No, Suletta Mercury Wasn’t a War Criminal
Reading Time: 5 minutesThere are the worst out there.
When the original Gundam series started, the lead pilot was meant to be more human. The makers wanted realism; hence the characters should be down to earth. But they became too human perhaps, because the pilots went from flawed characters to psychopaths. I mean Amuro Ray wasn’t exactly a raving maniac, but the pilots that followed seemed to have mental issues. Signs of instability began after Kamille Bidan skewered Paptimus Scirocco. And Uso was unlucky enough to be dragged into Tomino’s Victory Gundam hell.
And the Gundam universe continued to employ unbalanced characters during the 90s, as was seen in Gundam Wing.
In Wing we have masochist, sadist, suicidals, mass murderers and terrorists all in one package. Gundam SEED on the other hand added emotionally unstable teens in their rank, not to mention drugged youths.
I’m not sure if this was some influence by the Evangelion series, or a carryover from Tomino’s angst, though the Gundam universe already had mentally troubled pilots long before Evangelion. But if we have crazed pilots with access to deadly machines of war, we expect disaster to come. War is ugly, and extra-violent fellows made it uglier. I mean the Gundam universe has a good collection of war crimes committed by its characters.
Now, we have a new Gundam series, and its lead character just committed another atrocity. But not so fast, as keen-eyed fans insisted. The girl was just doing her job of protecting her significant others.
The Infamous ‘Splat’ Scene
Firstly, I won’t dig deep to prevent any major spoilers. But let’s just say that the Gundam series is good at orchestrating gory and horrendous deaths. Obviously, getting killed inside a mobile suit and getting killed by a supped-up mobile suit is the stuff of nightmares. And mobile suits weren't the only murder weapon in the Gunda universe. We have nukes, microwaves, explosives, and any demonic arsenals born from the pit of hell. Gundam SEED/SEED Destiny was a good destination for horrid weapons. Remember the microwave scene?
And going back to Suletta’s case, we saw her girlfriend evacuating a wounded comrade, when an armed soldier appeared, threatening them both. But the girl came in time and did the unthinkable to her girlfriend’s assailant. She crushed the soldier to death with the palm of her Gundam. And the unfortunate soldier was reduced to this bloody mush, with a single hand remaining intact.
Fans never saw that coming, and indeed the brutality and gore was shocking. But then this is anime, so expect a lot of violence in the show. And it seems that the kill scene was too much for some people, and Suletta was accused of committing war crimes. But as I mentioned, some fans weren’t too happy with the accusations, and it seems that they have a point.
What Constitutes a War Crime
Firstly, we will dig into the boring stuff to explore the nature of war crimes. According to the U.N. website, war crimes include willful killing, torture, causing great sufferings, deliberate collateral damages, enslaving POWS in concentration camps, depriving a POW of their rights for fair trials, taking of hostages, unlawful deportations and arrests, and attacks on civilians. Usage of certain weapons is also prohibited.
By referring to what we learned, we could answer whether Suletta was in fact an atrocious and blood thirsty criminal.
The answer is no.
A friend said that one doesn't even need deep knowledge of war crimes to tell that Suletta was just acting on her protective instincts. Her girlfriend was in trouble. Her comrade was in trouble. She must act quickly or else. And that’s exactly what she did, and it took a single swat to eliminate the threat. Suletta was just doing what any normal soldier would do. And the guy she killed wasn’t even an innocent civilian.
And there is your answer, Suletta was just defending her folks. In fact, my friend joked that her method of killing could be considered humane, as being crushed like that never caused prolonged sufferings. And interestingly, the scene that drove many fans nuts was meek compared to other previous Gundam deaths. If you want to see real war crimes, you need to watch older Gundam series, especially in the 90s and early 2000s. IBO is equally chilling in terms of deaths and destructions
Real Gundam War Criminals
This is how true crimes against humanity looked like, at least in the Gundam world. Now, if Gundam Wings had more solid plot, or the pilots lived in the real world, they will be considered as terrorists. Interestingly, they only targeted military assets, though mistakes could happen as what Heero found out when he accidentally killed a girl in his bombing mission (shown in Endless Waltz). But Quatre Winner took it too far, when he took Wing Zero in a vengeful rampage. He was basically mass shooting with a highly dangerous mobile suit. But then again, the lack of gore meant it failed to trigger the viewers. SEED/SEED Destiny upped the ante by giving the audience a closer look of the carnage, while guys like Yzak Joule blew a shuttle, with innocent people inside. In some episodes of SEED Destiny, brief scenes of captives being clubbed to death were shown. But people were probably too preoccupied with Kira and his plot armor (not to mention clips of nudity and bouncing something) to notice.
The Celestial Beings of Gundam 00 were out to stop armed conflict, by staging armed conflicts themselves which was by no means illegal. But Nena Trinity was hated by fans for a reason. One of which is when she willfully shoots at a wedding reception, killing unarmed civilians and injuring Louise Halevy.
Then, there is Mikazuki Augus and his murder of captives. This episode aroused some controversies because of how real it looked. The murders mentioned above were done with mobile suits, which explained why people barely noticed. But a child soldier gunning down POWs seemed to reflect real life incidents of warlords elsewhere.
Those are just a few examples, and these pilots got away with it (almost, as in Mikazuki’s case)! While fans today are going loco over Suletta’s splatter scene.
Gundam Pilots are Crazy
And to sum it all, Gundam pilots are indeed crazy. Again, they were not always like this, and pilots like Amuro have more raging hormones than disturbed mental faculties. But as what Neon Genesis Evangelion taught us, crazies sell. The only difference is people could relate to the troubled characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion, while the Gundam pilots are just plain crazy. There are no way people could understand Nena Trinity, Shinn Azuka, and the rest. That’s probably why fans reacted that way to Suletta’s unconventional use of her mobile suit, as she was associated with other maniacs in the Gundam Multiverse.
But one thing is for sure here. Anime is not for children,
Reference: https://discover.hubpages.com/entertainment/No-Suletta-Mercury-Wasnt-a-War-Criminal
Ref: hubpages
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