Setting:
The universe is the same as the series and almost a year to the day after the last great battle before the era of peace, over seen by the Earth Sphere Unified Nation. Occasional problems arise but are dealt with by the ESUN's preventer force an elite group trained in to put out fires. Most of the group are characters we know.
Characters:
the same cast essentially even Milliardo/Zechs reappears (this would bother me but Noin noted a belief that he was still alive at the end of the series so no resurrection foul here). I also enjoyed that they gave us each brief glimpses into the beginnings of each gundam pilots journey (just prior to project meteor) I'm only going to touch on notable changes in the characters from the series or things I've noted as significant, as well as the notable new characters.
Milliardo Peacecraft/Zechs Marquise
I'm actually really glad that they brought back Milliardo/Zechs, I was disappointed that such a great character was allowed to fall into villainy. He is actually offered a chance at redemption to prevent the very act he once tried to commit (the crashing of a large object into earth), and he is reunited with Noin (the true love story of the show), and they finally get their happy ending.
Heero Yuy:
Becomes a real person! He gains ability to express himself, and his feelings, he remains stoic and focused but now we are given insight into who he is and what he is about. I think the writers just bought into their own hype about him and actually wrote him that way rather than blatantly telling us who he is or what sort of person he might be we are shown by his actions and what he says.
The rest of the main pilots remain true to themselves. Wufei is having a crisis related to his final battle with Treize, and how it shook him about how to determine what is right and who is good. Quatre, Duo, and Trowa are all the same characters (though we learn that "Trowa" is not his real name, but one he took from the original pilot of Heavy Arms) as they were before which is no complaint. After all if it ain't broke don't fix it, right?
Mariemaia Khushrenada
She is one of two new characters in this story and the primary villain of the story. She is a 7 year old prodigy (I say that because of her ability to grasp concepts that were way over my head when I saw this movie originally at the age of 9). She is the daughter of the deceased Treize and a daughter of the Barton family. She turns out to be just a player in the scheme Dekim Barton has hatched.
Dekim Barton:
The head of both the Barton foundation and the Barton family. He acts in the shadows and turns out to have had some importance in the development of project meteor particularly the Heavy Arms Gundam his son was originally meant to pilot.
Plot:
the Plot is simple but excellent. Dekim Barton has been grooming his grandaughter Mariemaia to take her father's place as the ruler of the world. Also in the ESUN there are no Mobile suits, but the Barton's have themselves an army that stands poised to strike. It is revealed that to help Mariemaia ascend to power he is initiating the original Project Meteor, which involved threatening the Earth into compliance, but preparing to destabilize a colony's orbit and bring it crashing down to the Earth.
So the Pilots just go racing in guns blazing in the Gundams right? Wrong, the gundams (all except for Wufei's) have been packed up and sent toward the sun, as a last step in the disarmament process. Worse yes not only does Wufei have his gundam but he has joined up with the barton Foundation claiming that he can't really know what is right. Trowa joins under the guise of defection while Heero and Duo sneak in and high jack a pair of mobile suits before beginning a rousing gun fight where they encounter the two inside men.
Eventually they escape and the four reclaim their gundam's while Zech's gets to use the Tallgeese which has been kept in the care of Lady Une (now head of the preventer forces). so the stage is set for an awesome fight.
Relena who has been captured by Mariemaia, tries to dissuade her from her plan but to no avail. They end up baracading themselves in a base on earth that is almost impenetrable, even if there weren't a few hundred mobile suits guarding the place. the Pilots, (except for Heero and Wufei who are engaged in a battle falling through the atmosphere at the moment), begin their assault on the place, making sure not to kill the soldiers (realizing that they were once like them at the outset of project meteor). Heero and Wufei eventually separate, wufei joins up with a group of people stirred to action by Dorothy Catalonia, and Heero broods for a bit.
The throng of people (some of whom are former soldiers and survivors of the great battle a year ago) arrive protesting the Barton's claim on the throne. Since they fought to attain peace, they will now fight to retain it. as the number of soldiers seems on the verge of outdoing the pilots the group arrives, as does Heero who uses the exceptional power of Wing Zero's buster rifle to shoot all the way down to the base where the Barton's are held up along with Lady Une and Relena.
Defeated Dekim decries the situation and insists that Mariemaia, who is beginning to understand that she never deserved her place as leader, join back with him. But as she approaches him Une goes to slap her silly and Relena beats her to it. Mariemaia comes to her senses about this whole situation, and ends up taking a bullet for Relena when Dekim tries to shoot her.
As for the Gundams, they are each destroyed, and as the Epilogue states, the weapons known as mobile suits were never used again in the earth sphere.
Analysis:
The themes of this story are slightly different from those of the series.
"War, Peace and Revolution"
These three elements are referred to by Mariemaia to be the three beats of the Endless Waltz (see what they did there?). Where as the original show focused on the relationship between war and peace in terms of attaining it, this show focuses on war and peace in the question of preserving peace and preventing new wars. Fortunately for this society the movement became that of a people (not just the politicians) united by the common goal of sustaining peace. But is such a peace only attainable briefly or under the guidance of a writer of fiction?
Overall:
This movie is truly an extension of the original work. It doesn't undermine the original in any way, except for those who wanted Zechs to stay dead. It even gives Heero a personality, and shows that for this society lasting peace can be a reality. It's an excellent end to a series. a minor complaint is related to Mariemaia's super young age, but it fits given that she needed to be young enough not to battle when Treize originally fought and died. but other than that I thought this movie got it all right, and in terms of art direction it redesigned the gundams putting newer more intense versions of them in the final chapter of the story.
I'll miss this series but this made for a great going away present.
As always I appreciate comments and suggestions (since the format is still in development). I hope you've enjoyed this look into Gundam Wing Endless Waltz.
-matt
PS On my to-do list are the following: Trigun, Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop.
PPS also the Movies Inception, Fargo, and Scott Pilgrim vs the World.
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