Gundam GQuuuuuuX’s Big Mystery Just Got Even Bigger

Gundam GQuuuuuuX‘s alternative universe spin on the world of the franchise’s beloved main timeline has already paved the way to some fascinatingly geeky riffs on the original Gundam series. But as the show begins to move on from the immediate interest of the world it spun out of the events of the original show, where it’s heading could include playing with one of the 1979 classic’s most intriguing characters.

So far, much of GQuuuuuuX‘s alt-remixing of Gundam‘s Universal Century has leaned heavily on the absence of certain focal characters from the original show. Char’s theft of the Gundam in the inciting incident that turns the One Year War in Zeon’s favor means that so far original protagonist Amuro Ray has been left out of the picture, and so far both the show itself and the expanded material glimpsed in its movie compilation Beginning have teased other major figures from the original Gundam and their parts to play in this new story. And that’s before Char’s own absence in the show’s main five-years-later story has become a driving factor to its core mystery, as both our young protagonists and their opponents in the Zeon forces alike try to discern just why the Red Comet’s stolen Gundam has returned after its disappearance.

But one interesting 1979 figure’s absence from GQuuuuuuX so far is becoming a central focus of the series’ own interpretation of Gundam‘s Newtype concept—and its latest episode dropped our biggest hint yet that they’re going to make their presence in the series known in some way at the very least.

“The Witch’s War,” the fourth episode of the series (and our first to not explicitly re-cover material from the Beginning compilation) primarily sees Machu and the Red Gundam’s latest pilot, Shuji, confront a One Year War veteran yearning for revenge against the Gundam. Having lost her own Mobile Suit combat partner (referred to as a “Mav” in GQuuuuuuX‘s terminology) at Char’s hands during the war, the mysterious “Witch” Shiiko Sugai eventually perishes in a clan battle against Machu and Shuji, when the latter makes the decision not to incapacitate her suit, but spear its chest with a beam saber, immolating Shiiko and destroying the enemy suit entirely to Machu’s horror.

But just before Shiiko dies, both Machu and Shuji’s emergent Newtype connection resonates even more profoundly than it did upon their first meeting, not just granting them a moment to reach some kind of understanding with Shiiko in the moment of her death, but sending out a psychic message that onlookers hear as a didactic piece of music… one very familiar to classic Gundam fans as the sing-song leitmotif of Lalah Sune. The leitmotif appeared briefly in GQuuuuuuX before when Machu first began to experience her own Newtype abilities, and in Beginning during Char’s disappearance, but not in that didactic sense, and not, as it’s referred to explicitly in the show itself this week, specifically as the “La-La Sound.”

Introduced during the final stretch of the original 1979 anime, Lalah is an extremely powerful emergent Newtype, recruited by Char in the final stages of the One Year War as a secret weapon not just against the Gundam and Amuro’s own increasing awareness of his psionic abilities, but as part of Char’s own brewing attempts to usurp Zeon’s ruling Zabi family. Lalah, whose psionic abilities are heralded in battle by a haunting, ethereal chorus of “la-la” chanting that can be heard by both Newtypes and ordinary humans, eventually falls at Amuro’s hands while protecting Char, but not before she and Amuro share a profound moment of connection thanks to their Newtypism. It leaves a lasting impact on both men’s lives throughout the rest of their appearances across Gundam‘s UC storytelling.

Although Lalah’s role in the original Gundam is relatively brief, her legacy as one of the show’s first explorations of the Newtype concept, and her relationship to both Amuro and Char, makes her a fascinating figure for GQuuuuuuX to touch on. In the show’s alternate retelling of the One Year War, Lalah is noticeably absent from Char’s first learnings about Newtypism, leading to his partnership with Challia Bull. But her presence here via her leitmotif, and now especially in its nature as a didactic sound within GQuuuuuuX itself, raises some very interesting possibilities about just where the show is heading.

It’s not been the only clue that Lalah could be a part of GQuuuuuuX we’ve had so far, either. The framing of Shiiko’s death has direct parallels to the presentation of Lalah’s own death in the original show, just the latest in the series’ riffs on specific cinematography choices from the first Gundam, but “The Witch’s War” also returns to another idea briefly touched on by GQuuuuuuX before. In the series’ prior retelling of the One Year War, it was revealed that Zeon was keeping another mysterious object called the “Rose of Sharon” in secrecy, before it disappeared from under them just as Char vanished in the psionic “Zeknova” that ended the conflict.

In “The Witch’s War,” Shuji states that his only desire is to bring the Red Gundam (which he constantly refers to as being in conversation with) to Earth, in search of a mysterious rose, presumably the same “Rose of Sharon” that Zeon were keeping secret. The Rose of Sharon itself is a biblical reference, appearing in versions of the Old Testament to describe a flower mentioned in the Song of Songs, but also a modern horticultural term, used to refer to several varieties of flowering plant—including the golden-flowered Hypericum calycinum, which certainly feels evocative of the flowing yellow dress Lalah wore in the original series.

Whether we see her or not, or if she remains only part of this version of the original Gundam‘s world via her sing-song leitmotif, it’s already clear that any grand mystery that GQuuuuuuX wants to play with with this new generation of Newtypes will connect all the way back to the original show’s first explorations of the concept. It seems then, as we get closer and closer to figuring out just what happened to Char in this version of events, the woman that would shape the rest of his life in the “main” Gundam continuity may have a similarly vital role in GQuuuuuuX.

Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX is now streaming on Prime Video

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