Gundam Wing/Fullmetal chibi fanfic crossover

by Melody on Monday, June 20, 2011 at 1:05am

I had a creative day today. Wrote a Gundam Wing/Fullmetal Alchemist crossover chibi fanfic with some input from Tegan. It's called Fountain of Youth. I haven't written in so long, over a year, so it feels good to be writing again. I started the story at 2 a.m. on Sunday and finished it tonight, Sunday night. We've had the idea for the story for some time now but I'm glad to finally get it past the idea stage and actually written. We won't link it on the site till I get the Kids font uploaded so people can use it when they read the chibi fics. The Kids font is helpful for anyone who visits our Gundam Wing site anyway because it is used for the chibis and they run pretty freely throughout most of the site. The fanfiction stories I write won't make sense to people who are not familiar with the series they are based on. But those who enjoy Gundam Wing always tell us how much they enjoy the chibi fics. Any fans who have not read our previous chibi fanfic will be totally lost if they read this one first because the stories build on one another and there are references to things which happened in previous stories. The new story is really a part 2 to "Chibi Heero's First and Only Chemistry Set." This new story will be linked at both of these sites soon, I hope, if nothing goes wrong with uploading the Kids font for people to download.

The Shooting Stars Collection: A Gundam Wing Image Archive ~ http://shootingstarscollection.50megs.com

Fullmetal Alchemist Insomnia ~ http://fullmetalalchemistinsomnia.50megs.com

Additional Comments:

Did a rewrite tonight on the new Fountain of Youth chibi fic and made corrections on the fic before it too for continuity and to explain the penguins I had to rearrange the story order on the chibi fanfic page. Hopefully everything works out now. June 26 at 2:37am

by Melody on Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 7:48pm

We're finally busy at the Shooting Stars Collection again. We've posted 59 new pics, including transparent gifs. Most of them are screenshots which I took from episode 34, And Its Name Is Epyon, and I'm very happy with the way this new PhotoImpact X3 is working to refine the original screenshots before I post them--they are turning out beautiful. There are some really impressive Epyon pics--more will be posted next month.

At 3:00 this morning I took over 400 screenshots of episode 12, Bewildered Soldiers. I've sorted through all of them and put the ones I'm keeping into their own folders, ready to use PhotoImpact and post them. More pics will be posted yet this month.

We've also posted our new Gundam Wing/Fullmetal Alchemist chibi crossover humor fic, "Fountain of Youth." If you want to read it but you're not familiar with our chibi fics it would be best to start reading them in order so they make more sense. Otherwise you'll end up wondering where we got a baby elephant and two penguins.

There are new animated gifs too, and mini movies from Endless Duel and of Zechs (no helmet!) from Endless Waltz. There is a new Heero & Treize gallery.

I'm also busy copying the site back into my computer after our computer crashed last year. It's such a daunting task (approx. 20,000 things to copy) that I did the absolute essentials then I ignored the project for the most part and spent just over a year reading manga instead. (Which is how we got the virus that crashed our computer in the first place. John has put up lots of things to protect the computer and we only use Firefox when on manga sites now in an attempt to prevent further disasters. So far so good.) The major problem with working on the site was waiting for a new copy of PhotoImpact so I could make screenshots.

I've been able to find some of the things I had set aside to post in future months which were lost when the computer crashed. It feels great to be back to work. ^_^

The Shooting Stars Collection: A Gundam Wing Image Archive ~ http://shootingstarscollection.50megs.com

by Melody on Saturday, July 16, 2011 at 2:51am.

