type of art/storytelling/show/whatever you want to call it inferior to live action. A few years back I saw so many west live action tv fans shit endlessly and mercilessly on Magical Girl Utena because of a similar ship poll where it had come down to live action fandom ship vs canon anime ship. (iykyk, I don't want to restart that shit up again since it hurt a lot to watch as someone who liked the ship that was leading but didn't watch Utena-I'm too weak for that hurt- see the show and its contribution towards actual wlw/gl representation get shit on) A lot of the criticisms and punchlines of statements were mocking people for getting attached to cartoons as "grown ass adults"; a criticism any animation enjoyer probably knows all too well. Post so many animation shows in western streaming sites get cancelled or be erased and locked behind vaults because the CEOs think there is no fanbase or value in creating animation, this sentiment more towards animated shows with depth in their stories. I think back to that poll and the ensuing shit show. To think about that back then and see a reflection of that situation with the Ship (Sulemio) that has been stated to be inspired by the ship from Utena (Utenanthy) that was shat on so much by similar media consumers back then who perceived and said animation is a lesser form of storytelling-after seeing so many animation shows I enjoyed get cancelled because of this same sentiment from people thinking no adult wants animation as entertainment- to see Sulemio beat "the greater known" ship from a western live action media show that didn't even want the gay representation associated with itself, it feels like properly bandaging a seeping wound that you were letting "dry out". This all still feels like ship war with ships and fandoms that shouldn't have reason to beef, but the catharsis of seeing such a: powerful, moving, and overall amazing story that is Gundam the Witch from Mercury (free on Youtube to watch btw) and Sulemio's love story get recognized when it still feels like animation as a storytelling device gets looked down upon and has partially been erased, is making me cautiously optimistic that maybe in a few years we can get our amazing in depth animated shows that got taken away because animated storytelling is "just for kids" or "isn't good enough".

Day 243, two more faces done and several of the previously done faces edited! My roommate has final say in character designs because this is his untitled gunpla comic I'm drawing for, I'm just the art monkey, and he said he pictured her younger when I showed him my progress yesterday. And I was like "??? younger how????" And he didn't really have an answer because there's a reason I'm in charge of the art, so I figured rounder faces tend to look more youthful, so if I make her face rounder she'll look younger, right? Right??? Anyway I haven't shown him yet so we'll see what he has to say later.

near as i can tell the sequence of events on social media with gwitch recently is:

-magazine interview where suletta’s va openly states suletta and miorine are a married couple at the end of the show (confirming what the text already made extremely obvious with the rings, them cuddling, and eri calling miorine “sister in law”)

-(btw ever since the show ended the writer okuchi has been on twitter liking sulemio art and tweets where people thanked him for the gay representation)

-this interview causes sulemio to trend on twitter. apparently a lot of people on the jp side still felt it was ambiguous until this explicit statement (lol this really is jp korrasami)

-a week? a few days? later, the digital version of that magazine interview is released and kana’s statement on sulemio being married… has been conspicuously edited out. 

-this causes uproar and backlash on social media

- today the official gwitch twitter released a weak statement of appeasement trying to play both sides and say the relationship is “up to interpretation”

typical homophobic executives meddling and stepping on the work of all the artists that made the show. its so dumb, but i cant say im surprised. ive had some criticisms of gwitch’s queer rep, like how miorine says gay romance is normal in this future yet we never see any other explicit gay pairings, or how the show spent a lot of season 2 keeping the girls separated from each other. but its obvious now the kind of restrictions the anime’s team were operating under when you have suits like this at the top. clearly they had to fight hard to get as much as we did. it sucks, but it doesnt really change my feelings on the show. its over now and the dumb old men at the top cant really change the text of the show even if they want to.

Huh, just realised something. Gundam normally makes a big deal about red Mobile suits, since it’s the colour associated with Char and the various Char Clones (I’m not gonna do a taxonomic breakdown right now, but the only Char Clone without those associations that leap to mind is Rau le Cruset, which is because Athrun is the one with red mobile suits in that series). So Red=Important, in other words.

Thing is, I can’t really think of any way Witch From Mercury uses this. Yeah, the Darilbalde above is red, and it’s piloted by Guel Jeturk, one of the Three House Rivals in Witch From Mercury, but it doesn’t really do much? And while Guel himself is an Antagonist, he’s nothing like Char.

