Tumblr sucks ass for meta so I'm moving it all here.
This one solitary page is bar-none, my favorite single piece of Yzak-related media and I always end up posting it and talking about it when I start rambling about Yzak.
But page is just a perfect culmination of Yzak’s whole story and his development through the series. Because his growth in the first series was slower, and more strangled than that of the main cast due to his circumstances and while he hits similar beats of having doubts about what he’s doing, he is without the means to do much about it and also without a fuller picture of the situations around him compared to a lot of other main characters. Yzak’s main struggle was his military brain/loyal soldier side versus what he was feeling in his heart/his feelings for his friends/people he respected who were eventually all standing on the opposite side of the battlefield. And it was this moment flashbacked to (the Dearka rescue in the final episode of SEED - manga flashbacks have black page backgrounds btw) and referenced in his words here that snapped him out of that struggle where he realized what he needed - wanted to do. The SEED novels add to this beautifully with his introspection imo:
Forgetting that he ever pointed a gun at [Dearka], the only thing Yzak felt then was the desire to protect the machine behind him.
His actions following that, in defending the Archangel itself further prove that this moment was really the cincher for that realization. The Edge manga has a panel from after the series ended confirming that even for some time after the final battle, Yzak remained with the Archangel for at least a little longer (to ensure they had someone there to defend them, I assume). The panel in question is him and Dearka in the Archangel's hangar with Athrun and Cagalli, shaking Athrun's hand. At that point Yzak had committed to following his heart rather than what his at odds military loyalty brain was telling him. Another line from the novel:
He still had feelings that he couldn't forgive, but those feelings were now put aside - as he now realized what it was that he needed to do. The fighting had to be stopped, not just to protect PLANT - there was no room to be hung up on his own personal feelings.
Like he says in this page, in that moment he realized what it was he should truly defend, which was Dearka who was about to get his ass got, so that speech bubble being said over that panel of Dearka makes me appreciate the hell out of the detail that Kuori Chimaki put into these little things when making this manga. Since Dearka was the main catalyst that sent Yzak over the final, and largest hump of his development as a whole, but especially during that final battle when he was in danger everything just snapped into place for Yzak all at once and he had this absolute moment of clarity and realization to what he needed to do. As Yzak says himself, in those moments one realizes what it is they should truly defend.
And then for some extra rambling, the way Dearka is smiling and looks so proud of him in that panel when he says that is profound to me because again, I'm taking a line from the Destiny novel:
No matter what decision Yzak made, Dearka would follow him. But especially so when his own beliefs lined up with it.
This line I love in general and it's SUCH an important line for both Yzak and Dearka. Because this is a Dearka who once said he didn’t want to return to ZAFT and simply follow orders, but here he is, not just back in ZAFT and following Yzak, but following him regardless of any decisions he made. That kind of devotion and trust fucks me up in the best way. Because I can’t have seen Dearka rejoining ZAFT if he didn’t have Yzak to have that kind of trust in, especially if he was going to be a soldier-that-follows-a-superior again. So this page is also an important reflection of Dearka’s character and how he’s grown from that, as well as how much trust he has in Yzak to not lead him/their team down the wrong path. And much like Yzak’s line on the next page about how being a ZAFT soldier means having no regrets, it shows in his expression that Dearka has no regrets in choosing to follow him. And from that there’s also this whole thing about Yzak growing into and becoming the kind of person that can be believed so devotedly in as a leader, if Dearka so easily returned to the military under his lead after the things he said.
This one manga page says SO MUCH and I love it more than anything. I love the entire Yzak & Dearka Edge manga story it’s from, but god, this page... this page... the perfect Yzak page, I love it so.
I've talked about this on Plurk various times and always kept saying "I'll put all of my thoughts together somewhere eventually" so here I am, actually doing that!
This is a good deal of talk about Ezalia and Yzak and how I interpret things about and between them, and what I keep in mind in my play.
