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[edit] Introduction

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing first aired in Japan in 1995, migrating to the United States first via fansubbed videotapes before being picked up for broadcast on Cartoon Network's Toonami block in March of 2000. While it is set in a universe very similar to that of the other multiple Gundam series, it is a separate and different take on the Gundam story and themes. Fans of the older Gundam series are usually not fans of Gundam Wing^{[citation needed]}, and there has been animosity noted between the bulk of Gundam fandom and the Gundam Wing fandom.

[edit] Character/Pairing Notations

As the main characters of Gundam Wing have references to numbers in their names, character and pairing notations in the GW fandom are most often given as numbers. For the uninitiated, pairing listings on a fic can resemble a bizarre algebraic equation, but it really is quite simple. The pilot's names match the code numbers assigned to their Gundams, which in turn match up with the LaGrange Point of their colony of origin.

1 = Heero Yuy, pilot of Wing (Gundam 01); from the L1 colony
2 = Duo Maxwell, pilot of Deathscythe (Gundam 02); from the L2 colony
3 = Trowa Barton, pilot of Heavyarms (Gundam 03); from the L3 colony
4 = Quatre Raberba Winner, pilot of Sandrock (Gundam 04); from the L4 colony
5 = Chang Wufei, pilot of Shenlong (Gundam 05); from the L5 colony

From there, other characters also have numeric names, although those numbers are not representative of their country or colony of origin.

6 = Zechs Merquise
9 = Lucrezia Noin
11 = Lady Une
13 = Treize Khushrenada

For characters who do not have names correlating with a number, fandom notation is typically made with the first letter of their name.

R = Relena Darlian Peacecraft
D = Dorothy Catalonia
H = Hilde Schbeiker
C = Catherine Bloom
M = Long Meiran
S = Sally Po

[edit] Terminology

angst: extreme emotional distress

AU: Alternate Universe; not taking place in the GW/war/EW universe

blanketfic: generally involves two (or more) characters huddling together under a blanket for warmth. Citrus generally ensues because of the proxmity.

citrus: implies some sort of sexual content

crossover: combining characters and worlds from two or more animes, movies, etc.

deathfic: one (or more) characters die in the fic, may be major characters or minor

fluff: not a fic dealing with serious matters, or it deals with them in a non-serious way

fusion: casting the GW characters in the roles of another anime, movie, etc. without using the second thing's characters

het: a heterosexual relationship, aka male/female pairing

lemon: graphic/explicit sexual content

lime: non-graphic/explicit sexual content; perhaps just doesn't go as "far" as a lemon would

NCS: Non Consensual Situations; implies rape

OC: Original Character; the author uses their own characters in the fic (for example, any children had by the pilots would be OCs)

OFC: Original Female Character; (see above)

OMC: Original Male Character; (see above)

OOC: Out Of Character; a character does not behave how s/he does in the series (ex. Heero being turned into a housewife uber-uke for Duo.)

PWP: Plot? What Plot?; indicates a story does not have a plot. Could just be an introspective stream-of-consciousness piece, or a lemon

RFO: Relena Finds Out; I believe Talya Firedancer is credited with coining this term. Relena finds out about Heero and another character (that obviously isn't her.)

sap: extreme romanticism to the point of being sickeningly sweet

shoujo ai: literally "girl love." Means female/female relationships are in the fic. Normally shoujo ai implies non-physical (maybe kissing) relationships.

shounen ai: literally "boy love." Means male/male relationships are in the fic. Normally shounen ai implies non-physical (maybe kissing) relationships.

songfic: a fic dependent on the lyrics of a song, which are inserted in the fic.

TWT: Timeline? What Timeline?; indicates a fic doesn't take place in the Episode Zero/series/EW timeline of GW. Ex. After EW fics.

vidfic: a fic written sort of like a screenplay, focuses on the scene rather than dialogue. Set to a song 99% of the time.

WAFF: Warm And Fuzzy Feeling; not much more to it than that.

yaoi: male/male relationships, the physical version of shounen ai.

yuri: female/female relationships, the physical version of shoujo ai.

