This was a hard one for me when I was younger because while I was a little older when it aired. I didn't accept, "oh, it was the DG cells!" as an excuse for Saette attacking Rain, but I wouldn't have had the conscious awareness of the red flag responsibility-avoidance nor the vocabulary to describe why at the time. Were the DG cells the only reason he attacked her, or was the fact that she left him that day a factor? He wouldn't admit even to himself which one. And that's a problem. Oddly, the Gundam fandom site doesn't even mention that Saette exists. Many Gundam fans look down upon G Gundam as lacking the depth found even in the highly melodramatic Gundam Wing, but I think they've allowed themselves to miss something important. This episode serves as proof of that.
I don't know if you've checked out any of my Cinema Aficiona series, but I used to get a group together weekly to discuss the greatest stories ever told via visual medium. The Shining, Back To The Future, A Fistful of Dollars, etc. And when I say G Gundam is fit to be categorized within my definition of "all-time great stories", I am not joking. This series is a complete gem of human stories told brilliantly thought an unconventional medium and genre. It's why I'm having such a blast going through it and riffing and commentating with my buds. It's also why I'm creating this archive for people to come across over time, this series is very useful because of it's accuracy and honesty regarding human emotion, interaction, and archetypes. There are not many shows that can claim all of the above.
