WARNING: This essay contains some spoilers for the Gundam Wing anime. DISCLAIMER: This essay is not meant to be judgmental about any form of Gundam Wing fanfic; I apologize in advance for anything I am unaware of in this essay which could be interpreted as such.

            Like many other viewers of Gundam Wing, I wasn't ready to let the characters go at the end of the series and OAV's. So, like many other viewers, I turned to the Internet to fuel my addiction, specifically turning to the fanfic which was readily available.
            Most of it was shounen-ai and yaoi. While I disagreed with some of the interpretations of the characters, I found them interesting. This is why I read fanfic to begin with. So I kept reading. And quickly noticed a somewhat disturbing trend in Gundam Wing fanfiction, both yaoi and otherwise: an obsession, especially among female fans, with physically torturing Duo Maxwell.
            This torture can take on the form of rape, electroshock, mutilation, or countless other atrocities, described in varying levels of gruesome and vivid detail, usually with obvious relish on the part of the writer. I was interested and further disturbed to note that this trend, with few exceptions, seems to be focused solely on Duo.
            This begs the question: why him? Even in the series, he takes some of the worst abuse, being hideously outnumbered or outclassed in the vast majority of situations in which he finds himself trapped. Can this trend in fanfiction be attributed to writers simply following the canon of the series? If this were the case, one would have to account for the level of detail, and for the sexual nature of most Duo-torture fanfics, both of which are nowhere to be found in the series.
            The first step I intend to take in further examining this question is an explanation of why the trend does not exist in more fanfiction about the other four pilots. In short, process of elmination.
            In numerical order, we begin with Heero. We know from the series that he is capable of completely ignoring physical pain, from the moment we see him set his own broken bones. The way to reach Heero Yuy is through psychological probing, aiming for the intellect. In the series itself, Treize Kushrenada accomplishes this with consummate skill, and with far more effectiveness than any of the considerable physical strains which are placed on Heero's body, which he faces with simple stoicism -- a reaction which, while in some ways admirable, provides little emotional connection to readers and writers. Physical torture of Heero is both ineffective and uninteresting to most writers.
            Skipping Duo for the moment, we come to Trowa Barton. Trowa's most interesting reactions are those in response to things he himself has accomplished, or to others' situations. Like Heero, he responds to physical pain with little to no emotion, possibly slight resignation, but overall with no distinguishing attitude which causes him to be interesting to torture. It is far more effective to reach Trowa by torturing someone else and chronicling his reactions.
            In this, Quatre is fairly similar to Trowa, but there the similarity ends, for Quatre is the emotional one of the group, to a point of being slightly empathic and literally sharing others' pain. For this reason, there is really little point in torturing him, when it is far more effective to torture someone else, killing two birds with one stone and possibly even driving Quatre crazy, when he's at his most interesting.
            Which brings us to Wufei, probably the least popular of the Gundam pilots, though he is one of the most psychologically complex characters in the series, if one of the less sane. His particular focus is on strength and weakness, and Wufei seems to be able to endure about anything if he can keep in sight that goal of becoming stronger. It is true of Wufei that whatever doesn't kill him makes him stronger, and he faces physical danger without fear. This is also due in large part to his great skill even when fighting alone; it is worth noting that instructions to OZ troops encountering Shenlong are simple: flee. Any situation in which Wufei would be tortured is highly improbable to begin with, for this reason, a fact truer of him than of any of the other four pilots. However, Wufei, like Heero, is susceptible to psychological warfare, once again shown in the series in interactions with Treize.
            We have now eliminated four of the pilots, leaving only Duo. Of the five, he has the least self-preservation instinct, flirting with danger and death more closely then he flirts with anything or anyone else. When captured, he acts as he usually does, refusing to keep quiet and thus successfully irritating anyone he meets while at the same time delighting audiences. Thus, brutality becomes quite plausible in a situation in which Duo is likely to find himself. It is worth noting that this defiance is not only bait to any writers who truly enjoy breaking characters, but is also another example of the way Duo experiences everything to its fullest, and is freer with his emotions than anyone else in Gundam Wing, with the possible exception of Quatre. His reactions to torture would be very open and very satisfying to those who enjoy writing and reading such things, including his resistance to actual breakdown as exemplified by his famous assertion that "boys don't cry." In addition, Duo shows in the series that his endurance is very impressive, allowing any scene in which Duo is being tortured to be prolonged while remaining plausible, a fact which writers of fanfiction tend to celebrate.
            Lastly, writers torture characters they love. The same is true of readers. Duo Maxwell is easily the most popular character in Gundam Wing. It is only logical that he should be on the receiving end of fandoms more bizarre "affections."

(Note: For an excellent example of Duo-torture, by the way, look back on the Gundam Wing section of the fanfic on this very website, at j-chan's shortfic "It's So All Right." It's less than a page long, but ye gods...)