So the incredibly short version of this is: Yzak obviously loves his mother, and Ezalia obviously loves her son, but … it's a little complicated. As Gundam series makes things. Especially with these two and their positions in the war vs their developments through it. I also have no idea what kind of order this is going to be in, so it might just be all over the place with thoughts.
One thing I always assumed in my play is that Yzak comes from a small family. In canon we only get him and Ezalia, but this assumption was closer to confirmed thanks to the Melancholy of Yzak drama with Yzak stating that he is WELL AWARE that he is the last son of the Jule family. Sure, this could also mean he does have more family and they're all just female, but I'm only reaching so much based on the information I have.
On the subject of family as well, this opens up a lot of things about Ezalia's family situation. Ezalia is canonically a radical on the Council - and says shit along the lines of "lmao we'll show the Naturals who this world REALLY belongs to." She's prejudiced! She doesn't like Naturals! Shooting WMDs at Earth to wipe out half of life on it to win the war against them? No big deal to her! She's also a first-generation Coordinator - which means uuuuh her own parents are Naturals? That's what first-gen means. So what the fuck is up there, I wonder! Is she one of those "I hate Naturals but obviously not my parents they're the ONLY exception" types? Did she for some reason grow up to despise them? Did she know them at all? We don't get tidbits like this sadly so alas, this is something I will never have the deets on. So I don't really play Yzak as really having any kind of handwaved offscreen grandparents or anything. I just roll with a general "not there" as much as I do with a father situation since there's nothing there in canon, either. Small family! So he just refers to it as "him and his mother" in RP in general when it comes up, with nothing more attached to it (because I don't want to add any kind of overly dramatic thing to it, lol).
One article I translated says "It seems as though Ezalia was part of the PLANT Supreme Council for as long as Yzak was old enough to remember." There's no solid timeline there for how long the Council as we know it in SEED had been in place there. But overall from this we CAN gather that Ezalia has always been at least involved in politics and such if she was able to climb the ladder to eventually get onto the Council, so Yzak definitely knows her as such and she/the Jule name has been something pretty Known in the Coordinator world as a result. I play Yzak with a general air of "of course good things were/are expected of me because of my name/who my mother is and her prestige" but that goes hand in hand with Yzak naturally being the type of person who wants to prove himself on his OWN merits and accomplishments. So sure, there's some pressure there from his family name, and some from Ezalia herself, but Yzak is the type who puts pressure on himself ANYWAY to show his own talents. So in that regard, things work out for all parties involved.
And then we enter Gundam SEED and what went down there. While Yzak himself developed into a character who was less "fuck Naturals" and fighting more to end the war and the fighting instead of "winning." And said "winning" toward the end of SEED meant "both sides trying to WMD each other" which is. Bad!! It's bad! Even Yzak was like "woah there" about that. EZALIA HOWEVER was a Zala supporter, so was in charge of the military while Zala went to man their WMD in the end, and got her ass coup'd by the neutral/not extremist people on PLANT. I assume Ezalia paid in some way for that shit with some jail time at least. And will never hold any kind of governmental position again. Yzak we know from Destiny WOULD Have been in deep shit (from civilian shuttle fuckery as well as his actions in the last episode of SEED) but Durandal intervened with the soldiers/the "younger generation" as it were. But since his actions in the last episode of SEED technically ended up being "hey, not so bad after all," that worked out for him. And for Ezalia.
Because of how things shook out, Zala/his followers and the Blue Cosmos pockets of the Alliance lost. They became the "bad guys" and the losers of that war (a good thing, but like any story, imagine AU where they won and still had control? phew) so essentially the Jule name that was once so esteemed for someone like Yzak to need to live up to … is now tarnished! Ezalia tarnished it! Dragged her family name through the mud! People probably hear "Jule" and think of her and her allegiance and actions and are like, yikes! Hear the name Jule, think oh yeah remember when that one was fine with ending half of all life on Earth with a WMD? TERRIBLE.
