Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - Episode Thirteen: Envoys from the Earth
Written by: Yasuhiro Nakanishi
Directed by: Masatoshi Hakata, Moe Suzuki, and Akira Toba
Storyboarded by: Hiroshi Kobayashi, Ryō Andō and Kanta Suzuki
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - Episode Thirteen: Envoys from the Earth (大地からの使者; Daichi Kara no Shisha)
Returning to Asticassia School of Technology following the attack on Plant Quetta, Suletta Mercury, under the supervision of Elan Ceres (Enhanced Person #5), is made to fight five successive duels which had piled up while her mobile suit, Aerial, was repaired. Despite the supposed challenge having to fight five back-to-back battles would present, Suletta easily defeats all five challengers with minimal effort, Aerial Rebuild being declared as having surpassed all other Benerit Group mobile suits by the observing Duel Committee.
Back on school grounds, the students of Earth House discuss Asticassia's open campus event, with the preparations being made for prospective students being likened to a festival. However, none of the members of Earth House are able to enjoy the atmosphere, still struggling with what they experienced at Plant Quetta, the events of which are being actively suppressed as an accident rather than a terrorist attack. After reassuring Lilique that she and Aerial would protect them in the event of another attack, Suletta departs to tend to Miorine's greenhouse; the others remark on how she alone seems to be in high spirits.
At the Benerit Group HQ, Miorine watches over her comatose father, a doctor advising her of how long-term his recovery will be, and that she should get some rest as well. In a meeting room, the executives of the Benerit Group Big Three discuss the recent attack; Lauda, acting CEO of Jeturk Heavy Machinery after the death of his father, is blamed for Dawn of Fold's use of Jeturk mobile suits in the attack. Condemning the attack, and taking particular issue with their use of Gundams, Sarius declares that they will discretely find and swiftly bring the terrorists to justice as a matter of the Group's dignity. After the meeting, Sarius discusses their involvement with Dawn of Fold privately with Shaddiq, who reassures his father he had no knowledge of their use of Gundams. Sarius orders Shaddiq to return to Asticassia, and to refrain from duels or other company business for the time being.
At Miorine's greenhouse, Suletta speaks with Prospera over the phone, who is being held at Benerit HQ for questioning along with Miorine. Suletta wonders if she could have done better than squashing the terrorist who threatened Miorine and Delling, but her mother reassures her she did the right thing. Returning to Earth House, Suletta finds Nika lost in thought, attempting to offer advice as a friend, when Sophie Pulone and Norea du Noc of Dawn of Fold suddenly appear, having been summoned to Asticassia by Shaddiq, disguised as new students.
Sophie and Norea introduce themselves to Earth House, requesting to join as they are from Earth. Despite some reservations from the students there, the two have already moved their things in. While Sophie ingratiates herself to "Big Sister" Suletta, Norea is confronted by Nika, knowing their true identities and that they entered the school with the help of Shaddiq establishing dummy companies to sponsor them. Norea brushes Nika off, threatening her with a knife while mocking her desire to bridge the gap between Earth and Space.
The day the open campus begins Suletta shows Sophie to different attractions, the two enjoying themselves despite Sophie being a chronic troublemaker. They encounter Elan #5, who attempts to ask Suletta out, only for her to be promptly dragged off by Sophie. He then bumps into Norea, who quietly expresses her disdain for the entire school; he muses they might actually get along well before noticing his student handbook has gone missing. Elsewhere, Nika fails to find records of Shaddiq's communications with Norea and Sophie, when Martin confronts her about having saved them from the terrorists, only to get brushed off.
As the day ends, Petra and Felsi of Jeturk House approach Earth House at a GUND-ARM Inc. booth they'd set up, lashing out at them for stealing Guel's spotlight in an upcoming Rumble Ring event - a battle royale to close out the open campus, which Suletta will be required to participate in as the Holder. When Chuchu wonders where Nika's disappeared to, Suletta offers to go look for her. Meanwhile, Sophie and Norea sneak into Earth House's spaceship to investigate the Gundam Pharact, having been ordered to destroy it if necessary. Nika confronts the two, threatening to reveal herself and report them as well. In response, Sophie assaults her while Norea activates the Pharact. Before she can squash Nika under the Gundam's foot, Suletta speeds in on a scooter, saving Nika. Over Sophie's objections, Norea prepares to kill Suletta and Nika, only for Suletta to challenge them to a duel. Despite Norea pointing out that they have no reason to go along with the challenge, Sophie agrees to it, amused by the notion of killing machines being used in play-battles. Suletta counters with her belief in Gundams being used for medical advancement, while Sophie reiterates she'll prove them as purely instruments of violence.
Back at Benerit HQ, Prospera meets with Miorine, who calls her out on having Suletta kill someone to save her. Prospera admits that her daughter may have gone too far with that action, but quickly changes the subject to Delling's Quiet Zero project. Cryptically claiming that it will use Gundam technology to bring an end to war, she requests that Miorine take over the project with her father incapacitated.
Ilya Kuvshinov's (end card illustrator)’s official Twitter
Envoys from the Earth provides examples of:
- Adults Are Useless:
- In the aftermath of a terrorist attack, Earth House has been threatened to keep quiet about it or they could face expulsion. It is made clear that they haven’t been given any professional help to deal with the trauma.
- While Earth House might not have told Suletta about the Rumble Ring, none of the teachers bothered telling her about it either.
- Big Damn Heroes: Norea attempts to squash Nika with the Gundam Pharact's foot. Cue Suletta speeding into the scene on a scooter and pushing Nika away from danger.
