ship_manifesto | Treize/Zechs (Gundam WIng)

olympia-m.livejournal.com posting in

I'm late, I'm late! I'm so sorry for that. I hope you don't mind my posting this a day later. It was just impossible for me to finish it yesterday. I also know, that this is another example of my meandering writing. I'm still trying to follow my supervisor's advice but it doesn't show. I'm sorry!

Subject Line: TreizexZechs (Gundam Wing)
Title: Between love and duty
Author: Olympia
Spoilers: oh, yes! For the entire series
Email: mahel2002@yahoo.co.uk
Personal Website: http://seacouver.slashcity.net/illuferret/index.html

Again, this presupposes knowledge of Gundam Wing. See Ari's excellent introduction in

crack_van: her fandom summary because, honestly, GW is a very complicated anime. Unlike WK, that makes people's eyes glaze at the mention of the florist assassins, GW makes people's eyes glaze at the sheer complexity of the plot. Believe me, it's a sure and tested way of torturing your friends and enemies.

The characters
Maybe because GW is so complicated, its characters are also complicated. Well, some of them, anyway, and Treize Kushrenada is one of them. Since he's one of the 'bad' guys of the series, we don't get much information on him. He comes from an old aristocratic family and has joined the military from a young age. When the series starts, we see him in the rank of general, after a distinguished career. He's also the leader of Oz, a military organization within the Alliance, sponsored by the Romafeller Foundation and... See what I mean about it being complicated? Well, Treize stages a coup, and Oz takes control of everything. But then, the reactionaries from the Romafeller Foundation stage a coup and Treize is sequestered in his estate in Luxemburg (I think that's where it is), (pointless information: where he is taken in a horse-drawn carriage, like some sort of fairy-tale prince). There, he spends time building the ultimate mecha and staging his comeback. He succeeds, takes over from Relena, Queen of the World, and then leads Earth's troops to battle against White Fang and its ferocious leader, Zechs Marquise. Five episodes full of battle scenes later, he dies in a most dramatic way.

Zechs Marquise is another complicated character. He started off his life as Milliardo Peacecraft, heir to the throne of the pacifistic kingdom of Sanq (which can also be spelled: Sank, Cinq, or anything that produces the Sank sound) and brother to Relena. When the Alliance invaded his country, he escaped. When we see him again, he's Zechs Marquise, top pilot of Oz and probably certified weirdo, since he runs around with huge, 70s-style glasses during his training days and a weird silver helmet that covers his head afterwards, so that people won't recognize him. But no one ever mentions that in the series. He fights Heero in the beginning of the series, gets obsessed with him, fights him again, gets court-martialed because of that, escapes a certain execution, and then returns as Milliardo Peacecraft, ambassador for peace on earth and space. No one listens to him, he gets depressed and then White Fang approaches him with an offer he can't refuse: he becomes its leader and, realizing that Earth is the source of all evil, decides to destroy it. Five episodes full of battle scenes later, he changes his mind, tries to stop a battle ship from destroying the earth and dies in a most dramatic way.

Or does he? A year later, Treize's illegitimate daughter tries to take over the earth and Zechs joins the elite group dedicated to stopping her, led by Lady Une, Treize's aide. Then he goes to Mars to work on a colonization project that Relena has in mind. All that happens in Endless Waltz, the GW movie.

Are you still with me? See what I mean about it being a torture? Wait, there's more.

With so little information on the characters and the characters themselves being so complex in the middle of a very complicated plotline, the fans have taken over. There are probably many interpretations. If one likes the pilots, then Treize and Zechs are the bad guys. They're evil, torture the pilots with glee, have no understanding of the problems of the colonies and are guided by ambition. You wouldn't believe how many fics there are in which poor Duo gets raped on the orders of Treize/Zechs/Une (only to be later rescued and comforted by Heero, usually).

I won't say they are good guys. They are guided by ambition. Their views are antiquated. Take Treize. He wants to rule the world. He imagines himself as a benevolent dictator, but dictator he will be; the people are not ready to rule themselves. He's not above manipulating Zechs, whom he considers his friend, and perhaps more, and pulling his strings to the end. He manipulates Heero, he manipulates Relena, he manipulates the entire Romafeller Foundation. He's a ruthless man.

Zechs isn't much better. He's guided by his desire for vengeance. He goes against his father's teachings on pacifism and joins the army. Worse, he's very good at being an army man. Throughout the series we hear of how good he is, and he's the only one who can stand up to Heero, probably the best of the five Gundam pilots. But, he's disobedient, and reckless. Overly emotional, he sometimes loses the bigger picture and prefers to follow his obsession (duel Heero, that is). And then, after all the disappointments of his diplomatic career, he wants to destroy the earth. How sane is that?

But, compared to the pilots, who have a strong sense of duty and honour and they are faithful to their cause to the end, Treize and Zechs, with their floundering ways, the upd-and-downs of their career, their flaws and strengths, seem more real to me. They live in shades of grey, they think of the consequences of their actions and they feel guilt over them.

