gundam quuuuuux predictions
Mar. 3rd, 2025 12:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhodochrositewatched gqx twice in the last week. i liked it (⬅️ extreme understatement). don't have time to get into the specifics but here are my predictions for the anime, in order from most to least likely. we will see how much of my bingo card i can cross off by the end. heavy spoilers below, obviously.
currently: extremely interested in xavier/machu, shuji/machu/nyaan, xavier/comoli. open to challia/xavier. theoretically could go for xavier/nyaan pickshipping. would rather not acknowledge char/challia (for multiple reasons that ultimately boil down to: i don't want to ship my handsome young man char with a guy who has a moustache) but it's undeniably a thing. literally zero idea what happened to char. xavier nyaan comoli are my main picks and xavier kinda looking like my 1pick rn but i can't really tell if that's just because he has one of my favourite guy names since i don't think he's my usual character type other than being henchmancoded (nyaan probably is, but it's hard for me to get over her name LOL can we get her real name asap pleaseeee). but i sincerely think the whole gqx cast is so charming and i love their weird eye colours and cute designs and i'm really excited for the anime!!
shuji is a flanagan institute escapee
possibly even the escapee who caused char's zeknova incident but i'm not wedded to the specifics, although i don't know how else shuji could have come into possession of both the red gundam and sayla's guncannon's weapon. surely there can't be two plot important flanagan runaways? also it would be very cool if shuji and xavier knew each other to some degree.
shuji will die for machu's womanpain and return as a newtype ghost
to fulfil the prophecy of his character archetype ala lalah/four/stella/etc. i think this will likely happen towards the end of the show in a climactic battle (so not as early as 4lan died) and trigger a massive power levelup for machu, possibly even a zeknova event whatever the hell that is or the apotheosis mentioned below. i would love to see shuji be the ghost in the machine for the red gundam like rita in the phenex.
i do think shumachu will be the main canon romance but that feels too obvious to have as its own prediction so it can go here too, i don't think gundam has done a variation on protag x newtype girl where it's endgame but the newtype girl still dies anyway yet (hathaflash has the variation where protag is the one who dies and from what i gather ibo has the dual variation of protag being the one who dies And canon polycule endgame with both the oldtype and newtype girl love interests), so it would be fun to see. i like machunyaan but don't expect them to be endgame, i think it's fair to read a level of romantic intentionality into their interactions even above and beyond yuribaiting but machu reacts much more strongly to shuji so 🤷♀️ it's looking like nyaan->machu->shuji to me.
machu will apotheosise
i am hoping and praying and actively wishing that machu will transcend humanity and become a god/higher power/concept, which is my favourite protag trajectory of all time. i think she's already well on her way to separation from mortality – she's fascinated by the idea of true freedom in space and the vastness of real nature which she has never experienced as a colony-born-and-raised spacenoid, she's clearly an extremely powerful untrained newtype, she doesn't really have normal human responses like fear/anxiety/indecisiveness to unusual events (in contrast to nyaan) and seems to embody pure id and potential in a way that is unfettered by the confines of human rationality and logic. despite ostensibly being a normal civilian schoolgirl she is incredibly confident about and comfortable with defaulting to violence, but not in a slaughterer way, in a very matter-of-fact, locked-in way – i think about the scene where she and nyaan and clan pomeranians are watching the red gundam and the qx fight in the colony right above their heads and she says to the pomes, in total declaratory seriousness, aren't you going to fight? and then later after she's taken control of the pome zaku and crashlanded in the maintenance tunnel where xavier is hiding with the qx she spots the qx, immediately calmly thinks that one looks stronger and vaults out of the zaku and into the qx's cockpit. even when she's freaking out in her first clan battle in space: it's kill or be killed!
maybe the Power Of Friendship/Love will help her return to humanity though… maybe tying machu to physical existence will be the narrative role of nyaan (and to a lesser degree the pomes). maybe it will be framed as a choice between joining shuji in newtype transcendence heaven and going back to nyaan on the corporeal plane… i would smile!
machu will join the sodon
this is soooo wish fulfilment but i really really want her to be coworkers with xavier and comoli and it's kind of gundam custom for the civilian protag to join the most sympathetically positioned military, which rn is looking like zeon. plus challia will presumably make moves to reclaim the qx and he will definitely be looking to recruit machu since she's the only person who is able to pilot it. i don't know what will happen to shuji. him joining zeon too feels kinda weird but maybe things will happen in the meantime to make it make sense.