[edit] Popular pairings

The majority of the fandom is yaoi-centric, with the predominant pairings being 1x2 and 3x4. That said, it must be noted that the show itself is rather open-ended about how the relationships between the characters might go, and there is virtually no end to the pairing combinations and possibilites fans have explored. Fics featuring all five of the pilots (1x2x3x4x5, also called boypiles) in romantic or sexual relationsips are not uncommon, and threesomes of many varieties - yaoi, het, and yuri - are easily found.

Favorite het pairings in the fandom include 1xR, 2xH, 5xS, 6x9, and 11x13. However, it must be stated again that these are not set in stone - the het combinations are almost as diverse as the yaoi pairings.

The volume of yuri fic in the fandom is the lowest of the three, with the most popular yuri pairing being DxR. Although rarer, RxH, 9xS and 9x11 are not unheard of.

[edit] Fandom migration

Early numbers from an informal poll taken by windsor blue indicate that fans who migrated from other fandoms to the Gundam Wing fandom did so through Sailor Moon, Star Wars, and Weiß Kreuz fandoms. That said, nearly a third of the respondents have reported that they consider Gundam Wing their first fandom experience.

The same poll indicates that the most popular fandoms migrated to and from Gundam Wing were Full Metal Alchemist (32.1%), Naruto (24.2%), Pirates of the Caribbean (21.2%), Firefly (16.4%), and Prince of Tennis (14.5%). Thus far, some 67 fandoms have been named as being starting points that led to Gundam Wing, while 92 fandoms have been named as having been discovered after involvement in Gundam Wing.

Link to the poll: http://www.livejournal.com/poll/?id=784208

[edit] Timeline of the Gundam Wing fandom

Below is a list of terms and their definitions that are used in this fan community.

[edit] 1995

• Mobile Suit Gundam Wing first aired in Japan in 1995.
• On April 7, 1995, Shin kidô senki Gundam W premiered on television in Japan. [1]

[edit] 1996

This section needs more information.

[edit] 1997

• The three-episode OVA, Endless Waltz, is released in Japan in 1997.

[edit] 1998

• The theatrical version of Endless Waltz is released in Japan in 1998. This version re-uses much of the footage from the OVA version while extending certain scenes and removing breaks between episodes to facilitate a smoother viewing experience.

[edit] 1999

This section needs more information.

[edit] 2000

• Aishiteru [2], a fansite containing fan fiction, was founded in 2000.
• On March 6, 2000, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing premiered on television in the United States. [3]
• On March 8, 2000, the mailing list gundamwingfans was created. [4] By late 2007, new mailing list posts were mostly spam.
• On April 9, 2000, the mailing list gundamanarchy was created. [5] By late 2007, new mailing list posts were mostly spam.
• On May 22, 2000, the mailing list 1x2ml was created. [6] By late 2007, it is the largest and most active Gundam Wing fanlist on Yahoogroups.
• GWAddiction [7] established. By late 2001, it was one of the dominant Gundam Wing yaoi fanfic sites.
• "in 2000, I would estimate the Gundam Wing fandom to be very loudly split 45% slash, 45% het, and maybe 10% gen. But at the time it was only newly introduced to the US." [8]
• On August 11, 2000, the mailing list SDDI is founded on YahooGroups.
• On September 11, 2000, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing premiered on television in Canada. [9]
• On September 11, 2000, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: The Movie - Endless Waltz premiered on television in Canada. [10]
• On November 10, 2000, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: The Movie - Endless Waltz premiered on television in the United States. [11]
• On October 3, 2000, Lev's Lair is founded. The site contains a fanfic archive along with Audio, Gallery, Fanart, Lyrics, Downloads, and a multitude of other goodies.