I had lots of trouble with Cyberlink Power DVD early yesterday morning [Friday] so I ended up taking over 600 screenshots for Gundam Wing episode 36, Sanc Kingdom's Collapse. That's 200 more screenshots than usual for an episode--LOTS of duplicates to sort through and choose the best quality shots--the graininess varies, and the more graininess there is the harder it is to make the picture look good when I run it through PhotoImpact before I post them. I don't ever remember doing screenshots of two episodes in one week before, but now that the site isn't on hiatus anymore I've been busy (okay, obsessed ^_^() ) catching up after over a year of mostly inactivity for the site. (I didn't realize till tonight that my eyes are strained from studying hundreds of shots in the last few days to compare the graininess of each one so this weekly 24 hours of rest came at the perfect time! It always does. ^_^) It was very frustrating but I was having insomnia so I had nothing else to do anyway. (There was one excellent Epyon shot I COULD NOT GET--I must have tried 10 times! John and Tegan are going to try to get it for me and I hope they can.) I've got enough screenshots now to keep me busy for a long time. I blame the insomnia on drinking Monster for a bad headache hours before, I blame the eye strain on my perfectionism but I don't know who to blame for the Cyberlink Power DVD glitching and freezing and generally misbehaving...

The Shooting Stars Collection: A Gundam Wing Image Archive ~ http://shootingstarscollection.50megs.com

by Melody on Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 8:30pm

Tegan found Gundam Wing, the English dub, on YouTube. Today it is in the top 20 episodes of the day list. If interested, go to www.youtube.com/shows and type "Gundam Wing" into the search engine.

I just posted the 99th new picture for July, of Trowa & Catherine, on the Gundam Wing site today. All of the main characters (except for Mariemaia) have at least one new picture, and there are new screenshots of all of the Gundams with the exception of Deathscythe, because it did not appear in episodes 12, 34 and 36, which are the episodes I've taken screenshots from in the past few weeks. Most of the pictures posted this month are screenshots made by me. We've replaced a few pics that were already on the site with new screenshots as well.

One thing we've found interesting in a strange sort of way, speaking of the Gundams, is how wildly popular Tallgeese is. People from *all over the world*, literally, come to our site SPECIFICALLY looking for Tallgeese. Tallgeese usually gets hits every day, way more than any other mobile suit and more often than even Heero, who is usually our top character of the month, does. We put Tallgeese in our Characters of the Day lineup because it amuses us.

I still have some screenshots of Quatre, Relena, and Duo & Hilde that I want to post this month for sure.

Oh--we'd welcome family-friendly anime fanart submissions, which can be of Gundam Wing, or from other anime or of your own original characters. And if you write non-yaoi Gundam Wing fanfiction and would like to send it to us for possible posting check out our Submissions guidelines.

The Shooting Stars Collection: A Gundam Wing Image Archive ~ http://shootingstarscollection.50megs.com

<--- the 99th new pic, click to enlarge

by Melody on Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 10:41pm.

New things planned for August: new animated and transparent gundam and character gifs, new mini-movies, new Speeches & Quotes (there are some new ones for July up now too), new Crypto-Quote puzzles, new Character pics for various characters, new cels for the Jail and of course lots of screenshots. There were a total of 109 new pics posted for July.

In looking for replacement screenshots for Trowa & Une's gallery I ended up taking shots of both episodes 19, Assault on Barge, and 20, The Lunar Base Infiltration. And I was able to get new screenshots of Deathscythe after all, being that it is featured in ep. 20.

I'd like to concentrate on the Twos galleries this month, so new pics for Wufei & Sally, Trowa & Une, Heero & Relena, Duo & Hilde, Heero & Duo, Heero & Trowa, Trowa & Catherine, Dorothy & Relena and Zechs & Noin for sure. (Just so you know: the Twos galleries are just pictures of two characters in a picture and are not necessarily romantic pairings.)

I'm thinking about making new cell phone themes and a new addition to the Slideshow Photo Album, but not sure when.

These are Heero's new pictures to be posted for his series gallery in August.

Don't you just love it when the camera pans over unconscious guards, knowing that Heero is there with whatever the guards were protecting before they suddenly fell asleep?

