War to War



Plot
The episode starts with an opening narration to the story, with the narrator telling about the cause of the Great Earth Conflict: back then, countries were united, and they worked together to bring new tech into the world to improve its state through innovation. One of these creations was the Mobile Suits, and they were to be seen as defenders of the globe. Yet during 125 V.C. the death of Nieldriss minister Gareth Ardineas occurred and his people put the blame on their former allies, Yamiga. As a result, the Yamigan president Kagehisa Konya declared war and used the Yamigan Mobile Suits to attack. Afterwards, the narrator transitions to 130 V.C., five years after the start of the conflict. It was said that a treaty of peace was torn apart, and because of it the war would not end soon.

After the introduction, the screen shows a background of city ruins at nighttime, with the series title flashed, but then it fades as running footsteps were shown. The view transitions up to Rieze, desperately running for her life with a shotgun in hand. Around her, guns and cannons fire, and she sees a lot of dead soldiers with their bloody cold bodies lying on the ground. The young girl has a mantra inside her head: “I have to live,” the line repeats in her thoughts as she tries to avoid the gunshots that are everywhere around her, and shooting back at enemies as retaliation. Her mantra ends with one last repeat of the line as she fires at someone who tried to shoot a bullet at her.

But that was her last bullet. With that, she drops the shotgun and continues to move forward unarmed. Rieze manages to dodge most bullets, with a few shot through her shoulders. That is, until her legs were shot, and she falls down to the ground. Still, the young one tried to crawl, as she repeats again: “I have to live,” but she would seemingly meet her end as she turns around and sees a gunshot directed towards her—

However, as it turns out, she survived. Rieze, now with a huge injury on her face, wakes up, yet she feels something strange. Under her sheets, she sees her legs looking as if nothing happened to it, yet as she expected, she could not move them properly. All of a sudden, she hears a familiar voice saying, “So you’re awake now,” and it turns out that it was Mikhail Boehler, a young medic serving Nieldriss. He explains that he, with the help of his seniors, tried very hard in “replacing her broken parts”, but he says that it would take her a while to get used to it.

Mikhail then begins to start musing to Rieze about “the people like her”—he started to refer to the Falschen, describing them as another type of weapon Nieldriss has thought of to fight against their enemies."“Weapons made for the sole purpose of fighting, and nothing else. Weapons, not people, who have no right to live a life outside of war.” — Mikhail"As he expresses his empathy towards the Falschen’s lives, Rieze tells him of something that someone told her."“If ever I survive the war… I will find the answer to something I have been asking. ‘What is the point of me living until the end?’ He told me, that if ever I live when the war is over… I would know.” — Rieze"The scene ends with close view shots of their faces, showing an expression of gloom and doubt.

The next scene shows the city ruins of Emmeryn again in daytime, with multiple Orochi mobile suits, ranging from slightly damaged to outright destroyed. One of the pilots of the still-functional Orochi, Demyan Hagen, went out of the cockpit to check on the ruins of Emmeryn. He overheard one of the fellow pilots talk to someone, with the two talking about the Nieldrian soldiers they have successfully sniped, along with the mention of a young girl being one of them. Upon hearing of that, Demyan looks at the duo with a face of discontent and sighs.

One of his comrades, Shou Kohaku, noticed him and asked what was wrong. At first, Demyan hesitated, until he finally said it after Shou’s persuasion. The man says that he feels bad about killing child soldiers, even if they were the enemy. Shou then opens up about his disagreement, that even if they were children, they have been trained to kill and do cruel things without remorse. Their debate goes back and forth until Demyan had nothing to say and suddenly walked out, leaving Shou behind. The scene ends with Shou staring behind as Demyan leaves.

Next scene opens with Demyan drinking with another comrade, Rokuro Yuuta. The comrade started to talk about the earlier battle and how tough it was to fight against Nieldriss’s Falschen, especially as he feels terrible for killing a lot of them, who are children. Upon hearing that, Demyan looked up and said that it makes him feel relieved that there was someone that agrees with him; when asked why, he started to talk about the argument he had with Shou.

Rokuro, after that, mentioned about “her”, someone important in Demyan’s life. In being reminded of that person, Demyan looked down towards the orange-colored hand knit necklace he wears, and he holds it with his left hand.

That hand transitions to Kagehisa’s which holds a piece of paper. Afterwards he tears it apart in front of Saerys Lamirande, current monarch of the Ordelian Kingdom, who was left shocked at the action. In anger, the young king had a confrontation with the Yamigan leader concerning the peace treaty, the paper that was torn to pieces. Kagehisa argued that Ordelia wouldn’t have suffered if they had not fought back; Saerys retorts that he, as king, cannot let his people get killed in a massacre caused by the likes of a bloodthirsty man like Kagehisa. The argument led to something worse as Kagehisa in rage strangled Saerys, but was stopped by his henchmen, convincing him to stop.

The Yamigan leader leaves in aggravation, while the young king of Ordelia clenched his fists as he looks down at the floor and clenches his teeth.

From that, the scene suddenly shows two women looking up at a mobile suit with proud expressions. One of them, Isabella Dumitra, talks about how this has become one of the more advanced versions of a Mobile Suit, and is so far the best creation thought of: the Gundam. Her companion, Gavrila Ramona, says that the weapon is only a prototype, and that it cannot be used yet, but positively remarks about its refined new feature: the Refined Voltaic Transmitter, or the REVOLT System—an improved version of the Voltaic Transmitters from normal Mobile Suits."“To think the order to create something like this would come from His Majesty himself…”""“Didn’t he despise this war…? Then why would he…”""“I can’t speak for his motivations, but he must have changed his mind.”""— Isabella and Gavrila"After discussing about Saerys’s “change”, the screen pans to the Gundam, going up from its legs to its face. Multiple other scenes are shown, like with Demyan and the others being called for another battle, and Rieze along with fellow Falschens lined up to hear orders from their Captain, Gisbert Lorenz, and preparing them for the next fight.