So giving him a red suit seems pretty meaningless, moreso because he already had a custom pink colour scheme on his Dilanza. But it’s the only red suit we see, so….?

Feel free to let me know if I’ve missed something here.

“Oh no! They’re giving fandom history lessons and they are actually meaning taking stuff that is happening currently and putting them into historical context/perspective, so you can understand how stuff actually came to be! Instead of rehashing/trying to convince people that you couldn’t have possibly been the asshole in some beef you had back on LiveJournal that is now old enough to vote!”

so i’m still a firm believer that suletta ≠ eri and eri = a-eri-al bc it’s by far the most logical possibility but idk if anyone else has considered the alternative that suletta is eri but prospera cryofroze her for years after the prologue and wiped her memory before waking her

once they are married how do you feel sulemio handle the occasional disagreement or argument?

I'd say they handle them pretty well.

I think Miorine's usual instinct when confronted with something like that is to run. She usually likes to go somewhere else and regain her composure out of sight while coming up with an idea on how to fix things.

However, having said that, I also think Miorine would actively fight against that instinct whenever it's an argument with Suletta. Miorine is never going to be completely guilt-free from what happened at Quinn Harbor and Suletta in turn, and a lot of that had happened because Miorine was afraid to communicate fully, so I'd bet that she would take steps to never make that mistake again. She doesn't run.

Neither of them would ever cause an argument to intentionally hurt each other and they know that, so while Miorine is fairly reactionary and Suletta has gained some stubbornness to stick up for herself and her opinions, one of both of them would probably realize that they're working themselves up too much and try to calm down before they resume the conversation.

No one is kicked out of the bed to sleep on the couch at night or anything like that. They also don't go to bed angry: they talk it out as best they can before it comes to that, because waking up the next morning with the issue still not solved is an easy recipe for disaster.

They love each other! Nothing will change that.

honestly a little betrayed by the gwitch fanart scene. the shippy art is alright. yes. but suletta is literally like made to be one of those characters fanartists draw like shes being displayed in the sistine chapel through like 3 layers of symbolism. do you hear me. the red:birthmark ed was my 9/11.

so like… does anyone wanna talk about… one-sided 5nore 😏

"Slash your tears away / Call me distortion"

This isn't quite like the piano score from episode 22, but it's still a short piano arrangement of the second cour's opening "slash" alongside the ending "Red:birthmark."

I think Modern Au Suletta would be a Glass Child

I’m pretty sure this is two metas stapled together under the umbrella of character parallels:

@paxesoterica replied: Poke

Okay so. G-Witch’s first episode homages Revolutionary Girl Utena’s, and Ichiro Okouchi, the writer of the show, also wrote the novelizations for Utena. If anyone reading this didn’t know these facts, now you do! This led to some pretty obvious parallels being drawn, especially with the characters who feature heavily in episode 1:

In the first episode of Utena, our protagonist Utena Tenjou challenges Kyouichi Saionji to a duel because he’s an ass, and becomes the fiance of the Rose Bride, Anthy Himemiya.

In the first episode of G-Witch, our protagonist Suletta Mercury challenges Guel Jeturk to a duel because he’s an ass, and in so doing becomes the Holder, the fiance of Miorine Rembran.

Meanwhile, G-Witch establishes the rest of the Dueling Committee, an organization that serves the same general purpose as the Student Council (who were all duelists) in Utena. The roles here aren’t exact - it seems increasingly unlikely Secelia and Rouji are going to duel themselves at this rate - but you can pretty well map Suletta-Utena, Miorine-Anthy, Guel-Saionji. Additionally, it’s not hard to compare Shaddiq Zenelli, who takes a leading observer role as a member of the Dueling Committee in that first episode, to Touga Kiryuu, the Student Council President.

I’d also argue that Elan 4 is sort of a combination Nanami and Juri, but that’s a stretch, and that’s the point, because even early on we see these characters aren’t just “Utena but in Gundam”. Miorine actively and openly resents her father for setting up this whole system, for one thing, where Anthy never truly considers breaking the cycle of duels until the finale. There’s also a huge thematic difference in how the two series treat adults, with adults and especially parents all but absent in Utena save Akio (who wouldn’t get away with any of this shit if there were an adult who wasn’t kissing his ass around,) and omnipresent in G-Witch. Which is mostly relevant here to Shaddiq. Under the cut, I talk about both!