The Shooting Stars Collection ~ http://shootingstarscollection.50megs.com

by Melody on Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 11:09pm

More than four hours, restarting the computer twice and about 1000 screenshots later, Gundam Wing episode 49, The Final Victor, is completely done having screenshots taken. Just me and my box of kleenex. What a powerful ending episode! (I'm like that, tearing up at stuff so easily. For instance, I always tear up when Sailor Moon vanquishes Queen Beryl, but that's another series. And then Tegan rolls her eyes at me. I think even she is moved when she sees Treize's last scene in episode 48, though. I know I am.) Either Cyberlink Power DVD is dying or the DVD drive on my computer is going, I'm not sure which, so I wanted to get this episode done before one or the other abandons us. As it is, it glitched and froze and was generally maddening, that's why it took so long and so many duplicate pictures were made that I will need to sort through. Because of that, I had to painstakingly go through most of the episode backwards still by still to make sure I got everything I wanted. I'll probably start posting these next month.

Yesterday I spent about 7 hours at the computer and I posted a whole bunch of new pics. Tegan and I were watching some GW AMVs too so by the middle of the night (we're usually still awake at that time, so that's normal for us) she said she wanted to take GW DVD #1 to her room and start watching the series again, now that she's done watching DBZ and DBZ Kai simultaniously and Yu Yu Hakusho uncut, which she is now having me watch with her.

There are over 60 new pictures posted for this month so far, mostly screenshots but a few are character pics and there is a new Queenie's Color Me picture of my personal favorite character, Quatre, which also appears in the Hopsbital because I went through that picture pixel by pixel in Paintbrush to clean up the noise so it belongs in the Hopsbital because it's definitely been doctored.

I took screenshots of episode 48, Takeoff into Confusion, with less trouble a few days ago so now I've got about a year's worth of screenshots to post as the months go by, and if Cyberlink Power DVD or the DVD drive die it won't affect my working on the site.

So this is how I spend my time, working on the sites, watching anime, watching old movies on Turner Classic Movies or reading books and manga. I've got lots of time on my hands since I can't work anymore so I fill the time with things I enjoy. And I enjoy Gundam Wing. ^_^

<--- preview of the final battle, click to enlarge

Chibi Fics

by Melody on Wednesday, August 16, 2011 at 4:34pm

Just checked the Gundam Wing site and am happy that so many of the chibi stories have been read today. If whoever is reading them is having as much fun as it was to write them then, as both Chibi Heero and his teenage counterpart would say, "Mission accomplished."

For Gundam Wing Fans: Our 6,500th picture says a lot!

by Melody on Thursday, August 18, 2011 at 11:28pm

I've never understood why some people are of the opinion that Heero Yuy is an "emotionless rock," which is something I've never seen in his character. He is serious and focused and definitely dangerous to the wrong people but he has feelings. I posted the three pictures below to show this. These are from episode 48, the second to the last episode, the scene when he and Relena talk before he goes off to the final battle with Zechs. Heero tells her that in order to protect both her and the earth sphere that he must go and fight. She realizes that he doesn't think he'll survive the battle and tells him so. Heero says, "Believe in me." Then he gently pushes her out of the way and as the door to his mobile suit shuts these pictures are showing his emotions at that time.

Those eyes speak volumes to me.

Dr. J told Relena about Heero in episode 5. This is their conversation:

Dr. J: Wars are started by people and they end with people. Heero is only to attack the dangerous, evil people responsible for starting wars.

Relena: But...why does Heero have to take on that enormous task? Why should he be responsible to do all of that all by himself?

Dr. J: We have no choice. He understands the emotional pains that the colonies' residents have been forced to endure over the years.

Relena: May I ask you why you saved my life, Dr. J? Is it because of my father? Because I'm Darlain's daughter?

Dr. J: Not at all. It's because you had the same look in your eyes as Heero did--that genuine expression. Heero is actually a kind-hearted young boy.

Relena: Yes, I know that.

Dr. J: Stay away from him, if you value your life.

***

Obviously, somewhere between episode 5 and episode 48 Heero no longer considers Relena to be a threat to his mission and decides to protect rather than kill her.

