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"Guernica"Written By: Mookie
Disclaimer: I don't really need to be Captain Obvious here, do I? No ownership, no money being made. Written for fun, not profit. Warnings: spoilers, art references, opinionated
first person POV Category: Art of War/1000 points - Wild card Word count: 1,063
It was never a problem for Picasso. He worked in traditional
artistic mediums, creating works of art both two and three dimensional,
all of which showed the man in a way that meeting him never would.
What he chose to show in his art created the perception of the artist
remembered after his death. Most people hope that at least one of their actions
will be remembered long after they’ve departed the mortal plane.
They may not want to cure disease or bring peace to the world, but
they hope that in some small way they’ve made a difference. He couldn’t have been more than seven or eight
when I found him. He carried himself like an adult even then. His
eyes met mine not with the honest curiosity of a child but that of
a man who had seen far more than he should have. Does that mean he
wasn’t curious? Of course not. Curiosity is what pushes humanity
to create, to improve. To better future generations based on questions
that don’t have answers. No man alive dies without questioning his existence,
and no soldier goes into battle without questioning his willingness
to die and sometimes even his willingness to live. No soldier survives without scars. Not so long ago there lived a man, some would argue
a great man, who was assassinated for daring to not only desire peace,
but to fight for it. Ironic that a pacifist must fight for peace,
but his weapons were words and the example he led. The pen may be mightier than the sword but it was a
bullet that killed him. His namesake was a boy who desired peace no less but
who recognized the high cost such a goal carried. I mentioned that he’d never had a childhood and
yet I call him a boy. They all were. My colleagues and I knew the
risks of recruiting pilots so young. Some of the greatest leaders
who ever lived were willing to put everything on the line, and while
none of us considered ourselves in the same league, we had our own
loyalties. Mine was first to the greater good, but I found myself
reluctantly forming one to the boy I later named Heero Yuy. He spoke little about his past, concerned more about
the future, but I would not have approached him if I’d not done
my research. He was not a typical assassin. He did not kill without
regret or reason. He was not so jaded that he was incapable of faith
and that is the difference between a good soldier and a great warrior. Heero Yuy believed that his actions would bring peace,
but at great cost. I would like to think he knew the cost to himself
would be more than broken bones and lacerations, that he put his soul
on the line each time he climbed into that cockpit or picked up a
gun. I’m sure he considered himself damned even before I called
him into the alley that day. He hesitated. He made mistakes. He let people live that
he should have killed for the sake of the mission. He sacrificed his
own life to save the colonies. And Heero Yuy made more mistakes even as he learned
from the previous ones. If that doesn’t make this young boy human,
I don’t know what does. There was a young girl that followed him around for a while, as reckless as the pilots and as determined to do the right thing. When I told her that Heero was a kind boy, she was not
surprised, but it wasn’t because she was still living that she
thought so. The day Heero took it upon himself to self-detonate
to save the colonies I realized my interest in him was far beyond
that of a mentor. I knew he would do what he thought was right. I
am ashamed to admit I knew it was a possibility but I had faith in
Heero. I am selfishly glad I had no time to dwell on Heero’s
fate that day, because his death meant I’d suffered a loss that
had nothing to do with a pilot with superior strength and training.
No matter what Dekim Barton wanted, he’d been unable to squash
the boy’s humanity. As I said, the difference between a good soldier and
a great warrior. Pablo Picasso created political controversy when he
painted Guernica. The stark contrast from the lack of color were inspired
by black and white photographs showing the aftermath of a war that
was still going on. With a paintbrush Picasso showed a no-holds-barred
view. He was a child who retained his ability to be an artist as he
grew up. War is always ugly. It will always leave scars. Picasso
was an artist but also a man, and it's this old man's opinion he was
an artist because part of that man remained a little boy. The boy who piloted the Wing Gundam didn’t use
a paintbrush, he used a buster rifle. He saw the same ugliness of
war and with his hands and the tools at his disposal, he tried to
paint a better world. There is a difference between a good soldier and a great
warrior. A great warrior is a man who grew up and remained an
artist. ~ * ~
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