Gremoria411 - Side 5 Galleries

Arthur Suydam, 1981

I guess it could be how the story serves them differently post-war?

Zeon remnant groups are everywhere post One Year War (which is actually fairly realistic given the sheer amount of resources and people marshalled in it), so they serve a purpose as “remnants of evil” in a sense. The Federation won the war, then began the process of actually rebuilding the Earth, during which Zeon remnant groups had their opportunity to strike. Given that Zeon opposes the Federation on an ideological level, it’s possible they would attract similar individuals with a grudge against the Federation, if only just to utilise their equipment.

However, at least part of the reason that Zeon remnant groups are so prevent is that the Federation, previously having had a lassie-faire attitude to space, began to crack down, on both anti-federation sentiment and on the Zeon remnants. This sentiment eventually gave rise to the Titans, with any embers of Zeon being absorbed into the larger fires of the AEUG and Neo Zeon, or being stamped out by the Titans (or running off to Mars).

The Post-War Federation, however, is a massive ponderous thing. The continued activities of Zeon Remnant groups (not least of which being the Delaz Fleet, of 0083 fame) quickly led to them stockpiling more military power in the form of the Titans in order to protect their interests in space. The Titans enjoyed massive power in the Earth sphere, simply because the Federation didn’t bother to task much in the way of their regular forces to the region, allowing the Titans to accrue more and more power. The colony gassing, in my mind, is meant to signify how far the Federation has fallen by employing the Titans, and why the AEUG has become necessary. It shows that Zeon wasn’t evil purely because of the actions of the zabis, and that anyone could commit such horrors, even the federation, not out of malice, out of negligence and apathy. The Titans didn’t gas the colony because they were at war with another power and needed a very deadly weapon in a hurry, they gassed it because those protesters were politically inconvenient.

Zeon and it’s remnants represent the dangers of fanaticism - of caring about one thing far too much, at the expense of all else. The Federation represents the dangers of apathy - a lack of care doing just as much harm.

Genuine question that has just occurred to me: to what extent, in Universal Century Gundam stories, are the various iterations of Zeon shown to oppress their own people?

Because that strikes me as an interesting wrinkle to the whole ‘are they really the bad guys’ line of thought. I know the Earth Federation is repeatedly shown to be oppressive towards its citizens (that is how we got into this mess in the first place, after all). And that’s aside from the unethical experimentation and so forth – they are shown to trample on the rights of anyone inconvenient, up to and including instituting a police-state (the Titans, the situation by the time of Gundam:Hathaway).

Whereas on the Zeon side, yes we have the multiple war crimes and mass destruction against the opposing side, but the only solid incident I can think of where Zeon’s own citizens were definitely chafing under their rule is the Cicero uprising in ZZ. Which is … interesting given the issues of legitimacy inherent to Harman’s plot-line.

Like the Federation, I’m sort of parceling off the cyber-Newtype malarkey in its own box, and I’d equally treat the ascent of the Zabis as a separate issue: this is more a question around how the regime they instituted is presented at the level of the ordinary person. I’m curious as to what the overall impression is among people more invested in the UC stuff than me?

Ah! So, I’m a little late here, but since Mobile Suit Gundam The Witch From Mercury brought in a bunch of new fans, there is a recommendation I’d like to make:

Gundam Thunderbolt is, not to put too fine a point on it, rad. It’s a very good introduction to the Universal Century (if a little gritty). It’s fairly short, and the soundtrack’s really good. It provides a good short story set in the one year war to familiarise yourself with the setting (though honestly, the OYW doesn’t require much).

However, there are two points I’d like to bring up

I highly, HIGHLY recommend tracking down the original ONA over the movie, December Sky. While an absolutely baller name, the ONA is paced better, and better fleshes out a lotta things. Some aspects of the compilation movie kinda feel like they come out of nowhere simply because they lack that context.

While the first season/movie (December Sky) is largely self-contained, that second (Bandit Flower) is not. Thunderbolt was supposed to be an adaptation of the manga of the same name, but it was canned after the author had to take a break from the manga for medical reasons. As such, Bandit Flower is largely setup for a series that doesn’t continue (unless you read the manga).

Star Wars: X-Wing - Rogue Squadron Special Cover Art by Mark Harrison