Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - Episode Seventeen: Precious Things
Written by: Ichirō Ōkouchi
Directed by: Ayaka Tsujihashi, Toshikazu Yoshizawa and Yohei Shindo
Storyboarded by: Tetsuhito Saito, Ryō Andō and Hiroshi Kobayashi
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - Episode Seventeen: Precious Things (大切なもの; Taisetsu na Mono)
After some hesitation, Miorine begrudgingly agrees to run for the Benerit Group presidency and take over Quiet Zero for Prospera, who in turn agrees to no longer involve Suletta. However, Prospera requires Aerial for her plans no matter what, musing that Suletta will not just meekly give her up. As an additional condition, she proposes having Suletta participate in one final duel.
The next morning, Miorine walks to classes with Suletta, asking her if she'd give up Aerial if she asked, a request Suletta rejects, reaffirming her familial bond to her Gundam. With Miorine's birthday coming up, Suletta asks if she'd like to do anything to celebrate, noting it's something on her list. Despite some reluctance, Miorine agrees to think about it. At Benerit HQ, Shaddiq meets with the CEOs of Peil, requesting their support for his bid for Group president, noting the benefits his pro-Gundam stance would have for them. From Shaddiq's confidence, Nugen deduces he played a part in Sarius' disappearance.
Tending to Miorine's greenhouse, Suletta is assaulted by Elan #5, who first aggressively asks her to give Aerial to him to save his life, before resorting to pulling a taser on her. Guel then appears and intervenes, subduing and throwing Elan out as Miorine arrives; hiding behind the greenhouse, she eavesdrops on Suletta and Guel having a heart-to-heart. Explaining his plans to rebuild Jeturk, and thanking her for inspiring him, Guel properly confesses his feelings to Suletta, who gently turns him down, noting her own feelings for someone. Miorine chooses then to reveal herself, challenging Guel to a duel, claiming she wishes for Suletta to show her a final victory as a birthday gift. Meeting Miorine alone in her bedroom later, Guel questions her intentions; she offers him her support in rebuilding Jeturk Heavy Machinery if he reclaims his role as her fiancé and supports her bid for the presidency.
Taking their oaths before Rouji (and his Haro), Suletta requests Guel's help in quelling the harassment Earth House faces should she win, while Guel states he will take Aerial if he wins. Leaving the committee lounge together, Miorine tells Guel how she wants Suletta to be happy and free of her mother's influence, Gundams, or any other concerns; Guel's experiences outside the school have him bitterly note a world with such freedom doesn't exist.
After being seen off by Suletta on the day of the duel, Prospera discusses their plan over the phone with Miorine. Suletta prepares to launch in Aerial, which is still missing a thruster after being confiscated following the Rumble Ring attack, while Guel is seen off by the members of his House, pushing through PTSD flashbacks that nearly cause him to vomit. Elan #5 is revealed to have fled to Grassley, using his knowledge of Sarius' kidnapping to bargain for safety from Peil after his failure to secure Aerial.
The duel starts, with Guel's PTSD continuing to hamper him, losing much of the Darilbalde's refurbished arsenal. Managing to recover just as Suletta goes in for the final stroke, Guel begins to turn the tide, severing one of Aerial's arms. In response, Aerial triggers her data storm, turning the Darilbalde's new beam saber drones against it. Appearing to ascend to a new Permet Score, Suletta arms Aerial's bit-on rifle to deliver the final blow while fantasizing about her future with Miorine, who triggers an app she'd installed on Suletta's student notebook, causing Aerial to abruptly shut down, allowing Guel to land a victory blow.
Jeturk House euphorically celebrate Guel's victory, while Earth House look on flabbergasted over their best pilot's defeat. Miorine appears to a stunned Suletta in her cockpit, revealing her role in her loss, returning the keychain she'd gifted her, and revoking her role as Holder while Suletta cries in anguish.
Takuji Kato's (end card illustrator)’s official Twitter
Precious Things provides examples of:
- 13 Is Unlucky: The location of Guel and Suletta's duel is at the 13th tactical testing sector, and Suletta not only loses the duel and her title of Holder, but also gets betrayed by Miorine in that arena. Suletta is left in utter despair over the turn of events.