xavier and comoli are secretly dating
or at the very least they will be canon love interests... not to look too much like he was a boy she was a girl can i make it any more obvious but being coworkers in the same grad cohort aboard a heritage warship is kind of romantic af, i <3 baby prodigy officer shipping. idkkk when xavier got arrested and the whole sodon crew was freaking out over getting court martialled and executed for activating the omega psycommu and losing the qx comoli was like AND WHY IS NOBODY WORRIED ABOUT XAVIER-KUN'S CONDITION?! and then cut to two guys on the bridge exchanging a look and being like "umm… i think everyone already knows…" which i presume is supposed to mean that everyone already knows xavier is getting the military mistreatment prison special but for some reason i immediately thought Ah they mean everyone already knows you two are dating which is why you are exhibiting special concern towards xavier so there's no need to pretend you have normal coworkerly concern about him. so that's my "evidence".
xavier and machu will have a mentorship
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE i want xavmachu sooooo bad my qxshipping <3 and on track to be my series otp even though they literally did not exchange a single word in the entirety of the movie. but that has never been a barrier to my shipvision! i loveeeee mentorships where the mentor has less raw talent but more experience/technique and the more of that they impart to the mentee the more advantage they cede so they are actively contributing to their own obsolescence / overtaking. i think the iteration here could be so interesting since xavier seems too good natured to really resent machu for supplanting him although that makes for fun tension too. i do want machu to really like xavier as a person even after she surpasses him in ability. i want xavmachu that looks like machuxav but is xavmachu… my ideal xavmachu!!
anyway xavier honestly doesn't seem that attached to the qx and only got in it on challia's orders anyway, so i feel like it's less likely he and machu will be rivals over who gets to pilot (especially if challia orders machu to pilot. xavier is a good and obedient subordinate and rank hierarchy respecter, and he knows he can't use the omega psycommu and machu can). also i think he already has his own ms since comoli mentions he's in the middle of retraining for the qx when he's first introduced and presumably he would be more comfortable with piloting that ms. so there is space here for a beautiful 😥x🫨mentorship dynamic to grow once machu joins up with the sodon.
currently: extremely interested in xavier/machu, shuji/machu/nyaan, xavier/comoli. open to challia/xavier. theoretically could go for xavier/nyaan pickshipping. would rather not acknowledge char/challia (for multiple reasons that ultimately boil down to: i don't want to ship my handsome young man char with a guy who has a moustache) but it's undeniably a thing. literally zero idea what happened to char. xavier nyaan comoli are my main picks and xavier kinda looking like my 1pick rn but i can't really tell if that's just because he has one of my favourite guy names since i don't think he's my usual character type other than being henchmancoded (nyaan probably is, but it's hard for me to get over her name LOL can we get her real name asap pleaseeee). but i sincerely think the whole gqx cast is so charming and i love their weird eye colours and cute designs and i'm really excited for the anime!!
shuji is a flanagan institute escapee
possibly even the escapee who caused char's zeknova incident but i'm not wedded to the specifics, although i don't know how else shuji could have come into possession of both the red gundam and sayla's guncannon's weapon. surely there can't be two plot important flanagan runaways? also it would be very cool if shuji and xavier knew each other to some degree.
shuji will die for machu's womanpain and return as a newtype ghost
to fulfil the prophecy of his character archetype ala lalah/four/stella/etc. i think this will likely happen towards the end of the show in a climactic battle (so not as early as 4lan died) and trigger a massive power levelup for machu, possibly even a zeknova event whatever the hell that is or the apotheosis mentioned below. i would love to see shuji be the ghost in the machine for the red gundam like rita in the phenex.
i do think shumachu will be the main canon romance but that feels too obvious to have as its own prediction so it can go here too, i don't think gundam has done a variation on protag x newtype girl where it's endgame but the newtype girl still dies anyway yet (hathaflash has the variation where protag is the one who dies and from what i gather ibo has the dual variation of protag being the one who dies And canon polycule endgame with both the oldtype and newtype girl love interests), so it would be fun to see. i like machunyaan but don't expect them to be endgame, i think it's fair to read a level of romantic intentionality into their interactions even above and beyond yuribaiting but machu reacts much more strongly to shuji so 🤷♀️ it's looking like nyaan->machu->shuji to me.
