Eps 12 (season 1 end, resumes in Spring 2023)

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So seriously, fuck the haters of this series, you all have no taste or sense for what's good.

It's the complete package on presentation. The music (or noted scenes of silence) has been phenomenal the entire time at building up specific scenes and amplifying them to the correct tone. The animation has been stellar, consistent, subdued in its intricate detail (seriously, go rewatch some of the character movement on past episodes), and the framing on the action has been some of the best Gundam has offered, on par with some of the best in genre (more like the Macross OVAs and movies is what I'm saying).

As for the writing and characterization? Gundam Witch from Mercury has been one of the more interpersonal-relationship focused mecha and actually done it right.

Organizations and political allegiances are present in the background, but at its core, this has been a series that focuses on the minutiae of vengeance, hate, loathing, regret, and lies (both deliberate and by omission). We see a zoomed-in look at all the horrific suffering of armed conflict and war, scheming, and casual lack of empathy for human life when individual personal gain is on the other side of the equation. Across the entire cast too.

Suletta is fucked up. Her mother raised her that way. She's pragmatic to a complete and disastrous fault.

The scene where Elnora lures Suletta into stepping over the metaphorical line onto the bloody floor with her sweet tone and seductively 'justified' words? Brilliant. Guel killing his father on accident, but in the end his father was relieved to see him safe? That one hurts. Nika getting found out to be a traitor, even though she secured the safety of everyone aligned with Earth House? Tragedy in slow motion. Shaddiq still smiling even though his little operation failed? Ominous. The overall balance between Suletta and Miorine? Perfect and constantly in motion.

What's great about this series is that even now, we still have no idea who is on the "good" side. There probably aren't any.