So, after this attempt to persuade you that Treize and Zechs are noble and misunderstood, I'll try to persuade you that they are meant for each other, and not just because they are the only (handsome and sexy) adults of the series. Which is a damn good reason, if I may so.

First of all, Treize is the only one who knows Zechs' true identity. He also seems to understand Zechs's motives better than Zechs himself. After Zechs's leaving Oz, he makes a couple of efforts to make Zechs join him. And when he dies, his last words are for Zechs.

Zechs cannot quite understand what Treize is doing until the end, but he is hurt because he thinks Treize has betrayed him. Even though he doesn't seem to fully trust Treize, as he had never revealed to him that his sister was alive, he still wants to have Treize's trust. When the series end, and we think that they're both dead, they get buried side by side.

That, more or less, sums up the canonical (scant) evidence for a possible relationship between them. One might add that both Treize and Zechs are rather cold to the females that surround and pursue them, Lady Une and Noin respectively. Also that, in the beginning, when they are still bound by a professional relationship, they seem to know each other so well, that they finish each other sentences.

The fans have picked up on that. The theory is that since these two knew each other for years, and have such an easy and close friendship, and show such concern for the other, and are hurt when they think the other has betrayed them, and when Treize is dying, he saves his last words for Zechs, then they must be/have been lovers.

Their relationship, unfortunately, is a thing of the past by the middle of the series, and even in the beginning it is very difficult to see them together. Both Treize and Zechs are working men who put their duty above their private life. They're often stationed in different parts of the world and weeks may pass before they see each other. Most of their communication happens through vid-phones. But this doesn't mean that they are not having an affair.

When Zechs leaves Oz, then their relationship comes at an end. I personally think that the strain of breaking up with Treize, of feeling betrayed by the only person who knew him and supported him throughout the years, is one of the factors that make Zechs (... how to put this delicately...can't...) go insane near the end of the series. Not the only factor, and perhaps not as serious as all the rest of the problems that Zechs is having by that time, but it is something to be considered.

Alas, it is all so sad when Zechs finally regains his sanity; Treize is already dead, and Zechs has no problem following him. Even in the movie, when we see Zechs return, it is obvious that he is still feeling the effect of what happened in the series; he calls himself a dead man twice, and (I think) it's because part of him would rather be dead with Treize than alive in a world that has no place for him.

Of course, the fans have taken care of that. When they are not busy projecting their angst and misery unto poor, hapless, suffering Treize and Zechs, they are busy resurrecting Treize, or cloning him, or making robots that look like him, and pairing him with Zechs so that they can have their happily ever after. In other words, a lot of the stories are bad. But the thought of a poor, miserable, lonely Zechs is just so difficult to bear. He deserves some happiness, after all.

*shakes head* I have a feeling this makes little sense. Seriously, you have to either read a very detailed summary of GW or watch the series for this to make better sense. And, as always, why this pairing and why not another, is always a very subjective thing. A thing of pure desire.

I like Treize and Zechs because I like sad, doomed romances. Because their misery is not only of their own making, but it's also demanded by their duty, by their obligations to themselves and the world, and the future they want to create. They have a vision, and use extreme measures to bring it to life. And they believe in it so strongly, that they sacrifice their personal lives.

I like them because they are strong men and it takes a lot to break them. Treize doesn't break, yet he dies in the end. The new world he's envisioned has no place for him. He dies knowing he's made himself an anachronism, and hoping that in the next life, he'll be reunited with Zechs. Zechs breaks under the burden of his guilt and his failure, he recovers, and yet, he never feels integrated in the new world he too had wanted. In the end, he flees to Mars, together with Noin, whom he seems to tolerate but can't drive away.

So, I ask you, how can you not want a happy ending for them?

The fics are not many. Perhaps they are a lot compared to the couple of dozens of MurakixOriya fics, but a lot of them are simply bad. Then, since personal taste comes in, and not just the need for a story that is written in a way that respects the reader's time, other fics will have to be passed over.

So, recommendations:
Everything by Kumiko . You must click on fanfiction and then scroll down the list of authors until you find her name. I like her portrayal of Zechs and Treize, especially in the Blue Blood series, set before the series.

In the same archive, check Hope of Dawn's The Prince and The Knigh, two of the best gen Zechs stories ever written. I know, I know, I should be talking about slash, but these are just exceptional.

To go back to slash, I really like Reverand Maynard's fanfiction, for her romantic and -sometimes - lighthearted view.

I also like everything by Lara. Very down to earth, bittersweet stories that do them justice (in my opinion, always).

There are other writers, but, as I said before, I cannot recommend their stories because I think that they do no justice to the characters and, I do care for characterization in the fics I read. I would have loved to recommend Becca Abbot's stories, but Treize and Zechs are minor characters there and, I'm not sure if that's right for this essay. Anyway, if you like Heero and Duo hurt and comfort, check her site.