[edit] 2001

• On April 24, 2001, the 1xr fansite blissfulignorance.com was created. [12]
• In July 2001, Gundam Wing @ Fanworkrecs [13] was created.
• On July 9, 2001, the LiveJournal community gundam_wing was created. [14]
• a little piece of gundam wing was founded on July 23, 2001.
• On August 15, 2001, the Gundam Wing fan fiction mailing list silent_love was created. [15]
• Moments of Rapture was founded on September 9, 2001. Moments of Rapture
• On October 29, 2001, Shin kidô senki Gundam W premiered on television in France. [16]

[edit] 2002

• On June 27, 2002, DuoxHeero.Com - A Gundam Wing 2x1 Site [17] was founded. [18]
• On August 27, 2002, the LiveJournal community 1x2_fans was founded. [19] It was dedicated to the 1x2, 1x2x1 and 2x1x2 pairings.
• On September 4, 2003, the Gundam Wing yaoi LiveJournal community gw_yaoi was created. The community maintainer is spazmastic. [20]
• On December 10, 2002, the mailing list SDQB was founded on YahooGroups.

[edit] 2003

• On January 15, 2003, the Gundam Wing LiveJournal community gundamseed was created. [21]
• GWyaoi-ficsearch was founded on March 5, 2003. [22]
• On June 1, 2003, the LiveJournal community 3x4_fans was created. The community maintainers are hostilecrayon, and sekari_sumeragi. [23]
• On July 23, 2003, the LiveJournal community beta_search was founded. [24] It was created so people could find beta readers. Fan fiction communities represented by this community include but are not limited to: Batman, Brokeback Mountain, Brokeback Mountain real person fic, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer Doctor Who, Dragonriders of Pern, Fifth Element, Gundam Wing, Hanson, Harry Potter, HIM, Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, InuYasha, L.J. Smith, Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Rings real person fic, Lost, Monsters, Inc., Naruto, Ouran High School Host Club, Pirates of the Caribbean, Prince of Tennis, Prison Break, Rurouni Kenshin, Star Wars, Stargate Atlantis, X-Men.
• On August 29, 2003, the Gundam Wing LiveJournal community 2x5x2 was created. ryuu_ouji was a maintainer, before deleting his account. yentai is the maintainer as of August 14, 2007. [25]
• Gundam Wing and Waltz Fanfiction Index was updated for the last time on September 28, 2003. [26]
• On November 11, 2003, the GreatestJournal community gw_fanfiction was created. [27]
• On December 20, 2003, the Gundam Wing LiveJournal challenge community gw500 was created. The maintainers are lil_1337, merith, and misanagi. [28]
• On December 26, 2003, the Gundam Wing LiveJournal community gundamwingyaoi was created. The maintainers, as of August 14, 2007, are teardroppierrot, and thai_bites. [29]

[edit] 2004

• On March 1, 2004, the LiveJournal icon community gw_icons was created. The maintainers are spiffy_monkey, and theangstmonkey. [30]
• On March 3, 2004, the Gundam Wing LiveJournal community 1x4x1_fans was created. The maintainer, as of August 14, 2007, is a_white_rain. [31]
• On March 6, 2004, the Gundam Wing LiveJournal community 13x5 was created. The maintainers, as of August 14, 2007, are cat_o_ninetails, and icefalcon. [32]
• On July 18. 2004, Lev's Lair offically closes but still remains up and accessible.
• On August 13, 2004, the LiveJournal 1xr community 1xr was created. [33]
• On November 22, 2004, the Gundam Wing LiveJournal community gw_rating was created. The maintainers are rumination, and thedourpariah. [34]

[edit] 2005

• On January 28, 2005, the MySpace group httpZAFTmyspacecom was created. [35]
• On February 10, 2005, the MySpace group allthingsgundamwing was created. [36]
• On March 20, 2005, the MySpace group NeoGundamWing was created. [37]
• On May 6, 2005, the MySpace group gundamwingfanzcom was created. [38]
• On June 29, 2005, the MySpace group httgroupsmyspacecomgundamuniverse was created. [39]
• On July 10, 2005, the LiveJournal community gw_safehouse was created. The maintainers are kwycksylver, bishsticks and sunhawk16.[40]
• On July 11, 2005, the MySpace group gundam was created. [41]
• On July 12, 2005, the MySpace group herro was created. [42]
• On July 29, 2005, the MySpace group gundamlove was created. [43]

[edit] 2006

Anime and Television categories with most stories added on FanFiction.Net in 24 hour period December 29 to December 30, 2006

• Around September 2006, the RP Soldiers of Armageddon was created on its first, now destroyed, board.