So the thing I keep rotating in my mind with Shaddiq is the idea that he’s taking that “lead antagonist among the teen characters” role the same way Touga is, even into the second half. We’re all expecting Prospera or Quiet Zero to be the final threat, Shaddiq’s not going to displace her unless he tries to bring all of humanity beyond the data storm. He just can’t top that. But where Touga was the runner-up antagonist because he was imitating Akio, still largely trying to win within the dueling system, Shaddiq’s the runner-up because he was never really plotting in the bounds of the duels. He wanted Gund-arm and Miorine, but I think it’s become clear his plans were conceived well before another Gundam appeared and they could be granted legitimacy. As such, he doesn’t actually need them, they just would’ve been nice. At the end, Touga wanted to usurp princeliness for himself and princessdom for Utena, to take her away from Akio and whatever was coming next. Shaddiq wants to restructure the Benerit Group via good old-fashioned violent corporate coups. Like, say, Vim Jeturk. In a way, they’re both copying a model of adulthood, but Shaddiq’s managing to do it OVER his own father’s head where Touga was never actually out of Akio’s pocket. There’s just enough there you can still see the parallels if you squint. And then there’s Guel.

Okay, we’re all joking about what an unending parade of suffering Guel’s life has become. To call him the Saionji by this point SEVERELY UNDERSELLS what he’s been through, because when Saionji was shown the brutal reality underneath all the glamor of the duels, it was a solely existential blow. But I do think they have similar arcs, roughly.

Both Saionji and Guel get their asses handed to them by the newcomer.

Both Saionji and Guel duel her again, trying to repair their own egos, and lose.

With both Saionji and Guel, it quickly becomes apparent that what they really want isn’t the girl, it’s legitimacy and approval from someone who will never give it to them (Guel and his father, Saionji and Touga,) and genuine human affection.

Both Saionji and Guel get thrown out of school. And both Saionji and Guel get a taste of the thematic beating heart of the show underneath the duels. Saionji realizes in episode 10 - of 39 - that the castle’s an illusion, and is the one to say that “we’re all still in our coffins” before Anthy brings the idea up again in the finale. Guel gets taken hostage and kills his father. And then he gets taken hostage again, and sees Earth combat at its most brutal, contrasting the flashier Gundam vs Gundam fighting that’s been most of what Suletta’s seen and done. (Even Suletta’s extremely bloody slapdown was still more over-the-top than what we see in Episode 15.)

Saionji knows this whole thing’s a sham, but when he gets the chance to be part of it all again, he takes it. Touga sucks him back into it all because he still wants to be equal again, even as Saionji knows he shouldn’t want to win.

Guel has had a drastically more traumatic time. But still, he’s trying to get back to Lauda and what’s left of his father, still searching for something he’s never going to get. This might be the point where he finally breaks the parallel, later than every other character (as I said, Shaddiq has hopscotched over the adult in his life where Touga can’t. Miorine has seized agency for herself every step of the way, where Anthy takes so long in reclaiming hers. It is impossible to talk about Suletta’s arc without talking about Prospera, where the first thing we ever learn about Utena is “she was very sad, because her mother and father had died.”) And there’s a half-formed idea there about how Guel’s “I haven’t moved forward since Suletta Mercury” kind of reflects that - Saionji never recovers from encountering Utena, either - but this is already a couple metas stapled together. And maybe he won’t diverge, maybe he’ll stay the Saionji ‘til the end, still realizing the horrors of war but trying to get the hell away from that reality.

Either way Guel seems very likely to continue having a terrible time. Poor bastard’s the cosmic chew toy of a Gundam show.

Thinking about how Suletta literally just changed into the uniform that tells everyone she’s Miorine’s fiance and yet these gals saw nothing wrong with openly asking her if she was gonna hook up with Guel. How that underlines that they all just see Miorine as an object, a trophy to be won. We even saw them literally call her a prize in episode 2

Suletta may be the current Holder or rather “owner” of Miorine but to them that has nothing to do with if she might start a romance with someone who actually matters.

watch gundam they said. it’ll be fun they said.

Love media that just gives its characters personal symbols. 

Like fuck yeah, that little sigil does represent that little guy. That is them in shape form.