When it comes to Gundam, I've mostly watched the nineties stuff.
X has a plot device similar to Frozen Teardrop in it if you look at what happens to Lucille. OMG, that ending theme though. @_@
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy8PupWFS9E
It's 1996, dude. This sounded like it was from the eighties. It reminds me of Peter Cetera's Glory of Love. It grew on me after awhile though. They replaced it halfway through with a female version in Japanese.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b6_2I6M2pI
G has another similarity with Rain getting brainwashed by the Devil Gundam.
Anyway, kinda random. Not going to voice much of my opinion on the other series since I can't exactly relate them to FT. I just find it amusing that similarities can be forged between GW and the series released right before and after it. After all, Wing Gundam's first appearance was in G Gundam.
Spoiler for Rant response:
In response to your long rant, you're right that GW is the kind of show you have to watch more than once to understand. I've lost count of how many times I've watched it. I watched it during its CN run. I didn't know it was edited for violence though. I was surprised at what I'd missed when I got the bootleg DVDs. Then I watched it again when the remastered DVDs came out. OZC Anime made an excellent dual audio release of the remastered DVDs. Can't exactly share the link due to AS policies though.
Anyway, you discover something new with every rewatch. I end up rewatching certain scenes over and over again when I do my video editing for AMVs. Sony Vegas doesn't chop the episode into clips for you so you have to fast forward through the episode to get to the scenes you want to cut. Needless to say, it amused me greatly when I remembered Heero using a cabbage (lettuce?) to distract an OZ soldier and knock him out:
Sometimes this series is just pure camp. xD
As for the characters, I agree with you on all counts. The eyebrow girl is Dorothy. Yes, the same Dorothy who becomes President of the Earth Sphere Unified Nations in Frozen Teardrop. You can imagine why that would be met with both horror and "Yeah, I can see that happening." As for Relena, she's a sore spot for the fandom. My personal opinion on her is that people who dislike her either don't understand her or are only watching for the "pretty boys and yaoi." Usually both actually. I really don't see any slash subtext for Heero and Duo whatsoever. I know you're not big on romance but, as stated in a previous post, Duo is obviously smitten with Hilde. It's common sense. They live together. They watch dogs and children in the park. At the very least, they're friends with benefits. You should see his reaction when she ends up getting injured in an effort to help him later on.
With the MS, Katoki's designs are gorgeous IMO. He's the one whose designs retconned the series designs. They're a bit "fantasy-ish" though with demon wings for Deathscythe and angel wings for Wing Zero. I like the green color scheme for Heavyarms better than the orange though. I recommend you watch it. There are two versions of EW: OVA and movie. The movie adds more scenes. Still, good to watch both because they have slightly altered endings.
And Quatre was supposed to be a Newtype but they scrapped that so yeah...
Also, I just realized...wasn't Relena sort of Heero's teacher during the pacifist school arc?
Hot for teacher. xD