- Betrayal by Inaction: As Miorine shuts Aerial down, Aerial is unsurprised while apologizing to Suletta, suggesting Aerial knew what the app would do, but decided to allow herself and Suletta to be separated.
- Big Damn Heroes: When Elan assaulted Suletta to make her give up Aerial, Guel luckily saved her just in time even driving Elan away from the greenhouse.
- Break Her Heart to Save Her: Miorine purposefully told Suletta that she wanted a victory over Guel as her birthday present, knowing Suletta would accept since it's what her bride wants. Unbeknownst to Suletta, Miorine had conspired with Prospera, making a deal to free Suletta from her mother's control, but the price being sabotaging Aerial so that Suletta loses the duel, offering Guel her support in rebuilding his family company to earn his cooperation. After orchestrating her loss, Miorine cruelly reiterates the transactional nature of their relationship to Suletta, despite both having reinforced their genuine feelings for one another throughout the episode, apparently in a bid to further push Suletta away from Prospera's scheming, which Miorine has become swept up in, leaving Suletta shaking and in tears.
- Broken Win/Loss Streak: Throughout the show, Suletta has been shown winning every single duel in her Gundam. Here, she loses to Guel, albeit due to Miorine's machinations. As for Guel, his losing streak against Gundams ends when he claims victory over Suletta.
- Call-Back:
- In the first episode, Suletta saved Miorine from being assaulted by Guel in the greenhouse. In this one, Guel saves Suletta from being assaulted by Elan in the greenhouse in a very similarly framed scene.
- The entire duel is framed as a mirror to the duel in the first episode, but with Suletta and Guel swapping roles.
- Once again "Happy Birthday" is used to tragic effect, this time as a jingle played by the app Miorine uses to shut down Aerial.
- This episode's ending also calls back to Episode 1, but their tones could not be farther from one another: Episode 1 ends with Miorine greeting Suletta as her new groom as they stand on the hand of a triumphant Aerial under a bright, shining sky after Suletta had just defeated Guel. This episode ends with Miorine discarding her bond with Suletta, calling her a Mercurian country bumpkin while the latter is inside a fallen Aerial under a dark, gloomy sky after Suletta had lost to Guel.
- Character Development: The results of Guel's harsh experiences outside the academy are shown here in this episode:
- His Hair-Trigger Temper that Secelia used to amuse herself with is now absent, taking no issue with her mocking his previous losses, but instead simply suggesting she should use "lion" rather than "dog", as it's his family crest. Secelia was speechless at the comeback.
- Guel is quite open now about showing his feelings, managing to confess his love to Suletta, and even taking it well when she rejected him.
- His Hot-Blooded Blood Knight Jerkass approach to dueling is now replaced with a somber reluctance. He even gives his approval to disagreeable methods such as AI and outside help if that would lead to a quick victory. Guel even states that pride alone won't help him win against Suletta.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Miorine brutally dismisses Suletta at the end of the episode, admitting that she wanted her to lose and was responsible for Aerial shutting down, leaving the poor girl a sobbing mess as her position as Holder is taken from her. She only does so to ensure Suletta doesn't get caught up in Prospera's plans again. Even Guel was on board with this, he did not even respond when Suletta begged for a rematch.
- Dramatic Irony: Asked if she would abandon Aerial if Miorine asked, Suletta says she can't because Aerial is family. Miorine just thinks Suletta is obsessing over a machine and decides to separate them by force. The audience know Suletta is right to treat Aerial as a person, even if she's ignorant of her true origins.
- Downer Ending: Suletta loses in the duel with Guel, with Aerial shutting down due to Miorine and Prospera's machinations and the bride herself essentially "casting away" Suletta, leaving the redhead in complete anguish.Miorine: Goodbye, my Mercurian country bumpkin.
- Flat "What": When Miorine tells Suletta that she wants her to duel Guel, there's a Beat before Suletta and Guel say "What?" in unison.
- Hourglass Plot: Suletta and Guel fight a duel just as they did in the first episode, and the underdog unexpectedly breaks the Holder's unbroken win streak to earn Miorine's hand in marriage. But everything about the situation is reversed: Guel is the underdog in this duel, recently arrived from a backwater planet, it's Suletta who loses the status of Holder, and instead of Miorine calmly congratulating her at the end of the battle and changing the color of her suit to match, Miorine coldly dismisses Suletta and revokes her privilege to wear the Holder's colors.
