Gundam Wing (characters)

(Pictured Left: left to right: Colonel Une, Treize Khushrenada, Dorothy Catalonia, Milliardo Peacecraft, Relena Peacecraft, Sally Poe, Lucrezia Noin, Catherine Bloom) (Picture Right: Left to right: Quatre Raberba Winner, Trowa Barton, Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Chang Wufei)

Characters:

Gundam Wing contains one of the broadest ensemble casts of meaningful characters in any anime I've watched, and meaningful is a key point. The overall themes of the show focus on the nature of war and peace and a soldiers purpose in battle, and the characters we are presented (with one notable exception) each have a depth to them that shows their philosophies of life, and battle as well as where they draw their purpose from and what they fight for, I even came to admire some of the antagonists for how well thought out their perspectives were. I'll touch on some of these things again in the Plot section but let's hit some of the main Characters (mainly the pilots), I’ll focus on their personalities rather than the mobile suits they operate.

Political Characters:

Relena Peacecraft:

Relena is the typical rich girl at the outset, until her father (who turns out to be her adopted father) reveals to her that she is a Peacecraft one of the last heirs of the Sanc Kingdom and part of the Noble bloodline of the Peacecraft family who promoted Pacifism until the destruction of their kingdom by the UESA. She nobly takes on the role of Leader of the Sanc Kingdom seeking to promote the ideals of pure pacifism throughout the world. She rejects the idea of peace through war and believes that the only way to peace is through civil discourse among nations. She plays a critical role as our main touchstone in the world of ever changing politics, while she struggles to know if her belief in pure pacifism is possible to attain or simply a misguided dream.

Dorothy Catalonia:

Is Relena’s foil in this story, having lost her father to war, she began to believe that it is only in war that things change or that honorable death can be found. As such she is transfixed on the idea of war, and is often found running toward battlefields rather than away from them. For her War is unavoidable and true peace is all but unattainable except through truly miserable wars. She joins Zechs in the end believing that he has found a way to end war with one last great battle. At which point she is challenged in her belief that peace cannot be attained so long as Earth continues.

Colonel (lady) Une:

I hated her initially, and not in that, love to hate her kind of way where every time I saw her I wished I hadn't. Then a huge twist is revealed. Colonel Une is also known as Representative Une when she is in the colonies. She has a split personality. She represents all those in war, who cling to the ideals of others. She developed a split personality in order to cope with this. One side is the cruel calculating Colonel Une, and the other is the sweet and kind Representative Une. This split personality allows her to act on the two fronts most important to the love of her life Treize Khushrenada, battle and politics. This aspect gave me an interest in understanding each side and how they were each crucial to her overall goal of pleasing Treize, even to her own near demise. She was intriguing and vital to the success of the plans of Oz.

Major Pilots:

Milliardo Peacecraft/ Zechs Merquise:

Known also as the “Lightning Count,” Zechs is one of the cornerstone characters of our tale. He begins as a soldier for OZ seeking to punish the UESA for its attack on his home of the Sanc Kingdom, but after they are defeated he realizes that OZ will be no different, thus he attempts to shed his life as a soldier (that of Zechs) and begins on a journey to fulfill his true purpose as a member of the Peacecraft Family. But he finds that his destiny always leads him back into battle. As he pursues his goal he finds that the chivalry of battle which he so clung to under OZ will not suit him if he is to become a warrior capable of defeating the Gundams and their pilots, whom he sees as the cause of the unrest between the colonies and OZ.

He ends up driven almost to madness as he tries to bring about this ideal. He tries diplomacy and finds it so full of corruption and gullibility that it is rendered an impossible route. He eventually decides that only by destroying all the weapons of war in a great battle and making the Earth unlivable can the universe attain peace. Since he has determined that the humans of Earth (as opposed to those of the Colonies) are to blame for the wars, it must be destroyed.

He is a tortured character who continuously seeks to be able to fulfill his destiny, and yet finds that he must bring about a great battle to secure peace. He is noble in his ideals but often wicked in his methods. He goes from Lawful Evil, to True Good to Chaotic Neutral and back in his journey to fulfill his destiny.

Milliardo provides a powerful counterpoint in the “ends and means” theme of war and peace as compared to his sister Relena. Whereas she believes that peace must be the goal first and diplomacy the method, he believes that war is the only route to peace.

Lucrezia Noin:

a fantastic mobile pilot and teacher at the Oz academy. She is initially drawn into the conflict when Chang Wufei destroys the barracks of her latest class of soldiers. She is the long term friend of Zechs and his key love interest. She, like Une, is a character who is trying to find her place in the midst of others agendas. As a favor to the Zechs she plays bodyguard to Relena as she begins to reestablish the Sanc Kingdom, but ends up embracing the cause of pacifism (at least in part). Noin goes about secretly rebuilding gundams, and building a small military force for the purpose of defending the sanc kingdom. She believes in pacifism but not a pacifism that rejects self-defense, which makes her unique among the cast. She eventually dedicates herself to this cause even staring down Zechs at a crucial moment, knowing that he wouldn't attack her, thus protecting a spacecraft.

Treize Khushrenada:

one of the chief commanders of Oz when it first takes over and a lifelong friend of Zechs. He stands as the symbol and rallying point of Oz so much so that when he abandons the newly enthroned Romefeller foundation in protest of their increased reliance on mobile dolls rather than soldiers, he becomes a rallying point for a rebel faction within OZ calling themselves the (you guessed it) Treize Faction.