The third screenshot on this entry is the 6,500th picture on our Gundam Wing site. August has been very busy. We have new animated and transparent gifs, new mini-movies, new quotes, and new Crypto-Quote puzzles. There are 125 new pictures, including two new cels for the Jail. No more pictures will be posted this month. I have other things that I need to get done, so I'll be doing behind-the-scenes work from now till September, but the site will still be monitored every day as always. I'll start posting pics from the final episode then, which I'm looking forward to doing, of course. I wouldn't put so much of my time into this project if I didn't enjoy it, right?

On a side note: Heero is the most popular choice in our Which Pilot Would You Marry? poll. No woman in her right mind would want to marry an emotionless rock!

For Gundam Wing Fans: September's Mission is Total Pacifism

by Melody on Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 8:27pm

In September the Shooting Stars Collection is planning to post over 50 screenshots from the last episode of Gundam Wing, The Final Victor. Once that mission is complete, I will make a 55-picture screenshot slideshow photo album of Heero and Relena at the end of episode 49. And if time allows, new GW cell phone themes will be posted as well. All of the cell phone themes are from our Twos galleries.

Speaking of the Twos galleries, I used the spare time I had at the end of August to make gallery buttons for three of the Other Characters galleries, Hilde, Mariemaia and Dorothy, as well as ones needed for the Twos galleries, 31 new gallery buttons in all. That project was long overdue.

These are two of September's screenshots.

Another busy month in the Gundam universe coming up!

The Shooting Stars Collection: A Gundam Wing Image Archive

For Gundam Wing Fans: Heero Yuy piloting the Gundam Snow White? On the Shooting Stars Collection's site he’s not!

by Melody on Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 3:36pm

*WARNING: SPOILERS*

We may be late in finding out about the new official Gundam Wing: Frozen Teardrop novel which is currently being serialized in Japan since February of this year, but we have heard of it now and are completely appalled by the plot. So I’m writing this to explain why GW: Frozen Teardrop will not be included in the Shooting Stars Collection: A Gundam Wing Image Archive’s site, in spite of the beautiful artwork.

GW: Frozen Teardrop contradicts the story so far to such an extent that we just don’t find it acceptable. For instance, at the end of Endless Waltz it says that peace was established, that all weapons were destroyed and that mobile suits—including the Gundams--were never seen again, yet Frozen Teardrop, which takes place 20-30 years after EW, has new mobile suits! And Heero is supposed to be trying to assassinate Relena, in spite of his saying before he collapsed at the end of EW: “I will never kill anyone ever again. I don’t have to anymore.”

There are fairy tale themes which in themselves are not bad, of course, but the context in which they are used in GW: Frozen Teardrop are either stupid or downright laughable. The code names for Heero and Relena when they are in their cryostasis pods in a cold sleep without aging are Sleeping Beauty/Princess Aurora for Heero and the Little Prince for Relena. (How backward is that? Especially since Relena had once wondered if Heero was a “little prince”) And then Heero is given the Gundam Snow White! Snow White! The heart of outer space, the legendary Perfect Soldier Heero Yuy who is so well-trained for his job as an assassin that he can regain consciousness without increasing his pulse or altering his brain wave patterns; a master marksman, swordsman, horseman, martial artist, computer genius and ballroom dancer, who piloted one of the coolest Gundams ever imagined, the Gundam Wing Zero Seraphim, is piloting the Gundam Snow White. What enemy could possibly take him seriously? It sounds about as threatening to us as “Beware of Fluffy the Killer Guard Puppy” does. Or what I call our incredibly timid cockatiel: “Cuddles the Fierce Warrior Chicken.”

**WARNING: SPOILERS**

Duo and Hilde are divorced: he is a bounty hunter/high risk gambler disguised as a priest and she becomes a nun and runs an orphanage and then she dies. Most Duo and Hilde fans just won’t accept that.

Relena is again a puppet queen with no real power. The Preventers have called for Relena’s assassination. Dorothy is the President of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation, Lady Une is her aide and Sylvia Noventa is her ambassador to Mars, where Relena is in Relena City. Huh?