- Important Haircut: Initially returning to his slicked-back style, Guel cuts his hair extremely short prior to his duel with Suletta.
- I Will Fight No More Forever: When Miorine proposes Guel have a duel with Suletta, he actually wanted to decline due to his family's company problems and his traumatic experiences while outside of the academy. It's only due to Miorine's offer to help Jeturk Heavy Industries and what he heard about Suletta's treatment by Prospera that he reluctantly agreed.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
- Guel gives Suletta a proper confession about how he feels about her. Suletta is clearly touched, but turns him down since she's committed to Miorine. Guel is not surprised at this, and is happy that Suletta is happy. When Miorine's proposes they conspire to break off her engagement to Suletta (and also take Aerial from her), Guel complies but is very clearly not happy to see Suletta suffering.
- Miorine also wishes for Suletta's happiness, believing it can be best achieved by freeing her from Prospera's influence and plotting, even if it means breaking both of their hearts in the process.
- Suletta intends to ask Miorine to choose her even though, as the Holder, they're already bound to be married. Even with how eager she is to fulfil the obligation, she still puts Miorine's feelings and wants above her own.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Part of the Darilbalde's upgraded arsenal is a giant katana-shaped sword which generates a beam around its blade.
- Leonine Contract: Miorine gets Guel to go along with her plan by saying that, by becoming her groom, she'll be able to save his family's company. As he's devoted to trying to save it, and the company is in the red and in danger of going bankrupt otherwise, Guel ends up forced to go along with it, though at the very least Miorine does tell him her true reasons for wanting him to defeat Suletta.
- Love Confession: After awkwardly walking back his abrupt proposal early in the series, Guel manages to properly confess to Suletta. She then lets him down gently, stating her own interest in someone else (implicitly Miorine). Guel takes it in a stride.
- Love Confessor: Suletta rejects Guel by saying she's interested in someone else, and he clearly knows she means Miorine. During their duel, Suletta admits she wants to outright marry Miorine, getting rings and pretty dresses for each other for their wedding... right before Miorine betrays her and shuts down Aerial so she'll lose the duel.
- Loved I Not Honor More: Though Guel admits he loves Suletta, he also tells her restoring his family's company is more important. Even aside Suletta's feeling for Miorine, Guel thought they wouldn't have time to date. This resolution quickly turns from bittersweet to ugly, as Guel helps emotionally devastate the girl he loves to get a loveless marriage convenient to Jeturk Heavy Machinery.
- Marriage of Convenience: Miorine conspires with Guel to fix a duel against Suletta, restoring their previous engagement, now on mutually-beneficial (and consensual) terms. This lets Miorine separate Suletta from herself and Aerial, with the intention to protect her from Prospera's plotting, and gives her Guel's support in her bid for the presidency. Guel meanwhile gets the financial assistance Jeturk Heavy Machinery needs to survive. There's no longer any antagonism between them, but both are quite miserable for hurting the girl they both actually love in the process.
- Mutual Disadvantage: Neither side of the duel is in peak shape.
- With Nika gone missing and the relatively recent events of the Rumble Ring, Aerial is noted to not have been 100% repaired after her last battle. Despite this, Suletta still easily dominates the match and it's only through Miorine's sabotage, and the implication of Aerial allowing her to do it, that she loses.
- Guel's Darilbalde is back and upgraded, but Guel himself is still suffering from heavy PTSD that cripples his ability to fight back at points. He only survives long enough to power through it due to keeping the AI autopilot installed, which is able to cover for him. And he only wins due to the aforementioned sabotage.
- Mythology Gag:
- Guel experiences a PTSD attack while piloting, similar to Jamil Neate's cockpit phobia at the beginning of his home series.
- Like the last time Suletta brought it out, Aerial's pose with the massive rifle formed from all her bits resembles that of Wing Zero Custom's with the Twin Buster Rifles. Both suits end losing an arm shortly thereafter, though Aerial doesn't even get to fire a shot off.
