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*The following post contains spoilers fro Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans Urdr Hunt, episodes 1-22*

As a follow up to my previous post about Urdr Hunt:

Wistario Afam.

Wistario just doesn’t really….. grab me, as a protagonist. And I’m not sure why, but I do want to extrapolate a little. I like that Wistario has a solid, defined Goal, which is to win the Urdr Hunt, and use the prize money to buy and do up the Radonitsa colony.

Gjallarhorn making a play for Katya upends this - not completely mind, but it causes Wistario to pivot to protecting Katya at the expense of the Urdr hunt. This makes sense, he’s able to recover data from the Urdr hunt without directly collecting it himself since he knows and is friends with roughly 3/5 of the other participants (4/5 if we count the Zan brothers). This is a good decision, but it does still cause him some grief, since he knows he doesn’t have the resources to take on Gjallarhorn.

Then he meets Londo Bron, and makes a steadfast declaration of protection/marriage proposal to Katya. This is where he sorta loses me.

It’s not a bad choice, and I understand it’s borne out of his desire for family, which has been slowly building in the background as the series goes on. Thing is….. him and Katya haven’t really interacted other than collaborating on the Urdr Hunt. Honestly, the only person he’s interacted with enough that I would genuinely believe a proposal would be Range. So when I first heard it, I genuinely thought he was bluffing Londo, but then as things progress he’s serious about it, and I just can’t really fathom why, because they just haven’t interacted in any capacity that I feel would lead to romance. What I’m getting at is that Wistario’s wish to buy Radonitsa and do it up to improve the lives of people on Venus feels like the thing that keeps him “tethered”, I suppose. So I kinda lose him when that gets taken away. I don’t disagree or fail to understand his actions, it’s just that it’s such a big part of his personality that I struggle to parse him without it.

Part of this could be a bigger issue of certain characters not being explored enough - I like Range, Katya and Denmer, they’re all either explored enough for me to like them and understand their actions or have enough going on that I can fill in the blanks myself. But Wistario and Korunaru kind of aren’t, and this wouldn’t be an issue if they weren’t ostensibly the main characters. I like Korunaru, but she suffers because I believe her character could have been combined with Katya without losing much in the process, and I seem to recall the marketing pushing her as important.

I’d like to stress that if there’s some sort of Bio section in-game, or some extra side conversations that flesh them out then that sounds great, but I don’t have those in front of me so I can’t really account for them. Wistario’s just fairly obvious since he’s the protagonist, so he kind of needs to have a defined (though not necessarily strong) character.

However, I do rather like his design. It’s got a youth and energy to it that I think goes well with his desire to re-invigorate Venus’ economy, and his clothing’s functional without looking drab, so it’s believable that this is something he lives and works in. His childishness (at least comparatively. Honestly it comes and goes) and friendliness also illustrate that he’s a positive spirit and force for change in a negative environment (read: basically all of Post Disaster).

Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans Urdr Hunt Part 3 - Wistario and the rest of the Cast

I think that it’s overall a good cast, but I definitely found some characters better than others - 598, Range and Katya all have actual arcs, which results in them changing as people throughout - I’ve said prior that I found both 598 and Range genuinely compelling characters. I also found a lot of characters, while not fully developed, had enough going on that I was interested in them - Tamami, Mendou, and above all, Denmer (honestly I would love to see more of him). The only characters I find lacking are Wistario and Korunaru, which, again, would be fine if they weren’t ostensibly important. I wish the guides had more focus in general to be honest, since the only ones who get really any focus are Slice and Parstai (who get an episode at best).