I could go on but I really don’t want to. Anyone who wants to read the info that we read can see it at: http://gundam.wikia.com/wiki/New_Mobile_Report_Gundam_Wing:_Frozen_Teardrop There are many other things on the wiki site if you want to read about them which we find are either completely unimaginative or desperately cliché. The more I read the madder and sadder and sicker I felt. At the English-speaking forums I’ve visited the opinion of the fans is more against than for Frozen Teardrop, but we recognize than anyone can like it if they want to and will not be criticized by us if they do. It’s a free Gundam Universe, after all. We would appreciate the same courtesy in return.

So, in conclusion, GW: Frozen Teardrop will only appear on the Shooting Stars Collection by accident if at all if we include some artwork we are not aware of being from Frozen Teardrop. We look at it this way: even though it is official that doesn’t mean we have to accept or promote it. It’s like some sites are dedicated to the first arc of Robotech but not the others, or to a particular Doctor from Doctor Who, or a particular character from any given anime, so we are only including what we find acceptable here: the original GW series, Endless Waltz, and the official manga: Episode Zero, Blind Target, Ground Zero and Battlefield of Pacifists. Then, as far as we’re concerned, the fandom can take the story from there in various fanfiction, as we’ve all done for the past 10-15 years, depending on if we’re dating from the show’s original 1995 air date in Japan or the debut of the English dub in 2000.

And as for Gundam Wing: Frozen Teardrop—no, no, no, no, no!

The Shooting Stars Collection: A Gundam Wing Image Archive

For Gundam Wing (and other anime fans): GW is available at rightstuf.com!

by Melody on Sunday, December 18, 2011 at 12:25am.

While looking for good prices for Yu Yu Hakusho at rightstuf.com (which we found!) we also checked to see if they have Gundam Wing and/or Endless Waltz available because we've not seen this series for sale anywhere lately and were delighted to find that they DO, and at reasonable prices too! When we bought the series and Endless Waltz DVD by DVD from the now defunct Suncoast stores way back when, we paid a whopping total of $245. Now that GW is in 2 boxed sets at Right Stuf their discounted total price would be only $90, including EW.

We looked for G Gundam for curiosity's sake because that's been hard to find as well and found that Right Stuf has this series too. Galaxy Express 999 was rereleased this year and Right Stuf sells that as well. And we were delighted to see that they are now carrying Sailor Moon merchandise, including the newly rereleased, re-translated English manga. Sailor Moon is still a popular series with fans, even though the license for the anime to be shown in all English-speaking countries has lapsed since 2004. Sailor Moon Wikipedia article link

We are big fans of rightstuf.com and have ordered from them for the last few years exclusively, unless they didn't happen to have what we were looking for, which isn't often. They have great prices, prompt service and we were so impressed by their careful packaging to keep items from being damaged that we wrote and told them so. Not all companies are so careful. A few years ago we ordered Magic Knight Rayearth from a local store (which will be known as Best Buy) and it was sent to us wrapped in a sheet of BUBBLE WRAP of all things, not packaged in a box, with a label stuck on the bubble wrap and of course the artbox was damaged when it arrived. We've also had a thin-pak of Trinity Blood delivered by another online company ( I'm not sure of which one it was at the moment) and it was shipped in an envelope. It was undamaged but could easily have been. So we were really happy to find such an excellent source for anime, manga and other related items as rightstuf.com.

~ A Meaningless and Unnecessary Disclaimer ~

This is a completely free advertisement and no compensation has been made to the Shooting Stars Collection's staff, which is us. ^_^ We recommend Right Stuf so often that people have asked my husband if he owns stock in the company! *L* (And, no, we don't.)

Through December 21st, the prices for the 12 Days of Savings sale will be in effect with up to 87% off. Free shipping in the US with orders over $49. (We LOVE free shipping!) http://rightstuf.com

The Shooting Stars Collection: A Gundam Wing Image Archive

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