- The Pen Is Mightier: Norea tries to stab Elan #5 with a pencil, which narrowly misses and gets buried in a couch.
- Poor Communication Kills: Early in the episode, Miorine asks Suletta whether, if she told her to, Suletta would give up piloting the Aerial, with Suletta responding that she would not. However, since neither of them has the full picture of what the other is thinking, they take very different meanings away from the question and answer. To Suletta, who is still dwelling on their conversation from the last episode and still believes that Prospera means the best for her, the meaning is "would you give up the Aerial, and by extension a member of your family, if you were told to?" Suletta, therefore, answers no, to show Miorine (whom she visibly scared last episode) that she still has limits on what she would do and will not abandon someone she cares about. To Miorine, who doesn't know that Suletta's remarks about the Aerial being like a sister are anything more than Companion Cube-like affection, the meaning is "would you turn your back on the highly dangerous situations your mother keeps shoving you into if I told you?" Miorine therefore interprets Suletta's answer in the opposite: that no matter what she says, she won't be able to break Suletta out of her mother's scheme.
- The Power of Friendship: When Guel freezes up from a traumatic flashback as Aerial charges in at him, hearing everyone in Jeturk House calling for him gives him the strength to push through and begin fighting in earnest.
- Pyrrhic Victory: After countless previous defeats to Gundams in the past, Guel finally wins against one in his duel against Suletta...but it's far from a glorious show of strength, as he needed Miorine to sabotage Aerial to pull it off. Guel also openly loves Suletta now, so seeing her in anguished defeat doesn't help.
- Relationship Sabotage: Prospera uses Miorine's desire to protect Suletta by forcing her to sabotage her final duel with Guel so that she loses and sticks her in a loveless marriage of convenience.
- Second Act Break Up: This episode ends on Suletta and Miorine having a major falling out due to the latter having rigged a duel as part of a Break Her Heart to Save Her gambit.
- Sore Loser: In a rare heroic example, Suletta is clearly not used to the idea of losing, and takes it very poorly. She's in total disbelief at first, immediately tries to challenge Guel to a rematch, despite the fact that (as she likely hasn't realized at that moment) she no longer has a suit to duel him in, and has a full-fledged sobbing breakdown seconds later. This is pretty well-justified, as Suletta has every reason in the world to feel angry and saddened about her loss—it was sudden, under completely unfair circumstances, a betrayal by someone she cared about, and involved losing the two things she cares about most.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Even though Guel made peace with himself in regards to Vim's and Seethia's death, he still suffers from PTSD, and it affects his performance in the duel; it is only through willpower and determination that Guel was able to persevere long enough to land the winning strike when prompted.
- Stunned Silence:
- When Secelia tried to provoke Guel for her amusement like she always do, not only did Guel took it calmly, he even corrected her. Secelia was speechless after that.
- Nearly everyone watching the duel between Suletta and Guel is left speechless when Suletta loses.
- Throwing the Fight: Belmeria and Prospera install a kill-switch in Aerial that Miorine triggers so Suletta will lose to Guel in a duel. Following the "anything goes" nature of the duels, Miorine openly explains as such in the aftermath.
- Tron Lines: Aerial hits a new Permet level in which her shell units glow white, a color never seen on any other Gundam in the show. When it happens, an identical pattern is shown flashing across Prospera's visor, hinting it might serve another purpose besides disguise.
- Turncoat: After his last ditch attempt to threaten Suletta fails, Elan #5 jumps ship from Peil (who at this point want him dead) and tries to throw his lot in with Norea. Norea is unamused at the attempt.
- Villain Team-Up: Shaddiq proposes for Peil to support his candidacy for the Benerit Group presidency in exchange for him legalizing GUND technology.
- Wham Episode: Suletta loses her first duel outright in the series due to the sabotage program Miorine installed in Aerial, causing her to lose her title as Holder back to Guel, along with Aerial herself. Miorine, in an attempt to keep Suletta safe from Prospera’s machinations, then coldly renounces her as her groom, severing their relationship for the time being.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Suletta by this point very genuinely wanted to marry Miorine. After holding the title that kept them engaged for months, Miorine herself sabotages Suletta to break things off just days before it would have been fulfilled.