Treize believes in honor and chivalry in battle, and when allowed to design a Gundam he designs the Epyon which has no long range weapons requiring the pilot to face the opponent in traditional sword combat. He represents all that is noble in war; he even leads the forces of Earth in their final battle. He believes that without a loss of life the cost of war would reduce it to nothing more than a game, which would remove any purpose in war. He supported OZ and the Romefeller foundation in pursuing a goal of complete piece through dominance seeing it as the only way to ensure a lasting peace. It is his philosophy of power and dominance to create peace, which drives Milliardo to the desperate point of trying to eliminate Earth.

Heroes:

Chang Wufei:

He believes that the only people belonging in battle are the strong. The weak have no place there since they will always be defeated by those stronger than themselves. His gundam (the shenlong), he calls Nataku, after the name of his deceased wife. He seeks to prove himself as a warrior, by defeating OZ and the UESA who are responsible for her death.

That is his purpose in battle, to prove that he is worthy of the gundam, though overtime he learns that it is not strength, but rather integrity, which makes soldiers worthy in battle.

This fundamental change echoes in all his battles as he shows that machines like the Mobile Dolls have no integrity in them and are unworthy to share the battlefield with worthy soldiers. He becomes transfixed on Treize, whom he finds to be matching in strength, and he begins a battle with him that eventually leads to Wufei regrettably killing Treize all too soon after realizing that he has more integrity and actually pulled his last punch so as to not kill Wufei. This last act makes Wufei more aware than ever of the power of integrity for a soldier on the battlefield.

Quatre Raberba Winner:

Quatre believes that battle is the last resort. He goes to Earth piloting his gundam Sandrock. He uses his weapons sparingly since his main goal is to find any and all peaceful solutions. After thedeath of his father, who was a long standing pacifist and inspiration of Quatre’s, he suffers a torturous break with reality. During this time he causes a great deal of destruction with the Wing Zero Gundam which he built from blue prints he discovered. He is brought to his senses and seeks to atone for his sins by protecting the colonies and trying to bring together the other pilots as the tensions between earth and the White Fang come to a head.

He is often viewed as the weakest of the Gundam pilots since he seeks to preserve life even in battle, but I enjoy his juxtaposition of the goal of peace and the necessity of battle to that end.

Trowa Barton:

Trowa is certainly a cool cat. He is a very relaxed individual, yet is consistently several moves ahead in all he does. He is merciless on the battlefield yet compassionate toward his friends and teammates. A great piece of characterization is found in the half face mask that he wears when he performs in the circus (while he carries out his gundam missions in secret). The Mask shows a clown face and his own more stoic face. The comparison is found in that he comes alive in battle, seeing it as an inevitability that must always be survived and seeing death as something that must always be out done. His planning comes into real affect as he poses as an up and coming soldier in the OZ space forces, allowing him access to the latest mobile suit models and to a captured Heero Yuy.

His belief in battle as an event to be survived is such a wonderful aspect to his character. He finds no joy in battle, he simply recognizes his place as a soldier to be that of one seeking to out-survive his opponents

Duo Maxwell:

Duo is the only one of the five to truly take joy in his work as a pilot. He calls himself the god of death (since his Gundam is the Deathscythe this is an appropriate nickname) and sees every battle as a joyous challenge. He seems to have no fear of death, only seeing death in battle as preferable, in fact when put in a prison and faced with death by suffocation he merely states that this is a lame way to die. But unlike some soldiers in this universe he doesn’t take joy in murder. He recognizes the silent agreement of warriors on the battlefield that only the better of them should survive. He sees war as a chance to have battles, and though he believes in peace I’m sure he’d be bored in a truly peaceful world.

Heero Yuy:

If I have one complaint about this entire show it is found in the character of Heero. You see archetypally he doesn’t fit the position of the protagonist. Now many would argue with me on this point but hear me out. He has a black and white view of the world (which isn’t a problem other characters do as well) but he has no driving force behind him. The rest of the major characters all have a reason they fight, or avoid fighting, or if they don’t they find a reason along the way. The other characters grow from their starting points, expanding and reaffirming their philosophies in the areas of war, peace, and the relationship of these two forces and the purpose of soldiers in the ultimate goal of peace. We never learn what Heero’s motivation is except that he is to complete the mission handed to him at the outset.

It wouldn’t bother me that he is this sort of character since (as many will note) he was raised with one purpose, to pilot a gundam and use it to bring freedom to the colonies. Normally that would be an excuse for a main character who is largely unfeeling, nonsympathetic, and driven on the purpose of his goal to such an extent that he forsakes the needs of those who call on him for help. Characters like this exist.

BUT that toward the end of the series Zechs makes a statement that implies something completely contrary to most of what we know about Heero. He says that Heero has a strong heart that can empathize with people, and that he is pure and kind. But he isn’t describing the Heero we’ve seen, the hero who has forced his agenda on others, threatened his supposed love interest’s life half a dozen times, killed mercilessly in battle, and executed with absolute precision every order that he has been handed. Zech’s description is NOT the Heero portrayed in this story. Zech’s description is of the hero-archetype in the world of anime. Heero Yuy is a great character a certifiably tough guy and the kind of character that makes you think “I’m glad he’s on our side,” but I never really worry for this character, or feel an emotion because of him, he’s static throughout the run of the series and not a very good PROTAGONIST!

That's all I have, regrettably though there are many other interesting characters, I don't have the time to go any more in depth than I already have. Next up we will discuss the plot.

-matt

PS if you have any comments feel free to share them at the end of each post.