I assume Ezalia was lowkey okay with how things shook out where Yzak was concerned, because now Yzak is continuing to do his thing. Working with the provisional council, returning to the military, becoming a commander with his own team, working in government even after the war. So in that way Yzak can kind of "fix" the Jule name that she fucked up by being on the right side of things and working for a better future. And I assume this because of the Melancholy of Yzak drama as well, which is why I think she's so pushy in THAT for Yzak to "find a wife" because that pushing had an air of "hey maybe a few generations down we'll forget about that whole … attempted genocide thing, haHA."
So while obviously they do have the love between a mother and son, it's a little strained! Yzak himself in the Melancholy drama says "I have a lot of confidence in my patience as your son" which basically says she SURE tests that with him. Like she's glad he's alive and didn't get punished from his mistakes the first war and probably doesn't really mind that he did what he did in the last episode when he just went "no thoughts only saving Dearka and then protecting the ship he's on" since that ended up working out for him. He can fix their image! So if anything she gets the better end of that deal, since she did her time, paid the price, lost her position, but has her son there to clean up the mess in a sense, and the Melancholy drama also confirms she's still a socialite since it also mentions that she has connections and tries to get Yzak's hours at the main office changed. So that whole drama and how fucking wild she is in it does make sense when you think about how MUCH is being pushed onto Yzak, who very clearly does not like or want this, to "save" their name and become this kind of image of what she thinks it should be.
And on Yzak's side of that, despite clearly NOT wanting this whole "please stop trying to force me to meet women" thing, he is still Yzak Jule. So he does want to prove himself in battle and in the government. He does want to be respected and Noticed - not so much a family name thing as much as a HIMSELF thing. He wants his own accomplishments to be recognized and validated. So he works for that and it just so happens to line up with what Ezalia wants. Which is why there's a lot of friction in the drama, because it deals with something that is NOT lining up between them. And Yzak loves his mother! He's a mama's boy! But he does hold her to the same standards he holds himself to so doesn't hate her for the things she's done. Because he, uh, also did some war crimes, and carries those sins with no excuses for them. He knows what he did! And he bears that.
Just a mother and son with their sins and a loving but slightly strained relationship.
I might come back and add little things to this post if I think of any more talking points, but that's a big if!
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
This ONE SINGLE GOD DAMNED PAGE
Tumblr sucks ass for meta so I'm moving it all here.
This one solitary page is bar-none, my favorite single piece of Yzak-related media and I always end up posting it and talking about it when I start rambling about Yzak.
But page is just a perfect culmination of Yzak’s whole story and his development through the series. Because his growth in the first series was slower, and more strangled than that of the main cast due to his circumstances and while he hits similar beats of having doubts about what he’s doing, he is without the means to do much about it and also without a fuller picture of the situations around him compared to a lot of other main characters. Yzak’s main struggle was his military brain/loyal soldier side versus what he was feeling in his heart/his feelings for his friends/people he respected who were eventually all standing on the opposite side of the battlefield. And it was this moment flashbacked to (the Dearka rescue in the final episode of SEED - manga flashbacks have black page backgrounds btw) and referenced in his words here that snapped him out of that struggle where he realized what he needed - wanted to do. The SEED novels add to this beautifully with his introspection imo:
Forgetting that he ever pointed a gun at [Dearka], the only thing Yzak felt then was the desire to protect the machine behind him.
His actions following that, in defending the Archangel itself further prove that this moment was really the cincher for that realization. The Edge manga has a panel from after the series ended confirming that even for some time after the final battle, Yzak remained with the Archangel for at least a little longer (to ensure they had someone there to defend them, I assume). The panel in question is him and Dearka in the Archangel's hangar with Athrun and Cagalli, shaking Athrun's hand. At that point Yzak had committed to following his heart rather than what his at odds military loyalty brain was telling him. Another line from the novel:
He still had feelings that he couldn't forgive, but those feelings were now put aside - as he now realized what it was that he needed to do. The fighting had to be stopped, not just to protect PLANT - there was no room to be hung up on his own personal feelings.