- Bigger Stick: Technological superiority has always been a factor in Suletta's dueling victories, but this episode makes explicit that, with Aerial's upgrades, its performance now far surpasses every suit built by any of the Benerit Group's branches.
- Bridal Carry: Suletta, once again demonstrating her impressive strength, picks up Nika and carries her while running away from the Pharact.
- The Bus Came Back: The Pharact, after being destroyed in "A Gloomy Song" and last mentioned in "If I Could Take One More Step Toward You" where Peil made up an excuse to keep it out of GUND-ARM Inc.'s hands, is now stored in Earth House's hangar bay.
- Butt-Monkey: Rouji takes the role this episode, first being flirted with by Renee, something he finds intensely uncomfortable, and then having his lunch stolen stolen by Sophie, who eats it directly from his plate.
- Carnival of Killers: The five challengers Suletta defeats in the beginning are all piloting unique mobile suits. The most normal of the bunch has guns instead of hands; the others have gorilla-like arms, spinning beam sabers, multiple built-in Wave Motion Guns, or some sort of blade-like weapon with thrusters to let it fly.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Suletta and her newly upgraded Aerial Rebuild sortie in five consecutive duels with the both of them easily demolishing all of their opponents with Aerial Rebuild's superior technology and Suletta's mobile suit combat prowess.
- Didn't Think This Through: Nika tries to blackmail Norea and Sophie into leaving the school, but confronts them alone, in a large building, while Norea is in the cockpit of a giant robot. Predictably, the much more physically capable Sophie beats her up and destroys her student handbook, and Norea nearly steps on her with the Pharact before Suletta saves her.
- Diving Save: Suletta saves Nika from being crushed by the Pharact by jumping off one of the school scooters at top speed and skidding across the floor in such a way that she catches rather than simply collides with her — another example of how Suletta's courage and quick thinking comes out when she or others are in danger.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Earth House all knows Suletta flew out in Aerial to go to Miorine's rescue, and they admire her bravery. None of them know the gruesome details of that rescue.
- The Benerit Group, in retaliation for the Plant Quetta attack, begins a sweep of Earth to hunt down Dawn of Fold, not knowing the two Gundam pilots they're especially interested in locating have actually enrolled at Asticassia, their own school.
- This is especially true for Sarius Zenelli, who authorizes the retaliation; while aware his own son orchestrated the attack, he is kept in the dark about Shaddiq's knowledge and interest in Gundams, the use of which Sarius takes particular issue with.
- Earth House accepts Sophie and Norea into their ranks, with only Nika aware that the two of them played a major role in the terror they experienced in the last episode. This is especially painful in Suletta's case, since the two Gundam pilots menaced her directly at various points, but for all she knows she's just made two new friends.
- Filching Food for Fun: Sophie steals some food from Rouji's plate in the cafeteria... while crawling across the table to reach it with him looking at her in shock.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Elan is looking at Sophie and Norea's student IDs, it focuses on his tablet enough to make out the details. Both are from the piloting department (which Elan also says out loud), Sophie's student number is MP040, and she's striking a pose and grinning in her portrait, while Norea's is MP041 and she's standing straight as a rod with a neutral expression. Both have Earth listed as their birthplace, no data on criminal record, no data on what house they belong to (though they obviously intend on joining Earth House), have registered PC-Biometric systems, and were sponsored by Oara Materials.
- Good-Times Montage: After Norea and Sophie are introduced as new students to join Earth House, there's a montage of Suletta showing Sophie (who's taken a liking to her) around Asticassia. This includes Suletta showing an unimpressed Sophie around campus, Sophie yawning in class with Suletta looking embarassed, Sophie taking some kind of class vehicle for a joyride, Suletta apologizing to a teacher for her behavior, Sophie stuffing herself on food in the cafeteria, which is then revealed to be Rouji's food she's stealing off his plate, and Sophie doing tricks on a Haro scooter while watching a demi trainer demonstration (later stealing the Haro to add to her plushie collection).
- Grand Theft Prototype: Norea steals the Pharact and then almost kills Nika with it. Downplayed thought in that she couldn't get into its GUND-Arm system and that her original intent was to destroy it if it was deemed a threat.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Defied. It turns out Miorine's horrified reaction to Suletta's actions in the last episode did shake her Dissonant Serenity, to the point where she's started to question if she really did the right thing... but one pep talk from Lady Prospera later, and she has her faith in her mother renewed.
- Mythology Gag: Norea piloted the Gundam Pharact and bullies someone on foot (in this case, it's Nika) and mocking her beliefs, which is similar to Kamille piloting a dark-colored Gundam (the Gundam Mk-II in Titans' colors) and doing the same thing onto a Titans officer, who is also on foot.
- Taking You with Me: Knowing that Sophie and Norea aren't to be trusted, Nika threatens to reveal that the companies that sponsored all three of them were fake shell companies set up by Shaddiq - getting herself expelled, but taking Sophie and Norea with her.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Norea calls Nika foolish for thinking that an orphan from Earth could ever accomplish anything meaningful by going to a spacian school.
- The Stinger: Lady Prospera meets Miorine in a garden at Benerit HQ. While Miorine tries to call Prospera out for making her groom a murderer, Prospera offers to put her in charge of Delling's Quiet Zero project.
- There's No Kill like Overkill: Despite initially threatening her with a knife, Norea ultimately tries to kill Nika with the Pharact, a massive mobile suit.
- Villain Respect: Continuing from the last two episodes, Sophie genuinely thinks Suletta is amazing and praises her highly, looking up to her with near Big Sister Worship.
