WARNING, this post is spoiler heavy.
You ever see the webcomic Garfield Minus Garfield? It’s basically a version of the Garfield comics where Garfield is removed, leaving Jon Arbuckle talking to himself, and usually making himself look insane and alone. It’s hilarious, and you should check it out sometime.
I have a thought. We all have a character in a series or movie that just ruins it for us. Whether it’s the annoying villian who will just not die, or the protagonist’s friend who will not shut up, sometimes they ruin otherwise good series or movies. If I were to give my top example of something that kills it for me, it would be Quess Paraya from Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack.
That fucking little annoying girl that cockteases Hathaway in the beginning of the movie, get’s to know the people from the Federation, has a loli crush on Amuro, betrays that loli crush and switches sides FOR NO REASON, turns her loli crush to Char, and many “hilarious” antics that end up with her accidentally getting killed in the end, and turning Hathaway into a team-killing fucktard.
I can barely even sit through the movie because of her, which sucks, because her aside, Char’s Counterattack is pretty good. So here is my thought. If one were to take Char’s Counterattack, and edit her out, would the movie be better? Not even explain her absence, just have her as simply “gone.” Maybe not take her out completely, but give her no dialogue whatsoever, and just appear as a cyber newtype fighting for neo zeon, with no story.
The scene where she takes Amuro’s gun, and defends Char could be seen as her waiting for the right moment, as if she’s his bodyguard. Instead of killing her father, we just see a mobile armor killing a government official. Hathaway’s decision to steal the Jegan will be purely motivated by the need to prove himself. When Chen destroys the Alpha…that’s it. In fact, why don’t we also cut out Hathaway teamkilling too. The alpha blows up, cut to the rest of the battle.
Who is Quess Paraya? We won’t know anymore! The movie will be devoid of her story, her annoying fucking voice, and all of the fucking attempted loli romances! I’ll even cut out Hathaway if I have to, just to make it better! I’ll see what I can do, and I’ll let you know.
I understand that this might cut down the time of the movie dramatically. I also understand that this might leave many questions in the movie unanswered. That’s fine though. Because a short movie riddled with plot holes, is better than a movie with Quess Paraya.