Like he says in this page, in that moment he realized what it was he should truly defend, which was Dearka who was about to get his ass got, so that speech bubble being said over that panel of Dearka makes me appreciate the hell out of the detail that Kuori Chimaki put into these little things when making this manga. Since Dearka was the main catalyst that sent Yzak over the final, and largest hump of his development as a whole, but especially during that final battle when he was in danger everything just snapped into place for Yzak all at once and he had this absolute moment of clarity and realization to what he needed to do. As Yzak says himself, in those moments one realizes what it is they should truly defend.
And then for some extra rambling, the way Dearka is smiling and looks so proud of him in that panel when he says that is profound to me because again, I'm taking a line from the Destiny novel:
No matter what decision Yzak made, Dearka would follow him. But especially so when his own beliefs lined up with it.
This line I love in general and it's SUCH an important line for both Yzak and Dearka. Because this is a Dearka who once said he didn’t want to return to ZAFT and simply follow orders, but here he is, not just back in ZAFT and following Yzak, but following him regardless of any decisions he made. That kind of devotion and trust fucks me up in the best way. Because I can’t have seen Dearka rejoining ZAFT if he didn’t have Yzak to have that kind of trust in, especially if he was going to be a soldier-that-follows-a-superior again. So this page is also an important reflection of Dearka’s character and how he’s grown from that, as well as how much trust he has in Yzak to not lead him/their team down the wrong path. And much like Yzak’s line on the next page about how being a ZAFT soldier means having no regrets, it shows in his expression that Dearka has no regrets in choosing to follow him. And from that there’s also this whole thing about Yzak growing into and becoming the kind of person that can be believed so devotedly in as a leader, if Dearka so easily returned to the military under his lead after the things he said.
This one manga page says SO MUCH and I love it more than anything. I love the entire Yzak & Dearka Edge manga story it’s from, but god, this page... this page... the perfect Yzak page, I love it so.
Yzak & Ezalia
This is a good deal of talk about Ezalia and Yzak and how I interpret things about and between them, and what I keep in mind in my play.
So the incredibly short version of this is: Yzak obviously loves his mother, and Ezalia obviously loves her son, but … it's a little complicated. As Gundam series makes things. Especially with these two and their positions in the war vs their developments through it. I also have no idea what kind of order this is going to be in, so it might just be all over the place with thoughts.
One thing I always assumed in my play is that Yzak comes from a small family. In canon we only get him and Ezalia, but this assumption was closer to confirmed thanks to the Melancholy of Yzak drama with Yzak stating that he is WELL AWARE that he is the last son of the Jule family. Sure, this could also mean he does have more family and they're all just female, but I'm only reaching so much based on the information I have.
On the subject of family as well, this opens up a lot of things about Ezalia's family situation. Ezalia is canonically a radical on the Council - and says shit along the lines of "lmao we'll show the Naturals who this world REALLY belongs to." She's prejudiced! She doesn't like Naturals! Shooting WMDs at Earth to wipe out half of life on it to win the war against them? No big deal to her! She's also a first-generation Coordinator - which means uuuuh her own parents are Naturals? That's what first-gen means. So what the fuck is up there, I wonder! Is she one of those "I hate Naturals but obviously not my parents they're the ONLY exception" types? Did she for some reason grow up to despise them? Did she know them at all? We don't get tidbits like this sadly so alas, this is something I will never have the deets on. So I don't really play Yzak as really having any kind of handwaved offscreen grandparents or anything. I just roll with a general "not there" as much as I do with a father situation since there's nothing there in canon, either. Small family! So he just refers to it as "him and his mother" in RP in general when it comes up, with nothing more attached to it (because I don't want to add any kind of overly dramatic thing to it, lol).
One article I translated says "It seems as though Ezalia was part of the PLANT Supreme Council for as long as Yzak was old enough to remember." There's no solid timeline there for how long the Council as we know it in SEED had been in place there. But overall from this we CAN gather that Ezalia has always been at least involved in politics and such if she was able to climb the ladder to eventually get onto the Council, so Yzak definitely knows her as such and she/the Jule name has been something pretty Known in the Coordinator world as a result. I play Yzak with a general air of "of course good things were/are expected of me because of my name/who my mother is and her prestige" but that goes hand in hand with Yzak naturally being the type of person who wants to prove himself on his OWN merits and accomplishments. So sure, there's some pressure there from his family name, and some from Ezalia herself, but Yzak is the type who puts pressure on himself ANYWAY to show his own talents. So in that regard, things work out for all parties involved.
