So...what's the deal with Heero's laugh?

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choccas

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This is something that kinda bugs me about Gundam Wing. I mean, one of the first things we hear come out of Heero Yuy's mouth is this crazy, maniacal laughter after he wastes two Ares with a single shot, and then he's a completely emotionless stoic for the rest of the series, except for that one scene where he blows up an MS carrier.

Anyone know what was up with this? I mean, it happens only twice in the series (three if you count the flasrabroadack in Endless Waltz) and seems decidedly out of character. Was Heero originally planned to be less emotionless? Was it some joke by the VA that the director decided to slip in?

Anyone got any ideas?
 
Maybe it was meant to make him look more "broken" emotionally. Shortly after his crash landing on Earth he meets Relena, and the contact with somebody even more messed up than he is (hey, even Heero doesn't beg people to come kill him) begins the healing process; hence, you don't really see that behavior from him afterward.

Or the writers thought it would be cool at the beginning and promptly forgot about it. Your mileage may vary. I don't know what it's like writing a TV series, but when I'm revising my fiction drafts I'll sometimes see something that makes me stop and say "Huh? What's this doing here?" It does happen.
 
Heero is not emotionless, that's just the dub director's fault.

It's more of a taste of little freedom he gets, after all the training he goes through as a super soldier.
 
Heero Yuy is not emotionless. Hes just confused and not sure what to feel or what hes fighting for most of the series. Hes also a serious stick in the mud. But make no mistake, he still feels emotions.

None the less, I've always seen the laugh as the thrill of victory. He just crushed two Ares with ease. Its not meant to be a crazy laugh.
 
There's two answers for this:

I'd tend to guess it was more of a laugh of exhilaration.

Heero is normally damned close to emotionless as one person can be, so this is certainly out of character.

When Heero laughed like this, it was the first time he really engaged an enemy with his Gundam. I'd interrupt that to be something of a "OH MY GOD! THIS ACTUALLY WORKS!" type reaction.

The other, more likely answer is this scene was probably used both for a Demo and for a Commercial probably created months before the series hit main production. Heero's character probably wasn't completely fleshed out yet in the minRAB of the production team. At the time, this laugh was probably just something that sounded cool and acted as an attention grabber!
 
The second explanation doesn't really work, since the scripts for Wing were done before the VA stage of production.
 
I think this is the best explanation. Heero seems particularly unbalanced in the very early episodes, to the point that he's nearly throwing away his life as early as episode 2. Heck, the "I'll kill you" warning at the end of the first was incredibly brazen. But we later learn from no less an authority than Dr. J that Heero is not emotionless but rather a kind boy who was trained to forget everything and put the mission first no matter what. But the conditioning is obviously far from perfect, since before long Heero is unable to kill Relena and time and again enRAB up going out of his way to help other people throughout the series. Heero the soldier and Heero the person constantly clash with each other.

Heero was a guy who was looking for a good way to die until Relena eventually got through to him. This process took nearly the entire series. That's surely the mark of a "broken" personality if there ever was one.
 
As far as I'm aware, it was the first life Heero had taken post brainwashing. So I agree with the general notion it was to show the emotional stress. If I remeraber correctly he does it again later (I think after saving Duo from a Leo sneaking up on him).

Thankfully, Setsuna would actually do this kind of character more justice.
 
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