[edit] 2007

Generated on April 14, 2007 from BlogPulse: Bleach, Gundam, X-Files in comparitive mentions.

• On April 1, 2007, the RP SoA: Liberty City was created, ending Soldiers of Armageddon.[44]
• On June 4, 2007, the Gundam Wing InsaneJournal community gundam_yaoi was created. [45]
• On June 14, 2007, the Gundam Wing InsaneJournal community gundam_100 was created. [46]
• On July 29, 2007, the Gundam Wing InsaneJournal community gundam_rating was created. [47]

[edit] 2008

[edit] 2009

• "In a bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics and the celebration of the 30th Anniversary of Gundam, the construction of a giant, “life-size” Gundam is being constructed in Odaiba, Tokyo." [48]
• In November, a cosplay group called modnarians began their multi-year Gundam Wing group with a photoshoot at Epcot.

[edit] Kerfluffles

This section needs more information.

[edit] Influential Fanworks

This section needs more information.

[edit] The Internet

[edit] InsaneJournal

This section needs more information.

[edit] LiveJournal

It's safe to say at this point that a majority of fandom traffic has moved from mailing lists to LiveJournal. Most of the active fans maintain journals for their fic, art, icons and other fanworks. An interest search of "Gundam Wing" turns up 373 communities and 433 users. The LiveJournal format seems to be especially conducive to role-playing communities. Some, such as Slow as Hell, were used as a writing exercise for the players; while others such as Semper Fidelis, Solacium, Albert Johnson University, and Flying Blind have served as more interactive environments between the role-players and the readers. Still other commmunities have evolved around specific types of fic, such as GW500; or from a mini-fandom spawned by specific fic or OC, such as Pookie.

[edit] Fandom Size

Story totals from random fandoms are from FanWorks.Org, FicWad, SkyHawke, AdultFanFiction.Net, FanDomination.Net, MediaMiner.Org, FanFiction.Net and FanLib as of June 13, 2007.

The Gundam Wing fandom peaked in the years between the Japanese release of the anime (1995) and the two to three years following the American broadcast of the series on Cartoon Network's Toonami in 2000. Since around 2002-2003, the western fandom has declined considerably, but there are still many dedicated fans.

As of April 2007:

- 360+ Livejournal communities and 400+ individual users list "Gundam Wing" as an interst

- Fanfiction.net includes over 33,000 Gundam Wing stories

- GWAddiction includes over 2,600 stories by over 100 authors

See also Gundam Wing fan fiction community size.

[edit] Fandom members

See Category:Gundam Wing fans.

[edit] External Links

GundamWingFansite -- Constant stream of GundamWing members, posts, content (2010).

Gundam Wing -- Gundam Wing Fansite 2009.

a little piece of gundam wing -- ran by Dacia a.k.a Raygun and was last updated March 23, 2008. This site is a combination of Doujinshi, fanfiction archive, plot bunnies, among other wonderful little teed bites.

Aenai Ai ~ Tragic Love -- Webmasters are Sonny and Aya, it was updated as of November 18, 2004

Detiny Interrupted -- Owned by Ponderosa. Last updated April 4, 2008

Idle Hands -- The site is owned by blue_soaring wrote these between 2001-2003

Kracken's Fanfiction -- Still actively writing, the site was updated as of April 6, 2008

Lev's Lair -- Was created October 3, 2000 by Lev and was laid to rest July 18, 2004.

Moments of Rapture -- Owner and maintainer is Sharon and was last updated March 24, 2008.

Prussian and Cobalt -- Owned and Maintained by C. Has been around since March 1999 and was last updated August 25, 1999.

shinigami&wing -- Owned and run by Jana, was last updated February 22, 2009

UndertheBridge.org -- Webmistress is Link Worshiper. Was last updated February 10, 2008.

[edit] See also

• Gundam Wing fanzines

[edit] Sources

[49] Below is a partial list of articles and academic sources to help you continue to learn about this community.

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