First Japanese airing: 1996.03.24
First English airing: 2000.05.10
Dialogue Changes
Dorothy, to Quatre: "The armed colonies killed your father." As opposed to uncut Quatre's father being killed by armed colonies, in the cut version "the colony citizens destroyed" him.
Duo: "Don't go getting yourself killed." Apparently "destroy" is still out of vogue because this time "hurt" was used. Did I mention before that I hate "hurt" more than "destroy"? Maybe, maybe not, but it's just so wimpy that even though it wasn't painfully overused like "destroy" during the series, I still hate it with a passion.
Duo: "Watch out, ya'll...the God of Death and the Gods of Plague are here." I dare not speak the words of what we all know "God of Death" was turned into...as for "Gods of Plague", well, they got downgraded to "Lords of Plague." Interesting how they chose a term that could still have religious implications....
Wufei, to Treize: "Why didn't you kill me back then?" In the edited version, Wufei wondered why Treize didn't "finish" him. Yeah, selfish Treize, it's not fair to get Wufei all excited and then leave him hanging! (OK, so I've been trying to keep my love of yaoi out of these comparisons to make them more enjoyable to all....buy I just couldn't resist this time ^_^;;)
Treize, replying to above quote: "I just couldn't kill one of the few people who understand me." "Destroy" makes its "triumphant" return by once again replacing "kill", and edited version Treize decides to be a bit bleaker about his own life by changing "understand" to the past tense "understood". Implications of impending death!!!! Come in, FCC!!!!
Wufei: "Damn you!" Along with "destroy," it appears "blast" is making a last ditch effort to be hip once more by replacing "damn."
Wufei: "Dammit!" Well, this time "dang" decided to take the job. Damn, Wufei, are you trying to replace Duo as the G-Boy with the most swear-related dialogue changes? You're starting a bit late for that....
Edits
Quatre's blood was removed after he was impaled by Dorothy. And speaking of that....
Cuts
2 sec.: The aforementioned impalement of Quatre was cut out.
3 sec.: And of course since they cut out the impalement, they had to cut out Dorothy removing the sword, as well. I think these two cuts resulted in a loss of dialogue, as well, but my notes don't include what (if anything) was cut out.
In General
Damn, that episode has nearly as many edits as episode 23! Well, maybe only about half, but I think that still qualifies it as the second most heavily edited episode. Now, only one more to go!