Denmer Kitaco Jr., though. It genuinely bothers me how little we know about him, because it just all feels so tantalisingly close - he’s (presumably) a Venus resident, who has enough street smarts in the Era of Post Disaster, and presumably passed these on to Wistario (since I don’t really see how else he could have picked them up). He knows some form of martial art, enough to take on numerous Gjallarhorn Officers. He’s got a referenced history that Dexter and Sinister routinely bring up, he’s MISSING AN EYE, which I was initially willing to write off as a way to make him seem grizzled, but the more I think about it must be relevant in some way, considering that Wistario’s parents seem to be dead. And, as I’ve said before, he’s INHERITED A GUNDAM FRAME, which, from the way he talks and acts about it, is almost certainly something that was impressed upon him a great deal - he’s not casual or dismissive about it, this is something he’s carefully and meticulously maintained for most of his life, and he understands, on some level, what it is and what it represents. I’d wager he has his own suspicions about its past, given that he seems to have inklings but not the whole picture. And it makes it all the more significant when Wistario uses it to fight - it’s their family’s past and ancestry, but for Denmer, it’s also their families future. How must he feel, when Wistario risks his life over and over again, in a machine that he allowed him to access? And the way he interacts with Wistario- it’s obvious he cares for him a great deal, and besides Sprah, it seems like he’s been Wistario’s primary carer for pretty much Wistario’s entire life. There’s so much good stuff there, but it all feels just out of reach.

So, my love of Denmer established, what about his young charge? Well, I still think Wistario lacks a strong character, but I feel a lot more of him coalesces nearer to the end of the series. However. The central theme of Wistario is family, not Venus, buying Radonitsa is just his immediate expression of that goal. But because of the early emphasis on the Urdr hunt it’s muddled. When you look at the series through the lens of Wistario building a family, his “character” makes a little more sense. But because he’s not setting out to build a family, it’s not obvious. I’m genuinely not really sure. Either, the central theme of Wistario is buying and doing up Radonitsa Colony, and he acquires a found family along the way. Or; the central theme of Wistario is Family, and buying and doing up Radonitsa is just his early expression of that goal. I feel like I could argue for one or the other, since neither theme is strong enough for me to come down on. Because he slowly befriends every single competitor in the Urdr Hunt other than Cyclase, so if any of them win, it feels like they’ll give at least a portion of the money to Wistario, since he has the “best goal”, so to speak. Even Cyclase doesn’t really seem to care about the prize money, since he seems to be more interested in the chance of finding a mobile armour during the Urdr Hunt.

Wistario and Katya - hm. Feels more like an exploration of what Katya wants, as opposed to a genuine romance. Thematically it’s similar to Wistario’s interactions with Range and 598. He gives them autonomy since that’s an aspect of his dream? Or just because he believes it’s the right thing to do? Yes, Wistario cares for Katya, but him rescuing her feels more like he’s granting her the power to make her own choices, like he did by telling 598 about Kimball and extending an offer to Range. If it’s meant to be a straight romance, then it feels token, but “ensuring the freedom of others from a bad situation”, as I think he’s doing, doesn’t really tie in with Wistario himself at all (unless it’s about the greater economic freedom of Venus, but that feels like I’m reaching).

Another thing about Wistario; Somehow the moment where he thinks Londo Brom’s about to kill him gave him more characterisation than half the series. Here, in this moment, he comes face-to-face with death. He’s a child, a young boy, who’s carrying the dreams of everyone around him, who just really wants to save his friend, who’s about to die. Despite his competence and piloting skills, he is still a child, and this moment showcases that vulnerability. Hell, the only reason he survives is that the Zagan gets struck by lightning and 598’s able to pull him clear just in time. He gets outclassed and barely survives, sure he manages to pull himself together and fight the mobile armour afterwards, but I’d wager that he’s going to have some rough nights ahead of him.

In fact, that might be it with Wistario. While his character is tied to the aftereffects of war (the economic depression, and effects of colonial administration), there’s kind of no connection between him and mobile suits. There’s no “reason” for him to be as good a pilot as he is, there’s no real sense of mobile suits being a part of his life before this. Yes, he wants to buy the Radonitsa colony, but he is just essentially fighting - and killing, for a big pile of money. And it’s an active choice on his part. But we’re not really shown the sort of person that would take the decision to fight for money - pretty much every engagement Wistario enters is the result of another party attacking him first. So there’s this disconnect between who Wistario is, and what Wistario does.

I don’t really think that he’s a *bad* protagonist per se, he just feels a little half-baked, and I feel that, for being the protagonist, we really don’t know a lot about him.