machu will apotheosise
i am hoping and praying and actively wishing that machu will transcend humanity and become a god/higher power/concept, which is my favourite protag trajectory of all time. i think she's already well on her way to separation from mortality – she's fascinated by the idea of true freedom in space and the vastness of real nature which she has never experienced as a colony-born-and-raised spacenoid, she's clearly an extremely powerful untrained newtype, she doesn't really have normal human responses like fear/anxiety/indecisiveness to unusual events (in contrast to nyaan) and seems to embody pure id and potential in a way that is unfettered by the confines of human rationality and logic. despite ostensibly being a normal civilian schoolgirl she is incredibly confident about and comfortable with defaulting to violence, but not in a slaughterer way, in a very matter-of-fact, locked-in way – i think about the scene where she and nyaan and clan pomeranians are watching the red gundam and the qx fight in the colony right above their heads and she says to the pomes, in total declaratory seriousness, aren't you going to fight? and then later after she's taken control of the pome zaku and crashlanded in the maintenance tunnel where xavier is hiding with the qx she spots the qx, immediately calmly thinks that one looks stronger and vaults out of the zaku and into the qx's cockpit. even when she's freaking out in her first clan battle in space: it's kill or be killed!
maybe the Power Of Friendship/Love will help her return to humanity though… maybe tying machu to physical existence will be the narrative role of nyaan (and to a lesser degree the pomes). maybe it will be framed as a choice between joining shuji in newtype transcendence heaven and going back to nyaan on the corporeal plane… i would smile!
machu will join the sodon
this is soooo wish fulfilment but i really really want her to be coworkers with xavier and comoli and it's kind of gundam custom for the civilian protag to join the most sympathetically positioned military, which rn is looking like zeon. plus challia will presumably make moves to reclaim the qx and he will definitely be looking to recruit machu since she's the only person who is able to pilot it. i don't know what will happen to shuji. him joining zeon too feels kinda weird but maybe things will happen in the meantime to make it make sense.
xavier and comoli are secretly dating
or at the very least they will be canon love interests... not to look too much like he was a boy she was a girl can i make it any more obvious but being coworkers in the same grad cohort aboard a heritage warship is kind of romantic af, i <3 baby prodigy officer shipping. idkkk when xavier got arrested and the whole sodon crew was freaking out over getting court martialled and executed for activating the omega psycommu and losing the qx comoli was like AND WHY IS NOBODY WORRIED ABOUT XAVIER-KUN'S CONDITION?! and then cut to two guys on the bridge exchanging a look and being like "umm… i think everyone already knows…" which i presume is supposed to mean that everyone already knows xavier is getting the military mistreatment prison special but for some reason i immediately thought Ah they mean everyone already knows you two are dating which is why you are exhibiting special concern towards xavier so there's no need to pretend you have normal coworkerly concern about him. so that's my "evidence".
xavier and machu will have a mentorship
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE i want xavmachu sooooo bad my qxshipping <3 and on track to be my series otp even though they literally did not exchange a single word in the entirety of the movie. but that has never been a barrier to my shipvision! i loveeeee mentorships where the mentor has less raw talent but more experience/technique and the more of that they impart to the mentee the more advantage they cede so they are actively contributing to their own obsolescence / overtaking. i think the iteration here could be so interesting since xavier seems too good natured to really resent machu for supplanting him although that makes for fun tension too. i do want machu to really like xavier as a person even after she surpasses him in ability. i want xavmachu that looks like machuxav but is xavmachu… my ideal xavmachu!!
anyway xavier honestly doesn't seem that attached to the qx and only got in it on challia's orders anyway, so i feel like it's less likely he and machu will be rivals over who gets to pilot (especially if challia orders machu to pilot. xavier is a good and obedient subordinate and rank hierarchy respecter, and he knows he can't use the omega psycommu and machu can). also i think he already has his own ms since comoli mentions he's in the middle of retraining for the qx when he's first introduced and presumably he would be more comfortable with piloting that ms. so there is space here for a beautiful 😥x🫨mentorship dynamic to grow once machu joins up with the sodon.