And then we enter Gundam SEED and what went down there. While Yzak himself developed into a character who was less "fuck Naturals" and fighting more to end the war and the fighting instead of "winning." And said "winning" toward the end of SEED meant "both sides trying to WMD each other" which is. Bad!! It's bad! Even Yzak was like "woah there" about that. EZALIA HOWEVER was a Zala supporter, so was in charge of the military while Zala went to man their WMD in the end, and got her ass coup'd by the neutral/not extremist people on PLANT. I assume Ezalia paid in some way for that shit with some jail time at least. And will never hold any kind of governmental position again. Yzak we know from Destiny WOULD Have been in deep shit (from civilian shuttle fuckery as well as his actions in the last episode of SEED) but Durandal intervened with the soldiers/the "younger generation" as it were. But since his actions in the last episode of SEED technically ended up being "hey, not so bad after all," that worked out for him. And for Ezalia.
Because of how things shook out, Zala/his followers and the Blue Cosmos pockets of the Alliance lost. They became the "bad guys" and the losers of that war (a good thing, but like any story, imagine AU where they won and still had control? phew) so essentially the Jule name that was once so esteemed for someone like Yzak to need to live up to … is now tarnished! Ezalia tarnished it! Dragged her family name through the mud! People probably hear "Jule" and think of her and her allegiance and actions and are like, yikes! Hear the name Jule, think oh yeah remember when that one was fine with ending half of all life on Earth with a WMD? TERRIBLE.
I assume Ezalia was lowkey okay with how things shook out where Yzak was concerned, because now Yzak is continuing to do his thing. Working with the provisional council, returning to the military, becoming a commander with his own team, working in government even after the war. So in that way Yzak can kind of "fix" the Jule name that she fucked up by being on the right side of things and working for a better future. And I assume this because of the Melancholy of Yzak drama as well, which is why I think she's so pushy in THAT for Yzak to "find a wife" because that pushing had an air of "hey maybe a few generations down we'll forget about that whole … attempted genocide thing, haHA."
So while obviously they do have the love between a mother and son, it's a little strained! Yzak himself in the Melancholy drama says "I have a lot of confidence in my patience as your son" which basically says she SURE tests that with him. Like she's glad he's alive and didn't get punished from his mistakes the first war and probably doesn't really mind that he did what he did in the last episode when he just went "no thoughts only saving Dearka and then protecting the ship he's on" since that ended up working out for him. He can fix their image! So if anything she gets the better end of that deal, since she did her time, paid the price, lost her position, but has her son there to clean up the mess in a sense, and the Melancholy drama also confirms she's still a socialite since it also mentions that she has connections and tries to get Yzak's hours at the main office changed. So that whole drama and how fucking wild she is in it does make sense when you think about how MUCH is being pushed onto Yzak, who very clearly does not like or want this, to "save" their name and become this kind of image of what she thinks it should be.
And on Yzak's side of that, despite clearly NOT wanting this whole "please stop trying to force me to meet women" thing, he is still Yzak Jule. So he does want to prove himself in battle and in the government. He does want to be respected and Noticed - not so much a family name thing as much as a HIMSELF thing. He wants his own accomplishments to be recognized and validated. So he works for that and it just so happens to line up with what Ezalia wants. Which is why there's a lot of friction in the drama, because it deals with something that is NOT lining up between them. And Yzak loves his mother! He's a mama's boy! But he does hold her to the same standards he holds himself to so doesn't hate her for the things she's done. Because he, uh, also did some war crimes, and carries those sins with no excuses for them. He knows what he did! And he bears that.
Just a mother and son with their sins and a loving but slightly strained relationship.
I might come back and add little things to this post if I think of any more talking points, but that's a big if!